1. A distinctive and pervasive quality or character; air; atmosphere. 2. A subtle emanation from and enveloping living persons and things, viewed by mystics as consisting of the essence of the individual.
1. A framework; structure. 2. Any cloth made from yarn or fibres by weaving, knitting, felting, etc. Also fig.
1. A religious feast day; a holy day. 2. A period of cessation from work or one of recreation; vacation. holiday"s.
1. A sweet yellowish or brownish viscid fluid produced by various bees from the nectar of flowers and used as food. 2. Something sweet, delicious or delightful. 3.* Fig. Sweetness. *honey-buds, honey-drunk, honey-fire, honey-packed, honey-sweet, honey-wine.
1. A visible scene, esp. one extended to a distance; vista. 2. The appearance of things relative to one another as determined by their distance from the viewer. 3. A mental view or outlook. perspectives.
1. Causing irreversible ruin, destruction or death; disastrous. 2. Decisively important; fateful. 3. Proceeding from or decreed by fate; inevitable. 4. Influencing or concerned with fate; fatalistic.
1. Personal liberty, as opposed to bondage. 2. Liberation or deliverance from fate or necessity. 3. The state or power of being able to act without hindrance or restraint, liberty of action. 4. Exemption from an unpleasant or onerous condition. 5. The quality of being able to conceive and execute boldly. Freedom, Freedom"s.
1. The act or an instance of imitating. 2. Something derived or copied from an original; counterfeit.
"1. ‘The Golden Embryo" in Hindu cosmology; the name given to the golden-hued Egg which floated on the surface of the primeval waters. In time the egg divided into two parts, the golden top half of the shell becoming the heavens and the silver lower half the earth. 2. ‘God imaginative and therefore creative"; the ‘Spirit in the middle or Dream State"; Lord of Dream-Life who takes from the ocean of subconsciously intelligent spiritual being the conscious psychic forces which He materializes or encases in various forms of gross living matter. (Enc. Br.; A)” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works.
1. To exempt from death; make immortal; endow with immortality. 2. To give everlasting fame to. immortalised.
abandon ::: 1. To give oneself up, devote oneself to (a person or thing); to yield oneself without restraint. 2. To withdraw one"s support or help from, especially in spite of duty, allegiance, or responsibility; desert: leave behind. 3. To give up; discontinue; withdraw from. abandons, abandoned, abandoning.
"A basis can be created for a subjective illusion-consciousness which is yet part of Being, if we accept in the sense of an illusory subjective world-awareness the account of sleep and dream creation given to us in the Upanishads. For the affirmation there is that Brahman as Self is fourfold; the Self is Brahman and all that is is the Brahman, but all that is is the Self seen by the Self in four states of its being. In the pure self-status neither consciousness nor unconsciousness as we conceive it can be affirmed about Brahman; it is a state of superconscience absorbed in its self-existence, in a self-silence or a self-ecstasy, or else it is the status of a free Superconscient containing or basing everything but involved in nothing. But there is also a luminous status of sleep-self, a massed consciousness which is the origin of cosmic existence; this state of deep sleep in which yet there is the presence of an omnipotent Intelligence is the seed state or causal condition from which emerges the cosmos; — this and the dream-self which is the continent of all subtle, subjective or supraphysical experience, and the self of waking which is the support of all physical experience, can be taken as the whole field of Maya.” The Life Divine
A being of the lower vital plane who by the medium of a living human being or by some other means or agency is able to materialise itself sufficiently so as to appear and act in a visible form or speak with an audible voice or, without so appearing, to move about material things, e.g., furniture or to materialise objects or to shift them from place to place. This accounts for what are called poltergeists , phenomena of stone-throwing, tree-inhabiting Bhutas, and other well-known phenomena.
aberrations ::: 1. Deviations or divergences from a direct, prescribed, or ordinary course or mode of action, esp. moral or proper.
absence ::: the state of being away (from any place) or not being present; also the time of duration of such state.
absent ::: 1. Being away, withdrawn from, or not present (at a place). 2. Of time: Not present, distant, far off.
absolute ::: adj. 1. Free from all imperfection or deficiency; complete, finished; perfect, consummate. 2. Of degree: Complete, entire; in the fullest sense. 3. Having ultimate power, governing totally; unlimited by a constitution or the concurrent authority of a parliament; arbitrary, despotic. 4. Existing without relation to any other being; self-existent; self-sufficing. 5. Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone; unconditioned. 6. Considered independently of its being subjective or objective. n. 7. Something that is not dependent upon external conditions for existence or for its specific nature, size, etc. (opposed to relative). Absolute, Absolute"s, absolutes, absoluteness.
absolve ::: 1. To free from guilt, blame or their consequences; discharge (from obligations, liabilities, etc.). 2. To set free, release. 3. To clear off, discharge, acquit oneself of (a task, etc.); to perform completely, accomplish, finish. absolves, absolved.
abstract ::: adj. 1. Withdrawn or separated from matter, from material embodiment, from practice, or from particular examples; theoretical. 2. In the fine arts, characterized by lack of or freedom from representational qualities. n. 3. Something that concentrates in itself the essential qualities of anything more extensive or more general, or of several things; essence.
accurate ::: 1. Exact, precise, correct, as the result of care. 2. Free from error or defect; consistent with a standard, rule, or model; precise, exact.
acquittance ::: release from a debt or obligation; discharge.
"A divine Force is at work and will choose at each moment what has to be done or has not to be done, what has to be momentarily or permanently taken up, momentarily or permanently abandoned. For provided we do not substitute for that our desire or our ego, and to that end the soul must be always awake, always on guard, alive to the divine guidance, resistant to the undivine misleading from within or without us, that Force is sufficient and alone competent and she will lead us to the fulfilment along ways and by means too large, too inward, too complex for the mind to follow, much less to dictate. It is an arduous and difficult and dangerous way, but there is none other.” The Synthesis of Yoga
adj. 1. Beautiful. 2. Fine, bright, sunny. 3. Free from blemish, imperfection, or anything that impairs the appearance, quality, or character. 4. Of pleasing form or appearance. 5. Neither excellent nor poor; moderately or tolerably good. fairer.* *n. 6.* That which is fair (in senses of the adj.*).
adj. 1. Having dropped or come down from a higher place, from an upright position, or from a higher level, degree, amount, quality, value, number. 2. Having sunk in reputation or honour; degraded. 3. Overthrown, destroyed or conquered, esp. of those who have died in battle. (Also, pp. of fall**.**)
adj. 1. Not imprisoned or enslaved; being at liberty. 2. Unconstrained; unconfined. 3. Unobstructed; clear. 4. Ready or generous in using or giving; liberal; lavish. 5. Exempt from external authority, interference, restriction, etc., as a person or one"s will, thought, choice, action, etc.; independent; unrestricted. 6. Exempt or released from something specified that controls, restrains, burdens, etc. (usually followed by from or of). 7. Given readily or in profusion. freer, thought-free, world-free. *adv. *8. In a free manner; without constraints; unimpeded. v. 9. To make free; set at liberty; release from bondage, imprisonment, or restraint. 10. To disengage or clear something from an entanglement. 11. To relieve or rid of a burden, an inconvenience or an obligation. freed. set free. Released; liberated; freed.
adj. 1. Rousing (something) or being aroused, as if from sleep. n. awakenings. 2. Recognitions, realizations, or coming into awareness of things.
afar ::: far, far away, at or to a distance; fig. remotely.from afar. From a long way off.
affinity ::: 1. Causal relationship or connexion (as flowing the one from the other, or having a common source). 2. A psychical or spiritual attraction believed by some sects to exist between persons.
affranchised ::: freed from a state of dependence, servitude or obligation;
a flexible board from which a dive may be executed, secured at one end and projecting over water at the other. Also fig.
afloat ::: 1. Floating or borne on the water; in a floating condition. 2. From the state of a ship or other body floating on the sea, having liberty of motion and buoyancy.
agent ::: n. **1. One who does the actual work of anything, as distinguished from the instigator or employer; hence, one who acts for another, a deputy, steward, factor, substitute, representative, or emissary. adj. 2. That which acts or exerts power. agents.**
::: "A gnostic Supernature transcends all the values of our normal ignorant Nature; our standards and values are created by ignorance and therefore cannot determine the life of Supernature. At the same time our present nature is a derivation from Supernature and is not a pure ignorance but a half-knowledge; . . . .” The Life Divine*
aisle ::: a longitudinal division of an interior area, as in a church, separated from the main area by an arcade or divided by a row of pillars. aisles.
alacananda ::: "One of the four head streams of the river Ganga in the Himalayas. According to the Vaishnavas it is the terrestrial Ganga which Shiva received upon his head as it fell from heaven. The famous shrine of Badrinath is situated on the banks of this stream. (Dow.)” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works
"All change must come from within with the felt or the secret support of the Divine Power; it is only by one"s own inner opening to that that one can receive help, not by mental, vital or physical contact with others.” Letters on Yoga
"All evolution is in essence a heightening of the force of consciousness in the manifest being so that it may be raised into the greater intensity of what is still unmanifest, from matter into life, from life into mind, from the mind into the spirit.” The Life Divine
"All intuitive knowledge comes more or less directly from the light of the self-aware spirit entering into the mind, the spirit concealed behind mind and conscious of all in itself and in all its selves, omniscient and capable of illumining the ignorant or the self-forgetful mind whether by rare or constant flashes or by a steady instreaming light, out of its omniscience.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
::: ". . . all our spiritual and psychic experience bears affirmative witness, brings us always a constant and, in its main principles, an invariable evidence of the existence of higher worlds, freer planes of existence. Not having bound ourselves down, like so much of modern thought, to the dogma that only physical experience or experience based upon the physical sense is true, the analysis of physical experience by the reason alone verifiable, and all else only result of physical experience and physical existence and anything beyond this an error, self-delusion and hallucination, we are free to accept this evidence and to admit the reality of these planes. We see that they are, practically, different harmonies from the harmony of the physical universe; they occupy, as the word ‘plane" suggests, a different level in the scale of being and adopt a different system and ordering of its principles.” The Life Divine
aloof ::: 1. At a distance; distant; hence, detached, unsympathetic. 2. Away at some distance (from), with a clear space intervening, apart. aloofness.
a man who has been freed from slavery.
"An Avatar, roughly speaking, is one who is conscious of the presence and power of the Divine born in him or descended into him and governing from within his will and life and action; he feels identified inwardly with this divine power and presence.” Letters on Yoga
anchorite ::: withdrawn from the world; secluded.
ancient ::: 1. Of or in time long past or early in the world"s history. 2. Dating from a remote period; of great age; of early origin. 3. Being old in wisdom and experience; venerable. Ancient.
anew ::: 1. Over again; again; once more. 2. In a new form or manner different from the previous.
"A new humanity means for us the appearance, the development of a type or race of mental beings whose principle of mentality would be no longer a mind in the Ignorance seeking for knowledge but even in its knowledge bound to the Ignorance, a seeker after Light but not its natural possessor, open to the Light but not an inhabitant of the Light, not yet a perfected instrument, truth-conscious and delivered out of the Ignorance. Instead, it would be possessed already of what could be called a mind of Light, a mind capable of living in the truth, capable of being truth-conscious and manifesting in its life a direct in place of an indirect knowledge. Its mentality would be an instrument of the Light and no longer of the Ignorance. At its highest it would be capable of passing into the supermind and from the new race would be recruited the race of supramental beings who would appear as the leaders of the evolution in earth-nature. Even, the highest manifestations of a mind of Light would be an instrumentality of the supermind, a part of it or a projection from it, a stepping beyond humanity into the superhumanity of the supramental principle. Above all, its possession would enable the human being to rise beyond the normalities of his present thinking, feeling and being into those highest powers of the mind in its self-exceedings which intervene between our mentality and supermind and can be regarded as steps leading towards the greater and more luminous principle. This advance like others in the evolution might not be reached and would naturally not be reached at one bound, but from the very beginning it would be inevitable: the pressure of the supermind creating from above out of itself the mind of Light would compel this certainty of the eventual outcome.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
::: "An incarnation is something more, something special and individual to the individual being. It is the substitution of the Person of a divine being for the human person and an infiltration of it into all the movements so that there is a dynamic personal change in all of them and in the whole nature; not merely a change of the character of the consciousness or general surrender into its hands, but a subtle intimate personal change. Even when there is an incarnation from the birth, the human elements have to be taken up, but when there is a descent, there is a total conscious substitution.” Letters on Yoga
anomalies ::: deviations from the common rule, type, arrangement, order, or form.
anomalous ::: deviating from or inconsistent with the common order, form, or rule; irregular; abnormal.
antique ::: 1. Of or belonging to the past. 2. Dating from a period long ago; ancient.
a painful burden, as of suffering, guilt, anxiety, etc. (From the wreath of thorns placed on Christ"s head to mock him before he was crucified.)
a person who is practised in or who studies geometry, the branch of mathematics that deals with the deduction of the properties, measurement, and relationships of points, lines, angles, and figures in space from their defining conditions by means of certain assumed properties of space. World-Geometer"s.
"A philosophy of change?(1) But what is change? In ordinary parlance change means passage from one condition to another and that would seem to imply passage from one status to another status. The shoot changes into a tree, passes from the status of shoot to the status of tree and there it stops; man passes from the status of young man to the status of old man and the only farther change possible to him is death or dissolution of his status. So it would seem that change is not something isolated which is the sole original and eternal reality, but it is something dependent on status, and if status were non-existent, change also could not exist. For we have to ask, when you speak of change as alone real, change of what, from what, to what? Without this ‘what" change could not be. ::: —Change is evidently the change of some form or state of existence from one condition to another condition.” Essays Divine and Human
appear ::: 1. To come into sight; become visible; come into view, as from a place or state of concealment, or from a distance; esp. of angels, spirits, visions. 2. To come into existence; be created. 3. To be clear to the understanding. 4. To seem or look to be. appears, appeared, appearing.
apsaras ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Apsaras are the most beautiful and romantic conception on the lesser plane of Hindu mythology. From the moment that they arose out of the waters of the milky Ocean, robed in ethereal raiment and heavenly adornment, waking melody from a million lyres, the beauty and light of them has transformed the world. They crowd in the sunbeams, they flash and gleam over heaven in the lightnings, they make the azure beauty of the sky; they are the light of sunrise and sunset and the haunting voices of forest and field. They dwell too in the life of the soul; for they are the ideal pursued by the poet through his lines, by the artist shaping his soul on his canvas, by the sculptor seeking a form in the marble; for the joy of their embrace the hero flings his life into the rushing torrent of battle; the sage, musing upon God, sees the shining of their limbs and falls from his white ideal. The delight of life, the beauty of things, the attraction of sensuous beauty, this is what the mystic and romantic side of the Hindu temperament strove to express in the Apsara. The original meaning is everywhere felt as a shining background, but most in the older allegories, especially the strange and romantic legend of Pururavas as we first have it in the Brahmanas and the Vishnoupurana.
arbitrary ::: 1. Based on or subject to individual will, judgment or preference: judgment without restriction; contingent solely upon one"s discretion. 2. Capricious; unreasonable; unsupported. 3. Derived from mere opinion or preference; capricious; uncertain. 4. Having unlimited power; uncontrolled or unrestricted by law; despotic; tyrannical.
arch- ::: a combining form that represents the outcome of archi- in words borrowed through Latin from Greek in the Old English period; it subsequently became a productive form added to nouns of any origin, which thus denote individuals or institutions directing or having authority over others of their class (archbishop; archdiocese; archpriest): principal. More recently, arch-1 has developed the senses "principal” (archenemy; archrival) or "prototypical” and thus exemplary or extreme (archconservative); nouns so formed are almost always pejorative. Arch-intelligence.
a religious official among the Romans, whose duty it was to predict future events and advise upon the course of public business, in accordance with omens derived from the flight, singing, and feeding of birds. Hence extended to: A soothsayer, diviner, or prophet, generally; one that foresees and foretells the future. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adjective.) augured.
arise ::: 1. To get up from sleep or rest; to awaken; wake up. 2. To go up, come up, ascend on high, mount. Now only poet. **3. To come into being, action, or notice; originate; appear; spring up. 4. Of circumstances viewed as results: To spring, originate, or result from. 5. To rise from inaction, from the peaceful, quiet, or ordinary course of life. 6. To rise in violence or agitation, as the sea, the wind; to boil up as a fermenting fluid, the blood; so of the heart, wrath, etc. Now poet. 7. Of sounds: To come up aloud, or so as to be audible, to be heard aloud. arises, arising, arose, arisen. *(Sri Aurobindo also employs arisen as an adj.*)
arouse ::: 1. To awaken from or as if from sleep or inactivity. 2. To stir up; excite 3. To stir to action or strong response; excite. aroused, arousing.
arrogant ::: 1. Having or displaying a sense of overbearing self-worth or self-importance. 2. Marked by or arising from a feeling or assumption of one"s superiority toward others.
ascent ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The ascent or the upward movement takes place when there is a sufficient aspiration from the being, i.e., from the various mental, vital and physical planes.” *Letters on Yoga
ascetic ::: one who dedicates his or her life to a pursuit of contemplative ideals, whether by seclusion or by abstinence from creature comforts, and practices extreme self-denial, rigorous self-discipline or self-mortification. ascetic"s, ascetics.
aside ::: 1. On or to one"s side; to or at a short distance apart; away from some position or direction. 2. To or toward the side. 3. Out of one"s thoughts or mind. 4. In reserve; in a separate place, as for safekeeping; apart; away.
A slow miraculous gesture dimly came. ::: Sri Aurobindo ref: the above line from Savitri:
a small, flat, thin piece, esp. one that has been or become detached from a larger piece or mass.
a star so distant from Earth that its position in relation to other stars appears not to change.
"As the eyes of the sage are opened to the light, so is his ear unsealed to receive the vibrations of the Infinite; from all the regions of the Truth there comes thrilling into him its Word which becomes the form of his thoughts.” Essays on the Gita
astral ::: 1. Of, relating to, emanating from, or resembling the stars. 2. Of the spirit world [Greek astron star].
astray ::: 1. Away from the correct path or direction. 2. Away from the right or good, as in thought or behaviour; straying to or into wrong or evil ways.
a stream of a liquid, gas, or small solid particles forcefully shooting forth from a nozzle, orifice, etc. Also fig.
a stroke, beat; in music and prosody the stress or accent marking the rhythm; the intensity of delivery which distinguishes one syllable or note from others.
aswapati ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Aswapati, the Lord of the Horse, her [Savitri"s] human father, is the Lord of Tapasya, the concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour that helps us to rise from the mortal to the immortal planes; . . . .” (From a letter written by Sri Aurobindo) Aswapati"s.
at a distance ::: far, remote from someone or something.
at ease ::: free from pain, trouble, or anxiety; comfortable.
athwart ::: 1. Across from side to side; crosswise or transversely; contrary to the proper or expected course; against; crosswise. 2. Of motion; from side to side.
autumn ::: the season of the year between summer and winter, lasting from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice and from September to December in the Northern Hemisphere; fall.
avatars ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The word Avatar means a descent; it is a coming down of the Divine below the line which divides the divine from the human world or status.” *Essays on the Gita
avoid ::: to keep away from; keep clear of; shun; evade.
awakened ::: 1. Aroused from sleep, sloth, or inaction. 2. Made aware; cognizant; conscious. half-awakened.
awake ::: v. 1. To arouse from sleep or inactivity. 2. Fig. To rise from a state resembling sleep, such as death, indifference, inaction; to become active or vigilant. 3. To come or bring to an awareness, to become cognizant, to be fully conscious, to appreciate fully (often followed by to). awakes, awoke, awaking. *adj.* 4. Not asleep; conscious; vigilant, alert. half-awake.
balcony ::: a platform that projects from the wall of a building and is surrounded by a railing, balustrade, or parapet.
beauty ::: the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, colour, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else, (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest). Beauty, beauty"s, Beauty"s, beauty-drenched, earth-beauty"s.
belched ::: 1. Erupted or exploded. 2. Expelled gas noisily from the stomach through the mouth.
belt ::: 1. Any encircling or transverse band, strip, or stripe characteristically distinguished from the surface it crosses. 2. An elongated region having distinctive properties or characteristics and long in proportion to its breadth. 3. A zone or district.
beset ::: 1. Attacked from all sides. 2. Hemmed in; surrounded.
bitter ::: 1. Having or being a taste that is sharp, acrid, and unpleasant. 2. Difficult or distasteful to accept, admit; bear or endure. 3. Proceeding from or exhibiting strong animosity. 4. Causing a sharply unpleasant, painful, or stinging sensation; harsh; severe. bitterness.
bivouac ("s) ::: a temporary camp with shelters such as tents, as used by soldiers or mountaineers, often unprotected from an enemy.
blind ::: adj. 1. Unable to see; lacking the sense of sight; sightless. Also fig. 2. Unwilling or unable to perceive or understand. 3. Lacking all consciousness or awareness. 4. Not having or based on reason or intelligence; absolute and unquestioning. 5. Not characterized or determined by reason or control. 6. Purposeless; fortuitous, random. 7. Undiscriminating; heedless; reckless. 8. Enveloped in darkness; dark, dim, obscure. 9. Dense enough to form a screen. 10. Covered or concealed from sight; hidden from immediate view. 11. Having no openings or passages for light; (a window or door) walled up. blindest, half-blind. v. 12. To deprive of sight permanently or temporarily. 13. To make sightless momentarily; dazzle. blinded.* n. 14. A blind person, esp. as pl., those who are blind. 15. Fig.* Any thing or action intended to conceal one"s real intention; a pretence, a pretext; subterfuge.
blinded ::: 1. Sightless; deprived of sight or withheld the light from. 2. Fig. Unable or unwilling to perceive or understand, lacking in perception or foresight; deprived or destitute of spiritual light or guidance. thought-blinded.
blinding ::: 1. Withholding light from. 2. Dazzling with a bright light.
body ::: 1. The entire material or physical structure of an organism, especially of a human or animal as differentiated from the soul. 2. The entire physical structure of a human being. 3. A mass of matter that is distinct from other masses. 4. Substance. 5. An agent or entity. 6. The mass of a thing. 7. A mass of matter that is distinct from other masses. 8. The largest or main part of anything; the foundation; central part. body"s, bodies.
borrowed ::: taken from another source, appropriated; assumed; adopted or adapted for the present.
borrower ::: one who receives something or appropriates it from another source.
bow ::: a weapon consisting of a curved, flexible strip of material, especially wood, strung taut from end to end and used to launch arrows.
"Brahma is the Eternal"s Personality of Existence; from him all is created, by his presence, by his power, by his impulse.” Essays Human and Divine
brahma ("s) ::: "Brahma is the nominative; the uninflected form of the word is brahman; it differs from brahman ‘the Eternal" only in gender.” *Glossary of Terms in Sri Aurobindo"s Writings
breadth ::: 1. The measure or the second largest dimension of a plane or solid figure; width. 2. Freedom from narrowness or restraint; liberality. 3. Tolerance; broadmindedness. breadths.
breaking ::: 1. Smashing, splitting, or dividing into parts violently; reducing to pieces or fragments. 2. Dawning upon; coming upon. 3. An opening made by breaking out from. breakings.
breaks out or from ::: bursts or springs out from restraint, confinement, or concealment. Said of persons and things material, also of fire, light, etc.
breast ::: 1. Each of two milk-secreting glandular organs on the chest of a woman; the human mammary gland. 2. The front of the body from the neck to the abdomen; chest. 3. Fig. The seat of the affection and emotion. 4. Fig. A source of nourishment. 5. Something likened to the human breast, as a surface, etc. breasts, breasts".
broad ::: 1. Wide in extent from side to side; of great breadth. 2. Of vast extent; spacious. 3. Broad in scope; extensive. 4. Clear and open; full; (said of daylight, etc.). broad-based, broad-flung.
brow ::: 1. The part of the face from the eyes to the hairline. forehead. 2. The expression of the face; countenance. 3. The eyebrow. pl. **brows.**
buried ::: v. 1. Deposited or hid under ground; covered up with earth or other material. Also fig. **2. Plunged or sunk deep in, so as to be covered from view; put out of sight. adj. 3. Put in the ground or in a tomb; interred. 4. Consigned to a position of obscurity, inaccessibility, or inaction. 5.* Fig.* Consigned to oblivion, put out of the way, abandoned and forgotten.
"But in the path of knowledge as it is practised in India concentration is used in a special and more limited sense. It means that removal of the thought from all distracting activities of the mind and that concentration of it on the idea of the One by which the soul rises out of the phenomenal into the one reality.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
". . . but this divine grace . . . is not simply a mysterious flow or touch coming from above, but the all-pervading act of a divine presence which we come to know within as the power of the highest Self and Master of our being entering into the soul and so possessing it that we not only feel it close to us and pressing upon our mortal nature, but live in its law, know that law, possess it as the whole power of our spiritualised nature.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"By Force I mean not mental or vital energy but the Divine Force from above — as peace comes from above and wideness also, so does this Force (Shakti). Nothing, not even thinking or meditating can be done without some action of Force. The Force I speak of is a Force for illumination, transformation, purification, all that has to be done in the yoga, for removal of hostile forces and the wrong movements — it is also of course for external work, whether great or small in appearance does not matter — if that is part of the Divine Will. I do not mean any personal force egoistic or rajasic.” Letters on Yoga
"By individual we mean normally something that separates itself from everything else and stands apart, though in reality there is no such thing anywhere in existence; it is a figment of our mental conceptions useful and necessary to express a partial and practical truth. But the difficulty is that the mind gets dominated by its words and forgets that the partial and practical truth becomes true truth only by its relation to others which seem to the reason to contradict it, and that taken by itself it contains a constant element of falsity. Thus when we speak of an individual we mean ordinarily an individualisation of mental, vital, physical being separate from all other beings, incapable of unity with them by its very individuality. If we go beyond these three terms of mind, life and body, and speak of the soul or individual self, we still think of an individualised being separate from all others, incapable of unity and inclusive mutuality, capable at most of a spiritual contact and soul-sympathy. It is therefore necessary to insist that by the true individual we mean nothing of the kind, but a conscious power of being of the Eternal, always existing by unity, always capable of mutuality. It is that being which by self-knowledge enjoys liberation and immortality.” The Life Divine
". . . by knowledge we mean in yoga not thought or ideas about spiritual things but psychic understanding from within and spiritual illumination from above.” Letters on Yoga
cabbala ::: 1 A body of mystical Jewish teachings based on an interpretation of hidden meanings in the Hebrew Scriptures. Among its central doctrines are, all creation is an emanation from the Deity and the soul exists from eternity. 2. Any secret or occult doctrine or science. 3. "Esoteric system of interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures based on the assumption that every word, letter, number, and accent in them has an occult meaning. The system, oral at first, claimed great antiquity, but was really the product of the Middle Ages, arising in the 7th century and lasting into the 18th. It was popular chiefly among Jews, but spread to Christians as well. (Col. Enc.)” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works
calamity ::: 1. An event that brings terrible loss, lasting distress, or severe affliction; a disaster. 2. Dire distress resulting from loss or tragedy. calamities.
candid ::: 1. Characterized by openness and sincerity of expression; unreservedly straightforward. 2. Free from prejudice; impartial. 3. Clear or pure 4. Not posed or rehearsed.
care ::: n. **1. A burdened state of mind, as that arising from heavy responsibilities; worry. 2. An object of or cause for concern. 3. Watchful oversight; charge or supervision. 4. An object or source of worry, attention, or solicitude. care, cares. v. 5. To be concerned or interested, have concern for. cares, cared.**
cellar ::: an underground shelter, as from storms. cellars.
certitude ::: freedom from doubt, esp. in matters of faith or opinion; certainty. certitudes.
change ::: v. 1. To make the form, nature, content, future course, etc. of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone. 2. To become different or undergo alteration. changes, changed, changing, ever-changing.* n. 3. The act or fact of changing; transformation or modification of anything. Change, changes, soul-change.
characters ::: 1. The combination of qualities, features and traits that distinguishes one person, group, or thing from another. 2. The marks or symbols used in writing systems such as the letters of the alphabet.
charmed ::: 1. Delighted or fascinated. 2. Marked by good fortune or privilege. 3. Protected from evil and harm as by a magical power vested in an amulet, etc. 4. Filled with wonder and delight.
choose ::: 1. To select from a number of possible alternatives; decide on and pick out. 2. To determine or decide. chooses, chose, chosen, choosing, choosest.
chosen ::: n. 1. Having been selected by God; elect. adj. 2. Selected from or preferred above others. self-chosen. (Also pp. of choose.)
chrysalis ::: 1. The hard sheath encasing the larvae from which the mature insect emerges. 2. A protected stage of development.
circuit ::: 1. The act of following a curved or circular route or one that lies around an object. 2. A complete route or course, esp. one that is curved or circular and begins and ends at the point of departure. 3. The boundary line encompassing an area or object. 4. A regular or accustomed course from place to place. circuits.
clamour ::: 1. A loud uproar, as from a crowd of people. 2. A vehement expression of collective feeling or outrage. 3. A loud and persistent noise. clamours. clamouring.
clan ::: a group of people regarded as being descended from a common ancestor; a tribe. clans.
clarity ::: 1. Clearness or lucidity as to perception or understanding; freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity. 2. The state or quality of being clear or transparent to the eye; pellucidity; brightness, splendour.
cleansed ::: freed from dirt, defilement, or guilt; purged or cleaned. cleansing.
clear ::: 1. Not obscured or darkened; bright. 2. Free from darkness, obscurity, or cloudiness; transparent. 3. Serene; calm; untroubled. 4. Free from doubt or confusion; certain. 5. Easily perceptible to the eye or ear; distinct. 6. Easily understood; without ambiguity. 7. Free from impediment, obstruction, or hindrance; open. clearer, sun-clear, surface-clear.
cloistering ::: shutting away from the world in or as if in a cloister; secluding.
collected ::: brought or placed together; forming an aggregation from various sources.
colonies ::: people or territories separated from but subject to a ruling power.
columns ::: long, narrow formations of troops in which there are more members in line in the direction of movement than at right angles to the direction.—(distinguished from line).
combs ::: a structure of hexagonal, thin-walled cells constructed from beeswax by honeybees to hold honey and larvae.
communality ::: a feeling or spirit of cooperation and belonging arising from common interests and goals.
concealed ::: kept from being seen, found, observed, or discovered; hidden. conceals, concealing, all-concealing, deep-concealed.
"Concentration simply means a fixing of consciousness on something.” Guidance from Sri Aurobindo by Nagin Doshi - Vol. 1
cone ::: 1. A solid whose surface is generated by a straight line, the generator, passing through a fixed point, the vertex, and moving along a fixed curve, the directrix. 2. Anything that tapers from a circular section to a point.
confine ::: 1. To enclose within bounds, limit, restrict. 2. To shut or keep in; prevent from leaving a place because of imprisonment, illness, discipline, etc. confined.
conjecture ::: the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence; guess. conjecture"s, world-conjecture"s.
conjunction ::: 1. The state of being joined. 2. Astronomy: The position of two celestial bodies on the celestial sphere when they have the same celestial longitude, especially a configuration in which a planet or the Moon lies on a straight line from Earth to or through the Sun.
::: "Consciousness is not only power of awareness of self and things, it is or has also a dynamic and creative energy. It can determine its own reactions or abstain from reactions; it can not only answer to forces, but create or put out from itself forces. Consciousness is Chit but also Chit Shakti.” Letters on Yoga
consequence ::: 1. Something that logically or naturally follows from an action or condition. 2. Significance; importance.
constancy ::: the quality of being enduring and free from change or variation.
constellations ::: any of the 88 groups of stars as seen from the earth and the solar system, many of which were named by the ancient Greeks after animals, objects, or mythological persons.
convey ::: 1. To take or carry from one place to another; transport. 2. To communicate or make known; impart. conveys, conveyed.
cosmic mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Nevertheless, the fact of this intervention from above, the fact that behind all our original thinking or authentic perception of things there is a veiled, a half-veiled or a swift unveiled intuitive element is enough to establish a connection between mind and what is above it; it opens a passage of communication and of entry into the superior spirit-ranges. There is also the reaching out of mind to exceed the personal ego limitation, to see things in a certain impersonality and universality. Impersonality is the first character of cosmic self; universality, non-limitation by the single or limiting point of view, is the character of cosmic perception and knowledge: this tendency is therefore a widening, however rudimentary, of these restricted mind areas towards cosmicity, towards a quality which is the very character of the higher mental planes, — towards that superconscient cosmic Mind which, we have suggested, must in the nature of things be the original mind-action of which ours is only a derivative and inferior process.” *The Life Divine
"If we accept the Vedic image of the Sun of Truth, . . . we may compare the action of the Higher Mind to a composed and steady sunshine, the energy of the Illumined Mind beyond it to an outpouring of massive lightnings of flaming sun-stuff. Still beyond can be met a yet greater power of the Truth-Force, an intimate and exact Truth-vision, Truth-thought, Truth-sense, Truth-feeling, Truth-action, to which we can give in a special sense the name of Intuition; . . . At the source of this Intuition we discover a superconscient cosmic Mind in direct contact with the supramental Truth-Consciousness, an original intensity determinant of all movements below it and all mental energies, — not Mind as we know it, but an Overmind that covers as with the wide wings of some creative Oversoul this whole lower hemisphere of Knowledge-Ignorance, links it with that greater Truth-Consciousness while yet at the same time with its brilliant golden Lid it veils the face of the greater Truth from our sight, intervening with its flood of infinite possibilities as at once an obstacle and a passage in our seeking of the spiritual law of our existence, its highest aim, its secret Reality.” The Life Divine
"There is one cosmic Mind, one cosmic Life, one cosmic Body. All the attempt of man to arrive at universal sympathy, universal love and the understanding and knowledge of the inner soul of other existences is an attempt to beat thin, breach and eventually break down by the power of the enlarging mind and heart the walls of the ego and arrive nearer to a cosmic oneness.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"[The results of the opening to the cosmic Mind:] One is aware of the cosmic Mind and the mental forces that move there and how they work on one"s mind and that of others and one is able to deal with one"s own mind with a greater knowledge and effective power. There are many other results, but this is the fundamental one.” Letters on Yoga
"The cosmic consciousness has many levels — the cosmic physical, the cosmic vital, the cosmic Mind, and above the higher planes of cosmic Mind there is the Intuition and above that the overmind and still above that the supermind where the Transcendental begins. In order to live in the Intuition plane (not merely to receive intuitions), one has to live in the cosmic consciousness because there the cosmic and individual run into each other as it were, and the mental separation between them is already broken down, so nobody can reach there who is still in the separative ego.” Letters on Yoga*
cosmic Self ::: Sri Aurobindo: "When one has the cosmic consciousness, one can feel the cosmic Self as one"s own self, one can feel one with other beings in the cosmos, one can feel all the forces of Nature as moving in oneself, all selves as one"s own self. There is no why except that it is so, since all is the One.” Letters on Yoga (See also Cosmic Spirit)
"Impersonality is the first character of cosmic self; . . . .” *The Life Divine
"An eternal infinite self-existence is the supreme reality, but the supreme transcendent eternal Being, Self and Spirit, — an infinite Person, we may say, because his being is the essence and source of all personality, — is the reality and meaning of self-existence: so too the cosmic Self, Spirit, Being, Person is the reality and meaning of cosmic existence; the same Self, Spirit, Being or Person manifesting its multiplicity is the reality and meaning of individual existence.” The Life Divine
"But this cosmic self is spiritual in essence and in experience; it must not be confused with the collective existence, with any group soul or the life and body of a human society or even of all mankind.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"It is the Cosmic Self and Spirit that is in and behind all things and beings, from which and in which all is manifested in the universe — although it is now a manifestation in the Ignorance.” Letters on Yoga*
cosmic Spirit ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Cosmic Spirit or Self contains everything in the cosmos — it upholds cosmic Mind, universal Life, universal Matter as well as the overmind. The Self is more than all these things which are its formulations in Nature.” *Letters on Yoga
"[The Divine in one of its three aspects] . . . is the Cosmic Self and Spirit that is in and behind all things and beings, from which and in which all is manifested in the universe - although it is now a manifestation in the Ignorance.” Letters on Yoga
". . . the cosmic spirit, the one self inhabiting the universe, . . . .” *The Life Divine
"For the cosmic Spirit inhabits each and all, but is more than all; . . . .”The Life Divine
covering ::: n. **1. Anything that veils, screens, disguises or shuts from sight. 2. Something that covers or is laid, placed, or spread over or upon something else. v. 3. Protecting or shielding from harm, loss, or danger. coverings.**
cover ::: n. 1. Fig. Something, such as darkness, that screens, conceals, or disguises. v. 2. To spread over a surface to protect or conceal or warm something. 3. To hide from view or knowledge; conceal. covers, covered, covering.
covert ::: 1. Secret or hidden from view or knowledge; not openly practiced or engaged in, shown or avowed. 2. Concealment; secrecy. 3. A covered place or shelter; hiding place.
create ::: 1. To cause to come into being, as something unique that would not naturally evolve or that is not made by ordinary processes. 2. To evolve from one"s own thought or imagination, as a work of art or an invention. 3. To cause to happen; to bring about; arrange, as by intention or design. creates, created, creating, all-creating, self-creating, world-creating, new-create.
cross ::: 1. A structure consisting essentially of an upright and a transverse piece, upon which persons were formerly put to a cruel and ignominious death by being nailed or otherwise fastened to it by their extremities. 2. A representation or delineation of a cross on any surface, varying in elaborateness from two lines crossing each other to an ornamental design painted, embroidered, carved, etc.; used as a sacred mark, symbol, badge, or the like. 3. A trouble, vexation, annoyance; misfortune, adversity; sometimes anything that thwarts or crosses. v. 4. To go or extend across; pass from one side of to the other: pass over. 5. To extend or pass through or over; intersect. 6. To encounter in passing. crosses, crossed, crossing.
crown ::: n. **1. An ornament worn on the head by kings and those having sovereign power, often made of precious metal and ornamented with gems. 2. A wreath or garland for the head, awarded as a sign of victory, success, honour, etc. 3. The distinction that comes from a great achievement; reward, honour. 4. The top or summit of something, esp. of a rounded object. etc. 5. The highest or more nearly perfect state of anything. 6. An exalting or chief attribute. 7. The acme or supreme source of honour, excellence, beauty, etc. v. 8. To put a crown on the head of, symbolically vesting with royal title, powers, etc. 9. To place something on or over the head or top of. crowns, crowned.**
culture ("s) ::: the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.
curtain ::: 1. A hanging piece of fabric used to shut out the light from a window, adorn a room, increase privacy, etc. 2. Something that functions as or resembles a screen, cover, or barrier. curtains.
dark ::: adj. 1. Lacking or having very little light. 2. Concealed or secret; mysterious. 3. Difficult to understand; obscure. 4. Characterized by gloom; dismal. 5. Fig. Sinister; evil; absent moral or spiritual values. 6. (used of color) Having a dark hue; almost black. 7. Showing a brooding ill humor. 8. Having a complexion that is not fair; swarthy. darker, darkest, dark-browed, dark-robed.* n. 9. Absence of light; dark state or condition; darkness, esp. that of night. 10. A dark place: a place of darkness. 11. The condition of being hidden from view, obscure, or unknown; obscurity. *in the dark: in concealment or secrecy.
death ::: Sri Aurobindo: "For the spiritual seeker death is only a passage from one form of life to another, and none is dead but only departed.” *Letters on Yoga
deck ::: a floorlike surface extending from side to side of a ship or part of a ship.
deduction ::: logic. A process of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the premises presented, so that the conclusion cannot be false if the premises are true.
deep ::: n. 1. A vast extent, as of space or time; an abyss. 2. Fig. Difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge; as an unfathomable thought, idea, esp. poetic. Deep, deep"s, deeps. adj. 3. Extending far downward below a surface. 4. Having great spatial extension or penetration downward or inward from an outer surface or backward or laterally or outward from a center; sometimes used in combination. 5. Coming from or penetrating to a great depth. 6. Situated far down, in, or back. 7. Lying below the surface; not superficial; profound. 8. Of great intensity; as extreme deep happiness, deep trouble. 9. Absorbing; engrossing. 10. Grave or serious. 11. Profoundly or intensely. 12. Mysterious; obscure; difficult to penetrate or understand. 13. Low in pitch or tone. 14. Profoundly cunning, crafty or artful. 15. The central and most intense or profound part; "in the deep of night”; "in the deep of winter”. deeper, deepest, deep-browed, deep-caved, deep-concealed, deep-etched, deep-fraught, deep-guarded, deep-hid, deep-honied, deep-pooled, deep-thoughted. *adv. *16. to a great depth psychologically or profoundly.
defend ::: to protect (a person, place, etc.) from harm or danger; ward off an attack on. defends, defending.
deprived ::: divested, stripped, bereaved, dispossessed of (or from) a possession.
derived ::: 1. Obtained or received from a source. 2. Arrived at by reasoning; deduced or inferred. derives.
descend ::: to move or pass from a higher to a lower place; come down. Also fig. descends, descended.
desert ::: v. To withdraw from, especially in spite of a responsibility or duty; forsake; abandon. deserting.
designs or pictures transferred from engraved plates, wood blocks, lithographic stones or other media. flower-prints.
desist ::: to cease, as from an action; stop or abstain
despair ::: the state in which all hope is lost or absent. despairs, despairing *adj.* Characterized by or resulting from despair; hopeless.
"Destruction is always a simultaneous or alternate element which keeps pace with creation and it is by destroying and renewing that the Master of Life does his long work of preservation. More, destruction is the first condition of progress. Inwardly, the man who does not destroy his lower self-formations, cannot rise to a greater existence. Outwardly also, the nation or community or race which shrinks too long from destroying and replacing its past forms of life, is itself destroyed, rots and perishes and out of its debris other nations, communities and races are formed. By destruction of the old giant occupants man made himself a place upon earth. By destruction of the Titans the gods maintain the continuity of the divine Law in the cosmos. Whoever prematurely attempts to get rid of this law of battle and destruction, strives vainly against the greater will of the World-Spirit.” Essays on the Gita
detached ::: 1. Impartial or objective; disinterested; unbiased. 2. Not involved or concerned; aloof. ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Detachment means that one stands back from [imperfections and weakness of the nature, etc.] , does not identify oneself with them or get upset or troubled because they are there, but rather looks on them as something foreign to one"s true consciousness and true self, rejects them and calls in the Mother"s Force into these movements to eliminate them and bring the true consciousness and its movements there.” Letters on Yoga
dethroned ::: removed from any position of power or authority.
devious ::: 1. Deviating from the straight or direct course; roundabout. 2. Without definite course; vagrant. 3. Not straightforward; shifty or crooked.
dews ::: 1. Water droplets condensed from the air, usually at night, onto cool surfaces. 2. Something like or compared to such drops of moisture, as in purity, delicacy, or refreshing quality. dewy, Dew-time.
disengage ::: 1. To release from something that holds fast, connects, or entangles. 2. To free or detach oneself; withdraw. disengaging.
disillusion ::: 1. To deprive of belief, idealism, etc. to disenchant. 2. To free from false belief or illusions. disillusioned, world-disillusion"s.
displaced ::: 1. Removed or shifted (something) from its place; put out of the proper or usual place. 2. Took the place of; supplanted.
divergent ::: drawing apart from a common point; diverging.
diverts ::: turns aside from a course or direction.
divide ::: to separate from something else; cut off. divides, divided.
divine ::: adj. **1. Of or pertaining to God or the Supreme Being. 2. Of, relating to, emanating from, or being the expression of a deity. 3. Being in the service or worship of a deity; sacred. 4. Heavenly, celestial. 5. Supremely good or beautiful; magnificent. diviner, divinest, divinely, half-divine. v. 6. To perceive by intuition or insight. divines, divined, divining.**
divine Comedy ::: a stage-play of a light and amusing character, with a happy conclusion to its plot. Its mediaeval use for a narrative poem with an agreeable ending. (Probably taken from Italian; cf. the Divine Comedy, the great tripartite poem of Dante, called by its author La Commedia, because in the conclusion, it is prosperous, pleasant, and desirable.)
"Divine Love is of two kinds — the divine Love for the creation and the souls that are part of itself, and the love of the seeker and love for the Divine Beloved; it has both a personal and impersonal element, but the personal is free here from all lower elements or bondage to the vital and physical instincts.” Letters on Yoga
divine Reality ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Divine Reality is infinite in its being; in this infinite being, we find limited being everywhere, — that is the apparent fact from which our existence here seems to start and to which our own narrow ego and its ego-centric activities bear constant witness. But, in reality, when we come to an integral self-knowledge, we find that we are not limited, for we also are infinite.” *The Life Divine
divine ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Divine is the Supreme Truth because it is the Supreme Being from whom all have come and in whom all are.” *Letters on Yoga
downward ::: adj. 1. Descending from a source or beginning. 2. Moving or tending to a lower place or condition. 3. Toward a lower amount, degree, or rank. adv. 4. Spatially or metaphorically from a higher to a lower level or position.
draw ::: 1. To cause to move in a given direction or to a given position, as by leading. 2. To bring towards oneself or itself, as by inherent force or influence; attract. 3. To cause to come by attracting; attract. 4. To cause to move in a particular direction by or as by a pulling force; pull; drag. 5. To get, take or obtain as from a source; to derive. 6. To bring, take, or pull out, as from a receptacle or source. 7. To draw a (or the) line (fig.) to determine or define the limit between two things or groups; in modern colloquial use (esp. with at), to lay down a definite limit of action beyond which one refuses to go. 8. To make, sketch (a picture or representation of someone or something) in lines or words; to design, trace out, delineate; depict; also, to mould, model. 9. To mark or lay out; trace. 10. To compose or write out in legal format. 11. To write out (a bill of exchange or promissory note). 12. To disembowel. 13. To move or pull so as to cover or uncover something. 14. To suck or take in (air, for example); inhale. 15. To extend, lengthen, prolong, protract. 16. To cause to move after or toward one by applying continuous force; drag. draws, drew, drawn, drawing, wide-drawn.
dreamless ::: 1. Free from, or without, dreams. 2. Untroubled by dreams.
drift ::: n. 1. A driving movement or force; impulse; impetus; pressure. 2. A gradual deviation from an original course, model, method, or intention. 3. Tendency, trend, meaning, or purport. 4. A bank or pile, as of sand or snow, heaped up by currents of air or water. 5. Something moving along in a current of air or water. 6. Any group of stars having a random distribution of velocities; usually applied to a group of stars with an apparent systematic motion towards some point in the sky. v. 7. To be carried along by or as if by currents of air or water. 8. To move leisurely or sporadically from place to place, especially without purpose. drifts, drifted, drifting, sleet-drift, slow-drifting.
drooping ::: weak from exhaustion; depleted of strength or energy.
earth-born ::: born on or sprung from the earth; of earthly origin; mortal, human.
ease ::: 1. Freedom from labour, pain, or physical annoyance; tranquil rest; comfort. 2. Freedom from difficulty, hardship, or effort. 3. Freedom from concern or anxiety; a quiet state of mind.
ebb ::: n. **1. The flowing back of the tide from high to low water or the period in which this takes place. v. 2. To flow back or recede; subside, abate. ebbed, ebbing.**
echo ::: n. **1. A repetition of sound produced by the reflexion of sound waves from a wall, mountain, or other obstructing surface. 2. A sound heard again near its source after being reflected. 3. A lingering trace or effect. echoes. v. 4. To resound with or as if with an echo; reverberate. echoes, echoing, re-echoed.**
ego ::: the "I” or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from objects of its thought. **ego, ego"s, egos, egoless, world-egos.
elevation ::: a drawing of a building or other object made in projection on a vertical plane, as distinguished from a ground plan.
ellipse ::: a closed plane curve resulting from the intersection of a circular cone and a plane cutting completely through it.
emerge ::: 1. To come forth into view or notice, as from concealment, or obscurity. 2. To rise or come forth from or as if from water or other liquid. 3. To come into existence; develop. 4. To rise, as from an inferior or unfortunate state or condition. emerges, emerged, emerging.
emotion ::: 1. An affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive or volitional states of consciousness. Also abstract ‘feeling" as distinguished from the other classes of mental phenomena. 2. A state of mental agitation or disturbance. **emotion"s, emotions.
empiric ::: empirical, i.e. derived from, guided by, provable by or verifiable by experience or experiment.
"Emptiness is not in itself a bad condition, only if it is a sad and restless emptiness of the dissatisfied vital. In sadhana emptiness is very usually a necessary transition from one state to another. When mind and vital fall quiet and their restless movements, thoughts and desires cease, then one feels empty. This is at first often a neutral emptiness with nothing in it, nothing in it either good or bad, happy or unhappy, no impulse or movement. This neutral state is often or even usually followed by the opening to inner experience. There is also an emptiness made of peace and silence, when the peace and silence come out from the psychic within or descend from the higher consciousness above. This is not neutral, for in it there is the sense of peace, often also of wideness and freedom. There is also a happy emptiness with the sense of something close or drawing near which is not yet there, e.g. the closeness of the Mother or some other preparing experience.” Letters on Yoga*
enfranchise ::: to set free; liberate, as from slavery.
enjoy ::: 1. To receive pleasure or satisfaction from; take delight in. 2. To find or experience pleasure for (oneself). enjoyed, enjoying.
ennui ::: a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom.
ensleeved ::: a word coined by Sri Aurobindo. The prefix en, occurring originally in loanwords from French, forms verbs with the general sense "to cause (a person or thing) to be in” a place, condition, or state. Hence, ensleeved in this instance is "held within a sleeve”.
"Equality is the chief support of the true spiritual consciousness and it is this from which a sadhak deviates when he allows a vital movement to carry him away in feeling or speech or action. Equality is not the same thing as forbearance, — though undoubtedly a settled equality immensely extends, even illimitably, a man"s power of endurance and forbearance. Letters on Yoga
::: Equality means a quiet and unmoved mind and vital, it means not to be touched or disturbed by things that happen or things said or done to you, but to look at them with a straight look, free from the distortions created by personal feeling, and to try to understand what is behind them, why they happen, what is to be learnt from them, what is it in oneself which they are cast against and what inner profit or progress one can make out of them; it means self-mastery over the vital movements, — anger and sensitiveness and pride as well as desire and the rest, — not to let them get hold of the emotional being and disturb the inner peace, not to speak and act in the rush and impulsion of these things, always to act and speak out of a calm inner poise of the spirit.” *Letters on Yoga
erase ::: 1. To remove (something written, for example) by rubbing, wiping, or scraping. 2. To eliminate completely; to efface, expunge, obliterate. 3. Fig. To remove from memory or existence. erased, erasing.
err ::: 1. To go astray in thought or belief; to make mistakes, blunder. 2. To stray from the right course or accepted standards; sin. erring.
errant ::: 1. Wandering in search of adventure. 2. Straying from the proper course or standards. 3. Moving in an aimless or lightly changing manner.
error ::: 1. A wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention; a deviation from accuracy or correctness. 2. The act or an instance of deviating from an accepted code of behaviour. **error"s, errors, errorless.
"Evolution is an inverse action of the involution: what is an ultimate and last derivation in the involution is the first to appear in the evolution; what was original and primal in the involution is in the evolution the last and supreme emergence.” The Life Divine ::: "Evolution, as we see it in this world, is a slow and difficult process and, indeed, needs usually ages to reach abiding results; but this is because it is in its nature an emergence from inconscient beginnings, a start from nescience and a working in the ignorance of natural beings by what seems to be an unconscious force. There can be, on the contrary, an evolution in the light and no longer in the darkness, in which the evolving being is a conscious participant and cooperator, and this is precisely what must take place here.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"Evolution takes place on the earth and therefore the earth is the proper field for progression. The beings of the other worlds do not progress from one world to another. They remain fixed to their own type.” Letters on Yoga
excerpts ::: passages or segments taken from a longer work.
excluded ::: kept out; prevented from entering. excluded.
exempt ::: released from, or not subject to, an obligation, liability, etc.
exile ::: n. 1. Enforced removal from one"s native country. 2. The condition or a period of living away from one"s native country. 3. A person banished or living away from his home or country; expatriate. v. 4. To expel from home or country, esp. by official decree as a punishment; banish. exiles, exiled, self-exiled.
experience ::: 1. Knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered, or undergone. 2. Philos. The totality of the cognitions given by perception; all that is perceived, understood, and remembered. **world-experience.
external ::: 1. Of or relating chiefly to outward appearance; superficial. 2. Relating to, existing on, or coming or acting from without; exterior. 3. Pertaining to the outward or visible appearance or show. externally.
fatigue ::: weariness from exertion.
::: **"Fear and anxiety are perverse forms of will. What thou fearest & ponderest over, striking that note repeatedly in thy mind, thou helpest to bring about; for, if thy will above the surface of waking repels it, it is yet what thy mind underneath is all along willing, & the subconscious mind is mightier, wider, better equipped to fulfil than thy waking force & intellect. But the spirit is stronger than both together; from fear and hope take refuge in the grandiose calm and careless mastery of the spirit.” Essays Divine and Human
fig. Hearts filled with despair; disillusionment; devastating sorrow, especially from disappointment or tragedy in love.
files ::: a line of persons or things placed one behind another (distinguished from ‘rank").
Flamelike, inscrutable the almighty Guest” From: The Guest - Collected Poems of Sri Aurobindo
flame ::: n. 1. Burning gas or vapor, as from wood or coal, that is undergoing combustion; a portion of ignited gas or vapor. 2. Fig. A brilliant light; fiery glow. 3. Fig. Intense ardour, zeal, passion, vitality. 4. Spiritual fire. 5. Inner fire. 6. Bright colouring; a streak or patch of color. Flame, flames, flame-ascensions, flame-born, flame-bright, flame-child, flame-discovery, flame-edge, flame-eyed, flame-foot, flame-hills, flame-pure, flame-signs, flame-stabs, flame-throw, flame-white, flame-wrapped, moon-flame. v. 8. To burn with a flame or flames; burst into flames; blaze. 7. To burn or glow as if with fire; become red or fiery 8. To burn or burst forth with strong emotion. flames, flamed. ::: flames out. Bursts out in or as if in flames.
flee ::: 1. To run away, as from trouble or danger. 2. To run away from; forsake. 3. To move swiftly; fly; speed. 4. To pass swiftly away; vanish. flees, fled, fleeing, fleest.
flinch ::: to draw back or shrink, as from what is dangerous, difficult, or unpleasant.
floating ::: adj. 1. Being buoyed up on water or other liquid. 2. Having little or no attachment; moving from one place to another. 3. Continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another. 4. Being suspended in or as in a liquid with freedom to move; also, to move freely through (something).
flow ::: n. 1. To move or progress freely as if in a stream. 2. Fig. Something that resembles a flowing stream in moving continuously. v. 3. To circulate. 4. To move or progress freely as if in a stream. 5. To stream or well forth. 6. To proceed or be produced continuously and effortlessly from or out of a source. flows, flowed.
foiled ::: prevented from being successful. foiling.
forborne ::: abstained or refrained from (some action or procedure); ceased, desisted from.
". . . for doubt is the mind"s persistent assailant.” Letters on Yoga ::: "The enemy of faith is doubt, and yet doubt too is a utility and necessity, because man in his ignorance and in his progressive labour towards knowledge needs to be visited by doubt, otherwise he would remain obstinate in an ignorant belief and limited knowledge and unable to escape from his errors.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
"For each birth is a new start; it develops indeed from the past, but is not its mechanical continuation: rebirth is not a constant reiteration but a progression, it is the machinery of an evolutionary process.” The Life Divine
forego ::: to abstain from, go without, deny to oneself; to let go or pass, omit to take or use; to give up, part with, relinquish, renounce, resign. foregone.
"For if we examine carefully, we shall find that Intuition is our first teacher. Intuition always stands veiled behind our mental operations. Intuition brings to man those brilliant messages from the Unknown which are the beginning of his higher knowledge.” The Life Divine*
::: "For in reality, no man works, but Nature works through him for the self-expression of a Power within that proceeds from the Infinite. To know that and live in the presence and in the being of the Master of Nature, free from desire and the illusion of personal impulsion, is the one thing needful. That and not the bodily cessation of action is the true release; for the bondage of works at once ceases. A man might sit still and motionless for ever and yet be as much bound to the Ignorance as the animal or the insect. But if he can make this greater consciousness dynamic within him, then all the work of all the worlds could pass through him and yet he would remain at rest, absolute in calm and peace, free from all bondage.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
forth ::: 1. Onward or outward in place or space; forward. 2. Out, as from concealment or inaction; into view or consideration. 3. Out of; forth from a place or source.
::: "For the inner knowledge comes from within and above (whether from the Divine in the heart or from the Self above) and for it to come, the pride of the mind and vital in the surface mental ideas and their insistence on them must go. One must know that one is ignorant before one can begin to know.” Letters on Yoga
fountain ::: 1. The source or origin of anything. 2. A jet or stream of water made by artificial means to spout or rise from an opening or structure, as to afford water for use, to cool the air, or to serve for ornament. fountain"s, fountains.
frankincense ::: an aromatic gum resin obtained from African and Asian trees of the genus Boswellia and used chiefly as incense and in perfumes.
free from moral blemish or impurity; pure; undefiled.
fresh ::: free from impurity or pollution; pure.
fringe ::: 1. A decorative border of thread, cord, or the like, usually hanging loosely from a ravelled edge or strip. 2. Anything resembling or suggesting this. 3. An outer edge; margin; periphery. fringes, fringed.
fro ::: to and fro. Alternating from one place to another; back and forth.
frustrate ::: prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart. frustrated.
frustration (‘s) ::: a feeling of dissatisfaction resulting from unfulfilled needs or unresolved problems.
fugitive ::: 1. Running away or fleeing, as from the law. 2. Lasting only a short time; fleeting; ephemeral.
fury ::: one of the avenging deities, dread goddesses with snakes twined in their hair, sent from Tartarus to avenge wrong and punish crime: in later accounts, three in number (Tisiphone, Megaera, Alecto). Hence, an avenging or tormenting infernal spirit. Fury"s.
gestation ::: the period of development from conception until birth; pregnancy.
gilded ::: 1. Made from or covered with gold. 2. Having a deep golden colour.
glow ::: n. 1. A light emitted by or as if by a substance heated to luminosity; incandescence. 2. Brilliance or warmth of colour. 3. Intensity of emotion; ardour. joy-glow, petal-glow. v. 4. To shine intensely, as if from great heat. 5. To show a strong bright colour. glows, glowed, glowing.
godhead ::: Sri Aurobindo: ". . . the Godhead is all that is universe and all that is in the universe and all that is more than the universe. The Gita lays stress first on his supracosmic existence. For otherwise the mind would miss its highest goal and remain turned towards the cosmic only or else attached to some partial experience of the Divine in the cosmos. It lays stress next on his universal existence in which all moves and acts. For that is the justification of the cosmic effort and that is the vast spiritual self-awareness in which the Godhead self-seen as the Time-Spirit does his universal works. Next it insists with a certain austere emphasis on the acceptance of the Godhead as the divine inhabitant in the human body. For he is the Immanent in all existences, and if the indwelling divinity is not recognised, not only will the divine meaning of individual existence be missed, the urge to our supreme spiritual possibilities deprived of its greatest force, but the relations of soul with soul in humanity will be left petty, limited and egoistic. Finally, it insists at great length on the divine manifestation in all things in the universe and affirms the derivation of all that is from the nature, power and light of the one Godhead.” *Essays on the Gita
golden Child ::: Sri Aurobindo: "I suppose the golden child is the Truth-Soul which follows after the silver light of the spiritual. When it plunges into the black waters of the subconscient, it releases from it the spiritual light and the sevenfold streams of the Divine Energy and, clearing itself of the stains of the subconscient, it prepares its flight towards the supreme Divine (the Mother).” (Reply to a question in the chapter Visions and Symbols.) Letters on Yoga
gospel ::: 1. A doctrine regarded as of prime importance. 2. Any revelation from heaven.
grace ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Grace is something spontaneous which wells out from the Divine Consciousness as a free flow of its being. ::: It is a power that is superior to any rule, even to the Cosmic Law — for all spiritual seers have distinguished between the Law and Grace. Yet it is not indiscriminate — only it has a discrimination of its own which sees things and persons and the right times and seasons with another vision than that of the Mind or any other normal Power. A state of Grace is prepared in the individual often behind thick veils by means not calculable by the mind and when the state of Grace comes, then the Grace itself acts. ” *Letters on Yoga
grey ::: 1. A neutral tone, intermediate between black and white, that has no hue and reflects and transmits only a little light. 2.* Fig. Dismal or dark, esp. from lack of light; gloomy. 3. Dull, dreary or monotonous. 4. Used often in reference to twilight or a gloomy or an overcast day. greyer, grey-eyed, grey-hued, silver-grey. n. *greyness.
guard ::: n. 1. Something that gives protection; a safeguard. 2. A body of people, esp. soldiers, charged with guarding a place from disturbance, theft, etc. guards. v. 3. To keep safe from harm or danger; to take care of, watch over, protect, defend. 4. To protect from harm by or as if by watching over. guards, guarded, guarding, deep-guarded, self-guarded. ::: on guard. Vigilant; watchful.
guest ::: Sri Aurobindo: " When the Rishis speak of Indra or Agni or Soma in men, they are speaking of the god in his cosmic presence, power or function. This is evident from the very language when they speak of Agni as the immortal in mortals, the immortal Light in men, the inner Warrior, the Guest in human beings.” *Letters on Yoga
gutter ("s) ::: 1. A trough fixed under or along the eaves for draining rainwater from a roof. 2. A channel at the edge of a street or road for carrying off surface water.
haggard ::: having a gaunt, wasted or exhausted appearance, as from prolonged suffering, exertion, or anxiety; careworn.
hang ::: 1. To fasten or attach (pictures, etc.) to a wall. 2. To suspend (something) around or in front of anything. 3.* Fig. To remain unresolved or uncertain. 4. To make (an idea, form, etc.) dependent on the situation, structure, concept, or the like, usually derived from another source. 5. To fasten or be fastened from above, esp. by a cord, chain, etc.; suspend. 6. To be suspended or poised; hover. 7. To bend forward or downward; to lean over. *hangs, hung, hanging, flower-hung, shadow-hung. ::: hung on: Remained clinging, usually implying expectation or unwillingness to sever one"s connection.
harmony ::: 1. A pleasing combination of elements in a whole. 2. Agreement in feeling or opinion; accord. 3. Combination of sounds considered pleasing to the ear. 4. A simultaneous combination of tones, esp. when blended into chords pleasing to the ear; chordal structure, as distinguished from melody and rhythm. harmony"s, harmonies, harmonious, harmoniously.
heaven ::: 1. Any of the places in or beyond the sky conceived of as domains of divine beings in various religions. 2. The sky or universe as seen from the earth; the firmament. 3.* Fig. A condition or place of great happiness, delight, or pleasure. *Heaven, heaven"s, Heaven"s, heavens, heaven-air, heaven-bare, heaven-bliss, heaven-born, heaven-bound, heaven-fire, heaven-hints, heaven-leap, Heaven-light, heaven-lights, Heaven-nature"s, heaven-nymphs, heaven-pillaring, heaven-pleased, heaven-rapture"s, heaven-sent, heaven-sentience, heaven-surrounded, heaven-truth, heaven-use, heaven-worlds.
henceforth ::: from this time forward; from now on.
hew ::: 1. To cut something by repeated blows, as of an axe. 2. To make or shape as with an axe. 3. To sever from a larger or another portion as with a blow. 4. To cut down with an axe; fell; slay. hews, hewed, hewn, hewing, hewer, half-hewn, rock-hewn. ::: rough-hewn. Shaped out roughly, given crude form to; worked or executed in the rough. (Here in reference to Satyavan"s abode.)
**"I certainly won"t have ‘attracted" [in place of ‘allured"] — there is an enormous difference between the force of the two words and merely ‘attracted by the Ecstasy" would take away all my ecstasy in the line — nothing so tepid can be admitted. Neither do I want ‘thrill" [in place of ‘joy"] which gives a false colour — precisely it would mean that the ecstasy was already touching him with its intensity which is far from my intention.Your statement that ‘joy" is just another word for ‘ecstasy" is surprising. ‘Comfort", ‘pleasure", ‘joy", ‘bliss", ‘rapture", ‘ecstasy" would then be all equal and exactly synonymous terms and all distinction of shades and colours of words would disappear from literature. As well say that ‘flashlight" is just another word for ‘lightning" — or that glow, gleam, glitter, sheen, blaze are all equivalents which can be employed indifferently in the same place. One can feel allured to the supreme omniscient Ecstasy and feel a nameless joy touching one without that Joy becoming itself the supreme Ecstasy. I see no loss of expressiveness by the joy coming in as a vague nameless hint of the immeasurable superior Ecstasy.” Letters on Savitri*
"Ideals are truths that have not yet effected themselves for man, the realities of a higher plane of existence which have yet to fulfil themselves on this lower plane of life and matter, our present field of operation. To the pragmatical intellect which takes its stand upon the ever-changing present, ideals are not truths, not realities, they are at most potentialities of future truth and only become real when they are visible in the external fact as work of force accomplished. But to the mind which is able to draw back from the flux of force in the material universe, to the consciousness which is not imprisoned in its own workings or carried along in their flood but is able to envelop, hold and comprehend them, to the soul that is not merely the subject and instrument of the world-force but can reflect something of that Master-Consciousness which controls and uses it, the ideal present to its inner vision is a greater reality than the changing fact obvious to its outer senses. The Supramental Manifestation*
::: "Identity is the first truth of existence; division is the second truth; all division is a division in oneness. There is one Existence which looks at itself from many self-divided unities observing other similar and dissimilar self-divided unities by the device of division. Being is one; division is a device or a secondary condition of consciousness; but the primary truth of consciousness also is a truth of oneness and identity.” Essays Divine and Human
"I find it difficult to take these psycho-analysts at all seriously when they try to scrutinise spiritual experience by the flicker of their torch-lights, — yet perhaps one ought to, for half-knowledge is a powerful thing and can be a great obstacle to the coming in front of the true Truth. This new psychology looks to me very much like children learning some summary and not very adequate alphabet, exulting in putting their a-b-c-d of the subconscient and the mysterious underground super-ego together and imagining that their first book of obscure beginnings (c-a-t cat, t-r-e-e tree) is the very heart of the real knowledge. They look from down up and explain the higher lights by the lower obscurities; but the foundation of these things is above and not below, upari budhna esam.” Letters on Yoga
"If we take this fourfold status as a figure of the Self passing from its superconscient state, where there is no subject or object, into a luminous trance in which superconscience becomes a massed consciousness out of which the subjective status of being and the objective come into emergence, then we get according to our view of things either a possible process of illusionary creation or a process of creative Self-knowledge and All-knowledge.” The Life Divine
"If you go deep enough, into a sufficiently complete silence from all outer things, you will find within you that flame about which I often speak, and in this flame you will see your destiny.} You will see the aspiration of centuries which has been concentrated gradually, to lead you through countless births to the great day of realisation — that preparation which has been made through thousands of years, and is reaching its culmination.” Questions and Answers MCW Vol. 6*.
ignorance ::: the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information. Ignorance, ignorance"s, Ignorance"s, ignorance", world-ignorance, World-Ignorance.
Sri Aurobindo: "Ignorance is the absence of the divine eye of perception which gives us the sight of the supramental Truth; it is the non-perceiving principle in our consciousness as opposed to the truth-perceiving conscious vision and knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"Ignorance is the consciousness of being in the successions of Time, divided in its knowledge by dwelling in the moment, divided in its conception of self-being by dwelling in the divisions of Space and the relations of circumstance, self-prisoned in the multiple working of the unity. It is called the Ignorance because it has put behind it the knowledge of unity and by that very fact is unable to know truly or completely either itself or the world, either the transcendent or the universal reality.” The Life Divine
"Ignorance means Avidya, the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flow from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life. This Ignorance is the result of a movement by which the cosmic Intelligence separated itself from the light of the Supermind (the divine Gnosis) and lost the Truth, — truth of being, truth of divine consciousness, truth of force and action, truth of Ananda. As a result, instead of a world of integral truth and divine harmony created in the light of the divine Gnosis, we have a world founded on the part truths of an inferior cosmic Intelligence in which all is half-truth, half-error. . . . All in the consciousness of this creation is either limited or else perverted by separation from the integral Light; even the Truth it perceives is only a half-knowledge. Therefore it is called the Ignorance.” The Mother
". . . all ignorance is a penumbra which environs an orb of knowledge . . . .”The Life Divine
"This world is not really created by a blind force of Nature: even in the Inconscient the presence of the supreme Truth is at work; there is a seeing Power behind it which acts infallibly and the steps of the Ignorance itself are guided even when they seem to stumble; for what we call the Ignorance is a cloaked Knowledge, a Knowledge at work in a body not its own but moving towards its own supreme self-discovery.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"Knowledge is no doubt the knowledge of the One, the realisation of the Being; Ignorance is a self-oblivion of Being, the experience of separateness in the multiplicity and a dwelling or circling in the ill-understood maze of becomings: . . . .” The Life Divine*
"I have started writing about doubt, but even in doing so I am afflicted by the ‘doubt" whether any amount of writing or of anything else can ever persuade the eternal doubt in man which is the penalty of his native ignorance. In the first place, to write adequately would mean anything from 60 to 600 pages, but not even 6000 convincing pages would convince doubt. For doubt exists for its own sake; its very function is to doubt always and, even when convinced, to go on doubting still; it is only to persuade its entertainer to give it board and lodging that it pretends to be an honest truth-seeker. This is a lesson I have learnt from the experience both of my own mind and of the minds of others; the only way to get rid of doubt is to take discrimination as one"s detector of truth and falsehood and under its guard to open the door freely and courageously to experience.” Letters on Yoga
illumined mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "This greater Force is that of the Illumined Mind, a Mind no longer of higher Thought, but of spiritual light. Here the clarity of the spiritual intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the Spirit: a play of lightnings of spiritual truth and power breaks from above into the consciousness and adds to the calm and wide enlightenment and the vast descent of peace which characterise or accompany the action of the larger conceptual-spiritual principle, a fiery ardour of realisation and a rapturous ecstasy of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"The Illumined Mind does not work primarily by thought, but by vision; . . . .” The Life Divine
"As the Higher Mind brings a greater consciousness into the being through the spiritual idea and its power of truth, so the Illumined Mind brings in a still greater consciousness through a Truth-sight and Truth-light and its seeing and seizing power.” The Life Divine*
immovably ::: incapable of being moved from one"s purpose, opinion, etc.; steadfast; unyielding.
impulsion ::: a wish or urge from within; an impulse.
impunity ::: immunity from detrimental effects, as of an action.
*"In a certain sense all genius comes from Overhead; for genius is the entry or inrush of a greater consciousness into the mind or a possession of the mind by a greater power.”
inborn ::: existing from birth; congenital; innate.
inconscience ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Inconscience is an inverse reproduction of the supreme superconscience: it has the same absoluteness of being and automatic action, but in a vast involved trance; it is being lost in itself, plunged in its own abyss of infinity.” *The Life Divine
"All aspects of the omnipresent Reality have their fundamental truth in the Supreme Existence. Thus even the aspect or power of Inconscience, which seems to be an opposite, a negation of the eternal Reality, yet corresponds to a Truth held in itself by the self-aware and all-conscious Infinite. It is, when we look closely at it, the Infinite"s power of plunging the consciousness into a trance of self-involution, a self-oblivion of the Spirit veiled in its own abysses where nothing is manifest but all inconceivably is and can emerge from that ineffable latency. In the heights of Spirit this state of cosmic or infinite trance-sleep appears to our cognition as a luminous uttermost Superconscience: at the other end of being it offers itself to cognition as the Spirit"s potency of presenting to itself the opposites of its own truths of being, — an abyss of non-existence, a profound Night of inconscience, a fathomless swoon of insensibility from which yet all forms of being, consciousness and delight of existence can manifest themselves, — but they appear in limited terms, in slowly emerging and increasing self-formulations, even in contrary terms of themselves; it is the play of a secret all-being, all-delight, all-knowledge, but it observes the rules of its own self-oblivion, self-opposition, self-limitation until it is ready to surpass it. This is the Inconscience and Ignorance that we see at work in the material universe. It is not a denial, it is one term, one formula of the infinite and eternal Existence.” *The Life Divine
"Once consciousnesses separated from the one consciousness, they fell inevitably into Ignorance and the last result of Ignorance was Inconscience.” Letters on Yoga
*inconscience.
inconscient ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Inconscient and the Ignorance may be mere empty abstractions and can be dismissed as irrelevant jargon if one has not come in collision with them or plunged into their dark and bottomless reality. But to me they are realities, concrete powers whose resistance is present everywhere and at all times in its tremendous and boundless mass.” *Letters on Savitri
". . . in its actual cosmic manifestation the Supreme, being the Infinite and not bound by any limitation, can manifest in Itself, in its consciousness of innumerable possibilities, something that seems to be the opposite of itself, something in which there can be Darkness, Inconscience, Inertia, Insensibility, Disharmony and Disintegration. It is this that we see at the basis of the material world and speak of nowadays as the Inconscient — the Inconscient Ocean of the Rigveda in which the One was hidden and arose in the form of this universe — or, as it is sometimes called, the non-being, Asat.” Letters on Yoga
"The Inconscient itself is only an involved state of consciousness which like the Tao or Shunya, though in a different way, contains all things suppressed within it so that under a pressure from above or within all can evolve out of it — ‘an inert Soul with a somnambulist Force".” Letters on Yoga
"The Inconscient is the last resort of the Ignorance.” Letters on Yoga
"The body, we have said, is a creation of the Inconscient and itself inconscient or at least subconscient in parts of itself and much of its hidden action; but what we call the Inconscient is an appearance, a dwelling place, an instrument of a secret Consciousness or a Superconscient which has created the miracle we call the universe.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga :::
"The Inconscient is a sleep or a prison, the conscient a round of strivings without ultimate issue or the wanderings of a dream: we must wake into the superconscious where all darkness of night and half-lights cease in the self-luminous bliss of the Eternal.” The Life Divine
"Men have not learnt yet to recognise the Inconscient on which the whole material world they see is built, or the Ignorance of which their whole nature including their knowledge is built; they think that these words are only abstract metaphysical jargon flung about by the philosophers in their clouds or laboured out in long and wearisome books like The Life Divine. Letters on Savitri :::
"Is it really a fact that even the ordinary reader would not be able to see any difference between the Inconscient and Ignorance unless the difference is expressly explained to him? This is not a matter of philosophical terminology but of common sense and the understood meaning of English words. One would say ‘even the inconscient stone" but one would not say, as one might of a child, ‘the ignorant stone". One must first be conscious before one can be ignorant. What is true is that the ordinary reader might not be familiar with the philosophical content of the word Inconscient and might not be familiar with the Vedantic idea of the Ignorance as the power behind the manifested world. But I don"t see how I can acquaint him with these things in a single line, even with the most. illuminating image or symbol. He might wonder, if he were Johnsonianly minded, how an Inconscient could be teased or how it could wake Ignorance. I am afraid, in the absence of a miracle of inspired poetical exegesis flashing through my mind, he will have to be left wondering.” Letters on Savitri
**inconscient, Inconscient"s.**
inference ::: the act or process of deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true.
::: "Inner mind is that which lies behind the surface mind (our ordinary mentality) and can only be directly experienced (apart from its vrttis in the surface mind such as philosophy, poetry, idealism, etc.) by sadhana, by breaking down the habit of being on the surface and by going deeper within.” *Letters on Yoga
"Inner mind is that which lies behind the surface mind (our ordinary mentality) and can only be directly experienced (apart from its vrttis in the surface mind such as philosophy, poetry, idealism, etc.) by sadhana, by breaking down the habit of being on the surface and by going deeper within.” Letters on Yoga
innocence ::: freedom from sin, moral wrong, or guilt through lack of knowledge of evil.
::: "In our yoga the Nirvana is the beginning of the higher Truth, as it is the passage from the Ignorance to the higher Truth. The Ignorance has to be extinguished in order that the Truth may manifest.” Letters on Yoga*
"Inspiration comes from above in answer to a state of concentration which is itself a call to it.” Letters on Yoga*
intellect ::: the power or faculty of the mind by which one knows or understands, as distinguished from that by which one feels and that by which one wills; the understanding; the faculty of thinking and acquiring knowledge. intellect"s.
intercept ::: 1. To take, seize, or halt (someone or something on the way from one place to another); cut off from an intended destination. 2. To stop or check (passage, travel, etc.). 3. To stop or interrupt the course, progress, or transmission of. intercepts, intercepting, interceptor.
intermediate zone ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The intermediate zone means simply a confused condition or passage in which one is getting out of the personal consciousness and opening into the cosmic (cosmic Mind, cosmic vital, cosmic physical, something perhaps of the cosmic higher Mind) without having yet transcended the human mind levels. One is not in possession of or direct contact with the divine Truth on its own levels , but one can receive something from them, even from the overmind, indirectly. Only, as one is still immersed in the cosmic Ignorance, all that comes from above can be mixed, perverted, taken hold of for their purposes by lower, even by hostile Powers. ::: It is not necessary for everyone to struggle through the intermediate zone. If one has purified oneself, if there is no abnormal vanity, egoism, ambition or other strong misleading element, or if one is vigilant and on one"s guard, or if the psychic is in front, one can either pass rapidly and directly or with a minimum of trouble into the higher zones of consciousness where one is in direct contact with the Divine Truth.
". . . in the Avatar there is the special manifestation, the divine birth from above, the eternal and universal Godhead descended into a form of individual humanity, âtmânam srjâmi, and conscious not only behind the veil but in the outward nature.” Essays on the Gita
intuition ::: direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process. intuition"s, intuitions, half-intuition.
Sri Aurobindo: "Intuition is a power of consciousness nearer and more intimate to the original knowledge by identity; for it is always something that leaps out direct from a concealed identity. It is when the consciousness of the subject meets with the consciousness in the object, penetrates it and sees, feels or vibrates with the truth of what it contacts, that the intuition leaps out like a spark or lightning-flash from the shock of the meeting; or when the consciousness, even without any such meeting, looks into itself and feels directly and intimately the truth or the truths that are there or so contacts the hidden forces behind appearances, then also there is the outbreak of an intuitive light; or, again, when the consciousness meets the Supreme Reality or the spiritual reality of things and beings and has a contactual union with it, then the spark, the flash or the blaze of intimate truth-perception is lit in its depths. This close perception is more than sight, more than conception: it is the result of a penetrating and revealing touch which carries in it sight and conception as part of itself or as its natural consequence. A concealed or slumbering identity, not yet recovering itself, still remembers or conveys by the intuition its own contents and the intimacy of its self-feeling and self-vision of things, its light of truth, its overwhelming and automatic certitude.” *The Life Divine
"Intuition is always an edge or ray or outleap of a superior light; it is in us a projecting blade, edge or point of a far-off supermind light entering into and modified by some intermediate truth-mind substance above us and, so modified, again entering into and very much blinded by our ordinary or ignorant mind-substance; but on that higher level to which it is native its light is unmixed and therefore entirely and purely veridical, and its rays are not separated but connected or massed together in a play of waves of what might almost be called in the Sanskrit poetic figure a sea or mass of ``stable lightnings"". When this original or native Intuition begins to descend into us in answer to an ascension of our consciousness to its level or as a result of our finding of a clear way of communication with it, it may continue to come as a play of lightning-flashes, isolated or in constant action; but at this stage the judgment of reason becomes quite inapplicable, it can only act as an observer or registrar understanding or recording the more luminous intimations, judgments and discriminations of the higher power. To complete or verify an isolated intuition or discriminate its nature, its application, its limitations, the receiving consciousness must rely on another completing intuition or be able to call down a massed intuition capable of putting all in place. For once the process of the change has begun, a complete transmutation of the stuff and activities of the mind into the substance, form and power of Intuition is imperative; until then, so long as the process of consciousness depends upon the lower intelligence serving or helping out or using the intuition, the result can only be a survival of the mixed Knowledge-Ignorance uplifted or relieved by a higher light and force acting in its parts of Knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"I use the word ‘intuition" for want of a better. In truth, it is a makeshift and inadequate to the connotation demanded of it. The same has to be said of the word ‘consciousness" and many others which our poverty compels us to extend illegitimately in their significance.” *The Life Divine - Sri Aurobindo"s footnote.
"For intuition is an edge of light thrust out by the secret Supermind. . . .” The Life Divine
". . . intuition is born of a direct awareness while intellect is an indirect action of a knowledge which constructs itself with difficulty out of the unknown from signs and indications and gathered data.” The Life Divine
"Intuition is above illumined Mind which is simply higher Mind raised to a great luminosity and more open to modified forms of intuition and inspiration.” Letters on Yoga
"Intuition sees the truth of things by a direct inner contact, not like the ordinary mental intelligence by seeking and reaching out for indirect contacts through the senses etc. But the limitation of the Intuition as compared with the supermind is that it sees things by flashes, point by point, not as a whole. Also in coming into the mind it gets mixed with the mental movement and forms a kind of intuitive mind activity which is not the pure truth, but something in between the higher Truth and the mental seeking. It can lead the consciousness through a sort of transitional stage and that is practically its function.” Letters on Yoga
intuitive ::: 1. Obtained through intuition rather than from reasoning or observation. 2. Fig. Concerning spiritual vision or perception.
intuitive knowledge ::: Sri Aurobindo: " For the highest intuitive Knowledge sees things in the whole, in the large and details only as sides of the indivisible whole; its tendency is towards immediate synthesis and the unity of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"The intuitive knowledge on the contrary, however limited it may be in its field or application, is within that scope sure with an immediate, a durable and especially a self-existent certitude.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"All intuitive knowledge comes more or less directly from the light of the self-aware spirit entering into the mind, the spirit concealed behind mind and conscious of all in itself and in all its selves, omniscient and capable of illumining the ignorant or the self-forgetful mind whether by rare or constant flashes or by a steady instreaming light, out of its omniscience.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
inview ::: a word coined by Sri Aurobindo. A sight afforded of something from a position stated or qualified, i.e. from within.
isolated ::: separated from others; solitary or singular.
::: **"It is therefore necessary from the beginning to understand and accept the arduous difficulty of the path and to feel the need of a faith which to the intellect may seem blind, but yet is wiser than our reasoning intelligence. For this faith is a support from above; it is the brilliant shadow thrown by a secret light that exceeds the intellect and its data; it is the heart of a hidden knowledge that is not at the mercy of immediate appearances.” The Synthesis of Yoga
::: "It may be said that perfection is attained, though it remains progressive, when the receptivity from below is equal to the force from above which wants to manifest.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
jail-delivery ::: forcible and illegal liberation of prisoners from jail.
jealousy ::: mental uneasiness from suspicion or fear of rivalry, unfaithfulness, etc., as in love or aims.
journey ::: n. 1. A travelling from one place to another; trip or voyage. 2. Fig. Passage or progress from one stage to another. journey"s. v. 4. To make a journey; travel. journeys, journeyed, journeying.* *n. journeying, journeyings. adj. journeying.**
keel ::: 1. The principal structural member of a ship or boat, running lengthwise along the center line from bow to stern, to which the frames are attached. 2. A poetic word for ship.
lakshmi ::: ". . . in Hindu mythology, the goddess of wealth and good fortune, consort of Vishnu. According to a legend she sprang from the froth of the Ocean when it was churned, in full beauty, with a lotus in her hand. (Dow.)” *Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works
lapse ::: 1. An accidental or temporary decline or deviation from an expected or accepted condition or state; a temporary falling or slipping from a previous standard. 2. A gradual decline or a drop to a lower degree, condition, or state. 3. A gradual deterioration or decline; regression. 4. The act of falling, slipping, sliding, etc. slowly or by degrees. lapsed, lapsing, far-lapsing.
lean ::: 1. To incline or bend from a vertical or other position or direction. 2. To depend or rely on or upon. leans, leaned, leaning.
leap ::: n. 1. An abrupt transition. leaps. v. 2. To spring or bound suddenly upward from or as if from the ground; jump. Also fig. 3. Trans. To spring over; to pass from one side to the other by leaping. Also in phr. to leap bounds (lit. and fig.). 4*.* Fig. To move or pass quickly or abruptly from one condition or subject to another. 5. To beat rapidly as the heart. leaps, leaped, leapt, leaping, arrow-leaps, foam-leap, heaven-leap, lightning-leaps.**
leave ::: 1. To go away from, depart from permanently, quit (a place, person, or thing). 2. To let remain or have remaining behind after going, disappearing, ceasing, etc. 3. To go without taking. 4. To permit, allow. 5. To let (someone) remain in a position to do something without interference. 6. To give in charge; entrust. 7. Have as a result or residue. leaves. (All other references to leaves are as pl. of leaf.)
ledge ::: a narrow, more or less flat shelf of rock protruding from a cliff or slope.
legacy ::: something handed down from an ancestor or a predecessor or from the past.
legend ::: an unverified story handed down from earlier times, especially one popularly believed to be historical.
leisure ::: 1. Time free from the demands of work or duty. 2. Unhurried ease.
::: "Liberty in one shape or another ranks among the most ancient and certainly among the most difficult aspirations of our race: it arises from a radical instinct of our being and is yet opposed to all our circumstances, it is our eternal good and our condition of perfection, but our temporal being has failed to find its key. That perhaps is because true freedom is only possible if we live in the infinite, live, as the Vedanta bids us, in and from our self-existent being; but our natural and temporal energies seek for it first not in ourselves, but in our external conditions. This great indefinable thing, liberty, is in its highest and ultimate sense a state of being; it is self living in itself and determining by its own energy what is shall be inwardly and, eventually, by the growth of a divine spiritual power within determining too what it shall make of its external circumstances and environment." War and Self-Determination
light ::: Sri Aurobindo: ". . . light is primarily a spiritual manifestation of the Divine Reality illuminative and creative; material light is a subsequent representation or conversion of it into Matter for the purposes of the material Energy.” *The Life Divine
"Our sense by its incapacity has invented darkness. In truth there is nothing but Light, only it is a power of light either above or below our poor human vision"s limited range.
For do not imagine that light is created by the Suns. The Suns are only physical concentrations of Light, but the splendour they concentrate for us is self-born and everywhere.
God is everywhere and wherever God is, there is Light.” *The Hour of God
"Light is a general term. Light is not knowledge but the illumination that comes from above and liberates the being from obscurity and darkness.” The Mother
The Mother: "The light is everywhere, the force is everywhere. And the world is so small.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15. ::: *Light, light"s, lights, light-petalled, light-tasselled, half-light.
lotus (as chakra) ::: Sri Aurobindo: "This arrangement of the psychic body is reproduced in the physical with the spinal column as a rod and the ganglionic centres as the chakras which rise up from the bottom of the column, where the lowest is attached, to the brain and find their summit in the brahmarandhra at the top of the skull. These chakras or lotuses, however, are in physical man closed or only partly open, with the consequence that only such powers and only so much of them are active in him as are sufficient for his ordinary physical life, and so much mind and soul only is at play as will accord with its need. This is the real reason, looked at from the mechanical point of view, why the embodied soul seems so dependent on the bodily and nervous life, — though the dependence is neither so complete nor so real as it seems. The whole energy of the soul is not at play in the physical body and life, the secret powers of mind are not awake in it, the bodily and nervous energies predominate. But all the while the supreme energy is there, asleep; it is said to be coiled up and slumbering like a snake, — therefore it is called the kundalinî sakti, — in the lowest of the chakras, in the mûlâdhâra.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"Love is the power and passion of the divine self-delight and without love we may get the rapt peace of its infinity, the absorbed silence of the Ananda, but not its absolute depth of richness and fullness. Love leads us from the suffering of division into the bliss of perfect union, but without losing that joy of the act of union which is the soul"s greatest discovery and for which the life of the cosmos is a long preparation. Therefore to approach God by love is to prepare oneself for the greatest possible spiritual fulfilment. ” The Synthesis of Yoga
lyre ::: a musical instrument of ancient Greece consisting of a sound box made typically from a turtle shell, with two curved arms connected by a yoke from which strings are stretched to the body, used especially to accompany singing and recitation. lyres.
madra ::: "Name of an ancient country and its people in northwestern India, mentioned in the Mahabaharata. The territory extended from the River Beas to the Chenab or perhaps as far as the Jhelum. Savitri"s father Asvapati was king of this country. (Dow.)” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works ::: **Madra"s.**
Man alive, your proposed emendations are an admirable exposition of the art of bringing a line down the steps till my poor "slow miraculous” above-mind line meant to give or begin the concrete portrayal of an act of some hidden Godhead finally becomes a mere metaphor thrown out from its more facile mint by a brilliantly imaginative poetic intelligence. First of all, you shift my "dimly” out of the way and transfer it to something to which it does not inwardly belongs make it an epithet of the gesture or an adverb qualifying its epithet instead of something that qualifies the atmosphere in which the act of the Godhead takes place. That is a preliminary havoc which destroys what is very important to the action, its atmosphere. I never intended the gesture to be dim, it is a luminous gesture, but forcing its way through the black quietude it comes dimly. Then again the bald phrase "a gesture came” without anything to psychicise it becomes simply something that "happened”, "came” being a poetic equivalent for "happened”, instead of the expression of the slow coming of the gesture. The words "slow” and "dimly” assure this sense of motion and this concreteness to the word"s sense here. Remove one or both whether entirely or elsewhere and you ruin the vision and change altogether its character. That is at least what happens wholly in your penultimate version and as for the last its "came” gets another meaning and one feels that somebody very slowly decided to let out the gesture from himself and it was quite a miracle that it came out at all! "Dimly miraculous” means what precisely or what "miraculously dim” — it was miraculous that it managed to be so dim or there was something vaguely miraculous about it after all? No doubt they try to mean something else — but these interpretations come in their way and trip them over. The only thing that can stand is the first version which is no doubt fine poetry, but the trouble is that it does not give the effect I wanted to give, the effect which is necessary for the dawn"s inner significance. Moreover, what becomes of the slow lingering rhythm of my line which is absolutely indispensable? Letters on Savitri
"Man is God hiding himself from Nature so that he may possess her by struggle, insistence, violence and surprise. God is universal and transcendent Man hiding himself from his own individuality in the human being.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
mantra ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The mantra as I have tried to describe it in The Future Poetry is a word of power and light that comes from the Overmind inspiration or from some very high plane of Intuition. Its characteristics are a language that conveys infinitely more than the mere surface sense of the words seems to indicate, a rhythm that means even more than the language and is born out of the Infinite and disappears into it, and the power to convey not merely the mental, vital or physical contents or indications or values of the thing uttered, but its significance and figure in some fundamental and original consciousness which is behind all these and greater.” *The Future Poetry
marble ::: n. 1. A hard crystalline metamorphic rock resulting from the recrystallization of a limestone: takes a high polish and is used for building and sculpture. adj. 2. Resembling metamorphic rock in consistency, texture, venation, color, or coldness, smoothness, whiteness, etc. 3. Hard, rigid and inflexible, as marble.
marionettes ::: puppets manipulated from above by strings attached to their jointed limbs.
mask ::: n. 1. A covering for all or part of the face, worn to conceal one"s identity. 2. Anything that disguises, conceals, or hides from view. Mask, masks. v. 3. To disguise or conceal; hide, veil, screen, cloak. **masked, masking.
mastodon ::: a massive elephant-like mammal that flourished worldwide from the Myocene through the Pleistocene epochs having long, curved upper tusks and, in the male, short lower tusks.
matrix ::: 1. Something that constitutes the place or point from which something else originates, takes form, or develops. 2. A substance, situation, or environment in which something has its origin, takes form, or is enclosed.
". . . matter is a formation of life that has no real existence apart from the informing universal spirit which gives it its energy and substance.” The Synthesis of Yoga
maya ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Maya in its original sense meant a comprehending and containing consciousness capable of embracing, measuring and limiting and therefore formative; it is that which outlines, measures out, moulds forms in the formless, psychologises and seems to make knowable the Unknowable, geometrises and seems to make measurable the limitless. Later the word came from its original sense of knowledge, skill, intelligence to acquire a pejorative sense of cunning, fraud or illusion, and it is in the figure of an enchantment or illusion that it is used by the philosophical systems.” *The Life Divine
mellow ::: 1. Rich and soft in quality. 2. Pleasantly agreeable; free from tension or discord.
melody ::: 1. Musical sounds in agreeable succession or arrangement. 2. The succession of single tones in musical compositions, as distinguished from harmony and rhythm. melodies, far-melodied.
miasma ::: pollution in the atmosphere, esp. noxious vapours from decomposing organic matter.
minaret (s) ::: a tall slender tower attached to a mosque, having one or more projecting balconies from which a muezzin summons the people to prayer.
mind, illumined ::: Sri Aurobindo: "This greater Force is that of the Illumined Mind, a Mind no longer of higher Thought, but of spiritual light. Here the clarity of the spiritual intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the Spirit: a play of lightnings of spiritual truth and power breaks from above into the consciousness and adds to the calm and wide enlightenment and the vast descent of peace which characterise or accompany the action of the larger conceptual-spiritual principle, a fiery ardour of realisation and a rapturous ecstasy of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
mind of light ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Mind of Light is a subordinate action of Supermind, dependent upon it even when not apparently springing direct from it, . . . .” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
mind, physical ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The physical mind is that part of the mind which is concerned with the physical things only — it depends on the sense-mind, sees only objects, external actions, draws its ideas from the data given by external things, infers from them only and knows no other Truth until it is enlightened from above.” *Letters on Yoga
mind, Self of ::: Sri Aurobindo: "If one stands back from the mind and its activities so that they fall silent at will or go on as a surface movement of which one is the detached and disinterested witness, it becomes possible eventually to realise oneself as the inner Self of mind, the true and pure mental being, the Purusha; . . . .” The Life Divine
mind, silent ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The first thing to do in the sadhana is to get a settled peace and silence in the mind. Otherwise you may have experiences, but nothing will be permanent. It is in the silent mind that the true consciousness can be built. ::: A quiet mind does not mean that there will be no thoughts or mental movements at all, but that these will be on the surface and you will feel your true being within separate from them, observing but not carried away, able to watch and judge them and reject all that has to be rejected and to accept and keep to all that is true consciousness and true experience.” *Letters on Yoga
mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The ‘Mind" in the ordinary use of the word covers indiscriminately the whole consciousness, for man is a mental being and mentalises everything; but in the language of this yoga the words ‘mind" and ‘mental" are used to connote specially the part of the nature which has to do with cognition and intelligence, with ideas, with mental or thought perceptions, the reactions of thought to things, with the truly mental movements and formations, mental vision and will, etc., that are part of his intelligence.” *Letters on Yoga
"Mind in its essence is a consciousness which measures, limits, cuts out forms of things from the indivisible whole and contains them as if each were a separate integer.” The Life Divine
"Mind is an instrument of analysis and synthesis, but not of essential knowledge. Its function is to cut out something vaguely from the unknown Thing in itself and call this measurement or delimitation of it the whole, and again to analyse the whole into its parts which it regards as separate mental objects.” The Life Divine
"The mind proper is divided into three parts — thinking Mind, dynamic Mind, externalising Mind — the former concerned with ideas and knowledge in their own right, the second with the putting out of mental forces for realisation of the idea, the third with the expression of them in life (not only by speech, but by any form it can give).” Letters on Yoga
"The difference between the ordinary mind and the intuitive is that the former, seeking in the darkness or at most by its own unsteady torchlight, first, sees things only as they are presented in that light and, secondly, where it does not know, constructs by imagination, by uncertain inference, by others of its aids and makeshifts things which it readily takes for truth, shadow projections, cloud edifices, unreal prolongations, deceptive anticipations, possibilities and probabilities which do duty for certitudes. The intuitive mind constructs nothing in this artificial fashion, but makes itself a receiver of the light and allows the truth to manifest in it and organise its own constructions.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"He [man] has in him not a single mentality, but a double and a triple, the mind material and nervous, the pure intellectual mind which liberates itself from the illusions of the body and the senses, and a divine mind above intellect which in its turn liberates itself from the imperfect modes of the logically discriminative and imaginative reason.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"Our mind is an observer of actuals, an inventor or discoverer of possibilities, but not a seer of the occult imperatives that necessitate the movements and forms of a creation. . . .” *The Life Divine
"The human mind is an instrument not of truth but of ignorance and error.” Letters on Yoga
"For Mind as we know it is a power of the Ignorance seeking for Truth, groping with difficulty to find it, reaching only mental constructions and representations of it in word and idea, in mind formations, sense formations, — as if bright or shadowy photographs or films of a distant Reality were all that it could achieve.” The Life Divine
The Mother: "The true role of the mind is the formation and organization of action. The mind has a formative and organizing power, and it is that which puts the different elements of inspiration in order for action, for organizing action. And if it would only confine itself to that role, receiving inspirations — whether from above or from the mystic centre of the soul — and simply formulating the plan of action — in broad outline or in minute detail, for the smallest things of life or the great terrestrial organizations — it would amply fulfil its function. It is not an instrument of knowledge. But is can use knowledge for action, to organize action. It is an instrument of organization and formation, very powerful and very capable when it is well developed.” Questions and Answers 1956, MCW Vol. 8.*
mine ::: n. 1. An excavation in the earth from which ore or minerals can be extracted. v. 2. To remove something from its source without attempting to replenish it. (All other references are to mine as: belonging to me.)
minstrels ::: medieval entertainers who traveled from place to place, especially to sing and recite poetry.
mirage ::: 1. An optical phenomenon that creates the illusion of water, often with inverted reflections of distant objects, and results from distortion of light by alternate layers of hot and cool air. 2. Something illusory, without substance or reality.
mobile ::: 1. Flowing freely. 2. Changeable or changing easily in expression, mood, purpose, etc. 3. Capable of moving or of being moved readily from place to place. mobility.
monsoon ::: wind from the southwest or south that brings heavy rainfall to southern Asia in the summer.
moonbelts ::: broad bands or stripes characteristically distinguished from the surface they cross; tracts or districts long in proportion to their breadths. Also, zones or districts, usually with defining term denoting the principal characteristic.
morass ::: an area of low-lying, soggy ground; hence fig., any confusing or troublesome situation, esp. one from which it is difficult to free oneself.
mother, universal ::: Sri Aurobindo: "What people mean by the formless svarûpa of the Mother, — they means usually her universal aspect. It is when she is experienced as a universal Existence and Power spread through the universe in which and by which all live. When one feels that Presence one begins to feel a universal peace, light, power, bliss without limits — that is her svarûpa.” *The Mother
"The Mahashakti, the universal Mother, works out whatever is transmitted by her transcendent consciousness from the Supreme and enters into the worlds that she has made; her presence fills and supports them with the divine spirit and the divine all-sustaining force and delight without which they could not exist.” The Mother
movement ::: 1. The act or an instance of moving; a change in place or position. A particular manner of moving. 2. Usually, movements, actions or activities, as of a person or a body of persons. ::: movement"s, movements, many-movemented.
Sri Aurobindo: "When we withdraw our gaze from its egoistic preoccupation with limited and fleeting interests and look upon the world with dispassionate and curious eyes that search only for the Truth, our first result is the perception of a boundless energy of infinite existence, infinite movement, infinite activity pouring itself out in limitless Space, in eternal Time, an existence that surpasses infinitely our ego or any ego or any collectivity of egos, in whose balance the grandiose products of aeons are but the dust of a moment and in whose incalculable sum numberless myriads count only as a petty swarm." *The Life Divine
". . . the purest, freest form of insight into existence as it is shows us nothing but movement. Two things alone exist, movement in Space, movement in Time, the former objective, the latter subjective.” The Life Divine
"The world is a cyclic movement (samsâra ) of the Divine Consciousness in Space and Time. Its law and, in a sense, its object is progression; it exists by movement and would be dissolved by cessation of movement. But the basis of this movement is not material; it is the energy of active consciousness which, by its motion and multiplication in different principles (different in appearance, the same in essence), creates oppositions of unity and multiplicity, divisions of Time and Space, relations and groupings of circumstance and Causality. All these things are real in consciousness, but only symbolic of the Being, somewhat as the imaginations of a creative Mind are true representations of itself, yet not quite real in comparison with itself, or real with a different kind of reality.” The Upanishads*
mute ::: 1. Not emitting or having sound of any kind. 2. Silent; refraining from speech or utterance. 3. Unable to speak. muteness.
myrrh ::: an aromatic gum resin obtained from several trees and shrubs of the genus Commiphora of India, Arabia, and eastern Africa, used in perfume and incense.
n. 1. A small part broken off or detached from any larger whole. 2. An incomplete and unfinished piece; portion. 3. An incomplete or isolated portion; a bit. fragments, fragment-being, fragment-mirrorings. *v. 4. To break or separate (something) into fragments. *fragmented.
n. 1. The body or outward appearance of a person or an animal considered separately from the face or head; figure. 2. An object, person, or part of the human body or the appearance of any of these, esp. as seen in nature. 3. The mode in which a thing exists, acts, or manifests itself; kind. 4. The structure, pattern, organization or essential nature of anything. Form, form"s, forms, Forms, form-bound, form-discoveries, form-maker, form-smitten, thought-forms. v. 5. To give form to; shape. 6.* *To take or assume form; to be formed or produced. forms, formed, many-formed, sense-formed. ::: re-form.** To form a second time, form over again.
n. 1. The lower interior part of a ship or airplane where cargo is stored. 2. The act or a means of grasping. v. 3. To have or keep in the hand; keep fast; grasp. 4. To bear, sustain, or support, as with the hands or arms, or by any other means. 5. To contain or be capable of containing. 6. To keep from departing or getting away. 7. To withstand stress, pressure, or opposition; to maintain occupation of by force or coercion. 8. To have in its power, possess, affect, occupy. 9. To engage in; preside over; carry on. 10. To have or keep in the mind; think or believe. 11. To regard or consider. 12. To keep or maintain a grasp on something. 13. To maintain one"s position against opposition; continue in resistance. 14. To agree or side (usually followed by with). holds, holding. ::: hold back. 15. a. To retain possession of; keep back. b. To refrain from revealing; withhold. c. To refrain from participating or engaging in some activity.
natural Law ::: a law or body of laws that derives from nature and is believed to be binding upon human actions apart from or in conjunction with laws established by human authority.
::: "Nirvana or Moksha is a liberated condition of the being, not a world — it is a withdrawal from the worlds and the manifestation.” *Letters on Yoga
nomad ::: a member of a people or tribe that has no permanent abode but moves about from place to place; esp. roaming about or wandering.
*"No, that [‘pours” instead of "poured") would take away all meaning from ‘new fair world" — it is the attempted conquest of earth by life when earth had been created — a past event though still continuing in its sequel and result.” Letters on Savitri*
novel ::: strikingly new, unusual, or different. different from anything seen or known before.
obstructing ::: 1. Impeding, retarding, or interfering with; hindering. 2. Getting in the way of so as to hide from sight.
occult ::: 1. Hidden from view; concealed. 2. Beyond the realm of human comprehension; inscrutable. 3. Available only to the initiate; secret.
oestrus ::: a regularly occurring period of sexual receptivity in most female mammals, except humans, during which ovulation occurs and copulation can take place; heat. [from Latin oestrus gadfly, hence frenzy, from Greek oistros]
::: "OM is the mantra, the expressive sound-symbol of the Brahman Consciousness in its four domains from the Turiya to the external or material plane. The function of a mantra is to create vibrations in the inner consciousness that will prepare it for the realisation of what the mantra symbolises and is supposed indeed to carry within itself. The mantra OM should therefore lead towards the opening of the consciousness to the sight and feeling of the One Consciousness in all material things, in the inner being and in the supraphysical worlds, in the causal plane above now superconscient to us and, finally, the supreme liberated transcendence above all cosmic existence.” *Letters on Yoga
oracle ::: 1. A person, such as a priestess, through whom a deity is held to respond when consulted. 2. The response given through such a medium, often in the form of an enigmatic statement or allegory. 3. A command or revelation from God. oracles.
"Ordinarily we mean by it [consciousness] our first obvious idea of a mental waking consciousness such as is possessed by the human being during the major part of his bodily existence, when he is not asleep, stunned or otherwise deprived of his physical and superficial methods of sensation. In this sense it is plain enough that consciousness is the exception and not the rule in the order of the material universe. We ourselves do not always possess it. But this vulgar and shallow idea of the nature of consciousness, though it still colours our ordinary thought and associations, must now definitely disappear out of philosophical thinking. For we know that there is something in us which is conscious when we sleep, when we are stunned or drugged or in a swoon, in all apparently unconscious states of our physical being. Not only so, but we may now be sure that the old thinkers were right when they declared that even in our waking state what we call then our consciousness is only a small selection from our entire conscious being. It is a superficies, it is not even the whole of our mentality. Behind it, much vaster than it, there is a subliminal or subconscient mind which is the greater part of ourselves and contains heights and profundities which no man has yet measured or fathomed.” Letters on Yoga
ore ::: a mineral or an aggregate of minerals from which a valuable constituent, especially a metal, can be profitably mined or extracted.
origin ::: 1. The point at which something comes into existence or from which it derives or is derived. 2. The first stage of existence; beginning. Origin, origins.
original ::: 1. Of or relating to an origin or beginning. 2. A first form from which other forms are made or developed.
outcast ::: 1. Cast out as from one"s home. 2. Forsaken; rejected. outcasted.
outlook ::: 1. A mental attitude or view; point of view. 2. The view or prospect from a particular place.
outlying ::: relatively distant or remote from a center or middle.
outview ::: a word coined by Sri Aurobindo. A sight afforded of something from a position stated or qualified, i.e. from without.
outward ::: n. 1. Relating to physical reality rather than with thoughts or the mind; the material or external world. outward"s, outwardness. adj. 2. Relating to the physical self. 3. Purely external; superficial. 4. Belonging or pertaining to external actions or appearances, as opposed to inner feelings, mental states, etc. 5. Pertaining to or being what is seen or apparent, as distinguished from the underlying nature, facts, etc.; pertaining to surface qualities only; superficial.
overlooking ::: looking over or at from a higher place.
overmind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The overmind is a sort of delegation from the supermind (this is a metaphor only) which supports the present evolutionary universe in which we live here in Matter. If supermind were to start here from the beginning as the direct creative Power, a world of the kind we see now would be impossible; it would have been full of the divine Light from the beginning, there would be no involution in the inconscience of Matter, consequently no gradual striving evolution of consciousness in Matter. A line is therefore drawn between the higher half of the universe of consciousness, parardha , and the lower half, aparardha. The higher half is constituted of Sat, Chit, Ananda, Mahas (the supramental) — the lower half of mind, life, Matter. This line is the intermediary overmind which, though luminous itself, keeps from us the full indivisible supramental Light, depends on it indeed, but in receiving it, divides, distributes, breaks it up into separated aspects, powers, multiplicities of all kinds, each of which it is possible by a further diminution of consciousness, such as we reach in Mind, to regard as the sole or the chief Truth and all the rest as subordinate or contradictory to it.” *Letters on Yoga
"The overmind is the highest of the planes below the supramental.” *Letters on Yoga
"In its nature and law the Overmind is a delegate of the Supermind Consciousness, its delegate to the Ignorance. Or we might speak of it as a protective double, a screen of dissimilar similarity through which Supermind can act indirectly on an Ignorance whose darkness could not bear or receive the direct impact of a supreme Light.” The Life Divine
"The Overmind is a principle of cosmic Truth and a vast and endless catholicity is its very spirit; its energy is an all-dynamism as well as a principle of separate dynamisms: it is a sort of inferior Supermind, — although it is concerned predominantly not with absolutes, but with what might be called the dynamic potentials or pragmatic truths of Reality, or with absolutes mainly for their power of generating pragmatic or creative values, although, too, its comprehension of things is more global than integral, since its totality is built up of global wholes or constituted by separate independent realities uniting or coalescing together, and although the essential unity is grasped by it and felt to be basic of things and pervasive in their manifestation, but no longer as in the Supermind their intimate and ever-present secret, their dominating continent, the overt constant builder of the harmonic whole of their activity and nature.” The Life Divine
"The overmind sees calmly, steadily, in great masses and large extensions of space and time and relation, globally; it creates and acts in the same way — it is the world of the great Gods, the divine Creators.” *Letters on Yoga
"The Overmind is essentially a spiritual power. Mind in it surpasses its ordinary self and rises and takes its stand on a spiritual foundation. It embraces beauty and sublimates it; it has an essential aesthesis which is not limited by rules and canons, it sees a universal and an eternal beauty while it takes up and transforms all that is limited and particular. It is besides concerned with things other than beauty or aesthetics. It is concerned especially with truth and knowledge or rather with a wisdom that exceeds what we call knowledge; its truth goes beyond truth of fact and truth of thought, even the higher thought which is the first spiritual range of the thinker. It has the truth of spiritual thought, spiritual feeling, spiritual sense and at its highest the truth that comes by the most intimate spiritual touch or by identity. Ultimately, truth and beauty come together and coincide, but in between there is a difference. Overmind in all its dealings puts truth first; it brings out the essential truth (and truths) in things and also its infinite possibilities; it brings out even the truth that lies behind falsehood and error; it brings out the truth of the Inconscient and the truth of the Superconscient and all that lies in between. When it speaks through poetry, this remains its first essential quality; a limited aesthetical artistic aim is not its purpose.” *Letters on Savitri
"In the overmind the Truth of supermind which is whole and harmonious enters into a separation into parts, many truths fronting each other and moved each to fulfil itself, to make a world of its own or else to prevail or take its share in worlds made of a combination of various separated Truths and Truth-forces.” Letters on Yoga
*Overmind"s.
overseers ::: those who survey or watch, as from a higher position.
pactise ::: Sri Aurobindo combines the word pact [an agreement or covenant] with ise, a noun suffix occurring in loanwords from French, indicating quality, condition, or function.
paean ::: a song or lyric poem expressing triumph or thanksgiving, or joy. In classical antiquity, it is usually performed by a chorus, but some examples seem intended for an individual voice (monody). It comes from the Greek παιάν (also παιήων or παιών), "song of triumph, any solemn song or chant.” paeans, paean-song.
parentage ::: derivation or descent from parents or ancestors; birth, origin or lineage.
part ::: n. 1. An essential portion, division, piece, or segment of a whole. 2. Participation, interest, or concern in something; role. 3. Region; area. parts, part-experience. *adj. 4. Partial. v. 5. To go or come apart; separate, as two or more things. 6. To go apart from or leave one another, as persons. 7. To put or keep apart; separate. *parts, parted, parting, half-parted.
passage ::: 1. A movement from one place to another, as by going by, through, over, or across; transit or migration. 2. Fig. The process of passing from one condition or stage to another; transition. 3. An opening or entrance into, through, or out of something. 4. A path, channel, or duct through, over, or along which something may pass. 5. A hall or corridor; passageway. passages, cavern-passages.
passion-flower ::: any of various climbing, tendril-bearing, chiefly tropical American vines of the genus Passiflora, having large showy flowers with a fringelike crown and a conspicuous stalk that bears the stamens and pistil, with some varieties yielding a delicious fruit. [From the resemblance of its parts to the instruments of the Passion.]
pass ::: v. 1. To move on or ahead; proceed. 2. To move by. 3. To go or get through (something), lit. and fig. **4. To go across or over (a stream, threshold, etc.); cross. 5. To cross, traverse, in reference to times, stages, states, conditions, processes, actions, experiences, etc. 6. To be transferred from one to another; circulate. 7. To come to or toward, then go beyond. 8. To come to an end. 9. To cease to exist. 10. To convey, transfer, or transmit; deliver (often followed by on). 11. To be accepted as or believed to be. 12. To sanction or approve. passes, passed, passing. n. 13. A way, such as a narrow gap between mountains, that affords passage around, over, or through a barrier. passes. ::: pass by. To let go without notice, action, remark, etc.; leave unconsidered; disregard; overlook.
pathology ::: the scientific study of the nature of disease and its causes, processes, development, and consequences and in other uses, a departure or deviation from a normal condition.
peculiar ::: distinctive in nature or character from others.
perish ::: 1. To die or be destroyed, especially in a violent or untimely manner. 2. To pass from existence; disappear gradually. perishes, perished.
perverse ::: 1. Directed away from what is right or good; perverted. 2. Obstinately persisting in an error or fault; wrongly self-willed or stubborn. perversity, Perversity.
pervert ::: adj. Turned from the right way, from the proper use, from truth to error, etc.; wicked; distorted; misapplied. perverted, perverting.
poetry ::: Sri Aurobindo: "All poetry is an inspiration, a thing breathed into the thinking organ from above; it is recorded in the mind, but is born in the higher principle of direct knowledge or ideal vision which surpasses mind. It is in reality a revelation. The prophetic or revealing power sees the substance; the inspiration perceives the right expression. Neither is manufactured; nor is poetry really a poiesis or composition, nor even a creation, but rather the revelation of something that eternally exists. The ancients knew this truth and used the same word for poet and prophet, creator and seer, sophos, vates, kavi.” Essays Human and Divine
pointillage ::: a word coined by Sri Aurobindo. The suffix age, originally in words adopted from Fr., is typically used in abstract nouns to indicate "aggregate”. Hence, pointillage indicates something made up of minute details; particularized. The root word, pointillism, refers to a method, invented by French impressionist painters, of producing luminous effects by crowding a surface with small spots of various colours, which are blended by the eye.
port ::: a place along a coast that gives ships and boats protection from storms and rough water; a harbour. Also fig.
portion ::: 1. A part of any whole, either separated from or integrated with it. 2. The part of a whole allotted to or belonging to a person or group; share. Also fig. 3. Something that is allotted to a person by God or fate. portions.
presence ::: 1. The state or fact of being present; current existence or occurrence. 2. A divine, spiritual, or supernatural spirit or influence felt or conceived as present. 3. The immediate proximity of someone or something.
Sri Aurobindo: "It is intended by the word Presence to indicate the sense and perception of the Divine as a Being, felt as present in one"s existence and consciousness or in relation with it, without the necessity of any further qualification or description. Thus, of the ‘ineffable Presence" it can only be said that it is there and nothing more can or need be said about it, although at the same time one knows that all is there, personality and impersonality, Power and Light and Ananda and everything else, and that all these flow from that indescribable Presence. The word may be used sometimes in a less absolute sense, but that is always the fundamental significance, — the essential perception of the essential Presence supporting everything else.” *Letters on Yoga
"Beyond mind on spiritual and supramental levels dwells the Presence, the Truth, the Power, the Bliss that can alone deliver us from these illusions, display the Light of which our ideals are tarnished disguises and impose the harmony that shall at once transfigure and reconcile all the parts of our nature.” Essays Divine and Human
"But if we learn to live within, we infallibly awaken to this presence within us which is our more real self, a presence profound, calm, joyous and puissant of which the world is not the master — a presence which, if it is not the Lord Himself, is the radiation of the Lord within.” *The Life Divine
"The true soul secret in us, — subliminal, we have said, but the word is misleading, for this presence is not situated below the threshold of waking mind, but rather burns in the temple of the inmost heart behind the thick screen of an ignorant mind, life and body, not subliminal but behind the veil, — this veiled psychic entity is the flame of the Godhead always alight within us, inextinguishable even by that dense unconsciousness of any spiritual self within which obscures our outward nature. It is a flame born out of the Divine and, luminous inhabitant of the Ignorance, grows in it till it is able to turn it towards the Knowledge. It is the concealed Witness and Control, the hidden Guide, the Daemon of Socrates, the inner light or inner voice of the mystic. It is that which endures and is imperishable in us from birth to birth, untouched by death, decay or corruption, an indestructible spark of the Divine.” *The Life Divine
"If we need any personal and inner witness to this indivisible All-Consciousness behind the ignorance, — all Nature is its external proof, — we can get it with any completeness only in our deeper inner being or larger and higher spiritual state when we draw back behind the veil of our own surface ignorance and come into contact with the divine Idea and Will behind it. Then we see clearly enough that what we have done by ourselves in our ignorance was yet overseen and guided in its result by the invisible Omniscience; we discover a greater working behind our ignorant working and begin to glimpse its purpose in us: then only can we see and know what now we worship in faith, recognise wholly the pure and universal Presence, meet the Lord of all being and all Nature.” *The Life Divine
"The presence of the Spirit is there in every living being, on every level, in all things, and because it is there, the experience of Sachchidananda, of the pure spiritual existence and consciousness, of the delight of a divine presence, closeness, contact can be acquired through the mind or the heart or the life-sense or even through the physical consciousness; if the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being.” *The Life Divine
"There is a secret divine Will, eternal and infinite, omniscient and omnipotent, that expresses itself in the universality and in each particular of all these apparently temporal and finite inconscient or half-conscient things. This is the Power or Presence meant by the Gita when it speaks of the Lord within the heart of all existences who turns all creatures as if mounted on a machine by the illusion of Nature.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"For what Yoga searches after is not truth of thought alone or truth of mind alone, but the dynamic truth of a living and revealing spiritual experience. There must awake in us a constant indwelling and enveloping nearness, a vivid perception, a close feeling and communion, a concrete sense and contact of a true and infinite Presence always and everywhere. That Presence must remain with us as the living, pervading Reality in which we and all things exist and move and act, and we must feel it always and everywhere, concrete, visible, inhabiting all things; it must be patent to us as their true Self, tangible as their imperishable Essence, met by us closely as their inmost Spirit. To see, to feel, to sense, to contact in every way and not merely to conceive this Self and Spirit here in all existences and to feel with the same vividness all existences in this Self and Spirit, is the fundamental experience which must englobe all other knowledge.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"One must have faith in the Master of our life and works, even if for a long time He conceals Himself, and then in His own right time He will reveal His Presence.” *Letters on Yoga
"They [the psychic being and the Divine Presence in the heart] are quite different things. The psychic being is one"s own individual soul-being. It is not the Divine, though it has come from the Divine and develops towards the Divine.” *Letters on Yoga
"For it is quietness and inwardness that enable one to feel the Presence.” *Letters on Yoga
"Beyond mind on spiritual and supramental levels dwells the Presence, the Truth, the Power, the Bliss that can alone deliver us from these illusions, display the Light of which our ideals are tarnished disguises and impose the harmony that shall at once transfigure and reconcile all the parts of our nature.” *Essays Divine and Human
The Mother: "For, in human beings, here is a presence, the most marvellous Presence on earth, and except in a few very rare cases which I need not mention here, this presence lies asleep in the heart — not in the physical heart but the psychic centre — of all beings. And when this Splendour is manifested with enough purity, it will awaken in all beings the echo of his Presence.” Words of the Mother, MCW, Vol. 15.
preserver ::: someone who keeps safe from harm or danger; saviour.
preserve ::: to maintain in safety from injury, peril, or harm; protect.
::: "Pressure, throbbing, electrical vibrations are all signs of the working of the Force. The places indicate the field of action — the top of the head is the summit of the thinking mind where it communicates with the higher consciousness; the neck or throat is the seat of the physical, externalising or expressive mind; the ear is the place of communication with the inner mind-centre by which thoughts etc. enter into the personal being from the general Nature.” Letters on Yoga
prints ::: photographic images transferred to paper or to similar surfaces, usually from negatives.
privacy ::: 1. The quality or condition of being secluded from the presence or view of others. 2. Plural. Private places. privacies.
private ::: secluded from the sight, presence, or intrusion of others.
profit ::: n. 1. Advantage; benefit; gain. v. 2. To gain an advantage (from); to derive benefit from.
profound ::: n. 1. That which is eminently deep, or the deepest part of something; a vast depth; an abyss. lit. and fig; chiefly poetical. adj. 2. Situated at or extending to great depth; too deep to have been sounded or plumbed. 3. Coming as if from the depths of one"s being. 4. Of deep meaning; of great and broadly inclusive significance. 5. Being or going far beneath what is superficial, external, or obvious. 6. Showing or requiring great knowledge or understanding. profounder.
prometheus ::: gr. Myth. A Titan who stole fire from Olympus and gave it to humankind, for which Zeus chained him to a rock and sent an eagle to eat his liver, which grew back daily.
prop ::: n. 1. An object placed beneath or against a structure to keep it from falling or shaking; a support. 2. Fig. A person or thing giving support, as of a moral or spiritual nature. 3. Theat. Property, a usually moveable item, other than costumes or scenery, used on the set of a theatre production, motion picture, etc.; any object handled or used by an actor in a performance. v. 3. To sustain or support. props.
proud ::: 1. Having, proceeding from, or showing a high opinion, dignity, importance, or superiority. 2. Feeling or showing justifiable self-respect. 3. Feeling pleasurable satisfaction over an act, possession, quality, or relationship by which one measures one"s stature or self-worth. 4. Of lofty dignity or distinction. 5. Majestic; magnificent. 6. In a bad sense: filled with or showing excessive self-esteem. 7. Highly honourable or creditable.
"Pulling comes usually from a desire to get things for oneself — in aspiration there is a self-giving for the higher consciousness to descend and take possession — the more intense the call the greater the self-giving.” Letters on Yoga
"Purity means freedom from soil or mixture. The divine Purity is that in which there is no mixture of the turbid ignorant movements of the lower nature. Ordinarily, purity is used to mean (in the common language) freedom from sexual passion and impulse.” *Letters on Yoga
quakes ::: shakes or trembles, as from instability or shock. quaking.
quarried ::: cut from stone, as from a quarry.
quarries ::: open excavations or pits from which stone is obtained by digging, cutting, or blasting.
quiet ::: n. 1. An untroubled state; free from disturbances. 2. The absence of sound. 3. adj. Free of noise or uproar; or making little if any sound. 4. Free of mental or emotional turmoil and agitation; untroubled. 5. Tranquil; serene. quieted, quietly.
rank ::: 1. A relative position in a society. 2. A line of persons, esp. soldiers, standing abreast in close-order formation (distinguished from file). 3. Orderly arrangement; array. 4. A row, line, series, or range. ranks, ranked.
rapt ::: 1. Deeply engrossed or absorbed. 2. Entranced; transported with emotion; enraptured; ecstatic. 3. Indicating, proceeding from, characterized by, a state of rapture. 4. Carried off spiritually to another place, sphere of existence, etc. self-rapt.
rash ::: n. 1. An outbreak of many instances within a brief period. adj. 2. Characterized by or resulting from ill-considered haste or boldness; impetuous. 3. Characterized by defiant disregard for danger or consequences.
regards as resulting from a specified cause; considers as caused by something or someone. attributing.
::: **"See God everywhere and be not frightened by masks. Believe that all falsehood is truth in the making or truth in the breaking, all failure an effectuality concealed, all weakness strength hiding itself from its own vision, all pain a secret & violent ecstasy.” Essays Divine and Human
"So long as one is not free from the ego sense, there can be no real freedom.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
"Soma is the Gandharva, the Lord of the hosts of delight, and guards the true seat of the Deva, the level or plane of the Ananda; gandharva itthâ padam asya rakshati. He is the Supreme, standing out from all other beings and over them, other than they and wonderful, adbhuta, and as the supreme and transcendent, present in the worlds but exceeding them, he protects in those worlds the births of the gods, pâti devânâm janimâni adbhutah. The ‘births of the gods" is a common phrase in the Veda by which is meant the manifestation of the divine principles in the cosmos and especially the formation of the godhead in its manifold forms in the human being.” The Secret of the Veda
Sri Aurobindo: "Akshara, the immobile, the immutable, is the silent and inactive self, it is the unity of the divine Being, Witness of Nature, but not involved in its movement; it is the inactive Purusha free from Prakriti and her works.” Essays on the Gita
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . all cosmic and real Law is a thing not imposed from outside, but from within, all development is self-development, all seed and result are seed of a Truth of things and result of that seed determined out of its potentialities. For the same reason no Law is absolute, because only the infinite is absolute, and everything contains within itself endless potentialities quite beyond its determined form and course, which are only determined through a self-limitation by Idea proceeding from an infinite liberty within.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "As there is an inner sight other than the physical, so there is an inner hearing other than that of the external ear, and it can listen to voices and sounds and words of other worlds, other times and places, or those which come from supraphysical beings.” *Letters on Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: ". . . desires come from outside, enter the subconscious vital and rise to the surface. It is only when they rise to the surface and the mind becomes aware of them, that we become conscious of the desire. It seems to us to be our own because we feel it thus rising from the vital into the mind and do not know that it came from outside.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Every man is knowingly or unknowingly the instrument of a universal Power and, apart from the inner Presence, there is no such essential difference between one action and another, one kind of instrumentation and another as would warrant the folly of an egoistic pride. The difference between knowledge and ignorance is a grace of the Spirit; the breath of divine Power blows where it lists and fills today one and tomorrow another with the word or the puissance. If the potter shapes one pot more perfectly than another, the merit lies not in the vessel but the maker. The attitude of our mind must not be ‘This is my strength" or ‘Behold God"s power in me", but rather ‘A Divine Power works in this mind and body and it is the same that works in all men and in the animal, in the plant and in the metal, in conscious and living things and in things apparently inconscient and inanimate."” The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . for each individual is in himself the Eternal who has assumed name and form and supports through him the experiences of life turning on an ever-circling wheel of birth in the manifestation. The wheel is kept in motion by the desire of the individual, which becomes the effective cause of rebirth and by the mind"s turning away from the knowledge of the eternal self to the preoccupations of the temporal becoming.” The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "For from the divine Bliss, the original Delight of existence, the Lord of Immortality comes pouring the wine of that Bliss, the mystic Soma, into these jars of mentalised living matter; eternal and beautiful, he enters into these sheaths of substance for the integral transformation of the being and nature.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Further, vision is of value because it is often a first key to inner planes of one"s own being and one"s own consciousness as distinguished from worlds or planes of the cosmic consciousness. Yoga-experience often begins with some opening of the third eye in the forehead (the centre of vision in the brows) or with some kind of beginning and extension of subtle seeing which may seem unimportant at first but is the vestibule to deeper experience.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Hatred is the sign of a secret attraction that is eager to flee from itself and furious to deny its own existence. That too is God"s play in His creature.” *Essays Divine and Human
Sri Aurobindo: "He is the Cosmic Spirit and all-creating Energy around us; he is the Immanent within us. All that is is he, and he is the More than all that is, and we ourselves, though we know it not, are being of his being, force of his force, conscious with a consciousness derived from his; even our mortal existence is made out of his substance and there is an immortal within us that is a spark of the Light and Bliss that are for ever. No matter whether by knowledge, works, love or any other means, to become aware of this truth of our being, to realise it, to make it effective here or elsewhere is the object of all Yoga.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "History teaches us nothing; it is a confused torrent of events and personalities or a kaleidoscope of changing institutions. We do not seize the real sense of all this change and this continual streaming forward of human life in the channels of Time. What we do seize are current or recurrent phenomena, facile generalisations, partial ideas. We talk of democracy, aristocracy and autocracy, collectivism and individualism, imperialism and nationalism, the State and the commune, capitalism and labour; we advance hasty generalisations and make absolute systems which are positively announced today only to be abandoned perforce tomorrow; we espouse causes and ardent enthusiasms whose triumph turns to an early disillusionment and then forsake them for others, perhaps for those that we have taken so much trouble to destroy. For a whole century mankind thirsts and battles after liberty and earns it with a bitter expense of toil, tears and blood; the century that enjoys without having fought for it turns away as from a puerile illusion and is ready to renounce the depreciated gain as the price of some new good. And all this happens because our whole thought and action with regard to our collective life is shallow and empirical; it does not seek for, it does not base itself on a firm, profound and complete knowledge. The moral is not the vanity of human life, of its ardours and enthusiasms and of the ideals it pursues, but the necessity of a wiser, larger, more patient search after its true law and aim.” *The Human Cycle etc.
Sri Aurobindo: "If this higher buddhi {{understanding in the profoundest sense] could act pure of the interference of these lower members, it would give pure forms of the truth; observation would be dominated or replaced by a vision which could see without subservient dependence on the testimony of the sense-mind and senses; imagination would give place to the self-assured inspiration of the truth, reasoning to the spontaneous discernment of relations and conclusion from reasoning to an intuition containing in itself those relations and not building laboriously upon them, judgment to a thought-vision in whose light the truth would stand revealed without the mask which it now wears and which our intellectual judgment has to penetrate; while memory too would take upon itself that larger sense given to it in Greek thought and be no longer a paltry selection from the store gained by the individual in his present life, but rather the all-recording knowledge which secretly holds and constantly gives from itself everything that we now seem painfully to acquire but really in this sense remember, a knowledge which includes the future(1) no less than the past. ::: Footnote: In this sense the power of prophecy has been aptly called a memory of the future.]” *The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "In considering the action of the Infinite we have to avoid the error of the disciple who thought of himself as the Brahman, refused to obey the warning of the elephant-driver to budge ::: from the narrow path and was taken up by the elephant"s trunk and removed out of the way; ‘You are no doubt the Brahman," said the master to his bewildered disciple, ‘but why did you not obey the driver Brahman and get out of the path of the elephant Brahman?"” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Inspiration is a slender river of brightness leaping from a vast and eternal knowledge; it exceeds reason more perfectly than reason exceeds the knowledge of the senses.” *The Hour of God
Sri Aurobindo: "I suppose the golden child is the Truth-Soul which follows after the silver light of the spiritual. When it plunges into the black waters of the subconscient, it releases from it the spiritual light and the sevenfold streams of the Divine Energy and, clearing itself of the stains of the subconscient, it prepares its flight towards the supreme Divine (the Mother).” (Reply to a question in the chapter Visions and Symbols.) Letters on Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: "It [falsehood] is created by an Asuric (hostile) power which intervenes in this creation and is not only separated from the Truth and therefore limited in knowledge and open to error, but in revolt against the Truth or in the habit of seizing the Truth only to pervert it. This Power, the dark Asuric Shakti or Rakshasic Maya, puts forward its own perverted consciousness as true knowledge and its wilful distortions or reversals of the Truth as the verity of things. It is the powers and personalities of this perverted and perverting consciousness that we call hostile beings, hostile forces. Whenever these perversions created by them out of the stuff of the Ignorance are put forward as the Truth of things, that is the Falsehood, in the yogic sense, . . . .” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "I used the word ‘mystic" in the sense of a certain kind of inner seeing and feeling of things, a way which to the intellect would seem occult and visionary — for this is something different from imagination and its work with which the intellect is familiar.” *On Himself
Sri Aurobindo: "Lust is the perversion or degradation which prevents love from establishing its reign: . . . .” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Mind is not sufficient to explain existence in the universe. Infinite Consciousness must first translate itself into infinite faculty of Knowledge or, as we call it from our point of view, omniscience.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . obedience is necessary so as to get away from one"s own mind and vital and learn to follow the Truth. . . . Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . our mind has the faculty of imagination; it can create and take as true and real its own mental structures: . . . . Our mental imagination is an instrument of Ignorance; it is the resort or device or refuge of a limited capacity of knowledge, a limited capacity of effective action. Mind supplements these deficiencies by its power of imagination: it uses it to extract from things obvious and visible the things that are not obvious and visible; it undertakes to create its own figures of the possible and the impossible; it erects illusory actuals or draws figures of a conjectured or constructed truth of things that are not true to outer experience. That is at least the appearance of its operation; but, in reality, it is the mind"s way or one of its ways of summoning out of Being its infinite possibilities, even of discovering or capturing the unknown possibilities of the Infinite.” The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "Pity may be reserved, so long as thy soul makes distinctions, for the suffering animals; but humanity deserves from thee something nobler; it asks for love, for understanding, for comradeship, for the help of the equal & brother.” Essays Divine and Human
*Sri Aurobindo: "Pleasure, joy and delight, as man uses the words, are limited and occasional movements which depend on certain habitual causes and emerge, like their opposites pain and grief which are equally limited and occasional movements, from a background other than themselves. Delight of being is universal, illimitable and self-existent, not dependent on particular causes, the background of all backgrounds, from which pleasure, pain and other more neutral experiences emerge. When delight of being seeks to realise itself as delight of becoming, it moves in the movement of force and itself takes different forms of movement of which pleasure and pain are positive and negative currents.” The Life Divine*
::: Sri Aurobindo: "Radha is the personification of the absolute love for the Divine, total and integral in all parts of the being from the highest spiritual to the physical, bringing the absolute self-giving and total consecration of all the being and calling down into the body and the most material nature the supreme Ananda.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: ” See God everywhere and be not frightened by masks. Believe that all falsehood is truth in the making or truth in the breaking, all failure an effectuality concealed, all weakness strength hiding itself from its own vision, all pain a secret & violent ecstasy. If thou believest firmly & unweariedly, in the end thou wilt see & experience the All-true, Almighty & All-blissful.” Essays Divine and Human*
Sri Aurobindo: "The cosmic consciousness is that of the universe, of the cosmic spirit and cosmic Nature with all the beings and forces within it. All that is as much conscious as a whole as the individual separately is, though in a different way. The consciousness of the individual is part of this, but a part feeling itself as a separate being. Yet all the time most of what he is comes into him from the cosmic consciousness. But there is a wall of separative ignorance between. Once it breaks down he becomes aware of the cosmic Self, of the consciousness of the cosmic Nature, of the forces playing in it, etc. He feels all that as he now feels physical things and impacts. He finds it all to be one with his larger or universal self.” *Letters on Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: ". . . the divine Ananda, the principle of Bliss [is that] from which, in the Vedic conception, the existence of Man, this mental being, is drawn. A secret Delight is the base of existence, its sustaining atmosphere and almost its substance. This Ananda is spoken of in the Taittiriya Upanishad as the ethereal atmosphere of bliss without which nothing could remain in being. In the Aitareya Upanishad Soma, as the lunar deity, is born from the sense-mind in the universal Purusha and, when man is produced, expresses himself again as sense-mentality in the human being. For delight is the raison d"être of sensation, or, we may say, sensation is an attempt to translate the secret delight of existence into the terms of physical consciousness.” The Secret of the Veda
*Sri Aurobindo: "The earth is a material field of evolution. Mind and life, supermind, Sachchidananda are in principle involved there in the earth-consciousness; but only Matter is at first organized; then life descends from the life plane and gives shape and organization and activity to the life principle in Matter, creates the plant and animal; then mind descends from the mind plane, creating man. Now supermind is to descend so as to create a supramental race.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "The faith in the divine Shakti must be always at the back of our strength and when she becomes manifest, it must be or grow implicit and complete. There is nothing that is impossible to her who is the conscious Power and universal Goddess all-creative from eternity and armed with the Spirit"s omnipotence.” The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "The Indian explanation of fate is Karma. We ourselves are our own fate through our actions, but the fate created by us binds us; for what we have sown, we must reap in this life or another. Still we are creating our fate for the future even while undergoing old fate from the past in the present. That gives a meaning to our will and action and does not, as European critics wrongly believe, constitute a rigid and sterilising fatalism. But again, our will and action can often annul or modify even the past Karma, it is only certain strong effects, called utkata karma, that are non-modifiable. Here too the achievement of the spiritual consciousness and life is supposed to annul or give the power to annul Karma. For we enter into union with the Will Divine, cosmic or transcendent, which can annul what it had sanctioned for certain conditions, new-create what it had created, the narrow fixed lines disappear, there is a more plastic freedom and wideness. Neither Karma nor Astrology therefore points to a rigid and for ever immutable fate.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "The Master and Mover of our works is the One, the Universal and Supreme, the Eternal and Infinite. He is the transcendent unknown or unknowable Absolute, the unexpressed and unmanifested Ineffable above us; but he is also the Self of all beings, the Master of all worlds, transcending all worlds, the Light and the Guide, the All-Beautiful and All-Blissful, the Beloved and the Lover. He is the Cosmic Spirit and all-creating Energy around us; he is the Immanent within us. All that is is he, and he is the More than all that is, and we ourselves, though we know it not, are being of his being, force of his force, conscious with a consciousness derived from his; even our mortal existence is made out of his substance and there is an immortal within us that is a spark of the Light and Bliss that are for ever. No matter whether by knowledge, works, love or any other means, to become aware of this truth of our being, to realise it, to make it effective here or elsewhere is the object of all Yoga.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The Mother not only governs all from above but she descends into this lesser triple universe. Impersonally, all things here, even the movements of the Ignorance, are herself in veiled power and her creations in diminished substance, her Nature-body and Nature-force, and they exist because, moved by the mysterious fiat of the Supreme to work out something that was there in the possibilities of the Infinite, she has consented to the great sacrifice and has put on like a mask the soul and forms of the Ignorance. But personally too she has stooped to descend here into the Darkness that she may lead it to the Light, into the Falsehood and Error that she may convert it to the Truth, into this Death that she may turn it to godlike Life, into this world-pain and its obstinate sorrow and suffering that she may end it in the transforming ecstasy of her sublime Ananda. In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass though the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother.” The Mother
Sri Aurobindo: "The omniscient is not born, nor dies, nor has he come into being from anywhere, nor is he anyone. He is unborn, he is constant and eternal, he is the Ancient of Days who is not slain in the slaying of the body. . . .” *The Upanishads
Sri Aurobindo: "The quest of man for God, which becomes in the end the most ardent and enthralling of all his quests, begins with his first vague questionings of Nature and a sense of something unseen both in himself and her. Even if, as modern Science insists, religion started from animism, spirit-worship, demon-worship, and the deification of natural forces, these first forms only embody in primitive figures a veiled intuition in the subconscient, an obscure and ignorant feeling of hidden influences and incalculable forces, or a vague sense of being, will, intelligence in what seems to us inconscient, of the invisible behind the visible, of the secretly conscious spirit in things distributing itself in every working of energy. The obscurity and primitive inadequacy of the first perceptions do not detract from the value or the truth of this great quest of the human heart and mind, since all our seekings, — including Science itself, — must start from an obscure and ignorant perception of hidden realities and proceed to the more and more luminous vision of the Truth which at first comes to us masked, draped, veiled by the mists of the Ignorance. Anthropomorphism is an imaged recognition of the truth that man is what he is because God is what He is and that there is one soul and body of things, humanity even in its incompleteness the most complete manifestation yet achieved here and divinity the perfection of what in man is imperfect.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "There is no ignorance that is not part of the Cosmic Ignorance, only in the individual it becomes a limited formation and movement, while the Cosmic Ignorance is the whole movement of world consciousness separated from the supreme Truth and acting in an inferior motion in which the Truth is perverted, diminished, mixed and clouded with falsehood and error.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "The sense of release as if from jail always accompanies the emergence of the psychic being or the realisation of the self above. It is therefore spoken of as a liberation, mukti. It is a release into peace, happiness, the soul"s freedom not tied down by the thousand ties and cares of the outward ignorant existence.” Letters on Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: "The superconscient, not the subconscient, is the true foundation of things. The significance of the lotus is not to be found by analysing the secrets of the mud from which it grows here; its secret is to be found in the heavenly archetype of the lotus that blooms for ever in the Light above.” Letters on Yoga*
Sri Aurobindo: "The true soul secret in us, — subliminal, we have said, but the word is misleading, for this presence is not situated below the threshold of waking mind, but rather burns in the temple of the inmost heart behind the thick screen of an ignorant mind, life and body, not subliminal but behind the veil, — this veiled psychic entity is the flame of the Godhead always alight within us, inextinguishable even by that dense unconsciousness of any spiritual self within which obscures our outward nature. It is a flame born out of the Divine and, luminous inhabitant of the Ignorance, grows in it till it is able to turn it towards the Knowledge. It is the concealed Witness and Control, the hidden Guide, the Daemon of Socrates, the inner light or inner voice of the mystic. It is that which endures and is imperishable in us from birth to birth, untouched by death, decay or corruption, an indestructible spark of the Divine.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The Truth-being is the Hara-Gauri (the biune body of the Lord and his Spouse, Ishwara and Shakti, the right half male, the left half female) of the Indian iconological symbol; it is the double Power masculine-feminine born from and supported by the supreme Shakti of the Supreme.” The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Universal love is the spiritual founded on the sense of the One and the Divine everywhere and the change of the personal into a wide universal consciousness, free from attachment and ignorance.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "What the "void" feels as a clutch is felt by the Mother only as a reminding finger laid on her cheek. It is one advantage of the expression ‘as if" that it leaves the field open for such variation. It is intended to suggest without saying it that behind the sombre void is the face of a mother. The two other ‘as if"s have the same motive and I do not find them jarring upon me. The second is at a sufficient distance from the first and it is not obtrusive enough to prejudice the third which more nearly follows. . . .” Letters on Savitri
*Sri Aurobindo: "When there is some lowering or diminution of the consciousness or some impairing of it at one place or another, the Adversary — or the Censor — who is always on the watch presses with all his might wherever there is a weak point lying covered from your own view, and suddenly a wrong movement leaps up with unexpected force. Become conscious and cast out the possibility of its renewal, that is all that is to be done.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Yet all the time the universal forces are pouring into him without his knowing it. He is aware only of thoughts, feelings, etc., that rise to the surface and these he takes for his own. Really they come from outside in mind waves, vital waves, waves of feeling and sensation, etc., which take particular form in him and rise to the surface after they have got inside. But they do not get into his body at once. He carries about with him an environmental consciousness (called by the Theosophists the Aura) into which they first enter. If you can become conscious of this environmental self of yours, then you can catch the thought, passion, suggestion or force of illness and prevent it from entering into you. If things in you are thrown out, they often do not go altogether but take refuge in this environmental atmosphere and from there they try to get in again. Or they go to a distance outside but linger on the outskirts or even perhaps far off, waiting till they get an opportunity to attempt entrance.” *Letters on Yoga
The Apsaras then are the divine Hetairae of Paradise, beautiful singers and actresses whose beauty and art relieve the arduous and world-long struggle of the Gods against the forces that tend towards disruption by the Titans who would restore Matter to its original atomic condition or of dissolution by the sages and hermits who would make phenomena dissolve prematurely into the One who is above phenomena. They rose from the Ocean, says Valmiki, seeking who should choose them as brides, but neither the Gods nor the Titans accepted them, therefore are they said to be common or universal. The Harmony of Virtue
"The Avatar does not come as a thaumaturgic magician, but as the divine leader of humanity and the exemplar of a divine humanity. Even human sorrow and physical suffering he must assume and use so as to show, first, how that suffering may be a means of redemption, — as did Christ, — secondly, to show how, having been assumed by the divine soul in the human nature, it can also be overcome in the same nature, — as did Buddha. The rationalist who would have cried to Christ, ‘If thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross," or points out sagely that the Avatar was not divine because he died and died too by disease, — as a dog dieth, — knows not what he is saying: for he has missed the root of the whole matter. Even, the Avatar of sorrow and suffering must come before there can be the Avatar of divine joy; the human limitation must be assumed in order to show how it can be overcome; and the way and the extent of the overcoming, whether internal only or external also, depends upon the stage of the human advance; it must not be done by a non-human miracle.” Essays on the Gita
"The call, once decisive, stands; the thing that has been born cannot eventually be stifled. Even if the force of circumstances prevents a regular pursuit or a full practical self-consecration from the first, still the mind has taken its bent and persists and returns with an ever-increasing effect upon its leading preoccupation. There is an ineluctable persistence of the inner being, and against it circumstances are in the end powerless, and no weakness in the nature can for long be an obstacle.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"The centre of vision is between the eyebrows in the centre of the forehead. When it opens one gets the inner vision, sees the inner forms and images of things and people and begins to understand things and people from within and not only from outside, develops a power of will which also acts in the inner (yogic) way on things and people etc. Its opening is often the beginning of the yogic as opposed to the ordinary mental consciousness.” Letters on Yoga
"The colours of the lotuses and the numbers of petals are respectively, from bottom to top: — (1) the Muladhara or physical consciousness centre, four petals, red; (2) the abdominal centre, six petals, deep purple red; (3) the navel centre, ten petals, violet; (4) the heart centre, twelve petals, golden pink; (5) the throat centre, sixteen petals, grey; (6) the forehead centre between the eye-brows, two petals, white; (7) the thousand-petalled lotus above the head, blue with gold light around. The functions are, according to our yoga, — (1) commanding the physical consciousness and the subconscient; (2) commanding the small vital movements, the little greeds, lusts, desires, the small sense-movements; (3) commanding the larger life-forces and the passions and larger desire-movements; (4) commanding the higher emotional being with the psychic deep behind it; (5) commanding expression and all externalisation of the mind movements and mental forces; (6) commanding thought, will, vision; (7) commanding the higher thinking mind and the illumined mind and opening upwards to the intuition and overmind. The seventh is sometimes or by some identified with the brain, but that is an error — the brain is only a channel of communication situated between the thousand-petalled and the forehead centre. The former is sometimes called the void centre, sunya , either because it is not in the body, but in the apparent void above or because rising above the head one enters first into the silence of the self or spiritual being.” Letters on Yoga*
"The cosmic consciousness is that in which the limits of ego, personal mind and body disappear and one becomes aware of a cosmic vastness which is or filled by a cosmic spirit and aware also of the direct play of cosmic forces, universal mind forces, universal life forces, universal energies of Matter, universal overmind forces. But one does not become aware of all these together; the opening of the cosmic consciousness is usually progressive. It is not that the ego, the body, the personal mind disappear, but one feels them as only a small part of oneself. One begins to feel others too as part of oneself or varied repetitions of oneself, the same self modified by Nature in other bodies. Or, at the least, as living in the larger universal self which is henceforth one"s own greater reality. All things in fact begin to change their nature and appearance; one"s whole experience of the world is radically different from that of those who are shut up in their personal selves. One begins to know things by a different kind of experience, more direct, not depending on the external mind and the senses. It is not that the possibility of error disappears, for that cannot be so long as mind of any kind is one"s instrument for transcribing knowledge, but there is a new, vast and deep way of experiencing, seeing, knowing, contacting things; and the confines of knowledge can be rolled back to an almost unmeasurable degree. The thing one has to be on guard against in the cosmic consciousness is the play of a magnified ego, the vaster attacks of the hostile forces — for they too are part of the cosmic consciousness — and the attempt of the cosmic Illusion (Ignorance, Avidya) to prevent the growth of the soul into the cosmic Truth. These are things that one has to learn from experience; mental teaching or explanation is quite insufficient. To enter safely into the cosmic consciousness and to pass safely through it, it is necessary to have a strong central unegoistic sincerity and to have the psychic being, with its divination of truth and unfaltering orientation towards the Divine, already in front in ::: —the nature.” Letters on Yoga*
". . . the cosmic Force, masked as a material Energy, hides from our view by its insistent materiality of process the occult fact that the working of the Inconscient is really the expression of a vast universal Life, a veiled universal Mind, a hooded Gnosis, and without these origins of itself it could have no power of action, no organising coherence.” The Life Divine
the cosmological theory holding that the universe is expanding, based on the interpretation of the color shift in the spectra of all the galaxies as being the result of the Doppler effect and indicating that all galaxies are moving away from one another.
"The Divine is that from which all comes, in which all lives, and to return to the truth of the Divine now clouded over by Ignorance is the soul"s aim in life. In its supreme Truth, the Divine is absolute and infinite peace, consciousness, existence, power and Ananda.” Letters on Yoga
"The Divine is the unborn Eternal who has no origin; there is and can be nothing before him from which he proceeds, because he is one and timeless and absolute.” Essays on the Gita
"The divinisation of the nature of which we speak is a metamorphosis, not a mere growth into some kind of super-humanity, but a change from the falsehood of our ignorant nature into the truth of God-nature.” The Hour of God
::: "The first condition of inner progress is to recognise whatever is or has been a wrong movement in any part of the nature, — wrong idea, wrong feeling, wrong speech, wrong action, — and by wrong is meant what departs from the truth, from the higher consciousness and higher self, from the way of the Divine. Once recognised it is admitted, not glossed over or defended, — and it is offered to the Divine for the Light and Grace to descend and substitute for it the right movement of the true Consciousness.” *Letters on Yoga
``The first step on this free, this equal, this divine way of action is to put from you attachment to fruit and recompense and to labour only for the sake of the work itself that has to be done. For you must deeply feel that the fruits belong not to you but to the Master of the world. Consecrate your labour and leave its returns to the Spirit who manifests and fulfils himself in the universal movement. The outcome of your action is determined by his will alone and whatever it be, good or evil fortune, success or failure, it is turned by him to the accomplishment of his world purpose.” Essays on the Gita*
"The Godhead is one in his transcendence, one all-supporting Self of things, one in the unity of his cosmic nature. These three are one Godhead; all derives from him, all becomes from his being, all is eternal portion or temporal expression of the Eternal.” Essays on the Gita
::: "The Gods, as has already been said, are in origin and essence permanent Emanations of the Divine put forth from the Supreme by the Transcendent Mother, the Adya Shakti; in their cosmic action they are Powers and Personalities of the Divine each with his independent cosmic standing, function and work in the universe. They are not impersonal entities but cosmic Personalities, although they can and do ordinarily veil themselves behind the movement of impersonal forces.” Letters on Yoga
"The gradual self-liberation from bondage to Nature is the true progress of humanity.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"The heart is the centre of the being and commands the rest, as the psychic being or caitya purusa is there. It is only in that sense that all flows from it, for it is the psychic being who each time creates a new mind, vital and body for himself.” *Letters on Yoga
". . . the individual is not a mere cell of the collective existence; he would not cease to exist if separated or expelled from the collective mass.” The Life Divine
"The Infinite creates and is Brahma.” The Renaissance in India ::: "Brahman is not only the cause and supporting power and indwelling principle of the universe, he is also its material and its sole material. Matter also is Brahman and it is nothing other than or different from Brahman.” The Life Divine*
"The message of the Gita is the gospel of the Divinity in man who by force of an increasing union unfolds himself out of the veil of the lower Nature, reveals to the human soul his cosmic spirit, reveals his absolute transcendences, reveals himself in man and in all beings. The potential outcome here of this union, this divine Yoga, man growing towards the Godhead, the Godhead manifest in the human soul and to the inner human vision, is our liberation from limited ego and our elevation to the higher nature of a divine humanity.” Essays on the Gita ::: *Divinity"s.
The Mother: "Immortality is not a goal, it is not even a means. It will proceed naturally from the fact of living the Truth.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15. ::: *Immortality, immortalities, immortality"s.
The Mother (to a young person): "It is very simple, as you will see. 1) The Infinite is the inexhaustible storehouse of forces. The individual is a battery, a storage cell which runs down after use. Consecration is the wire that connects the individual battery to the infinite reserve of forces. Or 2) The Infinite is the river that flows without cease; the individual is the little pond that dries up slowly in the sun. Consecration is the canal that connects the river to the pond and prevents the pond from drying up.” Some Answers from the Mother, MCW *Vol. 16.
::: The Mother (to a young person): "It is very simple, as you will see. 1) The Infinite is the inexhaustible storehouse of forces. The individual is a battery, a storage cell which runs down after use. Consecration is the wire that connects the individual battery to the infinite reserve of forces. Or 2) The Infinite is the river that flows without cease; the individual is the little pond that dries up slowly in the sun. Consecration is the canal that connects the river to the pond and prevents the pond from drying up.” The Mother - Collected Works, Centenary Ed., Vol. 16 - Some Answers from the Mother*
*The Mother: "To conquer the Adversary is not a small thing. One must have a greater power than his to vanquish him. But one can liberate oneself totally from his influence. And from the minute one is completely free from his influence, one"s self-giving can be total. And with the self-giving comes joy, long before the Adversary is truly vanquished and disappears.”
"The Non-Manifestation is not a Non-Existence. Non-Existence is a term created by the mind and has no absolute significance; there is no such thing as an absolute Nihil or Zero. It is agreed even by the philosophies of the Nihil, Tao or Zero (Sunya) that the Non-Existence of which they speak is a Nought in which all is and from which all comes. Tao, Nihil or Zero is not different from the Absolute or the Supreme Brahman of Vedanta; it is only another way of describing or naming it. The Supreme is an Existence beyond what we know of our existence and therefore only it can seem to our mind as a Zero, a Nihil, a Non-Existence.” Essays Divine and Human*
"The one original transcendent Shakti, the Mother stands above all the worlds and bears in her eternal consciousness the Supreme Divine. Alone, she harbours the absolute Power and the ineffable Presence; containing or calling the Truths that have to be manifested, she brings them down from the Mystery in which they were hidden into the light of her infinite consciousness and gives them a form of force in her omnipotent power and her boundless life and a body in the universe.” The Mother
"There are different kinds of knowledge. One is inspiration, i.e. something that comes out of the knowledge planes like a flash and opens up the mind to the Truth in a moment. That is inspiration. It easily takes the form of words as when a poet writes or a speaker speaks, as people say, from inspiration.” Letters on Yoga
::: "The silent mind is a result of yoga; the ordinary mind is never silent. . . . The thinkers and philosophers do not have the silent mind. It is the active mind they have; only, of course, they concentrate, so the common incoherent mentalising stops and the thoughts that rise or enter and shape themselves are coherently restricted to the subject or activity in hand. But that is quite a different matter from the whole mind falling silent.” Letters on Yoga
"The spiritual change is the established descent of the peace, light, knowledge, power, bliss from above, the awareness of the Self and the Divine and of a higher cosmic consciousness and the change of the whole consciousness to that.” Letters on Yoga
"The sunlit path can be followed by those who are able to practise surrender, first a central surrender and afterwards a more complete self-giving in all the parts of the being. If they can achieve and preserve the attitude of the central surrender, if they can rely wholly on the Divine and accept cheerfully whatever comes to them from the Divine, then their path becomes sunlit and may even be straightforward and easy.” Letters on Yoga*
::: "The third step is to know the Divine Being who is at once our supreme transcendent Self, the Cosmic Being, foundation of our universality, and the Divinity within of which our psychic being, the true evolving individual in our nature, is a portion, a spark, a flame growing into the eternal Fire from which it was lit and of which it is the witness ever living within us and the conscious instrument of its light and power and joy and beauty.” *The Life Divine
::: **"This sraddhâ — the English word faith is inadequate to express it — is in reality an influence from the supreme Spirit and its light a message from our supramental being which is calling the lower nature to rise out of its petty present to a great self-becoming and self-exceeding.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"This universal aesthesis of beauty and delight does not ignore or fail to understand the differences and oppositions, the gradations, the harmony and disharmony obvious to the ordinary consciousness; but, first of all, it draws a Rasa from them and with that comes the enjoyment, Bhoga. and the touch or the mass of the Ananda. It sees that all things have their meaning, their value, their deeper or total significance which the mind does not see, for the mind is only concerned with a surface vision, surface contacts and its own surface reactions. When something expresses perfectly what it was meant to express, the completeness brings with it a sense of harmony, a sense of artistic perfection; it gives even to what is discordant a place in a system of cosmic concordances and the discords become part of a vast harmony, and wherever there is harmony, there is a sense of beauty. ” Letters on Savitri*
::: "To be free from all preference and receive joyfully whatever comes from the Divine Will is not possible at first for any human being. What one should have at first is the constant idea that what the Divine wills is always for the best even when the mind does not see how it is so, . . . .” Letters on Yoga*
"To me, for instance, consciousness is the very stuff of existence and I can feel it everywhere enveloping and penetrating the stone as much as man or the animal. A movement, a flow of consciousness is not to me an image but a fact. If I wrote "His anger climbed against me in a stream", it would be to the general reader a mere image, not something that was felt by me in a sensible experience; yet I would only be describing in exact terms what actually happened once, a stream of anger, a sensible and violent current of it rising up from downstairs and rushing upon me as I sat in the veranda of the Guest-House, the truth of it being confirmed afterwards by the confession of the person who had the movement. This is only one instance, but all that is spiritual or psychological in Savitri is of that character. What is to be done under these circumstances? The mystical poet can only describe what he has felt, seen in himself or others or in the world just as he has felt or seen it or experienced through exact vision, close contact or identity and leave it to the general reader to understand or not understand or misunderstand according to his capacity. A new kind of poetry demands a new mentality in the recipient as well as in the writer.” Letters on Savitri
transformed or transitioned from one state, condition, or phase to another.
"Usha is the divine illumination and Dakshina is the discerning knowledge that comes with the dawn and enables the Power in the mind, Indra, to know aright and separate the light from the darkness, the truth from the falsehood, the straight from the crooked, vrinîta vijânan.” The Secret of the Veda*
"We imagine that the soul is in the body, almost a result and derivation from the body; even we so feel it: but it is the body that is in the soul and a result and derivation from the soul.” Essays on the Gita
". . . what is this strongly separative self-experience that we call ego? It is nothing fundamentally real in itself but only a practical constitution of our consciousness devised to centralise the activities of Nature in us. We perceive a formation of mental, physical, vital experience which distinguishes itself from the rest of being, and that is what we think of as ourselves in nature — this individualisation of being in becoming. We then proceed to conceive of ourselves as something which has thus individualised itself and only exists so long as it is individualised, — a temporary or at least a temporal becoming; or else we conceive of ourselves as someone who supports or causes the individualisation, an immortal being perhaps but limited by its individuality. This perception and this conception constitute our ego-sense.” The Life Divine
"When the Peace is established, this higher or Divine Force from above can descend and work in us. It descends usually first into the head and liberates the inner mind centres, then into the heart centre and liberates fully the psychic and emotional being, then into the navel and other vital centres and liberates the inner vital, then into the Muladhara and below and liberates the inner physical being. It works at the same time for perfection as well as liberation; it takes up the whole nature part by part and deals with it, rejecting what has to be rejected, sublimating what has to be sublimated, creating what has to be created. It integrates, harmonises, establishes a new rhythm in the nature. It can bring down too a higher and yet higher force and range of the higher nature until, if that be the aim of the sadhana, it becomes possible to bring down the supramental force and existence. All this is prepared, assisted, farthered by the work of the psychic being in the heart centre; the more it is open, in front, active, the quicker, safer, easier the working of the Force can be. The more love and bhakti and surrender grow in the heart, the more rapid and perfect becomes the evolution of the sadhana. For the descent and transformation imply at the same time an increasing contact and union with the Divine.” Letters on Yoga
"When the Peace is established, this higher or Divine Force from above can descend and work in us. It descends usually first into the head and liberates the inner mind centres, then into the heart centre and liberates fully the psychic and emotional being, then into the navel and other vital centres and liberates the inner vital, then into the Muladhara and below and liberates the inner physical being. It works at the same time for perfection as well as liberation; it takes up the whole nature part by part and deals with it, rejecting what has to be rejected, sublimating what has to be sublimated, creating what has to be created.” Letters on Yoga
"When we see with the inner vision and sense and not with the physical eye a tree or other object, what we become aware of is an infinite one Reality constituting the tree or object, pervading its every atom and molecule, forming them out of itself, building the whole nature, process of becoming, operation of indwelling energy; all of these are itself, are this infinite, this Reality: we see it extending indivisibly and uniting all objects so that none is really separate from it or quite separate from other objects. ‘It stands," says the Gita, ‘undivided in beings and yet as if divided." Thus each object is that Infinite and one in essential being with all other objects that are also forms and names, — powers, numens, — of the Infinite.” The Life Divine
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1 William Wordsworth
1 William Shakespeare
1 William Blake
1 Werner Karl Heisenberg (1901-1976)
1 Werner Heisenberg
1 V.S. Apte (1965)
1 Voltaire
1 Ven. Bernardo Maria Clausi (1787-1849)
1 Ven. Barthalomew Holzhauser (1613-1658)
1 Vasishtha
1 Ursula K. Le Guin
1 Ursula K Le Guin
1 Upanishads
1 Upanishad
1 "Upaninshads
1 Umar b. Al-Khaṭṭāb
1 U G Krishnamurti
1 Udanavagga
1 Tsongkhapa
1 Tom Robbins
1 to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances
1 Thucydides
1 "Thrice Greatest Hermes"
1 Thomas Keating
1 The Mother
1 The Mahasiddha Shantideva
1 The Lord to St. Margaret of Cortona (1247-1297)
1 The Epistle of Barnabas
1 The Buddha
1 Tertullian of Carthage
1 Tertullian
1 Teresa of Avila
1 Terence James Stannus Gray
1 Tao Te Ching
1 Talmud
1 Taigu Ryokan
1 Sylvia Plath
1 SWAMI VIRESWARANANDA
1 SWAMI TRIGUNATITANANDA.
1 SWAMI TRIGUNATITANANDA
1 Swami Rama
1 SWAMI PREMANANDA
1 Swami Chinmayananda
1 Swami Brahmananda
1 SWAMI BRAHMANANDA
1 Swami Akhandananda
1 Susan Sontag
1 Sufi saying
1 Sufi Proverb
1 St. Luke
1 Steve Pavlina
1 Stanislav Grof
1 Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
1 "Sri Isopanishad
1 Sri Gawn Tu Fahr
1 SRI CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU
1 Sri Bhagavan
1 SRI ANANDAMAYI MA
1 Socrates
1 Shing Xiang
1 Shiki
1 Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi
1 Shaykh Mehmet Adil al-Haqqani Al-Naqshabandi
1 Shaykh Ahmad al Zarruq]
1 Shaykh Abu Bakr Shibli
1 Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani
1 Shaqeeq Balkhi]
1 Shantideva
1 Shabistari
1 Sergius Bulgakov
1 Seng-Ts'an
1 Sengcan
1 Seneca: De Providentia
1 Schopenhauer
1 Schelling
1 SATM?
1 Sathya Sai Baba
1 Sankhya Pravachana
1 Sangiti Sutta
1 Sa-myutta Nikaya
1 Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1 Samuel Butler
1 Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyeltsen
1 Saint Xanthias
1 Saint Teresia Benedicta a Cruce OCD
1 Saint Teresa of Jesus
1 Saint Teresa of Avila
1 Saint Pio of Pietrelcina
1 Saint Peter Julian Eymard
1 Saint Padre Pio
1 Saint Optatus
1 Saint Monica
1 Saint Methodius
1 Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi
1 Saint Luke
1 Saint Justin Martyr
1 Saint Juliana of Norwich
1 Saint John Vianney
1 Saint John of Damascus
1 Saint Jerome
1 Saint Irenaeus of Lyons
1 Saint Irenaeus
1 Saint Gregory of Nazianzen
1 Saint Gianna Molla
1 Saint Francis of Assisi
1 Saint Ephrem of Syria
1 Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity
1 Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
1 Saint Columbcille
1 Saint Clement of Rome
1 Saint Clement of Alexandria
1 Saint Caesarius of Arles
1 Saint Bridget of Sweden
1 Saint Bonaventure
1 Saint Bernardine of Siena
1 Saint Benedict of Nursia
1 Saint Augustine
1 Saint Augstine
1 Saint Athanasius
1 Saint Arnold Janssen
1 Saint Apollinaris
1 Saint Anselm
1 Saint Ambrose On the Death of Satyrus
1 Saiko
1 Saadi
1 Ruzbihan Baqli
1 Rurkthist Text
1 Romans 8:11).
1 Romans 6:6-7
1 Romans 6:3-5
1 Robert Sokolowski
1 Robert Burton
1 Robert Anton Wilson
1 Rilke
1 Rig Veda
1 Richard Branson
1 Revelations XIV. 13
1 Revelation 8:10
1 Revelation 7:9-10
1 Revelation 6:4
1 Revelation 16:3
1 Revelation 1:5
1 Rene Descartes
1 R.Collin
1 Ramesh Balsekar
1 Ram Dass
1 Ramakrishnan
1 Rajneesh
1 Rabia Al Basra
1 Rabbi Moshe
1 Quran 2:127
1 Quodvultdeus
1 qul ya ayyuha 'n-nasu qad ja'a-kumu 'l-haqqu min Rabbi-kum
1 Quintus Ennius
1 Pythagoras
1 Pseudo-Dyonisius
1 Pseudo-Dionysius
1 Psalms XXXVII. 27
1 Psalms XXXIV. 13
1 Psalms CXXI.1
1 Psalms
1 Proverbs XXIII. 4-5
1 Proverbs XV 24
1 Proverbs IV 24
1 Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him)
1 Proclus
1 Pope St. Gregory the Great
1 Pope John Paul II
1 Phoenix Desmond
1 Philip K Dick
1 Philip Arnold
1 Peter Ouspensky
1 Patti Smith
1 Patrul Rinpoche
1 patiendo)
1 Patanjali : Aphroisms III. 38
1 Paschasius of Dumium
1 Paramahansa Yogananda
1 Pali Canonymous
1 Pablo Neruda
1 Our Lady to priest Raymond Arnette (in May of 1994)
1 Our Lady of La Salette
1 Origen
1 only to emerge all the more powerfully
1 Og Mandino
1 O Allah I ask You for guidance
1 Novalis
1 Note that Ezekiel
1 not because of exploratory or romantic zeal
1 Noel McInnis
1 Nicolas of Cusa
1 Nico Lang
1 Niccolo Machiavelli
1 Nanuo Sakaki
1 Mouni Sadhu
1 MOTHER MIRA
1 Montaigne
1 Mohyddin-ibn-Arabi
1 Mohadesa Najumi . see: http://bit.ly/2wWb6jH
1 Mohadesa Najumi
1 M J Ryan
1 Mitsu Suzuki
1 Minokhired
1 Milan Kundera
1 Maya Angelou
1 Matsuo basho. 1644-1694. Narrow road to the interior
1 Matsuo Basho
1 Masaaki Hatsumi
1 Mary Midgley
1 Marshall Glickman
1 Mark Twain
1 Mark 2:19-20
1 Margaret Atwood
1 Manly P Hall (Resurrection 1964
1 Manly P. Hall (Horizon August 1941 p. 4)
1 Manly P Hall
1 Majjhima Sntta
1 Maimonides
1 Mahmoud Shabestari
1 Mahavagga
1 Mahatma Gandhi
1 Mahamangala Sutta
1 Louis Pasteur
1 Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin
1 Lodro Rinzler
1 Li Bai
1 Lewis Mumford
1 Lewis Carroll
1 Letter to Diognetus
1 Leo Tolstoy
1 Leonard Nimoy
1 Lebrun
1 Laws of Mann
1 Laura Thalassa
1 Lao Tzu
1 Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
1 Koran
1 Kodo Sawaki
1 Kobe Bryant
1 Kin-yuan-li-sao
1 Keith Loy
1 Kaula Tantric Saying. Kaula Hinduism
1 Katha Upanishad II.24
1 Katerina Stoykova-Klemer
1 Karen Lamb
1 Kant
1 Justin Martyr
1 J. Tauter
1 Jorge Luis Borge
1 Jordan Peterson
1 Jon Kabat-Zinn
1 Jonathan Safran Foer
1 Joko Beck
1 John Scottus Eriugena
1 John Maynard Keynes
1 John III. 13
1 John Henry Newman
1 John D. Morgan. From "Death and Spirituality
1 John Damascene
1 John C. Maxwell
1 John Cleese
1 John
1 Joanne Carriatore
1 Jigme Lingpa
1 Jiddu Krishnamurti
1 Jeremiah XVIII. II
1 Jean Gebser
1 James Joyce
1 James Allison
1 Jalalu'l-Din Rumi
1 Jac O'Keeffe
1 Jack Kerouac
1 Jack Gardner
1 is the manifestation of a Divine Ground within which all partial realities have their being
1 "Isha Upanishad" one of the shortest Upanishads
1 Inca Texts
1 Inayat Khan
1 Imitation of Christ
1 Imam Ghazali رحمة الله عليه
1 Iio Sogi 1421-1502
1 II Corinthians VII. I
1 Ibn Khafif
1 Hymns of Guru Nanak
1 Huang Po
1 H P Lovecraft
1 Hippolytus of Rome
1 Hindu Wisdom
1 "Hermes Trismegistus
1 Hermes: On Rebirth
1 Heraclitus
1 Helwa
1 Hazrat Inayat Khan
1 Ḥasan al-Baṣrī
1 Han-Shan
1 Guru Angad
1 Gulschen Raz
1 Gregory of Nazianzen
1 G K Chesterton
1 Giordano Bruno
1 GG
1 Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
1 Gerald Jampolsky
1 Gerald G. Jampolsky M.D. Author of "Forgiveness: The Greatest Healer of All
1 Georg von Welling
1 George Orwell
1 George Gurdjieff
1 George Foreman
1 George Carlin
1 George Bernanos
1 Gary R. Renard
1 Fyodor Dostoevsky
1 Fulgentius of Ruspe
1 From "The Shveteshvatara Upanishad
1 From the "Atmabodha
1 From the "Ashtavakra Gita."
1 From "Sacred Laughter of the Sufis
1 From "One Minute Wisdom
1 From "Before I Am
1 Friedrich Von Hugel
1 Frederick Dodson
1 Franz Kafka
1 François de La Rochefoucauld
1 Francis Thompson
1 Fo-tho-hing-tsang-king
1 Fo-shu-hing-tsau-king
1 Fenelon
1 Far Eastern Saying. From: "The Essential Rene Guenon: Metaphysics
1 Fa-khe-pi-
1 Ezekiel XXXIII
1 Esdras IV. 8. 33
1 Eric Hoffer
1 Erasmus
1 Epictetus
1 Emily Dickinson
1 Emerson
1 Emanuel Swedenborg
1 Ella Fitzgerald
1 Elizabeth Kubler Ross
1 Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
1 Edgar Allan Poe
1 Eckhart Tolle
1 Dr Tahir al Qadri
1 Dr. Seuss
1 Donna Quesada
1 Dōgen Zenji
1 Dionysius the Areopagite
1 Diogenes
1 Didache of the Twelve Apostles
1 Dhammapada 243
1 Den Sutejo 1633-1698
1 Demophilus
1 Democritus
1 David Viscott
1 David L Schindler
1 Dante Alighieri
1 Dainin Katagiri Roshi
1 Cyril of Jerusalem
1 Confucius "Ta-hio" I
1 Confucius: Lia yu II XV. 20
1 Clement I to the Corinthians
1 Claudio Naranjo
1 C K Chesterton
1 Cicero
1 Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche
1 Chinese Proverb
1 Buddhist scriptures from the Chinese
1 Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese
1 Buddhist Mediations from the Japanese
1 Buddhist Maxims
1 Bruce Lee
1 Brother Lawrence
1 Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III. 8. 10
1 Boethius
1 Black Elk
1 Binavali
1 Bhartrihari
1 Bharon Guru
1 Bhagavad Gita. II- 50
1 Bhagavad Gita. 18.11
1 Bertrand Russell
1 Beethoven
1 Basil the Great
1 Basil of Caesarea
1 Bankei
1 Balla-ullah
1 Baha-ullah: The Seven Valleys
1 Baha-ullah : The Seven Valleys
1 Bahá'u'lláh
1 Awaghosha
1 atapatha Brahmana
1 Ashta-sahasrika
1 Ashley Vance?
1 Asanga
1 Arthur Koestler
1 Antoine the Healer: "Revelations"
1 Antoine the Healer
1 Anthony De Mello. 'One Minute Wisdom'
1 Anon. From Exodus 2:22
1 Anita Lucia Roddick
1 Anilbaran Roy
1 Angolua Siloaius
1 Angelius Silesius I. 299
1 Anaxagoras
1 Amma
1 Amelia Earhart
1 Al-Kalabadhi
1 Al-Hallaj
1 al-Habib Ahmad b. Hasan al-Attas
1 Alfred Korzybski
1 Aldous Huxley
1 Alberto Villoldo
1 Albert Camus
1 Nichiren
1 Lao Tzu
1 Kabir
1 Jorge Luis Borges
1 Ibn Arabi
1 Chuang Tzu
1 Aristotle
1 Aristophanes
1 Adyashanti
1 A. C. Ping
1 Abu Sa'id Abu'l-Khayr
1 Abu Bakr Shibli
1 Abraham Lincoln
1 Aberjhani
1 Abd Allāh ibn Asʻad al-Yafi'i
1 4: 7
1 2 Peter 2:9
1 2nd century sermon
1 1 John 2:18-19
1 1 John 1:7)
1 17th Karmapa
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
42 Anonymous
21 Rumi
19 Erich Fromm
9 John Milton
9 J K Rowling
8 Homer
7 Ovid
7 Horace
6 T S Eliot
6 Stephen King
6 Paulo Coelho
6 Laozi
6 Lao Tzu
6 John Green
6 Anthony Doerr
5 William Shakespeare
5 Toba Beta
5 Oscar Wilde
5 Lucretius
5 Jim Butcher
1:Nothing is far from God. ~ Saint Monica, #KEYS
2:I run from You, to You ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #KEYS
3:Never stray from the Way. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
4:All greatness comes from suffering." ~ Naval Ravikant, #KEYS
5:I light my candle from their torches. ~ Robert Burton, #KEYS
6:whom others can't split from you.- Hiri Sutta ~ Buddha, #KEYS
7:copying poetry
from the past
an old diary ~ Buson#KEYS
8:All comes from desiring myself to be happy." ~ Shantideva, #KEYS
9:All I have learned, I learned from books. ~ Abraham Lincoln #KEYS
10:Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
~ Buddha,#KEYS
11:The only real laughter comes from despair.
~ Groucho Marx,#KEYS
12:From one thing, know ten thousand things. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
13:Lead me from death to immortality. ~ Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, #KEYS
14:Never depart from the way of martial arts. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
15:May God protect me from gloomy saints. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #KEYS
16:There is an advantage in the wisdom won from pain. ~ Aeschylus, #KEYS
17:If you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost. ~ Zig Ziglar, #KEYS
18:A year from now you may wish you had started today. ~ Karen Lamb, #KEYS
19:How can Syama stay away? . . ~ SONG from GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, #KEYS
20:The blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin ~ 1 John 1:7), #KEYS
21:a flower from
the winter rain
has blossomed ~ Matsuo Basho,#KEYS
22:From now on you must strive to cut out unnecessary ~ Masaaki Hatsumi, #KEYS
23:It is time now for us to rise from sleep. ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #KEYS
24:Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday." ~ John Wayne, #KEYS
25:I return from flames of fire; tried and pure and white. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
26:It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
27:Take me from everything that takes me away from You. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
28:To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides. ~ David Viscott, #KEYS
29:Anyone able to set aside power is liberated from impotence. ~ Jean Gebser, #KEYS
30:New year's cards from friends colored patterns of my life. ~ Mitsu Suzuki, #KEYS
31:Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place. ~ Zora Neale Hurston, #KEYS
32:May Allah steal from you All that steals you from Him. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
33:Peace of mind comes from not wanting to change others." ~ Gerald Jampolsky, #KEYS
34:To me He is the anguish of my heart. ~ SONG from GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, #KEYS
35:Unless we agree to suffer we cannot be free from suffering." ~ D.T. Suzuki, #KEYS
36:We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #KEYS
37:Man has become disconnected from his faith in perceptions. ~ Claudio Naranjo, #KEYS
38:If you expect nothing from anybody, you're never disappointed. ~ Sylvia Plath, #KEYS
39:Thou hast created me not from necessity but from grace. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #KEYS
40:Keep squeezing drops of the sun from your prayers. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
41:Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
42:Guard the threshold and prevent troops of fantasies from entering.
~ Petrarch,#KEYS
43:He whose wisdom cannot help him, gets no good from being wise. ~ Quintus Ennius, #KEYS
44:If one has faith one has nothing to fear. ~ SONG from GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, #KEYS
45:Live in My Deepest Hell and from There I cannot Fall Any Further.
~ Carl Jung,#KEYS
46:He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left." ~ Chinese Proverb, #KEYS
47:How can you hide from what never goes away? ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
48:Go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows. ~ Rilke, #KEYS
49:Whatever you do to find your Self will take your attention from it. ~ Jac O'Keeffe, #KEYS
50:Freeing oneself from words is liberation.
~ Bodhidharma,#KEYS
51:The golden rule is, to help those we love to escape from us." ~ Friedrich Von Hugel, #KEYS
52:What is evil? Whatever springs from weakness. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist, #KEYS
53:then you are grateful for everything." ~ From "Before I Am,", (2nd ed. 2017), Mooji., #KEYS
54:It isn't where you came from; it's where you're going that counts." ~ Ella Fitzgerald, #KEYS
55:Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's beautiful. ~ Milan Kundera, #KEYS
56:It is in the nature of things that joy arises in a person free from remorse.
~ Buddha,#KEYS
57:Little science takes you away from God but more of it takes you to Him. ~ Louis Pasteur, #KEYS
58:Do not view mountains from the scale of human thought. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
59:Dostoevsky,the only psychologist from whom I've anything to learn. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
60:Pride alienates man from heaven, humility unites us to heaven. ~ Saint Bridget of Sweden, #KEYS
61:How can I study from below, that which is above? ~ Aristophanes, #KEYS
62:If someone claims to have free will, ask them, free from precisely what? ~ Peter J Carroll, #KEYS
63:I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
64:I threw my cup away when I saw a child drinking from his hands at the trough.
~ Diogenes,#KEYS
65:Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again." ~ Richard Branson, #KEYS
66:Let nothing hinder thee from praying always ... ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Ecclesiastes, 18:22, #KEYS
67:Life in this world just like a temporary shelter from a winter shower. ~ Iio Sogi 1421-1502, #KEYS
68:Strive for the truth so that out from your soul a sun may rise. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
69:The poor have much to teach you. You have much to learn from them." ~ Saint Vincent de Paul, #KEYS
70:Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
71:The Self is free from all qualities. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
72:To the blue lotus flower of Mother Syama's feet. . . . ~ SONG from GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, #KEYS
73:Deliver us, O Allah, from the Sea of Names. ~ Ibn Arabi, [T5], #KEYS
74:Making sure we know that autumn is here, a leaf from the empress tree. ~ Den Sutejo 1633-1698, #KEYS
75:Do not be afraid; our fate Cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.
~ Dante Alighieri, Inferno,#KEYS
76:The real meaning of detachment is to be separated inwardly from what is unreal. ~ Al-Kalabadhi, #KEYS
77:You must accept the truth from whatever source it comes. ~ Maimonides, #KEYS
78:Descending from the head to the Heart is the beginning of spiritual life. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
79:If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. ~ Carl Sagan, #KEYS
80:They call it 'peace of mind' but maybe it should be called 'peace from mind.'" ~ Naval Ravikant, #KEYS
81:And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 1:16, #KEYS
82:I do not die, I go forth from Time. ~ Lebrun, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
83:What is there apart from one's own Self? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
84:All beings are from all eternity. ~ Awaghosha, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
85:From now on I'll be mad. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
86:Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds... ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
87:I wish my life had a reset button." ~ Douglas King, quote from "poems in a minor chord,", (2017)., #KEYS
88:Make a new beginning from today, assisted by the hand of God. ~ Philokalia, Barsanuphius and John, #KEYS
89:Success comes from curiosity, concentration, perseverance and self criticism.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
90:The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it. ~ George Orwell, #KEYS
91:Turn ye from your evil ways. ~ Ezekiel XXXIII, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
92:When one first seeks the truth, one separates oneself from it." ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
93:Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb." ~ Revelation 7:9-10, #KEYS
94:Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
95:All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.
~ Blaise Pascal, [T5],#KEYS
96:you can't extort from her with levers and with screws. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust I.672-75, #KEYS
97:Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.
~ Blaise Pascal,#KEYS
98:He who receives Light from above, from the fountain of light, No other doctrine needs. ~ John Milton, #KEYS
99:Knowledge does not come to us by details, but in flashes of light from heaven. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #KEYS
100:The older I get, the more it looks like Plato was onto something.… ~ Jan Zwicky, A Ship from Delos, #KEYS
101:Therefore benefit comes from what is there; Usefulness from what is not there. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.11, #KEYS
102:We are born from a quiet sleep and we die to a calm awakening. ~ Chuang Tzu, #KEYS
103:There is no other philosophical enquiry apart from metaphysics. ~ Simone Weil, Lectures on Philosophy, #KEYS
104:the surface" ~ Douglas King, from his book "poems in a minor cord: including strange,", (2017) p. 170, #KEYS
105:One must erase the word discouragement from one's dictionary of love. ~ Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, #KEYS
106:The more you talk and think about it,
the further astray you wander from the truth. ~ Seng-Ts'an,#KEYS
107:All you have issued the one from the other. ~ Koran, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
108:Little children, keep yourselves from idols. ~ John, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
109:The milk of Divine Love stems to us from God incarnate. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
110:When you tell a lie often enough, you become unable to distinguish it from the truth. ~ Jordan Peterson, #KEYS
111:How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. ~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden #KEYS
112:Man's salvation is from grace ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.19.4ad3)., #KEYS
113:You never receive blessings just from asking. Blessings come when you have got devotion. ~ Guru Rinpoche, #KEYS
114:A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.
~ Bruce Lee,#KEYS
115:He who can accept God as his own, does not suffer so intensely from worldly sorrows. ~ SWAMI SUBODHANANDA, #KEYS
116:Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it. ~ Kahlil Gibran, #KEYS
117:and waters them with self-doubt." ~ Ma Jaya, (1940-2012), Wikipedia. From "The 11 Karmic Spaces,", (2012)., #KEYS
118:I never give answers. I lead on from one question to another. That is my leadership. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #KEYS
119:So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Romans, 10:17, #KEYS
120:There is no such thing as mind apart from thought. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
121:You have seen the imagination in its very unreality, and you have returned from it to reality. ~ Al-Hallaj, #KEYS
122:You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer, #KEYS
123:You will never be free until you free yourself from the prison of your own false thoughts." ~ Philip Arnold, #KEYS
124:Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
125:A soul that is bound, takes a path that leads away from God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
126:From Brahma to a blade of grass all things are my Gurus." ~ Kaula Tantric Saying. Kaula Hinduism, Wikipedia., #KEYS
127:I know from experience that you should never give up on yourself or others, no matter what." ~ George Foreman, #KEYS
128:Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." ~ Blaise Pascal, #KEYS
129:Most people who fail in their dream fail not from lack of ability, but from lack of commitment." ~ Zig Ziglar, #KEYS
130:Repentance of liars is mere lip service, for the true repentance liberates one from sins. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
131:The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself
~ Albert Camus,#KEYS
132:Work done with joy is work done well. ~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother, S5, #KEYS
133:All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. ~ Blaise Pascal, Pensées, #KEYS
134:In the beginning all this was Non-being. From it Being appeared. Itself created itself. ~ Taittiriya Upanishad, #KEYS
135:The Heart is the center from which everything springs. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
136:The best thing must be to flee from all to the All. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #KEYS
137:There is no happiness apart from rectitude. ~ Buddhist Text, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
138:We are our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves. ~ Tom Robbins, #KEYS
139:Within the armor is the butterfly and within the butterfly - is the signal from another star.
~ Philip K Dick,#KEYS
140:Anger, ego, jealousy are the biggest diseases. Keep yourself aloof from these three diseases." ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #KEYS
141:Blessed be the key that turned in my heart and let loose my soul and freed it from so heavy a chain." ~ Petrarch, #KEYS
142:If we remove from our minds all the rubbish, all the thoughts, peace will become manifest. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
143:Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain,
but at the peak we all gaze at the single bright moon. ~ Ikkyu,#KEYS
144:Study, that is the best way to understand.
~ The Mother, More Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
145:The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #KEYS
146:Good will for all and good will from all is the basis of peace and harmony. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
147:Love all; trust a few, Do wrong to none." ~ William Shakespeare, quote from "All's Well That Ends Well,", (1605)., #KEYS
148:Run my dear,
From anything
That may not strengthen
Your precious budding wings. ~ Hafiz,#KEYS
149:Sri Ramakrishna was a perfect soul. Certainly one can be free from sin by confessing it to Him. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
150:Even as men come to Me, so I accept them. It is my path that men follow from all sides,
~ Bhagavad Gita, (IV.11),#KEYS
151:I climb the road that never ends. Who can break from the snares of the world and join me in the clouds? ~ Han-Shan, #KEYS
152:Your soul is waiting to be remembered." ~ Ma Jaya, (1940 - 2012), Wikipedia. From "The 11 Karmic Spaces,", (2012)., #KEYS
153:A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.
~ ?, Gall's Law,#KEYS
154:I believe the Spirit to proceed from no other source than from the Father through the Son. ~ Tertullian of Carthage, #KEYS
155:Weep for God, and the tears will wash away the dirt from your mind. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
156:Be as free from vanity as the dead leaf carried on by the high wind. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
157:Flying from work is never the way to find peace. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. IV. 130), #KEYS
158:From the very beginning of his education, the child should experience the joy of discovery. ~ Alfred North Whitehead #KEYS
159:He governs his soul and expects nothing from others. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
160:The inner self is as distinct from the outer self as heaven is from earth.
~ Emanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven,#KEYS
161:As Aurobindo and Teilhard de Chardin knew, the future of humankind is God-consciousness.
~ Ken Wilber, Up From Eden,#KEYS
162:Lead me from the unreal to the real! Lead me from darkness to light! Lead me from death to immortality!" ~ Upanishads, #KEYS
163:Don't expect anything from anyone! Learn to be the giver! Otherwise you will become self-centered. ~ Swami Turiyananda, #KEYS
164:Basil of Caesarea ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (from the Catena Aurea Gospel of St. Luke), #KEYS
165:Grace rushes forth, spouting as from a spring, from within you. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
166:If the fruits of actions do not affect the person he [she] is free from action. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi #KEYS
167:Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again: for forgiveness has risen from the grave!" ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
168:I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Matthew, 13:35, #KEYS
169:Knowing what wisdom is, Is the hardest piece of wisdom To acquire." ~ Jack Gardner, from "Words Are Not Things,", (2005), #KEYS
170:Who is free from bondage in the world beyond? As soon as the angels were created, they began to serve. ~ Basil the Great, #KEYS
171:You, Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Lamentations, 5:19,#KEYS
172:One must receive the Truth from wheresoever it may come. ~ Maimonides, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
173:When the velocity of progress increases beyond a certain point, it becomes indistinguishable from crisis. ~ Owen Barfield, #KEYS
174:When you see yourself as a witness, separate from ego, then no person or situation can shake you." ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #KEYS
175:Evil is non-being, the good is being, since it has come into being from the existing God. ~ Athanasius, On the Incarnation, #KEYS
176:I regret many follies which sprang from my obstinacy; but without that trait I would not have reached my goal. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
177:Someday perhaps the inner light will shine forth from us, and then we'll need no other light. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
178:When the aspirant thinks only of Brahman and remains calm and free from sorrows his egoity dies of itself. ~ Yoga Vasistha, #KEYS
179:One cannot desire freedom from the Cross when one is especially chosen for the Cross. ~ Saint Teresia Benedicta a Cruce OCD, #KEYS
180:Patience from a Buddhist perspective is not a "wait and see" attitude, but rather one of 'just be there.' " ~ Lodro Rinzler, #KEYS
181:Take away everything that takes me away from You." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
182:The essential principles of things are hidden from us.... ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Aristotle's De Anima 1.1.15, #KEYS
183:we
suffer
from being
~ Ogawa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
184:are freed from time, you're free from changing too. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
185:Depart from evil and do good and dwell for evermore. ~ Psalms XXXVII. 27, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
186:Each reaction which arises from us causes a delay in attaining the goal. Whereas acceptance will cause Grace to flow. ~ Amma, #KEYS
187:Intelligence divorced from virtue is no longer intelligence ~ Minokhired, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
188:That which is produced with intention has passed over from non-existence to existence. ~ Maimonides, #KEYS
189:Everyone in this world suffers from his own karma. Such is the universal law. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
190:If thoughts come, what should I do?
Dismiss them.
~ The Mother, More Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
191:If you find me not within you, you will never find me. For, I have been with you, from the beginning of me. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
192:That which comes from satan begins with calmness and ends in storm, indifference and apathy. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
193:To love the Divine is to be loved by Him. 2 November 1932 ~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother, #KEYS
194:a fragrance
from the past
almost forgotten
~ Buson, @BashoSociety#KEYS
195:First Bhakti, then work. Work, apart from Bhakti is helpless and cannot stand. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
196:Seeking everywhere the way goes nowhere; Seeking nowhere the way is everywhere." ~ Saul Ader, "Gifts From Stillness,", (2001)., #KEYS
197:The Self is pure consciousness. No one can ever be away from the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
198:To remain free from thoughts is the best offering one can make to God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
199:Understanding arises from memory, as act from habit ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.79.7ad3)., #KEYS
200:Why analyze and see the evil? Move toward the Lord! Through His grace you will be freed from all passions. ~ Swami Turiyananda, #KEYS
201:First Bhakti, then work. Work, apart from Bhakti, is helpless and cannot stand. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
202:If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars." ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #KEYS
203:Let this light from within and without illuminate our inner vision and guide us through darkness in time of chaos. ~ Inca Texts, #KEYS
204:Life ran to gaze from every gate of sense: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Satyavan, #KEYS
205:One gains the purest joy from spirited things only when they are not tied in with earning one's livelihood.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
206:The descent to Hades is the same from every place. ~ Anaxagoras, Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Anaxagoras, 2 #KEYS
207:All quarrels proceed from egoism. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Problems in Human Relations, #KEYS
208:A single ego is an absurdly narrow vantage point from which to view the world. ~ Aleister Crowley, #KEYS
209:Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God's kingdom. ~ Leo the Great, #KEYS
210:God plays invisible in the heart of man, being screened by Maya from human view. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
211:How do you expect me to help you if you have no Trust in me! ~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother, #KEYS
212:Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak. ~ G K Chesterton, [T5], #KEYS
213:One of the great undiscovered joys of life comes from doing everything one attempts to the best of one's ability.
~ Og Mandino,#KEYS
214::The peace you are looking for, you already 'are'. Be still and know this." ~ Mooji, From "Before I Am,", (2nd ed. 2017), Mooji., #KEYS
215:The treasure of joy is closer to you than you are to yourself-so why should you go searching from door to door?
~ Sufi Proverb,#KEYS
216:When the mind is free from attachment to sense objects, it goes straight to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
217:You ought to make every effort to free yourselves even from venial sin, and to do what is most perfect. ~ Saint Teresa of Ávila, #KEYS
218:Forget everything you have learned from people. Be whatever you learned from God. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
219:Know the true definition of yourself. That is essential. Then, when you know your own definition, flee from it. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
220:Thinking that happiness comes from some object or other, you go after it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
221:It is from unsatisfied desire that all suffering arises. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Desire, #KEYS
222:Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. ~ Psalms XXXIV. 13, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
223:Mind is born from that which is beyond mind. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Vijnana or Gnosis, #KEYS
224:O God! Can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
~ Edgar Allan Poe,#KEYS
225:The Master replied, If you never condemned you would never need to forgive." ~ Anthony de Mello, from "One Minute Wisdom,", (1985), #KEYS
226:The sage increases his wisdom by all that he can gather from others. ~ Fenelon, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
227:To escape from the world means that one's mind is not concerned with the opinions of the world." ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
228:Where ignorance shat, violence and horror fed the beasts of chaos." ~ Aberjhani, quote from "The River of Winged Dreams.", (2005)., #KEYS
229: Deliver thyself from the inconstancy of human things. ~ Seneca: De Providentia, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
230:Discontentment, unhappiness, uneasiness … is the starting point for spiritual seekers of all stripes." ~ Marshall Glickman, from , #KEYS
231:rain dripping
from the roof
sound of loneliness
~ Ikkyu, @BashoSociety#KEYS
232:Sadly I part from you; like a clam torn from its shell I go, and autumn too. ~ Matsuo basho. 1644-1694. Narrow road to the interior, #KEYS
233:They rest from their labours and their works follow them. ~ Revelations XIV. 13, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
234:to interpret every manifestation of existence as a direct message from the infinite Chaos to himself personally
~ Peter J Carroll,#KEYS
235:Want what you have, and then you can have what you want." ~ Frederick Dodson, from his book, " Parallel Universes of Self,", (2017), #KEYS
236:We should not be upset that others hide the truth from us, when we hide it so often from ourselves. ~ François de La Rochefoucauld, #KEYS
237:Awake from dream, the truth is known: awake from waking. The truth is: The Unknown ~ Aleister Crowley, #KEYS
238:Descending from the head to the Heart is the beginning of spiritual sadhana. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
239:Devotion is the secret key, for God cannot resist the outpourings of great love from a true devotee's heart. ~ PARAMAHAMSA YOGANANDA, #KEYS
240:fallen leaves flying
from everywhere
late autumn
~ Shiki, @BashoSociety#KEYS
241:God, carrying out God's thoughts." ~ Robert Heinlein, (1907 - 1988) American s-f author. From "Stranger in a Strange Land,", (1987)., #KEYS
242:God's glance embraces from eternity the whole course of time ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.86.4)., #KEYS
243:If you want to see God, you must first put away the film of Maya from off your eyes. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
244:I've written this to keep from crying. But I am crying, only the tears won't come. ~ Aleister Crowley, #KEYS
245:Happiness stems from your relationship with Allah ~ Shaykh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
246:Zen in its essence is the art of seeing into the nature of one's being, and it points the way from bondage to freedom." ~ D.T. Suzuki, #KEYS
247:From gluttony are propagated foolish mirth, scurrility, uncleanness, babbling, dullness of sense in understanding. ~ Gregory the Great, #KEYS
248:From God's effects it can be demonstrated that there is a God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.2.2ad3), #KEYS
249:From the moment I picked up your book until I put it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it. ~ Groucho Marx, #KEYS
250:Let your one delight and refreshment be to pass from one service to the community to another, with God ever in mind. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
251:Lighthing a candle
from another candle
spring sunset
~ Buson, @BashoSociety#KEYS
252:Only after the last judgment will Mary get any rest; from now until then, she is much too busy with her children. ~ Saint John Vianney, #KEYS
253:The instant does not have time; and time is made from the movement of the instant. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #KEYS
254:The man who flees from all worldly pleasures is an impregnable tower before the assaults of the demon of sadness. ~ Evagrius of Pontus, #KEYS
255:To remain free from thoughts is the best offering one can make to God.
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, [T5],#KEYS
256:Whether one has surrendered or not, one has never been separate from the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
257:Wisdom is like unto a beacon set on high, which radiates its light even in the darkest night. ~ Buddhist Meditations from the Japanese, #KEYS
258:Abstain from evil;
become established in piety;
purify your mind —
this is the Teaching of the Buddhas.
~ Dhammapada, 183#KEYS
259:Cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words, and following after speech. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
260:Cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words, and following after speech." ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
261:Fastings signify abstinence from all evils whatsoever, both in action and in word, and in thought itself. ~ Saint Clement of Alexandria, #KEYS
262:I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help! ~ Psalms CXXI.1, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
263:Out of academies there come more fools than from any other class in society. ~ Kant, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
264:They, who have no eyes in their face, are not called blind. They alone are blind, O Nanak, who stray away from their Lord. ~ Guru Angad, #KEYS
265:This small mind covers the whole universe and prevents Reality from being seen. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
266:Yoke yourself under the law, so that you may truly be free. Do not work the desire of your soul apart from God. ~ Saint Ephrem of Syria, #KEYS
267:no return poem
from a departed lover
painful birdsong
~ Buson, @BashoSociety#KEYS
268:One must test oneself from time to time to see whether one has conquered the lower self. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
269:The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools. ~ Thucydides, #KEYS
270:Walk always and only on good and take a step forward each day on the vertical line, from the bottom up. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
271:You are not separate from the whole. You are one with the sun, the earth, the air. You don't have a life. You are life." ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
272:The farther away you are from the truth, the more the hateful and pleasurable states will arise." ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
273:A bad thought is the most dangerous of thieves. ~ Buddhist scriptures from the Chinese, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
274:Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either." ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
275:instead of what I don't have the things I have would be much more cared for." ~ Douglas King, quote from "poems in a minor chord,", (2017), #KEYS
276:My insanity is the only thing preventing me from losing my mind!" ~ Sri Gawn Tu Fahr, (Jean-Pierre Gregoire) "Love's True Home.,", (2010)., #KEYS
277:One of the functions of intelligence is to take account of the dangers that come from trusting solely to the intelligence. ~ Lewis Mumford, #KEYS
278:Only from his own soul can he demand the secret of eternal beauty. ~ Attar of Nishapur, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
279:The Fifth Epoch of time dates from the reign of Charles V until the reign of the Great Monarch." ~ Ven. Barthalomew Holzhauser (1613-1658), #KEYS
280:Thou shalt heal thy soul and deliver it from all its pain and travailing. ~ Pythagoras, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
281:When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens, I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
282:Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.
~ Bodhidharma,#KEYS
283:If we attain something
it was there from the beginning of time.
If we lose something
it is hiding somewhere near us.
~ Taigu Ryokan,#KEYS
284:No one who sees the Essence of God can willingly turn away from God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.94.1)., #KEYS
285:One's own self is well hidden from one's own self. Of all the mines of treasure, one's own is the last to be dug up." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
286:The Israelites were freed from slavery to a pagan people; you have been freed from the much greater slavery to sin. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
287:Unless you are completely detached from everything, your meditation and prayer, work and learning will be of no avail. ~ Swami Vijnanananda, #KEYS
288:All the media and the politicians ever talk about is things that separate us, things that make us different from one another ~ George Carlin, #KEYS
289:Always the Ideal beckoned from afar.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Heavens of the Ideal,#KEYS
290:A pleasant and happy life does not come from external things. Man draws from within himself, as from a spring, pleasure and joy." ~ Plutarch, #KEYS
291:...Big Bang which was really the roaring laughter of God voluntarily getting lost for the millionth time. ~ Ken Wilber, Up From Eden, p. 328, #KEYS
292:Has there not been a time when each and everyone of us has felt that we are a 'stranger in a strange land.'" ~ Anon. From Exodus 2:22, (KJV), #KEYS
293:Let a man make haste towards good, let him turn away his thought from evil. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
294:Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration. ~ Niccolo Machiavelli, #KEYS
295:The discoveries of yesterday are the truisms of tomorrow, because we can add to our knowledge but cannot subtract from it. ~ Arthur Koestler, #KEYS
296:It is not for me to bless. It is for the Divine Mother to do so. All blessings come from her. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
297:Lead me from the Unreal to the Real. Lead me from Darkness to the Light.Lead me from the Temporary to the Eternal. ~ Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, #KEYS
298:Look. This little finger covers the eye and prevents the whole world from being seen. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
299:One who thinks that his spiritual guide is merely a man, can draw no profit from his contact. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
300:Put away from thee a forward mouth and perverse lips put away from thee. ~ Proverbs IV 24, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
301:See who you are and remain as the Self, free from birth, going, coming and returning. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
302:the moon
missing from
the dark cold sky
~ Ogawa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
303:There is no such thing as the unreal, from another standpoint. The Self alone exists. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
304:This is the highest mystical teaching." ~ From "The Shveteshvatara Upanishad," an ancient Sanskrit text embedded in the Yajurveda, Wikipedia., #KEYS
305:Where are you from?
There.
Where are you headed?
There.
What are you doing?
Grieving. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya,#KEYS
306:Awake thou that steepest and arise from the dead. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Ephesians, V. 14, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
307:From the first moment of His conception, Christ saw God's Essence fully ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.7.3)., #KEYS
308:gratitude
receiving relief
from heaven
~ Ogawa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
309:Heal from above instead of struggling from below. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Cosmic Consciousness, #KEYS
310:In fact, wakefulness and dream are equally unreal from the standpoint of the Absolute. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
311:The mind does not exist apart from the Self, that is, it has no independent existence. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
312:The wise in joy and in sorrow depart not from the equality of their souls. ~ Buddhist Text, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
313:When bound in fetters, the soul is the jiva; when released from them, the same thing is Shiva. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
314:You must never cease from calling on the Lord, and know this for certain that the Lord's name cuts through all obstacles. ~ SWAMI SUBODHANANDA, #KEYS
315:Because others are mean is no reason to be mean yourself. 24 April 1933 ~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother, 29, #KEYS
316:If you ask from within for peace, it will come.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Peace and Silence, Peace [139],#KEYS
317:Our Lord! Accept this from us. You are indeed the All-Hearing, All-Knowing ~ Quran 2:127, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
318:The Jiva is a spirit and self, superior to Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Ego, #KEYS
319:The Lord gives wisdom (sophia), from his face come knowledge (gnosis) and understanding (sunesis)
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Proverbs, 2.6, [T5],#KEYS
320:The mind of the Enlightened Sage (jnani) never exists apart from Brahman, the Absolute. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
321:The nice thing about citing god as an authority is that you can prove anything you set out to prove.
~ Robert Heinlein, from If This Goes On.,#KEYS
322:the voice of two bells
softly speaking
from twilight temples
~ Buson, @BashoSociety#KEYS
323:To bring about peace means to be free from thoughts and to abide as Pure Consciousness. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
324:An evil thought is the most dangerous of all thieves. ~ Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
325:moonlight from
a tree's shadow
forest walk
~ Ogawa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
326:Pure Consciousness, which is the Heart, includes all, and nothing is outside or apart from it. That is the ultimate Truth. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
327:relatives are present,give them out from the property,and speak to them kindly. ~ 4: 7,8], @Sufi_Path #KEYS
328:The law of the body arises from the subconscient or inconscient. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
329:To start from the self and try to understand all things is delusion. To let the self be awakened by all things is enlightenment." ~ Dōgen Zenji, #KEYS
330:We have to face the pain we have been running from. In fact, we need to learn to rest in it and let its searing power transform us." ~ Joko Beck, #KEYS
331:You are not apart from being which is the same as bliss. You are unchanging and eternal. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
332:All the knowledge one can require emanates from this love ~ Antoine the Healer: "Revelations", the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
333:Be mindful of the passing of time, and engage yourself in zazen as though you are saving your head from fire.
~ Dogen Zenji,#KEYS
334:Every sinful act proceeds from inordinate desire for some temporal good ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.77.4)., #KEYS
335:Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again. ~ Saint Augustine, #KEYS
336:How is it that when there is so little time to enjoy your presence, you hide from me? ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #KEYS
337:It is consoling that he who must judge us dwell in us to save us always from all of our miseries, and to pardon us." ~ Saint Thérèse de Lisieux, #KEYS
338:Lightning from here strikes there. When you begin to love God, God is loving you. A clapping sound does not come from one hand. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
339:O saki, let the coming of this holy day be auspicious to you And the pledges you made not slip away from your memory. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
340:Perform your worldly duties, fixing your hold firmly upon God, and you shall be free from danger. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
341:The order of the parts of the universe to one another results from the order of the whole universe to God. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, On Power vii.9, #KEYS
342:We know that we have passed from death into life because we love our brothers. ~ John III. 13, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
343:When he knows that he is That, the Eternal, he is delivered from all limitations. ~ Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
344:Knowledge will not come without self-communion, without light from within. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin, In Either Case, #KEYS
345:The intensity of love stems from the union of the beloved with the lover ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.26.8)., #KEYS
346:The pure intellectual direction travels away from life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Divine Personality, #KEYS
347:You are always in the Heart. You are never away from it in order that you should reach it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
348:Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct from ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended. ~ Alfred North Whitehead #KEYS
349:Nothing but a radical change of consciousness can deliver the world from its present obscurity. ~ The Mother, On Education, #KEYS
350:Dive within. You are now aware that the mind rises up from within. So, sink within and seek. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
351:Equality, not indifference is the basis. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Heart and the Mind, #KEYS
352:God is of Himself a necessary being, whereas a creature is made from nothing ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.41.2)., #KEYS
353:If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti,#KEYS
354:If you go on preaching without a commission from God, it will all be powerless and none will listen. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
355:Just as grace is given from the Father through the Son, so there could be no communication of the gift to us except in the Holy Spirit. ~ Athanasius, #KEYS
356:The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Genesis, 8:2, #KEYS
357:The state free from thoughts is the only real state. There is no such action as realization. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
358:the voices of two bells
speaking from the tops
of twilight temples
~ Buson, @BashoSociety#KEYS
359:To sin is nothing else than to stray from what is according to our nature ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.109.8)., #KEYS
360:All the saints affected solitude and retreats from the noise and hurry of the world, as much as their circumstances allowed them. ~ Saint Apollinaris, #KEYS
361:Read a lot. Expect something big, something exalting or deepening from a book. No book is worth reading that isn't worth re-reading.
~ Susan Sontag,#KEYS
362:Some day surely
The world too shall be saved from death by love. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act III,#KEYS
363:The religious teachers of all countries and races receive their inspiration from one almighty source. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
364:To me a book is a message from the gods to mankind; or, if not, should never be published at all.
~ Aleister Crowley,#KEYS
365:Whatever being shows wide powers, or majesty or vigour, be sure that in every case that is sprung from a fraction of my glory. ~ Bhagavad Gita, 10, 41 #KEYS
366:Give up the sense of doership. Karma will go on automatically or Karma will drop away from you ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
367:If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain." ~ Emily Dickinson, (1830 -1886), American poet, wrote nearly 1,800 poems, Wikipedia., #KEYS
368:Passion requires focused direction, and that direction must come from three other areas: your purpose, your talents, and your needs.
~ Steve Pavlina,#KEYS
369:Sheer objectivity brings us down from art to photography. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, Poetic Vision and the Mantra, #KEYS
370:The earth you tread is a border screened from heaven ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Call to the Quest, #KEYS
371:The greatest kindness one can render to any man consists in leading him from error to truth. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
372:The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included." ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
373:The nature of bondage is merely the rising, ruinous thought `I am different from the reality'. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
374:The world is a great book, of which they that never stir from home read only a page. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
375:Just as a big banyan tree sprouts from a tiny seed so the wide universe sprouts from the heart. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
376:Only through detachment from Dunya (this world) does the slave reach his Lord. ~ Shaqeeq Balkhi], @Sufi_Path #KEYS
377:Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions--not outside.
~ Marcus Aurelius, Book 9 Verse 13,#KEYS
378:As a living man abstains from mortal poisons, so put away from thee all defilement. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
379:As knowledge grows Light flames up from within. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Debate of Love and Death, #KEYS
380:chestnuts
dropping from the sky
as autumn deepens
~ Ogawa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
381:Maya is of two kinds, one leading towards God, Vidya-Maya, the other leading away from God, Avidya-Maya. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
382:The sage having perceived God by the spiritual union casts from him grief and joy. ~ Katha Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
383:The true religion has always been one from the beginning, and will always be the same. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
384:The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell which is beneath. ~ Proverbs XV 24, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
385:How shouldst thou not profit by thy age of strength to issue from the evil terrain? ~ Kin-yuan-li-sao, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
386:If one wishes to obtain a definite answer from Nature one must attack the question from a more general and less selfish point of view. (415) ~ Max Planck, #KEYS
387:If you want to see God, repeat his name with firm faith and try to discriminate the real from the unreal. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
388:rhythm
a current from the divine
flooding your body
~ Ogawa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
389:The fatigue comes from the resistance and the worry, do not worry, let yourself go, and the fatigue will go also.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
390:The mind is removed from God and becomes unbalanced when the pressure of wealth or sex is placed upon it. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
391:The only power is in realization, and that lies in ourselves and comes from thinking. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. II. 336), #KEYS
392:When thou art enfranchised from all hate and desire, then shalt thou win thy liberation. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
393:You can read sacred books and yet be far away from the Divine; and you can read the most stupid productions and be in touch with the Divine. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
394:Compassion springs from Sattva. Sattva leads to preservation, Rajas to creation, and Tamas to destruction. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
395:In God's simple and supernatural nature itself all beauty and every beautiful of all beautiful things derived from it preexist. ~ Dionysius the Areopagite, #KEYS
396:Let all bitterness and wrath and anger be put away from you. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Ephesians, IV. 31, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
397:lovemaking
stars falling
from the river of heaven
~ Ogawa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
398:Prayer is not verbal. It is from the heart. To merge into the Heart is prayer. That is also Grace. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
399:Pure creation issues from my form of absolute knowledge, which resembles a cloudless sky or a still ocean. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
400:Recoil from the sun into the shadow that there may be more place for others. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
401:So we ought to be accurate, brethren, about our salvation, in case the evil one sneaks in some error and slings us out from our life. ~ Letter of Barnabas, #KEYS
402:The true and earnest aspirant travels from place to place in search of that watchword from a perfect Guru. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
403:From light lips and casual thoughts
The gods speak best as if by chance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act I,#KEYS
404:I shall always be with you, my dear little child, in the struggle and in the victory.
~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
405:Love, joy and happiness come from the psychic. The Self gives peace or a universal Ananda. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - I, #KEYS
406:Make yourself grow to the greatest, leap forth from every body, transcend all Times, become Eternity, then you should know God." ~ "Thrice Greatest Hermes", #KEYS
407:Mountains and trees stood there like thoughts from God.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Satyavan and Savitri,#KEYS
408: #KEYS
409:Return ye now every one from his evil way and make your ways and your doings good. ~ Jeremiah XVIII. II, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
410:Since love completes all, makes all hard things soft, and the difficult easy, let us strive to make all our acts proceed from love." ~ Saint Arnold Janssen, #KEYS
411:The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea. The sea turned to blood like that from a corpse; every creature living in the sea died." ~ Revelation 16:3, #KEYS
412:What happens when you become enlightened is that you 'wake up' in the dream of life." ~ From Ron Smothermon, M.D. "Winning Through Enlightenment,", (1980)., #KEYS
413:You do not have to struggle to reach God, but you do have to struggle to tear away the self-created veil that hides God from you.
~ Paramahansa Yogananda,#KEYS
414:All knowledge comes from the stars. Men do not invent or create ideas; the ideas exist and men are able to grasp them. ~ Paracelsus, #KEYS
415:Blessed are they who long to give their time to God, and who cut themselves off from the hindrances of the world. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
416:From step to step, from truth to truth, we shall climb ceaselessly until we reach the perfect realisation of tomorrow. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
417:From the Self proceeds a reflected light which is seen neither in total light nor in total darkness. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
418:If you keep your gaze fixed upon the Light, you will be delivered from dualism and the plurality of the finite body. ~ Jalalu'l-Din Rumi, Mathnawi, III, 1259 #KEYS
419:In failing to confess, Lord, I would only hide You from myself, not myself from You. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, [T5], #KEYS
420:into a fool but you are a fool for not knowing and being it." ~ Mooji, (b. 1954) Jamaican spiritual teacher, author, Wikipedia. From "Before I Am,", (2012)., #KEYS
421:Many who have learned from Hesiod the countless names of gods and monsters never understand that night and day are one ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
422:The entire spiritual life consists in this: that we gradually turn from those things whose appearance is deceptive, to those things that are real. ~ Erasmus, #KEYS
423:This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 1 1:5, #KEYS
424:Time in itself does not exist, there is only the totality of the results issuing from all the cosmic phenomena present in a given place. ~ George Gurdjieff , #KEYS
425:Truth sees God, and wisdom contemplates God, and from these two comes a third, a holy and wonderful delight in God, who is love." ~ Saint Juliana of Norwich, #KEYS
426:Wilt thou that thy heart should be free from sorrow ? Forget not the hearts that sorrow devours. ~ Saadi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
427:Because monks come from the midst of purity, they consider as good and pure what does not arouse desire among other people. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
428:Each of us must examine his THOUGHTS, WORDS, and DEEDS, to see whether they are directed towards Christ or are turned away from him. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
429:From moment to moment, the little I need to know to live my life, I somehow happen to know. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
430:It is when one feels like a blind man that one begins to be ready for the illumination.
~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
431:Lust is the perversion or degradation which prevents love from establishing its reign. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Sex, #KEYS
432:The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.
~ Werner Heisenberg,#KEYS
433:The gift of mental power comes from God, Divine Being, and if we concentrate our minds on that truth, we become in tune with this great power. ~ Nikola Tesla, #KEYS
434:The meaning of our self is not to be found in its separateness from God and others, but in the ceaseless realisation of yoga, of union. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #KEYS
435:The mind, body, and world are not separate from the Self; and they cannot remain apart from the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
436:The profession of love to God which is insufficient to restrain from disobedience to God is a lie. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
437:We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
~ T S Eliot,#KEYS
438:What goes for the world 'out there' also goes for the world 'in here.' They are the same world." ~ Noel McInnis, Quote from "You Are an Environment,", (1973), #KEYS
439:Accommodation of mental structures to reality implies the existence of assimilatory schemata apart from which any structure would be impossible. ~ Jean Piaget, #KEYS
440:All the aspects of the sea are not different from the sea; nor is there any difference between the universe and its supreme Principle. ~ Chhandogya Uppanishad, #KEYS
441:Contraries harmonise with each other; the finest harmony springs from things that are unlike. ~ Heraclitus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
442:I account it a greater good to be reproved than to reprove, inasmuch as it is more excellent to free oneself from evil than to free another. ~ Saint Methodius, #KEYS
443:In God's simple and supernatural nature itself all beauty and every beautiful of all beautiful things derived from it preexist. ~ Ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite, #KEYS
444:I write to keep from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind - and to work some of those contradictions out for myself.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
445:The root of the past is the source from which the future draws its sap. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II, The One Thing Needful, #KEYS
446:All delusions, without exception, are created as a result of self-centeredness. When you're free from self-centeredness, delusions won't be produced." ~ Bankei, #KEYS
447:Conversion of the aim of life from the ego to the Divine: instead of seeking ones own satisfaction, to have the service of the Divine as the aim of life.
~ ?,#KEYS
448:from my hand
she took a piece of fruit
knowing that our time was not forever
~ Saiko, @BashoSociety#KEYS
449:God has mercy because of what is from Him, whereas He punishes because of what is from us ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 28.3)., #KEYS
450:How should I meditate?
Fix your mind on the aspiration and dismiss everything else.
~ The Mother, More Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
451:How to harmonize the world and God: Be in the world, but always remember Him and never go astray from His path. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
452:My mind is a torch lit from the eternal sun. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real, #KEYS
453:One can recognise in those beings who are so lar from us the principle of our own existence. ~ Schopenhauer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
454:One who thinks that his spiritual guide is merely a man, can draw no profit from his contact. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
455:The way to liberation is to turn from the outward to the inward. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, Works, Devotion and Knowledge, #KEYS
456:The world is not cut off from Truth and God. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real, #KEYS
457:Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ~ The Buddha, #KEYS
458:When setting out on a journey, do not seek advice from those who have never left home. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
459:When you catch yourself slipping into a pool of negativity, notice how it derives from nothing other than resistance to the current situation." ~ Donna Quesada, #KEYS
460:You are the supreme being, and yet thinking yourself to be separate from It, you strive to be united with It. What is stranger than this? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
461:You will understand all happiness comes only from the Self, and then you will always abide in the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
462:A torrent of clarity streams from the mind which is purified in full of all its impurities. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
463:If one remains in the frying pan of the world after attainment of Jnana, one may acquire from it a little taint. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
464:Nothing in this book is an attempt to prevent the really resolute misery addicts from continuing their pursuit of frustration and failure. ~ Robert Anton Wilson, #KEYS
465:Seek out swiftly the way of righteousness; turn without delay from that which defiles thee. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
466:The blood of Christ will cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Heb. 9:14)., #KEYS
467:Truth is not far away. It is nearer than near. There is no need to attain it, since not one of your steps leads away from it." ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
468:All grief is born of the shrinking of the ego from the contacts of existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, Conclusion and Summary, #KEYS
469:Christ came in order to bring us back from a state of oppression to a state of freedom ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.35.8ad1)., #KEYS
470:dew from a lotus
used to brew
morning tea
~ Kobayashi Issa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
471:emptiness
falling from a tree
a cicada shell
~ Matsuo Basho, @BashoSociety#KEYS
472:The tree too thick to embrace
emerges from a seedling.
A nine-storey tower rises from a brick.
A thousand-mile journey begins under your feet. ~ Lao Tzu,#KEYS
473:The words "My" and "Mine" spring from ignorance. How few of us say things came into existence by the will of God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
474:Continence is a denial of the body and an assent to God. It withdraws from everything mortal, having, as it were, the Spirit of God as a body. ~ Basil of Caesarea, #KEYS
475:Democracy has travelled from the East to the West in the shape of Christianity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II, Asiatic Democracy, #KEYS
476:do not view the moon
from the scale of
the human mind
~ Dogen Zenji, @BashoSociety#KEYS
477:Egotism exists in ignorance, not in knowledge. The rain water stands in low places, but runs off from high places. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
478:I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success. Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuse." ~ Kobe Bryant, #KEYS
479:In the beginning all this was Non-being. From it Being appeared. Itself created itself. ~ Taittiriya Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
480:so that my feeling of devotion overflowed, and the tears ran from eyes, and I was happy in them. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
481:The idea of the ego makes the soul seem distinct from the Supreme Self. Really, there is no division between them. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
482:The Self is God. `I AM' is God. If God be apart from the Self, He must be a Selfless God, which is absurd. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
483:To retire from the world, that is to retire into oneself, is to aid in the dispersion of all doubts. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
484:Worldly life is no doubt a battle-field. By becoming conscious of one's spiritual wealth one must strive to emerge triumphant from the battle. ~ SRI ANANDAMAYI MA, #KEYS
485:You shall not withdraw your hand from your son, or from your daughter, but from their infancy you shall teach them the fear of the Lord. ~ The Epistle of Barnabas, #KEYS
486:Always be calm, go on working without any fatigue. This is the test; whether the mind is working properly or not, can be understood from this. ~ Swami Akhandananda, #KEYS
487:Always the blood is wiser and knows what is hid from the thinker. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion, #KEYS
488:Drink this wine, dying to self, You will be free from the spell of self. Then will your being as a drop, Fall into the ocean of the Eternal." ~ Mahmoud Shabestari, #KEYS
489:From exchange we can rise to the highest possible idea of interchange. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Heraclitus - VII, #KEYS
490:God is far, far away from the worldly-minded. For those who have renounced the world He is in the palm of the hand. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
491:In one and the same movement, our Savior's passion raises men from the depths, lifts them up from the earth, and sets them in the heights. ~ Saint Maximus of Turin, #KEYS
492:Oh, when will dawn the blessed day
When tears of joy will flow from my eyes
As I repeat Lord Hari's name? ~ Sri Ramakrishna, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna,#KEYS
493:The cosmic mind being not limited by the ego, has nothing separate from itself and is therefore only aware. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
494:Wouldst thou abstain from action? It is not so that thy soul shall obtain liberation. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
495:You, yourself, are the eternal energy which appears as this universe. You didn't come into this world; you came out of it. Like a wave from the ocean. ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
496:As for ourselves, let each one of us dig down after the root of evil which is within one and let one pluck it out of one's heart from the root.
~ Gospel of Thomas,#KEYS
497:Even the most successful victor receives much from the vanquished. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, "Is India Civilised?" - II, #KEYS
498:f you are keen on realising God, repeat His name' with firm faith, and try to discriminate the Real from the unreal. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
499:Hundreds come from all over to see one who is liberated. Just as when a flower opens, the bees come to it uninvited. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
500:If you are keen on realising God, repeat His name with firm faith, and try to discriminate the Real from the unreal. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
501:Know that the World of Unity lies in the other direction from the senses. If you want Oneness, go in that direction! ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
502:Scorn not-the discourse of the wise, for thou shalt learn from them wisdom. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Ecclesiastes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
503:The degree of freedom from unwanted thoughts and the degree of concentration on a single thought are the measures to gauge spiritual progress. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
504:There are people who spout verses from the Scriptures and talk big, but in their conduct they are quite different.
~ Sri Ramakrishna,#KEYS
505:We stop the one who can't cease from seeking things outside, and practice with our bodies with a posture that seeks absolutely nothing. This is zazen. ~ Kodo Sawaki, #KEYS
506:And Elohim said, 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the Waters, and let it divide the Waters from the Waters. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Genesis, 1:6, (Chockmah), #KEYS
507:autumn wind
fragrance from
a late blooming flower
~ Matsuo Basho, @BashoSociety#KEYS
508:Clouds from Zeus come and pass; his sunshine eternal survives them. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion, #KEYS
509:I love you. I've loved you from the beginning. And I will love you long after the last stars dies. I will love you until the end of darkness itself. ~ Laura Thalassa, #KEYS
510:See from whence all happiness, including the happiness you regard as coming from sense objects, really comes. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
511:The ethical imperative comes not from around, but from within him and above him. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Suprarational Good, #KEYS
512:Thus little by little the enemy invades the soul, if it is not resisted from the beginning. ~ Imitation of Christ, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
513:What is there in mere book-learning if it is not accompanied with Viveka, discrimination of the Real from the unreal? ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
514:From the point of view of Jnana (Knowledge), the pain seen in the world is certainly a dream, as is the world. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
515:Man his passion prefers to the voice that guides from the immortals. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion, #KEYS
516:No action, however vast, exhausts the original power from which it proceeds. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin of the Ignorance, #KEYS
517:Purify thyself and thou shalt see God. Transform thy body into a temple, cast from thee evil thoughts and contemplate God with the eye of thy conscious soul. ~ Vemana, #KEYS
518:The psychotic drowns in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight. ~ Stanislav Grof, Psychology of the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research, #KEYS
519:The Self alone is. Is not then the Self your Guru? Where else will Grace come from? It is from the Self alone. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
520:When we can draw from ourselves all our felicity, we find nothing vexatious to us in the order of Nature. ~ Cicero, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
521:Addressed to the One Supreme Lord, There is no other sin, no other vice than to be far from Thee.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III, 240,#KEYS
522:All men who repeat a line from Shakespeare are William Shakespeare ~ Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths, Selected Stories and Other Writings, #KEYS
523:Friend let this be enough. If thou wouldst go on reading. Go thyself and become the writing and the meaning ~ Angelus Silesius, Selections from The Cherubinic Wanderer, #KEYS
524:From every nation on earth, without exception, Christ forms a single flock of those he has sanctified, daily fulfilling the promise he once made. ~ Saint Leo the Great, #KEYS
525:He who knows ten should only teach nine." ~ Far Eastern Saying. From: "The Essential Rene Guenon: Metaphysics, Tradition, and the Crisis of Modernity,", (2009), p.272., #KEYS
526:Man is at present only partly liberated from the animal involution. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Gradations of the Supermind, #KEYS
527:raindrops
greetings from heaven
midsummer heat
~ Kobayashi Issa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
528:Self-control needs to be cultivated and guarded ceaselessly, so as to prevent any of the passions that are outside the garden from stealthily creeping in. ~ Philokalia, #KEYS
529:Sin is nothing other than man's act of turning his face away from God and himself towards death. ~ Angelus Silesius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
530:So valuable to heaven is the dignity of the human soul that every member of the human race has a guardian angel from the moment the person begins to be. ~ Saint Jerome, #KEYS
531:We live self-exiled from our heavenlier home. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Mind, #KEYS
532:Ananda is the true creative principle. For all takes birth from this divine Bliss. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Gnosis and Ananda, #KEYS
533:Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms ~ to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. , #KEYS
534:God alone could produce either a man from the slime of the earth, or a woman from the rib of man ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.92.4)., #KEYS
535:It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
536:Slay desire, but when thou hast slain it, take heed that it arise not again from the dead. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
537:Then I wanted to learn what was beyond the veil. So I went to the edge of the veil. When I reached it, I saw coming from beyond the veil a great light. ~ Ruzbihan Baqli, #KEYS
538:The world is only a projection of the mind. The mind originates from the Atman. So Atman alone is the One Being. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
539:Christ's soul was glorified from the instant of His conception by perfect fruition of the Godhead ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (St 3.54.2)., #KEYS
540:Christ's very body can be called bread, since it is the mystical bread coming down from heaven ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.77.6ad1)., #KEYS
541:Come, release yourself from this ego, live in harmony with everyone, be friendly with everyone." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
542:Every - real - happiness - for - man - can - arise - exclusively - only - from - some - unhappiness - also - real - which - he - has - already - experienced. ~ Gurdjieff, #KEYS
543:Forgiving someone is solid proof of your intent to live your live now, while you have it, and be dead later, when you are." ~ From Ron Smothermon, M.D. "Winning Through , #KEYS
544:I have found my way, step by step, proceeding from touch points that have emerged, some through conscious choice and some through dream state discovery." ~ Leonard Nimoy, #KEYS
545:In the silence and not in the thought we shall find the Self. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Heart and the Mind, #KEYS
546:It is in the silence of the mind that it is easiest for knowledge to come from within or above, or from higher consciousness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
547:Sin takes away grace totally, but it does not take anything away from the essence of a thing ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (QDdA a. 14ad17)., #KEYS
548:The dayspring from on high has visited us, to give light to them that sit in the darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace. ~ Saint Luke, #KEYS
549:They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might
~ Anonymous, The Bible, 2 Thessalonians, 1:9,#KEYS
550:Time in itself does not exist, there is only the totality of the results issuing from all the cosmic phenomena present in a given place." ~ Gurdjieff, Beelzebub's Tales , #KEYS
551:We have indeed many things to learn from others; yea, that man who refuses to learn is already dead. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. III. 381), #KEYS
552:Darkness may hide the trees and the flowers from the eyes but it cannot hide love from the soul." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
553:From little things; Knows not the livid loneliness of fear Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear The sound of wings." ~ Amelia Earhart, (1897 - 1937?), Wikipedia, #KEYS
554:God never does withdraw; His works come to no halt;
If you don't feel His force, yourself must be at fault. ~ Angelus Silesius, Selections from The Cherubinic Wanderer,#KEYS
555:I have learned silence from the talkative, tolerance from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind, yet strangely, I am ungrateful to these teachers." ~ Kahlil Gibran, #KEYS
556:In the state of jnana, the jnani sees nothing separate from the Self. The Self is all shining and only pure jnana. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
557:It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes." ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
558:Liberation means entire freedom—freedom from the bondage of good, as well as from the bondage of evil. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. I. 55), #KEYS
559:peering out
from the willow tree
the face of a fox
~ Kobayashi Issa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
560:The first use of good literature is that it prevents a man from being merely modern. To be merely modern is to condemn oneself to an ultimate narrowness. ~ C K Chesterton, #KEYS
561:The mind is by nature restless. Begin liberating it from its restlessness; give it peace; train it to look inward. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
562:They say: Thou art become mad with love for thy beloved. I reply: The savour of life is for madmen." ~ Abd Allāh ibn Asʻad al-Yafi'i, (1299-1367) chronicler from Yemen., #KEYS
563:This is the new birth, my son, to turn one's thought from the body that has the three dimensions. ~ Hermes: On Rebirth, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
564:Truth shines far from the falsehoods of the world; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Gospel of Death and Vanity of the Ideal, #KEYS
565:Visit not miracle-mongers. They are wanderers from the path of Truth with minds entangled in the meshes of psychic powers. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
566:When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind. ~ Montaigne, Les Essais #KEYS
567:But with only one heart we human beings are born." ~ Nanuo Sakaki, (1923-2008) Japanese poet,) from his poem "Homo Erectus Ambulant" in his book "Break the Mirror", (1987), #KEYS
568:Maya, the mythical goddess, sprang from the One, and her womb brought forth three acceptable disciples of the One: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. ~ Hymns of Guru Nanak, eka mai, #KEYS
569:Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own
~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 Corinthians, 6:19 ESV,#KEYS
570:Quotations from a Friar, Theologian, Priest, Common Doctor, and Saint ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (1225-74). #KEYS
571:See that the world and your ego are derived from the same Supreme Being. God, Man, and nature are faces of the One Reality. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
572:The ajnani sees only the mind which is a mere reflection of the light of Pure Consciousness arising from the heart. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
573:The more you talk and think about it, the further astray you wander from the truth. Stop talking and thinking and there is nothing you will not be able to know." ~ Sengcan, #KEYS
574:There is knowledge in Realization. But this differs from the ordinary subject and object. It is absolute knowledge. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
575:From drinking one cup of the pure wine, From sweeping the dust of dung hills from their souls, From grasping the skirts of drunkards, They have become Sufis." ~ Shabistari, #KEYS
576:From the standpoint of Yoga it is not so much what you do but how you do it that matters most.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Yogic Action,#KEYS
577:It is said of Divine Wisdom: "She reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Wis. 8:1)., #KEYS
578:Nada is found within. It is a music without strings which plays in the body. It penetrates the inner and outer and leads you away from illusion. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
579:The Bible is such a gargantuan collection of conflicting values that anyone can prove anything from it.
~ Robert Heinlein, Dr. Jacob Burroughs in The Number of the Beast.,#KEYS
580:The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you. ~ Werner Karl Heisenberg (1901-1976), #KEYS
581:The very idea of energy in action carries with it the idea of energy abstaining from action. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Pure Existent, #KEYS
582:From melancholy there arise malice, rancor, cowardice, despair, slothfulness in fulfilling the commands, and a wandering of the mind on unlawful objects. ~ Gregory the Great, #KEYS
583:If he who sets out on this way will not engage himself wholly and completely, he will never be free from the sadness and melancholy which weigh him down. ~ Attar of Nishapur, #KEYS
584:In those who lack faith
Nothing positive will grow
Just as from a burnt seed
No green shoot will ever sprout.
~ Patrul Rinpoche, The Words of My Perfect Teacher,#KEYS
585:... It is a chastisement much greater than that of the flood. Fire will fall from heaven and a great part of humanity will be destroyed." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi , #KEYS
586:So long as one is not free from the ego sense, there can be no real freedom. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Liberation of the Spirit, #KEYS
587:Thought is projected from the Self. Find out from where it rises. Thoughts will cease and the Self alone will remain. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
588:An off-cast from the city is he who tears his soul away from the soul of reasoning beings, which is one. ~ Marcus Aurelius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
589:As the waterbird shakes off the water from its wings, so should a worldy person remain in the world entirely unaffected by it. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
590:A wide God-knowledge poured down from above,
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King The Yoga of the Souls Release,#KEYS
591:Because of the Word dwelling in that body, it would remain incorruptible, and all would be freed for ever from corruption by the grace of the resurrection. ~ Saint Athanasius, #KEYS
592:Freedom, love and spiritual knowledge raise us from mortal nature to immortal being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Field and its Knower, #KEYS
593:How long do You want me to read and study?
Four hours of concentrated study a day is enough.
~ The Mother, More Answers From The Mother, [T5],#KEYS
594:If it is permissible to write plays that are not intended to be seen, I should like to see who can prevent me from writing a book no one can read. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, [T5], #KEYS
595:I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way. ~ Pablo Neruda, #KEYS
596:People do not see that science deals only with conditional knowledge. It brings no message from the land of the unconditioned. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
597:Prakriti does not act for itself or by its own motion, but with the Self as lord. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Ego, #KEYS
598:To surmount this thirst of existence, to reject it, to be liberated from it, to give it no farther harbourage. ~ Mahavagga, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
599:When the world recedes from one's view, that is when one is free from thought - the mind enjoys the Bliss of the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
600:And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 1:14, #KEYS
601:As soon as a man falls into sin, charity, faith, and mercy do not free him from sin, without penance ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (St 3.84.5ad2)., #KEYS
602:As the waterbird shakes off the water from its wings, so should a worldly person remain in the world entirely unaffected by it. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
603:A tiny child is born, who is a great king. Wise men are led to him from afar. They come to adore one who lies in a manger and yet reigns in heaven and on earth. ~ Quodvultdeus, #KEYS
604:Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Romans, 10:9, #KEYS
605:Compassion is not just about kind acts; actually it is about being aware of the suffering of other sentient beings from the view of the actual nature of things. ~ 17th Karmapa, #KEYS
606:Confidence in help from outside brings with it distress. Only self-confidence gives force and joy. ~ Fo-tho-hing-tsang-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
607:Do not permit the events of your daily lives to bind you, but never withdraw yourselves from them. Only by acting thus can you earn the title of 'A Liberated One' " ~ Huang Po, #KEYS
608:It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.
~ Buddha,#KEYS
609:It is from the shoot of self-renunciation that there starts the sweet fruit of final deliverance. ~ Book of Golden Precepts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
610:Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty." ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
611:So long as thou livest in the bewilderment and seduction of pride, thou shalt abide far from the truth. ~ Attar of Nishapur, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
612:The "I" which makes one worldly and attached to lust and wealth is mischievous. It separates the individual from the Universal. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
613:The worldly will never realize their situation fully unless you can wean them from the objects of their attachments and desire. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
614:All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind, the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
615:A man can be secure from sin in the will, only when his intellect is secure from ignorance and from error ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 4.70)., #KEYS
616:Having seen that you are a bundle of memories held together by attachment, step out and look from the outside. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
617:He who is the Omniscient, the all-wise, He whose energy is all made of knowledge, from Him is born this that is Brahman here, this Name and Form and Matter. ~ Mundaka Upanishad, #KEYS
618:I am only the dust
on My Lover's Path
And
from dust
I will rise
and turn into a flower ! ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path#KEYS
619:Keep thyself from all evil in thought, in word, in act. If thou transgress not these three frontiers of wisdom, thou shalt find the way pursued by the saints. ~ Magghima Nikaya, #KEYS
620:One ray of light from my Divine Mother, who is the Goddess of Wisdom, has the power to turn the most leaned scholar into a worm. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
621:The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith. ~ Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, #KEYS
622:A shy horse does not go straight unless his eyes are covered by blinders. Thus prevent yourself from looking about to evil paths. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
623:Be free. Live in the world like the cast-out leaf-plate from which food has been eaten. It is worthless. Who cares to possess it? ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
624:Desire, sadness, and pleasure, and consequently all the other passions of the soul, result from love ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.28.6ad2)., #KEYS
625:disconnected by clouds
a goose lives apart
from his partner
~ Matsuo Basho, @BashoSociety#KEYS
626:Divine incarnations and those that are the Lord's own -- their love is not made up of scriptural formula, it springs from within. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
627:From the immobile stone to the supreme principle creation consists in the differentiation of existences. ~ Sankhya Pravachana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
628:In Supermind knowledge in the Idea is not divorced from will in the Idea, but one with it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Supermind as Creator, #KEYS
629:Life is a scale of the universal Energy in which the transition from inconscience to consciousness is managed. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Life, #KEYS
630:Love is as strong as death, as hard as Hell. Death separates the soul from the body, but love separates all things from the soul. ~ Meister Eckhart, #KEYS
631:Man was moulded from the original brute. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05, #KEYS
632:The knowledge of the absolute does away, in the end, with both knowledge and ignorance, since knowledge is free from all duality. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
633:They say there is a doorway from heart to heart, but what is the use of a door when there are no walls?" ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
634:Try to be spontaneous and simple like a child in your relations with me - it will save you from many difficulties.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I,#KEYS
635:A man has the spirit of true renunciation who, upon meeting a beautiful young woman, turns away from her, seeing her as his mother ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
636:Banish all thought from thee and be God's void. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute, #KEYS
637:Everything is put out from latency, nothing is brought into existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Stress of the Hidden Spirit, #KEYS
638:God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches you by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly - not one. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
639:If you can detect and find out the universal illusion of Maya, it will fly away from you just as a thief runs away when found out. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
640:No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. ~ Leo the Great, #KEYS
641:Pure Consciousness, which is the Heart, includes all, and nothing is outside or apart from it. That is the ultimate Truth. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
642:Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it." ~ Pope John Paul II, (1920-2005) served as Pope and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 to 2005, Wikipedia., #KEYS
643:The jiva (soul), possessed by the spirit of Maya (illusion), on realizing that it is self-deluded, becomes at once free from Maya. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
644:The substance from which we derive our conception of the absolute is the identical substance from which we conceive of the finite. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
645:All sadhanas, all practices, are meant to purify and strengthen the mind that disturbs your being and prevents you from being aware of the Reality that is within you. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
646:Becoming liberated from samsara is an inner journey. You can travel across the world and universe, and you will not find a way out. To get out, you must go in. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
647:But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Deuteronomy, 4:29, #KEYS
648:By faith we too embraced Christ, the salvation of God the Father, as he came to us from Bethlehem. Gentiles before, we have now become the people of God. ~ Sophronius of Jerusalem, #KEYS
649:From a veiled God-joy the worlds were made ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05, #KEYS
650:Love is due to our neighbor in respect of what he holds from God, that is, in respect of nature and grace ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.34.3)., #KEYS
651:Man cannot possess perfect happiness until all that separates him from others has been abolished in oneness. ~ Angolua Siloaius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
652:Master invisible filling all hearts and directing them from within, to whatever side I look, Thou dwellest there. ~ Bharon Guru, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
653:My love is not a hunger of the heart, My love is not a craving of the flesh; It came to me from God, to God returns.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Divine Plan,#KEYS
654:Our present nature is a derivation from Supernature and is not a pure ignorance but a half-knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
655:The cosmic mind being not limited by the ego, has nothing separate from itself and is therefore only aware. This is what the Bible means by "I am that I AM". ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
656:We have at a certain stage to liberate ourselves even from the desire of our liberation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Determinism of Nature, #KEYS
657:What separated Tesla from the competition was the willingness to charge after its vision without compromise, a complete commitment to execute to Musks standards.
~ Ashley Vance?,#KEYS
658:Let us never lose sight of this, my brothers, that when we depart from sincerity, we depart from the Truth. ~ Antoine the Healer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
659:No matter if the enemy has thousands of men, there is fulfillment in simply standing them off and being determined to cut them all down, starting from one end. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
660:Reject passion and attachment, then shall be revealed in thee that which now dwells hidden from thy eyes. ~ Sutra in 42 articles, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
661:Tell us what have you got from enlightenment? Did you become divine?" 'No' "Did you become a saint?" 'No' "The what did you become?" 'Awake' ~ Anthony De Mello. 'One Minute Wisdom', #KEYS
662:The insignificant veil of Maya prevents us from seeing the omnipresent and all-witnessing Sachchidananda: existence-knowledge-bliss. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
663:Then the third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star burning like a torch fell from heaven and landed on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water." ~ Revelation 8:10, #KEYS
664:The passions, even the passion for good, misrepresent the divine nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Heart and the Mind, #KEYS
665:Time is always moving on; nothing can stop it. We can't change the past, but we can learn from it to shape the future. Let's work together to create a happier future." ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
666:What availeth book-learning or delivery of lectures, if there is no Viveka within -- the discrimination of the Real from the unreal. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
667:Accept what is good even from the babbling of an idiot or the prattle of a child as they extract gold from a stone. ~ Mahabharata, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
668:For one who has the assured inner life, there is no dullness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram, Profiting from One's Stay in the Ashram, #KEYS
669:Hearing of wisdom from a teacher makes a greater impression than the mere reading of books, but seeing makes the greatest impression. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
670:I am never far from those with faith, or even from those without it, though they do not see me. My children will always, always, be protected by my compassion. ~ Guru Rinpoche, [T5], #KEYS
671:If you make friends with your problems you may have a lot of company but at least you're not alone." ~ Douglas King, quote from "Poems in a Minor Chord: Including Strange,", (2017)., #KEYS
672:If you take God's love from your heart and give it to worldly things, you will have lost the priceless jewel and will be poor indeed. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
673:In a supramentalised body immunity from illness would be automatic, inherent in its new nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Illness and Health, #KEYS
674:it is ordered toward confirming the faith, and it proceeds from God's omnipotence on which faith relies ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.178.1ad5)., #KEYS
675:It is the great sun that finally removes The misty ignorance of the world, It is the quintessential butter from the churning of the milk of Dharma. ~ The Mahasiddha Shantideva, #KEYS
676:Our hands imbibe like roots,
so I place them on what is beautiful in this world.
And I fold them in prayer, and they draw from the heavens, light. ~ Saint Francis of Assisi,#KEYS
677:The separation of the body from the soul is called death. But thi - cannot be said to be either good or bad; it is neutral ~ Origen, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, 6.6.5)., #KEYS
678:When you give up thinking of outward objects and prevent your mind from going outwards by turning it inwards and fixing it in the Self, the Self alone remains. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
679:A work is rendered virtuous and praiseworthy and meritorious mainly insofar as it proceeds from the will ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.104.1ad3)., #KEYS
680:By right knowledge put steadily into practice liberation comes inevitably. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from Subjection to the Body, #KEYS
681:If the Christians continue to desert Jesus Christ in His temple, will not the Heavenly Father take away from them His well-beloved Son Whom they neglect?" ~ Saint Peter Julian Eymard, #KEYS
682:One should seek the truth himself while profiting by the directions which have reached us from ancient sages and saints. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
683:The Guru shows the disciple the path to life eternal, and protects him from all troubles. Putting great faith in the words of the Guru let the disciple live them. ~ SWAMI BRAHMANANDA, #KEYS
684:Yet mystery and imagination arise from the same source. This source is called darkness ... Darkness within darkness, the gateway to all understanding. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
685:You veil your eyes and complain that you cannot see the Eternal. If you wish to see Him, tear from your eyes the veil of the illusion. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
686:Cease being exclusively fascinated by whatever you are aware of and be interested in the experience of being aware itself." ~ Rupert Spira, from "Being Aware of Being Aware,", (2017)., #KEYS
687:Desire is the profoundest root of all evil; it is from desire that there has arisen the world of life and sorrow. ~ Pali Canonymous, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
688:[Doubt] delivers us from all sorts of prejudices and makes available to us an easy method of accustoming our minds to become independent of the senses.
~ Rene Descartes, 1950, p. 21,#KEYS
689:Dream not that happiness
Can spring from wicked roots. God overrules
And Right denied is mighty. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act II,#KEYS
690:Learn to self-conquest, persevere thus for a time, and you will perceive very clearly the advantage which you gain from it. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #KEYS
691:Men want absolute and permanent happiness. This does not reside in objects, but in the Absolute. It is Peace free from pain and pleasure - it is a neutral state. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
692:One who returns not wrath to wrath, saves himself as well as the other from a great peril: he is A physician to both. ~ Mahabharata, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
693:Soul receives from soul that knowledge, therefore not by book nor from tongue. If knowledge of mysteries come after emptiness of mind, that is illumination of heart. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
694:The light has come and has shone upon a world enveloped in shadows; the Dayspring from on high has visited us and given light to those who lived in darkness. ~ Sophronius of Jerusalem, #KEYS
695:The one who is stern with people on acts of worship (ibada) will only turn them away from it. ~ al-Habib Ahmad b. Hasan al-Attas, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
696:All beings, to the extent that they exist, are good and come from the Good and they fall short of goodness and being in proportion to their remoteness from the Good. ~ Pseudo-Dionysius, #KEYS
697:Conscience is said to be divinely implanted in the way that all knowledge of truth in us is said to be from God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 17.1ad6)., #KEYS
698:Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, James, 1:17, #KEYS
699:I give order to those who are perfectly and totally surrendered, as these orders cannot be discussed or disobeyed.
~ The Mother, More Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
700:In the economy of Nature opposite creates itself out of opposite and not only like from like. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Ideal Spirit of Poetry, #KEYS
701:It is rather a wider than a higher consciousness that is necessary for the liberation from the ego. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Ego and Its Forms, #KEYS
702:It is truly the supreme Light, inaccessible and unknowable, from which all other lamps receive their flame and their splendour. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
703:Moonlight floods the whole sky from horizon to horizon; How much it can fill your room depends on its windows." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
704:Once I took as Mantra the name of Allah from a Mohammedan teacher and repeated the name for several days, strictly observing their ways. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
705:Say: "O mankind, the truth has come to you from your Lord." (10:108) ~ qul ya ayyuha 'n-nasu qad ja'a-kumu 'l-haqqu min Rabbi-kum, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
706:The cure from all difficulties can come only when the egoistic concentration upon one's desires and conveniences ceases.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
707:The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it. ~ Saint Vincent de Paul, #KEYS
708:Where I have once loved, I do not cease from loving. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, To His Father-in-Law, #KEYS
709:Your trust in God is sufficient to save you from rebirths. Cast all burden on Him. Have faith and that will save you. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks, 30, #KEYS
710:Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Romans, 13:11,#KEYS
711:If in thirst you drink water from a cup, you see God in it. Those who are not in love with God will see only their own faces in it. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, [T5], #KEYS
712:Jnana, discrimination of God from the unreal universe, and Karma, work without attachment, are far more difficult than Bhakti in this age ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
713:Looking at you from within the Self, I never leave you.
How can this fact be known to your externalised vision? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Padamalai, 37,#KEYS
714:People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons from within. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination, #KEYS
715:The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results; all his selfish desires have been consumed in the fire of knowledge. ~ Bhagavad Gita, #KEYS
716:The death of a man or animal results from the separation of the soul, which completes the nature of animal or man ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.50.4)., #KEYS
717:The delight of eating is contrary to the health of the body unless a rational temperance resists the pleasure and withdraws from its desire what is going to be a burden. ~ Leo the Great, #KEYS
718:The light of thy spirit cannot destroy these shades of night so long as thou hast not driven out desire from thy soul. ~ Hindu Wisdom, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
719:Then, accomplished in knowledge, he shakes from him good and evil, and, stainless, reaches that supreme Equality. ~ Mundaka Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
720:There are two classes of Yogis, hidden and open. The former go through religious practice in secret and keep hidden from the public gaze. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
721:You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.
~ Swami Vivekananda,#KEYS
722:All light is but a flash from his closed eyes: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Eternal Day, The Soul's Choice and the Supreme Consummation, #KEYS
723:Conscience is called the law of our understanding because it is a judgment of reason derived from the natural law ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 17.1ad1)., #KEYS
724:Doctrine says the absolute must not be considered apart from the world and the soul. These three form a one -- three in one, one in three. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
725:Equality is not fulfilled till it takes its positive form of love and delight. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Heart and the Mind, #KEYS
726:For this is the message that ye have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 John, III.11, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
727:Maya is attachment and love towards one's own relations. Daya is love extending equally to all beings and comes from the knowledge of God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
728:o discern the eternal Reality and to detach oneself from the world are the two means of purification of the human heart. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
729:Self-Experience
By an absolute self-giving all egoistic desire disappears from the heart. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita: Works, Devotion and Knowledge#KEYS
730:So the mind may be unattached and fixed upon God, you should often retire into solitude -- a place which is away from either men or women. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
731:The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect, but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves"
~ Carl Jung,#KEYS
732:The shadow has to disappear and by its disappearance reveal the spirit's unclouded substance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Ego, #KEYS
733:Turn not thy head from this path till thou art led to its end; keep ever near to this door till it is opened. Let not thy eyes be shut; seek well and thou shalt find. ~ Attar of Nishapur, #KEYS
734:Wisdom is like unto a beacon set on high, which radiates its light even in the darkest night. ~ Buddhist Meditations from the Japanese, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
735:You cannot get rid of the ego until you have realized God. If you find a person free from ego, then know for certain that he has seen God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
736:Action has to be complete and ungrudging, but also freedom of the soul from its works must be absolute. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, Conclusion and Summary, #KEYS
737:As long as you identify with a 'you' who either is or is not awake, you are still dreaming. Awakening is awakening from the dream of a separate you to simply Being Awakeness. ~ Adyashanti, #KEYS
738:Climbed back from Time into undying Self,
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King The Yoga of the Spirits Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
739:Divine Love is based upon oneness and the psychic derives from the Divine Love. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Divine Love, Psychic Love and Human Love, #KEYS
740:Egotism is like a cloud that keeps God hidden from our sight. If by the mercy of the Guru, egotism vanishes, God is seen in His full glory. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
741:People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons. From within. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination, #KEYS
742:You need not entertain any fear. I say, in the Kali Yuga the mental commission of a sin is no sin at all. Free your mind from all such worries. You have nothing to fear. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
743:Climbing from Nature's deep surrendered heart
It blooms for ever at the feet of God, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Heavens of the Ideal,#KEYS
744:From coveting is horn grief, from coveting is born fear. To be free utterly from desire is to know neither fear nor sorrow. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
745:From this instant on, vow to stop disappointing yourself. Separate yourself from the mob. Decide to be extraordinary and do what you need to do -- now." ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
746:Great souls are children of God, so they have no egotism. Their strength is of God, belonging to and coming from Him, nothing of themselves. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
747:I am weeping without knowing why.
Weep if you like, but do not worry. After the rain the sun shines more bright.
~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
748:Inspiration comes from above in answer to a state of concentration which is itself a call to it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, The Divine Force in Work, #KEYS
749:I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think, and so it all proceeds into deepest darkness. ~ Franz Kafka, #KEYS
750:Let our whole body in Christ Jesus be saved. Let each individual be subject to his neighbour, according to the position he is placed in by the gift he has from God. ~ Saint Clement of Rome, #KEYS
751:Man is sanctified by each of the sacraments, since sanctity means immunity from sin, which is the effect of grace ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.63.3ad2)., #KEYS
752:Use your body and your thought and turn away from anybody who asks you to believe blindly, whatever be his good will or his virtue. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
753:When you are engaged in devotional practices, keep aloof from those who scoff at them, and also from those who ridicule piety and the pious. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
754:And from the unsounded depths of the Unknown a reply came sublime and formidable and we knew that the earth was saved.
~ The Mother, Prayers And Meditations, [T0],#KEYS
755:Do no evil and evil shall not come upon thee; be far from the unjust and sin shall be far from thee. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Ecclesiastes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
756:Emptiness is that which frees us from religiosity and leads us to true spirituality." ~ Brother Lawrence, (1614 - 1691) served as a lay brother in a Carmelite monastery in Paris, Wikipedia., #KEYS
757:However or from wheresoever it came, the only thing to do with a depression is to throw it out. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Depression and Despondency, #KEYS
758:Solitude is for me a fount of healing which makes my life worth living. Talking is often a torment for me, and I need many days of silence to recover from the futility of words. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
759:Spiritual life begins when you have loosened yourself from the control of the senses. He whose senses rule him is worldly — is a slave. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
760:Suffering is resistance to a presentation of the Truth. Happiness is deliverance from suffering, First accept Now let go." ~ Phoenix Desmond, author of "Make Love to the Universe,", (2011)., #KEYS
761:The questioner has to come to an end. It is the questioner that creates the answer; and the questioner comes into being from the answer, otherwise there is no questioner. ~ U G Krishnamurti, #KEYS
762:Where there is Isness, there God is. Creation is the giving of isness from God. And that is why God becomes where any creature expresses God. ~ Meister Eckhart, #KEYS
763:You evidently do not suffer from "quotation-hunger" as I do! I get all the dictionaries of quotations I can meet with, as I always want to know where a quotation comes from. ~ Lewis Carroll, #KEYS
764:And all things depend one on the other and all are bound to each other...all is that Ancient One and nothing is separate from him. ~ Zohar, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
765:As if in a rock-temple's solitude hid,
God's refuge from an ignorant worshipping world, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Finding of the Soul,#KEYS
766:As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. ~ Mark 2:19-20, #KEYS
767:The human mind is complex with all its typical moods, manners, and weapons. The purpose of sadhana is to be free from the magic wonders of the mind and remain free all the time. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
768:And he departed from our sight that we might return to our hearts and find him there. For he left us, and behold, he is here. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
769:At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. ~ M J Ryan, A Grateful Heart: Daily Blessings for the Evening Meal from Buddha to the Beatles, #KEYS
770:But it is called COOPERATING grace inasmuch as it is the principle of meritorious works, which spring from free-will ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.111.2)., #KEYS
771:Die and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign that you've died. Your old life was a frantic running from silence. Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
772:Each being who renounces his self and detaches himself completely from it, hears within this voice and this echo, "I am God. ~ Gulschen Raz, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
773:Each finite thing I see is a façade;
From its windows looks at me the Illimitable. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Omnipresence,#KEYS
774:Never ignore a person who loves you, cares for you, and misses you. Because one day, you might wake up from your sleep and realize that you lost the moon while counting the stars. ~ Nico Lang, #KEYS
775:The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds. ~ John Maynard Keynes, #KEYS
776:The Israelites passed through the sea; you have passed from death to life. They were delivered from the Egyptians; you have been delivered from the powers of darkness. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
777:The superior soul asks nothing from any but itself. The vulgar and unmeritable man asks everything of others. ~ Confucius: Lia yu II XV. 20, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
778:They went out from us, but they were not really of our number; if they had been, they would have remained with us. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number." ~ 1 John 2:18-19, #KEYS
779:Vainly man, crouched in his corner of safety, shrinks from the fatal
Lure of the Infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ahana,#KEYS
780:With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves. ~ Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind, #KEYS
781:Do what thou knowest to be good without expecting from it any glory. Forget not that the vulgar area bad judge of good actions. ~ Demophilus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
782:Energetically resolved on the search, they must pass without ceasing from negligence to the world of effort. ~ Baha-ullah: The Seven Valleys, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
783:Fear of the gods arose from man's ignorance of God and his ignorance of the laws that govern the world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Godward Emotions, #KEYS
784:Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all pollutionof the flesh and spirit. ~ II Corinthians VII. I, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
785:How can you draw close to God when you are far from your own self? Grant, Lord, that I may know myself that I may know thee.
~ Saint Augustine of Hippo,#KEYS
786:If you are never parted from the aspiring resolve to attain awak- ening, wherever you are born-whether above, below, or on the same level-you will not forget the thought of awakening. ~ Asanga, #KEYS
787:Neglect not the conversation of the aged, for they speak that which they have heard from their fathers. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Ecclesiastes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
788:The vehemence of desire for sensible delight arises from the fact that operations of the senses are more perceptible ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.2.6ad2)., #KEYS
789:When anyone does good without troubling himself for the result, ambition and malevolence pass quickly away from him. ~ Fo-shu-hing-tsan-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
790:Abandon all dharmas and take refuge in Me alone; I will deliver thee from all sin and evil; do not grieve. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, (Gita 18:66), [T5}, #KEYS
791:As from a fire that is burning brightly sparks of a like nature are produced in their thousands, so from the Unmoving manifold becomings are born and thither also they wend. ~ Mundaka Upanishad, #KEYS
792:(continued from previous tweet) … "It's knowing that the person you loved has vanished into thin air and all that's left behind is their ghost." ~ Mohadesa Najumi . see: http://bit.ly/2wWb6jH, #KEYS
793:elf-control which lies on a man like a fine garment, falls away from him who negligently gives himself up to slumber. ~ Fo-shu-hing-tsan-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
794:It is from the Silence that the peace comes; when the peace deepens and deepens, it becomes more and more the Silence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Silence, #KEYS
795:... the building up of a more equitable human society; a Church which would be more evangelical and therefore disengaged from its hierarchical institutions!" ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi , #KEYS
796:The image of God is common to both sexes, since it stems from the mind, in which there is no distinction between sexes ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.93.6ad2)., #KEYS
797:The nation in modern times is practically indestructible, unless it dies from within. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle: Nation and Empire, Real and Political Unities, #KEYS
798:There is the truism that has been taught for centuries in many traditions: 'Whoever approval you seek, you are their prisoner'." ~ From "Sacred Laughter of the Sufis,", (2014) Imam Jamal Rahman, #KEYS
799:Well-known or unknown has absolutely no importance from the spiritual point of view. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram, No Propaganda or Proselytism, #KEYS
800:A Guru is a God-knowing person who has been divinely appointed by Him to take the seeker as a disciple and lead him from the darkness of ignorance to the light of wisdom. ~ PARAMAHAMSA YOGANANDA, #KEYS
801:But like a shining answer from the gods
Approached through sun-bright spaces Savitri.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Call to the Quest, [T5],#KEYS
802:In everyone, there is naturally implanted something from which he can arrive at knowledge of the fact of God's existence ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 10.12ad1)., #KEYS
803:Insofar as human law deviates from reason, it is called an unjust law, and has the nature not of law, but of violence ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.93.3ad3)., #KEYS
804:Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood, ... ~ Revelation 1:5, #KEYS
805:We must aid our parents, love and revere them, according to their human nature, but hate their moral vices and what in them turns us away from God (Commentary on John 19). ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
806:All men are separated from each other by the body, but all are united by the same spiritual principle which gives life to everything. ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
807:Behold the gold that can be tried, behold the useful gold, behold the gold of Christ which frees from death, behold the gold whereby modesty is redeemed and chastity is preserved. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
808:He is not from amongst us who doesnt show respect to the elderly and mercy to the youth. ~ Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him), @Sufi_Path #KEYS
809:He whose mind is utterly pure from all evil as the Sun is pure of stain and the moon of soil, him indeed I call a man of religion. ~ Udanavagga, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
810:Naked my spirit from its vestures stands;
I am alone with my own self for space. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Self's Infinity,#KEYS
811:Our smallness saves us from the Infinite
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 07.04 - The Triple Soul-Forces,#KEYS
812:Tests come sometimes from the hostile forces, sometimes in the course of Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, The Hostile Forces and the Difficulties of Yoga, #KEYS
813:The first gift of the absolute transcendent Goodness is the gift of being, and that Goodness is praised from those that first and principally have a share of being. ~ Ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite, #KEYS
814:The transition from the mind-self to the knowledge-self is the great and the decisive transition in the Yoga. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Vijnana or Gnosis, #KEYS
815:A lover must embrace willingly all that is difficult and bitter for the sake of the Beloved, and he should not turn away from Him because of adversities. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
816:Called back her thoughts from speech to sit within
In a deep room in meditation's house. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Debate of Love and Death,#KEYS
817:Dive and dive deep in the depth of Unity, and fly from the salt waves of duality and the brackish water diversity." ~ Vasishtha, one of the oldest and most revered Vedic rishis [sages], Wikipedia., #KEYS
818:Fire will descend from heaven and humanity will be purified and completely renewed, so as to be ready to receive the Lord Jesus who will return to you in glory." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi, #KEYS
819:Happiness can only arise as a 'byproduct' of a life devoted to the services of others." ~ Joanne Carriatore, from "Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief", (2017)., #KEYS
820:Into the Silence, into the Silence,
Arise, O Spirit immortal,
Away from the turning Wheel, breaking the magical Circle. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, Ascent,#KEYS
821:Mercy, my God, mercy! Descend, O Precious Blood, and deliver these souls from their prison. Poor souls! you suffer so cruelly, and yet you are content and cheerful. ~ Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, #KEYS
822:My child, do not give way to evil desire, for it leads to fornication. And do not use obscene language, or let your eye wander, for from all these come adulteries. ~ Didache of the Twelve Apostles, #KEYS
823:Nothing in the universe has its real cause in the universe; all proceeds from this supernal Existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Supreme Word of the Gita, #KEYS
824:The pure psychic being is of the essence of Ananda, it comes from the delight-soul in the universe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Power of the Instruments, #KEYS
825:This is All, and so is that; All comes out of the All, taking away the All from the All, the All remains for ever." ~ "Sri Isopanishad," one of the shortest Upanishads. See: https://bit.ly/3eXNVGx, #KEYS
826:Going for refuge to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha means that we apply effort to receiving Buddha's blessings, to putting Dharma into practice, and to receiving help from Sangha. ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, #KEYS
827:I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness. ~ Max Planck, #KEYS
828:Look at things from an inner point of view and try to get the benefit of all that happens. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, The Right Attitude towards Difficulties, #KEYS
829:Pain is a contrary effect of the one delight of existence resulting from the weakness of the recipient. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Knowledge and the Ignorance, #KEYS
830:Philosophy is a doctrine of building character, not of nourishing weakness. Strength of character comes from contact with life and not from running away. ~ Manly P. Hall (Horizon August 1941 p. 4) #KEYS
831:We are creating new fate for the future even while undergoing old fate from the past in the present. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I, Fate, Free Will and Prediction, #KEYS
832:Your life sparks fires from within your innermost temple. No one can reach there but you, it is your inner sanctum. You are your own master there, only you can reach and ignite the fire. ~ Rajneesh, #KEYS
833:In the end its not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away." ~ Shing Xiang, (no bio. found). From "1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom", (2014) Ed. Kim Lim, #KEYS
834:Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises." ~ Samuel Butler, (1835-1902), the iconoclastic English author of the Utopian satirical novel Erewhon, (1872), Wikipedia, #KEYS
835:Schismatics properly so called are those who willfully and intentionally separate themselves from the unity of the Church ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.39.1ad3)., #KEYS
836:That which distinguishes from others the upright man, is that he never pollutes the genius within him which dwells in his heart. ~ Marcus Aurelius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
837:The body is not distinct from the soul but makes of part it and the soul is not distinct from the whole but one of its members ~ Attar of Nishapur, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
838:The entire conquest of the body comes in fact by the conquest of the physical life-energy. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from Subjection to the Body, #KEYS
839:The eye is not able to perceive physical objects without light, nor can the intellect receive spiritual contemplation apart from the knowledge of God. ~ Maximus the Confessor, Ambiguum 10.27 [1156b], #KEYS
840:The greater the tension, the greater the potential. Great energy springs from a correspondingly great tension of opposites. ~ Carl Jung, "Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon" (1942), CW 13, § 154., #KEYS
841:Even if thou wouldst, thou couldst not separate thy life from the life of humanity. Thou livest in humanity and by it and for it. ~ Marcus Aurelius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
842:GRIEF is a pain which makes one speechless; DISTRESS is one which oppresses; ENVY is one arising from another's good fortune; and COMPASSION is one arising from another's misfortune. ~ John Damascene, #KEYS
843:If we think of ourselves as cattle with ropes hanging from our noses, Dharma practitioners hold that rope in their own hands, whereas ordinary people are controlled by others. ~ Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, #KEYS
844:Now, if you don't like that, Berrigan, that's the history of my family. They don't take no shit from nobody. In due time I ain't going to take no shit from nobody. You can record that. ~ Jack Kerouac, #KEYS
845:The very basis of this Yoga is bhakti and if one kills one's emotional being there can be no bhakti. So there can be no possibility of emotion being excluded from the Yoga. ~ Sri Aurobindo, (CWSA 29), #KEYS
846:A burning Love from white spiritual founts
Annulled the sorrow of the ignorant depths. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Adoration of the Divine Mother,#KEYS
847:Against the soul that grows weary in the affliction that comes upon it from restriction of bread and water: 'It is through many afflictions that we must enter the kingdom of God.' ~ Evagrius of Pontus, #KEYS
848:All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combatted, suppressed ~ only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle. ~ Nikola Tesla (born 10 July 1856), #KEYS
849:In this day and age, the greatest devotion, greater than learning and praying, consists in accepting the world exactly as it happens to be." ~ Rabbi Moshe , from "There Is A Season" by Joan Chittister, #KEYS
850:That man whose hair stands on end at the mere mention of the name of God, and from whose eyes flow tears of love—he has indeed reached his last birth. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
851:What is the use of that baptism which cleanses the flesh and body alone? Baptize the soul from wrath and from covetousness, from envy, and from hatred; and, lo! The body is pure. ~ Saint Justin Martyr, #KEYS
852:Why do you not spend the time which you have free from your duties in the church in reading? Why do you not go back again to see Christ? Why do you not address Him, and hear His voice? ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
853:You cannot find any peace by escaping from human pain and suffering; you have to find peace and harmony right in the midst of human pain. That is the purpose of spiritual life. ~ Dainin Katagiri Roshi, #KEYS
854:You veil your eyes and complain that you cannot see the Eternal. If you wish to seeHim, tear from your eyes the veil of the illusion. ~ Ramakrishnan, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
855:Circumcision signified "the passing away of the old generation" from the decrepitude of which we are freed by Christ's Passion ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.37.1ad1)., #KEYS
856:Clerics should abstain not only from things that are evil in themselves, but even from those that have an appearance of evil ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.77.4ad3)., #KEYS
857:He is the mute lamb, the slain lamb, the lamb born of Mary, the fair ewe. He was seized from the flock, dragged off to be slaughtered, sacrificed in the evening, and buried at night. ~ Melito of Sardis, #KEYS
858:No man works, but Nature works through him for the self-expression of a Power within that proceeds from the Infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Divine Work, #KEYS
859:Nothing can spiritually justify individual violence done in anger or passion or from any vital motive. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram, Essays on the Gita, #KEYS
860:Oh no," said the Master. "Think how right-intentioned the monkey is when he lifts a fish from the river to save it from the watery grave." ~ Anthony de Mello, (1931-1987) from "One Minute Wisdom"(1985), #KEYS
861:Pain and discomfort come from a physical consciousness not forceful enough to determine its own reaction to things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Illness and Health, #KEYS
862:The consciousness of collective humanity is only a larger comprehensive edition or a sum of individual egos. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Ego, #KEYS
863:The Mother underlined the words 'all will be well' and wrote beside them: 'This is the voice of truth, the one you must listen to.'
~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
864:There is a stain worse than all stains, the stain of ignorance. Purify yourselves of that stain, O disciples, and be free from soil. ~ Dhammapada 243, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
865:The speed and distance that you travel on the path is determined by the level of your courage to go in the opposite direction from what you have been doing since beginningless time. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
866:You do not involve yourself in quarrels and dissensions any more. Another thing. It is 'lust and gold' that keeps men away from God. That is the barrier. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
867:A fruit is something that proceeds from a source as from a seed or root ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.70.3). https://twitter.com/lazyraran/status/1382480995321004034, #KEYS
868:Grace is something spontaneous which wells out from the Divine Consciousness as a free flower of its being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Bhakti Yoga and Vaishnavism, #KEYS
869:He whose mind is utterly purified from soil, as heaven is pure from stain and the moon from dust, him indeed I call a man of religion. ~ Buddhist Text, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
870:Let my skin and sinews and bones dry up, together with all the flesh and blood of my body! I welcome it! But I will not move from this spot until I have attained the supreme and final wisdom.
~ Buddha,#KEYS
871:Meditate again and again until you have turned your mind away from the activities of this life, which are like adorning yourself while being led to the execution ground. ~ Tsongkhapa, Lamrim Chenmo (160) #KEYS
872:O Thou who climb'dst to mind from the dull stone,
Face now the miracled summits still unwon. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Evolution - II,#KEYS
873:When once the higher consciousness begins to act, the difficulty diminishes and there is a clear progress from truth to greater truth.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - IV,#KEYS
874:Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 Peter, II. 11, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
875:From the side of Christ sleeping on the Cross the Sacraments flowed—namely, blood and water—on which the Church was established ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.92.3)., #KEYS
876:Look. This little finger covers the eye and prevents the whole world from being seen. In the same way this small mind covers the whole universe and prevents Reality from being seen. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
877:My mind has left its prison-camp of brain;
It pours, a luminous sea from spirit heights. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Inner Sovereign,#KEYS
878:Often when after falling into sin we strive to return to God, we experience further and more grievous attacks from the old enemy ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.44.1ad4)., #KEYS
879:That he may vanquish hate, let the disciple live with a soul delivered from all hate and show towards all beings love and compassion. ~ Magghima Nikaya, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
880:An old self lurks in the new self we are;
Hardly we escape from what we once had been: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Parable of the Search for the Soul,#KEYS
881:A person of wisdom is not one who practices Buddhism apart from worldly affairs but, rather, one who thoroughly understands the principles by which the world is governed. ~ Nichiren, #KEYS
882:The blue sea's chant, the rivulet's wandering voice
Are murmurs falling from the Eternal's harp. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Debate of Love and Death,#KEYS
883:Then another horse went forth. It was bright red, and its rider was granted permission to take away peace from the earth and to make men slay one another. And he was given a great sword." ~ Revelation 6:4, #KEYS
884:All depends on what you expect from life, but if you sincerely want to do the Yoga, you must abstain from all sexual activities.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, [T4],#KEYS
885:Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a superior to themselves. Most Gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.
~ Robert Heinlein, Notebooks of Lazarus Long, from Time Enough for Love (1973).,#KEYS
886:Repeating His name will make your mind steadfast like the flame of a lamp protected from wind. Wind makes a flame unsteady. Similarly, desires prevent the mind from becoming concentrated. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
887:Someone who tasted the sweetness of being close to Allah, will surely find bitter anything that may distant him from Allah." ~ al-Habib Omar bin Hafiz, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
888:The superior type of man is in all the circumstances of his life exempt from prejudices and obstinacy; he regulates himself by justice alone. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
889:The truth is always the One at work on itself, at play with itself, infinite in unity, infinite in multiplicity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Ego, #KEYS
890:All change must come from within with the felt or the secret support of the Divine Power. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Interactions with Others and the Practice of Yoga, #KEYS
891:Allhumma innee as'aluka'l huda, wa'ttuqa, wa'l afaafa,wa'l ghina. ~ O Allah I ask You for guidance, piety, dignified restraint, and freedom from need)., @Sufi_Path #KEYS
892:A relation also can be established on a sure basis only when it is free from attachment . ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Interactions with Others and the Practice of Yoga, #KEYS
893:A tireless benevolence, clear-seeing and comprehensive, free from all personal reaction, is the best way to love God and serve Him upon earth.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
894:Fortunate is the man who does not lose himself in the labyrinths of philosophy, but goes straight to the Source from which they all rise. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Guru Ramana, #KEYS
895:From the most exalted in position to the humblest and obscurest of men all have one equal duty, to correct incessantly and improve themselves. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
896:He who abstains from all violence towards beings, to the weak as to the strong, who kills not and makes not to kill, he, I say, is a Brahmin. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
897:Human spirituality is to seek an answer to the question: 'how can you make sense out of a world which does not seem to be intrinsically reasonable?'" ~ John D. Morgan. From "Death and Spirituality,", (1993), #KEYS
898:Mankind is still embryonic ... [man is] the bud from which something more complicated and more centered than man himself should emerge. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
899:The Divine Truth is greater than any religion or creed or scripture or idea or philosophy. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram, Passages from The Synthesis of Yoga, #KEYS
900:The liberation from an externalised ego sense is the first step towards the soul's freedom and mastery. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of the Mental Being, #KEYS
901:The One Spirit who has mirrored some of His modes of being in the world and in the soul, is multiple in the Jiva. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Ego, #KEYS
902:The Power that from her being's summit reigned,
The Presence chambered in lotus secrecy, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real,#KEYS
903:Aspiring to godhead from insensible clay
He travels slow-footed towards the eternal day. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Man the Thinking Animal,#KEYS
904:Do not take my words for a teaching. Always they are a force in action, uttered with a definite purpose, and they lose their true power when separated from that purpose. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
905:He tore desire up from its bleeding roots
And offered to the gods the vacant place. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
906:He was not far from it [creation] before, for no part of creation had ever been without him who, while ever abiding in union with the Father, yet fills all things that are. ~ Athanasius, On the Incarnation 8, #KEYS
907:I hardly ever talk- words seem such a waste, and they are none of them true. No one has yet invented a language from my point of view. ~ Aleister Crowley, Diary of a Drug Fiend, #KEYS
908:I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least." ~ Walt Whitman, (1819 - 1892) American poet, essayist, and journalist. From his poem, "Song of Myself.", #KEYS
909:Illusion (World)
When one is living in the physical mind, the only way to escape from it is by imagination. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III, Experiences and Realisations,#KEYS
910:Men want to help each other with a motive behind or a feeling which proceeds from the ego. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Interactions with Others and the Practice of Yoga, #KEYS
911:My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength, inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know it exists.
~ Nikola Tesla,#KEYS
912:When thou takest cognizance of what thine "I" is, then art thou delivered from egoism and shalt know that thou art not other than God. ~ Mohyddin-ibn-Arabi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
913:Arrive at knowledge over small streamlets, and do not plunge immediately into the ocean, since progress must go from the easier to the more difficult. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
914:Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come." ~ Rabindranath Tagore, (1861 - 7 1941), a polymath, poet, musician, and artist from the Indian subcontinent, Wikipedia., #KEYS
915:If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you" ~ Romans 8:11)., #KEYS
916:Light, burning Light from the Infinite's diamond heart
Quivers in my heart where blooms the deathless rose. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Light,#KEYS
917:Man separates from Nature only that Nature may be found again in a higher dignity in the Man. For as the Ideal is realized in Nature, so is the Real idealized in man. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Theory of Life, #KEYS
918:Since the race of women owed to men a debt, as from Adam without woman woman came, therefore without man the Virgin this day brought forth, and on behalf of Eve repaid the debt to man. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
919:Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return. And we can. Because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. ~ Carl Sagan, #KEYS
920:The ego-sense is not indispensable to the world-play in which it is so active and so falsifies the truth of things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Ego, #KEYS
921:Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." ~ John Wayne, #KEYS
922:Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come." ~ Rabindranath Tagore, (1861 - 7 1941), a polymath, poet, musician, and artist from the Indian subcontinent, Wikipedia.", #KEYS
923:God is not remote from us. He is at the point of my pen, my (pick) shovel, my paint brush, my (sewing) needle - and my heart and thoughts. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
924:Since our father is related to us as principle, even as God is, it belongs properly to the father to receive honor from his children ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.26.9ad3)., #KEYS
925:Sometimes things look good & seem good from the outside, but are bad from the inside. We should be careful. ~ Shaykh Mehmet Adil al-Haqqani Al-Naqshabandi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
926:The proud man wishes to distinguish himself from others and deprives himself thus of the best joy of life, of a free and joyful communion with men. ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
927:We shall incur no slight injury but rather great danger, if we rashly yield ourselves to the inclinations of men who aim at exciting strife and tumults, so as to draw us away from what is good. ~ Saint Clement, #KEYS
928:All the aspects of the sea are not different from the sea; nor is there any difference between the universe and its supreme Principle. ~ Chhandogya Uppanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
929:As for withdrawal of Grace, it might be said that few are those from whom the Grace withdraws, but many are those who withdraw from the Grace.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,#KEYS
930:Don't let anything from outside approach and disturb you. What people think, do or say is of little importance. The only thing that counts is your relation with the Divine. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
931:Helping yourself, you help the world. You are in the world - you are the world. You are not different from the world, nor is the world different from you. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
932:It waited for the fiat of the Word
That comes through the still self from the Supreme. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The House of the Spirit and the New Creation,#KEYS
933:Knowledge of conclusions requires two things: an understanding of principles, and reasoning, which draws the conclusions from the principles ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 14.6)., #KEYS
934:One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.
~ Robert Heinlein, Notebooks of Lazarus Long, from Time Enough for Love (1973). This is sometimes misquoted as One man's religion is another man's belly laugh.,#KEYS
935:Our Lord Jesus Christ will come from heaven. He will come at the end of the world, in glory, at the last day. For there will be an end to this world, and the created world will be made new. ~ Cyril of Jerusalem, #KEYS
936:The consecration of this sacrament, and the acceptance of this sacrifice, and its fruits, proceed from the power of the cross of Christ ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.83.5ad3)., #KEYS
937:The Sun from which we kindle all our suns,
The Light that leans from the unrealised Vasts, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Adoration of the Divine Mother, [T1],#KEYS
938:We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, (b. 1926) a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist, published more than 100 books, including more than 40 in English, Wikipedia., #KEYS
939:Christ is all, and in all. For circumcision is obtained through Christ alone, and freedom comes from Christ alone ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Colossians 3, lect. 2)., #KEYS
940:Desire is at once the motive of our actions, our lever of accomplishment and the bane of our existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Heart and the Mind, #KEYS
941:It is certain that whoever could write the history of his own life from its very ground, would have thereby grasped in a brief conspectus the entire history of the universe. ~ Schelling, Ages of the World (1811), #KEYS
942:It is in the latter way that he withdraws some from the use of wine, that they may aim at perfection, even as from riches and the like ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.149.3ad3), #KEYS
943:Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
944:When a man shakes from him the clinging yoke of desire, affliction drops away from him little by little as drops of water glide from a lotus-leaf. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
945:If the soul would give itself leisure to take breath and return into itself, it would be easy for it to draw from its own depths the seeds of the true. ~ Seneca, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
946:In Christ, there is a twofold nature: one which He received of the Father from eternity, the other which He received from His Mother in time ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.35.2)., #KEYS
947:Since the Father and the Son mutually love one another, it necessarily follows that this mutual Love, the Holy Spirit, proceeds from both ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.37.1ad3)., #KEYS
948:Strange and terrible books were drawn voluminously from the stack shelves and from secure places of storage; and diagrams and formulae were copied with feverish haste and in bewildering abundance. ~ H P Lovecraft, #KEYS
949:The justification of a sinner is a certain movement by which the human mind is moved by God from the state of sin to the state of justice ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.113.5)., #KEYS
950:There are some so restless that when they are free from labour they labour all the more, because the more leisure they have for thought, the worse interior turmoil they have to bear. ~ Pope St. Gregory the Great , #KEYS
951:The Society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God." ~ Our Lady of La Salette , #KEYS
952:To eternal light and knowledge meant to rise,
Up from man's bare beginning is our climb; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind,#KEYS
953:Understand that for every rule which I have mentioned from the Quran, the Devil has one to match it, which he puts beside the proper rule to cause error. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
954:1FOR GOD alone my soul waits in silence; From Him comes my salvation. 2He alone is my rock and my salvation, My defense and my strong tower; I will not be shaken or disheartened. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 62, #KEYS
955:As a ripe fruit is at every moment in peril of detaching itself from the branch, so every creature born lives under a perpetual menace of death. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
956:Errors about creatures sometimes lead one astray from the truth of faith, in so far as the errors are inconsistent with a true knowledge of God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 2.3)., #KEYS
957:Every grace granted to man has three degrees in order; for by God it is communicated to Christ, from Christ it passes to the Virgin, and from the Virgin it descends to us." ~ Saint Bernardine of Siena, (1380-1444), #KEYS
958:He who always thinks himself as weak will never become strong, but he who knows himself to be a lion, rushes out from the worlds meshes, as a lion from its cage. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
959:How dare you talk of helping the world? God alone can do that. First you must be made free from all sense of self; then the Divine Mother will give you a task to do. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
960:If we are treading the path of light, and if by chance, by mistake, by ignorance, or even by bad habit, we commit mistakes, we will return to the path again, because of the guidance from the unknown. ~ Swami Rama, #KEYS
961:It is at some one point or a few points that the fire is lit and spreads from hearth to hearth, from altar to altar. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
962:John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning Christ is the Word who lives for ever. ~ Saint Augstine, Sermo 293.3 (PL 1328-1329), #KEYS
963:Let us die and enter into the darkness, silencing our anxieties, our passions and all the fantasies of our imagination. Let us pass over with the crucified Christ from this world to the Father. ~ Saint Bonaventure, #KEYS
964:Not mental control but some descent of a control from above the mind is the power demanded in the realisation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, The Vital and Other Levels of Being, #KEYS
965:o living being possessed by desire can escape from sorrow. Those who have full understanding of this truth, conceive a hatred for desire. ~ Fo-shu-hing-tsau-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
966:Since an unlooked-for salvation was to be provided for men through the help of God, so also was the unlooked-for birth from a virgin accomplished; God giving this sign, but man not working it out. ~ Saint Irenaeus, #KEYS
967:Split me, tear me apart,
fling me across the
fabric of space and time.
Make me nothing and from nothing,
make me everything. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path#KEYS
968:Summer has pleasant comrades, happy meetings
Of lily and rose and from the trees divinest greetings. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Songs to Myrtilla,#KEYS
969:This is the extraordinary thing about creativity: If just you keep your mind resting against the subject in a friendly but persistent way, sooner or later you will get a reward from your unconscious. ~ John Cleese, #KEYS
970:What are the roots of evil? Desire, disliking, ignorance. And what then are the roots of good? Liberation from desire, disliking and ignorance. ~ Magghima Nikaya, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
971:Jesus said, 'I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.'
~ Gospel of Thomas,#KEYS
972:Make speed, all of you, to one temple of God, to one altar, to one Jesus Christ, who came forth from the one and only Father, is eternally with that One, and to that One is now returned. ~ Saint Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
973:The silence of the Ineffable is a truth of divine being, but the Word which proceeds from that silence is also a truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #KEYS
974:The whole effort of Jesus or a Buddha or a Bodhidharma is nothing but how to undo that which society has done to you." ~ Osho, (1931 - 1990), Indian godman, Wikipedia. Quote from "ZEN the Path of Paradox,", (2001)., #KEYS
975:Aloneness is a gift. A beautiful gift to the human soul. True and consistent satisfaction comes from the bond you form with yourself. Nobody else is a constant" ~ Mohadesa Najumi, for bio. see: http://bit.ly/2wWb6jH, #KEYS
976:And we cannot achieve this health except through the physician of our souls, Jesus Christ, 'who shall save His people from their sins' ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Mt. 1:21)(ScG 4.72)., #KEYS
977:As our Saviour spent three days and three nights in the depths of the earth, so your first rising from the water represented the first day and your first immersion represented the first night. ~ Jerusalem Catecheses, #KEYS
978:He is here and there, He is everywhere, He is within us. He pervades this universe. In fact, He is immanent and resident in nature. He is intra-cosmic. He rules not from outside, but from within. ~ Swami Abhedananda, #KEYS
979:Justice and equity are twin Guardians that watch over men. From them are revealed such blessed and perspicuous words as are the cause of the well-being of the world and the protection of the nations. ~ Bahá'u'lláh, #KEYS
980:Let us read it thus: even if you do turn your face away from us, Lord, its light is still imprinted upon us. We hold it in our hearts and our innermost feelings are transformed by its light. ~ Saint Ambrose of Milan, #KEYS
981:Once you have turned to the Divine, saying 'I want to be yours', and the Divine has said, 'Yes' the whole world cannot keep you from it.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931, [T1],#KEYS
982:One has continually to leave behind his past selves and to see, act and live from an always higher and higher conscious level. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, The Lower Vital Being, #KEYS
983:The Divine has an equal love for all human beings, but the obscurity of consciousness of most men prevents them from perceiving this divine love. Truth is wonderful. It is in our perception that it is distorted. ~ ?, #KEYS
984:The peace and spontaneous knowledge are in the psychic being and from there they spread to mind and vital and physical. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Levels of the Physical Being, #KEYS
985:You are here to contact your soul, and that is why you live. Aspire persistently and try to silence your mind. The aspiration must come from the heart.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
986:All is determined by the Spirit, for all from subtlest existence to grossest matter is manifestation of the Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ladder of Self-Transcendence, #KEYS
987:Although I am a typical loner in my daily life, my awareness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has prevented me from feelings of isolation.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
988:Believe me, the Lord is always with you. If you practice a little, He will extend His helping hand to you. It is He who is protecting us all from miseries and troubles. How unbounded is His grace! ~ Swami Brahmananda, #KEYS
989:Every soul from whom we can seek blessings in his lifetime may also be approached for seeking blessings after he dies." ~ Imam Ghazali رحمة الله عليه, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
990:From lust are generated blindness of mind, inconsiderateness, inconstancy, precipitation, self-love, hatred of God, affection for this present world, but dread or despair of that which is to come. ~ Gregory the Great, #KEYS
991:He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Revelation, 9:2, #KEYS
992:If you are really desirous of mastering Zen, it is necessary for you to give up you life and plunge right into the pit of death." ~ Yekiwo, Zen master. Quote from "Zen and Japanese Culture" by Daisetz T. Suzuki, 1959, #KEYS
993:I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me! ~ Dr. Seuss, #KEYS
994:Nameless the austere ascetics without home
Abandoning speech and motion and desire
Aloof from creatures sat absorbed, alone. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Quest,#KEYS
995:Nature is not an outcast from Spirit, but its Image, world is not a falsity contradicting Brahman, but the symbol of a divine Existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, The Isha Upanishad, #KEYS
996:Our nature acts on a basis of confusion and restless compulsion to action, the Divine acts freely out of a fathomless calm. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Ego, #KEYS
997:The entire world, from its beginning to end, is nothing more than the dream of a man, who becomes captivated by what he sees, only to awaken and find that it was nothing (fa idhā lā shayy). ~ Umar b. Al-Khaṭṭāb #KEYS
998:Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is already known? Or should we try to develop creative and innovative minds, capable of discovery from the preschool age on, throughout life? ~ Jean Piaget, #KEYS
999:He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Revelation, 21:4, #KEYS
1000:India has lived and lived richly, splendidly, greatly, but with a different will in life from Europe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture - V, #KEYS
1001:In our unseen subtle body thought is born
Or there it enters from the cosmic field. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute,#KEYS
1002:It met her as the uncaught inaudible Voice
That speaks for ever from the Unknowable. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute#KEYS
1003:Keep company with those who remind you of God, and seek approval of those who counsel not with the tongue of words but the tongue of deeds." ~ Ibn Khafif, (died 981/982) a Persian mystic and sufi from Iran, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1004:Myth suckled knowledge with her lustrous milk;
The infant passed from dim to radiant breasts. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind,#KEYS
1005:Since we desire the true happiness that is brought about by a calm mind, and such peace of mind arises only from having a compassionate attitude, we need to make a concerted effort to develop compassion." ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
1006:They propose false dogmas about Christ by subtracting something from his divinity or humanity, yet "every spirit that denies Christ is not from God" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (1Jn4:3)., #KEYS
1007:We have been taught that the food consecrated by the Word of prayer which comes from him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus. ~ Justin Martyr, #KEYS
1008:Who goeth into the next world undelivered from death, even as here death respecteth nothing, so in that world too shall he be its perpetual prey. ~ atapatha Brahmana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1009:A perfect rhythm will often even give immortality to work which is slight in vision and very far from the higher intensities of style. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, Rhythm and Movement, #KEYS
1010:A sole thing the Gods
Demand from all men living, sacrifice:
Nor without this shall any crown be grasped. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Love and Death,#KEYS
1011:Free me from evil passions and cleanse my heart of all disorderly affection so that, healed and purified within, I may be fit to love, strong to suffer, and firm to persevere. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1012:Just as it belongs to charity to love God, so it likewise belongs to charity to detest the sins through which the soul is separated from God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.113.5ad1)., #KEYS
1013:Like mud in a mud pot the Supreme Lord who is existence and space-like consciousness and bliss exists everywhere non-separate (from things). ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Yoga Vasistha, 10.12, #KEYS
1014:Love wishes to be free and estranged from all worldly affections, lest its inward sight be obstructed, lest it be entangled in any temporal interest and overcome by adversity. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1015:O queen, thy thought is a light of the Ignorance,
Its brilliant curtain hides from thee God's face. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
1016:... outside of the book-knowledge which is necessary to our professional training, I think I got most of my development from the good conversation to which I have always had the luck to access. ~ Alfred North Whitehead, #KEYS
1017:Purify thyself and thou shalt see God. Transform thy body into a temple, cast from thee evil thoughts and contemplate God with the eye of thy conscious soul. ~ Vemana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1018:Things are said to be distant from God by the unlikeness to Him in NATURE or GRACE. And God is also above all by the EXCELLENCE of His own nature ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.81ad1)., #KEYS
1019:What should we do to remain always in contact with the Divine, so that no person or event can draw us away from this contact?
Aspiration. Sincerity.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
1020:You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it. ~ Maya Angelou, #KEYS
1021:All intuitive knowledge comes more or less directly from the light of the self-aware spirit entering into the mind. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Towards the Supramental Time Vision, #KEYS
1022:Children of knowledge! the slender eyelash can prevent the eye from seeing; what then must be the effect of the veil of avarice over the eye of the heart! ~ Baha-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1023:Do not judge God's world from your own. Trim your own hedge as you wish and plant your flowers in the patterns you can understand, but do not judge the garden of nature from your little window box. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
1024:Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other sins are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful--just stupid.)
~ Robert Heinlein, Notebooks of Lazarus Long, from Time Enough for Love (1973).,#KEYS
1025:The dayspring from on high has visited us, to give light to them that sit in the darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace. ~ St. Luke, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1026:The individual is not a mere cell of the collective existence; he would not cease to exist if separated or expelled from the collective mass. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
1027:To do anything through ignorance or through passion takes away from the nature of injury, and to a certain extent calls for mercy and forgiveness ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.47.2)., #KEYS
1028:Vex not thyself to be rich; cease from thy own wisdom. Wilt thou set thy eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings. ~ Proverbs XXIII. 4-5, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1029:Whosoever comes to birth in God, is delivered from the physical sensations, recognises the different elements which compose it and enjoys a perfect happiness. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1030:A lower science is that according to which the mind considers temporal things, and is thus distinguished from wisdom, which refers to eternal things ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 10.7sc)., #KEYS
1031:I learned from experience that joy does not reside in the things about us, but in the very depths of the soul, that one can have it in the gloom of a dungeon as well as in the palace of a king. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
1032:Our souls can climb into the shining planes,
The breadths from which they came can be our home. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Mind,#KEYS
1033:Resistance is the subtlest form of attachment." ~ Eric Micha'el Leventhal, (b. 1978) Author, developmental editor and holistic educator based on the island of Maui, Hawai'i. Quote from "A Light from the Shadows,", (2012), #KEYS
1034:So long as man has not thrown from him the load of worldly desire which he carries about with him, he cannot be in tranquillity and at peace with himself. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1035:The noun lila means anything from sport, dalliance, play to any languid or amorous gesture in a woman. ~ V.S. Apte (1965), quoted in in Sri Aurobindo's Lila - The Nature of Divine Play According to Integral Advaita, p. 68 #KEYS
1036:The silence, the quietude of the nature is a touch from above and very necessary for purification and release. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III, The Psychic and Spiritual Transformations, #KEYS
1037:The whole thing, the most difficult thing, is to wake the heart. Somehow one has to learn to be able to live in the heart, to judge from the heart, as ordinarily we live in mechanical mind and judge from that. ~ R.Collin, #KEYS
1038:The word echoes more profoundly in thyself than from the mouth of others. If thou canst listen for it in silence, thou shalt hear it at once. ~ Angelius Silesius I. 299, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1039:Why was not man created good from the beginning?
It is not God who made man wicked. It is man who makes himself wicked by separating himself from God.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
1040:An old pull of subconscious cords renews;
It draws the unwilling spirit from the heights, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Soul's Release,#KEYS
1041:I have never heard of a Yogin who got the peace of God and turned away from it as something poor, neutral and pallid, rushing back to cakes and ale.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Poetry And Art,#KEYS
1042:It is contrary to good morals for one man to have several wives, for the result of this is discord in domestic society, as is evident from experience ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 3.124)., #KEYS
1043:It is impossible for man who has a body to abstain absolutely from all action, but whoever; renounces its fruits, is the man of true renunciation. ~ Bhagavad Gita. 18.11, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1044:Oh thou! who art free of notion, imagination, and duality, We are all bellows in the ocean of eternity." ~ Binavali, a sufi of the 17th century. From "The Religion of the Sufis : From The Dabistan of Mohsin Fani,", (1979), #KEYS
1045:She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the nature inherited from our first parents is changed. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1046:The impersonal is a truth, the personal too is a truth; they are the same truth seen from two sides of our psychological activity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Divine Personality, #KEYS
1047:The mind is by nature restless. Begin liberating it from its restlessness; give it peace; make it free from distractions; train it to look inward; make this a habit. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1048:The morn went up into a smiling sky;
Cast from its sapphire pinnacle of trance
Day sank into the burning gold of eve. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Call to the Quest,#KEYS
1049:Then are the veils torn which distinguish from each other these manifestations and he will soar up from the world of the passions to the heaven of the One. ~ Balla-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1050:After realizing God, one rightly feels that God is our Father or Mother. As long as we have not realized God, we feel that we are far away from Him, children of someone else. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1051:He camped in the Bunker with his typewriter, his shotgun, and his overcoat. From time to time he'd slip on his coat, saunter our way, and take his place at the table we reserved for him in front of the stage. ~ Patti Smith, #KEYS
1052:It is essential to happiness that our way of living should spring from our own deep impulses and not from the accidental tastes and desires of those who happen to be our neighbors, or even our relations. ~ Bertrand Russell, #KEYS
1053:Make your meditation a continuous state of mind. A great worship is going on all the time, so nothing should be neglected or excluded from your constant meditative awareness. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1054:Man is a microcosm, or a little world, because he is an extract from all the stars and planets of the whole firmament, from the earth and the elements; and so he is their quintessence. ~ Paracelsus, #KEYS
1055:Never assume that anyone in this world can really understand your own circumstances other than from the perspective of his own circumstances. ~ Shaykh Ahmad al Zarruq], @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1056:Rajas is a child of the attachment of the soul to the desire of objects; it is born from the nature's thirst for an unpossessed satisfaction. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, Above the Gunas, #KEYS
1057:So I pray to increase my madness And to increase your sanity. My 'madness' is from the power of Love' Your sanity is from the strength of unawareness." ~ Shaykh Abu Bakr Shibli, (861-946) important Persian Sufi, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1058:Whoever says 7 times "اللهم أجرني من النار" after Maghrib & Fajr before speaking, Allah will protect him/her from the Fire." ~ al-Habib Omar bin Hafiz, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1059:And the statement made nearly 2,000 years ago came to my mind:
'Not even a hair dares to fall from your head without My Father's will . . .'
To realize this means to reach the inner peace. ~ Mouni Sadhu, Concentration,#KEYS
1060:Externally keep yourself away from all relationships, and internally have no pantings in your heart; when your mind is like unto a straight-standing wall, you may enter into the Path. ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
1061:From the non-being to true being,
from the darkness to the Light,
from death to Immortality.
OM Peace! Peace! Peace!
(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, I.3.28)
So be it. ~ Sri Aurobindo,#KEYS
1062:In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass, I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is signed by God's name. ~ Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, (1855) #KEYS
1063:It is good for you to spend some time with children. They will teach you to believe, to love and to play. Children will help you smile from your heart and to have that look of wonderment in your eyes. ~ MATA AMRITANANDAMAYI, #KEYS
1064:Sometimes one life is charged with earth's destiny,
It cries not for succour from the time-bound powers. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
1065:The fear of death and the aversion to bodily cessation are the stigma left by his animal origin on the human being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from Subjection to the Body, #KEYS
1066:Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire. ~ Jorge Luis Borge, #KEYS
1067:First detach yourselves completely from all worldly things. A piece of gold remains gold, whether it lies in mud or anywhere else. Similarly, once you have realized God, it does not matter where you live. ~ Swami Turiyananda, #KEYS
1068:I aspire for the higher life from above the head; but I always feel strained in the middle part of the forehead. What should I do?
Do not strain yourself.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
1069:If any during this life are changed out of fear of God and pass from an evil life to a good one, they pass from death to life and later they shall be transformed from a shameful state to a glorious one. ~ Fulgentius of Ruspe, #KEYS
1070:Led or misled we are mortals and walk by a light that is given;
Most they err who deem themselves most from error excluded. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
1071:The splendour which inundates all his thought and all his soul, snatches him from the ties of the body and transforms his whole being into the very essence of God. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1072:This is All, and so is that; All comes out of the All, taking away the All from the All, the All remains for ever." ~ "Isha Upanishad" one of the shortest Upanishads, composed in the 1st half of 1st millennium BC, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1073:To those who want to practise the integral Yoga, it is strongly advised to abstain from three things: 1) Sexual intercourse 2) Smoking 3) Drinking alcohol
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, [T1],#KEYS
1074:We have entangled ourselves and we seem to love to entangle ourselves. Such is the perversity of our nature. But only when we extricate ourselves from this labyrinth of nerves can we hope to be free. ~ Swami Ramakrishnananda, #KEYS
1075:What is dearest in the world to beings is their own self. Therefore from love for that own self which is so dear to beings, neither kill nor torment any. ~ Sa-myutta Nikaya, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1076:You should do japa irrespective of the state of your mind. Consider yourself as one detached from the mind. Whether the mind registers a feeling of joy or sorrow should not be a matter of concern to you. ~ Swami Vijnanananda, #KEYS
1077:Human beings are capable of withdrawing from the Divine - and they often do it; but for the Divine to withdraw from human beings, that is an impossibility.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, [T5],#KEYS
1078:In fact, if you look at the last four syllables of the word individuality, you will see that they spell duality. That's not just a semantic accident." ~ Gary R. Renard, from his book "The Disappearance of the Universe," 2004., #KEYS
1079:It is only when one looks from above in a consciousness clear of ego that one sees all sides of a thing and also their real truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Problems in Human Relations, #KEYS
1080:Let us be on our guard in case, if we relax on the grounds that we have been called, we may go to sleep over our sins and the evil ruler take power over us and drive us out from the king dom ofthe Lord. ~ Letter of Barnabas, #KEYS
1081:... Lose yourself,
Lose yourself.
Escape from this earthly form,
For this body is a chain
and you are its prisoner.
Smash through the prison wall
and walk outside with the kings and princes. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi#KEYS
1082:Ordinary people are friendly with those who are outwardly similar to them. The wise are friendly with those who are inwardly similar to them." ~ Sufi saying, from "Sacred Laughter of the Sufis,", (2014), ed. Imam Jamal Rahman, #KEYS
1083:Seek out that from which all existences are born, by which being born they live and to which they return...From Delight all these existences were born, by Delight they live, towards Delight they return. ~ Taittiriya Upanishad, #KEYS
1084:The glory of the sacraments is the redemption of captives. Truly they are precious vessels, for they redeem men from death. That, indeed, is the true treasure of the Lord which effects what His blood effected. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
1085:The God who made all things gave himself form through Mary, and thus he made his own creation. He who could create all things from nothing would not remake his ruined creation without Mary. ~ Saint Anselm, 'Beata Virgo Maria', #KEYS
1086:The more she plunged into love that anguish grew;
Her deepest grief from sweetest gulfs arose.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Joy of Union; the Ordeal of the Foreknowledge,#KEYS
1087:All human perceptions, wherever they come from, include good and evil. It is necessary to know how to determine and assimilate all the good and offer it to God, and to eliminate all the evil. " ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
1088:All that leads you away from me in thought and feeling is bad. All that brings you closer to me and gives you the perception and joy of my presence is good.
~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
1089:A matted forest-head invaded heaven
As if a blue-throated ascetic peered
From the stone fastness of his mountain cell ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Destined Meeting-place,#KEYS
1090:Knowledge dwells not in the passionate heart;
The heart's words fall back unheard from Wisdom's throne. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Gospel of Death and Vanity of the Ideal,#KEYS
1091:To bring about peace means to be free from thoughts and to abide as Pure Consciousness.
If one remains at peace oneself, there is only peace all about. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks, 453,#KEYS
1092:True belief, which is known as faith, comes after direct experience. Faith born from direct experience becomes a part of the aspirant's being, and such faith protects the aspirant like a mother protects her child. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
1093:What we call sin,
Is but man's leavings as from deep within
The Pilot guides him in his pilgrimage. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, In the Moonlight,#KEYS
1094:[A] competent magician should have the ability to stand still at a bus stop with closed eyes and have the entire universe disappear apart from a single blazing visualised sigil or muttered spell.
~ Peter J Carroll, The Octavo,#KEYS
1095:All she beheld that surges from man's depths,
The animal instincts prowling mid life's trees, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute,#KEYS
1096:Christ's body was not brought down from heaven, as the heretic Valentine maintained, but was taken from the Virgin Mother, and formed from her purest blood ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.35.3)., #KEYS
1097:Desiring a state of freedom from desire will not set you free. Nothing can set you free, because you are free. See yourself with desireless clarity, that is all. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
1098:Just as someone who runs at two different times is said to run twice, so can He be said to be born twice who is born once from ETERNITY and once in TIME ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.35.2ad4)., #KEYS
1099:Ratio, scientific or theoretical reason, emerges from the ruins of the sophic; it becomes the lantern with which we seek the Logos in the nocturnal darkness. ~ Sergius Bulgakov, The Philosophy of Economy: The World as Household, #KEYS
1100:So what should I do when an unconverted part rises to the surface?
Put the light and the knowledge on it patiently until it gets converted. 29 May 1934
~ The Mother, More Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
1101:Take the pearl and throw from you the shell; take the instruction which is given you by your Master and put out of your view the human weaknesses of the teacher. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1102:The holy company begets yearning for God. It begets love of God. There is another benefit from holy company. It helps one cultivate discrimination between the Real and the Unreal. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1103:t is in the foundation of our being that the conditions of existence have their root. It is from the foundation of our being that they start up and take form. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1104:We hold not that all the persons of men have risen from the dead and taken their seat at the right hand of the Father, but that this has happened to the whole of our nature in the subsistence of Christ. ~ Saint John of Damascus, #KEYS
1105:Wherever there is pride, attachment, judgement and desire, there is suffering. When we awaken from ignorance into our true nature, suffering is absent." ~ Mooji, (b. 1954) Jamaican spiritual teacher. From "Before I Am,", (2012), #KEYS
1106:Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
1107:During the period of Sadhana, keep the mind fully occupied with spiritual pursuits. Keep yourself at the farthest distance from everything that would stir up your passions. Then only you will be safe. ~ Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #KEYS
1108:he man whose understanding is in union with the Spirit, casts from him both good doing and evil doing; get this union, it is the perfect skill in works. ~ Bhagavad Gita. II- 50, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1109:If I did not simply live from one moment to another, it would be impossible for me to be patient, but I only look at the present, I forget the past, and I take good care not to forestall the future." ~ Saint Thérèse de Lisieux, #KEYS
1110:Keep thyself from all evil in thought, in word, in act. If thou transgress not these three frontiers of wisdom, thou shalt find the way pursued by the saints. ~ Magghima Nikaya, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1111:Poetry may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves. ~ T S Eliot, #KEYS
1112:Remember your nothingness in the presence of the Great Spirit." ~ Black Elk, (1863 - 1950), Medicine man, holy man of the Oglala Lakota people, Wikipedia. Quote from: "The Spiritual Athlete: A Primer for the Inner Life,", (1992), #KEYS
1113:Someone who looks down from such a peak will become dizzy, and so too I become dizzy when I look down from the high peak of these words of the Lord: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
1114:Strange is my case, in strangeness I am all alone Uniqe amongst mankind, peer I have none. My time in Thee eternized, is Eternity, and from myself Thou hast extinguished me." ~ Abu Bakr Shibli, (861-946) Persian Sufi, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1115:Up to a better covenant; disciplined From shadowy types to truth; from flesh to spirit; From imposition of strict laws to free Acceptance of large grace; from servile fear To filial; works of law to works of faith. ~ John Milton, #KEYS
1116:Zen is all inclusive. It never denies, it never says no to anything. It accepts everything and transforms it into a higher reality." ~ Osho, (1931 - 1990), Indian godman, Wikipedia. Quote from "Zen the Path of Paradox,", (2001)., #KEYS
1117:An atavism of higher births is hers,
Her sleep is stirred by their buried memories
Recalling the lost spheres from which they fell. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World-Stair,#KEYS
1118:Far from being a science long since exhausted, metaphysics is a science which has, as yet, been tried by but few. What passed by its name was almost always something else. ~ Etienne Gilson, Unity of Philosophical Experience (256), #KEYS
1119:If one cannot believe in God it does not matter. I suppose he believes in himself, in his own existence. Let him find out the source from which he came. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Day by Day, 22-3-46, #KEYS
1120:I pledge myself from this day forward not to entertain any feeling of irritation, anger or ill humour and to allow to arise within me neither violence nor hate. ~ Rurkthist Text, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1121:It was fitting that the Giver of all holiness should enter this world by a pure and holy birth. For He it is that of old formed Adam from the virgin earth, and from Adam without help of woman formed woman. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
1122:Pleasure and pain are inevitable in the life of the world. One suffers now and then from a little worry and trouble. Chant the name of Hari morning and evening, clapping your hands. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1123:Some sadness is praiseworthy, as Augustine proves, namely when it flows from holy love, as, for instance, when a man is saddened over his own or others' sins ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.46.6)., #KEYS
1124:Sometimes, when our sight is turned within,
Earth's ignorant veil is lifted from our eyes;
There is a short miraculous escape. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge,#KEYS
1125:The impulse of the Path was felt
Moving from the Silence that supports the stars
To touch the confines of the visible world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Towards the Black Void,#KEYS
1126:The Lord can rescue the good from the ordeal, and hold the wicked for their punishment until the day of Judgement, especially those who are governed by their corrupt bodily desires and have no respect for authority. ~ 2 Peter 2:9, #KEYS
1127:The word, the form, the charm, the glory and grace
Are missioned sparks from a stupendous Fire; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute,#KEYS
1128:To the height of heights rose now their daily climb:
Truth leaned to them from her supernal realm;
Above them blazed eternity's mystic suns. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 4:4,#KEYS
1129:Be thou ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea speaketh. And if you ask why, listen to the cause: for a small gain they travel far; for eternal life many will scarcely lift a foot from the ground. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1130:But first the spirit's ascent we must achieve
Out of the chasm from which our nature rose. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05,#KEYS
1131:Far from being a science long since exhausted, metaphysics is a science which has, as yet, been tried by but a few. What passed by its name was almost always something else. ~ Etienne Gilson, Unity of Philosophical Experience, 256, #KEYS
1132:Impure, sadistic, with grimacing mouths,
Grey foul inventions gruesome and macabre
Came televisioned from the gulfs of Night. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Descent into Night,#KEYS
1133:In man a dim disturbing somewhat lives;
It knows but turns away from divine Light
Preferring the dark ignorance of the fall. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Growth of the Flame,#KEYS
1134:I [the real Self] am without character, without action, without imagination, without relation, without change, without form, without sin, all eternity, every liberated." ~ From the "Atmabodha," one of the 10 Upanishads, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1135:It is not by mental activity that you can quiet your miind, it is from a higher or deeper level that you can receive the help you need. And both can be reached in silence only.
~ The Mother, On Education,#KEYS
1136:Man cannot teach by his own power. One cannot conquer ignorance without the power of God. He who teaches men gets his power from God. None but a man of renunciation can teach others. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1137:When Christ came, he banished the devil from our hearts, in order to build in them a temple for himself. Let us therefore do what we can with his help, so that our evil deeds will not deface that temple. ~ Saint Caesarius of Arles, #KEYS
1138:According to the nature of the action, it brings you near to the Divine or takes you away from Him, and that is the supreme consequence.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Ways of Working with the Lord,#KEYS
1139:A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach their potential." ~ John C. Maxwell, #KEYS
1140:Do not look at your weaknesses but focus on The Search. Every seeker is worthy of This Search. Strive to redouble your efforts, so that your soul may escape from this material prison. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1141:in her spaceless self released from bounds
Unnumbered years seemed moments long drawn out,
The brilliant time-flakes of eternity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Return to Earth,#KEYS
1142:Q.: But the mind slips away from our control.
M.: Be it so. Do not think of it. When you recollect yourself bring it back and turn it inward. That is enough. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks, 398,#KEYS
1143:To waste one's time seeking the satisfaction of one's petty desires is sheer folly. True happiness is possible only when one has found the Divine. 19 February 1972 ~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother, #KEYS
1144:What keeps us from seeing God? Selfishness, egotism, ambition, vanity, pride. The more we can minimize these, the sooner will we come to the goal. If we can get rid of them altogether, then freedom is ours. ~ Swami Ramakrishnananda, #KEYS
1145:Whither shall I go from Thy spirit or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold Thou art there. ~ Psalms, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1146:Zen is a liberation from time. For if we open our eyes and see clearly, it becomes obvious that there is no other time than this instant, and that the past and the future are abstractions without any concrete reality." ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
1147:Do not take my words for a teaching. Always they are a force in action, uttered with a definite purpose, and they lose their true power when separated from that purpose.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I,#KEYS
1148:God split himself into a myriad parts that he might have friends. This may not be true, but it sounds good, and is no sillier than any other theology.
~ Robert Heinlein, Notebooks of Lazarus Long, from Time Enough for Love (1973).,#KEYS
1149:He from whom men are born spiritually reborn is God, but men are spiritually reborn through the Holy Spirit. . . . So the Holy Spirit is God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on John 3, lect. 5)., #KEYS
1150:Neither the mental effort nor the spiritual impulse can suffice, divorced from each other, to overcome the immense resistance of material Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
1151:One has to keep a certain balance by which the fundamental consciousness remains able to turn from one concentration to another with ease. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Becoming Conscious in Work, #KEYS
1152:Real happiness is of divine origin; it is pure and unconditioned. Ordinary happiness is of vital origin; it is impure and depends on circumstances. 18 November 1933 ~ The Mother, More Answers From The Mother, #KEYS
1153:So long as a man has a little knowledge, he goes everywhere reading and preaching; but when the perfect knowledge has been attained, one ceases from vain ostentation. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1154:Sugar and sand may be mixed together, but the ant rejects the sand and carries away the grains of sugar. So the holy Paramahamsas and pious men successfully sift the good from the bad. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1155:The end of the path of knowledge (jnana) or Vedanta is to know the truth that the 'I' is not different from the Lord (Isvara) and to be free from the feeling of being the doer. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1156:We must be satisfied with what the Divine gives us, and do what He wants us to do without weakness, free from useless ambition.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Surrender to the Divine Will, Surrender,#KEYS
1157: When you can no longer tell the difference between being yourself and being love, you are not far from waking up. " ~ Eric Micha'el Leventhal, literary consultant and holistic educator on the island of Maui, Hawaii, poet and author, #KEYS
1158:Zen is a path of liberation. It liberates you. It is freedom from the first step to the last. You are not required to follow any rules; you are required to find out your own rules and your own life in the light of awareness." ~ Osho, #KEYS
1159:Attachment to pleasure-seeking never give one peace or happiness. As much as the mind is withdrawn from sense enjoyment , that much joy will it derive. Apart from this, there is no other means of attaining peace. ~ Swami Adbhutananda, #KEYS
1160:I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?
~ Epictetus,#KEYS
1161:It implies not life after death, but freedom from both life and death, for what we call life is after all impossible without death. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena and Other Upanishads, On Translating the Upanishads, #KEYS
1162:The rational fool is the person who makes short-term decisions for their own benefit, failing to consider the effects their actions have on others." ~ A. C. Ping, from "DO", (2004), For more info on A. C. Ping: https://bit.ly/2G3F4WC, #KEYS
1163:The spiritual path is not one where we find our way to God, but rather one where we remove everything that prevents us from seeing that we're already in the divine court. ~ Helwa, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1164:When you emerge from the hour of prayer you must do so conscious of being and possessing that which your heretofore desired." ~ Neville Goddard, (1905-1972), American mystic. Quote from "Neville Goddard The Complete Reader,", (2013)., #KEYS
1165:Yet was the battle decreed for the means supreme of the mortal
Placed in a world where all things strive from the worm to the Titan. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
1166:A certain pride, a certain awe, withheld him from offering to God even one prayer at night, though he knew it was in God's power to take away his life while he slept and hurl his soul hellward ere he could beg for mercy. ~ James Joyce, #KEYS
1167:By an irresistible and purely unconditioned going out from yourself and from all things, you will be lifted up to the supersubstantial ray of divine shadow, setting aside all things and turned loose from all things. ~ Pseudo-Dyonisius, #KEYS
1168:Every man's true teacher is his own Higher Self, and when the life is brought under the control of reason, this Higher Self is released from bondage to appetites and impulses, and becomes Priest, Sage and Illuminator.
~ Manly P Hall,#KEYS
1169:Its origin is a limitation of knowledge, its distinctive character a separation of the being from its own integrality and entire reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, #KEYS
1170:I want to put out the fires of hell, and burn down the rewards of paradise. They block the way to Allah. I do not want to worship from fear of punishment or for the promise of reward, but simply for the love of Allah. ~ Rabia Al Basra, #KEYS
1171:Judas who was counted in the number of the apostles lost all his labour in one single night and descended from heaven to hell. Therefore, let no-one boast of his good works, for all those who trust in themselves fall. ~ Saint Xanthias, #KEYS
1172:The fruit of coveting and desire ripens in sorrow; pleasant at first it soon burns, as a torch burns the hand of the fool who has not in time cast it from him. ~ Sutra in 42 articles, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1173:The holy scripture needs no explanation. He who speaks truth, is full of eternal life, his written word seems wonderfully akin to the mysteries, for it is a chord taken from the symphony of the universe. ~ Novalis, The Novices of Sais, #KEYS
1174:Then from the heights a greater Voice came down,
The Word that touches the heart and finds the soul, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute,#KEYS
1175:To manifest what is from the first occult within it is the whole hidden trend of evolutionary Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
1176:According to the statutes of the Church, which does not inflict death to the body, a pecuniary punishment is inflicted so that men may be deterred from sacrilege ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.99.4)., #KEYS
1177:God is immaterial, and for this reason transcends every conception. Since He is invisible He can have no form. But from what we observe in His work we may conclude that He is eternal, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. ~ Beethoven, #KEYS
1178:It is by persevering that one conquers difficulties, not by running away from them. One who perseveres is sure to triumph. Victory goes to the most enduring. Always do your best and the Lord will take care of the results. ~ MOTHER MIRA, #KEYS
1179:Our intention is not directed towards teaching any one how to make gold, but something much higher, namely how Nature may be seen and recognised as coming from God, and God in Nature. ~ Georg von Welling, Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum (1735), #KEYS
1180:Truth has to appear only once, in one single mind, for it to be impossible for anything ever to prevent it from spreading universally and setting everything ablaze. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
1181:When a devotee thinks of 'me' and 'mine,' and separates himself from God, that kind of dualism is harmful to a person's spiritual growth. Such an aspirant remains deluded. A devotee must completely renounce the ego. ~ Swami Turiyananda, #KEYS
1182:Wisdom comes through suffering.
Trouble, with its memories of pain,
Drips in our hearts as we try to sleep,
So men against their will
Learn to practice moderation.
Favours come to us from gods.
~ Aeschylus, Agamemnon,#KEYS
1183:A little gift comes from the Immensitudes,
But measureless to life its gain of joy;
All the untold Beyond is mirrored there. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
1184:In the language of duality Alone are questions and answers. In non-duality they are not." ~ Sri Bhagavan, (b. 1949) a spiritual teacher from India, and founder of Oneness University, a spiritual school located in South India, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1185:Let us become fire, let us travel through fire. We have a free way to the ascent. The Father will guide us, unfolding the ways of fire; let us not flow with the lowly stream from forgetfulness. ~ Proclus, De Philosophia Chaldaica, fr. 2, #KEYS
1186:Living in the world one is safe, if one has Viveka (discrimination of the Real from the unreal), and Vairagya (dispassion for worldly things), and along with these intense devotion to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1187:The closer you come to knowing that you alone create the world of your experience, the more vital it becomes for you to discover just who is doing the creating." ~ Eric Micha'el Leventhal , author of "A Light from the Shadows,", (2012)., #KEYS
1188:The harm that comes to souls from the lack of reading holy books makes me shudder . . . What power spiritual reading has to lead to a change of course, and to make even worldly people enter into the way of perfection." ~ Saint Padre Pio, #KEYS
1189:The soul will enjoy veritable felicity when, separating itself from the darkness which surrounds it, it is able to contemplate with a sure gaze the divine light at its source. ~ Seneca, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1190:The woman was not formed from the feet of the man as a servant, nor from the head as lording it over her husband, but from the side as a companion, as it says in Genesis ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (2:21)., #KEYS
1191:When his mind shall be enfranchised from human things, then shall he enter into the city of marvellous wisdom which ever renews itself and grows in beauty from age to age. ~ Baha-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1192:When we get back to our true being, the ego falls away from us; its place is taken by our supreme and integral self, the true individuality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Soul and Its Liberation, #KEYS
1193:A man who cannot comm and himself, should obey. But there are too those who know how to comm and themselves, but yet are very far from knowing how also to obey. ~ Nietzsche, Zarathustra, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1194:Each is a greatness growing towards the heights
Or from his inner centre oceans out; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.06,#KEYS
1195:In order that the mind should see light instead of darkness, the entire soul must be turned away from this changing world, until its eye can learn to contemplate reality and that supreme splendor which we have called the good. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
1196:I pay homage to the Perfection of Wisdom. She is worthy of homage. She is unstained, and the entire world cannot stain her. She is a source of light, and from everyone in the triple world she removes darkness. ~ Ashta-sahasrika, VII, 170, #KEYS
1197:That, travellers from on high, arrive to us
Deformed by our search, tricked by costuming mind, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Eternal Day, The Soul's Choice and the Supreme Consummation,#KEYS
1198:The enjoyment of the infinite delight of existence free from ego, founded on oneness of all in the Lord, is what is meant by the enjoyment of Immortality ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, Conclusion and Summary, #KEYS
1199:Too hard the gods are with man's fragile race;
In their large heavens they dwell exempt from Fate
And they forget the wounded feet of man. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Word of Fate,#KEYS
1200:When one comes out of the world, the forces that govern the world do all they can to pull you back into their own unquiet movement. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram, Departure from the Ashram, #KEYS
1201:When you are away from your spiritual friends, and you feel lonely on the path, and you feel a lack of encouragement to go on, just remember that all of the enlightened beings are always with you. You are never alone. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
1202:When you are maligned by someone or disregarded by someone, then keep yourself from thoughts of anger, lest they set you in the region of hatred and separate you from love through grief. ~ Maximus the Confessor, Centuries on Charity 1.29, #KEYS
1203:Amongst the friends of Allah (Awliya), the Qur'an is considered as a love letter from Allah, which inevitably is read continuously to remind them of their Beloved. ~ Dr Tahir al Qadri, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1204:An adversary Force was born of old:
Invader of the life of mortal man,
It hides from him the straight immortal path. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
1205:Do not be discouraged, but continue to practice meditation. You will soon succeed in freeing your mind from distractions. He who keeps his mind God, finds His grace, and through His grace becomes absorbed in meditation. ~ SWAMI PREMANANDA, #KEYS
1206:Experience shows that, in proportion as we deliver ourselves from the limiting mental and vital ego, we command a wider life, a larger existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Ego, #KEYS
1207:For such a man, one who neglects no effort to set himself from now in the ranks of the best, is a priest, a minister of the gods, a friend of Him who dwells within him. ~ Marcus Aurelius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1208:He is the wise man who, having once taken up his resolve, acts and does not cease from the labour, who does not lose uselessly his days and who knows how to govern himself. ~ Mahabharata, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1209:Liberation is liberation from the idea of liberation. There is no one to be bound, no one to be free." ~ Terence James Stannus Gray, (1895 - 1986), under the pen name "Wei Wu Wei", he published eight books on Taoist philosophy, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1210:Never underestimate the importance of keeping your vows. Just how a castle will protect the king from being attacked by the enemy, the vows will protect your mind from being attacked by your mental afflictions. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
1211:The physical body is therefore a basis of action, pratiṣṭhā, which cannot be despised, neglected or excluded from the spiritual evolution. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Elements of Perfection, #KEYS
1212:The seeker of the integral state of knowledge must be free from attachment to action and equally free from attachment to inaction. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from Subjection to the Body, #KEYS
1213:Turn not thy head from this path till thou art led to its end; keep ever near to this door till it is opened. Let not thy eyes be shut; seek well and thou shalt find. ~ Attar of Nishapur, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1214:We have come from a place of unity to a place of variety. And if we go on expanding ourselves, we finally reach to unity again. Unity which is the goal of expansion is not to be given up, but kept up for eternity. ~ SWAMI TRIGUNATITANANDA, #KEYS
1215:A branch detached from the contiguous branch must needs be detached from the whole tree: even so man separated even from a single man is detached from the whole society. ~ Marcus Aurelius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1216:He who contemplates the supreme Truth, contemplates the perfect Essence; only the vision of the spirit can see this nature of ineffable perfection. ~ Buddhist Mediations from the Japanese, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1217:If we love God for what we can get from Him in the world, we really love the world, not God, and we can never be true devotees. The true devotee loves God just for the joy of loving Him, because God is the Beloved. ~ Swami Ramakrishnananda, #KEYS
1218:I guide man to the path of the Divine
And guard him from the red Wolf and the Snake. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 07.04 - The Triple Soul-Forces,#KEYS
1219:O Govinda, feeling Your separation, I am considering a moment to be like twelve years or more. Tears are flowing from my eyes like torrents of rain, and I am feeling all vacant in the world in the absence of You. ~ SRI CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU, #KEYS
1220:The true lovers are never free from striving; they revolve restlessly and ceaselessly around the light of God. And God consumes them, making them nothing, destroying the veil of their reason. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1221:They sang Infinity's names and deathless powers
In metres that reflect the moving worlds,
Sight's sound-waves breaking from the soul's great deeps. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Quest,#KEYS
1222:Awake, mankind! For your sake God has become man. Awake, you who sleep, rise up from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you. I tell you again: for your sake, God became man. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1223:Contemplation is the essence of a religious life. It is through contemplation that one attains the knowledge of Reality. So one has to withdraw from the external world and turn towards God and constantly remember Him. ~ SWAMI VIRESWARANANDA, #KEYS
1224:Creatures of themselves do not withdraw us from God, but lead us to Him; for "the invisible things of God are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Rm. 1:20)., #KEYS
1225:Free from the happiness desired by slaves, delivered from the gods and their adoration, fearless and terrible, grand and solitary is the will of the man of truth. ~ Nietzsche, Zarathoustra, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1226:Grace and mercy be yours from the only-begotten Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; through him and with him be glory, honour and power to the Father and the life-giving Spirit, now and always and for ever. Amen. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
1227:His Mercy is so great that he hinders no one from drinking from the fountain of life. Indeed, he calls us loudly to do so (Jn 7:37). But he is so good that he will not force us to drink of it. ~ Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection ch. 20, #KEYS
1228:Let men blame him or praise, let fortune enter his house or go forth from it, let death come to him today or late, the man of firm mind never deviates from the straight path. ~ Bhartrihari, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1229:Life, the river of the Spirit, consenting to anguish and sorrow
If by her heart's toil a loan-light of joy from the heavens she can borrow. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ahana,#KEYS
1230:Our precarious mortal thought
That looks from soil to sky and sky to soil
But knows not the below nor the beyond, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind,#KEYS
1231:The angel who guards the mother guards the child while in the womb. But at its birth, when it becomes separate from the mother, an angel guardian is appointed to it ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.113.5ad3)., #KEYS
1232:The holy Eucharist is a great means through which to aspire to perfection. But we must receive it with the desire and intention of removing from the heart all that is displeasing to him with whom we wish to dwell. ~ Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
1233:The synthesis of the faith was not made to accord with human opinions, but rather what was of the greatest importance was gathered from all the Scriptures, to present the one teaching of the faith in its entirety. ~ Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, #KEYS
1234:Things will come to a head, but when man's hand can do nothing and everything seems to be lost, God Himself will intervene and rearrange the world in the blink of an eye, like from morning to night." ~ Ven. Bernardo Maria Clausi (1787-1849), #KEYS
1235:Whence this creation came into being, whether He established it or did not establish it, He who regards it from above in the supreme ether, He knows,-or perhaps He knows it not. ~ Rig Veda, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1236:Action and event have no value in themselves, but only take their value from the force which they represent and the idea which they symbolise. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Divine Birth and Divine Works, #KEYS
1237:A mind which remains calm in the midst of the vicissitudes of life, delivered from preoccupations, liberated from passion, dwelling in serenity-that is a great blessing. ~ Mahamangala Sutta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1238:Desires are just waves in the mind. You know a wave when you see one. A desire is just a thing among many. Freedom from desire means this: the compulsion to satisfy is absent. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
1239:Grace is within you. Grace is your self. Grace is not something to be acquired from others. If it is external, it is useless. All that is necessary is to know its existence is in you. You are never out of its operation. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1240:Man! renounce all that thou mayst be happy, that thou mayst be free, that thou mayst have thy soul large and great. Carry high thy head,...and thou art delivered from servitude. ~ Epictetus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1241:Matter is a formation of life that has no real existence apart from the informing universal spirit which gives it its energy and substance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Psychology of Self-Perfection, #KEYS
1242:Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, James, 4:7-8, #KEYS
1243:The law of the grand study or practical philosophy consists in developing and bringing into light the luminous principle of reason which we have received from heaven. ~ Confucius "Ta-hio" I, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1244:We are given a chance for improvement. And the lesson we learn from expansion is to give up, not externally, but internally, the narrow selfish ideas, and thus rise from worldly ideas to the life of peace and bliss. ~ SWAMI TRIGUNATITANANDA., #KEYS
1245:We prefer and put on almost unconsciously the garb which will look best in the eye that regards us from outside and we allow a veil to drop over the eye within. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Renunciation, #KEYS
1246:'Why do you turn your face away?' We think that God has turned his face away from us when we find ourselves suffering, so that shadows overwhelm our feelings and stop our eyes from seeing the brilliance of the truth. ~ Saint Ambrose of Milan, #KEYS
1247:You cannot fathom a wise man's depth until you question or debate him. Until you beat a drum, What distinguishes it from other objects." ~ Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyeltsen, (1182-1251), a Tibetan spiritual leader and Buddhist scholar, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1248:And this the reason of his high unease,
Because he came from the infinities
To build immortally with mortal things; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, In the Moonlight,#KEYS
1249:The devil is said to rejoice most over the sin of lust because it involves the greatest attachment and it is only with difficulty that a man can be torn away from it ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.73.5ad2)., #KEYS
1250:There is only one physician—of flesh yet spiritual, born yet uncreated God become man, true life in death, sprung from both Mary and from God first subject to suffering and then incapable of it—Jesus Christ our Lord. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
1251:Young Monk: "Are we human beings having a spiritual experience or are we spiritual beings having a human experience?" Old Monk: "What's the difference?" ~ Saul Ader, "Gifts From Stillness,", (2001). Known as " ~ the Socrates of Provincetown.", #KEYS
1252:You shall no more carry in yourselves the root of evil; disease and infirmity no more shall make war against you and corruption shall flee from you for ever into oblivion. ~ Esdras IV. 8. 33, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1253:Although in God there can be no suffering, and patience has its name ~ patiendo), from suffering, yet a patient God we not only faithfully believe, but also wholesomely confess. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1254:Be very sure that a 'Great Tribulation' will occur in the world, from which the demon Lucifer will be incited against the Church; never since he was bound in hell has such anger been released." ~ The Lord to St. Margaret of Cortona (1247-1297), #KEYS
1255:In this last day of the year, let us take the resolution that all our weaknesses and obstinate obscurities will drop from us along with the finishing year.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Difficulties, Mistakes,#KEYS
1256:Some word that could incarnate highest Truth
Leaped out from a chance tension of the soul, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.06,#KEYS
1257:Theophanies are made from God in angelic and human nature enlightened, purified, and perfected by grace. They are produced by the descent of Divine Wisdom and the ascent of human and angelic intelligence. ~ John Scottus Eriugena, Periphyseon I, #KEYS
1258:The self of the finite individual must pour itself into the boundless finite and that cosmic spirit too must be exceeded in the transcendent Infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Ego, #KEYS
1259:The spirit constructs its own abode; directed falsely from the beginning it thinks in erroneous ways and engenders its own distress. Thought creates for itself its own suffering. ~ Fa-khe-pi-, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1260:A gift of priceless value from Time's gods
Lost or mislaid in an uncaring world,
Life is a marvel missed, an art gone wry. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
1261:Grace is always present... It is really inside you, in your Heart, and the moment you effect subsidence or merger of the mind into its Source, grace rushes forth, sprouting as from a spring within you. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi #KEYS
1262:I taught the prophets from the beginning, and even to this day I continue to speak to all men. But many are hardened. Many are deaf to My voice. Most men listen more willingly to the world than to God. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1263:One who has not ceased from evil living or is without peace or without concentration or whose mind has not been tranquillised, cannot attain to Him by the intelligence. ~ Katha Upanishad II.24, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1264:There is nothing that is impossible to her who is the conscious Power and universal Goddess all-creative from eternity and armed with the Spirit's omnipotence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Faith and Shakti, #KEYS
1265:... up from the youth of tender age to the aged. The clergy shall be led into error by the misinterpretation of their reading; the relics of the saints will be considered powerless, every race of mankind will become wicked!" ~ Saint Columbcille, #KEYS
1266:What is a vocation? It is a gift from God, so it comes from God. If it is a gift from God, our concern must be to know God's will. We must enter that path: if God wants, when God wants, how God wants. Never force the door." ~ Saint Gianna Molla, #KEYS
1267:Worldly people think highly of their wealth. They feel that there is nothing like it. But does God care for money? He wants from His devotees knowledge, devotion, discrimination, and renunciation. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1268:Always we must keep ourselves open to the higher Word from above that does not confine itself to its own sense and the light of the Thought that carries in it its own opposites
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
1269:As from a fire that is burning brightly sparks of a like nature are produced in their thousands, so from the Unmoving manifold becomings are born and thither also they wend. ~ Mundaka Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1270:Her deepest grief from sweetest gulfs arose.
Remembrance was a poignant pang ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Joy of Union; the Ordeal of the Foreknowledge of Death and the Heart's Grief and Pain,#KEYS
1271:He who Is grows manifest in the years
And the slow Godhead shut within the cell
Climbs from the plasm to immortality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Mind,#KEYS
1272:My heart feels arid, sad and gloomy, Mother.
Why don't you try to read something beautiful and interesting and turn your attention away from yourself? That is the best remedy.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
1273:The head cannot be separated from the members, nor the members from the head. Not in this life, it is true, but only in eternity will God be all in all, yet even now he dwells, whole and undivided, in his temple the Church. ~ Saint Leo the Great, #KEYS
1274:The UNDERSTANDING of principles results from man's very nature, which is equally shared by all: whereas FAITH results from the gift of grace, which is not equally in all ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.5.4ad3)., #KEYS
1275:They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. ~ Saint Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
1276:When your mind is quiet, you enter into the flow of love, and you just flow from one moment to the next as naturally as breathing. Whatever arises, I embrace it with love in the moment. In this moment there is just awareness and love. ~ Ram Dass, #KEYS
1277:Night is not our beginning nor our end;
She is the dark Mother in whose womb we have hid
Safe from too swift a waking to world-pain. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Ideal,#KEYS
1278:Now it is your bounden duty to give your entire mind to God, to plunge deep into the Ocean of His Love. There is no fear of death from plunging into this Ocean, for this is the Ocean of Immortality. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1279:The cleansed and emptied cup is filled with the wine of divine love and delight and no longer with the sweet and bitter poison of passion. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Heart and the Mind, #KEYS
1280:There is only one physician — of flesh yet spiritual, born yet uncreated God become man, true life in death, sprung from both Mary and from God first subject to suffering and then incapable of it — Jesus Christ our Lord. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
1281:Walled from ours are other hearts:
For if life's barriers twixt our souls were broken,
Men would be free and one, earth paradise
And the gods live neglected. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act I,#KEYS
1282:An errant ray from the immortal Mind
Accepted the earth's blindness and became
Our human thought, servant of Ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Mind,#KEYS
1283:I've never heard anyone say 'I wish I hadn't forgiven." ~ Katerina Stoykova-Klemer, (b.1971 in Bulgaria), she immigrated to the U.S in 1995, worked as an engineer at IBM. She holds an MFA in poetry from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky., #KEYS
1284:The angel who guards the mother guards the child while in the womb. But at its birth, when it becomes separate from the mother, an angel guardian is appointed to the child ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.113.5ad3)., #KEYS
1285:... the Divine will come... without your seeing Him... and He will arrange all the circumstances in such a way that everything that prevents you from belonging to the Divine will be removed from your path...
~ The Mother,#KEYS
1286:The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
1287:Water shall cleanse me from fear, Fire will purify my doubts, And the earth shall nourish me to health. All is well, all is well, all is well." ~ Zsuzanna E. Budapest, (b.1940), Hungarian author, living in U.S., writes about feminist spirituality., #KEYS
1288:We (the Carmelite) are descended from those holy fathers of ours on Mount Carmel, those who went in search of that treasure - the priceless pearl we are talking about - in such solitude and with such contempt for the world" ~ Saint Teresa of Jesus, #KEYS
1289:You are leading a householder's life. That is very good. It is like fighting from a fort. But one should spend some time in solitude and attain Knowledge. Then one can lead the life of a householder. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1290:Agreat part of our thoughts and feelings come into us from outside, from our fellow-men, both from individuals and from the collective mind of humanity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Planes of Our Existence, #KEYS
1291:At the close of the great Night...He whom the spirit alone can perceive, who escapes from the organs of sense, who is without visible parts, Eternal, the soul of all existences, whom none can comprehend, outspread His own splendours. ~ Laws of Manu, #KEYS
1292:He who goes from this world without knowing that Imperishable is poor in soul, but he who goes from this world having known that Imperishable, he is the sage. ~ Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III. 8. 10, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1293:My brothers, each of us ought surely to rejoice on this holy day. Let no one, conscious of his sinfulness, withdraw from our common celebration, nor let anyone be kept away from our public prayer by the burden of his guilt. ~ Saint Maximus of Turin, #KEYS
1294:The Overmind has to be reached and brought down before the Supermind descent is at all possible-for the Overmind is the passage through which one passes from mind to Supermind.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - I, 155,#KEYS
1295:Why not improve life for the world's poorest first. Is it so impossible to move business from private greed to public good?" ~ Anita Lucia Roddick, (1942 -2007) a British businesswoman, human rights activist and environmental campaigner, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1296:'As oil poured from one vessel to another falls in an unbroken line, so, when the mind in an unbroken stream thinks of the Lord, we have what is called Para-Bhakti or supreme love.' ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. III. 85), #KEYS
1297:Even in all that life and man have marred,
A whisper of divinity still is heard,
A breath is felt from the eternal spheres. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Gospel of Death and Vanity of the Ideal,#KEYS
1298:Every agent acts for an end. Now the end is the good desired and loved by each one. So it is evident that every agent, whatever it be, does every action from love of some kind ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.28.6)., #KEYS
1299:How sweet will be the death of one who has done penance for all his sins, of one who won't have to go to purgatory! Even from here below you can begin to enjoy glory! You will find no fear within yourself but complete peace. ~ Saint Teresa of Ávila, #KEYS
1300:If in union with Christ we have imitated his death, we shall also imitate him in his resurrection. We must realize that our former selves have been crucified with him to destroy this sinful body and to free us from the slavery of sin. ~ Romans 6:6-7, #KEYS
1301:Peace of mind comes from not wanting to change others." ~ Gerald G. Jampolsky M.D. Author of "Forgiveness: The Greatest Healer of All,", (1999). is an internationally recognized authority in the fields of psychiatry, health, business, and education., #KEYS
1302:Suffering is due only to our weakness and imperfection. When external forces affect us, if we have acquired sufficient strength to assimilate them, we derive joy from them, otherwise they produce pain.
~ Anilbaran Roy, Interviews and Conversations,#KEYS
1303:The present difficulty is that man thinks he is the doer. But it is a mistake. It is the higher power which does everything and man is only a tool. If he accepts that position he is free from troubles, otherwise he courts them. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1304:We would like to be able to show the children pictorial representations of what life should be, but we still have not reached that stage, very far from it. Those films are yet to be made...
~ The Mother, On Education, 1968,#KEYS
1305:When thou seest all nature sunk in sleep, then again worship Him Who gives us even against our wills release from the continuous strain of toil, and by a short refreshment restores us once again to the vigour of our strength. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
1306:You must learn to part with an intimate and much-needed friend for the love of God. Do not take it to heart when you are deserted by a friend, knowing that in the end we must all be parted from one another. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1307:Attentive Presence' is the foundation upon which the perception of Reality stands. This Reality cannot be perceived by a mind that has its attention sleeping in a daydream" ~ Keith Loy, from "Finding Reality: Awakening to Spiritual Freedom,", (2008)., #KEYS
1308:Chance, that vague shadow of an infinite possibility, must be banished from the dictionary of our perceptions; for of chance we can make nothing, because it is nothing. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Karma, #KEYS
1309:He has not assumed a body as proper to His own nature, far from it, for as the Word He is without body. He has been manifested in a human body for this reason only, out of the love and goodness of His Father, for the salvation of us men. ~ Athanasius, #KEYS
1310:It is from the Divine that a sadhak receives peace, a peace quite independent from outward circumstances. Turn more towards the Divine, aspire for the real inner peace and you will get enough peace to carry on your work without disturbance.
~ SATM?,#KEYS
1311:Look at yourself fearlessly and you will at once realize that your happiness depends on conditions and circumstances, hence it is momentary, not real. Real happiness flows from within. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
1312:One should learn the essence of the scriptures from the guru and then practice sadhana. If one rightly follows spiritual discipline, then one directly sees God. The discipline is said to be rightly followed only when one plunges in. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1313:O young man, go out with your heart, stripped naked of all of your possessions, and be secluded from the whole of you so that you will be compensated for all of that.. ~ Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1314:Rabia was once asked, "How did you attain that which you have attained?"
"By often praying, 'I take refuge in You, O God, from everything that distracts me from You, and from every obstacle that prevents me from reaching You.'" ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya,#KEYS
1315:The realised being does not see the world as being apart from the Self, he possesses true knowledge and the internal happiness of being perfect, whereas the other person sees the world apart, feels imperfection and is miserable. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1316:The zest for life, which is the source of all passion and all insight, even divine, does not come to us from ourselves.... It is God who has to give us the impulse of wanting him. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
1317:From the side of Christ hanging on the Cross, there flowed water and blood, the former of which belongs to Baptism, the latter to the Eucharist, which are the principal sacraments ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.62.5)., #KEYS
1318:Is not the world his disguise? when that cloak is tossed back from his shoulders,
Beauty looks out like a sun on the hearts of the ravished beholders. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ahana,#KEYS
1319:The powers developed are liable to become obstacles to a perfect concentration by reason of the possibility of wonder and admiration which results from their exercise. ~ Patanjali : Aphroisms III. 38, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1320:We beg you, Lord, to be our help and our support. Free us from our troubles; take pity on the lowly; raise up those who have fallen; give help to the poor, health to the sick, and bring home those who have wandered away. ~ Clement I to the Corinthians, #KEYS
1321:Wherever you are, in whatever station, from there you have to reach sattva in varying degrees because tamas will be reduced only when the mind's agitations, vikshepas are quietened. As agitations quieten, sattva increases slowly. ~ Swami Chinmayananda, #KEYS
1322:All our wisest and most divine doctors concur that visible things are truly images of invisible things and that from creatures the creator can be seen in a recognizable way as if in a mirror or in an enigma. ~ Nicolas of Cusa, On Learned Ignorance I.11, #KEYS
1323:If the chamber's door is even a little ajar,
What then can hinder God from stealing in
Or who forbid his kiss on the sleeping soul? ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real,#KEYS
1324:Knowing or being aware is not itself an objective experience, but without it there could be no experience. It is that which makes experience possible and yet it is not itself 'an experience'." ~ Rupert Spira, from "Being Aware of Being Aware,", (2017)., #KEYS
1325:One day the disciples wanted to know what sort of person was best suited to discipleship. Said the Master, 'The kind of person who, having two shirts, sells one and with the money buys a flower.'" ~ From "One Minute Wisdom,", (1985) by Anthony de Mello, #KEYS
1326:One will only speak about wars and revolutions. The elements of nature will be unchained and will cause anguish even among the best (the most courageous). The Church will bleed from all Her wounds." ~ Our Lady to priest Raymond Arnette (in May of 1994), #KEYS
1327:[Sophrosune, self-control] is an embrace of simplicity…. Our understanding of happiness alters. We actively desire the health of the ecological communities to which we belong. We want to do what it takes to be at home. ~ Jan Zwicky, A Ship from Delos, #KEYS
1328:That being known which is without sound, touch or form, inexhaustible, eternal, without beginning or end, greater than the great self, immutable, man escapes from the month of death. ~ Katha Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1329:To his disciples the Master said, 'People who want a cure, provided they can have it without pain, are like those who favor progress, provided they can have it without change.'" ~ Anthony de Mello, (b. 1931), from his book "One Minute Wisdom,", (1985)., #KEYS
1330:When the presence of God emerges from our inmost being into our faculties, whether we walk down the street or drink a cup of soup, divine life is pouring into the world. ~ Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel, #KEYS
1331:Basil and I were both in Athens. We had come, like streams of a river, from the same source in our native land, had separated from each other in pursuit of learning, and were now united again as if by plan, for God so arranged it. ~ Gregory of Nazianzen, #KEYS
1332:It ought to be distinctly understood that sin is incurred by coming in contact with sinners, and nobility in the company of good persons; and keeping aloof from the wicked is the external purification. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1333:Its steps are paces of the soul's return
From the deep adventure of material birth,
A ladder of delivering ascent
And rungs that Nature climbs to deity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World-Stair,#KEYS
1334:None can reproach thee with injustice done? It is too little. Banish injustice even from thy thought, It is not the actions alone, but the will that distinguishes the good from the wicked. ~ Democritus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1335:Progress consists not in rejecting beauty and delight, but in rising from the lower to the higher, the less complete to the more complete beauty and delight. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings, The National Value of Art, #KEYS
1336:To be a Sufi is to detach from fixed ideas and from presuppositions; and not to try to avoid what is your lot." ~ Abu Sa'id Abu'l-Khayr, (967 - 1049), famous Persian Sufi and poet who contributed extensively to the evolution of Sufi tradition, Wikipedia, #KEYS
1337:What is the root of evil? Greed, disliking and delusion are the roots of evil. And what then are the roots of good? To be free from greed and disliking and delusion is the root of good. ~ Sangiti Sutta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1338:Whenever a name taken from any created perfection is attributed to God, it must be separated in its signification from all that belongs to that imperfect mode proper to creatures ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.14.1ad1)., #KEYS
1339:Wilt thou not perfect this rather that sprang too from Wisdom and Power?
Taking the earthly rose canst thou image not Heaven in a flower? ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Descent of Ahana,#KEYS
1340:You must never cease from calling on the Lord, and know this for certain that the Lord's name cuts through all obstacles. However it may be - be it perfectly or imperfectly - keep on repeating His name, which has a power of its own. ~ SWAMI SUBODHANANDA, #KEYS
1341:Accordingly, those who do not come to Christ because of the power they see in him, but because they eat his bread, are not serving Christ but their own stomachs, as we see from Philippians ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (3:19), #KEYS
1342:In that holy city, where perfect knowledge flows from the vision of almighty God, those who have no names may easily be known. But personal names are assigned to some to denote their ministry. Thus, Michael means "Who is like God".... ~ Gregory the Great, #KEYS
1343:Moses, the lawgiver himself, who, when he descended from Mount Sinai, almost before the tables of the law had been put forward, in which it was written, Thou shall not kill, ordered the killing of three thousand people in a single moment. ~ Saint Optatus, #KEYS
1344:The happiness which comes from long practice, which leads to the end of suffering, which at first is like poison, but at last like nectar - this kind of happiness arises from the serenity of one's own mind.
~ Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, The Bhagavad Gita,#KEYS
1345:The present difficulty is that man thinks that he is the doer. But it is a mistake. It is the Higher Power which does everything and man is only a tool. If he accepts that position he is free from troubles; otherwise he courts them. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1346:There is, brethren, one God, the knowledge of whom we gain from the Holy Scriptures and from no other source. Whatever things the Holy Scriptures declare, at these let us look; and whatever they teach, let us learn it ~ Hippolytus of Rome, Against Noetus, #KEYS
1347:What was born of Mary was human by nature, in accordance with the inspired Scriptures, and the body of the Lord was a true body: It was a true body because it was the same as ours. Mary, you see, is our sister, for we are all born from Adam. ~ Athanasius, #KEYS
1348:Any final recoil from the physical life must be a turning away from the completeness of the divine Wisdom and a renunciation of its aim in earthly manifestation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Three Steps of Nature, #KEYS
1349:Day was a purple pageant and a hymn,
A wave of the laughter of light from morn to eve. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Joy of Union; the Ordeal of the Foreknowledge of Death and the Heart's Grief and Pain,#KEYS
1350:Death was not part of nature; it became part of nature. God did not decree death from the beginning; he prescribed it as a remedy…. Without the assistance of grace, immortality is more of a burden than a blessing. ~ Saint Ambrose On the Death of Satyrus, #KEYS
1351:If you find from your own experience that something is a fact and it contradicts what some authority has written down, then you must abandon the authority and base your reasoning on your own findings.
~ Leonardo da Vinci,#KEYS
1352:The beasts are mortal, but they do not know or fully understand that fact; the gods are immortal, and they know it - but poor man, up from beasts and not yet a god, was that unhappy mixture: he was mortal, and he knew it. ~ Ken Wilber, Up From Eden, p. x., #KEYS
1353:The genius too receives from some high fount
Concealed in a supernal secrecy
The work that gives him an immortal name. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute,#KEYS
1354:The Magi are the "first-fruits of the Gentiles" that believed in Christ because their faith was a presage of the faith and devotion of the nations who were to come to Christ from afar ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.36.8)., #KEYS
1355:When worldly thoughts crop up in your mind, and they possess it, then you should go away from the company of others and pray to Him with tears in your eyes. He will remove all the dross of your mind, and will also give you understanding. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
1356:When you feel something within watching all the mental activities but separate from them, just as you can watch things going on outside in the street, then that is the separation of Purusha from mental Prakriti. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
1357:You never go away from us, yet we have difficulty in returning to You. Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back. Kindle and seize us. Be our fire and our sweetness. Let us love. Let us run." ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1358:And by sleep the human example teaches us that we mean not a suspension of consciousness, but its gathering inward away from conscious physical response to the impacts of external things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine 1.10-14, #KEYS
1359:Christ is born, glorify Him. Christ from heaven, go out to meet Him. Christ on earth; be exalted. Sing unto the Lord all the whole earth; and that I may join both in one word, Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad. ~ Saint Gregory of Nazianzen, #KEYS
1360:Do not ask anything from God because God already knows your needs. There is difference between need, want, wish, and desire. Our days are laden with wants and nights with desires. Thus we remain disturbed all the time and put the blame on God. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
1361:Do not let your heart become troubled by the sad spectacle of human injustice. Even this has its value in the face of all else. And it is from this that one day you will see the justice of God rising with unfailing triumph. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
1362:Each moment, each hour will bring him the vision of a new mystery, because his heart is detached from this as from the other world; an invisible aid guides all his steps and fires his ardour. ~ Baha-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1363:Everywhere something hinders me from meeting God in my brother because he has shut the doors of his inmost temple and recites the fables of his brother's god or the god of his brother's brother. ~ Emerson, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1364:If one hears an ill word from one's neighbor, and, though he could reply in kind, yet fights in his heart to endure the toil and forces himself not to reply ill so as to sadden the other, such a man lays down his life for his friend. ~ Paschasius of Dumium, #KEYS
1365:If we wanted to lift our mind up towards God, we must have to bring it back from all external things and concentrate it at one point. But how to concentrate the scattered mind? This can be effected by faith in God or in one's own Guru. ~ SWAMI SUBODHANANDA, #KEYS
1366:Indifference, pain and joy, a triple disguise,
Attire of the rapturous Dancer in the ways,
Withhold from thee the body of God's bliss. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
1367:Life does not care whether you call yourself rich or poor; strong or weak. It will eternally reward you with that which you claim as true of yourself." ~ Neville Goddard, (1905-1972), mystic teacher. From "The Complete Reader,", (2013), edited David Allen., #KEYS
1368:Our troubles arise not from the failures of our thoughts alone; they arise largely because we have not given leadership to our hearts. We have not given to our souls the power to direct us in the right way of things. ~ Manly P Hall (Resurrection 1964, p.2), #KEYS
1369:Right discrimination is of two kinds analytical and synthetical. The first leads one from the phenomena to the Absolute Brahman, while by the second one knows how the Absolute Brahman appears as the universe. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1370:Some suffer a very burdensome amount of sorrow from adversity, but they are not led astray by it because of the good disposition of their reason. This is due to patience ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Job, ch. 4)., #KEYS
1371:Wisdom may teach you that all places are one, but love shows you how to get there." ~ Eric Micha'el Leventhal, (b. 1978) Author, developmental editor and holistic educator based on the island of Maui, Hawai'i. Quote from "A Light from the Shadows,", (2012), #KEYS
1372:A certain class of minds shrink from aggressiveness as if it were a sin. Their temperament forbids them to feel the delight of battle and they look on what they cannot understand as something monstrous and sinful. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
1373:Cast Thought from thee, that nimble ape of Light:
In his tremendous hush stilling thy brain
His vast Truth wake within and know and see. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Parable of the Search for the Soul,#KEYS
1374:He saw our many errors and the damnation that awaited us, and knowing that apart from him we had no hope of salvation, he pitied us, and in his mercy saved us. He called us when we were not his people and willed us to become his people. ~ 2nd century sermon, #KEYS
1375:There are a thousand things which prevent a man from awakening, which keep him in the power of his dreams. In order to act consciously with the intention of awakening, it is necessary to know the nature of the forces which keep man in a state of sleep. ~ GG, #KEYS
1376:We are neither different nor separate from Consciousness and for that very reason, we cannot 'apprehend' it. Nor can we 'integrate' with it, because we have never been other than it. Consciousness can never be understood in relative terms. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
1377:A hunchback rider of the red Wild-Ass,
A rash Intelligence leaped down lion-maned
From the great mystic Flame that rings the worlds ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind,#KEYS
1378:A schoolman mind had captured life's large space,
But chose to live in bare and paltry rooms
Parked off from the too vast dangerous universe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Entry into the Inner Countries,#KEYS
1379:Every action a man performs in thought, word and act, remains his veritable possession. It follows him and does not leave him even as a shadow separates not by a line from him who casts it. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1380:Freedom is from something. What are you to be free from? Obviously, you must be free from the person you take yourself to be, for it is the idea you have of yourself that keeps you in bondage. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
1381:My son, go hack into thy self by disentangling thyself as much as thou mayst from all things; seek purity from things below by detaching thy will and thy heart from the love of sensible objects. ~ J. Tauter, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1382:By far the greatest thing is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learned from others. It is a sign of genius, for a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of similarity among dissimilars.
~ Aristotle,#KEYS
1383:Meditation is not something we do; it is something we cease to do. Thus, it could be called self-remembering or self-resting." ~ Rupert Spira, (b.1960) international teacher of the Advaita Vedanta. From his book "Being Aware of Being Aware, (2017), Wikipedia., #KEYS
1384:Real rebirth is dying from the ego into the spirit. Whenever identification with the body exists, a body is always available, whether this or any other one, till the body-sense disappears by merging into the source - the spirit, or Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1385:Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring ~ not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive., #KEYS
1386:A lot of being a poet consists of willed ignorance. If you woke up from your trance and realized the nature of the life-threatening and dignity-destroying precipice you were walking along, you would switch into actuarial sciences immediately. ~ Margaret Atwood, #KEYS
1387:But in the end he must take his station, or better still, if he can, always and from the beginning he must live in his own soul beyond the limitations of the word that he uses.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Four Aids,#KEYS
1388:If you, in a surge of initial enthusiasm, do japa and meditation indiscriminately for long hours, your head may get heated and many other problems may arise. That is why it is advised that one should learn these practices from a Satguru. ~ MATA AMRITANANDAMAYI, #KEYS
1389:Mind and spirit are life, universal, no doubt, but in a living way and therefore comprehensive in a living way. They see what is alive in its uniqueness, yet also as a revelation of that which is everywhere at work…. ~ Romano Guardini, Letters from Lake Como, #KEYS
1390:Our dead past round our future's ankles clings
And drags back the new nature's glorious stride,
Or from its buried corpse old ghosts arise, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Parable of the Search for the Soul,#KEYS
1391:St. Thomas thinks... that real freedom consists precisely in being moved from within by God, who is not 'another' in any normal sense, precisely because there is no rivalry between the Creator and any of his creatures... ~ James Allison, The Joy of Being Wrong, #KEYS
1392:The man who is sincere and careful to do nothing to others that he would not have done to him, is not far from the Law. What he does not desire to be done to him, let him not himself do to others. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1393:This world is in love with its own ignorance,
Its darkness turns away from the saviour light,
It gives the cross in payment for the crown. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
1394:When a man is intoxicated with ecstatic love of God, then who is his father or mother or wife? His love of God is so intense that he becomes mad with it. Then he has no duty to perform. He is free from all debts. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1395:An arrow leaping through eternity
Suddenly shot from the tense bow of Time,
A ray returning to its parent sun. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
1396:The interval between the mind's passing from one idea to another - the period of calm between the two storms of thought - may be described as the native condition of the Self." ~ "Yoga Vasistha," Hindu philosophical text, contains over 29,000 verses, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1397:Every great flood of action needs a human soul for its centre, an embodied point of the Universal Personality from which to surge out upon others. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings: Historical Impressions, The French Revolution, #KEYS
1398:Sleep, awakening, consciousness—all this does not refer to personality, it refers to essence. So actually you work on essence from the very beginning, and personality, by changing, will produce a certain pressure on essence and change it too. ~ Peter Ouspensky, #KEYS
1399:The Christian is to the world what the soul is to the body. As the soul is present in every part of the body, while remaining distinct from it, so Christians are found in all the cities of the world, but cannot be identified with the world. ~ Letter to Diognetus, #KEYS
1400:The longing for untouched nature is it self a product of culture originating in the over artificiality of existence. In truth, nature begins to relate to us only when we begin to end well that, when culture begins in it. ~ Romano Guardini, Letters from Lake Como, #KEYS
1401:There are a very few healthy, fat sheep - that is, those that are made strong by feeding on the truth, by God's gift making good use of the pastures - but they are not safe from the bad shepherds. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1402:Under the appearances of bread, there is the body of Christ into which the substance of the bread is converted, as is clear from the words of the consecration when one says: "This is My body" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 4.64)., #KEYS
1403:Virtue arises from the desire for the immutable God, and so charity, which is the love of God, is called the root of the virtues, according to Eph. 3:17: "Rooted and founded in charity" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.84.1ad1)., #KEYS
1404:When a thought of anger or cruelty or a bad and unwholesome inclination awakes in a man, let him immediately throw it from him. let him dispel it, destroy it, prevent it from staying with him. ~ Buddhist Maxims, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1405:Flying out from the Great Buddha's nose: a swallow." ~ Kobayashi Issa, (1763 - 1828) Japanese poet and lay Buddhist priest, known for his haiku poems and journals, better known as simply Issa, a pen name meaning Cup-of-tea, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1406:I saw a child carrying a light. I asked him where he had brought it from. He put it our, and said: 'Now you tell me where it has gone.'" ~ Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, (642 - 728) early Muslim preacher, ascetic, theologian, exegete, scholar, judge, and mystic, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1407:The growth of the individual is the indispensable means for the inner growth as distinguished from the outer force and expansion of the collective being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
1408:This mind is a dynamic small machine
Producing ceaselessly, till it wears out,
With raw material drawn from the outside world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute,#KEYS
1409:Thou seekest after Paradise and thou longest to arrive where thou shalt be free from all sorrow and disunion; appease thy heart and make it white and pure, then art thou even here in Paradise. ~ Angelus Silesius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1410:A tender-hearted sinner is better than a saint hardened by piety." ~ Inayat Khan, (1882 - 1927) founder of the Sufi Order in the West in 1914, (London) & teacher of Universal Sufism, Wikipedia. From "The Complete Sayings of Hazrat Inayat Khan,", (1978, 2005, 2010), #KEYS
1411:No one can attain to truth by himself. Only by laying stone on stone with the cooperation of all, by the millions of generations from our forefather Adam to our own times, is that temple reared which is to be a worthy dwelling place of the Great God. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
1412:Our Lord does not come down from Heaven every day to lie in a golden ciborium. He comes to find another heaven which is infinitely dearer to him - the heaven of our souls, created in His Image, the living temples of the Adorable Trinity. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
1413:The method of gathering of the mind is not an easy one. It is better to watch and separate oneself from the thoughts till one becomes aware of a quiet space within into which they come from outside. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II, #KEYS
1414:The moment you open yourself completely to the love that awaits your conscious embrace, you are no longer there to receive it." ~ Eric Micha'el Leventhal, (b. 1978) Author, developmental editor and holistic educator. Quote from "A Light from the Shadows,", (2012)., #KEYS
1415:To the meek and gentle, to the lowly and unassuming, to all who are prepared to endure injury - to these the earth is promised. This is not a small or unimportant inheritance, as if "the earth" were somehow distinct from a dwelling-place in heaven. ~ Leo the Great, #KEYS
1416:What honor I have, and my bit of courage, I inherit from the little creature [the child I used to be], so mysterious to me now, scuttling through the September rain across streaming meadows, his heart heavy at the thought of going back to school. ~ George Bernanos, #KEYS
1417:You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Deuteronomy, 5:15, #KEYS
1418:Bhakti-Yoga is the science of higher love. Bhakti-Yoga does not say: "Give up"; it only says: "Love; love the Highest!" — and everything low naturally falls off from him, the object of whose love is the Highest. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1419:If our composition has not had Truth from its beginning, how can it either have or speak the Truth? Nay, it can only have a notion of it. All things, accordingly, that are on earth, are not the Truth, they're copies of the True." ~ "Hermes Trismegistus," Wikipedia., #KEYS
1420:If the root of a tree is medicinal, then the fruit will be medicine. But if the root is poisonous, then the fruit will be poison. Likewise, positive and negative qualities come from one's motivation, and not from one's physical actions in themselves. ~ Jigme Lingpa, #KEYS
1421:In the Giver every creature is eternal and is eternity itself. For the omnipotence of the Giver coincides with His eternity...For the Giver gave always and eternally; but [the gift] was received only with a descent from eternity. ~ Nicholas of Cusa, De Dato 3 (104), #KEYS
1422:Of all the strange crimes that humanity has legislated out of nothing, blasphemy is the most amazing - with obscenity and indecent exposure fighting it out for second and third place.
~ Robert Heinlein, Notebooks of Lazarus Long, from Time Enough for Love (1973).,#KEYS
1423:One should not expect too much from the Divine Protection for, constituted as we are and the world is, the Divine Protection has to act within limits. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Vigilance, Resolution, Will and the Divine Help, #KEYS
1424:They [the psychic being and the Divine Presence in the heart] are quite different things. The psychic being is one's own individual soul-being. It is not the Divine, though it has come from the Divine and develops towards the Divine. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga #KEYS
1425:To an Earthkeeper, love is not a feeling or something your barter with. Love is the essence of who you are, and it radiates from you as a brilliant aura: You become love, practice fearlessness, and attain enlightenment." ~ Alberto Villoldo, Cuban-born psychologist., #KEYS
1426:To refrain from all evil, to speak always the truth, to abstain from all theft, to be pure and control the senses, that in sum constitutes the duty which theManu has prescribed for the four classes. ~ Laws of Manu, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1427:Your being, Lord, does not desert my being, for I exist only insomuch as you are with me. And since your seeing is your being, therefore, because you regard me, I am, and if you remove your face from me, I will cease to be. ~ Nicholas of Cusa, De Visione Dei, ch. 4, #KEYS
1428:Temple-ground
Man, shun the impulses dire that spring armed from thy nature's abysms!
Dread the dusk rose of the gods, flee the honey that tempts from its petals! ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
1429:The being of the universe is one and equally present in each individual, part or member of the universe, in such sort that the totality and each part make from the view-point of substance only one. ~ Giordano Bruno, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1430:The fact that children and brute animals seek pleasures does not prove that all pleasures are evil, for there is in them from God a natural appetite moved by that which is congenial to them ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.34.1ad2)., #KEYS
1431:The phenomenal world of matter and of individualized consciousness ~ the world of things and animals and men and even gods ~ is the manifestation of a Divine Ground within which all partial realities have their being, and apart from which they would be non-existent., #KEYS
1432:The shadowy keepers of our deathless past
Have made our fate the child of our own acts,
And from the furrows laboured by our will
We reap the fruit of our forgotten deeds. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Quest,#KEYS
1433:The true disciple rejects enervation and idleness; he is delivered from caieless lassitude. Loving the light, intelligent and clear of vision he purifies his heart of all carelessness and idleness. ~ Majjhima Sntta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1434:Whatever you may do, you will find better and better things if only you go forward. You may feel a little ecstasy as the result of japa, but don't conclude from this that you have achieved everything in spiritual life. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1435:An aspirant must control the dissipation of the mind. Conquest over the senses and the mind helps one to attain freedom from the charms and temptations of the world. Free from worldly distractions, nothing remains in the mind but the longing to know God. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
1436:Do not be carried away by name and fame. You can renounce your wife, children, parents, house, friends, and relatives. It is very, very difficult to renounce the intellectual pleasure, the pleasure from name and fame. I seriously warn you. ~ Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #KEYS
1437:He will go from doubt to certitude, from the night of error to the light of the Guidance; he will see with the eye of knowledge and begin to converse in secret with the Well-beloved. ~ Baha-ullah : The Seven Valleys, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1438:ho is the Wise man? Whosoever is constantly learning something from one man or another. Who is the rich man? Whosoever is contented with his lot. Who is the strong man? Whosoever is capable of self-mastery. ~ Talmud, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1439:Our own effort is roused from slothful sleep by the restlessness of heretics, forcing us to examine the Scriptures more carefully, lest they use them to harm the flock of Christ ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, Letter 194 to Sixtus)., #KEYS
1440:Rarely indeed is a man so spiritual as to strip himself of all things. And who shall find a man so truly poor in spirit as to be free from every creature? His value is like that of things brought from the most distant lands. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1441:Some aspects of general semantics have so permeated the (American) culture that behaviors derived from it are common; e.g., wagging fIngers in the air to put 'quotes' around spoken terms which are deemed suspect - Robert P Pula. ~ Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity, #KEYS
1442:Above the birth of body and of thought
Our spirit's truth lives in the naked self
And from that height, unbound, surveys the world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute,#KEYS
1443:Children are nowhere taught, in any systematic way, to distinguish true from false, or meaningful from meaningless, statements. Why is this so? Because their elders, even in the democratic countries, do not want them to be given this kind of education. ~ Aldous Huxley, #KEYS
1444:Creation does not mean the building up of a composite thing from pre-existing principles; but it means that the composite is created so that it is brought into being at the same time with all its principles. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I q. 45 a. 4 ad. 2), #KEYS
1445:Creation is not a change, but the very dependency of the created act of being upon the principle from which it is produced. And thus, creation is a kind of relation; so that nothing prevents its being in the creature as its subject. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, SCG II 18.2, #KEYS
1446:Have no private selfish end, but have sincere love for truth and piety, and Mother shall speak from within you. Never let go your ideal, but hold on to it with a firm grip, and you will be led rightly to the goal, which is the one and same for all. ~ Swami Turiyananda, #KEYS
1447:He suffered for the sake of those who suffer, he was bound for those in bonds, buried for those who lie in the grave; but he rose from the dead, and cried aloud: Who will contend with me? I have freed the condemned, brought the dead back to life.... ~ Melito of Sardis, #KEYS
1448:In the multiple unity of the universal life, its innumerable species distinguished from one another by their differences are still united in such a way that the totality is one and all proceeds from oneness. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1449:The book of psalms is the voice of complete assent, the joy of freedom, a cry of happiness, the echo of gladness. It soothes the temper, distracts from care, lightens the burden of sorrow. It is a source of security at night, a lesson in wisdom by day. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
1450:There is a reflective property in matter. It is a mirror tarnished, clouded by our breath. It is only necessary to clean the mirror and to read the symbols that are written in matter from all eternity. ~ Simone Weil, 'The First Condition for the Work of a Free Person', #KEYS
1451:The Spirit raises our hearts to heaven, guides the steps of the weak, and brings to perfection those who are making progress. He enlightens those who have been cleansed from every stain of sin and makes them spiritual by communion with himself. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
1452:Buddhism teaches that joy and happiness arise from letting go. Please sit down and take an inventory of your life. There are things you've been hanging on to that really are not useful and deprive you of your freedom. Find the courage to let them go." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #KEYS
1453:But these structures, forming different levels, are to be regarded as succeeding one another according to a law of development, such that each one brings about a more inclusive and stable equilibrium for the processes that emerge from the preceding level. ~ Jean Piaget, #KEYS
1454:Each element of the cosmos is positively woven from all the others...The universe holds together, and only one way of considering it is really possible, that is, to take it as a whole, in one piece. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
1455:I am far from denying the real force of the arguments in proof of a God… but these do not warm me or enlighten me; they do not take away the winter of my desolation, or make the buds unfold in the leaves grow within me, and my moral being rejoice. ~ John Henry Newman, #KEYS
1456:Many objects of temptation are there in front of you, and the mind is a rascal. No matter how much you educate it, it will run only in that direction. How many have the power to stop that? So it is best to stay away from the objects of temptations. ~ Swami Adbhutananda, #KEYS
1457:No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." ~ Albert Einstein, (1879 - 1955) German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics, (alongside quantum mechanics), Wikipedia, #KEYS
1458:One of two things must be done, either surrender because you admit your inability and require a higher power to help you, or investigate the cause of misery by going to the source and merging into the Self. Either way you will be free from misery. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1459:The saviour creeds that cannot save themselves,
But perish in the strangling hands of the years,
Discarded from man's thought, proved false by Time. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real,#KEYS
1460:We imagine that the soul is in the body, almost a result and derivation from the body; even we so feel it: but it is the body that is in the soul and a result and derivation from the soul. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Two Natures, #KEYS
1461:After having abandoned every kind of pious practice, directing his mind towards the sole object of his thoughts, the contemplation of the divine Being, free from all desire...he attains the supreme goal. ~ Laws of Mann, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1462:All undelight, all pain and suffering are a sign of imperfection, of incompleteness; they arise from a division of being, an incompleteness of consciousness of being, an incompleteness of the force of being.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
1463:Because there is Mind behind the universe, it did not originate itself; because God is infinite, not finite, it was not made from pre-existent matter, but out of nothing and out of non-existence absolute and utter God brought it into being through the Word. ~ Athanasius, #KEYS
1464:From Matter's plinth and viewless base
To a top as viewless, a carved sea of worlds
Climbing with foam-maned waves to the Supreme
Ascended towards breadths immeasurable; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World-Stair,#KEYS
1465:From time forth created things From time too, they advance in growth. Likewise in time they disappear Time is a form and formless too.." ~ "Upaninshads," part of the Sanskrit texts that contain some of the central philosophical concepts and ideas of Hinduism, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1466:Holy sorrow comes from contemplating one's own sins and the sins of others. It does not weep at the actions of divine justice but at the sins committed by human wickedness. It is the one who does evil who is to be pitied here, not the one who suffers it. ~ Leo the Great, #KEYS
1467:Is it from without that there can come to a man the sweetness and the charm of his life? Is it not rather from the wisdom of his virtues that flow as from a happy source his real pleasures and his real joys? ~ Plutarch, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1468:Let the little troubled life-god within
Cast his veils from the still soul,
His tiger-stripes of virtue and sin,
His clamour and glamour and thole and dole ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Musa Spiritus,#KEYS
1469:O Lord, if I worship You because of Fear of Hell,
then burn me in Hell;
If I worship You because I desire Paradise,
then exclude me from Paradise;
But if I worship You for Yourself alone,
then deny me not your Eternal Beauty ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya,#KEYS
1470:Study me as much as you like, you will not know me, for I differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be. Put yourself behind my eyes and see me as I see myself, for I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see.
~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#KEYS
1471:The Church of God that sojourns at Rome, to the Church of God sojourning at Corinth, to hem who are called and sanctified by the will of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, from almighty God through Jesus Christ, be multiplied. ~ Saint Clement, #KEYS
1472:You were led down to the font of holy baptism just as Christ was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb which is before your eyes. Each of you was asked, "Do you believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit?" ~ Jerusalem Catecheses, #KEYS
1473:Context shows sufficiently and clearly that brotherly love itself (for brotherly love is that whereby we love one another) is taught by so eminent an authority, not only to be from God, but also to be God. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1474:The mind obstructs the innate peace. Our investigation is only in the mind. Investigate the mind; it will disappear. There is no entity by name mind. Because of the emergence of thoughts we surmise something from which they start. That we term mind. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1475:Ascending and descending twixt life's poles
The seried kingdoms of the graded Law
Plunged from the Everlasting into Time, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness,#KEYS
1476:D.: Sri Aurobindo says that the Light which resides in the head must be brought down to the heart below.
M.: Is not the Self already in the Heart? How can the all-pervading Self be taken from one place to another? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi,#KEYS
1477:Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man." ~ Rabindranath Tagore, (1861 - 1941), a polymath, poet, musician, and artist from the Indian subcontinent. he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1478:Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and to know that everything in life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings to us to learn from." ~ Elizabeth Kubler Ross, (1926-2004) a Swiss-American psychiatrist, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1479:The Buddha taught for forty-five years. He is said to have said that all of his teachings could be encapsulated in one sentence… "Nothing is to be clung to as 'I,' 'me,' or 'mine.'" ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn, (b. 1944), Wikipedia. Quote from "Mindfulness for Beginners,", (2016)., #KEYS
1480:What is soul and in what form does it exist in us?
The first form of the soul is a spark of light from the Divine. By evolution it becomes an individualised being and then it can take the form it wants.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
1481:All books will tell you the same truth, perhaps in slightly different ways. Instead of wasting time reading book after book why not realize for yourself what was obvious from the very first book. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, From the Mounth Path, #KEYS
1482:All mystics speak the same language, for they come from the same country." ~ Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, (1743 - 1803) French philosopher, an influential of the mystic and human mind evolution and became the inspiration for the founding of the Martinist Order, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1483:Fanaticism rises from man's will to dominate others. Once it is born, it brings in its frame a lot of other evils. It blinds man's vision and stirs up the animal in him. It hardens man's heart, destroys all sublime sentiments that give sanctity to life. ~ Swami Abhedananda, #KEYS
1484:I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter. ~ Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven, [T5],#KEYS
1485:Just as a pot dissolves into clay, a wave into water, or a bracelt into gold, so also the phenomenal universe which has arisen in me will also dissolve into Me." ~ From the "Ashtavakra Gita.", ((c. 500-400 BC), dialogue between the sage Ashtavakra & King Janaka, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1486:Our natural desire for the good ... is itself and original participation in God's love operating within us, moving us from within. This immanent ideal that we call nature... frees us, by virtue of its being a participation in God's creative word of love ~ David L Schindler, #KEYS
1487:Removing spirit from the Cartesian system makes serious trouble... The concept of the natural world was originally tailored to fit the current supernatural one. It does not make sense on its own. In some ways, it is only a shadow of its supernatural partner. ~ Mary Midgley, #KEYS
1488:'Son of man, I have appointed you as watchman to the house of Israel.' ~ Note that Ezekiel, whom the Lord sent to preach his word, is described as a watchman. Now a watchman always takes up his position on the heights so that he can see from a distance whatever approaches., #KEYS
1489:The heart which is not struck by the sweet smiles of an infant is still asleep." ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, (1882 - 1927) founder of the Sufi Order in the West in 1914, (London) and teacher of Universal Sufism, Wikipedia. Quote from the "Complete Sayings of Hazrat…,", (1990)., #KEYS
1490:What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.
~ William Wordsworth,#KEYS
1491:When we were baptised in Christ Jesus we were baptised in his death; in other words, when we were baptised we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glory, we too might live a new life. ~ Romans 6:3-5, #KEYS
1492:Although thinking is my act, it is not 'mine' in the sense that understanding uses the word mine. This follows from the very nature of reason, which determines the nature of thought as such. My concept, although it is my act, is thus not my private property. ~ Owen Barfield, #KEYS
1493:Being aware of being aware is the essence of meditation. It is the only form of meditation that does not require the directing, focusing or controlling of the mind." ~ Rupert Spira, (b.1960) international teacher of Advaita Vedanta. From "Being Aware of Being Aware, (2017)., #KEYS
1494:Death will work in me this transformation, that I shall pass into another being otherwise separated from the world. And then the whole world, while yet the same for those who live in it, will become other for me. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1495:Every family has to be traced back to its origins. That is why we can say that all these great churches constitute that one original Church of the apostles; for it is from them that they all come. They are all primitive, all apostolic, because they are all one. ~ Tertullian, #KEYS
1496:Everything proceeding from the profound nature of things shows the influence of the law of number... From this are derived the four elements, the succession of the seasons, the movement of the stars, and the course of the heavens. ~ Boethius, De arithmeticae artis libri duo, #KEYS
1497:Facing wine, I missed night coming on and falling blossoms filling my robe. Drunk, I rise and wade the midstream moon, birds soon gone, and people scarcer still." ~ Li Bai, (aka Li Po, 701-762), Chinese poet, acclaimed from his own day to the present as a genius, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1498:Lear n to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from." ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, (1926 - 2004) Swiss-American psychiatrist, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1499:Philosophy explains by distinguishing... [I]t works with distinctions, it brings them out and dwells on them, dwells with them, showing how and why the things that it has distinguished must be distinguished one from the other. ~ Robert Sokolowski, 'The Method of Philosophy', #KEYS
1500:Sacred Scripture does not present divine things to us under sensible images so that our intellect may stop with them, but that it may rise from them to immaterial things ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (On Boethius' De Trinitate, q. 6, a. 2 ad 1)., #KEYS
1:Tear thyself from delay. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 2:Change from within ~ mahatma-gandhi, @wisdomtrove 3:From caring comes courage. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 4:Ideas come from God. ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove 5:Ideas come from curiosity. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 6:Home is where one starts from. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 7:We can learn even from our enemies. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 8:Love is a Dog from Hell. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 9:The end is where we start from. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 10:We learn from the things we suffer. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 11:You can't run away from yourself ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 12:Art is an escape from reality. ~ henri-matisse, @wisdomtrove 13:If you hope good down from above, ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 14:Absorb ideas from every source. ~ thomas-edison, @wisdomtrove 15:All complaining comes from pride. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 16:Art is the escape from personality. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 17:We shall not cease from exploration ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 18:Where does Space-Time come from? ~ john-wheeler, @wisdomtrove 19:It's right to learn, even from the enemy. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 20:One should learn even from one's enemies. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 21:The law is reason free from passion. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 22:Art never comes from happiness. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 23:Learn from the purity of nature. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 24:Only from the heart can you touch the sky. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 25:Saints can spring from any soil. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 26:The fears you run from run to you. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 27:There will grow from straws a mighty heap. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 28:You can learn from anyone even your enemy. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 29:Always drink upstream from the herd. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 30:Evil comes from the ABUSE of free will ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 31:Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 32:Lord, protect me from what I want! ~ pablo-picasso, @wisdomtrove 33:We were wanderers from the beginning. ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 34:Admiration spoils all from infancy. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 35:Confidence comes from being prepared. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 36:Education must start from birth. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 37:Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 38:From a just fraud God turneth not away. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 39:Get maximum effect from minimum effort. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 40:Good but rarely came from good advice. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 41:Move from the known to the unknown. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 42:Poetry comes fine-spun from a mind at peace. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 43:Those who covet much suffer from the want. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 44:We cannot learn men from books. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 45:All culture must have arisen from cult. ~ alan-moore, @wisdomtrove 46:Art is an attempt to escape from life. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 47:From a grain of sand in the Pearl comes. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 48:It is easy to be brave from a safe distance. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 49:No art comes from the conscious mind. ~ steve-martin, @wisdomtrove 50:The French courage proceeds from vanity ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 51:Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 52:Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 53:Everything good proceeds from enthusiasm. ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove 54:God, deliver me from sullen saints. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 55:Jesus came to save us from our own sins. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 56:Never accept a drink from a urologist. ~ erma-bombeck, @wisdomtrove 57:Sickness seizes the body from bad ventilation. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 58:Something cannot emerge from nothing. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 59:Truth suffers from too much analysis. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 60:We cannot know God apart from His Word. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 61:Wisdom comes from disillusionment. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 62:Distracted from distraction by distraction ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 63:Expect poison from the standing water. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 64:From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 65:Nothing's beautiful from every point of view. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 66:Surprise comes from defying expectations. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 67:The fairest harmony springs from discord. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 68:College is a refuge from hasty judgment. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 69:Freeing oneself from words is liberation. ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove 70:I drink to separate my body from my soul. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 71:I eat Swiss cheese from the inside out. ~ steven-wright, @wisdomtrove 72:Mighty things from small beginnings grow. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 73:No one has ever become poor from giving. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 74:Seek freedom from the conformity of styles. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 75:You develop a style from writing a lot. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 76:Hidden knowledge differs little from ignorance. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 77:How can you hide from what never goes away? ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 78:I paint flowers to prevent them from dying ~ frida-kahlo, @wisdomtrove 79:Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 80:May God protect me from gloomy saints. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 81:Sin is essentially a departure from God. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 82:Spring is the Period Express from God. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 83:Energy flows from earnestness. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 84:It is easy to be brave when far away from danger. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 85:Long is the road from conception to completion. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 86:Mercy detached from justice grows unmerciful. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 87:Nobody at any time is cut off from God. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 88:One word from you shall silence me forever. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 89:Our best thoughts come from others. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 90:Set up a life you don't need to escape from. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 91:The doors of hell are locked from the inside! ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 92:The only real laughter comes from despair. ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 93:Truth springs from argument amongst friends. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 94:What's drinking? A mere pause from thinking! ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 95:Whistling to keep myself from being afraid. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 96:You are different from me and yet we are one. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 97:All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 98:A man who causes fear cannot be free from fear. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 99:A well-stocked mind is safe from boredom. ~ arthur-c-carke, @wisdomtrove 100:From moment to moment one can bear much. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 101:I get my ideas from listening from within. ~ thomas-edison, @wisdomtrove 102:It is a long road from conception to completion. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 103:Real change comes from the inside out. ~ stephen-r-covey, @wisdomtrove 104:Some wisdom you must learn from one who's wise ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 105:Talent comes from experience and failure ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 106:We are not separated from spirit, we are in it. ~ plotinus, @wisdomtrove 107:cruelty, / To steal my Basil-pot away from me! ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 108:Don't just get through the day, get FROM the day ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 109:Fear always springs from ignorance. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 110:Freedom from mental distraction equals power. ~ dan-millman, @wisdomtrove 111:Freedom from something is not freedom. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 112:From politics it was an easy step to silence. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 113:In life, the worst disasters come from passion. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 114:Is there a thinker apart from thought? ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 115:Listen to Everyone. Ideas come from everywhere ~ tom-peters, @wisdomtrove 116:Success comes from within, not from without. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 117:There are lessons to be learned from a stupid man. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 118:There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 119:Traveling is like dancing lessons from God. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 120:You can't get wet from the word & 121:Do not allow things to intrude from outside. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 122:Do passing drills that come from your offense. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 123:Each party should gain from the negotiation. ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 124:Healing proceeds from the depths to the heights. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove 125:In the whole universe there is no escape from it. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 126:Liberty is a different kind of pain from prison. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 127:May all that have life be delivered from suffering. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 128:Mistakes come from doing, but so does success. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 129:No nation has ever benefited from a prolonged war. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 130:Prussia was hatched from a cannon-ball. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 131:She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B. ~ dorothy-parker, @wisdomtrove 132:So that's the ghost you been running from. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 133:To err from the right path is common to mankind. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 134:True enjoyments also keep people from vice. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 135:What you do comes from what you think. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 136:All misery and pain come from attachment. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 137:Courage from hearts and not from numbers grows. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 138:Does a dragon still sing from within a withered tree? ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove 139:From form to formless and from finite to infinite ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 140:He is now fast rising from affluence to poverty. ~ mark-twain, @wisdomtrove 141:I don't work from nature, I work like nature. ~ pablo-picasso, @wisdomtrove 142:Is anyone in all the world safe from unhappiness? ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 143:Judge a tree from its fruit, not from its leaves. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 144:Profit is sweet, even if it comes from deception. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 145:Shame derives its power from being unspeakable. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 146:The gift derives its value from the rank of the giver. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 147:To be free from evil thoughts is God's best gift. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 148:A happy fart never comes from a miserable ass. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 149:Banish Air from Air Divide Light if you dare ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 150:Do not view mountains from the scale of human thought. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove 151:Even Rome cannot grant us a dispensation from death. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 152:Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 153:If love be good, from whence cometh my woe? ~ geoffrey-chaucer, @wisdomtrove 154:It was like drowning, only from the inside out. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 155:Jupiter from on high smiles at the perjuries of lovers. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 156:Learn from the past and let it go. Live in today. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 157:Much is expected from those to whom much is given. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 158:Our yearning for truth actually comes from truth. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove 159:Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 160:Stars are phoenixes, rising from their own ashes. ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 161:These are the evils which result from gossiping habits. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 162:The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore. ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 163:Everything we know, we learned from someone else! ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 164:Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 165:From such trivia, I believe my soul was born. ~ charlie-chaplan, @wisdomtrove 166:If you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 167:I was built up from my dad more than anyone else. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 168:Learn from your history, but don’t live in it. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 169:Much unhappiness has come from things left unsaid ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 170:No one ever died from sleeping in an unmade bed. ~ erma-bombeck, @wisdomtrove 171:Our dog died from licking our wedding picture. ~ phyllis-diller, @wisdomtrove 172:People are born to be free; it's a gift from God. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 173:Table your mistakes, learn from them, then move on. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 174:Victory comes from finding opportunities in problems. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 175:You can't conquer reality by running away from it. ~ og-mandino, @wisdomtrove 176:All things truly wicked start from innocence. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 177:Don't let past mistakes keep you from seeking God ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 178:Everything I learned I learned from the movies. ~ audrey-hepburn, @wisdomtrove 179:He who is upright in his way of life and free from sin. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 180:I hate the irreverent rabble and keep them far from me. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 181:It's God - I recognised him from Blake's picture. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 182:Man is only great when he acts from passion. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 183:Men dislike being awakened from their death in life. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 184:One can advise comfortably from a safe port. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 185:The greatest source of unhappiness comes from inside. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 186:The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 187:The president cannot escape from his office. ~ dwight-eisenhower, @wisdomtrove 188:Thinking prevents the unconscious from speaking. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 189:To refrain from imitation is the best revenge. ~ marcus-aurelius, @wisdomtrove 190:To rise from error to truth is rare and beautiful. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 191:A moment is all you can expect from perfection. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 192:Balance is what distinguishs a people from a mob. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 193:Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from Jacques. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 194:Every adult was once a child free from prejudice. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 195:From a real antagonist one gains boundless courage. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 196:Happiest is he who expects no happiness from others. ~ meher-baba, @wisdomtrove 197:It is good to labor; it is also good to rest from labor. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 198:Jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 199:Learn from the past, but don’t live in the past. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 200:Snuffy old drone from the German hive. ~ oliver-wendell-holmes-sr, @wisdomtrove 201:There is no escape from metre; there is only mastery. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 202:Truth emerges from the clash of adverse ideas. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 203:What can you take from me which is not already yours? ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 204:All intellectual improvement arises from leisure. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 205:And right action is freedom From past and future also. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 206:Can true function arise from basic dysfunction? ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 207:Even from the first it is meek to seek the impossible. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 208:Every wind is fare when we are flying from misfortune. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 209:From a hundred rabbits you can't make a horse. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 210:From the very first time I rest my eyes on you, girl, ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 211:Half our fears arise from neglect of the Bible. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 212:I'm from such an old family, it's been condemned. ~ phyllis-diller, @wisdomtrove 213:In art, you CAN crash your plane and walk away from it ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove 214:Intuitive thoughts are gifts from the higher self. ~ susan-jeffers, @wisdomtrove 215:I worked myself up from nothing to extreme poverty. ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 216:No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 217:[The Bible] is been my passion almost from my youth. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 218:The unhappy derive comfort from the misfortunes of others. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 219:To look at a thing is very different from seeing it. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 220:To run away from fear is only to increase it. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 221:We all come out from Gogol's & 222:Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 223:.. wrecks the planet from seafloor to stratosphere. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 224:Yoga is a mirror to look at ourselves from within. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 225:Bitterness: anger that forgot where it came from. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove 226:Deviation from Nature is deviation from happiness. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 227:Drink from the well of yourself and begin again. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 228:Expert: An ordinary man away from home giving advice. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 229:From error to error one discovers the entire truth. ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove 230:God doesn't want something from us. He simply wants us. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 231:Life comes from the earth and life returns to the earth. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 232:Most deadly errors arise from obsolete assumptions. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 233:Optimism can keep a fool from accepting failure. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 234:Taste the joy That springs from labor. ~ henry-wadsworth-longfellow, @wisdomtrove 235:The best advice I got from my dad? Wear a condom. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 236:The disgrace of others often keeps tender minds from vice. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 237:The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 238:The worst kind of arrogance is arrogance from ignorance. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 239:To not love ourselves can keep what we want from us. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 240:Truth has to be discovered now, from moment to moment. ~ barry-long, @wisdomtrove 241:we can't separate ourselves from one another. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 242:A grave, on which to rest from singing? ~ elizabeth-barrett-browning, @wisdomtrove 243:Aslan: You doubt your value. Don't run from who you are. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 244:Baptism separates the tire kickers from the car buyers. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 245:Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 246:Every tear from every eyeBecomes a babe in eternity. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 247:From labor there shall come forth rest. ~ henry-wadsworth-longfellow, @wisdomtrove 248:I do not quote from the scriptures; I simply see what I see. ~ kabir, @wisdomtrove 249:I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 250:Love is the only way to rescue humanity from all ills. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 251:May Allah steal from you All that steals you from Him. ~ rabia-basri, @wisdomtrove 252:Nature, like man, sometimes weeps from gladness. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 253:Praise from the praise-worthy is beyond all rewards. ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 254:Start from wherever you are and with whatever you've got. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 255:The only freedom is the freedom from the known. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 256:the pull that comes from years of trying to prove that ~ debbie-ford, @wisdomtrove 257:The successful man will profit from his mistakes and ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 258:We are often deterred from crime by the disgrace of others. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 259:What exile from his country is able to escape from himself? ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 260:Who is free from sin? One who chants the name of God. ~ adi-shankara, @wisdomtrove 261:A Christian should be an Alleluia from head to foot ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 262:A fall from such a height is rarely straight downwards. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 263:Anything we need to know, we can learn it from a book. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 264:A superior man is one who is free from fear and anxieties ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 265:Dreams are constructed from the residue of yesterday. ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove 266:Every gift from a friend is a wish for your happiness. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 267:Everything you want to be, do or have comes from love. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 268:From the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 269:Happiness does not come from consumption of things. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 270:I derived my strength from daily mass and communion. ~ vince-lombardi, @wisdomtrove 271:If you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it? ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove 272:In every author let us distinguish the man from his works. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 273:It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 274:love to shine forth from every part of the face. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 275:Most of my problems come from rejecting parts of myself. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 276:My soul seemed as foul as smoke from burning cat fur. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 277:My therapy has come from paying attention to my life. ~ oprah-winfrey, @wisdomtrove 278:Polish comes from the cities; wisdom from the desert. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 279:She turned the key, never taking her eyes from him. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 280:The best thing must be to flee from all to the All. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 281:The more you act the further you get away from the truth. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 282:What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 283:Wishes are recollections coming from the future. ~ rainer-maria-rilke, @wisdomtrove 284:Worry erases the promises of God from your mind. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 285:99% of failures come from people who make excuses. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 286:A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 287:All our troubles come from not being able to be alone. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 288:Don't forget who you are and where you come from. ~ f-scott-fitzgerald, @wisdomtrove 289:Don't let the fear of the thorn keep you from the rose. ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 290:Dying in a a war never stopped wars from happening. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 291:Everything that is superfluous overflows from the full bosom. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 292:Give me one man from among ten thousand if he is the best ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 293:God, keep me from what they call & 294:How different it all was from what you'd planned. ~ f-scott-fitzgerald, @wisdomtrove 295:I gave them hope, and so turned away their eyes from death ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 296:It matters enormously if I alienate anyone from the truth. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 297:May God us keep From Single vision and Newton's sleep. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 298:Not being known doesn't stop the truth from being true. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 299:Out of chaos, find simplicity, From discord, find harmony. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 300:Stupidity often saves a man from going mad. ~ oliver-wendell-holmes-sr, @wisdomtrove 301:That's bad luck: three on a midget. From "At The Circus ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 302:The greatest healing would be to wake up from what we are not. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 303:The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 304:Three generations from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves. ~ andrew-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 305:To cast aside from Poetry, all that is not Inspiration ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 306:We know where we're going cause we know where we're from. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 307:When one first seeks the truth, one separates oneself from it. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove 308:A Christian is someone who has turned to God from idols. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 309:All our words from loose using have lost their edge. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 310:An action, to have moral worth, must be done from duty. ~ immanuel-kant, @wisdomtrove 311:But for this book we could not know right from wrong. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove 312:Cunning differs from wisdom as twilight from open day. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 313:Don't let making a living prevent you from making a life. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 314:Every man is my superior in that I may learn from him. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 315:Every tear from every eye / Becomes a babe in Eternity. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 316:Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 317:Faith in Christ is the only thing to save you from despair. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 318:If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 319:I never met a person from whom I did not learn something. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 320:Joy is something entirely different from pleasure. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 321:Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 322:Man is made to create, from the poet to the potter. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 323:Men are from Earth, women are from Earth. Deal with it. ~ george-carlin, @wisdomtrove 324:Most people die from the remedy rather than from the illness. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 325:Passion is the bridge that takes you from pain to change. ~ frida-kahlo, @wisdomtrove 326:Praised be the Lord, who has redeemed me from myself. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 327:Progress comes from the intelligent use of experience. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 328:Results is all that separates one company from another. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove 329:There is a path from me to you that I am constantly looking for. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 330:Time is what prevents everything from happening at once. ~ john-wheeler, @wisdomtrove 331:Well, I git enough sorrow. I like to git away from it. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 332:Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~ pablo-picasso, @wisdomtrove 333:Comradeship is quite a different thing from friendship. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 334:From Themistocles began the saying, "He is a second Hercules. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 335:Government Steals from the needy and gives to the greedy ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 336:I can almost understand why people leap from bridges. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 337:I have learnt more from my failures than my successes. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 338:I've been very lucky. I come from a very close family. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 339:Modest wisdom plucks me from over-credulous haste. ~ william-shakespeare, @wisdomtrove 340:Our help does not come from Washington, but from ourselves. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 341:Real men despise battle, but will never run from it. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 342:Unless we agree to suffer we cannot be free from suffering. ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove 343:Unusual travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 344:What? Are you still pretending you are separate from the Beloved? ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 345:Who we are cannot be separated from where we're from. ~ malcolm-gladwell, @wisdomtrove 346:All lasting wealth comes from enriching others in some way. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 347:A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 348:Beauty, if you do not open your doors, takes age from lack of use. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 349:Death is no more than passing from one room into another. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 350:Distressed valor challenges great respect, even from an enemy. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 351:Every life viewed from the inside is a series of defeats. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 352:From my weakness, I drew strength that never left me. ~ jorge-luis-borges, @wisdomtrove 353:Guilt can stop us from taking healthy care of ourselves. ~ melody-beattie, @wisdomtrove 354:I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage. ~ erma-bombeck, @wisdomtrove 355:Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 356:Lawyers are men whom we hire to protect us from lawyers. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 357:Man is in part divine, A troubled stream from a pure source. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 358:Nobody knows why they were born or where they come from. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 359:Obviously, there is little you can learn from doing nothing. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 360:Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men. ~ johann-wolfgang-von-goethe, @wisdomtrove 361:She got her looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon. ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 362:Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 363:The chief glory of every people arises from its authors. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 364:The heart's words fall back unheard from Wisdom's throne. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 365:The thing that differentiates man from animals is money. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 366:We are born from a quiet sleep, and we die to a calm awakening ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 367:Why sip from a tea cup, when you can drink from the river. ~ steve-martin, @wisdomtrove 368:Babies, we are told, are the latest news from heaven. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 369:Black holes result from God dividing the universe by zero. ~ steven-wright, @wisdomtrove 370:But our hatred is almost indistinguishable from our love. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 371:Frequent discontent must proceed from frequent hardships. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 372:From this hour, freedom! Going where I like, my own master. ~ walt-whitman, @wisdomtrove 373:Happiness does not come from without, it comes from within ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 374:If you would one day renovate yourself, do so from day to day. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 375:It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 376:Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove 377:Let us seize, friends, our opportunity from the day as it passes. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 378:Love that endures, from life that disappears! ~ elizabeth-barrett-browning, @wisdomtrove 379:Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn't come from a store. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 380:Never trust advice from a man in the throes of his own difficulty. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 381:Never try to be better than someone else. Learn from others. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 382:people run from rain but sit in bathtubs full of water. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 383:The more a man denies himself, the more shall he obtain from God. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 384:Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 385:The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 386:The wise form right judgment of the present from what is past. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 387:Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion. ~ francis-bacon, @wisdomtrove 388:Vengeance comes from the individual and punishment from God. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 389:You must not pursue a success, but fly from it. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 390:A miracle is a shift in perception from fear to love. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 391:Art lifts man from his personal life into the universal life. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 392:Courage comes from acting courageously on a day-to-day basis. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 393:Everything you’re currently against blocks you from abundance. ~ wayne-dyer, @wisdomtrove 394:Every wolf's and lion's howl Raises from Hell a human soul. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 395:Happiness is liberty from everything that makes us unhappy. ~ vernon-howard, @wisdomtrove 396:I am dying from the treatment of too many physicians. ~ alexander-the-great, @wisdomtrove 397:I cannot live under pressures from patrons, let alone paint. ~ michelangelo, @wisdomtrove 398:I more fear what is within me than what comes from without. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 399:In reality, pleasure is but a respite from pain. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 400:Is there any answer except that it comes from consciousness? ~ john-wheeler, @wisdomtrove 401:It becomes one, while exempt from woes, to look to the dangers. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 402:Most of man's trouble comes from his inability to be still. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 403:Protect your enthusiasm from the negativity of others. ~ h-jackson-brown-jr, @wisdomtrove 404:Socialism must come down from the brain and reach the heart. ~ jules-renard, @wisdomtrove 405:Spiritual Awakening is awakening from the dream of thought. ~ eckhart-tolle, @wisdomtrove 406:The transition from libertine to prig was so complete. ~ f-scott-fitzgerald, @wisdomtrove 407:We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 408:We should never fear to negotiate, nor negotiate from fear. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 409:Where crime is taught from early years, it becomes a part of nature. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 410:Writing a check separates a commitment from a conversation. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 411:Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence. ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove 412:You're only a rebel from the waist downwards,' he told her. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 413:A knowledge of thyself will preserve thee from vanity. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 414:All good is born in prayer, and all good springs from it. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 415:Death is the side of life which is turned away from us. ~ rainer-maria-rilke, @wisdomtrove 416:Eighty percent of air pollution comes from plants and trees. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 417:Every idea from your thoughts is the real thing it's strength ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 418:Happiness isn’t outside of us, but actually comes from within. ~ leo-babauta, @wisdomtrove 419:I have never developed indigestion from eating my words. ~ winston-churchill, @wisdomtrove 420:May your thoughts, words and actions arise from love. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 421:Reasoning is never, like poetry, judged from the outside at all. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 422:Remove Christ from the Scriptures and there is nothing left. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 423:The only thing emanating from my pictures should be emotion. ~ pablo-picasso, @wisdomtrove 424:The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 425:Tis sweet to listen as the night winds creep From leaf to leaf. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 426:We can't separate our humanity from our poetry. ~ elizabeth-barrett-browning, @wisdomtrove 427:Anger and hatred are the materials from which hell is made. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 428:Apart from man, no being wonders at its own experience. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove 429:Everybody born comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 430:Ideas, as distinguished from events, are never unprecedented. ~ hannah-arendt, @wisdomtrove 431:If a man sets his heart on benevolence he will be free from evil. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 432:I have always worked better alone and from my own impressions. ~ claude-monet, @wisdomtrove 433:I have never yet known what it was to separate esteem from love ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 434:It is a very mixed blessing to be brought back from the dead. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 435:I've learned to keep my mind open to ideas from any source. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 436:I've never made a mistake. I've only learned from experience. ~ thomas-edison, @wisdomtrove 437:I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty. ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 438:Never let your fears hold you back from pursuing your hopes. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 439:Nothing can confound a wise man more than laughter from a dunce. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 440:Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 441:The career of flowers differs from ours only inaudibleness. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 442:The proudest thing I can claim is that I am from Abilene. ~ dwight-eisenhower, @wisdomtrove 443:There are so many laws that no one is safe from hanging. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 444:There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 445:There is no reward from God to those who seek it from men. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 446:What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 447:Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? ~ lewis-carroll, @wisdomtrove 448:You are pure consciousness, free from all content. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 449:Beware how you take away hope from any human being. ~ oliver-wendell-holmes-sr, @wisdomtrove 450:Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 451:From Harmony, from heav'nly Harmony. This universal Frame began. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 452:From joy I came, for joy I live, in sacred joy I melt. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 453:From suffering that has been/ Decreed no man will ever find escape ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 454:From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 455:God's angels often protect his servants from potential enemies. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 456:Happy the man who from the sea escapes the storm and finds harbor. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 457:Human dignity ... is derived from a sense of independence. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 458:Human reason borrowed many arts from the instinct of animals. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 459:If you flee from the things you fear, there's no resolution. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 460:If you're making art, you are not separate from your brand. ~ danielle-laporte, @wisdomtrove 461:I have a paper cut from writing my suicide note. It's a start. ~ steven-wright, @wisdomtrove 462:I was born a long way from where I belong and I am on my way home. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 463:I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 464:Learn From Yesterday, Live for Today, hope for tomorrow. ~ orison-swett-marden, @wisdomtrove 465:Let tenderness pour from your eyes, the way sun gazes warmly on earth. ~ hafez, @wisdomtrove 466:Let them call me rebel, and welcome, I feel no concern from it. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 467:Mental acuity was never born from comfortable circumstances. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 468:On him who wields power gently, the god looks favorably from afar. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 469:Proverbs are short sentences drawn from long experience. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 470:Secondhand experience breaks down a block from the car lot. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 471:She got her good looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon. ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 472:She was so ugly she could make a mule back away from an oat bin. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 473:The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 474:The knowledge of yourself will preserve you from vanity. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 475:The place you are looking for is the place from which you are looking. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 476:There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. ~ bertrand-russell, @wisdomtrove 477:The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief. ~ william-shakespeare, @wisdomtrove 478:Those who are free from common prejudices acquire others. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 479:To make mistakes is human, but to profit from them is divine. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 480:Turn your life into a field of power and energy to draw from. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 481:What looks large from a distance, close up ain‚Äôt never that big. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 482:When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat? ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 483:You've got to rise from the floor alone or fall back alone. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 484:All desires and egoism will have to be banished from the being. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 485:Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 486:And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea. ~ george-carlin, @wisdomtrove 487:And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier. ~ walt-whitman, @wisdomtrove 488:Boasting, like gilded armour, is very different inside from outside. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 489:Christian liberty is freedom from sin, not freedom to sin. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 490:Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty. ~ mark-twain, @wisdomtrove 491:Everywhere, we learn only from those whom we love. ~ johann-wolfgang-von-goethe, @wisdomtrove 492:Faith is a gift from God and he gives it to whomever he chooses ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 493:for even the wisest can learn incalculably much from children. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 494:Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 495:Happiness is the art of learning how to get joy from your substance. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 496:Hey, you know what keeps me from acting? Fuckin'... auditions. ~ mitch-hedberg, @wisdomtrove 497:Hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are. ~ fred-rogers, @wisdomtrove 498:I have learned a great deal from novels. Some of it is even true. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 499:I meditate on a regular basis and reap benefits from this practice ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 500:Optimist: Person who travels on nothing from nowhere to happiness. ~ mark-twain, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:from Egypt: “You ~ David Jeremiah, #NFDB
2:Tear thyself from delay. ~ Horace, #NFDB
3:Abstain from animals. ~ Pythagoras, #NFDB
4:from a shoe print ~ Jeffery Deaver, #NFDB
5:From caring comes courage. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
6:I'm far from a saint. ~ Clay Guida, #NFDB
7:The Boy from Reactor 4 ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
8:And I’m Hermione from— ~ Judy Blume, #NFDB
9:away from the car. ~ Kate DiCamillo, #NFDB
10:boy from Beauxbatons. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
11:Boy on a Train From ~ Ralph Ellison, #NFDB
12:Flight from BloodClan ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
13:From the egg to the apple. ~ Horace, #NFDB
14:God Save me from boys ~ Chloe Neill, #NFDB
15:I'm from a Gypsy background! ~ Cher, #NFDB
16:screeched from his van. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
17:belong to someone from ~ Viveca Sten, #NFDB
18:Death from the skies! ~ Ransom Riggs, #NFDB
19:elephant vanish from the ~ Karl Shaw, #NFDB
20:I'm a kid from Boston. ~ Rob Mariano, #NFDB
21:Retreating from the world ~ Guo Jun, #NFDB
22:When I go away from you ~ Amy Lowell, #NFDB
23:You came from a source. ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
24:from Lacoste. Jean-Guy ~ Louise Penny, #NFDB
25:from the flask. “I'm ~ Robert J Crane, #NFDB
26:From understanding comes LOVE. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
27:It comes from within. ~ Stephen Covey, #NFDB
28:LIVING FROM THE ANSWER ~ Gregg Braden, #NFDB
29:No gratitude from the wicked. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
30:The Letters from No One ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
31:Where do girls come from? ~ Bart King, #NFDB
32:Why Shrink From Death?
~ Agathias,#NFDB
33:A bolt from the blue. ~ Daniel Handler, #NFDB
34:Banish Air from Air ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
35:Dreams from My Father ~ Michelle Obama, #NFDB
36:Feedback Loop from Hell. ~ Mark Manson, #NFDB
37:From abundance springs satiety. ~ Livy, #NFDB
38:FROM WHENCE YOU SPRANG. ~ Kate Mulgrew, #NFDB
39:Haste is from the Devil. ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
40:I drank water from your spring ~ Rumi, #NFDB
41:I was famous from birth. ~ Peter Fonda, #NFDB
42:Love is a river. Drink from it. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
43:Man seeks answers from afar ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
44:remove the speck from your ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
45:Seek truth from facts. ~ Deng Xiaoping, #NFDB
46:took inspiration from work ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
47:wiped a tear from her eye. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
48:９と番線からの旅 The Journey from ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
49:All music comes from God. ~ Johnny Cash, #NFDB
50:Anything from Kipling ~ Rudyard Kipling, #NFDB
51:Don't run from who you are. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
52:Dost thou run from me? ~ Barbara Devlin, #NFDB
53:from all parts and were ~ Stephen Crane, #NFDB
54:God save me from myself. ~ Billy Wilder, #NFDB
55:God save us from religion. ~ David Icke, #NFDB
56:It comes from within. ~ Stephen R Covey, #NFDB
57:lies are built from truths. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
58:Nothing comes from nothing. ~ Lucretius, #NFDB
59:Only joy comes from song. ~ Alicia Keys, #NFDB
60:Stay away from the ropes ~ Muhammad Ali, #NFDB
61:Sycophant learns from dogs. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
62:THE LETTERS FROM NO ONE T ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
63:cant get there from here ~ Todd Strasser, #NFDB
64:From out of pain, beauty. ~ Irving Stone, #NFDB
65:from Tokyo to Managua, ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
66:from what I found out. ~ Karen Kingsbury, #NFDB
67:Ideas come from curiosity. ~ Walt Disney, #NFDB
68:I'm from Southampton. ~ Laura Carmichael, #NFDB
69:I rose from marsh mud ~ Lorine Niedecker, #NFDB
70:obedience comes from faith. ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
71:Order arise from chaos. ~ Ilya Prigogine, #NFDB
72:Real slow hits from the bong... ~ B Real, #NFDB
73:She was far from gruntled. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
74:The arrows are from her dowry. ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
75:the rain from his eyes. ~ Angela Marsons, #NFDB
76:to carry the ribbons from ~ Karin Tanabe, #NFDB
77:Again from its brumal sleep ~ Jack London, #NFDB
78:aglow with light from Room ~ Ruth Rendell, #NFDB
79:All your wounds from craving love ~ Hafez, #NFDB
80:and spinach from the pan ~ Emeril Lagasse, #NFDB
81:awise men †from the East came ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
82:Children are a gift from God. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
83:Femina92 from fe minus ~ Montague Summers, #NFDB
84:FROM THE PAIN, I thought. ~ Tara Westover, #NFDB
85:Get away from me, werewolf! ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
86:God save me from idealists. ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
87:I work from the inside out. ~ Frank Gehry, #NFDB
88:Let us all be from somewhere. ~ Bob Hicok, #NFDB
89:Shivering from fury and ~ Wendy Lindstrom, #NFDB
90:Start from the bottom up. ~ Peter Buffett, #NFDB
91:Strength comes from waiting. ~ Jose Marti, #NFDB
92:suffered from dwarfism – ~ Robert Bryndza, #NFDB
93:to dispense from the laws. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
94:WE LEARN FROM OUR PAIN ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
95:You saved me from my life. ~ Shelly Crane, #NFDB
96:beautiful.” From ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett, #NFDB
97:Be free from bitterness! ~ Courtney Joseph, #NFDB
98:Both what you run from- ~ Anthony de Mello, #NFDB
99:Can you hit me from there, ~ David Jackson, #NFDB
100:Each book starts from ashes. ~ Philip Roth, #NFDB
101:Fitzgerald manuscripts from ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
102:From all kinds of flowers, ~ Namkhai Norbu, #NFDB
103:From this time forth ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
104:from Volkheimer to Werner. ~ Anthony Doerr, #NFDB
105:Get away from her, you! ~ Alan Dean Foster, #NFDB
106:God save us from religion. ~ David Eddings, #NFDB
107:Hey man! Get away from me! ~ Mickey Mantle, #NFDB
108:Home is where one starts from. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
109:I don't come from money. ~ Christina Ricci, #NFDB
110:I learn from experience. ~ Alan Dershowitz, #NFDB
111:I’m Breq, from the Gerentate. ~ Ann Leckie, #NFDB
112:It was a kiss from the past. ~ Zadie Smith, #NFDB
113:Keep away from the fire! ~ Laurence Sterne, #NFDB
114:Laughter comes from living. ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
115:Life comes only from life. ~ Louis Pasteur, #NFDB
116:Lots of travel, away from home. ~ Bob Hope, #NFDB
117:My family came from Ecuador. ~ Jose Garces, #NFDB
118:My genius from a boy ~ George Moses Horton, #NFDB
119:Realize clarity from calamity. ~ T F Hodge, #NFDB
120:So where did they come from? ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
121:The ride is far from over. ~ Justin Somper, #NFDB
122:they’ve learned from failure. ~ M R Forbes, #NFDB
123:took a drop from her vile ~ Melanie Karsak, #NFDB
124:VISITORS FROM THE HALL. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
125:walking away from America. ~ Jamie McGuire, #NFDB
126:We all flow from one fountain. ~ John Muir, #NFDB
127:We can learn even from our enemies. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
128:WE GET ADVICE FROM A POODLE ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
129:Where do I go from here? ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
130:Words have divided man from woman, ~ Laozi, #NFDB
131:All cruelty springs from weakness. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
132:back from the counter to ~ Michael Connelly, #NFDB
133:Drink deeply from good books. ~ John Wooden, #NFDB
134:emerged from the dark cloud. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
135:Home is so far from home. ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
136:Humans don't learn from history ~ Matt Haig, #NFDB
137:I do not quote from the scriptures; ~ Kabir, #NFDB
138:I got PTSD from high school. ~ Tom Perrotta, #NFDB
139:I'm from Texas, we fry everything. ~ Selena, #NFDB
140:I needed a break...from myself. ~ Jay Asher, #NFDB
141:Justice comes from the soul. ~ Paul Crilley, #NFDB
142:Like a gift from hell. . . . ~ Kresley Cole, #NFDB
143:loosens my mind. From my desk, ~ Amy Harmon, #NFDB
144:Love is a Dog from Hell. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
145:Man shall learn from man's lot. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
146:People learn from people they love. ~ David, #NFDB
147:Protect me from what I want. ~ Jenny Holzer, #NFDB
148:The end is where we start from. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
149:To create myself from nothing. ~ S J Watson, #NFDB
150:To snatch the worm from the trap. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
151:watches we wear from home ~ Sarah Mlynowski, #NFDB
152:We learn from the things we suffer. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
153:Who sighs from far away? ~ Theodore Roethke, #NFDB
154:been lame in one foot from ~ Rudyard Kipling, #NFDB
155:born from his own thoughts. ~ Deborah Bladon, #NFDB
156:Christ is risen from the dead! ~ Keith Green, #NFDB
157:Death is a master from Germany. ~ Paul Celan, #NFDB
158:Died from eating a Hershey bar. ~ Jenna Blum, #NFDB
159:Don't stray from your Heart's intent. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
160:Freedom is from within. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright, #NFDB
161:from inside stopped. “Exactly! ~ Chanda Hahn, #NFDB
162:from the pack, offered it to ~ Joseph Finder, #NFDB
163:From the pain come the dream ~ Peter Gabriel, #NFDB
164:From the stars, to the stars. ~ Ren e Ahdieh, #NFDB
165:Give her hell from us, Peeves. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
166:God cannot save them from fools. ~ John Muir, #NFDB
167:Hide me from day's garish eye. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
168:I do not die, I go forth from Time. ~ Lebrun, #NFDB
169:I just want to get away from me. ~ Kris Kidd, #NFDB
170:I'm a long way from Ike Turner. ~ Rick James, #NFDB
171:I'm reverent from a distance. ~ Janet Morris, #NFDB
172:I needed a break... from myself. ~ Jay Asher, #NFDB
173:It was the guy from the counter. ~ G L Tomas, #NFDB
174:I went from zero to my own hero ~ Katy Perry, #NFDB
175:Mr. Baldwin, to get away from ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
176:My religion is to be alive from LOVE. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
177:Never stray from the Way. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #NFDB
178:No one can take it away from you. ~ B B King, #NFDB
179:out the shrieks of glee from ~ Russell Blake, #NFDB
180:Smiles come best from those who weep. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
181:Stay away from Twolegplace!!!! ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
182:Straight up from this road ~ Pattiann Rogers, #NFDB
183:Take it from me: Elections matter. ~ Al Gore, #NFDB
184:that was where he came from, ~ Louis L Amour, #NFDB
185:We all suffer from dreams ~ Bernard Cornwell, #NFDB
186:We learn from our mistakes ~ Teresa Messineo, #NFDB
187:We’ll walk from here to the ~ E L Konigsburg, #NFDB
188:You get nothing but the truth from me. ~ RZA, #NFDB
189:Your petal from the salty rose ~ Tom Robbins, #NFDB
190:All art is made from anger. ~ Lawrence Weiner, #NFDB
191:A NOTE FROM RYKE Fuck off. ~ Krista Ritchie, #NFDB
192:apart from me you can do nothing. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
193:A Voice from I Don’t Know Where ~ Mary Oliver, #NFDB
194:away from Eden. She’s mine. ~ Karen Witemeyer, #NFDB
195:Beauty comes from the inside. ~ Kathy Ireland, #NFDB
196:Because luck comes from within ~ Vikas Swarup, #NFDB
197:Creativity comes from constraint. ~ Biz Stone, #NFDB
198:Crimes spring from fixed ideas. ~ Max Stirner, #NFDB
199:Death looked up from his IPad. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
200:Deliver me from the long drought ~ R S Thomas, #NFDB
201:expect nothing from the future ~ Stefan Zweig, #NFDB
202:far from the madding crowd, ~ Jerome K Jerome, #NFDB
203:Fear is different from respect. ~ Jon Skovron, #NFDB
204:free yourself from your mind. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
205:From a single crime know the nation. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
206:From discord, find Harmony. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
207:From perfect joy to total anguish ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
208:From the sea, to the sea. ~ Maggie Stiefvater, #NFDB
209:From virtue all happy states arise. ~ Gampopa, #NFDB
210:Genius comes from the unusual, ~ Harlan Coben, #NFDB
211:Good cannot come from evil. ~ Lloyd Alexander, #NFDB
212:Guilt was best eked from silence. ~ E J Swift, #NFDB
213:He was a glance from God ~ Zora Neale Hurston, #NFDB
214:I couldn't stay away from her. ~ Kenya Wright, #NFDB
215:Ideas come from everything ~ Alfred Hitchcock, #NFDB
216:I'm from Winnipeg, you idiot! ~ Chris Jericho, #NFDB
217:Im not a redneck, Im from Texas. ~ Chris Kyle, #NFDB
218:Indeed, all success comes from Allah Alone. ~, #NFDB
219:Jon passes from Darkness to Light. ~ Jon Lord, #NFDB
220:just graduated from Tufts—Laine ~ Robin Black, #NFDB
221:Never stray from the Way. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #NFDB
222:No, but you can see it from here. ~ Lou Holtz, #NFDB
223:No doves come from ravens’ eggs ~ Hannah Kent, #NFDB
224:Not the end.
Far from it. ~ Colleen Hoover,#NFDB
225:O cricket from your cherry cry ~ Matsuo Basho, #NFDB
226:Stay away from the government. ~ Steven Gould, #NFDB
227:Swipe from the best, then adapt. ~ Tom Peters, #NFDB
228:Take it from me, every vote counts. ~ Al Gore, #NFDB
229:The best come from the worst ~ Michael Jordan, #NFDB
230:The pot's use comes from emptiness. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
231:Time just gets away from us. ~ Charles Portis, #NFDB
232:Turn ye from your evil ways. ~ Ezekiel XXXIII, #NFDB
233:Unsubscribe from an Email List(s) ~ S J Scott, #NFDB
234:We all suffer from dreams. ~ Bernard Cornwell, #NFDB
235:Wealth comes from knowing ~ Aristotle Onassis, #NFDB
236:We turn from the light to see. ~ Don Paterson, #NFDB
237:Where Did the Universe Come From? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
238:Work backward from your goal. ~ Edward Boyden, #NFDB
239:You can't run away from yourself ~ Bob Marley, #NFDB
240:You can't take the sky from me. ~ Joss Whedon, #NFDB
241:You could smell my ass from mars. ~ Joe Rogan, #NFDB
242:You learn from your mistakes. ~ Thierry Henry, #NFDB
243:22Abstain from every form of evil. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
244:2Now a man who was lame from birth ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
245:All beings are from all eternity. ~ Aҫwaghosha, #NFDB
246:And I can see Russia from my house. ~ Tina Fey, #NFDB
247:Art is an escape from reality. ~ Henri Matisse, #NFDB
248:Art is man's refuge from adversity. ~ Menander, #NFDB
249:At dusk the pour from the sky. ~ Anthony Doerr, #NFDB
250:Clarity keeps you from boredom. ~ Kim Basinger, #NFDB
251:da is used with places to mean from. ~ Collins, #NFDB
252:Develop success from failures. ~ Dale Carnegie, #NFDB
253:didn’t stem simply from a loathing ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
254:direct from the originals. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
255:Don't forget where you come from ~ Macklemore, #NFDB
256:Dreams drawn from the sheath. ~ R Scott Bakker, #NFDB
257:Even monkeys fall from trees. ~ Chris Bradford, #NFDB
258:from his body. He had been fried. ~ Ryan Casey, #NFDB
259:from the head shot to the text ~ Melinda Leigh, #NFDB
260:From today, painting is dead. ~ Paul Delaroche, #NFDB
261:Get away from my brother." - Damon ~ L J Smith, #NFDB
262:Get away from us," Andrew said. ~ Nora Sakavic, #NFDB
263:Happiness comes from within ~ Anders Hejlsberg, #NFDB
264:Hear from the heart wordless mysteries. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
265:He was a glance from God. ~ Zora Neale Hurston, #NFDB
266:I am from the planet of elegance. ~ Ron Carter, #NFDB
267:I come straight from hell, Cell 23 ~ Lil Wayne, #NFDB
268:If you gain from a crime, you did it. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
269:I get a great high from writing. ~ Walter Hill, #NFDB
270:I get all of my comedy from CNN. ~ Rob Corddry, #NFDB
271:I've never made money from films. ~ Jared Leto, #NFDB
272:Kanoji Angre’s sea fort. From ~ Sanjeev Sanyal, #NFDB
273:knew from Monsieur Lefèvre’s face ~ Jojo Moyes, #NFDB
274:Live in the nowhere that you come from ~ Rumi, #NFDB
275:Lives are staged from within. ~ Simon Van Booy, #NFDB
276:Mother is the home we come from. ~ Erich Fromm, #NFDB
277:No one is exempt from grief. ~ Gregory Maguire, #NFDB
278:Run from a knife and rush a gun. ~ Jimmy Hoffa, #NFDB
279:Seas wept from our deep sorrows. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
280:Seattle, I get a call from Ben. ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
281:small talk comes from small bones ~ Ezra Pound, #NFDB
282:some women from church to put ~ Whitney Dineen, #NFDB
283:Start again. Start from here. ~ Rosalind James, #NFDB
284:Stay away from retail cards. Don ~ Ramit Sethi, #NFDB
285:Suspicion comes from fear, see. ~ Fiona Mozley, #NFDB
286:The only relic from another life. ~ V E Schwab, #NFDB
287:There's a path from your HEART to mine. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
288:The stream from Wisdom's well, ~ Bayard Taylor, #NFDB
289:True Love Is Born from Hard Times ~ John Green, #NFDB
290:We shall not cease from exploring, ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
291:What do we want from each other ~ Audre Lorde, #NFDB
292:World change comes from within. ~ Amy Richards, #NFDB
293:A kiss. From Kota. And I wanted it. ~ C L Stone, #NFDB
294:All Wishes are not from HEART !!! ~ Vinay Kumar, #NFDB
295:And who will protect me from him? ~ Cora Reilly, #NFDB
296:Art is the escape from personality. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
297:asked me where I was from and ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
298:At dusk they pour from the sky, ~ Anthony Doerr, #NFDB
299:At dusk they pour from the sky. ~ Anthony Doerr, #NFDB
300:away from me while I was gone, I ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
301:Baseball is 50% from the neck up ~ Ted Williams, #NFDB
302:Beauty comes from inside, not out. ~ Elle Casey, #NFDB
303:Blood kin are hard to hide from. ~ Ellen Datlow, #NFDB
304:Chrysanthemums from gilded argosy ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
305:Craft beers are a gift from God. ~ Rachel Caine, #NFDB
306:Curiosity is a call from knowledge. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
307:didn't know Amen from what when ~ Sue Monk Kidd, #NFDB
308:Even monkeys fall from trees. ~ Andrew Davidson, #NFDB
309:Everyone needs something from me. ~ Lena Dunham, #NFDB
310:Everything from toy guns that spark ~ Bob Dylan, #NFDB
311:From private pain to public action. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
312:from where it turns off a two-lane ~ Kyle Mills, #NFDB
313:Half my fan mail comes from Japan. ~ Ben Barnes, #NFDB
314:He who doubts from what he sees ~ William Blake, #NFDB
315:I approach every role from scratch. ~ Paul Dano, #NFDB
316:I borrow bits from everyone. ~ Janice Dickinson, #NFDB
317:I create my success from within ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
318:I expect perfection from myself. ~ Bryce Harper, #NFDB
319:I learned a lot from Xavier Cugat. ~ Desi Arnaz, #NFDB
320:I loved Lost, from beginning to end. ~ Jim Rash, #NFDB
321:I never get far from Well Being. ~ Esther Hicks, #NFDB
322:I only do what comes from the heart ~ LL Cool J, #NFDB
323:I steal my bliss from your agony. ~ Julie Berry, #NFDB
324:I stepped from Plank to Plank ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
325:I write from my stomach. ~ Paul Thomas Anderson, #NFDB
326:Learn from your unhappy customers. ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
327:LIGHTNING WILL SHOOT FROM MY ASS!!! ~ John Cena, #NFDB
328:Live from the heart of yourself ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
329:Love springs from awareness. ~ Anthony de Mello, #NFDB
330:No action is safe from meaning. ~ Karan Mahajan, #NFDB
331:No day is safe from news of you. ~ Sylvia Plath, #NFDB
332:Nothing Can Come from Nothing ~ Jostein Gaarder, #NFDB
333:ordered me a sky from a florist ~ Angela Carter, #NFDB
334:over, and backed out from ~ Hank Phillippi Ryan, #NFDB
335:"Peace must come from inside." ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
336:Perhaps the feeling stemmed from ~ Luann McLane, #NFDB
337:Power comes from becoming change ~ Mohsin Hamid, #NFDB
338:Protect yourself from your own thoughts. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
339:Purge me from every sinful blot; ~ John Wesley, #NFDB
340:Releasing Quarles from the brace ~ Charles Todd, #NFDB
341:Skinny foodie, get away from me. ~ Mindy Kaling, #NFDB
342:Take me away from all this Death. ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
343:There was only honesty from horses. ~ G A Aiken, #NFDB
344:True love is born from hard times. ~ John Green, #NFDB
345:We learn from tragedy. Slowly. ~ Josephine Hart, #NFDB
346:We're on a mission from Glod. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
347:We shall not cease from exploration ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
348:When you play from the heart, ~ Carlos Santana, #NFDB
349:You can't get there from here. ~ Naomi Alderman, #NFDB
350:Your power comes from the songs. ~ Ethel Wilson, #NFDB
351:You won't hear from me again. ~ Nicolas Sarkozy, #NFDB
352:All freedom comes from discipline. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
353:All poetry comes from repetition. ~ Kenneth Koch, #NFDB
354:Art never comes from happiness ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
355:But can get salt from hickory wood. ~ A American, #NFDB
356:Can anything good come from Duke? ~ Kyle Idleman, #NFDB
357:Can't get away from your own self. ~ Holly Black, #NFDB
358:Comin' from the school of hard knocks, ~ Chuck D, #NFDB
359:Creativity is always from the beyond. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
360:Dad hit lecture mode from word one. ~ Devon Monk, #NFDB
361:don’t seek praise or run from it. ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
362:Electricity comes from other planets. ~ Lou Reed, #NFDB
363:Everyone’s running from something. ~ Peter Watts, #NFDB
364:Experience comes from bad judgment. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
365:From a cell to a jet call it Con-Air ~ Lil Wayne, #NFDB
366:From birth to death we are alone. ~ Enid Bagnold, #NFDB
367:From the Files of Mike Murphy ~ Christopher Bunn, #NFDB
368:From wonder into wonder existence opens. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
369:give them access to titles from your ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
370:God defend me from myself. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #NFDB
371:God save us from gloomy saints! ~ Teresa of vila, #NFDB
372:Happy he who far from business persuits ~ Horace, #NFDB
373:He is now walking from his dream. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
374:I am best viewed from a distance. ~ Jenny Eclair, #NFDB
375:I come from a military family. ~ Brittany Murphy, #NFDB
376:I could not accept from wisdom ~ Hilda Doolittle, #NFDB
377:I do not say anything from jealousy. ~ Anna Held, #NFDB
378:I'm just a little kid from Akron. ~ LeBron James, #NFDB
379:I'm no one you want to learn from. ~ Scott Lynch, #NFDB
380:In loving memory from the Family. ~ Bugsy Siegel, #NFDB
381:In on dream, he was running from ~ Blaise Corvin, #NFDB
382:In saffron-colored mantle from the tides ~ Homer, #NFDB
383:Islamic state—stretching from ~ Erick Stakelbeck, #NFDB
384:Isn't she lovely made from love? ~ Stevie Wonder, #NFDB
385:I take my cue from deeds, not words. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
386:It's right to learn, even from the enemy. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
387:I wish food was falling from the sky. ~ Im Yoona, #NFDB
388:Light black. From pole to pole. ~ Samuel Beckett, #NFDB
389:"Light must come from inside." ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, #NFDB
390:Luck is just a step away from fate. ~ Ranae Rose, #NFDB
391:movement from inside, the sound of ~ Paul Levine, #NFDB
392:Never buy a fur from a vegetarian. ~ Joan Rivers, #NFDB
393:No valentines from the cats again. ~ Lynne Truss, #NFDB
394:One day you’ll expect better from me. ~ Kim Dare, #NFDB
395:Only death rescues us from dying. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
396:People don't buy from clowns. ~ Claude C Hopkins, #NFDB
397:Pot saved me from Scientology. ~ James Wasserman, #NFDB
398:Power comes from becoming change. ~ Mohsin Hamid, #NFDB
399:Racism springs from ignorance. ~ Mario Balotelli, #NFDB
400:reading is the escape from reality⚡️ ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
401:So you're back from outer space. ~ Gloria Gaynor, #NFDB
402:The best lies come from the truth. ~ Sabaa Tahir, #NFDB
403:The Law is Reason free from Passion. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
404:Time goes from present to past. ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #NFDB
405:True thinking is free from fear. ~ Joseph Murphy, #NFDB
406:Two old fools left over from love ~ Alice Walker, #NFDB
407:Weakness is emanating from the crowd ~ Mick Wall, #NFDB
408:We need a break from Capitalism. ~ Kshama Sawant, #NFDB
409:Where do we get our values from? ~ George Carlin, #NFDB
410:White curtains hung from the windows ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
411:Wi-Fi is a blessing from the gods. ~ Darren Shan, #NFDB
412:You are hatching from the past. ~ Simon Van Booy, #NFDB
413:You are not where you are from. ~ Danielle Paige, #NFDB
414:You can’t draw blood from a stone, ~ Lena Dunham, #NFDB
415:You can't get blood from a stone. ~ John Lydgate, #NFDB
416:4. You can make money from free. ~ Chris Anderson, #NFDB
417:Absorb ideas from every source. ~ Thomas A Edison, #NFDB
418:access to titles from your collection ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
419:And trust dies from ifs and buts ~ Aidan Chambers, #NFDB
420:Apart from Jesus I am a greedy man. ~ Johnny Hunt, #NFDB
421:Art never comes from happiness. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
422:A unicorn is a donkey from the future ~ Joe Rogan, #NFDB
423:coming at the interview from a ~ Michael Connelly, #NFDB
424:D. D. Warren knew from experience, ~ Lisa Gardner, #NFDB
425:Death frees from the fear of dying ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
426:Don't let him take you from me. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
427:Drink from my emotional offerings. ~ Truth Devour, #NFDB
428:emerges from logic, not desire. ~ Gregory Benford, #NFDB
429:Empty words from an empty person. ~ Kelsey Sutton, #NFDB
430:Everything starts from a dot. ~ Wassily Kandinsky, #NFDB
431:Failure results from bad breaks. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
432:Freedom from desire leads to inner peace. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
433:from his current place of safety on ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
434:From not the gravest of Divines, ~ Jonathan Swift, #NFDB
435:From now on, I will be your father. ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
436:from the group wasn’t a clue, then my ~ Elin Peer, #NFDB
437:From wonder into wonder existence opens ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
438:God save her from annoying Alphas. ~ Jill Shalvis, #NFDB
439:God, save me from your followers. ~ Tamara Thorne, #NFDB
440:he could hear faint sounds from their ~ Lee Child, #NFDB
441:I am not a warthog from hell. ~ Flannery O Connor, #NFDB
442:I come from straight theater. ~ Brian Baumgartner, #NFDB
443:I just… can’t be apart from you. ~ Elizabeth Finn, #NFDB
444:I'll never graduate from collagen. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
445:I'm me, I live from film to mouth. ~ Alan Rudolph, #NFDB
446:I tend to stay away from the comics. ~ Idris Elba, #NFDB
447:Jacob was a gift from the gods. ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
448:Leadership doesn't come from age. ~ Tony Gonzalez, #NFDB
449:Learn from the purity of nature. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
450:Learn from your dreams what you lack. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
451:Marks from Debbie Watson’s feet. ~ David Baldacci, #NFDB
452:Nods from the Gilded pointers - ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
453:No one ever became poor from giving. ~ Anne Frank, #NFDB
454:Not even God can keep me from you. ~ Sarah Noffke, #NFDB
455:Nothing's gonna stop me from floating ~ Tori Amos, #NFDB
456:Only from the heart can you touch the sky. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
457:Penster, Shallow from A Star is Born. ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
458:Saints can spring from any soil. ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
459:Saved from war by poor navigation? ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
460:Save me from the virtuous. ~ Lois McMaster Bujold, #NFDB
461:Shift from convergence to divergence ~ W Chan Kim, #NFDB
462:Songwriting is my gift from God ~ Smokey Robinson, #NFDB
463:Stole this from a lizard for you - D ~ John Green, #NFDB
464:sunshine was a gift from Heaven, ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
465:The bishops eat from my hand. ~ Maurice Duplessis, #NFDB
466:The fears you run from run to you. ~ Robin Sharma, #NFDB
467:The law is reason, free from passion. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
468:There is no redemption from hell. ~ Pope Paul III, #NFDB
469:There will grow from straws a mighty heap. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
470:To guard oneself from presumption. ~ Stefan Zweig, #NFDB
471:TWELVE WE GET ADVICE FROM A POODLE ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
472:We cannot get grace from gadgets. ~ J B Priestley, #NFDB
473:Why I Ran Away from the Amish has ~ Misty Griffin, #NFDB
474:Why is Mr Universe always from Earth? ~ Will Self, #NFDB
475:will drip from your own bones before ~ Tim LaHaye, #NFDB
476:You can learn from anyone even your enemy. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
477:You make mistakes and you learn from them. ~ Moby, #NFDB
478:37For no word from God will ever fail. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
479:Always drink upstream from the herd. ~ Will Rogers, #NFDB
480:ambassador from the land of sanity. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
481:...and deliver me from evil." "Amen. ~ Dave Pelzer, #NFDB
482:And I am in retirement from love. ~ William H Gass, #NFDB
483:approval from the Senate four years ~ Bill Clinton, #NFDB
484:A thousand suns rise from my chest. ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
485:Better to know defeat from courage ~ Leila Meacham, #NFDB
486:But you can get arrows from the ~ Bernard Cornwell, #NFDB
487:cash resulting from a fractional share ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
488:CHAPTER XI FROM IMPINGTON GORSE ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
489:Complete freedom from stress is death ~ Hans Selye, #NFDB
490:covering for someone coming in from ~ Barry Eisler, #NFDB
491:Dreams are what you wake up from. ~ Raymond Carver, #NFDB
492:Eliminate Worry from Your Vocabulary ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
493:Even so, one step from my grave, ~ Boris Pasternak, #NFDB
494:Evil comes from the ABUSE of free will ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
495:Free from desire, you realize the mystery. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
496:From dreams reality is born. ~ Sheila Renee Parker, #NFDB
497:From no place can you exclude the fates. ~ Martial, #NFDB
498:From now on I'm Switzerland ok!! ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
499:From the ashes [...] we are arisen. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
500:From wonder into wonder existence opens. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
501:Half done is far from done. ~ Suzanne Woods Fisher, #NFDB
502:Hey, let me guess. You’re from . ~ Roosh V, #NFDB
503:I arise from dreams of thee ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, #NFDB
504:I came from a warm Jewish family. ~ Michael Marmot, #NFDB
505:I don't know a high C from a low C. ~ Brett Somers, #NFDB
506:I had studied violin from age 7 to 14. ~ Amar Bose, #NFDB
507:I'm not defined by where I came from. ~ Katy Perry, #NFDB
508:I'm not ugly, but I'm far from pretty. ~ Kwon Yuri, #NFDB
509:I think you can learn from history. ~ Chuck Norris, #NFDB
510:I work on weekends, but from home. ~ Mary Schapiro, #NFDB
511:Lie faces God and shrikns from men ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
512:Life is not free from its forms. ~ Wallace Stevens, #NFDB
513:Lord, protect me from what I want! ~ Pablo Picasso, #NFDB
514:Love toxic people from a distance. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
515:My characters come from a good place. ~ Seth Rogen, #NFDB
516:My greatest joy comes from teaching. ~ Duke Roufus, #NFDB
517:my mind slipped out from under me. ~ Ben H Winters, #NFDB
518:Never look away from me for too long. ~ J J McAvoy, #NFDB
519:Never take advice from a donkey. ~ Bryce Courtenay, #NFDB
520:No one escapes from life alive. ~ Michael Crichton, #NFDB
521:Not from his head was woman took, ~ Charles Wesley, #NFDB
522:Obama will learn from his mistakes. ~ Ron Fournier, #NFDB
523:Old is always fifteen years from now. ~ Bill Cosby, #NFDB
524:Patience protects you from deception ~ A R Bernard, #NFDB
525:People don't rise from nothing. ~ Malcolm Gladwell, #NFDB
526:Prof stood apart from his family. ~ Eliot Schrefer, #NFDB
527:quality flows from the top down. ~ Steve Dublanica, #NFDB
528:Risk comes from not knowing what ~ Anthony Robbins, #NFDB
529:Speak from heart, not anger. ~ Sheila Renee Parker, #NFDB
530:stars shall fall from heaven, ~ Frederick Douglass, #NFDB
531:There is no refuge from yourself. ~ Matt Rasmussen, #NFDB
532:The will to meaning comes from within. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
533:Trouble Springs From Idleness. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
534:Until the sun falls from the sky. ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
535:We must dissent from the fear. ~ Thurgood Marshall, #NFDB
536:We were wanderers from the beginning. ~ Carl Sagan, #NFDB
537:What drug will keep night from coming? ~ Neko Case, #NFDB
538:What happens to you happens from you. ~ Alan Cohen, #NFDB
539:What we do flows from who we are. ~ Charles Colson, #NFDB
540:Who really needs a new album from me? ~ Elton John, #NFDB
541:Why do I want to run from happiness? ~ Mary Balogh, #NFDB
542:work, pray and play not from here ~ Eman Herzallah, #NFDB
543:You can't lead from the crowd. ~ Margaret Thatcher, #NFDB
544:You can't stop the future from coming ~ John Green, #NFDB
545:Admiration spoils all from infancy. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
546:All comedy comes from a dark place. ~ Katt Williams, #NFDB
547:All fruitfulness flows from intimacy. ~ Heidi Baker, #NFDB
548:All glory comes from daring to begin. ~ Ruskin Bond, #NFDB
549:All of my books come from pain. ~ Bret Easton Ellis, #NFDB
550:All you have issued the one from the other. ~ Koran, #NFDB
551:All you will get from me is death. ~ Patrick deWitt, #NFDB
552:apply shingles from the bottom up. ~ Padgett Powell, #NFDB
553:appropriate to your needs from the many ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
554:As in an organ from one blast of wind ~ John Milton, #NFDB
555:Awoke from nightmare could be a relief. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
556:Beauty comes from the happiness within. ~ Liv Tyler, #NFDB
557:Death from sin no power can separate. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
558:Don't be absent from your own life. ~ Jessica Lange, #NFDB
559:Duty is what one expects from others. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
560:Education must start from birth. ~ Maria Montessori, #NFDB
561:Even writers need relief from words. ~ Sarah Vowell, #NFDB
562:Everyone needs help from everyone. ~ Bertolt Brecht, #NFDB
563:Evil events from evil causes spring. ~ Aristophanes, #NFDB
564:Fables from before the Anaheiming. ~ William Gibson, #NFDB
565:Flight from the communal spirit is death! ~ Novalis, #NFDB
566:From a just fraud God turneth not away. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
567:Get maximum effect from minimum effort. ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
568:GOD is watching us, from a Distance. ~ Bette Midler, #NFDB
569:Good but rarely came from good advice. ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
570:Heath Slater, or the chick from Wendy's ~ John Cena, #NFDB
571:I'd been forced to love her from afar. ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
572:I'd suffocate. From my own cowardice. ~ Julia Glass, #NFDB
573:If nobody can learn from the past, ~ Billie Holiday, #NFDB
574:If we from wealth to poverty descend, ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
575:I graduated from college in 1980. ~ Charlie Kaufman, #NFDB
576:I learnt silence from the talkative ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
577:I'm a country boy. I'm from Georgia. ~ Jason Aldean, #NFDB
578:I'm aware of what's missing from my life. ~ Ang Lee, #NFDB
579:I'm exhausted from not talking. ~ Samuel Goldwyn Jr, #NFDB
580:I'm just a stage actor from Chicago. ~ Jeremy Piven, #NFDB
581:In life, we all learn from everyone. ~ Nicolas Roeg, #NFDB
582:I run from I run to I run to be free ~ Claire North, #NFDB
583:I take away something from every role. ~ Cary Elwes, #NFDB
584:I've suffered from low self-esteem. ~ Ken Kercheval, #NFDB
585:Joy comes from using your potential. ~ Will Schultz, #NFDB
586:LETTER the FIRST From ISABEL to LAURA ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
587:Little children, keep yourselves from idols. ~ John, #NFDB
588:Love's creed is separate from all religions. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
589:Move from the known to the unknown. ~ B K S Iyengar, #NFDB
590:My hailstorm tore them limb from limb. ~ Mary Weber, #NFDB
591:My unhappiness protects me from life. ~ Orhan Pamuk, #NFDB
592:Need from destiny change with time. ~ Nilesh Rathod, #NFDB
593:Never try to leap from a standstill. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
594:Nobody will save us from us but us. ~ Jesse Jackson, #NFDB
595:No one can run from a storm. ~ Benjamin Alire S enz, #NFDB
596:No one is exempt from grief.” The ~ Gregory Maguire, #NFDB
597:Nothing from nothing ever yet was born. ~ Lucretius, #NFDB
598:party. I’m long gone from that scene. ~ Paul Levine, #NFDB
599:Patrick licked blood from her face. ~ Michael Grant, #NFDB
600:Peace stems from forgiveness. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
601:Poetry comes fine spun from a mind at peace. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
602:Poetry comes fine-spun from a mind at peace. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
603:Praise from an enemy smells of craft. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
604:Separation comes from preparation. ~ Russell Wilson, #NFDB
605:She’d just graduated from Ann Arbor ~ Shelley Noble, #NFDB
606:She was brave from excess of grief ~ Edith Hamilton, #NFDB
607:Something she’d gotten from Burton ~ William Gibson, #NFDB
608:Take it from me, its hip to be square. ~ Huey Lewis, #NFDB
609:The best magic comes from the inside. ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
610:The rottenness comes from within. ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
611:The why was from his place of darkness. ~ E L James, #NFDB
612:The witch sprang animal-like from ~ Cressida Cowell, #NFDB
613:Those who covet much suffer from the want. ~ Horace, #NFDB
614:to come out from under and get involved ~ Lee Child, #NFDB
615:True freedom comes from being unknown. ~ Ruth Ozeki, #NFDB
616:was jumping from foot to foot and ~ Kathleen Brooks, #NFDB
617:Wealth is created from creating value. ~ Randy Gage, #NFDB
618:We cannot learn men from books. ~ Benjamin Disraeli, #NFDB
619:were half dead from too little water, ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
620:Worship comes from a thankful heart. ~ Chris Tomlin, #NFDB
621:Would you walk away from Omelas? ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
622:Writing is my vacation from living ~ Eugene O Neill, #NFDB
623:You measure a player from the head up. ~ Al McGuire, #NFDB
624:Your body is woven from the Light of Heaven. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
625:You stole from a member of the undead ~ Darren Shan, #NFDB
626:All culture must have arisen from cult. ~ Alan Moore, #NFDB
627:All serious daring starts from within ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
628:All that’s best in me came from you, ~ Laila Ibrahim, #NFDB
629:along this major road into London from ~ Ann Swinfen, #NFDB
630:Apart from golf, it was a great week. ~ Webb Simpson, #NFDB
631:Are you running away from something? ~ Prince Philip, #NFDB
632:at a place not far from their actual ~ Hampton Sides, #NFDB
633:audacious, far different from Ethan’s ~ Lisa Kleypas, #NFDB
634:batches of samples collected from ~ Michael Connelly, #NFDB
635:Big breaks come from small fractures. ~ John Kapelos, #NFDB
636:Brave is protecting others from hurt. ~ Amie Kaufman, #NFDB
637:coming from the Iraqis, who were trying ~ Chris Kyle, #NFDB
638:Could you come from my voice alone? ~ Megan Erickson, #NFDB
639:Dawson shoved away from his desk, stepped ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
640:Discouragement is not from God. ~ Ignatius of Loyola, #NFDB
641:Eyesight should learn from reason. ~ Johannes Kepler, #NFDB
642:Faith and optimism come from love. ~ Maya Soetoro Ng, #NFDB
643:•fear the LORD and turn away from evil. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
644:Feel like (I've been) released from prison. ~ Yoseob, #NFDB
645:fluffy, feathered poodle from Hell’. ~ John Pickrell, #NFDB
646:From a grain of sand in the Pearl comes. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
647:from New Brunswick. She spent time in ~ Kathy Reichs, #NFDB
648:from the backseat. “Ready to go? ~ Maggie Stiefvater, #NFDB
649:From the Formula, Form the Familiar. ~ Justin Sirois, #NFDB
650:...giggling disconnected from humor. ~ Joe McGinniss, #NFDB
651:God save us from people who mean well. ~ Vikram Seth, #NFDB
652:Happiness comes from solving problems. ~ Mark Manson, #NFDB
653:Happiness needs to shine from within. ~ Truth Devour, #NFDB
654:Hearing is different from listening. ~ Elana Johnson, #NFDB
655:How do you stop somebody from growing? ~ Tommy Bolin, #NFDB
656:I ain't from Africa. I'm from St. Louis. ~ Redd Foxx, #NFDB
657:I caught the acting bug from my dad. ~ Finn Wittrock, #NFDB
658:I get a lot of letters from people. ~ George Osborne, #NFDB
659:I had to work from a young age. ~ Giancarlo Esposito, #NFDB
660:I learned how to scream from Marc Bolan. ~ Joan Jett, #NFDB
661:I'm from Long Island. Strong Island. ~ Chris Messina, #NFDB
662:I'm proud to be from Philadelphia. ~ Sherman Hemsley, #NFDB
663:I never got a job from a poor person. ~ Sean Hannity, #NFDB
664:Injuries come only from the heart. ~ Laurence Sterne, #NFDB
665:I shuttered from hairdo to shoe-sole ~ P G Wodehouse, #NFDB
666:I still possessed from before the fire. ~ Jaymin Eve, #NFDB
667:I think a myth is created from truth. ~ Mark Lanegan, #NFDB
668:It is easy to be brave from a safe distance. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
669:I want nothing from You but to see You. ~ Robert Bly, #NFDB
670:Jonah being delivered from the whale. ~ Paul Doherty, #NFDB
671:Lies come from fear, from cowardice. ~ Jenny Sanford, #NFDB
672:Little from you is really a bit too much ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
673:Memory kept things from being over. ~ Joseph McElroy, #NFDB
674:My greatest ideas stem from running. ~ Sasha Azevedo, #NFDB
675:My music comes from my emotion, always. ~ Lee DeWyze, #NFDB
676:Noah held my hair away from my face. ~ Katie McGarry, #NFDB
677:No art comes from the conscious mind. ~ Steve Martin, #NFDB
678:Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'. ~ Billy Preston, #NFDB
679:Nothing from nothing leaves nothing. ~ Billy Preston, #NFDB
680:One eye had been torn from its socket. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
681:"One impulse from a vernal wood ~ William Wordsworth, #NFDB
682:Pepto-Bismol straight from the bottle. ~ Donna Tartt, #NFDB
683:Protect yourself......from your own thoughts. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
684:Rebukes are easy from our betters, ~ Jonathan Swift, #NFDB
685:Rights come from God and only from God. ~ Alan Keyes, #NFDB
686:Run from being good. Chase being great. ~ Chip Kelly, #NFDB
687:Some people you don’t walk away from. ~ Rachel Caine, #NFDB
688:Stand together, be strong from within. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
689:Started from the chair hop now we here. ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
690:Surely not from the Bloody Baroness. ~ Sasha Alsberg, #NFDB
691:Teens find out a lot from other teens. ~ Ally Condie, #NFDB
692:The bulk of my input comes from my peers. ~ Bob Weir, #NFDB
693:The bureaucrat fell from the sky. ~ Michael Swanwick, #NFDB
694:The French courage proceeds from vanity ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
695:The rich are different from us. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
696:The wild Bee reels from bough to bough ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
697:This was where babies came from. *** ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
698:truth is a letter from courage! ~ Zora Neale Hurston, #NFDB
699:Two men looked out from prison bars, ~ Dale Carnegie, #NFDB
700:we are all bitched from the start ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
701:We are all descended from monsters. ~ Tess Gerritsen, #NFDB
702:We are all refugees from our childhoods. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
703:We get talent and scale from mergers. ~ Angela Braly, #NFDB
704:What we do flows from who we are. ~ Charles W Colson, #NFDB
705:Where do they come from, these tears? ~ Iris Murdoch, #NFDB
706:You cannot stop religion from evolving. ~ A J Jacobs, #NFDB
707:You can't escape from what you are. ~ Vincent Cassel, #NFDB
708:You can't hide... from The Deadman. ~ The Undertaker, #NFDB
709:You gonna eat, you should eat good.” From ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
710:You heard of hell, well I was sent from it. ~ Eminem, #NFDB
711:A few societies have perished from ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
712:A great burden had been lifted from me. ~ Rinker Buck, #NFDB
713:A lie faces God and shrinks from man. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
714:All abilities come from one mind ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #NFDB
715:All authority comes from the people. ~ Michael Davies, #NFDB
716:All serious daring starts from within. ~ Eudora Welty, #NFDB
717:All thoughts start from emotions. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
718:A man can learn wisdom even from a foe ~ Aristophanes, #NFDB
719:A [real] man does not flee from truth ~ Rudolfo Anaya, #NFDB
720:Better to flee from death than feel its grip. ~ Homer, #NFDB
721:Can you see the fireworks from Heaven? ~ Lesley Kagen, #NFDB
722:Catch a throatful from the fire vocal ~ Daniel Dumile, #NFDB
723:course, but it was more for form than from ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
724:curtains hung from floor to ceiling ~ Jamie Lee Scott, #NFDB
725:disengaging from the rat race Jackson ~ Kate Atkinson, #NFDB
726:Earth has few secrets from the birds. ~ William Beebe, #NFDB
727:Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. ~ Bob Marley, #NFDB
728:Everything good proceeds from enthusiasm. ~ Brian Eno, #NFDB
729:Fame separates you from life. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh, #NFDB
730:Fear tends to come from ignorance. ~ Patrick Rothfuss, #NFDB
731:For hard it is to keep from being King ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
732:Francis Schaeffer’s Escape from Reason. ~ Sarah Young, #NFDB
733:From across the room, Mama watched them, ~ Lois Lowry, #NFDB
734:From little seeds great flowers grow. ~ Jessie Burton, #NFDB
735:From shit, thus, I extract pure Shinola ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
736:From surfeit to loss is a short line. ~ Carol Shields, #NFDB
737:From the end spring new beginnings. ~ Pliny the Elder, #NFDB
738:From the great trees the locusts cry ~ Hamlin Garland, #NFDB
739:from wonder into wonder
existence opens ~ Lao Tzu,#NFDB
740:Happiness comes from serving others. ~ Orrin Woodward, #NFDB
741:Hermits? Accompanied by women? From Kanva? ~ K lid sa, #NFDB
742:he's a story i want to know from page one ~ Sara Zarr, #NFDB
743:How many evils have flowed from religion. ~ Lucretius, #NFDB
744:I am merely a poet dying far from home. ~ Dan Simmons, #NFDB
745:I came from rather humble beginnings. ~ Teresa Palmer, #NFDB
746:I come from Des Moines. Someone had to. ~ Bill Bryson, #NFDB
747:I do not separate France from Europe. ~ Lionel Jospin, #NFDB
748:I don't get any money from my wife. ~ Kevin Federline, #NFDB
749:I'd stop the world from spinning for you ~ Sylvia Day, #NFDB
750:I light my candle from their torches. ~ Robert Burton, #NFDB
751:I mean, who passes out from an orgasm? ~ Nalini Singh, #NFDB
752:I'm from Michigan and a down-home girl. ~ Jana Kramer, #NFDB
753:I'm sick of running away from things. ~ Natalia Kills, #NFDB
754:It feels nice to emerge from the lies. ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
755:It's always easy to judge from afar ~ Roberto Mancini, #NFDB
756:I was a big comic book fan from 13 on. ~ Stephen Root, #NFDB
757:I was about one drink away from my limit, ~ Aceyalone, #NFDB
758:I was a great many far cries from myself. ~ Gary Lutz, #NFDB
759:Jesus came to save us from our own sins. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
760:Just speak from the dick, Big Ben. ~ Becky Albertalli, #NFDB
761:Learn from peers in other countries. ~ Timothy Snyder, #NFDB
762:Life is like licking Honey from a Thorn ~ Holly Black, #NFDB
763:Man is a fugitive from nature. ~ Jose Ortega y Gasset, #NFDB
764:Maths is at only one remove from magic. ~ Neel Burton, #NFDB
765:Most of my influences are from the past. ~ Boy George, #NFDB
766:My mum's American. She's from Detroit. ~ Rebecca Hall, #NFDB
767:Never accept a drink from a urologist. ~ Erma Bombeck, #NFDB
768:No person learned the art of archery from me, ~ Saadi, #NFDB
769:Now from the smooth deep ocean-stream the sun ~ Homer, #NFDB
770:Ol' Shoot from the Lip," we call him. ~ Larry Speakes, #NFDB
771:Once I ran to you, now I run from you. ~ Gloria Jones, #NFDB
772:Poems come from incomplete knowledge. ~ Diane Wakoski, #NFDB
773:Recovery begins from the darkest moment. ~ John Major, #NFDB
774:refrain from all anger and passion. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
775:Retiring from the popular noise, I seek ~ John Milton, #NFDB
776:Ruin and recovering are both from within. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
777:Sickness seizes the body from bad ventilation. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
778:slave camp?”21 He was far from alone in ~ Evan Thomas, #NFDB
779:Something cannot emerge from nothing. ~ Frank Herbert, #NFDB
780:Some word - from before this translation ~ Ted Hughes, #NFDB
781:Tactics flow from a superior position ~ Bobby Fischer, #NFDB
782:Technology is lust removed from nature. ~ Don DeLillo, #NFDB
783:The arrows expect no mercy from no one ~ Nalini Singh, #NFDB
784:The evil always comes from details. ~ Henning Mankell, #NFDB
785:"The pure is made from the impure." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
786:There was a young fellow from Trinity, ~ George Gamow, #NFDB
787:There was no way to save me from life. ~ Shelly Crane, #NFDB
788:This is where i came from. Right here. ~ Kahlen Aymes, #NFDB
789:To work from nature is to improvise. ~ Georges Braque, #NFDB
790:Truth is always safe from people. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zaf n, #NFDB
791:Truth suffers from too much analysis. ~ Frank Herbert, #NFDB
792:Two years from now, spam will be solved. ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
793:us our sins and r to cleanse us from all ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
794:view from everyone on the main floor. My ~ Sylvia Day, #NFDB
795:Wealth flows from energy and ideas. ~ William Feather, #NFDB
796:We drank from paper Winnie-the-Pooh cups ~ John Green, #NFDB
797:When they come, they come from above. ~ Justin Cronin, #NFDB
798:Where I come from, gettin visual is habitual... ~ GZA, #NFDB
799:Wisdom comes from disillusionment. ~ George Santayana, #NFDB
800:You can't get wet from the word 'water.' ~ Alan Watts, #NFDB
801:You don’t find life by fleeing from it. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
802:You don't learn from smart people, ~ Rudolf Wanderone, #NFDB
803:You had better run from me. My words are fire. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
804:You learn more from the things that end. ~ Megan Hart, #NFDB
805:Advice is cheap; you can take it from me. ~ Billy Joel, #NFDB
806:All conflict comes from attachment. ~ Anthony de Mello, #NFDB
807:All roads from Rousseau lead to Sade. ~ Camille Paglia, #NFDB
808:All the physical comes from the mental. ~ Clara Hughes, #NFDB
809:All writers steal from their own lives. ~ Brad Meltzer, #NFDB
810:A man may learn wisdom even from a foe. ~ Aristophanes, #NFDB
811:A mind free from all disturbances is Yoga. ~ Patanjali, #NFDB
812:Are cobwebs a treat where you come from? ~ Darren Shan, #NFDB
813:Arguments derived from probabilities are idle. ~ Plato, #NFDB
814:[Art is] an attempt to escape from life. ~ H L Mencken, #NFDB
815:Art should be born from the materials. ~ Jean Dubuffet, #NFDB
816:Away, away, from men and towns, ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, #NFDB
817:Behold a fire from the opposite shore. ~ Chang rae Lee, #NFDB
818:Cherish the good, learn from the bad ~ Brittany Murphy, #NFDB
819:Clarity comes from action, not thought. ~ Marie Forleo, #NFDB
820:Distracted from distraction by distraction ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
821:Doing is a quantum leap from imagining. ~ Barbara Sher, #NFDB
822:Dreams don't come from nowhere. ~ Benjamin Alire S enz, #NFDB
823:Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, ~ Bob Marley, #NFDB
824:Every good and perfect gift comes from God ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
825:Everything I know, I learned from dogs. ~ Nora Roberts, #NFDB
826:Every viewpoint is a view from a point. ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
827:Expect poison from the standing water. ~ William Blake, #NFDB
828:Experience seems to come from a distance. ~ Henri Cole, #NFDB
829:From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
830:From a withered tree, a flower blooms ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
831:From drama to tragedy is a short step. ~ Abdellah Ta a, #NFDB
832:From salad dressings all blessings flow. ~ Paul Newman, #NFDB
833:from that, there was nothing. ~ Alexander McCall Smith, #NFDB
834:From the beginning, then, but briefly. ~ Claire Messud, #NFDB
835:God made beauty and love from ashes. ~ Kathleen Fuller, #NFDB
836:Good things can be created from bad. ~ Arthur Koestler, #NFDB
837:He ejects the depleted magazine from the ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
838:Her past was getting away from her. ~ Frances Hardinge, #NFDB
839:His flesh took paleness from his bones. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
840:Hollywood has gone from Pola to Polaroid. ~ Pola Negri, #NFDB
841:Humor is not far from my vocabulary. ~ Edward Herrmann, #NFDB
842:I attempt from love's sickness to fly. ~ Henry Purcell, #NFDB
843:ice rink. “You can feel the cold from ~ Liane Moriarty, #NFDB
844:I come from a pretty strange family. ~ Illeana Douglas, #NFDB
845:I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to. ~ Bill Bryson, #NFDB
846:I get my highs from using my eyes. ~ Philip Pearlstein, #NFDB
847:I learned from admiration and osmosis. ~ Joni Mitchell, #NFDB
848:I light my candle from their torches. ~ Robert Burton, #NFDB
849:I'm from the dirty depths of New Jersey. ~ Ezra Miller, #NFDB
850:I'm just a kid from Bronx who got lucky. ~ Ace Frehley, #NFDB
851:I'm just a simple Jewish boy from the Bronx. ~ Ed Koch, #NFDB
852:I no longer feel banished from myself. ~ Harold Pinter, #NFDB
853:Iris from sea brings wind or mighty rain. ~ Empedocles, #NFDB
854:I said that love heals from inside. ~ Yusef Komunyakaa, #NFDB
855:is detachable from human existence. ~ Daniel L Everett, #NFDB
856:It curls away from me, like blood in water. ~ A J Finn, #NFDB
857:It doesn’t matter where you come from; ~ Kevin Horsley, #NFDB
858:It's easy to love someone from a distance ~ John Green, #NFDB
859:It seems I can't stay away from her. ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
860:I want to drink from you're life force. ~ Truth Devour, #NFDB
861:I was twelve miles from no where. ~ Mark Z Danielewski, #NFDB
862:Learn all from one thing. -Ab uno disce omnes ~ Virgil, #NFDB
863:less than three hundred yards from the ~ Johan Theorin, #NFDB
864:Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. ~ Kofi Annan, #NFDB
865:Man's security comes from within himself. ~ Manly Hall, #NFDB
866:Mental energy from within keeps me higher, ~ Masta Ace, #NFDB
867:mistake didn’t stem simply from a loathing ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
868:moved to Richmond in Yorkshire and from ~ Paul Doherty, #NFDB
869:Music comes from a place we don't know. ~ Chris Martin, #NFDB
870:My best training came from my father. ~ Woodrow Wilson, #NFDB
871:My dream is to save them from nature. ~ Christian Dior, #NFDB
872:No one ever died from an open mind. ~ Jillian Michaels, #NFDB
873:Not all good things come from good people. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
874:Not even Hell could keep me from you ~ Sylvain Reynard, #NFDB
875:Nothing's beautiful from every point of view. ~ Horace, #NFDB
876:Or a hug from someone who loved them. ~ Robert J Crane, #NFDB
877:People have died from hiccups, you know. ~ No l Coward, #NFDB
878:Reading keeps you from going ga-ga. ~ Mary Ann Shaffer, #NFDB
879:rent limb from limb, Anthony had been ~ Robert Masello, #NFDB
880:repose, v.i. To cease from troubling. ~ Ambrose Bierce, #NFDB
881:Seek freedom from the conformity of styles ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
882:Sell to their needs-not from yours. ~ Earl G Graves Sr, #NFDB
883:Serious art is born from serious play. ~ Julia Cameron, #NFDB
884:She just wanted an escape from the abuse. ~ Hugh Howey, #NFDB
885:Someone had to save him from himself. ~ Soman Chainani, #NFDB
886:Surprise comes from defying expectations. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
887:Tactics flow from a superior position. ~ Bobby Fischer, #NFDB
888:Take a sip from the cup of death... ~ Ol Dirty Bastard, #NFDB
889:The ancients stole all our ideas from us. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
890:The fairest harmony springs from discord. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
891:The ninth grade. I went from 5'9 to 6'8. ~ Bubba Smith, #NFDB
892:The world can only change from within. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
893:To heal from the inside out is the key. ~ Wynonna Judd, #NFDB
894:True hope is severed from expectation. ~ Anne Michaels, #NFDB
895:True love is born from understanding. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
896:watched smoke rise from a campfire near the ~ K M Shea, #NFDB
897:We can't tell our life from our wish ~ Randall Jarrell, #NFDB
898:We learn from failure, not from success! ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
899:We write from the marrow of our bones. ~ Adrienne Rich, #NFDB
900:woman from falling pregnant. I have ~ Elisabeth Storrs, #NFDB
901:Would ye be wise, ye Cities, fly from war! ~ Euripides, #NFDB
902:You are here to live from the heart. ~ Baptist de Pape, #NFDB
903:You can’t catch up from a body bag, man. ~ Celia Aaron, #NFDB
904:You can't get dyslexia from pussy. ~ Bret Easton Ellis, #NFDB
905:You can’t go from people to nonpeople. ~ Philip K Dick, #NFDB
906:You really should stay away from me. ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
907:You're a victim from my drive-by of thoughts. ~ Dr Dre, #NFDB
908:8 j Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
909:A hundred years from now? All new people. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
910:All came from, and will goe to others. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
911:All cruelty springs from weakness. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
912:All offences come from the heart. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
913:A power is passing from the earth. ~ William Wordsworth, #NFDB
914:A view of heaven from a seat in hell. ~ Steven Callahan, #NFDB
915:away from the ocean, heading toward the ~ Gail Carriger, #NFDB
916:Campaigning is different from governing. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
917:Carols of gladness ring from every tree. ~ Fanny Kemble, #NFDB
918:College is a refuge from hasty judgment. ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
919:Deliver us, O Allah, from the Sea of Names. ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
920:Disco sucks? You never heard that from me. ~ John Lydon, #NFDB
921:Do not be distracted from what we face. ~ Rush Limbaugh, #NFDB
922:Do not try to take my regret from me. ~ Madeline Miller, #NFDB
923:Escape from the black cloud that surrounds you. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
924:Everyone needs help from everyone else. ~ Ivan Turgenev, #NFDB
925:Failure is sucess if we learn from it. ~ Mario Andretti, #NFDB
926:For we are all sprung from earth and water ~ Xenophanes, #NFDB
927:Freeing oneself from words is liberation. ~ Bodhidharma, #NFDB
928:From a mile away, the sound. The sirens. ~ Lauren Groff, #NFDB
929:From A to Z, thought p, she’d done it all. ~ Tyburn Way, #NFDB
930:From cheating to death. I dreamed it all. ~ Aileen Erin, #NFDB
931:From now on, you will be known as Savage. ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
932:Go, little Book! From this my solitude ~ Robert Southey, #NFDB
933:Good news from heaven the angels bring, ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
934:Good teaching comes from good people. ~ Parker J Palmer, #NFDB
935:grief is an illness I can't recover from. ~ Sue Grafton, #NFDB
936:Halcyon’s and mine’s sketches out from ~ Luke Chmilenko, #NFDB
937:Harry Dresden. I'm on a mission from God. ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
938:He took a sip from his own water glass. ~ Lincoln Child, #NFDB
939:Hide from change and it will hide from you ~ Tina Brown, #NFDB
940:Hip-Hop went from selling crack to smoking it ~ Mos Def, #NFDB
941:I always felt love from both my parents. ~ Hugh Jackman, #NFDB
942:I am a big fan of movies from the ’70s. ~ Chris Messina, #NFDB
943:I am self-educated from genre books. ~ Charlaine Harris, #NFDB
944:I drink to separate my body from my soul. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
945:I felt a bit bookish, cut off from life. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
946:i gave a start as if goosed from behind ~ P G Wodehouse, #NFDB
947:I go from chords to cords, amped to amps. ~ Rachel Cohn, #NFDB
948:I have disassociated myself from that book. ~ Uta Hagen, #NFDB
949:I'm the furthest thing away from a cop. ~ Boyd Holbrook, #NFDB
950:I need to retire from retirement. ~ Sandra Day O Connor, #NFDB
951:Inoculate yourself from dangerous bozos. ~ Guy Kawasaki, #NFDB
952:I steal from every movie ever made. ~ Quentin Tarantino, #NFDB
953:I steal from the rich to give to myself. ~ Robert Thier, #NFDB
954:It feels a long way up and down from zero. ~ May Sarton, #NFDB
955:itself, had emerged from that shadow. ~ Alice McDermott, #NFDB
956:It's good to know where you've come from. ~ David Slade, #NFDB
957:I want nothing from love, in short, but love. ~ Colette, #NFDB
958:I will come back from the dead for you. ~ Richard Siken, #NFDB
959:Know from the bounteous heaven all riches flow. ~ Homer, #NFDB
960:Learn from yesterday, live for today. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
961:Liberation does not come from outside. ~ Gloria Steinem, #NFDB
962:Life sucks order from a sea of disorder. ~ James Gleick, #NFDB
963:Love cannot save you from your own fate. ~ Jim Morrison, #NFDB
964:martyred plants from their shrouds. Their mouths ~ Rumi, #NFDB
965:Men from children nothing differ. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
966:Mighty things from small beginnings grow. ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
967:more time away from the family and additional ~ C J Box, #NFDB
968:Most bad behavior comes from insecurity. ~ Debra Winger, #NFDB
969:Much of my work has come from being lazy. ~ John Backus, #NFDB
970:My friends come from many species. ~ Anthony D Williams, #NFDB
971:Nearly all trouble comes from mis-timing. ~ Freya Stark, #NFDB
972:ninety-two-carat raw diamond from South ~ Anthony Doerr, #NFDB
973:No day shall erase you from the memory of time ~ Virgil, #NFDB
974:No one has ever become poor from giving. ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
975:No one is likable from the inside out. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
976:Nothing comes from doing nothing. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
977:Nothing could be further from my intention. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
978:Now I've got the world swingin' from my nuts ~ Willie D, #NFDB
979:Now she’s drinking coffee from an owl mug. ~ Ella James, #NFDB
980:Our confidence comes from our preparation. ~ Ronaldinho, #NFDB
981:Our real discoveries come from chaos. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
982:Play is the highest from of research. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
983:Politics is downstream from culture. ~ Andrew Breitbart, #NFDB
984:Real monsters eat you from the inside out. ~ Dia Reeves, #NFDB
985:sad things are beautiful only from a distance ~ Tao Lin, #NFDB
986:Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
987:Seek knowledge from the Cradle to the Grave ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
988:Some dreams are best not to wake up from. ~ Hiroo Onoda, #NFDB
989:Teachers learn from their students' discussions ~ Rashi, #NFDB
990:Tears hinder sorrow from becoming despair. ~ Leigh Hunt, #NFDB
991:Tendulkar must have known from his heart ~ Rahul Dravid, #NFDB
992:Ten watercolors were made from that star. ~ Joan Didion, #NFDB
993:The apple does not fall far from the tree. ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
994:the laws of the South. From that moment ~ Chris d Lacey, #NFDB
995:The Lord preserve us from sainthood ~ Nikos Kazantzakis, #NFDB
996:The simple child again, free from all stains. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
997:The Supreme Court kept me from my freedom. ~ Dred Scott, #NFDB
998:the word happiness comes from to happen. ~ Jeff Bridges, #NFDB
999:They could never take that away from me. ~ Ruta Sepetys, #NFDB
1000:They use fear to keep you from thinking, ~ Jeff Wheeler, #NFDB
1001:things get made from belief and memory. ~ Samantha Hunt, #NFDB
1002:Time wasted is a theft from God. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel, #NFDB
1003:True poverty does not come from God. ~ Lyndon B Johnson, #NFDB
1004:Watch the stars, and from them learn. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
1005:We comes from God, I from the Devil. ~ Yevgeny Zamyatin, #NFDB
1006:We have learned nothing from the genome. ~ Craig Venter, #NFDB
1007:We’re dying from the moment we’re born, ~ Kate Atkinson, #NFDB
1008:What reinforcement we may gain from hope; ~ John Milton, #NFDB
1009:Where I came from, no one was a writer. ~ Howard Gordon, #NFDB
1010:Whither thou know'est thy ass from thy elbow ~ J R Ward, #NFDB
1011:Who can distinguish darkness from the soul? ~ W B Yeats, #NFDB
1012:Wisdom comes not from reason but from love. ~ Andr Gide, #NFDB
1013:working hard keeps you from going crazy ~ Blue Balliett, #NFDB
1014:World peace must develop from inner peace. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1015:Write from the heart, edit from the head, ~ Stuart Aken, #NFDB
1016:You can not save you from your own fate. ~ Jim Morrison, #NFDB
1017:You can't get from A to Z by passing up B. ~ Nick Saban, #NFDB
1018:You can't squeeze blood from a turnip. ~ Cheryl Strayed, #NFDB
1019:1TH5.22 Abstain from all appearance of evil. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1020:Accept myself; expect more from myself. ~ Gretchen Rubin, #NFDB
1021:Ain't no glory made from being dependable. ~ Esi Edugyan, #NFDB
1022:A kiss from my mother made me a painter. ~ Benjamin West, #NFDB
1023:All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal. ~ Miles Davis, #NFDB
1024:All stress comes from resisting what is. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
1025:All things from the north are devilish. ~ Philip Pullman, #NFDB
1026:All will be lost apart from happiness. ~ Jacques Prevert, #NFDB
1027:Always walk away from a fight. Then ambush. ~ Tim Dorsey, #NFDB
1028:A moving or movement away from a station ~ Jim Morrison, #NFDB
1029:and his voice came from him in a whisper, ~ Pearl S Buck, #NFDB
1030:and releasing the story from your deepest ~ Janet Conner, #NFDB
1031:Anything that I write comes from the soul. ~ Martin Gore, #NFDB
1032:Authority to heal is given from on high. ~ Ernest Angley, #NFDB
1033:A wise warrior learns from her mistakes. ~ Leigh Bardugo, #NFDB
1034:A word from Jesus changed everything. ~ Henry T Blackaby, #NFDB
1035:big emotions do not come from big words. ~ Chetan Bhagat, #NFDB
1036:Come and sip from the cup of destruction. ~ Genghis Khan, #NFDB
1037:Comfortable is different from beautiful. ~ Jasmine Warga, #NFDB
1038:Death is the only real thing from life. ~ Octavian Paler, #NFDB
1039:Destruction always comes from within. It ~ Matthew Kelly, #NFDB
1040:Did the book…steal the day away from me? The ~ K A Linde, #NFDB
1041:Disruptive movement must come from within. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1042:Do it from the heart or not at all. ~ Jeanette Winterson, #NFDB
1043:do it from the heart or not at all. ~ Jeanette Winterson, #NFDB
1044:Don’t borrow trouble from round the bend, ~ Lisa Wingate, #NFDB
1045:Each moment contains a hundred messages from God. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1046:EAT WELL-GROWN FOOD FROM HEALTHY SOILS. ~ Michael Pollan, #NFDB
1047:Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. ~ Mary Baker Eddy, #NFDB
1048:Everyone must learn from the past. ~ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, #NFDB
1049:Every road from Rousseau leads to Sade. ~ Camille Paglia, #NFDB
1050:Everything you are comes from your choices. ~ Jeff Bezos, #NFDB
1051:Failure is success if we learn from it. ~ Malcolm Forbes, #NFDB
1052:Films are always different from books. ~ William Kircher, #NFDB
1053:Freedom from suffering is a great happiness. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1054:From a little spark may burst a flame. ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
1055:from California. San Francisco. And had ~ Danielle Steel, #NFDB
1056:From his lips/Not words alone pleased her. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
1057:from what we cannot hold the stars are made ~ W S Merwin, #NFDB
1058:From yourself shall you know others, I suppose ~ Jo Nesb, #NFDB
1059:Get away from meeeee!" Edgar -Frankiewinnie ~ Tim Burton, #NFDB
1060:Good writing comes from good talent. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
1061:Guys from Roseburg could do it. Thoughts? ~ Joanna Wylde, #NFDB
1062:He is now rising from affluence to poverty. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
1063:Hidden knowledge differs little from ignorance. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1064:How can you hide from what never goes away? ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
1065:I am a spark from the Infinite. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
1066:I come from a long line of Sinners like me ~ Eric Church, #NFDB
1067:Ideas do not exist separately from language. ~ Karl Marx, #NFDB
1068:I don't like begging money from producers. ~ David Byrne, #NFDB
1069:I'd rather see the world from a different angle. ~ Jewel, #NFDB
1070:I got an early education from television. ~ Debra Wilson, #NFDB
1071:I got it: stay away from cocaine and heroin. ~ Tommy Lee, #NFDB
1072:I have a lot to learn from designers. ~ Delphine Arnault, #NFDB
1073:Imagination shrinks from the consequences. ~ Jude Morgan, #NFDB
1074:I'm from California, and still live in LA. ~ Teena Marie, #NFDB
1075:I'm from New York, so I'm not a big driver. ~ Dan Fogler, #NFDB
1076:I'm from the same planet as David Bowie. ~ Tilda Swinton, #NFDB
1077:I mix and match, from top to bottom. ~ Russell Westbrook, #NFDB
1078:I'm not afraid to learn from my coaches. ~ Walter Alston, #NFDB
1079:I paint flowers to prevent them from dying ~ Frida Kahlo, #NFDB
1080:I remember when I fell from my first bike: ~ Big K R I T, #NFDB
1081:I retired from everything except work. ~ Lee Friedlander, #NFDB
1082:Irony takes nothing away from pathos. ~ Gustave Flaubert, #NFDB
1083:I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1084:I sucked blood from one of my best friends ~ Darren Shan, #NFDB
1085:I took a lot from friends, but also me. ~ Justin Hartley, #NFDB
1086:It’s like a crimson waterfall from her lips. ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
1087:I work in L.A. from time to time. ~ Chris Diamantopoulos, #NFDB
1088:John upon their return from a trip. “The ~ Bill O Reilly, #NFDB
1089:Just are the ways of heaven; from Heaven proceed ~ Homer, #NFDB
1090:keep me from ridin’ trail. But you’re acting ~ Zane Grey, #NFDB
1091:Keep your goals away from the trolls. ~ Peter McWilliams, #NFDB
1092:Knitting keeps me from stabbing people. ~ Jennie Breeden, #NFDB
1093:Learn from the masses, and then teach them. ~ Mao Zedong, #NFDB
1094:Let Us Remove the
Trees from Our Path ~ Esther Hicks,#NFDB
1095:Liberate yourself from my vice-like grip! ~ J D Salinger, #NFDB
1096:Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
1097:Life is shaped from the inside out. ~ Arianna Huffington, #NFDB
1098:Look to the stars and from them learn. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
1099:Lying can never save us from another lie. ~ Vaclav Havel, #NFDB
1100:Make your links from blog comments genuine. ~ Matt Cutts, #NFDB
1101:Moralism apart from grace solves little. ~ Philip Yancey, #NFDB
1102:My life has run from misery to happiness. ~ Loretta Lynn, #NFDB
1103:Never run away from anything. Never! ~ Winston Churchill, #NFDB
1104:Never take eggs from a metal-eyed man. ~ Joe Abercrombie, #NFDB
1105:Never underestimate a girl from Kansas, ~ Danielle Paige, #NFDB
1106:Only a fool took a remote from a god. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
1107:Photography has taken me from isolation. ~ Anton Corbijn, #NFDB
1108:Physicists often quote from T. H. White's epic novel , #NFDB
1109:Real progress comes from people. ~ Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, #NFDB
1110:separates his behavior from his identity, ~ Carol Tavris, #NFDB
1111:serious art came from . . . . out there! ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1112:Sin is essentially a departure from God. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
1113:Some men fall from grace. Some are pushed. ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
1114:Some people just needed to be stolen from. ~ Eoin Colfer, #NFDB
1115:Some things are clearer from a distance. ~ Nadia Hashimi, #NFDB
1116:Statement of earnings from Social Security ~ Vicki Robin, #NFDB
1117:The best place to get help is from yourself. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
1118:The love I knew was from books.. ~ Pramoedya Ananta Toer, #NFDB
1119:The passion to condense from book to book ~ Yvor Winters, #NFDB
1120:they arise from over-saturation with the "Iliad. ~ Homer, #NFDB
1121:Tis pleasant to have a large heap to take from. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1122:Toes curled from here to
Wakanda. ~ Sahndra Fon Dufe,#NFDB
1123:To take from the universe, you must give. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
1124:True freedom is being free from sin. How ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
1125:Used to have a crush on Dawn from En Vogue. ~ Phife Dawg, #NFDB
1126:We are all born equally far from the sun. ~ John Knowles, #NFDB
1127:We are suffering from too much sarcasm. ~ Marianne Moore, #NFDB
1128:Welcome the One that has kissed you from within. ~ Mooji, #NFDB
1129:We must distinguish judging from guessing. ~ Ernest Sosa, #NFDB
1130:We’re far from being strangers, Auburn. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
1131:We turn from all we know and all we fear. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1132:We yogied this from day hikers for you. ~ Cheryl Strayed, #NFDB
1133:Wisdom comes not from reason but from love. ~ Andre Gide, #NFDB
1134:You can tell a lot from someone's eyes. ~ Lorne Michaels, #NFDB
1135:You can't find peace by hiding from life ~ Nicole Kidman, #NFDB
1136:You don't get nothing from sleep but a dream. ~ Don King, #NFDB
1137:You don’t take shit from anyone. Ever. ~ Karen M McManus, #NFDB
1138:You learn stuff from your kids, every day. ~ Colin Hanks, #NFDB
1139:You need to face what you're running from ~ Melissa Marr, #NFDB
1140:A fatal recovery from a promising illness ~ Thomas Boston, #NFDB
1141:All grand thoughts come from the heart. ~ Luc de Clapiers, #NFDB
1142:All selling should spring from service ~ Rasheed Ogunlaru, #NFDB
1143:Alone, I took out a pocket mirror from my ~ Brenda Pandos, #NFDB
1144:A lot of my past is gone from my mind. ~ Juliana Hatfield, #NFDB
1145:And from the first declension of the flesh ~ Dylan Thomas, #NFDB
1146:Art is what separates us from the animals. ~ Iimani David, #NFDB
1147:Bats and birds taken from those mountains ~ Louis L Amour, #NFDB
1148:Better to face the bear than run from it. ~ Robert Jordan, #NFDB
1149:Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
1150:but fear isn’t very far from excitement. ~ Laurelin Paige, #NFDB
1151:But mighty Nature bounds as from her birth; ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
1152:Characters are born from necessity. ~ Christopher Paolini, #NFDB
1153:Condense fact from the vapor of nuance. ~ Neal Stephenson, #NFDB
1154:Confess then, naught from nothing can become, ~ Lucretius, #NFDB
1155:Coo...coo... here comes the dove from above! ~ Vic Reeves, #NFDB
1156:Dance from here to the other world-and don't stop. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1157:Death frees us from even ourselves. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
1158:Do not judge from mere appearances. ~ Edwin Hubbel Chapin, #NFDB
1159:Don't get discouraged from all the rejection. ~ Joey King, #NFDB
1160:Fear always springs from ignorance. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1161:Financial freedom is freedom from fear. ~ Robert Kiyosaki, #NFDB
1162:Flower Duet by Delibes, from the opera Lakmé. ~ E L James, #NFDB
1163:From all wise men, O Lord, protect us. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
1164:From castles of bone unknown music comes ~ Arthur Rimbaud, #NFDB
1165:From his tongue flowed speech sweeter than honey. ~ Homer, #NFDB
1166:From out the throng and stress of lies, ~ William Morris, #NFDB
1167:From their eyelids as they glanced dripped love. ~ Hesiod, #NFDB
1168:from what’s right for you, your true place. ~ Sonja Yoerg, #NFDB
1169:From what we cannot hold the stars are made. ~ W S Merwin, #NFDB
1170:Get the hell away from my boyfriend, witch. ~ Kami Garcia, #NFDB
1171:How can you hide from what never goes away? ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
1172:I came from a town of maybe 30,000 people. ~ Jim Caviezel, #NFDB
1173:I can’t walk away from you, Josie. Not again. ~ Nina Lane, #NFDB
1174:I embody EVERYTHING from the Godly to the party. ~ Common, #NFDB
1175:If I'm not living from my heart, I get sick. ~ A J Langer, #NFDB
1176:If you come from art, you'll always be art. ~ David Bowie, #NFDB
1177:I get by with a little help from my friends ~ The Beatles, #NFDB
1178:I get inspiration from my everyday life. ~ Hayao Miyazaki, #NFDB
1179:I gotta take the baton from Chuck Norris. ~ Charlie Sheen, #NFDB
1180:I keep mementos from everything I've done. ~ Jared Harris, #NFDB
1181:I lived in fact from mouth to hand. ~ Winston S Churchill, #NFDB
1182:I'm far from being god, but I work god damn hard. ~ Jay Z, #NFDB
1183:I'm just this Dominican kid from New Jersey. ~ Junot Diaz, #NFDB
1184:I, painting from myself and to myself, ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
1185:I pray God to deliver me from God ! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
1186:I read your secrets to escape from my own. ~ Frank Warren, #NFDB
1187:I really create everything I do from the heart. ~ Kenny G, #NFDB
1188:Isn’t there ever any getting away from it? ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1189:I sometimes suffer from an excess of zeal. ~ Alan Bradley, #NFDB
1190:I stand by whatever I read from Univision. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
1191:I started singing because I come from Wales ~ Bryn Terfel, #NFDB
1192:I still think of myself as from Illinois. ~ Alison Krauss, #NFDB
1193:It ain't where you're from, it's where you're at. ~ Rakim, #NFDB
1194:I take my ideas from my experiences. ~ Chris Van Allsburg, #NFDB
1195:I think all music is a gift from God. ~ Pharrell Williams, #NFDB
1196:I think self-esteem comes from work. ~ Anthony Scaramucci, #NFDB
1197:I was good at keeping my mother from crying. ~ Bernie Mac, #NFDB
1198:learn from their successes and mistakes. This ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1199:Let us absurdify life from east to west ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
1200:Life can come only from other life. ~ Lawrence O Richards, #NFDB
1201:Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
1202:Lightning does not come from underground, ~ James Swallow, #NFDB
1203:Little children, guard yourselves from idols. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1204:Long is the road from conception to completion. ~ Moliere, #NFDB
1205:looking down from above distorts the view. ~ Hans Rosling, #NFDB
1206:Luce didn't know how to pull away from Cam. ~ Lauren Kate, #NFDB
1207:Mercy detached from justice grows unmerciful. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1208:My body is precious and not separate from my soul. ~ Sark, #NFDB
1209:My shivers weren’t just from the cold. ~ Samantha Shannon, #NFDB
1210:Naw, I was like, coming from the benches. ~ Richard Price, #NFDB
1211:Nobody at any time is cut off from God. ~ Meister Eckhart, #NFDB
1212:Nostalgias were peeled from it long ago. ~ Donald Justice, #NFDB
1213:Nothing good comes from hiding the ugly. ~ Katie Ganshert, #NFDB
1214:Nothing will divert me from my purpose. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
1215:One can run away from anything but oneself ~ Stefan Zweig, #NFDB
1216:ONE WITH YOU Coming soon from Berkley Books! ~ Sylvia Day, #NFDB
1217:One word from you shall silence me forever. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1218:Our best thoughts come from others. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1219:Passions are generally roused from great conflict. ~ Livy, #NFDB
1220:Peter wore a grin from ear to ear. "You did great! ~ Brom, #NFDB
1221:recovered completely from the gunshot. She ~ Thomas Perry, #NFDB
1222:ROM6.7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1223:Set up a life you don't need to escape from. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
1224:Shoot from the gut, edit with the brain ~ Anders Petersen, #NFDB
1225:Smile if you want a smile from another face. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1226:Soft men tend to be born from soft countries. ~ Herodotus, #NFDB
1227:Songwriting is an art distinct from poetry. ~ Nick Hornby, #NFDB
1228:Stand out from the crowd, be yourself. ~ Stephen Richards, #NFDB
1229:Straight from the heart, I represent hip hop ~ Phife Dawg, #NFDB
1230:Suffering comes from desire, not from pain ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1231:That was what separated us from the zombies. ~ Mira Grant, #NFDB
1232:The doors of hell are locked from the inside! ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1233:The forehead of every work must shine from afar. ~ Pindar, #NFDB
1234:The minute I saw a beady eye peak out from ~ Meghan Quinn, #NFDB
1235:The only real laughter comes from despair. ~ Groucho Marx, #NFDB
1236:There is a window from one heart to another heart. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1237:the truth from his ears, waxed strong. ~ Geraldine Brooks, #NFDB
1238:The usefulness of a pot comes from its emptiness. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1239:thoughts from the boy who is an Aberration. ~ Ally Condie, #NFDB
1240:Truth springs from argument amongst friends. ~ David Hume, #NFDB
1241:Water dripping from his slapping fruits ~ Joe Abercrombie, #NFDB
1242:Whatever you do, do it from the heart ~ Abhishek Bachchan, #NFDB
1243:What's drinking? A mere pause from thinking! ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
1244:When in the world did anyone die from a dream? ~ Lisa See, #NFDB
1245:Whistling to keep myself from being afraid. ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
1246:Who gives to friends so much from Fate secures, ~ Martial, #NFDB
1247:Wicked me obey from fear; good men,from love. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
1248:You can't fire a cannon, from a canoe! ~ Charles Poliquin, #NFDB
1249:You have to create something from nothing. ~ Ralph Lauren, #NFDB
1250:You'll get back to where you came from. ~ William Golding, #NFDB
1251:a group of White men from up north stationed ~ Jesmyn Ward, #NFDB
1252:A hundred years from now?
All new people. ~ Anne Lamott,#NFDB
1253:airwaves get buzzed from pot By Trevor Hughes, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1254:All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
1255:All great art comes from a sense of outrage. ~ Glenn Close, #NFDB
1256:All you've ever had are names from men. ~ Jennifer Pashley, #NFDB
1257:A lot of music comes from a selfish place. ~ Vince Staples, #NFDB
1258:and transition from one to the other. Scrape ~ Brent Weeks, #NFDB
1259:And when you sigh from kiss to kiss ~ William Butler Yeats, #NFDB
1260:Another day spent slipping away from you. ~ Michael Faudet, #NFDB
1261:Aren't most of you descended from pirates? ~ Prince Philip, #NFDB
1262:A womans mistakes are different from a girls ~ Janet Fitch, #NFDB
1263:Brave men don’t learn from their home. ~ Quvenzhane Wallis, #NFDB
1264:But a prudent wife is from the LORD. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
1265:Charity is willingly given from the heart. ~ Rush Limbaugh, #NFDB
1266:Compassion arises spontaneously from wisdom. ~ Eric Weiner, #NFDB
1267:Discouragement is not from God. ~ Saint Ignatius of Loyola, #NFDB
1268:Don't say the words I wanted to hear from Ren. ~ Ai Yazawa, #NFDB
1269:Do you mean you were attacked from behind? ~ Christa Faust, #NFDB
1270:Educated fools; from uneducated schools. ~ Curtis Mayfield, #NFDB
1271:Everything seems simpler from a distance. ~ Gail Tsukiyama, #NFDB
1272:Evil then results from imperfection. ~ Philip James Bailey, #NFDB
1273:Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife. ~ Thomas Gray, #NFDB
1274:Feels like a midget is hanging from my necklace ~ Ludacris, #NFDB
1275:Freedom from one man is just another one. ~ Leslie Jamison, #NFDB
1276:Freeing oneself from words is liberation.
~ Bodhidharma,#NFDB
1277:from a child in danger to a dangerous child ~ Edward Humes, #NFDB
1278:From the mouths of the innocents flows truth. ~ Rae Carson, #NFDB
1279:Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
1280:Happiness comes from growth, not comfort. ~ Steve Chandler, #NFDB
1281:her. “From what you’ve told us, the killer ~ John Sandford, #NFDB
1282:His face was cast from a serious mold, ~ Christopher Reich, #NFDB
1283:Hope is brightest when it dawns from fears. ~ Walter Scott, #NFDB
1284:How can I appreciate light from an aging ~ Pattiann Rogers, #NFDB
1285:I always get the best advice from myself. ~ Harry Harrison, #NFDB
1286:I am a student of whoever I can learn from. ~ Rashad Evans, #NFDB
1287:I break apart from the inside out. They ~ Corinne Michaels, #NFDB
1288:I busked from the age of 13 until I was 18. ~ Glen Hansard, #NFDB
1289:I can fish from a stick and a string. ~ Giancarlo Esposito, #NFDB
1290:I come from a long line of generations! ~ Charles M Schulz, #NFDB
1291:I don't think I can ever escape from music. ~ Jason Derulo, #NFDB
1292:I’d sabotaged myself, with help from Ian. ~ Megan Erickson, #NFDB
1293:I fell for her like a suicide from a bridge. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
1294:If Im brave, 99% of it comes from my mother. ~ Jack Reynor, #NFDB
1295:I get by with a little help from my friends. ~ John Lennon, #NFDB
1296:I got a letter from the government the other day ~ Chuck D, #NFDB
1297:I graduated from the University of Whatever. ~ Dana Snyder, #NFDB
1298:I have created a new universe from nothing. ~ Janos Bolyai, #NFDB
1299:I just can't wake from these scary dreams. ~ Ozzy Osbourne, #NFDB
1300:I just like doing things from my own head. ~ Andrea Arnold, #NFDB
1301:I just write from how I feel. As an outlet. ~ Ronnie Radke, #NFDB
1302:I keep thinking how young can you die from old age ~ Drake, #NFDB
1303:I learned my realism from guys like Kafka. ~ Robert Coover, #NFDB
1304:I learn more from books than from people ~ William Sleator, #NFDB
1305:I'm from the Mississippi delta originally. ~ Little Milton, #NFDB
1306:I need a release from whatever I'm writing. ~ Lynn Nottage, #NFDB
1307:I rather like getting away from fiction. ~ Penelope Lively, #NFDB
1308:Is it from your cheek that I took the seed? ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
1309:Is that a quotation?"
"Only from me. ~ Iris Murdoch,#NFDB
1310:Italian foe in Sicily. From now on, the men ~ Alex Kershaw, #NFDB
1311:It is a long road from conception to completion. ~ Moliere, #NFDB
1312:It isn't freedom from. It's freedom to. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
1313:Its gate, from which at first they issued forth, ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
1314:It was a Geek Squad badge from Best Buy. ~ Janet Evanovich, #NFDB
1315:I've always felt like I'm from another planet. ~ Eva Green, #NFDB
1316:I've learned a tremendous amount from Oprah. ~ Phil McGraw, #NFDB
1317:I was performing from the age of three. ~ Jennifer Ellison, #NFDB
1318:Joy, thou spark from Heav'n immortal, ~ Friedrich Schiller, #NFDB
1319:Keep away from fantasy. Shake off the image. ~ Sam Shepard, #NFDB
1320:Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, ~ William Cowper, #NFDB
1321:Language is a virus from outer space ~ William S Burroughs, #NFDB
1322:Learn the lick, but learn FROM the lick. ~ Scott Henderson, #NFDB
1323:Lenny Bruce died from an overdose of police ~ Phil Spector, #NFDB
1324:Let us absurdify life from east to west. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
1325:Life a continuous backing away from the edge. ~ Emma Cline, #NFDB
1326:Like strength is felt from hope, and from despair. ~ Homer, #NFDB
1327:Losing my mind From this hollow in my heart ~ Mariah Carey, #NFDB
1328:Love is the medicine that saves from disease. ~ Benny Hinn, #NFDB
1329:Loyalty is from above, betrayal is from below. ~ Bob Sorge, #NFDB
1330:Meantime, when once we know from nothing still ~ Lucretius, #NFDB
1331:Men are from Mars. Zombies are from Hell. ~ Jesse Petersen, #NFDB
1332:Miles from nowhere. Guess I'll take my time. ~ Cat Stevens, #NFDB
1333:Most women are one man away from welfare. ~ Gloria Steinem, #NFDB
1334:My injuries are a long way from my heart. ~ Donald Cerrone, #NFDB
1335:My voice has gotten better from smoking. ~ John Mellencamp, #NFDB
1336:Never answer a question from a farmer. ~ Hubert H Humphrey, #NFDB
1337:Nine out of 10 war victims die from a gun. ~ Andrew Niccol, #NFDB
1338:No, it was in town a few minutes from her. The ~ Amy Brent, #NFDB
1339:no one has ever died from contradictions. ~ Steven Shaviro, #NFDB
1340:Nothing favourable comes from speculation. ~ Linda Berdoll, #NFDB
1341:Nothing soulful is birthed from force. ~ Cheryl Richardson, #NFDB
1342:Oh get down from your cross: we need timber. ~ Nina George, #NFDB
1343:One can run away from anything but oneself. ~ Stefan Zweig, #NFDB
1344:Paternity is a long way from fatherhood. ~ James MacDonald, #NFDB
1345:Peeta slips even farther from our grasp. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
1346:Presence stems from believing our own stories. ~ Amy Cuddy, #NFDB
1347:Progress apart from purpose ends in arrogance. ~ T D Jakes, #NFDB
1348:Public victory comes from private discipline. ~ Levi Lusko, #NFDB
1349:Pus spilled from the wound like warm egg yolk. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1350:Racism cannot be separated from capitalism. ~ Angela Davis, #NFDB
1351:Shit spews from your lips as from the ass of a pig. ~ Brom, #NFDB
1352:Some wisdom you must learn from one who's wise ~ Euripides, #NFDB
1353:Success comes from any and all directions. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
1354:Suffering comes from desire, not from pain. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1355:Talent comes from experience and failure ~ Richard Branson, #NFDB
1356:The difficulty comes from our lack of confidence. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1357:There is no easy way from the earth to the stars. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1358:There is no escape from the horror of horror. ~ John Skipp, #NFDB
1359:There’s no tragedy you can’t profit from. ~ Henry Mosquera, #NFDB
1360:The Self is free from all qualities. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
1361:The soul that suffered from being its body… ~ Amy King, #NFDB
1362:The True One was there from time immemorial. ~ Guru Nanak, #NFDB
1363:This is reality, Greg.-Elliot from E.T. ~ Steven Spielberg, #NFDB
1364:Those who don't know must learn from those who do. ~ Plato, #NFDB
1365:thousand miles from Vienna, I could see ~ Natasha Solomons, #NFDB
1366:To be self rewritten from a lost first draft. ~ J J Abrams, #NFDB
1367:True nobility is exempt from fear. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
1368:True salvation is freedom from negativity. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
1369:Turn back from the outer.
Set your eyes within. ~ Rumi,#NFDB
1370:Up from the ashes come the roses of success. ~ Ian Fleming, #NFDB
1371:Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful. ~ Tacitus, #NFDB
1372:We are not separated from spirit, we are in it. ~ Plotinus, #NFDB
1373:We travel into or away from our photographs. ~ Don DeLillo, #NFDB
1374:Whatever life takes away from you, let it go ~ Miguel Ruiz, #NFDB
1375:Why did everything beautiful come from pain? ~ Leah Raeder, #NFDB
1376:You can get fired from any job at any time. ~ Jorge Garcia, #NFDB
1377:You can get to the Underworld from anywhere. ~ Thomas More, #NFDB
1378:You die at heart from a withdrawal of love. ~ Iris Murdoch, #NFDB
1379:A little science estranges a man from God; ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
1380:All cruelty springs from weakness.” -Seneca ~ Clarissa Wild, #NFDB
1381:All I have learned, I learned from books. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
1382:All I was trying to do was get home from work. ~ Rosa Parks, #NFDB
1383:All the best art comes from the broken places, ~ Megan Hart, #NFDB
1384:An earnest conjuration from the King, ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1385:anyone who has died has been set free from sin. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1386:A race cannot be purified from without. ~ Anna Julia Cooper, #NFDB
1387:Are not they temperate from a kind of intemperance? ~ Plato, #NFDB
1388:arms, and the other pulled the camera from ~ Nelson DeMille, #NFDB
1389:Art cannot save anybody from anything. ~ Gilbert Sorrentino, #NFDB
1390:Art comes from life, not from the studio ~ Marina Abramovic, #NFDB
1391:Aside from myself, there was no sign of me. ~ Nicole Krauss, #NFDB
1392:As they say, 'It's all downhill from cupcakes. ~ Ryan North, #NFDB
1393:A well-stocked mind is safe from boredom. ~ Arthur C Clarke, #NFDB
1394:a well-stocked mind is safe from boredom. ~ Arthur C Clarke, #NFDB
1395:Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape ~ John Milton, #NFDB
1396:bitchiness gone from her tone. “My father would ~ T K Leigh, #NFDB
1397:Brave men are brave from the very first. ~ Pierre Corneille, #NFDB
1398:But nothin' can stop you from wishin'. ~ Zora Neale Hurston, #NFDB
1399:Careful. We don't want to learn from this. ~ Bill Watterson, #NFDB
1400:cats on hot bricks could take hints from me ~ P G Wodehouse, #NFDB
1401:Columbus saved the Indians from themselves. ~ Rush Limbaugh, #NFDB
1402:Coming from the '50s, things were very violent. ~ Pam Grier, #NFDB
1403:Contemporaries live from second hand to mouth. ~ Karl Kraus, #NFDB
1404:Cunning proceeds from want of capacity. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
1405:Dance till the stars come down from the rafters ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
1406:Deal with people from whom you can learn ~ Baltasar Graci n, #NFDB
1407:Death is only frightening from the near side. ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
1408:Discern the vital few from the trivial Many. ~ Greg McKeown, #NFDB
1409:Do not expect good from another's death. ~ Cato the Younger, #NFDB
1410:Do not let anyone stop you from succeding ~ Sharon M Draper, #NFDB
1411:Don't just get through the day, get FROM the day ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
1412:Don't think OF your goals, think FROM them. ~ Chris Weidman, #NFDB
1413:everything proceeds from losing our place. ~ Leslie Jamison, #NFDB
1414:fetch Lori from the airport. If only his ~ Kathy Carmichael, #NFDB
1415:Flowers are like visible messages from God. ~ Marie Corelli, #NFDB
1416:Freedom from something is not freedom. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #NFDB
1417:From every ending comes a new beginning. ~ Lurlene McDaniel, #NFDB
1418:From every human being there rises a light. ~ Baal Shem Tov, #NFDB
1419:from one thing, know ten thousand things ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #NFDB
1420:From politics it was an easy step to silence. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1421:From politics, it was an easy step to silence ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1422:From that day on, I ran from spot to spot. ~ Enos Slaughter, #NFDB
1423:From the disease of one the whole flock perishes. ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
1424:From torched skyscrapers, men grew wings. ~ Gregory Maguire, #NFDB
1425:God, deliver me from sullen saints. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #NFDB
1426:Hillary Clinton needs no advice from anyone. ~ Nancy Pelosi, #NFDB
1427:How did we go from tea to death so quickly? ~ Gail Carriger, #NFDB
1428:how it blocks them from reaching their goals ~ Albert Ellis, #NFDB
1429:How many lessons did you learn from one fuckup? ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
1430:Humility enables us to learn from each other. ~ Bill Hybels, #NFDB
1431:I am not ready to back away from my views. ~ Alexei Navalny, #NFDB
1432:I come from a place, I long to return to: ~ Dante Alighieri, #NFDB
1433:I come from a very big family. Nine parents. ~ Jim Gaffigan, #NFDB
1434:I'd wanted to be an actor from the age of five. ~ Ron Moody, #NFDB
1435:I feel really different from other musicians. ~ Mary Timony, #NFDB
1436:If I must fall, may it be from a high place. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1437:If it comes from Tom Hauser, it's the truth. ~ Roy Jones Jr, #NFDB
1438:If you're from Africa, why are you white? ~ Amanda Seyfried, #NFDB
1439:I have had death threats from people with fixations. ~ Enya, #NFDB
1440:I leave from where the apostle arrived. ~ Pope Benedict XVI, #NFDB
1441:I’ll protect you from the crazy village people. ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
1442:I'm from Iowa, we don't know what cool is! ~ Ashton Kutcher, #NFDB
1443:I'm really into California art from the '60s. ~ Barry McGee, #NFDB
1444:In life, the worst disasters come from passion. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
1445:I refuse putting from me the best that I am. ~ Walt Whitman, #NFDB
1446:Is there a thinker apart from thought? ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #NFDB
1447:I take my marching orders from the Constitution. ~ Ron Paul, #NFDB
1448:I took it from the grave of Albus Dumbledore. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1449:I try to stay away from forced intimacy. ~ Paz de la Huerta, #NFDB
1450:I've learned from you, I need to go up now. ~ Connor Franta, #NFDB
1451:I wasn’t taking advice from a voice in my head. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1452:Judging others blocks me from inner peace ~ Suki Waterhouse, #NFDB
1453:Just a little detachment from the ego is needed. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
1454:Language is a virus from outer space. ~ William S Burroughs, #NFDB
1455:Learning cannot be disassociated from action. ~ Peter Senge, #NFDB
1456:Life is a long pilgrimage from fear to love. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1457:Light with thee walk; dark from thee flee. ~ Nancy McKenzie, #NFDB
1458:Listen to Everyone. Ideas come from everywhere ~ Tom Peters, #NFDB
1459:Make life an art rather than art from life. ~ David Gilmour, #NFDB
1460:Man differs more from man than man from beast ~ John Wilmot, #NFDB
1461:means the unmade bed is from him. The sheets ~ Kelly Rimmer, #NFDB
1462:Me big strong man. Me take woman from behind. ~ Claire Kent, #NFDB
1463:Men injure either from fear or hatred. ~ Niccol Machiavelli, #NFDB
1464:Men. There seemed to be no escape from them. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1465:moment.” Ashton rose from his chair. ~ Kathleen E Woodiwiss, #NFDB
1466:Most of my friends are from the music scene. ~ Jim Sturgess, #NFDB
1467:Movies are different from real life. ~ Joseph Gordon Levitt, #NFDB
1468:My painting does not come from the easel. ~ Jackson Pollock, #NFDB
1469:My shoes are clean from walking in the rain. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
1470:No one in this world comes from nothing. ~ Elizabeth Strout, #NFDB
1471:Nothing big ever came from being small. ~ William J Clinton, #NFDB
1472:Obeying from love is better than to obey from fear. ~ Rashi, #NFDB
1473:Of course. You get everything from books. ~ Gregory Maguire, #NFDB
1474:or mop up vomit and other bodily fluids from ~ Charles Todd, #NFDB
1475:Our courage comes from the courage of others. ~ Simon Sinek, #NFDB
1476:People buy from people they know, like or trust ~ Joel Comm, #NFDB
1477:Phoning From Prison, at Prices Through the Roof ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1478:Rainwater purls from cloud to roof to eave. ~ Anthony Doerr, #NFDB
1479:received from customers, suppliers, competitors ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1480:Relate to the fear, not just from it. (50) ~ Stephen Levine, #NFDB
1481:She went from opera, park, assembly, play, ~ Alexander Pope, #NFDB
1482:Shift from judgment to compassion to love. ~ Thomas Leonard, #NFDB
1483:sitting across from her. But there was no ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
1484:Some actors can draw from their own darkness. ~ Mary Harron, #NFDB
1485:Songs of worship arise from a life of worship. ~ Tim Hughes, #NFDB
1486:Strike deep, divide us from cheap-got doubt, ~ Marie Ponsot, #NFDB
1487:Success comes from within, not from without. ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
1488:Take care of your body from the inside out. ~ Blake Griffin, #NFDB
1489:That is death - shifting from "is" to "was. ~ Veronica Roth, #NFDB
1490:The Beatles saved the world from boredom. ~ George Harrison, #NFDB
1491:The ego's blocking the light from coming. ~ Sandra Cisneros, #NFDB
1492:The fact is that woman was taken from a rib. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
1493:the momentous arises only from the trivial. ~ Cory Doctorow, #NFDB
1494:The not knowing would not keep me from caring. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1495:There are lessons to be learned from a stupid man. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1496:There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
1497:There is no happiness apart from rectitude. ~ Buddhist Text, #NFDB
1498:There's no escaping from constant escape. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
1499:there was no getting away from one's self. So ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1500:The stuff you bring back from dreams is free. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
3113 Integral Yoga
2660 Poetry
403 Philosophy
317 Occultism
301 Mysticism
285 Fiction
190 Christianity
137 Yoga
92 Psychology
88 Islam
56 Philsophy
37 Science
34 Hinduism
26 Sufism
24 Kabbalah
24 Education
22 Mythology
20 Theosophy
20 Buddhism
16 Integral Theory
15 Zen
8 Cybernetics
6 Baha i Faith
3 Taoism
1 Thelema
1 Alchemy
1785 The Mother
1360 Sri Aurobindo
1117 Satprem
521 Nolini Kanta Gupta
273 William Wordsworth
214 Walt Whitman
182 Percy Bysshe Shelley
152 Rabindranath Tagore
149 William Butler Yeats
148 Aleister Crowley
133 H P Lovecraft
114 John Keats
94 Jalaluddin Rumi
91 Carl Jung
90 Friedrich Schiller
88 Muhammad
87 Friedrich Nietzsche
81 Omar Khayyam
77 Robert Browning
69 James George Frazer
64 Plotinus
64 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
62 Li Bai
57 Sri Ramakrishna
56 Ralph Waldo Emerson
55 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
45 Edgar Allan Poe
40 Rainer Maria Rilke
40 Kabir
38 Swami Vivekananda
38 Lalla
37 Swami Krishnananda
37 Anonymous
36 Jorge Luis Borges
36 Hafiz
35 Saint Teresa of Avila
34 Saint Augustine of Hippo
33 Lucretius
31 A B Purani
30 Franz Bardon
29 Saint John of Climacus
29 Hakim Sanai
29 Aldous Huxley
26 Kobayashi Issa
25 Rudolf Steiner
24 Rabbi Moses Luzzatto
24 Aristotle
23 Farid ud-Din Attar
23 Abu-Said Abil-Kheir
22 Vyasa
20 Ramprasad
20 Mirabai
16 Bulleh Shah
14 Saint Hildegard von Bingen
14 Ovid
14 Nirodbaran
13 Thomas Merton
13 Ikkyu
13 Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia
12 Solomon ibn Gabirol
12 Plato
12 Paul Richard
12 Muso Soseki
12 Mansur al-Hallaj
12 Ibn Arabi
11 Yosa Buson
11 Symeon the New Theologian
11 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
11 Sri Ramana Maharshi
11 Sarmad
11 Saint John of the Cross
11 Peter J Carroll
11 George Van Vrekhem
11 Fukuda Chiyo-ni
10 Saint Francis of Assisi
10 Jacopone da Todi
9 William Blake
9 Mechthild of Magdeburg
9 Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
9 Baba Sheikh Farid
8 Yuan Mei
8 Wang Wei
8 Saadi
8 Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
8 Norbert Wiener
8 Joseph Campbell
7 Taigu Ryokan
7 Shiwu (Stonehouse)
7 Saint Clare of Assisi
7 Lewis Carroll
7 Jordan Peterson
7 Henry David Thoreau
7 Basava
7 Baha u llah
7 Alice Bailey
7 Alfred Tennyson
6 Thubten Chodron
6 Sun Buer
6 Jetsun Milarepa
6 Jayadeva
6 Bokar Rinpoche
6 Al-Ghazali
5 Patanjali
5 Jakushitsu
5 Ibn Ata Illah
5 Hakuin
5 Guru Nanak
4 Tao Chien
4 Shankara
4 Matsuo Basho
4 Dante Alighieri
4 Boethius
3 Vidyapati
3 Shih-te
3 Saint Therese of Lisieux
3 R Buckminster Fuller
3 Ravidas
3 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
3 Po Chu-i
3 Naropa
3 Namdev
3 Nachmanides
3 Moses de Leon
3 Masahide
3 Ken Wilber
3 Dogen
3 Dadu Dayal
3 Chuang Tzu
2 Yeshe Tsogyal
2 Yannai
2 Yamei
2 Theophan the Recluse
2 Surdas
2 Mahendranath Gupta
2 Kuan Han-Ching
2 Kahlil Gibran
2 Judah Halevi
2 Jorge Luis Borges
2 Jean Gebser
2 Italo Calvino
2 H. P. Lovecraft
2 Genpo Roshi
2 Eleazar ben Kallir
2 Dionysius the Areopagite
2 Chiao Jan
2 Catherine of Siena
2 Alexander Pope
531 Record of Yoga
273 Wordsworth - Poems
194 Whitman - Poems
182 Shelley - Poems
170 Prayers And Meditations
149 Yeats - Poems
145 Agenda Vol 01
144 The Synthesis Of Yoga
139 Tagore - Poems
138 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
133 Lovecraft - Poems
114 Keats - Poems
102 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
100 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
97 Agenda Vol 13
91 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
90 Schiller - Poems
89 Agenda Vol 08
88 Quran
84 Magick Without Tears
83 Agenda Vol 03
82 Agenda Vol 10
80 Agenda Vol 04
78 Letters On Yoga III
78 Agenda Vol 09
77 Browning - Poems
77 Agenda Vol 07
76 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
74 Agenda Vol 12
74 Agenda Vol 06
73 Agenda Vol 02
70 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
69 The Golden Bough
68 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
67 Agenda Vol 05
63 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
63 Agenda Vol 11
62 Li Bai - Poems
62 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
60 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
56 The Life Divine
56 Emerson - Poems
55 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
55 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
51 Questions And Answers 1956
49 Savitri
49 Letters On Yoga IV
49 Letters On Yoga II
49 Collected Poems
47 Liber ABA
44 Poe - Poems
40 Rilke - Poems
39 Questions And Answers 1953
38 Rumi - Poems
38 Mysterium Coniunctionis
37 The Study and Practice of Yoga
37 Questions And Answers 1955
35 Words Of Long Ago
35 Questions And Answers 1954
33 The Divine Comedy
33 Of The Nature Of Things
33 Letters On Poetry And Art
32 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
32 Goethe - Poems
31 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
30 Essays On The Gita
30 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
29 The Perennial Philosophy
29 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
28 Essays Divine And Human
27 The Bible
27 Letters On Yoga I
24 The Practice of Psycho therapy
24 The Human Cycle
24 Poetics
24 Labyrinths
24 Hafiz - Poems
24 General Principles of Kabbalah
24 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06
23 On Education
23 Faust
22 Vishnu Purana
22 City of God
21 The Future of Man
21 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01
20 Crowley - Poems
19 Words Of The Mother II
19 The Way of Perfection
19 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
18 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
18 Initiation Into Hermetics
18 Bhakti-Yoga
18 Anonymous - Poems
17 On the Way to Supermanhood
16 Let Me Explain
15 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
15 Song of Myself
15 Isha Upanishad
14 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
14 The Secret Of The Veda
14 The Phenomenon of Man
14 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
14 Some Answers From The Mother
14 Metamorphoses
14 Aion
13 Vedic and Philological Studies
13 Theosophy
13 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
13 Songs of Kabir
13 Hymn of the Universe
12 Twilight of the Idols
12 The Practice of Magical Evocation
12 Talks
12 Raja-Yoga
12 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03
12 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02
12 Borges - Poems
11 Preparing for the Miraculous
11 Liber Null
11 Dark Night of the Soul
10 The Problems of Philosophy
10 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
10 The Integral Yoga
10 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
10 Kena and Other Upanishads
10 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
9 Amrita Gita
9 5.1.01 - Ilion
8 Words Of The Mother III
8 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
8 The Blue Cliff Records
8 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
8 Cybernetics
7 Walden
7 Ryokan - Poems
7 Maps of Meaning
7 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
7 Alice in Wonderland
6 The Secret Doctrine
6 The Red Book Liber Novus
6 The Alchemy of Happiness
6 Tara - The Feminine Divine
6 Milarepa - Poems
6 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
5 Words Of The Mother I
5 Patanjali Yoga Sutras
5 Arabi - Poems
4 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
4 Sefer Yetzirah The Book of Creation In Theory and Practice
4 Jerusalum
4 Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin
4 Basho - Poems
3 Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit
3 The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
3 The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
3 The Lotus Sutra
3 The Gateless Gate
3 The Book of Certitude
3 Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking
3 Sex Ecology Spirituality
3 Naropa - Poems
3 Dogen - Poems
3 Chuang Tzu - Poems
2 The Prophet
2 The Ever-Present Origin
2 The Essentials of Education
2 The Castle of Crossed Destinies
2 Symposium
2 Selected Fictions
2 Notes On The Way
2 God Exists
2 Agenda Vol 1
2 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E
0 0.01 - Introduction, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We landed there, one day in February 1954, having emerged From our Guianese forest and a certain number of dead-end peripluses; we had knocked upon all the doors of the old world before reaching that point of absolute impossibility where it was truly necessary to embark into something else or once and for all put a bullet through the brain of this slightly superior ape. The first thing that struck us was this exotic Notre Dame with its burning incense sticks, its effigies and its prostrations in immaculate white: a Church. We nearly jumped into the first train out that very evening, bound straight for the Himalayas, or the devil. But we remained near Mother for nineteen years. What was it, then, that could have held us there? We had not left Guiana to become a little saint in white or to enter some new religion. 'I did not come upon earth to found an ashram; that would have been a poor aim indeed,' She wrote in 1934. What did all this mean, then, this 'Ashram' that was already registered as the owner of a great spiritual business, and this fragile, little silhouette at the center of all these zealous worshippers? In truth, there is no better way to smother someone than to worship him: he chokes beneath the weight of worship, which moreover gives the worshipper claim to ownership. 'Why do you want to worship?' She exclaimed. 'You have but to become! It is the laziness to become that makes one worship.' She wanted so much to make them
become this 'something else,' but it was far easier to worship and quiescently remain what one was.
--
Spirit nor even an improved Matter, but ... it could be called 'nothing,' so contrary was it to all we know. For the caterpillar, a butterfly is nothing, it is not even visible and has nothing in common with caterpillar heavens nor even caterpillar matter. So there we were, trapped in an impossible adventure. One does not return From there: one must cross the bridge to the other side. Then one day in that seventh year, while we still believed in liberations and the collected Upanishads, highlighted with a few glorious visions to relieve the commonplace (which remained appallingly commonplace), while we were still considering 'the Mother of the Ashram' rather like some spiritual super-director (endowed, albeit, with a disarming yet ever so provocative smile, as though
She were making fun of us, then loving us in secret), She told us, 'I have the feeling that ALL we have lived, ALL we have known, ALL we have done is a perfect illusion ... When I had the spiritual experience that material life is an illusion, personally I found that so marvelously beautiful and happy that it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life, but now it is the entire spiritual structure as we have lived it that is becoming an illusion! - Not the same illusion, but an illusion far worse. And I am no baby: I have been here for forty-seven years now!' Yes, She was eighty-three years old then. And that day, we ceased being 'the enemy of our own conception of the Divine,' for this entire Divine was shattered to pieces - and we met Mother, at last. This mystery we call
Mother, for She never ceased being a mystery right to her ninety-fifth year, and to this day still, challenges us From the other side of a wall of invisibility and keeps us floundering fully in the mystery - with a smile. She always smiles. But the mystery is not solved.
Perhaps this AGENDA is really an endeavor to solve the mystery in the company of a certain
--
She was uprooting a new Matter, free, free From the habit of inexorably being a man who repeats himself ad infinitum with a few improvements in the way of organ transplants or monetary exchanges. In fact, She was there to discover what would happen after materialism and after spiritualism, these prodigal twin brothers. Because Materialism is dying in the West for the same reason that Spiritualism is dying in the East: it is the hour of the new species. Man needs to awaken, not only From his demons but also From his gods. A new Matter, yes, like a new Spirit, yes, because we still know neither one nor the other. It is the hour when Science, like Spirituality, at the end of their roads, must discover what Matter TRULY is, for it is really there that a Spirit as yet unknown to us is to be found. It is a time when all the 'isms' of the old species are dying: 'The age of
Capitalism and business is drawing to its close. But the age of Communism too will pass ... 'It is the hour of a pure little cell THAT WILL HAVE TERRESTRIAL REPERCUSSIONS, infinitely more radical than all our political and scientific or spiritualistic panaceas.
--
Mother is the story of the free Earth. Free From its spiritual and scientific parrots. Free From its little ashrams as well - for there is nothing more persistent than those particular parrots.
Day after day, for seventeen years, She sat with us to tell us of her impossible odyssey. Ah, how well we now understand why She needed such an 'outlaw' and an incorrigible heretic like us to comprehend a little bit of her impossible odyssey into 'nothing.' And how well we now understand her infinite patience with us, despite all our revolts, which ultimately were only the revolts of the old species against itself. The final revolt. 'It is not a revolt against the British government which any one can easily do. It is, in fact, a revolt against the whole universal Nature!' Sri Aurobindo had proclaimed fifty years earlier. She listened to our grievances, we went away and we returned. We wanted no more of it and we wanted still more. It was infernal and sublime, impossible and the sole possibility in this old, asphyxiating world. It was the only place one could go to in this barbedwired, mechanized world, where Cincinnati is just as crowded and polluted as Hong Kong. The new species is the last free place in the general Prison. It is the last hope for the earth. How we listened to her little faltering voice that seemed to return From afar, afar, after having crossed spaces and seas of the mind to let its little drops of pure, crystalline words fall upon us, words that make you see. We listened to the future, we touched the other thing. It was incomprehensible and yet filled with another comprehension. It eluded us on all sides, and yet it was dazzlingly obvious. The 'other species' was really radically other, and yet it was vibrating within, absolutely recognizable, as if it were THAT we had been seeking From age to age, THAT we had been invoking through all our illuminations, one after another, in Thebes as in Eleusis as everywhere we have toiled and grieved in the skin of a man. It was for THAT we were here, for that supreme Possible in the skin of a man at last. And then her voice grew more and more frail, her breath began gasping as though She had to traverse greater and greater distances to meet us. She was so alone to beat against the walls of the old prison. Many claws were out all around. Oh, we would so quickly have cut ourself free From all this fiasco to fly away with Her into the world's future. She was so tiny, stooped over, as if crushed beneath the 'spiritual' burden that all the old surrounding species kept heaping upon her. They didn't believe, no. For them, She was ninety-five years old + so many days. Can someone become a new species all alone? They even grumbled at Her: they had had enough of this unbearable Ray that was bringing their sordid affairs into the daylight. The Ashram was slowly closing over Her. The old world wanted to make a new, golden little Church, nice and quiet. No, no one wanted TO
BECOME. To worship was so much easier. And then they bury you, solemnly, and the matter is settled - the case is closed: now, no one need bother any more except to print some photographic haloes for the pilgrims to this brisk little business. But they are mistaken. The real business will take place without them, the new species will fly up in their faces - it is already flying in the face of the earth, despite all its isms in black and white; it is exploding through all the pores of this battered old earth, which has had enough of shams - whether illusory little heavens or barbarous little machines.
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This AGENDA is not even a path: it is a light little vibration that seizes you at any turning - and then, there it is, you are IN IT. 'Another world in the world,' She said. One has to catch the light little vibration, one has to flow with it, in a nothing that is like the only something in the midst of this great debacle. At the beginning of things, when still nothing was FIXED, when there was not yet this habit of the pelican or the kangaroo or the chimpanzee or the XXth century biologist, there was a little pulsation that beat and beat - a delightful dizziness, a joy in the world's great adventure; a little never-imprisoned spark that has kept on beating From species to species, but as if it were always eluding us, as if it were always over there, over there - as if it were something to become,
something to be played forever as the one great game of the world; a who-knows-what that left this sprig of a pensive man in the middle of a clearing; a little 'something' that beats, beats, that keeps on breathing beneath every skin that has ever been put on it - like our deepest breath, our lightest air, our air of nothing - and it keeps on going, it keeps on going. We must catch the light little breath, the little pulsation of nothing. Then suddenly, on the threshold of our clearing of concrete, our head starts spinning incurably, our eyes blink into something else, and all is different, and all seems surcharged with meaning and with life, as though we had never lived until that very minute.
00.01 - The Approach to Mysticism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Ignorance, certainly, is not man's ideal conditionit leads to death and dissolution. But knowledge also can be equally disastrous if it is not of the right kind. The knowledge that is born of spiritual disobedience, inspired by the Dark ones, leads to the soul's fall and its calvary through pain and suffering on earth. The seeker of true enlightenment has got to make a distinction, learn to separate the true and the right From the false and the wrong, unmask the luring Mra say clearly and unfalteringly to the dark light of Luciferapage Satana, if he is to come out into the true light and comm and the right forces. The search for knowledge alone, knowledge for the sake of knowledge, the path of pure scientific inquiry and inquisitiveness, in relation to the mystic world, is a dangerous thing. For such a spirit serves only to encourage and enhance man's arrogance and in the end not only limits but warps and falsifies the knowledge itself. A knowledge based on and secured exclusively through the reason and mental light can go only so far as that faculty can be reasonably stretched and not infinitelyto stretch it to infinity means to snap it. This is the warning that Yajnavalkya gave to Gargi when the latter started renewing her question ad infinitum Yajnavalkya said, "If you do not stop, your head will fall off."
The mystic truth has to be approached through the heart. "In the heart is established the Truth," says the Upanishad: it is there that is seated eternally the soul, the real being, who appears no bigger than the thumb. Even if the mind is utilised as an instrument of knowledge, the heart must be there behind as the guide and inspiration. It is precisely because, as I have just mentioned, Gargi sought to shoot uplike "vaulting ambition that o'erleaps itself" of which Shakespeare speaksthrough the mind alone to the highest truth that Yajnavalkya had to pull her up and give the warning that she risked losing her head if she persisted in her questioning endlessly.
For true knowledge comes of, and means, identity of being. All other knowledge may be an apprehension of things but not comprehension. In the former, the knower stands apart From the object and so can envisage only the outskirts, the contour, the surface nature; the mind is capable of this alone. But comprehension means an embracing and penetration which is possible when the knower identifies himself with the object. And when we are so identified we not merely know the object, but becoming it in our consciousness, we love it and live it.
The mystic's knowledge is a part and a formation of his life. That is why it is a knowledge not abstract and remote but living and intimate and concrete. It is a knowledge that pulsates with delight: indeed it is the radiance that is shed by the purest and intensest joy. For this reason it may be that in approaching through the heart there is a chance of one's getting arrested there and not caring for the still higher, the solar lights; but this need not be so. In the heart there is a golden door leading to the deepest delights, but there is also a diamond door opening up into the skies of the brightest luminosities.
For it must be understood that the heart, the mystic heart, is not the external thing which is the seat of emotion or passion; it is the secret heart that is behind, the inner heartantarhdaya of the Upanishadwhich is the centre of the individual consciousness, where all the divergent lines of that consciousness meet and From where they take their rise. That is what the Upanishad means when it says that the heart has a hundred channels which feed the human vehicle. That is the source, the fount and origin, the very substance of the true personality. Mystic knowledge the true mystic knowledge which saves and fulfilsbegins with the awakening or the entrance into this real being. This being is pure and luminous and blissful and sovereignly real, because it is a portion, a spark of the Divine Consciousness and Nature: a contact and communion with it brings automatically into play the light and the truth that are its substance. At the same time it is an uprising flame that reaches out naturally to higher domains of consciousness and manifests them through its translucid dynamism.
The knowledge that is obtained without the heart's instrumentation or co-operation is liable to be what the Gita describes as Asuric. First of all, From the point of view of knowledge itself, it would be, as I have already said, egocentric, a product and agent of one's limited and isolated self, easily put at the service of desire and passion. This knowledge, whether rationalistic or occult, is, as it were, hard and dry in its constitution, and oftener than not, negative and destructivewi thering and blasting in its career like the desert simoom.
There are modes of knowledge that are occultand to that extent mystic and can be mastered by practices in which the heart has no share. But they have not the saving grace that comes by the touch of the Divine. They are not truly mystic the truly mystic belongs to the ultimate realities, the deepest and the highest,they, on the other hand, are transverse and tangential movements belonging to an intermediate region where light and obscurity are mixed up and even for the greater part the light is swallowed up in the obscurity or utilised by it.
00.01 - The Mother on Savitri, #Sweet Mother - Harmonies of Light, #unset, #Zen
The sadhak, after returning From the Mother, wanted to note down immediately what She had said, but he could not do so because he felt a great hesitation due to his sense of incapacity to transcribe exactly the Mother`s own words.
After nearly seven years, however, he felt a strong urge to note down what the Mother had spoken; so in 1967 he wrote down From memory a report in French. The report was seen by the Mother and a few corrections were made by her. To another sadhak who asked Her permission to read this report She wrote: "Years ago I have spoken at length about it [Savitri] to Mona Sarkar and he has noted in French what I said. Some time back I have seen what he has written and found it correct on the whole."(4.12.1967)
On a few other occasion also, the Mother had spoken to the same sadhak on the value of reading Savitri which he had noted down afterwards. These notes have been added at the end of the main report. A few members of the Ashram had privately read this report in French, but afterwards there were many requests for its English version. A translation was therefore made in November 1967. A proposal was made to the Mother in 1972 for its publication and it was submitted to Her for approval. The Mother wanted to check the translation before permitting its publication but could check only a portion of it.
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In truth, the entire form of Savitri has descended "en masse" From the highest region and Sri Aurobindo with His genius only arranged the lines - in a superb and magnificent style. Sometimes entire lines were revealed and He has left them intact; He worked hard, untiringly, so that the inspiration could come From the highest possible summit. And what a work He has created! Yes, it is a true creation in itself. It is an unequalled work. Everything is there, and it is put in such a simple, such a clear form; verses perfectly harmonious, limpid and eternally true. My child, I have read so many things, but I have never come across anything which could be compared with Savitri. I have studied the best works in Greek, Latin, English and of course French literature, also in German and all the great creations of the West and the East, including the great epics; but I repeat it, I have not found anywhere anything comparable with Savitri. All these literary works seems to me empty, flat, hollow, without any deep reality - apart From a few rare exceptions, and these too represent only a small fraction of what Savitri is. What grandeur, what amplitude, what reality: it is something immortal and eternal He has created. I tell you once again there is nothing like in it the whole world. Even if one puts aside the vision of the reality, that is, the essential substance which is the heart of the inspiration, and considers only the lines in themselves, one will find them unique, of the highest classical kind. What He has created is something man cannot imagine. For, everything is there, everything.
It may then be said that Savitri is a revelation, it is a meditation, it is a quest of the Infinite, the Eternal. If it is read with this aspiration for Immortality, the reading itself will serve as a guide to Immortality. To read Savitri is indeed to practice Yoga, spiritual concentration; one can find there all that is needed to realise the Divine. Each step of Yoga is noted here, including the secret of all other Yogas. Surely, if one sincerely follows what is revealed here in each line one will reach finally the transformation of the Supramental Yoga. It is truly the infallible guide who never abandons you; its support is always there for him who wants to follow the path. Each verse of Savitri is like a revealed Mantra which surpasses all that man possessed by way of knowledge, and I repeat this, the words are expressed and arranged in such a way that the sonority of the rhythm leads you to the origin of sound, which is OM.
My child, yes, everything is there: mysticism, occultism, philosophy, the history of evolution, the history of man, of the gods, of creation, of Nature. How the universe was created, why, for what purpose, what destiny - all is there. You can find all the answers to all your questions there. Everything is explained, even the future of man and of the evolution, all that nobody yet knows. He has described it all in beautiful and clear words so that spiritual adventurers who wish to solve the mysteries of the world may understand it more easily. But this mystery is well hidden behind the words and lines and one must rise to the required level of true consciousness to discover it. All prophesies, all that is going to come is presented with the precise and wonderful clarity. Sri Aurobindo gives you here the key to find the Truth, to discover the Consciousness, to solve the problem of what the universe is. He has also indicated how to open the door of the Inconscience so that the light may penetrate there and transform it. He has shown the path, the way to liberate oneself From the ignorance and climb up to the superconscience; each stage, each plane of consciousness, how they can be scaled, how one can cross even the barrier of death and attain immortality. You will find the whole journey in detail, and as you go forward you can discover things altogether unknown to man. That is Savitri and much more yet. It is a real experience - reading Savitri. All the secrets that man possessed, He has revealed, - as well as all that awaits him in the future; all this is found in the depth of Savitri. But one must have the knowledge to discover it all, the experience of the planes of consciousness, the experience of the Supermind, even the experience of the conquest of Death. He has noted all the stages, marked each step in order to advance integrally in the integral Yoga.
All this is His own experience, and what is most surprising is that it is my own experience also. It is my sadhana which He has worked out. Each object, each event, each realisation, all the descriptions, even the colours are exactly what I saw and the words, phrases are also exactly what I heard. And all this before having read the book. I read Savitri many times afterwards, but earlier, when He was writing He used to read it to me. Every morning I used to hear Him read Savitri. During the night He would write and in the morning read it to me. And I observed something curious, that day after day the experiences He read out to me in the morning were those I had had the previous night, word by word. Yes, all the descriptions, the colours, the pictures I had seen, the words I had heard, all, all, I heard it all, put by Him into poetry, into miraculous poetry. Yes, they were exactly my experiences of the previous night which He read out to me the following morning. And it was not just one day by chance, but for days and days together. And every time I used to compare what He said with my previous experiences and they were always the same. I repeat, it was not that I had told Him my experiences and that He had noted them down afterwards, no, He knew already what I had seen. It is my experiences He has presented at length and they were His experiences also. It is, moreover, the picture of Our joint adventure into the unknown or rather into the Supermind.
These are experiences lived by Him, realities, supracosmic truths. He experienced all these as one experiences joy or sorrow, physically. He walked in the darkness of inconscience, even in the neighborhood of death, endured the sufferings of perdition, and emerged From the mud, the world-misery to brea the the sovereign plenitude and enter the supreme Ananda. He crossed all these realms, went through the consequences, suffered and endured physically what one cannot imagine. Nobody till today has suffered like Him. He accepted suffering to transform suffering into the joy of union with the Supreme. It is something unique and incomparable in the history of the world. It is something that has never happened before, He is the first to have traced the path in the Unknown, so that we may be able to walk with certitude towards the Supermind. He has made the work easy for us. Savitri is His whole Yoga of transformation, and this Yoga appears now for the first time in the earth-consciousness.
And I think that man is not yet ready to receive it. It is too high and too vast for him. He cannot understand it, grasp it, for it is not by the mind that one can understand Savitri. One needs spiritual experiences in order to understand and assimilate it. The farther one advances on the path of Yoga, the more does one assimilate and the better. No, it is something which will be appreciated only in the future, it is the poetry of tomorrow of which He has spoken in The Future Poetry. It is too subtle, too refined, - it is not in the mind or through the mind, it is in meditation that Savitri is revealed.
00.02 - Mystic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Mystics all over the world and in all ages have clothed their sayings in proverbs and parables, in figures and symbols. To speak in symbols seems to be in their very nature; it is their characteristic manner, their inevitable style. Let us see what is the reason behind it. But first who are the Mystics? They are those who are in touch with supra-sensual things, whose experiences are of a world different From the common physical world, the world of the mind and the senses.
These other worlds are constituted in other ways than ours. Their contents are different and the laws that obtain there are also different. It would be a gross blunder to attempt a chart of any of these other systems, to use an Einsteinian term, with the measures and conventions of the system to which our external waking consciousness belongs. For, there "the sun shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars, neither these lightnings nor this fire." The difficulty is further enhanced by the fact that there are very many unseen worlds and they all differ From the seen and From one another in manner and degree. Thus, for example, the Upanishads speak of the swapna, the suupta, and the turya, domains beyond the jgrat which is that where the rational being with its mind and senses lives and moves. And there are other systems and other ways in which systems exist, and they are practically innumerable.
If, however, we have to speak of these other worlds, then, since we can speak only in the terms of this world, we have to use them in a different sense From those they usually bear; we must employ them as figures and symbols. Even then they may prove inadequate and misleading; so there are Mystics who are averse to all speech and expression they are mauni; in silence they experience the inexpressible and in silence they communicate it to the few who have the capacity to receive in silence.
But those who do speak, how do they choose their figures and symbols? What is their methodology? For it might be said, since the unseen and the seen differ out and out, it does not matter what forms or signs are taken From the latter; for any meaning and significance could be put into anything. But in reality, it does not so happen. For, although there is a great divergence between figures and symbols on the one hand and the things figured and symbolised on the other, still there is also some link, some common measure. And that is why we see not unoften the same or similar figures and symbols representing an identical experience in ages and countries far apart From each other.
We can make a distinction here between two types of expression which we have put together indiscriminately, figures and symbols. Figures, we may say, are those that are constructed by the rational mind, the intellect; they are mere metaphors and similes and are not organically related to the thing experienced, but put round it as a robe that can be dropped or changed without affecting the experience itself. Thus, for example, when the Upanishad says, tmnam rathinam viddhi (Know that the soul is the master of the chariot who sits within it) or indriyi haynhu (The senses, they say, are the horses), we have here only a comparison or analogy that is common and natural to the poetic manner. The particular figure or simile used is not inevitable to the idea or experience that it seeks to express, its part and parcel. On the other hand, take this Upanishadic perception: hirayamayena patrea satyasyphitam mukham (The face of the Truth lies hidden under the golden orb). Here the symbol is not mere analogy or comparison, a figure; it is one with the very substance of the experience the two cannot be separated. Or when the Vedas speak of the kindling of the Fire, the rushing of the waters or the rise of the Dawn, the images though taken From the material world, are not used for the sake of mere comparison, but they are the embodiments, the living forms of truths experienced in another world.
When a Mystic refers to the Solar Light or to the Fire the light, for example, that struck down Saul and transformed him into Saint Paul or the burning bush that visited Moses, it is not the physical or material object that he means and yet it is that in a way. It is the materialization of something that is fundamentally not material: some movement in an inner consciousness precipitates itself into the region of the senses and takes From out of the material the form commensurable with its nature that it finds there.
And there is such a commensurability or parallelism between the various levels of consciousness, in and through all the differences that separate them From one another. Thus an object or a movement apprehended on the physical plane has a sort of line of re-echoing images extended in a series along the whole gradation of the inner planes; otherwise viewed, an object or movement in the innermost consciousness translates itself in varying modes From plane to plane down to the most material, where it appears in its grossest form as a concrete three-dimensional object or a mechanical movement. This parallelism or commensurability by virtue of which the different and divergent states of consciousness can portray or represent each other is the source of all symbolism.
A symbol symbolizes something for this reason that both possess in common a certain identical, at least similar, quality or rhythm or vibration, the symbol possessing it in a grosser or more apparent or sensuous form than the thing symbolized does. Sometimes it may happen that it is more than a certain quality or rhythm or vibration that is common between the two: the symbol in its entirety is the thing symbolized but thrown down on another plane, it is the embodiment of the latter in a more concrete world. The light and the fire that Saint Paul and Moses saw appear to be of this kind.
0 0.02 - Topographical Note, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
From the time of Sri Aurobindo's departure (1950) until 1957, we have only a few notes and fragments or rare statements noted From memory. These are the only landmarks of this period, along with Mother's Questions and Answers From her talks at the Ashram Playground. A few of these conversations have been reproduced here insofar as they mark stages of the Supramental
Action.
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From 1960, the Agenda took its final shape arid grew for thirteen years, until May 1973, filling thirteen volumes in all (some six thousand pages), with a change of setting in March 1962 at the time of the Great Turning in Mother's yoga when She permanently retired to her room upstairs, as had Sri Aurobindo in 1926. The interviews then took place high up in this large room carpeted in golden wool, like a ship's stateroom, amidst the rustling of the Copper Pod tree and the cawing of crows. Mother would sit in a low rosewood chair, her face turned towards Sri Aurobindo's tomb, as though She were wearing down the distance separating that world From our own. Her voice had become like that of a child, one could hear her laughter. She always laughed, this Mother. And then her long silences. Until the day the disciples closed her door on us. It was May 19, 1973. We did not want to believe it. She was alone, just as we were suddenly alone. Slowly, painfully, we had to discover the why of this rupture. We understood nothing of the jealousies of the old species, we did not yet realize that they were becoming the 'owners' of Mother - of the Ashram, of Auroville, of
Sri Aurobindo, of everything - and that the new world was going to be denatured into a new
Church. There and then, they made us understand why She had pulled us From our forest, one day, and chosen as her confidant an incurable rebel.
00.03 - Upanishadic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A certain rationalistic critic divides the Upanishadic symbols into three categoriesthose that are rational and can be easily understood by the mind; those that are not understood by the mind and yet do not go against reason, having nothing inherently irrational in them and may be simply called non-rational; those that seem to be quite irrational, for they go frankly against all canons of logic and common sense. As an example of the last, the irrational type, the critic cites a story From the Chhndogya, which may be rendered thus:
There was an aspirant, a student who was seeking after knowledge. One day there appeared to him a white dog. Soon, other dogs followed and addressed their predecessor: "O Lord, sing to our Food, for we desire to eat." The white dog answered, "Come to me at dawn here in this very place." The aspirant waited. The dogs, like singer-priests, circled round in a ring. Then they sat and cried aloud; they cried out," Om We eat and Om we drink, may the gods bring here our food."
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My suggestion is that the dog is a symbol of the keen sight of Intuition, the unfailing perception of direct knowledge. With this clue the Upanishadic story becomes quite sensible and clear and not mere abracadabra. To the aspirant for Knowledge came first a purified power of direct understanding, an Intuition of fundamental value, and this brought others of the same species in its train. They were all linked together organically that is the significance of the circle, and formed a rhythmic utterance and expression of the supreme truth (Om). It is also to be noted that they came and met at dawn to chant, the Truth. Dawn is the opening and awakening of the consciousness to truths that come From above and beyond.
It may be asked why the dog has been chosen as the symbol of Intuition. In the Vedas, the cow and the horse also play a large part; even the donkey and the frog have their own assigned roles. These objects are taken From the environment of ordinary life, and are those that are most familiar to the external consciousness, through which the inner experiences have to express themselves, if they are to be expressed at all. These material objects represent various kinds of forces and movements and subtle and occult and spiritual dynamisms. Strictly speaking, however, symbols are not chosen in a subtle or spiritual experience, that is to say, they are not arbitrarily selected and constructed by the conscious intelligence. They form part of a dramatization (to use a term of the Freudian psychology of dreams), a psychological alchemy, whose method and process and rationale are very obscure, which can be penetrated only by the vision of a third eye.
I. The Several Lights
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The progression indicated by the order of succession points to a gradual withdrawal From the outer to the inner light, From the surface to the deep, From the obvious to the secret, From the actual and derivative to the real and original. We begin by the senses and move towards the Spirit.
The Sun is the first and the most immediate source of light that man has and needs. He is the presiding deity of our waking consciousness and has his seat in the eyecakusa ditya, ditya caku bhtvakii prviat. The eye is the representative of the senses; it is the sense par excellence. In truth, sense-perception is the initial light with which we have to guide us, it is the light with which we start on the way. A developed stage comes when the Sun sets for us, that is to say, when we retire From the senses and rise into the mind, whose divinity is the Moon. It is the mental knowledge, the light of reason and intelligence, of reflection and imagination that govern our consciousness. We have to proceed farther and get beyond the mind, exceed the derivative light of the Moon. So when the Moon sets, the Fire is kindled. It is the light of the ardent and aspiring heart, the glow of an inner urge, the instincts and inspirations of our secret life-will. Here we come into touch with a source of knowledge and realization, a guidance more direct than the mind and much deeper than the sense-perception. Still this light partakes more of heat than of pure luminosity; it is, one may say, incandescent feeling, but not vision. We must probe deeper, mount higherreach heights and profundities that are serene and transparent. The Fire is to be quieted and silenced, says the Upanishad. Then we come nearer, to the immediate vicinity of the Truth: an inner hearing opens, the direct voice of Truth the Wordreaches us to lead and guide. Even so, however, we have not come to the end of our journey; the Word of revelation is not the ultimate Light. The Word too is clothing, though a luminous clothinghiramayam ptram When this last veil dissolves and disappears, when utter silence, absolute calm and quietude reign in the entire consciousness, when no other lights trouble or distract our attention, there appears the Atman in its own body; we stand face to face with the source of all lights, the self of the Light, the light of the Self. We are that Light and we become that Light.
II. The Four Oblations
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From the psychological standpoint, the four oblations are movements or reactions of consciousness in its urge towards the utterance and expression of Divine Truth. Like some other elements in the cosmic play, these also form a quartetcaturvyha and work together for a common purpose in view of a perfect and all-round result.
Svh is the offering and invocation. One must dedicate everything to the Divine, cast all one has or does into the Fire of Aspiration that blazes up towards the Most High, and through the tongue of that one-pointed flame call on the Divinity.
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The Gods are the formations or particularisations of the Truth-consciousness, the multiple individualisations of the One spirit. The Pitris are the Divine Fathers, that is to say, souls that once laboured and realised here below, and now have passed beyond. They dwell in another world, not too far removed From the earth, and From there, with the force of their Realisation, lend a more concrete help and guidance to the destiny that is being worked out upon earth. They are forces and formations of consciousness in an intermediate region between Here and There (antarika), and serve to bring men and gods nearer to each other, inasmuch as they belong to both the categories, being a divinised humanity or a humanised divinity. Each fixation of the Truth-consciousness in an earthly mould is a thing of joy to the Pitris; it is the Svadh or food by which they live and grow, for it is the consolidation and also the resultant of their own realisation. The achievements of the sons are more easily and securely reared and grounded upon those of the forefa thers, whose formative powers we have to invoke, so that we may pass on to the realisation, the firm embodiment of higher and greater destinies.
III. The Path of the Fathers and the Path of the Gods
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The one, however, is not completely divorced From the other. The apparent, the inferior nature is only a preparation for the real, the superior nature. The Path of the Fathers concerns itself with man as a mental being and seeks so to ordain and accomplish its duties and ideals as to lead him on to the Path of the Gods; the mind, the life, and the body consciousness should be so disciplined, educated, purified, they should develop along such a line and gradually rise to such a stage as to make them fit to receive the light which belongs to the higher level, so allowing the human soul imbedded in them to extricate itself and pass on to the Immortal Life.
And they who are thus lifted up into the Higher Orbit are freed From the bondage to the cycle of rebirth. They enjoy the supreme Liberation that is of the Spirit; and even when they descend into the Inferior Path, it is to work out as free agents, as vehicles of the Divine, a special purpose, to bring down something of the substance and nature of the Solar reality into the lower world, enlighten and elevate the lower, as far as it is allowed, into the higher.
IV. The Triple Agni
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The three fires are named elsewhere Garhapatya, Dakshina, and Ahavaniya.9 They are the three tongues of the one central Agni, that dwells secreted in the hearth of the soul. They manifest as aspirations that flame up From the three fundamental levels of our being, the body, the life and the mind. For although the spiritual consciousness is the natural element of the soul and is gained in and through the soul, yet, in order that man may take possession of it and dwell in it consciously, in order that the soul's empire may be established, the external being too must respond to the soul's impact and yearn for its truth in the Spirit. The mind, the life and the body which are usually obstructions in the path, must discover the secret flame that is in them tooeach has his own portion of the Soul's Fireand mount on its ardent tongue towards the heights of the Spirit.
Garhapatya is the Fire in the body-consciousness, the fire of Earth, as it is sometimes called; Dakshina is the Fire of the moon or mind, and Ahavaniya that of life.10 The earthly fire is also the fire of the sun; the sun is the source of all earth's heat and symbolises at the same time the spiritual light manifested in the physical consciousness. The lunar fire is also the fire of the stars, the stars, mythologically, being the consorts or powers of the moon and they symbolise, in Yogic experience, the intuitive thoughts. The fire of the life-force has its symbol in lightning, electric energy being its vehicle.
Agni in the physical consciousness is calledghapati, for the body is the house in which the soul is lodged and he is its keeper, guardian and lord. The fire in the mental consciousness is called daki; for it is that which gives discernment, the power to discriminate between the truth and the falsehood, it is that which by the pressure of its heat and light cleaves the wrong away From the right. And the fire in the life-force is called havanya; for pra is not only the plane of hunger and desire, but also of power and dynamism, it is that which calls forth forces, brings them into' play and it is that which is to be invoked for the progression of the Sacrifice, for an onward march on the spiritual path.
Of the three fires one is the upholderhe who gives the firm foundation, the stable house where the Sacrifice is performed and Truth realised; the second is the Knower, often called in the Veda jtaved, who guides and directs; and the third the Doer, the effective Power, the driving Energyvaivnara.
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The five elements of the ancientsearth, water, fire, air and ether or spaceare symbols taken From the physical world to represent other worlds that are in it and behind it. Each one is a principle that constitutes the fundamental nature of a particular plane of existence.
Earth represents the material world itself, Matter or existence in its most concrete, its grossest form. It is the basis of existence, the world that supports other worlds (dhar, dharitri),the first or the lowest of the several ranges of creation. In man it is his body. The principle here is that of stability, substantiality, firmness, consistency.
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Apart From the question whether the biological phenomenon described is really a symbol and a cloak for another order of reality, and even taking it at its face value, what is to be noted here is the idea of a cosmic cycle, and a cosmic cycle that proceeds through the principle of sacrifice. If it is asked what there is wonderful or particularly spiritual in this rather naf description of a very commonplace happening that gives it an honoured place in the Upanishads, the answer is that it is wonderful to see how the Upanishadic Rishi takes From an event its local, temporal and personal colour and incorporates it in a global movement, a cosmic cycle, as a limb of the Universal Brahman. The Upanishads contain passages which a puritanical mentality may perhaps describe as 'pornographic'; these have in fact been put by some on the Index expurgatorius. But the ancients saw these matters with other eyes and through another consciousness.
We have, in modern times, a movement towards a more conscious and courageous, knowledge of things that were taboo to puritan ages. Not to shut one's eyes to the lower, darker and hidden strands of our nature, but to bring them out into the light of day and to face them is the best way of dealing with such elements, which otherwise, if they are repressed, exert an unhealthy influence on the mind and nature. The Upanishadic view runs on the same lines, but, with the unveiling and the natural and not merely naturalisticdelineation of these under-worlds (concerning sex and food), it endows them with a perspective sub specie aeternitatis. The sexual function, for example, is easily equated to the double movement of ascent and descent that is secreted in nature, or to the combined action of Purusha and Prakriti in the cosmic Play, or again to the hidden fount of Delight that holds and moves the universe. In this view there is nothing merely secular and profane, but all is woven into the cosmic spiritual whole; and man is taught to consider and to mould all his movementsof soul and mind and bodyin the light and rhythm of that integral Reality.11
The central secret of the transfigured consciousness lies, as we have already indicated, in the mystic rite or law of Sacrifice. It is the one basic, fundamental, universal Law that upholds and explains the cosmic movement, conformity to which brings to the thrice-bound human being release and freedom. Sacrifice consists essentially of two elements or processes: (i) The offering or self giving of the lower reality to the higher, and, as a consequence, an answering movement of (ii) the descent of the higher into the lower. The lower offered to the higher means the lower sublimated and integrated into the higher; and the descent of the higher into the lower means the incarnation of the former and the fulfilment of the latter. The Gita elaborates the same idea when it says that by Sacrifice men increase the gods and the gods increase men and by so increasing each other they attain the supreme Good. Nothing is, nothing is done, for its own sake, for an egocentric satisfaction; all, even movements relating to food and to sex should be dedicated to the Cosmic BeingVisva Purusha and that alone received which comes From Him.
VII. The Cosmic and the Transcendental
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TheChhandyogya12 gives a whole typal scheme of this universal reality and explains how to realise it and what are the results of the experience. The Universal Brahman means the cosmic movement, the cyclic march of things and events taken in its global aspect. The typical movement that symbolises and epitomises the phenomenon, embodies the truth, is that of the sun. The movement consists of five stages which are called the fivefold sma Sma means the equal Brahman that is ever present in all, the Upanishad itself says deriving the word From sama It is Sma also because it is a rhythmic movement, a cadencea music of the spheres. And a rhythmic movement, in virtue of its being a wave, consists of these five stages: (i) the start, (ii) the rise, (iii) the peak, (iv) the decline and (v) the fall. Now the sun follows this curve and marks out the familiar divisions of the day: dawn, forenoon, noon, afternoon and sunset. Sometimes two other stages are added, one at each end, one of preparation and another of final lapse the twilights with regard to the sun and then ,we have seven instead of five smas Like the Sun, the Fire that is to say, the sacrificial Firecan also be seen in its fivefold cyclic movement: (i) the lighting, (ii) the smoke, (iii) the flame, (iv) smouldering and finally (v) extinction the fuel as it is rubbed to produce the fire and the ashes may be added as the two supernumerary stages. Or again, we may take the cycle of five seasons or of the five worlds or of the deities that control these worlds. The living wealth of this earth is also symbolised in a quintetgoat and sheep and cattle and horse and finally man. Coming to the microcosm, we have in man the cycle of his five senses, basis of all knowledge and activity. For the macrocosm, to I bring out its vast extra-human complexity, the Upanishad refers to a quintet, each term of which is again a trinity: (i) the threefold Veda, the Divine Word that is the origin of creation, (ii) the three worlds or fieldsearth, air-belt or atmosphere and space, (iii) the three principles or deities ruling respectively these worldsFire, Air and Sun, (iv) their expressions, emanations or embodimentsstars and birds and light-rays, and finally, (v) the original inhabitants of these worldsto earth belong the reptiles, to the mid-region the Gandharvas and to heaven the ancient Fathers.
Now, this is the All, the Universal. One has to realise it and possess in one's consciousness. And that can be done only in one way: one has to identify oneself with it, be one with it, become it. Thus by losing one's individuality one lives the life universal; the small lean separate life is enlarged and moulded in the rhythm of the Rich and the Vast. It is thus that man shares in the consciousness and energy that inspire and move and sustain the cosmos. The Upanishad most emphatically enjoins that one must not decry this cosmic godhead or deny any of its elements, not even such as are a taboo to the puritan mind. It is in and through an unimpaired global consciousness that one attains the All-Life and lives uninterruptedly and perennially: Sarvamanveti jyok jvati.
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Elsewhere the Upanishad describes more graphically this truth and the experience of it. It is said there that the sun has fivewe note the familiar fivemovements of rising and setting: (i) From East to West, (ii) From South to North, (iii) From West to East, (iv) From North to South and (v) From above From the Zenithdownward. These are the five normal and apparent movements. But there is a sixth one; rather it is not a movement, but a status, where the sun neither rises nor sets, but is always visible fixed in the same position.
Some Western and Westernised scholars have tried to show that the phenomenon described here is an exclusively natural phenomenon, actually visible in the polar region where the sun never sets for six months and moves in a circle whose plane is parallel to the plane of the horizon on the summer solstice and is gradually inclined as the sun regresses towards the equinox (on which day just half the solar disc is visible above the horizon). The sun may be said there to move in the direction East-South-West-North and again East. Indeed the Upanishad mentions the positions of the sun in that order and gives a character to each successive station. The Ray From the East is red, symbolising the Rik, the Southern Ray is white, symbolising the Yajur, the Western Ray is black symbolising the Atharva. The natural phenomenon, however, might have been or might not have been before the mind's eye of the Rishi, but the symbolism, the esotericism of it is clear enough in the way the Rishi speaks of it. Also, apart From the first four movements (which it is already sufficiently difficult to identify completely with what is visible), the fifth movement, as a separate descending movement From above appears to be a foreign element in the context. And although, with regard to the sixth movement or status, the sun is visible as such exactly From the point of the North Pole for a while, the ring of the Rishi's utterance is unmistakably spiritual, it cannot but refer to a fact of inner consciousness that is at least what the physical fact conveys to the Rishi and what he seeks to convey and express primarily.
Now this is what is sought to be conveyed and expressed. The five movements of the sun here also are nothing but the five smas and they refer to the cycle of the Cosmic or Universal Brahman. The sixth status where all movements cease, where there is no rising and setting, no ebb and flow, no waxing and waning, where there is the immutable, the ever-same unity, is very evidently the Transcendental Brahman. It is That to which the Vedic Rishi refers when he prays for a constant and fixed vision of the eternal Sunjyok ca sryam drie.
It would be interesting to know what the five ranges or levels or movements of consciousness exactly are that make up the Universal Brahman described in this passage. It is the mystic knowledge, the Upanishad says, of the secret delight in thingsmadhuvidy. The five ranges are the five fundamental principles of delightimmortalities, the Veda would say that form the inner core of the pyramid of creation. They form a rising tier and are ruled respectively by the godsAgni, Indra, Varuna, Soma and Brahmawith their emanations and instrumental personalities the Vasus, the Rudras, the Adityas, the Maruts and the Sadhyas. We suggest that these refer to the five well-known levels of being, the modes or nodi of consciousness or something very much like them. The Upanishad speaks elsewhere of the five sheaths. The six Chakras of Tantric system lie in the same line. The first and the basic mode is the physical and the ascent From the physical: Agni and the Vasus are always intimately connected with the earth and -the earth-principles (it can be compared with the Muladhara of the Tantras). Next, second in the line of ascent is the Vital, the centre of power and dynamism of which the Rudras are the deities and Indra the presiding God (cf. Swadhishthana of the Tantras the navel centre). Indra, in the Vedas, has two aspects, one of knowledge and vision and the other of dynamic force and drive. In the first aspect he is more often considered as the Lord of the Mind, of the Luminous Mind. In the present passage, Indra is taken in his second aspect and instead of the Maruts with whom he is usually invoked has the Rudras as his agents and associates.
The third in the line of ascension is the region of Varuna and the Adityas, that is to say, of the large Mind and its lightsperhaps it can be connected with Tantric Ajnachakra. The fourth is the domain of Soma and the Marutsthis seems to be the inner heart, the fount of delight and keen and sweeping aspirations the Anahata of the Tantras. The fifth is the region of the crown of the head, the domain of Brahma and the Sadhyas: it is the Overmind status From where comes the descending inflatus, the creative Maya of Brahma. And when you go beyond, you pass into the ultimate status of the Sun, the reality absolute, the Transcendent which is indescribable, unseizable, indeterminate, indeterminable, incommensurable; and once there, one never returns, neverna ca punarvartate na ca punarvartate.
VIII. How Many Gods?
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Man, however, is an epitome of creation. He embraces and incarnates the entire gamut of consciousness and comprises in him all beings From the highest Divinity to the lowest jinn or elf. And yet each human being in his true personality is a lineal descendant of one or other typal aspect or original Personality of the one supreme Reality; and his individual character is all the more pronounced and well-defined the more organised and developed is the being. The psychic being in man is thus a direct descent, an immediate emanation along a definite line of devolution of the supreme consciousness. We may now understand and explain easily why one chooses a particular Ishta, an ideal god, what is the drive that pushes one to become a worshipper of Siva or Vishnu or any other deity. It is not any rational understanding, a weighing of pros and cons and then a resultant conclusion that leads one to choose a path of religion or spirituality. It is the soul's natural call to the God, the type of being and consciousness of which it is a spark, From which it has descended, it is the secret affinity the spiritual blood-relation as it were that determines the choice and adherence. And it is this that we name Faith. And the exclusiveness and violence and bitterness which attend such adherence and which go "by the "name of partisanship, sectarianism, fanaticism etc., a;e a deformation in the ignorance on the physico-vital plane of the secret loyalty to one's source and origin. Of course, the pattern or law is not so simple and rigid, but it gives a token or typal pattern. For it must not be forgotten that the supreme source or the original is one and indivisible and in the highest integration consciousness is global and not exclusive. And the human being that attains such a status is not bound or wholly limited to one particular formation: its personality is based on the truth of impersonality. And yet the two can go together: an individual can be impersonal in consciousness and yet personal in becoming and true to type.
The number of gods depends on the level of consciousness on which we stand. On this material plane there are as many gods as there are bodies or individual forms (adhar). And on the supreme height there is only one God without a second. In between there are gradations of types and sub-types whose number and function vary according to the aspect of consciousness that reveals itself.
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The three boons asked for by Nachiketas From Yama, Lord of Death, and granted to him have been interpreted in different ways. Here is one more attempt in the direction.
Nachiketas is the young aspiring human being still in the Ignorancenaciketa, meaning one without consciousness or knowledge. The three boons he asks for are in reference to the three fundamental modes of being and consciousness that are at the very basis, forming, as it were, the ground-plan of the integral reality. They are (i) the individual, (ii) the universal or cosmic and (iii) the transcendental.
The first boon regards the individual, that is to say, the individual identity and integrity. It asks for the maintenance of that individuality so that it may be saved From the dissolution that Death brings about. Death, of course, means the dissolution of the body, but it represents also dissolution pure and simple. Indeed death is a process which does not stop with the physical phenomenon, but continues even after; for with the body gone, the other elements of the individual organism, the vital and the mental too gradually fall off, fade and dissolve. Nachiketas wishes to secure From Death the safety and preservation of the earthly personality, the particular organisation of mind and vital based upon a recognisable physical frame. That is the first necessity for the aspiring mortalfor, it is said, the body is the first instrument for the working out of one's life ideal. But man's true personality, the real individuality lies beyond, beyond the body, beyond the life, beyond the mind, beyond the triple region that Death lords it over. That is the divine world, the Heaven of the immortals, beyond death and beyond sorrow and grief. It is the hearth secreted in the inner heart where burns the Divine Fire, the God of Life Everlasting. And this is the nodus that binds together the threefold status of the manifested existence, the body, the life and the mind. This triplicity is the structure of name and form built out of the bricks of experience, the kiln, as it were, within which burns the Divine Agni, man's true soul. This soul can be reached only when one exceeds the bounds and limitations of the triple cord and experiences one's communion and identity with all souls and all existence. Agni is the secret divinity within, within the individual and within the world; he is the Immanent Divine, the cosmic godhead that holds together and marshals all the elements and components, all the principles that make up the manifest universe. He it is that has entered into the world and created facets of his own reality in multiple forms: and it is he that lies secret in the human being as the immortal soul through all its adventure of life and death in the series of incarnations in terrestrial evolution. The adoration and realisation of this Immanent Divinity, the worship of Agni taught by Yama in the second boon, consists in the triple sacrifice, the triple work, the triple union in the triple status of the physical, the vital and the mental consciousness, the mastery of which leads one to the other shore, the abode of perennial existence where the human soul enjoys its eternity and unending continuity in cosmic life. Therefore, Agni, the master of the psychic being, is called jtaveds, he who knows the births, all the transmigrations From life to life.
The third boon is the secret of secrets, for it is the knowledge and realisation of Transcendence that is sought here. Beyond the individual lies the universal; is there anything beyond the universal? The release of the individual into the cosmic existence gives him the griefless life eternal: can the cosmos be rolled up and flung into something beyond? What would be the nature of that thing? What is there outside creation, outside manifestation, outside Maya, to use a latter day term? Is there existence or non-existence (utter dissolution or extinctionDeath in his supreme and absolute status)? King Yama did not choose to answer immediately and even endeavoured to dissuade Nachiketas From pursuing the question over which people were confounded, as he said. Evidently it was a much discussed problem in those days. Buddha was asked the same question and he evaded it, saying that the pragmatic man should attend to practical and immediate realities and not, waste time and energy in discussing things ultimate and beyond that have hardly any relation to the present and the actual.
But Yama did answer and unveil the mystery and impart the supreme secret knowledge the knowledge of the Transcendent Brahman: it is out of the transcendent reality that the immanent deity takes his birth. Hence the Divine Fire, the Lord of creation and the Inner Mastersarvabhtntartm, antarymis called brahmajam, born of the Brahman. Yama teaches the process of transcendence. Apart From the knowledge and experience first of the individual and then of the cosmic Brahman, there is a definite line along which the human consciousness (or unconsciousness, as it is at present) is to ascend and evolve. The first step is to learn to distinguish between the Good and the Pleasurable (reya and preya). The line of pleasure leads to the external, the superficial, the false: while the other path leads towards the inner and the higher truth. So the second step is the gradual withdrawal of the consciousness From the physical and the sensual and even the mental preoccupation and focussing it upon what is certain and permanent. In the midst of the death-ridden consciousness in the heart of all that is unstable and fleetingone has to look for Agni, the eternal godhead, the Immortal in mortality, the Timeless in time through whom lies the passage to Immortality beyond Time.
Man has two souls corresponding to his double status. In the inferior, the soul looks downward and is involved in the current of Impermanence and Ignorance, it tastes of grief and sorrow and suffers death and dissolution: in the higher it looks upward and communes and joins with the Eternal (the cosmic) and then with the Absolute (the transcendent). The lower is a reflection of the higher, the higher comes down in a diminished and hence tarnished light. The message is that of deliverance, the deliverance and reintegration of the lower soul out of its bondage of worldly ignorant life into the freedom and immortality first of its higher and then of its highest status. It is true, however, that the Upanishad does not make a trenchant distinction between the cosmic and the transcendent and often it speaks of both in the same breath, as it were. For in fact they are realities involved in each other and interwoven. Indeed the triple status, including the Individual, forms one single totality and the three do not exclude or cancel each other; on the contrary, they combine and may be said to enhance each other's reality. The Transcendence expresses or deploys itself in the cosmoshe goes abroad,sa paryagt: and the cosmic individualises, concretises itself in the particular and the personal. The one single spiritual reality holds itself, aspects itself in a threefold manner.
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The secularisation of man's vital functions in modem ages has not been a success. It has made him more egocentric and blatantly hedonistic. From an occult point of view he has in this way subjected himself to the influences of dark and undesirable world-forces, has made an opening, to use an Indian symbolism, for Kali (the Spirit of the Iron Age) to enter into him. The sex-force is an extremely potent agent, but it is extremely fluid and elusive and uncontrollable. It was for this reason that the ancients always sought to give it a proper mould, a right continent, a fixed and definite channel; the moderns, on the other hand, allow it to run free and play with it recklessly. The result has been, in the life of those born under such circumstances, a growing lack of poise and balance and a corresponding incidence of neuras thenia, hysteria and all abnormal pathological conditions.
Chhandyogya, II, III.
0.00a - Introduction, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
It serves yet another vital function. In addition to the advantages to be gained From its philosophical application, the ancients discovered a very practical use for the literal Qabalah.
Each letter of the Qabalistic alphabet has a number, color, many symbols and a Tarot card attributed to it. The Qabalah not only aids in an understanding of the Tarot, but teaches the student how to classify and organize all such ideas, numbers and symbols. Just as a knowledge of Latin will give insight into the meaning of an unfamiliar English word with a Latin root, so the knowledge of the Qabalah with the various attri butions to each character in its alphabet will enable the student to understand and correlate ideas and concepts which otherwise would have no apparent relation.
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For example, Keser is called "The Admirable or the Hidden Intelligence; it is the Primal Glory, for no created being can attain to its essence." This seems perfectly all right; the meaning at first sight seems to fit the significance of Keser as the first emanation From Ain Soph. But there are half a dozen other similar attri butions that would have served equally well. For instance, it could have been called the "Occult Intelligence" usually attri buted to the seventh Path or Sephirah, for surely Keser is secret in a way to be said of no other Sephirah. And what about the "Absolute or Perfect Intelligence." That would have been even more explicit and appropriate, being applicable to Keser far more than to any other of the Paths. Similarly, there is one attri buted to the 16th Path and called "The Eternal or Triumphant Intelligence," so-called because it is the pleasure of the Glory, beyond which is no Glory like to it, and it is called also the Paradise prepared for the Righteous." Any of these several would have done equally well. Much is true of so many of the other attri butions in this particular area-that is the so-called Intelligences of the Sepher Yetzirah. I do not think that their use or current arbitrary usage stands up to serious examination or criticism.
A good many attri butions in other symbolic areas, I feel are subject to the same criticism. The Egyptian Gods have been used with a good deal of carelessness, and without sufficient explanation of motives in assigning them as I did. In a recent edition of Crowley's masterpiece Liber 777 (which au fond is less a reflection of Crowley's mind as a recent critic claimed than a tabulation of some of the material given piecemeal in the Golden Dawn knowledge lectures), he gives for the first time brief explanations of the motives for his attri butions. I too should have been far more explicit in the explanations I used in the case of some of the Gods whose names were used many times, most inadequately, where several paths were concerned. While it is true that the religious coloring of the Egyptian Gods differed From time to time during Egypt's turbulent history, nonetheless a word or two about just that one single point could have served a useful purpose.
Some of the passages in the book force me today to emphasize that so far as the Qabalah is concerned, it could and should be employed without binding to it the partisan qualities of any one particular religious faith. This goes as much for Judaism as it does for Christianity. Neither has much intrinsic usefulness where this scientific scheme is concerned. If some students feel hurt by this statement, that cannot be helped. The day of most contemporary faiths is over; they have been more of a curse than a boon to mankind. Nothing that I say here, however, should reflect on the peoples concerned, those who accept these religions. They are merely unfortunate. The religion itself is worn out and indeed is dying.
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What Jung calls archetypal images constantly rise to the surface of man's awareness From the vast unconscious that is the common heritage of all mankind.
The tragedy of civilized man is that he is cut off From awareness of his own instincts. The Qabalah can help him achieve the necessary understanding to effect a reunion with them, so that rather than being driven by forces he does not understand, he can harness for his conscious use the same power that guides the homing pigeon, teaches the beaver to build a dam and keeps the planets revolving in their appointed orbits about the sun.
I began the study of the Qabalah at an early age. Two books I read then have played unconsciously a prominent part in the writing of my own book. One of these was "Q.B.L. or the Bride's Reception" by Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones), which I must have first read around 1926. The other was "An Introduction to the Tarot" by Paul Foster Case, published in the early 1920's. It is now out of print, superseded by later versions of the same topic. But as I now glance through this slender book, I perceive how profoundly even the format of his book had influenced me, though in these two instances there was not a trace of plagiarism. It had not consciously occurred to me until recently that I owed so much to them. Since Paul Case passed away about a decade or so ago, this gives me the opportunity to thank him, overtly, wherever he may now be.
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During a short retirement in North Devon in 1931, I began to amalgamate my notes. It was out of these that A Garden of Pomegranates gradually emerged. I unashamedly admit that my book contains many direct plagiarisms From Crowley, Waite, Eliphas Levi, and D. H. Lawrence. I had incorporated numerous fragments From their works into my notebooks without citing individual references to the various sources From which I condensed my notes.
Prior to the closing down of the Mandrake Press in London about 1930-31, I was employed as company secretary for a while. Along with several Crowley books, the Mandrake Press published a lovely little monogram by D. H. Lawrence entitled "Apropos of Lady Chatterley's Lover." My own copy accompanied me on my travels for long years. Only recently did I discover that it had been lost. I hope that any one of my former patients who had borrowed it will see fit to return it to me forthwith.
The last chapter of A Garden deals with the Way of Return. It used almost entirely Crowley's concept of the Path as described in his superb essay "One Star in Sight." In addition to this, I borrowed extensively From Lawrence's Apropos. Somehow, they all fitted together very nicely. In time, all these variegated notes were incorporated into the text without acknowledgment, an oversight which I now feel sure would be forgiven, since I was only twenty-four at the time.
Some modern Nature-worshippers and members of the newly-washed and redeemed witch-cult have complimented me on this closing chapter which I entitled 'The Ladder." I am pleased about this. For a very long time I was not at all familiar with the topic of witchcraft. I had avoided it entirely, not being attracted to its literature in any way. In fact, I only became slightly conversant with its theme and literature just a few years ago, after reading "The Anatomy of Eve" written by Dr. Leopold Stein, a Jungian analyst. In the middle of his study of four cases, he included a most informative chapter on the subject. This served to stimulate me to wider reading in that area.
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The importance of the book to me was and is five-fold. 1) It provided a yardstick by which to measure my personal progress in the understanding of the Qabalah. 2) Therefore it can have an equivalent value to the modern student. 3) It serves as a theoretical introduction to the Qabalistic foundation of the magical work of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. 4) It throws considerable light on the occasionally obscure writings of Aleister Crowley. 5) It is dedicated to Crowley, who was the Ankh-af-na-Khonsu mentioned in The Book of the Law -a dedication which served both as a token of personal loyalty and devotion to Crowley, but was also a gesture of my spiritual independence From him.
In his profound investigation into the origins and basic nature of man, Robert Ardrey in African Genesis recently made a shocking statement. Although man has begun the conquest of outer space, the ignorance of his own nature, says Ardrey, "has become institutionalized, universalized and sanctified." He further states that were a brotherhood of man to be formed today, "its only possible common bond would be ignorance of what man is."
000 - Humans in Universe, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
them From sinking vertically into Earth's center. Stone buildings could not float on
water. But nature had invented low-weight wood of high self-cohering tensile
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energy income initially produced by Sun and gravity. Industry, retooled From
weapons production to livingry production, will rehouse the deployed phases of
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grows outwardly by omniintertriangulated structuring From nuclei.
000.127 Nature is inherently eight-dimensional, and the first four of these
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cunning, and selfishness. Intellectual cunning has concentrated on how to divorcemoney From true life-support wealth; second, cunning has learned how to make
money with money by making it scarce. As of the 1970s muscle, guns, and
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- From When Earth's Last Picture Is Painted
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
SRI RAMAKRISHNA, the God-man of modern India, was born at Kamarpukur. This village in the Hooghly District preserved during the last century the idyllic simplicity of the rural areas of Bengal. Situated far From the railway, it was untouched by the glamour of the city. It contained rice-fields, tall palms, royal banyans, a few lakes, and two cremation grounds. South of the village a stream took its leisurely course. A mango orchard dedicated by a neighbouring zemindar to the public use was frequented by the boys for their noonday sports. A highway passed through the village to the great temple of Jagannath at Puri, and the villagers, most of whom were farmers and craftsmen, entertained many passing holy men and pilgrims. The dull round of the rural life was broken by lively festivals, the observance of sacred days, religious singing, and other innocent pleasures.
About his parents Sri Ramakrishna once said: "My mother was the personification of rectitude and gentleness. She did not know much about the ways of the world; innocent of the art of concealment, she would say what was in her mind. People loved her for her open-heartedness. My father, an orthodox brahmin, never accepted gifts From the sudras. He spent much of his time in worship and meditation, and in repeating God's name and chanting His glories. Whenever in his daily prayers he invoked the Goddess Gayatri, his chest flushed and tears rolled down his cheeks. He spent his leisure hours making garlands for the Family Deity, Raghuvir."
Khudiram Chattopadhyaya and Chandra Devi, the parents of Sri Ramakrishna, were married in 1799. At that time Khudiram was living in his ancestral village of Dereypore, not far From Kamarpukur. Their first son, Ramkumar, was born in 1805, and their first daughter, Katyayani, in 1810. In 1814 Khudiram was ordered by his landlord to bear false witness in court against a neighbour. When he refused to do so, the landlord brought a false case against him and deprived him of his ancestral property. Thus dispossessed, he arrived, at the invitation of another landlord, in the quiet village of Kamarpukur, where he was given a dwelling and about an acre of fertile land. The crops From this little property were enough to meet his family's simple needs. Here he lived in simplicity, dignity, and contentment.
Ten years after his coming to Kamarpukur, Khudiram made a pilgrimage on foot to Rameswar, at the southern extremity of India. Two years later was born his second son, whom he named Rameswar. Again in 1835, at the age of sixty, he made a pilgrimage, this time to Gaya. Here, From ancient times, Hindus have come From the four corners of India to discharge their duties to their departed ancestors by offering them food and drink at the sacred footprint of the Lord Vishnu. At this holy place Khudiram had a dream in which the Lord Vishnu promised to he born as his son. And Chandra Devi, too, in front of the Siva temple at Kamarpukur, had a vision indicating the birth of a divine child. Upon his return the husband found that she had conceived.
It was on February 18, 1836, that the child, to be known afterwards as Ramakrishna, was born. In memory of the dream at Gaya he was given the name of Gadadhar, the "Bearer of the Mace", an epithet of Vishnu. Three years later a little sister was born.
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Gadadhar grew up into a healthy and restless boy, full of fun and sweet mischief. He was intelligent and precocious and endowed with a prodigious memory. On his father's lap he learnt by heart the names of his ancestors and the hymns to the gods and goddesses, and at the village school he was taught to read and write. But his greatest delight was to listen to recitations of stories From Hindu mythology and the epics. These he would afterwards recount From memory, to the great joy of the villagers. Painting he enjoyed; the art of moulding images of the gods and goddesses he learnt From the potters. But arithmetic was his great aversion.
At the age of six or seven Gadadhar had his first experience of spiritual ecstasy. One day in June or July, when he was walking along a narrow path between paddy-fields, eating the puffed rice that he carried in a basket, he looked up at the sky and saw a beautiful, dark thunder-cloud. As it spread, rapidly enveloping the whole sky, a flight of snow-white cranes passed in front of it. The beauty of the contrast overwhelmed the boy. He fell to the ground, unconscious, and the puffed rice went in all directions. Some villagers found him and carried him home in their arms. Gadadhar said later that in that state he had experienced an indescribable joy.
Gadadhar was seven years old when his father died. This incident profoundly affected him. For the first time the boy realized that life on earth was impermanent. Unobserved by others, he began to slip into the mango orchard or into one of the cremation grounds, and he spent hours absorbed in his own thoughts. He also became more helpful to his mother in the discharge of her household duties. He gave more attention to reading and hearing the religious stories recorded in the Puranas. And he became interested in the wandering monks and pious pilgrims who would stop at Kamarpukur on their way to Puri. These holy men, the custodians of India's spiritual heritage and the living witnesses of the ideal of renunciation of the world and all-absorbing love of God, entertained the little boy with stories From the Hindu epics, stories of saints and prophets, and also stories of their own adventures. He, on his part, fetched their water and fuel and
served them in various ways. Meanwhile, he was observing their meditation and worship.
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About this time, on the Sivaratri night, consecrated to the worship of Siva, a dramatic performance was arranged. The principal actor, who was to play the part of Siva, suddenly fell ill, and Gadadhar was persuaded to act in his place. While friends were dressing him for the role of Siva — smearing his body with ashes, matting his locks, placing a trident in his hand and a string of rudraksha beads around his neck — the boy appeared to become absent-minded. He approached the stage with slow and measured step, supported by his friends. He looked the living image of Siva. The audience loudly applauded what it took to be his skill as an actor, but it was soon discovered that he was really lost in meditation. His countenance was radiant and tears flowed From his eyes. He was lost to the outer world. The effect of this scene on the audience was tremendous. The people felt blessed as by a vision of Siva Himself. The performance had to be stopped, and the boy's mood lasted till the following morning.
Gadadhar himself now organized a dramatic company with his young friends. The stage was set in the mango orchard. The themes were selected From the stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Gadadhar knew by heart almost all the roles, having heard them From professional actors. His favourite theme was the Vrindavan episode of Krishna's life, depicting those exquisite love-stories of Krishna and the milkmaids and the cowherd boys. Gadadhar would play the parts of Radha or Krishna and would often lose himself in the character he was portraying. His natural feminine grace heightened the dramatic effect. The mango orchard would ring with the loud kirtan of the boys. Lost in song and merry-making, Gadadhar became indifferent to the routine of school.
In 1849 Ramkumar, the eldest son, went to Calcutta to improve the financial condition of the family.
Gadadhar was on the threshold of youth. He had become the pet of the women of the village. They loved to hear him talk, sing, or recite From the holy books. They enjoyed his knack of imitating voices. Their woman's instinct recognized the innate purity and guilelessness of this boy of clear skin, flowing hair, beaming eyes, smiling face, and inexhaustible fun. The pious elderly women looked upon him as Gopala, the Baby Krishna, and the younger ones saw in him the youthful Krishna of Vrindavan. He himself so idealized the love of the gopis for Krishna that he sometimes yearned to be born as a woman, if he must be born again, in order to be able to love Sri Krishna with all his heart and soul.
--- COMING TO CALCUTTA
At the age of sixteen Gadadhar was summoned to Calcutta by his elder brother Ramkumar, who wished assistance in his priestly duties. Ramkumar had opened a Sanskrit academy to supplement his income, and it was his intention gradually to turn his younger brother's mind to education. Gadadhar applied himself heart and soul to his new duty as family priest to a number of Calcutta families. His worship was very different From that of the professional priests. He spent hours decorating the images and singing hymns and devotional songs; he performed with love the other duties of his office. People were impressed with his ardour. But to his studies he paid scant attention.
Ramkumar did not at first oppose the ways of his temperamental brother. He wanted Gadadhar to become used to the conditions of city life. But one day he decided to warn the boy about his indifference to the world. After all, in the near future Gadadhar must, as a householder, earn his livelihood through the performance of his brahminical duties; and these required a thorough knowledge of Hindu law, astrology, and kindred subjects. He gently admonished Gadadhar and asked him to pay more attention to his studies. But the boy replied spiritedly: "Brother, what shall I do with a mere bread-winning education? I would rather acquire that wisdom which will illumine my heart and give me satisfaction for ever."
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The anguish of the inner soul of India found expression through these passionate words of the young Gadadhar. For what did his unsophisticated eyes see around him in Calcutta, at that time the metropolis of India and the centre of modem culture and learning? Greed and lust held sway in the higher levels of society, and the occasional religious practices were merely outer forms From which the soul had long ago departed. Gadadhar had never seen anything like this at Kamarpukur among the simple and pious villagers. The sadhus and wandering monks whom he had served in his boyhood had revealed to him an altogether different India. He had been impressed by their devotion and purity, their self-control and renunciation. He had learnt From them and From his own intuition that the ideal of life as taught by the ancient sages of India was the realization of God.
When Ramkumar reprimanded Gadadhar for neglecting a "bread-winning education", the inner voice of the boy reminded him that the legacy of his ancestors — the legacy of Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Sankara, Ramanuja, Chaitanya — was not worldly security but the Knowledge of God. And these noble sages were the true representatives of Hindu society. Each of them was seated, as it were, on the crest of the wave that followed each successive trough in the tumultuous course of Indian national life. All demonstrated that the life current of India is spirituality. This truth was revealed to Gadadhar through that inner vision which scans past and future in one sweep, unobstructed by the barriers of time and space. But he was unaware of the history of the profound change that had taken place in the land of his birth during the previous one hundred years.
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The first effect of the draught on the educated Hindus was a complete effacement From their minds of the time-honoured beliefs and traditions of Hindu society. They came to believe that there was no transcendental Truth; The world perceived by the senses was all that existed. God and religion were illusions of the untutored mind. True knowledge could be derived only From the analysis of nature. So atheism and agnosticism became the fashion of the day. The youth of India, taught in English schools, took malicious delight in openly breaking the customs and traditions of their society. They would do away with the caste-system and remove the discriminatory laws about food. Social reform, the spread of secular education, widow remarriage, abolition of early marriage — they considered these the panacea for the degenerate condition of Hindu society.
The Christian missionaries gave the finishing touch to the process of transformation. They ridiculed as relics of a barbarous age the images and rituals of the Hindu religion. They tried to persuade India that the teachings of her saints and seers were the cause of her downfall, that her Vedas, Puranas, and other scriptures were filled with superstition. Christianity, they maintained, had given the white races position and power in this world and assurance of happiness in the next; therefore Christianity was the best of all religions. Many intelligent young Hindus became converted. The man in the street was confused. The majority of the educated grew materialistic in their mental outlook. Everyone living near Calcutta or the other strong-holds of Western culture, even those who attempted to cling to the orthodox traditions of Hindu society, became infected by the new uncertainties and the new beliefs.
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corners of the temple compound are two nahabats, or music towers, From which music flows at different times of day, especially at sunup, noon, and sundown, when the worship is performed in the temples. Three sides of the paved courtyard — all except the west — are lined with rooms set apart for kitchens, store-rooms, dining-rooms, and quarters for the temple staff and guests. The chamber in the northwest angle, just beyond the last of the Siva temples, is of special interest to us; for here Sri Ramakrishna was to spend a considerable part of his life. To the west of this chamber is a semicircular porch overlooking the river. In front of the porch runs a foot-path, north and south, and beyond the path is a large garden and, below the garden, the Ganges. The orchard to the north of the buildings contains the Panchavati, the banyan, and the bel-tree, associated with Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual practices. Outside and to the north of the temple compound proper is the kuthi, or bungalow, used by members of Rani Rasmani's family visiting the garden. And north of the temple garden, separated From it by a high wall, is a powder-magazine belonging to the British Government.
--- SIVA
In the twelve Siva temples are installed the emblems of the Great God of renunciation in His various aspects, worshipped daily with proper rites. Siva requires few articles of worship. White flowers and bel-leaves and a little Ganges water offered with devotion are enough to satisfy the benign Deity and win From Him the boon of liberation.
--- RADHAKANTA
The temple of Radhakanta, also known as the temple of Vishnu, contains the images of Radha and Krishna, the symbol of union with God through ecstatic love. The two images stand on a pedestal facing the west. The floor is paved with marble. From the ceiling of the porch hang chandeliers protected From dust by coverings of red cloth. Canvas screens shield the images From the rays of the setting sun. Close to the threshold of the inner shrine is a small brass cup containing holy water. Devoted visitors reverently drink a few drops From the vessel.
--- KALI
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The whole symbolic world is represented in the temple garden — the Trinity of the Nature Mother (Kali), the Absolute (Siva), and Love (Radhakanta), the Arch spanning heaven and earth. The terrific Goddess of the Tantra, the soul-enthralling Flute-Player of the Bhagavata, and the Self-absorbed Absolute of the Vedas live together, creating the greatest synthesis of religions. All aspects of Reality are represented there. But of this divine household, Kali is the pivot, the sovereign Mistress. She is Prakriti, the Procreatrix, Nature, the Destroyer, the Creator. Nay, She is something greater and deeper still for those who have eyes to see. She is the Universal Mother, "my Mother" as Ramakrishna would say, the All-powerful, who reveals Herself to Her children under different aspects and Divine Incarnations, the Visible God, who leads the elect to the Invisible Reality; and if it so pleases Her, She takes away the last trace of ego From created beings and merges it in the consciousness of the Absolute, the undifferentiated God. Through Her grace "the finite ego loses itself in the illimitable Ego — Atman — Brahman". (Romain Holland, Prophets of the New India, p. 11.)
Rani Rasmani spent a fortune for the construction of the temple garden and another fortune for its dedication ceremony, which took place on May 31, 1855.
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At this time there came to Dakshineswar a youth of sixteen, destined to play an important role in Sri Ramakrishna's life. Hriday, a distant nephew2 of Sri Ramakrishna, hailed From Sihore, a village not far From Kamarpukur, and had been his boyhood friend. Clever, exceptionally energetic, and endowed with great presence of mind, he moved, as will be seen later, like a shadow about his uncle and was always ready to help him, even at the sacrifice of his personal comfort. He was destined to be a mute witness of many of the spiritual experiences of Sri Ramakrishna and the caretaker of his body during the stormy days of his spiritual practice. Hriday came to Dakshineswar in search of a job, and Sri Ramakrishna was glad to see him.
Unable to resist the persuasion of Mathur Babu, Sri Ramakrishna at last entered the temple service, on condition that Hriday should be asked to assist him. His first duty was to dress and decorate the image of Kali.
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Born in an orthodox brahmin family, Sri Ramakrishna knew the formalities of worship, its rites and rituals. The innumerable gods and goddesses of the Hindu religion are the human aspects of the indescribable and incomprehensible Spirit, as conceived by the finite human mind. They understand and appreciate human love and emotion, help men to realize their secular and spiritual ideals, and ultimately enable men to attain liberation From the miseries of phenomenal life. The Source of light, intelligence, wisdom, and strength is the One alone From whom comes the fulfilment of desire. Yet, as long as a man is bound by his human limitations, he cannot but worship God through human forms. He must use human symbols. Therefore Hinduism asks the devotees to look on God as the ideal father, the ideal mother, the ideal husband, the ideal son, or the ideal friend. But the name ultimately leads to the Nameless, the form to the Formless, the word to the Silence, the emotion to the serene realization of Peace in Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. The gods gradually merge in the one God. But until that realization is achieved, the devotee cannot dissociate human factors From his worship. Therefore the Deity is bathed and clothed and decked with ornaments. He is fed and put to sleep. He is propitiated with hymns, songs, and prayers. And there are appropriate rites connected with all these functions. For instance, to secure for himself external purity, the priest bathes himself in holy water and puts on a holy cloth. He purifies the mind and the sense-organs by appropriate meditations. He fortifies the place of worship against evil forces by drawing around it circles of fire and water. He awakens the different spiritual centres of the body and invokes the Supreme Spirit in his heart. Then he transfers the Supreme Spirit to the image before him and worships the image, regarding it no longer as clay or stone, but as the embodiment of Spirit, throbbing with Life and Consciousness. After the worship the Supreme Spirit is recalled From the image to Its true sanctuary, the heart of the priest. The real devotee knows the absurdity of worshipping the Transcendental Reality with material articles — clothing That which pervades the whole universe and the beyond, putting on a pedestal That which cannot be limited by space, feeding That which is disembodied and incorporeal, singing before That whose glory the music of the spheres tries vainly to proclaim. But through these rites the devotee aspires to go ultimately beyond rites and rituals, forms and names, words and praise, and to realize God as the All-pervading Consciousness.
Hindu priests are thoroughly acquainted with the rites of worship, but few of them are aware of their underlying significance. They move their hands and limbs mechanically, in obedience to the letter of the scriptures, and repeat the holy mantras like parrots. But From the very beginning the inner meaning of these rites was revealed to Sri Ramakrishna. As he sat facing the image, a strange transformation came over his mind. While going through the prescribed ceremonies, he would actually find himself encircled by a wall of fire protecting him and the place of worship From unspiritual vibrations, or he would feel the rising of the mystic Kundalini through the different centres of the body. The glow on his face, his deep absorption, and the intense atmosphere of the temple impressed everyone who saw him worship the Deity.
Ramkumar wanted Sri Ramakrishna to learn the intricate rituals of the worship of Kali. To become a priest of Kali one must undergo a special form of initiation From a qualified guru, and for Sri Ramakrishna a suitable brahmin was found. But no sooner did the brahmin speak the holy word in his ear than Sri Ramakrishna, overwhelmed with emotion, uttered a loud cry and plunged into deep concentration.
Mathur begged Sri Ramakrishna to take charge of the worship in the Kali temple. The young priest pleaded his incompetence and his ignorance of the scriptures. Mathur insisted that devotion and sincerity would more than compensate for any lack of formal knowledge and make the Divine Mother manifest Herself through the image. In the end, Sri Ramakrishna had to yield to Mathur's request. He became the priest of Kali.
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And, indeed, he soon discovered what a strange Goddess he had chosen to serve. He became gradually enmeshed in the web of Her all-pervading presence. To the ignorant She is, to be sure, the image of destruction; but he found in Her the benign, all-loving Mother. Her neck is encircled with a garland of heads, and Her waist with a girdle of human arms, and two of Her hands hold weapons of death, and Her eyes dart a glance of fire; but, strangely enough, Ramakrishna felt in Her breath the soothing touch of tender love and saw in Her the Seed of Immortality. She stands on the bosom of Her Consort, Siva; it is because She is the Sakti, the Power, inseparable From the Absolute. She is surrounded by jackals and other unholy creatures, the denizens of the cremation ground. But is not the Ultimate Reality above holiness and unholiness? She appears to be reeling under the spell of wine. But who would create this mad world unless under the influence of a divine drunkenness? She is the highest symbol of all the forces of nature, the synthesis of their antinomies, the Ultimate Divine in the form of woman. She now became to Sri Ramakrishna the only Reality, and the world became an unsubstantial shadow. Into Her worship he poured his soul. Before him She stood as the transparent portal to the shrine of Ineffable Reality.
The worship in the temple intensified Sri Ramakrishna's yearning for a living vision of the Mother of the Universe. He began to spend in meditation the time not actually employed in the temple service; and for this purpose he selected an extremely solitary place. A deep jungle, thick with underbrush and prickly plants, lay to the north of the temples. Used at one time as a burial ground, it was shunned by people even during the day-time for fear of ghosts. There Sri Ramakrishna began to spend the whole night in meditation, returning to his room only in the morning with eyes swollen as though From much weeping. While meditating, he would lay aside his cloth and his brahminical thread. Explaining this strange conduct, he once said to Hriday: "Don't you know that when one thinks of God one should be freed From all ties? From our very birth we have the eight fetters of hatred, shame, lineage, pride of good conduct, fear, secretiveness, caste, and grief. The sacred thread reminds me that I am a brahmin and therefore superior to all. When calling on the Mother one has to set aside all such ideas." Hriday thought his uncle was becoming insane.
As his love for God deepened, he began either to forget or to drop the formalities of worship. Sitting before the image, he would spend hours singing the devotional songs of great devotees of the Mother, such as Kamalakanta and Ramprasad. Those rhapsodical songs, describing the direct vision of God, only intensified Sri Ramakrishna's longing. He felt the pangs of a child separated From its mother. Sometimes, in agony, he would rub his face against the ground and weep so bitterly that people, thinking he had lost his earthly mother, would sympathize with him in his grief. Sometimes, in moments of scepticism, he would cry: "Art Thou true, Mother, or is it all fiction — mere poetry without any reality? If Thou dost exist, why do I not see Thee? Is religion a mere fantasy and art Thou only a figment of man's imagination?" Sometimes he would sit on the prayer carpet for two hours like an inert object. He began to behave in an abnormal manner
, most of the time unconscious of the world. He almost gave up food; and sleep left him altogether.
But he did not have to wait very long. He has thus described his first vision of the Mother: "I felt as if my heart were being squeezed like a wet towel. I was overpowered with a great restlessness and a fear that it might not be my lot to realize Her in this life. I could not bear the separation From Her any longer. Life seemed to be not worth living. Suddenly my glance fell on the sword that was kept in the Mother's temple. I determined to put an end to my life. When I jumped up like a madman and seized it, suddenly the blessed Mother revealed Herself. The buildings with their different parts, the temple, and everything else vanished From my sight, leaving no trace whatsoever, and in their stead I saw a limitless, infinite, effulgent Ocean of Consciousness. As far as the eye could see, the shining billows were madly rushing at me From all sides with a terrific noise, to swallow me up! I was panting for breath. I was caught in the rush
and collapsed, unconscious. What was happening in the outside world I did not know; but within me there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss, altogether new, and I felt the presence of the Divine Mother." On his lips when he regained consciousness of the world was the word "Mother".
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Yet this was only a foretaste of the intense experiences to come. The first glimpse of the Divine Mother made him the more eager for Her uninterrupted vision. He wanted to see Her both in meditation and with eyes open. But the Mother began to play a teasing game of hide-and-seek with him, intensifying both his joy and his suffering. Weeping bitterly during the moments of separation From Her, he would pass into a trance and then find Her standing before him, smiling, talking, consoling, bidding him be of good cheer, and instructing him. During this period of spiritual practice he had many uncommon experiences. When he sat to meditate, he would hear strange clicking sounds in the joints of his legs, as if someone were locking them up, one after the other, to keep him motionless; and at the conclusion of his meditation he would again hear the same sounds, this time unlocking them and leaving him free to move about. He would see flashes like a swarm of fire-flies floating before his eyes, or a sea of deep mist around him, with luminous waves of molten silver. Again, From a sea of translucent mist he would behold the Mother rising, first Her feet, then Her waist, body, face, and head, finally Her whole person; he would feel Her breath and hear Her voice. Worshipping in the temple, sometimes he would become exalted, sometimes he would remain motionless as stone, sometimes he would almost collapse From excessive emotion. Many of his actions, contrary to all tradition, seemed sacrilegious to the people. He would take a flower and touch it to his own head, body, and feet, and then offer it to the Goddess. Or, like a drunkard, he would reel to the throne of the Mother, touch Her chin by way of showing his affection for Her, and sing, talk, joke, laugh, and dance. Or he would take a morsel of food From the plate and hold it to Her mouth, begging Her to eat it, and would not be satisfied till he was convinced that She had really eaten. After the Mother had been put to sleep at night, From his own room he would hear Her ascending to the upper storey of the temple with the light steps of a happy girl, Her anklets jingling. Then he would discover Her standing with flowing hair. Her black form silhouetted against the sky of the night, looking at the Ganges or at the distant lights of Calcutta.
Naturally the temple officials took him for an insane person. His worldly well-wishers brought him to skilled physicians; but no-medicine could cure his malady. Many a time he doubted his sanity himself. For he had been sailing across an uncharted sea, with no earthly guide to direct him. His only haven of security was the Divine Mother Herself. To Her he would pray: "I do not know what these things are. I am ignorant of mantras and the scriptures. Teach me, Mother, how to realize Thee. Who else can help me? Art Thou not my only refuge and guide?" And the sustaining presence of the Mother never failed him in his distress or doubt. Even those who criticized his conduct were greatly impressed with his purity, guilelessness, truthfulness, integrity, and holiness. They felt an uplifting influence in his presence.
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One of the painful ailments From which Sri Ramakrishna suffered at this time was a burning sensation in his body, and he was cured by a strange vision. During worship in the temple, following the scriptural injunctions, he would imagine the presence of the "sinner" in himself and the destruction of this "sinner". One day he was meditating in the Panchavati, when he saw come out of him a red-eyed man of black complexion, reeling like a drunkard. Soon there emerged From him another person, of serene countenance, wearing the ochre cloth of a sannyasi and carrying in his hand a trident. The second person attacked the first and killed him with the trident. Thereafter Sri Ramakrishna was free of his pain.
About this time he began to worship God by assuming the attitude of a servant toward his master. He imitated the mood of Hanuman, the monkey chieftain of the Ramayana, the ideal servant of Rama and traditional model for this self-effacing form of devotion. When he meditated on Hanuman his movements and his way of life began to resemble those of a monkey. His eyes became restless. He lived on fruits and roots. With his cloth tied around his waist, a portion of it hanging in the form of a tail, he jumped From place to place instead of walking. And after a short while he was blessed with a vision of Sita, the divine consort of Rama, who entered his body and disappeared there with the words, "I bequeath to you my smile."
Mathur had faith in the sincerity of Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual zeal, but began now to doubt his sanity. He had watched him jumping about like a monkey. One day, when Rani Rasmani was listening to Sri Ramakrishna's singing in the temple, the young priest abruptly turned and slapped her. Apparently listening to his song, she had actually been thinking of a law-suit. She accepted the punishment as though the Divine Mother Herself had imposed it; but Mathur was distressed. He begged Sri Ramakrishna to keep his feelings under control and to heed the conventions of society. God Himself, he argued, follows laws. God never permitted, for instance, flowers of two colours to grow on the same stalk. The following day Sri Ramakrishna presented Mathur Babu with two hibiscus flowers growing on the same stalk, one red and one white.
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One day Haladhari upset Sri Ramakrishna with the statement that God is incomprehensible to the human mind. Sri Ramakrishna has described the great moment of doubt when he wondered whether his visions had really misled him: "With sobs I prayed to the Mother, 'Canst Thou have the heart to deceive me like this because I am a fool?' A stream of tears flowed From my eyes. Shortly afterwards I saw a volume of mist rising From the floor and filling the space before me. In the midst of it there appeared a face with flowing beard, calm, highly expressive, and fair. Fixing its gaze steadily upon me, it said solemnly, 'Remain in bhavamukha, on the threshold of relative consciousness.' This it repeated three times and then it gently disappeared in the mist, which itself dissolved. This vision reassured me."
A garbled report of Sri Ramakrishna's failing health, indifference to worldly life, and various abnormal activities reached Kamarpukur and filled the heart of his poor mother with anguish. At her repeated request he returned to his village for a change of air. But his boyhood friends did not interest him any more. A divine fever was consuming him. He spent a great part of the day and night in one of the cremation grounds, in meditation. The place reminded him of the impermanence of the human body, of human hopes and achievements. It also reminded him of Kali, the Goddess of destruction.
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Two famous pundits of the time were invited: Vaishnavcharan, the leader of the Vaishnava society, and Gauri. The first to arrive was Vaishnavcharan, with a distinguished company of scholars and devotees. The Brahmani, like a proud mother, proclaimed her view before him and supported it with quotations From the scriptures. As the pundits discussed the deep theological question, Sri Ramakrishna, perfectly indifferent to everything happening around him, sat in their midst like a child, immersed in his own thoughts, sometimes smiling, sometimes chewing a pinch of spices From a pouch, or again saying to Vaishnavcharan with a nudge: "Look here. Sometimes I feel like this, too." Presently Vaishnavcharan arose to declare himself in total agreement with the view of the Brahmani. He declared that Sri Ramakrishna had undoubtedly experienced mahabhava and that this was the certain sign of the rare manifestation of God in a man. The people assembled
there, especially the officers of the temple garden, were struck dumb. Sri Rama- krishna said to Mathur, like a boy: "Just fancy, he too says so! Well, I am glad to learn that after all it is not a disease."
When, a few days later, Pundit Gauri arrived, another meeting was held, and he agreed with the view of the Brahmani and Vaishnavcharan. To Sri Ramakrishna's remark that Vaishnavcharan had declared him to be an Avatar, Gauri replied: "Is that all he has to say about you? Then he has said very little. I am fully convinced that you are that Mine of Spiritual Power, only a small fraction of which descends on earth, From time to time, in the form of an Incarnation."
"Ah!" said Sri Ramakrishna with a smile, "you seem to have quite outbid Vaishnavcharan in this matter. What have you found in me that makes you entertain such an idea?"
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According to the Tantra, Sakti is the active creative force in the universe. Siva, the Absolute, is a more or less passive principle. Further, Sakti is as inseparable From Siva as fire's power to burn is From fire itself. Sakti, the Creative Power, contains in Its womb the universe, and therefore is the Divine Mother. All women are Her symbols. Kali is one of Her several forms. The meditation on Kali, the Creative Power, is the central discipline of the Tantra. While meditating, the aspirant at first regards himself as one with the Absolute and then thinks that out of that Impersonal Consciousness emerge two entities, namely, his own self and the living form of the Goddess. He then projects the Goddess into the tangible image before him and worships it as the Divine Mother.
Sri Ramakrishna set himself to the task of practising the disciplines of Tantra; and at the bidding of the Divine Mother Herself he accepted the Brahmani as his guru. He performed profound and delicate ceremonies in the Panchavati and under the bel-tree at the northern extremity of the temple compound. He practised all the disciplines of the sixty-four principal Tantra books, and it took him never more than three days to achieve the result promised in any one of them. After the observance of a few preliminary rites, he would be overwhelmed with a strange divine fervour and would go into samadhi, where his mind would dwell in exaltation. Evil ceased to exist for him. The word "carnal" lost its meaning. The whole world and everything in it appeared as the lila, the sport, of Siva and Sakti. He beheld held everywhere manifest the power and beauty of the Mother; the whole world, animate and inanimate, appeared to him as pervaded with Chit, Consciousness, and with Ananda, Bliss.
He saw in a vision the Ultimate Cause of the universe as a huge luminous triangle giving birth every moment to an infinite number of worlds. He heard the Anahata Sabda, the great sound Om, of which the innumerable sounds of the universe are only so many echoes. He acquired the eight supernatural powers of yoga, which make a man almost omnipotent, and these he spurned as of no value whatsoever to the Spirit. He had a vision of the divine Maya, the inscrutable Power of God, by which the universe is created and sustained, and into which it is finally absorbed. In this vision he saw a woman of exquisite beauty, about to become a mother, emerging From the Ganges and slowly approaching the Panchavati. Presently she gave birth to a child and began to nurse it tenderly. A moment later she assumed a terrible aspect, seized the child with her grim jaws, and crushed it. Swallowing it, she re-entered the waters of the Ganges.
But the most remarkable experience during this period was the awakening of the Kundalini Sakti, the "Serpent Power". He actually saw the Power, at first lying asleep at the bottom of the spinal column, then waking up and ascending along the mystic Sushumna canal and through its six centres, or lotuses, to the Sahasrara, the thousand-petalled lotus in the top of the head. He further saw that as the Kundalini went upward the different lotuses bloomed. And this phenomenon was accompanied by visions and trances. Later on he described to his disciples and devotees the various movements of the Kundalini: the fishlike, birdlike, monkeylike, and so on. The awaken- ing of the Kundalini is the beginning of spiritual consciousness, and its union with Siva in the Sahasrara, ending in samadhi, is the consummation of the Tantrik disciplines.
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There are three kinds of formal devotion: tamasic, rajasic, and sattvic. If a person, while showing devotion, to God, is actuated by malevolence, arrogance, jealousy, or anger, then his devotion is tamasic, since it is influenced by tamas, the quality of inertia. If he worships God From a desire for fame or wealth, or From any other worldly ambition, then his devotion is rajasic, since it is influenced by rajas, the quality of activity. But if a person loves God without any thought of material gain, if he performs his duties to please God alone and maintains toward all created beings the attitude of friendship, then his devotion is called sattvic, since it is influenced by sattva, the quality of harmony. But the highest devotion transcends the three gunas, or qualities, being a spontaneous, uninterrupted inclination of the mind toward God, the Inner Soul of all beings; and it wells up in the heart of a true devotee as soon as he hears the name of God or mention of God's attributes. A devotee possessed of this love would not accept the happiness of heaven if it were offered him. His one desire is to love God under all conditions — in pleasure and pain, life and death, honour and dishonour, prosperity and adversity.
There are two stages of bhakti. The first is known as vaidhi-bhakti, or love of God qualified by scriptural injunctions. For the devotees of this stage are prescribed regular and methodical worship, hymns, prayers, the repetition of God's name, and the chanting of His glories. This lower bhakti in course of time matures into para-bhakti, or supreme devotion, known also as prema, the most intense form of divine love. Divine love is an end in itself. It exists potentially in all human hearts, but in the case of bound creatures it is misdirected to earthly objects.
To develop the devotee's love for God, Vaishnavism humanizes God. God is to be regarded as the devotee's Parent, Master, Friend, Child, Husband, or Sweetheart, each succeeding relationship representing an intensification of love. These bhavas, or attitudes toward God, are known as santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, and madhur. The rishis of the Vedas, Hanuman, the cow-herd boys of Vrindavan, Rama's mother Kausalya, and Radhika, Krishna's sweetheart, exhibited, respectively, the most perfect examples of these forms. In the ascending scale the-glories of God are gradually forgotten and the devotee realizes more and more the intimacy of divine communion. Finally he regards himself as the mistress of his Beloved, and no artificial barrier remains to separate him From his Ideal. No social or moral obligation can bind to the earth his soaring spirit. He experiences perfect union with the Godhead. Unlike the Vedantist, who strives to transcend all varieties of the subject-object relationship, a devotee of the Vaishnava path wishes to retain both his own individuality and the personality of God. To him God is not an intangible Absolute, but the Purushottama, the Supreme Person.
While practising the discipline of the madhur bhava, the male devotee often regards himself as a woman, in order to develop the most intense form of love for Sri Krishna, the only purusha, or man, in the universe. This assumption of the attitude of the opposite sex has a deep psychological significance. It is a matter of common experience that an idea may be cultivated to such an intense degree that every idea alien to it is driven From the mind. This peculiarity of the mind may be utilized for the subjugation of the lower desires and the development of the spiritual nature. Now, the idea which is the basis of all desires and passions in a man is the conviction of his indissoluble association with a male body. If he can inoculate himself thoroughly with the idea that he is a woman, he can get rid of the desires peculiar to his male body. Again, the idea that he is a woman may in turn be made to give way to another higher idea, namely, that he is neither man nor woman, but the Impersonal Spirit. The Impersonal Spirit alone can enjoy real communion with the Impersonal God. Hence the highest est realization of the Vaishnava draws close to the transcendental experience of the Vedantist.
A beautiful expression of the Vaishnava worship of God through love is to be found in the Vrindavan episode of the Bhagavata. The gopis, or milk-maids, of Vrindavan regarded the six-year-old Krishna as their Beloved. They sought no personal gain or happiness From this love. They surrendered to Krishna their bodies, minds, and souls. Of all the gopis, Radhika, or Radha, because of her intense love for Him, was the closest to Krishna. She manifested mahabhava and was united with her Beloved. This union represents, through sensuous language, a supersensuous experience.
Sri Chaitanya, also known as Gauranga, Gora, or Nimai, born in Bengal in 1485 and regarded as an Incarnation of God, is a great prophet of the Vaishnava religion. Chaitanya declared the chanting of God's name to be the most efficacious spiritual discipline for the Kaliyuga.
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Sri Ramakrishna, much impressed with his devotion, requested Jatadhari to spend a few days at Dakshineswar. Soon Ramlala became the favourite companion of Sri Ramakrishna too. Later on he described to the devotees how the little image would dance gracefully before him, jump on his back, insist on being taken in his arms, run to the fields in the sun, pluck flowers From the bushes, and play pranks like a naughty boy. A very sweet relationship sprang up between him and Ramlala, for whom he felt the love of a mother.
One day Jatadhari requested Sri Ramakrishna to keep the image and bade him adieu with tearful eyes. He declared that Ramlala had fulfilled his innermost prayer and that he now had no more need of formal worship. A few days later Sri Ramakrishna was blessed through Ramlala with a vision of Ramachandra, whereby he realized that the Rama of the Ramayana, the son of Dasaratha, pervades the whole universe as Spirit and Consciousness; that He is its Creator, Sustainer, and Destroyer; that, in still another aspect, He is the transcendental Brahman, without form, attribute, or name.
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The love of Radha is the precursor of the resplendent vision of Sri Krishna, and Sri Ramakrishna soon experienced that vision. The enchanting ing form of Krishna appeared to him and merged in his person. He became Krishna; he totally forgot his own individuality and the world; he saw Krishna in himself and in the universe. Thus he attained to the fulfilment of the worship of the Personal God. He drank From the fountain of Immortal Bliss. The agony of his heart vanished forever. He realized Amrita, Immortality, beyond the shadow of death.
One day, listening to a recitation of the Bhagavata on the verandah of the Radhakanta temple, he fell into a divine mood and saw the enchanting form of Krishna. He perceived the luminous rays issuing From Krishna's Lotus Feet in the form of a stout rope, which touched first the Bhagavata and then his own chest, connecting all three — God, the scripture, and the devotee. "After this vision", he used to say, "I came to realize that Bhagavan, Bhakta, and Bhagavata — God, Devotee, and Scripture — are in reality one and the same."
--- VEDANTA
The Brahmani was the enthusiastic teacher and astonished beholder of Sri Ramakrishna in his spiritual progress. She became proud of the achievements of her unique pupil. But the pupil himself was not permitted to rest; his destiny beckoned him forward. His Divine Mother would allow him no respite till he had left behind the entire realm of duality with its visions, experiences, and ecstatic dreams. But for the new ascent the old tender guides would not suffice. The Brahmani, on whom he had depended for, three years, saw her son escape From her to follow the command of a teacher with masculine strength, a sterner mien, a gnarled physique, and a virile voice. The new guru was a wandering monk, the sturdy Totapuri, whom Sri Ramakrishna learnt to address affectionately as Nangta, the "Naked One", because of his total renunciation of all earthly objects and attachments, including even a piece of wearing cloth.
Totapuri was the bearer of a philosophy new to Sri Ramakrishna, the non-dualistic Vedanta philosophy, whose conclusions Totapuri had experienced in his own life. This ancient Hindu system designates the Ultimate Reality as Brahman, also described as Satchidananda, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Brahman is the only Real Existence. In It there is no time, no space, no causality, no multiplicity. But through maya, Its inscrutable Power, time, space, and causality are created and the One appears to break into the many. The eternal Spirit appears as a manifold of individuals endowed with form and subject to the conditions of time. The Immortal becomes a victim of birth and death. The Changeless undergoes change. The sinless Pure Soul, hypnotized by Its own maya, experiences the joys of heaven and the pains of hell. But these experiences based on the duality of the subject-object relationship are unreal. Even the vision of a Personal God
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Even when man descends From this dizzy height, he is devoid of ideas of "I" and "mine"; he looks on the body as a mere shadow, an outer sheath encasing the soul. He does not dwell on the past, takes no thought for the future, and looks with indifference on the present. He surveys everything in the world with an eye of equality; he is no longer touched by the infinite variety of phenomena; he no longer reacts to pleasure and pain. He remains unmoved whether he — that is to say, his body — is worshipped by the good or tormented by the wicked; for he realizes that it is the one Brahman that manifests Itself through everything. The impact of such an experience devastates the body and mind. Consciousness becomes blasted, as it were, with an excess of Light. In the Vedanta books it is said that after the experience of nirvikalpa samadhi the body drops off like a dry leaf. Only those who are born with a special mission for the world can return
From this height to the valleys of normal life. They live and move in the world for the welfare of mankind. They are invested with a supreme spiritual power. A divine glory shines through them.
--- TOTAPURI
Totapuri arrived at the Dakshineswar temple garden toward the end of 1864. Perhaps born in the Punjab, he was the head of a monastery in that province of India and claimed leadership of seven hundred sannyasis. Trained From early youth in the disciplines of the Advaita Vedanta, he looked upon the world as an illusion. The gods and goddesses of the dualistic worship were to him mere fantasies of the deluded mind. Prayers, ceremonies, rites, and rituals had nothing to do with true religion, and about these he was utterly indifferent. Exercising self-exertion and unshakable will-power, he had liberated himself From attachment to the sense-objects of the relative universe. For forty years he had practised austere discipline on the bank of the sacred Narmada and had finally realized his identity with the Absolute. Thenceforward he roamed in the world as an unfettered soul, a lion free From the cage. Clad in a loin-cloth, he spent his days under the canopy of the sky alike in storm and sunshine, feeding his body on the slender pittance of alms. He had been visiting the estuary of the Ganges. On his return journey along the bank of the sacred river, led by the inscrutable Divine Will, he stopped at Dakshineswar.
Totapuri, discovering at once that Sri Ramakrishna was prepared to be a student of Vedanta, asked to initiate him into its mysteries. With the permission of the Divine Mother, Sri Ramakrishna agreed to the proposal. But Totapuri explained that only a sannyasi could receive the teaching of Vedanta. Sri Ramakrishna agreed to renounce the world, but with the stipulation that the ceremony of his initiation into the monastic order be performed in secret, to spare the feelings of his old mother, who had been living with him at Dakshineswar.
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In the burning flame before him Sri Ramakrishna performed the rituals of destroying his attachment to relatives, friends, body, mind, sense-organs, ego, and the world. The leaping flame swallowed it all, making the initiate free and pure. The sacred thread and the tuft of hair were consigned to the fire, completing his severance From caste, sex, and society. Last of all he burnt in that fire, with all that is holy as his witness, his desire for enjoyment here and hereafter. He uttered the sacred mantras giving assurance of safety and fearlessness to all beings, who were only manifestations of his own Self. The rites completed, the disciple received From the guru the loin-cloth and ochre robe, the emblems of his new life.
The teacher and the disciple repaired to the meditation room near by. Totapuri began to impart to Sri Ramakrishna the great truths of Vedanta.
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Totapuri asked the disciple to withdraw his mind From all objects of the relative world, including the gods and goddesses, and to concentrate on the Absolute. But the task was not easy even for Sri Ramakrishna. He found it impossible to take his mind beyond Kali, the Divine Mother of the Universe. "After the initiation", Sri Ramakrishna once said, describing the event, "Nangta began to teach me the various conclusions of the Advaita Vedanta and asked me to withdraw the mind completely From all objects and dive deep into the Atman. But in spite of all my attempts I could not altogether cross the realm of name and form and bring my mind to the unconditioned state. I had no difficulty in taking the mind From all the objects of the world. But the radiant and too familiar figure of the Blissful Mother, the Embodiment of the essence of Pure Consciousness, appeared before me as a living reality. Her bewitching smile prevented me From passing into the Great Beyond. Again and again I tried, but She stood in my way every time. In despair I said to Nangta: 'It is hopeless. I cannot raise my mind to the unconditioned state and come face to face with Atman.' He grew excited and sharply said: 'What? You can't do it? But you have to.' He cast his eyes around. Finding a piece of glass he took it up and stuck it between my eyebrows. 'Concentrate the mind on this point!' he thundered. Then with stern determination I again sat to meditate. As soon as the gracious form of the Divine Mother appeared before me, I used my discrimination as a sword and with it clove Her in two. The last barrier fell. My spirit at once soared beyond the relative plane and I lost myself in samadhi."
Sri Ramakrishna remained completely absorbed in samadhi for three days. "Is it really true?" Totapuri cried out in astonishment. "Is it possible that he has attained in a single day what it took me forty years of strenuous practice to achieve? Great God! It is nothing short of a miracle!" With the help of Totapuri, Sri Ramakrishna's mind finally came down to the relative plane.
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Sri Ramakrishna, on the other hand, though fully aware, like his guru, that the world is an illusory appearance, instead of slighting maya, like an orthodox monist, acknowledged its power in the relative life. He was all love and reverence for maya, perceiving in it a mysterious and majestic expression of Divinity. To him maya itself was God, for everything was God. It was one of the faces of Brahman. What he had realized on the heights of the transcendental plane, he also found here below, everywhere about him, under the mysterious garb of names and forms. And this garb was a perfectly transparent sheath, through which he recognized the glory of the Divine Immanence. Maya, the mighty weaver of the garb, is none other than Kali, the Divine Mother. She is the primordial Divine Energy, Sakti, and She can no more be distinguished From the Supreme Brahman than can the power of burning be distinguished From fire. She projects the world and again withdraws it. She spins it as the spider spins its web. She is the Mother of the Universe, identical with the Brahman of Vedanta, and with the Atman of Yoga. As eternal Lawgiver, She makes and unmakes laws; it is by Her imperious will that karma yields its fruit. She ensnares men with illusion and again releases them From bondage with a look of Her benign eyes. She is the supreme Mistress of the cosmic play, and all objects, animate and inanimate, dance by Her will. Even those who realize the Absolute in nirvikalpa samadhi are under Her jurisdiction as long as they still live on the relative plane.
Thus, after nirvikalpa samadhi, Sri Ramakrishna realized maya in an altogether new role. The binding aspect of Kali vanished From before his vision. She no longer obscured his understanding. The world became the glorious manifestation of the Divine Mother. Maya became Brahman. The Transcendental Itself broke through the Immanent. Sri Ramakrishna discovered that maya operates in the relative world in two ways, and he termed these "avidyamaya" and "vidyamaya". Avidyamaya represents the dark forces of creation: sensuous desires, evil passions, greed, lust, cruelty, and so on. It sustains the world system on the lower planes. It is responsible for the round of man's birth and death. It must be fought and vanquished. But vidyamaya is the higher force of creation: the spiritual virtues, the enlightening qualities, kindness, purity, love, devotion. Vidyamaya elevates man to the higher planes of consciousness. With the help of vidyamaya the devotee rids himself of avidyamaya; he then becomes mayatita, free of maya. The two aspects of maya are the two forces of creation, the two powers of Kali; and She stands beyond them both. She is like the effulgent sun, bringing into existence and shining through and standing behind the clouds of different colours and shapes, conjuring up wonderful forms in the blue autumn heaven.
The Divine Mother asked Sri Ramakrishna not to be lost in the featureless Absolute but to remain, in bhavamukha, on the threshold of relative consciousness, the border line between the Absolute and the Relative. He was to keep himself at the "sixth centre" of Tantra, From which he could see not only the glory of the seventh, but also the divine manifestations of the Kundalini in the lower centres. He gently oscillated back and forth across the dividing line. Ecstatic devotion to the Divine Mother alternated with serene absorption in the Ocean of Absolute Unity. He thus bridged the gulf between the Personal and the Impersonal, the immanent and the transcendent aspects of Reality. This is a unique experience in the recorded spiritual history of the world.
--- TOTAPURI'S LESSON
From Sri Ramakrishna Totapuri had to learn the significance of Kali, the Great Fact of the relative world, and of maya, Her indescribable Power.
One day, when guru and disciple were engaged in an animated discussion about Vedanta, a servant of the temple garden came there and took a coal From the sacred fire that had been lighted by the great ascetic. He wanted it to light his tobacco. Totapuri flew into a rage and was about to beat the man. Sri Ramakrishna rocked with laughter. "What a shame!" he cried. "You are explaining to me the reality of Brahman and the illusoriness of the world; yet now you have so far forgotten yourself as to be about to beat a man in a fit of passion. The power of maya is indeed inscrutable!" Totapuri was embarrassed.
About this time Totapuri was suddenly laid up with a severe attack of dysentery. On account of this miserable illness he found it impossible to meditate. One night the pain became excruciating. He could no longer concentrate on Brahman. The body stood in the way. He became incensed with its demands. A free soul, he did not at all care for the body. So he determined to drown it in the Ganges. Thereupon he walked into the river. But, lo! He walks to the other bank." (This version of the incident is taken From the biography of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Saradananda, one of the Master's direct disciples.) Is there not enough water in the Ganges? Standing dumbfounded on the other bank he looks back across the water. The trees, the temples, the houses, are silhouetted against the sky. Suddenly, in one dazzling moment, he sees on all sides the presence of the Divine Mother. She is in everything; She is everything. She is in the water; She is on land. She is the body; She is the mind. She is pain; She is comfort. She is knowledge; She is ignorance. She is life; She is death. She is everything that one sees, hears, or imagines. She turns "yea" into "nay", and "nay" into "yea". Without Her grace no embodied being can go beyond Her realm. Man has no free will. He is not even free to die. Yet, again, beyond the body and mind She resides in Her Transcendental, Absolute aspect. She is the Brahman that Totapuri had been worshipping all his life.
Totapuri returned to Dakshineswar and spent the remaining hours of the night meditating on the Divine Mother. In the morning he went to the Kali temple with Sri Ramakrishna and prostrated himself before the image of the Mother. He now realized why he had spent eleven months at Dakshineswar. Bidding farewell to the disciple, he continued on his way, enlightened.
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After the departure of Totapuri, Sri Ramakrishna remained for six months in a state of absolute identity with Brahman. "For six months at a stretch", he said, "I remained in that state From which ordinary men can never return; generally the body falls off, after three weeks, like a sere leaf. I was not conscious of day and night. Flies would enter my mouth and nostrils just as they do a dead body's, but I did not feel them. My hair became matted with dust."
His body would not have survived but for the kindly attention of a monk who happened to be at Dakshineswar at that time and who somehow realized that for the good of humanity Sri Ramakrishna's body must be preserved. He tried various means, even physical violence, to recall the fleeing soul to the prison-house of the body, and during the resultant fleeting moments of consciousness he would push a few morsels of food down Sri Ramakrishna's throat. Presently Sri Ramakrishna received the command of the Divine Mother to remain on the threshold of relative consciousness. Soon there-after after he was afflicted with a serious attack of dysentery. Day and night the pain tortured him, and his mind gradually came down to the physical plane.
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From now on Sri Ramakrishna began to seek the company of devotees and holy men. He had gone through the storm and stress of spiritual disciplines and visions. Now he realized an inner calmness and appeared to others as a normal person. But he could not bear the company of worldly people or listen to their talk. Fortunately the holy atmosphere of Dakshineswar and the liberality of Mathur attracted monks and holy men From all parts of the country. Sadhus of all denominations — monists and dualists, Vaishnavas and Vedantists, Saktas and worshippers of Rama — flocked there in ever increasing numbers. Ascetics and visionaries came to seek Sri Ramakrishna's advice. Vaishnavas had come during the period of his Vaishnava sadhana, and Tantriks when he practised the disciplines of Tantra. Vedantists began to arrive after the departure of Totapuri. In the room of Sri Ramakrishna, who was then in bed with dysentery, the Vedantists engaged in scriptural discussions, and, forgetting his own physical suffering, he solved their doubts by referring directly to his own experiences. Many of the visitors were genuine spiritual souls, the unseen pillars of Hinduism, and their spiritual lives were quickened in no small measure by the sage of Dakshineswar. Sri Ramakrishna in turn learnt From them anecdotes concerning the ways and the conduct of holy men, which he subsequently narrated to his devotees and disciples. At his request Mathur provided him with large stores of food-stuffs, clothes, and so forth, for distribution among the wandering monks.
"Sri Ramakrishna had not read books, yet he possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of religions and religious philosophies. This he acquired From his contacts with innumerable holy men and scholars. He had a unique power of assimilation; through meditation he made this knowledge a part of his being. Once, when he was asked by a disciple about the source of his seemingly inexhaustible knowledge, he replied; "I have not read; but I have heard the learned. I have made a garland of their knowledge, wearing it round my neck, and I have given it as an offering at the feet of the Mother."
Sri Ramakrishna used to say that when the flower blooms the bees come to it for honey of their own accord. Now many souls began to visit Dakshineswar to satisfy their spiritual hunger. He, the devotee and aspirant, became the Master. Gauri, the great scholar who had been one of the first to proclaim Sri Ramakrishna an Incarnation of God, paid the Master a visit in 1870 and with the Master's blessings renounced the world. Narayan Shastri, another great pundit, who had mastered the six systems of Hindu philosophy and had been offered a lucrative post by the Maharaja of Jaipur, met the Master and recognized in him one who had realized in life those ideals which he himself had encountered merely in books. Sri Ramakrishna initiated Narayan Shastri, at his earnest request, into the life of sannyas. Pundit Padmalochan, the court pundit of the Maharaja of Burdwan, well known for his scholarship in both the Vedanta and the Nyaya systems of philosophy, accepted the Master as an Incarnation of God. Krishnakishore, a Vedantist scholar, became devoted to the Master. And there arrived Viswanath Upadhyaya, who was to become a favourite devotee; Sri Ramakrishna always addressed him as "Captain". He was a high officer of the King of Nepal and had received the title of Colonel in recognition of his merit. A scholar of the Gita, the Bhagavata, and the Vedanta philosophy, he daily performed the worship of his Chosen Deity with great devotion. "I have read the Vedas and the other scriptures", he said. "I have also met a good many monks and devotees in different places. But it is in Sri Ramakrishna's presence that my spiritual yearnings have been fulfilled. To me he seems to be the embodiment of the truths of the scriptures."
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Eight years later, some time in November 1874, Sri Ramakrishna was seized with an irresistible desire to learn the truth of the Christian religion. He began to listen to readings From the Bible, by Sambhu Charan Mallick, a gentleman of Calcutta and a devotee of the Master. Sri Ramakrishna became fascinated by the life and teachings of Jesus. One day he was seated in the parlour of Jadu Mallick's garden house (This expression is used throughout to translate the Bengali word denoting a rich man's country house set in a garden.) at Dakshineswar, when his eyes became fixed on a painting of the Madonna and Child. Intently watching it, he became gradually overwhelmed with divine emotion. The figures in the picture took on life, and the rays of light emanating From them entered his soul. The effect of this experience was stronger than that of the vision of Mohammed. In dismay he cried out, "O Mother! What are You doing to me?" And, breaking through the barriers of creed and religion, he entered a new realm of ecstasy. Christ possessed his soul. For three days he did not set foot in the Kali temple. On the fourth day, in the afternoon, as he was walking in the Panchavati, he saw coming toward him a person with beautiful large eyes, serene countenance, and fair skin. As the two faced each other, a voice rang out in the depths of Sri Ramakrishna's soul: "Behold the Christ, who shed His heart's blood for the redemption of the world, who suffered a sea of anguish for love of men. It is He, the Master Yogi, who is in eternal union with God. It is Jesus, Love Incarnate." The Son of Man embraced the Son of the Divine Mother and merged in him. Sri Ramakrishna krishna realized his identity with Christ, as he had already realized his identity with Kali, Rama, Hanuman, Radha, Krishna, Brahman, and Mohammed. The Master went into samadhi and communed with the Brahman with attributes. Thus he experienced the truth that Christianity, too, was a path leading to God-Consciousness. Till the last moment of his life he believed that Christ was an Incarnation of God. But Christ, for him, was not the only Incarnation; there were others — Buddha, for instance, and Krishna.
--- ATTITUDE TOWARD DIFFERENT RELIGIONS
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In 1867 Sri Ramakrishna returned to Kamarpukur to recuperate From the effect of his austerities. The peaceful countryside, the simple and artless companions of his boyhood, and the pure air did him much good. The villagers were happy to get back their playful, frank, witty, kind-hearted, and truthful Gadadhar, though they did not fail to notice the great change that had come over him during his years in Calcutta. His wife, Sarada Devi, now fourteen years old, soon arrived at Kamarpukur. Her spiritual development was much beyond her age and she was able to understand immediately her husband's state of mind. She became eager to learn From him about God and to live with him as his attendant. The Master accepted her cheerfully both as his disciple and as his spiritual companion. Referring to the experiences of these few days, she once said: "I used to feel always as if a pitcher full of bliss were placed in my heart. The joy was indescribable."
--- PILGRIMAGE
On January 27, 1868, Mathur Babu with a party of some one hundred and twenty-five persons set out on a pilgrimage to the sacred places of northern India. At Vaidyanath in Behar, when the Master saw the inhabitants of a village reduced by poverty and starvation to mere skeletons, he requested his rich patron to feed the people and give each a piece of cloth. Mathur demurred at the added expense. The Master declared bitterly that he would not go on to Benares, but would live with the poor and share their miseries. He actually left Mathur and sat down with the villagers. Whereupon Mathur had to yield. On another occasion, two years later, Sri Ramakrishna showed a similar sentiment for the poor and needy. He accompanied Mathur on a tour to one of the latter's estates at the time of the collection of rents. For two years the harvests had failed and the tenants were in a state of extreme poverty. The Master asked Mathur to remit their rents, distribute help to them, and in addition give the hungry people a sumptuous feast. When Mathur grumbled, the Master said: "You are only the steward of the Divine Mother. They are the Mother's tenants. You must spend the Mother's money. When they are suffering, how can you refuse to help them? You must help them." Again Mathur had to give in. Sri Ramakrishna's sympathy for the poor sprang From his perception of God in all created beings. His sentiment was not that of the humanist or philanthropist. To him the service of man was the same as the worship of God.
The party entered holy Benares by boat along the Ganges. When Sri Ramakrishna's eyes fell on this city of Siva, where had accumulated for ages the devotion and piety of countless worshippers, he saw it to be made of gold, as the scriptures declare. He was visibly moved. During his stay in the city he treated every particle of its earth with utmost respect. At the Manikarnika Ghat, the great cremation ground of the city, he actually saw Siva, with ash-covered body and tawny matted hair, serenely approaching each funeral pyre and breathing into the ears of the corpses the mantra of liberation; and then the Divine Mother removing From the dead their bonds. Thus he realized the significance of the scriptural statement that anyone dying in Benares attains salvation through the grace of Siva. He paid a visit to Trailanga Swami, the celebrated monk, whom he later declared to be a real paramahamsa, a veritable image of Siva.
Sri Ramakrishna visited Allahabad, at the confluence of the Ganges and the Jamuna, and then proceeded to Vrindavan and Mathura, hallowed by the legends, songs, and dramas about Krishna and the gopis. Here he had numerous visions and his heart overflowed with divine emotion. He wept and said: "O Krishna! Everything here is as it was in the olden days. You alone are absent." He visited the great woman saint, Gangamayi, regarded by Vaishnava devotees as the reincarnation of an intimate attendant of Radha. She was sixty years old and had frequent trances. She spoke of Sri Ramakrishna as an incarnation of Radha. With great difficulty he was persuaded to leave her.
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From Vrindavan the Master had brought a handful of dust. Part of this he scattered in the Panchavati; the rest he buried in the little hut where he had practised meditation. "Now this place", he said, "is as sacred as Vrindavan."
In 1870 the Master went on a pilgrimage to Nadia, the birth-place of Sri Chaitanya. As the boat by which he travelled approached the sand-bank close to Nadia, Sri Ramakrishna had a vision of the "two brothers", Sri Chaitanya and his companion Nityananda, "bright as molten gold" and with haloes, rushing to greet him with uplifted hands. "There they come! There they come!" he cried. They entered his body and he went into a deep trance.
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The Master took up the duty of instructing his young wife, and this included everything From housekeeping to the Knowledge of Brahman. He taught her how to trim a lamp, how to behave toward people according to their differing temperaments, and how to conduct herself before visitors. He instructed her in the mysteries of spiritual life — prayer, meditation, japa, deep contemplation, and samadhi. The first lesson that Sarada Devi received was: "God is everybody's Beloved, just as the moon is dear to every child. Everyone has the same right to pray to Him. Out of His grace He reveals Himself to all who call upon Him. You too will see Him if you but pray to Him."
Totapuri, coming to know of the Master's marriage, had once remarked: "What does it matter? He alone is firmly established in the Knowledge of Brahman who can adhere to his spirit of discrimination and renunciation even while living with his wife. He alone has attained the supreme illumination who can look on man and woman alike as Brahman. A man with the idea of sex may be a good aspirant, but he is still far From the goal." Sri Ramakrishna and his wife lived together at Dakshineswar, but their minds always soared above the worldly plane. A few months after Sarada Devi's arrival Sri Ramakrishna arranged, on an auspicious day, a special worship of Kali, the Divine Mother. Instead of an image of the Deity, he placed on the seat the living image, Sarada Devi herself. The worshipper and the worshipped went into deep samadhi and in the transcendental plane their souls were united. After several hours Sri Ramakrishna came down again to the relative plane, sang a hymn to the Great Goddess, and surrendered, at the feet of the living image, himself, his rosary, and the fruit of his life-long sadhana. This is known in Tantra as the Shorasi Puja, the "Adoration of Woman". Sri Ramakrishna realized the significance of the great statement of the Upanishad: "O Lord, Thou art the woman. Thou art the man; Thou art the boy. Thou art the girl; Thou art the old, tottering on their crutches. Thou pervadest the universe in its multiple forms."
By his marriage Sri Ramakrishna admitted the great value of marriage in man's spiritual evolution, and by adhering to his monastic vows he demonstrated the imperative necessity of self-control, purity, and continence, in the realization of God. By this unique spiritual relationship with his wife he proved that husband and wife can live together as spiritual companions. Thus his life is a synthesis of the ways of life of the householder and the monk.
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Second, he knew that he had always been a free soul, that the various disciplines through which he had passed were really not necessary for his own liberation but were solely for the benefit of others. Thus the terms liberation and bondage were not applicable to him. As long as there are beings who consider themselves bound. God must come down to earth as an Incarnation to free them From bondage, just as a magistrate must visit any part of his district in which there is trouble.
Third, he came to foresee the time of his death. His words with respect to this matter were literally fulfilled.
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Second, the three great systems of thought known as Dualism, Qualified Non-dualism, and Absolute Non-dualism — Dvaita, Visishtadvaita, and Advaita — he perceived to represent three stages in man's progress toward the Ultimate Reality. They were not contradictory but complementary and suited to different temperaments. For the ordinary man with strong attachment to the senses, a dualistic form of religion, prescribing a certain amount of material support, such as music and other symbols, is useful. A man of God-realization transcends the idea of worldly duties, but the ordinary mortal must perform his duties, striving to be unattached and to surrender the results to God. The mind can comprehend and describe the range of thought and experience up to the Visishtadvaita, and no further. The Advaita, the last word in spiritual experience, is something to be felt in samadhi. for it transcends mind and speech. From the highest standpoint, the Absolute and Its manifestation are equally real — the Lord's Name, His Abode, and the Lord Himself are of the same spiritual Essence. Everything is Spirit, the difference being only in form.
Third, Sri Ramakrishna realized the wish of the Divine Mother that through him She should found a new Order, consisting of those who would uphold the universal doctrines illustrated in his life.
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During this period Sri Ramakrishna suffered several bereavements. The first was the death of a nephew named Akshay. After the young man's death Sri Ramakrishna said: "Akshay died before my very eyes. But it did not affect me in the least. I stood by and watched a man die. It was like a sword being drawn From its scabbard. I enjoyed the scene, and laughed and sang and danced over it. They removed the body and cremated it. But the next day as I stood there (pointing to the southeast verandah of his room), I felt a racking pain for the loss of Akshay, as if somebody were squeezing my heart like a wet towel. I wondered at it and thought that the Mother was teaching me a lesson. I was not much concerned even with my own body — much less with a relative. But if such was my pain at the loss of a nephew, how much more must be the grief of the householders at the loss of their near and dear ones!" In 1871 Mathur died, and some five years later Sambhu Mallick — who, after Mathur's passing away, had taken care of the Master's comfort. In 1873 died his elder brother Rameswar, and in 1876, his beloved mother. These bereavements left their imprint on the tender human heart of Sri Ramakrishna, albeit he had realized the immortality of the soul and the illusoriness of birth and death.
In March 1875, about a year before the death of his mother, the Master met Keshab Chandra Sen. The meeting was a momentous event for both Sri Ramakrishna and Keshab. Here the Master for the first time came into actual, contact with a worthy representative of modern India.
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Keshab was the leader of the Brahmo Samaj, one of the two great movements that, during the latter part of the nineteenth century, played an important part in shaping the course of the renascence of India. The founder of the Brahmo movement had been the great Raja Rammohan Roy (1774-1833). Though born in an orthodox brahmin family, Rammohan Roy had shown great sympathy for Islam and Christianity. He had gone to Tibet in search of the Buddhist mysteries. He had extracted From Christianity its ethical system, but had rejected the divinity of Christ as he had denied the Hindu Incarnations. The religion of Islam influenced him, to a great extent, in the formulation of his monotheistic doctrines. But he always went back to the Vedas for his spiritual inspiration. The Brahmo Samaj, which he founded in 1828, was dedicated to the "worship and adoration of the Eternal, the Unsearchable, the Immutable Being, who is the Author and Preserver of the Universe". The Samaj was open to all without distinction of colour, creed, caste, nation, or religion.
The real organizer of the Samaj was Devendranath Tagore (1817-1905), the father of the poet Rabindranath. His physical and spiritual beauty, aristocratic aloofness, penetrating intellect, and poetic sensibility made him the foremost leader of the educated Bengalis. These addressed him by the respectful epithet of Maharshi, the "Great Seer". The Maharshi was a Sanskrit scholar and, unlike Raja Rammohan Roy, drew his inspiration entirely From the Upanishads. He was an implacable enemy of image worship ship and also fought to stop the infiltration of Christian ideas into the Samaj. He gave the movement its faith and ritual. Under his influence the Brahmo Samaj professed One Self-existent Supreme Being who had created the universe out of nothing, the God of Truth, Infinite Wisdom, Goodness, and Power, the Eternal and Omnipotent, the One without a Second. Man should love Him and do His will, believe in Him and worship Him, and thus merit salvation in the world to come.
By far the ablest leader of the Brahmo movement was Keshab Chandra Sen (1838-1884). Unlike Raja Rammohan Roy and Devendranath Tagore, Keshab was born of a middle-class Bengali family and had been brought up in an English school. He did not know Sanskrit and very soon broke away From the popular Hindu religion. Even at an early age he came under the spell of Christ and professed to have experienced the special favour of John the Baptist, Christ, and St. Paul. When he strove to introduce Christ to the Brahmo Samaj, a rupture became inevitable with Devendranath. In 1868 Keshab broke with the older leader and founded the Brahmo Samaj of India, Devendra retaining leadership of the first Brahmo Samaj, now called the Adi Samaj.
Keshab possessed a complex nature. When passing through a great moral crisis, he spent much of his time in solitude and felt that he heard the voice of God, When a devotional form of worship was introduced into the Brahmo Samaj, he spent hours in singing kirtan with his followers. He visited England land in 1870 and impressed the English people with his musical voice, his simple English, and his spiritual fervour. He was entertained by Queen Victoria. Returning to India, he founded centres of the Brahmo Samaj in various parts of the country. Not unlike a professor of comparative religion in a European university, he began to discover, about the time of his first contact with Sri Ramakrishna, the harmony of religions. He became sympathetic toward the Hindu gods and goddesses, explaining them in a liberal fashion. Further, he believed that he was called by God to dictate to the world God's newly revealed law, the New Dispensation, the Navavidhan.
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The other movement playing an important part in the nineteenth-century religious revival of India was the Arya Samaj. The Brahmo Samaj, essentially a movement of compromise with European culture, tacitly admitted the superiority of the West. But the founder of the Arya Samaj was a ' pugnacious Hindu sannyasi who accepted the challenge of Islam and Christianity and was resolved to combat all foreign influence in India. Swami Dayananda (1824-1883) launched this movement in Bombay in 1875, and soon its influence was felt throughout western India. The Swami was a great scholar of the Vedas, which he explained as being strictly monotheistic. He preached against the worship of images and re-established the ancient Vedic sacrificial rites. According to him the Vedas were the ultimate authority on religion, and he accepted every word of them as literally true. The Arya Samaj became a bulwark against the encroachments of Islam and Christianity, and its orthodox flavour appealed to many Hindu minds. It also assumed leadership in many movements of social reform. The caste-system became a target of its attack. Women it liberated From many of their social disabilities. The cause of education received From it a great impetus. It started agitation against early marriage and advocated the remarriage of Hindu widows. Its influence was strongest in the Punjab, the battle-ground of the Hindu and Islamic cultures. A new fighting attitude was introduced into the slumbering Hindu society. Unlike the Brahmo Samaj, the influence of the Arya Samaj was not confined to the intellectuals. It was a force that spread to the masses. It was a dogmatic movement intolerant of those who disagreed with its views, and it emphasized only one way, the Arya Samaj way, to the realization of Truth. Sri Ramakrishna met Swami Dayananda when the latter visited Bengal.
--- KESHAB CHANDRA SEN
Keshab Chandra Sen and Sri Ramakrishna met for the first time in the garden house of Jaygopal Sen at Belgharia, a few miles From Dakshineswar, where the great Brahmo leader was staying with some of his disciples. In many respects the two were poles apart, though an irresistible inner attraction was to make them intimate friends. The Master had realized God as Pure Spirit and Consciousness, but he believed in the various forms of God as well. Keshab, on the other hand, regarded image worship as idolatry and gave allegorical explanations of the Hindu deities. Keshab was an orator and a writer of books and magazine articles; Sri Ramakrishna had a horror of lecturing and hardly knew how to write his own name, Keshab's fame spread far and wide, even reaching the distant shores of England; the Master still led a secluded life in the village of Dakshineswar. Keshab emphasized social reforms for India's regeneration; to Sri Ramakrishna God-realization was the only goal of life. Keshab considered himself a disciple of Christ and accepted in a diluted form the Christian sacraments and Trinity; Sri Ramakrishna was the simple child of Kali, the Divine Mother, though he too, in a different way, acknowledged Christ's divinity. Keshab was a householder holder and took a real interest in the welfare of his children, whereas Sri Ramakrishna was a paramahamsa and completely indifferent to the life of the world. Yet, as their acquaintance ripened into friendship, Sri Ramakrishna and Keshab held each other in great love and respect. Years later, at the news of Keshab's death, the Master felt as if half his body had become paralyzed. Keshab's concepts of the harmony of religions and the Motherhood of God were deepened and enriched by his contact with Sri Ramakrishna.
Sri Ramakrishna, dressed in a red-bordered dhoti, one end of which was carelessly thrown over his left shoulder, came to Jaygopal's garden house accompanied by Hriday. No one took notice of the unostentatious visitor. Finally the Master said to Keshab, "People tell me you have seen God; so I have come to hear From you about God." A magnificent conversation followed. The Master sang a thrilling song about Kali and forthwith went into samadhi. When Hriday uttered the sacred "Om" in his ears, he gradually came back to consciousness of the world, his face still radiating a divine brilliance. Keshab and his followers were amazed. The contrast between Sri Ramakrishna and the Brahmo devotees was very interesting. There sat this small man, thin and extremely delicate. His eyes were illumined with an inner light. Good humour gleamed in his eyes and lurked in the corners of his mouth. His speech was Bengali of a homely kind with a slight, delightful stammer, and his words held men enthralled by their wealth of spiritual experience, their inexhaustible store of simile and metaphor, their power of observation, their bright and subtle humour, their wonderful catholicity, their ceaseless flow of wisdom. And around him now were the sophisticated men of Bengal, the best products of Western education, with Keshab, the idol of young Bengal, as their leader.
Keshab's sincerity was enough for Sri Ramakrishna. Henceforth the two saw each other frequently, either at Dakshineswar or at the temple of the Brahmo Samaj. Whenever the Master was in the temple at the time of divine service, Keshab would request him to speak to the congregation. And Keshab would visit the saint, in his turn, with offerings of flowers and fruits.
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Shivanath, one day, was greatly impressed by the Master's utter simplicity and abhorrence of praise. He was seated with Sri Ramakrishna in the latter's room when several rich men of Calcutta arrived. The Master left the room for a few minutes. In the mean time Hriday, his nephew, began to describe his samadhi to the visitors. The last few words caught the Master's ear as he entered the room. He said to Hriday: "What a mean-spirited fellow you must be to extol me thus before these rich men! You have seen their costly apparel and their gold watches and chains, and your object is to get From them as much money as you can. What do I care about what they think of me? (Turning to the gentlemen) No, my friends, what he has told you about me is not true. It was not love of God that made me absorbed in God and indifferent to external life. I became positively insane for some time. The sadhus who frequented this temple told me to practise many things. I tried to follow them, and the consequence was that my austerities drove me to insanity." This is a quotation From one of Shivanath's books. He took the Master's words literally and failed to see their real import.
Shivanath vehemently criticized the Master for his other-worldly attitude toward his wife. He writes: "Ramakrishna was practically separated From his wife, who lived in her village home. One day when I was complaining to some friends about the virtual widowhood of his wife, he drew me to one side and whispered in my ear: 'Why do you complain? It is no longer possible; it is all dead and gone.' Another day as I was inveighing against this part of his teaching, and also declaring that our program of work in the Brahmo Samaj includes women, that ours is a social and domestic religion, and that we want to give education and social liberty to women, the saint became very much excited, as was his way when anything against his settled conviction was asserted — a trait we so much liked in him — and exclaimed, 'Go, thou fool, go and perish in the pit that your women will dig for you.' Then he glared at me and said: 'What does a gardener do with a young plant? Does he not surround it with a fence, to protect it From goats and cattle? And when the young plant has grown up into a tree and it can no longer be injured by cattle, does he not remove the fence and let the tree grow freely?' I replied, 'Yes, that is the custom with gardeners.' Then he remarked, 'Do the same in your spiritual life; become strong, be full-grown; then you may seek them.' To which I replied, 'I don't agree with you in thinking that women's work is like that of cattle, destructive; they are our associates and helpers in our spiritual struggles and social progress' — a view with which he could not agree, and he marked his dissent by shaking his head. Then referring to the lateness of the hour he jocularly remarked, 'It is time for you to depart; take care, do not be late; otherwise your woman will not admit you into her room.' This evoked hearty laughter."
Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, the right-hand man of Keshab and an accomplished Brahmo preacher in Europe and America, bitterly criticized Sri Ramakrishna's use of uncultured language and also his austere attitude toward his wife. But he could not escape the spell of the Master's personality. In the course of an article about Sri Ramakrishna, Pratap wrote in the "Theistic Quarterly Review": "What is there in common between him and me? I, a Europeanized, civilized, self-centred, semi-sceptical, so-called educated reasoner, and he, a poor, illiterate, unpolished, half-idolatrous, friendless Hindu devotee? Why should I sit long hours to attend to him, I, who have listened to Disraeli and Fawcett, Stanley and Max Muller, and a whole host of European scholars and divines? . . . And it is not I only, but dozens like me, who do the same. . . . He worships Siva, he worships Kali, he worships Rama, he worships Krishna, and is a confirmed advocate of Vedantic doctrines. . . . He is an idolater, yet is a faithful and most devoted meditator on the perfections of the One Formless, Absolute, Infinite Deity. . . . His religion is ecstasy, his worship means transcendental insight, his whole nature burns day and night with a permanent fire and fever of a strange faith and feeling. . . . So long as he is spared to us, gladly shall we sit at his feet to learn From him the sublime precepts of purity, unworldliness, spirituality, and inebriation in the love of God. . . . He, by his childlike bhakti, by his strong conceptions of an ever-ready Motherhood, helped to unfold it [God as our Mother] in our minds wonderfully. . . . By associating with him we learnt to realize better the divine attributes as scattered over the three hundred and thirty millions of deities of mythological India, the gods of the Puranas."
The Brahmo leaders received much inspiration From their contact with Sri Ramakrishna. It broadened their religious views and kindled in their hearts the yearning for God-realization; it made them understand and appreciate the rituals and symbols of Hindu religion, convinced them of the manifestation of God in diverse forms, and deepened their thoughts about the harmony of religions. The Master, too, was impressed by the sincerity of many of the Brahmo devotees. He told them about his own realizations and explained to them the essence of his teachings, such as the necessity of renunciation, sincerity in the pursuit of one's own course of discipline, faith in God, the performance of one's duties without thought of results, and discrimination between the Real and the unreal.
This contact with the educated and progressive Bengalis opened Sri Ramakrishna's eyes to a new realm of thought. Born and brought up in a simple village, without any formal education, and taught by the orthodox holy men of India in religious life, he had had no opportunity to study the influence of modernism on the thoughts and lives of the Hindus. He could not properly estimate the result of the impact of Western education on Indian culture. He was a Hindu of the Hindus, renunciation being to him the only means to the realization of God in life. From the Brahmos he learnt that the new generation of India made a compromise between God and the world. Educated young men were influenced more by the Western philosophers than by their own prophets. But Sri Ramakrishna was not dismayed, for he saw in this, too, the hand of God. And though he expounded to the Brahmos all his ideas about God and austere religious disciplines, yet he bade them accept From his teachings only as much as suited their tastes and temperaments.
^The term "woman and gold", which has been used throughout in a collective sense, occurs again and again in the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna to designate the chief impediments to spiritual progress. This favourite expression of the Master, "kaminikanchan", has often been misconstrued. By it he meant only "lust and greed", the baneful influence of which retards the aspirant's spiritual growth. He used the word "kamini", or "woman", as a concrete term for the sex instinct when addressing his man devotees. He advised women, on the other hand, to shun "man". "Kanchan", or "gold", symbolizes greed, which is the other obstacle to spiritual life.
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In the year 1879 occasional writings about Sri Ramakrishna by the Brahmos, in the Brahmo magazines, began to attract his future disciples From the educated middle-class Bengalis, and they continued to come till 1884. But others, too, came, feeling the subtle power of his attraction. They were an ever shifting crowd of people of all castes and creeds: Hindus and Brahmos, Vaishnavas and Saktas, the educated with university degrees and the illiterate, old and young, maharajas and beggars, journalists and artists, pundits and devotees, philosophers and the worldly-minded, jnanis and yogis, men of action and men of faith, virtuous women and prostitutes, office-holders and vagabonds, philanthropists and self-seekers, dramatists and drunkards, builders-up and pullers-down. He gave to them all, without stint, From his illimitable store of realization. No one went away empty-handed. He taught them the lofty .knowledge of the Vedanta and the soul
-melting love of the Purana. Twenty hours out of twenty-four he would speak without out rest or respite. He gave to all his sympathy and enlightenment, and he touched them with that strange power of the soul which could not but melt even the most hardened. And people understood him according to their powers of comprehension.
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But he remained as ever the willing instrument in the hand of God, the child of the Divine Mother, totally untouched by the idea of being a teacher. He used to say that three ideas — that he was a guru, a father, and a master — pricked his flesh like thorns. Yet he was an extraordinary teacher. He stirred his disciples' hearts more by a subtle influence than by actions or words. He never claimed to be the founder of a religion or the organizer of a sect. Yet he was a religious dynamo. He was the verifier of all religions and creeds. He was like an expert gardener, who prepares the soil and removes the weeds, knowing that the plants will grow because of the inherent power of the seeds, producing each its appropriate flowers and fruits. He never thrust his ideas on anybody. He understood people's limitations and worked on the principle that what is good for one may be bad for another. He had the unusual power of knowing the devotees' minds, even their inmost souls, at the first sight. He accepted disciples with the full knowledge of their past tendencies and future possibilities. The life of evil did not frighten him, nor did religious squeamishness raise anybody in his estimation. He saw in everything the unerring finger of the Divine Mother. Even the light that leads astray was to him the light From God.
To those who became his intimate disciples the Master was a friend, companion, and playmate. Even the chores of religious discipline would be lightened in his presence. The devotees would be so inebriated with pure joy in his company that they would have no time to ask themselves whether he was an Incarnation, a perfect soul, or a yogi. His very presence was a great teaching; words were superfluous. In later years his disciples remarked that while they were with him they would regard him as a comrade, but afterwards would tremble to think of their frivolities in the presence of such a great person. They had convincing proof that the Master could, by his mere wish, kindle in their hearts the love of God and give them His vision.
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For the householders Sri Ramakrishna did not prescribe the hard path of total renunciation. He wanted them to discharge their obligations to their families. Their renunciation was to be mental. Spiritual life could not be acquired by flying away From responsibilities. A married couple should live like brother and sister after the birth of one or two children, devoting their time to spiritual talk and contemplation. He encouraged the householders, saying that their life was, in a way, easier than that of the monk, since it was more advantageous to fight the enemy From inside a fortress than in an open field. He insisted, however, on their repairing into solitude every now and then to strengthen their devotion and faith in God through prayer, japa, and meditation. He prescribed for them the companionship of sadhus. He asked them to perform their worldly duties with one hand, while holding to God with the other, and to pray to God to make their duties fewer and fewer so that in the end they might cling to Him with both hands. He would discourage in both the householders and the celibate youths any lukewarmness in their spiritual struggles. He would not ask them to follow indiscriminately the ideal of non-resistance, which ultimately makes a coward of the unwary.
--- FUTURE MONKS
But to the young men destined to be monks he pointed out the steep path of renunciation, both external and internal. They must take the vow of absolute continence and eschew all thought of greed and lust. By the practice of continence, aspirants develop a subtle nerve through which they understand the deeper mysteries of God. For them self-control is final, imperative, and absolute. The sannyasis are teachers of men, and their lives should be totally free From blemish. They must not even look at a picture which may awaken their animal passions. The Master selected his future monks From young men untouched by "woman and gold" and plastic enough to be cast in his spiritual mould. When teaching them the path of renunciation and discrimination, he would not allow the householders to be anywhere near them.
--- RAM AND MANOMOHAN
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Manomohan at first met with considerable opposition From his wife and other relatives, who resented his visits to Dakshineswar. But in the end the unselfish love of the Master triumphed over worldly affection. It was Manomohan who brought Rakhal to the Master.
--- SURENDRA
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Kedarnath Chatterji was endowed with a spiritual temperament and had tried various paths of religion, some not very commendable. When he met the Master at Dakshineswar he understood the true meaning of religion. It is said that the Master, weary of instructing devotees who were coming to him in great numbers for guidance, once prayed to the Goddess Kali: "Mother, I am tired of speaking to people. Please give power to Kedar, Girish, Ram, Vijay, and Mahendra to give them the preliminary instruction, so that just a little teaching From me will be enough." He was aware, however, of Kedar's lingering attachment to worldly things and often warned him about it.
--- HARISH
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Bhavanath Chatterji visited the Master while he was still in his teens. His parents and relatives regarded Sri Ramakrishna as an insane person and tried their utmost to prevent him From becoming intimate with the Master. But the young boy was very stubborn and often spent nights at Dakshineswar. He was greatly attached to Narendra, and the Master encouraged their friendship. The very sight of him often awakened Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual emotion.
--- BALARAM BOSE
Balaram Bose came of a wealthy Vaishnava family. From his youth he had shown a deep religious temperament and had devoted his time to meditation, prayer, and the study of the Vaishnava scriptures. He was very much impressed by Sri Ramakrishna even at their first meeting. He asked Sri Ramakrishna whether God really existed and, if so, whether a man could realize Him. The Master said: "God reveals Himself to the devotee who thinks of Him as his nearest and dearest. Because you do not draw response by praying to Him once, you must not conclude that He does not exist. Pray to God, thinking of Him as dearer than your very self. He is much attached to His devotees. He comes to a man even before He is sought. There is none more intimate and affectionate than God." Balaram had never before heard God spoken of in such forceful words; every one of the words seemed true to him. Under the Master's influence he outgrew the conventions of the Vaishnava worship and became one of the most beloved of the disciples. It was at his home that the Master slept whenever he spent a night in Calcutta.
--- MAHENDRA OR M.
--
But it was in the company of his younger devotees, pure souls yet unstained by the touch of worldliness, that Sri Ramakrishna took greatest joy. Among the young men who later embraced the householder's life were Narayan, Paitu, the younger Naren, Tejchandra, and Purna. These visited the Master sometimes against strong opposition From home.
--- PURNA
Purna was a lad of thirteen, whom Sri Ramakrishna described as an Isvarakoti, a soul born with special spiritual qualities. The Master said that Purna was the last of the group of brilliant devotees who, as he once had seen in a trance, would come to him for spiritual illumination. Purna said to Sri Ramakrishna during their second meeting, "You are God Himself incarnated in flesh and blood." Such words coming From a mere youngster proved of what stuff the boy was made.
--- MAHIMACHARAN AND PRATAP HAZRA
Mahimacharan and Pratap Hazra were two devotees outstanding for their pretentiousness and idiosyncrasies. But the Master showed them his unfailing love and kindness, though he was aware of their shortcomings. Mahimacharan Chakravarty had met the Master long before the arrival of the other disciples. He had had the intention of leading a spiritual life, but a strong desire to acquire name and fame was his weakness. He claimed to have been initiated by Totapuri and used to say that he had been following the path of knowledge according to his guru's instructions. He possessed a large library of English and Sanskrit books. But though he pretended to have read them, most of the leaves were uncut. The Master knew all his limitations, yet enjoyed listening to him recite From the Vedas and other scriptures. He would always exhort Mahima to meditate on the meaning of the scriptural texts and to practise spiritual discipline.
Pratap Hazra, a middle-aged man, hailed From a village near Kamarpukur. He was not altogether unresponsive to religious feelings. On a moment's impulse he had left his home, aged mother, wife, and children, and had found shelter in the temple garden at Dakshineswar, where he intended to lead a spiritual life. He loved to argue, and the Master often pointed him out as an example of barren argumentation. He was hypercritical of others and cherished an exaggerated notion of his own spiritual advancement. He was mischievous and often tried to upset the minds of the Master's young disciples, criticizing them for their happy and joyous life and asking them to devote their time to meditation. The Master teasingly compared Hazra to Jatila and Kutila, the two women who always created obstructions in Krishna's sport with the gopis, and said that Hazra lived at Dakshineswar to "thicken the plot" by adding complications.
--- SOME NOTED MEN
--
The Europeanized Kristodas Pal did not approve of the Master's emphasis on renunciation and said; "Sir, this cant of renunciation has almost ruined the country. It is for this reason that the Indians are a subject nation today. Doing good to others, bringing education to the door of the ignorant, and above all, improving the material conditions of the country — these should be our duty now. The cry of religion and renunciation would, on the contrary, only weaken us. You should advise the young men of Bengal to resort only to such acts as will uplift the country." Sri Ramakrishna gave him a searching look and found no divine light within, "You man of poor understanding!" Sri Ramakrishna said sharply. "You dare to slight in these terms renunciation and piety, which our scriptures describe as the greatest of all virtues! After reading two pages of English you think you have come to know the world! You appear to think you are omniscient. Well, have you seen those tiny crabs that are born in the Ganges just when the rains set in? In this big universe you are even less significant than one of those small creatures. How dare you talk of helping the world? The Lord will look to that. You haven't the power in you to do it." After a pause the Master continued: "Can you explain to me how you can work for others? I know what you mean by helping them. To feed a number of persons, to treat them when they are sick, to construct a road or dig a well — isn't that all? These, are good deeds, no doubt, but how trifling in comparison with the vastness of the universe! How far can a man advance in this line? How many people can you save From famine? Malaria has ruined a whole province; what could you do to stop its onslaught? God alone looks after the world. Let a man first realize Him. Let a man get the authority From God and be endowed with His power; then, and then alone, may he think of doing good to others. A man should first be purged of all egotism. Then alone will the Blissful Mother ask him to work for the world." Sri Ramakrishna mistrusted philanthropy that presumed to pose as charity. He warned people against it. He saw in most acts of philanthropy nothing but egotism, vanity, a desire for glory, a barren excitement to kill the boredom of life, or an attempt to soothe a guilty conscience. True charity, he taught, is the result of love of God — service to man in a spirit of worship.
--- MONASTIC DISCIPLES
--
Even before Rakhal's coming to Dakshineswar, the Master had had visions of him as his spiritual son and as a playmate of Krishna at Vrindavan. Rakhal was born of wealthy parents. During his childhood he developed wonderful spiritual traits and used to play at worshipping gods and goddesses. In his teens he was married to a sister of Manomohan Mitra, From whom he first heard of the Master. His father objected to his association with Sri Ramakrishna but afterwards was reassured to find that many celebrated people were visitors at Dakshineswar. The relationship between the Master and this beloved disciple was that of mother and child. Sri Ramakrishna allowed Rakhal many liberties denied to others. But he would not hesitate to chastise the boy for improper actions. At one time Rakhal felt a childlike jealousy because he found that other boys were receiving the Master's affection. He soon got over it and realized his guru as the Guru of the whole universe. The Master was worried to hear of his marriage, but was relieved to find that his wife was a spiritual soul who would not be a hindrance to his progress.
--- THE ELDER GOPAL
--
A few more meetings completely removed From Narendra's mind the last traces of the notion that Sri Ramakrishna might be a monomaniac or wily hypnotist. His integrity, purity, renunciation, and unselfishness were beyond question. But Narendra could not accept a man, an imperfect mortal, as his guru. As a member of the Brahmo Samaj, he could not believe that a human intermediary was necessary between man and God. Moreover, he openly laughed at Sri Ramakrishna's visions as hallucinations. Yet in the secret chamber of his heart he bore a great love for the Master.
Sri Ramakrishna was grateful to the Divine Mother for sending him one who doubted his own realizations. Often he asked Narendra to test him as the money-changers test their coins. He laughed at Narendra's biting criticism of his spiritual experiences and samadhi. When at times Narendra's sharp words distressed him, the Divine Mother Herself would console him, saying: "Why do you listen to him? In a few days he will believe your every word." He could hardly bear Narendra's absences. Often he would weep bitterly for the sight of him. Sometimes Narendra would find the Master's love embarrassing; and one day he sharply scolded him, warning him that such infatuation would soon draw him down to the level of its object. The Master was distressed and prayed to the Divine Mother. Then he said to Narendra: "You rogue, I won't listen to you any more. Mother says that I love you because I see God in you, and the day I no longer see God in you I shall not be able to bear even the sight of you."
--
This was a very rich and significant experience for Narendra. It taught him that Sakti, the Divine Power, cannot be ignored in the world and that in the relative plane the need of worshipping a Personal God is imperative. Sri Ramakrishna was overjoyed with the conversion. The next day, sitting almost on Narendra's lap, he said to a devotee, pointing first to himself, then to Narendra: "I see I am this, and again that. Really I feel no difference. A stick floating in the Ganges seems to divide the water; But in reality the water is one. Do you see my point? Well, whatever is, is the Mother — isn't that so?" In later years Narendra would say: "Sri Ramakrishna was the only person who, From the time he met me, believed in me uniformly throughout. Even my mother and brothers did not. It was his unwavering trust and love for me that bound me to him for ever. He alone knew how to love. Worldly people, only make a show of love for selfish ends.
--- TARAK
Others destined to be monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna came to Dakshineswar. Taraknath Ghoshal had felt From his boyhood the noble desire to realize God. Keshab and the Brahmo Samaj had attracted him but proved inadequate. In 1882 he first met the Master at Ramchandra's house and was astonished to hear him talk about samadhi, a subject which always fascinated his mind. And that evening he actually saw a manifestation of that superconscious state in the Master. Tarak became a frequent visitor at Dakshineswar and received the Master's grace in abundance. The young boy often felt ecstatic fervour in meditation. He also wept profusely while meditating on God. Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "God favours those who can weep for Him. Tears shed for God wash away the sins of former births."
--- BABURAM
Baburam Ghosh came to Dakshineswar accompanied by Rakhal, his classmate. The Master, as was often his custom, examined the boy's physiognomy and was satisfied about his latent spirituality. At the age of eight Baburam had thought of leading a life of renunciation, in the company of a monk, in a hut shut out From the public view by a thick wall of trees. The very sight of the Panchavati awakened in his heart that dream of boyhood. Baburam was tender in body and soul. The Master used to say that he was pure to his very bones. One day Hazra in his usual mischievous fashion advised Baburam and some of the other young boys to ask Sri Ramakrishna for some spiritual powers and not waste their life in mere gaiety and merriment. The Master, scenting mischief, called Baburam to his side and said: "What can you ask of me? Isn't everything that I have already yours? Yes, everything I have earned in the shape of realizations is for the sake of you all. So get rid of the idea of begging, which alienates by creating a distance. Rather realize your kinship with me and gain the key to all the treasures.
--- NIRANJAN
--
Jogindranath came of an aristocratic brahmin family of Dakshineswar. His father and relatives shared the popular mistrust of Sri Ramakrishna's sanity. At a very early age the boy developed religious tendencies, spending two or three hours daily in meditation, and his meeting with Sri Ramakrishna deepened his desire for the realization of God. He had a perfect horror of marriage. But at the earnest request of his mother he had had to yield, and he now believed that his spiritual future was doomed. So he kept himself away From the Master.
Sri Ramakrishna employed a ruse to bring Jogindra to him. As soon as the disciple entered the room, the Master rushed forward to meet the young man. Catching hold of the disciple's hand, he said: "What if you have married? Haven't I too married? What is there to be afraid of in that?" Touching his own chest he said: "If this [meaning himself] is propitious, then even a hundred thousand marriages cannot injure you. If you desire to lead a householder's life, then bring your wife here one day, and I shall see that she becomes a real companion in your spiritual progress. But if you want to lead a monastic life, then I shall eat up your attachment to the world." Jogin was dumbfounded at these words. He received new strength, and his spirit of renunciation was re-established.
--
Sashi and Sarat were two cousins who came From a pious brahmin family of Calcutta. At an early age they had joined the Brahmo Samaj and had come under the influence of Keshab Sen. The Master said to them at their first meeting: "If bricks and tiles are burnt after the trade-mark has been stamped on them, they retain the mark for ever. Similarly, man should be stamped with God before entering the world. Then he will not become attached to worldliness." Fully aware of the future course of their life, he asked them not to marry. The Master asked Sashi whether he believed in God with form or in God without form. Sashi replied that he was not even sure about the existence of God; so he could not speak one way or the other. This frank answer very much pleased the Master.
Sarat's soul longed for the all-embracing realization of the Godhead. When the Master inquired whether there was any particular form of God he wished to see, the boy replied that he would like to see God in all the living beings of the world. "But", the Master demurred, "that is the last word in realization. One cannot have it at the very outset." Sarat stated calmly: "I won't be satisfied with anything short of that. I shall trudge on along the path till I attain that blessed state." Sri Ramakrishna was very much pleased.
--
Harinath had led the austere life of a brahmachari even From his early boyhood — bathing in the Ganges every day, cooking his own meals, waking before sunrise, and reciting the Gita From memory before leaving bed. He found in the Master the embodiment of the Vedanta scriptures. Aspiring to be a follower of the ascetic Sankara, he cherished a great hatred for women. One day he said to the Master that he could not allow even small girls to come near him. The Master scolded him and said: "You are talking like a fool. Why should you hate women? They are the manifestations of the Divine Mother. Regard them as your own mother and you will never feel their evil influence. The more you hate them, the more you will fall into their snares." Hari said later that these words completely changed his attitude toward women.
The Master knew Hari's passion for Vedanta. But he did not wish any of his disciples to become a dry ascetic or a mere bookworm. So he asked Hari to practise Vedanta in life by giving up the unreal and following the Real. "But it is not so easy", Sri Ramakrishna said, "to realize the illusoriness of the world. Study alone does not help one very much. The grace of God is required. Mere personal effort is futile. A man is a tiny creature after all, with very limited powers. But he can achieve the impossible if he prays to God for His grace." Whereupon the Master sang a song in praise of grace. Hari was profoundly moved and shed tears. Later in life Hari achieved a wonderful synthesis of the ideals of the Personal God and the Impersonal Truth.
--
Subodh visited the Master in 1885. At the very first meeting Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "You will succeed. Mother says so. Those whom She sends here will certainly attain spirituality." During the second meeting the Master wrote something on Subodh's tongue, stroked his body From the navel to the throat, and said, "Awake, Mother! Awake." He asked the boy to meditate. At once Subodh's latent spirituality was awakened. He felt a current rushing along the spinal column to the brain. Joy filled his soul.
--- SARADA AND TULASI
Two more young men, Sarada Prasanna and Tulasi, complete the small band of the Master's disciples later to embrace the life of the wandering monk. With the exception of the elder Gopal, all of them were in their teens or slightly over. They came From middle-class Bengali families, and most of them were students in school or college. Their parents and relatives had envisaged for them bright worldly careers. They came to Sri Ramakrishna with pure bodies, vigorous minds, and uncontaminated souls. All were born with unusual spiritual attributes. Sri Ramakrishna accepted them, even at first sight, as his children, relatives, friends, and companions. His magic touch unfolded them. And later each according to his measure reflected the life of the Master, becoming a torch-bearer of his message across land and sea.
--- WOMAN DEVOTEES
--
In 1881 Hriday was dismissed From service in the Kali temple, for an act of indiscretion, and was ordered by the authorities never again to enter the garden. In a way the hand of the Divine Mother may be seen even in this. Having taken care of Sri Ramakrishna during the stormy days of his spiritual discipline, Hriday had come naturally to consider himself the sole guardian of his uncle. None could approach the Master without his knowledge. And he would be extremely jealous if Sri Ramakrishna paid attention to anyone else. Hriday's removal made it possible for the real devotees of the Master to approach him freely and live with him in the temple garden.
During the week-ends the householders, enjoying a respite From their office duties, visited the Master. The meetings on Sunday afternoons were of the nature of little festivals. Refreshments were often served. Professional musicians now and then sang devotional songs. The Master and the devotees sang and danced, Sri Ramakrishna frequently going into ecstatic moods. The happy memory of such a Sunday would linger long in the minds of the devotees. Those whom the Master wanted for special instruction he would ask to visit him on Tuesdays and Saturdays. These days were particularly auspicious for the worship of Kali.
The young disciples destined to be monks, Sri Ramakrishna invited on week-days, when the householders were not present. The training of the householders and of the future monks had to proceed along entirely different lines. Since M. generally visited the Master on week-ends, the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna does not contain much mention of the future monastic disciples.
--
In April 1885 the Master's throat became inflamed. Prolonged conversation or absorption in samadhi, making the blood flow into the throat, would aggravate the pain. Yet when the annual Vaishnava festival was celebrated at Panihati, Sri Ramakrishna attended it against the doctor's advice. With a group of disciples he spent himself in music, dance, and ecstasy. The illness took a turn for the worse and was diagnosed as "clergyman's sore throat". The patient was cautioned against conversation and ecstasies. Though he followed the physician's directions regarding medicine and diet, he could neither control his trances nor withhold From seekers the solace of his advice. Sometimes, like a sulky child, he would complain to the Mother about the crowds, who gave him no rest day or night. He was overheard to say to Her; "Why do You bring here all these worthless people, who are like milk diluted with five times its own quantity of water? My eyes are almost destroyed with blowing the fire to dry up the water. My health is gone. It is beyond my strength. Do it Yourself, if You want it done. This (pointing to his own body) is but a perforated drum, and if you go on beating it day in and day out, how long will it last?"
But his large heart never turned anyone away. He said, "Let me be condemned to be born over and over again, even in the form of a dog, if I can be of help to a single soul." And he bore the pain, singing cheerfully, "Let the body be preoccupied with illness, but, O mind, dwell for ever in God's Bliss!"
One night he had a hemorrhage of the throat. The doctor now diagnosed the illness as cancer. Narendra was the first to break this heart-rending news to the disciples. Within three days the Master was removed to Calcutta for better treatment. At Balaram's house he remained a week until a suitable place could be found at Syampukur, in the northern section of Calcutta. During this week he dedicated himself practically without respite to the instruction of those beloved devotees who had been unable to visit him oftener at Dakshineswar. Discourses incessantly flowed From his tongue, and he often went into samadhi. Dr. Mahendra Sarkar, the celebrated homeopath of Calcutta, was invited to undertake his treatment.
--- SYAMPUKUR
In the beginning of September 1885 Sri Ramakrishna was moved to Syampukur. Here Narendra organized the young disciples to attend the Master day and night. At first they concealed the Master's illness From their guardians; but when it became more serious they remained with him almost constantly, sweeping aside the objections of their relatives and devoting themselves whole-heartedly to the nursing of their beloved guru. These young men, under the watchful eyes of the Master and the leadership of Narendra, became the antaranga bhaktas, the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna's inner circle. They were privileged to witness many manifestations of the Master's divine powers. Narendra received instructions regarding the propagation of his message after his death.
The Holy Mother — so Sarada Devi had come to be affectionately known by Sri Ramakrishna's devotees — was brought From Dakshineswar to look after the general cooking and to prepare the special diet of the patient. The dwelling space being extremely limited, she had to adapt herself to cramped conditions. At three o'clock in the morning she would finish her bath in the Ganges and then enter a small covered place on the roof, where she spent the whole day cooking and praying. After eleven at night, when the visitors went away, she would come down to her small bedroom on the first floor to enjoy a few hours' sleep. Thus she spent three months, working hard, sleeping little, and praying constantly for the Master's recovery.
At Syampukur the devotees led an intense life. Their attendance on the Master was in itself a form of spiritual discipline. His mind was constantly soaring to an exalted plane of consciousness. Now and then they would catch the contagion of his spiritual fervour. They sought to divine the meaning of this illness of the Master, whom most of them had accepted as an Incarnation of God. One group, headed by Girish with his robust optimism and great power of imagination, believed that the illness was a mere pretext to serve a deeper purpose. The Master had willed his illness in order to bring the devotees together and promote solidarity among them. As soon as this purpose was served, he would himself get rid of the disease. A second group thought that the Divine Mother, in whose hand the Master was an instrument, had brought about this illness to serve Her own mysterious ends. But the young rationalists, led by Narendra, refused to ascribe a
--
It took the group only a few days to become adjusted to the new environment. The Holy Mother, assisted by Sri Ramakrishna's niece, Lakshmi Devi, and a few woman devotees, took charge of the cooking for the Master and his attendants. Surendra willingly bore the major portion of the expenses, other householders contributing according to their means. Twelve disciples were constant attendants of the Master: Narendra, Rakhal, Baburam, Niranjan, Jogin, Latu, Tarak, the-elder Gopal, Kali, Sashi, Sarat, and the younger Gopal. Sarada, Harish, Hari, Gangadhar, and Tulasi visited the Master From time to time and practised sadhana at home. Narendra, preparing for his law examination, brought his books to the garden house in order to continue his studies during the infrequent spare moments. He encouraged his brother disciples to intensify their meditation, scriptural studies, and other spiritual disciplines. They all forgot their relatives and their
worldly duties.
--
Pundit Shashadhar one day suggested to the Master that the latter could remove the illness by concentrating his mind on the throat, the scriptures having declared that yogis had power to cure themselves in that way. The Master rebuked the pundit. "For a scholar like you to make such a proposal!" he said. "How can I withdraw the mind From the Lotus Feet of God and turn it to this worthless cage of flesh and blood?" "For our sake at least", begged Narendra and the other disciples. "But", replied Sri Ramakrishna, do you think I enjoy this suffering? I wish to recover, but that depends on the Mother."
NARENDRA: "Then please pray to Her. She must listen to you."
--
The Master did not hide the fact that he wished to make Narendra his spiritual heir. Narendra was to continue the work after Sri Ramakrishna's passing. Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "I leave these young men in your charge. See that they develop their spirituality and do not return home." One day he asked the boys, in preparation for a monastic life, to beg their food From door to door without thought of caste. They hailed the Master's order and went out with begging-bowls. A few days later he gave the ochre cloth of the sannyasi to each of them, including Girish, who was now second to none in his spirit of renunciation. Thus the Master himself laid the foundation of the future Ramakrishna Order of monks.
Sri Ramakrishna was sinking day by day. His diet was reduced to a minimum and he found it almost impossible to swallow. He whispered to M.: "I am bearing all this cheerfully, for otherwise you would be weeping. If you all say that it is better that the body should go rather than suffer this torture, I am willing." The next morning he said to his depressed disciples seated near the bed: "Do you know what I see? I see that God alone has become everything. Men and animals are only frameworks covered with skin, and it is He who is moving through their heads and limbs. I see that it is God Himself who has become the block, the executioner, and the victim for the sacrifice.' He fainted with emotion. Regaining partial consciousness, he said: "Now I have no pain. I am very well." Looking at Latu he said: "There sits Latu resting his head on the palm of his hand. To me it is the Lord who is seated in that posture."
--
Sunday, August 15, 1886. The Master's pulse became irregular. The devotees stood by the bedside. Toward dusk Sri Ramakrishna had difficulty in breathing. A short time afterwards he complained of hunger. A little liquid food was put into his mouth; some of it he swallowed, and the rest ran over his chin. Two attendants began to fan him. All at once he went into samadhi of a rather unusual type. The body became stiff. Sashi burst into tears. But after midnight the Master revived. He was now very hungry and helped himself to a bowl of porridge. He said he was strong again. He sat up against five or six pillows, which were supported by the body of Sashi, who was fanning him. Narendra took his feet on his lap and began to rub them. Again and again the Master repeated to him, "Take care of these boys." Then he asked to lie down. Three times in ringing tone's he cried the name of Kali, his life's Beloved, and lay back. At two minutes past one there was a low sound in his throat and he fell a little to one side. A thrill passed over his body. His hair stood on end. His eyes became fixed on the tip of his nose. His face was lighted with a smile. The final ecstasy began. It was mahasamadhi, total absorption, From which his mind never returned. Narendra, unable to bear it, ran downstairs.
Dr. Sarkar arrived the following noon and pronounced that life had departed not more than half an hour before. At five o'clock the Masters body was brought downstairs, laid on a cot, dressed in ochre clothes, and decorated with sandal-paste and flowers. A procession was formed. The passers-by wept as the body was taken to the cremation ground at the Baranagore Ghat on the Ganges.
--
The Holy Mother was weeping in her room, not for her husband, but because she felt that Mother Kali had left her. As she was about to put on the marks of a Hindu widow, in a moment of revelation she heard the words of faith, "I have only passed From one room to another."
0.00 - Publishers Note C, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The present volume consists of three books: Light of Lights, Eight Talks and Sweet Mother; there are also translations From Sanskrit, Pali, Bengali and French. These, along with the translations of the Dhammapada and Charyapada, have been mostly serialised in Ashram journals.
His original writings in French have also been included here. We are grateful to the Government of India for a grant towards meeting the cost of publication of this volume.
0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
The verse From Tennyson is inserted partly because
of the pun on the word "break"; partly because of the
--
single word, more frequently From a half-dozen to
twenty paragraphs. The subject of each chapter is
--
blazed upon my spiritual vision. From that moment
the O.T.O. assumed its proper importance in my
--
Deliver us From Good and Evil!
That Mine as Thine be the Crown of the Kingdom,
--
Woman in parting From the Child.
The Brothers of A.'.A.'. are Women: the Aspirants
--
but breeds a masterpiece From it. This process is
exhibited as one aspect of the Great Work. The last
--
So far the chapter has followed the Sephiroth From
Kether to Chesed, and Chesed is united to the Supernal
--
From which Venus sprang, and which is the symbol of
the Mother in the Tetragrammaton. See Chapter 0,
--
Dionysus, probably an ecstatic From the East.
Mahmud, Mohammed.
--
illusions; let me play the man, and thrust it From
me! Amen.
--
For when all is equilibrated, when all is beheld From
without all, there is joy, joy, joy that is but one
--
whole course of numbers From the simple unity of 1
to the complex unity of 13, impregnated by the magical
--
From Eternity; and it is lost within the Body of
Our Lady of the Stars.
--
Fire From Heaven.
Mighty and marvellous is this Weakness, this
--
The formula of Samadhi is the same, From the
lowest to the highest. The Rosy-Cross is the Universal
--
From the Deserts of the North;it wingeth through
the blue; it wingeth over the fields of rice; at its
--
concealed From the leopard do thou feed at thy
pleasure.
--
among its secret power. The chapter is taken From
Rudyard Kiplin's "Just So Stories".
--
a course of action hardly distinguishable From hypocrisy;
but the distinction is obvious to any clear thinker,
--
Love moveth ever From height to height of ecstasy
and faileth never.
--
Awake From dream, the truth is known:(16) awake
From waking, the Truth is-The Unknown.
[70]
--
IT moves From motion into rest, and rests From rest
into motion. These IT does alway, for time is not.
--
last break down, as the fetter is struck From a
slave's throat.
--
From rock to rock of the moraine without ever
casting his eyes upon the ground.
--
What do I love? There is no From, no being, to which
I do not give myself wholly up.
--
of paragraphs 1 and 2, it being evident From this
statement that the female body becomes beautiful in so
--
From the male, in order to reproduce the male in a
superior form, the absolute, and the conditions forming
--
he did when he was far From any standard works of
reference, to connote partly "booby", partly "lout".
--
HIMOG From the inglorious man of earth?
Distinguish not!
--
to certain disaster. Authority From him is exhibited,
when necessary, to the proper persons, though in no
--
From the Great Sea, and to the Great Sea they go.
As they go they spill water; one day they will irrigate
--
They come From the Great Sea, Binah, the City of the Pyramids.
V.V.V.V.V. is indicated as one of these travellers; He is
--
Gimel is the path leading From Tiphareth to Kether, uniting
Microprosopus and Macroprosopus, i.e. performing the Great
--
Save me From Evil and From Good!
That Thy one crown of all the Ten.
--
young From the blood of its own breast. Yet the two
ideas, though cognate, are not identical, and "Phoenix"
--
The title of this chapter is drawn From paragraph 7.
We now, for the first time, attack the question of
--
hungry From a meal, always to violate on's own nature.
Keep on acquiring a taste for what is naturally
--
those things which bar it From the absolute.
[103]
--
The chapter consists of two points of view From which
to regard Yoga, two odes upon a distant prospect of the
--
were else too sweet. It prevents one From slopping over
into sentimentality.
--
Good, All Wise....The stars are but sparks From
the forges of My smiths...."
--
The title of the chapter is borrowed From the health-
giving and fascinating sport of fox-hunting, which
--
expound THE GREAT WORK fully, From The
beginning even unto The End thereof.
--
From the Wrath that is fallen upon you?
O Babblers, Prattlers, Talkers, Loquacious Ones,
--
Hum! (Keep us From Evil!)
[116]
--
in brackets, "Keep us From evil", since, although it is the
place of life, the means of grace, it may be ruinous.
--
Each took the Trowel From his LAP,(25) whose number
is AN Hundred and Eleven.
--
Thus wrote I, since my One Love was torn From me.
I cannot work: I cannot think: I seek distraction
--
Since Jivatma was separated From Paramatma, as
in paragraph 2, not only is the Divine Unity destroyed
--
work, any digression From the Path.
[121]
--
on their own circumstances. The sufferer From toothache
does not agree with Doctor Pangloss, that "all is for
--
distinguished From its misinterpretation by modern
crapulence. The priests of the gods were carefully
--
From the absolute is part of the content of that con-
sciousness.
--
From the scheme of incarnation.
The second, mixt with his life's blood and eaten,
--
leading From Tiphareth to Kether; the "flames of violet"
are the Ajna-Chakkra; the lily itself is Kether, the
--
identified with N.O.X. by the quotation From Liber 65.
NOTES
--
Plunge From the height, O God, and interlock with
Man!
Plunge From the height, O Man, and interlock with
Beast!
--
The title of the chapter is borrowed From the well-known lines of Rudyard
Kipling:
--
since gimel is the Path that leads From the Microcosm in tiphareth to the
Macrocosm in Kether.
--
means a Camel) leads From Tiphareth to Kether, and its Tarot trump
is the "High Priestess".
--
The first part shows the fall From Nought in four
steps; the second part, the return.
--
But "what I want" varies From hour to hour.
This wavering is the root of all compromise, and so
--
From going mad.
The next paragraph expresses the difficulty of
--
As will be seen From the photogravure inserted opposite
this chapter, Laylah is herself not devoid of "Devil", but,
--
necessarily From each other card, even in due order
From The Fool unto The Ten of Coins.
Then, when thou know'st the Wheel of Destiny
--
The word "Sadist" is taken From the famous Marquis
de Sade, who gave supreme literary form to the joys of
--
So, also, is the act of the Adept. "Delivered From the
lust of result, he is every way perfect."
--
comes From the disorder of our bodies.
We like it; this only proves that our tastes also are
--
achievements the gifts From on high are still better.
The Sigil is taken From a Gnostic talisman, and
refers to the Sacrament.
--
The term "gold bricks" is borrowed From American
finance.
--
The word "sucker" is borrowed From American
finance.
--
Sun, and I have sailed the seas From pole to pole.
Now do I lift up my voice and testify that all is
--
The "Heikle" is to be distinguished From the
"Huckle", which latter is defined in the late Sir W.S.
--
obtained From Mr Oscar Eckenstein, 34 Greencroft
Gardens, South Hampstead, London, N.W. (when
0.00 - THE GOSPEL PREFACE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Translated From the Bengali by Swami Nikhilananda
Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
--
But, all doctrinal writing is in some measure formal and impersonal, while the autobiographer tends to omit what he regards as trifling matters and suffers From the further disadvantage of being unable to say how he strikes other people and in what way he affects their lives. Moreover, most saints have left neither writings nor self-portraits, and for knowledge of their lives, their characters and their teachings, we are forced to rely upon the records made by their disciples who, in most cases, have proved themselves singularly incompetent as reporters and biographers. Hence the special interest attaching to this enormously detailed account of the daily life and conversations of Sri Ramakrishna.
"M", as the author modestly styles himself, was peculiarly qualified for his task. To a reverent love for his master, to a deep and experiential knowledge of that master's teaching, he added a prodigious memory for the small happenings of each day and a happy gift for recording them in an interesting and realistic way. Making good use of his natural gifts and of the circumstances in which he found himself, "M" produced a book unique, so far as my knowledge goes, in the literature of hagiography. No other saint has had so able and indefatigable a Boswell. Never have the small events of a contemplative's daily life been described with such a wealth of intimate detail. Never have the casual and unstudied utterances of a great religious teacher been set down with so minute a fidelity. To Western readers, it is true, this fidelity and this wealth of detail are sometimes a trifle disconcerting; for the social, religious and intellectual frames of reference within which Sri Ramakrishna did his thinking and expressed his feelings were entirely Indian. But after the first few surprises and bewilderments, we begin to find something peculiarly stimulating and instructive about the very strangeness and, to our eyes, the eccentricity of the man revealed to us in "M's" narrative. What a scholastic philosopher would call the "accidents" of Ramakrishna's life were intensely Hindu and therefore, so far as we in the West are concerned, unfamiliar and hard to understand; its "essence", however, was intensely mystical and therefore universal. To read through these conversations in which mystical doctrine alternates with an unfamiliar kind of humour, and where discussions of the oddest aspects of Hindu mythology give place to the most profound and subtle utterances about the nature of Ultimate Reality, is in itself a liberal, education in humility, tolerance and suspense of judgment. We must be grateful to the translator for his excellent version of a book so curious and delightful as a biographical document, so precious, at the same time, for what it teaches us of the life of the spirit.
--
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna is the English translation of the Sri Sri Rmakrishna Kathmrita, the conversations of Sri Ramakrishna with his disciples, devotees, and visitors, recorded by Mahendranth Gupta, who wrote the book under the pseudonym of "M." The conversations in Bengali fill five volumes, the first of which was published in 1897 and the last shortly after M.'s death in 1932. Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras, has published in two volumes an English translation of selected chapters From the monumental Bengali work. I have consulted these while preparing my translation.
M., one of the intimate disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, was present during all the conversations recorded in the main body of the book and noted them down in his diary.
They therefore have the value of almost stenographic records. In Appendix A are given several conversations which took place in the absence of M., but of which he received a first-hand record From persons concerned. The conversations will bring before the reader's mind an intimate picture of the Master's eventful life From March 1882 to April 24, 1886, only a few months before his passing away. During this period he came in contact chiefly with English-educated Benglis; From among them he selected his disciples and the bearers of his message, and with them he shared his rich spiritual experiences.
I have made a literal translation, omitting only a few pages of no particular interest to English-speaking readers. Often literary grace has been sacrificed for the sake of literal translation. No translation can do full justice to the original. This difficulty is all the more felt in the present work, whose contents are of a deep mystical nature and describe the inner experiences of a great seer. Human language is an altogether inadequate vehicle to express supersensuous perception. Sri Ramakrishna was almost illiterate. He never clothed his thoughts in formal language. His words sought to convey his direct realization of Truth. His conversation was in a village patois. Therein lies its charm. In order to explain to his listeners an abstruse philosophy, he, like Christ before him, used with telling effect homely parables and illustrations, culled From his observation of the daily life around him.
The reader will find mentioned in this work many visions and experiences that fall outside the ken of physical science and even psychology. With the development of modern knowledge the border line between the natural and the supernatural is ever shifting its position. Genuine mystical experiences are not as suspect now as they were half a century ago. The words of Sri Ramakrishna have already exerted a tremendous influence in the land of his birth. Savants of Europe have found in his words the ring of universal truth.
--
In the Introduction I have drawn much material From the Life of Sri Ramakrishna, published by the Advaita Ashrama, Myvati, India. I have also consulted the excellent article on Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Nirvednanda, in the second volume of the Cultural Heritage of India.
The book contains many songs sung either by the Master or by the devotees. These form an important feature of the spiritual tradition of Bengal and were for the most part written by men of mystical experience. For giving the songs their present form I am grateful to Mr. John Moffitt, Jr.
In the preparation of this manuscript I have received ungrudging help From several friends. Miss Margaret Woodrow Wilson and Mr.Joseph Campbell have worked hard in editing my translation. Mrs.Elizabeth Davidson has typed, more than once, the entire manuscript and rendered other valuable help. Mr.Aldous Huxley has laid me under a debt of gratitude by writing the Foreword. I sincerely thank them all.
In the spiritual firmament Sri Ramakrishna is a waxing crescent. Within one hundred years of his birth and fifty years of his death his message has spread across land and sea. Romain Rolland has described him as the fulfilment of the spiritual aspirations of the three hundred millions of Hindus for the last two thousand years. Mahatma Gandhi has written: "His life enables us to see God face to face. . . . Ramakrishna was a living embodiment of godliness." He is being recognized as a compeer of Krishna, Buddha, and Christ.
--
May this translation of the first book of its kind in the religious history of the world, being the record of the direct words of a prophet, help stricken humanity to come nearer to the Eternal Verity of life and remove dissension and quarrel From among the different faiths!
May it enable seekers of Truth to grasp the subtle laws of the supersensuous realm, and unfold before man's restricted vision the spiritual foundation of the universe, the unity of existence, and the divinity of the soul!
--
He was an educationist all his life both in a spiritual and in a secular sense. After he passed out of College, he took up work as headmaster in a number of schools in succession Narail High School, City School, Ripon College School, Metropolitan School, Aryan School, Oriental School, Oriental Seminary and Model School. The causes of his migration From school to school were that he could not get on with some of the managements on grounds of principles and that often his spiritual mood drew him away to places of pilgrimage for long periods. He worked with some of the most noted public men of the time like Iswar Chandra Vidysgar and Surendranath Banerjee. The latter appointed him as a professor in the City and Ripon Colleges where he taught subjects like English, philosophy, history and economics. In his later days he took over the Morton School, and he spent his time in the staircase room of the third floor of it, administering the school and preaching the message of the Master. He was much respected in educational circles where he was usually referred to as Rector Mahashay. A teacher who had worked under him writes thus in warm appreciation of his teaching methods: "Only when I worked with him in school could I appreciate what a great educationist he was. He would come down to the level of his students when teaching, though he himself was so learned, so talented. Ordinarily teachers confine their instruction to what is given in books without much thought as to whether the student can accept it or not. But M., would first of all gauge how much the student could take in and by what means. He would employ aids to teaching like maps, pictures and diagrams, so that his students could learn by seeing. Thirty years ago ( From 1953) when the question of imparting education through the medium of the mother tongue was being discussed, M. had already employed Bengali as the medium of instruction in the Morton School." (M The Apostle and the Evangelist by Swami Nityatmananda Part I. P. 15.)
Imparting secular education was, however, only his profession ; his main concern was with the spiritual regeneration of man a calling for which Destiny seems to have chosen him. From his childhood he was deeply pious, and he used to be moved very much by Sdhus, temples and Durga Puja celebrations. The piety and eloquence of the great Brahmo leader of the times, Keshab Chander Sen, elicited a powerful response From the impressionable mind of Mahendra Nath, as it did in the case of many an idealistic young man of Calcutta, and prepared him to receive the great Light that was to dawn on him with the coming of Sri Ramakrishna into his life.
This epoch-making event of his life came about in a very strange way. M. belonged to a joint family with several collateral members. Some ten years after he began his career as an educationist, bitter quarrels broke out among the members of the family, driving the sensitive M. to despair and utter despondency. He lost all interest in life and left home one night to go into the wide world with the idea of ending his life. At dead of night he took rest in his sister's house at Baranagar, and in the morning, accompanied by a nephew Siddheswar, he wandered From one garden to another in Calcutta until Siddheswar brought him to the Temple Garden of Dakshineswar where Sri Ramakrishna was then living. After spending some time in the beautiful rose gardens there, he was directed to the room of the Paramahamsa, where the eventful meeting of the Master and the disciple took place on a blessed evening (the exact date is not on record) on a Sunday in March 1882. As regards what took place on the occasion, the reader is referred to the opening section of the first chapter of the Gospel.
The Master, who divined the mood of desperation in M, his resolve to take leave of this 'play-field of deception', put new faith and hope into him by his gracious words of assurance: "God forbid! Why should you take leave of this world? Do you not feel blessed by discovering your Guru? By His grace, what is beyond all imagination or dreams can be easily achieved!" At these words the clouds of despair moved away From the horizon of M.'s mind, and the sunshine of a new hope revealed to him fresh vistas of meaning in life. Referring to this phase of his life, M. used to say, "Behold! where is the resolve to end life, and where, the discovery of God! That is, sorrow should be looked upon as a friend of man. God is all good." ( Ibid P.33.)
After this re-settlement, M's life revolved around the Master, though he continued his professional work as an educationist. During all holidays, including Sundays, he spent his time at Dakshineswar in the Master's company, and at times extended his stay to several days.
--
An appropriate allusion indeed! Bhagavata, the great scripture that has given the word of Sri Krishna to mankind, was composed by the Sage Vysa under similar circumstances. When caught up in a mood of depression like that of M, Vysa was advised by the sage Nrada that he would gain peace of mind only qn composing a work exclusively devoted to the depiction of the Lord's glorious attributes and His teachings on Knowledge and Devotion, and the result was that the world got From Vysa the invaluable gift of the Bhagavata Purana depicting the life and teachings of Sri Krishna.
From the mental depression of the modem Vysa, the world has obtained the Kathmrita (Bengali Edition) the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna in English.
Sri Ramakrishna was a teacher for both the Orders of mankind, Sannysins and householders. His own life offered an ideal example for both, and he left behind disciples who followed the highest traditions he had set in respect of both these ways of life. M., along with Nag Mahashay, exemplified how a householder can rise to the highest level of sagehood. M. was married to Nikunja Devi, a distant relative of Keshab Chander Sen, even when he was reading at College, and he had four children, two sons and two daughters. The responsibility of the family, no doubt, made him dependent on his professional income, but the great devotee that he was, he never compromised with ideals and principles for this reason. Once when he was working as the headmaster in a school managed by the great Vidysgar, the results of the school at the public examination happened to be rather poor, and Vidysgar attri buted it to M's preoccupation with the Master and his consequent failure to attend adequately to the school work. M. at once resigned his post without any thought of the morrow. Within a fortnight the family was in poverty, and M. was one day pacing up and down the verandah of his house, musing how he would feed his children the next day. Just then a man came with a letter addressed to 'Mahendra Babu', and on opening it, M. found that it was a letter From his friend Sri Surendra Nath Banerjee, asking whether he would like to take up a professorship in the Ripon College. In this way three or four times he gave up the job that gave him the wherewithal to support the family, either for upholding principles or for practising spiritual Sadhanas in holy places, without any consideration of the possible dire worldly consequences; but he was always able to get over these difficulties somehow, and the interests of his family never suffered. In spite of his disregard for worldly goods, he was, towards the latter part of his life, in a fairly flourishing condition as the proprietor of the Morton School which he developed into a noted educational institution in the city. The Lord has said in the Bhagavad Git that in the case of those who think of nothing except Him, He Himself would take up all their material and spiritual responsibilities. M. was an example of the truth of the Lord's promise.
Though his children received proper attention From him, his real family, both during the Master's lifetime and after, consisted of saints, devotees, Sannysins and spiritual aspirants. His life exemplifies the Master's teaching that an ideal householder must be like a good maidservant of a family, loving and caring properly for the children of the house, but knowing always that her real home and children are elsewhere. During the Master's lifetime he spent all his Sundays and other holidays with him and his devotees, and besides listening to the holy talks and devotional music, practised meditation both on the Personal and the Impersonal aspects of God under the direct guidance of the Master. In the pages of the Gospel the reader gets a picture of M.'s spiritual relationship with the Master how From a hazy belief in the Impersonal God of the Brahmos, he was step by step brought to accept both Personality and Impersonality as the two aspects of the same Non-dual Being, how he was convinced of the manifestation of that Being as Gods, Goddesses and as Incarnations, and how he was established in a life that was both of a Jnni and of a Bhakta. This Jnni-Bhakta outlook and way of living became so dominant a feature of his life that Swami Raghavananda, who was very closely associated with him during his last six years, remarks: "Among those who lived with M. in latter days, some felt that he always lived in this constant and conscious union with God even with open eyes (i.e., even in waking consciousness)." (Swami Raghavananda's article on M. in Prabuddha Bharata vol. XXXVII. P. 442.)
Besides undergoing spiritual disciplines at the feet of the Master, M. used to go to holy places during the Master's lifetime itself and afterwards too as a part of his Sdhan.
--
The life of Sdhan and holy association that he started on at the feet of the Master, he continued all through his life. He has for this reason been most appropriately described as a Grihastha-Sannysi (householder-Sannysin). Though he was forbidden by the Master to become a Sannysin, his reverence for the Sannysa ideal was whole-hearted and was without any reservation. So after Sri Ramakrishna's passing away, while several of the Master's householder devotees considered the young Sannysin disciples of the Master as inexperienced and inconsequential, M. stood by them with the firm faith that the Master's life and message were going to be perpetuated only through them. Swami Vivekananda wrote From America in a letter to the inmates of the Math: "When Sri Thkur (Master) left the body, every one gave us up as a few unripe urchins. But M. and a few others did not leave us in the lurch. We cannot repay our debt to them." (Swami Raghavananda's article on M. in Prabuddha Bharata vol. XXX P. 442.)
M. spent his weekends and holidays with the monastic brethren who, after the Master's demise, had formed themselves into an Order with a Math at Baranagore, and participated in the intense life of devotion and meditation that they followed. At other times he would retire to Dakshineswar or some garden in the city and spend several days in spiritual practice taking simple self-cooked food. In order to feel that he was one with all mankind he often used to go out of his home at dead of night, and like a wandering Sannysin, sleep with the waifs on some open verandah or footpath on the road.
--
In addition to this instinct for diary-keeping, M. had great endowments contri buting to success in this line. Writes Swami Nityatmananda who lived in close association with M., in his book entitled M - The Apostle and Evangelist: "M.'s prodigious memory combined with his extraordinary power of imagination completely annihilated the distance of time and place for him. Even after the lapse of half a century he could always visualise vividly, scenes From the life of Sri Ramakrishna. Superb too was his power to portray pictures by words."
Besides the prompting of his inherent instinct, the main inducement for M. to keep this diary of his experiences at Dakshineswar was his desire to provide himself with a means for living in holy company at all times. Being a school teacher, he could be with the Master only on Sundays and other holidays, and it was on his diary that he depended for 'holy company' on other days. The devotional scriptures like the Bhagavata say that holy company is the first and most important means for the generation and growth of devotion. For, in such company man could hear talks on spiritual matters and listen to the glorification of Divine attri butes, charged with the fervour and conviction emanating From the hearts of great lovers of God. Such company is therefore the one certain means through which Sraddha (Faith), Rati (attachment to God) and Bhakti (loving devotion) are generated. The diary of his visits to Dakshineswar provided M. with material for re-living, through reading and contemplation, the holy company he had had earlier, even on days when he was not able to visit Dakshineswar. The wealth of details and the vivid description of men and things in the midst of which the sublime conversations are set, provide excellent material to re-live those experiences for any one with imaginative powers. It was observed by M.'s disciples and admirers that in later life also whenever he was free or alone, he would be pouring over his diary, transporting himself on the wings of imagination to the glorious days he spent at the feet of the Master.
During the Master's lifetime M. does not seem to have revealed the contents of his diary to any one. There is an unconfirmed tradition that when the Master saw him taking notes, he expressed apprehension at the possibility of his utilising these to publicise him like Keshab Sen; for the Great Master was so full of the spirit of renunciation and humility that he disliked being lionised. It must be for this reason that no one knew about this precious diary of M. for a decade until he brought out selections From it as a pamphlet in English in 1897 with the Holy Mother's blessings and permission. The Holy Mother, being very much pleased to hear parts of the diary read to her in Bengali, wrote to M.: "When I heard the Kathmrita, (Bengali name of the book) I felt as if it was he, the Master, who was saying all that." ( Ibid Part I. P 37.)
The two pamphlets in English entitled the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna appeared in October and November 1897. They drew the spontaneous acclamation of Swami Vivekananda, who wrote on 24th November of that year From Dehra Dun to M.:"Many many thanks for your second leaflet. It is indeed wonderful. The move is quite original, and never was the life of a Great Teacher brought before the public untarnished by the writer's mind, as you are doing. The language also is beyond all praise, so fresh, so pointed, and withal so plain and easy. I cannot express in adequate terms how I have enjoyed them. I am really in a transport when I read them. Strange, isn't it? Our Teacher and Lord was so original, and each one of us will have to be original or nothing.
I now understand why none of us attempted His life before. It has been reserved for you, this great work. He is with you evidently." ( Vednta Kesari Vol. XIX P. 141. Also given in the first edition of the Gospel published From Ramakrishna Math, Madras in 1911.)
And Swamiji added a post script to the letter: "Socratic dialogues are Plato all over you are entirely hidden. Moreover, the dramatic part is infinitely beautiful. Everybody likes it here or in the West." Indeed, in order to be unknown, Mahendranath had used the pen-name M., under which the book has been appearing till now. But so great a book cannot remain obscure for long, nor can its author remain unrecognised by the large public in these modern times. M. and his book came to be widely known very soon and to meet the growing demand, a full-sized book, Vol. I of the Gospel, translated by the author himself, was published in 1907 by the Brahmavadin Office, Madras. A second edition of it, revised by the author, was brought out by the Ramakrishna Math, Madras in December 1911, and subsequently a second part, containing new chapters From the original Bengali, was published by the same Math in 1922. The full English translation of the Gospel by Swami Nikhilananda appeared first in 1942.
In Bengali the book is published in five volumes, the first part having appeared in 1902
--
M. was, in every respect, a true missionary of Sri Ramakrishna right From his first acquaintance with him in 1882. As a school teacher, it was a practice with him to direct to the Master such of his students as had a true spiritual disposition. Though himself prohibited by the Master to take to monastic life, he encouraged all spiritually inclined young men he came across in his later life to join the monastic Order. Swami Vijnanananda, a direct Sannysin disciple of the Master and a President of the Ramakrishna Order, once remarked to M.: "By enquiry, I have come to the conclusion that eighty percent and more of the Sannysins have embraced the monastic life after reading the Kathmrita (Bengali name of the book) and coming in contact with you." ( M
The Apostle and the Evangelist by Swami Nityatmananda Part I, P 37.)
In 1905 he retired From the active life of a Professor and devoted his remaining twenty-seven years exclusively to the preaching of the life and message of the Great Master. He bought the Morton Institution From its original proprietors and shifted it to a commodious four-storeyed house at 50 Amherst Street, where it flourished under his management as one of the most efficient educational institutions in Calcutta. He generally occupied a staircase room at the top of it, cooking his own meal which consisted only of milk and rice without variation, and attended to all his personal needs himself. His dress also was the simplest possible. It was his conviction that limitation of personal wants to the minimum is an important aid to holy living. About one hour in the morning he would spend in inspecting the classes of the school, and then retire to his staircase room to pour over his diary and live in the divine atmosphere of the earthly days of the Great Master, unless devotees and admirers had already gathered in his room seeking his holy company.
In appearance, M. looked a Vedic Rishi. Tall and stately in bearing, he had a strong and well-built body, an unusually broad chest, high forehead and arms extending to the knees. His complexion was fair and his prominent eyes were always tinged with the expression of the divine love that filled his heart. Adorned with a silvery beard that flowed luxuriantly down his chest, and a shining face radiating the serenity and gravity of holiness, M. was as imposing and majestic as he was handsome and engaging in appearance. Humorous, sweet-tongued and eloquent when situations required, this great Maharishi of our age lived only to sing the glory of Sri Ramakrishna day and night.
--
As time went on and the number of devotees increased, the staircase room and terrace of the 3rd floor of the Morton Institution became a veritable Naimisaranya of modern times, resounding during all hours of the day, and sometimes of night, too, with the word of God coming From the Rishi-like face of M. addressed to the eager God-seekers sitting around. To the devotees who helped him in preparing the text of the Gospel, he would dictate the conversations of the Master in a meditative mood, referring now and then to his diary. At times in the stillness of midnight he would awaken a nearby devotee and tell him: "Let us listen to the words of the Master in the depths of the night as he explains the truth of the Pranava." ( Vednta Kesari XIX P. 142.) Swami Raghavananda, an intimate devotee of M., writes as follows about these devotional sittings: "In the sweet and warm months of April and May, sitting under the canopy of heaven on the roof-garden of 50 Amherst Street, surrounded by shrubs and plants, himself sitting in their midst like a Rishi of old, the stars and planets in their courses beckoning us to things infinite and sublime, he would speak to us of the mysteries of God and His love and of the yearning that would rise in the human heart to solve the Eternal Riddle, as exemplified in the life of his Master. The mind, melting under the influence of his soft sweet words of light, would almost transcend the frontiers of limited existence and dare to peep into the infinite. He himself would take the influence of the setting and say,'What a blessed privilege it is to sit in such a setting (pointing to the starry heavens), in the company of the devotees discoursing on God and His love!' These unforgettable scenes will long remain imprinted on the minds of his hearers." (Prabuddha Bharata Vol XXXVII P 497.)
About twenty-seven years of his life he spent in this way in the heart of the great city of Calcutta, radiating the Master's thoughts and ideals to countless devotees who flocked to him, and to still larger numbers who read his Kathmrita (English Edition : The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna), the last part of which he had completed before June 1932 and given to the press. And miraculously, as it were, his end also came immediately after he had completed his life's mission. About three months earlier he had come to stay at his home at 13/2 Gurdasprasad Chaudhuary Lane at Thakur Bari, where the Holy Mother had herself installed the Master and where His regular worship was being conducted for the previous 40 years. The night of 3rd June being the Phalahrini Kli Pooja day, M.
had sent his devotees who used to keep company with him, to attend the special worship at Belur Math at night. After attending the service at the home shrine, he went through the proof of the Kathmrita for an hour. Suddenly he got a severe attack of neuralgic pain, From which he had been suffering now and then, of late. Before 6 a.m. in the early hours of 4th June 1932 he passed away, fully conscious and chanting: 'Gurudeva-Ma, Kole tule na-o (Take me in your arms! O Master! O Mother!!)'
SWMI TAPASYNANDA
0.00 - The Wellspring of Reality, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
As Korzybski, the founder of general semantics, pointed out, the consequence of its single-tagging is that the rose becomes reflexively considered by man only as a red, white, or pink device for paying tribute to a beautiful girl, a thoughtful hostess, or last night's deceased acquaintance. The tagging of the complex biological process under the single title rose tends to detour human curiosity From further differentiation of its integral organic operations as well as From consideration of its interecological functionings aboard our planet. We don't know what a rose is, nor what may be its essential and unique cosmic function. Thus for long have we inadvertently deferred potential discovery of the essential roles in Universe that are performed complementarily by many, if not most, of the phenomena we experience.
But, goaded by youth, we older ones are now taking second looks at almost everything. And that promises many ultimately favorable surprises. The oldsters do have vast experience banks not available to the youth. Their memory banks, integrated and reviewed, may readily disclose generalized principles of eminent importance.
--
The principle of leverage is a scientific generalization. It makes no difference of what material either the fulcrum or the lever consists-wood, steel, or reinforced concrete. Nor do the special-case sizes of the lever and fulcrum, or of the load pried at one end, or the work applied at the lever's other end in any way alter either the principle or the mathematical regularity of the ratios of physical work advantage that are provided at progressive fulcrum-to-load increments of distance outward From the fulcrum in the opposite direction along the lever's arm at which theoperating effort is applied.
Mind is the weightless and uniquely human faculty that surveys the ever larger inventory of special-case experiences stored in the brain bank and, seeking to identify their intercomplementary significance, From time to time discovers one of the rare scientifically generalizable principles running consistently through all the relevant experience set. The thoughts that discover these principles are weightless and tentative and may also be eternal. They suggest eternity but do not prove it, even though there have been no experiences thus far that imply exceptions to their persistence. It seems also to follow that the more experiences we have, the more chances there are that the mind may discover, on the one hand, additional generalized principles or, on the other hand, exceptions that disqualify one or another of the already catalogued principles that, having heretofore held "true" without contradiction for a long time, had been tentatively conceded to be demonstrating eternal persistence of behavior. Mind's relentless reviewing of the comprehensive brain bank's storage of all our special-case experiences tends both to progressive enlargement and definitive refinement of the catalogue of generalized principles that interaccommodatively govern all transactions of Universe.
It follows that the more specialized society becomes, the less attention does it pay to the discoveries of the mind, which are intuitively beamed toward the brain, there to be received only if the switches are "on." Specialization tends to shut off the wide-band tuning searches and thus to preclude further discovery of the all-powerful generalized principles. Again we see how society's perverse fixation on specialization leads to its extinction. We are so specialized that one man discovers empirically how to release the energy of the atom, while another, unbeknownst to him, is ordered by his political factotum to make an atomic bomb by use of the secretly and anonymously published data. That gives much expedient employment, which solves the politician's momentary problem, but requires that the politicians keep on preparing for further warring with other political states to keep their respective peoples employed. It is also mistakenly assumed that employment is the only means by which humans can earn the right to live, for politicians have yet to discover how much wealth is available for distribution. All this is rationalized on the now scientifically discredited premise that there can never be enough life support for all. Thus humanity's specialization leads only toward warring and such devastating tools, both, visible and invisible, as ultimately to destroy all Earthians.
Only a comprehensive switch From the narrowing specialization and toward an evermore inclusive and refining comprehension by all humanity-regarding all the factors governing omnicontinuing life aboard our spaceship Earth-can bring about reorientation From the self-extinction-bound human trending, and do so within the critical time remaining before we have passed the point of chemical process irretrievability.
Quite clearly, our task is predominantly metaphysical, for it is how to get all of humanity to educate itself swiftly enough to generate spontaneous social behaviors that will avoid extinction.
--
The supposed location of the threshold between animate and inanimate was methodically narrowed down by experimental science until it was confined specifically within the domain of virology. Virologists have been too busy, for instance, with their DNA-RNA genetic code isolatings, to find time to see the synergetic significance to society of the fact that they have found that no physical threshold does in fact exist between animate and inanimate. The possibility of its existence vanished because the supposedly unique physical qualities of both animate and inanimate have persisted right across yesterday's supposed threshold in both directions to permeate one another's-previously perceived to be exclusive- domains. Subsequently, what was animate has become foggier and foggier, and what is inanimate clearer and clearer. All organisms consist physically and in entirety of inherently inanimate atoms. The inanimate alone is not only omnipresent but is alone experimentally demonstrable. Belated news of the elimination of this threshold must be interpreted to mean that whatever life may be, it has not been isolated and thereby identified as residual in the biological cell, as had been supposed by the false assumption that there was a separate physical phenomenoncalled animate within which life existed. No life per se has been isolated. The threshold between animate and inanimate has vanished. Those chemists who are preoccupied in synthesizing the particular atomically structured molecules identified as the prime constituents of humanly employed organisms will, even if they are chemically successful, be as remote From creating life as are automobile manufacturers From creating the human drivers of their automobiles. Only the physical connections and development complexes of distinctly "nonlife" atoms into molecules, into cells, into animals, has been and will be discovered. The genetic coding of the design controls of organic systems offers no more explanation of life than did the specifications of the designs of the telephone system's apparatus and operation explain the nature of the life that communicates weightlessly to life over the only physically ponderable telephone system. Whatever else life may be, we know it is weightless. At the moment of death, no weight is lost. All the chemicals, including the chemist's life ingredients, are present, but life has vanished. The physical is inherently entropic, giving off energy in ever more disorderly ways. The metaphysical is antientropic, methodically marshalling energy. Life is antientropic.
It is spontaneously inquisitive. It sorts out and endeavors to understand.
--
Science's self-assumed responsibility has been self-limited to disclosure to society only of the separate, supposedly physical (because separately weighable) atomic component isolations data. Synergetic integrity would require the scientists to announce that in reality what had been identified heretofore as physical is entirely metaphysical-because synergetically weightless. Metaphysical has been science's designation for all weightless phenomena such as thought. But science has made no experimental finding of any phenomena that can be described as a solid, or as continuous, or as a straight surface plane, or as a straight line, or as infinite anything. We are now synergetically forced to conclude that all phenomena are metaphysical; wherefore, as many have long suspected-like it or not-life is but a dream.Science has found no up or down directions of Universe, yet scientists are personally so ill-coordinated that they all still personally and sensorially see "solids" going up or down-as, for instance, they see the Sun "going down." Sensorially disconnected From their theoretically evolved information, scientists discern no need on their part to suggest any educational reforms to correct the misconceiving that science has tolerated for half a millennium.
Society depends upon its scientists for just such educational reform guidance.
Where else might society turn for advice? Unguided by science, society is allowed to go right on filling its childrens' brain banks with large inventories of competence-devastating misinformation. In order to emerge From its massive ignorance, society will probably have to rely exclusively upon its individuals' own minds to survey the pertinent experimental data-as do all great scientist-artists. This, in effect, is what the intuition of world-around youth is beginning to do. Mind can see that reality is evoluting into weightless metaphysics. The wellspring of reality is the family of weightless generalized principles.
It is essential to release humanity From the false fixations of yesterday, which seem now to bind it to a rationale of action leading only to extinction.
The youth of humanity all around our planet are intuitively revolting From all sovereignties and political ideologies. The youth of Earth are moving intuitively toward an utterly classless, raceless, omnicooperative, omniworld humanity.
Children freed of the ignorantly founded educational traditions and exposed only to their spontaneously summoned, computer-stored and -distributed outflow of reliable-opinion-purged, experimentally verified data, shall indeed lead society to its happy egress From all misinformedly conceived, fearfully and legally imposed, and physically enforced customs of yesterday. They can lead all humanity into omnisuccessful survival as well as entrance into an utterly new era of human experience in an as-yet and ever-will-be fundamentally mysterious Universe.
And whence will come the wealth with which we may undertake to lead world man into his new and validly hopeful life? From the wealth of the minds of world man-whence comes all wealth. Only mind can discover how to do so much with so little as forever to be able to sustain and physically satisfy all humanity.
0.01f - FOREWARD, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
that it rests our eyes by turning them away From man ?
Man has a double title, as the twofold centre of the world, to
--
though they could look down From a great height upon a world
which their consciousness could penetrate without being sub-
--
upon things From outside : in fact they are caught in their own
net. A geologist would use the words metamorphism and
--
form each other in the act of knowledge ; and From now on
man willy-nilly fmds his own image stamped on all he looks at.
--
valleys) From which, not only his vision, but things themselves
radiate? In that event the subjective viewpoint coincides with
--
the atom From the nebula, the infinitesimal From the immense ;
A sense of quality, or of novelty, enabling us to distinguish in
--
pronounced individuality conceals From our eyes the whole to
which he belongs ; as we look at him our minds incline to break
--
a thinking being than when the scales fall From his eyes and he
discovers that he is not an isolated unit lost in the cosmic solitudes,
0.01 - I - Sri Aurobindos personality, his outer retirement - outside contacts after 1910 - spiritual personalities- Vibhutis and Avatars - transformtion of human personality, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
The question which Arjuna asks Sri Krishna in the Gita (second chapter) occurs pertinently to many about all spiritual personalities: "What is the language of one whose understanding is poised? How does he speak, how sit, how walk?" Men want to know the outer signs of the inner attainment, the way in which a spiritual person differs outwardly From other men. But all the tests which the Gita enumerates are inner and therefore invisible to the outer view. It is true also that the inner or the spiritual is the essential and the outer derives its value and form From the inner. But the transformation about which Sri Aurobindo writes in his books has to take place in nature, because according to him the divine Reality has to manifest itself in nature. So, all the parts of nature including the physical and the external are to be transformed. In his own case the very physical became the transparent mould of the Spirit as a result of his intense Sadhana. This is borne out by the impression created on the minds of sensitive outsiders like Sj. K. M. Munshi who was deeply impressed by his radiating presence when he met him after nearly forty years.
The Evening Talks collected here may afford to the outside world a glimpse of his external personality and give the seeker some idea of its richness, its many-sidedness, its uniqueness. One can also form some notion of Sri Aurobindo's personality From the books in which the height, the universal sweep and clear vision of his integral ideal and thought can be seen. His writings are, in a sense, the best representative of his mental personality. The versatile nature of his genius, the penetrating power of his intellect, his extraordinary power of expression, his intense sincerity, his utter singleness of purpose all these can be easily felt by any earnest student of his works. He may discover even in the realm of mind that Sri Aurobindo brings the unlimited into the limited. Another side of his dynamic personality is represented by the Ashram as an institution. But the outer, if one may use the phrase, the human side of his personality, is unknown to the outside world because From 1910 to 1950 a span of forty years he led a life of outer retirement. No doubt, many knew about his staying at Pondicherry and practising some kind of very special Yoga to the mystery of which they had no access. To some, perhaps, he was living a life of enviable solitude enjoying the luxury of a spiritual endeavour. Many regretted his retirement as a great loss to the world because they could not see any external activity on his part which could be regarded as 'public', 'altruistic' or 'beneficial'. Even some of his admirers thought that he was after some kind of personal salvation which would have very little significance for mankind in general. His outward non-participation in public life was construed by many as lack of love for humanity.
But those who knew him during the days of the national awakening From 1900 to 1910 could not have these doubts. And even these initial misunderstandings and false notions of others began to evaporate with the growth of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram From 1927 onwards. The large number of books published by the Ashram also tended to remove the idea of the other-worldliness of his Yoga and the absence of any good by it to mankind.
This period of outer retirement was one of intense Sadhana and of intellectual activity it was also one during which he acted on external events, though he was not dedicated outwardly to a public cause. About his own retirement he writes: "But this did not mean, as most people supposed, that he [Sri Aurobindo] had retired into some height of spiritual experience devoid of any further interest in the world or in the fate of India. It could not mean that, for the very principle of his Yoga was not only to realise the Divine and attain to a complete spiritual consciousness, but also to take all life and all world activity into the scope of this spiritual consciousness and action and to base life on the Spirit and give it a spiritual meaning. In his retirement Sri Aurobindo kept a close watch on all that was happening in the world and in India and actively intervened, whenever necessary, but solely with a spiritual force and silent spiritual action; for it is part of the experience of those who have advanced in yoga that besides the ordinary forces and activities of the mind and life and body in Matter, there are other forces and powers that can and do act From behind and From above; there is also a spiritual dynamic power which can be possessed by those who are advanced in spiritual consciousness, though all do not care to possess or, possessing, to use it and this power is greater than any other and more effective. It was this force which, as soon as he attained to it, he used at first only in a limited field of personal work, but afterwards in a constant action upon the world forces."[1]
Twice he found it necessary to go out of his way to make public pronouncements on important world-issues, which shows distinctly that renunciation of life is not a part of his Yoga. "The first was in relation to the Second World War. At the beginning he did not actively concern himself with it, but when it appeared as if Hitler would crush all the forces opposed to him and Nazism dominate the world, he began to intervene."[2]
--
The gospel of the Supermind which Sri Aurobindo brought to man envisages a new level of consciousness beyond Mind. When this level is attained it imposes a complete and radical reintegration of the human personality. Sri Aurobindo was not merely the exponent but the embodiment of the new, dynamic truth of the Supermind. While exploring and sounding the tremendous possibilities of human personality in his intense spiritual Sadhana, he has shown us that practically there are no limits to its expansion and ascent. It can reach in its growth what appears to man at present as a 'divine' status. It goes without saying that this attainment is not an easy task; there are conditions to be fulfilled for the transformation From the human to the divine.
The Gita in its chapters on the Vibhuti and the Avatar takes in general the same position. It shows that the present formula of our nature, and therefore the mental personality of man, is not final. A Vibhuti embodies in a human manifestation a certain divine quality and thus demonstrates the possibility of overcoming the limits of ordinary human personality. The Vibhuti the embodiment of a divine quality or power, and the Avatar the divine incarnation, are not to be looked upon as supraphysical miracles thrown at humanity without regard to the process of evolution; they are, in fact, indications of human possibility, a sign that points to the goal of evolution.
--
"He comes as the divine power and love which calls men to itself, so that they may take refuge in that and no longer in the insufficiency of their human wills and the strife of their human fear, wrath and passion, and liberated From all this unquiet and suffering may live in the calm and bliss of the Divine."[6]
"The Avatar comes to reveal the divine nature in man above this lower nature and to show what are the divine works, free, unegoistic, disinterested, impersonal, universal, full of the divine light, the divine power and the divine love. He comes as the divine personality which shall fill the consciousness of the human being and replace the limited egoistic personality, so that it shall be liberated out of ego into infinity and universality, out of birth into immortality."[7]
0.01 - Letters from the Mother to Her Son, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
object:0.01 - Letters From the Mother to Her Son
author class:The Mother
--
Letters From the Mother to Her Son
Our community is growing more and more; we are nearly thirty
--
are coming From all parts of the world. With this expansion,
new activities are being created, new needs are arising which
--
variety of goods, nearly all imported From France, large gardens
for flowers, vegetables and fruits, a dairy, a bakery, etc., etc.! -
--
mention. I found it rather dull, but apart From that not too bad.
But the Mukerjee quoted there must have lived for many years
--
genius. This is very far From the truth, and if they are so well
known in Western countries, it is probably because their stature
--
that the young people From Shantiniketan come out refined, but
without any force or energy for realisation. As for Gandhi's
--
will surely never suffer From a dearth of men.
28 September 1931
--
the realisation of an ideal. The life we lead here is as far From
ascetic abstinence as From an enervating comfort; simplicity is
the rule here, but a simplicity full of variety - a variety of occupations, of activities, of tastes, tendencies, natures; each one
--
makes us see all the details. From a distance the details fade and
only the principal lines appear, giving a slightly more logical
--
anti-divine forces they have only too many to choose From, and
always they find wills which they enslave and individuals whom
0.01 - Life and Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
HERE are two necessities of Nature's workings which seem always to intervene in the greater forms of human activity, whether these belong to our ordinary fields of movement or seek those exceptional spheres and fulfilments which appear to us high and divine. Every such form tends towards a harmonised complexity and totality which again breaks apart into various channels of special effort and tendency, only to unite once more in a larger and more puissant synthesis. Secondly, development into forms is an imperative rule of effective manifestation; yet all truth and practice too strictly formulated becomes old and loses much, if not all, of its virtue; it must be constantly renovated by fresh streams of the spirit revivifying the dead or dying vehicle and changing it, if it is to acquire a new life. To be perpetually reborn is the condition of a material immortality. We are in an age, full of the throes of travail, when all forms of thought and activity that have in themselves any strong power of utility or any secret virtue of persistence are being subjected to a supreme test and given their opportunity of rebirth. The world today presents the aspect of a huge cauldron of Medea in which all things are being cast, shredded into pieces, experimented on, combined and recombined either to perish and provide the scattered material of new forms or to emerge rejuvenated and changed for a fresh term of existence. Indian Yoga, in its essence a special action or formulation of certain great powers of Nature, itself specialised, divided and variously formulated, is potentially one of these dynamic elements of the future life of humanity. The child of immemorial ages, preserved by its vitality and truth into our modern times, it is now emerging From the secret schools and ascetic retreats in which it had taken refuge and is seeking its place in the future sum of living human powers and utilities. But it has first to rediscover itself, bring to the surface
The Conditions of the Synthesis
--
Rajayoga, for instance, depends on this perception and experience that our inner elements, combinations, functions, forces, can be separated or dissolved, can be new-combined and set to novel and formerly impossible workings or can be transformed and resolved into a new general synthesis by fixed internal processes. Hathayoga similarly depends on this perception and experience that the vital forces and functions to which our life is normally subjected and whose ordinary operations seem set and indispensable, can be mastered and the operations changed or suspended with results that would otherwise be impossible and that seem miraculous to those who have not seized the rationale of their process. And if in some other of its forms this character of Yoga is less apparent, because they are more intuitive and less mechanical, nearer, like the Yoga of Devotion, to a supernal ecstasy or, like the Yoga of Knowledge, to a supernal infinity of consciousness and being, yet they too start From the use of some principal faculty in us by ways and for ends not contemplated in its everyday spontaneous workings. All methods grouped under the common name of Yoga are special psychological processes founded on a fixed truth of Nature and developing, out of normal functions, powers and results which were always latent but which her ordinary movements do not easily or do not often manifest.
But as in physical knowledge the multiplication of scientific processes has its disadvantages, as that tends, for instance, to develop a victorious artificiality which overwhelms our natural human life under a load of machinery and to purchase certain forms of freedom and mastery at the price of an increased servitude, so the preoccupation with Yogic processes and their exceptional results may have its disadvantages and losses. The
--
Yogin tends to draw away From the common existence and lose his hold upon it; he tends to purchase wealth of spirit by an impoverishment of his human activities, the inner freedom by an outer death. If he gains God, he loses life, or if he turns his efforts outward to conquer life, he is in danger of losing
God. Therefore we see in India that a sharp incompatibility has been created between life in the world and spiritual growth and perfection, and although the tradition and ideal of a victorious harmony between the inner attraction and the outer demand remains, it is little or else very imperfectly exemplified. In fact, when a man turns his vision and energy inward and enters on the path of Yoga, he is popularly supposed to be lost inevitably to the great stream of our collective existence and the secular effort of humanity. So strongly has the idea prevailed, so much has it been emphasised by prevalent philosophies and religions that to escape From life is now commonly considered as not only the necessary condition, but the general object of Yoga. No synthesis of Yoga can be satisfying which does not, in its aim, reunite God and Nature in a liberated and perfected human life or, in its method, not only permit but favour the harmony of our inner and outer activities and experiences in the divine consummation of both. For man is precisely that term and symbol of a higher Existence descended into the material world in which it is possible for the lower to transfigure itself and put on the nature of the higher and the higher to reveal itself in the forms of the lower. To avoid the life which is given him for the realisation of that possibility, can never be either the indispensable condition or the whole and ultimate object of his supreme endeavour or of his most powerful means of self-fulfilment. It can only be a temporary necessity under certain conditions or a specialised extreme effort imposed on the individual so as to prepare a greater general possibility for the race. The true and full object and utility of Yoga can only be accomplished when the conscious
Yoga in man becomes, like the subconscious Yoga in Nature, outwardly conterminous with life itself and we can once more, looking out both on the path and the achievement, say in a more perfect and luminous sense: "All life is Yoga."
0.02 - II - The Home of the Guru, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
The Master, the Guru, set at rest the puzzled human mind by his illuminating answers, perhaps even more by his silent consciousness, so that it might be able to pursue unhampered the path of realisation of the Truth. Those ancient discourses answer the mind of man today even across the ages. They have rightly acquired as everything of the past does a certain sanctity. But sometimes that very reverence prevents men From properly evaluating, and living in, the present. This happens when the mind instead of seeking the Spirit looks at the form. For instance, it is not necessary for such discourses that they take place in forest-groves in order to be highly spiritual. Wherever the Master is, there is Light. And guru-griha the house of the Master can be his private dwelling place. So much was this feeling a part of Sri Aurobindo's nature and so particular was he to maintain the personal character of his work that during the first few years after 1923 he did not like his house to be called an 'Ashram', as the word had acquired the sense of a public institution to the modern mind. But there was no doubt that the flower of Divinity had blossomed in him; and disciples, like bees seeking honey, came to him. It is no exaggeration to say that these Evening Talks were to the small company of disciples what the Aranyakas were to the ancient seekers. Seeking the Light, they came to the dwelling place of their Guru, the greatest seer of the age, and found it their spiritual home the home of their parents, for the Mother, his companion in the great mission, had come. And these spiritual parents bestowed upon the disciples freely of their Light, their Consciousness, their Power and their Grace. The modern reader may find that the form of these discourses differs From those of the past but it was bound to be so for the simple reason that the times have changed and the problems that puzzle the modern mind are so different. Even though the disciples may be very imperfect representations of what he aimed at in them, still they are his creations. It is in order to repay, in however infinitesimal a degree, the debt which we owe to him that the effort is made to partake of the joy of his company the Evening Talks with a larger public.
***
0.02 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I feel a reserve while asking something From Mother.
But in fact, there should be no reserve in our dealings
--
peace.... Why do men flee From these boons as though
they fear them?"3
--
and incidents of days long past. It takes pleasure in comparing how different I am now From what I was then.
Extract From the Mother's Prayers and Meditations, 18 June 1913.
It is good sometimes to look backwards for a confirmation of
--
I pray for a gracious word From You to strike at the
root of this superstition.
--
Healing comes not From the head but From the heart.
To understand is good, but to will is better.
--
The sadhak's prayer is composed of extracts From several prayers of the Mother in
Prayers and Meditations,: paragraph one, 29 November 1913; two, 7 January 1914;
--
The exact symptoms of an attack From adverse forces.
I was imagining that Mother will throw away this book
--
help From an invisible and silent Mother (who never contradicts
you openly) if he likes.
--
The movement comes From a subconscient layer which is not
allowed to express itself in the daytime.
--
I told you already that far From diminishing, your hold upon
the workmen can but increase by it.
--
morning you were missing From your post From 9:30 to
10:30." X said, "But Y also takes off sometimes."
--
consciousness, into a higher consciousness From which one can
see things From above, and thus see them more profoundly.
9 December 1932
If you try to hide something From the Divine, you are sure to fall
flat on your nose, plop! like that...
--
help of the Divine Grace? Yet you know From experience that
the result is unfailing and marvellous!
--
On the first of the month, the sadhaks received From the Ashram stores the material
items which they previously requested.
--
These movements spring From desire and ignorance (X's desire
for a frame without any exact knowledge of how the frame has
--
by strong ropes From rings fixed to a bar above. The supporting posts are securely set in the ground. I was thinking that
something similar could be made for the sieve.
--
atmosphere made of the vibrations that come From his character,
his mood, his way of thinking, feeling, acting. These atmospheres
--
This morning at pranam a prayer leapt up From my
heart towards You: "May this day bring me an opportunity to remain calm even in the face of provocation." It
--
when I am conscious, if I open my mouth I lose my selfcontrol. I get angrier and angrier From one sentence to
the next.
--
not understand at all and takes you for a fool suffering From
hallucinations, or else he understands and then gets frightened,
--
A prayer: Teach me the unfailing way to receive From
Sweet Mother a healing and comforting kiss.
--
I admit that I have much to learn From X. I bow to
Sweet Mother in X. Make our relationship one through
--
working hour From six to seven in the evening. I have said Yes.
For surely you must know that in France all the extra hours in
--
And From July 1st we shall also have to think about reducing
the number of projects undertaken at one time, in order to meet
--
All the pain I have felt till tonight comes From my
reservations with regard to Sweet Mother. Is my diagnosis correct? If so, how can I do away with these
--
arising From an affectionate confidence must come in: if there is
something you are unsure of, you must ask me about it; if you
--
ask you to read it From the place I have marked with a red cross,
for I think it may be useful to everyone there. I shall probably
--
X sent me a mason with a dismissal note this morning. Later, I learnt From X that the mason had laughed
when X told him he was not satisfied with the work he
--
(Two instances are given.) From these two accounts You
will see that there were good grounds for the first suggestion, whereas the second one was importunate. How can
--
aware. Do not withdraw From me when You see me sad.
O Sweet Mother, I assure You, I promise You, that with
--
one should refrain From doing it.
It is precisely because your refusal had no real cause that it
--
would not need to get information From anyone. But this is not
the case, and this is why I consult the people around me, because
--
needs time and a continuous effort of sadhana From both of you.
In the present conditions I think it would be better not to
0.02 - The Three Steps of Nature, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Wisdom, prajna prasr.ta puran. of the Upanishad, Wisdom that went forth From the Eternal since the beginning. For the particular utilities we must cast a penetrative eye on the different methods of Yoga and distinguish among the mass of their details the governing idea which they serve and the radical force which gives birth and energy to their processes of effectuation.
Afterwards we may more easily find the one common principle and the one common power From which all derive their being and tendency, towards which all subconsciously move and in which, therefore, it is possible for all consciously to unite.
The progressive self-manifestation of Nature in man, termed in modern language his evolution, must necessarily depend upon three successive elements. There is that which is already evolved; there is that which, still imperfect, still partly fluid, is persistently in the stage of conscious evolution; and there is that which is to be evolved and may perhaps be already
--
If, then, this inferior equilibrium is the basis and first means of the higher movements which the universal Power contemplates and if it constitutes the vehicle in which the Divine here seeks to reveal Itself, if the Indian saying is true that the body is the instrument provided for the fulfilment of the right law of our nature, then any final recoil From the physical life must be a turning away From the completeness of the divine Wisdom and a renunciation of its aim in earthly manifestation. Such a refusal may be, owing to some secret law of their development, the right attitude for certain individuals, but never the aim intended for mankind. It can be, therefore, no integral Yoga which ignores the body or makes its annulment or its rejection indispensable to a perfect spirituality. Rather, the perfecting of the body also should be the last triumph of the Spirit and to make the bodily life also divine must be God's final seal upon His work in the universe. The obstacle which the physical presents to the spiritual is no argument for the rejection of the physical; for in the unseen providence of things our greatest difficulties are our best opportunities. A supreme difficulty is Nature's indication to us of a supreme conquest to be won and an ultimate problem to be solved; it is not a warning of an inextricable snare to be shunned or of an enemy too strong for us From whom we must flee.
Equally, the vital and nervous energies in us are there for a great utility; they too demand the divine realisation of their possibilities in our ultimate fulfilment. The great part assigned to this element in the universal scheme is powerfully emphasised by the catholic wisdom of the Upanishads. "As the spokes of a wheel in its nave, so in the Life-Energy is all established, the triple knowledge and the Sacrifice and the power of the strong and the purity of the wise. Under the control of the LifeEnergy is all this that is established in the triple heaven."2 It is therefore no integral Yoga that kills these vital energies, forces them into a nerveless quiescence or roots them out as the source
--
If the bodily life is what Nature has firmly evolved for us as her base and first instrument, it is our mental life that she is evolving as her immediate next aim and superior instrument. This in her ordinary exaltations is the lofty preoccupying thought in her; this, except in her periods of exhaustion and recoil into a reposeful and recuperating obscurity, is her constant pursuit wherever she can get free From the trammels of her first vital and physical realisations. For here in man we have a distinction which is of the utmost importance. He has in him not a single mentality, but a double and a triple, the mind material and nervous, the pure intellectual mind which liberates itself From the illusions of the body and the senses, and a divine mind above intellect which in its turn liberates itself From the imperfect modes of the logically discriminative and imaginative reason. Mind in man is first emmeshed in the life of the body, where in the plant it is entirely involved and in animals always imprisoned. It accepts this life as not only the first but the whole condition of its activities and serves its needs as if they were the entire aim of existence. But the bodily life in man is a base, not the aim, his first condition and not his last determinant. In the just idea of the ancients man is essentially the thinker, the Manu, the mental being who leads the life and the body,3 not the animal who is led by them. The true human existence, therefore, only begins when the intellectual mentality emerges out of the material and we begin more and more to live in the mind independent of the nervous and physical obsession and in the measure of that liberty are able to accept rightly and rightly to use the life of the body. For freedom and not a skilful subjection is the true means of mastery. A free, not a compulsory acceptance of the conditions, the enlarged and sublimated conditions of our physical being, is the high human ideal. But beyond this intellectual mentality is the divine.
The mental life thus evolving in man is not, indeed, a
--
to this conclusion that mental life, far From being a recent appearance in man, is the swift repetition in him of a previous achievement From which the Energy in the race had undergone one of her deplorable recoils. The savage is perhaps not so much the first forefa ther of civilised man as the degenerate descendant of a previous civilisation. For if the actuality of intellectual achievement is unevenly distributed, the capacity is spread everywhere. It has been seen that in individual cases even the racial type considered by us the lowest, the negro fresh From the perennial barbarism of Central Africa, is capable, without admixture of blood, without waiting for future generations, of the intellectual culture, if not yet of the intellectual accomplishment of the dominant European. Even in the mass men seem to need, in favourable circumstances, only a few generations to cover ground that ought apparently to be measured in the terms of millenniums. Either, then, man by his privilege as a mental being is exempt From the full burden of the tardy laws of evolution or else he already represents and with helpful conditions and in the right stimulating atmosphere can always display a high level of material capacity for the activities of the intellectual life.
It is not mental incapacity, but the long rejection or seclusion From opportunity and withdrawal of the awakening impulse that creates the savage. Barbarism is an intermediate sleep, not an original darkness.
Moreover the whole trend of modern thought and modern endeavour reveals itself to the observant eye as a large conscious effort of Nature in man to effect a general level of intellectual equipment, capacity and farther possibility by universalising the opportunities which modern civilisation affords for the mental life. Even the preoccupation of the European intellect, the protagonist of this tendency, with material Nature and the externalities of existence is a necessary part of the effort. It seeks to prepare a sufficient basis in man's physical being and vital energies and in his material environment for his full mental possibilities. By the spread of education, by the advance of the backward races, by the elevation of depressed classes, by the multiplication of labour-saving appliances, by the movement
--
And if since then Nature has sunk back From her achievement, the reason must always be found in some unrealised harmony, some insufficiency of the intellectual and material basis to which she has now returned, some over-specialisation of the higher to the detriment of the lower existence.
But what then constitutes this higher or highest existence to which our evolution is tending? In order to answer the question we have to deal with a class of supreme experiences, a class of unusual conceptions which it is difficult to represent accurately in any other language than the ancient Sanskrit tongue in which alone they have been to some extent systematised.
--
For, as is indicated by the name, causal body (karan.a), as opposed to the two others which are instruments (karan.a), this crowning manifestation is also the source and effective power of all that in the actual evolution has preceded it. Our mental activities are, indeed, a derivation, selection and, so long as they are divided From the truth that is secretly their source, a deformation of the divine knowledge. Our sensations and emotions have the same relation to the Bliss, our vital forces and actions to the aspect of Will or Force assumed by the divine consciousness, our physical being to the pure essence of that Bliss and
Consciousness. The evolution which we observe and of which
--
we are the terrestrial summit may be considered, in a sense, as an inverse manifestation, by which these supreme Powers in their unity and their diversity use, develop and perfect the imperfect substance and activities of Matter, of Life and of Mind so that they, the inferior modes, may express in mutable relativity an increasing harmony of the divine and eternal states From which they are born. If this be the truth of the universe, then the goal of evolution is also its cause, it is that which is immanent in its elements and out of them is liberated. But the liberation is surely imperfect if it is only an escape and there is no return upon the containing substance and activities to exalt and transform them.
The immanence itself would have no credible reason for being if it did not end in such a transfiguration. But if human mind can become capable of the glories of the divine Light, human emotion and sensibility can be transformed into the mould and assume the measure and movement of the supreme Bliss, human action not only represent but feel itself to be the motion of a divine and non-egoistic Force and the physical substance of our being sufficiently partake of the purity of the supernal essence, sufficiently unify plasticity and durable constancy to support and prolong these highest experiences and agencies, then all the long labour of Nature will end in a crowning justification and her evolutions reveal their profound significance.
0.03 - III - The Evening Sittings, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo was never a social man in the current sense of the term and definitely he was not a man of the crowd. This was due to his grave temperament, not to any feeling of superiority or to repulsion for men. At Baroda there was an Officers' Club which was patronised by the Maharajah and though Sri Aurobindo enrolled himself as a member he hardly went to the Club even on special occasions. He rather liked a small congenial circle of friends and spent most of his evenings with them whenever he was free and not occupied with his studies or other works. After Baroda when he went to Calcutta there was hardly any time in the storm and stress of revolutionary politics to permit him to lead a 'social life'. What little time he could spare From his incessant activities was spent in the house of Raja Subodh Mallick or at the Grey Street house. In the Karmayogin office he used to sit after the office hours till late chatting with a few persons or trying automatic writing. Strange dictations used to be received sometimes: one of them was the following: "Moni [Suresh Chakravarty] will bomb Sir Edward Grey when he will come as the Viceroy of India." In later years at Pondicherry there used to be a joke that Sir Edward took such a fright at the prospect of Moni's bombing him that he never came to India!
After Sri Aurobindo had come to Pondicherry From Chandernagore, he entered upon an intense period of Sadhana and for a few months he refused to receive anyone. After a time he used to sit down to talk in the evening and on some days tried automatic writing. Yogic Sadhan, a small book, was the result. In 1913 Sri Aurobindo moved to Rue Franois Martin No. 41 where he used to receive visitors at fixed times. This was generally in the morning between 9 and 10.30.
But, over and above newcomers, some local people and the few inmates of the house used to have informal talks with Sri Aurobindo in the evening. In the beginning the inmates used to go out for playing football, and during their absence known local individuals would come in and wait for Sri Aurobindo. Afterwards regular meditations began at about 4 p.m. in which practically all the inmates participated. After the meditation all of the members and those who were permitted shared in the evening sitting. This was a very informal gathering depending entirely upon Sri Aurobindo's leisure.
--
As years passed the evening sittings went on changing their time and often those disciples who came From outside for a temporary stay for Sadhana were allowed to join them. And, as the number of sadhaks practising the Yoga increased, the evening sittings also became more full, and the small verandah upstairs in the main building was found insufficient. Members of the household would gather every day at the fixed time with some sense of expectancy and start chatting in low tones. Sri Aurobindo used to come last and it was after his coming that the session would really commence.
He came dressed as usual in dhoti, part of which was used by him to cover the upper part of his body. Very rarely he came out with chaddar or shawl and then it was "in deference to the climate" as he sometimes put it. At times for minutes he would be gazing at the sky From a small opening at the top of the grass-curtains that covered the verandah upstairs in No. 9, Rue de la Marine. How much were these sittings dependent on him may be gathered From the fact that there were days when more than three-fourths of the time passed in complete silence without any outer suggestion From him, or there was only an abrupt "Yes" or "No" to all attempts at drawing him out in conversation. And even when he participated in the talk one always felt that his voice was that of one who does not let his whole being flow into his words; there was a reserve and what was left unsaid was perhaps more than what was spoken. What was spoken was what he felt necessary to speak.
Very often some news-item in the daily newspaper, town-gossip, or some interesting letter received either by him or by a disciple, or a question From one of the gathering, occasionally some remark or query From himself would set the ball rolling for the talk. The whole thing was so informal that one could never predict the turn the conversation would take. The whole house therefore was in a mood to enjoy the freshness and the delight of meeting the unexpected. There were peals of laughter and light talk, jokes and criticism which might be called personal, there was seriousness and earnestness in abundance.
These sittings, in fact, furnished Sri Aurobindo with an occasion to admit and feel the outer atmosphere and that of the group living with him. It brought to him the much-needed direct contact of the mental and vital make-up of the disciples, enabling him to act on the atmosphere in general and on the individual in particular. He could thus help to remould their mental make-up by removing the limitations of their minds and opinions, and correct temperamental tendencies and formations. Thus, these sittings contributed at least partly to the creation of an atmosphere amenable to the working of the Higher Consciousness. Far more important than the actual talk and its content was the personal contact, the influence of the Master, and the divine atmosphere he emanated; for through his outer personality it was the Divine Consciousness that he allowed to act. All along behind the outer manifestation that appeared human, there was the influence and presence of the Divine.
--
But there were occasions when he did give his independent, personal views on some problems, on events or other subjects. Even then it was never an authoritarian pronouncement. Most often it appeared to be a logically worked out and almost inevitable conclusion expressed quite impersonally though with firm and sincere conviction. This impersonality was such a prominent trait of his personality! Even in such matters as dispatching a letter or a telegram it would not be a command From him to a disciple to carry out the task. Most often during his usual passage to the dining room he would stop on the way, drop in on the company of four or five disciples and, holding out the letter or the telegram, would say in the most amiable and yet the most impersonal way: "I suppose this has to be sent." And it would be for someone in the group instantly to volunteer and take it. The expression he very often used was "It was done" or "It happened", not "I did."
From 1918 to 1922, we gathered at No. 41, Rue Franois Martin, called the Guest House, upstairs, on a broad verandah into which four rooms opened and whose main piece of furniture was a small table 3' x 1' covered with a blue cotton cloth. That is where Sri Aurobindo used to sit in a hard wooden chair behind the table with a few chairs in front for the visitors or for the disciples.
From 1922 to 1926, No. 9, Rue de la Marine, where he and the Mother had shifted, was the place where the sittings were held. There, also upstairs, was a less broad verandah than at the Guest House, a little bigger table in front of the central door out of three, and a broad Japanese chair, the table covered with a better cloth than the one in the Guest House, a small flower vase, an ash-tray, a block calendar indicating the date and an ordinary time-piece, and a number of chairs in front in a line. The evening sittings used to be after meditation at 4 or 4.30 p.m. After 24 November 1926, the sittings began to get later and later, till the limit of 1 o'clock at night was reached. Then the curtain fell. Sri Aurobindo retired completely after December 1926, and the evening sittings came to a close.
On 8 February 1927, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother moved to No. 28, Rue Franois Martin, a house on the north-east of the same block as No. 9, Rue de la Marine.
--
The long period of the Second World War with all its vicissitudes passed through these years. It was a priceless experience to see how he devoted his energies to the task of saving humanity From the threatened reign of Nazism. It was a practical lesson of solid work done for humanity without any thought of return or reward, without even letting humanity know what he was doing for it! Thus he lived the Divine and showed us how the Divine cares for the world, how He comes down and works for man. I shall never forget how he who was at one time in his own words "not merely a non-co-operator but an enemy of British Imperialism" bestowed such anxious care on the health of Churchill, listening carefully to the health-bulletins! It was the work of the Divine, it was the Divine's work for the world.
There were no formal evening sittings during these years, but what appeared to me important in our informal talks was recorded and has been incorporated in this book.
0.03 - Letters to My little smile, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I may remove the anger From the consciousness of my "little
smile" and give her back the joy and peace I want her always to
--
a perpetual renewal of force comes From communion
with the Infinite.
--
and prevents the pond From drying up.
With these two images, I think you will understand.
--
The dullness comes From "tamas"; imaginative activity was
shaking off the tamas and thus ridding you of the dullness.
--
and Consciousness From above and allowing them to replace the
tamas in the external consciousness, is a much better and surer
--
detach one's consciousness From it and let it run by itself without
running with it. Then it finds this less enjoyable and after some
--
asks me to go away From here, I have no one to go to and
nowhere to stay; I will remain here even as a servant, but
--
some day in order to receive the light From above; but in the
meantime, you may surely tell me all these stories. I find them
--
Be careful, child, do not open the door to depression, discouragement and revolt - this leads far, far away From consciousness and makes you sink into the depths of obscurity
where happiness can no longer enter. Your great strength was
--
other people, you have learned From them to be discontented,
rebellious, depressed, and now you have let your smile slip away,
--
I have often noticed that when I wake up From sleep,
there is a kind of noise in my head, as if many people
--
one has done; for at a distance, removed From the action, one
sees more clearly and better understands what ought or ought
--
and prevent you From seeing affection where it is present.
I don't know whether You tell Y about what I write to
--
please. Will You not save me From them?
With all my will I want to save you, but you must allow me to
--
nothing From You and that it is impossible for me to live
without You, and this is why, Mother, You like to see me
--
of suffering From the world, how could I want, much less like,
one of my children to suffer! It would be monstrous.
--
These suggestions of sadness, despair and suicide come From
them (the thieves of the vital world), because it is when you are
--
order to get an answer From you, for I think that I know it; it
is only so you may understand that I don't hold you responsible for this change which has come over you From outside.
Now there is only one way open, the way of progress - since
--
dressed, then went to collect my notebook From X's
window (I always go there). Then at about 6:30 I
--
Eleven years ago, in 1922, in the month of February, it was possible to write 2.2.22 and eleven years From now, in the month
of April, it will be possible to write 4.4.44, and so on. It is
--
Today, August 15th, I didn't work; I will start From
tomorrow.
--
A great promise came From above for you yesterday6, the
promise that you will be delivered From all your difficulties and
that your mind will become luminously peaceful and your heart
--
invite blows From the surrounding circumstances. And it is up
to us to utilise these blows to make further progress.
--
to hide something From me. When you started crying under the
pressure I was putting on you in meditation to calm the restlessness of your mind and vital, I thought that it might relieve you
--
Tender love From your mother.
25 July 1936
--
Tender love From your mother.
30 July 1936
--
To [my little smile] whose precious help prevents my feet From
being hurt by the stones on the way.
0.03 - The Threefold Life, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The characteristic energy of bodily Life is not so much in progress as in persistence, not so much in individual selfenlargement as in self-repetition. There is, indeed, in physical Nature a progression From type to type, From the vegetable to the animal, From the animal to man; for even in inanimate Matter Mind is at work. But once a type is marked off physically, the chief immediate preoccupation of the terrestrial Mother seems to be to keep it in being by a constant reproduction. For Life always seeks immortality; but since individual form is impermanent and only the idea of a form is permanent in the consciousness that creates the universe, - for there it does not perish, - such constant reproduction is the only possible material immortality.
Self-preservation, self-repetition, self-multiplication are necessarily, then, the predominant instincts of all material existence.
--
The characteristic energy of pure Mind is change, and the more our mentality acquires elevation and organisation, the more this law of Mind assumes the aspect of a continual enlargement, improvement and better arrangement of its gains and so of a continual passage From a smaller and simpler to a larger and more complex perfection. For Mind, unlike bodily life, is infinite in its field, elastic in its expansion, easily variable in its formations. Change, then, self-enlargement and selfimprovement are its proper instincts. Mind too moves in cycles, but these are ever-enlarging spirals. Its faith is perfectibility, its watchword is progress.
The characteristic law of Spirit is self-existent perfection and immutable infinity. It possesses always and in its own right the immortality which is the aim of Life and the perfection which is the goal of Mind. The attainment of the eternal and the realisation of that which is the same in all things and beyond all things, equally blissful in universe and outside it, untouched by the imperfections and limitations of the forms and activities in which it dwells, are the glory of the spiritual life.
In each of these forms Nature acts both individually and collectively; for the Eternal affirms Himself equally in the single form and in the group-existence, whether family, clan and nation or groupings dependent on less physical principles or the supreme group of all, our collective humanity. Man also may seek his own individual good From any or all of these spheres of activity, or identify himself in them with the collectivity and live for it, or, rising to a truer perception of this complex universe, harmonise the individual realisation with the collective aim. For as it is the right relation of the soul with the Supreme, while it is in the universe, neither to assert egoistically its separate being nor to blot itself out in the Indefinable, but to realise its unity with the Divine and the world and unite them in the individual, so the right relation of the individual with the collectivity is neither to pursue egoistically his own material or mental progress or spiritual salvation without regard to his fellows, nor for the sake of the community to suppress or maim his proper development, but to sum up in himself all its best and completest possibilities and pour them out by thought, action and all other means on his surroundings so that the whole race may approach nearer to the attainment of its supreme personalities.
It follows that the object of the material life must be to fulfil, above all things, the vital aim of Nature. The whole aim of the material man is to live, to pass From birth to death with as much comfort or enjoyment as may be on the way, but anyhow to live.
He can subordinate this aim, but only to physical Nature's other instincts, the reproduction of the individual and the conservation of the type in the family, class or community. Self, domesticity, the accustomed order of the society and of the nation are the constituents of the material existence. Its immense importance in the economy of Nature is self-evident, and commensurate is the importance of the human type which represents it. He assures her of the safety of the framework she has made and of the orderly continuance and conservation of her past gains.
--
Yet he admits so much of spirituality as has been enforced on his customary ideas by the great religious outbursts of the past and he makes in his scheme of society a place, venerable though not often effective, for the priest or the learned theologian who can be trusted to provide him with a safe and ordinary spiritual pabulum. But to the man who would assert for himself the liberty of spiritual experience and the spiritual life, he assigns, if he admits him at all, not the vestment of the priest but the robe of the Sannyasin. Outside society let him exercise his dangerous freedom. So he may even serve as a human lightning-rod receiving the electricity of the Spirit and turning it away From the social edifice.
Nevertheless it is possible to make the material man and his life moderately progressive by imprinting on the material mind the custom of progress, the habit of conscious change, the fixed idea of progression as a law of life. The creation by this means of progressive societies in Europe is one of the greatest triumphs of Mind over Matter. But the physical nature has its revenge; for the progress made tends to be of the grosser and more outward kind and its attempts at a higher or a more rapid movement bring about great wearinesses, swift exhaustions, startling recoils.
--
Its higher manifestations, even the most splendid and puissant, either merely increase the number of souls drawn out of social life and so impoverish it or disturb the society for a while by a momentary elevation. The truth is that neither the mental effort nor the spiritual impulse can suffice, divorced From each other, to overcome the immense resistance of material Nature.
She demands their alliance in a complete effort before she will suffer a complete change in humanity. But, usually, these two great agents are unwilling to make to each other the necessary concessions.
The mental life concentrates on the aesthetic, the ethical and the intellectual activities. Essential mentality is idealistic and a seeker after perfection. The subtle self, the brilliant Atman,1 is ever a dreamer. A dream of perfect beauty, perfect conduct, perfect Truth, whether seeking new forms of the Eternal or revitalising the old, is the very soul of pure mentality. But it knows not how to deal with the resistance of Matter. There it is hampered and inefficient, works by bungling experiments and has either to withdraw From the struggle or submit to the grey actuality. Or else, by studying the material life and accepting the conditions of the contest, it may succeed, but only in imposing temporarily some artificial system which infinite Nature either rends and casts aside or disfigures out of recognition or by withdrawing her assent leaves as the corpse of a dead ideal. Few and far between have been those realisations of the dreamer in Man which the world has gladly accepted, looks back to with a fond memory and seeks, in its elements, to cherish.
1 Who dwells in Dream, the inly conscious, the enjoyer of abstractions, the Brilliant.
--
When the gulf between actual life and the temperament of the thinker is too great, we see as the result a sort of withdrawing of the Mind From life in order to act with a greater freedom in its own sphere. The poet living among his brilliant visions, the artist absorbed in his art, the philosopher thinking out the problems of the intellect in his solitary chamber, the scientist, the scholar caring only for their studies and their experiments, were often in former days, are even now not unoften the Sannyasins of the intellect. To the work they have done for humanity, all its past bears record.
But such seclusion is justified only by some special activity.
--
This mixing with life may, however, be pursued for the sake of the individual mind and with an entire indifference to the forms of the material existence or the uplifting of the race. This indifference is seen at its highest in the Epicurean discipline and is not entirely absent From the Stoic; and even altruism does the works of compassion more often for its own sake than for the sake of the world it helps. But this too is a limited fulfilment. The progressive mind is seen at its noblest when it strives to elevate the whole race to its own level whether by sowing broadcast the image of its own thought and fulfilment or by changing the material life of the race into fresh forms, religious, intellectual, social or political, intended to represent more nearly that ideal of truth, beauty, justice, righteousness with which the man's own soul is illumined. Failure in such a field matters little; for the mere attempt is dynamic and creative. The struggle of Mind to elevate life is the promise and condition of the conquest of life by that which is higher even than Mind.
That highest thing, the spiritual existence, is concerned with what is eternal but not therefore entirely aloof From the transient. For the spiritual man the mind's dream of perfect beauty is realised in an eternal love, beauty and delight that has no dependence and is equal behind all objective appearances; its dream of perfect Truth in the supreme, self-existent, self-apparent and eternal Verity which never varies, but explains and is the secret of all variations and the goal of all progress; its dream of perfect action in the omnipotent and self-guiding Law that is inherent for ever in all things and translates itself here in the rhythm of the worlds. What is fugitive vision or constant effort of creation in the brilliant Self is an eternally existing Reality in the Self that knows2 and is the Lord.
But if it is often difficult for the mental life to accommodate itself to the dully resistant material activity, how much more difficult must it seem for the spiritual existence to live on in a world that appears full not of the Truth but of every lie and illusion, not of Love and Beauty but of an encompassing discord and ugliness, not of the Law of Truth but of victorious selfishness and sin? Therefore the spiritual life tends easily in the saint and Sannyasin to withdraw From the material existence and reject it either wholly and physically or in the spirit. It sees this world as the kingdom of evil or of ignorance and the eternal and divine either in a far-off heaven or beyond where there is no world and no life. It separates itself inwardly, if not also physically, From the world's impurities; it asserts the spiritual reality in a spotless isolation. This withdrawal renders an invaluable service to the material life itself by forcing it to regard and even to bow down to something that is the direct negation of its own petty ideals, sordid cares and egoistic self-content.
But the work in the world of so supreme a power as spiritual force cannot be thus limited. The spiritual life also can return upon the material and use it as a means of its own greater fullness. Refusing to be blinded by the dualities, the appearances, it can seek in all appearances whatsoever the vision of the same Lord, the same eternal Truth, Beauty, Love, Delight. The
--
In India, for the last thousand years and more, the spiritual life and the material have existed side by side to the exclusion of the progressive mind. Spirituality has made terms for itself with Matter by renouncing the attempt at general progress. It has obtained From society the right of free spiritual development for all who assume some distinctive symbol, such as the garb of the Sannyasin, the recognition of that life as man's goal and those who live it as worthy of an absolute reverence, and the casting of society itself into such a religious mould that its most customary acts should be accompanied by a formal reminder of the spiritual symbolism of life and its ultimate destination. On the other hand, there was conceded to society the right of inertia and immobile self-conservation. The concession destroyed much of the value of the terms. The religious mould being fixed, the formal reminder tended to become a routine and to lose its living sense. The constant attempts to change the mould by new sects and religions ended only in a new routine or a modification of the old; for the saving element of the free and active mind had been exiled. The material life, handed over to the Ignorance, the purposeless and endless duality, became a leaden and dolorous yoke From which flight was the only escape.
The schools of Indian Yoga lent themselves to the compromise. Individual perfection or liberation was made the aim, seclusion of some kind From the ordinary activities the condition, the renunciation of life the culmination. The teacher gave his knowledge only to a small circle of disciples. Or if a wider movement was attempted, it was still the release of the individual soul that remained the aim. The pact with an immobile society was, for the most part, observed.
The utility of the compromise in the then actual state of the world cannot be doubted. It secured in India a society which lent itself to the preservation and the worship of spirituality, a country apart in which as in a fortress the highest spiritual ideal could maintain itself in its most absolute purity unoverpowered by the siege of the forces around it. But it was a compromise, not an absolute victory. The material life lost the divine impulse to growth, the spiritual preserved by isolation its height and purity, but sacrificed its full power and serviceableness to the world. Therefore, in the divine Providence the country of the Yogins and the Sannyasins has been forced into a strict and imperative contact with the very element it had rejected, the element of the progressive Mind, so that it might recover what was now wanting to it.
--
Therefore From a concrete view of human life in its threefold potentialities we come to the same conclusion that we had drawn From an observation of Nature in her general workings and the three steps of her evolution. And we begin to perceive a complete aim for our synthesis of Yoga.
Spirit is the crown of universal existence; Matter is its basis; Mind is the link between the two. Spirit is that which is eternal; Mind and Matter are its workings. Spirit is that which is concealed and has to be revealed; mind and body are the means by which it seeks to reveal itself. Spirit is the image of the Lord of the Yoga; mind and body are the means He has provided for reproducing that image in phenomenal existence. All Nature is an attempt at a progressive revelation of the concealed Truth, a more and more successful reproduction of the divine image.
But what Nature aims at for the mass in a slow evolution, Yoga effects for the individual by a rapid revolution. It works by a quickening of all her energies, a sublimation of all her faculties. While she develops the spiritual life with difficulty and has constantly to fall back From it for the sake of her lower realisations, the sublimated force, the concentrated method of Yoga can attain directly and carry with it the perfection of the mind and even, if she will, the perfection of the body. Nature seeks the Divine in her own symbols: Yoga goes beyond Nature to the Lord of Nature, beyond universe to the Transcendent and can return with the transcendent light and power, with the fiat of the Omnipotent.
But their aim is one in the end. The generalisation of Yoga in humanity must be the last victory of Nature over her own delays and concealments. Even as now by the progressive mind in Science she seeks to make all mankind fit for the full development of the mental life, so by Yoga must she inevitably seek to make all mankind fit for the higher evolution, the second birth, the spiritual existence. And as the mental life uses and perfects the material, so will the spiritual use and perfect the material and the mental existence as the instruments of a divine self-expression.
0.04 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
bullocks From the Agricultural Garden.
13 July 1932
--
I have watched the thing From the roof, and saw with the inner
sight also. There is absolutely no doubt about what is happening
--
I can tell you this to finish with the subject, that From the
roof I concentrated the power on the bullocks ordering them to
--
her shed at 5.10 p.m. I saw it From Ba's shed. He removed
one sandal From his foot, took it into his hand, turned it
over and beat on Ra's mouth and face. He had put two
--
If truly he does it, it is brutal and stupid; apart From spoiling
her head, which is bad enough, he will make her vindictive and
--
close attention. I would like to know From the doctor if it would
not be good for Tej to let him move freely in a pasture for some
--
I thought there would be no objection From the Municipality or others to fixing rings on foot-path walls to tie
the cows. I wanted to have one ring fixed.
0.04 - The Systems of Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Mother is to embrace the Divine in her own play and creations and there to realise It. But in the highest flights of Yoga she reaches beyond herself and realises the Divine in Itself exceeding the universe and even standing apart From the cosmic play.
Therefore by some it is supposed that this is not only the highest but also the one true or exclusively preferable object of Yoga.
--
and the Individual. If the individual and Nature are left to themselves, the one is bound to the other and unable to exceed appreciably her lingering march. Something transcendent is needed, free From her and greater, which will act upon us and her, attracting us upward to Itself and securing From her by good grace or by force her consent to the individual ascension.
It is this truth which makes necessary to every philosophy of Yoga the conception of the Ishwara, Lord, supreme Soul or supreme Self, towards whom the effort is directed and who gives the illuminating touch and the strength to attain. Equally true is the complementary idea so often enforced by the Yoga of devotion that as the Transcendent is necessary to the individual and sought after by him, so also the individual is necessary in a sense to the Transcendent and sought after by It. If the
--
For if, leaving aside the complexities of their particular processes, we fix our regard on the central principle of the chief schools of Yoga still prevalent in India, we find that they arrange themselves in an ascending order which starts From the lowest rung of the ladder, the body, and ascends to the direct contact between the individual soul and the transcendent and universal
Self. Hathayoga selects the body and the vital functionings as its instruments of perfection and realisation; its concern is with the gross body. Rajayoga selects the mental being in its different parts as its lever-power; it concentrates on the subtle body. The triple Path of Works, of Love and of Knowledge uses some part of the mental being, will, heart or intellect as a starting-point and seeks by its conversion to arrive at the liberating Truth,
--
By its numerous asanas or fixed postures it first cures the body of that restlessness which is a sign of its inability to contain without working them off in action and movement the vital forces poured into it From the universal Life-Ocean, gives to it an extraordinary health, force and suppleness and seeks to liberate it From the habits by which it is subjected to ordinary physical
Nature and kept within the narrow bounds of her normal operations. In the ancient tradition of Hathayoga it has always been supposed that this conquest could be pushed so far even as to conquer to a great extent the force of gravitation. By various subsidiary but elaborate processes the Hathayogin next contrives to keep the body free From all impurities and the nervous system unclogged for those exercises of respiration which are his most important instruments. These are called pran.ayama, the control of the breath or vital power; for breathing is the chief physical functioning of the vital forces. Pranayama, for the Hathayogin, serves a double purpose. First, it completes the perfection of the body. The vitality is liberated From many of the ordinary necessities of physical Nature; robust health, prolonged youth, often an extraordinary longevity are attained.
On the other hand, Pranayama awakens the coiled-up serpent of the Pranic dynamism in the vital sheath and opens to the Yogin fields of consciousness, ranges of experience, abnormal faculties denied to the ordinary human life while it puissantly intensifies such normal powers and faculties as he already possesses.
--
The results of Hathayoga are thus striking to the eye and impose easily on the vulgar or physical mind. And yet at the end we may ask what we have gained at the end of all this stupendous labour. The object of physical Nature, the preservation of the mere physical life, its highest perfection, even in a certain sense the capacity of a greater enjoyment of physical living have been carried out on an abnormal scale. But the weakness of Hathayoga is that its laborious and difficult processes make so great a demand on the time and energy and impose so complete a severance From the ordinary life of men that the utilisation of its results for the life of the world becomes either impracticable or is extraordinarily restricted. If in return for this loss we gain another life in another world within, the mental, the dynamic, these results could have been acquired through other systems, through Rajayoga, through Tantra, by much less laborious methods and held on much less exacting terms. On the other hand the physical results, increased vitality, prolonged youth, health, longevity are of small avail if they must be held by us as misers of ourselves, apart From the common life, for their own sake, not utilised, not thrown into the common sum of the world's activities. Hathayoga attains large results, but at an exorbitant price and to very little purpose.
Rajayoga takes a higher flight. It aims at the liberation and perfection not of the bodily, but of the mental being, the control of the emotional and sensational life, the mastery of the whole apparatus of thought and consciousness. It fixes its eyes on the citta, that stuff of mental consciousness in which all these activities arise, and it seeks, even as Hathayoga with its physical material, first to purify and to tranquillise. The normal state of man is a condition of trouble and disorder, a kingdom either at war with itself or badly governed; for the lord, the Purusha, is subjected to his ministers, the faculties, subjected even to his subjects, the instruments of sensation, emotion, action, enjoyment. Swarajya, self-rule, must be substituted for this subjection.
--
the powers of disorder. The preliminary movement of Rajayoga is a careful self-discipline by which good habits of mind are substituted for the lawless movements that indulge the lower nervous being. By the practice of truth, by renunciation of all forms of egoistic seeking, by abstention From injury to others, by purity, by constant meditation and inclination to the divine
Purusha who is the true lord of the mental kingdom, a pure, glad, clear state of mind and heart is established.
--
But Rajayoga does not forget that the disabilities of the ordinary mind proceed largely From its subjection to the reactions of the nervous system and the body. It adopts therefore From the Hathayogic system its devices of asana and pran.ayama, but reduces their multiple and elaborate forms in each case to one simplest and most directly effective process sufficient for its own immediate object. Thus it gets rid of the Hathayogic complexity and cumbrousness while it utilises the swift and powerful efficacy of its methods for the control of the body and the vital functions and for the awakening of that internal dynamism, full of a latent supernormal faculty, typified in Yogic terminology by the kun.d.alin, the coiled and sleeping serpent of Energy within. This done, the system proceeds to the perfect quieting of the restless mind and its elevation to a higher plane through concentration of mental force by the successive stages which lead to the utmost inner concentration or ingathered state of the consciousness which is called Samadhi.
By Samadhi, in which the mind acquires the capacity of withdrawing From its limited waking activities into freer and higher states of consciousness, Rajayoga serves a double purpose. It compasses a pure mental action liberated From the confusions of the outer consciousness and passes thence to the higher supra-mental planes on which the individual soul enters into its true spiritual existence. But also it acquires the capacity of that free and concentrated energising of consciousness on
The Systems of Yoga
--
But the weakness of the system lies in its excessive reliance on abnormal states of trance. This limitation leads first to a certain aloofness From the physical life which is our foundation and the sphere into which we have to bring our mental and spiritual gains. Especially is the spiritual life, in this system, too much associated with the state of Samadhi. Our object is to make the spiritual life and its experiences fully active and fully utilisable in the waking state and even in the normal use of the functions.
But in Rajayoga it tends to withdraw into a subliminal plane at the back of our normal experiences instead of descending and possessing our whole existence.
The triple Path of devotion, knowledge and works attempts the province which Rajayoga leaves unoccupied. It differs From
Rajayoga in that it does not occupy itself with the elaborate training of the whole mental system as the condition of perfection, but seizes on certain central principles, the intellect, the heart, the will, and seeks to convert their normal operations by turning them away From their ordinary and external preoccupations and activities and concentrating them on the Divine. It
38
--
differs also in this, - and here From the point of view of an integral Yoga there seems to be a defect, - that it is indifferent to mental and bodily perfection and aims only at purity as a condition of the divine realisation. A second defect is that as actually practised it chooses one of the three parallel paths exclusively and almost in antagonism to the others instead of effecting a synthetic harmony of the intellect, the heart and the will in an integral divine realisation.
The Path of Knowledge aims at the realisation of the unique and supreme Self. It proceeds by the method of intellectual reflection, vicara, to right discrimination, viveka. It observes and distinguishes the different elements of our apparent or phenomenal being and rejecting identification with each of them arrives at their exclusion and separation in one common term as constituents of Prakriti, of phenomenal Nature, creations of
Maya, the phenomenal consciousness. So it is able to arrive at its right identification with the pure and unique Self which is not mutable or perishable, not determinable by any phenomenon or combination of phenomena. From this point the path, as ordinarily followed, leads to the rejection of the phenomenal worlds From the consciousness as an illusion and the final immergence without return of the individual soul in the Supreme.
But this exclusive consummation is not the sole or inevitable result of the Path of Knowledge. For, followed more largely and with a less individual aim, the method of Knowledge may lead to an active conquest of the cosmic existence for the Divine no less than to a transcendence. The point of this departure is the realisation of the supreme Self not only in one's own being but in all beings and, finally, the realisation of even the phenomenal aspects of the world as a play of the divine consciousness and not something entirely alien to its true nature. And on the basis of this realisation a yet further enlargement is possible, the conversion of all forms of knowledge, however mundane, into activities of the divine consciousness utilisable for the perception of the one and unique Object of knowledge both in itself and through the play of its forms and symbols. Such a method might well lead to the elevation of the whole range of human intellect
--
This path, too, as ordinarily practised, leads away From worldexistence to an absorption, of another kind than the Monist's, in the Transcendent and Supra-cosmic.
But, here too, the exclusive result is not inevitable. The Yoga itself provides a first corrective by not confining the play of divine love to the relation between the supreme Soul and the individual, but extending it to a common feeling and mutual worship between the devotees themselves united in the same realisation of the supreme Love and Bliss. It provides a yet more general corrective in the realisation of the divine object of Love in all beings not only human but animal, easily extended to all forms whatsoever. We can see how this larger application of the Yoga of
--
To That our works as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned. The object is the release of the soul From its bondage to appearances and to the reaction of phenomenal activities.
Karmayoga is used, like the other paths, to lead to liberation From phenomenal existence and a departure into the Supreme.
But here too the exclusive result is not inevitable. The end of the path may be, equally, a perception of the Divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities, and a free and unegoistic participation of the soul in the cosmic action. So followed it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards freedom, power and perfection in the human being.
0.05 - Letters to a Child, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
All these feelings - this uneasiness, this tiredness, these impressions of broken progress - come From the vital, which rebels
because its desires and preferences are not satisfied. All that has
--
Love From your little mother who is always with you.
15 March 1934
--
Love From your mother.
17 March 1934
--
Love From your mother.
29 March 1934
--
the "plane" From which they come, it is surely the subtle physical, where the memory of all the conceptions and works of art
realised on earth is stored.
--
Love From your mother.
17 April 1934
--
Learn to drink From the eternal source; it contains everything.
With my love.
--
you away From me in thought and feeling is bad. All that brings
you closer to me and gives you the perception and joy of my
--
rule. You will see that it will help you to protect yourself From
many mistakes.
--
Love From your mother.
22 May 1934
--
Love From your mother.
25 July 1934
--
the repose that comes From concentrated energy.
Be sure that you will become strong and quiet, have faith in
--
I have been informed From the dining-room that you did
not eat either yesterday evening or the whole day today. Why? If
--
I won't be irregular From today. You know very well
that I am not sick; it was a cloud, you know. Now I
--
Love From your mother.
1 February 1935
--
Love From your mother.
12 June 1935
--
I don't need to tell you where your headache comes From; I
suppose you know. Only when you become absolutely regular
--
Love From your mother.
6 September 1935
--
again. But above all you must not believe the suggestions of incapacity and failure; they come From an adverse source and ought
not to be given any credence. Certainly there are difficulties on
--
Love From your mother.
16 December 1936
--
Love From your mother.
26 July 1937
--
thing: why are you now so far away From me?
My dear child,
--
I don't feel that you are far From me; for me you are always
in my arms. So if you feel that you are far away, it is a false
--
Love From your mother.
28 July 1937
--
The palace and river were the image of a moment From one of
your past lives.
--
Love From your mother.
28 August 1937
--
Love From your mother.
9 September 1937
--
But with discrimination one can distinguish the bad From
the good influences and reject persistently the bad ones.
Love From your mother.
13 September 1937
--
Love From your mother who never leaves you.
15 May 1938
--
Love From your mother.
29 May 1938
--
Love From your mother.
28 June 1938
--
Love From your mother.
10 July 1938
--
Love From your mother.
30 August 1938
--
comes From outside. May your will be done.
My love and blessings are with you to guide you on the way.
--
when I cannot distinguish truth From falsehood and I
am then on the verge of losing my mind.
--
displeasure. Do you want more work From me - more
discipline, more right attitude? I am a bundle of failings;
--
Love From your mother.
Your going away will not help in the least. Exterior means are
--
It is a lack of energy that is preventing me From
painting. Give me a strong energy. I want the inner and
outer silence - peace in all my being, From the innermost
part to the outermost. Peace, peace in all my being. I
--
to pardon. I know that it is From lack of energy that you cannot
paint. But I can give you all the energy needed; you have only
--
Love From your mother.
My dear mother,
--
something prevents me From opening.
My dear child,
--
Love From your mother who is always there ready to help
you.
--
Love From your mother.
My dear sweet mother,
--
force, and the immutable joy that comes From a constant contact
with the Light.
--
you aspire for so much, and also a repose From which the true
energies come.
--
run away From there? You must remain quiet in my arms if you
want me to be able to help you.
0.05 - The Synthesis of the Systems, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Yogic system which is in its nature synthetical and starts From a great central principle of Nature, a great dynamic force of
Nature; but it is a Yoga apart, not a synthesis of other schools.
This system is the way of the Tantra. Owing to certain of its developments Tantra has fallen into discredit with those who are not Tantrics; and especially owing to the developments of its left-hand path, the Vama Marga, which not content with exceeding the duality of virtue and sin and instead of replacing them by spontaneous rightness of action seemed, sometimes, to make a method of self-indulgence, a method of unrestrained social immorality. Nevertheless, in its origin, Tantra was a great and puissant system founded upon ideas which were at least partially true. Even its twofold division into the right-hand and left-hand paths, Dakshina Marga and Vama Marga, started From a certain profound perception. In the ancient symbolic sense of the words Dakshina and Vama, it was the distinction between the way of Knowledge and the way of Ananda, - Nature in man liberating itself by right discrimination in power and practice of its own energies, elements and potentialities and Nature in man
The Synthesis of the Systems
--
If, however, we leave aside, here also, the actual methods and practices and seek for the central principle, we find, first, that Tantra expressly differentiates itself From the Vedic methods of Yoga. In a sense, all the schools we have hitherto examined are Vedantic in their principle; their force is in knowledge, their method is knowledge, though it is not always discernment by the intellect, but may be, instead, the knowledge of the heart expressed in love and faith or a knowledge in the will working out through action. In all of them the lord of the Yoga is the Purusha, the Conscious Soul that knows, observes, attracts, governs. But in Tantra it is rather Prakriti, the Nature-Soul, the Energy, the
Will-in-Power executive in the universe. It was by learning and applying the intimate secrets of this Will-in-Power, its method, its Tantra, that the Tantric Yogin pursued the aims of his discipline, - mastery, perfection, liberation, beatitude. Instead of drawing back From manifested Nature and its difficulties, he confronted them, seized and conquered. But in the end, as is the general tendency of Prakriti, Tantric Yoga largely lost its principle in its machinery and became a thing of formulae and occult mechanism still powerful when rightly used but fallen From the clarity of their original intention.
We have in this central Tantric conception one side of the truth, the worship of the Energy, the Shakti, as the sole effective force for all attainment. We get the other extreme in the Vedantic conception of the Shakti as a power of Illusion and in the search after the silent inactive Purusha as the means of liberation From the deceptions created by the active Energy. But in the integral conception the Conscious Soul is the Lord, the Nature-Soul is his executive Energy. Purusha is of the nature of Sat, the being of conscious self-existence pure and infinite; Shakti or Prakriti is of the nature of Chit, - it is power of the Purusha's self-conscious existence, pure and infinite. The relation of the two exists between the poles of rest and action. When the Energy is absorbed
44
--
Purusha pours itself out in the action of its Energy, there is action, creation and the enjoyment or Ananda of becoming. But if Ananda is the creator and begetter of all becoming, its method is Tapas or force of the Purusha's consciousness dwelling upon its own infinite potentiality in existence and producing From it truths of conception or real Ideas, vijnana, which, proceeding From an omniscient and omnipotent Self-existence, have the surety of their own fulfilment and contain in themselves the nature and law of their own becoming in the terms of mind, life and matter. The eventual omnipotence of Tapas and the infallible fulfilment of the Idea are the very foundation of all
Yoga. In man we render these terms by Will and Faith, - a will that is eventually self-effective because it is of the substance of
--
We see, then, what From the psychological point of view,
- and Yoga is nothing but practical psychology, - is the conception of Nature From which we have to start. It is the selffulfilment of the Purusha through his Energy. But the movement of Nature is twofold, higher and lower, or, as we may choose to term it, divine and undivine. The distinction exists indeed for practical purposes only; for there is nothing that is not divine, and in a larger view it is as meaningless, verbally, as the distinction between natural and supernatural, for all things that are are natural. All things are in Nature and all things are in God.
But, for practical purposes, there is a real distinction. The lower
Nature, that which we know and are and must remain so long as the faith in us is not changed, acts through limitation and division, is of the nature of Ignorance and culminates in the life of the ego; but the higher Nature, that to which we aspire, acts by unification and transcendence of limitation, is of the nature of Knowledge and culminates in the life divine. The passage From the lower to the higher is the aim of Yoga; and this passage
The Synthesis of the Systems
--
Yoga that we seek must also be an integral action of Nature, and the whole difference between the Yogin and the natural man will be this, that the Yogin seeks to substitute in himself for the integral action of the lower Nature working in and by ego and division the integral action of the higher Nature working in and by God and unity. If indeed our aim be only an escape From the world to God, synthesis is unnecessary and a waste of time; for then our sole practical aim must be to find out one path out of the thousand that lead to God, one shortest possible of short cuts, and not to linger exploring different paths that end in the same goal. But if our aim be a transformation of our integral being into the terms of God-existence, it is then that a synthesis becomes necessary.
The method we have to pursue, then, is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform our entire being into His. Thus in a sense
--
Sachchidananda; but also the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of this lower being into the human image of the Divine, sadharmya-mukti, and the complete and final release of all, the liberation of the consciousness From the transitory mould of the ego and its unification with the One Being, universal both in the world and the individual and transcendentally one both in the world and beyond all universe.
By this integral realisation and liberation, the perfect harmony of the results of Knowledge, Love and Works. For there is attained the complete release From ego and identification in being with the One in all and beyond all. But since the attaining consciousness is not limited by its attainment, we win also the unity in Beatitude and the harmonised diversity in Love, so that all relations of the play remain possible to us even while we retain on the heights of our being the eternal oneness with the
Beloved. And by a similar wideness, being capable of a freedom in spirit that embraces life and does not depend upon withdrawal From life, we are able to become without egoism, bondage or reaction the channel in our mind and body for a divine action poured out freely upon the world.
The divine existence is of the nature not only of freedom, but of purity, beatitude and perfection. An integral purity which shall enable on the one hand the perfect reflection of the divine
0.06 - INTRODUCTION, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
The stanzas expounded by the Saint are taken From the same poem in the two
treatises. The commentary upon the second, however, is very different From that
upon the first, for it assumes a much more advanced state of development. The
--
when God draws them forth From the state of beginnerswhich is the
state of those that meditate on the spiritual road and begins to set them in
--
aridity is a result of this Night or whether it comes From sins or imperfections, or
From frailty or lukewarmness of spirit, or even From indisposition or 'humours' of the
body. The Saint is particularly effective here, and we may once more compare this
--
Night must impose upon itself; this, as might be logically deduced From the Ascent,
consists in 'allowing the soul to remain in peace and quietness,' content 'with a
--
author's mystical experience; any excerpt From them would do them an injustice. It
must suffice to say that St. John of the Cross seldom again touches those same
--
all purgations. Marvellous, indeed, are its effects, From the first enkindlings and
burnings of Divine love, which are greater beyond comparison than those produced
by the Night of Sense, the one being as different From the other as is the body From
the soul. 'For this (latter) is an enkindling of spiritual love in the soul, which, in the
--
wonderful are the effects of the powerful Divine illumination which From time to
time enfolds the soul in the splendours of glory. When the effects of the light that
--
From itself, but likewise From its other enemies, which are the world and the devil.'12
This contemplation is not only dark, but also secret (Chapter xvii), and in
--
which led it to journey 'in darkness and concealment' From its enemies, both without
and within.
--
theological truth that grace, far From destroying nature, ennobles and dignifies it,
and of the agreement always found between the natural and the supernatural
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
it was originally published; in this it differs From the other Series, which are arranged
chronologically. The replies here were written between 1933 and 1949 - most of them
--
I don't see how I can be conscious From the beginning.
I have not said "conscious of the Divine Presence", I have said
--
This prison that separates me From You and From the
Divine must be broken. O Mother, I don't know what I
--
Remove From me all obscurity which blinds me, and be
always with me.
--
Who is there to hold me back far From You?
You yourself.
It is quite incorrect that I wish to remain far From you; but
to be near me you must climb up close beside me, and not expect
--
aspire to You; I shall follow You From plane to plane,
but You will be always far From me. This picture does
not appear bad to me, because I know there is a great
--
which separates me From You.
To say that it is your body which separates you From me is sheer
stupidity. It seems to me that actually it is just the opposite, for
--
that I am grieved when they move away From Him, - then this
is quite true.
I have not the least intention of keeping you away From me; I
wanted only to remind you that you are not alone in the Ashram
--
If you are physically far From me and think of me all the time,
you will surely be nearer to me than if you were seated near me
--
when my body is far From You?
By concentrating your thought.
--
(which may be had in all circumstances), call me From the depths
of this silence and you will see me standing there in the centre
--
The suffering we experience proves that the psychic being is far away From the Divine.
It is not the psychic being which suffers, it is the mind, the vital
--
rose From the depths of my being, through a crowd of
obstacles, and when this thing had come out above, all
--
receive Your Grace From afar; and that it is a sign of
weakness on the part of those who see You From time to
time.
--
to find the Divine Presence. Far From seeking to fill your heart
with frivolities in order to "divert" it, you must with a great
--
is detached From everything, a great indifference reigns
there.
--
and me and hide me From your sight. It is in the pure light of
certitude that you can become conscious of my presence.
--
move away From me. The Divine is not sad and to realise the
Divine you must reject far From yourself all sadness and all
sentimental weakness.
--
satisfied; From where does this dissatisfaction come?
It is always the vital being which protests and complains. The
--
further From true love, the divine love, than sentimentality.
All will be done, Mother, but why is my heart becoming
--
useful only From the moment you resolve that it is no longer
going to be like this, and that you will strive to conquer your
--
talking. It is not work but useless talk which takes us away From
the Divine.
--
work From You? Which is this being that loves You?
It is that part of your being which is under the influence of the
--
You must abstain From thinking about a person when you cannot
think anything good about him.
--
1st sign: One feels far away From Sri Aurobindo and me.
2nd: One loses confidence, begins to criticise, is not satisfied.
--
I can be sure that the hostile force is far From me.
Yes, on condition that the "peace" is not that of a hardening but
--
If I could detach myself entirely From this outer world,
if I could be quite alone, I would master this depression
--
From oneself, From one's own nature, and one takes it along
wherever one goes, whatever the conditions one may be in. There
--
should I not dissociate myself From everyone?
It would be much better to dissociate yourself From the tendency
to fall into your ordinary consciousness.
--
be needed to become immune From the effects of dirt can be
utilized much more profitably elsewhere.
--
when far From Him.
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
--
wrong sides of the same thing and always indicate an attachment. One must persistently turn away one's thought From its
object.
0.07 - DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
7. The breeze blew From the turret As I parted his locks;
With his gentle hand he wounded my neck And caused all my senses to be suspended.
--
IN this first stanza the soul relates the way and manner which it followed in going forth, as to its affection, From itself and From all things, and in dying to them all and to itself, by means of true mortification, in order to attain to living the sweet and delectable life of love with God; and it says that this going forth From itself and From all things was a 'dark night,' by which, as will be explained hereafter, is here understood purgative contemplation, which causes passively in the soul the negation of itself and of all things referred to above.
2. And this going forth it says here that it was able to accomplish in the strength and ardour which love for its Spouse gave to it for that purpose in the dark contemplation aforementioned. Herein it extols the great happiness which it found in journeying to God through this night with such signal success that none of the three enemies, which are world, devil and flesh (who are they that ever impede this road), could hinder it; inasmuch as the aforementioned night of purgative20 contemplation lulled to sleep and mortified, in the house of its sensuality, all the passions and desires with respect to their mischievous desires and motions. The line, then, says:
0.07 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
during the 1930s and then served From 1938 to 1950 as one of
Sri Aurobindo's personal attendants.1
--
us From subjection to the horoscope; the horoscope expresses
the position one has in relation with the material world, but by
the sadhana we get free From the slavery to that world.
14 September 1936
--
Yes, I like to receive the book From you. It helps to keep the
contact materially.
--
me From myself.
From your mother you can always take, it is quite natural, especially when things are given to you full-heartedly - and am I
--
My child's heart is filled with love and light From the Divine; let
them shine throughout your whole being and the clouds, if any,
--
(The sadhak received a jar of pickles From the Mother.)
You overwhelm me with your love, dear Mother. I know
--
frightened and would like to hear From you personally
if you are not merely experimenting with us? Praying to
--
people say; it would save you From many falls of consciousness.
This afternoon when I looked at you in silence I told you, "Be
--
tendencies and ideals, a pull From two different types
of leadership, the Deva type and the saint type (not in
0.08 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
expression. By the psychic change one passes From the individual
Divine to the universal Divine and finally to the Transcendent.
--
time that one receives an indication From it, to follow it very
scrupulously and sincerely. To live in a great aspiration, to take
--
How can one draw energy into oneself From outside?
That depends on the kind of energy one wants to absorb, for
--
No; aspiration, as well as widening and intensity, comes From
the heart, the emotional centre, the door of the psychic or rather
--
the more can aspiration rise up From the depths of the heart in
the fullness of its ardour.
--
The soul is that which comes From the Divine without ever
leaving Him, and returns to the Divine without ceasing to be
--
coming From outside.
Finally, the circumstances of our life, the surroundings in
--
or upward, we can bring down into ourselves or raise up From
the depths calm, quiet, peace and finally silence. It is a concrete, positive silence (not the negative silence of the absence
--
exhaustion arising From that internal over-activity and noise
which generally escape our control and cease neither by day nor
--
But since we usually give the name "dream" to a considerable number of activities that differ completely From one another,
the first point is to learn to distinguish between these various
--
simplest language, almost the spoken language. To get help From
them, it is enough to read with attention and concentration and
0.09 - Letters to a Young Teacher, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
than to give. This is where that impression comes From.
3 July 1960
--
come into contact with it From time to time when we are
receptive?
--
outer being more and more completely From the psychic being,
which retires into the depths of the higher consciousness and
--
other words, to rise above ordinary humanity, free oneself From
all egoism and become a conscious instrument of the Divine
--
drink From the cup of the gods who are immortal.
To receive the divine grace, not only must one have a great
01.01 - A Yoga of the Art of Life, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo saw that the very core of his teaching was being missed by this common interpretation of his saying. So he changed his words and said, Our Yoga is not for humanity but for the Divine. But I am afraid this change of front, this volte-face, as it seemed, was not welcomed in many quarters; for thereby all hope of having him back for the work of the country or the world appeared to be totally lost and he came to be looked upon again as an irrevocable metaphysical dreamer, aloof From physical things and barren, even like the Immutable Brahman.
II
--
It is not my purpose here to enter into details as to the exact meaning of the descent, how it happens and what are its lines of activity and the results brought about. For it is indeed an actual descent that happens: the Divine Light leans down first into the mind and begins its purificatory work therealthough it is always the inner heart which first recognises the Divine Presence and gives its assent to the Divine action for the mind, the higher mind that is to say, is the summit of the ordinary human consciousness and receives more easily and readily the Radiances that descend. From the Mind the Light filters into the denser regions of the emotions and desires, of life activity and vital dynamism; finally, it gets into brute Matter itself, the hard and obscure rock of the physical body, for that too has to be illumined and made the very form and figure of the Light supernal. The Divine in his descending Grace is the Master-Architect who is building slowly and surely the many-chambered and many-storeyed edifice that is human nature and human life into the mould of the Divine Truth in its perfect play and supreme expression. But this is a matter which can be closely considered when one is already well within the mystery of the path and has acquired the elementary essentials of an initiate.
Another question that troubles and perplexes the ordinary human mind is as to the time when the thing will be done. Is it now or a millennium hence or at some astronomical distance in future, like the cooling of the sun, as someone has suggested for an analogy. In view of the magnitude of the work one might with reason say that the whole eternity is there before us, and a century or even a millennium should not be grudged to such a labour for it is nothing less than an undoing of untold millenniums in the past and the building of a far-flung futurity. However, as we have said, since it is the Divine's own work and since Yoga means a concentrated and involved process of action, effectuating in a minute what would perhaps take years to accomplish in the natural course, one can expect the work to be done sooner rather than later. Indeed, the ideal is one of here and nowhere upon this earth of material existence and now in this life, in this very bodynot hereafter or elsewhere. How long exactly that will mean, depends on many factors, but a few decades on this side or the other do not matter very much.
--
From a certain point of view, From the point of view of essentials and inner realities, it would appear that spirituality is, at least, the basis of the arts, if not the highest art. If art is meant to express the soul of things, and since the true soul of things is the divine element in them, then certainly spirituality, the discipline of coming in conscious contact with the Spirit, the Divine, must be accorded the regal seat in the hierarchy of the arts. Also, spirituality is the greatest and the most difficult of the arts; for it is the art of life. To make of life a perfect work of beauty, pure in its lines, faultless in its rhythm, replete with strength, iridescent: with light, vibrant with delightan embodiment of the Divine, in a wordis the highest ideal of spirituality; viewed the spirituality that Sri Aurobindo practisesis the ne plus ultra of artistic creation
The Gita, II. 40
01.01 - Sri Aurobindo - The Age of Sri Aurobindo, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Apart From the well-recognised fact that only in distress does the normal man think of God and non-worldly things, the real matter, however, is that the inner life is a thing apart and follows its own line of movement, does not depend upon, is not subservient to, the kind of outer life that one may happen to live under. The Bible says indeed, "Blessed are the poor, blessed are they that mourn"... But the Upanishad declares, on the other hand, that even as one lies happily on a royal couch, bathes and anoints himself with all the perfumes of the world, has attendants all around and always to serve him, even so, one can be full of the divine consciousness From the crown of the head to the tip of his toe-nail. In fact, a poor or a prosperous life is in no direct or even indirect ratio to a spiritual life. All the miseries and immediate needs of a physical life do not and cannot detain or delay one From following the path of the ideal; nor can all your riches be a burden to your soul and overwhelm it, if it chooses to walk onit can not only walk, but soar and fly with all that knapsack on its back.
If one were to be busy about reforming the world and when that was done then alone to turn to other-worldly things, in that case, one would never take the turn, for the world will never be reformed totally or even considerably in that way. It is not that reformers have for the first time appeared on the earth in the present age. Men have attempted social, political, economic and moral reforms From times immemorial. But that has not barred the spiritual attempt or minimised its importance. To say that because an ideal is apparently too high or too great for the present age, it must be kept in cold storage is to set a premium on the present nature of humanity arid eternise it: that would bind the world to its old moorings and never give it the opportunity to be free and go out into the high seas of larger and greater realisations.
The ideal or perhaps one should say the policy of Real-politick is the thing needed in this world. To achieve something actually in the physical and material field, even a lesser something, is worth much more than speculating on high flaunting chimeras and indulging in day-dreams. Yes, but what is this something that has to be achieved in the material world? It is always an ideal. Even procuring food for each and every person, clothing and housing all is not less an ideal for all its concern about actuality. Only there are ideals and ideals; some are nearer to the earth, some seem to be in the background. But the mystery is that it is not always the ideal nearest to the earth which is the easiest to achieve or the first thing to be done first. Do we not see before our very eye show some very simple innocent social and economic changes are difficult to carry outthey bring in their train quite disproportionately gestures and movements of violence and revolution? That is because we seek to cure the symptoms and not touch the root of the disease. For even the most innocent-looking social, economic or political abuse has at its base far-reaching attitudes and life-urgeseven a spiritual outlook that have to be sought out and tackled first, if the attempt at reform is to be permanently and wholly successful. Even in mundane matters we do not dig deep enough, or rise high enough.
Indeed, looking From a standpoint that views the working of the forces that act and achieve and not the external facts and events and arrangements aloneone finds that things that are achieved on the material plane are first developed and matured and made ready behind the veil and at a given moment burst out and manifest themselves often unexpectedly and suddenly like a chick out of the shell or the young butterfly out of the cocoon. The Gita points to that truth of Nature when it says: "These beings have already been killed by Me." It is not that a long or strenuous physical planning and preparation alone or in the largest measure brings about a physical realisation. The deeper we go within, the farther we are away From the surface, the nearer we come to the roots and sources of things even most superficial. The spiritual view sees and declares that it is the Brahmic consciousness that holds, inspires, builds up Matter, the physical body and form of Brahman.
The highest ideal, the very highest which God and Nature and Man have in view, is not and cannot be kept in cold storage: it is being worked out even here and now, and it has to be worked out here and now. The ideal of the Life Divine embodies a central truth of existence, and however difficult or chimerical it may appear to be to the normal mind, it is the preoccupation of the inner being of manall other ways or attempts of curing human ills are faint echoes, masks, diversions of this secret urge at the source and heart of things. That ideal is a norm and a force that is ever dynamic and has become doubly so since it has entered the earth atmosphere and the waking human consciousness and is labouring there. It is always safer and wiser to recognise that fact, to help in the realisation of that truth and be profited by it.
01.01 - The New Humanity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Although we may not know it, the New Man the divine race of humanity is already among us. It may be in our next neighbour, in our nearest brother, even in myself. Only a thin veil covers it. It marches just behind the line. It waits for an occasion to throw off the veil and place itself in the forefront. We are living in strenuous times in which age-long institutions are going down and new-forces rearing their heads, old habits are being cast off and new impulsions acquired. In every sphere of life, we see the urgent demand for a recasting, a fresh valuation of things. From the base to the summit, From the economic and political life to the artistic and spiritual, humanity is being shaken to bring out a new expression and articulation. There is the hidden surge of a Power, the secret stress of a Spirit that can no longer suffer to remain in the shade and behind the mask, but wills to come out in the broad daylight and be recognised in its plenary virtues.
That Power, that Spirit has been growing and gathering its strength during all the millenniums that humanity has lived through. On the momentous day when man appeared on earth, the Higher Man also took his birth. Since the hour the Spirit refused to be imprisoned in its animal sheath and came out as man, it approached by that very uplift a greater freedom and a vaster movement. It was the crest of that underground wave which peered over the surface From age to age, From clime to clime through the experiences of poets and prophets and sages the Head of the Sacrificial Horse galloping towards the Dawn.
And now the days of captivity or rather of inner preparation are at an end. The voice in the wilderness was necessary, for it was a call and a communion in the silence of the soul. Today the silence seeks utterance. Today the shell is ripe enough to break and to bring out the mature and full-grown being. The king that was in hiding comes in glory and triumph, in his complete regalia.
--
Not that this sovereign power will have anything to do with aggression or over-bearingness. It will not be a power that feels itself only by creating an eternal opponentErbfeindby coming in constant clash with a rival that seeks to gain victory by subjugating. It will not be Nietzschean "will to power," which is, at best, a supreme Asuric power. It will rather be a Divine Power, for the strength it will exert and the victory it will achieve will not come From the egoit is the ego which requires an object outside and against to feel and affirm itself but it will come From a higher personal self which is one with the cosmic soul and therefore with other personal souls. The Asura, in spite of, or rather, because of his aggressive vehemence betrays a lack of the sovereign power that is calm and at ease and self-sufficient. The Devic power does not assert hut simply accomplishes; the forces of the world act not as its opponent but as its instrument. Thus the New Man shall affirm his individual sovereignty and do so to perfection by expressing through it his unity with the cosmic powers, with the infinite godhead. And by being Swarat, Self-Master, he will become Samrat, world-master.
This mastery will be effected not merely in will, but in mind and heart also. For the New Man will know not by the intellect which is egocentric and therefore limited, not by ratiocination which is an indirect and doubtful process, but by direct vision, an inner communion, a soul revelation. The new knowledge will be vast and profound and creative, based as it will be upon the reality of things and not upon their shadows. Truth will shine through every experience and every utterance"a truth shall have its seat on our speech and mind and hearing", so have the Vedas said. The mind and intellect will not be active and constructive agents but the luminous channel of a self-luminous knowledge. And the heart too which is now the field of passion and egoism will be cleared of its noise and obscurity; a serener sky will shed its pure warmth and translucent glow. The knot will be rent asunderbhidyate hridaya granthih and the vast and mighty streams of another ocean will flow through. We will love not merely those to whom we are akin but God's creatures, one and all; we will love not with the yearning and hunger of a mortal but with the wide and intense Rasa that lies in the divine identity of souls.
--
The New Humanity will be something in the mould that we give to the gods. It will supply the link that we see missing between gods and men; it will be the race of embodied gods. Man will attain that thing which has been his first desire and earliest dream, for which he coveted the gods Immortality, amritatwam. The mortalities that cut and divide, limit and bind man make him the sorrowful being he is. These are due to his ignorance and weakness and egoism. These are due to his soul itself. It is the soul that requires change, a new birth, as Christ demanded. Ours is a little soul that has severed itself From the larger and mightier self that it is. And therefore does it die every moment and even while living is afraid to live and so lives poorly and miserably. But the age is now upon us when the god-like soul anointed with its immortal royalties is ready to emerge and claim our salutation.
The breath and the surge of the new creation cannot be mistaken. The question that confronts us today is no longer whether the New Man, the Super-humanity, will come or if at all, when; but the question we have to answer is who among us are ready to be its receptacle, its instrument and embodiment.
01.01 - The One Thing Needful, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
To find the Divine is indeed the first reason for seeking the spiritual Truth and the spiritual life; it is the one thing indispensable and all the resit is nothing without it. The Divine once found, to manifest Him, - that is, first of all to transform one's own limited consciousness into the Divine Consciousness, to live in the infinite Peace, Light, Love, Strength, Bliss, to become that in one's essential nature and, as a consequence, to be its vessel, channel, instrument in one's active nature. To bring into activity the principle of oneness on the material plane or to work for humanity is a mental mistranslation of the Truth - these things cannot be the first true object of spiritual seeking. We must find the Self, the Divine, then only can we know what is the work the Self or the Divine demands From us. Until then our life and action can only be a help or a means towards finding the Divine and it ought not to have any other purpose. As we grow in inner consciousness, or as the spiritual Truth of the Divine grows in us, our life and action must indeed more and more flow From that, be one with that. But to decide beforeh and by our limited mental conceptions what they must be is to hamper the growth of the spiritual Truth within. As that grows we shall feel the Divine Light and Truth, the Divine Power and Force, the Divine Purity and Peace working within us, dealing with our actions as well as our consciousness, making use of them to reshape us into the Divine Image, removing the dross, substituting the pure Gold of the Spirit. Only when the Divine Presence is there in us always and the consciousness transformed, can we have the right to say that we are ready to manifest the Divine on the material plane. To hold up a mental ideal or principle and impose that on the inner working brings the danger of limiting ourselves to a mental realisation or of impeding or even falsifying by a halfway formation the truth growth into the full communion and union with the Divine and the free and intimate outflowing of His will in our life. This is a mistake of orientation to which the mind of today is especially prone. It is far better to approach the Divine for the Peace or Light or Bliss that the realisation of Him gives than to bring in these minor things which can divert us From the one thing needful. The divinisation of the material life also as well as the inner life is part of what we see as the Divine Plan, but it can only be fulfilled by an ourflowing of the inner realisation, something that grows From within outwards, not by the working out of a mental principle.
The realisation of the Divine is the one thing needful and the rest is desirable only in so far as it helps or leads towards that or when it is realised, extends and manifests the realisation. Manifestation and organisation of the whole life for the divine work, - first, the sadhana personal and collective necessary for the realisation and a common life of God-realised men, secondly, for help to the world to move towards that, and to live in the Light - is the whole meaning and purpose of my Yoga. But the realisation is the first need and it is that round which all the rest moves, for apart From it all the rest would have no meaning.
Yoga is directed towards God, not towards man. If a divine supramental consciousness and power can be brought down and established in the material world, that obviously would mean an immense change for the earth including humanity and its life. But the effect on humanity would only be one result of the change; it cannot be the object of the sadhana. The object of the sadhana can only be to live in the divine consciousness and to manifest it in life.
01.01 - The Symbol Dawn, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Recalling the tenebrous womb From which it came,
Turned From the insoluble mystery of birth
And the tardy process of mortality
--
Arrived From the other side of boundlessness
An eye of deity peered through the dumb deeps;
A scout in a reconnaissance From the sun,
It seemed amid a heavy cosmic rest,
--
Hardly enough for a trickle From the suns,
Outpoured the revelation and the flame.
--
A glamour From unreached transcendences
Iridescent with the glory of the Unseen,
A message From the unknown immortal Light
Ablaze upon creation's quivering edge,
--
A lonely splendour From the invisible goal
Almost was flung on the opaque Inane.
--
A Form From far beatitudes seemed to near.
1.31
--
Unwanted, fading From the mortal's range.
1.38
--
Her body of glory was expunged From heaven:
The rarity and wonder lived no more.
--
Affranchised From the respite of fatigue
Once more the rumour of the speed of Life
--
And From its dim chasms welled a dire return,
A portion of its sorrow, struggle, fall.
--
Outcast From her inborn felicity,
Accepting life's obscure terrestrial robe,
Hiding herself even From those she loved,
The godhead greater by a human fate.
--
No cry broke From her lips, no call for aid;
She told the secret of her woe to none:
--
She lay remote From grief, unsawn by care,
Nothing recalling of the sorrow here.
--
The godheads From the dim Inconscient born
Awoke to struggle and the pang divine,
01.02 - Natures Own Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
For, till now Mind has been the last term of the evolutionary consciousness Mind as developed in man is the highest instrument built up and organised by Nature through which the self-conscious being can express itself. That is why the Buddha said: Mind is the first of all principles, Mind is the highest of all principles: indeed Mind is the constituent of all principlesmana puvvangam dhamm1. The consciousness beyond mind has not yet been made a patent and dynamic element in the life upon earth; it has been glimpsed or entered into in varying degrees and modes by saints and seers; it has cast its derivative illuminations in the creative activities of poets and artists, in the finer and nobler urges of heroes and great men of action. But the utmost that has been achieved, the summit reached in that direction, as exampled in spiritual disciplines, involves a withdrawal From the evolutionary cycle, a merging and an absorption into the static status that is altogether beyond it, that lies, as it were, at the other extreme the Spirit in itself, Atman, Brahman, Sachchidananda, Nirvana, the One without a second, the Zero without a first.
The first contact that one has with this static supra-reality is through the higher ranges of the mind: a direct and closer communion is established through a plane which is just above the mind the Overmind, as Sri Aurobindo calls it. The Overmind dissolves or transcends the ego-consciousness which limits the being to its individualised formation bounded by an outward and narrow frame or sheath of mind, life and body; it reveals the universal Self and Spirit, the cosmic godhead and its myriad forces throwing up myriad forms; the world-existence there appears as a play of ever-shifting veils upon the face of one ineffable reality, as a mysterious cycle of perpetual creation and destructionit is the overwhelming vision given by Sri Krishna to Arjuna in the Gita. At the same time, the initial and most intense experience which this cosmic consciousness brings is the extreme relativity, contingency and transitoriness of the whole flux, and a necessity seems logically and psychologically imperative to escape into the abiding substratum, the ineffable Absoluteness.
--
But the initial illusory consciousness of the Overmind need not at all lead to the static Brahmic consciousness or Sunyam alone. As a matter of fact, there is in this particular processes of consciousness a hiatus between the two, between Maya and Brahman, as though one has to leap From the one into the other somehow. This hiatus is filled up in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga by the principle of Supermind, not synthetic-analytic2 in knowledge like Overmind and the highest mental intelligence, but inescapably unitarian even in the utmost diversity. Supermind is the Truth-consciousness at once static and dynamic, self-existent and creative: in Supermind the Brahmic consciousness Sachchidanandais ever self-aware and ever manifested and embodied in fundamental truth-powers and truth-forms for the play of creation; it is the plane where the One breaks out into the Many and the Many still remain one, being and knowing themselves to be but various self-expressions of the One; it develops the spiritual archetypes, the divine names and forms of all individualisations of an evolving existence.
SRI AUROBINDO
--
In the Supermind things exist in their perfect spiritual reality; each is consciously the divine reality in its transcendent essence, its cosmic extension, its, spiritual individuality; the diversity of a manifested existence is there, but the mutually exclusive separativeness has not yet arisen. The ego, the knot of separativity, appears at a later and lower stage of involution; what is here is indivisible nexus of individualising centres of the one eternal truth of being. Where Supermind and Overmind meet, one can see the multiple godheads, each distinct in his own truth and beauty and power and yet all together forming the one supreme consciousness infinitely composite and inalienably integral. But stepping back into Supermind one sees something moreOneness gathering into itself all diversity, not destroying it, but annulling and forbidding the separative consciousness that is the beginning of Ignorance. The first shadow of the Illusory Consciousness, the initial possibility of the movement of Ignorance comes in when the supramental light enters the penumbra of the mental sphere. The movement of Supermind is the movement of light without obscurity, straight, unwavering, unswerving, absolute. The Force here contains and holds in their oneness of Reality the manifold but not separated lines of essential and unalloyed truth: its march is the inevitable progression of each one assured truth entering into and upholding every other and therefore its creation, play or action admits of no trial or stumble or groping or deviation; for each truth rests on all others and on that which harmonises them all and does not act as a Power diverging From and even competing with other Powers of being. In the Overmind commences the play of divergent possibilities the simple, direct, united and absolute certainties of the supramental consciousness retire, as it were, a step behind and begin to work themselves out through the interaction first of separately individualised and then of contrary and contradictory forces. In the Overmind there is a conscious underlying Unity but yet each Power, Truth, Aspect of that Unity is encouraged to work out its possibilities as if it were sufficient to itself and the others are used by it for its own enhancement until in the denser and darker reaches below Overmind this turns out a thing of blind conflict and battle and, as it would appear, of chance survival. Creation or manifestation originally means the concretisation or devolution of the powers of Conscious Being into a play of united diversity; but on the line which ends in Matter it enters into more and more obscure forms and forces and finally the virtual eclipse of the supreme light of the Divine Consciousness. Creation as it descends' towards the Ignorance becomes an involution of the Spirit through Mind and Life into Matter; evolution is a movement backward, a return journey From Matter towards the Spirit: it is the unravelling, the gradual disclosure and deliverance of the Spirit, the ascension and revelation of the involved consciousness through a series of awakeningsMatter awakening into Life, Life awakening into Mind and Mind now seeking to awaken into something beyond the Mind, into a power of conscious Spirit.
The apparent or actual result of the movement of Nescienceof Involutionhas been an increasing negation of the Spirit, but its hidden purpose is ultimately to embody the Spirit in Matter, to express here below in cosmic Time-Space the splendours of the timeless Reality. The material body came into existence bringing with it inevitably, as it seemed, mortality; it appeared even to be fashioned out of mortality, in order that in this very frame and field of mortality, Immortality, the eternal Spirit Consciousness which is the secret truth and reality in Time itself as well as behind it, might be established and that the Divine might be possessed, or rather, possess itself not in one unvarying mode of the static consciousness, as it does even now behind the cosmic play, but in the play itself and in the multiple mode of the terrestrial existence.
--
An organ in the human being has been especially developed to become the effective instrument of this accelerated Yogic process the self-consciousness which I referred to as being the distinctive characteristic of man is a function of this organ. It is his soul, his psychic being; originally it is the spark of the Divine Consciousness which came down and became involved in Matter and has been endeavouring ever since to release itself through the upward march of evolution. It is this which presses on continually as the stimulus to the evolutionary movement; and in man it has attained sufficient growth and power and has come so far to the front From behind the veil that it can now lead and mould his external consciousness. It is also the channel through which the Divine Consciousness can flow down into the inferior levels of human nature. It is the being no bigger than the thumb ever seated within the heart, spoken of in the Upanishads. It is likewise the basis of true individuality and personal identity. It is again the reflection or expression in evolutionary Nature of one's essential selfjivtman that is above, an eternal portion of the Divine, one with the Divine and yet not dissolved and lost in it. The psychic being is thus on the one hand in direct contact with the Divine and the higher consciousness, and on the other it is the secret upholder and controller' (bhart, antarymin) of the inferior consciousness, the hidden nucleus round which the body and the life and the mind of the individual are built up and organised.
The first decisive step in Yoga is taken when one becomes conscious of the psychic being, or, looked at From the other side, when the psychic being comes forward and takes possession of the external being, begins to initiate and influence the movements of the mind and life and body and gradually free them From the ordinary round of ignorant nature. The awakening of the psychic being means, as I have said, not only a deepening and heightening of the consciousness and its release From the obscurity and limitation of the inferior Prakriti, confined to the lower threefold status, into what is behind and beyond; it means also a return of the deeper and higher consciousness upon the lower hemisphere and a consequent purification and illumination and regeneration of the latter. Finally, when the psychic being is in full self-possession and power, it can be the vehicle of the direct supramental consciousness which will then be able to act freely and absolutely for the entire transformation of the external nature, its transfiguration into a perfect body of the Truth-consciousness in a word, its divinisation.
This then is the supreme secret, not the renunciation and annulment, but the transformation of the ordinary human nature : first of all, its psychicisation, that is to say, making it move and live and be in communion and identification with the light of the psychic being, and, secondly, through the soul and the ensouled mind and life and body, to open out into the supramental consciousness and let it come down here below and work and achieve.
--
Now, with regard to the time that the present stage of evolution is likely to take for its fulfilment, one can presume that since or if the specific urge and stress has manifested and come up to the front, this very fact would show that the problem has become a problem of actuality, and even that it can be dealt with as if it had to be solved now or never. We have said that in man, with man's self-consciousness or the consciousness of the psychic being as the instrument, evolution has attained the capacity of a swift and concentrated process, which is the process of Yoga; the process will become swifter and more concentrated, the more that instrument grows and gathers power and is infused with the divine afflatus. In fact, evolution has been such a process of gradual acceleration in tempo From the very beginning. The earliest stage, for example, the stage of dead Matter, of the play of the mere chemical forces was a very, very long one; it took millions and millions of years to come to the point when the manifestation of life became possible. But the period of elementary life, as manifested in the plant world that followed, although it too lasted a good many millions of years, was much briefer than the preceding periodit ended with the advent of the first animal form. The age of animal life, again, has been very much shorter than that of the plant life before man came upon earth. And man is already more than a million or two years oldit is fully time that a higher order of being should be created out of him.
The Dhammapada, I. 1
01.02 - Sri Aurobindo - Ahana and Other Poems, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
From which we came and which we are; I heard
The ages past
--
One From of old possessed Himself above
Who was not anyone nor had a form,
--
To humanise the Divine, that is what we all wish to do; for the Divine is too lofty for us and we cannot look full into his face. We cry and supplicate to Rudra, "O dire Lord, show us that other form of thine that is benign and humane". All earthly imageries we lavish upon the Divine so that he may appear to us not as something far and distant and foreign, but, quite near, among us, as one of us. We take recourse to human symbolism often, because we wish to palliate or hide the rigours of a supreme experience, not because we have no adequate terms for it. The same human or earthly terms could be used differently if we had a different consciousness. Thus the Vedic Rishis sought not to humanise the Divine, their purpose was rather to divinise the human. And their allegorical language, although rich in terrestrial figures, does not carry the impress and atmosphere of mere humanity and earthliness. For in reality the symbol is not merely the symbol. It is mere symbol in regard to the truth so long as we take our stand on the lower plane when we have to look at the truth through the symbol; but if we view it From the higher plane, From truth itself, it is no longer mere symbol but the very truth bodied forth. Whatever there is of symbolism on earth and its beauties, in sense and its enjoyments, is then transfigured into the expression of the truth, of the divinity itself. We then no longer speak in human language but in the language of the gods.
We have been speaking of philosophy and the philosophic manner. But what are the exact implications of the words, let us ask again. They mean nothing more and nothing lessthan the force of thought and the mass of thought content. After all, that seems to be almost the whole difference between the past and the present human consciousness in so far at least as it has found expression in poetry. That element, we wish to point out, is precisely what the old-world poets lacked or did not care to possess or express or stress. A poet meant above all, if not all in all, emotion, passion, sensuousness, sensibility, nervous enthusiasm and imagination and fancy: remember the classic definition given by Shakespeare of the poet
--
Look, how the wide-pacing river of life From its
far-off fountains
--
brought From its manger
Arching its neck as it paces grand to the gorges
--
From "Ahana" in Sri Aurobindo's Ahana and Other Poems. There is a later version of the poem in Collected Poems and Plays, Vol II.
"Reminiscence."
01.02 - The Creative Soul, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Now the centre of this energy, the matrix of creativity is the soul itself, one's own soul. If you want to createlive, grow and be real-find yourself, be yourself. The simple old wisdom still remains the eternal wisdom. It is because we fall off From our soul that we wander into side-paths, paths that do not belong to our real nature and hence that lead to imitation and repetition, decay and death. This is what happens to what we call common souls. The force of circumstances, the pressure of environment or simply the momentum of custom or habit compel them to choose the easiest and the readiest way that may lie before them. They do not consult the demand of the inner being but the requirement of the moment. Our bodily needs, our vital hungers and our mental prejudices obsess and obscure the impulsions that thrill the hidden spirit. We hasten to gratify the immediate and forget the eternal, we clutch at the shadow and let go the substance. We are carried away in the flux and tumult of life. It is a mixed and collective whirla Weltgeist that moves and governs us. We are helpless straws drifting in the current. But manhood demands that we stop and pause, pull ourselves out of the Maelstrom and be what we are. We must shape things as we want and not allow things to shape us as they want.
Let each take cognisance of the godhead that is within him for self is Godand in the strength of the soul-divinity create his universe. It does not matter what sort of universe he- creates, so long as he creates it. The world created by a Buddha is not the same as that created by a Napoleon, nor should they be the same. It does not prove anything that I cannot become a Kalidasa; for that matter Kalidasa cannot become what I am. If you have not the genius of a Shankara it does not mean that you have no genius at all. Be and become yourselfma gridhah kasyachit dhanam, says the Upanishad. The fountain-head of creative genius lies there, in the free choice and the particular delight the self-determination of the spirit within you and not in the desire for your neighbours riches. The world has become dull and uniform and mechanical, since everybody endeavours to become not himself, but always somebody else. Imitation is servitude and servitude brings in grief.
In one's own soul lies the very height and profundity of a god-head. Each soul by bringing out the note that is his, makes for the most wondrous symphony. Once a man knows what he is and holds fast to it, refusing to be drawn away by any necessity or temptation, he begins to uncover himself, to do what his inmost nature demands and takes joy in, that is to say, begins to create. Indeed there may be much difference in the forms that different souls take. But because each is itself, therefore each is grounded upon the fundamental equality of things. All our valuations are in reference to some standard or other set up with a particular end in view, but that is a question of the practical world which in no way takes away From the intrinsic value of the greatness of the soul. So long as the thing is there, the how of it does not matter. Infinite are the ways of manifestation and all of them the very highest and the most sublime, provided they are a manifestation of the soul itself, provided they rise and flow From the same level. Whether it is Agni or Indra, Varuna, Mitra or the Aswins, it is the same supreme and divine inflatus.
The cosmic soul is true. But that truth is borne out, effectuated only by the truth of the individual soul. When the individual soul becomes itself fully and integrally, by that very fact it becomes also the cosmic soul. The individuals are the channels through which flows the Universal and the Infinite in its multiple emphasis. Each is a particular figure, aspectBhava, a particular angle of vision of All. The vision is entire and the figure perfect if it is not refracted by the lower and denser parts of our being. And for that the individual must first come to itself and shine in its opal clarity and translucency.
01.02 - The Issue, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Transient and vanishing From transient eyes,
Invisible, a fateful ghost of self,
--
Forced out From the protecting Ignorance
And flung back on his naked primal need,
He at length must cast From him his surface soul
And be the ungarbed entity within:
--
Acquittance she must win From her past's bond,
An old account of suffering exhaust,
Strike out From Time the soul's long compound debt
And the heavy servitudes of the Karmic Gods,
--
A lightning From the heights on our abyss.
3.30
--
Inspired and ruled From Truth's revealing vault
Moves in some prophet cavern of the gods,
--
Escaping with tired wings From a world of storms,
And a quiet reach like a remembered breast,
--
Descended From its unattainable realms
In her attracting advent's luminous wake,
--
Compound with earth, struck From the starry list,
Or quench with black despair the God-given light.
--
Asked not From mortal frailty pain's relief,
Patched not with failure bargain or compromise.
--
Awoke From slumber in her heart's recess.
4.36
--
A flaming warrior From the eternal peaks
Empowered to force the door denied and closed
Smote From Death's visage its dumb absolute
And burst the bounds of consciousness and Time.
01.02 - The Object of the Integral Yoga, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Matter. Our object is not to remove all "limitations" on the expansion of the ego or to give a free field and make unlimited room for the fulfilment of the ideas of the human mind or the desires of the ego-centred life-force. None of us are here to "do as we like", or to create a world in which we shall at last be able to do as we like; we are here to do what the Divine wills and to create a world in which the Divine Will can manifest its truth no longer deformed by human ignorance or perverted and mistranslated by vital desire. The work which the sadhak of the supramental Yoga has to do is not his own work for which he can lay down his own conditions, but the work of the Divine which he has to do according to the conditions laid down by the Divine. Our Yoga is not for our own sake but for the sake of the Divine. It is not our own personal manifestation that we are to seek, the manifestation of the individual ego freed From all bounds and From all bonds, but the manifestation of the Divine. Of that manifestation our own spiritual liberation, perfection, fullness is to be a result and a part, but not in any egoistic sense or for any ego-centred or self-seeking purpose.
This liberation, perfection, fullness too must not be pursued for our own sake, but for the sake of the Divine.
--
You must go inside yourself and enter into a complete dedication to the spiritual life. All clinging to mental preferences must fall away From you, all insistence on vital aims and interests and attachments must be put away, all egoistic clinging to family, friends, country must disappear if you want to succeed in Yoga. Whatever has to come as outgoing energy or action, must proceed From the Truth once discovered and not From the lower mental or vital motives, From the Divine Will and not From personal choice or the preferences of the ego.
01.03 - Mystic Poetry, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
In the dead wall closing From a wider self,
Parting a door to things unseized by earth-sense, ||6.12||
--
In the dead wall closing us From wider self,
Into a secrecy of apparent sleep,
--
I have gazed upon beauty From my very birth
and yet my eyes
--
Have sight of Proteus rising From the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.9
--
O never then From me depart !11
I am anticipating however, I shall come to the point presently again. I was speaking of spiritual poetry. Listen once more to these simple, transparent, yet vibrant lines:
--
I held my breath and From a world of din
Solitarily I sat apart
--
This is spiritual matter and spiritual manner that can never be improved upon. This is spiritual poetry in its quintessence. I am referring naturally here to the original and not to the translation which can never do full justice, even at its very best, to the poetic value in question. For apart From the individual genius of the poet, the greatness of the language, the instrument used by the poet, is also involved. It may well be what is comparatively easy and natural in the language of the gods (devabhasha) would mean a tour de force, if not altogether an impossibility, in a human language. The Sanskrit language was moulded and fashioned in the hands of the Rishis, that is to say, those who lived and moved and had their being in the spiritual consciousness. The Hebrew or even the Zend does not seem to have reached that peak, that absoluteness of the spiritual tone which seems inherent in the Indian tongue, although those too breathed and grew in a spiritual atmosphere. The later languages, however, Greek or Latin or their modern descendants, have gone still farther From the source, they are much nearer to the earth and are suffused with the smell and effluvia of this vale of tears.
Among the ancients, strictly speaking, the later classical Lucretius was a remarkable phenomenon. By nature he was a poet, but his mental interest lay in metaphysical speculation, in philosophy, and unpoetical business. He turned away From arms and heroes, wrath and love and, like Seneca and Aurelius, gave himself up to moralising and philosophising, delving 'into the mystery, the why and the how and the whither of it all. He chose a dangerous subject for his poetic inspiration and yet it cannot be said that his attempt was a failure. Lucretius was not a religious or spiritual poet; he was rather Marxian,atheistic, materialistic. The dialectical materialism of today could find in him a lot of nourishment and support. But whatever the content, the manner has made a whole difference. There was an idealism, a clarity of vision and an intensity of perception, which however scientific apparently, gave his creation a note, an accent, an atmosphere high, tense, aloof, ascetic, at times bordering on the supra-sensual. It was a high light, a force of consciousness that at its highest pitch had the ring and vibration of something almost spiritual. For the basic principle of Lucretius' inspiration is a large thought-force, a tense perception, a taut nervous reactionit is not, of course, the identity in being with the inner realities which is the hallmark of a spiritual consciousness, yet it is something on the way towards that.
There have been other philosophical poets, a good number of them since thennot merely rationally philosophical, as was the vogue in the eighteenth century, but metaphysically philosophical, that is to say, inquiring not merely into the phenomenal but also into the labyrinths of the noumenal, investigating not only what meets the senses, but also things that are behind or beyond. Amidst the earlier efflorescence of this movement the most outstanding philosopher poet is of course Dante, the Dante of Paradiso, a philosopher in the mediaeval manner and to the extent a lesser poet, according to some. Goe the is another, almost in the grand modern manner. Wordsworth is full of metaphysics From the crown of his head to the tip of his toe although his poetry, perhaps the major portion of it, had to undergo some kind of martyrdom because of it. And Shelley, the supremely lyric singer, has had a very rich undertone of thought-content genuinely metaphysical. And Browning and Arnold and Hardyindeed, if we come to the more moderns, we have to cite the whole host of them, none can be excepted.
We left out the Metaphysicals, for they can be grouped as a set apart. They are not so much metaphysical as theological, religious. They have a brain-content stirring with theological problems and speculations, replete with scintillating conceits and intricate fancies. Perhaps it is because of this philosophical burden, this intellectual bias that the Metaphysicals went into obscurity for about two centuries and it is precisely because of that that they are slowly coming out to the forefront and assuming a special value with the moderns. For the modern mind is characteristically thoughtful, introspective"introvert"and philosophical; even the exact physical sciences of today are rounded off in the end with metaphysics.
--
The philosophical trend in poetry has an interesting history with a significant role: it has acted as a force of purification, of sublimation, of katharsis. As man has risen From his exclusively or predominantly vital nature into an increasing mental poise, in the same way his creative activities too have taken this new turn and status. In the earlier stages of evolution the mental life is secondary, subordinate to the physico-vital life; it is only subsequently that the mental finds an independent and self-sufficient reality. A similar movement is reflected in poetic and artistic creation too: the thinker, the philosopher remains in the background at the outset, he looks out; peers through chinks and holes From time to time; later he comes to the forefront, assumes a major role in man's creative activity.
Man's consciousness is further to rise From the mental to over-mental regions. Accordingly, his life and activities and along with that his artistic creations too will take on a new tone and rhythm, a new mould and constitution even. For this transition, the higher mentalwhich is normally the field of philosophical and idealistic activitiesserves as the Paraclete, the Intercessor; it takes up the lower functionings of the consciousness, which are intense in their own way, but narrow and turbid, and gives, by purifying and enlarging, a wider frame, a more luminous pattern, a more subtly articulated , form for the higher, vaster and deeper realities, truths and harmonies to express and manifest. In the old-world spiritual and mystic poets, this intervening medium was overlooked for evident reasons, for human reason or even intelligence is a double-edged instrument, it can make as well as mar, it has a light that most often and naturally shuts off other higher lights beyond it. So it was bypassed, some kind of direct and immediate contact was sought to be established between the normal and the transcendental. The result was, as I have pointed out, a pure spiritual poetry, on the one hand, as in the Upanishads, or, on the other, religious poetry of various grades and denominations that spoke of the spiritual but in the terms and in the manner of the mundane, at least very much coloured and dominated by the latter. Vyasa was the great legendary figure in India who, as is shown in his Mahabharata, seems to have been one of the pioneers, if not the pioneer, to forge and build the missing link of Thought Power. The exemplar of the manner is the Gita. Valmiki's represented a more ancient and primary inspiration, of a vast vital sensibility, something of the kind that was at the basis of Homer's genius. In Greece it was Socrates who initiated the movement of speculative philosophy and the emphasis of intellectual power slowly began to find expression in the later poets, Sophocles and Euripides. But all these were very simple beginnings. The moderns go in for something more radical and totalitarian. The rationalising element instead of being an additional or subordinate or contri buting factor, must itself give its norm and form, its own substance and manner to the creative activity. Such is the present-day demand.
The earliest preoccupation of man was religious; even when he concerned himself with the world and worldly things, he referred all that to the other world, thought of gods and goddesses, of after-death and other where. That also will be his last and ultimate preoccupation though in a somewhat different way, when he has passed through a process of purification and growth, a "sea-change". For although religion is an aspiration towards the truth and reality beyond or behind the world, it is married too much to man's actual worldly nature and carries always with it the shadow of profanity.
--
. . . . . . . . . . . .lean down From above,
Temper-the unborn light no thought can trace,
--
In a divine retreat From mortal thought,
In a prodigious gesture of soul-sight,
--
This, I say, is something different From the religious and even From the mystic. It is away From the merely religious, because it is naked of the vesture of humanity (in spite of a human face that masks it at times) ; it is something more than the merely mystic, for it does not stop being a signpost or an indication to the Beyond, but is itself the presence and embodiment of the Beyond. The mystic gives us, we can say, the magic of the Infinite; what I term the spiritual, the spiritual proper, gives in addition the logic of the Infinite. At least this is what distinguishes modern spiritual consciousness From the ancient, that is, Upanishadic spiritual consciousness. The Upanishad gives expression to the spiritual consciousness in its original and pristine purity and perfection, in its essential simplicity. It did not buttress itself with any logic. It is the record of fundamental experiences and there was no question of any logical exposition. But, as I have said, the modern mind requires and demands a logical element in its perceptions and presentations. Also it must needs be a different kind of logic that can satisfy and satisfy wholly the deeper and subtler movements of a modern consciousness. For the philosophical poet of an earlier age, when he had recourse to logic, it was the logic of the finite that always gave him the frame, unless he threw the whole thing overboard and leaped straight into the occult, the illogical and the a logical, like Blake, for instance. Let me illustrate and compare a little. When the older poet explains indriyani hayan ahuh, it is an allegory he resorts to, it is the logic of the finite he marshals to point to the infinite and the beyond. The stress of reason is apparent and effective too, but the pattern is what we are normally familiar with the movement, we can say, is almost Aristotelian in its rigour. Now let us turn to the following:
Our life is a holocaust of the Supreme. ||26.15||
--
Divinity's lapse From its own splendours wove
The many-patterned ground of all we are. ||26.16||
--
This is what I was trying to make out as the distinguishing trait of the real spiritual consciousness that seems to be developing in the poetic creation of tomorrow, e.g., it has the same rationality, clarity, concreteness of perception as the scientific spirit has in its own domain and still it is rounded off with a halo of magic and miracle. That is the nature of the logic of the infinite proper to the spiritual consciousness. We can have a Science of the Spirit as well as a Science of Matter. This is the Thought element or what corresponds to it, of which I was speaking, the philosophical factor, that which gives form to the formless or definition to that which is vague, a nearness and familiarity to that which is far and alien. The fullness of the spiritual consciousness means such a thing, the presentation of a divine name and form. And this distinguishes it From the mystic consciousness which is not the supreme solar consciousness but the nearest approach to it. Or, perhaps, the mystic dwells in the domain of the Divine, he may even be suffused with a sense of unity but would not like to acquire the Divine's nature and function. Normally and generally he embodies all the aspiration and yearning moved by intimations and suggestions belonging to the human mentality, the divine urge retaining still the human flavour. We can say also, using a Vedantic terminology, that the mystic consciousness gives us the tatastha lakshana, the nearest approximative attribute of the attri buteless; or otherwise, it is the hiranyagarbha consciousness which englobes the multiple play, the coruscated possibilities of the Reality: while the spiritual proper may be considered as prajghana, the solid mass, the essential lineaments of revelatory knowledge, the typal "wave-particles" of the Reality. In the former there is a play of imagination, even of fancy, a decorative aesthesis, while in the latter it is vision pure and simple. If the spiritual poetry is solar in its nature, we can say, by extending the analogy, that mystic poetry is characteristically lunarMoon representing the delight and the magic that Mind and mental imagination, suffused, no doubt, with a light or a reflection of some light From beyond, is capable of (the Upanishad speaks of the Moon being born of the Mind).
To sum up and recapitulate. The evolution of the poetic expression in man has ever been an attempt at a return and a progressive approach to the spiritual source of poetic inspiration, which was also the original, though somewhat veiled, source From the very beginning. The movement has followed devious waysstrongly negative at timeseven like man's life and consciousness in general of which it is an organic member; but the ultimate end and drift seems to have been always that ideal and principle even when fallen on evil days and evil tongues. The poet's ideal in the dawn of the world was, as the Vedic Rishi sang, to raise things of beauty in heaven by his poetic power,kavi kavitv divi rpam sajat. Even a Satanic poet, the inaugurator, in a way, of modernism and modernistic consciousness, Charles Baudelaire, thus admonishes his spirit:
"Flyaway, far From these morbid miasmas, go and purify yourself in the higher air and drink, like a pure and divine liquor, the clear fire that fills the limpid spaces."18
That angelic poets should be inspired by the same ideal is, of course, quite natural: for they sing:
--
Poetry, actually however, has been, by and large, a profane and mundane affair: for it expresses the normal man's perceptions and feelings and experiences, human loves and hates and desires and ambitions. True. And yet there has also always been an attempt, a tendency to deal with them in such a way as can bring calm and puritykatharsisnot trouble and confusion. That has been the purpose of all Art From the ancient days. Besides, there has been a growth and development in the historic process of this katharsis. As by the sublimation of his bodily and vital instincts and impulses., man is gradually growing into the mental, moral and finally spiritual consciousness, even so the artistic expression of his creative activity has followed a similar line of transformation. The first and original transformation happened with religious poetry. The religious, one may say, is the profane inside out; that is to say, the religious man has almost the same tone and temper, the same urges and passions, only turned Godward. Religious poetry too marks a new turn and development of human speech, in taking the name of God human tongue acquires a new plasticity and flavour that transform or give a new modulation even to things profane and mundane it speaks of. Religious means at bottom the colouring of mental and moral idealism. A parallel process of katharsis is found in another class of poetic creation, viz., the allegory. Allegory or parable is the stage when the higher and inner realities are expressed wholly in the modes and manner, in the form and character of the normal and external, when moral, religious or spiritual truths are expressed in the terms and figures of the profane life. The higher or the inner ideal is like a loose clothing upon the ordinary consciousness, it does not fit closely or fuse. In the religious, however, the first step is taken for a mingling and fusion. The mystic is the beginning of a real fusion and a considerable ascension of the lower into the higher. The philosopher poet follows another line for the same katharsisinstead of uplifting emotions and sensibility, he proceeds by thought-power, by the ideas and principles that lie behind all movements and give a pattern to all things existing. The mystic can be of either type, the religious mystic or the philosopher mystic, although often the two are welded together and cannot be very well separated. Let us illustrate a little:
The spacious firmament on high,
--
Resume Thy spirit From this world of thrall
Into true liberty.21
--
From this red earth, O Father, purge away
All vicious tinctures, that new fashioned
I may rise up From death, before ram dead.22
The allegorical element too finds here cleverly woven into the mystically religious texture. Here is another example of the mystically religious temper From Donne:
For though through many streights, and lands I roame,
01.03 - Rationalism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
What is Reason, the faculty that is said to be the proud privilege of man, the sovereign instrument he alone possesses for the purpose of knowing? What is the value of knowledge that Reason gives? For it is the manner of knowing, the particular faculty or instrument by which we know, that determines the nature and content of knowledge. Reason is the collecting of available sense-perceptions and a certain mode of working upon them. It has three component elements that have been defined as observation, classification and deduction. Now, the very composition of Reason shows that it cannot be a perfect instrument of knowledge; the limitations are the inherent limitations of the component elements. As regards observation there is a two-fold limitation. First, observation is a relative term and variable quantity. One observes through the prism of one's own observing faculty, through the bias of one's own personality and no two persons can have absolutely the same manner of observation. So Science has recognised the necessity of personal equation and has created an imaginary observer, a "mean man" as the standard of reference. And this already takes us far away From the truth, From the reality. Secondly, observation is limited by its scope. All the facts of the world, all sense-perceptions possible and actual cannot be included within any observation however large, however collective it may be. We have to go always upon a limited amount of data, we are able to construct only a partial and sketchy view of the surface of existence. And then it is these few and doubtful facts that Reason seeks to arrange and classify. That classification may hold good for certain immediate ends, for a temporary understanding of the world and its forces, either in order to satisfy our curiosity or to gain some practical utility. For when we want to consider the world only in its immediate relation to us, a few and even doubtful facts are sufficient the more immediate the relation, the more immaterial the doubtfulness and insufficiency of facts. We may quite confidently go a step in darkness, but to walk a mile we do require light and certainty. Our scientific classification has a background of uncertainty, if not, of falsity; and our deduction also, even while correct within a very narrow range of space and time, cannot escape the fundamental vices of observation and classification upon which it is based.
It might be said, however, that the guarantee or sanction of Reason does not lie in the extent of its application, nor can its subjective nature (or ego-centric predication, as philosophers would term it) vitiate the validity of its conclusions. There is, in fact, an inherent unity and harmony between Reason and Reality. If we know a little of Reality, we know the whole; if we know the subjective, we know also the objective. As in the part, so in the whole; as it is within, so it is without. If you say that I will die, you need not wait for my actual death to have the proof of your statement. The generalising power inherent in Reason is the guarantee of the certitude to which it leads. Reason is valid, as it does not betray us. If it were such as anti-intellectuals make it out to be, we would be making nothing but false steps, would always remain entangled in contradictions. The very success of Reason is proof of its being a reliable and perfect instrument for the knowledge of Truth and Reality. It is beside the mark to prove otherwise, simply by analysing the nature of Reason and showing the fundamental deficiencies of that nature. It is rather to the credit of Reason that being as it is, it is none the less a successful and trustworthy agent.
Now the question is, does Reason never fail? Is it such a perfect instrument as intellectualists think it to be? There is ground for serious misgivings. Reason says, for example, that the earth revolves round the sun: and reason, it is argued, is right, for we see that all the facts are conformableto it, even facts that were hitherto unknown and are now coming into our ken. But the difficulty is that Reason did not say that always in the past and may not say that always in the future. The old astronomers could explain the universe by holding quite a contrary theory and could fit into it all their astronomical data. A future scientist may come and explain the matter in quite a different way From either. It is only a choice of workable theories that Reason seems to offer; we do not know the fact itself, apart perhaps From exactly the amount that immediate sense-perception gives to each of us. Or again, if we take an example of another category, we may ask, does God exist? A candid Rationalist would say that he does not know although he has his own opinion about the matter. Evidently, Reason cannot solve all the problems that it meets; it can judge only truths that are of a certain type.
It may be answered that Reason is a faculty which gives us progressive knowledge of the reality, but as a knowing instrument it is perfect, at least it is the only instrument at our disposal; even if it gives a false, incomplete or blurred image of the reality, it has the means and capacity of correcting and completing itself. It offers theories, no doubt; but what are theories? They are simply the gradually increasing adaptation of the knowing subject to the object to be known, the evolving revelation of reality to our perception of it. Reason is the power which carries on that process of adaptation and revelation; we can safely rely upon Reason and trust It to carry on its work with increasing success.
--
Does this mean that real knowledge is irrational or against Reason? Not so necessarily. There is a super-rational power for knowledge and Reason may either be a channel or an obstacle. If we take our stand upon Reason and then proceed to know, if we take the forms and categories of Reason as the inviolable schemata of knowledge, then indeed Reason becomes an obstacle to that super-rational power. If, on the other hand, Reason does not offer any set-form From beforehand, does not insist upon its own conditions, is passive and simply receives and reflects what is given to it, then it becomes a luminous and sure channel for that higher and real knowledge.
The fact is that Reason is a lower manifestation of knowledge, it is an attempt to express on the mental level a power that exceeds it. It is the section of a vast and unitarian Consciousness-Power; the section may be necessary under certain conditions and circumstances, but unless it is viewed in its relation to the ensemble, unless it gives up its exclusive absolutism, it will be perforce arbitrary and misleading. It would still remain helpful and useful, but its help and use would be always limited in scope and temporary in effectivity.
01.03 - Sri Aurobindo and his School, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This is the present nature of man, with its threefold nexus of mind and life and body, that stands there to be fought and conquered. This is the inferior nature, of which the ancients spoke, that holds man down inexorably to a lower dharma, imperfect mode of life the life that is and has been the human order till today. No amount of ceaseless action, however selflessly done, can move this wheel of Nature even by a hair's breadth away From the path that it has carved out From of old. Human nature and human society have been built up and are run by the forces of this inferior nature, and whatever shuffling and reshuffling we may make in its apparent factors and elements, the general scheme and fundamental form of life will never change. To displace earth (and to conquer nature means nothing less than that) and give it another orbit, one must find a fulcrum outside earth.
Sri Aurobindo does not preach flight From life and a retreat into the silent and passive Infinite; the goal of life is not, in his view, the extinction of life. Neither is he satisfied on that account to hold that life is best lived in the ordinary round of its unregenerate dharma. If the first is a blind alley, the second is a vicious circle,both lead nowhere.
Sri Aurobindo's sadhana starts From the perception of a Power that is beyond the ordinary nature yet is its inevitable master, a fulcrum, as we have said, outside the earth. For what is required first is the discovery and manifestation of a new soul-consciousness in man which will bring about by the very pressure and working out of its self-rule an absolute reversal of man's nature. It is the Asuras who are now holding sway over humanity, for man has allowed himself so long to be built in the image of the Asura; to dislodge the Asuras, the Gods in their sovereign might have to be forged in the human being and brought into play. It is a stupendous task, some would say impossible; but it is very far removed From quietism or passivism. Sri Aurobindo is in retirement, but it is a retirement only From the outward field of present physical activities and their apparent actualities, not From the true forces and action of life. It is the retreat necessary to one who has to go back into himself to conquer a new plane of creative power,an entrance right into the world of basic forces, of fundamental realities, into the flaming heart of things where all actualities are born and take their first shape. It is the discovery of a power-house of tremendous energism and of the means of putting it at the service of earthly life.
And, properly speaking, it is not at all a school, least of all a mere school of thought, that is growing round Sri Aurobindo. It is rather the nucleus of a new life that is to come. Quite naturally it has almost insignificant proportions at present to the outward eye, for the work is still of the nature of experiment and trial in very restricted limits, something in the nature of what is done in a laboratory when a new power has been discovered, but has still to be perfectly formulated in its process. And it is quite a mistake to suppose that there is a vigorous propaganda carried on in its behalf or that there is a large demand for recruits. Only the few, who possess the call within and are impelled by the spirit of the future, have a chance of serving this high attempt and great realisation and standing among its first instruments and pioneer workers.
01.03 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Souls Release, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
His was a spirit that stooped From larger spheres
Into our province of ephemeral sight,
A colonist From immortality.
A pointing beam on earth's uncertain roads,
--
A power was in him From the Unknowable.
An archivist of the symbols of the Beyond,
--
On sustenance From occult spiritual founts
Climbed through white rays to meet an unseen Sun.
--
Touched by this tenant From the heights became
A playground of the living Infinite.
--
Passenger From life to life, From scale to scale,
Changing his imaged self From form to form,
He regards the icon growing by his gaze
--
He has drunk From the breasts of the Mother of the worlds;
A topless Supernature fills his frame:
--
Freedom and empire called to him From on high;
Above mind's twilight and life's star-led night
--
It plucked out From grey folds of secrecy
The motives which From their own sight men hide.
He felt the beating life in other men
--
In the dead wall closing us From wider self,
Into a secrecy of apparent sleep,
--
A low muttering rose From the subconscient caves,
The stammer of the primal ignorance;
--
In every hour loosed From the quiver of Time
There rose a song of new discovery,
--
And honeyed pleadings breathed From occult lips
To help the heart to yield to rapture's call,
And sweet temptations stole From beauty's realms
And sudden ecstasies From a world of bliss.
It was a region of wonder and delight.
--
Hurried From phenomenon to phenomenon,
He abode at rest in indivisible Time.
--
He knew the source From which his spirit came:
Movement was married to the immobile Vast;
--
It draws the unwilling spirit From the heights,
Or a dull gravitation drags us down
--
Or soared above the peak From which it fell.
Each time he rose there was a larger poise,
--
A gaze of the Alone From every face,
The presence of the Eternal in the hours
--
On the crude material From which all is made
And the refusal of Inertia's mass
--
A splendour of self-creation From the peaks,
A transfiguration in the mystic depths,
--
Strange riches sailed to him From the Unseen;
Splendours of insight filled the blank of thought,
--
Rained From the all-powerful Mystery above.
Thence stooped the eagles of Omniscience.
--
A wisdom-cry From rapt transcendences
Sang on the mountains of an unseen world;
--
Approached him From the unreachable Secrecy.
An inspired Knowledge sat enthroned within
--
A sudden messenger From the all-seeing tops,
Traversed the soundless corridors of his mind
--
As if From a golden phial of the All-Bliss,
A joy of light, a joy of sudden sight,
--
Was seen emerging as From fathomless seas
The trail of the Ideas that made the world,
--
There looked out From the shadow of the Unknown
The bodiless Namelessness that saw God born
And tries to gain From the mortal's mind and soul
A deathless body and a divine name.
--
Hewn From the silence of the Ineffable.
A Voice in the heart uttered the unspoken Name,
--
Hoarded From touch and view and thought's desire,
Locked in blind antres of the ignorant flood,
--
A wisdom illumined From the voiceless depths:
A deeper interpretation greatened Truth,
--
It left mind's distance From the Truth supreme
And lost life's incapacity for bliss.
--
\t:Thus came his soul's release From Ignorance,
His mind and body's first spiritual change.
A wide God-knowledge poured down From above,
A new world-knowledge broadened From within:
His daily thoughts looked up to the True and One,
His commonest doings welled From an inner Light.
Awakened to the lines that Nature hides,
01.03 - Yoga and the Ordinary Life, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In the Yoga practised here the aim is to rise to a higher consciousness and to live out of the higher consciousness alone, not with the ordinary motives. This means a change of life as well as a change of consciousness. But all are not so circumstanced that they can cut loose From the ordinary life; they accept it therefore as a field of experience and self-training in the earlier stages of the sadhana. But they must take care to look at it as a field of experience only and to get free From the ordinary desires, attachments and ideas which usually go with it; otherwise it becomes a drag and hindrance on their sadhana. When one is not compelled by circumstances there is no necessity to continue the ordinary life.
It is not helpful to abandon the ordinary life before the being is ready for the full spiritual life. To do so means to precipitate a struggle between the different elements and exasperate it to a point of intensity which the nature is not ready to bear. The vital elements in you have partly to be met by the discipline and experience of life, while keeping the spiritual aim in view and trying to govern life by it progressively in the spirit of Karmayoga.
--
But even if he can live partly in it or keep himself constantly open to it, he receives enough of this spiritual light and peace and strength and happiness to carry him securely through all the shocks of life. What one gains by opening to this spiritual consciousness, depends on what one seeks From it; if it is peace, one gets peace; if it is light or knowledge, one lives in a great light and receives a knowledge deeper and truer than any the normal mind of man can acquire; if it [is] strength or power, one gets a spiritual strength for the inner life or Yogic power to govern the outer work and action; if it is happiness, one enters into a beatitude far greater than any joy or happiness that the ordinary human life can give.
There are many ways of opening to this Divine consciousness or entering into it. My way which I show to others is by a constant practice to go inward into oneself, to open by aspiration to the Divine and once one is conscious of it and its action to give oneself to It entirely. This self-giving means not to ask for anything but the constant contact or union with the Divine Consciousness, to aspire for its peace, power, light and felicity, but to ask nothing else and in life and action to be its instrument only for whatever work it gives one to do in the world. If one can once open and feel the Divine Force, the
--
Apart From external things there are two possible inner ideals which a man can follow. The first is the highest ideal of ordinary human life and the other the divine ideal of Yoga.
I must say in view of something you seem to have said to your father that it is not the object of the one to be a great man or the object of the other to be a great Yogin. The ideal of human life is to establish over the whole being the control of a clear, strong and rational mind and a right and rational will, to master the emotional, vital and physical being, create a harmony of the whole and develop the capacities whatever they are and fulfil them in life. In the terms of Hindu thought, it is to enthrone the rule of the purified and sattwic buddhi, follow the dharma, fulfilling one's own svadharma and doing the work proper to one's capacities, and satisfy kama and artha under the control of the buddhi and the dharma. The object of the divine life, on the other hand, is to realise one's highest self or to realise
--
The spiritual life (adhyatma jvana), the religious life (dharma jvana) and the ordinary human life of which morality is a part are three quite different things and one must know which one desires and not confuse the three together. The ordinary life is that of the average human consciousness separated From its own true self and From the Divine and led by the common habits of the mind, life and body which are the laws of the Ignorance.
The religious life is a movement of the same ignorant human consciousness, turning or trying to turn away From the earth towards the Divine but as yet without knowledge and led by the dogmatic tenets and rules of some sect or creed which claims to have found the way out of the bonds of the earth-consciousness into some beatific Beyond. The religious life may be the first approach to the spiritual, but very often it is only a turning about in a round of rites, ceremonies and practices or set ideas and forms without any issue. The spiritual life, on the contrary, proceeds directly by a change of consciousness, a change From the ordinary consciousness, ignorant and separated From its true self and From God, to a greater consciousness in which one finds one's true being and comes first into direct and living contact and then into union with the Divine. For the spiritual seeker this change of consciousness is the one thing he seeks and nothing else matters.
Morality is a part of the ordinary life; it is an attempt to govern the outward conduct by certain mental rules or to form the character by these rules in the image of a certain mental ideal. The spiritual life goes beyond the mind; it enters into the deeper consciousness of the Spirit and acts out of the truth of the Spirit.
01.04 - Motives for Seeking the Divine, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Let us first put aside the quite foreign consideration of what we would do if the union with the Divine brought eternal joylessness, Nirananda or torture. Such a thing does not exist and to drag it in only clouds the issue. The Divine is Anandamaya and one can seek him for the Ananda he gives; but he has also in him many other things and one may seek him for any of them, for peace, for liberation, for knowledge, for power, for anything else of which one may feel the pull or the impulse. It is quite possible for someone to say: "Let me have Power From the
Divine and do His work or His will and I am satisfied, even if the use of Power entails suffering also." It is possible to shun bliss as a thing too tremendous or ecstatic and ask only or rather for peace, for liberation, for Nirvana. You speak of self-fulfilment,
--
- for these are the things that lead on towards the Divine so long as the absolute inner call that is there all the time does not push itself to the surface. But it is really that that has drawn From the beginning and is there behind - it is the categorical spiritual imperative, the absolute need of the soul for the Divine.
I am not saying that there is to be no Ananda. The selfgiving itself is a profound Ananda and what it brings, carries in its wake an inexpressible Ananda - and it is brought by this method sooner than by any other, so that one can say almost,
01.04 - Sri Aurobindos Gita, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The supreme secret of the Gita, rahasyam uttamam, has presented itself to diverse minds in diverse forms. All these however fall, roughly speaking, into two broad groups of which one may be termed the orthodox school and the other the modem school. The orthodox school as represented, for example, by Shankara or Sridhara, viewed the Gita in the light of the spiritual discipline more or less current in those ages, when the purpose of life was held out to be emancipation From life, whether through desireless work or knowledge or devotion or even a combination of the three. The Modern School, on the other hand, represented by Bankim in Bengal and more thoroughly developed and systematised in recent times by Tilak, is inspired by its own Time-Spirit and finds in the Gita a gospel of life-fulfilment. The older interpretation laid stress upon a spiritual and religious, which meant therefore in the end an other-worldly discipline; the newer interpretation seeks to dynamise the more or less quietistic spirituality which held the ground in India of later ages, to set a premium upon action, upon duty that is to be done in our workaday life, though with a spiritual intent and motive.
This neo-spirituality which might claim its sanction and authority From the real old-world Indian disciplinesay, of Janaka and Yajnavalkyalabours, however, in reality, under the influence of European activism and ethicism. It was this which served as the immediate incentive to our spiritual revival and revaluation and its impress has not been thoroughly obliterated even in the best of our modern exponents. The bias of the vital urge and of the moral imperative is apparent enough in the modernist conception of a dynamic spirituality. Fundamentally the dynamism is made to reside in the lan of the ethical man,the spiritual element, as a consciousness of supreme unity in the Absolute (Brahman) or of love and delight in God, serving only as an atmosphere for the mortal activity.
Sri Aurobindo has raised action completely out of the mental and moral plane and has given it an absolute spiritual life. Action has been spiritualised by being carried back to its very source and origin, for it is the expression in life of God's own Consciousness-Energy (Chit-Shakti).
--- Grep of noun from
creating from raw materials
eighter from decatur
freedom from cruel and unusual punishment
freedom from discrimination
freedom from double jeopardy
freedom from involuntary servitude
freedom from search and seizure
freedom from self-incrimination
fromental halevy
fugitive from justice
home away from home
home from home
manna from heaven
mean deviation from the mean
nina from carolina
week from monday
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