1. To bring into musical accord or harmony; to tune. 2. To bring into accord, harmony, or sympathetic relationship; adjust. attuned, attuning.
1. Touchstone; a very smooth, fine-grained, black or dark-coloured variety of quartz or jasper (also called basanite), used for testing the quality of gold and silver alloys by the colour of the streak produced by rubbing them upon it; a piece of such stone used for this purpose. 2. *fig.* That which serves to test or try the genuineness or value of anything; a test, criterion.
1. The act, power or property of appealing, alluring, enticing or inviting. 2. A thing or feature which draws by appealing to desires, tastes, etc. 3. The action of a body or substance in drawing to itself, by some physical force, another to which it is not materially attached; the force thus exercised. attractions.
1. Where something originated or was nurtured in its early existence. 2. The place where something begins, where it springs into being.
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.
abdicate ::: to renounce (a throne, power, responsibility, rights, etc.), esp. formally.
abide ::: 1. To wait, stay, remain. 2. To remain in residence; to sojourn, reside, dwell. 3. To remain with; to stand firm by, to hold to, remain true to. 4. To continue in existence, endure, stand firm or sure. abides, abode, abiding.
able to be heard; heard or perceptible by the ear; loud enough to be heard.
abolish ::: to put an end to, to do away with; to annul or make void; to demolish, destroy or annihilate. abolished, abolishing.
abrogate ::: to do away with, put an end to.
abrupt ::: 1. Characterized by sudden interruption or change; unannounced and unexpected; sudden, hasty. 2. Precipitous, steep. 3. Of strata: Suddenly cropping out and presenting their edges.
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.
absorbed ::: 1. Engrossed or entirely occupied; preoccupied. 2. Swallowed up, or comprised, so as no longer to exist apart.
abstruse ::: 1. Concealed, hidden, secret. 2. Hard to understand; difficult, recondite.
abysmal ::: 1. Of, pertaining to, or resembling an abyss; fathomless; deep-sunken. 2. Extremely or hopelessly bad or severe.
abyss ::: 1. The great deep, the primal chaos; the ‘bowels of the earth", the supposed cavity of the lower world; the ‘infernal pit". 2. A bottomless gulf; any unfathomable or apparently unfathomable cavity or void space; a profound gulf, chasm, or void extending beneath. Abyss, abyss"s, abysses.
accent ::: 1. The way in which anything is said; pronunciation, tone, voice; sound, modulation or modification of the voice expressing feeling. 2. A mark indicating stress or some other distinction in pronunciation or value. accents.
accept ::: 1. To take or receive (a thing offered) willingly, or with consenting mind; to receive (a thing or person) with favour or approval. 2. To take formally (what is offered) with contemplation of its consequences and obligations; to take upon oneself, to undertake as a responsibility. 3. To agree or consent to. 4. To regard as true or sound; believe. accepts, accepted, accepting.
access ::: 1. The ability, right, or permission to approach, enter, speak with, or use; admittance. 2. A way or means of approach; an entrance, channel, passage, or doorway.
accident ::: 1. Any event that happens unexpectedly, without a deliberate plan or cause. 2. A fortuitous circumstance, quality, or characteristic. 3. An unfortunate event, a disaster, a mishap. accidents.
acclaimed ::: laid claim to, claimed; demanded as one"s own or one"s due; sought or asked for on the ground of right.
accompany ::: 1. To go in company with, to go along with. 2. To add as companion; to associate; to add or conjoin to. accompanied.
accord ::: agreement or harmonious correspondence of things or their properties, as of colours or tints. Of sounds: Agreement in pitch and tone; harmony.
::: "According to the nature and the circumstances the call will come.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
accountable ::: subject to the obligation to report, explain, or justify something; answerable, responsible.
account ::: n. 1. A record of debts and credits, applied to other things than money or trade. 2. A particular statement or narrative of an event or thing; a relation, report, or description. v. 3. To render an account or reckoning of; to give a satisfactory reason for, to give an explanation.
accursed ::: lying under a curse or anathema; ill fated; doomed to perdition or misery.
accuse ::: to charge with a fault; to find fault with, blame, censure. accused.
accustomed ::: 1. Customary, habitual, usual. 2. Habituated; acclimated (usually followed by to).
ache ::: a continuous or abiding pain, in contrast to a sudden or sharp one. Used of both physical and mental sensations.
achieve ::: 1. To bring to a successful end, to carry out successfully (an enterprise); to accomplish, perform. 2. To succeed in gaining, to acquire by effort, to obtain, win. achieves, achieved, achieving.
"A conscious being, no larger than a man"s thumb, stands in the centre of our self; he is master of the past and the present . . . he is today and he is tomorrow. — Katha Upanishad. (6)” The Life Divine - See *conscious being.
acquaint ::: to furnish with knowledge; inform; to make cognizant or aware.
acrid ::: bitterly irritating to the feelings; of bitter and irritating temper or manner; sharp, biting, caustic.
adamant ::: n. 1. Any impenetrably or unyieldingly hard substance. 2. A legendary stone of impenetrable hardness, formerly sometimes identified with the diamond. adj. **3. Unshakeable, inflexible, utterly unyielding. 4. Incapable of being broken, dissolved, or penetrated; immovable, impregnable. adamantine.**
addict ::: one who is attached by one"s own inclination to an activity, habit or substance; devoted, given up to.
adj. 1. Rousing (something) or being aroused, as if from sleep. n. awakenings. 2. Recognitions, realizations, or coming into awareness of things.
adjourned ::: deferred, postponed; held over to another time.
adjunct ::: joined or added (to anything); connected, annexed; subordinate in position, function, character, or essence. adjuncts.
admit ::: 1. To allow to enter, let in, receive (a person or thing). 2. Fig. To allow a matter to enter into any relation to action or thought. 3. To accept as true, or as a fact, to acknowledge, concede. 4. To allow, permit, grant. admits, admitted, admitting.
admonishing ::: 1. Reproving or scolding, especially in a mild or good-willed manner. 2. Urging to a duty; reminding.
adopted ::: taken voluntarily or admitted into any new relationship; esp. that of a child.
adopt ::: to choose or take as one"s own; make one"s own by election or assent. adopts.
adoration ::: 1. The act of paying honour, as to a divine being; worship. 2. Reverent homage. 3. Fervent and devoted love. **adoration"s.*Sri Aurobindo: "Especially in love for the Divine or for one whom one feels to be divine, the Bhakta feels an intense reverence for the Loved, a sense of something of immense greatness, beauty or value and for himself a strong impression of his own comparative unworthiness and a passionate desire to grow into likeness with that which one adores.” Letters on Yoga*
adore ::: 1. To worship as a deity, to pay divine honours to. 2. To reverence or honour very highly; to regard with the utmost respect and affection. adores, adored, adoring, adorer, adorer"s.
adored ::: the One who is worshipped, (referring here to Krishna).
adorer ::: the One who worships, (referring here to Radha).
adorn ::: to beautify as an ornament does; decorate; to add beauty or lustre to. adorned.
advance ::: n. **1. Fig. Onward movement in any process or course of action; progress. v. 2. To move or go forward; to proceed. 3. Fig. To go forward or make progress in life, or in any course. 3. To move, put, or push (a thing) forward. Also fig. advances, advanced, advancing.**
advent ::: any important or epoch-making arrival. In modern usage applied poetically or grandiloquently to any arrival. advent"s, advents.
adventure ::: n. 1. Any novel or unexpected event in which one shares; an exciting or remarkable incident befalling any one. 2. The encountering of risks or participation in novel and exciting events; bold or daring activity, enterprise. adventure"s, world-adventure, world-adventure"s. *v. 3. To take the chance of; to commit to fortune; to undertake a thing of doubtful issue; to try, to chance, to venture into or upon. 4. To risk or hazard; stake. *adventuring.
adverse ::: acting against or in opposition to, opposing, contrary; antagonistic in purpose or effect; actively hostile.
adversity ::: the condition of adverse fortune or fate; a state opposed to well-being or prosperity; misfortune, distress, trial, or affliction.
"Aesthesis therefore is of the very essence of poetry, as it is of all art. But it is not the sole element and aesthesis too is not confined to a reception of poetry and art; it extends to everything in the world: there is nothing we can sense, think or in any way experience to which there cannot be an aesthetic reaction of our conscious being. Ordinarily, we suppose that aesthesis is concerned with beauty, and that indeed is its most prominent concern: but it is concerned with many other things also. It is the universal Ananda that is the parent of aesthesis and the universal Ananda takes three major and original forms, beauty, love and delight, the delight of all existence, the delight in things, in all things.” Letters on Savitri
aesthete ::: a person who has or professes to have refined sensitivity toward the beauties of art or nature.
aesthetic ::: pertaining to a sense of the beautiful or pleasing; characterized by a love of beauty; tasteful, of refined taste.
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.
affixed ::: fastened, fixed, joined, or attached , put or added on; appended to.
afflicted ::: distressed with mental or bodily pain; troubled greatly; grievously depressed, oppressed, cast down; tormented.
afflicting ::: 1. Grievously painful, distressing. 2. Distressing with bodily or mental suffering; troubling grievously, tormenting. self-afflicting.
affront ::: to face in defiance; confront. affronted, affronting.
a game in which a blindfolded player tries to catch and identify one of the other players. The game has been around for at least 2000 years and probably longer. It is known to have been played in Greece about the time of the Roman Conquest.
age ::: n. **1. A great period or stage of the history of the Earth. 2. Hist. Any great period or portion of human history distinguished by certain characters real or mythical, as the Golden Age, the Patriarchal Age, the Bronze Age, the Age of the Reformation, the Middle Ages, the Prehistoric Age. 3. A generation or a series of generations. 4. Advanced years; old age. age"s, ages, ages". v. 5.** To grow old; to become aged.
agencies ::: active powers or causes which have the power to produce an effect.
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.**
aggrandise ::: to make (something) appear greater; to widen in scope ,magnify. aggrandising.
agonised ::: suffered extreme pain or anguish; tortured.
agony ::: 1. Anguish of mind, sore trouble or distress, a paroxysm of grief. 2. The convulsive throes, or pangs of death; the death struggle. 3. Extreme bodily suffering, such as to produce writhing or throes of the body. agonies.
agree ::: 1. To be in harmony or unison in opinions, feelings, conduct, etc.; to be in sympathy; to live or act together harmoniously; to have no causes of variance. 2. To give consent; assent (often followed by to). agreed.
agreement ::: a contract or other document delineating an arrangement that is accepted by all parties to a transaction. (Sri Aurobindo capitalizes the word.)
aid ::: n. 1. Help, assistance, support, succour, relief. v. 2. To give help, support, or assistance to; to help, assist, succour. aids.
aim ::: n. Fig. 1. A thing intended or desired to be effected; an object, purpose. Aim, aims. *v. 2. To point or direct a gun, arrow, etc. toward. *aimed.
air ::: 1. The transparent, invisible, inodorous, and tasteless gaseous substance which envelopes the earth. 2. *Fig. With reference to its unsubstantial or impalpable nature. 3. Outward appearance, apparent character, manner, look, style: esp. in phrases like ‘an air of absurdity"; less commonly of a thing tangible, as ‘the air of a mansion". 4. Mien or gesture (expressive of a personal quality or emotion). *air"s.
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
alarm ::: n. 1. A warning sound of any kind to give notice of danger, or to arouse or attract attention; esp. a loud and hurried peal rung out by a tocsin or alarm bell. v. 2. To arouse to a sense of danger, to excite the attention or suspicion of, to put on the alert; warn. 3. To strike with fear or apprehension of danger; to agitate or excite with sudden fear. alarmed, alarming.
alchemy ::: any magical or miraculous power or process of transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value. alchemies.
algebra ::: the branch of mathematics that deals with general statements of relations, utilizing letters and other symbols to represent specific sets of numbers, values, vectors, etc., in the description of such relations. 2. Any special system of notation adapted to the study of a special system of relationship.
alien ::: 1. Unlike one"s own; strange; not belonging to one; belonging to another person, place, or family. 2. Adverse; hostile. aliens.
aligned ::: arranged in a straight line; brought into line. re-aligns.
"All birds of that region are relatives. But this is the bird of eternal Ananda, while the Hippogriff is the divinised Thought and the Bird of Fire is the Agni-bird, psychic and tapas. All that however is to mentalise too much and mentalising always takes most of the life out of spiritual things. That is why I say it can be seen but nothing said about it.” ::: "The question was: ‘In the mystical region, is the dragon bird any relation of your Bird of Fire with ‘gold-white wings" or your Hippogriff with ‘face lustred, pale-blue-lined"? And why do you write: ‘What to say about him? One can only see"?” Letters on Savitri
"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
allegiance ::: loyalty or devotion to some person, group, cause, or the like.
alley ::: a passage between buildings; hence, a narrow street, a lane; usually only wide enough for foot-passengers. blind alley*: one that is closed at the end, so as to be no thoroughfare; a cul de sac*.
allowed ::: 1. Permitted the occurrence or existence of. 2. Allotted, assigned, bestowed. allows.
alloy ::: 1. A substance composed of two or more metals, or of a metal or metals with a nonmetal, intimately mixed, as by fusion or electrodeposition; a less costly metal mixed with a more valuable one, such as that which is added to gold and silver coinage. 2. Admixture, as with good with evil.
all- ::: prefix: Wholly, altogether, infinitely. Since 1600, the number of these [combinations] has been enormously extended, all-** having become a possible prefix, in poetry at least, to almost any adjective of quality. all-affirming, All-Beautiful, All-Beautiful"s, All-Bliss, All-Blissful, All-causing, all-concealing, all-conquering, All-Conscient, All-Conscious, all-containing, All-containing, all-creating, all-defeating, All-Delight, all-discovering, all-embracing, all-fulfilling, all-harbouring, all-inhabiting, all-knowing, All-knowing, All-Knowledge, all-levelling, All-Life, All-love, All-Love, all-negating, all-powerful, all-revealing, All-ruler, all-ruling, all-seeing, All-seeing, all-seeking, all-shaping, all-supporting, all-sustaining, all-swallowing, All-Truth, All-vision, All-Wisdom, all-wise, All-Wise, all-witnessing, All-Wonderful, All-Wonderful"s.**
All these centres are in the middle of the body; they are supposed to be attached to the spinal cord; but in fact all these things are in the subtle body, suksma deha , though one has the feeling of their activities as if in the physical body when the consciousness is awake.” Letters on Yoga
allured ::: 1. Attracted as to a lure; drawn or enticed to a place or to a course of action. 2. Attracted or tempted by something flattering or desirable; fascinated, charmed. alluring, **alluringly, allurement.
almighty ::: 1. *Orig. and in the strict sense used as an attribute of the Deity, and joined to God or other title. 2. Absol. The Almighty; a title of God. 3. All-powerful (in a general sense); omnipotent. Almighty"s, Almightiness, almightiness.
altar ::: 1. A block, pile, table, stand, mound, platform, or other elevated structure on which to place or sacrifice offerings to a deity. 2. With reference to the uses, customs, dedication, or peculiar sanctity of the altar. 3. A place consecrated to devotional observances. altar"s, altars, altar-burnings, mountain-altars.
alter ::: to make otherwise or different in some respect; to make some change in character, shape, condition, position, quantity, value, etc. without changing the thing itself for another; to modify, to change the appearance of. alters, altered, altering.
altruism ::: the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others (opposed to egoism ).
amazed ::: greatly surprised; astounded; suddenly filled with wonder; astonished. amazing, amazement.
amber ::: a pale yellow, sometimes reddish or brownish, fossil resin of vegetable origin, translucent, brittle, and capable of gaining a negative electrical charge by friction and of being an excellent insulator. 2. The yellowish-brown colour of resin.
ambience ::: 1. The mood, character, quality, tone, atmosphere, etc., particularly of an environment or milieu. 2. That which surrounds or encompasses.
ambiguous ::: 1. Open to or having several possible meanings or interpretations; equivocal; questionable; indistinct, obscure, not clearly defined. 2. Of doubtful or uncertain nature; difficult to comprehend, distinguish, or classify; admitting more than one interpretation, or explanation; of double meaning. 3. Of oracles, people, using words of double meaning. ambiguously.
ambition ::: an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honour, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment. ambitions.
ambitioned ::: aspired to; desired; sought after earnestly.
ambrosia ("s) ::: something especially delicious or delightful to taste or smell, divinely sweet; in Classical Mythology, the food of the gods.
ambush ::: 1. An act or instance of lying concealed so as to attack by surprise. 2. The concealed position itself. ambushes.
ambushed ::: concealed so as suddenly to burst forth, come in view, or take by surprise.
amethyst ::: a purple or violet quartz; having the clear colour as of the precious stone. Sri Aurobindo uses the word as an adj."for Amethyst (the Mother)she has revealed that it has a power of protection” Huta
amorous ::: inclined or disposed to love; in love, enamoured, fond. 2. Showing or expressing love. 3. Being in love; enamoured.
amuse ::: to hold the attention of (someone) pleasantly; entertain or divert in an enjoyable or cheerful manner. amused, amusing.
analyse ::: to examine carefully and in detail so as to identify causes, key factors, possible results; examine minutely and critically to determine the elements or essential features of. analysed.
ananke ::: "In Greek mythology, personification of compelling necessity or ultimate fate to which even the gods must yield.” *Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works
"Anarchism is likely to be the protest of the human soul against the tyranny of a bureaucratic Socialism.” Essays Divine and Human
". . . an Avatar is not at all bound to be a spiritual prophet — he is never in fact merely a prophet, he is a realiser, an establisher — not of outward things only, though he does realise something in the outward also, but, as I have said, of something essential and radical needed for the terrestrial evolution which is the evolution of the embodied spirit through successive stages towards the Divine.” Letters on Yoga
"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
ancestors ::: forebears; descendants. progenitors.
anchor ::: 1. Any of various devices dropped by a chain, cable, or rope to the bottom of a body of water for preventing or restricting the motion of a vessel or other floating object, typically having broad, hooklike arms that bury themselves in the bottom to provide a firm hold. 2. A person or thing that can be relied on for support, stability, or security; mainstay.
anchored ::: fixed or fasten firmly so as to be at rest.
anchorites ::: those who have retired to a solitary place for a life of religious seclusion; hermits, recluses.
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.
angel ::: 1. One of a class of spiritual beings; a celestial attendant of the Deity; a divine messenger of an order of spiritual beings superior to man in power. 2. A fallen or rebellious spirit once a spiritual attendant of the Divine. angel, Angels, **angels.
**Angel of the Way *Sri Aurobindo: "Love fulfilled does not exclude knowledge, but itself brings knowledge; and the completer the knowledge, the richer the possibility of love. ‘By Bhakti" says the Lord in the Gita ‘shall a man know Me in all my extent and greatness and as I am in the principles of my being, and when he has known Me in the principles of my being, then he enters into Me." Love without knowledge is a passionate and intense, but blind, crude, often dangerous thing, a great power, but also a stumbling-block; love, limited in knowledge, condemns itself in its fervour and often by its very fervour to narrowness; but love leading to perfect knowledge brings the infinite and absolute union. Such love is not inconsistent with, but rather throws itself with joy into divine works; for it loves God and is one with him in all his being, and therefore in all beings, and to work for the world is then to feel and fulfil multitudinously one"s love for God. This is the trinity of our powers, [work, knowledge, love] the union of all three in God to which we arrive when we start on our journey by the path of devotion with Love for the Angel of the Way to find in the ecstasy of the divine delight of the All-Lover"s being the fulfilment of ours, its secure home and blissful abiding-place and the centre of its universal radiation.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
animal ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The animal is a living laboratory in which Nature has, it is said, worked out man. Man himself may well be a thinking and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious co-operation she wills to work out the superman, the god. Or shall we not say, rather, to manifest God?” *The Life Divine
animates ::: 1. Gives life to; makes alive; breathes life into. 2. To move or stir to action; motivate.
annihilate ::: to reduce to utter ruin or non-existence, destroy utterly. annihilation, annihilation"s.
announced ::: made known to the mind or senses. announcing.
annul ::: 1. To reduce to nothing; obliterate; annihilate. To put out of existence, extinguish. 2. To put an end or stop to (an action or state of things); to abolish, cancel, do away with. 3. To make void or null; abolish; cancel; invalidate; declare invalid. annuls, annulled, annulling, annulment.
another ::: adj. 1. Being one more or more of the same; further; additional. 2. Very similar to; of the same kind or category as. 3. Different; distinct; of a different period, place, or kind. pron. **4. A person other than oneself or the one specified. 5. One more; an additional one. another"s**.
antagonist ::: one who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent, adversary. antagonists.
antechambers ::: 1. Chambers or rooms that serve as waiting rooms and entrances to larger rooms or apartments; anterooms. 2. Any areas that are entrances to other areas.
anticipated ::: expected; looked forward to.
antique ::: 1. Of or belonging to the past. 2. Dating from a period long ago; ancient.
anvil ::: a heavy iron block with a smooth face, frequently of steel, on which heated metals are hammered into desired shapes.
apathy ::: indifference; insensibility to passion or feeling.
ape ::: 1. Any of a group of anthropoid primates characterized by long arms, a broad chest, and the absence of a tail; an animal of the monkey tribe. 2. An imitator, a mimic. apelike.
"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
a piece of plate armour partially or completely covering the front of the torso.
apparent ::: readily seen; exposed to sight; open to view. 2. Capable of being easily perceived or understood; plain or clear; obvious; visible.
appeal ::: 1. An earnest request for aid, support, sympathy, mercy, etc.; entreaty; petition; plea. 2. An application or proceeding for review by a higher tribunal. 3. The power or ability to attract, interest; attraction. appealed, appealing, sense-appeal.
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.
appearance ::: 1. The act or fact of coming forward into view ; becoming visible. 2. The state, condition, manner, or style in which a person or object appears; outward look or aspect. 3. Outward show or seeming; semblance. appearances.
appease ::: 1. To bring to a state of peace, quiet, ease, calm, or contentment; pacify; soothe. 2. To satisfy, allay, or relieve.
appellants ::: those who appeal to a higher tribunal; entreat.
approach ::: v. 1. To come near or nearer to; draw near. 2. To come near to a person: i.e. into personal relations; into his presence or audience; or fig. within the range of his notice or attention. 3. To come near in quality, character, time, or condition; to be nearly equal. approaches, approached, approaching.* *n. 4. Any means of access or way of passage, avenue. 5. The act of drawing near. approaches.**
approve ::: 1. To confirm or sanction formally; ratify. 2. To speak or think favourably of; pronounce or consider agreeable or good; judge favourably. approves, approved.
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.
apt ::: 1. Having a natural tendency; inclined; disposed. 2. Unusually intelligent; able to learn quickly and easily. 3. Exactly suitable; appropriate.
arbiter ::: 1. One empowered to decide matters at issue; judge. 2. Having the sole or absolute power of judging or determining. arbiters.
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.
arcanes ::: of things known or understood by very few; mysterious; secret; obscure; esoteric. (Employed by Sri Aurobindo as a noun.)
arch ::: 1. An upwardly curved construction, for spanning an opening, consisting of a number of wedgelike stones, bricks, or the like, set with the narrower side toward the opening in such a way that forces on the arch are transmitted as vertical or oblique stresses on either side of the opening, either capable of bearing weight or merely ornamental; 2. Something bowed or curved; any bowlike part: the arch of the foot. 3. An arched roof, door; gateway; vault; fig. the heavens. arches.
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.
architectonic ::: metaph. Of the systematic arrangement of knowledge.
architect ::: the deviser, maker, or creator of anything; one who builds up something, as, men are the architects of their own fortunes. Architect, architects.
architecture ::: 1. The profession of designing buildings and other artificial constructions and environments, usually with some regard to aesthetic effect. 2. The character or style of building. 3. Construction or structure generally. architectures.
archives ::: preserved historical records or documents, also the place where they are kept.
arcturus ::: a giant star in the constellation Boötes. It is the brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere and the fourth brightest star in the sky, with an apparent magnitude of 0.00; sometimes referring to the Great Bear itself.
arduous ::: hard to accomplish or achieve; requiring strong effort; difficult, laborious, severe.
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.
arenas ::: central stages, rings, areas, or the like, used for sports or other forms of entertainment, surrounded by seats for spectators.
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.*)
aristocracy ::: the class to which a ruling body belongs, a patrician order; the collective body of those who form a privileged class; also used fig. of those who are superior.
arm ::: power; might; strength. (All other references are to arm(s) as a part of the body.) arm"s, arms.
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.
arraigned ::: called (an accused person) before a court to answer the charge made against him or her by indictment, information, or complaint, or brought before a court to answer to an indictment; accused, charged with fault.
arrange ::: 1. To put into a specific order or relation; dispose. 2. To settle the order, manner, and circumstantial relations of (a thing to be done); to prepare or plan beforehand. arranged, arranging, self-arranged.
arrested ::: stopped, checked the course of, stayed, slowed down. arresting.
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.
artificer ::: 1. One who is skilful or clever in devising ways of making things; inventor. 2. A skilful or artistic worker; craftsperson. artificers.
artist ::: 1. One who practises the creative arts; one who seeks to express the beautiful in visible form. 2. A follower of a manual art; an artificer, mechanic, craftsman, artisan. artists. (Sri Aurobindo often employs the word as an adj.)
art ::: v. archaic** A second person singular present indicative of be, now only poet., not in modern usage. All other references are to art as the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. Also, the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria. art"s, arts, art-parades.
ascend ::: to move, climb, or go upward; mount; rise. ascends, ascended, ascending.
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.
as it would be if; as though. (Introducing a supposition, or way of conceiving some entity or situation, that is not to be taken literally, but yields some insight or convenience in metaphysics.)
asoca ::: bot.: Saraca indica , Asoka, Sorrowless tree. A small flowering tree native to India with glowing clusters of orange and yellow flowers. asocas.
aspect ::: 1. Appearance to the eye or mind; look. 2. Nature; quality, character. 3. A way in which a thing may be viewed or regarded; interpretation; view. 4. Part; feature; phase. aspects.
asphodel ::: a genus of liliaceous plants with very attractive white, pink or yellow flowers, mostly natives of the south of Europe; by the poets made an immortal flower, and said to cover the Elysian (heavenly, paradisal) fields.
"Aspiration, call, prayer are forms of one and the same thing and are all effective; you can take the form that comes to you or is easiest to you.” Letters on Yoga
::: "Aspiration is to call the forces. When the forces have answered, there is a natural state of quiet receptivity concentrated but spontaneous.” Letters on Yoga
"Aspiration should be not a form of desire, but the feeling of an inner soul"s need, and a quiet settled will to turn towards the Divine and seek the Divine. It is certainly not easy to get rid of this mixture of desire entirely — not easy for anyone; but when one has the will to do it, this also can be effected by the help of the sustaining Force.” Letters on Yoga
aspire ::: to have a fixed desire, longing, or ambition for something at present above one; to seek to attain, yearn. aspires, aspired, aspiring.
"A spiritual knowledge, moved to arrive at the true Self in us, must reject, as the traditional way of knowledge rejects, all misleading appearances. It must discover that the body is not our self, our foundation of existence; it is a sensible form of the Infinite.” The Synthesis of Yoga
assail ::: 1. To attack vigorously or violently; assault. 2. To impinge upon; make an impact on; beset. 3. To take upon oneself a difficult challenge with the intention of mastering it. assailed, assailing.
assayer"s stone
assemblage ::: a number of persons gathered together; a gathering, concourse. (Less formal than assembly.)
assembled ::: gathered together; brought together into one place, collected.
assembly ::: a group of people gathered together usually for a particular purpose. assemblies.
assent ::: 1. Agreement, as to a proposal; concurrence. 2. Acquiescence; compliance, concession. assents, assenting.
assets ::: total resources, items of ownership.
assists ::: gives support or aid to; helps. assisting.
assuage ::: to mitigate, alleviate, soothe, relieve (physical or mental pain).
assume ::: 1. To take upon oneself, to adopt an aspect, form, or attribute. 2. To take on titles, offices, duties, responsibilities. 3. To take on as one"s own, to adopt. assumes, assumed, assuming.
assured ::: 1. Made certain; guaranteed. 2. Certified, verified. 3. Made secure or certain; confirmed. 4. Confident, characterized by certainty or security; satisfied as to the truth of something. assuring.
astonished ::: 1. Amazed, filled with sudden and overpowering surprise or wonder. 2. Filled with consternation; dismayed. astonishing.
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.
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.
atavism ::: 1. The reappearance in an individual of characteristics of some remote ancestor that have been absent in intervening generations. 2. Reversion to an earlier type.
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.
atom ::: 1. A unit of matter, the smallest unit of an element, having all the characteristics of that element and consisting of a dense, central, positively charged nucleus surrounded by a system of electrons. 2. The smallest component of an element having the chemical properties of the element. 3. An extremely small part, quantity, or amount. The smallest conceivable unit of an element or of anything. atom"s, atoms, atomic.
atoned ::: expiated, made amends for.
attain ::: 1. To gain as an objective; achieve; reach, arrive at; accomplish. 2. To arrive at, as by virtue of persistence or the passage of time; To reach in the course of development. attained.
attempt ::: n. 1. An effort made to accomplish something. 2. The thing attempted, object aimed at, aim. attempts, half-attempts. v. 3. To make an effort at; try; undertake; seek. attempted, attempting.
attend ::: to listen to, pay attention to, give heed to; direct one"s energies toward.
auspice-hour ::: an auspice is any divine or prophetic token; a favourable sign or propitious circumstance, esp. an indication of a happy future. Sri Aurobindo combines the word ‘hour" with auspice to emphasize a special moment.
author ::: 1. An originator or creator, one who originates or gives existence to anything. 2. He who gives rise to or causes an action, event, circumstance, state, or condition of things. 3. The composer or writer of a treatise, play, poem, book, etc. authors.
authorises ::: gives permission for, formal approval to; sanctions or approves.
authority ::: the power to enforce laws, exact obedience, command, determine, or judge.
autocracy ::: unlimited authority, power or influence; absolute government. autocracies.
automaton ::: one whose actions are purely involuntary or mechanical; a robot.
autonomy ::: 1. Independence or freedom, as of the will or one"s actions. 2. Self-government. autonomies.
autumnal ::: of, belonging to or suggestive of, autumn.
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.
availed ::: to be of use, value, or advantage; to have the necessary force to accomplishment something.
avenge ::: to inflict a punishment or penalty in return for; take vengeance on behalf of. avenges.
avoid ::: to keep away from; keep clear of; shun; evade.
await ::: to wait for; expect; look for. awaited, awaiting, awaits
awaken ::: fig. To rouse into activity; to stir up, excite; kindle.
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.
axis ::: 1. The pivot on which any matter turns. 2. A straight line about which a body or geometric object rotates or may be conceived to rotate.
babble ::: 1. v. To utter sounds or words imperfectly, indistinctly, or without meaning. 2.* **n. *A murmuring sound or a confusion of sounds.
babel ::: "The reference is to the mythological story of the construction of the Tower of Babel, which appears to be an attempt to explain the diversity of human languages. According to Genesis, the Babylonians wanted to make a name for themselves by building a mighty city and tower ‘with its top in the heavens". God disrupted the work by so confusing the language of the workers that they could no longer understand one another. The tower was never completed and the people were dispersed over the face of the earth.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica) Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works Sri Aurobindo: "The legend of the Tower of Babel speaks of the diversity of tongues as a curse laid on the race; but whatever its disadvantages, and they tend more and more to be minimised by the growth of civilisation and increasing intercourse, it has been rather a blessing than a curse, a gift to mankind rather than a disability laid upon it. The purposeless exaggeration of anything is always an evil, and an excessive pullulation of varying tongues that serve no purpose in the expression of a real diversity of spirit and culture is certainly a stumbling-block rather than a help: but this excess, though it existed in the past, is hardly a possibility of the future. The tendency is rather in the opposite direction. In former times diversity of language helped to create a barrier to knowledge and sympathy, was often made the pretext even of an actual antipathy and tended to a too rigid division. The lack of sufficient interpenetration kept up both a passive want of understanding and a fruitful crop of active misunderstandings. But this was an inevitable evil of a particular stage of growth, an exaggeration of the necessity that then existed for the vigorous development of strongly individualised group-souls in the human race. These disadvantages have not yet been abolished, but with closer intercourse and the growing desire of men and nations for the knowledge of each other"s thought and spirit and personality, they have diminished and tend to diminish more and more and there is no reason why in the end they should not become inoperative.” The Human Cycle
bacchant ::: n. **1. A priest or votary of Bacchus (the god of wine). 2. A drunken reveller. adj. 3. Inclined to revelry. Bacchant.**
bacchic ::: of or relating to Bacchus; drunken and carousing; riotously intoxicated.
background ::: n.** 1. The general scene or surface against which designs, patterns, or figures are represented or viewed. 2. Fig. The complex of physical, cultural, and psychological factors that serves as the environment of an event or experience; the set of conditions against which an occurrence is perceived. backgrounds. adj. 3.** Of, pertaining to, or serving as a background.
backward ::: 1. To, toward or into the past. 2. In or toward a past time. 3. Late in developing, behind; slow, esp. relating to time or progress. far-backward.
balance ::: n. **1. A state of equilibrium or equipoise; mental, psychological or emotional. 2. A weighing device, especially one consisting of a rigid beam horizontally suspended by a low-friction support at its center, with identical weighing pans hung at either end, one of which holds an unknown weight while the effective weight in the other is increased by known amounts until the beam is level and motionless. 3. An undecided or uncertain state in which issues are unresolved. v. 4. To have an equality or equivalence in weight, parts, etc.; be in equilibrium. adj. 5. Being in harmonious or proper arrangement or adjustment, proportion. 6. Mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behaviour, judgement. balanced, balancing.**
bales ::: large bundles of hay or goods (often compressed) bound by ropes or wires for storage or transportation.
banish ::: to drive away, expel. banished.
banner ::: 1. A piece of cloth bearing a motto or legend. 2. A placard carried in a demonstration.
bare ::: v. 1. To make bare; uncover or reveal. 2. Fig. To expose. bared, baring. adj. 3. Lacking clothing or covering; naked 4. Fig. Exposed to view; undisguised. 5. Just sufficient; mere. 6. Lacking embellishment or ornamentation; unembellished; simple; plain. 7. Unprotected; without defence. 8. Devoid of covering, a leafless trees. 9. Sheer, as bare cliffs. heaven-bare, bareness.
bargain ::: an agreement between parties fixing obligations, etc. that each promises to carry out.
bar ::: n. **1. Anything that obstructs or prevents; a barrier. v. 2. To obstruct, prevent, hinder, impede. bars, barred, barring.**
barns ::: a large farm building used for storing farm products and sheltering livestock.
barrels ::: large cylindrical containers, usually made of staves bound together with hoops, with a flat top and bottom of equal diameter.
barricade ::: a structure hastily set up across a route of access to obstruct the passage of an enemy.
barrier ::: 1. Anything built or serving to bar passage. 2. Anything that restrains or obstructs progress, access. 3. A limit or boundary of any kind. barriers, barrier-breakers.
barter ::: to trade goods or services without the exchange of money. bartered.
basks ::: lies in or is exposed (to pleasant warmth or sunshine) basked.
bathe ::: 1. To become immersed in or as if in liquid, as a bath or in other substances or elements. 2. To wash or pour over; suffuse or envelope, like sunshine. bathed, bathing.
battle ::: n. 1. An encounter between opposing forces; armed fighting; combat. v. 3. To fight against. Also fig. 4. To contend, struggle against. 5. To work very hard or struggle; strive. battled.
bays ::: bodies of water partially enclosed by land but with a wide mouth, affording access to the sea.
bay ::: the position or stand of an animal or fugitive that is forced to turn and resist pursuers because it is no longer possible to flee. (preceded by at).
bear ::: 1. To carry. Also fig. 2. To hold up, support. Also fig. 3. To have a tolerance for; endure something with tolerance and patience. 5. To possess, as a quality or characteristic; have in or on. 6. To tend in a course or direction; move; go. 7. To render; afford; give. 8. To produce by natural growth. bears, bore, borne bearing.
bearer ::: one who carries, supports, holds up or brings. torch-bearer, torch-bearers.
bearing witness to, affirming the truth or genuineness of; testifying to, certifying, vouching for. attests.
beast ::: 1. An animal other than a human, especially a large four-footed mammal. 2. Fig. Animal nature as opposed to intellect or spirit. 3. A large wild animal. 4. A domesticated animal used by man. (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.) beast"s, Beast"s, beasts, wild-beast. ::: —the Beast. Applied to the devil and evil spirits.
beat ::: n. 1. A stroke or blow. 2. A regular sound or stroke. 3. The rhythmic contraction and expansion of the arteries with each beat of the heart. 4. A pulsating sound. 5. A forceful flapping of wings. beats, nerve-beat, hammer-beats, heart-beats, heart-beats", moment-beats, rhyme-beats. v. 6. To strike or pound with repeated blows. 7. To shape or break by repeated blows, as metal. 8. To sound in pulsations. 9. To throb rhythmically; pulsate, as the heart. 10. To flap, especially wings. 11. To strike with or as if with a series of violent blows, dash or pound repeatedly against, as waves, wind, etc. beats, beaten, beating. *adj. *sun-beat.
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.
beganst ::: a native English form of the verb, to begin, now only in formal and poetic usage.
begot ::: pt. of beget. 1. Caused to exist or occur; created. 2. Called into being, gave rise to; produced. begotten.
behold ::: v. 1. To perceive by the visual faculty; see. beholds. Interj. **2.** Look; see.
being ::: 1. The state or quality of having existence. 2. The totality of all things that exist. 3. One"s basic or essential nature; self. 4. All the qualities constituting one that exists; the essence. 5. A person; human being. 6. The Divine, the Supreme; God. Being, being"s, Being"s, beings, Beings, beings", earth-being"s, earth-beings, fragment-being, non-being, non-being"s, Non-Being, Non-Being"s, world-being"s.
Sri Aurobindo: "Pure Being is the affirmation by the Unknowable of Itself as the free base of all cosmic existence.” *The Life Divine :::
"The Absolute manifests itself in two terms, a Being and a Becoming. The Being is the fundamental reality; the Becoming is an effectual reality: it is a dynamic power and result, a creative energy and working out of the Being, a constantly persistent yet mutable form, process, outcome of its immutable formless essence.” *The Life Divine
"What is original and eternal for ever in the Divine is the Being, what is developed in consciousness, conditions, forces, forms, etc., by the Divine Power is the Becoming. The eternal Divine is the Being; the universe in Time and all that is apparent in it is a Becoming.” Letters on Yoga
"Being and Becoming, One and Many are both true and are both the same thing: Being is one, Becomings are many; but this simply means that all Becomings are one Being who places Himself variously in the phenomenal movement of His consciousness.” The Upanishads :::
"Our whole apparent life has only a symbolic value & is good & necessary as a becoming; but all becoming has being for its goal & fulfilment & God is the only being.” *Essays Divine and Human
"Our being is a roughly constituted chaos into which we have to introduce the principle of a divine order.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
being, conscious ::: Sri Aurobindo: "We have to conceive one indivisible conscious being behind all our experiences. . . . That is our real self.” *The Life Divine
being, Master of ::: Sri Aurobindo: " Vamadeva goes on to say, "Let us give expression to this secret name of the clarity, — that is to say, let us bring out this Soma wine, this hidden delight of existence; let us hold it in this world-sacrifice by our surrenderings or submissions to Agni, the divine Will or Conscious-Power which is the Master of being.” The Secret of the Veda
beings ::: things or entities that exist, esp. things or entities that cannot be assigned to any category.
belched ::: 1. Erupted or exploded. 2. Expelled gas noisily from the stomach through the mouth.
beleaguer ::: to harass; beset; besiege.
belied ::: shown to be false; contradicted; gave a false representation to; misrepresented.
belief ::: 1. Confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof. 2. Trust or confidence, faith. 3. Something believed; an opinion or conviction. beliefs.
Question: "Sweet Mother, l don"t understand very clearly the difference between faith, belief and confidence.”
Mother: "But Sri Aurobindo has given the full explanation here. If you don"t understand, then. . . He has written ‘Faith is a feeling in the whole being." The whole being, yes. Faith, that"s the whole being at once. He says that belief is something that occurs in the head, that is purely mental; and confidence is quite different. Confidence, one can have confidence in life, trust in the Divine, trust in others, trust in one"s own destiny, that is, one has the feeling that everything is going to help him, to do what he wants to do. Faith is a certitude without any proof. Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 6.
belly ::: 1. The stomach. 2. The inside or interior cavity of something.
belong ::: 1. To be a part of or adjunct. 2. To be the property, attribute, or possession of. belongs.
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.
bend ::: 1. To assume a curved, crooked, or angular form or direction, esp. to bend the body; stoop. 2. Fig. To bow, esp. in reverence. 3. To turn or incline in a particular direction; be directed. bends.
benumbed ::: made (any part of the body) insensible, torpid, or powerless; made numb, deprived of sensation; stupefied or stunned, as by a blow or shock; now mostly used for the effects of cold.
besiege ::: 1. To surround with hostile forces. 2. To crowd around; hem in; crowd in upon; surround. besieged.
bestrides ::: towers over, dominates, as a victor over the fallen.
betray ::: 1. To be false or disloyal to. 2. To lead astray; deceive. 3. To divulge, disclose in a breach of confidence, a secret. 4. To show signs of; reveal; indicate. betrays, betrayed, betraying, moon-betrayed.
betrothal ::: 1. A mutual promise to marry.
bewilder ::: to confuse utterly; puzzle completely. bewildered.
beyond ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The language of the Upanishad makes it strikingly clear that it is no metaphysical abstraction, no void Silence, no indeterminate Absolute which is offered to the soul that aspires, but rather the absolute of all that is possessed by it here in the relative world of its sojourning. All here in the mental is a growing light, consciousness and life; all there in the supramental is an infinite life, light and consciousness. That which is here shadowed, is there found; the incomplete here is there the fulfilled. The Beyond is not an annullation, but a transfiguration of all that we are here in our world of forms; it is sovran Mind of this mind, secret Life of this life, the absolute Sense which supports and justifies our limited senses.” The Upanishads *
bid ::: 1. To invite to attend; summon. 2. To issue a command to; direct. bids.
bind ::: 1. To restrain or confine with or as if with ties. 2. To place (someone) under obligation; oblige. 3. To fasten together. Also fig. **binds, bound, binding.**
binding ::: n. **1. The covering within which the pages of a book are abound. adj. 2.* Fig.* Commanding adherence to a commitment, obligatory.
binding posts ::: stakes, stout poles, columns, or the like, that are set upright in or on the ground; (with prefixed word indicating special purpose).
bindst ::: a native English form of the verb, to bind, now only in formal and poetic usage.
bird ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Bird in the Veda is the symbol, very frequently, of the soul liberated and upsoaring, at other times of energies so liberated and upsoaring, winging upwards towards the heights of our being, winging widely with a free flight, no longer involved in the ordinary limited movement or labouring gallop of the Life-energy, the Horse, Ashwa.” *The Secret of the Veda
birth ::: 1. The act or fact of being born. 2. Fig. The coming into existence of something; origin. Birth, birth"s, births.
bit ::: cut into with or as with a sharp instrument or weapon. Also fig.
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.
blade ::: the flat cutting part of a sharpened weapon or tool. blade"s.
blaspheme ::: to speak in an irreverent, contemptuous or disrespectful manner; curse; (esp. God, a divine being or sacred things).
bleak ::: 1. Exposed to the elements; unsheltered and barren; desolate; cold and cutting; raw, windswept. 2. Offering little or no hope or encouragement.
bless ::: 1. To make holy; sanctify. 2. To invoke or bestow divine favour upon.
blessing ::: 1. Something promoting or contributing to happiness, well-being, or prosperity; a boon. 2. A ceremonial prayer invoking divine protection, grace, etc.
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.
blinkers ::: leather side pieces attached to a horse"s bridle to prevent sideways vision.
blink ::: n. **1. A glance, often with half-shut eyes; a wink. v. 2. To close and open one or both of the eyes rapidly; shut the eyelids momentarily and involuntarily; to wink for an instant. 3. To shut the eyes to; to evade, shirk, pass by, ignore. blinks, blinked.**
block ::: n. 1. A solid piece of a hard substance, such as wood, stone, etc. having one or more flat sides. Also fig. 2. Something that obstructs; an obstacle. blocks. *v. 3. To impede, retard, prevent or obstruct the progress or achievement of (someone or something). Also fig.*
blood-glued ::: in reference to the bloody shirt that stuck to the body of the Centaur.
bloom ::: n. **1. The flower of a plant. 2. Fig. A condition or time of vigour, freshness, and beauty; prime. 3. Fig. Glowing charm; delicate beauty. blooms. v. 4. To bear flowers; to blossom. Also fig. 5. To be in a healthy, glowing, or flourishing condition. 6. To flourish or grow. 7. To cause to flourish or grow; to flourish. Chiefly fig. blooms, bloomed.**
blossom ::: v. 1. To produce or yield flowers. 2. To flourish; develop. blossomed.* *n. 3. The flower of a plant. mango-blossoms.**
blot ::: n. 1. A dark spot or stain. 2. Something likened to a blot that destroys. v. 3. To make obscure; hide. 4. To destroy utterly; annihilate. blotted.
blow ::: to produce a sound or cause to sound as by expelling a current of air.
bodied ::: v. 1. Furnished or provided with a body; embodied. 2. Gave shape to, gave bodily form to, exhibited in outward reality. 3. Represented; symbolized, typified. adj. 4. Possessing or existing in bodily form, endowed with material form. half-bodied, million-bodied, three-bodied, two-bodied.
bodily ::: 1. Physical as opposed to mental or spiritual. 2. Of, relating to, or belonging to the body or the physical nature of man.
bodying ::: giving shape or form to.
"Body is the outward sign and lowest basis of the apparent division which Nature plunging into ignorance and self-nescience makes the starting-point for the recovery of unity by the individual soul, unity even in the midst of the most exaggerated forms of her multiple consciousness.” The Life Divine
bold ::: 1. Fearless and daring; courageous. 2. Clear and distinct to the eye.
bond ::: 1. Something, such as a fetter, cord, or band, that binds, ties, or fastens things together. Also fig. 2. A duty, promise, or other obligation by which one is bound. 3. Something that binds one to a certain circumstance or line of behaviour. 4. A uniting force or tie; a link. 5. A binding agreement; a covenant. bonds.
bondage ::: 1. The state of one who is bound as a slave or serf. 2. A state of subjection to a force, power, or influence.
bondslave ::: a person in a state of slavery; one whose person and liberty are subjected to the authority of a master. bondslaves.
boon ::: 1. A blessing; something to be thankful for. 2. A timely blessing or benefit received in response to a request or prayer. boons.
bordering ::: lying along or adjacent to the edge or border of something; adjoining.
border ::: n. 1. A part that forms the outer edge of something. 2. The line or frontier area separating political divisions or geographic regions; a boundary. 3. A strip of ground, as that at the edge of a garden or walk, an edging. borders. v. 4. To form the boundary of; be contiguous to. fig. To confine. 5. To lie adjacent to another. bordered.
bosom ::: 1. The breast. 2. Something likened to the human breast, such as the bosom of the earth, the sea. 2. The breast, conceived of as the centre of feelings or emotions. 3. Centre of; heart of. bosom"s, bosoms, bosomed, white-bosomed.
boulder ::: a detached and rounded or worn stone, esp. a large one.
bound and –bound ::: 1. Pp. and pt. of bind. *adj. 2. Being under a legal or moral obligation. 3. Circumscribed; kept within bounds. * close-bound, death-bound, earth-bound, fate-bound, form-bound, heart-bound, self-bound, sleep-bound, steel-bound, stone-bound, time-bound, trance-bound.
bound ::: going or intending to go towards; on the way to. heaven-bound.
bound ::: n. 1. A boundary; a limit. bounds, earth-bounds. *v. *2. To constitute the limit of; contain; enclose. bounds.
bound ::: n. **1. A leap; a jump. v. 2.** To spring; leap; to advance with leaps or springs: said both of inanimate and animate objects.
bounteous ::: 1. Giving or inclined to give generously. 2. Plentiful; abundant.
bow ::: a weapon consisting of a curved, flexible strip of material, especially wood, strung taut from end to end and used to launch arrows.
bow ::: to bend (the head, knee, or body) to express greeting, consent, courtesy, acknowledgement, submission, or veneration. bows, bowed.
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.
break down ::: of things fig; To break something into parts.
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.
break in or into ::: to enter with force upon; force one"s way in.
break off ::: to sever anything abruptly; to put an abrupt, end to.
breaks up. ::: 1. Breaks into many parts; divides or become divided into pieces. 2. Dissolves, disbands, puts an end to, gives up; breaks up a house, household, etc.
break ::: v. 1. To destroy by or as if by shattering or crushing. 2. To force or make a way through (a barrier, etc.). 3. To vary or disrupt the uniformity or continuity of. 4. To overcome or put an end to. 5. To destroy or interrupt a regularity, uniformity, continuity, or arrangement of; interrupt. 6. To intrude upon; interrupt a conversation, etc. 7. To discontinue or sever an association, an agreement, or a relationship. **8. To overcome or wear down the spirit, strength, or resistance of. 9. (usually followed by in, into or out). 10. To filter or penetrate as sunlight into a room. 11. To come forth suddenly. 12. To utter suddenly; to express or start to express an emotion, mood, etc. 13. Said of waves, etc. when they dash against an obstacle, or topple over and become surf or broken water in the shallows. 14. To part the surface of water, as a ship or a jumping fish. breaks, broke, broken, breaking.* *n. 15.** An interruption or a disruption in continuity or regularity.
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".
breathe ::: 1. To be alive; live. 2. To take air, oxygen, etc., into the lungs and expel it; inhale and exhale; respire. Also fig. 3. To control the outgoing breath in producing voice and speech sounds. 4. To utter, especially quietly. 5. To make apparent or manifest; express; suggest. 6. To exhale (something); emit. 7. To impart as if by breathing; instil. 8. To move gently or blow lightly, as air. breathes, breathed, breathing. ::: To breathe upon fig. To taint; corrupt.
bribe ::: something, such as money or a favour, offered or given to a person in a position of trust to influence that person"s views or conduct.
bridal ::: of, or pertaining to a bride or a marriage ceremony; nuptial. soul-bridals.
bride ::: 1. A woman who is about to be married or has recently been married. Also fig. 2. The divine creatrix. Bride, brides, earth-bride.
bridegroom ::: a man who is about to be married, or has recently been married.
bridge ::: n. 1. A structure spanning and providing passage over a gap or barrier, such as a river or roadway. bridges, bridge-like. v. 2. To build or provide a bridge over something; span. Also fig. 3. To join by or as if by a bridge; link, connect. bridged, bridging.
brief ::: a memorandum of points of fact or of law for use in conducting a case. (All other references are as: short lived, fleeting, transitory. briefer, brief-lived.)
bright ::: 1. Emitting or reflecting light readily or in large amounts; shining; radiant. 2. Magnificent; glorious. 3. Favourable or auspicious. 4. Fig. Characterized by happiness or gladness; full of promise and hope. 5. Distinct and clear to the mind, etc. 6. Intensely clear and vibrant in tone or quality. 7. Polished; glistening as with brilliant color. brighter, brightest, bright-hued, bright-pinioned, flame-bright, moon-bright, pearl-bright, sun-bright.
brilliant ::: 1. Full of light; shining; lustrous. 2. Of surpassing excellence; splendid; highly impressive; distinguished. 3. Strong and clear in tone; vivid; bright. pale-brilliant.
brimmed ::: referring to the upper edge or rim of anything hollow.
brimming ::: filled to capacity. new-brimming.
bringst ::: a native English form of the verb, to bring, now only in formal and poetic usage.
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.
broken ::: 1. Forcibly separated into two or more pieces; fractured. 2. Crushed in spirit or temper; discouraged; overcome. 3. Incomplete. 4. Interrupted disturbed; disconnected. 5. Torn; ruptured. (Also pp. of break.)
bronze ::: 1. Any of various alloys of copper and tin in various proportions. 2. A moderate yellowish to olive brown color.
brood ::: n. 1. Offspring; progeny; in one family. 2. A breed, species, group, kind or race with common qualities. v. 3. To think deeply on; dwell or meditate upon, contemplate. broods, brooded.
brook ::: to put up with, tolerate. brooked.
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.**
-browed ::: adj. dark-browed, deep-browed, great-browed, Queen-browed. ::: rough-browed. [In this instance, -browed refers to the projecting edge of a cliff or hill.]
"To find highest beauty is to find God; to reveal, to embody, to create, as we say, highest beauty is to bring out of our souls the living image and power of God.” The Human Cycle
bubbling ::: rising to or as if to the surface; emerging forth as with a gurgling sound.
build ::: 1. To construct; erect; lit. and fig. (sometimes with up). 2. To mould, form, create. 3. To found, form or construct (a plan, system, etc.) on a basis. 4. To develop or give form to according to a plant or process; create; construct (something immaterial). builds, built, building.
built ::: pt. and pp. of build. dream-built, high-built, low-built, mind-built, new-built. *adj. *built in. Constructed or included as an integral part of. adj. built-up. Built by the fastening together of several parts or enlarged by the addition of layers.
bundles ::: a group of objects held together, as by tying or wrapping; packages.
burden ::: n. 1. A weight that is to be borne; a load. 2. Something that is emotionally difficult to bear. v. **3. To load or overload. 4.** To oppress; tax; with responsibility, etc.
bureau ::: 1. A chest of drawers, especially a dresser for holding clothes, often with a desk top. 2. An office, usually of large organization, that is responsible for a specific duty such as administration, public business, etc.
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.
burn ::: 1. To be very eager; aflame with activity, as to be on fire. 2. To emit heat or light by as if by combustion; to flame.. 3. To give off light or to glow brightly. 4. To light; a candle; incense, etc.) as an offering. 5. To suffer punishment or death by or as if by fire; put to death by fire. 6. To injure, endanger, or damage with or as if with fire. 7. Fig. To be consumed with strong emotions; be aflame with desire; anger; etc. 8. To shine intensely; to seem to glow as if on fire. burns, burned, burnt, burning.
burning ::: adj. 1. Aflame; on fire. Also fig. 2. Very bright; glowing; luminous. 3. Characterized by intense emotion; passionate. 4. Urgent or crucial. 5. Extremely hot; scorching. 6. Very hot. ever-burning.* *n. 7. The state, process, sensation, or effect of being on fire, burned, or subjected to intense heat. altar-burnings.**
burst ::: 1. Exploded, flew apart with sudden violence. 2. Came forth suddenly and powerfully as if by pressure or internal force. 3. To emerge, come forth, or arrive suddenly. bursting.
bystander ::: one who is present at an event without participating in it; onlooker; spectator.
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
cabined ::: confined in an enclosed space like a cabin. fig. hampered, hindered, impeded, in ability to think or act.
cadence ::: 1. Balanced, rhythmic flow, as of poetry or oratory. 2. Music. A sequence of notes or chords that indicates the momentary or complete end of a composition, section, phrase, etc. 3. The flow or rhythm of events. 4. A recurrent rhythmical series; a flow, esp. the pattern in which something is experienced. 5. A slight falling in pitch of the voice in speaking or reading. cadences.
calamitous ::: disastrous; catastrophic, ruinous; devastating.
calledst ::: a native English form of the verb, to call, now only in formal and poetic usage.
callest ::: a native English form of the verb, to call, now only in formal and poetic usage.
call ::: Sri Aurobindo: "All Yoga is in its nature a new birth; it is a birth out of the ordinary, the mentalised material life of man into a higher spiritual consciousness and a greater and diviner being. No Yoga can be successfully undertaken and followed unless there is a strong awakening to the necessity of that larger spiritual existence. The soul that is called to this deep and vast inward change, may arrive in different ways to the initial departure. It may come to it by its own natural development which has been leading it unconsciously towards the awakening; it may reach it through the influence of a religion or the attraction of a philosophy; it may approach it by a slow illumination or leap to it by a sudden touch or shock; it may be pushed or led to it by the pressure of outward circumstances or by an inward necessity, by a single word that breaks the seals of the mind or by long reflection, by the distant example of one who has trod the path or by contact and daily influence. According to the nature and the circumstances the call will come.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
callst ::: a native English form of the verb, to call, now only in formal and poetic usage.
calm ::: n. 1. Serenity; tranquillity; peace. 2. Nearly or completely motionless as a condition of no wind. Calm, Calm"s, calms, calmness. adj. 3. Not excited or agitated; composed; tranquil; 4. Without rough motion; still or nearly still. calmer, calm-lipped, stone-calm. *adv. calmly.
Sri Aurobindo: "Calm is a still unmoved condition which no disturbance can affect — it is a less negative condition than quiet.” Letters on Yoga*
"Calm is a positive tranquillity which can exist in spite of superficial disturbances.” *Letters on Yoga
"Calm is a strong and positive quietude, firm and solid — ordinary quietude is mere negation, simply the absence of disturbance.” *Letters on Yoga
"But more powerful still is the giving up of the fruit of one"s works, because that immediately destroys all causes of disturbance and brings and preserves automatically an inner calm and peace, and calm and peace are the foundation on which all else becomes perfect and secure in possession by the tranquil spirit.” Essays on the Gita
The Mother: "Calm is self-possessed strength, quiet and conscious energy, mastery of the impulses, control over the unconscious reflexes.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 14*.
camest ::: a native English form of the verb, to come, now only in formal and poetic usage.
camp ::: n. 1. A place where tents, huts, or other temporary shelters are set up, as by soldiers, nomads, or travelers. 2. The people using such shelters. 3. Temporary living quarters for soldiers or prisoners. v. 4. To make or set up a camp. or to live temporarily in or as if in a camp or outdoors. 5. To settle down securely and comfortably; become ensconced. camps, camped.
cam"st ::: a native English contracted form of the verb, to come, now only in formal and poetic usage.
canalise ::: to divert into certain channels; give a certain direction to or provide a certain outlet for, in order to control or regulate. canalises, canalised.
cancel ::: 1. To annul, make void or invalidate. 2. To equalize or make up for; offset. 3. To cross out with lines or other markings, making something invalid. cancels, cancelled, cancelling, self-cancelling.
canto ::: one of the principal divisions of a long poem.
capacity ::: 1. The ability to receive, hold, or absorb. 2. The power to learn or retain knowledge; mental ability.
cap ::: a special head covering worn to indicate rank, occupation, or membership in a particular group.
capital ::: 1. A town or city that is the official seat of government in a political entity, such as a state or nation. 2. Wealth in the form of money or property.
capital stock ::: accumulated wealth, esp. any of various shares of ownership in a business.
capitol ::: 1. A building occupied by a state legislature. 2. A building that is the seat of government. Also fig.
capture ::: 1. To take possession of; to take by force or stratagem; take prisoner; seize. 2. To represent, preserve or record in lasting form, a quality, etc. captures, captured, capturing.
caravan ::: a company of travelers journeying together, as across a desert or through hostile territory. 2. A procession or train likened to a caravan. caravans.
careful ::: 1. Attentive to potential danger, error, or harm; cautious. 2. Exercising caution or showing care or attention to; circumspect.
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.**
caress ::: n. 1. A gentle touch or gesture of fondness, tenderness, or love. v. 2. To touch or stroke lightly in a loving or endearing manner. caressed, caressing.
caricature ::: a grotesque imitation, misrepresentation or distorted image, as a drawing or description of a person which exaggerates characteristic features for comic effect.
carved ::: 1. Divided into pieces by cutting; sliced. 2. Cut or sculpted into a desired shape; fashioned by cutting. 3. Engraved or cut figures. carves, carving, close-carved, star-carved.
carving ::: v. **1. Sculpting into a desired shape. Also fig.* *n. 2. A figure or design produced by carving stone or wood. carving"s.**
casked ::: placed or stored in a sturdy cylindrical container for storing liquids; put in a barrel. Also fig.
cast ::: v. 1. To throw with force; hurl. 2. To form (liquid metal, for example) into a particular shape by pouring into a mould. Also fig. 3. To cause to fall upon something or in a certain direction; send forth. 4. To throw on the ground, as in wrestling. 5. To put or place, esp. hastily or forcibly. 6. To direct (the eye, a glance, etc.) 7. To throw (something) forth or off. 8. To bestow; confer. casts, casting.
catch ::: n. 1. A concealed, unexpected, or unforeseen drawback or handicap. 2. Anything that is caught, esp. something worth catching. v. **3. To take, seize, or capture, esp. after pursuit. 4. To become cognizant or aware of suddenly. 5. To receive. 6. catches, caught, catching.**
cathedral ::: 1. A large and important church of imposing architectural beauty. 2. Of, relating to, or resembling a cathedral.
caul ::: a portion of the amnion (A thin, tough, membranous sac) especially when it covers the head of a foetus at birth.
cause ::: 1. A person or thing that acts, happens, or exists in such a way that some specific thing happens as a result; the producer of an effect. 2. A basis for an action or response; a reason. 3. Grounds for action; motive; justification. 4. Good or sufficient reason. 5. The principle, ideal, goal, or movement to which a person or group is dedicated. Cause.
caution ::: careful forethought to avoid danger or harm.
cave ::: 1. A hollow or natural passage under or into the earth, especially one with an opening to the surface. 2. A hollow in the side of a hill or cliff, or underground of any kind; a cavity. Cave, caves, death-cave, deep-caved, cave-heart.
ceaseless ::: without stop or pause; constant. ceaselessly.
cease ::: v. 1. To come to an end; stop. 2. To put an end to a condition or state of being; discontinue. 3. To come to an end; pass away; no longer exist. ceases, ceased* *n. 4.** Cessation.
cede ::: to yield; grant.
celestial ::: 1. Of or relating to the sky or the heavens. 2. Of or relating to heaven; divine. 3. Heavenly; divine; spiritual. celestials", celestial-human.
cellar ::: an underground shelter, as from storms. cellars.
cell ::: biology: The smallest structural unit of an organism that is capable of independent functioning, consisting of one or more nuclei, cytoplasm, and various organelles, all surrounded by a semipermeable cell membrane. cells.
cessation ::: a ceasing or stopping; discontinuance; pause. cessations.
chain ::: n. 1. A series of things connected or following in succession. 2. Something that binds or restrains. chains. v. 3. Fig. To restrain or confine with or as with a chain.
chain-work ::: handiwork in which parts are looped or woven together like the links of a chain.
challenge ::: 1. A call or summons to engage in a contest, fight, or competition. 2. A demand for explanation or justification; a calling into question. v. **3. To invite; arouse; stimulate; provoke. challenges, challenged, challenging.**
chameleon ::: any of numerous Old World lizards of the family Chamaeleontidae, characterized by the ability to change the colour of their skin, very slow locomotion, and a projectile tongue.
chance ::: n. 1. The absence of any cause of events that can be predicted, understood, or controlled: often personified or treated as a positive agency. 2. The happening of events; the way in which things happen; fortune. 3. An opportune or favourable time; opportunity. 4. Fortune; luck; fate. Chance, chances. *adj.* 5. Not planned or expected; accidental. v. 6. To happen by chance; be the case by chance.** chanced.
chance on, upon or into
changelessness ::: the quality of being unchangeable; having a marked tendency to remain unchanged.
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.
channel ::: n. **1. A course through which something may be transmitted or through which something may be moved or directed onward. 2. The bed of a stream or river, etc. v. 3. To direct or convey something through (or as through) a channel. channels.**
chant ::: n. **1. A short, simple series of syllables or words that are sung on or intoned to the same note or a limited range of notes. 2. A song or melody. v. 3. To sing, especially in the manner of a chant. chants, chanted, chanting, chantings.**
chaos ::: 1. The infinity of space or formless matter supposed to have preceded the existence of the ordered universe. 2. A condition, place, or state of great disorder or confusion. 3. A disorderly mass; a jumble. Chaos.
chapel ::: a place of worship that is smaller than and subordinate to a church.
charade ::: a game in which each syllable of a word, and then the whole word, is acted and the audience has to guess the word.
charge ::: 1. An assigned duty or task; a responsibility given to one. 2. Care; custody. 3. An order, an impetuous onset or attack, command, or injunction. 4. The quantity of anything that a receptacle is intended to hold. v. 5. *Fig. To load to capacity; fill. *charged.
charged ::: 1. Filled; loaded to capacity. 2. Given the responsibility of or for; entrusted.
charity ::: benevolence or generosity toward others or toward humanity.
charlatan ::: one who makes elaborate, fraudulent, and often voluble claims to skill or knowledge; a quack or fraud; a flamboyant deceiver.
charm ::: 1. An action or formula thought to have magical power. 2. A particular quality that attracts; a delight. charms.
chased ::: 1. Followed rapidly in order to catch; overtake; pursued. 2. Put to flight; driven away by force.
chase ::: v. **1. To follow rapidly in order to catch or overtake; pursue. 2. To follow or devote one"s attention to with the hope of attracting, winning, gaining, etc. 3. To put to flight; drive out. ::: —chases, chased.* *n. 3. The act of pursuing in an effort to overtake or capture thunder-chase.**
chastise ::: 1. To discipline or punish, esp. by beating. *v. *2. Purify; refine.
cheat ::: v. 1. To deceive by trickery; swindle. 2. To mislead; fool. n. **3.** A fraud or swindle; a dishonest trick.
check ::: v. 1. To investigate, examine or verify as to correctness; examine carefully or in detail; to ascertain the truth about. 2. To inspect so as to determine accuracy, authenticity, quality, or other condition; test. checked.* n. *3. A person or thing that stops, limits, slows, or restrains.
chemic ::: chemical. ::: cheque ::: a written order, usually on a standard printed form, directing a bank to pay money to a person or designated bearer. cheques.
chequerboard ::: a board on which chess and checkers are played, divided into 64 squares of two alternating colours.
cherish ::: 1. To hold great love for someone; feel love for one. 2. To care for, protect and love —(a person). 3. To cling fondly to (a hope, idea, etc.); nurse. cherished.
chess-play ::: the game of chess; a board game for two players, each beginning with 16 pieces of six kinds that are moved according to individual rules, with the objective of checkmating the opposing king. chess-player.
chiaroscuro ::: 1. The arrangement of light and dark elements in a pictorial work of art. 2. *Poetic*: Contrasting sense as in, darkness and light, ‘joy and gloom", ‘praise and blame," etc.
chill ::: adj. 1. Cold, often unpleasantly so; numbing. 2. Discouraging; dispiriting. 3. Unduly formal; unfriendly; unfeeling. v. 4. To lower in temperature; cool; make cold. 5. Fig. To depress (enthusiasm, etc.); discourage. chilled, chilling.
chime ::: to be in agreement or accord: harmonize; be compatible with.
chipped ::: broke or cut off a small piece or into small pieces with an implement such as an axe, etc. Also fig.
chiselled ::: shaped or cut as with a chisel, a metal tool with a sharp bevelled edge, used to cut and shape stone, wood, or metal. chisels.
choice ::: 1. The act of choosing; selection. 2. The power, right, or liberty to choose; option. 3. A person or thing chosen or that may be chosen.
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.
choosest ::: a native English form of the verb, to choose, now only in formal and poetic usage.
choral ::: of or relating to a chorus or choir.
chrysolites ::: brown or yellow-green olivine found in igneous and metamorphic rocks and used as gemstones such as topaz, etc.
chrysoprase ::: a brittle, translucent, semiprecious chalcedony (q.v.), a variety of the silica mineral quartz. It owes its bright apple-green colour to colloidally dispersed hydrated nickel silicate. Valued in ancient times as it shone in the dark.
cipher ::: n. 1. Something having no influence or value; a zero; a nonentity. 2. A secret method of writing, as by transposition or substitution of letters, specially formed symbols, or the like. unintelligible to all but those possessing the key; a cryptograph. ciphers. *v. 3. To put in secret writing; encode. *ciphers. Note: Sri Aurobindo also spelled the word as Cypher, the old English spelling.
circe ::: 1. In Classical Mythology. the enchantress represented by Homer as turning the companions of Odysseus into swine by means of a magic drink, therefore an alluring but dangerous temptress or temptation.
circean ::: relating to or resembling Circe, the fabled enchantress described by Homer. She was supposed to possess great knowledge of magic and venomous herbs which she offered as a drink to her charmed and fascinated victims who then changed into swine; hence, pleasing, but harmful; fascinating, but degrading.
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.
circumscribe ::: to enclose or restrict within limits; confine. circumscribed, circumscribing.
drawn to; drawn towards.
"First, we affirm an Absolute as the origin and support and secret Reality of all things. The Absolute Reality is indefinable and ineffable by mental thought and mental language; it is self-existent and self-evident to itself, as all absolutes are self-evident, but our mental affirmatives and negatives, whether taken separatively or together, cannot limit or define it.” The Life Divine
"Here we live in an organisation of mortal consciousness which takes the form of a transient world; there we are liberated into the harmonies of an infinite self-seeing which knows all world in the light of the eternal and immortal. The Beyond is our reality; that is our plenitude; that is the absolute satisfaction of our self-existence. It is immortality and it is ‘That Delight".” The Upanishads *beyond
**"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*
"I have said that the Avatar is one who comes to open the Way for humanity to a higher consciousness —. . . .” Letters on Yoga
"I may say that the opening upwards, the ascent into the Light and the subsequent descent into the ordinary consciousness and normal human life is very common as the first decisive experience in the practice of yoga and may very well happen even without the practice of yoga in those who are destined for the spiritual change, especially if there is a dissatisfaction somewhere with the ordinary life and a seeking for something more, greater or better.” Letters on Yoga*
"Indian devotion has especially seized upon the most intimate human relations and made them stepping-stones to the supra-human. God the Guru, God the Master, God the Friend, God the Mother, God the Child, God the Self, each of these experiences — for to us they are more than merely ideas, — it has carried to its extreme possibilities.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"In every particle, atom, molecule, cell of Matter there lives hidden and works unknown all the omniscience of the Eternal and all the omnipotence of the Infinite.” Essays Divine and Human*
". . . 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
"It is a call of the being for higher things — for the Divine, for all that belongs to the higher or Divine Consciousness.” Guidance
". . . [man"s] nature calls for a human intermediary so that he may feel the Divine in something entirely close to his own humanity and sensible in a human influence and example. This call is satisfied by the Divine manifest in a human appearance, the Incarnation, the Avatar. . . .” The Synthesis of Yoga
n. 1. The point, axis, or pivot about which a body rotates. 2. A point, area, or part that is approximately in the middle of a larger area or volume. 3. A person or thing that is a focus of interest or attention. 4. A point of origin. centre"s, centres. v. 5. To focus or bring together. 6. To move towards, mark, put, or be concentrated at or as at a centre. 7. centred. Brought together to a centre, concentrated.
one who is versed in or practices alchemy. Pertaining to one who studies or practises alchemy. alchemist (employed as an adj. by Sri Aurobindo).
positions or postures of the body appropriate to or expressive of an action, emotion.
"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
*Sri Aurobindo: "Action is the first power of life. Nature begins with force and its works which, once conscious in man, become will and its achievements; therefore it is that by turning his action Godwards the life of man best and most surely begins to become divine.” The Synthesis of Yoga
*(Sri Aurobindo: "And finally all is lifted up and taken into the supermind and made a part of the infinitely luminous consciousness, knowledge and experience of the supramental being, the Vijnana Purusha.” The Synthesis of Yoga*) ::: Angel of the House. The guardian spirit of the home.
*Sri Aurobindo: "Aspiration is a call to the Divine.” Letters on Yoga*
Sri Aurobindo: "Birth is the first spiritual mystery of the physical universe, death is the second which gives its double point of perplexity to the mystery of birth; for life, which would otherwise be a self-evident fact of existence, becomes itself a mystery by virtue of these two which seem to be its beginning and its end and yet in a thousand ways betray themselves as neither of these things, but rather intermediate stages in an occult processus of life.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "By aesthesis is meant a reaction of the consciousness, mental and vital and even bodily, which receives a certain element in things, something that can be called their taste, Rasa, which, passing through the mind or sense or both, awakes a vital enjoyment of the taste, Bhoga, and this can again awaken us, awaken even the soul in us to something yet deeper and more fundamental than mere pleasure and enjoyment, to some form of the spirit"s delight of existence, Ananda.” *Letters on Savitri
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: "In the very atom there is a subconscious will and desire which must also be present in all atomic aggregates because they are present in the Force which constitutes the atom.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
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 might be said again that, even so, in Sachchidananda itself at least, above all worlds of manifestation, there could be nothing but the self-awareness of pure existence and consciousness and a pure delight of existence. Or, indeed, this triune being itself might well be only a trinity of original spiritual self-determinations of the Infinite; these too, like all determinations, would cease to exist in the ineffable Absolute. But our position is that these must be inherent truths of the supreme being; their utmost reality must be pre-existent in the Absolute even if they are ineffably other there than what they are in the spiritual mind"s highest possible experience. The Absolute is not a mystery of infinite blankness nor a supreme sum of negations; nothing can manifest that is not justified by some self-power of the original and omnipresent Reality.” The Life Divine
**Sri Aurobindo: [referring to the following lines]
Sri Aurobindo: "The anarchic is the true divine state of man in the end as in the beginning; but in between it would lead us straight to the devil and his kingdom.” Essays Divine and Human*
Sri Aurobindo: "The centres or Chakras are seven in number: ::: The thousand-petalled lotus on the top of the head.
*Sri Aurobindo: "The highest aim of the aesthetic being is to find the Divine through beauty; the highest Art is that which by an inspired use of significant and interpretative form unseals the doors of the spirit.” The Human Cycle etc.*
Sri Aurobindo: "This truth of Karma has been always recognised in the East in one form or else in another; but to the Buddhists belongs the credit of having given to it the clearest and fullest universal enunciation and the most insistent importance. In the West too the idea has constantly recurred, but in external, in fragmentary glimpses, as the recognition of a pragmatic truth of experience, and mostly as an ordered ethical law or fatality set over against the self-will and strength of man: but it was clouded over by other ideas inconsistent with any reign of law, vague ideas of some superior caprice or of some divine jealousy, — that was a notion of the Greeks, — a blind Fate or inscrutable Necessity, Ananke, or, later, the mysterious ways of an arbitrary, though no doubt an all-wise Providence.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga *Ananke"s.
Sri Aurobindo: "We mean by the Absolute something greater than ourselves, greater than the cosmos which we live in, the supreme reality of that transcendent Being which we call God, something without which all that we see or are conscious of as existing, could not have been, could not for a moment remain in existence. Indian thought calls it Brahman, European thought the Absolute because it is a self-existent which is absolved of all bondage to relativities . . . The Absolute is for us the Ineffable.” *The Life Divine
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: "Yes: the purpose is to create a large luminous trailing repetitive movement like the flight of the Bird with its dragon tail of white fire.” *Letters on Savitri
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
Strength is all right for the strong — but aspiration and the Grace answering to it are not altogether myths; they are great realities of the spiritual life.” Letters on Yoga*
(Technically)** **Any of various birds of the family Paradisaeidae, native to New Guinea and adjacent islands, usually having brilliant plumage and long tail feathers in the male.
"The Absolute is in itself indefinable by reason, ineffable to the speech; it has to be approached through experience.” The Life Divine*
the act of hearing or attending; the state of hearing, or of being able to hear.
"The Adversary will disappear only when he is no longer necessary in the world. And we know very well that he is necessary, as the touch-stone for gold: to know if it is pure. But if one is really sincere, the Adversary can"t even approach him any longer; and he doesn"t try it, because that would be courting his own destruction.” Questions and Answers 1955, MCW Vol. 7.
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 comes as the manifestation of the divine nature in the human nature, the apocalypse of its Christhood, Krishnahood, Buddhahood, in order that the human nature may by moulding its principle, thought, feeling, action, being on the lines of that Christhood, Krishnahood, Buddhahood transfigure itself into the divine. The law, the Dharma which the Avatar establishes is given for that purpose chiefly; the Christ, Krishna, Buddha stands in its centre as the gate, he makes through himself the way men shall follow.” Essays on the Gita
"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 child usually signifies the psychic being — new-born in the sense that it at last comes to the surface.” Letters on Yoga
::: "The Conscious Being, Purusha, is the Self as originator, witness, support and lord and enjoyer of the forms and works of Nature.” *The Life Divine
the Divine, the Creator.
"The freedom of the Gita is that of the freeman, the true freedom of the birth into the higher nature, self-existent in its divinity. Whatever he does and however he lives, the free soul lives in the Divine; he is the privileged child of the mansion, bâlavat, who cannot err or fall because all he is and does is full of the Perfect, the All-blissful, the All-loving, the All-beautiful. The kingdom which he enjoys, râjyam samrddham, is a sweet and happy dominion of which it may be said, in the pregnant phrase of the Greek thinker, ``The kingdom is of the child."" Essays on the Gita
::: "The human vital and physical external nature resist to the very end, but if the soul has once heard the call, it arrives, sooner or later.” Letters on Yoga
*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 Mother: "In the physical world, of all things it is beauty that expresses best the Divine. the physical world is the world of form and the perfection of form is beauty. Beauty interprets, expresses, manifests the Eternal. Its role is to put all manifested nature in contact with the Eternal through the perfection of form, through harmony and a sense of the ideal which uplifts and leads towards something higher. On Education, MCW Vol. 12.
::: The Mother: "True art means the expression of beauty in the material world. In a world wholly converted, that is to say, expressing integrally the divine reality, art must serve as the revealer and teacher of this divine beauty in life.” On Education, MCW Vol. 12.
" The natural attitude of the psychic being is to feel itself as the Child, the Son of God, the Bhakta; it is a portion of the Divine, one in essence, but in the dynamics of the manifestation there is always even in identity a difference.” Letters on Yoga
These notes were written apropos of Bergson"s ‘philosophy of change", ‘you" would refer to a proponent of this philosophy.
"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 strings on an apron, used for securing it around one"s person.tie to someone"s apron strings. To make or be dependent on or dominated by someone.
"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*
those who assist, guide, wait upon, accompany, give service or follow another to contribute to the fulfilment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose; subordinate companions.
to come upon by chance; meet unexpectedly.
to draw by appealing by the emotions or senses, by stimulating interest, or by exciting admiration; allure; invite. attracts, attracted, attracting.
transformed or transitioned from one state, condition, or phase to another.
::: "Two are joined together, powers of Truth, powers of Maya, — they have built the Child and given him birth and they nourish his growth.” The Life Divine
"We are not the body, but the body is still something of ourselves. With realisation the erroneous identification ceases — in certain experiences the existence of the body is not felt at all. In the full realisation the body is within us, not we in it, it is an instrumental formation in our wider being, — our consciousness exceeds but also pervades it, — it can be dissolved without our ceasing to be the self.” Letters on Yoga
"We arrive then necessarily at this conclusion that human birth is a term at which the soul must arrive in a long succession of rebirths and that it has had for its previous and preparatory terms in the succession the lower forms of life upon earth; it has passed through the whole chain that life has strung in the physical universe on the basis of the body, the physical principle.” The Life Divine
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1 Koran
1 Kodo Sawaki
1 Kobe Bryant
1 Kaula Tantric Saying. Kaula Hinduism
1 Karl Popper
1 Kaivaiya Upanishad
1 Kahlil Gibran
1 J R R Tolkien
1 Joyce Meyer
1 Josh Billings
1 Jordan B. Peterson
1 Jon J. Muth
1 John Wooden
1 John of the Cross
1 John Neal
1 John Maxwell
1 John F. Kennedy
1 John F Kennedy
1 John 4:8
1 John 20:27-29
1 Job
1 Jim Carrey
1 Jigme Lingpa
1 Jetsun Milarepa
1 Jerry Spinelli
1 Jenna Galbut
1 Jean-Paul Sartre
1 Jean Klein
1 Jean de La Fontaine
1 Jean de La Bruyère
1 Jay Gardner
1 Jane Wagner
1 James Clerk Maxwell
1 Jaggi Vasudev
1 Jacques Maritain
1 Jac O'Keeffe
1 Jack Kerouac
1 Jack Gardner
1 Isaac of Nineveh
1 Iris Murdoch
1 Imitation of Christ
1 Ilyas Kassam
1 Ignatius of Antioch
1 Iggy Pop
1 Hunter S. Thompson
1 Hunt
1 Huineng
1 Hugh of Saint Victor
1 Huang Po
1 Howard Gardner
1 H. Jackson Brown Jr.
1 H G Wells
1 Herman Melville
1 Herman Hesse
1 Herbert McCabe
1 Henry Ford
1 Henri Poincare
1 Henri de Lubac
1 Henri Bergson
1 Henepola Gunaratana
1 Heide Quade
1 Hassidic Rabbi -
1 Harper Lee
1 Hans Christian Andersen
1 Hakuin Ekaku
1 Hafiz
1 Hadith
1 Hadis
1 Guru Rinpoche
1 Gregory of Nazianzen
1 grand are the sky and stars
1 Gottfried Leibniz
1 Gospel of Thomas
1 Goldie Hawn
1 Goerge Orwell
1 Goenka
1 Godard
1 G. J. Gurdjieff
1 Gilbert K. Chesterton
1 Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
1 Germany Kent
1 Gerhard Tersteegen
1 Gerald Jampolsky
1 Geraldine Brooks
1 Gerald Good
1 George Washington
1 Georges Danton
1 George Santayana
1 George MacDonald
1 George A. Moore
1 George?
1 Gary Vaynerchuk
1 Garfield
1 Gampopa
1 Gabor Mate
1 Fumoto Oka 1877-1951
1 Friedrich Von Hugel
1 Frederick Douglass
1 Franz Bardon
1 Francesco Petrarca
1 Fo-shu-hing-tsau-king
1 Federico Garcia Lorca
1 E. W. Dijkstra
1 Everard and Morris
1 Etienne Gilson
1 Ernest Holmes
1 Eric Hoffer
1 Epistle to Diognetus
1 Epicurus
1 Emerald Tablets of Thoth
1 Elder Porphyrios
1 Eknath Easwaran
1 Ejo
1 Eisai
1 Edwin Markham
1 Edward Vernon Rickenbacker
1 Edward Murphy
1 Edgar Cayce
1 Eden Phillipot
1 Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
1 Dr. Seuss
1 Douglas Adams
1 Dogen Zenji?
1 Didache
1 Dhammapada
1 Demophilus
1 Democritus
1 Debbie Millman
1 David Viscott
1 David R Hawkins
1 David Hume
1 David Frost
1 David Bowie
1 David Bohm
1 Dante
1 Dan Brown
1 Dalai Lama XIV
1 Daie
1 C. S. Lewis
1 Crosby
1 Confucius
1 Colossians III. 9
1 Clint Eastwood
1 Cinderella
1 Chuck Close
1 Christ
1 Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche
1 Chogyam Trungpa
1 Chin-Ning Chu
1 Chinese Texts
1 Chi-king
1 Charles R. Swindoll
1 Charles M. Schulz in "Peanuts
1 Charles M. Schulz
1 Charles Baudelaire
1 Cervantes
1 Catullus
1 Catherine of Siena
1 Cassandra Clare
1 Carlyle
1 Carlos Castaneda
1 Callimachus
1 but the mighty shall be mightily put to the test. ...
1 Buson
1 Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
1 Brian Spellman
1 Bossuet
1 Boncho
1 Boethius
1 Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati
1 Bill Wilson
1 Bill Bradley
1 Bhagavad Gita XII. 11
1 Bhagavad Gita 6.30
1 be to other souls
1 Benjamin Disraeli
1 Bauvard
1 Basil the Great
1 Barry Diller
1 Baron de Montesquieu
1 Barbara De Angelis
1 Baltasar Gracian
1 Baisao 1675-1763
1 Baha Ullah
1 Bacon
1 Ayn Rand
1 Averroes
1 Attributed to Lao Tzu
1 Attar of Nishapur
1 Arthur Schopenauer
1 Arnobius of Sicca
1 Aristotle
1 Archimedes
1 Archbishop Desmond Tutu
1 Arakida Moritake
1 Apollonius of Tyana
1 Antoine the Healer
1 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
1 Antoine de Saint-Exupery
1 Antoine de Saint-Exuper
1 Anthony Robbins
1 Anthony Bourdain
1 Anonymous English Monk
1 Anon.
1 Annette Funicello
1 Anne Sullivan
1 Anne Sexton
1 Anne Campbell
1 Annamalai Swami
1 Anita Krizzan
1 Angelus Silesius
1 Andrew Kanegi
1 André Gide
1 Ancient Greek saying.
1 Anaxagoras
1 Ananta
1 Amma
1 Amit Singhal
1 A Midsummer Night's Dream
1 Amelia Earhart
1 Ambrose of Milan
1 Al-Kalabadhi
1 Al-Hallaj
1 Alexis de Tocqueville
1 Alexander the Great
1 Aleksandr Solzlhenitsyn
1 Alan Cohen
1 Walt Whitman
1 Ogawa
1 Kobayashi Issa
1 Jetsun Milarepa
1 Ibn Arabi
1 Chuang Tzu
1 Bodhidharma
1 Aleister Crowley
1 Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
1 African proverb
1 Abu Sa'id.
1 Abu Bakr
1 A.A. Milne
1 17th Karmapa
1 ?
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
87 Anton Wildgans
55 Augosto dos Anjos
44 Toba Beta
43 Anonymous
27 Anne Sexton
23 Plato
22 Jaci Burton
20 Victor Hugo
20 Aristotle
18 Antonio de Castro Alves
14 John Milton
12 Enid Blyton
10 Washington Irving
10 Rick Riordan
10 Leo Tolstoy
10 Horace
10 Álvares de Azevedo
9 John Green
8 William W Johnstone
8 J K Rowling
1:Dust turns to dust. ~ Gurdjieff, #KEYS
2:Be as you wish to seem.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
3:To begin, begin.
~ William Wordsworth,#KEYS
4:Attribute all to the Gods. ~ Archilochus, #KEYS
5:Today is a good day to try." ~ Quasimodo, #KEYS
6:to which we are connected. ~ 17th Karmapa, #KEYS
7:The best is yet to be.
~ Robert Browning,#KEYS
8:to season you. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
9:We murder to dissect. ~ William Wordsworth, #KEYS
10:Pentecost." ~ Our Lady to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, #KEYS
11:To hold a pen is to be at war.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
12:if it is granted to me. ~ Swami Veda Bharati, #KEYS
13:I run from You, to You ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #KEYS
14:To live - is that not enough?" ~ D.T. Suzuki, #KEYS
15:Words belong to each other. ~ Virginia Woolf, #KEYS
16:Overdoing anything leads to sorrow. ~ Valmiki, #KEYS
17:We read to know we are not alone. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
18:Some are born to endless night. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
19:Action is a highroad to self-esteem. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
20:as peace to be spread. ~ Saint Francis of Assisi, #KEYS
21:Laughter is threatening to tyrants. ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
22:Adversity introduces a man to himself." ~ Unknown, #KEYS
23:And justify the ways of God to men. ~ John Milton, #KEYS
24:Beauty awakens the soul to act. ~ Dante Alighieri, #KEYS
25:Listen to this music. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
26:To be awake is to be alive. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #KEYS
27:I know not what to do, my mind is divided ~ Sappho, #KEYS
28:It is all invention. ~ What can they matter to me?, #KEYS
29:Quality is conformance to requirements.
~ Crosby,#KEYS
30:St. Clement of Rom ~ Letter to the Corinthians, 44, #KEYS
31:To be awake is to be alive." ~ Henry David Thoreau, #KEYS
32:To love at all is to be vulnerable." ~ C. S. Lewis, #KEYS
33:To manage quality you must measure it.
~ George?,#KEYS
34:Cheer up, the worst is yet to come. ~ Anne Sullivan, #KEYS
35:Every end is very close to God." ~ Hassidic Rabbi -, #KEYS
36:Zen is an effort to become alert and awake." ~ Osho, #KEYS
37:Always desire to learn something useful. ~ Sophocles, #KEYS
38:Be patient and devoted to your self. ~ Robert Burton, #KEYS
39:It's kind of fun to do the impossible. ~ Walt Disney, #KEYS
40:to be filled with light, and to shine. ~ Mary Oliver, #KEYS
41:To be is to be true. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
42:Too close to touch, too obvious to see. ~ Ken Wilber, #KEYS
43:Whatever is to be your fate - face it!" ~ Abu Sa'id., #KEYS
44:You are conscious. Hold on to it. ~ Sri Nisargadatta, #KEYS
45:Home is everything you can walk to. ~ Jerry Spinelli , #KEYS
46:To little men, gods send little things. ~ Callimachus, #KEYS
47:Always be able to kill your students ~ Masaaki Hatsumi, #KEYS
48:Continue to spur a running horse. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
49:Know or listen to those who know.
~ Baltasar Gracian,#KEYS
50:Zen is nothing to get excited about." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
51:Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud." ~ Maya Angelou, #KEYS
52:even more to him who loves. ~ Saint Lawrence of Brindisi, #KEYS
53:It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.
~ Diogenes,#KEYS
54:Not now, I am trying to read my book! ~ Pino, Ergo Proxy, #KEYS
55:To saints their very slumber is a prayer. ~ Saint Jerome, #KEYS
56:Why fit in when you were born to stand out?" ~ Dr. Seuss, #KEYS
57:you have not even begun to practise Dhamma. ~ Ajahn Chah, #KEYS
58:Try to let Realization of itself arise. ~ Jetsun Milarepa, #KEYS
59:All comes from desiring myself to be happy." ~ Shantideva, #KEYS
60:Always do what you are afraid to do. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
61:Don't be afraid to just sit and watch." ~ Anthony Bourdain, #KEYS
62:Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. ~ John 4:8, #KEYS
63:Help yourself. No one is coming to save you." ~ Noah Kagan, #KEYS
64:If you are too busy to laugh, you are too busy." ~ Proverb, #KEYS
65:If you wished to be loved, love.
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca,#KEYS
66:It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable." ~ Seneca, #KEYS
67:True love gives rise to the eyes of clarity. ~ Tenzin Deva, #KEYS
68:Get rid of the oppression of 'trying to be right'. ~ Ananta, #KEYS
69:I'm smart enough to know that I'm dumb. ~ Richard P Feynman, #KEYS
70:I say nothing to him I love him ~ Saint Thérèse of Lisieux #KEYS
71:Nature loves to hide. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
72:The sleepy like to make excuses. ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #KEYS
73:To dare, and again dare, and forever dare! ~ Georges Danton, #KEYS
74:when you come to a fork in the road, take it
~ Yogi Berra,#KEYS
75:If life is to be sustained, hope must remain. ~ Erik Erikson, #KEYS
76:I sell mirrors to blind people." ~ Kabir, #KEYS
77:It's too late to be ready. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
78:One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
79:To enjoy life we must touch much of it lightly.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
80:What's meant to be will always find a way. ~ Trisha Yearwood, #KEYS
81:Zen practice is to open up our small mind." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
82:Better to see the face than to hear the name.
~ Zen Proverb,#KEYS
83:He wears a mask and his face grows to fit it. ~ George Orwell, #KEYS
84:Lead me from death to immortality. ~ Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, #KEYS
85:Marriage is an adventure, like going to war. ~ G K Chesterton, #KEYS
86:Wise men don't judge - they seek to understand." ~ Wei Wu Wei, #KEYS
87:I come to a world of iron to make a world of gold. ~ Cervantes, #KEYS
88:Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. ~ William Shakespeare, #KEYS
89:The beginning of wisdom is to desire it. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #KEYS
90:The elect are those who dare; woe to the timid! ~ Eliphas Levi, #KEYS
91:The life so short, the craft so long to learn.
~ Hippocrates,#KEYS
92:The possession of wisdom leadeth to true happiness. ~ Porphyry, #KEYS
93:Thou canst not then be false to any man. ~ William Shakespeare, #KEYS
94:To remember you
I carve true words
in stone
~ Ejo,#KEYS
95:Within our impure mind the pure one is to be found." ~ Huineng, #KEYS
96:Don't hate, it's too big a burden to bear. ~ Martin Luther King, #KEYS
97:Hold firmly to your word. ~ Maimonides, #KEYS
98:It is harder to crack prejudice than an atom. ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
99:The most effective way to do it, is to do it." ~ Amelia Earhart, #KEYS
100:The work never finishes; there is no end to this work. ~ Buddha, #KEYS
101:Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you. ~ Spanish Proverb, #KEYS
102:If you wish to write, write. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
103:It is often safer to be in chains than to be free. ~ Franz Kafka, #KEYS
104:Its important to be comfortable with uncertainty.
~ Xiaolu Guo,#KEYS
105:Love means to commit yourself without guarantee. ~ Anne Campbell, #KEYS
106:Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
107:The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.
~ Oscar Wilde,#KEYS
108:To attend to the moment is to attend to eternity.
~ The Kabala,#KEYS
109:To leave the figure or disfigure it. ~ A Midsummer Night's Dream, #KEYS
110:Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming." ~ David Bowie, #KEYS
111:What is to give light must endure the burning.
~ Viktor Frankl,#KEYS
112:Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time." ~ Debbie Millman, #KEYS
113:Grand is the seen, the light, to me ~ grand are the sky and stars, #KEYS
114:Next to love, balance is the most important thing." ~ John Wooden, #KEYS
115:Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss. ~ William Shakespeare, #KEYS
116:To be honest to oneself, and that is very hard to do. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
117:A religion without a goddess is halfway to atheism. ~ Dion Fortune, #KEYS
118:Art is to console those who are broken by life. ~ Vincent van Gogh, #KEYS
119:but that which is contrary to His nature. ~ Saint Ambrose of Milan, #KEYS
120:God is a dark night to man in this life. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
121:The need to be right - the sign of a vulgar mind.
~ Albert Camus,#KEYS
122:The prisoner grows to love his chains. ~ Plato, #KEYS
123:What I aspired to be and was not, comforts me.
~ Robert Browning,#KEYS
124:You can't use an old map to explore a new world. ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
125:You must throw away your bad habits to get good. ~ Masaaki Hatsumi, #KEYS
126:A hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer. ~ Novalis, #KEYS
127:Asses prefer garbage to gold. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
128:Better to shun the bait than struggle in the snare. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
129:Everything that is possible demands to exist.
~ Gottfried Leibniz,#KEYS
130:for You are the only one I want to see. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
131:He wanted to imprison his nameless misery in words. ~ Aldous Huxley, #KEYS
132:Opening to oneself fully is opening to the world. ~ Chogyam Trungpa, #KEYS
133:Rest and be kind, you don't have to prove anything." ~ Jack Kerouac, #KEYS
134:So is unable to see he unity of the Truth." ~ Mahmoūd Shabestarī, #KEYS
135:Sometimes even to live is an act of courage ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca, #KEYS
136:The right way to go easy is to forget the right way...." ~ Zhuangzi, #KEYS
137:Truth leads to righteousness and righteousness to heaven.
~ Hadis,#KEYS
138:We have art in order not to die of the truth. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
139:From now on you must strive to cut out unnecessary ~ Masaaki Hatsumi, #KEYS
140:If you want to be happy, practise it every day ~ Robert Anton Wilson, #KEYS
141:It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one." ~ George Washington, #KEYS
142:It is time now for us to rise from sleep. ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #KEYS
143:Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. ~ Carl Sagan, #KEYS
144:You are never too old to be what you might have been. ~ George Eliot, #KEYS
145:A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree." ~ Spike Milligan, #KEYS
146:At all times it is best to be present to what is before you. ~ Pindar, #KEYS
147:dreadful hour of the great apostasy." ~ Our Lady to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, #KEYS
148:Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely." ~ Buddha, #KEYS
149:Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful. ~ Annette Funicello, #KEYS
150:Since it is all too clear, it takes time to grasp it.
~ Zen Proverb,#KEYS
151:To be truly ignorant, be content with your own knowledge." ~ Zhuangzi, #KEYS
152:To lead the people, walk behind them. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
153:What we give to the poor, we lend to God. ~ Homer, #KEYS
154:Life isn't as serious as the mind makes it out to be." ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
155:The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another. ~ George Eliot, #KEYS
156:When you have something to say, silence is a lie. ~ Jordan B. Peterson, #KEYS
157:All is riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle. ~ R W Emerson, #KEYS
158:As you start to walk out on the way, the way appears. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
159:determination or your dedication to the spiritual life. ~ Bhagavad Gita, #KEYS
160:Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
161:Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to heaven. ~ Saint Pius X, #KEYS
162:I lifted up my hands to find a lamp amidst the darkness. ~ Omar Khayyam, #KEYS
163:I'm just trying to think about the future and not be sad.
~ Elon Musk,#KEYS
164:It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
165:The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it." ~ Richard Bach, #KEYS
166:The desire for wisdom leads us to the Eternal Kingdom. ~ Book of Wisdom, #KEYS
167:... the great apostasy everywhere." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi , #KEYS
168:The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
169:There is nothing impossible to him who will try." ~ Alexander the Great, #KEYS
170:To Him Ramakrishna the World Teacher, my obeisance. ~ SWAMI ABHEDANANDA, #KEYS
171:True friendship ought never to conceal what it thinks.
~ Saint Jerome,#KEYS
172:What is to become of kings in a time without orbs? ~ Sloterdijk, Globes, #KEYS
173:A friend to all is a friend to none. ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
174:Better to sit all night than to go to bed with a dragon.
~ Zen Proverb,#KEYS
175:Do not try to seem wise to others.
~ Epictetus,#KEYS
176:Don't be afraid to start over. You might like your new story." ~ Unknown, #KEYS
177:Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead. ~ Hans Christian Andersen, #KEYS
178:For anything to be done, God has to be present. ~ Anonymous English Monk, #KEYS
179:If you haven't wept deeply, you haven't begun to meditate." ~ Ajahn Chah, #KEYS
180:If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
181:If you want to become full, let yourself be empty. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.22, #KEYS
182:Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values." ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
183:That is all the doing you have to worry about. ~ Saint Jeanne de Chantal, #KEYS
184:The answers are coming.
~ Lilly Wachowski, The Matrix, Morpheus to Neo,#KEYS
185:The solution to your problem is to see who has it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
186:The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. ~ John F Kennedy, #KEYS
187:The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. ~ Walt Disney, #KEYS
188:To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides. ~ David Viscott, #KEYS
189:Anyone able to set aside power is liberated from impotence. ~ Jean Gebser, #KEYS
190:Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions." ~ Seng-ts'an, #KEYS
191:Get better daily. Don't try to get it all done in a day." ~ Shane Parrish, #KEYS
192:God is the answer to every question.
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, [T5],#KEYS
193:If God be with us, there is no one else left to fear. ~ Saint Philip Neri, #KEYS
194:Jesus is with me. I have nothing to fear. ~ Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, #KEYS
195:More words count less. Hold fast to the center. ~ Tao Te Ching, chapter 5, #KEYS
196:Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
197:Not being able to see any problem is itself a problem.
~ Shigeru Mizuno,#KEYS
198:Sometimes it is a good choice not to choose at all. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #KEYS
199:The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil. ~ Cicero, #KEYS
200:To find our real being and know it truly is to acquire wisdom. ~ Porphyry, #KEYS
201:Allow a fool to be a fool, that he may become wise.
~ Mike Higginbotham?,#KEYS
202:Am I allowed to ask my book / whether it's true I wrote it? ~ Pablo Neruda, #KEYS
203:and the heart to comprehend.. ~ Makeda, Queen of Sheba. For full poem see:, #KEYS
204:Come what may, all bad fortune is to be conquered by endurance.
~ Virgil,#KEYS
205:Confession of our faults is the next thing to innocence. ~ Publilius Syrus, #KEYS
206:Education serves to keep people idiotic and manipulable. ~ Claudio Naranjo, #KEYS
207:Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.
~ Pema Chodron,#KEYS
208:In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
~ Diogenes,#KEYS
209:One should use common words to say uncommon things
~ Arthur Schopenhauer,#KEYS
210:Peace of mind comes from not wanting to change others." ~ Gerald Jampolsky, #KEYS
211:Religion is to mysticism what popularization is to science ~ Henri Bergson, #KEYS
212:To live effectively is to live with adequate information. ~ Norbert Wiener, #KEYS
213:To me He is the anguish of my heart. ~ SONG from GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, #KEYS
214:To see things in the seed, that is genius. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
215:Unless we agree to suffer we cannot be free from suffering." ~ D.T. Suzuki, #KEYS
216:A true philosopher is married to wisdom; he needs no other bride. ~ Proclus, #KEYS
217:God is a comedian playing to an audience that is afraid to laugh. ~ Voltaire #KEYS
218:I have known uncertainty: a state unknown to the Greeks. ~ Jorge Luis Borge, #KEYS
219:I love those who do not know how to live for today.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
220:Knowledge and ability were tools, not things to show off. ~ Haruki Murakami, #KEYS
221:The artist belongs to his work, not the work to the artist. ~ Novalis, [T5], #KEYS
222:The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
223:The person attempting to travel two roads at once will get nowhere. ~ Xunzi, #KEYS
224:We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #KEYS
225:We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect. ~ Anaïs Nin, #KEYS
226:You don't have to be worthy; you only have to be willing. ~ Saint Padre Pio, #KEYS
227:Be faithful to the Divine and you will enjoy a constant peace. ~ MOTHER MIRA, #KEYS
228:Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
229:Doubting is the biggest insult to Divinity. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
230:Every emotion has its opposite. To be free, must transcend both. ~ Gurdjieff, #KEYS
231:If God did not exist, it would be necessary for us to invent Him. ~ Voltaire, #KEYS
232:If you want to give God a good laugh, tell Him your plans. ~ Yiddish Proverb, #KEYS
233:I know being loved is nothing. To love instead is everything. ~ Herman Hesse, #KEYS
234:I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
235:I want you to know that you deserve the best. You're beautiful." ~ Lil Wayne, #KEYS
236:Paradox is simply the way nonduality looks to the mental level. ~ Ken Wilber, #KEYS
237:The fastest way to freedom is to feel your feelings." ~ Gita Bellin, Source:, #KEYS
238:The first and best victory is to conquer self.
~ Plato,#KEYS
239:Things that mattered To me before, Suddenly ceased To matter." ~ Suzy Kassem, #KEYS
240:What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
241:Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law. ~ Boethius, #KEYS
242:Why does God allow evil in the world? To thicken the plot. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
243:Fixation is the way to death. Fluidity is the way to life. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
244:Go to the root of it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
245:Have confidence in your ability to make the best of anything." ~ Ryan Holiday, #KEYS
246:He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
247:I haven't learned how to confront a problem by avoiding it." ~ Brian Spellman, #KEYS
248:It's better to see God in everything than to try to figure it out. ~ Ram Dass, #KEYS
249:Life is like photography: use the negatives to develop positives.
~ Unknown,#KEYS
250:Man's greatest wisdom is to choose his obsession well.
~ Eliphas Levi, [T5],#KEYS
251:Sorrow is like a precious treasure, shown only to friends." ~ African proverb, #KEYS
252:Stress is caused by being 'here' but wanting to be 'there.' " ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
253:Swinish gluttony n'er looks to heaven, amid his gorgeous feast. ~ John Milton, #KEYS
254: The fastest way to freedom is to feel your feelings." ~ Gita Bellin, Source:, #KEYS
255:The friend of silence comes close to God. ~ Saint John Climacus, (579-649 AD), #KEYS
256:To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
257:Trust your Self, then you will know how to live. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
258:What is important is to spread confusion, not eliminate it.
~ Salvador Dali,#KEYS
259:And the need to win, drains his power. ~ Thomas Merton. "The Way Of Chuang Tzu, #KEYS
260:Any organization created out of fear must create fear to survive. ~ Bill Hicks, #KEYS
261:Discipline must conform to the nature of things in their suchness. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
262:Do not let your precious movements come to naught. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
263:If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself. ~ Rick Riordan, #KEYS
264:If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else." ~ Booker T. Washington, #KEYS
265:I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. ~ Sarah Williams, #KEYS
266:I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.
~ Buddha,#KEYS
267:It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged. ~ G K Chesterton, #KEYS
268:It is the duty of the steward to induce higher centers to be present. ~ Robert, #KEYS
269:I want to know God's thoughts - the rest are mere details.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
270:My only prayer is to be firm in my determination in pursuing the truth. ~ Daie, #KEYS
271:No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. ~ C.S. Lewis #KEYS
272:Prepare your mind to receive the best that life has to offer." ~ Ernest Holmes, #KEYS
273:That is all the doing you have to worry about. ~ Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, #KEYS
274:The path to success is to take massive, determined action.
~ Anthony Robbins,#KEYS
275:To protect you. ~ Hafiz, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
276:When inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it. ~ Sigmund Freud, #KEYS
277:You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
278:You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension. ~ Nikola Tesla, #KEYS
279:Any God that I can understand is too small a God for me to believe in." ~ Anon., #KEYS
280:but few to take part in His fasting. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
281:Do not fear going forward slowly; fear only to stand still.
~ Chinese Proverb,#KEYS
282:Don't fear failure...in great attempts it is glorious even to fail. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
283:Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
284:Even if God did not exist it would continue to be sacred
~ Charles Baudelaire,#KEYS
285:If one has faith one has nothing to fear. ~ SONG from GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, #KEYS
286:If you want to become full,
let yourself be empty.
~ Tao Te Ching, ch.22,#KEYS
287:I love God: I have no time left In which to hate the devil. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
288:I much prefer people who rock the boat to people who jump out.
~ Orson Welles,#KEYS
289:I want to die, even though I don't have to. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
290:Life is the flight of the alone to the alone. ~ Plotinus, #KEYS
291:Once we know our weaknesses they cease to do us any harm. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
292:One loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them." ~ Masanobu Fukuoka, #KEYS
293:Only awakening and what leads to awakening has a value in reality." ~ Gurdjieff, #KEYS
294:Our fate lives within us; you only have to be brave enough to see it." ~ Merida, #KEYS
295:Set the mind right and not attempt to right the world. ~ Swami Ramakrishnananda, #KEYS
296:Some people read only because they are too lazy to think. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
297:Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane. ~ Philip K. Dick, #KEYS
298:The best way to cheer yourself is to cheer somebody else up." ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
299:The moment we want to be something, we are no longer free. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
300:The secret of the enjoyment of pleasure is to know when to stop.
~ Alan Watts,#KEYS
301:To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short." ~ Confucius, #KEYS
302:To win any battle, you must fight as if you are already dead ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
303:Truth makes you rise to new heights, no matter where you are." ~ Kamal Ravikant, #KEYS
304:What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
305:Whatever arises, simply do not cling to it, but immediately let it go. ~ Niguma, #KEYS
306:When you could do anything, what you decide to do is important
~ Neal R Voron,#KEYS
307:You become what you give your attention to. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
308:An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.
~ Baron de Montesquieu,#KEYS
309:Doubts will cease only when the non-self is put an end to. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
310:For us who strive to follow. May I reach That purest heaven, ~ be to other souls, #KEYS
311:How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. ~ A.A. Milne, #KEYS
312:I quote others only in order the better to express myself. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #KEYS
313:It is not enough to try, you must succeed. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
314:Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #KEYS
315:One can't build little white picket fences to keep nightmares out. ~ Anne Sexton, #KEYS
316:One has to do something new in order to see something new. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
317:The complete woman tears you to pieces when she loves you. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
318:There is no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves." ~ Frank Herbert, #KEYS
319:The remedy against want is to moderate your desires. ~ Saadi, #KEYS
320:The wind gives me Enough fallen leaves To make a fire. ~ Taigu Ryokan, 1758-1831, #KEYS
321:The wind gives me enough fallen leaves to make a fire. ~ Taigu Ryokan, 1758-1831, #KEYS
322:To be an object of attraction for all women, you must desire none ~ Eliphas Levi, #KEYS
323:To see God is to be God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
324:Whoever wants to become a Christian must first become a poet. ~ Elder Porphyrios, #KEYS
325:You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." ~ C.S. Lewis, #KEYS
326:For he who leaps into the void owes no explanation to those who watch.
~ Godard,#KEYS
327:He bids fair to grow wise who has discovered that he is not so. ~ Publilius Syrus, #KEYS
328:I dream. Sometimes I think that's the only right thing to do.
~ Haruki Murakami,#KEYS
329:My own thoughts are struggling against me. Why am I drawn to the bait? ~ Petrarca, #KEYS
330:Nobody has a right to speak more clearly than he thinks. ~ Alfred North Whitehead #KEYS
331:One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.
~ Martin Luther King Jr.,#KEYS
332:Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.
~ C S Lewis,#KEYS
333:The process that goes on inside you is not apparent to you. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
334:There is nothing to fear. The Master will lead you by the hand. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
335:Things that are holy are revealed only to men who are holy. ~ Hippocrates, Law, V, #KEYS
336:Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ~ George Santayana, #KEYS
337:To disregard [the angels] destroys the balance of the universe." ~ Etienne Gilson, #KEYS
338:To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
339:We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full. ~ Marcel Proust, #KEYS
340:When the gods want to punish us, they grant our desires." ~ Ancient Greek saying., #KEYS
341:A First Sign of the Beginning of Understanding is the Wish to Die.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
342:Be careful what you tolerate. You are teaching people how to treat you." ~ Unknown, #KEYS
343:Be like a postage stamp, stick to one thing until you get there.
~ Josh Billings,#KEYS
344:Distrust those in whom the desire to punish is strong ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
345:If you want to find God, hang out in the space between your thoughts. ~ Alan Cohen, #KEYS
346:I guess ill have to start a company, cause I cant get a job anywhere
~ Elon Musk,#KEYS
347:I'm in love with cities I've never been to and people I've never met. ~ John Green, #KEYS
348:Is it not the same distance to God everywhere? ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
349:Our words are a faithful index to the state of our souls. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #KEYS
350:Recognize what is before you and what is hidden shall be revealed to you. ~ Christ, #KEYS
351:The true state of things is not to be found in one direction alone. ~ Dogen Zenji?, #KEYS
352:Whatever you do to find your Self will take your attention from it. ~ Jac O'Keeffe, #KEYS
353:work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion ~ Parkinson's Law, #KEYS
354:You can, you should, and if you're brave enough to start, you will. ~ Stephen King, #KEYS
355:you can, you should, and if you're brave enough to start, you will. ~ Stephen King, #KEYS
356:A successful book cannot afford to be more than ten percent new. ~ Marshall McLuhan, #KEYS
357:Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
358:Do not despise the bottom rungs in the ascent to greatness. ~ Publilius Syrus, [T5], #KEYS
359:How much better is it to weep at joy, than to joy at weeping? ~ William Shakespeare, #KEYS
360:I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then. ~ Lewis Carroll, #KEYS
361:It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. ~ Herman Melville, #KEYS
362:It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.
~ Soren Kierkegaard, [T5],#KEYS
363:Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." ~ Charles R. Swindoll, #KEYS
364:Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
365:Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind. ~ John F. Kennedy, #KEYS
366:The golden rule is, to help those we love to escape from us." ~ Friedrich Von Hugel, #KEYS
367:The morning breezes have secrets to tell; don't go back to sleep. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
368:The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again. ~ Charles Dickens, [T5], #KEYS
369:The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. ~ Ayn Rand, #KEYS
370:To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god. ~ Jorge Luis Borge, #KEYS
371:To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
372:to have faith is precisely to lose one's mind so as to win God. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #KEYS
373:To practice magic is to be a quack; to know magic is to be a sage.
~ Eliphas Levi,#KEYS
374:Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value. ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
375:And if she had appeared, would I have dared to speak to her?
~ Marcel Proust, [T5],#KEYS
376:Blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of the truth.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
377:But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.
~ Albert Camus,#KEYS
378:Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.
~ Khalil Gibran,#KEYS
379:Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
380:Give your weakness to one who helps. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
381:I and my Father are one. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, The Gospel According to John, 10:30, #KEYS
382:If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable.
~ Seneca,#KEYS
383:It is better to confess your sins than to harden your heart. ~ Saint Clement of Rome, #KEYS
384:It is more Important to be of pure intention than of perfect action." ~ Ilyas Kassam, #KEYS
385:Knowledge belongs to the very essence of God, if at all God has an essence. ~ Hermes, #KEYS
386:Make intelligent use of the Muses as an aid to the soul. ~ Plato, #KEYS
387:Meditation: There is nothing to do. It is about undoing
~ Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche,#KEYS
388:Now is the time to be heroic.
~ The Mother, Agenda Vol 13,#KEYS
389:point of being poured out upon the entire world." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi, #KEYS
390:Should you desire the great tranquility prepare to sweat white beads. ~ Hakuin Ekaku, #KEYS
391:Tea is the elixir of life. ~ Eisai, Kissa Yojoki How to Stay Healthy by Drinking Tea, #KEYS
392:Time management is a misnomer, the challenge is to manage ourselves. ~ Stephen Covey, #KEYS
393:Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye. ~ Bill Hicks, #KEYS
394:Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer,#KEYS
395:Individuals should be enabled to achieve the best that is in them.
~ Howard Gardner,#KEYS
396:Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know." ~ Pema Chödrön, #KEYS
397:Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
398:Real silence means there is actually nowhere else for the mind to go. ~ Anandamayi Ma, #KEYS
399:The root of all desires is the one desire: to come home, to be at peace. ~ Jean Klein, #KEYS
400:To praise God in our lives means all we do must be for his glory. ~ Arnobius of Sicca, #KEYS
401:A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. ~ Italo Calvino, #KEYS
402:A true artist is someone who gives birth to a new reality. ~ Plato, #KEYS
403:But is there something where God used to be? ~ Iris Murdoch, The Message to the Planet, #KEYS
404:Glory to Thee O Lord, victor over all obstacles. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
405:He who knows how to suffer everything can dare everything.
~ Marquis de Vauvenargues,#KEYS
406:If Truth isn't right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?" ~ Zen Saying, #KEYS
407:It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." ~ Frederick Douglass, #KEYS
408:It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
409:It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the truth.
~ Blaise Pascal,#KEYS
410:No praise for me in this or that,
all praise to You in both. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya,#KEYS
411:The first thing you'll have to do, is the last thing you wished. ~ Edward Murphy, [T5], #KEYS
412:The only serious question in life is whether to kill yourself or not.
~ Albert Camus,#KEYS
413:The secret of success is… to be fully awake to everything about you. ~ LeRoy Pollock, #KEYS
414:Think of patience as an act of being open to whatever comes your way." ~ Lodro Rinzler, #KEYS
415:To be free is nothing, to become free is everything.
~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel,#KEYS
416:To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind.
~ T Gantier,#KEYS
417:Where the press is free, and everyone is able to read, all is safe. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #KEYS
418:As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live." ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
419:Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.
~ Seneca, [T5],#KEYS
420:Do not become caught in the teaching. You must be able to let it go." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #KEYS
421:Do yourself what you wish others to do. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
422:Everything that is happening to me is a challenge to have insight into it ~ Jean Gebser, #KEYS
423:For to know a man's library is, in some measure, to know his mind.
~ Geraldine Brooks,#KEYS
424:How can anything be said to be real which is only a passing show? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
425:I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things. ~ Vincent van Gogh, #KEYS
426:I am who I am and I have the need to be. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, #KEYS
427:Little science takes you away from God but more of it takes you to Him. ~ Louis Pasteur, #KEYS
428:Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive.
~ Hafiz,#KEYS
429:The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless." ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
430:These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb." ~ Najwa Zebian, #KEYS
431:This Agenda... is my gift to those who love me.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
432:To be full of light is the aim. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
433:To be still is not to think.
Know, and not think, is the word. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi,#KEYS
434:We who think we are about to die will laugh at anything. ~ Terry Pratchett, Night Watch, #KEYS
435:What allows us to be human is something daemonic. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
436:Dostoevsky,the only psychologist from whom I've anything to learn. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
437:I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. ~ Vincent van Gogh, #KEYS
438:Inspiration is for amateurs ~ the rest of us just show up and get to work. ~ Chuck Close, #KEYS
439:It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not. ~ André Gide, #KEYS
440:I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose. ~ Stephen King, #KEYS
441:Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #KEYS
442:No man liveth to himself. ~ St. Paul, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
443:One of the goals of education should be to teach that life is precious. ~ Abraham Maslow, #KEYS
444:One ought not to act and speak like people asleep. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
445:Pride alienates man from heaven, humility unites us to heaven. ~ Saint Bridget of Sweden, #KEYS
446:Seeing into darkness is clarity. Knowing how to yield is strength. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.52, #KEYS
447:Seek to be the purple thread in the long white gown. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
448:So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you. ~ Paulo Coelho, #KEYS
449:The name of the Ancient and most Holy is unknowable to all and inaccessible. ~ The Zohar, #KEYS
450:The only way to see far is to see what is near...to see what is present. ~ Robert Burton, #KEYS
451:to be fragrant. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
452:To God all things are beautiful and good and just. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
453:To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss." ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
454:To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program. ~ Alan Perlis, #KEYS
455:Ultimate understanding is that there is no one to understand anything. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
456:Where there's a will there's a way
To him that will, ways are not wanting
~ Proverb,#KEYS
457:An evil enemy will burn his own nation to the ground... to rule over the ashes. ~ Sun Tzu, #KEYS
458:Do not wait for leaders, do it alone, person to person. ~ Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, #KEYS
459:God is our name for the last generalization to which we can arrive. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
460:I am yours. Don't give myself back to me. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
461:It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. ~ Winston Churchill, #KEYS
462:It is better for a man to confess his sins than to harden his heart. ~ Pope St. Clement I, #KEYS
463:It is easy to believe we are each waves, and forget we are also the ocean." ~ Jon J. Muth, #KEYS
464:Love has no boundary, and will never cease to grow as we add light to light. ~ Philokalia, #KEYS
465:Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
~ Mark Twain,#KEYS
466:Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.
~ George Orwell, 1984,#KEYS
467:Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful." ~ Zig Ziglar, #KEYS
468:The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
469:The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
470:There is no road to Heaven but that of Innocence or Penance. ~ Saint Cajetan, (1480-1547), #KEYS
471:The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party. ~ William James, #KEYS
472:To know how to criticize is good, to know how to create is better. (417) ~ Henri Poincare, #KEYS
473:To whom do I give my new elegant little book? Cui dono lepidum novum libellum? ~ Catullus, #KEYS
474:We should be excited about the future and striving to go beyond the horizon." ~ Elon Musk, #KEYS
475:Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in." ~ Bill Bradley, #KEYS
476:Do not listen to those who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious ~ Og Mandino, #KEYS
477:How joyful to look upon the awakened and to keep company with the wise. ~ Buddhist Proverb, #KEYS
478:If someone claims to have free will, ask them, free from precisely what? ~ Peter J Carroll, #KEYS
479:If we are to make reality endurable, we must all nourish a fantasy or two. ~ Marcel Proust, #KEYS
480:It is better to be the child of God than king of the whole world. ~ Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, #KEYS
481:It is Itself that which was and that which is yet to be, the Eternal. ~ Kaivaiya Upanishad, #KEYS
482:It is the duty of every man to uphold the dignity of every woman." ~ Pope St. John Paul II, #KEYS
483:Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light. ~ John Milton, Paradise Lost, #KEYS
484:No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.
~ Carl Jung,#KEYS
485:Only memories of Father and Mother come to my mind in late autumn. ~ Yosa Buson, 1716-1784, #KEYS
486:The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, #KEYS
487:The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #KEYS
488:This is what is hardest: to close the open hand because one loves.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
489:To pardon the oppressor is to deal harshly with the oppressed. ~ Saadi, #KEYS
490:To rank the effort above the prize may be called love. ~ Confucius, #KEYS
491:To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." ~ Bill Wilson, #KEYS
492:to use this knowledge for the welfare of others." ~ "The Rosicrucian Manuscripts.", (2012), #KEYS
493:What you wish others to do, do yourselves. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
494:Abundance of knowledge does not teach men to be wise. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
495:Hard to animals, hard to men. ~ Proverb, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
496:I don't want to be a genius, I have enough problems just trying to be a man. ~ Albert Camus, #KEYS
497:If you wish to be good, first believe that you are bad. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
498:It is harder to fight pleasure than to fight emotion. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
499:It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #KEYS
500:Life is like an ice-cream cone, you have to lick it one day at a time." ~ Charles M. Schulz, #KEYS
501:Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
502:No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen. ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
503:Silence is not confined to the tongue but concerns the heart and all the limbs." ~ Abu Bakr, #KEYS
504:The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
505:The poor have much to teach you. You have much to learn from them." ~ Saint Vincent de Paul, #KEYS
506:The purpose of the work is to cast the enemy out of the pastures of the heart. ~ Philokalia, #KEYS
507:There is nothing to be gained anew. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
508:The winds of grace blow all the time. All we need to do is set our sails. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
509:They wanted to be nouns, but they were, and eternally must be, mere adjectives. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
510:Try to enjoy the great festival of life with other men! ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
511:What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other? ~ George Eliot, #KEYS
512:Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose." ~ Lyndon B. Johnson, #KEYS
513:After developing aspiration to awaken One should make a great effort to deepen it. ~ Gampopa, #KEYS
514:All loves should be simply stepping stones to the love of God.
~ Plato,#KEYS
515:A man is always devoted to something more tangible than a woman - the idea of her. ~ Bauvard, #KEYS
516:Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it at every moment.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
517:For the thirst to possess your love,
Is worth my blood a hundred times. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#KEYS
518:grant it to others too." ~ Yunus Emre, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
519:He who is self-conceited has no superiority allowed to him." ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
520:He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands." ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #KEYS
521:I came to this earth so that I could find my way back to my Beloved (God). ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
522:It is enough to pay attention to what is before one's eyes, that is, to the present. ~ Dante, #KEYS
523:It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.
~ Benjamin Franklin,#KEYS
524:Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer,#KEYS
525:Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a new direction." ~ Germany Kent, #KEYS
526:One needs a vision of the promised land in order to have the strength to move. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
527:Prefer enduring satisfaction to immediate gratification. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
528:The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
529:The greater the power that deigns to serve you, the more honor it demands of you. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
530:The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
531:The path that leads to truth is littered with the bodies of the ignorant. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
532:The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times. ~ Paulo Coelho, #KEYS
533:The true measure of loving God is to love Him without measure." ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #KEYS
534:To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
~ Henry David Thoreau, [T5],#KEYS
535:To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.~ Lewis B Smedes, #KEYS
536:To the blue lotus flower of Mother Syama's feet. . . . ~ SONG from GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, #KEYS
537:We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life.
~ Edwin Markham,#KEYS
538:Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use." ~ Thomas J. Watson, #KEYS
539:Workaholics are addicted to activity; super-achievers are committed to results.
~ Garfield,#KEYS
540:You have to be yourself otherwise people won't know who you are. ~ Saint Catherine of Sweden, #KEYS
541:Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough." ~ Og Mandino, #KEYS
542:Faithfulness is the antidote to bitterness and confusion. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
543:If it can be destroyed by the Truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the Truth.
~ Carl Sagan,#KEYS
544:Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
545:Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. ~ Albert Camus, #KEYS
546:Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry. ~ Cassandra Clare, #KEYS
547:Raise your heart to a happier state, towards that great good that never cheats us. ~ Petrarch, #KEYS
548:Successful people do the things that unsuccessful people are unwilling to do." ~ John Maxwell, #KEYS
549:The conquering of self is truly greater than were one to conquer many worlds.
~ Edgar Cayce,#KEYS
550:The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #KEYS
551:The man least dependent upon the morrow goes to meet the morrow most cheerfully.
~ Epicurus,#KEYS
552:The purpose of thinking is to let the ideas die instead of us dying. ~ Alfred North Whitehead #KEYS
553:There is no such thing as freedom of choice unless there is freedom to refuse.
~ David Hume,#KEYS
554:Those who are not good to others are bad to themselves. ~ Saint Leo the Great, (Died: 461 AD), #KEYS
555:To become what one is, one must have not the faintest idea what one is. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
556:To set up what you like against what you dislike, this is the disease of the mind." ~ Sengcan, #KEYS
557:when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk to bloom." ~ Anaïs Nin, #KEYS
558:While God waits for his temple to be built of love,
Men bring stones. ~ Rabindranath Tagore,#KEYS
559:And if you are not a bird, then beware of coming to rest above an abyss. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
560:Everything that happens to you is a form of instruction if you pay attention." ~ Robert Greene, #KEYS
561:Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
~ Henry Ford,#KEYS
562:Holy silence allows us to hear the voice of God more clearly. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
563:If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself. ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
564:If you do not let go of what binds you to samsara, you will never be free. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
565:I have decided to stick to love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr., #KEYS
566:Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
567:Love moves without an agenda. It just moves because that is its nature - to move. ~ Adyashanti, #KEYS
568:Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself. ~ George Bernard Shaw, #KEYS
569:No permanence is ours. We are a wave that flows to fit whatever form it finds. ~ Hermann Hesse, #KEYS
570:No permanence is ours; we are a wave that flows to fit whatever form it finds. ~ Hermann Hesse, #KEYS
571:Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
572:Recognize what is before you and what is hidden shall be revealed to you.
~ Gospel of Thomas,#KEYS
573:Tell him to live by yes and no - yes to everything good, no to everything bad. ~ William James, #KEYS
574:The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, On the Beatitudes, #KEYS
575:The Guru is the mediator. He takes man to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
576:The problem is not to find the answer, it's to face the answer ~ Terence McKenna, [T5], #KEYS
577:The real meaning of detachment is to be separated inwardly from what is unreal. ~ Al-Kalabadhi, #KEYS
578:... they all contributed to the work of the destruction." ~ Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich , #KEYS
579:To be really sorry for one's errors is like opening the door of heaven.
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan,#KEYS
580:To me one man is worth ten thousand if he is first-rate. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
581:We're in a world now where it's not enough to be smart. You have to be curious. ~ Barry Diller, #KEYS
582:What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #KEYS
583:'"Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'" ~ Revelation 3:21-22, #KEYS
584:Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 119:105, #KEYS
585:All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
586:Descending from the head to the Heart is the beginning of spiritual life. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
587:Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are. ~ Niccolò Machiavelli, #KEYS
588:Faith that is allergic to questioning is just fundamentalist blind dogma. ~ Taigen Dan Leighton, #KEYS
589:If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. ~ Carl Sagan, #KEYS
590:Leave the thought-free state to itself. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
591:Lie not one to another. ~ Colossians III. 9, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
592:My father used to say, Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument. ~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu, #KEYS
593:Our glory lies where we cease to exist. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
594:Perhaps the greatest risk any of us will ever take is to be seen as we really are. ~ Cinderella, #KEYS
595:Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.
~ Lowell,#KEYS
596:The depth of learning is in direct relation to the intensity of the experience. ~ Robert Monroe, #KEYS
597:The most delightful surprise in life is to suddenly recognise your own worth.
~ Maxwell Maltz,#KEYS
598:The worst pain a man can suffer is to have insight into much and power over nothing ~ Herodotus, #KEYS
599:We ascend to the heights of contemplation by the steps of the active life. ~ Pope St. Gregory I, #KEYS
600:What is destined to happen will happen. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
601:What is the use of a realization that fails to reduce your disturbing emotions? ~ Guru Rinpoche, #KEYS
602:You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life." ~ Whitman, #KEYS
603:You think you are the mind, therefore you ask how it is to be controlled. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
604:Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger. ~ J R R Tolkien, #KEYS
605:Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #KEYS
606:Everything that irritates us about others can lead to an understanding of ourselves. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
607:Extreme longing is the surest way to God-vision. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
608:How I long to see among dawn flowers, the face of God. ~ Matsuo Basho, #KEYS
609:I do not allow others to influence my thinking unless it is positive or uplifting." ~ Louise Hay, #KEYS
610:If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito." ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
611:If you want to know who controls you, look at who you are not allowed to criticize.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
612:If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
613:It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth." ~ Alexis de Tocqueville, #KEYS
614:It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.
~ Diogenes,#KEYS
615:Life is a piece of music, and you're supposed to be dancing. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
616:Lovers whisper to God ! ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
617:My religion is to live and die without regret.
~ Jetsun Milarepa,#KEYS
618:... rending asunder the precious bond of their mutual Love." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi , #KEYS
619:The aim is to make the mind one-pointed. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
620:The greatest glory we can give to God is to do his will in everything. ~ Saint Alphonsus Liguori, #KEYS
621:To say eternal is to say universal. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
622:To see things for what they are is to see with the eyes of the vastness itself." ~ Suzanne Segal, #KEYS
623:Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
624:We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #KEYS
625:What we have to learn to do we learn by doing. . .
~ Aristotle, Ethics,#KEYS
626:When we can no longer change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. ~ Viktor Frankl, #KEYS
627:You can never awaken using the same system that put you to sleep in the first place. ~ Gurdjieff, #KEYS
628:Your capacity to say No determines your capacity to say Yes to greater things.
~ Stanley Jones,#KEYS
629:Be willing to be a beginner every single morning. ~ Meister Eckhart, #KEYS
630:Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, #KEYS
631:Do you want to know my secret? This is my secret. I don't mind what happens. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
632:Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
633:I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #KEYS
634:If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
635:I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times but somehow I am still in love with life. ~ Voltaire, #KEYS
636:I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know? ~ Ernest Hemingway, #KEYS
637:It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
638:The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him. ~ Arthur Schopenauer, #KEYS
639:The only offering you can make to God is your increasing awareness. ~ Lalla, trans. Coleman Barks #KEYS
640:The "secret" to "luck" is sheer persistence. Don't make it harder than that." ~ Preethi Kasireddy, #KEYS
641:Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.
~ Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,#KEYS
642:To be outspoken is easy when you do not wait to speak the complete truth.
~ Rabindranath Tagore,#KEYS
643:To find the Beloved, you must become the Beloved. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
644:Tonglen is a way for you to be with people who need you - beginning with yourself. ~ Pema Chodron, #KEYS
645:To see a light, no other light is needed. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
646:Whatsoever things were written afore time, were written for our learning. ~ Epistle to the Romans, #KEYS
647:When you over value compliments you become vulnerable to insults and judgment." ~ Gary Vaynerchuk, #KEYS
648:A new day is coming, the magnificent day of radiant beauty when I return to myself. ~ Quetzalcoatl, #KEYS
649:An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself. ~ Charles Dickens, #KEYS
650:Even truth needs to be clad in new garments if it is to appeal to a new age. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
651:Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. ~ Pablo Picasso, #KEYS
652:Everything that deceives may be said to enchant. ~ Plato, Republic, III, 413-C, #KEYS
653:For the lowly may be pardoned out of mercy ~ but the mighty shall be mightily put to the test. ..., #KEYS
654:If any man hopes to do a deed without God's knowledge, he errs. ~ Pindar, Olympian Odes, I, l. 104, #KEYS
655:If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
~ Abraham Maslow,#KEYS
656:I require of you no more than to look. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #KEYS
657:Man's first duty is to conquer fear. ~ Carlyle, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
658:Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one's own self.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
659:No aids are needed to know one's own Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
660:No effort is needed to remain as the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
661:Normality is a paved road: it's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it. ~ Vincent van Gogh, #KEYS
662:One description of faith involves letting go of our resistance to receiving. ~ Taigen Dan Leighton, #KEYS
663:o not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #KEYS
664:Pain doesn't last. And when it's gone, we have something to show for it. Growth." ~ Kamal Ravikant, #KEYS
665:Remember that the devil has only one door by which to enter the soul: the will." ~ Saint Padre Pio, #KEYS
666:She refused to be consoled" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Mt. 2:18)., #KEYS
667:The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Exodus, 14:14, #KEYS
668:To be full of light is the aim. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks, 70, #KEYS
669:To dare is to lose ones footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.
~ Soren Kierkegaard,#KEYS
670:We all have the right to ask for Grace
~ Swami Vivekananda, [T6],#KEYS
671:We must first live well if we are to philosophize well. ~ W Norris Clarke, The Universe as Journey, #KEYS
672:We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
673:When one does nothing, nothing is left undone." ~ Attributed to Lao Tzu, as well as Hindu sources., #KEYS
674:Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it." ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
675:A library is the first step of a thousand journeys, portal to a thousand worlds. ~ Orson Scott Card, #KEYS
676:All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.
~ Blaise Pascal, [T5],#KEYS
677:Be content and live within your heart-deep inside - it is the only way to have peace. ~ MOTHER MIRA, #KEYS
678:Emptiness is bound to bloom, like hundreds of grasses blossoming. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
679:How long will you keep pounding on an open door Begging for someone to open it? ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
680:I don't hold on to anything, don't reject anything; nowhere an obstacle or conflict." ~ Layman Pang, #KEYS
681:If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
682:It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 118:8, #KEYS
683:It is needful to watch over oneself. ~ Chu-King, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
684:Learn how to read the love letters send by the wind and rain, the snow and moon. ~ Ikkyu, 1394-1481, #KEYS
685:Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world. ~ Voltaire, #KEYS
686:Never lie; for to lie is infamous. ~ Zendavesta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
687:Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.
~ Pablo Picasso, [T5],#KEYS
688:Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting." ~ Joyce Meyer, #KEYS
689:Sit immovably in the place where being superior or inferior to others doesn't matter. ~ Kodo Sawaki, #KEYS
690:The book which most deserved to be banned would be a catalog of banned books. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
691:There is no better way to exercise the imagination than the study of the law. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
692:To have wisdom is worth more than pearls. ~ Job, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
693:ubject thyself to thee. ~ Bhagavad Gita XII. 11, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
694:What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ John Green, #KEYS
695:When the world pushes you to your knees, you are in the perfect position to pray. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
696:Wisdom is a thing vast and grand. She demands all the time that one can consecrate to her. ~ Seneca, #KEYS
697:Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
698:A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
699:All work is sadhana. Sadhana is our attempt to get to Him through every action. ~ Swami Akhandananda, #KEYS
700:Blake encourages us to fully engage our imagination in questioning of reality. ~ Taigen Dan Leighton, #KEYS
701:But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? (Luke 1:43) ~ Saint Elizabeth, #KEYS
702:Chase realities not dreams." ~ Jay Gardner, "I Wish I Was the Person I'm Pretending to Be,", (2008)., #KEYS
703:Do not cling to the experience of emptiness, and appearances will purify themselves. ~ Yeshe Tsogyal, #KEYS
704:Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.15, #KEYS
705:Every living being longs always to be happy. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
706:He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.
~ Epictetus,#KEYS
707:If you ask for yourself what you deny to others, your asking is a mockery. ~ Saint Peter Chrysologus, #KEYS
708:Knowledge does not come to us by details, but in flashes of light from heaven. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #KEYS
709:Knowledge leads to unity and ignorance to diversity. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
710:Learn to use them and fly." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
711:Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.
~ Benjamin Disraeli,#KEYS
712:Sometimes thinking is like talking to another person, but that person is also you. ~ Terry Pratchett, #KEYS
713:The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence." ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
714:The heart of man is, so to speak, the paradise of God." ~ Saint Alphonsus Marie Liguori, (1696-1787), #KEYS
715:The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
~ Sophocles,#KEYS
716:Then when a situation comes, you can to an extent, depend on your inner voice. ~ Swami Chinmayananda, #KEYS
717:The Self you seek to know is truly yourself. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
718:The vagaries of life though painful teach us not to cling to this floating world. ~ Ikkyu, 1394-1481, #KEYS
719:The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher. ~ Buddhist Proverb, #KEYS
720:Thou belongest to the divine world. ~ Baha-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
721:We are born from a quiet sleep and we die to a calm awakening. ~ Chuang Tzu, #KEYS
722:We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training. ~ Archilochus, #KEYS
723:We use what we are and have, to know; and what we know, to be and have still more. ~ Maurice Blondel, #KEYS
724:When the world wearies, and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the Garden. ~ Minnie Aumonier, #KEYS
725:Who are the true philosophers? Those whose passion is to love the truth. ~ Plato, #KEYS
726:You carry all the ingredients to turn your existence into joy. Mix them. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
727:You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
728:You shall confess your sins in the church and not go to your prayer with a bad conscience. ~ Didache, #KEYS
729:A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul." ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
730:Do not be trapped by the need to achieve anything. This way, you achieve everything." ~ Frank Herbert, #KEYS
731:Don't engage in idle conversations; it never profits anyone to talk too much. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
732:Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings must be loved to be known." ~ Blaise Pascal, #KEYS
733:I call you back to yourself. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
734:In fact, it is more correct to say that Truth is God, than to say that God is Truth. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
735:In the end, everyone must come to Arunachala. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
736:Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" ~ Lucy Maud Montgomery, #KEYS
737:It is unrealistc to expect people to see you as you see yourself. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
738:It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God - but to create him.
~ Arthur C Clarke,#KEYS
739:Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
740:People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul.
~ Carl Jung,#KEYS
741:Receptivity is proportionate to self-giving. ~ The Mother, Some Answers, S10, #KEYS
742:There is nothing the devil fears so much, or so much tries to hinder, as prayer." ~ Saint Philip Neri, #KEYS
743:Thoroughly conscious ignorance is the prelude to every real advance in science. ~ James Clerk Maxwell, #KEYS
744:To believe is to think with assent. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
745:To see more is to become more. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
746:To think is to move in the Infinite. ~ Lacordaire, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
747:When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you." ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
748:You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul. ~ George Bernard Shaw, #KEYS
749:A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him. " ~ Aleksandr Solzlhenitsyn, #KEYS
750:And seeing ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. ~ Shakespeare, #KEYS
751:An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of revelation.
~ William James,#KEYS
752:Don't forget to enjoy the life you're living instead of just living the life you've got." ~ Sue Aikens, #KEYS
753:Enlightened enquiry alone leads to Liberation. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
754:Give the mind to studies and the heart to God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
755:In order to be effective truth must penetrate like an arrow - and that is likely to hurt. ~ Wei Wu Wei, #KEYS
756:It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
757:Let us make up for lost time. Let us give to God the time that remains to us. ~ Saint Alphonsus Liguori #KEYS
758:One of the most common ways of not acknowledging our faults is to blame others. ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, #KEYS
759:Our works are of no value if they be not united to the merits of Jesus Christ. ~ Saint Teresa of Jesus, #KEYS
760:Tell yourself what you want to be, then act your part accordingly. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
761:The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained. ~ David Bohm, #KEYS
762:The purpose of one's life is fulfilled only when one is able to give joy to another. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
763:To desire with one's very soul every second of every day to accomplish one's aim. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
764:To see God is the one goal. Power is not the goal. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
765:True appreciation of his own value will make a man really indifferent to insult. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #KEYS
766:True knowledge leads to unity, ignorance to diversity. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
767:What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
~ Aristotle,#KEYS
768:absent of the Gods
it all goes to ruin
fallen leaves ~ Matsuo Basho,#KEYS
769:A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it." ~ George A. Moore, #KEYS
770:A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity. [Letter to Max Brod, July 5, 1922]
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
771:A sobering thought: what if, at this very moment, I am living up to my full potential?.
~ Jane Wagner,#KEYS
772:Cease to be a knower, then there is perfection. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
773:Confident people fail all the time. You just need to have the confidence to keep trying." ~ Mel Robbins, #KEYS
774:For you and I both have in our lives some people whom we find it pretty hard to love. ~ Mother Angelica, #KEYS
775:Give not thy heart over to anxieties. ~ Mahabharara, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
776:If you don't know how to say no, your body will say it for you through physical illnesses. ~ Gabor Mate, #KEYS
777:I'm not ashamed to dress 'like a woman' because I don't think it's shameful to be a woman.
~ Iggy Pop,#KEYS
778:Intelligence is not the ability to store information, but to know where to find it.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
779:It is difficult to fight with an enemy who longs more for battle than for victory. ~ Francesco Petrarca, #KEYS
780:I've often lost myself, in order to find the burn that keeps everything awake
~ Federico Garcia Lorca,#KEYS
781:picking
the nameless flower
I offer it to buddha ~ Santoka Taneda,#KEYS
782:Put up willingly with the faults of others if you wish others to put up with yours." ~ Saint John Bosco, #KEYS
783:Teach thy tongue to say 'I do not know,' and thou shalt progress. ~ Maimonides, #KEYS
784:The Avatars are to God what the waves are to the ocean. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
785:The milk of Divine Love stems to us from God incarnate. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
786:The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
787:There is a gentle thought that often springs to life in me, because it speaks of you. ~ Dante Alighieri, #KEYS
788:The risk of not deciding is often the greatest of all risks to the organization.
~ Everard and Morris,#KEYS
789:Turn all things to honey; this is the law of divine living. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
790:Whatever sentence will bear to be read twice, we may be sure was thought twice.
~ Henry David Thoreau,#KEYS
791:When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.
~ John Muir,#KEYS
792:When you tell a lie often enough, you become unable to distinguish it from the truth. ~ Jordan Peterson, #KEYS
793:Within your own house dwells the treasury of joy; so why do you go begging door to door." ~ Sufi saying, #KEYS
794:You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over." ~ Richard Branson, #KEYS
795:Your duty is to Be, and not to be this or that. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
796:A fallen blossom returning to the bough, I thought -- But no, a butterfly. ~ Arakida Moritake, 1473-1549, #KEYS
797:All wisdom is one: to understand the spirit that rules all by all. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
798:Before you heal someone, ask him if he's willing to give up the things that made him sick. ~ Hippocrates, #KEYS
799:For those who allow their mind to wander here and there, everything will go wrong. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
800:If you want people to believe in God, let people see what God can make you like.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
801:I'll be with you to meet all difficulties-you can be sure of that. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
802:It is impossible to have complete control over the world. Control your mind instead. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
803:I will no longer mutilate and destroy myself in order to find a secret behind the ruins. ~ Hermann Hesse, #KEYS
804:Know that the greatest service that man can offer to God is to help convert souls." ~ Saint Rose of Lima, #KEYS
805:Let us net give ourselves up to excesses. ~ Chi-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
806:Nothing ever comes to one that is worth having, except as a result of hard work." ~ Booker T. Washington, #KEYS
807:The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. There's only one moment for you to live." ~ Buddha, #KEYS
808: The worst form of inequality is trying to make unequal things equal ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
809:Throughout this life, you can never be certain of living long enough to take another breath." ~ Huang Po, #KEYS
810:'To change one's life: 1. Start immediately. 2. Do it flamboyantly. 3. No exceptions.'
~ William James,#KEYS
811:Whoever wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ~ Mark 8, 34, #KEYS
812:Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
813:You want to see God in all, but not in yourself? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
814:A good teacher must be able to put himself in the place of those who find learning hard.
~ Eliphas Levi,#KEYS
815:But call Him by what name you will; for to those who know, He is the possessor of all names. ~ Baha-ullah, #KEYS
816:But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 Corinthians, 6:17, #KEYS
817:Catch yourself every time you start thinking. Keep remembering to catch yourself thinking. ~ Robert Adams, #KEYS
818:Compassion is the key to the ultimate survival of our species." ~ Doug Dillon, American author, etc. See:, #KEYS
819:For the man who is beautiful is beautiful to see but the good man will at once also beautiful be ~ Sappho, #KEYS
820:Gentleness and simple faith are the roads to the kingdom. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
821:Greatness is the courage to overcome obstacles.
~ David R Hawkins, Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender,#KEYS
822:How touching To exist after the storm Chrysanthemum. ~ Matsuo Basho, 1644-1694, #KEYS
823:If you try to change it, you will ruin it. If you try to hold it, you will lose it. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.29, #KEYS
824:If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily." ~ Gerald Good, #KEYS
825:It is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it. ~ Hunter S. Thompson, #KEYS
826:It is the supermind we have to bring down, manifest, realise. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
827:It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
~ Epictetus,#KEYS
828:It's wonderful to know you're aging, because that means you're still on the planet, right?" ~ Goldie Hawn, #KEYS
829:It would not be better if things happened to men just as they wish. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
830:Life always waits for some crisis to occur before revealing itself at its most brilliant." ~ Paulo Coelho, #KEYS
831:Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose.
~ Leonardo da Vinci,#KEYS
832:Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it. ~ Kahlil Gibran, #KEYS
833:Our duty is to fall down and adore where others only bow. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
834:Presence is designed to be forever; great patience is required to crystallize this state. ~ Robert Burton, #KEYS
835:Sing such a song with all of your heart that you'll never have to sing again. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
836:The only intelligent tactical response to life's horror is to laugh defiantly at it
~ Soren Kierkegaard,#KEYS
837:This is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge but no power. ~ Herodotus, Histories, IX, 16, #KEYS
838:This world is like the shore and the World to Come like the ocean ~ Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, (RaMCHaL), #KEYS
839:To read means to borrow; to create out of one's readings is paying off one's debts. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
840:We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. ~ C S Lewis, The Abolition of Man (1943), #KEYS
841:We should never use the truth to wound. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
842:We speak to God when we pray; we listen to Him when we read the Scriptures. ~ Saint Ambrose, [T5], #KEYS
843:You must learn to master a new way to think before you can master a new way to be." ~ Marianne Williamson, #KEYS
844:Every infinity... is made finite to God. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
845:Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams." ~ Henry David Thoreau, #KEYS
846:he future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #KEYS
847:I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying. ~ Woody Allen, #KEYS
848:If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
~ Epictetus,#KEYS
849:I never give answers. I lead on from one question to another. That is my leadership. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #KEYS
850:It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light." ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
851:It is easy to talk religion, but difficult to practice it. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
852:It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
853:The difficulties are for the strong, and help to make them stronger. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
854:The moment I decided to let them have their way, the irritation disappeared.
~ Osho, The Book of Secrets,#KEYS
855:The truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits. ~ Albert Camus, The Plague, #KEYS
856:The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
857:To get to know a person more deeply, don't ask them what they think, but what they love. ~ Claudio Naranjo, #KEYS
858:True strength is to have power over oneself. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
859:We have to have a purpose greater than the endless struggle to satisfy personal desires. ~ Eknath Easwaran, #KEYS
860:What message is needed when heart speaks to heart? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
861:Who is there that would refuse anything to others? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
862:You have seen the imagination in its very unreality, and you have returned from it to reality. ~ Al-Hallaj, #KEYS
863:You want to see God in all, but not in yourself?
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi,#KEYS
864:Devotion to duty is the highest form of worship of God. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
865:Good and bad I bid farewell to the departing year. ~ Kobayashi Issa, 1763-1828, #KEYS
866:[Heraclitus] concluded that coming-to-be itself could not be anything evil or unjust. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
867:Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive it isn't." ~ Richard Bach, #KEYS
868:If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
869:It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.
~ Napoleon Hill,#KEYS
870:It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
871:Learn to see, and then you'll know that there is no end to the new worlds of our vision. ~ Carlos Castaneda, #KEYS
872:Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." ~ Winston Churchill, #KEYS
873:The business of the Christian is nothing else than to be ever preparing for death. ~ Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, #KEYS
874:The external is an internal raised to the level of mystery - maybe it is also the other way round ~ Novalis, #KEYS
875:Theoretical knowledge has no end. Take to heart and practice what you have learned. ~ Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, #KEYS
876:The Self cannot be found in books. You have to find it for yourself, within yourself. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
877:To have more, you must first be more. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
878:To remain quiet is to resolve the mind in the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
879:Verily, I say to thee; he who seeks the Eternal, finds Him. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
880:We must be humble and reverent when face to face with the source of enlightenment. ~ Chinese Texts, I Ching, #KEYS
881:Whatever a man does, good or evil, comes back to him someday. And he pays for everything. ~ Valmiki Jayanti, #KEYS
882:When I start to write, I don't have any plan at all. I just wait for the story to come.
~ Haruki Murakami,#KEYS
883:You must accept your cross; if you carry it courageously, it will carry you to heaven. ~ Saint John Vianney, #KEYS
884:... Your body, a temple of the Spirit, is being degraded and profaned." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi , #KEYS
885:Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.
~ William S Burroughs,#KEYS
886:Ah, well yes if you want to play yourself you can, everyone is a character in the tales of time
~ Sine.wav,#KEYS
887:All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.
~ Ernest Hemingway,#KEYS
888:Awake, eyes closed I listen........that faintness- must be winter rain begun to fall. ~ Fumoto Oka 1877-1951, #KEYS
889:Beside each believer stands an Angel as protector and shepherd, leading him to life. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
890:Closeness to the Divine will always grow with the growth of consciousness, equanimity and love. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
891:Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, #KEYS
892:From Brahma to a blade of grass all things are my Gurus." ~ Kaula Tantric Saying. Kaula Hinduism, Wikipedia., #KEYS
893:God is nearer to you than anything else, yet by the screen of egotism, you cannot see Him. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
894:How to see God? To see Him is to be consumed by Him. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
895:If they're on fire and you have water, then you can sell it to them. ~ Jordan Peterson, Personality Lectures, #KEYS
896:It is by loving and not by being loved that one can come nearest to the soul of another." ~ George MacDonald, #KEYS
897:Learn to call me in your dreams - and you will see the result.
~ The Mother, [T5],#KEYS
898:Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others. ~ William Allen White, #KEYS
899:Magick is the art of causing changes in consciousness to occur in accordance with the will.
~ Dion Fortune,#KEYS
900:Man is in the process of changing to forms of light that are not of this world.
~ Emerald Tablets of Thoth,#KEYS
901:One cannot come to know the natures of things if he is still ignorant of their names. ~ Hugh of Saint Victor, #KEYS
902:Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem, in my opinion, to characterize our age.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
903:Prayer is the unfolding of our will to God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, 3.21.1, #KEYS
904:That way a thorn expands to a rose. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
905:The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure ~ Joseph Campbell, #KEYS
906:The happiness of the drop is to die in the river. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
907:The heart preparing to receive the Holy Eucharist should be like a crystal vase. ~ Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, #KEYS
908:To rest in God is the enlightenment and sanctification of everything. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, De Potentia iv, #KEYS
909:True philosophy entails learning to see the world anew. ~ Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, #KEYS
910:What you wish others to do, do yourselves. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
911:You must be extreme to reach the supreme
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,#KEYS
912:A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind." ~ John Neal, #KEYS
913:All that is born, is corrupted to be born again. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
914:Any effort that has self-glorification as its final endpoint is bound to end in disaster." ~ Robert M. Pirsig, #KEYS
915:Depression is your avatar telling you it's tired of being the character you're trying to play.
~ Jim Carrey,#KEYS
916:Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. ~ Bertrand Russell, #KEYS
917:How can the heart travel to God, when it is chained by its desires? ~ Ibn Arabi, [T5], #KEYS
918:How disorienting and isolating immortality must be, and how strong he must be to weather it. ~ Michael Talbot, #KEYS
919:If you are slain in battle, you should be resolved to have your corpse facing the enemy. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
920:Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hatred, and hatred leads to violence. This is the equation. ~ Averroes, #KEYS
921:It is only when we realize that life is taking us nowhere that it begins to have meaning. ~ Mr. Ouspensky🕊, #KEYS
922:Let us never forget that if we wish to die like the saints we must live like them." ~ Saint Théodore Guérin, #KEYS
923:Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else. ~ Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, #KEYS
924:Nothing is as dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is to be preferred. ~ Jean de La Fontaine, Fables, #KEYS
925:Not that which is difficult to His power, but that which is contrary to His nature." ~ Saint Ambrose of Milan, #KEYS
926:No, you've already made the choice. Now you have to understand it. - The Oracle ~ Lilly Wachowski, The Matrix, #KEYS
927:Poetic Knowledge is as natural to the spirit of man as the return of the bird to his nest. ~ Jacques Maritain, #KEYS
928:Science and religion are not at odds. Science is simply too young to understand. ~ Dan Brown, Angels & Demons #KEYS
929:The aim of all practices is to give up all practices. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
930:The only atonement for a wrong thing done is to do the right thing on the next occasion. ~ Nolini Kanta Gupta, #KEYS
931:The sword has to be more than a simple weapon; it has to be an answer to life's questions. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
932:To begin is the most important part of any quest and by far the most courageous." ~ Plato, #KEYS
933:To renounce one's self is not to renounce life. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
934:To the servant of God, every place is the right place, and every time is the right time. ~ Catherine of Siena, #KEYS
935:We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves. ~ Malcolm X, #KEYS
936:What does it take to become a saint? Will it. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, [T5], #KEYS
937:You are but an appearance, and not absolutely the thing you appear to be. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
938:You're not yet Socrates, but you can still live as if you want to be him. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
939:you too are this sky
No reason to distinguish.
For all the stars flow through your veins. ~ Jean Gebser,#KEYS
940:A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. ~ Italo Calvino, The Uses of Literature, #KEYS
941:All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
942:All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. ~ Blaise Pascal, Pensées, #KEYS
943:Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.
~ Stephen King, On Writing,#KEYS
944:Awakening begins when a man realizes that he is going nowhere and does not know where to go. ~ G. J. Gurdjieff, #KEYS
945:Don't listen to the person who has the answers; listen to the person who has the questions
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
946:For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #KEYS
947:He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 91, 11 #KEYS
948:How can we manage to illuminate the pathos of our lives?
~ Jorge Luis Borges,#KEYS
949:It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
950:It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
951:Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 8:58, #KEYS
952:Know that, by nature, every creature seeks to become like God. ~ Meister Eckhart, #KEYS
953:Let's go out to see the snow view where we slip and fall. ~ Matsuo Basho, 1644-1694, #KEYS
954:Mathematics reveals its secrets only to those who approach it with pure love, for its own beauty. ~ Archimedes, #KEYS
955:No one really wants to hear your opinion, they want to hear THEIR opinion coming out of your mouth." ~ Unknown, #KEYS
956:Now it is time to work instead of living in uncertainty and passing one's time heedlessly. ~ Attar of Nishapur, #KEYS
957:Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
958:Reading is an activity subsequent to writing: more resigned, more civil, more intellectual. ~ Jorge Luis Borge, #KEYS
959:The desire to know God and to love Him cannot be considered a desire in the ordinary sense. ~ SWAMI PREMANANDA, #KEYS
960:The goat shall carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place..
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Leviticus, 16:22,#KEYS
961:There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #KEYS
962:To every man is given a key to the gates of heaven. The same key opens the gates of hell.
~ Buddhist Proverb,#KEYS
963:Totally to renounce one's self is to become God. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
964:When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. ~ John Muir, #KEYS
965:You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
966:All you have to do then is to comm and yourselves. ~ Cicero, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
967:A truth can walk naked, but a lie always needs to be dressed.
~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#KEYS
968:Disgust appears to be triggered by objects or people who possess attributes that signify disease.
~ Wikipedia,#KEYS
969:Earnest efforts never fail. Success is bound to result. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
970:First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
~ Epictetus,#KEYS
971:God is love, and it is proper for love to love and to expand in love. ~ Sergius Bulgakov, The Lamb of God (120), #KEYS
972:He must be good to animals, yet better to men. ~ Baha Ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
973:He who holds on to the Lord, even when afflicted by sufferings, will certainly attain to Him. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
974:I am going through the pangs of being born. Do not stand in the way of my coming to life. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
975:If I say, if I talk about, 'I want to be enlightened.', it implies a future. And there isn't any. ~ Byron Katie, #KEYS
976:If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all. ~ Michelangelo, #KEYS
977:If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
978:I have never agreed with my other self wholly. The truth of the matter seems to lie between us. ~ Khalil Gibran, #KEYS
979:It is not your business to succeed, but to do right; when you have done so, the rest lies with God. ~ C.S. Lewis #KEYS
980:It's distance that makes mountains mountains. Looked at closely, they start to resemble me. ~ Shuntaro Tanikawa, #KEYS
981:Love is the measure of our ability to bear crosses. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #KEYS
982:Meditation and spiritual practices give you the power and the courage to smile at death. ~ MATA AMRITANANDAMAYI, #KEYS
983:Never invoke the gods unless you really want them to appear. It annoys them very much." ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton, #KEYS
984:Only remove ignorance. That is all there is to be done. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
985:Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools." ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
986:Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world. ~ Helen Keller, #KEYS
987:That is most difficult, which seems easiest—to be present to what is before you. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
988:The best thing must be to flee from all to the All. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #KEYS
989:The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible. ~ Arthur C Clarke, #KEYS
990:The plants and flowers
I raised about my hut
I now surrender
To the will
Of the wind ~ Taigu Ryokan,#KEYS
991:There is a morning inside you waiting to burst open into Light. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
992:To be brave is to have faith in the Mother. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. VI. 149), #KEYS
993:To covet external objects is to defile the mind. ~ Chu-King, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
994:To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #KEYS
995:To find god you must offer to Him your body, mind, and riches.. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
996:To let the mind become vast and open like the sky, is the key instruction for enhancing practice. ~ Shri Singha, #KEYS
997:We are our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves. ~ Tom Robbins, #KEYS
998:We come to God by love and not by navigation. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
999:We need play to live a human life ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.168.2ad3)., #KEYS
1000:2/ The brave alone can afford to be sincere. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. VI. 110), #KEYS
1001:A book is a mirror: if an ape looks into it an apostle is hardly likely to look out. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, [T5], #KEYS
1002:All things are possible to him that believeth. ~ Mark IX. 23, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1003:before they embark on the journey. ~ Sam Keen, "To Love and Be Loved,", (1997), First 2 of 7 stanzas. Wikipedia., #KEYS
1004:Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
~ Confucius,#KEYS
1005:Do not think of what you have been, think only of what you want to be and you are sure to progress. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
1006:Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?" ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
1007:First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do. ~ Epictetus,#KEYS
1008:He who goes about to reform the world must begin with himself, or he loses his labor. ~ Saint Ignatius of Loyola, #KEYS
1009:I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come--the Almighty." ~ Revelation 1:8, #KEYS
1010:If I'm happy, you're the secret to it." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1011:If there be a goal to be reached it cannot be permanent. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1012:If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. ~ Toni Morrison, #KEYS
1013:If we do not listen to our conscience, it delivers us into the hands of our enemies. ~ Saint Isaiah the Solitary, #KEYS
1014:If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.
~ Edgar Allan Poe,#KEYS
1015:I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul. ~ Pablo Neruda,#KEYS
1016:It takes a lot of courage to be the same person on the outside that you are on the inside." ~ Barbara De Angelis, #KEYS
1017:Let us be kind to one another after the pattern of the tender mercy and goodness of our Creator. ~ Saint Clement, #KEYS
1018:Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own." ~ Robert Heinlei @aax9 #KEYS
1019:No one who does good work will ever come to a bad end, either here or in the world to come
~ The Bhagavad Gita,#KEYS
1020:One should take some trouble to live in the company of the good. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1021:People want you to be happy, don't keep serving them your pain." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1022:Sometimes the world around you will get dark. Maybe it's only for you to turn on your own light." ~ Jenna Galbut, #KEYS
1023:Study, that is the best way to understand.
~ The Mother, More Answers From The Mother,#KEYS
1024:The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #KEYS
1025:The meditator must develop both awareness and equanimity together in order to advance along the path.
~ Goenka,#KEYS
1026:The road to the Divine: always long, often dry in appearance, but always abundant in its results. ~ Mother Mirra, #KEYS
1027:The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
1028:To educate educators! But the first ones must educate themselves! And for these I write.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
1029:True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read. ~ Pliny the Elder, #KEYS
1030:What is your definition of Greatness? JP: The capacity to utter and abide by beautiful truths. ~ Jordan Peterson, #KEYS
1031:When men take up arms to set other men free, there is something sacred and holy in the warfare. ~ Woodrow Wilson, #KEYS
1032:Abide in the heart and surrender your acts to the Divine. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1033:Diamonds are to be found only in the darkness of the earth, and truth in the darkness of the mind. ~ Vicktor Hugo, #KEYS
1034:Everybody will go after only what gives happiness to him. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1035:God cannot make a man to be without a soul ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 2.25)., #KEYS
1036:Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just what God wants us to be." ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
1037:If you try to change it, you will ruin it. Try to hold it, and you will lose it." ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
1038:I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
1039:It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
1040:Love all; trust a few, Do wrong to none." ~ William Shakespeare, quote from "All's Well That Ends Well,", (1605)., #KEYS
1041:Man alone suffers so excruciatingly in the world that we were compelled to invent laughter. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
1042:Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." ~ Helen Keller, #KEYS
1043:order to give light one must first burn. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1044:Our ego, if made pure by realizing God, can do no harm to anyone. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1045:Savitri is a mantra for the transformation of the world.
~ The Mother, (to Udar Pinto),#KEYS
1046:Sri Ramakrishna was a perfect soul. Certainly one can be free from sin by confessing it to Him. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
1047:... the blood of men will have to be spilled on the asphalt of our streets." ~ Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich , #KEYS
1048:The ideal of man is to see God in everything. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. II. 152), #KEYS
1049:The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Lamentations, 3:25, #KEYS
1050:The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche #KEYS
1051:There is no darkness, we only close our eyes and shut out the Light.
~ Nolini Kanta Gupta, To The Heights, [T6],#KEYS
1052:The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
1053:To all our persecutors we say: "You are our brethren; apprehend, rather, the truth of God." ~ Saint Justin Martyr, #KEYS
1054:We have to surrender ourselves to the Supreme completely. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1055:Whatever good work you begin to do, beg of God with most earnest prayer to perfect it. ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #KEYS
1056:You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
1057:A beginning and end are necessary to conceive of the middle point. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1058:Although we live in the colony of time, we owe our allegiance to the empire of eternity. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr., #KEYS
1059:Be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the gentle gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~ Marcel Proust, #KEYS
1060:Calling upon God with one's mind steadfast is equivalent to a million repetitions of the Mantra. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
1061:Do not reduce your prayers to words, but rather make the totality of your life a prayer to God. ~ Isaac of Nineveh, #KEYS
1062: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
1063:I do not believe that any name, however complex, is sufficient to designate the principle of all Majesty. ~ Hermes, #KEYS
1064:If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. ~ Goerge Orwell, #KEYS
1065:If you can hold on to this knowledge 'I am Self' at all times, no further practice is necessary. ~ Annamalai Swami, #KEYS
1066:It is a fine thing when a man who thoroughly understands a subject is unwilling to open his mouth. ~ Yoshida Kenko, #KEYS
1067:Less and less do you need to force things, until finally you arrive at non-action. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
1068:Man achieves likeness to God through grace ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 3.151)., #KEYS
1069:Mystical explanations are thought to be deep; the truth is that they are not even shallow.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
1070:Our great pursuit, the great name we wanted, was to be Christians, to be called Christians. ~ Gregory of Nazianzen, #KEYS
1071:Owe no man anything but to love one another. ~ Ro-mans. XIV. 8, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1072:Prayer is the unfolding of our will to God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.21.1)., #KEYS
1073:Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life." ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
1074:The desire to know your own soul will end all other desires. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, [T5], #KEYS
1075:The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool. ~ Richard P Feynman, #KEYS
1076:The possession of wisdom leadeth to true happiness. ~ Porphyry, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1077:There is only one thing to be feared and that is sin. Everything else is beside the point. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
1078:The road to continuous improvement is and must be an appropriately tailored, optimized, and personal one.
~ Hunt,#KEYS
1079:To be as it is, thought free, in the Heart, is to know it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1080:To the persevering and the firm nothing is difficult. ~ Lun-Yu, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1081:True friendship consists in mutually perfecting one another and drawing closer to God. ~ Saint Teresa of the Andes, #KEYS
1082:Your soul is waiting to be remembered." ~ Ma Jaya, (1940 - 2012), Wikipedia. From "The 11 Karmic Spaces,", (2012)., #KEYS
1083:A coincidence is a small miracle where God chose to remain anonymous." ~ Heide Quade, source: http://bit.ly/31lgKqE, #KEYS
1084:A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.
~ ?, Gall's Law,#KEYS
1085:All the accidents of life can be turned to our profit. ~ Seneca, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1086:And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
~ Nelson Mandela,#KEYS
1087:Anything is possible. The point is to keep your heart and mind open to the likelihood of change. ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche, #KEYS
1088:A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #KEYS
1089:Being attached to someone is not about the other person. It is about your own sense of inadequacy." ~ Jaggi Vasudev, #KEYS
1090:Divine Providence permits these trials to assail us for the great benefit of our soul. ~ Philokalia, Bishop Ignatii, #KEYS
1091:Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
1092:For all things difficult to acquire, the intelligent man works with perseverance.
~ Lao Tzu,#KEYS
1093:God, whose love and joy are present everywhere, can't come to visit you unless you aren't there. ~ Angelus Silesius, #KEYS
1094:How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver! ~ Proverbs, #KEYS
1095:I believe it all. If I seem not to, it is only that my joy is too great to let my belief settle itself. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
1096:I believe the Spirit to proceed from no other source than from the Father through the Son. ~ Tertullian of Carthage, #KEYS
1097:I felt in need of a great pilgrimage, so I sat still for three days and God came to me. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
1098:If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #KEYS
1099:I have laboured carefully, not to mock, lament, or execrate human actions, but to understand them. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #KEYS
1100:The best course for you is to renounce desire, and work unattached. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1101:The only rational way of educating is to be an example - if one can't help it, a warning example. ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
1102:The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil ment
~ Plato,#KEYS
1103:To forget God is to miss the whole point of existence. Learn to feel God, and to enjoy Him. ~ PARAMAHAMSA YOGANANDA, #KEYS
1104:To see everything in God and to see God in everything normally takes a lifetime of practice. ~ Thomas Keating, [T5], #KEYS
1105:What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
1106:What would you say to yourself if you could actually meet a younger you?" ~ Doug Dillon, American author, etc. See:, #KEYS
1107:When we set our course for God, He will always be there to direct our path
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Proverbs, 16:9,#KEYS
1108:When you have free moments, go faithfully to prayer. The good God is waiting for you there." ~ Saint Julie Billiart, #KEYS
1109:Whoever gives nothing, has nothing. The greatest misfortune is not to be unloved, but not to love.
~ Albert Camus,#KEYS
1110:Young love is wild and outrageous, laughing at moderation, and blinding us to common sense." ~ H. Jackson Brown Jr., #KEYS
1111:Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake up and become aware. It does not teach, it points." ~ D.T. Suzuki, #KEYS
1112:Adolescents need freedom to choose, but not so much freedom that they cannot, in fact, make a choice. ~ Erik Erikson, #KEYS
1113:Be a true representative of the goodness in your heart, and don't expect it to be easy or even noticed. ~ Adyashanti, #KEYS
1114:Before you love, learn to run through the snow leaving no footprints." ~ Turkish proverb. See: http://bit.ly/2CCQAUS, #KEYS
1115:Be severe to yourself before being severe to others.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
1116:Eternity is a child playing, playing checkers; the kingdom belongs to a child. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1117:Flying from work is never the way to find peace. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. IV. 130), #KEYS
1118:He saw Christ, and instead of robbing others of their goods, he began to give away his own. ~ Saint Ambrose of Milan, #KEYS
1119:He who knows himself properly can very soon learn to know all other men. It is all reflection. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
1120:If I tell you something, you will stick to it and limit your own capacity to find out for yourself. ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
1121:If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #KEYS
1122:In this Kali Yuga, even three days are enough to make a man perfect. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1123:It is an absolute and virtually divine perfection to know how to enjoy our being rightfully.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
1124:It is impossible to find a saint who did not take the two P's" seriously: prayer and penance. ~ Saint Francis Xavier, #KEYS
1125:It is not fitting, when one is in God's service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look. ~ Saint Francis of Assisi, #KEYS
1126:It is only mercenaries who expect to be paid by the day. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #KEYS
1127:Never forget the goal. Never stop aspiring. Never halt in your progress, and you are sure to succeed. ~ Mother Mirra, #KEYS
1128:One must be God in order to understand God. ~ Antoine the Healer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1129:One should be careful to improve himself continually. ~ Chu-King, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1130:Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands." ~ Clint Eastwood, #KEYS
1131:The highest wisdom is never to worry about the future but to resign ourselves entirely to his will. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
1132:The light must be dim in order to enable the ego to rise up. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1133:The perfection of evil is to be ignorant of the Divine. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1134:The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.
~ Socrates?,#KEYS
1135:To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
1136:To love God is more excellent than to know Him ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 22.11). #KEYS
1137:To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle." ~ Walt Whitman, #KEYS
1138:To pick up a straw with loving intention is more to God than to remove mountains without love." ~ Gerhard Tersteegen, #KEYS
1139:Truly there is no cause for you to be miserable and unhappy. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1140:well bro you know if i truly wanted to build something i would do it in a weekend lmao (01:46:18 AM) ~ Andrew Kanegi, #KEYS
1141:Wisdom seems to dawn, though it is natural and ever present. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1142:You will have to subjugate your passions and hold fast to the faith that God exists everywhere. ~ Swami Vijnanananda, #KEYS
1143:and the LOWER FACULTIES are ordered to REASON ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 3.121)., #KEYS
1144:an's duty is to give the guidance of the soul to reason. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1145:Anyone who has once called on the Master, with sincere faith and devotion has nothing more to fear. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
1146:But who needs to ask the sun for its light." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1147:He alone who receives God's commandment is competent to teach others. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1148:He that tells a lie to save his credit, wipes his mouth with his sleeves to spare his napkin.
~ Sir Thomas Overbury,#KEYS
1149:Human existence is so fragile a thing and exposed to such dangers that I cannot love without trembling. ~ Simone Weil, #KEYS
1150:I am going through the pangs of being born. Do not stand in the way of my coming to life. ~ Saint Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
1151:It is the duty of the priest or the cleric to be of use if possible to all and to be harmful to none. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
1152:Lead me from the unreal to the real! Lead me from darkness to light! Lead me from death to immortality!" ~ Upanishads, #KEYS
1153:Leave it all to the Master. Surrender to Him without reserve. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1154:None is wise enough to guide himself alone. ~ Imitation of Christ, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1155:Our perfection does not consist of doing extraordinary things, but to do the ordinary well." ~ Saint Gabriel Possenti, #KEYS
1156:Our way is not to sit to acquire something; it is to express our true nature. That is our practice." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
1157:Prudens quaestio dimidium scientiae. (To ask the proper question is half of knowing.) ~ Roger Bacon, Doctor Mirabilis, #KEYS
1158:Seeing visions and so forth, are obstacles to the realization of God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1159:So... all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will ~ where do you want to start? ~ Steven Moffat, #KEYS
1160:Stupidity is doomed,
therefore, to cringe
at every syllable
of wisdom. ~ Heraclitus,#KEYS
1161:The best is heart to heart speech and heart to heart hearing. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1162:The Higher Power knows what to do and how to do it. Trust it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1163:The highest path of jnana has no thinker left to think at all. Nobody is home. There is a total blank. ~ Robert Adams, #KEYS
1164:There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.
~ Buddha,#KEYS
1165:To fight with desire is hard: whatever it wishes, it buys at the price of soul. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1166:To know how to wait is to put time on one's side.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953,#KEYS
1167:To love God is more excellent than to know Him ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 22.11)., #KEYS
1168:To work with all the passion of your being to acquire an inner light. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1169:When I'm riding my bicycle I feel like a Buddhist who is happy just to enjoy his mundane existence." ~ Robin Williams, #KEYS
1170:Yearning: It needs to hurt in order to be worthy of the word. Otherwise it is just wanting. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
1171:Aviation is proof that given, the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible.
~ Edward Vernon Rickenbacker,#KEYS
1172:Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears. ~ Edgar Allan Poe, #KEYS
1173:Don't expect anything from anyone! Learn to be the giver! Otherwise you will become self-centered. ~ Swami Turiyananda, #KEYS
1174:Eventually, all that one has learnt will have to be forgotten. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1175:Everything offered to others is really an offering to oneself. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1176:Have the courage to be completely frank with the Divine. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, #KEYS
1177:'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. ~ Revelation 1:8, #KEYS
1178:If one completes the journey to one's own heart, one will find oneself in the heart of everyone else. ~ Thomas Keating, #KEYS
1179:If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think, in terms of energy, frequency and vibrations." ~ Nikola Tesla, #KEYS
1180:I have been born anew. I have become a self-made man in battle, that is how I came to be my own father. ~ Quetzalcoatl, #KEYS
1181:Let us lend ear to the sages who point out to us the way. ~ Seneca, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1182:Like day, I bring an end to myself, and in joy I start all over again. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1183:Mindfulness gives you time. Time gives you choices. Choices, skillfully made, lead to freedom.
~ Henepola Gunaratana,#KEYS
1184:Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. ~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden #KEYS
1185:No matter what suffering may befall you now, do not give in to it but develop courage again and again. ~ Padmasambhava, #KEYS
1186:Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #KEYS
1187:Seek the Truth, though you must go to China to find it. ~ Mohammed, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1188:The Church herself says, 'The voice of my brother is knocking on the door.' Listen to him knocking. ~ Ambrose of Milan, #KEYS
1189:The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
~ Bertrand Russell,#KEYS
1190:The thoughts change but not you. Let go the passing thoughts and hold on to the unchanging Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1191:To compel men to do what appears good to oneself is the best means of making them disgusted with it. ~ Sri Ramakrishsa, #KEYS
1192:To help others, one must be beyond the need of help. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
1193:To learn is good, To become is better.
~ The Mother, On Thoughts And Aphorisms, Nov 25 1969,#KEYS
1194:To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves." ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
1195:True love and consecration lead much quicker to the Divine than arduous Tapasya. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
1196:Whatever exists, has being according to a perfect law and cannot receive a better being. ~ Saint Maximus the Confessor, #KEYS
1197:Adore and what you adore attempt to be. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act V, #KEYS
1198:All my words are but chaff next to the faith of a simple man. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
1199:All things carry Yin yet embrace Yang. They blend their life breaths in order to produce harmony. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.42, #KEYS
1200:An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out? ~ Rene Descartes, #KEYS
1201:A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something." ~ Plato, #KEYS
1202:Concentration has to be made in the heart, which is cool and refreshing. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi #KEYS
1203:Daily torn and tattered
turning to shreds
my robe for travelling ~ Santoka Taneda,#KEYS
1204:Each man who thinks ahead of his times is sure to be misunderstood. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1205:Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. ~ Theodore Roosevelt, #KEYS
1206:If the meditator is able to use whatever occurs in his life as the path, his body becomes a retreat hut. ~ Jigme Lingpa, #KEYS
1207:Is any man skillful enough to have fashioned himself? ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1208:Maya is like magic and we have to see the magician. But then the path beyond Maya is through Maya. ~ Swami Akhandananda, #KEYS
1209:Our Lord promises comfort to those that mourn ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.69.4)., #KEYS
1210:Restore your attention or bring it to a new level by dramatically slowing down whatever you're doing. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #KEYS
1211:The Church tries to fit Christ into it, not the Church into Christ. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1212:The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes." ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #KEYS
1213:The computing scientist's main challenge is not to get confused by the complexities of his own making. ~ E. W. Dijkstra, #KEYS
1214:Though we live in the colony of time, we are ultimately responsible to the empire of eternity. ~ Martin Luther King Jr., #KEYS
1215:Time is a factory where everyone slaves away earning enough love to break their own chains. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
1216:To aspire and to call for help are quite indispensable.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
1217:VICE is opposed to virtue properly as such ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.71.1ad1)., #KEYS
1218:We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.
~ George Orwell,#KEYS
1219:When weak or injured always continue training as you should always be able to adapt in any condition. ~ Masaaki Hatsumi, #KEYS
1220:You have said, "Seek my face." My heart says to you, "Your face, Lord, do I seek." ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 27:8, #KEYS
1221:Abraham offered to God his mortal son who did not die, and God gave up his immortal Son who died for all of us. ~ Origen, #KEYS
1222:A mind full of preconceived ideas, subjective intentions, or habits is not open to things as they are." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
1223:A pure heart, open to the Light will be filled with the elixir of Truth. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1224:Do you pay regular visits to yourself? Don't argue or answer rationally. Let us die, and dying, reply. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1225:Flee idleness... for no one is more exposed to such temptations than he who has nothing to do. ~ Saint Robert Bellarmine, #KEYS
1226:For the idea of ego-hood to be destroyed, constant practice is required. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1227:God will not allow you to be lost if you persist in your determination not to lose Him. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
1228:If you want to be saved look at the face of your Christ. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, [T5], #KEYS
1229:I had no ambition to be a writer because the books I read were too good, my standards were too high.
~ Haruki Murakami,#KEYS
1230:I moved this morning to the center of the town. Waist deep in worldly dust. But Free of worldly ties. ~ Baisao 1675-1763, #KEYS
1231:Instead of clearing his own heart the zealot tries to clear the world. ~ Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, #KEYS
1232:In the stream Rushing past To the dusty world, My fleeting form Casts no reflection.
~ Dogen Zenji,#KEYS
1233:Knowing what wisdom is, Is the hardest piece of wisdom To acquire." ~ Jack Gardner, from "Words Are Not Things,", (2005), #KEYS
1234:Let's hold hands and get drunk near the sun and sing sweet songs to God. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1235:Lift your head up off the table. See, there are no edges to this garden. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1236:Matter is spirit moving slowly enough to be seen. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
1237:Men weary as much of not doing the things they want to do as of doing the things they do not want to do.
~ Eric Hoffer,#KEYS
1238:My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself.
~ C S Lewis, [T5],#KEYS
1239:Mystery is not the denial of reason, but its honest consummation; reason, indeed, leads inevitably to mystery. ~ Whitman, #KEYS
1240:Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Quotations and Originality,#KEYS
1241:One must have true mettle within if one wishes to be successful in life. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1242:So long as a man has not realized God, he will have to be born on earth. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1243:Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
1244:The only things we should look after is never to forget loving Him, the Master of the Universe. ~ Swami Ramakrishnananda, #KEYS
1245:There are many parts of us that do not wish to work, so the moment you begin to work, friction starts.
~ P D Ouspensky,#KEYS
1246:Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
1247:To comprehend God is difficult, to speak of Him impossible. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1248:To do evil belongs pre-eminently to unhappiness ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.109.2)., #KEYS
1249:To love is to be transformed into what we love. To love God is therefore to be transformed into God. ~ John of the Cross, #KEYS
1250:To love long, unweariedly, always makes t-lie weak strong ~ Michelet, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1251:True knowledge leads to unity, ignorance to diversity. ~ Ramakrishan, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1252:We are too weak to discover the truth by reason alone. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1253:What is it to know something of God? Burn inside that presence. Burn up. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1254:What is to be done will be done at the proper time. Don't worry. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1255:Who is free from bondage in the world beyond? As soon as the angels were created, they began to serve. ~ Basil the Great, #KEYS
1256:Wide open to all beings be the gates of the Everlasting. ~ Mahavajjo, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1257:You, Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Lamentations, 5:19,#KEYS
1258:And builds to hope her altars of despair, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 4:3, #KEYS
1259:Anyone who aspires to a writing career, before developing his talent, would be wise to develop a thick hide. ~ Harper Lee, #KEYS
1260:Giving one self up to God, means constantly remembering the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1261:Her depths remember what she came to do, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02:06 #KEYS
1262:However softly we speak, God is near enough to hear us. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, [T5], #KEYS
1263:I am striving to give back the Divine in myself to the Divine in the All. ~ Plotinus, #KEYS
1264:It is only those who persevere to the end that succeed. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. V. 31), #KEYS
1265:Like a drifting cloud Bound by nothing; I just let go Giving myself up To the whim of the wind. ~ Taigu Ryokan, 1758-1831, #KEYS
1266:More heavenly and those flashing stars the endless eyes seem, which Night opens up in us. ~ Novalis, Hymns to the Night 1, #KEYS
1267:No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.
~ Karl Popper,#KEYS
1268:Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets.
~ Nido Qubein,#KEYS
1269:Pranayama is meant for one who cannot directly control his thoughts. It serves as a brake to a car. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1270:something in us
always wants to
cry out
~ Ikkyu, @BashoSociety#KEYS
1271:The most perfect man is the one who is most useful to others. ~ Koran, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1272:The name of Jesus, pronounced with reverence and affection, has a kind of power to soften the heart." ~ Saint Philip Neri, #KEYS
1273:The search for something permanent is one of the deepest of the instincts leading men to philosophy.
~ Bertrand Russell,#KEYS
1274:The wise is one only. It is unwilling and willing to be called by the name of Zeus. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1275:Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
1276:Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn't. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
1277:Be not astonished that man can become like God. ~ Epistle to Diognetus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1278:Books are a poor substitute for female companionship, but they are easier to find. ~ Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear #KEYS
1279:Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present, which seldom happens to us." ~ Jean de La Bruyère, #KEYS
1280:Concentrate on the Seer, not on the seen. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Face to Face, 197, [T5], #KEYS
1281:Do not doubt that mountains walk simply because they may not appear to walk like humans. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
1282:For one who sees me everywhere and sees everything in me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to me. ~ Bhagavad Gita 6.30, #KEYS
1283:God creates everything out of nothing. And everything which God is to use, he first reduces to nothing ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #KEYS
1284:Hateful to me as are the gates of hell Is he who hiding one thing in his heart Utters another. ~ Homer, #KEYS
1285:Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." ~ John 20:27-29, #KEYS
1286:He is the happy man whose soul is superior to all happenings. ~ Seneca, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1287:He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding. ~ Proverbs XIV. 22, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1288:Hold tight to your own time, hour after hour; you will not depend on the future if you grasp the present in hand. ~ Seneca, #KEYS
1289:HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE ~ Terry Pratchett, Hogfather, #KEYS
1290:If the earth is flat, how deep is flat earth?
How far do we have to dig to kill the turtle? ~ Youtube Comment, Lucatsan,#KEYS
1291:It is pointless trying to know where the way leads. Think only about your first step, the rest will come." ~ Shams Tabrizi, #KEYS
1292:I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself. ~ Aldous Huxley, #KEYS
1293:Let us return to our hero Moses, and to loftier deeds, to show they were both superior as well as earlier. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
1294:Life is given that we may learn to die well, and we never think of it! To die well we must live well. ~ Saint John Vianney, #KEYS
1295:Love is the answer and you know that for sure. Love is a flower, you got to let it ~ you got to let it grow. ~ John Lennon, #KEYS
1296:One day it will come back to you in the dessert." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1297:The heavenly Father is always willing to content you in everything that is for your good. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
1298:The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky,#KEYS
1299:The only thing worth learning is to unlearn. The way to do this is to question everything you think you know.~ Byron Katie, #KEYS
1300:The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Exodus, 20:21, #KEYS
1301:There should be a science of discontent. People need hard times to develop psychic muscles.
~ Frank Herbert, Dune (1965),#KEYS
1302:The test of a writer is whether you want to read him again years after he should by the rules be dated. ~ Raymond Chandler, #KEYS
1303:The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
~ Eden Phillipot, A Shadow Passes,#KEYS
1304:They wander in darkness seeking light, failing to realize that the light is in the heart of the darkness.
~ Manly P Hall,#KEYS
1305:To a magician there is very little difference between a mirror and a door. ~ Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, #KEYS
1306:To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
1307:To see the Heart, it is enough that the mind is turned towards it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1308:To them is entrusted a special task during the period of the trial and the great chastisement." ~ Our Lady how this thread, #KEYS
1309:A good means to discovery is to take away certain parts of a system to find out how the rest behaves. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
1310:Any law that is rightly established leads to virtue ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 3.121)., #KEYS
1311:A true initiate will never force anyone who has not reached a certain level of maturity to accept his truth. ~ Franz Bardon, #KEYS
1312:A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God
~ Alan Perlis, Epigrams in Programming, 1982,#KEYS
1313:Blush not to submit to a sage who knows more than thyself. ~ Democritus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1314:By whatever path you go, you will have to lose yourself in the one. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1315:Faith implies merely assent to what is proposed ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.8.5ad3)., #KEYS
1316:He who acts according to what he holds to be the law of life, ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1317:He who does not thank the people is not thankful to Allah." ~ Hadith, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1318:If there were no suffering, how could the desire to be happy arise? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1319:If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers. ~ Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow, #KEYS
1320:In all things it is better to hope than to despair.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,#KEYS
1321:It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself and no one else has made it. ~ Sophocles, Ajax, #KEYS
1322:Jnana is said to be ekabhakti (single-minded devotion). ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks, 650, #KEYS
1323:Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #KEYS
1324:Let us not pose as doers but resign ourselves to the guiding power. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1325:Make your God transparent to the transcendent, and it doesn't matter what his name is. ~ Joseph Campbell, Pathways to Bliss, #KEYS
1326:many different ways
to have been
in love
~ Boncho, @BashoSociety#KEYS
1327:My Immaculate Heart is your refuge. It is given to you precisely for these times of yours." ~ Our Lady to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, #KEYS
1328:Not for the sake of the wife, but for the sake of the Self is the wife dear to us.
~ Yajnavalkya, the Upanishads, *which?,#KEYS
1329:One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
1330:Pray to Him anyway you like, He can even hear the footfall of an ant. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, [T5], #KEYS
1331:Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write.
~ H G Wells,#KEYS
1332:The desire for wisdom leads us to the Eternal Kingdom. ~ Book of Wisdom, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1333:The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.
~ Soren Kierkegaard,#KEYS
1334:The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do." ~ Kobe Bryant, #KEYS
1335:The path to cheerfulness is to sit cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.
~ William James,#KEYS
1336:The person who aspires to be a Bhakta must be cheerful. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. III. 69), #KEYS
1337:The richest and fullest lives attempt to achieve an inner balance between three realms: work, love and play. ~ Erik Erikson, #KEYS
1338:The violent is opposed to what is according to nature ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (SG 1.19)., #KEYS
1339:Thou who hast come to this transcient and unhappy world, turn to Me. ~ Sri Aurobindo, TLD, Gita, #KEYS
1340:To be in harmony with the wholeness of things is not to have anxiety over imperfections." ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
1341:To put an end to care for one's self is a great happiness. ~ Udanavarga, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1342:To wear out the veil that occludes the vision of reality is all that man can do, and that he has got to do. ~ Anandamayi Ma, #KEYS
1343:What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is always present. ~ TS Eliot, 'Burnt Norton,' Five Quartets, #KEYS
1344:Work Purifies the heart and so leads to Vidya (wisdom). ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. VII. 39), #KEYS
1345:All days are nights to see, till I see thee, And nights, bright days, when dreams do show thee me." ~ Shakespeare, Sonnet 43, #KEYS
1346:All have eyes, but some have eyes that are shrouded in darkness, unable to see the light of the sun. ~ Theophilus of Antioch, #KEYS
1347:Be kindly affectioned one to another by brotherly love. ~ Romans.XII. 10, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1348:Don't aim for success if you want it. Just do what you love and believe in and it will come to you naturally." ~ David Frost, #KEYS
1349:Each reaction which arises from us causes a delay in attaining the goal. Whereas acceptance will cause Grace to flow. ~ Amma, #KEYS
1350:Even if one's head were to be suddenly cut off, he should be able to do one more action with certainty. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
1351:Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning. ~ Saint John Henry Newman, #KEYS
1352:For there is nothing so powerful to purify as knowledge. ~ Bhagavad Gita, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1353:Having prayed as you should, stand on guard, ready to protect the fruits of your prayer. ~ Philokalia, Evagrios the Solitary, #KEYS
1354:How can a conscious spirit be anything other than an absolute desire for God? ~ Henri de Lubac, (writing to Maurice Blondel), #KEYS
1355:I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once. ~ C S Lewis, Letter to Arthur Greeves (February 1932), #KEYS
1356:If thou wouldst be free, accustom thyself to curb thy desires. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1357:Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be, and becoming that person." ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
1358:Latu Maharaj continued: "You didn't understand it? Egoism is what he used to refer to as "mind's dirt". ~ Swami Adbhutananda, #KEYS
1359:Learn to distinguish what should be done and what not; The clever soul will always select his opportunity. ~ Nagarjuna, [T5], #KEYS
1360:Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin, #KEYS
1361:Make solitude a part of your life. In order to work with difficulty, we need to gather our inner strength." ~ Pema Chödrön, #KEYS
1362:My child, every day you are going to read Savitri
~ The Mother, Sweet Mother, [T0],#KEYS
1363:Never undertake anything unless you have the heart to ask Heaven's blessing on your undertaking. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, [T5], #KEYS
1364:Nothing so much wins love as the knowledge that one's lover desires most of all to be himself loved. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
1365:Our first mistake is the belief that the circumstance gives the joy which we give to the circumstance. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
1366:People do not seem to realise that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
1367:Reverence is owed to no one except a rational nature ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.25.3)., #KEYS
1368:Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift. ~ Mary Oliver, #KEYS
1369:That which is produced with intention has passed over from non-existence to existence. ~ Maimonides, #KEYS
1370:...the only simplicity to be trusted is the simplicity to be found on the far side of complexity.
~ Alfred North Whitehead,#KEYS
1371:To convert somebody, go and take them by the hand and guide them." ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
1372:What we would not have done to us, we must not do to others. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1373:Without love the acquisition of knowledge only increases confusion and leads to self-destruction. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, [T5], #KEYS
1374:You don't have to move mountains. You will change the world just by being a warm, kind-hearted human being." ~ Anita Krizzan, #KEYS
1375:All effort is due to the illusory desire on the part of an illusory individual, to attain an illusory goal. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
1376:A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exuper, #KEYS
1377:Be always faithful to your faith and you will feel no sorrow.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
1378:Be not self-seeking; try to be desire-less, and take your refuge in the Lord, who is the doer of all good. ~ SWAMI PREMANANDA, #KEYS
1379:Descending to the earth, That strange intoxicating beauty of the Unseen world Lurks in the elements of Nature." ~ Shabistari, #KEYS
1380:Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
~ Anonymous, The Bible, James, 1:22 NIV, [T5],#KEYS
1381:Do not read to satisfy curiosity or to pass the time, but study such things as move your heart to devotion. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #KEYS
1382:Every time the world shakes you up, you feel something has happened not to your liking, you're accruing karma. ~ Robert Adams, #KEYS
1383:God and his devotee are to be regarded as one, that is one in the same light. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1384:Hope not to hear truth often in royal courts. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act I, #KEYS
1385:I had found my religion: nothing seemed more important to me than a book. I saw the library as a temple.
~ Jean-Paul Sartre,#KEYS
1386:I know no other secret for loving except to love. ~ St. Francois de Sales, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1387:I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses. ~ Johannes Kepler, #KEYS
1388:I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
1389:It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them." ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1390:Putting their soul power to the karmic wheel. I want you to make love, not war ~ I know you've heard it before. ~ John Lennon, #KEYS
1391:Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one's being. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1392:The activity of God, then, is not an alternative to my free activity. It is its source. ~ Herbert McCabe, Faith within Reason, #KEYS
1393:The best discipline is to stay quiescent without ever forgetting Him. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1394:The Blessed Virgin was chosen by God to be His Mother ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.27.4)., #KEYS
1395:The first step towards the light is to guard the heart; for it is impossible otherwise to cut off the passions." ~ Philokalia, #KEYS
1396:The hand of the diligent will rule, But the slack hand will be put to forced labor.
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Proverbs, 12:24,#KEYS
1397:The true repose is that of a perfect surrender to the Divine.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
1398:The Truth is sure to prevail in spite of all oppositions. ~ The Mother, White Roses, 124, 14-11-1965, #KEYS
1399:The waves of the Self are pervading everywhere. If the mind is in peace, one begins to experience them. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1400:To find our real being and know it truly is to acquire wisdom. ~ Porphyry, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1401:To love the Divine is to be loved by Him. 2 November 1932 ~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother, #KEYS
1402:Verily, I say to thee; he who seeks the Eternal, finds Him. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1403:When I think of the happiness that is in store for me, every sorrow, every pain becomes dear to me. ~ Saint Francis of Assisi, #KEYS
1404:Why, then, do you fear to take up the cross when through it you can win a kingdom? ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1405:You have to learn how to sit without fighting. If you know how to sit like that, sitting is very pleasant." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #KEYS
1406:You must certainly think of God if you want to see God all round you. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1407:You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry, don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way." ~ Walter Hagen, #KEYS
1408:All difficulties are there to test the endurance of the faith.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
1409:All, even the vegetables, have rights to thy sensibility ~ Chinese Proverb, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1410:A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery, #KEYS
1411:At some time, one will have to forget everything that has been learnt. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1412:Come to my Divine Mother and you will receive not only Bhakti, but also Jnana. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1413:Death is our road to immortality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Word of Fate, #KEYS
1414:Devotion is the key which opens the door to liberation.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine And Human,#KEYS
1415:Go on struggling ceaselessly. Fight like a hero. Never look back, but ever go forward. Onward to the Goal! ~ SWAMI VIRAJANANDA, #KEYS
1416:I am with you and I will take you to the goal. Have an unshakable faith and all will go well. Blessings.
~ The Mother?, [T2],#KEYS
1417:I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time." ~ Charles M. Schulz in "Peanuts,", (American comic strip), #KEYS
1418:Let us be one even with those who do not wish to be one with us. ~ Bossuet, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1419:Man out of Nature wakes to God's complexities, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act I, #KEYS
1420:Not to weary of well doing is a great benediction. ~ Fo-shu-hing-tsau-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1421:One immersed in worldliness one cannot attain to divine knowledge and see God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1422:One infinite pure and holy – beyond thought beyond qualities I bow down to thee ~ Swami Vivekananda, Chicago, September 1893, #KEYS
1423:Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul.
~ Henry David Thoreau,#KEYS
1424:The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #KEYS
1425:The man who docth these things shall live by them. ~ Epistle to the Romans, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1426:The means to abide in Self is to begin inquiring inwardly, "Who am I?" ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1427:The way of truth is like a great road. It is not difficult to know it. The evil is only that men will not seek it.
~ Mencius,#KEYS
1428:The whole of our life should be a prayer offered to the Divine. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III, #KEYS
1429:To remain free from thoughts is the best offering one can make to God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1430:True self-love consists in directing oneself to God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.100.5)., #KEYS
1431:We are not disturbed by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens to us." ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1432:We try many ways to be awake, but our society still keeps us forgetful. Meditation is to help us remember.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh,#KEYS
1433:What is my true worth in this life?
To serve the Divine.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
1434:3) in the virtuous activity which pertains to a work ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (In 2 Cor. 6.2), #KEYS
1435:A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe. ~ Madeleine L'Engle #KEYS
1436:All happiness or unhappiness solely depends upon the quality of the object to which we are attached by love.
~ Baruch Spinoza,#KEYS
1437:Confession leads the way and brings us to salvation; baptism follows, setting the seal on our assent. ~ Saint Basil of Caesarea, #KEYS
1438:Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. ~ Samuel Johnson, #KEYS
1439:Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life. ~ Terry Pratchett, Jingo, #KEYS
1440:God does not remain petrified and dead; the very stones cry out and raise themselves to Spirit. ~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, #KEYS
1441:If man surrenders himself to Tao, he identifies himself with Tao. ~ Lao-tse, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1442:I have never been awake before. ~ Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life, #KEYS
1443:It is God's grace alone that enables an aspirant to stop the waves of the mind and dissolve the intellect. ~ Swami Adbhutananda, #KEYS
1444:Let's ask God to help us to self-control for one who lacks it, lacks his grace. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1445:Life ran to gaze from every gate of sense: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Satyavan, #KEYS
1446:Love is due first to God, and then to our neighbor ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.34.6ad2)., #KEYS
1447:no need
to cling
floating
~ Ogawa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
1448:O disciples, be ye heirs to Truth, not to worldly things. ~ Magghima Nikaya, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1449:One of the most important precepts of wisdom is to know oneself. ~ Socrates, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1450:Personal success ought never to he considered the aim of existence. ~ Bacon, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1451:The descent to Hades is the same from every place. ~ Anaxagoras, Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Anaxagoras, 2 #KEYS
1452:The past has revealed to me the structure of the future. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
1453:To remain as you are, without question or doubt, is your natural State. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1454:Trust yourself and live in the way to bring all your powers towards the only thing: the appearance of God in you. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
1455:Truth consists in the conformity of the mind to reality ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.21.2)., #KEYS
1456:Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie.
~ Miyamoto Musashi, [T5],#KEYS
1457:turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #KEYS
1458:unable to settle
a wandering heart
new moon
~ Sora, @BashoSociety#KEYS
1459:Understanding how to surmount pain, doubt, and failure is an important aspect of the game of winning at life.
~ Chin-Ning Chu,#KEYS
1460:What is liberty?
Liberty is to depend only on the Divine.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
1461:What use to cut the branches if one leaves the roots? ~ Apollonius of Tyana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1462:When ships to sail the void between the stars have been built, there will step forth men to sail these ships. ~ Johannes Kepler, #KEYS
1463:When you have seen your aim, hold to it, firm and unshakeable. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1464:You are rewarded not according to your work or your time but according to the measure of your love." ~ Saint Catherine of Siena, #KEYS
1465:You have to give up everything to know that you need nothing. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
1466:You may come to Brahman through Vichara (deliberation) if my Mother is willing. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1467:11:The destiny of [Google's search engine] is to become that Star Trek computer, and that's what we are building. ~ Amit Singhal, #KEYS
1468:a cicada chorus
marks the time
to take my bath
~ Buson, @BashoSociety#KEYS
1469:Activate yourself to duty by remembering your position, who you are, and what you have obliged yourself to be. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #KEYS
1470:All your burdens are borne by God. Be convinced of this and ever try to abide in sincerity and cheerfulness. ~ SRI ANANDAMAYI MA, #KEYS
1471:Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 29:2,#KEYS
1472:A single ego is an absurdly narrow vantage point from which to view the world. ~ Aleister Crowley, #KEYS
1473:charity and humility will be laughed to scorn, and the common people will believe in false ideas." ~ Saint Columba, (521-597 AD), #KEYS
1474:Christ's mind is the controlling influence that inspires us to moderation and goodness in our behavior. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
1475:For what is faith unless it is to believe what you do not see? ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1476:He grants and will grant His touch in His own time. But we have to do our duty, which is to call out to Him. ~ SRI ANANDAMAYI MA, #KEYS
1477:He only is free who has gained mastery over his passions and one who is a slave to them is bound in chains. ~ Swami Vijnanananda, #KEYS
1478:How do you expect me to help you if you have no Trust in me! ~ The Mother, Some Answers From The Mother, #KEYS
1479:If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?
~ Dogen Zenji, [T5],#KEYS
1480:I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
1481:Imagination grows by exercise and contrary to common belief is more powerful in the mature than in the young. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #KEYS
1482:In due course, we will know that our glory lies where we cease to exist. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1483:It cost God nothing, so far as we know, to create nice things: but to convert rebellious wills cost Him crucifixion. ~ C.S. Lewis #KEYS
1484:It is far more useful to commune with oneself than with others. ~ Demophilus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1485:It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
~ Aristotle,#KEYS
1486:It is the nature of the mind to wander. You are not the mind. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks, 97, #KEYS
1487:Let all involuntary suffering teach you to remember God, and you will not lack occasion for repentance. ~ Saint Mark the Ascetic, #KEYS
1488:Man achieves the highest goal through the practice of Japa. Japa leads to success. Yes, Japa leads to success! ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
1489:One of the great undiscovered joys of life comes from doing everything one attempts to the best of one's ability.
~ Og Mandino,#KEYS
1490:One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
1491:Practice and detachment are necessary to bring one-pointedness to the naturally restless and out-going mind. ~ Swami Saradananda, #KEYS
1492:Sri Ramakrishna had absolutely no sense of egoism. He lived by giving power of attorney to the Divine Mother. ~ SWAMI PREMANANDA, #KEYS
1493:The creative power of God is common to the whole Trinity ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.32.1)., #KEYS
1494:There is no greater courage than to be always truthful
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Courage.,#KEYS
1495:The sincere devotee finds the Loving Lord ever ready to lend him a helping hand. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1496: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
1497:This is a great fault in men, to love to be the models of others. ~ Meng-tse, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1498:To ask the mind to kill the mind is like making the thief the policeman. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1499:To be independent of public opinion is the first formal condition of achieving anything great.
~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel,#KEYS
1500:To boast in order to stir quarrels is a mortal sin ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.112.2ad1)., #KEYS
1:Agreeing to differ. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 2:to hard work." ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 3:To teach is to delight. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 4:It is fun to have fun. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 5:Words lead to deeds. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 6:To give requires good sense. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 7:To hope was to expect ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 8:Do not dare not to dare. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 9:He can afford to be a fool. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 10:Leave the rest to the gods. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 11:You DO know what to do. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 12:It is grievous to be caught. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 13:The way to do... is to be. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 14:To find is the thing. ~ pablo-picasso, @wisdomtrove 15:To tolerate is to insult. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 16:I tend to scare myself. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 17:Labor gives birth to ideas. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 18:Sapere aude. Dare to be wise. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 19:To revive sorrow is cruel. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 20:You are always new to me. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 21:Ideas are fatal to caste. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 22:I learned to love despair. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 23:Love's all in all to women. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 24:Put your shoulder to the wheel. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 25:To be alive is Power. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 26:To grow a philosopher's beard. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 27:To love is an active verb. ~ ogden-nash, @wisdomtrove 28:We are free to yield to truth. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 29:We like to be deceived. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 30:We two are to ourselves a crowd. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 31:A lie never lives to be old. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 32:Delay not to seize the hour! ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 33:God has work for you to do. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 34:It is absurd to ape our betters. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 35:Listen to the voices. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 36:The God knows when to smile. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 37:To love is to be vulnerable. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 38:We belong to each other. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 39:Better to be married than dead! ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 40:Dreams are necessary to life. ~ anais-nin, @wisdomtrove 41:Every tale is not to be believed. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 42:Good-bye to the lies of the poets. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 43:I'm not so weird to me. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 44:Learn to express, not impress. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 45:Life must be somewhere to be ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 46:Meandering leads to perfection. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 47:Outdo: To make an enemy. ~ ambrose-bierce, @wisdomtrove 48:We must learn to suffer more. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 49:You only lose what you cling to. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 50:Activity leads to productivity! ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 51:A man perfect to the finger tips. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 52:If you want to be happy, be. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 53:I listen to the voices. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 54:It's cheaper to keep her. ~ robin-williams, @wisdomtrove 55:I want to live, and die with you. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 56:Let mortal man keep to his own ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 57:Love fed fat soon turns to boredom. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 58:Not to ask is not be denied. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 59:Old men ought to be explorers. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 60:Past art is subject to change. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 61:Pity melts the mind to love. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 62:Refuse to be average. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 63:Remember to be calm in adversity. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 64:This book is to be read in bed. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 65:To me, we're marketing hope. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 66:Every need got an ego to feed. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 67:Familiarity gives rise to contempt. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 68:I don't want to hold your hand! ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 69:I failed my way to success. ~ thomas-edison, @wisdomtrove 70:If you want to be loved, be lovable. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 71:I never intended to make art. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 72:Its fun to do the unexpected. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 73:It's important to feel good. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 74:It's not easy to define poetry. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 75:Life is too short to be small. ~ tim-ferris, @wisdomtrove 76:One must dare to be happy. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 77:Poets wish to profit or to please. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 78:Society forces you to conform. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 79:Time brings all things to pass. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 80:To be here is immense. ~ rainer-maria-rilke, @wisdomtrove 81:To lead people, walk behind them. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 82:To marry a fool is to be no fool. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 83:To sing is to pray twice. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 84:To stay youthful, stay useful. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 85:To think twice is quite enough. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 86:Why not dare to be fully human? ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 87:Abandon yourself to Intuition ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 88:Be a blessing to someone else. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 89:Courage is knowing what not to fear. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 90:Enough is abundance to the wise. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 91:Heaven means to be one with God. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 92:If you want to be loved, be loveable. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 93:I have a plan-to go mad. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 94:I just wanted to be sure of you. ~ a-a-milne, @wisdomtrove 95:I just want to lobby for God. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 96:I'm not smart enough to lie. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 97:It don't cost money to ask. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 98:It pays to be content with your lot. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 99:It takes two to make peace. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 100:My diary seems to keep me whole. ~ anais-nin, @wisdomtrove 101:Nature is wont to hide herself. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 102:Never miss a chance to shut up ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 103:No one rises to low expectations ~ les-brown, @wisdomtrove 104:Pray to God and say the lines. ~ bette-davis, @wisdomtrove 105:Teach us to care and not to care ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 106:There's no limit to God's love. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 107:Tis best to be silent in a bad cause. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 108:To be is to be related. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 109:To have joy, one must share it. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 110:To innovate is not to reform. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 111:To love makes one solitary. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 112:Too great haste leads us to error. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 113:To understand is to forgive. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 114:Words belong to each other. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 115:And I say to my heart: rave on. ~ mary-oliver, @wisdomtrove 116:Eternity forbids thee to forget. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 117:Going to the woods is going home. ~ john-muir, @wisdomtrove 118:How embarrassing to be human. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 119:I care for riches, to make gifts. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 120:I gotta use words to talk to you. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 121:I'm inconsistent, even to myself. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 122:I prefer men to cauliflowers ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 123:It is a kingly act to help the fallen. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 124:I want to meet my God awake. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 125:Kindness gives birth to kindness. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 126:Love is the door to eternity. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 127:Obedience is the road to freedom. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 128:Sticking to it is the genius. ~ thomas-edison, @wisdomtrove 129:Style is to forget all styles. ~ jules-renard, @wisdomtrove 130:The brain is drawn to bad news. ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove 131:There is nothing assured to mortals. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 132:To choose always the hardest. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 133:To love beauty is to see light. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 134:War ought to be no man's wish. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 135:We are what we pretend to be. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 136:We ran as if to meet the moon. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 137:We read to know we are not alone. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 138:Wine is only sweet to happy men. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 139:Any day stands equal to the rest. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 140:Don't use cannon to kill musquito. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 141:Doubters will doubt to the end. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 142:Everybody is entertained to death. ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove 143:Everything is ideal to its parent. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 144:I'd like to see Paris before I die. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 145:I don't try to control my days. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 146:It is ill to marry in the month of May. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 147:It is not righteousness to outrage ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 148:It is right to give every man his due. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 149:It's a divine art to be cheerful. ~ meher-baba, @wisdomtrove 150:It takes three to make a child. ~ e-e-cummings, @wisdomtrove 151:It takes two to get one in trouble. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 152:I've failed my way to success. ~ thomas-edison, @wisdomtrove 153:I want you to be... . happy. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 154:Laughter is no enemy to learning ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 155:Man is condemned to be free ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 156:Nobody listens to mathematicians. ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 157:Open your hands if you want to be held. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 158:Peace is our gift to each other. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 159:Silence is an answer to a wise man. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 160:Suffering brings me so close to God. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 161:The ear is the avenue to the heart. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 162:The love of fame puts spurs to the mind ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 163:The Universe is yielding to me… ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 164:To lose is not always failure. ~ quentin-crisp, @wisdomtrove 165:We are all gathered to the same fold. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 166:We are here to love each other. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 167:Whatever you want to teach, be brief. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 168:What man speaks to the stars. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove 169:What memories for mud to have. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 170:Who gets to decide what you want? ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 171:Allow motion to equal emotion. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 172:A man is sorry to be honest for nothing. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 173:An accomplished man to his fingertips. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 174:Begin, be bold and venture to be wise. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 175:Being, be bold and venture to be wise. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 176:Best to live lightly, unthinkingly. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 177:Be what you would seem to be. ~ margaret-fuller, @wisdomtrove 178:Cause you got to tell Jah, Jah why ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 179:Die: To stop sinning suddenly. ~ ambrose-bierce, @wisdomtrove 180:Don't bring negative to my door. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 181:Empathy is the antidote to shame. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 182:Everybody has their story to tell. ~ alan-moore, @wisdomtrove 183:Farewell! I go to find the Sun! ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 184:If you want to be happy, just be. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 185:I have other fish to fry. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 186:I like to make use of what I know ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 187:Innocence is not accustomed to blush. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 188:Innovation is the only way to win. ~ steve-jobs, @wisdomtrove 189:In our adversity, God shouts to us. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 190:I owe my solitude to other people. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 191:It is good to be taught even by an enemy ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 192:It is very easy to love alone. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 193:Not to remember is not an option. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 194:One lifetime is not enough to live ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 195:Reality isn't what it used to be. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 196:Reverence is fatal to literature. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 197:The future belongs to the free. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 198:The only shame is to have none. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 199:The only way to coast is downhill. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 200:The purpose of art is to stop time. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 201:To be social is to be forgiving. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 202:To get Congress to do anything. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 203:To hear, one must be silent. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 204:To hold, you must first open. Let go. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 205:To love at all is to be vulnerable. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 206:To meditate means to observe. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 207:To read is to voyage through time. ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 208:To the devil with false modesty. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 209:To Zen, time and eternity are one. ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove 210:We have it in us to be splendid. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 211:You can't. You just have to. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 212:You have to be odd to be number one. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 213:Your urge to control life controls you. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 214:A friend to all is a friend to none. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 215:All I am I owe to my mother. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 216:Be Good to Yourself and each Other ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 217:By writing, you learn to write. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 218:Everyone's quick to blame the alien. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 219:Every star may be a sun to someone. ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 220:God always wants us to be growing. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 221:I don't believe in praying to win. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 222:If you want to be a leader, go lead ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 223:If you want to be happy, be happy. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 224:If you want to write, keep cats. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove 225:I generally had to give in. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 226:I learn to love it more and more. ~ jules-renard, @wisdomtrove 227:I like to feel blonde all over. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 228:I never wish to be easily defined. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 229:It's an awful risky thing to live. ~ carl-rogers, @wisdomtrove 230:It's right to learn, even from the enemy. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 231:I write to find out what I think. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 232:Many friends are the key to happiness ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 233:Now, I happen to be an optimist. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 234:Now I shall go to sleep. Goodnight. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 235:Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow. ~ steven-wright, @wisdomtrove 236:Prosperity knits a man to the world. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 237:Service to others leads to greatness. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 238:Simplicity is the key to brilliance. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 239:The only way out is to go through ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 240:Time is an illusion-to orators. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 241:To be a saint is to be yourself. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 242:To earn more, you must learn more. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 243:To err is human, but it feels divine. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 244:To generalize is to be an idiot. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 245:To love is the half of to believe. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 246:To love is to burn, to be on fire. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 247:To maken vertue of necessite. ~ geoffrey-chaucer, @wisdomtrove 248:To silence gossip, don't repeat it. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 249:We notice what we choose to notice. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 250:What have I to forgive and whom? ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 251:Words are a lens to focus one's mind. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 252:Work to become, not to acquire. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 253:You're gonna have to serve somebody. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 254:Ain't nothin' to it, but to do it. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 255:Better not to exist than live basely. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 256:Better to starve free than be a fat slave ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 257:Bravery is the solution to regret. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 258:But quiet to quick bosoms is a hell. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 259:Close both eyes to see with the other eye. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 260:Complaints are prayers to the devil. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 261:Dear to girls' hearts is their own beauty. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 262:Eat to live, not live to eat. ~ benjamin-franklin, @wisdomtrove 263:Enemies' promises were made to be broken. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 264:Enough or not... it will have to do ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 265:Events tend to recur in cycles. ~ w-clement-stone, @wisdomtrove 266:Existence is prior to essence. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 267:Feel deeply to think clearly. ~ nathaniel-branden, @wisdomtrove 268:God wants to bless us where we are. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 269:Go to sleep in peace. God is awake. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 270:Gratitude is the antidote to fear. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 271:He was the toast to her butter. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 272:Hitch your wagon to a star. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 273:I don't think I'm tangible to myself. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 274:Ignorance is a tough evil to conquer. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 275:It is annoying to be honest to no purpose. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 276:It is better to play than do nothing. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 277:It is easy to despise what you cannot get ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 278:It takes 10 hands to score a basket ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 279:I’ve been to the Mountaintop ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 280:I want the world to see my body. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 281:Learn to be difficult when it counts ~ tim-ferris, @wisdomtrove 282:Let us fight to free the world! ~ charlie-chaplan, @wisdomtrove 283:Life gives nothing to man without labor. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 284:Life is to short to be small. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 285:Man shoot at nothing, sure to hit it. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 286:Nature is accustomed to hide itself. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 287:One cat just leads to another. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 288:One reads in order to ask questions ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 289:Our job is to just be the light. ~ anita-moorjani, @wisdomtrove 290:Reason is God's crowning gift to man. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 291:Replace "Have to" with "Want to." ~ steve-pavlina, @wisdomtrove 292:Skill to do comes of doing. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 293:Tell your lizard (brain) to shut up. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 294:The fears you run from run to you. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 295:The future belongs to the competent ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 296:Thoughts are not subject to duty. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 297:Time has nothing to do with the matter. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 298:To be energetic, act energetic. ~ w-clement-stone, @wisdomtrove 299:To learn is to be young, however old. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 300:To live is to express oneself freely. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 301:To shut your eyes is to travel. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 302:To the worker, God himself lends aid. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 303:You are the doorway to the infinite. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove 304:You cannot be anything that you point to. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 305:Your talent is God's gift to you. ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove 306:Adversity is the first path to truth. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 307:Alliteration seems to offend people. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 308:All knowledge leads to self-knowledge. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 309:Anything too stupid to be said is sung. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 310:Art: to nudge truth along a little. ~ jules-renard, @wisdomtrove 311:Be quick to learn and wise to know. ~ george-burns, @wisdomtrove 312:Be the first to say, "Hello". ~ h-jackson-brown-jr, @wisdomtrove 313:Caution is the path to mediocrity. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 314:Confine yourself to the present. ~ marcus-aurelius, @wisdomtrove 315:Create a life you can't wait to live. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 316:Custom reconciles us to everything. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 317:Don't forget to love yourself. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 318:Envy is not to be conquered but by death. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 319:Flexibility is the key to stability. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 320:For the loser now Will be later to win ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 321:Have no friends not equal to yourself. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 322:Hell is the inability to love. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 323:He whom all hate all wish to see destroyed. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 324:I am rather inclined to silence. ~ abraham-lincoln, @wisdomtrove 325:If you want to play, you gotta pay. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 326:I just want to do God’s will. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 327:I learn to pity woes so like my own. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 328:I'm religiously opposed to religion. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 329:I never try to predict the market. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 330:In trying to be concise I become obscure. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 331:In worship, God imparts himself to us. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 332:It is best to live however one can be. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 333:It is no sin to look at a nice girl. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 334:I used to be Snow White, but I drifted. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 335:I want to put a ding in the universe. ~ steve-jobs, @wisdomtrove 336:Learn to think continentally. ~ alexander-hamilton, @wisdomtrove 337:Life! Don't talk to me about life! ~ douglas-adams, @wisdomtrove 338:Life is no way to treat an animal. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 339:Live a life as a monument to your soul. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 340:Live life to the fullest. ~ robert-louis-stevenson, @wisdomtrove 341:... love is banality to all outsiders. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 342:Make fair agreements and stick to them ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 343:Never hesitate to ask a lesser person. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 344:One and all have to face reality now. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 345:One should eat to live, not live to eat. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 346:Pay attention to that which sees the mind. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 347:Remember it's OK to be yourself. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 348:Right it is to be taught even by the enemy. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 349:Self-conceit may lead to self destruction. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 350:Sweet is revenge-especially to women. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 351:Teach them to question everything. ~ george-carlin, @wisdomtrove 352:The best way to behave is to misbehave. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 353:The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 354:The devil's voice is sweet to hear. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 355:The purpose of life is to remember. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 356:The world is begging for you to lead. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 357:To a poet nothing can be useless. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 358:To generous souls every task is noble. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 359:To have a human form is a joyful thing. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 360:To learn to read is to light a fire. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 361:To make an end is to make a beginning. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 362:To me no profitable speech sounds ill. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 363:to teach without zest is a crime. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 364:Try to be better than yourself. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 365:We each need to become our own hero. ~ debbie-ford, @wisdomtrove 366:We must get over wanting to be needed. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 367:We're here on Earth to fart around ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 368:What are men to rocks and mountains? ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 369:What do years have to do with age? ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove 370:What is necessary is to rectify names. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 371:When he pretends to flee, do not pursue. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 372:Why assume that to look is to see? ~ pablo-picasso, @wisdomtrove 373:Wisdom leads us back to childhood. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 374:Always desire to learn something useful ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 375:At the heart of art is learning to see ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 376:A youth is to be regarded with respect. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 377:Before you quit, you have to try ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 378:Being bored is an insult to oneself. ~ jules-renard, @wisdomtrove 379:Be the one to stand out in the crowd. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 380:Die, v.: To stop sinning suddenly. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 381:Do not use a cannon to kill a mosquito. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 382:Everyone has the power to visualize. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 383:Evil to some is always good to others ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 384:Failure is... the highway to success. ~ og-mandino, @wisdomtrove 385:God damn it, you've got to be kind. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 386:How embarrassing it is to be human. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 387:How well we have learned to let go ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 388:I awoke one day to find myself famous. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 389:I believe in order to understand. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 390:In order to find, you must first search. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 391:Is it meaningless to apologize? Never. ~ alan-moore, @wisdomtrove 392:Isolation is a way to know ourselves. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 393:I strive to be brief but I become obscure. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 394:It is easier to stay out than get out. ~ mark-twain, @wisdomtrove 395:It is good to live and learn. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 396:It is not easy to bear prosperity unruffled. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 397:It is the act of a coward to wish for death. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 398:It is the lot of man to suffer. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 399:It’s a great privilege to dream. ~ danielle-laporte, @wisdomtrove 400:Life is too short to be little. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 401:Money to a writer is time to write. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 402:Move from the known to the unknown. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 403:Never, never try to scope the market. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 404:Obedience to authority saves many skins ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 405:Potential unexpressed turns to pain. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 406:Rewards should go to teams as a whole. ~ tom-peters, @wisdomtrove 407:Silence gives the proper grace to women ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 408:The goal is to know how not-to-know. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 409:The most important thing is to DARE. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 410:The path to youth takes a lifetime. ~ pablo-picasso, @wisdomtrove 411:They remember to do it all the time. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 412:Tis not too late to seek a newer world ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 413:To contemplate is to look at shadows. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 414:To err is human. To loaf is Parisian. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 415:To have more, we must first become more. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 416:To know and not do, is to not yet know. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 417:To look back is to relax one's vigil. ~ bette-davis, @wisdomtrove 418:To make dictionaries is dull work. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 419:To play the second fiddle well." ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 420:To think too much is a disease. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 421:We all like motorcycles to some degree. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 422:We often despise what is most useful to us. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 423:We work to become, not to acquire. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 424:You are never too old to become younger! ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 425:You control the doorway to your mind. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 426:You design the life you want to have. ~ t-harv-eker, @wisdomtrove 427:You have to go, but I have to stay. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 428:America's best days are yet to come. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 429:And hold up to the sun my little taper. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 430:Art is an attempt to escape from life. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 431:Biography lends to death a new terror. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 432:Celebrate what you want to see more of. ~ tom-peters, @wisdomtrove 433:Criticism comes to those who stand out. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 434:Dawn: When men of reason go to bed. ~ ambrose-bierce, @wisdomtrove 435:Distance lends enchantment to the view. ~ mark-twain, @wisdomtrove 436:Don't be afraid to see what you see. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 437:Don't wait to be picked. Pick yourself. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 438:For things to change, you have to change. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 439:For you to win, no one needs to lose. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 440:How can you contrive to write so even? ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 441:How dark are all the ways of god to man! ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 442:I felt it shelter to speak to you. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 443:I have come not to teach but to awaken. ~ meher-baba, @wisdomtrove 444:I have miles to go before I sleep... ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 445:In labouring to be brief, I become obscure. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 446:In order to do more. I've got to be more. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 447:In time the bull is brought to wear the yoke. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 448:I shall be an Attila to Venice. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 449:It is better to travel well than to arrive. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 450:It is easy to be brave from a safe distance. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 451:It is easy to kick a person when he is down. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 452:It isn't possible to love and to part. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 453:It's kind of fun to do the impossible. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 454:It takes a habit to replace a habit. ~ napoleon-hill, @wisdomtrove 455:It takes a man to make a devil. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 456:It takes suffering to widen the soul. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 457:I want to paint the way a bird sings. ~ claude-monet, @wisdomtrove 458:I was born to enjoy life. And so it is. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 459:Jealousy dislikes the world to know it. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 460:Labor diligently to increase your property. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 461:Let me be the one To do what is done. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 462:Let the path be open to talent. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 463:Lies exist only to be extinguished. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 464:Life responds to deserve and not to need. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 465:Love hard when there is love to be had. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 466:Love is a friendship set to music. ~ joseph-campbell, @wisdomtrove 467:Merely to exist is not enough. ~ rabindranath-tagore, @wisdomtrove 468:None but those who work are entitled to eat. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 469:No one is coming to save you... ~ nathaniel-branden, @wisdomtrove 470:No thanks attach to a kindness long deferred. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 471:Now is the time to fix the next 10 years. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 472:Oh, how fine it is to know a thing or two. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 473:Resistance is the first step to change. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 474:Resolved to ruin or to rule the state. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 475:Rest when you need to, but never quit. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 476:Rumours voiced by women come to nothing. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 477:Science is a way to not fool ourselves. ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 478:Service to man is service to god ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 479:Shame must be accepted to be effective. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 480:Some things are too terrible to be true. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 481:Sometimes you have to fight with music. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 482:Speak politely to an enraged dragon. ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 483:The property of power is to protect. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 484:There is no end to renunciation. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 485:There is no rule on how to write. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 486:There will be time to murder and create. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 487:The thing we fear we bring to pass. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 488:The universe yields to me when I ask. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 489:To be and to have meaning are the same. ~ parmenides, @wisdomtrove 490:To be young is the only religion. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 491:To forget a Holocaust is to kill twice ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 492:To see things in the seed, that is genius. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 493:To write is human, to edit is divine. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 494:We are here to laugh at the odds. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 495:We lie best when we lie to ourselves. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 496:We neither of us perform to strangers. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 497:What drives me to you, drives me insane. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 498:What happens to you here is forever. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 499:What I am to be, I am becoming. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 500:Whoever is new to power is always harsh. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:and began to munch. ~ Mary Daheim, #NFDB
2:ashes to wings ~ Elizabeth Lesser, #NFDB
3:Be as you wish to seem ~ Socrates, #NFDB
4:Because we have to be ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
5:Be kind to yourself. ~ John Green, #NFDB
6:CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP ~ H G Wells, #NFDB
7:Every Reason to Lie ~ April Henry, #NFDB
8:get to kill there! ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
9:headed over to ~ Karen MacInerney, #NFDB
10:Him urging her to sin ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
11:hostages to fortune. ~ Donna Leon, #NFDB
12:I aim to misbehave. ~ Joss Whedon, #NFDB
13:I exist to scare you. ~ NisiOisiN, #NFDB
14:I FORGOT to tell Joe. ~ T J Klune, #NFDB
15:I’m here to break up. ~ Jenny Han, #NFDB
16:I prefer not to. ~ E L Konigsburg, #NFDB
17:It had need to bee ~ John Heywood, #NFDB
18:It is better to be ~ John Heywood, #NFDB
19:It's chic to be shy. ~ Plum Sykes, #NFDB
20:It’s hard to choose. ~ A G Riddle, #NFDB
21:It's okay to wander. ~ Tony Dungy, #NFDB
22:Its okay to wonder. ~ Ally Condie, #NFDB
23:I used to dream ~ Michael Jackson, #NFDB
24:I want to go to there. ~ Tina Fey, #NFDB
25:Live to regret it. ~ Heidi Heilig, #NFDB
26:on the drive over to ~ Gary Ponzo, #NFDB
27:Pain demands to be felt ~ Unknown, #NFDB
28:Repeat to remember. ~ John Medina, #NFDB
29:Sex is fun to sing about. ~ Mirah, #NFDB
30:She had to hoof it two ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
31:the man next to me. ~ Renee Rosen, #NFDB
32:the right to be a god ~ S D Perry, #NFDB
33:The right to life. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
34:The Way to do is to be. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
35:Tiger got to hunt ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
36:Time to talk to God. ~ Tim LaHaye, #NFDB
37:to be alienated ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
38:To Educate is to Free. ~ Jos Mart, #NFDB
39:To girls' night out! ~ Maya Banks, #NFDB
40:To lead, one must follow. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
41:to you. ~ Morgan Hannah MacDonald, #NFDB
42:tried to do you proud. ~ Lyn Cote, #NFDB
43:Welcome to death. ~ Diana Rowland, #NFDB
44:Welcome to Erehwyna! ~ Hal Duncan, #NFDB
45:When we come to it ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
46:You lied to us ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
47:amounting to about ~ F Paul Wilson, #NFDB
48:Be as you wish to seem. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
49:began to caw her best, but ~ Aesop, #NFDB
50:bent down closer to ~ Harlan Coben, #NFDB
51:changes to come. ~ Tracie Peterson, #NFDB
52:Choose To Be Inspired. ~ Joe Rogan, #NFDB
53:coming. She fought to ~ Lexi Hunt, #NFDB
54:cubes to blow torches. ~ C D Reiss, #NFDB
55:Dare to dream.” “But ~ Alex Segura, #NFDB
56:Ebooks had to happen. ~ Jeff Bezos, #NFDB
57:forward to feeling ~ Julie Klassen, #NFDB
58:Give me back to us! ~ Kate Griffin, #NFDB
59:go to schools with no ~ Ben Carson, #NFDB
60:him to get out of ~ Danielle Steel, #NFDB
61:Hints to Travellers, ~ David Grann, #NFDB
62:How are we to write ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
63:How to price yourself? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
64:I am doubting what to do. ~ Horace, #NFDB
65:I don't want to go ~ David Tennant, #NFDB
66:I like to do Pilates. ~ Yunjin Kim, #NFDB
67:I like to shock people. ~ Jo Brand, #NFDB
68:I'm too hot to care. ~ Sabaa Tahir, #NFDB
69:I need to be home this ~ E L James, #NFDB
70:I need to devour you. ~ Emily Snow, #NFDB
71:I need to go ~ Susan Kiernan Lewis, #NFDB
72:I run to run." ~ Tijan Sam ~ Tijan, #NFDB
73:It's too late to be ready. ~ D gen, #NFDB
74:It was fun to burn. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
75:I want to be a skater. ~ Lil Wayne, #NFDB
76:I want to marry you. ~ Kara Dalkey, #NFDB
77:I would like to bury ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
78:L'chaim!': To life! ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
79:Learn to Program BASIC ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
80:Let's learn to live! ~ Edgar Cayce, #NFDB
81:Like calls to like ~ Leigh Bardugo, #NFDB
82:live long enough to ~ Diana Palmer, #NFDB
83:Lots of ways to reach God, ~ Rumi, #NFDB
84:Nature loves to hide. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
85:No dream is ever to big. ~ Sabrina, #NFDB
86:NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE ~ Lisa McMann, #NFDB
87:Now is the time to drink! ~ Horace, #NFDB
88:Patience is the key to joy. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
89:Peaches. Talk to me. ~ Jaci Burton, #NFDB
90:Say no to asphalt! ~ John Bytheway, #NFDB
91:seek a way to give. ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
92:she goes to the girls. ~ M K Eidem, #NFDB
93:Shout to the top! ~ Rebecca McNutt, #NFDB
94:Snap to, Will Henry! ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
95:that one had to put ~ Benedict XVI, #NFDB
96:The key is to make it. ~ DJ Khaled, #NFDB
97:the lighter to the ~ Fern Michaels, #NFDB
98:them to do when they ~ Vince Flynn, #NFDB
99:To be is to do. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
100:to decide the right ~ Josie Silver, #NFDB
101:To live is to choose. ~ Kofi Annan, #NFDB
102:To love is to risk. ~ Merce Cardus, #NFDB
103:To persevere ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
104:To rebel is justified ~ Mao Zedong, #NFDB
105:trying to master it. ~ Peter Thiel, #NFDB
106:unknown to him then. ~ Nick Cutter, #NFDB
107:walked back to the ~ Fern Michaels, #NFDB
108:water wants to flow, ~ Holly Black, #NFDB
109:Welcome to Hogwarts, ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
110:We need to get below, ~ A G Riddle, #NFDB
111:who are sent to ~ Philippa Gregory, #NFDB
112:Will you talk to me ~ Kathy Reichs, #NFDB
113:wrote to me appealing ~ M C Beaton, #NFDB
114:You are here to kneel. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
115:You have to be tough. ~ Mike Ditka, #NFDB
116:You have to find a tribe. ~ RuPaul, #NFDB
117:According to what the ~ Amira Hass, #NFDB
118:Any success matters to me. ~ Ledisi, #NFDB
119:At a quarter to eleven, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
120:Be kind to each other. ~ Reggie Lee, #NFDB
121:Bollocks to should. ~ Nick Harkaway, #NFDB
122:Don't forget to vote. ~ Frank Zappa, #NFDB
123:everyone needs to hear. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
124:From the egg to the apple. ~ Horace, #NFDB
125:Hlaer to Jangr. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #NFDB
126:I aim to misbehave. ~ Brenna Aubrey, #NFDB
127:I aim to please. ~ Kristen Callihan, #NFDB
128:I can't say no to you. ~ Katie Reus, #NFDB
129:i chose not to run ~ Jerry Seinfeld, #NFDB
130:I'd like to meet you ~ Suzanne Vega, #NFDB
131:I don’t want to die, ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
132:If you want to change ~ T Harv Eker, #NFDB
133:I learn to affirm ~ Denise Levertov, #NFDB
134:I'm a menace to society, ~ Ice Cube, #NFDB
135:I'm going to ride the wave. ~ Tweet, #NFDB
136:I'm keeping to you ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
137:I PLUNGE TO MY DEATH ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
138:is to come to terms ~ Kelly M Kapic, #NFDB
139:It demands to be felt. ~ John Green, #NFDB
140:It is wealth to be content. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
141:I try to eat healthy. ~ Nina Dobrev, #NFDB
142:It's a sin to be tired. ~ Kate Moss, #NFDB
143:It's good to dream ~ Nadine Brandes, #NFDB
144:It's okay not to be okay ~ Jessie J, #NFDB
145:It's OK to not be OK ~ Robin Benway, #NFDB
146:It’s time to fight. ~ Pittacus Lore, #NFDB
147:It was to keep it whole. ~ E Nesbit, #NFDB
148:I want to be an icon. ~ Wiz Khalifa, #NFDB
149:I want to belong. ~ Justina Ireland, #NFDB
150:I work to stay alive. ~ Bette Davis, #NFDB
151:Juno: Honest to blog? ~ Diablo Cody, #NFDB
152:Just try to keep up. ~ Scott Snyder, #NFDB
153:Late to the Party ~ Kirkus MacGowan, #NFDB
154:Leaders have to lead. ~ John Kasich, #NFDB
155:Learn to Be Silent ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
156:Learn to speak by listening. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
157:Learn to wait on God. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
158:Like calls to like. ~ Leigh Bardugo, #NFDB
159:Like calls to like. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
160:Love is tied to truth. ~ John Green, #NFDB
161:Love taught me to cry ~ Damien Rice, #NFDB
162:Men who only live to eat. ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
163:My wish isn't to mean ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
164:Nature loves to hide. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
165:Never go to sleep ~ Thomas A Edison, #NFDB
166:Nobody said not to go. ~ Emily Hahn, #NFDB
167:One lives to find out. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
168:Thanks to men ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
169:To change the world ~ Dave Matthews, #NFDB
170:To each his own magic. ~ Libba Bray, #NFDB
171:To Educate is to Free. ~ Jose Marti, #NFDB
172:To Elskende
~ Christian Winther,#NFDB
173:To envy was to lack. ~ Kresley Cole, #NFDB
174:To give requires good sense. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
175:to hope was to expect ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
176:To live is enough. ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #NFDB
177:turn to page 394.” He ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
178:Wake up! Time to die! ~ Brion James, #NFDB
179:Want to sleep over? ~ Robin Bielman, #NFDB
180:Welcome to the New Raw! ~ John Cena, #NFDB
181:We must go to Athens. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
182:We’re going to fuck. ~ Andrea Smith, #NFDB
183:Would it hurt to die? ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
184:you know, to keep ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
185:able to help you out with ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
186:Algebraic to the limit! ~ Ryan North, #NFDB
187:A man polished to the nail. ~ Horace, #NFDB
188:Am I allowed to love you? ~ R S Grey, #NFDB
189:And I begin to learn. ~ Franz Wright, #NFDB
190:A slave to the desire. ~ Celia Aaron, #NFDB
191:Be - don't try to become. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
192:Be kind to dumb people. ~ Don Herold, #NFDB
193:belong to someone from ~ Viveca Sten, #NFDB
194:beshert. Meant to be. ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
195:Be true to thine own self ~ Socrates, #NFDB
196:Better to die, and sleep ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
197:Blood calls to blood. ~ Julie Kagawa, #NFDB
198:Borg turned to flee. ~ Wayne Simmons, #NFDB
199:brandy to sleep at night. ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
200:came to his side, ~ Glynnis Campbell, #NFDB
201:Come back to my bed. ~ Lorelei James, #NFDB
202:come-to-Jesus meeting in ~ Dan Lyons, #NFDB
203:Death means nothing to us ~ Epicurus, #NFDB
204:De To Kilder
~ Christian Winther,#NFDB
205:Do not dare not to dare. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
206:Don’t forget to breathe. ~ T L Smith, #NFDB
207:Don't go to the circus. ~ Angie Sage, #NFDB
208:Don't want to lose you. ~ Maya Banks, #NFDB
209:Excuse tries to justify. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
210:Fiddler on the Roof, to ~ Wendy Mass, #NFDB
211:Give your back to me. ~ Nora Sakavic, #NFDB
212:going to do everything ~ Nana Malone, #NFDB
213:going to the mattresses ~ Mario Puzo, #NFDB
214:He can afford to be a fool. ~ Horace, #NFDB
215:his head to be cut off ~ Jacob Grimm, #NFDB
216:I always want to rock. ~ Ronnie Wood, #NFDB
217:I'd like to levitate. ~ Rupert Grint, #NFDB
218:i'd like to see you try ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
219:I do know how to win. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
220:I gotta learn to rap. ~ Scott Disick, #NFDB
221:I listen to the wind, ~ Cat Stevens, #NFDB
222:I love to play music. ~ Gavin DeGraw, #NFDB
223:I love to take baths. ~ Rachel Weisz, #NFDB
224:I'm addicted to writing. ~ Sefi Atta, #NFDB
225:I’m addicted to you. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
226:—I need to meet you. ~ Tom Rob Smith, #NFDB
227:I try to be athletic. ~ Lara Spencer, #NFDB
228:It's a mystery to me; ~ Eddie Vedder, #NFDB
229:It's good to be alive. ~ Artie Lange, #NFDB
230:It's OK not to be OK. ~ Lindsey Kelk, #NFDB
231:I wanted to heckle life ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
232:I want it to be you. ~ N E Henderson, #NFDB
233:I want to be fearless. ~ Demi Lovato, #NFDB
234:I want to come back as me. ~ Ed Koch, #NFDB
235:I want to leave a mark. ~ John Green, #NFDB
236:I write to please myself. ~ Jim Goad, #NFDB
237:Just say no to drugs! ~ Nancy Reagan, #NFDB
238:Lead me to the cross ~ Brooke Fraser, #NFDB
239:Leave the rest to the gods. ~ Horace, #NFDB
240:Life is a song to me. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
241:my focus began to shift. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
242:newsletter to hear about ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
243:No man liveth to himself. ~ St. Paul, #NFDB
244:Nothing to be done. ~ Samuel Beckett, #NFDB
245:Our job is to execute. ~ Mark V Hurd, #NFDB
246:Pain demands to be felt ~ John Green, #NFDB
247:People want you to fail. ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
248:PRELUDE TO A NEW DREAM ~ Miguel Ruiz, #NFDB
249:Remember to remember! ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
250:She was about to die. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
251:she was desperate to ~ Emma Burstall, #NFDB
252:ten to one ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett, #NFDB
253:That’s useful to know. ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
254:The bitch had to go down. ~ J R Ward, #NFDB
255:THTL— too hot to live ~ Rachel Caine, #NFDB
256:to back us a bit more. ~ Vince Flynn, #NFDB
257:To be alive is to ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
258:To be dull is easy, ~ B K S Iyengar, #NFDB
259:To build is to dwell. ~ Maxine Kumin, #NFDB
260:To define is to limit. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
261:To let sorrow go his own way ~ Mario, #NFDB
262:To look at any thing, ~ John Moffitt, #NFDB
263:To lose is to win. ~ David Patneaude, #NFDB
264:To measure is to know. ~ Lord Kelvin, #NFDB
265:To me, you are magic. ~ Ren e Ahdieh, #NFDB
266:To risk is to live. ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
267:To summer, and to us. ~ Sarah Dessen, #NFDB
268:To Toronto City Council: ~ Geddy Lee, #NFDB
269:To travel is to shop. ~ Susan Sontag, #NFDB
270:To your tents, O Israel! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
271:Training to stay focused ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
272:Trust not to outward show. ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
273:trying to kill a tree. ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
274:want to hang on to your ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
275:We all want to be seen. ~ Emma Cline, #NFDB
276:Welcome to insanity. ~ Myra McEntire, #NFDB
277:Welcome to the team. ~ Toni Anderson, #NFDB
278:we’re both going to hell. ~ M Malone, #NFDB
279:We were born to be brave. ~ Bob Goff, #NFDB
280:Who gives to Aristaeus honey; ~ Ovid, #NFDB
281:Why do men go to zoos? ~ H L Mencken, #NFDB
282:would you dare to love me? ~ Shan Sa, #NFDB
283:You are going to die. ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
284:You DO know what to do. ~ Louise Hay, #NFDB
285:You have to be for me. ~ Jason Letts, #NFDB
286:You have to be someone. ~ Bob Marley, #NFDB
287:15:17 And when he came to ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
288:2 days to the U.N. ~ Joel C Rosenberg, #NFDB
289:4. Know when to stop. ~ Garr Reynolds, #NFDB
290:All girls want to be sexy. ~ Kid Rock, #NFDB
291:Always push to be creative. ~ Mod Sun, #NFDB
292:Amen to that. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
293:And so on to infinity ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
294:And to the rest of the world ~ Eminem, #NFDB
295:Back to Staten Island, ~ Andrew Gross, #NFDB
296:Be as you wish to seem.
~ Socrates,#NFDB
297:began to tingletingled ~ Paige Dearth, #NFDB
298:Be nice to old people. ~ Jaime Murray, #NFDB
299:Best to expect the worst. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
300:Be true to thine own self. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
301:cannot afford to sit ~ Debra Ginsberg, #NFDB
302:children get to bed now. ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
303:Come to the edge. ~ Christopher Logue, #NFDB
304:Courage to win ~ Lois Walfrid Johnson, #NFDB
305:Dare to be an optimist. ~ Matt Ridley, #NFDB
306:dated to the ninth ~ Zecharia Sitchin, #NFDB
307:Do I dare to eat a peach? ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
308:Do I have to dress up? ~ Chris Colfer, #NFDB
309:dressed to kill Koyasan ~ Darren Shan, #NFDB
310:Fire is next akin to smoke. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
311:had allowed Billy to slip ~ Lexi Hunt, #NFDB
312:Hard to say I'm sleeping. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
313:he tried to slow down and ~ Lexi Hunt, #NFDB
314:I am committed to glamour. ~ Rita Ora, #NFDB
315:I am; I was. I want to be. ~ Joe Hill, #NFDB
316:I am too old to think. ~ Keith Miller, #NFDB
317:I aspire to be useful. ~ Anthony Foxx, #NFDB
318:I came to heal, not deal. ~ T F Hodge, #NFDB
319:I’d have to eat that ~ Cheryl Strayed, #NFDB
320:I don't know how to live. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
321:I don't like to fight. ~ June Allyson, #NFDB
322:I DON’T WANT TO GO. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
323:If destiny comes to help you, ~ Rumi, #NFDB
324:I get paid to not laugh. ~ Julia Barr, #NFDB
325:I got to learn to surf. ~ Sheryl Crow, #NFDB
326:I have started to say ~ Philip Larkin, #NFDB
327:i hope i live to be 150 ~ Matthew Fox, #NFDB
328:I just want to be happy. ~ Kate Perry, #NFDB
329:I just want to marry you. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
330:I like to be counted on. ~ Jeff Bezos, #NFDB
331:I like to be who I am. ~ Hal Holbrook, #NFDB
332:I loved to fall down. ~ Dick Van Dyke, #NFDB
333:I love to write poetry. ~ Shayne Ward, #NFDB
334:I'm a geek to the bone. ~ Jeff Dunham, #NFDB
335:I must learn to love you. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
336:In addition to this guide ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
337:I need you to live. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
338:I never dress to shock. ~ Leona Lewis, #NFDB
339:I plan to live to be 120! ~ Teri Garr, #NFDB
340:I refuse to be. In ~ Marina Tsvetaeva, #NFDB
341:It is a sin to write this. ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
342:It is grievous to be caught. ~ Horace, #NFDB
343:It loved to happen. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
344:It's cooler to be strong. ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
345:It's nice to be nice. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
346:It’s okay to be broken. ~ Callie Hart, #NFDB
347:It's time to duel! ~ Kazuki Takahashi, #NFDB
348:I’ve got to get ghost. ~ Kresley Cole, #NFDB
349:I wanted to be a jockey. ~ Davy Jones, #NFDB
350:I wanted to,” she argued. ~ J S Scott, #NFDB
351:I want to be a machine. ~ Andy Warhol, #NFDB
352:I want to be dictator. ~ Gene Simmons, #NFDB
353:I want to die. ~ Jackie Morse Kessler, #NFDB
354:I was not born to wait. ~ Gwenda Bond, #NFDB
355:I was raised to pretend. ~ Anne Heche, #NFDB
356:Listen to the whispers. ~ R J Palacio, #NFDB
357:Love loves to love love ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
358:Make it easy to believe. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
359:My service to humanity ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
360:Never be afraid to dream. ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
361:no color to call white. ~ Danez Smith, #NFDB
362:No, no, no to Tallyho. ~ Sarah Dessen, #NFDB
363:Note to self: don't die. ~ Ryan Adams, #NFDB
364:Nothing to be done.. ~ Samuel Beckett, #NFDB
365:Pain demands to be felt, ~ John Green, #NFDB
366:Pain demands to be felt. ~ John Green, #NFDB
367:Pains demand to be felt. ~ John Green, #NFDB
368:Poetry to me is prayer. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
369:Remember to be awesome. ~ Umair Haque, #NFDB
370:Rookies tend to show off. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
371:seem to bear flowers or ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
372:She returned to her car. ~ Dale Mayer, #NFDB
373:Speak truth to power. ~ Milan Kundera, #NFDB
374:stay True To Pursue ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
375:Stones taught me to fly ~ Damien Rice, #NFDB
376:supposed to live a ~ Philippa Gregory, #NFDB
377:That’s up to your daddy now. ~ G Neri, #NFDB
378:their way to becoming ~ Steve Martini, #NFDB
379:The small is easy to scatter. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
380:The tendency to cruelty ~ John Locke, #NFDB
381:THREE TO GET DEADLY ~ Janet Evanovich, #NFDB
382:Time to toss the dice ~ Robert Jordan, #NFDB
383:to be ME, Merewyn. These ~ Anya Seton, #NFDB
384:To Bonneskrifter
~ Ambrosius Stub,#NFDB
385:To change one's life: ~ William James, #NFDB
386:To change your LIFE ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
387:To dream costs nothing. ~ Luis Marden, #NFDB
388:To find is the thing. ~ Pablo Picasso, #NFDB
389:To have died once is enough. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
390:To have little is to possess. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
391:To hell with Trish's nose! ~ Jim Ross, #NFDB
392:to know way more about ~ Lisa Plumley, #NFDB
393:Told you to buy a Mac. ~ Abigail Roux, #NFDB
394:"To live is enough." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #NFDB
395:Took a vow to protect and serve, ~ Ka, #NFDB
396:To perceive is to suffer. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
397:To pile Pelion upon Olympus. ~ Horace, #NFDB
398:To react is one's choice. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
399:To the Church in Pergamum ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
400:to the Forgotten District ~ Sara King, #NFDB
401:To tolerate is to insult. ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
402:transparent aluminum to ~ Jerry Aubin, #NFDB
403:use in even trying to. I ~ K Bromberg, #NFDB
404:want to forget Silas ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
405:Want to try tomorrow? ~ Kendra Elliot, #NFDB
406:We can promise to try. ~ Chris Colfer, #NFDB
407:We commute to computers ~ Talib Kweli, #NFDB
408:WELL I BELONG TO YOU! ~ Jamie McGuire, #NFDB
409:We often need to be refreshed. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
410:What happened to her now? ~ C L Stone, #NFDB
411:worse. She wanted to ~ Liane Moriarty, #NFDB
412:Would you like to have ~ Aaron Elkins, #NFDB
413:Write to your fear. ~ Dorothy Allison, #NFDB
414:you and I have a score to ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
415:You are bravery to me. ~ Ava Dellaira, #NFDB
416:You have to be unique. ~ Phil Jackson, #NFDB
417:you still have to eat. ~ Miriam Toews, #NFDB
418:5. Keep to the middle. ~ Garr Reynolds, #NFDB
419:adding value to them. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
420:A hard man is good to find. ~ Mae West, #NFDB
421:Ah, hell to the no, woman, ~ C D Reiss, #NFDB
422:All is to be doubted. ~ Rene Descartes, #NFDB
423:and the doors to Mid-World, ~ Joe Hill, #NFDB
424:Annabeth wanted to sob. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
425:A novena to the darkness ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
426:Balls to ten minutes. ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
427:Be gracious to me, O LORD! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
428:Be kind to the living. ~ James McBride, #NFDB
429:Be, the money will come to you. ~ Sark, #NFDB
430:Be ye kind one to another. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
431:Brave. - Cassel, to Lila ~ Holly Black, #NFDB
432:Cease to ask what the morrow ~ Horace, #NFDB
433:Chalk one up to ingenuity. ~ Lia Habel, #NFDB
434:cool to room temperature. ~ Ina Garten, #NFDB
435:Dare to think for yourself. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
436:De To Cousiner
~ Christian Winther,#NFDB
437:Don't forget to smolder! ~ Holly Black, #NFDB
438:Don't give pain to others. ~ Gary Kemp, #NFDB
439:Don't try to change the world. ~ Mooji, #NFDB
440:Each draws to his best-loved. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
441:enough to show the black ~ Donna Tartt, #NFDB
442:Fear is the devil to hide. ~ P D James, #NFDB
443:Flame is very near to smoke. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
444:Good to evil seems evil ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
445:Go to him, Sweet Pea. ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
446:Grace only exists to be ~ Glen Duncan, #NFDB
447:hand. “Care to explain ~ Maggie Shayne, #NFDB
448:Hold firmly to your word. ~ Maimonides, #NFDB
449:hot enough to disperse ~ Melinda Leigh, #NFDB
450:How easy it is to love. ~ Tove Jansson, #NFDB
451:I always wanted to rebel. ~ Kim Gordon, #NFDB
452:I choose when to die ~ Rhiannon Frater, #NFDB
453:I didn't go to college. ~ Shelby Lynne, #NFDB
454:I'd like to bite that lip. ~ E L James, #NFDB
455:I do like to sing to God! ~ Jenny Lind, #NFDB
456:I do not dare not to dare. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
457:I have nothing to hide! ~ Kat Dennings, #NFDB
458:I have to enjoy every moment. ~ Neymar, #NFDB
459:I just want to be myself. ~ Jim Carrey, #NFDB
460:I like to chew candles. ~ J D Salinger, #NFDB
461:I like to sing love songs. ~ Doris Day, #NFDB
462:I love to be surprised. ~ Vera Farmiga, #NFDB
463:I love to read aloud. ~ Cornelia Funke, #NFDB
464:I'm drawn to bad romances. ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
465:I'm not too proud to beg. ~ Maya Banks, #NFDB
466:I’m too young to die. ~ David Walliams, #NFDB
467:I needed to touch you. ~ Lorelei James, #NFDB
468:in to Reader’s Digest. ~ John Sandford, #NFDB
469:I owe it all to Jesus. ~ Aaron Neville, #NFDB
470:I plan to die at my desk. ~ Don Hewitt, #NFDB
471:I raise my pelvis to God ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
472:I really do hate to sing. ~ Lena Horne, #NFDB
473:I tend to scare myself. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
474:It is our part to seek, ~ Saint Jerome, #NFDB
475:It’s all right to wonder ~ Ally Condie, #NFDB
476:It's good to be in love. ~ Kim Edwards, #NFDB
477:It's good to be queen. ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
478:It's great to be queen! ~ Helen Mirren, #NFDB
479:It's illegal to be naked. ~ Kanye West, #NFDB
480:It's okay to be different ~ Gerard Way, #NFDB
481:It’s okay to grow slowly. ~ Lara Casey, #NFDB
482:It’s time to bait a trap. ~ Katie Reus, #NFDB
483:It’s time to stop running. ~ Lia Davis, #NFDB
484:It's up to history to judge. ~ Pol Pot, #NFDB
485:It was fun to be clever. ~ David Bowie, #NFDB
486:It was time to kill, not love. ~ Tijan, #NFDB
487:I used to be someone. ~ Mary E Pearson, #NFDB
488:I used to vote Democrat. ~ Herman Cain, #NFDB
489:I've been to 57 states. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
490:I wanted to be a painter. ~ Max Cannon, #NFDB
491:I wanted to stay... me. ~ Kelly Keaton, #NFDB
492:I want to be left alone. ~ Greta Garbo, #NFDB
493:I want to die painting. ~ Paul Cezanne, #NFDB
494:I want to eat your life ~ Lauren Groff, #NFDB
495:i want to honeymoon myself ~ Rupi Kaur, #NFDB
496:I want to live quietly. ~ Mary MacLane, #NFDB
497:i want to remember ~ Maggie Stiefvater, #NFDB
498:I will never be able to... ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
499:I wish to die painting. ~ Paul Cezanne, #NFDB
500:I wish… to kiss you now. ~ Tillie Cole, #NFDB
501:I write-down to speak-up. ~ M K Asante, #NFDB
502:know how” to “do now. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
503:Labor gives birth to ideas. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
504:Life begins to happen. ~ Robert Lowell, #NFDB
505:Life's too short to hate. ~ Tito Ortiz, #NFDB
506:Love loves to love love. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
507:Love means to reach for the sky ~ Rumi, #NFDB
508:Need. To. Read. Faster. ~ Soraya Naomi, #NFDB
509:Never leave fish to find fish. ~ Moses, #NFDB
510:No Alchymy to saving. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
511:Oh, lady be good To me. ~ Ira Gershwin, #NFDB
512:Pain demands to be felt". ~ John Green, #NFDB
513:Pakao, to su drugi. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
514:Pomp is contrary to the Tao. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
515:Put legs to your prayers ~ Ray Comfort, #NFDB
516:Sapere aude. Dare to be wise. ~ Horace, #NFDB
517:she returned to them. ~ Kristin Hannah, #NFDB
518:Silence is the best reply to a fool. ~, #NFDB
519:smile! you're designed to. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
520:So, want to be my sister wife? ~ Tijan, #NFDB
521:Stillness is easy to maintain. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
522:Submit to love without thinking ~ Rumi, #NFDB
523:that seemed the easiest to ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
524:The Ability to Calm Down ~ Mary Pipher, #NFDB
525:The Courage to Teach, ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
526:the front porches to the ~ Sarah Price, #NFDB
527:The internet lied to me? ~ Holly Smale, #NFDB
528:The key is to have energy. ~ DJ Khaled, #NFDB
529:The main idea is to win. ~ John McGraw, #NFDB
530:the ranch to the south. ~ Scott McEwen, #NFDB
531:There's more to Life than this ~ Bjork, #NFDB
532:the Tony goes to 142 words ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
533:they flew He had to spew… ~ Lisa Graff, #NFDB
534:They sell crap to buy you. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
535:This shit's got to go. ~ Jacque Fresco, #NFDB
536:Time to the face the music, ~ J R Ward, #NFDB
537:To assume is to presume. ~ Jude Morgan, #NFDB
538:TO BE CONTINUED . . ~ Corinne Michaels, #NFDB
539:To be human is erroneous. ~ Karl Kraus, #NFDB
540:To be of few words is natural. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
541:to block his way. “What ~ Andrew Gross, #NFDB
542:To choose is also to begin. ~ Starhawk, #NFDB
543:to love without sanction, ~ Hugh Howey, #NFDB
544:Tom. "I'd like to ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
545:To read, to seek, to know. ~ Matt Haig, #NFDB
546:To revive sorrow is cruel. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
547:To step aside is human. ~ Robert Burns, #NFDB
548:To think is to be sick. ~ Djuna Barnes, #NFDB
549:To try to live. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer, #NFDB
550:Trust is everything to men ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
551:TRY NOT TO EAT ALONE. ~ Michael Pollan, #NFDB
552:Use your art to fight. ~ Arundhati Roy, #NFDB
553:Water is the key to life, man. ~ Dessa, #NFDB
554:We all want to be seen. — ~ Emma Cline, #NFDB
555:We are born to imagine ~ Jessie Burton, #NFDB
556:We are free to choose. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
557:We are who we choose to be, ~ L J Shen, #NFDB
558:We consume to avoid living. ~ Gish Jen, #NFDB
559:Welcome to the kingdom ~ Tiffany Reisz, #NFDB
560:What happened to romance? ~ Alex Flinn, #NFDB
561:When I lie down to love, ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
562:Will you ever own up to ~ Brandon Mull, #NFDB
563:Winners have to absorb losses. ~ Ice T, #NFDB
564:You are always new to me. ~ John Keats, #NFDB
565:You have to invent life. ~ Agnes Varda, #NFDB
566:You have to look good. ~ Benny Goodman, #NFDB
567:You have to take chances. ~ Matt Sorum, #NFDB
568:You have to trust yourself. ~ Joe Buck, #NFDB
569:You make me want to be. ~ Lisa Kessler, #NFDB
570:You only need to sleep. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
571:You ought to dream. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
572:You want to be dominated. ~ Maya Banks, #NFDB
573:6. You want to help him. ~ Bisco Hatori, #NFDB
574:A day to God is a thousand years, ~ RZA, #NFDB
575:And to thy husband's will ~ John Milton, #NFDB
576:A truce to idle phrases! ~ Aristophanes, #NFDB
577:Back to the future of print ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
578:Become important to others. ~ Jon Jones, #NFDB
579:Be grateful to everyone. ~ Pema Chödrön, #NFDB
580:be in it to win it. ~ Chris Grabenstein, #NFDB
581:Be who you seem to be. ~ Maggie Osborne, #NFDB
582:but I want you to put him down. ~ Plato, #NFDB
583:Can I come to you now? ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
584:Cats love to sleep softly. ~ Theocritus, #NFDB
585:Change before you have to. ~ Jack Welch, #NFDB
586:Christ, not to pour out his ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
587:come back, come back to me ~ Ian McEwan, #NFDB
588:come back, come back to me ~ Ian Mcewan, #NFDB
589:Dancing came easy to me. ~ Hedda Hopper, #NFDB
590:Dedicate one's life to truth. ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
591:DEDICATION To Staci ~ Patricia Cornwell, #NFDB
592:Don't forget to be awesome ~ Hank Green, #NFDB
593:Don't lie to a liar, ~ Victoria Aveyard, #NFDB
594:Don't lie to a liar. ~ Victoria Aveyard, #NFDB
595:Don’t lie to a liar, ~ Victoria Aveyard, #NFDB
596:Don’t lie to a liar. ~ Victoria Aveyard, #NFDB
597:Do you want to be my dad? ~ Jim Butcher, #NFDB
598:early days.) Went to Laura ~ Andy Cohen, #NFDB
599:ecosystem than to educate ~ Sandra Hill, #NFDB
600:Even genius is tied to profit. ~ Pindar, #NFDB
601:Everybody likes to win. ~ Robert Duvall, #NFDB
602:Fail your way to success. ~ Bear Grylls, #NFDB
603:Faultless to a fault. ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
604:Forget thyself to marble. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
605:gifts according to the law: ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
606:God, I want to die in you. ~ Katy Evans, #NFDB
607:good parent—to ~ Barbara Claypole White, #NFDB
608:Good to evil seems evil. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
609:Hard to animals, hard to men. ~ Proverb, #NFDB
610:Hawaii ain't a bad place to work. ~ T I, #NFDB
611:her to me and asked if I ~ Dick Francis, #NFDB
612:Hold firmly to your word. ~ Maimonides, #NFDB
613:Honesty leads to peace. ~ Veronica Roth, #NFDB
614:Honey, I forgot to duck ~ Ronald Reagan, #NFDB
615:I advise you to pray. ~ Katherine Arden, #NFDB
616:I always played to win. ~ Hansie Cronje, #NFDB
617:I always want to work. ~ Mary McCormack, #NFDB
618:I am happy to have served, ~ M L Forman, #NFDB
619:Ideas are fatal to caste. ~ E M Forster, #NFDB
620:I didn’t even want to try. ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
621:I'd love to direct again. ~ Ruth Wilson, #NFDB
622:I don't aim to offend. ~ Billy Connolly, #NFDB
623:I don't want to disappear. ~ Jean Genet, #NFDB
624:I don't want to travel. ~ Werner Herzog, #NFDB
625:I failed my way to success. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
626:if Rand was equal to Old ~ H Beam Piper, #NFDB
627:If you wish to be loved, love. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
628:I get to surf every day. ~ Brandon Cruz, #NFDB
629:I had no desire to say no. ~ Kyra Davis, #NFDB
630:I happen to be pro-life. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
631:I have gone to the forest ~ Knut Hamsun, #NFDB
632:I hope to have gathered ~ Matsuo Basho, #NFDB
633:I just want to not be me. ~ Ned Vizzini, #NFDB
634:I keep myself to myself. ~ Katie Heaney, #NFDB
635:I learned to love despair. ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
636:I like down-to-earth people. ~ Amos Lee, #NFDB
637:I like to go to bed early. ~ Jenna Bush, #NFDB
638:I’ll tell you how to burn, ~ John Keats, #NFDB
639:I’m not in the mood to die. ~ C D Reiss, #NFDB
640:I'm prone to paper cuts. ~ Abigail Roux, #NFDB
641:I'm waiting for the king to arrive ~ JR, #NFDB
642:I need to get back. ~ Alexandra Bracken, #NFDB
643:I need to learn every day. ~ Judi Dench, #NFDB
644:I need you to let me go. ~ Nora Sakavic, #NFDB
645:I never want to be pretentious. ~ Kesha, #NFDB
646:I stand up to people. ~ Keith Olbermann, #NFDB
647:It costs a lot to live. ~ Gillian Flynn, #NFDB
648:It is horrid to smirk. ~ Helen Fielding, #NFDB
649:I try to keep an even keel. ~ Dan Fouts, #NFDB
650:It's all right to wonder. ~ Ally Condie, #NFDB
651:It's a sin to bore people. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
652:It's cool to be healthy. ~ Dick Gregory, #NFDB
653:It’s enough to die of ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
654:It's not time to worry yet ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
655:It was too cold to dream ~ Ahdaf Soueif, #NFDB
656:I used to be a conservative. ~ Jeb Bush, #NFDB
657:I've been known to preach. ~ Kevin Hart, #NFDB
658:I want to be a champion. ~ Kevin Durant, #NFDB
659:I want to change a lot. ~ Courteney Cox, #NFDB
660:I was made to feel special. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
661:I will never lie to you. ~ Jimmy Carter, #NFDB
662:I would like to direct. ~ Aaron Eckhart, #NFDB
663:i would prefer not to ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
664:I write to reach eternity ~ James Jones, #NFDB
665:L'chaim. It means 'to life. ~ Meg Cabot, #NFDB
666:Listen to me brother! bring the ~ Kabir, #NFDB
667:live to ride, ride to live ~ Jay Dobyns, #NFDB
668:Love is what it takes to fly ~ Yoko Ono, #NFDB
669:Love's all in all to women. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
670:Meandering leads to perfection. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
671:My heart is yours to break ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
672:Nature does not have to insist. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
673:Never say no to now ~ Benny Bellamacina, #NFDB
674:Nobody wants to phone me, ~ Cole Porter, #NFDB
675:Nothing is here to stay ~ Dave Matthews, #NFDB
676:Not To Decide Is To Decide ~ Harvey Cox, #NFDB
677:One day is equal to every day. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
678:One must travel, to learn. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
679:Open to me, so that I may open. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
680:options It's possible to be ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
681:Power to the peaceful! ~ Michael Franti, #NFDB
682:presidents had to make ~ David Baldacci, #NFDB
683:Put your shoulder to the wheel. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
684:Quick! To the Bat-Fax! ~ Bill Watterson, #NFDB
685:Say no to parking lots! ~ John Bytheway, #NFDB
686:So happy just to be alive, ~ Bob Dylan, #NFDB
687:Some kneel and lie to God. ~ Elton John, #NFDB
688:Someone has to remember. ~ Lisa Roecker, #NFDB
689:Step to this and get shanked up ~ Big L, #NFDB
690:The Best Is Yet To Be ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
691:The brittle is easy to shatter. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
692:The main thing is to win. ~ John McGraw, #NFDB
693:The only way to measure a lover ~ Rumi, #NFDB
694:They don't want you to win. ~ DJ Khaled, #NFDB
695:Thinking is common to all. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
696:This angel wants to sin. ~ Kendall Grey, #NFDB
697:this was going to work. ~ Gregory Berns, #NFDB
698:Thug Life to me is dead. ~ Tupac Shakur, #NFDB
699:To achieve, you need thought ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
700:To a dusty shelf we aspire. ~ A S Byatt, #NFDB
701:To be known, you must teach ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
702:To carry timber into the wood. ~ Horace, #NFDB
703:To dance is to live! ~ Charles M Schulz, #NFDB
704:To do is to be. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau, #NFDB
705:To each our own Hamlet. ~ Jasper Fforde, #NFDB
706:To forget God is a waste of Time. ~ JB, #NFDB
707:To grow a philosopher's beard. ~ Horace, #NFDB
708:To learn is to change. ~ George Leonard, #NFDB
709:To love is an active verb. ~ Ogden Nash, #NFDB
710:To love is to destroy ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
711:to love is to destroy ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
712:To me, style is consistency. ~ Adam Ant, #NFDB
713:To us, summer was a verb ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
714:To wander is to be alive. ~ Roman Payne, #NFDB
715:Villains are fun to play. ~ Edi Gathegi, #NFDB
716:wandering off to bars. “I ~ Evan Thomas, #NFDB
717:We are free to yield to truth. ~ Horace, #NFDB
718:Welcome To My Nightmare! ~ Alice Cooper, #NFDB
719:We like to be deceived. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
720:Well, art has to be sexy. ~ Wade Guyton, #NFDB
721:were changed to an ENS file. ~ Joe Hart, #NFDB
722:We're here to have a ball. ~ Art Blakey, #NFDB
723:were so looking forward to ~ Jan Bowles, #NFDB
724:We travel just to travel. ~ Che Guevara, #NFDB
725:We two are to ourselves a crowd. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
726:What a pure way to die. ~ Gillian Flynn, #NFDB
727:Whatever He says to you, do ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
728:What gods do you pray to? ~ Gerry Lopez, #NFDB
729:What is it to be wise? ~ Alexander Pope, #NFDB
730:When he returned to the ~ Josephine Cox, #NFDB
731:Who Has Won to Mastership ~ Jack London, #NFDB
732:Will loved to gallop. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
733:(wonderful to relate) ~ Thomas Bulfinch, #NFDB
734:Yogis love to be alone. ~ Dharma Mittra, #NFDB
735:you belong only to yourself ~ Rupi Kaur, #NFDB
736:You gotta live it to feel it, ~ Eminem, #NFDB
737:You have to open up on stage. ~ Karen O, #NFDB
738:You have to take risks. ~ Perry Farrell, #NFDB
739:You know how to show a girl ~ E L James, #NFDB
740:You're going to ruin me. ~ Kenya Wright, #NFDB
741:You roll back to me. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
742:You sing me to sleep. ~ Angela Morrison, #NFDB
743:Adam managed to interrupt ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
744:A Farewell to Arms To ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
745:Ah, to be young and in love. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
746:A lie never lives to be old. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
747:All paths lead me to you. ~ Truth Devour, #NFDB
748:Always look to the positive. ~ Lia Davis, #NFDB
749:and I want to shatter. He ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
750:are limited by procedure to ~ Dale Brown, #NFDB
751:Are you glad to see me? ~ Aprilynne Pike, #NFDB
752:Be kind to an old man. ~ Walter Cronkite, #NFDB
753:Be. Nice. To. Each. Other! ~ Mateus Ward, #NFDB
754:Be true to your Dick. ~ Vladimir Nabokov, #NFDB
755:Birding to Change the World, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
756:Bollocks to the rules! ~ William Golding, #NFDB
757:Boy, do I hate to lose. ~ Peyton Manning, #NFDB
758:But she won, I had to go. ~ Rebecca West, #NFDB
759:But to those who kept saying ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
760:Cheers to strong genes. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
761:Complacency leads to redundancy ~ Poppet, #NFDB
762:could convince Peter to leave ~ J D Horn, #NFDB
763:Courage is knowing what to fear. ~ Plato, #NFDB
764:courage to say the word, ~ Lucinda Riley, #NFDB
765:Dare to be naive. ~ R Buckminster Fuller, #NFDB
766:Dare to be naïve. ~ R Buckminster Fuller, #NFDB
767:Delay not to seize the hour! ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
768:Did you forget to evolve? ~ Cath Crowley, #NFDB
769:Drove me to my new life. ~ Tara Westover, #NFDB
770:Endeavor to live the life. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
771:Faith is important to me. ~ Vera Farmiga, #NFDB
772:Fenwick, sitting down to ~ Laura Lippman, #NFDB
773:Fold and live to fold again. ~ Stu Ungar, #NFDB
774:from Tokyo to Managua, ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
775:glass beads to his kitchen. ~ R P Dahlke, #NFDB
776:God has work for you to do. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
777:God turned to speak to me ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
778:Good to evil seems evil a ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
779:Go to the devil, I'm busy. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
780:Harry was used to spiders, ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
781:have always needed to know. ~ Pam Jenoff, #NFDB
782:He had to find her. “No, ~ Tarryn Fisher, #NFDB
783:her the next six weeks to ~ Lisa Jackson, #NFDB
784:He said to them, “Follow me, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
785:He too knows how to lose. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
786:He was right to be afraid. ~ Celia Aaron, #NFDB
787:I am a hard man to replace. ~ Junot D az, #NFDB
788:I am here to live out loud. ~ mile Zola, #NFDB
789:I'd love to be a rockstar. ~ Tyler Posey, #NFDB
790:I'd love to do a drama. ~ Jason Sudeikis, #NFDB
791:I do not sleep to dream ~ Martin Carter, #NFDB
792:I don't have anything to hide. ~ Rihanna, #NFDB
793:I don't intend to die. ~ Jack Kent Cooke, #NFDB
794:I don't intend to retire. ~ Bobby Knight, #NFDB
795:If men must beg to live, ~ Thiruvalluvar, #NFDB
796:If you want to be strong, be. ~ L J Shen, #NFDB
797:If you wish to write, write. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
798:I go to school by bus ~ Franklin W Dixon, #NFDB
799:I had to laugh like hell ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
800:I have gone to the forest. ~ Knut Hamsun, #NFDB
801:I have to be perfectly honest: ~ Big Pun, #NFDB
802:I have to grow with my audience. ~ Ice T, #NFDB
803:I have to stop getting shot ~ Barry Lyga, #NFDB
804:I like music to soothe me. ~ Helen Reddy, #NFDB
805:I love to spend money. ~ Roberto Cavalli, #NFDB
806:I'm determined to be a diva. ~ Lexa Doig, #NFDB
807:I'm going to escape now. ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
808:I'm not easy to deal with. ~ Jaci Burton, #NFDB
809:I’m not going to complain, ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
810:I'm too excited to sleep! ~ Mindy Kaling, #NFDB
811:I'm working myself to death. ~ Alan Ladd, #NFDB
812:including and not limited to ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
813:interesting to ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett, #NFDB
814:I paint in order not to cry. ~ Paul Klee, #NFDB
815:I really like to cook. ~ Abigail Breslin, #NFDB
816:It all adds up to normality. ~ Greg Egan, #NFDB
817:It didn’t occur to me for ~ Kelly Rimmer, #NFDB
818:It is absurd to ape our betters. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
819:I try not to be hateful. ~ Brad Williams, #NFDB
820:It’s always good to go home. ~ Lisa Lutz, #NFDB
821:It’s hard to be special. ~ Matthew Quick, #NFDB
822:It's kind of fun to be sexy. ~ Tea Leoni, #NFDB
823:It's not time to worry yet. ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
824:It’s okay not to be perfect, ~ J S Scott, #NFDB
825:It's time to undo Rahim. ~ Nadia Hashimi, #NFDB
826:It was a pleasure to burn ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
827:It wasn’t fair to Claire ~ Aleatha Romig, #NFDB
828:I used to say I and Me ~ Michael Jackson, #NFDB
829:I've always wanted to act. ~ Shayne Ward, #NFDB
830:I've lost my heart to you. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
831:I want my name to mean me. ~ Mark Haddon, #NFDB
832:I want to be a star, ~ Jacqueline Wilson, #NFDB
833:I want to feel you shatter ~ Celia Aaron, #NFDB
834:I would prefer not to. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
835:Just say no to pillaging. ~ Nancy Farmer, #NFDB
836:leaning in to vulnerability ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
837:LEARN HOW TO GROW ZOMBIES ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
838:Learn to ignore everything ~ Marilyn Lee, #NFDB
839:Learn to write by writing ~ Ann Patchett, #NFDB
840:Life has to be dangerous. ~ Alain Robert, #NFDB
841:Listen to presences inside poems. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
842:Listen to the inner light; ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
843:Ma, I’m going to enlist. ~ Stephen Crane, #NFDB
844:Man by nature wants to know. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
845:Music is an incitement to love. ~ Horace, #NFDB
846:My mind wants to interpret ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
847:Never forget to dream. ~ Madonna Ciccone, #NFDB
848:newcomer to Westbury. If ~ Melinda Leigh, #NFDB
849:Next to God, thy parents. ~ William Penn, #NFDB
850:Nina, it’s okay to love him. ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
851:Nobody came to Jakku. ~ Alan Dean Foster, #NFDB
852:Nobody wants to hear me rap. ~ Joe Mauer, #NFDB
853:No person writes to win awards. ~ Mo Yan, #NFDB
854:Nothing human is foreign to me ~ Terence, #NFDB
855:Nothing is given to you. ~ Robert Greene, #NFDB
856:Not to decide is to decide. ~ Harvey Cox, #NFDB
857:One down, forever to go, ~ Jamie McGuire, #NFDB
858:One down, forever to go. ~ Jamie McGuire, #NFDB
859:Only fools want to be great. ~ T H White, #NFDB
860:Only ninnies go to Penny's. ~ Libba Bray, #NFDB
861:Only one way to deal with ~ Karina Bliss, #NFDB
862:Only the weak need to lie, ~ Jeannie Lin, #NFDB
863:Pay no attention to haters, ~ Cher Lloyd, #NFDB
864:People like to own things. ~ Frank Zappa, #NFDB
865:Read in order to live ~ Gustave Flaubert, #NFDB
866:Rules are meant to be broken ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
867:Said the pot to the kettle, ~ John Green, #NFDB
868:Say hello...to the BAD GUY! ~ Scott Hall, #NFDB
869:She made love to break love. ~ Jane Rule, #NFDB
870:So To Hai Khacera
~ Ashok Chakradhar,#NFDB
871:Stick to your instincts. ~ Tina Weymouth, #NFDB
872:Submit to love without thinking, ~ Rumi, #NFDB
873:Sucks to your ass-mar! ~ William Golding, #NFDB
874:teenagers to eat without ~ Kimberly Lang, #NFDB
875:Thanks. But I have to do ~ Susan Mallery, #NFDB
876:That has to be a mistake— ~ Leddy Harper, #NFDB
877:The answer to 1984 is 1776. ~ Alex Jones, #NFDB
878:The best is yet to be. ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
879:The God knows when to smile. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
880:The meaning of life is to see. ~ Huineng, #NFDB
881:There is no time to fail. ~ Ashley Bryan, #NFDB
882:There is no truth to find. ~ Miguel Ruiz, #NFDB
883:The worst is yet to come. ~ Ryan Holiday, #NFDB
884:They don't want you to win. ~ D J Khaled, #NFDB
885:They wanted to open the box. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
886:Thus shall you go to the stars. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
887:Time for the world to end. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
888:Time is flying never to return. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
889:To be alive──is Power. ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
890:to be a way to prove it. ~ Russell Blake, #NFDB
891:To begin, begin.
~ William Wordsworth,#NFDB
892:To behold the day-break! ~ Walt Whitman, #NFDB
893:To be is to be perceived. ~ John Wheeler, #NFDB
894:To be soft is to be powerful ~ Rupi Kaur, #NFDB
895:To be worn out is to be renewed. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
896:to carry the ribbons from ~ Karin Tanabe, #NFDB
897:To clarify, *add* data. ~ Edward R Tufte, #NFDB
898:To each his own fear'; ~ Rudyard Kipling, #NFDB
899:to eat meat was to eat fear ~ Emma Cline, #NFDB
900:To get rich is glorious. ~ Deng Xiaoping, #NFDB
901:to give a speech, then? ~ Susan Meissner, #NFDB
902:To know, I have to write. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
903:To know. Not to know about. ~ Ted Dekker, #NFDB
904:To love God all-powerless. ~ Simone Weil, #NFDB
905:To love is to be vulnerable. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
906:To love is to destroy! ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
907:To thine own self be true. ~ R J Palacio, #NFDB
908:To think is to be sick... ~ Djuna Barnes, #NFDB
909:To think is to differ. ~ Clarence Darrow, #NFDB
910:To touch is to give life. ~ Michelangelo, #NFDB
911:To wake up the universe. ~ David Simpson, #NFDB
912:To work is to feel alive. ~ Tony Bennett, #NFDB
913:To write a blues song ~ Etheridge Knight, #NFDB
914:Travel is fatal to bigotry. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
915:Truth happens to an idea ~ William James, #NFDB
916:Try not to try too hard, ~ James Taylor, #NFDB
917:Underreact to a problem ~ Gretchen Rubin, #NFDB
918:Wars are made to make debt. ~ Ezra Pound, #NFDB
919:was supposed to have a ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
920:We aim to please Miss Steele ~ E L James, #NFDB
921:We belong to each other. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
922:Welcome to Canada, idiot! ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
923:We were born to imagine. ~ Jessie Burton, #NFDB
924:We work to earn our leisure. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
925:We write to taste life twice ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
926:What happened to goodbye? ~ Sarah Dessen, #NFDB
927:What's more to do, ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
928:What steps can I take to ~ Douglas Bloch, #NFDB
929:where?” he asked. “TO THE ~ Barbara Park, #NFDB
930:Why wait to be memorable? ~ Tony Robbins, #NFDB
931:Why would I come back to you? ~ Erin Bow, #NFDB
932:Words his soul danced to. ~ David Malouf, #NFDB
933:Would you care to elaborate? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
934:Yawns are hard to refute. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
935:You are what you listen to ~ Alicia Keys, #NFDB
936:You deserve to be happy. ~ Clinton Kelly, #NFDB
937:You're going to die sooner. ~ Tom Coburn, #NFDB
938:You're the milk to my shake. ~ Jenny Han, #NFDB
939:You Starks are hard to kill, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
940:You sure like to knit, ~ Suzanne Selfors, #NFDB
941:You try to walk in the light. ~ Marie Lu, #NFDB
942:A fighter has to know fear. ~ Cus D Amato, #NFDB
943:aide and sent me out to ~ Elizabeth LaBan, #NFDB
944:Aim to have less stuff to do. ~ Matt Haig, #NFDB
945:All pain deserves to be felt ~ John Green, #NFDB
946:And I got to choose him back. ~ T J Klune, #NFDB
947:And so it came to be. ~ Jussi Adler Olsen, #NFDB
948:Anger can turn to bitterness. ~ T J Klune, #NFDB
949:arms to banish a phantom ~ Abigail Graham, #NFDB
950:"Be grateful to everyone." ~ Pema Chödrön, #NFDB
951:be who you set out to be... ~ Gino Norris, #NFDB
952:Bored .... nearly to death ~ Melissa Bank, #NFDB
953:But I didn’t want to want to. ~ C D Reiss, #NFDB
954:But not to our Muffin. ~ Dorothy B Hughes, #NFDB
955:By turns the nine delight to sing ~ Homer, #NFDB
956:clings to any straw! ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
957:Come with me if you want to live! ~ Moses, #NFDB
958:contributed to the disaster. ~ Judy Blume, #NFDB
959:Dad’s one concession to glee. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
960:DARE TO BE IRRESISTIBLE! ~ Sahara Sanders, #NFDB
961:Dominance leads to tyranny ~ Cynthia Hand, #NFDB
962:Don't force things to happen. ~ Lisa Loeb, #NFDB
963:Do you want to be my seahorse? ~ E L Todd, #NFDB
964:Dreams are essential to life. ~ Anais Nin, #NFDB
965:Dreams are necessary to life. ~ Anais Nin, #NFDB
966:Dreams are necessary to life. ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
967:Elysium is as far as to ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
968:Eternity bids thee to forget ~ John Green, #NFDB
969:everyone’s place to do it, ~ Nancy Farmer, #NFDB
970:Every tale is not to be believed. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
971:Everything tries to be round. ~ Black Elk, #NFDB
972:Evil is maybe lying to God. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
973:Ex-D-boy, used to park my Beamer ~ Jay Z, #NFDB
974:Eyes never learn how to lie ~ V C Andrews, #NFDB
975:footnotes to a feeling ~ Armistead Maupin, #NFDB
976:Forgot to breathe, again. ~ Peter V Brett, #NFDB
977:Forward my mail to Mars. ~ Stanley Kunitz, #NFDB
978:Frank’s going to go on ~ Shayne Parkinson, #NFDB
979:Get to like your own body. ~ Sue Johanson, #NFDB
980:get to you know you better, ~ Megg Jensen, #NFDB
981:Give a little to get a little ~ K L Kreig, #NFDB
982:Give thanks to the most high. ~ DJ Khaled, #NFDB
983:God created woman to tame man. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
984:Good-bye to the lies of the poets. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
985:Good to be merie and wise. ~ John Heywood, #NFDB
986:Go to heaven for the climate ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
987:Go to hell, I'm reading! ~ Archie Goodwin, #NFDB
988:Half the fun is plan to plan ~ Tim Burton, #NFDB
989:Harry made to follow Lupin, ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
990:Haters are going to hate. ~ Dick Van Dyke, #NFDB
991:HOW TO BE A GIRL ON A DATE ~ Steve Harvey, #NFDB
992:I always like to tell a story. ~ Adam Ant, #NFDB
993:I always wanted to be a mom. ~ Heidi Klum, #NFDB
994:I am married to work. ~ Alexander McQueen, #NFDB
995:I am no one to be a purist. ~ Mike Patton, #NFDB
996:I am very quick to judge. ~ Graham Norton, #NFDB
997:I beg you to read no further. ~ K W Jeter, #NFDB
998:I belong deeply to myself. ~ Warsan Shire, #NFDB
999:I came to feel how far above ~ John Keats, #NFDB
1000:I couldn’t wait to go home. ~ R J Palacio, #NFDB
1001:I’d found the door to Narnia. ~ C L Stone, #NFDB
1002:I didn't mean to hurt her. ~ Quinn Loftis, #NFDB
1003:I didn't mean to turn you on. ~ Cherrelle, #NFDB
1004:I didn't want to be peed on. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
1005:I'd love to sponsor a dolphin. ~ Rita Ora, #NFDB
1006:I don't just try to be funny. ~ Bil Keane, #NFDB
1007:I enjoy talking to fans. ~ Douglas Wilson, #NFDB
1008:If we knew how to find ~ Margarita Engle, #NFDB
1009:If you want to be the best, ~ Bob Stinson, #NFDB
1010:If you wish to write, write. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
1011:I go to seek a Great Perhaps ~ John Green, #NFDB
1012:I intend to speak of metamorphoses ~ Ovid, #NFDB
1013:I just want to breathe ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
1014:I know how to emulate crazy. ~ A G Howard, #NFDB
1015:I know how to find things. ~ Gloria Jones, #NFDB
1016:I like to work at night. ~ Terry Southern, #NFDB
1017:I'll be the in to your sane. ~ Gary Numan, #NFDB
1018:I love going to weddings. ~ Rashida Jones, #NFDB
1019:I love my mom to death. ~ Oscar Gutierrez, #NFDB
1020:I love to test boundaries. ~ Lily Collins, #NFDB
1021:I'm a cruel man to myself. ~ Duncan Jones, #NFDB
1022:I'm allergic to stupidity. ~ Chris Colfer, #NFDB
1023:I'm attracted to the past. ~ Tom Stoppard, #NFDB
1024:I’m gonna talk to my friend, ~ Paul Selig, #NFDB
1025:I'm not afraid, to take a stand ~ Eminem, #NFDB
1026:I'm not so weird to me. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
1027:I'm ready to meet a nice man! ~ Kim Coles, #NFDB
1028:I'm sorry to see it end. ~ Michael Jordan, #NFDB
1029:I’m wide open to ideas, Agent ~ Lee Child, #NFDB
1030:In your beauty, how to make poems. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1031:In your light I learn how to love. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1032:I owe my career to Paul Heyman. ~ CM Punk, #NFDB
1033:I really love to make movies. ~ Sean Penn, #NFDB
1034:I remember, now, how to cry. ~ Alex Flinn, #NFDB
1035:I sound the same to myself ~ Brandon Mull, #NFDB
1036:I start to think, and then I sink ~ Rakim, #NFDB
1037:I tend to jot down music. ~ David Gilmour, #NFDB
1038:I tend to read non-fiction. ~ Gary Oldman, #NFDB
1039:It is immoral not to tell. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
1040:It is no madness to say ~ Hilda Doolittle, #NFDB
1041:I try to get up every day. ~ Jimi Hendrix, #NFDB
1042:I try to tell the truth. ~ Tucker Carlson, #NFDB
1043:It saved itself up to happen. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1044:It's easy to be negative. ~ Rush Limbaugh, #NFDB
1045:It's fun to play happy people. ~ Amy Ryan, #NFDB
1046:It's hard to have a career. ~ David Spade, #NFDB
1047:It's never too late to start. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1048:It’s okay to be alone with you. ~ E N Joy, #NFDB
1049:it’s okay to not be okay. ~ Dot Hutchison, #NFDB
1050:its pretty to think so ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
1051:It's too late to be ready. ~ Dogen Zenji, #NFDB
1052:It's weird not to be weird. ~ John Lennon, #NFDB
1053:It's Wierd not to be Wierd. ~ John Lennon, #NFDB
1054:It takes a smart guy to play dumb. ~ Mr T, #NFDB
1055:It takes two hands to clap. ~ Jiang Zemin, #NFDB
1056:It takes two to be serious ~ E E Cummings, #NFDB
1057:It was a pleasure to burn. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
1058:i undress to impress. ~ Becca Fitzpatrick, #NFDB
1059:I used to be more glamorous. ~ China Chow, #NFDB
1060:I used to hold a fiery wind ~ Alda Merini, #NFDB
1061:I've always loved to sing. ~ Suzy Bogguss, #NFDB
1062:I’ve died and gone to heaven ~ Sylvia Day, #NFDB
1063:I wanted to be a plumber. ~ Robert Goulet, #NFDB
1064:I wanted to get free. (129) ~ Eddie Huang, #NFDB
1065:I want my narre to mean me. ~ Mark Haddon, #NFDB
1066:I want to be a pretty corpse. ~ Eva Braun, #NFDB
1067:I want to be cutting-edge. ~ Missy Elliot, #NFDB
1068:I want to be owned by you. ~ Truth Devour, #NFDB
1069:I want to be the black Madonna. ~ Rihanna, #NFDB
1070:I want to do rock operas. ~ Corey Feldman, #NFDB
1071:I want to live like a man. ~ Janet Morris, #NFDB
1072:I was born to end up alone. ~ Yana Toboso, #NFDB
1073:I was going to like school. ~ R J Palacio, #NFDB
1074:I will go to the garden. ~ Robert Creeley, #NFDB
1075:I wish to work miracles. ~ Hourly History, #NFDB
1076:I would love to be Moses. ~ Dick Van Dyke, #NFDB
1077:I would love to sing opera. ~ Leona Lewis, #NFDB
1078:Just to be alive is enough. ~ Miguel Ruiz, #NFDB
1079:Laws are subordinate to custom. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
1080:Learn to express, not impress. ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
1081:Leave me to my own absurdity. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
1082:Listen to presences inside poems, ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1083:Lord, I want to be up in my heart. ~ Moby, #NFDB
1084:mean?’ ‘You didn’t have to come ~ Jo Nesb, #NFDB
1085:Men must sweat to attain virtue. ~ Hesiod, #NFDB
1086:MILLER! WE GOTTA GO TO THE ~ Barbara Park, #NFDB
1087:Modesty is of no use to a beggar. ~ Homer, #NFDB
1088:molded to his muscular thighs ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1089:My Mind To Me a Kingdom Is. ~ Edward Dyer, #NFDB
1090:Nobody wants to buy sour milk. ~ Tim Cook, #NFDB
1091:Nothing said I had to crash. ~ Bob Hoover, #NFDB
1092:Oh, I'm a martyr to music. ~ Dylan Thomas, #NFDB
1093:One wants to be surprised. ~ Anna Wintour, #NFDB
1094:Only fools need suffer to learn. ~ Hesiod, #NFDB
1095:only one way to find out ~ Maria V Snyder, #NFDB
1096:Our business is to be happy. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1097:Our pussies mean a lot to us. ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
1098:Patience to the spider ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
1099:Peekaboo: Welcome to Miami ~ Jeff Lindsay, #NFDB
1100:People want to believe. ~ Robert Ferrigno, #NFDB
1101:phone number to Booker ~ Mary Kay Andrews, #NFDB
1102:Practice to beat the best. ~ Dick Bennett, #NFDB
1103:Read in order to live. ~ Gustave Flaubert, #NFDB
1104:Read in oreder to live ~ Gustave Flaubert, #NFDB
1105:refuses to consider ~ Charles Krauthammer, #NFDB
1106:Run directly to me. –Stefan. ~ K F Breene, #NFDB
1107:Say hello to your life. ~ Madonna Ciccone, #NFDB
1108:SAY YES TO YOUR UNIVERSE. ~ Susan Jeffers, #NFDB
1109:Sick to my motherf****** tummy! ~ Various, #NFDB
1110:Sincerity is the way to heaven. ~ Mencius, #NFDB
1111:so long. She promised to ~ Danielle Steel, #NFDB
1112:So You Want To Be A Wizard? ~ Diane Duane, #NFDB
1113:Spend money to make money. ~ Harlan Coben, #NFDB
1114:Sun To Sahi Jahan Main
~ Anwar Masood,#NFDB
1115:Teach him to deny himself. ~ Robert E Lee, #NFDB
1116:Tel Aviv appeals to me. ~ Taylor Caldwell, #NFDB
1117:T.G.T.B.T: too good to be true. ~ Madonna, #NFDB
1118:The body is a device to calculate ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1119:The green began to seethe. ~ Laline Paull, #NFDB
1120:The highest tone is hard to hear. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1121:The lot of man-to suffer and die. ~ Homer, #NFDB
1122:The purpose of labor is to learn; ~ Kabir, #NFDB
1123:there is a limit to his ammo. ~ M R Carey, #NFDB
1124:There is no logic to grief. ~ N K Jemisin, #NFDB
1125:The simplest answer is to act. ~ A S King, #NFDB
1126:The thing is to dazzle ~ Giacomo Casanova, #NFDB
1127:The wren goes to't ~ Emily St John Mandel, #NFDB
1128:They've healed me to pieces. ~ Paul Celan, #NFDB
1129:Thirst drove me down to the water ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1130:Time belongs to the Tower. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1131:Time to stand and be true. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1132:Timing has a lot to with art. ~ LL Cool J, #NFDB
1133:Tis not to see the world ~ Matthew Arnold, #NFDB
1134:To be a mother was to bake. ~ Rumaan Alam, #NFDB
1135:To be everywhere; is to nowhere. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1136:To be noticed is to be loved. ~ Ali Smith, #NFDB
1137:To be or not to be. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1138:To be soft is to be powerful. ~ Rupi Kaur, #NFDB
1139:To convey one’s mood ~ John Cooper Clarke, #NFDB
1140:to dispense from the laws. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
1141:To dwell is to garden. ~ Martin Heidegger, #NFDB
1142:to get this whole thing ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
1143:To give is to receive. ~ Gerald Jampolsky, #NFDB
1144:To God's own heart be true. ~ Dottie West, #NFDB
1145:To grow up is to grow apart ~ Nicola Yoon, #NFDB
1146:To hallow'd duty ~ Frances Sargent Osgood, #NFDB
1147:To have nothing is not poverty. ~ Martial, #NFDB
1148:To hold a pen is to be at war. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
1149:To illustrate, imagine ~ Philip E Tetlock, #NFDB
1150:To lead people, walk behind them. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1151:To live is to be haunted. ~ Philip K Dick, #NFDB
1152:To love means you also trust. ~ Joan Baez, #NFDB
1153:To many-towered Camelot ~ Alfred Tennyson, #NFDB
1154:To Meath of the pastures, ~ Padraic Colum, #NFDB
1155:To me, comedy is a game. ~ Demetri Martin, #NFDB
1156:to not act is a choice too ~ Melissa Marr, #NFDB
1157:To see her is to love her, ~ Robert Burns, #NFDB
1158:To tell or not to tell? ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
1159:To think is to destroy. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
1160:To think is to say 'no.' ~ Emile Chartier, #NFDB
1161:To understand is to invent. ~ Jean Piaget, #NFDB
1162:used to write her books. ~ Peter Robinson, #NFDB
1163:Use plants to bring life ~ Douglas Wilson, #NFDB
1164:way in, I plan to find it. ~ Irene Hannon, #NFDB
1165:We all need to calm down! ~ Connor Franta, #NFDB
1166:We fight our wish to die. ~ Robert Hayden, #NFDB
1167:Welcome to Camp Half-Blood ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1168:Welcome to the church of me. ~ Paula Cole, #NFDB
1169:we’ll be going up to London ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1170:We'll have to find work. ~ Daniel Arenson, #NFDB
1171:Well, we seem to have it. ~ Edmund Morris, #NFDB
1172:We must learn to suffer more. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1173:We're here to fuck shit up ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1174:we used to be good friends. ~ R J Palacio, #NFDB
1175:What did you lie to me ~ Theodore Dreiser, #NFDB
1176:When a man comes to die, ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
1177:Who are you trying to impress? ~ Bob Goff, #NFDB
1178:Wine gives strength to weary men. ~ Homer, #NFDB
1179:Worry leads to gray hair, ~ Beverly Lewis, #NFDB
1180:Yielding, like ice about to melt. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1181:You don't need wings to fly. ~ Amy Harmon, #NFDB
1182:You have to fight gravity. ~ Sherwin Wine, #NFDB
1183:You have to fight to live. ~ Cynthia Eden, #NFDB
1184:You’ll just have to imagine ~ Peter Watts, #NFDB
1185:You must give to receive. ~ Joseph Murphy, #NFDB
1186:You only lose what you cling to. ~ Buddha, #NFDB
1187:You're going to take it. ~ Melanie Harlow, #NFDB
1188:You stupid food!" -Athene to Ares ~ Homer, #NFDB
1189:You want to carry my baby? ~ Andrea Smith, #NFDB
1190:5 Days to Your Best Year Ever. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1191:Act because you love to act. ~ Mae Whitman, #NFDB
1192:Activity leads to productivity! ~ Jim Rohn, #NFDB
1193:adapt mentally -- to surprises ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1194:All the hatin just fuels to my fire. ~ T I, #NFDB
1195:All things are Nothing to Me ~ Max Stirner, #NFDB
1196:A man perfect to the finger tips. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1197:and she asked to be released. ~ Lois Lowry, #NFDB
1198:Asses prefer garbage to gold. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
1199:attempting to block progress. ~ Judy Blume, #NFDB
1200:A word to the wise is sufficient ~ Plautus, #NFDB
1201:back to me. “Well. Perhaps. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1202:back to school on Monday. ~ Teresa Burrell, #NFDB
1203:Because I wanted to, Jasmine. ~ B V Larson, #NFDB
1204:Becoming is superior to being. ~ Paul Klee, #NFDB
1205:Be not slow to visit the sick. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1206:Berkeley to Jobs’s house ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
1207:Better to burn than to rot. ~ Paul Russell, #NFDB
1208:Books belong to their readers ~ John Green, #NFDB
1209:But we need to be careful. ~ Cynthia Shepp, #NFDB
1210:Can people get used to death? ~ Magda Szab, #NFDB
1211:careful not to overexpose ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
1212:Change has come to America. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
1213:Christ Came to Fulfill the Law ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1214:"Come back to yourself." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1215:Comedy is king. It has to be. ~ Steve Pink, #NFDB
1216:Confusion to our enemies! ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
1217:Crops are all starting to die. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1218:Dare to live the fairytale. ~ Truth Devour, #NFDB
1219:Devil has his part to play. ~ Marlon James, #NFDB
1220:Dita immigrated to Israel, ~ Sana Krasikov, #NFDB
1221:Does my eye look okay to you? ~ John Green, #NFDB
1222:Don't get attached to anything. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
1223:Don’t get too close to ~ Mary Pope Osborne, #NFDB
1224:Don't go to business school. ~ Paul Hawken, #NFDB
1225:end. Before I even meant to do ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
1226:Eternity bids thee to forget. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1227:Everyone needs a chance to evolve. ~ Jay Z, #NFDB
1228:Fashion is for us to have fun. ~ Reem Acra, #NFDB
1229:Fashion is meant to be fun. ~ Ivanka Trump, #NFDB
1230:Fear will learn to fear me. ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
1231:from Volkheimer to Werner. ~ Anthony Doerr, #NFDB
1232:Fullness to such a burden is ~ John Bunyan, #NFDB
1233:Give us grace to listen well. ~ John Keble, #NFDB
1234:Go back to your bingo hall. ~ Jerry Lawler, #NFDB
1235:God wants you to go further. ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
1236:Go to where you are kindest ~ Jaron Lanier, #NFDB
1237:Ground control to Major Tom. ~ David Bowie, #NFDB
1238:had a lot of living to do! ~ Josephine Cox, #NFDB
1239:Harold Bazin loves to talk ~ Anthony Doerr, #NFDB
1240:He deserves to be a focus. ~ Courtney Cole, #NFDB
1241:he raced to beat the devil. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1242:Here's to Never Growing up ~ Avril Lavigne, #NFDB
1243:here to talk to Greg ~ Patricia H Rushford, #NFDB
1244:He wants me to make you happy. ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
1245:He was going to make her his… ~ Katie Reus, #NFDB
1246:Holding on to anger is like ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
1247:How am I supposed to do that? ~ Chris Voss, #NFDB
1248:How easy it is to be unknown! ~ Sophia Lee, #NFDB
1249:How This Book Came to Be ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
1250:How wild it was, to let it be. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1251:Hunger not to have, but to be ~ John Dewey, #NFDB
1252:I ain't got time to bleed. ~ Jesse Ventura, #NFDB
1253:I allow no one to touch me. ~ Paul Cezanne, #NFDB
1254:I am meant to have justice! ~ Nancy Farmer, #NFDB
1255:I am proud to be Latino. ~ Justina Machado, #NFDB
1256:I am ready to be alone. ~ Chuck Klosterman, #NFDB
1257:I am used to controversies. ~ Sharad Pawar, #NFDB
1258:I do like to belong to a man. ~ Eva Mendes, #NFDB
1259:I do my best to love everyday ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
1260:I don't like to sing loud. ~ Renee Fleming, #NFDB
1261:I don't like to sit still. ~ Philip Rivers, #NFDB
1262:I don't listen to weakies. ~ Bobby Fischer, #NFDB
1263:I don’t listen to weakies. ~ Bobby Fischer, #NFDB
1264:I don't need to be liked. ~ John Malkovich, #NFDB
1265:I don't want to hold you hand! ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1266:I don't want to hurt people. ~ John Cleese, #NFDB
1267:I don't want to leave. ~ Svetlana Chmakova, #NFDB
1268:I don't want you to leave me. ~ Maya Banks, #NFDB
1269:If it has to be it's up to me. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1270:If it means to be , it will be ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1271:If you want to be happy. Be. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1272:If you want to be happy, be. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1273:If you want to buy my wares ~ Cole Porter, #NFDB
1274:If you won't talk to them, ~ Stylo Fantome, #NFDB
1275:I go to seek a great perhaps. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1276:I had to steal to survive. ~ Jesse Jackson, #NFDB
1277:I have not yet begun to fight, ~ Jay Winik, #NFDB
1278:I have no words to save you. ~ Julie Berry, #NFDB
1279:I intend to speak of metamorphoses. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
1280:I just want to entertain. ~ Carmen Electra, #NFDB
1281:I LEARN HOW TO GROW ZOMBIES ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1282:I like things to be orderly. ~ David Lynch, #NFDB
1283:I like to work spontaneously. ~ Chaka Khan, #NFDB
1284:I like to write poetry. ~ Rebecca Ferguson, #NFDB
1285:I listen to the voices. ~ William Faulkner, #NFDB
1286:I’ll always come back to you. ~ Emma Scott, #NFDB
1287:I long to create something ~ Adrienne Rich, #NFDB
1288:I love to hear the note sing. ~ Joe Sample, #NFDB
1289:I'm addicted to acting. ~ Steven R McQueen, #NFDB
1290:I'm addicted to directing! ~ Adam Shankman, #NFDB
1291:I’m addicted to food. The ~ Matthew Mather, #NFDB
1292:I make love to pressure. ~ Stephen Jackson, #NFDB
1293:I make movies I want to see. ~ Neil LaBute, #NFDB
1294:I'm a runner. I like to run. ~ Nancy Grace, #NFDB
1295:I'm going to disappear again. ~ Chuck Robb, #NFDB
1296:I'm going to kill them all ~ Pittacus Lore, #NFDB
1297:I'm Grateful to say I'm Grateful ~ Unknown, #NFDB
1298:I’m immune to euphoria. ~ Kristina Douglas, #NFDB
1299:I'm impervious to logic. ~ Stephen Colbert, #NFDB
1300:I'm married to Metallica. ~ James Hetfield, #NFDB
1301:I'm not dumb enough to be cool. ~ K I Hope, #NFDB
1302:I'm not going to doubt my life. ~ Yoko Ono, #NFDB
1303:important to me than feeling ~ Mark Manson, #NFDB
1304:I'm ready to take the heat. ~ Joe Satriani, #NFDB
1305:I’m too exhausted to sleep, ~ Ellen Datlow, #NFDB
1306:I'm too old to be forced. ~ Garry Marshall, #NFDB
1307:I'm trying to change the world. ~ Kid Cudi, #NFDB
1308:I need him to feel whole. ~ Krista Ritchie, #NFDB
1309:I need to have a cheesesteak. ~ Julie Chen, #NFDB
1310:I never wanted to be famous. ~ Dave Attell, #NFDB
1311:In order to heal oneself, ~ Caroline Myss, #NFDB
1312:I said hello to the poodle. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1313:I said love. I want to vomit. ~ Lexi Blake, #NFDB
1314:Is he teaching her to write? ~ Ally Condie, #NFDB
1315:Is it then so sad a thing to die? ~ Virgil, #NFDB
1316:I sound the same to myself. ~ Brandon Mull, #NFDB
1317:It feels so good to be happy. ~ Etta James, #NFDB
1318:I think I'm going to vomit. ~ Cayla Kluver, #NFDB
1319:It hurt to even bump into him. ~ Joe Louis, #NFDB
1320:It is a sin to be poor. ~ Charles Fillmore, #NFDB
1321:It is no easy task to be good. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
1322:It is normal to be nervous. ~ James Galway, #NFDB
1323:It isn't ever delicate to live. ~ Kay Ryan, #NFDB
1324:It is time to be old ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1325:It is time to put up a love-swing! ~ Kabir, #NFDB
1326:it's always time to live. ~ Nadine Brandes, #NFDB
1327:It's cheaper to keep her. ~ Robin Williams, #NFDB
1328:It's every girl's dream to be a ~ Rihanna, #NFDB
1329:It's hard to get a hug wrong. ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
1330:It's not okay to hate anybody ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
1331:"It's too late to be ready." ~ Dogen Zenji, #NFDB
1332:It's up to you, not fate. ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
1333:I used to have a family. He ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
1334:I used to wanna rap like Jay-Z, ~ Ab Soul, #NFDB
1335:I voted to send people to war. ~ Paul Ryan, #NFDB
1336:I want to change awareness. ~ Jane Goodall, #NFDB
1337:I want to die as myself. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
1338:I want to go wherever you are ~ Calia Read, #NFDB
1339:I want to live, and die with you. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1340:I want to make great songs. ~ Billy Corgan, #NFDB
1341:I want to make my own movie. ~ Bam Margera, #NFDB
1342:I want to play for years. ~ Michael Jordan, #NFDB
1343:I want to win championships. ~ Victor Cruz, #NFDB
1344:I will fight to defend liberty. ~ Ted Cruz, #NFDB
1345:I will unbolt to you ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1346:I would like to die ~ Nils Aslak Valkeapaa, #NFDB
1347:Knowing how to yield is strength ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
1348:Language has not the power to ~ John Clare, #NFDB
1349:Let mortal man keep to his own ~ Euripides, #NFDB
1350:Life is too short to cower. ~ Claire Cross, #NFDB
1351:Life must be somewhere to be ~ Bob Marley, #NFDB
1352:Life rules apply to running. ~ Parul Sheth, #NFDB
1353:Life’s too short to be subtle, ~ B N Toler, #NFDB
1354:Lift up our eyes to you? ~ Hilda Doolittle, #NFDB
1355:Like a revolving door to hell. ~ L J Smith, #NFDB
1356:live life to its fullest, ~ Paul Kalanithi, #NFDB
1357:Live to the point of tears. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
1358:Love fed fat soon turns to boredom. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
1359:love is knowing whom to choose ~ Rupi Kaur, #NFDB
1360:Love is needing to be loved. ~ John Lennon, #NFDB
1361:Love your readers to death! ~ Darren Rowse, #NFDB
1362:Man by Nature desires to know. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
1363:man lies to himself a lot. ~ G I Gurdjieff, #NFDB
1364:Maybe I will go to Paris. ~ James Crumley, #NFDB
1365:Mine. I need her to be mine. ~ Celia Aaron, #NFDB
1366:Mr. Dabney could write to ~ Susan Meissner, #NFDB
1367:Names are doors to ideas ~ Bradford Morrow, #NFDB
1368:Nature knows not to trust us. ~ Hugh Howey, #NFDB
1369:Nobody likes to be preached to. ~ Stan Lee, #NFDB
1370:Nobody told nature what to do. ~ Dan Wells, #NFDB
1371:No. Don't you do this to us. ~ Abbi Glines, #NFDB
1372:no man’s a hero to himself. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
1373:No more than I was to be born. ~ Spartacus, #NFDB
1374:no one is immune to fear. ~ Shalini Boland, #NFDB
1375:No one pays me to be nice. ~ Aaron Allston, #NFDB
1376:Normalness leads to sadness. ~ Phil Lester, #NFDB
1377:Nothing ever happens to me. ~ Mary Stewart, #NFDB
1378:No trust is to be placed in women. ~ Homer, #NFDB
1379:Not to ask is not be denied. ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
1380:Old men ought to be explorers. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1381:One must dare to be happy ~ Gertrude Stein, #NFDB
1382:Online bullying has to stop. ~ LeAnn Rimes, #NFDB
1383:Past art is subject to change. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1384:perfectly clear. To me, and to ~ Lee Child, #NFDB
1385:Pity melts the mind to love. ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
1386:Prepare to be wowed. ~ Aimee Nicole Walker, #NFDB
1387:really hadn’t wanted to miss ~ Susan Lewis, #NFDB
1388:Remember to be calm in adversity. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1389:Remember to be yourself. ~ Naturi Naughton, #NFDB
1390:Roses belong to the set R ~ Timothy Gowers, #NFDB
1391:Running rules apply to life. ~ Parul Sheth, #NFDB
1392:She clung to him like a burr. ~ Emma Cline, #NFDB
1393:Shura, I’m going to die. ~ Paullina Simons, #NFDB
1394:situation and to decide ~ Michael Connelly, #NFDB
1395:Sleep your way to the top. ~ Andrea Arnold, #NFDB
1396:Snape was trying to save me? ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1397:Speak but one word to me. ~ William Morris, #NFDB
1398:still had to make sure the jet ~ Tia Siren, #NFDB
1399:Sweets to the sweet. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1400:Teach people how to treat you. ~ Erin Watt, #NFDB
1401:Teenage dreams so hard to beat ~ John Peel, #NFDB
1402:The Ability to Pay Attention ~ Mary Pipher, #NFDB
1403:The best way to do is to be, ~ Fred Kofman, #NFDB
1404:The Four Steps to the Epiphany ~ Eric Ries, #NFDB
1405:The Gospel has to be the norm. ~ Hans Kung, #NFDB
1406:The great Creator to revere ~ Robert Burns, #NFDB
1407:The Key to Success is Action ~ Brian Tracy, #NFDB
1408:then we fail to be wise. ~ Debbie Macomber, #NFDB
1409:Therefore we pledge to bind ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
1410:There is no shortcut to success ~ Samarpan, #NFDB
1411:There's a lust to get on TV. ~ Doug Benson, #NFDB
1412:There's no map to human behaviour. ~ Bjork, #NFDB
1413:Theres nothing to fear but ~ Craig Benzine, #NFDB
1414:The sex is ever to a soldier kind. ~ Homer, #NFDB
1415:The thing is to sift out ~ Richard Jackson, #NFDB
1416:The world is to the young. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
1417:They mean to board us,” Mister ~ Ryk Brown, #NFDB
1418:This book is to be read in bed. ~ Dr Seuss, #NFDB
1419:Those who desire power want to ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
1420:Through adversity to the stars. ~ A J Finn, #NFDB
1421:Till you return to the ground, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1422:Time means nothing to me. ~ Lilly Pulitzer, #NFDB
1423:Time to die. -Evil Angel ~ James Patterson, #NFDB
1424:Time to drop the illusion. ~ Gillian Flynn, #NFDB
1425:Time to make the doughnuts. ~ Ernest Cline, #NFDB
1426:To avoid eye contact, kiss. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
1427:To be alive is to be missing. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1428:To be alone is to be free ~ Patricia Hampl, #NFDB
1429:to be everywhere is to be nowhere ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1430:To be forgiven is to be loved ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1431:To begin, at the beginning. ~ Dylan Thomas, #NFDB
1432:To be in time means to change. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1433:To be is to be perceived ~ George Berkeley, #NFDB
1434:To be, or not to be. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1435:To be worn out is to be renewed. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
1436:To build is to be robbed. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
1437:To covet beatitude is also avarice. ~ Osho, #NFDB
1438:To create is to live twice. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
1439:to get some brandy for my ~ Helen MacInnes, #NFDB
1440:To get the full value of joy ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
1441:To grow up is to grow apart. ~ Nicola Yoon, #NFDB
1442:To have a body is to suffer. ~ Bodhidharma, #NFDB
1443:To know all is to forgive all. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1444:To live - is that not enough? ~ D T Suzuki, #NFDB
1445:To live, is to have Christ... ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1446:To live is to not think. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
1447:To love is to lose control. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1448:To love life is to love God. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1449:took a moment to adjust ~ Elizabeth George, #NFDB
1450:To send a kiss by messenger. ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
1451:To the folks at Mojang, Lydia ~ Max Brooks, #NFDB
1452:To think is to forget. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #NFDB
1453:Trust not too much to appearances ~ Virgil, #NFDB
1454:Up to a point, Lord Copper. ~ Evelyn Waugh, #NFDB
1455:wanted to go down in the mine ~ Sarah Lark, #NFDB
1456:We fall forward to succeed. ~ Mary Kay Ash, #NFDB
1457:We have to let God be in control ~ E N Joy, #NFDB
1458:Welcome to the sky, Wil. ~ Keiichi Sigsawa, #NFDB
1459:We like to set off bombs. ~ James Hetfield, #NFDB
1460:We murder to dissect. ~ William Wordsworth, #NFDB
1461:We need you to come home. ~ Cristin Harber, #NFDB
1462:We set out to be wrecked. ~ Gretchen Rubin, #NFDB
1463:We tend to outdo ourselves. ~ Jim Gaffigan, #NFDB
1464:We, unaccustomed to courage ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
1465:What a great hitch to pit! ~ Jerry Coleman, #NFDB
1466:Whatcha gonna do to this? ~ Roxanne Shante, #NFDB
1467:What do you want me to do, ~ Robert Hunter, #NFDB
1468:What is he doing to me? ~ Penelope Douglas, #NFDB
1469:What It’s Like to Be a Dog ~ Gregory Berns, #NFDB
1470:what Tigerstar was trying to ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
1471:What would it mean to live ~ Adrienne Rich, #NFDB
1472:When hawks cry, time to fly. ~ Lissa Price, #NFDB
1473:Who does a goddess pray to? ~ Sarah Diemer, #NFDB
1474:Why do you have to be so brave ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
1475:Why would I want to fit in? ~ Carrie Jones, #NFDB
1476:You are who you choose to be. ~ Ted Hughes, #NFDB
1477:You can't lie to your soul. ~ Irvine Welsh, #NFDB
1478:You can’t lie to your soul. ~ Irvine Welsh, #NFDB
1479:You don't know how to love ~ Stylo Fantome, #NFDB
1480:You get used to being evil. ~ Nancy Farmer, #NFDB
1481:You have to believe in yourself. ~ Sun Tzu, #NFDB
1482:You have to be realistic ~ Joe Abercrombie, #NFDB
1483:You play to win the game. ~ Herman Edwards, #NFDB
1484:You ready to be fucked, Jack? ~ James Lear, #NFDB
1485:Your soul to the White Gate. ~ Phil Tucker, #NFDB
1486:You used to call me Augustus. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1487:You want magic to feel real. ~ Jon Spaihts, #NFDB
1488:You were put here to protect us. ~ KRS One, #NFDB
1489:You will learn to love again ~ Leila Sales, #NFDB
1490:6. Guide us to the Straight Way ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1491:Abby was the first to voice the ~ Ginny Dye, #NFDB
1492:a dream to capture men’s souls, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1493:A fence to wisdom is silence. ~ Rabbi Akiva, #NFDB
1494:All doors open to courtesy. ~ Thomas Fuller, #NFDB
1495:All things are nothing to me. ~ Max Stirner, #NFDB
1496:America, to me, is freedom. ~ Willie Nelson, #NFDB
1497:And he sets his mind to unknown arts ~ Ovid, #NFDB
1498:And so I choose to breathe. ~ Amy MacKinnon, #NFDB
1499:Art is man added to Nature. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
1500:Art to be art must soothe. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
4200 Integral Yoga
3557 Poetry
557 Mysticism
517 Philosophy
382 Fiction
339 Occultism
196 Christianity
140 Yoga
105 Philsophy
103 Islam
92 Psychology
80 Sufism
50 Zen
40 Science
35 Buddhism
34 Hinduism
30 Kabbalah
27 Education
22 Mythology
20 Theosophy
16 Integral Theory
8 Cybernetics
6 Baha i Faith
5 Taoism
1 Thelema
1 Alchemy
2317 The Mother
1835 Sri Aurobindo
1383 Satprem
648 Nolini Kanta Gupta
365 William Wordsworth
353 Walt Whitman
287 William Butler Yeats
278 Percy Bysshe Shelley
230 Rabindranath Tagore
170 Aleister Crowley
156 John Keats
150 H P Lovecraft
129 Friedrich Schiller
107 Rainer Maria Rilke
105 Ralph Waldo Emerson
103 Muhammad
101 Li Bai
101 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
97 Robert Browning
94 Jalaluddin Rumi
94 Friedrich Nietzsche
91 Carl Jung
75 Kabir
69 James George Frazer
67 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
66 Plotinus
66 Jorge Luis Borges
62 Edgar Allan Poe
57 Sri Ramakrishna
43 Hafiz
41 Omar Khayyam
41 Anonymous
39 Swami Vivekananda
37 Swami Krishnananda
36 Saint Teresa of Avila
34 Saint Augustine of Hippo
33 Lucretius
33 Franz Bardon
33 A B Purani
30 Saint John of Climacus
30 Rabbi Moses Luzzatto
30 Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia
29 Aldous Huxley
26 Ibn Arabi
25 Rudolf Steiner
24 Taigu Ryokan
24 Hakim Sanai
24 Aristotle
22 Vyasa
22 Farid ud-Din Attar
21 Lalla
20 Ramprasad
18 Mirabai
17 Abu-Said Abil-Kheir
15 Nirodbaran
15 Bulleh Shah
14 Solomon ibn Gabirol
14 Ovid
13 Thomas Merton
13 Matsuo Basho
12 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
12 Plato
12 Peter J Carroll
12 Paul Richard
11 Sarmad
11 Lewis Carroll
11 George Van Vrekhem
10 Sri Ramana Maharshi
10 Saint John of the Cross
10 Jetsun Milarepa
10 Jacopone da Todi
9 Symeon the New Theologian
9 Saint Hildegard von Bingen
9 Mansur al-Hallaj
8 William Blake
8 Wang Wei
8 Saint Francis of Assisi
8 Norbert Wiener
8 Muso Soseki
8 Joseph Campbell
8 Dogen
7 Yuan Mei
7 Tao Chien
7 Saadi
7 Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
7 Jordan Peterson
7 Henry David Thoreau
7 Baha u llah
7 Baba Sheikh Farid
7 Alice Bailey
6 Thubten Chodron
6 Saint Clare of Assisi
6 Ravidas
6 Jayadeva
6 Bokar Rinpoche
6 Al-Ghazali
6 Alfred Tennyson
5 Vidyapati
5 Patanjali
5 Mechthild of Magdeburg
5 Ikkyu
5 Ibn Ata Illah
5 Chuang Tzu
5 Allama Muhammad Iqbal
4 Yosa Buson
4 Shiwu (Stonehouse)
4 Shankara
4 Namdev
4 Kobayashi Issa
4 Dante Alighieri
4 Boethius
3 Saint Therese of Lisieux
3 R Buckminster Fuller
3 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
3 Po Chu-i
3 Naropa
3 Nachmanides
3 Moses de Leon
3 Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
3 Ken Wilber
3 Bodhidharma
2 Yeshe Tsogyal
2 Yannai
2 Sun Buer
2 Shih-te
2 Mahendranath Gupta
2 Kuan Han-Ching
2 Kahlil Gibran
2 Judah Halevi
2 Jorge Luis Borges
2 Jean Gebser
2 Jakushitsu
2 Italo Calvino
2 H. P. Lovecraft
2 Han-shan
2 Hakuin
2 Genpo Roshi
2 Fukuda Chiyo-ni
2 Eleazar ben Kallir
2 Dionysius the Areopagite
2 Dadu Dayal
2 Chiao Jan
2 Catherine of Siena
2 Alexander Pope
947 Record of Yoga
365 Wordsworth - Poems
335 Whitman - Poems
290 Prayers And Meditations
287 Yeats - Poems
278 Shelley - Poems
263 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
218 Tagore - Poems
180 Agenda Vol 01
160 Agenda Vol 13
156 Keats - Poems
150 Lovecraft - Poems
144 The Synthesis Of Yoga
129 Schiller - Poems
124 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
119 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
108 Agenda Vol 12
107 Rilke - Poems
105 Emerson - Poems
103 Quran
103 Agenda Vol 08
102 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
101 Li Bai - Poems
98 Agenda Vol 09
97 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
97 Browning - Poems
96 Agenda Vol 10
93 Letters On Yoga III
91 Agenda Vol 06
89 Agenda Vol 11
89 Agenda Vol 03
86 Agenda Vol 07
86 Agenda Vol 04
85 Magick Without Tears
83 Agenda Vol 05
82 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
81 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
78 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
78 Agenda Vol 02
76 Goethe - Poems
71 Collected Poems
69 The Golden Bough
65 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
61 Poe - Poems
60 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
56 The Life Divine
56 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
55 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
54 Liber ABA
52 Songs of Kabir
52 Rumi - Poems
52 Questions And Answers 1956
49 Savitri
49 Letters On Yoga IV
49 Letters On Yoga II
42 Letters On Poetry And Art
41 Questions And Answers 1953
40 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
40 Borges - Poems
39 Words Of Long Ago
38 Mysterium Coniunctionis
37 The Study and Practice of Yoga
37 Questions And Answers 1955
37 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06
36 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
35 Questions And Answers 1954
35 Crowley - Poems
34 The Divine Comedy
33 Of The Nature Of Things
33 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
31 Hafiz - Poems
30 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
30 General Principles of Kabbalah
30 Essays On The Gita
30 Essays Divine And Human
29 The Perennial Philosophy
28 Words Of The Mother II
28 The Bible
27 Letters On Yoga I
26 On Education
26 Labyrinths
25 Faust
24 The Practice of Psycho therapy
24 The Human Cycle
24 Ryokan - Poems
24 Poetics
22 Vishnu Purana
22 The Future of Man
22 City of God
21 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
21 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01
21 Anonymous - Poems
20 Bhakti-Yoga
20 Arabi - Poems
19 The Way of Perfection
19 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
19 Initiation Into Hermetics
18 Let Me Explain
17 On the Way to Supermanhood
15 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
15 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
15 Song of Myself
15 Isha Upanishad
14 The Secret Of The Veda
14 The Practice of Magical Evocation
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 Twilight of the Idols
13 Theosophy
13 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
13 Hymn of the Universe
13 Basho - Poems
12 Talks
12 Raja-Yoga
12 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03
12 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02
12 Liber Null
11 Preparing for the Miraculous
11 Kena and Other Upanishads
11 Dark Night of the Soul
10 The Problems of Philosophy
10 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
10 The Integral Yoga
10 Milarepa - Poems
10 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
10 Amrita Gita
10 Alice in Wonderland
10 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
9 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
9 5.1.01 - Ilion
8 Words Of The Mother III
8 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
8 The Blue Cliff Records
8 Dogen - Poems
8 Cybernetics
7 Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit
7 Words Of The Mother I
7 Walden
7 Maps of Meaning
7 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
6 The Secret Doctrine
6 The Red Book Liber Novus
6 The Gateless Gate
6 The Alchemy of Happiness
6 Tara - The Feminine Divine
6 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
5 Sefer Yetzirah The Book of Creation In Theory and Practice
5 Patanjali Yoga Sutras
5 Chuang Tzu - Poems
4 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
4 Jerusalum
4 Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin
3 The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
3 The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
3 The Lotus Sutra
3 The Book of Certitude
3 Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking
3 Sex Ecology Spirituality
3 Naropa - Poems
3 Bodhidharma - Poems
3 Agenda Vol 1
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 Han-shan - Poems
2 God Exists
2 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E
00.00 - Publishers Note A, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The present volume consists of the first seven parts of the book The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo which has run in To twelve parts, as it stands now; of these twelve, parts five To nine are based upon talks of the Mother (given by Her To the children of the Ashram). In this volume the later parts of the Talks (8 and 9) could not be included: they are To wait for a subsequent volume. The talks, originally in French, were spread over a number of years, ending in about 1960. We are pleased To note that the Government of India have given us a grant To meet the cost of publication of this volume.
13 January 1972
00.00 - Publishers Note B, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Choosing To Do Yoga
Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Publishers Note
--
The present volume consists of five parts of the book Yoga of Sri Aurobindo which has now run in To twelve parts. Of these five parts, eight and nine are based on talks of the Mother given by Her, in French, To the children of the Ashram.
We are pleased To note that the Government of India have given us a grant To meet the cost of publication of this volume.
13 January 1973
--
Comme un parfum qui monte Tout droit, sans vaciller, Mon amour va vers Toi..
La Mre, Prires et Mditations
--
My love goes To Thee..]
***
Choosing To Do Yoga
00.00 - Publishers Note, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Approach To Mysticism
Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Publishers Note
--
We are happy To note that the Government of India have given To our Centre of Education a grant To meet the cost of publication of this volume.
The Mother has graciously permitted the use of her sketch of the author as a frontispiece To the book.
13 January 1971
--
The Approach To Mysticism
0 0.01 - Introduction, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This AGENDA ... One day, another species among men will pore over this fabulous document as over the tumultuous drama that must have surrounded the birth of the first man among the hostile hordes of a great, delirious Paleozoic. A first man is the dangerous contradiction of a certain simian logic, a threat To the established order that so genteelly ran about amid the high, indefeasible ferns - and To begin with, it does not even know that it is a man. It wonders, indeed, what it is. Even To itself it is strange, distressing. It does not even know how To climb trees any longer in its usual way
- and it is terribly disturbing for all those who still climb trees in the old, millennial way. Perhaps it is even a heresy. Unless it is some cerebral disorder? A first man in his little clearing had To have a great deal of courage. Even this little clearing was no longer so sure. A first man is a perpetual question. What am I, then, in the midst of all that? And where is my law? What is the law? And what if there were no more laws? ... It is terrifying. Mathematics - out of order. Astronomy and biology, Too, are beginning To respond To mysterious influences. A tiny point huddled in the center of the world's great clearing. But what is all this, what if I were 'mad'? And then, claws all around, a lot of claws against this uncommon creature. A first man ... is very much alone. He is quite unbearable for the pre-human 'reason.' And the surrounding tribes growled like red monkies in the twilight of Guiana.
One day, we were like this first man in the great, stridulant night of the Oyapock. Our heart was beating with the rediscovery of a very ancient mystery - suddenly, it was absolutely new To be a man amidst the diorite cascades and the pretty red and black coral snakes slithering beneath the leaves. It was even more extraordinary To be a man than our old confirmed tribes, with their infallible equations and imprescriptible biologies, could ever have dreamed. It was an absolutely uncertain 'quantum' that delightfully eluded whatever one thought of it, including perhaps what even the scholars thought of it. It flowed otherwise, it felt otherwise. It lived in a kind of flawless continuity with the sap of the giant balata trees, the cry of the macaws and the scintillating water of a little fountain. It 'unders Tood' in a very different way. To understand was To be in everything. Just a quiver, and one was in the skin of a little iguana in distress. The skin of the world was very vast.
To be a man after rediscovering a million years was mysteriously like being something still other than man, a strange, unfinished possibility that could also be all kinds of other things. It was not in the dictionary, it was fluid and boundless - it had become a man through habit, but in truth, it was formidably virgin, as if all the old laws belonged To laggard barbarians. Then other moons began whirring through the skies To the cry of macaws at sunset, another rhythm was born that was strangely in tune with the rhythm of all, making one single flow of the world, and there we went, lightly, as if the body had never had any weight other than that of our human thought; and the stars were so near, even the giant airplanes roaring overhead seemed vain artifices beneath smiling galaxies. A man was the overwhelming Possible. He was even the great discoverer of the Possible.
Never had this precarious invention had any other aim through millions of species than To discover that which surpassed his own species, perhaps the means To change his species - a light and lawless species. After rediscovering a million years in the great, rhythmic night, a man was still something To be invented. It was the invention of himself, where all was not yet said and done.
And then, and then ... a singular air, an incurable lightness, was beginning To fill his lungs. And what if we were a fable? And what are the means?
And what if this lightness itself were the means?
A great and solemn good riddance To all our barbarous solemnities.
Thus had we mused in the heart of our ancient forest while we were still hesitating between unlikely flakes of gold and a civilization that seemed To us quite Toxic and obsolete, however mathematical. But other mathematics were flowing through our veins, an equation as yet unformed between this mammoth world and a little point replete with a light air and immense forebodings.
It was at this point that we met Mother, at this intersection of the anthropoid rediscovered and the 'something' that had set in motion this unfinished invention momentarily ensnared in a gilded machine. For nothing was finished, and nothing had been invented, really, that would instill peace and wideness in this heart of no species at all.
--
As for the worst, we know that it is the worst. But then we come To realize that the best is only the pretty muzzle of our worst, the same old beast defending itself, with all its claws out, with its sanctity or its electronic gadgets. Mother was there for something else.
'Something else' is ominous, perilous, disrupting - it is quite unbearable for all those who resemble the old beast. The s Tory of the Pondicherry 'Ashram' is the s Tory of an old clan ferociously clinging To its 'spiritual' privileges, as others clung To the muscles that had made them kings among the great apes. It is armed with all the piousness and all the reasonableness that had made logical man so 'infallible' among his less cerebral brothers. The spiritual brain is probably the worst obstacle To the new species, as were the muscles of the old orangutan for this fragile stranger who no longer climbed so well in the trees and sat, pensive, at the center of a little, uncertain clearing.
There is nothing more pious than the old species. There is nothing more legal. Mother was searching for the path of the new species as much against all the virtues of the old as against all its vices or laws. For, in truth, 'Something Else' ... is something else.
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 in To 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 in To 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.
She spoke To deaf ears. She was very alone in this 'ashram.' Little by little, the disciples fill up the place, then they say: it is ours. It is 'the Ashram.' We are 'the disciples.' In Pondicherry as in Rome as in Mecca. 'I do not want a religion! An end To religions!' She exclaimed. She struggled and fought in their midst - was She therefore To leave this Earth like one more saint or yogi, buried beneath haloes, the 'continuatrice' of a great spiritual lineage? She was seventy-six years old when we landed there, a knife in our belt and a ready curse on our lips.
She adored defiance and did not detest irreverence.
--
Her step by step, as one discovers a forest, or rather as one fights with it, machete in hand - and then it melts, one loves, so sublime does it become. Mother grew beneath our skin like an adventure of life and death. For seven years we fought with Her. It was fascinating, detestable, powerful and sweet; we felt like screaming and biting, fleeing and always coming back: 'Ah! You won't catch me! If you think I came here To worship you, you're wrong!' And She laughed. She always laughed.
We had our bellyful of adventure at last: if you go astray in the forest, you get delightfully lost yet still with the same old skin on your back, whereas here, there is nothing left To get lost in! It is no longer just a matter of getting lost - you have To CHANGE your skin. Or die. Yes, change species.
Or become one more nauseating little worshipper - which was not on our program. 'We are the enemy of our own conception of the Divine,' She Told us one day with her mischievous little smile.
The whole time - or for seven years, in any event - we fought with our conception of God and the
'spiritual life': it was all so comfortable, for we had a supreme 'symbol' of it right there. She let us do as we pleased, She even opened up all kinds of little heavens in us, along with a few hells, since they go Together. She even opened the door in us To a certain 'liberation,' which in the end was as soporific as eternity - but there was nowhere To get out: it WAS eternity. We were trapped on all sides. There was nothing left but these 4m2 of skin, the last refuge, that which we wanted To flee by way of above or below, by way of Guiana or the Himalayas. She was waiting for us just there, at the end of our spiritual or not so spiritual pirouettes. Matter was her concern. It Took us seven years To understand that She was beginning there, 'where the other yogas leave off,' as Sri Aurobindo had already said twenty-five years earlier. It was necessary To have covered all the paths of the Spirit and all those of Matter, or in any case a large number geographically, before discovering, or even simply understanding, that 'something else' was really Something Else. It was not an improved
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-direc Tor (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
number of fraternal iconoclasts.
Where, then, was 'the Mother of the Ashram' in all this? What is even 'the Ashram,' if not a spiritual museum of the resistances To Something Else. They were always - and still Today - reciting their catechism beneath a little flag: they are the owners of the new truth. But the new truth is laughing in their faces and leaving them high and dry at the edge of their little stagnant pond. They are under the illusion that Mother and Sri Aurobindo, twenty-seven or four years after their respective departures, could keep on repeating themselves - but then they would not be Mother and
Sri Aurobindo! They would be fossils. The truth is always on the move. It is with those who dare, who have courage, and above all the courage To shatter all the effigies, To de-mystify, and To go
TRULY To the conquest of the new. The 'new' is painful, discouraging, it resembles nothing we know! We cannot hoist the flag of an unconquered country - but this is what is so marvelous: it does not yet exist. We must MAKE IT EXIST. The adventure has not been carved out: it is To be carved out. Truth is not entrapped and fossilized, 'spiritualized': it is To be discovered. We are in a nothing that we must force To become a something. We are in the adventure of the new species. A new species is obviously contradic Tory To the old species and To the little flags of the alreadyknown. It has nothing in common with the spiritual summits of the old world, nor even with its abysms - which might be delightfully tempting for those who have had enough of the summits, but everything is the same, in black or white, it is fraternal above and below. SOMETHING ELSE is needed.
'Are you conscious of your ceils?' She asked us a short time after the little operation of spiritual demolition She had undergone. 'No? Well, become conscious of your cells, and you will see that it gives TERRESTRIAL results.' To become conscious of one's cells? ... It was a far more radical operation than crossing the Maroni with a machete in hand, for after all, trees and lianas can be cut, but what cannot be so easily uncovered are the grandfa ther and the grandmo ther and the whole atavistic pack, not To mention the animal and plant and mineral layers that form a teeming humus over this single pure little cell beneath its millennial genetic program. The grandfa thers and grandmo thers grow back again like crabgrass, along with all the old habits of being hungry, afraid, falling ill, fearing the worst, hoping for the best, which is still the best of an old mortal habit. All this is not uprooted nor entrapped as easily as celestial 'liberations,' which leave the teeming humus in peace and the body To its usual decomposition. She had come To hew a path through all that. She was the Ancient One of evolution who had come To make a new cleft in the old, tedious habit of being a man. She did not like tedious repetitions, She was the adventuress par excellence - the adventuress of the earth. She was wrenching out for man the great Possible that was already beating there, in his primeval clearing, which he believed he had momentarily trapped with a few machines.
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.
This fabulous discovery is the whole s Tory of the AGENDA. What is the passage? How is the path To the new species hewed open? ... Then suddenly, there, on the other side of this old millennial habit - a habit, nothing more than a habit! - of being like a man endowed with time and space and disease: an entire geometry, perfectly implacable and 'scientific' and medical; on the other side ... none of that at all! An illusion, a fantastic medical and scientific and genetic illusion:
death does not exist, time does not exist, disease does not exist, nor do 'scar' and 'far' - another way of being IN A BODY. For so many millions of years we have lived in a habit and put our own thoughts of the world and of Matter in To equations. No more laws! Matter is FREE. It can create a little lizard, a chipmunk or a parrot - but it has created enough parrots. Now it is SOMETHING
--
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 in To '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 in To the world's future. She was so tiny, s Tooped 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 in To 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 pho Tographic 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.
It is the hour of the REAL Earth. It is the hour of the REAL man. We are all going there - if only we could know the path a little ...
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 in To 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.
Then we have caught the tail of the Great Possible, we are upon the wayless way, radically in the new, and we flow with the little lizard, the pelican, the big man, we flow everywhere in a world that has lost its old separating skin and its little baggage of habits. We begin seeing otherwise, feeling otherwise. We have opened the gate in To an inconceivable clearing. Just a light little vibration that carries you away. Then we begin To understand how it CAN CHANGE, what the mechanism is - a light little mechanism and so miraculous that it looks like nothing. We begin feeling the wonder of a pure little cell, and that a sparkling of joy would be enough To turn the world inside out. We were living in a little thinking fishbowl, we were dying in an old, bottled habit. And then suddenly, all is different. The Earth is free! Who wants freedom?
It begins in a cell.
00.01 - The Approach to Mysticism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:00.01 - The Approach To Mysticism
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
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Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta The Approach To Mysticism
The Approach To Mysticism
Mysticism is not only a science but also, and in a greater degree, an art. To approach it merely as a science, as the modern mind attempts To do, is To move Towards futility, if not To land in positive disaster. Sufficient stress is not laid on this aspect of the matter, although the very crux of the situation lies here. The mystic domain has To be apprehended not merely by the true mind and understanding but by the right temperament and character. Mysticism is not merely an object of knowledge, a problem for inquiry and solution, it is an end, an ideal that has To be achieved, a life that has To be lived. The mystics themselves have declared long ago with no uncertain or faltering voice: this cannot be attained by intelligence or much learning, it can be seized only by a purified and clear temperament.
The warning seems To have fallen, in the modern age, on unheeding ears. For the modern mind, being pre-eminently and uncompromisingly scientific, can entertain no doubt as To the perfect competency of science and the scientific method To seize and unveil any secret of Nature. If, it is argued, mysticism is a secret, if there is at all a truth and reality in it, then it is and must be amenable To the rules and regulations of science; for science is the revealer of Nature's secrecies.
But what is not recognised in this view of things is that there are secrecies and secrecies. The material secrecies of Nature are of one category, the mystic secrecies are of another. The two are not only disparate but incommensurable. Any man with a mind and understanding of average culture can see and handle the 'scientific' forces, but not the mystic forces.
A scientist once thought that he had clinched the issue and cut the Gordian knot when he declared triumphantly with reference To spirit sances: "Very significant is the fact that spirits appear only in closed chambers, in half obscurity, To somnolent minds; they are nowhere in the open air, in broad daylight To the wide awake and vigilant intellect!" Well, if the fact is as it is stated, what does it prove? Night alone reveals the stars, during the day they vanish, but that is no proof that stars are not existent. Rather the true scientific spirit should seek To know why (or how) it is so, if it is so, and such a fact would exactly serve as a pointer, a significant starting ground. The attitude of the jesting Pilate is not helpful even To scientific inquiry. This matter of the Spirits we have taken only as an illustration and it must not be unders Tood that this is a domain of high mysticism; rather the contrary. The spiritualists' approach To Mysticism is not the right one and is fraught with not only errors but dangers. For the spiritualists approach their subject with the entire scientific apparatus the only difference being that the scientist does not believe while the spiritualist believes.
Mystic realities cannot be reached by the scientific consciousness, because they are far more subtle than the subtlest object that science can contemplate. The neutrons and positrons are for science Today the finest and profoundest object-forces; they belong, it is said, almost To a borderl and where physics ends. Nor for that reason is a mystic reality something like a mathematical abstraction, -n for example. The mystic reality is subtler than the subtlest of physical things and yet, paradoxical To say, more concrete than the most concrete thing that the senses apprehend.
Furthermore, being so, the mystic domain is of infinitely greater potency than the domain of intra-a Tomic forces. If one comes, all on a sudden, in To contact with a force here without the necessary preparation To hold and handle it, he may get seriously bruised, morally and physically. The adventure in To the mystic domain has its own Toll of casualtiesone can lose the mind, one can lose one's body even and it is a very common experience among those who have tried the path. It is not in vain and merely as a poetic metaphor that the ancient seers have said
Kurasya dhr niit duratyay1
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The mystic forces are not only of immense potency but of a definite moral disposition and character, that is To say, they are of immense potency either for good or for evil. They are not mechanical and amoral forces like those that physical sciences deal with; they are forces of consciousness and they are conscious forces, they act with an aim and a purpose. The mystic forces are forces either of light or of darkness, either Divine or Titanic. And it is most often the powers of darkness that the naturally ignorant consciousness of man contacts when it seeks To cross the borderline without training or guidance, by the sheer arrogant self-sufficiency of mental scientific reason.
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 in To 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 infinitely To 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 s Top, 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 con Tour, 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 in To the skies of the brightest luminosities.
For it must be unders Tood 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 in To 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 au Tomatically in To 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.
The mystic's knowledge and experience is not only true and real: it is delightful and blissful. It has a supremely healing virtue. It brings a sovereign freedom and ease and peace To the mystic himself, but also To those around him, who come in contact with him. For truth and reality are made up of love and harmony, because truth is, in its essence, unity.
Sharp as a razor's edge, difficult of going, hard To traverse is that path!"
This spirit is a thing no weakling can gain."
00.01 - The Mother on Savitri, #Sweet Mother - Harmonies of Light, #unset, #Zen
alt:Savitri (the Mother To Mona)
alt:TMOS
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Auromaa - Mothers Talk on Savitri To Mona Sarkar
On the 18th January 1960; when a young sadhak met the Mother for a personal interview, She said To him: "I shall give you something special; be prepared." The next day, when he again met Her, She spoke in French first about how To kindle the psychic Flame and then in this connection started speaking about Sri Aurobindo`s great epic Savitri and continued To speak at length.
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.
Do you read Savitri?
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It does not matter if you do not understand it - Savitri, read it always. You will see that every time you read it, something new will be revealed To you. Each time you will get a new glimpse, each time a new experience; things which were not there, things you did not understand arise and suddenly become clear. Always an unexpected vision comes up through the words and lines. Every time you try To read and understand, you will see that something is added, something which was hidden behind is revealed clearly and vividly. I tell you the very verses you have read once before, will appear To you in a different light each time you re-read them. This is what happens invariably. Always your experience is enriched, it is a revelation at each step.
But you must not read it as you read other books or newspapers. You must read with an empty head, a blank and vacant mind, without there being any other thought; you must concentrate much, remain empty, calm and open; then the words, rhythms, vibrations will penetrate directly To this white page, will put their stamp upon the brain, will explain themselves without your making any effort.
Savitri alone is sufficient To make you climb To the highest peaks. If truly one knows how To meditate on Savitri, one will receive all the help one needs. For him who wishes To follow this path, it is a concrete help as though the Lord himself were taking you by the hand and leading you To the destined goal. And then, every question, however personal it may be, has its answer here, every difficulty finds its solution herein; indeed there is everything that is necessary for doing the Yoga.
*He has crammed the whole universe in a single book.* It is a marvellous work, magnificent and of an incomparable perfection.
You know, before writing Savitri Sri Aurobindo said To me, *I am impelled To launch on a new adventure; I was hesitant in the beginning, but now I am decided. Still, I do not know how far I shall succeed. I pray for help.* And you know what it was? It was - before beginning, I warn you in advance - it was His way of speaking, so full of divine humility and modesty. He never... *asserted Himself*. And the day He actually began it, He Told me: *I have launched myself in a rudderless boat upon the vastness of the Infinite.* And once having started, He wrote page after page without intermission, as though it were a thing already complete up there and He had only To transcribe it in ink down here on these pages.
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 his Tory of evolution, the his Tory 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 al Together 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 in To poetry, in To 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 in To the unknown or rather in To 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 in To the joy of union with the Supreme. It is something unique and incomparable in the his Tory 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.
And men have the audacity To compare it with the work of Virgil or Homer and To find it inferior. They do not understand, they cannot understand. What do they know? Nothing at all. And it is useless To try To make them understand. Men will know what it is, but in a distant future. It is only the new race with a new consciousness which will be able To understand. I assure you there is nothing under the blue sky To compare with Savitri. It is the mystery of mysteries. It is a *super-epic,* it is super-literature, super-poetry, super-vision, it is a super-work even if one considers the number of lines He has written. No, these human words are not adequate To describe Savitri. Yes, one needs superlatives, hyperboles To describe it. It is a hyper-epic. No, words express nothing of what Savitri is, at least I do not find them. It is of immense value - spiritual value and all other values; it is eternal in its subject, and infinite in its appeal, miraculous in its mode and power of execution; it is a unique thing, the more you come in To contact with it, the higher will you be uplifted. Ah, truly it is something! It is the most beautiful thing He has left for man, the highest possible. What is it? When will man know it? When is he going To lead a life of truth? When is he going To accept this in his life? This yet remains To be seen.
My child, every day you are going To read Savitri; read properly, with the right attitude, concentrating a little before opening the pages and trying To keep the mind as empty as possible, absolutely without a thought. The direct road is through the heart. I tell you, if you try To really concentrate with this aspiration you can light the flame, the psychic flame, the flame of purification in a very short time, perhaps in a few days. What you cannot do normally, you can do with the help of Savitri. Try and you will see how very different it is, how new, if you read with this attitude, with this something at the back of your consciousness; as though it were an offering To Sri Aurobindo. You know it is charged, fully charged with consciousness; as if Savitri were a being, a real guide. I tell you, whoever, wanting To practice Yoga, tries sincerely and feels the necessity for it, will be able To climb with the help of Savitri To the highest rung of the ladder of Yoga, will be able To find the secret that Savitri represents. And this without the help of a Guru. And he will be able To practice it anywhere. For him Savitri alone will be the guide, for all that he needs he will find Savitri. If he remains very quiet when before a difficulty, or when he does not know where To turn To go forward and how To overcome obstacles, for all these hesitations and incertitudes which overwhelm us at every moment, he will have the necessary indications, and the necessary concrete help. If he remains very calm, open, if he aspires sincerely, always he will be as if lead by the hand. If he has faith, the will To give himself and essential sincerity he will reach the final goal.
Indeed, Savitri is something concrete, living, it is all replete, packed with consciousness, it is the supreme knowledge above all human philosophies and religions. It is the spiritual path, it is Yoga, Tapasya, Sadhana, everything, in its single body. Savitri has an extraordinary power, it gives out vibrations for him who can receive them, the true vibrations of each stage of consciousness. It is incomparable, it is truth in its plenitude, the Truth Sri Aurobindo brought down on the earth. My child, one must try To find the secret that Savitri represents, the prophetic message Sri Aurobindo reveals there for us. This is the work before you, it is hard but it is worth the trouble. - 5 November 1967
~ The Mother Sweet Mother The Mother To Mona Sarkar, [T0]
00.02 - Mystic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Approach To Mysticism Upanishadic Symbolism
Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Mystic Symbolism
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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 in To 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 in To 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 in To 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.
Thus there is a great diversity of symbols. At the one end is the mere metaphor or simile or allegory ('figure', as we have called it) and at the other end is the symbol identical with the thing symbolized. And upon this inner character of the symbol depends also To a large extent its range and scope. There are symbols which are universal and intimately ingrained in the human consciousness itself. Mankind has used them in all ages and climes almost in the same sense and significance. There are others that are limited To peoples and ages. They are made out of forms that are of local and temporal interest and importance. Their significances vary according To time and place. Finally, there are symbols which are true of the individual consciousness only; they depend on personal peculiarities and idiosyncrasies, on one's environment and upbringing and education.
Man being an embodied soul, his external consciousness (what the Upanishad calls jgrat) is the milieu in which his soul-experiences naturally manifest and find their play. It is the forms and movements of that consciousness which clo the and give a concrete habitation and name To perceptions on the subtler ranges of the inner existence. If the experiences on these planes are To be presented To the conscious memory and To the brain-mind and made communicable To others through speech, this is the inevitable and natural process. Symbols are a translation in mental and sensual (and vocal) terms of experiences that are beyond the mind and the sense and the speech and yet throw a kind of echoing vibrations upon these lesser levels.
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The Approach To Mysticism Upanishadic Symbolism
0 0.02 - Topographical Note, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
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French disciples, on the second floor of the main Ashram building, on some pretext of work or other. She listened To our queries, spoke To us at length of yoga, occultism, her past experiences in
Algeria and in France or of her current experiences; and gradually, She opened the mind of the rebellious and materialistic Westerner that we were and made us understand the laws of the worlds, the play of forces, the working of past lives - especially this latter, which was an important fac Tor in the difficulties with which we were struggling at that time and which periodically made us abscond.
Mother would be seated in this rather medieval-looking chair with its high, carved back, her feet on a little tabouret, while we sat on the floor, on a slightly faded carpet, conquered and seduced, revolted and never satisfied - but nevertheless, very interested. Treasures, never noted down, were lost until, with the cunning of the Sioux, we succeeded in making Mother consent To the presence of a tape recorder. But even then, and for a long time thereafter, She carefully made us erase or delete in our notes all that concerned Her rather Too personally - sometimes we disobeyed Her.
But finally we were able To convince Her of the value inherent in keeping a chronicle of the route.
It was only in 1958 that we began having the first tape-recorded conversations, which, properly speaking, constitute Mother's Agenda. But even then, many of these conversations were lost or only partly noted down. Or else we considered that our own words should not figure in these notes and we carefully omitted all our questions - which was absurd. At that time, no one - neither Mother, nor ourself - knew that this was 'the Agenda' and that we were out To explore the 'Great Passage.'
Only gradually did we become aware of the true nature of these meetings. Furthermore, we were constantly on the road, so much so that there are sizable gaps in the text. In fact, for seven years,
Mother was patiently preparing the instrument that would be able To traverse the adventure without breaking along the way.
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 unders Tood 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 in To 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.
0 0.03 - 1951-1957. Notes and Fragments, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The lack of the earth's receptivity and the behavior of Sri Aurobindo's disciples 1 are largely responsible for what happened To his body. But one thing is certain: the great misfortune that has just beset us in no way affects the truth of his teaching. All he said is perfectly true and remains so.
Time and the course of events will make this abundantly clear.
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 in To three categoriesthose that are rational and can be easily unders Tood by the mind; those that are not unders Tood 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 s Tory 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."
Now, before any explanation is attempted it is important To bear in mind that the Upanishads speak of things experiencednot merely thought, reasoned or argued and that these experiences belong To a world and consciousness other than that of the mind and the senses. One should naturally expect here a different language and mode of expression than that which is appropriate To mental and physical things. For example, the world of dreams was once supposed To be a sheer chaos, a mass of meaningless confusion; but now it is held To be quite otherwise. Psychological scientists have discovered a methodeven a very well-defined and strict methodin the madness of that domain. It is an ordered, organised, significant world; but its terminology has To be unders Tood, its code deciphered. It is not a jargon, but a foreign language that must be learnt and mastered.
In the same way, the world of spiritual experiences is also something methodical, well-organized, significant. It may not be and is not the rational world of the mind and the sense; but it need not, for that reason, be devoid of meaning, mere fancifulness or a child's imagination running riot. Here also the right key has To be found, the grammar and vocabulary of that language mastered. And as the best way To have complete mastery of a language is To live among the people who speak it, so, in the matter of spiritual language, the best and the only way To learn it is To go and live in its native country.
Now, as regards the interpretation of the s Tory cited, should not a suspicion arise naturally at the very outset that the dog of the s Tory is not a dog but represents something else? First, a significant epithet is given To itwhite; secondly, although it asks for food, it says that Om is its food and Om is its drink. In the Vedas we have some references To dogs. Yama has twin dogs that "guard the path and have powerful vision." They are his messengers, "they move widely and delight in power and possess the vast strength." The Vedic Rishis pray To them for Power and Bliss and for the vision of the Sun1. There is also the Hound of Heaven, Sarama, who comes down and discovers the luminous cows s Tolen and hidden by the Panis in their dark caves; she is the path-finder for Indra, the deliverer.
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 s Tory 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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First of all, he has the Sun; it is the primary light by which he lives and moves. When the Sun sets, the Moon rises To replace it. When both the Sun and the Moon set, he has recourse To the Fire. And when the Fire, Too, is extinguished, there comes the Word. In the end, when the Fire is quieted and the Word silenced, man is lighted by the Light of the Atman. This Atman is All-Knowledge; it is secreted within the life, within the heart: it is selfluminous Vijnamaya preu rdyantar jyoti..
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 in To 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 in To 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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Ritualistically these four terms are the formulae for oblation To four Deities, Powers or Presences, whom the sacrificer wishes To please and propitiate in order To have their help and blessing and in order thereby To discharge his dharma or duty of life. Svh is the offering especially dedicated To Agni, the foremost of the Gods, for he is the divine messenger who carries men's offering To the Gods and brings their blessing To men. Vaatkr is the offering To the Gods generally. Hantakr is the offering To mankind, To our kin, an especial form of it being the worship of the guests,sarvadevamayo' tithi. Svadh is the offering To the departed Fathers (Pitris).
The duty of life consists, it is said, in the repaying of three debts which every man contracts as soon as he takes birth upon earth the debt To the Gods, To Men and To the Ances Tors. This threefold debt or duty has, in other terms, reference To the three fields or domains wherein an embodied being lives and moves and To which he must adjust and react rightly -if he is To secure for his life an integral fulfilment. These are the family, society and the world and beyond-world. The Gods are the Powers that rule the world and beyond, they are the forms and forces of the One Spirit underlying the universe, the varied expressions of divine Truth and Reality: To worship the Gods, To do one's duty by them, means To come in To contact and To be unitedin being, consciousness and activitywith the universal and spiritual existence, which is the supreme end and purpose of human life. The seconda more circumscribed fieldis the society To which one belongs, the particular group of humanity in which he functions as a limb. The service To society or good citizenship entails the worship of humanity, of Man as a god. Lastly, man belongs To the family, which is the unit of society; and the backbone of the family is the continuous line of ances Tors, who are its presiding deity and represent the norm of a living dharma, the ethic of an ideal life.
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 in To the Fire of Aspiration that blazes up Towards the Most High, and through the Tongue of that one-pointed flame call on the Divinity.
In doing so, in invoking the Truth and consecrating oneself To it, one begins To ascend To it step by step; and each step means a tearing of another veil and a further opening of the I passage. This graded mounting is vaakra.
Hantakr is the appearance, the manifestation of the Divinity that which makes the worshipper cry in delight, "Hail!" It is the coming of the Dawnahanwhen the night has been traversed and the lid rent open, the appearance of the Divine To a human vision for the human consciousness To seize, almost in a human form.
Finally, once the Truth is reached, it is To be held fast, firmly established, embodied and fixed in its inherent nature here in life and the waking consciousness. This is Svadh.
The Gods feed upon Svdh and Vaa, as these represent the ascending movement of human consciousness: it is man's self-giving and aspiration and the upward urge of his heart and soul that reach To the Gods, and it is that which the immortals take in To themselves and are, as it were, nourished by, since it is something that appertains To their own nature.
And in response they descend and approach and enter in To the aspiring human soulthis descent and revelation and near and concrete presence of Divinity, this Hanta is man's food, for by it his consciousness is nourished.
This interchange, or mutual giving, the High Covenant between the Gods and Men, To which the Gita Too refers
With this sacrifice nourish the Gods, that the Gods may nourish you; thus mutually nourishing ye shall obtain the highest felicity3 is the very secret of the cosmic play, the basis of the spiritual evolution in the universal existence.
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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Man has two aspects or natures; he dwells in two worlds. The first is the manifest world the world of the body, the life and the mind. The body has flowered in To the mind through the life. The body gives the basis or the material, the life gives power and energy and the mind the directing knowledge. This triune world forms the humanity of man. But there is another aspect hidden behind this apparent nature, there is another world where man dwells in his submerged, larger and higher consciousness. To that his soul the Purusha in his heart only has access. It is the world where man's nature is transmuted in To another triune realitySat, Chit and Ananda.
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 in To 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 in To 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 in To the lower world, enlighten and elevate the lower, as far as it is allowed, in To the higher.
IV. The Triple Agni
Agni is the divine spark in man, the flaming consciousness in the mortal which purifies and uplifts (pvaka) mortality in To immortality. It is the god "seated in the secret heart, who is the possession of infinity and the foundation of existence," as Yama says To Nachiketas.8
Indeed, it was To this godhead that Nachiketas turned and he wanted To know of it and find it, when faith seized on his pure heart and he aspired for the higher spiritual life. The very opening hymn of the Rig Veda, Too, is addressed To Agni, who is invoked as the vicar seated in the front of the sacrifice, the giver of the supreme gifts.
King Yama initiated Nachiketas in To the mystery of Fire Worship and spoke of three fires that have To be kindled if one aspires To enter the heaven of immortality.
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 in To' 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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Fire represents the Heart. It is that which gives the inner motive To the forces of life, it is the secret inspiration and aspiration that drive the movements of life. It is the heat of consciousness, the ardour of our central being that lives in the Truth and accepts nothing, nothing but the Truth. It is the pure and primal energy of our divine essence, driving ever upward and onward life's course of evolution.
Air is Mind, the world of thought, of conscious formation; it is where life-movements are taken up and given a shape or articulate formula for an organised expression. The forms here have not, however, the concrete rigidity of Matter, but are pliant and variable and fluidin fact, they are more in the nature of possibilities, rather than actualities. The Vedic Maruts are thought-gods, and lndra (the Luminous Mind), their king, is called the Fashioner of perfect forms.
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The Science of the Five Agnis (Fires), as propounded by Pravahan, explains and illustrates the process of the birth of the body, the passage of the soul in To earth existence. It describes the advent of the child, the building of the physical form of the human being. The process is conceived of as a sacrifice, the usual symbol with the Vedic Rishis for the expression of their vision and perception of universal processes of Nature, physical and psychological. Here, the child IS said To be the final fruit of the sacrifice, the different stages in the process being: (i) Soma, (ii) Rain, (iii) Food, (iv) Semen, (v) Child. Soma means Rasaphysically the principle of water, psychologically the 'principle of delightand symbolises and constitutes the very soul and substance of life. Now it is said that these five principles the fundamental and constituent elementsare born out of the sacrifice, through the oblation or offering To the five Agnis. The first Agni is Heaven or the Sky-God, and by offering To it one's faith and one's ardent desire, one calls in To manifestation Soma or Rasa or Water, the basic principle of life. This water is next offered To the second Agni, the Rain-God, who sends down Rain. Rain, again, is offered To the third Agni, the Earth, who brings forth Food. Food is, in its turn, offered To the fourth Agni, the Father or Male, who elaborates in himself the generating fluid.
Finally, this fluid is offered To the fifth Agni, the Mother or the Female, who delivers the Child.
The biological process, described in what may seem To be crude and mediaeval terms, really reflects or echoes a more subtle and psychological process. The images used form perhaps part of the current popular notion about the matter, but the esoteric sense goes beyond the outer symbols. The sky seems To be the far and tenuous region where the soul rests and awaits its next birthit is the region of Soma, the own Home of Bliss and Immortality. Now when the time or call comes, the soul stirs and journeys down that is the Rain. Next, it enters the earth atmosphere and clothes itself with the earth consciousness. Then it waits and calls for the formation of the material body, first by the contri bution of the father and then by that of the mother; when these two unite and the material body is formed, the soul incarnates.
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 expurga Torius. 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 in To 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 in To 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 in To the lower. The lower offered To the higher means the lower sublimated and integrated in To the higher; and the descent of the higher in To 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
The Supreme Reality which is always called Brahman in the Upanishads, has To be known and experienced in two ways; for it has two fundamental aspects or modes of being. The Brahman is universal and it is transcendental. The Truth, satyam, the Upanishad says in its symbolic etymology, is 'This' (or, He) and 'That' (syat+tyat i.e. sat+tat). 'This' means the Universal Brahman: it is what is referred To when the Upanishad says:
Ivsyamidam sarvam: All this is for habitation by the Lord;
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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 epi Tomises 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 worlds To 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.
Still the Upanishad says this is not the final end. There is yet a higher status of reality and consciousness To which one has To rise. For beyond the Cosmos lies the Transcendent. The Upanishad expresses this truth and experience in various symbols. The cosmic reality, we have seen, is often conceived as a septenary, a unity of seven elements, principles and worlds. Further To give it its full complex value, it is considered not as a simple septet, but a threefold heptad the whole gamut, as it were, consisting of 21 notes or syllables. The Upanishad says, this number does not exhaust the entire range; I for there is yet a 22nd place. This is the world beyond the Sun, griefless and deathless, the supreme Selfhood. The Veda I also sometimes speaks of the integral reality as being represented by the number 100 which is 99 + I; in other words, 99 represents the cosmic or universal, the unity being the reality beyond, the Transcendent.
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 abovefrom 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 in To 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?
"How many Gods are there?" Yajnavalkya was once asked.13 The Rishi answered, they say there are three thousand and three of them, or three hundred and three, or again, thirty-three; it may be said Too there are six or three or two or one and a half or one finally. Indeed as the Upanishad says elsewhere, it is the One Unique who wished To be many: and all the gods are the various glories (mahim) or emanations of the One Divine. The ancient of ancient Rishis had declared long long ago, in the earliest Veda, that there is one indivisible Reality, the seers name it in various ways.
In Yajnavalkya's enumeration, however, it is To be noted, first of all, that he stresses on the number three. The principle of triplicity is of very wide application: it permeates all fields of consciousness and is evidently based upon a fundamental fact of reality. It seems To embody a truth of synthesis and comprehension, points To the order and harmony that reigns in the cosmos, the spheric music. The metaphysical, that is To say, the original principles that constitute existence are the well-known triplets: (i) the superior: Sat, Chit, Ananda; and (ii) the inferior: Body, Life and Mindthis being a reflection or translation or concretisation of the former. We can see also here how the dual principle comes in, the twin godhead or the two gods To which Yajnavalkya refers. The same principle is found in the conception of Ardhanarishwara, Male and Female, Purusha-Prakriti. The Upanishad says 14 yet again that the One original Purusha was not pleased at being alone, so for a companion he created out of himself the original Female. The dual principle signifies creation, the manifesting activity of the Reality. But what is this one and a half To which Yajnavalkya refers? It simply means that the other created out of the one is not a wholly separate, independent entity: it is not an integer by itself, as in the Manichean system, but that it is a portion, a fraction of the One. And in the end, in the ultimate analysis, or rather synthesis, there is but one single undivided and indivisible unity. The thousands and hundreds, very often mentioned also in the Rig Veda, are not simply multiplications of the One, a graphic description of its many-sidedness; it indicates also the absolute fullness, the complete completeness (prasya pram) of the Reality. It includes and comprehends all and is a rounded Totality, a full circle. The hundred-gated and the thousand-pillared cities of which the ancient Rishis chanted are formations and embodiments of consciousness human and divine, are realities whole and entire englobing all the layers and grades of consciousness.
Besides this metaphysics there is also an occult aspect in numerology of which Pythagoras was a well-known adept and in which the Vedic Rishis Too seem To take special delight. The multiplication of numbers represents in a general way the principle of emanation. The One has divided and subdivided itself, but not in a haphazard way: it is not like the chaotic pulverisation of a piece of s Tone by hammer-blows. The process of division and subdivision follows a pattern almost as neat and methodical as a genealogical tree. That is To say, the emanations form a hierarchy. At the Top, the apex of the pyramid, stands the one supreme Godhead. That Godhead is biune in respect of manifestation the Divine and his creative Power. This two-in-one reality may be considered, according To one view of creation, as dividing in To three forms or aspects the well-known Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra of Hindu mythology. These may be termed the first or primary emanations.
Now, each one of them in its turn has its own emanations the eleven Rudriyas are familiar. These are secondary and there are tertiary and other graded emanations the last ones Touch the earth and embody physico-vital forces. The lowest formations or beings can trace their origin To one or other of the primaries and their nature and function partake of or are an echo of their first ances Tor.
Man, however, is an epi Tome 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.
IX. Nachiketas' Three Boons
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 s Top 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 in To 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 in To the cosmic existence gives him the griefless life eternal: can the cosmos be rolled up and flung in To 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 in To 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.
The teaching of Yama in brief may be said To be the gospel of immortality and it consists of the knowledge of triple immortality. And who else can be the best teacher of immortality than Death himself, as Nachiketas pointedly said? The first immortality is that of the physical existence and consciousness, the preservation of the personal identity, the individual name and formthis being in itself as expression and embodiment and instrument of the Inner Reality. This inner reality enshrines the second immortality the eternity and continuity of the soul's life through its incarnations in time, the divine Agni lit for ever and ever growing in flaming consciousness. And the third and final immortality is in the being and consciousness beyond time, beyond all relativities, the absolute and self-existent delight.
Rig Veda, X. 14-11, 12.
--
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 in To 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.
00.04 - The Beautiful in the Upanishads, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
There the sun shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars; these lightnings Too there shine not; how then this fire! That shines and therefore all shine in its wake; by the sheen of That, all this shines.
Only, To some perhaps the beauty may not appear as evident and apparent. The Spirit of beauty that resides in the Upanishadic consciousness is more retiring and reticent. It dwells in its own privacy, in its own home, as it were, and therefore chooses To be bare and austere, simple and sheer. Beauty means usually the beauty of form, even if it be not always the decorative, ornamental and sumptuous form. The early Vedas aimed at the perfect form (surpaktnum), the faultless expression, the integral and complete embodiment; the gods they envisaged and invoked were gleaming powers carved out of harmony and beauty and figured close To our modes of apprehension (spyan). But the Upanishads came To lay stress upon what is beyond the form, what the eye cannot see nor the vision reflect:
na sandi tihati rpamasya
--
The form of a thing can be beautiful; but the formless Too has its beauty. Indeed, the beauty of the formless, that is To say, the very sum and substance, the ultimate essence, the soul of beauty that is what suffuses, with in-gathered colour and enthusiasm, the realisation and poetic creation of the Upanishadic seer. All the forms that are scattered abroad in their myriad manifest beauty hold within themselves a secret Beauty and are reflected or projected out of it. This veiled Name of Beauty can be compared To nothing on the phenomenal hemisphere of Nature; it has no adequate image or representation below:
na tasya pratimsti
it cannot be defined or figured in the terms of the phenomenal consciousness. In speaking of it, however, the Upanishads invariably and repeatedly refer To two attributes that characterise its fundamental nature. These two aspects have made such an impression upon the consciousness of the Upanishadic seer that his enthusiasm almost wholly plays about them and is centred on them. When he contemplates or communes with the Supreme Object, these seem To him To be the mark of its au thenticity, the seal of its high status and the reason of all the charm and magic it possesses. The first aspect or attri bute is that of light the brilliance, the solar effulgenceravituly-arpa the bright, clear, shadow less Light of lightsvirajam ubhram jyotim jyoti The second aspect is that of delight, the bliss, the immortality inherent in that wide effulgencenandarpam amtam yad vibhti.
And what else is the true character, the soul of beauty than light and delight? "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever." And a thing of joy is a thing of light. Joy is the radiance rippling over a thing of beauty. Beauty is always radiant: the charm, the loveliness of an object is but the glow of light that it emanates. And it would not be a very incorrect mensuration To measure the degree of beauty by the degree of light radiated. The diamond is not only a thing of value, but a thing of beauty also, because of the concentrated and undimmed light that it enshrines within itself. A dark, dull and dismal thing, devoid of interest and attraction becomes aesthetically precious and significant as soon as the artist presents it in terms of the values of light. The entire art of painting is nothing but the expression of beauty, in and through the modalities of light.
And where there is light, there is cheer and joy. Rasamaya and jyotirmayaare thus the two conjoint characteristics fundamental To the nature of the ultimate reality. Sometimes these two are named as the 'solar and the lunar aspect. The solar aspect refers obviously To the Light, that is To say, To the Truth; the lunar aspect refers To the rasa (Soma), To Immortality, To Beauty proper,
yatte suamam hdayam adhi candramasi ritam
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The perception of beauty in the Upanishadic consciousness is something elemental-of concentrated essence. It silhouettes the main con Tour, outlines the primordial gestures. Pregnant and pulsating with the burden of beauty, the mantra here reduces its external expression To a minimum. The body is bare and unadorned, and even in its nakedness, it has not the emphatic and vehement musculature of an athlete; rather it tends To be slim and slender and yet vibrant with the inner nervous vigour and glow. What can be more bare and brief and full To the brim of a self-gathered luminous energy than, for example:
yat prena na praiti yena pra
--
like the sky hard To cross over,
or,
--
like these rivers that flowing journey Towards the sea.
Art at its highest tends To become also the simplest and the most unconventional; and it is then the highest art, precisely because it does not aim at being artistic. The aesthetic motive is Totally absent in the Upanishads; the sense of beauty is there, but it is attendant upon and involved in a deeper strand of consciousness. That consciousness seeks consciousness itself, the fullness of consciousness, the awareness and possession of the Truth and Reality,the one thing which, if known, gives the knowledge of all else. And this consciousness of the Truth is also Delight, the perfect Bliss, the Immortality where the whole universe resolves itself in To its original state of rasa, that is To say, of essential and inalienable harmony and beauty.
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00.05 - A Vedic Conception of the Poet, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
'Kavi' is an invariable epithet of the gods. The Vedas mean by this attribute To bring out a most fundamental character, an inalienable dharma of the heavenly host. All the gods are poets; and a human being can become a poet only in so far as he attains To the nature and status of a god. Who is then a kavi? The Poet is he who by his poetic power raises forms of beauty in heavenkavi kavitv divi rpam sajat.1Thus the essence of poetic power is To fashion divine Beauty, To reveal heavenly forms. What is this Heaven whose forms the Poet discovers and embodies? HeavenDyaushas a very definite connotation in the Veda. It means the luminous or divine Mind 2the mind purified of its obscurity and limitations, due To subjection To the external senses, thus opening To the higher Light, receiving and recording faithfully the deeper and vaster movements and vibrations of the Truth, giving them a form, a perfect body of the right thought and the right word. Indra is the lord of this world and he can be approached only with an enkindled intelligence, ddhay man,3a faultless understanding, sumedh. He is the supreme Artisan of the poetic power,Tash, the maker of perfect forms, surpa ktnum.4 All the gods turn Towards Indra and become gods and poets, attain their Great Names of Supreme Beauty.5 Indra is also the master of the senses, indriyas, who are his hosts. It is through this mind and the senses that the poetic creation has To be manifested. The mind spreads out wide the Poet's weaving;6 the poet is the priest who calls down and works out the right thinking in the sacrificial labour of creation.7 But that creation is made in and through the inner mind and the inner senses that are alive To the subtle formation of a vaster knowledge.8 The poet envisages the golden forms fashioned out of the very profundity of the consciousness.9 For the substance, the material on which the Poet works, is Truth. The seat of the Truth the poets guard, they uphold the supreme secret Names.10 The poet has the expressive utterance, the creative word; the poet is a poet by his poetic creation-the shape faultlessly wrought out that unveils and holds the Truth.11The form of beauty is the body of the Truth.
The poet is a trinity in himself. A triune consciousness forms his personality. First of all, he is the Knower-the Seer of the Truth, kavaya satyadrara. He has the direct vision, the luminous intelligence, the immediate perception.12 A subtle and profound and penetrating consciousness is his,nigam, pracetas; his is the eye of the Sun,srya caku.13 He secures an increased being through his effulgent understanding.14 In the second place, the Poet is not only Seer but Doer; he is knower as well as crea Tor. He has a dynamic knowledge and his vision itself is power, ncak;15 he is the Seer-Will,kavikratu.16 He has the blazing radiance of the Sun and is supremely potent in his self-Iuminousness.17 The Sun is the light and the energy of the Truth. Even like the Sun the Poet gives birth To the Truth, srya satyasava, satyya satyaprasavya. But the Poet as Power is not only the revealer or crea Tor,savit, he is also the builder or fashioner,ta, and he is the organiser,vedh is personality. First of all, he is the Knower-the Seer of the Truth, kavaya satyadrara, of the Truth.18 As Savita he manifests the Truth, as Tashta he gives a perfected body and form To the Truth, and as Vedha he maintains the Truth in its dynamic working. The effective marshalling and organisation of the Truth is what is called Ritam, the Right; it is also called Dharma,19 the Law or the Rhythm, the ordered movement and invincible execution of the Truth. The Poet pursues the Path of the Right;20 it is he who lays out the Path for the march of the Truth, the progress of the Sacrifice.21 He is like a fast steed well-yoked, pressing forward;22 he is the charger that moves straight and unswerving and carries us beyond 23in To the world of felicity.
Indeed delight is the third and the supremely intimate element of the poetic personality. Dear and delightful is the poet, dear and delightful his works, priya, priyi His hand is dripping with sweetness,kavir hi madhuhastya.24 The Poet-God shines in his pristine beauty and is showering delight.25 He is filled with utter ecstasy so that he may rise To the very source of the luminous Energy.26? Pure is the Divine Joy and it enters and purifies all forms as it moves To the seat of the Immortals.27Indeed this sparkling Delight is the Poet-Seer and it is that that brings forth the creative word, the utterance of Indra.28
The solar vision of the Poet encompasses in its might the wide Earth and Heaven, fuses them in supreme Delight in the womb of the Truth.29 The Earth is lifted up and given in marriage To Heaven in the home of Truth, for the creation and expression of the Truth in its varied beauty,cru citram.
The Poet creates forms of beauty in Heaven; but these forms are not made out of the void. It is the Earth that is raised To Heaven and transmuted in To divine truth forms. The union of Earth and Heaven is the source of the Joy, the Ananda, that the Poet unseals and distributes. Heaven and Earth join and meet in the world of Delight; between them they press out Soma, the drink of the gods.
The Mind and the Body are held Together by means of the Life, the mid-world. The Divine Mind by raising the body-consciousness in To itself gathers up Too, by that act, the delight of life and releases the fountain of immortal Bliss. That is the work and achievement of the gods as poets.
Where then is the birth of the Poets? Ask it of the Masters. The Poets have seized and mastered the Mind, they have the perfect working and they fashion the Heaven.
On this Earth they hold everywhere in themselves all the secrets. They make Earth and Heaven move Together, so that they may realise their heroic strength. They measure them with their rhythmic measurings, they hold in their controlled grasp the vast and great twins, and unite them and establish between them the mid-world of Delight for the perfect poise.30
All the gods are poetstheir forms are perfect, surpa, suda, their Names full of beauty,cru devasya nma.31 This means also that the gods embody the different powers that constitute the poetic consciousness. Agni is the Seer-Will, the creative vision of the Poet the luminous energy born of an experience by identity with the Truth. Indra is the Idea-Form, the architec Tonic conception of the work or achievement. Mitra and Varuna are the large harmony, the vast cadence and sweep of movement. The Aswins, the Divine Riders, represent the intense zest of well-yoked Life-Energy. Soma is Rasa, Ananda, the Supreme Bliss and Delight.
The Vedic Poet is doubtless the poet of Life, the architect of Divinity in man, of Heaven upon earth. But what is true of Life is fundamentally true of Art Tooat least true of the Art as it was conceived by the ancient seers and as it found expression at their hands.32
Rig Veda, X. 124. 7
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The Vedic term Kavi means literally 'a seer', 'one who has the vision', as the word 'poet' means etymologically 'a doer', 'a crea Tor'. I have combined the two senses To equate the terms and bring out the meaning involved in their more current acceptation.
***
0.00a - Introduction, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
It is ironic that a period of the most tremendous technological advancement known To recorded his Tory should also be labeled the Age of Anxiety. Reams have been written about modern man's frenzied search for his soul-and, indeed, his doubt that he even has one at a time when, like castles built on sand, so many of his cherished theories, long mistaken for verities, are crumbling about his bewildered brain.
The age-old advice, "Know thyself," is more imperative than ever. The tempo of science has accelerated To such a degree that Today's discoveries frequently make yesterday's equations obsolescent almost before they can be chalked up on a blackboard. Small wonder, then that every other hospital bed is occupied by a mental patient. Man was not constructed To spend his life at a crossroads, one of which leads he knows not where, and the other To threatened annihilation of his species.
In view of this situation it is doubly reassuring To know that, even in the midst of chaotic concepts and conditions there still remains a door through which man, individually, can enter in To a vast s Tore-house of knowledge, knowledge as dependable and immutable as the measured tread of Eternity.
For this reason I am especially pleased To be writing an introduction To a new edition of A Garden of Pomegranates. I feel that never, perhaps, was the need more urgent for just such a roadmap as the Qabalistic system provides. It should be equally useful To any who chooses To follow it, whether he be Jew, Christian or Buddhist, Deist, Theosophist, agnostic or atheist.
The Qabalah is a trustworthy guide, leading To a comprehension both of the Universe and one's own Self. Sages have long taught that Man is a miniature of the Universe, containing within himself the diverse elements of that macrocosm of which he is the microcosm. Within the Qabalah is a glyph called the Tree of Life which is at once a symbolic map of the Universe in its major aspects, and also of its smaller counterpart, Man.
Manly P. Hall, in The Secret Teachings of All Ages, deplores the failure of modern science To "sense the profundity of these philosophical deductions of the ancients." Were they To do so, he says, they "would realize those who fabricated the structure of the Qabalah possessed a knowledge of the celestial plan comparable in every respect with that of the modern savant."
Fortunately many scientists in the field of psycho therapy are beginning To sense this correlation. In Francis G. Wickes' The Inner World of Choice reference is made To "the existence in every person of a galaxy of potentialities for growth marked by a succession of personalogical evolution and interaction with environments." She points out that man is not only an individual particle but "also a part of the human stream, governed by a Self greater than his own individual self."
The Book of the Law states simply, "Every man and every woman is a star." This is a startling thought for those who considered a star a heavenly body, but a declaration subject To proof by anyone who will venture in To the realm of his own Unconscious. This realm, he will learn if he persists, is not hemmed in by the boundaries of his physical body but is one with the boundless reaches of outer space.
Those who, armed with the Tools provided by the Qabalah, have made the journey within and crossed beyond the barriers of illusion, have returned with an impressive quantity of knowledge which conforms strictly To the definition of "science" in Wins Ton's College Dictionary: "Science: a body of knowledge, general truths of particular facts, obtained and shown To be correct by accurate observation and thinking; knowledge condensed, arranged and systematized with reference To general truths and laws."
Over and over their findings have been confirmed, proving the Qabalah contains within it not only the elements of the science itself but the method with which To pursue it.
When planning To visit a foreign country, the wise traveler will first familiarize himself with its language. In studying music, chemistry or calculus, a specific terminology is essential To the understanding of each subject. So a new set of symbols is necessary when undertaking a study of the Universe, whether within or without. The Qabalah provides such a set in unexcelled fashion.
But the Qabalah is more. It also lays the foundation on which rests another archaic science- Magic. Not To be confused with the conjurer's sleight-of-hand, Magic has been defined by Aleister Crowley as "the science and art of causing change To occur in conformity with will." Dion Fortune qualifies this nicely with an added clause, "changes in consciousness."
The Qabalah reveals the nature of certain physical and psychological phenomena. Once these are apprehended, unders Tood and correlated, the student can use the principles of Magic To exercise control over life's conditions and circumstances not otherwise possible. In short. Magic provides the practical application of the theories supplied by the Qabalah.
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 in To 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.
A simple example is the concept of the Trinity in the Christian religion. The student is frequently amazed To learn through a study of the Qabalah that Egyptian mythology followed a similar concept with its trinity of gods, Osiris the father, Isis the virgin-mother, and Horus the son. The Qabalah indicates similar correspondences in the pantheon of Roman and Greek deities, proving the father-mother (Holy Spirit) - son principles of deity are primordial archetypes of man's psyche, rather than being, as is frequently and erroneously supposed a development peculiar To the Christian era.
At this juncture let me call attention To one set of attri butions by Rittangelius usually found as an appendix attached To the Sepher Yetzirah. It lists a series of "Intelligences" for each one of the ten Sephiros and the twenty-two Paths of the Tree of Life. It seems To me, after prolonged meditation, that the common attri butions of these Intelligences is al Together arbitrary and lacking in serious meaning.
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 his Tory, 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.
The Qabalah has nothing To do with any of them. Attempts on the part of cultish-partisans To impart higher mystical meanings, through the Qabalah, etc., To their now sterile faiths is futile, and will be seen as such by the younger generation. They, the flower and love children, will have none of this nonsense.
I felt this a long time ago, as I still do, but even more so. The only way To explain the partisan Jewish attitude demonstrated in some small sections of the book can readily be explained. I had been reading some writings of Arthur Edward Waite, and some of his pomposity and turgidity stuck To my mantle. I disliked his patronising Christian attitude, and so swung all the way over To the other side of the pendulum. Actually, neither faith is particularly important in this day and age. I must be careful never To read Waite again before embarking upon literary work of my own.
Much knowledge obtained by the ancients through the use of the Qabalah has been supported by discoveries of modern scientists- anthropologists, astronomers, psychiatrists, et al. Learned Qabalists for hundreds of years have been aware of what the psychiatrist has only discovered in the last few decades-that man's concept of himself, his deities and the Universe is a constantly evolving process, changing as man himself evolves on a higher spiral. But the roots of his concepts are buried in a race-consciousness that antedated Neanderthal man by uncounted aeons of time.
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.
By the middle of 1926 I had become aware of the work of Aleister Crowley, for whom I have a tremendous respect. I studied as many of his writings as I could gain access To, making copious notes, and later acted for several years as his secretary, having joined him in Paris on Oc Tober 12, 1928, a memorable day in my life.
All sorts of books have been written on the Qabalah, some poor, some few others extremely good. But I came To feel the need for what might be called a sort of Berlitz handbook, a concise but comprehensive introduction, studded with diagrams and tables of easily unders Tood definitions and correspondences To simplify the student's grasp of so complicated and abstruse a subject.
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 in To 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 in To 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 Ana Tomy 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.
In 1932, at the suggestion of Thomas Burke, the novelist, I submitted my manuscript To one of his publishers, Messrs. Constable in London. They were unable To use it, but made some encouraging comments and advised me To submit it To Riders. To my delight and surprise, Riders published it, and throughout the years the reaction it has had indicated other students found it also fulfilled their need for a condensed and simplified survey of such a vast subject as the Qabalah.
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 in To 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."
Such a condition is both deplorable and appalling when the means are readily available for man To acquire a thorough understanding of himself-and in so doing, an understanding of his neighbor and the world in which he lives as well as the greater Universe of which each is a part.
May everyone who reads this new edition of A Garden of Pomegranates be encouraged and inspired To light his own candle of inner vision and begin his journey in To the boundless space that lies within himself. Then, through realization of his true identity, each student can become a lamp un To his own path. And more. Awareness of the Truth of his being will rip asunder the veil of unknowing that has here Tofore enshrouded the star he already is, permitting the brilliance of his light To illumine the darkness of that part of the Universe in which he abides.
0.00a - Participants in the Evening Talks, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
To the Reader I
Use ctrl + Y To copy selected text in markdown format.
000 - Humans in Universe, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
000.100 Introduction To 10 Color Posters
000.101 The combined land areas of Africa, Europe, and Asia embrace within
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stretching away To infinity in all lateral directions. Yet the Total land area of this flat
world constitutes less than 17 percent of the subsequently-discovered- To-be-
--
3,000 years ago the Greeks made further magnificent contributions To geometry,
algebra, and calculation. Then about 2,000 years ago the Roman Empire all but
--
traveling through North Africa began To res Tore some of the ancient mathematics To
the westward-evolving culture. When al-Khwarizmi's original A.D. 800 treatise on
--
facilitated division and multiplication. Imagine trying To multiply or divide with
Roman numerals . . . impossible! The Renaissance began with the new calculating
facility introduced by the cipher. The cipher was not only an essential Tool in the
work of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and New Ton, but it also brought about
Columbus' revised concepts of terrestrial navigation. It went on To instrument the
mechanical and leverage calculation capabilities of Leonardo; and in the art of shipdesign the cipher gave birth To structural and mechanical engineering, which made
possible the intertensioning and compressioning calculations of the ribbed structural
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but it became known To, and then was employed by, only the world's richest
schemers, monarchs, nations, and pirate enterprisers. No others could afford To buy
great ships. With more powerfully engineered ships, humans emerged westward
through Gibraltar To explore the Atlantic, To sail around Africa, To reach the Orient
and the Pacific by water, and To circumnavigate the globe. Thus it became public
knowledge that the old open-edged, infinite world system had closed back on itself
in all circumferential directions To become a finite system: a closed sphere. The
monarchs and merchants realized that, within that closed system, whoever
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troops. In England the East India Company College was established To train the
officers of the enterprise for their world-wide deployment; that college and its
--
Thomas Malthus became the first economic authority ever To receive in To To the
vital statistics of a world-embracing spherical empire. At the very end of the 18th
--
Darwin when he declared in effect that the working class is the fittest To .survive:
they know how To use the Tools and To cultivate the fields-the wealthy are parasites.
This inaugurated the supranational concept of two world-wide political classes and
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fittest To survive." Thus survival of the physically fittest became the basis for
national departments of defense with their priority of access To the most advanced
science and technology. The military Took command of all the highest performance
materials, brains, instruments, and Tools of production.
000.110 Mutually assumed survival-only-of-the-fittest is the reason why the
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dollars annually To buy ever more effective weapons of potential destruction. The
great political and industrial power structures have all become supranational
comprehensivists, while the people have been passport-chained To their respective
150 national preserves-the people have become educationally divided in To
"specialists" for exploitation by the supranational powers who divide To conquer
and divide To keep conquered.
000.111 Up until the 20th century reality consisted of everything that humans
could see, smell, Touch, and hear. Then at the entry in To the 20th century the
electron was discovered. A century after the time of Malthus much of science
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interacting To produce stable patterns. A structural system divides Universe in To all
Universe outside the structural system (macrocosm) and all Universe inside the
--
thousand times more effective in its resistance To compression than To tension.
000.115 Throughout the three million known years of the S Tone Age humans
relied on gravity To hold their vertical s Tone walls Together until (as often happened)
they were shaken apart by earthquakes against which they had almost no tensionally
cohering resistance. Gravity pushed humanity's s Tone structures inward Toward the
Earth's center. Humans had To build their structures on bedrock "shoes" To prevent
them from sinking vertically in To Earth's center. S Tone buildings could not float on
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and the low overall displacement weights involved, made possible for humans To
design and fabricate air-enclosing wooden vessels whose structure and space
enclosure combined To produce highly successful wooden vessels of the sea that
could carry great cargoes.000.116 In the 1850s humans arrived at the mass production of steel, an alloy of
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Steel brought mankind a structural-tension capability To match s Tone's previous
millions of years of exclusive compressional supremacy. With far higher tensile
--
These new materials made it possible To design and build engine-powered all-metal
airplanes (structural vessels), which could pull themselves angularly above the
--
of material have gone on To carry ever greater useful loads in vertical takeoff
vehicles at ever more accelerated rates of ascent.
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vast governments can afford To exploit the increased technical advantages.
000.119 Before the airplane humans said, "You cannot lift yourself by your
bootstraps." Today we are lifting ever lighter and stronger structural vessel "selves"by ever less effort of our scientific know-how bootstraps. No economist knows this.
It is the most highly classified of military and private enterprise secrets. Industry
--
primarily To yield monetary profits for the government-subsidized private-enterprise
producers of weapons.
--
feasible To re Tool and redirect world industry in such a manner that within 10 years
we can have all of humanity enjoying a sustainably higher standard of living-with
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weapons production To livingry production, will rehouse the deployed phases of
world-humans by single-family, air-deliverable, energy harvesting, only-rentable
--
000.122 All of the foregoing makes it possible To say that since we now know that
there is a sustainable abundance of life support and accommodation for all, it
follows that all politics and warring are obsolete and invalid. We no longer need To
rationalize selfishness. No one need ever again "earn a living." Further living for all
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their directly received individual cosmic incomes. So Too, private enterprise should
no more meter the energy than it meters the air. But all of Earthians' present power
structures-political, religious, or capitalist-would find their interests disastrouslythreatened by Total human success. They are founded upon assumption of scarcity;
they are organized for and sustained by the problems imposed by the assumption of
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for their life-sustaining opportunities To "earn a living." Ergo, humanity thinks it is
against technology and thinks itself averse To exercising its option.
000.125 The fact that 99 percent of humanity does not understand nature is the
prime reason for humanity's failure To exercise its option To attain universally
sustainable physical success on this planet. The prime barrier To humanity's
discovery and comprehension of nature is the obscurity of the mathematical
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the omnitriangulated, equi-vec Tor-edge tetrahedron. In respect To the conceptual pre-
time-size tetrahedron's volume taken as unity 1, with its six unit-vec Tor-edge
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family's respective 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-tetravolumes. Frequency To the third
power, F 3 , values then multiply the primitive, already-four-dimensional volumetric
--
spinnability, one more dimensional fac Tor is required, making a Total of eight
dimensions in all for experientially evidencing physical reality.
000.1271 To define the everywhere-and-everywhen-transforming cosmic
environment of each and every system requires several more intercovarying system
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spontaneously attractive and can be used To teach all the world's people nature's
coordinating system-and can do so in time To make it possible for all humanity To
favorably comprehend and To exercise its option To attain universal physical
success, thereby eliminating forevermore all world politics and competition for the
right To live. The hydrogen a Tom does not have To compromise its function potential
by first "earning a living" before it can function directly as a hydrogen a Tom.
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were given their minds with which To discover and employ the generalized laws
governing all physical and metaphysical, omniinteraccommodative, ceaseless
--
misused their minds To develop only personal and partisan advantages, intellectual
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
--
may clarify for everyone the few scientific conceptions and mathematical Tools
necessary for universal comprehension and individual use of nature's synergetic
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
COMING To CALCUTTA
BREAD-WINNING EDUCATION
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ATTITUDE ToWARD DIFFERENT RELIGIONS
PILGRIMAGE
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INJURY To THE MASTER'S ARM
BEGINNING OF HIS ILLNESS
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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 un Touched 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 Chat Topadhyaya 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 ances Tors 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.
--- BOYHOOD
Gadadhar grew up in To 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 ances Tors 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 s Tories 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 in To the mango orchard or in To 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 s Tories recorded in the Puranas. And he became interested in the wandering monks and pious pilgrims who would s Top at Kamarpukur on their way To Puri. These holy men, the cus Todians 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 s Tories from the Hindu epics, s Tories of saints and prophets, and also s Tories 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.
At the age of nine Gadadhar was invested with the sacred thread. This ceremony conferred upon him the privileges of his brahmin lineage, including the worship of the Family Deity, Raghuvir, and imposed upon him the many strict disciplines of a brahmin's life. During the ceremony of investiture he shocked his relatives by accepting a meal cooked by his nurse, a sudra woman. His father would never have dreamt of doing such a thing But in a playful mood Gadadhar had once promised this woman that he would eat her food, and now he fulfilled his plighted word. The woman had piety and religious sincerity, and these were more important To the boy than the conventions of society.
Gadadhar was now permitted To worship Raghuvir. Thus began his first training in meditation. He so gave his heart and soul To the worship that the s Tone image very soon appeared To him as the living Lord of the Universe. His tendency To lose himself in contemplation was first noticed at this time. Behind his boyish light-heartedness was seen a deepening of his spiritual nature.
About this time, on the Sivaratri night, consecrated To the worship of Siva, a dramatic performance was arranged. The principal ac Tor, 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 ac Tor, 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 s Topped, 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 s Tories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Gadadhar knew by heart almost all the roles, having heard them from professional ac Tors. His favourite theme was the Vrindavan episode of Krishna's life, depicting those exquisite love-s Tories 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."
--- BREAD-WINNING EDUCATION
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 al Together 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 ances Tors — 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 his Tory of the profound change that had taken place in the land of his birth during the previous one hundred years.
Hindu society during the eighteenth century had been passing through a period of decadence. It was the twilight of the Mussalman rule. There were anarchy and confusion in all spheres. Superstitious practices dominated the religious life of the people. Rites and rituals passed for the essence of spirituality. Greedy priests became the cus Todians of heaven. True philosophy was supplanted by dogmatic opinions. The pundits Took delight in vain polemics.
In 1757 English traders laid the foundation of British rule in India. Gradually the Government was systematized and lawlessness suppressed. The Hindus were much impressed by the military power and political acumen of the new rulers. In the wake of the merchants came the English educa Tors, and social reformers, and Christian missionaries — all bearing a culture completely alien To the Hindu mind. In different parts of the country educational institutions were set up and Christian churches established. Hindu young men were offered the heady wine of the Western culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and they drank it To the very dregs.
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 untu Tored 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 cus Toms and traditions of their society. They would do away with the caste-system and remove the discrimina Tory 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.
But the soul of India was To be resuscitated through a spiritual awakening. We hear the first call of this renascence in the spirited re Tort of the young Gadadhar: "Brother, what shall I do with a mere bread-winning education?"
Ramkumar could hardly understand the import of his young brother's reply. He described in bright colours the happy and easy life of scholars in Calcutta society. But Gadadhar intuitively felt that the scholars, To use one of his own vivid illustrations, were like so many vultures, soaring high on the wings of their uninspired intellect, with their eyes fixed on the charnel-pit of greed and lust. So he s Tood firm and Ramkumar had To give way.
--- KALI TEMPLE AT DAKSHINESWAR
At that time there lived in Calcutta a rich widow named Rani Rasmani, belonging To the sudra caste, and known far and wide not only for her business ability, courage, and intelligence, but also for her largeness of heart, piety, and devotion To God. She was assisted in the management of her vast property by her son-in-law Mathur Mohan.
In 1847 the Rani purchased twenty acres of land at Dakshineswar, a village about four miles north of Calcutta. Here she created a temple garden and constructed several temples. Her Ishta, or Chosen Ideal, was the Divine Mother, Kali.
The temple garden stands directly on the east bank of the Ganges. The northern section of the land and a portion To the east contain an orchard, flower gardens, and two small reservoirs. The southern section is paved with brick and mortar. The visi Tor arriving by boat ascends the steps of an imposing bathing-ghat which leads To the chandni, a roofed terrace, on either side of which stand in a row six temples of Siva. East of the terrace and the Siva temples is a large court, paved, rectangular in shape, and running north and south. Two temples stand in the centre of this court, the larger one, To the south and facing south, being dedicated To Kali, and the smaller one, facing the Ganges, To Radhakanta, that is, Krishna, the Consort of Radha. Nine domes with spires surmount the temple of Kali, and before it stands the spacious natmandir, or music hall, the terrace of which is sup- ported by stately pillars. At the northwest and southwest
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, s Tore-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 visi Tors reverently drink a few drops from the vessel.
--- KALI
The main temple is dedicated To Kali, the Divine Mother, here worshipped as Bhavatarini, the Saviour of the Universe. The floor of this temple also is paved with marble. The basalt image of the Mother, dressed in gorgeous gold brocade, stands on a white marble image of the prostrate body of Her Divine Consort, Siva, the symbol of the Absolute. On the feet of the Goddess are, among other ornaments, anklets of gold. Her arms are decked with jewelled ornaments of gold. She wears necklaces of gold and pearls, a golden garland of human heads, and a girdle of human arms. She wears a golden crown, golden ear-rings, and a golden nose-ring with a pearl-drop. She has four arms. The lower left hand holds a severed human head and the upper grips a blood-stained sabre. One right hand offers boons To Her children; the other allays their fear. The majesty of Her posture can hardly be described. It combines the terror of destruction with the reassurance of motherly tenderness. For She is the Cosmic Power, the Totality of the universe, a glorious harmony of the pairs of opposites. She deals out death, as She creates and preserves. She has three eyes, the third being the symbol of Divine Wisdom; they strike dismay in To the wicked, yet pour out affection for Her devotees.
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 Crea Tor. 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.
Sri Ramakrishna — henceforth we shall call Gadadhar by this familiar name —1 came To the temple garden with his elder brother Ramkumar, who was appointed priest of the Kali temple. Sri Ramakrishna did not at first approve of Ramkumar's working for the sudra Rasmani. The example of their orthodox father was still fresh in Sri Ramakrishna's mind. He objected also To the eating of the cooked offerings of the temple, since, according To orthodox Hindu cus Tom, such food can be offered To the Deity only in the house of a brahmin. But the holy atmosphere of the temple grounds, the solitude of the surrounding wood, the loving care of his brother, the respect shown him by Rani Rasmani and Mathur Babu, the living presence of the Goddess Kali in the temple, and; above all, the proximity of the sacred Ganges, which Sri Ramakrishna always held in the highest respect, gradually overcame his disapproval, and he began To feel at home.
Within a very short time Sri Ramakrishna attracted the notice of Mathur Babu, who was impressed by the young man's religious fervour and wanted him To participate in the worship in the Kali temple. But Sri Ramakrishna loved his freedom and was indifferent To any worldly career. The profession of the priesthood in a temple founded by a rich woman did not appeal To his mind. Further, he hesitated To take upon himself the responsibility for the ornaments and jewelry of the temple. Mathur had To wait for a suitable occasion.
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 s Tormy 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.
One day the priest of the Radhakanta temple accidentally dropped the image of Krishna on the floor, breaking one of its legs. The pundits advised the Rani To install a new image, since the worship of an image with a broken limb was against the scriptural injunctions. But the Rani was fond of the image, and she asked Sri Ramakrishna's opinion. In an abstracted mood, he said: "This solution is ridiculous. If a son-in-law of the Rani broke his leg, would she discard him and put another in his place? Wouldn't she rather arrange for his treatment? Why should she not do the same thing in this case Too? Let the image be repaired and worshipped as before." It was a simple, straightforward solution and was accepted by the Rani. Sri Ramakrishna himself mended the break. The priest was dismissed for his carelessness, and at Mathur Babu's earnest request Sri Ramakrishna accepted the office of priest in the Radhakanta temple.
^No definite information is available as To the origin of this name. Most probably it was given by Mathur Babu, as Ramlal, Sri Ramakrishna's nephew, has said, quoting the authority of his uncle himself.
^Hriday's mother was the daughter of Sri Ramakrishna's aunt (Khudiram's sister). Such a degree of relationship is termed in Bengal that of a "distant nephew".
--
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 fac Tors 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 s Tone, 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 in To 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.
In 1856 Ramkumar breathed his last. Sri Ramakrishna had already witnessed more than one death in the family. He had come To realize how impermanent is life on earth. The more he was convinced of the transi Tory nature of worldly things, the more eager he became To realize God, the Fountain of Immortality.
--- THE FIRST VISION OF KALI
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. In To Her worship he poured his soul. Before him She s Tood 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 al Together.
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, al Together new, and I felt the presence of the Divine Mother." On his lips when he regained consciousness of the world was the word "Mother".
--
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 in To 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 s Tone, 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 s Torey 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.
It is said that samadhi, or trance, no more than opens the portal of the spiritual realm. Sri Ramakrishna felt an unquenchable desire To enjoy God in various ways. For his meditation he built a place in the northern wooded section of the temple garden. With Hriday's help he planted there five sacred trees. The spot, known as the Panchavati, became the scene of many of his visions.
As his spiritual mood deepened he more and more felt himself To be a child of the Divine Mother. He learnt To surrender himself completely To Her will and let Her direct him.
"O Mother," he would constantly pray, "I have taken refuge in Thee. Teach me what To do and what To say. Thy will is paramount everywhere and is for the good of Thy children. Merge my will in Thy will and make me Thy instrument."
His visions became deeper and more intimate. He no longer had To meditate To behold the Divine Mother. Even while retaining consciousness of the outer world, he would see Her as tangibly as the temples, the trees, the river, and the men around him.
On a certain occasion Mathur Babu stealthily entered the temple To watch the worship. He was profoundly moved by the young priest's devotion and sincerity. He realized that Sri Ramakrishna had transformed the s Tone image in To the living Goddess.
Sri Ramakrishna one day fed a cat with the food that was To be offered To Kali. This was Too much for the manager of the temple garden, who considered himself responsible for the proper conduct of the worship. He reported Sri Ramakrishna's insane behaviour To Mathur Babu.
Sri Ramakrishna has described the incident: "The Divine Mother revealed To me in the Kali temple that it was She who had become everything. She showed me that everything was full of Consciousness. The image was Consciousness, the altar was Consciousness, the water-vessels were Consciousness, the door-sill was Consciousness, the marble floor was Consciousness — all was Consciousness. I found everything inside the room soaked, as it were, in Bliss — the Bliss of God. I saw a wicked man in front of the Kali temple; but in him also I saw the power of the Divine Mother vibrating. That was why I fed a cat with the food that was To be offered To the Divine Mother. I clearly perceived that all this was the Divine Mother — even the cat. The manager of the temple garden wrote To Mathur Babu saying that I was feeding the cat with the offering intended for the Divine Mother. But Mathur Babu had insight in To the state of my mind. He wrote back To the manager: 'Let him do whatever he likes. You must not say anything To him.'"
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.
Mathur and Rani Rasmani began To ascribe the mental ailment of Sri Ramakrishna in part, at least, To his observance of rigid continence. Thinking that a natural life would relax the tension of his nerves, they engineered a plan with two women of ill fame. But as soon as the women entered his room, Sri Ramakrishna beheld in them the manifestation of the Divine Mother of the Universe and went in To samadhi uttering Her name.
--- HALADHARI
In 1858 there came To Dakshineswar a cousin of Sri Ramakrishna, Haladhari by name, who was To remain there about eight years. On account of Sri Ramakrishna's indifferent health, Mathur appointed this man To the office of priest in the Kali temple. He was a complex character, versed in the letter of the scriptures, but hardly aware of their spirit. He loved To participate in hair-splitting theological discussions and, by the measure of his own erudition, he proceeded To gauge Sri Ramakrishna. An orthodox brahmin, he thoroughly disapproved of his cousin's unorthodox actions, but he was not unimpressed by Sri Ramakrishna's purity of life, ecstatic love of God, and yearning for realization.
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.
--- MARRIAGE AND AFTER
But in a few months his health showed improvement, and he recovered To some extent his natural buoyancy of spirit. His happy mother was encouraged To think it might be a good time To arrange his marriage. The boy was now twenty-three years old. A wife would bring him back To earth. And she was delighted when her son welcomed her suggestion. Perhaps he saw in it the finger of God.
Saradamani, a little girl of five, lived in the neighbouring village of Jayrambati. Even at this age she had been praying To God To make her character as stainless and fragrant as the white tuberose. Looking at the full moon, she would say: "O God, there are dark spots even on the moon. But make my character spotless." It was she who was selected as the bride for Sri Ramakrishna.
The marriage ceremony was duly performed. Such early marriage in India is in the nature of a betrothal, the marriage being consummated when the girl attains puberty. But in this case the marriage remained for ever unconsummated. Sri Ramakrishna lived at Kamarpukur about a year and a half and then returned To Dakshineswar.
Hardly had he crossed the threshold of the Kali temple when he found himself again in the whirlwind. His madness reappeared tenfold. The same meditation and prayer, the same ecstatic moods, the same burning sensation, the same weeping, the same sleeplessness, the same indifference To the body and the outside world, the same divine delirium. He subjected himself To fresh disciplines in order To eradicate greed and lust, the two great impediments To spiritual progress. With a rupee in one hand and some earth in the other, he would reflect on the comparative value of these two for the realization of God, and finding them equally worthless he would Toss them, with equal indifference, in To the Ganges. Women he regarded as the manifestations of the Divine Mother. Never even in a dream did he feel the impulses of lust. And To root out of his mind the idea of caste superiority, he cleaned a pariahs house with his long and neglected hair. When he would sit in meditation, birds would perch on his head and peck in his hair for grains of food. Snakes would crawl over his body, and neither would be aware of the other. Sleep left him al Together. Day and night, visions flitted before him. He saw the sannyasi who had previously killed the "sinner" in him again coming out of his body, threatening him with the trident, and ordering him To concentrate on God. Or the same sannyasi would visit distant places, following a luminous path, and bring him reports of what was happening there. Sri Ramakrishna used To say later that in the case of an advanced devotee the mind itself becomes the guru, living and moving like an embodied being.
Rani Rasmani, the foundress of the temple garden, passed away in 1861. After her death her son-in-law Mathur became the sole execu Tor of the estate. He placed himself and his resources at the disposal of Sri Ramakrishna and began To look after his physical comfort. Sri Ramakrishna later spoke of him as one of his five "suppliers of s Tores" appointed by the Divine Mother. Whenever a desire arose in his mind, Mathur fulfilled it without hesitation.
--- THE BRAHMANI
There came To Dakshineswar at this time a brahmin woman who was To play an important part in Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual unfoldment. Born in East Bengal, she was an adept in the Tantrik and Vaishnava methods of worship. She was slightly over fifty years of age, handsome, and garbed in the orange robe of a nun. Her sole possessions were a few books and two pieces of wearing-cloth.
Sri Ramakrishna welcomed the visi Tor with great respect, described To her his experiences and visions, and Told her of people's belief that these were symp Toms of madness. She listened To him attentively and said: "My son, everyone in this world is mad. Some are mad for money, some for creature comforts, some for name and fame; and you are mad for God." She assured him that he was passing through the almost unknown spiritual experience described in the scriptures as mahabhava, the most exalted rapture of divine love. She Told him that this extreme exaltation had been described as manifesting itself through nineteen physical symp Toms, including the shedding of tears, a tremor of the body, horripilation, perspiration, and a burning sensation. The Bhakti scriptures, she declared, had recorded only two instances of the experience, namely, those of Sri Radha and Sri Chaitanya.
Very soon a tender relationship sprang up between Sri Ramakrishna and the Brahmani, she looking upon him as the Baby Krishna, and he upon her as mother. Day after day she watched his ecstasy during the kirtan and meditation, his samadhi, his mad yearning; and she recognized in him a power To transmit spirituality To others. She came To the conclusion that such things were not possible for an ordinary devotee, not even for a highly developed soul. Only an Incarnation of God was capable of such spiritual manifestations. She proclaimed openly that Sri Ramakrishna, like Sri Chaitanya, was an Incarnation of God.
When Sri Ramakrishna Told Mathur what the Brahmani had said about him, Mathur shook his head in doubt. He was reluctant To accept him as an Incarnation of God, an Avatar comparable To Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and Chaitanya, though he admitted Sri Ramakrishna's extraordinary spirituality. Whereupon the Brahmani asked Mathur To arrange a conference of scholars who should discuss the matter with her. He agreed To the proposal and the meeting was arranged. It was To be held in the natmandir in front of the Kali temple.
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?"
Gauri said: "I feel it in my heart and I have the scriptures on my side. I am ready To prove it To anyone who challenges me."
"Well," Sri Ramakrishna said, "it is you who say so; but, believe me, I know nothing about it."
Thus the insane priest was by verdict of the great scholars of the day proclaimed a Divine Incarnation. His visions were not the result of an over-heated brain; they had precedent in spiritual his Tory. And how did the proclamation affect Sri Ramakrishna himself? He remained the simple child of the Mother that he had been since the first day of his life. Years later, when two of his householder disciples openly spoke of him as a Divine Incarnation and the matter was reported To him, he said with a Touch of sarcasm: "Do they think they will enhance my glory that way? One of them is an ac Tor on the stage and the other a physician. What do they know about Incarnations? Why, years ago pundits like Gauri and Vaishnavcharan declared me To be an Avatar. They were great scholars and knew what they said. But that did not make any change in my mind."
Sri Ramakrishna was a learner all his life. He often used To quote a proverb To his disciples: "Friend, the more I live the more I learn." When the excitement created by the Brahmani's declaration was over, he set himself To the task of practising spiritual disciplines according To the traditional methods laid down in the Tantra and Vaishnava scriptures. Hither To he had pursued his spiritual ideal according To the promptings of his own mind and heart. Now he accepted the Brahmani as his guru and set foot on the traditional highways.
--- TANTRA
According To the Tantra, the Ultimate Reality is Chit, or Consciousness, which is identical with Sat, or Being, and with Ananda, or Bliss. This Ultimate Reality, Satchidananda, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, is identical with the Reality preached in the Vedas. And man is identical with this Reality; but under the influence of maya, or illusion, he has forgotten his true nature. He takes To be real a merely apparent world of subject and object, and this error is the cause of his bondage and suffering. The goal of spiritual discipline is the rediscovery of his true identity with the divine Reality.
For the achievement of this goal the Vedanta prescribes an austere negative method of discrimination and renunciation, which can be followed by only a few individuals endowed with sharp intelligence and unshakable will-power. But Tantra takes in To consideration the natural weakness of human beings, their lower appetites, and their love for the concrete. It combines philosophy with rituals, meditation with ceremonies, renunciation with enjoyment. The underlying purpose is gradually To train the aspirant To meditate on his identity with the Ultimate.
The average man wishes To enjoy the material objects of the world. Tantra bids him enjoy these, but at the same time discover in them the presence of God. Mystical rites are prescribed by which, slowly, the sense-objects become spiritualized and sense attraction is transformed in To a love of God. So the very "bonds" of man are turned in To "releasers". The very poison that kills is transmuted in To the elixir of life. Outward renunciation is not necessary. Thus the aim of Tantra is To sublimate bhoga, or enjoyment in To yoga, or union with Consciousness. For, according To this philosophy, the world with all its manifestations is nothing but the sport of Siva and Sakti, the Absolute and Its inscrutable Power.
The disciplines of Tantra are graded To suit aspirants of all degrees. Exercises are prescribed for people with "animal", "heroic", and "divine" outlooks. Certain of the rites require the presence of members of the opposite sex. Here the aspirant learns To look on woman as the embodiment of the Goddess Kali, the Mother of the Universe. The very basis of Tantra is the Motherhood of God and the glorification of woman. Every part of a woman's body is To be regarded as incarnate Divinity. But the rites are extremely dangerous. The help of a qualified guru is absolutely necessary. An unwary devotee may lose his foothold and fall in To a pit of depravity.
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 in To 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 in To 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 in To 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 bot Tom 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.
About this time it was revealed To him that in a short while many devotees would seek his guidance.
--- VAISHNAVA DISCIPLINES
--
Vaishnavism is exclusively a religion of bhakti. Bhakti is intense love of God, attachment To Him alone; it is of the nature of bliss and bes Tows upon the lover immortality and liberation. God, according To Vaishnavism, cannot be realized through logic or reason; and, without bhakti, all penances, austerities and rites are futile. Man cannot realize God by self-exertion alone. For the vision of God His grace is absolutely necessary, and this grace is felt by the pure of heart. The mind is To be purified through bhakti. The pure mind then remains for ever immersed in the ecstasy of God-vision. It is the cultivation of this divine love that is the chief concern of the Vaishnava religion.
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 in To 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.
Sri Ramakrishna, as the monkey Hanuman, had already worshipped God as his Master. Through his devotion To Kali he had worshipped God as his Mother. He was now To take up the other relationships prescribed by the Vaishnava scriptures.
--- RAMLALA
About the year 1864 there came To Dakshineswar a wandering Vaishnava monk, Jatadhari, whose Ideal Deity was Rama. He always carried with him a small metal image of the Deity, which he called by the endearing name of Ramlala, the Boy Rama. Toward this little image he displayed the tender affection of Kausalya for her divine Son, Rama. As a result of lifelong spiritual practice he had actually found in the metal image the presence of his Ideal. Ramlala was no longer for him a metal image, but the living God. He devoted himself To nursing Rama, feeding Rama, playing with Rama, taking Rama for a walk, and bathing Rama. And he found that the image responded To his love.
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 Crea Tor, Sustainer, and Destroyer; that, in still another aspect, He is the transcendental Brahman, without form, attribute, or name.
While worshipping Ramlala as the Divine Child, Sri Ramakrishna's heart became filled with motherly tenderness, and he began To regard himself as a woman. His speech and gestures changed. He began To move freely with the ladies of Mathur's family, who now looked upon him as one of their own sex. During this time he worshipped the Divine Mother as Her companion or handmaid.
--- IN COMMUNION WITH THE DIVINE BELOVED
Sri Ramakrishna now devoted himself To scaling the most inaccessible and dizzy heights of dualistic worship, namely, the complete union with Sri Krishna as the Beloved of the heart. He regarded himself as one of the gopis of Vrindavan, mad with longing for her divine Sweetheart. At his request Mathur provided him with woman's dress and jewelry. In this love-pursuit, food and drink were forgotten. Day and night he wept bitterly. The yearning turned in To a mad frenzy; for the divine Krishna began To play with him the old tricks He had played with the gopis. He would tease and taunt, now and then revealing Himself, but always keeping at a distance. Sri Ramakrishna's anguish brought on a return of the old physical symp Toms: the burning sensation, an oozing of blood through the pores, a loosening of the joints, and the s Topping of physiological functions.
The Vaishnava scriptures advise one To propitiate Radha and obtain her grace in order To realize Sri Krishna. So the Tortured devotee now turned his prayer To her. Within a short time he enjoyed her blessed vision. He saw and felt the figure of Radha disappearing in To his own body.
He said later on: "It is impossible To describe the heavenly beauty and sweetness of Radha. Her very appearance showed that she had completely forgotten herself in her passionate attachment To Krishna. Her complexion was a light yellow."
Now one with Radha, he manifested the great ecstatic love, the mahabhava, which had found in her its fullest expression. Later Sri Ramakrishna said: "The manifestation in the same individual of the nineteen different kinds of emotion for God is called, in the books on bhakti, mahabhava. An ordinary man takes a whole lifetime To express even a single one of these. But in this body [meaning himself] there has been a complete manifestation of all nineteen."
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 in To 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 s Tout 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 as Tonished 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 in To 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
is, ultimately speaking, as illusory as the experience of any other object. Man attains his liberation, therefore, by piercing the veil of maya and rediscovering his Total identity with Brahman. Knowing himself To be one with the Universal Spirit, he realizes ineffable Peace. Only then does he go beyond the fiction of birth and death; only then does he become immortal. 'And this is the ultimate goal of all religions — To dehypnotize the soul now hypnotized by its own ignorance.
The path of the Vedantic discipline is the path of negation, "neti", in which, by stern determination, all that is unreal is both negated and renounced. It is the path of jnana, knowledge, the direct method of realizing the Absolute. After the negation of everything relative, including the discriminating ego itself, the aspirant merges in the One without a Second, in the bliss of nirvikalpa samadhi, where subject and object are alike dissolved. The soul goes beyond the realm of thought. The domain of duality is transcended. Maya is left behind with all its changes and modifications. The Real Man Towers above the delusions of creation, preservation, and destruction. An avalanche of indescribable Bliss sweeps away all relative ideas of pain and pleasure, good and evil. There shines in the heart the glory of the Eternal Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Knower, knowledge, and known are dissolved in the Ocean of one eternal Consciousness; love, lover, and beloved merge in the unbounded Sea of supreme Felicity; birth, growth, and death vanish in infinite Existence. All doubts and misgivings are quelled for ever; the oscillations of the mind are s Topped; the momentum of past actions is exhausted. Breaking down the ridge-pole of the tabernacle in which the soul has made its abode for un Told ages, stilling the body, calming the mind, drowning the ego, the sweet joy of Brahman wells up in that superconscious state. Space disappears in To nothingness, time is swallowed in eternity, and causation becomes a dream of the past. Only Existence is. Ah! Who can describe what the soul then feels in its communion with the Self?
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 s Torm 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 s Topped at Dakshineswar.
Totapuri, discovering at once that Sri Ramakrishna was prepared To be a student of Vedanta, asked To initiate him in To 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 in To the monastic order be performed in secret, To spare the feelings of his old mother, who had been living with him at Dakshineswar.
On the appointed day, in the small hours of the morning, a fire was lighted in the Panchavati. Totapuri and Sri Ramakrishna sat before it. The flame played on their faces. "Ramakrishna was a small brown man with a short beard and beautiful eyes, long dark eyes, full of light, obliquely set and slightly veiled, never very wide open, but seeing half-closed a great distance both outwardly and inwardly. His mouth was open over his white teeth in a bewitching smile, at once affectionate and mischievous. Of medium height, he was thin To emaciation and extremely delicate. His temperament was high-strung, for he was supersensitive To all the winds of joy and sorrow, both moral and physical. He was indeed a living reflection of all that happened before the mirror of his eyes, a two-sided mirror, turned both out and in." (Romain Rolland, Prophets of the New India, pp. 38-9.) Facing him, the other rose like a rock. He was very tall and robust, a sturdy and Tough oak. His constitution and mind were of iron. He was the strong leader of men.
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.
"Brahman", he said, "is the only Reality, ever pure, ever illumined, ever free, beyond the limits of time, space, and causation. Though apparently divided by names and forms through the inscrutable power of maya, that enchantress who makes the impossible possible, Brahman is really One and undivided. When a seeker merges in the beatitude of samadhi, he does not perceive time and space or name and form, the offspring of maya. Whatever is within the domain of maya is unreal. Give it up. Destroy the prison-house of name and form and rush out of it with the strength of a lion. Dive deep in search of the Self and realize It through samadhi. You will find the world of name and form vanishing in To void, and the puny ego dissolving in Brahman-Consciousness. You will realize your identity with Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute." Quoting the Upanishad, Totapuri said: "That knowledge is shallow by which one sees or hears or knows another
. What is shallow is worthless and can never give real felicity. But the Knowledge by which one does not see another or hear another or know another, which is beyond duality, is great, and through such Knowledge one attains the Infinite Bliss. How can the mind and senses grasp That which shines in the heart of all as the Eternal Subject?"
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 in To the Atman. But in spite of all my attempts I could not al Together 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 in To the Great Beyond. Again and again I tried, but She s Tood 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 as Tonishment. "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.
Totapuri, a monk of the most orthodox type, never stayed at a place more than three days. But he remained at Dakshineswar eleven months. He Too had something To learn.
Totapuri had no idea of the struggles of ordinary men in the Toils of passion and desire. Having maintained all through life the guilelessness of a child, he laughed at the idea of a man's being led astray by the senses. He was convinced that the world was maya and had only To be denounced To vanish for ever. A born non-dualist, he had no faith in a Personal God. He did not believe in the terrible aspect of Kali, much less in Her benign aspect. Music and the chanting of God's holy name were To him only so much nonsense. He ridiculed the spending of emotion on the worship of a Personal God.
--- KALI AND MAYA
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 al Together 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 in To 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 his Tory 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 in To 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 s Tood 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 in To 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" in To "nay", and "nay" in To "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.
Sri Ramakrishna later described the significance of Totapuri's lessons:
"When I think of the Supreme Being as inactive — neither creating nor preserving nor destroying —, I call Him Brahman or Purusha, the Impersonal God. When I think of Him as active — creating, preserving, and destroying —, I call Him Sakti or Maya or Prakriti, the Personal God. But the distinction between them does not mean a difference. The Personal and the Impersonal are the same thing, like milk and its whiteness, the diamond and its lustre, the snake and its wriggling motion. It is impossible To conceive of the one without the other. The Divine Mother and Brahman are one."
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.
--- COMPANY OF HOLY MEN AND DEVOTEES
From now on Sri Ramakrishna began To seek the company of devotees and holy men. He had gone through the s Torm 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 visi Tors 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 s Tores 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, in To 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."
The Knowledge of Brahman in nirvikalpa samadhi had convinced Sri Ramakrishna that the gods of the different religions are but so many readings of the Absolute, and that the Ultimate Reality could never be expressed by human Tongue. He unders Tood that all religions lead their devotees by differing paths To one and the same goal. Now he became eager To explore some of the alien religions; for with him understanding meant actual experience.
--- ISLAM
Toward the end of 1866 he began To practise the disciplines of Islam. Under the direction of his Mussalman guru he abandoned himself To his new sadhana. He dressed as a Mussalman and repeated the name of Allah. His prayers Took the form of the Islamic devotions. He forgot the Hindu gods and goddesses — even Kali — and gave up visiting the temples. He Took up his residence outside the temple precincts. After three days he saw the vision of a radiant figure, perhaps Mohammed. This figure gently approached him and finally lost himself in Sri Ramakrishna. Thus he realized the Mussalman God. Thence he passed in To communion with Brahman. The mighty river of Islam also led him back To the Ocean of the Absolute.
--- CHRISTIANITY
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 in To 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
Sri Ramakrishna accepted the divinity of Buddha and used To point out the similarity of his teachings To those of the Upanishads. He also showed great respect for the Tirthankaras, who founded Jainism, and for the ten Gurus of Sikhism. But he did not speak of them as Divine Incarnations. He was heard To say that the Gurus of Sikhism were the reincarnations of King Janaka of ancient India. He kept in his room at Dakshineswar a small statue of Tirthankara Mahavira and a picture of Christ, before which incense was burnt morning and evening.
Without being formally initiated in To their doctrines, Sri Ramakrishna thus realized the ideals of religions other than Hinduism. He did not need To follow any doctrine. All barriers were removed by his overwhelming love of God. So he became a Master who could speak with authority regarding the ideas and ideals of the various religions of the world. "I have practised", said he, "all religions — Hinduism, Islam, Christianity — and I have also followed the paths of the different Hindu sects. I have found that it is the same God Toward whom all are directing their steps, though along different paths. You must try all beliefs and traverse all the different ways once. Wherever I look, I see men quarrelling in the name of religion — Hindus, Mohammedans, Brahmos, Vaishnavas, and the rest. But they never reflect that He who is called Krishna is also called Siva, and bears the name of the Primal Energy, Jesus, and Allah as well — the same Rama with a thousand names. A lake has several ghats. At one the Hindus take water in pitchers and call it 'jal'; at another the Mussalmans take water in leather bags and call it pani'. At a third the Christians call it 'water'. Can we imagine that it is not 'jal', but only 'pani' or 'water'? How ridiculous! The substance is One under different names, and everyone is seeking the same substance; only climate, temperament, and name create differences. Let each man follow his own path. If he sincerely and ardently wishes To know God, peace be un To him! He will surely realize Him."
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 skele Tons, 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 in To 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.
On the return journey Mathur wanted To visit Gaya, but Sri Ramakrishna declined To go. He recalled his father's vision at Gaya before his own birth and felt that in the temple of Vishnu he would become permanently absorbed in God. Mathur, honouring the Master's wish, returned with his party To Calcutta.
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 in To a deep trance.
--- RELATION WITH HIS WIFE
In 1872 Sarada Devi paid her first visit To her husband at Dakshineswar. Four years earlier she had seen him at Kamarpukur and had tasted the bliss of his divine company. Since then she had become even more gentle, tender, introspective, serious, and unselfish. She had heard many rumours about her husband's insanity. People had shown her pity in her misfortune. The more she thought, the more she felt that her duty was To be with him, giving him, in whatever measure she could, a wife's devoted service. She was now eighteen years old. Accompanied by her father, she arrived at Dakshineswar, having come on foot the distance of eighty miles. She had had an attack of fever on the way. When she arrived at the temple garden the Master said sorrowfully: "Ah! You have come Too late. My Mathur is no longer here To look after you." Mathur had passed away the previous year.
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 visi Tors. 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 in To 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.
--- THE "EGO" OF THE MASTER
In the nirvikalpa samadhi Sri Ramakrishna had realized that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. By keeping his mind six months on the plane of the non-dual Brahman, he had attained To the state of the vijnani, the knower of Truth in a special and very rich sense, who sees Brahman not only in himself and in the transcendental Absolute, but in everything of the world. In this state of vijnana, sometimes, bereft of body-consciousness, he would regard himself as one with Brahman; sometimes, conscious of the dual world, he would regard himself as God's devotee, servant, or child. In order To enable the Master To work for the welfare of humanity, the Divine Mother had kept in him a trace of ego, which he described — according To his mood — as the "ego of Knowledge", the "ego of Devotion", the "ego of a child", or the "ego of a servant". In any case this ego of the Master, consumed by the fire of the Knowledge of Brahman, was an appearance only, like a burnt string. He often referred To this ego as the "ripe ego" in contrast with the ego of the bound soul, which he described as the "unripe" or "green" ego. The ego of the bound soul identifies itself with the body, relatives, possessions, and the world; but the "ripe ego", illumined by Divine Knowledge, knows the body, relatives, possessions, and the world To be unreal and establishes a relationship of love with God alone. Through this "ripe ego" Sri Ramakrishna dealt with the world and his wife. One day, while stroking his feet, Sarada Devi asked the Master, "What do you think of me?" Quick came the answer: "The Mother who is worshipped in the temple is the mother who has given birth To my body and is now living in the nahabat, and it is She again who is stroking my feet at this moment. Indeed, I always look on you as the personification of the Blissful Mother Kali."
Sarada Devi, in the company of her husband, had rare spiritual experiences. She said: "I have no words To describe my wonderful exaltation of spirit as I watched him in his different moods. Under the influence of divine emotion he would sometimes talk on abstruse subjects, sometimes laugh, sometimes weep, and sometimes become perfectly motionless in samadhi. This would continue throughout the night. There was such an extraordinary divine presence in him that now and then I would shake with fear and wonder how the night would pass. Months went by in this way. Then one day he discovered that I had To keep awake the whole night lest, during my sleep, he should go in To samadhi — for it might happen at any moment —, and so he asked me To sleep in the nahabat."
--- SUMMARY OF THE MASTER'S SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES
We have now come To the end of Sri Ramakrishna's sadhana, the period of his spiritual discipline. As a result of his supersensuous experiences he reached certain conclusions regarding himself and spirituality in general. His conclusions about himself may be summarized as follows:
First, he was an Incarnation of God, a specially commissioned person, whose spiritual experiences were for the benefit of humanity. Whereas it takes an ordinary man a whole life's struggle To realize one or two phases of God, he had in a few years realized God in all His phases.
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.
About spirituality in general the following were his conclusions: First, he was firmly convinced that all religions are true, that every doctrinal system represents a path To God. He had followed all the main paths and all had led him To the same goal. He was the first religious prophet recorded in his Tory To preach the harmony of religions.
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 contradic Tory 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.
Fourth, his spiritual insight Told him that those who were having their last birth on the mortal plane of existence and those who had sincerely called on the Lord even once in their lives must come To him.
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 s Tood 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 s Tood 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 momen Tous event for both Sri Ramakrishna and Keshab. Here the Master for the first time came in To actual, contact with a worthy representative of modern India.
--
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, aris Tocratic 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 s Top the infiltration of Christian ideas in To 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 in To 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 Vic Toria. 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.
In 1878 a schism divided Keshab's Samaj. Some of his influential followers accused him of infringing the Brahmo principles by marrying his daughter To a wealthy man before she had attained the marriageable age approved by the Samaj. This group seceded and established the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, Keshab remaining the leader of the Navavidhan. Keshab now began To be drawn more and more Toward the Christ ideal, though under the influence of Sri Ramakrishna his devotion To the Divine Mother also deepened. His mental oscillation between Christ and the Divine Mother of Hinduism found no position of rest. In Bengal and some other parts of India the Brahmo movement Took the form of unitarian Christianity, scoffed at Hindu rituals, and preached a crusade against image worship. Influenced by Western culture, it declared the supremacy of reason, advocated the ideals of the French Revolution, abolished the caste-system among its own members, s Tood for the emancipation of women, agitated for the abolition of early marriage, sanctioned the remarriage of widows, and encouraged various educational and social-reform movements. The immediate effect of the Brahmo movement in Bengal was the checking of the proselytizing activities of the Christian missionaries. It also raised Indian culture in the estimation of its English masters. But it was an intellectual and eclectic religious ferment born of the necessity of the time. Unlike Hinduism, it was not founded on the deep inner experiences of sages and prophets. Its influence was confined To a comparatively few educated men and women of the country, and the vast masses of the Hindus remained outside it. It sounded mono Tonously only one of the notes in the rich gamut of the Eternal Religion of the Hindus.
--- ARYA SAMAJ
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 in To 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 in Tolerant 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 ora Tor 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 in To 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 visi Tor. 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 in To 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 s Tore 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.
--- OTHER BRAHMO LEADERS
Gradually other Brahmo leaders began To feel Sri Ramakrishna's influence. But they were by no means uncritical admirers of the Master. They particularly disapproved of his ascetic renunciation and condemnation of "woman and gold".1 They measured him according To their own ideals of the householder's life. Some could not understand his samadhi and described it as a nervous malady. Yet they could not resist his magnetic personality.
Among the Brahmo leaders who knew the Master closely were Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, Vijaykrishna Goswami, Trailokyanath Sannyal, and Shivanath Shastri.
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 visi Tors. 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 ex Tol 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 in To 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 cus Tom 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 in To 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 medita Tor 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.
Sri Ramakrishna never taught his disciples To hate any woman, or womankind in general. This can be seen clearly by going through all his teachings under this head and judging them collectively. The Master looked on all women as so many images of the Divine Mother of the Universe. He paid the highest homage To womankind by accepting a woman as his guide while practising the very profound spiritual disciplines of Tantra. His wife, known and revered as the Holy Mother, was his constant companion and first disciple. At the end of his spiritual practice he literally worshipped his wife as the embodiment of the Goddess Kali, the Divine Mother. After his passing away the Holy Mother became the spiritual guide not only of a large number of householders, but also of many monastic members of the Ramakrishna Order.
--- THE MASTER'S YEARNING FOR HIS OWN DEVOTEES
Contact with the Brahmos increased Sri Ramakrishna's longing To encounter aspirants who would be able To follow his teachings in their purest form. "There was no limit", he once declared, " To the longing I felt at that time. During the day-time I somehow managed To control it. The secular talk of the worldly-minded was galling To me, and I would look wistfully To the day when my own beloved companions would come. I hoped To find solace in conversing with them and relating To them my own realizations. Every little incident would remind me of them, and thoughts of them wholly engrossed me. I was already arranging in my mind what I should say To one and give To another, and so on. But when the day would come To a close I would not be able To curb my feelings. The thought that another day had gone by, and they had not come, oppressed me. When, during the evening service, the temples rang with the sound of bells and conch-shells, I would climb To the roof of the kuthi in the garden and, writhing in anguish of heart, cry at the Top of my voice: 'Come, my children! Oh, where are you? I cannot bear To live without you.' A mother never longed so intensely for the sight of her child, nor a friend for his companions, nor a lover for his sweetheart, as I longed for them. Oh, it was indescribable! Shortly after this period of yearning the devotees1 began To come."
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 s Tore 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 unders Tood him according To their powers of comprehension.
^The word is generally used in the text To denote one devoted To God, a worshipper of the Personal God, or a follower of the path of love. A devotee of Sri Ramakrishna is one who is devoted To Sri Ramakrishna and follows his teachings. The word "disciple", when used in connexion with Sri Ramakrishna, refers To one who had been initiated in To spiritual life by Sri Ramakrishna and who regarded him as his guru.
--- THE MASTER'S METHOD OF TEACHING
But he remained as ever the willing instrument in the hand of God, the child of the Divine Mother, Totally un Touched 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 unders Tood 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.
Through all this fun and frolic, this merriment and frivolity, he always kept before them the shining ideal of God-Consciousness and the path of renunciation. He prescribed ascents steep or graded according To the powers of the climber. He permitted no compromise with the basic principles of purity. An aspirant had To keep his body, mind, senses, and soul unspotted; had To have a sincere love for God and an ever mounting spirit of yearning. The rest would be done by the Mother.
His disciples were of two kinds: the householders, and the young men, some of whom were later To become monks. There was also a small group of women devotees.
--- HOUSEHOLDER DEVOTEES
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 in To 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 un Touched 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
The first two householder devotees To come To Dakshineswar were Ramchandra Dutta and Manomohan Mitra. A medical practitioner and chemist, Ram was sceptical about God and religion and never enjoyed peace of soul. He wanted tangible proof of God's existence. The Master said To him: "God really" exists. You don't see the stars in the day-time, but that doesn't mean that the stars do not exist. There is butter in milk. But can anybody see it by merely looking at the milk? To get butter you must churn milk in a quiet and cool place. You cannot realize God by a mere wish; you must go through some mental disciplines." By degrees the Master awakened Ram's spirituality and the latter became one of his foremost lay disciples. It was Ram who introduced Narendranath To Sri Ramakrishna. Narendra was a relative of Ram.
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
Suresh Mitra, a beloved disciple whom the Master often addressed as Surendra, had received an English education and held an important post in an English firm. Like many other educated young men of the time, he prided himself on his atheism and led a Bohemian life. He was addicted To drinking. He cherished an exaggerated notion about man's free will. A victim of mental depression, he was brought To Sri Ramakrishna by Ramchandra chandra Dutta. When he heard the Master asking a disciple To practise the virtue of self-surrender To God, he was impressed. But though he tried thenceforth To do so, he was unable To give up his old associates and his drinking. One day the Master said in his presence, "Well, when a man goes To an undesirable place, why doesn't he take the Divine Mother with him?" And To Surendra himself Sri Ramakrishna said: "Why should you drink wine as wine? Offer it To Kali, and then take it as Her prasad, as consecrated drink
. But see that you don't become in Toxicated; you must not reel and your thoughts must not wander. At first you will feel ordinary excitement, but soon you will experience spiritual exaltation." Gradually Surendra's entire life was changed. The Master designated him as one of those commissioned by the Divine Mother To defray a great part of his expenses. Surendra's purse was always open for the Master's comfort.
--- KEDAR
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 unders Tood 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
Harish, a young man in affluent circumstances, renounced his family and Took shelter with the Master, who loved him for his sincerity, singleness of purpose, and quiet nature. He spent his leisure time in prayer and meditation, turning a deaf ear To the entreaties and threats of his relatives. Referring To his undisturbed peace of mind, the Master would say: "Real men are dead To the world though living. Look at Harish. He is an example." When one day the Master asked him To be a little kind To his wife, Harish said: "You must excuse me on this point. This is not the place To show kindness. If I try To be sympathetic To her, there is a possibility of my forgetting the ideal and becoming entangled in the world."
--- BHAVANATH
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.
Mahendranath Gupta, better known as "M.", arrived at Dakshineswar in March 1882. He belonged To the Brahmo Samaj and was headmaster of the Vidyasagar High School at Syambazar, Calcutta. At the very first sight the Master recognized him as one of his "marked" disciples. Mahendra recorded in his diary Sri Ramakrishna's conversations with his devotees. These are the first directly recorded words, in the spiritual his Tory of the world, of a man recognized as belonging in the class of Buddha and Christ. The present volume is a translation of this diary. Mahendra was instrumental, through his personal contacts, in spreading the Master's message among many young and aspiring souls.
--- NAG MAHASHAY
Durgacharan Nag, also known as Nag Mahashay, was the ideal householder among the lay disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. He was the embodiment of the Master's ideal of life in the world, unstained by worldliness. In spite of his intense desire To become a sannyasi, Sri Ramakrishna asked him To live in the world in the spirit of a monk, and the disciple truly carried out this injunction. He was born of a poor family and even during his boyhood often sacrificed everything To lessen the sufferings of the needy. He had married at an early age and after his wife's death had married a second time To obey his father's command. But he once said To his wife: "Love on the physical level never lasts. He is indeed blessed who can give his love To God with his whole heart. Even a little attachment To the body endures for several births. So do not be attached To this cage of bone and flesh. Take shelter at the feet of the Mother and think of Her alone. Thus your life here and hereafter will be ennobled." The Master spoke of him as a "blazing light". He received every word of Sri Ramakrishna in dead earnest. One day he heard the Master saying that it was difficult for doc Tors, lawyers, and brokers To make much progress in spirituality. Of doc Tors he said, "If the mind clings To the tiny drops of medicine, how can it conceive of the Infinite?" That was the end of Durgacharan's medical practice and he threw his chest of medicines in To the Ganges. Sri Ramakrishna assured him that he would not lack simple food and clothing. He bade him serve holy men. On being asked where he would find real holy men, the Master said that the sadhus themselves would seek his company. No sannyasi could have lived a more austere life than Durgacharan.
--- GIRISH GHOSH
Girish Chandra Ghosh was a born rebel against God, a sceptic, a Bohemian, a drunkard. He was the greatest Bengali dramatist of his time, the father of the modem Bengali stage. Like other young men he had imbibed all the vices of the West. He had plunged in To a life of dissipation and had become convinced that religion was only a fraud. Materialistic philosophy he justified as enabling one To get at least a little fun out of life. But a series of reverses shocked him and he became eager To solve the riddle of life. He had heard people say that in spiritual life the help of a guru was imperative and that the guru was To be regarded as God Himself. But Girish was Too well acquainted with human nature To see perfection in a man. His first meeting with Sri Ramakrishna did not impress him at all. He returned home feeling as if he had seen a freak at a circus; for the Master, in a semi-conscious mood, had inquired whether it was evening, though the lamps were burning in the room. But their paths often crossed, and Girish could not avoid further encounters. The Master attended a performance in Girish's Star Theatre. On this occasion, Too, Girish found nothing impressive about him. One day, however, Girish happened To see the Master dancing and singing with the devotees. He felt the contagion and wanted To join them, but restrained himself for fear of ridicule. Another day Sri Ramakrishna was about To give him spiritual instruction, when Girish said: "I don't want To listen To instructions. I have myself written many instructions. They are of no use To me. Please help me in a more tangible way If you can." This pleased the Master and he asked Girish To cultivate faith.
As time passed, Girish began To learn that the guru is the one who silently unfolds the disciple's inner life. He became a steadfast devotee of the Master. He often loaded the Master with insults, drank in his presence, and Took liberties which as Tounded the other devotees. But the Master knew that at heart Girish was tender, faithful, and sincere. He would not allow Girish To give up the theatre. And when a devotee asked him To tell Girish To give up drinking, he sternly replied: "That is none of your business. He who has taken charge of him will look after him. Girish is a devotee of heroic type. I tell you, drinking will not affect him." The Master knew that mere words could not induce a man To break deep-rooted habits, but that the silent influence of love worked miracles. Therefore he never asked him To give up alcohol, with the result that Girish himself eventually broke the habit. Sri Ramakrishna had strengthened Girish's resolution by allowing him To feel that he was absolutely free.
One day Girish felt depressed because he was unable To submit To any routine of spiritual discipline. In an exalted mood the Master said To him: "All right, give me your power of at Torney. Henceforth I assume responsibility for you. You need not do anything." Girish heaved a sigh of relief. He felt happy To think that Sri Ramakrishna had assumed his spiritual responsibilities. But poor Girish could not then realize that He also, on his part, had To give up his freedom and make of himself a puppet in Sri Ramakrishna's hands. The Master began To discipline him according To this new attitude. One day Girish said about a trifling matter, "Yes, I shall do this." "No, no!" the Master corrected him. "You must not speak in that egotistic manner. You should say, 'God willing, I shall do it.'" Girish unders Tood. Thenceforth he tried To give up all idea of personal responsibility and surrender himself To the Divine Will. His mind began To dwell constantly on Sri Ramakrishna. This unconscious meditation in time chastened his turbulent spirit.
The householder devotees generally visited Sri Ramakrishna on Sunday afternoons and other holidays. Thus a brotherhood was gradually formed, and the Master encouraged their fraternal feeling. Now and then he would accept an invitation To a devotee's home, where other devotees would also be invited. Kirtan would be arranged and they would spend hours in dance and devotional music. The Master would go in To trances or open his heart in religious discourses and in the narration of his own spiritual experiences. Many people who could not go To Dakshineswar participated in these meetings and felt blessed. Such an occasion would be concluded with a sumptuous feast.
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 al Together 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
Sri Ramakrishna also became acquainted with a number of people whose scholarship or wealth entitled them everywhere To respect. He had met, a few years before, Devendranath Tagore, famous all over Bengal for his wealth, scholarship, saintly character, and social position. But the Master found him disappointing; for, whereas Sri Ramakrishna expected of a saint complete renunciation of the world, Devendranath combined with his saintliness a life of enjoyment. Sri Ramakrishna met the great poet Michael Madhusudan, who had embraced Christianity "for the sake of his s Tomach". To him the Master could not impart instruction, for the Divine Mother "pressed his Tongue". In addition he met Maharaja Jatindra Mohan Tagore, a titled aris Tocrat of Bengal; Kris Todas Pal, the edi Tor, social reformer, and patriot; Iswar Vidyasagar, the noted philanthropist and educa Tor; Pundit Shashadhar, a great champion of Hindu orthodoxy; Aswini Kumar Dutta, a headmaster, moralist, and leader of Indian Nationalism; and Bankim Chatterji, a deputy magistrate, novelist, and essayist, and one of the fashioners of modern Bengali prose. Sri Ramakrishna was not the man To be dazzled by outward show, glory, or eloquence. A pundit without discrimination he regarded as a mere straw. He would search people's hearts for the light of God, and if that was missing he would have nothing To do with them.
--- KRIS ToDAS PAL
The Europeanized Kris Todas 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 s Top 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
--
The first of these young men To come To the Master was Latu. Born of obscure parents, in Behar, he came To Calcutta in search of work and was engaged by Ramchandra Dutta as house-boy. Learning of the saintly Sri Ramakrishna, he visited the Master at Dakshineswar and was deeply Touched by his cordiality. When he was about To leave, the Master asked him To take some money and return home in a boat or carriage. But Latu declared he had a few pennies and jingled the coins in his pocket. Sri Ramakrishna later requested Ram To allow Latu To stay with him permanently. Under Sri Ramakrishna's guidance Latu made great progress in meditation and was blessed with ecstatic visions, but all the efforts of the Master To give him a smattering of education failed. Latu was very fond of kirtan and other devotional songs but remained all his life illiterate.
--- RAKHAL
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 visi Tors 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
Gopal Sur of Sinthi came To Dakshineswar at a rather advanced age and was called the elder Gopal. He had lost his wife, and the Master assuaged his grief. Soon he renounced the world and devoted himself fully To meditation and prayer. Some years later Gopal gave the Master the ochre cloths with which the latter initiated several of his disciples in To monastic life.
--- NARENDRA
To spread his message To the four corners of the earth Sri Ramakrishna needed a strong instrument. With his frail body and delicate limbs he could not make great journeys across wide spaces. And such an instrument was found in Narendranath Dutta, his beloved Naren, later known To the world as Swami Vivekananda. Even before meeting Narendranath, the Master had seen him in a vision as a sage, immersed in the meditation of the Absolute, who at Sri Ramakrishna's request had agreed To take human birth To assist him in his work.
Narendra was born in Calcutta on January 12, 1863, of an aris Tocratic kayastha family. His mother was steeped in the great Hindu epics, and his father, a distinguished at Torney of the Calcutta High Court, was an agnostic about religion, a friend of the poor, and a mocker at social conventions. Even in his boyhood and youth Narendra possessed great physical courage and presence of mind, a vivid imagination, deep power of thought, keen intelligence, an extraordinary memory, a love of truth, a passion for purity, a spirit of independence, and a tender heart. An expert musician, he also acquired proficiency in physics, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, his Tory, and literature. He grew up in To an extremely handsome young man. Even as a child he practised meditation and showed great power of concentration. Though free and passionate in word and action, he Took the vow of austere religious chastity and never allowed the fire of purity To be extinguished by the slightest defilement of body or soul.
As he read in college the rationalistic Western philosophers of the nineteenth century, his boyhood faith in God and religion was unsettled. He would not accept religion on mere faith; he wanted demonstration of God. But very soon his passionate nature discovered that mere Universal Reason was cold and bloodless. His emotional nature, dissatisfied with a mere abstraction, required a concrete support To help him in the hours of temptation. He wanted an external power, a guru, who by embodying perfection in the flesh would still the commotion of his soul. Attracted by the magnetic personality of Keshab, he joined the Brahmo Samaj and became a singer in its choir. But in the Samaj he did not find the guru who could say that he had seen God.
In a state of mental conflict and Torture of soul, Narendra came To Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar. He was then eighteen years of age and had been in college two years. He entered the Master's room accompanied by some light-hearted friends. At Sri Ramakrishna's request he sang a few songs, pouring his whole soul in To them, and the Master went in To samadhi. A few minutes later Sri Ramakrishna suddenly left his seat, Took Narendra by the hand, and led him To the screened verandah north of his room. They were alone. Addressing Narendra most tenderly, as if he were a friend of long acquaintance, the Master said: "Ah! You have come very late. Why have you been so unkind as To make me wait all these days? My ears are tired of hearing the futile words of worldly men. Oh, how I have longed To pour my spirit in To the heart of someone fitted To receive my message!" He talked thus, sobbing all the time. Then, standing before Narendra with folded hands, he addressed him as Narayana, born on earth To remove the misery of humanity. Grasping Narendra's hand, he asked him To come again, alone, and very soon. Narendra was startled. "What is this I have come To see?" he said To himself. "He must be stark mad. Why, I am the son of Viswanath Dutta. How dare he speak this way To me?"
When they returned To the room and Narendra heard the Master speaking To others, he was surprised To find in his words an inner logic, a striking sincerity, and a convincing proof of his spiritual nature. In answer To Narendra's question, "Sir, have you seen God?" the Master said: "Yes, I have seen God. I have seen Him more tangibly than I see you. I have talked To Him more intimately than I am talking To you." Continuing, the Master said: "But, my child, who wants To see God? People shed jugs of tears for money, wife, and children. But if they would weep for God for only one day they would surely see Him." Narendra was amazed. These words he could not doubt. This was the first time he had ever heard a man saying that he had seen God. But he could not reconcile these words of the Master with the scene that had taken place on the verandah only a few minutes before. He concluded that Sri Ramakrishna was a monomaniac, and returned home rather puzzled in mind.
During his second visit, about a month later, suddenly, at the Touch of the Master, Narendra felt overwhelmed and saw the walls of the room and everything around him whirling and vanishing. "What are you doing To me?" he cried in terror. "I have my father and mother at home." He saw his own ego and the whole universe almost swallowed in a nameless void. With a laugh the Master easily res Tored him. Narendra thought he might have been hypnotized, but he could not understand how a monomaniac could cast a spell over the mind of a strong person like himself. He returned home more confused than ever, resolved To be henceforth on his guard before this strange man.
But during his third visit Narendra fared no better. This time, at the Master's Touch, he lost consciousness entirely. While he was still in that state, Sri Ramakrishna questioned him concerning his spiritual antecedents and whereabouts, his mission in this world, and the duration of his mortal life. The answers confirmed what the Master himself had known and inferred. Among other things, he came To know that Narendra was a sage who had already attained perfection, and that the day he learnt his real nature he would give up his body in yoga, by an act of will.
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."
The Master wanted To train Narendra in the teachings of the non-dualistic Vedanta philosophy. But Narendra, because of his Brahmo upbringing, considered it wholly blasphemous To look on man as one with his Crea Tor. One day at the temple garden he laughingly said To a friend: "How silly! This jug is God! This cup is God! Whatever we see is God! And we Too are God! Nothing could be more absurd." Sri Ramakrishna came out of his room and gently Touched him. Spellbound, he immediately perceived that everything in the world was indeed God. A new universe opened around him. Returning home in a dazed state, he found there Too that the food, the plate, the eater himself, the people around him, were all God. When he walked in the street, he saw that the cabs, the horses, the streams of people, the buildings, were all Brahman. He could hardly go about his day's business. His parents became anxious about him and thought him ill. And when the intensity of the experience abated a little, he saw the world as a dream. Walking in the public square, he would strike his head against the iron railings To know whether they were real. It Took him a number of days To recover his normal self. He had a foretaste of the great experiences yet To come and realized that the words of the Vedanta were true.
At the beginning of 1884 Narendra's father suddenly died of heart-failure, leaving the family in a state of utmost poverty. There were six or seven mouths To feed at home. Credi Tors were knocking at the door. Relatives who had accepted his father's unstinted kindness now became enemies, some even bringing suit To deprive Narendra of his ancestral home. Actually starving and barefoot, Narendra searched for a job, but without success. He began To doubt whether anywhere in the world there was such a thing as unselfish sympathy. Two rich women made evil proposals To him and promised To put an end To his distress; but he refused them with contempt.
Narendra began To talk of his doubt of the very existence of God. His friends thought he had become an atheist, and piously circulated gossip adducing unmentionable motives for his unbelief. His moral character was maligned. Even some of the Master's disciples partly believed the gossip, and Narendra Told these To their faces that only a coward believed in God through fear of suffering or hell. But he was distressed To think that Sri Ramakrishna, Too, might believe these false reports. His pride revolted. He said To himself: "What does it matter? If a man's good name rests on such slender foundations, I don't care." But later on he was amazed To learn that the Master had never lost faith in him. To a disciple who complained about Narendra's degradation, Sri Ramakrishna replied: "Hush, you fool! The Mother has Told me it can never be so. I won't look at you if you speak that way again."
The moment came when Narendra's distress reached its climax. He had gone the whole day without food. As he was returning home in the evening he could hardly lift his tired limbs. He sat down in front of a house in sheer exhaustion, Too weak even To think. His mind began To wander. Then, suddenly, a divine power lifted the veil over his soul. He found the solution of the problem of the coexistence of divine justice and misery, the presence of suffering in the creation of a blissful Providence. He felt bodily refreshed, his soul was bathed in peace, and he slept serenely.
Narendra now realized that he had a spiritual mission To fulfil. He resolved To renounce the world, as his grandfather had renounced it, and he came To Sri Ramakrishna for his blessing. But even before he had opened his mouth, the Master knew what was in his mind and wept bitterly at the thought of separation. "I know you cannot lead a worldly life," he said, "but for my sake live in the world as long as I live."
One day, soon after, Narendra requested Sri Ramakrishna To pray To the Divine Mother To remove his poverty. Sri Ramakrishna bade him pray To Her himself, for She would certainly listen To his prayer. Narendra entered the shrine of Kali. As he s Tood before the image of the Mother, he beheld Her as a living Goddess, ready To give wisdom and liberation. Unable To ask Her for petty worldly things, he prayed only for knowledge and renunciation, love and liberation. The Master rebuked him for his failure To ask the Divine Mother To remove his poverty and sent him back To the temple. But Narendra, standing in Her presence, again forgot the purpose of his coming. Thrice he went To the temple at the bidding of the Master, and thrice he returned, having forgotten in Her presence why he had come. He was wondering about it when it suddenly flashed in his mind that this was all the work of Sri Ramakrishna; so now he asked the Master himself To remove his poverty, and was assured that his family would not lack simple food and clothing.
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 as Tonished 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 visi Tor 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 cus Tom, 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
Nitya Niranjan Sen was a disciple of heroic type. He came To the Master when he was eighteen years old. He was a medium for a group of spiritualists. During his first visit the Master said To him: "My boy, if you think always of ghosts you will become a ghost, and if you think of God you will become God. Now, which do you prefer?" Niranjan severed all connexions with the spiritualists. During his second visit the Master embraced him and said warmly: "Niranjan, my boy, the days are flitting away. When will you realize God? This life will be in vain if you do not realize Him. When will you devote your mind wholly To God?" Niranjan was surprised To see the Master's great anxiety for his spiritual welfare. He was a young man endowed with unusual spiritual parts. He felt disdain for worldly pleasures and was Totally guileless, like a child. But he had a violent temper. One day, as he was coming in a country boat To Dakshineswar, some of his fellow passengers began To speak ill of the Master. Finding his protest futile, Niranjan began To rock the boat, threatening To sink it in mid stream. That silenced the offenders. When he reported the incident To the Master, he was rebuked for his inability To curb his anger.
--- JOGINDRA
Jogindranath, on the other hand, was gentle To a fault. One day, under circumstances very like those that had evoked Niranjan's anger, he curbed his temper and held his peace instead of threatening Sri Ramakrishna's abusers. The Master, learning of his conduct, scolded him roundly. Thus To each the fault of the other was recommended as a virtue. The guru was striving To develop, in the first instance, composure, and in the second, mettle. The secret of his training was To build up, by a tactful recognition of the requirements of each given case, the character of the devotee.
Jogindranath came of an aris Tocratic 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
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
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 in To 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.
--- GANGADHAR
Gangadhar, Harinath's friend, also led the life of a strict brahmachari, eating vegetarian food cooked by his own hands and devoting himself To the study of the scriptures. He met the Master in 1884 and soon became a member of his inner circle. The Master praised his ascetic habit and attributed it To the spiritual disciplines of his past life. Gangadhar became a close companion of Narendra.
--- HARIPRASANNA
Hariprasanna, a college student, visited the Master in the company of his friends Sashi and Sarat. Sri Ramakrishna showed him great favour by initiating him in To spiritual life. As long as he lived, Hariprasanna remembered and observed the following drastic advice of the Master: "Even if a woman is pure as gold and rolls on the ground for love of God, it is dangerous for a monk ever To look at her."
--- KALI
Kaliprasad visited the Master Toward the end of 1883. Given To the practice of meditation and the study of the scriptures. Kali was particularly interested in yoga. Feeling the need of a guru in spiritual life, he came To the Master and was accepted as a disciple. The young boy possessed a rational mind and often felt sceptical about the Personal God. The Master said To him: "Your doubts will soon disappear. Others, Too, have passed through such a state of mind. Look at Naren. He now weeps at the names of Radha and Krishna." Kali began To see visions of gods and goddesses. Very soon these disappeared and in meditation he experienced vastness, infinity, and the other attributes of the Impersonal Brahman.
--- SUBODH
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
With his woman devotees Sri Ramakrishna established a very sweet relationship. He himself embodied the tender traits of a woman: he had dwelt on the highest plane of Truth, where there is not even the slightest trace of sex; and his innate purity evoked only the noblest emotion in men and women alike. His woman devotees often said: "We seldom looked on Sri Ramakrishna as a member of the male sex. We regarded him as one of us. We never felt any constraint before him. He was our best confidant." They loved him as their child, their friend, and their teacher. In spiritual discipline he advised them To renounce lust and greed and especially warned them not To fall in To the snares of men.
--- GOPAL MA
Unsurpassed among the woman devotees of the Master in the richness of her devotion and spiritual experiences was Aghoremani Devi, an orthodox brahmin woman. Widowed at an early age, she had dedicated herself completely To spiritual pursuits. Gopala, the Baby Krishna, was her Ideal Deity, whom she worshipped following the vatsalya attitude of the Vaishnava religion, regarding Him as her own child. Through Him she satisfied her unassuaged maternal love, cooking for Him, feeding Him, bathing Him, and putting Him To bed. This sweet intimacy with Gopala won her the sobriquet of Gopal Ma, or Gopala's Mother. For forty years she had lived on the bank of the Ganges in a small, bare room, her only companions being a threadbare copy of the Ramayana and a bag containing her rosary. At the age of sixty, in 1884, she visited Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar. During the second visit, as soon as the Master saw her, he said: "Oh, you have come! Give me something To eat." With great hesitation she gave him some ordinary sweets that she had purchased for him on the way. The Master ate them with relish and asked her To bring him simple curries or sweets prepared by her own hands. Gopal Ma thought him a queer kind of monk, for, instead of talking of God, he always asked for food. She did not want To visit him again, but an irresistible attraction brought her back To the temple garden; She carried with her some simple curries that she had cooked herself.
One early morning at three o'clock, about a year later, Gopal Ma was about To finish her daily devotions, when she was startled To find Sri Ramakrishna sitting on her left, with his right hand clenched, like the hand of the image of Gopala. She was amazed and caught hold of the hand, whereupon the figure vanished and in its place appeared the real Gopala, her Ideal Deity. She cried aloud with joy. Gopala begged her for butter. She pleaded her poverty and gave Him some dry coconut candies. Gopala, sat on her lap, snatched away her rosary, jumped on her shoulders, and moved all about the room. As soon as the day broke she hastened To Dakshineswar like an insane woman. Of course Gopala accompanied her, resting His head on her shoulder. She clearly saw His tiny ruddy feet hanging over her breast. She entered Sri Ramakrishna's room. The Master had fallen in To samadhi. Like a child, he sat on her lap, and she began To feed him with butter, cream, and other delicacies. After some time he regained consciousness and returned To his bed. But the mind of Gopala's Mother was still roaming in another plane. She was steeped in bliss. She saw Gopala frequently entering the Master's body and again coming out of it. When she returned To her hut, still in a dazed condition, Gopala accompanied her.
She spent about two months in uninterrupted communion with God, the Baby Gopala never leaving her for a moment. Then the intensity of her vision was lessened; had it not been, her body would have perished. The Master spoke highly of her exalted spiritual condition and said that such vision of God was a rare thing for ordinary mortals. The fun-loving Master one day confronted the critical Narendranath with this simple-minded woman. No two could have presented a more striking contrast. The Master knew of Narendra's lofty contempt for all visions, and he asked the old lady To narrate her experiences To Narendra. With great hesitation she Told him her s Tory. Now and then she interrupted her maternal chatter To ask Narendra: "My son, I am a poor ignorant woman. I don't understand anything. You are so learned. Now tell me if these visions of Gopala are true." As Narendra listened To the s Tory he was profoundly moved. He said, "Yes, mother, they are quite true." Behind his cynicism Narendra, Too, possessed a heart full of love and tenderness.
--- THE MARCH OF EVENTS
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 s Tormy 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 in To 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.
Finally, there was a handful of fortunate disciples, householders as well as youngsters, who were privileged To spend nights with the Master in his room. They would see him get up early in the morning and walk up and down the room, singing in his sweet voice and tenderly communing with the Mother.
--- INJURY To THE MASTER'S ARM
One day, in January 1884, the Master was going Toward the pine-grove when he went in To a trance. He was alone. There was no one To support him or guide his footsteps. He fell To the ground and dislocated a bone in his left arm. This accident had a significant influence on his mind, the natural inclination of which was To soar above the consciousness of the body. The acute pain in the arm forced his mind To dwell on the body and on the world outside. But he saw even in this a divine purpose; for, with his mind compelled To dwell on the physical plane, he realized more than ever that he was an instrument in the hand of the Divine Mother, who had a mission To fulfil through his human body and mind. He also distinctly found that in the phenomenal world God manifests Himself, in an inscrutable way, through diverse human beings, both good and evil. Thus he would speak of God in the guise of the wicked, God in the guise of the pious. God in the guise of the hypocrite, God in the guise of the lewd. He began To take a special delight in watching the divine play in the relative world. Sometimes the sweet human relationship with God would appear To him more appealing than the all-effacing Knowledge of Brahman. Many a time he would pray: "Mother, don't make me unconscious through the Knowledge of Brahman. Don't give me Brahmajnana, Mother. Am I not Your child, and naturally timid? I must have my Mother. A million salutations To the Knowledge of Brahman! Give it To those who want it." Again he prayed: "O Mother let me remain in contact with men! Don't make me a dried-up ascetic. I want To enjoy Your sport in the world." He was able To taste this very rich divine experience and enjoy the love of God and the company of His devotees because his mind, on account of the injury To his arm, was forced To come down To the consciousness of the body. Again, he would make fun of people who proclaimed him as a Divine Incarnation, by pointing To his broken arm. He would say, "Have you ever heard of God breaking His arm?" It Took the arm about five months To heal.
--- BEGINNING OF HIS ILLNESS
In April 1885 the Master's throat became inflamed. Prolonged conversation or absorption in samadhi, making the blood flow in To the throat, would aggravate the pain. Yet when the annual Vaishnava festival was celebrated at Panihati, Sri Ramakrishna attended it against the doc Tor'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 doc Tor 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 in To 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 visi Tors 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
supernatural cause To a natural phenomenon. They believed that the Master's body, a material thing, was subject, like all other material things, To physical laws. Growth, development, decay, and death were laws of nature To which the Master's body could not but respond. But though holding differing views, they all believed that it was To him alone that they must look for the attainment of their spiritual goal.
In spite of the physician's efforts and the prayers and nursing of the devotees, the illness rapidly progressed. The pain sometimes appeared To be unbearable. The Master lived only on liquid food, and his frail body was becoming a mere skele Ton. Yet his face always radiated joy, and he continued To welcome the visi Tors pouring in To receive his blessing. When certain zealous devotees tried To keep the visi Tors away, they were Told by Girish, "You cannot succeed in it; he has been born for this very purpose — To sacrifice himself for the redemption of others."
The more the body was devastated by illness, the more it became the habitation of the Divine Spirit. Through its transparency the gods and goddesses began To shine with ever increasing luminosity. On the day of the Kali Puja the devotees clearly saw in him the manifestation of the Divine Mother.
It was noticed at this time that some of the devotees were making an unbridled display of their emotions. A number of them, particularly among the householders, began To cultivate, though at first unconsciously, the art of shedding tears, shaking the body, con Torting the face, and going in To trances, attempting thereby To imitate the Master. They began openly To declare Sri Ramakrishna a Divine Incarnation and To regard themselves as his chosen people, who could neglect religious disciplines with impunity. Narendra's penetrating eye soon sized up the situation. He found out that some of these external manifestations were being carefully practised at home, while some were the outcome of malnutrition, mental weakness, or nervous debility. He mercilessly exposed the devotees who were pretending To have visions, and asked all To develop a healthy religious spirit. Narendra sang inspiring songs for the younger devotees, read with them the Imitation of Christ and the Gita, and held before them the positive ideals of spirituality.
--- LAST DAYS AT COSSIPORE
When Sri Ramakrishna's illness showed signs of aggravation, the devotees, following the advice of Dr. Sarkar, rented a spacious garden house at Cossipore, in the northern suburbs of Calcutta. The Master was removed To this place on December 11, 1885.
It was at Cossipore that the curtain fell on the varied activities of the Master's life on the physical plane. His soul lingered in the body eight months more. It was the period of his great Passion, a constant crucifixion of the body and the triumphant revelation of the Soul. Here one sees the humanity and divinity of the Master passing and repassing across a thin border line. Every minute of those eight months was suffused with Touching tenderness of heart and breath-taking elevation of spirit. Every word he uttered was full of pathos and sublimity.
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.
Among the attendants Sashi was the embodiment of service. He did not practise meditation, japa, or any of the other disciplines followed by his brother devotees. He was convinced that service To the guru was the only religion for him. He forgot food and rest and was ever ready at the Master's bedside.
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."
MASTER: "But I cannot pray for my body."
--
A few hours later the Master said To Narendra: "I said To Her: 'Mother, I cannot swallow food because of my pain. Make it possible for me To eat a little.' She pointed you all out To me and said: 'What? You are eating enough through all these mouths. Isn't that so?' I was ashamed and could not utter another word." This dashed all the hopes of the devotees for the Master's recovery.
"I shall make the whole thing public before I go", the Master had said some time before. On January 1, 1886, he felt better and came down To the garden for a little stroll. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. Some thirty lay disciples were in the hall or sitting about under the trees. Sri Ramakrishna said To Girish, "Well, Girish, what have you seen in me, that you proclaim me before everybody as an Incarnation of God?" Girish was not the man To be taken by surprise. He knelt before the Master and said, with folded hands, "What can an insignificant person like myself say about the One whose glory even sages like Vyasa and Valmiki could not adequately measure?" The Master was profoundly moved. He said: "What more shall I say? I bless you all. Be illumined!" He fell in To a spiritual mood. Hearing these words the devotees, one and all, became overwhelmed with emotion. They rushed To him and fell at his feet. He Touched them all, and each received an appropriate benediction. Each of them, at the Touch of the Master, experienced ineffable bliss. Some laughed, some wept, some sat down To meditate, some began To pray. Some saw light, some had visions of their Chosen Ideals, and some felt within their bodies the rush of spiritual power.
Narendra, consumed with a terrific fever for realization, complained To the Master that all the others had attained peace and that he alone was dissatisfied. The Master asked what he wanted. Narendra begged for samadhi, so that he might al Together forget the world for three or four days at a time. "You are a fool", the Master rebuked him. "There is a state even higher than that. Isn't it you who sing, 'All that exists art Thou'? First of all settle your family affairs and then come To me. You will experience a state even higher than samadhi."
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."
The words were tender and Touching. Like a mother he caressed Narendra and Rakhal, gently stroking their faces. He said in a half whisper To M., "Had this body been allowed To last a little longer, many more souls would have been illumined." He paused a moment and then said: "But Mother has ordained otherwise. She will take me away lest, finding me guileless and foolish, people should take advantage of me and persuade me To bes Tow on them the rare gifts of spirituality." A few minutes later he Touched his chest and said: "Here are two beings. One is She and the other is Her devotee. It is the latter who broke his arm, and it is he again who is now ill. Do you understand me?" After a pause he added: "Alas! To whom shall I tell all this? Who will understand me?" "Pain", he consoled them again, 'is unavoidable as long as there is a body. The Lord takes on the body for the sake of His devotees."
Yet one is not sure whether the Master's soul actually was Tortured by this agonizing disease. At least during his moments of spiritual exaltation — which became almost constant during the closing days of his life on earth — he lost all consciousness of the body, of illness and suffering. One of his attendants (Latu, later known as Swami Adbhutananda.) said later on: "While Sri Ramakrishna lay sick he never actually suffered pain. He would often say: 'O mind! Forget the body, forget the sickness, and remain merged in Bliss.' No, he did not really suffer. At times he would be in a state when the thrill of joy was clearly manifested in his body. Even when he could not speak he would let us know in some way that there was no suffering, and this fact was clearly evident To all who watched him. People who did not understand him thought that his suffering was very great. What spiritual joy he transmitted To us at that time! Could such a thing have been possible if he had 'been suffering physically? It was during this period that he taught us again these truths: 'Brahman is always unattached. The three gunas are in It, but It is unaffected by them, just as the wind carries odour yet remains odourless.' 'Brahman is Infinite Being, Infinite Wisdom, Infinite Bliss. In It there exist no delusion, no misery, no disease, no death, no growth, no decay.' 'The Transcendental Being and the being within are one and the same. There is one indivisible Absolute Existence.'"
The Holy Mother secretly went To a Siva temple across the Ganges To intercede with the Deity for the Master's recovery. In a revelation she was Told To prepare herself for the inevitable end.
One day when Narendra was on the ground floor, meditating, the Master was lying awake in his bed upstairs. In the depths of his meditation Narendra felt as though a lamp were burning at the back of his head. Suddenly he lost consciousness. It was the yearned-for, all-effacing experience of nirvikalpa samadhi, when the embodied soul realizes its unity with the Absolute. After a very long time he regained partial consciousness but was unable To find his body. He could see only his head. "Where is my body?" he cried. The elder Gopal entered the room and said, "Why, it is here, Naren!" But Narendra could not find it. Gopal, frightened, ran upstairs To the Master. Sri Ramakrishna only said: "Let him stay that way for a time. He has worried me long enough."
After another long period Narendra regained full consciousness. Bathed in peace, he went To the Master, who said: "Now the Mother has shown you everything. But this revelation will remain under lock and key, and I shall keep the key. When you have accomplished the Mother's work you will find the treasure again."
Some days later, Narendra being alone with the Master, Sri Ramakrishna looked at him and went in To samadhi. Narendra felt the penetration of a subtle force and lost all outer consciousness. Regaining presently the normal mood, he found the Master weeping.
Sri Ramakrishna said To him: " Today I have given you my all and I am now only a poor fakir, possessing nothing. By this power you will do immense good in the world, and not until it is accomplished will you return." Henceforth the Master lived in the disciple.
Doubt, however, dies hard. After one or two days Narendra said To himself, "If in the midst of this racking physical pain he declares his Godhead, then only shall I accept him as an Incarnation of God." He was alone by the bedside of the Master. It was a passing thought, but the Master smiled. Gathering his remaining strength, he distinctly said, "He who was Rama and Krishna is now, in this body, Ramakrishna — but not in your Vedantic sense." Narendra was stricken with shame.
--- MAHASAMADHI
Sunday, August 15, 1886. The Master's pulse became irregular. The devotees s Tood 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 in To 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 in To samadhi of a rather unusual type. The body became stiff. Sashi burst in To 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 s Tood 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.
While the devotees were returning To the garden house, carrying the urn with the sacred ashes, a calm resignation came To their souls and they cried, "Vic Tory un To the Guru!"
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
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.
31 March 1974
0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
with an additional commentary To each chapter.
"Break, break, break
--
persion, so as To correspond with the title, "Breaks"
and "Lies".
--
true as is possible To human language.
The verse from Tennyson is inserted partly because
--
reference To the meaning of this title page, as explained
above; partly because it is intensely amusing for
Crowley To quote Tennyson.
There is no joke or subtle meaning in the publisher's
--
"...None the less, I could point To some solid
achievement on the large scale, although it is com-
--
To THE BOOK OF LIES. In this there are 93 chapters:
we count as a chapter the two pages filled re-
--
single word, more frequently from a half-dozen To
twenty paragraphs. The subject of each chapter is
--
77 Laylah, whose name adds To that number; and
80, the number of the letter Pe, referred To Mars, a
panegyric upon War. Sometimes the text is serious
--
To appreciate the full flavour; others again are
subtly ironical or cynical. At first sight the book is a
jumble of nonsense intended To insult the reader. It
requires infinite study, sympathy, intuition and
initiation. Given these I do not hesitate To claim that
in none other of my writings have I given so pro-
--
fore destined To be more fertile that almost any other
study, and that in a way despite itself. A word should
be pertinent with regard To the question of secrecy.
It has become difficult for me To take this matter
very seriously. Knowing what the secret actually is,
I cannot attach much importance To artificial
mysteries. Again, though the secret itself is of such
--
"It is interesting in this connection To recall how it
came in To my possession. It had occurred To me To
write a book `THE BOOK OF LIES, WHICH IS
--
without success. I went off in desperation To `change
my luck', by doing something entirely contrary To
my inclinations. In the midst of my disgust, the
--
deliberate act of spite Towards my readers.
[6]
--
Head of the O.T.O.) came To me. (At that time I did
not realise that there was anything in the O.T.O.
--
regard To it. I protested that I knew no such secret.
He said `But you have printed it in the plainest
--
because I did not know it. He went To the book-
shelves; taking out a copy of THE BOOK OF LIES, he
pointed To a passage in the despised chapter. It
instantly flashed upon me. The entire symbolism not
--
To the future progress of humanity...."
The Commentary was written by Crowley prob-
--
This chapter, numbered 0, corresponds To the Negative,
which is before Kether in the Qabalistic system.
--
exclamation; its reference To the theogony of "Liber Legis" is
explained in the note, but it also refers To KTEIS PHALLOS
and SPERMA, and is the exclamation of wonder or ecstasy,
--
The statement, Nothing is Not , technically equivalent To
Something Is, is fully explained in the essay called Berashith.
--
To beget is To die; To die is To beget.
Cast the Seed in To the Field of Night.
--
To in the previous chapter. It is explained that this triad
lives in Night, the Night of Pan, which is mystically
--
Nox adds To 210, which symbolises the reduction of
duality To unity, and thence To negativity, and is thus
a hieroglyph of the Great Work.
--
The Student is then charged To understand the
spiritual importance of this physical procession in
--
The "Hawk" referred To is Horus.
The chapter begins with a comment on Liber Legis
--
To Horus. Compare this with the version in Chapter 44.
There are ten sections in this prayer, and, as the prayer
is attributed To Horus, they are called four, as above
explained; but it is only the name of Horus which is
--
The Many is as adorable To the One as the One is To
the Many. This is the Love of These; creation-
--
To A.'.A.'. are Men.
[16]
--
(4) They cause all men To worship it.
[17]
--
It dies, it gives itself; To Thee is the fruit!
Be thou the Bride; thou shalt be the Mother here-
--
To all impressions thus. Let them not overcome thee;
yet let them breed within thee. The least of the
impressions, come To its perfection, is Pan.
Receive a thousand lovers; thou shalt bear but One
--
Venus, and the title, Peaches, again refers To the Yoni.
The chapter is a counsel To accept all impressions;
it is the formula of the Scarlet woman; but no impression
must be allowed To dominate you, only To fructify you;
just as the artist, seeing an object, does not worship it,
--
two paragraphs may have some reference To the 13th
Aethyr (see The Vision and The Voice).
--
chapter To a contemplation of the Pentagram, con-
sidered as a glyph of the ultimate.
--
In line 5, we come To an important statement, an
adumbration of the most daring thesis in this book-
--
Kether To Chesed, and Chesed is united To the Supernal
Triad by virtue of its Phallic nature; for not only is
--
but 4 is Daleth, Venus, and Chesed refers To water,
from which Venus sprang, and which is the symbol of
--
But Chesed, in the lower sense, is conjoined To
Microprosopus. It is the true link between the greater
--
Of these the reasoner Took six, and, preening, said:
This is the One and the All.
--
familiar To students of the Christian tradition, the
Logos transforming the unity in To the many.
--
prosopus in a crude state, and declares them To be the
universe. This folly is due To the pride of reason.
The Adept concentrates the Microcosm in Tiphareth,
--
is Totally unconscious of this process, or, it might be
better To say, he recognises it as Nothing, in that positive
sense of the word, which is only intelligible in
--
To endure. (8)
Amen.
--
Dinosaurs because of their seeming To be terrible
devouring creatures. They are Masters of the Temple,
--
because Lao-tzu counts as nought, owing To the nature
of his doctrine. The reference To their "living not" is
To be found in Liber 418.
The word "Perdurabo" means "I will endure un To
--
Therefore is man only himself when lost To himself
in The Charioting.
--
rises To a glimmer of the universal consciousness, while,
in the orgasm, the mind is blotted out.
--
is To be regarded as a lapse.
"Aum" represents the entering in To the silence, as
--
but in Truth there is no bond between the Toys of
the Gods.
--
It does, however, refer To the key of the Tarot called
The Hermit, which represents him as cloaked.
Jod is the concealed Phallus as opposed To Tau, the
extended Phallus. This chapter should be studied in
--
Nuit, Hadit, Ra-Hoor-Khuit, are only To be under-
s Tood by the Master of the Temple.
--
How infinite is the distance form This To That! Yet
All is Here and Now. Nor is there any there or Then;
--
knowing them To be but falsehoods, broken mirrors,
troubled waters; hide me, O our Lady, in Thy
--
subtle reference To the nature of that light.
Eleven is the great number of Magick, and this
--
in its highest sense, down To Tiphareth; it is the new
and perfect cosmogony of Liber Legis.
--
are therefore said To live in the Night of Pan; they are
only reached by the annihilation of the All.
--
To the complex unity of 13, impregnated by the magical
11.
--
O thou that drawest Toward the End of The Path,
effort is no more. Faster and faster dos thou fall;
--
This chapter is perfectly clear To anyone who has
studied the career of an Adept.
--
But those disciples nearest To him wept, seeing the
Universal Sorrow.
Those next To them laughed, seeing the Universal
Joke.
--
should be thought not To see the Joke, and thought
it safe To act like FRATER PERDURABO.
But though FRATER PERDURABO laughed
--
The title, "Onion-Peelings", refers To the well-known
incident in "Peer Gynt".
--
how he was able To win at the game of guessing odd or
even. (See Poe's tale of "The Purloined Letter".)
--
advance Towards a comprehension of the universe, one
changes radically one's point of view; nearly always it
amounts To a reversal.
this is the cause of most religious controversies.
--
"Household Gods" is an attempt To write pure comedy.
"The Bacchae" of Euripides is another.
At the end of the chapter it is, however, seen that To
the Master of the Temple the opposite perception occurs
--
I am not I; I am but an hollow tube To bring down
Fire from Heaven.
--
The title of the chapter refers To the Phallus, which
is here identified with the will. The Greek word
--
the last paragraph a reference To the nature of Samadhi.
As man loses his personality in physical love, so
--
lowest To the highest. The Rosy-Cross is the Universal
Key. But, as one proceeds, the Cross becomes greater,
--
thou To do with death?
The bird of individuality is ecstasy; so also is its
--
Underworld; but it is called the Stag-Beetle To emphasise
his horns. Horns are the universal hieroglyph of energy,
--
The 16th key of the Tarot is "The Blasted Tower".
In this chapter death is regarded as a form of marriage.
Modern Greek peasants, in many cases, cling To Pagan
belief, and suppose that in death they are united To the
Deity which they have cultivated during life. This is "a
consummation devoutly To be wished" (Shakespeare).
In the last paragraph the Master urges his pupils To
practise Samadhi every day.
--
seems To move, as the Sun seems To move; such
is the weakness of our sight.
--
Thus and not otherwise I came To the Temple of the
Graal.
--
relatively To it.
The penultimate paragraph shows the relations of
the Adept To mankind. Their hate and contempt are
necessary steps To his acquisition of sovereignty over
them.
--
occur To the mind.
NOTE
--
Verily, love is death, and death is life To come.
Man returneth not again; the stream floweth not
--
The 18th key of the Tarot refers To the Moon, which
was supposed To shed dew. The appropriateness of the
chapter title is obvious.
--
charged To let it have its own way. It has a will of its
own, which is more in accordance with the Cosmic Will,
--
The Master urges his disciples To a certain holy
stealth, a concealment of the real purpose of their lives;
--
but the distinction is obvious To any clear thinker,
though not al Together so the Frater P.
--
To have pulled down the walls of a music-hall where he
was engaged, " To make sport for the Philistines",
--
Law of Motion. The key To infinite power is To reach
the Bornless Beyond.
--
It is not necessary To understand; it is enough To
adore.
--
That which causes us To create is our true father and
mother; we create in our own image, which is theirs.
--
and refers To the letter Tau, the Phallus in manifesta-
tion; hence the title, "The Blind Webster".
--
delightful To the crea Tor.
The moral of this chapter is, therefore, and exposition
--
rise To the appearance of evil.
[53]
--
But no man is strong enough To have no interest.
Therefore the best king would be Pure Chance.
--
Explain thou snow To them of Andaman.
The slaves of reason call this book Abuse-of-
--
Language was made for men To eat and drink, make
love, do barter, die. The wealth of a language con-
sists in its Abstracts; the poorest Tongues have
wealth of Concretes.
--
With the same forefinger Touch thy forehead, and
say {C?-Omicron-Iota}, thy member, and say {Omega-Phi-Alpha-
--
Advance To the East. Imagine strongly a Pentagram.
aright, in thy forehead. Drawing the hands To the
eyes, fling it forth, making the sign of Horus, and
--
Go round To the North and repeat; but scream
{Beta-Alpha-Beta-Alpha-Lambda-Omicron-Nu}.
Go round To the West and repeat; but say {Epsilon-Rho-Omega-C?}.
Go round To the South and repeat; but bellow
{Psi-Upsilon-Chi-Eta}.
Completing the circle widdershins, retire To the
centre, and raise thy voice in the Paian, with these
--
It would be improper To comment further upon an
official ritual of the A.'.A.'.
--
(14) The secret sense of these words is To be sought in
the numberation thereof.
--
THE ELEPHANT AND THE ToR ToISE
The Absolute and the Conditioned Together make
The One Absolute.
--
Tor Toise supports and covers all.
This Tor Toise is sixfold, the Holy Hexagram.(15)
These six and four are ten, 10, the One manifested
--
The title of the chapter refers To the Hindu legend.
The first paragraph should be read in connection
--
He is called the Second in relation To that which is
above the Abyss, comprehended under the title of the
--
(15) In nature the Tor Toise has 6 members at angels
of 60 Degrees.
--
all things To himself.
Would he travel? He could fly through space more
--
contrast To Chapter 15.
The Sorcerer is To be identified with The Brother of
the Left Hand Path.
--
Love moveth ever from height To height of ecstasy
and faileth never.
--
..........May be: I write it but To write Her name.
[66]
--
book, Laylah, who is the ultimate feminine symbol, To
be interpreted on all planes.
--
Laylah is the one object of devotion To which the author
ever turns.
--
The author begins To identify the Beloved with the
N.O.X. previously spoken of.
--
This chapter is To read in connection with Chapter 8,
and also with those previous chapters in which the
--
All this is true and false; and it is true and false To
say that it is true and false.
--
one, O chosen of IT, To apprehend the discourse
of THE MASTER; for thus thy reason shall at
--
The number 31 refers To the Hebrew word LA, which
means "not".
--
The idea is that, by forcing the mind To follow, and
as far as possible To realise, the language of Beyond
the Abyss, the student will succeed in bringing his
--
All skillfulness, all strain, all intention is contrary To
ease.
--
from rock To rock of the moraine without ever
casting his eyes upon the ground.
--
This title is a mere reference To the metaphor of the
last paragraph of the chapter.
--
easily To be apprehended by comparatively short practice
of Mantra-Yoga.
--
man knows he is saying it. The same applies To all other
forms of Magick.
--
are still being communicated To the worthy by his
successors, as is intimated by the last paragraph, which
--
The Eagle may be identified, though not Too closely,
with the Hawk previously spoken of.
--
of all sensible cults; it is not To be confused with other
objects of the mystic aviary, such as the swan, phoenix,
--
Pillars of the Temple, and add To 52, 13x4, BN, the
Son.
--
Death he turns To bay. He is no more hare, but
boar.
--
Cease then To be the mockery of God; in savagery of
love and death live thou and die!
--
calculated To rob the crea Tor of his cruel sport.
NOTE
(18) This chapter was written To clarify {Chi-epsilon-psi-
iota-delta} of
--
What do I love? There is no from, no being, To which
I do not give myself wholly up.
--
far as it approximates To the male.
The female is To be regarded as having been separated
from the male, in order To reproduce the male in a
superior form, the absolute, and the conditions forming
--
In the common practice of meditation the idea is To
reject all impressions, but here is an opposite practice,
--
Then let him advance To the East, and make the
Holy Hexagram, saying: PATER ET MATER
--
Let him go round To the South, make the Holy
Hexagram, and say: MATER ET FILIUS UNUS
--
Let him go round To the West, make the Holy
Hexagram, and say: FILIUS ET FILIA UNUS
--
Let him go round To the North, make the Holy
Hexagram, and then say: FILIA ET PATER
--
Let him then return To the Centre, and so To The
Centre of All [making the ROSY CROSS as he
--
It would be improper To comment further upon an
official ritual of the A.'.A.'.
--
Dragons are in the East supposed To cause eclipses
by devouring the luminaries.
--
It is a serious misfortune that we happen To live in a
tiny corner of the system, where the darkness reaches such
--
Swear To hele all.
This is the mystery.
--
This chapter will be readily intelligible To E.A.
Freemasons, and it cannot be explained To others.
[87]
--
It is thinkable that A is not-A; To reverse this is but
To revert To the normal.
Yet by forcing the brain To accept propositions of
which one set is absurdity, the other truism, a
--
This lifts the leaden-footed soul To the Experience
of THAT of which Reason is the blasphemy.
--
Yet a Looby To thee, and a Booby To me, a Balassius
Ruby To GOD, may be!
[88]
--
To be the author, at the time of writing this book, which
he did when he was far from any standard works of
reference, To connote partly "booby", partly "lout".
It would thus be a similar word To "Parsifal".
Paragraphs 2-6 explain the method that was given
--
us To the Truth.
All that we know of Man, Nature, God, is just that
--
Then are they all glorious who seem not To be glorious,
as the HIMOG is All-glorious Within?
--
question arises as To the distinguishing between illusions;
how are we To tell whether a Holy Illuminated Man of
God is really so, since we can see nothing of him but
--
But these considerations are not To trouble such mind
as the Chela may possess; let him occupy himself,
--
Therefore none is that pertaineth not To V.V.V.V.V.
In any may he manifest; yet in one hath he chosen
To manifest; and this one hath given His ring as a
Seal of Authority To the Work of the A.'.A.'.
through the colleagues of FRATER PER-
--
means that the statements in this chapter are To be
unders Tood in the most ordinary and commonplace
--
(or so much He disclosed To the Exempt Adepts),
referred To in Liber LXI. It is he who is responsible
for the whole of the development of the A,'.A.'. move-
--
It is useless To enquire in To His nature; To do so leads
To certain disaster. Authority from him is exhibited,
when necessary, To the proper persons, though in no
case To anyone below the grade of Exempt Adept. The
person enquiring in To such matters is politely requested
To work, and not To ask questions about matters which
in no way concern him.
--
from the Great Sea, and To the Great Sea they go.
As they go they spill water; one day they will irrigate
--
Solomon the King. This number is said To be all hotch-potch and
accursed.
--
the 10th Aethyr. It is To that dramatic experience that it refers.
The mind is called "wind", because of its nature; as has been
--
a spiral force. It will be difficult To understand this chapter with-
out some experience in the transvaluation of values, which occurs
--
The word "turbulence" is applied To the Ego To suggest the
French " Tourbillion", whirlwind, the false Ego or dust-devil.
True life, the life, which has no consciousness of "I", is said To
be choked by this false ego, or rather by the thoughts which its
explosions produce. In paragraph 4 this is expanded To a
macrocosmic plane.
--
Gimel is the path leading from Tiphareth To Kether, uniting
Microprosopus and Macroprosopus, i.e. performing the Great
--
MULBERRY ToPS
Black blood upon the altar! and the rustle of angel
--
The title of this chapter refers To a Hebrew legend,
that of the prophet who heard "a going in the mulberry
Tops"; and To Browning's phrase, "a bruised, black-
blooded mulberry".
--
been the most acceptable offerings To all the gods, but
especially the Christian God.
--
We shall frequently recur To this subject.
By "the wheel spinning in the spire" is meant the
--
Now I begin To pray: Thou Child,
holy Thy name and undefiled!
--
Bring me through midnight To the Sun!
Save me from Evil and from Good!
--
He puts the second Cake To the wound.
I stanch the blood; the wager soaks
--
To do my pleasure on the earth
Among the legions of the living.
--
idea of "Pelican", the bird, which is fabled To feeds its
young from the blood of its own breast. Yet the two
--
It would be improper To comment further upon a
ritual which has been accepted as official by the
--
these two asses be set To grind corn.
May, might, must, should, probably, may be, we
--
turned out To grass!
Proof is only possible in mathematics, and mathe-
--
The more necessary anything appears To my mind,
the more certain it is that I only assert a limitation.
--
fore no option but To deny them passionately, in order
To express his discontent. Hence such absurdities as
"Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite", "In God we trust", and
the like. Similarly we find people asserting Today that
woman is superior To man, and that all men are born
equal.
--
discriminately, To serve his ends. Slaves consider him
immoral, an preach against him in Hyde Park.
--
The cause of sorrow is the desire of the One To the
Many, or of the Many To the One. This also is the
cause of joy.
But the desire of one To another is all of sorrow; its
birth is hunger, and its death satiety.
--
ence To Mistinguette and Mayol.
It would be hard To decide, and it is fortunately un-
necessary even To discuss, whether the distinction of
their art is the cause, result, or concomitant of their
--
perfection is easily attained soon ceases To amuse,
although in the beginning its fascination is so violent.
--
fection is impossible never cease To attract.
The lesson of the chapter is thus always To rise
hungry from a meal, always To violate on's own nature.
Keep on acquiring a taste for what is naturally
--
relatively To other Sankharas, are yet barriers upon the
Path; they are modifications of the Ego, and therefore
--
To regard Yoga, two odes upon a distant prospect of the
Temple of Madura, two Elegies on a mat of Kusha-
--
Bitters, To brighten the flavour of a discourse which
were else Too sweet. It prevents one from slopping over
in To sentimentality.
--
early To bed and early To rise
Makes a man healthy and wealthy and wise:
But late To watch and early To pray
Brings him across The Abyss, they say.
--
finger of IT: and it is the Seal upon the Tombs of
them whom She hath slain.
--
theogony of Chapter 11; but it is To be explained by the
dithyrambic nature of the chapter.
--
self with the BEAST referred To in the book, and in the
Apocalypse, and in LIBER LEGIS. In paragraph 6 the
word "angel" may refer To his mission, and the word
"lion-serpent" To the sigil of his ascending decan. (Teth=
Snake=sperma Tozoon and Leo in the Zodiac, which like
--
To above. There is only one symbol, but this symbol has
many names: of those names BABALON is the holiest.
It is the name referred To in Liber Legis, 1, 22.
It will be noticed that the figure, or sigil, of BABALON
--
It is also said To be the seal upon the Tombs of them that
she hath slain, that is, of the Masters of the Temple.
--
St. Hubert appears To have been a saint who saw a
stag of a mystical or sacred nature.
--
in Chapter 16. It is a merely literary Touch.
the chapter is a resolution of the universe in To
--
cosm beetle. Both imagine themselves To exist; both say
"you" and "I", and discuss their relative reality.
--
Yoicks! Tally-ho! Bring THAT To bay!
Then, wind the Mort!
--
Apis the Redeemer To fury, learn first what is
Work! and THE GREAT WORK is not so far
--
refer To the ninety-one chapters of this little master-
piece, or even To the numerous volumes he has penned,
but rather To the fact that 91 is the number of Amen,
implying the completeness of his work.
--
the red rag" is a phrase for To talk aimlessly and per-
sistently, while it is no Torious that a red cloth will excite
--
maketh the treaders-of-earth To course the heavens.
This SPRING is threefold; of water, but also of steel,
--
Also this PADDOCK is the Toad that hath the
jewel between his eyes-Aum Mani Padmen
--
itself. That is To say, the secret spring of life is found in the
place of life, with the result that the horse, who represents
--
elastic, while the reference To the seasons alludes To the well-
known lines of the late Lord Tennyson:
--
In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns To thoughts
of love."
--
souls, is identified with the Toad, which
"Ugly and venomous,
--
this seems To suggest that this " Toad" is the Yoni; the
suggestion is further strengthened by the concluding phrase
--
Each Took the Trowel from his LAP,(25) whose number
is AN Hundred and Eleven.
--
The title of this chapter refers To the duty of the Tyler
in a blue lodge of Freemasons.
The numbers in paragraphs 1 To 3 are significant;
each Master-Mason is attended by 5 Fellow-Crafts,
--
Craftsmen in triangles. This may refer To the number of
manual signs in each of these degrees.
--
The One Thought vanished; all my mind was Torn To
rags: --- nay! nay! my head was mashed in To
--
Thus wrote I, since my One Love was Torn from me.
I cannot work: I cannot think: I seek distraction
--
I must have money To get To America.
O Mage! Sage! Gauge thy Wage, or in the Page of
--
The number 55 refers To Malkuth, the ride; it
should then be read in connection with Chapters 28, 29,
--
craving To retrieve it. In paragraph 3 it is seen that this
is impossible, owing (paragraph 4) To his not having
made proper arrangements To recover the original
position previous To making the divisions.
In paragraph 5 it is shown that this is because of
allowing enjoyment To cause forgetfulness of the really
important thing. Those who allow themselves To wallow
in Samadhi are sorry for it afterwards.
The last paragraph indicaed the precautions To be
taken To avoid this.
The number 90 is the last paragraph is not merely
--
cannot be Too severe in checking any faltering in the
work, any digression from the Path.
--
Yet holier than all These To me is LAYLAH, night
and death; for Her do I blaspheme alike the finite
--
way home-home? nay! but To the house of the
harlot whom he loveth not. For it is LAYLAH that
--
The number of the chapter refers To Liber Legis I, 24,
for paragraph 1 refers To Nuit. The "twins" in the
title are those mentioned in paragraph 5.
--
Malkuth"; and, To the Ipsissimus, dissolution in the
body of Nuit and a visit To a brothel may be identical.
[123]
--
Paragraph 4 alludes To Liber Legis I, 52; "place"
implies space; denies homogeneity To space; but when
"place" is perfected by "t"-as it were, Yoni by Lingam
--
necessary To separate things, in order that they might
rejoice in uniting. See Liber Legis I, 28-30, which is
--
fonder". (PS. I seem To get a subtle after-taste of
bitterness.)
(It is To be observed that the philosopher having first
committed the syllogistic error quaternis terminorum,
in attempting To reduce the terms To three, staggers in To
non distributia medii. It is possible that considerations
--
but To do so would render the humour of the chapter Too
subtle for the average reader in Oshkosh for whom
--
no word To express even the first whisper of the
Initia Tor in mine ear: yea, I abhor birth, ululating
--
eloquence, bewails his impotence To express himself,
or To induce others To follow in To the light. In para-
graph 1 he explains the sardonic laughter, for which he
--
Paragraph 2 is a reference To the Obligation of an
Entered Apprentice Mason.
Paragraph 3 refers To the Ceremony of Exaltation
in Royal Arch Masonry. The Initiate will be able To
discover the most formidable secret of that degree con-
--
Paragraphs 4-6 express an anguish To which that of
Gethsemane and Golgotha must appear like whitlows.
--
sardonic or cynical laughter To which we have previously
alluded.
--
If, as I am not, I were free To choose,
How Buddhahood would battle with The Booze!
--
on their own circumstances. The sufferer from Toothache
does not agree with Doc Tor Pangloss, that "all is for
--
wealthiest of our Dukes complain To his cronies that
"Times is cruel 'ard".
--
sacrifice that which is dearest To thee un To the
Infernal Gods!
--
the code is not changed because it is Too hard, but
because if is fulfilled.
--
If only the Archbishop of Canterbury were To go
make in the streets and beg his bread!
--
The number of the chapter may refer To the letter
Samech ({Samech}), Temperence, in the Tarot.
--
chosen, and carefully trained To fulfill the sacrament of
fatherhood; the shame of sex consists in the usurpation
--
Christ" alluded To the author.
In the last paragraph we reach the sublime mystic
--
aye To Nibbana's Oe.(28)
I Pay-Pe, the dissolution of the House of God-
--
HORUS To the Blind Eye that weeps!(31) The Up-
right One in thine Uprightness rejoiceth-Death
To all Fishes!(32)
[132]
--
The number of this chapter refers To the Hebrew word Ain, the negative and
Ani, 61.
--
Paragraph 1 calls upon the Fool of the Tarot, who is To be referred To Ipsiss
imus,
To the pure fool, Parsifal, To resolve this problem.
The word Naught-y suggests not only that the problem is sexual, but does not
--
Lingam To the Yoni, and the Ego To the Absolute.
This idea, "I must give up", I owe, is naturally completed by I pay, and the
--
These letters, O P, are then seen To be the root of opus, the Latin word for
"work",
--
The last paragraph is even obscurer To those unfamiliar To the masterpiece
referred To in the note; for the eye of Horus (see 777, Col.
XXI, line 10, "the blind
--
Horus does not; or, if it does so, breeds, according To Turkish tradition, a Me
ssiah.
--
in their injunction, "Fry your seeds". Act so as To balance your past Karma,
and create no new, so that, as it were, the books are balanced. WHile you have
--
Knife for Touch; two cakes, one for taste, the other
for smell.
--
MAGICK Light To replace the sun of natura light.
He prays un To, and give homage To, Ro-Hoor_khuit;
To Him he then sacrifices.
The first cake, burnt, illustrates the profit drawn
--
illustrates the use of the lower life To feed the
higher life.
--
takes twigs To kindle the fire in which it burns itself.
[135]
--
Who Told thee, man, that LAYLAH is not Nuit, nd
I hadit?
--
I wrenched DOG backwards To find GOD; now GOD
barks.
--
This chapter returns To the subject of Laylah, and
To the subject already discussed in Chapters 3 and
others, particularly Chapter 56.
The title of the chapter refers To the old rime:
"See-saw, Margery Daw,
Sold her bed To lie upon straw.
Was not she a silly slut
To sell her bed To lie upon dirt?"
The word "see-saw" is significant, almost a comment
upon this chapter. To the Master of the Temple
opposite rules apply. His unity seeks the many, and
the many is again transmuted To the one. Solve et
Coagula.
--
GOD sent To me the angels DIN and DONI.
"An man of spunk," they urged, "would hardly
--
To breakfast every day chez Laperouse."
"No!" I replied, "h would not do so, BUT
--
Solely To drown this misery of mine.
"Yet the last height of consolation's cold:
Its pinnacle is-not To be consoled!
"And though I sleep with Janefore and Eleanor
--
As To enable me To raise the wind.
"Put me in LAYLAH'S arms again: the Accurst,
--
although one may not wish To exercise it: the author
would readily die in defence of the right of Englishmen
To play football, or of his own right not To play it.
(As a great poet has expressed it: "We don't want To
fight, but, by Jingo, if we do-") This is his meaning
Towards his attitude To complete freedom of speech and
action. He refuses To listen To the ostensible criticism of
the spirits, and explains his own position. Their real
mission was To rouse him To confidence and action.
[139]
--
the blank obviously referring To N E M O.
The "moon-pool of silver" is the Path of Gimel,
leading from Tiphareth To Kether; the "flames of violet"
are the Ajna-Chakkra; the lily itself is Kether, the
lotus of the Sahasrara. "Lily" is spelt with a capital To
connect with Laylah.
--
up To Seven and Seventy.(35)
"Yea! the night shall cover all; the night shall cover
--
The chapter recurs To the subject of Laylah, whom
the author exalts above God, in continuation of the
--
consume your dust To ashes!
[144]
--
This chapter means that it is useless To try To abandon
the Great Work. You may occupy yourself for a time
--
Paragraph 4 is a practical counsel To mystics not
To break up their dryness by relaxing their austerities.
The last paragraph will only be unders Tood by
--
Sail I not Toward LAYLAH within seven days?
Be not sad at heart, O prophet; the babble of the
--
The author laments the failure of his mission To
mankind, but comforts himself with the following
--
vincing their hearers. (3) Their food was not equal To
that obtainable at Rumpelmayer's. (4) In a few days
I am going To rejoin Laylah. (5) My mission will
succeed soon enough. (6) Death will remove the
--
THE WAY To SUCCEED-AND THE WAY To
SUCK EGGS!
--
The Red Triangle is the descending Tongue of grace;
the Blue Triangle is the ascending Tongue of
prayer
This Interchange, the Double Gift of Tongues, the
Word of Double Power-ABRAHADABRA!-is
--
not that Word equal To Cheth, that is Cancer.
whose Sigil is {Cancer}?
--
The key To the understanding of this chapter is given
in the number and the title, the former being intelligible
To all nations who employ Arabic figures, the latter
only To experts in deciphering English puns.
The chapter alludes To Levi's drawing of the Hexa-
gram, and is a criticism of, or improvement upon, it.
--
Tongues is introduced.
In paragraph 5 the symbolism of Tongues is further
developed. Abrahadabra is our primal example of an
--
the Glacier Torrent!
To Him let us offer our babes! Around Him let
us dance in the mad moonlight!
--
Skip, witches! Hop, Toads! Take your pleasure!-
for the play of the Universe is the pleasure of
--
The chapter refers To the Witches' Sabbath, the
description of which in Payne Knight should be
--
proceed To not.
Sanhedrim, a body of 70 men. An Eye. Eye in
--
The "gnarled oak" and the "glacier Torrent" refer
To the confessions made by many witches.
I paragraph 7 is seen the meaning of the chapter;
--
The title is due To the circumstances of the early
piety of Frater Perdurabo, who was frequently
--
The world has gone To everlasting smash.
No! if creation did possess an aim
(It does not.) it were only To make hash
Of that most "high" and that most holy game,
--
the name of Shiva would cause him To awake, and so
destroy the universe.
--
Ay! all thine aspiration is To death: death is the
crown of all thine aspiration. Triple is the cord of
--
The Hebrew letter Gimel adds up To 73; it means a camel.
The title of the chapter is borrowed from the well-known lines of Rudyard
--
precedes spiritual and physical perceptions. One would be foolish To claim
initiation unless it were complete on every plane.
--
Asana. there is perhaps a sardonic reference To rigor mortis, and certainly
one conceives the half-humorous attitude of the expert Towards the beginner.
Paragraph 3 is a comment in the same Tone of rough good nature. The word
Zela Tor is used because the Zela Tor of the A.'.A.'. has To pass an examination
in Asana before he becomes eligible for the grade of Practicus. The ten days
allude merely To the tradition about the camel, that he can go ten days without
water.
--
since gimel is the Path that leads from the Microcosm in tiphareth To the
Macrocosm in Kether.
The epithets are far Too complex To explain in detail, but Mem, the Hanged
man, has a close affinity for Gimel, as will be seen by a study of Liber 418.
--
(36) Death is said by the Arabs To ride a Camel. The Path of Gimel (which
means a Camel) leads from Tiphareth To Kether, and its Tarot trump
is the "High Priestess".
--
And now he has let his girl go To America, To have
"success" in "life": blank loss.
Is there no end To this immortal ache
That haunts me, haunts me sleeping or awake?
--
Carey Street is well known To prosperous Hebrews
and poor Englishmen as the seat of the Bankruptcy
--
step 3, duality and the rest of it down To Malkuth;
step 4, the s Tooping of Malkuth To the Qliphoth, and
the consequent ruin of the Tree of Life.
--
surrendered To the spiritual. And so on. This is a
Laylah-chapter, but in it Laylah figures as the mere
--
Spring beans and strawberries are in: goodbye To the
oyster!
--
But "what I want" varies from hour To hour.
This wavering is the root of all compromise, and so
--
--I prefer To think of Laylah.
[160]
--
The title is explained in the note, but also alludes To
paragraph 1, the plover's egg being often contemporary
--
and myself would hardly have been at the pains To
write one. It was in response To the impassioned appeals
of many most worthy brethren that we have yielded up
--
or Torture wrested.
Laylah is again the mere woman.
--
ing mind referred To.
[161]
--
How? Not by speed, nor strength, nor power To stay,
But by the Silence that succeeds the Neigh!
--
No, the refusal To be content with any of this.
But all this is again only a glamour of Maya, as previously observed in the
text (Chapter 31). All this is true and false, and it is true and false To say
that
--
both singly and in combination. It is intended To stimulate thought To the
point where it explodes with violence and for ever.
A study of this chapter is probably the best short cut To Nibbana.
The thought of the Master in this chapter is exceptionally lofty.
--
The word "neigh" is a pun on "nay", which refers To the negative conception
already postulated as beyond IT. The suggestion is, that there may be somethin
falsely described as silence, To represent absence-of-conception beyond that
negative.
It would be possible To interpret this chapter in its entirety as an adverse
criticism of metaphysics as such, and this is doubtless one of its many sub-
--
77 is the number of Laylah (LAILAH), To whom this
chapter is wholly devoted.
--
implying this fact, "It's nice To be a devil when you're one
like me."
--
and Laylah symbolises redemption To Frater P. The
number 77, also, interpreted as in the title, is the redeeming
--
The ratio of the length of title and text is the key To the
true meaning of the chapter, which is, that Redemption is
--
humbly, yet with confidence-as a means of redemption To
the world of sorrowing men.
--
analysis of the name, which may be left To the ingenium of
the advanced practicus (see pho Tograph).
--
Be this thy task, To see how each card springs
necessarily from each other card, even in due order
--
the third refer To the universe as it is; but the wheel of
the Tarot is not only this, but represents equally the
--
This practice is therefore given by Frater P. To
his pupils; To treat the sequence of the cards as cause
and effect. Thence, To discover the cause behind all
causes. Success in this practice qualifies for the grade
--
reminds the student that the universe is not To be
contemplated as a phenomenon in time.
--
Smug, Toothless, hairless Coote, debauch-emascu-
lated Buddha, come ye To me? I have a trick To
make you silent, O ye foamers-at-the mouth!
--
Nature is cruel; but I Too am a Sadist.
The game goes on; it y have been Too rough for
Buddha, but it's (if anything) Too dull for me.
Viens, beau negre! Donne-moi tes levres encore!
--
The chapter is a rebuke To those who can see nothing
but sorrow and evil in the universe.
--
Equinox. The end of the paragraph refers To Catullus,
his famous epigram about the youth who turned his
--
To insist upon his virility, since otherwise he could not
employ the remedy.
--
is therefore presumably intended To assert that even
women may enjoy life sometimes.
--
de Sade, who gave supreme literary form To the joys of
Torture.
[169]
--
Speaking as an Irishman, I prefer To say: The price
of eternal warfare is existence.
--
Is there is a Government? then I'm agin it! To Hell
with the bloody English!
--
rowdy Irishman. he is no thin-lipped prude, To seek
salvation in unmanly self-abnegation; no Creeping
Jesus, To slink through existence To the tune of the Dead
March in Saul; no Cremerian Callus To warehouse his
semen in his cerebellum.
--
replying To such critics.
NOTES
--
your brain is Too dense for any known explosive
To affect it.
I am not an Anarchist in your sense of the word:
--
not daring To drink cocoa, lest their animal passions
should be aroused (as Olivia Haddon assures my
--
men in To Slaves, obliged To report their movements To
the government like so many ticket-of-leave men.
--
Witch-moon that turnest all the streams To blood,
I take this hazel rod, and stand, and swear
--
He that endureth even To the end
Hath sworn that Love's own corpse shall lie at noon
--
need no explanation To readers of the classics.
This poem, inspired by Jane Cheron, is as simple
--
This is, To accept things as they are, and To turn
your whole energies To progress on the Path.
[175]
--
comes To Naught?
What! shall the Adept give up his hermit life, and
--
The title of this chapter refers To the Greek number,
PG being "Pig" without an "i".
--
To Chapters 79 and 80, the ethics of Adept life.
The Adept has performed the Great Work; He has
reduced the Many To Naught; as a consequence, he
is no longer afraid of the Many.
--
Only through devotion To FRATER PERDURABO
may this book be unders Tood.
How much more then should He devote Himself To
AIWASS for the understanding of the Holy Books
--
The title refers To the mental attitude of the Master;
the avalanche does not fall because it is tired of staying
on the mountain, or in order To crush the Alps below it,
or because that it feels that it needs exercise. Perfectly
--
Paragraphs 1 and 2. By "devotion To Frater Per-
durabo" is not meant sycophancy, but intelligent
--
seeks To identify himself with the Intelligence that
communicates To him the Holy Books.
Paragraphs 3 and 4 are explained by the 13th
--
We now return To that series of chapters which started
with Chapter 8 ({Eta}).
--
The number 86 refers To Elohim, the name of the elemental
forces.
--
This chapter is an attempt To replace Elohim by a more
satisfac Tory hieroglyph of the elements.
--
Lamed is not satisfac Tory for Earth, and Yod Too spiritualised a
form of Fire. (But see Book 4, part III.)
--
Nihil is taken To affirm that the universe is Nothing, and that is
now To be analysed. The order of the element is that of Jeheshua.
The elements are taken rather as in Nature; N is easily Fire,
--
In paragraph 7 we turn To the so-called Jetziratic attribution
of Pentagramma Ton, that followed by Dr. Dee, and by the Hindus,
--
central core, of things; above this forms a crust, Tormented
from below, and upon this condenses the original steam. Around this
--
To express "the Mother" instead of Epsilon ({Epsilon}), To show that She
has been impregnated by the Spirit; it is the rough breathing and
--
But I have never tasted anything To match the
(?)
--
refers To the Sacrament.
[185]
--
Teach us Your real secret, Master! how To become
invisible, how To acquire love, and oh! beyond all,
how To make gold.
But how much gold will you give me for the Secret
--
This did I deign To accept, and whispered in his ear
this secret:
--
A man advertises that he could tell anyone how To
make four hundred a year certain, and would do so
on receipt of a shilling. To every sender he dispatched
a post-card with these words: "Do as I do."
--
To teach people who need To be taught.
[187]
--
That, Too, is wise; for since I am annoyed, I could
not write even a reasonably decent lie.
--
respect of that number by his allowing himself To be
annoyed.
--
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.
--
gives no indication as To the result of this analysis, as
if To imply this: The final Mystery is always insoluble.
FINIS.
--
26. The Elephant and the Tor Toise.
27. The Sorcerer.
--
43. Mulberry Tops.
44. THE MASS OF THE PHOENIX.
--
69. The Way To Succeed-and the Way To Suck
Eggs!
0.00 - THE GOSPEL PREFACE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
IN THE HIS ToRY of the arts, genius is a thing of very rare occurrence. Rarer still, however, are the competent reporters and recorders of that genius. The world has had many hundreds of admirable poets and philosophers; but of these hundreds only a very few have had the fortune To attract a Boswell or an Eckermann.
When we leave the field of art for that of spiritual religion, the scarcity of competent reporters becomes even more strongly marked. Of the day- To-day life of the great theocentric saints and contemplatives we know, in the great majority of cases, nothing whatever. Many, it is true, have recorded their doctrines in writing, and a few, such as St. Augustine, Suso and St. Teresa, have left us au Tobiographies of the greatest value.
But, all doctrinal writing is in some measure formal and impersonal, while the au Tobiographer 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 transla Tor 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.
--------------------
--
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 al Together 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 pa Tois. 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.
But these words were not the product of intellectual cogitation; they were rooted in direct experience. Hence, To students of religion, psychology, and physical science, these experiences of the Master are of immense value for the understanding of religious phenomena in general. No doubt Sri Ramakrishna was a Hindu of the Hindus; yet his experiences transcended the limits of the dogmas and creeds of Hinduism. Mystics of religions other than Hinduism will find in Sri Ramakrishna's experiences a corroboration of the experiences of their own prophets and seers. And this is very important Today for the resuscitation of religious values. The sceptical reader may pass by the supernatural experiences; he will yet find in the book enough material To provoke his serious thought and solve many of his spiritual problems.
There are repetitions of teachings and parables in the book. I have kept them purposely. They have their charm and usefulness, repeated as they were in different settings. Repetition is unavoidable in a work of this kind. In the first place, different seekers come To a religious teacher with questions of more or less identical nature; hence the answers will be of more or less identical pattern. Besides, religious teachers of all times and climes have tried, by means of repetition, To hammer truths in To the s Tony soil of the recalcitrant human mind. Finally, repetition does not seem tedious if the ideas repeated are dear To a man's heart.
I have thought it necessary To write a rather lengthy Introduction To the book. In it I have given the biography of the Master, descriptions of people who came in contact with him, short explanations of several systems of Indian religious thought intimately connected with Sri Ramakrishna's life, and other relevant matters which, I hope, will enable the reader better To understand and appreciate the unusual contents of this book. It is particularly important that the Western reader, unacquainted with Hindu religious thought, should first read carefully the introduc Tory chapter, in order that he may fully enjoy these conversations. Many Indian terms and names have been retained in the book for want of suitable English equivalents. Their meaning is given either in the Glossary or in the foot-notes. The Glossary also gives explanations of a number of expressions unfamiliar To Western readers. The diacritical marks are explained under Notes on Pronunciation.
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.
The life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna have redirected the thoughts of the denationalized Hindus To the spiritual ideals of their forefa thers. During the latter part of the nineteenth century his was the time-honoured role of the Saviour of the Eternal Religion of the Hindus. His teachings played an important part in liberalizing the minds of orthodox pundits and hermits. Even now he is the silent force that is moulding the spiritual destiny of India. His great disciple, Swami Vivekananda, was the first Hindu missionary To preach the message of Indian culture To the enlightened minds of Europe and America. The full consequence of Swami Vivekn and work is still in the womb of the future.
May this translation of the first book of its kind in the religious his Tory 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!
- Sw mi Nikhilnanda
--
In the life of the great Saviours and Prophets of the world it is often found that they are accompanied by souls of high spiritual potency who play a conspicuous part in the furtherance of their Master's mission. They become so integral a part of the life and work of these great ones that posterity can think of them only in mutual association. Such is the case with Sri Ramakrishna and M., whose diary has come To be known To the world as the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna in English and as Sri Rmakrishna Kathmrita in the original Bengali version.
Sri Mahendra Nath Gupta, familiary known To the readers of the Gospel by his pen name M., and To the devotees as Master Mahashay, was born on the 14th of July, 1854 as the son of Madhusudan Gupta, an officer of the Calcutta High Court, and his wife, Swarnamayi Devi. He had a brilliant scholastic career at Hare School and the Presidency College at Calcutta. The range of his studies included the best that both occidental and oriental learning had To offer. English literature, his Tory, economics, western philosophy and law on the one hand, and Sanskrit literature and grammar, Darsanas, Puranas, Smritis, Jainism, Buddhism, astrology and Ayurveda on the other were the subjects in which he attained considerable proficiency.
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, his Tory and economics. In his later days he Took over the Mor Ton 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 Rec Tor 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 Mor Ton 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 in To 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 in To 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 in To 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.
It did not take much time for M. To become very intimate with the Master, or for the Master To recognise in this disciple a divinely commissioned partner in the fulfilment of his spiritual mission. When M. was reading out the Chaitanya Bhagavata, the Master discovered that he had been, in a previous birth, a disciple and companion of the great Vaishnava Teacher, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and the Master even saw him 'with his naked eye' participating in the ecstatic mass-singing of the Lord's name under the leadership of that Divine personality. So the Master Told M, "You are my own, of the same substance as the father and the son," indicating thereby that M. was one of the chosen few and a part and parcel of his Divine mission.
There was an urge in M. To abandon the household life and become a Sannysin. When he communicated this idea To the Master, he forbade him saying," Mother has Told me that you have To do a little of Her work you will have To teach Bhagavata, the word of God To humanity. The Mother keeps a Bhagavata Pandit with a bondage in the world!"
( Ibid P.36.)
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 proprie Tor of the Mor Ton School which he developed in To 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.
He was one of the earliest of the disciples To visit Kamarpukur, the birthplace of the Master, in the latter's lifetime itself; for he wished To practise contemplation on the Master's early life in its true original setting. His experience there is described as follows by Swami Nityatmananda: "By the grace of the Master, he saw the entire Kamarpukur as a holy place bathed in an effulgent Light. Trees and creepers, beasts and birds and men all were made of effulgence. So he prostrated To all on the road. He saw a Torn cat, which appeared To him luminous with the Light of Consciousness. Immediately he fell To the ground and saluted it" (M The Apostle and the Evangelist by Swami Nityatmananda vol. I. P. 40.) He had similar experience in Dakshineswar also. At the instance of the Master he also visited Puri, and in the words of Swami Nityatmananda, "with indomitable courage, M. embraced the image of Jagannath out of season."
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. s Tood 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 in To 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.
After the Master's demise, M. went on pilgrimage several times. He visited Banras, Vrindvan, Ayodhy and other places. At Banras he visited the famous Trailinga Swmi and fed him with sweets, and he had long conversations with Swami Bhaskarananda, one of the noted saintly and scholarly Sannysins of the time. In 1912 he went with the Holy Mother To Banras, and spent about a year in the company of Sannysins at Banras, Vrindvan, Hardwar, Hrishikesh and Swargashram. But he returned To Calcutta, as that city offered him the unique opportunity of associating himself with the places hallowed by the Master in his lifetime. Afterwards he does not seem To have gone To any far-off place, but stayed on in his room in the Mor Ton School carrying on his spiritual ministry, speaking on the Master and his teachings To the large number of people who flocked To him after having read his famous Kathmrita known To English readers as The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.
This brings us To the circumstances that led To the writing and publication of this monumental work, which has made M. one of the immortals in hagiographic literature.
While many educated people heard Sri Ramakrishna's talks, it was given To this illustrious personage alone To leave a graphic and exact account of them for posterity, with details like date, hour, place, names and particulars about participants. Humanity owes this great book To the ingrained habit of diary-keeping with which M. was endowed.
Even as a boy of about thirteen, while he was a student in the 3rd class of the Hare School, he was in the habit of keeping a diary. " Today on rising," he wrote in his diary, "I greeted my father and mother, prostrating on the ground before them" (Swami Nityatmananda's 'M The Apostle and the Evangelist' Part I. P 29.) At another place he wrote, " Today, while on my way To school, I visited, as usual, the temples of Kli, the Mother at Tharitharia, and of Mother Sitala, and paid my obeisance To them." About twenty-five years after, when he met the Great Master in the spring of 1882, it was the same instinct of a born diary-writer that made him begin his book, 'unique in the literature of hagiography', with the memorable words: "When hearing the name of Hari or Rma once, you shed tears and your hair stands on end, then you may know for certain that you do not have To perform devotions such as Sandhya any more."
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 Oc Tober 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 Pla To 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
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It looks as if M. was brought To the world by the Great Master To record his words and transmit them To posterity. Swami Sivananda, a direct disciple of the Master and the second President of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, says on this Topic: "Whenever there was an interesting talk, the Master would call Master Mahashay if he was not in the room, and then draw his attention To the holy words spoken. We did not know then why the Master did so. Now we can realise that this action of the Master had an important significance, for it was reserved for Master Mahashay To give To the world at large the sayings of the Master." ( Vednta Kesari Vol. XIX P 141.) Thanks To M., we get, unlike in the case of the great teachers of the past, a faithful record with date, time, exact report of conversations, description of concerned men and places, references To contemporary events and personalities and a hundred other details for the last four years of the Master's life (1882-'86), so that no one can doubt the his Toricity of the Master and his teachings at any time in the future.
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 Mor Ton Institution from its original proprie Tors and shifted it To a commodious four-s Toreyed 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.
Though a very well versed scholar in the Upanishads, Git and the philosophies of the East and the West, all his discussions and teachings found their culmination in the life and the message of Sri Ramakrishna, in which he found the real explanation and illustration of all the scriptures. Both consciously and unconsciously, he was the teacher of the Kathmrita the nectarine words of the Great Master.
Though a much-sought-after spiritual guide, an educationist of repute, and a contemporary and close associate of illustrious personages like Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Keshab Chander Sen and Iswar Chander Vidysgar, he was always moved by the noble humanity of a lover of God, which consists in respecting the personalities of all as receptacles of the Divine Spirit. So he taught without the consciousness of a teacher, and no bar of superiority s Tood in the way of his doing the humblest service To his students and devotees. "He was a commission of love," writes his close devotee, Swami Raghavananda, "and yet his soft and sweet words would pierce the s Toniest heart, make the worldly-minded weep and repent and turn Godwards."
( Prabuddha Bharata Vol. XXXVII P 499.)
As time went on and the number of devotees increased, the staircase room and terrace of the 3rd floor of the Mor Ton 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 in To 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
We are in an age that assumes the narrowing trends of specialization To be logical, natural, and desirable. Consequently, society expects all earnestly responsible communication To be crisply brief. Advancing science has now discovered that all the known cases of biological extinction have been caused by overspecialization, whose concentration of only selected genes sacrifices general adaptability. Thus the specialist's brief for pinpointing brevity is dubious. In the meantime, humanity has been deprived of comprehensive understanding. Specialization has bred feelings of isolation, futility, and confusion in individuals. It has also resulted in the individual's leaving responsibility for thinking and social action To others.
Specialization breeds biases that ultimately aggregate as international and ideological discord, which, in turn, leads To war.
We are not seeking a license To ramble wordily. We are intent only upon being adequately concise. General systems science discloses the existence of minimum sets of variable fac Tors that uniquely govern each and every system. Lack of knowledge concerning all the fac Tors and the failure To include them in our integral imposes false conclusions. Let us not make the error of inadequacy in examining our most comprehensive inven Tory of experience and thoughts regarding the evoluting affairs of all humanity.
There is an inherently minimum set of essential concepts and current information, cognizance of which could lead To our operating our planet Earth To the lasting satisfaction and health of all humanity. With this objective, we set out on our review of the spectrum of significant experiences and seek therein for the greatest meanings as well as for the family of generalized principles governing the realization of their optimum significance To humanity aboard our Sun circling planet Earth.
We must start with scientific fundamentals, and that means with the data of experiments and not with assumed axioms predicated only upon the misleading nature of that which only superficially seems To be obvious. It is the consensus of great scientists that science is the attempt To set in order the facts of experience.
Holding within their definition, we define Universe as the aggregate of allhumanity's consciously apprehended and communicated, nonsimultaneous, and only partially overlapping experiences. An aggregate of finites is finite. Universe is a finite but nonsimultaneously conceptual scenario.
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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 de Tour 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 word generalization in literature usually means covering Too much terri Tory Too thinly To be persuasive, let alone convincing. In science, however, a generalization means a principle that has been found To hold true in every special case.
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 inven Tory of special-case experiences s Tored 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 here Tofore 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 s Torage 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 a Tom, while another, unbeknownst To him, is ordered by his political fac Totum To make an a Tomic 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 fac Tors 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.
Living upon the threshold between yesterday and Tomorrow, which threshold we reflexively assumed in some long ago yesterday To constitute an eternal now, we are aware of the daily-occurring, vast multiplication of experience generated information by which we potentially may improve our understanding of our yesterdays' experiences and therefrom derive our most farsighted preparedness for successive Tomorrows.
Anticipating, cooperating with, and employing the forces of nature can be accomplished only by the mind. The wisdom manifest in the omni-interorderliness of the family of generalized principles operative in Universe can be employed only by the highest integrity of engagement of the mind's metaphysical intuiting and formulating capabilities.
We are able To assert that this rationally coordinating system bridge has been established between science and the humanities because we have made adequate experimental testing of it in a computerized world-resource-use-exploration system, which by virtue of the proper inclusion of all the parameters-as guaranteed by the synergetic start with Universe and the progressive differentiation out of all the parts-has demonstrated a number of alternate ways in which it is eminently feasible not only To provide full life support for all humans but also To permit all humans' individual enjoyment of all the Earth without anyone profiting at the expense of another and without any individuals interfering with others.
While it takes but meager search To discover that many well-known concepts are false, it takes considerable search and even more careful examination of one's own personal experiences and inadvertently spontaneous reflexing To discover that there are many popularly and even professionally unknown, yet nonetheless fundamental, concepts To hold true in all cases and that already have been discovered by other as yet obscure individuals. That is To say that many scientific generalizations have been discovered but have not come To the attention of what we call the educated world at large, thereafter To be incorporated tardily within the formal education processes, and even more tardily, in the ongoing political-economic affairs of everyday life. Knowledge of the existence and comprehensive significance of these as yet popularly unrecognized natural laws often is requisite To the solution of many of the as yet unsolved problems now confronting society. Lack of knowledge of the solution's existence often leaves humanity confounded when it need not be.
Intellectually advantaged with no more than the child's facile, lucid eagerness To understand constructively and usefully the major transformational events of our own times, it probably is synergetically advantageous To review swiftly the most comprehensive inven Tory of the most powerful human environment transforming events of our Totally known and reasonably extended his Tory. This is especially useful in winnowing out and understanding the most significant of the metaphysical revolutions now recognized as swiftly tending To reconstitute his Tory. By such a comprehensively schematic review, we might identify also the unprecedented and possibly here Tofore overlooked pivotal revolutionary events not only of Today but also of those trending To be central To Tomorrow's most cataclysmic changes.
It is synergetically reasonable To assume that relativistic evaluation of any of the separate drives of art, science, education, economics, and ideology, and their complexedly interacting trends within our own times, may be had only through the most comprehensive his Torical sweep of which we are capable.
There could be produced a synergetic understanding of humanity's cosmic functioning, which, until now, had been both undiscovered and unpredictable due To our deliberate and exclusive preoccupation only with the separate statistics of separate events. As a typical consequence of the latter, we observe our society's persistent increase of educational and employment specialization despite the already mentioned, well-documented scientific disclosure that the extinctions of biological species are always occasioned by overspecialization. Specialization's preoccupation with parts deliberately forfeits the opportunity To apprehend and comprehend what is provided exclusively by synergy.
Today's news consists of aggregates of fragments. Anyone who has taken part in any event that has subsequently appeared in the news is aware of the gross disparity between the actual and the reported events. The insistence by reporters upon having advance "releases" of what, for instance, convocation speakers are supposedly going To say but in fact have not yet said, au Tomatically discredits the value of the largely prefabricated news. We also learn frequently of prefabricated and prevaricated events of a complex nature purportedly undertaken for purposes either of suppressing or rigging the news, which in turn perverts humanity's tactical information resources. All his Tory becomes suspect. Probably our most polluted resource is the tactical information To which humanity spontaneously reflexes.
Furthermore, Today's hyperspecialization in socioeconomic functioning has come To preclude important popular philosophic considerations of the synergetic significance of, for instance, such his Torically important events as the discovery within the general region of experimental inquiry known as virology that the as-yet popularly assumed validity of the concepts of animate and inanimate phenomena have been experimentally invalidated. A Toms and crystal complexes of a Toms were held To be obviously inanimate; the pro Toplasmic cells of biological phenomena were held To be obviously animate. It was deemed To be common sense that warm- blooded, moist, and soft-skinned humans were clearly not To be confused with hard, cold granite or steel objects. A clear-cut threshold between animate and inanimate was therefore assumed To exist as a fundamental dicho Tomy of all physical phenomena. This seemingly placed life exclusively within the bounds of the physical.
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 a Toms. 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 a Tomically 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 au Tomobile manufacturers from creating the human drivers of their au Tomobiles. Only the physical connections and development complexes of distinctly "nonlife" a Toms in To molecules, in To cells, in To 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.
The overconcentration on details of hyperspecialization has also been responsible for the lack of recognition by science of its inherently manda Tory responsibility To reorient all our educational curricula because of the synergetically disclosed, but popularly uncomprehended, significance of the 1956 Nobel Prize-winning discovery in physics of the experimental invalidation of the concept of "parity" by which science previously had misassumed that positive-negative complementations consisted exclusively of mirror-imaged behaviors of physical phenomena.
Science's self-assumed responsibility has been self-limited To disclosure To society only of the separate, supposedly physical (because separately weighable) a Tomic component isolations data. Synergetic integrity would require the scientists To announce that in reality what had been identified here Tofore 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 inven Tories 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 in To 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-s Tored 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 cus Toms of yesterday. They can lead all humanity in To omnisuccessful survival as well as entrance in To 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 in To 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.
0.00 - To the Reader, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
object:0.00 - To the Reader
author class:A B Purani
--
To the Reader
To the Reader
The reader is requested To note that Sri Aurobindo is not responsible for these records as he had no opportunity To see them. So, it is not as if Sri Aurobindo said exactly these things but that I remember him To have said them. All I can say is that I have tried To be as faithful in recording them as I was humanly capable. That does not minimise my personal responsibility which I fully accept.
A. B. PURANI
0.01f - FOREWARD, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
This work may be summed up as an attempt To see and To make
others see what happens To man, and what conclusions are forced
upon us, when he is placed fairly and squarely within the frame-
--
Why should we want To see, and why in particular should we
single out man as our object ?
--
sciousness, that is To say in vision. And that, doubtless, is why the
his Tory of the living world can be summarised as the elaboration
--
always something more To be seen. After all, do we not judge
the perfection of an animal, or the supremacy of a thinking being,
by the penetration and synthetic power of their gaze ? To try To
see more and better is not a matter of whim or curiosity or self-
indulgence. To see or To perish is the very condition laid upon
everything that makes up the universe, by reason of the mysterious
--
But if it is true that it is so vital and so blessed To know, let us
ask again why we are turning our attention particularly To man.
Has man not been adequately described already, and is he not a
--
Man has a double title, as the twofold centre of the world, To
impose himself on our effort To sec, as the key To the universe.
3i
--
absence. Instinctively physicists and naturalists went To work as
though they could look down from a great height upon a world
--
mitted To it or changing it. They are now beginning To realise
that even the most objective of their observations are steeped in
--
and soul To the network of relationships they thought To cast
upon things from outside : in fact they are caught in their own
--
It is tiresome and even humbling for die observer To be thus
fettered, To be obliged To carry with him everywhere the centre
of the landscape he is crossing. But what happens when chance
directs his steps To a point of vantage (a cross-roads, or intersecting
valleys) from which, not only his vision, but things themselves
--
That seems To be the privilege of man's knowledge.
It is not necessary To be a man To perceive surrounding things
and forces ' in the round '. All the animals have reached this point
as well as us. But it is peculiar To man To occupy a position in
32
--
necessity, all science must be referred back To him. If To see is
really To become more, if vision is really fuller being, then we
should look closely at man in order To increase our capacity To
live.
But To do this we must focus our eyes correctly.
From the dawn of his existence, man has been held up as a
spectacle To himself. Indeed for tens of centuries he has looked at
nothing but himself. Yet he has only just begun To take a scientific
view of his own significance in the physical world. There is no
need To be surprised at this slow awakening. It often happens
that what stares us in the face is the most difficult To perceive.
The child has To learn To separate out the images which assail
the newly-opened retina. For man To discover man and take his
measure, a whole series of ' senses ' have been necessary, whose
--
ness of mind tends continually To condense for us in a thin layer
of the past ;
--
A sense of quality, or of novelty, enabling us To distinguish in
nature certain absolute stages of perfection and growth, without
--
Without these qualities To illuminate our vision, man will
remain indefinitely for us whatever is done To make us see
what he still represents To so many minds : an erratic object in a
disjointed world. Conversely, we have only To rid our vision of
the threefold illusion of smallness, plurality and immobility, for
man effordessly To take the central position we prophesied the
momentary summit of an anthropogenesis which is itself the
--
Man is unable To see himself entirely unrelated To mankind,
neither is he able To see mankind unrelated To life, nor life un-
related To the universe.
Thence stems the basic plan of this work : Pre-Life : Life :
--
First To assert that man, in nature, is a genuine fact falling (at
least partially) within the scope of the requirements and methods
--
Secondly, To make plain that of all the facts offered To our
knowledge, none is more extraordinary or more illuminating ;
Thirdly, To stress the special character of the Essay I am pre-
senting.
--
these pages, is To try To see ; that is To say, To try To develop a
homogeneous and coherent perspective of our general extended
--
about the degree of reality which I accord To the different parts of
the film I am projecting. When 1 try To picture the world before
the dawn of life, or life in the Palaeozoic era, I do not forget that
--
appearance of thought on earth. I do not pretend To describe
them as they really were, but rather as we must picture them To
ourselves so that the world may be true for us at this moment.
What I depict is not the past in itself, but as it must appear To an
observer standing on the advanced peak where evolution has
--
it suffices, through symmetry, To bring out ahead of us surprising
visions of the future.
Even reduced To these humble proportions, the views I am
attempting To put forward here arc, of course, largely tentative
and personal. Yet inasmuch as they are based on arduous investi-
--
itself in science Today.
When studied narrowly in himself by anthropologists or
--
pronounced individuality conceals from our eyes the whole To
which he belongs ; as we look at him our minds incline To break
nature up in To pieces and To forget both its deep inter-relations
and its measureless horizons : we incline To all that is bad in
anthropocentrism. And it is this that still leads scientists To refuse
To consider man as an object of scientific scrutiny except through
--
The time has come To realise that an interpretation of the
universe even a positivist one remains unsatisfying unless it
--
action in those of us who wish, and know how, To plumb the
depths of things, depend on it.
--
and realises that a universal will To live converges and is hominised
in him.
--
as he for long believed himself To be but as the axis and
leading shoot of evolution, which is something much finer.
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 in To 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 in To 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 in To 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 second was with regard To Sir Stafford Cripps' proposal for the transfer of power To India.
Over and above Sadhana, writing work and rendering spiritual help To the world during his apparent retirement there were plenty of other activities of which the outside world has no knowledge. Many prominent as well as less known persons sought and obtained interviews with him during these years. Thus, among well-known persons may be mentioned C.R. Das, Lala Lajpat Rai, Sarala Devi, Dr. Munje, Khasirao Jadhav, Tagore, Sylvain Levy. The great national poet of Tamil Nadu, S. Subramanya Bharati, was in contact with Sri Aurobindo for some years during his stay at Pondicherry; so was V.V.S. Aiyar. The famous V. Ramaswamy Aiyangar Va Ra of Tamil literature[3] stayed with Sri Aurobindo for nearly three years and was influenced by him. Some of these facts have been already mentioned in The Life of Sri Aurobindo.
Jung has admitted that there is an element of mystery, something that baffles the reason, in human personality. One finds that the greater the personality the greater is the complexity. And this is especially so with regard To spiritual personalities whom the Gita calls Vibhutis and Avatars.
Sri Aurobindo has explained the mystery of personality in some of his writings. Ordinarily by personality we mean something which can be described as "a pattern of being marked out by a settled combination of fixed qualities, a determined character.... In one view personality is regarded as a fixed structure of recognisable qualities expressing a power of being"; another idea regards "personality as a flux of self-expressive or sensitive and responsive being.... But flux of nature and fixity of nature" which some call character "are two aspects of being neither of which, nor indeed both Together, can be a definition of personality.... But besides this flux and this fixity there is also a third and occult element, the Person behind of whom the personality is a self-expression; the Person puts forward the personality as his role, character, persona, in the present act of his long drama of manifested existence. But the Person is larger than his personality, and it may happen that this inner largeness overflows in To the surface formation; the result is a self-expression of being which can no longer be described by fixed qualities, normalities of mood, exact lineaments, or marked out by structural limits."[4]
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.
In his Essays on the Gita, Sri Aurobindo says about the Avatar: "He may, on the other hand, descend as an incarnation of divine life, the divine personality and power in its characteristic action, for a mission ostensibly social, ethical and political, as is represented in the s Tory of Rama or Krishna; but always then this descent becomes in the soul of the race a permanent power for the inner living and the spiritual rebirth."[5]
"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 in To infinity and universality, out of birth in To immortality."[7]
It is clear that Sri Aurobindo interpreted the traditional idea of the Vibhuti and the Avatar in terms of the evolutionary possibilities of man. But more directly he has worked out the idea of the 'gnostic individual' in his masterpiece The Life Divine. He says: "A supramental gnostic individual will be a spiritual Person, but not a personality in the sense of a pattern of being marked out by a settled combination of fixed qualities, a determined character; he cannot be that since he is a conscious expression of the universal and the transcendent." Describing the gnostic individual he says: "We feel ourselves in the presence of a light of consciousness, a potency, a sea of energy, can distinguish and describe its free waves of action and quality, but not fix itself; and yet there is an impression of personality, the presence of a powerful being, a strong, high or beautiful recognisable Someone, a Person, not a limited creature of Nature but a Self or Soul, a Purusha."[8]
One feels that he was describing the feeling of some of us, his disciples, with regard To him in his inimitable way.
This transformation of the human personality in To the Divine perhaps even the mere connection of the human with the Divine is probably regarded as a chimera by the modern mind. To the modern mind it would appear as the apotheosis of a human personality which is against its idea of equality of men. Its difficulty is partly due To the notion that the Divine is unlimited and illimitable while a 'personality', however high and grand, seems To demand imposition, or assumption, of limitation. In this connection Sri Aurobindo said during an evening talk that no human manifestation can be illimitable and unlimited, but the manifestation in the limited should reflect the unlimited, the Transcendent Beyond.
This possibility of the human Touching and manifesting the Divine has been realised during the course of human his Tory whenever a great spiritual Light has appeared on earth. One of the purposes of this book is To show how Sri Aurobindo himself reflected the unlimited Beyond in his own self.
Greatness is magnetic and in a sense contagious. Wherever manifested, greatness is claimed by humanity as something that reveals the possibility of the race. The highest utility of greatness is not merely To attract us but To inspire us To follow it and rise To our own highest spiritual stature. To the majority of men Truth remains abstract, impersonal and far unless it is seen and felt concretely in a human personality. A man never knows a truth actively except through a person and by embodying it in his own personality. Some glimpse of the Truth-Consciousness which Sri Aurobindo embodied may be caught in these Evening Talks.
***
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
--
I think I Told you about our five houses; four of them are joined in
a single square block which is surrounded on all sides by streets
--
We have joined the houses Together with openings in some
of the outer walls and outbuildings, so that I may walk freely in
our little realm without having To go out in To the street - this is
rather nice. But I am busier than ever now, and I can say that at
the moment I am writing To you in a hurry.
16 February 1927
--
sense of the word.1 That is To say, at no time do I fall in To
Written in connection with a newspaper article in which it was stated that the Mother
--
and Total immobility, while the consciousness remains perfectly
awake; or else I enter in To an internal activity of one or more
--
and which, needless To say, is also perfectly conscious. So I can
say, in all truth, that I never lose consciousness throughout the
--
of the first thirteen; I had them mailed To you as they were
published.2
--
I shall not endeavour To reply To your opinion on the "conversations" although there are certain points which you do not seem
To have fully grasped; but I suppose that a second reading later
--
Series One - To Her Son
on, at your leisure, will enable you To understand those parts
which eluded you at first glance. Moreover, these "conversations" make no claim To exhaust their subjects or even To deal
with them thoroughly. Rather they are hints whose purpose is
--
meant To goad and spur on those who are on the way. It is
true that in my answers many aspects of the question have been
--
mention. I found it rather dull, but apart from that not Too bad.
But the Mukerjee quoted there must have lived for many years
--
these two men seem To be the only ones who represent Indian
genius. This is very far from the truth, and if they are so well
--
way To perpetuate the human race. I have never denied this, but
I wish To add that there is nothing To fear in this respect; if it is
Nature's plan To perpetuate the human race, she will always find
as many people as she needs To carry out her plan. The earth
will surely never suffer from a dearth of men.
--
it is certainly not confined To the small states of central Europe.
What you have described is pretty much the state of the whole
--
Series One - To Her Son
It is no use lamenting, however, saying: Where are you
--
To be different, I want them To be more harmonious and more
true. Oh, the horror of falsehood spread everywhere on earth,
--
After a very long time I was happy To receive your letter of
January 5th, especially since you think of Pondicherry as an
--
is vast and the Town is very small: a five minute drive and you are
out of it; and, at the centre of it all, the Ashram is a condensation
--
is free To organise his life as he pleases, the discipline is reduced
To the minimum that is indispensable To organise the existence
of 110 To 120 people and To avoid movements that would be
detrimental To the achievement of our yogic aim.
What do you say To this? Isn't it tempting? Will you ever
have the time or the possibility To come here? Once you did let
me hope for a visit.
I would like To show you our "establishment". It has just
acquired four houses which I bought in my name To simplify the
legal technicalities; but it goes without saying that I do not own
them. I think I have already explained the situation To you and
I want To take advantage of this opportunity To remind you of
it. The Ashram with all its real estate and moveable property
belongs To Sri Aurobindo, it is his money that enables me To
meet the almost formidable expenses that it entails (our annual
--
of exchange corresponds approximately To 650,000 francs); and
if my name sometimes appears (on bank accounts, purchase of
houses, of au Tomobiles, etc.), it is, as I already Told you, a matter
of convenience for the papers and signatures, since it is I who
--
Your last letter refers To current events and betrays some anxiety
which is certainly not unfounded. In their ignorant unconsciousness men set moving forces they are not even aware of and soon
--
about disastrous results. The earth seems To be shaken almost
entirely by a terrible fit of political and social epilepsy through
--
Series One - To Her Son
was beginning To set in. I must say that under the circumstances
the Governor (Solmiac) showed great kindness and resolve at
--
The sign of the times seems To be a complete lack of common
sense. But perhaps we see it this way simply because nearness
--
aspect To circumstances.
It may be that life on earth has always been a chaos - whatever the Bible may say, the Light has not yet made its appearance.
--
want To dampen their enthusiasm. I had entitled it "The Central
Thought", but they found this a little Too philosophical, so it has
been changed To "The Supreme Discovery".4 Rather pompous
for my taste, but...
--
Speaking of recent events, you ask me "whether it was a dangerous bluff" or whether we "narrowly escaped disaster". To
assume both at the same time would be nearer To the truth.
Hitler was certainly bluffing, if that is what you call shouting
and making threats with the intention of intimidating those To
whom one is talking and obtaining as much as one can. Tactics
--
and which move consciously Towards certain ends. The play of
these forces is very complex and generally eludes the human
--
and those that are opposed To this fulfilment. The former have
few conscious instruments at their disposal. It is true that in
--
anti-divine forces they have only Too many To choose from, and
always they find wills which they enslave and individuals whom
--
disaster was very close even though no human government consciously wanted it. But at any cost there was To be no war and
that is why war has been avoided - for the time being.
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 in To various channels of special effort and tendency, only To unite once more in a larger and more puissant synthesis. Secondly, development in To 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 in To 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 in To 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
the profoundest reason of its being in that general truth and that unceasing aim of Nature which it represents, and find by virtue of this new self-knowledge and self-appreciation its own recovered and larger synthesis. Reorganising itself, it will enter more easily and powerfully in To the reorganised life of the race which its processes claim To lead within in To the most secret penetralia and upward To the highest altitudes of existence and personality.
In the right view both of life and of Yoga all life is either consciously or subconsciously a Yoga. For we mean by this term a methodised effort Towards self-perfection by the expression of the secret potentialities latent in the being and - highest condition of vic Tory in that effort - a union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the Cosmos. But all life, when we look behind its appearances, is a vast Yoga of Nature who attempts in the conscious and the subconscious To realise her perfection in an ever-increasing expression of her yet unrealised potentialities and To unite herself with her own divine reality. In man, her thinker, she for the first time upon this Earth devises selfconscious means and willed arrangements of activity by which this great purpose may be more swiftly and puissantly attained.
Yoga, as Swami Vivekananda has said, may be regarded as a means of compressing one's evolution in To a single life or a few years or even a few months of bodily existence. A given system of Yoga, then, can be no more than a selection or a compression, in To narrower but more energetic forms of intensity, of the general methods which are already being used loosely, largely, in a leisurely movement, with a profuser apparent waste of material and energy but with a more complete combination by the great
Mother in her vast upward labour. It is this view of Yoga that can alone form the basis for a sound and rational synthesis of Yogic methods. For then Yoga ceases To appear something mystic and abnormal which has no relation To the ordinary processes of the World-Energy or the purpose she keeps in view in her two great movements of subjective and objective selffulfilment; it reveals itself rather as an intense and exceptional use of powers that she has already manifested or is progressively
Life and Yoga
--
Yogic methods have something of the same relation To the cus Tomary psychological workings of man as has the scientific handling of the force of electricity or of steam To their normal operations in Nature. And they, Too, like the operations of Science, are formed upon a knowledge developed and confirmed by regular experiment, practical analysis and constant result. All
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 in To 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 vic Torious 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
The Conditions of the Synthesis
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 vic Torious 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 in To 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
Guru-griha-vsa staying in the home of the Guru is a very old Indian ideal maintained by seekers through the ages. The Aranyakas the ancient teachings in the forest-groves are perhaps the oldest records of the institution. It was not for education in the modern sense of the term that men went To live with the Guru; for the Guru is not a 'teacher'. The Guru is one who is 'enlightened', who is a seer, a Rishi, one who has the vision of and has lived the Truth. He has, thus, the knowledge of the goal of human life and has learnt true values in life by living the Truth. He can impart both these To the willing seeker. In ancient times seekers went To the Guru with many questions, difficulties and doubts but also with earnestness. Their questions were preliminary To the quest.
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 bes Towed 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
object:0.02 - Letters To a Sadhak
author class:The Mother
--
Letters To a Sadhak
To the sadhak in charge of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Building
--
Sin belongs To the world and not To yoga.
By his way of thinking, feeling, acting, each one emanates vibrations which constitute his own atmosphere and quite naturally
--
door To the possibility of being beaten yourself.
You are expecting those who are working with you To be geniuses. It is not quite fair.
I have seen your chit for washing soap. You got the last one on
--
soap. Some device must be found To check him; words are of no
use.
--
X has started a new notebook; but it seems To me that he had
not finished the previous one.
--
In future I will be obliged To ask for the finished notebook
before I can sanction a new one. That is To say, each time that
a notebook is To be renewed the finished notebook must be sent
up To me at the same time as the chit for the new one.
I do not see the need of leaving a blank page at the beginning.
--
It seems To me quite sufficiently big. They have no intention of
using their bathroom as a ballroom, I suppose.
How is it that you have not spoken To me about the bakery
kneading table for two days? If it is not repaired at once, we
shall have no bread To eat. The work must be done immediately.
I am not feeling comfortable about the dining room. It is not by
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
I ask you To discard all obstinacy and To be perfectly sincere.
Go and see with no preconceived idea.
--
the sense of your full responsibility, come Tomorrow morning,
with a final and definite answer - I shall trust your word.
P.S. Naturally I am not expecting you To go Tonight but
Tomorrow morning.
--
reminded Z that 1:30 To 3:30 P.M. on Thursdays is
Rahukal.1
It is always better NOT To remember such superstitions. It is the
suggestion that acts in these cases - most often a suggestion
--
Rahukal: an inauspicious period each day, according To local superstition.
Solignum: a wood preservative that deters white ants (termites).
--
our needs, She waits To be asked before granting them.
Not exact in all cases and especially not with everybody.
--
urgency of the needs and the importance attached To their fulfilment. I attach also some value To the power of imagination,
adaptability, utilisation or invention developed by the necessity
--
believes To be needs - he will be disillusioned. He prefers
not To mention them rather than To be disillusioned.
Yes, so long as there are desires, no true intimacy can be
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
(Regarding the misuse of "gris entretien", maintenance
--
with "gris entretien". I had informed the s Tores not To
issue gris entretien except for Sri Aurobindo's room.
--
fact that the "gris entretien" must be kept for the doors and windows in Sri Aurobindo's room only, Told To those in charge?(!)
Why was my s Tool at all painted with gris entretien? I did
--
" To turn Towards Thee, unite with Thee, live in Thee and
for Thee, is supreme happiness, unmixed joy, immutable
--
It is good sometimes To look backwards for a confirmation of
the progress made, but only if it is used as a lever To encourage
one in the efforts Towards the progress still To be made.
27 June 1932
--
I pray for a gracious word from You To strike at the
root of this superstition.
Do you believe it is so easy To strike at the root of a stupidity?
Stupidities are always rooted deep down in the subconscient.
--
a treatment!! I prefer not To think of what will come out of so
much unconsciousness and carelessness.
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
"One single drop of Thy divine love can transform this
--
To understand is good, but To will is better.
Self-love is the great obstacle.
--
Peace, peace, my child; do not Torment yourself.
The sadhak's prayer is composed of extracts from several prayers of the Mother in
--
asking me To quit the Ashram or at least To s Top work
from Tomorrow. Mother will say: this is the effect of
indulging himself so much in the morning! He deserves
--
ought To be worn out by this time.
O Sweet, Sweet Mother, Thy Peace is in me, Thy Peace
--
"O Love, Divine Love, in a fecund silence I bow To
Thee"6...
I open myself To Thee and I would obey Thee with an absolute
faithfulness.
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
True greatness, true superiority lies in kindness and goodwill.
--
It is always better not To show Too much what I have written,
as I am not dealing with everybody in the same way, and what
I can say To one I would not say To another.
Guard against all individual decision (which can be arbitrary).
--
He asked me To give a concrete example. I described
an incident in which Mother found defects in my work,
--
which led To a subdued revolt in me and consequent
illness. He pointed To his fingers and said that he was
not conscious that any revolt or wrong attitude was the
--
of faith or of receptivity) and then it is very difficult To detect
as it does not correspond To any wrong thought or feeling, the
body consciousness being most often and in almost everybody
--
Is it good To talk about one's experiences, as in the above
conversation?
--
this morning, as if To counteract the graveness I was
feeling.
This was To remove all possibility of a feeling of scolding or
reproach in what I was saying, because there was nothing of
the kind in my intention. I was giving expression To an amused
observation about the ways of the world and how it cannot but
misunderstand our own ways, we who are Too sincerely seeking
for the Truth expression To be easily unders Tood by ordinary
people. It is this seeking which gives the impression of hesitation,
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
"Grant that we may effectuate Thy Vic Tory"8 if the
time has come... but it is for You To answer, O Sweet
Mother.
--
As To my belief in the efficacy of prayer, I believe
in its efficacy only when it is addressed To the Mother.
I mean that Mother in that room who is there in flesh
and blood. If you refer your prayer To some unknown
or unknowable or invisible god, I do deride it as mere
--
I find your answer quite good. But X is quite free To expect more
help from an invisible and silent Mother (who never contradicts
--
allowed To express itself in the daytime.
Is it because there is no mental control in the dream state
and hence the vital being is free To act as it likes?
Prayers and Meditations, 19 June 1914.
--
The physical being is always fatigued when it is asked To keep a
lasting concentration.
--
take one and a half months To finish the bathroom. I
said Yes. In fact, I expected it To be finished within a
month. Two conflicting thoughts passed rapidly through
--
But why should I not say that according To my estimate,
it is 30 days' work?
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
It is good, it is indispensable that you should think that the work
--
But I want it To be good rather than quick.
I pray To Mother that there may be no unforeseen delays.
I hope so also - but I have seen that the work takes always
--
after week. I like better To count largely and not To be disappointed.
Mother, what is the proper attitude? If I hear suggestion
--
expecting you To be a prophet and that your thought should be
always right.
--
Yesterday I Told You, "All have gone." In fact I saw
that the carpenter was going, not gone, and I calculated
--
hastening To reply, I would have given a more precise
reply. I feel a little uneasy about it.
Nothing To be uneasy about. The spontaneous answers of the external consciousness are always vague and somewhat incorrect.
It needs a great vigilance To correct that - and a very firm resolution Too. This incident may be meant To raise in you the
resolution.
--
I am feeling tired Today. I have not exerted myself,
nor have I economised on sleep or rest. I was also getting
--
I Told you already that far from diminishing, your hold upon
the workmen can but increase by it.
--
It is better simply To be sincere than To be clever.
31 Oc Tober 1932
To love the Divine is To be loved by Him.
2 November 1932
Because of the sudden rain we wanted To close the windows and
found, with some discomfort, that not a single one is closing
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
Repairs are urgently needed. Tomorrow morning I shall
show you the state of affairs.
--
X Told me this morning, "Do you see the plaster
work done by Y? How nice it is! The work we have done
--
morning you were missing from your post from 9:30 To
10:30." X said, "But Y also takes off sometimes."
I Told you already that if someone refuses To be conscientious
in his work, what can I do? It is true that the work suffers, but
--
"One must know how To soar in an immutable confidence; in the sure flight is perfect knowledge."9 I don't
understand this sentence. How can one soar? What is
--
It simply means To rise (soar in To the air) above the ordinary
consciousness, in To a higher consciousness from which one can
--
If you try To hide something from the Divine, you are sure To fall
flat on your nose, plop! like that...
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
Sweet Mother said, "There is still another method." I
was a bit perplexed as To how To apply Sweet Mother's
words To the letter. I started following Her advice. I
didn't ask for anything, even on April 1st,10 and that is
--
I am afraid that in trying Too hard To stick To the "letter", you
have lost the "spirit". I was not referring To the things given at
the "s Tores", and I was most surprised To see that you did not
ask for anything on the first. You would do well To ask strictly
for the things you need.
--
Because others are mean is no reason To be mean yourself.
24 April 1933
--
employed To clear the rubble at Ganapati House?
It is impossible To put a child of under eight To work. It would
be criminal.
--
We want To be faithful workers for the Great Vic Tory.
26 June 1933
--
The carpenter Y has taken ten days' leave in order To
get married again. He wants Rs. 40 advance, To be paid
back at the rate of Rs. 8 per month. I have already Told
him that Mother approves neither of marriage - far less
of remarriage - nor of loans To encourage marriages.
He insists on asking Sweet Mother.
--
a counter-formation is made To destroy them. Something like
this, for example: "I do not want To receive a measuring-tape.
I earnestly hope that Mother will not disgrace me by giving
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
Sweet Mother,
--
first having spoken To You about it and the accident that
occurred later? When the blacksmith came To see me
after the accident I wondered whether there was any
--
but difficult To execute. If the desire had not been there insisting
on immediate realisation, the project could have been examined
--
(About constructing a braced frame To support a swinging sieve)
Do you know what a swing is?
--
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.
--
a critical eye and everything goes To prove that in reality I
know nothing, I can do nothing, I am good for nothing.
--
of thoroughness, since this awareness allows you To make further progress. Indeed, making progress, overcoming a difficulty,
learning something, seeing clearly in To an element of unconsciousness - these are the things that make one truly happy.
--
It may be that physical appearance has something To do with it,
but truly speaking it does not count for much. I believe rather
--
contagious; that is To say, we readily pick up the vibration of
someone we meet, especially if that vibration is at all strong. So
it is easy To understand that someone who carries in and around
himself peace and goodwill, will in a way impose on others
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
Sweet Mother,
--
heart Towards You: "May this day bring me an opportunity To remain calm even in the face of provocation." It
was a very spontaneous prayer.
--
deliberately attracting an unpleasant experience To yourself.
(The sadhak then related his heated conversation with
--
when I am conscious, if I open my mouth I lose my selfcontrol. I get angrier and angrier from one sentence To
the next.
The conclusion is therefore obvious: it would be better not To
open your mouth. In certain cases, as in this one, it is wiser To
turn your back than To open your mouth.
3 November 1933
--
It is the triumph of egoism. You may show this To them and add
that it is I who gave the order To make all possible use of the old
pieces of wood.
--
I forgot To enquire about an important point. Since the
vessels used for cooking are very large, the Top of the fireplaces should not be much higher than ground level. This must
be checked while the kitchen is being repaired. The Top of
the fire-places should not be more than fifty centimetres above
--
me little time - not enough for a Tour of all the centres.
What should I do, Sweet Mother? I call for Your help.
--
s Top speaking immediately; call upon Sweet Mother To
make you aware of the hidden deformation. Is it all right,
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
by Saint Genevieve". Did Saint Genevieve divert Attila
--
Attila was compelled To spare Lutetia because of the occult
action of Saint Genevieve who, by the ardour of her prayers,
--
Attila To alter the route of his troops, and so he gave the city a
wide berth.
--
I decided To be brave and not tell You about it, but the
pain has grown sharper since yesterday.
It was not at all clever To have said nothing about it. If you had
Told me immediately, you would already have been cured.
--
I concentrate on Mother, ask Her To guide me and find
the solution. This is not unusual. It has happened several
--
It would have been better not To say the things I have marked in
red pencil. This falls under the "powers" that it would be better
not To mention. Either the person you are speaking To does
not understand at all and takes you for a fool suffering from
--
always better To say: "I don't know. He doesn't tell us about
these things."
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
exactly as you heard them, and when you are not sure you must
--
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
which I may benefit and come To know you.
I appreciate this attitude and this effort. It proves the sincerity of
--
your relationships with one another, have much To change and
much To learn.
20 April 1934
--
amount To imposing the study of French on all those who work
in the Building Department, which is impossible.
--
To learn French and I Told him No. Others Too are in the same
position. In my opinion you should add an English version To
the French and circulate both Together.
4 May 1934
--
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
--
I have a confession To make. My mind is flooded
with contradictions and doubts. I have struggled against
--
These things need To be considered carefully, not lightly as one
discusses a play or the pronunciation of French.
--
shall discuss the matter quietly. When will you learn not To lose
courage and confidence at the slightest setback, when things are
--
contrac Tor who, in your eyes, seems To know his job and have
some common sense.
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
1) Too many workers.
2) Too many different projects undertaken at the same time.
3) Lack of consciousness in some of the supervisors.
--
conscientious) is the most difficult To achieve.
Several times we have spoken in a general way about reducing the number of workers. I have always said Yes, and I would
be very happy To cut down expenses as much as possible.
But when we came To the details of carrying this out, we always found ourselves confronted with the same difficulty: whom
To dismiss? And according To your answers the difficulty seemed
insurmountable.
Now I propose this - To put up a notice which X could
draft along the following lines:
"The ill-will of the local residents has obliged me To s Top
buying houses; consequently there is no longer enough work
--
am obliged To part with a certain number of them (you give the
number), and since they have all been hardworking and faithful,
I am at even more of a loss To make a selection. Therefore I
am giving them three weeks' advance notice: as of July 1st the
--
That will give them time To look for work elsewhere. Those who
have found work should let us know."
Before displaying the notice you will speak To the workers
(masons, carpenters, painters, coolies, etc.) whom you positively
want To keep and tell them that the notice which is going To be
put up is not meant for them and that in any event we want
To retain their services, so they do not have To look for work
elsewhere. To avoid any possible misunderstanding, it would be
best if X or Y speaks To them in your presence.
And from July 1st we shall also have To think about reducing
the number of projects undertaken at one time, in order To meet
the difficulty of supervision.
--
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
reservations without seeming To contradict or embarrass
Sweet Mother?
I am going To begin by telling you a very little s Tory. Then I shall
answer you.
You must have seen the new clock which is supposed To run
for six months. When it was first set going, it ran very fast. Z
tried To figure out how To adjust it and found a sort of screw
which is used To lengthen or shorten the pendulum. I looked
at the clock with my inner sight and Told Z, " To make it go
slower, you have To shorten the pendulum." He looked at me
in bewilderment and explained that in mechanics the longer the
--
faster. After observing it for a day, he agreed To shorten the
pendulum and now the clock is working perfectly all right.
--
surrounded by people who, though they are here To practise
yoga, are still convinced that "a cat is a cat", as we commonly
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
for seeing and observing, on one's physical-mental knowledge
--
in other words, any exception To them is a miracle. This is false.
This is what is at the root of all the misunderstandings
and reservations. You already know, and I mention it only To
remind you, that an experiment made in a spirit of reserve and
--
always conspire To justify these doubts, and this for a reason
which is very easy To understand: doubt veils the consciousness
and the subconscious sincerity, and in To the action some small
--
just sufficient To alter all the fac Tors of the problem and To bring
about the result that one had anticipated by doubting.
I have nothing else To add except this. When the question
of distempering X's rooms arose, I looked very carefully several
--
enough To conceal any irregularities. The process was supposed
To be simple, rapid and fully satisfac Tory. I put forth all the
necessary force for it To become an effective formation charged
with the power of realisation, and I said that the work could
proceed, adding in a few words how it was To be done. (This was
long ago - the first time it was decided To distemper the walls
of X's apartment, perhaps more than a year ago.) My formation
--
unfortunate tendency To believe that the consciousness of those
around me is, at least partially and in its limited working, similar
--
limits, I have the illusion that its nature is similar To mine, and
that is why there are many things I do not say, because To me they
are so obvious that it would be utterly pointless To mention them.
It is here that on your side a freedom of movement and speech
--
ask me To explain it To you. When I do not do so, it is because I
think you are receptive enough for the formation To act and fulfil
itself without my needing To speak about it, and in fact this often
happens - it is only when the mind and vital get in the way, for
--
Read this carefully, study it, and when you come Today I will
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
ask you To translate it in To English, To make sure that you have
fully unders Tood.
--
You have only To open your heart and your thirst will be
quenched, for the waters of love never run dry.
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
the state of things, and that one should not say, "It is nothing"
--
have been easier To take care of them. Am I right, Sweet
Mother?
--
enough room To keep things in order and separate, the good
things on one side and the bad on the other, it is better To get rid
of the bad things. But this should be done with great care so as
not To go To the other extreme and throw away things that may
be useful.
--
when X Told him he was not satisfied with the work he
had done. How should one determine a worker's fate in
--
be given some other work and advised To be polite in the future.
24 Oc Tober 1934
--
I want To know the exact cause. How can I identify
myself with the roof? Is there a definite method? Is this
--
In theory, it is true that everything can be known by identification, but in practice it is rather difficult To apply. The whole
process is based on the power of concentration. One has To
concentrate on the object To be known (in this case the roof)
until all the rest of the world disappears and the object alone
--
identification. But it is not very easy To do and there are other
means of knowing besides reasoning - intuition, for example
--
I bow To You, Sweet Mother. Be present in me always
and for ever.
Yes, I am always with you, but you must never forget To call me,
for it is by calling me that the presence becomes effective.
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
Sweet Mother,
I know that I was not obliged To give Y an explanation for my decision. In his expression, the question was
there, but I could easily have ignored it. Why did I show
--
Y's will is strong and he knows how To impose it on others. The
only solution is To have a will stronger than his and To use it
with great calm, but also with great determination.
--
Listen To these two accounts of inner suggestions.
(Two instances are given.) From these two accounts You
--
Please forgive me for my ambiguous reply To Z. I
bow To You, full of remorse.
Remorse is of no use; you have To feel the joy of the possibility
of making further progress.
--
different movements in me: (1) one which decides To
avoid all contact with X, direct or indirect, and (2) the
--
of effort. No. 2 wants To conquer the difficulty, not run away
from it. I suggest that for the time being you avoid contact with
--
depends on one's choice of words and Tone of voice.
15 May 1935
--
What does "listening To the voice" mean? Is it like
listening To words that are pronounced? A ready-made
sentence, "Write down what is there in the estimate",
wanted To disturb my mind. I don't know where it came
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
from. Was it my own thought expressed in words, or was
--
I have decided To adopt the following attitude Towards Z. If I have any suggestion or remark To make
about the work, I shall do it very simply. If he accepts,
--
right. We shall both submit our views To Mother and she will
decide."
--
him and you. It is only a matter of obedience To me.
6 June 1935
--
I bow To You in joyful gratitude.
I am very happy about the way you have taken this matter.
When I speak To you so frankly, I am giving you a great proof
of confidence.
--
(The sadhak refused To remove some nails in the wall
of someone's room, and wrote To the Mother explaining
his decision.)
Yes, it is correct as an analysis, but a thing ought not To be
done for any of these personal considerations. The thing To be
done should be considered in itself, independent of all personal
--
did not have the power To dominate the other man's will.
So you should have the nails removed.
--
Mother who decided not To have them removed.
Yes, I hoped that his will could be made To yield on this point,
because I thought it was absolutely true that removing the nails
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
and so the formation did not have a power of truth sufficient To
dissolve X's counter-formation. (This is true "occultism".)
I don't think I can be the judge To decide whether the
thing is good or not, because my vision is limited.
I never said that you should be the judge. I agree To be the judge
in all cases, because I recognise that it is very difficult To know
whether a thing is right and good, unless one can see the law of
--
If You had said To me, "Removing the nails is nothing, is
it?", I would have replied, "Nothing much." And if You
--
This is not right. When I ask a question, I ask it in order To get exact and objective information. I have said this many times. I have
no preconceived idea, no preference, no opinion about things.
--
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
they are able To move about. I do not want them To answer me
by echoing what they imagine - wrongly - To be what I think. I
want them To use their powers of observation and their technical
knowledge To give me as precise and exact information as they
can. And on that information I base my decision.
--
You wrote To me, "It is precisely because your refusal had no real cause that it did not have the power
To dominate the other man's will. So you should get the
--
from what you Told me that it would cause extensive damage.
From what X wrote, I unders Tood that the nails were loose
and that a little scraping and pulling would be enough To ease
them out. After averaging these two interpretations I saw that
the argument I gave X To make him accept the nails was not
true enough To have the power To overcome the hostility of his
attitude.
--
if someone you liked had asked you To remove the nails, you
would not have found it so difficult and you would not have put
--
me, and I still haven't found the answer To this problem.
Enlighten me, Sweet Mother.
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
several times if necessary; ponder every word so that you understand exactly what I am saying and nothing else.
--
In the case of the Arogya House cupboard, when Y Told
me that he didn't want it painted I was surprised, and
--
As a general rule, it is better not To repeat To someone what
someone else has said, for there is always a risk of creating
--
given up the work and that he will return To work this morning.
So you should behave as if nothing had happened and welcome
him back. I hope that Y Too will not make any unnecessary
remarks.
--
I am not at all displeased. But what a strange idea To let yourself
be upset by such little things! What about the Yoga?
You must shake all that off and return To a better state of
consciousness.
--
well. I would like you To go To bed earlier. Is all this work after
meditation (discussions, accounts, etc.) really indispensable? To
keep one's self-control, one needs To have time enough To rest,
enter in To oneself and find calm and quiet.
--
I would like To take part in all the shuttering and
building work without offending anyone. How should I
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
Once and for all, wash away the feeling that you are "superior" To others - for no one is superior or inferior before the
Divine.
--
wards me off. I looked inside myself To see if I have
recently done something To displease him, but I can't find
anything. Please tell me if I have done something wrong.
I know nothing about the matter. X has not written To me.
But one thing is certain: you give far Too much importance
To the way people treat you. This hypersensitivity is the cause of
--
that I will make a sincere effort To get rid of them, and
with Your help I am sure To succeed.
I had dreamed that X and I would discuss both the
work in hand and the work To be done and exchange
opinions - I mean, just as Y and I speak Together. But
I am sorry To say that X keeps me at a distance and
remains aloof, and when he does speak I find him rather
--
and the efforts I make To remain peaceful and calm seem
beyond my capacity.
--
mind. These things are very difficult To overcome, for it requires
that both of you open yourselves To a higher consciousness. This
needs time and a continuous effort of sadhana from both of you.
In the present conditions I think it would be better not To
persist in your attempt at friendly relations with him, for it only
--
As for the need To exchange your views and opinions about
the work, I am still not convinced of it. My impression is that
--
and you ought To have them since my blessings are with you.
10 Oc Tober 1939
--
The remedy: surrender all that To "Sweet Mother" completely and definitively.
With my loving solicitude and my blessings.
--
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
Let the light of a luminous consciousness enter in To you;
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
10
--
displayed, if not constantly, then occasionally or with some regularity of recurrence, in primary formations or in others more developed and, it may well be, even in some, however rare, that are near To the highest possible realisation of our present humanity. For the march of Nature is not drilled To a regular and mechanical forward stepping. She reaches constantly beyond herself even at the cost of subsequent deplorable retreats.
She has rushes; she has splendid and mighty outbursts; she has immense realisations. She s Torms sometimes passionately forward hoping To take the kingdom of heaven by violence.
And these self-exceedings are the revelation of that in her which is most divine or else most diabolical, but in either case the most puissant To bring her rapidly forward Towards her goal.
That which Nature has evolved for us and has firmly founded is the bodily life. She has effected a certain combination and harmony of the two inferior but most fundamentally necessary elements of our action and progress upon earth, -
Matter, which, however the Too ethereally spiritual may despise it, is our foundation and the first condition of all our energies and realisations, and the Life-Energy which is our means of existence in a material body and the basis there even of our mental and spiritual activities. She has successfully achieved a certain stability of her constant material movement which is at once sufficiently steady and durable and sufficiently pliable and mutable To provide a fit dwelling-place and instrument for the progressively manifesting god in humanity. This is what is meant by the fable in the Aitareya Upanishad which tells us that the gods rejected the animal forms successively offered To them by the Divine Self and only when man was produced, cried out, "This indeed is perfectly made," and consented To enter in. She has effected also a working compromise between the inertia of matter and the active Life that lives in and feeds on it, by which not only is vital existence sustained, but the fullest developments of mentality are rendered possible. This equilibrium constitutes the basic status of Nature in man and is termed in the language of Yoga his gross body composed
The Three Steps of Nature
--
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 in To a nerveless quiescence or roots them out as the source
annakos.a and pran.akos.a.
--
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 in To 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
--
common possession. In actual appearance it would seem as if it were only developed To the fullest in individuals and as if there were great numbers and even the majority in whom it is either a small and ill-organised part of their normal nature or not evolved at all or latent and not easily made active.
Certainly, the mental life is not a finished evolution of Nature; it is not yet firmly founded in the human animal. The sign is that the fine and full equilibrium of vitality and matter, the sane, robust, long-lived human body is ordinarily found only in races or classes of men who reject the effort of thought, its disturbances, its tensions, or think only with the material mind.
Civilised man has yet To establish an equilibrium between the fully active mind and the body; he does not normally possess it.
Indeed, the increasing effort Towards a more intense mental life seems To create, frequently, an increasing disequilibrium of the human elements, so that it is possible for eminent scientists To describe genius as a form of insanity, a result of degeneration, a pathological morbidity of Nature. The phenomena which are used To justify this exaggeration, when taken not separately, but in connection with all other relevant data, point To a different truth. Genius is one attempt of the universal Energy To so quicken and intensify our intellectual powers that they shall be prepared for those more puissant, direct and rapid faculties which constitute the play of the supra-intellectual or divine mind. It is not, then, a freak, an inexplicable phenomenon, but a perfectly natural next step in the right line of her evolution.
She has harmonised the bodily life with the material mind, she is harmonising it with the play of the intellectual mentality; for that, although it tends To a depression of the full animal and vital vigour, need not produce active disturbances. And she is shooting yet beyond in the attempt To reach a still higher level.
Nor are the disturbances created by her process as great as is often represented. Some of them are the crude beginnings of new manifestations; others are an easily corrected movement of disintegration, often fruitful of fresh activities and always a small price To pay for the far-reaching results that she has in view.
We may perhaps, if we consider all the circumstances, come
--
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
The Three Steps of Nature
--
Towards ideal social and economic conditions, by the labour of Science Towards an improved health, longevity and sound physique in civilised humanity, the sense and drift of this vast movement translates itself in easily intelligible signs. The right or at least the ultimate means may not always be employed, but their aim is the right preliminary aim, - a sound individual and social body and the satisfaction of the legitimate needs and demands of the material mind, sufficient ease, leisure, equal opportunity, so that the whole of mankind and no longer only the favoured race, class or individual may be free To develop the emotional and intellectual being To its full capacity. At present the material and economic aim may predominate, but always, behind, there works or there waits in reserve the higher and major impulse.
And when the preliminary conditions are satisfied, when the great endeavour has found its base, what will be the nature of that farther possibility which the activities of the intellectual life must serve? If Mind is indeed Nature's highest term, then the entire development of the rational and imaginative intellect and the harmonious satisfaction of the emotions and sensibilities must be To themselves sufficient. But if, on the contrary, man is more than a reasoning and emotional animal, if beyond that which is being evolved, there is something that has To be evolved, then it may well be that the fullness of the mental life, the suppleness, flexibility and wide capacity of the intellect, the ordered richness of emotion and sensibility may be only a passage Towards the development of a higher life and of more powerful faculties which are yet To manifest and To take possession of the lower instrument, just as mind itself has so taken possession of the body that the physical being no longer lives only for its own satisfaction but provides the foundation and the materials for a superior activity.
The assertion of a higher than the mental life is the whole foundation of Indian philosophy and its acquisition and organisation is the veritable object served by the methods of Yoga.
--
Yoga, the inner instrument.4 And Indian tradition asserts that this which is To be manifested is not a new term in human experience, but has been developed before and has even governed humanity in certain periods of its development. In any case, in order To be known it must at one time have been partly developed.
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.
The only approximate terms in the English language have other associations and their use may lead To many and even serious inaccuracies. The terminology of Yoga recognises besides the status of our physical and vital being, termed the gross body and doubly composed of the food sheath and the vital vehicle, besides the status of our mental being, termed the subtle body and singly composed of the mind sheath or mental vehicle,5 a third, supreme and divine status of supra-mental being, termed the causal body and composed of a fourth and a fifth vehicle6 which are described as those of knowledge and bliss. But this knowledge is not a systematised result of mental questionings and reasonings, not a temporary arrangement of conclusions and opinions in the terms of the highest probability, but rather a pure self-existent and self-luminous Truth. And this bliss is not a supreme pleasure of the heart and sensations with the experience of pain and sorrow as its background, but a delight also selfexistent and independent of objects and particular experiences, a self-delight which is the very nature, the very stuff, as it were, of a transcendent and infinite existence.
antah.karan.a.
--
Do such psychological conceptions correspond To anything real and possible? All Yoga asserts them as its ultimate experience and supreme aim. They form the governing principles of our highest possible state of consciousness, our widest possible range of existence. There is, we say, a harmony of supreme faculties, corresponding roughly To the psychological faculties of revelation, inspiration and intuition, yet acting not in the intuitive reason or the divine mind, but on a still higher plane, which see Truth directly face To face, or rather live in the truth of things both universal and transcendent and are its formulation and luminous activity. And these faculties are the light of a conscious existence superseding the egoistic and itself both cosmic and transcendent, the nature of which is Bliss. These are obviously divine and, as man is at present apparently constituted, superhuman states of consciousness and activity. A trinity of transcendent existence, self-awareness and self-delight7 is, indeed, the metaphysical description of the supreme Atman, the self-formulation, To our awakened knowledge, of the Unknowable whether conceived as a pure Impersonality or as a cosmic Personality manifesting the universe. But in Yoga they are regarded also in their psychological aspects as states of subjective existence To which our waking consciousness is now alien, but which dwell in us in a superconscious plane and To which, therefore, we may always ascend.
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 in To 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.
So dazzling is even a glimpse of this supreme existence and so absorbing its attraction that, once seen, we feel readily justified in neglecting all else for its pursuit. Even, by an opposite exaggeration To that which sees all things in Mind and the mental life as an exclusive ideal, Mind comes To be regarded as an unworthy deformation and a supreme obstacle, the source of an illusory universe, a negation of the Truth and itself To be denied and all its works and results annulled if we desire the final liberation. But this is a half-truth which errs by regarding only the actual limitations of Mind and ignores its divine intention.
The ultimate knowledge is that which perceives and accepts God in the universe as well as beyond the universe; the integral Yoga is that which, having found the Transcendent, can return upon the universe and possess it, retaining the power freely To descend
The Three Steps of Nature
--
We perceive, then, these three steps in Nature, a bodily life which is the basis of our existence here in the material world, a mental life in To which we emerge and by which we raise the bodily To higher uses and enlarge it in To a greater completeness, and a divine existence which is at once the goal of the other two and returns upon them To liberate them in To their highest possibilities. Regarding none of them as either beyond our reach or below our nature and the destruction of none of them as essential To the ultimate attainment, we accept this liberation and fulfilment as part at least and a large and important part of the aim of Yoga.
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 s Torm 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 au Tomatic 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 au Tomatic 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 visi Tors 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.
When Sri Aurobindo and the Mother moved To No. 9 Rue de la Marine in 1922 the same routine of informal evening sittings after meditation continued. I came To Pondicherry for Sadhana in the beginning of 1923. I kept notes of the important talks I had with the four or five disciples who were already there. Besides, I used To take detailed notes of the Evening Talks which we all had with the Master. They were not intended by him To be noted down. I Took them down because of the importance I felt about everything connected with him, no matter how insignificant To the outer view. I also felt that everything he did would acquire for those who would come To know his mission a very great significance.
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 in To 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.
What was talked in the small group informally was not intended by Sri Aurobindo To be the independent expression of his views on the subjects, events or the persons discussed. Very often what he said was in answer To the spiritual need of the individual or of the collective atmosphere. It was like a spiritual remedy meant To produce certain spiritual results, not a philosophical or metaphysical pronouncement on questions, events or movements. The net result of some talks very often was To point out To the disciple the inherent incapacity of the human intellect and its secondary place in the search for the ultimate Reality.
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 s Top 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 in To which four rooms opened and whose main piece of furniture was a small table 3' x 1' covered with a blue cot Ton 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 visi Tors 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.
Then, on 23 November 1938, I got up at 2 o'clock To prepare hot water for the Mother's early bath because the 24th was Darshan day. Between 2.20 and 2.30 the Mother rang the bell. I ran up the staircase To be Told about an accident that had happened To Sri Aurobindo's thigh and To be asked To fetch the doc Tor. This accident brought about a change in his complete retirement, and rendered him available To those who had To attend on him. This opened out a long period of 12 years during which his retirement was modified owing To circumstances, inner and outer, that made it possible for him To have direct physical contacts with the world outside.
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-opera Tor but an enemy of British Imperialism" bes Towed 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.
[1] Sri Aurobindo and His Ashram, 1985, p. 22.
--
Use ctrl + Y To copy selected text in markdown format.
0.03 - Letters to My little smile, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
object:0.03 - Letters To My little smile
author class:The Mother
--
Letters To "My little smile"
To "My little smile", one of the first children admitted To the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram; she came at the age of fourteen. Little smile
--
known is nothing compared To the one - much deeper and
completer - which you will come To know.
You must keep your aspiration intact and your will To conquer all obstacles; you must have an unshakable faith in the
divine grace and the sure vic Tory.
--
I simply meant To say that you were happy and confident as a
child or an animal is confident and happy without knowing why.
Now you must learn To be happy and confident while knowing
Silence: the name given by the Mother To the Wild Passion-flower (passiflora incarnata).
why and understanding the deeper cause of your happiness and
--
For your smile To become truly "eternal", you must learn To
speak To me as freely when you are near me as when you are in
your room.
Also it would be better not To get angry, and if it happens, it
is better To forget your anger quickly; and if that isn't possible,
then you must tell me very simply what has happened so that
--
smile" and give her back the joy and peace I want her always To
have.
--
You should not listen To the criticism of people without taste
or sufficient education.
--
I accept the rupee and send To my dear little child, along with
my blessings, my congratulations for the manner in which she
--
Series Three - To "My little smile"
My little smile,
--
Do not attach Too much importance To all these things;
they are the imaginations of a child who knows nothing of
--
Consecration To the Divine is the secret of existence;
a perpetual renewal of force comes from communion
--
Consecration is the wire that connects the individual battery To
the infinite reserve of forces.
--
Consecration is the canal that connects the river To the pond
and prevents the pond from drying up.
--
I can't work, and even if I do I can't work fast. Today
I spent the whole day in this state of dullness because I
--
Mother, I would like To know if everything I say
about my dullness is true - if it is due To an absence of
imagination.
--
But this is not the only way To get rid of it. Opening To the Light
and Consciousness from above and allowing them To replace the
tamas in the external consciousness, is a much better and surer
--
I don't want tamas. Today I worked all day.
But my mind does not have tamas; it is always active
--
The mind always runs about like a madman. The first step is To
detach one's consciousness from it and let it run by itself without
--
Series Three - To "My little smile"
Dear Mother,
--
It is good To observe yourself in order To see your weaknesses
and be able To correct them.
26 November 1932
--
You know that the doc Tor asked me To look after Y.
At the Ashram, I heard Z asking him something about Y
and I also heard the doc Tor talking To him. Afterwards
I asked the doc Tor, "Why do you speak To Z about Y?"
He said, "Z was asking me what happened To Y. He no
longer sees her at Pranam." Then I replied, "But he has
nothing To do with her and it is not good To talk about
these things To people because they cannot do anything
for her." "Yes," the doc Tor said, "I understand that he
--
nothing To him."
My little smile,
Your reply To the doc Tor was very good and you are perfectly
right. One should never talk about others - it is always useless
- and least of all about their difficulties; it is uncharitable because it does not help them To overcome the difficulties. As
for doc Tors, the rule is that they should not talk about their
patients, and the doc Tor ought To know better. I hope you are
not frightened by what happened To Y. Remain very calm, very
quiet, and everything will be all right.
--
that the others were listening To the Mother playing the
organ for me, and it made me feel proud. I unders Tood,
--
didn't want it; but I don't know how To get rid of it.
Mother, I believe that if I stay all by myself, apart
--
I am quite sure that while you were listening To the music, you
could also feel the pure and simple joy of the music for its own
--
and sincere joy of a child near To its mother.
The nature is complex, and always the true and the false,
the good and the bad are mixed Together. It is very useful To
see one's faults and weaknesses clearly, but one should not see
only them, for that Too would be one-sided. One should also
be aware of what is good and true in the nature and give it all
--
I write To You whatever I think I ought To tell You,
because I have promised To write about my thoughts and
feelings and I don't want To deceive You. I have nothing
good To tell You. I have a hoard of bad, ugly, foolish and
naughty things To tell You. If there is something good, it
Series Three - To "My little smile"
is only that I work for You (Your sari): this is the only
--
receive many such things To read. But if You become
serious, as You were this morning, I would rather put an
end To the matter.
Today I worked for seven hours.
--
own sadness that you saw reflected in my eyes. I know life Too
well for your confessions To make me "serious". Besides, your
confessions are not so terrible as all that, no matter what you
--
feel that maybe I won't be able To do yoga, my mind
imagines: "Mother tells me that I cannot do yoga and
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
it is impossible for me To live elsewhere."
Thinking of all this makes me feel even sadder than
--
My Mother, Today it seems To me that my mind is not
calm enough To write anything To You. Today I worked
for nine hours on the sari.
--
suggestions, so stupid and false, that I could ask you To go away!
How can you dream of such a thing? You are at home here -
--
To me that I would have To write all this To Mother and
suddenly the conversation s Topped.
That is how I talk To people in my head; my mind
puts the thoughts it likes, as it likes, in To someone's
--
It is not so terrible - the mind likes To be busy with something
always, and making up s Tories (even when one knows that these
--
some day in order To receive the light from above; but in the
meantime, you may surely tell me all these s Tories. I find them
--
Series Three - To "My little smile"
a very rare chance. My vital being always wants more
--
My child, I am going To reveal something that you will try To
understand: you are dissatisfied not because I fail To give you all
that you need, but because I give you more, far more than you
are able To receive. Open yourself, increase your receptivity by
giving yourself more, and you will see that all discontentment
--
you, as complete as it can be; it is up To you To open yourself
and receive it. And it is certainly not by being rebellious and
discontented that you will be able To do so.
So many times I have resolved To work regularly and so
many times I have failed! So I thought that if I Told You,
I would have Your help and become regular in my work,
--
How then can I continue my practice of writing To
You in this state of depression and discontent?
--
You don't need To have a strong will - you have only To use
mine.
Be careful, child, do not open the door To depression, discouragement and revolt - this leads far, far away from consciousness and makes you sink in To the depths of obscurity
where happiness can no longer enter. Your great strength was
your smile; because you knew how To smile at life, you also
knew how To work with courage and steadiness, and in this
you were exceptional. But you have followed the example of
other people, you have learned from them To be discontented,
rebellious, depressed, and now you have let your smile slip away,
--
all the divine forces were To concentrate on you, it would be in
vain - you would refuse To receive them.
There is only one remedy, and you must lose no time in
--
Series Three - To "My little smile"
There is an advantage in looking back after some time at what
--
not To have been done.
20 December 1932
--
If You want these imaginations To remain in me, let
them remain, but if You don't want that, root them out.
--
I think this is the last thing I shall write To You.
I should like To s Top writing now, as I am feeling very
tired.
I know that You will not like it, but I have To say that
it is better To put me aside. I am quite hopeless. Again for
the last few days I have become irregular in my work.
You once said that To open myself To You is my work,
because Your help is always with me. But I do not know
when I will open myself To You. I am as hard as a s Tone.
If I had known before that these things are so difficult, I
should never have wished To come here. Mother, I wish
You would not tell me that I am rebelling, I do not like
--
things I have written about To You up To now have not
disappeared. Perhaps they are all good! And perhaps this
--
good Too. Because they have remained in me, they have
not disappeared. And the smile and working regularly
--
so much trouble? It would be better To remain quiet because "what should disappear will disappear; only what
is good will remain. "
--
I have written, but what can I do? I have To write all this
To You.
--
inclined To keep it than To reject it?
28 December 1932
--
This morning after nine o 'clock X came To my room.
He advised me To reject hostile suggestions and so on.
Series Three - To "My little smile"
He gave me a lecture. He did not say so but I think You
asked him To come To my room.
But I must tell You that I don't like people To
come and lecture me. Can't You tell me directly what
--
away? Then why should I have To listen To the advice of
others?
--
I don't know whether You tell Y about what I write To
You, but I would rather You didn't.
Only Sri Aurobindo knows what you write To me.
You wrote To me once in this notebook (December 16th),
with regard To Your help: "It is up To you To open yourself
and receive it. And it is certainly not by being rebellious
and discontented that you will be able To do so."
And again You wrote To me (December 7th) in this
notebook: "And as soon as you tell me all the things
--
I think I have Told You all the things that are troubling
me.
It is not enough To tell them, you must want them To disappear.
Mother, Today I am sad. I don't know why but I even
wept.
--
With all my will I want To save you, but you must allow me To
do so. To revolt is To reject the Divine Love and only the Divine
Love has the power To save.
28 December 1932
--
Series Three - To "My little smile"
Dear Mother,
It seems To me that my mind (or rather myself)
doesn't want To become quiet. Because if I wanted To become quiet, I would naturally have tried To make myself
quiet, wouldn't I?
--
nothing from You and that it is impossible for me To live
without You, and this is why, Mother, You like To see me
suffer as much as possible - isn't it so?
I understand absolutely nothing of what you mean To say. You
seem To be saying that I like To see you suffer; but this is so
absurd that I cannot believe it is what you mean.
--
one of my children To suffer! It would be monstrous.
7 January 1933
--
days more, it may be very difficult for me To get rid of
these things.
I don't know what is going To happen, but I can't
help thinking that if I remain in this condition all the time
--
for me To live. During these two days, in this sadness
and despair, I had the idea of committing suicide. (Don't
--
about my condition in order To let You know about it.)
There are thieves in the subtle world just as in the outer world.
But you must close To them the doors of your thoughts and
feelings as carefully as a prudent man bolts the doors of his
--
depressed that they are best able To rob you. You must not listen
To them - you must reject the wicked suggestions and become
yourself once again, that is To say, my "little smile".
9 January 1933
--
still cannot be good, what is To be done? Yes, I know I
am not what I was before.
--
Series Three - To "My little smile"
when you were truly the eternal little smile, spontaneously and
effortlessly, when you felt satisfied with your work, happy To
be near me, and trusting and simple enough not To put a false
interpretation on all I do. Who has poured this poison of doubt
--
smile which was a pleasure To see? I don't ask the question in
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.
--
it is impossible To go backward, you must go forward and
what was merely instinctive must now become conscious and
--
And never doubt my affection, which is always with you To
help you make this indispensable progress.
--
You Told me To write something To You every day.
But now I find nothing To say and I don't know what
To write. As for what I have written: since You Told me
that in order To become happy and good, I must want it
with all my will and To work as before, I have started To
do that.
But when I have nothing To write To You, what can
I write (in order, as You said, To keep the contact with
You)?
--
When you have nothing else To tell me, tell me at what time
you got up - (like this, for example: this morning I woke up
--
all the people you met and whom you spoke To, what you Told
them, etc. It will be a very good exercise in French and at the
--
dressed, then went To collect my notebook from X's
window (I always go there). Then at about 6:30 I
--
At 9:30 I went To Y's house To get some work for
Z, then sat down again To work until 11:30. Then I
ate my lunch and rested for ten minutes. At 12:00 I
went back To work; at 12:30 Z came To work and at
about 2:00 she made some lime juice for us. I worked
from 12:00 To 8:00. I have finished embroidering the
crown.
Well, it is a success! It is a good account with hardly any mistakes, and I am glad To know exactly how you spent your day.
It will be good To continue like this.
14 January 1933
Mother, I always write To You about the same things:
sleep, work and talk. Mother, do You like reading the
--
Why not, my little smile? You can learn To say the same things
in different ways; this is an excellent exercise To learn how
To write and mould your style. It seems that at the moment
Series Three - To "My little smile"
you are practising calligraphy! Who has taught you To write so
beautifully?
--
at the mercy of the one you hate: To hate means that you are still
attached; the true attitude is one of complete indifference.
--
Today I prayed To You with my body2 for ten hours.
Next time I see You, I shall explain how embroiderers fix the sari on the frame. The frame has To be as big
as the sari.
Mother, couldn't I have a big frame like that, To
embroider the saris really nicely?
If I give you such a big frame, we shall have To build a room To
fit the frame in!
--
To pray with the body: To do one's work as an offering To the Divine. The Mother has
written: " To work for the Divine is To pray with the body." Words of the Mother - II,
CWM, Vol. 14, p. 299.
--
Mother, I have nothing new To tell You.
You are a beautiful and skilful worker, my little smile, and I am
--
Today I prayed To You with my body for nine hours.
Now I have become regular again in all my work as
--
Did you notice the date Today - 3.3.33?
Do you know that this happens only once in eleven years?
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
interesting, isn't it?
--
Series Three - To "My little smile"
work we do for the Divine - are they expressions of
--
proximity of ugliness in order To look beautiful.
When the supramental forces descend in To Matter in order
--
I am very happy when I wear your saris, but I also wish To keep
them as carefully as one keeps works of art, and that is why I
--
This morning You gave me a flower which signifies "Consciousness turned Towards the supramental
Light".4 What does this mean? I don't understand.
--
it clearer To you?
It means the consciousness that is not filled with the activities and influences of ordinary life, but is concentrated in an
aspiration Towards the divine light, force, knowledge, joy.
Now do you understand?
--
They are absolutely charming! It is impossible To say which is
the original and which the copy, and it may very well be that
--
Today I prayed To You with my body for nine hours.
Mother, for the past two days I have been feeling a
--
Don't you think it would be a good idea for you To take a little
rest? That is, either take a full day's rest or else work two hours
--
No, I don't want To take a rest. Today I prayed To
You with my body for ten hours.
--
Series Three - To "My little smile"
My dear Mother,
Yes, X Told me Today that the frame would be completely ready this evening.
Today I worked nine hours on the blouse.
Little smile, you must not go on working To the point of fatigue.
10 June 1933
--
Not only do I work all day, but I want To work as
much as I can, hoping that I won't get tired. If I don't
--
and beautiful things such as I want To make for my dear,
dear Mother? How will my dreams be fulfilled if I waste
--
Mother, do You know, I am going To embroider
large curtains for Your room? You Told me once that
the Japanese cover the walls of their rooms with embroidered curtains.
You are right; nothing is better than To realise our most beautiful
dreams and nothing makes us stronger and happier!
--
this. Tomorrow I am going To start on the other grey
blouse.
--
time I ever cut a chemise. X is going To stitch it and when
it is ready, You will wear it and then tell me if it is well
--
I am very pleased that you have learned To do this Too. What do
you mean by "all day"? I hope it is not more than nine hours,
because that was already a long stretch and ought not To be
increased.
--
on your eyes. If your eyes were To get spoiled in any way, it
would be the end of your beautiful embroideries! When you
--
Series Three - To "My little smile"
My dear Mother,
I think all the trouble I Took for X was in vain. I
spent nearly two hours this evening making her understand how To write things very clearly. But in vain.
The trouble one takes like this for someone is never in vain. The
--
After seeing You go up To the terrace, I go and have
my meal. Then I return home and write my letter To You,
and then sometimes I wash our clothes (X's and mine;
--
then I usually prepare my lesson and go To bed.
But last night after my walk at 9:30, I helped X To
sew with the sewing machine until 10:15. Then I worked
--
lesson and at 12:30 I went To bed.
Today I worked on the blouse for three hours.
You must not get in To the habit of going To bed late like that.
It is not good - you will quickly spoil your eyesight, and that
--
an approximation and one has To give up all hope of achieving
any kind of perfection. I don't think this is the result you want
--
I think you must have been proud Today To see your superb sari
- it is truly regal; and as for me, I was proud of my little smile
--
and Tomorrow this work will be finished. Afterwards I
shall start the embroidery.
I have nothing else To write To You. The only news I
have To give You is about my work.
You are very hardworking and painstaking, and if you have
nothing To tell me except news of your work, I have To tell you
of all my affection for my dear little smile.
--
I have only To undo this work - which Took me three
days - so as To do it better.
It is rather tiresome for you, my dear little smile! But it is an
--
been done in order To redo it better.
24 August 1933
Series Three - To "My little smile"
My dear Mother,
--
has given me To play with all day. I don't know how To
write in any other way and that is why I write To You "I
worked" instead of "I played".
Mother, I think the sari You wore Today is my finest
embroidery, don't You think so?
--
I write To You?
Just a word is enough To keep the contact, and when you have
something interesting To tell me, you must do so.
16 Oc Tober 1933
--
You have a lot of work; I don't want To take up Your
time...
--
have managed To give you a few minutes. It is nice of you To
think of not increasing my work unnecessarily; there are not
--
Ashram I saw X and Y and we talked Together happily.
"How are you?" Y asked me. I had nothing To say, so I
asked, "And how are you?" She Told me, "This time I
spent a lot of time; Sri Aurobindo put his hand on me
--
Then it was lunchtime, so we went To take our plates.
I was first and I Took my seat with a place on either side
of me. I thought X would sit on one side and Y on the
other. But then Z came and sat down beside me. I Told
her To sit somewhere else and she got angry with me.
At that moment X and Y came and, seeing that Z was
--
Do not Torment yourself, my little smile; all this has come To
teach you that on these occasions, after having had the joy of
receiving Sri Aurobindo's blessing, it is better To remain concentrated and To keep one's joy locked inside oneself rather than To
throw it out by mixing and talking with others. The experiences
--
the sadhaks went before Sri Aurobindo and the Mother To receive their blessings.
Series Three - To "My little smile"
we talk about evaporate and we lose the benefit they could have
--
I am not angry with X. I always try To keep silent;
so I speak only about important things, with her as well
as with others; that is To say, if she asks me something I
answer her and I show her the work To be done.
Mother, I want Your presence and I try To keep it at
all times. I aspire Towards You. I want You always, all
day and all night. I want To live always in Your heart,
where I can live constantly with X and with all who love
--
rather when I try To concentrate, I cannot smile at anyone and if I try To smile I feel as if I were smiling
superficially.
Mother, this morning I wanted To tell all this To X,
but my lips refused; they didn't want To smile.
Mother, is it good or bad not To be able To speak like
that? I want To know, because if it is not good I don't
want it; I will go on speaking as before.
It is very good To remain silent and concentrated in your aspiration; and I am sure that if you keep a deep affection for X in your
heart, she will feel it and will no longer be sad. But, of course,
if you feel you can explain To her kindly what is happening in
you, it will be very good.
--
You must not worry - it does not help Towards the realisation
of the promises; and also you must be patient. In this physical
world, things take time To get realised.
12 December 1933
--
words that I couldn't read. I asked X To read them;
then he said, "You are the Mother's child, not Sri Aurobindo's." (It was just a joke, because I can read Your
--
Yesterday and Today I worked all day on the "iris"
sari. I love To work for You. Mother, I don't know what
To write. I have nothing To say.
That is enough; all I ask is that we exchange a little "bonjour"7
--
interesting To write To me, you will write.
Tender love.
--
Series Three - To "My little smile"
My dear Mother,
--
write "I worked for ten hours", You write To me, "It is
amazing"!
--
What can I write? Today I worked on the sari.
What can I say? - that I am always with you in your work and
--
not Torment yourself over such little things.
Tender love.
--
will To help you out of your difficulties.
24 January 1934
Series Three - To "My little smile"
Mother,
--
me, for I would like To see you always full of light and joy.
26 January 1934
--
heart. There are bad things Too, as You know, Mother
- I have Told You about them.
But this little heart is full of love. Mother, we are
going To burn all the bad things in this little heart. Then
in my heart there will only be a very, very sweet love for
--
beautiful. The sari Too will be the most beautiful one in
Your collection of saris embroidered by us.
Before seeing X's blouse I used To think that my
bird-of-paradise8 sari was very beautiful; but now that
--
sari is nothing compared To the one X is preparing.
That is not true; each has its own particular beauty and style.
--
I once Told You that if someone made something
beautiful for You we ought To be happy, no matter who
made it, myself or someone else; I mean that upon seeing
--
ought To be very happy, and all those who love my sweet
Mother will naturally be happy.
--
Mother, I know why I felt like that. Up To now I
have had in me a kind of pride in my work: "I make
--
once heard Y telling someone: "Mother knows how To
give blows.")
--
Series Three - To "My little smile"
Mother, why are these silly things in me? I don't want
--
To us To utilise these blows To make further progress.
You are right in wanting all this pettiness and stupidity To
disappear. I am fully with you in this determination and I am
--
Today I have nothing To write. As usual I worked
all day.
--
I shall capture You in my heart. I don't need To think
of peace and happiness. When You dwell in our hearts,
these things are sure To be there.
You will not have To go far To seize me, for I am already in your
heart and as soon as your eyes are opened you will see me there;
--
know how To open my eyes; they are always open except
when I sleep.
--
I don't know how To feel outward. I don't understand
what You mean by "outward".
--
independent of the senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, Touch).
3 February 1934
--
Why didn't You return the letter To me (the one You
wrote To me) after I sent it To You this morning with my
letter?
I want To lie on Your lap, Mother.
Poor little one, I very gladly take you on my lap and cradle you
To my heart To soothe this heavy sorrow which has no cause
and To quell this great revolt which has no reason. Let me take
you in my arms, bathe you in my love and wipe away even the
Series Three - To "My little smile"
memory of this unfortunate incident. I kept the letter To show it
To Sri Aurobindo along with your letter of this morning. I am
returning it To you in this notebook.
27 February 1934
--
pressure I was putting on you in meditation To calm the restlessness of your mind and vital, I thought that it might relieve you
To tell me the cause of your sorrow, and when you didn't reply,
I simply asked whether you wanted To speak, so as not To insist
unnecessarily. You were mistaken if you thought I was showing
--
like To.
Affectionately.
--
freed. This image applies To almost everyone, but in this case
it concerned you because you were present, and I Took it as
a promise that your difficulties would give way and that you
would soon be able To emerge in To a luminous, free and happy
consciousness.
--
are pale. You will see it Tomorrow morning.
My dear child, I didn't reply at once because I wanted To see the
cloth first. There are irregularities, of course, but it seems To me
that they can be put right.
I don't think it would be good To dye it again. It would become Too dark. But we can take the irregularities as movements
of water and underline them with a fine gold thread; then it will
--
silver dragons, for 21 February 1935 - if You ask someone To do the drawing. Because the green cloth and the
gold and silver thread are all ready.
--
Series Three - To "My little smile"
You can ask X if he would like To draw the dragons for you.
7 September 1934
--
But when little children prove To be unreasonable, it is very
difficult To reason with them. Now if you want me To tell you
what I think, it is this: Y has taken a lot of trouble and made
--
of trouble To dye it, and I tell you that I have found a way of
utilising the irregularities of the dyeing To make a sari far more
beautiful than we had thought, and yet without considering you
write in a fit of bad temper: "I don't want To do this sari any
more, I will do another one." Naturally I thought that now I
would have To ask X To go To the trouble of making another
drawing, and if by chance another difficulty crops up, this little
child may once again say: "I am disappointed, I don't want To
do this sari," and X will have worked for nothing. That is why I
Told you To ask him for the drawing yourself. He has just Today
sent me the design of the crown with fishes. It is very, very pretty.
--
Last night when I went To bed at about 9:30, I felt a
sort of fear, as if someone were there or someone might
--
are so conscious of it, I feel that soon you will be able To master it.
It goes without saying that our help is always with you To
bring you peace and silence, and it is absolutely certain that
peace and silence will be established in you some day never To
leave you again.
--
Series Three - To "My little smile"
My dear little smile,
--
sari To a lace gown. It is not a question of number or of need.
For years I was perfectly satisfied with two saris a year - but I
--
You Told me that there is something closed in me
which isn't open To You and this is why, even when I
want To feel Your love in my heart (which You say is
already there) I do not feel it. What is it that is closed?
--
I want my heart To open To You and To feel Your love
there always. But if it is really closed, how can I open
it? What must I do To open it? For I really do want it To
open To You and I want To feel happy for ever.
My dear little smile,
I know of only one way: To give oneself - a complete consecration To the Divine. The more one gives oneself, the more
one opens; the more one opens, the more one receives; and in
--
I don't want To be, I don't want To feel so poor.
You have already had this experience of peace and silent joy;
you know what it is and it is sure To come back stronger and
steadier. Remain confident, do not Torment yourself - in this
way you will hasten its coming.
--
the consciousness. You must not let this upset you Too much,
but simply aspire with calm and perseverance for the light To
reappear. My love is always with you To help you go through
this bad moment.
--
Series Three - To "My little smile"
Mother,
--
it the desire To be admired by people - ego? Or is it
something else? If You know, You will let me know. I
must know what it is in order To get rid of it.
Yes, my dear little child, you have indeed found the cause; and
--
and I prefer To keep them for wearing between November and
January - at that time there are many visi Tors because of the
--
Don't pretend To be silly when you are not. Not only was I
not angry, but I had not the slightest intention of looking angry.
I only looked straight in To your soul, trying To reestablish
the connection between it and your exterior consciousness. And
I Took your laughter for a sign of conversion!
Beware of false pride - it leads only To ruin. And do not
belittle the Divine's love, because without it nothing is worth
--
I know that you are Too sensible and sensitive To ignore this
truth.
0.03 - The Threefold Life, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
NATURE, then, is an evolution or progressive self-manifestation of an eternal and secret existence, with three successive forms as her three steps of ascent. And we have consequently as the condition of all our activities these three mutually interdependent possibilities, the bodily life, the mental existence and the veiled spiritual being which is in the involution the cause of the others and in the evolution their result. Preserving and perfecting the physical, fulfilling the mental, it is Nature's aim and it should be ours To unveil in the perfected body and mind the transcendent activities of the Spirit. As the mental life does not abrogate but works for the elevation and better utilisation of the bodily existence, so Too the spiritual should not abrogate but transfigure our intellectual, emotional, aesthetic and vital activities.
For man, the head of terrestrial Nature, the sole earthly frame in which her full evolution is possible, is a triple birth. He has been given a living frame in which the body is the vessel and life the dynamic means of a divine manifestation. His activity is centred in a progressive mind which aims at perfecting itself as well as the house in which it dwells and the means of life that it uses, and is capable of awaking by a progressive self-realisation To its own true nature as a form of the Spirit. He culminates in what he always really was, the illumined and beatific spirit which is intended at last To irradiate life and mind with its now concealed splendours.
Since this is the plan of the divine Energy in humanity, the whole method and aim of our existence must work by the interaction of these three elements in the being. As a result of their separate formulation in Nature, man has open To him a choice between three kinds of life, the ordinary material existence, a life of mental activity and progress and the unchanging spiritual beatitude. But he can, as he progresses, combine these three forms, resolve their discords in To a harmonious rhythm and so create in himself the whole godhead, the perfect Man.
In ordinary Nature they have each their own characteristic and governing impulse.
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.
Material life seems ever To move in a fixed cycle.
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, un Touched 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 accus Tomed 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.
But by that very utility such men and the life they lead are condemned To be limited, irrationally conservative and earthbound. The cus Tomary routine, the cus Tomary institutions, the inherited or habitual forms of thought, - these things are the life-breath of their nostrils. They admit and jealously defend the changes compelled by the progressive mind in the past, but combat with equal zeal the changes that are being made by it in the present. For To the material man the living progressive thinker is an ideologue, dreamer or madman. The old Semites who s Toned the living prophets and adored their memories when dead, were the very incarnation of this instinctive and unintelligent principle in Nature. In the ancient Indian distinction between the once born and the twice born, it is To this material man that the former description can be applied. He does Nature's inferior works; he assures the basis for her higher activities; but not To him easily are opened the glories of her second birth.
Yet he admits so much of spirituality as has been enforced on his cus Tomary 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 cus Tom 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.
It is possible also To give the material man and his life a moderate spirituality by accus Toming him To regard in a religious spirit all the institutions of life and its cus Tomary activities. The creation of such spiritualised communities in the East has been one of the greatest triumphs of Spirit over Matter. Yet here, Too, there is a defect; for this often tends only To the creation of a religious temperament, the most outward form of spirituality.
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.
Mind finds fully its force and action only when it casts itself upon life and accepts equally its possibilities and its resistances as the means of a greater self-perfection. In the struggle with the difficulties of the material world the ethical development of the individual is firmly shaped and the great schools of conduct are formed; by contact with the facts of life Art attains To vitality, Thought assures its abstractions, the generalisations of the philosopher base themselves on a stable foundation of science and experience.
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 S Toic; 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 in To 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 vic Torious 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
Vedantic formula of the Self in all things, all things in the Self and all things as becomings of the Self is the key To this richer and all-embracing Yoga.
2 The Unified, in whom conscious thought is concentrated, who is all delight and enjoyer of delight, the Wise. . . . He is the Lord of all, the Omniscient, the inner Guide.
--
But the spiritual life, like the mental, may thus make use of this outward existence for the benefit of the individual with a perfect indifference To any collective uplifting of the merely symbolic world which it uses. Since the Eternal is for ever the same in all things and all things the same To the Eternal, since the exact mode of action and the result are of no importance compared with the working out in oneself of the one great realisation, this spiritual indifference accepts no matter what environment, no matter what action, dispassionately, prepared To retire as soon as its own supreme end is realised. It is so that many have unders Tood the ideal of the Gita. Or else the inner love and bliss may pour itself out on the world in good deeds, in service, in compassion, the inner Truth in the giving of knowledge, without therefore attempting the transformation of a world which must by its inalienable nature remain a battlefield of the dualities, of sin and virtue, of truth and error, of joy and suffering.
But if Progress also is one of the chief terms of worldexistence and a progressive manifestation of the Divine the true sense of Nature, this limitation also is invalid. It is possible for the spiritual life in the world, and it is its real mission, To change the material life in To its own image, the image of the Divine. Therefore, besides the great solitaries who have sought and attained their self-liberation, we have the great spiritual teachers who have also liberated others and, supreme of all, the great dynamic souls who, feeling themselves stronger in the might of the Spirit than all the forces of the material life banded Together, have thrown themselves upon the world, grappled with it in a loving wrestle and striven To compel its consent To its own transfiguration. Ordinarily, the effort is concentrated on a mental and moral change in humanity, but it may extend itself also To the alteration of the forms of our life and its institutions so that they Too may be a better mould for the inpourings of the Spirit. These attempts have been the supreme landmarks in the progressive development of human ideals and the divine preparation of the race. Every one of them, whatever its outward results, has left Earth more capable of Heaven and quickened in its tardy movements the evolutionary Yoga of Nature.
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 in To such a religious mould that its most cus Tomary 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 vic Tory. 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 in To 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.
We have To recognise once more that the individual exists not in himself alone but in the collectivity and that individual perfection and liberation are not the whole sense of God's intention in the world. The free use of our liberty includes also the liberation of others and of mankind; the perfect utility of our perfection is, having realised in ourselves the divine symbol, To reproduce, multiply and ultimately universalise it in others.
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 vic Tory 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.
The ages when that is accomplished, are the legendary Satya or Krita3 Yugas, the ages of the Truth manifested in the symbol, of the great work done when Nature in mankind, illumined, satisfied and blissful, rests in the culmination of her endeavour.
It is for man To know her meaning, no longer misunderstanding, vilifying or misusing the universal Mother and To aspire always by her mightiest means To her highest ideal.
3 Satya means Truth; Krita, effected or completed.
0.04 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
object:0.04 - Letters To a Sadhak
author class:The Mother
--
Letters To a Sadhak
To the sadhak in charge of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram's cows,
--
be safer To use those ropes. As soon as the work is over,
the ropes will be removed. Those ropes are not tight;
they are loose, so it is no hardship To the bullocks.
Pray sanction them.
I thought they have strongly refused To have the ropes put upon
them. The ropes may not be tight, but most probably they will
spoil the nose of the bullocks. There again it seems To me that it
is a matter of training.
--
I beg To submit some facts for your gracious consideration. The weakest and smallest of the bullocks used by
X's cart-men are carrying more than 600 Dem of sand.
--
As there will be a big crowd Tomorrow in Town, you will
have To be very careful when taking To and bringing back the
bullocks from the Agricultural Garden.
--
As there is no better man I am trying To get on with
him.
The bullocks seem To like this man and this is the most important
point.
--
quite intelligent enough To feel the change of people. This new
man is not an expert and moreover he has something of a brute
around him. You will have To look carefully after him, for I do
not like his way of dealing with the bullocks.
I object strongly To his way of twisting the tails of the beasts.
If somebody twisted one of his limbs like that, what would he
--
Series Four - To a Sadhak
I have watched the thing from the roof, and saw with the inner
--
and once more I shall try To make you understand it.
The bullocks are not mischievous. On the contrary, they are
--
dejected and work reluctantly. I see no solution but To change
the man and To find a better one.
The proposal To frighten them in order To master them is
unacceptable. Some kind of submission can thus be obtained
--
I can tell you this To finish with the subject, that from the
roof I concentrated the power on the bullocks ordering them To
yield and obey and I found them quite receptive. To use a quiet,
steady, unwavering conscious will, that is the way, the only true
--
It seems To me that, at least for a time, it would be better not To
try To turn out much work every day, as Ojas may truly need rest.
I do not find the new man better than the previous one. He is far
--
become old very soon. That is why I do not wish them To be
given that work.
--
so on. I am not submitting all this To have permission
To do like that for our cattle. But I am tempted To beg
you for your kind gracious permission To use this kind of
necklace which I am enclosing herewith for our darling
--
the horns; it is so ugly! And I think you must be careful not To
take out Ra in the street that day as usually children run after
--
Is not 19 trips Too much for the bullocks? It seems To me that
they are not getting much rest.
--
with the bullocks, I must know and will Tolerate none of THESE
MYSTERIES.
--
Series Four - To a Sadhak
I will explain what happened. X was with the cart, but as
--
of chess play. So till the cart was turned over and Touched
the ground, he did not know.
I do not see what a chess problem has To do either with work or
with sadhana. Is X here To solve chess problems? He could do it
just as well elsewhere.
--
I am sorry To submit To Thee the following about X. For
no reason he has beaten Ra with the back of his sandal in
--
one sandal from his foot, Took it in To his hand, turned it
over and beat on Ra's mouth and face. He had put two
--
as he wanted her To. This was her mistake. When I ran
and questioned him he did not care To answer. Servants
tell me that he has beaten Ra like that with a sandal
before Too and it seems he wants To control her like that.
If truly he does it, it is brutal and stupid; apart from spoiling
--
close attention. I would like To know from the doc Tor if it would
not be good for Tej To let him move freely in a pasture for some
time, so that he may have air, sun and movement without doing
work. This question must be put clearly To the doc Tor asking for
A bullock.
--
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.
All this is absolutely forbidden by the Municipal rules, and if
--
causing some slight hurt To a dog. So may I keep him as
a substitute for his brother?
--
If you are pleased To permit, as it is only for a day, I
have no objection. He works very satisfac Torily. Awaiting
--
dog is likely To do the same with the cow and calf.
This boy has been dismissed by my orders and will not be
0.04 - The Systems of Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
HESE relations between the different psychological divisions of the human being and these various utilities and objects of effort founded on them, such as we have seen them in our brief survey of the natural evolution, we shall find repeated in the fundamental principles and methods of the different schools of Yoga. And if we seek To combine and harmonise their central practices and their predominant aims, we shall find that the basis provided by Nature is still our natural basis and the condition of their synthesis.
In one respect Yoga exceeds the normal operation of cosmic
--
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.
Yet it is always through something which she has formed in her evolution that Nature thus overpasses her evolution. It is the individual heart that by sublimating its highest and purest emotions attains To the transcendent Bliss or the ineffable Nirvana, the individual mind that by converting its ordinary functionings in To a knowledge beyond mentality knows its oneness with the
Ineffable and merges its separate existence in that transcendent unity. And always it is the individual, the Self conditioned in its experience by Nature and working through her formations, that attains To the Self unconditioned, free and transcendent.
In practice three conceptions are necessary before there can be any possibility of Yoga; there must be, as it were, three consenting parties To the effort, - God, Nature and the human soul or, in more abstract language, the Transcendental, the Universal
32
--
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
Bhakta seeks and yearns after Bhagavan, Bhagavan also seeks and yearns after the Bhakta.1 There can be no Yoga of knowledge without a human seeker of the knowledge, the supreme subject of knowledge and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of knowledge; no Yoga of devotion without the human God-lover, the supreme object of love and delight and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of spiritual, emotional and aesthetic enjoyment; no Yoga of works without the human worker, the supreme Will, Master of all works and sacrifices, and the divine use by the individual of the universal faculties of power and action. However Monistic may be our intellectual conception of the highest truth of things, in practice we are compelled To accept this omnipresent Trinity.
For the contact of the human and individual consciousness with the divine is the very essence of Yoga. Yoga is the union of that which has become separated in the play of the universe with its own true self, origin and universality. The contact may take place at any point of the complex and intricately organised consciousness which we call our personality. It may be effected in the physical through the body; in the vital through the action of
--
those functionings which determine the state and the experiences of our nervous being; through the mentality, whether by means of the emotional heart, the active will or the understanding mind, or more largely by a general conversion of the mental consciousness in all its activities. It may equally be accomplished through a direct awakening To the universal or transcendent Truth and
Bliss by the conversion of the central ego in the mind. And according To the point of contact that we choose will be the type of the Yoga that we practise.
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,
Beatitude and Infinity which are the nature of the spiritual life.
--
For it is calculated on the amount of vital or dynamic force necessary To drive the physical engine during the normal span of human life and To perform more or less adequately the various workings demanded of it by the individual life inhabiting this frame and the world-environment by which it is conditioned.
34
--
Hathayoga therefore seeks To rectify Nature and establish another equilibrium by which the physical frame will be able To sustain the inrush of an increasing vital or dynamic force of
Prana indefinite, almost infinite in its quantity or intensity. In
Nature the equilibrium is based upon the individualisation of a limited quantity and force of the Prana; more than that the individual is by personal and hereditary habit unable To bear, use or control. In Hathayoga, the equilibrium opens a door To the universalisation of the individual vitality by admitting in To the body, containing, using and controlling a much less fixed and limited action of the universal energy.
The chief processes of Hathayoga are asana and pran.ayama.
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 in To 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 Systems of Yoga
--
These advantages can be farther secured and emphasised by other subsidiary processes open To the Hathayogin.
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 in To 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.
First, therefore, the powers of order must be helped To overcome
36
--
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.
This is the first step only. Afterwards, the ordinary activities of the mind and sense must be entirely quieted in order that the soul may be free To ascend To higher states of consciousness and acquire the foundation for a perfect freedom and self-mastery.
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 in To 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 in To its true spiritual existence. But also it acquires the capacity of that free and concentrated energising of consciousness on
The Systems of Yoga
--
its object which our philosophy asserts as the primary cosmic energy and the method of divine action upon the world. By this capacity the Yogin, already possessed of the highest supracosmic knowledge and experience in the state of trance, is able in the waking state To acquire directly whatever knowledge and exercise whatever mastery may be useful or necessary To his activities in the objective world. For the ancient system of
Rajayoga aimed not only at Swarajya, self-rule or subjective empire, the entire control by the subjective consciousness of all the states and activities proper To its own domain, but included
Samrajya as well, outward empire, the control by the subjective consciousness of its outer activities and environment.
--
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 in To 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 in To 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, in To 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
The Systems of Yoga
--
and perception To the divine level, To its spiritualisation and To the justification of the cosmic travail of knowledge in humanity.
The Path of Devotion aims at the enjoyment of the supreme
--
Lord, with our human life as its final stage, pursued through the different phases of self-concealment and self-revelation. The principle of Bhakti Yoga is To utilise all the normal relations of human life in To which emotion enters and apply them no longer To transient worldly relations, but To the joy of the All-Loving, the All-Beautiful and the All-Blissful. Worship and meditation are used only for the preparation and increase of intensity of the divine relationship. And this Yoga is catholic in its use of all emotional relations, so that even enmity and opposition To God, considered as an intense, impatient and perverse form of Love, is conceived as a possible means of realisation and salvation.
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
Devotion may be so used as To lead To the elevation of the whole range of human emotion, sensation and aesthetic perception To the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour Towards love and joy in our humanity.
The Path of Works aims at the dedication of every human activity To the supreme Will. It begins by the renunciation of all egoistic aim for our works, all pursuit of action for an interested aim or for the sake of a worldly result. By this renunciation it so
40
--
purifies the mind and the will that we become easily conscious of the great universal Energy as the true doer of all our actions and the Lord of that Energy as their ruler and direc Tor with the individual as only a mask, an excuse, an instrument or, more positively, a conscious centre of action and phenomenal relation. The choice and direction of the act is more and more consciously left To this supreme Will and this universal Energy.
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 in To 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.
We can see also that in the integral view of things these three paths are one. Divine Love should normally lead To the perfect knowledge of the Beloved by perfect intimacy, thus becoming a path of Knowledge, and To divine service, thus becoming a path of Works. So also should perfect Knowledge lead To perfect
Love and Joy and a full acceptance of the works of That which is known; dedicated Works To the entire love of the Master of the Sacrifice and the deepest knowledge of His ways and His being. It is in this triple path that we come most readily To the absolute knowledge, love and service of the One in all beings and in the entire cosmic manifestation.
0.05 - Letters to a Child, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
object:0.05 - Letters To a Child
author class:The Mother
--
Letters To a Child
To one of the first children admitted To the Sri Aurobindo
Ashram; he came at the age of ten. Interested as a youth in
--
began writing To the Mother at the age of twelve.
Always do with pleasure the work you have To do.
Work done with joy is work done well.
--
Today when I went To X for my music lesson I felt
uneasy. I also felt that he is not very happy with me. I
--
have been broken To pieces. Is it true?
All these feelings - this uneasiness, this tiredness, these impressions of broken progress - come from the vital, which rebels
--
I want To feel your Touch in each and every one of
my movements. I want To feel your presence everywhere.
Mother, accept my prayer.
--
quite easy To feel my presence constantly.
With love and blessings.
--
Series Five - To a Child
and blindness of this poor world, but there was surely nothing
--
Yesterday I Told you that "we" had painted an envelope. By "we" I mean that there is me and you. I feel
that it is not I who am working, so I say "we". I am
--
them Together, because they are nearly always just as I thought
they should be. The small one you sent this morning is very fine
--
Yes, I am taking you in To my arms and cradling you To my heart
so that you may have true happiness and unalloyed peace.
--
Why does this difficulty come? Do I open myself To
it or is it something else? Mother, after having come so
close To you, why does it come?
You should not speak To others about what I write or say To
you, because they become jealous and their jealousy creates a
--
difficulty To you; because you spoke, you opened yourself and
received it, perhaps without even being aware of it.
--
My heart wants To run To your feet; it wants To lose
itself in you. This is what I want, but have I done it? I
want To be close To your heart, I want... but is it possible?
I don't know.
--
it sincerely, it will come To be so. You will feel yourself always
Series Five - To a Child
close To my heart, cradled in my arms, and Peace will fill your
being and make you strong and joyful.
--
know what To do. This state must go, but I don't know
how. I have no courage.
--
well Too, taking care not To go To bed Too late.
Very lovingly.
--
I was so pleased To receive your nice letter. You must learn
that it is your good and your good alone that I want. I want
--
True love is the love that wants, To the exclusion of all else,
the highest good for the loved one. This is the love that I have
and want To have for you.
Your mother.
--
No obscurity must be allowed To manifest through you.
12 April 1934
--
sea of energy. You have only To open and receive.
Love from your mother.
--
Series Five - To a Child
Sweet mother,
--
Learn To drink from the eternal source; it contains everything.
With my love.
--
My child, my child, why this great sadness? Is it because someone To whom you had given your friendship has withdrawn for
reasons that he thinks are very profound?
--
Too glad To speak of it To you. Shake off this childish depression
and contemplate the Sun that is rising in your heart!
--
love; and I do see how it could be otherwise. You first have To
realise the Divine Consciousness - only then will you be able To
know what true love is.
--
cannot give up this habit. I have made many efforts To
s Top all human contacts, but I cannot. I don't know
what To do.
Mother, let me open To you and To no one else,
always, always. Give me patience.
I don't think it would be good for you To live completely retired
and turned in on yourself. The whole thing is To choose your
relationships well. You must choose To enter in To relation only
with those whose contact does not veil my presence. This is the
--
you closer To me and gives you the perception and joy of my
presence is good. You should judge things in the light of this
rule. You will see that it will help you To protect yourself from
many mistakes.
--
You are always in my arms and always I hold you close To
my heart To comfort and protect you, To strengthen and illumine
you. Never for a moment do I leave you and I am sure that if
--
It seems To me that you are so often sad and depressed
because your nerves are not very strong. You should eat more,
--
Series Five - To a Child
Peace, peace, my little child, the sweet peace of inner silence and
--
You see, my child, the unfortunate thing is that you are Too preoccupied with yourself. At your age I was exclusively occupied
with my studies - finding things out, learning, understanding,
--
who loved us very much - my brother and myself - never allowed us To be ill tempered or discontented or lazy. If we went
To complain To her about one thing or another, To tell her that
we were discontented, she would make fun of us or scold us and
--
grateful To her for having taught me the discipline and the necessity of self-forgetfulness through concentration on what one
is doing.
I have Told you this because the anxiety you speak of comes
from the fact that you are far Too concerned about yourself. It
would be better for you To pay more attention To what you are
doing and To do it well (painting or music), To develop your
mind, which is still very uncultivated, and To learn the elements
of knowledge which are indispensable To a man if he does not
want To be ignorant and uncultured.
If you worked regularly eight To nine hours a day, you would
be hungry and you would eat well, you would feel sleepy and
sleep peacefully, and you would have no time To wonder whether
you are in a good or a bad mood.
--
I constantly envelop you in my peace: you must learn To keep
it. I am constantly in your heart: you must become conscious
--
in To you To enable you To overcome all difficulties.
Love.
--
and they will keep you very close To me.
Love from your mother.
--
Only spiritual force has the power To impose peace on the
vital, for if peace is not imposed on it by a power greater than
--
So you must open yourself To the spiritual force and allow it
To work in you; then you will more and more dwell in constant
--
I carry you always in my arms, pressed close To my heart, and
I have no doubt that you will become aware of it if you forget the
Series Five - To a Child
world and concentrate on me. By turning your thoughts Towards
me you will feel closer and closer To me and peace will come To
dwell in your heart.
--
bad habit of revolt, you will see that suffering Too will go away
and be replaced by an unvarying happiness.
--
I shall be what you want me To be. Dear mother,
accept my childlike prayer.
--
the result of spiritual realisation. Is this Too grand and vast a
programme?
--
or materially. All those who have been able To create something
beautiful or useful have always been persons who have known
how To discipline themselves.
Always with you in all love.
--
I am your true mother who will give birth in you To the true
being, the being who is free, peaceful, strong and happy always,
--
Give energy and force To your child. Oh, take me
in To your heart. Let me live in you.
--
I hope you do not show my letters To anyone. It is better To
keep them To yourself; otherwise, if you show them, all the force
that I put in To them evaporates.
--
Series Five - To a Child
Mother, my dear mother,
--
I know very well what you need - it is To be surrounded
by my love as by a protection, and truly my love is always with
you, around you; but you, on your side, must open To it and
allow it To envelop you and help you.
16 August 1934
--
I want To be like the lion on the envelope I am
sending you this evening.
--
A strong being is always quiet. It is weakness that causes restlessness. I am sending you (on my envelope, but in reality Too)
the repose that comes from concentrated energy.
--
a perfect realisation and in the Divine's omnipotence To achieve
it. The Force and Consciousness are always with you, as well as
--
not eat either yesterday evening or the whole day Today. Why? If
you are sick, you must be taken care of. I shall send the doc Tor
--
I won't be irregular from Today. You know very well
that I am not sick; it was a cloud, you know. Now I
am going To the dining-room. My mother, I want To be
good. Everything has gone now. I want To be your little
child.
Series Five - To a Child
My dear child,
--
gone. Now you must not allow them To come back and for that
the best thing is To remain always cradled in my arms, protected
by my love which never leaves you.
--
I want all that To go away and I want you To be perfectly
healthy. For that, you must follow a physical discipline: sleep
--
that you should get well; my force is with you To give you health.
I take you in To my arms, I take you To my heart.
20 September 1934
--
I don't want you To be ill and always I am with you To
cure you - but you Too must want To be cured. Do not Torment
yourself and always nestle in my arms so as To receive my love
and force.
--
My force is with you To conquer these things. And my love
never leaves you.
--
I am very happy To know that you want To be my instrument. To be able To be my instrument, you must be regular,
Series Five - To a Child
energetic, courageous, enduring and always good-tempered. I
--
your mind clean of all these bad thoughts which are harmful To
you.
--
Yes, my dear child, I forgive you; but how I would like you To
become quieter, more reasonable, more studious!
Don't you think it is high time for you To develop these
qualities, which are absolutely indispensable if you want To do
anything in life?
--
I want To feel you near To me always. I want peace.
My little child,
--
calm and force. But To feel my presence, you know what you
must do and especially what you must not do.
--
The best thing for your headache is To take plenty of physical
exercise (such as gardening for example).
--
Series Five - To a Child
My dear child,
I am putting peace in your heart; but To become conscious
of it, you should repeat, as often as possible, mentally turning
--
that you must never do what you would not dare To do in my
physical presence, for I am always with you.
--
peace. I don't know when it will come back To my heart.
My sweet mother, what shall I do?
--
When one's attention is always turned Towards oneself, one
is never happy. When one allows oneself To be ruled by every
passing impulse, one is never peaceful.
--
I want To be happy, but how? Sadness comes during
my work; I cannot forget it. My dear mother, be with
--
I am always with you To help and support you.
Love from your mother.
--
the slightest. This part of the vital must learn To become stronger
and more enduring.
--
Series Five - To a Child
My dear mother,
--
I don't need To tell you where your headache comes from; I
suppose you know. Only when you become absolutely regular
in your material life will you be able To have good health.
Love from your mother.
--
This morning I felt sad Too. I don't know exactly why it
comes. For two days I felt a great joy, but now the joy
--
psychic being comes To the surface, it brings its own joy with
it; but when the mind or the vital comes, then the joy seems To
withdraw, though it is always there, behind, ready To manifest
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
the path, but with perseverance the vic Tory is sure.
--
You Told me that I am making progress. Did you
want To console me by telling me this? When I look
within myself, not just now but over the past two years,
--
They will be fruitless." You Told me To open my heart
and all will be well; but you know, mother, nothing stays
--
No, it is not To console you that I Told you that you have
made progress. The progress is undeniable even though it may
--
one, and you should not expect To reap its fruits after only three
or four years. It takes much longer than that. But you are young,
--
In ordinary life, one has To struggle To satisfy one's desires;
here one struggles not To do so. Actually, whatever path one
follows, success always comes To those who are strong, courageous, enduring. And you know that here our force and our help
are always available To you; you have only To learn To make use
of them.
--
I don't know at all what things you mean. All I Told you
was that To develop your artistic faculties you are much better
off here than anywhere else. I added that only if you wanted To
marry would you have To leave the Ashram.
But you know that I never advise anyone To marry; it is a
terrible bondage.
Series Five - To a Child
I have never thought that you really wanted To marry, but
now and then it is good that I remind you that you are free and
that it is for you To make the decision; that's all.
I don't feel that you are far from me; for me you are always
--
feeling which does not conform To the truth.
Love from your mother.
--
You Told me that you saw two things while I was
playing: "Garuda", and the palace and river. What do
--
serpents. He seemed To be standing behind you To protect and
inspire you.
--
opened To many influences and that is why it is difficult for them
To be steady.
--
For on the one hand you want To consecrate yourself To the
Divine and take your place in the divine life in the making.
--
open yourself To this help and protection and learn To use them
To conquer the adversary who is trying To draw you Towards the
lower animal consciousness.
--
by step - everything seemed To be gradually closing in
against me, against my heart. I feel, even now, that I am
--
Series Five - To a Child
Are you making me feel life without you in order To
see whether I want this life or not? Mother, if you don't
--
not hesitate To ask for it.
Love from your mother.
--
a long time To disappear. You know, don't you, that our force,
our help and our blessings are always with you?
Keep your interest in the work - this Too will help you To
pass through the difficult moments.
--
This inner condition is getting worse and worse instead of better. You said To be patient, but as it is I am
becoming like a s Tone, without energy, inert, and more
--
me, but I cannot receive them. I am not asking you To
tell me what To do - you have Told me To be patient
and I will be patient. I am only telling you about my
--
You are right To tell me, my dear child; it helps you To open
yourself. I know that it is troublesome To feel this resistance
in yourself; but persist in your will To overcome it and it will
suddenly give way.
--
I want To ask you something concerning my poetry.
It has s Topped now. Is there some inner preparation
--
round and round in the same forms; something new had To
come.
Of course, if you feel that something wants To express itself,
you must try.
--
You have my full consent To write poetry, and Sri Aurobindo
says that there is no doubt about your poetic capacity. Today's
poem is very good. But when you try To write every day, it
becomes more and more mental and you lose contact with the
Series Five - To a Child
true inspiration. That is why you should write only when you
--
Were you angry with me because I have decided To
leave the Ashram? I want To go forward - not To revolt
against you, no, not at all. But I want To be sure of my
path.
--
One thing I want To ask you: Mother, will you
always be in my heart?
I am not at all angry; but since you have decided To leave, I
cannot detain you either, or do anything that might deprive you
of the strength To leave. I am and will always be in your heart; so
you are sure To find me there if you enter in To it deeply enough.
Love from your mother.
--
I have just received your letter of the 25th and I am glad To
know you have recovered at last.
--
would like To tell you something about this. To be sure that you
are meant for the Ashram life, it is necessary that the spiritual
--
realisation of the Divine - must be the most important thing To
you, the only thing worth living for.
--
Of course, if you want To lead the spiritual life at any cost,
that is another thing. But in that case, you will have To rely on
the inner help, not on an outer and superficial help.
--
Read my letter very carefully, think it over well To be sure
that you have unders Tood it completely, and when you have seen
very clearly within yourself, write To me again.
My love and blessings are always with you.
--
I received your letter and I have no objection To your going
To study music for three years at Lucknow, since that is what
--
However, I do not think it would be wise To come To
Pondicherry in February, for once you are here you might again
--
Go To Lucknow, learn all you can there, and then you will
be able To consider the problem and make a definite decision
concerning your future.
--
Series Five - To a Child
My dear child,
If you are so eager To come To the Ashram, you can come.
But I must warn you about two things:
--
(In April 1946, the sadhak returned To the Ashram,
where he has remained ever since. The following letters
--
path. Give me the strength To reject everything that
comes from outside. May your will be done.
My love and blessings are with you To guide you on the way.
4 June 1946
--
I want To be closer To you in my heart and in all my
being. Give me the power To give myself completely To
you. Stay with me always.
Yes, my dear little child, I am always with you To help you, To
support you, To guide you. By doing your work with conscientiousness, honesty and perseverance, you will feel my presence
closer and closer To you.
With my blessings.
--
outside, and want To swallow me up. There are times
when I cannot distinguish truth from falsehood and I
--
know that I shall never be able To leave this life. This is
my situation right now. The struggle is getting more and
more acute, and worst of all I cannot lie To you. What
should I do?
Do not Torment yourself, my child, and remain as quiet as you
can; do not yield To the temptation To give up the struggle and let
yourself fall in To darkness. Persist, and one day you will realise
that I am close To you To console you and help you, and then the
hardest part will be over.
--
the voice of truth, the one you must listen To."
Series Five - To a Child
Sweet Mother,
--
I will be very pleased To know the real cause of your
discontent and shall try my best To remove it. I cannot
tell you how it pains me To know that you are displeased
with me on any account.
--
yet understand. What is it you want me To do? What
is your will? I cannot express how deeply I feel your
--
So, throw away all this nonsense and try To be quiet and
happy.
--
courage in spite of all difficulties. You are sure To reach the goal,
and the more you keep confidence, the quicker it will come.
--
Do not Torment yourself, my dear child, and fear nothing; my
grace will always be with you and never fail you. Moreover, there
is no reason To believe that you will not succeed in this life; on the
contrary, I see in you the signs of a vocation. And since you have
resolved To be patient, the difficulties will surely be overcome.
Love from your mother.
--
Series Five - To a Child
My little mother,
--
sure that I shall do my best To help you in that. I am quite sure
that perseverance in study and the acceptance of a discipline of
work and order in life will be a powerful help To you in renewing
yourself.
All my love is with you To help you and guide you.
My dear child,
--
by exercise. You must exercise your will To be patient and your
energy To reject depression. I am always near you To help you
with all my love.
--
Too light exterior being To interfere and spoil your endeavour, as
it does during marching for instance.
--
does not allow any upsetting or depression To interfere with your
progress. The sincerity of the aspiration is the assurance of the
--
part To the outermost. Peace, peace in all my being. I
cannot express this in proper words and it is becoming
--
I don't know what To do. I want To open To you, but
something prevents me from opening.
--
You find it difficult To open because you have not yet made
the resolution To allow my will, and not your own, To govern
your life. As soon as you have unders Tood the need for this,
everything will become easier - and you will at last be able To
acquire the peace you need so much.
--
The vital has become very, very bad. Today especially it is very rebellious.
You did not reply To my last letter. Do you mean
that it isn't necessary To make the vital peaceful?
I did not answer because what I say seems To have no effect. If
you would express clearly, in a precise way, the nature of the
revolt, it would help you very much To get rid of it, because it is
Series Five - To a Child
a way of opening yourself which allows the light To enter in To
the obscurity and illumine it.
--
mind is tired. I don't know why. Today, my vital Too is
in terrible revolt. What can I do?
--
work enough. Inactivity is just as tiring as over-activity. Not To
work enough is just as bad as working Too much.
The vital is a most bothersome character who prefers To be
bad rather than To go unnoticed. You must teach him that he is
not the master of the house.
--
I don't know what To do with this vital. Will you
please s Top it?
--
believe what it says. Do not act according To its indications.
Then it will not be difficult To s Top it.
And when Sri Aurobindo tells you something, the first thing
To do, and the most important if you want To conquer the
difficulty, is To obey.
My dear child,
This craving for strong experiences belongs To the vital; it
is a very frequent tendency in those whose vital is insufficiently
--
The only remedy lies in opening To the higher forces in
order To let them do in the vital their work of organisation and
classification, of light and peace.
Love from your mother who is always there ready To help
you.
--
I know that you want To do well, that you want To conquer,
and that you aspire To overcome the weaknesses. When they
come, you should not think that I am displeased, but on the
--
I am always with you To help you and protect you.
Do not allow yourself To be dominated by vain imaginations.
The peace is there in the depths of your heart; concentrate there
--
want me To be. Give me your peace, your silence in my
heart. I cannot express everything in words, but, mother,
--
is always with you and it wants you To have a vast and lasting
Series Five - To a Child
peace, a deep and luminous silence, a calm and concentrated
--
Yes, it is good To stay in my arms; there you will find the peace
you aspire for so much, and also a repose from which the true
--
Always nestle in my heart which is always ready To welcome
you, in my arms which are always ready To enfold you, and fear
no obstacles - we shall dispel them all.
--
want me To be able To help you.
Mother,
--
Each time that you feel restless you ought To repeat, speaking
inside yourself without exterior sound and thinking of me at the
--
The peace is upon you; allow it To penetrate you, and in the
peace you will find the light, and the light will bring you the
0.05 - The Synthesis of the Systems, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Y THE very nature of the principal Yogic schools, each covering in its operations a part of the complex human integer and attempting To bring out its highest possibilities, it will appear that a synthesis of all of them largely conceived and applied might well result in an integral Yoga. But they are so disparate in their tendencies, so highly specialised and elaborated in their forms, so long confirmed in the mutual opposition of their ideas and methods that we do not easily find how we can arrive at their right union.
An undiscriminating combination in block would not be a synthesis, but a confusion. Nor would a successive practice of each of them in turn be easy in the short span of our human life and with our limited energies, To say nothing of the waste of labour implied in so cumbrous a process. Sometimes, indeed,
Hathayoga and Rajayoga are thus successively practised. And in a recent unique example, in the life of Ramakrishna Paramhansa, we see a colossal spiritual capacity first driving straight To the divine realisation, taking, as it were, the kingdom of heaven by violence, and then seizing upon one Yogic method after another and extracting the substance out of it with an incredible rapidity, always To return To the heart of the whole matter, the realisation and possession of God by the power of love, by the extension of inborn spirituality in To various experience and by the spontaneous play of an intuitive knowledge. Such an example cannot be generalised. Its object also was special and temporal, To exemplify in the great and decisive experience of a master-soul the truth, now most necessary To humanity, Towards which a world long divided in To jarring sects and schools is with difficulty labouring, that all sects are forms and fragments of a single integral truth and all disciplines labour in their different ways Towards one supreme experience. To know, be and possess
42
--
the Divine is the one thing needful and it includes or leads up To all the rest; Towards this sole good we have To drive and this attained, all the rest that the divine Will chooses for us, all necessary form and manifestation, will be added.
The synthesis we propose cannot, then, be arrived at either by combination in mass or by successive practice. It must therefore be effected by neglecting the forms and outsides of the
Yogic disciplines and seizing rather on some central principle common To all which will include and utilise in the right place and proportion their particular principles, and on some central dynamic force which is the common secret of their divergent methods and capable therefore of organising a natural selection and combination of their varied energies and different utilities.
This was the aim which we set before ourselves at first when we entered upon our comparative examination of the methods of
Nature and the methods of Yoga and we now return To it with the possibility of hazarding some definite solution.
We observe, first, that there still exists in India a remarkable
--
This system is the way of the Tantra. Owing To certain of its developments Tantra has fallen in To 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 in To 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
--
- 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
--
may effect itself by the rejection of the lower and escape in To the higher, - the ordinary view-point, - or by the transformation of the lower and its elevation To the higher Nature. It is this, rather, that must be the aim of an integral Yoga.
But in either case it is always through something in the lower that we must rise in To the higher existence, and the schools of
--
Prakriti and turn them Towards the Divine. But the normal action of Nature in us is an integral movement in which the full complexity of all our elements is affected by and affects all our environments. The whole of life is the Yoga of Nature. The
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 in To 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 in To relation and contact with the Divine and To call Him in To transform our entire being in To His. Thus in a sense
God Himself, the real Person in us, becomes the sadhaka of the sadhana1 as well as the Master of the Yoga by whom the lower personality is used as the centre of a divine transfiguration and the instrument of its own perfection. In effect, the pressure of the
--
In psychological fact this method translates itself in To the progressive surrender of the ego with its whole field and all its apparatus To the Beyond-ego with its vast and incalculable but always inevitable workings. Certainly, this is no short cut or easy sadhana. It requires a colossal faith, an absolute courage and above all an unflinching patience. For it implies three stages of which only the last can be wholly blissful or rapid, - the attempt of the ego To enter in To contact with the Divine, the wide, full and therefore laborious preparation of the whole lower Nature by the divine working To receive and become the higher Nature, and the eventual transformation. In fact, however, the divine
Strength, often unobserved and behind the veil, substitutes itself for our weakness and supports us through all our failings of faith, courage and patience. It "makes the blind To see and the lame To stride over the hills." The intellect becomes aware of a Law that beneficently insists and a succour that upholds; the heart speaks of a Master of all things and Friend of man or a universal Mother who upholds through all stumblings. Therefore this path is at once the most difficult imaginable and yet, in comparison with the magnitude of its effort and object, the most easy and sure of all.
There are three outstanding features of this action of the higher when it works integrally on the lower nature. In the first place it does not act according To a fixed system and succession as in the specialised methods of Yoga, but with a sort of free, scattered and yet gradually intensive and purposeful working determined by the temperament of the individual in whom it operates, the helpful materials which his nature offers and the obstacles which it presents To purification and perfection. In a sense, therefore, each man in this path has his own method of
Yoga. Yet are there certain broad lines of working common To all which enable us To construct not indeed a routine system, but
The Synthesis of the Systems
--
Secondly, the process, being integral, accepts our nature such as it stands organised by our past evolution and without rejecting anything essential compels all To undergo a divine change.
Everything in us is seized by the hands of a mighty Artificer and transformed in To a clear image of that which it now seeks confusedly To present. In that ever-progressive experience we begin To perceive how this lower manifestation is constituted and that everything in it, however seemingly deformed or petty or vile, is the more or less dis Torted or imperfect figure of some element or action in the harmony of the divine Nature. We begin To understand what the Vedic Rishis meant when they spoke of the human forefa thers fashioning the gods as a smith forges the crude material in his smithy.
Thirdly, the divine Power in us uses all life as the means of this integral Yoga. Every experience and outer contact with our world-environment, however trifling or however disastrous, is used for the work, and every inner experience, even To the most repellent suffering or the most humiliating fall, becomes a step on the path To perfection. And we recognise in ourselves with opened eyes the method of God in the world, His purpose of light in the obscure, of might in the weak and fallen, of delight in what is grievous and miserable. We see the divine method To be the same in the lower and in the higher working; only in the one it is pursued tardily and obscurely through the subconscious in
Nature, in the other it becomes swift and self-conscious and the instrument confesses the hand of the Master. All life is a Yoga of Nature seeking To manifest God within itself. Yoga marks the stage at which this effort becomes capable of self-awareness and therefore of right completion in the individual. It is a gathering up and concentration of the movements dispersed and loosely combined in the lower evolution.
An integral method and an integral result. First, an integral realisation of Divine Being; not only a realisation of the One in its indistinguishable unity, but also in its multitude of aspects which are also necessary To the complete knowledge of it by
48
--
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
--
Perfection includes perfection of mind and body, so that the highest results of Rajayoga and Hathayoga should be contained in the widest formula of the synthesis finally To be effected by mankind. At any rate a full development of the general mental and physical faculties and experiences attainable by humanity through Yoga must be included in the scope of the integral method. Nor would these have any raison d'etre unless employed for an integral mental and physical life. Such a mental and physical life would be in its nature a translation of the spiritual existence in To its right mental and physical values. Thus we would arrive at a synthesis of the three degrees of Nature and of the three modes of human existence which she has evolved or is evolving. We would include in the scope of our liberated being and perfected modes of activity the material life, our base, and the mental life, our intermediate instrument.
Nor would the integrality To which we aspire be real or even possible, if it were confined To the individual. Since our divine perfection embraces the realisation of ourselves in being, in life and in love through others as well as through ourselves, the extension of our liberty and of its results in others would be the inevitable outcome as well as the broadest utility of our liberation and perfection. And the constant and inherent attempt of such an extension would be Towards its increasing and ultimately complete generalisation in mankind.
The divinising of the normal material life of man and of his great secular attempt of mental and moral self-culture in the individual and the race by this integralisation of a widely perfect
--
The widest synthesis of perfection possible To thought is the sole effort entirely worthy of those whose dedicated vision perceives that God dwells concealed in humanity.
0.06 - INTRODUCTION, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
part, with respect To the activity of the soul; and in the fourth part, with
respect To its passivity. 1
This 'fourth part' is the Dark Night. Of it the Saint writes in a passage which
--
And the second night, or purification, pertains To those who are already
proficient, occurring at the time when God desires To bring them To the state
of union with God. And this latter night is a more obscure and dark and
--
Spirit; he now proposes To deal with the Passive Night, in the same order. He has
already taught us how we are To deny and purify ourselves with the ordinary help of
grace, in order To prepare our senses and faculties for union with God through love.
He now proceeds To explain, with an arresting freshness, how these same senses
and faculties are purged and purified by God with a view To the same end that of
union. The combined description of the two nights completes the presentation of
active and passive purgation, To which the Saint limits himself in these treatises,
although the subject of the stanzas which he is glossing is a much wider one,
--
that by himself, and with the ordinary aid of grace, man cannot attain To that
degree of purgation which is essential To his transformation in God. He needs
Divine aid more abundantly. 'However greatly the soul itself labours,' writes the
Saint, 'it cannot actively purify itself so as To be in the least degree prepared for the
Divine union of perfection of love, if God takes not its hand and purges it not in that
--
based upon this incapacity. Souls 'begin To enter' this dark night
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
the state of progressiveswhich is that of those who are already
--
Before explaining the nature and effects of this Passive Night, the Saint Touches, in
passing, upon certain imperfections found in those who are about To enter it and
which it removes by the process of purgation. Such travellers are still untried
--
more reveal the author's skill as a direc Tor of souls. They are easy chapters To
understand, and of great practical utility, comparable To those in the first book of
the Ascent which deal with the active purgation of the desires of sense.
In Chapter viii, St. John of the Cross begins To describe the Passive Night of
the senses, the principal aim of which is the purgation or stripping of the soul of its
--
Sense, we are Told, is 'common' and 'comes To many,' whereas that of Spirit 'is the
portion of very few.'5 The one is 'bitter and terrible' but 'the second bears no
comparison with it,' for it is 'horrible and awful To the spirit.'6 A good deal of
literature on the former Night existed in the time of St. John of the Cross and he
therefore promises To be brief in his treatment of it. Of the latter, on the other hand,
he will 'treat more fully . . . since very little has been said of this, either in speech or
--
which belongs To loving and simple faith.
Both these chapters have contri buted To the reputation of St. John of the
Cross as a consummate spiritual master. And this not only for the objective value of
--
his own mystical experiences. Once more, Too, we may admire the crystalline
transparency of his teaching and the precision of the phrases in which he clothes it.
--
consists in 'allowing the soul To remain in peace and quietness,' content 'with a
4Op. cit., Bk. I, chap. i, 1.
--
peaceful and loving attentiveness Toward God.'8 Before long it will experience
enkindlings of love (Chapter xi), which will serve To purify its sins and imperfections
and draw it gradually nearer To God; we have here, as it were, so many stages of the
ascent of the Mount on whose summit the soul attains To transforming union.
Chapters xii and xiii detail with great exactness the benefits that the soul receives
--
and brings To an end what the Saint desires To say with respect To the first Passive
Night.
--
Spiritual persons, we are Told, do not enter the second night immediately
after leaving the first; on the contrary, they generally pass a long time, even years,
--
fullness the nature of this spiritual purgation or dark contemplation referred To in
the first stanza of his poem and the varieties of pain and affliction caused by it,
--
beyond all description; in them we seem To reach the culminating point of their
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
heights of sublimity.
Chapter ix describes how, although these purgations seem To blind the spirit,
they do so only To enlighten it again with a brighter and intenser light, which it is
preparing itself To receive with greater abundance. The following chapter makes the
comparison between spiritual purgation and the log of wood which gradually
--
midst of these dark confines, feels itself To be keenly and sharply wounded in strong
Divine love, and To have a certain realization and foretaste of God.'11 No less
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
--
the soul with its heat, the delights experienced are so great as To be ineffable.
The second line of the first stanza of the poem is expounded in three
--
security in the Dark Nightdue, among other reasons, To its being freed 'not only
from itself, but likewise from its other enemies, which are the world and the devil.'12
--
Chapter xviii is compared To the 'staircase' of the poem. This comparison suggests To
the Saint an exposition (Chapters xviii, xix) of the ten steps or degrees of love which
--
from which the book passes on (Chapters xxii, xxiii) To ex Tol the 'happy chance'
which led it To journey 'in darkness and concealment' from its enemies, both without
and within.
--
that the Saint proposed To treat in his commentary on the five remaining stanzas.
As far as we know, this commentary was never written. We have only the briefest
outline of what was To have been covered in the third, in which, following the same
effective metaphor of night, the Saint describes the excellent properties of the
--
It is difficult To express adequately the sense of loss that one feels at the
premature truncation of this eloquent treatise.13 We have already given our
opinion14 upon the commentaries thought To have been written on the final stanzas
of the 'Dark Night.' Did we possess them, they would explain the birth of the light
--
darkness of the Active and the Passive Nights; they would tell us, Too, of the soul's
further progress Towards the Sun's full brightness. It is true, of course, that some
part of this great gap is filled by St. John of the Cross himself in his other treatises,
--
all but lost in the resonance of the philosopher's voice and the eloquent Tones of the
preacher. Nor have the other treatises the learning and the authority of these.
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
object:0.06 - Letters To a Young Sadhak
author class:The Mother
--
Letters To a Young Sadhak
To a young sadhak who later became a teacher in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.1
--
No, it does not depend at all upon human beings. What has To
be done will be done despite all possible resistances.
--
What we want To bring To the earth can hardly be called a revolution, although it will be the most marvellous change ever seen;
in any case this cannot be compared at all with the bloody revolutions which quite uselessly tear up countries without bringing
--
will be no need To exclaim: "The Divine is everywhere"
- for this will be a normal experience.
If the realisation were To be limited To this, it would hardly be
worth much. It is an integral transformation of terrestrial life
--
It is quite true. But it seems To me that even the outer forms,
the appearances are changing more than you say. Only, this is
--
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
I feel indignant, Mother, for I cannot find my "self", as
soon as I try To do so, I find nothing but this body, which
is like a lair of banal thoughts and lawless desires.
--
refuse To recognise the body as one's "self". Indeed, what would
it be without the feelings and thoughts which animate it? An
--
You have said in your Conversations that To prepare
oneself for the Yoga one must first of all be conscious.
--
"conscious"; that means one does not live in Total ignorance of
what happens within oneself.
--
an aim as To be united with the Divine and To manifest Him, how
can he be affected by all the futilities and foolishnesses of life?
--
the outer nature To be able To taste the joy which the
manifested world so effectively conceals.
--
the being which remain attached To their old activities and refuse
To change. They will have To yield and be transformed one day
or another.
--
The conflict is between that which aspires Towards consciousness, the "sattwic" part of the being, and that which lets itself
be invaded and governed by the inconscience, the "tamasic"
--
which pulls downwards and therefore is subject To all outer
influences.
--
any enjoyment; I myself Too do not want any.
It is good To be above all enjoyments the world can give, but
why accept To be hurt by it?
I don't like this life without any attachments.
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
If truly you are no longer attached To anything, it is a great yogic
realisation and it would be wrong of you To complain about it.
The whole world is against me and I am in despair.
Why do you want To think the whole world is against you? This
is childish.
--
them To the stars; in either case they are all alike in size and
worth before Eternity.
--
I Too do not want any distance between us. But the relation must
be a true one, that is, based on union in the divine consciousness.
--
ought To do.
It is in a calm and persevering will that this can be accomplished.
May my whole being be only that love which wants To
give itself, and which leads me To You.
Keep this aspiration and you are sure of vic Tory; you will love
--
My Mother, with all my will and all my effort I want To
realise that love which You have foreseen in your divine
--
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
My dear Mother, I do not say that I love You and belong
--
That's good. You are indeed always my child and I expect you To
become even more a good child who will be able To tell me in all
sincerity and truth: "I love You and I am Yours for all eternity."
--
my heart; I could not bear To lose You.
There is no question of losing me. We carry in ourselves an
--
At no moment do I forget you. Don't you rather allow Too many
other influences To come between you and me?
Mother, why is it so difficult To feel Your Presence constantly near me? In the depths of my heart I know well
that without You there is no meaning in life for me; yet
--
I am always with you, and To become conscious of the inner
Presence is one of the most important points of the sadhana.
--
as real and tangible To the consciousness as the most material
phenomenon.
--
being that it is possible To find You in the centre of my
heart.
--
I am in every thought, every aspiration which you turn Towards
me; for if you were not always present in my consciousness you
would not be able To think of me. So you may be sure of my
presence. I add my blessings.
--
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
There are two ways of uniting with the Divine. One is To concentrate in the heart and go deep enough To find there His Presence;
the other is To fling oneself in His arms, To nestle there as a child
nestles in its mother's arms, with a complete surrender; and of
the two the latter seems To me the easier.
My darling Mother, if the Divine shows Himself To me
in exchange for my love for Him and the giving of my
--
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
me To come down so far.
My beloved Mother, one day You wrote To me that I
must climb To the plane where You are, To be able To
have You intimately, and that I must not expect You
--
remain so high up that it seems To me almost impossible
To climb up there. There is a world of difference between
--
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
joy in seeking; but it is true that my heart will always be
--
you will feel yourself always close To me.
My beloved Mother, is it not possible To meet You on
some other plane than the physical? I don't mean by
--
Certainly, this is quite possible. But one must awaken To the
consciousness of these planes.
Mother, I want simply To leave the body; it is the body
which separates me from You.
--
stupidity. It seems To me that actually it is just the opposite, for
without the possibility of seeing me daily, what contact will you
--
To think that if you leave your body you will come closer To
me is a big mistake; for the vital being remains what it is, whether
--
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
can one reasonably hope it will suddenly be able To do so just
because it has left the body? It is ignorant childishness.
--
one has profited fully and To the utmost by the opportunity for
progress which life in a physical body represents, that one may
hope To be reborn in a higher organism. All defection, on the
contrary, naturally brings in a diminution of being.
Only the resolution To face courageously, in the present existence, all the difficulties, and To overcome them, is the sure
means of attaining the union you desire.
My one hope is To progress as much as I can, so that my
next birth may not be useless like this one.
This is all nonsense; we have not To busy ourselves with the next
life, but with this one which offers us, till our very last breath,
all its possibilities. To put off for the next birth what one can do
in this life is like putting off for Tomorrow what one can do this
very day; it is laziness. It is only with death that the possibility
--
It is impossible To cease To be; nothing that belongs To the manifested universe can go out of it except through the door of
spiritual liberation, that is, transformation.
--
I often ask myself if there is a truth behind this desire To
come close To You.
Yes, there is the Truth of perfect union with the Divine in an
--
My sweet Mother, do You say that I ought To overcome
this desire To come To You physically?
I have never said anything of the kind. But you must prepare
--
them in my heart, that I want To lead them To the Divine and
that I am grieved when they move away from Him, - then this
--
wanted only To remind you that you are not alone in the Ashram
and that I have To divide my time among all those who have need
of me.
--
you will surely be nearer To me than if you were seated near me
but thinking about other things.
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
Mother, how can I feel You concretely near me, even
--
Remain very quiet, open your mind and your heart To Sri Aurobindo's influence and mine, withdraw deep in To an inner silence
(which may be had in all circumstances), call me from the depths
--
consciousness. You ought To know that.
Life will no longer have any attraction for me if I do not
--
is not well established because the mind makes Too much noise
and the vital is Too restless.
Mother, if the psychic always feels the Divine Presence,
--
I have already Told you that it is because the contact between
the outer consciousness and the psychic consciousness is not
--
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
About ten or eleven years ago I had an experience in Your
--
Now, if you don't like me To show you your faults, I can very
well s Top doing it. But then you should no longer ask me To
help you To progress, for you cannot on the one hand ask me To
intervene and on the other refuse my intervention.
--
wish To progress, and consequently that it is not necessary for
me To make you aware of what is To be changed in you.
I feel, Mother, that I am a very frivolous fellow; won't
--
I would be very happy To change you, but are you quite sure
that what is frivolous in you wants To change?
How do you expect me To help you if you have no trust in me!
I shall never be able To realise fully this relationship
which exists eternally, if You don't help me To do it.
My help is there completely; you have only To open yourself To
it with confidence and you will receive it.
Yes, my help is with you To master all the movements which are
opposed To the Divine.
I have not the least intention in the world To push you in To a
corner, and if I had not the full assurance that you can overcome
--
if it does not help him To correct it.
This morning I was thinking I would get another blow
--
After all, my whole life is consecrated To You; I shall
remain very calm without bothering about what happens
--
That's very good, but if you were To add To this the idea that I
know you and love you better than you yourself do and that I
--
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
Mother of joy, I am surprised To find that there are people
who think that You call only those sadhaks who cannot
--
weakness on the part of those who see You from time To
time.
--
I don't think it would be bad To let You know about a
thought, an idea which goes on in me, even if this idea,
--
On the contrary, it is good To let me know immediately.
Nothing is better than a confession for opening the closed doors.
Tell me what you fear most To tell me, and immediately you will
feel yourself closer To me.
IV
--
and on the manner of one's approach To the Divine depends
what he receives and knows of the Divine. The bhakta meets
--
and never refuses what is offered To Him whole-heartedly; thus
you may live in the peace of the certitude that you are accepted
--
Beloved Mother, how To master this lethargy that overcomes me? I do not live, Mother, I just exist in some way.
Mother, I must find something which can divert me.
--
To find the Divine Presence. Far from seeking To fill your heart
with frivolities in order To "divert" it, you must with a great
obstinacy empty it of everything, absolutely everything, both
--
attract the Marvellous Presence. One must know how To pay
this supreme Grace the price it deserves.
--
You are right To want To create the emptiness in you; for you will
soon discover that in the depths of this emptiness is the Divine.
--
is better To keep in one's heart a high aspiration rather than an
obscure somnolence.
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
When I try To look within myself, I find there a being that
is detached from everything, a great indifference reigns
--
Indifference is a stage of development which must lead To a
perfect equality of soul.
--
region of your mind. You must try To find some depth in your
consciousness and dwell there.
--
move away from me. The Divine is not sad and To realise the
Divine you must reject far from yourself all sadness and all
--
psychic being works with perseverance and ardour To make the
union an accomplished fact, but it never complains, and knows
how To wait for the hour of realisations To come.
It is the vital which asks and asks and is never satisfied... The
--
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
Radha is the symbol of loving consecration To the Divine.
Keep always your balance and a calm serenity; it is only thus
--
To love is not To possess, but To give oneself.
I don't experience a violent and uncontrollable love for
--
that I Told You I was losing all human feelings.
This can hardly be called a loss; I consider it an inestimable gain.
--
The person I love belongs To me.
This is a very ugly love, quite egoistic.
--
want To lapse in To such a stupidity, you may do so elsewhere,
not here.
--
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
My beloved Mother, the whole day I thought of nothing
else except that red rose which signifies "Human passions changed in To love for the Divine". I want To know
precisely what the human passions are.
--
Sensations belong To the vital domain and To that part of it which
is expressed through the nerves of the body. It is sentiments
--
preferable not To live in the sensations but To consider them as
something outside ourselves, like the clothes we wear.
--
you are sad and unsatisfied. To forget oneself is the great remedy
for all ills.
Certainly it is always better not To be Too busy with oneself.
An excessive depreciation is no better than an excessive praise.
--
going To be like this, and that you will strive To conquer your
two great enemies: jealousy and vanity. The more we advance
--
that we have done nothing in comparison with what remains To
be done.
It is when one feels like a blind man that one begins To be ready
for the illumination.
Formerly I used To repeat To myself: "I am one of the
greatest sadhaks." Now I tell myself: "I am nobody."
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
The best thing is not To think oneself either great or small, very
important or very insignificant; for we are nothing in ourselves.
We must want To be only what the divine Will wants of us.
All my good intentions, since my childhood, have been
--
after all, is it worth the trouble To try and transform it?
It is better not To think of this personal nature as mine;
not To identify myself with it is the best remedy I can
find against the lower and inconscient nature.
Nothing of all this is the right attitude. So long as you oscillate between wanting To transform yourself and not wanting To
transform yourself - making an effort To progress and becoming indifferent To all effort through fatigue - the true attitude
will not be there. All your observations should lead you To one
certainty, that by oneself one is nothing and can do nothing.
--
consciousness, the Power and Capacity in us. It is To Him that
we must entrust ourselves, give ourselves without reserve, and it
--
"Concentration alone will lead you To this goal." Should
one increase the time of meditation?
--
will, all the aspiration must be turned only Towards the Divine
and His integral realisation in our consciousness.
--
It would have been better To have sat in my chair and
thought about the moonlight playing upon the water.
Or, better still, not To have thought at all but contemplated the
Divine Grace.
--
Perhaps I am mistaken in believing that I shall find myself close To you more rapidly by dissolving my being
than by mixing with many people and doing much work.
--
practice, and for this the most important thing To avoid is useless
talking. It is not work but useless talk which takes us away from
--
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
If in all sincerity one acts only To express the Divine Will, all
actions without exception can become unselfish. But so long as
--
as the attitude, the spirit in which one acts. To know how To
give yourself entirely and without egoism while washing dishes
--
my coming a little closer To You.
It is not the work, any work, in itself which can bring you
close To me. It is the spirit in which it is done that is important.
Mother, which is this being that receives happily any
--
You serve me as best you can, but your best of Tomorrow must
be better than your best of Today.
Without discipline it is impossible To realise anything on the
physical plane. If your heart were not willing To submit To the
strict discipline of beating regularly and constantly, you would
not be able To live upon earth.
The great realisers have always been the great disciplined
--
Ashram; but those who are without work are certainly so because they do not like To work; and for that disease it is very
difficult To find a remedy - it is called laziness...
The body is naturally phlegmatic. But in working for
--
I try always To be more careful, but things get spoilt in
my hands.
--
Yesterday you were surprised that she had never broken anything, - naturally Today she has broken something; this is how
mental formations work. That is why one must state only what
one wishes To see realised.
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
You must abstain from thinking about a person when you cannot
--
I must find out how I can consecrate this being To You.
Keep always burning in you the fire of aspiration and purification which I have kindled there.
--
must be the will To carry it out successfully.
Of all things the most difficult is To bring the divine consciousness in To the material world. Must the endeavour then be
given up because of this?
Our way is very long, and it is indispensable To advance calmly
without asking oneself at every step whether one is advancing.
If you persevere you are sure To succeed; as for my help you may
rest assured it is always with you, and one never calls in vain.
If you resolve To do it, my force will be there To back up your
effort.
You would be wrong To get disturbed; nothing is done arbitrarily,
and things get realised only when they are the expression of an
--
Yes, your mind gets Too excited about things. It makes formations (it thinks forcefully: this must be like that, that must be
otherwise, etc.) and unknowingly it clings To its own formations
in such a way that when they are contradicted it gets a shock
--
All my power is with you To help you; open yourself with a
calm confidence, have faith in the Divine Grace, and you will
--
Do not worry, only keep in you always the will To do things well.
Why accept the idea of being weak? It is this which is bad.
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
Yes, it is in a calm and patient confidence that lies the certitude
--
disappears giving place To the calm assurance that nothing is
impossible.
--
Yes, you are right To have hope; it is hope which builds happy
futures.
--
But why Torment yourself so much? Be calm, don't get disturbed,
remember that the conditions of our life are not quite ordinary
conditions, and keep your trust in the Divine Power To organise
all and do all through the human instruments which are open To
His influence.
--
am always with you To guide and protect you.
One must have no fear - fear is a bad counsellor; it acts like a
--
To be pessimistic has never been of any use except To attract
Towards oneself just the things one fears. One must, on the
--
To think only of what one wants To happen.
VIII
--
adverse force - it is this that I want To learn To see in
myself and others.
--
2nd: One loses confidence, begins To criticise, is not satisfied.
3rd: One revolts and sinks in To falsehood.
--
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
My beloved Mother, can the adverse forces act effectively
--
It is not impossible, but it is easier for them To find a human
instrument.
It is good To be confident and To have a living and steady faith.
But in the matter of the adverse forces, it is good To be always
vigilant and sincere.
Mother, what attitude should I take Towards women?
There is a part in me which prompts me To go To X. This
recalcitrant part advises me To do so, telling me that this
is the best means of overcoming an attraction, whether
--
forms, they were To speak of things as they are, it would come
To something like this: "Continue To drink in order To s Top being a drunkard" or better: "Continue To kill To s Top being a
murderer!"
One must never be afraid, and if the adverse forces try To lodge
themselves in your lower nature, you have only To dislodge them,
calling me To your help.
Mother, last night I had a nightmare and was almost
--
To remember me and call me To your help if there is some danger.
You will see that the nightmares will vanish.
It seemed To me that there was someone in my room
who wanted To suck my blood; I wanted To stretch my
left hand To him so that he could do so.
If you start feeding the adverse forces, they will exact more and
--
Y Told me that very often he becomes an instrument of
the adverse forces.
--
insensible and indifferent To the misfortunes of the world and
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
the suffering of others, those who have turned their hearts To
s Tones and are incapable of compassion.
--
is but one way of getting out of it - it is To conquer the difficulty,
overcome one's lower nature. And is this not easier here, with
a concrete and tangible help, than all alone, without anyone To
shed light on the path and guide the uncertain footsteps?
My darling Mamma, I want To lead a pure life and I shall
do all I can To progress Towards the divine life.
This does not depend so much on outer conditions, but above
--
It would be much better To dissociate yourself from the tendency
To fall in To your ordinary consciousness.
--
Probably a disastrous result; that is, a passive opening To all
sorts of influences, most of which are hardly commendable.
A yogi ought To accept and digest all dirt with a perfect
equality.
--
be needed To become immune from the effects of dirt can be
utilized much more profitably elsewhere.
--
like To see everybody as happy as I.
Of course, this shows very good feelings. But a certain amount
of knowledge must be added To these sentiments. For, To communicate peace and joy To others is not so easy, and unless one
has within oneself an unshakable peace and joy, there is a great
risk of losing what one has rather than passing it on To others.
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
My heart is full of compassion for others and I am not
insensible To their suffering, but what's the good of this
feeling if I cannot come To their aid in their suffering?
One cannot help others To overcome their sorrows and sufferings
unless one has overcome all this in oneself and is master of one's
--
It is To purify your own heart that you must work, instead of
passing your time in judging what others do or don't do.
--
It is just when one is innocent that one ought To be most indifferent To ill-treatment, because there is nothing To blame oneself
for and one has the approbation of one's conscience To console
oneself.
It would be much better for you not To busy yourself with what
others say.
--
It is very good To control one's anger. Even if it were only To
learn To do so, these contacts with others are useful.
I do not know of anything more foolish than these quarrels in
--
It is never good To tell a lie, but here its results cannot but be
disastrous, for falsehood is the very symbol of that which wants
--
Why imagine always that one is ill or is going To be ill and thus
open oneself To all kinds of bad suggestions? There is no reason
To be ill and I don't see why you should be so.
--
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
Do as you like, this is not of much importance; but what is
important is To cast off fear. It is fear which makes one fall ill
and it is fear which makes healing so difficult. All fear must be
--
I rely on Your Will alone To rid me of this illness.
One must have an unshakable faith To be able To do without
medicines.
--
and no limit can be set To the power of the Divine.
One must find the inner peace and keep it constantly. In the force
--
Mother, the inherent tendency of the material body is To
dissolve, and the mind helps it; how will You be able To
s Top the natural propensity of my body To disintegration?
It must become aware of the immortality of the elements constituting it (which is a scientifically recognised fact), then it must
submit itself To the influence and the will of the psychic being
which is immortal in its very nature.
Beloved Mother, do You grant that it is possible To do
without food?
For food To be no longer necessary, the body would have To be
completely transformed and no longer subject To any of the laws
governing it at present.
--
My most beloved Mother, I think it would be better To
avoid a party of this kind.
Evidently, this creates an atmosphere in which food predominates; this is not very conducive To spiritual life.
XI
--
and passions, of cowardice, but also of heroism - To bridle it is
To turn all this Towards the divine Will and submit it To this Will.
The vital being seeks only power - material possession
--
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
This desire To live in an intellectual atmosphere -
doesn't it show that my mind can govern the vital?
--
from outside, it is enough that the mind intervenes for it To be
immediately controlled.
--
Certainly not; quite on the contrary, To be able To conquer the desires of the vital one must have an excellent physical equilibrium
and sound health.
--
Should one always avoid a circumstance which is conducive To undesirable impulses? Or should one rather
accept the circumstance and try To be its master?
It is always better To avoid the temptation.
One has only To persist with a calm confidence and the vital will
s Top going on strike.
--
realisation here below. Does it not follow that intellectual culture is indispensable for rising above the mind To
find there the true knowledge?
--
satisfaction in itself and rarely seeks To silence itself so as To be
surpassed.
It is a passing impulse which pushes me so much To study.
So long as you need To form yourself, To build your brain, you
will feel this strong urge To study; but when the brain is well
formed, the taste for studies will gradually die away.
My beloved Mother, I want To follow a systematic course
of metaphysics and ethics. I am also thinking of reading
--
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
If you read metaphysics and ethics, you must do it just as
mental gymnastics To give a little exercise To your brain, but
never lose sight of the fact that this is not a source of knowledge and that it is not in this way that one can draw close
--
I am trying To know this or that.
It is not the work that is of importance but the spirit in which
one does it. It is difficult To keep one's mind perfectly quiet; it
is better To engage it in studies than in silly ideas or unhealthy
dreamings.
I want To see what will happen To me if I s Top reading
completely.
It is difficult To keep one's mind always fixed on the same thing,
and if it is not given enough work To occupy it, it begins To
become restless. So I think it is better To choose one's books
carefully rather than s Top reading al Together.
--
If you don't want To learn a thing thoroughly, conscientiously
and in all its details, it is better not To take it up at all. It is
a great mistake To think that a little superficial and incomplete
knowledge of things can be of any use whatsoever; it is good for
--
It is very difficult To choose games which are useful and beneficial
for a child. It asks for much consideration and reflection, and all
--
Not as much as they seem To be. There is a deep and very wise
observation in the comedies of Molière.
--
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
XIII
The students talk so much in the class that I have To
scold them often.
--
I must tell you that if a teacher wants To be respected, he must
be respectable. X is not the only one To say that you use violence
To make yourself obeyed; nothing is less respectable. You must
first control yourself and never use brute force To impose your
will.
--
The most important is To master yourself and never lose your
temper. If you don't have control over yourself, how can you
expect To control others, above all, children, who feel it immediately when someone is not master of himself?
The students cannot learn their lessons even when they
--
the same thing To them several times, explaining it To them in
various ways. It is only gradually that it enters their mind.
0.07 - DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
Exposition of the stanzas describing the method followed by the soul in its journey upon the spiritual road To the attainment of the perfect union of love with God, To the extent that is possible in this life. Likewise are described the properties belonging To the soul that has attained To the said perfection, according as they are contained in the same stanzas.
PROLOGUE
IN this book are first set down all the stanzas which are To be expounded; afterwards, each of the stanzas is expounded separately, being set down before its exposition; and then each line is expounded separately and in turn, the line itself also being set down before the exposition. In the first two stanzas are expounded the effects of the two spiritual purgations: of the sensual part of man and of the spiritual part. In the other six are expounded various and wondrous effects of the spiritual illumination and union of love with God.
STANZAS OF THE SOUL
--
With his gentle hand he wounded my neck And caused all my senses To be suspended.
8. I remained, lost in oblivion; My face I reclined on the Beloved.
--
Begins the exposition of the stanzas which treat of the way and manner which the soul follows upon the road of the union of love with God. Before we enter upon the exposition of these stanzas, it is well To understand here that the soul that utters them is now in the state of perfection, which is the union of love with God, having already passed through severe trials and straits, by means of spiritual exercise in the narrow way of eternal life whereof Our Saviour speaks in the Gospel, along which way the soul ordinarily passes in order To reach this high and happy union with God. Since this road (as the Lord Himself says likewise) is so strait, and since there are so few that enter by it,19 the soul considers it a great happiness and good chance To have passed along it To the said perfection of love, as it sings in this first stanza, calling this strait road with full propriety 'dark night,' as will be explained hereafter in the lines of the said stanza. The soul, then, rejoicing at having passed along this narrow road whence so many blessings have come To it, speaks after this manner.
BOOK THE FIRST
--
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 unders Tood 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 ex Tols 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:
On a dark night
0.07 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
object:0.07 - Letters To a Sadhak
author class:The Mother
--
Letters To a Sadhak
To the sadhak who was the dentist at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram
during the 1930s and then served from 1938 To 1950 as one of
Sri Aurobindo's personal attendants.1
To talk of surrender is easy, very easy indeed. To think of
surrender in all its complexity is not so easy, it is not so
easy at all. But To achieve even the beginning of a genuine
surrender of self - oh, how difficult it is, Mother!
--
Nothing special To you. It is the same difficulty that exists for all
human beings: the pride and blindness of the physical mind.
--
or sleep with one's head Towards the North. Has it got
any real significance, Mother?
--
experience goes, I do not attach much importance To that belief.
24 March 1936
--
Has X spoken To you about some influence of Saturn he
has found in my horoscope? I forgot To ask you about it
on my birthday.
Yes, he spoke To me about it. But you must know that yoga frees
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.
--
know what I can do unless it is To pray To you To deliver
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
not your mother who loves you?...
--
Series Seven - To a Sadhak
Will you say To your cousin that I know only one way out of all
troubles and difficulties; it is entire self-giving and consecration
--
What a letter you have written To Y, Mother! You will
turn my head some day, if it is not turned already! But,
I know, it is only To give her confidence.
No, I always mean what I say.
Love and blessings To my dear child.
4 May 1938
--
your Grace is our sole refuge and To whom shall we
turn but To you for our protection? But may your Grace
now intervene in a more overt form so that my earthly
--
I commend my soul To your keeping.
Yet I feel you much closer To me and I see in you an opening
that was never there before. It seems To me that soon you will
discover, behind the apparent dryness of the surface, the always
--
Z has Told me that you have received complaints against
me for hurting people's feelings.
--
Love and blessings To my dear child.
9 Oc Tober 1938
--
of a foot extended To Touch a lotus.) Please excuse me
for spoiling the book with this very crude offering.
Nothing To excuse, all is in the spirit of the offering....
Love and blessings To my dear child.
14 Oc Tober 1938
Has the psychic flame any correspondence To the Vedic
Agni? They seem To have more or less the same leading
qualities.
--
Love and blessings To my dear child.
20 Oc Tober 1938
Series Seven - To a Sadhak
Lead me To thy own home in Truth, Mother. I offer
thee my will of progressive submission and increasing
--
with my arms wide To receive and enfold you affectionately -
with my love and blessings.
--
Life of my life, I also want To come To you; for, in your
arms alone will I have peace and joy and Ananda and
--
still, O my Shining Light, the way is not clear To me. And
how shall I be ever able To climb To your dizzying heights
with the heavy chains of a mortal's nature pulling at my
--
Love and blessings To my dear child.
25 Oc Tober 1938
--
very kind To your little child who loves you and is happy.
My very dear child, live in my love, feel it, be filled with it and
--
except that through it I can grow To be a better and truer
child To you, O my beloved Mother.
Yes, you are my child and it is true that of all things it is the most
--
On my last birthday, your parting words To me were:
"Keep your faith." I am still wondering what exactly
--
like me To aspire for?
Faith in the Divine's Grace and its power To transform you.
Love and blessings To my dear child.
4 November 1938
--
and more and more adorable To me. By what divine
Mystery do you cast this sweet spell on us?
--
Grace To help and To protect.
6 November 1938
--
response, my heart does seem To be made of s Tone; otherwise, why should it refuse To open itself To such a love?
Series Seven - To a Sadhak
Nothing can resist the steady action of love. It melts all resistances and triumphs over all difficulties...
Love and blessings To my dear child.
9 November 1938
--
and gracious To me. For it makes it still more hard for
me To tell you that there are difficulties of my nature
which make it difficult for me To accept you and your
Yoga in the requisite spirit. And without this, what is
--
It was very sweet of you To tell me that yours was
the love of the Mother who does not ask for anything
in return. That is all right for you, for yours is a selffulfilled life. But I have yet To achieve everything, yet To
satisfy my human existence. I have yet To know my soul
and my Self, To know and love the Divine Godhead and
fulfil Her in my life and To know the worlds, if it is Her
Will that I should do so. But above all, I must have the
--
without a Guru who will lead me To Her Feet?
I do not see anybody in the world more qualified than Sri
Aurobindo To lead you To the feet of the Mahashakti.
With my love and blessings.
--
Last night, in silence, I Told you, " To arrive at that To which
you aspire, the way is Love and the goal Too is Love" - is it not
the best answer To your letter?...
With my love and blessings.
--
There happen To be bad sons now and then, but a bad
mother never.
--
My love and blessings To my dear (good) child.
27 July 1939
I know you mean well, but To be good, truly good, may
be possible only for those who have gone beyond all
egoism. But if my Mother chooses To see only the good
in her child, that only speaks of the goodness of the
--
Love and blessings To my dear child.
28 July 1939
--
I do not deserve one iota of the kindness you show To
me. What shall I say To you, you whose very nature is an
Series Seven - To a Sadhak
overwhelming divine love? Your love itself is a priceless
--
Love and blessings To my dear child.
6 August 1939
--
yearns To press them To itself knowing them as its sole
refuge.
--
is it all an experiment? I feel ashamed To pose such
a question To you, but I hear the word "experiment"
used so often and in such a variety of ways that I feel
frightened and would like To hear from you personally
if you are not merely experimenting with us? Praying To
be excused.
--
Well - the best thing you could do is not To listen To what
people say; it would save you from many falls of consciousness.
This afternoon when I looked at you in silence I Told you, "Be
faithful To your love." I suppose this is a sufficient answer and
you do not expect me To justify my love in front of the foolish
ignorance of such interpretations. Whether you believe or doubt,
--
My love and blessings will lead you To the goal.
13 August 1939
Series Seven - To a Sadhak
My very dear child,
--
My love and blessings To you, dear child.
17 August 1939
--
Love, love, love To my very dear child; all the joy, all the light,
all the peace of the divine love and also my loving blessings.
--
and say To myself, "The Mother loves me." On the crest
of a great wave of love the gift came To me and I felt
the presence of the ocean which projected that wave.
--
standing before me ready To give a boon! In fact, I was
invoking Her and there you were with the pot of pickles
--
wanted To answer very concretely To your call... My love and
blessings To my very dear child.
24 August 1939
--
kindness, my Mother, and grateful Too.
There is no contradiction that cannot be solved and harmonised
--
one good jump To the higher consciousness where all problems
Series Seven - To a Sadhak
are solved and you will get rid of your difficulties. I never feel
--
Be always true To your love and all difficulties will be conquered.
Love and blessings To my dear child.
9 September 1939
--
and transform the nature." Some time back you wrote To
me, "One good jump To the higher consciousness where
all problems are solved and you will get rid of your difficulties." Now what exactly is this higher consciousness
--
way. Be always true To your love and all difficulties will
be conquered." Is this higher consciousness the same
--
related To a state of higher knowledge?
The higher Consciousness is a state of pure love but it is also a
state of pure openness To divine knowledge. There is no opposition there between these two kindred things; it is the mind that
makes them separate.
The best way To get To it is To refuse all mental agitation when
it comes, also all vital desires and turmoils, and To keep the mind
and heart turned as constantly as possible Towards the Divine.
The love for the Divine is the strongest force for doing this.
--
abode? I know that so long as She chooses To make her
abode here, sooner or later poor me will have To abdicate
in favour of Her Imperial Majesty and till that day comes
--
So, the best thing To do is To abdicate at once and To get
rest, peace and joy. When you have To get rid of an obstinate
resistance, you must not make more delay than when you have
To pull out a bad Tooth.
Inside, outside and everywhere is the help of the Mother...
--
My love wants To lead you To the goal and it is bound To
succeed.
--
Series Seven - To a Sadhak
Dear Mother,
--
the way I used To feel for the old ideal of liberation. The
path, the ideal you represent, your values still leave me
--
excuse me, but I feel tired of having To wage a constant
war against my whole outer being. And, anyway, it seems
Too late now To begin at the beginning and teach myself
To ask for a new ideal, the realisation of which seems
none Too near.
That which the Divine has destined for each of us - that will be.
My love and blessings To my dear child.
29 June 1940
Your answer To my letter of July 22, which you kindly
meant To reassure me, did not reassure me.2 Why is that
so, Mother? Perhaps you do not approve of my Tone;
perhaps you are dissatisfied with my disability; possibly
--
If it is not going To make any difference To your
love and kindness, as you assure me it won't, I would
rather like To keep this sum of money and To keep up
this arrangement. But if you do mind, kindly tell me
The sadhak asked if he could accept money sent To him by relatives. The Mother
answered: "My dear child, you can be sure of my love and blessings."
--
It does not displease me in the least. If I did not answer To
what you wrote about it the other day, it is because I did not
attach much importance To it. My sentence meant simply that
my love is capable of understanding and that my blessings do
--
I can add Today that I am not at all tired of the "problem
called me" and that I remain convinced that it will be solved
--
Whenever you require spiritual help I am always there To
give you that help under whatever form it can take.
--
Let this year bring you the power To smile in all circumstances. For, a smile acts upon difficulties as the sun upon the
clouds - it disperses them.
--
your mind work at random. Doubt is not a sport To indulge in
Series Seven - To a Sadhak
with impunity: it is a poison which drop by drop corrodes the
0.08 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
object:0.08 - Letters To a Young Captain
author class:The Mother
--
Letters To a Young Captain
To a young captain in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Department
--
Divine To the universal Divine and finally To the Transcendent.
The spiritual change puts you directly in contact with the
--
indispensable starting-point. Through interiorisation and concentration one has To enter in To conscious contact with one's
psychic being. This psychic being always has an influence on the
--
In order To strengthen the contact and aid, if possible, the
development of the conscious psychic personality, one should,
while concentrating, turn Towards it, aspire To know it and feel
it, open oneself To receive its influence, and take great care, each
time that one receives an indication from it, To follow it very
scrupulously and sincerely. To live in a great aspiration, To take
care To become inwardly calm and remain so always as far as
possible, To cultivate a perfect sincerity in all the activities of
one's being - these are the essential conditions for the growth
--
That depends on the kind of energy one wants To absorb, for
each region of the being has a corresponding kind of energy. If it
--
Series Eight - To a Young Captain
may classify them generally in To vital energies, mental energies, spiritual energies. Modern science tells us that Matter is
--
energy are indispensable To our realisation.
12 September 1959
--
the door leading To the psychic.
The mind by its nature is curious and interested; it sees, it
observes, it tries To understand and explain; and with all this
activity, it disturbs the experience and diminishes its intensity
--
This amounts To asking how one can eliminate the ego. It is only
by yoga that one can do it. There have been, throughout the spiritual his Tory of humanity, many methods of yoga - which Sri
--
long time, one can begin by surrendering the will of the ego To the
Divine Will at every opportunity and finally in a constant way.
For this, the first step is To understand that the Divine knows
better than we what is good for us and what we truly need, not
--
To convince it that its perception and understanding are Too
limited for it truly To be able To know and that it judges only
according To its desires, which are blind, and not according To
truth.
Series Eight - To a Young Captain
For the desires are not the expression of needs but of preferences.
--
He does it and still less why He does it. To know something of
the Divine, one has To rise above thought and enter in To the
psychic consciousness, the consciousness of the soul, or in To the
--
of this ignorance one also gets out of the difficulties, To say
nothing of the inalienable state of bliss in which one dwells as
--
So according To them, the question has no real basis and
cannot be posed.
--
You have written that To enter in To conscious contact
with one's psychic being, one must "aspire To know it
and feel it, open oneself To receive its influence, and take
great care... To follow it very scrupulously and sincerely".
But, Sweet Mother, I don't know how To do this. I find
it easier when I think of you, try To enter in To contact
with you and open To you.
This Too is a way which is certainly as good as the other.
There are many ways To attain self-realisation, and each one
must choose the way that comes To him most naturally.
But each way has its demands in order To be truly effective.
In thinking of me, you must think not only of the outer
--
appearance, it is To this higher Reality that you must turn. The
physical being cannot become truly expressive of the eternal
--
Is it possible To have control over oneself during
sleep? For example, if I want To see you in my dreams,
can I do it at will?
--
If you persist in your will and your effort, you are sure To
learn how To come and find me at night during your sleep and
afterwards To remember what has happened.
For this, two things are necessary, which you must develop
--
(1) Concentrate your thought on the will To come and find
me; then pursue this thought, first by an effort of imagination,
--
Series Eight - To a Young Captain
(2) Establish a sort of bridge between the waking and the
--
leaving Him, and returns To the Divine without ceasing To be
manifest.
The soul is the Divine made individual without ceasing To
be divine.
--
therefore, To find one's soul is To find God; To identify with one's
soul is To unite with the Divine.
Thus it may be said that the role of the soul is To make a
true being of man.
--
on whether they are more or less favourable To him; and this
estimation itself is very superficial and ignorant, for one must
already be a great sage To know what is truly favourable or
unfavourable To oneself.
Moreover, the same event may be very good for one person
--
purely subjective and depend on each one's reaction To contacts
coming from outside.
--
ourselves and advance Towards perfection, our circumstances
also improve.
--
and what should we try To do in order To receive what
you are giving?
--
all His Light, His Consciousness and His Joy, according To each
one's receptivity.
--
Series Eight - To a Young Captain
The best way To receive what He gives is To come To the
balcony with trust and aspiration and To keep oneself as calm
and quiet as one can in a silent and passive state of expectation. If one has something precise To ask, it is better To ask it
beforehand, not while I am there, because any activity lessens
--
with our senses. It is a sort of apparatus for recording and transmission which is open To all the contacts and shocks coming
from outside and responds To them by reactions of pleasure and
pain which welcome or repel. This makes in our outer being a
--
because we are so accus Tomed To them.
But if through meditation or concentration we turn inward
--
This is why the first thing required when one wants To do
Yoga is To bring down and establish in oneself the calm, the
peace, the silence.
--
listen To music with an intense and concentrated attention, To
the point of s Topping all other noise in the head and obtaining
--
In principle, To judge the activities of sleep one needs the same
capacity of discrimination as To judge the waking activities.
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
activities - that is, To recognise what part of the being it is that
"dreams", what domain it is that one "dreams" in, and what the
--
Series Eight - To a Young Captain
very complete and detailed descriptions and explanations of all
--
To the study of this subject and To its practical application .
2 November 1959
--
simplest language, almost the spoken language. To get help from
them, it is enough To read with attention and concentration and
an attitude of inner good-will, with a desire To receive and live
what is taught.
--
literary and philosophic. The brain needs a preparation To really
be able To understand and generally this preparation takes time,
unless one is specially gifted with an innate intuitive faculty.
--
the mind as quiet as one can, without making an effort To understand, but keeping the head as silent as possible and letting
the force contained in what one reads enter deep inside. This
--
It is preferable To read regularly, a little every day and at a
fixed hour if possible; this facilitates the brain's receptivity.
--
asleep that it seems To be wholly devoid of consciousness; at any
rate, as in the s Tone, the mineral kingdom, the consciousness
--
Series Eight - To a Young Captain
We Too carry it in ourselves, in the substance of our body,
since the substance of our body is the same as that of the earth.
--
We Too, then, carry in ourselves the subconscience which
links us To the animal, and the superconscience which is our
hope and assurance of future realisation.
--
What should one try To do when one meditates with
your music at the Playground?
--
In listening To it, one should make oneself as silent and
passive as possible. And if, in the mental silence, a part of the
--
and intermediaries To bring To the earth the aid of the higher
regions and To preside over the formation of the mind and its
progressive ascension. It is usually To the gods of the overmind
that the prayers of the various religions are addressed. These religions most often choose, for various reasons, one of these gods
--
a zone corresponding To the overmind and an overmind consciousness, before one can rise above it, To the Supermind, or
open oneself To it.
Almost all the occult systems and disciplines aim at the
--
What is meant by "a zone corresponding To the overmind" and how can one develop it in oneself? What is
meant by the "mastery of the overmind"?
--
able To go beyond the limits of the body in order To move about
in the various cosmic regions, grow conscious of them and act
--
Series Eight - To a Young Captain
concentration. These masteries are no easier than the mastery
--
effort are needed merely To learn the things indispensable for
leading one's life properly, not To speak of "mastery", which is
truly something exceptional on earth.
--
Supernature is the Nature superior To material or physical Nature - what we usually call "Nature". But this Nature that we
see, feel and study, this Nature that has been our familiar environment since our birth upon earth, is not the only one. There
--
Prakriti, the executive force of Purusha. But To answer your
question more precisely, the context would be needed in order To
know on what occasion Sri Aurobindo spoke about Supernature.
--
On 29 February 1956 there Took place, in the Mother's words, "the manifestation of the Supramental upon earth"; "Then the supramental Light and Force and
Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow."
--
who do not belong To the ordinary humanity, have a conscious
and organised overmind being and overmind life, and still fewer
--
The yoga of knowledge is the path that leads To the Divine
through the exclusive pursuit of the pure and absolute Truth.
The yoga of devotion is the path that leads To union with
the Divine through perfect, Total and eternal love.
In the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo, the two combine
with the yoga of works and the yoga of self-perfection To make
a homogeneous whole, culminating in the yoga of supramental
--
It is difficult To reply without having the context. Which
"supreme faculties" are being referred To here? Those of man on
the way To becoming superman, or those that the supramental
being will possess when he appears on earth?
--
he opens To the higher mind and overmind, and through those
Series Eight - To a Young Captain
regions he receives the light of the Truth. These faculties are not
--
and, To an extent, of acting upon circumstances.
If it refers To the supreme faculties of the supramental being, we cannot say much about them, for all we can say at the
moment belongs more To the realm of imagination than To the
realm of knowledge, since this supramental being has not yet
--
in order To facilitate the study of human nature and especially
To constitute a definite basis for the various methods of selfdevelopment and self-discipline. That is why each philosophic,
--
Is it possible To have a correct conception of the
Divine?
--
mental activities, and no mental activity is fit To manifest the
Divine.
0.09 - Letters to a Young Teacher, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
object:0.09 - Letters To a Young Teacher
author class:The Mother
--
Letters To a Young Teacher
To a young teacher in the Sri Aurobindo International Centre
--
paragraph is not clear To me.
Because you know nothing about psychology. Study psychology
--
It means that all we offer, we necessarily offer To the Supreme,
because He is the sole Reality behind everything.
--
everyone and everything will return To Him. But for some it will
take thousands of lives, while for others it will happen in this
--
you will ask them To think with experiences. Will you
throw some light on these three ways of thinking?
Our house has a very high Tower; at the very Top of this Tower
there is a bright and bare room, the last before we emerge in To
--
Series Nine - To a Young Teacher
Sometimes, when we are free To do so, we climb up To this
bright room, and there, if we remain very quiet, one or more
visi Tors come To call on us; some are tall, others small, some
single, others in groups; all are bright and graceful.
Usually, in our joy at their arrival and our haste To welcome
them, we lose our tranquillity and come galloping down To rush
in To the great hall that forms the base of the Tower and is the
s Toreroom of words. Here, more or less excited, we select, reject,
--
reach, in an attempt To portray this or that visi Tor who has come
To us. But most often, the picture we succeed in making of our
--
the summit of the Tower, quite calm, in joyful contemplation.
Then, after a certain length of time, we would see the visi Tors
--
s Toreroom of words, clothe themselves effortlessly, au Tomatically, with the words needed To make themselves perceptible
even in the material house.
--
When this process is no longer mysterious To you, I shall
explain what is meant by thinking with experiences.
--
receive all the help needed To be able To change in themselves
what needs To be changed. You can be sure that my force will
always be with you so that you can make all the progress you
want To make.
Have confidence, my child; everything will be all right.
--
One keeps one's defects because one hangs on To them as if
they were something precious; one clings To one's vices as one
clings To a part of one's body, and pulling out a bad habit
hurts as much as pulling out a Tooth. That is why one does
not progress.
--
and one receives in exchange the force To replace what has been
given, by a better and truer vibration.
--
that the Divine belongs To us exclusively (and not that
we belong To Him). Why?
Series Nine - To a Young Teacher
The two are equally true and they ought To be felt simultaneously. But human egoism always has the tendency To take rather
than To give. This is where that impression comes from.
3 July 1960
--
It is much easier for me To approach You than To
approach Sri Aurobindo. Why? You are all that Sri Aurobindo is for us, as well as a divine and loving Mother. So
is it necessary To try To establish the same relation with
him?
--
a mother who is very close To you, who loves and understands
you; that is why it is easy for you To approach me with a loving
confidence, without fear and without hesitation. Sri Aurobindo
is always there To help you and guide you; but it is natural that
you should approach Him with the reverence due To the Master
of Yoga.
--
its relation To the Supreme?
The soul and the psychic being are not exactly the same thing,
--
come in To contact with it from time To time when we are
receptive?
--
It would be more correct To say that the soul puts on a progressive individual form which becomes the psychic being. For since
the soul is itself a portion of the Supreme, it is immutable and
--
All the methods of self-knowledge, self-control and selfmastery are good. You have To choose the one that comes To you
spontaneously and best corresponds To your nature. And once
Series Nine - To a Young Teacher
having chosen the method, you must use your intelligent will
--
But then its action is slow and takes a very long time To
obtain a perceptible result.
--
To do good and forbids us To do evil. This voice is very useful
in ordinary life, until one is able To become conscious of one's
psychic being and allow oneself To be entirely guided by it - in
other words, To rise above ordinary humanity, free oneself from
all egoism and become a conscious instrument of the Divine
--
You have said that To be allowed To sit in Sri
Aurobindo's room and meditate there, "one must have
--
To do something for the Lord is To give Him something of what
one has or of what one does or of what one is. In other words,
To offer Him a part of our belongings or all our possessions, To
consecrate To Him a part of our work or all our activities, or To
give ourselves To Him Totally and unreservedly so that He can
take possession of our nature in order To transform and divinise
it. But there are many persons who, without giving anything,
--
Series Nine - To a Young Teacher
always want To take and To receive. These people are selfish and
they are not worthy of meditating in Sri Aurobindo's room.
--
The messages are usually chosen according To the occasion or
the need of the moment, so that each person may be able To find
in them either the force or the knowledge that will help him To
make progress.
In each one the will To progress is the needed thing - that
is what opens us To the divine influence and makes us capable
of receiving what it brings us.
--
and sets out on the path; it does not allow itself To be deceived by
any ambition, pride or desire, and so long as it does not receive
the Divine command To take up the path, it waits patiently,
The Hour of God and Other Writings, SABCL, Vol. 17, p. 39.
knowing that To start out Too soon is useless, To say the least,
and may be harmful.
--
To have or To keep than the nectar of the Immortals."7
What does this mean? Doesn't the Divine Grace always
--
Aurobindo says that it is extremely difficult for us To be in a
condition To receive it, keep it and make use of what it gives us.
Sri Aurobindo even says that it is more difficult than To
drink from the cup of the gods who are immortal.
--
Why isn't it possible To live always on the same
height of consciousness? Sometimes I fall despite every
--
of many different entities which are sometimes even contrary To
one another: some want the spiritual life, others are attached To
the things of this world. To make all these parts agree and To
unify them is a long and difficult task.
--
Series Nine - To a Young Teacher
The force and the light received by the more developed
--
of the more developed parts seems To be interrupted. This is
what Sri Aurobindo has spoken of.
--
Often it is possible To live moments of supreme
ecstasy because one is in contact with one's Personal
Divine. How To approach the Transcendent Divine?
It is utterly certain that if you were truly in contact with "your
personal divine", you would know perfectly well "how To approach the Transcendent Divine". For the two are identical; it is
only the mode of approach that differs: one is through the heart,
--
wanted To say is that in our best moments of receptivity,
we are in contact with a Presence To whom we feel an
imperative need To give ourselves and who is the object
of all our love and adoration. This Presence I have called
--
You. I know that it is not possible To have a complete
conception of the Divine at this stage.
So now tell me, Mother, if it is possible To have an
idea of the "Transcendent Divine".
My reply contained the answer To your question, for I unders Tood very well that you were not claiming anything, but had
expressed yourself poorly.
To discover the Transcendent Divine one has To follow the
intellectual discipline, the way of knowledge, and by successive
--
Whereas with one's heart, one can set out To discover the
Immanent Divine. And if one knows truly how To love, without
desire or egoism, one finds Him very soon, for always He comes
To meet you in order To help you.
12 November 1960
--
and habits of street-urchins might like To suggest and who seek
in what Sri Aurobindo has written an excuse for their excesses.
--
widening that enables you To understand everything and love
everything, without preference or exclusiveness.
--
Series Nine - To a Young Teacher
Sweet Mother,
We are Told that before the children came To the
Ashram, the conditions were a lot stricter and the discipline more rigorous. How and why have these conditions
--
Before the children came, only those who wanted To do sadhana
were admitted To the Ashram, and the only habits and activities
Tolerated were those that were useful for the practice of sadhana.
But as it would be unreasonable To demand that children
should do sadhana, this rigidity had To disappear the moment
the children were introduced in To the Ashram.
--
Is it possible To love You perfectly, absolutely, before
finding the psychic being within us?
--
call To come down upon earth... " Will you please explain
this? Hasn't it already come down?
--
and one little trifles of daily life which have To be thrown
away once they have served their purpose, as for example matchboxes, pencils, Toothbrushes, combs, even the
borders of a sari, which are much trampled on. Is it good
--
we adore. We must learn To live with respect and never forget
His constant and immutable Presence.
--
Series Nine - To a Young Teacher
If you are speaking of calendars with pho Tographs, it is preferable To cut out the pho Tos, and if you do not want To keep them,
give them To X who makes good use of them.
And if you are telling me that the pho Tos are damaged, this
will make you understand how necessary it is To take care of the
things we use. That is what I mean when I speak of living with
--
Is there a dynamic and rapid way To find one's
psychic being and To raise one's consciousness?
The only way that can be rapid is To think only of that and To
want only that.
01.01 - A Yoga of the Art of Life, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
When Sri Aurobindo said, Our Yoga is not for ourselves but for humanity, many heaved a sigh of relief and thought that the great soul was after all not entirely lost To the world, his was not one more name added To the long list of Sannyasins that India has been producing age after age without much profit either To herself or To the human society (or even perhaps To their own selves). People unders Tood his Yoga To be a modern one, dedicated To the service of humanity. If service To humanity was not the very sum and substance of his spirituality, it was, at least, the fruitful end and consummation. His Yoga was a sort of art To explore and harness certain unseen powers that can better and ameliorate human life in a more successful way than mere rational scientific methods can hope To do.
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
In order To get a nearer approach To the ideal for which Sri Aurobindo has been labouring, we may combine with advantage the two mot Toes he has given us and say that his mission is To find and express the Divine in humanity. This is the service he means To render To humanity, viz, To manifest and embody in it the Divine: his goal is not merely an amelioration, but a Total change and transformation, the divinisation of human life.
Here also one must guard against certain misconceptions that are likely To occur. The transformation of human life does not necessarily mean that the entire humanity will be changed in To a race of gods or divine beings; it means the evolution or appearance on earth of a superior type of humanity, even as man evolved out of animality as a superior type of animality, not that the entire animal kingdom was changed in To humanity.
As regards the possibility of such a consummation,Sri Aurobindo says it is not a possibility but an inevitabilityone must remember that the force that will bring about the result and is already at work is not any individual human power, however great it may be, but the Divine himself, it is the Divine's own Shakti that is labouring for the destined end.
Here is the very heart of the mystery, the master-key To the problem. The advent of the superhuman or divine race, however stupendous or miraculous the phenomenon may appear To be, can become a thing of practical actuality, precisely because it is no human agency that has undertaken it but the Divine himself in his supreme potency and wisdom and love. The descent of the Divine in To the ordinary human nature in order To purify and transform it and be lodged there is the whole secret of the sadhana in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga. The sadhaka has only To be quiet and silent, calmly aspiring, open and acquiescent and receptive To the one Force; he need not and should not try To do things by his independent personal effort, but get them done or let them be done for him in the dedicated consciousness by the Divine Master and Guide. All other Yogas or spiritual disciplines in the past envisaged an ascent of the consciousness, its sublimation in To the consciousness of the Spirit and its fusion and dissolution there in the end. The descent of the Divine Consciousness To prepare its definitive home in the dynamic and pragmatic human nature, if considered at all, was not the main theme of the past efforts and achievements. Furthermore, the descent spoken of here is the descent, not of a divine consciousness for there are many varieties of divine consciousness but of the Divine's own consciousness, of the Divine himself with his Shakti. For it is that that is directly working out this evolutionary transformation of the age.
It is not my purpose here To enter in To 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 in To the mind and begins its purifica Tory 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 in To the denser regions of the emotions and desires, of life activity and vital dynamism; finally, it gets in To 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-s Toreyed edifice that is human nature and human life in To 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 un Told 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 fac Tors, but a few decades on this side or the other do not matter very much.
As To the extent of realisation, we say again that that is not a matter of primary consideration. It is not the quantity but the substance that counts. Even if it were a small nucleus it would be sufficient, at least for the beginning, provided it is the real, the genuine thing
Swalpamapyasya dharmasya tryate maha To bhayt1
--
I have a word To add finally in justification of the title of this essay. For, it may be asked, how can spirituality be considered as one of the Arts or given an honourable place in their domain?
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
Someone has written To this effect: "This is not the age of Sri Aurobindo. His ideal of a divine life upon earth mayor may not be true; at any rate it is not of Today or even of Tomorrow. Humanity will take some time before it reaches that stage or its possibility. What we are concerned with here and now is something perhaps less great, less spiritual, but more urgent and more practical. The problem is not To run away with one's soul, but To maintain its earthly tenement, To keep body and soul Together: one has To live first, live materially before one can hope To live spiritually."
Well, the view expressed in these words is not a new revelation. It has been the cry of suffering humanity through the ages. Man has borne his cross since the beginning of his creation through want and privation, through disease and bereavement, through all manner of turmoil and tribulation, and yetmirabile dictuat the same time, in the very midst of those conditions, he has been aspiring and yearning for something else, ignoring the present, looking in To the beyond. It is not the prosperous and the more happily placed in life who find it more easy To turn To the higher life, it is not the wealthiest who has the greatest opportunity To pursue a spiritual idea. On the contrary, spiritual leaders have thought and experienced otherwise.
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 s Torage 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 in To 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 symp Toms 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 s Torage: 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
The world is in the throes of a new creation and the pangs of that new birth have made mother Earth restless. It is no longer a far-off ideal that our imagination struggles To visualise, nor a prophecy that yet remains To be fulfilled. It is Here and Now.
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 momen Tous 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.
Another humanity is rising out of the present human species. The beings of the new order are everywhere and it is they who will soon hold sway over earth, be the head and front of the terrestrial evolution in the cycle that is approaching as it was with man in the cycle that is passing away. What will this new order of being be like? It will be what man is not, also what man is. It will not be man, because it will overstep the limitations and incapacities inherent in man; and it will be man by the realisation of those fundamental aspirations and yearnings that have troubled and consoled the deeper strata the soulin him throughout the varied experiences of his terrestrial life.
The New Man will be Master and not slave. He will be master, first, of himself and then of the world. Man as he actually is, is but a slave. He has no personal voice or choice; the determining soul, the Ishwara, in him is sleep-bound and hushed. He is a mere plaything in the hands of nature and circumstances. Therefore it is that Science has become his supreme Dharmashastra; for science seeks To teach us the moods of Nature and the methods of propitiating her. Our actual ideal of man is that of the cleverest slave. But the New Man will have found himself and by and according To his inner will, mould and create his world. He will not be in awe of Nature and in an attitude of perpetual apprehension and hesitation, but will ground himself on a secret harmony and union that will declare him as the lord. We will recognise the New Man by his very gait and manner, by a certain kingly ease and dominion in every shade of his expression.
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 vic Tory 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 vic Tory 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.
And the new society will be based not upon competition, nor even upon co-operation. It will not be an open conflict, neither will it be a convenient compromise of rival individual interests. It will be the organic expression of the collective soul of humanity, working and achieving through each and every individual soul its most wide-winging freedom, manifesting the godhead that is, proper To each and every one. It will be an organisation, most delicate and subtle and supple, the members of which will have no need To live upon one another but in and through one another. It will be, if you like, a henotheistic hierarchy in which everyone will be the greatest, since everyone is all and all everyone simultaneously.
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
It is the lesson of life that always in this world everything fails a man - only the Divine does not fail him, if he turns entirely Towards the Divine. It is not because there is something bad in you that blows fall on you - blows fall on all human beings because they are full of desire for things that cannot last and they lose them or, even if they get, it brings disappointment and cannot satisfy them. To turn To the Divine is the only truth in life.
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 in To 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 in To 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 in To 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 in To 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.
Sadhana must be the main thing and sadhana means the purification of the nature, the consecration of the being, the opening of the psychic and the inner mind and vital, the contact and presence of the Divine, the realisation of the Divine in all things, surrender, devotion, the widening of the consciousness in To the cosmic Consciousness, the Self one in all, the psychic and the spiritual transformation of the nature.
--
This is a slow and difficult process; the road is long and it is hard To establish even the necessary basis. The old existing nature resists and obstructs and difficulties rise one after another and repeatedly till they are overcome. It is therefore necessary To be sure that this is the path To which one is called before one finally decides To tread it.
01.01 - The Symbol Dawn, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
And longed To reach its end in vacant Nought.
1.5
--
Something that wished but knew not how To be,
Teased the Inconscient To wake Ignorance.
1.9
--
Condemned To resume the effort and the pang,
Reviving in another frustrate world.
--
And a blank prescience yearned Towards distant change.
As if a childlike finger laid on a cheek
--
The Torpor of a sick and weary world,
To seek for a spirit sole and desolate
Too fallen To recollect forgotten bliss.
Intervening in a mindless universe,
--
Compelled renewed consent To see and feel.
A thought was sown in the unsounded Void,
--
As if a soul long dead were moved To live:
But the oblivion that succeeds the fall,
--
A hope s Tole in that hardly dared To be
Amid the Night's forlorn indifference.
--
Orphaned and driven out To seek a home,
An errant marvel with no place To live,
In To a far-off nook of heaven there came
--
The persistent thrill of a transfiguring Touch
Persuaded the inert black quietude
--
Forced the world's blind immensity To sight.
1.23
--
A Form from far beatitudes seemed To near.
1.31
--
Then, thoughtful, went To her immortal work.
1.33
--
And wideness turned To her its limitless eye,
And, scattered on sealed depths, her luminous smile
Kindled To fire the silence of the worlds.
1.34
--
On this anguished and precarious field of Toil
Outspread beneath some large indifferent gaze,
--
Here Too the vision and prophetic gleam
Lit in To miracles common meaningless shapes;
--
Too perfect To be held by death-bound hearts,
The prescience of a marvellous birth To come.
1.39
--
Adjoining mortal time To Timelessness,
A spark of deity lost in Matter's crypt
--
The excess of beauty natural To god-kind
Could not uphold its claim on time-born eyes;
--
All sprang To their unvarying daily acts;
The thousand peoples of the soil and tree
--
And Savitri Too awoke among these tribes
That hastened To join the brilliant Summoner's chant
And, lured by the beauty of the apparent ways,
--
Akin To the eternity whence she came,
No part she Took in this small happiness;
A mighty stranger in the human field,
--
The calm delight that weds one soul To all,
The key To the flaming doors of ecstasy.
2.8
--
Offered To the daughter of infinity
Her passion-flower of love and doom she gave.
--
Her self and all she was she had lent To men,
Hoping her greater being To implant
And in their body's lives acclimatise
--
Hard is it To persuade earth-nature's change;
Mortality bears ill the eternal's Touch:
It fears the pure divine in Tolerance
--
Their work betrayed, their good To evil turned,
The cross their payment for the crown they gave,
--
A fire has come and Touched men's hearts and gone;
A few have caught flame and risen To greater life.
2.15
Too unlike the world she came To help and save,
Her greatness weighed upon its ignorant breast
--
To live with grief, To confront death on her road,--
The mortal's lot became the Immortal's share.
--
Too great To impart the peril and the pain,
In her Torn depths she kept the grief To come.
2.19
--
She Told the secret of her woe To none:
Calm was her face and courage kept her mute.
--
Her spirit opened To the Spirit in all,
Her nature felt all Nature as its own.
--
Deep, quiet, old, made natural To its place,
But knew not why it was there nor whence it came.
--
Sullen, the Torch of sense refused To burn;
The unassisted brain found not its past.
--
Back To the yoke of ignorance and fate,
Back To the labour and stress of mortal days,
Lighting a pathway through strange symbol dreams
--
All came back To her: Earth and Love and Doom,
The ancient disputants, encircled her
--
Awoke To struggle and the pang divine,
And in the shadow of her flaming heart,
--
Bound To his throne, he waited unappeased
The daily oblation of her unwept tears.
--
Earth offers To the immortal Ecstasy
Began again beneath the eternal Hand.
01.02 - Natures Own Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The course of evolution has not come To a s Top with man and the next stage, Sri Aurobindo says, which Nature envisages and is labouring To bring out and establish is the life now superconscious To us, embodied in a still higher type of created being, that of the superman or god-man. The principle of consciousness which will determine the nature and build of this new, being is a spiritual principle beyond the mental principle which man now incarnates: it may be called the Supermind or Gnosis.
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 in To 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 in To the static status that is al Together 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 transi Toriness of the whole flux, and a necessity seems logically and psychologically imperative To escape in To the abiding substratum, the ineffable Absoluteness.
This has been the highest consummation, the supreme goal which the purest spiritual experience and the deepest aspiration of the human consciousness generally sought To attain. But in this view, the world or creation or Nature came in the end To be looked upon as fundamentally a product of Ignorance: ignorance and suffering and incapacity and death were declared To be the very hallmark of things terrestrial. The Light that dwells above and beyond can be made To shed for a while some kind of lustre upon the mortal darkness but never al Together To remove or change it To live in the full light, To be in and of the Light means To pass beyond. Not that there have not been other strands and types of spiritual experiences and aspirations, but the one we are considering has always struck the major chord and dominated and drowned all the rest.
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 in To 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 in To 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
The Upanishads speak of a solar and a lunar Path in the spiritual consciousness. Perhaps they have some reference To these two linesone through the Mayic consciousness of the Overmind enters in To the static Bliss, ecstatic Nihil, and the other mounts still farther To the solar status which is a mass, a sea, an infinity of that light and ecstasy but which can at the same time express and embody itself as the creative Truth-consciousness (srya svitr ).
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 in To Supermind one sees something moreOneness gathering in To 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 in To 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 contradic Tory 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 in To a play of united diversity; but on the line which ends in Matter it enters in To 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 in To 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 in To Life, Life awakening in To Mind and Mind now seeking To awaken in To something beyond the Mind, in To 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 in To 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.
II
The secret of evolution, I have said, is an urge Towards the release and unfoldment of consciousness out of an apparent unconsciousness. In the early stages the movement is very slow and gradual; there it is Nature's original unconscious process. In man it acquires the possibility of a conscious and therefore swifter and concentrated process. And this is in fact the function of Yoga proper, viz, To bring about the evolution of consciousness by hastening the process of Nature through the self-conscious will of man.
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 in To 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, in To 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 in To 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 in To the supramental consciousness and let it come down here below and work and achieve.
The soul or the true being in man uplifted in the supramental consciousness and at the same time coming forward To possess a divinised mind and life and body as an instrument and channel of its self-expression and an embodiment of the Divine Will and Purposesuch is the goal that Nature is seeking To realise at present through her evolutionary lan. It is To this labour that man has been called so that in and through him the destined transcendence and transformation can take place.
It is not easy, however, nor is it necessary for the moment To envisage in detail what this divinised man would be like, externallyhis mode of outward being and living, kimsita vrajeta kim, as Arjuna queriedor how the collective life of the new humanity would function or what would be the composition of its social fabric. For what is happening is a living process, an organic growth; it is being elaborated through the actions and reactions of multitudinous forces and conditions, known and unknown; the precise configuration of the final outcome cannot be predicted with exactitude. But the Power that is at work is omniscient; it is selecting, rejecting, correcting, fashioning, creating, co-ordinating elements in accordance with and by the drive of the inviolable law of Truth and Harmony that reigns in Light's own homeswe dame the Supermind.
It is also To be noted that as mind is not the last limit of the march of evolution, even so the progress of evolution will not s Top with the manifestation and embodiment of the Supermind. There are other still higher principles beyond and they Too presumably await manifestation and embodiment on earth. Creation has no beginning in time (andi) nor has it an end (ananta). It is an eternal process of the unravelling of the mysteries of the Infinite. Only, it may be said that with the Supermind the creation here enters in To a different order of existence. Before it there was the domain of Ignorance, after it will come the reign of Light and Knowledge. Mortality has been the governing principle of life on earth till now; it will be replaced by the consciousness of immortality. Evolution has proceeded through struggle and pain; hereafter it will be a spontaneous, harmonious and happy flowering.
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
The Supermind is not merely synthetic. The Supermind is synthetic only on the lowest spaces of itself, where it has To prepare the principles of Overmind,synthesis is necessary only where analysis has taken place, one has dissected everything, put in pieces (analysis), so one has To piece Together. But Supermind is unitarian, has never divided up, so it does not need To add and piece Together the parts and fragments. It has always held the conscious Many Together in the conscious One.
***
01.02 - Sri Aurobindo - Ahana and Other Poems, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
What is the world that Sri Aurobindo sees and creates? Poetry is after all passion. By passion I do not mean the fury of emotion nor the fume of sentimentalism, but what lies behind at their source, what lends them the force they have the sense of the "grandly real," the vivid and pulsating truth. What then is the thing that Sri Aurobindo has visualised, has endowed with a throbbing life and made a poignant reality? Vic Tor Hugo said: Attachez Dieu au gibet, vous avez la croixTie God To the gibbet, you have the cross. Even so, infuse passion in To a thing most prosaic, you create sublime poetry out of it. What is the dead matter that has found life and glows and vibrates in Sri Aurobindo's passion? It is something which appears To many poetically intractable, not amenable To aesthetic treatment, not usually, that is To say, nor in the supreme manner. Sri Aurobindo has thrown such a material in To his poetic fervour and created a sheer beauty, a stupendous reality out of it. Herein lies the greatness of his achievement. Philosophy, however divine, and in spite of Mil Ton, has been regarded by poets as "harsh and crabbed" and as such unfit for poetic delineation. Not a few poets indeed foundered upon this rock. A poet in his own way is a philosopher, but a philosopher chanting out his philosophy in sheer poetry has been one of the rarest spectacles.1 I can think of only one instance just now where a philosopher has almost succeeded being a great poet I am referring To Lucretius and his De Rerum Natura. Neither Shakespeare nor Homer had anything like philosophy in their poetic creation. And in spite of some inclination To philosophy and philosophical ideas Virgil and Mil Ton were not philosophers either. Dante sought perhaps consciously and deliberately To philosophise in his Paradiso I Did he? The less Dante then is he. For it is his Inferno, where he is a passionate visionary, and not his Paradiso (where he has put in more thought-power) that marks the nee plus ultra of his poetic achievement.
And yet what can be more poetic in essence than philosophy, if by philosophy we mean, as it should mean, spiritual truth and spiritual realisation? What else can give the full breath, the integral force To poetic inspiration if it is not the problem of existence itself, of God, Soul and Immortality, things that Touch, that are at the very root of life and reality? What can most concern man, what can strike the deepest fount in him, unless it is the mystery of his own being, the why and the whither of it all? But mankind has been taught and trained To live merely or mostly on earth, and poetry has been treated as the expression of human joys and sorrows the tears in mortal things of which Virgil spoke. The savour of earth, the thrill of the flesh has been Too sweet for us and we have forgotten other sweetnesses. It is always the human element that we seek in poetry, but we fail To recognise that what we obtain in this way is humanity in its lower degrees, its surface formulations, at its minimum magnitude.
We do not say that poets have never sung of God and Soul and things transcendent. Poets have always done that. But what I say is this that presentation of spiritual truths, as they are in their own home, in other words, treated philosophically and yet in a supreme poetic manner, has always been a rarity. We have, indeed, in India the Gita and the Upanishads, great philosophical poems, if there were any. But for one thing they are on dizzy heights out of the reach of common man and for another they are idolised more as philosophy than as poetry. Doubtless, our Vaishnava poets sang of God and Love Divine; and Rabindranath, in one sense, a typical modern Vaishnava, did the same. And their songs are masterpieces. But are they not all human, Too human, as the mad prophet would say? In them it is the human significance, the human manner that Touches and moves us the spiritual significance remains esoteric, is suggested, is a matter of deduction. Sri Aurobindo has dealt with spiritual experiences in a different way. He has not clothed them in human symbols and allegories, in images and figures of the mere earthly and secular life: he presents them in their nakedness, just as they are seen and realised. He has not sought To Tone down the rigour of truth with contrivances that easily charm and captivate the common human mind and heart. Nor has he indulged like so many poet philosophers in vague generalisations and colourless or Too colourful truisms that do not embody a clear thought or rounded idea, a radiant judgment. Sri Aurobindo has given us in his poetry thoughts that are clear-cut, ideas beautifully chiselledhe is always luminously forceful.
Take these Vedantic lines that in their limpidity and harmonious flow beat anything found in the fine French poet Lamartine:
--
To be His arms whom I have sought; I saw
How earth was made
--
To build the suns.
Through endless Space and on Time's iron wings
--
He is, we cannot say; for Nothing Too
Is His conception of Himself unguessed.
--
This is sheer philosophy, Told with an almost philosophical bluntnessmay be, but is it mere philosophy and mediocre poetry? Once more listen To the Upanishadic lines:
Deep in the luminous secrecy, the mute
--
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 in To 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 in To 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
Of imagination all compact.. . .
--
The heart and its urges, the vital and its surges, the physical impulsesit is these of which the poets sang in their infinite variations. But the mind proper, that is To say, the higher reflective ideative mind, was not given the right of citizenship in the domain of poetry. I am not forgetting the so-called Metaphysicals. The element of metaphysics among the Metaphysicals has already been called in To question. There is here, no doubt, some theology, a good dose of mental cleverness or conceit, but a modern intellectual or rather rational intelligence is something other, something more than that. Even the metaphysics that was commandeered here had more or less a decorative value, it could not be taken in To the pith and substance of poetic truth and beauty. It was a decoration, but not unoften a drag. I referred To the Upanishads, but these strike quite a different, almost an opposite line in this connection. They are in a sense truly metaphysical: they bypass the mind and the mental powers, get hold of a higher mode of consciousness, make a direct contact with truth and beauty and reality. It was Buddha's credit To have forged this missing link in man's spiritual consciousness, To have brought in To play the power of the rational intellect and used it in support of the spiritual experience. That is not To say that he was the very first person, the origina Tor who initiated the movement; but at least this seems To be true that in him and his au thentic followers the movement came To the forefront of human consciousness and attained the proportions of a major member of man's psychological constitution. We may remember here that Socrates, who started a similar movement of rationalisation in his own way in Europe, was almost a contemporary of the Buddha.
Poetry as an expression of thought-power, poetry weighted with intelligence and rationalised knowledge that seems To me To be the end and drive, the secret sense of all the mystery of modern technique. The combination is risky, but not impossible. In the spiritual domain the Gita achieved this miracle To a considerable degree. Still, the power of intelligence and reason shown by Vyasa is of a special order: it is a sublimated function of the faculty, something aloof and other-worldly"introvert", a modern mind would term it that is To say, something a priori, standing in its own au thenticity and self-sufficiency. A modern intelligence would be more scientific, let us use the word, more matter-of-fact and sense-based: the mental light should not be confined in its ivory Tower, however high that may be, but brought down and placed at the service of our perception and appreciation and explanation of things human and terrestrial; made immanent in the mundane and the ephemeral, as they are commonly called. This is not an impossibility. Sri Aurobindo seems To have done the thing. In him we find the three terms of human consciousness arriving at an absolute fusion and his poetry is a wonderful example of that fusion. The three terms are the spiritual, the intellectual or philosophical and the physical or sensational. The intellectual, or more generally, the mental, is the intermediary, the Paraclete, as he himself will call it later on in a poem9 magnificently exemplifying the point we are trying To make out the agent who negotiates, bridges and harmonises the two other firmaments usually supposed To be antagonistic and incompatible.
Indeed it would be wrong To associate any cold ascetic nudity To the spiritual body of Sri Aurobindo. His poetry is philosophic, abstract, no doubt, but every philosophy has its practice, every abstract thing its concrete application,even as the soul has its body; and the fusion, not mere union, of the two is very characteristic in him. The deepest and unseizable flights of thought he knows how To clo the with a Kalidasian richness of imagery, or a Keatsean gus To of sensuousness:
. . . . .O flowers, O delight on the tree- Tops burning!
--
Hales them out naked and absolute, out To his wood lands eternal,
Out To his moonlit dances, his dalliance sweet and supernal;10
And it would be wrong Too To suppose that there is want of sympathy in Sri Aurobindo for ordinary humanity, that he is not susceptible To sentiments, To the weaknesses, that stir the natural man. Take for example this line so instinct with a haunting melancholy strain:
Cold are your rivers of peace and their banks are leafless and lonely.
--
Come To our tangled sunbeams, dawn on our twilights and shadows
or again,
--
And here, let me point out, the capital difference between the European or rather the Hellenic spirit and the Indian spirit. It is the Indian spirit To take stand upon divinity and thence To embrace and mould what is earthly and human. The Greek spirit Took its stand pre-eminently on earth and what belongs To earth. In Europe Dante's was a soul spiritualised more than perhaps any other and yet his is not a Hindu soul. The utmost that he could say after all the experience of the tragedy of mortality was:
Io no piangeva, sidentro impietrai13
--
However spiritual a soul, Dante is yet bound To the earth, he has dominated perhaps but not conquered.
The Greek sings of the humanity of man, the Indian the divinity of man. It is the Hellenic spirit that has very largely moulded our taste and we have forgotten that an equally poetic world exists in the domain of spiritual life, even in its very severity, as in that of earthly life and its sweetness. And as we are passionate about the earthly life, even so Sri Aurobindo has made a passion of the spiritual life. Poetry after all has a mission; the phrase "Art for Art's sake" may be made To mean anything. Poetry is not merely what is pleasing, not even what is merely Touching and moving but what is at the same time, inspiring, invigorating, elevating. Truth is indeed beauty but it is not always the beauty that captivates the eye or the mere aesthetic sense.
And because our Vedic poets always looked beyond humanity, beyond earth, therefore could they make divine poetry of humanity and what is of earth. Therefore it was that they were pervadingly so grandiose and sublime and puissant. The heroic, the epic was their natural element and they could not but express themselves in the grand manner Sri Aurobindo has the same outlook and it is why we find in him the ring of the old-world manner.
--
Arching its neck as it paces grand To the gorges
of danger.
--
The superb and the right imperial Tone instinct with a concentrated force of
Who art thou, warrior armed gloriously
--
And if there is something in the creative spirit of Sri Aurobindo which tends more Towards the strenuous than the genial, the arduous than the mellifluous, and which has more of the austerity of Vyasa than the easy felicity of Valmiki, however it might have affected the ultimate value of his creation, according To certain standards,14 it has illustrated once more that poetry is not merely beauty but power, it is not merely sweet imagination but creative visionit is even the Rik, the mantra that impels the gods To manifest upon earth, that fashions divinity in man.
James H. Cousins in his New Ways in English Literature describes Sri Aurobindo as "the philosopher as poet."
--
it cannot be said that Aurobindo shows any organic adaptation To music and melody. His thought is profound; his technical devices are commendable; but the music that enchants or disturbs is not there. Aurobindo is not another Tagore or Iqbal, or even Sarojini Naidu."The Times Literary Supplement, July 8, 1944.
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01.02 - The Creative Soul, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The difference between living organism and dead matter is that while the former is endowed with creative activity, the latter has only passive receptivity. Life adds, synthetises, new-createsgives more than what it receives; matter only sums up, gathers, reflects, gives just what it receives. Life is living, glad and green through its creative genius. Creation in some form or other must be the core of everything that seeks vitality and growth, vigour and delight. Not only so, but a thing in order To be real must possess a creative function. We consider a shadow or an echo unreal precisely because they do not create but merely image or repeat, they do not bring out anything new but simply reflect what is given. The whole of existence is real because it is eternally creative.
So the problem that concerns man, the riddle that humanity has To solve is how To find out and follow the path of creativity. If we are not To be dead matter nor mere shadowy illusions we must be creative. A misconception that has vitiated our outlook in general and has been the most potent cause of a sterilising atavism in the moral evolution of humanity is that creativity is an aris Tocratic virtue, that it belongs only To the chosen few. A great poet or a mighty man of action creates indeed, but such a crea Tor does not appear very frequently. A Shakespeare or a Napoleon is a rare phenomenon; they are, in reality, an exception To the general run of mankind. It is enough if we others can understand and follow themMahajano yena gatahlet the great souls initiate and create, the common souls have only To repeat and imitate.
But this is not as it should be, nor is it the truth of the matter. Every individual soul, however placed it may be, is by nature creative; every individual being lives To discover and To create.
The inmost reality of man is not a passive receptacle, a mere responsive medium but it is a dynamoa power-station generating and throwing out energy that produces and creates.
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 in To 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 cus Tom 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 s Top 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.
Not To do what others do, but what your soul impels you To do. Not To be others but your own self. Not To be anything but the very cosmic and infinite divinity of your soul. Therein lies your highest freedom and perfect delight. And there you are supremely creative. Each soul has a consortPrakriti, Naturewhich it creates out of its own rib. And in this field of infinite creativity the soul lives, moves and has its being.
***
01.02 - The Issue, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Lay mapped To her sun-clear recording view,
From the bright country of her childhood's days
--
On man sometimes when he draws near To God:
An hour arrives when fail all Nature's means;
--
The burdensome heirship To our vanished forms
Accepted blindly by the body and soul.
--
And life has no sense and love no place To stand,
She must plead her case upon extinction's verge,
--
And vindicate her right To be and love.
3.14
--
A mailed battalion marching To its doom,
The last long days went by with heavy tramp,
Long but Too soon To pass, Too near the end.
3.18
--
There had she grown To the stature of her spirit:
The genius of titanic silences
--
Had shown To her her self's bare reality
And mated her with her environment.
--
And the hours forgot To pass Towards grief and change.
3.27
--
Changing To rapture the dull earthly round,
Love came To her hiding the shadow, Death.
3.28
--
All in her pointed To a nobler kind.
3.31
Near To earth's wideness, intimate with heaven,
Exalted and swift her young large-visioned spirit
--
Overflew the ways of Thought To unborn things.
3.32
--
Or golden temple-door To things beyond.
3.34
--
Where life is not exposed To sorrowful change,
Remembered beauty death-claimed lids ignore
--
Although she leaned To bear the human load,
Her walk kept still the measures of the gods.
--
Earth's breath had failed To stain that brilliant glass:
Unsmeared with the dust of our mortal atmosphere
--
That will not suffer long Too glad a note.
4.8
On her Too closed the inescapable Hand:
The armed Immortal bore the snare of Time.
--
The dubious godhead with his Torch of pain
Lit up the chasm of the unfinished world
And called her To fill with her vast self the abyss.
4.11
--
He made her heart kin To the striving human heart
And forced her strength To its appointed road.
4.13
--
Whether To bear with Ignorance and death
Or hew the ways of Immortality,
--
But not To submit and suffer was she born;
To lead, To deliver was her glorious part.
4.16
--
Flung To the eddies in a ruthless sport
And Tossed along the gulfs of Circumstance,
A creature born To bend beneath the yoke,
A chattel and a plaything of Time's lords,
Or one more pawn who comes destined To be pushed
One slow move forward on a measureless board
--
An answering Touch might shatter all measures made
And earth sink down with the weight of the Infinite.
--
A seal on the Too large wide-open heart;
Death stays the journeying discoverer, Life.
--
Her head she bowed not To the stark decree
Baring her helpless heart To destiny's stroke.
4.27
--
Obedient To the statutes fixed of old,
Admitting without appeal the nether gods.
--
Inapt To fold its mighty wings of dream
Her spirit refused To hug the common soil,
Or, finding all life's golden meanings robbed,
--
Accus Tomed To the eternal and the true,
Her being conscious of its divine founts
--
A work she had To do, a word To speak:
Writing the unfinished s Tory of her soul
--
She accepted not To close the luminous page,
Cancel her commerce with eternity,
--
A force in her that Toiled since earth was made,
Accomplishing in life the great world-plan,
--
Repugned To admit frustration's barren role,
Forfeit the meaning of her birth in Time,
--
Or yield her high destiny up To passing Chance.
4.33
--
Her strength made greater by the lightning's Touch
Awoke from slumber in her heart's recess.
--
Can link man's strength To a transcendent Force.
4.39
--
An endless servitude To material rule
And long determination's rigid chain,
--
He Too is a machine amid machines;
A pis Ton brain pumps out the shapes of thought,
--
Empowered To force the door denied and closed
Smote from Death's visage its dumb absolute
--- Grep of noun to
4to
aalto
additions to esther
agrigento
air-to-air missile
air-to-ground missile
air-to-surface missile
air potato
alecto
allegretto
allegro con spirito
alto
alvar aalto
amaretto
analog-to-digital converter
antipasto
asian tiger mosquito
atlantic bonito
auto
baked potato
basuto
battle of caporetto
battle of lepanto
beef burrito
beefsteak tomato
bel canto
bonito
bride-to-be
burrito
cabbage palmetto
caimito
callisto
canto
caporetto
caracolito
case-to-infection proportion
case-to-infection ratio
castrato
cavetto
cherry tomato
chile bonito
chilean bonito
chrysophyllum cainito
cold stuffed tomato
committal to memory
committal to writing
common mosquito
communist manifesto
concerto
conto
contrafagotto
contralto
couch potato
counsel to the crown
desire to know
digital-to-analog converter
ditto
divertimento
el muerto
epistle of paul the apostle to philemon
epistle of paul the apostle to the colossians
epistle of paul the apostle to the ephesians
epistle of paul the apostle to the galatians
epistle of paul the apostle to the philippians
epistle of paul the apostle to the romans
epistle of paul the apostle to titus
epistle to philemon
epistle to the colossians
epistle to the ephesians
epistle to the galatians
epistle to the hebrews
epistle to the philippians
epistle to the romans
epistle to titus
erato
esperanto
falsetto
first epistle of paul the apostle to the corinthians
first epistle of paul the apostle to the thessalonians
first epistle of paul the apostle to timothy
first epistle to the corinthians
first epistle to the thessalonians
first epistle to timothy
freedom to bear arms
frijolito
fto
gateway to the west
genus tyto
ghetto
giotto
giovanni cabato
giuseppe melchiorre sarto
giuseppe sarto
going to jerusalem
golden potto
gospel according to john
gospel according to luke
gospel according to mark
gospel according to matthew
graffito
groom-to-be
grotto
gulf of lepanto
gusto
hand-to-hand struggle
harold kroto
harold w. kroto
heart-to-heart
hell to pay
hirohito
hot potato
hot stuffed tomato
hugo alvar henrik aalto
husk tomato
impasto
inamorato
indian potato
irish potato
isoroku yamamoto
jacket potato
junto
kokka shinto
koto
kroto
kyoto
larghetto
lazaretto
lean-to
lean-to tent
lepanto
leto
libretto
little potato
lobito
lotto
magneto
malaria mosquito
malarial mosquito
malto
manifesto
mankato
maputo
marshal tito
mashed potato
memento
mexican husk tomato
michinomiya hirohito
mosquito
motto
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
mr. moto
mulatto
mutsuhito
nacimiento
nato
ninigino-mikoto
nov-esperanto
obbligato
obligato
oceanic bonito
oporto
ostinato
oto
output-to-input ratio
pacific bonito
palmetto
palo alto
palo santo
panto
pareto
part to whole relation
party to the action
party to the transaction
pashto
pasto
paxto
pentimento
perodicticus potto
pesto
photo
pimento
pimiento
pinto
pizzicato
plato
plum tomato
pluto
pocket veto
porto
potato
potto
price-to-earnings ratio
pronunciamento
prosciutto
pto
putting to death
quarto
quattrocento
quito
quo warranto
rabato
radiophoto
razbliuto
ready-to-wear
rebato
recto
right to an attorney
right to confront accusors
right to due process
right to liberty
right to life
right to privacy
right to speedy and public trial by jury
right to the pursuit of happiness
right to vote
rise to power
risotto
road to damascus
rubato
ruptiliocarpon caracolito
sabal palmetto
sacramento
saw palmetto
scrub palmetto
second epistle of paul the apostle to the corinthians
second epistle of paul the apostle to the thessalonians
second epistle of paul the apostle to timothy
second epistle to the corinthians
second epistle to the thessalonians
second epistle to timothy
set-to
sgraffito
shinto
shuha shinto
signal-to-noise
signal-to-noise ratio
silvertop palmetto
sir harold walter kroto
soweto
spiccato
stiletto
strawberry tomato
stuffed tomato
suharto
surface-to-air missile
surface-to-air missile system
sweet potato
talking to
telephoto
telingo potato
terzetto
time to come
tintoretto
tito
to-do
to leeward
to windward
toad
toad-in-the-hole
toad frog
toad lily
toad rush
toadfish
toadflax
toadshade
toadstool
toady
toast
toast mistress
toaster
toaster oven
toasting
toasting fork
toastmaster
toastrack
tobacco
tobacco budworm
tobacco hornworm
tobacco industry
tobacco juice
tobacco mildew
tobacco mosaic
tobacco mosaic virus
tobacco moth
tobacco pipe
tobacco plant
tobacco pouch
tobacco shop
tobacco thrips
tobacco user
tobacco wilt
tobacconist
tobacconist shop
tobago
tobagonian
tobey
tobias george smollett
tobias smollett
tobin
tobin bronze
tobit
toboggan
toboggan cap
tobogganing
tobogganist
tobramycin
toby
toby fillpot jug
toby jug
tocainide
tocantins
tocantins river
toccata
tocharian
tocktact
tocology
tocopherol
tocqueville
tocsin
tod
toda
today
todd
toddler
toddy
toddy palm
todea
todea barbara
todea superba
todidae
todus
tody
toe
toe-in
toe box
toe crack
toe dance
toe dancing
toe toe
toea
toecap
toehold
toenail
toetoe
toff
toffee
toffee apple
toffy
tofieldia
tofieldia pusilla
tofranil
tofu
toga
toga virilis
togaviridae
togetherness
toggle
toggle bolt
toggle joint
toggle switch
togo
togo franc
togolese
togolese republic
togs
toil
toiler
toilet
toilet articles
toilet bag
toilet bowl
toilet facility
toilet kit
toilet paper
toilet powder
toilet roll
toilet seat
toilet soap
toilet table
toilet tissue
toilet training
toilet water
toiletry
toilette
toilsomeness
toitoi
tojo
tojo eiki
tojo hideki
tokamak
tokay
toke
token
token economy
token money
token payment
tokio
toklas
tokyo
tolazamide
tolazoline
tolbooth
tolbukhin
tolbutamide
tole
tolectin
toledo
tolerance
toleration
tolinase
tolkien
toll
toll agent
toll bridge
toll call
toll collector
toll house cookie
toll line
toll plaza
toll road
toll taker
tollbar
tollbooth
toller
tollgate
tollgatherer
tollhouse
tollkeeper
tollman
tollon
tolmetin sodium
tolmiea
tolmiea menziesii
tolstoy
toltec
tolu
tolu balsam
tolu balsam tree
tolu tree
toluene
toluic acid
tolypeutes
tolypeutes tricinctus
tom
tom-tom
tom and jerry
tom bradley
tom collins
tom hanks
tom paine
tom sawyer
tom stoppard
tom thumb
tom turkey
tom wolfe
tomahawk
tomalley
tomas de torquemada
tomasso parentucelli
tomatillo
tomato
tomato blight
tomato concentrate
tomato fruitworm
tomato hornworm
tomato juice
tomato ketchup
tomato paste
tomato plant
tomato sauce
tomato streak
tomato worm
tomato yellows
tomb
tombac
tombak
tombaugh
tombigbee
tombigbee river
tombola
tomboy
tomboyishness
tombstone
tomcat
tome
tomentum
tomentum cerebri
tomfool
tomfoolery
tomistoma
tomistoma schlegeli
tommy gun
tommyrot
tomograph
tomography
tomorrow
tompion
tomtate
tomtit
ton
tonal language
tonal pattern
tonal system
tonality
tone
tone-beginning
tone arm
tone deafness
tone ending
tone language
tone of voice
tone poem
tone system
tonegawa susumu
toner
tong ho
tonga
tongan
tongan monetary unit
tongs
tongue
tongue-fish
tongue-flower
tongue-lashing
tongue and groove joint
tongue depressor
tongue fern
tongue tie
tongue twister
tongue worm
tonguefish
tongueflower
tongueless frog
tonguing and grooving plane
toni morrison
tonic
tonic accent
tonic epilepsy
tonic key
tonic solfa
tonic water
tonicity
tonight
tonka bean
tonka bean tree
tonnage
tonnage duty
tonne
tonocard
tonometer
tonometry
tons
tonsil
tonsilla
tonsilla adenoidea
tonsilla pharyngealis
tonsillectomy
tonsillitis
tonsure
tontine
tontine insurance
tonus
tony blair
tool
tool-and-die work
tool bag
tool cabinet
tool case
tool chest
tool kit
tool steel
toolbox
toolhouse
toolmaker
toolshed
toon
toona
toona calantas
tooshie
toot
tooth
tooth decay
tooth doctor
tooth enamel
tooth fairy
tooth fungus
tooth powder
tooth root
tooth shell
tooth socket
toothache
toothache tree
toothbrush
toothbrush tree
toothed spurge
toothed sword fern
toothed whale
toothed wheel
toothpaste
toothpick
toothpowder
toothsomeness
toothwort
tootle
toowomba canary grass
top
top-up
top banana
top billing
top boot
top brass
top dog
top dressing
top executive
top fermentation
top fermenting yeast
top hat
top lift
top of the inning
top of the line
top onion
top quark
top round
top side
topaz
topcoat
tope
topee
topeka
toper
toper's nose
topgallant
topgallant mast
topgallant sail
tophus
topi
topiary
topic
topic sentence
topical anaesthesia
topical anaesthetic
topical anesthesia
topical anesthetic
topical prostaglandin eyedrop
topicality
topicalization
topknot
topmast
topminnow
topognosia
topognosis
topographic anatomy
topographic point
topography
topolatry
topological space
topology
toponomy
toponym
toponymy
topos
topper
topping
topsail
topside
topsoil
topspin
topsy-turvydom
topsy-turvyness
topv
toque
tor
toradol
torah
torch
torch race
torch singer
torch song
torchbearer
torchlight
torchwood family
tore
toreador
toreador pants
torero
torino
torment
tormenter
tormentor
tornado
tornado cellar
tornado lantern
tornillo
torodal
toroid
toronto
torpedinidae
torpediniformes
torpedo
torpedo-boat destroyer
torpedo boat
torpedo tube
torpidity
torpidness
torpor
torquato tasso
torque
torque converter
torque wrench
torquemada
torr
torrent
torreon
torres strait
torrey's pine
torrey pine
torrey tree
torreya
torreya californica
torreya taxifolia
torricelli
torrid zone
torridity
torsion
torsion balance
torsk
torso
tort
tort-feasor
torte
tortellini
tortfeasor
torticollis
tortilla
tortilla chip
tortoise
tortoise plant
tortoiseshell
tortoiseshell-cat
tortoiseshell butterfly
tortoiseshell turtle
tortricid
tortricid moth
tortricidae
tortrix
tortuosity
tortuousness
torture
torture chamber
torturer
torturing
torus
tory
toscana
toscanini
tosh
tosk
tosk dialect
toss
toss-up
toss bombing
tossed salad
tosser
tossup
tostada
tot
total
total aphasia
total darkness
total depravity
total eclipse
total heat
total hysterectomy
total parenteral nutrition
totalisator
totaliser
totalism
totalitarian
totalitarian state
totalitarianism
totalitation regime
totality
totalizator
totalizer
totara
tote
tote bag
totem
totem pole
totemism
totemist
toter
totipotence
totipotency
totten trust
totterer
toucan
toucanet
touch
touch-me-not
touch-typist
touch football
touch modality
touch perception
touch screen
touch sensation
touch system
touch typing
touchback
touchdown
toucher
touchiness
touching
touchline
touchscreen
touchstone
touchwood
tough
tough guy
tough luck
toughie
toughness
toulon
toulouse
toulouse-lautrec
toupe
toupee
tour
tour de force
tour de france
tour guide
tour of duty
touraco
tourer
tourette
tourette's syndrome
touring car
tourism
tourist
tourist attraction
tourist class
tourist court
touristry
tourmaline
tournament
tournedos
tourney
tourniquet
tours
tourtiere
tout
tout ensemble
touter
tovarich
tovarisch
tow
tow-headed snake
tow car
tow truck
towage
towboat
towel
towel bar
towel horse
towel rack
towel rail
towel ring
toweling
towelling
tower
tower block
tower cress
tower mustard
tower of babel
tower of london
tower of pharos
tower of strength
towhead
towhee
towing line
towing path
towing rope
towline
town
town clerk
town crier
town gas
town hall
town house
town meeting
town planning
townee
towner
townes
townie
townsend
townsend harris
townsendia
townsendia exscapa
townsfolk
township
townsman
townspeople
towny
towpath
towrope
toxaemia
toxaemia of pregnancy
toxemia
toxemia of pregnancy
toxic condition
toxic dumpsite
toxic industrial waste
toxic shock
toxic shock syndrome
toxic site
toxic waste
toxic waste area
toxic waste dump
toxic waste site
toxicant
toxicity
toxicodendron
toxicodendron diversilobum
toxicodendron quercifolium
toxicodendron radicans
toxicodendron vernicifluum
toxicodendron vernix
toxicognath
toxicologist
toxicology
toxin
toxin antitoxin
toxoid
toxoplasmosis
toxostoma
toxostoma rufums
toxotes
toxotes jaculatrix
toxotidae
toy
toy box
toy business
toy chest
toy dog
toy industry
toy manchester
toy manchester terrier
toy poodle
toy soldier
toy spaniel
toy terrier
toying
toynbee
toyohashi
toyon
toyonaki
toyota
toyshop
track-to-track seek time
tree tomato
trento
tupungatito
tupungato
tyto
up-to-dateness
uruguay potato
veneto
veto
vibrato
vilfredo pareto
war to end war
white potato
whole to part relation
wild potato
work to rule
wto
yamamoto
yellow-fever mosquito
yellow dwarf of potato