1. Accompanying in a circumstantial relation; going with as a concomitant; closely consequent. 2. Following closely. 3. Waiting for, awaiting, expecting (a future time, event, result, decision, etc.)
1. A distinctive and pervasive quality or character; air; atmosphere. 2. A subtle emanation from and enveloping living persons and things, viewed by mystics as consisting of the essence of the individual.
1. Filled with bliss, ecstasy; joy. 2. Filled with spiritual joy. All-Blissful.
1. Hammered or struck repeatedly. 2. Defeated, vanquished, baffled, overcome.
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. 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. 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.
abhorred ::: regarded with extreme repugnance, aversion or disgust; detested; loathed. abhorring.
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.
aisle ::: a longitudinal division of an interior area, as in a church, separated from the main area by an arcade or divided by a row of pillars. aisles.
abject ::: utterly hopeless, miserable, humiliating, or wretched.
a body of executive officials collectively entrusted with the execution and administration of laws.
abolish ::: to put an end to, to do away with; to annul or make void; to demolish, destroy or annihilate. abolished, abolishing.
absent ::: 1. Being away, withdrawn from, or not present (at a place). 2. Of time: Not present, distant, far off.
absolutism ::: an absolute standard or principle.
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.
absolute reality ::: Sri Aurobindo: "I would myself say that bliss and oneness are the essential condition of the absolute reality, and love as the most characteristic dynamic power of bliss and oneness must support fundamentally and colour their activities; . . . .” Letters on Yoga
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.
abstractions ::: things which have no independent existence, which exist only in idea; visionary and unrealistic.
abusing ::: using improperly, misusing; perverting, or misemploying; taking a bad advantage of.
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.
accomplished ::: fulfilled, completed, finished, perfected. accomplishing.
::: "According to the nature and the circumstances the call will come.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
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.
accurate ::: 1. Exact, precise, correct, as the result of care. 2. Free from error or defect; consistent with a standard, rule, or model; precise, exact.
accursed ::: lying under a curse or anathema; ill fated; doomed to perdition or misery.
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.
achieved ::: completed, accomplished; attained, won.
achievement ::: something accomplished, esp. by superior ability, special effort, great courage, etc. achievements.
acknowledged ::: recognized the existence, truth or fact of; admitted as true, valid, or authoritative.
acolyte ::: an attendant or junior assistant in any ceremony or operation; a novice; follower. acolytes.
"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.
acquittance ::: release from a debt or obligation; discharge.
"Action is a resultant of the energy of the being, but this energy is not of one sole kind; the Consciousness-Force of the Spirit manifests itself in many kinds of energies: there are inner activities of mind, activities of life, of desire, passion, impulse, character, activities of the senses and the body, a pursuit of truth and knowledge, a pursuit of beauty, a pursuit of ethical good or evil, a pursuit of power, love, joy, happiness, fortune, success, pleasure, life-satisfactions of all kinds, life-enlargement, a pursuit of individual or collective objects, a pursuit of the health, strength, capacity, satisfaction of the body.” The Life Divine*
actual ::: in action or existence at the time; present, current, real. Actual"s.
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.
adept ::: one who is completely versed (in something); thoroughly proficient; well-skilled; expert. adepts.
administration ("s)
admires ::: 1. Regards with pleased surprise, or with wonder mingled with esteem, approbation, or affection; and in modern usage, gazed on with pleasure. admired, admiring. adj. 2. Regarded with admiration; wondered at; contemplated with wonder mingled with esteem, etc.
admonishing ::: 1. Reproving or scolding, especially in a mild or good-willed manner. 2. Urging to a duty; reminding.
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*
adored ::: the One who is worshipped, (referring here to Krishna).
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.
adventurer ::: one who seeks adventures, or who engages in daring enterprises. (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.) adventurers, Adventurers.
adversary ::: a person, group or force that opposes or attacks, or acts in a hostile manner; an opponent, antagonist; an enemy, foe. adversary"s.
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.
aegis ::: originally the shield or breastplate of Zeus, or Athena. Currently, protection; support; sponsorship; auspices.
aesthesis ::: the perception of the external world by the senses.
"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
"A fabulous tribe of wild, beastlike monsters, having the upper part of a human being and the lower part of a horse. They live in the woods or mountains of Elis, Arcadia, and Thessaly. They are representative of wild life, animal desires and barbarism. (M.I.) Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works.*
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.
afflatus ::: the miraculous communication of supernatural knowledge; hence also, the imparting of an over-mastering impulse, poetic or otherwise; inspiration. A creative inspiration, as that of a poet; a divine imparting of knowledge, thus it is often called divine afflatus.
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.
affranchised ::: freed from a state of dependence, servitude or obligation;
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.
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.)
aide ::: an assistant or helper. aides.
aid ::: n. 1. Help, assistance, support, succour, relief. v. 2. To give help, support, or assistance to; to help, assist, succour. aids.
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
alchemist ("s)
"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 birth is a progressive self-finding, a means of self-realisation.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"All change must come from within with the felt or the secret support of the Divine Power; it is only by one"s own inner opening to that that one can receive help, not by mental, vital or physical contact with others.” Letters on Yoga
::: "All conscious being is one and indivisible in itself, but in manifestation it becomes a complex rhythm, a scale of harmonies, a hierarchy of states or movements.” The Upanishads
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*.
allotted ::: 1. Divided or distributed by share or portion; apportioned. 2. Assigned as a portion, set apart, dedicated.
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 the limitlessly wise immortals desired and found the Child within us who is everywhere around us.” The Secret of the Veda
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
aloof ::: 1. At a distance; distant; hence, detached, unsympathetic. 2. Away at some distance (from), with a clear space intervening, apart. aloofness.
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.
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.
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.
amidst ::: in the middle of; surrounded by; among; amidst is often used of things scattered about, or in the midst of others.
amorous ::: inclined or disposed to love; in love, enamoured, fond. 2. Showing or expressing love. 3. Being in love; enamoured.
"Anarchism is likely to be the protest of the human soul against the tyranny of a bureaucratic Socialism.” Essays Divine and Human
anarchy ::: a state of society without government or law ; lawlessness, confusion, chaos, disorder.
". . . 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
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.
ancient; existing for numberless centuries.
::: "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 self-existent 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.” The Synthesis of Yoga
**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*
anguish ::: excruciating or acute distress, suffering, or pain. anguished.
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
annihilate ::: to reduce to utter ruin or non-existence, destroy utterly. annihilation, annihilation"s.
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.
anomalous ::: deviating from or inconsistent with the common order, form, or rule; irregular; abnormal.
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**.
antagonism ("s)
antagonist ::: one who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent, adversary. antagonists.
anthem ::: a song, as of praise, devotion, patriotism or gladness.
antithesis ::: opposition; contrast.
anxious ::: full of mental distress or uneasiness because of fear of danger or misfortune; greatly worried.
"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
apotheosised ::: glorified; exalted; immortalized; deified.
appalling ::: causing dismay or horror; shocking.
apparent ::: readily seen; exposed to sight; open to view. 2. Capable of being easily perceived or understood; plain or clear; obvious; visible.
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.
appeased ::: pacified, quieted, satisfied; soothed.
apprentice ::: a learner; novice; tyro; one who is learning the rudiments; a trainee. apprenticeship.
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.**
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.
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.
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.
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.
archipelago ::: 1. Any sea, or body of water, in which there are numerous islands. 2. A large group or chain of islands.
architect ::: the deviser, maker, or creator of anything; one who builds up something, as, men are the architects of their own fortunes. Architect, architects.
archivist ::: a person responsible for preserving, organizing, or servicing archival material.
archives ::: preserved historical records or documents, also the place where they are kept.
arc-lamps ::: general term for a class of lamps in which light is produced by a voltaic arc, a luminous arc between two electrodes typically made of tungsten or carbon and barely separated.
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.
argument ::: 1. A fact or statement put forth as proof or evidence; a reason; persuasive discourse, debate. 2. A process of reasoning; series of reasons.
armour ::: 1. Any covering worn as a defense against weapons, especially a metallic sheathing, suit of armour, mail. 2. Any quality, characteristic, situation, or thing that serves as protection. armours, armoured.* n. 1. Weapons. v. 2. Provides with weapons or whatever will add strength, force or security; supports; fortifies. *armed, arming.
arose ::: pt. of arise.
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.
array ::: an orderly, often imposing arrangement or series of things displayed; an imposing series.
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.
"Art is a living harmony and beauty that must be expressed in all the movements of existence. This manifestation of beauty and harmony is part of the Divine realisation upon earth, perhaps even its greatest part.” Questions and Answers, MCW Vol. 3.
artisan ::: one skilled in an applied art; craftsperson. artisans.
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.)
artistry ::: artistic workmanship, effect, or quality.
artist ("s).
artificer ::: 1. One who is skilful or clever in devising ways of making things; inventor. 2. A skilful or artistic worker; craftsperson. artificers.
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.
ascending ::: rising, mounting up.
ascend ::: to move, climb, or go upward; mount; rise. ascends, ascended, ascending.
ascent ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The ascent or the upward movement takes place when there is a sufficient aspiration from the being, i.e., from the various mental, vital and physical planes.” *Letters on Yoga
ascetic ::: one who dedicates his or her life to a pursuit of contemplative ideals, whether by seclusion or by abstinence from creature comforts, and practices extreme self-denial, rigorous self-discipline or self-mortification. ascetic"s, ascetics.
ashamed ::: feeling shame; distressed or embarrassed by feeling of guilt, foolishness, or disgrace.
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.)
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 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, 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 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
"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
assisted.
assists ::: gives support or aid to; helps. assisting.
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.
astuce ::: astuteness, i.e. of keen penetration or discernment, sagacious.
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.
aswarm ::: filled, as by objects, organisms, etc. esp. in motion; teeming, swarming.
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.
atheist ::: adj. Disbelieving or denying the existence of a supreme God.
athlete ::: Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adj. in the sense of athletic: Of the nature of, or befitting, one who is physically active, powerful, muscular, robust, agile.
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.
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.
attaint ::: disgrace, corruption; taint; stain .
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.
austere ::: 1. Severe in manner or appearance; uncompromising; strict; forbidding; stark. 2. Rigorously self-disciplined and severely moral; ascetic; abstinent. 3. Grave; sober; solemn; serious. 4. Without excess, luxury, or ease; severely simple; without ornament. austerity.
autarchy ::: absolute rule or power; despotism; absolute sovereignty.
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.
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.
avatars ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The word Avatar means a descent; it is a coming down of the Divine below the line which divides the divine from the human world or status.” *Essays on the Gita
avenge ::: to inflict a punishment or penalty in return for; take vengeance on behalf of. avenges.
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.
**"Aware of his occult omnipotent source,Allured by the omniscient Ecstasy,He felt the invasion and the nameless joy.”
awe ::: an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like.
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
bacchanal ::: a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity.
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.
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.**
balcony ::: a platform that projects from the wall of a building and is surrounded by a railing, balustrade, or parapet.
bale ::: 1. Evil. 2. Woe, suffering, pain; 3. Mental suffering, anguish.
banish ::: to drive away, expel. banished.
bank ::: 1. The slope of land adjoining a body of water, especially adjoining a river, lake, or channel. 2. A slope, as of a hill. 3. A long raised mass, esp. of earth. 4. A piled-up mass, as of snow or clouds. banks, cloud-bank.
bank ::: a business establishment in which money is kept for saving or commercial purposes or is invested, supplied for loans, or exchanged.
bankruptcy ::: 1. A state of complete lack of some abstract property; "spiritual bankruptcy”; "moral bankruptcy”; "intellectual bankruptcy”. 2. Depleted of valuable qualities or characteristics.
banquet ::: a ceremonial meal; a feast; a lavish and sumptuous meal.
baptism ::: a ceremony, trial, or experience by which one is initiated, purified, or given a name.
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.
barrage ::: an overwhelming quantity or explosion as of artillery fire, words, blows, or criticisms.
based ::: 1. Formed or established as a base. 2. Supported as a base. 3. Conceived as the fundamental principle or underlying concept.
base ::: n. 1. The fundamental principle or underlying concept of a system or theory; a basis, foundation. 2. A fundamental ingredient; a chief constituent. adj. 3. Having or showing a contemptible, mean-spirited, or selfish lack of human decency; morally low. base"s. baser.
basilicas ::: public buildings in ancient Rome having a central nave with an apse at one or both ends and two side aisles formed by rows of columns, which was used as an assembly hall – also Christian churches with a similar design.
basks ::: lies in or is exposed (to pleasant warmth or sunshine) basked.
battalion ::: 1. An army unit typically consisting of a headquarters and two or more companies, batteries, or similar subunits. 2. A large body of organized troops in battle gear. 3. A large indefinite number of persons or things.
battlefield ::: 1. The field or ground on which a battle is fought. 2. An area of contention, conflict, or hostile opposition. battlefields.
baulked ::: checked, foiled, hindered, thwarted; disappointed.
baying ::: 1. Uttering a deep and prolonged bark as a dog in pursuit. 2. The chorus of barking raised by hounds in immediate conflict with a hunted animal. bayings
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).
bazaar ::: a market consisting of a street lined with shops and stalls, especially one in the Orient.
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.
"Beauty is Ananda taking form — but the form need not be a physical shape. One speaks of a beautiful thought, a beautiful act, a beautiful soul. What we speak of as beauty is Ananda in manifestation; beyond manifestation beauty loses itself in Ananda or, you may say, beauty and Ananda become indistinguishably one.” The Future Poetry
"Beauty is not the same as Delight, but like love it is an expression, a form of Ananda, created by Ananda and composed of Ananda.” The Future Poetry
"Beauty is the way in which the physical expresses the Divine – but the principle and law of Beauty is something inward and spiritual and expresses itself through the form.” *The Future Poetry
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.
behaviour ::: 1. Manner of behaving or conducting oneself. 2. The aggregate of the responses or reactions or movements made by an organism in any situation, or the manner in which a thing acts under such circumstances. behaviour"s.
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.
being, triune ::: a being that is three in one; a trinity.
belched ::: 1. Erupted or exploded. 2. Expelled gas noisily from the stomach through the mouth.
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.
believed in ::: was persuaded of the truth or existence of; had faith in the reliability, honesty, benevolence, etc. of.
beloved ::: n. 1. A person who is dearly loved. beloved"s, Beloved, Beloved"s. *adj. *2. Dearly loved.
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.
bequeathed ::: disposed of (property, etc.) by last will; fig. handed down, passed on.
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.
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.
bindst ::: a native English form of the verb, to bind, now only in formal and poetic usage.
bird of paradise
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.
"Birth is an assumption of a body by the spirit, death is the casting off [of] the body; there is nothing original in this birth, nothing final in this death. Before birth we were; after death we shall be. Nor are our birth and death a single episode without continuous meaning or sequel; it is one episode out of many, scenes of our drama of existence with its denouement far away in time.” Essays Divine and Human*
birthright ::: a right, possession, or privilege that is one"s due by birth.
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.
blank ::: n. 1. Fig. Any void space. blanks. adj. 2. Empty, without contents, void, bare. 3. Devoid of activity, interest, or distinctive character; empty. 4. Mere, bare, simple. 5. Lacking expression; expressionless, showing no interest or emotion, vacant. 6. Absolute; complete. blankness.
blaspheme ::: to speak in an irreverent, contemptuous or disrespectful manner; curse; (esp. God, a divine being or sacred things).
blaze ::: n. 1. A brilliant burst of fire, a bright glowing flame. 2. A brilliant, striking display; a brilliant light; resplendent with bright colour. 3. A steady, clear light. 4. Fig. An intense outburst of passion, etc. ::: sun-blaze. v. 5. blazed.
blazoned ::: proclaimed loudly or displayed ostentatiously or conspicuously.
::: blissful
bliss ::: perfect happiness; serene joy or ecstasy. (See delight for Sri Aurobindo"s definitions.) **self-bliss, World-Bliss.
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.
blind alley ::: 1. A road, alley, etc. that is open only at one end. 2. A position or situation offering no hope of progress or improvement. 3. A situation in which no further progress can be made.
blindness ::: 1. A lack or impairment of vision. 2. *Fig.* Lack of vision or awareness.
blinkers ::: leather side pieces attached to a horse"s bridle to prevent sideways vision.
blithe ::: joyous, merry, or gay in disposition; glad; cheerful.
blockade ::: 1. The isolating, closing off, or surrounding of a place. 2. Any obstruction of passage or progress.
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.**
blow ::: 1. A sudden, hard stroke with a hand, fist, or weapon; a stroke. 2. A sudden attack or drastic action. 3. Fig. A sudden shock, calamity, severe disaster experienced by someone. blows.
blur ::: a smudge or smear that partially obscures; indistinctness.
boisterous ::: rough and noisy; noisily jolly or rowdy; clamorous; unrestrained, excessively exuberant.
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.
body ::: 1. The entire material or physical structure of an organism, especially of a human or animal as differentiated from the soul. 2. The entire physical structure of a human being. 3. A mass of matter that is distinct from other masses. 4. Substance. 5. An agent or entity. 6. The mass of a thing. 7. A mass of matter that is distinct from other masses. 8. The largest or main part of anything; the foundation; central part. body"s, bodies.
"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
bog ::: wet, spongy ground consisting of decomposing vegetation.
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.
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.
bouge ::: fr. A hovel, dive, slum, or disreputable place.
bounded ::: having the limits or boundaries established. Also fig.
boundless ::: n. 1. That which is without bounds; illimitable. 2. *adj. *Being without bounds or limits; infinite.
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.
bow-twang (‘s) ::: the resonant sound produced when a tense string is sharply plucked or suddenly released.
"Brahma is the Eternal"s Personality of Existence; from him all is created, by his presence, by his power, by his impulse.” Essays Human and Divine
brahma ("s) ::: "Brahma is the nominative; the uninflected form of the word is brahman; it differs from brahman ‘the Eternal" only in gender.” *Glossary of Terms in Sri Aurobindo"s Writings
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".
breath ::: 1. The air inhaled and exhaled in respiration. Also fig. 2. A momentary stirring of air, a slight gust. 3. Spirit or vitality; life. 4. The vapour, heat, or odour of exhaled air. Also fig. **5. A slight suggestion; hint; whisper. Breath,* *breath-fastened.**
breeds ::: a group of organisms within a species, esp. a group of domestic animals, originated and maintained by man and having a clearly defined set of characteristics.
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.
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.
bringst ::: a native English form of the verb, to bring, now only in formal and poetic usage.
brittle ::: easily damaged or disrupted; fragile.
brocade ::: a thick, rich fabric woven with a raised design, often using gold or silver threads. brocades.
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.
-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.]
bruised ::: hurt, especially psychologically, beaten; pounded; crushed.
brute ::: n. **1. Any animal except man; a beast; a lower animal. brute"s. adj. 2. Animal, not human. 3. Lacking or showing a lack of reason or intelligence. 4. Wholly instinctive; senseless; coarse; brutish; dull. 5. Resembling a beast; showing lack of human sensibility; cruel or savage. brute-sensed.**
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.
building ::: 1. The act or action of constructing; erecting. Also fig. **2. **Something that is built, as for human habitation; a structure.
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.
burdensome ::: 1. Oppressively heavy; onerous. 2. Distressing, troublesome.
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.
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.
burnished ::: having a smooth glossy appearance ; luster, as rubbed and polished metal.
business ::: 1. One"s rightful or proper concern or interest. 2. A specific occupation or pursuit; an action in which one is engaged.
"But great art is not satisfied with representing the intellectual truth of things, which is always their superficial or exterior truth; it seeks for a deeper and original truth which escapes the eye of the mere sense or the mere reason, the soul in them, the unseen reality which is not that of their form and process but of their spirit.” The Human Cycle etc.
butt ::: a person or thing that is the object of wit, ridicule, sarcasm, contempt.
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
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.
cajoles ::: persuades by flattery or promises; wheedles; coaxes.
calamitous ::: disastrous; catastrophic, ruinous; devastating.
calamity ::: 1. An event that brings terrible loss, lasting distress, or severe affliction; a disaster. 2. Dire distress resulting from loss or tragedy. calamities.
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.
calligraphy ::: 1. The art of fine handwriting. 2. An artistic and highly decorative form of handwriting, as with a great many flourishes.
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.
canst ::: a native English form of the adverb can, now only in formal or poetic usage.
canticle ::: a song, poem, or hymn, esp. one that is religious and praiseful in character.
canto ::: one of the principal divisions of a long poem.
canvas ::: 1. A piece of such fabric on which a painting, especially an oil painting, is executed. 2. A painting executed on such fabric, esp. an oil painting. 3. The background against which events unfold. canvases, canvas-strips.
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.
capitol ::: 1. A building occupied by a state legislature. 2. A building that is the seat of government. Also fig.
captive ::: n. 1. One, such as a prisoner of war, who is forcibly confined, subjugated, or enslaved. captives. v. 2. Those taken and held as a prisoners. captived. adj. 3. Kept under restraint or control; confined. 4. Enraptured, as by beauty; captivated.
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.
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.**
caricature ::: a grotesque imitation, misrepresentation or distorted image, as a drawing or description of a person which exaggerates characteristic features for comic effect.
carol ::: a song of praise or joy.
castaway ::: a shipwrecked person. Also fig. a rejected or discarded person or thing.
caste-mark ::: (In India) a mark, usually on the forehead, symbolising and identifying caste membership.
cast off ::: discard; thrown away; let go.
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.**
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.
causeway ::: 1. A raised roadway, as across water or marshland. 2. A paved highway.
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.
cell ::: 1. A small humble abode, such as a hermit"s cave or hut. 2. A narrow confining room, as in a prison or convent.
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.
censer ::: a vessel in which incense is burned, especially during religious services.
cessation ::: a ceasing or stopping; discontinuance; pause. cessations.
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.
chantiers ::: unfinished construction sites; workshops.
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.
chapter ::: an important portion or division of anything, esp. of a book, treatise, or other literary work. chapter"s, Chapters.
characters ::: 1. The combination of qualities, features and traits that distinguishes one person, group, or thing from another. 2. The marks or symbols used in writing systems such as the letters of the alphabet.
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.
charlatanism ::: the quality of having characteristics of a fraud.
charts ::: visual displays of information, as maps, graphs, tables, or sheets of information in the form of a diagram delineating a particular subject.
chastise ::: 1. To discipline or punish, esp. by beating. *v. *2. Purify; refine.
chastisement ::: verbal (often physical) punishment; discipline.
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.
cheat ::: v. 1. To deceive by trickery; swindle. 2. To mislead; fool. n. **3.** A fraud or swindle; a dishonest trick.
chequered ::: 1. Marked by numerous and various shifts and changes. 2. Marked by dubious episodes; suspect in character or quality. 3. Diversified in colour, variegated.
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.
cherished ::: treated with affection and tenderness; held dear.
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.
chides ::: expresses disapproval of; scolds; reproaches. chiding.
child ::: 1. A person between birth and full growth. 2. A baby or infant. 3. A person who has not attained maturity. 4. One who is childish or immature. 5. An individual regarded as strongly affected by another or by a specified time, place, or circumstance. 6. Any person or thing regarded as the product or result of particular agencies, influences, etc. Child, child"s, children, Children, children"s, child-god, Child-Godhead, child-heart, child-heart"s, child-laughter, child-soul, child-sovereign, child-thought, flame-child, foster-child, God-child, King-children.
childish ::: 1. Of, like, or befitting a child. 2. Marked by or indicating a lack of maturity; puerile.
childhood ::: 1. The time or state of being a child. 2. The early stage in the existence or development of something. childhood"s.
child, the ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The gnostic soul is the child.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
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.
chinks ::: narrow openings, such as a cracks or fissures.
choosest ::: a native English form of the verb, to choose, now only in formal and poetic usage.
chrysalis ::: 1. The hard sheath encasing the larvae from which the mature insect emerges. 2. A protected stage of development.
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.
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.
citadel ::: **A fortress that commands a city and is used in the control of the inhabitants and in defence during attack or siege. citadels.**
claimest ::: a native English form of the verb, to claim, now only in formal and poetic usage.
claimst ::: a native English form of the verb, to claim, now only in formal and poetic usage.
clairaudience ::: the power to hear sounds said to exist beyond the reach of ordinary experiences or capacity.
clamant ::: clamorous; loud; noisy.
clamorous ::: 1. Full of, marked by, or of the nature of clamour; shouting; noisy, loud. 2. Insistently demanding attention; importunate.
clamour ::: 1. A loud uproar, as from a crowd of people. 2. A vehement expression of collective feeling or outrage. 3. A loud and persistent noise. clamours. clamouring.
clamouring ::: 1. Raising an outcry for; seeking, demanding, or calling importunately for, or to do a thing. 2. Making a clamour; shouting, or uttering loud and continued cries or calls; raising an outcry, making a noise or din of speech.
clamped ::: 1. Fastened with or fixed in a clamp (a device for binding, holding, compressing or fastening objects together); hence, fig. Restricted, repressed, tightened down, restrained. 2. Established by authority; imposed clamps. (Sri Aurobindo also employs clamped as an adj.)
clang ::: 1. A loud resounding noise, as a large bell or metal when struck. 2. v. To make or cause to make, or produce a loud ringing, resonant sound as of a large bell.
clangour ::: 1. A loud resonant, often harsh sound. 2. A loud resonant often-repeated noise.
clarity ::: 1. Clearness or lucidity as to perception or understanding; freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity. 2. The state or quality of being clear or transparent to the eye; pellucidity; brightness, splendour.
clash ::: n. 1. A loud, harsh noise, such as that made by two metal objects in collision. 2. An encounter between hostile forces; a battle or skirmish. 3. A conflict, as between opposing or irreconcilable ideas. v. 4. To engage in a physical conflict or contest, as in a game or a battle (often followed by with). 5. To come into conflict; be in opposition. clashes, clashed, clashing.
classed ::: arranged, grouped, or rated according to qualities or characteristics; assigned to a class; classified.
clatter ::: 1. A rattling noise or a series of rattling noises. 2. Noisy disturbance; din; racket.
clause ::: a distinct article, stipulation, or provision, in a document.
clay ::: 1. A natural earthy material that is plastic when wet, consisting essentially of hydrated silicates of aluminium: used for making bricks, pottery, etc. 2. The material which is said to form the human body. 3. The human body, esp. as opposed to the spirit. clay-kin.
clear ::: 1. Not obscured or darkened; bright. 2. Free from darkness, obscurity, or cloudiness; transparent. 3. Serene; calm; untroubled. 4. Free from doubt or confusion; certain. 5. Easily perceptible to the eye or ear; distinct. 6. Easily understood; without ambiguity. 7. Free from impediment, obstruction, or hindrance; open. clearer, sun-clear, surface-clear.
cleavage ::: a critical division in opinion, beliefs, interests, etc. as leading to opposition between two groups.
climbst ::: a native English form of the verb, to climb, now only in formal and poetic usage.
clinch ::: to settle (a matter) decisively.
cling ::: 1. To come or be in close contact with; stick or hold together and resist separation 2. To hold fast or adhere to as if by embracing. 3. To be emotionally or intellectually attached or remain close to. 4. To hold on tightly or tenaciously to. 5. To remain attached as to an idea, hope, memory, etc. clings, clung, clinging.
clipped ::: cut off; curtailed; diminished.
cloak ::: 1. A loose outer garment, such as a cape. 2. Anything that covers or conceals. 3. Something that covers or conceals; a disguise. world-cloak.
cloisters ::: 1. Covered walks with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle. 2. Secluded, quiet places. cloister"s, cloisters.
clock-work ::: with machinelike regularity and precision; perfectly.
fig. Hearts filled with despair; disillusionment; devastating sorrow, especially from disappointment or tragedy in love.
"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
"For each birth is a new start; it develops indeed from the past, but is not its mechanical continuation: rebirth is not a constant reiteration but a progression, it is the machinery of an evolutionary process.” The Life Divine
Heart-lotus — emotional centre. The psychic is behind it.
"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
"High beyond the Intelligence is the Great Self, beyond the Great Self is the Unmanifest, beyond the Unmanifest is the Conscious Being. There is nothing beyond the Being, — that is the extreme ultimate, that the supreme goal.” — Katha Upanishad. (4) (Sri Aurobindo"s translation) The Life Divine
**"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*
"If birth is a becoming, death also is a becoming, not by any means a cessation. The body is abandoned, but the soul goes on its way, . . . .” Essays on the Gita
"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*
"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*
" . . . insincerity is always an open door for the adversary. That means there is some secret sympathy with what is perverse. And that is what is serious.” Questions and Answers 1957-58, MCW Vol. 9.
". . . 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
In the middle of the forehead — the Ajna Chakra — (will, vision, dynamic thought).
"In the subconscient knowledge or consciousness is involved in action, for action is the essence of Life.” The Life Divine
"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).
"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: "Atheism is the shadow or dark side of the highest perception of God.” *Essays Divine and Human
Sri Aurobindo: "Beauty is the special divine Manifestation in the physical as Truth is in the Mind, Love in the heart, Power in the vital.” *The Future Poetry
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: "Brahma is the Power of the Divine that stands behind formation and the creation.” Letters on Yoga
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: "Chance is not *in this universe; the idea of illusion is itself an illusion. There was never illusion yet in the human mind that was not the concealing [?shape] and disfigurement of a truth.” Essays Divine and Human
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: "Matter, body is only a massed motion of force of conscious being employed as a starting-point for the variable relations of consciousness working through its power of sense.” *Essays on the Gita
Sri Aurobindo: ” See God everywhere and be not frightened by masks. Believe that all falsehood is truth in the making or truth in the breaking, all failure an effectuality concealed, all weakness strength hiding itself from its own vision, all pain a secret & violent ecstasy. If thou believest firmly & unweariedly, in the end thou wilt see & experience the All-true, Almighty & All-blissful.” Essays Divine and Human*
Sri Aurobindo: "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: "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 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: "The motion of the world works under the government of a perpetual stability. Change represents the constant shifting of apparent relations in an eternal Immutability.” The Upanishads
Sri Aurobindo: "Very usually, altruism is only the sublimest form of selfishness.” *Essays Divine and Human
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 is God after all? An eternal child playing an eternal game in an eternal garden.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "What the "void" feels as a clutch is felt by the Mother only as a reminding finger laid on her cheek. It is one advantage of the expression ‘as if" that it leaves the field open for such variation. It is intended to suggest without saying it that behind the sombre void is the face of a mother. The two other ‘as if"s have the same motive and I do not find them jarring upon me. The second is at a sufficient distance from the first and it is not obtrusive enough to prejudice the third which more nearly follows. . . .” Letters on Savitri
*Sri Aurobindo: "When there is some lowering or diminution of the consciousness or some impairing of it at one place or another, the Adversary — or the Censor — who is always on the watch presses with all his might wherever there is a weak point lying covered from your own view, and suddenly a wrong movement leaps up with unexpected force. Become conscious and cast out the possibility of its renewal, that is all that is to be done.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "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
"Stability and movement, we must remember, are only our psychological representations of the Absolute, even as are oneness and multitude. The Absolute is beyond stability and movement as it is beyond unity and multiplicity. But it takes its eternal poise in the one and the stable and whirls round itself infinitely, inconceivably, securely in the moving and multitudinous.” The Life Divine
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.
"This body of ours is a symbol of our real being. . . .” Letters on Yoga ::: ". . . the body itself is only a constant act of consciousness of the spirit.” Essays on the Gita
"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*
"The Absolute is beyond personality and beyond impersonality, and yet it is both the Impersonal and the supreme Person and all persons. The Absolute is beyond the distinction of unity and multiplicity, and yet it is the One and the innumerable Many in all the universes.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"The Absolute is in itself indefinable by reason, ineffable to the speech; it has to be approached through experience.” The Life Divine*
". . . the Absolute is not a void or negation. It is all that is here in Time and beyond Time.” The Upanishads*
"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 animal is a vital and sensational being; . . . .” The Synthesis of Yoga*Animal, animal"s, animals, animal-soul, half-animal.
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 Atheist is God playing at hide & seek with Himself; . . . .” Essays Divine and Human*
"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 body is not only the necessary outer instrument of the physical part of action, but for the purposes of this life a base or pedestal also for all inner action.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"The call of God is imperative and cannot be weighed against any other considerations.” Essays on the Gita*
"The call, once decisive, stands; the thing that has been born cannot eventually be stifled. Even if the force of circumstances prevents a regular pursuit or a full practical self-consecration from the first, still the mind has taken its bent and persists and returns with an ever-increasing effect upon its leading preoccupation. There is an ineluctable persistence of the inner being, and against it circumstances are in the end powerless, and no weakness in the nature can for long be an obstacle.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"The child (when it does not mean the psychic being) is usually the symbol of something new-born in some part of the consciousness.” 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 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 Infinite creates and is Brahma.” The Renaissance in India ::: "Brahman is not only the cause and supporting power and indwelling principle of the universe, he is also its material and its sole material. Matter also is Brahman and it is nothing other than or different from Brahman.” The Life Divine*
"The inner Divinity is the eternal Avatar in man; the human manifestation is its sign and development in the external world.” Essays on the Gita
The Mother : "An Avatar is an emanation of the Supreme Lord who assumes a human body on earth.” Works of the Mother, "On Thoughts and Aphorisms” Vol.10
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: "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: "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
the power or faculty of hearing or listening.
"There is no need of words in aspiration. It can be expressed or unexpressed in words.” 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 surface mental individuality is, in consequence, always ego-centric; even its altruism is an enlargement of its ego: . . . . ” The Life Divine*
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.
Throat centre — externalising mind.
"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
::: "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
"We imagine that the soul is in the body, almost a result and derivation from the body; even we so feel it: but it is the body that is in the soul and a result and derivation from the soul.” Essays on the Gita
"What we call Chance is a play of the possibilities of the Infinite; . . . .” Essays Divine and Human*
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1 George MacDonald
1 George Harrison
1 Gene Roddenberry
1 Gene Clark
1 Gabor Mate
1 Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1 Friedrich Von Hugel
1 Friedrich Neitzsche
1 Frederick Douglass
1 Frederick Dodson
1 Fred Astaire
1 Frank Lloyd Wright
1 Frank Herbert
1 Francesco Petrarca
1 Ezra Pound
1 Everard and Morris
1 Euripides
1 Eric Hoffer
1 Epicurus
1 Epictetus
1 Emily Dickinson
1 Emerson
1 Emanuel Swedenborg
1 Elon Musk
1 Eleanor Roosevelt
1 Eknath Easwaran
1 Eisai
1 Egyptian Texts
1 E E Cummings
1 Edward Snowden
1 Edward Murphy
1 Edgar Cayce
1 Eckhart
1 Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
1 Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
1 D T Suzuki
1 Douglas Adams
1 Doug Dillon
1 Dogen Zenji?
1 Dogen Zenji
1 Dogen 1200-1253
1 Dion Fortune
1 Desiderius Erasmus
1 Den Sutejo 1633-1698
1 Democritus
1 Deepak Chopra
1 David Viscott
1 David R Hawkins
1 David Bohm
1 David
1 Dante
1 Daie
1 Cullen Hightower
1 C. S. Lewis
1 C .S. Lewis
1 Crosby
1 Connie Stevens
1 Confucius
1 C N Parkinson
1 Claude Debussy
1 Cinderella
1 Cicero
1 Chu-King
1 Chuck Close
1 Chuang Tzu.
1 Christ
1 Chogyam Trungpa
1 Chinese Proverb
1 Chi-King
1 Charlie Chaplin
1 Charles R. Swindoll
1 Charles M. Schulz
1 Cervantes
1 Carlyle
1 Carl Sandburg
1 Carlos Castaneda
1 Candace Cameron Bure
1 Buddhist Text
1 Buddhism
1 Bruce Feirstein
1 Brian Tracy
1 Bram Stoker
1 Book of Wisdom
1 Booker T. Washington
1 Bony of flours
1 Boethius
1 Bob Marley
1 Bl. Humbert of Romans
1 Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati
1 Bill Bradley
1 Bennett Cerf
1 Ben Hecht
1 B D Schiers
1 Bauvard
1 Basil of Caesarea
1 Baruch Spinoza
1 Baha-ulalh
1 Bahauddin
1 Ayush Jaiswal
1 Ayn Rand
1 Averroes
1 Auguste Rodin
1 Audre Lorde
1 Aubrey de Grey
1 Attributed to Lao Tzu
1 Atisa
1 Asclepius
1 Arthur Schopenauer
1 Arthur Koestler
1 Aristotle?
1 A programmer
1 Apollonius of Tyana
1 Antonio Porchia
1 Antoine the Healer
1 Anthony Robbins
1 Anonymous Proverb
1 Annie Proulx
1 Anne Sullivan
1 André Malraux
1 Andrei Tarkovsky
1 André Gide
1 Anaxagoras
1 Amir Khusrau
1 Amelia Earhart
1 Al-Kalabadhi
1 al-Kabīr al-Tabrānī
1 Al-Jilani
1 Ali ibn Abi Talib
1 Alice Walker
1 Alfred Hitchcock
1 Alexis de Tocqueville
1 Alexander the Great
1 Aleksandr Solzlhenitsyn
1 Albert Einstein
1 Alan Wilson
1 Alan Perlis
1 Alain de Botton
1 Akong Rinpoche
1 Ajahn Chah
1 Santoka Taneda
1 Rudolf Steiner
1 Nichiren
1 Matsuo Basho
1 Kobayashi Issa
1 Hafiz
1 Aleister Crowley
1 African Proverb
1 Aeschylus
1 Adyashanti
1 Adlai E. Stevenson
1 Adi Da
1 A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
1 Abu Sa'id.
1 Abu Bakr
1 A. A. Milne
1 1 John 5:3-5
1 1 John 3:2-3
1 1 John :2:22
1 ?
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
60 Christian Winther
42 Anonymous
33 Robert Louis Stevenson
20 Kristen Ashley
13 Lewis Carroll
12 Aristotle
11 John Grisham
10 Rumi
10 J K Rowling
10 Elise Sax
10 Aesop
9 Walter Isaacson
9 Plato
9 C S Lewis
8 Louis L Amour
8 Laozi
8 John Green
8 Horace
8 Doris Kearns Goodwin
7 Marissa Meyer
1:All is living. ~ Hermes, #KEYS
2:By Being, It Is. ~ Parmenides, #KEYS
3:He is pure of all name. ~ The Bab, #KEYS
4:There is no Bodhi tree, ~ Huineng, #KEYS
5:Character is destiny ~ Sigmund Freud, #KEYS
6:The Asker is the Answer. ~ Wei Wu Wei, #KEYS
7:Nothing is far from God. ~ Saint Monica, #KEYS
8:The menu is not the meal." ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
9:No feeling is final ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #KEYS
10:Today is a good day to try." ~ Quasimodo, #KEYS
11:Energy is eternal delight. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
12:It is here! It is here! ~ Tantric Aphorism, #KEYS
13:Joy is already within you. ~ Anandamayi Ma, #KEYS
14:One chance is all you need." ~ Jesse Owens, #KEYS
15:Relax. Nothing is under control." ~ Adi Da, #KEYS
16:The best is yet to be.
~ Robert Browning,#KEYS
17:Nature is the art of God. ~ Dante Alighieri, #KEYS
18:Sleep is the best meditation." ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
19:To hold a pen is to be at war.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
20:A fool is wise in his eyes.
~ King Solomon,#KEYS
21:A garden is never finished. ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
22:And if there is no dust shake it off. ~ Ovid, #KEYS
23:Every day is the beginning of life." ~ Rilke, #KEYS
24:if it is granted to me. ~ Swami Veda Bharati, #KEYS
25:To live - is that not enough?" ~ D.T. Suzuki, #KEYS
26:We are, because God is. ~ Emanuel Swedenborg, #KEYS
27:An honest man is always a child.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
28:Doubt is the brother of shame. ~ Erik Erikson, #KEYS
29:is not always that of the soul. ~ George Sand, #KEYS
30:Mind is like a mad monkey." ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #KEYS
31:Who you are is always right." ~ Ming-Dao Deng, #KEYS
32:Wisdom is knowing you know nothing ~ Socrates, #KEYS
33:Art is a revolt against fate. ~ André Malraux, #KEYS
34:Everything is overflowing with Gods. ~ Proclus, #KEYS
35:Forever is composed of nows. ~ Emily Dickinson, #KEYS
36:Love is the absence of judgment." ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
37:Presence is always very close. ~ Robert Burton, #KEYS
38:Whatever one loves most is beautiful. ~ Sappho, #KEYS
39:Called or not, God is always there. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
40:In the end, everything is simple. ~ Jean Gebser, #KEYS
41:Low aim, not failure, is the crime. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
42:No great thing is created suddenly. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
43:rare essence is He. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
44:Walking is man's best medicine.
~ Hippocrates,#KEYS
45:Action is a highroad to self-esteem. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
46:Education is at a turning point ~ Howard Gardner, #KEYS
47:Failure is an event not a person.
~ Zig Ziglar,#KEYS
48:Laughter is threatening to tyrants. ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
49:Life is a second-by-second miracle." ~ Joko Beck, #KEYS
50:Life is real only then, when "I am". ~ Gurdjieff, #KEYS
51:What is God? Everything. ~ Pindar, Fragment 140d, #KEYS
52:A calm mind is the jewel of wisdom. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
53:Language is fossil poetry. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
54:Programming is understanding.
~ Kristen Nygaard,#KEYS
55:Silence is the most powerful scream
~ Anonymous,#KEYS
56:To be awake is to be alive. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #KEYS
57:All music is the blues. All of it. ~ George Carlin, #KEYS
58:As you are, so is the world. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
59:Every man is the son of his own works. ~ Cervantes, #KEYS
60:He who conceives the Truth, is born anew. ~ Vemana, #KEYS
61:I know not what to do, my mind is divided ~ Sappho, #KEYS
62:In the distance someone is singing. ~ Pablo Neruda, #KEYS
63:It is all invention. ~ What can they matter to me?, #KEYS
64:Quality is conformance to requirements.
~ Crosby,#KEYS
65:Suffering is not a sign of failure
~ The Mother?,#KEYS
66:The unexamined life is not worth living ~ Socrates, #KEYS
67:To be awake is to be alive." ~ Henry David Thoreau, #KEYS
68:To love at all is to be vulnerable." ~ C. S. Lewis, #KEYS
69:Cheer up, the worst is yet to come. ~ Anne Sullivan, #KEYS
70:Chess is the gymnasium of the mind. ~ Blaise Pascal, #KEYS
71:Every end is very close to God." ~ Hassidic Rabbi -, #KEYS
72:Everything you can imagine is real. ~ Pablo Picasso, #KEYS
73:Fiction is the truth inside the lie. ~ Stephen King, #KEYS
74:It is that which is and that which is not. ~ Hermes, #KEYS
75:Life is but a walking shadow. ~ William Shakespeare, #KEYS
76:Lost Time is never found again. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #KEYS
77:Poverty is the mother of crime.
~ Marcus Aurelius,#KEYS
78:The unexamined life is not worth living. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
79:Where there is love there is life. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
80:Zen is an effort to become alert and awake." ~ Osho, #KEYS
81:He is all things and all things are one. ~ The Zohar, #KEYS
82:Joy is the simplest form of gratitude." ~ Karl Barth, #KEYS
83:Music is the silence between notes. ~ Claude Debussy, #KEYS
84:Only the impossible is worth doing. ~ Akong Rinpoche, #KEYS
85:The best way out is always through.
~ Robert Frost,#KEYS
86:there is only enlightened activity. ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
87:To be is to be true. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
88:Whatever is to be your fate - face it!" ~ Abu Sa'id., #KEYS
89:Consciousness is a precondition of being. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
90:Courage is a sign of soul's nobility.
~ The Mother?,#KEYS
91:Discipline is wisdom and vice versa." ~ M. Scott Peck, #KEYS
92:Even in the grave, all is not lost. ~ Edgar Allan Poe, #KEYS
93:Forgiveness is a game only saints play Kabir. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
94:Home is everything you can walk to. ~ Jerry Spinelli , #KEYS
95:Nothing is more silly than silly laughter. ~ Catullus, #KEYS
96:Peace is the only battle worth waging. ~ Albert Camus, #KEYS
97:Sleep is the period without the mind. ~ Let it all go, #KEYS
98:This therefore is the highest state of man. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
99:Water which is too pure, has no fish.
~ Zen Proverb,#KEYS
100:Everywhere you turn, there is the face of God. ~ Quran, #KEYS
101:My library is an archive of longings.
~ Susan Sontag,#KEYS
102:Nothing is left of me
Each time I see her ~ Catullus#KEYS
103:Singlemindedness is all-powerful. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
104:The good is that at which all things aim. ~ Aristotle?, #KEYS
105:There is no Part and no Whole - Transcendence. ~ Anon., #KEYS
106:Time is the fire in which we burn." ~ Gene Roddenberry, #KEYS
107:Too much is the same as not enough. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
108:Zen is nothing to get excited about." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
109:Faith is a passionate intuition.
~ William Wordsworth,#KEYS
110:Humility is the forgetfulness of self. ~ Thomas Keating, #KEYS
111:Life is a child moving counters in a game. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
112:Life is real only then, when "I am". ~ George Gurdjieff, #KEYS
113:The usefulness of the cup is its emptiness. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
114:Time management is really life management ~ Brian Tracy, #KEYS
115:War is ninety percent information. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #KEYS
116:A good example is the best sermon.
~ Benjamin Franklin,#KEYS
117:All this is full of that Being. ~ Swetaswatara Upanishad, #KEYS
118:Beauty is the purgation of superfluities. ~ Michelangelo, #KEYS
119:Life is a balance between rest and movement." ~ Rajneesh, #KEYS
120:My course is set for an uncharted sea. ~ Dante Alighieri, #KEYS
121:Prayer is the laying aside of thoughts. ~ The Philokalia, #KEYS
122:Shell programming is a 1950s juke box . . . ~ Larry Wall, #KEYS
123:The end is important in all things. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
124:The most important hour is always the present. ~ Meister, #KEYS
125:The root of prayer is interior silence. ~ Thomas Keating, #KEYS
126:To saints their very slumber is a prayer. ~ Saint Jerome, #KEYS
127:Up above, the air is so pure. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
128:Without the Name, there is no peace. ~ Guru Gobind Singh, #KEYS
129:Accept everything just the way it is." ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
130:An idea is salvation by imagination. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright, #KEYS
131:Genius is talent set on fire by courage. ~ Henry Van Dyke, #KEYS
132:Suffering is when we resist the moment." ~ Kamal Ravikant, #KEYS
133:There is no friend as loyal as a book. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #KEYS
134:The very essence of romance is uncertainty. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
135:A true Zen saying: "Nothing is what I want." ~ Frank Zappa, #KEYS
136:Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.
~ Blaise Pascal,#KEYS
137:Enlightenment is intimacy with all things." ~ Dōgen Zenji, #KEYS
138:Every step is on the path. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
139:Help yourself. No one is coming to save you." ~ Noah Kagan, #KEYS
140:Idleness is the heaviest of all oppressions. ~ Victor Hugo, #KEYS
141:Intuition is the whisper of the soul. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
142:It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable." ~ Seneca, #KEYS
143:Student, tell me, what is God? ~ Kabir, #KEYS
144:The question is not can you. It's will you." ~ Jim Stovall, #KEYS
145:The solution of every problem is another problem. ~ Goethe, #KEYS
146:War is what happens when language fails. ~ Margaret Atwood, #KEYS
147:A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
~ Francis Bacon,#KEYS
148:A vice in the heart is an idol on the altar. ~ Saint Jerome, #KEYS
149:But nothing promised that is not performed. ~ Robert Graves, #KEYS
150:Character is destiny. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
151:Envy is the most savage form of hatred. ~ Basil of Caesarea, #KEYS
152:Every day is an opportunity for a new life." ~ Rhonda Byrne, #KEYS
153:Everything in the world is purchased by labor. ~ David Hume, #KEYS
154:Evil is that which makes for separateness." ~ Aldous Huxley, #KEYS
155:Fanaticism is always a sign of repressed doubt. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
156:Mary is the lily in God's garden. ~ Saint Bridget of Sweden, #KEYS
157:No one is suddenly made perfect. ~ Saint Bede the Venerable, #KEYS
158:The greatest effort is not concerned with results." ~ Atisa, #KEYS
159:The renewed soul is made doubly steadfast. ~ Egyptian Texts, #KEYS
160:The true method of knowledge is experiment. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
161:Whence come these beings? What is this creation? ~ Rig Veda, #KEYS
162:Wisdom is seeking wisdom. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
163:A contented man is never disappointed. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.44, #KEYS
164:Activism is my rent for living on the planet. ~ Alice Walker, #KEYS
165:Awareness is the greatest agent for change." ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
166:Foolishness is a twin sister of wisdom." ~ Witold Gombrowicz, #KEYS
167:He is the supreme Light hidden under every veil. ~ The Zohar, #KEYS
168:If life is to be sustained, hope must remain. ~ Erik Erikson, #KEYS
169:In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity." ~ Sun Tzu, #KEYS
170:Not taking things personally is a superpower." ~ James Clear, #KEYS
171:One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
172:Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. ~ Haruki Murakami, #KEYS
173:Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom." ~ Francis Bacon, #KEYS
174:Sufism is truth without form." ~ Hazrat Khwaja Ibn-El-Jalali, #KEYS
175:There is an eloquence in true enthusiasm." ~ Edgar Allan Poe, #KEYS
176:True Silence is really endless speech. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
177:Well begun is half done. ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
178:What is now proved was once only imagined.
~ William Blake,#KEYS
179:Zen practice is to open up our small mind." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
180:Behind the cloud the sun is still shining." ~ Abraham Lincoln, #KEYS
181:Every man's memory is his private literature. ~ Aldous Huxley, #KEYS
182:Every perception is an opportunity for satori." ~ Zen proverb, #KEYS
183:Hope is a waking dream.
~ Aristotle,#KEYS
184:Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. ~ Saint Jerome, #KEYS
185:Love is not consolation. It is light.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
186:Marriage is an adventure, like going to war. ~ G K Chesterton, #KEYS
187:My imagination is a monastery, and I am its monk ~ John Keats, #KEYS
188:Of all our possessions, wisdom alone is immortal. ~ Socrates?, #KEYS
189:Reality is not always probable, or likely. ~ Jorge Luis Borge, #KEYS
190:The secret of getting ahead is getting started." ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
191:Wine is sunlight, held together by water.
~ Galileo Galilei,#KEYS
192:A zen master's life is one continuous mistake." ~ Dōgen Zenji, #KEYS
193:Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
~ Helen Keller,#KEYS
194:Love in its essence is spiritual fire. ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca, #KEYS
195:Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone." ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
196:One never really knows who one's enemy is.
~ Jurgen Habermas,#KEYS
197:Real love is a cosmic force which goes through us. ~ Gurdjieff, #KEYS
198:The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
199:The beginning of wisdom is to desire it. ~ Solomon Ibn Gabirol, #KEYS
200:There is an advantage in the wisdom won from pain. ~ Aeschylus, #KEYS
201:The sun is new each day. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
202:This is the victory over the world - our faith. ~ 1 John 5:3-5, #KEYS
203:Within our impure mind the pure one is to be found." ~ Huineng, #KEYS
204:A friend is a gift you give yourself." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #KEYS
205:A loss, of which we are ignorant, is no loss. ~ Publilius Syrus, #KEYS
206:Becoming is the mode of activity of the uncreated God. ~ Hermes, #KEYS
207:Give up differentiation. All is one only. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
208:Growth is hard, regression is easy ~ Ken Wilber, One Taste, p.5, #KEYS
209:If we have a good comrade, half the battle is won. ~ Henry Suso, #KEYS
210:Imagination is more important than knowledge. ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
211:It is harder to crack prejudice than an atom. ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
212:One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.
~ Euripides,#KEYS
213:Our problem with desire is that we want too little. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
214:The Being that is one, sages speak of in many terms. ~ Rig Veda, #KEYS
215:The light of the Sun is the pure energy of intellect. ~ Proclus, #KEYS
216:The most effective way to do it, is to do it." ~ Amelia Earhart, #KEYS
217:The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
218:The soul is healed by being with children." ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #KEYS
219:The work never finishes; there is no end to this work. ~ Buddha, #KEYS
220:Trust is the highest form of human motivation
~ Stephen Covey,#KEYS
221:Whatever else we might think of this world ~ it is astonishing., #KEYS
222:What is called the world is only thought. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
223:Wherever you are is the entry point ~ Kabir, #KEYS
224:A friend is what the heart needs all the time." ~ Henry Van Dyke, #KEYS
225:Hell isn't other people. Hell is yourself. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #KEYS
226:It is often safer to be in chains than to be free. ~ Franz Kafka, #KEYS
227:One great cause of failure is lack of concentration. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
228:The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.
~ Oscar Wilde,#KEYS
229:Thinking is difficult, that's why most people judge. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
230:To attend to the moment is to attend to eternity.
~ The Kabala,#KEYS
231:What is to give light must endure the burning.
~ Viktor Frankl,#KEYS
232:A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
233:Because you are alive, everything is possible." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #KEYS
234:Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. ~ Plato, #KEYS
235:Endure and you will conquer, The Lord is with you. ~ Mother Mirra, #KEYS
236:Eternity is in love with the productions of time. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
237:Faith is the union of God and the soul. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
238:Grand is the seen, the light, to me ~ grand are the sky and stars, #KEYS
239:He is the breath inside the breath." ~ Kabir, #KEYS
240:Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper. ~ Francis Bacon, #KEYS
241:In each of us there is another whom we do not know.
~ Carl Jung,#KEYS
242:In heaven an angel is no one in particular. ~ George Bernard Shaw, #KEYS
243:Next to love, balance is the most important thing." ~ John Wooden, #KEYS
244:Silence is safer than speech. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
245:That is why it is falling apart. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
246:The best cure for the body is a quiet mind." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #KEYS
247:Time is a circus, always packing up and moving away." ~ Ben Hecht, #KEYS
248:To be honest to oneself, and that is very hard to do. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
249:Unabidance in the ego, is abidance in the Self. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
250:Whatever is worth doing is worth evaluating.
~ Wynn and Guditus,#KEYS
251:which is natural which is infinite which is yes… ~ E E Cummings, #KEYS
252:A good half of the art of living is resilience." ~ Alain de Botton, #KEYS
253:A religion without a goddess is halfway to atheism. ~ Dion Fortune, #KEYS
254:Art is to console those who are broken by life. ~ Vincent van Gogh, #KEYS
255:Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life. ~ Omar Khayyam, #KEYS
256:but that which is contrary to His nature. ~ Saint Ambrose of Milan, #KEYS
257:God is a dark night to man in this life. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
258:Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious." ~ Zhuangzi, #KEYS
259:He who understands the wise is wise already. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
260:Illusion is perceived by that which is not illusory. ~ Shantideva-, #KEYS
261:jealousy is
the death
of love ~ Ogawa,#KEYS
262:Loneliness is one thing, solitude another.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
263:Prayer is the oxygen of the soul. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcino, #KEYS
264:Self-suffering is the truest test of sincerity.
~ Mahatma Gandhi,#KEYS
265:Self-trust is the first secret of success.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
266:Simplicity of heart is the way out of imagination. ~ Robert Burton, #KEYS
267:Suffering ceases when individuality is lost. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
268:There is no enlightenment outside of daily life. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #KEYS
269:What is not born cannot die. Words not spoken cannot lie." ~ Anon., #KEYS
270:When all that's left of me is love, Give me away." ~ Merrit Malloy, #KEYS
271:When nothing is done nothing is left undone. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.48, #KEYS
272:A great devastation is now near at hand." ~ Venerable Anna Emmerich, #KEYS
273:A hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer. ~ Novalis, #KEYS
274:A man's worth is no greater than his ambitions.
~ Marcus Aurelius,#KEYS
275:Amid a multitude of projects, no plan is devised. ~ Publilius Syrus, #KEYS
276:A pleasure is not full grown until it is remembered." ~ C .S. Lewis, #KEYS
277:Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today." ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
278:Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life." ~ Omar Khayyam, #KEYS
279:Change in all things is sweet." ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
280:Everything that is possible demands to exist.
~ Gottfried Leibniz,#KEYS
281:he is patient and devoted for a god is in his heart. ~ Quetzalcoatl, #KEYS
282:Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom. ~ Thomas Jefferson #KEYS
283:Life is the childhood of our immortality…" ~ Johann W. von Goethe, #KEYS
284:Man is on earth as in an egg. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
285:Nothing is exactly as it seems nor is it otherwise.
~ Zen Proverb,#KEYS
286:Opening to oneself fully is opening to the world. ~ Chogyam Trungpa, #KEYS
287:So is unable to see he unity of the Truth." ~ Mahmoūd Shabestarī, #KEYS
288:Sometimes even to live is an act of courage ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca, #KEYS
289:The enemy is lack of awareness, lack of presence. ~ Traleg Rinpoche, #KEYS
290:The master is himself an animal and needs a master. ~ Immanuel Kant, #KEYS
291:The right way to go easy is to forget the right way...." ~ Zhuangzi, #KEYS
292:The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
~ Bertrand Russell,#KEYS
293:The universe is a machine for the making of Gods.
~ Henri Bergson,#KEYS
294:What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
295:What pleases our mind is not dangerous enough." ~ Kazuaki Tanahashi, #KEYS
296:A donkey with a load of holy books is still a donkey." ~ Sufi saying, #KEYS
297:A dry soul is wisest and best. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
298:A man's character is his fate. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
299:A painting is complete when it has the shadows of a god. ~ Rembrandt, #KEYS
300:A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself. ~ Niels Bohr, #KEYS
301:A prosperous man is never sure that he is loved for himself. ~ Lucan, #KEYS
302:A slave is but half a man. ~ Aristophanes, #KEYS
303:Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
304:I dont think there is one[a secret], but I work a lot.
~ Elon Musk,#KEYS
305:It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one." ~ George Washington, #KEYS
306:It is time now for us to rise from sleep. ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #KEYS
307:Knowledge is not intelligence. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
308:Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar." ~ Jim Butcher, #KEYS
309:Software is like sex; it's better when it's free.
~ Linus Torvalds,#KEYS
310:Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. ~ Carl Sagan, #KEYS
311:The truest wisdom is a resolute determination." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #KEYS
312:Time is not a line, but a series of now-points.
~ Taisen Deshimaru,#KEYS
313:Wander where there is no path. ~ Chuang Tzu, #KEYS
314:What really matters is what you do with what you have." ~ H.G. Wells, #KEYS
315:a butterfly
is also made
of dust ~ Ogawa,#KEYS
316:A joke is an epigram on the death of a feeling. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
317:A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree." ~ Spike Milligan, #KEYS
318:At all times it is best to be present to what is before you. ~ Pindar, #KEYS
319:Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely." ~ Buddha, #KEYS
320:Faith Alone is what really matters. ~ Nichiren, #KEYS
321:It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
322:Magic is just science that we don't understand yet. ~ Arthur C Clarke, #KEYS
323:Nothing you wear is more important than your smile." ~ Connie Stevens, #KEYS
324:One day the victory is certain. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
325:Since it is all too clear, it takes time to grasp it.
~ Zen Proverb,#KEYS
326:The essence of God, if at all God has an essence, is Beauty. ~ Hermes, #KEYS
327:The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #KEYS
328:What we are looking for is what is looking. ~ Saint Francis of Assisi, #KEYS
329:What you should avoid is gossip and worldly talk. ~ Swami Saradananda, #KEYS
330:Where there is great love, there are always miracles." ~ Willa Cather, #KEYS
331:wither-soever ye turn, there is the Presence of Allah. ~ Koran, 2:115, #KEYS
332:A fool is excited by every word. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
333:A man who governs his passions is master of his world. ~ Saint Dominic, #KEYS
334:By words the mind is winged. ~ Aristophanes, #KEYS
335:Every experience is a lesson. Every loss is a gain." ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #KEYS
336:Everything is ceremony in the wild garden of childhood. ~ Pablo Neruda, #KEYS
337:If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." ~ African Proverb, #KEYS
338:Initiative is doing the right thing without being told." ~ Victor Hugo, #KEYS
339:It is conscious life that constitutes a man's whole being. ~ Asclepius, #KEYS
340:Its not what the vision is, its what the vision does.
~ Robert Fritz,#KEYS
341:Knowledge is the conformity of the object and the intellect ~ Averroes, #KEYS
342:Man must use what he has, not hope for what is not. ~ George Gurdjieff, #KEYS
343:The Door is open. It is you who keep turning away. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
344:The essence of life is in remembering God. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
345:The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another. ~ George Eliot, #KEYS
346:Time is only an idea. There is only the Reality. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
347:Time is three eyes and eight elbows. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
348:War is the father of all things. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
349:When there is no desire all things are at peace. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.37, #KEYS
350:When you have something to say, silence is a lie. ~ Jordan B. Peterson, #KEYS
351:Yes, His very splendour is the cause of His invisibility. ~ Baha-ullah, #KEYS
352:All is flux; nothing stays still. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
353:All is riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle. ~ R W Emerson, #KEYS
354:Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
355:Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to heaven. ~ Saint Pius X, #KEYS
356:If all I can see is my shadow, I'm standing in my own light." ~ Unknown, #KEYS
357:It is as it is. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
358:It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
359:No great thing is created suddenly. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
360:Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.
~ Vicktor Hugo,#KEYS
361:Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #KEYS
362:Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away." ~ Hakuin Ekaku, #KEYS
363:Perfection is achieved only on the point of collapse.
~ C N Parkinson,#KEYS
364:The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it." ~ Richard Bach, #KEYS
365:The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness." ~ Michel de Montaigne, #KEYS
366:The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
367:There is no reality except the one contained within us. ~ Hermann Hesse, #KEYS
368:There is nothing impossible to him who will try." ~ Alexander the Great, #KEYS
369:This shirt is dry clean only, which means...it's dirty. ~ Mitch Hedberg, #KEYS
370:Through the abandonment of desire the Deathless is realized. ~ Buddhism, #KEYS
371:What is to become of kings in a time without orbs? ~ Sloterdijk, Globes, #KEYS
372:Wisdom is the fruit of a balanced development. ~ Alfred North Whitehead #KEYS
373:A friend to all is a friend to none. ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
374:Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly -- at first. ~ G K Chesterton, #KEYS
375:A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
376:God is greater than God. ~ Meister Eckhart, #KEYS
377:God is Light. ~ John, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
378:Grace always is. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
379:Heaven's way is round, earth's way is square. ~ Lu Wu-pei, (Chinese poet) #KEYS
380:Only a few arrive at nothing, because the way is long. ~ Antonio Porchia, #KEYS
381:Psychological type is nothing static ~ it changes in the course of life., #KEYS
382:Remember no man is really defeated unless he is discouraged. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
383:That is all the doing you have to worry about. ~ Saint Jeanne de Chantal, #KEYS
384:The climax of purity is the beginning of theology. ~ Saint John Klimakos, #KEYS
385:The more real you get, the more unreal everything else is. ~ John Lennon, #KEYS
386:The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
387:The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness." ~ Proverb, #KEYS
388:There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
389:The Self is all. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
390:The solution to your problem is to see who has it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
391:The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining. ~ John F Kennedy, #KEYS
392:The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred. ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
393:The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. ~ Walt Disney, #KEYS
394:The world is won by those who let it go. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
395:To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides. ~ David Viscott, #KEYS
396:What is, is God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
397:Wisdom is full of light and her beauty is not withered. ~ Book of Wisdom, #KEYS
398:Your treasure house is in yourself; it contains all you need." ~ Hui Hai, #KEYS
399:and the conflict is eternal between a man's self and God. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
400:Anyone able to set aside power is liberated from impotence. ~ Jean Gebser, #KEYS
401:Autonomy is impossible as long as one is driven by anything. ~ Gabor Mate, #KEYS
402:Concentration is the root of all the higher abilities in man. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
403:For success, attitude is equally as important as ability." ~ Walter Scott, #KEYS
404:God is the answer to every question.
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan, [T5],#KEYS
405:Happiness is a mediorce sin for a middle class existence. ~ Saul Williams, #KEYS
406:If God be with us, there is no one else left to fear. ~ Saint Philip Neri, #KEYS
407:In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. ~ Desiderius Erasmus, #KEYS
408:Jesus is with me. I have nothing to fear. ~ Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, #KEYS
409:Not being able to see any problem is itself a problem.
~ Shigeru Mizuno,#KEYS
410:Sat is within us. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
411:Sometimes it is a good choice not to choose at all. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #KEYS
412:The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil. ~ Cicero, #KEYS
413:The future is a race between education and catastrophe. ~ Claudio Naranjo, #KEYS
414:The great aim of education is not knowledge but action. ~ Herbert Spencer, #KEYS
415:The measure of love is love without measure. ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #KEYS
416:There is no mind. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
417:The universe is comprised of sixes and fours. ~ Plato, #KEYS
418:To find our real being and know it truly is to acquire wisdom. ~ Porphyry, #KEYS
419:True fullness seems empty, yet it is fully present. ~ Tao te Ching, ch.45, #KEYS
420:Zen is not an art; it's not a religion. It's a realization." ~ Gene Clark, #KEYS
421:A programmer is a machine for turning caffeine into code.
~ A programmer,#KEYS
422:A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #KEYS
423:Come what may, all bad fortune is to be conquered by endurance.
~ Virgil,#KEYS
424:Confession of our faults is the next thing to innocence. ~ Publilius Syrus, #KEYS
425:Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one. ~ Martin Heidegger, #KEYS
426:Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. ~ J.R.R. Tolkien, #KEYS
427:Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.
~ Pema Chodron,#KEYS
428:For a truly religious man nothing is tragic.
~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, [T5],#KEYS
429:Forgetting oneself is opening oneself.
~ Dogen Zenji,#KEYS
430:God is all and all is God. ~ Meister Eckhart, #KEYS
431:God is within you. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
432:History of the world is but the biography of great men.
~ Thomas Carlyle,#KEYS
433:In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
~ Diogenes,#KEYS
434:It is in pain that love becomes stronger. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
435:My fear is my substance, and probably the best part of me.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
436:Our essential nature is happiness. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi #KEYS
437:Quality is not an act, it is a habit." ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
438:Religion is to mysticism what popularization is to science ~ Henri Bergson, #KEYS
439:Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life." ~ Immanuel Kant, #KEYS
440:Silence is the maturation of wisdom. ~ Maimonides, #KEYS
441:Tao abides in non-action Yet nothing is left undone. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.37, #KEYS
442:The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
443:To live effectively is to live with adequate information. ~ Norbert Wiener, #KEYS
444:To me He is the anguish of my heart. ~ SONG from GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, #KEYS
445:To see things in the seed, that is genius. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
446:What is more magnificent than the beauty of God? ~ Saint Basil of Caesarea, #KEYS
447:When I close my eyes my vision is even more powerful. ~ Giorgio de Chirico, #KEYS
448:A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men. ~ Anonymous, #KEYS
449:A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men." ~ Roald Dahl, #KEYS
450:All is living. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
451:A true philosopher is married to wisdom; he needs no other bride. ~ Proclus, #KEYS
452:Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life.
~ Haruki Murakami,#KEYS
453:For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business. ~ T S Eliot, #KEYS
454:God is a comedian playing to an audience that is afraid to laugh. ~ Voltaire #KEYS
455:How little known is the Merciful love of Jesus." ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
456:Listen, the next revolution is gonna be a revolution of ideas. ~ Bill Hicks, #KEYS
457:Nothing in the entire universe is hidden. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
458:Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.
~ Vicktor Hugo,#KEYS
459:Not how the world is, but that it is, is the mystery. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #KEYS
460:Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
~ Immanuel Kant,#KEYS
461:Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time. ~ Haruki Murakami, #KEYS
462:The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
463:The memories we make with our family is everything." ~ Candace Cameron Bure, #KEYS
464:The one great art is that of making a complete human being of oneself. ~ GG, #KEYS
465:What is real is a presence. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
466:Where there is no longer word or silence Tao is apprehended. ~ Chuang Tzu. , #KEYS
467:Bliss is within you. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
468:Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
469:Doubting is the biggest insult to Divinity. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
470:Emptiness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.
~ D T Suzuki,#KEYS
471:Here it is - right now. Start thinking about it and you miss it." ~ Huang Po, #KEYS
472:I know being loved is nothing. To love instead is everything. ~ Herman Hesse, #KEYS
473:In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
474:Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely. ~ Auguste Rodin, #KEYS
475:Now I know what success is: living your truth, sharing it." ~ Kamal Ravikant, #KEYS
476:Paradox is simply the way nonduality looks to the mental level. ~ Ken Wilber, #KEYS
477:The fastest way to freedom is to feel your feelings." ~ Gita Bellin, Source:, #KEYS
478:The first and best victory is to conquer self.
~ Plato,#KEYS
479:The New Man Jesus Christ is Son of man and Son of God. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
480:The punishment of desire is the agony of unfulfillment ~ Hermes Trismegistus, #KEYS
481:The self is in a fever; the self is forever changing, like a dream. ~ Buddha, #KEYS
482:What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
483:Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law. ~ Boethius, #KEYS
484:Wisdom is Crystallized Pain.
~ Rudolf Steiner,#KEYS
485:Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait. ~ Molière, Tartuffe, #KEYS
486:Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause. ~ Voltaire, #KEYS
487:Enlightenment is intimacy with all things." ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
488:Fixation is the way to death. Fluidity is the way to life. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
489:He is here. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
490:It is in changing that we find purpose. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
491:It is less what one is that should matter, than what one is not. ~ Wei Wu Wei, #KEYS
492:Life is like photography: use the negatives to develop positives.
~ Unknown,#KEYS
493:Man's greatest wisdom is to choose his obsession well.
~ Eliphas Levi, [T5],#KEYS
494:Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom." ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
495:Political correctness is merely fascism disguised as manners. ~ George Carlin, #KEYS
496:Sorrow is like a precious treasure, shown only to friends." ~ African proverb, #KEYS
497:Stress is caused by being 'here' but wanting to be 'there.' " ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
498: The fastest way to freedom is to feel your feelings." ~ Gita Bellin, Source:, #KEYS
499:The image of God throws a shadow that is just as great as itself. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
500:The memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time." ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
501:The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
502:To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
503:What is important is to spread confusion, not eliminate it.
~ Salvador Dali,#KEYS
504:A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.
~ William Shedd,#KEYS
505:Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.
~ Buddha,#KEYS
506:Beyond infinite, there is more infinite. ~ Chuang Tzu, #KEYS
507:But he who knows, and knows that he knows, is a wise man-follow him." ~ Sufism, #KEYS
508:Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. ~ John F. Kennedy, #KEYS
509:Failure-resistant is achievable; failure-free is not." ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb, #KEYS
510:Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #KEYS
511:If a man thinks he is not conceited, he is very conceited indeed. ~ C.S. Lewis, #KEYS
512:If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself. ~ Rick Riordan, #KEYS
513:It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged. ~ G K Chesterton, #KEYS
514:It is the duty of the steward to induce higher centers to be present. ~ Robert, #KEYS
515:My only prayer is to be firm in my determination in pursuing the truth. ~ Daie, #KEYS
516:No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. ~ C.S. Lewis #KEYS
517:Not Engaging in Ignorance is Wisdom.
~ Bodhidharma,#KEYS
518:That is all the doing you have to worry about. ~ Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, #KEYS
519:The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. ~ John Muir, #KEYS
520:The essence of the Way is detachment." ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
521:The path to success is to take massive, determined action.
~ Anthony Robbins,#KEYS
522:There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in." ~ Leonard Cohen, #KEYS
523:There is no suitable name for the eternal Tao. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
524:The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus." ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
525:The Way is in training... Do nothing which is not of value. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
526:The will is what man has as his unique possession. ~ Saint Joseph of Cupertino, #KEYS
527:What is possible for individual man is impossible for the masses." ~ Gurdjieff, #KEYS
528:What you seek is seeking you
~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#KEYS
529:Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist." ~ 1 John :2:22, #KEYS
530:Zeal is fit only for wise men, but is mostly found in fools.
~ Thomas Fuller,#KEYS
531:A dog is better than I am, for he has love and does not judge. ~ Saint Xanthias, #KEYS
532:A flute with no holes is not a flute. ~ Matsuo Basho, #KEYS
533:Amor Fati - "Love your Fate", which is in fact your life. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
534:An outside enemy exists only if there is anger inside." ~ Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, #KEYS
535:Any God that I can understand is too small a God for me to believe in." ~ Anon., #KEYS
536:Charm is getting the answer yes without asking a clear question. ~ Albert Camus, #KEYS
537:Don't fear failure...in great attempts it is glorious even to fail. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
538:Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
539:If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on. ~ Kant , #KEYS
540:If the universe is meaningless, so is the statement that it is so. ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
541:It is through victories in small things that we win great battles. ~ Philokalia, #KEYS
542:Life is the flight of the alone to the alone. ~ Plotinus, #KEYS
543:Silence is the answer, that is, silent presence is the answer." ~ Robert Burton, #KEYS
544:Sin is a spiritual blindness: "Their wickedness blinded them" (Wis 2:21). ~ STA, #KEYS
545:Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane. ~ Philip K. Dick, #KEYS
546:The best is the enemy of the good. (Le mieux est lennemi du bien.)
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
547:The best way to cheer yourself is to cheer somebody else up." ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
548:The book of nature is written in the language of mathematics. ~ Galileo Galilei, #KEYS
549:The most common form of despair is not being who you are.
~ Soren Kierkegaard,#KEYS
550:The most valuable gift you can receive is an honest friend." ~ Stephen Richards, #KEYS
551:The path up and down is one and the same. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
552:There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.
~ Leonard Cohen,#KEYS
553:The secret of the enjoyment of pleasure is to know when to stop.
~ Alan Watts,#KEYS
554:The test of a man is: does he bear apples? Does he bear fruit? ~ Abraham Maslow, #KEYS
555:The unfolding of the bare human soul … that is what interests me. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
556:To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short." ~ Confucius, #KEYS
557:What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
558:What is reality? An icicle forming in fire.
~ Dogen Zenji,#KEYS
559:When you could do anything, what you decide to do is important
~ Neal R Voron,#KEYS
560:Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle, Old Age a regret.
~ Benjamin Disraeli,#KEYS
561:All is full of gods ~ Thales, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
562:Any genuinely loving relationship is one of mutual psychotherapy. ~ M Scott Peck, #KEYS
563:A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on. ~ William Burroughs, #KEYS
564:Doubts will cease only when the non-self is put an end to. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
565:Forgiveness is not for the forgiven but for the sake of the forgiver…" ~ Anon., #KEYS
566:Forgiveness is the perfume which flowers give when trampled upon.
~ Mark Twain,#KEYS
567:God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in trouble. ~ Anonymous, #KEYS
568:Grace is always present. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
569:He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left." ~ Chinese Proverb, #KEYS
570:Is there a single man who can see what the Sage cannot even conceive? ~ Tseu-tse, #KEYS
571:It is not enough to try, you must succeed. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
572:Learning is a constant process of discovery - a process without end. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
573:No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.
~ Plato,#KEYS
574:Peace is the one condition of survival in this nuclear age. ~ Adlai E. Stevenson, #KEYS
575:Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day." ~ A. A. Milne, #KEYS
576:There is no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves." ~ Frank Herbert, #KEYS
577:The remedy against want is to moderate your desires. ~ Saadi, #KEYS
578:The Self is the Heart. The Heart is self-luminous. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi #KEYS
579:The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
580:The whole is more than the sum of its parts. ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
581:This bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh. ~ Jn. 6:51, #KEYS
582:To see God is to be God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
583:We have all the answers. It is the questions we do not know. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #KEYS
584:What is the product of virtue? Tranquillity. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
585:A true friend is somebody who can make us do what we can.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
586:A Zen master's life is one continuous mistake." ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
587:God who preceded all existence is a refuge. ~ Maimonides, #KEYS
588:He bids fair to grow wise who has discovered that he is not so. ~ Publilius Syrus, #KEYS
589:He is everywhere in the world and stands with all in His embrace. ~ Bhagavad Gita, #KEYS
590:He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.46, #KEYS
591:It is created little by little, day by day. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
592:Life, if well spent, is long. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #KEYS
593:Life itself is a quotation.
~ Jorge Luis Borges,#KEYS
594:Not creating delusions is enlightenment." ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
595:That which is, always is. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
596:The beginning is the most important part of the work. ~ Plato, #KEYS
597:The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
598:The invincible weapon against all our enemies is humility. ~ Theophan the Recluse, #KEYS
599:Theology without practice is the theology of demons ~ Saint Maximus the Confessor, #KEYS
600:The process that goes on inside you is not apparent to you. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
601:There is no shame in making an honest effort. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
602:There is no then, no now. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
603:There is nothing to fear. The Master will lead you by the hand. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
604:The Self is ever-present. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
605:The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
606:The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. ~ Confucius, #KEYS
607:The unfolding of the bare human soul ... that is what interests me.
~ Bruce Lee,#KEYS
608:Today is the eighth day of the month, tomorrow is the thirteenth.
~ Zen Proverb,#KEYS
609:Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar. ~ William Wordsworth, #KEYS
610:A First Sign of the Beginning of Understanding is the Wish to Die.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
611:A zen master's life is one continuous mistake.
~ Dogen Zenji,#KEYS
612:Distrust those in whom the desire to punish is strong ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
613:Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
614:Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.
~ Buddha,#KEYS
615:Everything is a grace because everything is God's gift. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
616:God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
617:Go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows. ~ Rilke, #KEYS
618:He is an eternal silence. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
619:He who can love can be; he who can be can do; he who can do is. ~ George Gurdjieff, #KEYS
620:If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made of." ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
621:Is it not the same distance to God everywhere? ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
622:Knowing others is wisdom; Knowing the self is enlightenment. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.33, #KEYS
623:Love is nothing but the brightness of God in men. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
624:My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me. ~ Benjamin Disraeli, #KEYS
625:Recognize what is before you and what is hidden shall be revealed to you. ~ Christ, #KEYS
626:Sincerity is Self-evident. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
627:Tell me what occupies your mind and I will tell you who your God is. ~ Paul Washer, #KEYS
628:The one great art is that of making a complete human being of oneself. ~ Gurdjieff, #KEYS
629:The problem with closed minded people is their mouth is always open." ~ Zig Ziglar, #KEYS
630:The real is ever as it is. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
631:There is neither Past nor Future. There is only the Present. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
632:There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
633:The true state of things is not to be found in one direction alone. ~ Dogen Zenji?, #KEYS
634:This bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh" ~ Jn. 6:51)., #KEYS
635:True perfection seems imperfect, yet it is perfectly itself. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.45, #KEYS
636:Truth is that of the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
637:When there is no desire, all things are at peace." ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
638:Your future self is watching you right now through your memories. ~ Aubrey de Grey, #KEYS
639:A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in relations.
~ Bertrand Russell,#KEYS
640:Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
641:Freeing oneself from words is liberation.
~ Bodhidharma,#KEYS
642:How much better is it to weep at joy, than to joy at weeping? ~ William Shakespeare, #KEYS
643:In truth there is no difference between the word of God and the world. ~ Baha-ulalh, #KEYS
644:It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. ~ Herman Melville, #KEYS
645:It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.
~ Soren Kierkegaard, [T5],#KEYS
646:Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." ~ Charles R. Swindoll, #KEYS
647:'Life is a sum of all your choices'. So, what are you doing today?
~ Albert Camus,#KEYS
648:Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend. ~ Plautus, #KEYS
649:Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 17:17, #KEYS
650:Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith ~ Margaret Shepherd, #KEYS
651:The beginning is the most important part of the work.
~ Plato,#KEYS
652:The Consciousness within, purged of the mind, is felt as God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
653:The golden rule is, to help those we love to escape from us." ~ Friedrich Von Hugel, #KEYS
654:The last pleasure in life is the sense of discharging our duty.
~ William Hazlitt,#KEYS
655:The light of Christ is an endless day that knows no night. ~ Saint Maximus of Turin, #KEYS
656:The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods. ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle #KEYS
657:The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again. ~ Charles Dickens, [T5], #KEYS
658:The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. ~ Pablo Picasso, #KEYS
659:The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. ~ Ayn Rand, #KEYS
660:The real Self is permanent. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
661:There is in the universe one power of infinite Thought. ~ Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, #KEYS
662:There is nothing worse than imagination without taste. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
663:The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness." ~ Eric Hoffer, #KEYS
664:The way of letters- leave no trace. Yet the teaching is revealed. ~ Dogen 1200-1253, #KEYS
665:To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god. ~ Jorge Luis Borge, #KEYS
666:To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
667:to have faith is precisely to lose one's mind so as to win God. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #KEYS
668:To practice magic is to be a quack; to know magic is to be a sage.
~ Eliphas Levi,#KEYS
669:What is evil? Whatever springs from weakness. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist, #KEYS
670:As you are, so is the world. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
671:Being that can be understood is language. ~ Hans Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method 474, #KEYS
672:Blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of the truth.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
673:Contentment in all circumstances is the mark of religious life. ~ Swami Vijnanananda, #KEYS
674:Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.
~ Khalil Gibran,#KEYS
675:For all is full of God. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
676:Friendship is . . . the sort of love one can imagine between the angels. ~ C S Lewis, #KEYS
677:Having only wisdom and talent is the lowest tier of usefulness. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
678:If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable.
~ Seneca,#KEYS
679:It is better to confess your sins than to harden your heart. ~ Saint Clement of Rome, #KEYS
680:It is more Important to be of pure intention than of perfect action." ~ Ilyas Kassam, #KEYS
681:Judge by the truth. The truth is in the present. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
682:Meditation: There is nothing to do. It is about undoing
~ Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche,#KEYS
683:My religion is not deceiving myself. ~ Jetsun Milarepa, #KEYS
684:No matter which rooms one is in, there are many paths in the Infinite Building. ~ JB, #KEYS
685:Now is the time to be heroic.
~ The Mother, Agenda Vol 13,#KEYS
686:Realization is for everyone. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
687:Success is as dangerous as failure. Hope is as hollow as fear. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.13, #KEYS
688:Tea is the elixir of life. ~ Eisai, Kissa Yojoki How to Stay Healthy by Drinking Tea, #KEYS
689:The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. ~ William Shakespeare, #KEYS
690:There is no cause for worry. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
691:The Self alone is permanent. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
692:The Truth is realized in an instant; the Act is practiced step by step." ~ Seungsahn, #KEYS
693:Time is a game played beautifully by children. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
694:Time management is a misnomer, the challenge is to manage ourselves. ~ Stephen Covey, #KEYS
695:Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye. ~ Bill Hicks, #KEYS
696:Whenever you mow us down, we multiply; the blood of Christians is seed. ~ Tertullian, #KEYS
697:A man so painfully in love is capable of self-torture beyond belief. ~ John Steinbeck, #KEYS
698:Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance. ~ George Bernard Shaw, #KEYS
699:Death is an evil; the gods have so judged; had it been good, they would die. ~ Sappho, #KEYS
700:Guru's grace is always there. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
701:He is pure of all name. ~ The Bab, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
702:he who works, and not for Christ, does not know what he is doing. ~ Saint Philip Neri, #KEYS
703:I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 15:1, #KEYS
704:If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.
~ Marcus Aurelius,#KEYS
705:Individuals should be enabled to achieve the best that is in them.
~ Howard Gardner,#KEYS
706:Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
707:Latent structure is master of obvious structure ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
708:Nothing is impossible for one who is attentive. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
709:Pain is the breaking of the shell which encloses your understanding
~ Khalil Gibran,#KEYS
710:Realization is already there. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
711:Real silence means there is actually nowhere else for the mind to go. ~ Anandamayi Ma, #KEYS
712:Silence is also conversation. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
713:SILENCE is the best language. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
714:sunrise
is where
the Gods live ~ Kobayashi Issa,#KEYS
715:The adventure of awakening is among the most universal of human dramas. ~ ken-wilber, #KEYS
716:The body itself is a thought. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
717:The knowledge of God is received in divine silence.
~ Saint John of the Cross, [T5],#KEYS
718:There are no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity. ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
719:The root of all desires is the one desire: to come home, to be at peace. ~ Jean Klein, #KEYS
720:The Self is ever the witness. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
721:The smallest fact is a window through which the infinite may be seen. ~ Aldous Huxley, #KEYS
722:What is the path? There is no path. On into the unknown. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
723:Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, #KEYS
724:You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible." ~ Deepak Chopra, #KEYS
725:A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. ~ Italo Calvino, #KEYS
726:A true artist is someone who gives birth to a new reality. ~ Plato, #KEYS
727:But is there something where God used to be? ~ Iris Murdoch, The Message to the Planet, #KEYS
728:By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. ~ Bill Hicks, #KEYS
729:Every moment of light and dark is a miracle. ~ Walt Whitman, #KEYS
730:Guru is not the physical form. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
731:Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying. ~ Saint Vincent de Paul, #KEYS
732:I don't mind what happens. That is the essence of inner freedom." ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
733:If there is a paradise on earth,
It is this, it is this, it is this ~ Amir Khusrau,#KEYS
734:It is all He, only in different forms. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
735:It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." ~ Frederick Douglass, #KEYS
736:It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
737:It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the truth.
~ Blaise Pascal,#KEYS
738:It is the consumers who make poor people rich and rich people poor. ~ Ludwig Von Mises, #KEYS
739:Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
~ Aristotle,#KEYS
740:Never underestimate your potential. Buddha nature is always there. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
741:Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.
~ J M Barrie,#KEYS
742:No want is the greatest bliss. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
743:One man is worth thousand if he is extraordinary ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
744:Play is the most natural method of self-healing that childhood affords. ~ Erik Erikson, #KEYS
745:Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #KEYS
746:Silence is the cross on which we must crucify our ego. ~ Saint Seraphim of Sarov, [T5], #KEYS
747:Sorrow is a form of Evil. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
748:The end of all wisdom is Love. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
749:The first thing you'll have to do, is the last thing you wished. ~ Edward Murphy, [T5], #KEYS
750:The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
~ Taoist proverb,#KEYS
751:The Heart is the only Reality. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
752:The only serious question in life is whether to kill yourself or not.
~ Albert Camus,#KEYS
753:The present is the only reality of wich a man can truly be deprived. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
754:The secret of success is… to be fully awake to everything about you. ~ LeRoy Pollock, #KEYS
755:To be free is nothing, to become free is everything.
~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel,#KEYS
756:To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind.
~ T Gantier,#KEYS
757:Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
758:Where the press is free, and everyone is able to read, all is safe. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #KEYS
759:Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
760:Your God is ever beside you - indeed, He is even within you. ~ Saint Alphonsus Ligouri, #KEYS
761:Acceptive and at ease, distilling the present hour, whatever, wherever it is. ~ Whitman, #KEYS
762:Atman alone exists and is real. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
763:By silence, eloquence is meant. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
764:Creation is only the projection into form of that which already exists. ~ Bhagavad Gita, #KEYS
765:Everything that is happening to me is a challenge to have insight into it ~ Jean Gebser, #KEYS
766:For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love. ~ Carl Sagan, #KEYS
767:For to know a man's library is, in some measure, to know his mind.
~ Geraldine Brooks,#KEYS
768:Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life." ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
769:He who is being carried does not realize how far the next town is…" ~ African proverb, #KEYS
770:How can anything be said to be real which is only a passing show? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
771:I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things. ~ Vincent van Gogh, #KEYS
772:Ignorance of future ills is a more useful thing than knowledge. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #KEYS
773:Insist on yourself; never imitate... Every great man is unique.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
774:Intolerance is evidence of impotence. ~ Aleister Crowley, #KEYS
775:It is in the nature of things that joy arises in a person free from remorse.
~ Buddha,#KEYS
776:Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in a long-shot. ~ Charlie Chaplin, #KEYS
777:Love is the actual form of God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
778:Meditation is your true nature. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
779:No prayer is complete without prescence ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
780:Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.
~ Plato,#KEYS
781:Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land. ~ Walt Whitman, #KEYS
782:Samadhi is one's natural state. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
783:Silence is never-ending speech. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
784:The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success. ~ Bruce Feirstein #KEYS
785:The object of the intellect is being.
~ Meister Eckhart,#KEYS
786:The soul bound is man; free, it is God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
787:This Agenda... is my gift to those who love me.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
788:Time is the coin of life. Only you can determine how it will be spent." ~ Carl Sandburg, #KEYS
789:To be full of light is the aim. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
790:To be still is not to think.
Know, and not think, is the word. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi,#KEYS
791:What allows us to be human is something daemonic. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
792:Where there is something good at hand, there warfare begins. ~ Philokalia, Barsanuphius, #KEYS
793:All reflects Him in His shining and by His light all this is luminous. ~ Katha Upanishad, #KEYS
794:A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #KEYS
795:Do what you will, this world's a fiction and is made up of contradiction ~ William Blake, #KEYS
796:Everything is within one's Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
797:God is a being than which nothing greater can be conceived. ~ Saint Anselm of Canterbury, #KEYS
798:God is all and all is God. ~ Eckhart, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
799:I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. ~ Vincent van Gogh, #KEYS
800:If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
~ Isaac Newton,#KEYS
801:If your mind is pure, all buddha-lands are pure. ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
802:Inspiration is for amateurs ~ the rest of us just show up and get to work. ~ Chuck Close, #KEYS
803:I think hell is something you carry around with you. Not somewhere you go. ~ Neil Gaiman, #KEYS
804:It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not. ~ André Gide, #KEYS
805:Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #KEYS
806:No furniture is so charming as books. ~ Sydney Smith , A memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith #KEYS
807:No man is crushed by misfortune unless he has first been deceived by prosperity ~ Seneca, #KEYS
808:No man is defeated without until he has first been defeated within." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, #KEYS
809:Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now. ~ Walt Whitman, #KEYS
810:One of the goals of education should be to teach that life is precious. ~ Abraham Maslow, #KEYS
811:Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex. ~ Frank Zappa, #KEYS
812:Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
813:Return is the movement of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.40, #KEYS
814:Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
815:Seeing into darkness is clarity. Knowing how to yield is strength. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.52, #KEYS
816:Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it. ~ Maya Angelou, #KEYS
817:Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.
~ Jim Rohn,#KEYS
818:The greatness of the Great is the greatness of the Divine in him.
~ Nolini Kanta Gupta,#KEYS
819:The name of the Ancient and most Holy is unknowable to all and inaccessible. ~ The Zohar, #KEYS
820:The only way to see far is to see what is near...to see what is present. ~ Robert Burton, #KEYS
821:The true icon of the divinity is his name. ~ Sergius Bulgakov, Icons and the Name of God, #KEYS
822:The Universe is a unity. ~ Philolaus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
823:The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
824:The word 'innocence' means a mind that is incapable of being hurt." ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
825:To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss." ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
826:Ultimate understanding is that there is no one to understand anything. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
827:Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Job, 5 7, #KEYS
828:Yoga is the practice of tolerating the consequences of being yourself.
~ Bhagavad Gita,#KEYS
829:A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.27, #KEYS
830:„Anger is a momentary madness so control your passion or it will control you." ~ Horace, #KEYS
831:Consider that nirvana is itself no other than our life. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
832:Cynicism, sadness or laughter is the magicians privilege.
~ Peter J Carroll, Liber Null,#KEYS
833:God is our name for the last generalization to which we can arrive. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
834:Ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
835:I'm alone and nobody is in the mirror ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #KEYS
836:Indolence is a soil. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
837:It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. ~ Winston Churchill, #KEYS
838:It is better for a man to confess his sins than to harden his heart. ~ Pope St. Clement I, #KEYS
839:It is easy to believe we are each waves, and forget we are also the ocean." ~ Jon J. Muth, #KEYS
840:Man is a small universe. ~ Democritus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
841:Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
842:Perhaps the shortest and most powerful prayer in human language is help. ~ Thomas Keating, #KEYS
843:Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 17:17,#KEYS
844:Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful." ~ Zig Ziglar, #KEYS
845:The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
846:The formula 'Two and two make five' is not without its attractions.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky,#KEYS
847:The habit of knowledge
is not human but devine. ~ Heraclitus,#KEYS
848:There is more joy in one desire conquered than in a thousand desires satisfied
~ Buddha,#KEYS
849:There is no leaving or returning. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
850:There is no road to Heaven but that of Innocence or Penance. ~ Saint Cajetan, (1480-1547), #KEYS
851:The Universe is a unity. ~ Anaxagoras, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
852:The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party. ~ William James, #KEYS
853:To know how to criticize is good, to know how to create is better. (417) ~ Henri Poincare, #KEYS
854:What is bliss but your own being? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
855:Your own self is lying, unbelieving. Tame it through efforts and of struggle. ~ Al-Jilani, #KEYS
856:A hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
857:All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
858:A man walking is never in balance, but always correcting for imbalance." ~ Gregory Bateson, #KEYS
859:Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in." ~ Bill Bradley, #KEYS
860:A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out." ~ Walter Winchell, #KEYS
861:Because he is content with himself he doesn't need other's approval. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.30, #KEYS
862:Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.
~ Thomas Carlyle,#KEYS
863:Detachment is necessary for peace, and peace is necessary for happiness." ~ Naval Ravikant, #KEYS
864:Do not listen to those who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious ~ Og Mandino, #KEYS
865:Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure." ~ 1 John 3:2-3, #KEYS
866:God is at home. We are in the far country. ~ Meister Eckhart, #KEYS
867:How can I study from below, that which is above? ~ Aristophanes, #KEYS
868:Is not everything the work of God? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
869:It is all mind or maya [illusion]. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
870:It is better to be the child of God than king of the whole world. ~ Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, #KEYS
871:It is Itself that which was and that which is yet to be, the Eternal. ~ Kaivaiya Upanishad, #KEYS
872:It is like the eternal void : filled with eternal possibilities. ~ Tao Te Ching, chapter 4, #KEYS
873:It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor." ~ Seneca, #KEYS
874:It is the duty of every man to uphold the dignity of every woman." ~ Pope St. John Paul II, #KEYS
875:Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friends. ~ John Lennon, #KEYS
876:Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light. ~ John Milton, Paradise Lost, #KEYS
877:No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.
~ Carl Jung,#KEYS
878:Peace of mind is that mental condition in which you have accepted the worst." ~ Lin Yutang, #KEYS
879:Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.
~ Isaac Asimov,#KEYS
880:Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible." ~ Tony Robbins, #KEYS
881:The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #KEYS
882:The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
883:There is in every child at every stage a new miracle of vigorous unfolding. ~ Erik Erikson, #KEYS
884:The Self is the center of centers. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
885:Thinking is a sacred disease and sight is deceptive. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
886:This is what is hardest: to close the open hand because one loves.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
887:To pardon the oppressor is to deal harshly with the oppressed. ~ Saadi, #KEYS
888:Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness." ~ George MacDonald, #KEYS
889:You are merely an instrument through which Consciousness is functioning. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
890:At the core of all well-founded belief lies belief that is unfounded. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #KEYS
891:Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.
~ William Butler Yeats,#KEYS
892:God is the source of love, the clear fountain of love that never runs dry. ~ Sunday Adelaja, #KEYS
893:It is harder to fight pleasure than to fight emotion. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
894:It is the illusion of free will that creates the illusion of the ego. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
895:It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #KEYS
896:Life is like an ice-cream cone, you have to lick it one day at a time." ~ Charles M. Schulz, #KEYS
897:No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen. ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
898:Peace of mind itself is liberation. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
899:Silence is not confined to the tongue but concerns the heart and all the limbs." ~ Abu Bakr, #KEYS
900:Suffering is a gift. In it is hidden mercy. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
901:The destiny of a person is determined by their efforts. ~ Ibn Arabi, #KEYS
902:The ego is a veil between humans and God.
~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#KEYS
903:The FOOL Has Said In His Heart:There is No God!" ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 14:1, [T5], #KEYS
904:The goal of life is not the drama being played, but the lesson that it offers. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
905:The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
906:The mind is only a transient phase. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
907:The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
908:The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.
~ Mother Teresa,#KEYS
909:The purpose of the work is to cast the enemy out of the pastures of the heart. ~ Philokalia, #KEYS
910:The race of men is divine. ~ Pythagoras, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
911:There is nothing to be gained anew. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
912:The Self alone is and nothing else. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
913:The standard of success is whether you've pleased God. ~ A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, #KEYS
914:The struggle of what one likes and what one dislikes is the disease of the mind." ~ Sengcan, #KEYS
915:The winds of grace blow all the time. All we need to do is set our sails. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
916:What comes will also go. What always is will alone remain. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi #KEYS
917:What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other? ~ George Eliot, #KEYS
918:What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
919:When one realises one is asleep, at that moment one is already half-awake. ~ P.D. Ouspensky, #KEYS
920:Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose." ~ Lyndon B. Johnson, #KEYS
921:A book read by a thousand different people is a thousand different books. ~ Andrei Tarkovsky, #KEYS
922:All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful. ~ Wilfred Owen, #KEYS
923:All life is Yoga.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, [T5],#KEYS
924:A man is always devoted to something more tangible than a woman - the idea of her. ~ Bauvard, #KEYS
925:Child, your body is also My body. I suffer if you do not keep good health. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
926:Everyone's life is a warfare, and that long and various. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
927:For the thirst to possess your love,
Is worth my blood a hundred times. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi,#KEYS
928:He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
929:He who is self-conceited has no superiority allowed to him." ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
930:Identification with the body is dvaita. Non-identification is advaita. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
931:In heaven fear is not. ~ Katha-Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
932:Is there anyone unaware of the Self? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
933:It is enough to pay attention to what is before one's eyes, that is, to the present. ~ Dante, #KEYS
934:It is for love of him that I do not spare myself in preaching him. ~ Saint Gregory the Great, #KEYS
935:It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.
~ Benjamin Franklin,#KEYS
936:Preoccupation with one's weakness is the last form taken by self-importance. ~ Rodney Collin, #KEYS
937:Surrender itself is a mighty prayer. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
938:The absolute Brahman is realized in samadhi. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
939:The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
940:The greatest gift that you can give your teacher is doing your practice. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
941:The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any." ~ Fred Astaire, #KEYS
942:The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on your two feet." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
943:The path that leads to truth is littered with the bodies of the ignorant. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
944:There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #KEYS
945:There is no gaining of anything new. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
946:The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times. ~ Paulo Coelho, #KEYS
947:The Self is free from all qualities. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
948:The true measure of loving God is to love Him without measure." ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #KEYS
949:To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
~ Henry David Thoreau, [T5],#KEYS
950:To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.~ Lewis B Smedes, #KEYS
951:Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
952:Wisdom is the daughter of experience.
~ Leonardo da Vinci,#KEYS
953:Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use." ~ Thomas J. Watson, #KEYS
954:Art is never finished, only abandoned.
~ Leonardo da Vinci,#KEYS
955:Don't give up. Normally it is the last key on the ring which opens the door.
~ Paulo Coelho,#KEYS
956:Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough." ~ Og Mandino, #KEYS
957:Faithfulness is the antidote to bitterness and confusion. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
958:Let no man think that he is loved by any who loveth none. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
959:Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
960:Love is strong as death. ~ Bony of flours, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
961:Making sure we know that autumn is here, a leaf from the empress tree. ~ Den Sutejo 1633-1698, #KEYS
962:Mankind is poised midway between the gods and the beasts.
~ Plotinus,#KEYS
963:Man, like a light in the night, is kindled and put out. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
964:One who has seen the Lord is a changed being. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
965:Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
966:Sometimes the title IS the story, and the rest is just an explanation. ~ James K Bowers, [T5], #KEYS
967:That which is Bliss is also the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
968:The conquering of self is truly greater than were one to conquer many worlds.
~ Edgar Cayce,#KEYS
969:The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #KEYS
970:The naked woman's body is a portion of eternity too great for the eye of man. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
971:The purpose of thinking is to let the ideas die instead of us dying. ~ Alfred North Whitehead #KEYS
972:There is no great genius without some touch of madness.
~ Aristotle,#KEYS
973:There is no such thing as freedom of choice unless there is freedom to refuse.
~ David Hume,#KEYS
974:The super-ego is that part of the personality which is soluble in alcohol
~ Arthur Koestler,#KEYS
975:The tree is known by its fruit. ~ Matthew, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
976:The whole universe is a mere thought. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
977:To become what one is, one must have not the faintest idea what one is. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
978:To set up what you like against what you dislike, this is the disease of the mind." ~ Sengcan, #KEYS
979:Truly the sage is not other than God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
980:What a man loves, a man is. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
981:A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
982:A generous effort of the mind is expressed more gloriously in action than in words. ~ Petrarch, #KEYS
983:Anything worth putting off is worth abandoning altogether. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
984:A true Bhakta is greater than God, for he is a giver and not a taker. ~ Swami Ramakrishnananda, #KEYS
985:But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? ~ Job, 28:12, #KEYS
986:Do not be afraid; our fate Cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.
~ Dante Alighieri, Inferno,#KEYS
987:Everything that happens to you is a form of instruction if you pay attention." ~ Robert Greene, #KEYS
988:Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
~ Henry Ford,#KEYS
989:For the saint there is no death. ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
990:He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 John, 4:8, [T5], #KEYS
991:If you have devotion, the Buddha is always right in front of you. ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, #KEYS
992:I have decided to stick to love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr., #KEYS
993:I know you're tired but come, this is the way. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
994:Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
995:Love moves without an agenda. It just moves because that is its nature - to move. ~ Adyashanti, #KEYS
996:No permanence is ours. We are a wave that flows to fit whatever form it finds. ~ Hermann Hesse, #KEYS
997:No permanence is ours; we are a wave that flows to fit whatever form it finds. ~ Hermann Hesse, #KEYS
998:Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
999:Realization is a matter of becoming conscious of that which is already realized." ~ Wei Wu Wei, #KEYS
1000:Recognize what is before you and what is hidden shall be revealed to you.
~ Gospel of Thomas,#KEYS
1001:The evildoer is the only slave. ~ Rousseau, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1002:The flower which is single need not envy the thorns that are numerous.
~ Rabindranath Tagore,#KEYS
1003:The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, On the Beatitudes, #KEYS
1004:The Guru is the mediator. He takes man to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1005:The person who can bring the spirit of laughter into a room is indeed blessed." ~ Bennett Cerf, #KEYS
1006:The problem is not to find the answer, it's to face the answer ~ Terence McKenna, [T5], #KEYS
1007:The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr., #KEYS
1008:The real meaning of detachment is to be separated inwardly from what is unreal. ~ Al-Kalabadhi, #KEYS
1009:There is nothing in the desert and no man needs nothing. ~ David, Prometheus, Aliens: Covenant, #KEYS
1010:The sole difference between myself and a madman is the fact that I am not mad. ~ Salvador Dali, #KEYS
1011:To be really sorry for one's errors is like opening the door of heaven.
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan,#KEYS
1012:To me one man is worth ten thousand if he is first-rate. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1013:True enthusiasm is a fine feeling whose flash I admire wherever I see it." ~ Charlotte Brontë, #KEYS
1014:True silence is really endless speech. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1015:What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #KEYS
1016:Your life is in your hands. Every single circumstance in your life can change." ~ Rhonda Byrne, #KEYS
1017:Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 119:105, #KEYS
1018:A glimpse into the world proves that horror is nothing other than reality.
~ Alfred Hitchcock,#KEYS
1019:A lily or a rose never pretends, and its beauty is that it is what it is." ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
1020:Descending from the head to the Heart is the beginning of spiritual life. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1021:Empty is the argument of the philosopher which does not relieve any human suffering. ~ Epicurus, #KEYS
1022:Every moment this cup fills with vision. This is my wine. I drink the given moment. ~ Bahauddin, #KEYS
1023:Faith that is allergic to questioning is just fundamentalist blind dogma. ~ Taigen Dan Leighton, #KEYS
1024:Grace is within you. Grace is the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1025:Home is where you reminisce when you are far away and sing with sorrow. ~ Muro Saisei 1889-1962, #KEYS
1026:Hridaya (Heart) is the alpha and omega. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1027:I never found the companion that was (is) so companionable as solitude.
~ Henry David Thoreau,#KEYS
1028:It is in the darkness that one finds the light. ~ Meister Eckhart, #KEYS
1029:It is through science that we prove, but through intuition that we discover.
~ Henri Poincare,#KEYS
1030:Love is Religion, and The Universe is The Book. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1031:Love is the one truth. ~ Antoine the Healer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1032:Perhaps the greatest risk any of us will ever take is to be seen as we really are. ~ Cinderella, #KEYS
1033:Person is what is most perfect in nature. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I q. 29 a. 3, #KEYS
1034:Preparing food is not just about yourself and others. It's about everything!
~ Shunryu Suzuki,#KEYS
1035:Self-mastery is the greatest conquest, it is the basis of all enduring happiness. ~ MOTHER MIRA, #KEYS
1036:Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #KEYS
1037:Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.
~ Lowell,#KEYS
1038:The depth of learning is in direct relation to the intensity of the experience. ~ Robert Monroe, #KEYS
1039:The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.
~ Nathaniel Branden,#KEYS
1040:The love of God is the root and foundation of Plato's philosophy. ~ Simone Weil, 'God in Plato', #KEYS
1041:The most delightful surprise in life is to suddenly recognise your own worth.
~ Maxwell Maltz,#KEYS
1042:The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something." ~ Koun Yamada, #KEYS
1043:There is no such action as Realization. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1044:The worst pain a man can suffer is to have insight into much and power over nothing ~ Herodotus, #KEYS
1045:This is why, like E.M. Forster, I do not believe in belief ~ Karl Popper, 'Objective Knowledge', #KEYS
1046:What exists in truth is the Self alone. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1047:What is destined to happen will happen. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1048:What is the use of a realization that fails to reduce your disturbing emotions? ~ Guru Rinpoche, #KEYS
1049:When one transcends right and wrong, he is truly right. ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
1050:Writing is busy idleness. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1051:You think you are the mind, therefore you ask how it is to be controlled. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1052:A fool is known by his speech; and a wise man by silence." ~ Pythagoras, #KEYS
1053:A hundred years of education is nothing compared with one moment spent with God! ~ Shams Tabrizi, #KEYS
1054:As Meander says, "For our mind is God;" and as Heraclitus, "Man's genius is a deity." ~ Plutarch, #KEYS
1055:Beyond the sky where I have set the Sun, is He-Who-Speaks-Not: He knows all. ~ Myths of the Iife, #KEYS
1056:But when I know that the glass is already broken, every minute with it is precious. ~ Ajahn Chah, #KEYS
1057:Doubt everything at least once, even the sentence "Two times two is four." ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
1058:Extreme longing is the surest way to God-vision. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1059:Gratitude is wine for the soul. Go on. Get drunk ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1060:I do not allow others to influence my thinking unless it is positive or uplifting." ~ Louise Hay, #KEYS
1061:If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life. ~ Wu-Men, #KEYS
1062:is only His reflection. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1063:It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth." ~ Alexis de Tocqueville, #KEYS
1064:It is the mind that veils our happiness. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1065:It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.
~ Diogenes,#KEYS
1066:Knowledge is learning something everyday. Wisdom is letting go of something everyday." ~ Unknown, #KEYS
1067:Know then that the body is merely a garment. Go seek the wearer, not the cloak. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi #KEYS
1068:Life is a balance of holding on and letting go." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1069:Life is a piece of music, and you're supposed to be dancing. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1070:My religion is to live and die without regret.
~ Jetsun Milarepa,#KEYS
1071:Sorrow is the daughter of evil. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1072:The aim is to make the mind one-pointed. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1073:The Eternal is not born nor does it die. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1074:The greatest glory we can give to God is to do his will in everything. ~ Saint Alphonsus Liguori, #KEYS
1075:The path of Truth is narrower than the needle's eye and as sharp as a razor's edge. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
1076:The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
~ Aristotle,#KEYS
1077:The ultimate truth of who you are is not 'I am this' or 'I am that', but 'I am'. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
1078:Time itself is an element. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1079:To say eternal is to say universal. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1080:To see things for what they are is to see with the eyes of the vastness itself." ~ Suzanne Segal, #KEYS
1081:Truth is not private property. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1082:What is cannot perish. ~ Apollonius of Tyana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1083:What is there apart from one's own Self? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1084:Writing is nothing more than a guided dream. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #KEYS
1085:You know, one of the tragedies of real life is that there is no background music. ~ Annie Proulx, #KEYS
1086:All that is one and one that is all. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1087:A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 23:1, #KEYS
1088:Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
1089:Do you want to know my secret? This is my secret. I don't mind what happens. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
1090:Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever. Only nothing is eternal." ~ Audre Lorde, #KEYS
1091:Faith is a dark night for man, but in this very way it gives him light. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
1092:Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.
~ Rabindranath Tagore, [T5],#KEYS
1093:Fixity in the Self is your real nature. Remain as you are. That is the aim. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1094:Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
1095:God's invisible nature . . . is clearly perceived in the things that have been made ~ Rom. 1:20)., #KEYS
1096:In looking out upon the world, we forget that the world is looking at itself. ~ Alan Wilson, [T5], #KEYS
1097:It is enough that one surrenders oneself. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1098:It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
1099:It [the Heart] is the center of the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1100:No man is free who is not master of himself.
~ Epictetus, [T5],#KEYS
1101:Pure consciousness is beyond limitations. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1102:Talented people almost always know full well the excellence that is in them." ~ Charlotte Brontë, #KEYS
1103:That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons death may die.
~ H P Lovecraft,#KEYS
1104:The Eucharist is the supreme proof of the love of Jesus. ~ Saint Peter Julian Eymard, (1811-1868), #KEYS
1105:The humble is the root of the noble. The low is the foundation of the high. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.39, #KEYS
1106:The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him. ~ Arthur Schopenauer, #KEYS
1107:The only offering you can make to God is your increasing awareness. ~ Lalla, trans. Coleman Barks #KEYS
1108:There is no seeing. Seeing is only being. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1109:There is only one Jnani and you are THAT. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1110:The right question is usually more important than the right answer.
~ Plato,#KEYS
1111:The "secret" to "luck" is sheer persistence. Don't make it harder than that." ~ Preethi Kasireddy, #KEYS
1112:Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.
~ Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,#KEYS
1113:To be outspoken is easy when you do not wait to speak the complete truth.
~ Rabindranath Tagore,#KEYS
1114:Tonglen is a way for you to be with people who need you - beginning with yourself. ~ Pema Chodron, #KEYS
1115:To see a light, no other light is needed. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1116:Truth is above mind, it is in silence that one can enter into communication with it. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
1117:What is called the world is only thought. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1118:What is silence? It is eternal eloquence. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1119:Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #KEYS
1120:A new day is coming, the magnificent day of radiant beauty when I return to myself. ~ Quetzalcoatl, #KEYS
1121:Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.
~ Nikola Tesla,#KEYS
1122:Beauty is truth's smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.
~ Rabindranath Tagore,#KEYS
1123:Blessed is he whokeepeth himself pure. ~ Koran, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1124:Daybreak is a never-ending glory; getting out of bed is a never ending nuisance." ~ G K Chesterton, #KEYS
1125:Even truth needs to be clad in new garments if it is to appeal to a new age. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
1126:Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.
~ Rabindranath Tagore,#KEYS
1127:Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. ~ Pablo Picasso, #KEYS
1128:For the wages of Sin is death. ~ Romans VI. 23, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1129:If someone looks perfect, then that is because you don't know the person very well. ~ Haemin Sunim, #KEYS
1130:If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
~ Abraham Maslow,#KEYS
1131:It is not the outer objects that entangle us. It is the inner clinging that entangles us. ~ Tilopa, #KEYS
1132:It is wonderful what tricks our dreams play us, and how conveniently we can imagine. ~ Bram Stoker, #KEYS
1133:Life itself is not a thing-. . . but an act and process. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Theory of Life, #KEYS
1134:Love is a mystic path on which two distant souls meet and become one." ~ Yash Thakur, more quotes:, #KEYS
1135:Man's first duty is to conquer fear. ~ Carlyle, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1136:Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one's own self.
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
1137:No effort is needed to remain as the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1138:Normality is a paved road: it's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it. ~ Vincent van Gogh, #KEYS
1139:Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb." ~ Revelation 7:9-10, #KEYS
1140:Sometimes there is nothing you can do but let it rain, and wait for the sunshine." ~ Ayush Jaiswal, #KEYS
1141:The body is transitory [and hence unreal]. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1142:The Master is God Himself. Practice spiritual disciplines and you shall see Him. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
1143:The mercy of God, my son, is infinitely greater than your malice. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
1144:The mirror is not the same as its reflection. Being is not the same as appearing ~ Claudio Naranjo, #KEYS
1145:The righteous man is always active. ~ Chi-King, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1146:The true creator is necessity, which is the mother of our invention.
~ Plato,#KEYS
1147:The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth." ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
1148:To be full of light is the aim. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks, 70, #KEYS
1149:To dare is to lose ones footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.
~ Soren Kierkegaard,#KEYS
1150:Today is ever present. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Day By Day, 3-1-46, #KEYS
1151:What is, is the Self. It is all-pervading. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1152:What is learned without pleasure is forgotten without remorse. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1153:When one does nothing, nothing is left undone." ~ Attributed to Lao Tzu, as well as Hindu sources., #KEYS
1154:Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it." ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
1155:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Matthew, 6:21, #KEYS
1156:A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
~ Lao Tzu,#KEYS
1157:A great man is hard on himself; a small man is hard on others." ~ Confucius, #KEYS
1158:A library is the first step of a thousand journeys, portal to a thousand worlds. ~ Orson Scott Card, #KEYS
1159:Architecture is frozen music. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1160:Be content and live within your heart-deep inside - it is the only way to have peace. ~ MOTHER MIRA, #KEYS
1161:Be courteous, treat the other fellow as though he is as important as he thinks he is.
~ Anonymous,#KEYS
1162:Detachment is not that you should own nothing, but that nothing should own you. ~ Ali ibn Abi Talib, #KEYS
1163:Emptiness is bound to bloom, like hundreds of grasses blossoming. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
1164:For the two of us, home isn't a place. It is a person. And we are finally home. ~ Stephanie Perkins, #KEYS
1165:If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
1166:It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 118:8, #KEYS
1167:It is needful to watch over oneself. ~ Chu-King, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1168:It is not long before those who are obedient in service obtain command. ~ Saadi, #KEYS
1169:Liberation is our very nature. We are that. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1170:Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous. ~ Psalm 112:4, #KEYS
1171:Never lie; for to lie is infamous. ~ Zendavesta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1172:Only God can see what is in the bottom of our hearts; we are half-blind. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
1173:Only the annihilation of 'I' is Liberation. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1174:Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting." ~ Joyce Meyer, #KEYS
1175:Reason is the foundation of all things. ~ Li-Ki, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1176:Teaching without words, performing without actions; that is the master's way. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.43, #KEYS
1177:The fairest order in the world is a heap of random sweepings. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1178:The lamps are different, but the Light is the same. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1179:The purpose of study is preaching, and of preaching the salvation of souls. ~ Bl. Humbert of Romans, #KEYS
1180:The Real Self is continuous and unaffected. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1181:There is no better way to exercise the imagination than the study of the law. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
1182:There is no me, no you, no manifold world; All is the Self, and the Self alone. ~ The Avadhuta Gita, #KEYS
1183:There is nothing external in consciousness. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1184:The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules. ~ Gary Gygax, #KEYS
1185:The world is preparing for a big change.
Will you help? ~ The Mother,#KEYS
1186:To have wisdom is worth more than pearls. ~ Job, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1187:What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ John Green, #KEYS
1188:Wisdom is a thing vast and grand. She demands all the time that one can consecrate to her. ~ Seneca, #KEYS
1189:Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
1190:A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at. ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
1191:All Art is interpretation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings, Art, #KEYS
1192:All our knowledge is symbolic. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1193:All work is sadhana. Sadhana is our attempt to get to Him through every action. ~ Swami Akhandananda, #KEYS
1194:Catholicism is a deep matter; you cannot take it up in a tea cup. ~ Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman, #KEYS
1195:Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.15, #KEYS
1196:Ecclesiastes shows that man without God is in total ignorance and inevitable misery. ~ Blaise Pascal, #KEYS
1197:Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.
~ Blaise Pascal,#KEYS
1198:Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase. ~ Martin Luther King Jr., #KEYS
1199:Going on a pilgrimage is like falling in love with the greenness of faraway grass. ~ Lalla 1320-1392, #KEYS
1200:Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
~ Ernest Hemingway, The Garden of Eden,#KEYS
1201:He is the wisest who seeks God. He is the most successful who has found God. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #KEYS
1202:He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
1203:If you ask for yourself what you deny to others, your asking is a mockery. ~ Saint Peter Chrysologus, #KEYS
1204:If you don't know what your government is doing, you don't live in a democracy.
~ Jane Anne Morris,#KEYS
1205:In spite of the night the spiritual Light is there. ~ The Mother, CWM 15:68, #KEYS
1206:May the Master protect you. He is looking after you; what should you be afraid of? ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
1207:No one is free that has not obtained the empire of their self. ~ Pythagoras, #KEYS
1208:Sometimes thinking is like talking to another person, but that person is also you. ~ Terry Pratchett, #KEYS
1209:Suffering is the way for Realization of God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1210:That which is called happiness alone exists. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1211:The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence." ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, #KEYS
1212:The biggest coward is a man who awakens a woman's love with no intention of loving her. ~ Bob Marley, #KEYS
1213:The heart of man is, so to speak, the paradise of God." ~ Saint Alphonsus Marie Liguori, (1696-1787), #KEYS
1214:The heavy is the root of the light. The unmoved is the source of all movement. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.26, #KEYS
1215:The ignorant is a child. ~ Laws of Manu. II. 193, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1216:The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
~ Sophocles,#KEYS
1217:The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
1218:Therefore benefit comes from what is there; Usefulness from what is not there. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.11, #KEYS
1219:there is nothing else I can do;
I walk on and on ~ Santoka Taneda,#KEYS
1220:The Self you seek to know is truly yourself. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1221:Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth. ~ J. Michael Straczynski, #KEYS
1222:What is death? A scary mask. Take it off - see, it doesn't bite. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1223:When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are ruled by criminals. ~ Edward Snowden, #KEYS
1224:When the heart is at peace, "for" and "against" are forgotten. ~ Chuang Tzu, #KEYS
1225:When the world wearies, and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the Garden. ~ Minnie Aumonier, #KEYS
1226:Who are the true philosophers? Those whose passion is to love the truth. ~ Plato, #KEYS
1227:Will is the soul of the universe. ~ Schopenhauer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1228:Your mind is the cycle of births and deaths. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1229:Your true nature is that of infinite spirit. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1230:A monk asked Master Haryo, What is the way? Haryo said, An open-eyed man falling into the well.
~ ?,#KEYS
1231:And so the Apostle says that this mystical wisdom is revealed by the Holy Spirit. ~ Saint Bonaventure, #KEYS
1232:A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul." ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
1233:Blessed is the man who can love every man equally. ~ Maximus the Confessor, Centuries on Charity 1.17, #KEYS
1234:Character is nothing but habit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, Book III, #KEYS
1235:Children are natural Zen masters; their world is brand new in each and every moment." ~ John Bradshaw, #KEYS
1236:Duty is the demand of the hour. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1237:Fame is something which must be won; honor is something which must not be lost. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #KEYS
1238:Fear pleasure, it is the mother of grief. ~ Solon, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1239:He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
1240:Humility is the mark of a genuine disciple. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
1241:In fact, it is more correct to say that Truth is God, than to say that God is Truth. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
1242:Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" ~ Lucy Maud Montgomery, #KEYS
1243:It is unrealistc to expect people to see you as you see yourself. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1244:It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God - but to create him.
~ Arthur C Clarke,#KEYS
1245:Just for today, be a little child. Know the world is safe. Know that you are loved." ~ Iyanla Vanzant, #KEYS
1246:No living being is held by anything so strongly as its own needs. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1247:Purity is something that cannot be attained except by piling effort upon effort. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
1248:Receptivity is proportionate to self-giving. ~ The Mother, Some Answers, S10, #KEYS
1249:Role-playing isn't storytelling. If the dungeon master is directing it, it's not a game. ~ Gary Gygax, #KEYS
1250:Self is here and now and you are that always. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1251:Soul is one. Nature is one, life is one. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1252:There is no other philosophical enquiry apart from metaphysics. ~ Simone Weil, Lectures on Philosophy, #KEYS
1253:There is nothing the devil fears so much, or so much tries to hinder, as prayer." ~ Saint Philip Neri, #KEYS
1254:Thoroughly conscious ignorance is the prelude to every real advance in science. ~ James Clerk Maxwell, #KEYS
1255:To believe is to think with assent. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1256:To see more is to become more. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
1257:To think is to move in the Infinite. ~ Lacordaire, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1258:Unless the unhoped for is hoped for, it will not be discovered. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1259:What is a child? Ignorance. What is a child? Want of instruction. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1260:What is fruitful alone is true. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1261:What pleases the Deity is virtue and sincerity, not any number of material offerings ~ Shinto-Gobusho, #KEYS
1262:When the restrictions you have do not limit you, this is what we mean by practice.
~ Shunryu Suzuki,#KEYS
1263:When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you." ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
1264:Accepting things as they are is true humility. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1265:a greater degree than a man is ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.93.3)., #KEYS
1266:A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing. ~ Alan Perlis, #KEYS
1267:A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him. " ~ Aleksandr Solzlhenitsyn, #KEYS
1268:And seeing ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. ~ Shakespeare, #KEYS
1269:Genius is patience.
~ Anonymous Proverb, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919),#KEYS
1270:Gratitude is the wine for the soul. Go on. Get drunk." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1271:He is the brightest mirror... ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1272:He is the principle of supreme Wisdom. ~ The Zohar, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1273:He who conceives the Truth, is born anew. ~ Vemana, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1274:I am not devaluing thoughts. Just do not mix up what we think with what actually is." ~ Taizan Maezumi, #KEYS
1275:In order to be effective truth must penetrate like an arrow - and that is likely to hurt. ~ Wei Wu Wei, #KEYS
1276:In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is. ~ Yogi Berra, #KEYS
1277:is the smoke of that incense. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1278:It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
1279:It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
1280:Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do." ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1281:Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.
~ Zig Ziglar,#KEYS
1282:Life is a temporary loan and this world is nothing but a sketchy imitation of Reality. ~ Shams Tabrizi, #KEYS
1283:Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within the reach of every hand. ~ Saint Teresa of Calcutta, #KEYS
1284:Love is what is left in a relationship after all the selfishness has been removed." ~ Cullen Hightower, #KEYS
1285:One of the most common ways of not acknowledging our faults is to blame others. ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, #KEYS
1286:Our nature is primarily one, entire, blissful. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1287:Patience is the companion of Wisdom. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1288:Purity is something that cannot be attained except by piling effort upon effort." ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
1289:The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained. ~ David Bohm, #KEYS
1290:The glory of God is the living man, and the life of man is the vision of God. ~ Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, #KEYS
1291:The present is a powerful deity. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1292:The purpose of one's life is fulfilled only when one is able to give joy to another. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
1293:The reaction of a mentality headed for a fall, is only too typical of man in transition. ~ Jean Gebser, #KEYS
1294:The whole universe is life, force and action. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1295:To see God is the one goal. Power is not the goal. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1296:We speak, but it is God who teaches. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1297:What is the seal of liberation? - No longer being ashamed in front of oneself.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche,#KEYS
1298:When the mind is still, we can become an instrument of peace. ~ Eknath Easwaran, Strength in the Storm, #KEYS
1299:Wisdom is only found in truth.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,#KEYS
1300:Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
1301:A Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad." ~ Bodhidharma, #KEYS
1302:All is truth for the intellect and reason. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1303:All men are born with a nose and five fingers, but no one is born with a knowledge of God.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
1304:A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity. [Letter to Max Brod, July 5, 1922]
~ Franz Kafka,#KEYS
1305:An unused life is an early death. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1306:Bondage is of the mind and freedom is also of the mind. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1307:Cease to be a knower, then there is perfection. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1308:Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1309:Education worthy of the name is essentially education of character. ~ Martin Buber, Between Man and Man, #KEYS
1310:Excommunication is medicinal ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.82.8ad3)., #KEYS
1311:Existence or Consciousness is the only reality. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1312:Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.,#KEYS
1313:Foresight is part of prudence ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.49.6)., #KEYS
1314:God is as really present in the consecrated Host as He is in the glory of Heaven ~ Saint Paschal Baylon, #KEYS
1315:Goodness in the form of Truth, and Truth in the power of Goodness, is Wisdom. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, #KEYS
1316:Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself." ~ Og Mandino, #KEYS
1317:Heaven and earth do nothing. Yet there is nothing they do not do. ~ Chuang Tzu, #KEYS
1318:Heedlessness is the road of death. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1319:Hell is full of the talented, but Heaven of the energetic. ~ Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, (1572-1641), #KEYS
1320:He prays well who is so absorbed with God that he does not know he is praying. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #KEYS
1321:He who exercises wisdom exercises the knowledge which is about God. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1322:Intelligence is not the ability to store information, but to know where to find it.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
1323:In the mundane, nothing is sacred. In sacredness, nothing is mundane. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
1324:It is difficult to fight with an enemy who longs more for battle than for victory. ~ Francesco Petrarca, #KEYS
1325:It is that which is and that which is not. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1326:My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water. ~ Mark Twain, Notebook #KEYS
1327:The difference between insanity and genius is measured only by success and failure. ~ Masashi Kishimoto, #KEYS
1328:The great thing about being a writer is that you are always re-creating yourself.
~ Martin Cruz Smith,#KEYS
1329:The mind which studies is not disquieted. ~ Lao-tse, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1330:There is a gentle thought that often springs to life in me, because it speaks of you. ~ Dante Alighieri, #KEYS
1331:There is always some madness in love. But there is always some reason in madness. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
1332:There is no suitable name for the eternal Tao. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1333:There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor." ~ Charles Dickens, #KEYS
1334:There is only one Master, and that is the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1335:The risk of not deciding is often the greatest of all risks to the organization.
~ Everard and Morris,#KEYS
1336:Turn all things to honey; this is the law of divine living. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
1337:What is a man? A mortal God. What then is a God? An immortal man. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1338:When you've seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there." ~ George Harrison, #KEYS
1339:Whoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.
~ Aristotle,#KEYS
1340:Your duty is to Be, and not to be this or that. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1341:All wisdom is one: to understand the spirit that rules all by all. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1342:As long as you are outside the door, a good portion of the journey is behind you." ~ Scandinavian saying, #KEYS
1343:Bondage is only the false notion, I am the doer. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1344:Consciousness is unlimited. IT is. simple BEING. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1345:Every deep thinker is more afraid of being understood than of being misunderstood. ~ Friedrich Neitzsche, #KEYS
1346:Every second is of infinite value. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1347:Everything that is not the divine essence is a creature. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I.18.2, #KEYS
1348:Faith is hidden household capital. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1349:Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best." ~ Saint Jerome, #KEYS
1350:He is all things and all things are one. ~ The Zohar, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1351:However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at." ~ Stephen Hawking, #KEYS
1352:'I am' is True, all else is inference. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
1353:It is impossible to have complete control over the world. Control your mind instead. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
1354:Joy is the sheer evidence of God. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
1355:Know that the greatest service that man can offer to God is to help convert souls." ~ Saint Rose of Lima, #KEYS
1356:Long for what is real. You will then have no time for worrying over what may never happen." ~ Meher Baba, #KEYS
1357:Man's salvation is from grace ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.19.4ad3)., #KEYS
1358:Miracle is the pet child of faith. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1359:Nothing ever comes to one that is worth having, except as a result of hard work." ~ Booker T. Washington, #KEYS
1360:Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.
~ Werner Heisenberg,#KEYS
1361:Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
1362:Real action is done in moments of silence. ~ Emerson, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1363:Remember, the silence in between the notes is just as important as the notes themselves.
~ B D Schiers,#KEYS
1364:Taoism is simply the complete acceptance of yourself as you are right in this moment." ~ Sheila M. Burke, #KEYS
1365:The art of programming is the skill of controlling complexity.
~ Marijn Haverbeke, Eloquent JavaScript,#KEYS
1366:The first degree of humility is prompt obedience. ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, The Rule of Saint Benedict, #KEYS
1367:The heart-going mind is called the resting mind. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1368:The more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and pain.
~ Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy,#KEYS
1369:The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. There's only one moment for you to live." ~ Buddha, #KEYS
1370:The path is one and the realization is only one. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1371:There is no fire that can equal desire. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1372:The saint is a man who disciplines his ego. The sage is a man who rids himself of his ego." ~ Wei Wu Wei, #KEYS
1373:The severity of the master is more useful than the indulgence of the father. ~ Saadi, #KEYS
1374: The worst form of inequality is trying to make unequal things equal ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
1375:This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1376:True depth of understanding is wide and steady. Shallow understanding is lazy and wandering." ~ Zhuangzi, #KEYS
1377:Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Isaiah, 26:4, #KEYS
1378:Willing is not enough, we must do. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1379:Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1380:You experience the world not as it is, but as you are." ~ Frederick Dodson, "Levels of Energy,", (2010)., #KEYS
1381:A lovely face is the solace of wounded hearts and the key of locked-up gates. ~ Saadi, #KEYS
1382:But call Him by what name you will; for to those who know, He is the possessor of all names. ~ Baha-ullah, #KEYS
1383:But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 Corinthians, 6:17, #KEYS
1384:Compassion is the key to the ultimate survival of our species." ~ Doug Dillon, American author, etc. See:, #KEYS
1385:Consciousness is eternal it is not vanquished with the destruction of the temporary body" ~ Bhagavad Gita, #KEYS
1386:Correcting oneself is correcting the whole world. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1387:For the man who is beautiful is beautiful to see but the good man will at once also beautiful be ~ Sappho, #KEYS
1388:Greatness is the courage to overcome obstacles.
~ David R Hawkins, Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender,#KEYS
1389:Happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot. ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
1390:Is doomed like a rose that blooms out of season" ~ Red Hawk, (Robert Moore), b. 1943), American poet. See, #KEYS
1391:It is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it. ~ Hunter S. Thompson, #KEYS
1392:It is the supermind we have to bring down, manifest, realise. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
1393:Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
1394:Lying is a cause of death ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (In Jn. 5, lect. 6)., #KEYS
1395:Mastery is often taken for egotism. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1396:Mystery is truth's dancing partner. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1397:Our duty is to fall down and adore where others only bow. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1398:Presence is designed to be forever; great patience is required to crystallize this state. ~ Robert Burton, #KEYS
1399:Security is the mother of negligence ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 6.5)., #KEYS
1400:Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Isaiah, 55:6, #KEYS
1401:The criterion is within. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Renunciation, #KEYS
1402:The heart is a thousand-stringed instrument that can only be tuned with Love. ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
1403:The Idea is cause and end of things. ~ Giordano Bruno, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1404:The man of taste will read only what is good; but the statesman will permit both bad and good. ~ Voltaire, #KEYS
1405:The more often you mow us down, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed. ~ Tertullian, #KEYS
1406:The only intelligent tactical response to life's horror is to laugh defiantly at it
~ Soren Kierkegaard,#KEYS
1407:The power of the Lord is in His hands. He scatters His enemies as a cloud." ~ Saint John Bosco prophecies, #KEYS
1408:The Self is here and now and you are that always. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1409:The soul bound is man; free, it is God. ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1410:The unnatural, that too is natural. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1411:The world is but a show, a make-belief. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
1412:This is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge but no power. ~ Herodotus, Histories, IX, 16, #KEYS
1413:This world is like the shore and the World to Come like the ocean ~ Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, (RaMCHaL), #KEYS
1414:To read means to borrow; to create out of one's readings is paying off one's debts. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
1415:Unless it grows out of yourself no knowledge is really yours, it is only borrowed plumage." ~ D.T. Suzuki, #KEYS
1416:What is it that exists now and troubles you? It is 'I'. Get rid of it and be happy. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1417:When spirituality is lost all is lost. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin, Ourselves, #KEYS
1418:Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge." ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #KEYS
1419:Wisdom is the oneness of mind that guides and permeates all things. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
1420:At all times love is the greatest thing ~ Narada Sutra, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1421:Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all. ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
1422:Every infinity... is made finite to God. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
1423:Every man is divine and strong in his real nature. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1424:Everything is soul and flowering. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1425:Fortify yourself with contentment for this is an impregnable fortress. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1426:Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness. ~ Chuang Tzu, 370BC-287BC, #KEYS
1427:Happy is the soul that reaches the level of perfection that God desires!" ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
1428:Hatred of God is man's worst sin ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.34.2)., #KEYS
1429:He who reigns within himself and rules his passions, desires, and fears is more than a king. ~ John Milton, #KEYS
1430:He who thinks he is the doer is also the sufferer. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1431:If you know that the arising thought is itself unreal delusion, you are already free. ~ Zen Master So Sahn, #KEYS
1432:Imān (Faith) is not accepted without deeds, and deeds (are not accepted without) ~ al-Kabīr al-Tabrānī, #KEYS
1433:I never give answers. I lead on from one question to another. That is my leadership. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #KEYS
1434:It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light." ~ Aristotle, #KEYS
1435:It is easy to talk religion, but difficult to practice it. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1436:It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
1437:Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" ~ Martin Luther King, Jr., #KEYS
1438:No face, no form, nor lovely nor ugly, subtler than scent, rare essence is He. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
1439:Nothing is wholly dead nor wholly alive. ~ Victor Hugo, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1440:Sex appeal is fifty percent what you've got and fifty percent what people think you've got. ~ Sophia Loren, #KEYS
1441:The evil of the soul is ignorance. ~ Hermes, "The Key", the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1442:The highest instruction is transmitted in silence. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1443:There is no difference between God, Guru and Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1444:There is no reason why the same man should like the same books at eighteen and at forty-eight ~ Ezra Pound #KEYS
1445:There is no such thing as mind apart from thought. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1446:There is only one thing in life that never changes, and it is change." ~ Confucius, #KEYS
1447:The Self is the Heart. The Heart is self-luminous. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1448:The soul of man is the mirror of the world. ~ Leibnitz, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1449:The supreme authority for the interpretation of Scripture is vested in each individual.
~ Baruch Spinoza,#KEYS
1450:The thought, 'I am the body', is the original sin. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1451:The truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits. ~ Albert Camus, The Plague, #KEYS
1452:The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
1453:True strength is to have power over oneself. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1454:What message is needed when heart speaks to heart? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1455:Who is there that would refuse anything to others? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1456:You feel depressed because your faith is lukewarm. You must cultivate self-confidence. ~ Swami Saradananda, #KEYS
1457:A fine quotation is a diamond in the hand of a man of wit and a pebble in the hand of a fool. ~ Joseph Roux, #KEYS
1458:Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1459:Chess is the touchstone of intellect. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1460:Contemplation within activity is a million times better than contemplation within stillness. ~ Hakuin Ekaku, #KEYS
1461:Devotion to duty is the highest form of worship of God. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1462:Do what thy Master tells thee; it is good. ~ Ptah-hotep, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1463:Every great achievement is done slowly. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. VI. 332), #KEYS
1464:Faith is perfected through charity ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (DV 14.7ad5)., #KEYS
1465:Grace is within you; Grace is the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks, 251, #KEYS
1466:Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive it isn't." ~ Richard Bach, #KEYS
1467:If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. ~ William Blake, #KEYS
1468:In the universe there is nothing which God is not. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1469:It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.
~ Napoleon Hill,#KEYS
1470:It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
1471:Learn to see, and then you'll know that there is no end to the new worlds of our vision. ~ Carlos Castaneda, #KEYS
1472:More important than any stage which you will attain is your sincerity, your right effort." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
1473:Most sensitiveness is the result or sign of ego. ~ Sri Aurobindo, (CWSA 31:211), #KEYS
1474:Prayer is the best weapon we possess, the key that opens the heart of God. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
1475:Spiritual progress is a far cry in the midst of selfishness and narrow-mindedness. ~ SWAMI TRIGUNATITANANDA, #KEYS
1476:Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." ~ Winston Churchill, #KEYS
1477:That which is was always and always will be. ~ Melessus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1478:The business of the Christian is nothing else than to be ever preparing for death. ~ Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, #KEYS
1479:The dream is for the one who says that he is awake. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1480:The external is an internal raised to the level of mystery - maybe it is also the other way round ~ Novalis, #KEYS
1481:The game I play is a very interesting one. It's imagination, in a tight straightjacket. ~ Richard P Feynman, #KEYS
1482:The healthy man does not torture others - generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
1483:There is no Guru, no disciple. Realize who you are. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1484:There is no pollution like unto hatred. ~ Buddhist Text, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1485:There is no second and therefore no cause for fear. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1486:The superior man is distressed by his want of ability. ~ Confucius, Analects, 15:18, #KEYS
1487:Thought-free consciousness is the goal. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks, 580, #KEYS
1488:To remain quiet is to resolve the mind in the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1489:We do not learn; and what we call learning is only a process of recollection.
~ Plato,#KEYS
1490:What matters is how quickly you do what your soul directs." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1491:... Your body, a temple of the Spirit, is being degraded and profaned." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi , #KEYS
1492:Abidance in God is the only true posture. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk, 234, #KEYS
1493:A calm heart is the life of the body. ~ Proverbs XIV. 30, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1494:Ah, well yes if you want to play yourself you can, everyone is a character in the tales of time
~ Sine.wav,#KEYS
1495:All this is full of that Being. ~ Swetaswatara Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1496:All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.
~ Ernest Hemingway,#KEYS
1497:Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1498:A soul that is bound, takes a path that leads away from God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1499:Be Still. Truth is found in the simplicity of being. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1500:Colour itself is a degree of darkness. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
1:Is it true? ~ byron-katie, @wisdomtrove 2:This is fun. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 3:Beauty is a frail good. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 4:Beingness is just joy. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 5:All war is deception. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 6:Anger is brief madness ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 7:Beauty is a fragile gift. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 8:Every lover is a soldier. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 9:To teach is to delight. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 10:Anger is a brief lunacy. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 11:It is fun to have fun. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 12:Love is a credulous thing. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 13:Love is a kind of warfare. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 14:Success is man's god. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 15:Time is a kindly God. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 16:What is Out There? ~ john-wheeler, @wisdomtrove 17:A kindness is never wasted ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 18:All art is erotic. ~ pablo-picasso, @wisdomtrove 19:Anger is a short madness. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 20:Clumsy jesting is no joke. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 21:Every old poem is sacred. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 22:Knowledge is true opinion. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 23:Paradise is where I am. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 24:Self-help is the best help ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 25:The good is the beautiful. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 26:There is joy in work. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 27:Time is money. ~ benjamin-franklin, @wisdomtrove 28:A poem is like a painting. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 29:Change is an illusion. ~ parmenides, @wisdomtrove 30:Disneyland is a show. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 31:Everything is in flux. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 32:Exercise is overrated. ~ tim-ferris, @wisdomtrove 33:In season, all is good. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 34:In union there is strength. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 35:Knowledge is power. ~ francis-bacon, @wisdomtrove 36:Nothing is impossible ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 37:Reality is negotiable. ~ tim-ferris, @wisdomtrove 38:success is 99% failure ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 39:There is something in omens. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 40:The truth is ever best. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 41:A change is always nice. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 42:A gun is not an argument. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 43:Anger is momentary madness. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 44:Comedy is not pretty. ~ steve-martin, @wisdomtrove 45:Emotion is always new. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 46:End is a gloomy word. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 47:Every person is unique. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 48:Example is the best precept. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 49:Heaven is within you. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 50:Love is a believing creature. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 51:Love is love's reward. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 52:My path is about joy. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 53:No distance is too far. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 54:No place is too common. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 55:Nora Roberts is cool. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 56:Sex is emotion in motion. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 57:The past is obdurate. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 58:The self is hateful. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 59:Well begun is half done. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 60:What you seek is seeking you. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 61:Writing is seduction. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 62:All time is unreedemable. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 63:A poem is a naked person. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 64:A short absence is the safest. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 65:Be where your enemy is not. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 66:Change is not progress. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 67:Character is inured habit. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 68:Exuberance is beauty. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 69:It is grievous to be caught. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 70:Life is short, yet sweet. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 71:Painting is silent poetry. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 72:Perseverance is king. ~ josh-billings, @wisdomtrove 73:Simplicity is really hard. ~ jony-ive, @wisdomtrove 74:Success is predictable. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 75:The air is all softness. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 76:The great god Pan is dead. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 77:The job is not the work. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 78:The way to do... is to be. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 79:To find is the thing. ~ pablo-picasso, @wisdomtrove 80:To tolerate is to insult. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 81:Weakness is strength. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 82:Woman is the masterpiece. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 83:Action is my domain. ~ mahatma-gandhi, @wisdomtrove 84:All art is propaganda. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 85:Anger is a momentary madness. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 86:Anger is short-lived madness. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 87:Beauty is the gift of God. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 88:Being is Dying by Loving. ~ meher-baba, @wisdomtrove 89:Chaos is a friend of mine. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 90:Energy is based on love. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 91:Exhuberance is Beauty. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 92:He who is contented is rich. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 93:In my beginning is my end. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 94:Is Reality an Illusion? ~ john-wheeler, @wisdomtrove 95:Life is luck, make it. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 96:Love is an affair of credulity. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 97:Nature is not human hearted. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 98:Nothing is stronger than habit. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 99:Rest is for the dead. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 100:The menu is not the meal. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 101:Time is an illusion. ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove 102:To revive sorrow is cruel. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 103:War is a trade of kings. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 104:War is murder writ large. ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 105:What upsets is in mind ~ eckhart-tolle, @wisdomtrove 106:Action is redemption. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 107:All art is quite useless. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 108:An evil life is a kind of death. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 109:Death is Life's high meed. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 110:Faith is a gift of God. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 111:Fear is stronger than arms. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 112:He who despairs is wrong. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 113:History is merely gossip. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 114:Hope is really a thought. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 115:Imitation is criticism. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 116:In nonsense is strength ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 117:In the end is my beginning. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 118:Is management rational? ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 119:Life is not fair; God is. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 120:Literature is my Utopia ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 121:Love is its own reward. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 122:Memory is a great betrayer. ~ anais-nin, @wisdomtrove 123:No man is born without faults. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 124:No person is too hardened. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 125:Romance is everything. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 126:Shame is pride's cloak. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 127:She is loveliness itself. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 128:Sometimes dead is better ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 129:Success is in the details. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 130:The devil is God's ape! ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 131:The life of men is painful. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 132:There is safety in numbers. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 133:To be alive is Power. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 134:To love is an active verb. ~ ogden-nash, @wisdomtrove 135:Vice is its own reward. ~ quentin-crisp, @wisdomtrove 136:Virtue is her own reward. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 137:Yesterday is just a memory. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 138:All war is based on deception. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 139:A poet over 30 is pathetic ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 140:As a man is, so he sees. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 141:Avarice is always poor. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 142:But the universe is infinite. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 143:Change alone is unchanging. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 144:Despotism is a long crime. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 145:Every knock is a boost. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 146:Every man is his own hell. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 147:Exactitude is not truth. ~ henri-matisse, @wisdomtrove 148:Fear is the mind-killer. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 149:Hell is other people. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 150:Humor is reason gone mad. ~ groucho-marx, @wisdomtrove 151:It is absurd to ape our betters. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 152:Life is a dead-end street. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 153:Life is a game, play it. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 154:Life is short. Be of use. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 155:Music is the 5th gospel. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 156:My life is my message. ~ mahatma-gandhi, @wisdomtrove 157:My mind is my own church. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 158:No human being is illegal. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 159:Persuasion is better than force. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 160:Playing safe is very risky. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 161:Prudery is ignorance. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 162:Shorth is better than length. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 163:Smell is a fallen angel. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 164:Soon is not as good as now. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 165:Sweet is a grief well ended. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 166:The computer is a moron. ~ peter-drucker, @wisdomtrove 167:The end is in the beginning. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 168:The root of war is fear. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 169:The Secret is within you. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 170:The soul is here for its own joy. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 171:The world is no nursery. ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove 172:To love is to be vulnerable. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 173:Unthankfulness is theft. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 174:Virtue is not hereditary. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 175:War is a perversion of sex. ~ alan-moore, @wisdomtrove 176:War is the trade of kings. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 177:What's well begun is half done. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 178:Who, being loved, is poor? ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 179:Acting is happy agony. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 180:A daydream is an evasion. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 181:A fallow field is a sin. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 182:A hungry mob is a angry mob. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 183:All true work is sacred. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 184:A man's kiss is his signature. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 185:April is the cruellest month. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 186:Art is a delayed echo. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 187:Change is the only constant. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 188:Common sense is not so common. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 189:Drawing is the true test of art. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 190:Every loneliness is a pinnacle ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 191:Every tale is not to be believed. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 192:Evil is whatever distracts. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 193:Faith is the force of life. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 194:Fame is the thirst of youth. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 195:Giving is true loving. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 196:God is the same everywhere. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 197:Hope is man's inner effort. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 198:How remorseless life is! ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 199:I don't know what humor is. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 200:In chaos, there is fertility. ~ anais-nin, @wisdomtrove 201:Life is fragile and absurd. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 202:Life is too short for chess. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 203:Love is a kind of military service ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 204:Love is always open arms. ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove 205:Love is a serious mental disease. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 206:Love is no assignment for cowards. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 207:Love is our true destiny. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 208:Man is a universe in little. ~ democritus, @wisdomtrove 209:My feet is my only carriage. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 210:Napoleon is always right. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 211:No man is hurt but by himself. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 212:Nothing is swifter than our years. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 213:Novelty in all things is charming. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 214:Our illness is often our healing. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 215:Peace is its own reward. ~ mahatma-gandhi, @wisdomtrove 216:Rapidity is the essence of war. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 217:Silence is a still noise. ~ josh-billings, @wisdomtrove 218:Solitude is independence. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 219:The act is judged of by the event. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 220:The best is the enemy of good. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 221:The best of times is now. ~ oprah-winfrey, @wisdomtrove 222:The greatest prayer is patience. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 223:There is no risk involved. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 224:There is no there there. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 225:Thinking is my fighting. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 226:Time is generally the best doctor. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 227:Trade is a social act. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 228:Working together is success. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 229:Writing a novel is agony. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 230:Writing is its own reward. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 231:Action is eloquence. ~ william-shakespeare, @wisdomtrove 232:A fate is not a punishment. ~ albert-camus, @wisdomtrove 233:Against the bold, daring is unsafe. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 234:A hungry mob is an angry mob. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 235:A picture is a poem without words ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 236:A safe pleasure is a tame pleasure. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 237:A vow is a snare for sin. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 238:A woman is always buying something. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 239:A word in season is most precious. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 240:Beauty is the flower of virtue. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 241:Beauty is truth, truth beauty ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 242:Courage is fear that prays. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 243:Debt is a bottomless sea. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 244:Denial is an ugly thing. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 245:Energy is eternal delight. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 246:Enterprise is better than ease. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 247:Everybody is a story. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove 248:Everybody is changing. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 249:Everything popular is wrong. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 250:Example is leadership. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 251:For love is immortality. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 252:For me, every hour is grace. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 253:God is greater than God. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 254:Health is my expected heaven. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 255:He is able who thinks he is able. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 256:History is more or less bunk. ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 257:Home is where one starts from. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 258:Hunger is never delicate. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 259:Jazz is the music of the body. ~ anais-nin, @wisdomtrove 260:Law is always better than war. ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove 261:Life is a series of awakenings ~ sivananda, @wisdomtrove 262:Life is beauty, admire it. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 263:Life is tons of discipline. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 264:Love is the every only god. ~ e-e-cummings, @wisdomtrove 265:Love is where you find it. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 266:Loving is half of believing. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 267:Meditation is culture. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 268:Modesty is the color of virtue. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 269:Music is inarticulate poesy. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 270:My work is loving the world. ~ mary-oliver, @wisdomtrove 271: No feeling is final. ~ rainer-maria-rilke, @wisdomtrove 272:Nothing is achieved without toil. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 273:Not to ask is not be denied. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 274:One with God is a majority. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 275:Order is the greatest grace. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 276:Panic is our great enemy. ~ melody-beattie, @wisdomtrove 277:Past art is subject to change. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 278:Philosophy is an act of living. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 279:Prosperity is full of friends. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 280:Reason is not what decides love. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 281:Remorse is memory awake. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 282:Sanity is not statistical. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 283:Simple is the speech of truth. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 284:Space is unimaginably big. ~ douglas-adams, @wisdomtrove 285:Tenderness is a virtue. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 286:The best fighter is never angry. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 287:The covetous man is ever in want. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 288:The cure for pain is in the pain. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 289:The end of man is action. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 290:This book is to be read in bed. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 291:Time is the devourer of all things. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 292:Truth is the edict of God. ~ josh-billings, @wisdomtrove 293:Vanity is but the surface. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 294:Where the earth is, we are. ~ walt-whitman, @wisdomtrove 295:Woman is woman's natural ally. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 296:Writing is a form of prayer. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 297:You are loved. All is well. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 298:A dry soul is wisest and best. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 299:All writing is dreaming ~ jorge-luis-borges, @wisdomtrove 300:A man's character is his fate. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 301:An angry man is full of poison. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 302:Beauty is a short-lived tyranny. ~ socrates, @wisdomtrove 303:Blushing is the color of virtue. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 304:Breath is the king of mind. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 305:Chaste is she whom no one has asked. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 306:Cowardice is no virtue. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 307:Desire is the great equalizer. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 308:Disneyland is a work of love. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 309:Error is ever talkative. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 310:Every joy is beyond all others. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 311:Everyone is not your customer. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 312:Everything changes, nothing is lost. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 313:Everything I need now is here. ~ wayne-dyer, @wisdomtrove 314:Fidelity is the sister of justice. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 315:Freedom is an endless meeting. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove 316:Gratitude is heaven itself. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 317:Guilt is a rope that wears thin. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 318:Happiness is a state of mind. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 319:History is the new poetry. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 320:Honor is but an empty bubble. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 321:Humility is self-forgetfulness. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 322:Imitation is suicide. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 323:.. is an internal rumor. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 324:Is it all just a Magic Show? ~ john-wheeler, @wisdomtrove 325:Knowledge is not intelligence. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 326:Life, for eternal us, is now ~ e-e-cummings, @wisdomtrove 327:Life is too short to be small. ~ tim-ferris, @wisdomtrove 328:Love is a Dog from Hell. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 329:Love is hope. Hope is nectar. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 330:Love is its own reward... . ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 331:Man is a thought-adventurer. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 332:My hat is in the ring. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 333:My life is my argument. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 334:My sorrow is my castle. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 335:Philosophy is the art of living. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 336:Purpose is stronger than object. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 337:Sincerity is the way of heaven. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 338:Success is dependant on effort. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 339:Success is the reward for toil. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 340:Sweet is pleasure after pain. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 341:The end is where we start from. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 342:The fruit of faith is love. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 343:The naked truth is still taboo. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 344:The ocean is made of drops. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 345:The only way out is through. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 346:There is moderation in everything. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 347:There is no avoidance in delay. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 348:The truth is always an abyss. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 349:The truth is in the details. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 350:The tyrant is a child of pride. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 351:This joy you feel is life. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 352:Time is generally the best medicine. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 353:To be here is immense. ~ rainer-maria-rilke, @wisdomtrove 354:To marry a fool is to be no fool. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 355:To sing is to pray twice. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 356:To think twice is quite enough. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 357:Wisdom is a sacred communion. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 358:Yoga is a means and an end. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 359:All eternity is in the moment. ~ mary-oliver, @wisdomtrove 360:All humor is rooted in pain. ~ richard-pryor, @wisdomtrove 361:All work is an act of philosophy. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 362:A metaphor is like a simile. ~ steven-wright, @wisdomtrove 363:An honest man is always a child. ~ socrates, @wisdomtrove 364:A noble truth is a sacred creed. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 365:A picture is poem without words. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 366:Art is a leap into the dark. ~ pablo-picasso, @wisdomtrove 367:Art is most effective when concealed. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 368:Atheism is too theological. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 369:Authority is never without hate. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 370:Big Brother is watching you. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 371:but, & 372:Character is long-standing habit. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 373:Competence is no longer scarce. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 374:Control is an illusion ... ~ melody-beattie, @wisdomtrove 375:Courage is exhilarating. ~ eleanor-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 376:Courage is knowing what not to fear. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 377:courage is the gift of character ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 378:Custom is almost a second nature. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 379:Enough is abundance to the wise. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 380:God's desire is that we excel. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 381:Handsome is as handsome does ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 382:He who is greedy is always in want. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 383:Hidden nature is secret God. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 384:If the art is concealed, it succeeds. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 385:Ignorant power is a bane! ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 386:Irony is wasted on the stupid. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 387:It is only doubt that creates. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 388:Knowledge is Life with wings ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 389:Labor in loneliness is irksome. ~ mark-twain, @wisdomtrove 390:Law is the ultimate science. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 391:Liberation is not deliverance. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 392:Life is a dream, realise it. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 393:Life is tough, then you die. ~ george-carlin, @wisdomtrove 394:Life well spent is long. ~ leonardo-da-vinci, @wisdomtrove 395:Listening is love in action. ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove 396:Love is a skill you learn. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 397:Love is trembling happiness. ~ kahlil-gibran, @wisdomtrove 398:Man is a tool-using animal. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 399:Money is coined liberty. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 400:Music is part of being human. ~ oliver-sacks, @wisdomtrove 401:Nature is wont to hide herself. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 402:Nature's first green is gold. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 403:Normality is the new eccentric. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 404:Nothing is yet in its true form. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 405:One real world is enough. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 406:Our goal is self-transcendence ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 407:Reality is inside the skull. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 408:Rest is the sweet sauce of labor. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 409:Science is magic that works. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 410:Science is the true theology. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 411:Spring is like a perhaps hand ~ e-e-cummings, @wisdomtrove 412:The Art of War is self-explanatory ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 413:The glory is for those who deserve. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 414:The language of truth is simple. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 415:The mob is the mother of tyrants. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 416:The most important time is Now ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 417:There is a middle ground in things. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 418:There is light somewhere. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 419:The reward is found in the work. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 420:The same is thinking and being. ~ parmenides, @wisdomtrove 421:Time is three eyes and eight elbows. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove 422:To be is to be related. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 423:To innovate is not to reform. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 424:To understand is to forgive. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 425:Truth is always straightforward. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 426:Truth - is as old as God-. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 427:Victory is the main object in war. ~ sun-tzu, @wisdomtrove 428:Vulnerability is not weakness. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 429:War is 90% information. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 430:War is not women's history. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 431:Well Being is my birth right. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 432:Whatever heaven ordains is best. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 433:Where sanity is there God is. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 434:Wherever you are is the entry point. ~ kabir, @wisdomtrove 435:Wisdom is the use of knowledge ~ dan-millman, @wisdomtrove 436:Ability is a poor man's wealth. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 437:A book is a souvenir of an idea. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 438:A busy life is a wasted life. ~ francis-crick, @wisdomtrove 439:A change is as good as a rest. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 440:A drink is shorter than a tale ~ omar-khayyam, @wisdomtrove 441:A fool is excited by every word. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 442:All of this is for fun anyway. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 443:All writing is a form of prayer. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 444:A pleasing face is no small advantage. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 445:A wedding is not house-keeping. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 446:Badness is only spoiled goodness. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 447:Christmas is the alcoholidays ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove 448:Comedy is tragedy revisited. ~ phyllis-diller, @wisdomtrove 449:Common sense is the best prophet. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 450:Daring is not safe against daring men. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 451:Doubt is the beginning of wisdom. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 452:Energy is an eternal delight. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 453:Everybody is worth everything. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 454:Everything I touch is a success. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 455:Forever is made up of nows. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 456:Forgetting oneself is opening oneself ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove 457:Forgiveness is God's command. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 458:Freedom is now or never. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 459:Fun is a sugar-coated physic. ~ josh-billings, @wisdomtrove 460:Getting old is not for sissies. ~ bette-davis, @wisdomtrove 461:God's solution is a prayer away! ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 462:God's way is still the best way. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 463:Going to the woods is going home. ~ john-muir, @wisdomtrove 464:Government is a necessary evil ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 465:Gratitude is the sign of noble souls. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 466:Habit is a form of exercise. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 467:Habit is the nursery of errors. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 468:Happiness is a state of activity. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 469:Heaven is in a grain of sand. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 470:He is not poor who has a competency. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 471:He who hesitates is a damned fool. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 472:He who knows he has enough is rich. ~ lao-tzu, @wisdomtrove 473:History is not was, it is. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 474:Hope is a function of struggle. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 475:Hunger is good discipline. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 476:I do. That is character! ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 477:Incredulity is not wisdom. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 478:Intimacy is a difficult art. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 479:Is not poetry the food of love? ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 480:It is a kingly act to help the fallen. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 481:It’s yours. This is your life. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 482:Life is a useless passion. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 483:Life is wasted on the living. ~ douglas-adams, @wisdomtrove 484:Life, what is it but a dream? ~ lewis-carroll, @wisdomtrove 485:Love is a living reality. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 486:Love is a thing full of anxious fears. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 487:Love is the door to eternity. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 488:Love is the only gold. ~ alfred-lord-tennyson, @wisdomtrove 489:Luck is tenacity of purpose. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 490:Mirth is God's medicine. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 491:Money is the wise man's religion. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 492:My life is a glorious adventure. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 493:Nonsense, now and then, is pleasant. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 494:No one is as smart as all of us. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 495:Nothing in this book is true. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 496:Notoriety is often mistaken for fame. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 497:Obedience is the road to freedom. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 498:Orthodoxy is unconsciousness. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 499:Poetry is the Devil's wine. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 500:Real living is living for others. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:All life is Yoga. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
2:A man is but an ass ~ W S Gilbert, #NFDB
3:Anger is a brief lunacy. ~ Horace, #NFDB
4:Art is everything. ~ Ksenia Anske, #NFDB
5:Beauty is everything. ~ Jorja Fox, #NFDB
6:Beauty is fame. ~ Carol Ann Duffy, #NFDB
7:Beauty is geometry. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
8:Blood is the life. ~ Brian Lumley, #NFDB
9:Character is destiny ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
10:Character is fate. ~ Sylvia Plath, #NFDB
11:Compassion is a verb. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
12:Death is not goodbye. ~ Tite Kubo, #NFDB
13:Entropy is a bitch, ~ Dan Simmons, #NFDB
14:Every movie is unknown. ~ Ang Lee, #NFDB
15:Everyone's God is One. ~ Sai Baba, #NFDB
16:Everything is copy. ~ Nora Ephron, #NFDB
17:Fame is a Bleet, man. ~ Brad Pitt, #NFDB
18:God is dead ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
19:Gratitude is peace. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
20:Growth is betrayal. ~ John Updike, #NFDB
21:Guilt is a hunter. ~ Ruta Sepetys, #NFDB
22:Guilt is a prison, ~ Jandy Nelson, #NFDB
23:Habit is not unimportant. ~ Plato, #NFDB
24:He is a Stinkard. ~ Louis L Amour, #NFDB
25:He is barefooted. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
26:He is pure of all name. ~ The Bab, #NFDB
27:Hell is being alone. ~ Barry Lyga, #NFDB
28:Hogwarts is my home ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
29:Honor is overrated. ~ Ally Carter, #NFDB
30:How big is possible? ~ T L Osborn, #NFDB
31:Hunger is a sign ~ Rujuta Diwekar, #NFDB
32:Ignorance is a bliss ~ John Green, #NFDB
33:In valor there is hope. ~ Tacitus, #NFDB
34:Is it you?"
"Yes. ~ Tanith Lee,#NFDB
35:Is there a perfect world? ~ Plato, #NFDB
36:Is the truth not kind? ~ Tom King, #NFDB
37:It is a dead heart. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
38:It is better to be ~ John Heywood, #NFDB
39:Knowing is a curse. ~ Sabaa Tahir, #NFDB
40:lebron is above everybody ~ Homer, #NFDB
41:lebron is better than you ~ Homer, #NFDB
42:Liam is safe. ~ Alexandra Bracken, #NFDB
43:Life is so beautiful ~ Mario Puzo, #NFDB
44:Logic is dull. ~ Alfred Hitchcock, #NFDB
45:Love is a credulous thing. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
46:love is a disease ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
47:Love is a kind of warfare. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
48:love is one heavy words ~ Orizuka, #NFDB
49:Love is our downfall. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
50:Love is simply is. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
51:Lymond is back. ~ Dorothy Dunnett, #NFDB
52:Maven is dead. ~ Victoria Aveyard, #NFDB
53:My best girl is dead. ~ Red Smith, #NFDB
54:My devil is winning. ~ Kyra Davis, #NFDB
55:My God is rock'n'roll. ~ Lou Reed, #NFDB
56:My life is a struggle. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
57:My office is my tour bus. ~ Drake, #NFDB
58:No crime is vulgar, ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
59:No man is an island. ~ John Donne, #NFDB
60:No one is ever alone. ~ L J Smith, #NFDB
61:No one is self-made ~ Gary Keller, #NFDB
62:Now is all I have. ~ Heidi Heilig, #NFDB
63:Okay, this is epic. ~ Ben Shapiro, #NFDB
64:Paradise is where I am ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
65:Parsley is gharsley. ~ Ogden Nash, #NFDB
66:Prayer is a groan. ~ Jeff Wheeler, #NFDB
67:Ragnarok is coming. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
68:Repetition is beautiful. ~ Prince, #NFDB
69:Scala is too complex. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
70:Seeing is believing ~ Alyson Noel, #NFDB
71:Sex is fun to sing about. ~ Mirah, #NFDB
72:She is mine. -Ethan ~ Chloe Neill, #NFDB
73:Silence is safe. ~ Wilkie Collins, #NFDB
74:SkyClan is growing. ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
75:Sometimes less is more. ~ E N Joy, #NFDB
76:Sorry is so cheap. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
77:Spying is waiting. ~ John le Carr, #NFDB
78:Stupidity is painfully. ~ Various, #NFDB
79:Success is man's god. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
80:The autumn air is clear, ~ Li Bai, #NFDB
81:The baby is dead. ~ Le la Slimani, #NFDB
82:The best is yet 2 b ! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
83:The die is cast.
- ~ Suetonius,#NFDB
84:The fact is, imagine. ~ Ali Smith, #NFDB
85:The god is the beautiful. ~ Plato, #NFDB
86:The journey is the thing. ~ Homer, #NFDB
87:There is no Bodhi tree, ~ Huineng, #NFDB
88:There is no Escape ~ Steven James, #NFDB
89:"There is no hurry." ~ Alan Watts, #NFDB
90:there is no planet B. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
91:The seat is empty. ~ Sarah Dalton, #NFDB
92:The source of now is here. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
93:The Way is ever nameless. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
94:The Way to do is to be. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
95:The world is a zoo ~ Edward Albee, #NFDB
96:This is new and exciting. ~ Tijan, #NFDB
97:Time is a kindly God. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
98:To Educate is to Free. ~ Jos Mart, #NFDB
99:Tomorrow is tomorrow. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
100:Trance is fragile. ~ Susan Cooper, #NFDB
101:War is honorable ~ Joanna Baillie, #NFDB
102:What is harder than stone? ~ Ovid, #NFDB
103:What is it this year? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
104:What is real? ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
105:White is an attitude. ~ Malcolm X, #NFDB
106:Woman is the light of God. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
107:Writing is freedom. ~ Don DeLillo, #NFDB
108:Yoga is a life-saver. ~ Ione Skye, #NFDB
109:1. 0 is a number. ~ Giuseppe Peano, #NFDB
110:Action is a unifier. ~ Eric Hoffer, #NFDB
111:A friend is another I. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
112:A kindness is never wasted ~ Aesop, #NFDB
113:All art is erotic. ~ Pablo Picasso, #NFDB
114:All I have is a voice. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
115:All pity is self-pity. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
116:All power is a test. ~ Brent Weeks, #NFDB
117:All you need is love ~ The Beatles, #NFDB
118:And all now is war ~ Charles Olson, #NFDB
119:Anger is a brief madness. ~ Horace, #NFDB
120:Anger is a short madness. ~ Horace, #NFDB
121:Atlanta is not the South. ~ Pimp C, #NFDB
122:Average Is for Losers ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
123:Balance is balancing. ~ John Dewey, #NFDB
124:Beauty is harsh. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
125:Because it is there ~ Jon Krakauer, #NFDB
126:Belief is the enemy. ~ John A Keel, #NFDB
127:Besyn larveth’is! ~ Patrick Weekes, #NFDB
128:Character is destiny. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
129:Character is destiny ~ Martin Amis, #NFDB
130:Clumsy jesting is no joke. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
131:Common is overrated. ~ Ally Carter, #NFDB
132:curiosity is deviant. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
133:Design Is a Big Word ~ Alan Cooper, #NFDB
134:Doubt is faith's shadow. ~ Jo Nesb, #NFDB
135:Drawing is deception. ~ M C Escher, #NFDB
136:Elegance is refusal. ~ Coco Chanel, #NFDB
137:else is saying. ~ Elizabeth Lowell, #NFDB
138:Equilibrium is dead, ~ Kevin Kelly, #NFDB
139:Every old poem is sacred. ~ Horace, #NFDB
140:Every step is on the path. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
141:Fame is a heavy burden. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
142:Fame is vanity's bait. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
143:Fiction Is My Addiction ~ Dr Seuss, #NFDB
144:Geography is destiny. ~ Rich Cohen, #NFDB
145:God is a verb ~ William Paul Young, #NFDB
146:God is dead. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
147:God is in the details! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
148:Google is your friend ~ Emily Snow, #NFDB
149:Happiness is activity. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
150:He is pure of all name. ~ The Bab, #NFDB
151:History is not hatred. ~ Malcolm X, #NFDB
152:Ignorance is fatal. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
153:Impossible is Nothing ~ Elna Baker, #NFDB
154:Is he comin' here? ~ Richard Price, #NFDB
155:Is it sermon time? ~ Erec Stebbins, #NFDB
156:Is that a robo-rat? ~ Linda Nagata, #NFDB
157:Is there a chance? ~ A Fine Frenzy, #NFDB
158:Is this over now? ~ Mariana Zapata, #NFDB
159:Josh is ... Josh ~ Carolyn Mackler, #NFDB
160:Kelly is kind of cute. ~ T J Klune, #NFDB
161:Knowledge is night! ~ Walter Moers, #NFDB
162:Knowledge Is Power ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
163:Knowledge is true opinion. ~ Plato, #NFDB
164:Language is filled ~ Susan Griffin, #NFDB
165:Lauren is a bicycle ~ Karina Halle, #NFDB
166:Life is a nightmare. ~ Ned Vizzini, #NFDB
167:life is awesome ~ Sedonia Guillone, #NFDB
168:Life is consciousness. ~ Emmet Fox, #NFDB
169:Life is for living. ~ Ben Sherwood, #NFDB
170:Life is for service. ~ Fred Rogers, #NFDB
171:Life is full of circles ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
172:Life is opinion. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
173:Life is so beautiful. ~ Mario Puzo, #NFDB
174:Light is the shadow of god ~ Plato, #NFDB
175:Live music is better. ~ Neil Young, #NFDB
176:Love is homesickness ~ Nora Ephron, #NFDB
177:Love is the way messengers ~ Rumi, #NFDB
178:Man is a bad animal. ~ Brion Gysin, #NFDB
179:Man is a moral being. ~ Gaspar Noe, #NFDB
180:Misery is optional. ~ Gary Paulsen, #NFDB
181:Music is my home. ~ Alison Croggon, #NFDB
182:My face is my career. ~ Carol Kane, #NFDB
183:my life is not scripted. ~ E N Joy, #NFDB
184:My weakness is him. ~ Elle Kennedy, #NFDB
185:My weakness is him. ~ Sarina Bowen, #NFDB
186:No cat is bad luck ~ Alan Brennert, #NFDB
187:No daring is fatal. ~ Rene Crevel, #NFDB
188:No dream is ever to big. ~ Sabrina, #NFDB
189:No life is a waste . ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
190:No man is an island. ~ Nick Hornby, #NFDB
191:None but God is wise. ~ Pythagoras, #NFDB
192:Normal is subjective. ~ A G Howard, #NFDB
193:Nothing is guaranteed. ~ Jenny Han, #NFDB
194:Nothing is permanent. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
195:Nothing is trivial. ~ James O Barr, #NFDB
196:No time is no excuse ~ Jason Fried, #NFDB
197:Now is the time to drink! ~ Horace, #NFDB
198:Now life is imitating art. ~ Rakim, #NFDB
199:Numb is the new deep. ~ John Mayer, #NFDB
200:Patience is the key to joy. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
201:Perfection is static, ~ Anais Nin, #NFDB
202:Props is a true thug's wife. ~ Nas, #NFDB
203:Real power is fear. ~ Bob Woodward, #NFDB
204:Remember who God is. ~ Renee Swope, #NFDB
205:Resistance is useless! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
206:Sacrifice is joy. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
207:Self-help is the best help ~ Aesop, #NFDB
208:Shopping is hope. ~ Abigail Thomas, #NFDB
209:Sin is cosmic treason ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
210:Sleep is a weapon! ~ Robert Ludlum, #NFDB
211:Sometimes bad is bad. ~ Huey Lewis, #NFDB
212:So much is invisible. ~ Morag Joss, #NFDB
213:Sorrow is a form of Evil. ~ Hermes, #NFDB
214:sun is anti-thought ~ D H Lawrence, #NFDB
215:Taiwan is democratic. ~ Annette Lu, #NFDB
216:Talent Is Overrated, ~ Brian Tracy, #NFDB
217:The Clan is on fire! ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
218:The good is the beautiful. ~ Plato, #NFDB
219:The hour is come, that ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
220:The key is to make it. ~ DJ Khaled, #NFDB
221:the mind is a tyrant ~ Deb Caletti, #NFDB
222:The only way up is up. ~ Greg Egan, #NFDB
223:There is joy in work. ~ Henry Ford, #NFDB
224:There is nothing- ~ Stephen Crane, #NFDB
225:There is only now. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
226:The rose is a rose, ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
227:this is important. ~ Josephine Cox, #NFDB
228:This is not a pipe. ~ Ren Magritte, #NFDB
229:Time is breath. ~ George Gurdjieff, #NFDB
230:Time is money. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
231:To be is to do. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
232:To live is to choose. ~ Kofi Annan, #NFDB
233:To love is to risk. ~ Merce Cardus, #NFDB
234:To rebel is justified ~ Mao Zedong, #NFDB
235:...truth is reality ~ M Scott Peck, #NFDB
236:Water is boring. ~ Roshani Chokshi, #NFDB
237:Wedding is destiny, ~ John Heywood, #NFDB
238:What is it with us? ~ Jill Shalvis, #NFDB
239:What is the value of light ~ Mario, #NFDB
240:What is your name? ~ Tom Rob Smith, #NFDB
241:Where we love is home ~ Cassia Leo, #NFDB
242:Who the fuck is Gladys? ~ K C Lynn, #NFDB
243:Woe is me! ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, #NFDB
244:Worship is not love. ~ Donald Hall, #NFDB
245:A fickle thing is youth's ~ Valmiki, #NFDB
246:Africa is on the rise. ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
247:All I am is in the way. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
248:All passion is madness. ~ H G Wells, #NFDB
249:All reality is a game. ~ Iain Banks, #NFDB
250:All you have is your fire ~ Hozier, #NFDB
251:All you need is love. ~ John Lennon, #NFDB
252:All you need is love. ~ The Beatles, #NFDB
253:Anatomy is destiny. ~ Sigmund Freud, #NFDB
254:Anger is like ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
255:A poem is like a painting. ~ Horace, #NFDB
256:Art is rooted in joy. ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
257:A soul which is not clothed ~ Rumi, #NFDB
258:Attitude is everything. ~ L N Cronk, #NFDB
259:Being is born of not being. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
260:Betrayal is beautiful. ~ Jean Genet, #NFDB
261:Bubbly is bogus. ~ Scott Westerfeld, #NFDB
262:Cancer is very chaotic. ~ Kris Carr, #NFDB
263:Change is an illusion. ~ Parmenides, #NFDB
264:Change is never easy. ~ Sally Field, #NFDB
265:Character is destiny. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
266:Closure is bullshit. ~ James Ellroy, #NFDB
267:.Clumsy jesting is no joke. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
268:CNN is not fake news. ~ Jolene Ivey, #NFDB
269:Courage is contagious ~ Jean Sasson, #NFDB
270:Courage is no good: ~ Philip Larkin, #NFDB
271:Crazy is a siren call. ~ Ella James, #NFDB
272:creation is recreation, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
273:Dancing is as old as love. ~ Lucian, #NFDB
274:"Death is not the end." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
275:Depression is inertia. ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
276:Disneyland is a show. ~ Walt Disney, #NFDB
277:Dobby is free. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
278:Easy is boring, ~ Carine McCandless, #NFDB
279:Ethics is a dream. ~ Charles Baxter, #NFDB
280:Every city is a war. ~ Sam J Miller, #NFDB
281:Every medicine is vain. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
282:every moment is forever ~ Marc Levy, #NFDB
283:Everything is energy. ~ Alyson Noel, #NFDB
284:Everything is in flux. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
285:Everything is nothing ~ Nicola Yoon, #NFDB
286:Every virtuous man is free. ~ Philo, #NFDB
287:Faith is Individual ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
288:Faith is reasonable. ~ Benedict XVI, #NFDB
289:False shame only is harmful. ~ Livy, #NFDB
290:Fire is catching. ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
291:Forward is forward. ~ Courtney Maum, #NFDB
292:Freedom is fragile. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
293:God is faithful. ~ Jefferson Bethke, #NFDB
294:God is in the details. ~ Kevin Kwan, #NFDB
295:God is in the truth. ~ Carol Tavris, #NFDB
296:Good enough is fine A ~ Jason Fried, #NFDB
297:Greatness is a mirage ~ Mark Manson, #NFDB
298:Greatness is an opiate. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
299:Grief is never fatal. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
300:Happiness is a Choice ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
301:Happiness is a moment. ~ Anna Carey, #NFDB
302:Harry Potter is dead. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
303:Health is not luck. ~ Joel Fuhrman, #NFDB
304:Heavy is the root of light. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
305:Hip-hop is a vehicle. ~ Talib Kweli, #NFDB
306:History is a needle ~ Leonard Cohen, #NFDB
307:Hoedom is universal. ~ Angie Thomas, #NFDB
308:Home is my Bethlehem, ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
309:Hope is a waking dream. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
310:Hope is not a strategy ~ Chris Voss, #NFDB
311:Humanity is a comic role. ~ Novalis, #NFDB
312:Hunger is an object. ~ Herta M ller, #NFDB
313:Improvement is nature. ~ Leigh Hunt, #NFDB
314:In season, all is good. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
315:In union there is strength. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
316:Is he, really? ~ Marianne Faithfull, #NFDB
317:Is it later yet? ~ Jennifer E Smith, #NFDB
318:Is that pleather? ~ Kathleen Brooks, #NFDB
319:Is this not enough? ~ Dave Matthews, #NFDB
320:is to come to terms ~ Kelly M Kapic, #NFDB
321:Is your name Alfred? ~ Alanea Alder, #NFDB
322:It is wealth to be content. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
323:Karma is my religion. ~ Jewel E Ann, #NFDB
324:Knowledge is power. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
325:knowledge is power. ~ Maggie Shayne, #NFDB
326:Life is like a simile. ~ Terry Carr, #NFDB
327:Life is suffering. ~ Tony Bertauski, #NFDB
328:Lil Wayne is the man. ~ Layzie Bone, #NFDB
329:Love is a garment ~ Hilda Doolittle, #NFDB
330:Love is all you need. ~ The Beatles, #NFDB
331:Love is an infinite sky! ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
332:Love is beautiful fear ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
333:Love is blind ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
334:Love is boundary-less. ~ Angel Haze, #NFDB
335:Love is holy. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
336:Love is homesickness. ~ Nora Ephron, #NFDB
337:Love is not a list. ~ Mark Lawrence, #NFDB
338:Love is tied to truth. ~ John Green, #NFDB
339:Man is no man, but a wolf ~ Plautus, #NFDB
340:Maybe one is enough ~ Swati Avasthi, #NFDB
341:Melancholy is no bad thing. ~ Sting, #NFDB
342:Memory is a rascal. ~ John Dufresne, #NFDB
343:Mercy is a chimera. ~ Frank Herbert, #NFDB
344:MIME viewer is launched ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
345:Mind is a broken mirror. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
346:Multitasking is a lie ~ Gary Keller, #NFDB
347:My first language is Gaelic. ~ Enya, #NFDB
348:My heart is so tired ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
349:My love is upon you. ~ Lisa Kleypas, #NFDB
350:My name is Nathan. ~ Deborah Bladon, #NFDB
351:Nobody is born evil. ~ Alice Miller, #NFDB
352:No game is an island. ~ Katie Salen, #NFDB
353:nothing is impossible ~ Walt Disney, #NFDB
354:Nothing is unfixable ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
355:No time is wasted time ~ Jim Henson, #NFDB
356:Not loving is a letting go. ~ Hafez, #NFDB
357:One who rules is ruled. ~ T F Hodge, #NFDB
358:Pain is God's megaphone ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
359:Pitching is a priority. ~ Tom Hicks, #NFDB
360:Pleasure is the bait of sin ~ Plato, #NFDB
361:Poetry is a mug's game. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
362:PUDDING IS DELICIOUS. ~ Amy Poehler, #NFDB
363:Red is our color. ~ Steven Gerrard, #NFDB
364:Resharing is caring! ~ Guy Kawasaki, #NFDB
365:Rumor is not always wrong ~ Tacitus, #NFDB
366:Rushdie is a hostage. ~ Don DeLillo, #NFDB
367:Sanity is overrated. ~ Cynthia Hand, #NFDB
368:Self-help is the best help. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
369:Shame is a hunter. I ~ Ruta Sepetys, #NFDB
370:Shit is wrong with me. ~ Tara Brown, #NFDB
371:Sincerity is technique. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
372:Sin is a gravitation. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
373:So it is a good cry. I ~ Ruby Dixon, #NFDB
374:success is 99% failure ~ Henry Ford, #NFDB
375:Suffering is universal ~ John Green, #NFDB
376:That woman is my woman ~ Robyn Carr, #NFDB
377:The casket is too small ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
378:The class war is over. ~ Tony Blair, #NFDB
379:The European dilemma is ~ Tony Judt, #NFDB
380:The Heart is like a candle, ~ Rumi, #NFDB
381:The key is: never fold. ~ DJ Khaled, #NFDB
382:The List is Life. ~ Thomas Keneally, #NFDB
383:The mind is a garden, ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
384:Then is not now. ~ Kate Mascarenhas, #NFDB
385:there is a field. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
386:There is only Bree. ~ Ellen Hopkins, #NFDB
387:There is something in omens. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
388:There it is, Theo. I ~ Adam Silvera, #NFDB
389:The silence is death. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
390:The sky is white. ~ Diana Abu Jaber, #NFDB
391:The sun is a joke. ~ Nathanael West, #NFDB
392:The truth is ever best. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
393:The Truth is the Truth. ~ Max Weber, #NFDB
394:The world is on fire. ~ John McCain, #NFDB
395:This is not a drill. ~ Tom Stoppard, #NFDB
396:THIS IS THE SURPRISE. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
397:This moment is all there is. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
398:This world is yours. ~ Melissa Marr, #NFDB
399:Thought is not action. ~ John Green, #NFDB
400:time is a lie … ~ Richard Linklater, #NFDB
401:To Educate is to Free. ~ Jose Marti, #NFDB
402:To live is enough. ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #NFDB
403:Trust is dangerous. ~ Pittacus Lore, #NFDB
404:Truth is child of Time. ~ John Ford, #NFDB
405:Truth is pure awareness. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
406:Twitter is the world. ~ Jack Dorsey, #NFDB
407:Unbelief is a belief. ~ J M Coetzee, #NFDB
408:War is not civilized. ~ Talib Kweli, #NFDB
409:Weird is the new cool. ~ Kasie West, #NFDB
410:what is success? ~ Paul David Tripp, #NFDB
411:What you seek is seeking you ~ Rumi, #NFDB
412:Where the frig is it?” A ~ L T Ryan, #NFDB
413:Which witch is which? ~ John Updike, #NFDB
414:Will is a skill. ~ Jillian Michaels, #NFDB
415:Wow! Brazil is big. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
416:"Your life is now." ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
417:Your life is your art. ~ Keri Smith, #NFDB
418:A change is always nice. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
419:Activity is not output. ~ Andy Grove, #NFDB
420:Adventure is worthwhile. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
421:A family is a mystery. ~ Sharon Olds, #NFDB
422:A fool is known by his ~ Pythagoras, #NFDB
423:age is a terrible theif ~ Sara Gruen, #NFDB
424:A gun is not an argument. ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
425:A house is not a home. ~ Polly Adler, #NFDB
426:A kill is a kill. Right? ~ V F Mason, #NFDB
427:All hurt is brain hurt. ~ John Green, #NFDB
428:All life is an experiment. ~ Ken Liu, #NFDB
429:All memory is fiction. ~ Kwame Dawes, #NFDB
430:All that’s left is ‘we. ~ Kim Holden, #NFDB
431:All you need is love. ~ Cynthia Hand, #NFDB
432:All you own is yourself. ~ Rupi Kaur, #NFDB
433:And so there is magic. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
434:Appropriate is boring ~ Marie Sexton, #NFDB
435:Art is a way of survival. ~ Yoko Ono, #NFDB
436:Art is for everybody. ~ Keith Haring, #NFDB
437:Art is stronger than Nature ~ Titian, #NFDB
438:As he chooses, he is. ~ Robert McKee, #NFDB
439:A stone is frozen music ~ Pythagoras, #NFDB
440:Baseball is the life. ~ Steve Garvey, #NFDB
441:Beauty is a gift of God. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
442:Because life is a gift. ~ Kim Holden, #NFDB
443:Bed is my friend. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
444:Black is too morbid; ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
445:Bono? Who the hell is that? ~ Redman, #NFDB
446:Checkers is for tramps ~ Paul Morphy, #NFDB
447:Comedy is not pretty. ~ Steve Martin, #NFDB
448:Courage is its own reward. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
449:Creation is crucial. ~ George Couros, #NFDB
450:Curiosity is not a sin ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
451:Cycling is suffering. ~ Fausto Coppi, #NFDB
452:Darkness is cheap, ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
453:Dead IS so LAST year ~ Marlene Perez, #NFDB
454:Death is not ambiguous. ~ D A Powell, #NFDB
455:Discovery is the joy. ~ Adam Haslett, #NFDB
456:don’t know what it is? ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
457:Draupadi's love is riverlike, ~ Osho, #NFDB
458:Eminem is the greatest, ever. ~ Akon, #NFDB
459:Emotion is always new. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
460:End is a gloomy word. ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
461:Envy is a kind of praise. ~ John Gay, #NFDB
462:...'ever' is a long time ~ L J Smith, #NFDB
463:Every day is bizarre. ~ Mia Kirshner, #NFDB
464:Everyday is one less day. ~ Tom Ford, #NFDB
465:Every person is unique. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
466:Every step is on the path. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
467:Everything is debatable. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
468:Evil is a point of view. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
469:Example is the best precept. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
470:Exercise is overrated. ~ Tim Ferriss, #NFDB
471:Failure is not an option, ~ L J Shen, #NFDB
472:Fair play is a jewel. ~ Walter Scott, #NFDB
473:Family is what works. ~ Ian McDonald, #NFDB
474:Fate is a fickle fellow, ~ T R Ragan, #NFDB
475:Fear is a hunter. But ~ Ruta Sepetys, #NFDB
476:Fear is not your fate ~ Jay Kristoff, #NFDB
477:Feminism is memory. ~ Gloria Steinem, #NFDB
478:Fortune is no real thing. ~ Menander, #NFDB
479:Freedom is an inside job. ~ Sam Keen, #NFDB
480:Friendship is communion. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
481:Gain or loss, what is worse? ~ Laozi, #NFDB
482:God is all and all is God. ~ Eckhart, #NFDB
483:God is a verb ~ R Buckminster Fuller, #NFDB
484:God is man idealized. ~ Amiri Baraka, #NFDB
485:Good comedy is ageless. ~ Ted Levine, #NFDB
486:Good design is honest. ~ Dieter Rams, #NFDB
487:Good enough, never is. ~ Peter David, #NFDB
488:Good is always a good thing. ~ Drake, #NFDB
489:Happiness is a privilege. ~ Jay Leno, #NFDB
490:healing is everyday work ~ Rupi Kaur, #NFDB
491:Heaven is within you. ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
492:He is never cowardly. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
493:Hell is other people. ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
494:Hell is other people. ~ Sara Shepard, #NFDB
495:Hell is yourself too. ~ Robert Crumb, #NFDB
496:He who is contented is rich. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
497:Hiding is for amateurs ~ Ally Carter, #NFDB
498:His face fell. “Is ~ Debbie Macomber, #NFDB
499:History is His story. ~ James Packer, #NFDB
500:History is Storytelling. ~ Yaa Gyasi, #NFDB
501:Hope is not a plan ~ Anderson Cooper, #NFDB
502:Hope is not a strategy ~ Betsy Beyer, #NFDB
503:hope is not a strategy. ~ Chris Voss, #NFDB
504:Humankind is myth. ~ L E Modesitt Jr, #NFDB
505:Ignorance is not bliss. ~ Dan Harris, #NFDB
506:Imagination is real. ~ Pablo Picasso, #NFDB
507:imagination; it is a ~ Kevin Horsley, #NFDB
508:Imitation is flattery ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
509:In union, there is strength. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
510:Is anyone among you sick ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
511:is how you stay alive. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
512:Is it the Fourth? ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
513:Is my kissing that bad? ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
514:Israel is not an aviary. ~ Abba Eban, #NFDB
515:Is that cowboy logic? ~ Shelly Crane, #NFDB
516:Is there no I but I? ~ Justin Cronin, #NFDB
517:(It is an order!), ~ Rudyard Kipling, #NFDB
518:it is totally awesome ~ Rachel Caine, #NFDB
519:It is what it is. ~ Kirsten McKenzie, #NFDB
520:It's me who is my enemy ~ Paula Cole, #NFDB
521:Jackie Chan is a myth. ~ Jackie Chan, #NFDB
522:knowledge is light ~ Wasif Ali Wasif, #NFDB
523:L.A. is my American city. ~ Tom Ford, #NFDB
524:Liberty is dangerous. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
525:Liberty is the chosen ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
526:Life is a grand party. ~ Ezra Miller, #NFDB
527:Life is a song to me. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
528:Life is but thought. ~ Sara Teasdale, #NFDB
529:Life is compost. ~ Diane Setterfield, #NFDB
530:Life is divine chaos. ~ Jillian Dodd, #NFDB
531:Life is for living. ~ Laird Hamilton, #NFDB
532:Life is mostly freehand. ~ Ivan Doig, #NFDB
533:life is power of mindset ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
534:Life is short, art is long. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
535:Light is all memory. ~ Iain Sinclair, #NFDB
536:Living is abnormal. ~ Eug ne Ionesco, #NFDB
537:Love is a Battlefield. ~ Pat Benatar, #NFDB
538:Love is a battlefield. ~ Pat Benatar, #NFDB
539:Love is a believing creature. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
540:Love is a decision. ~ Liane Moriarty, #NFDB
541:Love is beautiful fear. ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
542:Love is easily killed. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
543:Love is everything. ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
544:Love is love's reward. ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
545:Love is not limited. ~ Sandra Dallas, #NFDB
546:Love is serene and calm ~ Erica Jong, #NFDB
547:Love is so simple. ~ Jacques Prevert, #NFDB
548:Love is the answer ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
549:Love is timeless.... ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
550:Man is all symmetry ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
551:Marriage is rarely bliss ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
552:Memory is hunger. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
553:Money is dirt. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
554:Multitasking is a lie. ~ Gary Keller, #NFDB
555:Music is an addiction. ~ Miles Davis, #NFDB
556:Music is my religion. ~ Jimi Hendrix, #NFDB
557:My body is no schoolboy. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
558:My hair is my identity. ~ Ethan Zohn, #NFDB
559:My Katarina is dead. ~ Pittacus Lore, #NFDB
560:My mic is a Magnum. ~ Pharoahe Monch, #NFDB
561:My name is Slither. ~ Joseph Delaney, #NFDB
562:My path is about Joy. ~ Esther Hicks, #NFDB
563:My vote is my secret. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
564:Nature is not human hearted. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
565:Never that is shall die. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
566:No distance is too far. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
567:No Job Is Beneath You ~ Randy Pausch, #NFDB
568:No man is an island... ~ Nick Hornby, #NFDB
569:No place is too common. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
570:Nora Roberts is cool. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
571:Nostalgia is a luxury. ~ Zadie Smith, #NFDB
572:Nothing is static. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
573:Nothing is unfixable. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
574:Old age is ~ William Carlos Williams, #NFDB
575:One and one is eleven. ~ Frank Zappa, #NFDB
576:Originality is fragile. ~ Ed Catmull, #NFDB
577:Our job is to execute. ~ Mark V Hurd, #NFDB
578:Our reason is our law. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
579:passion is all consuming ~ Anya Bast, #NFDB
580:Passion is listening. ~ Rahul Gandhi, #NFDB
581:Peace IS Prosperity. ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
582:Perception is reality. ~ Lee Atwater, #NFDB
583:Poetry is God's work. ~ Katy Lederer, #NFDB
584:Politics is cyclical. ~ Darrell Issa, #NFDB
585:Poor is the new black. ~ Erykah Badu, #NFDB
586:Prague is a dark place. ~ Fred Durst, #NFDB
587:Property is a nuisance. ~ Paul Erdos, #NFDB
588:Punctuation, is? fun! ~ Daniel Keyes, #NFDB
589:Reading is solitude. ~ Italo Calvino, #NFDB
590:Reality is negotiable. ~ Tim Ferriss, #NFDB
591:Real love is selfless. ~ Yvonne Woon, #NFDB
592:Reason also is choice. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
593:Reason is also choice. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
594:Revenge is fruitless. ~ Janet Morris, #NFDB
595:Running is my church. ~ Joan Van Ark, #NFDB
596:Sanity is a cozy lie. ~ Susan Sontag, #NFDB
597:Self is the gorgon. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
598:Seriousness is a disease. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
599:Sexuality is a sacrament. ~ Starhawk, #NFDB
600:Silence is so accurate ~ Mark Rothko, #NFDB
601:Sky is the Limit ~ A P J Abdul Kalam, #NFDB
602:So absolute, it is ~ Denise Levertov, #NFDB
603:Sometimes less is more. ~ Eva Pohler, #NFDB
604:Spring is overrated. ~ Douglas Adams, #NFDB
605:Stupid is not illegal. ~ Dave Ramsey, #NFDB
606:Subversion is what I do. ~ Eric Idle, #NFDB
607:Success is what sells. ~ Andy Warhol, #NFDB
608:Suffering is universal. ~ John Green, #NFDB
609:Sufism is experiential ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
610:Tentative is no power. ~ Bear Grylls, #NFDB
611:That dog is a Marine! ~ Robert Crais, #NFDB
612:That is absurd. Nobody ~ Fred Kofman, #NFDB
613:The bitch is dead now. ~ Ian Fleming, #NFDB
614:The blood is the life! ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
615:the clock is ticking ~ Chinua Achebe, #NFDB
616:The game is afoot. ~ Janet Evanovich, #NFDB
617:The game is up ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
618:The God-War is coming. ~ John Gwynne, #NFDB
619:The kid is scary. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
620:The May-pole is up, ~ Robert Herrick, #NFDB
621:The only crime is pride. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
622:The only way out is in. ~ Junot D az, #NFDB
623:The only way out is in. ~ Junot Diaz, #NFDB
624:The past is just that. ~ B J Daniels, #NFDB
625:The past is obdurate. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
626:The real risk is not ~ John Coltrane, #NFDB
627:There is always a plan B. ~ Triple H, #NFDB
628:There is hope in life. ~ Sabaa Tahir, #NFDB
629:There is no dark man ~ Quentin Crisp, #NFDB
630:There is no road home. ~ Jeff Hirsch, #NFDB
631:There is only love. ~ Gretchen Rubin, #NFDB
632:There is only what is. ~ Lenny Bruce, #NFDB
633:The truth is,’ I said, ~ Jodi Taylor, #NFDB
634:The Universe is a unity. ~ Philolaus, #NFDB
635:The war is in our souls. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
636:Time is all you have. ~ Randy Pausch, #NFDB
637:Time is an illusion. ~ Douglas Adams, #NFDB
638:time is dear and the ~ Jon L Bentley, #NFDB
639:Time itself is neutral. ~ Anna Carey, #NFDB
640:Timing Is of the Essence ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
641:To be alive is to ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
642:To be dull is easy, ~ B K S Iyengar, #NFDB
643:To build is to dwell. ~ Maxine Kumin, #NFDB
644:Today is very ~ John Walter Bratton, #NFDB
645:To define is to limit. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
646:To lose is to win. ~ David Patneaude, #NFDB
647:To measure is to know. ~ Lord Kelvin, #NFDB
648:To risk is to live. ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
649:To travel is to shop. ~ Susan Sontag, #NFDB
650:Tree killing is arborcide. ~ Ed Koch, #NFDB
651:Truth is a big concept. ~ Lukas Foss, #NFDB
652:Waiting is erotic ~ Ir ne N mirovsky, #NFDB
653:WANDERING IS ENCOURAGED. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
654:Waste is Criminal. ~ Kristin Cashore, #NFDB
655:Well begun is half done. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
656:What a tangle love is. ~ Alyson Noel, #NFDB
657:What is desire?-- ~ Theodore Roethke, #NFDB
658:What is this? ~ Patti Callahan Henry, #NFDB
659:What you seek is seeking you. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
660:Where is our weeping ~ W E B Griffin, #NFDB
661:which is an entry ~ Michael Connelly, #NFDB
662:Who is Mr. Radnor? ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
663:Who or what is an Ipod? ~ Alex Flinn, #NFDB
664:Why is the world round? ~ Lee Majors, #NFDB
665:Will, is that you? ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
666:Writing is seduction. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
667:13 Amanda is caught out ~ Enid Blyton, #NFDB
668:= 1 is a mathematician. ~ Brahmagupta, #NFDB
669:(5) Which army is stronger? ~ Sun Tzu, #NFDB
670:A brand is simply trust. ~ Steve Jobs, #NFDB
671:A chair is not a caste. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
672:Age is a terrible thief. ~ Sara Gruen, #NFDB
673:A gentleman is not a pot. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
674:A horse is simply a horse. ~ Avicenna, #NFDB
675:Aladdin is in love! ~ Sarah Mlynowski, #NFDB
676:All I need here is you ~ Claudia Gray, #NFDB
677:All life is sorrow. ~ L E Modesitt Jr, #NFDB
678:All pain is the same. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
679:All time is unreedemable. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
680:All writing is filth ~ Antonin Artaud, #NFDB
681:America is not the world. ~ Morrissey, #NFDB
682:A name is a solemn thing. ~ L T Meade, #NFDB
683:And insanity is catching. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
684:Anger is fear in disguise. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
685:A poem is a naked person. ~ Bob Dylan, #NFDB
686:Art is affirmation. ~ N Scott Momaday, #NFDB
687:Art is a serious matter ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
688:Art is really a battle. ~ Edgar Degas, #NFDB
689:A short absence is the safest. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
690:as it is. There's good an ~ Zane Grey, #NFDB
691:Asparagus is in season. ~ Donna Tartt, #NFDB
692:Atheism is not a religion ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
693:Attitude is altitude. ~ Julius Erving, #NFDB
694:A wig is a wig is a wig. ~ Billy Zane, #NFDB
695:Basketball is sharing. ~ Phil Jackson, #NFDB
696:Beauty is the gift of God ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
697:Being bald is no fun. ~ Maura Tierney, #NFDB
698:Being human is overrated. ~ Mark Penn, #NFDB
699:Be where your enemy is not. ~ Sun Tzu, #NFDB
700:Beyond all things is the sea ~ Seneca, #NFDB
701:Black is beautiful ~ Ta Nehisi Coates, #NFDB
702:Black is not a color. ~ Edouard Manet, #NFDB
703:Breathing is underrated. ~ Stacey Lee, #NFDB
704:Capital T truth is dead. ~ Don Cupitt, #NFDB
705:Change is not progress. ~ H L Mencken, #NFDB
706:Character is destiny ~ Sigmund Freud, #NFDB
707:Character is inured habit. ~ Plutarch, #NFDB
708:Cleverness is not wisdom. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
709:Comedy is a noble art. ~ Margaret Cho, #NFDB
710:Cynicism is for lightweights. ~ Jewel, #NFDB
711:Dad, is this another LBS? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
712:Dancing is silent poetry. ~ Simonides, #NFDB
713:Dawn is born at midnight. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
714:Death is a thief ~ Kristen Ciccarelli, #NFDB
715:Demographics is destiny ~ Arthur Kemp, #NFDB
716:Desire itself is movement ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
717:Diet food is for lazy people. ~ Ice T, #NFDB
718:Disaster is my muse. ~ Art Spiegelman, #NFDB
719:Dream is destiny. ~ Richard Linklater, #NFDB
720:Easter is never deserved. ~ Jan Karon, #NFDB
721:Epic is a state of mind. ~ Kim Holden, #NFDB
722:Eternity is the sun ~ Arthur Rimbaud, #NFDB
723:Ethics is inescapable. ~ Peter Singer, #NFDB
724:Everybody is somewhere. ~ Steve Allen, #NFDB
725:Every day is a brand new day! ~ Sting, #NFDB
726:Every gift is edged. ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
727:Everyone is an artist. ~ Joseph Beuys, #NFDB
728:Everyone is someone. ~ Claudia Connor, #NFDB
729:Everyone is something. ~ Sarah Dessen, #NFDB
730:Everything is language. ~ Octavio Paz, #NFDB
731:Everything is meaningless ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
732:Everything is politics. ~ Thomas Mann, #NFDB
733:Every woman is a rebel. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
734:Exuberance is beauty. ~ William Blake, #NFDB
735:failure is instructive, ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
736:Family is always first. ~ Nick Cannon, #NFDB
737:Fast food is zoo food. ~ Jim Harrison, #NFDB
738:Fate is inexorable ~ Bernard Cornwell, #NFDB
739:Fear is an illusion ~ Rachelle Dekker, #NFDB
740:Fire is next akin to smoke. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
741:Freedom is never free. ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
742:Fun math is an oxymoron. ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
743:Genius is born-not paid ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
744:Getting older is hard. ~ Alec Baldwin, #NFDB
745:God is found by those, ~ Bulleh Shah, #NFDB
746:God is love” (I John 4:8) ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
747:Gold is Money. That's it ~ J P Morgan, #NFDB
748:Greatness is humility. ~ Kyle Idleman, #NFDB
749:Happiness is a choice. ~ Melissa Marr, #NFDB
750:Haste is of the Devil. ~ Saint Jerome, #NFDB
751:Her always is mine ~ Jacqueline Carey, #NFDB
752:Here all is strange. ~ Samuel Beckett, #NFDB
753:Hiding is for amateurs. ~ Ally Carter, #NFDB
754:His cock is inked. ~ Georgia Le Carre, #NFDB
755:History is only gossip. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
756:Holding anger is poison ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
757:Home is run no more. ~ Grant Morrison, #NFDB
758:Home is where I bone you. ~ T S Joyce, #NFDB
759:Hope is not a strategy. ~ Betsy Beyer, #NFDB
760:Hope is not a strategy, ~ Sarah Palin, #NFDB
761:Hope is not a strategy. ~ Sarah Palin, #NFDB
762:Human cloning is coming. ~ Mike Pence, #NFDB
763:If is a custom, ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
764:I hope Tom is okay. ~ Chris Philbrook, #NFDB
765:Image is sorcery. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #NFDB
766:impossible is not a word ~ Obert Skye, #NFDB
767:Impossible is nothing. ~ Muhammad Ali, #NFDB
768:Impossible is relative. ~ Michio Kaku, #NFDB
769:Indolence is a soil. ~ Buddhist Texts, #NFDB
770:Information is control. ~ Joan Didion, #NFDB
771:Information is power. ~ Louis L Amour, #NFDB
772:In Silence there is eloquence. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
773:Is life worth living? ~ Alfred Austin, #NFDB
774:is worry’s sly assassin. ~ Leif Enger, #NFDB
775:It is a sin to write this. ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
776:It is as it is. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
777:It is grievous to be caught. ~ Horace, #NFDB
778:It is like a woman indeed ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
779:Jet lag is for amateurs. ~ Dick Clark, #NFDB
780:Joy is the best makeup. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
781:Life is contradiction. ~ Jandy Nelson, #NFDB
782:Life is deadly. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
783:Life is difficult. ~ William Goldman, #NFDB
784:Life is divine chaos ! ~ Jillian Dodd, #NFDB
785:Life is for the living. ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
786:Life is just a bag of pot. ~ Iggy Pop, #NFDB
787:Life is negotiation. The ~ Chris Voss, #NFDB
788:Life is short, yet sweet. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
789:Life is truth... ~ Frank Lloyd Wright, #NFDB
790:Light is impressionism. ~ Gae Aulenti, #NFDB
791:Listening is loving ~ Fran ois Lelord, #NFDB
792:Loud is a way of life. ~ Steven Adler, #NFDB
793:Love is fearless in the midst ~ Rumi, #NFDB
794:Love is never wrong. ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
795:Love is only a dance. ~ Howard Dietz, #NFDB
796:Love is painful sometimes ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
797:Love is stronger than hate. ~ Bob Rae, #NFDB
798:Man is a bad animal.... ~ Brion Gysin, #NFDB
799:Man is a small universe. ~ Democritus, #NFDB
800:Marriage is ridiculous. ~ Goldie Hawn, #NFDB
801:MISERY is manifold. ~ Edgar Allan Poe, #NFDB
802:Modesty is becoming in youth. ~ Plato, #NFDB
803:Money is an echo of value. ~ Bob Burg, #NFDB
804:Money is sad shit ~ Richard Brautigan, #NFDB
805:Money truly is nothing. ~ Imbolo Mbue, #NFDB
806:Mother Nature is a bitch. ~ Greg Bear, #NFDB
807:Multitasking is a scam. ~ Gary Keller, #NFDB
808:Music is reflection of self. ~ Eminem, #NFDB
809:My body is on auto-slut. ~ Tara Brown, #NFDB
810:my father is dead? ~ Kathryn Le Veque, #NFDB
811:My hatred is diamond-hard. ~ Jim Goad, #NFDB
812:My name is Zia Rashid. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
813:My religion is kindness. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
814:Nature is full of teeth ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
815:Nice passion is reading ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
816:NIETZSCHE IS DEAD—GOD. ~ Sean Carroll, #NFDB
817:No hero is above fear. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
818:None of us is ever ready, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
819:No one is ever ordinary. ~ Tanith Lee, #NFDB
820:No storm is forever. ~ Gary D Schmidt, #NFDB
821:Nothing is but what is now ~ Ron Rash, #NFDB
822:Nothing is ever easy ~ Terry Goodkind, #NFDB
823:Nothing Is Unusual (NIU). ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
824:Novelty is the new normal, ~ Amy Webb, #NFDB
825:now is yesterday's later, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
826:Oblivion is inevitable!! ~ John Green, #NFDB
827:Obsession is not love. ~ Karina Halle, #NFDB
828:Our body is a moulded river ~ Novalis, #NFDB
829:Painting is silent poetry. ~ Plutarch, #NFDB
830:Parity is for farmers. ~ Seymour Cray, #NFDB
831:Patience is all. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
832:Peace is our original state ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
833:Perception is subjective. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
834:Personality is a skill. ~ Twyla Tharp, #NFDB
835:Philanthropy is activism. ~ Eli Broad, #NFDB
836:pink is too juvenile; ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
837:Piracy is the new radio. ~ Neil Young, #NFDB
838:Poetry is fired by love. ~ Erica Jong, #NFDB
839:Poetry is not a luxury. ~ Audre Lorde, #NFDB
840:Poetry to me is prayer. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
841:Poverty is no sinne. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
842:Propaganda is amazing, ~ Alice Walker, #NFDB
843:Reading is important. ~ John Garfield, #NFDB
844:Reality is mind-made. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
845:Relevance is elastic. ~ Nick Harkaway, #NFDB
846:Right is just and true. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
847:Sadness is a vice. ~ Gustave Flaubert, #NFDB
848:Safe word is Pickle ~ Gabe Zichermann, #NFDB
849:Sarcasm is lost in print. ~ Jon Cryer, #NFDB
850:Saying is inventing. ~ Samuel Beckett, #NFDB
851:She who is brave is free. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
852:Silence is so accurate. ~ Mark Rothko, #NFDB
853:Simplicity is complex. ~ Jayce O Neal, #NFDB
854:Sin is a measure of evil, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
855:Sin is not rational. ~ Edward T Welch, #NFDB
856:Sleep is for squares. ~ Henry Rollins, #NFDB
857:Solitude is independence. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
858:Solitude is un-American. ~ Erica Jong, #NFDB
859:Sorrow is dangerous. ~ Kelly Barnhill, #NFDB
860:Soul music is timeless. ~ Alicia Keys, #NFDB
861:Stumbling is not falling. ~ Malcolm X, #NFDB
862:such is the Lord's Will. ~ The Mother, #NFDB
863:Surrender is hard work. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
864:"That is the way it is." ~ Ajahn Chah, #NFDB
865:The air is all softness. ~ John Keats, #NFDB
866:The butt is a good option, ~ L J Shen, #NFDB
867:The darkness is my birthright. ~ Nico, #NFDB
868:The deal is the deal. ~ Leigh Bardugo, #NFDB
869:The Earth is deep, ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
870:The final word is love. ~ Dorothy Day, #NFDB
871:The future is personal. ~ Bill Jensen, #NFDB
872:The gate is inside you. ~ S G Redling, #NFDB
873:The grand show is eternal ~ John Muir, #NFDB
874:The great god Pan is dead. ~ Plutarch, #NFDB
875:The heart is stupid. ~ Molly Ringwald, #NFDB
876:The house is a factory. ~ Dave Eggers, #NFDB
877:The job is not the work. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
878:The LORD is in the right, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
879:The old Lena is dead, ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
880:The only hope…is hope. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
881:The past is prologue! ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
882:The plan is the body ~ Robert Creeley, #NFDB
883:Therefore the Tao is great; ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
884:There is no one truth. ~ James Luceno, #NFDB
885:There is no team in I, ~ Megan Abbott, #NFDB
886:The small is easy to scatter. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
887:The stairway is not ~ Denise Levertov, #NFDB
888:The sun is new each day. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
889:The tongue is sharper than a sword. ~, #NFDB
890:The Torus is my enemy! ~ Peter Sarnak, #NFDB
891:The Universe is a unity. ~ Anaxagoras, #NFDB
892:The unknown is my compass ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
893:The Way Out Is Through ~ Mark Epstein, #NFDB
894:The window is closing. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
895:The world is before you ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
896:The world is bleeding. ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
897:The World Is Not Enough ~ Ian Fleming, #NFDB
898:The world is screaming. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
899:Thinking is an action, ~ Louise Penny, #NFDB
900:This is a gathering of Lovers. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
901:This is how savages love. ~ E K Blair, #NFDB
902:This is my eureka moment; ~ E L James, #NFDB
903:This is my story now. ~ Reki Kawahara, #NFDB
904:This is what happened. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
905:This is what poems are: ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
906:Thought is energy. ~ Charles F Haanel, #NFDB
907:Time is nothing. ~ Audrey Niffenegger, #NFDB
908:To find is the thing. ~ Pablo Picasso, #NFDB
909:To have died once is enough. ~ Virgil, #NFDB
910:To have little is to possess. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
911:"To live is enough." ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #NFDB
912:Tomorrow is another day. ~ Peggy Webb, #NFDB
913:Too much is just enough. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
914:To perceive is to suffer. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
915:To react is one's choice. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
916:To tolerate is to insult. ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
917:Touring is hard on the body. ~ Eminem, #NFDB
918:Trend is not destiny. ~ Lewis Mumford, #NFDB
919:Truth is a great flirt. ~ Franz Liszt, #NFDB
920:Ut laeve is genne pannekook ~ Various, #NFDB
921:Waiting is erotic. ~ Ir ne N mirovsky, #NFDB
922:Weakness is strength. ~ George Orwell, #NFDB
923:What comes is called. ~ Ki Longfellow, #NFDB
924:What fresh hell is this? ~ Tim Dorsey, #NFDB
925:What's gone is gone. ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
926:Where there is life. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
927:Where there is yoga, ~ B K S Iyengar, #NFDB
928:Who the fuck is King? ~ Elaine Levine, #NFDB
929:Wickedness is weakness. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
930:Wine is a cunning wrestler. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
931:Winter is coming. ~ George R R Martin, #NFDB
932:Woman is the masterpiece. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
933:Work is dignity. ~ Michael Gates Gill, #NFDB
934:Work is the best workout. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
935:wrong: Penthesilea is ~ Italo Calvino, #NFDB
936:wtf even is my sexuality ~ Dan Howell, #NFDB
937:Yesterday is gone. ~ Penelope Douglas, #NFDB
938:Your past is my Future. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
939:Your pops is a real playa ~ Coe Booth, #NFDB
940:8. Love is chemistry and ~ Paul Levine, #NFDB
941:A bad law is no law. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
942:A bird is joy incarnate. ~ Myrtle Reed, #NFDB
943:A book is a loaded gun. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
944:Acting is very immediate. ~ Val Kilmer, #NFDB
945:Action is the answer. ~ Steve Chandler, #NFDB
946:A friend is a second self. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
947:A garden is made of hope. ~ W S Merwin, #NFDB
948:A hard man is good to find. ~ Mae West, #NFDB
949:Aladdin's lamp is mine. ~ Ira Gershwin, #NFDB
950:A leader is a reader. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
951:All art is propaganda. ~ George Orwell, #NFDB
952:All art is subversive. ~ Pablo Picasso, #NFDB
953:All great art is praise. ~ John Ruskin, #NFDB
954:All history is a lie! ~ Robert Walpole, #NFDB
955:All I know is what I am getting. ~ RZA, #NFDB
956:All In All Is All We Are ~ Kurt Cobain, #NFDB
957:All is to be doubted. ~ Rene Descartes, #NFDB
958:All Knowledge is dangerous ~ Jo Graham, #NFDB
959:All life is temporary ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
960:All of life is a test. ~ Pittacus Lore, #NFDB
961:All writing is rewriting. ~ John Green, #NFDB
962:A man is never ugly". ~ Buchi Emecheta, #NFDB
963:A man who is 100% sane is dead. ~ Osho, #NFDB
964:America is pretty split. ~ Jolene Ivey, #NFDB
965:Amy King is a true bard. ~ Toma alamun, #NFDB
966:Ancestry is not destiny, ~ Eric Weiner, #NFDB
967:...and what is truth? ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
968:An elite is inevitable. ~ Jenny Holzer, #NFDB
969:Anger is a momentary madness. ~ Horace, #NFDB
970:Anger is fear's bodyguard ~ Celeste Ng, #NFDB
971:Anger is short-lived madness. ~ Horace, #NFDB
972:Anger is temporary madness. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
973:Any surplus is immoral. ~ Jenny Holzer, #NFDB
974:A photo is a creation. ~ Eva Herzigova, #NFDB
975:Art is childhood. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
976:Art is magic. ~ Carrie Viscome Skinner, #NFDB
977:A selfish man is a thief. ~ Jose Marti, #NFDB
978:A terrible beauty is born. ~ W B Yeats, #NFDB
979:Balance is overrated. ~ Thomas Leonard, #NFDB
980:Beauty is where you find it. ~ Madonna, #NFDB
981:Being is Dying by Loving. ~ Meher Baba, #NFDB
982:Beneficence is a duty. ~ Immanuel Kant, #NFDB
983:Bernard’s had ‘is hand ~ James Herriot, #NFDB
984:Better is the Enemy of Good ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
985:Black is the color ~ Alexandra Bracken, #NFDB
986:Blaming is a childish act. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
987:Blood is just red sweat. ~ Enson Inoue, #NFDB
988:Book is a nice companion ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
989:Books, Cats, Life is Good. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
990:Books. Cats. Life is good. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
991:Branding is overrated. ~ Regis McKenna, #NFDB
992:Breath is life in ~ Erica Bauermeister, #NFDB
993:bridge is straight ahead. ~ A G Riddle, #NFDB
994:Bugs Bunny is my muse. ~ Billy Collins, #NFDB
995:But nothing is permanent. ~ Ryan Casey, #NFDB
996:But this is not it, is it? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
997:Cancer is always funny. ~ Jim Gaffigan, #NFDB
998:Capitalism is in crisis. ~ Lech Walesa, #NFDB
999:Changing is for weirdos. ~ Niall Horan, #NFDB
1000:Chaos is a friend of mine. ~ Bob Dylan, #NFDB
1001:Character is destiny. ~ Edward O Thorp, #NFDB
1002:Character is our destiny. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
1003:Chess is not dominoes ~ Garry Kasparov, #NFDB
1004:Choosing is Aging. ~ Philippe Soupault, #NFDB
1005:Comedy is rarely funny. ~ Dov Davidoff, #NFDB
1006:Crying is you, plus tears ~ John Green, #NFDB
1007:Dancing is a sweat job. ~ Fred Astaire, #NFDB
1008:Deception is everywhere. ~ Jim Sanborn, #NFDB
1009:Democracy is hard work. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
1010:Demographics is destiny. ~ Arthur Kemp, #NFDB
1011:Demography is destiny. ~ Auguste Comte, #NFDB
1012:Desegregation is a joke. ~ Nina Simone, #NFDB
1013:Design is expression. ~ W Brian Arthur, #NFDB
1014:Done is better than perfect. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
1015:Doubt is an old disease. ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
1016:Dying is not a crime. ~ Jack Kevorkian, #NFDB
1017:Each year is a new year. ~ Tim Buckley, #NFDB
1018:Education is life itself. ~ John Dewey, #NFDB
1019:Egolessness is contentment. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
1020:Energy is based on love. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1021:Epistemology is cruel. ~ Nick Harkaway, #NFDB
1022:Every edit is a lie. ~ Jean Luc Godard, #NFDB
1023:Every game is critical. ~ Dabo Swinney, #NFDB
1024:Every man is an artist. ~ Joseph Beuys, #NFDB
1025:Every obstacle is a test. ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
1026:Everything is acting. ~ Marilyn Manson, #NFDB
1027:Everything is bicycle. ~ Stephen Crane, #NFDB
1028:Everything is everything ~ Lauryn Hill, #NFDB
1029:Everything I write is about me. ~ Mika, #NFDB
1030:Evolution is your solution. ~ Triple H, #NFDB
1031:Failure is doing nothing. ~ Paul Hauck, #NFDB
1032:Failure is not an option. ~ Teri Terry, #NFDB
1033:Fate is inexorable. ~ Bernard Cornwell, #NFDB
1034:Fear is the devil to hide. ~ P D James, #NFDB
1035:feminism is for everybody ~ Bell Hooks, #NFDB
1036:feminism is for everybody ~ bell hooks, #NFDB
1037:Flame is very near to smoke. ~ Plautus, #NFDB
1038:Folk is bare bones music. ~ Ben Harper, #NFDB
1039:For me, everything is cool. ~ Paz Vega, #NFDB
1040:Freedom is exhausting. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
1041:Freedom is Letting Go. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
1042:Freedom is such a gift. ~ Ryan Gosling, #NFDB
1043:Funny is funny is funny. ~ Bob Newhart, #NFDB
1044:Genius is sorrow's child. ~ John Adams, #NFDB
1045:Glass is material sea. ~ Peter Ackroyd, #NFDB
1046:God is not a Christian. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
1047:God is not a diversion. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
1048:God's timing is like Jazz. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1049:Grace always is. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
1050:great is the art ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1051:Grief is a selfish beast. ~ Lexi Blake, #NFDB
1052:Happiness is a talent. ~ Daisy Goodwin, #NFDB
1053:Happiness is a warm gun. ~ John Lennon, #NFDB
1054:Haste is blind and improvident. ~ Livy, #NFDB
1055:Haste is from the Devil. ~ Idries Shah, #NFDB
1056:Heaven is precision. ~ Christian Wiman, #NFDB
1057:He is the one for me. ~ Sawyer Bennett, #NFDB
1058:He who is contented is rich. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
1059:His name is Daddy now, ~ Kristen Proby, #NFDB
1060:History is merely gossip ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
1061:History is never tidy. ~ Antony Beevor, #NFDB
1062:Home is wherever I go. ~ Indira Gandhi, #NFDB
1063:Honesty is all you need. ~ Cass Elliot, #NFDB
1064:Honesty is never wrong. ~ Terry Brooks, #NFDB
1065:Hope is a cruel bitch. ~ Ryan C Thomas, #NFDB
1066:Hope is a waking dream.
~ Aristotle,#NFDB
1067:Hope is never dead. ~ G Norman Lippert, #NFDB
1068:Hope is really a thought. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1069:How awesome is this place! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1070:How easy it is to love. ~ Tove Jansson, #NFDB
1071:Ideology is a virus. ~ Neal Stephenson, #NFDB
1072:Ignorance is trust. — ~ R Scott Bakker, #NFDB
1073:I like my life as it is. ~ Sue Grafton, #NFDB
1074:Imagery is like music. ~ Steven Bochco, #NFDB
1075:Imagination is a killer. ~ Tim O Brien, #NFDB
1076:In my beginning is my end. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1077:In my end is my beginning. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1078:Innocence is suffering ~ Diane Wakoski, #NFDB
1079:Instruction is important. ~ John Dewey, #NFDB
1080:is acceptance. ~ Christina Baker Kline, #NFDB
1081:Is it about a bicycle? ~ Flann O Brien, #NFDB
1082:Is reading a sport? ~ Amanda Eyre Ward, #NFDB
1083:Is this a Netherling flu? ~ A G Howard, #NFDB
1084:It is our part to seek, ~ Saint Jerome, #NFDB
1085:It is the face of my soul. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1086:joy is evidence of God. ~ Steven James, #NFDB
1087:Karma is a bitch, bitch. ~ Eileen Cook, #NFDB
1088:Knowledge is power. ~ Abraham Verghese, #NFDB
1089:Knowledge is power, Clark ~ Jojo Moyes, #NFDB
1090:Knowledge is Power. ~ Elizabeth Hunter, #NFDB
1091:Laughter is a rescue. ~ Gloria Steinem, #NFDB
1092:Life is a dance of nature. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
1093:Life is a fatal illness. ~ Marie Force, #NFDB
1094:Life is frightening. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
1095:Life is hard, so what? ~ Cecelia Ahern, #NFDB
1096:life is just a hand job. ~ Mark Berent, #NFDB
1097:Life is luck, make it. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
1098:Life is not an apology. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
1099:Life is not a submarine. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
1100:Literature is a virus. ~ Corey Redekop, #NFDB
1101:Literature is my Utopia ~ Helen Keller, #NFDB
1102:Lost love is still love. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
1103:Love is a beautiful fear. ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
1104:Love is alcohol. ~ Katherine Applegate, #NFDB
1105:Love is always enough. ~ Susan Mallery, #NFDB
1106:Love is always right. ~ Richard Laymon, #NFDB
1107:Love is an act of faith. ~ Erich Fromm, #NFDB
1108:Love is an affair of credulity. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
1109:Love is a river. Drink from it. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1110:Love is Immortality. ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
1111:Love is most nearly itself ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1112:Love is not love ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1113:Love is stronger than justice. ~ Sting, #NFDB
1114:Love is unbounded by time ~ Sarah Ruhl, #NFDB
1115:Loving you is the shit. ~ Avril Ashton, #NFDB
1116:Man is a gaming animal. ~ Charles Lamb, #NFDB
1117:Man is what he reads. ~ Joseph Brodsky, #NFDB
1118:Marriage is a mystery. ~ Peter Behrens, #NFDB
1119:Maybe this is karma. ~ Sophie Kinsella, #NFDB
1120:Michael Cole is a visionary! ~ The Miz, #NFDB
1121:Money is low bandwidth, ~ Ashlee Vance, #NFDB
1122:Multitasking is a lie. ~ Gary W Keller, #NFDB
1123:Music is so personal. ~ Lisa Schroeder, #NFDB
1124:My blood is my crime. ~ Nadine Brandes, #NFDB
1125:My Caps Lock Key Is Loud! ~ Kanye West, #NFDB
1126:My Country is Truth. ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
1127:My dad is a good dad. ~ Mindy McCready, #NFDB
1128:My heart is asleep. We ~ Tarryn Fisher, #NFDB
1129:My heart is on a budget. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
1130:My heart is so tired ~ Rudyard Kipling, #NFDB
1131:My Life is My Message ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1132:My past is a bit checkered. ~ Kid Rock, #NFDB
1133:My rage is gone, ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1134:My religion is kindness. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1135:My secret is practice. ~ David Beckham, #NFDB
1136:My weapon of choice is my voice. ~ Nas, #NFDB
1137:Nature is a bitch goddess. ~ Greg Bear, #NFDB
1138:Nature is harmony in discord. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1139:Nature is not anthropomorphic. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1140:Necessity is God's veil. ~ Simone Weil, #NFDB
1141:Nobody knows what death is, ~ Socrates, #NFDB
1142:No coward soul is mine. ~ Emily Bronte, #NFDB
1143:No fat batboy is invisible. ~ Joe Buck, #NFDB
1144:None is borne Master. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
1145:No one is pro-abortion. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
1146:Nothing is ever certain ~ Alice Sebold, #NFDB
1147:Nothing is ours, except time. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1148:Nothing is stronger than habit. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
1149:Now is the age of anxiety. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
1150:Okay guys, this is epic! ~ Ben Shapiro, #NFDB
1151:Only debt is forever. ~ Charles Stross, #NFDB
1152:Only God is awesome. ~ Shane Claiborne, #NFDB
1153:optimism is a disease ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
1154:Our journey is just beginning. ~ Moses, #NFDB
1155:Panic is a bad judge. ~ Julie Bertagna, #NFDB
1156:Paradise is where I am. ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
1157:Patience is God's nature. ~ Tertullian, #NFDB
1158:Pax is worth anything. ~ Courtney Cole, #NFDB
1159:Peace is every step. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1160:person is Mister Black. ~ P T Michelle, #NFDB
1161:Pleasure is a false god. ~ Mark Manson, #NFDB
1162:Pomp is contrary to the Tao. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
1163:Pop art is for everyone. ~ Andy Warhol, #NFDB
1164:Pretty is never beautiful. ~ Tori Amos, #NFDB
1165:Pride is a fool's fortress ~ Leon Uris, #NFDB
1166:Pride is a shiny weakness. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
1167:Product is always king. ~ Daymond John, #NFDB
1168:Quiet IS the new loud. ~ Patrick Stump, #NFDB
1169:Reading is love in action. ~ Matt Haig, #NFDB
1170:Realism is the trend. ~ Benjamin Percy, #NFDB
1171:religion is morality. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1172:Rest is for the dead. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
1173:Revolution, and this is— ~ Belva Plain, #NFDB
1174:Selfishness is blind. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1175:Separation is not fatal. ~ Nicola Yoon, #NFDB
1176:Sex is nature, and I ~ Marilyn Monroe, #NFDB
1177:Shame is Prides cloke. ~ William Blake, #NFDB
1178:Sharpness is overrated. ~ Keith Carter, #NFDB
1179:Significance is sweet. ~ Ivan Turgenev, #NFDB
1180:Silence is the best reply to a fool. ~, #NFDB
1181:Sisterhood is powerful. ~ Robin Morgan, #NFDB
1182:Sleep is the new sex. ~ Gretchen Rubin, #NFDB
1183:Speculation is worthless. ~ Jen Larsen, #NFDB
1184:Spending is an addiction. ~ Jim DeMint, #NFDB
1185:Sport is not my thing. ~ Rupert Friend, #NFDB
1186:Spring is the Period ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
1187:Stillness is easy to maintain. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1188:Strength is Happiness. ~ Daisaku Ikeda, #NFDB
1189:Struggle is not exclusive. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1190:Student, tell me, what is God? ~ Kabir, #NFDB
1191:Success is a lousy teacher, ~ Amy Webb, #NFDB
1192:Sunday is a day of rest. ~ Mark Morris, #NFDB
1193:Tequila is my salmon. ~ Eddie Redmayne, #NFDB
1194:That is not in question, ~ Alex Segura, #NFDB
1195:The Asker is the Answer. ~ Wei Wu Wei, #NFDB
1196:The cosmetic is cosmic. ~ Rem Koolhaas, #NFDB
1197:The crime is the punishment. ~ Amos Oz, #NFDB
1198:The day is conscious of itself. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1199:The descent into Hell is easy ~ Virgil, #NFDB
1200:The Devil is a woman. ~ Camille Paglia, #NFDB
1201:The future is disorder. ~ Tom Stoppard, #NFDB
1202:"The future is now." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1203:The going is the goal. ~ Horace Kallen, #NFDB
1204:The greatest wealth is health ~ Virgil, #NFDB
1205:The heart is an arrow. ~ Leigh Bardugo, #NFDB
1206:The image is an image. ~ Lenny Kravitz, #NFDB
1207:The journey is its own reward. ~ Homer, #NFDB
1208:The journey is the reward ~ Steve Jobs, #NFDB
1209:The key is to have energy. ~ DJ Khaled, #NFDB
1210:The lens is a tyranny. ~ David Hockney, #NFDB
1211:The main idea is to win. ~ John McGraw, #NFDB
1212:The menu is not the meal. ~ Alan Watts, #NFDB
1213:The only crime is art. ~ Gerald Weaver, #NFDB
1214:The path is the goal. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1215:The process is the goal. ~ Geneen Roth, #NFDB
1216:The rat is always right. ~ B F Skinner, #NFDB
1217:There is always something. ~ Greg Iles, #NFDB
1218:There is an original inside me. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1219:There is no Apocalypse. ~ Paul Fussell, #NFDB
1220:There is no I in hero. ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
1221:There is no quit in me. ~ Larry Holmes, #NFDB
1222:There is nothing missing. ~ Alan Cohen, #NFDB
1223:There is no "wrong train. ~ CrimethInc, #NFDB
1224:THE SALINAS VALLEY is ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
1225:The Self is all. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
1226:The self is a smokescreen. ~ Kris Kidd, #NFDB
1227:The soul is not a soul, ~ John Ashbery, #NFDB
1228:The sun is new each day. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
1229:The truth is out there. ~ Chris Carter, #NFDB
1230:The world is as you are. ~ David Lynch, #NFDB
1231:The writer is all alone. ~ V S Naipaul, #NFDB
1232:This is getting funner. ~ Esther Hicks, #NFDB
1233:This is her first novel. ~ Tess Sharpe, #NFDB
1234:This is who the fuck I am. ~ Lady Gaga, #NFDB
1235:Thought is free. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1236:Thy food is such ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1237:Time is a blind guide. ~ Anne Michaels, #NFDB
1238:Time is an illusion. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
1239:Time is living me. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #NFDB
1240:Timing is everything. ~ Buck Brannaman, #NFDB
1241:To assume is to presume. ~ Jude Morgan, #NFDB
1242:To be human is erroneous. ~ Karl Kraus, #NFDB
1243:To be of few words is natural. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1244:To choose is also to begin. ~ Starhawk, #NFDB
1245:Today, it is a reality. ~ Mahesh Bhatt, #NFDB
1246:Topology is destiny, ~ Neal Stephenson, #NFDB
1247:To revive sorrow is cruel. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
1248:To step aside is human. ~ Robert Burns, #NFDB
1249:To think is to be sick. ~ Djuna Barnes, #NFDB
1250:Tradition is laziness. ~ Gustav Mahler, #NFDB
1251:Trust is everything to men ~ Ker Dukey, #NFDB
1252:Truth is a hungry thing. ~ Randy Ribay, #NFDB
1253:Truth is a journey. ~ Danielle LaPorte, #NFDB
1254:Truth is dangerous. ~ Melina Marchetta, #NFDB
1255:TV is not a baby sitter. ~ Luis Guzman, #NFDB
1256:Unless South Africa is ~ Ha Joon Chang, #NFDB
1257:Urgency is insecurity. ~ Michael Neill, #NFDB
1258:Victory is in the battle. ~ Amy Harmon, #NFDB
1259:Voice is my instrument. ~ Debra Wilson, #NFDB
1260:Waiting is for cowards. ~ Bree Despain, #NFDB
1261:War is a trade of kings. ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
1262:War is a violent teacher, ~ Thucydides, #NFDB
1263:War is death's feast. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
1264:War is murder writ large. ~ Carl Sagan, #NFDB
1265:Water is the key to life, man. ~ Dessa, #NFDB
1266:Wealthier is healthier. ~ John Stossel, #NFDB
1267:Well begun is half done. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
1268:What color is it today? ~ Abigail Roux, #NFDB
1269:What comes, is called. ~ Ki Longfellow, #NFDB
1270:What if there is no end? ~ Chanda Hahn, #NFDB
1271:What is an outlier? ~ Malcolm Gladwell, #NFDB
1272:What is, is God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
1273:What's not there is. ~ Cameron Conaway, #NFDB
1274:What we eat is a poem. ~ Anthony Doerr, #NFDB
1275:WHICH way is Melborne? ~ Carolyn Keene, #NFDB
1276:Who the shit is Otis? ~ Caris O Malley, #NFDB
1277:Wit is cultured insolence. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
1278:Wit is educated insolence. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
1279:Work ... is redemption. ~ Rosanne Cash, #NFDB
1280:YOUR BRAIN IS YOUR BITCH ~ Jen Sincero, #NFDB
1281:Your face is my heart ~ Diana Gabaldon, #NFDB
1282:your name is My Brother. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
1283:Your sarcasm is draining. ~ K F Breene, #NFDB
1284:you turn – there he is. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1285:A bad man is a good man's job ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
1286:A balanced life is a lie. ~ Gary Keller, #NFDB
1287:A clean break is best. In ~ Cal Newport, #NFDB
1288:Acting is actually private. ~ Joan Chen, #NFDB
1289:Action is redemption. ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
1290:A day to God is a thousand years, ~ RZA, #NFDB
1291:Adolescence is like cactus. ~ Anais Nin, #NFDB
1292:A gun is a liar's weapon ~ Frank Miller, #NFDB
1293:Alec Baldwin is so funny. ~ Ryan Lochte, #NFDB
1294:All art is quite useless. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
1295:All bombing is terrorism. ~ Suzy Kassem, #NFDB
1296:All good art is abstract. ~ John Newman, #NFDB
1297:All I am is all we are. ~ Jamie McGuire, #NFDB
1298:All I get is tomorrow. ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
1299:All in all is all we are. ~ Kurt Cobain, #NFDB
1300:All memory is prelude. ~ David W Blight, #NFDB
1301:All sadness is a tantrum. ~ Byron Katie, #NFDB
1302:All salvation is temporary ~ John Green, #NFDB
1303:All that glisters is not gold. ~ Common, #NFDB
1304:All truth is God's truth. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
1305:All water is holy water. ~ Rajiv Joseph, #NFDB
1306:An evil life is a kind of death. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
1307:ANGER IS FEAR’S BODYGUARD, ~ Celeste Ng, #NFDB
1308:Anger is fear's bodygurad. ~ Celeste Ng, #NFDB
1309:An open mind is the secret in ~ Seungri, #NFDB
1310:Anthony Davis is cool. ~ Deron Williams, #NFDB
1311:A poem is a spider web ~ Charles Ghigna, #NFDB
1312:Art is born of humiliation. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
1313:Beauty is a riddle ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1314:Be brave. Life is a gift. ~ Nicola Yoon, #NFDB
1315:Being a teenager is hard. ~ Mae Whitman, #NFDB
1316:Being safe is fiction. ~ Tom Hodgkinson, #NFDB
1317:Believing is half the cure. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
1318:Better is the enemy of good. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
1319:Bidden or not, God is here. ~ Ami McKay, #NFDB
1320:Bitterness is so ugly. ~ Amy Heckerling, #NFDB
1321:Bruckner he is my man! ~ Richard Wagner, #NFDB
1322:Caesar's double-bed is warm ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
1323:Can't is for pussies. ~ Allison Pearson, #NFDB
1324:Christy Cross is boss. ~ Scott Hildreth, #NFDB
1325:Class is classlessness. ~ James Merrill, #NFDB
1326:cleverness is a disease. ~ Rumer Godden, #NFDB
1327:Coincidence is logical. ~ Johan Cruijff, #NFDB
1328:Compassion is a verb. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1329:Complaint is poverty. ~ Mary Baker Eddy, #NFDB
1330:contact is possible, Ellie ~ Mike Duran, #NFDB
1331:Continuity is boring. ~ Peter Greenaway, #NFDB
1332:Courage is a kind of salvation. ~ Plato, #NFDB
1333:Creativity is mistakes. ~ Grayson Perry, #NFDB
1334:Dada is a state of mind. ~ Andre Breton, #NFDB
1335:Darkness is my destiny. ~ Hafsah Faizal, #NFDB
1336:Death is Life's high meed. ~ John Keats, #NFDB
1337:Death is my neighbor now. ~ Edith Evans, #NFDB
1338:Desire Is Born With Vision ~ Zig Ziglar, #NFDB
1339:Desire is no light thing. ~ Anne Carson, #NFDB
1340:Desire is prayer. ~ Orison Swett Marden, #NFDB
1341:Disco is just jitterbug. ~ Fred Astaire, #NFDB
1342:Doubt is how you find God ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
1343:drama is a good book ~ Raina Telgemeier, #NFDB
1344:Ego is recessive in wisdom. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
1345:Enough is ever-receding. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
1346:Envy is human nature. ~ Monica Bellucci, #NFDB
1347:Even genius is tied to profit. ~ Pindar, #NFDB
1348:Every day is not perfect. ~ Brett Favre, #NFDB
1349:Every pain is a lesson. ~ Frank Delaney, #NFDB
1350:Every step I take is a blessing. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1351:Everything is absurd. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
1352:Everything is a test. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
1353:Everything is energy. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
1354:Everything is personal. ~ Robert Greene, #NFDB
1355:Exchange is creation. ~ Muriel Rukeyser, #NFDB
1356:Execution is everything. ~ Jeff Bridges, #NFDB
1357:failing is like falling. ~ Nick Vujicic, #NFDB
1358:Failure is a fuel for excuses. ~ Jet Li, #NFDB
1359:Faith is a gift of God. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
1360:fame is everlasting! ~ Jack Weatherford, #NFDB
1361:[F]ear is a great ally. ~ David Gemmell, #NFDB
1362:fear is born of duality— ~ Alan W Watts, #NFDB
1363:Fear is stronger than arms. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
1364:Film is a battleground. ~ Samuel Fuller, #NFDB
1365:Foreknowledge is power. ~ Auguste Comte, #NFDB
1366:For fear is power. ~ Laurell K Hamilton, #NFDB
1367:Fortune is merry, ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1368:Gena Rowlands is fabulous. ~ Nan Goldin, #NFDB
1369:Glitter is my makeup of choice. ~ Kesha, #NFDB
1370:God is enough for them. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
1371:God, living is enormous! ~ Susan Sontag, #NFDB
1372:Good design is innovative ~ Dieter Rams, #NFDB
1373:Good writing is always new. ~ A S Byatt, #NFDB
1374:good writing is rewriting. ~ Jeff Goins, #NFDB
1375:Grace is a feminine quality. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
1376:Grace is a God who stoops. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
1377:gray hair is gods graffiti ~ Bill Cosby, #NFDB
1378:Great is the art, ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1379:Growth is a part of change. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
1380:Guru is the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
1381:Hate is such a strong word. ~ K A Linde, #NFDB
1382:He is haunted by fire. ~ Vincent Zandri, #NFDB
1383:Hell is other people ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
1384:He that is rich is wise. ~ Daniel Defoe, #NFDB
1385:He who despairs is wrong. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
1386:History is also a river. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1387:Home is where the heart is ~ John Green, #NFDB
1388:honesty is hard work. ~ Spider Robinson, #NFDB
1389:Honolulu is a melting pot. ~ Bruno Mars, #NFDB
1390:Hope is dangerous. ~ Allison van Diepen, #NFDB
1391:Hope is not illusion. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
1392:Hope is really a thought. ~ Brene Brown, #NFDB
1393:How wondrous familiar is a fool! ~ Moby, #NFDB
1394:Human nature is all alike. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
1395:Hunger is not an object. ~ Herta M ller, #NFDB
1396:Ignorance is bliss. ~ Penelope Fletcher, #NFDB
1397:I know music is subjective. ~ Joan Jett, #NFDB
1398:Imitation is criticism. ~ William Blake, #NFDB
1399:In darkness there is death. ~ Bob Mayer, #NFDB
1400:Indecision is a decision. ~ Jason Evert, #NFDB
1401:in nonsense is strength ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
1402:Insanity is catching. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
1403:Insanity is contagious. ~ Joseph Heller, #NFDB
1404:In the end is my beginning. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1405:Is Ajax my father? ~ Josephine Angelini, #NFDB
1406:Is there light in Gorias? ~ Alan Garner, #NFDB
1407:I think sleep is unrated. ~ Traci Lords, #NFDB
1408:It is all surmise. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
1409:It is an ancient story ~ Heinrich Heine, #NFDB
1410:It is horrid to smirk. ~ Helen Fielding, #NFDB
1411:It’s a choice, writing is. ~ Jeff Goins, #NFDB
1412:Jazz is my adventure. ~ Thelonious Monk, #NFDB
1413:Joy is the best of wine. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
1414:Justice, even if slow, is sure. ~ Solon, #NFDB
1415:Knowledge is annoying ~ Karl Pilkington, #NFDB
1416:Knowledge is limited. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
1417:Knowledge is power!! ~ Stormie Omartian, #NFDB
1418:Language is insight itself. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
1419:Law is mind without reason. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
1420:Law is the safest helmet. ~ Edward Coke, #NFDB
1421:LDR is fucking expensive! ~ Ika Natassa, #NFDB
1422:Leaving is never easy. ~ Veronica Rossi, #NFDB
1423:Life is an act of faith. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1424:Life is a re-discovery. ~ Brian Blessed, #NFDB
1425:Life is a wince-a-thon. ~ Frank Portman, #NFDB
1426:Life is full of surprises. ~ John Major, #NFDB
1427:Life is lived on the edge. ~ Will Smith, #NFDB
1428:Life is not a romance novel ~ Meg Cabot, #NFDB
1429:Life is suffering--and yet. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1430:Life is very strange. ~ Louise Fitzhugh, #NFDB
1431:Life is what you make it. ~ A J Stewart, #NFDB
1432:Love is a grave mental illness. ~ Plato, #NFDB
1433:Love is always changing. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1434:Love is always unexpected ~ Jude Morgan, #NFDB
1435:Love is a sacred silence. ~ Orhan Pamuk, #NFDB
1436:Love is a tyrant, resisted. ~ John Ford, #NFDB
1437:Love is bound up in truth. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1438:Love is easy…trust is hard. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1439:Love is its own reward. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
1440:Love is just chemicals. ~ Jose Gonzalez, #NFDB
1441:Love is larger than life. ~ Wayne Coyne, #NFDB
1442:Love is like a butterfly ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
1443:Love is like a rubber band, ~ Lil Wayne, #NFDB
1444:...love is never stationary. ~ Bob Goff, #NFDB
1445:Love is the unfamiliar Name ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1446:Love is touching souls. ~ Joni Mitchell, #NFDB
1447:Love is what it takes to fly ~ Yoko Ono, #NFDB
1448:Love it the way it is. ~ Thaddeus Golas, #NFDB
1449:Luck is a dividend of sweat. ~ Ray Kroc, #NFDB
1450:Maktub" (It is written.) ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1451:Marriage is complicated. ~ Tayari Jones, #NFDB
1452:Meet the big while it is small. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1453:Memory is a great betrayer. ~ Anais Nin, #NFDB
1454:Mexico is the new China. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
1455:Mind is a verb not a noun. ~ John Dewey, #NFDB
1456:Money is better than men. ~ Helen Hoang, #NFDB
1457:Multitasking is a myth! ~ Kevin Horsley, #NFDB
1458:Music is color blind. ~ Michael Jackson, #NFDB
1459:Music is just air moving around. ~ Moby, #NFDB
1460:Music, you see, is the key. ~ Morrissey, #NFDB
1461:My family is awesome. ~ Miranda Lambert, #NFDB
1462:My family is my career. ~ James McBride, #NFDB
1463:My father is a fish. ~ Theodore Roethke, #NFDB
1464:My heart is in your hands. ~ Maya Banks, #NFDB
1465:My heart is yours to break ~ Kiera Cass, #NFDB
1466:My life is my message. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1467:My life is only half full ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
1468:My mind is reeling. ~ Michael D O Brien, #NFDB
1469:My mum is my best friend. ~ Leona Lewis, #NFDB
1470:My pain is fine. ~ Benjamin Alire S enz, #NFDB
1471:MySpace is an addiction. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1472:My style is forever changing. ~ Pusha T, #NFDB
1473:My weapon is just a movie. ~ Gaspar Noe, #NFDB
1474:My weapon is literature ~ Chinua Achebe, #NFDB
1475:My weight is my love. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
1476:Need is not quite belief. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
1477:Never argue with what is. ~ Tyler Perry, #NFDB
1478:Neymar is massively overrated. ~ Neymar, #NFDB
1479:No experience is wasted. ~ Justina Chen, #NFDB
1480:No friendship is an accident. ~ O Henry, #NFDB
1481:No man is born without faults. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1482:No man is infallible. ~ Kristin Cashore, #NFDB
1483:Nomole is just a mole ~ William Horwood, #NFDB
1484:No one is any one thing. ~ Martin Short, #NFDB
1485:No one is pro-abortion. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
1486:No person is too hardened. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
1487:No response is a response. ~ Alan Cohen, #NFDB
1488:Nothing is as it seems. ~ Fern Michaels, #NFDB
1489:Nothing is carved in stone! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1490:Nothing is ever certain. ~ Alice Sebold, #NFDB
1491:Nothing is ever enough. ~ Daisy Whitney, #NFDB
1492:Nothing is here to stay ~ Dave Matthews, #NFDB
1493:Nothing is long ago. ~ Elizabeth Strout, #NFDB
1494:Nothing is really 'safe'. ~ Bam Margera, #NFDB
1495:Nothing is swifter than rumor. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1496:Not-knowing is true knowledge. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1497:not Max … who is it? ~ Alex Michaelides, #NFDB
1498:Not To Decide Is To Decide ~ Harvey Cox, #NFDB
1499:No weapon is sharper than will. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
1500:O Beloved, where is the Beloved? ~ Rumi, #NFDB
4073 Integral Yoga
2893 Poetry
476 Philosophy
453 Mysticism
333 Occultism
329 Fiction
196 Christianity
140 Yoga
108 Islam
91 Psychology
87 Philsophy
78 Sufism
40 Science
39 Zen
34 Hinduism
31 Kabbalah
30 Buddhism
27 Education
22 Mythology
20 Theosophy
16 Integral Theory
8 Cybernetics
6 Taoism
6 Baha i Faith
1 Thelema
1 Alchemy
2244 The Mother
1791 Sri Aurobindo
1328 Satprem
623 Nolini Kanta Gupta
285 William Wordsworth
245 Walt Whitman
229 Percy Bysshe Shelley
211 William Butler Yeats
197 Rabindranath Tagore
163 Aleister Crowley
135 John Keats
131 H P Lovecraft
108 Muhammad
105 Friedrich Schiller
94 Friedrich Nietzsche
92 Jalaluddin Rumi
91 Carl Jung
87 Ralph Waldo Emerson
77 Robert Browning
76 Kabir
70 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
69 James George Frazer
67 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
66 Plotinus
65 Li Bai
61 Rainer Maria Rilke
57 Sri Ramakrishna
56 Jorge Luis Borges
50 Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia
47 Edgar Allan Poe
39 Swami Vivekananda
39 Hafiz
38 Anonymous
37 Swami Krishnananda
35 Saint Teresa of Avila
34 Saint Augustine of Hippo
34 Franz Bardon
31 Rabbi Moses Luzzatto
31 A B Purani
30 Saint John of Climacus
30 Lucretius
29 Aldous Huxley
27 Kobayashi Issa
25 Rudolf Steiner
25 Aristotle
23 Ibn Arabi
22 Vyasa
20 Hakim Sanai
20 Farid ud-Din Attar
18 Ramprasad
17 Omar Khayyam
17 Mirabai
15 Nirodbaran
15 Bulleh Shah
14 Ovid
14 Lalla
14 Abu-Said Abil-Kheir
13 Solomon ibn Gabirol
12 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
12 Plato
12 Peter J Carroll
12 Paul Richard
11 Taigu Ryokan
11 Sri Ramana Maharshi
11 George Van Vrekhem
10 Thomas Merton
10 Mansur al-Hallaj
10 Fukuda Chiyo-ni
10 Dogen
9 Sarmad
9 Saint John of the Cross
9 Matsuo Basho
9 Jetsun Milarepa
8 Symeon the New Theologian
8 Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
8 Norbert Wiener
8 Lewis Carroll
8 Joseph Campbell
7 Saint Hildegard von Bingen
7 Saint Francis of Assisi
7 Jacopone da Todi
7 Henry David Thoreau
7 Baha u llah
7 Baba Sheikh Farid
7 Alice Bailey
6 Thubten Chodron
6 Muso Soseki
6 Jordan Peterson
6 Chuang Tzu
6 Bokar Rinpoche
6 Al-Ghazali
5 William Blake
5 Sun Buer
5 Shiwu (Stonehouse)
5 Ravidas
5 Patanjali
5 Namdev
5 Mechthild of Magdeburg
5 Lu Tung Pin
5 Jayadeva
5 Boethius
4 Wang Wei
4 Tao Chien
4 Shankara
4 Saadi
4 Ibn Ata Illah
4 Dante Alighieri
4 Bodhidharma
4 Allama Muhammad Iqbal
4 Alfred Tennyson
3 Wumen Huikai
3 Vidyapati
3 Saint Therese of Lisieux
3 Saint Clare of Assisi
3 R Buckminster Fuller
3 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
3 Moses de Leon
3 Michael Maier
3 Ken Wilber
3 Ikkyu
3 Hakuin
3 Guru Nanak
3 Dadu Dayal
3 Basava
2 Yeshe Tsogyal
2 Yannai
2 Theophan the Recluse
2 Surdas
2 Nukata
2 Naropa
2 Mahendranath Gupta
2 Kuan Han-Ching
2 Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
2 Kahlil Gibran
2 Judah Halevi
2 Jorge Luis Borges
2 Jean Gebser
2 Italo Calvino
2 H. P. Lovecraft
2 Han-shan
2 Genpo Roshi
2 Eleazar ben Kallir
2 Dionysius the Areopagite
2 Alexander Pope
914 Record of Yoga
285 Wordsworth - Poems
273 Prayers And Meditations
262 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
229 Shelley - Poems
228 Whitman - Poems
211 Yeats - Poems
189 Tagore - Poems
169 Agenda Vol 01
148 Agenda Vol 13
144 The Synthesis Of Yoga
135 Keats - Poems
131 Lovecraft - Poems
124 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
118 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
108 Quran
106 Agenda Vol 12
105 Schiller - Poems
104 Agenda Vol 08
99 Letters On Yoga III
97 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
97 Agenda Vol 09
93 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
92 Agenda Vol 10
89 Agenda Vol 06
87 Emerson - Poems
85 Magick Without Tears
85 Agenda Vol 07
85 Agenda Vol 03
84 Agenda Vol 04
82 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
81 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
81 Agenda Vol 11
77 Browning - Poems
76 Agenda Vol 05
76 Agenda Vol 02
72 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
69 The Golden Bough
65 Li Bai - Poems
65 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
61 Rilke - Poems
60 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
58 Rumi - Poems
56 The Life Divine
56 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
56 Collected Poems
55 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
54 Liber ABA
53 Songs of Kabir
52 Questions And Answers 1956
49 Letters On Yoga IV
49 Letters On Yoga II
48 Letters On Poetry And Art
47 Savitri
46 Poe - Poems
45 Goethe - Poems
41 Questions And Answers 1953
39 Words Of Long Ago
38 Mysterium Coniunctionis
37 The Study and Practice of Yoga
37 Questions And Answers 1955
36 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
35 Questions And Answers 1954
35 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
34 The Divine Comedy
33 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06
31 General Principles of Kabbalah
31 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
30 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
30 Of The Nature Of Things
30 Essays On The Gita
30 Essays Divine And Human
30 Borges - Poems
29 The Perennial Philosophy
29 Hafiz - Poems
28 Words Of The Mother II
28 The Bible
28 Crowley - Poems
27 Letters On Yoga I
26 On Education
26 Labyrinths
25 Poetics
25 Faust
24 The Practice of Psycho therapy
24 The Human Cycle
22 Vishnu Purana
22 The Future of Man
22 City of God
21 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
21 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01
20 Initiation Into Hermetics
20 Bhakti-Yoga
19 The Way of Perfection
19 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
18 Let Me Explain
18 Anonymous - Poems
17 On the Way to Supermanhood
17 Arabi - Poems
15 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
15 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
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 Song of Myself
13 Hymn of the Universe
12 Talks
12 Raja-Yoga
12 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03
12 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02
12 Liber Null
11 Ryokan - Poems
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 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
10 Dogen - Poems
10 Amrita Gita
10 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
9 Milarepa - Poems
9 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
9 Basho - Poems
9 5.1.01 - Ilion
8 Words Of The Mother III
8 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
8 The Blue Cliff Records
8 Cybernetics
8 Alice in Wonderland
7 Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit
7 Words Of The Mother I
7 Walden
7 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
6 The Secret Doctrine
6 The Red Book Liber Novus
6 The Alchemy of Happiness
6 Tara - The Feminine Divine
6 Maps of Meaning
6 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
6 Chuang Tzu - Poems
5 The Gateless Gate
5 Patanjali Yoga Sutras
4 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
4 Bodhidharma - Poems
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 Sefer Yetzirah The Book of Creation In Theory and Practice
3 Huikai - Poems
2 The Prophet
2 The Ever-Present Origin
2 The Essentials of Education
2 The Castle of Crossed Destinies
2 Symposium
2 Selected Fictions
2 Notes On The Way
2 Naropa - Poems
2 Han-shan - Poems
2 God Exists
2 Agenda Vol 1
2 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E
00.00 - Publishers Note A, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
All Life is Yoga
Sri Aurobindo
0 0.01 - Introduction, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Th is AGENDA ... One day, another species among men will pore over th is 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 establ ished 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, d istressing. It does not even know how to climb trees any longer in its usual way
- and it is terribly d isturbing for all those who still climb trees in the old, millennial way. Perhaps it is even a heresy. Unless it is some cerebral d isorder? A first man in h is little clearing had to have a great deal of courage. Even th is 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 th is, what if I were 'mad'? And then, claws all around, a lot of claws against th is 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 th is first man in the great, stridulant night of the Oyapock. Our heart was beating with the red iscovery 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 otherw ise, it felt otherw ise. 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 'understood' 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 d istress. The skin of the world was very vast.
--
A little white silhouette, twelve thousand miles away, solitary and frail amidst a spiritual horde which had once and for all decided that the meditating and miraculous yogi was the apogee of the species, was searching for the means, for the reality of th is man who for a moment believes himself sovereign of the heavens or sovereign of a machine, but who is quite probably something completely different than h is spiritual or material glories. Another, a lighter air was throbbing in that breast, unburdened of its heavens and of its preh istoric machines. Another Epic was beginning.
Would Matter and Spirit meet, then, in a third PHYSIOLOGICAL position that would perhaps be at last the position of Man red iscovered, the something that had for so long fought and suffered in quest of becoming its own species? She was the great Possible at the beginning of man. Mother is our fable come true. 'All is possible' was her first open sesame.
Yes, She was in the midst of a spiritual 'horde,' for the pioneer of a new species must always fight against the best of the old: the best is the obstacle, the snare that traps us in its old golden mire.
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, d isrupting - it is quite unbearable for all those who resemble the old beast. The story of the Pondicherry 'Ashram' is the story 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 h is less cerebral brothers. The spiritual brain is probably the worst obstacle to the new species, as were the muscles of the old orangutan for th is 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 into something else or once and for all put a bullet through the brain of th is slightly superior ape. The first thing that struck us was th is exotic Notre Dame with its burning incense sticks, its effigies and its prostrations in immaculate white: a Church. We nearly jumped into the first train out that very evening, bound straight for the Himalayas, or the devil. But we remained near Mother for nineteen years. What was it, then, that could have held us there? We had not left Guiana to become a little saint in white or to enter some new religion. 'I did not come upon earth to found an ashram; that would have been a poor aim indeed,' She wrote in 1934. What did all th is mean, then, th is 'Ashram' that was already reg istered as the owner of a great spiritual business, and th is 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 th is '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 th is 'ashram.' Little by little, the d isciples fill up the place, then they say: it is ours. It is 'the Ashram.' We are 'the d isciples.' 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 th is 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.
--
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 m ischievous little smile.
--
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 v isible 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 Upan ishads, highlighted with a few glorious v isions to relieve the commonplace (which remained appallingly commonplace), while we were still considering 'the Mother of the Ashram' rather like some spiritual super-director (endowed, albeit, with a d isarming 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 th is entire Divine was shattered to pieces - and we met Mother, at last. Th is mystery we call
Mother, for She never ceased being a mystery right to her ninety-fifth year, and to th is day still, challenges us from the other side of a wall of inv isibility and keeps us floundering fully in the mystery - with a smile. She always smiles. But the mystery is not solved.
Perhaps th is 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 th is? What is even 'the Ashram,' if not a spiritual museum of the res istances to Something Else. They were always - and still today - reciting their catech ism 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, d iscouraging, it resembles nothing we know! We cannot ho ist the flag of an unconquered country - but th is is what is so marvelous: it does not yet ex ist. We must MAKE IT EX isT. The adventure has not been carved out: it is to be carved out. Truth is not entrapped and fossilized, 'spiritualized': it is to be d iscovered. 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 contradictory 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 atav istic pack, not to mention the animal and plant and mineral layers that form a teeming humus over th is 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 th is 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 h is 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 d iscover what would happen after material ism and after spiritual ism, these prodigal twin brothers. Because Material ism is dying in the West for the same reason that Spiritual ism is dying in the East: it is the hour of the new species. Man needs to awaken, not only from h is demons but also from h is 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 d iscover 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
Capital ism and business is drawing to its close. But the age of Commun ism 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 spiritual istic panaceas.
Th is fabulous d iscovery is the whole story 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 th is old millennial habit - a habit, nothing more than a habit! - of being like a man endowed with time and space and d isease: 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 ex ist, time does not ex ist, d isease does not ex ist, 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 into 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
ELSE ... if we want it.
Mother is the story of the free Earth. Free from its spiritual and scientific parrots. Free from its little ashrams as well - for there is nothing more pers istent than those particular parrots.
Day after day, for seventeen years, She sat with us to tell us of her impossible odyssey. Ah, how well we now understand why She needed such an 'outlaw' and an incorrigible heretic like us to comprehend a little bit of her impossible odyssey into 'nothing.' And how well we now understand her infinite patience with us, despite all our revolts, which ultimately were only the revolts of the old species against itself. The final revolt. 'It is not a revolt against the Brit ish 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 l istened 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 th is old, asphyxiating world. It was the only place one could go to in th is 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 Pr ison. It is the last hope for the earth. How we l istened 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 l istened 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 Eleus is 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 d istances to meet us. She was so alone to beat against the walls of the old pr ison. Many claws were out all around. Oh, we would so quickly have cut ourself free from all th is fiasco to fly away with Her into the world's future. She was so tiny, stooped over, as if crushed beneath the 'spiritual' burden that all the old surrounding species kept heaping upon her. They didn't believe, no. For them, She was ninety-five years old + so many days. Can someone become a new species all alone? They even grumbled at Her: they had had enough of th is unbearable Ray that was bringing their sordid affairs into the daylight. The Ashram was slowly closing over Her. The old world wanted to make a new, golden little Church, nice and quiet. No, no one wanted TO
BECOME. To worship was so much easier. And then they bury you, solemnly, and the matter is settled - the case is closed: now, no one need bother any more except to print some photographic haloes for the pilgrims to th is br isk little business. But they are m istaken. 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 th is 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 ...
Th is 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 th is great debacle. At the beginning of things, when still nothing was FIXED, when there was not yet th is habit of the pelican or the kangaroo or the chimpanzee or the XXth century biolog ist, there was a little pulsation that beat and beat - a delightful dizziness, a joy in the world's great adventure; a little never-impr isoned 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 th is sprig of a pensive man in the middle of a clearing; a little 'something' that beats, beats, that keeps on breathing beneath every skin that has ever been put on it - like our deepest breath, our lightest air, our air of nothing - and it keeps on going, it keeps on going. We must catch the light little breath, the little pulsation of nothing. Then suddenly, on the threshold of our clearing of concrete, our head starts spinning incurably, our eyes blink into something else, and all is different, and all seems surcharged with meaning and with life, as though we had never lived until that very minute.
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 otherw ise, feeling otherw ise. We have opened the gate into an inconceivable clearing. Just a light little vibration that carries you away. Then we begin to understand how it CAN CHANGE, what the mechan ism is - a light little mechan ism 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 f ishbowl, 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.
--
Mother is the joy of freedom.
Joyous Agenda!
00.01 - The Approach to Mysticism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Mystic ism 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 d isaster. Sufficient stress is not laid on th is 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. Mystic ism 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: th is 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 uncomprom isingly 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, mystic ism 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 recogn ised in th is 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 d isparate 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 scient ist 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 van ish, but that is no proof that stars are not ex istent. 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. Th is matter of the Spirits we have taken only as an illustration and it must not be understood that th is is a domain of high mystic ism; rather the contrary. The spiritual ists' approach to Mystic ism is not the right one and is fraught with not only errors but dangers. For the spiritual ists approach their subject with the entire scientific apparatus the only difference being that the scient ist does not believe while the spiritual ist 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-atomic forces. If one comes, all on a sudden, into contact with a force here without the necessary preparation to hold and handle it, he may get seriously bru ised, morally and physically. The adventure into 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
--
The mystic forces are not only of immense potency but of a definite moral d isposition 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 d issolution. But knowledge also can be equally d isastrous if it is not of the right kind. The knowledge that is born of spiritual d isobedience, 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 d istinction, learn to separate the true and the right from the false and the wrong, unmask the luring Mra say clearly and unfalteringly to the dark light of Luciferapage Satana, if he is to come out into the true light and comm and the right forces. The search for knowledge alone, knowledge for the sake of knowledge, the path of pure scientific inquiry and inqu isitiveness, in relation to the mystic world, is a dangerous thing. For such a spirit serves only to encourage and enhance man's arrogance and in the end not only limits but warps and falsifies the knowledge itself. A knowledge based on and secured exclusively through the reason and mental light can go only so far as that faculty can be reasonably stretched and not infinitelyto stretch it to infinity means to snap it. Th is is the warning that Yajnavalkya gave to Gargi when the latter started renewing her question ad infinitum Yajnavalkya said, "If you do not stop, your head will fall off."
The mystic truth has to be approached through the heart. "In the heart is establ ished the Truth," says the Upan ishad: it is there that is seated eternally the soul, the real being, who appears no bigger than the thumb. Even if the mind is util ised as an instrument of knowledge, the heart must be there behind as the guide and inspiration. It is prec isely 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 r isked losing her head if she pers isted 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 env isage only the outskirts, the contour, the surface nature; the mind is capable of th is 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 h is 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 th is 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 th is need not be so. In the heart there is a golden door leading to the deepest delights, but there is also a diamond door opening up into the skies of the brightest luminosities.
For it must be understood that the heart, the mystic heart, is not the external thing which is the seat of emotion or passion; it is the secret heart that is behind, the inner heartantarhdaya of the Upan ishadwhich is the centre of the individual consciousness, where all the divergent lines of that consciousness meet and from where they take their r ise. That is what the Upan ishad means when it says that the heart has a hundred channels which feed the human vehicle. That is the source, the fount and origin, the very substance of the true personality. Mystic knowledge the true mystic knowledge which saves and fulfilsbegins with the awakening or the entrance into th is real being. Th is being is pure and luminous and bl issful and sovereignly real, because it is a portion, a spark of the Divine Consciousness and Nature: a contact and communion with it brings automatically into play the light and the truth that are its substance. At the same time it is an upr ising flame that reaches out naturally to higher domains of consciousness and manifests them through its translucid dynam ism.
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. Th is knowledge, whether rational istic 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 util ised by it.
The mystic's knowledge and experience is not only true and real: it is delightful and bl issful. 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!"
Th is spirit is a thing no weakling can gain."
***
00.01 - The Mother on Savitri, #Sweet Mother - Harmonies of Light, #unset, #Zen
Not much, but I like poetry, it is because of that I read it.
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 ar ise and suddenly become clear. Always an unexpected v ision 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. Th is 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 th is 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 w ishes to follow th is 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 H is 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 interm ission, 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 H is 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, Engl ish 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 v ision 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 th is 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 real ise 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 th is, 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: mystic ism, occult ism, philosophy, the h istory of evolution, the h istory 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 w ish to solve the mysteries of the world may understand it more easily. But th is mystery is well hidden behind the words and lines and one must r ise to the required level of true consciousness to d iscover it. All prophesies, all that is going to come is presented with the prec ise and wonderful clarity. Sri Aurobindo gives you here the key to find the Truth, to d iscover 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 d iscover things altogether unknown to man. That is Savitri and much more yet. It is a real experience - reading Savitri. All the secrets that man possessed, He has revealed, - as well as all that awaits him in the future; all th is is found in the depth of Savitri. But one must have the knowledge to d iscover 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 th is is H is own experience, and what is most surpr ising is that it is my own experience also. It is my sadhana which He has worked out. Each object, each event, each real isation, all the descriptions, even the colours are exactly what I saw and the words, phrases are also exactly what I heard. And all th is before having read the book. I read Savitri many times afterwards, but earlier, when He was writing He used to read it to me. Every morning I used to hear Him read Savitri. During the night He would write and in the morning read it to me. And I observed something curious, that day after day the experiences He read out to me in the morning were those I had had the previous night, word by word. Yes, all the descriptions, the colours, the pictures I had seen, the words I had heard, all, all, I heard it all, put by Him into poetry, into miraculous poetry. Yes, they were exactly my experiences of the previous night which He read out to me the following morning. And it was not just one day by chance, but for days and days together. And every time I used to compare what He said with my previous experiences and they were always the same. I repeat, it was not that I had told Him my experiences and that He had noted them down afterwards, no, He knew already what I had seen. It is my experiences He has presented at length and they were H is experiences also. It is, moreover, the picture of Our joint adventure into the unknown or rather into the Supermind.
These are experiences lived by Him, realities, supracosmic truths. He experienced all these as one experiences joy or sorrow, physically. He walked in the darkness of inconscience, even in the neighborhood of death, endured the sufferings of perdition, and emerged from the mud, the world-m isery to brea the the sovereign plenitude and enter the supreme Ananda. He crossed all these realms, went through the consequences, suffered and endured physically what one cannot imagine. Nobody till today has suffered like Him. He accepted suffering to transform suffering into the joy of union with the Supreme. It is something unique and incomparable in the h istory 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 H is whole Yoga of transformation, and th is 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 d istant 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-v ision, 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 into 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 th is in h is life? Th is 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 th is 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 th is attitude, with th is 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 th is 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. Th is 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 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 character istic 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 th is 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 Upan ishads 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 ex ist, 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 th is 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 m isleading; so there are Mystics who are averse to all speech and expression they are mauni; in silence they experience the inexpressible and in silence they communicate it to the few who have the capacity to receive in silence.
But those who do speak, how do they choose their figures and symbols? What is their methodology? For it might be said, since the unseen and the seen differ out and out, it does not matter what forms or signs are taken from the latter; for any meaning and significance could be put into anything. But in reality, it does not so happen. For, although there is a great divergence between figures and symbols on the one hand and the things figured and symbol ised 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 d istinction here between two types of expression which we have put together ind iscriminately, 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 Upan ishad 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 compar ison 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 th is Upan ishadic perception: hirayamayena patrea satyasyphitam mukham (The face of the Truth lies hidden under the golden orb). Here the symbol is not mere analogy or compar ison, 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 r ise of the Dawn, the images though taken from the material world, are not used for the sake of mere compar ison, but they are the embodiments, the living forms of truths experienced in another world.
When a Mystic refers to the Solar Light or to the Fire the light, for example, that struck down Saul and transformed him into Saint Paul or the burning bush that v isited Moses, it is not the physical or material object that he means and yet it is that in a way. It is the materialization of something that is fundamentally not material: some movement in an inner consciousness precipitates itself into the region of the senses and takes from out of the material the form commensurable with its nature that it finds there.
And there is such a commensurability or parallel ism 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; otherw ise 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. Th is parallel ism or commensurability by virtue of which the different and divergent states of consciousness can portray or represent each other is the source of all symbol ism.
A symbol symbolizes something for th is 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 th is 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 th is 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, h is external consciousness (what the Upan ishad calls jgrat) is the milieu in which h is 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 ex istence. 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, th is 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.
***
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 d isciples 1 are largely responsible for what happened to h is body. But one thing is certain: the great m isfortune that has just beset us in no way affects the truth of h is teaching. All he said is perfectly true and remains so.
Time and the course of events will make th is abundantly clear.
00.03 - Upanishadic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Now, before any explanation is attempted it is important to bear in mind that the Upan ishads 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 otherw ise. Psychological scient ists have d iscovered a methodeven a very well-defined and strict methodin the madness of that domain. It is an ordered, organ ised, significant world; but its terminology has to be understood, 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 story cited, should not a suspicion ar ise naturally at the very outset that the dog of the story 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 v ision." They are h is messengers, "they move widely and delight in power and possess the vast strength." The Vedic R ish is pray to them for Power and Bl iss and for the v ision of the Sun1. There is also the Hound of Heaven, Sarama, who comes down and d iscovers the luminous cows stolen and hidden by the Pan is 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 th is clue the Upan ishadic story becomes quite sensible and clear and not mere abracadabra. To the aspirant for Knowledge came first a purified power of direct understanding, an Intuition of fundamental value, and th is 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 dynam isms. 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 v ision 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 r ises to replace it. When both the Sun and the Moon set, he has recourse to the Fire. And when the Fire, too, is extingu ished, 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. Th is 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 h is 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 r ise into the mind, whose divinity is the Moon. It is the mental knowledge, the light of reason and intelligence, of reflection and imagination that govern our consciousness. We have to proceed farther and get beyond the mind, exceed the derivative light of the Moon. So when the Moon sets, the Fire is kindled. It is the light of the ardent and aspiring heart, the glow of an inner urge, the instincts and inspirations of our secret life-will. Here we come into touch with a source of knowledge and realization, a guidance more direct than the mind and much deeper than the sense-perception. Still th is light partakes more of heat than of pure luminosity; it is, one may say, incandescent feeling, but not v ision. We must probe deeper, mount higherreach heights and profundities that are serene and transparent. The Fire is to be quieted and silenced, says the Upan ishad. 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 th is last veil d issolves and d isappears, when utter silence, absolute calm and quietude reign in the entire consciousness, when no other lights trouble or d istract 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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Ritual istically these four terms are the formulae for oblation to four Deities, Powers or Presences, whom the sacrificer w ishes to please and propitiate in order to have their help and blessing and in order thereby to d ischarge h is 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 (Pitr is).
The duty of life cons ists, 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 Ancestors. Th is 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 h is 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 into contact and to be unitedin being, consciousness and activitywith the universal and spiritual ex istence, which is the supreme end and purpose of human life. The seconda more circumscribed field is 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 ancestors, 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 into the Fire of Aspiration that blazes up towards the Most High, and through the tongue of that one-pointed flame call on the Divinity.
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. Th is 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 v ision for the human consciousness to seize, almost in a human form.
Finally, once the Truth is reached, it is to be held fast, firmly establ ished, embodied and fixed in its inherent nature here in life and the waking consciousness. Th is 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 h is heart and soul that reach to the Gods, and it is that which the immortals take into themselves and are, as it were, nour ished by, since it is something that appertains to their own nature.
And in response they descend and approach and enter into the aspiring human soulth is descent and revelation and near and concrete presence of Divinity, th is Hanta is man's food, for by it h is consciousness is nour ished.
Th is interchange, or mutual giving, the High Covenant between the Gods and Men, to which the Gita too refers
With th is sacrifice nour ish the Gods, that the Gods may nour ish you; thus mutually nour ishing ye shall obtain the highest felicity3 is the very secret of the cosmic play, the bas is of the spiritual evolution in the universal ex istence.
The Gods are the formations or particular isations of the Truth-consciousness, the multiple individual isations of the One spirit. The Pitr is are the Divine Fathers, that is to say, souls that once laboured and real ised 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 Real isation, 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 divin ised humanity or a human ised divinity. Each fixation of the Truth-consciousness in an earthly mould is a thing of joy to the Pitr is; it is the Svadh or food by which they live and grow, for it is the consolidation and also the resultant of their own real isation. 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 real isation, the firm embodiment of higher and greater destinies.
III. The Path of the Fathers and the Path of the Gods
One is an ideal in and of the world, the other is an ideal transcending the world. The Path of the Fathers (Pityna) enjoins the right accompl ishing of the dharma of Lifeit is the path of works, of Karma; it is the line of progressive evolution that, man follows through the experience of life after life on earth. The Path of the Gods (Devayna) runs above life's evolutionary course; it lifts man out of the terrestrial cycle and places him in a superior consciousness it is the path of knowledge, of Vidya.4 The Path of the Fathers is the soul's southern or inferior orbit (dakiyana, aparrdha); the Path of the Gods is the northern or superior orbit (uttaryaa, parrdha)The former is also called the Lunar Path and the latter the Solar Path.5 For the moon represents the mind,6 and is therefore, an emblem that befits man so long as he is a mental being and pursues a dharma that is limited by the mind; the sun, on the other hand, is the knowledge and consciousness that is beyond the mindit is the eye of the Gods.7
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 into the mind through the life. The body gives the bas is or the material, the life gives power and energy and the mind the directing knowledge. Th is triune world forms the humanity of man. But there is another aspect hidden behind th is apparent nature, there is another world where man dwells in h is submerged, larger and higher consciousness. To that h is soul the Purusha in h is heart only has access. It is the world where man's nature is transmuted into 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 accompl ish 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 d isciplined, educated, purified, they should develop along such a line and gradually r ise to such a stage as to make them fit to receive the light which belongs to the higher level, so allowing the human soul imbedded in them to extricate itself and pass on to the Immortal Life.
And they who are thus lifted up into the Higher Orbit are freed from the bondage to the cycle of rebirth. They enjoy the supreme Liberation that is of the Spirit; and even when they descend into the Inferior Path, it is to work out as free agents, as vehicles of the Divine, a special purpose, to bring down something of the substance and nature of the Solar reality into the lower world, enlighten and elevate the lower, as far as it is allowed, into the higher.
IV. The Triple Agni
Agni is the divine spark in man, the flaming consciousness in the mortal which purifies and uplifts (pvaka) mortality into immortality. It is the god "seated in the secret heart, who is the possession of infinity and the foundation of ex istence," as Yama says to Nachiketas.8
Indeed, it was to th is godhead that Nachiketas turned and he wanted to know of it and find it, when faith seized on h is 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 into 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 establ ished, 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 d iscover the secret flame that is in them tooeach has h is 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 symbol ises 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 symbol ise, 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 d iscernment, the power to d iscriminate 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 dynam ism, it is that which calls forth forces, brings them into' play and it is that which is to be invoked for the progression of the Sacrifice, for an onward march on the spiritual path.
Of the three fires one is the upholderhe who gives the firm foundation, the stable house where the Sacrifice is performed and Truth real ised; 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.
V. The Five Great Elements
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 ex istence.
Earth represents the material world itself, Matter or ex istence in its most concrete, its grossest form. It is the bas is of ex istence, the world that supports other worlds (dhar, dharitri),the first or the lowest of the several ranges of creation. In man it is h is body. The principle here is that of stability, substantiality, firmness, cons istency.
Water represents the next rung the vital world, the world life-force (pra). Physiologically also we know that water is the element forming three-fourths of the constituents of a living body and that dead and dry are synonymous terms; it is the medium in which the living cells dwell and through which they draw their sustenance. Water is the veritable sap of lifeit is the emblem of life itself. The principle it represents is that of movement, continuity, perpetuity.
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 organ ised 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.
Ether or Space is the infinitude of the Spirit, the limitless Presence that dwells in and yet transcends the body, the life the heart and the mind.
VI. The Science of the Five Fires
The Science of the Five Agn is (Fires), as propounded by Pravahan, explains and illustrates the process of the birth of the body, the passage of the soul into earth ex istence. 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 R ish is for the expression of their v ision 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 symbol ises 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 Agn is. The first Agni is Heaven or the Sky-God, and by offering to it one's faith and one's ardent desire, one calls into manifestation Soma or Rasa or Water, the basic principle of life. Th is 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, th is 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 Bl iss 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 th is rather naf description of a very commonplace happening that gives it an honoured place in the Upan ishads, the answer is that it is wonderful to see how the Upan ishadic R ishi 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 Upan ishads contain passages which a puritanical mentality may perhaps describe as 'pornographic'; these have in fact been put by some on the Index expurgatorius. But the ancients saw these matters with other eyes and through another consciousness.
We have, in modern times, a movement towards a more conscious and courageous, knowledge of things that were taboo to puritan ages. Not to shut one's eyes to the lower, darker and hidden strands of our nature, but to bring them out into the light of day and to face them is the best way of dealing with such elements, which otherw ise, if they are repressed, exert an unhealthy influence on the mind and nature. The Upan ishadic view runs on the same lines, but, with the unveiling and the natural and not merely natural isticdelineation of these under-worlds (concerning sex and food), it endows them with a perspective sub specie aeternitat is. 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 th is view there is nothing merely secular and profane, but all is woven into the cosmic spiritual whole; and man is taught to consider and to mould all h is 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 cons ists essentially of two elements or processes: (i) The offering or self giving of the lower reality to the higher, and, as a consequence, an answering movement of (ii) the descent of the higher into the lower. The lower offered to the higher means the lower sublimated and integrated into the higher; and the descent of the higher into the lower means the incarnation of the former and the fulfilment of the latter. The Gita elaborates the same idea when it says that by Sacrifice men increase the gods and the gods increase men and by so increasing each other they attain the supreme Good. Nothing is, nothing is done, for its own sake, for an egocentric sat isfaction; all, even movements relating to food and to sex should be dedicated to the Cosmic BeingV isva 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 Upan ishads, 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 Upan ishad says in its symbolic etymology, is 'Th is' (or, He) and 'That' (syat+tyat i.e. sat+tat). 'Th is' means the Universal Brahman: it is what is referred to when the Upan ishad says:
Ivsyamidam sarvam: All th is is for habitation by the Lord;
or,Sarvam khalvidam brahma: All th is is indeed the Brahman;
or,Sa evedam sarvam: He is indeed all th is;
or,Ahamevedam sarvam: I am indeed all th is;
or,Atmaivedam sarvam: The Self indeed is all th is;
or again,Sarvamasmi: I am all.
TheChhandyogya12 gives a whole typal scheme of th is universal reality and explains how to real ise 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 symbol ises and epitom ises the phenomenon, embodies the truth, is that of the sun. The movement cons ists of five stages which are called the fivefold sma Sma means the equal Brahman that is ever present in all, the Upan ishad 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, cons ists of these five stages: (i) the start, (ii) the r ise, (iii) the peak, (iv) the decline and (v) the fall. Now the sun follows th is curve and marks out the familiar div isions 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 th is earth is also symbol ised in a quintetgoat and sheep and cattle and horse and finally man. Coming to the microcosm, we have in man the cycle of h is five senses, bas is of all knowledge and activity. For the macrocosm, to I bring out its vast extra-human complexity, the Upan ishad refers to a quintet, each term of which is again a trinity: (i) the threefold Veda, the Divine Word that is the origin of creation, (ii) the three worlds or fieldsearth, air-belt or atmosphere and space, (iii) the three principles or deities ruling respectively these worldsFire, Air and Sun, (iv) their expressions, emanations or embodimentsstars and birds and light-rays, and finally, (v) the original inhabitants of these worldsto earth belong the reptiles, to the mid-region the Gandharvas and to heaven the ancient Fathers.
Now, th is is the All, the Universal. One has to real ise 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 Upan ishad most emphatically enjoins that one must not decry th is 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 Upan ishad says th is is not the final end. There is yet a higher status of reality and consciousness to which one has to r ise. For beyond the Cosmos lies the Transcendent. The Upan ishad expresses th is 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, cons isting of 21 notes or syllables. The Upan ishad says, th is number does not exhaust the entire range; I for there is yet a 22nd place. Th is 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 Upan ishad describes more graphically th is truth and the experience of it. It is said there that the sun has fivewe note the familiar fivemovements of r ising 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 r ises nor sets, but is always v isible fixed in the same position.
Some Western and Western ised scholars have tried to show that the phenomenon described here is an exclusively natural phenomenon, actually v isible 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 d isc is v isible above the horizon). The sun may be said there to move in the direction East-South-West-North and again East. Indeed the Upan ishad mentions the positions of the sun in that order and gives a character to each successive station. The Ray from the East is red, symbol ising the Rik, the Southern Ray is white, symbol ising the Yajur, the Western Ray is black symbol ising the Atharva. The natural phenomenon, however, might have been or might not have been before the mind's eye of the R ishi, but the symbol ism, the esoteric ism of it is clear enough in the way the R ishi speaks of it. Also, apart from the first four movements (which it is already sufficiently difficult to identify completely with what is v isible), 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 v isible as such exactly from the point of the North Pole for a while, the ring of the R ishi's utterance is unm istakably spiritual, it cannot but refer to a fact of inner consciousness that is at least what the physical fact conveys to the R ishi and what he seeks to convey and express primarily.
Now th is 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 r ising 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 R ishi refers when he prays for a constant and fixed v ision 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 th is passage. It is the mystic knowledge, the Upan ishad 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 r ising 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 Upan ishad 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 dynam ism of which the Rudras are the deities and Indra the presiding God (cf. Swadh ishthana of the Tantras the navel centre). Indra, in the Vedas, has two aspects, one of knowledge and v ision 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 h is second aspect and instead of the Maruts with whom he is usually invoked has the Rudras as h is 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 Marutsth is seems to be the inner heart, the fount of delight and keen and sweeping aspirations the Anahata of the Tantras. The fifth is the region of the crown of the head, the domain of Brahma and the Sadhyas: it is the Overmind status from where comes the descending inflatus, the creative Maya of Brahma. And when you go beyond, you pass into the ultimate status of the Sun, the reality absolute, the Transcendent which is indescribable, unseizable, indeterminate, indeterminable, incommensurable; and once there, one never returns, neverna ca punarvartate na ca punarvartate.
VIII. How Many Gods?
"How many Gods are there?" Yajnavalkya was once asked.13 The R ishi 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 Upan ishad says elsewhere, it is the One Unique who w ished to be many: and all the gods are the various glories (mahim) or emanations of the One Divine. The ancient of ancient R ish is had declared long long ago, in the earliest Veda, that there is one indiv isible 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 synthes is 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 ex istence are the well-known triplets: (i) the superior: Sat, Chit, Ananda; and (ii) the inferior: Body, Life and Mindth is being a reflection or translation or concret isation 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 Ardhanar ishwara, Male and Female, Purusha-Prakriti. The Upan ishad 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 th is 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 analys is, or rather synthes is, there is but one single undivided and indiv isible 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 R ish is chanted are formations and embodiments of consciousness human and divine, are realities whole and entire englobing all the layers and grades of consciousness.
Besides th is metaphysics there is also an occult aspect in numerology of which Pythagoras was a well-known adept and in which the Vedic R ish is 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 pulver isation of a piece of stone by hammer-blows. The process of div ision and subdiv ision 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 h is creative Power. Th is two-in-one reality may be considered, according to one view of creation, as dividing into three forms or aspects the well-known Brahma, V ishnu 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 ancestor.
Man, however, is an epitome of creation. He embraces and incarnates the entire gamut of consciousness and compr ises in him all beings from the highest Divinity to the lowest jinn or elf. And yet each human being in h is true personality is a lineal descendant of one or other typal aspect or original Personality of the one supreme Reality; and h is individual character is all the more pronounced and well-defined the more organ ised 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 V ishnu 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 th is that we name Faith. And the exclusiveness and violence and bitterness which attend such adherence and which go "by the "name of part isanship, sectarian ism, fanatic ism 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 indiv isible 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 th is 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 bas is, 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 d issolution that Death brings about. Death, of course, means the d issolution of the body, but it represents also d issolution pure and simple. Indeed death is a process which does not stop with the physical phenomenon, but continues even after; for with the body gone, the other elements of the individual organ ism, the vital and the mental too gradually fall off, fade and d issolve. Nachiketas w ishes to secure from Death the safety and preservation of the earthly personality, the particular organ isation of mind and vital based upon a recogn isable 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 th is is the nodus that binds together the threefold status of the manifested ex istence, the body, the life and the mind. Th is 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. Th is 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 ex istence. Agni is the secret divinity within, within the individual and within the world; he is the Immanent Divine, the cosmic godhead that holds together and marshals all the elements and components, all the principles that make up the manifest universe. He it is that has entered into the world and created facets of h is 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 real isation of th is Immanent Divinity, the worship of Agni taught by Yama in the second boon, cons ists 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 ex istence 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 real isation of Transcendence that is sought here. Beyond the individual lies the universal; is there anything beyond the universal? The release of the individual into the cosmic ex istence gives him the griefless life eternal: can the cosmos be rolled up and flung into something beyond? What would be the nature of that thing? What is there outside creation, outside manifestation, outside Maya, to use a latter day term? is there ex istence or non-ex istence (utter d issolution or extinctionDeath in h is supreme and absolute status)? King Yama did not choose to answer immediately and even endeavoured to d issuade Nachiketas from pursuing the question over which people were confounded, as he said. Evidently it was a much d iscussed 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 d iscussing 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 h is birth. Hence the Divine Fire, the Lord of creation and the Inner Mastersarvabhtntartm, antarym is 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 d istingu ish 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 h is 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 d issolution: 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 dimin ished and hence tarn ished light. The message is that of deliverance, the deliverance and reintegration of the lower soul out of its bondage of worldly ignorant life into the freedom and immortality first of its higher and then of its highest status. It is true, however, that the Upan ishad does not make a trenchant d istinction 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 individual ises, concret ises 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 cons ists 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 ex istence and consciousness, the preservation of the personal identity, the individual name and formth is being in itself as expression and embodiment and instrument of the Inner Reality. Th is 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-ex istent delight.
Rig Veda, X. 14-11, 12.
--
The secular isation of man's vital functions in modem ages has not been a success. It has made him more egocentric and blatantly hedon istic. From an occult point of view he has in th is way subjected himself to the influences of dark and undesirable world-forces, has made an opening, to use an Indian symbol ism, for Kali (the Spirit of the Iron Age) to enter into him. The sex-force is an extremely potent agent, but it is extremely fluid and elusive and uncontrollable. It was for th is 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 po ise 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
Lo! the supreme Light of lights is come, a varied
awakening is born, wide manifest
ruadvast rua wetygt
--
The white Mother comes reddening with the ruddy child; the dark Mother opens wide her chambers, the feeling and the expression of the beautiful ra ise no questioning; they are au thentic as well as evident. All will recogn ise at once t at we have here beautiful things said in a beautiful way. No less au thentic however is the sense of the beautiful that underlies these Upan ishadic lines:
na tatra sryo bhti na candratrakam
--
Only, to some perhaps the beauty may not appear as evident and apparent. The Spirit of beauty that resides in the Upan ishadic 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 env isaged and invoked were gleaming powers carved out of harmony and beauty and figured close to our modes of apprehension (spyan). But the Upan ishads came to lay stress upon what is beyond the form, what the eye cannot see nor the v ision 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 real isation and poetic creation of the Upan ishadic 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. Th is veiled Name of Beauty can be compared to nothing on the phenomenal hem isphere 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 Upan ishads invariably and repeatedly refer to two attributes that character ise its fundamental nature. These two aspects have made such an impression upon the consciousness of the Upan ishadic seer that h is 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 bl iss, 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 d ismal thing, devoid of interest and attraction becomes aesthetically precious and significant as soon as the art ist 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 character istics 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
--
O Lord of Immortality! Thy' heart of beauty that is sheltered in the moon
or, as the Prasna Upan ishad has it,
--
The perception of beauty in the Upan ishadic consciousness is something elemental-of concentrated essence. It silhouettes the main contour, 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
--
That which lives not by Life, but which makes Life liveThat is Brahman.
or,
--
In the Little there lies no happiness, the Vast alone is the Happiness. The Vast is the Immortality, the Little is the Mortality.
The rich and sensuous beauty luxuriating in high colour and ample decoration that one meets often in the creation of the earlier Vedic seers returned again, in a more ch iselled and pol ished and styl ised manner, in the classical poets. The Upan ishads in th is respect have a certain kinship with the early poets of the intervening ageVyasa and Valmiki. Upam KlidsasyaKalidasa revels in figures and images; they are profusely heaped on one another and usually possess a complex and composite texture. Valmiki's images are simple and elemental, brief and instinct with a vast resonance, spare and full of power. The same brevity and simplicity, vibrant with an extraordinary power of evocation, are also character istic of the Upan ishadic mantra With Valmiki's
--
like a fire whose light of flame is gone,
or,
--
Art at its highest tends to become also the simplest and the most unconventional; and it is then the highest art, prec isely because it does not aim at being art istic. The aesthetic motive is totally absent in the Upan ishads; 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 th is consciousness of the Truth is also Delight, the perfect Bl iss, the Immortality where the whole universe resolves itself into its original state of rasa, that is to say, of essential and inalienable harmony and beauty.
***
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 th is 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 h is poetic power ra ises 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 th is Heaven whose forms the Poet d iscovers 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 th is world and he can be approached only with an enkindled intelligence, ddhay man,3a faultless understanding, sumedh. He is the supreme Art isan 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 h is hosts. It is through th is 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 env isages 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 h is 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 h is personality. First of all, he is the Knower-the Seer of the Truth, kavaya satyadrara. He has the direct v ision, the luminous intelligence, the immediate perception.12 A subtle and profound and penetrating consciousness is h is,nigam, pracetas; h is is the eye of the Sun,srya caku.13 He secures an increased being through h is effulgent understanding.14 In the second place, the Poet is not only Seer but Doer; he is knower as well as creator. He has a dynamic knowledge and h is v ision 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 h is 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 creator,savit, he is also the builder or fashioner,ta, and he is the organ iser,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 organ isation 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 23into 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 h is works, priya, priyi H is hand is dripping with sweetness,kavir hi madhuhastya.24 The Poet-God shines in h is pr istine beauty and is showering delight.25 He is filled with utter ecstasy so that he may r ise 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 th is sparkling Delight is the Poet-Seer and it is that that brings forth the creative word, the utterance of Indra.28
The solar v ision 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 ra ised to Heaven and transmuted into divine truth forms. The union of Earth and Heaven is the source of the Joy, the Ananda, that the Poet unseals and d istributes. 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 ra ising the body-consciousness into itself gathers up too, by that act, the delight of life and releases the fountain of immortal Bl iss. 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 th is Earth they hold everywhere in themselves all the secrets. They make Earth and Heaven move together, so that they may real ise 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 establ ish between them the mid-world of Delight for the perfect po ise.30
All the gods are poetstheir forms are perfect, surpa, suda, their Names full of beauty,cru devasya nma.31 Th is means also that the gods embody the different powers that constitute the poetic consciousness. Agni is the Seer-Will, the creative v ision of the Poet the luminous energy born of an experience by identity with the Truth. Indra is the Idea-Form, the architectonic 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 Bl iss 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
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 h istory should also be labeled the Age of Anxiety. Reams have been written about modern man's frenzied search for h is soul-and, indeed, h is doubt that he even has one at a time when, like castles built on sand, so many of h is cher ished theories, long m istaken for verities, are crumbling about h is 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 d iscoveries 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 h is life at a crossroads, one of which leads he knows not where, and the other to threatened annihilation of h is species.
In view of th is 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 into a vast store-house of knowledge, knowledge as dependable and immutable as the measured tread of Eternity.
For th is 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 Qabal istic system provides. It should be equally useful to any who chooses to follow it, whether he be Jew, Chr istian or Buddh ist, De ist, Theosoph ist, agnostic or athe ist.
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 scient ists in the field of psycho therapy are beginning to sense th is correlation. In Franc is G. Wickes' The Inner World of Choice reference is made to "the ex istence 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 h is own individual self."
The Book of the Law states simply, "Every man and every woman is a star." Th is is a startling thought for those who considered a star a heavenly body, but a declaration subject to proof by anyone who will venture into the realm of h is own Unconscious. Th is realm, he will learn if he pers ists, is not hemmed in by the boundaries of h is 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 Winston'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."
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When planning to v isit a foreign country, the w ise traveler will first familiarize himself with its language. In studying music, chem istry 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 Ale ister Crowley as "the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will." Dion Fortune qualifies th is nicely with an added clause, "changes in consciousness."
The Qabalah reveals the nature of certain physical and psychological phenomena. Once these are apprehended, understood and correlated, the student can use the principles of Magic to exerc ise control over life's conditions and circumstances not otherw ise possible. In short. Magic provides the practical application of the theories supplied by the Qabalah.
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A simple example is the concept of the Trinity in the Chr istian 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, Osir is the father, is is 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 Chr istian era.
At th is juncture let me call attention to one set of attri butions by Rittangelius usually found as an appendix attached to the Sepher Yetzirah. It l ists 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 altogether 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." Th is 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 Parad ise 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 th is 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 critic ism.
A good many attri butions in other symbolic areas, I feel are subject to the same critic ism. 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 h is 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 h istory, 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 part isan qualities of any one particular religious faith. Th is goes as much for Juda ism as it does for Chr istianity. Neither has much intrinsic usefulness where th is scientific scheme is concerned. If some students feel hurt by th is 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 cult ish-part isans 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 th is nonsense.
I felt th is a long time ago, as I still do, but even more so. The only way to explain the part isan Jew ish 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 h is pomposity and turgidity stuck to my mantle. I d isliked h is patron ising Chr istian attitude, and so swung all the way over to the other side of the pendulum. Actually, neither faith is particularly important in th is 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 d iscoveries of modern scient ists- anthropolog ists, astronomers, psychiatr ists, et al. Learned Qabal ists for hundreds of years have been aware of what the psychiatr ist has only d iscovered in the last few decades-that man's concept of himself, h is deities and the Universe is a constantly evolving process, changing as man himself evolves on a higher spiral. But the roots of h is concepts are buried in a race-consciousness that antedated Neanderthal man by uncounted aeons of time.
What Jung calls archetypal images constantly r ise 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 h is 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 h is 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, publ ished 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 th is slender book, I perceive how profoundly even the format of h is book had influenced me, though in these two instances there was not a trace of plagiar ism. 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, th is 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 Ale ister Crowley, for whom I have a tremendous respect. I studied as many of h is writings as I could gain access to, making copious notes, and later acted for several years as h is secretary, having joined him in Par is on October 12, 1928, a memorable day in my life.
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The importance of the book to me was and is five-fold. 1) It provided a yardstick by which to measure my personal progress in the understanding of the Qabalah. 2) Therefore it can have an equivalent value to the modern student. 3) It serves as a theoretical introduction to the Qabal istic foundation of the magical work of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. 4) It throws considerable light on the occasionally obscure writings of Ale ister 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 h is profound investigation into the origins and basic nature of man, Robert Ardrey in African Genes is recently made a shocking statement. Although man has begun the conquest of outer space, the ignorance of h is 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 h is neighbor and the world in which he lives as well as the greater Universe of which each is a part.
May everyone who reads th is new edition of A Garden of Pomegranates be encouraged and inspired to light h is own candle of inner v ision and begin h is journey into the boundless space that lies within himself. Then, through realization of h is true identity, each student can become a lamp unto h is own path. And more. Awareness of the Truth of h is being will rip asunder the veil of unknowing that has heretofore enshrouded the star he already is, permitting the brilliance of h is light to illumine the darkness of that part of the Universe in which he abides.
000 - Humans in Universe, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
4,000 years ago in Babylon and Mesopotamia, it is already a very soph isticated
science. Mathematics may well have had its beginnings much earlier in India or
Indochina, as it is an art and science that has traveled cons istently westward. Over
3,000 years ago the Greeks made further magnificent contributions to geometry,
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production at only an arithmetic (linear) rate of gain. And since the Earth is a finite,
closed-system sphere, it apparently became scientifically manifest that there is a
fundamental inadequacy of life support on our planet. Until then all opinions on
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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.
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method of coping, it can be determined only by force of arms which system is the
fittest to survive." Thus survival of the physically fittest became the bas is for
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000.110 Mutually assumed survival-only-of-the-fittest is the reason why the
United States and the USSR have for the past 30 years appropriated 200 billion
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structural system. That is the law of gravity. Symmetrical, noncontacting,
concentric interpositioning of already-symmetrical arrays of atoms produces
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000.113 Gravity is the inwardly cohering force acting integratively on all systems.
Radiation is the outwardly d isintegrating force acting div isively upon all systems.
000.114 All structural systems are compr ised of tension and compression
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withstand only 50 pounds per square inch tensing. Stone-Age-derived masonry is a
thousand times more effective in its res istance to compression than to tension.
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It is the most highly classified of military and private enterpr ise secrets. Industry
now converts the ever-increasing work capacity per pound of materials invested
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already mined and ever more copiously recirculating materials, it is now technically
feasible to retool and redirect world industry in such a manner that within 10 years
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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
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humanity is all cosmically prepaid.
000.123 Why don't we exerc ise our epochal option? Governments are financed
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that science has ever found out is that the Universe cons ists of the most reliable
technology. They think of technology as something new; they regard it as
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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 exerc ising its option.
000.125 The fact that 99 percent of humanity does not understand nature is the
prime reason for humanity's failure to exerc ise its option to attain universally
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d iscovery and comprehension of nature is the obscurity of the mathematical
language of science. Fortunately, however, nature is not using the strictly
imaginary, awkward, and unreal istic coordinate system adopted by and taught by
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000.126 Nature's continuous self-regeneration is 100 percent efficient, neither
gaining nor losing any energy. Nature is not employing the three dimensional,
omniinterperpendicular, parallel frame of the XYZ axial coordinates of academic
science, nor is nature employing science's subsequently adopted
gram/centimeter/second weight/area/time exponents. Nature does not operate in
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000.127 Nature is inherently eight-dimensional, and the first four of these
dimensions are the four planes of symmetry of the minimum structure of Universe-
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rhombic dodecahedron 6. When the size information is introduced, it occurs only asfrequency of modular subdiv ision of each unit vector structuring of the primitive
family's respective 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-tetravolumes. Frequency to the third
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since each system is inherently independent in Universe and therefore has
spinnability, one more dimensional factor is required, making a total of eight
dimensions in all for experientially evidencing physical reality.
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000.128 Nature is using th is completely conceptual eight-dimensional coordinate
system that can be comprehended by anyone. Fortunately telev ision, is
spontaneously attractive and can be used to teach all the world's people nature's
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000.129 Nature's coordinate system is called Synergetics-synergy means behavior
of whole systems unpredicted by any part of the system as considered only
separately. The eternally regenerative Universe is synergetic. Humans have been
included in th is cosmic design as local Universe information-gatherers and local
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000.130 At present 99 percent of humanity is m isinformed in believing in the
Malthusian concept of the fundamental inadequacy of life support, and so they have
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- from When Earth's Last Picture is Painted
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
When Ramkumar reprimanded Gadadhar for neglecting a "bread-winning education", the inner voice of the boy reminded him that the legacy of h is ancestors — the legacy of Rama, Kr ishna, 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. Th is truth was revealed to Gadadhar through that inner v ision which scans past and future in one sweep, unobstructed by the barriers of time and space. But he was unaware of the h istory of the profound change that had taken place in the land of h is 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 custodians of heaven. True philosophy was supplanted by dogmatic opinions. The pundits took delight in vain polemics.
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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 v isitor 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 th is 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, Kr ishna, 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, store-rooms, dining-rooms, and quarters for the temple staff and guests. The chamber in the northwest angle, just beyond the last of the Siva temples, is of special interest to us; for here Sri Ramakr ishna was to spend a considerable part of h is life. To the west of th is 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 Ramakr ishna'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 v isiting the garden. And north of the temple garden, separated from it by a high wall, is a powder-magazine belonging to the Brit ish Government.
--- SIVA
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The temple of Radhakanta, also known as the temple of V ishnu, contains the images of Radha and Kr ishna, 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 v isitors 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 th is 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 W isdom; they strike d ismay into 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 synthes is of religions. All aspects of Reality are represented there. But of th is divine household, Kali is the pivot, the sovereign M istress. She is Prakriti, the Procreatrix, Nature, the Destroyer, the Creator. Nay, She is something greater and deeper still for those who have eyes to see. She is the Universal Mother, "my Mother" as Ramakr ishna would say, the All-powerful, who reveals Herself to Her children under different aspects and Divine Incarnations, the V isible God, who leads the elect to the Inv isible Reality; and if it so pleases Her, She takes away the last trace of ego from created beings and merges it in the consciousness of the Absolute, the undifferentiated God. Through Her grace "the finite ego loses itself in the illimitable Ego — Atman — Brahman". (Romain Holland, Prophets of the New India, p. 11.)
Rani Rasmani spent a fortune for the construction of the temple garden and another fortune for its dedication ceremony, which took place on May 31, 1855.
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One day the priest of the Radhakanta temple accidentally dropped the image of Kr ishna on the floor, breaking one of its legs. The pundits adv ised 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 Ramakr ishna's opinion. In an abstracted mood, he said: "Th is solution is ridiculous. If a son-in-law of the Rani broke h is leg, would she d iscard him and put another in h is place? Wouldn't she rather arrange for h is treatment? Why should she not do the same thing in th is case too? Let the image be repaired and worshipped as before." It was a simple, straightforward solution and was accepted by the Rani. Sri Ramakr ishna himself mended the break. The priest was d ism issed for h is carelessness, and at Mathur Babu's earnest request Sri Ramakr ishna accepted the office of priest in the Radhakanta temple.
^No definite information is available as to the origin of th is name. Most probably it was given by Mathur Babu, as Ramlal, Sri Ramakr ishna's nephew, has said, quoting the authority of h is uncle himself.
^Hriday's mother was the daughter of Sri Ramakr ishna's aunt (Khudiram's s ister). Such a degree of relationship is termed in Bengal that of a "d istant nephew".
--- SRI RAMAKR isHNA AS A PRIEST
Born in an orthodox brahmin family, Sri Ramakr ishna 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 m iseries of phenomenal life. The Source of light, intelligence, w isdom, and strength is the One alone from whom comes the fulfilment of desire. Yet, as long as a man is bound by h is human limitations, he cannot but worship God through human forms. He must use human symbols. Therefore Hindu ism 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 Ex istence-Knowledge-Bl iss Absolute. The gods gradually merge in the one God. But until that realization is achieved, the devotee cannot d issociate human factors from h is 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 h is heart. Then he transfers the Supreme Spirit to the image before him and worships the image, regarding it no longer as clay or stone, but as the embodiment of Spirit, throbbing with Life and Consciousness. After the worship the Supreme Spirit is recalled from the image to Its true sanctuary, the heart of the priest. The real devotee knows the absurdity of worshipping the Transcendental Reality with material articles — clothing That which pervades the whole universe and the beyond, putting on a pedestal That which cannot be limited by space, feeding That which is d isembodied 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 pra ise, 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 Ramakr ishna. As he sat facing the image, a strange transformation came over h is 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 r ising of the mystic Kundalini through the different centres of the body. The glow on h is face, h is deep absorption, and the intense atmosphere of the temple impressed everyone who saw him worship the Deity.
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In 1856 Ramkumar breathed h is last. Sri Ramakr ishna 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 transitory nature of worldly things, the more eager he became to realize God, the Fountain of Immortality.
--- THE FIRST V isION OF KALI
And, indeed, he soon d iscovered 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 wa ist 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, Ramakr ishna 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 th is mad world unless under the influence of a divine drunkenness? She is the highest symbol of all the forces of nature, the synthes is of their antinomies, the Ultimate Divine in the form of woman. She now became to Sri Ramakr ishna the only Reality, and the world became an unsubstantial shadow. Into Her worship he poured h is soul. Before him She stood as the transparent portal to the shrine of Ineffable Reality.
The worship in the temple intensified Sri Ramakr ishna's yearning for a living v ision of the Mother of the Universe. He began to spend in meditation the time not actually employed in the temple service; and for th is 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 Ramakr ishna began to spend the whole night in meditation, returning to h is room only in the morning with eyes swollen as though from much weeping. While meditating, he would lay aside h is cloth and h is brahminical thread. Explaining th is 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 h is uncle was becoming insane.
As h is 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 v ision of God, only intensified Sri Ramakr ishna's longing. He felt the pangs of a child separated from its mother. Sometimes, in agony, he would rub h is face against the ground and weep so bitterly that people, thinking he had lost h is earthly mother, would sympathize with him in h is grief. Sometimes, in moments of sceptic ism, he would cry: "Art Thou true, Mother, or is it all fiction — mere poetry without any reality? If Thou dost ex ist, why do I not see Thee? is religion a mere fantasy and art Thou only a figment of man's imagination?" Sometimes he would sit on the prayer carpet for two hours like an inert object. He began to behave in an abnormal manner
, most of the time unconscious of the world. He almost gave up food; and sleep left him altogether.
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It is said that samadhi, or trance, no more than opens the portal of the spiritual realm. Sri Ramakr ishna felt an unquenchable desire to enjoy God in various ways. For h is 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 h is v isions.
As h is 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."
H is v isions 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.
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One day Haladhari upset Sri Ramakr ishna with the statement that God is incomprehensible to the human mind. Sri Ramakr ishna has described the great moment of doubt when he wondered whether h is v isions had really m isled him: "With sobs I prayed to the Mother, 'Canst Thou have the heart to deceive me like th is because I am a fool?' A stream of tears flowed from my eyes. Shortly afterwards I saw a volume of m ist r ising 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.' Th is it repeated three times and then it gently d isappeared in the m ist, which itself d issolved. Th is v ision reassured me."
A garbled report of Sri Ramakr ishna's failing health, indifference to worldly life, and various abnormal activities reached Kamarpukur and filled the heart of h is poor mother with angu ish. At her repeated request he returned to h is village for a change of air. But h is boyhood friends did not interest him any more. A divine fever was consuming him. He spent a great part of the day and night in one of the cremation grounds, in meditation. The place reminded him of the impermanence of the human body, of human hopes and achievements. It also reminded him of Kali, the Goddess of destruction.
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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 th is case the marriage remained for ever unconsummated. Sri Ramakr ishna 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. H is 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 d isciplines 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, into 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 h is mind the idea of caste superiority, he cleaned a pariahs house with h is long and neglected hair. When he would sit in meditation, birds would perch on h is head and peck in h is hair for grains of food. Snakes would crawl over h is body, and neither would be aware of the other. Sleep left him altogether. Day and night, v isions flitted before him. He saw the sannyasi who had previously killed the "sinner" in him again coming out of h is body, threatening him with the trident, and ordering him to concentrate on God. Or the same sannyasi would v isit d istant places, following a luminous path, and bring him reports of what was happening there. Sri Ramakr ishna 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.
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Sri Ramakr ishna welcomed the v isitor with great respect, described to her h is experiences and v isions, and told her of people's belief that these were symptoms of madness. She l istened to him attentively and said: "My son, everyone in th is 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 th is extreme exaltation had been described as manifesting itself through nineteen physical symptoms, 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 Ramakr ishna and the Brahmani, she looking upon him as the Baby Kr ishna, and he upon her as mother. Day after day she watched h is ecstasy during the kirtan and meditation, h is samadhi, h is 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 Ramakr ishna, like Sri Chaitanya, was an Incarnation of God.
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there, especially the officers of the temple garden, were struck dumb. Sri Rama- kr ishna 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 d isease."
When, a few days later, Pundit Gauri arrived, another meeting was held, and he agreed with the view of the Brahmani and Va ishnavcharan. To Sri Ramakr ishna's remark that Va ishnavcharan 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."
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"Well," Sri Ramakr ishna 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. H is v isions were not the result of an over-heated brain; they had precedent in spiritual h istory. And how did the proclamation affect Sri Ramakr ishna himself? He remained the simple child of the Mother that he had been since the first day of h is life. Years later, when two of h is householder d isciples 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 actor on the stage and the other a physician. What do they know about Incarnations? Why, years ago pundits like Gauri and Va ishnavcharan 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 Ramakr ishna was a learner all h is life. He often used to quote a proverb to h is d isciples: "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 pract ising spiritual d isciplines according to the traditional methods laid down in the Tantra and Va ishnava scriptures. Hitherto he had pursued h is spiritual ideal according to the promptings of h is own mind and heart. Now he accepted the Brahmani as h is guru and set foot on the traditional highways.
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According to the Tantra, the Ultimate Reality is Chit, or Consciousness, which is identical with Sat, or Being, and with Ananda, or Bl iss. Th is Ultimate Reality, Satchidananda, Ex istence-Knowledge-Bl iss Absolute, is identical with the Reality preached in the Vedas. And man is identical with th is Reality; but under the influence of maya, or illusion, he has forgotten h is true nature. He takes to be real a merely apparent world of subject and object, and th is error is the cause of h is bondage and suffering. The goal of spiritual d iscipline is the red iscovery of h is true identity with the divine Reality.
For the achievement of th is goal the Vedanta prescribes an austere negative method of d iscrimination and renunciation, which can be followed by only a few individuals endowed with sharp intelligence and unshakable will-power. But Tantra takes into 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 h is identity with the Ultimate.
The average man w ishes to enjoy the material objects of the world. Tantra bids him enjoy these, but at the same time d iscover in them the presence of God. Mystical rites are prescribed by which, slowly, the sense-objects become spiritualized and sense attraction is transformed into a love of God. So the very "bonds" of man are turned into "releasers". The very po ison that kills is transmuted into the elixir of life. Outward renunciation is not necessary. Thus the aim of Tantra is to sublimate bhoga, or enjoyment into yoga, or union with Consciousness. For, according to th is philosophy, the world with all its manifestations is nothing but the sport of Siva and Sakti, the Absolute and Its inscrutable Power.
The d isciplines of Tantra are graded to suit aspirants of all degrees. Exerc ises 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 bas is 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 h is foothold and fall into 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 d iscipline 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, h is own self and the living form of the Goddess. He then projects the Goddess into the tangible image before him and worships it as the Divine Mother.
Sri Ramakr ishna set himself to the task of pract ising the d isciplines of Tantra; and at the bidding of the Divine Mother Herself he accepted the Brahmani as h is guru. He performed profound and delicate ceremonies in the Panchavati and under the bel-tree at the northern extremity of the temple compound. He pract ised all the d isciplines of the sixty-four principal Tantra books, and it took him never more than three days to achieve the result prom ised in any one of them. After the observance of a few preliminary rites, he would be overwhelmed with a strange divine fervour and would go into samadhi, where h is mind would dwell in exaltation. Evil ceased to ex ist 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, Bl iss.
He saw in a v ision 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 v ision of the divine Maya, the inscrutable Power of God, by which the universe is created and sustained, and into which it is finally absorbed. In th is v ision he saw a woman of exqu isite 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 th is period was the awakening of the Kundalini Sakti, the "Serpent Power". He actually saw the Power, at first lying asleep at the bottom of the spinal column, then waking up and ascending along the mystic Sushumna canal and through its six centres, or lotuses, to the Sahasrara, the thousand-petalled lotus in the top of the head. He further saw that as the Kundalini went upward the different lotuses bloomed. And th is phenomenon was accompanied by v isions and trances. Later on he described to h is d isciples and devotees the various movements of the Kundalini: the f ishlike, 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 d isciplines.
About th is time it was revealed to him that in a short while many devotees would seek h is guidance.
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After completing the Tantrik sadhana Sri Ramakr ishna followed the Brahmani in the d isciplines of Va ishnav ism. The Va ishnavas are worshippers of V ishnu, the "All-pervading", the Supreme God, who is also known as Hari and Narayana. Of V ishnu's various Incarnations the two with the largest number of followers are Rama and Kr ishna.
Va ishnav ism is exclusively a religion of bhakti. Bhakti is intense love of God, attachment to Him alone; it is of the nature of bl iss and bestows upon the lover immortality and liberation. God, according to Va ishnav ism, 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 v ision of God H is grace is absolutely necessary, and th is 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-v ision. It is the cultivation of th is divine love that is the chief concern of the Va ishnava 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 h is 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 h is 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 h is duties to please God alone and maintains toward all created beings the attitude of friendship, then h is 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 th is love would not accept the happiness of heaven if it were offered him. H is one desire is to love God under all conditions — in pleasure and pain, life and death, honour and d ishonour, 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 th is stage are prescribed regular and methodical worship, hymns, prayers, the repetition of God's name, and the chanting of H is glories. Th is lower bhakti in course of time matures into para-bhakti, or supreme devotion, known also as prema, the most intense form of divine love. Divine love is an end in itself. It ex ists potentially in all human hearts, but in the case of bound creatures it is m isdirected to earthly objects.
To develop the devotee's love for God, Va ishnav ism 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 r ish is of the Vedas, Hanuman, the cow-herd boys of Vrindavan, Rama's mother Kausalya, and Radhika, Kr ishna'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 m istress of h is Beloved, and no artificial barrier remains to separate him from h is Ideal. No social or moral obligation can bind to the earth h is soaring spirit. He experiences perfect union with the Godhead. Unlike the Vedant ist, who strives to transcend all varieties of the subject-object relationship, a devotee of the Va ishnava path w ishes to retain both h is own individuality and the personality of God. To him God is not an intangible Absolute, but the Purushottama, the Supreme Person.
While pract ising the d iscipline 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 Kr ishna, the only purusha, or man, in the universe. Th is 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. Th is 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 bas is of all desires and passions in a man is the conviction of h is ind issoluble 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 h is 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 Va ishnava draws close to the transcendental experience of the Vedant ist.
A beautiful expression of the Va ishnava worship of God through love is to be found in the Vrindavan ep isode of the Bhagavata. The gop is, or milk-maids, of Vrindavan regarded the six-year-old Kr ishna as their Beloved. They sought no personal gain or happiness from th is love. They surrendered to Kr ishna their bodies, minds, and souls. Of all the gop is, Radhika, or Radha, because of her intense love for Him, was the closest to Kr ishna. She manifested mahabhava and was united with her Beloved. Th is 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 Va ishnava religion. Chaitanya declared the chanting of God's name to be the most efficacious spiritual d iscipline for the Kaliyuga.
Sri Ramakr ishna, as the monkey Hanuman, had already worshipped God as h is Master. Through h is devotion to Kali he had worshipped God as h is Mother. He was now to take up the other relationships prescribed by the Va ishnava scriptures.
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One day Jatadhari requested Sri Ramakr ishna to keep the image and bade him adieu with tearful eyes. He declared that Ramlala had fulfilled h is innermost prayer and that he now had no more need of formal worship. A few days later Sri Ramakr ishna was blessed through Ramlala with a v ision of Ramachandra, whereby he realized that the Rama of the Ramayana, the son of Dasaratha, pervades the whole universe as Spirit and Consciousness; that He is its Creator, Sustainer, and Destroyer; that, in still another aspect, He is the transcendental Brahman, without form, attribute, or name.
While worshipping Ramlala as the Divine Child, Sri Ramakr ishna's heart became filled with motherly tenderness, and he began to regard himself as a woman. H is 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 th is time he worshipped the Divine Mother as Her companion or handmaid.
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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 Kr ishna. 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 Ramakr ishna 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 th is body [meaning himself] there has been a complete manifestation of all nineteen."
The love of Radha is the precursor of the resplendent v ision of Sri Kr ishna, and Sri Ramakr ishna soon experienced that v ision. The enchanting ing form of Kr ishna appeared to him and merged in h is person. He became Kr ishna; he totally forgot h is own individuality and the world; he saw Kr ishna 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 Bl iss. The agony of h is heart van ished forever. He realized Amrita, Immortality, beyond the shadow of death.
One day, l istening to a recitation of the Bhagavata on the verandah of the Radhakanta temple, he fell into a divine mood and saw the enchanting form of Kr ishna. He perceived the luminous rays issuing from Kr ishna's Lotus Feet in the form of a stout rope, which touched first the Bhagavata and then h is own chest, connecting all three — God, the scripture, and the devotee. "After th is v ision", he used to say, "I came to realize that Bhagavan, Bhakta, and Bhagavata — God, Devotee, and Scripture — are in reality one and the same."
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Totapuri was the bearer of a philosophy new to Sri Ramakr ishna, the non-dual istic Vedanta philosophy, whose conclusions Totapuri had experienced in h is own life. Th is ancient Hindu system designates the Ultimate Reality as Brahman, also described as Satchidananda, Ex istence-Knowledge-Bl iss Absolute. Brahman is the only Real Ex istence. In It there is no time, no space, no causality, no multiplicity. But through maya, Its inscrutable Power, time, space, and causality are created and the One appears to break into the many. The eternal Spirit appears as a manifold of individuals endowed with form and subject to the conditions of time. The Immortal becomes a victim of birth and death. The Changeless undergoes change. The sinless Pure Soul, hypnotized by Its own maya, experiences the joys of heaven and the pains of hell. But these experiences based on the duality of the subject-object relationship are unreal. Even the v ision of a Personal God
is, ultimately speaking, as illusory as the experience of any other object. Man attains h is liberation, therefore, by piercing the veil of maya and red iscovering h is 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 th is is the ultimate goal of all religions — to dehypnotize the soul now hypnotized by its own ignorance.
The path of the Vedantic d iscipline 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 d iscriminating ego itself, the aspirant merges in the One without a Second, in the bl iss of nirvikalpa samadhi, where subject and object are alike d issolved. 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 Bl iss sweeps away all relative ideas of pain and pleasure, good and evil. There shines in the heart the glory of the Eternal Brahman, Ex istence-Knowledge-Bl iss Absolute. Knower, knowledge, and known are d issolved in the Ocean of one eternal Consciousness; love, lover, and beloved merge in the unbounded Sea of supreme Felicity; birth, growth, and death van ish in infinite Ex istence. All doubts and m isgivings are quelled for ever; the oscillations of the mind are stopped; the momentum of past actions is exhausted. Breaking down the ridge-pole of the tabernacle in which the soul has made its abode for untold ages, stilling the body, calming the mind, drowning the ego, the sweet joy of Brahman wells up in that superconscious state. Space d isappears into nothingness, time is swallowed in eternity, and causation becomes a dream of the past. Only Ex istence is. Ah! Who can describe what the soul then feels in its communion with the Self?
Even when man descends from th is 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, h is 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 m ission for the world can return
from th is 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.
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In the burning flame before him Sri Ramakr ishna performed the rituals of destroying h is 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 h is severance from caste, sex, and society. Last of all he burnt in that fire, with all that is holy as h is witness, h is 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 h is own Self. The rites completed, the d isciple received from the guru the loin-cloth and ochre robe, the emblems of h is new life.
The teacher and the d isciple repaired to the meditation room near by. Totapuri began to impart to Sri Ramakr ishna 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 pr ison-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 van ishing into void, and the puny ego d issolving in Brahman-Consciousness. You will realize your identity with Brahman, Ex istence-Knowledge-Bl iss Absolute." Quoting the Upan ishad, 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 Bl iss. How can the mind and senses grasp That which shines in the heart of all as the Eternal Subject?"
Totapuri asked the d isciple to withdraw h is 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 Ramakr ishna. He found it impossible to take h is mind beyond Kali, the Divine Mother of the Universe. "After the initiation", Sri Ramakr ishna once said, describing the event, "Nangta began to teach me the various conclusions of the Advaita Vedanta and asked me to withdraw the mind completely from all objects and dive deep into the Atman. But in spite of all my attempts I could not altogether cross the realm of name and form and bring my mind to the unconditioned state. I had no difficulty in taking the mind from all the objects of the world. But the radiant and too familiar figure of the Bl issful Mother, the Embodiment of the essence of Pure Consciousness, appeared before me as a living reality. Her bewitching smile prevented me from passing into the Great Beyond. Again and again I tried, but She stood in my way every time. In despair I said to Nangta: 'It is hopeless. I cannot ra ise 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 h is eyes around. Finding a piece of glass he took it up and stuck it between my eyebrows. 'Concentrate the mind on th is 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 d iscrimination 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 Ramakr ishna remained completely absorbed in samadhi for three days. " is it really true?" Totapuri cried out in aston ishment. " 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 Ramakr ishna'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.
--
Sri Ramakr ishna, on the other hand, though fully aware, like h is guru, that the world is an illusory appearance, instead of slighting maya, like an orthodox mon ist, 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 th is 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 d istingu ished from the Supreme Brahman than can the power of burning be d istingu ished 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 M istress 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 jur isdiction as long as they still live on the relative plane.
Thus, after nirvikalpa samadhi, Sri Ramakr ishna realized maya in an altogether new role. The binding aspect of Kali van ished from before h is v ision. She no longer obscured h is understanding. The world became the glorious manifestation of the Divine Mother. Maya became Brahman. The Transcendental Itself broke through the Immanent. Sri Ramakr ishna d iscovered 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 vanqu ished. But vidyamaya is the higher force of creation: the spiritual virtues, the enlightening qualities, kindness, purity, love, devotion. Vidyamaya elevates man to the higher planes of consciousness. With the help of vidyamaya the devotee rids himself of avidyamaya; he then becomes mayatita, free of maya. The two aspects of maya are the two forces of creation, the two powers of Kali; and She stands beyond them both. She is like the effulgent sun, bringing into ex istence 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 Ramakr ishna 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. Th is is a unique experience in the recorded spiritual h istory of the world.
--- TOTAPURI'S LESSON
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One day, when guru and d isciple were engaged in an animated d iscussion 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 h is tobacco. Totapuri flew into a rage and was about to beat the man. Sri Ramakr ishna 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 th is time Totapuri was suddenly laid up with a severe attack of dysentery. On account of th is m iserable illness he found it impossible to meditate. One night the pain became excruciating. He could no longer concentrate on Brahman. The body stood in the way. He became incensed with its demands. A free soul, he did not at all care for the body. So he determined to drown it in the Ganges. Thereupon he walked into the river. But, lo! He walks to the other bank." (Th is version of the incident is taken from the biography of Sri Ramakr ishna by Swami Saradananda, one of the Master's direct d isciples.) is there not enough water in the Ganges? Standing dumbfounded on the other bank he looks back across the water. The trees, the temples, the houses, are silhouetted against the sky. Suddenly, in one dazzling moment, he sees on all sides the presence of the Divine Mother. She is in everything; She is everything. She is in the water; She is on land. She is the body; She is the mind. She is pain; She is comfort. She is knowledge; She is ignorance. She is life; She is death. She is everything that one sees, hears, or imagines. She turns "yea" into "nay", and "nay" into "yea". Without Her grace no embodied being can go beyond Her realm. Man has no free will. He is not even free to die. Yet, again, beyond the body and mind She resides in Her Transcendental, Absolute aspect. She is the Brahman that Totapuri had been worshipping all h is 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 Ramakr ishna and prostrated himself before the image of the Mother. He now realized why he had spent eleven months at Dakshineswar. Bidding farewell to the d isciple, he continued on h is way, enlightened.
--
"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 d istinction 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 Ramakr ishna 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."
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Sri Ramakr ishna used to say that when the flower blooms the bees come to it for honey of their own accord. Now many souls began to v isit Dakshineswar to sat isfy 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 Ramakr ishna an Incarnation of God, paid the Master a v isit 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 Ramakr ishna initiated Narayan Shastri, at h is earnest request, into the life of sannyas. Pundit Padmalochan, the court pundit of the Maharaja of Burdwan, well known for h is scholarship in both the Vedanta and the Nyaya systems of philosophy, accepted the Master as an Incarnation of God. Kr ishnak ishore, a Vedant ist scholar, became devoted to the Master. And there arrived V iswanath Upadhyaya, who was to become a favourite devotee; Sri Ramakr ishna 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 h is merit. A scholar of the Gita, the Bhagavata, and the Vedanta philosophy, he daily performed the worship of h is 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 Ramakr ishna'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 Ramakr ishna 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 understood 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.
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Toward the end of 1866 he began to pract ise the d isciplines of islam. Under the direction of h is Mussalman guru he abandoned himself to h is new sadhana. He dressed as a Mussalman and repeated the name of Allah. H is prayers took the form of the islamic devotions. He forgot the Hindu gods and goddesses — even Kali — and gave up v isiting the temples. He took up h is residence outside the temple precincts. After three days he saw the v ision of a radiant figure, perhaps Mohammed. Th is figure gently approached him and finally lost himself in Sri Ramakr ishna. Thus he realized the Mussalman God. Thence he passed into communion with Brahman. The mighty river of islam also led him back to the Ocean of the Absolute.
--- CHR isTIANITY
Eight years later, some time in November 1874, Sri Ramakr ishna was seized with an irres istible desire to learn the truth of the Chr istian religion. He began to l isten to readings from the Bible, by Sambhu Charan Mallick, a gentleman of Calcutta and a devotee of the Master. Sri Ramakr ishna became fascinated by the life and teachings of Jesus. One day he was seated in the parlour of Jadu Mallick's garden house (Th is expression is used throughout to translate the Bengali word denoting a rich man's country house set in a garden.) at Dakshineswar, when h is 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 h is soul. The effect of th is experience was stronger than that of the v ision of Mohammed. In d ismay 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. Chr ist possessed h is 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 Ramakr ishna's soul: "Behold the Chr ist, who shed H is heart's blood for the redemption of the world, who suffered a sea of angu ish 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 Ramakr ishna kr ishna realized h is identity with Chr ist, as he had already realized h is identity with Kali, Rama, Hanuman, Radha, Kr ishna, Brahman, and Mohammed. The Master went into samadhi and communed with the Brahman with attributes. Thus he experienced the truth that Chr istianity, too, was a path leading to God-Consciousness. Till the last moment of h is life he believed that Chr ist was an Incarnation of God. But Chr ist, for him, was not the only Incarnation; there were others — Buddha, for instance, and Kr ishna.
--- ATTITUDE TOWARD DIFFERENT RELIGIONS
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Without being formally initiated into their doctrines, Sri Ramakr ishna thus realized the ideals of religions other than Hindu ism. He did not need to follow any doctrine. All barriers were removed by h is 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 pract ised", said he, "all religions — Hindu ism, islam, Chr istianity — 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, Va ishnavas, and the rest. But they never reflect that He who is called Kr ishna 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 Chr istians 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 h is own path. If he sincerely and ardently w ishes to know God, peace be unto him! He will surely realize Him."
In 1867 Sri Ramakr ishna returned to Kamarpukur to recuperate from the effect of h is austerities. The peaceful countryside, the simple and artless companions of h is 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 h is years in Calcutta. H is 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 h is attendant. The Master accepted her cheerfully both as h is d isciple and as h is spiritual companion. Referring to the experiences of these few days, she once said: "I used to feel always as if a pitcher full of bl iss were placed in my heart. The joy was indescribable."
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Sri Ramakr ishna v isited 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 Kr ishna and the gop is. Here he had numerous v isions and h is heart overflowed with divine emotion. He wept and said: "O Kr ishna! Everything here is as it was in the olden days. You alone are absent." He v isited the great woman saint, Gangamayi, regarded by Va ishnava devotees as the reincarnation of an intimate attendant of Radha. She was sixty years old and had frequent trances. She spoke of Sri Ramakr ishna as an incarnation of Radha. With great difficulty he was persuaded to leave her.
On the return journey Mathur wanted to v isit Gaya, but Sri Ramakr ishna declined to go. He recalled h is father's v ision at Gaya before h is own birth and felt that in the temple of V ishnu he would become permanently absorbed in God. Mathur, honouring the Master's w ish, returned with h is party to Calcutta.
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In 1872 Sarada Devi paid her first v isit to her husband at Dakshineswar. Four years earlier she had seen him at Kamarpukur and had tasted the bl iss of h is divine company. Since then she had become even more gentle, tender, introspective, serious, and unself ish. She had heard many rumours about her husband's insanity. People had shown her pity in her m isfortune. 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 d istance 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 h is young wife, and th is 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 v isitors. 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 H is 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 establ ished in the Knowledge of Brahman who can adhere to h is spirit of d iscrimination and renunciation even while living with h is 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 Ramakr ishna and h is wife lived together at Dakshineswar, but their minds always soared above the worldly plane. A few months after Sarada Devi's arrival Sri Ramakr ishna arranged, on an auspicious day, a special worship of Kali, the Divine Mother. Instead of an image of the Deity, he placed on the seat the living image, Sarada Devi herself. The worshipper and the worshipped went into deep samadhi and in the transcendental plane their souls were united. After several hours Sri Ramakr ishna came down again to the relative plane, sang a hymn to the Great Goddess, and surrendered, at the feet of the living image, himself, h is rosary, and the fruit of h is life-long sadhana. Th is is known in Tantra as the Shorasi Puja, the "Adoration of Woman". Sri Ramakr ishna realized the significance of the great statement of the Upan ishad: "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 h is marriage Sri Ramakr ishna admitted the great value of marriage in man's spiritual evolution, and by adhering to h is monastic vows he demonstrated the imperative necessity of self-control, purity, and continence, in the realization of God. By th is unique spiritual relationship with h is wife he proved that husband and wife can live together as spiritual companions. Thus h is life is a synthes is of the ways of life of the householder and the monk.
--- THE "EGO" OF THE MASTER
In the nirvikalpa samadhi Sri Ramakr ishna had realized that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. By keeping h is 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 th is 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 h is mood — as the "ego of Knowledge", the "ego of Devotion", the "ego of a child", or the "ego of a servant". In any case th is 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 th is 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 establ ishes a relationship of love with God alone. Through th is "ripe ego" Sri Ramakr ishna dealt with the world and h is wife. One day, while stroking h is 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 th is moment. Indeed, I always look on you as the personification of the Bl issful 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 h is 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. Th is 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 th is way. Then one day he d iscovered that I had to keep awake the whole night lest, during my sleep, he should go into samadhi — for it might happen at any moment —, and so he asked me to sleep in the nahabat."
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Second, he knew that he had always been a free soul, that the various d isciplines through which he had passed were really not necessary for h is 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 mag istrate must v isit any part of h is d istrict in which there is trouble.
Third, he came to foresee the time of h is death. H is words with respect to th is matter were literally fulfilled.
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Second, the three great systems of thought known as Dual ism, Qualified Non-dual ism, and Absolute Non-dual ism — Dvaita, V is ishtadvaita, and Advaita — he perceived to represent three stages in man's progress toward the Ultimate Reality. They were not contradictory but complementary and suited to different temperaments. For the ordinary man with strong attachment to the senses, a dual istic 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 h is 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 V is ishtadvaita, 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, H is Abode, and the Lord Himself are of the same spiritual Essence. Everything is Spirit, the difference being only in form.
Third, Sri Ramakr ishna realized the w ish of the Divine Mother that through him She should found a new Order, cons isting of those who would uphold the universal doctrines illustrated in h is life.
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Keshab was the leader of the Brahmo Samaj, one of the two great movements that, during the latter part of the nineteenth century, played an important part in shaping the course of the renascence of India. The founder of the Brahmo movement had been the great Raja Rammohan Roy (1774-1833). Though born in an orthodox brahmin family, Rammohan Roy had shown great sympathy for islam and Chr istianity. He had gone to Tibet in search of the Buddh ist mysteries. He had extracted from Chr istianity its ethical system, but had rejected the divinity of Chr ist as he had denied the Hindu Incarnations. The religion of islam influenced him, to a great extent, in the formulation of h is monothe istic doctrines. But he always went back to the Vedas for h is 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 d istinction of colour, creed, caste, nation, or religion.
The real organizer of the Samaj was Devendranath Tagore (1817-1905), the father of the poet Rabindranath. H is physical and spiritual beauty, ar istocratic aloofness, penetrating intellect, and poetic sensibility made him the foremost leader of the educated Bengal is. These addressed him by the respectful epithet of Maharshi, the "Great Seer". The Maharshi was a Sanskrit scholar and, unlike Raja Rammohan Roy, drew h is inspiration entirely from the Upan ishads. He was an implacable enemy of image worship ship and also fought to stop the infiltration of Chr istian ideas into the Samaj. He gave the movement its faith and ritual. Under h is influence the Brahmo Samaj professed One Self-ex istent Supreme Being who had created the universe out of nothing, the God of Truth, Infinite W isdom, Goodness, and Power, the Eternal and Omnipotent, the One without a Second. Man should love Him and do H is will, believe in Him and worship Him, and thus merit salvation in the world to come.
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The other movement playing an important part in the nineteenth-century religious revival of India was the Arya Samaj. The Brahmo Samaj, essentially a movement of comprom ise 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 Chr istianity and was resolved to combat all foreign influence in India. Swami Dayananda (1824-1883) launched th is 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 monothe istic. He preached against the worship of images and re-establ ished 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 Chr istianity, 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 d isabilities. The cause of education received from it a great impetus. It started agitation against early marriage and advocated the remarriage of Hindu widows. Its influence was strongest in the Punjab, the battle-ground of the Hindu and islamic cultures. A new fighting attitude was introduced into the slumbering Hindu society. Unlike the Brahmo Samaj, the influence of the Arya Samaj was not confined to the intellectuals. It was a force that spread to the masses. It was a dogmatic movement intolerant of those who d isagreed with its views, and it emphasized only one way, the Arya Samaj way, to the realization of Truth. Sri Ramakr ishna met Swami Dayananda when the latter v isited Bengal.
--- KESHAB CHANDRA SEN
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Shivanath, one day, was greatly impressed by the Master's utter simplicity and abhorrence of pra ise. He was seated with Sri Ramakr ishna 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, h is nephew, began to describe h is samadhi to the v isitors. The last few words caught the Master's ear as he entered the room. He said to Hriday: "What a mean-spirited fellow you must be to extol me thus before these rich men! You have seen their costly apparel and their gold watches and chains, and your object is to get from them as much money as you can. What do I care about what they think of me? (Turning to the gentlemen) No, my friends, what he has told you about me is not true. It was not love of God that made me absorbed in God and indifferent to external life. I became positively insane for some time. The sadhus who frequented th is temple told me to pract ise many things. I tried to follow them, and the consequence was that my austerities drove me to insanity." Th is 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 h is other-worldly attitude toward h is wife. He writes: "Ramakr ishna was practically separated from h is wife, who lived in her village home. One day when I was complaining to some friends about the virtual widowhood of h is wife, he drew me to one side and wh ispered 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 th is part of h is 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 h is way when anything against h is settled conviction was asserted — a trait we so much liked in him — and exclaimed, 'Go, thou fool, go and per ish in the pit that your women will dig for you.' Then he glared at me and said: 'What does a gardener do with a young plant? Does he not surround it with a fence, to protect it from goats and cattle? And when the young plant has grown up into a tree and it can no longer be injured by cattle, does he not remove the fence and let the tree grow freely?' I replied, 'Yes, that is the custom with gardeners.' Then he remarked, 'Do the same in your spiritual life; become strong, be full-grown; then you may seek them.' To which I replied, 'I don't agree with you in thinking that women's work is like that of cattle, destructive; they are our associates and helpers in our spiritual struggles and social progress' — a view with which he could not agree, and he marked h is d issent by shaking h is 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; otherw ise your woman will not admit you into her room.' Th is evoked hearty laughter."
Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, the right-hand man of Keshab and an accompl ished Brahmo preacher in Europe and America, bitterly criticized Sri Ramakr ishna's use of uncultured language and also h is austere attitude toward h is wife. But he could not escape the spell of the Master's personality. In the course of an article about Sri Ramakr ishna, Pratap wrote in the "The istic 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, unpol ished, half-idolatrous, friendless Hindu devotee? Why should I sit long hours to attend to him, I, who have l istened to D israeli 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 Kr ishna, and is a confirmed advocate of Vedantic doctrines. . . . He is an idolater, yet is a faithful and most devoted meditator on the perfections of the One Formless, Absolute, Infinite Deity. . . . H is religion is ecstasy, h is worship means transcendental insight, h is 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 h is feet to learn from him the sublime precepts of purity, unworldliness, spirituality, and inebriation in the love of God. . . . He, by h is childlike bhakti, by h is 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 Ramakr ishna. 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 h is own realizations and explained to them the essence of h is teachings, such as the necessity of renunciation, sincerity in the pursuit of one's own course of d iscipline, faith in God, the performance of one's duties without thought of results, and d iscrimination between the Real and the unreal.
--
^The term "woman and gold", which has been used throughout in a collective sense, occurs again and again in the teachings of Sri Ramakr ishna to designate the chief impediments to spiritual progress. Th is favourite expression of the Master, "kaminikanchan", has often been m isconstrued. 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 h is man devotees. He adv ised women, on the other hand, to shun "man". "Kanchan", or "gold", symbolizes greed, which is the other obstacle to spiritual life.
Sri Ramakr ishna never taught h is d isciples to hate any woman, or womankind in general. Th is can be seen clearly by going through all h is teachings under th is 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 h is guide while pract ising the very profound spiritual d isciplines of Tantra. H is wife, known and revered as the Holy Mother, was h is constant companion and first d isciple. At the end of h is spiritual practice he literally worshipped h is wife as the embodiment of the Goddess Kali, the Divine Mother. After h is 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 Ramakr ishna Order.
--
^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 Ramakr ishna is one who is devoted to Sri Ramakr ishna and follows h is teachings. The word "d isciple", when used in connexion with Sri Ramakr ishna, refers to one who had been initiated into spiritual life by Sri Ramakr ishna and who regarded him as h is 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 untouched by the idea of being a teacher. He used to say that three ideas — that he was a guru, a father, and a master — pricked h is flesh like thorns. Yet he was an extraordinary teacher. He stirred h is d isciples' 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 h is ideas on anybody. He understood people's limitations and worked on the principle that what is good for one may be bad for another. He had the unusual power of knowing the devotees' minds, even their inmost souls, at the first sight. He accepted d isciples with the full knowledge of their past tendencies and future possibilities. The life of evil did not frighten him, nor did religious squeam ishness ra ise anybody in h is 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 h is intimate d isciples the Master was a friend, companion, and playmate. Even the chores of religious d iscipline would be lightened in h is presence. The devotees would be so inebriated with pure joy in h is company that they would have no time to ask themselves whether he was an Incarnation, a perfect soul, or a yogi. H is very presence was a great teaching; words were superfluous. In later years h is d isciples 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 h is mere w ish, kindle in their hearts the love of God and give them H is v ision.
--
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 sannyas is are teachers of men, and their lives should be totally free from blem ish. They must not even look at a picture which may awaken their animal passions. The Master selected h is future monks from young men untouched by "woman and gold" and plastic enough to be cast in h is spiritual mould. When teaching them the path of renunciation and d iscrimination, 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 chem ist, Ram was sceptical about God and religion and never enjoyed peace of soul. He wanted tangible proof of God's ex istence. The Master said to him: "God really" ex ists. You don't see the stars in the day-time, but that doesn't mean that the stars do not ex ist. 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 w ish; you must go through some mental d isciplines." By degrees the Master awakened Ram's spirituality and the latter became one of h is foremost lay d isciples. It was Ram who introduced Narendranath to Sri Ramakr ishna. Narendra was a relative of Ram.
Manomohan at first met with considerable opposition from h is wife and other relatives, who resented h is v isits to Dakshineswar. But in the end the unself ish love of the Master triumphed over worldly affection. It was Manomohan who brought Rakhal to the Master.
--
Kedarnath Chatterji was endowed with a spiritual temperament and had tried various paths of religion, some not very commendable. When he met the Master at Dakshineswar he understood the true meaning of religion. It is said that the Master, weary of instructing devotees who were coming to him in great numbers for guidance, once prayed to the Goddess Kali: "Mother, I am tired of speaking to people. Please give power to Kedar, Gir ish, 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.
--- HAR isH
Har ish, a young man in affluent circumstances, renounced h is family and took shelter with the Master, who loved him for h is sincerity, singleness of purpose, and quiet nature. He spent h is le isure time in prayer and meditation, turning a deaf ear to the entreaties and threats of h is relatives. Referring to h is und isturbed peace of mind, the Master would say: "Real men are dead to the world though living. Look at Har ish. He is an example." When one day the Master asked him to be a little kind to h is wife, Har ish said: "You must excuse me on th is point. Th is 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
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Balaram Bose came of a wealthy Va ishnava family. From h is youth he had shown a deep religious temperament and had devoted h is time to meditation, prayer, and the study of the Va ishnava scriptures. He was very much impressed by Sri Ramakr ishna even at their first meeting. He asked Sri Ramakr ishna whether God really ex isted and, if so, whether a man could realize Him. The Master said: "God reveals Himself to the devotee who thinks of Him as h is nearest and dearest. Because you do not draw response by praying to Him once, you must not conclude that He does not ex ist. Pray to God, thinking of Him as dearer than your very self. He is much attached to H is 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 Va ishnava worship and became one of the most beloved of the d isciples. It was at h is 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 h is "marked" d isciples. Mahendra recorded in h is diary Sri Ramakr ishna's conversations with h is devotees. These are the first directly recorded words, in the spiritual h istory of the world, of a man recognized as belonging in the class of Buddha and Chr ist. The present volume is a translation of th is diary. Mahendra was instrumental, through h is 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 d isciples of Sri Ramakr ishna. He was the embodiment of the Master's ideal of life in the world, unstained by worldliness. In spite of h is intense desire to become a sannyasi, Sri Ramakr ishna asked him to live in the world in the spirit of a monk, and the d isciple truly carried out th is injunction. He was born of a poor family and even during h is boyhood often sacrificed everything to lessen the sufferings of the needy. He had married at an early age and after h is wife's death had married a second time to obey h is father's command. But he once said to h is wife: "Love on the physical level never lasts. He is indeed blessed who can give h is love to God with h is whole heart. Even a little attachment to the body endures for several births. So do not be attached to th is 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 Ramakr ishna in dead earnest. One day he heard the Master saying that it was difficult for doctors, lawyers, and brokers to make much progress in spirituality. Of doctors 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 h is chest of medicines into the Ganges. Sri Ramakr ishna 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 h is company. No sannyasi could have lived a more austere life than Durgacharan.
--- GIR isH GHOSH
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As time passed, Gir ish began to learn that the guru is the one who silently unfolds the d isciple's inner life. He became a steadfast devotee of the Master. He often loaded the Master with insults, drank in h is presence, and took liberties which astounded the other devotees. But the Master knew that at heart Gir ish was tender, faithful, and sincere. He would not allow Gir ish to give up the theatre. And when a devotee asked him to tell Gir ish to give up drinking, he sternly replied: "That is none of your business. He who has taken charge of him will look after him. Gir ish 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 Gir ish himself eventually broke the habit. Sri Ramakr ishna had strengthened Gir ish's resolution by allowing him to feel that he was absolutely free.
One day Gir ish felt depressed because he was unable to submit to any routine of spiritual d iscipline. In an exalted mood the Master said to him: "All right, give me your power of attorney. Henceforth I assume responsibility for you. You need not do anything." Gir ish heaved a sigh of relief. He felt happy to think that Sri Ramakr ishna had assumed h is spiritual responsibilities. But poor Gir ish could not then realize that He also, on h is part, had to give up h is freedom and make of himself a puppet in Sri Ramakr ishna's hands. The Master began to d iscipline him according to th is new attitude. One day Gir ish said about a trifling matter, "Yes, I shall do th is." "No, no!" the Master corrected him. "You must not speak in that egot istic manner. You should say, 'God willing, I shall do it.'" Gir ish understood. Thenceforth he tried to give up all idea of personal responsibility and surrender himself to the Divine Will. H is mind began to dwell constantly on Sri Ramakr ishna. Th is unconscious meditation in time chastened h is turbulent spirit.
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Purna was a lad of thirteen, whom Sri Ramakr ishna 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 Ramakr ishna 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
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Sri Ramakr ishna 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 h is wealth, scholarship, saintly character, and social position. But the Master found him d isappointing; for, whereas Sri Ramakr ishna expected of a saint complete renunciation of the world, Devendranath combined with h is saintliness a life of enjoyment. Sri Ramakr ishna met the great poet Michael Madhusudan, who had embraced Chr istianity "for the sake of h is stomach". To him the Master could not impart instruction, for the Divine Mother "pressed h is tongue". In addition he met Maharaja Jatindra Mohan Tagore, a titled ar istocrat of Bengal; Kr istodas Pal, the editor, social reformer, and patriot; iswar Vidyasagar, the noted philanthrop ist and educator; Pundit Shashadhar, a great champion of Hindu orthodoxy; Aswini Kumar Dutta, a headmaster, moral ist, and leader of Indian National ism; and Bankim Chatterji, a deputy mag istrate, novel ist, and essay ist, and one of the fashioners of modern Bengali prose. Sri Ramakr ishna was not the man to be dazzled by outward show, glory, or eloquence. A pundit without d iscrimination he regarded as a mere straw. He would search people's hearts for the light of God, and if that was m issing he would have nothing to do with them.
--- KR isTODAS PAL
The Europeanized Kr istodas Pal did not approve of the Master's emphas is on renunciation and said; "Sir, th is cant of renunciation has almost ruined the country. It is for th is 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 adv ise the young men of Bengal to resort only to such acts as will uplift the country." Sri Ramakr ishna gave him a searching look and found no divine light within, "You man of poor understanding!" Sri Ramakr ishna 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 Engl ish you think you have come to know the world! You appear to think you are omn iscient. Well, have you seen those tiny crabs that are born in the Ganges just when the rains set in? In th is 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 compar ison with the vastness of the universe! How far can a man advance in th is line? How many people can you save from famine? Malaria has ruined a whole province; what could you do to stop its onslaught? God alone looks after the world. Let a man first realize Him. Let a man get the authority from God and be endowed with H is power; then, and then alone, may he think of doing good to others. A man should first be purged of all egot ism. Then alone will the Bl issful Mother ask him to work for the world." Sri Ramakr ishna m istrusted philanthropy that presumed to pose as charity. He warned people against it. He saw in most acts of philanthropy nothing but egot ism, 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 D isCIPLES
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In a state of mental conflict and torture of soul, Narendra came to Sri Ramakr ishna 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 Ramakr ishna's request he sang a few songs, pouring h is whole soul into them, and the Master went into samadhi. A few minutes later Sri Ramakr ishna suddenly left h is seat, took Narendra by the hand, and led him to the screened verandah north of h is 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 into 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 m isery of humanity. Grasping Narendra's hand, he asked him to come again, alone, and very soon. Narendra was startled. "What is th is I have come to see?" he said to himself. "He must be stark mad. Why, I am the son of V iswanath Dutta. How dare he speak th is way to me?"
When they returned to the room and Narendra heard the Master speaking to others, he was surpr ised to find in h is words an inner logic, a striking sincerity, and a convincing proof of h is 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. Th is 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 Ramakr ishna was a monomaniac, and returned home rather puzzled in mind.
--
The Master wanted to train Narendra in the teachings of the non-dual istic Vedanta philosophy. But Narendra, because of h is Brahmo upbringing, considered it wholly blasphemous to look on man as one with h is Creator. One day at the temple garden he laughingly said to a friend: "How silly! Th is jug is God! Th is cup is God! Whatever we see is God! And we too are God! Nothing could be more absurd." Sri Ramakr ishna came out of h is 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 h is day's business. H is 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 h is head against the iron railings to know whether they were real. It took him a number of days to recover h is 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. Creditors were knocking at the door. Relatives who had accepted h is father's unstinted kindness now became enemies, some even bringing suit to deprive Narendra of h is 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 unself ish sympathy. Two rich women made evil proposals to him and prom ised to put an end to h is d istress; but he refused them with contempt.
--
Th is 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 Ramakr ishna 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 th is, 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 Ramakr ishna 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 h is 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 self ish ends.
--- TARAK
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Baburam Ghosh came to Dakshineswar accompanied by Rakhal, h is classmate. The Master, as was often h is custom, examined the boy's physiognomy and was sat isfied about h is 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 h is heart that dream of boyhood. Baburam was tender in body and soul. The Master used to say that he was pure to h is very bones. One day Hazra in h is usual m ischievous fashion adv ised Baburam and some of the other young boys to ask Sri Ramakr ishna for some spiritual powers and not waste their life in mere gaiety and merriment. The Master, scenting m ischief, called Baburam to h is 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 d istance. Rather realize your kinship with me and gain the key to all the treasures.
--- NIRANJAN
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Sri Ramakr ishna employed a ruse to bring Jogindra to him. As soon as the d isciple entered the room, the Master rushed forward to meet the young man. Catching hold of the d isciple's hand, he said: "What if you have married? Haven't I too married? What is there to be afraid of in that?" Touching h is own chest he said: "If th is [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 h is spirit of renunciation was re-establ ished.
--- SASHI AND SARAT
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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 w ished 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 sat isfied with anything short of that. I shall trudge on along the path till I attain that blessed state." Sri Ramakr ishna was very much pleased.
--- HARINATH
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The Master knew Hari's passion for Vedanta. But he did not w ish any of h is d isciples to become a dry ascetic or a mere bookworm. So he asked Hari to pract ise Vedanta in life by giving up the unreal and following the Real. "But it is not so easy", Sri Ramakr ishna 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 H is grace." Whereupon the Master sang a song in pra ise of grace. Hari was profoundly moved and shed tears. Later in life Hari achieved a wonderful synthes is of the ideals of the Personal God and the Impersonal Truth.
--- GANGADHAR
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Hariprasanna, a college student, v isited the Master in the company of h is friends Sashi and Sarat. Sri Ramakr ishna showed him great favour by initiating him into 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
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With h is woman devotees Sri Ramakr ishna establ ished 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 h is innate purity evoked only the noblest emotion in men and women alike. H is woman devotees often said: "We seldom looked on Sri Ramakr ishna 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 d iscipline he adv ised them to renounce lust and greed and especially warned them not to fall into the snares of men.
--- GOPAL MA
--
In April 1885 the Master's throat became inflamed. Prolonged conversation or absorption in samadhi, making the blood flow into the throat, would aggravate the pain. Yet when the annual Va ishnava festival was celebrated at Panihati, Sri Ramakr ishna attended it against the doctor's advice. With a group of d isciples 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 h is trances nor withhold from seekers the solace of h is 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. Th is (pointing to h is 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 h is 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 Bl iss!"
--
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." Th is 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 d isciples were in the hall or sitting about under the trees. Sri Ramakr ishna said to Gir ish, "Well, Gir ish, what have you seen in me, that you proclaim me before everybody as an Incarnation of God?" Gir ish was not the man to be taken by surpr ise. 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 into a spiritual mood. Hearing these words the devotees, one and all, became overwhelmed with emotion. They rushed to him and fell at h is feet. He touched them all, and each received an appropriate benediction. Each of them, at the touch of the Master, experienced ineffable bl iss. Some laughed, some wept, some sat down to meditate, some began to pray. Some saw light, some had v isions 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 d issat isfied. The Master asked what he wanted. Narendra begged for samadhi, so that he might altogether 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 ex ists 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 w ished to make Narendra h is spiritual heir. Narendra was to continue the work after Sri Ramakr ishna's passing. Sri Ramakr ishna 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 Gir ish, who was now second to none in h is spirit of renunciation. Thus the Master himself laid the foundation of the future Ramakr ishna Order of monks.
Sri Ramakr ishna was sinking day by day. H is diet was reduced to a minimum and he found it almost impossible to swallow. He wh ispered to M.: "I am bearing all th is cheerfully, for otherw ise you would be weeping. If you all say that it is better that the body should go rather than suffer th is torture, I am willing." The next morning he said to h is depressed d isciples 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 h is head on the palm of h is 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 wh isper to M., "Had th is 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 otherw ise. She will take me away lest, finding me guileless and fool ish, people should take advantage of me and persuade me to bestow on them the rare gifts of spirituality." A few minutes later he touched h is chest and said: "Here are two beings. One is She and the other is Her devotee. It is the latter who broke h is 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 th is? 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 H is devotees."
Yet one is not sure whether the Master's soul actually was tortured by th is agonizing d isease. At least during h is moments of spiritual exaltation — which became almost constant during the closing days of h is life on earth — he lost all consciousness of the body, of illness and suffering. One of h is attendants (Latu, later known as Swami Adbhutananda.) said later on: "While Sri Ramakr ishna lay sick he never actually suffered pain. He would often say: 'O mind! Forget the body, forget the sickness, and remain merged in Bl iss.' No, he did not really suffer. At times he would be in a state when the thrill of joy was clearly manifested in h is body. Even when he could not speak he would let us know in some way that there was no suffering, and th is fact was clearly evident to all who watched him. People who did not understand him thought that h is 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 th is 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 W isdom, Infinite Bl iss. In It there ex ist no delusion, no m isery, no d isease, no death, no growth, no decay.' 'The Transcendental Being and the being within are one and the same. There is one indiv isible Absolute Ex istence.'"
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 h is bed upstairs. In the depths of h is meditation Narendra felt as though a lamp were burning at the back of h is 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 h is body. He could see only h is 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 Ramakr ishna 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 th is revelation will remain under lock and key, and I shall keep the key. When you have accompl ished the Mother's work you will find the treasure again."
--
Sri Ramakr ishna said to him: "Today I have given you my all and I am now only a poor fakir, possessing nothing. By th is power you will do immense good in the world, and not until it is accompl ished will you return." Henceforth the Master lived in the d isciple.
Doubt, however, dies hard. After one or two days Narendra said to himself, "If in the midst of th is racking physical pain he declares h is 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 h is remaining strength, he d istinctly said, "He who was Rama and Kr ishna is now, in th is body, Ramakr ishna — but not in your Vedantic sense." Narendra was stricken with shame.
--- MAHASAMADHI
0.00 - Publishers Note C, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
[Lo, the Supreme Light of lights is come...]
Rig Veda, 1.113.1
0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
WHICH is ALSO FALSELY
CALLED
--
WHICH THOUGHT is ITSELF
UNTRUE
--
The number of the book is 333, as implying d is-
persion, so as to correspond with the title, "Breaks"
--
However, the "one thought is itself untrue", and
therefore its falsifications are relatively true.
--
true as is possible to human language.
The verse from Tennyson is inserted partly because
of the pun on the word "break"; partly because of the
--
above; partly because it is intensely amusing for
Crowley to quote Tennyson.
There is no joke or subtle meaning in the publ isher's
imprint.
--
achievement on the large scale, although it is com-
posed of more or less d isconnected elements. I refer
--
twenty paragraphs. The subject of each chapter is
determined more or less definitely by the Qabal istic
--
ritual of the Pentagram; 72 is a rondel with the refrain
~Shemhamphorash', the Divine name of 72 letters;
--
panegyric upon War. Sometimes the text is serious
and straightforward, sometimes its obscure oracles
--
subtly ironical or cynical. At first sight the book is a
jumble of nonsense intended to insult the reader. It
--
very seriously. Knowing what the secret actually is,
I cannot attach much importance to artificial
mysteries. Again, though the secret itself is of such
tremendous import, and though it is so simple that
I could d isclose it...in a short paragraph, I might
--
"It is interesting in th is connection to recall how it
came into my possession. It had occurred to me to
write a book `THE BOOK OF LIES, WHICH is
ALSO FALSELY CALLED BREAKS, THE
--
THOUGHT is ITSELF UNTRUE. . . .' One of
these chapters bothered me. I could not write it. I
--
The Ante Primal Triad which is
NOT-GOD
Nothing is.
Nothing Becomes.
Nothing is not.
The First Triad which is GOD
I AM.
--
The Word is broken up.
There is Knowledge.
Knowledge is Relation.
These fragments are Creation.
--
The Second Triad which is GOD
GOD the Father and Mother is concealed in Genera-
tion.
GOD is concealed in the whirling energy of Nature.
GOD is manifest in gathering: harmony: considera-
tion: the Mirror of the Sun and of the Heart.
--
COMMENTARY (The Chapter that is not a Chapter)
Th is chapter, numbered 0, corresponds to the Negative,
which is before Kether in the Qabal istic system.
The notes of interrogation and exclamation on the previous
--
The meaning of these symbols is fully explained in "The
Soldier and the Hunchback".
--
exclamation; its reference to the theogony of "Liber Leg is" is
explained in the note, but it also refers to KTE is PHALLOS
and SPERMA, and is the exclamation of wonder or ecstasy,
which is the ultimate nature of things.
NOTE
--
Th is is the negative Trinity; its three statements are, in an
ultimate sense, identical. They harmon ise Being, Becoming,
--
The statement, Nothing is Not , technically equivalent to
Something is, is fully explained in the essay called Berashith.
The rest of the chapter follows the Sephirotic system of the
--
It will be noticed that th is cosmogony is very complete; the
manifestation even of God does not appear until Tiphareth; and
--
(2) The Unbroken, absorbing all, is called Darkness.
[11]
--
To beget is to die; to die is to beget.
Cast the Seed into the Field of Night.
--
Neither of these alone is enough.
[12]
--
chapter is therefore called the Sabbath of the Goat, the
Witches' Sabbath, in which the Phallus is adored.
The chapter begins with a repetition of O! referred
to in the previous chapter. It is explained that th is triad
lives in Night, the Night of Pan, which is mystically
called N.O.X., and th is O is identified with the O in
th is word. N is the Tarot symbol, Death; and the X
or Cross is the sign of the Phallus. For a fuller com-
mentary on Nox, see Liber VII, Chapter I.
--
duality to unity, and thence to negativity, and is thus
a hieroglyph of the Great Work.
The word Pan is then explained, {Pi}, the letter of
Mars, is a hieroglyph of two pillars, and therefore
suggest duality; A, by its shape, is the pentagram,
energy, and N, by its Tarot attribution, is death.
Nox is then further explained, and it is shown that
the ultimate Trinity, O!, is supported, or fed, by the
process of death and begetting, which are the laws of
--
The identity of these two is then explained.
The Student is then charged to understand the
spiritual importance of th is physical procession in
--
It is then asserted that the ultimate letter A has two
names, or phases, Life and Death.
--
phraseology of these two lines is so conceived that the
one contains the other more than itself.
--
Hoor hath a secret fourfold name: it is Do What
Thou Wilt.(3)
--
Thy Name is holy.
Thy Kingdom is come.
Thy Will is done.
Here is the Bread.
Here is the Blood.
Bring us through Temptation!
--
The "Hawk" referred to is Horus.
The chapter begins with a comment on Liber Leg is
--
is attributed to Horus, they are called four, as above
explained; but it is only the name of Horus which is
fourfold; He himself is One.
Th is may be compared with the Qabal istic doctrine
--
It is now seen that th is Hawk is not Solar, but
Mercurial; hence the words, the Cry of the Hawk, the
--
number of the chapter, B, which is Beth the letter of
Mercury, the Magus of the Tarot, who has four
weapons, and it must be remembered that th is card is
numbered 1, again connecting all these symbols with
--
The essential weapon of Mercury is the Caduceus.
NOTE
--
The Many is as adorable to the One as the One is to
the Many. Th is is the Love of These; creation-
parturition is the Bl iss of the One; coition-
d issolution is the Bl iss of the Many.
The All, thus interwoven of These, is Bl iss.
Naught is beyond Bl iss.
The Man delights in uniting with the Woman; the
--
Gimel is the High Priestess of the Tarot. Th is
chapter gives the initiated feminine point of view; it is
therefore called the Oyster, a symbol of the Yoni. In
Equinox X, The Temple of Solomon the King, it is
explained how Masters of the Temple, or Brothers of
--
plained, and the universe is exhibited as the interplay
between these two. Th is also explains the statement in
--
It dies, it gives itself; to Thee is the fruit!
Be thou the Bride; thou shalt be the Mother here-
--
impressions, come to its perfection, is Pan.
Receive a thousand lovers; thou shalt bear but One
--
Daleth is the Empress of the Tarot, the letter of
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;
--
but breeds a masterpiece from it. Th is process is
exhibited as one aspect of the Great Work. The last
--
That is not which is.
The only Word is Silence.
The only Meaning of that Word is not.
Thoughts are false.
Fatherhood is unity d isgu ised as duality.
Peace implies war.
--
He is the letter of Aries, a Martial sign; while the
title suggests war. The ants are chosen as small busy
--
In line 1, Being is identified with Not-Being.
In line 2, Speech with Silence.
In line 3, the Logos is declared as the Negative.
Line 4 is another phrasing of the familiar Hindu
statement, that that which can be thought is not true.
In line 5, we come to an important statement, an
--
being the Holy Ghost, the semen; the human form is a
non-essential accretion of th is quintessence.
--
Kether to Chesed, and Chesed is united to the Supernal
Triad by virtue of its Phallic nature; for not only is
Amoun a Phallic God, and Jupiter the Father of All,
but 4 is Daleth, Venus, and Chesed refers to water,
from which Venus sprang, and which is the symbol of
the Mother in the Tetragrammaton. See Chapter 0,
"God the Father and Mother is concealed in genera-
tion".
But Chesed, in the lower sense, is conjoined to
Microprosopus. It is the true link between the greater
and lesser countenances, whereas Daath is the false.
Compare the doctrine of the higher and lower Manas in
--
Th is is the One and the All.
These six the Adept harmon ised, and said: Th is is the
Heart of the One and the All.
--
Th is chapter is presumably called Caviar because
that substance is composed of many spheres.
The account given of Creation is the same as that
familiar to students of the Chr istian tradition, the
--
universe. Th is folly is due to the pride of reason.
The Adept concentrates the Microcosm in Tiphareth,
--
In the next grade, the Word is re-formulated, for the
Magus in Chokmah, the Dyad, the Logos.
--
is totally unconscious of th is process, or, it might be
better to say, he recogn ises it as Nothing, in that positive
sense of the word, which is only intelligible in
Samasamadhi.
--
None are They whose number is Six:(5) else were they
six indeed.
--
for their number is 6 (1 plus 2 plus 3), the mystic
number of Binah; but they are called "None", because
--
of h is doctrine. The reference to their "living not" is
to be found in Liber 418.
--
the end". The allusion is explained in the note.
Siddartha, or Gotama, was the name of the last
--
All these were men; their Godhead is the result of
mythopoeia.
--
(7) The legend of "Chr ist" is only a corruption and
perversion of other legends. Especially of Dionysus:
--
(8) O, the last letter of Perdurabo, is Naught.
[25]
--
Mind is a d isease of semen.
All that a man is or may be is hidden therein.
Bodily functions are parts of the machine; silent,
--
tions, changeth momently, finally is dead.
Therefore is man only himself when lost to himself
in The Charioting.
--
Cheth is the Chariot in the Tarot. The Charioteer is
the bearer of the Holy Grail. All th is should be studied
--
The chapter is called "Steeped Horsehair" because
of the mediaeval tradition that by steeping horsehair
a snake is produced, and the snake is the hieroplyphic
representation of semen, particularly in Gnostic and
--
The meaning of the chapter is quite clear; the whole
race-consciousness, that which is omnipotent, omn is-
cient, omnipresent, is hidden therein.
Therefore, except in the case of an Adept, man only
--
in the orgasm, the mind is blotted out.
[27]
--
Being is the Noun; Form is the adjective.
Matter is the Noun; Motion is the Verb.
Wherefore hath Being clothed itself with Form?
--
Answer not, O silent one! For THERE is no "where-
fore", no "because".
The name of THAT is not known; the Pronoun
interprets, that is , m isinterprets, It.
Time and Space are Adverbs.
--
The Conditioned is Father of the Preposition.
The Article also marketh Div ision; but the Inter-
jeciton is the sound that endeth in the Silence.
Destroy therefore the Eight Parts of Speech; the
Ninth is nigh unto Truth.
Th is also must be destroyed before thou enterest
--
Teth is the Tarot trump, Strength, in which a woman
is represented closing the mouth of a lion.
Th is chapter is called "The Branks", an even more
powerful symbol, for it is the Scott ish, and only known,
apparatus for closing the mouth of a woman.
The chapter is formally an attack upon the parts of
speech, the interjection, the meaningless utterance of
--
is to be regarded as a lapse.
"Aum" represents the entering into the silence, as
--
but in Truth there is no bond between the Toys of
the Gods.
Th is Reason and Law is the Bond of the Great Lie.
Truth! Truth! Truth! crieth the Lord of the Abyss
--
There is no silence in that Abyss: for all that men
call Silence is Its Speech.
Th is Abyss is also called "Hell", and "The Many".
Its name is "Consciousness", and "The Universe",
among men.
But THAT which neither is silent, nor speaks, re-
joices therein.
--
There is no apparent connection between the number
of th is chapter and its subject.
--
Jod is the concealed Phallus as opposed to Tau, the
extended Phallus. Th is chapter should be studied in
the light of what is said in "Aha!" and in the Temple
of Solomon the King about the reason.
The universe is insane, the law of cause and effect
is an illusion, or so it appears in the Abyss, which is
thus identified with consciousness, the many, and both;
but within th is is a secret unity which rejoices; th is
unit being far beyond any conception.
--
Below them is a seeming duality of Chaos and
Babalon; these are called Father and Mother, but
it is not so. They are called Brother and S ister,
but it is not so. They are called Husband and
Wife, but it is not so.
The reflection of All is Pan: the Night of Pan is the
Annihilation of the All.
Cast down through The Abyss is the Light, the Rosy
Cross, the rapture of Union that destroys, that is
The Way. The Rosy Cross is the Ambassador of Pan.
How infinite is the d istance form Th is to That! Yet
All is Here and Now. Nor is there any there or Then;
for all that is, what is it but a manifestation, that is,
a part, that is, a falsehood, of THAT which is not?
Yet THAT which is not neither is nor is not That
which is!
Identity is perfect; therefore the w of Identity is
but a lie. For there is no subject, and there is no
predicate; nor is there the contradictory of either
of these things.
--
Blessed, unutterably blessed, is th is last of the
illusions; let me play the man, and thrust it from
--
Eleven is the great number of Magick, and th is
chapter indicates a supreme magical method; but it is
really called eleven, because of Liber Leg is, I, 60.
--
in its highest sense, down to Tiphareth; it is the new
and perfect cosmogony of Liber Leg is.
--
Triad is here ins isted upon.
Pan is a generic name, including th is whole system
of its manifested side. Those which are above the Abyss
--
preceding exposition. Th is reflection is immediately
contradicted, the author being a Master of the Temple.
--
is exhausted, and, with the word Amen, he enters the
supreme state.
--
IO is the cry of the lower as OI of the higher.
In figures they are 1001;(9) in letters they are Joy.(10)
For when all is equilibrated, when all is beheld from
without all, there is joy, joy, joy that is but one
facet of a diamond, every other facet whereof is
more joyful than joy itself.
--
1001, being 11{Sigma} (1-13), is a symbol of the complete
unity manifested as the many, for {Sigma} (1-13) gives the
--
13 (1 plus 3) is a higher form of 4. 4 is Amoun, the
God of generation, and 13 is 1, the Phallic unity.
Daleth is the Yoni. And 91 is AMN (Amen), a form
of the Phallus made complete through the intervention
--
of paragraph 1, and of course IO is the rapture-cry of
the Greeks.
The whole chapter is, again, a comment on Liber
leg is, 1, 28-30.
--
O thou that settest out upon The Path, false is the
Phantom that thou seekest. When thou hast it
--
effort is no more. Faster and faster dos thou fall;
thy weariness is changed into Ineffable Rest.
For there is not Thou upon That Path: thou hast
become The Way.
--
Th is chapter is perfectly clear to anyone who has
studied the career of an Adept.
The Sodom-Apple is an uneatable fruit found in the
desert.
--
The Universe is the Practical Joke of the General
at the Expense of the Particular, quoth FRATER
--
But th is is a more serious piece of psychology. In one's
advance towards a comprehension of the universe, one
--
th is is the cause of most religious controversies.
Paragraph 1, however, is Frater Perdurabo's formula-
tion of h is perception of the Universal Joke, also
described in Chapter 34. All individual ex istence is
tragic. Perception of th is fact is the essence of comedy.
"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
simultaneously, and that he himself is beyond both of
these.
And in the last paragraph it is shown that he real ises
the truth as beyond any statement of it.
--
Mighty and erect is th is Will of mine, th is Pyramid
of fire whose summit is lost in Heaven. Upon it
have I burned the corpse of my desires.
Mighty and erect is th is {Phi-alpha-lambda-lambda-omicron-sigma}
of my Will. The
seed thereof is That which I have borne within me
from Eternity; and it is lost within the Body of
Our Lady of the Stars.
--
Mighty and marvellous is th is Weakness, th is
Heaven which draweth me into Her Womb, th is
--
Th is is The Night wherein I am lost, the Love
through which I am no longer I.
--
The card 15 in the Tarot is "The Devil", the
mediaeval blind for Pan.
--
is here identified with the will. The Greek word
{Pi-upsilon-rho-alpha-mu-iota-sigma}
--
Th is chapter is quite clear, but one my remark in
the last paragraph a reference to the nature of Samadhi.
--
that which is beyond.
The formula of Samadhi is the same, from the
lowest to the highest. The Rosy-Cross is the Universal
Key. But, as one proceeds, the Cross becomes greater,
until it is the Ace, the Rose, until it is the Word.
[41]
--
THAT which hath no person, which is beyond the
changing, even beyond changelessness, what hast
--
The bird of individuality is ecstasy; so also is its
death.
In love the individuality is slain; who loves not love?
Love death therefore, and long eagerly for it.
--
Stag-Beetle is a reference the Kheph-ra, the Egyptian
God of Midnight, who bears the Sun through the
Underworld; but it is called the Stag-Beetle to emphas ise
h is horns. Horns are the universal hieroglyph of energy,
--
The 16th key of the Tarot is "The Blasted Tower".
In th is chapter death is regarded as a form of marriage.
Modern Greek peasants, in many cases, cling to Pagan
--
Deity which they have cultivated during life. Th is is "a
consummation devoutly to be w ished" (Shakespeare).
--
There is a Swan whose name is Ecstasy: it wingeth
from the Deserts of the North;it wingeth through
--
In all the Universe th is Swan alone is motionless; it
seems to move, as the Sun seems to move; such
is the weakness of our sight.
O fool! criest thou?
Amen. Motion is relative: there is Nothing that is
still.
--
Th is Swan is Aum. The chapter is inspired by
Frater P.'s memory of the wild swans he shot in the
--
In paragraphs 3 and 4 it is, however, recogn ised that
even Aum is impermanent. There is no meaning in the
word, stillness, so long as motion ex ists.
--
Verily, love is death, and death is life to come.
Man returneth not again; the stream floweth not
uphill; the old life is no more; there is a new life
that is not h is.
Yet that life is of h is very essence; it is more He
than all that he calls He.
In the silence of a dewdrop is every tendency of h is
soul, and of h is mind, and of h is body; it is the
Quintessence and the Elixir of h is being. Therein
--
Th is is the Dew of Immortality.
Let th is go free, even as It will; thou art not its
--
chapter title is obvious.
The chapter must be read in connection with
--
I the penultimate paragraph, Vindu is identified
with Amrita, and in the last paragraph the d isciple is
charged to let it have its own way. It has a will of its
own, which is more in accordance with the Cosmic Will,
than that of the man who is its guardian and servant.
[47]
--
The dappling of the deer is the sunlight in the glade;
concealed from the leopard do thou feed at thy
--
Th is is that which is written-Lurk!-in The Book
of The Law.
--
19 is the last Trump, "The Sun', which is the
representative of god in the Macrocosm, as the Phallus
is in the Microcosm.
There is a certain universality and adaptability
among its secret power. The chapter is taken from
Rudyard Kiplin's "Just So Stories".
--
but the d istinction is obvious to any clear thinker,
though not altogether so the Frater P.
--
The Universe is in equilibrium; therefore He that is
without it, though h is force be but a feather, can
--
Samson, the Hebrew Hercules, is said in the legend
to have pulled down the walls of a music-hall where he
--
The first paragraph is a corollary of Newton's First
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.
Let us create therefore without fear; for we can
create nothing that is not GOD.
[52]
--
The 21st key of the Tarot is called "The Universe",
and refers to the letter Tau, the Phallus in manifesta-
--
The universe is conceived as Buddh ists, on the one
hand, and Rational ists, on the other, would have us do;
--
The moral of th is chapter is, therefore, and exposition
of the last paragraph of Chapter 18.
It is the critical spirit which is the Devil, and gives
r ise to the appearance of evil.
--
Yet it is true; and they have th is insight because
they serve, and because they can have no personal
--
But no man is strong enough to have no interest.
Therefore the best king would be Pure Chance.
It is Pure Chance that rules the Universe; therefore,
and only therefore, life is good.
[54]
--
What man is at ease in h is Inn?
Get out.
Wide is the world and cold.
Get out.
--
in. The Way out is THE WAY.
Get out.
For OUT is Love and W isdom and Power.(12)
Get OUT.
--
In the fourth section is shown that there is no return
for one that has started on th is path.
The word OUT is then analysed, and treated as a
noun.
Besides the explanation in the note, O is the Yoni;
T, the Lingam; and U, the Hierophant; the 5th card
of the Tarot, the Pentagram. It is thus practically
identical with IAO.
The rest of the chapter is clear, for the note.
NOTES
--
Also, Speech is a symptom of Thought.
Yet, silence is but the negative side of Truth; the
positive side is beyond even silence.
Nevertheless, One True God crieth hriliu!
And the laughter of the Death-rattle is akin.
[58]
--
The Hawk is the symbol of sight; the Blindworm, of
blindness. Those who are under the dominion of reason
--
In the last paragraph is reasserted the doctrine of
Chapters 1, 8, 16 and 18.
--
25 is the square of 5, and the Pentagram has the
red colour of Geburah.
The chapter is a new and more elaborate version of
the Ban ishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
--
(14) The secret sense of these words is to be sought in
the numberation thereof.
--
The Second, who is the Fourth, the Demiurge, whom
all nations of Men call The First, is a lie grafted
upon a lie, a lie multiplied by a lie.
Fourfold is He, the Elephant upon whom the
Universe is po ised: but the carapace of the
Torto ise supports and covers all.
Th is Torto ise is sixfold, the Holy Hexagram.(15)
These six and four are ten, 10, the One manifested
--
The number of the chapter, 26, is that of Tetra-
grammaton, the manifest creator, Jehovah.
He is called the Second in relation to that which is
above the Abyss, comprehended under the title of the
--
He is really the Fourth, being in Chesed, and of
course h is nature is fourfold. Th is Four is conceived
of as the Dyad multiplied by the Dyad; falsehood con-
--
Th is chapter gives the reverse of the medal; it is the
contrast to Chapter 15.
The Sorcerer is to be identified with The Brother of
the Left Hand Path.
--
Love is all virtue, since the pleasure of love is but
love, and the pain of love is but love.
Love taketh no heed of that which is not and of that
which is.
Absence exalteth love, and presence exalteth love.
--
Love destroyeth self, uniting self with that which is
not-self, so that Love breedeth All and None in
--
is it not so?...No?...
Then thou art not lost in love; speak not of love.
--
book, Laylah, who is the ultimate feminine symbol, to
be interpreted on all planes.
But in th is chapter, little hint is given of anything
beyond physical love. It is called the Pole-Star, because
Laylah is the one object of devotion to which the author
ever turns.
--
Note that the word Laylah is the Arabic for "Night".
The author begins to identify the Beloved with the
--
the chapter is called "The Southern Cross", because,
on the physical plane, Laylah is an Australian.
[69]
--
Dreams are imperfections of sleep; even so is con-
sciousness the imperfection of waking.
--
even so is consciousness a d isorder of life.
Dreams are without proportion, without good
sense, without truth; so also is consciousness.
Awake from dream, the truth is known:(16) awake
from waking, the Truth is-The Unknown.
[70]
--
Th is chapter is to read in connection with Chapter 8,
and also with those previous chapters in which the
reason is attacked.
The allusion in the title is obvious.
Th is sum in proportion, dream: waking: : waking:
Samadhi is a favourite analogy with Frater P.,
who frequently employs it in h is holy d iscourse.
--
into motion. These IT does alway, for time is not.
So that IT does neither of these things. IT does
--
Yet ITS doing, which is no-doing, is simple and yet
complex, is neither free nor necessary.
For all these ideas express Relation; and IT, com-
prehending all Relation in ITS simplicity, is out of
all Relation even with ITSELF.
All th is is true and false; and it is true and false to
say that it is true and false.
Strain forth thine Intelligence, O man, O worthy
--
last break down, as the fetter is struck from a
slave's throat.
--
A new character is now introduce under the title of
IT, I being the secret, and T being the manifested,
--
Th is is, however, only one aspect of IT, which may
perhaps be defined as the Ultimate Reality.
IT is apparently a more exalted thing than THAT.
Th is chapter should be compared with Chapter 11;
--
contradictions is definitely inculcated.
The reason is situated in Daath, which corresponds
the the throat in human anatomy. Hence the title of the
--
The idea is that, by forcing the mind to follow, and
as far as possible to real ise, the language of Beyond
--
As soon as the reason is vanqu ished, the garotte is
removed; then the influence of the supernals (Kether,
--
descend upon Tiphareth, where the human will is
situated, and flood it with the ineffable light.
--
Consciousness is a symptom of d isease.
All that moves well moves without will.
All skillfulness, all strain, all intention is contrary to
ease.
--
and it is no longer Thou that doeth it, but It that
doeth itself through thee. Not until then is that
which is done well done.
Thus spoke FRATER PERDURABO as he leapt
--
Th is title is a mere reference to the metaphor of the
last paragraph of the chapter.
Frater P., as is well known, is a mountaineer.
Th is chapter should be read in conjunction with
--
It is a practical instruction, the g ist of which is
easily to be apprehended by comparatively short practice
--
A mantra is not being properly said as long as the
man knows he is saying it. The same applies to all other
forms of Magick.
--
A black two-headed Eagle is GOD; even a Black
Triangle is He. In H is claws He beareth a sword;
yea, a sharp sword is held therein.
Th is Eagle is burnt up in the Great Fire; yet not a
feather is scorched. Th is Eagle is swallowed up
in the Great Sea; yet not a feather is wetted. so
flieth He in the air, and lighteth upon the earth at
--
that is Ass-headed did he dare not speak.
[76]
--
33 is the number of the Last Degree of Masonry,
which was conferred upon Frater P. in the year 1900
--
Baphomet is the mysterious name of the God of the
Templars.
The Eagle described in paragraph 1 is that of the
Templars.
Th is Masonic symbol is, however, identified by
Frater P. with a bird, which is master of the four
elements, and therefore of the name Tetragrammaton.
--
successors, as is intimated by the last paragraph, which
implies knowledge of a secret worship, of which the
--
It is perhaps the Sun, the exoteric object of worship
of all sensible cults; it is not to be confused with other
objects of the mystic aviary, such as the swan, phoenix,
--
Each act of man is the tw ist and double of an hare.
Love and death are the greyhounds that course him.
--
Th is is the Comedy of Pan, that man should think
he hunteth, while those hounds hunt him.
Th is is the Tragedy of Man when facing Love and
Death he turns to bay. He is no more hare, but
boar.
--
The title is explained in the note.
The chapter needs no explanation; it is a definite
point of view of life, and recommends a course of action
--
Life is as ugly and necessary as the female body.
Death is as beautiful and necessary as the male
body.
The soul is beyond male and female as it is beyond
Life and Death.
--
What do I love? There is no from, no being, to which
I do not give myself wholly up.
--
The title "Venus of Milo" is an argument in support
of paragraphs 1 and 2, it being evident from th is
--
The female is to be regarded as having been separated
from the male, in order to reproduce the male in a
--
In the last two paragraphs there is a justification of
a practice which might be called sacred prostitution.
In the common practice of meditation the idea is to
reject all impressions, but here is an opposite practice,
very much more difficult, in which all are accepted.
Th is cannot be done at all unless one is capable of
making Dhyana at least on any conceivable thing, at
--
signs of N.O.X.; for it is not he that shall ar ise in
the Sign of is is Rejoicing.
COMMENTARY ({Lambda-Sigma})
--
of Chapter 25; 36 being the square of 6, as 25 is of %.
Th is chapter gives the real and perfect Ritual of the
--
Thought is the shadow of the eclipse of Luna.
Samadhi is the shadow of the eclipse of Sol.
The moon and the earth are the non-ego and the
ego: the Sun is THAT.
Both eclipses are darkness; both are exceeding rare;
the Universe itself is Light.
[84]
--
number, which is that of Jechidah the highest unity of
the soul.
In th is chapter, the idea is given that all limitation
and evil is an exceedingly rare accident; there can be
no night in the whole of the Solar System, except in rare
spots, where the shadow of a planet is cast by itself.
It is a serious m isfortune that we happen to live in a
tiny corner of the system, where the darkness reaches such
--
The same is true of moral and spiritual conditions.
[85]
--
Th is is the mystery.
Life!
Mind is the traitor.
Slay mind.
--
Th is is the mystery.
Tyle!
--
It is thinkable that A is not-A; to reverse th is is but
to revert to the normal.
--
which one set is absurdity, the other tru ism, a
new function of brain is establ ished.
Vague and mysterious and all indefinite are the
--
of THAT of which Reason is the blasphemy.
But without the Experience these words are the
--
in the chapter itself it is employed in the last paragraphs.
[89]
--
A red rose absorbs all colours but red; red is therefore
the one colour that it is not.
Th is Law, Reason, Time, Space, all Limitation blinds
--
All that we know of Man, Nature, God, is just that
which they are not; it is that which they throw off
as repungnant.
The HIMOG is only v isible in so far as He is imperfect.
Then are they all glorious who seem not to be glorious,
as the HIMOG is All-glorious Within?
It may be so.
--
Paragraph 1 is, of course, a well-known scientific
fact.
In paragraph 2 it is suggested analogically that all
thinkable things are similarly blinds for the Unthinkable
--
God is really so, since we can see nothing of him but
h is imperfections. :It may be yonder beggar is a King."
But these considerations are not to trouble such mind
--
(19) HIMOG is a Notariqon of the words Holy
Illuminated Man of God.
--
In V.V.V.V.V. is the Great Work perfect.
Therefore none is that pertaineth not to V.V.V.V.V.
In any may he manifest; yet in one hath he chosen
--
Also, since below the Abyss Reason is Lord, let men
seek by experiment, and not by Questionings.
--
the title is only partially explained i the note; it
means that the statements in th is chapter are to be
--
V.V.V.V.V. is the motto of a Master of the Temple
(or so much He d isclosed 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-
--
THE EQUINOX; and H is utterance is enshrined in
the sacred writings.
It is useless to enquire into H is nature; to do so leads
to certain d isaster. Authority from him is exhibited,
when necessary, to the proper persons, though in no
--
person enquiring into such matters is politely requested
to work, and not to ask questions about matters which
--
The number 41 is that of the Barren Mother.
NOTE
--
All life is choked.
Th is desert is the Abyss wherein the Universe.
The Stars are but th istles in that waste.
Yet th is desert is but one spot accursed in a world of
bl iss.
--
Th is number 42 is the Great Number of the Curse. See Liber
418, Liber 500, and the essay on the Qabalah in the Temple of
Solomon the King. Th is 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
frequently explained, the ideas and words are identical.
--
The theory of the formation of the Ego is that of the Hindus,
whose Ahamkara is itself a function of the mind, whose ego it
creates. Th is Ego is entirely divine.
Zoroaster describes God as having the head of the Hawk, and
--
Transvaluation of values is only the moral aspect of the method
of contradiction.
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 th is false ego, or rather by the thoughts which its
explosions produce. In paragraph 4 th is is expanded to a
macrocosmic plane.
--
inhabitants, not of th is desert; their abode is not th is universe.
They come from the Great Sea, Binah, the City of the Pyramids.
V.V.V.V.V. is indicated as one of these travellers; He is
described as a camel, not because of the connotation of the French
form of th is word, but because "camel" is in hebrew Gimel, and
Gimel is the path leading from Tiphareth to Kether, uniting
Microprosopus and Macroprosopus, i.e. performing the Great
--
The card Gimel in the Tarot is the High Priestess, the Lady of
Initiation; one might even say, the Holy Guardian Angel.
--
Death is the veil of Life, and Life of Death; for both
are Gods.
Th is is that which is written: "A feast for Life, and
a greater feast for Death!" in THE BOOK OF
--
The blood is the life of the individual: offer then
blood!
--
In the last paragraph, the reason of th is is explained;
it is because such sacrifices come under the Great Law
of the Rosy Cross, the giving-up of the individuality,
--
By "the wheel spinning in the spire" is meant the
manifestation of magical force, the spermatozoon in the
--
Thy reign is come: Thy will is done.
Here is the Bread; here is the Blood.
Bring me through midnight to the Sun!
--
"There is no grace: there is no guilt:
Th is is the Law: DO WHAT THOU WILT!"
He strikes Eleven times upon the Bell, and cries
--
Th is is the special number of Horus; it is the Hebrew
blood, and the multiplication of the 4 by the 11, the
--
idea of "Pelican", the bird, which is fabled to feeds its
young from the blood of its own breast. Yet the two
--
is the more accurate symbol.
Th is chapter is explained in Chapter 62.
It would be improper to comment further upon a
--
may safely assume, ought, it is hardly question-
able, almost certainly-poor hacks! let them be
--
Proof is only possible in mathematics, and mathe-
matics is only a matter of arbitrary conventions.
And yet doubt is a good servant but a bad master; a
perfect m istress, but a nagging wife.
"White is white" is the lash of the overseer: "white
is black" is the watchword of the slave. The Master
takes no heed.
--
the more certain it is that I only assert a limitation.
I slept with Faith, and found a corpse in my arms on
--
The title of th is chapter is drawn from paragraph 7.
We now, for the first time, attack the question of
--
mended is sceptic ism, but a sceptic ism under control.
Doubt inhibits action, as much as faith binds it. All
--
woman is superior to man, and that all men are born
equal.
--
a thing is true or not: he uses truth and falsehood in-
d iscriminately, to serve h is ends. Slaves consider him
--
is relative, and in the last paragraph we see how
sceptic ism keeps the mind fresh, whereas faith dies in
--
The cause of sorrow is the desire of the One to the
Many, or of the Many to the One. Th is 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.
The desire of the moth for the star at least saves him
--
The title of th is chapter is best explained by a refer-
ence to M istinguette and Mayol.
It would be hard to decide, and it is fortunately un-
necessary even to d iscuss, whether the d istinction of
their art is the cause, result, or concomitant of their
private peculiarities.
--
perfection is easily attained soon ceases to amuse,
although in the beginning its fascination is so violent.
Witness the tremendous, but transitory, vogue of
--
fection is impossible never cease to attract.
The lesson of the chapter is thus always to r ise
hungry from a meal, always to violate on's own nature.
Keep on acquiring a taste for what is naturally
repugnant; th is is an unfailing source of pleasure, and
it has a real further advantage, in destroying the
--
The last of these facts is the one of which I am most
certain.
--
The allusion in the title is not quite clear, though it
may be connected with the penultimate paragraph.
--
The penultimate paragraph is introduced by way of
repose. Cynic ism is a great cure for over-study.
There is a great deal of cynic ism in th is book, in one
place and another. It should be regarded as Angostura
--
flower of virginity is esteemed by the pandar.
Neglect not the dawn-meditation!
--
Th is chapter is perfectly simple, and needs no
comment whatsoever.
--
But "mome" is Par isian slang for a young girl,
and "rathe" O.E. for early. "The rathe primrose"-
--
Seven letters hath Her holiest name; and it is
A B
--
B A (Drawn upon th is page is the
77 77 Sigil of BABALON.)
--
Th is is the Seal upon the Ring that is on the Fore-
finger of IT: and it is the Seal upon the Tombs of
them whom She hath slain.
Here is W isdom. Let Him that hath Understanding
count the Number of Our Lady; for it is the
Number of a Woman; and Her Number is
An Hundred and Fifty and Six.
--
49 is the square of 7.
7 is the passive and feminine number.
The chapter should be read in connection with Chapter 31
--
The chapter heading, the Waratah, is a voluptuous scarlet
flower, common in Australia, and th is connects the chapter
with Chapters 28 and 29; but th is is only an allusion, for
the subject of the chapter is OUR LADY BABALON,
who is conceived as the feminine counterpart of IT.
Th is does not agree very well with the common or orthodox
theogony of Chapter 11; but it is to be explained by the
dithyrambic nature of the chapter.
In paragraph 3 NO MAN is of course NEMO, the
Master of the Temple, Liber 418 will explain most of the
--
to above. There is only one symbol, but th is symbol has
many names: of those names BABALON is the holiest.
It is the name referred to in Liber Leg is, 1, 22.
It will be noticed that the figure, or sigil, of BABALON
is a seal upon a ring, and th is ring is upon the forefinger
of IT. Th is identifies further the symbol with itself.
--
a border, is the official seal of the A.'.A.'. Compare Chapter
3.
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.
In connection with the number 49, see Liber 418, the
--
in Chapter 16. It is a merely literary touch.
the chapter is a resolution of the universe into
Tetragrammaton; God the macrocosm and the micro-
--
subject is appropriately doubt.
The title of the chapter is borrowed from the health-
giving and fascinating sport of fox-hunting, which
--
Soldier and the Hunchback" of which it is in some sort
an epitome.
Its meaning is sufficiently clear, but in paragraphs
6 and 7 it will be noticed that the identification of the
--
Goat of the Sabbath. In other words, a state is reached
in which destruction is as much joy as creation.
(Compare Chapter 46.)
Beyond that is a still deeper state of mind, which is
THAT.
--
from the Wrath that is fallen upon you?
O Babblers, Prattlers, Talkers, Loquacious Ones,
--
Ap is the Redeemer to fury, learn first what is
Work! and THE GREAT WORK is not so far
beyond!
--
52 is BN, the number of the Son, Osir is-Ap is, the
Redeemer, with whom the Master (Fra. P.) identifies
--
but rather to the fact that 91 is the number of Amen,
implying the completeness of h is work.
In the last paragraph is a paranomasia. "To chew
the red rag" is a phrase for to talk aimlessly and per-
s istently, while it is notorious that a red cloth will excite
the rage of a bull.
--
Th is SPRING is threefold; of water, but also of steel,
and of the seasons.
Also th is PADDOCK is the Toad that hath the
jewel between h is eyes-Aum Mani Padmen
--
A dowser is one who pract ises divination, usually with
the object of finding water or minerals, by means of the
--
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
--
phallus, for it is not only a source of water, but highly
elastic, while the reference to the seasons alludes to the well-
--
souls, is identified with the toad, which
"Ugly and venomous,
--
which is highly significant; the word "lives" excluding the
mineral kingdom, the word "moves" the vegetable kingdom,
--
th is seems to suggest that th is "toad" is the Yoni; the
suggestion is further strengthened by the concluding phrase
in brackets, "Keep us from evil", since, although it is the
place of life, the means of grace, it may be ruinous.
--
Th is is the Report of the Sojourners: THE WORD
was LOVE;(23) and its number is An Hundred and
Eleven.
Then said each AMO;(24) for its number is An Hundred
and Eleven.
--
is AN Hundred and Eleven.
Each called moreover on the Goddess NINA,(26) for
Her number is An Hundred and Eleven.
Yet with all th is went The Work awry; for THE
WORD OF THE LAW is {Theta-Epsilon-Lambda-Eta-Mu-Alpha}.
[118]
--
each Master-Mason is attended by 5 Fellow-Crafts,
and each Fellow-Craft by 3 Apprentices, as if the
--
The moral of the chapter is apparently that the
mother-letter {Aleph} is an inadequate solution of the Great
Problem. {Aleph} is identified with the Yoni, for all the
symbols connected with it in th is place are feminine,
but {Aleph} is also a number of Samadhi and mystic ism, and
the doctrine is therefore that Magick, in that highest
sense explained in the Book of the Law, is the truer
key.
--
(25) The trowel is shaped like a diamond or Yoni.
L=30, A=1, P=80=111
--
here: I seek d istraction there: but th is is all my
truth, that I who love have lost; and how may I
--
Thine Age is written Rage!
O my darling! We should not have spent Ninety
--
The "drooping sunflower" is the heart, which needs
the divine light.
--
in paragraph 2, not only is the Divine Unity destroyed
but Daath, instead of being the Child of Chokmah and
--
The only sense which abides is that of loss, and the
craving to retrieve it. In paragraph 3 it is seen that th is
is impossible, owing (paragraph 4) to h is not having
made proper arrangements to recover the original
--
In paragraph 5 it is shown that th is is because of
allowing enjoyment to cause forgetfulness of the really
--
The number 90 is the last paragraph is not merely
fact, but symbol ism; 90 being the number of Tzaddi,
--
butterflies. The pole-axe is recommended instead of
the usual razor, as a more vigorous weapon. One
--
is is in Her Millions-of-Names, All-Mother,
Genetrix-Meretrix!
Yet holier than all These to me is LAYLAH, night
and death; for Her do I blaspheme alike the finite
--
harlot whom he loveth not. For it is LAYLAH that
he loveth...................................
And yet who knoweth which is Crowley, and which is
FRATER PERDURABO?
--
555 is HADIT, HAD spelt in full. 156 is
BABALON.
In paragraph 4 is the g ist of the chapter, Laylah
being again introduced, as in Chapters 28, 29, 49 and
--
The exoteric blasphemy, it is hinted i the last
paragraph, may be an esoteric arcanum, for the Master
of the Temple is interested in Malkuth, as Malkuth is
in Binah; also "Malkuth is in Kether, and Kether in
Malkuth"; and, to the Ips issimus, d issolution in the
--
Dirt is matter in the wrong place.
Thought is mind in the wrong place.
Matter is mind; so thought is dirt.
Thus argued he, the W ise One, not mindful that all
place is wrong.
For not until the PLACE is perfected by a T saith
he PLACET.
--
the Rose the Cross is a dry stick.
Worship then the Rosy Cross, and the Mystery of
--
should not be One except in so far as it is Two.
I am glad that LAYLAH is afar; no doubt clouds
love.
--
the ornithorhynchus is both bird and beast; it is also
an Australian animal, like Laylah herself, and was
--
Th is chapter is an apology for the universe.
Paragraphs 1-3 repeat the familiar arguments
--
"place" is perfected by "t"-as it were, Yoni by Lingam
-we get the word "placet", meaning "it pleases".
Paragraphs 6 and 7 explain th is further; it is
necessary to separate things, in order that they might
rejoice in uniting. See Liber Leg is I, 28-30, which is
paraphrased in the penultimate paragraph.
In the last paragraph th is doctrine is interpreted
in common life by a paraphrase of the familiar and
--
(It is to be observed that the philosopher having first
committed the syllog istic error quatern is terminorum,
--
non d istributia medii. It is possible that considerations
with Sir Wm. Hamilton's qualification (or quantifica-
--
th is book is evidently written.)
[125]
--
There is nothing movable or immovable under the
firmament of heaven on which I may write the
--
utmost Caverns and Vaults of Eternity, there is
no word to express even the first wh isper of the
--
Haggai, a notorious Hebrew prophet, is a Second
Officer in a Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons.
--
is justly celebrated, as being in reality the expression of
th is feeling.
Paragraph 2 is a reference to the Obligation of an
Entered Apprentice Mason.
--
In paragraph 7 the agony is broken up by the
sardonic or cynical laughter to which we have previously
--
There is no help-but hotch pot!-in the skies
When Astacus sees Crab and Lobster r ise.
--
is loss of the stability of earth.
Matter and sense and mind have had their day:
--
My certainty that destiny is "good"
Rests on its picking me for Buddhahood.
--
The title is a euphem ism for homo sapiens.
The crab and the lobster are higher types of crustacae
--
The chapter is a short essay in poetic form on
Determin ism. It hymns the great law of Equilibrium
--
does not agree with Doctor Pangloss, that "all is for
the best in the best of all possible worlds". Nor does the
--
"Times is cruel 'ard".
[129]
--
a caste, must be thrown off; death is the penalty
of failure. As it is written: In the hour of success
sacrifice that which is dearest to thee unto the
Infernal Gods!
--
every new code there is hope. Provided always that
the code is not changed because it is too hard, but
because if is fulfilled.
The dead dog floats with the stream; in puritan
--
and sinners; because h is nature is ascetic.
O if everyman did No Matter What, provided that it
is the one thing that he will not and cannot do!
[130]
--
The title is explained in the note.
The number of the chapter may refer to the letter
--
the point of the sacred lance into the Holy Grail, is
d istingu ished from its m isinterpretation by modern
--
of its function by the unworthy. Sex is a sacrament.
The word virtus means "the quality of manhood".
Modern "virtue" is the negation of all such qualities.
In paragraph 3, however, we see the penalty of
--
from the absolute is part of the content of that con-
sciousness.
--
over Aleph in Ain, that is O.(29)
OP-us, the Work! the OP-ening of THE EYE!(30)
--
The "fool" is the Fool of the Tarot, whose number is 0, but refers the the le
tter
--
A fool's knot is a kind of knot which, although it has the appearance of a kn
ot, is
not really a knot, but pulls out immediately.
--
Paragraph 1 calls upon the Fool of the Tarot, who is to be referred to Ips iss
imus,
--
The word Naught-y suggests not only that the problem is sexual, but does not
really
--
Th is idea, "I must give up", I owe, is naturally completed by I pay, and the
sound of the word "pay" suggest the Hebrew letter Pe (see Liber XVI), which
--
I Hebrew, the letter which follows O is P; i therefore follows Ayin, the Devi
of the Tarot.
AYIN is spelt O I N, thus replacing the A in A I N by an O, the letter of the
Devil, or Pan, the phallic God.
--
completion of the Yoni by the Lingam, which is followed by the complete d issolu
tion
--
philosophy, it is said that Shiva, the Destroyer, is asleep, and that when he o
pens
h is eye the universe is destroyed-another synonym, therefore, for the accompl is
h-
ment of the Great Work. But the "eye" of Shiva is also h is Lingam. Shiva is
himself the Mahalingam, which unites these symbol isms. The opening of the eye,
--
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.
--
eye that weeps" is a poetic Arab name for the lingam).
The doctrine is that the Great Work should be accompl ished without creating n
ew
--
Death implies resurrection; the illusion is reborn, as the Scythe of Death in
the
Tarot has a crosspiece. Th is is in connection with the Hindu doctrine, express
ed
--
minute and a half. That is how you must know the Qabalah.)
NOTE
(28) Oe = island, a common symbol of Nibbana.
(29) {Vau-Yod-Aleph} Ain. {Vau-Yod-Ayin} Ayin.
--
Th is chapter is itself a comment on Chapter 44.
NOTE
--
"Where is the Mystic Grace?" sayest thou?
Who told thee, man, that LAYLAH is not Nuit, nd
I hadit?
--
The word "see-saw" is significant, almost a comment
upon th is chapter. To the Master of the Temple
--
the many is again transmuted to the one. Solve et
Coagula.
--
Its pinnacle is-not to be consoled!
"And though I sleep with Janefore and Eleanor
--
64 is the number of Mercury, and of the intelligence
of that planet, Din and Doni.
Th moral of the chapter is that one wants liberty,
although one may not w ish to exerc ise it: the author
--
fight, but, by Jingo, if we do-") Th is is h is meaning
towards h is attitude to complete freedom of speech and
--
Lily of white and gold. In th is Lily is all honey,
in th is Lily that flowereth at the midnight. In
th is Lily is all perfume; in th is Lily is all music.
And it enfolded me."
--
65 is the number of Adonai, the Holy Guardian
Angel; see Liber 65, Liber Konx Om Pax, and other
--
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.
--
"Say: God is One." Th is I obeyed: for a thousand
and one times a night for one thousand nights and
--
Al-lah is only sixty-six; but LAYLAH counteth
up to Seven and Seventy.(35)
--
66 is the number of Allah; the praying mant is is a
blasphemous grasshopper which caricatures the pious.
--
reasonings given in Chapter 56 and 63. She is
identified with N.O.X. by the quotation from Liber 65.
--
(34) Laylah is the Arabic for night.
(35) A L L H = 1 + 30 + 30 + 5 = 66. L + A + I
--
Light is my wallet, and my heart is also light; and
yet I know that the clouds will gather closer for
--
Th is 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.
--
At four o'clock there is hardly anybody in Rumpel-
mayer's.
--
at Rumpelmayer's is great, and the Mousse Noix
is like Nepthys for perfection.
Also there are little meringues with cream and
--
the Children of israel in the Wilderness.
The author laments the failure of h is m ission to
--
Th is is the Holy Hexagram.
Plunge from the height, O God, and interlock with
--
The Red Triangle is the descending tongue of grace;
the Blue Triangle is the ascending tongue of
prayer
--
WORK is accompl ished in Silence. And behold is
not that Word equal to Cheth, that is Cancer.
whose Sigil is {Cancer}?
Th is Work also eats up itself, accompl ishes its own
end, nour ishes the worker, leaves no seed, is per-
fect in itself.
--
The key to the understanding of th is chapter is given
in the number and the title, the former being intelligible
--
gram, and is a critic ism of, or improvement upon, it.
In the ordinary Hexagram, the Hexagram of nature,
the red triangle is upwards, like fire, and the blue
triangle downwards, like water. In the magical hexa-
gram th is is revered; the descending red triangle is
that of Horus, a sign specially revealed by him per-
sonally, at the Equinox of the Gods. (It is the flame
desending upon the altar, and licking up the burnt
--
since blue is the colour of devotion, and the triangle,
kinetically considered, is the symbol of directed force.
In the first three paragraphs th is formation of the
hexagram is explained; it is a symbol of the mutual
separation of the Holy Guardian Angel and h is client.
In the interlocking is indicated the completion of the
work.
--
tongues is introduced.
In paragraph 5 the symbol ism of tongues is further
developed. Abrahadabra is our primal example of an
interlocked word. We assume that the reader has
--
FRATER PERDURABO is of the Sanhedrim of the
Sabbath, say men; He is the Old Goat himself,
say women.
--
But FRATER PERDURABO is nothing but AN
EYE; what eye none knoweth.
--
for the play of the Universe is the pleasure of
FRATER PERDURABO.
--
70 is the number of the letter Ain, the Devil in the
Tarot.
--
Hebrew is Oin, 70.
The "gnarled oak" and the "glacier torrent" refer
--
I paragraph 7 is seen the meaning of the chapter;
the obscene and d istorted character of much of the
universe is a whim of the Creator.
[151]
--
For mind and body alike there is no purgative like
Pranayama, no purgative like Pranayama.
--
alike!-there is, there is, there is no purgative, no
purgative like Pranayama-Pranayama!-Prana-
yama! yea, for mind and body alike there is no
purgative, no purgative, no purgative (for mind
--
Th is chapter is a plain statement of fact, put in
anthem form for emphas is.
The title is due to the circumstances of the early
piety of Frater Perdurabo, who was frequently
--
tri-lateral names are formed, the sum of which is
Tetragrammaton; th is is the great and mysterious
Divided Name; by adding the terminations Yod He,
--
universe is destroyed. Th is statement means the same
as that of the Hindus, that the effective utterance of
--
Thoth, the god of Magick, is the inventor of speech;
Chr ist is the Logos.
Lines 1-4 are now clear.
--
white is destroyed, it leaves black; yet black ex ists. So
that in that case at least one known phenomenon of th is
universe is identical with one of that." Vain word!
The logician and h is logic are alike involved in the
--
Lines 8-11 indicate that th is fact is the essential one
about Shivadarshana.
The title is explained by the intentionally blasphemous
puns and colloquial isms of lines 9 and 10.
--
Ay! all thine aspiration is to death: death is the
crown of all thine aspiration. Triple is the cord of
silver moonlight; it shall hang thee, O Holy One,
--
Universe is but the Coffin-Worm!
[156]
--
The title of the chapter is borrowed from the well-known lines of Rudyard
Kipling:
"But the comm issariat camel, when all is said and done,
'E's a devil and an awstridge and an orphan-child in one."
--
Initiation is not a simple phenomenon. Any given initiation must take place
on several planes, and is not always conferred on all of these simultaneously.
Intellectual and moral perception of truth often, one might almost say usually,
--
Asana. there is perhaps a sardonic reference to rigor mort is, 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
Zelator is used because the Zelator of the A.'.A.'. has to pass an examination
in Asana before he becomes eligible for the grade of Practicus. The ten days
--
Paragraph 4 identifies the reward of initiation with death; it is a cessation
of all that we call life, in a way in which what we call death is not. 3, silv
er,
--
since gimel is the Path that leads from the Microcosm in tiphareth to the
Macrocosm in Kether.
--
Unt is not only the Hindustani for Camel, but the usual termination of the
third person plural of the present tense of Latin words of the Third and
--
The reason for thus addresing the reader is that he has now transcended the
first and second persons. Cf. Liber LXV, Chapter III, vv. 21-24, and
--
to be a bundle of impressions. For th is is the point on the Path of Gimel when
he is actually crossing the Abyss; the student must consult the account of th is
given in "The Temple of Solomon the King".
The Ego is but "the ghost of a non-Ego", the imaginary focus at which the
non-Ego becomes sensible.
--
(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".
(37) UNT, Hindustani for Camel. I.e. Would that BABALON might look
--
is there no end to th is immortal ache
That haunts me, haunts me sleeping or awake?
--
Still, the first step is not so far away:-
The Mauretania sails on Saturday!
--
Carey Street is well known to prosperous Hebrews
and poor Engl ishmen as the seat of the Bankruptcy
--
indicated in various chapters. It is quite conventional
mystic ism.
--
is intellectually aware of the severity of the whole
course. You must give up the world for love, the
material for the moral idea, before that, in its turn, is
surrendered to the spiritual. And so on. Th is is a
Laylah-chapter, but in it Laylah figures as the mere
--
Th is wavering is the root of all comprom ise, and so
of all good sense.
--
Now is th is well or ill?
Emphas ise gift, then man, then spend, then seventy
--
The title is explained in the note, but also alludes to
paragraph 1, the plover's egg being often contemporary
--
Paragraph 1 means that change of diet is pleasant;
vanity pleases the mind; the idee fixe is a sign of
insanity. See paragraphs 4 and 5.
Paragraph 6 puts the question, "Then is sanity or
insanity desirable?" The oak is weakened by the ivy
which clings around it, but perhaps the ivy keeps it
--
it, absurd that the the text of th is book, composed as it is
of Engl ish, simple, austere, and terse, should need a
--
Laylah is again the mere woman.
NOTE
--
At first sight the prose of th is chapter, though there is only one d issyllabl
e in
it, appears difficult; but th is is a glamour cast by Maya. It is a compendium
of
--
But all th is is a glamour cast by Maya; the real meaning of the prose of th is
chapter is as follows:
No, some negative conception beyond the IT spoken of in Chapters 31, 49
--
But all th is is again only a glamour of Maya, as previously observed in the
text (Chapter 31). All th is is true and false, and it is true and false to say
that
it is true and false.
The prose of th is chapter combines, and of course denies, all these meanings,
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 th is chapter is probably the best short cut to Nibbana.
The thought of the Master in th is chapter is exceptionally lofty.
That th is is the true meaning, or rather use, of th is chapter, is evident fro
the poetry.
--
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
--
critic ism of metaphysics as such, and th is is doubtless one of its many sub-
meanings.
--
THROUGH MATTER: AS IT is WRITTEN: AN
HE-GOAT ALSO
--
77 is the number of Laylah (LAILAH), to whom th is
chapter is wholly devoted.
The first section of the title is an analys is of 77 considered
as a mystic number.
--
Through matter, because 77 is written in Hebrew Ayin
Zayin (OZ), and He-Goat, the symbol of matter, Capri-
cornus, the Devil of the Tarot; which is the picture of the
Goat of the Sabbath upon an altar, worshipped by two other
--
th is chapter, Laylah is herself not devoid of "Devil", but,
as she habitually remarks, on being addressed in terms
--
The text need no comment, but it will be noticed that it is
much shorter that the title.
Now, the Devil of the Tarot is the Phallus, the Redeemer,
and Laylah symbol ises redemption to Frater P. The
number 77, also, interpreted as in the title, is the redeeming
force.
The ratio of the length of title and text is the key to the
true meaning of the chapter, which is, that Redemption is
really as simple as it appears complex, that the names (or
--
former. Th is chapter is therefore an apology, were one
needed, for the Book of Lies itself. In these few simple
--
moved it first. [There is no first or last.}
And lo! thou art past through the Abyss.
--
The number of th is chapter is that of the cards of the
Tarot.
The title of th is chapter is a pun of the phrase "weal
and woe". It means motion and rest. The moral is the
conventional mystic one; stop thought at its source!
--
the third refer to the universe as it is; but the wheel of
the Tarot is not only th is, but represents equally the
Magickal Path.
Th is practice is therefore given by Frater P. to
h is pupils; to treat the sequence of the cards as cause
--
reminds the student that the universe is not to be
contemplated as a phenomenon in time.
--
Nature is wasteful; but how well She can afford it!
Nature is false; but I'm a bit of a liar myself.
Nature is useless; but then how beautiful she is!
Nature is cruel; but I too am a Sad ist.
The game goes on; it y have been too rough for
--
the title of th is chapter is a place frequented by
Frater P. until it became respectable.
The chapter is a rebuke to those who can see nothing
but sorrow and evil in the universe.
--
men of courage. The plea that "love is sorrow", because
its ecstasies are only transitory, is contemptible.
Paragraph 5. Coote is a blackmailer exposed by The
Equinox. The end of the paragraph refers to Catullus,
--
uncle into Harpocrates. It is a subtle way for Frater P.
to ins ist upon h is virility, since otherw ise he could not
--
The last paragraph is a quotation. In Par is,
Negroes are much sought after by sportive ladies. Th is
is therefore presumably intended to assert that even
women may enjoy life sometimes.
The word "Sad ist" is taken from the famous Marqu is
de Sade, who gave supreme literary form to the joys of
--
The price of ex istence is eternal warfare.(39)
Speaking as an Ir ishman, I prefer to say: The price
of eternal warfare is ex istence.
And melancholy as ex istence is, the price is well
worth paying.
is there is a Government? then I'm agin it! To Hell
with the bloody Engl ish!
--
rowdy Ir ishman. he is no thin-lipped prude, to seek
salvation in unmanly self-abnegation; no Creeping
--
"New Thought ist" is only Old Eunuch writ small.
Paragraph 2 gives the very struggle for life, which
--
(39) isVD, the foundation scil. of the universe = 80
= P, the letter of Mars.
--
your brain is too dense for any known explosive
to affect it.
--
The title is the name of one of the authors of the affair
of the Haymarket, in Chicago. See Frank Harr is,
--
The last bitter sentence is terribly true; the personal
liberty of the Russian is immensely greater than that of
the Engl ishman. The latest Radical devices for
--
The only solution of the Social Problem is the
creation of a class with the true patriarchal feeling,
--
"There is no I, no joy, no permanence"?
Witch-moon of blood, eternal ebb and flow
--
Th is chapter is called Imperial Purple
and A Punic War.
--
Th is poem, inspired by Jane Cheron, is as simple
as it is elegant.
The poet asks, in verse 1, How can we baffle the
--
In verse 2, he shows that death is impotent against
life.
--
Th is is, to accept things as they are, and to turn
your whole energies to progress on the Path.
--
Ay! shall he not do so? he knows that the Many is
Naught; and having Naught, enjoys that Naught
--
The subject of the chapter is consequently corollary
to Chapters 79 and 80, the ethics of Adept life.
--
is no longer afraid of the Many.
Paragraph 4. See berashith.
--
Paragraph 6. With th is commentary there is no
further danger, and the warning becomes superfluous.
--
sun is not for him, nor the flowers, nor the voices
of the birds; for he is past beyond all these. Yea,
verily, oft-times he is weary; it is well that the
weight of the Karma of the Infinite is with him.
Therefore is he glad indeed; for he hath fin ished THE
WORK; and the reward concerneth him no whit.
--
the avalanche does not fall because it is tired of staying
on the mountain, or in order to crush the Alps below it,
--
It is the sun and its own weight that loosen it.
So, also, is the act of the Adept. "Delivered from the
lust of result, he is every way perfect."
Paragraphs 1 and 2. By "devotion to Frater Per-
durabo" is not meant sycophancy, but intelligent
reference and imaginative sympathy. Put your mind
--
health is not robust.
All other thoughts are surely symptoms of d isease.
--
What better proof of the fact that all thought is
d is-ease?
--
The chapter is perfectly simple and needs no com-
ment.
--
is not its name ABRAHADABRA?
I. the unsullied ever-flowing air.
--
woven on Its inv isible design, is
{Alpha-Iota-Theta-Eta-Rho}.
--
The title is the Sanskrit for That, in its sense of "The Ex isting".
Th is chapter is an attempt to replace Elohim by a more
sat isfactory hieroglyph of the elements.
The best attribution of Elohim is Aleph, Air; Lamed, Earth;
He, Spirit; Yod, Fire; Mem, Water. But the order is not good;
Lamed is not sat isfactory for Earth, and Yod too spiritual ised a
form of Fire. (But see Book 4, part III.)
Paragraphs 1-6. Out of Nothing, Nothing is made. The word
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,
since Mars is the ruler of Scorpio: the virginity of I suits Air
and Water, elements which in Magick are closely interwoven:
H, the letter of of breath, is suitable for Spirit; Abrahadabra is
called the name of Spirit, because it is cheth: L is Earth, green
and fertile, because Venus, the greenness, fertility, and earthiness
of things is the Lady of Libra, Lamed.
In paragraph 7 we turn to the so-called Jetziratic attribution
--
Tibetans, Chinese and Japanese. Fire is the Foundation, the
central core, of things; above th is forms a crust, tormented
--
Such is the globe; but all th is is a mere strain in the aethyr,
{Alpha-Iota-Theta-Eta-Rho}. Here is a new Pentagrammaton, presumably suitable
for another analys is of the elements; but after a different manner.
Alpha ({Alpha}) is Air; Rho ({Rho}) the Sun; these are the Spirit and the
Son of Chr istian theology. In the midst is the Father, expressed
as Father-and-Mother. I-H (Yod and He), Eta ({Eta}) being used
--
has been impregnated by the Spirit; it is the rough breathing and
not the soft. The centre of all is Theta ({Theta}), which was originally
written as a point in a circle ({Sun}), the sublime hieroglyph of the
--
Th is word {Alpha-Iota-Theta-Eta-Rho} (Aethyr) is therefore a perfect hierogly
ph
--
There is a d ish of sharks' fins and of sea-slug, well set
in birds' nests...oh!
Also there is a souffle most exqu isite of Chow-Chow.
These did I dev ise.
--
Th is chapter is technically one of the Laylah chapters.
It means that, however great may be one's own
--
The Sigil is taken from a Gnostic tal isman, and
refers to the Sacrament.
--
is nothing; but here is an hundred thousand
pounds.
--
A SUCKER is BORN EVERY MINUTE.
[186]
--
The term "gold bricks" is borrowed from American
finance.
The chapter is a setting of an old story.
A man advert ises that he could tell anyone how to
--
The word "sucker" is borrowed from American
finance.
The moral of the chapter is, that it is no good trying
to teach people who need to be taught.
--
That, too, is w ise; for since I am annoyed, I could
not write even a reasonably decent lie.
--
all is right." 89 is Body-that which annoys-and
the Angel of the Lord of Despair and Cruelty.
--
in every land that is under the dominion of the
Sun, and I have sailed the seas from pole to pole.
Now do I lift up my voice and testify that all is
vanity on earth, except the love of a good woman,
--
that in heaven all is vanity (for I have journeyed
oft, and sojourned oft, in every heaven), except the
--
that beyond heaven and earth is the love of OUR
LADY NUIT.
--
ANd at THE END is SHE that was LAYLAH, and
BABALON, and NUIT, being...
--
Th is chapter is a sort of final Confession of Faith.
It is the unification of all symbols and all planes.
The End is expressible.
[191]
--
The "Heikle" is to be d istingu ished from the
"Huckle", which latter is defined in the late Sir W.S.
Gilbert's "Prince Cherry-Top".
--
But its general nature is that of a certain minute
whiteness, appearing at the extreme end of great
--
It is a good title for the last chapter of th is book, and
it also symbol ises the eventual coming out into the light
--
91 is the numberation of Amen.
The chapter cons ists of an analys is of th is word, but
--
if to imply th is: The final Mystery is always insoluble.
FIN is.
--
is WRITTEN: AN HE-GOAT ALSO.
78. Wheel and-Woa!
0.00 - THE GOSPEL PREFACE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
IN THE H isTORY 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 autobiographies of the greatest value.
But, all doctrinal writing is in some measure formal and impersonal, while the autobiographer tends to omit what he regards as trifling matters and suffers from the further d isadvantage 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 d isciples who, in most cases, have proved themselves singularly incompetent as reporters and biographers. Hence the special interest attaching to th is enormously detailed account of the daily life and conversations of Sri Ramakr ishna.
"M", as the author modestly styles himself, was peculiarly qualified for h is task. To a reverent love for h is 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 real istic way. Making good use of h is 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, th is fidelity and th is wealth of detail are sometimes a trifle d isconcerting; for the social, religious and intellectual frames of reference within which Sri Ramakr ishna did h is thinking and expressed h is feelings were entirely Indian. But after the first few surpr ises 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 Ramakr ishna'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 d iscussions of the oddest aspects of Hindu mythology give place to the most profound and subtle utterances about the nature of Ultimate Reality, is in itself a liberal, education in humility, tolerance and suspense of judgment. We must be grateful to the translator for h is 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.
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The Gospel of Sri Ramakr ishna is the Engl ish translation of the Sri Sri Rmakr ishna Kathmrita, the conversations of Sri Ramakr ishna with h is d isciples, devotees, and v isitors, recorded by Mahendranth Gupta, who wrote the book under the pseudonym of "M." The conversations in Bengali fill five volumes, the first of which was publ ished in 1897 and the last shortly after M.'s death in 1932. Sri Ramakr ishna Math, Madras, has publ ished in two volumes an Engl ish translation of selected chapters from the monumental Bengali work. I have consulted these while preparing my translation.
M., one of the intimate d isciples of Sri Ramakr ishna, was present during all the conversations recorded in the main body of the book and noted them down in h is diary.
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I have made a literal translation, omitting only a few pages of no particular interest to Engl ish-speaking readers. Often literary grace has been sacrificed for the sake of literal translation. No translation can do full justice to the original. Th is difficulty is all the more felt in the present work, whose contents are of a deep mystical nature and describe the inner experiences of a great seer. Human language is an altogether inadequate vehicle to express supersensuous perception. Sri Ramakr ishna was almost illiterate. He never clothed h is thoughts in formal language. H is words sought to convey h is direct realization of Truth. H is conversation was in a village pato is. Therein lies its charm. In order to explain to h is l isteners an abstruse philosophy, he, like Chr ist before him, used with telling effect homely parables and illustrations, culled from h is observation of the daily life around him.
The reader will find mentioned in th is work many v isions 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 Ramakr ishna have already exerted a tremendous influence in the land of h is birth. Savants of Europe have found in h is 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 Ramakr ishna was a Hindu of the Hindus; yet h is experiences transcended the limits of the dogmas and creeds of Hindu ism. Mystics of religions other than Hindu ism will find in Sri Ramakr ishna's experiences a corroboration of the experiences of their own prophets and seers. And th is 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 h is serious thought and solve many of h is 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 th is 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 into the stony 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 Ramakr ishna's life, and other relevant matters which, I hope, will enable the reader better to understand and appreciate the unusual contents of th is book. It is particularly important that the Western reader, unacquainted with Hindu religious thought, should first read carefully the introductory 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 Engl ish 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 Ramakr ishna, publ ished by the Advaita Ashrama, Myvati, India. I have also consulted the excellent article on Sri Ramakr ishna by Swami Nirvednanda, in the second volume of the Cultural Heritage of India.
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In the spiritual firmament Sri Ramakr ishna is a waxing crescent. Within one hundred years of h is birth and fifty years of h is death h is 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: "H is life enables us to see God face to face. . . . Ramakr ishna was a living embodiment of godliness." He is being recognized as a compeer of Kr ishna, Buddha, and Chr ist.
The life and teachings of Sri Ramakr ishna have redirected the thoughts of the denationalized Hindus to the spiritual ideals of their forefa thers. During the latter part of the nineteenth century h is was the time-honoured role of the Saviour of the Eternal Religion of the Hindus. H is 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. H is great d isciple, Swami Vivekananda, was the first Hindu m issionary 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 th is translation of the first book of its kind in the religious h istory 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 d issension and quarrel from among the different faiths!
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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 m ission. 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 Ramakr ishna and M., whose diary has come to be known to the world as the Gospel of Sri Ramakr ishna in Engl ish and as Sri Rmakr ishna Kathmrita in the original Bengali version.
Sri Mahendra Nath Gupta, familiary known to the readers of the Gospel by h is 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 h is wife, Swarnamayi Devi. He had a brilliant scholastic career at Hare School and the Presidency College at Calcutta. The range of h is studies included the best that both occidental and oriental learning had to offer. Engl ish literature, h istory, economics, western philosophy and law on the one hand, and Sanskrit literature and grammar, Darsanas, Puranas, Smrit is, Jain ism, Buddh ism, astrology and Ayurveda on the other were the subjects in which he attained considerable proficiency.
He was an education ist all h is 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 h is migration from school to school were that he could not get on with some of the managements on grounds of principles and that often h is 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 Engl ish, philosophy, h istory and economics. In h is later days he took over the Morton School, and he spent h is time in the staircase room of the third floor of it, admin istering the school and preaching the message of the Master. He was much respected in educational circles where he was usually referred to as Rector Mahashay. A teacher who had worked under him writes thus in warm appreciation of h is teaching methods: "Only when I worked with him in school could I appreciate what a great education ist he was. He would come down to the level of h is 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 h is 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 d iscussed, M. had already employed Bengali as the medium of instruction in the Morton School." (M The Apostle and the Evangel ist by Swami Nityatmananda Part I. P. 15.)
Imparting secular education was, however, only h is profession ; h is main concern was with the spiritual regeneration of man a calling for which Destiny seems to have chosen him. From h is 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 ideal istic young man of Calcutta, and prepared him to receive the great Light that was to dawn on him with the coming of Sri Ramakr ishna into h is life.
Th is epoch-making event of h is life came about in a very strange way. M. belonged to a joint family with several collateral members. Some ten years after he began h is career as an education ist, bitter quarrels broke out among the members of the family, driving the sensitive M. to despair and utter despondency. He lost all interest in life and left home one night to go into the wide world with the idea of ending h is life. At dead of night he took rest in h is s ister'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 Ramakr ishna 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 d isciple 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, h is resolve to take leave of th is 'play-field of deception', put new faith and hope into him by h is gracious words of assurance: "God forbid! Why should you take leave of th is world? Do you not feel blessed by d iscovering your Guru? By H is 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 v istas of meaning in life. Referring to th is phase of h is life, M. used to say, "Behold! where is the resolve to end life, and where, the d iscovery of God! That is, sorrow should be looked upon as a friend of man. God is all good." ( Ibid P.33.)
After th is re-settlement, M's life revolved around the Master, though he continued h is professional work as an education ist. During all holidays, including Sundays, he spent h is time at Dakshineswar in the Master's company, and at times extended h is stay to several days.
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He was one of the earliest of the d isciples to v isit Kamarpukur, the birthplace of the Master, in the latter's lifetime itself; for he w ished to pract ise contemplation on the Master's early life in its true original setting. H is 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 Evangel ist by Swami Nityatmananda vol. I. P. 40.) He had similar experience in Dakshineswar also. At the instance of the Master he also v isited 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 h is life. He has for th is reason been most appropriately described as a Grihastha-Sannysi (householder-Sannysin). Though he was forbidden by the Master to become a Sannysin, h is reverence for the Sannysa ideal was whole-hearted and was without any reservation. So after Sri Ramakr ishna's passing away, while several of the Master's householder devotees considered the young Sannysin d isciples of the Master as inexperienced and inconsequential, M. stood by them with the firm faith that the Master's life and message were going to be perpetuated only through them. Swami Vivekananda wrote from America in a letter to the inmates of the Math: "When Sri Thkur (Master) left the body, every one gave us up as a few unripe urchins. But M. and a few others did not leave us in the lurch. We cannot repay our debt to them." (Swami Raghavananda's article on M. in Prabuddha Bharata vol. XXX P. 442.)
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Besides the prompting of h is inherent instinct, the main inducement for M. to keep th is diary of h is experiences at Dakshineswar was h is 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 h is 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 l isten 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 h is v isits 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 v isit 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 d isciples and admirers that in later life also whenever he was free or alone, he would be pouring over h is 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 h is diary to any one. There is an unconfirmed tradition that when the Master saw him taking notes, he expressed apprehension at the possibility of h is util ising these to public ise him like Keshab Sen; for the Great Master was so full of the spirit of renunciation and humility that he d isliked being lion ised. It must be for th is reason that no one knew about th is precious diary of M. for a decade until he brought out selections from it as a pamphlet in Engl ish in 1897 with the Holy Mother's blessings and perm ission. 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 Engl ish entitled the Gospel of Sri Ramakr ishna appeared in October and November 1897. They drew the spontaneous acclamation of Swami Vivekananda, who wrote on 24th November of that year from Dehra Dun to M.:"Many many thanks for your second leaflet. It is indeed wonderful. The move is quite original, and never was the life of a Great Teacher brought before the public untarn ished by the writer's mind, as you are doing. The language also is beyond all pra ise, 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 H is life before. It has been reserved for you, th is great work. He is with you evidently." ( Vednta Kesari Vol. XIX P. 141. Also given in the first edition of the Gospel publ ished from Ramakr ishna Math, Madras in 1911.)
And Swamiji added a post script to the letter: "Socratic dialogues are Plato all over you are entirely hidden. Moreover, the dramatic part is infinitely beautiful. Everybody likes it here or in the West." Indeed, in order to be unknown, Mahendranath had used the pen-name M., under which the book has been appearing till now. But so great a book cannot remain obscure for long, nor can its author remain unrecogn ised by the large public in these modern times. M. and h is 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 publ ished in 1907 by the Brahmavadin Office, Madras. A second edition of it, rev ised by the author, was brought out by the Ramakr ishna Math, Madras in December 1911, and subsequently a second part, containing new chapters from the original Bengali, was publ ished by the same Math in 1922. The full Engl ish translation of the Gospel by Swami Nikhilananda appeared first in 1942.
In Bengali the book is publ ished in five volumes, the first part having appeared in 1902
and the others in 1905, 1907, 1910 and 1932 respectively.
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In 1905 he retired from the active life of a Professor and devoted h is remaining twenty-seven years exclusively to the preaching of the life and message of the Great Master. He bought the Morton Institution from its original proprietors and shifted it to a commodious four-storeyed house at 50 Amherst Street, where it flour ished under h is management as one of the most efficient educational institutions in Calcutta. He generally occupied a staircase room at the top of it, cooking h is own meal which cons isted only of milk and rice without variation, and attended to all h is personal needs himself. H is dress also was the simplest possible. It was h is 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 h is staircase room to pour over h is diary and live in the divine atmosphere of the earthly days of the Great Master, unless devotees and admirers had already gathered in h is room seeking h is holy company.
In appearance, M. looked a Vedic R ishi. 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. H is complexion was fair and h is prominent eyes were always tinged with the expression of the divine love that filled h is heart. Adorned with a silvery beard that flowed luxuriantly down h is 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, th is great Mahar ishi of our age lived only to sing the glory of Sri Ramakr ishna day and night.
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Though a much-sought-after spiritual guide, an education ist of repute, and a contemporary and close associate of illustrious personages like Sri Ramakr ishna, Swami Vivekananda, Keshab Chander Sen and iswar Chander Vidysgar, he was always moved by the noble humanity of a lover of God, which cons ists 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 stood in the way of h is doing the humblest service to h is students and devotees. "He was a comm ission of love," writes h is close devotee, Swami Raghavananda, "and yet h is soft and sweet words would pierce the stoniest 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 Morton Institution became a veritable Naim isaranya of modern times, resounding during all hours of the day, and sometimes of night, too, with the word of God coming from the R ishi-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 h is diary. At times in the stillness of midnight he would awaken a nearby devotee and tell him: "Let us l isten 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 R ishi 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 H is love and of the yearning that would r ise in the human heart to solve the Eternal Riddle, as exemplified in the life of h is Master. The mind, melting under the influence of h is soft sweet words of light, would almost transcend the frontiers of limited ex istence and dare to peep into the infinite. He himself would take the influence of the setting and say,'What a blessed privilege it is to sit in such a setting (pointing to the starry heavens), in the company of the devotees d iscoursing on God and H is love!' These unforgettable scenes will long remain imprinted on the minds of h is hearers." (Prabuddha Bharata Vol XXXVII P 497.)
About twenty-seven years of h is life he spent in th is 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 h is Kathmrita (Engl ish Edition : The Gospel of Sri Ramakr ishna), the last part of which he had completed before June 1932 and given to the press. And miraculously, as it were, h is end also came immediately after he had completed h is life's m ission. About three months earlier he had come to stay at h is home at 13/2 Gurdasprasad Chaudhuary Lane at Thakur Bari, where the Holy Mother had herself installed the Master and where H is regular worship was being conducted for the previous 40 years. The night of 3rd June being the Phalahrini Kli Pooja day, M.
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 cr isply brief. Advancing science has now d iscovered that all the known cases of biological extinction have been caused by overspecialization, whose concentration of only selected genes sacrifices general adaptability. Thus the special ist'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 d iscord, which, in turn, leads to war.
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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 sat isfaction and health of all humanity. With th is 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 m isleading nature of that which only superficially seems to be obvious. It is the consensus of great scient ists 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.
The human brain is a physical mechan ism for storing, retrieving, and re-storing again, each special-case experience. The experience is often a packaged concept.
Such packages cons ist of complexedly interrelated and not as-yet differentially analyzed phenomena which, as initially unit cognitions, are potentially re-experienceable. A rose, for instance, grows. has thorns, blossoms, and fragrance, but often is stored in the brain only under the single word-rose.
As Korzybski, the founder of general semantics, pointed out, the consequence of its single-tagging is that the rose becomes reflexively considered by man only as a red, white, or pink device for paying tribute to a beautiful girl, a thoughtful hostess, or last night's deceased acquaintance. The tagging of the complex biological process under the single title rose tends to detour human curiosity from further differentiation of its integral organic operations as well as from consideration of its interecological functionings aboard our planet. We don't know what a rose is, nor what may be its essential and unique cosmic function. Thus for long have we inadvertently deferred potential d iscovery 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 prom ises many ultimately favorable surpr ises. The oldsters do have vast experience banks not available to the youth. Their memory banks, integrated and reviewed, may readily d isclose generalized principles of eminent importance.
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The principle of leverage is a scientific generalization. It makes no difference of what material either the fulcrum or the lever cons ists-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 d istance outward from the fulcrum in the opposite direction along the lever's arm at which theoperating effort is applied.
Mind is the weightless and uniquely human faculty that surveys the ever larger inventory of special-case experiences stored in the brain bank and, seeking to identify their intercomplementary significance, from time to time d iscovers one of the rare scientifically generalizable principles running cons istently through all the relevant experience set. The thoughts that d iscover 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 pers istence. It seems also to follow that the more experiences we have, the more chances there are that the mind may d iscover, on the one hand, additional generalized principles or, on the other hand, exceptions that d isqualify one or another of the already catalogued principles that, having heretofore held "true" without contradiction for a long time, had been tentatively conceded to be demonstrating eternal pers istence of behavior. Mind's relentless reviewing of the comprehensive brain bank's storage of all our special-case experiences tends both to progressive enlargement and definitive refinement of the catalogue of generalized principles that interaccommodatively govern all transactions of Universe.
It follows that the more specialized society becomes, the less attention does it pay to the d iscoveries 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 d iscovery 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 d iscovers empirically how to release the energy of the atom, while another, unbeknownst to him, is ordered by h is political factotum to make an atomic bomb by use of the secretly and anonymously publ ished 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 m istakenly assumed that employment is the only means by which humans can earn the right to live, for politicians have yet to d iscover how much wealth is available for d istribution. All th is is rationalized on the now scientifically d iscredited prem ise that there can never be enough life support for all. Thus humanity's specialization leads only toward warring and such devastating tools, both, v isible and inv isible, as ultimately to destroy all Earthians.
Only a comprehensive switch from the narrowing specialization and toward an evermore inclusive and refining comprehension by all humanity-regarding all the factors governing omnicontinuing life aboard our spaceship Earth-can bring about reorientation from the self-extinction-bound human trending, and do so within the critical time remaining before we have passed the point of chemical process irretrievability.
Quite clearly, our task is predominantly metaphysical, for it is how to get all of humanity to educate itself swiftly enough to generate spontaneous social behaviors that will avoid extinction.
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.
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We are able to assert that th is rationally coordinating system bridge has been establ ished 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 d iscover 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 d iscover that there are many popularly and even professionally unknown, yet nonetheless fundamental, concepts to hold true in all cases and that already have been d iscovered by other as yet obscure individuals. That is to say that many scientific generalizations have been d iscovered 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 ex istence and comprehensive significance of these as yet popularly unrecognized natural laws often is requ isite to the solution of many of the as yet unsolved problems now confronting society. Lack of knowledge of the solution's ex istence 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 inventory of the most powerful human environment transforming events of our totally known and reasonably extended h istory. Th is is especially useful in winnowing out and understanding the most significant of the metaphysical revolutions now recognized as swiftly tending to reconstitute h istory. By such a comprehensively schematic review, we might identify also the unprecedented and possibly heretofore 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 relativ istic 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 h istorical sweep of which we are capable.
There could be produced a synergetic understanding of humanity's cosmic functioning, which, until now, had been both und iscovered and unpredictable due to our deliberate and exclusive preoccupation only with the separate stat istics of separate events. As a typical consequence of the latter, we observe our society's pers istent increase of educational and employment specialization despite the already mentioned, well-documented scientific d isclosure 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 cons ists of aggregates of fragments. Anyone who has taken part in any event that has subsequently appeared in the news is aware of the gross d isparity between the actual and the reported events. The ins istence by reporters upon having advance "releases" of what, for instance, convocation speakers are supposedly going to say but in fact have not yet said, automatically d iscredits 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 h istory 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 h istorically important events as the d iscovery 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. Atoms and crystal complexes of atoms were held to be obviously inanimate; the protoplasmic cells of biological phenomena were held to be obviously animate. It was deemed to be common sense that warm- blooded, mo ist, 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 ex ist as a fundamental dichotomy of all physical phenomena. Th is 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. Virolog ists 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 ex ist between animate and inanimate. The possibility of its ex istence van ished because the supposedly unique physical qualities of both animate and inanimate have pers isted 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 organ isms cons ist physically and in entirety of inherently inanimate atoms. The inanimate alone is not only omnipresent but is alone experimentally demonstrable. Belated news of the elimination of th is 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 ex isted. No life per se has been isolated. The threshold between animate and inanimate has van ished. Those chem ists who are preoccupied in synthesizing the particular atomically structured molecules identified as the prime constituents of humanly employed organ isms will, even if they are chemically successful, be as remote from creating life as are automobile manufacturers from creating the human drivers of their automobiles. Only the physical connections and development complexes of d istinctly "nonlife" atoms into molecules, into cells, into animals, has been and will be d iscovered. 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 chem ist's life ingredients, are present, but life has van ished. The physical is inherently entropic, giving off energy in ever more d isorderly ways. The metaphysical is antientropic, methodically marshalling energy. Life is antientropic.
It is spontaneously inqu isitive. 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 mandatory responsibility to reorient all our educational curricula because of the synergetically d isclosed, but popularly uncomprehended, significance of the 1956 Nobel Prize-winning d iscovery in physics of the experimental invalidation of the concept of "parity" by which science previously had m isassumed that positive-negative complementations cons isted exclusively of mirror-imaged behaviors of physical phenomena.
Science's self-assumed responsibility has been self-limited to d isclosure to society only of the separate, supposedly physical (because separately weighable) atomic component isolations data. Synergetic integrity would require the scient ists to announce that in reality what had been identified heretofore as physical is entirely metaphysical-because synergetically weightless. Metaphysical has been science's designation for all weightless phenomena such as thought. But science has made no experimental finding of any phenomena that can be described as a solid, or as continuous, or as a straight surface plane, or as a straight line, or as infinite anything. We are now synergetically forced to conclude that all phenomena are metaphysical; wherefore, as many have long suspected-like it or not-life is but a dream.Science has found no up or down directions of Universe, yet scient ists 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 d isconnected from their theoretically evolved information, scient ists d iscern no need on their part to suggest any educational reforms to correct the m isconceiving that science has tolerated for half a millennium.
Society depends upon its scient ists for just such educational reform guidance.
Where else might society turn for advice? Unguided by science, society is allowed to go right on filling its childrens' brain banks with large inventories of competence-devastating m isinformation. 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 scient ist-art ists. Th is, in effect, is what the intuition of world-around youth is beginning to do. Mind can see that reality is evoluting into weightless metaphysics. The wellspring of reality is the family of weightless generalized principles.
It is essential to release humanity from the false fixations of yesterday, which seem now to bind it to a rationale of action leading only to extinction.
The youth of humanity all around our planet are intuitively revolting from all sovereignties and political ideologies. The youth of Earth are moving intuitively toward an utterly classless, raceless, omnicooperative, omniworld humanity.
0.00 - To the Reader, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
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 minim ise my personal responsibility which I fully accept.
A. B. PURANI
0.01f - FOREWARD, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
upon us, when he is placed fairly and squarely within the frame-
work of phenomenon and appearance.
--
if not ultimately, at least essentially. Fuller being is closer union :
such is the kernel and conclusion of th is book. But let us empha-
s ise the point : union increases only through an increase in con-
sciousness, that is to say in v ision. And that, doubtless, is why the
h istory of the living world can be summar ised as the elaboration
of ever more perfect eyes within a cosmos in which there is
always something more to be seen. After all, do we not judge
--
see more and better is not a matter of whim or curiosity or self-
indulgence. To see or to per ish is the very condition laid upon
everything that makes up the universe, by reason of the mysterious
gift of ex istence. And th is, in superior measure, is man's condition.
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
tedious subject ? is it not prec isely one of the attractions of science
that it rests our eyes by turning them away from man ?
--
reached is the essence of the matter they are studying, or the
reflection of their own thought. And at die same time they
--
Th is is indeed a form of bondage, for which, however, a
unique and assured grandeur provides immediate compensation.
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 h is steps to a point of vantage (a cross-roads, or intersecting
--
It is not necessary to be a man to perceive surrounding things
and forces ' in the round '. All the animals have reached th is point
as well as us. But it is peculiar to man to occupy a position in
32
--
of the cosmos that is at present within reach of our experience.
Man, the centre of perspective, is at the same time the centre of
construction of the universe. And by expediency no less than by
necessity, all science must be referred back to him. If to see is
really to become more, if v ision is really fuller being, then we
should look closely at man in order to increase our capacity to
--
view of h is own significance in the physical world. There is no
need to be surpr ised at th is 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
--
remain indefinitely for us whatever is done to make us see
what he still represents to so many minds : an erratic object in a
--
momentary summit of an anthropogenes is which is itself the
crown of a cosmogencs is.
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.
--
Th is phrase is not chosen at random, but for three reasons.
First to assert that man, in nature, is a genuine fact falling (at
least partially) within the scope of the requirements and methods
--
knowledge, none is more extraordinary or more illuminating ;
Thirdly, to stress the special character of the Essay I am pre-
--
these pages, is to try to see ; that is to say, to try to develop a
homogeneous and coherent perspective of our general extended
--
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
placed us. It is a safe and modest method and yet, as we shall see,
it suffices, through symmetry, to bring out ahead of us surpr ising
--
jur ists, man is a tiny, even a shrinking, creature. H is over-
pronounced individuality conceals from our eyes the whole to
--
and its measureless horizons : we incline to all that is bad in
anthropocentr ism. And it is th is that still leads scient ists to refuse
to consider man as an object of scientific scrutiny except through
--
as matter. The true physics is that which will, one day, achieve
the inclusion of man in h is wholeness in a coherent picture of the
--
I hope I shall persuade the reader that such an attempt is
possible, and that the preservation of courage and the joy of
--
In fact I doubt whether there is a more dec isive moment for
a thinking being than when the scales fall from h is eyes and he
d iscovers that he is not an isolated unit lost in the cosmic solitudes,
and real ises that a universal will to live converges and is homin ised
in him.
In such a v ision man is seen not as a static centre of the world
as he for long believed himself to be but as the ax is and
leading shoot of evolution, which is something much finer.
BOOK ONE
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 Kr ishna in the Gita (second chapter) occurs pertinently to many about all spiritual personalities: "What is the language of one whose understanding is po ised? 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 inv isible 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 h is 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 h is own case the very physical became the transparent mould of the Spirit as a result of h is intense Sadhana. Th is is borne out by the impression created on the minds of sensitive outsiders like Sj. K. M. Munshi who was deeply impressed by h is radiating presence when he met him after nearly forty years.
The Evening Talks collected here may afford to the outside world a glimpse of h is 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 v ision of h is integral ideal and thought can be seen. H is writings are, in a sense, the best representative of h is mental personality. The versatile nature of h is genius, the penetrating power of h is intellect, h is extraordinary power of expression, h is intense sincerity, h is utter singleness of purpose all these can be easily felt by any earnest student of h is works. He may d iscover even in the realm of mind that Sri Aurobindo brings the unlimited into the limited. Another side of h is dynamic personality is represented by the Ashram as an institution. But the outer, if one may use the phrase, the human side of h is 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 h is staying at Pondicherry and pract ising 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 h is retirement as a great loss to the world because they could not see any external activity on h is part which could be regarded as 'public', 'altru istic' or 'beneficial'. Even some of h is admirers thought that he was after some kind of personal salvation which would have very little significance for mankind in general. H is 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 m isunderstandings and false notions of others began to evaporate with the growth of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram from 1927 onwards. The large number of books publ ished by the Ashram also tended to remove the idea of the other-worldliness of h is Yoga and the absence of any good by it to mankind.
Th is 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 h is own retirement he writes: "But th is did not mean, as most people supposed, that he [Sri Aurobindo] had retired into some height of spiritual experience devoid of any further interest in the world or in the fate of India. It could not mean that, for the very principle of h is Yoga was not only to real ise the Divine and attain to a complete spiritual consciousness, but also to take all life and all world activity into the scope of th is spiritual consciousness and action and to base life on the Spirit and give it a spiritual meaning. In h is 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 th is power is greater than any other and more effective. It was th is 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 h is way to make public pronouncements on important world- issues, which shows d istinctly that renunciation of life is not a part of h is 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 Naz ism 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.
--
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 th is is especially so with regard to spiritual personalities whom the Gita calls Vibhut is and Avatars.
Sri Aurobindo has explained the mystery of personality in some of h is 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 recogn isable 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 th is flux and th is 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 h is role, character, persona, in the present act of h is long drama of manifested ex istence. But the Person is larger than h is personality, and it may happen that th is inner largeness overflows into 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 env isages a new level of consciousness beyond Mind. When th is 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 h is 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 th is 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 h is 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 character istic action, for a m ission ostensibly social, ethical and political, as is represented in the story of Rama or Kr ishna; but always then th is 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 th is unquiet and suffering may live in the calm and bl iss of the Divine."[6]
--
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 h is 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 d istingu ish 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 recogn isable 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, h is d isciples, with regard to him in h is inimitable way.
Th is transformation of the human personality into 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 apotheos is 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 th is 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.
Th is possibility of the human touching and manifesting the Divine has been real ised during the course of human h istory whenever a great spiritual Light has appeared on earth. One of the purposes of th is book is to show how Sri Aurobindo himself reflected the unlimited Beyond in h is 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 r ise 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 h is 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
Our community is growing more and more; we are nearly thirty
(not counting those who are scattered all over India); and I
--
one of which is our property; others will follow. New recruits
are coming from all parts of the world. With th is expansion,
--
a single square block which is surrounded on all sides by streets
and contains several buildings with courtyards and gardens. We
--
our little realm without having to go out into the street - th is is
rather nice. But I am busier than ever now, and I can say that at
--
It is true that for a long time I have not slept in the usual
sense of the word.1 That is to say, at no time do I fall into
Written in connection with a newspaper article in which it was stated that the Mother
--
the inconscience which is the sign of ordinary sleep. But I do
give my body the rest it needs, that is, two or three hours of
lying down in a condition of absolute immobility in which the
--
and which, needless to say, is also perfectly conscious. So I can
say, in all truth, that I never lose consciousness throughout the
--
with them thoroughly. Rather they are hints whose purpose is
more pragmatic than didactic; they are a kind of moral stimulus
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
--
The Ashram is becoming a more and more interesting institution. We have now acquired our twenty-first house; the number
of paid workers of the Ashram (labourers and servants) has
--
you can see that it is no small affair. And as I am taking care of
all th is, I can truly say that I am busy.
--
genius. Th is is very far from the truth, and if they are so well
known in Western countries, it is probably because their stature
does not go beyond the understanding of the Western mind.
--
varied fields, scientific, literary, philosophic, spiritual. It is true
that the young people from Shantiniketan come out refined, but
--
I repeat, there is better, far better in India, but th is India
does not care for international glory.
--
Just a word about your remark that having children is the only
way to perpetuate the human race. I have never denied th is, but
I w ish to add that there is nothing to fear in th is respect; if it is
Nature's plan to perpetuate the human race, she will always find
--
it is certainly not confined to the small states of central Europe.
What you have described is pretty much the state of the whole
world: d isorder, confusion, wastage and m isery.
--
It is no use lamenting, however, saying: Where are you
headed! The final collapse, the general bankruptcy seems obvious enough... unless... There is always an "unless" in the h istory
of the earth; and always, when confusion and destruction seem
--
balance is establ ished which extends, for a few centuries more,
the life of declining civil isations and human societies in delirium.
--
has lasted long enough; th is is the master we must now refuse
to serve. Th is is the great, the only remedy.
3 November 1931
--
are none; on the other hand the sea is beautiful, the countryside
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
of dynamic and active peace, so much so that all those who come
from outside feel as if they were in another world. It is indeed
something of another world, a world in which the inner life
--
the real isation of an ideal. The life we lead here is as far from
ascetic abstinence as from an enervating comfort; simplicity is
the rule here, but a simplicity full of variety - a variety of occupations, of activities, of tastes, tendencies, natures; each one
is free to organ ise h is life as he pleases, the d iscipline is reduced
to the minimum that is ind ispensable to organ ise the ex istence
of 110 to 120 people and to avoid movements that would be
--
What do you say to th is? isn't it tempting? Will you ever
have the time or the possibility to come here? Once you did let
--
belongs to Sri Aurobindo, it is h is money that enables me to
meet the almost formidable expenses that it entails (our annual
--
houses, of automobiles, etc.), it is, as I already told you, a matter
of convenience for the papers and signatures, since it is I who
"manage" everything, but not because I really own them. You
will readily understand why I am telling you all th is; it is so you
can bear it in mind just in case.
--
which is certainly not unfounded. In their ignorant unconsciousness men set moving forces they are not even aware of and soon
these forces get more and more out of their control and bring
--
the same time. H is goodwill is beyond all pra ise. Finally, it all
ended quite well, considering the difficult circumstances. But
--
factory is closed, no one knows for how long, and the other one
was burned down.
--
A small booklet is being publ ished in Geneva, containing a talk
I gave in 1912, I think. It is a bit out-of-date, but I did not
want to dampen their enthusiasm. I had entitled it "The Central
--
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
Publ ished in Words of Long Ago, CWM, Vol. 2, pp. 40 - 46.
--
human will there are forces at work whose origin is not human
and which move consciously towards certain ends. The play of
these forces is very complex and generally eludes the human
consciousness; but for ease of explanation and understanding,
--
few conscious instruments at their d isposal. It is true that in
th is matter quality compensates by far for quantity. As for the
--
Hitler is a choice instrument for these anti-divine forces which
want violence, upheaval and war, for they know that these things
retard and hamper the action of the divine forces. That is why
d isaster 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.
22 October 1938
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 harmon ised complexity and totality which again breaks apart into various channels of special effort and tendency, only to unite once more in a larger and more pu issant synthes is. Secondly, development into forms is an imperative rule of effective manifestation; yet all truth and practice too strictly formulated becomes old and loses much, if not all, of its virtue; it must be constantly renovated by fresh streams of the spirit revivifying the dead or dying vehicle and changing it, if it is to acquire a new life. To be perpetually reborn is the condition of a material immortality. We are in an age, full of the throes of travail, when all forms of thought and activity that have in themselves any strong power of utility or any secret virtue of pers istence are being subjected to a supreme test and given their opportunity of rebirth. The world today presents the aspect of a huge cauldron of Medea in which all things are being cast, shredded into pieces, experimented on, combined and recombined either to per ish and provide the scattered material of new forms or to emerge rejuvenated and changed for a fresh term of ex istence. Indian Yoga, in its essence a special action or formulation of certain great powers of Nature, itself special ised, divided and variously formulated, is potentially one of these dynamic elements of the future life of humanity. The child of immemorial ages, preserved by its vitality and truth into our modern times, it is now emerging from the secret schools and ascetic retreats in which it had taken refuge and is seeking its place in the future sum of living human powers and utilities. But it has first to red iscover itself, bring to the surface
The Conditions of the Synthes is
--
In the right view both of life and of Yoga all life is either consciously or subconsciously a Yoga. For we mean by th is term a method ised effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the secret potentialities latent in the being and - highest condition of victory in that effort - a union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent Ex istence 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 real ise her perfection in an ever-increasing expression of her yet unreal ised potentialities and to unite herself with her own divine reality. In man, her thinker, she for the first time upon th is Earth dev ises selfconscious means and willed arrangements of activity by which th is great purpose may be more swiftly and pu issantly attained.
Yoga, as Swami Vivekananda has said, may be regarded as a means of compressing one's evolution into a single life or a few years or even a few months of bodily ex istence. A given system of Yoga, then, can be no more than a selection or a compression, into narrower but more energetic forms of intensity, of the general methods which are already being used loosely, largely, in a le isurely 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 th is view of Yoga that can alone form the bas is for a sound and rational synthes is 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
--
Rajayoga, for instance, depends on th is perception and experience that our inner elements, combinations, functions, forces, can be separated or d issolved, can be new-combined and set to novel and formerly impossible workings or can be transformed and resolved into a new general synthes is by fixed internal processes. Hathayoga similarly depends on th is perception and experience that the vital forces and functions to which our life is normally subjected and whose ordinary operations seem set and ind ispensable, can be mastered and the operations changed or suspended with results that would otherw ise 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 th is 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 d isadvantages, as that tends, for instance, to develop a victorious artificiality which overwhelms our natural human life under a load of machinery and to purchase certain forms of freedom and mastery at the price of an increased servitude, so the preoccupation with Yogic processes and their exceptional results may have its d isadvantages and losses. The
--
Yogin tends to draw away from the common ex istence and lose h is hold upon it; he tends to purchase wealth of spirit by an impover ishment of h is human activities, the inner freedom by an outer death. If he gains God, he loses life, or if he turns h is efforts outward to conquer life, he is in danger of losing
God. Therefore we see in India that a sharp incompatibility has been created between life in the world and spiritual growth and perfection, and although the tradition and ideal of a victorious harmony between the inner attraction and the outer demand remains, it is little or else very imperfectly exemplified. In fact, when a man turns h is v ision 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 ex istence and the secular effort of humanity. So strongly has the idea prevailed, so much has it been emphas ised 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 synthes is of Yoga can be sat isfying 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 prec isely that term and symbol of a higher Ex istence descended into the material world in which it is possible for the lower to transfigure itself and put on the nature of the higher and the higher to reveal itself in the forms of the lower. To avoid the life which is given him for the real isation of that possibility, can never be either the ind ispensable condition or the whole and ultimate object of h is supreme endeavour or of h is most powerful means of self-fulfilment. It can only be a temporary necessity under certain conditions or a special ised 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 accompl ished 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 R ishi, one who has the v ision 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 h is illuminating answers, perhaps even more by h is silent consciousness, so that it might be able to pursue unhampered the path of real isation of the Truth. Those ancient d iscourses 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. Th is happens when the mind instead of seeking the Spirit looks at the form. For instance, it is not necessary for such d iscourses 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 h is private dwelling place. So much was th is feeling a part of Sri Aurobindo's nature and so particular was he to maintain the personal character of h is work that during the first few years after 1923 he did not like h is 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 d isciples, like bees seeking honey, came to him. It is no exaggeration to say that these Evening Talks were to the small company of d isciples 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, h is companion in the great m ission, had come. And these spiritual parents bestowed upon the d isciples freely of their Light, their Consciousness, their Power and their Grace. The modern reader may find that the form of these d iscourses 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 d isciples may be very imperfect representations of what he aimed at in them, still they are h is 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 h is company the Evening Talks with a larger public.
***
0.02 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
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
--
last 30 days. It is quite evident that your coolie is stealing the
soap, and I have no intention of providing him with washing
--
month. Will you see if indeed the previous book is fin ished or
not, and act accordingly.
--
before I can sanction a new one. That is to say, each time that
a notebook is to be renewed the fin ished notebook must be sent
up to me at the same time as the chit for the new one.
--
Y is complaining that cement dust falls in the cattle-feed when
it is prepared on the verandah.
Perhaps th is is what makes the bullocks ill. One of these
poor creatures has grown terribly thin. I saw it th is morning.
--
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
merely saying: "nothing will happen" that an accident can be
--
formation is at least as strong as yours - and we must never
tempt the adverse forces.
--
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
in the subconscient mind; but it is made stronger by becoming
conscious.
--
The lack of precaution is a part of the movement of hurry
and impatience.
--
My explanation, based on my own experience, is th is:
I feel a reserve while asking something from Mother.
--
joy, including the movement of asking. As th is is lacking,
Mother is training us by making us ask with joy.
It is not quite that. In each case there is, probably, a special
reason. What is constant is a difference of appreciation in the
urgency of the needs and the importance attached to their fulfilment. I attach also some value to the power of imagination,
--
The cause of reserve in asking is that a person is full
of desires. If he expresses all h is demands - which he
--
But who is responsible for having given the paint? Was not the
fact that the "gr is entretien" must be kept for the doors and windows in Sri Aurobindo's room only, told to those in charge?(!)
--
A rule is a rule and I do not see why my stool escaped the rule,
unless a chit signed by me could be produced.
--
for Thee, is supreme happiness, unmixed joy, immutable
peace.... Why do men flee from these boons as though
--
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.
--
Do you believe it is so easy to strike at the root of a stupidity?
Stupidities are always rooted deep down in the subconscient.
--
unknown is before us."4 What is the remedy?
Be plastic and vigilant, attentive and alert - receptive.
--
he described - but is it really necessary? Th is is not what heals.
Healing comes not from the head but from the heart.
To understand is good, but to will is better.
Self-love is the great obstacle.
Divine love is the great remedy.
20 July 1932
--
The sadhak's prayer is composed of extracts from several prayers of the Mother in
Prayers and Meditations,: paragraph one, 29 November 1913; two, 7 January 1914;
--
from tomorrow. Mother will say: th is is the effect of
indulging himself so much in the morning! He deserves
--
O Sweet, Sweet Mother, Thy Peace is in me, Thy Peace
is in me, Thy Peace is in me.
Sleep, child, sleep, with sweet Mother in your heart!
--
I trust that X is not truly provoking. I would not like it at
all. Each one has h is faults and must never forget it when he
--
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
--
It is adoration expressing itself in work - all the more precious.
31 July 1932
--
become one with Thee") is psychologically real ised.
2 August 1932
--
sickness is always a revolt or wrong attitude. I said Yes.
He asked me to give a concrete example. I described
--
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
--
No general rule can be made for th is, each case is different. The
important point is the attitude behind the talk. It is only what is
said as a pure and sincere offering on the altar of Divine Truth
--
people. It is th is seeking which gives the impression of hesitation,
uncertainty, unsuccessful attempts, etc.
--
time has come... but it is for You to answer, O Sweet
Mother.
It is by the concentration of our will and the intensity of our
aspiration that we can hasten the day of victory.
--
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
--
I find your answer quite good. But X is quite free to expect more
help from an inv isible and silent Mother (who never contradicts
--
The movement comes from a subconscient layer which is not
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.
No true and constant control is establ ished in that part as yet.
An experiment: Th is morning while superv ising work,
--
an hour, I felt fatigued and imperceptibly the concentration frittered away. What is the cause of th is feeling of
fatigue? What is the difficulty in keeping such a concentration for all the 24 hours?
The physical being is always fatigued when it is asked to keep a
lasting concentration.
--
The one that is done in the most perfect spirit of consecration.
20 August 1932
--
it is 30 days' work?
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
It is good, it is ind ispensable that you should think that the work
will take only 30 days; otherw ise it would extend over more than
--
Mother, what is the proper attitude? If I hear suggestion
(1), I feel I am keeping a reserve. If I hear suggestion (2),
--
There is no contradiction in stating what you think. I am not
expecting you to be a prophet and that your thought should be
--
has gone." And lo, there he is, arranging the pol ishing
stones! If I had drawn back for only a second before
--
It is better simply to be sincere than to be clever.
31 October 1932
To love the Divine is to be loved by Him.
2 November 1932
--
found, with some d iscomfort, that not a single one is closing
properly. Unless you are a Hercules and a wrestler you have no
--
work done by Y? How nice it is! The work we have done
is not so nice." I replied: "I know at least one reason. It is
because you are not with the workmen all the time. Th is
--
in h is work, what can I do? It is true that the work suffers, but
he suffers still more, for no amount of meditation can replace
--
"One must know how to soar in an immutable confidence; in the sure flight is perfect knowledge."9 I don't
understand th is sentence. How can one soar? What is
the figurative sense of th is word?
--
the result is unfailing and marvellous!
16 January 1933
--
desire and a need for the work. So th is is the method I
have adopted: When I think I need something (anything),
--
Then the desire gets exacerbated and the request is made with a
kind of sour rage.
--
There is still another method, far more interesting than these
two: ask for nothing at all and see what happens.
--
Sweet Mother said, "There is still another method." I
was a bit perplexed as to how to apply Sweet Mother's
--
didn't ask for anything, even on April 1st,10 and that is
another reason for my perplexity.
--
Because others are mean is no reason to be mean yourself.
24 April 1933
--
(who is less than eight years old, I think). Can he be
employed to clear the rubble at Ganapati House?
It is impossible to put a child of under eight to work. It would
be criminal.
--
What can we do? He is a good and regular worker, isn't he? I
hope th is new marriage will not make him irregular.
Should we give him the money? If you think it is necessary,
I shall not say No.
--
the tape is not ind ispensable. But there is a d issat isfaction
somewhere in my being. I can't pinpoint th is recalcitrant
spot. is it my mind? isn't it the mind that shows the
absurdity of th is request?
It is a mental formation prompted by a desire of the vital,
which protests and rebels because it cannot be fulfilled. These
formations are autonomous entities. That is why, once they are
made, the conscious will loses nearly all control over them unless
a counter-formation is made to destroy them. Something like
th is, for example: "I do not want to receive a measuring-tape.
--
The blacksmith: an iron shaving got into h is eye. is
there any connection between the fact that I gave him
--
in th is case. I will explain: the idea of a big frame is excellent
but difficult to execute. If the desire had not been there ins isting
--
Do you know what a swing is?
It is a plaything I enjoyed very much when I was small.
It is made of wood, and the plank you swing on is suspended
by strong ropes from rings fixed to a bar above. The supporting posts are securely set in the ground. I was thinking that
--
How can people insult me so easily, I wonder. is
it that my features are lacking in vigour? is it that I
am scornful of others and therefore others treat me
--
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
--
although, of course, it is not the only explanation!
30 October 1933
--
Now that is indeed an imprudent prayer! It is as if you were
deliberately attracting an unpleasant experience to yourself.
--
The conclusion is therefore obvious: it would be better not to
open your mouth. In certain cases, as in th is one, it is w iser to
turn your back than to open your mouth.
--
It is the triumph of ego ism. You may show th is to them and add
that it is I who gave the order to make all possible use of the old
pieces of wood.
--
be checked while the kitchen is being repaired. The top of
the fire-places should not be more than fifty centimetres above
--
An exerc ise: If you notice that your voice is r ising,
stop speaking immediately; call upon Sweet Mother to
make you aware of the hidden deformation. is it all right,
Sweet Mother?
It is quite all right.
All my compliments for th is appreciable progress.
--
Mr. Z: I have heard that Sri Aurobindo can communicate at a d istance. is it true?
Sadhak: That is nothing. He isn't interested in occult
powers; it isn't H is aim.
Mr. Z: But even so, can He communicate with someone in Calcutta?
Sadhak: Yes, if the other person is receptive. Suppose I have difficultes in my work. There is no way of
communicating with Mother. I can't find the solution.
--
the solution. Th is is not unusual. It has happened several
times.
--
Mr. Z: Are you sure it isn't a hallucination?
(The Mother underlined most of the remarks above
--
which is always dangerous.
If someone asks you about Sri Aurobindo's powers, it is
always better to say: "I don't know. He doesn't tell us about
--
And don't speak about me unless it is unavoidable. I am
putting a copy of the Conversations in the tray for Mr. Z.
--
is inaccurate? Th is is very serious - you should not put words
into h is mouth which he didn't say. You must report things
--
sat isfied with knowing it is there?
16 April 1934
--
in the Building Department, which is impossible.
For instance, Y once asked me whether it was ind ispensable
--
I have a confession to make. My mind is flooded
with contradictions and doubts. I have struggled against
--
As soon as the project is completely ready, when you have
worked everything out and can answer my questions, I shall
--
not, by my own doing, exactly as you had planned? I think it is
high time you learned th is and I find that you give me very little
--
All that you say is quite true and there are still many other
things you have not said, but which I know. The trouble might
--
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
--
buying houses; consequently there is no longer enough work
to keep all the workers busy. I am very sorry about th is, but I
--
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
--
Th is is what I see most clearly at the moment.
5 June 1934
--
reservations with regard to Sweet Mother. is my diagnos is correct? If so, how can I do away with these
reservations without seeming to contradict or embarrass
--
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
--
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
--
pendulum is, the slower the movement. (I knew that very well
- but th is is not an ordinary pendulum since it works by rotary
movement.) I answered, as I always do, "Do as you think best."
--
pendulum and now the clock is working perfectly all right.
I believe in the superiority of the inner v ision over the outer
v ision and th is belief is based not merely on theoretical knowledge but on the thousands of examples I have come across in
the course of a life which is already long. Unfortunately I am
surrounded by people who, though they are here to pract ise
yoga, are still convinced that "a cat is a cat", as we commonly
say in French, and that one can rely only on one's physical eyes
--
in other words, any exception to them is a miracle. Th is is false.
Th is is what is at the root of all the m isunderstandings
and reservations. You already know, and I mention it only to
--
doubt is not an experiment, and that outer circumstances will
always conspire to justify these doubts, and th is for a reason
which is very easy to understand: doubt veils the consciousness
and the subconscious sincerity, and into the action some small
--
metal brush so that whatever is loose falls off and cover the rest
with a thick layer of d istemper which by its very thickness will be
--
around me is, at least partially and in its limited working, similar
to mine. I shall explain. I know that each of you has a very small
--
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
ar ising from an affectionate confidence must come in: if there is
something you are unsure of, you must ask me about it; if you
--
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
--
happens - it is only when the mind and vital get in the way, for
one reason or another, that the working becomes defective.
--
danger, it is because there is a hidden reason somewhere.
That is not exactly what I said. I said that a feeling of danger
should always be taken seriously when one is responsible for
Series Two - To a Sadhak in the Building Department
the state of things, and that one should not say, "It is nothing"
unless one is ten times sure it is nothing.
22 August 1934
--
I think so. But more than anything, it is the lack of organ isation
and order which causes all th is waste. Certainly, if there is not
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 th is should be done with great care so as
--
material by identification of consciousness. is th is true?
is it possible? For example, if there are cracks in a roof,
--
myself with the roof? is there a definite method? is th is
method easier and more certain than the mental process
of reasoning which is based on acquired experience?
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 th is case the roof)
--
identification. But it is not very easy to do and there are other
means of knowing besides reasoning - intuition, for example
--
Th is statement is quite true.
I bow to You, Sweet Mother. Be present in me always
--
for it is by calling me that the presence becomes effective.
15 December 1934
--
Y's will is strong and he knows how to impose it on others. The
only solution is to have a will stronger than h is and to use it
with great calm, but also with great determination.
--
It is only by long experience, tested many times very carefully,
that one can d iscriminate between various types of suggestions
--
Remorse is of no use; you have to feel the joy of the possibility
of making further progress.
--
X as far as possible. But if contact is establ ished, beware of
subconscious reactions and be very vigilant.
--
must tell him that it is not right. I followed the second
suggestion.
--
What does "l istening to the voice" mean? is it like
l istening to words that are pronounced? A ready-made
sentence, "Write down what is there in the estimate",
wanted to d isturb my mind. I don't know where it came
--
it what is known as a "voice"? How can these things be
d istingu ished, Sweet Mother?
--
the words, but rather the message is expressed as words in the
mind or sometimes merely as a feeling in the heart.
--
very good. If he doesn't, I shall keep silent, without arguing, and let him do as he likes. is th is attitude correct?
No, it is not correct - and I see that you have not understood the
implications of my remark the other day. If you see something
--
"Th is is how I think it should be done." If he contradicts you
and gives a different opinion, you should simply answer: "All
--
him and you. It is only a matter of obedience to me.
6 June 1935
--
Yes, it is correct as an analys is, but a thing ought not to be
done for any of these personal considerations. The thing to be
--
questions. If the thing is right and good, one should do it. If not,
one should refrain from doing it.
It is prec isely because your refusal had no real cause that it
did not have the power to dominate the other man's will.
--
d issolve X's counter-formation. (Th is is true "occult ism".)
I don't think I can be the judge to decide whether the
thing is good or not, because my v ision is limited.
I never said that you should be the judge. I agree to be the judge
in all cases, because I recogn ise that it is very difficult to know
whether a thing is right and good, unless one can see the law of
Truth behind things.
If You had said to me, "Removing the nails is nothing, is
it?", I would have replied, "Nothing much." And if You
--
Th is is not right. When I ask a question, I ask it in order to get exact and objective information. I have said th is many times. I have
no preconceived idea, no preference, no opinion about things.
--
would not need to get information from anyone. But th is is not
the case, and th is is why I consult the people around me, because
they are able to move about. I do not want them to answer me
--
You wrote to me, "It is prec isely 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
nails removed." Th is is the sentence that upset me. Why
was there no real cause? Won't the holes spoil the wall?
--
Th is is the argument, almost word for word, that upset
me, and I still haven't found the answer to th is problem.
--
Your argument seems right, but since its starting-point is wrong
it no longer holds. Reread what I have written, carefully and
--
As a general rule, it is better not to repeat to someone what
someone else has said, for there is always a r isk of creating
confusion and increasing the difficulties.
--
The main door of your being is open, but certain other doors
are still not open. You must open them all, for I am there and I
--
Perhaps Sweet Mother is d ispleased with me about something? I have no peace.
I am not at all d ispleased. But what a strange idea to let yourself
--
It is a pity! Perhaps you are a bit tired. I hope you are sleeping
well. I would like you to go to bed earlier. is all th is work after
meditation (d iscussions, accounts, etc.) really ind ispensable? To
--
Once and for all, wash away the feeling that you are "superior" to others - for no one is superior or inferior before the
Divine.
--
But one thing is certain: you give far too much importance
to the way people treat you. Th is hypersensitivity is the cause of
most of the m isunderstandings.
--
I am afraid it is a lack of affinity in the vital and even in the
mind. These things are very difficult to overcome, for it requires
--
the work, I am still not convinced of it. My impression is that
one always says far more than is necessary and that it is not with
words that good work gets done.
--
It is very good, my child; I was quite sure that it would end th is
way, for I know the goodness of your heart.
0.02 - The Three Steps of Nature, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
But in order that we may be w isely guided in our effort, we must know, first, the general principle and purpose underlying th is separative impulse and, next, the particular utilities upon which the method of each school of Yoga is founded. For the general principle we must interrogate the universal workings of Nature herself, recogn ising in her no merely specious and illusive activity of a d istorting Maya, but the cosmic energy and working of God Himself in H is universal being formulating and inspired by a vast, an infinite and yet a minutely selective
W isdom, prajna prasr.ta puran. of the Upan ishad, W isdom 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 d istingu ish 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 h is 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 pers istently in the stage of conscious evolution; and there is that which is to be evolved and may perhaps be already
10
--
d isplayed, 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 real isation 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 real isations. She storms 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 pu issant 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 desp ise it, is our foundation and the first condition of all our energies and real isations, and the Life-Energy which is our means of ex istence in a material body and the bas is 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. Th is is what is meant by the fable in the Aitareya Upan ishad 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, "Th is indeed is perfectly made," and consented to enter in. She has effected also a working comprom ise between the inertia of matter and the active Life that lives in and feeds on it, by which not only is vital ex istence sustained, but the fullest developments of mentality are rendered possible. Th is equilibrium constitutes the basic status of Nature in man and is termed in the language of Yoga h is gross body composed
The Three Steps of Nature
--
If, then, th is inferior equilibrium is the bas is 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 W isdom 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 ind ispensable 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 H is 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 real isation of their possibilities in our ultimate fulfilment. The great part assigned to th is element in the universal scheme is powerfully emphas ised by the catholic w isdom of the Upan ishads. "As the spokes of a wheel in its nave, so in the Life-Energy is all establ ished, the triple knowledge and the Sacrifice and the power of the strong and the purity of the w ise. Under the control of the LifeEnergy is all th is that is establ ished in the triple heaven."2 It is therefore no integral Yoga that kills these vital energies, forces them into a nerveless quiescence or roots them out as the source
annakos.a and pran.akos.a.
--
of noxious activities. Their purification, not their destruction, - their transformation, control and util isation is the aim in view with which they have been created and developed in us.
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. Th is in her ordinary exaltations is the lofty preoccupying thought in her; th is, except in her periods of exhaustion and recoil into a reposeful and recuperating obscurity, is her constant pursuit wherever she can get free from the trammels of her first vital and physical real isations. For here in man we have a d istinction 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 d iscriminative 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 impr isoned. It accepts th is 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 ex istence. But the bodily life in man is a base, not the aim, h is first condition and not h is 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 ex istence, 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 th is intellectual mentality is the divine.
The mental life thus evolving in man is not, indeed, a
manomayah. pran.asarraneta. Mundaka Upan ishad II. 2. 8.
--
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-organ ised part of their normal nature or not evolved at all or latent and not easily made active.
Certainly, the mental life is not a fin ished 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 d isturbances, its tensions, or think only with the material mind.
Civil ised man has yet to establ ish 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 d isequilibrium of the human elements, so that it is possible for eminent scient ists to describe genius as a form of insanity, a result of degeneration, a pathological morbidity of Nature. The phenomena which are used to justify th is 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 pu issant, 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 harmon ised the bodily life with the material mind, she is harmon ising 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 d isturbances. And she is shooting yet beyond in the attempt to reach a still higher level.
Nor are the d isturbances 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 d isintegration, 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 th is 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 civil ised man as the degenerate descendant of a previous civil isation. For if the actuality of intellectual achievement is unevenly d istributed, 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 barbar ism of Central Africa, is capable, without admixture of blood, without waiting for future generations, of the intellectual culture, if not yet of the intellectual accompl ishment 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 h is 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 d isplay 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. Barbar ism 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 universal ising the opportunities which modern civil isation affords for the mental life. Even the preoccupation of the European intellect, the protagon ist of th is tendency, with material Nature and the externalities of ex istence is a necessary part of the effort. It seeks to prepare a sufficient bas is in man's physical being and vital energies and in h is material environment for h is 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 civil ised humanity, the sense and drift of th is 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 sat isfaction of the legitimate needs and demands of the material mind, sufficient ease, le isure, 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 sat isfied, 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 sat isfaction 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 sat isfaction 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 acqu isition and organ isation is the veritable object served by the methods of Yoga.
Mind is not the last term of evolution, not an ultimate aim, but, like body, an instrument. It is even so termed in the language of
16
--
Yoga, the inner instrument.4 And Indian tradition asserts that th is 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 unreal ised harmony, some insufficiency of the intellectual and material bas is to which she has now returned, some over-special isation of the higher to the detriment of the lower ex istence.
But what then constitutes th is higher or highest ex istence 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 systemat ised.
The only approximate terms in the Engl ish language have other associations and their use may lead to many and even serious inaccuracies. The terminology of Yoga recogn ises 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 bl iss. But th is knowledge is not a systemat ised 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-ex istent and self-luminous Truth. And th is bl iss is not a supreme pleasure of the heart and sensations with the experience of pain and sorrow as its background, but a delight also selfex istent 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 ex istence.
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 ex istence. 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 ex istence superseding the ego istic and itself both cosmic and transcendent, the nature of which is Bl iss. These are obviously divine and, as man is at present apparently constituted, superhuman states of consciousness and activity. A trinity of transcendent ex istence, 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 ex istence 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), th is 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 Bl iss, 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 Bl iss 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 th is be the truth of the universe, then the goal of evolution is also its cause, it is that which is immanent in its elements and out of them is liberated. But the liberation is surely imperfect if it is only an escape and there is no return upon the containing substance and activities to exalt and transform them.
The immanence itself would have no credible reason for being if it did not end in such a transfiguration. But if human mind can become capable of the glories of the divine Light, human emotion and sensibility can be transformed into the mould and assume the measure and movement of the supreme Bl iss, human action not only represent but feel itself to be the motion of a divine and non-ego istic 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 th is supreme ex istence 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 th is 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 bas is of our ex istence here in the material world, a mental life into which we emerge and by which we ra ise the bodily to higher uses and enlarge it into a greater completeness, and a divine ex istence which is at once the goal of the other two and returns upon them to liberate them into 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 th is 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
From 1918 to 1922, we gathered at No. 41, Rue Frano is Martin, called the Guest House, upstairs, on a broad verandah into which four rooms opened and whose main piece of furniture was a small table 3' x 1' covered with a blue cotton cloth. That is where Sri Aurobindo used to sit in a hard wooden chair behind the table with a few chairs in front for the v isitors or for the d isciples.
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.
0.03 - Letters to My little smile, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
known is nothing compared to the one - much deeper and
completer - which you will come to know.
--
Sri Aurobindo is working for your transformation - how
can there be doubt that he will triumph!
--
child or an animal is confident and happy without knowing why.
Now you must learn to be happy and confident while knowing
--
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
--
life, of its m isery and ugliness. For life is not as it is portrayed
in novels; day-to-day ex istence is full of sufferings great and
small, and it is only by identification with the Divine Consciousness that one can attain and preserve the true unchanging
happiness.
--
Consecration to the Divine is the secret of ex istence;
a perpetual renewal of force comes from communion
--
It is very simple, as you will see.
1) The Infinite is the inexhaustible storehouse of forces. The
individual is a battery, a storage cell which runs down after use.
Consecration is the wire that connects the individual battery to
the infinite reserve of forces.
--
2) The Infinite is the river that flows without cease; the
individual is the little pond that dries up slowly in the sun.
Consecration is the canal that connects the river to the pond
and prevents the pond from drying up.
--
about my dullness is true - if it is due to an absence of
imagination.
--
But th is 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
way.
--
But my mind does not have tamas; it is always active
and runs here and there like a madman.
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
--
It is good to observe yourself in order to see your weaknesses
and be able to correct them.
--
nothing to do with her and it is not good to talk about
these things to people because they cannot do anything
--
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 doctors, the rule is that they should not talk about their
patients, and the doctor ought to know better. I hope you are
--
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
--
be aware of what is good and true in the nature and give it all
one's attention, so that th is good and true side can grow 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): th is is the only
thing I can call good.
--
it was you who had such a sad little face and it is probably your
own sadness that you saw reflected in my eyes. I know life too
--
Keep your smile, little child; it is th is that gives you your
strength.
--
it is impossible for me to live elsewhere."
Thinking of all th is 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
--
That is how I talk to people in my head; my mind
puts the thoughts it likes, as it likes, into someone's
--
It is not so terrible - the mind likes to be busy with something
always, and making up stories (even when one knows that these
stories are not true) is one of the most innocent pursuits of
th is restless mind. Of course, it must become calm and quiet
--
and more; it is never sat isfied with what You give it.
My child, I am going to reveal something that you will try to
--
I don't understand what you mean. My help is always with
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
d iscontented that you will be able to do so.
--
But I don't blame You for th is; it is me - I don't
have a strong will, so how can I get rid of it?
--
There is only one remedy, and you must lose no time in
accepting it: recover your smile, regain your faith, become once
--
and difficulties - it is your smile that will chase them away.
16 December 1932
--
there is a kind of no ise in my head, as if many people
were talking at once and I can understand nothing of
--
all night. It is like a bazaar, there is a lot of no ise because
people are all talking at once and one can understand
--
him?" But what is the advantage of thinking afterwards!
Series Three - To "My little smile"
There is an advantage in looking back after some time at what
one has done; for at a d istance, removed from the action, one
--
only what is good will remain.
25 December 1932
--
I think th is is the last thing I shall write to You.
I should like to stop writing now, as I am feeling very
--
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 stone.
--
And if there is nothing bad in me, why are we taking
so much trouble? It would be better to remain quiet because "what should d isappear will d isappear; only what
--
It is your self-esteem and vanity that are in an exasperated state
and prevent you from seeing affection where it is present.
I don't know whether You tell Y about what I write to
--
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 d iscontented that you will be able to do so."
--
It is not enough to tell them, you must want them to d isappear.
Mother, today I am sad. I don't know why but I even
--
And yet it is quite natural; how can you not be sad when you
turn your back on your soul, and that simply out of pride!
--
do so. To revolt is to reject the Divine Love and only the Divine
Love has the power to save.
--
to recover, do not recover. Perhaps it is the same for physical
d iseases?
--
What is all th is about psychological and physical
d iseases? I understand nothing of it.
--
nothing from You and that it is impossible for me to live
without You, and th is 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 th is is so
absurd that I cannot believe it is what you mean.
When with all my will I am working for the d isappearance
--
I don't know what is going to happen, but I can't
help thinking that if I remain in th is condition all the time
--
them (the thieves of the vital world), because it is when you are
depressed that they are best able to rob you. You must not l isten
--
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.
--
Now there is only one way open, the way of progress - since
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 th is ind ispensable progress.
--
Well, it is a success! It is a good account with hardly any m istakes, and I am glad to know exactly how you spent your day.
It will be good to continue like th is.
--
in different ways; th is is an excellent exerc ise to learn how
to write and mould your style. It seems that at the moment
--
That is quite a big word! It is said that hate is the reverse of love;
at any rate it is a dangerous sentiment which leaves you always
at the mercy of the one you hate: to hate means that you are still
attached; the true attitude is one of complete indifference.
27 January 1933
--
written: "To work for the Divine is to pray with the body." Words of the Mother - II,
CWM, Vol. 14, p. 299.
--
proud of you and your work, which is so lovely. I see that you
have written without making a single m istake!
--
Th is is good, my little smile; balance of the being is based upon
regular work.
--
of April, it will be possible to write 4.4.44, and so on. It is
interesting, isn't it?
3 March 1933
--
No, all that is only the manifestation of a universal harmony
which lies, as it were, at the very heart of creation. But the
supramental beauty is something much higher and more perfect;
it is a beauty untainted by any ugliness and it does not need the
proximity of ugliness in order to look beautiful.
--
them as carefully as one keeps works of art, and that is why I
do not wear them very often.
--
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.
--
They are absolutely charming! It is impossible to say which is
the original and which the copy, and it may very well be that
the copy is even more beautiful than the original. You saw that
I was wearing the gown th is evening when I went for a walk on
--
rest? That is, either take a full day's rest or else work two hours
less each day.
--
You are right; nothing is better than to real ise our most beautiful
dreams and nothing makes us stronger and happier!
--
Mother, do You know, it is I who ironed these two
blouses without spoiling them? Th is is the first time I
have ironed a blouse. Mother, give me a "bravo" for
--
Th is is worth far more than a "bravo"! Th is morning I was
literally filled with admiration. It is magnificent - the birds are
so beautiful and so very alive; I found their little heads with the
--
do the ironing? It is good that you are learning.
21 June 1933
--
Th is morning I cut a chem ise for You - it is the first
time I ever cut a chem ise. X is going to stitch it and when
it is ready, You will wear it and then tell me if it is well
cut or not. Because if it is well cut, I can cut other things
without any hesitation.
--
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
--
The trouble one takes like th is for someone is never in vain. The
result may not appear immediately, but one day or another a
--
It is not good - you will quickly spoil your eyesight, and that
would be the end of your beautiful embroideries. The nerves
--
work one does is no longer neat and trim; everything becomes
an approximation and one has to give up all hope of achieving
any kind of perfection. I don't think th is is the result you want
to obtain!
--
- it is truly regal; and as for me, I was proud of my little smile
and her beautiful work!
--
have to give You is about my work.
You are very hardworking and painstaking, and if you have
--
It is rather tiresome for you, my dear little smile! But it is an
exact image of life, where one must constantly undo what has
--
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?
It is a work of art. It is simply splendid. I feel as if I were dressed
in light.
--
Just a word is enough to keep the contact, and when you have
something interesting to tell me, you must do so.
--
As you like, my little smile; I am very busy, it is true, but I could
have managed to give you a few minutes. It is nice of you to
think of not increasing my work unnecessarily; there are not
--
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
--
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, 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.
--
Don't you believe that when one is a child of the Mother,
one is at the same time a child of Sri Aurobindo, and viceversa?
16 December 1933
--
That is enough; all I ask is that we exchange a little "bonjour"7
every day. When you have something special or important or
--
write "I worked for ten hours", You write to me, "It is
amazing"!
--
"Ar istocracy of beauty". It is a noble flower which stands upright on its stalk. Its form has been styl ised in the fleur-de-l is,
emblem of the kings of France.
--
I didn't notice it, so it can't be anything much. That is probably
why you looked so grave at Pranam th is morning. You should
--
You know that all my love is always with you as well as my best
will to help you out of your difficulties.
--
But th is little heart is full of love. Mother, we are
going to burn all the bad things in th is little heart. Then
--
What you have written here is very beautiful and it is also very
true. The beautiful things are far stronger than the ugly ones
--
embroidered with silver thread. Th is blouse is very, very
beautiful. The sari too will be the most beautiful one in
--
sari is nothing compared to the one X is preparing.
That is not true; each has its own particular beauty and style.
The bird-of-parad ise is a very beautiful sari.
Her blouse is truly the most beautiful one.
I cannot say whether it is the most beautiful or not. Each of
the embroidered sar is has its own beauty; but it is true that th is
blouse is very beautiful.
30 January 1934
--
And that is why when I saw something very beautiful
made by someone else, my pride received a good hard
blow. isn't that true? (Mother, here I recall a sentence I
once heard Y telling someone: "Mother knows how to
--
Certain conditions in us (and pride is one of them) automatically
invite blows from the surrounding circumstances. And it is up
to us to util ise these blows to make further progress.
--
Such is my w ish and my blessing.
1 February 1934
--
You are already in my heart, it is true. But I don't
know how to open my eyes; they are always open except
--
yourself, and that is why I cannot help you as much as I would
like to.
--
My dear child, th is is certainly a most unexpected way of interpreting th is v ision. I hadn't given it that meaning at all. The
images in these v isions are always symbolic and should be taken
--
of matter, th is stream of life is freed only with difficulty and can
hardly emerge into the light. But with a little concentration and
--
the dyeing is irregular: some places are dark and some
are pale. You will see it tomorrow morning.
--
that is a sure fact.
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 th is: Y has taken a lot of trouble and made
a very beautiful drawing, a beautiful piece of cloth has been
--
do th is 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 f ishes. It is very, very pretty.
And if you want my opinion, I suggest that you first take up the
--
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 establ ished in you some day never to
--
sari to a lace gown. It is not a question of number or of need.
For years I was perfectly sat isfied with two sar is a year - but I
--
You told me that there is something closed in me
which isn't open to You and th is 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?
My heart? Or something else? I don't understand all th is.
--
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
--
I shall tell You frankly when I don't feel happy: it is
when someone joyfully tells me about h is beautiful and
--
you know what it is and it is sure to come back stronger and
steadier. Remain confident, do not torment yourself - in th is
--
in me, all is lost. Previously I always felt that all I did
was for You; in all the work I did, th is feeling of "doing
--
Are you aware of any cause for th is change? Surely there is
one. Besides, these days when the Ashram is full of v isitors,9
there is a great confusion which often brings a clouding of
the consciousness. You must not let th is upset you too much,
--
reappear. My love is always with you to help you go through
th is bad moment.
--
Yes, I think I know the cause of th is change. isn't
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
--
sar is all these days? It is certainly not because I d islike wearing
them - quite the contrary. But they are rather heavy and warm
--
greatest pleasure since the season is a bit cooler.
It is true that you must get rid of these ignorant and petty
movements; but at the same time, you may be sure that I appreciate and love your work immensely. I have great admiration for
--
frankness, be absolutely frank; tell me fully all that is going
on in you, and soon the cure will come, a complete and happy
--
belittle the Divine's love, because without it nothing is worth
living for.
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 ex istence, 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 ex istence 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 util isation of the bodily ex istence, 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. H is 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-real isation 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 th is is the plan of the divine Energy in humanity, the whole method and aim of our ex istence 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 ex istence, a life of mental activity and progress and the unchanging spiritual beatitude. But he can, as he progresses, combine these three forms, resolve their d iscords into a harmonious rhythm and so create in himself the whole godhead, the perfect Man.
In ordinary Nature they have each their own character istic and governing impulse.
The character istic energy of bodily Life is not so much in progress as in pers istence, 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 per ish, - such constant reproduction is the only possible material immortality.
Self-preservation, self-repetition, self-multiplication are necessarily, then, the predominant instincts of all material ex istence.
--
The character istic energy of pure Mind is change, and the more our mentality acquires elevation and organ isation, the more th is 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 character istic law of Spirit is self-ex istent 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 real isation of that which is the same in all things and beyond all things, equally bl issful in universe and outside it, untouched by the imperfections and limitations of the forms and activities in which it dwells, are the glory of the spiritual life.
In each of these forms Nature acts both individually and collectively; for the Eternal affirms Himself equally in the single form and in the group-ex istence, 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 h is 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, r ising to a truer perception of th is complex universe, harmon ise the individual real isation 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 ego istically its separate being nor to blot itself out in the Indefinable, but to real ise 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 ego istically h is own material or mental progress or spiritual salvation without regard to h is fellows, nor for the sake of the community to suppress or maim h is 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 h is 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 th is aim, but only to physical Nature's other instincts, the reproduction of the individual and the conservation of the type in the family, class or community. Self, domesticity, the accustomed order of the society and of the nation are the constituents of the material ex istence. 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 customary routine, the customary 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 stoned the living prophets and adored their memories when dead, were the very incarnation of th is instinctive and unintelligent principle in Nature. In the ancient Indian d istinction between the once born and the twice born, it is to th is material man that the former description can be applied. He does Nature's inferior works; he assures the bas is 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 h is customary ideas by the great religious outbursts of the past and he makes in h is 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 exerc ise h is 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 h is life moderately progressive by imprinting on the material mind the custom of progress, the habit of conscious change, the fixed idea of progression as a law of life. The creation by th is 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 h is life a moderate spirituality by accustoming him to regard in a religious spirit all the institutions of life and its customary activities. The creation of such spiritual ised communities in the East has been one of the greatest triumphs of Spirit over Matter. Yet here, too, there is a defect; for th is often tends only to the creation of a religious temperament, the most outward form of spirituality.
Its higher manifestations, even the most splendid and pu issant, either merely increase the number of souls drawn out of social life and so impover ish it or d isturb 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 res istance 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 ideal istic 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 revital ising the old, is the very soul of pure mentality. But it knows not how to deal with the res istance 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 d isfigures out of recognition or by withdrawing her assent leaves as the corpse of a dead ideal. Few and far between have been those real isations of the dreamer in Man which the world has gladly accepted, looks back to with a fond memory and seeks, in its elements, to cher ish.
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 h is brilliant v isions, the art ist absorbed in h is art, the philosopher thinking out the problems of the intellect in h is solitary chamber, the scient ist, 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 res istances 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 general isations of the philosopher base themselves on a stable foundation of science and experience.
Th is 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 ex istence or the uplifting of the race. Th is indifference is seen at its highest in the Epicurean d iscipline and is not entirely absent from the Stoic; and even altru ism does the works of compassion more often for its own sake than for the sake of the world it helps. But th is too is a limited fulfilment. The progressive mind is seen at its noblest when it strives to elevate the whole race to its own level whether by sowing broadcast the image of its own thought and fulfilment or by changing the material life of the race into fresh forms, religious, intellectual, social or political, intended to represent more nearly that ideal of truth, beauty, justice, righteousness with which the man's own soul is illumined. Failure in such a field matters little; for the mere attempt is dynamic and creative. The struggle of Mind to elevate life is the prom ise and condition of the conquest of life by that which is higher even than Mind.
That highest thing, the spiritual ex istence, 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 real ised 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-ex istent, 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 v ision or constant effort of creation in the brilliant Self is an eternally ex isting 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 res istant material activity, how much more difficult must it seem for the spiritual ex istence 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 d iscord and ugliness, not of the Law of Truth but of victorious self ishness and sin? Therefore the spiritual life tends easily in the saint and Sannyasin to withdraw from the material ex istence and reject it either wholly and physically or in the spirit. It sees th is 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. Th is 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 ego istic 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 v ision 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 th is richer and all-embracing Yoga.
2 The Unified, in whom conscious thought is concentrated, who is all delight and enjoyer of delight, the W ise. . . . He is the Lord of all, the Omn iscient, the inner Guide.
Mandukya Upan ishad 5, 6.
But the spiritual life, like the mental, may thus make use of th is outward ex istence 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 real isation, th is spiritual indifference accepts no matter what environment, no matter what action, d ispassionately, prepared to retire as soon as its own supreme end is real ised. It is so that many have understood the ideal of the Gita. Or else the inner love and bl iss 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 worldex istence and a progressive manifestation of the Divine the true sense of Nature, th is limitation also is invalid. It is possible for the spiritual life in the world, and it is its real m ission, to change the material life into 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 ex isted 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 d istinctive symbol, such as the garb of the Sannyasin, the recognition of that life as man's goal and those who live it as worthy of an absolute reverence, and the casting of society itself into such a religious mould that its most customary acts should be accompanied by a formal reminder of the spiritual symbol ism 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 utility of the comprom ise 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 comprom ise, not an absolute victory. The material life lost the divine impulse to growth, the spiritual preserved by isolation its height and purity, but sacrificed its full power and serviceableness to the world. Therefore, in the divine Providence the country of the Yogins and the Sannyasins has been forced into a strict and imperative contact with the very element it had rejected, the element of the progressive Mind, so that it might recover what was now wanting to it.
We have to recogn ise once more that the individual ex ists 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 real ised in ourselves the divine symbol, to reproduce, multiply and ultimately universal ise 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 synthes is of Yoga.
Spirit is the crown of universal ex istence; Matter is its bas is; 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 ex istence. 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 real isations, 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 general isation of Yoga in humanity must be the last victory of Nature over her own delays and concealments. Even as now by the progressive mind in Science she seeks to make all mankind fit for the full development of the mental life, so by Yoga must she inevitably seek to make all mankind fit for the higher evolution, the second birth, the spiritual ex istence. And as the mental life uses and perfects the material, so will the spiritual use and perfect the material and the mental ex istence as the instruments of a divine self-expression.
The ages when that is accompl ished, 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, sat isfied and bl issful, rests in the culmination of her endeavour.
It is for man to know her meaning, no longer m isunderstanding, vilifying or m isusing 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
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.
--
Tomorrow is a holiday. The day after, these repairs can be made
to the cart.
--
feeding tubs before the bullocks and went away. He is
not working sat isfactorily. He does not keep things clean.
As there is no better man I am trying to get on with
him.
The bullocks seem to like th is man and th is is the most important
point.
For cleanliness it is a matter of superv ision.
15 July 1932
--
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
--
than he is.
3 September 1932
--
sight also. There is absolutely no doubt about what is happening
and once more I shall try to make you understand it.
--
other bullocks so closely). The truth is that they d islike and d istrust the present driver, and not without reason. When they were
working under the previous one they were happy and cheerful
and worked well. Since th is one is driving them they are sad and
dejected and work reluctantly. I see no solution but to change
--
The proposal to frighten them in order to master them is
unacceptable. Some kind of subm ission can thus be obtained
--
What is the use of being a sadhak if, as soon as we act, we
act like the ignorant ordinary man?
--
steady, unwavering conscious will, that is the way, the only true
way really effective and worthy of an aspirant for Divine Life.
--
I do not find the new man better than the previous one. He is far
too nervous and restless. If he could be a little more quiet and
--
I think that Chakki work3 is very d isgusting for the bullocks;
it brings down their vitality because of that, and makes them
become old very soon. That is why I do not w ish them to be
given that work.
--
Saturday the 14th is cattle festival day. Generally in all
the places, many things are observed on that day. Horns
are painted in red and blue colour, no work is given and
so on. I am not submitting all th is to have perm ission
--
Yes, the necklace is nice, you can put it on; but no painting of
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
--
What is th is? If the cart-man made a m istake or m isbehaved
with the bullocks, I must know and will tolerate none of THESE
--
with sadhana. is X here to solve chess problems? He could do it
just as well elsewhere.
--
If truly he does it, it is brutal and stupid; apart from spoiling
her head, which is bad enough, he will make her vindictive and
violent which is worse.
18 November 1933
I find Tej5 very much reduced. He is certainly ill and needs some
close attention. I would like to know from the doctor if it would
--
a prec ise answer. It is well known now, that there is no better
cure for illnesses, whatever they are, than air and sun.
--
All th is is absolutely forbidden by the Municipal rules, and if
any of these things were done by us it was a great m istake and I
--
If you are pleased to permit, as it is only for a day, I
have no objection. He works very sat isfactorily. Awaiting
--
No, he is very rude and a boy who can almost willingly hurt a
dog is likely to do the same with the cow and calf.
Th is boy has been d ism issed by my orders and will not be
--
A man who is cruel with beasts is worse than a beast.
2 April 1934
0.04 - The Systems of Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
HESE relations between the different psychological div isions 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 harmon ise their central practices and their predominant aims, we shall find that the bas is provided by Nature is still our natural bas is and the condition of their synthes is.
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 real ise It. But in the highest flights of Yoga she reaches beyond herself and real ises the Divine in Itself exceeding the universe and even standing apart from the cosmic play.
Therefore by some it is supposed that th is 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 Bl iss or the ineffable Nirvana, the individual mind that by converting its ordinary functionings into a knowledge beyond mentality knows its oneness with the
Ineffable and merges its separate ex istence 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
--
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 th is 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 Mon istic may be our intellectual conception of the highest truth of things, in practice we are compelled to accept th is 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 organ ised consciousness which we call our personality. It may be effected in the physical through the body; in the vital through the action of
Bhakta, the devotee or lover of God; Bhagavan, God, the Lord of Love and Delight.
The third term of the trinity is Bhagavat, the divine revelation of Love.
The Systems of Yoga
--
Self. Hathayoga selects the body and the vital functionings as its instruments of perfection and real isation; 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.
Its method is a direct commerce between the human Purusha in the individual body and the divine Purusha who dwells in every body and yet transcends all form and name.
Hathayoga aims at the conquest of the life and the body whose combination in the food sheath and the vital vehicle constitutes, as we have seen, the gross body and whose equilibrium is the foundation of all Nature's workings in the human being. The equilibrium establ ished by Nature is sufficient for the normal ego istic life; it is insufficient for the purpose of the Hathayogin.
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 th is frame and the world-environment by which it is conditioned.
34
--
Nature the equilibrium is based upon the individual isation 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 universal isation of the individual vitality by admitting into 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 into it from the universal Life-Ocean, gives to it an extraordinary health, force and suppleness and seeks to liberate it from the habits by which it is subjected to ordinary physical
Nature and kept within the narrow bounds of her normal operations. In the ancient tradition of Hathayoga it has always been supposed that th is 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 exerc ises of respiration which are h is 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 dynam ism 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 pu issantly intensifies such normal powers and faculties as he already possesses.
--
The results of Hathayoga are thus striking to the eye and impose easily on the vulgar or physical mind. And yet at the end we may ask what we have gained at the end of all th is 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 util isation of its results for the life of the world becomes either impracticable or is extraordinarily restricted. If in return for th is 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 m isers of ourselves, apart from the common life, for their own sake, not util ised, not thrown into the common sum of the world's activities. Hathayoga attains large results, but at an exorbitant price and to very little purpose.
Rajayoga takes a higher flight. It aims at the liberation and perfection not of the bodily, but of the mental being, the control of the emotional and sensational life, the mastery of the whole apparatus of thought and consciousness. It fixes its eyes on the citta, that stuff of mental consciousness in which all these activities ar ise, and it seeks, even as Hathayoga with its physical material, first to purify and to tranquill ise. The normal state of man is a condition of trouble and d isorder, a kingdom either at war with itself or badly governed; for the lord, the Purusha, is subjected to h is min isters, the faculties, subjected even to h is subjects, the instruments of sensation, emotion, action, enjoyment. Swarajya, self-rule, must be substituted for th is subjection.
First, therefore, the powers of order must be helped to overcome
--
the powers of d isorder. The preliminary movement of Rajayoga is a careful self-d iscipline 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 ego istic 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 establ ished.
Th is 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 d isabilities 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 util ises 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 dynam ism, full of a latent supernormal faculty, typified in Yogic terminology by the kun.d.alin, the coiled and sleeping serpent of Energy within. Th is done, the system proceeds to the perfect quieting of the restless mind and its elevation to a higher plane through concentration of mental force by the successive stages which lead to the utmost inner concentration or ingathered state of the consciousness which is called Samadhi.
By Samadhi, in which the mind acquires the capacity of withdrawing from its limited waking activities into freer and higher states of consciousness, Rajayoga serves a double purpose. It compasses a pure mental action liberated from the confusions of the outer consciousness and passes thence to the higher supra-mental planes on which the individual soul enters into its true spiritual ex istence. But also it acquires the capacity of that free and concentrated energ ising of consciousness on
--
its object which our philosophy asserts as the primary cosmic energy and the method of divine action upon the world. By th is 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 exerc ise whatever mastery may be useful or necessary to h is 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
--
But the weakness of the system lies in its excessive reliance on abnormal states of trance. Th is limitation leads first to a certain aloofness from the physical life which is our foundation and the sphere into which we have to bring our mental and spiritual gains. Especially is the spiritual life, in th is system, too much associated with the state of Samadhi. Our object is to make the spiritual life and its experiences fully active and fully util isable in the waking state and even in the normal use of the functions.
But in Rajayoga it tends to withdraw into a subliminal plane at the back of our normal experiences instead of descending and possessing our whole ex istence.
--
differs also in th is, - 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 real isation. A second defect is that as actually pract ised it chooses one of the three parallel paths exclusively and almost in antagon ism to the others instead of effecting a synthetic harmony of the intellect, the heart and the will in an integral divine real isation.
The Path of Knowledge aims at the real isation of the unique and supreme Self. It proceeds by the method of intellectual reflection, vicara, to right d iscrimination, viveka. It observes and d istingu ishes 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 per ishable, not determinable by any phenomenon or combination of phenomena. From th is 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 th is 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 ex istence for the Divine no less than to a transcendence. The point of th is departure is the real isation of the supreme Self not only in one's own being but in all beings and, finally, the real isation 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 bas is of th is real isation a yet further enlargement is possible, the conversion of all forms of knowledge, however mundane, into activities of the divine consciousness util isable 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
--
Love and Bl iss and util ises normally the conception of the supreme Lord in H is personality as the divine Lover and enjoyer of the universe. The world is then real ised as a play of the
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 util ise all the normal relations of human life into 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-Bl issful. Worship and meditation are used only for the preparation and increase of intensity of the divine relationship. And th is 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 real isation and salvation.
Th is path, too, as ordinarily pract ised, leads away from worldex istence to an absorption, of another kind than the Mon ist'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 real isation of the supreme Love and Bl iss. It provides a yet more general corrective in the real isation of the divine object of Love in all beings not only human but animal, easily extended to all forms whatsoever. We can see how th is 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 spiritual isation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards love and joy in our humanity.
--
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 director 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 th is supreme Will and th is 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 ex istence and a departure into the Supreme.
But here too the exclusive result is not inevitable. The end of the path may be, equally, a perception of the Divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities, and a free and unego istic 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 spiritual isation 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 H is ways and H is being. It is in th is 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
Work done with joy is work done well.
14 March 1932
--
master of food, it is the food that masters you.
22 August 1932
--
uneasy. I also felt that he is not very happy with me. I
had a sort of bad feeling at that time. Why did I feel
--
have been broken to pieces. is it true?
All these feelings - th is uneasiness, th is tiredness, these impressions of broken progress - come from the vital, which rebels
--
a worse state than before. There is something wrong in
my mind. Also, I feel bad everywhere. Tell me what I
--
I am always with you, my child, so it is not only possible but
quite easy to feel my presence constantly.
--
tonight? If it is so, it was because I was thinking of the stupidity
Series Five - To a Child
--
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
your child.
That is really nice and I am very pleased. Yes, I am always with
you and even more specially when you are working on your
--
together very much, and that is one more proof that we are doing
them together, because they are nearly always just as I thought
they should be. The small one you sent th is morning is very fine
and the choice of colours is excellent.
Affectionately.
--
Love from your little mother who is always with you.
15 March 1934
--
it or is it something else? Mother, after having come so
close to you, why does it come?
--
itself in you. Th is 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.
--
Yes, my dear child, it is entirely possible and since you want
it sincerely, it will come to be so. You will feel yourself always
--
Do not d istress yourself, it is the result of these last few days of
sickness. It will pass - but you must eat well regularly and sleep
--
that it is your good and your good alone that I want. I want
to make you a strong and conscious man who is master of
himself - that is, in control of h is lower nature and capable of
becoming a true Yogi if that be h is aspiration. And the more th is
--
That is why, now, when the will that is expressing itself is
the will of the lower nature, I cannot sat isfy all its whims, for
--
True love is the love that wants, to the exclusion of all else,
the highest good for the loved one. Th is is the love that I have
and want to have for you.
--
Consciousness that is constantly by your side, bringing you the
solicitude of my love.
--
the "plane" from which they come, it is surely the subtle physical, where the memory of all the conceptions and works of art
real ised on earth is stored.
Very affectionately yours.
--
Very good - then you must acquire energy, and after all, it is
not so difficult, especially here where you are as if bathed in a
--
My child, my child, why th is great sadness? is it because someone to whom you had given your friendship has withdrawn for
reasons that he thinks are very profound?
--
No, all is not sad and gloomy, neither the trees nor the sky
nor the sea; everything is full of the divine Presence and is only
too glad to speak of it to you. Shake off th is child ish depression
and contemplate the Sun that is r ising in your heart!
28 April 1934
--
You don 't love me at all. is th is the way that one
loves one's child?
--
know what true love is.
30 April 1934
--
and turned in on yourself. The whole thing is to choose your
relationships well. You must choose to enter into relation only
with those whose contact does not veil my presence. Th is is the
important point which should never be forgotten. All that leads
you away from me in thought and feeling is bad. All that brings
you closer to me and gives you the perception and joy of my
presence is good. You should judge things in the light of th is
rule. You will see that it will help you to protect yourself from
--
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,
--
say, "What is th is nonsense? Don't be ridiculous. Quick! Off
you go and work, and never mind whether you are in a good or
a bad mood! That is of no interest at all."
My mother was perfectly right and I have always been very
--
mind, which is still very uncultivated, and to learn the elements
of knowledge which are ind ispensable to a man if he does not
--
vital, for if peace is not imposed on it by a power greater than
its own, the vital will never accept it.
--
It is by inner identification that the true closeness can come.
I am always with you in all love.
--
You will no longer revolt when you understand that it is the
most useless and fool ish of all things; and when you give up th is
--
For you I want consciousness, knowledge, art istic capacity, selfmastery in peace and perfect equality, and the happiness that is
the result of spiritual real isation. is th is too grand and vast a
programme?
--
Th is is quite excellent and I approve of it. Without outer and
inner d iscipline, one can achieve nothing in life, either spiritually
--
being, the being who is free, peaceful, strong and happy always,
independently of all circumstances.
--
it is through a quiet and confident aspiration that you will receive
it. All my love is with you.
I hope you do not show my letters to anyone. It is better to
keep them to yourself; otherw ise, if you show them, all the force
--
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
--
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.
--
My child, all my love is always with you; do not push it away.
1 September 1934
--
the best thing is to remain always cradled in my arms, protected
by my love which never leaves you.
--
You know that my love is always with you and my will is
that you should get well; my force is with you to give you health.
I take you into my arms, I take you to my heart.
--
My force is with you to conquer these things. And my love
never leaves you.
--
I am not unhappy. All that is a falsehood.
Mother, stay with your little child.
--
I want peace. I feel that everything is unquiet.
Mother, give me peace.
--
do not even trust in me? Yet my love is always with you.
1 November 1934
--
My love is with you.
2 November 1934
--
Don't you think it is high time for you to develop these
qualities, which are absolutely ind ispensable if you want to do
--
Yes, I know everything and that is why I know that my little child
is not always reasonable and that is why he has a headache and
a stomachache.
--
The best thing for your headache is to take plenty of physical
exerc ise (such as gardening for example).
--
I don't know why something in me is sad. Even
when I am very happy, truly happy, th is part is still sad.
Mother, which part in me is like th is? is it the heart, the
vital, or is it something very superficial and insignificant?
My dear child,
It is in fact something very superficial, but still it should be
cured. It is your body that does not feel very strong and is sad
because it does not have a sound balance of health. The best
cure is plenty of open-air exerc ise and abundant food.
16 March 1935
--
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.
It is through work and self-mastery that one can find happiness and peace.
23 March 1935
--
if you didn't work it would be far worse. It is in work that one
finds balance and joy.
--
I feel very tired; some part in me is not happy. I don't
know whether it is inside me or outside; something feels
completely lost and lifeless. You know everything, my
mother. Will you tell me what it is?
It is something in your vital that cannot bear any vexation, even
the slightest. Th is part of the vital must learn to become stronger
--
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
--
the path, but with perseverance the victory is sure.
Love from your mother.
--
No, it is not to console you that I told you that you have
made progress. The progress is undeniable even though it may
not be apparent. Certainly the path of yoga is a very difficult
one, and you should not expect to reap its fruits after only three
--
You say that you are often depressed. It is the vital being
that gets depressed when its desires are not sat isfied.
--
that? is there any special reason? Will you tell me one
thing: why are you now so far away from me?
--
But you know that I never adv ise anyone to marry; it is a
terrible bondage.
--
now and then it is good that I remind you that you are free and
that it is for you to make the dec ision; that's all.
I don't feel that you are far from me; for me you are always
in my arms. So if you feel that you are far away, it is a false
feeling which does not conform to the truth.
--
with outspread wings is the vehicle of V ishnu, the destroyer of
serpents. He seemed to be standing behind you to protect and
--
The moon is the symbol of the spiritual light, one in its origin,
multiple in its manifestation. There is only one moon and yet
each reflection of the moon is different. Th is is what I wanted
to say in a poetic form.
--
What I meant yesterday is that all people very sensitive are
opened to many influences and that is why it is difficult for them
to be steady.
--
I understand your difficulty very well. It is very common
and can only be solved with much endurance in the will and
--
On the first path, there is no question of personal incapacity,
since our help and protection are always there. Indeed, you must
--
to conquer the adversary who is trying to draw you towards the
lower animal consciousness.
--
know what my path is, then who does?
My dear child,
I know very well what the true life for you is, and what
your destiny is. But it is you who must become aware of it
and understand it so that you can real ise it. In what way do
--
Th is inner condition is getting worse and worse instead of better. You said to be patient, but as it is I am
becoming like a stone, without energy, inert, and more
--
yourself. I know that it is troublesome to feel th is res istance
in yourself; but pers ist in your will to overcome it and it will
--
It has stopped now. is there some inner preparation
at work and is it waiting for the descent of a higher
inspiration?
--
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
--
true inspiration. That is why you should write only when you
feel that the inspiration is there.
20 July 1938
--
are meant for the Ashram life, it is necessary that the spiritual
life and all the d iscipline it entails - in short, the search for and
--
sure it is the Divine in me that you want? When you come back
here and cannot see me (for, since Sri Aurobindo's accident, I am
--
that is another thing. But in that case, you will have to rely on
the inner help, not on an outer and superficial help.
--
to study music for three years at Lucknow, since that is what
you want.
--
I am, and I don't know whether there is any chance of
my making any progress. It seems that all the obscurities
--
Still, there is something in me which says very
weakly that all will be well; but th is voice is so feeble
that I cannot rely on it.1
--
know that I shall never be able to leave th is life. Th is is
my situation right now. The struggle is getting more and
more acute, and worst of all I cannot lie to you. What
--
The Mother underlined the words "all will be well" and wrote beside them: "Th is is
the voice of truth, the one you must l isten to."
--
I feel that something is wrong and you are very
d ispleased with me.
It is the very first proposition that is wrong, I am not d ispleased
with you - so all that follows cannot be correct.
--
There is no real cause because there is no d iscontent. Your pain
is quite gratuitous, so you would [do] better [to] get rid of it
--
yet understand. What is it you want me to do? What
is your will? I cannot express how deeply I feel your
--
there is bad will or revolt, Kali may come and chast ise but she
always does it with love.
--
useless; it is the "inside" that must change. Keep your resolution
and my help will work.
--
All my love is with you to help you and guide you.
My dear child,
--
The most important [thing] is a steady, quiet endurance that
does not allow any upsetting or depression to interfere with your
progress. The sincerity of the aspiration is the assurance of the
victory.
--
It is a lack of energy that is preventing me from
painting. Give me a strong energy. I want the inner and
--
cannot express th is in proper words and it is becoming
melodramatic. Pardon my m istake.
I don't find your expression melodramatic and there is nothing
to pardon. I know that it is from lack of energy that you cannot
paint. But I can give you all the energy needed; you have only
to open yourself and receive and you will see that the source is
inexhaustible. It is the same thing for peace and for all the true
things you can aspire for.
--
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
--
revolt, it would help you very much to get rid of it, because it is
Series Five - To a Child
--
There is a depression. And most often I feel that my
mind is tired. I don't know why. Today, my vital too is
in terrible revolt. What can I do?
It is the same tiredness as that of the muscles when they do not
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.
--
difficulty, is to obey.
My dear child,
--
is a very frequent tendency in those whose vital is insufficiently
developed and seeks violent sensations in the hope of escaping
from its heaviness and inertia. But it is an ignorant movement,
for violent sensations can never be a remedy; on the contrary,
--
Love from your mother who is always there ready to help
you.
--
The peace is there in the depths of your heart; concentrate there
and you will find it.
--
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
--
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
Hathayoga and Rajayoga are thus successively pract ised. And in a recent unique example, in the life of Ramakr ishna Paramhansa, we see a colossal spiritual capacity first driving straight to the divine real isation, 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 real isation and possession of God by the power of love, by the extension of inborn spirituality into various experience and by the spontaneous play of an intuitive knowledge. Such an example cannot be general ised. Its object also was special and temporal, to exemplify in the great and dec isive experience of a master-soul the truth, now most necessary to humanity, towards which a world long divided into jarring sects and schools is with difficulty labouring, that all sects are forms and fragments of a single integral truth and all d isciplines 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 th is sole good we have to drive and th is attained, all the rest that the divine Will chooses for us, all necessary form and manifestation, will be added.
The synthes is 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 d isciplines and seizing rather on some central principle common to all which will include and util ise 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 organ ising a natural selection and combination of their varied energies and different utilities.
Th is was the aim which we set before ourselves at first when we entered upon our comparative examination of the methods of
--
Yogic system which is in its nature synthetical and starts from a great central principle of Nature, a great dynamic force of
Nature; but it is a Yoga apart, not a synthes is of other schools.
Th is system is the way of the Tantra. Owing to certain of its developments Tantra has fallen into d iscredit 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 pu issant system founded upon ideas which were at least partially true. Even its twofold div ision into the right-hand and left-hand paths, Dakshina Marga and Vama Marga, started from a certain profound perception. In the ancient symbolic sense of the words Dakshina and Vama, it was the d istinction between the way of Knowledge and the way of Ananda, - Nature in man liberating itself by right d iscrimination in power and practice of its own energies, elements and potentialities and Nature in man
The Synthes is of the Systems
--
If, however, we leave aside, here also, the actual methods and practices and seek for the central principle, we find, first, that Tantra expressly differentiates itself from the Vedic methods of Yoga. In a sense, all the schools we have hitherto examined are Vedantic in their principle; their force is in knowledge, their method is knowledge, though it is not always d iscernment by the intellect, but may be, instead, the knowledge of the heart expressed in love and faith or a knowledge in the will working out through action. In all of them the lord of the Yoga is the Purusha, the Conscious Soul that knows, observes, attracts, governs. But in Tantra it is rather Prakriti, the Nature-Soul, the Energy, the
Will-in-Power executive in the universe. It was by learning and applying the intimate secrets of th is Will-in-Power, its method, its Tantra, that the Tantric Yogin pursued the aims of h is d iscipline, - mastery, perfection, liberation, beatitude. Instead of drawing back from manifested Nature and its difficulties, he confronted them, seized and conquered. But in the end, as is the general tendency of Prakriti, Tantric Yoga largely lost its principle in its machinery and became a thing of formulae and occult mechan ism still powerful when rightly used but fallen from the clarity of their original intention.
We have in th is central Tantric conception one side of the truth, the worship of the Energy, the Shakti, as the sole effective force for all attainment. We get the other extreme in the Vedantic conception of the Shakti as a power of Illusion and in the search after the silent inactive Purusha as the means of liberation from the deceptions created by the active Energy. But in the integral conception the Conscious Soul is the Lord, the Nature-Soul is h is executive Energy. Purusha is of the nature of Sat, the being of conscious self-ex istence pure and infinite; Shakti or Prakriti is of the nature of Chit, - it is power of the Purusha's self-conscious ex istence, pure and infinite. The relation of the two ex ists between the poles of rest and action. When the Energy is absorbed
44
--
in the bl iss of conscious self-ex istence, there is rest; when the
Purusha pours itself out in the action of its Energy, there is action, creation and the enjoyment or Ananda of becoming. But if Ananda is the creator and begetter of all becoming, its method is Tapas or force of the Purusha's consciousness dwelling upon its own infinite potentiality in ex istence and producing from it truths of conception or real Ideas, vijnana, which, proceeding from an omn iscient and omnipotent Self-ex istence, have the surety of their own fulfilment and contain in themselves the nature and law of their own becoming in the terms of mind, life and matter. The eventual omnipotence of Tapas and the infallible fulfilment of the Idea are the very foundation of all
Yoga. In man we render these terms by Will and Faith, - a will that is eventually self-effective because it is of the substance of
Knowledge and a faith that is the reflex in the lower consciousness of a Truth or real Idea yet unreal ised in the manifestation.
It is th is self-certainty of the Idea which is meant by the Gita when it says, yo yac-chraddhah. sa eva sah., "whatever is a man's faith or the sure Idea in him, that he becomes."
We see, then, what from the psychological point of view,
- and Yoga is nothing but practical psychology, - is the conception of Nature from which we have to start. It is the selffulfilment of the Purusha through h is Energy. But the movement of Nature is twofold, higher and lower, or, as we may choose to term it, divine and undivine. The d istinction ex ists 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 d istinction 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 d istinction. 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 div ision, 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 th is passage
The Synthes is of the Systems
--
may effect itself by the rejection of the lower and escape into the higher, - the ordinary view-point, - or by the transformation of the lower and its elevation to the higher Nature. It is th is, 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 r ise into the higher ex istence, and the schools of
Yoga each select their own point of departure or their own gate of escape. They special ise certain activities of the lower
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 th is, that the Yogin seeks to substitute in himself for the integral action of the lower Nature working in and by ego and div ision 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, synthes is is unnecessary and a waste of time; for then our sole practical aim must be to find out one path out of the thousand that lead to God, one shortest possible of short cuts, and not to linger exploring different paths that end in the same goal. But if our aim be a transformation of our integral being into the terms of God-ex istence, it is then that a synthes is becomes necessary.
The method we have to pursue, then, is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform our entire being into H is. 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
Tapas, the force of consciousness in us dwelling in the Idea of the divine Nature upon that which we are in our entirety, produces
Sadhana, the practice by which perfection, siddhi, is attained; sadhaka, the Yogin who seeks by that practice the siddhi.
46
--
In psychological fact th is method translates itself into 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, th is 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 bl issful or rapid, - the attempt of the ego to enter into 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 ins ists 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 th is path is at once the most difficult imaginable and yet, in compar ison with the magnitude of its effort and object, the most easy and sure of all.
There are three outstanding features of th is 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 special ised 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 h is nature offers and the obstacles which it presents to purification and perfection. In a sense, therefore, each man in th is path has h is own method of
--
Everything in us is seized by the hands of a mighty Artificer and transformed into a clear image of that which it now seeks confusedly to present. In that ever-progressive experience we begin to perceive how th is lower manifestation is constituted and that everything in it, however seemingly deformed or petty or vile, is the more or less d istorted or imperfect figure of some element or action in the harmony of the divine Nature. We begin to understand what the Vedic R ish is meant when they spoke of the human forefa thers fashioning the gods as a smith forges the crude material in h is smithy.
Thirdly, the divine Power in us uses all life as the means of th is integral Yoga. Every experience and outer contact with our world-environment, however trifling or however d isastrous, 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 recogn ise in ourselves with opened eyes the method of God in the world, H is purpose of light in the obscure, of might in the weak and fallen, of delight in what is grievous and m iserable. 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 th is effort becomes capable of self-awareness and therefore of right completion in the individual. It is a gathering up and concentration of the movements d ispersed and loosely combined in the lower evolution.
An integral method and an integral result. First, an integral real isation of Divine Being; not only a real isation of the One in its ind istingu ishable unity, but also in its multitude of aspects which are also necessary to the complete knowledge of it by
--
By th is integral real isation 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 harmon ised 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 ego ism, bondage or reaction the channel in our mind and body for a divine action poured out freely upon the world.
The divine ex istence 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
Being in ourselves and on the other the perfect outpouring of its
--
As the Jivanmukta, who is entirely free even without d issolution of the bodily life in a final Samadhi.
The Synthes is of the Systems
--
functioning of the complex instrument we are in our outer parts, is the condition of an integral liberty. Its result is an integral beatitude, in which there becomes possible at once the Ananda of all that is in the world seen as symbols of the Divine and the Ananda of that which is not-world. And it prepares the integral perfection of our humanity as a type of the Divine in the conditions of the human manifestation, a perfection founded on a certain free universality of being, of love and joy, of play of knowledge and of play of will in power and will in unego istic action. Th is integrality also can be attained by the integral Yoga.
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 synthes is 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 ra ison 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 ex istence into its right mental and physical values. Thus we would arrive at a synthes is of the three degrees of Nature and of the three modes of human ex istence 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 real isation 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 general isation in mankind.
--
The widest synthes is of perfection possible to thought is the sole effort entirely worthy of those whose dedicated v ision perceives that God dwells concealed in humanity.
0.06 - INTRODUCTION, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
Dark Night as a separate treat ise, though in reality it is a continuation of the Ascent
of Mount Carmel and fulfils the undertakings given in it:
The first night or purgation is of the sensual part of the soul, which is
treated in the present stanza, and will be treated in the first part of th is book.
And the second is of the spiritual part; of th is speaks the second stanza,
which follows; and of th is we shall treat likew ise, in the second and the third
--
Th is 'fourth part' is the Dark Night. Of it the Saint writes in a passage which
follows that just quoted:
--
of union with God. And th is latter night is a more obscure and dark and
terrible purgation, as we shall say afterwards.2
--
although the subject of the stanzas which he is glossing is a much wider one,
compr ising the whole of the mystical life and ending only with the Divine embraces
--
treat ises. The commentary upon the second, however, is very different from that
upon the first, for it assumes a much more advanced state of development. The
--
degree of purgation which is essential to h is transformation in God. He needs
Divine aid more abundantly. 'However greatly the soul itself labours,' writes the
--
The Passive Nights, in which it is God Who accompl ishes the purgation, are
based upon th is incapacity. Souls 'begin to enter' th is 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
contemplativesto the end that, after passing through it, they may arrive at
the state of the perfect, which is that of the Divine union of the soul with
God. 4
--
the senses, the principal aim of which is the purgation or stripping of the soul of its
imperfections and the preparation of it for fruitive union. The Passive Night of
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
compar ison with it,' for it is 'horrible and awful to the spirit.'6 A good deal of
literature on the former Night ex isted in the time of St. John of the Cross and he
--
in writing, and very little is known of it, even by experience.' 7
Having described th is Passive Night of Sense in Chapter viii, he explains
--
aridity is a result of th is Night or whether it comes from sins or imperfections, or
from frailty or lukewarmness of spirit, or even from ind isposition or 'humours' of the
body. The Saint is particularly effective here, and we may once more compare th is
chapter with a similar one in the Ascent (II, xiii)that in which he fixes the point
--
To judge by h is language alone, one might suppose at times that he is speaking of
mathematical, rather than of spiritual operations.
--
Night of the Spirit, which is at once more afflictive and more painful than those
which have preceded it. Th is, nevertheless, is the Dark Night par excellence, of
which the Saint speaks in these words: 'The night which we have called that of
--
rather than purgation. The reason is that all the imperfections and d isorders of the
sensual part have their strength and root in the spirit, where all habits, both good
--
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
--
own properties. The force with which the familiar similitude is driven home
impresses indelibly upon the mind the fundamental concept of th is most sublime of
--
by the Night of Sense, the one being as different from the other as is the body from
the soul. 'For th is (latter) is an enkindling of spiritual love in the soul, which, in the
midst of these dark confines, feels itself to be keenly and sharply wounded in strong
--
The second line of the first stanza of the poem is expounded in three
admirable chapters (xi-xiii), while one short chapter (xiv) suffices for the three lines
--
Th is contemplation is not only dark, but also secret (Chapter xvii), and in
Chapter xviii is compared to the 'staircase' of the poem. Th is compar ison suggests to
the Saint an exposition (Chapters xviii, xix) of the ten steps or degrees of love which
--
and prepared for the desired union with the Spouse, a union which is the subject
that the Saint proposed to treat in h is commentary on the five remaining stanzas.
--
It is difficult to express adequately the sense of loss that one feels at the
premature truncation of th is eloquent treat ise.13 We have already given our
--
further progress towards the Sun's full brightness. It is true, of course, that some
part of th is great gap is filled by St. John of the Cross himself in h is other treat ises,
but it is small compensation for the incomplete state in which he left th is edifice of
such gigantic proportions that he should have given us other and smaller buildings
--
Flame of Love, they are not so completely knit into one whole as is th is great double
treat ise. They lose both in flexibility and in substance through the closeness with
--
h is mystical d issertations find such an outlet as here. Nowhere else, again, is he
quite so appealingly human; for, though he is human even in h is loftiest and
sublimest passages, th is intermingling of philosophy with mystical theology makes
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
is, and it is that which will triumph in time.
What we want to bring to the earth can hardly be called a revolution, although it will be the most marvellous change ever seen;
--
Th is Series is organ ised broadly by subject into thirteen parts - the form in which
it was originally publ ished; in th is it differs from the other Series, which are arranged
--
will be no need to exclaim: "The Divine is everywhere"
- for th is will be a normal experience.
--
worth much. It is an integral transformation of terrestrial life
which is anticipated.
Beloved Mother, every moment I feel a great transformation taking place in me. isn't th is true?
It is quite true. But it seems to me that even the outer forms,
the appearances are changing more than you say. Only, th is is
not very easily seen because it happens normally, in accordance
--
Certainly the Divine Grace is always at work, it is the material
world and the men living there that do not want it!
--
Where is my true being?
Farther within or higher above, on the other side of the emotions,
--
Mother, what is it that will help me always remember
that I am living a spiritual life?
--
To be conscious of the Divine Presence in us is our goal;
I don't see how I can be conscious from the beginning.
--
Th is is, however, ind ispensable for yoga; and he who has so great
an aim as to be united with the Divine and to manifest Him, how
--
I don't think th is is true; union with the outer nature brings more
certainly sorrow than joy!
--
I ask You once again, Mother, what is it that divides my
being?
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.
--
It is good to be above all enjoyments the world can give, but
why accept to be hurt by it?
--
If truly you are no longer attached to anything, it is a great yogic
real isation 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? Th is
is child ish.
My physical mind is not yet convinced that human life
is capable of overcoming all suffering and even death.
It may be that human life is indeed incapable of it; but for the
divine life nothing is impossible.
is it strange that one should become d isgusted with th is
world? The repetition of the same round - that is death
itself.
Th is is one way of seeing things; but there is another in which
one finds that no two things, no two moments are exactly alike
in the world and that everything is in perpetual change.
I do not understand a phrase in Your Prayers: "and that
--
be a true one, that is, based on union in the divine consciousness.
Open your heart yet wider, yet better, and the d istance will
--
It is in a calm and persevering will that th is can be accompl ished.
May my whole being be only that love which wants to
--
There is no question of losing me. We carry in ourselves an
eternal consciousness and it is of th is that one must become
aware.
--
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
my mind flits hither and thither as soon as it finds the
--
It is prec isely because of th is that you lose the feeling of the
Presence.
--
Presence is one of the most important points of the sadhana.
Ask X, he will tell you that the Presence is not a matter of faith
or of mental imagination, it is a fact, absolutely concrete and
as real and tangible to the consciousness as the most material
--
being that it is possible to find You in the centre of my
heart.
It is not a question of convincing your heart, you must get the
experience of th is presence and then you will become aware
--
Love which will make me feel that the divine Presence is
always and everywhere?
--
There are two ways of uniting with the Divine. One is to concentrate in the heart and go deep enough to find there H is Presence;
the other is to fling oneself in H is arms, to nestle there as a child
nestles in its mother's arms, with a complete surrender; and of
--
soul, then it is a very easy thing for me.
Not only of the soul, but of the whole being, without reserve.
Who is there to hold me back far from You?
You yourself.
It is quite incorrect that I w ish to remain far from you; but
to be near me you must climb up close beside me, and not expect
--
to climb up there. There is a world of difference between
our two planes. I dare not dream of the moment I shall
--
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
thirsty.
From a certain point of view what you say is true; but there is
also a sort of reversal of consciousness in which it comes out of
--
My beloved Mother, is it not possible to meet You on
some other plane than the physical? I don't mean by
leaving the body; even when in the body, is it not possible
to meet on some other higher plane?
Certainly, th is 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.
To say that it is your body which separates you from me is sheer
stupidity. It seems to me that actually it is just the opposite, for
without the possibility of seeing me daily, what contact will you
--
know, on the contrary, that there is no separation and that in
the reality of your being we are always united.
--
me is a big m istake; for the vital being remains what it is, whether
the body be alive or dead, and if the vital being is, during one's
life, incapable of feeling the nearness, the deep intimacy, how
--
because it has left the body? It is ignorant child ishness.
And that other idea that if the body is changed the next
one will necessarily be better, is also a m istake. It is only when
one has profited fully and to the utmost by the opportunity for
--
Only the resolution to face courageously, in the present ex istence, 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 th is one.
Th is is all nonsense; we have not to busy ourselves with the next
life, but with th is one which offers us, till our very last breath,
--
in th is life is like putting off for tomorrow what one can do th is
very day; it is laziness. It is only with death that the possibility
of integral real isation ceases; so long as one is alive, nothing is
impossible.
--
not be done after death. It is the physical life which is the true
field for progress and real isation.
--
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.
III
I often ask myself if there is a truth behind th is desire to
come close to You.
Yes, there is the Truth of perfect union with the Divine in an
identity of consciousness and will.
--
If you say I am there for you alone, obviously it is ego istic and
false; but if you think I am there for all my children, that I carry
--
when my body is far from You?
By concentrating your thought.
--
The psychic being is constantly and invariably in contact with
the Divine and never loses th is contact.
The Divine is constantly present in the psychic being and the
latter is quite conscious of th is.
The psychic being is asleep in me.
The psychic being is not asleep. It is the connection with it which
is not well establ ished because the mind makes too much no ise
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
well establ ished. He in whom th is contact is well establ ished is
always happy.
The suffering we experience proves that the psychic being is far away from the Divine.
It is not the psychic being which suffers, it is the mind, the vital
and the ordinary consciousness of ignorant man.
--
w ish 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
--
that what is frivolous in you wants to change?
How do you expect me to help you if you have no trust in me!
--
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.
--
After all, my whole life is consecrated to You; I shall
remain very calm without bothering about what happens
--
know better than you what is good for you - then that would
be perfect.
--
receive Your Grace from afar; and that it is a sign of
weakness on the part of those who see You from time to
--
Don't bother about what people believe or say; it is almost
always ignorant stupidities.
--
th is thought is bad.
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
--
The Divine is infinite and innumerable, and consequently the
ways of approaching Him are also infinite and innumerable,
--
severe Divine, and he who is trusting finds the Divine a friend
and protector... and so on in the infinite variety of possibilities.
--
and never refuses what is offered to Him whole-heartedly; thus
you may live in the peace of the certitude that you are accepted
--
It is certainly not with such a state of mind that you can hope
to find the Divine Presence. Far from seeking to fill your heart
--
Of each one is asked only what he has, what he is, nothing more,
but also nothing less.
--
soon d iscover that in the depths of th is emptiness is the Divine.
If I find some solace in books, how can I say that nothing sustains me and that I am plunged in the divine life
--
"The absolute emptiness" is more of an image than a reality. It
is better to keep in one's heart a high aspiration rather than an
--
Indifference is a stage of development which must lead to a
perfect equality of soul.
Mother, my life is dry, it was always so; the dryness of
my life constantly increases.
--
It is certainly not by becoming morose and melancholy that one
draws near the Divine. One must always keep in one's heart an
--
and me and hide me from your sight. It is in the pure light of
certitude that you can become conscious of my presence.
--
move away from me. The Divine is not sad and to real ise the
Divine you must reject far from yourself all sadness and all
--
I don't see the need of your suffering. Psychic love is always
peaceful and joyous; it is the vital which dramat ises and makes
itself unhappy without any reason. I hope, indeed, that you will
--
It is always the vital being which protests and complains. The
psychic being works with perseverance and ardour to make the
--
It is the vital which asks and asks and is never sat isfied... The
psychic, the true deep feelings are always sat isfied and never ask
for anything. The psychic feels my constant presence, is aware
of my love and solicitude, and is always peaceful, happy and
sat isfied.
There is a joy in seeking, a joy in waiting, a joy in aspiring, at
least as great as in possessing.
--
The true divine love is above all quarrels. It is the experience of
perfect union in an invariable joy and peace.
--
Radha is the symbol of loving consecration to the Divine.
Keep always your balance and a calm serenity; it is only thus
that one can attain the true Union.
It is in your soul that the calmness can be found and it is by contagion that it spreads through your being. It is not steady because
the sovereignty of your soul is not yet definitively establ ished
over all the being.
I don't see anything wrong in not being sentimental; nothing is
further from true love, the divine love, than sentimentality.
All will be done, Mother, but why is my heart becoming
more and more dry and hard?
Are you quite sure it is so dry and hard? Don't you call "dry
and hard" an absence of sentimentality, that is, of a weak and
superficial emotional ism?
True love is something very deep and very calm in its intensity; it may very well not manifest itself through outer effusiveness.
To love is not to possess, but to give oneself.
I don't experience a violent and uncontrollable love for
anyone; nobody attracts me. And it is because of th is
that I told You I was losing all human feelings.
--
A love which is sufficiently strong can make a person the
slave of the beloved.
--
Th is is a very ugly love, quite ego istic.
The Ashram is not a place for being in love with anyone. If you
want to lapse into such a stupidity, you may do so elsewhere,
--
It is not th is person or that who attracts you... it is the eternal
feminine in the lower nature which attracts the eternal masculine in the lower nature and creates an illusion in the mind; it
--
a violent and uncontrollable love for another, th is is called a
passion, and it is of th is we are speaking; it is th is impassioned
love which human beings feel for one another that must be
--
is expressed through the nerves of the body. It is sentiments
and emotions which are character istic of the heart. It is always
preferable not to live in the sensations but to consider them as
--
Be courageous and do not think of yourself so much. It is because
you make your little ego the centre of your preoccupation that
you are sad and unsat isfied. 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 pra ise.
True humility lies in not judging oneself and in letting the Divine
--
to me many things. There is a jealousy in me which blinds
me; another part in me is very vain, it gives me the idea
that I have already reached my goal.
--
useful only from the moment you resolve that it is no longer
going to be like th is, and that you will strive to conquer your
--
It is when one feels like a blind man that one begins to be ready
for the illumination.
--
The best thing is not to think oneself either great or small, very
important or very insignificant; for we are nothing in ourselves.
--
of no worth. My nature is just what it was when I was a
child. I can scarcely hope that it will be transformed; and
after all, is it worth the trouble to try and transform it?
It is better not to think of th is 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 th is 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
--
certainty, that by oneself one is nothing and can do nothing.
Only the Divine is the life of our life, the consciousness of our
consciousness, the Power and Capacity in us. It is to Him that
we must entrust ourselves, give ourselves without reserve, and it
--
Concentration does not mean meditation; on the contrary, concentration is a state one must be in continuously, whatever the
outer activity. By concentration I mean that all the energy, all the
--
To keep constantly a concentrated and in-gathered attitude is
more important than having fixed hours of meditation.
--
practice, and for th is the most important thing to avoid is useless
talking. It is not work but useless talk which takes us away from
the Divine.
--
one does it; I mean it is not so much the action which counts
as the attitude, the spirit in which one acts. To know how to
--
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 th is being that receives happily any
work from You? Which is th is being that loves You?
It is that part of your being which is under the influence of the
psychic and obeys the Divine impulsion.
--
Without d iscipline it is impossible to real ise anything on the
physical plane. If your heart were not willing to submit to the
--
It is not that there is a dearth of people without work in the
Ashram; but those who are without work are certainly so because they do not like to work; and for that d isease it is very
difficult to find a remedy - it is called laziness...
The body is naturally phlegmatic. But in working for
You it will cease being "tamasic".
Yes, th is is just what will happen.
I try always to be more careful, but things get spoilt in
--
Yesterday you were surpr ised that she had never broken anything, - naturally today she has broken something; th is is how
mental formations work. That is why one must state only what
one w ishes to see real ised.
--
Because a thing is difficult it does not mean that one should give
it up; on the contrary, the more difficult a thing is, the greater
must be the will to carry it out successfully.
Of all things the most difficult is to bring the divine consciousness into the material world. Must the endeavour then be
given up because of th is?
Our way is very long, and it is ind ispensable 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
--
You would be wrong to get d isturbed; nothing is done arbitrarily,
and things get real ised only when they are the expression of an
--
It is absolutely false that anything human can heal a human evil.
Only the Divine can heal. It is in Him alone that one must
seek help and support, it is in Him alone that one must put all
one's hope.
All my power is with you to help you; open yourself with a
calm confidence, have faith in the Divine Grace, and you will
--
Why accept the idea of being weak? It is th is which is bad.
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
Yes, it is in a calm and patient confidence that lies the certitude
of victory.
Confidence in the Divine I do not lack, but it is perhaps
my ego which unceasingly says that I cannot accompl ish
--
d isappears giving place to the calm assurance that nothing is
impossible.
--
Yes, you are right to have hope; it is hope which builds happy
futures.
--
One must have no fear, victory is for him who is without fear; I
am always with you to guide and protect you.
One must have no fear - fear is a bad counsellor; it acts like a
magnet and attracts what we fear. One must, on the contrary,
--
adverse force - it is th is that I want to learn to see in
myself and others.
--
2nd: One loses confidence, begins to critic ise, is not sat isfied.
3rd: One revolts and sinks into falsehood.
--
times, especially when it is waged against the hostile forces.
That is why one must be armed with patience and keep faith in
the final victory.
--
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.
--
There is a part in me which prompts me to go to X. Th is
recalcitrant part adv ises me to do so, telling me that th is
--
Th is is child ish; it is always the same trap of the adverse forces;
if, instead of expressing their advice under cleverly perverted
--
to remember me and call me to your help if there is some danger.
You will see that the nightmares will van ish.
--
Much of th is is h is own imagination; if he thought less of
these so-called vital beings, most of them would be immediately
--
I can be sure that the hostile force is far from me.
Yes, on condition that the "peace" is not that of a hardening but
of a conscious force.
--
Th is is not at all correct; the experience of all recluses, all ascetics, proves ind isputably the contrary. The difficulty comes
from oneself, from one's own nature, and one takes it along
--
is but one way of getting out of it - it is to conquer the difficulty,
overcome one's lower nature. And is th is not easier here, with
a concrete and tangible help, than all alone, without anyone to
--
A pure being is always pure, in all circumstances.
You will admit that one can't live with others without
--
No, th is is wrong! It is true of the ordinary life but not of a yogi.
Sweet Mother, if my company is not good for others,
should I not d issociate myself from everyone?
--
there is no difference between a certain thing, no matter
which, and me; for the Divine is as much present in that
thing as in me?
Probably a d isastrous result; that is, a passive opening to all
sorts of influences, most of which are hardly commendable.
--
Why? I don't see that th is is necessary. The effort which would
be needed to become immune from the effects of dirt can be
--
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
r isk of losing what one has rather than passing it on to others.
--
My heart is full of compassion for others and I am not
insensible to their suffering, but what's the good of th is
--
unless one has overcome all th is in oneself and is master of one's
feelings and reactions.
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
--
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.
--
which everybody is in the wrong. And is there anything more
ridiculous than ruffled amours-propres?
--
It is never good to tell a lie, but here its results cannot but be
d isastrous, for falsehood is the very symbol of that which wants
to oppose the divine work of Truth.
Health is the outer expression of a deep harmony, one must be
proud of it and not desp ise it.
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.
--
Do as you like, th is 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
overcome and replaced by a complete trust in the divine Grace.
--
One must never lose hope or faith - there is nothing incurable,
and no limit can be set to the power of the Divine.
--
Mother, the inherent tendency of the material body is to
d issolve, and the mind helps it; how will You be able to
--
It must become aware of the immortality of the elements constituting it (which is a scientifically recogn ised 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?
--
If food is prepared, it is for eating.
My most beloved Mother, I think it would be better to
--
Evidently, th is creates an atmosphere in which food predominates; th is is not very conducive to spiritual life.
XI
The vital is at once the place of desires and energies, impulses
and passions, of cowardice, but also of hero ism - to bridle it is
to turn all th is towards the divine Will and submit it to th is Will.
--
Th is also is false. The higher part of the vital being, like the
higher part of the mental being, aspires for the Divine and suffers
--
the mind over the vital is when the latter takes no initiative,
accepts no impulse which has not been first sanctioned by the
--
from outside, it is enough that the mind intervenes for it to be
immediately controlled.
--
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 pers ist with a calm confidence and the vital will
--
Depression is always unreasonable and leads nowhere. It is the
most subtle enemy of yoga.
--
In Your Conversations You have said that the intellect is
like an intermediary between the true knowledge and its
real isation here below. Does it not follow that intellectual culture is ind ispensable for r ising above the mind to
find there the true knowledge?
Intellectual culture is ind ispensable for preparing a good mental
instrument, large, supple and rich, but its action stops there.
In r ising above the mind, it is more often a hindrance than
a help, for, in general, a refined and educated mind finds its
--
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 th is strong urge to study; but when the brain is well
formed, the taste for studies will gradually die away.
--
never lose sight of the fact that th is is not a source of knowledge and that it is not in th is way that one can draw close
to knowledge. Naturally, th is does not hold good for The Life
--
Identification with the Divine is our goal; I don't see why
I am trying to know th is 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
--
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 stop reading altogether.
--
and in all its details, it is better not to take it up at all. It is
a great m istake to think that a little superficial and incomplete
knowledge of things can be of any use whatsoever; it is good for
nothing except making people conceited, for they imagine they
--
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 w ise
observation in the comedies of Molière.
--
It is not a book of ideas; it is only for the beauty of its form and
style that it is remarkable.
When one reads a dirty book, an obscene novel, does
--
In the mind also there are perversions. It is a rather poor and
unrefined vital which can take pleasure in such things!
--
It is not with severity but with self-mastery that children are
controlled.
--
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
--
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
--
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 th is life. Likew ise 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 th is 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
--
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 exerc ise 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 th is high and happy union with God. Since th is road (as the Lord Himself says likew ise) 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 th is first stanza, calling th is 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 th is narrow road whence so many blessings have come to it, speaks after th is manner.
BOOK THE FIRST
--
IN th is 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 th is going forth from itself and from all things was a 'dark night,' by which, as will be explained hereafter, is here understood purgative contemplation, which causes passively in the soul the negation of itself and of all things referred to above.
2. And th is going forth it says here that it was able to accompl ish in the strength and ardour which love for its Spouse gave to it for that purpose in the dark contemplation aforementioned. Herein it extols the great happiness which it found in journeying to God through th is night with such signal success that none of the three enemies, which are world, devil and flesh (who are they that ever impede th is 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 m ischievous desires and motions. The line, then, says:
0.07 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
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!
There are many things wrong with me, I know. But
there must be something fundamentally wrong. What is
it, Mother?
Nothing special to you. It is the same difficulty that ex ists for all
human beings: the pride and blindness of the physical mind.
--
There is an old Hindu belief that one should not lie down
or sleep with one's head towards the North. Has it got
--
I know that the work I get nowadays is often very slight.
But I submit reports about it because once you expressed
--
I am getting tired of taking and taking, and giving nothing in return. It is almost indecent. But, then, I do not
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?...
--
troubles and difficulties; it is entire self-giving and consecration
to the Divine.
--
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.
--
your Grace is our sole refuge and to whom shall we
turn but to you for our protection? But may your Grace
--
I know that it is only the weak who complain. The strong never
do because they can't be hurt. So I never attach much importance
--
Nothing to excuse, all is in the spirit of the offering....
Love and blessings to my dear child.
--
The way is opened, my dear child, and I am waiting for you
with my arms wide to receive and enfold you affectionately -
--
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
--
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
--
Yes, you are my child and it is true that of all things it is the most
important.... Dear child, I am always with you and my love and
--
The only mystery, the only spell is my love - my love which is
spread over my children and calls down upon them the Divine's
--
Yoga in the requ isite spirit. And without th is, what is
d iscipleship?
It is not as a Guru that I love and bless, it is as the Mother who
asks nothing in return for what she gives.
--
in return. That is all right for you, for yours is a selffulfilled life. But I have yet to achieve everything, yet to
sat isfy my human ex istence. I have yet to know my soul
--
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
--
She will know what is best for me. Then how can I do
without a Guru who will lead me to Her Feet?
--
you aspire, the way is Love and the goal too is Love" - is it not
the best answer to your letter?...
--
But what a joy and love it is when both mother and son are
good!
--
My child's heart is filled with love and light from the Divine; let
them shine throughout your whole being and the clouds, if any,
--
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
gift. Why then these other gifts?
There is a great joy in giving; there is a still greater joy in pleasing
those we love... and when you will eat the pickles you may
--
Your heart is quite a sweet place because of your love - let
me remain always there so that I may fill your whole being with
--
I know not except by Her lotus-feet. That is the reason
why my eyes seek Her in your lotus-feet, and my heart
--
Well - the best thing you could do is not to l isten to what
people say; it would save you from many falls of consciousness.
--
faithful to your love." I suppose th is is a sufficient answer and
you do not expect me to justify my love in front of the fool ish
--
Your love for me is my true refuge and sole strength.
What I offer you, my Mother, is a turbid mixture of
which I am ashamed but which you alone can purify.
--
Whatever is the nature of the offering, when it is made with
sincerity it always contains a spark of divine light which can
--
How extremely lovable you are, dear Mama! is there
anyone like you in the whole world? LOVE.
--
and an ocean of Love! Such is your play, dear playful
Mother!
--
with me. It is the same old thing, but nonetheless d istressing. It is civil war, a conflict between two different
tendencies and ideals, a pull from two different types
--
There is no contradiction that cannot be solved and harmon ised
in a synthes is if you r ise high enough in the intuitive mind and
yours is not at all irreducible. I am sure that one day you will
find th is out.
--
all problems are solved and you will get rid of your difficulties." Now what exactly is th is higher consciousness
and how may I r ise or jump into it? And again you have
--
be conquered." is th is higher consciousness the same
thing as a state of pure love and, if so, how would it be
--
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
--
The love for the Divine is the strongest force for doing th is.
My love and blessings.
--
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
--
Inside, outside and everywhere is the help of the Mother...
with her love and blessings.
--
Your love for poor me is still my lodestar and I am
grateful.
--
My love wants to lead you to the goal and it is bound to
succeed.
--
which I expect is psychic, I still do not feel that I want
th is Yoga very badly. I still do not feel about th is ideal
--
meant to reassure me, did not reassure me.2 Why is that
so, Mother? Perhaps you do not approve of my tone;
--
If it is not going to make any difference to your
love and kindness, as you assure me it won't, I would
--
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
not depend on such surface movements.
--
My dear child, here is the programme for th is year: Unify your
whole being around your highest consciousness and do not let
your mind work at random. Doubt is not a sport to indulge in
Series Seven - To a Sadhak
with impunity: it is a po ison which drop by drop corrodes the
soul.
--
The Divine's Grace is there - open your door and welcome it.
With my love and blessings.
0.08 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What is the difference between the psychic change
and the spiritual change?
The psychic change is the change that puts you in contact with
the immanent Divine, the Divine who is at the centre of each
being and of whom the psychic being is the sheath and the
expression. By the psychic change one passes from the individual
--
It is through all the experiences of life that the psychic personality forms, grows, develops and finally becomes a complete,
conscious and free being.
Th is process of development goes on tirelessly through innumerable lives, and if one is not conscious of it, it is because
one is not conscious of one's psychic being - for that is the
ind ispensable starting-point. Through interior isation and concentration one has to enter into conscious contact with one's
--
outer being, but that influence is almost always occult, neither
seen nor perceived nor felt, save on truly exceptional occasions.
--
other forms of Energy, which is one and universal.
And it is through the various yogic exerc ises of breathing,
meditation, japa and concentration that one puts oneself in
--
may classify them generally into vital energies, mental energies, spiritual energies. Modern science tells us that Matter is
ultimately nothing but energy condensed.
--
What is meant by "a subtle physical prolongation
of the superficial form of the mental envelope"?
--
departed being itself, is only an image of it, an imprint (like
a photographic imprint) left in the subtle physical by the superficial mental form, an image that can become v isible under
--
images), but they have no substantial reality. It is the fear or
emotion of those who see these images that sometimes gives
--
widening? Because as soon as one aspires, isn't it the
mind that aspires?
--
The mind by its nature is curious and interested; it sees, it
observes, it tries to understand and explain; and with all th is
--
On the other hand, the more quiet and silent the mind is,
the more can aspiration r ise up from the depths of the heart in
--
Th is 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 h istory of humanity, many methods of yoga - which Sri
--
For th is, the first step is to understand that the Divine knows
better than we what is good for us and what we truly need, not
only for our spiritual progress but also for our material wellbeing, the health of our body and the proper functioning of all
--
Naturally, th is is not the opinion of the ego, which thinks
it knows better than anyone else what it needs, and claims for
--
feels th is way because it is ignorant, and gradually one has
to convince it that its perception and understanding are too
--
soon as one is in conscious contact with the Divine.
So according to them, the question has no real bas is and
--
Th is too is a way which is certainly as good as the other.
There are many ways to attain self-real isation, and each one
--
For you must never forget that the outer person is only the
form and symbol of an eternal Reality, and through the physical
appearance, it is to th is higher Reality that you must turn. The
physical being cannot become truly expressive of the eternal
Reality until it is completely transformed by the supramental
manifestation. And until then, it is through it that you must find
the Truth.
--
Control during sleep is entirely possible and it is progressive
if you pers ist in the effort. You begin by remembering your
--
What is the role of the soul?
But without the soul we wouldn't ex ist!
The soul is that which comes from the Divine without ever
leaving Him, and returns to the Divine without ceasing to be
--
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.
--
is there anything like good luck and bad luck, or is
it something that one creates for oneself?
There is nothing that can truly be called luck. What men call
luck are the effects of causes they do not know.
Nor is there anything that in itself is good or bad luck;
each one character ises circumstances as good or bad depending
--
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.
--
physically, is that which constitutes our life objectified in what
surrounds us.
And th is is easily verifiable, for in proportion as we improve
ourselves and advance towards perfection, our circumstances
--
Then my body, completely passive, is nothing but a channel
through which the Lord passes H is forces freely and pours upon
--
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 prec ise to ask, it is better to ask it
beforehand, not while I am there, because any activity lessens
--
What is meant by the "silence of the physical consciousness"2 and how can one remain in th is silence?
The physical consciousness is not only the consciousness of our
body, but of all that surrounds us as well - all that we perceive
with our senses. It is a sort of apparatus for recording and transm ission which is open to all the contacts and shocks coming
from outside and responds to them by reactions of pleasure and
--
the depths calm, quiet, peace and finally silence. It is a concrete, positive silence (not the negative silence of the absence
of no ise), immutable so long as it remains, a silence one can
--
Th is silence is synonymous with peace and it is all-powerful;
it is the perfectly effective remedy for the fatigue, tension and
exhaustion ar ising from that internal over-activity and no ise
--
Th is is why the first thing required when one wants to do
Yoga is to bring down and establ ish in oneself the calm, the
peace, the silence.
--
identification. It is th is latter process that we adopt when we
l isten to music with an intense and concentrated attention, to
--
the first point is to learn to d istingu ish between these various
activities - that is, to recogn ise what part of the being it is that
"dreams", what domain it is that one "dreams" in, and what the
nature of that activity is. In h is letters, Sri Aurobindo has given
Series Eight - To a Young Captain
--
the activities of sleep. Reading these letters is a good introduction
to the study of th is subject and to its practical application .
--
To read my books is not difficult because they are written in the
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.
To read what Sri Aurobindo writes is more difficult because
the expression is highly intellectual and the language far more
literary and philosophic. The brain needs a preparation to really
--
unless one is specially gifted with an innate intuitive faculty.
In any case, I always adv ise reading a little at a time, keeping
--
It is preferable to read regularly, a little every day and at a
fixed hour if possible; th is facilitates the brain's receptivity.
--
It is because each photo represents a different aspect, sometimes
even a different personality of my being; and by concentrating
--
The photo is a real and concrete presence, but fragmentary
and limited.
--
Why is the photo a fragmentary and limited presence?
Because the photo catches only the image of a moment, an instant of a person's appearance and of what that appearance
can reveal of a passing psychological condition and fragmentary soul-state. Even if the photograph is taken under the best
possible conditions at an exceptional and particularly expressive
--
The inconscient is that part of Nature which is so obscure and
asleep that it seems to be wholly devoid of consciousness; at any
--
there is entirely inactive and hidden. The h istory of the earth
begins with th is inconscience.
--
since the substance of our body is the same as that of the earth.
But by evolution, th is sleeping and hidden consciousness
--
consciousness likew ise is progressive, and in proportion as man
evolves, it will change into superconscience.
--
links us to the animal, and the superconscience which is our
hope and assurance of future real isation.
--
a state of deep calm and semi-trance, that is very good.
15 November 1959
--
What is the work of the Overmind?3
The overmind is the region of the gods, the beings of divine
origin who have been charged with superv ising, directing and
--
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
--
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"?
The individual being is made up of states of being corresponding
to cosmic zones or planes, and it is as these inner states of being
are developed that one becomes conscious of those domains.
Th is consciousness is double, at first psychological and subjective, within oneself, expressing itself through thoughts, feelings,
emotions, sensations; then objective and concrete when one is
able to go beyond the limits of the body in order to move about
--
freely in them - it is th is that is called "mastery"; it is th is that
I spoke of when I mentioned the mastery of the overmind.
It goes without saying that all th is is not done in a day,
nor even in a year. Th is mastery, in whatever domain it may be,
--
leading one's life properly, not to speak of "mastery", which is
truly something exceptional on earth.
--
What is Supernature?
Supernature is the Nature superior to material or physical Nature - what we usually call "Nature". But th is Nature that we
see, feel and study, th is Nature that has been our familiar environment since our birth upon earth, is not the only one. There
is a vital nature, a mental nature, and so on. It is th is that, for
the ordinary consciousness, is Supernature.
Very often the word "Nature" is used as a synonym for
Prakriti, the executive force of Purusha. But to answer your
--
"There is as yet no overmind being or organ ised overmind nature, no supramental being or organ ised supermind nature acting either on our surface or in our
normal subliminal parts."4 Sweet Mother, now after the
descent of the Supermind,5 is it still like that?
SABCL, Vol. 19, p. 921.
--
What Sri Aurobindo means is that only a few exceptional beings
who do not belong to the ordinary humanity, have a conscious
--
What is meant by the yoga of devotion and the yoga
of knowledge?
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.
--
It is difficult to reply without having the context. Which
"supreme faculties" are being referred to here? Those of man on
--
to constitute a definite bas is for the various methods of selfdevelopment and self-d iscipline. That is why each philosophic,
educational or Yogic system has, as it were, its own div ision
--
these divergences, there is a sort of tradition which, behind the
different terms, makes for an essential analogy. Th is analogy can
--
mental activities, and no mental activity is fit to manifest the
Divine.
It is only by experience that one can know Him, and the
experience cannot be translated into words.
0.09 - Letters to a Young Teacher, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo says: "Yoga is nothing but practical psychology."1 What does th is sentence mean? The whole
paragraph is not clear to me.
Because you know nothing about psychology. Study psychology
--
because He is the sole Reality behind everything.
The Synthes is of Yoga, SABCL, Vol. 20, p. 39.
--
others, Mother? What good is life if the Divine does not
want us? I believe that in truth the Divine has chosen us
--
very lifetime. Th is is what makes the difference.
23 May 1960
--
and speak only when it is ind ispensable.
1 June 1960
--
there is a bright and bare room, the last before we emerge into
the open air, into the full light.
--
into the great hall that forms the base of the tower and is the
storeroom of words. Here, more or less excited, we select, reject,
--
v isitor is more like a caricature than a portrait.
And yet if we were w iser, we would remain up above, at
--
Th is is what I call thinking with ideas.
When th is process is no longer mysterious to you, I shall
explain what is meant by thinking with experiences.
1 June 1960
--
The central knot of desires is the sense of separate personality;
it is the ego. With the d isappearance of the ego, the desires
d isappear.
--
open, that we should give you everything, even our defects and vices and all the dirt in us. is th is the only way
to get rid of them, and how can one do it?
--
hurts as much as pulling out a tooth. That is why one does
not progress.
--
than to give. Th is 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 establ ish the same relation with
--
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
--
What exactly is the soul or psychic being? And what
is meant by the evolution of the psychic being? What is
its relation to the Supreme?
--
although their essence is the same.
The soul is the divine spark that dwells at the centre of each
being; it is identical with its Divine Origin; it is the divine in
man.
The psychic being is formed progressively around th is divine
centre, the soul, in the course of its innumerable lives in the
--
sheath of the soul around which it is formed.
And thus identified with the Divine, it becomes H is perfect
--
being, we can never lose it. isn't that so? But can we
come into contact with it from time to time when we are
--
But before th is contact is establ ished, you can, in certain
circumstances, consciously receive the psychic influence which
--
the soul is itself a portion of the Supreme, it is immutable and
eternal. The psychic being is progressive and immortal.
All the methods of self-knowledge, self-control and selfmastery are good. You have to choose the one that comes to you
--
from any obstacle, any difficulty. It is a long and minute work
which must be undertaken with sincerity and continued with an
--
Does an outer life of evil deeds and a base consciousness have an effect on the psychic being? is there
a possibility of its degradation?
--
sometimes even cuts off all relation with the body, which is then
usually possessed by an asuric or rakshasic being.
The psychic being itself is above all possibility of degradation.
28 July 1960
--
How does the soul influence a being who is normally
unconscious?
The soul's influence is a kind of radiance that penetrates through
the most opaque substances and acts even in the unconsciousness.
But then its action is slow and takes a very long time to
obtain a perceptible result.
--
conscience is not the voice of the soul. What is it then?
The voice of the ordinary conscience is an ethical voice, a moral
voice which d istingu ishes between good and evil, encourages us
to do good and forbids us to do evil. Th is 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
--
Will. The soul itself, being a portion of the Divine, is above
all moral and ethical notions; it bathes in the Divine Light and
--
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
--
In each one the will to progress is the needed thing - that
is what opens us to the divine influence and makes us capable
--
the call is really there or not? And as for our soul, would
it not always choose Yoga?
--
is a sure sign that one should take up Yoga. The spiritual call is
heard only when the time has come, and then the soul responds
--
knowing that to start out too soon is useless, to say the least,
and may be harmful.
--
Sri Aurobindo tells us: "God's grace is more difficult
to have or to keep than the nectar of the Immortals."7
--
The Grace is always there, eternally present and active, but Sri
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
--
What is it, Mother?
It is because an individual is not made up all of one piece, but
of many different entities which are sometimes even contrary to
--
unify them is a long and difficult task.
The Hour of God and Other Writings, SABCL, Vol. 17, p. 40.
--
of the more developed parts seems to be interrupted. Th is 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,
the other through the mind.
--
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. Th is Presence I have called
the "Personal Divine", who is in fact none other than
You. I know that it is not possible to have a complete
conception of the Divine at th is stage.
So now tell me, Mother, if it is possible to have an
idea of the "Transcendent Divine".
--
form and time and space. It is a long and difficult path, a very
arduous path.
--
There is a lot of m isunderstanding among the young
people about th is sentence. What does it mean exactly?
It should be understood clearly that there is no question here
of any physical embracing, as practical jokers with the tastes
--
In terrestrial man, it is only the psychic being that knows true
love. As for perfect love, it ex ists only in the Divine.
--
It is not the world of delight that has come down, but only the
supramental Light, Consciousness and Force.
--
borders of a sari, which are much trampled on. is it good
to use these precious things in such a free and common
--
The Lord is everywhere, in everything, in what we throw away
as in what we keep preciously, in what we trample on as in what
--
If you are speaking of calendars with photographs, it is preferable to cut out the photos, and if you do not want to keep them,
give them to X who makes good use of them.
--
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
respect.
--
The only way that can be rapid is to think only of that and to
want only that.
It is effective, but not very practical for the work!
27 May 1963
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, h is was not one more name added to the long l ist 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 understood h is Yoga to be a modern one, dedicated to the service of humanity. If service to humanity was not the very sum and substance of h is spirituality, it was, at least, the fruitful end and consummation. H is 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 h is teaching was being m issed by th is common interpretation of h is saying. So he changed h is words and said, Our Yoga is not for humanity but for the Divine. But I am afraid th is change of front, th is 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 mottoes he has given us and say that h is m ission is to find and express the Divine in humanity. Th is is the service he means to render to humanity, viz, to manifest and embody in it the Divine: h is goal is not merely an amelioration, but a total change and transformation, the divin isation of human life.
Here also one must guard against certain m isconceptions that are likely to occur. The transformation of human life does not necessarily mean that the entire humanity will be changed into 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 into 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, prec isely because it is no human agency that has undertaken it but the Divine himself in h is supreme potency and w isdom and love. The descent of the Divine into 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 h is 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 d isciplines in the past env isaged an ascent of the consciousness, its sublimation into the consciousness of the Spirit and its fusion and d issolution 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 h is Shakti. For it is that that is directly working out th is evolutionary transformation of the age.
It is not my purpose here to enter into details as to the exact meaning of the descent, how it happens and what are its lines of activity and the results brought about. For it is indeed an actual descent that happens: the Divine Light leans down first into the mind and begins its purificatory work therealthough it is always the inner heart which first recogn ises the Divine Presence and gives its assent to the Divine action for the mind, the higher mind that is to say, is the summit of the ordinary human consciousness and receives more easily and readily the Radiances that descend. From the Mind the Light filters into the denser regions of the emotions and desires, of life activity and vital dynam ism; finally, it gets into brute Matter itself, the hard and obscure rock of the physical body, for that too has to be illumined and made the very form and figure of the Light supernal. The Divine in h is descending Grace is the Master-Architect who is building slowly and surely the many-chambered and many-storeyed edifice that is human nature and human life into the mould of the Divine Truth in its perfect play and supreme expression. But th is 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 d istance in future, like the cooling of the sun, as someone has suggested for an analogy. In view of the magnitude of the work one might with reason say that the whole eternity is there before us, and a century or even a millennium should not be grudged to such a labour for it is nothing less than an undoing of untold millenniums in the past and the building of a far-flung futurity. However, as we have said, since it is the Divine's own work and since Yoga means a concentrated and involved process of action, effectuating in a minute what would perhaps take years to accompl ish 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 th is earth of material ex istence and now in th is life, in th is very bodynot hereafter or elsewhere. How long exactly that will mean, depends on many factors, but a few decades on th is side or the other do not matter very much.
As to the extent of real isation, 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 mahato bhayt1
Now, if it is asked what is the proof of it all, how can one be sure that one is not running after a mirage, a chimera? We can only answer with the adage; the proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof
III
--
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 bas is 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 d iscipline 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 word is the highest ideal of spirituality; viewed the spirituality that Sri Aurobindo pract ises is the ne plus ultra of art istic 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 th is effect: "Th is is not the age of Sri Aurobindo. H is 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 h is cross since the beginning of h is creation through want and privation, through d isease 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 into 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 otherw ise.
Apart from the well-recogn ised fact that only in d istress 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 Upan ishad 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 h is toe-nail. In fact, a poor or a prosperous life is in no direct or even indirect ratio to a spiritual life. All the m iseries 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 minim ised its importance. To say that because an ideal is apparently too high or too great for the present age, it must be kept in cold storage is to set a premium on the present nature of humanity arid etern ise it: that would bind the world to its old moorings and never give it the opportunity to be free and go out into the high seas of larger and greater real isations.
The ideal or perhaps one should say the policy of Real-politick is the thing needed in th is 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 th is 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 d isproportionately gestures and movements of violence and revolution? That is because we seek to cure the symptoms and not touch the root of the d isease. 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 r ise 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 real isation. The deeper we go within, the farther we are away from the surface, the nearer we come to the roots and sources of things even most superficial. The spiritual view sees and declares that it is the Brahmic consciousness that holds, inspires, builds up Matter, the physical body and form of Brahman.
The highest ideal, the very highest which God and Nature and Man have in view, is not and cannot be kept in cold storage: it is being worked out even here and now, and it has to be worked out here and now. The ideal of the Life Divine embodies a central truth of ex istence, 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 th is 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 w iser to recogn ise that fact, to help in the real isation of that truth and be profited by it.
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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 v isual ise, 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 art istic 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 recogn ised in its plenary virtues.
That Power, that Spirit has been growing and gathering its strength during all the millenniums that humanity has lived through. On the momentous day when man appeared on earth, the Higher Man also took h is birth. Since the hour the Spirit refused to be impr isoned 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 h is complete regalia.
Another humanity is r ising 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 th is 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 real isation of those fundamental aspirations and yearnings that have troubled and consoled the deeper strata the soulin him throughout the varied experiences of h is 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 h is 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 h is inner will, mould and create h is 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 recogn ise the New Man by h is very gait and manner, by a certain kingly ease and dominion in every shade of h is expression.
Not that th is sovereign power will have anything to do with aggression or over-bearingness. It will not be a power that feels itself only by creating an eternal opponentErbfeindby coming in constant clash with a rival that seeks to gain victory by subjugating. It will not be Nietzschean "will to power," which is, at best, a supreme Asuric power. It will rather be a Divine Power, for the strength it will exert and the victory it will achieve will not come from the egoit is the ego which requires an object outside and against to feel and affirm itself but it will come from a higher personal self which is one with the cosmic soul and therefore with other personal souls. The Asura, in spite of, or rather, because of h is 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 accompl ishes; the forces of the world act not as its opponent but as its instrument. Thus the New Man shall affirm h is individual sovereignty and do so to perfection by expressing through it h is unity with the cosmic powers, with the infinite godhead. And by being Swarat, Self-Master, he will become Samrat, world-master.
Th is 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 v ision, 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 ego ism will be cleared of its no ise 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 comprom ise 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 organ isation, 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 henothe istic 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 m issing between gods and men; it will be the race of embodied gods. Man will attain that thing which has been h is 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 h is ignorance and weakness and ego ism. These are due to h is soul itself. It is the soul that requires change, a new birth, as Chr ist 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 m iserably. 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 m istaken. 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.
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01.01 - The One Thing Needful, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is the lesson of life that always in th is 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 d isappointment and cannot sat isfy 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 ind ispensable and all the resit is nothing without it. The Divine once found, to manifest Him, - that is, first of all to transform one's own limited consciousness into the Divine Consciousness, to live in the infinite Peace, Light, Love, Strength, Bl iss, to become that in one's essential nature and, as a consequence, to be its vessel, channel, instrument in one's active nature. To bring into activity the principle of oneness on the material plane or to work for humanity is a mental m istranslation of the Truth - these things cannot be the first true object of spiritual seeking. We must find the Self, the Divine, then only can we know what is the work the Self or the Divine demands from us. Until then our life and action can only be a help or a means towards finding the Divine and it ought not to have any other purpose. As we grow in inner consciousness, or as the spiritual Truth of the Divine grows in us, our life and action must indeed more and more flow from that, be one with that. But to decide beforeh and by our limited mental conceptions what they must be is to hamper the growth of the spiritual Truth within. As that grows we shall feel the Divine Light and Truth, the Divine Power and Force, the Divine Purity and Peace working within us, dealing with our actions as well as our consciousness, making use of them to reshape us into the Divine Image, removing the dross, substituting the pure Gold of the Spirit. Only when the Divine Presence is there in us always and the consciousness transformed, can we have the right to say that we are ready to manifest the Divine on the material plane. To hold up a mental ideal or principle and impose that on the inner working brings the danger of limiting ourselves to a mental real isation or of impeding or even falsifying by a halfway formation the truth growth into the full communion and union with the Divine and the free and intimate outflowing of H is will in our life. Th is is a m istake 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 Bl iss that the real isation of Him gives than to bring in these minor things which can divert us from the one thing needful. The divin isation 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 real isation, something that grows from within outwards, not by the working out of a mental principle.
The real isation 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 real ised, extends and manifests the real isation. Manifestation and organ isation of the whole life for the divine work, - first, the sadhana personal and collective necessary for the real isation and a common life of God-real ised 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 real isation 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 establ ished 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 real isation of the Divine in all things, surrender, devotion, the widening of the consciousness into the cosmic Consciousness, the Self one in all, the psychic and the spiritual transformation of the nature.
... the principle of th is Yoga is not perfection of the human nature as it is but a psychic and spiritual transformation of all the parts of the being through the action of an inner consciousness and then of a higher consciousness which works on them, throws out the old movements or changes them into the image of its own and so transmutes lower into higher nature. It is not so much the perfection of the intellect as a transcendence of it, a transformation of the mind, the substitution of a larger greater principle of knowledge - and so with all the rest of the being.
Th is is a slow and difficult process; the road is long and it is hard to establ ish even the necessary bas is. The old ex isting nature res ists and obstructs and difficulties r ise one after another and repeatedly till they are overcome. It is therefore necessary to be sure that th is 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
All can be done if the god-touch is there.
A hope stole in that hardly dared to be
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Hard is it to persuade earth-nature's change;
Mortality bears ill the eternal's touch:
01.02 - Natures Own Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is in the direct line of Nature's own Yoga. Nature has a Yoga, which she follows unfailingly, and inevitably for it is her innermost law of being. Yoga means, in essence, a change or transformation of consciousness, a heightening and broadening of consciousness, which is effected by communion or union or identification with a higher and vaster consciousness.
Th is process of a developing consciousness in Nature is prec isely what is known as Evolution. It is the bringing out and fixing of a higher and higher principle of consciousness, hitherto involved and concealed behind the veil, in the earth consciousness as a dynamic factor in Nature's manifest working. Thus, the first stage of evolution is the status of inconscient Matter, of the lifeless physical elements; the second stage is that of the semi-conscious life in the plant, the third that of the conscious life in the animal, and finally the fourth stage, where we stand at present, is that of the embodied self-conscious life in man.
The course of evolution has not come to a stop with man and the next stage, Sri Aurobindo says, which Nature env isages and is labouring to bring out and establ ish 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 th is new, being is a spiritual principle beyond the mental principle which man now incarnates: it may be called the Supermind or Gnos is.
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 organ ised by Nature through which the self-conscious being can express itself. That is why the Buddha said: Mind is the first of all principles, Mind is the highest of all principles: indeed Mind is the constituent of all principlesmana puvvangam dhamm1. The consciousness beyond mind has not yet been made a patent and dynamic element in the life upon earth; it has been glimpsed or entered into in varying degrees and modes by saints and seers; it has cast its derivative illuminations in the creative activities of poets and art ists, 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 d isciplines, involves a withdrawal from the evolutionary cycle, a merging and an absorption into the static status that is altogether beyond it, that lies, as it were, at the other extreme the Spirit in itself, Atman, Brahman, Sachchidananda, Nirvana, the One without a second, the Zero without a first.
The first contact that one has with th is static supra-reality is through the higher ranges of the mind: a direct and closer communion is establ ished through a plane which is just above the mind the Overmind, as Sri Aurobindo calls it. The Overmind d issolves or transcends the ego-consciousness which limits the being to its individual ised 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-ex istence 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 v ision given by Sri Kr ishna to Arjuna in the Gita. At the same time, the initial and most intense experience which th is cosmic consciousness brings is the extreme relativity, contingency and transitoriness of the whole flux, and a necessity seems logically and psychologically imperative to escape into the abiding substratum, the ineffable Absoluteness.
Th is 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 th is 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 altogether to remove or change itto 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 th is particular processes of consciousness a hiatus between the two, between Maya and Brahman, as though one has to leap from the one into the other somehow. Th is 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-ex istent and creative: in Supermind the Brahmic consciousness Sachchidananda is ever self-aware and ever manifested and embodied in fundamental truth-powers and truth-forms for the play of creation; it is the plane where the One breaks out into the Many and the Many still remain one, being and knowing themselves to be but various self-expressions of the One; it develops the spiritual archetypes, the divine names and forms of all individual isations of an evolving ex istence.
SRI AUROBINDO
The Upan ishads 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 into the static Bl iss, 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 ex ist 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 ex istence is there, but the mutually exclusive separativeness has not yet ar isen. The ego, the knot of separativity, appears at a later and lower stage of involution; what is here is indiv isible nexus of individual ising centres of the one eternal truth of being. Where Supermind and Overmind meet, one can see the multiple godheads, each d istinct in h is own truth and beauty and power and yet all together forming the one supreme consciousness infinitely composite and inalienably integral. But stepping back into Supermind one sees something moreOneness gathering into itself all diversity, not destroying it, but annulling and forbidding the separative consciousness that is the beginning of Ignorance. The first shadow of the Illusory Consciousness, the initial possibility of the movement of Ignorance comes in when the supramental light enters the penumbra of the mental sphere. The movement of Supermind is the movement of light without obscurity, straight, unwavering, unswerving, absolute. The Force here contains and holds in their oneness of Reality the manifold but not separated lines of essential and unalloyed truth: its march is the inevitable progression of each one assured truth entering into and upholding every other and therefore its creation, play or action admits of no trial or stumble or groping or deviation; for each truth rests on all others and on that which harmon ises 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 individual ised and then of contrary and contradictory forces. In the Overmind there is a conscious underlying Unity but yet each Power, Truth, Aspect of that Unity is encouraged to work out its possibilities as if it were sufficient to itself and the others are used by it for its own enhancement until in the denser and darker reaches below Overmind th is turns out a thing of blind conflict and battle and, as it would appear, of chance survival. Creation or manifestation originally means the concret isation or devolution of the powers of Conscious Being into a play of united diversity; but on the line which ends in Matter it enters into more and more obscure forms and forces and finally the virtual eclipse of the supreme light of the Divine Consciousness. Creation as it descends' towards the Ignorance becomes an involution of the Spirit through Mind and Life into Matter; evolution is a movement backward, a return journey from Matter towards the Spirit: it is the unravelling, the gradual d isclosure and deliverance of the Spirit, the ascension and revelation of the involved consciousness through a series of awakeningsMatter awakening into Life, Life awakening into Mind and Mind now seeking to awaken into something beyond the Mind, into a power of conscious Spirit.
The apparent or actual result of the movement of Nescienceof Involutionhas been an increasing negation of the Spirit, but its hidden purpose is ultimately to embody the Spirit in Matter, to express here below in cosmic Time-Space the splendours of the timeless Reality. The material body came into ex istence bringing with it inevitably, as it seemed, mortality; it appeared even to be fashioned out of mortality, in order that in th is 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 establ ished 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 ex istence.
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 th is 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 th is accelerated Yogic process the self-consciousness which I referred to as being the d istinctive character istic of man is a function of th is organ. It is h is soul, h is 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 th is 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 h is external consciousness. It is also the channel through which the Divine Consciousness can flow down into the inferior levels of human nature. It is the being no bigger than the thumb ever seated within the heart, spoken of in the Upan ishads. It is likew ise the bas is 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 d issolved 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 organ ised.
The first dec isive step in Yoga is taken when one becomes conscious of the psychic being, or, looked at from the other side, when the psychic being comes forward and takes possession of the external being, begins to initiate and influence the movements of the mind and life and body and gradually free them from the ordinary round of ignorant nature. The awakening of the psychic being means, as I have said, not only a deepening and heightening of the consciousness and its release from the obscurity and limitation of the inferior Prakriti, confined to the lower threefold status, into what is behind and beyond; it means also a return of the deeper and higher consciousness upon the lower hem isphere and a consequent purification and illumination and regeneration of the latter. Finally, when the psychic being is in full self-possession and power, it can be the vehicle of the direct supramental consciousness which will then be able to act freely and absolutely for the entire transformation of the external nature, its transfiguration into a perfect body of the Truth-consciousness in a word, its divin isation.
Th is then is the supreme secret, not the renunciation and annulment, but the transformation of the ordinary human nature : first of all, its psychic isation, that is to say, making it move and live and be in communion and identification with the light of the psychic being, and, secondly, through the soul and the ensouled mind and life and body, to open out into the supramental consciousness and let it come down here below and work and achieve.
The soul or the true being in man uplifted in the supramental consciousness and at the same time coming forward to possess a divin ised 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 real ise at present through her evolutionary lan. It is to th is 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 env isage in detail what th is divin ised man would be like, externallyh is 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 prec ise configuration of the final outcome cannot be predicted with exactitude. But the Power that is at work is omn iscient; 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 stop 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 into a different order of ex istence. 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, th is 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,synthes is is necessary only where analys is has taken place, one has d issected everything, put in pieces (analys is), 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 sentimental ism, 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 v isual ised, has endowed with a throbbing life and made a poignant reality? Victor Hugo said: Attachez Dieu au gibet, vous avez la croixTie God to the gibbet, you have the cross. Even so, infuse passion into 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 into h is poetic fervour and created a sheer beauty, a stupendous reality out of it. Herein lies the greatness of h is achievement. Philosophy, however divine, and in spite of Milton, has been regarded by poets as "harsh and crabbed" and as such unfit for poetic delineation. Not a few poets indeed foundered upon th is rock. A poet in h is own way is a philosopher, but a philosopher chanting out h is 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 h is 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 Milton were not philosophers either. Dante sought perhaps consciously and deliberately to philosoph ise in h is Parad iso I Did he? The less Dante then is he. For it is h is Inferno, where he is a passionate v isionary, and not h is Parad iso (where he has put in more thought-power) that marks the nee plus ultra of h is 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 real isation? What else can give the full breath, the integral force to poetic inspiration if it is not the problem of ex istence 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 h is 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 recogn ise that what we obtain in th is 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 th is 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 Upan ishads, 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 idol ised more as philosophy than as poetry. Doubtless, our Va ishnava poets sang of God and Love Divine; and Rabindranath, in one sense, a typical modern Va ishnava, 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 real ised. 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 general isations and colourless or too colourful tru isms that do not embody a clear thought or rounded idea, a radiant judgment. Sri Aurobindo has given us in h is poetry thoughts that are clear-cut, ideas beautifully ch iselledhe is always luminously forceful.
Take these Vedantic lines that in their limpidity and harmonious flow beat anything found in the fine French poet Lamartine:
It is He in the sun who is ageless and deathless,
And into the midnight H is shadow is thrown;
When darkness was blind and engulfed within darkness,
--
He is, we cannot say; for Nothing too
is H is conception of Himself unguessed.
He dawns upon us and we would pursue,
--
Th is is sheer philosophy, told with an almost philosophical bluntnessmay be, but is it mere philosophy and mediocre poetry? Once more l isten to the Upan ishadic lines:
Deep in the luminous secrecy, the mute
--
Light is not, nor our darkness, nor these bright
Thunderings,
--
Aught that is.5
It is the bare truth, "truth in its own home", as I have said already using a phrase of the ancient sages, that is formulated here without the prop of any external symbol ism. There is no veil, no m ist, no uncertainty or ambiguity. It is clarity itself, an almost scientific exactness and prec ision. In all th is there is something of the straightness and fullness of v ision that character ised the Vedic R ish is, something of their supernal genius which could mould speech into the very expression of what is beyond speech, which could sublimate the small and the finite into forms of the Vast and the Infinite. Mark how in these aphor istic lines embodying a deep spiritual experience, the inexpressible has been expressed with a luminous felicity:
Delight that labours in its opposite,
Faints in the rose and on the rack is curled.6
or
--
To human ise the Divine, that is what we all w ish to do; for the Divine is too lofty for us and we cannot look full into h is 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 lav ish upon the Divine so that he may appear to us not as something far and d istant and foreign, but, quite near, among us, as one of us. We take recourse to human symbol ism often, because we w ish 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 R ish is sought not to human ise the Divine, their purpose was rather to divin ise 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 symbol ism on earth and its beauties, in sense and its enjoyments, is then transfigured into the expression of the truth, of the divinity itself. We then no longer speak in human language but in the language of the gods.
We have been speaking of philosophy and the philosophic manner. But what are the exact implications of the words, let us ask again. They mean nothing more and nothing lessthan the force of thought and the mass of thought content. After all, that seems to be almost the whole difference between the past and the present human consciousness in so far at least as it has found expression in poetry. That element, we w ish to point out, is prec isely 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 into 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 into the pith and substance of poetic truth and beauty. It was a decoration, but not unoften a drag. I referred to the Upan ishads, but these strike quite a different, almost an opposite line in th is 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 th is m issing link in man's spiritual consciousness, to have brought into 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 originator who initiated the movement; but at least th is seems to be true that in him and h is 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 rational isation in h is own way in Europe, was almost a contemporary of the Buddha.
Poetry as an expression of thought-power, poetry weighted with intelligence and rational ised knowledge that seems to me to be the end and drive, the secret sense of all the mystery of modern technique. The combination is r isky, but not impossible. In the spiritual domain the Gita achieved th is 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. Th is 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 h is 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 harmon ises the two other firmaments usually supposed to be antagon istic and incompatible.
Indeed it would be wrong to associate any cold ascetic nudity to the spiritual body of Sri Aurobindo. H is 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 character istic in him. The deepest and unseizable flights of thought he knows how to clo the with a Kalidasian richness of imagery, or a Keatsean gusto of sensuousness:
. . . . .O flowers, O delight on the tree-tops burning!
--
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 th is line so instinct with a haunting melancholy strain:
Cold are your rivers of peace and their banks are leafless and lonely.
--
All the tragedy, the entire pathos of human life is concentrated in th is line so simple, yet so grand:
Son of man, thou hast crowned the life with the flowers that are scentless,
--
And yet, I should say, in all th is it is not mere the human that is of supreme interest, but something which even in being human yet transcends it.
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 spiritual ised more than perhaps any other and yet h is 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 ex ists 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 m ission; 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 pu issant. 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.
Mark the stately march, the fullness of voice, the wealth of imagery, the vigour of movement of these lines:
--
Thy gait is an empire and thine eye
Dominion.
Th is is poetry salutary indeed if there were any. We are so often and so much enamoured of the feminine languidness of poetry; the clear, the sane, the virile, that is a type of poetry that our nerves cannot always or for long stand. But there is poetry that is agrable and there is poetry that is grand, as Sainte Beuve said. There are the pleasures of poetry and there are the "ardours of poetry". And the great poets are always grand rather than agrable, full of the ardours of poetry rat her than the pleasures of poetry.
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 h is 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 v isionit is even the Rik, the mantra that impels the gods to manifest upon earth, that fashions divinity in man.
James H. Cousins in h is New Ways in Engl ish Literature describes Sri Aurobindo as "the philosopher as poet."
--
From "Ahana" in Sri Aurobindo's Ahana and Other Poems. There is a later version of the poem in Collected Poems and Plays, Vol II.
"Remin iscence."
--
it cannot be said that Aurobindo shows any organic adaptation to music and melody. H is thought is profound; h is technical devices are commendable; but the music that enchants or d isturbs is not there. Aurobindo is not another Tagore or Iqbal, or even Sarojini Naidu."The Times Literary Supplement, July 8, 1944.
***
01.02 - The Creative Soul, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The difference between living organ ism and dead matter is that while the former is endowed with creative activity, the latter has only passive receptivity. Life adds, synthet ises, 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 prec isely 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 ex istence 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 m isconception that has vitiated our outlook in general and has been the most potent cause of a steril ising atav ism in the moral evolution of humanity is that creativity is an ar istocratic virtue, that it belongs only to the chosen few. A great poet or a mighty man of action creates indeed, but such a creator 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 th is 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 d iscover 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 th is 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 w isdom still remains the eternal w isdom. It is because we fall off from our soul that we wander into side-paths, paths that do not belong to our real nature and hence that lead to imitation and repetition, decay and death. Th is is what happens to what we call common souls. The force of circumstances, the pressure of environment or simply the momentum of custom or habit compel them to choose the easiest and the readiest way that may lie before them. They do not consult the demand of the inner being but the requirement of the moment. Our bodily needs, our vital hungers and our mental prejudices obsess and obscure the impulsions that thrill the hidden spirit. We hasten to gratify the immediate and forget the eternal, we clutch at the shadow and let go the substance. We are carried away in the flux and tumult of life. It is a mixed and collective whirla Weltge ist that moves and governs us. We are helpless straws drifting in the current. But manhood demands that we stop and pause, pull ourselves out of the Maelstrom and be what we are. We must shape things as we want and not allow things to shape us as they want.
Let each take cogn isance of the godhead that is within him for self is Godand in the strength of the soul-divinity create h is 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 Upan ishad. 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 h is, 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 h is 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 r ise 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 emphas is. Each is a particular figure, aspectBhava, a particular angle of v ision of All. The v ision 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 th is field of infinite creativity the soul lives, moves and has its being.
01.02 - The Issue, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:01.02 - The issue
class:chapter
--
On the bare peak where Self is alone with Nought
And life has no sense and love no place to stand,
--
Where life is not exposed to sorrowful change,
Remembered beauty death-claimed lids ignore
--
There is a darkness in terrestrial things
That will not suffer long too glad a note.
--
Was her soul's issue thrown with Destiny's dice.
4.15
--
Such is the human figure drawn by Time.
4.18
--
A gaol is th is immense material world:
Across each road stands armed a stone-eyed Law,
--
A bond is put on the high-climbing mind,
A seal on the too large wide-open heart;
--
Thus is the throne of the Inconscient safe
While the tardy coilings of the aeons pass
--
A magic leverage suddenly is caught
That moves the veiled Ineffable's timeless will:
--
Then miracle is made the common rule,
One mighty deed can change the course of things;
--
He too is a machine amid machines;
A p iston brain pumps out the shapes of thought,
--
To which reason lends illusive sense, is here,
Or the empiric Life's instinctive search,
01.02 - The Object of the Integral Yoga, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
... the object of the Yoga is to enter into and be possessed by the Divine Presence and Consciousness, to love the Divine for the Divine's sake alone, to be turned in our nature into nature of the Divine and in our will and works and life to be the instrument of the Divine. Its object is not to be a great Yogi or a superman (although that may come) or to grab at the Divine for the sake of the ego's power, pride or pleasure.
It is not for salvation though liberation comes by it and all else may come; but these must not be our objects. The Divine alone is our object.
To come to th is Yoga merely with the idea of being a superman would be an act of vital ego ism which would defeat its own object. Those who put th is object in the front of their preoccupations invariably come to grief, spiritually and otherw ise. The aim of th is Yoga is, first, to enter into the divine consciousness by merging into it the separative ego (incidentally, in doing so one finds one's true individual self which is not the limited, vain and self ish human ego but a portion of the Divine) and, secondly, to bring down the supramental consciousness on earth to transform mind, life and body. All else can be only a result of these two aims, not the primary object of the Yoga.
The only creation for which there is any place here is the supramental, the bringing of the divine Truth down on the earth, not only into the mind and vital but into the body and into
Matter. Our object is not to remove all "limitations" on the expansion of the ego or to give a free field and make unlimited room for the fulfilment of the ideas of the human mind or the desires of the ego-centred life-force. None of us are here to "do as we like", or to create a world in which we shall at last be able to do as we like; we are here to do what the Divine wills and to create a world in which the Divine Will can manifest its truth no longer deformed by human ignorance or perverted and m istranslated by vital desire. The work which the sadhak of the supramental Yoga has to do is not h is own work for which he can lay down h is own conditions, but the work of the Divine which he has to do according to the conditions laid down by the Divine. Our Yoga is not for our own sake but for the sake of the Divine. It is not our own personal manifestation that we are to seek, the manifestation of the individual ego freed from all bounds and from all bonds, but the manifestation of the Divine. Of that manifestation our own spiritual liberation, perfection, fullness is to be a result and a part, but not in any ego istic sense or for any ego-centred or self-seeking purpose.
Th is liberation, perfection, fullness too must not be pursued for our own sake, but for the sake of the Divine.
Th is Yoga demands a total dedication of the life to the aspiration for the d iscovery and embodiment of the Divine Truth and to nothing else whatever. To divide your life between the Divine and some outward aim and activity that has nothing to do with the search for the Truth is inadm issible. The least thing of that kind would make success in the Yoga impossible.
You must go inside yourself and enter into a complete dedication to the spiritual life. All clinging to mental preferences must fall away from you, all ins istence on vital aims and interests and attachments must be put away, all ego istic clinging to family, friends, country must d isappear if you want to succeed in Yoga. Whatever has to come as outgoing energy or action, must proceed from the Truth once d iscovered and not from the lower mental or vital motives, from the Divine Will and not from personal choice or the preferences of the ego.
01.03 - Mystic Poetry, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
I would like to make a d istinction between mystic poetry and spiritual poetry. To equate mystic ism and spirituality is not always happy or even correct. Thus, when Tagore sings:
Who comes along singing and steering h is boat?
--
it is mystic ism, mystic ism inexcels is. Even A.E.'s
I turn
--
is just on the borderland: it has succeeded in leaving behind the mystic domain, but has not yet entered the city of the Spiritat the most, it has turned the corner and approached the gate. L isten now,
My soul unhorizoned widens to measureless sight,
My body is God's happy living tool,
My spirit a vast sun of deathless light.3
--
And saw the secret face that is our own...||6.20||
is there not a fundamental difference, difference not merely with regard to the poetic personality, but with regard to the very stuff of consciousness? There is direct v ision here, the fullness of light, the native rhythm and substance of revelation, as if
In the dead wall closing from a wider self,
--
both so ideal ise, etherealize, almost spiritual ise the earth and the flesh that they seem ostensibly only a vesture of something else behind, something mysterious and other-worldly, something other than, even just opposite to what they actually are or appear to be. That is the mystique of the senses which is a very character istic feature of some of the best poetic inspirations of France. Baudelaire too, the Satanic poet, by the sheer intensity of sympathy and sincerity, pierces as it were into the soul of things and makes the ugly, the unclean, the d iseased, the sordid throb and glow with an almost celestial light. Here is the Baudelairean manner:
Tout casss
--
It is not merely by addressing the beloved as your goddess that you can attain th is mystic ism; the Elizabethan did that in merry abundance,ad nauseam.A finer temper, a more delicate touch, a more subtle sensitiveness and a kind of art istic wizardry are necessary to tune the body into a rhythm of the spirit. The other line of mystic ism is common enough, viz., to express the spirit in terms and rhythms of the flesh. Tagore did that liberally, the Va ishnava poets did nothing but that, the Song of Solomon is an exqu isite example of that procedure. There is here, however, a difference in degrees which is an interesting feature worth noting. Thus in Tagore the reference to the spirit is evident, that is the major or central chord; the earthly and the sensuous are meant as the name and form, as the body to render concrete, living and vibrant, near and intimate what otherw ise would perhaps be vague and abstract, afar, aloof. But th is mundane or human appearance has a value in so far as it is a support, a pointer or symbol of the spiritual import. And the mystic ism lies prec isely in the play of the two, a hide-and-seek between them. On the other hand, as I said, the greater portion of Va ishnava poetry, like a precious and beautiful casket, no doubt, hides the spiritual import: not the pure significance but the sign and symbol are luxuriously elaborated, they are placed in the foreground in all magnificence: as if it was their very purpose to conceal the real meaning. When the Va ishnava poet says,
O love, what more shall I, shall Radha speak,
--
there is nothing in the matter or manner which can indicate, to the uninitiated, any reference to the Spirit or the Divine. Or th is again,
I have gazed upon beauty from my very birth
--
of aeons and yet my heart is not soothed.. . .
they all give a very beautiful, a very poignant experience of love, but one does not know if it is love human or divine, if it is soul's love or mere bodily love.
The famous Song of Solomon too is not on a different footing, when the poet cries:
Thou hast rav ished my heart, my s ister, my spouse;
--
one can explain that it is the Chr ist calling the Church or God appealing to the human soul or one can simply find in it nothing more than a man pining for h is woman. Anyhow I would not call it spiritual poetry or even mystic poetry. For in itself it does not carry any double or oblique meaning, there is no suggestion that it is applicable to other fields or domains of consciousness: it is, as it were, monovalent. An allegory is never mystic ism. There is more mystic ism in Wordsworth, even in Shelley and Keats, than in Spenser, for example, who stands in th is respect on the same ground as Bunyan in h is The Pilgrim's Progress. Take Wordsworth as a Nature-worshipper,
Breaking the silence of the seas
--
I do not know if th is is not mystic ism, what else is. Neither is religious poetry true mystic ism (or true spirituality). I find more mystic ism in
Come, let us run
--
Heaven is, dear Lord! where'er Thou art,
O never then from me depart !11
--
that is bright is but the shadow of H is brightness
and by H is shining all th is shineth.14
--
is one Spirit within all creatures but it shapeth
itself to form and form; it is likew ise outside these.15
Th is is spiritual matter and spiritual manner that can never be improved upon. Th is is spiritual poetry in its quintessence. I am referring naturally here to the original and not to the translation which can never do full justice, even at its very best, to the poetic value in question. For apart from the individual genius of the poet, the greatness of the language, the instrument used by the poet, is also involved. It may well be what is comparatively easy and natural in the language of the gods (devabhasha) would mean a tour de force, if not altogether an impossibility, in a human language. The Sanskrit language was moulded and fashioned in the hands of the R ish is, that is to say, those who lived and moved and had their being in the spiritual consciousness. The Hebrew or even the Zend does not seem to have reached that peak, that absoluteness of the spiritual tone which seems inherent in the Indian tongue, although those too breathed and grew in a spiritual atmosphere. The later languages, however, Greek or Latin or their modern descendants, have gone still farther from the source, they are much nearer to the earth and are suffused with the smell and effluvia of th is vale of tears.
Among the ancients, strictly speaking, the later classical Lucretius was a remarkable phenomenon. By nature he was a poet, but h is mental interest lay in metaphysical speculation, in philosophy, and unpoetical business. He turned away from arms and heroes, wrath and love and, like Seneca and Aurelius, gave himself up to moral ising and philosoph ising, delving 'into the mystery, the why and the how and the whither of it all. He chose a dangerous subject for h is poetic inspiration and yet it cannot be said that h is attempt was a failure. Lucretius was not a religious or spiritual poet; he was rather Marxian,athe istic, material istic. The dialectical material ism of today could find in him a lot of nour ishment and support. But whatever the content, the manner has made a whole difference. There was an ideal ism, a clarity of v ision and an intensity of perception, which however scientific apparently, gave h is creation a note, an accent, an atmosphere high, tense, aloof, ascetic, at times bordering on the supra-sensual. It was a high light, a force of consciousness that at its highest pitch had the ring and vibration of something almost spiritual. For the basic principle of Lucretius' inspiration is a large thought-force, a tense perception, a taut nervous reactionit is not, of course, the identity in being with the inner realities which is the hallmark of a spiritual consciousness, yet it is something on the way towards that.
There have been other philosophical poets, a good number of them since thennot merely rationally philosophical, as was the vogue in the eighteenth century, but metaphysically philosophical, that is to say, inquiring not merely into the phenomenal but also into the labyrinths of the noumenal, investigating not only what meets the senses, but also things that are behind or beyond. Amidst the earlier efflorescence of th is movement the most outstanding philosopher poet is of course Dante, the Dante of Parad iso, a philosopher in the mediaeval manner and to the extent a lesser poet, according to some. Goe the is another, almost in the grand modern manner. Wordsworth is full of metaphysics from the crown of h is head to the tip of h is toe although h is poetry, perhaps the major portion of it, had to undergo some kind of martyrdom because of it. And Shelley, the supremely lyric singer, has had a very rich undertone of thought-content genuinely metaphysical. And Browning and Arnold and Hardyindeed, if we come to the more moderns, we have to cite the whole host of them, none can be excepted.
We left out the Metaphysicals, for they can be grouped as a set apart. They are not so much metaphysical as theological, religious. They have a brain-content stirring with theological problems and speculations, replete with scintillating conceits and intricate fancies. Perhaps it is because of th is philosophical burden, th is intellectual bias that the Metaphysicals went into obscurity for about two centuries and it is prec isely because of that that they are slowly coming out to the forefront and assuming a special value with the moderns. For the modern mind is character istically thoughtful, introspective"introvert"and philosophical; even the exact physical sciences of today are rounded off in the end with metaphysics.
The growth of a philosophical thought-content in poetry has been inevitable. For man's consciousness in its evolutionary march is driving towards a consummation which includes and presupposes a development along that line. The mot d'ordre in old-world poetry was "fancy", imaginationremember the famous lines of Shakespeare character ising a poet; in modern times it is Thought, even or perhaps particularly abstract metaphysical thought. Perceptions, experiences, real isationsof whatever order or world they may beexpressed in sensitive and aesthetic terms and figures, that is poetry known and appreciated familiarly. But a new turn has been coming on with an increasing ins istencea definite time has been given to that, since the Rena issance, it is said: it is the growing importance of Thought or brain-power as a medium or atmosphere in which poetic experiences find a sober and clear articulation, a definite and strong formulation. Rational isation of all experiences and real isations is the keynote of the modern mentality. Even when it is said that reason and rationality are not ultimate or final or significant realities, that the irrational or the submental plays a greater role in our consciousness and that art and poetry likew ise should be the expression of such a mentality, even then, all th is is said and done in and through a strong rational and intellectual stress and frame the like of which cannot be found in the old-world frankly non-intellectual creations.
The religious, the mystic or the spiritual man was, in the past, more or Jess methodically and absolutely non-intellectual and anti-intellectual: but the modern age, the age of scientific culture, is tending to make him as strongly intellectual: he has to explain, not only present the object but show up its mechan ism alsoexplain to himself so that he may have a total understanding and a firmer grasp of the thing which he presents and explains to others as well who demand a similar approach. He feels the necessity of explaining, giving the rationality the rationale the science, of h is art; for without that, it appears to him, a solid ground is not given to the structure of h is experience: analytic power, preoccupation with methodology seems inherent in the modern creative consciousness.
The philosophical trend in poetry has an interesting h istory with a significant role: it has acted as a force of purification, of sublimation, of kathars is. As man has r isen from h is exclusively or predominantly vital nature into an increasing mental po ise, in the same way h is creative activities too have taken th is new turn and status. In the earlier stages of evolution the mental life is secondary, subordinate to the physico-vital life; it is only subsequently that the mental finds an independent and self-sufficient reality. A similar movement is reflected in poetic and art istic creation too: the thinker, the philosopher remains in the background at the outset, he looks out; peers through chinks and holes from time to time; later he comes to the forefront, assumes a major role in man's creative activity.
Man's consciousness is further to r ise from the mental to over-mental regions. Accordingly, h is life and activities and along with that h is art istic creations too will take on a new tone and rhythm, a new mould and constitution even. For th is transition, the higher mentalwhich is normally the field of philosophical and ideal istic activitiesserves as the Paraclete, the Intercessor; it takes up the lower functionings of the consciousness, which are intense in their own way, but narrow and turbid, and gives, by purifying and enlarging, a wider frame, a more luminous pattern, a more subtly articulated , form for the higher, vaster and deeper realities, truths and harmonies to express and manifest. In the old-world spiritual and mystic poets, th is intervening medium was overlooked for evident reasons, for human reason or even intelligence is a double-edged instrument, it can make as well as mar, it has a light that most often and naturally shuts off other higher lights beyond it. So it was bypassed, some kind of direct and immediate contact was sought to be establ ished between the normal and the transcendental. The result was, as I have pointed out, a pure spiritual poetry, on the one hand, as in the Upan ishads, or, on the other, religious poetry of various grades and denominations that spoke of the spiritual but in the terms and in the manner of the mundane, at least very much coloured and dominated by the latter. Vyasa was the great legendary figure in India who, as is shown in h is Mahabharata, seems to have been one of the pioneers, if not the pioneer, to forge and build the m issing link of Thought Power. The exemplar of the manner is the Gita. Valmiki's represented a more ancient and primary inspiration, of a vast vital sensibility, something of the kind that was at the bas is of Homer's genius. In Greece it was Socrates who initiated the movement of speculative philosophy and the emphas is of intellectual power slowly began to find expression in the later poets, Sophocles and Euripides. But all these were very simple beginnings. The moderns go in for something more radical and totalitarian. The rational ising element instead of being an additional or subordinate or contri buting factor, must itself give its norm and form, its own substance and manner to the creative activity. Such is the present-day demand.
The earliest preoccupation of man was religious; even when he concerned himself with the world and worldly things, he referred all that to the other world, thought of gods and goddesses, of after-death and other where. That also will be h is last and ultimate preoccupation though in a somewhat different way, when he has passed through a process of purification and growth, a "sea-change". For although religion is an aspiration towards the truth and reality beyond or behind the world, it is married too much to man's actual worldly nature and carries always with it the shadow of profanity.
The religious poet seeks to tone down or cover up the mundane taint, since he does not know how to transcend it totally, in two ways: (1) by a strong thought-element, the metaphysical way, as it may be called and (2) by a strong symbol ism, the occult way. Donne takes to the first course, Blake the second. And it is the alchemy brought to bear in either of these processes that transforms the merely religious into the mystic poet. The truly spiritual, as I have said, is still a higher grade of consciousness: what I call Spirit's own poetry has its own matter and mannerswabhava and swadharma. A nearest approach to it is echoed in those famous lines of Blake:
To see a World in a grain of Sand,
--
And a considerable impact of it is vibrant and aglow in these lines of a contemporary Indian poet:
Sky-lucent Bl iss untouched by earthiness!
--
Th is, I say, is something different from the religious and even from the mystic. It is away from the merely religious, because it is naked of the vesture of humanity (in spite of a human face that masks it at times) ; it is something more than the merely mystic, for it does not stop being a signpost or an indication to the Beyond, but is itself the presence and embodiment of the Beyond. The mystic gives us, we can say, the magic of the Infinite; what I term the spiritual, the spiritual proper, gives in addition the logic of the Infinite. At least th is is what d istingu ishes modern spiritual consciousness from the ancient, that is, Upan ishadic spiritual consciousness. The Upan ishad gives expression to the spiritual consciousness in its original and pr istine purity and perfection, in its essential simplicity. It did not buttress itself with any logic. It is the record of fundamental experiences and there was no question of any logical exposition. But, as I have said, the modern mind requires and demands a logical element in its perceptions and presentations. Also it must needs be a different kind of logic that can sat isfy and sat isfy wholly the deeper and subtler movements of a modern consciousness. For the philosophical poet of an earlier age, when he had recourse to logic, it was the logic of the finite that always gave him the frame, unless he threw the whole thing overboard and leaped straight into the occult, the illogical and the a logical, like Blake, for instance. Let me illustrate and compare a little. When the older poet explains indriyani hayan ahuh, it is an allegory he resorts to, it is the logic of the finite he marshals to point to the infinite and the beyond. The stress of reason is apparent and effective too, but the pattern is what we are normally familiar with the movement, we can say, is almost Ar istotelian in its rigour. Now let us turn to the following:
Our life is a holocaust of the Supreme. ||26.15||
The great World-Mother by her sacrifice||4.47||
--
An idol of self is our mortality. ||26.17||
or th is ch iselled bit of diamond,
--
Here we have a pattern of thought-movement that does not seem to follow the lineaments of the normal brain-mind consciousness, although it too has a bas is there: our customary line of reasoning receives a sudden shock, as it were, and then is shaken, moved, lifted up, transportedgradually or suddenly, according to the temperament of the l istener. Besides, we have here the peculiar modern tone, which, for want of a better term, may be described as scientific. The impressimprimaturof Science is its rational coherence, justifying or justified by sense data, by physical experience, which gives us the pattern or model of an inexorable natural law. Here too we feel we are in the domain of such natural law but lifted on to a higher level.
Th is is what I was trying to make out as the d istingu ishing trait of the real spiritual consciousness that seems to be developing in the poetic creation of tomorrow, e.g., it has the same rationality, clarity, concreteness of perception as the scientific spirit has in its own domain and still it is rounded off with a halo of magic and miracle. That is the nature of the logic of the infinite proper to the spiritual consciousness. We can have a Science of the Spirit as well as a Science of Matter. Th is is the Thought element or what corresponds to it, of which I was speaking, the philosophical factor, that which gives form to the formless or definition to that which is vague, a nearness and familiarity to that which is far and alien. The fullness of the spiritual consciousness means such a thing, the presentation of a divine name and form. And th is d istingu ishes it from the mystic consciousness which is not the supreme solar consciousness but the nearest approach to it. Or, perhaps, the mystic dwells in the domain of the Divine, he may even be suffused with a sense of unity but would not like to acquire the Divine's nature and function. Normally and generally he embodies all the aspiration and yearning moved by intimations and suggestions belonging to the human mentality, the divine urge retaining still the human flavour. We can say also, using a Vedantic terminology, that the mystic consciousness gives us the tatastha lakshana, the nearest approximative attribute of the attri buteless; or otherw ise, it is the hiranyagarbha consciousness which englobes the multiple play, the coruscated possibilities of the Reality: while the spiritual proper may be considered as prajghana, the solid mass, the essential lineaments of revelatory knowledge, the typal "wave-particles" of the Reality. In the former there is a play of imagination, even of fancy, a decorative aesthes is, while in the latter it is v ision pure and simple. If the spiritual poetry is solar in its nature, we can say, by extending the analogy, that mystic poetry is character istically lunarMoon representing the delight and the magic that Mind and mental imagination, suffused, no doubt, with a light or a reflection of some light from beyond, is capable of (the Upan ishad speaks of the Moon being born of the Mind).
To sum up and recapitulate. The evolution of the poetic expression in man has ever been an attempt at a return and a progressive approach to the spiritual source of poetic inspiration, which was also the original, though somewhat veiled, source from the very beginning. The movement has followed devious waysstrongly negative at timeseven like man's life and consciousness in general of which it is an organic member; but the ultimate end and drift seems to have been always that ideal and principle even when fallen on evil days and evil tongues. The poet's ideal in the dawn of the world was, as the Vedic R ishi sang, to ra ise things of beauty in heaven by h is poetic power,kavi kavitv divi rpam sajat. Even a Satanic poet, the inaugurator, in a way, of modern ism and modern istic consciousness, Charles Baudelaire, thus admon ishes h is spirit:
"Flyaway, far from these morbid miasmas, go and purify yourself in the higher air and drink, like a pure and divine liquor, the clear fire that fills the limpid spaces."18
That angelic poets should be inspired by the same ideal is, of course, quite natural: for they sing:
Not a senseless, trancd thing,
--
Poetry, actually however, has been, by and large, a profane and mundane affair: for it expresses the normal man's perceptions and feelings and experiences, human loves and hates and desires and ambitions. True. And yet there has also always been an attempt, a tendency to deal with them in such a way as can bring calm and puritykathars isnot trouble and confusion. That has been the purpose of all Art from the ancient days. Besides, there has been a growth and development in the h istoric process of th is kathars is. As by the sublimation of h is bodily and vital instincts and impulses., man is gradually growing into the mental, moral and finally spiritual consciousness, even so the art istic expression of h is creative activity has followed a similar line of transformation. The first and original transformation happened with religious poetry. The religious, one may say, is the profane inside out; that is to say, the religious man has almost the same tone and temper, the same urges and passions, only turned Godward. Religious poetry too marks a new turn and development of human speech, in taking the name of God human tongue acquires a new plasticity and flavour that transform or give a new modulation even to things profane and mundane it speaks of. Religious means at bottom the colouring of mental and moral ideal ism. A parallel process of kathars is is found in another class of poetic creation, viz., the allegory. Allegory or parable is the stage when the higher and inner realities are expressed wholly in the modes and manner, in the form and character of the normal and external, when moral, religious or spiritual truths are expressed in the terms and figures of the profane life. The higher or the inner ideal is like a loose clothing upon the ordinary consciousness, it does not fit closely or fuse. In the religious, however, the first step is taken for a mingling and fusion. The mystic is the beginning of a real fusion and a considerable ascension of the lower into the higher. The philosopher poet follows another line for the same kathars isinstead of uplifting emotions and sensibility, he proceeds by thought-power, by the ideas and principles that lie behind all movements and give a pattern to all things ex isting. The mystic can be of either type, the religious mystic or the philosopher mystic, although often the two are welded together and cannot be very well separated. Let us illustrate a little:
The spacious firmament on high,
--
Th is is religious poetry, pure and simple, expressing man's earliest and most elementary feeling, marked by a broad candour, a rather shallow monotone. But that feeling is ra ised to a pitch of fervour and scintillating sensibility in Vaughan's
They are all gone into the world of light
--
My heart is by dejection, clay,
And by self-murder, red.
--
The allegorical element too finds here cleverly woven into the mystically religious texture. Here is another example of the mystically religious temper from Donne:
For though through many streights, and lands I roame,
--
The same poet is at once religious and mystic find philosophical in these lines, for example:
That All, which always is All every where,
Which cannot sinne, and yet all sinnes must beare,
--
But all that is left far behind, when we hear a new voice announcing an altogether new manner, revelatory of the truly and supremely spiritual consciousness, not simply mystic or religious but magically occult and carved out of the highest if recondite philosophia:
A finite movement of the Infinite
--
"The World is too much with us"...
John Hall: "To h is Tutor".
01.03 - Rationalism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
What is Reason, the faculty that is said to be the proud privilege of man, the sovereign instrument he alone possesses for the purpose of knowing? What is the value of knowledge that Reason gives? For it is the manner of knowing, the particular faculty or instrument by which we know, that determines the nature and content of knowledge. Reason is the collecting of available sense-perceptions and a certain mode of working upon them. It has three component elements that have been defined as observation, classification and deduction. Now, the very composition of Reason shows that it cannot be a perfect instrument of knowledge; the limitations are the inherent limitations of the component elements. As regards observation there is a two-fold limitation. First, observation is a relative term and variable quantity. One observes through the pr ism of one's own observing faculty, through the bias of one's own personality and no two persons can have absolutely the same manner of observation. So Science has recogn ised the necessity of personal equation and has created an imaginary observer, a "mean man" as the standard of reference. And th is already takes us far away from the truth, from the reality. Secondly, observation is limited by its scope. All the facts of the world, all sense-perceptions possible and actual cannot be included within any observation however large, however collective it may be. We have to go always upon a limited amount of data, we are able to construct only a partial and sketchy view of the surface of ex istence. And then it is these few and doubtful facts that Reason seeks to arrange and classify. That classification may hold good for certain immediate ends, for a temporary understanding of the world and its forces, either in order to sat isfy our curiosity or to gain some practical utility. For when we want to consider the world only in its immediate relation to us, a few and even doubtful facts are sufficient the more immediate the relation, the more immaterial the doubtfulness and insufficiency of facts. We may quite confidently go a step in darkness, but to walk a mile we do require light and certainty. Our scientific classification has a background of uncertainty, if not, of falsity; and our deduction also, even while correct within a very narrow range of space and time, cannot escape the fundamental vices of observation and classification upon which it is based.
It might be said, however, that the guarantee or sanction of Reason does not lie in the extent of its application, nor can its subjective nature (or ego-centric predication, as philosophers would term it) vitiate the validity of its conclusions. There is, in fact, an inherent unity and harmony between Reason and Reality. If we know a little of Reality, we know the whole; if we know the subjective, we know also the objective. As in the part, so in the whole; as it is within, so it is without. If you say that I will die, you need not wait for my actual death to have the proof of your statement. The general ising power inherent in Reason is the guarantee of the certitude to which it leads. Reason is valid, as it does not betray us. If it were such as anti-intellectuals make it out to be, we would be making nothing but false steps, would always remain entangled in contradictions. The very success of Reason is proof of its being a reliable and perfect instrument for the knowledge of Truth and Reality. It is beside the mark to prove otherw ise, simply by analysing the nature of Reason and showing the fundamental deficiencies of that nature. It is rather to the credit of Reason that being as it is, it is none the less a successful and trustworthy agent.
Now the question is, does Reason never fail? is it such a perfect instrument as intellectual ists think it to be? There is ground for serious m isgivings. Reason says, for example, that the earth revolves round the sun: and reason, it is argued, is right, for we see that all the facts are conformableto it, even facts that were hitherto unknown and are now coming into our ken. But the difficulty is that Reason did not say that always in the past and may not say that always in the future. The old astronomers could explain the universe by holding quite a contrary theory and could fit into it all their astronomical data. A future scient ist may come and explain the matter in quite a different way from either. It is only a choice of workable theories that Reason seems to offer; we do not know the fact itself, apart perhaps from exactly the amount that immediate sense-perception gives to each of us. Or again, if we take an example of another category, we may ask, does God ex ist? A candid Rational ist would say that he does not know although he has h is own opinion about the matter. Evidently, Reason cannot solve all the problems that it meets; it can judge only truths that are of a certain type.
It may be answered that Reason is a faculty which gives us progressive knowledge of the reality, but as a knowing instrument it is perfect, at least it is the only instrument at our d isposal; even if it gives a false, incomplete or blurred image of the reality, it has the means and capacity of correcting and completing itself. It offers theories, no doubt; but what are theories? They are simply the gradually increasing adaptation of the knowing subject to the object to be known, the evolving revelation of reality to our perception of it. Reason is the power which carries on that process of adaptation and revelation; we can safely rely upon Reason and trust It to carry on its work with increasing success.
But in knowledge it is prec isely finality that we seek for and no mere progressive, asymptotic, rapprochement ad infinitum. No less than the Practical Reason, the Theoretical Reason also demands a categorical imperative, a clean affirmation or denial. If Reason cannot do that, it must be regarded as inefficient. It is poor consolation to man that Reason is gradually finding out the truth or that it is trying to grapple with the problems of God, Soul and Immortality and will one day pronounce its verdict. Whether we have or have not any other instrument of knowledge is a different question altogether. But in the meanwhile Reason stands condemned by the evidence of its own limitation.
It may be retorted that if Reason is condemned, it is condemned by itself and by no other authority. All argumentation against Reason is a function of Reason itself. The deficiencies of Reason we find out by the rational faculty alone. If Reason was to die, it is because it consents to commit suicide; there is no other power that kills it. But to th is our answer is that Reason has th is miraculous power of self-destruction; or, to put it philosophically, Reason is, at best, an organ of self-critic ism and perhaps the organ par excellence for that purpose. But critic ism is one thing and creation another. And whether we know or act, it is fundamentally a process of creation; at least, without th is element of creation there can be no knowledge, no act. In knowledge there is a luminous creativity, Revelation or Categorical Imperative which Reason does not and cannot supply but vaguely strains to seize. For that element we have to search elsewhere, not in Reason.
Does th is mean that real knowledge is irrational or against Reason? Not so necessarily. There is a super-rational power for knowledge and Reason may either be a channel or an obstacle. If we take our stand upon Reason and then proceed to know, if we take the forms and categories of Reason as the inviolable schemata of knowledge, then indeed Reason becomes an obstacle to that super-rational power. If, on the other hand, Reason does not offer any set-form from beforehand, does not ins ist upon its own conditions, is passive and simply receives and reflects what is given to it, then it becomes a luminous and sure channel for that higher and real knowledge.
The fact is that Reason is a lower manifestation of knowledge, it is an attempt to express on the mental level a power that exceeds it. It is the section of a vast and unitarian Consciousness-Power; the section may be necessary under certain conditions and circumstances, but unless it is viewed in its relation to the ensemble, unless it gives up its exclusive absolut ism, it will be perforce arbitrary and m isleading. It would still remain helpful and useful, but its help and use would be always limited in scope and temporary in effectivity.
***
01.03 - Sri Aurobindo and his School, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A considerable amount of vague m isunderstanding and m isapprehension seems to ex ist in the minds of a certain section of our people as to what Sri Aurobindo is doing in h is retirement at Pondicherry. On the other hand, a very prec ise exposition, an exact formula of what he is not doing has been curiously furn ished by a well-known patriot in h is indictment of what he chooses to call the Pondicherry School of contemplation. But he has arrived at th is formula by openly and fearlessly affirming what does not ex ist; for the things that Sri Aurobindo is accused of doing are just the things that he is not doing. In the first place, Sri Aurobindo is not doing peaceful contemplation; in the second place, he is not doing active propaganda either; in the third place, he is not doing prnyma or even dhyna in the ordinary sense of the word; and, lastly, he is not proclaiming or following the maxim that although action may be tolerated as good, h is particular brand of Yoga is something higher and better.
Evidently the eminent politician and h is school of activ ism are labouring under a Himalayan confusion: when they speak of Sri Aurobindo, they really have in their mind some of the old schools of spiritual d iscipline. But one of the marked aspects of Sri Aurobindo's teaching and practice has been prec isely h is ins istence on putting aside the inert and life-shunning quiet ism, illusion ism, ascetic ism and monastic ism of a latter-day and decadent India. These ideals are perhaps as much obstacles in h is way as in the way of the activ istic school. Only Sri Aurobindo has not had the temerity to say that it is a weakness to seek refuge in contemplation or to suggest that a Buddha was a weakling or a Shankara a poltroon.
Th is much as regards what Sri Aurobindo is not doing; let us now turn and try to understand what he is doing. The d istingu ished man of action speaks of conquering Nature and fighting her. Adopting th is war-like imagery, we can affirm that Sri Aurobindo's work is just such a battle and conquest. But the question is, what is nature and what is the kind of conquest that is sought, how are we to fight and what are the required arms and implements? A good general should foresee all th is, frame h is plan of campaign accordingly and then only take the field. The above-mentioned leader proposes ceaseless and unself ish action as the way to fight and conquer Nature. He who speaks thus does not know and cannot mean what he says.
European science is conquering Nature in a way. It has attained to a certain kind and measure, in some fields a great measure, of control and conquest; but however great or striking it may be in its own province, it does not touch man in h is more intimate reality and does not bring about any true change in h is destiny or h is being. For the most vital part of nature is the region of the life-forces, the powers of d isease and age and death, of strife and greed and lustall the instincts of the brute in man, all the dark aboriginal forces, the forces of ignorance that form the very groundwork of man's nature and h is society. And then, as we r ise next to the world of the mind, we find a twilight region where falsehood masquerades as truth, where prejudices move as realities, where notions rule as ideals.
Th is is the present nature of man, with its threefold nexus of mind and life and body, that stands there to be fought and conquered. Th is is the inferior nature, of which the ancients spoke, that holds man down inexorably to a lower dharma, imperfect mode of life the life that is and has been the human order till today. No amount of ceaseless action, however selflessly done, can move th is wheel of Nature even by a hair's breadth away from the path that it has carved out from of old. Human nature and human society have been built up and are run by the forces of th is inferior nature, and whatever shuffling and reshuffling we may make in its apparent factors and elements, the general scheme and fundamental form of life will never change. To d isplace earth (and to conquer nature means nothing less than that) and give it another orbit, one must find a fulcrum outside earth.
Sri Aurobindo does not preach flight from life and a retreat into the silent and passive Infinite; the goal of life is not, in h is view, the extinction of life. Neither is he sat isfied on that account to hold that life is best lived in the ordinary round of its unregenerate dharma. If the first is a blind alley, the second is a vicious circle,both lead nowhere.
Sri Aurobindo's sadhana starts from the perception of a Power that is beyond the ordinary nature yet is its inevitable master, a fulcrum, as we have said, outside the earth. For what is required first is the d iscovery and manifestation of a new soul-consciousness in man which will bring about by the very pressure and working out of its self-rule an absolute reversal of man's nature. It is the Asuras who are now holding sway over humanity, for man has allowed himself so long to be built in the image of the Asura; to d islodge the Asuras, the Gods in their sovereign might have to be forged in the human being and brought into play. It is a stupendous task, some would say impossible; but it is very far removed from quiet ism or passiv ism. Sri Aurobindo is in retirement, but it is a retirement only from the outward field of present physical activities and their apparent actualities, not from the true forces and action of life. It is the retreat necessary to one who has to go back into himself to conquer a new plane of creative power,an entrance right into the world of basic forces, of fundamental realities, into the flaming heart of things where all actualities are born and take their first shape. It is the d iscovery of a power-house of tremendous energ ism and of the means of putting it at the service of earthly life.
And, properly speaking, it is not at all a school, least of all a mere school of thought, that is growing round Sri Aurobindo. It is rather the nucleus of a new life that is to come. Quite naturally it has almost insignificant proportions at present to the outward eye, for the work is still of the nature of experiment and trial in very restricted limits, something in the nature of what is done in a laboratory when a new power has been d iscovered, but has still to be perfectly formulated in its process. And it is quite a m istake to suppose that there is a vigorous propaganda carried on in its behalf or that there is a large demand for recruits. Only the few, who possess the call within and are impelled by the spirit of the future, have a chance of serving th is high attempt and great real isation and standing among its first instruments and pioneer workers.
***
--- Overview of verb be
The verb be has 13 senses (first 11 from tagged texts)
1. (10742) be ::: (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun); "John is rich"; "This is not a good answer")
2. (3019) be ::: (be identical to; be someone or something; "The president of the company is John Smith"; "This is my house")
3. (901) be ::: (occupy a certain position or area; be somewhere; "Where is my umbrella?" "The toolshed is in the back"; "What is behind this behavior?")
4. (701) exist, be ::: (have an existence, be extant; "Is there a God?")
5. (698) be ::: (happen, occur, take place; "I lost my wallet; this was during the visit to my parents' house"; "There were two hundred people at his funeral"; "There was a lot of noise in the kitchen")
6. (270) equal, be ::: (be identical or equivalent to; "One dollar equals 1,000 rubles these days!")
7. (189) constitute, represent, make up, comprise, be ::: (form or compose; "This money is my only income"; "The stone wall was the backdrop for the performance"; "These constitute my entire belonging"; "The children made up the chorus"; "This sum represents my entire income for a year"; "These few men comprise his entire army")
8. (86) be, follow ::: (work in a specific place, with a specific subject, or in a specific function; "He is a herpetologist"; "She is our resident philosopher")
9. (58) embody, be, personify ::: (represent, as of a character on stage; "Derek Jacobi was Hamlet")
10. (2) be ::: (spend or use time; "I may be an hour")
11. (1) be, live ::: (have life, be alive; "Our great leader is no more"; "My grandfather lived until the end of war")
12. be ::: (to remain unmolested, undisturbed, or uninterrupted ::: used only in infinitive form; "let her be")
13. cost, be ::: (be priced at; "These shoes cost $100")
--- Grep of noun is
a kempis
abatis
abattis
abdominal actinomycosis
abdominocentesis
abies amabilis
abies grandis
abiogenesis
abramis
abudefduf saxatilis
acacia auriculiformis
acanthisitta chloris
acanthocytosis
acantholysis
acanthophis
acanthosis
acanthus mollis
acariasis
acaridiasis
acariosis
acathexis
accipiter gentilis
accrual basis
acheta assimilis
acidosis
acinos arvensis
acne vulgaris
acocanthera spectabilis
acquired hemochromatosis
acridotheres tristis
acris
acrocyanosis
acropolis
actinic dermatitis
actinic keratosis
actinidia chinensis
actiniopteris
actinomeris
actinomycosis
actitis
acute anterior poliomyelitis
acute gastritis
acute glossitis
acute hemorrhagic encephalitis
acute inclusion body encephalitis
acute pyelonephritis
adelges abietis
adenitis
adenohypophysis
adenomyosis
adenosis
adiantum capillus-veneris
adiposis
adonis
adrianopolis
aegilops triuncalis
aegis
aeolis
aepyornis
aerobiosis
aesthesis
afropavo congensis
agalactosis
agalinis
agamogenesis
agapornis
agaricus arvensis
agaricus campestris
agathis
agathis australis
agdestis
agdistis
agenesis
agranulocytosis
agranulosis
agriocharis
agrostis
agrostis palustris
ajuga genevensis
ajuga pyramidalis
akinesis
alauda arvensis
alcedo atthis
alectis
alectis ciliaris
alectoris
aletris
alkalosis
allantois
allergic rhinitis
alliaria officinalis
alligator mississipiensis
alligator sinensis
allis
alnus veridis
alnus vulgaris
alopecurus pratensis
alosa chrysocloris
alpha crucis
alpha orionis
alpinia officinalis
alstonia scholaris
althea officinalis
alveolitis
amanuensis
amaryllis
amaurosis
ambergris
ambloplites rupestris
amebiasis
amebiosis
amelogenesis
american leishmaniasis
amitosis
amniocentesis
amoebiasis
amoebiosis
amphimixis
amygdalus communis
amyloidosis
amylolysis
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
anabiosis
anaclisis
anadiplosis
anagallis
anagallis arvensis
anagyris
analysis
anamnesis
anamorphosis
anaphalis
anaphylaxis
anaplasmosis
anasa tristis
anastalsis
anastomosis
anastylosis
anchusa capensis
anchusa officinalis
anchylosis
ancylus fluviatilis
andira inermis
andre maurois
androgenesis
aneides lugubris
anemone canadensis
anemone occidentalis
anemone sylvestris
anemone tetonensis
anemopsis
angelica sylvestris
angiitis
angina pectoris
angiogenesis
angiopteris
anguis
anguis fragilis
anhidrosis
anhydrosis
anisotremus surinamensis
ankylosing spondylitis
ankylosis
annapolis
anoa depressicornis
anoa mindorensis
anolis
anolis carolinensis
anomala orientalis
anoplophora glabripennis
anterior naris
anthemis
anthemis arvensis
anthemis nobilis
anthesis
anthonomus grandis
anthracosis
anthriscus sylvestris
anthropogenesis
anthus pratensis
anthyllis
anthyllis barba-jovis
antibiosis
antidorcas marsupialis
antiphrasis
antipyresis
antisepsis
antithesis
anubis
anuresis
anxiety neurosis
aortic stenosis
aortitis
apatura iris
aphaeresis
apheresis
aphesis
aphis
aphrophora saratogensis
apis
apoapsis
apomixis
aponeurosis
apophasis
apophysis
apoptosis
aporocactus flagelliformis
aposiopesis
apotheosis
apparatus urogenitalis
appendicitis
apsis
aqua fortis
aquilegia canadensis
aquilegia vulgaris
arabidopsis
arabis
arabis canadensis
arachis
aralia nudicaulis
araucaria columnaris
archaeornis
archilochus colubris
architeuthis
archosargus rhomboidalis
arctictis
arctocebus calabarensis
arctonyx collaris
arctotis
arcus senilis
ardea occidentalis
areteria cervicalis
argynnis
aristolochia clematitis
armand jean du plessis
arnoseris
artemis
artemisia campestris
artemisia vulgaris
arteria alveolaris
arteria angularis
arteria appendicularis
arteria auricularis
arteria axillaris
arteria basilaris
arteria brachialis
arteria buccalis
arteria bulbi penis
arteria carotis
arteria ciliaris
arteria circumflexa femoris
arteria digitalis
arteria ethmoidalis
arteria facialis
arteria femoralis
arteria iliolumbalis
arteria infraorbitalis
arteria intercostalis
arteria labialis
arteria lacrimalis
arteria lienalis
arteria lingualis
arteria lumbalis
arteria maxillaris
arteria perinealis
arteria pulmonalis
arteria radialis
arteria rectalis
arteria renalis
arteria testicularis
arteria ulnaris
arteria vaginalis
arteria vertebralis
arterial sclerosis
arteriectasis
arteriolosclerosis
arteriosclerosis
arteritis
arthritis
arthrocentesis
arthrodesis
arthropteris
articulatio synovialis
articulatio talocruralis
articulatio temporomandibularis
artocarpus altilis
artocarpus communis
artois
asa dulcis
asbestosis
ascariasis
ascaris
ascesis
asepsis
aspalathus cedcarbergensis
aspalathus linearis
aspergillosis
aspis
aster linosyris
aster turbinellis
astereognosis
astreus pteridis
ataraxis
atelectasis
ateleiosis
ateliosis
atherinopsis
atherinopsis californiensis
atherogenesis
atherosclerosis
athetosis
athrotaxis
atlantis
atopic dermatitis
atopognosis
atrichornis
atriplex hortensis
atriplex lentiformis
atrium cordis
atrophic arthritis
aurora australis
aurora borealis
australopithecus afarensis
austrocedrus chilensis
autocatalysis
autogenesis
autolysis
automeris
auxesis
avene sterilis
avicennia officinalis
avitaminosis
avogadro's hypothesis
avoirdupois
axis
ayapana triplinervis
aythya affinis
baccharis
baccharis pilularis
bacillus anthracis
bacillus subtilis
bacteriolysis
bacteriostasis
bagascosis
bagassosis
bakshis
balaenoptera borealis
balanitis
balanoposthitis
bambusa vulgaris
baptisia australis
barbarea vulgaris
basis
batis
bearded iris
beardless iris
beaujolais
belamcanda chinensis
bellis
bellis perennis
benjamin harris
bennettitis
berberis
berberis canadensis
berberis vulgaris
beta crucis
beta orionis
beta vulgaris
beta vulgaris vulgaris
bette davis
betula alleghaniensis
betula fontinalis
bibos frontalis
bilharziasis
biogenesis
biosynthesis
bitis
blastogenesis
blastomycosis
blatta orientalis
blennius pholis
blepharitis
bolbitis
boletus edulis
boletus mirabilis
bomarea edulis
bomber harris
book of genesis
borago officinalis
botaurus stellaris
bourgeois
bouteloua gracilis
bovine spongiform encephalitis
bowiea volubilis
boykinia occidentalis
brachychiton australis
brachychiton rupestris
brachystegia speciformis
branta canadensis
branta leucopsis
brassica oleracea botrytis
brassica perviridis
brassica rapa chinensis
brassica rapa pekinensis
brassica rapa perviridis
brevoortia tyrannis
bris
bromus arvensis
bromus inermis
bronchiolitis
bronchitis
brow ptosis
brown rot gummosis
brucellosis
bubalus bubalis
bubalus mindorensis
bubble gum dermatitis
bubulcus ibis
bufo debilis
bufo viridis
bulbous iris
bundle of his
bursa omentalis
bursitis
buteo jamaicensis
butterfly orchis
c. s. lewis
c. trachomatis
cacogenesis
caenogenesis
cainogenesis
calais
calamagrostis
calamus australis
calendula officinalis
calidris
calla palustris
calliophis
calliopsis
callistephus chinensis
callitris
callitris cupressiformis
callitris quadrivalvis
callophis
calluna vulgaris
calochortus amabilis
caltha palustris
calycanthus occidentalis
calymmatobacterium granulomatis
camellia sinensis
campanula pyramidalis
campephilus principalis
canachites canadensis
canalis inguinalis
canalis vertebralis
canavalia ensiformis
cancer borealis
candidiasis
canis
canis familiaris
canna edulis
canna generalis
cannabis
capital of illinois
capparis
capricornis
caprimulgus carolinensis
capsella bursa-pastoris
carassius vulgaris
carbon dioxide acidosis
cardamine pratensis
cardinalis cardinalis
carditis
carduelis
carduelis carduelis
carina fornicis
carl lewis
carlina acaulis
carlina vulgaris
carphophis
carpobrotus edulis
carrier electrophoresis
carya cordiformis
carya illinoensis
carya illinoinsis
carya myristicaeformis
carya myristiciformis
caryopsis
cash basis
cassia grandis
cassia occidentalis
castanea ozarkensis
castanopsis
castor canadensis
catabiosis
catachresis
catalexis
catalysis
cataphoresis
catechesis
catha edulis
catharsis
catherine de medicis
cathexis
cave myotis
celiocentesis
cellulitis
celtis
celtis australis
celtis occidentalis
cenchrus ciliaris
cenogenesis
centaurea imperialis
centaurea solstitialis
centesis
centropristis
centropus sinensis
cephalitis
cephalotus follicularis
cerapteryx graminis
ceratitis
ceratopteris
cercis
cercis canadensis
cercis occidentalis
cerebral thrombosis
cerebromeningitis
cerebrospinal meningitis
certhia familiaris
cervicitis
cervicofacial actinomycosis
cervus elaphus canadensis
cestum veneris
chablis
chaenactis
chaenopsis
chalcis
challis
chamaecyparis
chamaecyparis nootkatensis
chamaecytisus palmensis
chamaemelum nobilis
chamois
charles cornwallis
charolais
charybdis
chassis
cheilanthes alabamensis
cheilitis
cheiloschisis
cheilosis
chemical analysis
chemosis
chemosynthesis
chemotaxis
cheremis
chilopsis
chilopsis linearis
chlamydera nuchalis
chlamydia trachomatis
chloris
chlorophis
chlorosis
choeronycteris
cholangitis
cholecystitis
cholelithiasis
cholestasis
cholesterosis cutis
chorditis
chorioallantois
choriomeningitis
chorioretinitis
choriotis
choriotis australis
chorizagrotis
chorizagrotis auxiliaris
chromoblastomycosis
chronic bronchitis
chronic gastritis
chronic glossitis
chronic pyelonephritis
chrysalis
chrysochloris
chrysolepis
chrysophrys australis
chrysopsis
cialis
cinchona officinalis
circle of willis
cirrhosis
cis
cistothorus palustris
cistothorus platensis
citellus lateralis
citrullus vulgaris
citrus grandis
citrus nobilis
citrus sinensis
cladistic analysis
cladrastis
clangula hyemalis
classic hemochromatosis
clematis
clematis texensis
clematis verticillaris
clevis
climbing corydalis
clintonia borealis
clitoris
clive staples lewis
clostridial myonecrosis
clovis
clusia insignis
cnemidophorus exsanguis
cnemidophorus tigris
coccidioidomycosis
coccidiomycosis
coccidiosis
cochlearia officinalis
coelophysis
colaptes caper collaris
colchis
colitis
collinsonia canadensis
colorimetric analysis
colpitis
colpocystitis
colpoxerosis
coluber constrictor flaviventris
coluber hippocrepis
combat neurosis
commiphora meccanensis
conjunctivitis
connarus guianensis
contact dermatitis
conuropsis
conuropsis carolinensis
convallaria majalis
convolvulus arvensis
conyza canadensis
coordinate axis
copernicia australis
coptis
cor anglais
corditis
cordyline australis
cordyline terminalis
coregonus clupeaformis
coreopsis
cornus canadensis
cornwallis
corona borealis
coronary thrombosis
correlational analysis
cortinarius gentilis
cortinarius mutabilis
corydalis
corylopsis
corylus avellana grandis
coryphaena equisetis
cost-benefit analysis
cost analysis
costiasis
costochondritis
cotoneaster horizontalis
coturnix communis
coureur de bois
court tennis
crab louis
crataegus aestivalis
crataegus coccinea mollis
crataegus mollis
creeping oxalis
creme anglais
crepis
crisis
critical analysis
crotalaria sagitallis
crotalaria spectabilis
crotalus tigris
crotalus viridis
crux australis
cryptanalysis
cryptobiosis
cryptobranchus alleganiensis
cryptococcosis
cryptotermes brevis
cryptotis
csis
ctenocephalides canis
ctenocephalides felis
cucumis
cucumis melo cantalupensis
cucurbita maxima turbaniformis
cullis
cupressus guadalupensis
curly clematis
curtis
cutaneous leishmaniasis
cutis
cyamopsis
cyanosis
cyathea medullaris
cycas circinalis
cyclosis
cynoscion regalis
cypraea tigris
cystic fibrosis
cystic mastitis
cystitis
cystoparalysis
cystopteris
cystopteris fragilis
cytogenesis
cytokinesis
cytolysis
dacryocystitis
dactylis
dais
dalbergia cearensis
dalmatian iris
dasyatis
daubentonia madagascariensis
davallia canariensis
davis
dawson's encephalitis
debris
decimus junius juvenalis
deck tennis
degenerative arthritis
deixis
delphinium ajacis
delphinus delphis
delta hepatitis
dendraspis
dendroaspis
dendroctonus rufipennis
depersonalisation neurosis
depersonalization neurosis
dermacentor variabilis
dermatitis
dermatobia hominis
dermatomycosis
dermatomyositis
dermatophytosis
dermatosclerosis
dermatosis
dermis
derris
desmanthus ilinoensis
diabetic acidosis
diadophis
diaeresis
diagnosis
diakinesis
dialysis
dianthus chinensis
diapedesis
diaper dermatitis
diaphoresis
diaphysis
diarthrosis
diastasis
diathesis
dicentra canadensis
dicentra spectabilis
diceros bicornis
dicranopteris
didelphis
didelphis marsupialis
dielectrolysis
dieresis
diesis
differential diagnosis
digenesis
digitalis
digitaria sanguinalis
dinornis
dipladenia boliviensis
diplotaxis
diplotaxis muralis
dipsacus sylvestris
dipsosaurus dorsalis
dirca palustris
dis
disseminated multiple sclerosis
disseminated sclerosis
distomatosis
diuresis
diverticulitis
diverticulosis
dolichotis
don marquis
donald robert perry marquis
doris
dorotheanthus bellidiformis
doryopteris
dovyalis
dracunculiasis
dracunculus medinensis
dracunculus vulgaris
drepanis
drymarchon corais
dryopteris
dryopteris marginalis
dryopteris noveboracensis
dryopteris oreopteris
dryopteris phegopteris
dryopteris thelypteris
drypis
du bois
duchesse de valentinois
dumetella carolinensis
dutch iris
dwarf iris
dwight davis
dwight filley davis
dysgenesis
eacles imperialis
east saint louis
eblis
ecchymosis
eccyesis
ecdysis
ecesis
echeneis
echinococcosis
eclipsis
economic crisis
ecphonesis
ectasis
edward antony richard louis
egis
eisegesis
elaeis
elaeis guineensis
elaeocarpus grandis
elagatis
elastosis
electrolysis
electrophoresis
eleocharis
eleocharis acicularis
eleocharis dulcis
eleocharis palustris
elephantiasis
elisha graves otis
ellipsis
elodea canadensis
elvis
elymus canadensis
emesis
emphasis
enarthrosis
enceliopsis
enceliopsis nudicaulis
encephalitis
encephalomeningitis
encephalomyelitis
encopresis
encyclia tampensis
endarteritis
endocarditis
endocervicitis
endometriosis
endometritis
english iris
engraulis
enhydra lutris
enosis
ensis
entasis
enteritis
enterobiasis
enterobius vermicularis
enterolithiasis
enteroptosis
enterostenosis
enuresis
epacris
epanalepsis
epanorthosis
epenthesis
ephemeris
ephippiorhynchus senegalensis
epicondylitis
epidemic encephalitis
epidemic meningitis
epidemic parotitis
epidermis
epididymis
epididymitis
epigenesis
epiglottis
epiglottitis
epilachna varivestis
epinephelus adscensionis
epipactis
epiphysis
epiplexis
episcleritis
epistasis
epistaxis
equine encephalitis
equine encephalomyelitis
eragrostis
eranthis
eranthis hyemalis
erb-duchenne paralysis
erigeron canadensis
eris
erythroblastosis
erythroblastosis fetalis
erythronium dens-canis
erythropoiesis
esophagitis
esther hobart mcquigg slack morris
esther morris
esthesis
eucalypt grandis
eucalypt tereticornis
eucalyptus camaldulensis
eucalyptus delegatensis
eucalyptus viminalis
euphorbia lathyris
euproctis
euthynnus pelamis
evariste galois
evening lychnis
ex libris
exegesis
exostosis
factor analysis
false glottis
fascioliasis
fasciolopsiasis
fasciolopsis
fasciolosis
federation of saint kitts and nevis
felis
felis bengalensis
felis pardalis
felis silvestris
femoris
fen orchis
fenestra ovalis
fern rhapis
fibrinolysis
fibromyositis
fibrosis
fibrositis
ficus bengalensis
ficus carica sylvestris
fijis
filariasis
finis
first marquess cornwallis
flaccid paralysis
fleur-de-lis
flindersia australis
florentine iris
fluorosis
folliculitis
fouquieria columnaris
fourier analysis
fovea centralis
fragaria chiloensis
francisella tularensis
francois rabelais
frank harris
frank norris
fraxinus texensis
frederick carleton lewis
fringed orchis
fritillaria affinis
fritillaria agrestis
fritillaria imperialis
fritillaria meleagris
fulmarus glacialis
fumaria officinalis
fundamental analysis
fundamentals analysis
fundulus majalis
funiculitis
furunculosis
gaetan vestris
galactosis
galega officinalis
galeopsis
galois
gambusia affinis
gametogenesis
gasterophilus intestinalis
gastritis
gastroenteritis
gastrophryne carolinensis
gavialis
genesis
gentiana acaulis
gentiana thermalis
gentianopsis
gentianopsis thermalis
genus abramis
genus acanthophis
genus acris
genus actiniopteris
genus actinomeris
genus actitis
genus adonis
genus aepyornis
genus agalinis
genus agapornis
genus agathis
genus agdestis
genus agriocharis
genus agrostis
genus alectis
genus alectoris
genus aletris
genus amaryllis
genus anagallis
genus anagyris
genus anaphalis
genus anemopsis
genus angiopteris
genus anguis
genus anolis
genus anthemis
genus anthyllis
genus aphis
genus apis
genus arabidopsis
genus arabis
genus arachis
genus archaeornis
genus architeuthis
genus arctictis
genus arctotis
genus argynnis
genus arnoseris
genus arthropteris
genus ascaris
genus aspis
genus atherinopsis
genus athrotaxis
genus atrichornis
genus automeris
genus baccharis
genus batis
genus bellis
genus bennettitis
genus berberis
genus bitis
genus bolbitis
genus calamagrostis
genus calidris
genus calliophis
genus callitris
genus callophis
genus canis
genus cannabis
genus capparis
genus capricornis
genus carduelis
genus carphophis
genus castanopsis
genus celtis
genus centropristis
genus ceratitis
genus ceratopteris
genus cercis
genus chaenactis
genus chaenopsis
genus chalcis
genus chamaecyparis
genus chilopsis
genus chloris
genus chlorophis
genus choeronycteris
genus choriotis
genus chorizagrotis
genus chrysochloris
genus chrysolepis
genus chrysopsis
genus cladrastis
genus clematis
genus coelophysis
genus conuropsis
genus coptis
genus coreopsis
genus corydalis
genus corylopsis
genus crepis
genus cryptotis
genus cucumis
genus cyamopsis
genus cystopteris
genus dactylis
genus dasyatis
genus dendraspis
genus dendroaspis
genus derris
genus diadophis
genus dicranopteris
genus didelphis
genus digitalis
genus dinornis
genus diplotaxis
genus dolichotis
genus doryopteris
genus dovyalis
genus drepanis
genus dryopteris
genus drypis
genus echeneis
genus elaeis
genus elagatis
genus eleocharis
genus enceliopsis
genus engraulis
genus ensis
genus epacris
genus epipactis
genus eragrostis
genus eranthis
genus euproctis
genus fasciolopsis
genus felis
genus galeopsis
genus galictis
genus gavialis
genus gentianopsis
genus geothlypis
genus gerris
genus glis
genus goniopteris
genus gymnadeniopsis
genus gymnelis
genus haemopis
genus haliotis
genus hamamelis
genus heliopsis
genus heliothis
genus hemerocallis
genus hesperis
genus hexalectris
genus hippocrepis
genus hydrastis
genus hydrocharis
genus hydrodamalis
genus hypochaeris
genus hypochoeris
genus hypoxis
genus iberis
genus ibero-mesornis
genus ibis
genus inachis
genus iris
genus isatis
genus lambis
genus lampris
genus lampropeltis
genus lastreopsis
genus lecanopteris
genus leonotis
genus lepomis
genus leptopteris
genus liatris
genus limenitis
genus liparis
genus liposcelis
genus loris
genus lychnis
genus lyginopteris
genus macrothelypteris
genus macrotis
genus malaxis
genus manis
genus mantis
genus masticophis
genus meconopsis
genus melanotis
genus meleagris
genus mephitis
genus mercurialis
genus mirabilis
genus myosotis
genus myotis
genus myrrhis
genus mysis
genus nasalis
genus nephrolepis
genus nephthytis
genus notechis
genus notornis
genus notropis
genus nymphalis
genus odontaspis
genus onobrychis
genus ononis
genus orchis
genus oreopteris
genus ortalis
genus orthopristis
genus oryzopsis
genus ostryopsis
genus otis
genus ovis
genus oxalis
genus oxybelis
genus oxytropis
genus parathelypteris
genus paris
genus parrotiopsis
genus pecopteris
genus pericallis
genus peripatopsis
genus pernis
genus petrocoptis
genus phalaenopsis
genus phalaris
genus phegopteris
genus phlomis
genus pholis
genus phyllitis
genus physalis
genus picris
genus pieris
genus pituophis
genus pleurothallis
genus pluvialis
genus pomaderris
genus pomoxis
genus potamophis
genus pristis
genus prosopis
genus protoavis
genus pseudacris
genus pseudechis
genus psychopsis
genus pteretis
genus pteris
genus pterois
genus pterostylis
genus ptloris
genus pygoscelis
genus pyralis
genus rhagoletis
genus rhapis
genus rhinonicteris
genus rhipsalis
genus rhyncostylis
genus salpiglossis
genus sarcocystis
genus sayornis
genus sialis
genus sideritis
genus sinapis
genus sinornis
genus solanopteris
genus solenopsis
genus sparaxis
genus steatornis
genus stelis
genus stephanotis
genus tetraclinis
genus tetraneuris
genus thamnophis
genus thelypteris
genus thermopsis
genus threskiornis
genus thujopsis
genus thyrsopteris
genus tupinambis
genus turritis
genus urocystis
genus urophycis
genus vitis
genus xyris
geomys pinetis
geothlypis
german iris
gerris
gerris lacustris
giant coreopsis
giardiasis
gingivitis
giraffa camelopardalis
gladdon iris
glans clitoridis
glans penis
glis
glis glis
glomerulonephritis
glossitis
glossoptosis
glottis
gloxinia perennis
glyceria grandis
glycogenesis
glycolysis
gnosis
golden clematis
goniopteris
gouty arthritis
gouverneur morris
gravimetric analysis
green fringed orchis
gres-gris
gris
griselinia littoralis
gummosis
gymnadeniopsis
gymnelis
gymnelis viridis
gymnocarpium dryopteris
gymnopilus spectabilis
gynogenesis
haastia pulvinaris
habenaria unalascensis
haematemesis
haematogenesis
haematolysis
haematopoiesis
haemodialysis
haemogenesis
haemolysis
haemopis
haemopoiesis
haemoptysis
haemosiderosis
haemostasis
haggis
haliotis
halitosis
hallucinosis
hamamelis
hamamelis vernalis
haplopappus acaulis
harmonic analysis
harris
harry sinclair lewis
hautbois
helianthus petiolaris
heliopsis
heliothis
helix hortensis
helleborus orientalis
helleborus viridis
helminthiasis
hematemesis
hematogenesis
hematolysis
hematopoiesis
hemerocallis
hemimetamorphosis
hemochromatosis
hemodialysis
hemogenesis
hemolysis
hemopoiesis
hemoptysis
hemosiderosis
hemostasis
hepatitis
herb paris
heritiera littoralis
hermissenda crassicornis
herpes encephalitis
herpes genitalis
herpes labialis
herpes simplex encephalitis
hesperis
hesperis matronalis
heterogenesis
heterosis
hevea brasiliensis
hexalectris
hibiscus mutabilis
hibiscus rosa-sinensis
hidrosis
hippocrepis
hippoglossus stenolepsis
hirudo medicinalis
histiocytosis
holcus mollis
holocentrus ascensionis
holothuria edulis
homarus capensis
homarus vulgaris
homeostasis
homo habilis
homo heidelbergensis
homo rhodesiensis
homo sapiens neanderthalensis
homo soloensis
hottonia palustris
hubris
hyacinthus orientalis
hydatidosis
hydrangea macrophylla hortensis
hydrangea petiolaris
hydrarthrosis
hydrastis
hydrastis canadensis
hydrocharis
hydrochoerus hydrochaeris
hydrodamalis
hydrolysis
hydronephrosis
hygrophorus borealis
hygrophorus inocybiformis
hygrophorus tennesseensis
hymenoxys acaulis
hyperacusis
hyperemesis
hyperglyphe perciformis
hyperhidrosis
hyperidrosis
hyperpiesis
hypervitaminosis
hypnoanalysis
hypnogenesis
hypnosis
hypochaeris
hypochoeris
hypochondriasis
hypodermis
hypophysis
hypostasis
hypothesis
hypovitaminosis
hypoxis
hypozeuxis
hyssopus officinalis
hysteresis
hysterical neurosis
iberis
ibero-mesornis
ibis
ibis ibis
ichthyosis
identity crisis
idiopathic hemochromatosis
idria columnaris
iis
ile-st-louis
ileitis
ilex paraguariensis
iliamna ruvularis
illinois
immunoelectrophoresis
impatiens capensis
inachis
inclusion body encephalitis
inclusion body myositis
indianapolis
indris
infantile paralysis
infectious hepatitis
infectious mononucleosis
infectious polyneuritis
inga edulis
insertional mutagenesis
ionophoresis
iontophoresis
ipomoea imperialis
ipomoea orizabensis
iridocyclitis
iridokeratitis
iris
iritis
iroquois
irvingia gabonensis
isaac
isaac asimov
isaac bashevis singer
isaac hull
isaac m. singer
isaac mayer wise
isaac merrit singer
isaac newton
isaac stern
isaac watts
isabella
isabella i
isabella stewart gardner
isabella the catholic
isadora duncan
isaiah
isak dinesen
isamu noguchi
isarithm
isatis
isatis tinctoria
ischaemia
ischaemic stroke
ischemia
ischemic anoxia
ischemic hypoxia
ischemic stroke
ischia
ischial bone
ischigualastia
ischium
isere
isere river
iseult
isfahan
isherwood
ishmael
ishtar
isi
isidor feinstein stone
isidore auguste marie francois comte
isinglass
isis
iskcon
islam
islam nation
islamabad
islamic army of aden
islamic army of aden-abyan
islamic calendar
islamic calendar month
islamic community
islamic great eastern raiders-front
islamic group
islamic group of uzbekistan
islamic jihad
islamic jihad for the liberation of palestine
islamic law
islamic party of turkestan
islamic republic of iran
islamic republic of mauritania
islamic republic of pakistan
islamic resistance movement
islamic state of afghanistan
islamic ummah
islamic unity
islamism
islamist
islamophobia
island
island-dweller
island dispenser
island of guernsey
island of jersey
islander
islands of langerhans
islay
isle
isle of man
isle of skye
isle of wight
isle royal national park
isles of langerhans
isles of scilly
islet
islets of langerhans
ism
ismaili
ismailian
ismailism
isn
isoagglutination
isoagglutinin
isoagglutinogen
isoantibody
isobar
isobutyl nitrite
isobutylene
isobutylphenyl propionic acid
isocarboxazid
isochrone
isoclinal
isoclinic line
isocrates
isocyanate
isocyanic acid
isoetaceae
isoetales
isoetes
isoflurane
isogamete
isogamy
isogon
isogonal line
isogone
isogonic line
isogram
isohel
isolation
isolationism
isolationist
isolde
isole egadi
isoleucine
isomer
isomerase
isomerisation
isomerism
isomerization
isometric
isometric exercise
isometric line
isometrics
isometropia
isometry
isomorphism
isomorphy
isoniazid
isopleth
isopod
isopoda
isopropanol
isopropyl alcohol
isoproterenol
isoptera
isoptin
isopyrum
isopyrum biternatum
isordil
isoroku yamamoto
isosceles triangle
isosmotic solution
isosorbide
isospondyli
isostasy
isotherm
isothiocyanate
isotonic exercise
isotonic solution
isotope
isotropy
israel
israel baline
israel strassberg
israel zangwill
israeli
israeli defense force
israeli monetary unit
israelite
israelites
issachar
issuance
issue
issuer
issuing
issus
istanbul
isthmian games
isthmus
isthmus of corinth
isthmus of darien
isthmus of kra
isthmus of panama
isthmus of suez
isthmus of tehuantepec
istiophoridae
istiophorus
istiophorus albicans
isuprel
isuridae
isurus
isurus glaucus
isurus oxyrhincus
isurus paucus
ixobrychus exilis
ixodes scapularis
ixodes spinipalpis
jacquinia armillaris
jacquinia keyensis
james thomas harris
japanese iris
jaun gris
jefferson davis
jejunitis
jejunoileitis
jerry lee lewis
joe louis
joel chandler harris
joel harris
john davis
john l. lewis
john llewelly lewis
junco hyemalis
juncus tenuis
juniperus communis
juniperus horizontalis
jus sanguinis
juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
kainogenesis
kaliuresis
kaluresis
karyokinesis
karyolysis
katharsis
katsuwonus pelamis
kenogenesis
keratitis
keratoconjunctivitis
keratoiritis
keratomycosis
keratonosis
keratoscleritis
keratosis
keratosis follicularis
keratosis pilaris
ketoacidosis
ketosis
khakis
kinaesthesis
kinesis
kinesthesis
kinetosis
kolkwitzia amabilis
korsakoff's psychosis
korsakov's psychosis
kraurosis
kris
kumis
kyphosis
labyrinthitis
lacerta agilis
lacerta viridis
lachesis
lactophrys quadricornis
lambis
laminitis
lampris
lampropeltis
landry's paralysis
lanius borealis
lanthanotus borneensis
laportea canadensis
larix occidentalis
laryngitis
laryngopharyngitis
laryngostenosis
laryngotracheobronchitis
laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis
laser-assisted subepithelial keratomileusis
lasiurus borealis
lastreopsis
lateral epicondylitis
lateral humeral epicondylitis
lathyrus palustris
lathyrus pratensis
lathyrus sylvestris
laurus nobilis
lavandula officinalis
lawn tennis
league of iroquois
lecanopteris
leishmaniasis
leishmaniosis
lens culinaris
leonotis
leontodon autumnalis
lepas fascicularis
lepomis
leptomeningitis
leptopteris
leptospirosis
leptotyphlops humilis
leresis
lethargic encephalitis
leucocytosis
leukocytosis
leukoencephalitis
levis
lewis
lexis
liatris
limenitis
limenitis arthemis
linaria canadensis
linaria vulgaris
linnaea borealis
linosyris vulgaris
liparis
liparis liparis
lipid granulomatosis
lipidosis
lipoid granulomatosis
lipomatosis
liposcelis
liquidity crisis
listeria meningitis
listeriosis
litchi chinensis
lithiasis
lithophragma affinis
lithuresis
little brown myotis
livistona australis
lobelia cardinalis
lobotes surinamensis
lonicera canadensis
lordosis
loris gracilis
louis
loxostege similalis
lumpenus lumpretaeformis
lupinus perennis
lupinus texensis
lupus vulgaris
lutjanus analis
lutra canadensis
luvarus imperialis
lychnis
lyginopteris
lygus lineolaris
lyme arthritis
lymphadenitis
lymphangiectasis
lymphangitis
lymphocytic choriomeningitis
lymphocytosis
lymphopoiesis
lynx canadensis
lyonnais
lysiloma bahamensis
lysimachia terrestris
lysimachia vulgaris
lysis
maconnais
macrocytosis
macrothelypteris
macrotis
macrotis lagotis
macrozamia communis
macrozamia spiralis
major axis
majorana hortensis
malaxis
male orchis
malinois
malus ioensis
malus sylvestris
malva sylvestris
mandevilla boliviensis
manic-depressive psychosis
manihot dulcis
manis
manta birostris
mantis
maquis
market analysis
marmota flaviventris
marquis
marsh clematis
masticophis
masticophis lateralis
mastitis
mastoiditis
mastotermes darwiniensis
matteuccia struthiopteris
maurois
mavis
meconopsis
medical diagnosis
medical prognosis
medulla spinalis
megalopolis
meiosis
melanosis
melanotis
meleagris
melilotus officinalis
melissa officinalis
mellivora capensis
memphis
menage a trois
meningitis
meningoencephalitis
mental synthesis
mentha arvensis
menticirrhus littoralis
menticirrhus saxatilis
mentzelia laevicaulis
mentzelia livicaulis
mephitis
mephitis mephitis
mercurialis
mercurialis perennis
meriwether lewis
merluccius bilinearis
metabolic acidosis
metabolic alkalosis
metacyesis
metagenesis
metalepsis
metamorphosis
metaphysis
metastasis
metathesis
metempsychosis
methodological analysis
metis
metritis
metropolis
metroptosis
microcytosis
micromeria chamissonis
micropenis
miles davis
miliary tuberculosis
millais
mimesis
minneapolis
minor axis
miosis
mirabilis
mirabilis laevis
missis
mitosis
mitral stenosis
mitral valve stenosis
moeller's glossitis
molucella laevis
moniliasis
monocytosis
monogenesis
monomorium pharaonis
mononucleosis
mons pubis
mons veneris
morphallaxis
morphogenesis
morris
mountain clematis
mucocutaneous leishmaniasis
mucopolysaccharidosis
mucous colitis
mucoviscidosis
mucuna pruriens utilis
multiple neuritis
multiple sclerosis
multivariate analysis
mumification necrosis
musa textilis
musculus abductor digiti minimi pedis
musculus abductor hallucis
musculus abductor pollicis
musculus adductor brevis
musculus adductor hallucis
musculus biceps femoris
musculus intercostalis
musculus obliquus externus abdominis
musculus pectoralis
musculus quadriceps femoris
musculus temporalis
musculus tibialis
musculus transversalis abdominis
mustela nivalis
mustelus canis
mutagenesis
myasthenia gravis
mycobacterium tuberculosis
mycosis
mydriasis
myelitis
myelofibrosis
myiasis
myocarditis
myometritis
myonecrosis
myosis
myositis
myosotis
myotis
myrrhis
myrtus communis
mysis
mytilus edulis
myxomatosis
naja nigricollis
narcosis
naris
nasalis
nasopharyngeal leishmaniasis
natriuresis
nebular hypothesis
necrobiosis
necrolysis
necropolis
necrosis
necrotizing enteritis
necrotizing enterocolitis
negaprion brevirostris
negative chemotaxis
nemesis
nephritis
nephroangiosclerosis
nephrocalcinosis
nephrolepis
nephrolepis exaltata bostoniensis
nephrolithiasis
nephroptosis
nephrosclerosis
nephrosis
nephthytis
nervus facialis
nervus femoralis
nervus radialis
nervus spinalis
nervus ulnaris
nervus vestibulocochlearis
nestor notabilis
neuritis
neurodermatitis
neurofibromatosis
neurogenesis
neurohypophysis
neurosis
neurosyphilis
nevis
nevoid elephantiasis
new world leishmaniasis
nierembergia rivularis
nitrogen narcosis
noctiluca miliaris
noesis
nongonococcal urethritis
nonspecific urethritis
nord-pas-de-calais
norris
notechis
notornis
notropis
ntis
nucleosynthesis
numenius borealis
numerical analysis
numida meleagris
nunc dimittis
nymphalis
oasis
ochotona collaris
ochronosis
odontaspis
odontiasis
oenothera biennis
oesophagitis
oestrus ovis
ois
old world leishmaniasis
oleandra mollis
oleandra neriiformis
omphaloskepsis
onchocerciasis
onobrychis
onoclea sensibilis
onoclea struthiopteris
ononis
ontogenesis
onycholysis
onychosis
onyxis
oogenesis
oophoritis
opheodrys vernalis
ophthalmitis
opisthorchiasis
optic axis
orchis
orchis spectabilis
orchitis
oreopteris
orleanais
ornithosis
orris
ortalis
orthopristis
orudis
oryzomys palustris
oryzopsis
os pubis
osiris
osmosis
osmunda regalis
osteitis
osteoarthritis
osteoclasis
osteolysis
osteomyelitis
osteopetrosis
osteoporosis
osteosclerosis
ostryopsis
otis
otitis
otosclerosis
outaouais
ovaritis
overemphasis
ovis
ovis canadensis
ovotestis
oxalis
oxybelis
oxytropis
oxyura jamaicensis
pachysandra terminalis
palaemon australis
palingenesis
pancarditis
pancreatic fibrosis
pancreatitis
panencephalitis
pansinusitis
panthera tigris
paper electrophoresis
paracentesis
paraleipsis
paralepsis
paralipsis
paralysis
parametritis
paraparesis
paraphrasis
paraphysis
parapraxis
parathelypteris
parathelypteris novae-boracensis
parenthesis
paresis
paris
parnassia palustris
parochetus communis
parotitis
parrotiopsis
pars distilis
parthenogenesis
parti pris
parus carolinensis
parvis
pas de calais
pas de trois
passiflora edulis
passiflora ligularis
passiflora maliformis
passiflora quadrangularis
pasteurellosis
pastis
pathogenesis
patois
pavis
pecopteris
pectoralis
pedesis
pediculosis
pediculosis capitis
pediculosis corporis
pediculosis pubis
pediculus capitis
pediculus corporis
pedilanthus pavonis
peliosis
pelvis
penis
perca fluviatilis
periapsis
periarteritis
pericallis
pericarditis
periodontitis
peripatopsis
periphrasis
perisoreus canadensis
perisoreus canadensis capitalis
peristalsis
peritonitis
pernis
persepolis
persian iris
pertussis
pestis
petasites vulgaris
petit bourgeois
petrocoptis
petunia axillaris
phagocytosis
phalacrosis
phalaenopsis
phalaenopsis amabilis
phalangitis
phalaris
phalaris canariensis
pharyngitis
phaseolus angularis
phaseolus limensis
phaseolus vulgaris
phegopteris
phegopteris connectilis
pheresis
philip of valois
philippopolis
phimosis
phlebitis
phlebothrombosis
phlomis
phobic neurosis
pholis
photoretinitis
photosynthesis
phragmites communis
phrenitis
phthirius pubis
phthisis
phycomycosis
phyllitis
phylogenesis
physalis
picea orientalis
picea sitchensis
picris
picus viridis
pieris
pimenta acris
pimenta officinalis
pinguinus impennis
pinocytosis
pinus albicaulis
pinus edulis
pinus flexilis
pinus palustris
pinus strobiformis
pinus sylvestris
pipestem clematis
pissis
pituophis
pityriasis
planetesimal hypothesis
plasmapheresis
plaster of paris
platanus occidentalis
platanus orientalis
plateletpheresis
platycladus orientalis
platymiscium trinitatis
plectrophenax nivalis
pleurothallis
plexus brachialis
plexus cervicalis
plexus dentalis
plexus lumbalis
plexus periarterialis
plexus pulmonalis
plexus sacralis
plica vocalis
plicatoperipatus jamaicensis
pluvialis
pneumoconiosis
pneumocytosis
pneumonitis
pneumonoconiosis
poa nemoralis
poa pratensis
podiceps nigricollis
podiceps ruficollis
podocarpus nivalis
poephila castanotis
point of apoapsis
point of periapsis
polaris
poliomyelitis
poliosis
polistes annularis
pollinosis
polyarteritis
polygala vulgaris
polyhidrosis
polymyositis
polyneuritic psychosis
polyneuritis
polystichum adiantiformis
polystichum lonchitis
pomaderris
pomoxis
pomoxis annularis
port louis
porta hepatis
portcullis
positive chemotaxis
posterior naris
posthitis
potamophis
prairie white-fringed orchis
praxis
praying mantis
precis
prenatal diagnosis
primary syphilis
primula sinensis
primula veris
primula vulgaris
principal axis
pristis
proboscis
procavia capensis
procellaria aequinoctialis
proctitis
professional tennis
progne subis
prognosis
progressive emphysematous necrosis
prolepsis
prophylaxis
prosopis
prostatitis
prosthesis
proteolysis
protoavis
prunella modularis
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