1. A fabulous tree alleged to have existed in Java, at some distance from Batavia, with properties so poisonous as to destroy all animal and vegetable life to a distance of fifteen or sixteen miles around it. 2. *Fig.* A baleful, destructive, or deadly power or influence.
"1. ‘The Golden Embryo" in Hindu cosmology; the name given to the golden-hued Egg which floated on the surface of the primeval waters. In time the egg divided into two parts, the golden top half of the shell becoming the heavens and the silver lower half the earth. 2. ‘God imaginative and therefore creative"; the ‘Spirit in the middle or Dream State"; Lord of Dream-Life who takes from the ocean of subconsciously intelligent spiritual being the conscious psychic forces which He materializes or encases in various forms of gross living matter. (Enc. Br.; A)” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works.
"A basis can be created for a subjective illusion-consciousness which is yet part of Being, if we accept in the sense of an illusory subjective world-awareness the account of sleep and dream creation given to us in the Upanishads. For the affirmation there is that Brahman as Self is fourfold; the Self is Brahman and all that is is the Brahman, but all that is is the Self seen by the Self in four states of its being. In the pure self-status neither consciousness nor unconsciousness as we conceive it can be affirmed about Brahman; it is a state of superconscience absorbed in its self-existence, in a self-silence or a self-ecstasy, or else it is the status of a free Superconscient containing or basing everything but involved in nothing. But there is also a luminous status of sleep-self, a massed consciousness which is the origin of cosmic existence; this state of deep sleep in which yet there is the presence of an omnipotent Intelligence is the seed state or causal condition from which emerges the cosmos; — this and the dream-self which is the continent of all subtle, subjective or supraphysical experience, and the self of waking which is the support of all physical experience, can be taken as the whole field of Maya.” The Life Divine
"A change into a higher consciousness or state of being is not only the whole aim and process of religion, of all higher askesis, of Yoga, but it is also the very trend of our life itself, the secret purpose found in the sum of its labour.” *The Life Divine
"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.
"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*
"A divine life must be first and foremost an inner life; for since the outward must be the expression of what is within, there can be no divinity in the outer existence if there is not the divinisation of the inner being.” The Life Divine*
advance ::: n. **1. Fig. Onward movement in any process or course of action; progress. v. 2. To move or go forward; to proceed. 3. Fig. To go forward or make progress in life, or in any course. 3. To move, put, or push (a thing) forward. Also fig. advances, advanced, advancing.**
"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.*
::: "A gnostic Supernature transcends all the values of our normal ignorant Nature; our standards and values are created by ignorance and therefore cannot determine the life of Supernature. At the same time our present nature is a derivation from Supernature and is not a pure ignorance but a half-knowledge; . . . .” The Life Divine*
"A Godhead is seated in the heart of every man and is the Lord of this mysterious action of Nature. And though this Spirit of the universe, this One who is all, seems to be turning us on the wheel of the world as if mounted on a machine by the force of Maya, shaping us in our ignorance as the potter shapes a pot, as the weaver a fabric, by some skilful mechanical principle, yet is this spirit our own greatest self and it is according to the real idea, the truth of ourselves, that which is growing in us and finding always new and more adequate forms in birth after birth, in our animal and human and divine life, in that which we were, that which we are, that which we shall be, — it is in accordance with this inner soul-truth that, as our opened eyes will discover, we are progressively shaped by this spirit within us in its all-wise omnipotence.” *Essays on the Gita
". . . a limited consciousness growing out of nescience is the source of error, a personal attachment to the limitation and the error born of it the source of falsity, a wrong consciousness governed by the life-ego the source of evil. But it is evident that their relative existence is only a phenomenon thrown up by the cosmic Force in its drive towards evolutionary self-expression.” The Life Divine
"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 depends on the meaning you attach to words used; it is a matter of nomenclature. Ordinarily, one says a man has intellect if he can think well; the nature and process and field of the thought do not matter. If you take intellect in that sense, then you can say that intellect has different strata, and Ford belongs to one stratum of intellect, Einstein to another — Ford has a practical and executive business intellect, Einstein a scientific discovering and theorising intellect. But Ford too in his own field theorises, invents, discovers. Yet would you call Ford an intellectual or a man of intellect? I would prefer to use for the general faculty of mind the word intelligence. Ford has a great and forceful practical intelligence, keen, quick, successful, dynamic. He has a brain that can deal with thoughts also, but even there his drive is towards practicality. He believes in rebirth (metempsychosis), for instance, not for any philosophic reason, but because it explains life as a school of experience in which one gathers more and more experience and develops by it. Einstein has, on the other hand, a great discovering scientific intellect, not, like Marconi, a powerful practical inventive intelligence for the application of scientific discovery. All men have, of course, an ‘intellect" of a kind; all, for instance, can discuss and debate (for which you say rightly intellect is needed); but it is only when one rises to the realm of ideas and moves freely in it that you say, ‘This man has an intellect".” Letters on Yoga
". . . all division is intended to enrich by an experience of various sweetness of unification the joy of realised unity.” The Life Divine
"All ethics is a construction of good in a Nature which has been smitten with evil by the powers of darkness born of the Ignorance, . . . .” The Life Divine
"All evolution is in essence a heightening of the force of consciousness in the manifest being so that it may be raised into the greater intensity of what is still unmanifest, from matter into life, from life into mind, from the mind into the spirit.” The Life Divine
"All knowledge is ultimately the knowledge of God, through himself, through Nature, through her works. Mankind has first to seek this knowledge through the external life; for until its mentality is sufficiently developed, spiritual knowledge is not really possible, and in proportion as it is developed, the possibilities of spiritual knowledge become richer and fuller.” The Synthesis of Yoga
::: ". . . all life is a growth of the soul out of the darkness towards the Light.” *Letters on Yoga
"All life is only a lavish and manifold opportunity given us to discover, realise , express the Divine.” Social and Political Thought
"All life, spiritual, mental or material, is the play of the soul with the possibilities of its nature; . . . .” The Synthesis of Yoga
"All Nature is simply . . . the Seer-Will, the Knowledge-Force of the Conscious-Being at work to evolve in force and form all the inevitable truth of the Idea into which it has originally thrown itself.” The Life Divine
::: ". . . all our spiritual and psychic experience bears affirmative witness, brings us always a constant and, in its main principles, an invariable evidence of the existence of higher worlds, freer planes of existence. Not having bound ourselves down, like so much of modern thought, to the dogma that only physical experience or experience based upon the physical sense is true, the analysis of physical experience by the reason alone verifiable, and all else only result of physical experience and physical existence and anything beyond this an error, self-delusion and hallucination, we are free to accept this evidence and to admit the reality of these planes. We see that they are, practically, different harmonies from the harmony of the physical universe; they occupy, as the word ‘plane" suggests, a different level in the scale of being and adopt a different system and ordering of its principles.” The Life Divine
"All phenomenal existence resolves itself into Force, into a movement of energy that assumes more or less material, more or less gross or subtle forms for self-presentation to its own experience.” The Life Divine
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 true law is the right motion and process of a reality, an energy or power of being in action fulfilling its own inherent movement self-implied in its own truth of existence. This law may be inconscient and its working appear to be mechanical, — that is the character or, at least, the appearance of law in material Nature: it may be a conscious energy, freely determined in its action by the consciousness in the being aware of its own imperative of truth, aware of its plastic possibilities of self-expression of that truth, aware, always in the whole and at each moment in the detail, of the actualities it has to realise; this is the figure of the law of the Spirit.” *The Life Divine
::: "A Mind, a Will seems to have imagined and organised the universe, but it has veiled itself behind its creation; its first erection has been this screen of an inconscient Energy and a material form of substance, at once a disguise of its presence and a plastic creative basis on which it could work as an artisan uses for his production of forms and patterns a dumb and obedient material.” The Life Divine
"A mind of light will replace the present confusion and trouble of this earthly ignorance; it is likely that even those parts of humanity which cannot reach it will yet be aware of its possibility and consciously tend towards it; not only so, but the life of humanity will be enlightened, uplifted, governed, harmonised by this luminous principle and even the body become something much less powerless, obscure and animal in its propensities and capable instead of a new and harmonised perfection. It is this possibility that we have to look at and that would mean a new humanity uplifted into Light, capable of a spiritualised being and action, open to governance by some light of the Truth-consciousness, capable even on the mental level and in its own order of something that might be called the beginning of a divinised life.” Essays in Philosophy and 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
anchorites ::: those who have retired to a solitary place for a life of religious seclusion; hermits, recluses.
"And if there is, as there must be in the nature of things, an ascending series in the scale of substance from Matter to Spirit, it must be marked by a progressive diminution of these capacities most characteristic of the physical principle and a progressive increase of the opposite characteristics which will lead us to the formula of pure spiritual self-extension. This is to say that they must be marked by less and less bondage to the form, more and more subtlety and flexibility of substance and force, more and more interfusion, interpenetration, power of assimilation, power of interchange, power of variation, transmutation, unification. Drawing away from durability of form, we draw towards eternity of essence; drawing away from our poise in the persistent separation and resistance of physical Matter, we draw near to the highest divine poise in the infinity, unity and indivisibility of Spirit.” The Life Divine
" . . .and when the dividing ignorance is cured which gives us the sense of a gulf between Life and Matter, it is difficult to suppose that Mind, Life and Matter will be found to be anything else than one Energy triply formulated, the triple world of the Vedic seers.” The Life Divine
"An end have these bodies of an embodied soul that is eternal;… it is not born nor dies nor is it that having been it will not be again. It is unborn, ancient, everlasting; it is not slain with the slaying of the body. As a man casts from him his worn-out garments and takes others that are new, so the embodied being casts off its bodies and joins itself to others that are new. Certain is the death of that which is born and certain is the birth of that which dies . . . . " Gita. The Life Divine
"A new humanity means for us the appearance, the development of a type or race of mental beings whose principle of mentality would be no longer a mind in the Ignorance seeking for knowledge but even in its knowledge bound to the Ignorance, a seeker after Light but not its natural possessor, open to the Light but not an inhabitant of the Light, not yet a perfected instrument, truth-conscious and delivered out of the Ignorance. Instead, it would be possessed already of what could be called a mind of Light, a mind capable of living in the truth, capable of being truth-conscious and manifesting in its life a direct in place of an indirect knowledge. Its mentality would be an instrument of the Light and no longer of the Ignorance. At its highest it would be capable of passing into the supermind and from the new race would be recruited the race of supramental beings who would appear as the leaders of the evolution in earth-nature. Even, the highest manifestations of a mind of Light would be an instrumentality of the supermind, a part of it or a projection from it, a stepping beyond humanity into the superhumanity of the supramental principle. Above all, its possession would enable the human being to rise beyond the normalities of his present thinking, feeling and being into those highest powers of the mind in its self-exceedings which intervene between our mentality and supermind and can be regarded as steps leading towards the greater and more luminous principle. This advance like others in the evolution might not be reached and would naturally not be reached at one bound, but from the very beginning it would be inevitable: the pressure of the supermind creating from above out of itself the mind of Light would compel this certainty of the eventual outcome.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"An exclusive inner concentration on the Real, the Eternal is possible, even a self-immersion by which we can lose or put away the dissonances of the universe.” The Life Divine
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
animate ::: alive; possessing life , endowed with life. half-animate. half-animated. Giving the appearance of moving, of being alive.
animates ::: 1. Gives life to; makes alive; breathes life into. 2. To move or stir to action; motivate.
"An infinite existence, an infinite consciousness, an infinite force and will, an infinite delight of being is the Reality secret behind the appearances of the universe; . . . .” The Life Divine
"An OMNIPRESENT Reality is the truth of all life and existence whether absolute or relative, whether corporeal or incorporeal, whether animate or inanimate, whether intelligent or unintelligent; and in all its infinitely varying and even constantly opposed self-expressions, from the contradictions nearest to our ordinary experience to those remotest antinomies which lose themselves on the verges of the Ineffable, the Reality is one and not a sum or concourse. From that all variations begin, in that all variations consist, to that all variations return. All affirmations are denied only to lead to a wider affirmation of the same Reality.” The Life Divine ::: *reality, absolute See **absolute reality**
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.
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.*)
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.
". . . as Mind is only a final operation of Supermind, so Life is only a final operation of the Consciousness-Force of which Real-Idea is the determinative form and creative agent. Consciousness that is Force is the nature of Being and this conscious Being manifested as a creative Knowledge-Will is the Real-Idea or Supermind.” The Life Divine
"A SPIRITUAL evolution, an evolution of consciousness in Matter in a constant developing self-formation till the form can reveal the indwelling Spirit, is then the keynote, the central significant motive of the terrestrial existence. This significance is concealed at the outset by the involution of the Spirit, the Divine Reality, in a dense material Inconscience; a veil of Inconscience, a veil of insensibility of Matter hides the universal Consciousness-Force which works within it, so that the Energy, which is the first form the Force of creation assumes in the physical universe, appears to be itself inconscient and yet does the works of a vast occult Intelligence.” The Life Divine
"As soon as we become aware of the Self, we are conscious of it as eternal, unborn, unembodied, uninvolved in its workings: it can be felt within the form of being, but also as enveloping it, as above it, surveying its embodiment from above, adhyaksa; it is omnipresent, the same in everything, infinite and pure and intangible for ever. This Self can be experienced as the Self of the individual, the Self of the thinker, doer, enjoyer, but even so it always has this greater character; its individuality is at the same time a vast universality or very readily passes into that, and the next step to that is a sheer transcendence or a complete and ineffable passing into the Absolute. The Self is that aspect of the Brahman in which it is intimately felt as at once individual, cosmic, transcendent of the universe. The realisation of the Self is the straight and swift way towards individual liberation, a static universality, a Nature-transcendence. At the same time there is a realisation of Self in which it is felt not only sustaining and pervading and enveloping all things, but constituting everything and identified in a free identity with all its becomings in Nature. Even so, freedom and impersonality are always the character of the Self. There is no appearance of subjection to the workings of its own Power in the universe, such as the apparent subjection of the Purusha to Prakriti. To realise the Self is to realise the eternal freedom of the Spirit.” The Life Divine
"As the Higher Mind brings a greater consciousness into the being through the spiritual idea and its power of truth, so the Illumined Mind brings in a still greater consciousness through a Truth-sight and Truth-light and its seeing and seizing power.” The Life Divine*
"As the Higher Mind brings a greater consciousness into the being through the spiritual idea and its power of truth, so the Illumined Mind brings in a still greater consciousness through a Truth-sight and Truth-light and its seeing and seizing power.” The Life Divine
". . . as there is a constant dynamic energy in movement in the universe which takes various material forms more or less subtle or gross, so in each physical body or object, plant or animal or metal, there is stored and active the same constant dynamic force; a certain interchange of these two gives us the phenomena which we associate with the idea of life. It is this action that we recognise as the action of Life-Energy and that which so energises itself is the Life-Force. Mind-Energy, Life-Energy, material Energy are different dynamisms of one World-Force.” The Life Divine
"As there is a cosmic Self and Spirit pervading and upholding the universe and its beings, so too there is a cosmic Force that moves all things, and on this original cosmic Force depend and act many cosmic Forces that are its powers or arise as forms of its universal action.” The Life Divine
"A supramental Truth-Consciousness is at once the self-awareness of the Infinite and Eternal and a power of self-determination inherent in that self-awareness;” *The Life Divine
"At every turn it is the divine Reality which we can discover behind that which we are yet compelled by the nature of the superficial consciousness in which we dwell to call undivine and in a sense are right in using that apellation; for these appearances are a veil over the Divine Perfection, a veil necessary for the present, but not at all the true and complete figure.” The Life Divine
"A third step is to find out that there is something in him other than his instrumental mind, life and body, not only an immortal ever-developing individual soul that supports his nature but an eternal immutable self and spirit, and to learn what are the categories of his spiritual being, until he discovers that all in him is an expression of the spirit and distinguishes the link between his lower and his higher existence; thus he sets out to remove his constitutional self-ignorance. Discovering self and spirit he discovers God; he finds out that there is a Self beyond the temporal: he comes to the vision of that Self in the cosmic consciousness as the divine Reality behind Nature and this world of beings; his mind opens to the thought or the sense of the Absolute of whom self and the individual and the cosmos are so many faces; the cosmic, the egoistic, the original ignorance begin to lose the rigidness of their hold upon him.” The Life Divine
::: ". . . a true occultism means no more than a research into supraphysical realities and an unveiling of the hidden laws of being and Nature, of all that is not obvious on the surface. It attempts the discovery of the secret laws of mind and mental energy, the secret laws of life and life-energy, the secret laws of the subtle-physical and its energies, — all that Nature has not put into visible operation on the surface; it pursues also the application of these hidden truths and powers of Nature so as to extend the mastery of the human spirit beyond the ordinary operations of mind, the ordinary operations of life, the ordinary operations of our physical existence. In the spiritual domain which is occult to the surface mind in so far as it passes beyond normal and enters into supernormal experience, there is possible not only the discovery of the self and spirit, but the discovery of the uplifting, informing and guiding light of spiritual consciousness and the power of the spirit, the spiritual way of knowledge, the spiritual way of action. To know these things and to bring their truths and forces into the life of humanity is a necessary part of its evolution. Science itself is in its own way an occultism; for it brings to light the formulas which Nature has hidden and it uses its knowledge to set free operations of her energies which she has not included in her ordinary operations and to organise and place at the service of man her occult powers and processes, a vast system of physical magic, — for there is and can be no other magic than the utilisation of secret truths of being, secret powers and processes of Nature. It may even be found that a supraphysical knowledge is necessary for the completion of physical knowledge, because the processes of physical Nature have behind them a supraphysical factor, a power and action mental, vital or spiritual which is not tangible to any outer means of knowledge.” The Life Divine
"Aware of the Divine as the Master of our being and action, we can learn to become channels of his Shakti, the Divine Puissance, and act according to her dictates or her rule of light and power within us.” The Life Divine
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
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.
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 *
biography ::: an account of a person"s life written, composed, or produced by another.
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
". . . Life-Force emerging turns upon Matter, imposes a vital content on the operations of material Energy while it develops also its own new movements and operations; Life-Mind emerges in Life-Force and Matter and imposes its content of consciousness on their operations while it develops also its own action and faculties; . . . .” The Life Divine*
::: "Life-force is the dynamisation of a consciousness which exceeds it.” The Synthesis of Yoga
::: "Life is an infinite Force working in the terms of the finite; . . . .” The Life Divine
"Life [is] not only a play of forces or a mental experience, but a field for the evolution of the concealed spirit.” Letters on Yoga
"Life is the dynamic expression of Consciousness-Force when thrown outward to realise itself in concrete harmonies of formation.” Letters on Yoga
"Life is universal Force working so as to create, energise, maintain and modify, even to the extent of dissolving and reconstructing, substantial forms with mutual play and interchange of an overtly or secretly conscious energy as its fundamental character.” The Life Divine
::: *"*Life starts with the extreme divisions and rigid forms of Matter, and of this rigid division the atom, which is the basis of all material form, is the very type.” The Life Divine
"Life then is the dynamic play of a universal Force, a Force in which mental consciousness and nervous vitality are in some form or at least in their principle always inherent and therefore they appear and organise themselves in our world in the forms of Matter.” The Life Divine
"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
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.**
"But always the whole foundation of the gnostic life must be by its very nature inward and not outward. In the life of the Spirit it is the Spirit, the inner Reality, that has built up and uses the mind, vital being and body as its instrumentation; thought, feeling and action do not exist for themselves, they are not an object, but the means; they serve to express the manifested divine Reality within us: otherwise, without this inwardness, this spiritual origination, in a too externalised consciousness or by only external means, no greater or divine life is possible.” The Life Divine
"But in a higher than our present mental consciousness we find that this duality is only a phenomenal appearance. The highest and real truth of existence is the one Spirit, the supreme Soul, Purushottama, and it is the power of being of this Spirit which manifests itself in all that we experience as universe. This universal Nature is not a lifeless, inert or unconscious mechanism, but informed in all its movements by the universal Spirit. The mechanism of its process is only an outward appearance and the reality is the Spirit creating or manifesting its own being by its own power of being in all that is in Nature. Soul and Nature in us too are only a dual appearance of the one existence.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
"But in the larger universal consciousness there must be a power of carrying this movement to its absolute point, to the greatest extreme possible for any relative movement to reach, and this point is reached, not in human unconsciousness which is not abiding and always refers back to the awakened conscious being that man normally and characteristically is, but in the inconscience of material Nature. This inconscience is no more real than the ignorance of exclusive concentration in our temporary being which limits the waking consciousness of man; for as in us, so in the atom, the metal, the plant, in every form of material Nature, in every energy of material Nature, there is, we know, a secret soul, a secret will, a secret intelligence at work, other than the mute self-oblivious form, the Conscient, — conscient even in unconscious things, — of the Upanishad, without whose presence and informing Conscious-Force or Tapas no work of Nature could be done.” The Life Divine
"But it is not a mental Intelligence that informs and governs all things; it is a self-aware Truth of being in which self-knowledge is inseparable from self-existence: it is this Truth-Consciousness which has not to think out things but works them out with knowledge according to the impeccable self-vision and the inevitable force of a sole and self-fulfilling Existence.” The Life Divine
"But man also has a life-mind, a vital mentality which is an instrument of desire: this is not satisfied with the actual, it is a dealer in possibilities; it has the passion for novelty and is seeking always to extend the limits of experience for the satisfaction of desire, for enjoyment, for an enlarged self-affirmation and aggrandisement of its terrain of power and profit. It desires, enjoys, possesses actualities, but it hunts also after unrealised possibilities, is ardent to materialise them, to possess and enjoy them also. It is not satisfied with the physical and objective only, but seeks too a subjective, an imaginative, a purely emotive satisfaction and pleasure.” *The Life Divine
"But the timeless self-knowledge of this Eternal is beyond mind; it is a supramental knowledge superconscient to us and only to be acquired by the stilling or transcending of the temporal activity of our conscious mind, by an entry into Silence or a passage through Silence into the consciousness of eternity.” The Life Divine*
"By individual we mean normally something that separates itself from everything else and stands apart, though in reality there is no such thing anywhere in existence; it is a figment of our mental conceptions useful and necessary to express a partial and practical truth. But the difficulty is that the mind gets dominated by its words and forgets that the partial and practical truth becomes true truth only by its relation to others which seem to the reason to contradict it, and that taken by itself it contains a constant element of falsity. Thus when we speak of an individual we mean ordinarily an individualisation of mental, vital, physical being separate from all other beings, incapable of unity with them by its very individuality. If we go beyond these three terms of mind, life and body, and speak of the soul or individual self, we still think of an individualised being separate from all others, incapable of unity and inclusive mutuality, capable at most of a spiritual contact and soul-sympathy. It is therefore necessary to insist that by the true individual we mean nothing of the kind, but a conscious power of being of the Eternal, always existing by unity, always capable of mutuality. It is that being which by self-knowledge enjoys liberation and immortality.” The Life Divine
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
comedy ::: 1. The comic element of drama, of literature generally, or of life. 2. A humorous element of life or literature. Comedy (see also Divine Comedy).
conscious force ::: Sri Aurobindo: "For the Force that builds the worlds is a conscious Force, . . .” *The Life Divine
*consciousforce. ::: Sri Aurobindo: "In actual fact Mind measures Time by event and Space by Matter; but it is possible in pure mentality to disregard the movement of event and the disposition of substance and realise the pure movement of Conscious-Force which constitutes Space and Time; these two are then merely two aspects of the universal force of Consciousness which in their intertwined interaction comprehend the warp and woof of its action upon itself. And to a consciousness higher than Mind which should regard our past, present and future in one view, containing and not contained in them, not situated at a particular moment of Time for its point of prospection, Time might well offer itself as an eternal present. And to the same consciousness not situated at any particular point of Space, but containing all points and regions in itself, Space also might well offer itself as a subjective and indivisible extension, — no less subjective than Time.” The Life Divine
"Consequently, the triple world that we live in, the world of Mind-Life-Body, is triple only in its actual accomplished evolution. Life involved in Matter has emerged in the form of thinking and mentally conscious life. But with Mind, involved in it and therefore in Life and Matter, is the Supermind, which is the origin and ruler of the other three, and this also must emerge.” The Life Divine*
cosmic force ::: Sri Aurobindo: ". . . universal force and universal consciousness are one, — cosmic force is the operation of cosmic consciousness.” *The Life Divine
cosmic mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Nevertheless, the fact of this intervention from above, the fact that behind all our original thinking or authentic perception of things there is a veiled, a half-veiled or a swift unveiled intuitive element is enough to establish a connection between mind and what is above it; it opens a passage of communication and of entry into the superior spirit-ranges. There is also the reaching out of mind to exceed the personal ego limitation, to see things in a certain impersonality and universality. Impersonality is the first character of cosmic self; universality, non-limitation by the single or limiting point of view, is the character of cosmic perception and knowledge: this tendency is therefore a widening, however rudimentary, of these restricted mind areas towards cosmicity, towards a quality which is the very character of the higher mental planes, — towards that superconscient cosmic Mind which, we have suggested, must in the nature of things be the original mind-action of which ours is only a derivative and inferior process.” *The Life Divine
"If we accept the Vedic image of the Sun of Truth, . . . we may compare the action of the Higher Mind to a composed and steady sunshine, the energy of the Illumined Mind beyond it to an outpouring of massive lightnings of flaming sun-stuff. Still beyond can be met a yet greater power of the Truth-Force, an intimate and exact Truth-vision, Truth-thought, Truth-sense, Truth-feeling, Truth-action, to which we can give in a special sense the name of Intuition; . . . At the source of this Intuition we discover a superconscient cosmic Mind in direct contact with the supramental Truth-Consciousness, an original intensity determinant of all movements below it and all mental energies, — not Mind as we know it, but an Overmind that covers as with the wide wings of some creative Oversoul this whole lower hemisphere of Knowledge-Ignorance, links it with that greater Truth-Consciousness while yet at the same time with its brilliant golden Lid it veils the face of the greater Truth from our sight, intervening with its flood of infinite possibilities as at once an obstacle and a passage in our seeking of the spiritual law of our existence, its highest aim, its secret Reality.” The Life Divine
"There is one cosmic Mind, one cosmic Life, one cosmic Body. All the attempt of man to arrive at universal sympathy, universal love and the understanding and knowledge of the inner soul of other existences is an attempt to beat thin, breach and eventually break down by the power of the enlarging mind and heart the walls of the ego and arrive nearer to a cosmic oneness.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"[The results of the opening to the cosmic Mind:] One is aware of the cosmic Mind and the mental forces that move there and how they work on one"s mind and that of others and one is able to deal with one"s own mind with a greater knowledge and effective power. There are many other results, but this is the fundamental one.” Letters on Yoga
"The cosmic consciousness has many levels — the cosmic physical, the cosmic vital, the cosmic Mind, and above the higher planes of cosmic Mind there is the Intuition and above that the overmind and still above that the supermind where the Transcendental begins. In order to live in the Intuition plane (not merely to receive intuitions), one has to live in the cosmic consciousness because there the cosmic and individual run into each other as it were, and the mental separation between them is already broken down, so nobody can reach there who is still in the separative ego.” Letters on Yoga*
cosmic Self ::: Sri Aurobindo: "When one has the cosmic consciousness, one can feel the cosmic Self as one"s own self, one can feel one with other beings in the cosmos, one can feel all the forces of Nature as moving in oneself, all selves as one"s own self. There is no why except that it is so, since all is the One.” Letters on Yoga (See also Cosmic Spirit)
"Impersonality is the first character of cosmic self; . . . .” *The Life Divine
"An eternal infinite self-existence is the supreme reality, but the supreme transcendent eternal Being, Self and Spirit, — an infinite Person, we may say, because his being is the essence and source of all personality, — is the reality and meaning of self-existence: so too the cosmic Self, Spirit, Being, Person is the reality and meaning of cosmic existence; the same Self, Spirit, Being or Person manifesting its multiplicity is the reality and meaning of individual existence.” The Life Divine
"But this cosmic self is spiritual in essence and in experience; it must not be confused with the collective existence, with any group soul or the life and body of a human society or even of all mankind.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"It is the Cosmic Self and Spirit that is in and behind all things and beings, from which and in which all is manifested in the universe — although it is now a manifestation in the Ignorance.” Letters on Yoga*
cosmic Spirit ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Cosmic Spirit or Self contains everything in the cosmos — it upholds cosmic Mind, universal Life, universal Matter as well as the overmind. The Self is more than all these things which are its formulations in Nature.” *Letters on Yoga
"[The Divine in one of its three aspects] . . . is the Cosmic Self and Spirit that is in and behind all things and beings, from which and in which all is manifested in the universe - although it is now a manifestation in the Ignorance.” Letters on Yoga
". . . the cosmic spirit, the one self inhabiting the universe, . . . .” *The Life Divine
"For the cosmic Spirit inhabits each and all, but is more than all; . . . .”The Life Divine
cross ::: Sri Aurobindo: ". . . the cross is the sign of the Divine Descent barred and marred by the transversal line of a cosmic deformation which turns it into a stake of suffering and misfortune. Only by the ascent to the original Truth can the deformation be healed and all the works of love, as too all the works of knowledge and of life, be restored to a divine significance and become part of an integral spiritual existence.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"Death has no reality except as a process of life. Disintegration of substance and renewal of substance, maintenance of form and change of form are the constant process of life; death is merely a rapid disintegration subservient to life"s necessity of change and variation of formal experience. Even in the death of the body there is no cessation of Life, only the material of one form of life is broken up to serve as material for other forms of life.” The Life Divine
::: "Death is the question Nature puts continually to Life and her reminder to it that it has not yet found itself. If there were no siege of death, the creature would be bound for ever in the form of an imperfect living. Pursued by death he awakes to the idea of perfect life and seeks out its means and its possibility.” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
death ::: Sri Aurobindo: "For the spiritual seeker death is only a passage from one form of life to another, and none is dead but only departed.” *Letters on Yoga
desert ::: 1. A region so arid because of little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all. 2. Any area in which few forms of life can exist because of lack of water, permanent frost, or absence of soil. 3. Any place lacking in something; desolate, barren. deserts.
"Desire is the lever by which the divine Life-principle effects its end of self-affirmation in the universe. . . " The Life Divine
desolate ::: 1. Uninhabited, laid waste, deserted, without any sign of life, barren. 2. Devoid of inhabitants; deserted. 3. Bereft of friends or hope; sad and forlorn. 4. Wretched or forlorn. 5. Dreary, dismal, gloomy. desolately.
"Destruction is always a simultaneous or alternate element which keeps pace with creation and it is by destroying and renewing that the Master of Life does his long work of preservation. More, destruction is the first condition of progress. Inwardly, the man who does not destroy his lower self-formations, cannot rise to a greater existence. Outwardly also, the nation or community or race which shrinks too long from destroying and replacing its past forms of life, is itself destroyed, rots and perishes and out of its debris other nations, communities and races are formed. By destruction of the old giant occupants man made himself a place upon earth. By destruction of the Titans the gods maintain the continuity of the divine Law in the cosmos. Whoever prematurely attempts to get rid of this law of battle and destruction, strives vainly against the greater will of the World-Spirit.” Essays on the Gita
divine life ::: Sri Aurobindo: "A life of gnostic beings carrying the evolution to a higher supramental status might fitly be characterised as a divine life; for it would be a life in the Divine, a life of the beginnings of a spiritual divine light and power and joy manifested in material Nature.” *The Life Divine ::: "The ascent to the divine Life is the human journey, the Work of works, the acceptable Sacrifice. This alone is man"s real business in the world and the justification of his existence, without which he would be only an insect crawling among other ephemeral insects on a speck of surface mud and water which has managed to form itself amid the appalling immensities of the physical universe.” The Life Divine
".. . Divine Love which is at the heart of all creation and the most powerful of all redeeming and creative forces has yet been the least frontally present in earthly life, the least successfully redemptive, the least creative. Human nature has been unable to bear it in its purity for the very reason that it is the most powerful, pure, rare and intense of all the divine energies; . . . . ” The Synthesis of Yoga
divine Reality ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Divine Reality is infinite in its being; in this infinite being, we find limited being everywhere, — that is the apparent fact from which our existence here seems to start and to which our own narrow ego and its ego-centric activities bear constant witness. But, in reality, when we come to an integral self-knowledge, we find that we are not limited, for we also are infinite.” *The Life Divine
::: "Divinisation itself does not mean the destruction of the human elements; it means taking them up, showing them the way to their own perfection, raising them by purification and perfection to their full power and Ananda and that means the raising of the whole of earthly life to its full power and Ananda.” Letters on Yoga
domain ::: 1. A sphere of activity, concern, or function; a field. 2. A region characterized by a specific feature, type of growth or wildlife, etc. domains.
dragon of the dark foundation ::: Sri Aurobindo: "All this action and struggle and ascension is supported by Heaven our Father and Earth our Mother, Parents of the Gods, who sustain respectively the purely mental and psychic and the physical consciousness. Their large and free scope is the condition of our achievement. Vayu, Master of life, links them together by the mid-air, the region of vital force. And there are other deities, — Parjanya, giver of the rain of heaven; Dadhikravan, the divine war-horse, a power of Agni; the mystic Dragon of the Foundations; Trita Aptya who on the third plane of existence consummates our triple being; and more besides.” The Secret of the Veda
dream ::: 1. A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. 2. A vision occurring to a person while awake. 3. A person or thing that is as pleasant, or seemingly unreal, as a dream 4. An ideal or aspiration; goal; aim. 5. A wild or vain fancy. Dream, dream"s, Dream"s, dreams, dream-brood, dream-brush, dream-built, dream-caught, dream-fact, dream-fate, dream-god"s, dream-happiness, dream-hued, dream-life, dream-light, dream-made, dream-mind, dream-notes, dream-print, dream-sculptured, dream-shores, dream-smiles, dream-splendour, dream-truth, dream-vasts, dream-white, dream-world, half-dream, self-dream, sun-dream, world-dream. *adj. 6. Of a colour: misty, dim, or cloudy. v. 7. To have an image (of) or fantasy (about) in or as if in a dream. dreams, dreamed, *dreaming.
"Each inner experience is perfectly real in its own way, although the values of different experiences differ greatly, but it is real with the reality of the inner self and the inner planes. It is a mistake to think that we live physically only, with the outer mind and life. We are all the time living and acting on other planes of consciousness, meeting others there and acting upon them, and what we do and feel and think there, the forces we gather, the results we prepare have an incalculable importance and effect, unknown to us, upon our outer life.” Letters on Yoga
"Each is the whole Eternal concealed.” The Life Divine
"Each person follows in the world his own line of destiny which is determined by his own nature and actions — the meaning and necessity of what happens in a particular life cannot be understood except in the light of the whole course of many lives. But this can be seen by those who can get beyond the ordinary mind and feelings and see things as a whole, that even errors, misfortunes, calamities are steps in the journey, — the soul gathering experience as it passes through and beyond them until it is ripe for the transition which will carry it beyond these things to a higher consciousness and higher life.” Letters on Yoga*
earth ::: 1. The realm of mortal existence; the temporal world. 2. The softer, friable part of land; soil, especially productive soil. **Earth, earth"s, earth-beauty"s, earth-being"s, earth-beings, earth-bounds, earth-bride, earth-fact, earth-force, Earth-Goddess, earth-hearts, earth-habit"s, earth-heart, earth-instruments, earth-kind, earth-life, earth-light, earth-made, earth-matter"s, earth-mind, earth-mind"s, earth-myth, earth-nature, earth-nature"s, Earth-Nature"s, earth-nursed, earth-pain, Earth-plasm, earth-poise, earth-scene, earth-scene"s, earth-seat, earth-shapes, earth-stage, earth-stuff, earth-time, earth-time"s, earth-use, earth-vision, earth-ways, summer-earth.
earthly life ::: Sri Aurobindo: "This earthly life need not be necessarily and for ever a wheel of half-joyous half-anguished effort; attainment may also be intended and the glory and joy of God made manifest upon earth.” The Life Divine
earth-Mother ::: 1. A female spirit or deity serving as a symbol of earth or of life and fertility. 2. The earth conceived of as the female principle of fertility and the source of all life. earth-mother"s.
episode ::: 1. An incident in the course of a series of events, in a person"s life or experience, etc. 2. One of a number of loosely connected, but usually thematically related, scenes or stories constituting a literary work.
espouse ::: to take to oneself, make one"s own (a cause, quarrel, etc.); to adopt, embrace (a doctrine, opinion, theory, profession, mode of life).
estate ::: 1. The situation or circumstances of one"s life. 2. Social position or rank, especially of high order. 3. A person"s total possessions (property, money etc.). 4. A landed property, usually, of considerable size. estates.
". . . evil is the fruit of a spiritual ignorance and it will disappear only by the growth of a spiritual consciousness and the light of spiritual knowledge.” The Life Divine
"Evolution is an inverse action of the involution: what is an ultimate and last derivation in the involution is the first to appear in the evolution; what was original and primal in the involution is in the evolution the last and supreme emergence.” The Life Divine ::: "Evolution, as we see it in this world, is a slow and difficult process and, indeed, needs usually ages to reach abiding results; but this is because it is in its nature an emergence from inconscient beginnings, a start from nescience and a working in the ignorance of natural beings by what seems to be an unconscious force. There can be, on the contrary, an evolution in the light and no longer in the darkness, in which the evolving being is a conscious participant and cooperator, and this is precisely what must take place here.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
existence ::: the fact or state of continued being; life. Existence, Existence", existences.
::: **"Faith is a certitude in the soul which does not depend on reasoning, on this or that mental idea, on circumstances, on this or that passing condition of the mind or the vital or the body. It may be hidden, eclipsed, may even seem to be quenched, but it reappears again after the storm or the eclipse; it is seen burning still in the soul when one has thought that it was extinguished for ever. The mind may be a shifting sea of doubts and yet that faith may be there within and, if so, it will keep even the doubt-racked mind in the way so that it goes on in spite of itself towards its destined goal. Faith is a spiritual certitude of the spiritual, the divine, the soul"s ideal, something that clings to that even when it is not fulfilled in life, even when the immediate facts or the persistent circumstances seem to deny it.” Letters on Yoga
"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
fleeting ::: 1. Passing swiftly by: Chiefly of life or time. 2. Passing or gliding swiftly away. 3. Existing for a brief period; not permanent or enduring; transitory, passing, fading.
"For Life is Force and Force is Power and Power is Will and Will is the working of the Master-Consciousness.” The Life Divine
". . . Force is inherent in Existence. Shiva and Kali, Brahman and Shakti are one and not two who are separable. Force inherent in existence may be at rest or it may be in motion, but when it is at rest, it exists none the less and is not abolished, diminished or in any way essentially altered.” 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
"For if evolution is the progressive manifestation by Nature of that which slept or worked in her, involved, it is also the overt realisation of that which she secretly is. We cannot, then, bid her the right to condemn with the religionist as perverse and presumptuous or with the rationalist as a disease or hallucination any intention she may evince or effort she may make to go beyond. If it be true that Spirit is involved in Matter and apparent Nature is secret God, then the manifestation of the divine in himself and the realisation of God within and without are the highest and most legitimate aim possible to man upon earth.” The Life Divine
"For if we examine carefully, we shall find that Intuition is our first teacher. Intuition always stands veiled behind our mental operations. Intuition brings to man those brilliant messages from the Unknown which are the beginning of his higher knowledge.” The Life Divine*
"For it is a gnostic way of dynamic living that must be the fulfilled divine life on earth, a way of living that develops higher instruments of world-knowledge and world-action for the dynamisation of consciousness in the physical existence and takes up and transforms the values of a world of material Nature.” The Life Divine
"For knowledge is power and mastery.” The Life Divine
"For the complete individual is the cosmic individual, since only when we have taken the universe into ourselves, — and transcended it, — can our individuality be complete.” The Life Divine*
"For the essence of consciousness is the power to be aware of itself and its objects, . . . .” The Life Divine
::: "For there seems to be no reason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mind out of living form, unless we accept the Vedantic solution that Life is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Consciousness.” The Life Divine
"For these are achievements of the spiritual mind in man; they are movements of that mind passing beyond itself, but on its own plane, into the splendours of the Spirit. The Life Divine
fortune ::: chance personified, commonly regarded as a mythical being distributing arbitrarily or capriciously the lots of life. Fortune.
"For we have seen that universal force and universal consciousness are one, — cosmic force is the operation of cosmic consciousness.” The Life Divine*
"God is the All and that which exceeds, transcends the All; there is nothing in existence which is not God but God is not anything in that existence, except symbolically, in image to His own consciousness.” The Life Divine
god ::: Sri Aurobindo: ". . . the Absolute, the Spirit, the Self spaceless and timeless, the Self manifest in the cosmos and Lord of Nature, — all this is what we mean by God, . . . .” *The Life Divine
golden Sphinx ::: Sri Aurobindo: "…the luminous veiled Sphinx of the infinite Consciousness and eternal Wisdom.” The Life Divine
hardship ::: conditions of life difficult to endure; extreme privation; suffering.
hedonism ::: devotion to pleasure as a way of life.
"He [man] is a soul and not a body and his earthly life is a means by which he determines the future conditions of his spiritual being.” The Synthesis of Yoga
hermit ::: one who has withdrawn to a solitary place for a life of religious seclusion; a recluse. hermits, hermit-life, hermit-roofs.
hero ::: 1. One who is distinguished by exceptional courage, nobility, fortitude, etc. 2. A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.) hero"s, heroes.
"He who is free inwardly, even doing actions, does nothing at all, says the Gita; for it is Nature that works in him under the control of the Lord of Nature. Equally, even if he assumes a hundred times the body, he is free from any chain of birth or mechanical wheel of existence since he lives in the unborn and undying spirit and not in the life of the body.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"He who is the high and low, the saint and the sinner, the god and the worm, Him worship, the visible, the knowable, the real, the omnipresent; break all other idols. In whom there is neither past life nor future birth, nor death nor going nor coming, in whom we always have been and always will be one, Him worship; break all other idols."" The Synthesis of Yoga*
"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
human life
::: "Humility before the Divine is also a sine qua non of the spiritual life, and spiritual pride, arrogance, or vanity and self-assurance press always downward. But confidence in the Divine and a faith in one"s spiritual destiny (i.e. since my heart and soul seek for the Divine, I cannot fail one day to reach Him) are much needed in view of the difficulties of the Path.” Letters on Yoga
"Humility before the Divine is also a sine qua non of the spiritual life, and spiritual pride, arrogance, or vanity and self-assurance press always downward.” *Letters on Yoga
"Ideals are truths that have not yet effected themselves for man, the realities of a higher plane of existence which have yet to fulfil themselves on this lower plane of life and matter, our present field of operation.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"Ideals are truths that have not yet effected themselves for man, the realities of a higher plane of existence which have yet to fulfil themselves on this lower plane of life and matter, our present field of operation. To the pragmatical intellect which takes its stand upon the ever-changing present, ideals are not truths, not realities, they are at most potentialities of future truth and only become real when they are visible in the external fact as work of force accomplished. But to the mind which is able to draw back from the flux of force in the material universe, to the consciousness which is not imprisoned in its own workings or carried along in their flood but is able to envelop, hold and comprehend them, to the soul that is not merely the subject and instrument of the world-force but can reflect something of that Master-Consciousness which controls and uses it, the ideal present to its inner vision is a greater reality than the changing fact obvious to its outer senses. The Supramental Manifestation*
"If one knows Him as Brahman the Non-Being, he becomes merely the non-existent. If one knows that Brahman Is, then is he known as the real in existence.” — Taittiriya Upanishad. The Life Divine
::: "If there is an evolution in material Nature and if it is an evolution of being with consciousness and life as its two key-terms and powers, this fullness of being, fullness of consciousness, fullness of life must be the goal of development towards which we are tending and which will manifest at an early or later stage of our destiny. The Self, the Spirit, the Reality that is disclosing itself out of the first inconscience of life and matter, would evolve its complete truth of being and consciousness in that life and matter. It would return to itself, — or, if its end as an individual is to return into its Absolute, it could make that return also, — not through a frustration of life but through a spiritual completeness of itself in life. Our evolution in the Ignorance with its chequered joy and pain of self-discovery and world-discovery, its half-fulfilments, its constant finding and missing, is only our first state. It must lead inevitably towards an evolution in the Knowledge, a self-finding and self-unfolding of the Spirit, a self-revelation of the Divinity in things in that true power of itself in Nature which is to us still a Supernature.” The Life Divine
"If there is a self in us capable of largeness and universality, able to enter into a cosmic consciousness, that too must be within our inner being; the outer consciousness is a physical consciousness bound to its individual limits by the triple cord of mind, life and body: any external attempt at universality can only result either in an aggrandisement of the ego or an effacement of the personality by its extinction in the mass or subjugation to the mass.” The Life Divine*
"If we take this fourfold status as a figure of the Self passing from its superconscient state, where there is no subject or object, into a luminous trance in which superconscience becomes a massed consciousness out of which the subjective status of being and the objective come into emergence, then we get according to our view of things either a possible process of illusionary creation or a process of creative Self-knowledge and All-knowledge.” The Life Divine
ignorance ::: the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information. Ignorance, ignorance"s, Ignorance"s, ignorance", world-ignorance, World-Ignorance.
Sri Aurobindo: "Ignorance is the absence of the divine eye of perception which gives us the sight of the supramental Truth; it is the non-perceiving principle in our consciousness as opposed to the truth-perceiving conscious vision and knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"Ignorance is the consciousness of being in the successions of Time, divided in its knowledge by dwelling in the moment, divided in its conception of self-being by dwelling in the divisions of Space and the relations of circumstance, self-prisoned in the multiple working of the unity. It is called the Ignorance because it has put behind it the knowledge of unity and by that very fact is unable to know truly or completely either itself or the world, either the transcendent or the universal reality.” The Life Divine
"Ignorance means Avidya, the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flow from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life. This Ignorance is the result of a movement by which the cosmic Intelligence separated itself from the light of the Supermind (the divine Gnosis) and lost the Truth, — truth of being, truth of divine consciousness, truth of force and action, truth of Ananda. As a result, instead of a world of integral truth and divine harmony created in the light of the divine Gnosis, we have a world founded on the part truths of an inferior cosmic Intelligence in which all is half-truth, half-error. . . . All in the consciousness of this creation is either limited or else perverted by separation from the integral Light; even the Truth it perceives is only a half-knowledge. Therefore it is called the Ignorance.” The Mother
". . . all ignorance is a penumbra which environs an orb of knowledge . . . .”The Life Divine
"This world is not really created by a blind force of Nature: even in the Inconscient the presence of the supreme Truth is at work; there is a seeing Power behind it which acts infallibly and the steps of the Ignorance itself are guided even when they seem to stumble; for what we call the Ignorance is a cloaked Knowledge, a Knowledge at work in a body not its own but moving towards its own supreme self-discovery.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"Knowledge is no doubt the knowledge of the One, the realisation of the Being; Ignorance is a self-oblivion of Being, the experience of separateness in the multiplicity and a dwelling or circling in the ill-understood maze of becomings: . . . .” The Life Divine*
"Ignorance, this matrix of sin, has in its substantial effect the appearance of a triple cord of limited mind, inefficient life, obscure physical animality, the three ropes with which the Rishi Shunahshepa in the parable was bound as a victim to the sacrificial post.” The Secret of the Veda
illumined mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "This greater Force is that of the Illumined Mind, a Mind no longer of higher Thought, but of spiritual light. Here the clarity of the spiritual intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the Spirit: a play of lightnings of spiritual truth and power breaks from above into the consciousness and adds to the calm and wide enlightenment and the vast descent of peace which characterise or accompany the action of the larger conceptual-spiritual principle, a fiery ardour of realisation and a rapturous ecstasy of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"The Illumined Mind does not work primarily by thought, but by vision; . . . .” The Life Divine
"As the Higher Mind brings a greater consciousness into the being through the spiritual idea and its power of truth, so the Illumined Mind brings in a still greater consciousness through a Truth-sight and Truth-light and its seeing and seizing power.” The Life Divine*
"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*
::: ". . . immortality in its fundamental sense does not mean merely some kind of personal survival of the bodily death; we are immortal by the eternity of our self-existence without beginning or end, beyond the whole succession of physical births and deaths through which we pass, beyond the alternations of our existence in this and other worlds: the spirit"s timeless existence is the true immortality.” *The Life Divine
"Immortality is one of the possible results of supramentalisation, but it is not an obligatory result and it does not mean that there will be an eternal or indefinite prolongation of life as it is. That is what many think it will be, that they will remain what they are with all their human desires and the only difference will be that they will satisfy them endlessly; but such an immortality would not be worth having and it would not be long before people are tired of it. To live in the Divine and have the divine Consciousness is itself immortality and to be able to divinise the body also and make it a fit instrument for divine works and divine life would be its material expression only.” *Letters on Yoga
". . . impersonality is in the original undifferentiated truth of things the pure substance of nature of the Being, the Person; in the dynamic truth of things it differentiates its powers and lends them to constitute by their variations the manifestation of personality.” The Life Divine ::: *personalities, World-personality.
"In a certain sense, to use the relative and suggestive phrasing of our human language, all things are the symbols through which we have to approach and draw nearer to That by which we and they exist.” The Life Divine
inanimate ::: 1. Lacking the qualities or features of living beings; not animate or alive. 2. Spiritless; dull; lacking activity or life. Also fig.
inconscience ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Inconscience is an inverse reproduction of the supreme superconscience: it has the same absoluteness of being and automatic action, but in a vast involved trance; it is being lost in itself, plunged in its own abyss of infinity.” *The Life Divine
"All aspects of the omnipresent Reality have their fundamental truth in the Supreme Existence. Thus even the aspect or power of Inconscience, which seems to be an opposite, a negation of the eternal Reality, yet corresponds to a Truth held in itself by the self-aware and all-conscious Infinite. It is, when we look closely at it, the Infinite"s power of plunging the consciousness into a trance of self-involution, a self-oblivion of the Spirit veiled in its own abysses where nothing is manifest but all inconceivably is and can emerge from that ineffable latency. In the heights of Spirit this state of cosmic or infinite trance-sleep appears to our cognition as a luminous uttermost Superconscience: at the other end of being it offers itself to cognition as the Spirit"s potency of presenting to itself the opposites of its own truths of being, — an abyss of non-existence, a profound Night of inconscience, a fathomless swoon of insensibility from which yet all forms of being, consciousness and delight of existence can manifest themselves, — but they appear in limited terms, in slowly emerging and increasing self-formulations, even in contrary terms of themselves; it is the play of a secret all-being, all-delight, all-knowledge, but it observes the rules of its own self-oblivion, self-opposition, self-limitation until it is ready to surpass it. This is the Inconscience and Ignorance that we see at work in the material universe. It is not a denial, it is one term, one formula of the infinite and eternal Existence.” *The Life Divine
"Once consciousnesses separated from the one consciousness, they fell inevitably into Ignorance and the last result of Ignorance was Inconscience.” Letters on Yoga
*inconscience.
inconscient ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Inconscient and the Ignorance may be mere empty abstractions and can be dismissed as irrelevant jargon if one has not come in collision with them or plunged into their dark and bottomless reality. But to me they are realities, concrete powers whose resistance is present everywhere and at all times in its tremendous and boundless mass.” *Letters on Savitri
". . . in its actual cosmic manifestation the Supreme, being the Infinite and not bound by any limitation, can manifest in Itself, in its consciousness of innumerable possibilities, something that seems to be the opposite of itself, something in which there can be Darkness, Inconscience, Inertia, Insensibility, Disharmony and Disintegration. It is this that we see at the basis of the material world and speak of nowadays as the Inconscient — the Inconscient Ocean of the Rigveda in which the One was hidden and arose in the form of this universe — or, as it is sometimes called, the non-being, Asat.” Letters on Yoga
"The Inconscient itself is only an involved state of consciousness which like the Tao or Shunya, though in a different way, contains all things suppressed within it so that under a pressure from above or within all can evolve out of it — ‘an inert Soul with a somnambulist Force".” Letters on Yoga
"The Inconscient is the last resort of the Ignorance.” Letters on Yoga
"The body, we have said, is a creation of the Inconscient and itself inconscient or at least subconscient in parts of itself and much of its hidden action; but what we call the Inconscient is an appearance, a dwelling place, an instrument of a secret Consciousness or a Superconscient which has created the miracle we call the universe.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga :::
"The Inconscient is a sleep or a prison, the conscient a round of strivings without ultimate issue or the wanderings of a dream: we must wake into the superconscious where all darkness of night and half-lights cease in the self-luminous bliss of the Eternal.” The Life Divine
"Men have not learnt yet to recognise the Inconscient on which the whole material world they see is built, or the Ignorance of which their whole nature including their knowledge is built; they think that these words are only abstract metaphysical jargon flung about by the philosophers in their clouds or laboured out in long and wearisome books like The Life Divine. Letters on Savitri :::
"Is it really a fact that even the ordinary reader would not be able to see any difference between the Inconscient and Ignorance unless the difference is expressly explained to him? This is not a matter of philosophical terminology but of common sense and the understood meaning of English words. One would say ‘even the inconscient stone" but one would not say, as one might of a child, ‘the ignorant stone". One must first be conscious before one can be ignorant. What is true is that the ordinary reader might not be familiar with the philosophical content of the word Inconscient and might not be familiar with the Vedantic idea of the Ignorance as the power behind the manifested world. But I don"t see how I can acquaint him with these things in a single line, even with the most. illuminating image or symbol. He might wonder, if he were Johnsonianly minded, how an Inconscient could be teased or how it could wake Ignorance. I am afraid, in the absence of a miracle of inspired poetical exegesis flashing through my mind, he will have to be left wondering.” Letters on Savitri
**inconscient, Inconscient"s.**
inert ::: 1. Unable to move or act; immobile, unmoving, lifeless, motionless. 2. Inactive or sluggish by habit or nature. inertness.
infant ::: n. **1. A child during the earliest period of its life, especially before he or she can walk; baby. 2. Anything in the first stage of existence or progress. Infant, infant"s, Infants. adj. 3.** Anything in the first stage of existence or progress.
"In its fundamental truth the original status of Time behind all its variations is nothing else than the eternity of the Eternal, just as the fundamental truth of Space, the original sense of its reality, is the infinity of the Infinite.” The Life Divine
"In spiritual experience it [nirvana]is sometimes the loss of all sense of individuality in a boundless cosmic consciousness; what was the individual remains only as a centre or a channel for the flow of a cosmic consciousness and a cosmic force and action. Or it may be the experience of the loss of individuality in a transcendent being and consciousness in which the sense of cosmos as well as the individual disappears. Or again, it may be in a transcendence which is aware of and supports the cosmic action. . . Nirvana is a step towards it; the disappearance of the false separative individuality is a necessary condition for our realising and living in our true eternal being, living divinely in the Divine. But this we can do in the world and in life.” Letters on Yoga
::: ". . . in such a view, the word consciousness changes its meaning. It is no longer synonymous with mentality but indicates a self-aware force of existence of which mentality is a middle term; below mentality it sinks into vital and material movements which are for us subconscient; above, it rises into the supramental which is for us the superconscient. But in all it is one and the same thing organising itself differently. This is, once more, the Indian conception of Chit which, as energy, creates the worlds.” *The Life Divine
"In Supermind being, consciousness of knowledge and consciousness of will are not divided as they seem to be in our mental operations; they are a trinity, one movement with three effective aspects. Each has its own effect. Being gives the effect of substance, consciousness the effect of knowledge, of the self-guiding and shaping idea, of comprehension and apprehension; will gives the effect of self-fulfilling force. But the idea is only the light of the reality illumining itself; it is not mental thought nor imagination, but effective self-awareness. It is Real-Idea.” The Life Divine
::: ". . . in the language of the Upanishad, the life-force is the food of the body and the body the food of the life-force; in other words, the life-energy in us both supplies the material by which the form is built up and constantly maintained and renewed and is at the same time constantly using up the substantial form of itself which it thus creates and keeps in existence.” *The Life Divine
"In the spiritual sense, however, sacrifice has a different meaning — it does not so much indicate giving up what is held dear as an offering of oneself, one"s being, one"s mind, heart, will, body, life, actions to the Divine. It has the original sense of ‘making sacred" and is used as an equivalent of the word yajna. When the Gita speaks of the ‘sacrifice of knowledge", it does not mean a giving up of anything, but a turning of the mind towards the Divine in the search for knowledge and an offering of oneself through it. It is in this sense, too, that one speaks of the offering or sacrifice of works. The Mother has written somewhere that the spiritual sacrifice is joyful and not painful in its nature. On the spiritual path, very commonly, if a seeker still feels the old ties and responsibilities strongly he is not asked to sever or leave them, but to let the call in him grow till all within is ready. Many, indeed, come away earlier because they feel that to cut loose is their only chance, and these have to go sometimes through a struggle. But the pain, the struggle, is not the essential character of this spiritual self-offering.” Letters on Yoga
"In the subconscient knowledge or consciousness is involved in action, for action is the essence of Life.” The Life Divine
intuition ::: direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process. intuition"s, intuitions, half-intuition.
Sri Aurobindo: "Intuition is a power of consciousness nearer and more intimate to the original knowledge by identity; for it is always something that leaps out direct from a concealed identity. It is when the consciousness of the subject meets with the consciousness in the object, penetrates it and sees, feels or vibrates with the truth of what it contacts, that the intuition leaps out like a spark or lightning-flash from the shock of the meeting; or when the consciousness, even without any such meeting, looks into itself and feels directly and intimately the truth or the truths that are there or so contacts the hidden forces behind appearances, then also there is the outbreak of an intuitive light; or, again, when the consciousness meets the Supreme Reality or the spiritual reality of things and beings and has a contactual union with it, then the spark, the flash or the blaze of intimate truth-perception is lit in its depths. This close perception is more than sight, more than conception: it is the result of a penetrating and revealing touch which carries in it sight and conception as part of itself or as its natural consequence. A concealed or slumbering identity, not yet recovering itself, still remembers or conveys by the intuition its own contents and the intimacy of its self-feeling and self-vision of things, its light of truth, its overwhelming and automatic certitude.” *The Life Divine
"Intuition is always an edge or ray or outleap of a superior light; it is in us a projecting blade, edge or point of a far-off supermind light entering into and modified by some intermediate truth-mind substance above us and, so modified, again entering into and very much blinded by our ordinary or ignorant mind-substance; but on that higher level to which it is native its light is unmixed and therefore entirely and purely veridical, and its rays are not separated but connected or massed together in a play of waves of what might almost be called in the Sanskrit poetic figure a sea or mass of ``stable lightnings"". When this original or native Intuition begins to descend into us in answer to an ascension of our consciousness to its level or as a result of our finding of a clear way of communication with it, it may continue to come as a play of lightning-flashes, isolated or in constant action; but at this stage the judgment of reason becomes quite inapplicable, it can only act as an observer or registrar understanding or recording the more luminous intimations, judgments and discriminations of the higher power. To complete or verify an isolated intuition or discriminate its nature, its application, its limitations, the receiving consciousness must rely on another completing intuition or be able to call down a massed intuition capable of putting all in place. For once the process of the change has begun, a complete transmutation of the stuff and activities of the mind into the substance, form and power of Intuition is imperative; until then, so long as the process of consciousness depends upon the lower intelligence serving or helping out or using the intuition, the result can only be a survival of the mixed Knowledge-Ignorance uplifted or relieved by a higher light and force acting in its parts of Knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"I use the word ‘intuition" for want of a better. In truth, it is a makeshift and inadequate to the connotation demanded of it. The same has to be said of the word ‘consciousness" and many others which our poverty compels us to extend illegitimately in their significance.” *The Life Divine - Sri Aurobindo"s footnote.
"For intuition is an edge of light thrust out by the secret Supermind. . . .” The Life Divine
". . . intuition is born of a direct awareness while intellect is an indirect action of a knowledge which constructs itself with difficulty out of the unknown from signs and indications and gathered data.” The Life Divine
"Intuition is above illumined Mind which is simply higher Mind raised to a great luminosity and more open to modified forms of intuition and inspiration.” Letters on Yoga
"Intuition sees the truth of things by a direct inner contact, not like the ordinary mental intelligence by seeking and reaching out for indirect contacts through the senses etc. But the limitation of the Intuition as compared with the supermind is that it sees things by flashes, point by point, not as a whole. Also in coming into the mind it gets mixed with the mental movement and forms a kind of intuitive mind activity which is not the pure truth, but something in between the higher Truth and the mental seeking. It can lead the consciousness through a sort of transitional stage and that is practically its function.” Letters on Yoga
intuitive knowledge ::: Sri Aurobindo: " For the highest intuitive Knowledge sees things in the whole, in the large and details only as sides of the indivisible whole; its tendency is towards immediate synthesis and the unity of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"The intuitive knowledge on the contrary, however limited it may be in its field or application, is within that scope sure with an immediate, a durable and especially a self-existent certitude.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"All intuitive knowledge comes more or less directly from the light of the self-aware spirit entering into the mind, the spirit concealed behind mind and conscious of all in itself and in all its selves, omniscient and capable of illumining the ignorant or the self-forgetful mind whether by rare or constant flashes or by a steady instreaming light, out of its omniscience.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
"Ishwara is Brahman the Reality, Self, Spirit, revealed as possessor, enjoyer of his own self-existence, creator of the universe and one with it, Pantheos, and yet superior to it, the Eternal, the Infinite, the Ineffable, the Divine Transcendence.” The Life Divine
"It is necessary to understand clearly the difference between the evolving soul (psychic being) and the pure Atman, self or spirit. The pure self is unborn, does not pass through death or birth, is independent of birth or body, mind or life or this manifested Nature.” Letters on Yoga
It is the cryptic verses of the Veda that help us here; for they contain, though concealed, the gospel of the divine and immortal Supermind and through the veil some illumining flashes come to us. We can see through these utterances the conception of this Supermind as a vastness beyond the ordinary firmaments of our consciousness in which truth of being is luminously one with all that expresses it and assures inevitably truth of vision, formulation, arrangement, word, act and movement and therefore truth also of result of movement, result of action and expression, infallible ordinance or law. Vast all-comprehensiveness; luminous truth and harmony of being in that vastness and not a vague chaos or self-lost obscurity; truth of law and act and knowledge expressive of that harmonious truth of being: these seem to be the essential terms of the Vedic description.” *The Life Divine
" . . . it is through self-giving or surrender of soul and nature to the Divine Being that we can attain to our highest self and supreme Reality, for it is the Divine Being who is that highest self and that supreme Reality, and we are self-existent and eternal only in his eternity and by his self-existence.” The Life Divine
"Kali is Krishna revealed as dreadful Power & wrathful Love. She slays with her furious blows the self in body, life & mind in order to liberate it as spirit eternal.” Essays Divine and Human
"Knowledge is power and act of consciousness.” The Life Divine
". . . liberation signifies an emergence into the true spiritual nature of being where all action is the automatic self-expression of that truth and there can be nothing else." *The Life Divine
life, divine
life-force
life Heavens
lifeless ::: 1. Having lost life; dead. 2. Having no life; inanimate. 3. Not inhabited by living beings; not capable of sustaining life. 4. Lacking vitality or animation; dull.
lifelong ::: continuing for a lifetime.
life-mind
life-self ::: Sri Aurobindo: ". . . our self-view is vitiated by the constant impact and intrusion of our outer life-self, our vital being, which seeks always to make the thinking mind its tool and servant: for our vital being is not concerned with self-knowledge but with self-affirmation, desire, ego.” *The Life Divine
life
light ::: Sri Aurobindo: ". . . light is primarily a spiritual manifestation of the Divine Reality illuminative and creative; material light is a subsequent representation or conversion of it into Matter for the purposes of the material Energy.” *The Life Divine
"Our sense by its incapacity has invented darkness. In truth there is nothing but Light, only it is a power of light either above or below our poor human vision"s limited range.
For do not imagine that light is created by the Suns. The Suns are only physical concentrations of Light, but the splendour they concentrate for us is self-born and everywhere.
God is everywhere and wherever God is, there is Light.” *The Hour of God
"Light is a general term. Light is not knowledge but the illumination that comes from above and liberates the being from obscurity and darkness.” The Mother
The Mother: "The light is everywhere, the force is everywhere. And the world is so small.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15. ::: *Light, light"s, lights, light-petalled, light-tasselled, half-light.
longevity ::: long life; great duration of life.
lord ::: Sri Aurobindo: "There is one Lord and Self and the many are only His representations and becomings.” *The Life Divine
lot ::: circumstances or condition in life; destiny; fortune.
lotus (as chakra) ::: Sri Aurobindo: "This arrangement of the psychic body is reproduced in the physical with the spinal column as a rod and the ganglionic centres as the chakras which rise up from the bottom of the column, where the lowest is attached, to the brain and find their summit in the brahmarandhra at the top of the skull. These chakras or lotuses, however, are in physical man closed or only partly open, with the consequence that only such powers and only so much of them are active in him as are sufficient for his ordinary physical life, and so much mind and soul only is at play as will accord with its need. This is the real reason, looked at from the mechanical point of view, why the embodied soul seems so dependent on the bodily and nervous life, — though the dependence is neither so complete nor so real as it seems. The whole energy of the soul is not at play in the physical body and life, the secret powers of mind are not awake in it, the bodily and nervous energies predominate. But all the while the supreme energy is there, asleep; it is said to be coiled up and slumbering like a snake, — therefore it is called the kundalinî sakti, — in the lowest of the chakras, in the mûlâdhâra.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
::: "Love is in its nature the desire to give oneself to others and to receive others in exchange; it is a commerce between being and being.” *The Life Divine
"Love is the power and passion of the divine self-delight and without love we may get the rapt peace of its infinity, the absorbed silence of the Ananda, but not its absolute depth of richness and fullness. Love leads us from the suffering of division into the bliss of perfect union, but without losing that joy of the act of union which is the soul"s greatest discovery and for which the life of the cosmos is a long preparation. Therefore to approach God by love is to prepare oneself for the greatest possible spiritual fulfilment. ” The Synthesis of Yoga
mage ::: Sri Aurobindo: " . . . the supreme Mage, the divine Magician, . . .” [the Lord] The Life Divine
"Man, born into the world, revolves between world and world in the action of Prakriti and Karma. Purusha in Prakriti is his formula: what the soul in him thinks, contemplates and acts, that always he becomes. All that he had been, determined his present birth; and all that he is, thinks, does in this life up to the moment of his death, determines what he will become in the worlds beyond and in lives yet to be. If birth is a becoming, death also is a becoming, not by any means a cessation.” Essays on the Gita
"Man himself is not a life and mind born of Matter and eternally subject to physical Nature, but a spirit that uses life and body.” The Renaissance in India
"Man"s highest accomplished range is the life of the reason or ordered and harmonised intelligence with its dynamic power of intelligent will, the buddhi, which is or should be the driver of man"s chariot.” Social and Political Thought
master of Existence ::: Sri Aurobindo: "I am here with thee in thy chariot of battle revealed as the Master of Existence within and without thee and I repeat the absolute assurance, the infallible promise that I will lead thee to myself through and beyond all sorrow and evil. Whatever difficulties and perplexities arise, be sure of this that I am leading thee to a complete divine life in the universal and an immortal existence in the transcendent Spirit.” Essays on the Gita
material world ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Our material world is the result of all the others, for the other principles have all descended into Matter to create the physical universe, and every particle of what we call Matter contains all of them implicit in itself; their secret action, as we have seen, is involved in every moment of its existence and every movement of its activity. And as Matter is the last word of the descent, so it is also the first word of the ascent; as the powers of all these planes, worlds, grades, degrees are involved in the material existence, so are they all capable of evolution out of it. It is for this reason that material being does not begin and end with gases and chemical compounds and physical forces and movements, with nebulae and suns and earths, but evolves life, evolves mind, must evolve eventually Supermind and the higher degrees of the spiritual existence.” The Life Divine
". . . matter is a formation of life that has no real existence apart from the informing universal spirit which gives it its energy and substance.” The Synthesis of Yoga
". . . Matter is only substance-form of Force, . . . .” The Life Divine*
matter ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Matter is by no means fundamentally real; it is a structure of Energy.” *The Life Divine
"Matter, — substance itself, subtle or dense, mental or material, — is form and body of Spirit and would never have been created if it could not be made a basis for the self-expression of the Spirit.” The Life Divine
::: "Maya is the supreme and universal consciousness and force of the Eternal and Infinite and, being by its very nature unbound and illimitable, it can put forth many states of consciousness at a time, many dispositions of its Force, without ceasing to be the same consciousness-force for ever. It is at once transcendental, universal and individual; it is the supreme supracosmic Being that is aware of itself as All-Being, as the Cosmic Self, as the Consciousness-Force of cosmic Nature, and at the same time experiences itself as the individual being and consciousness in all existences.” The Life Divine
maya ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Maya in its original sense meant a comprehending and containing consciousness capable of embracing, measuring and limiting and therefore formative; it is that which outlines, measures out, moulds forms in the formless, psychologises and seems to make knowable the Unknowable, geometrises and seems to make measurable the limitless. Later the word came from its original sense of knowledge, skill, intelligence to acquire a pejorative sense of cunning, fraud or illusion, and it is in the figure of an enchantment or illusion that it is used by the philosophical systems.” *The Life Divine
metamorphosis ::: 1. Any complete change in appearance, character, circumstances, etc. 2. A change or succession of changes in form during the life cycle of an animal, allowing it to adapt to different environmental conditions, as a caterpillar into a butterfly.
mind, illumined ::: Sri Aurobindo: "This greater Force is that of the Illumined Mind, a Mind no longer of higher Thought, but of spiritual light. Here the clarity of the spiritual intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the Spirit: a play of lightnings of spiritual truth and power breaks from above into the consciousness and adds to the calm and wide enlightenment and the vast descent of peace which characterise or accompany the action of the larger conceptual-spiritual principle, a fiery ardour of realisation and a rapturous ecstasy of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
mind, inner ::: Sri Aurobindo: "This mind of pure intelligence has behind it our inner or subliminal mind which senses directly all the things of the mind-plane, is open to the action of a world of mental forces, and can feel the ideative and other imponderable influences which act upon the material world and the life-plane but which at present we can only infer and cannot directly experience:” *The Life Divine
"Mind, life and body, the soul in the succession of Time, the conscient, subconscient and superconscient, — these in their various relations and the result of their relations are cosmos and are Nature.” The Life Divine
mind, Self of ::: Sri Aurobindo: "If one stands back from the mind and its activities so that they fall silent at will or go on as a surface movement of which one is the detached and disinterested witness, it becomes possible eventually to realise oneself as the inner Self of mind, the true and pure mental being, the Purusha; . . . .” The Life Divine
mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The ‘Mind" in the ordinary use of the word covers indiscriminately the whole consciousness, for man is a mental being and mentalises everything; but in the language of this yoga the words ‘mind" and ‘mental" are used to connote specially the part of the nature which has to do with cognition and intelligence, with ideas, with mental or thought perceptions, the reactions of thought to things, with the truly mental movements and formations, mental vision and will, etc., that are part of his intelligence.” *Letters on Yoga
"Mind in its essence is a consciousness which measures, limits, cuts out forms of things from the indivisible whole and contains them as if each were a separate integer.” The Life Divine
"Mind is an instrument of analysis and synthesis, but not of essential knowledge. Its function is to cut out something vaguely from the unknown Thing in itself and call this measurement or delimitation of it the whole, and again to analyse the whole into its parts which it regards as separate mental objects.” The Life Divine
"The mind proper is divided into three parts — thinking Mind, dynamic Mind, externalising Mind — the former concerned with ideas and knowledge in their own right, the second with the putting out of mental forces for realisation of the idea, the third with the expression of them in life (not only by speech, but by any form it can give).” Letters on Yoga
"The difference between the ordinary mind and the intuitive is that the former, seeking in the darkness or at most by its own unsteady torchlight, first, sees things only as they are presented in that light and, secondly, where it does not know, constructs by imagination, by uncertain inference, by others of its aids and makeshifts things which it readily takes for truth, shadow projections, cloud edifices, unreal prolongations, deceptive anticipations, possibilities and probabilities which do duty for certitudes. The intuitive mind constructs nothing in this artificial fashion, but makes itself a receiver of the light and allows the truth to manifest in it and organise its own constructions.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"He [man] has in him not a single mentality, but a double and a triple, the mind material and nervous, the pure intellectual mind which liberates itself from the illusions of the body and the senses, and a divine mind above intellect which in its turn liberates itself from the imperfect modes of the logically discriminative and imaginative reason.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"Our mind is an observer of actuals, an inventor or discoverer of possibilities, but not a seer of the occult imperatives that necessitate the movements and forms of a creation. . . .” *The Life Divine
"The human mind is an instrument not of truth but of ignorance and error.” Letters on Yoga
"For Mind as we know it is a power of the Ignorance seeking for Truth, groping with difficulty to find it, reaching only mental constructions and representations of it in word and idea, in mind formations, sense formations, — as if bright or shadowy photographs or films of a distant Reality were all that it could achieve.” The Life Divine
The Mother: "The true role of the mind is the formation and organization of action. The mind has a formative and organizing power, and it is that which puts the different elements of inspiration in order for action, for organizing action. And if it would only confine itself to that role, receiving inspirations — whether from above or from the mystic centre of the soul — and simply formulating the plan of action — in broad outline or in minute detail, for the smallest things of life or the great terrestrial organizations — it would amply fulfil its function. It is not an instrument of knowledge. But is can use knowledge for action, to organize action. It is an instrument of organization and formation, very powerful and very capable when it is well developed.” Questions and Answers 1956, MCW Vol. 8.*
"Moreover we see that this cosmic action or any cosmic action is impossible without the play of an infinite Force of Existence which produces and regulates all these forms and movements; and that Force equally presupposes or is the action of an infinite Consciousness, because it is in its nature a cosmic Will determining all relations and apprehending them by its own mode of awareness, and it could not so determine and apprehend them if there were no comprehensive Consciousness behind that mode of cosmic awareness to originate as well as to hold, fix and reflect through it the relations of Being in the developing formation or becoming of itself which we call a universe.” The Life Divine
mother ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The One whom we adore as the Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence, one and yet so many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence. The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Supreme and far above all she creates.” The Mother ::: "The one original transcendent Shakti, the Mother stands above all the worlds and bears in her eternal consciousness the Supreme Divine.
"That which we call Nature or Prakriti is only her [the Mother"s] most outward executive aspect; she marshals and arranges the harmony of her forces and processes, impels the operations of Nature and moves among them secret or manifest in all that can be seen or experienced or put into motion of life.” *The Mother
: "The Mother comes in order to bring down the Supramental and it is the descent which makes her full manifestation here possible.” *Letters on the Mother
"When one does sadhana, the inner consciousness begins to open and one is able to go inside and have all kinds of experiences there. As the sadhana progresses, one begins to live more and more in this inner being and the outer becomes more and more superficial. At first the inner consciousness seems to be the dream and the outer the waking reality. Afterwards the inner consciousness becomes the reality and the outer is felt by many as a dream or delusion, or else as something superficial and external. The inner consciousness begins to be a place of deep peace, light, happiness, love, closeness to the Divine or the presence of the Divine, the Mother.” Letters on Yoga ::: **mighty Mother, World-Mother, World-Mother"s.**
movement ::: 1. The act or an instance of moving; a change in place or position. A particular manner of moving. 2. Usually, movements, actions or activities, as of a person or a body of persons. ::: movement"s, movements, many-movemented.
Sri Aurobindo: "When we withdraw our gaze from its egoistic preoccupation with limited and fleeting interests and look upon the world with dispassionate and curious eyes that search only for the Truth, our first result is the perception of a boundless energy of infinite existence, infinite movement, infinite activity pouring itself out in limitless Space, in eternal Time, an existence that surpasses infinitely our ego or any ego or any collectivity of egos, in whose balance the grandiose products of aeons are but the dust of a moment and in whose incalculable sum numberless myriads count only as a petty swarm." *The Life Divine
". . . the purest, freest form of insight into existence as it is shows us nothing but movement. Two things alone exist, movement in Space, movement in Time, the former objective, the latter subjective.” The Life Divine
"The world is a cyclic movement (samsâra ) of the Divine Consciousness in Space and Time. Its law and, in a sense, its object is progression; it exists by movement and would be dissolved by cessation of movement. But the basis of this movement is not material; it is the energy of active consciousness which, by its motion and multiplication in different principles (different in appearance, the same in essence), creates oppositions of unity and multiplicity, divisions of Time and Space, relations and groupings of circumstance and Causality. All these things are real in consciousness, but only symbolic of the Being, somewhat as the imaginations of a creative Mind are true representations of itself, yet not quite real in comparison with itself, or real with a different kind of reality.” The Upanishads*
n.**1. Not subject to death. Immortal, immortal"s, Immortal"s, immortals, Immortals, immortals", Immortals". adj. 2. Everlasting; perpetual; constant. 3. Not subject to death or decay; having perpetual life. 4. Of or relating to immortal or divine beings or concepts. 5. Never to be forgotten; everlasting. adv. immortally.**
n. 1. Something judged in relation to its relative worth, merit, or importance. 2. The ideals, principles or standards of a person or society, the personal or societal judgement of what is valuable and important in life; gen. in pl. 3. A standard of estimation or exchange. values. *v. 4. To calculate or reckon the monetary value of; give a specified material or financial value to; assess; appraise. *valued.
name ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Name in its deeper sense is not the word by which we describe the object, but the total of power, quality, character of the reality which a form of things embodies and which we try to sum up by a designating sound, a knowable name, Nomen. Nomen in this sense, we might say, is Numen; the secret Names of the Gods are their power, quality, character of being caught up by the consciousness and made conceivable. The Infinite is nameless, but in that namelessness all possible names, Numens of the gods, the names and forms of all realities, are already envisaged and prefigured, because they are there latent and inherent in the All-Existence.” The Life Divine
nature ::: 1. The universe, with all its phenomena. 2. The forces and processes that produce and control all the phenomena of the material world. 3. The material world, esp. as surrounding human kind and existing independently of human activities. 4. The essential characteristics and qualities of a human being. 5. A particular combination of qualities belonging to a person, animal, thing, of class by birth, origin, or constitution; native or inherent character. 6. Characteristic disposition; temperament. nature"s, Nature"s, natures, earth-nature ("s), Earth-Nature"s, Heaven-nature"s, life-nature"s, soul-nature, World-Nature"s, twi-natured.
nectar ::: 1. *Myth. The life-giving drink of the gods. 2. The juice of a fruit. 3. A delicious or invigorating drink. *nectar-cup.
nescient. ::: *Sri Aurobindo: "Nescience in Nature is the complete self-ignorance; . . . .” The Life Divine*
nirvana ::: Sri Aurobindo: "[Nirvana means] extinction, not necessarily of all being, but of being as we know it; extinction of ego, desire and egoistic action and mentality.” *The Life Divine
non-Being ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Non-Being is only a word. When we examine the fact it represents, we can no longer be sure that absolute non-existence has any better chance than the infinite Self of being more than an ideative formation of the mind. We really mean by this Nothing something beyond the last term to which we can reduce our purest conception and our most abstract or subtle experience of actual being as we know or conceive it while in this universe. This Nothing then is merely a something beyond positive conception. And when we say that out of Non-Being Being appeared, we perceive that we are speaking in terms of Time about that which is beyond Time.” The Life Divine ::: Non-Being"s, Non-being"s, non-being, non-being"s,
*"No, that [‘pours” instead of "poured") would take away all meaning from ‘new fair world" — it is the attempted conquest of earth by life when earth had been created — a past event though still continuing in its sequel and result.” Letters on Savitri*
"Nothing can be more remarkable and suggestive than the extent to which modern Science confirms in the domain of Matter the conceptions and even the very formulae of language which were arrived at, by a very different method, in the Vedanta, — the original Vedanta, not of the schools of metaphysical philosophy, but of the Upanishads. And these, on the other hand, often reveal their full significance, their richer contents only when they are viewed in the new light shed by the discoveries of modern Science, — for instance, that Vedantic expression which describes things in the Cosmos as one seed arranged by the universal Energy in multitudinous forms.(1) Significant, especially, is the drive of Science towards a Monism which is consistent with multiplicity, towards the Vedic idea of the one essence with its many becomings.” The Life Divine
nourished ::: provided with food or other substances necessary for life and growth; fed. nourishing, nourishment.
". . . One Being and Consciousness is involved here in Matter. Evolution is the method by which it liberates itself; consciousness appears in what seems to be inconscient, and once having appeared is self-impelled to grow higher and higher and at the same time to enlarge and develop towards a greater and greater perfection. Life is the first step of this release of consciousness; mind is the second; but the evolution does not finish with mind, it awaits a release into something greater, a consciousness which is spiritual and supramental. The next step of the evolution must be towards the development of Supermind and Spirit as the dominant power in the conscious being. For only then will the involved Divinity in things release itself entirely and it become possible for life to manifest perfection.” On Himself
::: "One Godhead, occult in all beings, the inner Self of all beings, the all-pervading, absolute without qualities, the overseer of all actions, the witness, the knower.” The Life Divine
"One must go deep and find the soul, the self, the Divine Reality within us and only then can life become a true expression of what we can be instead of a blind and always repeated confused blur of the inadequate and imperfect thing we were. The choice is between remaining in the old jumble and groping about in the hope of stumbling on some discovery or standing back and seeking the Light within till we discover and can build the Godhead within and without us. "Letters on Yoga
orbit ::: 1. The curved path, usually elliptical, described by a planet, satellite, etc., around a celestial body, as the sun. 2. The usual course of one"s life or range of one"s activities. orbits.
"Our ego is only a face of the universal being and has no separate existence; our apparent separative individuality is only a surface movement and behind it our real individuality stretches out to unity with all things and upward to oneness with the transcendent Divine Infinity. Thus our ego, which seems to be a limitation of existence, is really a power of infinity; the boundless multiplicity of beings in the world is a result and signal evidence, not of limitation or finiteness, but of that illimitable Infinity.” The Life Divine
"Our explanation of the evolution in Matter is that the universe is a self-creative process of a supreme Reality whose presence makes spirit the substance of things, — all things are there as the spirit"s powers and means and forms of manifestation.” The Life Divine
"Our subliminal self is not, like our surface physical being, an outcome of the energy of the Inconscient; it is a meeting-place of the consciousness that emerges from below by evolution and the consciousness that has descended from above for involution.” The Life Divine
"Over each grade of our being a power of the Spirit presides; we have within us and discover when we go deep enough inwards a mind-self, a life-self, a physical self; there is a being of mind, a mental Purusha, expressing something of itself on our surface in the thoughts, perceptions, activities of our mind-nature, a being of life which expresses something of itself in the impulses, feelings, sensations, desires, external life-activities of our vital nature, a physical being, a being of the body which expresses something of itself in the instincts, habits, formulated activities of our physical nature. These beings or part selves of the self in us are powers of the Spirit and therefore not limited by their temporary expression, for what is thus formulated is only a fragment of its possibilities; but the expression creates a temporary mental, vital or physical personality which grows and develops even as the psychic being or soul-personality grows and develops within us.” The Life Divine
overmind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The overmind is a sort of delegation from the supermind (this is a metaphor only) which supports the present evolutionary universe in which we live here in Matter. If supermind were to start here from the beginning as the direct creative Power, a world of the kind we see now would be impossible; it would have been full of the divine Light from the beginning, there would be no involution in the inconscience of Matter, consequently no gradual striving evolution of consciousness in Matter. A line is therefore drawn between the higher half of the universe of consciousness, parardha , and the lower half, aparardha. The higher half is constituted of Sat, Chit, Ananda, Mahas (the supramental) — the lower half of mind, life, Matter. This line is the intermediary overmind which, though luminous itself, keeps from us the full indivisible supramental Light, depends on it indeed, but in receiving it, divides, distributes, breaks it up into separated aspects, powers, multiplicities of all kinds, each of which it is possible by a further diminution of consciousness, such as we reach in Mind, to regard as the sole or the chief Truth and all the rest as subordinate or contradictory to it.” *Letters on Yoga
"The overmind is the highest of the planes below the supramental.” *Letters on Yoga
"In its nature and law the Overmind is a delegate of the Supermind Consciousness, its delegate to the Ignorance. Or we might speak of it as a protective double, a screen of dissimilar similarity through which Supermind can act indirectly on an Ignorance whose darkness could not bear or receive the direct impact of a supreme Light.” The Life Divine
"The Overmind is a principle of cosmic Truth and a vast and endless catholicity is its very spirit; its energy is an all-dynamism as well as a principle of separate dynamisms: it is a sort of inferior Supermind, — although it is concerned predominantly not with absolutes, but with what might be called the dynamic potentials or pragmatic truths of Reality, or with absolutes mainly for their power of generating pragmatic or creative values, although, too, its comprehension of things is more global than integral, since its totality is built up of global wholes or constituted by separate independent realities uniting or coalescing together, and although the essential unity is grasped by it and felt to be basic of things and pervasive in their manifestation, but no longer as in the Supermind their intimate and ever-present secret, their dominating continent, the overt constant builder of the harmonic whole of their activity and nature.” The Life Divine
"The overmind sees calmly, steadily, in great masses and large extensions of space and time and relation, globally; it creates and acts in the same way — it is the world of the great Gods, the divine Creators.” *Letters on Yoga
"The Overmind is essentially a spiritual power. Mind in it surpasses its ordinary self and rises and takes its stand on a spiritual foundation. It embraces beauty and sublimates it; it has an essential aesthesis which is not limited by rules and canons, it sees a universal and an eternal beauty while it takes up and transforms all that is limited and particular. It is besides concerned with things other than beauty or aesthetics. It is concerned especially with truth and knowledge or rather with a wisdom that exceeds what we call knowledge; its truth goes beyond truth of fact and truth of thought, even the higher thought which is the first spiritual range of the thinker. It has the truth of spiritual thought, spiritual feeling, spiritual sense and at its highest the truth that comes by the most intimate spiritual touch or by identity. Ultimately, truth and beauty come together and coincide, but in between there is a difference. Overmind in all its dealings puts truth first; it brings out the essential truth (and truths) in things and also its infinite possibilities; it brings out even the truth that lies behind falsehood and error; it brings out the truth of the Inconscient and the truth of the Superconscient and all that lies in between. When it speaks through poetry, this remains its first essential quality; a limited aesthetical artistic aim is not its purpose.” *Letters on Savitri
"In the overmind the Truth of supermind which is whole and harmonious enters into a separation into parts, many truths fronting each other and moved each to fulfil itself, to make a world of its own or else to prevail or take its share in worlds made of a combination of various separated Truths and Truth-forces.” Letters on Yoga
*Overmind"s.
oversoul ::: Sri Aurobindo: "But with the extension of our knowledge we discover what this Spirit or Oversoul is: it is ultimately our own highest deepest vastest Self, it is apparent on its summits or by reflection in ourselves as Sachchidananda creating us and the world by the power of His divine Knowledge-Will, spiritual, supramental, truth-conscious, infinite.” *The Life Divine.
pain ::: 1. An unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder. 2. The sensation of acute physical hurt or discomfort caused by injury, illness, etc. **Pain, pain"s, pains, earth-pain, life-pain, world-pain, pain-forgetting, pain-fraught.
periods ::: rather large intervals of time that are meaningful in the life of a person, in history, etc., because of its particular characteristics.
person ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The human birth in this world is on its spiritual side a complex of two elements, a spiritual Person and a soul of personality; the former is man"s eternal being, the latter is his cosmic and mutable being.” *The Life Divine
photon ::: the quantum of electromagnetic energy, regarded as a discrete particle having zero mass, no electric charge, and an indefinitely long lifetime. photon"s.
pilgrimage ::: any long journey, esp. one undertaken as a quest or for a votive purpose, as to pay homage; also the journey of mortal life.
plan ::: n. 1. A systematic arrangement of elements or important parts; a configuration or outline. 2. A scheme, program, or method worked out beforehand for the accomplishment of an objective. plans, heart-plan, life-plan, time-plan, world-plan, vision-plans, world-plan. *v. 3. To formulate a scheme or program for the accomplishment, enactment, or attainment of. *plans, planned, planning.
"Poetry is the rhythmic voice of life, but it is one of the inner and not one of the surface voices.” The Future Poetry
presence ::: 1. The state or fact of being present; current existence or occurrence. 2. A divine, spiritual, or supernatural spirit or influence felt or conceived as present. 3. The immediate proximity of someone or something.
Sri Aurobindo: "It is intended by the word Presence to indicate the sense and perception of the Divine as a Being, felt as present in one"s existence and consciousness or in relation with it, without the necessity of any further qualification or description. Thus, of the ‘ineffable Presence" it can only be said that it is there and nothing more can or need be said about it, although at the same time one knows that all is there, personality and impersonality, Power and Light and Ananda and everything else, and that all these flow from that indescribable Presence. The word may be used sometimes in a less absolute sense, but that is always the fundamental significance, — the essential perception of the essential Presence supporting everything else.” *Letters on Yoga
"Beyond mind on spiritual and supramental levels dwells the Presence, the Truth, the Power, the Bliss that can alone deliver us from these illusions, display the Light of which our ideals are tarnished disguises and impose the harmony that shall at once transfigure and reconcile all the parts of our nature.” Essays Divine and Human
"But if we learn to live within, we infallibly awaken to this presence within us which is our more real self, a presence profound, calm, joyous and puissant of which the world is not the master — a presence which, if it is not the Lord Himself, is the radiation of the Lord within.” *The Life Divine
"The true soul secret in us, — subliminal, we have said, but the word is misleading, for this presence is not situated below the threshold of waking mind, but rather burns in the temple of the inmost heart behind the thick screen of an ignorant mind, life and body, not subliminal but behind the veil, — this veiled psychic entity is the flame of the Godhead always alight within us, inextinguishable even by that dense unconsciousness of any spiritual self within which obscures our outward nature. It is a flame born out of the Divine and, luminous inhabitant of the Ignorance, grows in it till it is able to turn it towards the Knowledge. It is the concealed Witness and Control, the hidden Guide, the Daemon of Socrates, the inner light or inner voice of the mystic. It is that which endures and is imperishable in us from birth to birth, untouched by death, decay or corruption, an indestructible spark of the Divine.” *The Life Divine
"If we need any personal and inner witness to this indivisible All-Consciousness behind the ignorance, — all Nature is its external proof, — we can get it with any completeness only in our deeper inner being or larger and higher spiritual state when we draw back behind the veil of our own surface ignorance and come into contact with the divine Idea and Will behind it. Then we see clearly enough that what we have done by ourselves in our ignorance was yet overseen and guided in its result by the invisible Omniscience; we discover a greater working behind our ignorant working and begin to glimpse its purpose in us: then only can we see and know what now we worship in faith, recognise wholly the pure and universal Presence, meet the Lord of all being and all Nature.” *The Life Divine
"The presence of the Spirit is there in every living being, on every level, in all things, and because it is there, the experience of Sachchidananda, of the pure spiritual existence and consciousness, of the delight of a divine presence, closeness, contact can be acquired through the mind or the heart or the life-sense or even through the physical consciousness; if the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being.” *The Life Divine
"There is a secret divine Will, eternal and infinite, omniscient and omnipotent, that expresses itself in the universality and in each particular of all these apparently temporal and finite inconscient or half-conscient things. This is the Power or Presence meant by the Gita when it speaks of the Lord within the heart of all existences who turns all creatures as if mounted on a machine by the illusion of Nature.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"For what Yoga searches after is not truth of thought alone or truth of mind alone, but the dynamic truth of a living and revealing spiritual experience. There must awake in us a constant indwelling and enveloping nearness, a vivid perception, a close feeling and communion, a concrete sense and contact of a true and infinite Presence always and everywhere. That Presence must remain with us as the living, pervading Reality in which we and all things exist and move and act, and we must feel it always and everywhere, concrete, visible, inhabiting all things; it must be patent to us as their true Self, tangible as their imperishable Essence, met by us closely as their inmost Spirit. To see, to feel, to sense, to contact in every way and not merely to conceive this Self and Spirit here in all existences and to feel with the same vividness all existences in this Self and Spirit, is the fundamental experience which must englobe all other knowledge.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"One must have faith in the Master of our life and works, even if for a long time He conceals Himself, and then in His own right time He will reveal His Presence.” *Letters on Yoga
"They [the psychic being and the Divine Presence in the heart] are quite different things. The psychic being is one"s own individual soul-being. It is not the Divine, though it has come from the Divine and develops towards the Divine.” *Letters on Yoga
"For it is quietness and inwardness that enable one to feel the Presence.” *Letters on Yoga
"Beyond mind on spiritual and supramental levels dwells the Presence, the Truth, the Power, the Bliss that can alone deliver us from these illusions, display the Light of which our ideals are tarnished disguises and impose the harmony that shall at once transfigure and reconcile all the parts of our nature.” *Essays Divine and Human
The Mother: "For, in human beings, here is a presence, the most marvellous Presence on earth, and except in a few very rare cases which I need not mention here, this presence lies asleep in the heart — not in the physical heart but the psychic centre — of all beings. And when this Splendour is manifested with enough purity, it will awaken in all beings the echo of his Presence.” Words of the Mother, MCW, Vol. 15.
::: "Progress is the very heart of the significance of human life, for it means our evolution into greater and richer being; . . . .” *Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
pulse ::: 1. The rhythmic contraction and expansion of an artery at each beat of the heart, often discernible to the touch at points such as the wrists. 2. A throb of life, emotion, etc.
quality ::: Sri Aurobindo: "A quality is the character of a power of conscious being; or we may say that the consciousness of being expressing what is in it makes the power it brings out recognisable by a native stamp on it which we call quality or character.” The Life Divine
real, the ::: Sri Aurobindo: " From our ascending point of view we may say that the Real is behind all that exists; it expresses itself intermediately in an Ideal which is a harmonised truth of itself; the Ideal throws out a phenomenal reality of variable conscious-being which, inevitably drawn towards its own essential Reality, tries at last to recover it entirely whether by a violent leap or normally through the Ideal which put it forth. It is this that explains the imperfect reality of human existence as seen by the Mind, the instinctive aspiration in the mental being towards a perfectibility ever beyond itself, towards the concealed harmony of the Ideal, and the supreme surge of the spirit beyond the ideal to the transcendental.” *The Life Divine
"Reason is only a messenger, a representative or a shadow of a greater consciousness beyond itself which does not need to reason because it is all and knows all that it is.” The Life Divine
::: "Reason, on the contrary, proceeds by analysis and division and assembles its facts to form a whole; but in the assemblage so formed there are opposites, anomalies, logical incompatibilities, and the natural tendency of Reason is to affirm some and to negate others which conflict with its chosen conclusions so that it may form a flawlessly logical system.” The Life Divine*
"Religion in fact is not knowledge, but a faith and aspiration; it is justified indeed both by an imprecise intuitive knowledge of large spiritual truths and by the subjective experience of souls that have risen beyond the ordinary life, but in itself it only gives us the hope and faith by which we may be induced to aspire to the intimate possession of the hidden tracts and larger realities of the Spirit. That we turn always the few distinct truths and the symbols or the particular discipline of a religion into hard and fast dogmas, is a sign that as yet we are only infants in the spiritual knowledge and are yet far from the science of the Infinite.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
"Religion is the first attempt of man to get beyond himself and beyond the obvious and material facts of his existence. Its first essential work is to confirm and make real to him his subjective sense of an Infinite on which his material and mental being depends and the aspiration of his soul to come into its presence and live in contact with it. Its function is to assure him too of that possibility of which he has always dreamed, but of which his ordinary life gives him no assurance, the possibility of transcending himself and growing out of bodily life and mortality into the joy of immortal life and spiritual existence. It also confirms in him the sense that there are worlds or planes of existence other than that in which his lot is now cast, worlds in which this mortality and this subjection to evil and suffering are not the natural state, but rather bliss of immortality is the eternal condition. Incidentally, it gives him a rule of mortal life by which he shall prepare himself for immortality. He is a soul and not a body and his earthly life is a means by which he determines the future conditions of his spiritual being.” The Synthesis of Yoga
religion ::: Sri Aurobindo: "There is no word so plastic and uncertain in its meaning as the word religion. The word is European and, therefore, it is as well to know first what the Europeans mean by it. In this matter we find them, — when they can be got to think clearly on the matter at all, which is itself unusual, — divided in opinion. Sometimes they use it as equivalent to a set of beliefs, sometimes as equivalent to morality coupled with a belief in God, sometimes as equivalent to a set of pietistic actions and emotions. Faith, works and pious observances, these are the three recognised elements of European religion . . . . ::: Religion in India is a still more plastic term and may mean anything from the heights of Yoga to strangling your fellowman and relieving him of the worldly goods he may happen to be carrying with him. It would therefore take too long to enumerate everything that can be included in Indian religion. Briefly, however, it is Dharma or living religiously, the whole life being governed by religion.” *From an unpublished essay
reviving ::: bringing back to life or consciousness. Also fig.
rishi ("s) ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth.” *Social and Political Thought
role ::: 1. The part played by a person in a particular life. 2. Proper or customary function. roles.
romance ::: 1. A long medieval narrative in prose or verse that tells of the adventures and heroic exploits of chivalric heroes. 2. The colourful world, life, or conditions as in novels and other prose narratives depicting heroic or marvellous deeds and pageantry. 3. A love affair.
rude ::: 1. Rough, harsh or ungentle. 2. Lacking the graces and refinement of civilized life; uncouth; primitive. 3. Roughly made or formed; imperfect in design or execution; of a crude construction. 4. Coarse, vulgar, rough; uncivilised; violent in action.
sap ::: the watery fluid that circulates through a plant, carrying food and other substances to the various tissues.. 2. Energy; vitality, life-force.
savitri ::: "In the Mahabharata, the heroine of the tale of Satyavan and Savitri; . . . . She was the daughter of King Ashwapati, and lover of Satyavan, whom she married although she was warned by Narada that he had only one year to live. On the fatal day, when Yama carried off Satyavan"s spirit, she followed him with unswerving devotion. Ultimately Yama was constrained to restore her husband to life.” *Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works
Sri Aurobindo: "Savitri is the Divine Word, daughter of the Sun, goddess of the supreme Truth who comes down and is born to save; . . . .” (Author"s note at beginning of Savitri.)
"Savitri is represented in the poem as an incarnation of the Divine Mother . . . .” Letters on Savitri
The Mother: "Savitri [the poem] is a mantra for the transformation of the world.” Spoken to Udar
scene ::: 1. The place where an action or event occurs. 2. A view or picture presented to the eye (or to the mind) of a place, concourse, incident, series of actions or events, assemblage of objects, etc. 3. The place in which the action of a play, movie, or other narrative occurs; a setting. 4. A subdivision of an act of a play marked by the entrance or departure of one or more actors. 5. An action, episode, complication of events, or situation, in real life. 6. Fig. A view or prospect of something to come. scenes, scene-shifters, earth-scene, earth-scene"s, life-scene, soul-scene, world-scene.
"Self-knowledge is impossible unless we go behind our surface existence, which is a mere result of selective outer experiences, an imperfect sounding-board or a hasty, incompetent and fragmentary translation of a little out of the much that we are, — unless we go behind this and send down our plummet into the subconscient and open ourself to the superconscient so as to know their relation to our surface being.” The Life Divine
self-knowledge ::: knowing of oneself, without help from another.
Sri Aurobindo: The possibility of a cosmic consciousness in humanity is coming slowly to be admitted in modern Psychology, like the possibility of more elastic instruments of knowledge, although still classified, even when its value and power are admitted, as a hallucination. In the psychology of the East it has always been recognised as a reality and the aim of our subjective progress. The essence of the passage over to this goal is the exceeding of the limits imposed on us by the ego-sense and at least a partaking, at most an identification with the self-knowledge which broods secret in all life and in all that seems to us inanimate. *The Life Divine
"Therefore the only final goal possible is the emergence of the infinite consciousness in the individual; it is his recovery of the truth of himself by self-knowledge and by self-realisation, the truth of the Infinite in being, the Infinite in consciousness, the Infinite in delight repossessed as his own Self and Reality of which the finite is only a mask and an instrument for various expression.” The Life Divine
"The Truth-Consciousness is everywhere present in the universe as an ordering self-knowledge by which the One manifests the harmonies of its infinite potential multiplicity.” The Life Divine
sense ::: n. 1. Any of the faculties, as sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch, by which humans and animals perceive stimuli originating from outside or inside the body. 2. Meaning, signification. 3. A more or less vague perception or impression. 4. Any special capacity or perception, estimation, appreciation, etc. 5. A mental or spiritual discernment, realization, or recognition of a dream, or of anything cryptic or symbolical. sense"s, senses, senses", sense-appeal, sense-formed, sense-life"s, sense-pangs, sense-pleasures, sense-railed, sense-shackled, soul-sense. v. 6. To apprehend, detect, or perceive, without or in advance of the evidence of the senses; to perceive instinctively. 7. To be inwardly aware; conscious of. sensed, sensing. *adj. *sensed.
slay ::: 1. To kill or murder; to deprive of life by violence; destroy. slays, slew, slaying, slain, slayer, soul-slaying.
sleep ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Sleep like trance opens the gate of the subliminal to us; for in sleep, as in trance, we retire behind the veil of the limited waking personality and it is behind this veil that the subliminal has its existence.” The Life Divine
slums ::: thickly populated neighbourhoods or districts where the houses and the conditions of life are of a squalid and wretched character.
soul ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The word ‘soul", as also the word ‘psychic", is used very vaguely and in many different senses in the English language. More often than not, in ordinary parlance, no clear distinction is made between mind and soul and often there is an even more serious confusion, for the vital being of desire — the false soul or desire-soul — is intended by the words ‘soul" and ‘psychic" and not the true soul, the psychic being.” *Letters on Yoga
"The word soul is very vaguely used in English — as it often refers to the whole non-physical consciousness including even the vital with all its desires and passions. That was why the word psychic being has to be used so as to distinguish this divine portion from the instrumental parts of the nature.” *Letters on Yoga
"The word soul has various meanings according to the context; it may mean the Purusha supporting the formation of Prakriti, which we call a being, though the proper word would be rather a becoming; it may mean, on the other hand, specifically the psychic being in an evolutionary creature like man; it may mean the spark of the Divine which has been put into Matter by the descent of the Divine into the material world and which upholds all evolving formations here.” *Letters on Yoga
"A distinction has to be made between the soul in its essence and the psychic being. Behind each and all there is the soul which is the spark of the Divine — none could exist without that. But it is quite possible to have a vital and physical being supported by such a soul essence but without a clearly evolved psychic being behind it.” *Letters on Yoga
"The soul and the psychic being are practically the same, except that even in things which have not developed a psychic being, there is still a spark of the Divine which can be called the soul. The psychic being is called in Sanskrit the Purusha in the heart or the Chaitya Purusha. (The psychic being is the soul developing in the evolution.)” *Letters on Yoga
"The soul or spark is there before the development of an organised vital and mind. The soul is something of the Divine that descends into the evolution as a divine Principle within it to support the evolution of the individual out of the Ignorance into the Light. It develops in the course of the evolution a psychic individual or soul individuality which grows from life to life, using the evolving mind, vital and body as its instruments. It is the soul that is immortal while the rest disintegrates; it passes from life to life carrying its experience in essence and the continuity of the evolution of the individual.” *Letters on Yoga
". . . for the soul is seated within and impervious to the shocks of external events. . . .” *Essays on the Gita
". . . the soul is at first but a spark and then a little flame of godhead burning in the midst of a great darkness; for the most part it is veiled in its inner sanctum and to reveal itself it has to call on the mind, the life-force and the physical consciousness and persuade them, as best they can, to express it; ordinarily, it succeeds at most in suffusing their outwardness with its inner light and modifying with its purifying fineness their dark obscurities or their coarser mixture. Even when there is a formed psychic being able to express itself with some directness in life, it is still in all but a few a smaller portion of the being — ‘no bigger in the mass of the body than the thumb of a man" was the image used by the ancient seers — and it is not always able to prevail against the obscurity or ignorant smallness of the physical consciousness, the mistaken surenesses of the mind or the arrogance and vehemence of the vital nature.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
". . . the soul is an eternal portion of the Supreme and not a fraction of Nature.” The Life Divine
"The true soul secret in us, — subliminal, we have said, but the word is misleading, for this presence is not situated below the threshold of waking mind, but rather burns in the temple of the inmost heart behind the thick screen of an ignorant mind, life and body, not subliminal but behind the veil, — this veiled psychic entity is the flame of the Godhead always alight within us, inextinguishable even by that dense unconsciousness of any spiritual self within which obscures our outward nature. It is a flame born out of the Divine and, luminous inhabitant of the Ignorance, grows in it till it is able to turn it towards the Knowledge. It is the concealed Witness and Control, the hidden Guide, the Daemon of Socrates, the inner light or inner voice of the mystic. It is that which endures and is imperishable in us from birth to birth, untouched by death, decay or corruption, an indestructible spark of the Divine.” The Life Divine
*Soul, soul"s, Soul"s, souls, soulless, soul-bridals, soul-change, soul-force, Soul-Forces, soul-ground, soul-joy, soul-nature, soul-range, soul-ray, soul-scapes, soul-scene, soul-sense, soul-severance, soul-sight, soul-slaying, soul-space,, soul-spaces, soul-strength, soul-stuff, soul-truth, soul-vision, soul-wings, world-soul, World-Soul.
Space. Sri Aurobindo: "It is possible in pure mentality to disregard the movement of event and the disposition of substance and realise the pure movement of Conscious-Force which constitutes Space and Time; these two are then merely two aspects of the universal force of Consciousness which in their intertwined interaction comprehend the warp and woof of its action upon itself. And to a consciousness higher than Mind which should regard our past, present and future in one view, containing and not contained in them, not situated at a particular moment of Time for its point of prospection, Time might well offer itself as an eternal present. And to the same consciousness not situated at any particular point of Space, but containing all points and regions in itself, Space also might well offer itself as a subjective and indivisible extension, — no less subjective than Time.” The Life Divine
span ::: n. 1. A very small extent, distance or space. 2. The complete duration or extent of a person"s life. 3. The extent or measure of space between two points or extremities, as of a bridge or roof; the breadth. spans. v. 4. To stretch or extend across, over, around, as a bridge or an arch. Also transf. or fig. **spanned, spanning.**
spirit ::: 1. The principle of conscious life; the vital principle in humans, animating the body or mediating between body and soul. 2. A supernatural being. 3. The essential of anything. 4. An attitude or principle that inspires, animates, or pervades thought, feeling, or action. 5. A supernatural, incorporeal being, esp. one inhabiting a place, object, etc., or having a particular character. **spirit"s, spirits, spirit-depths, spirit-room, spirit-sense, spirit-space, World-spirit, World-Spirit.
::: spirit, and here in Matter itself there can be a realisation of Spirit.” *The Life Divine
". . . Spirit is a final evolutionary emergence because it is the original involutionary element and factor.” The Life Divine*
"Spirit is the soul and reality of that which we sense as Matter; Matter is a form and body of that which we realise as Spirit.” The Life Divine
spiritless ::: devoid of the spirit; lifeless.
". . . spiritual freedom is not the egoistic assertion of our separate mind and life but obedience to the Divine Truth in ourself and our members and in all around us.” The Human Cycle
spiritual Mind ::: "…mind and life and matter are derivations from the Self through a spiritual mind or supermind which is the real support of cosmic existence.” *The Hour of God
Sri Aurobindo: "A compromise is a bargain, a transaction of interests between two conflicting powers; it is not a true reconciliation.” *The Life Divine
*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: "A life of gnostic beings carrying the evolution to a higher supramental status might fitly be characterised as a divine life; for it would be a life in the Divine, a life of the beginnings of a spiritual divine light and power and joy manifested in material Nature.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . all cosmic and real Law is a thing not imposed from outside, but from within, all development is self-development, all seed and result are seed of a Truth of things and result of that seed determined out of its potentialities. For the same reason no Law is absolute, because only the infinite is absolute, and everything contains within itself endless potentialities quite beyond its determined form and course, which are only determined through a self-limitation by Idea proceeding from an infinite liberty within.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "And though this Spirit of the universe, this One who is all, seems to be turning us on the wheel of the world as if mounted on a machine by the force of Maya, shaping us in our ignorance as the potter shapes a pot, as the weaver a fabric, by some skilful mechanical principle, yet is this spirit our own greatest self and it is according to the real idea, the truth of ourselves, that which is growing in us and finding always new and more adequate forms in birth after birth, in our animal and human and divine life, in that which we were, that which we are, that which we shall be, — it is in accordance with this inner soul-truth that, as our opened eyes will discover, we are progressively shaped by this spirit within us in its all-wise omnipotence.” *Essays on the Gita
Sri Aurobindo: "As there are Powers of Knowledge or Forces of the Light, so there are Powers of Ignorance and tenebrous Forces of the Darkness whose work is to prolong the reign of Ignorance and Inconscience. As there are Forces of Truth, so there are Forces that live by the Falsehood and support it and work for its victory; as there are powers whose life is intimately bound up with the existence, the idea and the impulse of Good, so there are Forces whose life is bound up with the existence and the idea and the impulse of Evil. It is this truth of the cosmic Invisible that was symbolised in the ancient belief of a struggle between the powers of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil for the possession of the world and the government of the life of man; — this was the significance of the contest between the Vedic Gods and their opponents, sons of Darkness and Division, figured in a later tradition as Titan and Giant and Demon, Asura, Rakshasa, Pisacha; the same tradition is found in the Zoroastrian Double Principle and the later Semitic opposition of God and his Angels on the one side and Satan and his hosts on the other, — invisible Personalities and Powers that draw man to the divine Light and Truth and Good or lure him into subjection to the undivine principle of Darkness and Falsehood and Evil.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: A symbol, as I understand it, is the form on one plane that represents a truth of another. For instance, a flag is the symbol of a nation…. But generally all forms are symbols. This body of ours is a symbol of our real being and everything is a symbol of some higher reality. There are, however, different kinds of symbols: 1. Conventional symbols, such as the Vedic Rishis formed with objects taken from their surroundings. The cow stood for light because the same word `go ‘ meant both ray and cow, and because the cow was their most precious possession which maintained their life and was constantly in danger of being robbed and concealed. But once created, such a symbol becomes alive. The Rishis vitalised it and it became a part of their realisation. It appeared in their visions as an image of spiritual light. The horse also was one of their favourite symbols, and a more easily adaptable one, since its force and energy were quite evident. 2. What we might call Life-symbols, such as are not artificially chosen or mentally interpreted in a conscious deliberate way, but derive naturally from our day-to-day life and grow out of the surroundings which condition our normal path of living. To the ancients the mountain was a symbol of the path of yoga, level above level, peak upon peak. A journey, involving the crossing of rivers and the facing of lurking enemies, both animal and human, conveyed a similar idea. Nowadays I dare say we would liken yoga to a motor-ride or a railway-trip. 3. Symbols that have an inherent appositeness and power of their own. Akasha or etheric space is a symbol of the infinite all-pervading eternal Brahman. In any nationality it would convey the same meaning. Also, the Sun stands universally for the supramental Light, the divine Gnosis. 4.* Mental symbols, instances of which are numbers or alphabets. Once they are accepted, they too become active and may be useful. Thus geometrical figures have been variously interpreted. In my experience the square symbolises the supermind. I cannot say how it came to do so. Somebody or some force may have built it before it came to my mind. Of the triangle, too, there are different explanations. In one position it can symbolise the three lower planes, in another the symbol is of the three higher ones: so both can be combined together in a single sign. The ancients liked to indulge in similar speculations concerning numbers, but their systems were mostly mental. It is no doubt true that supramental realities exist which we translate into mental formulas such as Karma, Psychic evolution, etc. But they are, so to speak, infinite realities which cannot be limited by these symbolic forms, though they may be somewhat expressed by them; they might be expressed as well by other symbols, and the same symbol may also express many different ideas. Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Aware of the Divine as the Master of our being and action, we can learn to become channels of his Shakti, the Divine Puissance, and act according to her dictates or her rule of light and power within us.” The Life Divine
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: "Life itself here [on earth] is Being at labour in Matter to express itself in terms of conscious force; human life is the human being at labour to impress himself on the material world with the greatest possible force and intensity and extension.” *Social and Political Thought
Sri Aurobindo: "But if the individual is a persistent reality, an eternal portion or power of the Eternal, if his growth of consciousness is the means by which the Spirit in things discloses its being, the cosmos reveals itself as a conditioned manifestation of the play of the eternal One in the being of Sachchidananda with the eternal Many.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "By attaining to the Unborn beyond all becoming we are liberated from this lower birth and death; by accepting the Becoming freely as the Divine, we invade mortality with the immortal beatitude and become luminous centres of its conscious self-expression in humanity.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "By immortality we mean the absolute life of the soul as opposed to the transient and mutable life in the body which it assumes by birth and death and rebirth and superior also to its life as the mere mental being who dwells in the world subjected helplessly to this law of death and birth or seems at least by his ignorance to be subjected to this and to other laws of the lower Nature.” *The Upanishads
Sri Aurobindo: "Destiny in the rigid sense applies only to the outer being so long as it lives in the Ignorance. What we call destiny is only in fact the result of the present condition of the being and the nature and energies it has accumulated in the past acting on each other and determining the present attempts and their future results. But as soon as one enters the path of spiritual life, this old predetermined destiny begins to recede. There comes in a new factor, the Divine Grace, the help of a higher Divine Force other than the force of Karma, which can lift the sadhak beyond the present possibilities of his nature. One"s spiritual destiny is then the divine election which ensures the future.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: " . . . Divine Love which is at the heart of all creation and the most powerful of all redeeming and creative forces has yet been the least frontally present in earthly life, the least successfully redemptive, the least creative. Human nature has been unable to bear it in its purity for the very reason that it is the most powerful, pure, rare and intense of all the divine energies; what little could be seized has been corrupted at once into a vital pietistic ardour, a defenceless religious or ethical sentimentalism, a sensuous or even sensual erotic mysticism of the roseate coloured mind or passionately turbid life-impulse and with these simulations compensated its inability to house the Mystic Flame that could rebuild the world with its tongues of sacrifice. The Synthesis of Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: ". . . every weakness and failure is a first sounding of gulfs of power and potentiality. . . .” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Existence is an infinite and therefore indefinable and illimitable Reality which figures itself out in multiple values of life.” *Social and Political Thought
Sri Aurobindo: "Force of being in conscious action is will.” *The Life Divine
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: " For the highest intuitive Knowledge sees things in the whole, in the large and details only as sides of the indivisible whole; its tendency is towards immediate synthesis and the unity of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "History teaches us nothing; it is a confused torrent of events and personalities or a kaleidoscope of changing institutions. We do not seize the real sense of all this change and this continual streaming forward of human life in the channels of Time. What we do seize are current or recurrent phenomena, facile generalisations, partial ideas. We talk of democracy, aristocracy and autocracy, collectivism and individualism, imperialism and nationalism, the State and the commune, capitalism and labour; we advance hasty generalisations and make absolute systems which are positively announced today only to be abandoned perforce tomorrow; we espouse causes and ardent enthusiasms whose triumph turns to an early disillusionment and then forsake them for others, perhaps for those that we have taken so much trouble to destroy. For a whole century mankind thirsts and battles after liberty and earns it with a bitter expense of toil, tears and blood; the century that enjoys without having fought for it turns away as from a puerile illusion and is ready to renounce the depreciated gain as the price of some new good. And all this happens because our whole thought and action with regard to our collective life is shallow and empirical; it does not seek for, it does not base itself on a firm, profound and complete knowledge. The moral is not the vanity of human life, of its ardours and enthusiasms and of the ideals it pursues, but the necessity of a wiser, larger, more patient search after its true law and aim.” *The Human Cycle etc.
Sri Aurobindo: "Human life is itself only a term in a graded series, through which the secret Spirit in the universe develops gradually his purpose and works it out finally through the enlarging and ascending individual soul-consciousness in the body. This ascent can only take place by rebirth within the ascending order; an individual visit coming across it and progressing on some other line elsewhere could not fit into the system of this evolutionary existence.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . *ideals and idealists are necessary; ideals are the savour and sap of life, idealists the most powerful diviners and assistants of its purposes.” The Human Cycle
Sri Aurobindo: "If this higher buddhi {{understanding in the profoundest sense] could act pure of the interference of these lower members, it would give pure forms of the truth; observation would be dominated or replaced by a vision which could see without subservient dependence on the testimony of the sense-mind and senses; imagination would give place to the self-assured inspiration of the truth, reasoning to the spontaneous discernment of relations and conclusion from reasoning to an intuition containing in itself those relations and not building laboriously upon them, judgment to a thought-vision in whose light the truth would stand revealed without the mask which it now wears and which our intellectual judgment has to penetrate; while memory too would take upon itself that larger sense given to it in Greek thought and be no longer a paltry selection from the store gained by the individual in his present life, but rather the all-recording knowledge which secretly holds and constantly gives from itself everything that we now seem painfully to acquire but really in this sense remember, a knowledge which includes the future(1) no less than the past. ::: Footnote: In this sense the power of prophecy has been aptly called a memory of the future.]” *The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "In considering the action of the Infinite we have to avoid the error of the disciple who thought of himself as the Brahman, refused to obey the warning of the elephant-driver to budge ::: from the narrow path and was taken up by the elephant"s trunk and removed out of the way; ‘You are no doubt the Brahman," said the master to his bewildered disciple, ‘but why did you not obey the driver Brahman and get out of the path of the elephant Brahman?"” *The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "In other words, ethics is a stage in evolution. That which is common to all stages is the urge of Sachchidananda towards self-expression. This urge is at first non-ethical, then infra-ethical in the animal, then in the intelligent animal even anti-ethical for it permits us to approve hurt done to others which we disapprove when done to ourselves. In this respect man even now is only half-ethical. And just as all below us is infra-ethical, so there may be that above us whither we shall eventually arrive, which is supra-ethical, has no need of ethics. The ethical impulse and attitude, so all-important to humanity, is a means by which it struggles out of the lower harmony and universality based upon inconscience and broken up by Life into individual discords towards a higher harmony and universality based upon conscient oneness with all existences. Arriving at that goal, this means will no longer be necessary or even possible, since the qualities and oppositions on which it depends will naturally dissolve and disappear in the final reconciliation.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "In other words, that which has thrown itself out into forms is a triune Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, Sachchidananda, whose consciousness is in its nature a creative or rather a self-expressive Force capable of infinite variation in phenomenon and form of its self-conscious being and endlessly enjoying the delight of that variation.” *The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "In our world error is continually the handmaid and pathfinder of Truth; for error is really a half-truth that stumbles because of its limitations; often it is Truth that wears a disguise in order to arrive unobserved near to its goal.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Intelligence does not depend on the amount one has read, it is a quality of the mind. Study only gives it material for its work as life also does. There are people who do not know how to read and write who are more intelligent than many highly educated people and understand life and things better. On the other hand, a good intelligence can improve itself by reading because it gets more material to work on and grows by exercise and by having a wider range to move in. But book-knowledge by itself is not the real thing, it has to be used as a help to the intelligence but it is often only a help to stupidity or ignorance — ignorance because knowledge of facts is a poor thing if one cannot see their true significance.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "It could be affirmed as a consequence that there is one all-pervading Life or dynamic energy — the material aspect being only its outermost movement — that creates all these forms of the physical universe, Life imperishable and eternal which, even if the whole figure of the universe were quite abolished, would itself still go on existing and be capable of producing a new universe in its place, must indeed, unless it be held back in a state of rest by some higher Power or hold itself back, inevitably go on creating. In that case Life is nothing else than the Force that builds and maintains and destroys forms in the world; it is Life that manifests itself in the form of the earth as much as in the plant that grows upon the earth and the animals that support their existence by devouring the life-force of the plant or of each other. All existence here is a universal Life that takes form of Matter. It might for that purpose hide life-process in physical process before it emerges as submental sensitivity and mentalised vitality, but still it would be throughout the same creative Life-principle.” *The Life Divine
"Sri Aurobindo: "It has been held that ecstasy is a lower and transient passage, the peace of the Supreme is the supreme realisation, the consummate abiding experience. This may be true on the spiritual-mind plane: there the first ecstasy felt is indeed a spiritual rapture, but it can be and is very usually mingled with a supreme happiness of the vital parts taken up by the Spirit; there is an exaltation, exultation, excitement, a highest intensity of the joy of the heart and the pure inner soul-sensation that can be a splendid passage or an uplifting force but is not the ultimate permanent foundation. But in the highest ascents of the spiritual bliss there is not this vehement exaltation and excitement; there is instead an illimitable intensity of participation in an eternal ecstasy which is founded on the eternal Existence and therefore on a beatific tranquillity of eternal peace. Peace and ecstasy cease to be different and become one. The Supermind, reconciling and fusing all differences as well as all contradictions, brings out this unity; a wide calm and a deep delight of all-existence are among its first steps of self-realisation, but this calm and this delight rise together, as one state, into an increasing intensity and culminate in the eternal ecstasy, the bliss that is the Infinite.” The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "It is true that when Matter first emerges it becomes the dominant principle; it seems to be and is within its own field the basis of all things, the constituent of all things, the end of all things: but Matter itself is found to be a result of something that is not Matter, of Energy, and this Energy cannot be something self-existent and acting in the Void, but can turn out and, when deeply scrutinised, seems likely to turn out to be the action of a secret Consciousness and Being: when the spiritual knowledge and experience emerge, this becomes a certitude, — it is seen that the creative Energy in Matter is a movement of the power of the Spirit.” The Life Divine
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: "Masters of the Truth-Light who make the Truth grow by the Truth.” Rig Veda. *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Material Nature is not ethical; the law which governs it is a co-ordination of fixed habits which take no cognisance of good and evil, but only of force that creates, force that arranges and preserves, force that disturbs and destroys impartially, non-ethically, according to the secret Will in it, according to the mute satisfaction of that Will in its own self-formations and self-dissolutions.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . memory is only a process of consciousness, a utility; it cannot be the substance of being or the whole of our personality: it is simply one of the workings of consciousness as radiation is one of the workings of Light.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: " Mental intelligence thinks out because it is merely a reflecting force of consciousness which does not know, but seeks to know; it follows in Time step by step the working of a knowledge higher than itself, a knowledge that exists always, one and whole, that holds Time in its grasp, that sees past, present and future in a single regard.: The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "Mind has its own realms and life has its own realms just as matter has. In the mental realms life and substance are entirely subordinated to Mind and obey its dictates. Here on earth there is the evolution with matter as the starting-point, life as the medium, mind emerging from it. There are many grades, realms, combinations in the cosmos — there are even many universes. Ours is only one of many.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Mind is not sufficient to explain existence in the universe. Infinite Consciousness must first translate itself into infinite faculty of Knowledge or, as we call it from our point of view, omniscience.” The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "Nihil is the void, where there can be no potentialities; . . . .” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "On the other hand, Pranayama awakens the coiled-up serpent of the Pranic dynamism in the vital sheath and opens to the Yogin fields of consciousness, ranges of experience, abnormal faculties denied to the ordinary human life while it puissantly intensifies such normal powers and faculties as he already possesses. These advantages can be farther secured and emphasised by other subsidiary processes open to the Hathayogin.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . our imperfection is the sign of a transitional state, a growth not yet completed, an effort that is finding its way; . . . .” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . our mind has the faculty of imagination; it can create and take as true and real its own mental structures: . . . . Our mental imagination is an instrument of Ignorance; it is the resort or device or refuge of a limited capacity of knowledge, a limited capacity of effective action. Mind supplements these deficiencies by its power of imagination: it uses it to extract from things obvious and visible the things that are not obvious and visible; it undertakes to create its own figures of the possible and the impossible; it erects illusory actuals or draws figures of a conjectured or constructed truth of things that are not true to outer experience. That is at least the appearance of its operation; but, in reality, it is the mind"s way or one of its ways of summoning out of Being its infinite possibilities, even of discovering or capturing the unknown possibilities of the Infinite.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Personality is only a temporary mental, vital, physical formation which the being, the real Person, the psychic entity, puts forward on the surface, — it is not the self in its abiding reality.” *The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "Pleasure, joy and delight, as man uses the words, are limited and occasional movements which depend on certain habitual causes and emerge, like their opposites pain and grief which are equally limited and occasional movements, from a background other than themselves. Delight of being is universal, illimitable and self-existent, not dependent on particular causes, the background of all backgrounds, from which pleasure, pain and other more neutral experiences emerge. When delight of being seeks to realise itself as delight of becoming, it moves in the movement of force and itself takes different forms of movement of which pleasure and pain are positive and negative currents.” The Life Divine*
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . some things are suppressed in the ordinary life and remain lying in the nature, suppressed but not eliminated; they may rise up any day or they may express themselves in various nervous forms or other disorders of the mind or vital or body without it being evident what is their real cause. This has been recently discovered by European psychologists and much emphasised, even exaggerated in a new science called psycho-analysis.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Substance, then, as we know it, material substance, is the form in which Mind acting through sense contacts the Conscious Being of which it is itself a movement of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The Absolute cannot indeed be bound in its nature to manifest a cosmos of relations, but neither can it be bound not to manifest any cosmos. It is not itself a sheer emptiness; for a vacant Absolute is no Absolute, — our conception of a Void or Zero is only a conceptual sign of our mental inability to know or grasp it: it bears in itself some ineffable essentiality of all that is and all that can be; and since it holds in itself this essentiality and this possibility, it must also hold in itself in some way of its absoluteness either the permanent truth or the inherent, even if latent, realisable actuality of all that is fundamental to our or the world"s existence.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The ancient knowledge in all countries was full of the search after the hidden truths of our being and it created that large field of practice and inquiry which goes in Europe by the name of occultism, — we do not use any corresponding word in the East, because these things do not seem to us so remote, mysterious and abnormal as to the occidental mentality; they are nearer to us and the veil between our normal material life and this larger life is much thinner.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "The Being is one, but this oneness is infinite and contains in itself an infinite plurality or multiplicity of itself: the One is the All; it is not only an essential Existence, but an All-Existence. The infinite multiplicity of the One and the eternal unity of the Many are the two realities or aspects of one reality on which the manifestation is founded.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "the black dragon of the Inconscience sustains with its vast wings and its back of darkness the whole structure of the material universe; its energies unroll the flux of things, its obscure intimations seem to be the starting-point of consciousness itself and the source of all life-impulse.” The Life Divine ::: **Unused, guarded beneath Night"s dragon paws,**
Sri Aurobindo: "The Life Heavens are the heavens of the vital gods and there is there a perfect harmony but a harmony of the sublimated satisfied senses and vital desires only.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "The contact of mind with its objects creates what we call sense.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The Divine and no other is the flame of life that sustains the physical body of living creatures and turns its food into sustenance of their vital force. He is lodged in the heart of every breathing thing; from him are memory and knowledge and the debates of the reason. He is that which is known by all the Vedas and by all forms of knowing; he is the knower of Veda and the maker of Vedanta. In other words, the Divine is at once the Soul of matter and the Soul of life and the Soul of mind as well as the Soul of the supramental light that is beyond mind and its limited reasoning intelligence.” *Essays on the Gita
Sri Aurobindo: "The Divinity in man dwells veiled in his spiritual centre; there can be no such thing as self-exceeding for man or a higher issue for his existence if there is not in him the reality of an eternal Self and Spirit.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The duality is a position taken up, a double status accepted for the operations of the self-manifestation of the being; but there is no eternal and fundamental separateness and dualism of Being and its Consciousness-Force, of the Soul and Nature.” *The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "The earth is a material field of evolution. Mind and life, supermind, Sachchidananda are in principle involved there in the earth-consciousness; but only Matter is at first organized; then life descends from the life plane and gives shape and organization and activity to the life principle in Matter, creates the plant and animal; then mind descends from the mind plane, creating man. Now supermind is to descend so as to create a supramental race.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "The faith in the divine Shakti must be always at the back of our strength and when she becomes manifest, it must be or grow implicit and complete. There is nothing that is impossible to her who is the conscious Power and universal Goddess all-creative from eternity and armed with the Spirit"s omnipotence.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The first is the discovery of the soul, not the outer soul of thought and emotion and desire, but the secret psychic entity, the divine element within us. When that becomes dominant over the nature, when we are consciously the soul and when mind, life and body take their true place as its instruments, we are aware of a guide within that knows the truth, the good, the true delight and beauty of existence, controls heart and intellect by its luminous law and leads our life and being towards spiritual completeness.” *The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "The Indian explanation of fate is Karma. We ourselves are our own fate through our actions, but the fate created by us binds us; for what we have sown, we must reap in this life or another. Still we are creating our fate for the future even while undergoing old fate from the past in the present. That gives a meaning to our will and action and does not, as European critics wrongly believe, constitute a rigid and sterilising fatalism. But again, our will and action can often annul or modify even the past Karma, it is only certain strong effects, called utkata karma, that are non-modifiable. Here too the achievement of the spiritual consciousness and life is supposed to annul or give the power to annul Karma. For we enter into union with the Will Divine, cosmic or transcendent, which can annul what it had sanctioned for certain conditions, new-create what it had created, the narrow fixed lines disappear, there is a more plastic freedom and wideness. Neither Karma nor Astrology therefore points to a rigid and for ever immutable fate.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "The Infinite is not a sum of things, it is That which is all things and more.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The Master and Mover of our works is the One, the Universal and Supreme, the Eternal and Infinite. He is the transcendent unknown or unknowable Absolute, the unexpressed and unmanifested Ineffable above us; but he is also the Self of all beings, the Master of all worlds, transcending all worlds, the Light and the Guide, the All-Beautiful and All-Blissful, the Beloved and the Lover. He is the Cosmic Spirit and all-creating Energy around us; he is the Immanent within us. All that is is he, and he is the More than all that is, and we ourselves, though we know it not, are being of his being, force of his force, conscious with a consciousness derived from his; even our mortal existence is made out of his substance and there is an immortal within us that is a spark of the Light and Bliss that are for ever. No matter whether by knowledge, works, love or any other means, to become aware of this truth of our being, to realise it, to make it effective here or elsewhere is the object of all Yoga.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The Mother not only governs all from above but she descends into this lesser triple universe. Impersonally, all things here, even the movements of the Ignorance, are herself in veiled power and her creations in diminished substance, her Nature-body and Nature-force, and they exist because, moved by the mysterious fiat of the Supreme to work out something that was there in the possibilities of the Infinite, she has consented to the great sacrifice and has put on like a mask the soul and forms of the Ignorance. But personally too she has stooped to descend here into the Darkness that she may lead it to the Light, into the Falsehood and Error that she may convert it to the Truth, into this Death that she may turn it to godlike Life, into this world-pain and its obstinate sorrow and suffering that she may end it in the transforming ecstasy of her sublime Ananda. In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass though the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother.” The Mother
Sri Aurobindo: "The ordinary mind in man is not truly the thinking mind proper, it is a life-mind, a vital mind as we may call it, which has learned to think and even to reason but for its own ends and on its own lines, not on those of a true mind of knowledge.” The Human Cycle (footnote).
Sri Aurobindo: "The Purusha, the inner Self, no larger than the size of a man"s thumb.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The quest of man for God, which becomes in the end the most ardent and enthralling of all his quests, begins with his first vague questionings of Nature and a sense of something unseen both in himself and her. Even if, as modern Science insists, religion started from animism, spirit-worship, demon-worship, and the deification of natural forces, these first forms only embody in primitive figures a veiled intuition in the subconscient, an obscure and ignorant feeling of hidden influences and incalculable forces, or a vague sense of being, will, intelligence in what seems to us inconscient, of the invisible behind the visible, of the secretly conscious spirit in things distributing itself in every working of energy. The obscurity and primitive inadequacy of the first perceptions do not detract from the value or the truth of this great quest of the human heart and mind, since all our seekings, — including Science itself, — must start from an obscure and ignorant perception of hidden realities and proceed to the more and more luminous vision of the Truth which at first comes to us masked, draped, veiled by the mists of the Ignorance. Anthropomorphism is an imaged recognition of the truth that man is what he is because God is what He is and that there is one soul and body of things, humanity even in its incompleteness the most complete manifestation yet achieved here and divinity the perfection of what in man is imperfect.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The real subconscious is a nether diminished consciousness close to the Inconscient; the subliminal is a consciousness larger than our surface existence. But both belong to the inner realm of our being of which our surface is unaware, so both are jumbled together in our common conception and parlance.” *The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "There is a Reality, a truth of all existence which is greater and more abiding than all its formations and manifestations; . . . . This Reality is there within each thing and gives to each of its formations its power of being and value of being.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "[There is] a Supernature behind all that is apparent, a supreme power of the Spirit in Time and beyond Time, in Space and beyond Space, a conscious Power of the Self who by her becomes all becomings, of the Absolute who by her manifests all relativities.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "There is no necessity in the essential nature of mind, sense, life that they should be so limited: for the physical sense-organs are not the creators of sense-perceptions, but themselves the creation, the instruments and here a necessary convenience of the cosmic sense; the nervous system and vital organs are not the creators of life"s action and reaction, but themselves the creation, the instruments and here a necessary convenience of the cosmic Life-force; the brain is not the creator of thought, but itself the creation, the instrument and here a necessary convenience of the cosmic Mind. The necessity then is not absolute, but teleological; it is the result of a divine cosmic Will in the material universe which intends to posit here a physical relation between sense and its object, establishes here a material formula and law of Conscious-Force and creates by it physical images of Conscious-Being to serve as the initial, dominating and determining fact of the world in which we live. It is not a fundamental law of being, but a constructive principle necessitated by the intention of the Spirit to evolve in a world of Matter.” The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "The timeless Spirit is not necessarily a blank; it may hold all in itself, but in essence, without reference to time or form or relation or circumstance, perhaps in an eternal unity. Eternity is the common term between Time and the Timeless Spirit. What is in the Timeless unmanifested, implied, essential, appears in Time in movement, or at least in design and relation, in result and circumstance. These two then are the same Eternity or the same Eternal in a double status; they are a twofold status of being and consciousness, one an eternity of immobile status, the other an eternity of motion in status.” The Life Divine ::: "The spiritual fullness of the being is eternity; . . . ” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The true soul secret in us, — subliminal, we have said, but the word is misleading, for this presence is not situated below the threshold of waking mind, but rather burns in the temple of the inmost heart behind the thick screen of an ignorant mind, life and body, not subliminal but behind the veil, — this veiled psychic entity is the flame of the Godhead always alight within us, inextinguishable even by that dense unconsciousness of any spiritual self within which obscures our outward nature. It is a flame born out of the Divine and, luminous inhabitant of the Ignorance, grows in it till it is able to turn it towards the Knowledge. It is the concealed Witness and Control, the hidden Guide, the Daemon of Socrates, the inner light or inner voice of the mystic. It is that which endures and is imperishable in us from birth to birth, untouched by death, decay or corruption, an indestructible spark of the Divine.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The universe is a manifestation of the Reality, and there is a truth of the universal existence, a Power of cosmic being, an all-self or world-spirit. Humanity is a formation or manifestation of the Reality in the universe, and there is a truth and self of humanity, a human spirit, a destiny of human life.” The Life Divine
**Sri Aurobindo: "The Unknowable is Something to us supreme, wonderful and ineffable which continually formulates Itself to our consciousness and continually escapes from the formulation It has made.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The Unknown is not the Unknowable; it need not remain the unknown for us, unless we choose ignorance or persist in our first limitations. For to all things that are not unknowable, all things in the universe, there correspond in that universe faculties which can take cognisance of them, and in man, the microcosm, these faculties are always existent and at a certain stage capable of development. We may choose not to develop them; where they are partially developed, we may discourage and impose on them a kind of atrophy. But, fundamentally, all possible knowledge is knowledge within the power of humanity.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The Unseen with whom there can be no pragmatic relations, unseizable, featureless, unthinkable, undesignable by name, whose substance is the certitude of One Self, in whom world-existence is stilled, who is all peace and bliss — that is the Self, that is what must be known.” Mandukya Upanishad. The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "This material universe is itself only existence as we see it when the soul dwells on the plane of material movement and experience in which the spirit involves itself in form, and therefore all the framework of things in which it moves by the life and which it embraces by the consciousness is determined by the principle of infinite division and aggregation proper to Matter, to substance of form.” The Upanishads
Sri Aurobindo: "This mind of pure intelligence has behind it our inner or subliminal mind which senses directly all the things of the mind-plane, is open to the action of a world of mental forces, and can feel the ideative and other imponderable influences which act upon the material world and the life-plane but which at present we can only infer and cannot directly experience: . . . .” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . thought in itself, in its origin on the higher levels of consciousness, is a perception, a cognitive seizing of the object or of some truth of things which is a powerful but still a minor and secondary result of spiritual vision, a comparatively external and superficial regard of the self upon the self, the subject upon itself or something of itself as object.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "To be entirely sincere means to desire the divine Truth only, to surrender yourself more and more to the Divine Mother, to reject all personal demand and desire other than this one aspiration, to offer every action in life to the Divine and do it as the work given without bringing in the ego. This is the basis of the divine life.” Bases of Yoga*
Sri Aurobindo: "True reconciliation proceeds always by a mutual comprehension leading to some sort of intimate oneness. It is therefore through the utmost possible unification of Spirit and Matter that we shall best arrive at their reconciling truth and so at some strongest foundation for a reconciling practice in the inner life of the individual and his outer existence.” The Life Divine*
Sri Aurobindo: "Vitality means life-force — wherever there is life, in plant or animal or man, there is life-force — without the vital there can be no life in matter and no living action. The vital is a necessary force and nothing can be done or created in the bodily existence, if the vital is not there as an instrument.” *Letters on Yoga
"The vital proper is the life-force acting in its own nature, impulses, emotions, feelings, desires, ambitions, etc., having as their highest centre what we may call the outer heart of emotion, while there is an inner heart where are the higher or psychic feelings and sensibilities, the emotions or intuitive yearnings and impulses of the soul. The vital part of us is, of course, necessary to our completeness, but it is a true instrument only when its feelings and tendencies have been purified by the psychic touch and taken up and governed by the spiritual light and power.” *Letters on Yoga
". . . the vital is the Life-nature made up of desires, sensations, feelings, passions, energies of action, will of desire, reactions of the desire-soul in man and of all that play of possessive and other related instincts, anger, fear, greed, lust, etc., that belong to this field of the nature. Letters on Yoga
The Mother: "The vital is the dynamism of action. It is the seat of the will, of impulses, desires, revolts, etc.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15*.
Sri Aurobindo: "Weakness puts the same test and question to the strengths and energies and greatnesses in which we glory. Power is the play of life, shows its degree, finds the value of its expression; weakness is the play of death pursuing life in its movement and stressing the limit of its acquired energy.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "We have distinguished a fourfold principle of divine Being creative of the universe, — Existence, Conscious-Force, Bliss and Supermind.” *The Life Divine
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: "We see at once that if such an Existence is, it must be, like the Energy, infinite. Neither reason nor experience nor intuition nor imagination bears witness to us of the possibility of a final terminus. All end and beginning presuppose something beyond the end or beginning. An absolute end, an absolute beginning is not only a contradiction in terms, but a contradiction of the essence of things, a violence, a fiction. Infinity imposes itself upon the appearances of the finite by its ineffugable self-existence.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . wrong will and falsehood of the steps, . . . separative egoism inflicting by its ignorance and separate contrary will harm on oneself or harm on others, self-driven to a wrong dealing with one"s own soul, mind, life or body or a wrong dealing with the soul, mind, life, body of others, . . . is the practical sense of all human evil.” *The Life Divine
"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
stage ::: n. 1. A raised platform on which theatrical performances are presented. 2. The scene of any action. 3. The distance between two places of rest on a journey; each of the portions of a journey. 4. A level, degree, or period of time or development in the course of a process. 5. A point in the course of a life, an action or series of events. stages, earth-stage. v. 6. staged. Represented, produced, or exhibited on or as if on a stage.
start ::: n. 1. A beginning of an action, journey, series of events, etc. 2. An initial but often transient display of energy at the onset of an activity. 3. A sudden involuntary jerking movement of the body. starts. v. 4. To begin or set out, as on a journey or activity. 5. To appear or come suddenly into action, life, view, etc.; rise or issue suddenly forth. starts, started, starting.
::: "Still the One is the fundamental Truth of existence, the Many exist by the One and there is therefore an entire dependence of the manifested being on the Ishwara.” *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*
strenuous ::: characterized by vigorous exertion, as action, efforts, life, etc.
subconscient ::: Sri Aurobindo: "In our yoga we mean by the subconscient that quite submerged part of our being in which there is no wakingly conscious and coherent thought, will or feeling or organised reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and stores them up in itself and from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements, crudely repeated or disguised in strange forms can surge up into dream or into the waking nature. No, subliminal is a general term used for all parts of the being which are not on the waking surface. Subconscient is very often used in the same sense by European psychologists because they do not know the difference. But when I use the word, I mean always what is below the ordinary physical consciousness, not what is behind it. The inner mental, vital, physical, the psychic are not subconscious in this sense, but they can be spoken of as subliminal.” *The Synthesis of Yoga.
"The subconscient is a concealed and unexpressed inarticulate consciousness which works below all our conscious physical activities. Just as what we call the superconscient is really a higher consciousness above from which things descend into the being, so the subconscient is below the body-consciousness and things come up into the physical, the vital and the mind-nature from there.
Just as the higher consciousness is superconscient to us and supports all our spiritual possibilities and nature, so the subconscient is the basis of our material being and supports all that comes up in the physical nature.” Letters on Yoga
"That part of us which we can strictly call subconscient because it is below the level of mind and conscious life, inferior and obscure, covers the purely physical and vital elements of our constitution of bodily being, unmentalised, unobserved by the mind, uncontrolled by it in their action. It can be held to include the dumb occult consciousness, dynamic but not sensed by us, which operates in the cells and nerves and all the corporeal stuff and adjusts their life process and automatic responses. It covers also those lowest functionings of submerged sense-mind which are more operative in the animal and in plant life.” *The Life Divine
"The subconscient is a thing of habits and memories and repeats persistently or whenever it can old suppressed reactions, reflexes, mental, vital or physical responses. It must be trained by a still more persistent insistence of the higher parts of the being to give up its old responses and take on the new and true ones.” Letters on Yoga
"About the subconscient — it is the sub-mental base of the being and is made up of impressions, instincts, habitual movements that are stored there. Whatever movement is impressed in it, it keeps. If one impresses the right movement in it, it will keep and send up that. That is why it has to be cleared of old movements before there can be a permanent and total change in the nature. When the higher consciousness is once established in the waking parts, it goes down into the subconscient and changes that also, makes a bedrock of itself there also.” Letters on Yoga
"The sub-conscious is the evolutionary basis in us, it is not the whole of our hidden nature, nor is it the whole origin of what we are. But things can rise from the subconscient and take shape in the conscious parts and much of our smaller vital and physical instincts, movements, habits, character-forms has this source.” Letters on Yoga
"The subconscient is the support of habitual action — it can support good habits as well as bad.” Letters on Yoga
"For the subconscient is the Inconscient in the process of becoming conscious; it is a support and even a root of our inferior parts of being and their movements.” The Life Divine *subconscient"s.
subconscious ::: not wholly conscious; partially or imperfectly conscious; existing or operating in the mind beneath or beyond consciousness.
Sri Aurobindo: "The subconscious in us is the extreme border of our secret inner existence where it meets the Inconscient, it is a degree of our being in which the Inconscient struggles into a half consciousness. . . .” The Life Divine
subtle Matter ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Much more than half our thoughts and feelings are not our own in the sense that they take form out of ourselves; of hardly anything can it be said that it is truly original to our nature. A large part comes to us from others or from the environment, whether as raw material or as manufactured imports; but still more largely they come from universal Nature here or from other worlds and planes and their beings and powers and influences; for we are overtopped and environed by other planes of consciousness, mind planes, life planes, subtle matter planes, from which our life and action here are fed, or fed on, pressed, dominated, made use of for the manifestation of their forms and forces.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"Mind therefore is held by the Hindus to be a species of subtle matter in which ideas are waves or ripples, and it is not limited by the physical body which it uses as an instrument.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"All that manifested from the Eternal has already been arranged in worlds or planes of its own nature, planes of subtle Matter, planes of Life, planes of Mind, planes of Supermind, planes of the triune luminous Infinite. But these worlds or planes are not evolutionary but typal. A typal world is one in which some ruling principle manifests itself in its free and full capacity and energy and form are plastic and subservient to its purpose. Its expressions are therefore automatic and satisfying and do not need to evolve; they stand so long as need be and do not need to be born, develop, decline and disintegrate.” Essays Divine and Human*
" Suffering is not inflicted as a punishment for sin or for hostility — that is a wrong idea. Suffering comes like pleasure and good fortune as an inevitable part of life in the ignorance. The dualities of pleasure and pain, joy and grief, good fortune and ill-fortune are the inevitable results of the ignorance which separates us from our true consciousness and from the Divine. Only by coming back to it can we get rid of suffering. Karma from the past lives exists, much of what happens is due to it, but not all. For we can mend our karma by our own consciousness and efforts. But the suffering is simply a natural consequence of past errors, not a punishment, just as a burn is the natural consequence of playing with fire. It is part of the experience by which the soul through its instruments learns and grows until it is ready to turn to the Divine.” Letters on Yoga
superconscience ::: Sri Aurobindo: "But a third power or possibility of the Infinite Consciousness can be admitted, its power of self-absorption, of plunging into itself, into a state in which self-awareness exists but not as knowledge and not as all-knowledge; the all would then be involved in pure self-awareness, and knowledge and the inner consciousness itself would be lost in pure being. This is, luminously, the state which we call the Superconscience in an absolute sense, — although most of what we call superconscient is in reality not that but only a higher conscient, something that is conscious to itself and only superconscious to our own limited level of awareness.” The Life Divine
superconscient ::: Sri Aurobindo: ". . . the superconscient is consciousness taken up into an absolute of being.” The Life Divine
superlife ::: a word coined by Sri Aurobindo. super. A prefix occurring originally in loanwords from Latin with the basic meaning "above, beyond.” An individual, thing, or property that exceeds customary norms or levels.
"Supermind is the grade of existence beyond mind, life and Matter and, as mind, life and Matter have manifested on the earth, so too must Supermind in the inevitable course of things manifest in this world of Matter. In fact, a supermind is already here but it is involved, concealed behind this manifest mind, life and Matter and not yet acting overtly or in its own power: if it acts, it is through these inferior powers and modified by their characters and so not yet recognisable. It is only by the approach and arrival of the descending Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity of our whole being: it is that that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
supernal ::: 1. Belonging to the realm or state above this world or this present life; pertaining to a higher world or state of existence; coming from above; belonging to the heaven of divine beings; heavenly, celestial, or divine. 2. Lofty; of more than earthly or human excellence, powers, etc. **supernal"s.
That he may stand master of life and fate,
"The Absolute is for us the Ineffable.” The Life Divine
"The Absolute is in itself indefinable by reason, ineffable to the speech; it has to be approached through experience.” The Life Divine*
"The Absolute neither creates nor is created, — in the current sense of making or being made; we can speak of creation only in the sense of the Being becoming in form and movement what it already is in substance and status.” *The Life Divine
::: "The ancient Vedanta presents us with . . . the conception and experience of Brahman as the one universal and essential fact and of the nature of Brahman as Sachchidananda [Existence, Consciousness, Bliss]. In this view the essence of all life is the movement of a universal and immortal existence, the essence of all sensation and emotion is the play of a universal and self-existent delight in being, the essence of all thought and perception is the radiation of a universal and all-pervading truth, the essence of all activity is the progression of a universal and self-effecting good.” The Life Divine
"The animal is satisfied with a modicum of necessity; the gods are content with their splendours. But man cannot rest permanently until he reaches some highest good. He is the greatest of living beings because he is the most discontented, because he feels most the pressure of limitations. He alone, perhaps, is capable of being seized by the divine frenzy for a remote ideal.” The Life Divine
"The ascent to the divine Life is the human journey, the Work of works, the acceptable Sacrifice. This alone is man"s real business in the world and the justification of his existence, without which he would be only an insect crawling among other ephemeral insects on a speck of surface mud and water which has managed to form itself amid the appalling immensities of the physical universe.” The Life Divine
"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 collectivity is a mass, a field of formation; the individual is the diviner of truth, the form-maker, the creator.” The Life Divine
"The colours of the lotuses and the numbers of petals are respectively, from bottom to top: — (1) the Muladhara or physical consciousness centre, four petals, red; (2) the abdominal centre, six petals, deep purple red; (3) the navel centre, ten petals, violet; (4) the heart centre, twelve petals, golden pink; (5) the throat centre, sixteen petals, grey; (6) the forehead centre between the eye-brows, two petals, white; (7) the thousand-petalled lotus above the head, blue with gold light around. The functions are, according to our yoga, — (1) commanding the physical consciousness and the subconscient; (2) commanding the small vital movements, the little greeds, lusts, desires, the small sense-movements; (3) commanding the larger life-forces and the passions and larger desire-movements; (4) commanding the higher emotional being with the psychic deep behind it; (5) commanding expression and all externalisation of the mind movements and mental forces; (6) commanding thought, will, vision; (7) commanding the higher thinking mind and the illumined mind and opening upwards to the intuition and overmind. The seventh is sometimes or by some identified with the brain, but that is an error — the brain is only a channel of communication situated between the thousand-petalled and the forehead centre. The former is sometimes called the void centre, sunya , either because it is not in the body, but in the apparent void above or because rising above the head one enters first into the silence of the self or spiritual being.” Letters on Yoga*
::: "The 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 cosmic consciousness is that in which the limits of ego, personal mind and body disappear and one becomes aware of a cosmic vastness which is or filled by a cosmic spirit and aware also of the direct play of cosmic forces, universal mind forces, universal life forces, universal energies of Matter, universal overmind forces. But one does not become aware of all these together; the opening of the cosmic consciousness is usually progressive. It is not that the ego, the body, the personal mind disappear, but one feels them as only a small part of oneself. One begins to feel others too as part of oneself or varied repetitions of oneself, the same self modified by Nature in other bodies. Or, at the least, as living in the larger universal self which is henceforth one"s own greater reality. All things in fact begin to change their nature and appearance; one"s whole experience of the world is radically different from that of those who are shut up in their personal selves. One begins to know things by a different kind of experience, more direct, not depending on the external mind and the senses. It is not that the possibility of error disappears, for that cannot be so long as mind of any kind is one"s instrument for transcribing knowledge, but there is a new, vast and deep way of experiencing, seeing, knowing, contacting things; and the confines of knowledge can be rolled back to an almost unmeasurable degree. The thing one has to be on guard against in the cosmic consciousness is the play of a magnified ego, the vaster attacks of the hostile forces — for they too are part of the cosmic consciousness — and the attempt of the cosmic Illusion (Ignorance, Avidya) to prevent the growth of the soul into the cosmic Truth. These are things that one has to learn from experience; mental teaching or explanation is quite insufficient. To enter safely into the cosmic consciousness and to pass safely through it, it is necessary to have a strong central unegoistic sincerity and to have the psychic being, with its divination of truth and unfaltering orientation towards the Divine, already in front in ::: —the nature.” Letters on Yoga*
". . . the cosmic Force, masked as a material Energy, hides from our view by its insistent materiality of process the occult fact that the working of the Inconscient is really the expression of a vast universal Life, a veiled universal Mind, a hooded Gnosis, and without these origins of itself it could have no power of action, no organising coherence.” The Life Divine
". . . the creative Energy in Matter is a movement of the power of the Spirit. Matter itself cannot be the original and ultimate reality. At the same time the view that divorces Matter and Spirit and puts them as opposites is unacceptable; Matter is a form of Spirit, a habitation of S Life Divine
::: "The Divine and no other is the flame of life that sustains the physical body of living creatures and turns its food into sustenance of their vital force.” Essays on the Gita
". . . the Divine is formless and nameless, but by that very reason capable of manifesting all possible names and shapes of being.” The Life Divine
"The Divine is that from which all comes, in which all lives, and to return to the truth of the Divine now clouded over by Ignorance is the soul"s aim in life. In its supreme Truth, the Divine is absolute and infinite peace, consciousness, existence, power and Ananda.” Letters on Yoga
"The Divine is transcendent Being and Spirit, all bliss and light and divine knowledge and power, and towards that highest divine existence and its Light we have to rise and bring down the reality of it more and more into our consciousness and life.” Letters on Yoga ::: *Divine"s.
::: "The efficacy of prayer is often doubted and prayer itself supposed to be a thing irrational and necessarily superfluous and ineffective. It is true that the universal will executes always its aim and cannot be deflected by egoistic propitiation and entreaty, it is true of the Transcendent who expresses himself in the universal order that being omniscient his larger knowledge must foresee the thing to be done and it does not need direction or stimulation by human thought and that the individual"s desires are not and cannot be in any world-order the true determining factor. But neither is that order or the execution of the universal will altogether effected by mechanical Law, but by powers and forces of which for human life at least human will, aspiration and faith are not among the least important.
". . . the ego is the lynch-pin invented to hold together the motion of our wheel of nature. The necessity of centralisation around the ego continues until there is no longer need of any such device or contrivance because there has emerged the true self, the spiritual being, which is at once wheel and motion and that which holds all together, the centre and the circumference.” The Life Divine
"The elementary state of material Force is, in the view of the old Indian physicists, a condition of pure material extension in Space of which the peculiar property is vibration typified to us by the phenomenon of sound. But vibration in this state of ether is not sufficient to create forms. There must first be some obstruction in the flow of the Force ocean, some contraction and expansion, some interplay of vibrations, some impinging of force upon force so as to create a beginning of fixed relations and mutual effects. Material Force modifying its first ethereal status assumes a second, called in the old language the aerial, of which the special property is contact between force and force, contact that is the basis of all material relations. Still we have not as yet real forms but only varying forces. A sustaining principle is needed. This is provided by a third self-modification of the primitive Force of which the principle of light, electricity, fire and heat is for us the characteristic manifestation. Even then, we can have forms of force preserving their own character and peculiar action, but not stable forms of Matter. A fourth state characterised by diffusion and a first medium of permanent attractions and repulsions, termed picturesquely water or the liquid state, and a fifth of cohesion, termed earth or the solid state, complete the necessary elements.” The Life Divine*
"The Energy that creates the world can be nothing else than a Will, and Will is only consciousness applying itself to a work and a result.” The Life Divine
::: "The essential cause and condition of universal existence is the Lord, Ishwara or Purusha, manifesting and occupying individual and universal forms.” *The Life Divine
"The Eternal is our refuge; all the rest are false values, the Ignorance and its mazes, a self-bewilderment of the soul in phenomenal Nature.” The Life Divine*
"The gnosis is the effective principle of the Spirit, a highest dynamis of the spiritual existence.” *The Life Divine
"The Gods, who in their highest secret entity are powers of this Supermind, born of it, seated in it as in their proper home, are in their knowledge truth-conscious'' and in their action possessed of theseer-will"".” The Life Divine
the higher ranges of spiritual mind have to open upon our being and consciousness and also that which is beyond even spiritual mind must appear in us if we are to fulfil the divine possibility of our birth into cosmic existence. …The Life Divine
"The Ideal is an eternal Reality which we have not yet realised in the conditions of our own being, not a non-existent which the Eternal and Divine has not yet grasped and only we imperfect beings have glimpsed and mean to create.” The Life Divine
"The Illumined Mind does not work primarily by thought, but by vision; . . . .” The Life Divine
"The individual ego is a pragmatic and effective fiction, a translation of the secret self into the terms of surface consciousness, or a subjective substitute for the true self in our surface experience. . . .”The Life Divine
"The individual is a centre of the whole universal consciousness; . . . .” The Life Divine
". . . the individual is a self-expression of the universal and the transcendent. . . .” The Life Divine
". . . the individual is not a mere cell of the collective existence; he would not cease to exist if separated or expelled from the collective mass.” The Life Divine
The Ineffable: *Sri Aurobindo: "It is this essential indeterminability of the Absolute that translates itself into our consciousness through the fundamental negating positives of our spiritual experience, the immobile immutable Self, the Nirguna Brahman, the Eternal without qualities, the pure featureless One Existence, the Impersonal, the Silence void of activities, the Non-being, the Ineffable and the Unknowable. On the other side it is the essence and source of all determinations, and this dynamic essentiality manifests to us through the fundamental affirming positives in which the Absolute equally meets us; for it is the Self that becomes all things, the Saguna Brahman, the Eternal with infinite qualities, the One who is the Many, the infinite Person who is the source and foundation of all persons and personalities, the Lord of creation, the Word, the Master of all works and action; it is that which being known all is known: these affirmatives correspond to those negatives. For it is not possible in a supramental cognition to split asunder the two sides of the One Existence, — even to speak of them as sides is excessive, for they are in each other, their co-existence or one-existence is eternal and their powers sustaining each other found the self-manifestation of the Infinite.” The Life Divine
"The Infinite creates and is Brahma.” The Renaissance in India ::: "Brahman is not only the cause and supporting power and indwelling principle of the universe, he is also its material and its sole material. Matter also is Brahman and it is nothing other than or different from Brahman.” The Life Divine*
". . . the inner vital or life-self, . . . .” Essays Human and Divine*
"The intermediate link exists. We call it the Supermind or the Truth-Consciousness, because it is a principle superior to mentality and exists, acts and proceeds in the fundamental truth and unity of things and not like the mind in their appearances and phenomenal divisions.” The Life Divine
::: "The Lord of Beings is that which is conscious in the conscious being, but he is also the Conscious in inconscient things, the One who is master and in control of the many that are passive in the hands of Force-Nature. He is the Timeless and Time; he is Space and all that is in Space; he is Causality and the cause and the effect: He is the thinker and his thought, the warrior and his courage, the gambler and his dice-throw. All realities and all aspects and all semblances are the Brahman; Brahman is the Absolute, the transcendent and incommunicable, the Supracosmic Existence that sustains the cosmos, the Cosmic Self that upholds all beings, but It is too the self of each individual: the soul or psychic entity is an eternal portion of the Ishwara; it is his supreme Nature or Consciousness-Force that has become the living being in a world of living beings. The Brahman alone is, and because of It all are, for all are the Brahman; this Reality is the reality of everything that we see in Self and Nature. Brahman, the Ishwara, is all this by his Yoga-Maya, by the power of his Consciousness-Force put out in self-manifestation: he is the Conscious Being, Soul, Spirit, Purusha, and it is by his Nature, the force of his conscious self-existence that he is all things; he is the Ishwara, the omniscient and omnipotent All-ruler, and it is by his Shakti, his conscious Power, that he manifests himself in Time and governs the universe.” The Life Divine*
"The mantra is one of these psycho-spiritual means, at once a symbol, an instrument and a sound body for the divine manifestation, . . . .” The Life Divine
"The mental or vital demigod, the Asura, Rakshasa and Pishacha, — Titan, vital giant and demon, — are superhuman in the pitch and force and movement and in the make of their characteristic nature, but these are not divine and those not supremely divine, for they live in a greater mind power or life power only, but they do not live in the supreme Truth, and only the supreme Truth is divine. Only those who live in a supreme Truth consciousness and embody it are inwardly made or else remade in the Divine image.” Essays Divine and Human
::: ". . . the modern man, even the modern cultured man, is or tends to be to a degree quite unprecedented politikon zôon, a political, economic and social being valuing above all things the efficiency of the outward existence and the things of the mind and spirit mainly, when not exclusively, for their aid to humanity"s vital and mechanical progress: he has not that regard of the ancients which looked up towards the highest heights and regarded an achievement in the things of the mind and the spirit with an unquestioning admiration or a deep veneration for its own sake as the greatest possible contribution to human culture and progress. And although this modern tendency is exaggerated and ugly and degrading in its exaggeration, inimical to humanity"s spiritual evolution, it has this much of truth behind it that while the first value of a culture is its power to raise and enlarge the internal man, the mind, the soul, the spirit, its soundness is not complete unless it has shaped also his external existence and made of it a rhythm of advance towards high and great ideals. This is the true sense of progress and there must be as part of it a sound political, economic and social life, a power and efficiency enabling a people to survive, to grow and to move securely towards a collective perfection, and a vital elasticity and responsiveness that will give room for a constant advance in the outward expression of the mind and the spirit.” The Renaissance in India
The Mother: "Surrender is the decision taken to hand over the responsibility of your life to the Divine. Without this decision nothing is at all possible; if you do not surrender, the Yoga is entirely out of the question. Everything else comes naturally after it, for the whole process starts with surrender.” Questions and Answers, MCW Vol. 3.
The Mother: ‘There are four Asuras. Two have already been converted, and the other two, the Lord of Death and the Lord of Falsehood, made an attempt at conversion by taking on a physical body – they have been intimately associated with my life. The story of these Asuras would be very interesting to recount. . . the Lord of Death disappeared; he lost his physical body, and I don"t know what has become of him. As for the other, the Lord of Falsehood, the one who now rules over this earth, he tried hard to be converted but he found it disgusting!
The Mother: "To be humble means for the mind, the vital and the body never to forget that without the Divine they know nothing, are noting and can do nothing; with the Divine they are nothing but ignorance, chaos and impotence. The Divine alone is Truth, Life, Power, Love, Felicity.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 14.
::: 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 one original transcendent Shakti, the Mother stands above all the worlds and bears in her eternal consciousness the Supreme Divine. Alone, she harbours the absolute Power and the ineffable Presence; containing or calling the Truths that have to be manifested, she brings them down from the Mystery in which they were hidden into the light of her infinite consciousness and gives them a form of force in her omnipotent power and her boundless life and a body in the universe.” The Mother
"The other parts of our natural composition are not only mutable but perishable; but the psychic entity in us persists and is fundamentally the same always: it contains all essential possibilities of our manifestation but is not constituted by them; it is not limited by what it manifests, not contained by the incomplete forms of the manifestation, not tarnished by the imperfections and impurities, the defects and depravations of the surface being. It is an ever-pure flame of the divinity in things and nothing that comes to it, nothing that enters into our experience can pollute its purity or extinguish the flame.” *The Life Divine
::: ". . . the Person puts forward the personality as his role, character, persona, in the present act of his long drama of manifested existence. But the Person is larger than his personality, and it may happen that this inner largeness overflows 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 any structural limits.” *The Life Divine
"The progress of Life involves the development and interlocking of an immense number of things that are in conflict with each other and seem often to be absolute oppositions and contraries. To find amid these oppositions some principle or standing-ground of unity, some workable lever of reconciliation which will make possible a larger and better development on a basis of harmony and not of conflict and struggle, must be increasingly the common aim of humanity in its active life-evolution, if it at all means to rise out of life"s more confused, painful and obscure movement, out of the compromises made by Nature with the ignorance of the Life-mind and the nescience of Matter. This can only be truly and satisfactorily done when the soul discovers itself in its highest and completest spiritual reality and effects a progressive upward transformation of its life-values into those of the spirit; for there they will all find their spiritual truth and in that truth their standing-ground of mutual recognition and reconciliation. The spiritual is the one truth of which all others are the veiled aspects, the brilliant disguises or the dark disfigurements, and in which they can find their own right form and true relation to each other.” *The Human Cycle, etc.
" . . . the psyche, the soul, the inmost entity in us, . . .” The Life Divine
"The real motive power of the life of the soul is Will; desire is only a deformation of will in the dominant bodily life and physical mind. The essential turn of the soul to possession and enjoyment of the world consists in a will to delight, and the enjoyment of the satisfaction of craving is only a vital and physical degradation of the will to delight. It is essential that we should distinguish between pure will and desire, between the inner will to delight and the outer lust and craving of the mind and body.” The Synthesis of Yoga
". . . there are a series of subtler and subtler formulations of substance which escape from and go beyond the formula of the material universe. Without going deeply into matters which are too occult and difficult for our present inquiry, we may say, adhering to the system on which we have based ourselves, that these gradations of substance, in one important aspect of their formulation in series, can be seen to correspond to the ascending series of Matter, Life, Mind, Supermind and that other higher divine triplicity of Sachchidananda. In other words, we find that substance in its ascension bases itself upon each of these principles and makes itself successively a characteristic vehicle for the dominating cosmic self-expression of each in their ascending series.” The Life Divine
"There are, we might say, two beings in us, one on the surface, our ordinary exterior mind, life, body consciousness, another behind the veil, an inner mind, an inner life, an inner physical consciousness constituting another or inner self. This inner self once awake opens in its turn to our true real eternal self. It opens inwardly to the soul, called in the language of this yoga the psychic being which supports our successive births and at each birth assumes a new mind, life and body. It opens above to the Self or Spirit which is unborn and by conscious recovery of it we transcend the changing personality and achieve freedom and full mastery over our nature.” Letters on Yoga
::: "There is an all-seeing purpose in the terrestrial creation; a divine plan is working itself out through its contradictions and perplexities which are a sign of the many-sided achievement towards which are being led the soul"s growth and the endeavour of Nature.” *The Life Divine
"There is no such thing as death, for it is the body that dies and the body is not the man. That which really is, cannot go out of existence, though it may change the forms through which it appears, just as that which is non-existent cannot come into being. The soul is and cannot cease to be. This opposition of is and is not, this balance of being and becoming which is the mind"s view of existence, finds its end in the realisation of the soul as the one imperishable self by whom all this universe has been extended. Finite bodies have an end, but that which possesses and uses the body, is infinite, illimitable, eternal, indestructible. It casts away old and takes up new bodies as a man changes worn-out raiment for new; and what is there in this to grieve at and recoil and shrink? This is not born, nor does it die, nor is it a thing that comes into being once and passing away will never come into being again. It is unborn, ancient, sempiternal; it is not slain with the slaying of the body. Who can slay the immortal spirit? Weapons cannot cleave it, nor the fire burn, nor do the waters drench it, nor the wind dry. Eternally stable, immobile, all-pervading, it is for ever and for ever. Not manifested like the body, but greater than all manifestation, not to be analysed by the thought, but greater than all mind, not capable of change and modification like the life and its organs and their objects, but beyond the changes of mind and life and body, it is yet the Reality which all these strive to figure.” Essays on the Gita
The Seer, the Thinker, the Self-existent who becomes everywhere has ordered perfectly all things from years sempiternal. Isha Upanishad. (1) The Life Divine
". . . the Self is a fundamental aspect of Brahman, but with a certain stress on its impersonality;. . . .” The Life Divine
"The Spirit is the truth of our being; mind and life and body in their imperfection are its masks, but in their perfection should be its moulds.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
The spiritual man who can guide human life towards its perfection is typified in the ancient Indian idea of the Rishi, one who has lived fully the life of man and found the word of the supra-intellectual, supramental, spiritual truth. He has risen above these lower limitations and can view all things from above, but also he is in sympathy with their effort and can view them from within; he has the complete inner knowledge and the higher surpassing knowledge. Therefore he can guide the world humanly as God guides it divinely, because like the Divine he is in the life of the world and yet above it.” The Human Cycle*
"The Supermind then is Being moving out into a determinative self-knowledge which perceives certain truths of itself and wills to realise them in a temporal and spatial extension of its own timeless and spaceless existence. Whatever is in its own being, takes form as self-knowledge, as Truth-Consciousness, as Real-Idea, and, that self-knowledge being also self-force, fulfils or realises itself inevitably in Time and Space.” The Life Divine
"The supramental is simply the Truth-Consciousness and what it brings in its descent is the full truth of life, the full truth of consciousness in Matter. One has indeed to rise to high summits to reach it, but the more one rises, the more one can bring down below.” 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*
"The surface mental individuality is, in consequence, always ego-centric; even its altruism is an enlargement of its ego: the ego is the lynch-pin invented to hold together the motion of our wheel of nature. The necessity of centralisation around the ego continues until there is no longer need of any such device or contrivance because there has emerged the true self, the spiritual being, which is at once wheel and motion and that which holds all together, the centre and the circumference.” *The Life Divine
::: "The third step is to know the Divine Being who is at once our supreme transcendent Self, the Cosmic Being, foundation of our universality, and the Divinity within of which our psychic being, the true evolving individual in our nature, is a portion, a spark, a flame growing into the eternal Fire from which it was lit and of which it is the witness ever living within us and the conscious instrument of its light and power and joy and beauty.” *The Life Divine
"The triple principle was doubly recognised, first in the threefold divine principle answering to the later Sachchidananda, the divine existence, consciousness and bliss, and secondly in the threefold mundane principle, Mind, Life, Body, upon which is built the triple world of the Veda and Puranas.” *The Secret of the Veda
"The true essence of sacrifice is not self-immolation, it is self-giving; its object not self-effacement, but self-fulfilment; its method not self-mortification, but a greater life, not self-mutilation, but a transformation of our natural human parts into divine members, not self-torture, but a passage from a lesser satisfaction to a greater Ananda.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"The true Person is not an isolated entity, his individuality is universal; for he individualises the universe: . . . .” The Life Divine
"The Unknowable, — not absolutely unknowable, but beyond mental knowledge, — can only be a higher degree in the intensity of being of that Something, a degree beyond the loftiest summit attainable by mental beings, and, if it were known as it must be known to itself, that discovery would not destroy entirely what is given us by our supreme possible knowledge but rather carry it to a higher fulfilment and larger truth of what it has already gained by self-vision and self-experience.” The Life Divine
"The view I am presenting goes farther in idealism; it sees the creative Idea as Real-Idea, that is to say, a power of Conscious Force expressive of real being, born out of real being and partaking of its nature and neither a child of the Void nor a weaver of fictions. It is conscious Reality throwing itself into mutable forms of its own imperishable and immutable substance. The world is therefore not a figment of conception in the universal Mind, but a conscious birth of that which is beyond Mind into forms of itself.” The Life Divine
"The vital is the. . . being behind the Force of Life; in its outer form in the Ignorance it generates the desire-soul which governs most men and which they mistake often for the real soul. ::: The vital as the desire-soul and desire-nature controls the consciousness to a large extent in most men, because men are governed by desire.” Letters on Yoga
"The whole energy of the soul is not at play in the physical body and life, the secret powers of mind are not awake in it, the bodily and nervous energies predominate. But all the while the supreme energy is there, asleep; it is said to be coiled up and slumbering like a snake, — therefore it is called the kundalinî sakti, — in the lowest of the chakras, in the mûlâdhâra. When by Pranayama the division between the upper and lower prana currents in the body is dissolved, this Kundalini is struck and awakened, it uncoils itself and begins to rise upward like a fiery serpent breaking open each lotus as it ascends until the Shakti meets the Purusha in the brahmarandhra in a deep samadhi of union.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"The whole nature of man is to become more than himself. He was the man-animal, he has become more than the animal man. He is the thinker, the craftsman, the seeker after beauty. He shall be more than the thinker, he shall be the seer of knowledge; he shall be more than the craftsman, he shall be the creator and master of his creation; he shall be more than the seeker of beauty, for he shall enjoy all beauty and all delight. Physical he seeks for this immortal substance; vital he seeks after immortal life and the infinite power of his being; mental and partial in knowledge, he seeks after the whole light and the utter vision.
"The Word has its seed-sounds — suggesting the eternal syllable of the Veda, A U M, and the seed-sounds of the Tantriks — which carry in them the principles of things; it has its forms which stand behind the revelatory and inspired speech that comes to man"s supreme faculties, and these compel the forms of things in the universe; it has its rhythms, — for it is no disordered vibration, but moves out into great cosmic measures, — and according to the rhythm is the law, arrangement, harmony, processes of the world it builds. Life itself is a rhythm of God.” The Upanishads
::: "This conception of the Person and Personality, if accepted, must modify at the same time our current ideas about the immortality of the soul; for, normally, when we insist on the soul"s undying existence, what is meant is the survival after death of a definite unchanging personality which was and will always remain the same throughout eternity. It is the very imperfect superficial I'' of the moment, evidently regarded by Nature as a temporary form and not worth preservation, for which we demand this stupendous right to survival and immortality. But the demand is extravagant and cannot be conceded; theI"" of the moment can only merit survival if it consents to change, to be no longer itself but something else, greater, better, more luminous in knowledge, more moulded in the image of the eternal inner beauty, more and more progressive towards the divinity of the secret Spirit. It is that secret Spirit or divinity of Self in us which is imperishable, because it is unborn and eternal. The psychic entity within, its representative, the spiritual individual in us, is the Person that we are; but the I'' of this moment, theI"" of this life is only a formation, a temporary personality of this inner Person: it is one step of the many steps of our evolutionary change, and it serves its true purpose only when we pass beyond it to a farther step leading nearer to a higher degree of consciousness and being. It is the inner Person that survives death, even as it pre-exists before birth; for this constant survival is a rendering of the eternity of our timeless Spirit into the terms of Time.” The Life Divine
"This secret Self in all beings is not apparent, but it is seen by means of the supreme reason, the subtle, by those who have the subtle vision. — Katha Upanishad. *The Life Divine
"This Self is fourfold, — the Self of Waking who has the outer intelligence and enjoys external things, is its first part; the Self of Dream who has the inner intelligence and enjoys things subtle, is its second part; the Self of Sleep, unified, a massed intelligence, blissful and enjoying bliss, is the third part… the lord of all, the omniscient, the inner Control. That which is unseen, indefinable, self-evident in its one selfhood, is the fourth part: this is the Self, this is that which has to be known.” Mandukya Upanishad. (5) The Life Divine*
thought-Mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Our first decisive step out of our human intelligence, our normal mentality, is an ascent into a higher Mind, a mind no longer of mingled light and obscurity or half-light, but a large clarity of the Spirit. Its basic substance is a unitarian sense of being with a powerful multiple dynamisation capable of the formation of a multitude of aspects of knowledge, ways of action, forms and significances of becoming, of all of which there is a spontaneous inherent knowledge. It is therefore a power that has proceeded from the Overmind, — but with the Supermind as its ulterior origin, — as all these greater powers have proceeded: but its special character, its activity of consciousness are dominated by Thought; it is a luminous thought-mind, a mind of Spirit-born conceptual knowledge. An all-awareness emerging from the original identity, carrying the truths the identity held in itself, conceiving swiftly, victoriously, multitudinously, formulating and by self-power of the Idea effectually realising its conceptions, is the character of this greater mind of knowledge. " *The Life Divine
time ::: 1. Duration regarded as belonging to the present life as distinct from the life to come or from eternity; finite duration. 2. A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future. 3. A period in the existence or history of the world; an age, an era. Time, time-born, time-bound, time-constructed, time-driven, time-field, time-flakes, time-inn, time-loop, time-made, time-plan, time-vexed, time-walk, world-time, World-Time"s.
"Time is a manifestation of the Eternal.” The Life Divine
" To become ourselves by exceeding ourselves, — so we may turn the inspired phrases of a half-blind seer who knew not the self of which he spoke, — is the difficult and dangerous necessity, the cross surmounted by an invisible crown which is imposed on us, the riddle of the true nature of his being proposed to man by the dark Sphinx of the Inconscience below and from within and above by the luminous veiled Sphinx of the infinite Consciousness and eternal Wisdom confronting him as an inscrutable divine Maya. To exceed ego and be our true self, to be aware of our real being, to possess it, to possess a real delight of being, is therefore the ultimate meaning of our life here; it is the concealed sense of our individual and terrestrial existence.” The Life Divine*
totalitarian ::: of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed.
tragedy ::: 1. The tragic element of drama, or literature generally, or of life. 2. A disastrous event, especially one involving distressing loss or injury to life. tragedies.
transcendent ::: Sri Aurobindo: "A Transcendent who is beyond all world and all Nature and yet possesses the world and its nature, who has descended with something of himself into it and is shaping it into that which as yet it is not, is the Source of our being, the Source of our works and their Master. But the seat of the Transcendent Consciousness is above in an absoluteness of divine Existence — and there too is the absolute Power, Truth, Bliss of the Eternal — of which our mentality can form no conception and of which even our greatest spiritual experience is only a diminished reflection in the spiritualised mind and heart, a faint shadow, a thin derivate. Yet proceeding from it there is a sort of golden corona of Light, Power, Bliss and Truth — a divine Truth-Consciousness as the ancient mystics called it, a Supermind, a Gnosis, with which this world of a lesser consciousness proceeding by Ignorance is in secret relation and which alone maintains it and prevents it from falling into a disintegrated chaos.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"The Transcendent, the Universal, the Individual are three powers overarching, underlying and penetrating the whole manifestation; this is the first of the Trinities. In the unfolding of consciousness also, these are the three fundamental terms and none of them can be neglected if we would have the experience of the whole Truth of existence. Out of the individual we wake into a vaster freer cosmic consciousness; but out of the universal too with its complex of forms and powers we must emerge by a still greater self-exceeding into a consciousness without limits that is founded on the Absolute.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"We see then that there are three terms of the one existence, transcendent, universal and individual, and that each of these always contains secretly or overtly the two others. The Transcendent possesses itself always and controls the other two as the basis of its own temporal possibilities; that is the Divine, the eternal all-possessing God-consciousness, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, which informs, embraces, governs all existences. The human being is here on earth the highest power of the third term, the individual, for he alone can work out at its critical turning-point that movement of self-manifestation which appears to us as the involution and evolution of the divine consciousness between the two terms of the Ignorance and the Knowledge.” The Life Divine
The Transcendent
This is what is termed the Adya Shakti; she is the Supreme Consciousness and Power above the universe and it is by her that all the Gods are manifested, and even the supramental Ishwara comes into manifestation through her — the supramental Purushottama of whom the Gods are Powers and Personalities.” Letters on Yoga
**Transcendent"s.**
transformation ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Transformation means that the higher consciousness or nature is brought down into the mind, vital and body and takes the place of the lower. There is a higher consciousness of the true self, which is spiritual, but it is above; if one rises above into it, then one is free as long as one remains there, but if one comes down into or uses mind, vital or body — and if one keeps any connection with life, one has to do so, either to come down and act from the ordinary consciousness or else to be in the self but use mind, life and body, then the imperfections of these instruments have to be faced and mended — they can only be mended by transformation.” *Letters on Yoga
"‘Transformation" is a word that I have brought in myself (like ‘supermind") to express certain spiritual concepts and spiritual facts of the integral yoga. People are now taking them up and using them in senses which have nothing to do with the significance which I put into them. Purification of the nature by the ‘influence" of the Spirit is not what I mean by transformation; purification is only part of a psychic change or a psycho-spiritual change — the word besides has many senses and is very often given a moral or ethical meaning which is foreign to my purpose.” *Letters on Yoga
"It is indeed as a result of our evolution that we arrive at the possibility of this transformation. As Nature has evolved beyond Matter and manifested Life, beyond Life and manifested Mind, so she must evolve beyond Mind and manifest a consciousness and power of our existence free from the imperfection and limitation of our mental existence, a supramental or truth-consciousness and able to develop the power and perfection of the spirit. Here a slow and tardy change need no longer be the law or manner of our evolution; it will be only so to a greater or less extent so long as a mental ignorance clings and hampers our ascent; but once we have grown into the truth-consciousness its power of spiritual truth of being will determine all. Into that truth we shall be freed and it will transform mind and life and body. Light and bliss and beauty and a perfection of the spontaneous right action of all the being are there as native powers of the supramental truth-consciousness and these will in their very nature transform mind and life and body even here upon earth into a manifestation of the truth-conscious spirit. The obscurations of earth will not prevail against the supramental truth-consciousness, for even into the earth it can bring enough of the omniscient light and omnipotent force of the spirit conquer. All may not open to the fullness of its light and power, but whatever does open must that extent undergo the change. That will be the principle of transformation.” The Supramental Manifestation
The Mother: "Transformation. The change by which all the elements and all the movements of the being become ready to manifest the supramental Truth.”
"One thing you must know and never forget: in the work of transformation all that is true and sincere will always be kept; only what is false and insincere will disappear.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
triple heavens ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Vishnu is the wide-moving one. He is that which has gone abroad — as it is put in the language of the Isha Upanishad, sa paryagât, — triply extending himself as Seer, Thinker and Former, in the superconscient Bliss, in the heaven of mind, in the earth of the physical consciousness, tredhâ vicakramânah. In those three strides he has measured out, he has formed in all their extension the earthly worlds; for in the Vedic idea the material world which we inhabit is only one of several steps leading to and supporting the vital and mental worlds beyond. In those strides he supports upon the earth and mid-world, — the earth the material, the mid-world the vital realms of Vayu, Lord of the dynamic Life-principle, — the triple heaven and its three luminous summits, trîni rocanâ. These heavens the Rishi describes as the higher seat of the fulfilling. Earth, the mid-world and heaven are the triple place of the conscious being"s progressive self-fulfilling, trishadhastha, earth the lower seat, the vital world the middle, heaven the higher. All these are contained in the threefold movement of Vishnu.” The Secret of the Veda
"True sincerity consists in following the way because you cannot do otherwise, in consecrating yourself to the divine life because you cannot do otherwise, in endeavouring to transform your being and emerge into the Light because you cannot do otherwise, because it is the very reason for which you live.” *Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 15.
truth-Consciousness ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Truth-Consciousness is everywhere present in the universe as an ordering self-knowledge by which the One manifests the harmonies of its infinite potential multiplicity.” *The Life Divine
". . . Truth is the secret of life and power . . . .” 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
"Universe is a diffusion of the divine All in infinite Space and Time, the individual its concentration within limits of Space and Time.” The Life Divine
::: "Universe is a diffusion of the divine All in infinite Space and Time, the individual its concentration within limits of Space and Time. Universe seeks in infinite extension the divine totality it feels itself to be but cannot entirely realise; for in extension existence drives at a pluralistic sum of itself which can neither be the primal nor the final unit, but only a recurring decimal without end or beginning.” *The Life Divine
vicissitudes ::: 1. Successive, alternating, or changing phases or conditions, as of life or fortune. 2. Changes or variations occurring in the course of something.
virat ::: "(Purusha) The universal or cosmic Soul; ‘God practical"; Lord of Waking-Life, who governs, preserves and maintains the sensible creation which Hiranyagarbha has shaped.” *Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works
vital ::: 1. Of or pertaining to life. 2. Being the seat or source of life. 3. Necessary to life. 4. Necessary to the existence, continuance, or well-being of something; indispensable; essential.
vital gods ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Life Heavens are the heavens of the vital gods and there is there a perfect harmony but a harmony of the sublimated satisfied senses and vital desires only.” Letters on Yoga
"Vitality means life-force — wherever there is life, in plant or animal or man, there is life-force — without the vital there can be no life in matter and no living action. The vital is a necessary force and nothing can be done or created in the bodily existence, if the vital is not there as an instrument.” Letters on Yoga*
vivid ::: 1. Full of life; lively; animated. 2. Strikingly bright or intense, as colour, light, etc. 3. Making a powerful impact on the emotions or senses. 4. Uttered, operating, or acting with vigour. 5. Strong, distinct, or clearly perceptible.
voyage ::: n. 1. A journey or expedition from one place to another, (esp. a long journey). 2. A journey of exploration or discovery of human life and the self. voyager, voyagers. v. 3. To make or take a voyage; travel; journey. 4. To travel over or traverse (something). Also fig. **voyages, voyaged, voyaging.**
wanderer ::: someone who leads a wandering unsettled life. Also fig. wanderers.
want ::: n. 1. Anything that is needed, desired, or lacked. 2. The condition or quality of lacking something usual or necessary. 3. A sense of lack or need of something. wants, life-wants. v. 4. To feel a need or desire for. wanted.
way ::: 1. A road, path, or highway affording passage from one place to another. Also fig. 2. Any line of passage or progression, esp. in a particular direction. 3. A direction or vicinity. 4. A course of life, action, or experience. 5. A prescribed course of life or conduct; also in pl. 6. A method, plan, or means for attaining a goal. 7. A method, plan, or means for attaining a goal. 8. Space for passing or advancing. 9. Characteristic or habitual manner. 10. Distance. ways, earth-ways, half-way, world-ways, Angel of the Way, evolving Way, heavenly Way, middle Way, shining upward Way, terrestrial Way, the Way.
"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. . . become conscious, in our physical movements, in our nervous and vital reactions, in our mental workings, of a Force greater than body, mind and life which takes hold of our limited instruments and drives all their motion. There is no longer the sense of ourselves moving, thinking or feeling but of that moving, feeling and thinking in us. This force that we feel is the universal Force of the Divine, which, veiled or unveiled, acting directly or permitting the use of its powers by beings in the cosmos, is the one Energy that alone exists and alone makes universal or individual action possible. For this force is the Divine itself in the body of its power; all is that, power of act, power of thought and knowledge, power of mastery and enjoyment, power of love.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"We have laid down that the origin, the continent, the initial and the ultimate reality of all that is in the cosmos is the triune principle of transcendent and infinite Existence, Consciousness and Bliss which is the nature of divine being.” The Life Divine
::: "We have to face the future"s offer of death as well as its offer of life, and it need not alarm us, for it is by constant death to our old names and forms that we shall live most vitally in greater and newer forms and names.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"We might say then that there are three elements in the totality of our being: there is the submental and the subconscient which appears to us as if it were inconscient, comprising the material basis and a good part of our life and body; there is the subliminal, which comprises the inner being, taken in its entirety of inner mind, inner life, inner physical with the soul or psychic entity supporting them; there is this waking consciousness which the subliminal and the subconscient throw up on the surface, a wave of their secret surge. But even this is not an adequate account of what we are; for there is not only something deep within behind our normal self-awareness, but something also high above it: that too is ourselves, other than our surface mental personality, but not outside our true self; that too is a country of our spirit. For the subliminal proper is no more than the inner being on the level of the Knowledge-Ignorance luminous, powerful and extended indeed beyond the poor conception of our waking mind, but still not the supreme or the whole sense of our being, not its ultimate mystery.” The Life Divine
"We see that the Absolute, the Self, the Divine, the Spirit, the Being is One; the Transcendental is one, the Cosmic is one: but we see also that beings are many and each has a self, a spirit, a like yet different nature. And since the spirit and essence of things is one, we are obliged to admit that all these many must be that One, and it follows that the One is or has become many; but how can the limited or relative be the Absolute and how can man or beast or bird be the Divine Being? But in erecting this apparent contradiction the mind makes a double error. It is thinking in the terms of the mathematical finite unit which is sole in limitation, the one which is less than two and can become two only by division and fragmentation or by addition and multiplication; but this is an infinite Oneness, it is the essential and infinite Oneness which can contain the hundred and the thousand and the million and billion and trillion. Whatever astronomic or more than astronomic figures you heap and multiply, they cannot overpass or exceed that Oneness; for, in the language of the Upanishad, it moves not, yet is always far in front when you would pursue and seize it. It can be said of it that it would not be the infinite Oneness if it were not capable of an infinite multiplicity; but that does not mean that the One is plural or can be limited or described as the sum of the Many: on the contrary, it can be the infinite Many because it exceeds all limitation or description by multiplicity and exceeds at the same time all limitation by finite conceptual oneness.” The Life Divine
"We speak of the evolution of Life in Matter, the evolution of Mind in Matter; but evolution is a word which merely states the phenomenon without explaining it. For there seems to be no reason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mind out of living form, unless we accept the Vedantic solution that Life is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Consciousness.” The Life Divine
"What becomes desire in the ego is Will in the Spirit.” The Life Divine
". . . what is this strongly separative self-experience that we call ego? It is nothing fundamentally real in itself but only a practical constitution of our consciousness devised to centralise the activities of Nature in us. We perceive a formation of mental, physical, vital experience which distinguishes itself from the rest of being, and that is what we think of as ourselves in nature — this individualisation of being in becoming. We then proceed to conceive of ourselves as something which has thus individualised itself and only exists so long as it is individualised, — a temporary or at least a temporal becoming; or else we conceive of ourselves as someone who supports or causes the individualisation, an immortal being perhaps but limited by its individuality. This perception and this conception constitute our ego-sense.” The Life Divine
wheel ::: n. 1. A solid disk or a rigid circular ring connected by spokes to a hub, designed to turn around an axle passed through the centre. 2. Something resembling such a disk or ring in appearance or movement or having a wheel as its principal part or characteristic. 3. Moving, propelling, or animating agencies. 4. Fig. Signifying the eternal recurrence of all things. Wheel, Wheel"s, wheels, the wheels of Circumstance, the wheels of Doom, the wheel of God, the wheels of life, the wheel of works. v. 5. To turn or cause to turn on or as if on an axis. wheels, wheeled.
wheel of law ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Existence is not merely a machinery of Nature, a wheel of law in which the soul is entangled for a moment or for ages; it is a constant manifestation of the Spirit. Life is not for the sake of life alone, but for God, and the living soul of man is an eternal portion of the Godhead.” Essays on the Gita
"When we see with the inner vision and sense and not with the physical eye a tree or other object, what we become aware of is an infinite one Reality constituting the tree or object, pervading its every atom and molecule, forming them out of itself, building the whole nature, process of becoming, operation of indwelling energy; all of these are itself, are this infinite, this Reality: we see it extending indivisibly and uniting all objects so that none is really separate from it or quite separate from other objects. ‘It stands," says the Gita, ‘undivided in beings and yet as if divided." Thus each object is that Infinite and one in essential being with all other objects that are also forms and names, — powers, numens, — of the Infinite.” The Life Divine
"When we study this Life as it manifests itself upon earth with Matter as its basis, we observe that essentially it is a form of the one cosmic Energy, a dynamic movement or current of it positive and negative, a constant act or play of the Force which builds up forms, energises them by a continual stream of stimulation and maintains them by an unceasing process of disintegration and renewal of their substance. This would tend to show that the natural opposition we make between death and life is an error of our mentality, one of those false oppositions — false to inner truth though valid in surface practical experience — which, deceived by appearances, it is constantly bringing into the universal unity.” The Life Divine ::: *life"s, life-born, life-curve, life-delight"s, life-drift, life-foam, life-giving, life-impulse, life-impulse"s, life-motives, life-nature"s, life-pain, life-plan, life-power, life-room, life-scene, life-self, life-thought, life-wants, all-life, sense-life.
will, free ::: Sri Aurobindo: Our notion of free will is apt to be tainted with the excessive individualism of the human ego and to assume the figure of an independent will acting on its own isolated account, in a complete liberty without any determination other than its own choice and single unrelated movement. This idea ignores the fact that our natural being is a part of cosmic Nature and our spiritual being exists only by the supreme Transcendence. Our total being can rise out of subjection to fact of present Nature only by an identification with a greater Truth and a greater Nature. The will of the individual, even when completely free, could not act in an isolated independence, because the individual being and nature are included in the universal Being and Nature and dependent on the all-overruling Transcendence. There could indeed be in the ascent a dual line. On one line the being could feel and behave as an independent self-existence uniting itself with its own impersonal Reality; it could, so self-conceived, act with a great force, but either this action would be still within an enlarged frame of its past and present self-formation of power of Nature or else it would be the cosmic or supreme Force that acted in it and there would be no personal initiation of action, no sense therefore of individual free will but only of an impersonal cosmic or supreme Will or Energy at its work. On the other line the being would feel itself a spiritual instrument and so act as a power of the Supreme Being, limited in its workings only by the potencies of the Supernature, which are without bounds or any restriction except its own Truth and self-law, and by the Will in her. But in either case there would be, as the condition of a freedom from the control of a mechanical action of Nature-forces, a submission to a greater conscious Power or an acquiescent unity of the individual being with its intention and movement in his own and in the world"s existence.” *The Life Divine
"Will is conscious power and conscious act of force of being.” *The Life Divine
"Yet in the principle of reason itself there is the assertion of a Transcendence. For reason is in its whole aim and essence the pursuit of Knowledge, the pursuit, that is to say, of Truth by the elimination of error.” *The Life Divine
"Yet there is still the unknown underlying Oneness which compels us to strive slowly towards some form of harmony, of interdependence, of concording of discords, of a difficult unity. But it is only by the evolution in us of the concealed superconscient powers of cosmic Truth and of the Reality in which they are one that the harmony and unity we strive for can be dynamically realised in the very fibre of our being and all its self-expression and not merely in imperfect attempts, incomplete constructions, ever-changing approximations.” The Life Divine*
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1 Hippocrates
1 Hermes: "On the Rebirth"
1 Hermann Hesse
1 Henry James
1 Helen Keller
1 Hans Christian Andersen
1 Haemin Sunim
1 Habib Umar bin Hafiz ق
1 Gustav Fechner
1 Gurdjieff
1 Gujduvani
1 Gregory the Great
1 Gregory of Nazianzen
1 Grace Hanson [Grace Hanson is one of the protagonists on "Grace and Frankie." She is portrayed by Jane Fonda. For more of her quotes see:
1 Golda Meir
1 Germany Kent
1 Gerald Good
1 George Gurdjieff -
1 George Gurdjieff
1 Georg C Lichtenberg
1 Genesis
1 Galatians VI. 7. 8
1 Fulgentius of Ruspe
1 F. Scott Fitzgerald
1 From Ron Smothermon
1 Frank Lloyd Wright
1 Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king
1 Firdausi
1 Ernest Hemingway
1 Ernest Cline
1 Erik Erikson
1 Erasmus
1 Epsitle to Diognetus
1 Emilia Fox
1 Emerson
1 Eliphas Levi
1 Eisho
1 Eisai
1 Edwin Markham
1 Eddie Cantor
1 Earl Nightingale
1 Dr. Seuss
1 Douglas King
1 Douglas Adams
1 Dōgen Zenji
1 Dōgen
1 Dion Fortune
1 Didache
1 Dian Fossey
1 Dham-mapada
1 Deuteronomy XIII. 15
1 Denis Waitley
1 Dee Dee M. Scott
1 Dante Alighieri
1 Danielle Pierre
1 Dainin Katagiri Roshi
1 Crazy Horse
1 Corinthians
1 Chow Yun-fat
1 Chin-Ning Chu
1 Charlie Chaplin
1 Charles R. Swindoll
1 Charles M. Schulz
1 Catherine Pickstock
1 Carol Burnett
1 Carl Sandburg
1 Buson
1 Buddha
1 Bruce Lee
1 Brian Tracy
1 Bram Stoker
1 Book of the Dead
1 Bob Marley
1 Black Elk
1 Bishop Baldwin of Canterbury
1 Bha-ullah
1 Bertrand Russell
1 Benoît Mandelbrot
1 Benjamin Disraeli
1 Baisao 1675-1763
1 Baha-ullah
1 Athanasius
1 Asclepius
1 Anthony Robbins
1 Annie Proulx
1 Anne Tyler
1 Annette Funicello
1 Annamalai Swami
1 Anita Lucia Roddick
1 Anatole France
1 Anaïs Nin
1 Anais Nin
1 Amal Kiran
1 Alexander Maksik
1 Albert Schweitzer
1 Albert Einstein (attributed)
1 Alan Watts
1 Alan Cohen See: https://bit.ly/3dnj715
1 Walt Whitman
1 Pythagoras
1 Kabir
1 Hafiz
1 Adyashanti
1 Abraham Joshua Heschel
1 Abd Allāh ibn Asʻad al-Yafi'i
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
27 Anonymous
11 William Shakespeare
10 Stephen King
10 Ralph Waldo Emerson
10 John Green
9 Oscar Wilde
9 Mahatma Gandhi
9 Jack Kerouac
8 Stephenie Meyer
8 Seneca
8 Mother Teresa
8 J K Rowling
7 Paulo Coelho
6 Woody Allen
6 Rumi
6 Mitch Albom
6 Dean Koontz
5 Wendy Mass
5 Virginia Woolf
5 Unknown
1:Life begins where fear ends." ~ Osho, #KEYS
2:Every day is the beginning of life." ~ Rilke, #KEYS
3:'My life depends on my dying'." ~ -Rumi, poet, #KEYS
4:Life is a second-by-second miracle." ~ Joko Beck, #KEYS
5:Life is real only then, when "I am". ~ Gurdjieff, #KEYS
6:The unexamined life is not worth living ~ Socrates, #KEYS
7:Life is but a walking shadow. ~ William Shakespeare, #KEYS
8:One should count each day a separate life. ~ Seneca, #KEYS
9:The unexamined life is not worth living. ~ Socrates, #KEYS
10:Where there is love there is life. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #KEYS
11:You live your life as if it's real. ~ Leonard Cohen, #KEYS
12:May you live every day of your life. ~ Jonathan Swift, #KEYS
13:Ideas too are a life and a world. ~ Georg C Lichtenberg, #KEYS
14:Life is a child moving counters in a game. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
15:Life is real only then, when "I am". ~ George Gurdjieff, #KEYS
16:Time management is really life management ~ Brian Tracy, #KEYS
17:Life is a balance between rest and movement." ~ Rajneesh, #KEYS
18:Every day is an opportunity for a new life." ~ Rhonda Byrne, #KEYS
19:If life is to be sustained, hope must remain. ~ Erik Erikson, #KEYS
20:To enjoy life we must touch much of it lightly.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
21:Without music, life would be a mistake. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
22:A zen master's life is one continuous mistake." ~ Dōgen Zenji, #KEYS
23:Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
~ Helen Keller,#KEYS
24:The life so short, the craft so long to learn.
~ Hippocrates,#KEYS
25:Art is to console those who are broken by life. ~ Vincent van Gogh, #KEYS
26:Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life. ~ Omar Khayyam, #KEYS
27:God is a dark night to man in this life. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
28:There is no enlightenment outside of daily life. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #KEYS
29:A moment in life's brevity - autumn sunset. ~ Yosa Buson, 1716-1784, #KEYS
30:Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life." ~ Omar Khayyam, #KEYS
31:In a 50-50 life or death crisis, choose death. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
32:Life is the childhood of our immortality…" ~ Johann W. von Goethe, #KEYS
33:Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar." ~ Jim Butcher, #KEYS
34:Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me." ~ Carol Burnett, #KEYS
35:Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful. ~ Annette Funicello, #KEYS
36:It is conscious life that constitutes a man's whole being. ~ Asclepius, #KEYS
37:Life isn't as serious as the mind makes it out to be." ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
38:Never limit your view of life by any past experience." ~ Ernest Holmes, #KEYS
39:The essence of life is in remembering God. ~ Kabir, #KEYS
40:determination or your dedication to the spiritual life. ~ Bhagavad Gita, #KEYS
41:Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh,#KEYS
42:Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead. ~ Hans Christian Andersen, #KEYS
43:Psychological type is nothing static ~ it changes in the course of life., #KEYS
44:Touch the hole in your life, and there flowers will bloom. ~ Zen Proverb, #KEYS
45:New year's cards from friends colored patterns of my life. ~ Mitsu Suzuki, #KEYS
46:The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes." ~ Frank Lloyd Wright, #KEYS
47:Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life." ~ Immanuel Kant, #KEYS
48:Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life.
~ Haruki Murakami,#KEYS
49:Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
~ Immanuel Kant,#KEYS
50:The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, #KEYS
51:We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect. ~ Anaïs Nin, #KEYS
52:I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place. ~ Anne Tyler, #KEYS
53:Fixation is the way to death. Fluidity is the way to life. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
54:Life is like photography: use the negatives to develop positives.
~ Unknown,#KEYS
55:If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself. ~ Rick Riordan, #KEYS
56:Prepare your mind to receive the best that life has to offer." ~ Ernest Holmes, #KEYS
57:Amor Fati - "Love your Fate", which is in fact your life. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #KEYS
58:Life is the flight of the alone to the alone. ~ Plotinus, #KEYS
59:Whenever God lays His glance, Life starts clapping! ~ Hafiz, #KEYS
60:The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
61:This bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh. ~ Jn. 6:51, #KEYS
62:A Zen master's life is one continuous mistake." ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
63:Life, if well spent, is long. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #KEYS
64:Life itself is a quotation.
~ Jorge Luis Borges,#KEYS
65:Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith." ~ Steve Jobs, #KEYS
66:A zen master's life is one continuous mistake.
~ Dogen Zenji,#KEYS
67:Go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows. ~ Rilke, #KEYS
68:If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made of." ~ Bruce Lee, #KEYS
69:This bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh" ~ Jn. 6:51)., #KEYS
70:Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." ~ Charles R. Swindoll, #KEYS
71:'Life is a sum of all your choices'. So, what are you doing today?
~ Albert Camus,#KEYS
72:People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book. ~ Malcolm X #KEYS
73:The last pleasure in life is the sense of discharging our duty.
~ William Hazlitt,#KEYS
74:The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. ~ Pablo Picasso, #KEYS
75:Contentment in all circumstances is the mark of religious life. ~ Swami Vijnanananda, #KEYS
76:Tea is the elixir of life. ~ Eisai, Kissa Yojoki How to Stay Healthy by Drinking Tea, #KEYS
77:Until life finds Him pain can never end. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #KEYS
78:The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself." ~ Anais Nin, #KEYS
79:In death he sees life. ~ Bha-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
80:The only serious question in life is whether to kill yourself or not.
~ Albert Camus,#KEYS
81:Without music, life would be a mistake.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols,#KEYS
82:Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.
~ Seneca, [T5],#KEYS
83:Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life." ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
84:Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in a long-shot. ~ Charlie Chaplin, #KEYS
85:Time is the coin of life. Only you can determine how it will be spent." ~ Carl Sandburg, #KEYS
86:aware of life
passing like dew
they play in the sun ~ Ogawa,#KEYS
87:Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #KEYS
88:One of the goals of education should be to teach that life is precious. ~ Abraham Maslow, #KEYS
89:Consider that nirvana is itself no other than our life. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
90:Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you're living?" ~ Bob Marley, #KEYS
91:Give Me a moment of your life, I shall take care of your all lives.
~ Sanjay, The Mother,#KEYS
92:In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. ~ Robert Frost, #KEYS
93:Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friends. ~ John Lennon, #KEYS
94:and never in this life of delusion. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
95:dances the lightning of life. Can you say you won't die tomorrow? ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, #KEYS
96:Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.
~ Soren Kierkegaard,#KEYS
97:Life in this world just like a temporary shelter from a winter shower. ~ Iio Sogi 1421-1502, #KEYS
98:Life is like an ice-cream cone, you have to lick it one day at a time." ~ Charles M. Schulz, #KEYS
99:The goal of life is not the drama being played, but the lesson that it offers. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
100:The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #KEYS
101:Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force. ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
102:Try to enjoy the great festival of life with other men! ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
103:What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other? ~ George Eliot, #KEYS
104:All life is Yoga.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, [T5],#KEYS
105:Everyone's life is a warfare, and that long and various. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
106:Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a new direction." ~ Germany Kent, #KEYS
107:The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.
~ Socrates,#KEYS
108:The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times. ~ Paulo Coelho, #KEYS
109:We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life.
~ Edwin Markham,#KEYS
110:Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
111:In working for life, a man works for death, or rather, for immortality." ~ George Gurdjieff -, #KEYS
112:Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life. ~ Buddha, #KEYS
113:Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
114:Only those will enter whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life." ~ Revelation 21:27, #KEYS
115:Experiences are the chemicals of life with which the philosopher experiments.
~ Manly P Hall,#KEYS
116:Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
117:The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God. ~ Saint Gregory of Nyssa, On the Beatitudes, #KEYS
118:The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr., #KEYS
119:We see into the life of things. ~ Wordsworth, 'Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey', #KEYS
120:Your life is in your hands. Every single circumstance in your life can change." ~ Rhonda Byrne, #KEYS
121:Descending from the head to the Heart is the beginning of spiritual life. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
122:The most delightful surprise in life is to suddenly recognise your own worth.
~ Maxwell Maltz,#KEYS
123:We ascend to the heights of contemplation by the steps of the active life. ~ Pope St. Gregory I, #KEYS
124:You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life." ~ Whitman, #KEYS
125:If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life. ~ Wu-Men, #KEYS
126:Life is a balance of holding on and letting go." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
127:Life is a piece of music, and you're supposed to be dancing. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
128:You know, one of the tragedies of real life is that there is no background music. ~ Annie Proulx, #KEYS
129:You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life." ~ Zig Ziglar, #KEYS
130:If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
131:I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times but somehow I am still in love with life. ~ Voltaire, #KEYS
132:I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know? ~ Ernest Hemingway, #KEYS
133:I wish my life had a reset button." ~ Douglas King, quote from "poems in a minor chord,", (2017)., #KEYS
134:Life itself is not a thing-. . . but an act and process. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Theory of Life, #KEYS
135:The moral meaning gives us the rule of daily life. ~ The anagogy shows us where we end our strife., #KEYS
136:I was no longer the centre of my life and therefore I could see God in everything. ~ Venerable Bede, #KEYS
137:Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them." ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
138:For most of my life, one of the persons most baffled by my own work was myself. ~ Benoît Mandelbrot, #KEYS
139:If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place ~ Lao Tzu, #KEYS
140:The vagaries of life though painful teach us not to cling to this floating world. ~ Ikkyu, 1394-1481, #KEYS
141:A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul." ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
142:He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #KEYS
143:May my life be a continual prayer, a long act of love." ~ Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, (1880-1906), #KEYS
144:Soul is one. Nature is one, life is one. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
145:Don't forget to enjoy the life you're living instead of just living the life you've got." ~ Sue Aikens, #KEYS
146:Life is a temporary loan and this world is nothing but a sketchy imitation of Reality. ~ Shams Tabrizi, #KEYS
147:The glory of God is the living man, and the life of man is the vision of God. ~ Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, #KEYS
148:The purpose of one's life is fulfilled only when one is able to give joy to another. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
149:The whole universe is life, force and action. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
150:All renews itself, nothing perishes. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Life, #KEYS
151:An unused life is an early death. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
152:Neither love without knowledge nor knowledge without love can produce a good life.
~ Bertrand Russell,#KEYS
153:There is a gentle thought that often springs to life in me, because it speaks of you. ~ Dante Alighieri, #KEYS
154:Bear in mind that you should conduct yourself in life as at a feast. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
155:However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at." ~ Stephen Hawking, #KEYS
156:How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. ~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden #KEYS
157:Throughout this life, you can never be certain of living long enough to take another breath." ~ Huang Po, #KEYS
158:'To change one's life: 1. Start immediately. 2. Do it flamboyantly. 3. No exceptions.'
~ William James,#KEYS
159:If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily." ~ Gerald Good, #KEYS
160:It is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it. ~ Hunter S. Thompson, #KEYS
161:Life always waits for some crisis to occur before revealing itself at its most brilliant." ~ Paulo Coelho, #KEYS
162:The only intelligent tactical response to life's horror is to laugh defiantly at it
~ Soren Kierkegaard,#KEYS
163:Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
164:We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope. ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
165:Whether one has wealth or not, no treasure exceeds the one called life. ~ Nichiren, #KEYS
166:A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope
~ Epictetus,#KEYS
167:Between two worlds life hovers like a star, twixt night and morn, upon the horizon's verge.
~ Lord Byron,#KEYS
168:Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" ~ Martin Luther King, Jr., #KEYS
169:There is only one thing in life that never changes, and it is change." ~ Confucius, #KEYS
170:It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting. ~ Paulo Coelho, The Alchmeist, #KEYS
171:Plunge boldly into the thick of life! ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #KEYS
172:Realization must be amidst all the turmoil of life. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
173:A calm heart is the life of the body. ~ Proverbs XIV. 30, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
174:Beside each believer stands an Angel as protector and shepherd, leading him to life. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
175:Realization must be amidst all the turmoils of life. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
176:Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, [T5], #KEYS
177:The proud demons flee before the lofty virtues of the humble. ~ Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, #KEYS
178:The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. ~ Mark Twain, #KEYS
179:You won't reach the spring of life. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
180:A powerless spirit is no spirit ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
181:It is only when we realize that life is taking us nowhere that it begins to have meaning. ~ Mr. Ouspensky🕊, #KEYS
182:The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself
~ Albert Camus,#KEYS
183:The sword has to be more than a simple weapon; it has to be an answer to life's questions. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
184:This dew-like life will fade away; avoid involvement in superfluous things. ~ Dogen Zenji, #KEYS
185:To renounce one's self is not to renounce life. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
186:Life and death have been lacking in my life.
~ Jorge Luis Borges, On Writing,#KEYS
187:Meditation lifts us above life's storm clouds into the radiant skies of the inner Light. ~ Sant Rajinder Singh, #KEYS
188:On the last day of your life when you wake-up, you will see this is all illusion and imagination. ~ Shabistari, #KEYS
189:The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Job, 33:4, #KEYS
190:The things we truly love stay with us always, locked in our hearts as long as life remains." ~ Josephine Baker, #KEYS
191:The whole life lies in the verb seeing. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
192:What I really wanted was every kind of life, and the writer's life seemed the most inclusive.
~ Susan Sontag,#KEYS
193:Act as if everyday were the last of your life, and each action the last you perform." ~ Saint Alphonsus Liguori, #KEYS
194:I am going through the pangs of being born. Do not stand in the way of my coming to life. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
195:I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, John, 10:11, #KEYS
196:We need play to live a human life ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.168.2ad3)., #KEYS
197:Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
~ Confucius,#KEYS
198:Life is like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters. ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca, #KEYS
199:The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
200:Do not reduce your prayers to words, but rather make the totality of your life a prayer to God. ~ Isaac of Nineveh, #KEYS
201:Life is a journey in the darkness of the night. ~ Panchatantra, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
202:Live the life in front of you, be the life you are, and see what you find out for yourself." ~ Karen Maezen Miller, #KEYS
203:Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life." ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
204:All the accidents of life can be turned to our profit. ~ Seneca, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
205:A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #KEYS
206:Do not entertain hopes for realization, but practice all your life. ~ Jetsun Milarepa, #KEYS
207:Educate yourself, welcome life's messiness, read Chekhov, avoid becoming an architect at all costs. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #KEYS
208:Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. ~ Maya Angelou, #KEYS
209:Death has no reality except as a process of life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Life, #KEYS
210:To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
211:For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. ~ Corinthians, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
212:I am going through the pangs of being born. Do not stand in the way of my coming to life. ~ Saint Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
213:Life always seeks immortality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
214:The world being what it is, it could not be otherwise.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
215:Truth of oneness creates its own order. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
216:Wisdom is a well-spring of life unto him that hath it. ~ Proverbs, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
217:You'd be amazed how much research you can get done when you have no life whatsoever. ~ Ernest Cline, Ready Player One, #KEYS
218:Force is a self-expression of Existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Maya, #KEYS
219:Jesus Christ, our Lord, gave his blood for us, his flesh for our flesh, and his life for ours. ~ Saint Clement of Rome, #KEYS
220:All things carry Yin yet embrace Yang. They blend their life breaths in order to produce harmony. ~ Tao Te Ching, ch.42, #KEYS
221:Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. ~ Theodore Roosevelt, #KEYS
222:Fight the good fight, lay hold on eternal life. ~ I Timothy. VI. 12, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
223:If the meditator is able to use whatever occurs in his life as the path, his body becomes a retreat hut. ~ Jigme Lingpa, #KEYS
224:In the spiritual life, suffering is the thermometer which measures the love of God in a soul. ~ Saint Faustina Kowalska, #KEYS
225:In trading the pleasures of an ordinary life for a meditative life, you're trading candy for gold. ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu, #KEYS
226:Knowledge is power and mastery. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Ego and the Dualities, #KEYS
227:Harmony is the natural rule of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
228:No life can be successful without self-discipline.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, [T5],#KEYS
229:One must have true mettle within if one wishes to be successful in life. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
230:Save the world that is within us, O Life. ~ Hermes: "On the Rebirth", the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
231:So you'll be my love in lives beyond this life. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
232:Wherever you find movement, there you find life and a soul. ~ Thales, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
233:It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life. ~ Terry Pratchett, #KEYS
234:Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets.
~ Nido Qubein,#KEYS
235:Let us be prepared for death but work for life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - I, The Crisis, #KEYS
236:Life is given that we may learn to die well, and we never think of it! To die well we must live well. ~ Saint John Vianney, #KEYS
237:Make yourself loved by the example of your life. ~ St. Vincent de Paul, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
238:This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.
~ George Bernard Shaw,#KEYS
239:Whoever wants God intensely, finds Him. Go and verify it in your own life. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
240:Confronting the unknown is a condition of life.
~ Eisho, @BashoSociety#KEYS
241:Death is a mirror in which the entire meaning of life is reflected. ~ Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, #KEYS
242:He who acts according to what he holds to be the law of life, ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
243:Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. ~ Dr. Seuss, #KEYS
244:Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning. ~ Saint John Henry Newman, #KEYS
245:Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be, and becoming that person." ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
246:Make solitude a part of your life. In order to work with difficulty, we need to gather our inner strength." ~ Pema Chödrön, #KEYS
247:Mind is a passage, not a culmination. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Supermind as Creator, #KEYS
248:Prudence is a virtue most necessary for human life ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.57.5)., #KEYS
249:how much longer
is my life?
a brief night
~ Shiki, @BashoSociety#KEYS
250:Take up your cross, therefore, and follow Jesus, and you shall enter eternal life. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
251:Uniformity is death, not life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Inadequacy of the State Idea, #KEYS
252:Do not interrupt life's natural flow by damming its river at every bend with sticks of analysis and definition. ~ Omar Khayyam, #KEYS
253:Experience comes through many errors. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Spiritual Aim and Life, #KEYS
254:Never let life's hardships disturb you. No one can avoid problems, not even saints or sages. ~ Nichiren, #KEYS
255:The spiritual fullness of the being is eternity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
256:The whole of our life should be a prayer offered to the Divine. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III, #KEYS
257:What devours must also be devoured. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Death, Desire and Incapacity, #KEYS
258:What is my true worth in this life?
To serve the Divine.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
259:While life remains, action is unavoidable. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Divine Work, #KEYS
260:Death fosters life that life may suckle death. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act II, #KEYS
261:Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life. ~ Terry Pratchett, Jingo, #KEYS
262:If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars." ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #KEYS
263:I have never been awake before. ~ Stephen LaBerge, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life, #KEYS
264:Life ran to gaze from every gate of sense: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Satyavan, #KEYS
265:Material Nature is not ethical. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Delight of Existence, The Problem, #KEYS
266:One who loves God finds the object of his love everywhere.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, [T4],#KEYS
267:Quality and quantity differ, the self is equal. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Pure Existent, #KEYS
268:' . . . the supreme Mage, the divine Magician, . . .' [the Lord]
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
269:Truth is the secret of life and power. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Civilisation and Barbarism, #KEYS
270:Understanding how to surmount pain, doubt, and failure is an important aspect of the game of winning at life.
~ Chin-Ning Chu,#KEYS
271:With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things. ~ William Wordsworth, #KEYS
272:Even in inanimate Matter Mind is at work. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
273:One of the great undiscovered joys of life comes from doing everything one attempts to the best of one's ability.
~ Og Mandino,#KEYS
274:The cause of misery is not in life without; it is within you as the ego. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
275:There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights.
~ Bram Stoker, [T5],#KEYS
276:All absoluteness is pure delight. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Delight of Existence, The Problem, #KEYS
277:Even though I had committed but one little sin, I should have ample reason to repent of it all my life. ~ Saint Francis of Assisi, #KEYS
278:If you knew the secret of life, you too would choose no other companion but love. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
279:It's not what happens to you that determines how far you will go in life; it is how you handle what happens to you." ~ Zig Ziglar, #KEYS
280:No one can begin a new life, unless he repent of the old. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, [T5], #KEYS
281:Death stays the journeying discoverer, Life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Issue, #KEYS
282:In the first place, our life here and now depends upon food. It is Annagata Prana. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
283:There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it. ~ Shannon L. Alder #KEYS
284:The Supermind alone commands unity in diversity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Problem of Life, #KEYS
285:God is love and beauty as well as purity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Religion as the Law of Life, #KEYS
286:Heart is the source of life in an animal ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.75.1)[6 week ultrasound]., #KEYS
287:I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times, in life after life, in age after age forever. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #KEYS
288:Real poetry is to lead a beautiful life.
To live poetry is better than to write it. ~ Matsuo Basho,#KEYS
289:The occult is a part of existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, #KEYS
290:To know how to die in one age gives us life in all the others. ~ Giordano Bruno, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
291:All existence here is a universal Life that takes form of Matter. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Life, #KEYS
292:All self-fulfilment is satisfaction of being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Supermind as Creator, #KEYS
293:God didn't add another day to your life because you needed it. He added it because someone out there needs you." ~ Kelly's Treehouse, #KEYS
294:The highest achievement in this life is truly know who you are. ~ Banto, @BashoSociety #KEYS
295:We can construct nothing which goes beyond our nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
296:All evil is in travail of the eternal good. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine and the Undivine, #KEYS
297:As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death." ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #KEYS
298:everyday life
sleeping through
an cold autumn night
~ Buson, @BashoSociety#KEYS
299:I begin life over again after death even as the sun every day. ~ Book of the Dead, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
300:If you never tasted a bad apple, you would not appreciate a good apple. You have to experience life to understand life." ~ Leon Brown, #KEYS
301:The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life." ~ Confucius, #KEYS
302:The spiritual man is one who has discovered his soul. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
303:Time is a manifestation of the Eternal. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #KEYS
304:Accord and concord are the true normality of the spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
305:Even fall has its perverted joy ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life, #KEYS
306:Human beings spend all their lives preparing, preparing, preparing… Only to meet the next life unprepared." ~ Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen, #KEYS
307:If we wish to make any progress in the service of God we must begin every day of our life with new eagerness. ~ Saint Charles Borromeo, #KEYS
308:It reveals itself rather than is learned. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Eternal and the Individual, #KEYS
309:Love and devotion towards the Guru makes the disciple's life beautiful, filled with light and divinely fragrant. ~ MATA AMRITANANDAMYI, #KEYS
310:Unity is as strong a principle in Nature as division. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Ascent of Life, #KEYS
311:A dire duality is our way to be. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life, #KEYS
312:Die for love: lay down your life, and life with you will stay. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
313:Drop the craving for self, for permanence, for particular circumstances, and go straight ahead with the movement of life." ~ Alan Watts, #KEYS
314:Ignorance is a self-oblivion of Being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, #KEYS
315:I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #KEYS
316:man carries the seed of the divine life in himself ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Faith and Shakti, #KEYS
317:No man of war entangleth himself with the affairs of this life. ~ II Timothy. II. 4, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
318:The superior man must always remain himself in all situations of life. ~ Tsung yung, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
319:Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind. ~ Henry James, #KEYS
320:You belong to the Master. He is watching over your earthly life as well as your life to come. What worry do you have? ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
321:as God, he adds, and the truth, and the life ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Jn. 14, lect. 2)., #KEYS
322:Our life is a paradox with God for key. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge, #KEYS
323:Real poetry is to lead a beautiful life. To live poetry is better than to write it. ~ Matsuo Basho, 1644-1694, #KEYS
324:The characteristic energy of pure Mind is change. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
325:The Divinity in man dwells veiled in his spiritual centre. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
326:The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
327:this is the best season of your life. ~ "Ten Thousand Flowers in Spring" by Wu-Men, The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, #KEYS
328:You are not separate from the whole. You are one with the sun, the earth, the air. You don't have a life. You are life." ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
329:Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
330:Happiness is letting go of what you think your life is supposed to look like, and celebrating it for everything that it is." ~ Mandy Hale, #KEYS
331:Man understands his life only when he sees himself in each one of his kind. ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
332:Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. ~ Marie Curie, #KEYS
333:Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life.
~ Lord Byron, [T5],#KEYS
334:The knot of the Ignorance is egoism. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad: The Inhabiting Godhead, Life and Action, #KEYS
335:The law of the supermind is unity fulfilled in diversity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
336:All life is either consciously or subconsciously a Yoga. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Life and Yoga, #KEYS
337:All this is the Brahman; this Self is the Brahman and the Self is fourfold.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
338:Imagination the free-will of Truth, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life, #KEYS
339:Mind flowed unknowing in the sap of life ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World-Stair, [T5], #KEYS
340:Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less." ~ Marie Curie, #KEYS
341:One is truly free, even in this life, who knows that God does all and yet he does nothing. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
342:The real truth of man is to be found in his soul. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Spiritual Aim and Life, #KEYS
343:The Unknown is not the Unknowable. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Two Negations, The Materialist Denial, #KEYS
344:The behavior of a human being in sexual matters is often a prototype for the whole of his other modes of reaction in life. ~ Sigmund Freud., #KEYS
345:The highest achievement in this life is truly know who you are.
~ Banto, @BashoSociety#KEYS
346:The more a man uses moderation in his life, the more he is at peace, for he is not full of cares for many things. ~ Saint Anthony the Great, #KEYS
347:There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them." ~ Denis Waitley, #KEYS
348:To liberated souls and aspirants after Truth, this life seems like a dark and noisome well. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
349:A mutual giving and receiving is the law of Life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Lord of the Sacrifice, #KEYS
350:And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than you joy." ~ Kahlil Gibran, #KEYS
351:A pleasant and happy life does not come from external things. Man draws from within himself, as from a spring, pleasure and joy." ~ Plutarch, #KEYS
352:Behind everything in life there is an Absolute. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
353:He who has a mistaken idea of life, will always have a mistaken idea of death. ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
354:If a warrior is not unattached to life and death, he will be of no use whatsoever." ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo (Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai), #KEYS
355:It is the soul in us which turns always towards Truth, Good and Beauty.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, [T5],#KEYS
356:Let him repulse lust and coveting, the disciple who would lead a holy life. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
357:Life is to be found in the recesses of its own being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II, The One Thing Needful, #KEYS
358:Mind is only a preparatory form of our consciousness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Supermind as Creator, #KEYS
359:One has sometimes to deny God in order to find him. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Spiritual Aim and Life, #KEYS
360:There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle." ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
361:You shall not hate anyone, but some people you shall rebuke, for some you shall pray, and some you shall love more than your life. ~ Didache, #KEYS
362:It is faith in the name of the Lord that works wonders, for faith is life and doubt is death. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
363:Make japa and meditate daily and remain pure in body, mind, and speech - by that alone you will achieve your life's goal. ~ Swami Saradananda, #KEYS
364:Of all the attitudes we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important and by far the most life-changing.
~ Zig Ziglar,#KEYS
365:Pets are humanizing. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life." ~ James Cromwell, #KEYS
366:There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." ~ Nelson Mandela, #KEYS
367:When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future." ~ Dian Fossey, #KEYS
368:A casual passing phrase can change our life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Call to the Quest, #KEYS
369:A happy life is the fruit of wisdom achieved; life bearable, of wisdom commenced. ~ Seneca, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
370:Always cultivate pure thoughts. Purity is strength, and purity is God. Live such a life that no one may be an enemy to you. ~ SWAMI PREMANANDA, #KEYS
371:I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.
~ Henry David Thoreau,#KEYS
372:Its faith is perfectibility, its watchword is progress. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
373:Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. ~ Proverbs IV. 23, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
374:Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel, #KEYS
375:Supermind is the vast self-extension of the Brahman that contains and develops.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
376:There is only one reality, there is only one life, there is only one consciousness: the Divine. ~ The Mother, mcw, 11, #KEYS
377:The Word expresses that which is self-hidden in the Silence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality Omnipresent, #KEYS
378:When a person is left alone, he starts thinking of higher reality - about death, life, soul, God and the mystery of all. ~ Swami Chinmayananda, #KEYS
379:Without being possessed one does not possess oneself utterly. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Ascent of Life, #KEYS
380:A subtle link of union joins all life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdom of Subtle Matter, #KEYS
381:Having learned the ways of silence within the noise of urban life I take life as it comes to me and everywhere I am is true. ~ Baisao 1675-1763, #KEYS
382:If all forms, quantities, qualities were to disappear, this would remain. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 1.09-08, #KEYS
383:Let us make our minds pure, the rest will be easy; and we shall attain spiritual bliss comparable to nothing else in life. ~ Swami Vijnanananda, #KEYS
384:The demon that you can swallow gives you its power, and the greater life's pain, the greater life's reply. ~ Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, #KEYS
385:Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today. This is never-ending. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo, #KEYS
386:When the right person hugs you, it's like medicine. I'm so grateful for those few people in my life who are good for my soul." ~ Steve Maraboli, #KEYS
387:God is to be worshiped as the one Beloved, dearer than everything in this and the next life. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
388:He has need of death to find a greater life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Vision and the Boon, #KEYS
389:It is only through life that one can reach to immortality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Karmayoga, #KEYS
390:One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion.
~ Simone de Beauvoir,#KEYS
391:The Eternal's quiet holds the cosmic act: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life, #KEYS
392:The law of the body arises from the subconscient or inconscient. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
393:The principle of division is not proper to Matter, but to Mind. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Knot of Matter, #KEYS
394:The real question of life after death isn't whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #KEYS
395:Unless we believed what we were told, we would do nothing at all in this life. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
396:All problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Human Aspiration, #KEYS
397:All spiritual life is in its principle a growth into divine living. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
398:By contact with the facts of life Art attains to vitality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
399:Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,#KEYS
400:It is futile to seek human reason, purpose or meaning in the events of life, which are in fact impersonal and not human at all. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
401:My life is a throb of Thy eternity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Bliss of Identity, #KEYS
402:Our life is a paradox with God for key.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge, [T5],#KEYS
403:Peace was a thrilled voluptuous purity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods, #KEYS
404:The life of grace heals us with respect to our mind ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Colossians, ch. 3)., #KEYS
405:The way of Zen is to become independent and strong. Don't rely on others for perceptions of life and truth. Do it individually." ~ Frederick Lenz, #KEYS
406:We know that we have passed from death into life because we love our brothers. ~ John III. 13, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
407:You must make the most strenuous efforts. Throughout this life, you can never be certain of living long enough to take another breath. ~ Huang Po, #KEYS
408:A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. ~ John Milton, Areopagitica, #KEYS
409:Evolution is an inverse action of the involution. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
410:Eye and ear are poor witnesses for man, if his inner life has not been made fine. ~ Heraclitus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
411:See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil. ~ Deuteronomy XIII. 15, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
412:The pure intellectual direction travels away from life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Divine Personality, #KEYS
413:There is no other way than to persevere. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
414:Without heroism man cannot grow into the Godhead. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Suprarational Ultimate of Life, #KEYS
415:Your hardest times often lead to the greatest moments of your life. Keep going. Tough situations build strong people in the end." ~ Roy T. Bennett, #KEYS
416:All pain and suffering are a sign of imperfection, of incompleteness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
417:Ignorance was a thin shade protecting light, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life, #KEYS
418:It is always the business of man the thinker to know. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Knowledge and the Ignorance, #KEYS
419:or it is not at all. Faith is as real as life; as actual as force ; as effectual as volition. It is the physics of the moral being. ~ S T Coleridge, #KEYS
420:Power can abase as well as elevate; nothing is more liable to misuse. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
421:Success is the development of the power with which to get whatever one wants in life without interfering with the rights of others. ~ Napoleon Hill, #KEYS
422:Thence you can see that it is in a clear knowledge that is found our eternal life. ~ Ruysbroeck, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
423:Three roads to good: knowledge, the spiritual life and the control of the mind. ~ Sangiti Sutta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
424:He who thinks one's spiritual guru is a mere person cannot make much progress in the spiritual life. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
425:It becomes itself in the world by knowing itself; it knows itself by becoming itself.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
426:Life is the most precious of all treasures. Even one extra day of life is worth more than ten million ryo of gold. ~ Nichiren, #KEYS
427:Not only Spirit is one, but Mind, Life, Matter are one. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Cosmic Consciousness, #KEYS
428:sparrows singing
of the next life
morning dew
~ Ogawa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
429:The life-work of a great man often does not begin till he dies. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II, Mustafa Kamal Pasha, #KEYS
430:The lower is for us the first condition of the higher. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Knowledge and the Ignorance, #KEYS
431:We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
~ Plato,#KEYS
432:All spiritual experience is experience of the Infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #KEYS
433:But the Holy Spirit works this in man, by bringing him to everlasting life ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.139.1)., #KEYS
434:Do not take life's experiences too seriously. Above all, do not let them hurt you, for in reality they are nothing but dream experiences. ~ Yogananda, #KEYS
435:In the way of righteousness is life: and in the pathway thereof there is no death. ~ Proverbs XII, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
436:Life here is God, the materials of Life here are God. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, A Commentary on the Isha Upanishad, #KEYS
437:No Law is absolute, because only the infinite is absolute. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Sevenfold Chord of Being, #KEYS
438:Oneness and multiplicity are poles of the same Reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Knowledge and the Ignorance, #KEYS
439:Order is indeed the law of life, but not an artificial regulation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Diversity in Oneness, #KEYS
440:Problems are the creations of mental ignorance seeking for knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
441:Reason is science, it is conscious art, it is invention. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
442:The universe is a self-creative process of a supreme Reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
443:If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things. ~ Rene Descartes, #KEYS
444:Mankind is still no more than semi-civilised. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, Indian Spirituality and Life - IV, #KEYS
445:Nothing can evolve out of Matter which is not therein already contained. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Conscious Force, #KEYS
446:Nothing can exist which is not substance and power of Brahman. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
447:The beginning of Ignorance is a limitation of Knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Knowledge and the Ignorance, #KEYS
448:All end and beginning presuppose something beyond the end or beginning. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Pure Existent, #KEYS
449:A mortal sin is one that is contrary to charity, which gives life to the soul ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.59.4)., #KEYS
450:An integral knowledge presupposes an integral Reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, #KEYS
451:At the foundation of every life is one central desire: to make a difference that you lived." ~ Ron Smothermon "Winning Through Enlightenment,", (1980)., #KEYS
452:Essential mentality is idealistic and a seeker after perfection. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
453:In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human successes, but on how well we have loved. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
454:Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer. ~ Joseph Campbell, #KEYS
455:Religion is in the human mind the first native. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, Indian Spirituality and Life - I, #KEYS
456:The animal prepares human intelligence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolutionary Process - Ascent and Integration, #KEYS
457:Thou shalt have given a drop and won the sea, given thy life and won the well-beloved. ~ Baha-ullah, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
458:A diversity in oneness is the law of the manifestation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
459:Essence without form divided itself; then a movement took place and life was produced. ~ Tchuang-Tse, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
460:If I find, near the end of this life, to have been a mere Wizard, it is likely due to the limits of aspiration. In my desire to Know without Being. ~ JB, #KEYS
461:If you don't design your own life plan, chance are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you. Not much." ~ Jim Rohn, #KEYS
462:Life is an infinite Force working in the terms of the finite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Death, Desire and Incapacity, #KEYS
463:Mind-Energy, Life-Energy, material Energy are different dynamisms of one World-Force. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Life, #KEYS
464:Realize that you must lead a dying life; the more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live unto God. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
465:Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why." ~ Eddie Cantor, #KEYS
466:The lover of God gladly devotes one's life to the attainment of divine bliss and cares for nothing else. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
467:There can be no physical life without an order and rhythm. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Practical Concerns in Work, #KEYS
468:There none was weak, so falsehood could not live; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life, #KEYS
469:The root cause of the lower realms is anger, therefore practice patience, even at the cost of your life. ~ Jetsun Milarepa, #KEYS
470:The vital and physical life, a human edition of the animal round. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Civilisation and Culture, #KEYS
471:The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell which is beneath. ~ Proverbs XV 24, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
472:The whole course of a man's life becomes reoriented as a result of holy association; and its effect, too, is very lasting. ~ Manapurush Swami Shivananda, #KEYS
473:To feed death with her works is here life's doom. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life, #KEYS
474:Train your mind to see the good in everything. Positivity is a choice. The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts." ~ Idil Ahmed, #KEYS
475:Your friends either go through this inner transformation with you or drift out of your life. Some relationships dissolve, others deepen. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #KEYS
476:All existences are instinct with the life of the one indivisible Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Two Natures, #KEYS
477:All ignorance is a penumbra which environs an orb of knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine and the Undivine, #KEYS
478:Consider the Divine Life as the most important thing to obtain.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life [7],#KEYS
479:Having once seen God, man can have no farther object in life than to reach and possess Him.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad,#KEYS
480:Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future." ~ Earl Nightingale, #KEYS
481:Reduce your ideal to a system and it at once begins to fail. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
482:The self of things is an infinite indivisible existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Delight of Existence, The Solution, #KEYS
483:Where there is life, there is always a hope of better things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Curve of the Rational Age, #KEYS
484:An entry into the gnostic consciousness would be an entry into the Infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
485:An integral knowledge is the aim of the conscious evolution. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Memory, Ego and Self-Experience, #KEYS
486:Development into forms is an imperative rule of effective manifestation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Life and Yoga, #KEYS
487:It is only through consciousness that we can approach Being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Knowledge and the Ignorance, #KEYS
488:Labour not for the food which perishes but for that which endures into everlasting life. ~ John VI. 27, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
489:Let this be our one need in life, to realise the Divine.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life [3],#KEYS
490:Likewise whoever is appointed watchman to a people should live a life on the heights so that he can help them by taking a wide survey. ~ Gregory the Great, #KEYS
491:One cannot cease to be individually except by being infinitely. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Death, Desire and Incapacity, #KEYS
492:So we ought to be accurate, brethren, about our salvation, in case the evil one sneaks in some error and slings us out from our life. ~ Letter of Barnabas, #KEYS
493:The earliest formula of Wisdom promises to be its last, -- God, Light, Freedom, Immortality
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
494:Escape, however high, redeems not life, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain, #KEYS
495:Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, fear is wrong life. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. VII. 136), #KEYS
496:Knowledge and Ignorance are in their nature subjective. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III, Inner Experience and Outer Life, #KEYS
497:The golden virgin, Usha, mother of life,
Yet virgin. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Urvasie,#KEYS
498:The truth of ourselves lies within and not on the surface. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Delight of Existence, The Solution, #KEYS
499:What happens when you become enlightened is that you 'wake up' in the dream of life." ~ From Ron Smothermon, M.D. "Winning Through Enlightenment,", (1980)., #KEYS
500:You might meet with many obstacles in your life. But if you are a true practitioner, you will use them as training grounds of the path. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche, #KEYS
501:As the monkey sacrifices his life at the feet of the hunter, so does a man at the feet of a beautiful woman. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
502:Division of consciousness is the basis of the Ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya, #KEYS
503:Man's consciousness can be nothing else than a form of Nature's consciousness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Conscious Force, #KEYS
504:May the life I live speak for me, not my religion or denomination title." ~ Dee Dee M. Scott, (c. 1978), author, playwright, film producer and entrepreneur., #KEYS
505:The entire spiritual life consists in this: that we gradually turn from those things whose appearance is deceptive, to those things that are real. ~ Erasmus, #KEYS
506:And this is the life of the Gods, and of Godlike men, a life without love of the world, a flight of the Alone to the Alone. ~ Plotinus, #KEYS
507:A perfected community also can exist only by the perfection of its individuals. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
508:From moment to moment, the little I need to know to live my life, I somehow happen to know. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
509:In all action there is an imperative of existence that seeks to be fulfilled. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
510:It is a truth of the Infinite, one in an infinite diversity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
511:The characteristic of Life is desire and the instinct of possession. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Civilisation and Barbarism, #KEYS
512:The supreme Self is one, but the souls of the Self are many. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
513:this ego-centrism is our rock of safety against the cosmic and the infinite, our defense.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 241,#KEYS
514:Truth and error live always together in the human evolution. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
515:Without reason life is a tangle of dreams, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real, #KEYS
516:As righteousness tendeth to life, so he that pursueth evil, pursueth it to his own death. ~ Proverbs XI.19, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
517:Errors are permitted to the mind because they open doors upon truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin of the Ignorance, #KEYS
518:Eviller fate there is none than life too long among mortals. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion, #KEYS
519:For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
~ Saint Francis of Assisi,#KEYS
520:God having entirely become Nature, Nature seeks to become progressively God. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Man in the Universe, #KEYS
521:God will bring people and events into our lives, and whatever we may think about them, they are designed for the evolution of His life in us. ~ Thomas Keating, #KEYS
522:He that followeth after righteousness and mercy, findeth life, righteousness and honour ~ preverbs XXI. 21, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
523:If this poem becomes a part of your life,
it will make you a part of the Poet whose heights
have sent this call to our lowlands. ~ Amal Kiran, 17.08.1993#KEYS
524:It is at all times a sensible consolation to be able to say, "Death is as natural as life." ~ Schopenhauer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
525:Our life is not a one-time event, but rather it is merely one moment in the course nature. ~ Kazo, @BashoSociety #KEYS
526:Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, nor for your body, what ye shall put on.- ~ Luke XII. 22, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
527:The essence of consciousness is the power to be aware of itself and its objects. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
528:The malady of the world is that the individual cannot find his real soul. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Double Soul in Man, #KEYS
529:The only thing worth living for is to serve the Divine. January 1966
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life [5],#KEYS
530:All depends upon the choice of the force that you allow to make use of you as its instrument. And the choice has to be made at every moment of your life.
~ ?,#KEYS
531:Brahman is in this world to represent Itself in the values of Life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Destiny of the Individual, #KEYS
532:Conversion of the aim of life from the ego to the Divine: instead of seeking ones own satisfaction, to have the service of the Divine as the aim of life.
~ ?,#KEYS
533:It is the Absolute who is all these relativities. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
534:Life creates institutions; institutions do not create, but express and preserve life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin, Passing Thoughts, #KEYS
535:Life-force is the dynamisation of a consciousness which exceeds it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Object of Knowledge, #KEYS
536:Mind cannot possess the infinite, it can only suffer it or be possessed by it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Mind and Supermind, #KEYS
537:Moral evil is in reality a form of mental disease or ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Delight of Existence, The Problem, #KEYS
538:My life is a silence grasped by timeless hands; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Self's Infinity, #KEYS
539:Reason can only establish half-lights and a provisional order. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Suprarational Ultimate of Life, #KEYS
540:The infinity of the One pours itself out and possesses itself. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, #KEYS
541:The selfs must allow each self a shot at its goals in life, if you wish to achieve any sense of fulfillment and remain sane.
~ Peter J Carroll, Psyber Magick,#KEYS
542:Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ~ The Buddha, #KEYS
543:To make hardship less severe is to face it with strength. That is man's life. Man wants to conquer and God has given the power for it. ~ SWAMI TRIGUNATITANANDA, #KEYS
544:Yoga is the unravelling of the knot of Life's difficulty. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Psychology of Self-Perfection, #KEYS
545:Be a loner. That gives you time to wonder, to search for the truth. Have holy curiosity. Make your life worth living.
~ Albert Einstein, Einstein and the Poet,#KEYS
546:Do no harm to an ant that is carrying its grain of corn, for has a life and sweet life is a good. ~ Firdausi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
547:Heaven's joys might have been earth's if earth were pure. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life, #KEYS
548:It is the Self who has become all these becomings. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
549:Memory is only a process of consciousness, a utility. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Memory, Self-Consciousness and the Ignorance, #KEYS
550:There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. ~ Albert Einstein (attributed), #KEYS
551:The reason deals successfully only with the settled and the finite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
552:Acceptance is observation of life and suspension of judgment about whether what is happening is good or bad, right or wrong." ~ Ron Smotherman, M.D., author, see, #KEYS
553:A pure intuition is a rare occurrence in our mental activity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya, #KEYS
554:Give a bowl of rice to a man and you will feed him for a day. Teach him how to grow his own rice and you will save his life." ~ Confucius, #KEYS
555:If we are always demanding something out of life, then we will never be content. But if we accept life as it is, then we will know contentment." ~ Thich Thien-An, #KEYS
556:Knowest thou not that thy life, whether long or brief, consists only of a few breathings? ~ Attar of Nishapur, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
557:Let the Divine Consciousness be the leading power in your life.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The Divine Is with You, 10, [T5],#KEYS
558:There is no body without soul, no body that is not itself a form of soul. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
559:The spiritual life of India is the first necessity of the world's future. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II, One More for the Altar, #KEYS
560:As He Himself says: "I have come that they may have life and may have it more abundantly" ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (John 10:10)., #KEYS
561:A teacher never falls short of the wisdom of life, Divine Wisdom, which is superior to the wisdom taught in books. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
562:Concern yourself with that which kills your ego and brings life to your heart. ~ Mawlay Al Arabi Al Darqawi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
563:Error is continually the handmaid and pathfinder of Truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Two Negations, The Materialist Denial, #KEYS
564:Every serious student of the spiritual sciences should realize the full import of beauty as a ministering force in life. ~ Manly P. Hall (Horizon August 1941 p. 7) #KEYS
565:In its essentiality all is divine even if the form baffles or repels us. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine and the Undivine, #KEYS
566:Life's whole
Tremendous theorem is Thou complete. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Divine Worker,#KEYS
567:The aim of our life on earth is to become conscious of the Divine.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life, [4] [T0],#KEYS
568:The great rule of life is to have no schemes but one unalterable purpose. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II, The Glory of God in Man, #KEYS
569:The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Psalms, 27:1,#KEYS
570:Worldly life is no doubt a battle-field. By becoming conscious of one's spiritual wealth one must strive to emerge triumphant from the battle. ~ SRI ANANDAMAYI MA, #KEYS
571:Each form and way of being has its own appropriate way of the delight of being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Man and the Evolution, #KEYS
572:Every breath of life is a breath too of death. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Vision of the World-Spirit - Time the Destroyer, #KEYS
573:He reveals Himself to the pure heart; the pure and the stainless see God, yea, even in this life. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. I. 13), #KEYS
574:If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
575:In this drama of life, consciousness plays and directs all of the roles, of billions of human beings. Every character is played by consciousness. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
576:Let us love the cross very much, for it is there that we discover our life, our true love, and our strength in our greatest difficulties." ~ Saint Maria de Mattias, #KEYS
577:Life is a blend of sensitivity and sensibility. Sensibility is intellect, sensitivity is of the heart. You need to be sensitive yet strong." ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #KEYS
578:Life is not entirely real until it opens into the sense of the infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Lord of the Sacrifice, #KEYS
579:One way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life and dedicate ourselves to that. ~ Joseph Campbell, #KEYS
580:Pain affects us more intensely because it is abnormal to our being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Delight of Existence, The Problem, #KEYS
581:Self-blame and self-condemnation, are the beginning of true ethics. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Delight of Existence, The Problem, #KEYS
582:The ant loses its life in the syrup but never leaves it. So the Bhakta cleaves unto God forever and leaves all else ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
583:The daily examination of conscience is an indispensible help if we are to follow our Lord with sincerity of heart and integrity of life. ~ Saint Jose Maria Escriva, #KEYS
584:The finite is a circumstance and not a contradiction of the infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #KEYS
585:The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully have been kindness, beauty, and truth ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
586:To be by oneself very much needs a certain force of inner life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Asceticism and the Integral Yoga, #KEYS
587:Where you stand, where you are, that's what your life is right there, regardless of how painful it is, or how enjoyable it is. That's what it is." ~ Taizan Maezumi, #KEYS
588:All life is a Yoga of Nature seeking to manifest God within itself. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Synthesis of the Systems, #KEYS
589:An upright life tastes calm repose by night and by day; it is penetrated with a serene felicity. ~ Buddhist Text, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
590:Avail yourself of your home life to raise your spiritual condition before you take to the austerities of asceticism. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
591:Both the Being and the Becoming are truths of one absolute Reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, #KEYS
592:Let him cut your skin, and you cut his flesh. Let him cut your flesh, and you cut his bones. Let him cut your bones, and you cut off his life ~ Toshitsugu Takamatsu, #KEYS
593:The daily examination of conscience is an indispensible help if we are to follow our Lord with sincerity of heart and integrity of life." ~ Saint Jose Maria Escriva, #KEYS
594:The human mind's picture of heaven is the incessant repetition of an eternal monotone. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
595:All is one Being, one Consciousness, one even in infinite multiplicity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #KEYS
596:Evil deforms and disguises good. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
597:Mind as we know it is a power of the Ignorance seeking for Truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya, #KEYS
598:That which we call ourselves is only a trembling ray on the surface. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Delight of Existence, The Solution, #KEYS
599:The Absolute is beyond stability and movement as it is beyond unity and multiplicity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Pure Existent, #KEYS
600:The life of a man is unfulfilled unless he has found the Divine. 2 June 1972
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life, 7,#KEYS
601:The world has three layers, infra-ethical, ethical and supra-ethical. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Delight of Existence, The Problem, #KEYS
602:This burning lake is the second death; and anybody whose name could not be found written in the book of life was hurled into the burning lake." ~ Revelation 20:14-15, #KEYS
603:To know we have to go within ourselves and see with an inner knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Memory, Ego and Self-Experience, #KEYS
604:Did something disappoint you?
Did something sadden you?
The school of life wanted to teach you
an important lesson through that experience. ~ Haemin Sunim,#KEYS
605:Even his petty world man cannot rule.
We fear, we blame; life wantons her own way, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act II,#KEYS
606:For what is our life! It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. ~ James.IV. 14, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
607:If it be true that the Self alone exists, it must be also true that all is the Self. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality Omnipresent, #KEYS
608:It is the resurgence of the barbarian in ourselves, in civilised man, that is the peril. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
609:Law and Process are one side of our existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality, #KEYS
610:life's journey
plowing the fields
back and forth
~ Matsuo Basho, @BashoSociety#KEYS
611:No action, however vast, exhausts the original power from which it proceeds. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin of the Ignorance, #KEYS
612:Our ego is only a face of the universal being and has no separate existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine and the Undivine, #KEYS
613:The heart of man is nearer to the Truth than his intelligence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, Indian Spirituality and Life - I, #KEYS
614:Which of Sri Aurobindo's books should I start with?
The Life Divine.
My blessings.
11 March 1941 ~ The Mother, On Education,#KEYS
615:Life pervades and animates everything; it gives its movement to Nature and subjects her to itself. ~ Giordano Bruno, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
616:No man is simply good or simply bad; every man is a mixture of contraries. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Eternal and the Individual, #KEYS
617:Science and Philosophy are never entirely dispassionate and disinterested. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
618:That is always the end at which we arrive and we can only escape it by refusing to complete the journey.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
619:To me, life is a gift, and it's a blessing to just be alive. And each person should learn what a gift it is to be alive no matter how tough things get." ~ Tony Bennett, #KEYS
620:Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves.
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,#KEYS
621:A divine life in a divine body is the formula of the ideal that we envisage. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Divine Body, #KEYS
622:And this shall be the true manner of thy fasting that thy life shall be void of all iniquity. ~ The Pastor of Hermas, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
623:He who wants to find God, finds God. Go and verify it in your own life! Try for three days and thou art sure to succeed. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
624:Look round and thou wilt see a world on guard.
All life here armoured walks, shut in. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act I,#KEYS
625:Love the sign
Of one outblaze of godhead that two share. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Life Heavens,#KEYS
626:Man needs freedom of thought and life and action in order that he may grow. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The End of the Curve of Reason, #KEYS
627:Spiritual truth is a truth of the spirit, not a truth of the intellect. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
628:The individual is a self-expression of the universal and the transcendent. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #KEYS
629:The thing is you have to fight the whole time. You can't stop. Otherwise you just end up somewhere, bobbing in the middle of a life you never wanted. ~ Alexander Maksik, #KEYS
630:Whatever we do, we must always remember our aim. 7 December 1954
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life, [4] [T0],#KEYS
631:All possible knowledge is knowledge within the power of humanity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Two Negations, The Materialist Denial, #KEYS
632:All things are there as the spirit's powers and means and forms of manifestation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
633:Ananda is the secret principle of all being and the support of all activity of being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Man and the Evolution, #KEYS
634:... a shadow depends on light for its existence, but light does not depend for its existence on the shadow
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
635:
The best season of your life is when your mind is not clouded by unnecessary things.
~ Huikai, @BashoSociety#KEYS
636:Ego-centrism is our rock of safety against the cosmic and the infinite, our defence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Double Soul in Man, #KEYS
637:In Yoga friendship can remain, but attachment has to fall away. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
638:Live a worldly life, yet fix your mind on God. Do your work with one hand, and touch the feet of the Lord with the other. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
639:The Bliss of Liberation in life is possible only to the mind made subtle and serene by long continued meditation. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
640:A certain kind of Agnosticism is the final truth of all knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Two Negations, The Materialist Denial, #KEYS
641:Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #KEYS
642:Earth-existence cannot be the result of the human mind which is itself the result of earth-existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Matter, #KEYS
643:Ego is the most formidable of the knots which keep us tied to the Ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Boundaries of the Ignorance, #KEYS
644:For Life is Force and Force is Power and Power is Will and Will is the working of the Master-consciousness.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,#KEYS
645:Pain and suffering are a perverse and contrary term of the delight of existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine and the Undivine, #KEYS
646:Reason stops short of the Divine and only compromises with the problems of life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Religion as the Law of Life, #KEYS
647:the day is short
as is the life of
the dragonfly
~ Kobayashi Issa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
648:The moral virtues dispose one to the contemplative life by causing peace and cleanness of heart ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.180.2)., #KEYS
649:The objective is created as a ground of manifestation for the subjective. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, #KEYS
650:The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I should reply, 'Create silence'." ~ Sören Kierkegaard, #KEYS
651:There is Law, but there is also spiritual freedom. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality, #KEYS
652:They say: Thou art become mad with love for thy beloved. I reply: The savour of life is for madmen." ~ Abd Allāh ibn Asʻad al-Yafi'i, (1299-1367) chronicler from Yemen., #KEYS
653:We are not here to make our life easy and comfortable; we are here to find the Divine, to become the Divine, to manifest the Divine. ~ The Mother, #KEYS
654:Always we bear in us a magic key
Concealed in life's hermetic envelope. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge,#KEYS
655:A mental control can only be a control, not a cure. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
656:Birth is the first spiritual mystery of the physical universe, death is the second. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
657:Born to no purpose is the person who, having the rare privilege of being born human, is unable to realize God in this life. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
658:Falsehood deforms and disguises truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
659:Only a life lived for others is a life worth living." ~ Albert Einstein, (1879 - 1955) German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, Wikipedia., #KEYS
660:Prakriti is the action of the All-conscient. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Exclusive Concentration of Consciousness-Force and the Ignorance, #KEYS
661:The chain of Karma only binds the movement of Nature and not the soul. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad: The Inhabiting Godhead, Life and Action, #KEYS
662:The characteristic law of Spirit is self-existent perfection and immutable infinity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
663:the day is fleeting
as is the life
of a dragonfly
~ Kobayashi Issa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
664:The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one's self to others. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
665:The outer life-result can only endure if it is founded on inner realities. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Suprarational Ultimate of Life, #KEYS
666:This day shall be the best day of my life. Today I will start with a new determination to dedicate my devotion forever at the feet of omnipresence. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #KEYS
667:As we have died with him, and have been buried and raised to life with him, so we bear him within us, both in body and in spirit, in everything we do. ~ Saint Leo the Great, #KEYS
668:Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer,#KEYS
669:Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
670:Form is delimitation—Name and Shape out of the vast illimitable Truth of infinite existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Maya, #KEYS
671:Our Spirit, our Self must be greater than its Karma. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality, #KEYS
672:The Divine is ultimately self-revealed in both man and Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
673:The infinite can only be reached after we have grown in the finite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, Indian Spirituality and Life - IV, #KEYS
674:There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it." ~ Oscar Wilde, (1854 -1900), an Irish poet and playwright, Wikipedia., #KEYS
675:The very idea of energy in action carries with it the idea of energy abstaining from action. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Pure Existent, #KEYS
676:Though egotism is beheaded in the perfected soul, its vitality is left to make them carry on the functions of physical life. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
677:To want only what the Divine wants in us and for us, is the one important thing.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life, [T1],#KEYS
678:In the subconscient knowledge or consciousness is involved in action, for action is the essence of Life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 1.08-9, #KEYS
679:Taoism has no rules. It's a suggestion for perceiving life in its wholeness, without unnecessary categorization, yet enjoying the beauty of categorization." ~ Frederick Lenz, #KEYS
680:The characteristic energy of bodily Life is not so much in progress as in persistence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
681:The divine Maya comprehends Vidya as well as Avidya, the Knowledge as well as the Ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Mind and Supermind, #KEYS
682:The evolution of the being of gnosis would be followed by an evolution of the being of bliss. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
683:To the material man the living progressive thinker is an ideologue, dreamer or madman. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
684:a long life
and a cold night
moonlight through bamboo
~ Kobayashi Issa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
685:Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky." ~ Tagore, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
686:God exists in Himself and not by virtue of the cosmos or of man. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
687:His is a search of darkness for the light,
Of mortal life for immortality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge,#KEYS
688:It is to make the yoga the ideal of human life that India rises today. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Ideal of the Karmayogin, #KEYS
689:Live by this credo: have a little laugh at life and look around you for happiness instead of sadness. Laughter has always brought me out of unhappy situations." ~ Red Skelton, #KEYS
690:Love is in its nature the desire to give oneself to others and to receive others in exchange. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Ascent of Life, #KEYS
691:Mental man has not been Nature's last effort or highest reach. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolutionary Process - Ascent and Integration, #KEYS
692:To know our souls and to be our selves, which must be the foundation of our true way of being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
693:Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. ~ John. III. 15, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
694:Absolute consciousness is in its nature absolute power; the nature of Chit is Shakti. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin of the Ignorance, #KEYS
695:A contradiction founds the base of life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.04 #KEYS
696:Ananda is the very essence of the Brahman, it is the supreme nature of the omnipresent Reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
697:A perfected human world cannot be created by men or composed of men who are themselves imperfect. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
698:A thinking puppet is the mind of life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05, #KEYS
699:Consider God's charity. Where else have we ever seen someone who has been offended voluntarily paying out his life for those who have offended him?" ~ Saint Catherine of Siena, #KEYS
700:Every error is significant of the possibility and the effort of a discovery of truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine and the Undivine, #KEYS
701:It is within us that the Reality must be found and the source and foundation of a perfected life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
702:Reason seeks to understand and interpret life by one kind of symbol only, the idea. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Curve of the Rational Age, #KEYS
703:The element of the vital being is not earth but air; it has more movement, less status. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Triple Transformation, #KEYS
704:The Infinite would not be the Infinite if it could not assume a manifold finiteness; ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Sevenfold Chord of Being, #KEYS
705:The reason of man struggling with life becomes either an empiric or a doctrinaire. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
706:Yoga is the founding of all the life and consciousness in the Divine. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
707:A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it....In this way our life should be understood. Then there is no problem. ~ Shunryu Suzuki, #KEYS
708:Desire is the badge of subjection with its attendant discord and suffering. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad: The Inhabiting Godhead, Life and Action, #KEYS
709:For of all things He is the Lord and Father and Source, and the life and power and light and intelligence and mind. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
710:Spirituality cannot be called upon to deal with life by a non-spiritual method. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
711:A nation, race or people which loses its language cannot live its whole life or its real life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Diversity in Oneness, #KEYS
712:Desire is the impurity of the Prana, the life-principle, and its chain of bondage. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Perfection of Equality, #KEYS
713:I can understand that life is difficult, but the Lord's force is infinite and it is always available for those who pray for it sincerely.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
714:If you have a desire for sense-enjoyments, then there can be no spiritual attainments. If you are really after spiritual life, then bid farewell to desires. ~ Swami Akhandananda, #KEYS
715:In Supermind knowledge in the Idea is not divorced from will in the Idea, but one with it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Supermind as Creator, #KEYS
716:Life is a scale of the universal Energy in which the transition from inconscience to consciousness is managed. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Life, #KEYS
717:Like the discovery of love, like the discovery of the sea, the discovery of Dostoevsky marks an important date in one's life. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #KEYS
718:Renunciation of all in desire is the condition of the free enjoyment of all. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad: The Inhabiting Godhead, Life and Action, #KEYS
719:The good things of this world perish but the treasures won by a life of uprightness are imperishable. ~ Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
720:The hardest thing in life is not about how much money you earn, but how to keep a peaceful mindset and live the rest of your life in a simple and carefree manner. ~ Chow Yun-fat, #KEYS
721:The individual as spirit or being is not confined within his humanity; he has been less than human. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
722:Throwing away the life does not improve the chances for the next time. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Dealing with Depression and Despondency, #KEYS
723:To lose personality is necessary if we are to gain universality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
724:We are not only what we know of ourselves but an immense more which we do not know. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Boundaries of the Ignorance, #KEYS
725:What is magic to our finite reason is the logic of the Infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
726:All cannot, indeed, reach in a single life the highest in this path, but all can go forward. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Karmayoga, #KEYS
727:I am one with God in my being and yet I can have relations with Him in my experience. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Eternal and the Individual, #KEYS
728:It is knowledge that purifies, it is truth that liberates. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
729:Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." ~ George Bernard Shaw, (1856 - 1950), Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist, Wikipedia., #KEYS
730:Our humanity is not the whole of the Reality or its best possible self-formation or self-expression. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
731:So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and Im still trying to figure out how that could be.
~ Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower,#KEYS
732:The ascent of Life is in its nature the ascent of the divine Delight in things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Double Soul in Man, #KEYS
733:The ascent to the divine Life is the human journey, the Work of works, the acceptable Sacrifice. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Man in the Universe, #KEYS
734:The sum of the pleasure of existence far exceeds the sum of the pain of existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Delight of Existence, The Problem, #KEYS
735:What you really need to find is your true purpose in life, and how to accomplish it. This is what will make you truly happy and at ease. ~ Walt Whitman, #KEYS
736:But the Eucharist is, as it were, the consummation of the spiritual life, and the end of all the sacraments ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.73.3)., #KEYS
737:Calm heavens of imperishable Light,
Illumined continents of violet peace, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life,#KEYS
738:Every symbol was a reality
And brought the presence which had given it life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Finding of the Soul,#KEYS
739:It is important to be quiet and absorbent, especially around beautiful impressions. In this way one brings everything one has learned in one's life to the present. ~ Robert Burton, #KEYS
740:Matter is the last word of the descent, so it is also the first word of the ascent. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Ascending Series of Substance, #KEYS
741:Our present nature is a derivation from Supernature and is not a pure ignorance but a half-knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
742:sharing shade
with a butterfly
friends in a previous life
~ Kobayashi Issa, @BashoSociety#KEYS
743:The ego is the lynch-pin invented to hold together the motion of our wheel of nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Boundaries of the Ignorance, #KEYS
744:Wrong will engenders wrong action of all these instruments. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
745:Accept that you will never be perfect, life will always have challenges, and other people will sometimes disappoint you. Acceptance is the first step toward peace." ~ Lori Deschene, #KEYS
746:All that we are on the outside is indeed conditioned by what is within. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge, #KEYS
747:A point she had reached where life must be in vain
Or, in her unborn element awake,
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Issue, [T5],#KEYS
748:He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.
~ Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,#KEYS
749:He who consecrates his life to spiritual perfection, cannot be ill-content; for what he desires is always in his power. ~ Pascal, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
750:Individual perfection and liberation are not the whole sense of God's intention in the world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
751:In past ages people would be busy with devotional exercises. In this Iron-Age, Kali Yuga, life resides in food and the mind is weak. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
752:Let not night herself be all, as it were, the special and peculiar property of sleep. Let not half thy life be useless through the senselessness of slumber. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
753:Sign-symbol
It is out of this Silence that the Word which creates the worlds for ever proceeds. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality Omnipresent,#KEYS
754:The loving child of God, by faith and devotion, experiences no trouble passing through life in spite of all its trouble and anxiety. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
755:The regulating and beautiful arrangement of character and action is the art of life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings, The National Value of Art, #KEYS
756:The too developed intellect cannot often keep or recover life's first fine careless rapture. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Form and the Spirit, #KEYS
757:The true basis of work and life is the spiritual. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, To Chittaranjan Das, #KEYS
758:To be and to be fully is Nature's aim in us; but to be fully is to be wholly conscious of one's being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
759:To play the part of a Guru is like a courtesan's life, selling oneself for such paltry things as gold, status and bodily enjoyments. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
760:All possibilities push towards actuality until they reach it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
761:Either let us fear the wrath which is to come or else let us love the grace we have—one or the other, so long as we are found in Jesus Christ unto true life. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
762:For one who has the assured inner life, there is no dullness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram, Profiting from One's Stay in the Ashram, #KEYS
763:I love the dark hours of my being. My mind deepens into them.There I can find, as in old letters, the days of my life, already lived, and held like a legend, and understood. ~ Rilke, #KEYS
764:I must attain perfection in this life! I must find God with a single utterance!" By such violent love, the Lord is quickly attracted. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
765:In the ideal college, intrinsic education would be available to anyone who wanted it...The college would be life-long, for learning can take place all through life. ~ Abraham Maslow, #KEYS
766:Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your life." ~ Dōgen, #KEYS
767:Our way of knowing must be appropriate to that which is to be known. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
768:To realise the Self is to realise the eternal freedom of the Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
769:Transmuted is ravishment's minister,
A high note and a fiery refrain. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Life Heavens,#KEYS
770:Why talk of sin and hell-fire all the days of your life? Chant the name of God. Have faith in God and you will be purged of all sins. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
771:A perfected human world cannot be created by men or composed of men who are themselves imperfect. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 2.28 - The Divine Life, #KEYS
772:As soon as a man takes on the responsibility of a family, he is weighed down and feels himself unfit for the high attainments of life. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
773:Everything finite is striving to express an infinite which it feels to be its real truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Reason as Governor of Life, #KEYS
774:Faith and courage are the true attitude to keep in life and work always and in the spiritual experience also. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Faith, #KEYS
775:He that loveth his life, shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal. ~ John XII. 25, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
776:It is in a total knowledge that all knowing becomes one and indivisible. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
777:Why are we on earth?
To find the Divine who is in each of us and in all things.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life [3],#KEYS
778:Man is in his self a unique Person, but he is also in his manifestation of self a multiperson. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Triple Transformation, #KEYS
779:No victory can be won without a fixed fidelity to the aim and a long effort. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
780:So live as if thou hadst at once to say farewell to life and the time yet accorded thee were an unexpected gift. ~ Marcus Aurelius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
781:The Guru shows the disciple the path to life eternal, and protects him from all troubles. Putting great faith in the words of the Guru let the disciple live them. ~ SWAMI BRAHMANANDA, #KEYS
782:There is one only way of salvation, to renounce the life which perishes and to live the life in which there is no death. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
783:To reach your spiritual goal, be sincere, that is to say, make of it the single purpose of your life.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Sincerity, [T5],#KEYS
784:We are like the spider. We weave our life and then move along in it. We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream.This is true for the entire universe. ~ Upanishads, #KEYS
785:All truth and practice too strictly formulated becomes old and loses much, if not all, of its virtue. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Life and Yoga, #KEYS
786:And the memories of all we have loved stay and come back to us in the evening of our life. They are not dead but sleep, and it is well to gather a treasure of them. ~ Vincent van Gogh, #KEYS
787:Consciousness has no standing-place if there is none who is conscious. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
788:Desire is the profoundest root of all evil; it is from desire that there has arisen the world of life and sorrow. ~ Pali Canonymous, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
789:Force is inherent in Existence. Shiva and Kali, Brahman and Shakti are one and not two who are separable. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Conscious Force, #KEYS
790:Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. ~ Richard P. Feynman, #KEYS
791:Our call must be to live on a new height in all our being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Out of the Sevenfold Ignorance towards the Sevenfold Knowledge, #KEYS
792:The spiritual perfected only by man accomplished first in body, life and mind. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, Indian Spirituality and Life - IV, #KEYS
793:Through the spirit we come to the root of action and existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
794:Each form is there because it is an expression of some power of That which inhabits it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, #KEYS
795:Friendship and love are indispensable notes in the harmony to which we aspire. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
796:If one were truly aware of the value of human life, to waste it blithely on distractions and the pursuit of vulgar ambitions would be the height of confusion. ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, #KEYS
797:I tell those that come to me to lead a life unattached like a maid-servant. I tell them to live unattached to this world, but not of it. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
798:Life to us means only the way she affects our ego and the way our ego replies to her touches. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Gist of the Karmayoga, #KEYS
799:Our blind or erring government of life;
A loose republic once of wants and needs. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Finding of the Soul,#KEYS
800:Our standards and values are created by ignorance and therefore cannot determine the life of Super nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
801:The glories of affection for God are discrimination, dispassion, tenderness to all life, service to the good, and love of their company. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
802:The Inconscience is an inverse reproduction of the supreme superconscience. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge, #KEYS
803:The intellect and life and emotion always grasp too much at things, fasten on premature certitudes. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Faith and Shakti, #KEYS
804:The poet's first concern and his concern always is with living beauty and reality, with life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Breath of Greater Life, #KEYS
805:To have a restful or peaceful life in God is good; to bear a life of pain in patience is better; but to have peace in the midst of pain is the best of all. ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #KEYS
806:We must know how to give our life and also our death, our happiness and also our suffering. With my blessings. ~ The Mother, Mantras of the Mother, 28 December, #KEYS
807:What is is only justifiable, finds its perfect sense and satisfaction by what can and will be. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine and the Undivine, #KEYS
808:Body and mind are not the creators of the spirit, the spirit is the creator of the mind and body. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
809:Deep in the wild mountains, is a strange marketplace, where you can trade the hassle and noise of everyday life, for eternal Light. ~ Jetsun Milarepa, [T5], #KEYS
810:Drama is the poet's vision of some part of the world-act in the life of the human soul. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Course of English Poetry - II, #KEYS
811:Every man is born into this world as a servant. He must serve life and nature, those to whom he has personal responsibilities, and the spiritual needs of his own soul."
~ Manly P Hall,#KEYS
812:If by God's grace the thought that "I am not the doer" is established in the heart, one becomes free in this life; there is no more fear. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
813:Intuition is an edge of light thrust out by the secret supermind. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
814:Like the waves of a rivulet, day and night are flowing the hours of life and coining nearer and nearer to their end. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
815:The Avatar is always one and the same. Plunging into the ocean of life, he rises up as Krishna, diving again and rising up, he is Christ. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
816:The Divine in life is Power possessed of self-mastery, but also of mastery of His world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Suprarational Ultimate of Life, #KEYS
817:The law of God is more and more violated, and the gift of life is being daily attacked through the innumerable abortions which are being carried out." ~ Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi, #KEYS
818:This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,#KEYS
819:To realize God is the one goal of life. The grace of God falls alike on all His children, learned and illiterate―whoever longs for Him. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
820:True reconciliation proceeds always by a mutual comprehension leading to some sort of intimate oneness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality Omnipresent, #KEYS
821:Your life is your practice. Your spiritual practice does not occur someplace other than in your life right now, and your life is nowhere other than where you are." ~ Karen Maezen Miller, #KEYS
822:Youth, beauty, life, riches, health, friends are things that pass; let not the wise man attach himself at all to these. ~ Mahabharata, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
823:All life is only a lavish and manifold opportunity given us to discover, realise, express the Divine. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Suprarational Good, #KEYS
824:And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~ Sylvia Plath, #KEYS
825:Both individual and universe are simultaneous and interrelated expressions of the same transcendent Being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
826:But no victory can be won without a fixed fidelity to the aim and a long effort. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
827:Extended within the Infinite,...headless and footless, concealing his two ends. - Rig Veda
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Boundaries of the Ignorance,#KEYS
828:Our Yoga is not an ascetic Yoga: it aims at purity, but not at a cold austerity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
829:Poetry and art are born mediators between the immaterial and the concrete, the spirit and life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Ideal Spirit of Poetry, #KEYS
830:There is a self-law of supreme Truth which is above all standards. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
831:The supraphysical is as real as the physical; to know it is part of a complete knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, #KEYS
832:The true call upon us is the call of the Infinite and the Supreme. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
833:Absolute completeness is not feasible in the finite because it is alien to the self-conception of the finite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Maya, #KEYS
834:A deep spiritual calm no touch can sway
Upholds the mystery of this Passion-play. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Life-Unity,#KEYS
835:As far as we are concerned, Christ's immolation on our behalf takes place when we become aware of this grace and understand the life conferred on us by this sacrifice. ~ Pseudo-Chrysostom, #KEYS
836:Beauty and happiness are her native right,
And endless Bliss is her eternal home. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life,#KEYS
837:Eternity drew close disguised as Love
And laid its hand upon the body of Time. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
838:Fill then your heart with this knowledge and seek for the sources of life in the words dictated by Truth itself. ~ Epsitle to Diognetus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
839:For men, women multiple wants of daily life, consequently the necessity for money arises, freedom of action is gone, replaced by servitude. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
840:God, who has the power to raise the dead, is the One who permitted us to die. He who can restore life is the One who permitted men to be killed ~ Saint Peter Chrysologos, Sermons, 1.101)., #KEYS
841:In Supermind is the integrating Light, the consummating Force, the wide entry into the supreme Ananda. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Double Soul in Man, #KEYS
842:Man himself, who takes up all that went before him and transmutes it into the term of manhood. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Eternal and the Individual, #KEYS
843:Men in their ordinary utilitarian course of life do not feel called upon to serve anyone except themselves. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II, Work and Ideal, #KEYS
844:Our human ignorance moves towards the Truth
That Nescience may become omniscient, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life,#KEYS
845:Renunciation of Kama-Kanchana has been enjoyed by those leading a monastic life. Monks must not do so much as look at the picture of women. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
846:That life is grave and earnest under its smiles,
And we too with a wary gaiety
Should walk its roads. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act V,#KEYS
847:Time is death. Who waits, dies. Life is now only. Do not talk to me about past and future - they exist only in your mind. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
848:After having this rare privilege of human birth and the opportunity for attaining true knowledge, life and everything else are in vain if you do not try to realize Him. ~ SWAMI VIRAJANANDA, #KEYS
849:All life is the play of universal forces. The individual gives a personal form to these universal forces. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I, Occult Knowledge, #KEYS
850:Children, see to it that your dissensions do not deprive you of your life. How do you propose to discipline the Lord's elect, if you have no discipline yourselves? ~ The Shepherd of Hermas, #KEYS
851:What is of the substance of the utterly Real must itself be real. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Indeterminates, Cosmic Determinations and the Indeterminable, #KEYS
852:When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions. Wait for hope to appear.
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Lamentations, 3:28-29 MSG,#KEYS
853:All the time of our life and faith will benefit us nothing if we do not resist, as is fitting for children of God, in this present lawless age and in the coming trials. ~ Letter of Barnabas, #KEYS
854:All things are wrapped in the dynamic One:
A subtle link of union joins all life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Kingdom of Subtle Matter,#KEYS
855:A nation cannot be made,—it is an organism which grows under the stress of a principle of life within. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - I, Shall India Be Free?, #KEYS
856:An ounce of practice is better than tons of theory. Practice Yoga, Religion and Philosophy in daily life and attain Self-realization. ~ Swami Sivananda, Light Power and Wisdom, Introduction, #KEYS
857:At each moment of our life, in all circumstance the Grace is there helping us to surmount all difficulties. With my blessings
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
858:A total spiritual direction given to the whole life and the whole nature can alone lift humanity beyond itself. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
859:Change: it has the power to uplift, to heal, to stimulate, surprise, open new doors, bring fresh experience, and create excitement in life. Certainly, it is worth the risk." ~ Leo Buscaglia, #KEYS
860:Fear and greed cause the misuse of the mind. The right use of mind is in the service of love, of life, of truth, of beauty. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
861:It is the highest truth which the soul must seek out by thought and by life accomplish. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Realisation of Sachchidananda, #KEYS
862: It is this consideration which has led to the adoption of the Qabalistic " tree of life" as the basis of the universal philosophical alphabet. ~ Israel Regardie, A Garden of Pomegranates, #KEYS
863:Liberty is the first requisite for the sound health and vigorous life of a nation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - I, Shall India be Free? - The Loyalist Gospel, #KEYS
864:Life and death, waking and sleep, youth and age are one and the same thing, for one changes .into the other, that into this. ~ Heraclitus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
865:Solitude is for me a fount of healing which makes my life worth living. Talking is often a torment for me, and I need many days of silence to recover from the futility of words. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
866:Spiritual life begins when you have loosened yourself from the control of the senses. He whose senses rule him is worldly — is a slave. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
867:The evolutionary intention acts through the evil as through the good. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
868:To be alone with the Divine is the highest of all privileged states for the sadhak. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
869:Yoga is sufficient to fill a whole life if it is done seriously - but it goes without saying, one must be patient, otherwise nothing can be achieved.
~ The Mother,#KEYS
870:But all is not Law and Process, there is also Being and Consciousness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality, #KEYS
871:For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, 1 Timothy, 4:8, #KEYS
872:Life is not short if it is filled. The way to fill it is to compel the soul to enjoy its own wealth and to become its own master. ~ Seneca, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
873:Like the waves of a river that flow slowly on and return never back, the days of human life pass and come not back again. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
874:Mind is an expression not of Life, but of that of which Life itself is a less luminous expression. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Object of Knowledge, #KEYS
875:Our ignorance is not entire; it is a limitation of consciousness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Out of the Sevenfold Ignorance towards the Sevenfold Knowledge, #KEYS
876:Poetry is the rhythmic voice of life, but it is one of the inner and not one of the surface voices. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Breath of Greater Life, #KEYS
877:The malady of mind,
Its pang of thought, its quest for the aim of life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
878:The true Person is not an isolated entity, his individuality is universal; for he individualises the universe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
879:When the present dream of our life is finished, a new dream will succeed it and there our life and death will not be known. ~ Schopenhauer, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
880:Wherever desire and ego harbour, passion and disturbance harbour with them and share their life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Three Modes of Nature, #KEYS
881:Die and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign that you've died. Your old life was a frantic running from silence. Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
882:Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life.
~ Benjamin Disraeli,#KEYS
883:Intellect void of the spirit can only pile up external knowledge and machinery and efficiency. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
884:It is the physical that fears and abhors suffering, but the vital takes it as part of the play of life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Sorrow and Suffering, #KEYS
885:Music is, to me, proof of the existence of God. It is so extraordinarily full of magic, and in tough times of my life I can listen to music and it makes such a difference. ~ Kurt Vonnegut Jr., #KEYS
886:Often it is Truth that wears a disguise in order to arrive unobserved near to its goal. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Two Negations, The Materialist Denial, #KEYS
887:The higher the life, the less the sleep. The body must be strong. Rise early; meditate a little, for the mind then is naturally calm. Do every bit of work with a purpose. ~ Swami Akhandananda, #KEYS
888:The Israelites passed through the sea; you have passed from death to life. They were delivered from the Egyptians; you have been delivered from the powers of darkness. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
889:The nature of art is to strive after a nobler beauty and more sustained perfection than life can give. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, Recent English Poetry - I, #KEYS
890:The Self is the essence of this universe, the essence of all souls; He is the essence of your own life, nay, 'Thou art That'. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. I. 374), #KEYS
891:What we call the Ignorance does not create a new thing and absolute falsehood but only misrepresents the Truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Mind and Supermind, #KEYS
892:All life is only a lavish and manifold opportunity given us to discover, realise, express the Divine.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Suprarational Good, 148,#KEYS
893:All the colour and variety of life is made of the intricate pattern of the weaving of the gunas. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Liberation of the Nature, #KEYS
894:Altruism does the works of compassion more often for its own sake than for the sake of the world it helps. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
895:A luminous moon the wind in the pine a long evening a transcendent view; But what is the meaning of this? What is the meaning of life? ~ John Kerecz. How to start a stress-releasing zen journey, #KEYS
896:Even as the hard K us ha-grass tears the hand which knows not how to size it, so a misplaced asceticism leads to the lower life. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
897:EVERY intention which does not assert itself by deeds is a vain intention, and the speech which expresses it is idle speech. It is action which proves life and establishes will
~ Eliphas Levi,#KEYS
898:If you have to have it, it's ego. If you have to not have it, it's ego. Hold life lightly and it will deliver what you need and release what you don't." ~ Alan Cohen See: https://bit.ly/3dnj715, #KEYS
899:The great decisions of human life have as a rule far more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well-meaning reasonableness. ~ Carl Jung, #KEYS
900:There is an intuition which serves the intellect and an intuition which serves the heart and the life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Divine Personality, #KEYS
901:Life's contraries were lovers or natural friends
And her extremes keen edges of harmony: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life,#KEYS
902:Looking for the meaning of life, one man can discover the order of the universe. To discover the truth, to achieve. a higher spiritual state, that is the true meaning of ninja. ~ Masaaki Hatsumi, #KEYS
903:Mental life is not a finished evolution of Nature; it is not yet firmly founded in the human animal. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Three Steps of Nature, #KEYS
904:Reason is neither the first principle of life, nor can be its last, supreme and sufficient principle. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The End of the Curve of Reason, #KEYS
905:She needs the spur of pleasure and of pain
And the native taste of suffering and unrest: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life,#KEYS
906:The higher we project our view and our aspiration, the greater the Truth that seeks to descend upon us. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Sevenfold Chord of Being, #KEYS
907:The manifestation of the Lord in life and works is the law of our being and the object of our world-existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, Conclusion and Summary, #KEYS
908:There work was play and play the only work,
The tasks of heaven a game of godlike might: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life,#KEYS
909:Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life. ~ Dalai Lama, #KEYS
910:All men are separated from each other by the body, but all are united by the same spiritual principle which gives life to everything. ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
911:Below him lay like gleaming jewelled thoughts
Rapt dreaming cities of Gandharva kings. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
912:It is always a mistake to complain about the circumstances of our life, for they are the outward expression of what we are ourselves. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, #KEYS
913:Man lives on earth not once, but three times: the first stage of life is continual sleep; the second, sleeping and waking by turns; the third, waking forever.
~ Gustav Fechner, Life after Death,#KEYS
914:Mystic daughter of Delight,
Life, thou ecstasy,
Let the radius of thy flight
Be eternity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Life,#KEYS
915:Nature creates perfectly because she creates directly out of life and is not intellectually self-conscious. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Form and the Spirit, #KEYS
916:The gatherings which will take place in Paradise are only the result of gatherings which took place in this life." ~ Habib Umar bin Hafiz ق, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
917:There is an obscure mind and life even in the cells of the body, the stones or in molecules and atoms. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I, The Physical Consciousness, #KEYS
918:Tt is only by liberation and perfection and realisation of the truth of being that man can arrive at truth of living. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
919:What Nature aims at for the mass in a slow evolution, Yoga effects for the individual by a rapid revolution. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
920:What paralyzes life is lack of faith and lack of audacity. The difficulty lies not in solving problems but identifying them. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
921:When one is incapable of comforming to a discipline, one is also incapable of doing anything of lasting value in life. 16 Februrary 1967. ~ The Mother, On Education, [T5], #KEYS
922:Without discipline no proper work is possible. Without discipline no proper life is possible.
And above all, without discipline no Sadhana is possible. ~ The Mother,#KEYS
923:Actions are lifeless forms, but the presence of an inner sincerity within them is what endows them with life-giving spirit. . ~ Ibn Ata'allah, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
924:A free power of self-variation must be natural to a consciousness that is infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
925:Death is strong: it has the power to deprive us of the gift of life. ~ Love is strong: it has the power to restore us to the exercise of a better life ~ Bishop Baldwin of Canterbury, Treatise 10)., #KEYS
926:Happiness can only arise as a 'byproduct' of a life devoted to the services of others." ~ Joanne Carriatore, from "Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief", (2017)., #KEYS
927:I, Earth, have a deeper power than Heaven;
My lonely sorrow surpasses its rose-joys. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Life Heavens,#KEYS
928:Immortal pleasure cleansed him in its waves
And turned his strength into undying power. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
929:Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You've got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it." ~ Ray Bradbury, #KEYS
930:The dualities that trouble our consciousness are contrasted truths of one and the same Truth of being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Knowledge and the Ignorance, #KEYS
931:The errors of life and progress are more exuberant and striking but less fatal than the errors of decay and reaction. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin, The Hughly Conference, #KEYS
932:To hope for a true change of human life without a change of human nature is an irrational and unspiritual proposition. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
933:All life for the achieved spiritual or gnostic consciousness must be the manifestation of the realised truth of spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
934:All Nature dumbly calls to her alone
To heal with her feet the aching throb of life ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Adoration of the Divine Mother,#KEYS
935:Consciousness uses the brain which its upward strivings have produced, brain has not produced nor does it use the consciousness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine 1.10-13, #KEYS
936:Do not sleep too long. How can a spiritual aspirant sleep away his life? He cannot. He must keep waking - who knows when God will come? The higher the life, the less the sleep. ~ Swami Akhandananda, #KEYS
937:He is what he is, but he is also the past of all that he was and the potentiality of all that he is not. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Eternal and the Individual, #KEYS
938:Knowledge waits seated beyond mind and intellectual reasoning, throned in the luminous vast of illimitable self-vision. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Maya, #KEYS
939:Love immense and infinite, broad as the sky and deep as the ocean—this is the one great gain in life. Blessed is he who gets it. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. V. 144), #KEYS
940:Make your entire life an expression of your faith and love for your teacher. This is real dwelling with the Guru. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That, Ch 32, #KEYS
941:Mind is not the native dynamism of consciousness of the Spirit; supermind, the light of gnosis, is its native dynamism. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
942:One must have faith in the Master of our life and works, even if for a long time He conceals Himself, and then in His own right time He will reveal His Presence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga IV, #KEYS
943:Our mortality is only justified in the light of our immortality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
944:Pain is a contrary effect of the one delight of existence resulting from the weakness of the recipient. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Knowledge and the Ignorance, #KEYS
945:Philosophy is a doctrine of building character, not of nourishing weakness. Strength of character comes from contact with life and not from running away. ~ Manly P. Hall (Horizon August 1941 p. 4) #KEYS
946:The Force that builds the worlds is a conscious Force, the Existence which manifests itself in them is conscious Being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Conscious Force, #KEYS
947:Yes, to live in the consciousness of the Divine Presence is the only thing that matters. 2 June 1934
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life, [3] [T6],#KEYS
948:Your life sparks fires from within your innermost temple. No one can reach there but you, it is your inner sanctum. You are your own master there, only you can reach and ignite the fire. ~ Rajneesh, #KEYS
949:Be very meditative. Do not lose your time and energy. Live well; prove your life well. Behave yourself most spiritually. Life is short. Now or never. Don't lose opportunity. ~ SWAMI TRIGUNATITANANDA, #KEYS
950:Desire is the lever by which the divine Life-principle effects its end of self-affirmation in the universe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Death, Desire and Incapacity, #KEYS
951:In the emergence of the gnostic being would be the hope of a more harmonious evolutionary order in terrestrial Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
952:Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises." ~ Samuel Butler, (1835-1902), the iconoclastic English author of the Utopian satirical novel Erewhon, (1872), Wikipedia, #KEYS
953:She is destined once more to new-mould the life of the world and restore the peace of the human spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II, Swaraj and the Coming Anarchy, #KEYS
954:Spirit is a final evolutionary emergence because it is the original involutionary element and factor. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
955:The discord, the disharmony of our life and nature is abnormal to it although it is normal to the life of the Ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
956:The entire conquest of the body comes in fact by the conquest of the physical life-energy. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from Subjection to the Body, #KEYS
957:The generalisation of Yoga in humanity must be the last victory of Nature over her own delays and concealments. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
958:The goodness of God is the highest object of prayer, and it reaches down to our lowest need. It quickens our soul and gives it life, and makes it grow in grace and virtue." ~ Saint Julian of Norwich, #KEYS
959:The individual exists in the Transcendent, but all the Transcendent is there concealed in the individual. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Eternal and the Individual, #KEYS
960:The life values are only poetic when they have come out heightened and changed into soul values. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Soul of Poetic Delight and Beauty, #KEYS
961:The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.
~ Michel de Montaigne,#KEYS
962:Time observation and Time movement are relative, but Time itself is real and eternal. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
963:What is the most important moment in life?
The present moment. For the past no longer exists and the future does not yet exist.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,#KEYS
964:You must be holy in the way that God asks you to be holy. God does not ask you to be a Trappist monk or a hermit. He wills that you sanctify the world in your everyday life. ~ Saint Vincent Pallotti, #KEYS
965:A hundred years of life passed without the vision of the supreme law are not worth a single day of a life consecrated to that vision. ~ Dham-mapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
966:All philosophies as divergent view-points looking at different sides of a single Reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
967:Always the life of mind and senses is the jurisdiction of death and limitation; beyond is the immortality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena and Other Upanishads, The Great Transition, #KEYS
968:Even if thou wouldst, thou couldst not separate thy life from the life of humanity. Thou livest in humanity and by it and for it. ~ Marcus Aurelius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
969:He was here before the elements could emerge,
Before there was light of mind or life could breathe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge,#KEYS
970:It is in God alone, by the possession of the Divine only that all the discords of life can be resolved. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Soul and Its Liberation, #KEYS
971:It is much better to observe justice than to pass one's whole life in the prostrations and genuflexions of an external worship. ~ Attar of Nishapur, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
972:Life is like a moth which in summer at nightfall turns about a lamp; there it finds at first a fugitive joy, but afterwards death. ~ Zeisho Aishako, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
973:No one who hasn't experienced for himself at least something of the nature and joys of the spiritual life can have any valid opinion on the subject." ~ Krisna Prem, (Ronald Henry Nixon, 1898 - 1965), #KEYS
974:renunciation of life cannot be the goal of life nor rejection of the world the object for which the world was created. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Renunciation, #KEYS
975:Thoughts too great and deep to find a voice,
Thoughts whose desire new-makes the universe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
976:To enjoy the eternity to which birth and life are only outward circumstances, is the soul's true immortality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Field and its Knower, #KEYS
977:Whoever, without having the true science to which Life offers witness, fancies he knows something, knows, I repeat, nothing. ~ Epistle to Diognetus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
978:A compromise is a bargain, a transaction of interests between two conflicting powers; it is not a true reconciliation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality Omnipresent, #KEYS
979:If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
980:in all this nothing is without refuge. I alone have nowhere in life to turn. Forever drunk, I face rock-born moon, sing for wildflowers sights and smells." ~ Li Bai, (aka Li Po, 701-762), Chinese poet, #KEYS
981:It is for ananda that the world exists; for joy that the Self puts Himself into the great and serious game of life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin, The Awakening Soul of India, #KEYS
982:Life-World
The Light is nearer to us than we think and at any time its hour may come. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram, Birthday Messages for Disciples,#KEYS
983:The day of days, the great feast-day of the life, is that in which the eye within opens on the unity of things, the omnipresence of a law. ~ Emerson, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
984:The impersonal is only one face of existence; the Divine is All-existence, but it is also the one Existent ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Supreme Truth-Consciousness, #KEYS
985:The subjective and the objective truth of things are both real, they are two sides of the same Reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, #KEYS
986:What is needed by each for his spiritual progress is the one consideration to be held in view. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
987:Worship lifts the worshipper's bowed strength Close to the god's pride and bliss his soul adores: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life, #KEYS
988:You cannot find any peace by escaping from human pain and suffering; you have to find peace and harmony right in the midst of human pain. That is the purpose of spiritual life. ~ Dainin Katagiri Roshi, #KEYS
989:Belief by itself is not evidence of reality; it must base itself on some thing more valid before one can accept it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Order of the Worlds, #KEYS
990:Man, the mental being, has an imperfect life because mind is not the first and highest power of consciousness of the Being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
991:On our life's prow that breaks the waves of Time
No signal light of hope has gleamed in vain. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Debate of Love and Death,#KEYS
992:Our vital being is not concerned with self-knowledge but with self-affirmation, desire, ego. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge, #KEYS
993:Out of the ineffable hush it hears them come
Trembling with the beauty of a wordless speech. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
994:The consciousness is there throughout in our occult parts of being, the development is in the manifesting Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
995:The creative operation of God does not simply mold us like soft clay. It is a Fire that animates all it touches...that gives life. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
996:The dire delight that could shatter mortal flesh,
The rapture that the gods sustain he bore. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
997:To be and to become more and more what the Divine wants us to be should be our greatest preoccupation.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life, [T0],#KEYS
998:You want to have a meaningful life? Everything you do matters. That's the definition of a meaningful life. But everything you do matters. You're going to have to carry that with you." ~ Jordan Peterson, #KEYS
999:A higher instrumental dynamis than mind is needed to transform totally a nature created by the Ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
1000:A rigid standardisation, however necessary for the mind's arrangement of things, could not be the law of the spiritual life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
1001:Meditate again and again until you have turned your mind away from the activities of this life, which are like adorning yourself while being led to the execution ground. ~ Tsongkhapa, Lamrim Chenmo (160) #KEYS
1002:Self-expression and experience are what the soul seeks by its birth into the body. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality, #KEYS
1003:The attempt of the individual, the living atom, to maintain and aggrandise itself is the whole sense of Desire. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Death, Desire and Incapacity, #KEYS
1004:The object of life is the growth of the soul, not outward success of the hour or even of the near future. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I, Fate, Free Will and Prediction, #KEYS
1005:There is a purpose in life - and it is the only true and lasting one - the Divine. Turn to Him and the emptiness will go. Blessings.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, [T5],#KEYS
1006:The sense of pleasure and delight in the emotional aspects of life and action, this is the poetry of life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings, The National Value of Art, #KEYS
1007:These words are hard to utter, for when I speak it is myself that I am reproaching. I do not preach as I should nor does my life follow the principles I preach so inadequately. ~ Saint Gregory the Great, #KEYS
1008:The Spirit prepares mankind for the Son of God, the Son leads it to God, and God gives it the gift of incorruptible eternal life, a life that everyone receives who sees God. ~ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, #KEYS
1009:the value...of life is not so much to do conspicuous things...as to do ordinary things with the perception of their enormous value. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
1010:Work (or life either) without discipline would soon become a confusion and an anarchic failure. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram, The Place of Rules in Work, #KEYS
1011:Your body is an image of heaven and earth confided to your keeping. Your life is the harmony of heaven and earth confided to your keeping. ~ Tswangrse, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1012:Every possibility implies a truth of being behind it, a reality in the Existent. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Indeterminates, Cosmic Determinations and the Indeterminable, #KEYS
1013:If you want your relationship to last, never, never, never, ever threaten the relationship itself." ~ Tony Robbins, (born 1960) an American author, entrepreneur, philanthropist and life coach, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1014:Spiritual life entails the least expenditure of time and energy to produce successful result, as opposed to worldliness which takes all time and energy and gives nothing in turn. ~ SWAMI TRIGUNATITANANDA, #KEYS
1015:The deepest meaning of freedom is the power to expand and grow towards perfection by the law of one's own nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Religion as the Law of Life, #KEYS
1016:The divine soul reproduces itself in similar liberated souls as the animal reproduces itself in similar bodies. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Destiny of the Individual, #KEYS
1017:The Purusha has to become not only the witness but the knower and source, the master of all the thought and action. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Triple Transformation, #KEYS
1018:The universe is a manifestation of an infinite and eternal All-Existence: the Divine Being dwells in all that is. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine and the Undivine, #KEYS
1019:When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy.' They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life." ~ John Lennon, #KEYS
1020:When we speak about justice, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about peace, we are speaking of Christ. When we speak about truth and life and redemption, we are speaking of Christ. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
1021:A blind god is not destiny's architect;
A conscious power has drawn the plan of life, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
1022:All division is intended to enrich by an experience of various sweetness of unification the joy of realised unity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine and the Undivine, #KEYS
1023:In death we shall rediscover all the instants of our life and we shall freely combine them as in dreams.~ Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths, Selected Stories and Other Writings, #KEYS
1024:Our I is not that spiritual being which can look on the Divine Existence and say, "That am I". ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
1025:Our imperfect mental instrumentation is not the last word of our possibilities. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Out of the Sevenfold Ignorance towards the Sevenfold Knowledge, #KEYS
1026:The foundation of man's life is the dwelling in him of the divine Spirit equal in all men. And that is why men among themselves are all equal. ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1027:There was no act, no movement in its Vast:
Life's question met by its silence died on her lips, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Pursuit of the Unknowable,#KEYS
1028:Without an opening into universality the individual remains incomplete. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
1029:All depends on what you expect from life, but if you sincerely want to do the Yoga, you must abstain from all sexual activities.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, [T4],#KEYS
1030:Human affection is obviously unreliable because it is so much bound up with selfishness and desire. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
1031:Life only is, or death is life disguised,—
Life a short death until by life we are surprised. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Life and Death,#KEYS
1032:Oneness with others is not enough by itself, if it is a oneness with their ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
1033:The life of the individual must have the same rhythm of significance, the same law of progression as the cosmic life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
1034:The superior type of man is in all the circumstances of his life exempt from prejudices and obstinacy; he regulates himself by justice alone. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1035:What we see as error is very frequently the symbol or a disguise or a corruption or malformation of a truth. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
1036:Before the creator can be born, there must be many pangs and transformations. Yes, your life must pass through many bitter deaths, O creators. ~ Nietzsche, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1037:Happiness is not the aim of life. The aim of ordinary life is to carry out one's duty, the aim of spiritual life is to realise the Divine.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, 26,#KEYS
1038:Indian culture did not deface nor impoverish the richness of the grand game of human life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture - V, #KEYS
1039:Our justice… is such that in this life it consists in the forgiveness of sins rather than in the perfection of virtue. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, City of God xix.26, #KEYS
1040:The nature of the energy put forth must determine the nature of the result or outcome. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality, #KEYS
1041:The spiritual life is one of intense striving. In order to attain success, the aspirant should always be up and doing. The life of the seeker after Truth must be dynamic and creative. ~ SWAMI YATISWARANANDA, #KEYS
1042:Truth of knowledge must base truth of life and determine the aim of life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
1043:When love comes into your life, unrecognized dimensions of your destiny awaken and blossom and grow. Possibility is the secret heart of time." ~ John O'Donohue, "Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom,', (1997), #KEYS
1044:A fatal seed was sown in life's false start
When evil twinned with good on earthly soil. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
1045:As those who see light are in the light sharing its brilliance, so those who see God are in God sharing his glory, and that glory gives them life. To see God is to share in life. ~ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, #KEYS
1046:Faith is indispensable to man, for without it he could not proceed forward in his journey through the Unknown. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
1047:Pain and suffering have come into your life, but remember pain, sorrow, suffering are but the kiss of Jesus - a sign that you have come so close to Him that He can kiss you. ~ Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, #KEYS
1048:Progress is the very heart of the significance of human life, for it means our evolution into greater and richer being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Materialism, #KEYS
1049:Spirit is the soul and reality of that which we sense as Matter; Matter is a form and body of that which we realise as Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Knot of Matter, #KEYS
1050:The religious instinct in man is most of all the one instinct in him that cannot be killed, it only changes its form. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Religion as the Law of Life, #KEYS
1051:Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement." ~ Golda Meir, #KEYS
1052:Whether you are standing or walking, whether you are seated or lying down, consecrate yourselves wholly to love : it is the best way of life. ~ Metta Sutta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1053:Without experience of pain we would not get all the infinite value of the divine delight of which pain is in travail. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine and the Undivine, #KEYS
1054:Cease to search out death with such ardour in the strayings of your life, use not the work of your hands to win that which shall destroy you. ~ Wisdom I. 12, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1055:He whose whole play of life is with the Self and in the Self has his joy and so does actions, is the best of the knowers of the Eternal. ~ Mundaka Upanishad, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1056:If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you" ~ Romans 8:11)., #KEYS
1057:Man separates from Nature only that Nature may be found again in a higher dignity in the Man. For as the Ideal is realized in Nature, so is the Real idealized in man. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Theory of Life, #KEYS
1058:Pray, 'Thou our Father, our Mother, our dearest Friend ! Thou who bearest this universe, help us to bear the little burden of this our life.' ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. VI. 91), #KEYS
1059:Purpose in Life: At the foundation of every life is one central desire: to make a difference that you lived." ~ Ron Smothermon, M.D., (b. 1943), psychiatrist and author. "Winning Through Enlightenment," 1980., #KEYS
1060:The history of the cycles of man is a progress towards the unveiling of the Godhead in the soul and life of humanity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Theory of the Vibhuti, #KEYS
1061:The only important thing is the goal to be attained. The way matters little, and often it is better not to know it in advance.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, True Aim of Life,#KEYS
1062:Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." ~ John Wayne, #KEYS
1063:Wherever there is an increase of consciousness, there is an increase of the potential force and the actual power of the existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
1064:All ignorance and all perversity only the distortion of the truth and right of things and not the play of an absolute falsehood. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Mind and Supermind, #KEYS
1065:All things are the symbols through which we have to approach and draw nearer to That by which we and they exist. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, #KEYS
1066:For life cannot subsist without science and science exposes us to this peril that it does not walk towards the light of the true life. ~ Epistle to Diognetus, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1067:Pull on the Vital
The lame foot of Punishment reaches at last the successful offender. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality,#KEYS
1068:The enlightening power of the poet's creation is vision of truth, its moving power is a passion of beauty and delight. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, The Breath of Greater Life, #KEYS
1069:The inner life has a supreme spiritual importance and the outer has a value only in so far as it is expressive of the inner status. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
1070:The proud man wishes to distinguish himself from others and deprives himself thus of the best joy of life, of a free and joyful communion with men. ~ Tolstoy, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1071:All life is Nature fulfilling itself and not Nature destroying or denying itself. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Nature's Law in Our Progress - Unity in Diversity, Law and Liberty, #KEYS
1072:A single path, shot thin and arrowlike
Into this bosom of vast and secret life,
Pierced its enormous dream of solitude. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Satyavan,#KEYS
1073:Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid it will never begin…." ~ Grace Hanson [Grace Hanson is one of the protagonists on "Grace and Frankie." She is portrayed by Jane Fonda. For more of her quotes see:, #KEYS
1074:For what it's worth: it's never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you're proud of, and if you find you're not, I hope you have the strength to start over again. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, #KEYS
1075:If God said, 'Rumi pay homage to everything that has helped you enter my arms,' there would not be one experience of my life, not one thought, not one feeling, nor any act, I would not bow to. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1076:In everything that is there is the delight of existence and it exists and is what it is by virtue of that delight. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Delight of Existence, The Problem, #KEYS
1077:Life-Self
Such is the life earth's travail has conceived,
A constant stream that never is the same. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Debate of Love and Death,#KEYS
1078:New sentient creatures filled the unseen depths,
Life's glory and swiftness ran in the beauty of beasts, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life,#KEYS
1079:The first manifest effect of life is expansion. You must expand if you want to live. The moment you have ceased to expand, death is upon you, danger is ahead. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1080:The more you choose to do things that uplift yourself and others, the more your spirit can shine, can heal you, can lead your life. What can you do today to uplift yourself? To uplift others?" ~ Sonia Choquette, #KEYS
1081:Imagined scenes or great eternal worlds,
Dream-caught or sensed, they touch our hearts with their depths; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life,#KEYS
1082:I pass beyond Time and life on measureless wings,
Yet still am one with born and unborn things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Cosmic Consciousness,#KEYS
1083:It is a deep spiritual calm and peace that is the only stable foundation for a lasting Bhakti and Ananda. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
1084:It is certain that whoever could write the history of his own life from its very ground, would have thereby grasped in a brief conspectus the entire history of the universe. ~ Schelling, Ages of the World (1811), #KEYS
1085:Man's natural joy of life is overcast
And sorrow is his nurse of destiny. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.04#KEYS
1086:Our real being is not the intellect, not the aesthetic, ethical or thinking mind, but the divinity within. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, Indian Spirituality and Life - II, #KEYS
1087:The Absolute is in itself indefinable by reason, ineffable to the speech; it has to be approached through experience. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #KEYS
1088:The foundation of the pure spiritual consciousness that is the first object in the evolution of the spiritual man. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
1089:The harmony of kindred souls that seek
Each other on the strings of body and mind,
Is all the music for which life was born. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act II,#KEYS
1090:The principal work of life is love. And one cannot love in the past or in the future: one can only love in the present, at this hour, at this minute. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1091:What is Consciousness?
When the Lord becomes conscious of Himself, the world is created. Consciousness is the breath that gives life to all.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,#KEYS
1092:Everyone who is intent upon surviving with worth and dignity, and living rather than passively accepting life, must sooner or later pass through the agonies of emergent consciousness ~ Jean Gebser, #KEYS
1093:For the awakened individual the realisation of his truth of being and his inner liberation and perfection must be his primary seeking. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
1094:It is only by the touch of the Absolute that we can arrive at our own absolute. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
1095:It is only by the touch of the Absolute that we can arrive at our own absolute. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine: The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
1096:Moral purity and spiritual aspiration are the first steps in the seeker's path. Without a strong conviction in moral values, there can surely be no spiritual life, or even a good life. ~ Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #KEYS
1097:Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." ~ Leo Buscaglia, #KEYS
1098:A complete self-knowledge in all things and at all moments is the gift of the supramental gnosis and with it a complete self-mastery. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
1099:A day spent without the sight or sound of beauty, the contemplation of mystery, or the search of truth or perfection is a poverty-stricken day; and a succession of such days is fatal to human life. ~ Lewis Mumford, #KEYS
1100:Excess sadness is a disease of the mind, but mild sadness is the mark of a well-conditioned mind, according to the present state of life ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2 59.3ad3)., #KEYS
1101:It is at some one point or a few points that the fire is lit and spreads from hearth to hearth, from altar to altar. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
1102:Nature walks upon her mighty way
Unheeding when she breaks a soul, a life;
Leaving her slain behind she travels on: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Symbol Dawn,#KEYS
1103:The material world and the physical life exist for us only by virtue of our internal self and our internal life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena and Other Upanishads, The Subject of the Upanishad, #KEYS
1104:The only way for us to have long-term happiness is to live by our highest ideals, to consistently act in acccordance with what we believe our life is truly about. ~ Anthony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within, p. 345, #KEYS
1105:All forces are to us invisible,—but they are not invisible to the spiritual vision of the Infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
1106:And there is no more perfect life than that which is passed in the commerce and sociely of men when it is filled with charity towards one's neighbour. ~ J. Tauler, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1107:If it were permissible for bad men to rob other people of their property, it would tend to the detriment of the truth of life and justice ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.43.8ad2)., #KEYS
1108:Remember that there is meaning beyond absurdity. Know that every deed counts, that every word is power...Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, #KEYS
1109:There are greatnesses hidden in our unseen parts
That wait their hour to step into life's front. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Parable of the Search for the Soul,#KEYS
1110:These limitations of his power, knowledge, life, delight of existence are the whole cause of man's dissatisfaction with himself and the universe.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
1111:The worlds are only frames for our experience, the senses only instruments of experience and conveniences. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Two Negations, The Refusal of the Ascetic, #KEYS
1112:True joy, genuine festival, means the casting out of wickedness. To achieve this one must live a life of perfect goodness and, in the serenity of the fear of God, practise contemplation in one's heart. ~ Athanasius, #KEYS
1113:After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. It's better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life. ~ Sophia Loren, #KEYS
1114:Beneath the person lies, even in us, that "wholly other", whose profundities, impenetrable to any concept, can yet be grasped in the numinous self-feeling by one who has experience of the deeper life. ~ Rudolph Otto, #KEYS
1115:Count not life nor death, defeat nor triumph, Pyrrhus.
Only thy soul regard and the gods in thy joy or thy labour. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
1116:Great Nature in her animal trance,
Her life of mighty instincts where no stir
Of the hedged restless mind has spoiled her vasts. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act II,#KEYS
1117:It is not enough that the natural language should be spoken by the people; it must be the expression of its higher life and thought. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Diversity in Oneness, #KEYS
1118:Life is too complex to admit of the arbitrary ideal simplicity which the moralising theorist loves. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture - V, #KEYS
1119:Money represents a great power of life which must be conquered for divine uses. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, To and about V. Tirupati, #KEYS
1120:The active Brahman fulfils Itself in the world by works and man also is in the body for self-fulfilment by action. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad: The Inhabiting Godhead, Life and Action, #KEYS
1121:Then is our life a tranquil pilgrimage,
Each year a mile upon the heavenly Way,
Each dawn opens into a larger Light. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Word of Fate,#KEYS
1122:The witness silence of the Spirit is there in the very grain of all the voices and workings of Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
1123:To seek for delight is therefore the fundamental impulse and sense of Life; to find and possess and fulfil it is its whole motive. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Double Soul in Man, #KEYS
1124:We can reach a point where our way of life again has the dignities and the values which make living important. ~ Manly P. Hall, Lecture #KEYS
1125:Your life is an idea in the universal mind . . . Make it a good one." ~ Kamand Kojouri, "The Eternal Dance: Love Poetry and Prose,", (2018). She was born in Tehran, raised in Dubai and Toronto, and resides in Wales., #KEYS
1126:Although I am a typical loner in my daily life, my awareness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has prevented me from feelings of isolation.
~ Albert Einstein,#KEYS
1127:A perfect self-expression of the spirit is the object of our terrestrial existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
1128:Each part of man's being has its own dharma which it must follow and will follow in the end, put on it what fetters you please. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Spiritual Aim and Life, #KEYS
1129:Each thing that exists is real in its own degree of the manifestation and is so seen by the consciousness of the Infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #KEYS
1130:God's will is both in worldliness and freedom. It is He, who has kept you unconscious in worldly life. And again, at His will, when He calls you, you will be liberated. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1131:If you are really desirous of mastering Zen, it is necessary for you to give up you life and plunge right into the pit of death." ~ Yekiwo, Zen master. Quote from "Zen and Japanese Culture" by Daisetz T. Suzuki, 1959, #KEYS
1132:In each life man has to figure a certain sum of its complexity and put that into some kind of order. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture - V, #KEYS
1133:O Life, thy breath is but a cry to the Light
Immortal, whence has come thy swift delight. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, O Life, thy Breath is but a Cry,#KEYS
1134:The body-consciousness is a patient servant and can be in its large reserve of possibilities a potent instrument of the individual life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
1135:The oneness with all is an internal realisation, but it does not necessarily impose the same dealing with all. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
1136:The struggle of Mind to elevate life is the promise and condition of the conquest of life by that which is higher even than Mind. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
1137:Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is already known? Or should we try to develop creative and innovative minds, capable of discovery from the preschool age on, throughout life? ~ Jean Piaget, #KEYS
1138:In a good life, prudence is like the eye, which directs a person; and courage is like the feet, which support and carry him ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Colossians, ch. 3)., #KEYS
1139:India has lived and lived richly, splendidly, greatly, but with a different will in life from Europe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture - V, #KEYS
1140:Life is not meant for the pleasure of the body. Realization of God alone is the goal of life. Now that you have attained this rare human birth, do not allow your life to be spent in vain. ~ Manapurush Swami Shivananda, #KEYS
1141:There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age." ~ Sophia Loren, #KEYS
1142:Those who lead an unregulated life and think impure thoughts lose their powers and strength of mind. They are at the mercy of passing desires and the feverish cravings of the senses and are slaves. ~ Swami Saradananda, #KEYS
1143:Universe is a diffusion of the divine All in infinite Space and Time, the individual its concentration within limits of Space and Time. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Man in the Universe, #KEYS
1144:It is rebirth that gives to the birth of an incomplete being in a body its promise of completeness and its spiritual significance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
1145:ne should, one can ameliorate one's life, not by external changes, but by a transformation of one's self in the soul. That one can do always and everywhere. ~ Tolstoi, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1146:Our life is a holocaust of the Supreme.
The great World-Mother by her sacrifice
Has made her soul the body of our state; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World-Stair,#KEYS
1147:Prakriti is the field of law and process, but the soul, the Purusha, is the giver of the sanction. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality, #KEYS
1148:Renunciation of ego, acceptance of God in life is the Yoga I teach,—no other renunciation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, To Motilal Roy, #KEYS
1149:The Divine is already there immanent within us, ourselves are that in our inmost reality and it is this reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Supermind and the Life Divine, #KEYS
1150:The fundamental truth of Being must necessarily be the fundamental truth of Becoming. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
1151:Those who pray and suffer, leaving action for others, will not shine here on earth; but what a radiant crown they will wear in the kingdom of life! Blessed be the 'apostolate of suffering'!" ~ Saint Josemaría Escrivá, #KEYS
1152:A single day of life of the man who stimulates himself by an act of energy, is of more value than a hundred years passed in norchalance and indolence. ~ Buddhist Texts, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1153:Concentration upon oneself means decay and death. Concentration on the Divine alone brings life and growth and realisation.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The Divine Is with You,#KEYS
1154:He props her dance upon a rigid base,
His timeless still immutability
Must standardise her creation's miracle. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life,#KEYS
1155:Concentration on the Divine is the only truly valid thing. To do what the Divine wants us to do is the only thing valid.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life, [T0],#KEYS
1156:I hope that God will save me through the merits of the passion of Jesus. The more difficulties in life, the more I hope in God. By God's grace, I will not lose my soul, but I hope in his mercy. ~ Saint Paul of the Cross, #KEYS
1157:Life and treasure and fame to cast on the wings of a moment,
Fiercer joy than this the gods have not given to mortals. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
1158:Nature takes us as we are and to some extent suits her movements to our need or our demands on her. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality, #KEYS
1159:Son of man, thou hast crowned thy life with flowers that are scentless,
Chased the delights that wound. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, The Descent of Ahana,#KEYS
1160:The individual is not a mere cell of the collective existence; he would not cease to exist if separated or expelled from the collective mass. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
1161:The life of grace unto which a man is regenerated, presupposes the life of the rational nature, in which man is capable of receiving instruction ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.71.1ad1)., #KEYS
1162:Wisdom fears no thing, but still bows humbly to its own source, with its deeper understanding, loves all things, for it has seen the beauty, the tenderness, and the sweetness which underlie Life's mystery ~ Manly P Hall, #KEYS
1163:... with the heart concentrated by yoga, viewing all things with equal regard, beholds himself in all beings and all beings in himself. In whatever way he leads his life, that one lives in God. ~ Bhagavad Gita, 6:29, 31, #KEYS
1164:Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. ~ Letter to Diognetus, #KEYS
1165:In all life there are three elements, the fixed and permanent spirit, the developing yet constant soul and the brittle changeable body. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin, The Awakening Soul of India, #KEYS
1166:My ideal indeed can be put into a few words and that is : to preach unto mankind their divinity, and how to make it manifest in every movement of life. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. VII. 501), #KEYS
1167:Religion's real business is to prepare man's mind, life and bodily existence for the spiritual consciousness to take it up. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
1168:The kind of work that should be the main part of life is the kind of work you would want to do if you weren't being paid for it. It's work that comes out of your own internal needs, interests and concerns. ~ Noam Chomsky, #KEYS
1169:The mind that becomes elated also is subject to depression. Don't identify yourself with either! Go beyond! Somehow touch the feet of the Lord. Then you are no longer subject to the opposites of life. ~ Swami Turiyananda, #KEYS
1170:When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself." ~ Tecumseh, #KEYS
1171:Where life and being are a sacrament
Offered to the Reality beyond, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.06,#KEYS
1172:With every inhalation, utter the Name of the Lord. With every exhalation, utter the Name of the Lord. Use this splendid and precious chance in your life to the fullest. Live in God, for Him and with Him. ~ SRI SATHYA SAI, #KEYS
1173:All life is fixed in an ascending scale
And adamantine is the evolving Law;
In the beginning is prepared the close. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Vision and the Boon,#KEYS
1174:Mind attains its self-fulfilment when it becomes a pure mirror of the Truth of Being which expresses itself in the symbols of the universe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality Omnipresent, #KEYS
1175:The gods are the guardians and increasers of the Truth, the powers of the Immortal, the sons of the infinite Mother. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, Indian Spirituality and Life - II, #KEYS
1176:The universal particularises itself in the individual; the individual contains in himself all the generalities of the universal. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Eternal and the Individual, #KEYS
1177:Hunger in the vital parts becomes craving of Desire in the mentalised life, straining of Will in the intellectual or thinking life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Death, Desire and Incapacity, #KEYS
1178:Incessant in the arms of ecstasy
Repeating its sweet involuntary note
A sob of rapture flowed along the hours. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
1179:Near and real to the longing heart And to the body's passionate thought and sense Are the hidden kingdoms of beatitude. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Glory and Fall of Life, #KEYS
1180:One loses, as one grows older, something of the lightness of one's dreams; one begins to take life up in both hands, and to care more for the fruit than the flower, and that is no great loss perhaps. ~ William Butler Yeats, #KEYS
1181:Pain and pleasure themselves are currents, one imperfect, the other perverse, but still currents of the delight of existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Delight of Existence, The Solution, #KEYS
1182:The highest and widest seeing is the wisest; for then all knowledge is unified in its one comprehensive meaning. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
1183:The sufi opens his hands to the universe and gives away each instant, free. Unlike someone who begs on the street for money to survive, a dervish begs to give you his life." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
1184:The tests we face in life's journey are not to reveal our weaknesses, but to help us discover our inner strengths. We can only know how strong we are when we strive and thrive beyond the challenges we face." ~ Kemi Sogonle, #KEYS
1185:Essence and phenomenon of the essence are complementary to each other, not contradictory,—the phenomenon manifests the essence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #KEYS
1186:If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, heat; if height, depth; if solid, fluid; if hard, soft; if rough, smooth; if calm, tempest; if prosperity, adversity; if life, death. ~ Pythagoras, #KEYS
1187:In evolutionary fact the superior is not prior but posterior in appearance, the less developed precedes the more developed and prepares it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Man and the Evolution, #KEYS
1188:Ordinary men pronounce a sackful of discourses on religion, but do not put a grain into practice, while the sage speaks little, but his whole life is religion put in to action ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1189:Sometimes one life is charged with earth's destiny,
It cries not for succour from the time-bound powers. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
1190:Ten high virtues: benevolence; spiritual life; intelligence; renunciation; perseverance; energy; patience; truthfulness; love for others; equality of soul. ~ Sangiti Sutta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1191:That knowledge is likely to be the highest knowledge which illumines, integralises, harmonises the significance of all knowledge. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #KEYS
1192:The Divine is everywhere and in everything; and we are created to discover the Divine and to unite with the Divine for his manifestation.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life,#KEYS
1193:The self behind our mind, life and body is the same as the self behind the mind, life and body of all our fellow-beings. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Realisation of the Cosmic Self, #KEYS
1194:With no set idea of how something is supposed to be, it is hard to get stuck on things not happening in the time frame you desired. Instead, you are just being there, open to the possibilities of your life." ~ Lodro Rinzler, #KEYS
1195:For me, writing a novel is like having a dream. Writing a novel lets me intentionally dream while I'm still awake. I can continue yesterday's dream today, something you can't normally do in everyday life.
~ Haruki Murakami,#KEYS
1196:I aspire for the higher life from above the head; but I always feel strained in the middle part of the forehead. What should I do?
Do not strain yourself.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II,#KEYS
1197:If any during this life are changed out of fear of God and pass from an evil life to a good one, they pass from death to life and later they shall be transformed from a shameful state to a glorious one. ~ Fulgentius of Ruspe, #KEYS
1198:Our life is affected not only by its own energies but by the energies of others and by universal Forces. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality, #KEYS
1199:Realistic art does not and cannot give us a scientifically accurate presentation of life, because Art is not and cannot be Science. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, Poetic Vision and the Mantra, #KEYS
1200:Rebirth is not a constant reiteration but a progression, it is the machinery of an evolutionary process. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality, #KEYS
1201:The community exists by the individual, for its mind and life and body are constituted by the mind and life and body of its composing individuals. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
1202:We all have inner demons to fight. We call these demons 'fear', 'hatred' and 'anger'. If you don't conquer them, then a life of a hundred years... is a tragedy. If you do, a life of a single day can be a triumph.
~ Yip Man,#KEYS
1203:All spiritual experiences are true, but they point towards some highest and widest reality which admits their truth and exceeds it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #KEYS
1204:Barbarism is the state of society in which man is almost entirely preoccupied with his life and body, his economic and physical existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Civilisation and Culture, #KEYS
1205:He who has conquered the desire of the present life and of the future life, who has vanquished all fear and broken all chain, he is indeed a man of religion. ~ Buddhist Text, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1206:In everyone's life - at some time - our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit." ~ Albert Schweitzer, #KEYS
1207:Lord, without Thee life is a monstrosity. Without Thy Light, Thy Consciousness, Thy Beauty and Thy Force, all existence is a sinister and grotesque comedy.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III, 240,#KEYS
1208:Nothing can manifest that is not justified by some self-power of the original and omnipresent Reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Indeterminates, Cosmic Determinations and the Indeterminable, #KEYS
1209:Struggle with all alien thoughts, be always mindful of what you are doing and thinking whether outwardly or inwardly. So that you may put the imprint of your immortality on every passing moment of your daily life. ~ Gujduvani, #KEYS
1210:The overcoming of the sex instinct and impulse is indeed binding on all who would attain to self-mastery and lead the spiritual life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, The Divine Body, #KEYS
1211:Lord, the year is dying and our gratitude bows down to Thee. Lord, the year is reborn, our prayer rises up to Thee. Let it be for us also the dawn of a new life.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,#KEYS
1212:The mystery of things is the true truth of things; the intellectual presentation is only truth in representation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
1213:The whole life is a sadhana. It is a mistake to cut it into bits and say this is sadhana and that is not. Even your eating and sleeping should be a part of sadhana. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, #KEYS
1214:This world is a beginning and a base
Where Life and Mind erect their structured dreams;
An unborn Power must build reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge,#KEYS
1215:To look into ourselves and see and enter into ourselves and live within is the first necessity for transformation of nature and for the divine life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
1216:You are the architect of your life. You build your own philosophy and construct your own attitudes. Without right attitudes, the entire architecture remains shaky. Once you realize this fact, you will look within. ~ SWAMI RAMA, #KEYS
1217:All she beheld that surges from man's depths,
The animal instincts prowling mid life's trees, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute,#KEYS
1218:An aimless life is always a miserable life. Every one of you should have an aim. But do not forget that on the quality of your aim will depend the quality of your life.
~ The Mother, On Education, p.3,#KEYS
1219:Dearly beloved, today our Saviour is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness. ~ Leo the Great, #KEYS
1220:Our reason cannot sound life's mighty sea
And only counts its waves and scans its foam; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05,#KEYS
1221:Some preachers will keep silence about the truth, and others will trample it under foot and deny it. Sanctity of life will be held in derision even by those who outwardly profess it, ... " ~ Saint Francis of Assisi, (1181-1226), #KEYS
1222:The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another, one which will last forever…" ~ Anatole France, (1844-1924), a French poet, journalist, and successful novelist with several best-sellers, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1223:If you will you can be healed. Hand yourself over to the doctor, and he will open the eyes of your mind and heart. Who is to be the doctor? It is God, who heals and gives life through his Word and wisdom. ~ Theophilus of Antioch, #KEYS
1224:Of one hundred persons who take up the spiritual life, eighty turn out to be charlatans, fifteen insane, and only five, maybe, get a glimpse of the real truth. Therefore beware ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1225:Remember your nothingness in the presence of the Great Spirit." ~ Black Elk, (1863 - 1950), Medicine man, holy man of the Oglala Lakota people, Wikipedia. Quote from: "The Spiritual Athlete: A Primer for the Inner Life,", (1992), #KEYS
1226:The collectivity is a mass, a field of formation; the individual is the diviner of truth, the form-maker, the creator. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
1227:The greatest fear that human beings experience is not death, which is inevitable, but consideration of the distinct possibility of living a worthless life." ~ Kilroy J. Oldster, "Dead Toad Scrolls,", (2016). [IMHO, worth a read], #KEYS
1228:The sombre flowers of falsehood and suffering and evil have their root in the black soil of the Inconscient. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
1229:And the Lord Jehovah said, "Behold, the man is become as one of us...and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever ~ Genesis, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1230:A secret soul behind supporting all
Is master and witness of our ignorant life,
Admits the Person's look and Nature's role. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Finding of the Soul,#KEYS
1231:As long as you perceive that anyone is holding you back, you have not taken full responsibility for your own liberation. Liberation means that you stand free of making demands on others and on life to make you happy. ~ Adyashanti, #KEYS
1232:As thou wrappest thy cloak about thee, feel yet greater love to God, Who alike in summer and in winter has given us coverings convenient for us, at once to preserve our life, and to cover what is unseemly. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
1233:Go back, go back to the old days when there was strength and vitality. Be strong once more, drink deep of this fountain of yore, and that is the only condition of life in India. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1234:If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
~ Anonymous, The Bible, Matthew, 16:24-25,#KEYS
1235:Love and affection must be rooted in the Divine and a spiritual and psychic oneness in the Divine must be their foundation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
1236:Pleasure and pain are inevitable in the life of the world. One suffers now and then from a little worry and trouble. Chant the name of Hari morning and evening, clapping your hands. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1237:The faith of the heart and the life mind, like that of the intelligence, must be capable of a constant correction, enlarging and transformation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Faith and Shakti, #KEYS
1238:The real truth of things lies not in their process, but behind it, in whatever determines, effects or governs the process. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Memory, Self-Consciousness and the Ignorance, #KEYS
1239:The swoon of glad identity
Where spirit and flesh in inner ecstasy join
Annulling the quarrel between self and shape. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
1240:The truth which poetry expresses takes two forms, the truth of life and the truth of that which works in life, the truth of the inner spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, New Birth or Decadence?, #KEYS
1241:This is a great error to imagine that men can have a lofty spiritual life when the body remains in luxury and idleness. The body is ever the first disciple of the soul. ~ Thoreu, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1242:We cannot affirm our being rightly without sacrifice or without self-giving to something larger than our ego. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
1243:And yet in the end we are obliged to negate our largest conceptions, our most comprehensive experiences in order to affirm that the Reality exceeds all definitions. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, 1.5, #KEYS
1244:Be thou ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea speaketh. And if you ask why, listen to the cause: for a small gain they travel far; for eternal life many will scarcely lift a foot from the ground. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1245:Felt its honey of felicity
Flow through his veins like the rivers of Paradise,
Made body a nectar-cup of the Absolute. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
1246:He alone knows the law of life. Whoever does not seek out clearly what is the true good, cannot correct himself with sincerity and does not arrive at true perfection. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1247:He breaks you, to build you. Deprives you, to give you. This pain in your heart was created to make you yearn less for this life and to yearn more for Jannah. ~ Yasmin Mogahed, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1248:If the soul is immortal, we must care for it, not only in respect to this time, which we call life, but in respect to all time, and if we neglect it, the danger now appears to be terrible. ~ Plato, Phaedo, 107c, #KEYS
1249:Our life's repose is in the Infinite;
It cannot end, its end is Life supreme. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.06,#KEYS
1250:A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach their potential." ~ John C. Maxwell, #KEYS
1251:It is the constant upward effort that has kept humanity alive and maintained for it its place in the front of creation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolutionary Process - Ascent and Integration, #KEYS
1252:It may be the final truth that there is nothing but God, but for the purposes of life we have to recognise that there is a dualism in the underlying unity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Karmayogin, Facts and Opinions, #KEYS
1253:Language is the sign of the cultural life of a people, the index of its soul in thought and mind that stands behind and enriches its soul in action. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Diversity in Oneness, #KEYS
1254:Life with her wine-cup of longing under the purple of her tenture,
Death as her gate of escape and rebirth and renewal of venture. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ahana,#KEYS
1255:Man and cosmos exist by virtue of God and not in themselves except in so far as their being is one with the being of God. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
1256:Neither numbers nor powers nor wealth nor learning nor eloquence nor anything else will prevail, but purity, living the life, in one word, Anubhuti, Realization. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (C.W. VIII. 348), #KEYS
1257:Some virtues direct the active life of man and deal with actions rather than passions: for example, truth, justice, libera-lity, magnificence, prudence, and art ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 1.93)., #KEYS
1258:In his self-integration the soul of the individual must awake to universality and to transcendence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
1259:Neither the mental effort nor the spiritual impulse can suffice, divorced from each other, to overcome the immense resistance of material Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
1260:To become an Initiate, one has to endure a "magical ritual", in which, the soul is momentarily liberated... and can contemplate, on one side, ones physical-animal life, and on the other side, ones spiritual life... ~ Samael Aun Weor, #KEYS
1261:To sleep, perchance to dream-ay, there's the rub, for in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause. There's the respect that makes calamity of so long life. ~ Shakespeare, #KEYS
1262:Until you perfect the view, do not count your practice in years or months. But instead decide to dedicate the whole remainder of your life to Dharma practice. This is the approach of the very best practitioners. ~ Yangthang Rinpoche, #KEYS
1263:Zen is a path of liberation. It liberates you. It is freedom from the first step to the last. You are not required to follow any rules; you are required to find out your own rules and your own life in the light of awareness." ~ Osho, #KEYS
1264:It implies not life after death, but freedom from both life and death, for what we call life is after all impossible without death. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena and Other Upanishads, On Translating the Upanishads, #KEYS
1265:My life is a succession of events, just like yours. Only I am detached and see the passing show as a passing show, while you attach to things and move along with them. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
1266:The bliss which sleeps in things and tries to wake,
Breaks out in him in a small joy of life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05,#KEYS
1267:The individual soul lives here by the All-Soul and depends upon it; the All-Soul very evidently does not exist by the individual or depend upon it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Order of the Worlds, #KEYS
1268:A certain pride, a certain awe, withheld him from offering to God even one prayer at night, though he knew it was in God's power to take away his life while he slept and hurl his soul hellward ere he could beg for mercy. ~ James Joyce, #KEYS
1269:A divine life in a material world implies necessarily a union of the two ends of existence, the spiritual summit and the material base. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Perfection of the Body, #KEYS
1270:Dewdrops fall on the large leaves of a lotus, they remain there trembling for a brief moment and then glide one this way and one another way and disappear. Such is life. ~ Sojo Hengo, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1271:Every man's true teacher is his own Higher Self, and when the life is brought under the control of reason, this Higher Self is released from bondage to appetites and impulses, and becomes Priest, Sage and Illuminator.
~ Manly P Hall,#KEYS
1272:Its origin is a limitation of knowledge, its distinctive character a separation of the being from its own integrality and entire reality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, #KEYS
1273:Life in my limbs shall grow deathless, flesh with the God-glory tingle,
Lustre of Paradise, light of the earth-ways marry and mingle. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ahana,#KEYS
1274:Tell everyone that I need humble and courageous priests, ready to be killed, mocked and trampled, to lose their life, their blood, so that I can shine in the Church after the great purification". ~ Our Lady to Teresa Musco (1943-1976), #KEYS
1275:The holy scripture needs no explanation. He who speaks truth, is full of eternal life, his written word seems wonderfully akin to the mysteries, for it is a chord taken from the symphony of the universe. ~ Novalis, The Novices of Sais, #KEYS
1276:The inner loneliness can only be cured by the inner experience of union with the Divine; no human association can fill the void. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
1277:The manifestation of a supramental truth-consciousness is therefore the capital reality that will make the divine life possible. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Supermind and the Life Divine, #KEYS
1278:To manifest what is from the first occult within it is the whole hidden trend of evolutionary Nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
1279:A gnostic collectivity would be a collective soul-power of the Truth-consciousness, even as the gnostic individual would be an individual soul-power of it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
1280:In God there can be no selfishness, because the Three Selves of God are three subsistent relations of selflessness, overflowing and superabounding in joy in the perfection of their gift of their one life to one another. ~ Thomas Merton, #KEYS
1281:Knew death for a cellar of the house of life,
In destruction felt creation's hasty pace. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness,#KEYS
1282:Man is there to affirm himself in the universe, that is his first business, but also to evolve and finally to exceed himself. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
1283:Our true completeness comes not by describing wider circles on the plane where we began, but by transcendence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Out of the Sevenfold Ignorance towards the Sevenfold Knowledge, #KEYS
1284:The emphasis of the Western mind is on life, the outer life above all, the things that are grasped, visible, tangible. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture - IV, #KEYS
1285:We do not freely determine our thinking according to the truth of things, it is determined for us by our nature. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Indeterminates, Cosmic Determinations and the Indeterminable, #KEYS
1286:When life had stopped its beats, death broke not in;
He dared to live when breath and thought were still.
Thus could he step into that magic place ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 1:5,#KEYS
1287:Who loves her loves life and they that keep vigil to find her shall enjoy her peace. Whosoever possesses her, shall have life for his inheritance. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Ecclesiastes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1288:A little gift comes from the Immensitudes,
But measureless to life its gain of joy;
All the untold Beyond is mirrored there. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
1289:A vacant Absolute is no Absolute,—our conception of a Void or Zero is only a conceptual sign of our mental inability to know or grasp it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Integral Knowledge, #KEYS
1290:Disapproval of that which threatens and hurts us, approval of that which flatters and satisfies refine into the conception of good and evil. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Delight of Existence, The Problem, #KEYS
1291:Everything will be known spontaneously if you do sadhana. Understand who you are. Know the Self. Then you can lead a life without attachment to anything. Such a state of mind will come if you do sadhana sincerely. ~ MATA AMRITANANDAMAYI, #KEYS
1292:He who believes himself to be far advanced in the spiritual life has not made a good beginning." ~ Jean-Pierre Camus de Pontcarré, (1584 - 1652) was a French bishop, preacher, and author of works of fiction and spirituality, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1293:In the Church and in every department of human life, whoever wishes to seem what he is not is a hypocrite: for he pretends to be just without being so in reality ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.111.2)., #KEYS
1294:The Divine is formless and nameless, but by that very reason capable of manifesting all possible names and shapes of being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
1295:The greatest of all duties is to remember God. The first thing to do in the morning is to meditate on Him and think how you can give your life to His service, so that all day long you will be filled with His joy. ~ Paramahamsa Yogananda, #KEYS
1296:There are two states of life: one is hidden in which those conceived live in the womb; the other is open where one lives after birth outside the womb ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Job, ch. 3)., #KEYS
1297:The world expresses a foreseen Truth, obeys a predetermining Will, realises an original formative self-vision,—it is the growing image of a divine creation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Maya, #KEYS
1298:All here in the mental is a growing light, consciousness and life; all there in the supramental is an infinite life, light and consciousness. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Kena and Other Upanishads, The Supramental Godhead, #KEYS
1299:An invisible Beauty, goal of the world's desire,
A Sun of which all knowledge is a beam,
A Greatness without whom no life could be. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Finding of the Soul,#KEYS
1300:As you proceed through life, following your own path, birds will shit on you. Don't bother to brush it off.
Getting a comedic view of your situation gives you spiritual distance.
Having a sense of humor saves you. ~ Joseph Campbell,#KEYS
1301:Hard is the way to the Eternal for the mind-born will of the mortal
Bound by the body and life to the gait of the house-burdened turtle. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ahana,#KEYS
1302:In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship but to keep her on her course. ~ Saint Boniface of Mainz, (675-754 AD), #KEYS
1303:Since nothing can be expected to rise again, unless it has first been prostrated. It is only the man who is ignorant of the fact that the flesh falls by death, that can fail to discover that it stands erect by means of life. ~ Tertullian, #KEYS
1304:The crown of conscious Immortality,
The godhead promised to our struggling souls
When first man's heart dared death and suffered life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge,#KEYS
1305:There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside of them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself. ~ Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf, #KEYS
1306:The very first lesson in this Yoga is to face life and its trials with a quiet mind, a firm courage and an entire reliance on the Divine Shakti. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Patience and Perseverance, #KEYS
1307:Truth of being must govern truth of life; it cannot be that the two have no relation or interdependence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
1308:All finites are in their spiritual essence the Infinite and, if we look deep enough into them, manifest to intuition the Identical and Infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #KEYS
1309:An adversary Force was born of old:
Invader of the life of mortal man,
It hides from him the straight immortal path. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
1310:Experience shows that, in proportion as we deliver ourselves from the limiting mental and vital ego, we command a wider life, a larger existence. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Release from the Ego, #KEYS
1311:Give yourself up to deep meditation.
Throw away all other considerations of life.
The calculative life will not be crowned with spiritual success. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Conscious Immortality, Ch. 7,#KEYS
1312:In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship but to keep her on her course." ~ Saint Boniface of Mainz, (675-754 AD), #KEYS
1313:Just as those who see light are within the light and share in its splendour, so those who see God are in God and share his splendour also. But God's splendour gives life: and so those who see God receive life. ~ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, #KEYS
1314:Reason and intelligence and mind and sense and life and body, all that we vaunt or take for our own, are Nature's instruments and creations. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Fullness of Spiritual Action, #KEYS
1315:Therefore neither you, O judges, nor men in general ought to fear death: they have only to remember one thing, that for a just man there is no ill in life and no ill in death. ~ Socrates, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1316:To seek to know the significance of life is itself the result of good karma in past births.
Those who do not seek such knowledge are simply wasting their lives. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talks, 558,#KEYS
1317:You must be genuine if you want to advance in spiritual life. You may cheat a man for some time, but you cannot cheat God. Nor can you deceive the world for long. Your face, your tone, your manner will betray you. ~ Swami Ramakrishnananda, #KEYS
1318:Hold the ideal a thousand times, and if you fail a thousand times, make the attempt once more. . . . There is infinite life before the soul. Take your time and you will achieve your end
~ Swami Vivekananda,#KEYS
1319:I am that Madan who inform the stars
With lustre and on life's wide canvas fill
Pictures of light and shade, of joy and tears. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Love and Death,#KEYS
1320:In all who have risen to a greater Life,
A voice of unborn things whispers to the ear, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.06,#KEYS
1321:In moments when the inner lamps are lit
And the life's cherished guests are left outside,
Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge,#KEYS
1322:In the world, as it is, the goal of life is not to secure personal happiness, but to awaken the individual progressively towards the truth-consciousness.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life,#KEYS
1323:Life now became a sure approach to God,
Existence a divine experiment
And cosmos the soul's opportunity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Soul's Release,#KEYS
1324:Mental nature and mental thought are based on a consciousness of the finite; supramental nature is in its very grain a consciousness and power of the Infinite. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
1325:There is a fundamental psychic feeling which is the same for all; but there can also be a special psychic feeling for one or another. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
1326:When death finally comes, you will welcome it like an old friend, being aware of how dreamlike and impermanent the phenomenal world really is. You should leave this life like an eagle soaring up into the blue sky. ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, #KEYS
1327:All here where each thing seems its lonely self
Are figures of the sole transcendent One:
Only by him they are, his breath is their life; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Secret Knowledge,#KEYS
1328:Buddha's discourse 'Turning the Wheel of Dhamma' can be boiled down to: Embrace, Let Go, Stop, Act! This template can be applied to every situation in life." ~ Stephen Batchelor, (b. 1953) "Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist,", (2010), p. 6., #KEYS
1329:Contemplation is the essence of a religious life. It is through contemplation that one attains the knowledge of Reality. So one has to withdraw from the external world and turn towards God and constantly remember Him. ~ SWAMI VIRESWARANANDA, #KEYS
1330:Grace and mercy be yours from the only-begotten Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; through him and with him be glory, honour and power to the Father and the life-giving Spirit, now and always and for ever. Amen. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #KEYS
1331:His Mercy is so great that he hinders no one from drinking from the fountain of life. Indeed, he calls us loudly to do so (Jn 7:37). But he is so good that he will not force us to drink of it. ~ Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection ch. 20, #KEYS
1332:Life, the river of the Spirit, consenting to anguish and sorrow
If by her heart's toil a loan-light of joy from the heavens she can borrow. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ahana,#KEYS
1333:The more arduously one practices spiritual disciplines, the more quickly one will attain to God. Even if he doesn't practice any spiritual disciplines he will attain to Him at the last moment of his life-he will certainly. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
1334:There are four types of oceans; passions are oceans of sins, the self (nafs) is the ocean of lust, death is the ocean of life, and the grave is the ocean of distress. ~ Sayyiduna Uthman, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
1335:There must be always remaining in every life, some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathless and beautiful." ~ Howard Thurman, (1899-1981) African-American author, philosopher, theologian, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1336:Think of the life you have lived until now as over and, as a dead man, see what's left as a bonus and live it according to Nature. Love the hand that fate deals you and play it as your own, for what could be more fitting?" ~ Marcus Aurelius, #KEYS
1337:we have to bring a wider meaning into our human life and manifest in it the much more that we secretly are. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
1338:All the basic realities are a bringing out of something that is eternal and inherently true in the Absolute. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
1339:A mind which remains calm in the midst of the vicissitudes of life, delivered from preoccupations, liberated from passion, dwelling in serenity-that is a great blessing. ~ Mahamangala Sutta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1340:Fourthly, the way of the artisan. The way of the carpenter is to become proficient in the use of his tools, first to lay his plans with true measure and then perform his work according to plan. Thus he passes through life. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
1341:Hidden behind the fair outsides of life.
Its dangerous commerce is our suffering's cause.
Its breath is a subtle poison in men's hearts; ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Descent into Night,#KEYS
1342:Matter is a formation of life that has no real existence apart from the informing universal spirit which gives it its energy and substance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Psychology of Self-Perfection, #KEYS
1343:Ordinary men pronounce a sackful of discourses on religion, but do not put a grain into practice, while the sage speaks little, but his whole life is religion put in to action ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1344:We are given a chance for improvement. And the lesson we learn from expansion is to give up, not externally, but internally, the narrow selfish ideas, and thus rise from worldly ideas to the life of peace and bliss. ~ SWAMI TRIGUNATITANANDA., #KEYS
1345:When you are exposed to any trial, be it physical or moral, bodily or spiritual, the best remedy is the thought of him who is our life, and not think of the one without joining to it the thought of the other. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
1346:In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Genesis, 7:11, #KEYS
1347:It is always the individual who receives the intuitions of Nature and takes the step forward dragging or drawing the rest of humanity behind him. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
1348:Life has to be transcended in order that it may be freely accepted; the works of the universe have to be overpassed in order that they may be divinely fulfilled. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, Birth and Non-Birth, #KEYS
1349:Life that pursuing her boundless march to a goal which we know not,
Ever her own law obeys, not our hopes, who are slaves of her heart-beats. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, Ilion,#KEYS
1350:O Life, thy breath is but a cry to the Light
Immortal, whence has come thy swift delight,
Thy grasp. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, O Life, thy Breath is but a Cry,#KEYS
1351:The natural man has to evolve himself into the divine Man; the sons of Death have to know themselves as the children of Immortality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
1352:There is only one physician—of flesh yet spiritual, born yet uncreated God become man, true life in death, sprung from both Mary and from God first subject to suffering and then incapable of it—Jesus Christ our Lord. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
1353:An attempt, a drawing half-done is the world's life;
Its lines doubt their concealed significance,
Its curves join not their high intended close. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The World-Stair,#KEYS
1354:A touch supreme surprised his hurrying heart,
The clasp was remembered of the Wonderful,
And hints leaped down of white beatitudes. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
1355:Life develops in obedience to its own law and the pressure of forces and not according to the law and the logic of the self-conscious mind. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, The Drive towards Economic Centralisation, #KEYS
1356:Some reject life because it is tainted with grief and pain, but to the God-lover grief and pain become means of meeting with him, imprints of his pressure. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Mystery of Love, #KEYS
1357:The real and perfect civilisation yet waits to be discovered; for the life of mankind is still nine tenths of barbarism to one tenth of culture. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, "Is India Civilised?" - III, #KEYS
1358:There is great battle raging: for my mouth not to harden and my jaws not to become like heavy doors of an iron safe, so my life may not be called pre-death." ~ Yehuda Amichai, (1924-2000) considered as Israel's greatest modern poet, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1359:A gift of priceless value from Time's gods
Lost or mislaid in an uncaring world,
Life is a marvel missed, an art gone wry. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
1360:Follow the voice of your heart, even if it leads you off the path of timid souls. Do not become hard and embittered, even if life tortures you at times. There is only one thing that counts: to live one's life well and happily… ~ Wilhelm Reich, #KEYS
1361:Life is short, but the soul is immortal and eternal, and one thing being certain, death, let us therefore take up a great ideal and give up our whole life to it. Let this be our determination. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1362:She [St. Catherine of Siena] moves and touches me so deeply that every time I read her life, I have to hold the book in one hand and a handkerchief in the other to staunch the tears that it makes me shed continually. ~ Saint Anthony Mary Claret, #KEYS
1363:The action of our intellect is primarily the function of understanding, but secondarily critical and finally organising, controlling and formative. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
1364:There is no culture, no civilisation ancient or modern which in its system has been entirely satisfactory to the need of perfection in man. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, Indian Spirituality and Life - IV, #KEYS
1365:The relation between "life" and "to live" is . . . like that between "a race" and "to run," one of which signifies the act in the abstract, and the other in the concrete ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.54.1ad2)., #KEYS
1366:When they tell of one who is born a king, Herod is disturbed. To save his kingdom he resolves to kill him, though if he would have faith in the child, he himself would reign in peace in this life and for ever in the life to come. ~ Quodvultdeus, #KEYS
1367:Do not cling to conventional thoughts, religion, concepts and so on. Let go! Drop all artificial conceptions of Life, for it is only then that it can be taken into you, or you into it, in consciousness Self-awareness." ~ Sunyata, Danish mystic. , #KEYS
1368:Do not keep putting off practice, thinking that another location or another time would be more suitable.
Nothing is better than the present moment. Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, bring your life to the path. ~ Chamtrul Rinpoche,#KEYS
1369:For body without mind has not the light,
The rapture of spirit sense, the joy of life;
All then becomes subconscient, tenebrous. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Entry into the Inner Countries,#KEYS
1370:Only one thing is important, it is to find the Divine. For each one and for the whole world anything becomes useful if it helps to find the Divine.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, The True Aim of Life [T0],#KEYS
1371:Our subjective being is the basis of our objective experience, and it is not probable that only its physical objectivisations are true and the rest unreliable. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Order of the Worlds, #KEYS
1372:Peace is never easy to get in the life of the world and never constant, unless one lives deep within and bears the external activities as only a surface front of our being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Peace, #KEYS
1373:The complete individual is the cosmic individual, since only when we have taken the universe into ourselves—and transcended it—can our individuality be complete. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
1374:The head cannot be separated from the members, nor the members from the head. Not in this life, it is true, but only in eternity will God be all in all, yet even now he dwells, whole and undivided, in his temple the Church. ~ Saint Leo the Great, #KEYS
1375:Forget your voice, sing! Forget your feet, dance! Forget your life, live! Forget yourself and be!" ~ Kamand Kojouri, author of "The Eternal Dance: Love Poetry and Prose,", (2018). Born in Tehran, raised in Dubai and Toronto, and resides in Wales., #KEYS
1376:He who knows the Truth, the Knowledge, the Infinity that is Brahman shall enjoy with the all-wise Brahman all objects of desire. - Taittiriya Upanishad (II. 1.) ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Problem of Life 220, #KEYS
1377:Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
1378:The animal is satisfied with a modicum of necessity; the gods are content with their splendours. But man cannot rest permanently until he reaches some highest good. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Man in the Universe, #KEYS
1379:There is only one physician — of flesh yet spiritual, born yet uncreated God become man, true life in death, sprung from both Mary and from God first subject to suffering and then incapable of it — Jesus Christ our Lord. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
1380:The world lives in us, thinks in us, forms itself in us; but we imagine that it is we who live, think, become separately by ourselves and for ourselves. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Boundaries of the Ignorance, #KEYS
1381:Truth, as for the Platonic Kierkegaard, is subjectivity. The extremity or optimum pitch of subjective life is witness to truth, which is a witness unto death. The road to truth is the Stations of the Cross. ~ Catherine Pickstock, Aspects of Truth, #KEYS
1382:Walled from ours are other hearts:
For if life's barriers twixt our souls were broken,
Men would be free and one, earth paradise
And the gods live neglected. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act I,#KEYS
1383:Control of consciousness determines the quality of life." ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, (b. 1934) Hungarian-American psychologist, named the psychological concept of 'flow', a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity, Wikipedia His book:, #KEYS
1384:I never feel lonely if Ive got a book - theyre like old friends. Even if youre not reading them over and over again, you know they are there. And theyre part of your history. They sort of tell a story about your journey through life
~ Emilia Fox,#KEYS
1385:Is the day done? Give thanks to Him Who has given us the sun for our daily work, and has provided for us a fire to light up the night, and to serve the rest of the needs of life. Let night give the other occasion of prayer. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
1386:It is a hard thing to take up the cross, and expose your life to danger and your body to death; to give up what you are, when you wish to be what you are not; and even the loftiest virtue seldom exchanges things present for future. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
1387:It is only when the Divine is found and the consciousness lifted up into the true consciousness that the true relations with others can come. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
1388:That is not right. Throwing away the life does not improve the chances for the next time. It is in this life and body that one must get things done. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - III, Difficulties of the Path - VII, #KEYS
1389:... the more one needs God the more perfect he is. To need God is nothing to be ashamed of but is perfection itself. It is the saddest thing in the world if a human being goes through life without discovering that he needs God! ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #KEYS
1390:The Vedantic formula of the Self in all things, all things in the Self and all things as becomings of the Self is the key to this richer and all-embracing Yoga. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Threefold Life, #KEYS
1391:You are leading a householder's life. That is very good. It is like fighting from a fort. But one should spend some time in solitude and attain Knowledge. Then one can lead the life of a householder. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1392:0:He whose self has become all existences, for he has the knowledge, how shall he be deluded, whence shall he have grief, he who sees everywhere oneness? Isha Upanishad.1 ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Soul, #KEYS
1393:Let us eat and drink, because tomorrow we shall die - but this is sensuality's cowardly lust for life, that contemptible order of things where one lives in order to eat and drink, instead of eating and drinking in order to live. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #KEYS
1394:Life-Stream
The life-world is constantly acting upon us and behind everything in material existence there stand appropriate powers of the life-world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: The Planes of Our Existence,#KEYS
1395:Psychic love is distinguished by an essential purity and selflessness—but the vital can put on a very brilliant imitation of that character. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV, Human Relations and the Spiritual Life, #KEYS
1396:Why not improve life for the world's poorest first. Is it so impossible to move business from private greed to public good?" ~ Anita Lucia Roddick, (1942 -2007) a British businesswoman, human rights activist and environmental campaigner, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1397: Your prayers are your light;
Your devotion is your strength;
Sleep is the enemy of both.
Your life is the only opportunity that life can give you.
If you ignore it, if you waste it,
You will only turn to dust. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya,#KEYS
1398:And all man's ghastly company of fears
Are born of folly that believes this span
Of brittle life can limit immortal man. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems, To Weep because a Glorious Sun,#KEYS
1399:Even in all that life and man have marred,
A whisper of divinity still is heard,
A breath is felt from the eternal spheres. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Gospel of Death and Vanity of the Ideal,#KEYS
1400:The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs. ~ George Eliot, #KEYS
1401:The individual ego is a pragmatic and effective fiction, a translation of the secret self into the terms of surface consciousness ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
1402:The soul is not bound by the formula of mental humanity: it did not begin with that and will not end with it; it had a prehuman past, it has a superhuman future. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Philosophy of Rebirth, #KEYS
1403:The spiritual change begins by an influence of the inner being and the higher spiritual mind, an action felt and accepted on the surface. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolutionary Process - Ascent and Integration, #KEYS
1404:The two phases of this distinction in life are—first, that the man who knows the real Self, will not be affected by anything; secondly, that that man alone can do good to the world. ~ Swami Vivekananda, (CW. V. 285), #KEYS
1405:We would like to be able to show the children pictorial representations of what life should be, but we still have not reached that stage, very far from it. Those films are yet to be made...
~ The Mother, On Education, 1968,#KEYS
1406:You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #KEYS
1407:If you become addicted to looking back, half your life will be spent in distraction and the other half in regret." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, ( 1207 - 1273), Persian poet, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1408:The fulfilment of Hinduism is the fulfilment of the highest tendencies of human civilisation and it must include in its sweep the most vital impulses of modern life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Bande Mataram - II, Caste and Democracy, #KEYS
1409:There is no rest where are you seek for it…. You seek the happy life in the region of death; it is not there. How can there be a happy life where there is not even life? ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, #KEYS
1410:The zest for life, which is the source of all passion and all insight, even divine, does not come to us from ourselves.... It is God who has to give us the impulse of wanting him. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #KEYS
1411:When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, Why god? Why me? and the thundering voice of God answered, There's just something about you that pisses me off. ~ Stephen King, #KEYS
1412:You are Life. You are Reality. You are the ever present 'One' and you 'are me'…. You are the author of your great illusion - believing not in what you have made, yet enjoying the play of creation all the same." ~ Keith Loy, "Finding Reality," 2008., #KEYS
1413:Christ is risen! He has burst open the gates of hell and let the dead go free; he has renewed the earth through the members of his Church now born again in baptism, and has made it blossom afresh with men brought back to life. ~ Saint Maximus of Turin, #KEYS
1414:Cosmic being is not a meaningless freak or phantasy or a chance error; there is a divine significance and truth in it. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #KEYS
1415:It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning…We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth." ~ Mitsugi Saotome, (b. 1937) a Japanese aikido instructor currently living in the United States, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1416:Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. He that soweth to his flesh, shall reap corruption: but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. ~ Galatians VI. 7. 8, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1417:When you have altogether resigned yourselves at the feet of the Lord, you have know the secret of a peaceful, blissful life. Life is a constant fight. You must fight hard with the senses, the result is all in the hands of God. ~ Swami Ramakrishnananda, #KEYS
1418:You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.
~ Henry David Thoreau,#KEYS
1419:A life in which the supernatural truths would be read in every kind of work, in every active labour, in all festivals, and all hierarchical and social relations, in all art, in all science, in all philosophy. ~ Simone Weil, First and Last Notebooks 173, #KEYS
1420:Don't seek love externally, it's fleeting. Go beyond the ego and awaken the love that already exists within; it will encompass everyone and everything in your life; it will permeate our very being." ~ Danielle Pierre, author, wellness coach and artist., #KEYS
1421:MY CHILD, hear My words, words of greatest sweetness surpassing all the knowledge of the philosophers and wise men of earth. My words are spirit and life, and they are not to be weighed by man's understanding. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1422:Out of the sorrow and darkness of the world,
Out of the depths where life and thought are tombed,
Lonely mounts up to heaven the deathless Flame. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Heavens of the Ideal,#KEYS
1423:They tell us that suicide is the greatest piece of cowardice... that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer,#KEYS
1424:When the presence of God emerges from our inmost being into our faculties, whether we walk down the street or drink a cup of soup, divine life is pouring into the world. ~ Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel, #KEYS
1425:Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again." ~ Og Mandino, #KEYS
1426:Every failure to cope with a life situation must be laid, in the end, to a restriction of consciousness. Wars and temper tantrums are the makeshifts of ignorance; regrets are illuminations come too late. ~ Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, #KEYS
1427:You dissipate your desire for the Self by undertaking all kinds of useless activities that waste your time and lead to attachments. You think that your life is endless and that you can put off meditation till a later date. ~ Annamalai Swami, Final Talks, #KEYS
1428:A strictly moral life, selfless activity in the interest of others, holy studies and spiritual practices, are needed to remove all the impurities lying hidden in our mind. This is the only way of attaining the highest illumination. ~ SWAMI YATISWARANANDA, #KEYS
1429:Both states of consciousness, sleep and the waking state, are equally subjective. Only by beginning to remember himself does a man really awaken. And then all surrounding life acquires for him a different aspect and a different meaning. ~ Peter Ouspensky, #KEYS
1430:For someone who penetrates the interior essence of Life, the enigmatic content of Christianity is suddenly illuminated in a light of such intensity that anyone perceiving it in this light finds himself profoundly unsettled. ~ Michel Henry, I Am the Truth, #KEYS
1431:I have no taste for the food that perishes nor for the pleasures of this life. I want the Bread of God which is the Flesh of Christ, who was the seed of David; and for drink I desire His Blood which is love that cannot be destroyed. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
1432:In this life no one can fulfill his longing, nor can any creature satisfy man's desire. Only God satisfies, he infinitely exceeds all other pleasures. That is why man can rest in nothing but God." ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
1433:It is fundamentally true for most people that the pleasure of life, of existence in itself, predominates over the troubles of life. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: Sachchidananda, Existence, Consciousness-Force and Bliss, #KEYS
1434:The law that deprives us of the memory of past lives is a law of the cosmic Wisdom and serves, not disserves its evolutionary purpose. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality, #KEYS
1435:There are men in the world who labour to attain to spirituality and sages who are pure and perfect and can explain this life and the other of which they have themselves acquired the knowledge. ~ Unknown, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1436:Trivial or sombre, disillusion comes,
Life's harsh reality stares at the soul:
Heaven's hour adjourned flees into bodiless Time. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Gospel of Death and Vanity of the Ideal,#KEYS
1437:While diversity is essential for power and fruitfulness of life, unity is necessary for its order, arrangement and stability. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Nature's Law in Our Progress - Unity in Diversity, Law and Liberty, #KEYS
1438:You must work constantly, day and night devote your whole energy, and let the results remain in the hands of the Lord. Let every action of your daily life be a free offering to the world. Let us all work for others and die for others, ~ SWAMI ABHEDANANDA, #KEYS
1439:A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving … ~ Albert Einstein, #KEYS
1440:Any final recoil from the physical life must be a turning away from the completeness of the divine Wisdom and a renunciation of its aim in earthly manifestation. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Three Steps of Nature, #KEYS
1441:It is the conflict in you between what is attached to ordinary life and what aspires for the divine life. It is up to you to choose which is the strongest in you and to act accordingly.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, [T5],#KEYS
1442:Let your heart burn away with yearning for God! Feel that life is not worth living without Him! Then He will reveal Himself! As the poor man longs for wealth, as the lustful man longs for a woman, so must the devotee long for the Lord. ~ Swami Turiyananda, #KEYS
1443:And by sleep the human example teaches us that we mean not a suspension of consciousness, but its gathering inward away from conscious physical response to the impacts of external things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine 1.10-14, #KEYS
1444:Be unshakeable in the accomplishment of your duties great and small; lead a life proof against censure in accordance with the precepts and let our words likewise be above reproach. ~ Mahapariuibbaua Sutta, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1445:Dewdrop, let me cleanse In your brief Sweet water These dark hands of life." ~ Matsuo Basho, (1644-1694), during his lifetime, today, and after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1446:Here in Life's nether realms all contraries meet;
Truth stares and does her works with bandaged eyes
And Ignorance is Wisdom's patron here: ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Entry into the Inner Countries,#KEYS
1447:If one hears an ill word from one's neighbor, and, though he could reply in kind, yet fights in his heart to endure the toil and forces himself not to reply ill so as to sadden the other, such a man lays down his life for his friend. ~ Paschasius of Dumium, #KEYS
1448:Life does not care whether you call yourself rich or poor; strong or weak. It will eternally reward you with that which you claim as true of yourself." ~ Neville Goddard, (1905-1972), mystic teacher. From "The Complete Reader,", (2013), edited David Allen., #KEYS
1449:Mysticism-Magic and Yoga-is the means, therefore, to a new universal life, richer, greater and more full of resource than ever before, as free as sunlight, as gracious as the unfolding of a rose. It is for man to take.
~ Israel Regardie, The Tree Of Life,#KEYS
1450:... Strange signs will appear in the skies: both horns of the moon will join the cross. Happy will be those who will have survived the war, since the pleasures of life will begin again, and the sun will have a new brilliance..." ~ Saint Odile, (660-720 AD), #KEYS
1451:When we speak of the Path we mean much more than a course of study. The Path is a way of life and on it the whole being must co-operate if the heights are to be won.
~ Dion Fortune, Esoteric Orders and Their Work and The Training and Work of the Initiate,#KEYS
1452:... maintains that, along with Aurobindo's Life Divine, Heidegger's Being and Time, and Whitehead's Process and Reality, Wilber's Sex Ecology Spirituality [SES] is 'one of the four great books of this [twentieth] century'
~ Michael Murphy, Integral, 2004.,#KEYS
1453:Today you're vigorous in body, fattened by luxury, and in the prime of life, with complexion fair like the flowers, strong and powerful and of irresistible energy; tomorrow you'll be an object of pity, withered by age or exhausted by sickness. ~ Saint Basil, #KEYS
1454:Actual grace is constantly offered to us for the accomplishment of the duty of the present moment, just as air comes constantly into our lungs to permit us to breathe. ~ Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life, #KEYS
1455:A schoolman mind had captured life's large space,
But chose to live in bare and paltry rooms
Parked off from the too vast dangerous universe. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Entry into the Inner Countries,#KEYS
1456:All knowledge and endeavour can reach its fruition only if it is turned into experience and has become a part of the consciousness and its established operations. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
1457:I have created all, all I devour;
I am Death and the dark terrible Mother of life,
I am Kali black and naked in the world. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute,#KEYS
1458:In an outburst of heavenly joy and ease
Life yields to the divinity within
And gives the rapture-offering of its all,
And the soul opens to felicity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Heavens of the Ideal,#KEYS
1459:We have in all functionings of the mentality four elements, the object of mental consciousness, the act of mental consciousness, the occasion and the subject.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Memory, Ego and Self-Experience, 532,#KEYS
1460:A lot of being a poet consists of willed ignorance. If you woke up from your trance and realized the nature of the life-threatening and dignity-destroying precipice you were walking along, you would switch into actuarial sciences immediately. ~ Margaret Atwood, #KEYS
1461:Altruism taken as a rule of life does not deliver us; it is a potent instrument for self-enlargement and for correction of the narrower ego. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #KEYS
1462:A strange pell-mell of magic artisans,
Was seen moulding the plastic clay of life,
An elfin brood, an elemental kind. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05,#KEYS
1463:Mind and spirit are life, universal, no doubt, but in a living way and therefore comprehensive in a living way. They see what is alive in its uniqueness, yet also as a revelation of that which is everywhere at work…. ~ Romano Guardini, Letters from Lake Como, #KEYS
1464:One must be bold enough to face everything in order to serve the Ideal. Truth can never be realized by weak-minded people. Our task in life must be done boldly. Fear none. Divinity and purity are your birthright. Have faith and struggle on. ~ SWAMI PARAMANANDA, #KEYS
1465:Such is the Guru, "Who has himself crossed this terrible ocean of life, and without any idea of gain to himself, helps others also to cross the ocean." This is the Guru, and mark that none else can be a Guru. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1466:The artificiality of much in human life is the cause of its most deep-seated maladies; it is not faithful to itself or sincere with Nature and therefore it stumbles and suffers. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Diversity in Oneness, #KEYS
1467: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. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Power of the Instruments, #KEYS
1468:The Good Shepherd came in search of the straying sheep to the mountains and hills on which you used to offer sacrifice. When he found it, he took it on the shoulders that bore the wood of the cross, and led it back to the life of heaven. ~ Gregory of Nazianzen, #KEYS
1469:The purpose of economic activity is to defend and to spread the seeds of life, to resurrect nature. This is the action of Sophia on the universe in an effort to restore it to being in Truth. ~ Sergius Bulgakov, The Philosophy of Economy: The World as Household, #KEYS
1470:To discover the spiritual being in himself is the main business of the spiritual man and to help others towards the same evolution is his real service to the race. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #KEYS
1471:One who has not the courage to face patiently and firmly life and its difficulties will never be able to go through the still greater inner difficulties of the sadhana. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II, Patience and Perseverance, #KEYS
1472:To think that this world is the aim and end of life is brutal and degenerating. Any man who starts in life with that idea degenerates himself He will never rise higher, he will always be a slave to the senses. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
1473:If thou meetest on the roads of life an intelligent friend who is following thy path, one full of justice, firmness and wisdom, then overcome all obstacles and walk at his side happy and attentive. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1474:I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and the whole earth will become One Circle again." ~ Crazy Horse, (c. 1840-1877), a Native American war leader of the Sioux in the 19th century, Wikipedia., #KEYS
1475:To music that can immortalise the mind
And make the heart wide as infinity
Listened, and captured the inaudible
Cadences that awake the occult ear. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Paradise of the Life-Gods,#KEYS
1476:Unity is the basis of the gnostic consciousness, mutuality the natural result of its direct awareness of oneness in diversity, harmony the inevitable power of the working of its force. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Divine Life, #KEYS
1477:It is the one Infinite that appears to us as the many finite: the creation adds nothing to the Infinite; it remains after creation what it was before. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
1478:Now this is the counsel which I give to kings and Churches and to all that has grown weak by age and virtue,-"Allow yourselves to be overthrown that you may recover life and the virtue return to you. ~ Nietzsche, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
1479:Surrender is the decision to hand over the responsibility of your life to the Divine. This is done either through the mind or the emotion or the life-impulse or through all of them together.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931,#KEYS
1480:The growth of the individual is the indispensable means for the inner growth as distinguished from the outer force and expansion of the collective being. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Progress to Knowledge - God, Man and Nature, #KEYS
1481:The other quotation is a mantra.
OM Sri Aurobindo Mira
Open my mind, my heart, my life to your Light,
your Love, your Power. In all things may I see the Divine.
16 July 1938
On Himself, 26.512 ~ The Mother, Agenda Vol 11,#KEYS
1482:Beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit, because in his great love for us he took pity on us, and when we were dead in our sins he brought us to life with Christ, so that in him we might be a new creation. ~ Leo the Great, #KEYS
1483:Never allow yourself to believe that something's wrong in your life. Catch it before it starts. And say to yourself: "I am effortless, choiceless, Pure Awareness." Know the truth about yourself. God has no problems. Neither do you. For you are That. ~ Robert Adams, #KEYS
1484:The Divine is free and not bound by laws of any making, but still he acts by laws and processes because they are the expression of the truth of things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #KEYS
1485:The gnostic individual would be the consummation of the spiritual man; his whole way of being, thinking, living, acting would be governed by the power of a vast universal spirituality. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being, #KEYS
1486:This sign of the cross will be in the heavens when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross, who during life made themselves one with the Crucified, will draw near with great trust to Christ, the judge. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
1487:In every moment you are creating your life with the thoughts you give primary 'attention' to." ~ Will Bowen, author of "A Complaint Free World: How to Stop Complaining and Start Enjoying the Life You Always Wanted", (2007), ten million copies sold in 106 countries., #KEYS
1488:Shakti, Force, pouring through the universe supports its boundless activities, the frail and tremulous life of the rose no less than the flaming motions of sun and star. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings, The National Value of Art, #KEYS
1489:We can easily lift a heavy stone under water, but as soon as we take it out we find how heavy it is, and in the same way, we don't feel the weight of the body as long as a Chaitanya or Life-force permeates it. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
1490:You who have been redeemed, consider who it is who hangs on the cross for you, whose death gives life to the dead, whose passing is mourned by heaven and earth, while even the hard stones are split. Consider how great he is; consider what he is. ~ Saint Bonaventure, #KEYS
1491:How can a change of consciousness change the life upon earth?
A change in human consciousness will make possible the manifestation upon earth of a higher Force, a purer Light, a more total Truth.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III,#KEYS
1492:I made the worlds my net, each joy a mesh.
A Hunger amorous of its suffering prey,
Life that devours, my image see in things. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Journey in Eternal Night and the Voice of the Darkness,#KEYS
1493:Insatiate seeker, he has all to learn:
He has exhausted now life's surface acts,
His being's hidden realms remain to explore. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.04#KEYS
1494:Once man has lost the fundamental orientation which unifies his existence, he breaks down into a multiplicity of his desires, in refusing to await the time of promise, his life story disintegrates into a myriad of unconnected instants. ~ Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei 13, #KEYS
1495:Spirit is the image of the Lord of the Yoga; mind and body are the means He has provided for reproducing that image in phenomenal existence.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Conditions of the Synthesis, The Threefold Life, 29,#KEYS
1496:We know that there are three comings of the Lord. The third lies between the other two. It is invisible... In the first, Christ was our redemption; in the last, he will appear as our life; in this middle coming, he is our rest and consolation. ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #KEYS
1497:Whatever you may do, you will find better and better things if only you go forward. You may feel a little ecstasy as the result of japa, but don't conclude from this that you have achieved everything in spiritual life. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1498:As an apparent entity, man does not live his life but is being lived, like a puppet on strings. All his attempts to "live his life", are nothing more than reactions to impulses, engendered by psycho-physical conditions, over which he has no control. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
1499:For us, philosophy has become something like an intellectual exercise; for the Greeks it was not an external decoration of life but the inner beauty of the latter and an elucidation of it psychophysical and social structure. ~ Pavel Florensky, The Meaning of Idealism, #KEYS
1500:I must attain God in this very life; yea, in three days I must find Him; nay, with a single utterance of His name I will draw Him to me" - with such violent Love the devotee can attract the Lord and realize Him quickly. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
1:I tasted life. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 2:Life must be lived as play. ~ plato, @wisdomtrove 3:... .I begin a new life. ~ og-mandino, @wisdomtrove 4:Life is short, yet sweet. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 5:Life delights in life. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 6:Life is luck, make it. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 7:Life's a song, sing it ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 8:An evil life is a kind of death. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 9:Death is Life's high meed. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 10:Life begins each morning. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 11:Life is not fair; God is. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 12:Life's bare as a bone. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 13:Life stand still here. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 14:My teachings are my life. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 15:The life of men is painful. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 16:Trusting God brings life. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 17:Life is a dead-end street. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 18:Life is a game, play it. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 19:Life is short. Be of use. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 20:My life is my message. ~ mahatma-gandhi, @wisdomtrove 21:And death what men call life? ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 22:Dreams are necessary to life. ~ anais-nin, @wisdomtrove 23:Faith is the force of life. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 24:How remorseless life is! ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 25:Life is fragile and absurd. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 26:Life is too short for chess. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 27:Life must be somewhere to be ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 28:Life is a series of awakenings ~ sivananda, @wisdomtrove 29:Life is beauty, admire it. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 30:Life is tons of discipline. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 31:Live a life worth remembering. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 32:Pick your life’s short list. ~ leo-babauta, @wisdomtrove 33:A kiss may ruin a human life. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 34:Life, for eternal us, is now ~ e-e-cummings, @wisdomtrove 35:Life isn't divided into genres ~ alan-moore, @wisdomtrove 36:Life is too short to be small. ~ tim-ferris, @wisdomtrove 37:My life is my argument. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 38:This joy you feel is life. ~ gertrude-stein, @wisdomtrove 39:Knowledge is Life with wings ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 40:Life had replaced logic. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 41:Life is a dream, realise it. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 42:Life is tough, then you die. ~ george-carlin, @wisdomtrove 43:Life well spent is long. ~ leonardo-da-vinci, @wisdomtrove 44:Oh, I am in love with life! ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 45:You can't get out of life alive. ~ les-brown, @wisdomtrove 46:A busy life is a wasted life. ~ francis-crick, @wisdomtrove 47:It’s yours. This is your life. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 48:Kids are anchors of mothers' life ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 49:Life is a useless passion. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 50:Life is wasted on the living. ~ douglas-adams, @wisdomtrove 51:Life, what is it but a dream? ~ lewis-carroll, @wisdomtrove 52:My life is a glorious adventure. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 53:of every situation in my life." ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 54:The goal of all life is death ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove 55:Use words that soak up life. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 56:Being an artist is a job for life. ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove 57:Honor modesty more than your life. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 58:Labor is life; thought is light. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 59:Life is about being and becoming ~ carl-rogers, @wisdomtrove 60:Life is a glorious opportunity. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 61:Life is an adventure, dare it. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 62:Life is a promise; fulfill it. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 63:Nobody loves life like an old man. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 64:No one is happy all his life long. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 65:A life is a life no matter how small ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 66:Don't just live a life; build one. ~ steve-jobs, @wisdomtrove 67:I attract only peace into my life. ~ wayne-dyer, @wisdomtrove 68:I have found life so beautiful. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 69:Life is an adventure or nothing ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 70:Life is a party. Dress for it. ~ audrey-hepburn, @wisdomtrove 71:Life is one indivisible whole. ~ mahatma-gandhi, @wisdomtrove 72:Life is really about moving on. ~ oprah-winfrey, @wisdomtrove 73:Life is short. Help more people. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 74:Life itself is a quotation. ~ jorge-luis-borges, @wisdomtrove 75:Motion is the sign of life. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 76:Trifles make the sum of life. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 77:Until you die .. it's all life. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 78:Your urge to control life controls you. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 79:Each day is a little life. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove 80:Life is like a box of cookies. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 81:Life is so much friendlier with two. ~ a-a-milne, @wisdomtrove 82:Poetry is a life-cherishing force. ~ mary-oliver, @wisdomtrove 83:The only constant in life is change ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 84:Where is the Life we lost in living? ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 85:A happy life is a life for others. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 86:Friendship is the heaven of life. ~ thomas-edison, @wisdomtrove 87:Is Life itself a dream, I wonder? ~ lewis-carroll, @wisdomtrove 88:I will not walk backward in life. ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 89:Laughter is the honey of life. ~ danielle-laporte, @wisdomtrove 90:Life gives nothing to man without labor. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 91:Life: I'll never understand it. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 92:Life is a do-it-yourself project. ~ napoleon-hill, @wisdomtrove 93:Life is just a bowl of pits. ~ rodney-dangerfield, @wisdomtrove 94:Life is largely a matter of expectation. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 95:Life is like a drop of dew on a leaf. ~ socrates, @wisdomtrove 96:Life is short, death is forever ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 97:Life is to short to be small. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 98:Love and say it with your life. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 99:Love is the goal, life is the journey. ~ rajneesh, @wisdomtrove 100:Never settle for the crumbs of life. ~ og-mandino, @wisdomtrove 101:Stop and consider! life is but a day ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 102:Until death it is all life. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 103:Create a life you can't wait to live. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 104:Each life creates endless ripples. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 105:Everything in life is vibration. ~ albert-einstein, @wisdomtrove 106:Happiness has a very short half-life. ~ tim-ferris, @wisdomtrove 107:Life always brings you what you need. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 108:Life And Death, Suffering, Important ~ bodhidharma, @wisdomtrove 109:Life! Don't talk to me about life! ~ douglas-adams, @wisdomtrove 110:Life is continuous, and is Infinite. ~ edgar-cayce, @wisdomtrove 111:Life is no way to treat an animal. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 112:Life unexamined, is not worth living. ~ democritus, @wisdomtrove 113:Live a life as a monument to your soul. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 114:Live life to the fullest. ~ robert-louis-stevenson, @wisdomtrove 115:Love gives life purpose and meaning. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 116:Love is like life-merely longer. ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 117:The essence of life is in remembering God. ~ kabir, @wisdomtrove 118:The greatest pleasure of life is love. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 119:The purpose of life is to remember. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 120:A simple life is its own reward. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 121:Each second of life is a miracle. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 122:Everything in life is a metaphor. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 123:If you have life, you have purpose. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 124:Is not every life, every work fine? ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 125:Let your life be your argument. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 126:Life—God—in its essence is vibration. ~ edgar-cayce, @wisdomtrove 127:Life is the sum of all your choices. ~ albert-camus, @wisdomtrove 128:Life is too short to be little. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 129:Life protracted is protracted woe. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 130:Life's as kind as you let it be. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 131:Love is an intensification of life. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 132:Men are my life, diamonds are my career. ~ mae-west, @wisdomtrove 133:The meaning of life is that it stops. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 134:We can't help it. Life looks for life. ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 135:What is life for? Life is for you. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove 136:You can't live life without an eraser. ~ tom-peters, @wisdomtrove 137:You design the life you want to have. ~ t-harv-eker, @wisdomtrove 138:Art is an attempt to escape from life. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 139:Cancer changes your whole life. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove 140:Fiction is an improvement on life ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 141:Home is the sacred refuge of our life. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 142:In life, man proposes, God disposes. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove 143:It's only life. We all get through it. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 144:I was born to enjoy life. And so it is. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 145:Life helps those who help themselves. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 146:Life is too short for non-WOW projects. ~ tom-peters, @wisdomtrove 147:Life responds to deserve and not to need. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 148:Life supports me every step of the way! ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 149:Love is... a positive force of life. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 150:Love is exactly as strong as life. ~ joseph-campbell, @wisdomtrove 151:Music is not my life. My life is music. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 152:This is the great Secret of life. ~ michael-beckwith, @wisdomtrove 153:Very few things in life matter. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 154:While there's life, there is hope. ~ stephen-hawking, @wisdomtrove 155:Without literature, life is hell. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 156:You must make bold experiments in life! ~ meher-baba, @wisdomtrove 157:Your life is worth much more than gold. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 158:Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 159:Beautify your breath - beautify your life. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 160:Custom is the great guide to human life. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 161:Dreaming is happiness. Waiting is life. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 162:Each life needs its own quiet place. ~ melody-beattie, @wisdomtrove 163:I don’t count life as life without love ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 164:In life there is not time to grieve long. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 165:I wear the chains I forged in life. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 166:Life did not stop, and one had to live. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 167:Life is a challenge, we must take it. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 168:Life is an adventure in forgiveness. ~ norman-cousins, @wisdomtrove 169:Life is one big road with lots of signs, ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 170:Life is too short to remain unnoticed ~ salvador-dali, @wisdomtrove 171:Life itself is nothing but relationship. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove 172:Live the wonderful life that is in you. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 173:Miracles do happen in every human life. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 174:Our own life has to be our message. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 175:Our real journey in life is interior. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 176:The happiest time of my life is now. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 177:We are the custodians of life's meaning. ~ carl-sagan, @wisdomtrove 178:Where is the Life we have lost in living? ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 179:You are meant to have an amazing life. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 180:A zen master's life is one continuous mistake. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove 181:Because this death release you into real life. ~ mooji, @wisdomtrove 182:Friends make life a lot more fun. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 183:Ha, but my life is a box of wormgears. ~ douglas-adams, @wisdomtrove 184:Liberty of thought is the life of the soul. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 185:Life is a daring adventure or nothing. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 186:Life is a movie; death is a photograph. ~ susan-sontag, @wisdomtrove 187:Love is the world's river of life ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 188:Love yourself and you can heal your life. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 189:Not knowing anything is the sweetest life. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 190:Now life has killed the dream I dreamed. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 191:The happiest life is to be without thought ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 192:We forge the chains we wear in life. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 193:Anything worth achieving in life has a dip ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 194:As I say yes to life, life says yes to me! ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 195:Earnestness alone makes life eternity. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 196:Follow your dreams, transform your life. ~ paulo-coelho, @wisdomtrove 197:It is worth dying to find out what life is. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 198:Life has no blessing like a prudent friend. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 199:Life is a child moving counters in a game. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 200:Life is brief but love is long . ~ alfred-lord-tennyson, @wisdomtrove 201:Life is finite, While knowledge is infinite. ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 202:Life without pain has no meaning. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove 203:Live as though life was created for you. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 204:Live your life without attracting attention. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 205:Lovely morning! How lovely life can be! ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 206:Man's greatest weakness is his love for life. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 207:My life closed twice before its close ~ emily-dickinson, @wisdomtrove 208:The best guide in life is strength. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 209:The life of the soul is incalculable. ~ margaret-fuller, @wisdomtrove 210:The light has gone out of my life. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 211:The love of life is the root of all good. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 212:The true object of human life is play. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 213:Without a Coca-Cola life is unthinkable. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 214:A life lived in love will never be dull. ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove 215:All of life is a constant education. ~ eleanor-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 216:All the bloomy flush of life is fled. ~ oliver-goldsmith, @wisdomtrove 217:Children are the anchors of a mother's life. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 218:Do you cherish your humble and silky life? ~ mary-oliver, @wisdomtrove 219:Every life is its own excuse for being. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 220:Few know the use of life before 'tis past. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 221:God never promised us a trouble-free life. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 222:Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. ~ melody-beattie, @wisdomtrove 223:I am sure care's an enemy to life. ~ william-shakespeare, @wisdomtrove 224:Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 225:Life is made up of marble and mud. ~ nathaniel-hawthorne, @wisdomtrove 226:Life is nothing but the expansion of love. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 227:Life isn't all fricasseed frogs and eel pie. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 228:Life is the flight of the alone to the alone. ~ plotinus, @wisdomtrove 229:Life sometimes gives you a second chance. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 230:Life without forgiveness is unbearable. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove 231:Life would split apart without letters. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 232:Only the present moment contains life. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 233:Our life is what our thoughts make it. ~ marcus-aurelius, @wisdomtrove 234:Personal power is a feeling, like life. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 235:Strength is life, Weakness is death. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 236:The significance of life is living. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 237:You cannot find peace by avoiding life. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 238:Ah, why Should life all labour be? ~ alfred-lord-tennyson, @wisdomtrove 239:A life worth living is a life worth recording. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 240:A spiritual life means: It is now or never. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 241:Death hath a fairer fame than a life of toil. ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 242:Develop an Interest in Life as you see it. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 243:Each time of life has its own kind of love. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 244:If we don't know life, how can we know death? ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 245:It's a large as life and twice as natural ~ lewis-carroll, @wisdomtrove 246:... life, by definition, is never still. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 247:Life is for the gambler, it really is. ~ anthony-de-mello, @wisdomtrove 248:Life is meant to be abundant in ALL areas. ~ rhonda-byrne, @wisdomtrove 249:Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 250:Life's a fight. It's a good fight of faith. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 251:Life salutes u when u make others happy ~ charlie-chaplan, @wisdomtrove 252:Only the moment counts. It determines life. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 253:Set up a life you don't need to escape from. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 254:Slept, awoke, slept, awoke, miserable life. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 255:The happy man in this life needs friends. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 256:The power of the heart is the power of Life. ~ gary-zukav, @wisdomtrove 257:The wise with hope support the pains of life. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 258:True life is lived when tiny changes occur. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 259:What we do in life ripples in eternity. ~ marcus-aurelius, @wisdomtrove 260:With life many things are remedied. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 261:Without joy in your life you are powerless. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 262:Without music, life would be a blank to me. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 263:You change your life by changing your heart. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 264:Your life is supposed to feel good to you. ~ esther-hicks, @wisdomtrove 265:A life not lived for others is not a life. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 266:Any man's life, told truly, is a novel. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 267:As I grow to understand life less and less, ~ jules-renard, @wisdomtrove 268:Best Years Of Your Life, Want, Being The Best ~ alan-cohen, @wisdomtrove 269:Every problem has a limited life span. ~ robert-h-schuller, @wisdomtrove 270:If you do what is easy, your life will be hard ~ les-brown, @wisdomtrove 271:If you let pride stop you, you will hate life ~ tim-ferris, @wisdomtrove 272:Ignorance is death, Knowledge is life. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 273:Life is a movement outward, an unfolding. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 274:Life is like a field of newly fallen snow. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 275:life is long between the desire and the spasm. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 276:Life is slippery. Here, take my hand. ~ h-jackson-brown-jr, @wisdomtrove 277:Life loves the person who dares to live it. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 278:Life's a short trip. You'll find out. ~ rodney-dangerfield, @wisdomtrove 279:Love is the heartbeat of all life. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 280:Love life more than the meaning of it? ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 281:Make your life spectacular, I know I did. ~ robin-williams, @wisdomtrove 282:My friends have made the story of my life. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 283:My heart's gratitude Is My life's plenitude. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 284:No man loves life like him that's growing old. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 285:Real life is in love, laughter, and work. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 286:The best things in life make you sweaty. ~ edgar-allan-poe, @wisdomtrove 287:The energy of the mind is the essence of life. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 288:The happy man in this life needs friends. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 289:The idea of Zen is to catch life as it flows. ~ d-t-suzuki, @wisdomtrove 290:The law of heaven and earth is life for life. ~ lord-byron, @wisdomtrove 291:The meaning of life is that it is to be lived. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 292:Time is the life of the soul. ~ henry-wadsworth-longfellow, @wisdomtrove 293:When life gives you lemons, make lemonade ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 294:When life hands you lemons make lemonade! ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 295:While life could be evaded, death could not. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 296:Wine, like life, is meant to be enjoyed. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 297:Words can not express the joy of new life. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 298:Work to make a living; serve to make a life. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 299:Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 300:You are permanent, but this life is not. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 301:Any film is at least better than real life. ~ quentin-crisp, @wisdomtrove 302:Daily life is the enemy of greatness. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 303:Do your best. And then let life do the rest. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 304:Either one fails in one's art or in one's life. ~ anais-nin, @wisdomtrove 305:He is not apprehended by reason, but by life. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 306:I have measured out my life with coffee spoons. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 307:In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 308:In life, the worst disasters come from passion. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 309:I've spent my life making blunders. ~ pierre-auguste-renoir, @wisdomtrove 310:Life is a journey, not a destination. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 311:Life is an echo. What you send out comes back. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 312:Life without illusion is a ghostly affair. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 313:Life would be tragic if it weren't funny. ~ stephen-hawking, @wisdomtrove 314:Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny. ~ stephen-hawking, @wisdomtrove 315:Race has no place in American life or law. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 316:Remember, Life is a journey, not a destination. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 317:Still, life had a way of adding day to day ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 318:There is just one life for each of us: our own. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 319:To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals. ~ benjamin-franklin, @wisdomtrove 320:True life lies in laughter, love and work. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 321:Your life is a print-out of your thoughts. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 322:A human life is just a heartbeat in heaven. ~ robin-williams, @wisdomtrove 323:All men know their children mean more than life. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 324:Before my death I hope to obtain my life. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 325:Belief in the lie is the life of the lie. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 326:Better a long life of toil than a short one of ease. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 327:Choose to view life through God's eyes. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 328:Christian life consists of faith and charity ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 329:Hatred darkens life; love illumines it. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 330:Her life was a tissue of vanity and deceit. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 331:I breathe in the fullness and richness of life. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 332:I deserve to live a good life, and I begin now. ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 333:In married life three is company and two none. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 334:Keep your place in life and your place will keep you ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 335:Life begins on the other side of despair. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 336:Life is a gift, not to possess, but to share. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 337:Life is bringing me everything I need and MORE! ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 338:Life is either a great adventure or nothing. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 339:Life is the past, the present and the perhaps. ~ bette-davis, @wisdomtrove 340:Life reflects your own thoughts back to you. ~ napoleon-hill, @wisdomtrove 341:Life's metaphors are God's instructions. ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove 342:Love is the true condition of human life. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 343:Love the life you live. live the life you love. ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 344:May all that have life be delivered from suffering. ~ buddha, @wisdomtrove 345:Music is essentially useless, as is life. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 346:My honor is dearer to me than my life. ~ miguel-de-cervantes, @wisdomtrove 347:Often life is a frantic avoidance of the truth. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove 348:Our life is made by the death of others. ~ leonardo-da-vinci, @wisdomtrove 349:Our mere anticipations of life outrun its realities. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 350:Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 351:Stop giving your life away to other people. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 352:Success is loving life and daring to live it. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 353:The destination of life is this eternal moment. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 354:The sign of life is strength and growth. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 355:The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 356:The world is a grindstone and life is your nose ~ fred-allen, @wisdomtrove 357:This day of your life will never come again. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 358:Though life is very glorious, it is difficult. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 359:When we are present, life is also present. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 360:Who knows but life be that which men call death, ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 361:You can evade life, but you can not evade Death. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 362:As you manage your money, you manage your life. ~ dan-millman, @wisdomtrove 363:Attitude is your thought life turned inside out ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 364:Books are a triviality. Life alone is great. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 365:Develop a sense of urgency in your life. ~ h-jackson-brown-jr, @wisdomtrove 366:Everything that is contradictory creates life ~ salvador-dali, @wisdomtrove 367:Give your life to Christ, he'll challenge you. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 368:Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 369:If you don't act on life, life will act on you ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 370:It is never too late in life to practice yoga ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 371:It is no bad thing celebrating a simple life. ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 372:It is the acme of life to understand life. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 373:Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 374:Life is 440 horsepower in a 2-cylinder engine. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 375:Life is a mirror of your consistent thoughts. ~ napoleon-hill, @wisdomtrove 376:Life is a plant that grows out of death. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 377:Life is just one damned thing after another. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 378:Life is pain, so live it up while you can. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 379:Life is the flower for which love is the honey. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 380:Life itself is simple... it's just not easy. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 381:Love is the river of life in this world. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 382:Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued. ~ socrates, @wisdomtrove 383:Seize the day. Make your life extraordinary. ~ robin-williams, @wisdomtrove 384:This is the great fact: strength is life. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 385:What good is it to live a life that brings pains? ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 386:where there hasn't been more love in your life. ~ debbie-ford, @wisdomtrove 387:Yoga releases the creative potential in life. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 388:Your life only gets better when you get better. ~ brian-tracy, @wisdomtrove 389:A good life is a collection of happy memories. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 390:A useless life is an early death. ~ johann-wolfgang-von-goethe, @wisdomtrove 391:Death fosters life that life may suckle death. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 392:Determine to live life with flair and laughter. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 393:for a life of Sensations rather than of Thoughts! ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 394:I guess I'm larger than life. That's my problem. ~ bette-davis, @wisdomtrove 395:In my normal life I'm a very unadventurous person. ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove 396:Intuition is the only true guide in life. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 397:Life had stepped into the place of theory. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 398:Life has no limitations, except the ones you make. ~ les-brown, @wisdomtrove 399:Middle-aged life is merry, and I love to lead it. ~ ogden-nash, @wisdomtrove 400:My life carries its own meaning in itself. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 401:One must act in painting as in life, directly. ~ pablo-picasso, @wisdomtrove 402:Preservation of life is the only true joy. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 403:The act of dying is one of the acts of life. ~ marcus-aurelius, @wisdomtrove 404:The aim of living is life itself. ~ johann-wolfgang-von-goethe, @wisdomtrove 405:The Bible says we must choose two ways of life. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 406:The less I understand life, the more I live it! ~ jules-renard, @wisdomtrove 407:View life as a continuous learning experience. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 408:Whatever your life's work is, do it well. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 409:Whenever we look at life, we look at networks. ~ fritjof-capra, @wisdomtrove 410:All life is nucleic acid; the rest is commentary ~ isaac-asimov, @wisdomtrove 411:All of a Christian's life is one of repentance. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 412:A man's life is what his thoughts make of it. ~ marcus-aurelius, @wisdomtrove 413:A man's life of any worth is a continual allegory. ~ john-keats, @wisdomtrove 414:A smooth life is not a victorious life. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 415:Consider that nirvana is itself no other than our life. ~ dogen, @wisdomtrove 416:For wherein is life sweet to him who suffers grief? ~ aeschylus, @wisdomtrove 417:God answers the mess of life with one word: Grace. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 418:I believe firmly in God's control in life. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 419:I hope you live a life you're proud of... ~ f-scott-fitzgerald, @wisdomtrove 420:In life, what more can you ask for than to be real? ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 421:In real life, it takes only one to make a quarrel. ~ ogden-nash, @wisdomtrove 422:I think Bible principles are principles for life. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 423:It's my choice, to choose how to live my life. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 424:I've never used a PC in my life; I don't like them. ~ brian-eno, @wisdomtrove 425:Life has three rules: Paradox, Humor, and Change. ~ dan-millman, @wisdomtrove 426:Life is a field of unlimited possibilities. ~ deepak-chopra, @wisdomtrove 427:Life is available only in the present moment. ~ thich-nhat-hanh, @wisdomtrove 428:Life like an empty dream flits by. ~ henry-wadsworth-longfellow, @wisdomtrove 429:Life tells you nothing, it shows you everything. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 430:Look at life through the wrong end of the telescope. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 431:My life's accomplishments? Sanity, and you. ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove 432:Relationships end, but they don't end your life. ~ steve-martin, @wisdomtrove 433:The greatest failure in life is to stop trying. ~ napoleon-hill, @wisdomtrove 434:The man of upright life is obeyed before he speaks. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 435:The most important job in life is being a mom. ~ audrey-hepburn, @wisdomtrove 436:The purpose of life afterall is to live it. ~ eleanor-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 437:There is no joy in life like the joy of sharing. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 438:There's only one story, the story of your life. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove 439:The Road of life is rocky and you may stumble too, ~ bob-marley, @wisdomtrove 440:traveling is the great true love of my life ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove 441:What is life without incompatible realities? ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 442:Without music, my life would be black and white. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 443:You are - your life, and nothing else. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 444:you can live a whole life time never being awake. ~ dan-millman, @wisdomtrove 445:You don't live forever, at least in this life. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 446:Your agreement with reality defines your life. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 447:A life without love is like a tree without fruit. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 448:All of life's riddles are answered in the movies. ~ steve-martin, @wisdomtrove 449:All of life’s riddles are answered in the movies. ~ steve-martin, @wisdomtrove 450:As soon as there is life, there is danger. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 451:Develop a childlike fascination with life and people. ~ jim-rohn, @wisdomtrove 452:False teachers of the Way of life use flowery words. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 453:He who is upright in his way of life and free from sin. ~ horace, @wisdomtrove 454:I have no wish to take life, not even human life ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 455:Infinite sharing is the law of God s inner life. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 456:In the life of one man, never The same time returns. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 457:Into each life some rain must fall. ~ henry-wadsworth-longfellow, @wisdomtrove 458:Keep the focus of your life in the here and now. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 459:Lies hurt people; imagination makes life more fun. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 460:Life and death have been lacking in my life. ~ jorge-luis-borges, @wisdomtrove 461:Life and sports cannot be separated; they are one. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 462:Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 463:Life in this world is an attempt to see God. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 464:Life is a night spent in an uncomfortable inn. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 465:Life is the movie you see through your own eyes. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 466:May gratitude to God permeate my entire life. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 467:Men dislike being awakened from their death in life. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 468:Nowadays, manners are easy and life is hard. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 469:Patience is being at peace with the process of life ~ louise-hay, @wisdomtrove 470:The quality of life is determined by its activities. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 471:To be true to oneself is the hardest test of life. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 472:To stay awake all night adds a day to your life. ~ frank-herbert, @wisdomtrove 473:Your habits will determine your quality of life. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 474:Books without the knowledge of life are useless. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 475:Death is a continuation of my life without me. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 476:Each life makes its own immitation of immortality. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 477:Each man's life represents a road toward himself. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 478:Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 479:If by my life or death I can protect you, I will. ~ j-r-r-tolkien, @wisdomtrove 480:In spite of everything life is not without hope. ~ marilyn-monroe, @wisdomtrove 481:In traveling, a companion, in life, compassion. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 482:Life in abundance comes only through great love. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 483:Life is a compromise between fate and free will. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 484:Life is a dance. Mindfulness is witnessing that dance. ~ amit-ray, @wisdomtrove 485:Life is full of amusement to an amusing man. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 486:Life is in ourselves and not in the external. ~ fyodor-dostoevsky, @wisdomtrove 487:Life isn't fair. In never was and never will be. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 488:Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 489:Life without tapas, is like a heart without love. ~ b-k-s-iyengar, @wisdomtrove 490:Make your life spectacular. I know I did. — Jack ~ robin-williams, @wisdomtrove 491:Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7 of your life. ~ steven-wright, @wisdomtrove 492:So I've seen life as one long learning process. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 493:Take life seriously but none of the people in it. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 494:The only prudence in life is concentration. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 495:To feed death with her works is here life's doom. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 496:We need to live the life that we say we believe in. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 497:Winners are people with definite purpose in life. ~ denis-waitley, @wisdomtrove 498:90% of life is little things. Be present in them. ~ eckhart-tolle, @wisdomtrove 499:Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 500:Allow yourself to enjoy each moment in your life. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:All life is Yoga. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
2:Blood is the life. ~ Brian Lumley, #NFDB
3:civic life, learn ~ Eric Greitens, #NFDB
4:delectable life ~ Juan de la Cruz, #NFDB
5:I trust you with my life ~ J Lynn, #NFDB
6:Life goes on, brah! ~ The Beatles, #NFDB
7:Life is so beautiful ~ Mario Puzo, #NFDB
8:Life was so unfair. ~ Chanda Hahn, #NFDB
9:My life is a struggle. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
10:No fear. Just life. ~ A L Jackson, #NFDB
11:The right to life. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
12:Yoga is a life-saver. ~ Ione Skye, #NFDB
13:And life hurts. ~ Sibella Giorello, #NFDB
14:And my life continued ~ John Green, #NFDB
15:Drunk on life. ~ Chelsea M Cameron, #NFDB
16:GET A LIFE! ~ Rachel Ren e Russell, #NFDB
17:L'chaim!': To life! ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
18:Life attracts life. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
19:Life begins where fear ends ~ Osho, #NFDB
20:Life is a nightmare. ~ Ned Vizzini, #NFDB
21:life is awesome ~ Sedonia Guillone, #NFDB
22:Life is consciousness. ~ Emmet Fox, #NFDB
23:Life is for living. ~ Ben Sherwood, #NFDB
24:Life is for service. ~ Fred Rogers, #NFDB
25:Life is full of circles ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
26:Life is opinion. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
27:Life is so beautiful. ~ Mario Puzo, #NFDB
28:Life only gets busier. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
29:Life’s not a porno. ~ Ben Monopoli, #NFDB
30:Life without meaning ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
31:Money can't buy life. ~ Bob Marley, #NFDB
32:my life is not scripted. ~ E N Joy, #NFDB
33:No life is a waste . ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
34:No one survives life. ~ Sarah Kane, #NFDB
35:Now life is imitating art. ~ Rakim, #NFDB
36:Way of Life app. ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
37:Comrade life, ~ Vladimir Mayakovsky, #NFDB
38:In death he sees life. ~ Bāha-ullah, #NFDB
39:Life begins where fear ends. ~ Osho, #NFDB
40:Life doesn't retreat. ~ Dan Simmons, #NFDB
41:Life is like a simile. ~ Terry Carr, #NFDB
42:Life is suffering. ~ Tony Bertauski, #NFDB
43:Life's that way --> ~ Jim Beaver, #NFDB
44:Love of your life. ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
45:Only Once In Your Life ~ Bob Marley, #NFDB
46:The List is Life. ~ Thomas Keneally, #NFDB
47:"Your life is now." ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
48:Your life is your art. ~ Keri Smith, #NFDB
49:All life is an experiment. ~ Ken Liu, #NFDB
50:Baseball is the life. ~ Steve Garvey, #NFDB
51:Because life is a gift. ~ Kim Holden, #NFDB
52:I have a lust for life. ~ Diana Ross, #NFDB
53:I wanted to heckle life ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
54:Life always wins. ~ Douglas Coupland, #NFDB
55:Life is a grand party. ~ Ezra Miller, #NFDB
56:Life is a song to me. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
57:Life is but thought. ~ Sara Teasdale, #NFDB
58:Life is compost. ~ Diane Setterfield, #NFDB
59:Life is divine chaos. ~ Jillian Dodd, #NFDB
60:Life is for living. ~ Laird Hamilton, #NFDB
61:Life is mostly freehand. ~ Ivan Doig, #NFDB
62:life is power of mindset ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
63:Life is short, art is long. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
64:Life thrives on life; ~ David Suzuki, #NFDB
65:Life turns on a dime. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
66:My faith guides my life. ~ Kay Hagan, #NFDB
67:My life was pretty rough. ~ Yoko Ono, #NFDB
68:My way of life ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
69:The blood is the life! ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
70:The life I'm living ~ David Bromberg, #NFDB
71:There is hope in life. ~ Sabaa Tahir, #NFDB
72:All life is sorrow. ~ L E Modesitt Jr, #NFDB
73:Art destroys the life. ~ Irving Stone, #NFDB
74:Cake as a way of life. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
75:FML. Fuck my life. ~ Jennifer Hillier, #NFDB
76:I'd like my life back. ~ Tony Hayward, #NFDB
77:I don't need a man in my life. ~ Enya, #NFDB
78:I live a normal life. ~ Abbie Cornish, #NFDB
79:I miss my old life ~ Richard C Morais, #NFDB
80:Is life worth living? ~ Alfred Austin, #NFDB
81:I swear on your life, ~ Renee Carlino, #NFDB
82:Life comes full circle. ~ Tracey Gold, #NFDB
83:Life is contradiction. ~ Jandy Nelson, #NFDB
84:Life is deadly. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
85:Life is difficult. ~ William Goldman, #NFDB
86:Life is divine chaos ! ~ Jillian Dodd, #NFDB
87:Life is for the living. ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
88:Life is just a bag of pot. ~ Iggy Pop, #NFDB
89:Life is negotiation. The ~ Chris Voss, #NFDB
90:Life is short, yet sweet. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
91:Life is truth... ~ Frank Lloyd Wright, #NFDB
92:Life NEVER slows down. ~ Lauren Holly, #NFDB
93:Life's a song,sing it ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
94:Life should be lived as play. ~ Plato, #NFDB
95:Life Sucks,get a helmet ~ Denis Leary, #NFDB
96:Life`s what you make it ~ Miley Cyrus, #NFDB
97:Life was a smorgasbord! ~ Chloe Neill, #NFDB
98:Loud is a way of life. ~ Steven Adler, #NFDB
99:Money can't buy you life ~ Bob Marley, #NFDB
100:scheme. And life and food ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
101:Swallow life whole. ~ Rachel Robinson, #NFDB
102:To change one's life: ~ William James, #NFDB
103:To change your LIFE ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
104:Where there is life. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
105:will change your life. ~ Rhonda Byrne, #NFDB
106:Wolves mated for life. ~ Ellen Connor, #NFDB
107:you go make life happen. ~ Kim Holden, #NFDB
108:A life I didn't choose ~ Adrienne Rich, #NFDB
109:All life is temporary ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
110:All of life is a test. ~ Pittacus Lore, #NFDB
111:A smile can save a life. ~ Demi Lovato, #NFDB
112:Be in love with yr life ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
113:Be my wife, all my life. ~ Jodi Thomas, #NFDB
114:Books, Cats, Life is Good. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
115:Books. Cats. Life is good. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
116:Breath is life in ~ Erica Bauermeister, #NFDB
117:Don't miss your life. ~ Valerie Harper, #NFDB
118:Education is life itself. ~ John Dewey, #NFDB
119:Happy wife, happy life, ~ Pandora Pine, #NFDB
120:Happy wife, happy life. ~ Paul Orfalea, #NFDB
121:I like my life as it is. ~ Sue Grafton, #NFDB
122:I want to eat your life ~ Lauren Groff, #NFDB
123:Life and death are one thread, ~ Laozi, #NFDB
124:Life and death are one thread. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
125:Life and love go on. ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
126:Life begins to happen. ~ Robert Lowell, #NFDB
127:Life delights in life. ~ William Blake, #NFDB
128:Life felt gargantuan. ~ Chloe Caldwell, #NFDB
129:Life has its own flavor. ~ Juhi Chawla, #NFDB
130:Life is a dance of nature. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
131:Life is a fatal illness. ~ Marie Force, #NFDB
132:Life is frightening. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
133:Life is hard, so what? ~ Cecelia Ahern, #NFDB
134:life is just a hand job. ~ Mark Berent, #NFDB
135:Life is luck, make it. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
136:Life is not an apology. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
137:Life is not a submarine. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
138:Life isn't all haha hehe. ~ Meera Syal, #NFDB
139:Life's too short to hate. ~ Tito Ortiz, #NFDB
140:My Life is My Message ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
141:My life isn't tabloid-friendly. ~ Mika, #NFDB
142:My life. It’s enough. ~ Kristin Hannah, #NFDB
143:One life. No regret. ~ Gary Vaynerchuk, #NFDB
144:Proceed calmly in life. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
145:There's more to Life than this ~ Bjork, #NFDB
146:Water is the key to life, man. ~ Dessa, #NFDB
147:We are all dying of life. ~ John Jakes, #NFDB
148:Words are life, Liesel. ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
149:You are my life now. ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
150:You have to invent life. ~ Agnes Varda, #NFDB
151:A balanced life is a lie. ~ Gary Keller, #NFDB
152:a life ennui ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, #NFDB
153:An evil life is a kind of death. ~ Ovid, #NFDB
154:Be brave. Life is a gift. ~ Nicola Yoon, #NFDB
155:Can one waste a life? ~ Andrew Holleran, #NFDB
156:Death is Life's high meed. ~ John Keats, #NFDB
157:Dedicate one's life to truth. ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
158:Ethics are the secret of nations life ~, #NFDB
159:I had built a new life. ~ Tara Westover, #NFDB
160:I happen to be pro-life. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
161:I like my life alone. ~ Sarah Silverman, #NFDB
162:I live a bourgeois life. ~ Mark Ruffalo, #NFDB
163:I was a gluton for life ~ Tarryn Fisher, #NFDB
164:L'chaim. It means 'to life. ~ Meg Cabot, #NFDB
165:˜ Life After Death ~ Benjamin Zephaniah, #NFDB
166:life before the monster ~ Ellen Hopkins, #NFDB
167:Life begins at night ~ Charlaine Harris, #NFDB
168:Life begins where fear ends. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
169:Life bites like a dog. ~ Janusz Korczak, #NFDB
170:Life doesn’t stand still. ~ Lauren Rowe, #NFDB
171:Life goes on, sport. ~ Armistead Maupin, #NFDB
172:Life is an act of faith. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
173:Life is a re-discovery. ~ Brian Blessed, #NFDB
174:Life is a wince-a-thon. ~ Frank Portman, #NFDB
175:Life is full of surprises. ~ John Major, #NFDB
176:Life is lived on the edge. ~ Will Smith, #NFDB
177:Life is not a romance novel ~ Meg Cabot, #NFDB
178:Life is suffering--and yet. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
179:Life is very strange. ~ Louise Fitzhugh, #NFDB
180:Life is what you make it. ~ A J Stewart, #NFDB
181:Life's bare as a bone. ~ Virginia Woolf, #NFDB
182:Life's picking up speed. ~ Jeff Bridges, #NFDB
183:Life stand still here. ~ Virginia Woolf, #NFDB
184:Life sucks, then you die ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
185:Life was weird. ~ Jennifer L Armentrout, #NFDB
186:Live a life worth dying. ~ Amie Kaufman, #NFDB
187:Love is larger than life. ~ Wayne Coyne, #NFDB
188:More than my own life ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
189:My life is my message. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
190:My life is only half full ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
191:My life was very Japanese. ~ Bryan Clay, #NFDB
192:Oh, how daily life is. ~ Jules Laforgue, #NFDB
193:Sometimes life happens. ~ Katie McGarry, #NFDB
194:Suffering is life. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
195:The life of men is painful. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
196:Thug Life to me is dead. ~ Tupac Shakur, #NFDB
197:Today, my life is awesome. ~ Kim Holden, #NFDB
198:True life is elsewhere ~ Arthur Rimbaud, #NFDB
199:Walk lightly through life. ~ Guy Finley, #NFDB
200:What we play is life. ~ Louis Armstrong, #NFDB
201:Who invented my life? ~ Bernard Malamud, #NFDB
202:80% of life is showing up. ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
203:Actor's life is very long. ~ Jackie Chan, #NFDB
204:A life without LOVE isn’t a life. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
205:All life is an emergency. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
206:All life is structure. ~ L E Modesitt Jr, #NFDB
207:Be the CEO of your life ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
208:But a living is not a life. ~ Robin Hobb, #NFDB
209:Drove me to my new life. ~ Tara Westover, #NFDB
210:Embrace life in totality. ~ Truth Devour, #NFDB
211:Endeavor to live the life. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
212:Fuck quotes, live your life. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
213:Hate poisons your life. ~ Robert Thurman, #NFDB
214:I like underwater life. ~ Hayao Miyazaki, #NFDB
215:I love meeting life halfway. ~ Peter Max, #NFDB
216:I love you more than life. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
217:Is this the real life? ~ Freddie Mercury, #NFDB
218:It's the little things in life ~ Unknown, #NFDB
219:I've not had a mean life. ~ Sissy Spacek, #NFDB
220:I want balance in my life. ~ Ron Dellums, #NFDB
221:Let valour end my life! ~ Walter Raleigh, #NFDB
222:Life ain't the movies. ~ Dorothy Allison, #NFDB
223:Life and love go on... ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
224:life goes on ad nauseam. ~ Gary R Renard, #NFDB
225:Life goes on, so should you. ~ T L Hines, #NFDB
226:Life has become the future. ~ John Green, #NFDB
227:Life has to be dangerous. ~ Alain Robert, #NFDB
228:Life is a dead-end street. ~ H L Mencken, #NFDB
229:Life is a game, play it. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
230:Life is a hideous thing. ~ H P Lovecraft, #NFDB
231:Life is a lonely business ~ Austin Kleon, #NFDB
232:life is always where we are. ~ Mark Nepo, #NFDB
233:Life is a zero sum game. ~ George Carlin, #NFDB
234:Life is full of luck, ~ Jessica Sorensen, #NFDB
235:Life is just a journey. ~ Princess Diana, #NFDB
236:Life is like an analogy. ~ Aaron Allston, #NFDB
237:life is more than intelect ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
238:LIFE IS NOT A PARAGRAPH. ~ Paula Hawkins, #NFDB
239:Life is one long jubilee. ~ Ira Gershwin, #NFDB
240:Life is real, not ideal. ~ Heather Muzik, #NFDB
241:Life is short. Be of use. ~ Robin Sharma, #NFDB
242:Life is short, so read fast! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
243:Life is so expensive. ~ Douglas Coupland, #NFDB
244:Life is the great teacher. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
245:Life's hard, then you die. ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
246:Life's managed, not cured. ~ Phil McGraw, #NFDB
247:Life’s too short for malloc. ~ Neal Ford, #NFDB
248:Life will find a way. ~ Michael Crichton, #NFDB
249:Live the life you want. ~ Arina Tanemura, #NFDB
250:Living our best life today. ~ John Green, #NFDB
251:Love is life but longer ~ Simon Van Booy, #NFDB
252:Love life, Live Love ~ Benny Bellamacina, #NFDB
253:My life is a contribution. ~ Byron Katie, #NFDB
254:My life is a reading list. ~ John Irving, #NFDB
255:My whole life is my work. ~ Chris Cleave, #NFDB
256:Only fear can defeat life. ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
257:Our life is woven wind. ~ Joseph Joubert, #NFDB
258:Plan may fail, life goes on. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
259:Secrets have a shelf life. ~ Deb Caletti, #NFDB
260:She made life… big for me ~ Eva Ibbotson, #NFDB
261:Showing up is 80% of life. ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
262:The meaning of life is to see. ~ Huineng, #NFDB
263:To touch is to give life. ~ Michelangelo, #NFDB
264:Treat your life like a game. ~ Ray Dalio, #NFDB
265:We write to taste life twice ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
266:A deep life is a good life. ~ Cal Newport, #NFDB
267:All life is an experiment.’” “A ~ Ken Liu, #NFDB
268:All life is an experiment. ~ Marc Aronson, #NFDB
269:All life is problem solving ~ Karl Popper, #NFDB
270:A rose can change your life. ~ Alex Flinn, #NFDB
271:Art is amoral; so is life. ~ Irving Stone, #NFDB
272:Be content with an ordinary life. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
273:Books, Cats, Life is Good. ~ Edward Gorey, #NFDB
274:Books. Cats. Life is Good. ~ Edward Gorey, #NFDB
275:BREATH IS LIFE. ~ William Walker Atkinson, #NFDB
276:But life takes sudden twists. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
277:Death in Adam, Life in Christ ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
278:Donald had a happy life. ~ Breaking Burgh, #NFDB
279:Do you believe in life after love? ~ Cher, #NFDB
280:Dreams are essential to life. ~ Anais Nin, #NFDB
281:Dreams are necessary to life. ~ Anais Nin, #NFDB
282:Dreams are necessary to life. ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
283:Everybody's life matters. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
284:Every life is precious. ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
285:Faith is the force of life. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
286:happy all life for ever ~ James Patterson, #NFDB
287:He lived a wounded life ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
288:Hell is life drying up. ~ Joseph Campbell, #NFDB
289:How remorseless life is! ~ Virginia Woolf, #NFDB
290:I been the same dude my whole life. ~ DMX, #NFDB
291:I don't have a normal life. ~ Miley Cyrus, #NFDB
292:I have lived a carnal life. ~ Sam Kinison, #NFDB
293:I have not asked for life. ~ Omar Khayyam, #NFDB
294:I lead my life as normal. ~ Jonathan King, #NFDB
295:I like my life. It's good. ~ Kim Cattrall, #NFDB
296:I love domestic life. ~ Michelle Williams, #NFDB
297:I'm a B+ student of life. ~ Chang rae Lee, #NFDB
298:In this life I choose you. ~ Truth Devour, #NFDB
299:I say no wealth is worth my life. ~ Homer, #NFDB
300:Life at best is bittersweet. ~ Jack Kirby, #NFDB
301:Life Changes, and so can you! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
302:Life favors the devoted. ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
303:Life is a four-letter word. ~ Lenny Bruce, #NFDB
304:Life is a gift, love opens it up. ~ Jay Z, #NFDB
305:Life is a lonely bussiness ~ Austin Kleon, #NFDB
306:Life is an empty dream. ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
307:Life is a series of dogs. ~ George Carlin, #NFDB
308:Life is a state of mind. ~ Jerzy Kosinski, #NFDB
309:Life is a state of mind. ~ Jerzy Kosi ski, #NFDB
310:Life is at its best when ~ Gay Hendricks, #NFDB
311:Life is beauty admire it! ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
312:Life is but a cherry fair. ~ Brandy Purdy, #NFDB
313:Life is but a day at most. ~ Robert Burns, #NFDB
314:Life is fragile and absurd. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
315:Life is fraught with risks, ~ Mary Balogh, #NFDB
316:Life is love, heartache and strain, ~ O C, #NFDB
317:Life is Pain so is Love. ~ Santosh Kalwar, #NFDB
318:Life is puzzle unsolved. ~ Santosh Kalwar, #NFDB
319:Life is really beautiful. ~ Sherilyn Fenn, #NFDB
320:Life is short, art is long. ~ Hippocrates, #NFDB
321:LIFE IS TOO SHORT,ENJOY IT :) ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
322:Life is too short for chess. ~ Lord Byron, #NFDB
323:Life is unbearable pain. ~ Santosh Kalwar, #NFDB
324:Life is what it makes you. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
325:Life is what you remember. ~ Mary Rickert, #NFDB
326:Life makes love look hard. ~ Taylor Swift, #NFDB
327:Life must be aromatic. ~ Gwendolyn Brooks, #NFDB
328:life only rewards action! ~ Kevin Horsley, #NFDB
329:Life's all about 'me' anyway ~ Paul Arden, #NFDB
330:Life's like a mayonnaise soda. ~ Lou Reed, #NFDB
331:Love is energy of life. ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
332:Love is the law of life. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
333:My mistakes are my life. ~ Samuel Beckett, #NFDB
334:No life lived is lost. ~ Samantha Shannon, #NFDB
335:One day can bend your life. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
336:Painting completed my life. ~ Frida Kahlo, #NFDB
337:Say hello to your life. ~ Madonna Ciccone, #NFDB
338:Stress is the spice of life. ~ Hans Selye, #NFDB
339:Success will ruin your life. ~ Tom Clancy, #NFDB
340:The best things in life are crazy. ~ Emme, #NFDB
341:The blues is life itself. ~ Billy Gibbons, #NFDB
342:Use plants to bring life ~ Douglas Wilson, #NFDB
343:We all owe death a life. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
344:Your life is your life ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
345:You saved me from my life. ~ Shelly Crane, #NFDB
346:A kiss may ruin a human life ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
347:All of life is a story ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
348:An empty bottle has life. ~ Santosh Kalwar, #NFDB
349:Are you happy in your life? ~ Blake Crouch, #NFDB
350:Creating a Life Worth Living ~ Russ Harris, #NFDB
351:Death is Life’s triumph! ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
352:Don't get in my personal life. ~ Timbaland, #NFDB
353:Everything in life is luck. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
354:Evolution is the Law of Life ~ Pythagoras, #NFDB
355:First initiative, then life. ~ David Drake, #NFDB
356:Hopes have precarious life. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
357:If you are good life is good. ~ Roald Dahl, #NFDB
358:I have a pretty easy life. ~ Josh Hartnett, #NFDB
359:I live a pretty anonymous life. ~ Amos Lee, #NFDB
360:I'm a stranger in my own life. ~ Lang Leav, #NFDB
361:I'm not going to doubt my life. ~ Yoko Ono, #NFDB
362:I paint my life with words. ~ Blake Crouch, #NFDB
363:It's been a terrific life. ~ Ernie Harwell, #NFDB
364:It’s called a portfolio life, ~ Jeff Goins, #NFDB
365:Just let me live my life. ~ Sergei Polunin, #NFDB
366:Life attracts life. ~ Jordanna Max Brodsky, #NFDB
367:Life comes at you ass fast ~ Jordan Silver, #NFDB
368:Life comes only from life. ~ Louis Pasteur, #NFDB
369:Life ,for eternal us,is now ~ e e cummings, #NFDB
370:Life had been lonely for ~ Landry Q Walker, #NFDB
371:Life is a changeable thing. ~ Gemma Malley, #NFDB
372:life is all about people. And ~ Kim Holden, #NFDB
373:Life is an irritation. ~ Christopher Moore, #NFDB
374:Life is a series of awakenings ~ Sivananda, #NFDB
375:life is a work in progress. ~ Rachel Caine, #NFDB
376:Life is a zoo in a jungle ~ Peter De Vries, #NFDB
377:Life is beauty, admire it. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
378:Life is chaos. Time is order. ~ V E Schwab, #NFDB
379:life is like theater ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
380:Life is long if you let it be. ~ Jenny Han, #NFDB
381:life is not as easy as you think it is ~ M, #NFDB
382:Life is short but it is wide. ~ Wendy Mass, #NFDB
383:Life is short, the art long. ~ Hippocrates, #NFDB
384:Life is struggle and sleep. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
385:Life is tons of discipline. ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
386:Life is too short to cower. ~ Claire Cross, #NFDB
387:Life loves the liver of it. ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
388:Life minus love equals zero. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
389:Life must be somewhere to be ~ Bob Marley, #NFDB
390:Life rules apply to running. ~ Parul Sheth, #NFDB
391:Life’s a pitch. Deal with it. ~ Mitch Joel, #NFDB
392:Life's not fair, get over it! ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
393:Life’s too short to be subtle, ~ B N Toler, #NFDB
394:Life was cheap in war. ~ Laura Hillenbrand, #NFDB
395:Live a life worth dying for ~ Amie Kaufman, #NFDB
396:Live a life worth remembering. ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
397:live life to its fullest, ~ Paul Kalanithi, #NFDB
398:Love awoke, and so did life. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
399:Music makes life possible. ~ Henry Rollins, #NFDB
400:My fans are my fans for life. ~ Lil Boosie, #NFDB
401:My life has been very full. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
402:Pick your life's short list. ~ Leo Babauta, #NFDB
403:Running rules apply to life. ~ Parul Sheth, #NFDB
404:seen how a girl’s life didn’t. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
405:Sing Ho for the Life of a Bear ~ A A Milne, #NFDB
406:Sleep helps you win at life. ~ Amy Poehler, #NFDB
407:Story is metaphor for life. ~ Robert McKee, #NFDB
408:The purpose of life is Joy. ~ Esther Hicks, #NFDB
409:There is no wealth but life. ~ John Ruskin, #NFDB
410:To love life is to love God. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
411:We all have a shelf life. ~ Jennifer Niven, #NFDB
412:We die of too much life. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
413:Writing, like life itself, ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
414:you need life in your life. ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
415:A good life is never wasted. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
416:A life without books is unlivable ~ Erasmus, #NFDB
417:All human life is precious. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
418:And anyway, life's too short. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
419:and out of his life. As he ~ David Baldacci, #NFDB
420:But now his life had weight. ~ Tom Franklin, #NFDB
421:But real life is not art. ~ Eleanor Cameron, #NFDB
422:Change is the path life takes ~ Ken Scholes, #NFDB
423:Everybody has a choice in life. ~ Lee Child, #NFDB
424:Every life has a soundtrack. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
425:I count life just a stuff ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
426:I have arranged my little life. ~ Jean Rhys, #NFDB
427:In death, we are in life. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
428:I trust the flow of life. ~ Marketa Irglova, #NFDB
429:It's a good life, Hazel Grace. ~ John Green, #NFDB
430:It’s spirit that gives life. ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
431:I've been very lucky in my life. ~ Joe Gold, #NFDB
432:I would sell my life to avoid ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
433:Life blooms in second chances. ~ Kim Holden, #NFDB
434:Life cracked like ice! ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
435:Life don't owe you nothing. ~ August Wilson, #NFDB
436:Life is a beautiful struggle. ~ Talib Kweli, #NFDB
437:Life is funny; it really is. ~ Karyn Bosnak, #NFDB
438:Life is good, life is great. ~ Ashley Purdy, #NFDB
439:Life is hard. Death is easy. ~ Ania Ahlborn, #NFDB
440:Life is long gamma. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb, #NFDB
441:Life isn't divided into genres ~ Alan Moore, #NFDB
442:Life is perfect, it glows. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
443:Life is pretty simple: ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
444:Life is stronger than death. ~ Pearl S Buck, #NFDB
445:Life is too short to be busy. ~ Tim Kreider, #NFDB
446:Life lives only in success. ~ Bayard Taylor, #NFDB
447:Life really is very brief. ~ Matthew Modine, #NFDB
448:Life's better without braces. ~ Bruce Eckel, #NFDB
449:Life’s full of surprises, ~ Linda Fairstein, #NFDB
450:Life's not all about money. ~ Ozzy Osbourne, #NFDB
451:Life sucks. We’ve adapted. ~ Gena Showalter, #NFDB
452:life they kept for themselves. ~ David Rose, #NFDB
453:Life will be a party for you ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
454:Live a life worth dying for. ~ Amie Kaufman, #NFDB
455:Live Life a little dangerously ~ J R D Tata, #NFDB
456:Live life to the fullest ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
457:Living is the purpose of life, ~ Ken Kesey, #NFDB
458:Music brings life to my soul. ~ Judith Hill, #NFDB
459:My act is based on my life. ~ Kathy Griffin, #NFDB
460:my admittedly peculiar life. ~ Mark Kermode, #NFDB
461:My life is my argument. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
462:Oh, I'm quite harmless in real life. ~ Mika, #NFDB
463:Our whole life is like a play. ~ Ben Jonson, #NFDB
464:Self-pity shortens your life. ~ Joan Rivers, #NFDB
465:She’s…the…love of my life. ~ Scott Hildreth, #NFDB
466:There are 2 rules in life: ~ Duke Ellington, #NFDB
467:There is Life in every breath. ~ Tom Cruise, #NFDB
468:There's life after acting. ~ Suzanne Crough, #NFDB
469:The secret of life is in art. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
470:The Stormy life can be braved ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
471:This joy you feel is life. ~ Gertrude Stein, #NFDB
472:Today.....I begin a new life". ~ Og Mandino, #NFDB
473:Waiting shortens life! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
474:What is life if not a gamble? ~ F E Higgins, #NFDB
475:Yes, life is a woman! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
476:You make life interesting, ~ Nelson DeMille, #NFDB
477:Your life becomes what you believe. ~ Jewel, #NFDB
478:Your life is your message. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
479:You see Jesus wrecked my life ~ Katie Davis, #NFDB
480:A good life is a main argument. ~ Ben Jonson, #NFDB
481:Ain't no choice in love and life ~ Matt Haig, #NFDB
482:A life is not a waste of time ~ Nalini Singh, #NFDB
483:All actual life is encounter. ~ Martin Buber, #NFDB
484:An idle life cannot be pure. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
485:Become the CEO of Your Life ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
486:books make sense of life. ~ Ravi Subramanian, #NFDB
487:Bread is the staff of life. ~ Jonathan Swift, #NFDB
488:bustle, the sense of life ~ Lynn Raye Harris, #NFDB
489:Death is another life. ~ Philip James Bailey, #NFDB
490:Doomed love is a part of life. ~ Nicola Yoon, #NFDB
491:Each second of life is a miracle ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
492:everything in life is an omen ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
493:Everything in life is luck. ~ Donald J Trump, #NFDB
494:Everything in life is theater. ~ Margo Jones, #NFDB
495:Fill your life with light! ~ Seth Adam Smith, #NFDB
496:For me... it's the only life ~ Stevie Nicks, #NFDB
497:For Your word has given me life. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
498:Free speech is life itself. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
499:How does one get bored of life? ~ Osric Chau, #NFDB
500:How shall I sum up my life? ~ Audrey Hepburn, #NFDB
501:I bear a charmed life. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
502:I believed in God my whole life. ~ Andy Dick, #NFDB
503:I come out of real life. ~ Elizabeth Edwards, #NFDB
504:I didn’t feel at home in life. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
505:I didn't like mundane life. ~ Jeanne Calment, #NFDB
506:I do try to live a normal life. ~ Colin Ford, #NFDB
507:I hate the domestic life. ~ Daniel Day Lewis, #NFDB
508:I have a second chance on life. ~ Katy Perry, #NFDB
509:I know. You're my whole life. ~ Kahlen Aymes, #NFDB
510:I lead such a boring life. ~ Debbie Reynolds, #NFDB
511:I'm a little angry in life. ~ Vincent Cassel, #NFDB
512:I'm in mourning for my life. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
513:In life, success begets success. ~ Tim Kaine, #NFDB
514:Is life a hammer to beat me down? ~ Sapphire, #NFDB
515:It is a good life, Hazel Grace. ~ John Green, #NFDB
516:It is the way of life. It ends. ~ Malinda Lo, #NFDB
517:I've had an interesting life. ~ Richard Gere, #NFDB
518:I've loved reading all my life. ~ John Wayne, #NFDB
519:I want to be a student for life. ~ Mike Watt, #NFDB
520:I was madly in love with life. ~ Hedy Lamarr, #NFDB
521:Knowledge is Life with wings ~ William Blake, #NFDB
522:Leave life alone. Let it be. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
523:Life develops what it demands. ~ Dan Millman, #NFDB
524:Life goes quickly, doesn't it? ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
525:Life happens at intersections. ~ Jack Dorsey, #NFDB
526:Life has to end. Love doesn't. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
527:Life has very little even ground. ~ J D Robb, #NFDB
528:Life is a dream, realise it. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
529:Life is a flat circle. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
530:Life is a kind of chess. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
531:Life is a mirror, smile at it:-) ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
532:Life is a mysterious business. ~ E M Forster, #NFDB
533:Life is an X-rated soap opera. ~ John Irving, #NFDB
534:Life is a picnic on a precipice. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
535:Life is a purposeful action. ~ Asa Don Brown, #NFDB
536:Life is a search for yourself. ~ Tom DeLonge, #NFDB
537:Life is a series of recoveries. ~ Mark Lowry, #NFDB
538:Life is full of should-be’s ~ Graeme Simsion, #NFDB
539:Life is itself religion. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
540:Life is not some kind of play! ~ Osamu Dazai, #NFDB
541:Life is our dictionary ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
542:Life is sad. Here is someone. ~ Lorrie Moore, #NFDB
543:Life is short, break the rules. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
544:Life is so unlike theory. ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
545:Life is the people who love you. ~ Matt Haig, #NFDB
546:Life is too short to be small. ~ Tim Ferriss, #NFDB
547:Life is tough, then you die. ~ George Carlin, #NFDB
548:Life is worth Living ~ William Ernest Henley, #NFDB
549:Life just keeps getting weirder. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
550:Life lends itself to fear. ~ Denzel Whitaker, #NFDB
551:Life outraces memory. ~ Catherynne M Valente, #NFDB
552:Life's a bitch and so am I. ~ Pete Townshend, #NFDB
553:Life's a bitch but i love it. ~ Iimani David, #NFDB
554:Life serves the risk taker. ~ Sophia Amoruso, #NFDB
555:Life's too short for a funeral. ~ Bill Smith, #NFDB
556:Life’s too short to worry. ~ Karen Kingsbury, #NFDB
557:Life well spent is long. ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
558:Life went a-maying ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, #NFDB
559:Live the life you've dreamed. ~ Jessica Park, #NFDB
560:Measure your life in love. ~ Jonathan Larson, #NFDB
561:Morality negates life. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
562:Music is Magic. Magic is Life ~ Jimi Hendrix, #NFDB
563:My entire life has been a lie. ~ Bobby Darin, #NFDB
564:MY LIFE IS A JOKE BY SHEILA HETI ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
565:My life is an issue in my life. ~ Susan Juby, #NFDB
566:No concept is a carrier of life. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
567:Not a bad life's work. ~ Catherine Ryan Hyde, #NFDB
568:Oh, I am in love with life! ~ Virginia Woolf, #NFDB
569:Our life is our own creation. ~ Eileen Caddy, #NFDB
570:Philosophy gives life to life. ~ Neel Burton, #NFDB
571:Poetry is life distilled. ~ Gwendolyn Brooks, #NFDB
572:Reason is the life of the law. ~ Edward Coke, #NFDB
573:Reason thus with life: ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
574:Success is to be Happy in Life. ~ Heidi Klum, #NFDB
575:the actuality of thought is life ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
576:The art is long, life is short ~ Hippocrates, #NFDB
577:The arts saved my life. ~ Michael K Williams, #NFDB
578:The hour-hand of life. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
579:The joy of life is variety. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
580:The point of life is happiness. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
581:There is life after acting. ~ Suzanne Crough, #NFDB
582:There is life after this life. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
583:The years in your life ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
584:This long disease, my life. ~ Alexander Pope, #NFDB
585:Trust in the process of life. ~ Truth Devour, #NFDB
586:Use your life to wake you up. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
587:What a strange, amazing life. ~ Blake Crouch, #NFDB
588:When there is hope, there is life. ~ Estelle, #NFDB
589:While we wait for life, life passes ~ Seneca, #NFDB
590:You never know about life. ~ Eileen Davidson, #NFDB
591:A brief life burns brightly. ~ Stephen Baxter, #NFDB
592:A busy life is a wasted life. ~ Francis Crick, #NFDB
593:A life lived well gets messy, ~ Matthew Quick, #NFDB
594:A life void of feeling hurt less. ~ T S Joyce, #NFDB
595:All of life is a wager ~ Christopher Hitchens, #NFDB
596:All of life is interconnected. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
597:Army life don't agree with me. ~ Eddie Slovik, #NFDB
598:Art is long, life is short. ~ Whoopi Goldberg, #NFDB
599:Art is my life and my life is art. ~ Yoko Ono, #NFDB
600:Death is what makes life fun. ~ Billy Collins, #NFDB
601:Demagnetizing is a fact of life. ~ Rick Moody, #NFDB
602:Details are the Life of Prose. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
603:Every life is finite, Will. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
604:Everything in life is an omen, ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
605:Execution saved Lois’s life. ~ James Altucher, #NFDB
606:Good writers touch life often. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
607:Guilt is the thief of life. ~ Anthony Hopkins, #NFDB
608:I’m back!” he told Life. ~ David James Duncan, #NFDB
609:I'm fine with the life I have. ~ Chris Kattan, #NFDB
610:Inner life is Divine. ~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, #NFDB
611:In this life ain't no happy endings; ~ J Cole, #NFDB
612:I refuse to live my life in fear. ~ Fela Kuti, #NFDB
613:I've never wanted a quiet life. ~ Lydia Cacho, #NFDB
614:I was living a charmed life. ~ Edward Snowden, #NFDB
615:I won’t let my fears rule my life ~ J S Scott, #NFDB
616:Kids are anchors of mothers' life ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
617:life—and that of her child. ~ Debbie Macomber, #NFDB
618:Life begins at eighty. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, #NFDB
619:Life could sometimes be grand. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
620:Life doesn't forgive weakness. ~ Adolf Hitler, #NFDB
621:Life feels pointless. ~ Elisabeth K bler Ross, #NFDB
622:Life feels precious. It is. ~ Katrina Kenison, #NFDB
623:Life. In all it's mundane majesty. ~ J R Ward, #NFDB
624:Life is about Being & Becoming. ~ Carl Rogers, #NFDB
625:Life is a capricious bussines. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
626:Life is a great disappointment. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
627:Life is all business. ~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, #NFDB
628:Life is a lot like skateboarding. ~ Lil Wayne, #NFDB
629:Life is a series of problems. ~ Maxwell Maltz, #NFDB
630:Life is a state of consciousness. ~ Emmet Fox, #NFDB
631:Life is a suicide mission. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
632:Life is a tragedy of nutrition ~ Arnold Ehret, #NFDB
633:Life is a useless passion. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
634:Life is but a dream for the dead ~ Gerard Way, #NFDB
635:Life is death in slow motion. ~ Henry Rollins, #NFDB
636:Life is endings and beginnings. ~ Amy Poehler, #NFDB
637:Life is filled with trapdoors. ~ Brad Meltzer, #NFDB
638:Life is fun with my husband. ~ Tassa Desalada, #NFDB
639:Life is good - we forget that. ~ Maryam d Abo, #NFDB
640:Life is greater than time. ~ Tom Sweterlitsch, #NFDB
641:Life is hard, and then you die. ~ Erik Naggum, #NFDB
642:Life is in the here and now. ~ Vimala Thakar, #NFDB
643:Life is life, and kind is kind ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
644:Life is love and love is life ~ Elvis Presley, #NFDB
645:Life is not a dress rehearsal. ~ Rose Tremain, #NFDB
646:Life is not a noun, it's a verb. ~ Sam Harris, #NFDB
647:Life is not a popularity contest ~ Susun Weed, #NFDB
648:Life is not that complicated. ~ George Carlin, #NFDB
649:Life is our dictionary. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
650:Life is serious but art is fun! ~ John Irving, #NFDB
651:Life is short and the art long. ~ Hippocrates, #NFDB
652:life is short. Eat dessert first ~ Wendy Mass, #NFDB
653:Life is the sum of all choices ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
654:Life is too short to blend in. ~ Paris Hilton, #NFDB
655:Life is wasted on the living. ~ Douglas Adams, #NFDB
656:Life itself is your proper meal. ~ Marc David, #NFDB
657:Life of Ages, richly poured, ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
658:Life's a pudding full of plums. ~ W S Gilbert, #NFDB
659:Life's bloomy flush was lost. ~ George Crabbe, #NFDB
660:Life, what is it but a dream? ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
661:Like it or not, life is a game. ~ Phil Knight, #NFDB
662:Loneliness comes with life. ~ Whitney Houston, #NFDB
663:Love is life and life is good ~ Ryan Winfield, #NFDB
664:Love is the energy of life. ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
665:Love is the goal, life is the journey. ~ Osho, #NFDB
666:Love, life, meaning...over. ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
667:Love your life, live for the day ~ Jeff Hardy, #NFDB
668:<...>, the road is life. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
669:Man's life is thought, ~ William Butler Yeats, #NFDB
670:Meditation has changed my life ~ Hugh Jackman, #NFDB
671:Mine honour is my life. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
672:minimize the shallow in my life ~ Cal Newport, #NFDB
673:Modern man is starved for life. ~ Erich Fromm, #NFDB
674:Music is the center of my life. ~ Nina Simone, #NFDB
675:My biggest fear in life is fear. ~ Sheryl Lee, #NFDB
676:My life is a glorious adventure. ~ Louise Hay, #NFDB
677:My material life is simple. ~ Gustavo Dudamel, #NFDB
678:Never fall out of love with life ~ Judi Dench, #NFDB
679:Postpone not your life. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
680:Potential has a shelf life. ~ Margaret Atwood, #NFDB
681:terminating William’s life contract, ~ Mychea, #NFDB
682:That's what life is. Adjustment. ~ David Wong, #NFDB
683:The actuality of thought is life. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
684:The goal of all life is death ~ Sigmund Freud, #NFDB
685:The half-life of love is forever ~ Junot D az, #NFDB
686:the meaning of life is to give life ~ Unknown, #NFDB
687:The purpose of life is life. ~ Karl Lagerfeld, #NFDB
688:Though in midst of life we be ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
689:time mastery is life mastery ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
690:Until death comes, all is life. ~ Ruskin Bond, #NFDB
691:Use words that soak up life. ~ Virginia Woolf, #NFDB
692:Well I've had a happy life. ~ William Hazlitt, #NFDB
693:We must have a passion in life. ~ George Sand, #NFDB
694:Where there’s life, there’s hope, ~ Tami Hoag, #NFDB
695:Words have a longer life than deeds. ~ Pindar, #NFDB
696:Would you risk your life for love? ~ Amy Plum, #NFDB
697:Years of Your Life - After Age 65 ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
698:Your money or your life! ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
699:Acting is a life of rejection. ~ Lauren Bacall, #NFDB
700:Adventure is the essence of life. ~ Dick Rutan, #NFDB
701:Adversity in life teaches you. ~ Tony Gonzalez, #NFDB
702:A good book is an event in my life. ~ Stendhal, #NFDB
703:All my life I've been hiding. ~ Jerzy Kosinski, #NFDB
704:And anyway, life's too short.... ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
705:A planned life is a dead life. ~ Lauren Bacall, #NFDB
706:Art is pain. And so is life. ~ Robyn Schneider, #NFDB
707:A shared life is a great life. ~ Casey Neistat, #NFDB
708:Be available for life to happen. ~ Bill Murray, #NFDB
709:Be humble in this life. ~ Stephen I of Hungary, #NFDB
710:Being an artist is a job for life. ~ Brian Eno, #NFDB
711:Being upbeat is the key to life. ~ David Frost, #NFDB
712:Be in love with your heart-life. ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
713:Be present for your own life. ~ Cheryl Strayed, #NFDB
714:Burnt toast destroyed my life. ~ Glen R Krisch, #NFDB
715:but life was so fucking untidy— ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
716:Convert life into truth. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
717:Death and life were not ~ William Butler Yeats, #NFDB
718:Death to life is crown or shame. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
719:Everyone's life is a tragedy ~ Jordan Peterson, #NFDB
720:Everything in life is writable. ~ Sylvia Plath, #NFDB
721:EXAMINED LIFE by Stephen Grosz. W. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
722:For me, my faith informs my life. ~ Mike Pence, #NFDB
723:happy life and merciful death ~ Jeremy Bentham, #NFDB
724:Have a nice rest of your life. ~ Nicole Richie, #NFDB
725:He that cuts off twenty years of life ~ Horace, #NFDB
726:Hold fast to life and youth. ~ Elizabeth Arden, #NFDB
727:Honor modesty more than your life. ~ Aeschylus, #NFDB
728:How easy it is, to waste a life. ~ Esi Edugyan, #NFDB
729:I don't have goals in life. ~ Olivier Martinez, #NFDB
730:I have found life so beautiful. ~ Helen Keller, #NFDB
731:I have no regrets about my life. ~ Jane Badler, #NFDB
732:I know the heart of life is good. ~ John Mayer, #NFDB
733:I lead a very conventional life. ~ Joan Didion, #NFDB
734:I'm thrilled to death with life. ~ Johnny Cash, #NFDB
735:I'm usually just enjoying life. ~ Alan Jackson, #NFDB
736:I never told a joke in my life. ~ Andy Kaufman, #NFDB
737:I prefer the school of life. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
738:I really keep my life very simple. ~ FKA twigs, #NFDB
739:I seek the substantial in life. ~ Jim Harrison, #NFDB
740:I spent much of my life hiding. ~ Kevyn Aucoin, #NFDB
741:It's how you prioritize in life. ~ Ruth Wilson, #NFDB
742:I've been fighting my whole life. ~ Chuck Zito, #NFDB
743:I've been labeled all my life. ~ Corey Feldman, #NFDB
744:I’ve been second my whole life. ~ Kevin Durant, #NFDB
745:I was tired of an outlaw's life. ~ Frank James, #NFDB
746:I will not repeat my mother's life. ~ Etaf Rum, #NFDB
747:Karate is for life, not points. ~ David Walker, #NFDB
748:Labor is life; thought is light. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
749:Let peace be. Let life be. ~ Chinelo Okparanta, #NFDB
750:Life does not forgive weakness. ~ Adolf Hitler, #NFDB
751:Life goes on but the scars remain. ~ Lil Wayne, #NFDB
752:Life [had] replaced logic. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, #NFDB
753:Life imitates art -- but badly. ~ Edward Abbey, #NFDB
754:Life in California is beautiful. ~ Oscar Nunez, #NFDB
755:Life insurance is a commodity. ~ Andrew Tobias, #NFDB
756:Life is a flow of love. ~ Harbhajan Singh Yogi, #NFDB
757:Life is a glorious opportunity. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
758:Life is a manifestation of unity. ~ Said Nursi, #NFDB
759:Life is an adventure, dare it. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
760:Life is an adventure or nothing ~ Helen Keller, #NFDB
761:Life is a promise; fulfill it. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
762:Life is a struggle for relevancy. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
763:Life is based on comparisons ~ Henri Charri re, #NFDB
764:Life is but a dream for the dead. ~ Gerard Way, #NFDB
765:Life is extremely complicated. ~ Robert Ludlum, #NFDB
766:Life is full of horrible mistakes. ~ Louis C K, #NFDB
767:Life is greater than all art. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
768:Life is here to Enjoy! ~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, #NFDB
769:Life is life, and kind is kind. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
770:Life is meant to be lived. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, #NFDB
771:Life is not easy for any for us. ~ Marie Curie, #NFDB
772:Life is not fair all the time. ~ Mahbod Seraji, #NFDB
773:Life is once. Forever. ~ Henri Cartier Bresson, #NFDB
774:Life is priceless even to an ant. ~ Liu Xiaobo, #NFDB
775:Life is short. Don't be lazy. ~ Sophia Amoruso, #NFDB
776:Life is short...eat desert first! ~ Wendy Mass, #NFDB
777:Life is short...eat desert first. ~ Wendy Mass, #NFDB
778:Life is stress by definition. ~ Rebecca McNutt, #NFDB
779:Life is the best teacher. ~ Anthony D Williams, #NFDB
780:Life is too short not to experiment. ~ Jamelia, #NFDB
781:Life itself is the proper binge. ~ Julia Child, #NFDB
782:Life never forgives weaknesses. ~ Adolf Hitler, #NFDB
783:Life's adventure is important. ~ Jaycee Dugard, #NFDB
784:Life’s a marathon, not a sprint. ~ Phil McGraw, #NFDB
785:Life's a pitch, and then you buy. ~ Billy Mays, #NFDB
786:Life’s a song, Anne. Let’s play. ~ Kylie Scott, #NFDB
787:Life's good so Im feelin' great. ~ Wiz Khalifa, #NFDB
788:Life's too short. I'm not! ~ Kristin Chenoweth, #NFDB
789:Life's too short to bullshit. ~ Naomi Campbell, #NFDB
790:Life's to short for chess. ~ Henry James Byron, #NFDB
791:Life's uncertain voyage. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
792:Life was an uncertain thing. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
793:Life wasn't meant to be easy. ~ Malcolm Fraser, #NFDB
794:Life would be dull without them. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
795:Listen to the Song of Life ~ Katharine Hepburn, #NFDB
796:Live Life Less Ordinary ~ Benedict Cumberbatch, #NFDB
797:Long week. Long month. Long life. ~ John Green, #NFDB
798:Love is like life but longer. ~ Simon Van Booy, #NFDB
799:Love is sharing a life together ~ Emily Giffin, #NFDB
800:Mathematics is the Life of the Gods. ~ Novalis, #NFDB
801:Meaningless is a life without love ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
802:Money is life to us wretched mortals. ~ Hesiod, #NFDB
803:My children are my whole life. ~ Kelly LeBrock, #NFDB
804:My life is basically my work. ~ Temple Grandin, #NFDB
805:my life is better with you in it ~ Nicola Yoon, #NFDB
806:My life is over. Behind ~ Wendelin Van Draanen, #NFDB
807:My love ruined that man’s life. ~ Karina Halle, #NFDB
808:Nobody loves life like an old man. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
809:No one is happy all his life long. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
810:Nothing ever goes wrong in life. ~ Byron Katie, #NFDB
811:Nurture the spontaneous peaceful life. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
812:Of all the paths you take in life, ~ John Muir, #NFDB
813:Oh my god what am I doing with my life? ~ El P, #NFDB
814:Old age is life's parody. ~ Simone de Beauvoir, #NFDB
815:OUR BOOKS ARE FRIENDS FOR LIFE ~ Marissa Meyer, #NFDB
816:Personal Motto:
Life is Romance ~ Sara York,#NFDB
817:Real life is an overrated idea. ~ Nicci French, #NFDB
818:Regret is just life's aftertaste. ~ Amy Harmon, #NFDB
819:Religion is life essential. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
820:Rush life like a yellow light. ~ Rick Remender, #NFDB
821:She was his life, his everything. ~ Katie Reus, #NFDB
822:Sometimes life happens. ~ Da Vine Joy Randolph, #NFDB
823:Sports are a metaphor for life. ~ Ronda Rousey, #NFDB
824:Stay positive and love your life. ~ Nick Hexum, #NFDB
825:Study is a life long pursuit. ~ Rickson Gracie, #NFDB
826:that my life was with you now. And ~ E L James, #NFDB
827:The beauty of life is not knowing. ~ Matisyahu, #NFDB
828:The future has no shelf life ~ Warren G Bennis, #NFDB
829:The half life of love is forever. ~ Junot D az, #NFDB
830:The half-life of love is forever. ~ Junot D az, #NFDB
831:The half-life of love is forever. ~ Junot Diaz, #NFDB
832:The meaning of life is happiness. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
833:The novel is rescued life. ~ Hortense Calisher, #NFDB
834:The only relic from another life. ~ V E Schwab, #NFDB
835:The only wealth is life. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
836:There are no mistakes in life! ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
837:There is no life without death. ~ Kyle Idleman, #NFDB
838:The tragic futility of life. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
839:Timing in life is everything. ~ Leonard Maltin, #NFDB
840:"Use your life to wake you up." ~ Pema Chödron, #NFDB
841:We have to prevent loss of life. ~ Najib Razak, #NFDB
842:What we lack is intensity of life. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
843:What you do in life is yours. ~ Jennifer Close, #NFDB
844:Where all life dies death lives. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
845:Wherever water flows, life flourishes: ~ Rumi, #NFDB
846:Without God life makes no sense. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
847:You are a curse in my life! ~ Charles Perrault, #NFDB
848:You are my life.”
-Maris ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon,#NFDB
849:You have to make peace with life ~ Cheryl Ladd, #NFDB
850:Your vigor for life appalls me. ~ Robert Crumb, #NFDB
851:All life is a struggle in the dark. ~ Lucretius, #NFDB
852:Allow spontaneity in your life! ~ Emilie Barnes, #NFDB
853:And I'm scared. I'm scared for my life. ~ Diplo, #NFDB
854:Art is life's dream interpretation. ~ Otto Rank, #NFDB
855:But no matter, the road is life. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
856:Change is the essence of life. ~ Anatole France, #NFDB
857:Come on 'long prosperous life!' ~ Mitch Hedberg, #NFDB
858:Communication is a way of life. ~ Asa Don Brown, #NFDB
859:Don't just live a life; build one. ~ Steve Jobs, #NFDB
860:Don't waste your one beautiful life. ~ Ann Hood, #NFDB
861:Dressing is a way of life. ~ Yves Saint Laurent, #NFDB
862:Dust is watching life's talk show. ~ James Tate, #NFDB
863:Every life contains a novel. ~ Elin Hilderbrand, #NFDB
864:Every life has immense value. ~ Seth Adam Smith, #NFDB
865:Everything in my life was luck. ~ Freeman Dyson, #NFDB
866:Failure is life's magnifying glass. ~ Simon May, #NFDB
867:Faith is learned through life. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
868:For me, my life is a journey. ~ Jay Electronica, #NFDB
869:Hell is just resistance to life. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
870:Hell is just resistance to life. ~ Pema Chodron, #NFDB
871:He who brings kola brings life. ~ Chinua Achebe, #NFDB
872:How short life is for fools. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
873:I can bear a charmed life ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
874:I don't lie; I improve on my life. ~ Edith Piaf, #NFDB
875:I dream and it is another life ~ Frank Stanford, #NFDB
876:I have a life that did not become, ~ A R Ammons, #NFDB
877:I have a rendezvous with life. ~ Countee Cullen, #NFDB
878:I have never voted in my life. ~ Andres Serrano, #NFDB
879:I just can't get used to life. ~ Eugene Ionesco, #NFDB
880:I just have an enthusiasm for life. ~ Lou Holtz, #NFDB
881:I like a quiet life, you know me. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
882:I love variety in my life. ~ Elisabetta Canalis, #NFDB
883:I'm not in charge of my life. ~ Jennifer Weiner, #NFDB
884:In this life you have obstacles. ~ Tenzin Palmo, #NFDB
885:I say no to doubt and yes to life! ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
886:Isn't (life) all about trying? ~ Michael Jordan, #NFDB
887:It's your life, live it your way. ~ Bob Hoskins, #NFDB
888:It takes life to love life. ~ Edgar Lee Masters, #NFDB
889:I've never quit anything in my life. ~ Rob Ford, #NFDB
890:I want to live an interesting life. ~ Wes Moore, #NFDB
891:I want to live a passionate life. ~ Dave Gorman, #NFDB
892:I will not die an unlived life. ~ Dawna Markova, #NFDB
893:I wrote when I did not know life; ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
894:Kids lead a very private life. ~ Maurice Sendak, #NFDB
895:Let your life be your message. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
896:Lie life through its fullest ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
897:Life--a lifelong death sentence. ~ Julian Tuwim, #NFDB
898:Life always refused simplicity. ~ Julian Barnes, #NFDB
899:Life and death are in God's hands ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
900:Life and values do run in cycles. ~ Hugh Hefner, #NFDB
901:Life can be very complicated. ~ Karen Kingsbury, #NFDB
902:Life doesn't have to be so planned. ~ Jenny Han, #NFDB
903:Life doesn't last, art doesn't last ~ Eva Hesse, #NFDB
904:Life doesn't stop for anybody ~ Stephen Chbosky, #NFDB
905:Life experience is priceless. ~ Amanda Seyfried, #NFDB
906:life favors the prepared mind. ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
907:Life for me is about movement. ~ Elvis Costello, #NFDB
908:Life [had] replaced logic. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
909:Life, in short, just wants to be. ~ Bill Bryson, #NFDB
910:Life is about having a good time. ~ Norman Lear, #NFDB
911:Life is a joke that's just begun. ~ W S Gilbert, #NFDB
912:Life is a journey, not a destination. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
913:Life is a JOURNEY, not a Stroll ~ Fela Durotoye, #NFDB
914:Life is a party. Dress for it. ~ Audrey Hepburn, #NFDB
915:Life is a second-by-second miracle. ~ Joko Beck, #NFDB
916:Life is a sport...drink it up. ~ Michael Jordan, #NFDB
917:Life is as simple as a choice. ~ Lacresha Hayes, #NFDB
918:Life is a trick, love a glammer, ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
919:Life is better when we imagine it ~ Marie Arana, #NFDB
920:Life is cruel? Compared to what? ~ Edward Abbey, #NFDB
921:Life is given us as a passion. ~ Jacques Barzun, #NFDB
922:Life is just to sweet to be bitter. ~ Kris Carr, #NFDB
923:Life is like a B-picture script. ~ Kirk Douglas, #NFDB
924:Life is made up of compromises. ~ Edith Wharton, #NFDB
925:Life Is Managed; It Is Not Cured. ~ Phil McGraw, #NFDB
926:Life is not as idle ore, ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson, #NFDB
927:Life is not yours to take. ~ Richard Paul Evans, #NFDB
928:Life isn't a race. It's a relay. ~ Dick Gregory, #NFDB
929:Life is, of course, terrible. ~ Anthony Burgess, #NFDB
930:Life is one indivisible whole. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
931:Life is short and so is money. ~ Bertolt Brecht, #NFDB
932:Life is short, have dessert first. ~ Wendy Mass, #NFDB
933:Life is short. Help more people. ~ Robin Sharma, #NFDB
934:Life is supposed to get tough. ~ Kelsey Grammer, #NFDB
935:Life is the greatest show on earth ~ Sara Gruen, #NFDB
936:Life is the sum of your choices. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
937:Life is to blame for everything. ~ Robert Musil, #NFDB
938:Life is too short not to kiss. ~ Sally Hepworth, #NFDB
939:Life is too short to be busy. ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
940:Life is too short to be unhappy. ~ J W Thompson, #NFDB
941:Life is too short to learn German ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
942:Life is very important to Americans. ~ Bob Dole, #NFDB
943:Life is weather. Life is meals. ~ James Salter, #NFDB
944:Life is what you make of it. ~ Claudia Y Burgoa, #NFDB
945:Life itself is a quotation. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #NFDB
946:Life makes so many choices for us. ~ Sara Alexi, #NFDB
947:Life's a party, dress like it. ~ Lilly Pulitzer, #NFDB
948:Life's too short for chess. ~ Henry James Byron, #NFDB
949:Life sucks, and then you die. ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
950:Life was meant to be lived. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, #NFDB
951:Listen to the song of life. ~ Katharine Hepburn, #NFDB
952:Live life with creative purpose. ~ Truth Devour, #NFDB
953:Live your life as an experiment. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
954:Live your life with purpose. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
955:Love is life, if it be not death. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
956:Love is life, if it is not death. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
957:Motion is the sign of life. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
958:My aim in life is not to judge. ~ Jeanne Moreau, #NFDB
959:My baby is the joy in my life. ~ Candace Parker, #NFDB
960:My life is anything but typical. ~ Margaret Cho, #NFDB
961:My life would be empty without you. ~ E L James, #NFDB
962:My life would suck without you ~ Kelly Clarkson, #NFDB
963:My whole life feels undeclared. ~ Katie Cotugno, #NFDB
964:Nobody ever said life was fair. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
965:No man is quick enough to enjoy life. ~ Martial, #NFDB
966:Nothing in life is ritual. ~ William Paul Young, #NFDB
967:Obla dee obla dah life goes on... ~ The Beatles, #NFDB
968:O Life! thou art a galling load, ~ Robert Burns, #NFDB
969:One life can never know another's. ~ David Vann, #NFDB
970:Ordinary life does not interest me. ~ Anais Nin, #NFDB
971:Ordinary life does not interest me. ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
972:Our own life has to be our message. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
973:O world! O life! O time! ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, #NFDB
974:Perfect… is a moment. Not a life. ~ J D Hawkins, #NFDB
975:Security is the denial of life ~ Germaine Greer, #NFDB
976:Showing up is 80 percent of life. ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
977:Such is Life [Executed by hanging.] ~ Ned Kelly, #NFDB
978:the best people in life are free ~ Taylor Swift, #NFDB
979:The purpose of your life is Joy. ~ Esther Hicks, #NFDB
980:There is life or death in words. ~ Iimani David, #NFDB
981:There's more to life than movies. ~ Paul Walker, #NFDB
982:the unexamined life is not worth living ~ Plato, #NFDB
983:The value of your life is ~ Catherine Ryan Hyde, #NFDB
984:This is called mutual life or seki. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
985:This isnt life, we just exist. ~ Yasmina Khadra, #NFDB
986:This is the best worst time of my life. ~ Jewel, #NFDB
987:This life is but a pilgrimage. ~ Horace Walpole, #NFDB
988:This life looks beautiful on you. ~ Jewel E Ann, #NFDB
989:This life will be a cage for you. ~ Leah Raeder, #NFDB
990:Time is long but life is short. ~ Stevie Wonder, #NFDB
991:Toast is boring. Doritos are life. ~ Laura Kaye, #NFDB
992:To lay down one's life for the truth. ~ Juvenal, #NFDB
993:took his own life . . . Trina ~ Catherine Bybee, #NFDB
994:Trifles make the sum of life. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
995:Until you die .. it's all life. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
996:Watch out, life is watching you!! ~ Don Freeman, #NFDB
997:What is life except perception? ~ Susan Dennard, #NFDB
998:What is life, when wanting love? ~ Robert Burns, #NFDB
999:what's life without a little risk ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1000:You must change your life. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
1001:...your sisters are yours for life. ~ Jenny Han, #NFDB
1002:Your urge to control life controls you. ~ Mooji, #NFDB
1003:A life of clean lines ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, #NFDB
1004:All life is an experiment. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1005:All my life is in Spain. I will stay. ~ Paz Vega, #NFDB
1006:All my work comes out of my life. ~ Elsa Peretti, #NFDB
1007:All of life is a foreign country. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
1008:And now life has become the future. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1009:And thus we rust Life's iron chain ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
1010:Any work of art dignifies life. ~ James Ponsoldt, #NFDB
1011:Art without life is a poor affair. ~ Henry James, #NFDB
1012:Awkwardness defines my life. ~ Alexandra Robbins, #NFDB
1013:Beware the barrenness of a busy life. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
1014:Bite your teeth into the ass of life. ~ Ian Holm, #NFDB
1015:brief is life but love is long ~ Alfred Tennyson, #NFDB
1016:Build a life, don't live one... ~ Ashton Kutcher, #NFDB
1017:Death does determine life. ~ Pier Paolo Pasolini, #NFDB
1018:Don’t let life harden your heart. ~ Pema Ch dr n, #NFDB
1019:Each day is a little life. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
1020:Enjoy life - you only get one. ~ Richard Branson, #NFDB
1021:Every life is its own painting, ~ Robert J Crane, #NFDB
1022:Everyone's life is a tragedy ~ Jordan B Peterson, #NFDB
1023:Everything in life has its price. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1024:Faith alone is the sun of life. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1025:For the activity of the mind is life ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
1026:Grab life by the balls and squeeze. ~ Mike Dirnt, #NFDB
1027:I am the expert on battery life. ~ Rush Limbaugh, #NFDB
1028:I can’t wait for my life to start. ~ Sarah Price, #NFDB
1029:I don't have a brother in real life. ~ Louis C K, #NFDB
1030:I don't really have a social life. ~ David Mamet, #NFDB
1031:I enjoy life. I always enjoy jokes. ~ Ivan Lendl, #NFDB
1032:I gave my life to Christ about 1991. ~ Lou Gramm, #NFDB
1033:I have a life outside the arenas. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
1034:I have a remarkably normal life. ~ Michael J Fox, #NFDB
1035:I keep to myself, but I love life. ~ Clea DuVall, #NFDB
1036:I lead a very boring life. ~ Catherine McCormack, #NFDB
1037:I like to be surprised by life. ~ Josh McDermitt, #NFDB
1038:I'm a complete coward in real life. ~ Seth Rogen, #NFDB
1039:I need this wild life, this freedom. ~ Zane Grey, #NFDB
1040:In life, you get what you tolerate. ~ Mike Ditka, #NFDB
1041:In the infinity of life where I am, ~ Louise Hay, #NFDB
1042:I think I've missed you all my life ~ L H Cosway, #NFDB
1043:I try to practice with my life. ~ Herbie Hancock, #NFDB
1044:It's only life
but I like it ~ Paulo Leminski,#NFDB
1045:I've been within an inch of my life. ~ Gary Lutz, #NFDB
1046:I've never been onstage in my life. ~ Anna Friel, #NFDB
1047:I want to walk through life. ~ Alanis Morissette, #NFDB
1048:I will drink life to the lees. ~ Alfred Tennyson, #NFDB
1049:I would trust Hagrid with my life, ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1050:Justice outweighs human life. ~ Robert van Gulik, #NFDB
1051:Keep life and lose those other things; ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
1052:Keep making the movements of life. ~ Henry James, #NFDB
1053:Learning how to live takes a whole life ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1054:Let silence take you to the core of life. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1055:Let the enemies of life step down. ~ Saul Bellow, #NFDB
1056:Life and hope must cease together. ~ Anne Bronte, #NFDB
1057:Life: another day, another dolor. ~ Edward Abbey, #NFDB
1058:Life as it should be rarely is. ~ Richard Gazala, #NFDB
1059:Life calls the tune, we dance. ~ John Galsworthy, #NFDB
1060:Life fails. Songs don't always. ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
1061:Life goes on with fragile normalcy. ~ Sara Gruen, #NFDB
1062:Life happens not to me but for me ~ Tony Robbins, #NFDB
1063:life is a bitch so enjoy it ;p ~ Marquis de Sade, #NFDB
1064:Life is a mission, not a career. ~ Stephen Covey, #NFDB
1065:Life is a near-death experience. ~ Camille Pag n, #NFDB
1066:Life is a near-death experience. ~ George Carlin, #NFDB
1067:Life is a privilege, not a reward. ~ Kate Bowler, #NFDB
1068:Life is a tragedy full of joy. ~ Bernard Malamud, #NFDB
1069:Life is a train, get on board. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
1070:Life is breath. Breath is life. ~ Sakyong Mipham, #NFDB
1071:Life is death we're lengthy at ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
1072:life is earnest, art is gay ~ Friedrich Schiller, #NFDB
1073:Life is given to each human being ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
1074:Life is great when your in shape! ~ Jack LaLanne, #NFDB
1075:Life is largely a matter of expectation. ~ Homer, #NFDB
1076:Life is like a box of cookies. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
1077:Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony. ~ Lou Reed, #NFDB
1078:Life is long if it is full. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
1079:Life is long if you know how to use it. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1080:Life is more fun if you play games. ~ Roald Dahl, #NFDB
1081:Life is not a spectator sport. ~ Jackie Robinson, #NFDB
1082:Life is nothing but high school. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
1083:Life is not much like stories, ~ Christina Henry, #NFDB
1084:Life isn't ever what we deserve. ~ Leigh Bardugo, #NFDB
1085:Life is priceless
even to an ant ~ Xiaobo Liu,#NFDB
1086:Life is right, in any case. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
1087:Life is short and pain is long... ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1088:Life is short, but memories are long ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1089:Life is short, so fall in love. ~ Arina Tanemura, #NFDB
1090:Life is so much friendlier with two. ~ A A Milne, #NFDB
1091:Life is the greatest show on earth! ~ Sara Gruen, #NFDB
1092:Life is the joyless quest for joy. ~ Leo Strauss, #NFDB
1093:Life is too long to know C++ well. ~ Erik Naggum, #NFDB
1094:Life is too short to be small. ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
1095:Life is too short to say maybe ~ Katie Kacvinsky, #NFDB
1096:Life is way too short to fly coach. ~ Randy Gage, #NFDB
1097:Life is what we are alive to. ~ Warren W Wiersbe, #NFDB
1098:Life is your master, or death is. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
1099:Life moves on and so should we ~ Spencer Johnson, #NFDB
1100:Life's a beach. Enjoy the Read. ~ Kerry Lonsdale, #NFDB
1101:Life's a party. Invite yourself. ~ Gary Johnson, #NFDB
1102:Life’s Little Instruction Book ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
1103:Life's too short to wear high heels. ~ Eva Green, #NFDB
1104:Life was all about consequences ~ Liane Moriarty, #NFDB
1105:Life was a suitcase. “That’ll ~ Francine Mathews, #NFDB
1106:Live life as if its rigged in your favor. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1107:Live mindful of how brief your life is. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1108:Love is the oxygen of life; it ~ Anthony Robbins, #NFDB
1109:Love makes life a little brighter ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
1110:Man cannot stand a meaningless life. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
1111:Maybe life on earth could be heaven ~ Bo Burnham, #NFDB
1112:Music is my life and my passion. ~ Edwyn Collins, #NFDB
1113:My life is a convoluted web of lies. ~ Meg Cabot, #NFDB
1114:My private life became public. ~ Brigitte Bardot, #NFDB
1115:Nobody likes to life anchors. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
1116:No life is meaningful unless shared. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1117:No one ever said life was fair ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
1118:Passions are the gales of life. ~ Alexander Pope, #NFDB
1119:Pick a truth that blesses your life! ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
1120:Poetry is a life-cherishing force. ~ Mary Oliver, #NFDB
1121:Progress is the life-style of man. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
1122:Reading civilized the inner life. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
1123:Remorse is the poison of life. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
1124:Ryle Hira: Life is what it is ~ Elizabeth Haydon, #NFDB
1125:Sacrifice life to truth. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau, #NFDB
1126:She tasted like the rest of my life. ~ C D Reiss, #NFDB
1127:Single life is so overrated. It sucks. ~ Rihanna, #NFDB
1128:the aim of life is to be happy. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
1129:The best things in life aren't things. ~ Unknown, #NFDB
1130:The best things in life are silly. ~ Scott Adams, #NFDB
1131:The examined life is no picnic. ~ Robert Fulghum, #NFDB
1132:The genius of life is its variety. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
1133:The goal of life is god realisation. ~ Sivananda, #NFDB
1134:The Law of Wonder rules my life at last, ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1135:The life of a child is precious. ~ Asa Don Brown, #NFDB
1136:The life of truth is cold. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1137:The mind map will change your life. ~ Tony Buzan, #NFDB
1138:The only constant in life is change ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
1139:The purpose of life is to be happy. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1140:There is no life but this. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
1141:There is no life without patience. ~ Philip Roth, #NFDB
1142:There is no perfection only life ~ Milan Kundera, #NFDB
1143:There's more to life than love. ~ Ramon Bautista, #NFDB
1144:There's no word worth your life. ~ Dalton Trumbo, #NFDB
1145:The rich smell of life uneaten. ~ Charles Stross, #NFDB
1146:The secret to life is ice cream. ~ Sharon Guskin, #NFDB
1147:The strenuous life tastes better ~ William James, #NFDB
1148:The unexamined life is not worth living. ~ Plato, #NFDB
1149:The unexplored life is not worth living! ~ Plato, #NFDB
1150:The very life which we enjoy is short. ~ Sallust, #NFDB
1151:Think pink. A better way of life. ~ Kay Thompson, #NFDB
1152:This is better than real life. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
1153:This is not my beautiful life. ~ Stephanie Gangi, #NFDB
1154:This is your life—reclaim it. ~ Michael A Singer, #NFDB
1155:To fear love is to fear life. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
1156:unreality is a condition of life. ~ Andrei Bitov, #NFDB
1157:WHAT DO YOU WANT out of life? ~ William B Irvine, #NFDB
1158:What is the key to life on Earth? ~ Aidan Gillen, #NFDB
1159:What is this life if, full of care, ~ W H Davies, #NFDB
1160:What's life but a big silly book? ~ Cameron Jace, #NFDB
1161:What's life without a few dragons? ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1162:What's life without a little risk? ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1163:When a man's life is under debate, ~ John Dryden, #NFDB
1164:Where is the Life we lost in living? ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
1165:Where there is hope...there is life ~ Anne Frank, #NFDB
1166:Where there is life, there is hope. ~ Jane Green, #NFDB
1167:where there is love, there is life. ~ Suzie Carr, #NFDB
1168:While there's life, there's fear. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
1169:While we are postponing, life speeds by ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1170:Who said life was fair? Indeed. Who? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1171:Without Obsession, Life Is Nothing ~ John Waters, #NFDB
1172:With this life I give you courage, ~ Erin Hunter, #NFDB
1173:With what we give, we make a life. ~ Arthur Ashe, #NFDB
1174:Words are life set down on paper. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1175:You cant spend your life apologizing. ~ Jude Law, #NFDB
1176:You can’t steal a whole new life. ~ Julie Buntin, #NFDB
1177:You die in the middle of your life. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1178:Your life is big. Keep reaching. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
1179:your life is shaped by your thoughts ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1180:You turned my existence into a life. ~ C D Reiss, #NFDB
1181:Zendagi migzara. Life goes on. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
1182:Zindagi migzara (life goes on) ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
1183:1/7 of your life should be madness ~ Alan W Watts, #NFDB
1184:Acting is pretty much my whole life. ~ Carol Kane, #NFDB
1185:A happy life is a life for others. ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
1186:And until death comes, all is life. ~ Ruskin Bond, #NFDB
1187:Art is long and life is short. ~ Christopher Bram, #NFDB
1188:A writer must say yes to life. ~ Natalie Goldberg, #NFDB
1189:Be Brave. Remember, life is a gift. ~ Nicola Yoon, #NFDB
1190:Book the First—Recalled to Life ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
1191:
Life is short. Savor it now ~ Lauren Blakely,#NFDB
1192:Can life be said to exist at all? ~ Hannah Arendt, #NFDB
1193:Celebrity damages private life. ~ Tim Berners Lee, #NFDB
1194:Change is the only constant in life. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
1195:Change your mind, change your life. ~ Jen Sincero, #NFDB
1196:Children make your life important. ~ Erma Bombeck, #NFDB
1197:Death is a consequence of.....Life! ~ Shikha Kaul, #NFDB
1198:Don't just exist, be a part of life. ~ Uriah Hall, #NFDB
1199:Every loss of life is terrible. ~ George H W Bush, #NFDB
1200:everything seems smaller than life ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
1201:Facts alone are wanted in life. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
1202:family life could be so dramatic ~ Liane Moriarty, #NFDB
1203:Five seconds can change a life. ~ Greer Hendricks, #NFDB
1204:For they told you life is hard ~ Natalie Merchant, #NFDB
1205:Funny how life messed with you. ~ Sarah Mlynowski, #NFDB
1206:Get over it. Get on with your life. ~ Sally Field, #NFDB
1207:Half my life is an act of revision. ~ John Irving, #NFDB
1208:Hearing the blues changed my life. ~ Van Morrison, #NFDB
1209:Her life is deep, but I still dig her ~ Lil Wayne, #NFDB
1210:He’s a real-life Dr. House.” • ~ Susannah Cahalan, #NFDB
1211:HIs life was always a happenstance. ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
1212:I banked my life on a miracle. ~ Jackie Pullinger, #NFDB
1213:I don't have life rage anymore. ~ Christina Ricci, #NFDB
1214:If you resist change, you resist life. ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
1215:I gave life, and that is beautiful. ~ Celine Dion, #NFDB
1216:I guess life is full of maybes. ~ Maureen Johnson, #NFDB
1217:I have a blessed life in so many ways. ~ Jeb Bush, #NFDB
1218:I just eat life... I engage in life. ~ Tom Cruise, #NFDB
1219:I live my life in gratitude. ~ Olivia Newton John, #NFDB
1220:I need eclectic people in my life. ~ Chris Terrio, #NFDB
1221:In life, only potential was free. ~ Sof a Segovia, #NFDB
1222:In life's brief game to be a winner ~ Vikram Seth, #NFDB
1223:Interruptions are the spice of life. ~ Don Herold, #NFDB
1224:I promise to be better in my next life, ~ Jo Nesb, #NFDB
1225:I rest their case. I'm Pro-Life. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
1226:Is Life itself a dream, I wonder? ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
1227:Is life one big long what if? ~ Miranda Kenneally, #NFDB
1228:Is there intelligent life on Earth? ~ Frank Drake, #NFDB
1229:Is there some meaning to this life? ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
1230:I think I’ve missed you all my life, ~ L H Cosway, #NFDB
1231:I think your life informs your art. ~ Sheryl Crow, #NFDB
1232:It's a wonderful life and I love it. ~ Jim Henson, #NFDB
1233:It’s just a few days out of my life. ~ Jojo Moyes, #NFDB
1234:It takes life to live life ~ Jonathan Safran Foer, #NFDB
1235:I've been overweight all my life. ~ Roberta Flack, #NFDB
1236:I've got to show life as I see it. ~ Tracy Morgan, #NFDB
1237:I've had hard coaches all my life. ~ Chris Webber, #NFDB
1238:I want to make a poem of my life. ~ Yukio Mishima, #NFDB
1239:I wear the chain I forged in life ... ~ Dan Chaon, #NFDB
1240:I will not walk backward in life. ~ J R R Tolkien, #NFDB
1241:Just once I knew what life was for. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
1242:Law of life, Creating the life you want ~ Unknown, #NFDB
1243:Life dosent frighten me at all. ~ Langston Hughes, #NFDB
1244:Life gives nothing to man without labor. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1245:Life has been given us to enjoy. ~ Nikolai Leskov, #NFDB
1246:Life: I'll never understand it. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
1247:Life: I’ll never understand it. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
1248:Life is a business transaction. ~ Honor de Balzac, #NFDB
1249:Life is a school of probability. ~ Walter Bagehot, #NFDB
1250:Life is a sexual transmission disease ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1251:Life is a terminal illness. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
1252:Life is better when you share it. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
1253:Life is crazy and meaningful at once. ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
1254:Life is earnest, art is gay. ~ Friedrich Schiller, #NFDB
1255:Life is first boredom, then fear. ~ Philip Larkin, #NFDB
1256:Life is for trying. Don't you see? ~ Lydia Millet, #NFDB
1257:Life is full of second chances. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
1258:Life is hard in a world gone wrong. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
1259:Life is hell, but there are prizes. ~ Janet Frame, #NFDB
1260:Life is how you look at it. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
1261:Life is just a bowl of pits. ~ Rodney Dangerfield, #NFDB
1262:Life is just a chair of bowlies ~ Mary Engelbreit, #NFDB
1263:Life is largely a matter of expectation. ~ Horace, #NFDB
1264:Life is like a box of chocolates. ~ Winston Groom, #NFDB
1265:Life is long, if you know how to use it. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1266:Life is made up of circles. ~ Patricia MacLachlan, #NFDB
1267:Life is nasty, brutish, and short ~ Thomas Hobbes, #NFDB
1268:Life is not a success only journey. ~ Phil McGraw, #NFDB
1269:Life is not a wish granting factory. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1270:Life is not cured. Life is managed. ~ Ned Vizzini, #NFDB
1271:Life is no way to treat an animal ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
1272:Life isn't all beer and skittles. ~ Thomas Hughes, #NFDB
1273:Life is short and must be lived. ~ Nancy E Turner, #NFDB
1274:Life is short, death is forever ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
1275:Life is short. Eternity is long. ~ Bentley Little, #NFDB
1276:Life is the mistress to be wooed. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
1277:Life is the most real fable! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1278:Life is the risk we cannot refuse. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
1279:Life is too short to be in a hurry. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
1280:Life Is Too Short to be Small ~ Benjamin Disraeli, #NFDB
1281:Life is too short to waste. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1282:Life is too short to work so hard. ~ Vivien Leigh, #NFDB
1283:Life is to short to be small. ~ Benjamin Disraeli, #NFDB
1284:Life's an Unceartian Voyage ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1285:Life's but a walking shadow ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1286:Life's not all beer and skittles ~ Radclyffe Hall, #NFDB
1287:Life sucks, and then you die... ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
1288:...life was a glorious catastrophe. ~ Jess Walter, #NFDB
1289:Life was meant to be happy. ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
1290:life wasn’t about keeping score—but ~ Karen White, #NFDB
1291:Literature has become my life. ~ Mikhail Bulgakov, #NFDB
1292:Live a life less ordinary. ~ Benedict Cumberbatch, #NFDB
1293:Love and say it with your life. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
1294:Love is the essence of life. ~ Primadonna Angela, #NFDB
1295:Love is the goal, life is the journey. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
1296:Love is the sap of the tree of Life. ~ Banani Ray, #NFDB
1297:Mahasani, you are my life.” “It’s ~ Elaine Levine, #NFDB
1298:Medicine: "Your money and your life! ~ Karl Kraus, #NFDB
1299:Movement is the essence of life. ~ Bernd Heinrich, #NFDB
1300:My life is not my own business. ~ Anthony Hopkins, #NFDB
1301:Never settle for the crumbs of life. ~ Og Mandino, #NFDB
1302:One's life has many compartments. ~ Harold Pinter, #NFDB
1303:Our chief want in life, is, ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1304:Pain is life. Life is pain. ~ Katherine Applegate, #NFDB
1305:Preach the Gospel with your life. ~ Matt Chandler, #NFDB
1306:Reading can get you along ways in life. ~ Various, #NFDB
1307:Real life doesn't have to suck. ~ Jennifer Crusie, #NFDB
1308:Remorse is the poison of life. ~ Charlotte Bronte, #NFDB
1309:Risk is the salt and sugar of life. ~ Freya Stark, #NFDB
1310:See Social-life and Glee sit down, ~ Robert Burns, #NFDB
1311:serving is the highest use of life, ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
1312:Some habits just stay for life ~ Ravi Subramanian, #NFDB
1313:Soul is one. Nature is one, life is one. ~ Hermes, #NFDB
1314:Stop and consider! life is but a day ~ John Keats, #NFDB
1315:The art of life is to show your hand. ~ E V Lucas, #NFDB
1316:The best things in life are crazy. ~ Emme Rollins, #NFDB
1317:The big art is our life. ~ Mary Caroline Richards, #NFDB
1318:The death of each days life ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1319:The facts of life are conservative. ~ Mona Charen, #NFDB
1320:The first day of the rest of my life. ~ Lee Child, #NFDB
1321:The good writers touch life often. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
1322:The life of man is a winter way. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
1323:The Life we have is very great. ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
1324:The more I let go of the life I’d ~ Kathleen Long, #NFDB
1325:There is no gravity, life just sucks. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1326:The strenuous life tastes better. ~ William James, #NFDB
1327:The toughest role is real life. ~ Connie Brockway, #NFDB
1328:The World and Life are one. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, #NFDB
1329:This life is a process of learning. ~ Lauryn Hill, #NFDB
1330:To a life that seizes ~ Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth, #NFDB
1331:Truly life is wasted on the living. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
1332:Until death it is all life. ~ Miguel de Cervantes, #NFDB
1333:Very little in life if fair, Susannah ~ Meg Cabot, #NFDB
1334:want you to get on with your life. ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
1335:We learn not in the school, but in life. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1336:What a terrible thing life can be. ~ Jeff Lindsay, #NFDB
1337:What is life without a little risk? ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
1338:What pain do you want in your life? ~ Mark Manson, #NFDB
1339:What's life but a big, silly book? ~ Cameron Jace, #NFDB
1340:What you feed will lead your life. ~ Jayce O Neal, #NFDB
1341:When there is, love life gets better. ~ Jon Jones, #NFDB
1342:When there's life, there's hope ~ Stephen Hawking, #NFDB
1343:Where there is life, there is hope. ~ Alyson Noel, #NFDB
1344:Where there is life, there is hope. ~ Karen White, #NFDB
1345:While there is life, there is hope. ~ Jules Verne, #NFDB
1346:While we are postponing, life speeds by. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1347:Wholehearted life: loving ourselves. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
1348:Who loses a day loses life. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1349:Why does life need evidence of life? ~ Erica Jong, #NFDB
1350:Why live? Life was its own answer. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
1351:Will our Philosophy to later Life ~ Julian Huxley, #NFDB
1352:Without love no life left on earth. ~ Donna Lewis, #NFDB
1353:Without work all life goes rotten. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
1354:You are the writer of your life ~ Evan Carmichael, #NFDB
1355:You can't take life for granted. ~ Jennifer Lopez, #NFDB
1356:You get what you focus on in life. ~ Tony Robbins, #NFDB
1357:You had a near life experience. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
1358:You have to let life come and go. ~ Ramin Bahrani, #NFDB
1359:Your limits limit your life! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
1360:Your whole life informs your eye. ~ Roger Deakins, #NFDB
1361:90% of success in life is showing up ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
1362:Abortion is the taking of a life. ~ Mary Calderone, #NFDB
1363:Ah! somehow life is bigger after all ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
1364:All at once, life seemed very full. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1365:All I've done all my life is disobey. ~ Edith Piaf, #NFDB
1366:All my life I have been a nomad. ~ Ayaan Hirsi Ali, #NFDB
1367:All my life I have fought corruption. ~ A K Antony, #NFDB
1368:And because I love this life ~ Rabindranath Tagore, #NFDB
1369:An empty and unhappy life is pointless ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1370:Art has absolutely changed my life. ~ Peter Weller, #NFDB
1371:beauty of life never lay in logic. ~ Smita Kaushik, #NFDB
1372:Being an artist is celebrating life. ~ Henry Moore, #NFDB
1373:Believe in the holy contour of life ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
1374:Brief life is here our portion. ~ John Mason Neale, #NFDB
1375:...but ready or not,life goes on. ~ Sidney Sheldon, #NFDB
1376:Change your thoughts; change your life ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1377:Control your life through insanity. ~ Cliff Burton, #NFDB
1378:Death is a very important part of life. ~ GG Allin, #NFDB
1379:Design the life that you want to live. ~ Bruce Mau, #NFDB
1380:Does life have any meaningful purpose? ~ Tom DeLay, #NFDB
1381:Don't live life in the past lane. ~ Samantha Ettus, #NFDB
1382:Don't waste another day of your life. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
1383:Don't waste your time on life. ~ Jeffrey Eugenides, #NFDB
1384:Each life creates endless ripples. ~ Frank Herbert, #NFDB
1385:Enjoy your food, enjoy your life. ~ Victoria Moran, #NFDB
1386:Even after death, life still goes on. ~ Mira Grant, #NFDB
1387:...Every life contains a novel. ~ Elin Hilderbrand, #NFDB
1388:Everything in life seems unreal. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
1389:Failure's a natural part of life. ~ John Malkovich, #NFDB
1390:Fire the doubters out of your life. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
1391:For men to tell how human life began ~ John Milton, #NFDB
1392:God, life changes faster than you think. ~ Amy Tan, #NFDB
1393:Good food is a celebration of life. ~ Sophia Loren, #NFDB
1394:Hands-down the weirdest day of my life. ~ S E Hall, #NFDB
1395:Hollywood life is never true. Ever. ~ Selena Gomez, #NFDB
1396:How many worlds make up a life! ~ Carol Drinkwater, #NFDB
1397:Human life is fiction's only theme. ~ Eudora Welty, #NFDB
1398:I can dance with life again. ~ Jacqueline Winspear, #NFDB
1399:Ideas disturb the levelness of life ~ Susan Sontag, #NFDB
1400:I find this life so interesting. ~ Brittany Murphy, #NFDB
1401:If life’s pen; passion is ink! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1402:I have a randezvous with life. ~ Andrew Sean Greer, #NFDB
1403:I have a rich, full, textured life. ~ Lainie Kazan, #NFDB
1404:I have been drumming my whole life. ~ Jeremy Piven, #NFDB
1405:I have led a pretty colorful life. ~ Corey Feldman, #NFDB
1406:I live quite an unsettled life. ~ Joely Richardson, #NFDB
1407:I love my fans more than life itself ~ Miley Cyrus, #NFDB
1408:Imagination is what designs your life. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1409:In another life, I could love you. ~ Jamie McGuire, #NFDB
1410:In England, your life is your life. ~ Eric Cantona, #NFDB
1411:in life you control what you can. ~ Michelle Obama, #NFDB
1412:In my life, I've dealt with tragedy. ~ Leona Lewis, #NFDB
1413:Is all our life then, but a dream? ~ Lewis Carroll, #NFDB
1414:I see my life in terms of music. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
1415:I think life is a big game we play. ~ Eric Cantona, #NFDB
1416:It’s just life. You can’t beat life. ~ Alice Munro, #NFDB
1417:It's my life and it's now or never. ~ Jon Bon Jovi, #NFDB
1418:It's one of the perks of my life. ~ Kristin Hannah, #NFDB
1419:It was a fluke. But then, life is. ~ Marisha Pessl, #NFDB
1420:It was a tragic end to a heroic life. ~ Chris Kyle, #NFDB
1421:I've been loving music all my life. ~ Randy Savage, #NFDB
1422:I've been performing my whole life. ~ Shania Twain, #NFDB
1423:I've never been fired in my life. ~ Kara DioGuardi, #NFDB
1424:...I've never had a dream in my life, ~ Aesop Rock, #NFDB
1425:I've spent half my life on planes. ~ Alice Englert, #NFDB
1426:I want my life to mean something! ~ Marliss Melton, #NFDB
1427:I want to live a full life - period. ~ Regina King, #NFDB
1428:Life always brings you what you need. ~ Louise Hay, #NFDB
1429:Life and light will not let me be. ~ Paula Hawkins, #NFDB
1430:Life can be all too brief. ~ Jennifer L Armentrout, #NFDB
1431:Life. Consider the alternative. ~ Marshall McLuhan, #NFDB
1432:Life decides what happens, not you. ~ Brooke Davis, #NFDB
1433:Life! Don't talk to me about life! ~ Douglas Adams, #NFDB
1434:Life drew me and I followed it. ~ Alfred Rosenberg, #NFDB
1435:Life gave me everything I asked ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
1436:Life goes on... with or without you. ~ Faraaz Kazi, #NFDB
1437:Life has gotten in the way of our life. ~ J R Ward, #NFDB
1438:Life is a gamble, we scramble for money, ~ Prodigy, #NFDB
1439:Life is a gift horse in my opinion. ~ J D Salinger, #NFDB
1440:Life is a loom, weaving illusion. ~ Vachel Lindsay, #NFDB
1441:Life is an adventure! So live it up! ~ L M Preston, #NFDB
1442:Life is an occasion...rise to it. ~ Dustin Hoffman, #NFDB
1443:Life is brief but love is LONG . ~ Alfred Tennyson, #NFDB
1444:Life is built on the little things. ~ Keith Stuart, #NFDB
1445:Life is but a series of misunderstandings. ~ Denis, #NFDB
1446:Life is but a walking shadow ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
1447:Life is continuous, and is Infinite. ~ Edgar Cayce, #NFDB
1448:Life is fleeting. It is to be enjoyed. ~ Tori Amos, #NFDB
1449:Life is full of ironies and paradoxes. ~ John Hurt, #NFDB
1450:Life is growth, You grow or you die. ~ Phil Knight, #NFDB
1451:Life is growth. You grow or you die. ~ Phil Knight, #NFDB
1452:Life is hard if you think it's hard. ~ Tom Robbins, #NFDB
1453:Life is hell, but there are prizes. ~ Janet Frame, #NFDB
1454:Life is just the seeds of light. ~ Sandra Ingerman, #NFDB
1455:Life is not a tour of gas stations. ~ Tim O Reilly, #NFDB
1456:Life is not free from its forms. ~ Wallace Stevens, #NFDB
1457:Life is no way to treat an animal. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
1458:Life Isn’t Fair, but God Is Faithful ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
1459:Life isn't meant to be lived alone. ~ Adam Silvera, #NFDB
1460:Life is nutty; anything can happen. ~ Paul Shaffer, #NFDB
1461:Life is one long struggle in the dark. ~ Lucretius, #NFDB
1462:Life is only precious because it ends, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1463:Life is power, don’t abuse it. ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1464:Life is rough so you gotta be tough. ~ Johnny Cash, #NFDB
1465:Life is scarier than death. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer, #NFDB
1466:Life is short and death is eternal. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1467:Life is short. Death is forever. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
1468:Life is short..Live to the fullest. ~ John Grisham, #NFDB
1469:Life is so fast it's a camera flash ~ Janice Hardy, #NFDB
1470:Life is the train, not the station. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1471:Life is too fleet for onomatopoeia. ~ Mervyn Peake, #NFDB
1472:Life is too short to read a bad book ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
1473:Life is too short to read bad books. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
1474:Life itself is a quotation.
~ Jorge Luis Borges,#NFDB
1475:Life itself: Its origin and nature. ~ Jeremy Narby, #NFDB
1476:Life's a climb, but the view's great. ~ Lucas Till, #NFDB
1477:Life's been nothing but paperwork. ~ Gustav Mahler, #NFDB
1478:Life should be larger than life. ~ Karl Lagerfeld, #NFDB
1479:Life's more amusing than we thought. ~ Andrew Lang, #NFDB
1480:Life's too short for minimalism. ~ Sophie Kinsella, #NFDB
1481:Life’s too short to be subtle. Love, ~ B N Toler, #NFDB
1482:Life's true face is the skull. ~ Nikos Kazantzakis, #NFDB
1483:Life, the permission to know death. ~ Djuna Barnes, #NFDB
1484:Life too near paralyses art. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1485:Life too short to spend alone ~ Christian Simamora, #NFDB
1486:Life unexamined, is not worth living. ~ Democritus, #NFDB
1487:life was made up of bad choices. ~ Patricia Gibney, #NFDB
1488:Life without risk is life wasted. ~ Santosh Kalwar, #NFDB
1489:Live a life as a monument to your soul. ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
1490:Live life to the fullest. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson, #NFDB
1491:Live your life as a missions trip. ~ Reggie McNeal, #NFDB
1492:Love is like life-merely longer. ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
1493:Love is the life of humanity. ~ Emanuel Swedenborg, #NFDB
1494:Love, the life-giving garden of this world. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1495:Make gentle the life of this world. ~ Dylan Thomas, #NFDB
1496:Money comes to life as it is spent. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
1497:Music is the soundtrack of your life. ~ Dick Clark, #NFDB
1498:My Life had stood-- a Loaded Gun ~ Emily Dickinson, #NFDB
1499:My life is like a faded leaf, ~ Christina Rossetti, #NFDB
1500:My life now could not be better. ~ Charlie Simpson, #NFDB
2030 Integral Yoga
1202 Poetry
263 Philosophy
255 Occultism
199 Fiction
174 Christianity
137 Mysticism
122 Yoga
84 Psychology
50 Islam
36 Science
35 Philsophy
26 Hinduism
22 Education
20 Sufism
20 Mythology
18 Theosophy
16 Integral Theory
11 Buddhism
7 Zen
6 Baha i Faith
5 Cybernetics
1 Thelema
1 Taoism
1 Kabbalah
1 Alchemy
1194 The Mother
842 Sri Aurobindo
696 Satprem
454 Nolini Kanta Gupta
138 William Wordsworth
133 Walt Whitman
115 Aleister Crowley
111 Percy Bysshe Shelley
107 H P Lovecraft
81 Carl Jung
78 Rabindranath Tagore
70 John Keats
67 Friedrich Schiller
63 Robert Browning
62 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
61 James George Frazer
56 Sri Ramakrishna
53 William Butler Yeats
53 Plotinus
50 Muhammad
50 Friedrich Nietzsche
35 Ralph Waldo Emerson
35 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
34 Saint Augustine of Hippo
33 Swami Krishnananda
31 Swami Vivekananda
31 A B Purani
30 Rainer Maria Rilke
29 Aldous Huxley
28 Saint Teresa of Avila
27 Lucretius
25 Saint John of Climacus
25 Jorge Luis Borges
25 Jalaluddin Rumi
25 Anonymous
24 Rudolf Steiner
19 Hafiz
19 Edgar Allan Poe
18 Kabir
18 Franz Bardon
16 Vyasa
14 Nirodbaran
12 Ovid
11 Plato
11 George Van Vrekhem
9 Sri Ramana Maharshi
9 Paul Richard
9 Aristotle
8 Joseph Campbell
7 Saint John of the Cross
7 Peter J Carroll
7 Mirabai
7 Li Bai
7 Jordan Peterson
7 Henry David Thoreau
7 Baha u llah
6 Rabbi Abraham Abulafia
6 Omar Khayyam
6 Alice Bailey
6 Al-Ghazali
5 Thubten Chodron
5 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
5 Patanjali
5 Norbert Wiener
5 Hakim Sanai
5 Bokar Rinpoche
4 William Blake
4 Solomon ibn Gabirol
4 Saint Hildegard von Bingen
4 Ramprasad
4 Matsuo Basho
4 Abu-Said Abil-Kheir
3 Vidyapati
3 Saint Francis of Assisi
3 R Buckminster Fuller
3 Lewis Carroll
3 Ken Wilber
3 Ibn Arabi
3 Allama Muhammad Iqbal
2 Tao Chien
2 Taigu Ryokan
2 Symeon the New Theologian
2 Shiwu (Stonehouse)
2 Saint Therese of Lisieux
2 Saint Clare of Assisi
2 Saadi
2 Mechthild of Magdeburg
2 Mahendranath Gupta
2 Kuan Han-Ching
2 Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
2 Kahlil Gibran
2 Jorge Luis Borges
2 Jean Gebser
2 Italo Calvino
2 H. P. Lovecraft
2 Genpo Roshi
2 Bulleh Shah
2 Alexander Pope
140 The Synthesis Of Yoga
138 Wordsworth - Poems
129 Record of Yoga
128 Whitman - Poems
111 Shelley - Poems
107 Lovecraft - Poems
88 Prayers And Meditations
88 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
86 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
82 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
82 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
74 Agenda Vol 01
73 Tagore - Poems
70 Keats - Poems
67 Schiller - Poems
67 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
63 Browning - Poems
61 The Golden Bough
61 Magick Without Tears
61 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
61 Agenda Vol 08
60 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
58 Agenda Vol 03
56 The Life Divine
55 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
55 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
54 Agenda Vol 10
53 Yeats - Poems
52 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
51 Agenda Vol 13
50 Quran
50 Questions And Answers 1956
49 Agenda Vol 04
48 Savitri
48 Letters On Yoga IV
48 Agenda Vol 09
48 Agenda Vol 06
46 Agenda Vol 02
45 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
45 Agenda Vol 05
44 Agenda Vol 07
43 Letters On Yoga II
41 Agenda Vol 12
41 Agenda Vol 11
39 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
37 Liber ABA
37 Collected Poems
36 Questions And Answers 1953
35 Emerson - Poems
34 Questions And Answers 1955
33 The Study and Practice of Yoga
33 Questions And Answers 1954
33 Mysterium Coniunctionis
32 Words Of Long Ago
32 Letters On Yoga III
31 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
30 Rilke - Poems
30 Essays On The Gita
29 The Perennial Philosophy
29 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
27 Of The Nature Of Things
25 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
25 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
24 The Human Cycle
24 The Bible
24 Letters On Yoga I
23 Essays Divine And Human
22 The Practice of Psycho therapy
22 On Education
22 City of God
20 The Future of Man
20 Crowley - Poems
19 Words Of The Mother II
19 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
19 Rumi - Poems
19 Goethe - Poems
18 Poe - Poems
17 The Divine Comedy
17 On the Way to Supermanhood
17 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06
16 Vishnu Purana
16 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
16 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01
16 Let Me Explain
16 Faust
15 Letters On Poetry And Art
15 Labyrinths
15 Bhakti-Yoga
14 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
14 The Way of Perfection
14 The Phenomenon of Man
14 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
14 Some Answers From The Mother
14 Isha Upanishad
14 Hafiz - Poems
13 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
12 Twilight of the Idols
12 The Secret Of The Veda
12 Theosophy
12 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02
12 Metamorphoses
12 Initiation Into Hermetics
12 Hymn of the Universe
12 Aion
11 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
11 Talks
11 Songs of Kabir
11 Preparing for the Miraculous
10 Vedic and Philological Studies
10 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
10 Raja-Yoga
10 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
10 Kena and Other Upanishads
10 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
9 The Integral Yoga
9 Poetics
9 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03
9 Borges - Poems
9 Anonymous - Poems
8 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
8 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
8 5.1.01 - Ilion
7 Walden
7 The Problems of Philosophy
7 Maps of Meaning
7 Liber Null
7 Li Bai - Poems
6 Words Of The Mother III
6 The Secret Doctrine
6 The Practice of Magical Evocation
6 The Blue Cliff Records
6 The Alchemy of Happiness
6 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
5 Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit
5 The Red Book Liber Novus
5 Tara - The Feminine Divine
5 Patanjali Yoga Sutras
5 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
5 Cybernetics
4 The Gateless Gate
4 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
4 Song of Myself
4 Basho - Poems
3 Words Of The Mother I
3 The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
3 The Lotus Sutra
3 The Book of Certitude
3 Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking
3 Sex Ecology Spirituality
3 Dark Night of the Soul
3 Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin
3 Arabi - Poems
3 Amrita Gita
3 Alice in Wonderland
2 The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
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 Ryokan - Poems
2 Jerusalum
2 God Exists
2 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E
00.00 - Publishers Note A, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A Yoga of the Art of Life
Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Publishers Note
--
All Life is Yoga
Sri Aurobindo
--
A Yoga of the Art of Life
0 0.01 - Introduction, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Her step by step, as one discovers a forest, or rather as one fights with it, machete in hand - and then it melts, one loves, so sublime does it become. Mother grew beneath our skin like an adventure of Life and death. For seven years we fought with Her. It was fascinating, detestable, powerful and sweet; we felt like screaming and biting, fleeing and always coming back: 'Ah! You won't catch me! If you think I came here to worship you, you're wrong!' And She laughed. She always laughed.
We had our bellyful of adventure at last: if you go astray in the forest, you get delightfully lost yet still with the same old skin on your back, whereas here, there is nothing left to get lost in! It is no longer just a matter of getting lost - you have to CHANGE your skin. Or die. Yes, change species.
--
'spiritual Life': it was all so comfortable, for we had a supreme 'symbol' of it right there. She let us do as we pleased, She even opened up all kinds of little heavens in us, along with a few hells, since they go together. She even opened the door in us to a certain 'liberation,' which in the end was as soporific as eternity - but there was nowhere to get out: it WAS eternity. We were trapped on all sides. There was nothing left but these 4m2 of skin, the last refuge, that which we wanted to flee by way of above or below, by way of Guiana or the Himalayas. She was waiting for us just there, at the end of our spiritual or not so spiritual pirouettes. Matter was her concern. It took us seven years to understand that She was beginning there, 'where the other yogas leave off,' as Sri Aurobindo had already said twenty-five years earlier. It was necessary to have covered all the paths of the Spirit and all those of Matter, or in any case a large number geographically, before discovering, or even simply understanding, that 'something else' was really Something Else. It was not an improved
Spirit nor even an improved Matter, but ... it could be called 'nothing,' so contrary was it to all we know. For the caterpillar, a butterfly is nothing, it is not even visible and has nothing in common with caterpillar heavens nor even caterpillar matter. So there we were, trapped in an impossible adventure. One does not return from there: one must cross the bridge to the other side. Then one day in that seventh year, while we still believed in liberations and the collected Upanishads, highlighted with a few glorious visions to relieve the commonplace (which remained appallingly commonplace), while we were still considering 'the Mother of the Ashram' rather like some spiritual super-director (endowed, albeit, with a disarming yet ever so provocative smile, as though
She were making fun of us, then loving us in secret), She told us, 'I have the feeling that ALL we have lived, ALL we have known, ALL we have done is a perfect illusion ... When I had the spiritual experience that material Life is an illusion, personally I found that so marvelously beautiful and happy that it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my Life, but now it is the entire spiritual structure as we have lived it that is becoming an illusion! - Not the same illusion, but an illusion far worse. And I am no baby: I have been here for forty-seven years now!' Yes, She was eighty-three years old then. And that day, we ceased being 'the enemy of our own conception of the Divine,' for this entire Divine was shattered to pieces - and we met Mother, at last. This mystery we call
Mother, for She never ceased being a mystery right to her ninety-fifth year, and to this day still, challenges us from the other side of a wall of invisibility and keeps us floundering fully in the mystery - with a smile. She always smiles. But the mystery is not solved.
--
something to be played forever as the one great game of the world; a who-knows-what that left this sprig of a pensive man in the middle of a clearing; a little 'something' that beats, beats, that keeps on breathing beneath every skin that has ever been put on it - like our deepest breath, our lightest air, our air of nothing - and it keeps on going, it keeps on going. We must catch the light little breath, the little pulsation of nothing. Then suddenly, on the threshold of our clearing of concrete, our head starts spinning incurably, our eyes blink into something else, and all is different, and all seems surcharged with meaning and with Life, as though we had never lived until that very minute.
Then we have caught the tail of the Great Possible, we are upon the wayless way, radically in the new, and we flow with the little lizard, the pelican, the big man, we flow everywhere in a world that has lost its old separating skin and its little baggage of habits. We begin seeing otherwise, feeling otherwise. We have opened the gate into an inconceivable clearing. Just a light little vibration that carries you away. Then we begin to understand how it CAN CHANGE, what the mechanism is - a light little mechanism and so miraculous that it looks like nothing. We begin feeling the wonder of a pure little cell, and that a sparkling of joy would be enough to turn the world inside out. We were living in a little thinking fishbowl, we were dying in an old, bottled habit. And then suddenly, all is different. The Earth is free! Who wants freedom?
00.01 - The Approach to Mysticism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Mysticism is not only a science but also, and in a greater degree, an art. To approach it merely as a science, as the modern mind attempts to do, is to move towards futility, if not to land in positive disaster. Sufficient stress is not laid on this aspect of the matter, although the very crux of the situation lies here. The mystic domain has to be apprehended not merely by the true mind and understanding but by the right temperament and character. Mysticism is not merely an object of knowledge, a problem for inquiry and solution, it is an end, an ideal that has to be achieved, a Life that has to be lived. The mystics themselves have declared long ago with no uncertain or faltering voice: this cannot be attained by intelligence or much learning, it can be seized only by a purified and clear temperament.
The warning seems to have fallen, in the modern age, on unheeding ears. For the modern mind, being pre-eminently and uncompromisingly scientific, can entertain no doubt as to the perfect competency of science and the scientific method to seize and unveil any secret of Nature. If, it is argued, mysticism is a secret, if there is at all a truth and reality in it, then it is and must be amenable to the rules and regulations of science; for science is the revealer of Nature's secrecies.
--
The mystic's knowledge is a part and a formation of his Life. That is why it is a knowledge not abstract and remote but living and intimate and concrete. It is a knowledge that pulsates with delight: indeed it is the radiance that is shed by the purest and intensest joy. For this reason it may be that in approaching through the heart there is a chance of one's getting arrested there and not caring for the still higher, the solar lights; but this need not be so. In the heart there is a golden door leading to the deepest delights, but there is also a diamond door opening up into the skies of the brightest luminosities.
For it must be understood that the heart, the mystic heart, is not the external thing which is the seat of emotion or passion; it is the secret heart that is behind, the inner heartantarhdaya of the Upanishadwhich is the centre of the individual consciousness, where all the divergent lines of that consciousness meet and from where they take their rise. That is what the Upanishad means when it says that the heart has a hundred channels which feed the human vehicle. That is the source, the fount and origin, the very substance of the true personality. Mystic knowledge the true mystic knowledge which saves and fulfilsbegins with the awakening or the entrance into this real being. This being is pure and luminous and blissful and sovereignly real, because it is a portion, a spark of the Divine Consciousness and Nature: a contact and communion with it brings automatically into play the light and the truth that are its substance. At the same time it is an uprising flame that reaches out naturally to higher domains of consciousness and manifests them through its translucid dynamism.
00.01 - The Mother on Savitri, #Sweet Mother - Harmonies of Light, #unset, #Zen
And men have the audacity to compare it with the work of Virgil or Homer and to find it inferior. They do not understand, they cannot understand. What do they know? Nothing at all. And it is useless to try to make them understand. Men will know what it is, but in a distant future. It is only the new race with a new consciousness which will be able to understand. I assure you there is nothing under the blue sky to compare with Savitri. It is the mystery of mysteries. It is a *super-epic,* it is super-literature, super-poetry, super-vision, it is a super-work even if one considers the number of lines He has written. No, these human words are not adequate to describe Savitri. Yes, one needs superlatives, hyperboles to describe it. It is a hyper-epic. No, words express nothing of what Savitri is, at least I do not find them. It is of immense value - spiritual value and all other values; it is eternal in its subject, and infinite in its appeal, miraculous in its mode and power of execution; it is a unique thing, the more you come 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 this in his Life? This yet remains to be seen.
My child, every day you are going to read Savitri; read properly, with the right attitude, concentrating a little before opening the pages and trying to keep the mind as empty as possible, absolutely without a thought. The direct road is through the heart. I tell you, if you try to really concentrate with this aspiration you can light the flame, the psychic flame, the flame of purification in a very short time, perhaps in a few days. What you cannot do normally, you can do with the help of Savitri. Try and you will see how very different it is, how new, if you read with this attitude, with this something at the back of your consciousness; as though it were an offering to Sri Aurobindo. You know it is charged, fully charged with consciousness; as if Savitri were a being, a real guide. I tell you, whoever, wanting to practice Yoga, tries sincerely and feels the necessity for it, will be able to climb with the help of Savitri to the highest rung of the ladder of Yoga, will be able to find the secret that Savitri represents. And this without the help of a Guru. And he will be able to practice it anywhere. For him Savitri alone will be the guide, for all that he needs he will find Savitri. If he remains very quiet when before a difficulty, or when he does not know where to turn to go forward and how to overcome obstacles, for all these hesitations and incertitudes which overwhelm us at every moment, he will have the necessary indications, and the necessary concrete help. If he remains very calm, open, if he aspires sincerely, always he will be as if lead by the hand. If he has faith, the will to give himself and essential sincerity he will reach the final goal.
00.03 - Upanishadic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It may be asked why the dog has been chosen as the symbol of Intuition. In the Vedas, the cow and the horse also play a large part; even the donkey and the frog have their own assigned roles. These objects are taken from the environment of ordinary Life, and are those that are most familiar to the external consciousness, through which the inner experiences have to express themselves, if they are to be expressed at all. These material objects represent various kinds of forces and movements and subtle and occult and spiritual dynamisms. Strictly speaking, however, symbols are not chosen in a subtle or spiritual experience, that is to say, they are not arbitrarily selected and constructed by the conscious intelligence. They form part of a dramatization (to use a term of the Freudian psychology of dreams), a psychological alchemy, whose method and process and rationale are very obscure, which can be penetrated only by the vision of a third eye.
I. The Several Lights
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First of all, he has the Sun; it is the primary light by which he lives and moves. When the Sun sets, the Moon rises to replace it. When both the Sun and the Moon set, he has recourse to the Fire. And when the Fire, too, is extinguished, there comes the Word. In the end, when the Fire is quieted and the Word silenced, man is lighted by the Light of the Atman. This Atman is All-Knowledge; it is secreted within the Life, within the heart: it is selfluminous Vijnamaya preu rdyantar jyoti..
The progression indicated by the order of succession points to a gradual withdrawal from the outer to the inner light, from the surface to the deep, from the obvious to the secret, from the actual and derivative to the real and original. We begin by the senses and move towards the Spirit.
The Sun is the first and the most immediate source of light that man has and needs. He is the presiding deity of our waking consciousness and has his seat in the eyecakusa ditya, ditya caku bhtvakii prviat. The eye is the representative of the senses; it is the sense par excellence. In truth, sense-perception is the initial light with which we have to guide us, it is the light with which we start on the way. A developed stage comes when the Sun sets for us, that is to say, when we retire from the senses and rise into the mind, whose divinity is the Moon. It is the mental knowledge, the light of reason and intelligence, of reflection and imagination that govern our consciousness. We have to proceed farther and get beyond the mind, exceed the derivative light of the Moon. So when the Moon sets, the Fire is kindled. It is the light of the ardent and aspiring heart, the glow of an inner urge, the instincts and inspirations of our secret Life-will. Here we come into touch with a source of knowledge and realization, a guidance more direct than the mind and much deeper than the sense-perception. Still this light partakes more of heat than of pure luminosity; it is, one may say, incandescent feeling, but not vision. We must probe deeper, mount higherreach heights and profundities that are serene and transparent. The Fire is to be quieted and silenced, says the Upanishad. Then we come nearer, to the immediate vicinity of the Truth: an inner hearing opens, the direct voice of Truth the Wordreaches us to lead and guide. Even so, however, we have not come to the end of our journey; the Word of revelation is not the ultimate Light. The Word too is clothing, though a luminous clothinghiramayam ptram When this last veil dissolves and disappears, when utter silence, absolute calm and quietude reign in the entire consciousness, when no other lights trouble or distract our attention, there appears the Atman in its own body; we stand face to face with the source of all lights, the self of the Light, the light of the Self. We are that Light and we become that Light.
II. The Four Oblations
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Ritualistically these four terms are the formulae for oblation to four Deities, Powers or Presences, whom the sacrificer wishes to please and propitiate in order to have their help and blessing and in order thereby to discharge his dharma or duty of Life. Svh is the offering especially dedicated to Agni, the foremost of the Gods, for he is the divine messenger who carries men's offering to the Gods and brings their blessing to men. Vaatkr is the offering to the Gods generally. Hantakr is the offering to mankind, to our kin, an especial form of it being the worship of the guests,sarvadevamayo' tithi. Svadh is the offering to the departed Fathers (Pitris).
The duty of Life consists, it is said, in the repaying of three debts which every man contracts as soon as he takes birth upon earth the debt to the Gods, to Men and to the Ancestors. This threefold debt or duty has, in other terms, reference to the three fields or domains wherein an embodied being lives and moves and to which he must adjust and react rightly -if he is to secure for his Life an integral fulfilment. These are the family, society and the world and beyond-world. The Gods are the Powers that rule the world and beyond, they are the forms and forces of the One Spirit underlying the universe, the varied expressions of divine Truth and Reality: To worship the Gods, to do one's duty by them, means to come into contact and to be unitedin being, consciousness and activitywith the universal and spiritual existence, which is the supreme end and purpose of human Life. The seconda more circumscribed fieldis the society to which one belongs, the particular group of humanity in which he functions as a limb. The service to society or good citizenship entails the worship of humanity, of Man as a god. Lastly, man belongs to the family, which is the unit of society; and the backbone of the family is the continuous line of 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.
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Finally, once the Truth is reached, it is to be held fast, firmly established, embodied and fixed in its inherent nature here in Life and the waking consciousness. This is Svadh.
The Gods feed upon Svdh and Vaa, as these represent the ascending movement of human consciousness: it is man's self-giving and aspiration and the upward urge of his heart and soul that reach to the Gods, and it is that which the immortals take into themselves and are, as it were, nourished by, since it is something that appertains to their own nature.
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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 accomplishing 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 basis or the material, the Life gives power and energy and the mind the directing knowledge. This triune world forms the humanity of man. But there is another aspect hidden behind this apparent nature, there is another world where man dwells in his submerged, larger and higher consciousness. To that his soul the Purusha in his heart only has access. It is the world where man's nature is transmuted 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 accomplish its duties and ideals as to lead him on to the Path of the Gods; the mind, the Life, and the body consciousness should be so disciplined, educated, purified, they should develop along such a line and gradually rise to such a stage as to make them fit to receive the light which belongs to the higher level, so allowing the human soul imbedded in them to extricate itself and pass on to the Immortal Life.
And they who are thus lifted up into the Higher Orbit are freed from the bondage to the cycle of rebirth. They enjoy the supreme Liberation that is of the Spirit; and even when they descend into the Inferior Path, it is to work out as free agents, as vehicles of the Divine, a special purpose, to bring down something of the substance and nature of the Solar reality into the lower world, enlighten and elevate the lower, as far as it is allowed, into the higher.
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Indeed, it was to this godhead that Nachiketas turned and he wanted to know of it and find it, when faith seized on his pure heart and he aspired for the higher spiritual Life. The very opening hymn of the Rig Veda, too, is addressed to Agni, who is invoked as the vicar seated in the front of the sacrifice, the giver of the supreme gifts.
King Yama initiated Nachiketas 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 established, the external being too must respond to the soul's impact and yearn for its truth in the Spirit. The mind, the Life and the body which are usually obstructions in the path, must discover the secret flame that is in them tooeach has his own portion of the Soul's Fireand mount on its ardent tongue towards the heights of the Spirit.
Garhapatya is the Fire in the body-consciousness, the fire of Earth, as it is sometimes called; Dakshina is the Fire of the moon or mind, and Ahavaniya that of Life.10 The earthly fire is also the fire of the sun; the sun is the source of all earth's heat and symbolises at the same time the spiritual light manifested in the physical consciousness. The lunar fire is also the fire of the stars, the stars, mythologically, being the consorts or powers of the moon and they symbolise, in Yogic experience, the intuitive thoughts. The fire of the Life-force has its symbol in lightning, electric energy being its vehicle.
Agni in the physical consciousness is calledghapati, for the body is the house in which the soul is lodged and he is its keeper, guardian and lord. The fire in the mental consciousness is called daki; for it is that which gives discernment, the power to discriminate between the truth and the falsehood, it is that which by the pressure of its heat and light cleaves the wrong away from the right. And the fire in the Life-force is called havanya; for pra is not only the plane of hunger and desire, but also of power and dynamism, it is that which calls forth forces, brings them into' play and it is that which is to be invoked for the progression of the Sacrifice, for an onward march on the spiritual path.
Of the three fires one is the upholderhe who gives the firm foundation, the stable house where the Sacrifice is performed and Truth realised; the second is the Knower, often called in the Veda jtaved, who guides and directs; and the third the Doer, the effective Power, the driving Energyvaivnara.
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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 organised expression. The forms here have not, however, the concrete rigidity of Matter, but are pliant and variable and fluidin fact, they are more in the nature of possibilities, rather than actualities. The Vedic Maruts are thought-gods, and lndra (the Luminous Mind), their king, is called the Fashioner of perfect forms.
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 Agnis (Fires), as propounded by Pravahan, explains and illustrates the process of the birth of the body, the passage of the soul into earth existence. It describes the advent of the child, the building of the physical form of the human being. The process is conceived of as a sacrifice, the usual symbol with the Vedic Rishis for the expression of their vision and perception of universal processes of Nature, physical and psychological. Here, the child IS said to be the final fruit of the sacrifice, the different stages in the process being: (i) Soma, (ii) Rain, (iii) Food, (iv) Semen, (v) Child. Soma means Rasaphysically the principle of water, psychologically the 'principle of delightand symbolises and constitutes the very soul and substance of Life. Now it is said that these five principles the fundamental and constituent elementsare born out of the sacrifice, through the oblation or offering to the five Agnis. The first Agni is Heaven or the Sky-God, and by offering to it one's faith and one's ardent desire, one calls into manifestation Soma or Rasa or Water, the basic principle of Life. This water is next offered to the second Agni, the Rain-God, who sends down Rain. Rain, again, is offered to the third Agni, the Earth, who brings forth Food. Food is, in its turn, offered to the fourth Agni, the Father or Male, who elaborates in himself the generating fluid.
Finally, this fluid is offered to the fifth Agni, the Mother or the Female, who delivers the Child.
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Now, this is the All, the Universal. One has to realise it and possess in one's consciousness. And that can be done only in one way: one has to identify oneself with it, be one with it, become it. Thus by losing one's individuality one lives the Life universal; the small lean separate Life is enlarged and moulded in the rhythm of the Rich and the Vast. It is thus that man shares in the consciousness and energy that inspire and move and sustain the cosmos. The Upanishad most emphatically enjoins that one must not decry this cosmic godhead or deny any of its elements, not even such as are a taboo to the puritan mind. It is in and through an unimpaired global consciousness that one attains the All- Life and lives uninterruptedly and perennially: Sarvamanveti jyok jvati.
Still the Upanishad says this is not the final end. There is yet a higher status of reality and consciousness to which one has to rise. For beyond the Cosmos lies the Transcendent. The Upanishad expresses this truth and experience in various symbols. The cosmic reality, we have seen, is often conceived as a septenary, a unity of seven elements, principles and worlds. Further to give it its full complex value, it is considered not as a simple septet, but a threefold heptad the whole gamut, as it were, consisting of 21 notes or syllables. The Upanishad says, this number does not exhaust the entire range; I for there is yet a 22nd place. This is the world beyond the Sun, griefless and deathless, the supreme Selfhood. The Veda I also sometimes speaks of the integral reality as being represented by the number 100 which is 99 + I; in other words, 99 represents the cosmic or universal, the unity being the reality beyond, the Transcendent.
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In Yajnavalkya's enumeration, however, it is to be noted, first of all, that he stresses on the number three. The principle of triplicity is of very wide application: it permeates all fields of consciousness and is evidently based upon a fundamental fact of reality. It seems to embody a truth of synthesis and comprehension, points to the order and harmony that reigns in the cosmos, the spheric music. The metaphysical, that is to say, the original principles that constitute existence are the well-known triplets: (i) the superior: Sat, Chit, Ananda; and (ii) the inferior: Body, Life and Mindthis being a reflection or translation or concretisation of the former. We can see also here how the dual principle comes in, the twin godhead or the two gods to which Yajnavalkya refers. The same principle is found in the conception of Ardhanarishwara, Male and Female, Purusha-Prakriti. The Upanishad says 14 yet again that the One original Purusha was not pleased at being alone, so for a companion he created out of himself the original Female. The dual principle signifies creation, the manifesting activity of the Reality. But what is this one and a half to which Yajnavalkya refers? It simply means that the other created out of the one is not a wholly separate, independent entity: it is not an integer by itself, as in the Manichean system, but that it is a portion, a fraction of the One. And in the end, in the ultimate analysis, or rather synthesis, there is but one single undivided and indivisible unity. The thousands and hundreds, very often mentioned also in the Rig Veda, are not simply multiplications of the One, a graphic description of its many-sidedness; it indicates also the absolute fullness, the complete completeness (prasya pram) of the Reality. It includes and comprehends all and is a rounded totality, a full circle. The hundred-gated and the thousand-pillared cities of which the ancient Rishis chanted are formations and embodiments of consciousness human and divine, are realities whole and entire englobing all the layers and grades of consciousness.
Besides this metaphysics there is also an occult aspect in numerology of which Pythagoras was a well-known adept and in which the Vedic Rishis too seem to take special delight. The multiplication of numbers represents in a general way the principle of emanation. The One has divided and subdivided itself, but not in a haphazard way: it is not like the chaotic pulverisation of a piece of stone by hammer-blows. The process of division and subdivision follows a pattern almost as neat and methodical as a genealogical tree. That is to say, the emanations form a hierarchy. At the top, the apex of the pyramid, stands the one supreme Godhead. That Godhead is biune in respect of manifestation the Divine and his creative Power. This two-in-one reality may be considered, according to one view of creation, as dividing into three forms or aspects the well-known Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra of Hindu mythology. These may be termed the first or primary emanations.
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The first boon regards the individual, that is to say, the individual identity and integrity. It asks for the maintenance of that individuality so that it may be saved from the dissolution that Death brings about. Death, of course, means the dissolution of the body, but it represents also dissolution pure and simple. Indeed death is a process which does not stop with the physical phenomenon, but continues even after; for with the body gone, the other elements of the individual organism, the vital and the mental too gradually fall off, fade and dissolve. Nachiketas wishes to secure from Death the safety and preservation of the earthly personality, the particular organisation of mind and vital based upon a recognisable physical frame. That is the first necessity for the aspiring mortalfor, it is said, the body is the first instrument for the working out of one's Life ideal. But man's true personality, the real individuality lies beyond, beyond the body, beyond the Life, beyond the mind, beyond the triple region that Death lords it over. That is the divine world, the Heaven of the immortals, beyond death and beyond sorrow and grief. It is the hearth secreted in the inner heart where burns the Divine Fire, the God of Life Everlasting. And this is the nodus that binds together the threefold status of the manifested existence, the body, the Life and the mind. This triplicity is the structure of name and form built out of the bricks of experience, the kiln, as it were, within which burns the Divine Agni, man's true soul. This soul can be reached only when one exceeds the bounds and limitations of the triple cord and experiences one's communion and identity with all souls and all existence. Agni is the secret divinity within, within the individual and within the world; he is the Immanent Divine, the cosmic godhead that holds together and marshals all the elements and components, all the principles that make up the manifest universe. He it is that has entered into the world and created facets of his own reality in multiple forms: and it is he that lies secret in the human being as the immortal soul through all its adventure of Life and death in the series of incarnations in terrestrial evolution. The adoration and realisation of this Immanent Divinity, the worship of Agni taught by Yama in the second boon, consists in the triple sacrifice, the triple work, the triple union in the triple status of the physical, the vital and the mental consciousness, the mastery of which leads one to the other shore, the abode of perennial existence where the human soul enjoys its eternity and unending continuity in cosmic Life. Therefore, Agni, the master of the psychic being, is called jtaveds, he who knows the births, all the transmigrations from Life to Life.
The third boon is the secret of secrets, for it is the knowledge and realisation of Transcendence that is sought here. Beyond the individual lies the universal; is there anything beyond the universal? The release of the individual into the cosmic existence gives him the griefless Life eternal: can the cosmos be rolled up and flung into something beyond? What would be the nature of that thing? What is there outside creation, outside manifestation, outside Maya, to use a latter day term? Is there existence or non-existence (utter dissolution or extinctionDeath in his supreme and absolute status)? King Yama did not choose to answer immediately and even endeavoured to dissuade Nachiketas from pursuing the question over which people were confounded, as he said. Evidently it was a much discussed problem in those days. Buddha was asked the same question and he evaded it, saying that the pragmatic man should attend to practical and immediate realities and not, waste time and energy in discussing things ultimate and beyond that have hardly any relation to the present and the actual.
But Yama did answer and unveil the mystery and impart the supreme secret knowledge the knowledge of the Transcendent Brahman: it is out of the transcendent reality that the immanent deity takes his birth. Hence the Divine Fire, the Lord of creation and the Inner Mastersarvabhtntartm, antarymis called brahmajam, born of the Brahman. Yama teaches the process of transcendence. Apart from the knowledge and experience first of the individual and then of the cosmic Brahman, there is a definite line along which the human consciousness (or unconsciousness, as it is at present) is to ascend and evolve. The first step is to learn to distinguish between the Good and the Pleasurable (reya and preya). The line of pleasure leads to the external, the superficial, the false: while the other path leads towards the inner and the higher truth. So the second step is the gradual withdrawal of the consciousness from the physical and the sensual and even the mental preoccupation and focussing it upon what is certain and permanent. In the midst of the death-ridden consciousness in the heart of all that is unstable and fleetingone has to look for Agni, the eternal godhead, the Immortal in mortality, the Timeless in time through whom lies the passage to Immortality beyond Time.
Man has two souls corresponding to his double status. In the inferior, the soul looks downward and is involved in the current of Impermanence and Ignorance, it tastes of grief and sorrow and suffers death and dissolution: in the higher it looks upward and communes and joins with the Eternal (the cosmic) and then with the Absolute (the transcendent). The lower is a reflection of the higher, the higher comes down in a diminished and hence tarnished light. The message is that of deliverance, the deliverance and reintegration of the lower soul out of its bondage of worldly ignorant Life into the freedom and immortality first of its higher and then of its highest status. It is true, however, that the Upanishad does not make a trenchant distinction between the cosmic and the transcendent and often it speaks of both in the same breath, as it were. For in fact they are realities involved in each other and interwoven. Indeed the triple status, including the Individual, forms one single totality and the three do not exclude or cancel each other; on the contrary, they combine and may be said to enhance each other's reality. The Transcendence expresses or deploys itself in the cosmoshe goes abroad,sa paryagt: and the cosmic individualises, concretises itself in the particular and the personal. The one single spiritual reality holds itself, aspects itself in a threefold manner.
The teaching of Yama in brief may be said to be the gospel of immortality and it consists of the knowledge of triple immortality. And who else can be the best teacher of immortality than Death himself, as Nachiketas pointedly said? The first immortality is that of the physical existence and consciousness, the preservation of the personal identity, the individual name and formthis being in itself as expression and embodiment and instrument of the Inner Reality. This inner reality enshrines the second immortality the eternity and continuity of the soul's Life through its incarnations in time, the divine Agni lit for ever and ever growing in flaming consciousness. And the third and final immortality is in the being and consciousness beyond time, beyond all relativities, the absolute and self-existent delight.
Rig Veda, X. 14-11, 12.
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The secularisation of man's vital functions in modem ages has not been a success. It has made him more egocentric and blatantly hedonistic. From an occult point of view he has in this way subjected himself to the influences of dark and undesirable world-forces, has made an opening, to use an Indian symbolism, for Kali (the Spirit of the Iron Age) to enter into him. The sex-force is an extremely potent agent, but it is extremely fluid and elusive and uncontrollable. It was for this reason that the ancients always sought to give it a proper mould, a right continent, a fixed and definite channel; the moderns, on the other hand, allow it to run free and play with it recklessly. The result has been, in the Life of those born under such circumstances, a growing lack of poise and balance and a corresponding incidence of neuras thenia, hysteria and all abnormal pathological conditions.
Chhandyogya, II, III.
00.04 - The Beautiful in the Upanishads, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
That which lives not by Life, but which makes Life liveThat is Brahman.
or,
00.05 - A Vedic Conception of the Poet, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Mind and the Body are held together by means of the Life, the mid-world. The Divine Mind by raising the body-consciousness into itself gathers up too, by that act, the delight of Life and releases the fountain of immortal Bliss. That is the work and achievement of the gods as poets.
Where then is the birth of the Poets? Ask it of the Masters. The Poets have seized and mastered the Mind, they have the perfect working and they fashion the Heaven.
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All the gods are poetstheir forms are perfect, surpa, suda, their Names full of beauty,cru devasya nma.31 This means also that the gods embody the different powers that constitute the poetic consciousness. Agni is the Seer-Will, the creative vision of the Poet the luminous energy born of an experience by identity with the Truth. Indra is the Idea-Form, the 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 Bliss and Delight.
The Vedic Poet is doubtless the poet of Life, the architect of Divinity in man, of Heaven upon earth. But what is true of Life is fundamentally true of Art tooat least true of the Art as it was conceived by the ancient seers and as it found expression at their hands.32
Rig Veda, X. 124. 7
0.00a - Introduction, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
The age-old advice, "Know thyself," is more imperative than ever. The tempo of science has accelerated to such a degree that today's discoveries frequently make yesterday's equations obsolescent almost before they can be chalked up on a blackboard. Small wonder, then that every other hospital bed is occupied by a mental patient. Man was not constructed to spend his Life at a crossroads, one of which leads he knows not where, and the other to threatened annihilation of his species.
In view of this situation it is doubly reassuring to know that, even in the midst of chaotic concepts and conditions there still remains a door through which man, individually, can enter into a vast store-house of knowledge, knowledge as dependable and immutable as the measured tread of Eternity.
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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."
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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 exercise control over Life's conditions and circumstances not otherwise possible. In short. Magic provides the practical application of the theories supplied by the Qabalah.
It serves yet another vital function. In addition to the advantages to be gained from its philosophical application, the ancients discovered a very practical use for the literal Qabalah.
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At this juncture let me call attention to one set of attri butions by Rittangelius usually found as an appendix attached to the Sepher Yetzirah. It lists a series of "Intelligences" for each one of the ten Sephiros and the twenty-two Paths of the Tree of Life. It seems to me, after prolonged meditation, that the common attri butions of these Intelligences is 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." This seems perfectly all right; the meaning at first sight seems to fit the significance of Keser as the first emanation from Ain Soph. But there are half a dozen other similar attri butions that would have served equally well. For instance, it could have been called the "Occult Intelligence" usually attri buted to the seventh Path or Sephirah, for surely Keser is secret in a way to be said of no other Sephirah. And what about the "Absolute or Perfect Intelligence." That would have been even more explicit and appropriate, being applicable to Keser far more than to any other of the Paths. Similarly, there is one attri buted to the 16th Path and called "The Eternal or Triumphant Intelligence," so-called because it is the pleasure of the Glory, beyond which is no Glory like to it, and it is called also the Paradise prepared for the Righteous." Any of these several would have done equally well. Much is true of so many of the other attri butions in this particular area-that is the so-called Intelligences of the Sepher Yetzirah. I do not think that their use or current arbitrary usage stands up to serious examination or criticism.
--
By the middle of 1926 I had become aware of the work of Aleister Crowley, for whom I have a tremendous respect. I studied as many of his writings as I could gain access to, making copious notes, and later acted for several years as his secretary, having joined him in Paris on October 12, 1928, a memorable day in my Life.
All sorts of books have been written on the Qabalah, some poor, some few others extremely good. But I came to feel the need for what might be called a sort of Berlitz handbook, a concise but comprehensive introduction, studded with diagrams and tables of easily understood definitions and correspondences to simplify the student's grasp of so complicated and abstruse a subject.
000 - Humans in Universe, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
numbers at a geometric (exponential) rate of gain while increasing Life-support
production at only an arithmetic (linear) rate of gain. And since the Earth is a finite,
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fundamental inadequacy of Life support on our planet. Until then all opinions on
such matters had been pure guesses.000.108 A third of a century after Malthus, Darwin attributed biological evolution
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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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fundamental inadequacies of Life support.
000.124 Why does not the public itself demand realization of its option for a
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for their Life-sustaining opportunities to "earn a living." Ergo, humanity thinks it is
against technology and thinks itself averse to exercising its option.
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Malthusian concept of the fundamental inadequacy of Life support, and so they have
misused their minds to develop only personal and partisan advantages, intellectual
cunning, and selfishness. Intellectual cunning has concentrated on how to divorcemoney from true Life-support wealth; second, cunning has learned how to make
money with money by making it scarce. As of the 1970s muscle, guns, and
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continuing the false premise of universal inadequacy of Life support. If mind comes
into supreme power within a decade, humanity will exercise its option of a design
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
SRI RAMAKRISHNA, the God-man of modern India, was born at Kamarpukur. This village in the Hooghly District preserved during the last century the idyllic simplicity of the rural areas of Bengal. Situated far from the railway, it was untouched by the glamour of the city. It contained rice-fields, tall palms, royal banyans, a few lakes, and two cremation grounds. South of the village a stream took its leisurely course. A mango orchard dedicated by a neighbouring zemindar to the public use was frequented by the boys for their noonday sports. A highway passed through the village to the great temple of Jagannath at Puri, and the villagers, most of whom were farmers and craftsmen, entertained many passing holy men and pilgrims. The dull round of the rural Life was broken by lively festivals, the observance of sacred days, religious singing, and other innocent pleasures.
About his parents Sri Ramakrishna once said: "My mother was the personification of rectitude and gentleness. She did not know much about the ways of the world; innocent of the art of concealment, she would say what was in her mind. People loved her for her open-heartedness. My father, an orthodox brahmin, never accepted gifts from the sudras. He spent much of his time in worship and meditation, and in repeating God's name and chanting His glories. Whenever in his daily prayers he invoked the Goddess Gayatri, his chest flushed and tears rolled down his cheeks. He spent his leisure hours making garlands for the Family Deity, Raghuvir."
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Gadadhar was seven years old when his father died. This incident profoundly affected him. For the first time the boy realized that Life on earth was impermanent. Unobserved by others, he began to slip into the mango orchard or into one of the cremation grounds, and he spent hours absorbed in his own thoughts. He also became more helpful to his mother in the discharge of her household duties. He gave more attention to reading and hearing the religious stories recorded in the Puranas. And he became interested in the wandering monks and pious pilgrims who would stop at Kamarpukur on their way to Puri. These holy men, the custodians of India's spiritual heritage and the living witnesses of the ideal of renunciation of the world and all-absorbing love of God, entertained the little boy with stories from the Hindu epics, stories of saints and prophets, and also stories of their own adventures. He, on his part, fetched their water and fuel and
served them in various ways. Meanwhile, he was observing their meditation and worship.
At the age of nine Gadadhar was invested with the sacred thread. This ceremony conferred upon him the privileges of his brahmin lineage, including the worship of the Family Deity, Raghuvir, and imposed upon him the many strict disciplines of a brahmin's Life. During the ceremony of investiture he shocked his relatives by accepting a meal cooked by his nurse, a sudra woman. His father would never have dreamt of doing such a thing But in a playful mood Gadadhar had once promised this woman that he would eat her food, and now he fulfilled his plighted word. The woman had piety and religious sincerity, and these were more important to the boy than the conventions of society.
Gadadhar was now permitted to worship Raghuvir. Thus began his first training in meditation. He so gave his heart and soul to the worship that the stone image very soon appeared to him as the living Lord of the Universe. His tendency to lose himself in contemplation was first noticed at this time. Behind his boyish light-heartedness was seen a deepening of his spiritual nature.
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Gadadhar himself now organized a dramatic company with his young friends. The stage was set in the mango orchard. The themes were selected from the stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Gadadhar knew by heart almost all the roles, having heard them from professional actors. His favourite theme was the Vrindavan episode of Krishna's Life, depicting those exquisite love-stories of Krishna and the milkmaids and the cowherd boys. Gadadhar would play the parts of Radha or Krishna and would often lose himself in the character he was portraying. His natural feminine grace heightened the dramatic effect. The mango orchard would ring with the loud kirtan of the boys. Lost in song and merry-making, Gadadhar became indifferent to the routine of school.
In 1849 Ramkumar, the eldest son, went to Calcutta to improve the financial condition of the family.
--
Ramkumar did not at first oppose the ways of his temperamental brother. He wanted Gadadhar to become used to the conditions of city Life. But one day he decided to warn the boy about his indifference to the world. After all, in the near future Gadadhar must, as a householder, earn his livelihood through the performance of his brahminical duties; and these required a thorough knowledge of Hindu law, astrology, and kindred subjects. He gently admonished Gadadhar and asked him to pay more attention to his studies. But the boy replied spiritedly: "Brother, what shall I do with a mere bread-winning education? I would rather acquire that wisdom which will illumine my heart and give me satisfaction for ever."
--- BREAD-WINNING EDUCATION
The anguish of the inner soul of India found expression through these passionate words of the young Gadadhar. For what did his unsophisticated eyes see around him in Calcutta, at that time the metropolis of India and the centre of modem culture and learning? Greed and lust held sway in the higher levels of society, and the occasional religious practices were merely outer forms from which the soul had long ago departed. Gadadhar had never seen anything like this at Kamarpukur among the simple and pious villagers. The sadhus and wandering monks whom he had served in his boyhood had revealed to him an altogether different India. He had been impressed by their devotion and purity, their self-control and renunciation. He had learnt from them and from his own intuition that the ideal of Life as taught by the ancient sages of India was the realization of God.
When Ramkumar reprimanded Gadadhar for neglecting a "bread-winning education", the inner voice of the boy reminded him that the legacy of his ancestors — the legacy of Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Sankara, Ramanuja, Chaitanya — was not worldly security but the Knowledge of God. And these noble sages were the true representatives of Hindu society. Each of them was seated, as it were, on the crest of the wave that followed each successive trough in the tumultuous course of Indian national Life. All demonstrated that the Life current of India is spirituality. This truth was revealed to Gadadhar through that inner vision which scans past and future in one sweep, unobstructed by the barriers of time and space. But he was unaware of the history of the profound change that had taken place in the land of his birth during the previous one hundred years.
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.
In 1757 English traders laid the foundation of British rule in India. Gradually the Government was systematized and lawlessness suppressed. The Hindus were much impressed by the military power and political acumen of the new rulers. In the wake of the merchants came the English educators, and social reformers, and Christian missionaries — all bearing a culture completely alien to the Hindu mind. In different parts of the country educational institutions were set up and Christian churches established. Hindu young men were offered the heady wine of the Western culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and they drank it to the very dregs.
--
Ramkumar could hardly understand the import of his young brother's reply. He described in bright colours the happy and easy Life of scholars in Calcutta society. But Gadadhar intuitively felt that the scholars, to use one of his own vivid illustrations, were like so many vultures, soaring high on the wings of their uninspired intellect, with their eyes fixed on the charnel-pit of greed and lust. So he stood firm and Ramkumar had to give way.
--- KALI TEMPLE AT DAKSHINESWAR
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corners of the temple compound are two nahabats, or music towers, from which music flows at different times of day, especially at sunup, noon, and sundown, when the worship is performed in the temples. Three sides of the paved courtyard — all except the west — are lined with rooms set apart for kitchens, store-rooms, dining-rooms, and quarters for the temple staff and guests. The chamber in the northwest angle, just beyond the last of the Siva temples, is of special interest to us; for here Sri Ramakrishna was to spend a considerable part of his Life. To the west of this chamber is a semicircular porch overlooking the river. In front of the porch runs a foot-path, north and south, and beyond the path is a large garden and, below the garden, the Ganges. The orchard to the north of the buildings contains the Panchavati, the banyan, and the bel-tree, associated with Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual practices. Outside and to the north of the temple compound proper is the kuthi, or bungalow, used by members of Rani Rasmani's family visiting the garden. And north of the temple garden, separated from it by a high wall, is a powder-magazine belonging to the British Government.
--- SIVA
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At this time there came to Dakshineswar a youth of sixteen, destined to play an important role in Sri Ramakrishna's Life. Hriday, a distant nephew2 of Sri Ramakrishna, hailed from Sihore, a village not far from Kamarpukur, and had been his boyhood friend. Clever, exceptionally energetic, and endowed with great presence of mind, he moved, as will be seen later, like a shadow about his uncle and was always ready to help him, even at the sacrifice of his personal comfort. He was destined to be a mute witness of many of the spiritual experiences of Sri Ramakrishna and the caretaker of his body during the stormy days of his spiritual practice. Hriday came to Dakshineswar in search of a job, and Sri Ramakrishna was glad to see him.
Unable to resist the persuasion of Mathur Babu, Sri Ramakrishna at last entered the temple service, on condition that Hriday should be asked to assist him. His first duty was to dress and decorate the image of Kali.
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Born in an orthodox brahmin family, Sri Ramakrishna knew the formalities of worship, its rites and rituals. The innumerable gods and goddesses of the Hindu religion are the human aspects of the indescribable and incomprehensible Spirit, as conceived by the finite human mind. They understand and appreciate human love and emotion, help men to realize their secular and spiritual ideals, and ultimately enable men to attain liberation from the miseries of phenomenal Life. The Source of light, intelligence, wisdom, and strength is the One alone from whom comes the fulfilment of desire. Yet, as long as a man is bound by his human limitations, he cannot but worship God through human forms. He must use human symbols. Therefore Hinduism asks the devotees to look on God as the ideal father, the ideal mother, the ideal husband, the ideal son, or the ideal friend. But the name ultimately leads to the Nameless, the form to the Formless, the word to the Silence, the emotion to the serene realization of Peace in Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. The gods gradually merge in the one God. But until that realization is achieved, the devotee cannot dissociate human factors from his worship. Therefore the Deity is bathed and clothed and decked with ornaments. He is fed and put to sleep. He is propitiated with hymns, songs, and prayers. And there are appropriate rites connected with all these functions. For instance, to secure for himself external purity, the priest bathes himself in holy water and puts on a holy cloth. He purifies the mind and the sense-organs by appropriate meditations. He fortifies the place of worship against evil forces by drawing around it circles of fire and water. He awakens the different spiritual centres of the body and invokes the Supreme Spirit in his heart. Then he transfers the Supreme Spirit to the image before him and worships the image, regarding it no longer as clay or stone, but as the embodiment of Spirit, throbbing with Life and Consciousness. After the worship the Supreme Spirit is recalled from the image to Its true sanctuary, the heart of the priest. The real devotee knows the absurdity of worshipping the Transcendental Reality with material articles — clothing That which pervades the whole universe and the beyond, putting on a pedestal That which cannot be limited by space, feeding That which is disembodied and incorporeal, singing before That whose glory the music of the spheres tries vainly to proclaim. But through these rites the devotee aspires to go ultimately beyond rites and rituals, forms and names, words and praise, and to realize God as the All-pervading Consciousness.
Hindu priests are thoroughly acquainted with the rites of worship, but few of them are aware of their underlying significance. They move their hands and limbs mechanically, in obedience to the letter of the scriptures, and repeat the holy mantras like parrots. But from the very beginning the inner meaning of these rites was revealed to Sri Ramakrishna. As he sat facing the image, a strange transformation came over his mind. While going through the prescribed ceremonies, he would actually find himself encircled by a wall of fire protecting him and the place of worship from unspiritual vibrations, or he would feel the rising of the mystic Kundalini through the different centres of the body. The glow on his face, his deep absorption, and the intense atmosphere of the temple impressed everyone who saw him worship the Deity.
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In 1856 Ramkumar breathed his last. Sri Ramakrishna had already witnessed more than one death in the family. He had come to realize how impermanent is Life on earth. The more he was convinced of the transitory nature of worldly things, the more eager he became to realize God, the Fountain of Immortality.
--- THE FIRST VISION OF KALI
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But he did not have to wait very long. He has thus described his first vision of the Mother: "I felt as if my heart were being squeezed like a wet towel. I was overpowered with a great restlessness and a fear that it might not be my lot to realize Her in this Life. I could not bear the separation from Her any longer. Life seemed to be not worth living. Suddenly my glance fell on the sword that was kept in the Mother's temple. I determined to put an end to my Life. When I jumped up like a madman and seized it, suddenly the blessed Mother revealed Herself. The buildings with their different parts, the temple, and everything else vanished from my sight, leaving no trace whatsoever, and in their stead I saw a limitless, infinite, effulgent Ocean of Consciousness. As far as the eye could see, the shining billows were madly rushing at me from all sides with a terrific noise, to swallow me up! I was panting for breath. I was caught in the rush
and collapsed, unconscious. What was happening in the outside world I did not know; but within me there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss, altogether new, and I felt the presence of the Divine Mother." On his lips when he regained consciousness of the world was the word "Mother".
--
About this time he began to worship God by assuming the attitude of a servant toward his master. He imitated the mood of Hanuman, the monkey chieftain of the Ramayana, the ideal servant of Rama and traditional model for this self-effacing form of devotion. When he meditated on Hanuman his movements and his way of Life began to resemble those of a monkey. His eyes became restless. He lived on fruits and roots. With his cloth tied around his waist, a portion of it hanging in the form of a tail, he jumped from place to place instead of walking. And after a short while he was blessed with a vision of Sita, the divine consort of Rama, who entered his body and disappeared there with the words, "I bequeath to you my smile."
Mathur had faith in the sincerity of Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual zeal, but began now to doubt his sanity. He had watched him jumping about like a monkey. One day, when Rani Rasmani was listening to Sri Ramakrishna's singing in the temple, the young priest abruptly turned and slapped her. Apparently listening to his song, she had actually been thinking of a law-suit. She accepted the punishment as though the Divine Mother Herself had imposed it; but Mathur was distressed. He begged Sri Ramakrishna to keep his feelings under control and to heed the conventions of society. God Himself, he argued, follows laws. God never permitted, for instance, flowers of two colours to grow on the same stalk. The following day Sri Ramakrishna presented Mathur Babu with two hibiscus flowers growing on the same stalk, one red and one white.
Mathur and Rani Rasmani began to ascribe the mental ailment of Sri Ramakrishna in part, at least, to his observance of rigid continence. Thinking that a natural Life would relax the tension of his nerves, they engineered a plan with two women of ill fame. But as soon as the women entered his room, Sri Ramakrishna beheld in them the manifestation of the Divine Mother of the Universe and went into samadhi uttering Her name.
--- HALADHARI
In 1858 there came to Dakshineswar a cousin of Sri Ramakrishna, Haladhari by name, who was to remain there about eight years. On account of Sri Ramakrishna's indifferent health, Mathur appointed this man to the office of priest in the Kali temple. He was a complex character, versed in the letter of the scriptures, but hardly aware of their spirit. He loved to participate in hair-splitting theological discussions and, by the measure of his own erudition, he proceeded to gauge Sri Ramakrishna. An orthodox brahmin, he thoroughly disapproved of his cousin's unorthodox actions, but he was not unimpressed by Sri Ramakrishna's purity of Life, ecstatic love of God, and yearning for realization.
One day Haladhari upset Sri Ramakrishna with the statement that God is incomprehensible to the human mind. Sri Ramakrishna has described the great moment of doubt when he wondered whether his visions had really misled him: "With sobs I prayed to the Mother, 'Canst Thou have the heart to deceive me like this because I am a fool?' A stream of tears flowed from my eyes. Shortly afterwards I saw a volume of mist rising from the floor and filling the space before me. In the midst of it there appeared a face with flowing beard, calm, highly expressive, and fair. Fixing its gaze steadily upon me, it said solemnly, 'Remain in bhavamukha, on the threshold of relative consciousness.' This it repeated three times and then it gently disappeared in the mist, which itself dissolved. This vision reassured me."
A garbled report of Sri Ramakrishna's failing health, indifference to worldly Life, and various abnormal activities reached Kamarpukur and filled the heart of his poor mother with anguish. At her repeated request he returned to his village for a change of air. But his boyhood friends did not interest him any more. A divine fever was consuming him. He spent a great part of the day and night in one of the cremation grounds, in meditation. The place reminded him of the impermanence of the human body, of human hopes and achievements. It also reminded him of Kali, the Goddess of destruction.
--- MARRIAGE AND AFTER
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Thus the insane priest was by verdict of the great scholars of the day proclaimed a Divine Incarnation. His visions were not the result of an over-heated brain; they had precedent in spiritual history. And how did the proclamation affect Sri Ramakrishna himself? He remained the simple child of the Mother that he had been since the first day of his Life. Years later, when two of his householder disciples openly spoke of him as a Divine Incarnation and the matter was reported to him, he said with a touch of sarcasm: "Do they think they will enhance my glory that way? One of them is an actor on the stage and the other a physician. What do they know about Incarnations? Why, years ago pundits like Gauri and Vaishnavcharan declared me to be an Avatar. They were great scholars and knew what they said. But that did not make any change in my mind."
Sri Ramakrishna was a learner all his Life. He often used to quote a proverb to his disciples: "Friend, the more I live the more I learn." When the excitement created by the Brahmani's declaration was over, he set himself to the task of practising spiritual disciplines according to the traditional methods laid down in the Tantra and Vaishnava scriptures. Hitherto he had pursued his spiritual ideal according to the promptings of his own mind and heart. Now he accepted the Brahmani as his guru and set foot on the traditional highways.
--- TANTRA
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The average man wishes to enjoy the material objects of the world. Tantra bids him enjoy these, but at the same time discover in them the presence of God. Mystical rites are prescribed by which, slowly, the sense-objects become spiritualized and sense attraction is transformed into a love of God. So the very "bonds" of man are turned into "releasers". The very poison 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 this philosophy, the world with all its manifestations is nothing but the sport of Siva and Sakti, the Absolute and Its inscrutable Power.
The disciplines of Tantra are graded to suit aspirants of all degrees. Exercises are prescribed for people with "animal", "heroic", and "divine" outlooks. Certain of the rites require the presence of members of the opposite sex. Here the aspirant learns to look on woman as the embodiment of the Goddess Kali, the Mother of the Universe. The very basis of Tantra is the Motherhood of God and the glorification of woman. Every part of a woman's body is to be regarded as incarnate Divinity. But the rites are extremely dangerous. The help of a qualified guru is absolutely necessary. An unwary devotee may lose his foothold and fall into a pit of depravity.
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There are three kinds of formal devotion: tamasic, rajasic, and sattvic. If a person, while showing devotion, to God, is actuated by malevolence, arrogance, jealousy, or anger, then his devotion is tamasic, since it is influenced by tamas, the quality of inertia. If he worships God from a desire for fame or wealth, or from any other worldly ambition, then his devotion is rajasic, since it is influenced by rajas, the quality of activity. But if a person loves God without any thought of material gain, if he performs his duties to please God alone and maintains toward all created beings the attitude of friendship, then his devotion is called sattvic, since it is influenced by sattva, the quality of harmony. But the highest devotion transcends the three gunas, or qualities, being a spontaneous, uninterrupted inclination of the mind toward God, the Inner Soul of all beings; and it wells up in the heart of a true devotee as soon as he hears the name of God or mention of God's attributes. A devotee possessed of this love would not accept the happiness of heaven if it were offered him. His one desire is to love God under all conditions — in pleasure and pain, Life and death, honour and dishonour, prosperity and adversity.
There are two stages of bhakti. The first is known as vaidhi-bhakti, or love of God qualified by scriptural injunctions. For the devotees of this stage are prescribed regular and methodical worship, hymns, prayers, the repetition of God's name, and the chanting of His glories. This lower bhakti in course of time matures into para-bhakti, or supreme devotion, known also as prema, the most intense form of divine love. Divine love is an end in itself. It exists potentially in all human hearts, but in the case of bound creatures it is misdirected to earthly objects.
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About the year 1864 there came to Dakshineswar a wandering Vaishnava monk, Jatadhari, whose Ideal Deity was Rama. He always carried with him a small metal image of the Deity, which he called by the endearing name of Ramlala, the Boy Rama. Toward this little image he displayed the tender affection of Kausalya for her divine Son, Rama. As a result of Lifelong spiritual practice he had actually found in the metal image the presence of his Ideal. Ramlala was no longer for him a metal image, but the living God. He devoted himself to nursing Rama, feeding Rama, playing with Rama, taking Rama for a walk, and bathing Rama. And he found that the image responded to his love.
Sri Ramakrishna, much impressed with his devotion, requested Jatadhari to spend a few days at Dakshineswar. Soon Ramlala became the favourite companion of Sri Ramakrishna too. Later on he described to the devotees how the little image would dance gracefully before him, jump on his back, insist on being taken in his arms, run to the fields in the sun, pluck flowers from the bushes, and play pranks like a naughty boy. A very sweet relationship sprang up between him and Ramlala, for whom he felt the love of a mother.
--
Now one with Radha, he manifested the great ecstatic love, the mahabhava, which had found in her its fullest expression. Later Sri Ramakrishna said: "The manifestation in the same individual of the nineteen different kinds of emotion for God is called, in the books on bhakti, mahabhava. An ordinary man takes a whole Lifetime to express even a single one of these. But in this body [meaning himself] there has been a complete manifestation of all nineteen."
The love of Radha is the precursor of the resplendent vision of Sri Krishna, and Sri Ramakrishna soon experienced that vision. The enchanting ing form of Krishna appeared to him and merged in his person. He became Krishna; he totally forgot his own individuality and the world; he saw Krishna in himself and in the universe. Thus he attained to the fulfilment of the worship of the Personal God. He drank from the fountain of Immortal Bliss. The agony of his heart vanished forever. He realized Amrita, Immortality, beyond the shadow of death.
--
Totapuri was the bearer of a philosophy new to Sri Ramakrishna, the non-dualistic Vedanta philosophy, whose conclusions Totapuri had experienced in his own Life. This ancient Hindu system designates the Ultimate Reality as Brahman, also described as Satchidananda, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Brahman is the only Real Existence. In It there is no time, no space, no causality, no multiplicity. But through maya, Its inscrutable Power, time, space, and causality are created and the One appears to break into the many. The eternal Spirit appears as a manifold of individuals endowed with form and subject to the conditions of time. The Immortal becomes a victim of birth and death. The Changeless undergoes change. The sinless Pure Soul, hypnotized by Its own maya, experiences the joys of heaven and the pains of hell. But these experiences based on the duality of the subject-object relationship are unreal. Even the vision of a Personal God
is, ultimately speaking, as illusory as the experience of any other object. Man attains his liberation, therefore, by piercing the veil of maya and rediscovering his total identity with Brahman. Knowing himself to be one with the Universal Spirit, he realizes ineffable Peace. Only then does he go beyond the fiction of birth and death; only then does he become immortal. 'And this is the ultimate goal of all religions — to dehypnotize the soul now hypnotized by its own ignorance.
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from this height to the valleys of normal Life. They live and move in the world for the welfare of mankind. They are invested with a supreme spiritual power. A divine glory shines through them.
--- TOTAPURI
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In the burning flame before him Sri Ramakrishna performed the rituals of destroying his attachment to relatives, friends, body, mind, sense-organs, ego, and the world. The leaping flame swallowed it all, making the initiate free and pure. The sacred thread and the tuft of hair were consigned to the fire, completing his severance from caste, sex, and society. Last of all he burnt in that fire, with all that is holy as his witness, his desire for enjoyment here and hereafter. He uttered the sacred mantras giving assurance of safety and fearlessness to all beings, who were only manifestations of his own Self. The rites completed, the disciple received from the guru the loin-cloth and ochre robe, the emblems of his new Life.
The teacher and the disciple repaired to the meditation room near by. Totapuri began to impart to Sri Ramakrishna the great truths of Vedanta.
--
Totapuri had no idea of the struggles of ordinary men in the toils of passion and desire. Having maintained all through Life the guilelessness of a child, he laughed at the idea of a man's being led astray by the senses. He was convinced that the world was maya and had only to be denounced to vanish for ever. A born non-dualist, he had no faith in a Personal God. He did not believe in the terrible aspect of Kali, much less in Her benign aspect. Music and the chanting of God's holy name were to him only so much nonsense. He ridiculed the spending of emotion on the worship of a Personal God.
--- KALI AND MAYA
Sri Ramakrishna, on the other hand, though fully aware, like his guru, that the world is an illusory appearance, instead of slighting maya, like an orthodox monist, acknowledged its power in the relative Life. He was all love and reverence for maya, perceiving in it a mysterious and majestic expression of Divinity. To him maya itself was God, for everything was God. It was one of the faces of Brahman. What he had realized on the heights of the transcendental plane, he also found here below, everywhere about him, under the mysterious garb of names and forms. And this garb was a perfectly transparent sheath, through which he recognized the glory of the Divine Immanence. Maya, the mighty weaver of the garb, is none other than Kali, the Divine Mother. She is the primordial Divine Energy, Sakti, and She can no more be distinguished from the Supreme Brahman than can the power of burning be distinguished from fire. She projects the world and again withdraws it. She spins it as the spider spins its web. She is the Mother of the Universe, identical with the Brahman of Vedanta, and with the Atman of Yoga. As eternal Lawgiver, She makes and unmakes laws; it is by Her imperious will that karma yields its fruit. She ensnares men with illusion and again releases them from bondage with a look of Her benign eyes. She is the supreme Mistress of the cosmic play, and all objects, animate and inanimate, dance by Her will. Even those who realize the Absolute in nirvikalpa samadhi are under Her jurisdiction as long as they still live on the relative plane.
Thus, after nirvikalpa samadhi, Sri Ramakrishna realized maya in an altogether new role. The binding aspect of Kali vanished from before his vision. She no longer obscured his understanding. The world became the glorious manifestation of the Divine Mother. Maya became Brahman. The Transcendental Itself broke through the Immanent. Sri Ramakrishna discovered that maya operates in the relative world in two ways, and he termed these "avidyamaya" and "vidyamaya". Avidyamaya represents the dark forces of creation: sensuous desires, evil passions, greed, lust, cruelty, and so on. It sustains the world system on the lower planes. It is responsible for the round of man's birth and death. It must be fought and vanquished. But vidyamaya is the higher force of creation: the spiritual virtues, the enlightening qualities, kindness, purity, love, devotion. Vidyamaya elevates man to the higher planes of consciousness. With the help of vidyamaya the devotee rids himself of avidyamaya; he then becomes mayatita, free of maya. The two aspects of maya are the two forces of creation, the two powers of Kali; and She stands beyond them both. She is like the effulgent sun, bringing into existence and shining through and standing behind the clouds of different colours and shapes, conjuring up wonderful forms in the blue autumn heaven.
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About this time Totapuri was suddenly laid up with a severe attack of dysentery. On account of this miserable illness he found it impossible to meditate. One night the pain became excruciating. He could no longer concentrate on Brahman. The body stood in the way. He became incensed with its demands. A free soul, he did not at all care for the body. So he determined to drown it in the Ganges. Thereupon he walked into the river. But, lo! He walks to the other bank." (This version of the incident is taken from the biography of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Saradananda, one of the Master's direct disciples.) Is there not enough water in the Ganges? Standing dumbfounded on the other bank he looks back across the water. The trees, the temples, the houses, are silhouetted against the sky. Suddenly, in one dazzling moment, he sees on all sides the presence of the Divine Mother. She is in everything; She is everything. She is in the water; She is on land. She is the body; She is the mind. She is pain; She is comfort. She is knowledge; She is ignorance. She is Life; She is death. She is everything that one sees, hears, or imagines. She turns "yea" into "nay", and "nay" into "yea". Without Her grace no embodied being can go beyond Her realm. Man has no free will. He is not even free to die. Yet, again, beyond the body and mind She resides in Her Transcendental, Absolute aspect. She is the Brahman that Totapuri had been worshipping all his Life.
Totapuri returned to Dakshineswar and spent the remaining hours of the night meditating on the Divine Mother. In the morning he went to the Kali temple with Sri Ramakrishna and prostrated himself before the image of the Mother. He now realized why he had spent eleven months at Dakshineswar. Bidding farewell to the disciple, he continued on his way, enlightened.
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Sri Ramakrishna used to say that when the flower blooms the bees come to it for honey of their own accord. Now many souls began to visit Dakshineswar to satisfy their spiritual hunger. He, the devotee and aspirant, became the Master. Gauri, the great scholar who had been one of the first to proclaim Sri Ramakrishna an Incarnation of God, paid the Master a visit in 1870 and with the Master's blessings renounced the world. Narayan Shastri, another great pundit, who had mastered the six systems of Hindu philosophy and had been offered a lucrative post by the Maharaja of Jaipur, met the Master and recognized in him one who had realized in Life those ideals which he himself had encountered merely in books. Sri Ramakrishna initiated Narayan Shastri, at his earnest request, into the Life of sannyas. Pundit Padmalochan, the court pundit of the Maharaja of Burdwan, well known for his scholarship in both the Vedanta and the Nyaya systems of philosophy, accepted the Master as an Incarnation of God. Krishnakishore, a Vedantist scholar, became devoted to the Master. And there arrived Viswanath Upadhyaya, who was to become a favourite devotee; Sri Ramakrishna always addressed him as "Captain". He was a high officer of the King of Nepal and had received the title of Colonel in recognition of his merit. A scholar of the Gita, the Bhagavata, and the Vedanta philosophy, he daily performed the worship of his Chosen Deity with great devotion. "I have read the Vedas and the other scriptures", he said. "I have also met a good many monks and devotees in different places. But it is in Sri Ramakrishna's presence that my spiritual yearnings have been fulfilled. To me he seems to be the embodiment of the truths of the scriptures."
The Knowledge of Brahman in nirvikalpa samadhi had convinced Sri Ramakrishna that the gods of the different religions are but so many readings of the Absolute, and that the Ultimate Reality could never be expressed by human tongue. He 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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Eight years later, some time in November 1874, Sri Ramakrishna was seized with an irresistible desire to learn the truth of the Christian religion. He began to listen to readings from the Bible, by Sambhu Charan Mallick, a gentleman of Calcutta and a devotee of the Master. Sri Ramakrishna became fascinated by the Life and teachings of Jesus. One day he was seated in the parlour of Jadu Mallick's garden house (This expression is used throughout to translate the Bengali word denoting a rich man's country house set in a garden.) at Dakshineswar, when his eyes became fixed on a painting of the Madonna and Child. Intently watching it, he became gradually overwhelmed with divine emotion. The figures in the picture took on Life, and the rays of light emanating from them entered his soul. The effect of this experience was stronger than that of the vision of Mohammed. In dismay he cried out, "O Mother! What are You doing to me?" And, breaking through the barriers of creed and religion, he entered a new realm of ecstasy. Christ possessed his soul. For three days he did not set foot in the Kali temple. On the fourth day, in the afternoon, as he was walking in the Panchavati, he saw coming toward him a person with beautiful large eyes, serene countenance, and fair skin. As the two faced each other, a voice rang out in the depths of Sri Ramakrishna's soul: "Behold the Christ, who shed His heart's blood for the redemption of the world, who suffered a sea of anguish for love of men. It is He, the Master Yogi, who is in eternal union with God. It is Jesus, Love Incarnate." The Son of Man embraced the Son of the Divine Mother and merged in him. Sri Ramakrishna krishna realized his identity with Christ, as he had already realized his identity with Kali, Rama, Hanuman, Radha, Krishna, Brahman, and Mohammed. The Master went into samadhi and communed with the Brahman with attributes. Thus he experienced the truth that Christianity, too, was a path leading to God-Consciousness. Till the last moment of his Life he believed that Christ was an Incarnation of God. But Christ, for him, was not the only Incarnation; there were others — Buddha, for instance, and Krishna.
--- ATTITUDE TOWARD DIFFERENT RELIGIONS
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The Master took up the duty of instructing his young wife, and this included everything from housekeeping to the Knowledge of Brahman. He taught her how to trim a lamp, how to behave toward people according to their differing temperaments, and how to conduct herself before visitors. He instructed her in the mysteries of spiritual Life — prayer, meditation, japa, deep contemplation, and samadhi. The first lesson that Sarada Devi received was: "God is everybody's Beloved, just as the moon is dear to every child. Everyone has the same right to pray to Him. Out of His grace He reveals Himself to all who call upon Him. You too will see Him if you but pray to Him."
Totapuri, coming to know of the Master's marriage, had once remarked: "What does it matter? He alone is firmly established in the Knowledge of Brahman who can adhere to his spirit of discrimination and renunciation even while living with his wife. He alone has attained the supreme illumination who can look on man and woman alike as Brahman. A man with the idea of sex may be a good aspirant, but he is still far from the goal." Sri Ramakrishna and his wife lived together at Dakshineswar, but their minds always soared above the worldly plane. A few months after Sarada Devi's arrival Sri Ramakrishna arranged, on an auspicious day, a special worship of Kali, the Divine Mother. Instead of an image of the Deity, he placed on the seat the living image, Sarada Devi herself. The worshipper and the worshipped went into deep samadhi and in the transcendental plane their souls were united. After several hours Sri Ramakrishna came down again to the relative plane, sang a hymn to the Great Goddess, and surrendered, at the feet of the living image, himself, his rosary, and the fruit of his Life-long sadhana. This is known in Tantra as the Shorasi Puja, the "Adoration of Woman". Sri Ramakrishna realized the significance of the great statement of the Upanishad: "O Lord, Thou art the woman. Thou art the man; Thou art the boy. Thou art the girl; Thou art the old, tottering on their crutches. Thou pervadest the universe in its multiple forms."
By his marriage Sri Ramakrishna admitted the great value of marriage in man's spiritual evolution, and by adhering to his monastic vows he demonstrated the imperative necessity of self-control, purity, and continence, in the realization of God. By this unique spiritual relationship with his wife he proved that husband and wife can live together as spiritual companions. Thus his Life is a synthesis of the ways of Life of the householder and the monk.
--- THE "EGO" OF THE MASTER
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First, he was an Incarnation of God, a specially commissioned person, whose spiritual experiences were for the benefit of humanity. Whereas it takes an ordinary man a whole Life's struggle to realize one or two phases of God, he had in a few years realized God in all His phases.
Second, he knew that he had always been a free soul, that the various disciplines through which he had passed were really not necessary for his own liberation but were solely for the benefit of others. Thus the terms liberation and bondage were not applicable to him. As long as there are beings who consider themselves bound. God must come down to earth as an Incarnation to free them from bondage, just as a magistrate must visit any part of his district in which there is trouble.
--
Third, Sri Ramakrishna realized the wish of the Divine Mother that through him She should found a new Order, consisting of those who would uphold the universal doctrines illustrated in his Life.
Fourth, his spiritual insight told him that those who were having their last birth on the mortal plane of existence and those who had sincerely called on the Lord even once in their lives must come to him.
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Keshab Chandra Sen and Sri Ramakrishna met for the first time in the garden house of Jaygopal Sen at Belgharia, a few miles from Dakshineswar, where the great Brahmo leader was staying with some of his disciples. In many respects the two were poles apart, though an irresistible inner attraction was to make them intimate friends. The Master had realized God as Pure Spirit and Consciousness, but he believed in the various forms of God as well. Keshab, on the other hand, regarded image worship as idolatry and gave allegorical explanations of the Hindu deities. Keshab was an orator and a writer of books and magazine articles; Sri Ramakrishna had a horror of lecturing and hardly knew how to write his own name, Keshab's fame spread far and wide, even reaching the distant shores of England; the Master still led a secluded Life in the village of Dakshineswar. Keshab emphasized social reforms for India's regeneration; to Sri Ramakrishna God-realization was the only goal of Life. Keshab considered himself a disciple of Christ and accepted in a diluted form the Christian sacraments and Trinity; Sri Ramakrishna was the simple child of Kali, the Divine Mother, though he too, in a different way, acknowledged Christ's divinity. Keshab was a householder holder and took a real interest in the welfare of his children, whereas Sri Ramakrishna was a paramahamsa and completely indifferent to the Life of the world. Yet, as their acquaintance ripened into friendship, Sri Ramakrishna and Keshab held each other in great love and respect. Years later, at the news of Keshab's death, the Master felt as if half his body had become paralyzed. Keshab's concepts of the harmony of religions and the Motherhood of God were deepened and enriched by his contact with Sri Ramakrishna.
Sri Ramakrishna, dressed in a red-bordered dhoti, one end of which was carelessly thrown over his left shoulder, came to Jaygopal's garden house accompanied by Hriday. No one took notice of the unostentatious visitor. Finally the Master said to Keshab, "People tell me you have seen God; so I have come to hear from you about God." A magnificent conversation followed. The Master sang a thrilling song about Kali and forthwith went into samadhi. When Hriday uttered the sacred "Om" in his ears, he gradually came back to consciousness of the world, his face still radiating a divine brilliance. Keshab and his followers were amazed. The contrast between Sri Ramakrishna and the Brahmo devotees was very interesting. There sat this small man, thin and extremely delicate. His eyes were illumined with an inner light. Good humour gleamed in his eyes and lurked in the corners of his mouth. His speech was Bengali of a homely kind with a slight, delightful stammer, and his words held men enthralled by their wealth of spiritual experience, their inexhaustible store of simile and metaphor, their power of observation, their bright and subtle humour, their wonderful catholicity, their ceaseless flow of wisdom. And around him now were the sophisticated men of Bengal, the best products of Western education, with Keshab, the idol of young Bengal, as their leader.
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Gradually other Brahmo leaders began to feel Sri Ramakrishna's influence. But they were by no means uncritical admirers of the Master. They particularly disapproved of his ascetic renunciation and condemnation of "woman and gold".1 They measured him according to their own ideals of the householder's Life. Some could not understand his samadhi and described it as a nervous malady. Yet they could not resist his magnetic personality.
Among the Brahmo leaders who knew the Master closely were Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, Vijaykrishna Goswami, Trailokyanath Sannyal, and Shivanath Shastri.
Shivanath, one day, was greatly impressed by the Master's utter simplicity and abhorrence of praise. He was seated with Sri Ramakrishna in the latter's room when several rich men of Calcutta arrived. The Master left the room for a few minutes. In the mean time Hriday, his nephew, began to describe his samadhi to the visitors. The last few words caught the Master's ear as he entered the room. He said to Hriday: "What a mean-spirited fellow you must be to extol me thus before these rich men! You have seen their costly apparel and their gold watches and chains, and your object is to get from them as much money as you can. What do I care about what they think of me? (Turning to the gentlemen) No, my friends, what he has told you about me is not true. It was not love of God that made me absorbed in God and indifferent to external Life. I became positively insane for some time. The sadhus who frequented this temple told me to practise many things. I tried to follow them, and the consequence was that my austerities drove me to insanity." This is a quotation from one of Shivanath's books. He took the Master's words literally and failed to see their real import.
Shivanath vehemently criticized the Master for his other-worldly attitude toward his wife. He writes: "Ramakrishna was practically separated from his wife, who lived in her village home. One day when I was complaining to some friends about the virtual widowhood of his wife, he drew me to one side and whispered in my ear: 'Why do you complain? It is no longer possible; it is all dead and gone.' Another day as I was inveighing against this part of his teaching, and also declaring that our program of work in the Brahmo Samaj includes women, that ours is a social and domestic religion, and that we want to give education and social liberty to women, the saint became very much excited, as was his way when anything against his settled conviction was asserted — a trait we so much liked in him — and exclaimed, 'Go, thou fool, go and perish in the pit that your women will dig for you.' Then he glared at me and said: 'What does a gardener do with a young plant? Does he not surround it with a fence, to protect it from goats and cattle? And when the young plant has grown up into a tree and it can no longer be injured by cattle, does he not remove the fence and let the tree grow freely?' I replied, 'Yes, that is the custom with gardeners.' Then he remarked, 'Do the same in your spiritual Life; become strong, be full-grown; then you may seek them.' To which I replied, 'I don't agree with you in thinking that women's work is like that of cattle, destructive; they are our associates and helpers in our spiritual struggles and social progress' — a view with which he could not agree, and he marked his dissent by shaking his head. Then referring to the lateness of the hour he jocularly remarked, 'It is time for you to depart; take care, do not be late; otherwise your woman will not admit you into her room.' This evoked hearty laughter."
Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, the right-hand man of Keshab and an accomplished Brahmo preacher in Europe and America, bitterly criticized Sri Ramakrishna's use of uncultured language and also his austere attitude toward his wife. But he could not escape the spell of the Master's personality. In the course of an article about Sri Ramakrishna, Pratap wrote in the "Theistic Quarterly Review": "What is there in common between him and me? I, a Europeanized, civilized, self-centred, semi-sceptical, so-called educated reasoner, and he, a poor, illiterate, unpolished, half-idolatrous, friendless Hindu devotee? Why should I sit long hours to attend to him, I, who have listened to Disraeli and Fawcett, Stanley and Max Muller, and a whole host of European scholars and divines? . . . And it is not I only, but dozens like me, who do the same. . . . He worships Siva, he worships Kali, he worships Rama, he worships Krishna, and is a confirmed advocate of Vedantic doctrines. . . . He is an idolater, yet is a faithful and most devoted meditator on the perfections of the One Formless, Absolute, Infinite Deity. . . . His religion is ecstasy, his worship means transcendental insight, his whole nature burns day and night with a permanent fire and fever of a strange faith and feeling. . . . So long as he is spared to us, gladly shall we sit at his feet to learn from him the sublime precepts of purity, unworldliness, spirituality, and inebriation in the love of God. . . . He, by his childlike bhakti, by his strong conceptions of an ever-ready Motherhood, helped to unfold it [God as our Mother] in our minds wonderfully. . . . By associating with him we learnt to realize better the divine attributes as scattered over the three hundred and thirty millions of deities of mythological India, the gods of the Puranas."
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This contact with the educated and progressive Bengalis opened Sri Ramakrishna's eyes to a new realm of thought. Born and brought up in a simple village, without any formal education, and taught by the orthodox holy men of India in religious Life, he had had no opportunity to study the influence of modernism on the thoughts and lives of the Hindus. He could not properly estimate the result of the impact of Western education on Indian culture. He was a Hindu of the Hindus, renunciation being to him the only means to the realization of God in Life. From the Brahmos he learnt that the new generation of India made a compromise between God and the world. Educated young men were influenced more by the Western philosophers than by their own prophets. But Sri Ramakrishna was not dismayed, for he saw in this, too, the hand of God. And though he expounded to the Brahmos all his ideas about God and austere religious disciplines, yet he bade them accept from his teachings only as much as suited their tastes and temperaments.
^The term "woman and gold", which has been used throughout in a collective sense, occurs again and again in the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna to designate the chief impediments to spiritual progress. This favourite expression of the Master, "kaminikanchan", has often been misconstrued. By it he meant only "lust and greed", the baneful influence of which retards the aspirant's spiritual growth. He used the word "kamini", or "woman", as a concrete term for the sex instinct when addressing his man devotees. He advised women, on the other hand, to shun "man". "Kanchan", or "gold", symbolizes greed, which is the other obstacle to spiritual Life.
Sri Ramakrishna never taught his disciples to hate any woman, or womankind in general. This can be seen clearly by going through all his teachings under this head and judging them collectively. The Master looked on all women as so many images of the Divine Mother of the Universe. He paid the highest homage to womankind by accepting a woman as his guide while practising the very profound spiritual disciplines of Tantra. His wife, known and revered as the Holy Mother, was his constant companion and first disciple. At the end of his spiritual practice he literally worshipped his wife as the embodiment of the Goddess Kali, the Divine Mother. After his passing away the Holy Mother became the spiritual guide not only of a large number of householders, but also of many monastic members of the Ramakrishna Order.
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^The word is generally used in the text to denote one devoted to God, a worshipper of the Personal God, or a follower of the path of love. A devotee of Sri Ramakrishna is one who is devoted to Sri Ramakrishna and follows his teachings. The word "disciple", when used in connexion with Sri Ramakrishna, refers to one who had been initiated into spiritual Life by Sri Ramakrishna and who regarded him as his guru.
--- THE MASTER'S METHOD OF TEACHING
But he remained as ever the willing instrument in the hand of God, the child of the Divine Mother, totally untouched by the idea of being a teacher. He used to say that three ideas — that he was a guru, a father, and a master — pricked his flesh like thorns. Yet he was an extraordinary teacher. He stirred his disciples' hearts more by a subtle influence than by actions or words. He never claimed to be the founder of a religion or the organizer of a sect. Yet he was a religious dynamo. He was the verifier of all religions and creeds. He was like an expert gardener, who prepares the soil and removes the weeds, knowing that the plants will grow because of the inherent power of the seeds, producing each its appropriate flowers and fruits. He never thrust his ideas on anybody. He understood people's limitations and worked on the principle that what is good for one may be bad for another. He had the unusual power of knowing the devotees' minds, even their inmost souls, at the first sight. He accepted disciples with the full knowledge of their past tendencies and future possibilities. The Life of evil did not frighten him, nor did religious squeamishness raise anybody in his estimation. He saw in everything the unerring finger of the Divine Mother. Even the light that leads astray was to him the light from God.
To those who became his intimate disciples the Master was a friend, companion, and playmate. Even the chores of religious discipline would be lightened in his presence. The devotees would be so inebriated with pure joy in his company that they would have no time to ask themselves whether he was an Incarnation, a perfect soul, or a yogi. His very presence was a great teaching; words were superfluous. In later years his disciples remarked that while they were with him they would regard him as a comrade, but afterwards would tremble to think of their frivolities in the presence of such a great person. They had convincing proof that the Master could, by his mere wish, kindle in their hearts the love of God and give them His vision.
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For the householders Sri Ramakrishna did not prescribe the hard path of total renunciation. He wanted them to discharge their obligations to their families. Their renunciation was to be mental. Spiritual Life could not be acquired by flying away from responsibilities. A married couple should live like brother and sister after the birth of one or two children, devoting their time to spiritual talk and contemplation. He encouraged the householders, saying that their Life was, in a way, easier than that of the monk, since it was more advantageous to fight the enemy from inside a fortress than in an open field. He insisted, however, on their repairing into solitude every now and then to strengthen their devotion and faith in God through prayer, japa, and meditation. He prescribed for them the companionship of sadhus. He asked them to perform their worldly duties with one hand, while holding to God with the other, and to pray to God to make their duties fewer and fewer so that in the end they might cling to Him with both hands. He would discourage in both the householders and the celibate youths any lukewarmness in their spiritual struggles. He would not ask them to follow indiscriminately the ideal of non-resistance, which ultimately makes a coward of the unwary.
--- FUTURE MONKS
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Suresh Mitra, a beloved disciple whom the Master often addressed as Surendra, had received an English education and held an important post in an English firm. Like many other educated young men of the time, he prided himself on his atheism and led a Bohemian Life. He was addicted to drinking. He cherished an exaggerated notion about man's free will. A victim of mental depression, he was brought to Sri Ramakrishna by Ramchandra chandra Dutta. When he heard the Master asking a disciple to practise the virtue of self-surrender to God, he was impressed. But though he tried thenceforth to do so, he was unable to give up his old associates and his drinking. One day the Master said in his presence, "Well, when a man goes to an undesirable place, why doesn't he take the Divine Mother with him?" And to Surendra himself Sri Ramakrishna said: "Why should you drink wine as wine? Offer it to Kali, and then take it as Her prasad, as consecrated drink
. But see that you don't become intoxicated; you must not reel and your thoughts must not wander. At first you will feel ordinary excitement, but soon you will experience spiritual exaltation." Gradually Surendra's entire Life was changed. The Master designated him as one of those commissioned by the Divine Mother to defray a great part of his expenses. Surendra's purse was always open for the Master's comfort.
--- KEDAR
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Durgacharan Nag, also known as Nag Mahashay, was the ideal householder among the lay disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. He was the embodiment of the Master's ideal of Life in the world, unstained by worldliness. In spite of his intense desire to become a sannyasi, Sri Ramakrishna asked him to live in the world in the spirit of a monk, and the disciple truly carried out this injunction. He was born of a poor family and even during his boyhood often sacrificed everything to lessen the sufferings of the needy. He had married at an early age and after his wife's death had married a second time to obey his father's command. But he once said to his wife: "Love on the physical level never lasts. He is indeed blessed who can give his love to God with his whole heart. Even a little attachment to the body endures for several births. So do not be attached to this cage of bone and flesh. Take shelter at the feet of the Mother and think of Her alone. Thus your Life here and hereafter will be ennobled." The Master spoke of him as a "blazing light". He received every word of Sri Ramakrishna in dead earnest. One day he heard the Master saying that it was difficult for 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 his chest of medicines into the Ganges. Sri Ramakrishna assured him that he would not lack simple food and clothing. He bade him serve holy men. On being asked where he would find real holy men, the Master said that the sadhus themselves would seek his company. No sannyasi could have lived a more austere Life than Durgacharan.
--- GIRISH GHOSH
Girish Chandra Ghosh was a born rebel against God, a sceptic, a Bohemian, a drunkard. He was the greatest Bengali dramatist of his time, the father of the modem Bengali stage. Like other young men he had imbibed all the vices of the West. He had plunged into a Life of dissipation and had become convinced that religion was only a fraud. Materialistic philosophy he justified as enabling one to get at least a little fun out of Life. But a series of reverses shocked him and he became eager to solve the riddle of Life. He had heard people say that in spiritual Life the help of a guru was imperative and that the guru was to be regarded as God Himself. But Girish was too well acquainted with human nature to see perfection in a man. His first meeting with Sri Ramakrishna did not impress him at all. He returned home feeling as if he had seen a freak at a circus; for the Master, in a semi-conscious mood, had inquired whether it was evening, though the lamps were burning in the room. But their paths often crossed, and Girish could not avoid further encounters. The Master attended a performance in Girish's Star Theatre. On this occasion, too, Girish found nothing impressive about him. One day, however, Girish happened to see the Master dancing and singing with the devotees. He felt the contagion and wanted to join them, but restrained himself for fear of ridicule. Another day Sri Ramakrishna was about to give him spiritual instruction, when Girish said: "I don't want to listen to instructions. I have myself written many instructions. They are of no use to me. Please help me in a more tangible way If you can." This pleased the Master and he asked Girish to cultivate faith.
As time passed, Girish began to learn that the guru is the one who silently unfolds the disciple's inner Life. He became a steadfast devotee of the Master. He often loaded the Master with insults, drank in his presence, and took liberties which astounded the other devotees. But the Master knew that at heart Girish was tender, faithful, and sincere. He would not allow Girish to give up the theatre. And when a devotee asked him to tell Girish to give up drinking, he sternly replied: "That is none of your business. He who has taken charge of him will look after him. Girish is a devotee of heroic type. I tell you, drinking will not affect him." The Master knew that mere words could not induce a man to break deep-rooted habits, but that the silent influence of love worked miracles. Therefore he never asked him to give up alcohol, with the result that Girish himself eventually broke the habit. Sri Ramakrishna had strengthened Girish's resolution by allowing him to feel that he was absolutely free.
One day Girish felt depressed because he was unable to submit to any routine of spiritual discipline. In an exalted mood the Master said to him: "All right, give me your power of attorney. Henceforth I assume responsibility for you. You need not do anything." Girish heaved a sigh of relief. He felt happy to think that Sri Ramakrishna had assumed his spiritual responsibilities. But poor Girish could not then realize that He also, on his part, had to give up his freedom and make of himself a puppet in Sri Ramakrishna's hands. The Master began to discipline him according to this new attitude. One day Girish said about a trifling matter, "Yes, I shall do this." "No, no!" the Master corrected him. "You must not speak in that egotistic manner. You should say, 'God willing, I shall do it.'" Girish understood. Thenceforth he tried to give up all idea of personal responsibility and surrender himself to the Divine Will. His mind began to dwell constantly on Sri Ramakrishna. This unconscious meditation in time chastened his turbulent spirit.
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But it was in the company of his younger devotees, pure souls yet unstained by the touch of worldliness, that Sri Ramakrishna took greatest joy. Among the young men who later embraced the householder's Life were Narayan, Paitu, the younger Naren, Tejchandra, and Purna. These visited the Master sometimes against strong opposition from home.
--- PURNA
--
Mahimacharan and Pratap Hazra were two devotees outstanding for their pretentiousness and idiosyncrasies. But the Master showed them his unfailing love and kindness, though he was aware of their shortcomings. Mahimacharan Chakravarty had met the Master long before the arrival of the other disciples. He had had the intention of leading a spiritual Life, but a strong desire to acquire name and fame was his weakness. He claimed to have been initiated by Totapuri and used to say that he had been following the path of knowledge according to his guru's instructions. He possessed a large library of English and Sanskrit books. But though he pretended to have read them, most of the leaves were uncut. The Master knew all his limitations, yet enjoyed listening to him recite from the Vedas and other scriptures. He would always exhort Mahima to meditate on the meaning of the scriptural texts and to practise spiritual discipline.
Pratap Hazra, a middle-aged man, hailed from a village near Kamarpukur. He was not altogether unresponsive to religious feelings. On a moment's impulse he had left his home, aged mother, wife, and children, and had found shelter in the temple garden at Dakshineswar, where he intended to lead a spiritual Life. He loved to argue, and the Master often pointed him out as an example of barren argumentation. He was hypercritical of others and cherished an exaggerated notion of his own spiritual advancement. He was mischievous and often tried to upset the minds of the Master's young disciples, criticizing them for their happy and joyous Life and asking them to devote their time to meditation. The Master teasingly compared Hazra to Jatila and Kutila, the two women who always created obstructions in Krishna's sport with the gopis, and said that Hazra lived at Dakshineswar to "thicken the plot" by adding complications.
--- SOME NOTED MEN
Sri Ramakrishna also became acquainted with a number of people whose scholarship or wealth entitled them everywhere to respect. He had met, a few years before, Devendranath Tagore, famous all over Bengal for his wealth, scholarship, saintly character, and social position. But the Master found him disappointing; for, whereas Sri Ramakrishna expected of a saint complete renunciation of the world, Devendranath combined with his saintliness a Life of enjoyment. Sri Ramakrishna met the great poet Michael Madhusudan, who had embraced Christianity "for the sake of his stomach". To him the Master could not impart instruction, for the Divine Mother "pressed his tongue". In addition he met Maharaja Jatindra Mohan Tagore, a titled aristocrat of Bengal; Kristodas Pal, the editor, social reformer, and patriot; Iswar Vidyasagar, the noted philanthropist and educator; Pundit Shashadhar, a great champion of Hindu orthodoxy; Aswini Kumar Dutta, a headmaster, moralist, and leader of Indian Nationalism; and Bankim Chatterji, a deputy magistrate, novelist, and essayist, and one of the fashioners of modern Bengali prose. Sri Ramakrishna was not the man to be dazzled by outward show, glory, or eloquence. A pundit without discrimination he regarded as a mere straw. He would search people's hearts for the light of God, and if that was missing he would have nothing to do with them.
--- KRISTODAS PAL
The Europeanized Kristodas Pal did not approve of the Master's emphasis on renunciation and said; "Sir, this cant of renunciation has almost ruined the country. It is for this reason that the Indians are a subject nation today. Doing good to others, bringing education to the door of the ignorant, and above all, improving the material conditions of the country — these should be our duty now. The cry of religion and renunciation would, on the contrary, only weaken us. You should advise the young men of Bengal to resort only to such acts as will uplift the country." Sri Ramakrishna gave him a searching look and found no divine light within, "You man of poor understanding!" Sri Ramakrishna said sharply. "You dare to slight in these terms renunciation and piety, which our scriptures describe as the greatest of all virtues! After reading two pages of English you think you have come to know the world! You appear to think you are omniscient. Well, have you seen those tiny crabs that are born in the Ganges just when the rains set in? In this big universe you are even less significant than one of those small creatures. How dare you talk of helping the world? The Lord will look to that. You haven't the power in you to do it." After a pause the Master continued: "Can you explain to me how you can work for others? I know what you mean by helping them. To feed a number of persons, to treat them when they are sick, to construct a road or dig a well — isn't that all? These, are good deeds, no doubt, but how trifling in comparison with the vastness of the universe! How far can a man advance in this line? How many people can you save from famine? Malaria has ruined a whole province; what could you do to stop its onslaught? God alone looks after the world. Let a man first realize Him. Let a man get the authority from God and be endowed with His power; then, and then alone, may he think of doing good to others. A man should first be purged of all egotism. Then alone will the Blissful Mother ask him to work for the world." Sri Ramakrishna mistrusted philanthropy that presumed to pose as charity. He warned people against it. He saw in most acts of philanthropy nothing but egotism, vanity, a desire for glory, a barren excitement to kill the boredom of Life, or an attempt to soothe a guilty conscience. True charity, he taught, is the result of love of God — service to man in a spirit of worship.
--- MONASTIC DISCIPLES
The disciples whom the Master trained for monastic Life were the following:
Narendranath Dutta (Swami Vivekananda)
--
The first of these young men to come to the Master was Latu. Born of obscure parents, in Behar, he came to Calcutta in search of work and was engaged by Ramchandra Dutta as house-boy. Learning of the saintly Sri Ramakrishna, he visited the Master at Dakshineswar and was deeply touched by his cordiality. When he was about to leave, the Master asked him to take some money and return home in a boat or carriage. But Latu declared he had a few pennies and jingled the coins in his pocket. Sri Ramakrishna later requested Ram to allow Latu to stay with him permanently. Under Sri Ramakrishna's guidance Latu made great progress in meditation and was blessed with ecstatic visions, but all the efforts of the Master to give him a smattering of education failed. Latu was very fond of kirtan and other devotional songs but remained all his Life illiterate.
--- RAKHAL
--
Gopal Sur of Sinthi came to Dakshineswar at a rather advanced age and was called the elder Gopal. He had lost his wife, and the Master assuaged his grief. Soon he renounced the world and devoted himself fully to meditation and prayer. Some years later Gopal gave the Master the ochre cloths with which the latter initiated several of his disciples into monastic Life.
--- NARENDRA
--
But during his third visit Narendra fared no better. This time, at the Master's touch, he lost consciousness entirely. While he was still in that state, Sri Ramakrishna questioned him concerning his spiritual antecedents and whereabouts, his mission in this world, and the duration of his mortal Life. The answers confirmed what the Master himself had known and inferred. Among other things, he came to know that Narendra was a sage who had already attained perfection, and that the day he learnt his real nature he would give up his body in yoga, by an act of will.
A few more meetings completely removed from Narendra's mind the last traces of the notion that Sri Ramakrishna might be a monomaniac or wily hypnotist. His integrity, purity, renunciation, and unselfishness were beyond question. But Narendra could not accept a man, an imperfect mortal, as his guru. As a member of the Brahmo Samaj, he could not believe that a human intermediary was necessary between man and God. Moreover, he openly laughed at Sri Ramakrishna's visions as hallucinations. Yet in the secret chamber of his heart he bore a great love for the Master.
--
Narendra now realized that he had a spiritual mission to fulfil. He resolved to renounce the world, as his grandfather had renounced it, and he came to Sri Ramakrishna for his blessing. But even before he had opened his mouth, the Master knew what was in his mind and wept bitterly at the thought of separation. "I know you cannot lead a worldly Life," he said, "but for my sake live in the world as long as I live."
One day, soon after, Narendra requested Sri Ramakrishna to pray to the Divine Mother to remove his poverty. Sri Ramakrishna bade him pray to Her himself, for She would certainly listen to his prayer. Narendra entered the shrine of Kali. As he stood before the image of the Mother, he beheld Her as a living Goddess, ready to give wisdom and liberation. Unable to ask Her for petty worldly things, he prayed only for knowledge and renunciation, love and liberation. The Master rebuked him for his failure to ask the Divine Mother to remove his poverty and sent him back to the temple. But Narendra, standing in Her presence, again forgot the purpose of his coming. Thrice he went to the temple at the bidding of the Master, and thrice he returned, having forgotten in Her presence why he had come. He was wondering about it when it suddenly flashed in his mind that this was all the work of Sri Ramakrishna; so now he asked the Master himself to remove his poverty, and was assured that his family would not lack simple food and clothing.
--
Baburam Ghosh came to Dakshineswar accompanied by Rakhal, his classmate. The Master, as was often his custom, examined the boy's physiognomy and was satisfied about his latent spirituality. At the age of eight Baburam had thought of leading a Life of renunciation, in the company of a monk, in a hut shut out from the public view by a thick wall of trees. The very sight of the Panchavati awakened in his heart that dream of boyhood. Baburam was tender in body and soul. The Master used to say that he was pure to his very bones. One day Hazra in his usual mischievous fashion advised Baburam and some of the other young boys to ask Sri Ramakrishna for some spiritual powers and not waste their Life in mere gaiety and merriment. The Master, scenting mischief, called Baburam to his side and said: "What can you ask of me? Isn't everything that I have already yours? Yes, everything I have earned in the shape of realizations is for the sake of you all. So get rid of the idea of begging, which alienates by creating a distance. Rather realize your kinship with me and gain the key to all the treasures.
--- NIRANJAN
Nitya Niranjan Sen was a disciple of heroic type. He came to the Master when he was eighteen years old. He was a medium for a group of spiritualists. During his first visit the Master said to him: "My boy, if you think always of ghosts you will become a ghost, and if you think of God you will become God. Now, which do you prefer?" Niranjan severed all connexions with the spiritualists. During his second visit the Master embraced him and said warmly: "Niranjan, my boy, the days are flitting away. When will you realize God? This Life will be in vain if you do not realize Him. When will you devote your mind wholly to God?" Niranjan was surprised to see the Master's great anxiety for his spiritual welfare. He was a young man endowed with unusual spiritual parts. He felt disdain for worldly pleasures and was totally guileless, like a child. But he had a violent temper. One day, as he was coming in a country boat to Dakshineswar, some of his fellow passengers began to speak ill of the Master. Finding his protest futile, Niranjan began to rock the boat, threatening to sink it in mid stream. That silenced the offenders. When he reported the incident to the Master, he was rebuked for his inability to curb his anger.
--- JOGINDRA
--
Sri Ramakrishna employed a ruse to bring Jogindra to him. As soon as the disciple entered the room, the Master rushed forward to meet the young man. Catching hold of the disciple's hand, he said: "What if you have married? Haven't I too married? What is there to be afraid of in that?" Touching his own chest he said: "If this [meaning himself] is propitious, then even a hundred thousand marriages cannot injure you. If you desire to lead a householder's Life, then bring your wife here one day, and I shall see that she becomes a real companion in your spiritual progress. But if you want to lead a monastic Life, then I shall eat up your attachment to the world." Jogin was dumbfounded at these words. He received new strength, and his spirit of renunciation was re-established.
--- SASHI AND SARAT
Sashi and Sarat were two cousins who came from a pious brahmin family of Calcutta. At an early age they had joined the Brahmo Samaj and had come under the influence of Keshab Sen. The Master said to them at their first meeting: "If bricks and tiles are burnt after the trade-mark has been stamped on them, they retain the mark for ever. Similarly, man should be stamped with God before entering the world. Then he will not become attached to worldliness." Fully aware of the future course of their Life, he asked them not to marry. The Master asked Sashi whether he believed in God with form or in God without form. Sashi replied that he was not even sure about the existence of God; so he could not speak one way or the other. This frank answer very much pleased the Master.
Sarat's soul longed for the all-embracing realization of the Godhead. When the Master inquired whether there was any particular form of God he wished to see, the boy replied that he would like to see God in all the living beings of the world. "But", the Master demurred, "that is the last word in realization. One cannot have it at the very outset." Sarat stated calmly: "I won't be satisfied with anything short of that. I shall trudge on along the path till I attain that blessed state." Sri Ramakrishna was very much pleased.
--
Harinath had led the austere Life of a brahmachari even from his early boyhood — bathing in the Ganges every day, cooking his own meals, waking before sunrise, and reciting the Gita from memory before leaving bed. He found in the Master the embodiment of the Vedanta scriptures. Aspiring to be a follower of the ascetic Sankara, he cherished a great hatred for women. One day he said to the Master that he could not allow even small girls to come near him. The Master scolded him and said: "You are talking like a fool. Why should you hate women? They are the manifestations of the Divine Mother. Regard them as your own mother and you will never feel their evil influence. The more you hate them, the more you will fall into their snares." Hari said later that these words completely changed his attitude toward women.
The Master knew Hari's passion for Vedanta. But he did not wish any of his disciples to become a dry ascetic or a mere bookworm. So he asked Hari to practise Vedanta in Life by giving up the unreal and following the Real. "But it is not so easy", Sri Ramakrishna said, "to realize the illusoriness of the world. Study alone does not help one very much. The grace of God is required. Mere personal effort is futile. A man is a tiny creature after all, with very limited powers. But he can achieve the impossible if he prays to God for His grace." Whereupon the Master sang a song in praise of grace. Hari was profoundly moved and shed tears. Later in Life Hari achieved a wonderful synthesis of the ideals of the Personal God and the Impersonal Truth.
--- GANGADHAR
Gangadhar, Harinath's friend, also led the Life of a strict brahmachari, eating vegetarian food cooked by his own hands and devoting himself to the study of the scriptures. He met the Master in 1884 and soon became a member of his inner circle. The Master praised his ascetic habit and attributed it to the spiritual disciplines of his past Life. Gangadhar became a close companion of Narendra.
--- HARIPRASANNA
Hariprasanna, a college student, visited the Master in the company of his friends Sashi and Sarat. Sri Ramakrishna showed him great favour by initiating him 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
Kaliprasad visited the Master toward the end of 1883. Given to the practice of meditation and the study of the scriptures. Kali was particularly interested in yoga. Feeling the need of a guru in spiritual Life, he came to the Master and was accepted as a disciple. The young boy possessed a rational mind and often felt sceptical about the Personal God. The Master said to him: "Your doubts will soon disappear. Others, too, have passed through such a state of mind. Look at Naren. He now weeps at the names of Radha and Krishna." Kali began to see visions of gods and goddesses. Very soon these disappeared and in meditation he experienced vastness, infinity, and the other attributes of the Impersonal Brahman.
--- SUBODH
--
Two more young men, Sarada Prasanna and Tulasi, complete the small band of the Master's disciples later to embrace the Life of the wandering monk. With the exception of the elder Gopal, all of them were in their teens or slightly over. They came from middle-class Bengali families, and most of them were students in school or college. Their parents and relatives had envisaged for them bright worldly careers. They came to Sri Ramakrishna with pure bodies, vigorous minds, and uncontaminated souls. All were born with unusual spiritual attributes. Sri Ramakrishna accepted them, even at first sight, as his children, relatives, friends, and companions. His magic touch unfolded them. And later each according to his measure reflected the Life of the Master, becoming a torch-bearer of his message across land and sea.
--- WOMAN DEVOTEES
--
At Syampukur the devotees led an intense Life. Their attendance on the Master was in itself a form of spiritual discipline. His mind was constantly soaring to an exalted plane of consciousness. Now and then they would catch the contagion of his spiritual fervour. They sought to divine the meaning of this illness of the Master, whom most of them had accepted as an Incarnation of God. One group, headed by Girish with his robust optimism and great power of imagination, believed that the illness was a mere pretext to serve a deeper purpose. The Master had willed his illness in order to bring the devotees together and promote solidarity among them. As soon as this purpose was served, he would himself get rid of the disease. A second group thought that the Divine Mother, in whose hand the Master was an instrument, had brought about this illness to serve Her own mysterious ends. But the young rationalists, led by Narendra, refused to ascribe a
supernatural cause to a natural phenomenon. They believed that the Master's body, a material thing, was subject, like all other material things, to physical laws. Growth, development, decay, and death were laws of nature to which the Master's body could not but respond. But though holding differing views, they all believed that it was to him alone that they must look for the attainment of their spiritual goal.
--
It was at Cossipore that the curtain fell on the varied activities of the Master's Life on the physical plane. His soul lingered in the body eight months more. It was the period of his great Passion, a constant crucifixion of the body and the triumphant revelation of the Soul. Here one sees the humanity and divinity of the Master passing and repassing across a thin border line. Every minute of those eight months was suffused with touching tenderness of heart and breath-taking elevation of spirit. Every word he uttered was full of pathos and sublimity.
It took the group only a few days to become adjusted to the new environment. The Holy Mother, assisted by Sri Ramakrishna's niece, Lakshmi Devi, and a few woman devotees, took charge of the cooking for the Master and his attendants. Surendra willingly bore the major portion of the expenses, other householders contributing according to their means. Twelve disciples were constant attendants of the Master: Narendra, Rakhal, Baburam, Niranjan, Jogin, Latu, Tarak, the-elder Gopal, Kali, Sashi, Sarat, and the younger Gopal. Sarada, Harish, Hari, Gangadhar, and Tulasi visited the Master from time to time and practised sadhana at home. Narendra, preparing for his law examination, brought his books to the garden house in order to continue his studies during the infrequent spare moments. He encouraged his brother disciples to intensify their meditation, scriptural studies, and other spiritual disciplines. They all forgot their relatives and their
--
The Master did not hide the fact that he wished to make Narendra his spiritual heir. Narendra was to continue the work after Sri Ramakrishna's passing. Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "I leave these young men in your charge. See that they develop their spirituality and do not return home." One day he asked the boys, in preparation for a monastic Life, to beg their food from door to door without thought of caste. They hailed the Master's order and went out with begging-bowls. A few days later he gave the ochre cloth of the sannyasi to each of them, including Girish, who was now second to none in his spirit of renunciation. Thus the Master himself laid the foundation of the future Ramakrishna Order of monks.
Sri Ramakrishna was sinking day by day. His diet was reduced to a minimum and he found it almost impossible to swallow. He whispered to M.: "I am bearing all this cheerfully, for otherwise you would be weeping. If you all say that it is better that the body should go rather than suffer this torture, I am willing." The next morning he said to his depressed disciples seated near the bed: "Do you know what I see? I see that God alone has become everything. Men and animals are only frameworks covered with skin, and it is He who is moving through their heads and limbs. I see that it is God Himself who has become the block, the executioner, and the victim for the sacrifice.' He fainted with emotion. Regaining partial consciousness, he said: "Now I have no pain. I am very well." Looking at Latu he said: "There sits Latu resting his head on the palm of his hand. To me it is the Lord who is seated in that posture."
--
Yet one is not sure whether the Master's soul actually was tortured by this agonizing disease. At least during his moments of spiritual exaltation — which became almost constant during the closing days of his Life on earth — he lost all consciousness of the body, of illness and suffering. One of his attendants (Latu, later known as Swami Adbhutananda.) said later on: "While Sri Ramakrishna lay sick he never actually suffered pain. He would often say: 'O mind! Forget the body, forget the sickness, and remain merged in Bliss.' No, he did not really suffer. At times he would be in a state when the thrill of joy was clearly manifested in his body. Even when he could not speak he would let us know in some way that there was no suffering, and this fact was clearly evident to all who watched him. People who did not understand him thought that his suffering was very great. What spiritual joy he transmitted to us at that time! Could such a thing have been possible if he had 'been suffering physically? It was during this period that he taught us again these truths: 'Brahman is always unattached. The three gunas are in It, but It is unaffected by them, just as the wind carries odour yet remains odourless.' 'Brahman is Infinite Being, Infinite Wisdom, Infinite Bliss. In It there exist no delusion, no misery, no disease, no death, no growth, no decay.' 'The Transcendental Being and the being within are one and the same. There is one indivisible Absolute Existence.'"
The Holy Mother secretly went to a Siva temple across the Ganges to intercede with the Deity for the Master's recovery. In a revelation she was told to prepare herself for the inevitable end.
--
Sunday, August 15, 1886. The Master's pulse became irregular. The devotees stood by the bedside. Toward dusk Sri Ramakrishna had difficulty in breathing. A short time afterwards he complained of hunger. A little liquid food was put into his mouth; some of it he swallowed, and the rest ran over his chin. Two attendants began to fan him. All at once he went into samadhi of a rather unusual type. The body became stiff. Sashi burst into tears. But after midnight the Master revived. He was now very hungry and helped himself to a bowl of porridge. He said he was strong again. He sat up against five or six pillows, which were supported by the body of Sashi, who was fanning him. Narendra took his feet on his lap and began to rub them. Again and again the Master repeated to him, "Take care of these boys." Then he asked to lie down. Three times in ringing tone's he cried the name of Kali, his Life's Beloved, and lay back. At two minutes past one there was a low sound in his throat and he fell a little to one side. A thrill passed over his body. His hair stood on end. His eyes became fixed on the tip of his nose. His face was lighted with a smile. The final ecstasy began. It was mahasamadhi, total absorption, from which his mind never returned. Narendra, unable to bear it, ran downstairs.
Dr. Sarkar arrived the following noon and pronounced that Life had departed not more than half an hour before. At five o'clock the Masters body was brought downstairs, laid on a cot, dressed in ochre clothes, and decorated with sandal-paste and flowers. A procession was formed. The passers-by wept as the body was taken to the cremation ground at the Baranagore Ghat on the Ganges.
While the devotees were returning to the garden house, carrying the urn with the sacred ashes, a calm resignation came to their souls and they cried, "Victory unto the Guru!"
0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Life and Death are two names of A.
Kill thyself.
--
names, or phases, Life and Death.
Line 7 balances line 5. It will be notice that the
--
Deity which they have cultivated during Life. This is "a
consummation devoutly to be wished" (Shakespeare).
--
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 his.
Yet that Life is of his very essence; it is more He
than all that he calls He.
--
and only therefore, Life is good.
[54]
--
He first leaves the Life of comfort; then the world at
large; and, lastly, even the initiates.
--
for Life or for death.
Love destroyeth self, uniting self with that which is
--
even so is consciousness a disorder of Life.
Dreams are without proportion, without good
--
point of view of Life, and recommends a course of action
calculated to rob the creator of his cruel sport.
--
Life is as ugly and necessary as the female body.
Death is as beautiful and necessary as the male
--
Life and Death.
Even as the Lingam and the Yoni are but diverse
developments of One Organ, so also are Life and
Death but two phases of One State. So also the
--
Life!
Mind is the traitor.
--
All Life is choked.
This desert is the Abyss wherein the Universe.
--
True Life, the Life, which has no consciousness of "I", is said to
be choked by this false ego, or rather by the thoughts which its
--
Death is the veil of Life, and Life of Death; for both
are Gods.
This 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!
--
The meadow represents the flower of Life; the orchard its
fruit.
The paddock, being reserved for animals, represents Life
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
ordinary animal Life, becomes the divine horse Pegasus.
In paragraph 6 we see this spring identified with the
--
In paragraph 7 the place of Life, the universe of animal
souls, is identified with the toad, which
--
place of Life, the means of grace, it may be ruinous.
[117]
--
in common Life by a paraphrase of the familiar and
beautiful proverb, "Absence makes the heart grow
--
The second, mixt with his Life's blood and eaten,
illustrates the use of the lower Life to feed the
higher Life.
He then takes the Oath and becomes free-un
--
of all that we call Life, in a way in which what we call death is not. 3, silv
er,
--
the consequent ruin of the Tree of Life.
Part 2 show the impossibility of stopping on the
--
The Wheel of Life.
All these Wheels be one; yet of all these the Wheel of
--
women may enjoy Life sometimes.
The word "Sadist" is taken from the famous Marquis
--
Paragraph 2 gives the very struggle for Life, which
disheartens modern thinkers, as a good enough reason for
--
And fierce as Life's unfailing shower. These die,
Yet time rebears them through eternity.
--
Life.
In verse 3, he offers the solution of the problem.
--
What! shall the Adept give up his hermit Life, and
go eating and drinking and making merry?
--
to Chapters 79 and 80, the ethics of Adept Life.
The Adept has performed the Great Work; He has
0.00 - THE GOSPEL PREFACE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
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 disadvantage of being unable to say how he strikes other people and in what way he affects their lives. Moreover, most saints have left neither writings nor self-portraits, and for knowledge of their lives, their characters and their teachings, we are forced to rely upon the records made by their disciples who, in most cases, have proved themselves singularly incompetent as reporters and biographers. Hence the special interest attaching to this enormously detailed account of the daily Life and conversations of Sri Ramakrishna.
"M", as the author modestly styles himself, was peculiarly qualified for his task. To a reverent love for his master, to a deep and experiential knowledge of that master's teaching, he added a prodigious memory for the small happenings of each day and a happy gift for recording them in an interesting and realistic way. Making good use of his natural gifts and of the circumstances in which he found himself, "M" produced a book unique, so far as my knowledge goes, in the literature of hagiography. No other saint has had so able and indefatigable a Boswell. Never have the small events of a contemplative's daily Life been described with such a wealth of intimate detail. Never have the casual and unstudied utterances of a great religious teacher been set down with so minute a fidelity. To Western readers, it is true, this fidelity and this wealth of detail are sometimes a trifle disconcerting; for the social, religious and intellectual frames of reference within which Sri Ramakrishna did his thinking and expressed his feelings were entirely Indian. But after the first few surprises and bewilderments, we begin to find something peculiarly stimulating and instructive about the very strangeness and, to our eyes, the eccentricity of the man revealed to us in "M's" narrative. What a scholastic philosopher would call the "accidents" of Ramakrishna's Life were intensely Hindu and therefore, so far as we in the West are concerned, unfamiliar and hard to understand; its "essence", however, was intensely mystical and therefore universal. To read through these conversations in which mystical doctrine alternates with an unfamiliar kind of humour, and where discussions of the oddest aspects of Hindu mythology give place to the most profound and subtle utterances about the nature of Ultimate Reality, is in itself a liberal, education in humility, tolerance and suspense of judgment. We must be grateful to the translator for his excellent version of a book so curious and delightful as a biographical document, so precious, at the same time, for what it teaches us of the Life of the spirit.
--------------------
--
They therefore have the value of almost stenographic records. In Appendix A are given several conversations which took place in the absence of M., but of which he received a first-hand record from persons concerned. The conversations will bring before the reader's mind an intimate picture of the Master's eventful Life from March 1882 to April 24, 1886, only a few months before his passing away. During this period he came in contact chiefly with English-educated Benglis; from among them he selected his disciples and the bearers of his message, and with them he shared his rich spiritual experiences.
I have made a literal translation, omitting only a few pages of no particular interest to English-speaking readers. Often literary grace has been sacrificed for the sake of literal translation. No translation can do full justice to the original. This difficulty is all the more felt in the present work, whose contents are of a deep mystical nature and describe the inner experiences of a great seer. Human language is an altogether inadequate vehicle to express supersensuous perception. Sri Ramakrishna was almost illiterate. He never clothed his thoughts in formal language. His words sought to convey his direct realization of Truth. His conversation was in a village patois. Therein lies its charm. In order to explain to his listeners an abstruse philosophy, he, like Christ before him, used with telling effect homely parables and illustrations, culled from his observation of the daily Life around him.
The reader will find mentioned in this work many visions and experiences that fall outside the ken of physical science and even psychology. With the development of modern knowledge the border line between the natural and the supernatural is ever shifting its position. Genuine mystical experiences are not as suspect now as they were half a century ago. The words of Sri Ramakrishna have already exerted a tremendous influence in the land of his birth. Savants of Europe have found in his words the ring of universal truth.
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I have thought it necessary to write a rather lengthy Introduction to the book. In it I have given the biography of the Master, descriptions of people who came in contact with him, short explanations of several systems of Indian religious thought intimately connected with Sri Ramakrishna's Life, and other relevant matters which, I hope, will enable the reader better to understand and appreciate the unusual contents of this book. It is particularly important that the Western reader, unacquainted with Hindu religious thought, should first read carefully the 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 English equivalents. Their meaning is given either in the Glossary or in the foot-notes. The Glossary also gives explanations of a number of expressions unfamiliar to Western readers. The diacritical marks are explained under Notes on Pronunciation.
In the Introduction I have drawn much material from the Life of Sri Ramakrishna, published by the Advaita Ashrama, Myvati, India. I have also consulted the excellent article on Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Nirvednanda, in the second volume of the Cultural Heritage of India.
The book contains many songs sung either by the Master or by the devotees. These form an important feature of the spiritual tradition of Bengal and were for the most part written by men of mystical experience. For giving the songs their present form I am grateful to Mr. John Moffitt, Jr.
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In the spiritual firmament Sri Ramakrishna is a waxing crescent. Within one hundred years of his birth and fifty years of his death his message has spread across land and sea. Romain Rolland has described him as the fulfilment of the spiritual aspirations of the three hundred millions of Hindus for the last two thousand years. Mahatma Gandhi has written: "His Life enables us to see God face to face. . . . Ramakrishna was a living embodiment of godliness." He is being recognized as a compeer of Krishna, Buddha, and Christ.
The Life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna have redirected the thoughts of the denationalized Hindus to the spiritual ideals of their forefa thers. During the latter part of the nineteenth century his was the time-honoured role of the Saviour of the Eternal Religion of the Hindus. His teachings played an important part in liberalizing the minds of orthodox pundits and hermits. Even now he is the silent force that is moulding the spiritual destiny of India. His great disciple, Swami Vivekananda, was the first Hindu missionary to preach the message of Indian culture to the enlightened minds of Europe and America. The full consequence of Swami Vivekn and work is still in the womb of the future.
May this translation of the first book of its kind in the religious history of the world, being the record of the direct words of a prophet, help stricken humanity to come nearer to the Eternal Verity of Life and remove dissension and quarrel from among the different faiths!
May it enable seekers of Truth to grasp the subtle laws of the supersensuous realm, and unfold before man's restricted vision the spiritual foundation of the universe, the unity of existence, and the divinity of the soul!
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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 mission. They become so integral a part of the Life and work of these great ones that posterity can think of them only in mutual association. Such is the case with Sri Ramakrishna and M., whose diary has come to be known to the world as the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna in English and as Sri Rmakrishna Kathmrita in the original Bengali version.
Sri Mahendra Nath Gupta, familiary known to the readers of the Gospel by his pen name M., and to the devotees as Master Mahashay, was born on the 14th of July, 1854 as the son of Madhusudan Gupta, an officer of the Calcutta High Court, and his wife, Swarnamayi Devi. He had a brilliant scholastic career at Hare School and the Presidency College at Calcutta. The range of his studies included the best that both occidental and oriental learning had to offer. English literature, history, economics, western philosophy and law on the one hand, and Sanskrit literature and grammar, Darsanas, Puranas, Smritis, Jainism, Buddhism, astrology and Ayurveda on the other were the subjects in which he attained considerable proficiency.
He was an educationist all his Life both in a spiritual and in a secular sense. After he passed out of College, he took up work as headmaster in a number of schools in succession Narail High School, City School, Ripon College School, Metropolitan School, Aryan School, Oriental School, Oriental Seminary and Model School. The causes of his migration from school to school were that he could not get on with some of the managements on grounds of principles and that often his spiritual mood drew him away to places of pilgrimage for long periods. He worked with some of the most noted public men of the time like Iswar Chandra Vidysgar and Surendranath Banerjee. The latter appointed him as a professor in the City and Ripon Colleges where he taught subjects like English, philosophy, history and economics. In his later days he took over the Morton School, and he spent his time in the staircase room of the third floor of it, administering the school and preaching the message of the Master. He was much respected in educational circles where he was usually referred to as Rector Mahashay. A teacher who had worked under him writes thus in warm appreciation of his teaching methods: "Only when I worked with him in school could I appreciate what a great educationist he was. He would come down to the level of his students when teaching, though he himself was so learned, so talented. Ordinarily teachers confine their instruction to what is given in books without much thought as to whether the student can accept it or not. But M., would first of all gauge how much the student could take in and by what means. He would employ aids to teaching like maps, pictures and diagrams, so that his students could learn by seeing. Thirty years ago (from 1953) when the question of imparting education through the medium of the mother tongue was being discussed, M. had already employed Bengali as the medium of instruction in the Morton School." (M The Apostle and the Evangelist by Swami Nityatmananda Part I. P. 15.)
Imparting secular education was, however, only his profession ; his main concern was with the spiritual regeneration of man a calling for which Destiny seems to have chosen him. From his childhood he was deeply pious, and he used to be moved very much by Sdhus, temples and Durga Puja celebrations. The piety and eloquence of the great Brahmo leader of the times, Keshab Chander Sen, elicited a powerful response from the impressionable mind of Mahendra Nath, as it did in the case of many an idealistic young man of Calcutta, and prepared him to receive the great Light that was to dawn on him with the coming of Sri Ramakrishna into his Life.
This epoch-making event of his Life came about in a very strange way. M. belonged to a joint family with several collateral members. Some ten years after he began his career as an educationist, bitter quarrels broke out among the members of the family, driving the sensitive M. to despair and utter despondency. He lost all interest in Life and left home one night to go into the wide world with the idea of ending his Life. At dead of night he took rest in his sister's house at Baranagar, and in the morning, accompanied by a nephew Siddheswar, he wandered from one garden to another in Calcutta until Siddheswar brought him to the Temple Garden of Dakshineswar where Sri Ramakrishna was then living. After spending some time in the beautiful rose gardens there, he was directed to the room of the Paramahamsa, where the eventful meeting of the Master and the disciple took place on a blessed evening (the exact date is not on record) on a Sunday in March 1882. As regards what took place on the occasion, the reader is referred to the opening section of the first chapter of the Gospel.
The Master, who divined the mood of desperation in M, his resolve to take leave of this 'play-field of deception', put new faith and hope into him by his gracious words of assurance: "God forbid! Why should you take leave of this world? Do you not feel blessed by discovering your Guru? By His grace, what is beyond all imagination or dreams can be easily achieved!" At these words the clouds of despair moved away from the horizon of M.'s mind, and the sunshine of a new hope revealed to him fresh vistas of meaning in Life. Referring to this phase of his Life, M. used to say, "Behold! where is the resolve to end Life, and where, the discovery of God! That is, sorrow should be looked upon as a friend of man. God is all good." ( Ibid P.33.)
After this re-settlement, M's Life revolved around the Master, though he continued his professional work as an educationist. During all holidays, including Sundays, he spent his time at Dakshineswar in the Master's company, and at times extended his stay to several days.
It did not take much time for M. to become very intimate with the Master, or for the Master to recognise in this disciple a divinely commissioned partner in the fulfilment of his spiritual mission. When M. was reading out the Chaitanya Bhagavata, the Master discovered that he had been, in a previous birth, a disciple and companion of the great Vaishnava Teacher, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and the Master even saw him 'with his naked eye' participating in the ecstatic mass-singing of the Lord's name under the leadership of that Divine personality. So the Master told M, "You are my own, of the same substance as the father and the son," indicating thereby that M. was one of the chosen few and a part and parcel of his Divine mission.
There was an urge in M. to abandon the household Life and become a Sannysin. When he communicated this idea to the Master, he forbade him saying," Mother has told me that you have to do a little of Her work you will have to teach Bhagavata, the word of God to humanity. The Mother keeps a Bhagavata Pandit with a bondage in the world!"
( Ibid P.36.)
An appropriate allusion indeed! Bhagavata, the great scripture that has given the word of Sri Krishna to mankind, was composed by the Sage Vysa under similar circumstances. When caught up in a mood of depression like that of M, Vysa was advised by the sage Nrada that he would gain peace of mind only qn composing a work exclusively devoted to the depiction of the Lord's glorious attributes and His teachings on Knowledge and Devotion, and the result was that the world got from Vysa the invaluable gift of the Bhagavata Purana depicting the Life and teachings of Sri Krishna.
From the mental depression of the modem Vysa, the world has obtained the Kathmrita (Bengali Edition) the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna in English.
Sri Ramakrishna was a teacher for both the Orders of mankind, Sannysins and householders. His own Life offered an ideal example for both, and he left behind disciples who followed the highest traditions he had set in respect of both these ways of Life. M., along with Nag Mahashay, exemplified how a householder can rise to the highest level of sagehood. M. was married to Nikunja Devi, a distant relative of Keshab Chander Sen, even when he was reading at College, and he had four children, two sons and two daughters. The responsibility of the family, no doubt, made him dependent on his professional income, but the great devotee that he was, he never compromised with ideals and principles for this reason. Once when he was working as the headmaster in a school managed by the great Vidysgar, the results of the school at the public examination happened to be rather poor, and Vidysgar attri buted it to M's preoccupation with the Master and his consequent failure to attend adequately to the school work. M. at once resigned his post without any thought of the morrow. Within a fortnight the family was in poverty, and M. was one day pacing up and down the verandah of his house, musing how he would feed his children the next day. Just then a man came with a letter addressed to 'Mahendra Babu', and on opening it, M. found that it was a letter from his friend Sri Surendra Nath Banerjee, asking whether he would like to take up a professorship in the Ripon College. In this way three or four times he gave up the job that gave him the wherewithal to support the family, either for upholding principles or for practising spiritual Sadhanas in holy places, without any consideration of the possible dire worldly consequences; but he was always able to get over these difficulties somehow, and the interests of his family never suffered. In spite of his disregard for worldly goods, he was, towards the latter part of his Life, in a fairly flourishing condition as the proprietor of the Morton School which he developed into a noted educational institution in the city. The Lord has said in the Bhagavad Git that in the case of those who think of nothing except Him, He Himself would take up all their material and spiritual responsibilities. M. was an example of the truth of the Lord's promise.
Though his children received proper attention from him, his real family, both during the Master's Lifetime and after, consisted of saints, devotees, Sannysins and spiritual aspirants. His Life exemplifies the Master's teaching that an ideal householder must be like a good maidservant of a family, loving and caring properly for the children of the house, but knowing always that her real home and children are elsewhere. During the Master's Lifetime he spent all his Sundays and other holidays with him and his devotees, and besides listening to the holy talks and devotional music, practised meditation both on the Personal and the Impersonal aspects of God under the direct guidance of the Master. In the pages of the Gospel the reader gets a picture of M.'s spiritual relationship with the Master how from a hazy belief in the Impersonal God of the Brahmos, he was step by step brought to accept both Personality and Impersonality as the two aspects of the same Non-dual Being, how he was convinced of the manifestation of that Being as Gods, Goddesses and as Incarnations, and how he was established in a Life that was both of a Jnni and of a Bhakta. This Jnni-Bhakta outlook and way of living became so dominant a feature of his Life that Swami Raghavananda, who was very closely associated with him during his last six years, remarks: "Among those who lived with M. in latter days, some felt that he always lived in this constant and conscious union with God even with open eyes (i.e., even in waking consciousness)." (Swami Raghavananda's article on M. in Prabuddha Bharata vol. XXXVII. P. 442.)
Besides undergoing spiritual disciplines at the feet of the Master, M. used to go to holy places during the Master's Lifetime itself and afterwards too as a part of his Sdhan.
He was one of the earliest of the disciples to visit Kamarpukur, the birthplace of the Master, in the latter's Lifetime itself; for he wished to practise contemplation on the Master's early Life in its true original setting. His experience there is described as follows by Swami Nityatmananda: "By the grace of the Master, he saw the entire Kamarpukur as a holy place bathed in an effulgent Light. Trees and creepers, beasts and birds and men all were made of effulgence. So he prostrated to all on the road. He saw a torn cat, which appeared to him luminous with the Light of Consciousness. Immediately he fell to the ground and saluted it" (M The Apostle and the Evangelist by Swami Nityatmananda vol. I. P. 40.) He had similar experience in Dakshineswar also. At the instance of the Master he also visited Puri, and in the words of Swami Nityatmananda, "with indomitable courage, M. embraced the image of Jagannath out of season."
The Life of Sdhan and holy association that he started on at the feet of the Master, he continued all through his Life. He has for this reason been most appropriately described as a Grihastha-Sannysi (householder-Sannysin). Though he was forbidden by the Master to become a Sannysin, his reverence for the Sannysa ideal was whole-hearted and was without any reservation. So after Sri Ramakrishna's passing away, while several of the Master's householder devotees considered the young Sannysin disciples of the Master as inexperienced and inconsequential, M. stood by them with the firm faith that the Master's Life and message were going to be perpetuated only through them. Swami Vivekananda wrote from America in a letter to the inmates of the Math: "When Sri Thkur (Master) left the body, every one gave us up as a few unripe urchins. But M. and a few others did not leave us in the lurch. We cannot repay our debt to them." (Swami Raghavananda's article on M. in Prabuddha Bharata vol. XXX P. 442.)
M. spent his weekends and holidays with the monastic brethren who, after the Master's demise, had formed themselves into an Order with a Math at Baranagore, and participated in the intense Life of devotion and meditation that they followed. At other times he would retire to Dakshineswar or some garden in the city and spend several days in spiritual practice taking simple self-cooked food. In order to feel that he was one with all mankind he often used to go out of his home at dead of night, and like a wandering Sannysin, sleep with the waifs on some open verandah or footpath on the road.
After the Master's demise, M. went on pilgrimage several times. He visited Banras, Vrindvan, Ayodhy and other places. At Banras he visited the famous Trailinga Swmi and fed him with sweets, and he had long conversations with Swami Bhaskarananda, one of the noted saintly and scholarly Sannysins of the time. In 1912 he went with the Holy Mother to Banras, and spent about a year in the company of Sannysins at Banras, Vrindvan, Hardwar, Hrishikesh and Swargashram. But he returned to Calcutta, as that city offered him the unique opportunity of associating himself with the places hallowed by the Master in his Lifetime. Afterwards he does not seem to have gone to any far-off place, but stayed on in his room in the Morton School carrying on his spiritual ministry, speaking on the Master and his teachings to the large number of people who flocked to him after having read his famous Kathmrita known to English readers as The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.
This brings us to the circumstances that led to the writing and publication of this monumental work, which has made M. one of the immortals in hagiographic literature.
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In addition to this instinct for diary-keeping, M. had great endowments contri buting to success in this line. Writes Swami Nityatmananda who lived in close association with M., in his book entitled M - The Apostle and Evangelist: "M.'s prodigious memory combined with his extraordinary power of imagination completely annihilated the distance of time and place for him. Even after the lapse of half a century he could always visualise vividly, scenes from the Life of Sri Ramakrishna. Superb too was his power to portray pictures by words."
Besides the prompting of his inherent instinct, the main inducement for M. to keep this diary of his experiences at Dakshineswar was his desire to provide himself with a means for living in holy company at all times. Being a school teacher, he could be with the Master only on Sundays and other holidays, and it was on his diary that he depended for 'holy company' on other days. The devotional scriptures like the Bhagavata say that holy company is the first and most important means for the generation and growth of devotion. For, in such company man could hear talks on spiritual matters and listen to the glorification of Divine attri butes, charged with the fervour and conviction emanating from the hearts of great lovers of God. Such company is therefore the one certain means through which Sraddha (Faith), Rati (attachment to God) and Bhakti (loving devotion) are generated. The diary of his visits to Dakshineswar provided M. with material for re-living, through reading and contemplation, the holy company he had had earlier, even on days when he was not able to visit Dakshineswar. The wealth of details and the vivid description of men and things in the midst of which the sublime conversations are set, provide excellent material to re-live those experiences for any one with imaginative powers. It was observed by M.'s disciples and admirers that in later Life also whenever he was free or alone, he would be pouring over his diary, transporting himself on the wings of imagination to the glorious days he spent at the feet of the Master.
During the Master's Lifetime M. does not seem to have revealed the contents of his diary to any one. There is an unconfirmed tradition that when the Master saw him taking notes, he expressed apprehension at the possibility of his utilising these to publicise him like Keshab Sen; for the Great Master was so full of the spirit of renunciation and humility that he disliked being lionised. It must be for this reason that no one knew about this precious diary of M. for a decade until he brought out selections from it as a pamphlet in English in 1897 with the Holy Mother's blessings and permission. The Holy Mother, being very much pleased to hear parts of the diary read to her in Bengali, wrote to M.: "When I heard the Kathmrita, (Bengali name of the book) I felt as if it was he, the Master, who was saying all that." ( Ibid Part I. P 37.)
The two pamphlets in English entitled the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna appeared in October and November 1897. They drew the spontaneous acclamation of Swami Vivekananda, who wrote on 24th November of that year from Dehra Dun to M.:"Many many thanks for your second leaflet. It is indeed wonderful. The move is quite original, and never was the Life of a Great Teacher brought before the public untarnished by the writer's mind, as you are doing. The language also is beyond all praise, so fresh, so pointed, and withal so plain and easy. I cannot express in adequate terms how I have enjoyed them. I am really in a transport when I read them. Strange, isn't it? Our Teacher and Lord was so original, and each one of us will have to be original or nothing.
I now understand why none of us attempted His Life before. It has been reserved for you, this great work. He is with you evidently." ( Vednta Kesari Vol. XIX P. 141. Also given in the first edition of the Gospel published from Ramakrishna Math, Madras in 1911.)
And Swamiji added a post script to the letter: "Socratic dialogues are Plato all over you are entirely hidden. Moreover, the dramatic part is infinitely beautiful. Everybody likes it here or in the West." Indeed, in order to be unknown, Mahendranath had used the pen-name M., under which the book has been appearing till now. But so great a book cannot remain obscure for long, nor can its author remain unrecognised by the large public in these modern times. M. and his book came to be widely known very soon and to meet the growing demand, a full-sized book, Vol. I of the Gospel, translated by the author himself, was published in 1907 by the Brahmavadin Office, Madras. A second edition of it, revised by the author, was brought out by the Ramakrishna Math, Madras in December 1911, and subsequently a second part, containing new chapters from the original Bengali, was published by the same Math in 1922. The full English translation of the Gospel by Swami Nikhilananda appeared first in 1942.
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It looks as if M. was brought to the world by the Great Master to record his words and transmit them to posterity. Swami Sivananda, a direct disciple of the Master and the second President of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, says on this topic: "Whenever there was an interesting talk, the Master would call Master Mahashay if he was not in the room, and then draw his attention to the holy words spoken. We did not know then why the Master did so. Now we can realise that this action of the Master had an important significance, for it was reserved for Master Mahashay to give to the world at large the sayings of the Master." ( Vednta Kesari Vol. XIX P 141.) Thanks to M., we get, unlike in the case of the great teachers of the past, a faithful record with date, time, exact report of conversations, description of concerned men and places, references to contemporary events and personalities and a hundred other details for the last four years of the Master's Life (1882-'86), so that no one can doubt the historicity of the Master and his teachings at any time in the future.
M. was, in every respect, a true missionary of Sri Ramakrishna right from his first acquaintance with him in 1882. As a school teacher, it was a practice with him to direct to the Master such of his students as had a true spiritual disposition. Though himself prohibited by the Master to take to monastic Life, he encouraged all spiritually inclined young men he came across in his later Life to join the monastic Order. Swami Vijnanananda, a direct Sannysin disciple of the Master and a President of the Ramakrishna Order, once remarked to M.: "By enquiry, I have come to the conclusion that eighty percent and more of the Sannysins have embraced the monastic Life after reading the Kathmrita (Bengali name of the book) and coming in contact with you." ( M
The Apostle and the Evangelist by Swami Nityatmananda Part I, P 37.)
In 1905 he retired from the active Life of a Professor and devoted his remaining twenty-seven years exclusively to the preaching of the Life and message of the Great Master. He bought the Morton Institution from its original proprietors and shifted it to a commodious four-storeyed house at 50 Amherst Street, where it flourished under his management as one of the most efficient educational institutions in Calcutta. He generally occupied a staircase room at the top of it, cooking his own meal which consisted only of milk and rice without variation, and attended to all his personal needs himself. His dress also was the simplest possible. It was his conviction that limitation of personal wants to the minimum is an important aid to holy living. About one hour in the morning he would spend in inspecting the classes of the school, and then retire to his staircase room to pour over his diary and live in the divine atmosphere of the earthly days of the Great Master, unless devotees and admirers had already gathered in his room seeking his holy company.
In appearance, M. looked a Vedic Rishi. Tall and stately in bearing, he had a strong and well-built body, an unusually broad chest, high forehead and arms extending to the knees. His complexion was fair and his prominent eyes were always tinged with the expression of the divine love that filled his heart. Adorned with a silvery beard that flowed luxuriantly down his chest, and a shining face radiating the serenity and gravity of holiness, M. was as imposing and majestic as he was handsome and engaging in appearance. Humorous, sweet-tongued and eloquent when situations required, this great Maharishi of our age lived only to sing the glory of Sri Ramakrishna day and night.
Though a very well versed scholar in the Upanishads, Git and the philosophies of the East and the West, all his discussions and teachings found their culmination in the Life and the message of Sri Ramakrishna, in which he found the real explanation and illustration of all the scriptures. Both consciously and unconsciously, he was the teacher of the Kathmrita the nectarine words of the Great Master.
Though a much-sought-after spiritual guide, an educationist of repute, and a contemporary and close associate of illustrious personages like Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Keshab Chander Sen and Iswar Chander Vidysgar, he was always moved by the noble humanity of a lover of God, which consists in respecting the personalities of all as receptacles of the Divine Spirit. So he taught without the consciousness of a teacher, and no bar of superiority stood in the way of his doing the humblest service to his students and devotees. "He was a commission of love," writes his close devotee, Swami Raghavananda, "and yet his soft and sweet words would pierce the stoniest heart, make the worldly-minded weep and repent and turn Godwards."
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As time went on and the number of devotees increased, the staircase room and terrace of the 3rd floor of the Morton Institution became a veritable Naimisaranya of modern times, resounding during all hours of the day, and sometimes of night, too, with the word of God coming from the Rishi-like face of M. addressed to the eager God-seekers sitting around. To the devotees who helped him in preparing the text of the Gospel, he would dictate the conversations of the Master in a meditative mood, referring now and then to his diary. At times in the stillness of midnight he would awaken a nearby devotee and tell him: "Let us listen to the words of the Master in the depths of the night as he explains the truth of the Pranava." ( Vednta Kesari XIX P. 142.) Swami Raghavananda, an intimate devotee of M., writes as follows about these devotional sittings: "In the sweet and warm months of April and May, sitting under the canopy of heaven on the roof-garden of 50 Amherst Street, surrounded by shrubs and plants, himself sitting in their midst like a Rishi of old, the stars and planets in their courses beckoning us to things infinite and sublime, he would speak to us of the mysteries of God and His love and of the yearning that would rise in the human heart to solve the Eternal Riddle, as exemplified in the Life of his Master. The mind, melting under the influence of his soft sweet words of light, would almost transcend the frontiers of limited existence and dare to peep into the infinite. He himself would take the influence of the setting and say,'What a blessed privilege it is to sit in such a setting (pointing to the starry heavens), in the company of the devotees discoursing on God and His love!' These unforgettable scenes will long remain imprinted on the minds of his hearers." (Prabuddha Bharata Vol XXXVII P 497.)
About twenty-seven years of his Life he spent in this way in the heart of the great city of Calcutta, radiating the Master's thoughts and ideals to countless devotees who flocked to him, and to still larger numbers who read his Kathmrita (English Edition : The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna), the last part of which he had completed before June 1932 and given to the press. And miraculously, as it were, his end also came immediately after he had completed his Life's mission. About three months earlier he had come to stay at his home at 13/2 Gurdasprasad Chaudhuary Lane at Thakur Bari, where the Holy Mother had herself installed the Master and where His regular worship was being conducted for the previous 40 years. The night of 3rd June being the Phalahrini Kli Pooja day, M.
had sent his devotees who used to keep company with him, to attend the special worship at Belur Math at night. After attending the service at the home shrine, he went through the proof of the Kathmrita for an hour. Suddenly he got a severe attack of neuralgic pain, from which he had been suffering now and then, of late. Before 6 a.m. in the early hours of 4th June 1932 he passed away, fully conscious and chanting: 'Gurudeva-Ma, Kole tule na-o (Take me in your arms! O Master! O Mother!!)'
0.00 - The Wellspring of Reality, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
It follows that the more specialized society becomes, the less attention does it pay to the discoveries of the mind, which are intuitively beamed toward the brain, there to be received only if the switches are "on." Specialization tends to shut off the wide-band tuning searches and thus to preclude further discovery of the all-powerful generalized principles. Again we see how society's perverse fixation on specialization leads to its extinction. We are so specialized that one man discovers empirically how to release the energy of the atom, while another, unbeknownst to him, is ordered by his political factotum to make an atomic bomb by use of the secretly and anonymously published data. That gives much expedient employment, which solves the politician's momentary problem, but requires that the politicians keep on preparing for further warring with other political states to keep their respective peoples employed. It is also mistakenly assumed that employment is the only means by which humans can earn the right to live, for politicians have yet to discover how much wealth is available for distribution. All this is rationalized on the now scientifically discredited premise that there can never be enough Life support for all. Thus humanity's specialization leads only toward warring and such devastating tools, both, visible and invisible, as ultimately to destroy all Earthians.
Only a comprehensive switch from the narrowing specialization and toward an evermore inclusive and refining comprehension by all humanity-regarding all the factors governing omnicontinuing Life aboard our spaceship Earth-can bring about reorientation from the self-extinction-bound human trending, and do so within the critical time remaining before we have passed the point of chemical process irretrievability.
Quite clearly, our task is predominantly metaphysical, for it is how to get all of humanity to educate itself swiftly enough to generate spontaneous social behaviors that will avoid extinction.
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We are able to assert that this rationally coordinating system bridge has been established between science and the humanities because we have made adequate experimental testing of it in a computerized world-resource-use-exploration system, which by virtue of the proper inclusion of all the parameters-as guaranteed by the synergetic start with Universe and the progressive differentiation out of all the parts-has demonstrated a number of alternate ways in which it is eminently feasible not only to provide full Life support for all humans but also to permit all humans' individual enjoyment of all the Earth without anyone profiting at the expense of another and without any individuals interfering with others.
While it takes but meager search to discover that many well-known concepts are false, it takes considerable search and even more careful examination of one's own personal experiences and inadvertently spontaneous reflexing to discover that there are many popularly and even professionally unknown, yet nonetheless fundamental, concepts to hold true in all cases and that already have been discovered by other as yet obscure individuals. That is to say that many scientific generalizations have been discovered but have not come to the attention of what we call the educated world at large, thereafter to be incorporated tardily within the formal education processes, and even more tardily, in the ongoing political-economic affairs of everyday Life. Knowledge of the existence and comprehensive significance of these as yet popularly unrecognized natural laws often is requisite to the solution of many of the as yet unsolved problems now confronting society. Lack of knowledge of the solution's existence often leaves humanity confounded when it need not be.
Intellectually advantaged with no more than the child's facile, lucid eagerness to understand constructively and usefully the major transformational events of our own times, it probably is synergetically advantageous to review swiftly the most comprehensive inventory of the most powerful human environment transforming events of our totally known and reasonably extended history. This is especially useful in winnowing out and understanding the most significant of the metaphysical revolutions now recognized as swiftly tending to reconstitute history. 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.
--
Furthermore, today's hyperspecialization in socioeconomic functioning has come to preclude important popular philosophic considerations of the synergetic significance of, for instance, such historically important events as the discovery within the general region of experimental inquiry known as virology that the as-yet popularly assumed validity of the concepts of animate and inanimate phenomena have been experimentally invalidated. 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, moist, and soft-skinned humans were clearly not to be confused with hard, cold granite or steel objects. A clear-cut threshold between animate and inanimate was therefore assumed to exist as a fundamental dichotomy of all physical phenomena. This seemingly placed Life exclusively within the bounds of the physical.
The supposed location of the threshold between animate and inanimate was methodically narrowed down by experimental science until it was confined specifically within the domain of virology. Virologists have been too busy, for instance, with their DNA-RNA genetic code isolatings, to find time to see the synergetic significance to society of the fact that they have found that no physical threshold does in fact exist between animate and inanimate. The possibility of its existence vanished because the supposedly unique physical qualities of both animate and inanimate have persisted right across yesterday's supposed threshold in both directions to permeate one another's-previously perceived to be exclusive- domains. Subsequently, what was animate has become foggier and foggier, and what is inanimate clearer and clearer. All organisms consist physically and in entirety of inherently inanimate atoms. The inanimate alone is not only omnipresent but is alone experimentally demonstrable. Belated news of the elimination of this threshold must be interpreted to mean that whatever Life may be, it has not been isolated and thereby identified as residual in the biological cell, as had been supposed by the false assumption that there was a separate physical phenomenoncalled animate within which Life existed. No Life per se has been isolated. The threshold between animate and inanimate has vanished. Those chemists who are preoccupied in synthesizing the particular atomically structured molecules identified as the prime constituents of humanly employed organisms will, even if they are chemically successful, be as remote from creating Life as are automobile manufacturers from creating the human drivers of their automobiles. Only the physical connections and development complexes of distinctly "non Life" atoms into molecules, into cells, into animals, has been and will be discovered. The genetic coding of the design controls of organic systems offers no more explanation of Life than did the specifications of the designs of the telephone system's apparatus and operation explain the nature of the Life that communicates weightlessly to Life over the only physically ponderable telephone system. Whatever else Life may be, we know it is weightless. At the moment of death, no weight is lost. All the chemicals, including the chemist's Life ingredients, are present, but Life has vanished. The physical is inherently entropic, giving off energy in ever more disorderly ways. The metaphysical is antientropic, methodically marshalling energy. Life is antientropic.
It is spontaneously inquisitive. It sorts out and endeavors to understand.
--
And whence will come the wealth with which we may undertake to lead world man into his new and validly hopeful Life? From the wealth of the minds of world man-whence comes all wealth. Only mind can discover how to do so much with so little as forever to be able to sustain and physically satisfy all humanity.
0.01f - FOREWARD, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
Seeing. We might say that the whole of Life lies in that verb
if not ultimately, at least essentially. Fuller being is closer union :
--
neither is he able to see mankind unrelated to Life, nor Life un-
related to the universe.
Thence stems the basic plan of this work : Pre- Life : Life :
Thought three events sketching in the past and determining for
--
the dawn of Life, or Life in the Palaeozoic era, I do not forget that
there would be a cosmic contradiction in imagining a man as
--
BEFORE Life CAME
36
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 Evening Talks collected here may afford to the outside world a glimpse of his external personality and give the seeker some idea of its richness, its many-sidedness, its uniqueness. One can also form some notion of Sri Aurobindo's personality from the books in which the height, the universal sweep and clear vision of his integral ideal and thought can be seen. His writings are, in a sense, the best representative of his mental personality. The versatile nature of his genius, the penetrating power of his intellect, his extraordinary power of expression, his intense sincerity, his utter singleness of purpose all these can be easily felt by any earnest student of his works. He may discover even in the realm of mind that Sri Aurobindo brings the unlimited into the limited. Another side of his dynamic personality is represented by the Ashram as an institution. But the outer, if one may use the phrase, the human side of his personality, is unknown to the outside world because from 1910 to 1950 a span of forty years he led a Life of outer retirement. No doubt, many knew about his staying at Pondicherry and practising some kind of very special Yoga to the mystery of which they had no access. To some, perhaps, he was living a Life of enviable solitude enjoying the luxury of a spiritual endeavour. Many regretted his retirement as a great loss to the world because they could not see any external activity on his part which could be regarded as 'public', 'altruistic' or 'beneficial'. Even some of his admirers thought that he was after some kind of personal salvation which would have very little significance for mankind in general. His outward non-participation in public Life was construed by many as lack of love for humanity.
But those who knew him during the days of the national awakening from 1900 to 1910 could not have these doubts. And even these initial misunderstandings and false notions of others began to evaporate with the growth of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram from 1927 onwards. The large number of books published by the Ashram also tended to remove the idea of the other-worldliness of his Yoga and the absence of any good by it to mankind.
This period of outer retirement was one of intense Sadhana and of intellectual activity it was also one during which he acted on external events, though he was not dedicated outwardly to a public cause. About his own retirement he writes: "But this did not mean, as most people supposed, that he [Sri Aurobindo] had retired into some height of spiritual experience devoid of any further interest in the world or in the fate of India. It could not mean that, for the very principle of his Yoga was not only to realise the Divine and attain to a complete spiritual consciousness, but also to take all Life and all world activity into the scope of this spiritual consciousness and action and to base Life on the Spirit and give it a spiritual meaning. In his retirement Sri Aurobindo kept a close watch on all that was happening in the world and in India and actively intervened, whenever necessary, but solely with a spiritual force and silent spiritual action; for it is part of the experience of those who have advanced in yoga that besides the ordinary forces and activities of the mind and Life and body in Matter, there are other forces and powers that can and do act from behind and from above; there is also a spiritual dynamic power which can be possessed by those who are advanced in spiritual consciousness, though all do not care to possess or, possessing, to use it and this power is greater than any other and more effective. It was this force which, as soon as he attained to it, he used at first only in a limited field of personal work, but afterwards in a constant action upon the world forces."[1]
Twice he found it necessary to go out of his way to make public pronouncements on important world-issues, which shows distinctly that renunciation of Life is not a part of his Yoga. "The first was in relation to the Second World War. At the beginning he did not actively concern himself with it, but when it appeared as if Hitler would crush all the forces opposed to him and Nazism dominate the world, he began to intervene."[2]
The second was with regard to Sir Stafford Cripps' proposal for the transfer of power to India.
Over and above Sadhana, writing work and rendering spiritual help to the world during his apparent retirement there were plenty of other activities of which the outside world has no knowledge. Many prominent as well as less known persons sought and obtained interviews with him during these years. Thus, among well-known persons may be mentioned C.R. Das, Lala Lajpat Rai, Sarala Devi, Dr. Munje, Khasirao Jadhav, Tagore, Sylvain Levy. The great national poet of Tamil Nadu, S. Subramanya Bharati, was in contact with Sri Aurobindo for some years during his stay at Pondicherry; so was V.V.S. Aiyar. The famous V. Ramaswamy Aiyangar Va Ra of Tamil literature[3] stayed with Sri Aurobindo for nearly three years and was influenced by him. Some of these facts have been already mentioned in The Life of Sri Aurobindo.
Jung has admitted that there is an element of mystery, something that baffles the reason, in human personality. One finds that the greater the personality the greater is the complexity. And this is especially so with regard to spiritual personalities whom the Gita calls Vibhutis and Avatars.
--
In his Essays on the Gita, Sri Aurobindo says about the Avatar: "He may, on the other hand, descend as an incarnation of divine Life, the divine personality and power in its characteristic action, for a mission ostensibly social, ethical and political, as is represented in the story of Rama or Krishna; but always then this descent becomes in the soul of the race a permanent power for the inner living and the spiritual rebirth."[5]
"He comes as the divine power and love which calls men to itself, so that they may take refuge in that and no longer in the insufficiency of their human wills and the strife of their human fear, wrath and passion, and liberated from all this unquiet and suffering may live in the calm and bliss of the Divine."[6]
--
It is clear that Sri Aurobindo interpreted the traditional idea of the Vibhuti and the Avatar in terms of the evolutionary possibilities of man. But more directly he has worked out the idea of the 'gnostic individual' in his masterpiece The Life Divine. He says: "A supramental gnostic individual will be a spiritual Person, but not a personality in the sense of a pattern of being marked out by a settled combination of fixed qualities, a determined character; he cannot be that since he is a conscious expression of the universal and the transcendent." Describing the gnostic individual he says: "We feel ourselves in the presence of a light of consciousness, a potency, a sea of energy, can distinguish and describe its free waves of action and quality, but not fix itself; and yet there is an impression of personality, the presence of a powerful being, a strong, high or beautiful recognisable Someone, a Person, not a limited creature of Nature but a Self or Soul, a Purusha."[8]
One feels that he was describing the feeling of some of us, his disciples, with regard to him in his inimitable way.
0.01 - Letters from the Mother to Her Son, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
the Life of declining civilisations and human societies in delirium.
Do not start thinking I am a pessimist. I certainly do not
--
something of another world, a world in which the inner Life
governs the outer, a world where things get done, where work
--
the realisation of an ideal. The Life we lead here is as far from
ascetic abstinence as from an enervating comfort; simplicity is
--
is free to organise his Life as he pleases, the discipline is reduced
to the minimum that is indispensable to organise the existence
--
It may be that Life on earth has always been a chaos - whatever the Bible may say, the Light has not yet made its appearance.
Let us hope that it will not be long in coming.
0.01 - Life and Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:0.01 - Life and Yoga
author class:Sri Aurobindo
--
HERE are two necessities of Nature's workings which seem always to intervene in the greater forms of human activity, whether these belong to our ordinary fields of movement or seek those exceptional spheres and fulfilments which appear to us high and divine. Every such form tends towards a harmonised complexity and totality which again breaks apart into various channels of special effort and tendency, only to unite once more in a larger and more puissant synthesis. Secondly, development into forms is an imperative rule of effective manifestation; yet all truth and practice too strictly formulated becomes old and loses much, if not all, of its virtue; it must be constantly renovated by fresh streams of the spirit revivifying the dead or dying vehicle and changing it, if it is to acquire a new Life. To be perpetually reborn is the condition of a material immortality. We are in an age, full of the throes of travail, when all forms of thought and activity that have in themselves any strong power of utility or any secret virtue of persistence are being subjected to a supreme test and given their opportunity of rebirth. The world today presents the aspect of a huge cauldron of Medea in which all things are being cast, shredded into pieces, experimented on, combined and recombined either to perish and provide the scattered material of new forms or to emerge rejuvenated and changed for a fresh term of existence. Indian Yoga, in its essence a special action or formulation of certain great powers of Nature, itself specialised, divided and variously formulated, is potentially one of these dynamic elements of the future Life of humanity. The child of immemorial ages, preserved by its vitality and truth into our modern times, it is now emerging from the secret schools and ascetic retreats in which it had taken refuge and is seeking its place in the future sum of living human powers and utilities. But it has first to rediscover itself, bring to the surface
The Conditions of the Synthesis
the profoundest reason of its being in that general truth and that unceasing aim of Nature which it represents, and find by virtue of this new self-knowledge and self-appreciation its own recovered and larger synthesis. Reorganising itself, it will enter more easily and powerfully into the reorganised Life of the race which its processes claim to lead within into the most secret penetralia and upward to the highest altitudes of existence and personality.
In the right view both of Life and of Yoga all Life is either consciously or subconsciously a Yoga. For we mean by this term a methodised effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the secret potentialities latent in the being and - highest condition of victory in that effort - a union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the Cosmos. But all Life, when we look behind its appearances, is a vast Yoga of Nature who attempts in the conscious and the subconscious to realise her perfection in an ever-increasing expression of her yet unrealised potentialities and to unite herself with her own divine reality. In man, her thinker, she for the first time upon this Earth devises selfconscious means and willed arrangements of activity by which this great purpose may be more swiftly and puissantly attained.
Yoga, as Swami Vivekananda has said, may be regarded as a means of compressing one's evolution into a single Life or a few years or even a few months of bodily existence. A given system of Yoga, then, can be no more than a selection or a compression, into narrower but more energetic forms of intensity, of the general methods which are already being used loosely, largely, in a leisurely movement, with a profuser apparent waste of material and energy but with a more complete combination by the great
Mother in her vast upward labour. It is this view of Yoga that can alone form the basis for a sound and rational synthesis of Yogic methods. For then Yoga ceases to appear something mystic and abnormal which has no relation to the ordinary processes of the World-Energy or the purpose she keeps in view in her two great movements of subjective and objective selffulfilment; it reveals itself rather as an intense and exceptional use of powers that she has already manifested or is progressively
--
Rajayoga, for instance, depends on this perception and experience that our inner elements, combinations, functions, forces, can be separated or dissolved, can be new-combined and set to novel and formerly impossible workings or can be transformed and resolved into a new general synthesis by fixed internal processes. Hathayoga similarly depends on this perception and experience that the vital forces and functions to which our Life is normally subjected and whose ordinary operations seem set and indispensable, can be mastered and the operations changed or suspended with results that would otherwise be impossible and that seem miraculous to those who have not seized the rationale of their process. And if in some other of its forms this character of Yoga is less apparent, because they are more intuitive and less mechanical, nearer, like the Yoga of Devotion, to a supernal ecstasy or, like the Yoga of Knowledge, to a supernal infinity of consciousness and being, yet they too start from the use of some principal faculty in us by ways and for ends not contemplated in its everyday spontaneous workings. All methods grouped under the common name of Yoga are special psychological processes founded on a fixed truth of Nature and developing, out of normal functions, powers and results which were always latent but which her ordinary movements do not easily or do not often manifest.
But as in physical knowledge the multiplication of scientific processes has its disadvantages, as that tends, for instance, to develop a victorious artificiality which overwhelms our natural human Life under a load of machinery and to purchase certain forms of freedom and mastery at the price of an increased servitude, so the preoccupation with Yogic processes and their exceptional results may have its disadvantages and losses. The
The Conditions of the Synthesis
Yogin tends to draw away from the common existence and lose his hold upon it; he tends to purchase wealth of spirit by an impoverishment of his human activities, the inner freedom by an outer death. If he gains God, he loses Life, or if he turns his efforts outward to conquer Life, he is in danger of losing
God. Therefore we see in India that a sharp incompatibility has been created between Life in the world and spiritual growth and perfection, and although the tradition and ideal of a victorious harmony between the inner attraction and the outer demand remains, it is little or else very imperfectly exemplified. In fact, when a man turns his vision and energy inward and enters on the path of Yoga, he is popularly supposed to be lost inevitably to the great stream of our collective existence and the secular effort of humanity. So strongly has the idea prevailed, so much has it been emphasised by prevalent philosophies and religions that to escape from Life is now commonly considered as not only the necessary condition, but the general object of Yoga. No synthesis of Yoga can be satisfying which does not, in its aim, reunite God and Nature in a liberated and perfected human Life or, in its method, not only permit but favour the harmony of our inner and outer activities and experiences in the divine consummation of both. For man is precisely that term and symbol of a higher Existence descended into the material world in which it is possible for the lower to transfigure itself and put on the nature of the higher and the higher to reveal itself in the forms of the lower. To avoid the Life which is given him for the realisation of that possibility, can never be either the indispensable condition or the whole and ultimate object of his supreme endeavour or of his most powerful means of self-fulfilment. It can only be a temporary necessity under certain conditions or a specialised extreme effort imposed on the individual so as to prepare a greater general possibility for the race. The true and full object and utility of Yoga can only be accomplished when the conscious
Yoga in man becomes, like the subconscious Yoga in Nature, outwardly conterminous with Life itself and we can once more, looking out both on the path and the achievement, say in a more perfect and luminous sense: "All Life is Yoga."
0.02 - II - The Home of the Guru, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Guru-griha-vsa staying in the home of the Guru is a very old Indian ideal maintained by seekers through the ages. The Aranyakas the ancient teachings in the forest-groves are perhaps the oldest records of the institution. It was not for education in the modern sense of the term that men went to live with the Guru; for the Guru is not a 'teacher'. The Guru is one who is 'enlightened', who is a seer, a Rishi, one who has the vision of and has lived the Truth. He has, thus, the knowledge of the goal of human Life and has learnt true values in Life by living the Truth. He can impart both these to the willing seeker. In ancient times seekers went to the Guru with many questions, difficulties and doubts but also with earnestness. Their questions were preliminary to the quest.
The Master, the Guru, set at rest the puzzled human mind by his illuminating answers, perhaps even more by his silent consciousness, so that it might be able to pursue unhampered the path of realisation of the Truth. Those ancient discourses answer the mind of man today even across the ages. They have rightly acquired as everything of the past does a certain sanctity. But sometimes that very reverence prevents men from properly evaluating, and living in, the present. This happens when the mind instead of seeking the Spirit looks at the form. For instance, it is not necessary for such discourses that they take place in forest-groves in order to be highly spiritual. Wherever the Master is, there is Light. And guru-griha the house of the Master can be his private dwelling place. So much was this feeling a part of Sri Aurobindo's nature and so particular was he to maintain the personal character of his work that during the first few years after 1923 he did not like his house to be called an 'Ashram', as the word had acquired the sense of a public institution to the modern mind. But there was no doubt that the flower of Divinity had blossomed in him; and disciples, like bees seeking honey, came to him. It is no exaggeration to say that these Evening Talks were to the small company of disciples what the Aranyakas were to the ancient seekers. Seeking the Light, they came to the dwelling place of their Guru, the greatest seer of the age, and found it their spiritual home the home of their parents, for the Mother, his companion in the great mission, had come. And these spiritual parents bestowed upon the disciples freely of their Light, their Consciousness, their Power and their Grace. The modern reader may find that the form of these discourses differs from those of the past but it was bound to be so for the simple reason that the times have changed and the problems that puzzle the modern mind are so different. Even though the disciples may be very imperfect representations of what he aimed at in them, still they are his creations. It is in order to repay, in however infinitesimal a degree, the debt which we owe to him that the effort is made to partake of the joy of his company the Evening Talks with a larger public.
0.02 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
the course of a Life which is already long. Unfortunately I am
surrounded by people who, though they are here to practise
0.02 - The Three Steps of Nature, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
That which Nature has evolved for us and has firmly founded is the bodily Life. She has effected a certain combination and harmony of the two inferior but most fundamentally necessary elements of our action and progress upon earth, -
Matter, which, however the too ethereally spiritual may despise it, is our foundation and the first condition of all our energies and realisations, and the Life-Energy which is our means of existence in a material body and the basis there even of our mental and spiritual activities. She has successfully achieved a certain stability of her constant material movement which is at once sufficiently steady and durable and sufficiently pliable and mutable to provide a fit dwelling-place and instrument for the progressively manifesting god in humanity. This is what is meant by the fable in the Aitareya Upanishad which tells us that the gods rejected the animal forms successively offered to them by the Divine Self and only when man was produced, cried out, "This indeed is perfectly made," and consented to enter in. She has effected also a working compromise between the inertia of matter and the active Life that lives in and feeds on it, by which not only is vital existence sustained, but the fullest developments of mentality are rendered possible. This equilibrium constitutes the basic status of Nature in man and is termed in the language of Yoga his gross body composed
The Three Steps of Nature
--
If, then, this inferior equilibrium is the basis and first means of the higher movements which the universal Power contemplates and if it constitutes the vehicle in which the Divine here seeks to reveal Itself, if the Indian saying is true that the body is the instrument provided for the fulfilment of the right law of our nature, then any final recoil from the physical Life must be a turning away from the completeness of the divine Wisdom and a renunciation of its aim in earthly manifestation. Such a refusal may be, owing to some secret law of their development, the right attitude for certain individuals, but never the aim intended for mankind. It can be, therefore, no integral Yoga which ignores the body or makes its annulment or its rejection indispensable to a perfect spirituality. Rather, the perfecting of the body also should be the last triumph of the Spirit and to make the bodily Life also divine must be God's final seal upon His work in the universe. The obstacle which the physical presents to the spiritual is no argument for the rejection of the physical; for in the unseen providence of things our greatest difficulties are our best opportunities. A supreme difficulty is Nature's indication to us of a supreme conquest to be won and an ultimate problem to be solved; it is not a warning of an inextricable snare to be shunned or of an enemy too strong for us from whom we must flee.
Equally, the vital and nervous energies in us are there for a great utility; they too demand the divine realisation of their possibilities in our ultimate fulfilment. The great part assigned to this element in the universal scheme is powerfully emphasised by the catholic wisdom of the Upanishads. "As the spokes of a wheel in its nave, so in the Life-Energy is all established, the triple knowledge and the Sacrifice and the power of the strong and the purity of the wise. Under the control of the LifeEnergy is all this that is established in the triple heaven."2 It is therefore no integral Yoga that kills these vital energies, forces them into a nerveless quiescence or roots them out as the source
annakos.a and pran.akos.a.
--
If the bodily Life is what Nature has firmly evolved for us as her base and first instrument, it is our mental Life that she is evolving as her immediate next aim and superior instrument. This in her ordinary exaltations is the lofty preoccupying thought in her; this, except in her periods of exhaustion and recoil into a reposeful and recuperating obscurity, is her constant pursuit wherever she can get free from the trammels of her first vital and physical realisations. For here in man we have a distinction which is of the utmost importance. He has in him not a single mentality, but a double and a triple, the mind material and nervous, the pure intellectual mind which liberates itself from the illusions of the body and the senses, and a divine mind above intellect which in its turn liberates itself from the imperfect modes of the logically discriminative and imaginative reason. Mind in man is first emmeshed in the Life of the body, where in the plant it is entirely involved and in animals always imprisoned. It accepts this Life as not only the first but the whole condition of its activities and serves its needs as if they were the entire aim of existence. But the bodily Life in man is a base, not the aim, his first condition and not his last determinant. In the just idea of the ancients man is essentially the thinker, the Manu, the mental being who leads the Life and the body,3 not the animal who is led by them. The true human existence, therefore, only begins when the intellectual mentality emerges out of the material and we begin more and more to live in the mind independent of the nervous and physical obsession and in the measure of that liberty are able to accept rightly and rightly to use the Life of the body. For freedom and not a skilful subjection is the true means of mastery. A free, not a compulsory acceptance of the conditions, the enlarged and sublimated conditions of our physical being, is the high human ideal. But beyond this intellectual mentality is the divine.
The mental Life thus evolving in man is not, indeed, a
manomayah. pran.asarraneta. Mundaka Upanishad II. 2. 8.
--
Certainly, the mental Life is not a finished evolution of Nature; it is not yet firmly founded in the human animal. The sign is that the fine and full equilibrium of vitality and matter, the sane, robust, long-lived human body is ordinarily found only in races or classes of men who reject the effort of thought, its disturbances, its tensions, or think only with the material mind.
Civilised man has yet to establish an equilibrium between the fully active mind and the body; he does not normally possess it.
Indeed, the increasing effort towards a more intense mental Life seems to create, frequently, an increasing disequilibrium of the human elements, so that it is possible for eminent scientists to describe genius as a form of insanity, a result of degeneration, a pathological morbidity of Nature. The phenomena which are used to justify this exaggeration, when taken not separately, but in connection with all other relevant data, point to a different truth. Genius is one attempt of the universal Energy to so quicken and intensify our intellectual powers that they shall be prepared for those more puissant, direct and rapid faculties which constitute the play of the supra-intellectual or divine mind. It is not, then, a freak, an inexplicable phenomenon, but a perfectly natural next step in the right line of her evolution.
She has harmonised the bodily Life with the material mind, she is harmonising it with the play of the intellectual mentality; for that, although it tends to a depression of the full animal and vital vigour, need not produce active disturbances. And she is shooting yet beyond in the attempt to reach a still higher level.
Nor are the disturbances created by her process as great as is often represented. Some of them are the crude beginnings of new manifestations; others are an easily corrected movement of disintegration, often fruitful of fresh activities and always a small price to pay for the far-reaching results that she has in view.
--
to this conclusion that mental Life, far from being a recent appearance in man, is the swift repetition in him of a previous achievement from which the Energy in the race had undergone one of her deplorable recoils. The savage is perhaps not so much the first forefa ther of civilised man as the degenerate descendant of a previous civilisation. For if the actuality of intellectual achievement is unevenly distributed, the capacity is spread everywhere. It has been seen that in individual cases even the racial type considered by us the lowest, the negro fresh from the perennial barbarism of Central Africa, is capable, without admixture of blood, without waiting for future generations, of the intellectual culture, if not yet of the intellectual accomplishment of the dominant European. Even in the mass men seem to need, in favourable circumstances, only a few generations to cover ground that ought apparently to be measured in the terms of millenniums. Either, then, man by his privilege as a mental being is exempt from the full burden of the tardy laws of evolution or else he already represents and with helpful conditions and in the right stimulating atmosphere can always display a high level of material capacity for the activities of the intellectual Life.
It is not mental incapacity, but the long rejection or seclusion from opportunity and withdrawal of the awakening impulse that creates the savage. Barbarism is an intermediate sleep, not an original darkness.
Moreover the whole trend of modern thought and modern endeavour reveals itself to the observant eye as a large conscious effort of Nature in man to effect a general level of intellectual equipment, capacity and farther possibility by universalising the opportunities which modern civilisation affords for the mental Life. Even the preoccupation of the European intellect, the protagonist of this tendency, with material Nature and the externalities of existence is a necessary part of the effort. It seeks to prepare a sufficient basis in man's physical being and vital energies and in his material environment for his full mental possibilities. By the spread of education, by the advance of the backward races, by the elevation of depressed classes, by the multiplication of labour-saving appliances, by the movement
The Three Steps of Nature
--
And when the preliminary conditions are satisfied, when the great endeavour has found its base, what will be the nature of that farther possibility which the activities of the intellectual Life must serve? If Mind is indeed Nature's highest term, then the entire development of the rational and imaginative intellect and the harmonious satisfaction of the emotions and sensibilities must be to themselves sufficient. But if, on the contrary, man is more than a reasoning and emotional animal, if beyond that which is being evolved, there is something that has to be evolved, then it may well be that the fullness of the mental Life, the suppleness, flexibility and wide capacity of the intellect, the ordered richness of emotion and sensibility may be only a passage towards the development of a higher Life and of more powerful faculties which are yet to manifest and to take possession of the lower instrument, just as mind itself has so taken possession of the body that the physical being no longer lives only for its own satisfaction but provides the foundation and the materials for a superior activity.
The assertion of a higher than the mental Life is the whole foundation of Indian philosophy and its acquisition and organisation is the veritable object served by the methods of Yoga.
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
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we are the terrestrial summit may be considered, in a sense, as an inverse manifestation, by which these supreme Powers in their unity and their diversity use, develop and perfect the imperfect substance and activities of Matter, of Life and of Mind so that they, the inferior modes, may express in mutable relativity an increasing harmony of the divine and eternal states from which they are born. If this be the truth of the universe, then the goal of evolution is also its cause, it is that which is immanent in its elements and out of them is liberated. But the liberation is surely imperfect if it is only an escape and there is no return upon the containing substance and activities to exalt and transform them.
The immanence itself would have no credible reason for being if it did not end in such a transfiguration. But if human mind can become capable of the glories of the divine Light, human emotion and sensibility can be transformed into the mould and assume the measure and movement of the supreme Bliss, human action not only represent but feel itself to be the motion of a divine and non-egoistic Force and the physical substance of our being sufficiently partake of the purity of the supernal essence, sufficiently unify plasticity and durable constancy to support and prolong these highest experiences and agencies, then all the long labour of Nature will end in a crowning justification and her evolutions reveal their profound significance.
So dazzling is even a glimpse of this supreme existence and so absorbing its attraction that, once seen, we feel readily justified in neglecting all else for its pursuit. Even, by an opposite exaggeration to that which sees all things in Mind and the mental Life as an exclusive ideal, Mind comes to be regarded as an unworthy deformation and a supreme obstacle, the source of an illusory universe, a negation of the Truth and itself to be denied and all its works and results annulled if we desire the final liberation. But this is a half-truth which errs by regarding only the actual limitations of Mind and ignores its divine intention.
The ultimate knowledge is that which perceives and accepts God in the universe as well as beyond the universe; the integral Yoga is that which, having found the Transcendent, can return upon the universe and possess it, retaining the power freely to descend
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We perceive, then, these three steps in Nature, a bodily Life which is the basis of our existence here in the material world, a mental Life into which we emerge and by which we raise the bodily to higher uses and enlarge it into a greater completeness, and a divine existence 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 this liberation and fulfilment as part at least and a large and important part of the aim of Yoga.
0.03 - III - The Evening Sittings, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo was never a social man in the current sense of the term and definitely he was not a man of the crowd. This was due to his grave temperament, not to any feeling of superiority or to repulsion for men. At Baroda there was an Officers' Club which was patronised by the Maharajah and though Sri Aurobindo enrolled himself as a member he hardly went to the Club even on special occasions. He rather liked a small congenial circle of friends and spent most of his evenings with them whenever he was free and not occupied with his studies or other works. After Baroda when he went to Calcutta there was hardly any time in the storm and stress of revolutionary politics to permit him to lead a 'social Life'. What little time he could spare from his incessant activities was spent in the house of Raja Subodh Mallick or at the Grey Street house. In the Karmayogin office he used to sit after the office hours till late chatting with a few persons or trying automatic writing. Strange dictations used to be received sometimes: one of them was the following: "Moni [Suresh Chakravarty] will bomb Sir Edward Grey when he will come as the Viceroy of India." In later years at Pondicherry there used to be a joke that Sir Edward took such a fright at the prospect of Moni's bombing him that he never came to India!
After Sri Aurobindo had come to Pondicherry from Chandernagore, he entered upon an intense period of Sadhana and for a few months he refused to receive anyone. After a time he used to sit down to talk in the evening and on some days tried automatic writing. Yogic Sadhan, a small book, was the result. In 1913 Sri Aurobindo moved to Rue Franois Martin No. 41 where he used to receive visitors at fixed times. This was generally in the morning between 9 and 10.30.
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[4]The Life Divine, Centenary Edition, pp. 994-5.
[5]Essays on the Gita, Cent. Ed., p. 161.
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[8]The Life Divine, Cent. Ed. pp. 994-5.
***
0.03 - Letters to My little smile, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Life, of its misery and ugliness. For Life is not as it is portrayed
in novels; day-to-day existence is full of sufferings great and
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own sadness that you saw reflected in my eyes. I know Life too
well for your confessions to make me "serious". Besides, your
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your smile; because you knew how to smile at Life, you also
knew how to work with courage and steadiness, and in this
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once your happiness, your simple joy of Life and your beautiful
smile which was a pleasure to see? I don't ask the question in
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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.
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exact image of Life, where one must constantly undo what has
been done in order to redo it better.
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you should concentrate in the inner being, which has a Life
independent of the senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch).
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yet concealing in itself the stream of Life. Because of the resistance
of matter, this stream of Life is freed only with difficulty and can
hardly emerge into the light. But with a little concentration and
insistence, the resistance of matter lessens and the Life-forces are
freed. This image applies to almost everyone, but in this case
0.03 - The Threefold Life, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:0.03 - The Threefold Life
author class:Sri Aurobindo
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The Threefold Life
NATURE, then, is an evolution or progressive self-manifestation of an eternal and secret existence, with three successive forms as her three steps of ascent. And we have consequently as the condition of all our activities these three mutually interdependent possibilities, the bodily Life, the mental existence and the veiled spiritual being which is in the involution the cause of the others and in the evolution their result. Preserving and perfecting the physical, fulfilling the mental, it is Nature's aim and it should be ours to unveil in the perfected body and mind the transcendent activities of the Spirit. As the mental Life does not abrogate but works for the elevation and better utilisation of the bodily existence, so too the spiritual should not abrogate but transfigure our intellectual, emotional, aesthetic and vital activities.
For man, the head of terrestrial Nature, the sole earthly frame in which her full evolution is possible, is a triple birth. He has been given a living frame in which the body is the vessel and Life the dynamic means of a divine manifestation. His activity is centred in a progressive mind which aims at perfecting itself as well as the house in which it dwells and the means of Life that it uses, and is capable of awaking by a progressive self-realisation to its own true nature as a form of the Spirit. He culminates in what he always really was, the illumined and beatific spirit which is intended at last to irradiate Life and mind with its now concealed splendours.
Since this is the plan of the divine Energy in humanity, the whole method and aim of our existence must work by the interaction of these three elements in the being. As a result of their separate formulation in Nature, man has open to him a choice between three kinds of Life, the ordinary material existence, a Life of mental activity and progress and the unchanging spiritual beatitude. But he can, as he progresses, combine these three forms, resolve their discords into a harmonious rhythm and so create in himself the whole godhead, the perfect Man.
In ordinary Nature they have each their own characteristic and governing impulse.
The characteristic energy of bodily Life is not so much in progress as in persistence, not so much in individual selfenlargement as in self-repetition. There is, indeed, in physical Nature a progression from type to type, from the vegetable to the animal, from the animal to man; for even in inanimate Matter Mind is at work. But once a type is marked off physically, the chief immediate preoccupation of the terrestrial Mother seems to be to keep it in being by a constant reproduction. For Life always seeks immortality; but since individual form is impermanent and only the idea of a form is permanent in the consciousness that creates the universe, - for there it does not perish, - such constant reproduction is the only possible material immortality.
Self-preservation, self-repetition, self-multiplication are necessarily, then, the predominant instincts of all material existence.
Material Life seems ever to move in a fixed cycle.
The characteristic energy of pure Mind is change, and the more our mentality acquires elevation and organisation, the more this law of Mind assumes the aspect of a continual enlargement, improvement and better arrangement of its gains and so of a continual passage from a smaller and simpler to a larger and more complex perfection. For Mind, unlike bodily Life, is infinite in its field, elastic in its expansion, easily variable in its formations. Change, then, self-enlargement and selfimprovement are its proper instincts. Mind too moves in cycles, but these are ever-enlarging spirals. Its faith is perfectibility, its watchword is progress.
The characteristic law of Spirit is self-existent perfection and immutable infinity. It possesses always and in its own right the immortality which is the aim of Life and the perfection which is the goal of Mind. The attainment of the eternal and the realisation of that which is the same in all things and beyond all things, equally blissful in universe and outside it, untouched by the imperfections and limitations of the forms and activities in which it dwells, are the glory of the spiritual Life.
In each of these forms Nature acts both individually and collectively; for the Eternal affirms Himself equally in the single form and in the group-existence, whether family, clan and nation or groupings dependent on less physical principles or the supreme group of all, our collective humanity. Man also may seek his own individual good from any or all of these spheres of activity, or identify himself in them with the collectivity and live for it, or, rising to a truer perception of this complex universe, harmonise the individual realisation with the collective aim. For as it is the right relation of the soul with the Supreme, while it is in the universe, neither to assert egoistically its separate being nor to blot itself out in the Indefinable, but to realise its unity with the Divine and the world and unite them in the individual, so the right relation of the individual with the collectivity is neither to pursue egoistically his own material or mental progress or spiritual salvation without regard to his fellows, nor for the sake of the community to suppress or maim his proper development, but to sum up in himself all its best and completest possibilities and pour them out by thought, action and all other means on his surroundings so that the whole race may approach nearer to the attainment of its supreme personalities.
It follows that the object of the material Life must be to fulfil, above all things, the vital aim of Nature. The whole aim of the material man is to live, to pass from birth to death with as much comfort or enjoyment as may be on the way, but anyhow to live.
He can subordinate this aim, but only to physical Nature's other instincts, the reproduction of the individual and the conservation of the type in the family, class or community. Self, domesticity, the accustomed order of the society and of the nation are the constituents of the material existence. Its immense importance in the economy of Nature is self-evident, and commensurate is the importance of the human type which represents it. He assures her of the safety of the framework she has made and of the orderly continuance and conservation of her past gains.
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 this instinctive and unintelligent principle in Nature. In the ancient Indian distinction between the once born and the twice born, it is to this material man that the former description can be applied. He does Nature's inferior works; he assures the basis for her higher activities; but not to him easily are opened the glories of her second birth.
Yet he admits so much of spirituality as has been enforced on his customary ideas by the great religious outbursts of the past and he makes in his scheme of society a place, venerable though not often effective, for the priest or the learned theologian who can be trusted to provide him with a safe and ordinary spiritual pabulum. But to the man who would assert for himself the liberty of spiritual experience and the spiritual Life, he assigns, if he admits him at all, not the vestment of the priest but the robe of the Sannyasin. Outside society let him exercise his dangerous freedom. So he may even serve as a human lightning-rod receiving the electricity of the Spirit and turning it away from the social edifice.
Nevertheless it is possible to make the material man and his Life moderately progressive by imprinting on the material mind the custom of progress, the habit of conscious change, the fixed idea of progression as a law of Life. The creation by this means of progressive societies in Europe is one of the greatest triumphs of Mind over Matter. But the physical nature has its revenge; for the progress made tends to be of the grosser and more outward kind and its attempts at a higher or a more rapid movement bring about great wearinesses, swift exhaustions, startling recoils.
It is possible also to give the material man and his 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 spiritualised communities in the East has been one of the greatest triumphs of Spirit over Matter. Yet here, too, there is a defect; for this often tends only to the creation of a religious temperament, the most outward form of spirituality.
Its higher manifestations, even the most splendid and puissant, either merely increase the number of souls drawn out of social Life and so impoverish it or disturb the society for a while by a momentary elevation. The truth is that neither the mental effort nor the spiritual impulse can suffice, divorced from each other, to overcome the immense resistance of material Nature.
She demands their alliance in a complete effort before she will suffer a complete change in humanity. But, usually, these two great agents are unwilling to make to each other the necessary concessions.
The mental Life concentrates on the aesthetic, the ethical and the intellectual activities. Essential mentality is idealistic and a seeker after perfection. The subtle self, the brilliant Atman,1 is ever a dreamer. A dream of perfect beauty, perfect conduct, perfect Truth, whether seeking new forms of the Eternal or revitalising the old, is the very soul of pure mentality. But it knows not how to deal with the resistance of Matter. There it is hampered and inefficient, works by bungling experiments and has either to withdraw from the struggle or submit to the grey actuality. Or else, by studying the material Life and accepting the conditions of the contest, it may succeed, but only in imposing temporarily some artificial system which infinite Nature either rends and casts aside or disfigures out of recognition or by withdrawing her assent leaves as the corpse of a dead ideal. Few and far between have been those realisations of the dreamer in Man which the world has gladly accepted, looks back to with a fond memory and seeks, in its elements, to cherish.
1 Who dwells in Dream, the inly conscious, the enjoyer of abstractions, the Brilliant.
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When the gulf between actual Life and the temperament of the thinker is too great, we see as the result a sort of withdrawing of the Mind from Life in order to act with a greater freedom in its own sphere. The poet living among his brilliant visions, the artist absorbed in his art, the philosopher thinking out the problems of the intellect in his solitary chamber, the scientist, the scholar caring only for their studies and their experiments, were often in former days, are even now not unoften the Sannyasins of the intellect. To the work they have done for humanity, all its past bears record.
But such seclusion is justified only by some special activity.
Mind finds fully its force and action only when it casts itself upon Life and accepts equally its possibilities and its resistances as the means of a greater self-perfection. In the struggle with the difficulties of the material world the ethical development of the individual is firmly shaped and the great schools of conduct are formed; by contact with the facts of Life Art attains to vitality, Thought assures its abstractions, the generalisations of the philosopher base themselves on a stable foundation of science and experience.
This mixing with Life may, however, be pursued for the sake of the individual mind and with an entire indifference to the forms of the material existence or the uplifting of the race. This indifference is seen at its highest in the Epicurean discipline and is not entirely absent from the Stoic; and even altruism does the works of compassion more often for its own sake than for the sake of the world it helps. But this too is a limited fulfilment. The progressive mind is seen at its noblest when it strives to elevate the whole race to its own level whether by sowing broadcast the image of its own thought and fulfilment or by changing the material Life of the race into fresh forms, religious, intellectual, social or political, intended to represent more nearly that ideal of truth, beauty, justice, righteousness with which the man's own soul is illumined. Failure in such a field matters little; for the mere attempt is dynamic and creative. The struggle of Mind to elevate Life is the promise and condition of the conquest of Life by that which is higher even than Mind.
That highest thing, the spiritual existence, is concerned with what is eternal but not therefore entirely aloof from the transient. For the spiritual man the mind's dream of perfect beauty is realised in an eternal love, beauty and delight that has no dependence and is equal behind all objective appearances; its dream of perfect Truth in the supreme, self-existent, self-apparent and eternal Verity which never varies, but explains and is the secret of all variations and the goal of all progress; its dream of perfect action in the omnipotent and self-guiding Law that is inherent for ever in all things and translates itself here in the rhythm of the worlds. What is fugitive vision or constant effort of creation in the brilliant Self is an eternally existing Reality in the Self that knows2 and is the Lord.
But if it is often difficult for the mental Life to accommodate itself to the dully resistant material activity, how much more difficult must it seem for the spiritual existence to live on in a world that appears full not of the Truth but of every lie and illusion, not of Love and Beauty but of an encompassing discord and ugliness, not of the Law of Truth but of victorious selfishness and sin? Therefore the spiritual Life tends easily in the saint and Sannyasin to withdraw from the material existence and reject it either wholly and physically or in the spirit. It sees this world as the kingdom of evil or of ignorance and the eternal and divine either in a far-off heaven or beyond where there is no world and no Life. It separates itself inwardly, if not also physically, from the world's impurities; it asserts the spiritual reality in a spotless isolation. This withdrawal renders an invaluable service to the material Life itself by forcing it to regard and even to bow down to something that is the direct negation of its own petty ideals, sordid cares and egoistic self-content.
But the work in the world of so supreme a power as spiritual force cannot be thus limited. The spiritual Life also can return upon the material and use it as a means of its own greater fullness. Refusing to be blinded by the dualities, the appearances, it can seek in all appearances whatsoever the vision of the same Lord, the same eternal Truth, Beauty, Love, Delight. The
Vedantic formula of the Self in all things, all things in the Self and all things as becomings of the Self is the key to this richer and all-embracing Yoga.
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But the spiritual Life, like the mental, may thus make use of this outward existence for the benefit of the individual with a perfect indifference to any collective uplifting of the merely symbolic world which it uses. Since the Eternal is for ever the same in all things and all things the same to the Eternal, since the exact mode of action and the result are of no importance compared with the working out in oneself of the one great realisation, this spiritual indifference accepts no matter what environment, no matter what action, dispassionately, prepared to retire as soon as its own supreme end is realised. It is so that many have understood the ideal of the Gita. Or else the inner love and bliss may pour itself out on the world in good deeds, in service, in compassion, the inner Truth in the giving of knowledge, without therefore attempting the transformation of a world which must by its inalienable nature remain a battlefield of the dualities, of sin and virtue, of truth and error, of joy and suffering.
But if Progress also is one of the chief terms of worldexistence and a progressive manifestation of the Divine the true sense of Nature, this limitation also is invalid. It is possible for the spiritual Life in the world, and it is its real mission, to change the material Life 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 existed side by side to the exclusion of the progressive mind. Spirituality has made terms for itself with Matter by renouncing the attempt at general progress. It has obtained from society the right of free spiritual development for all who assume some distinctive symbol, such as the garb of the Sannyasin, the recognition of that Life as man's goal and those who live it as worthy of an absolute reverence, and the casting of society itself into such a religious mould that its most customary acts should be accompanied by a formal reminder of the spiritual symbolism of Life and its ultimate destination. On the other hand, there was conceded to society the right of inertia and immobile self-conservation. The concession destroyed much of the value of the terms. The religious mould being fixed, the formal reminder tended to become a routine and to lose its living sense. The constant attempts to change the mould by new sects and religions ended only in a new routine or a modification of the old; for the saving element of the free and active mind had been exiled. The material Life, handed over to the Ignorance, the purposeless and endless duality, became a leaden and dolorous yoke from which flight was the only escape.
The schools of Indian Yoga lent themselves to the compromise. Individual perfection or liberation was made the aim, seclusion of some kind from the ordinary activities the condition, the renunciation of Life the culmination. The teacher gave his knowledge only to a small circle of disciples. Or if a wider movement was attempted, it was still the release of the individual soul that remained the aim. The pact with an immobile society was, for the most part, observed.
The utility of the compromise in the then actual state of the world cannot be doubted. It secured in India a society which lent itself to the preservation and the worship of spirituality, a country apart in which as in a fortress the highest spiritual ideal could maintain itself in its most absolute purity unoverpowered by the siege of the forces around it. But it was a compromise, not an absolute victory. The material Life lost the divine impulse to growth, the spiritual preserved by isolation its height and purity, but sacrificed its full power and serviceableness to the world. Therefore, in the divine Providence the country of the Yogins and the Sannyasins has been forced into a strict and imperative contact with the very element it had rejected, the element of the progressive Mind, so that it might recover what was now wanting to it.
We have to recognise once more that the individual exists not in himself alone but in the collectivity and that individual perfection and liberation are not the whole sense of God's intention in the world. The free use of our liberty includes also the liberation of others and of mankind; the perfect utility of our perfection is, having realised in ourselves the divine symbol, to reproduce, multiply and ultimately universalise it in others.
Therefore from a concrete view of human Life in its threefold potentialities we come to the same conclusion that we had drawn from an observation of Nature in her general workings and the three steps of her evolution. And we begin to perceive a complete aim for our synthesis of Yoga.
Spirit is the crown of universal existence; Matter is its basis; Mind is the link between the two. Spirit is that which is eternal; Mind and Matter are its workings. Spirit is that which is concealed and has to be revealed; mind and body are the means by which it seeks to reveal itself. Spirit is the image of the Lord of the Yoga; mind and body are the means He has provided for reproducing that image in phenomenal existence. All Nature is an attempt at a progressive revelation of the concealed Truth, a more and more successful reproduction of the divine image.
But what Nature aims at for the mass in a slow evolution, Yoga effects for the individual by a rapid revolution. It works by a quickening of all her energies, a sublimation of all her faculties. While she develops the spiritual Life with difficulty and has constantly to fall back from it for the sake of her lower realisations, the sublimated force, the concentrated method of Yoga can attain directly and carry with it the perfection of the mind and even, if she will, the perfection of the body. Nature seeks the Divine in her own symbols: Yoga goes beyond Nature to the Lord of Nature, beyond universe to the Transcendent and can return with the transcendent light and power, with the fiat of the Omnipotent.
But their aim is one in the end. The generalisation of Yoga in humanity must be the last victory of Nature over her own delays and concealments. Even as now by the progressive mind in Science she seeks to make all mankind fit for the full development of the mental Life, so by Yoga must she inevitably seek to make all mankind fit for the higher evolution, the second birth, the spiritual existence. And as the mental Life uses and perfects the material, so will the spiritual use and perfect the material and the mental existence as the instruments of a divine self-expression.
The ages when that is accomplished, are the legendary Satya or Krita3 Yugas, the ages of the Truth manifested in the symbol, of the great work done when Nature in mankind, illumined, satisfied and blissful, rests in the culmination of her endeavour.
0.04 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
way really effective and worthy of an aspirant for Divine Life.
I hope that this time I have made myself clear.
0.04 - The Systems of Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
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 established by Nature is sufficient for the normal egoistic 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 this frame and the world-environment by which it is conditioned.
34
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By its numerous asanas or fixed postures it first cures the body of that restlessness which is a sign of its inability to contain without working them off in action and movement the vital forces poured into it from the universal Life-Ocean, gives to it an extraordinary health, force and suppleness and seeks to liberate it from the habits by which it is subjected to ordinary physical
Nature and kept within the narrow bounds of her normal operations. In the ancient tradition of Hathayoga it has always been supposed that this conquest could be pushed so far even as to conquer to a great extent the force of gravitation. By various subsidiary but elaborate processes the Hathayogin next contrives to keep the body free from all impurities and the nervous system unclogged for those exercises of respiration which are his most important instruments. These are called pran.ayama, the control of the breath or vital power; for breathing is the chief physical functioning of the vital forces. Pranayama, for the Hathayogin, serves a double purpose. First, it completes the perfection of the body. The vitality is liberated from many of the ordinary necessities of physical Nature; robust health, prolonged youth, often an extraordinary longevity are attained.
On the other hand, Pranayama awakens the coiled-up serpent of the Pranic dynamism in the vital sheath and opens to the Yogin fields of consciousness, ranges of experience, abnormal faculties denied to the ordinary human Life while it puissantly intensifies such normal powers and faculties as he already possesses.
The Systems of Yoga
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The results of Hathayoga are thus striking to the eye and impose easily on the vulgar or physical mind. And yet at the end we may ask what we have gained at the end of all this stupendous labour. The object of physical Nature, the preservation of the mere physical Life, its highest perfection, even in a certain sense the capacity of a greater enjoyment of physical living have been carried out on an abnormal scale. But the weakness of Hathayoga is that its laborious and difficult processes make so great a demand on the time and energy and impose so complete a severance from the ordinary Life of men that the utilisation of its results for the Life of the world becomes either impracticable or is extraordinarily restricted. If in return for this loss we gain another Life in another world within, the mental, the dynamic, these results could have been acquired through other systems, through Rajayoga, through Tantra, by much less laborious methods and held on much less exacting terms. On the other hand the physical results, increased vitality, prolonged youth, health, longevity are of small avail if they must be held by us as misers of ourselves, apart from the common Life, for their own sake, not utilised, not thrown into the common sum of the world's activities. Hathayoga attains large results, but at an exorbitant price and to very little purpose.
Rajayoga takes a higher flight. It aims at the liberation and perfection not of the bodily, but of the mental being, the control of the emotional and sensational Life, the mastery of the whole apparatus of thought and consciousness. It fixes its eyes on the citta, that stuff of mental consciousness in which all these activities arise, and it seeks, even as Hathayoga with its physical material, first to purify and to tranquillise. The normal state of man is a condition of trouble and disorder, a kingdom either at war with itself or badly governed; for the lord, the Purusha, is subjected to his ministers, the faculties, subjected even to his subjects, the instruments of sensation, emotion, action, enjoyment. Swarajya, self-rule, must be substituted for this subjection.
First, therefore, the powers of order must be helped to overcome
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We perceive that as Hathayoga, dealing with the Life and body, aims at the supernormal perfection of the physical Life and its capacities and goes beyond it into the domain of the mental Life, so Rajayoga, operating with the mind, aims at a supernormal perfection and enlargement of the capacities of the mental Life and goes beyond it into the domain of the spiritual existence.
But the weakness of the system lies in its excessive reliance on abnormal states of trance. This limitation leads first to a certain aloofness from the physical Life which is our foundation and the sphere into which we have to bring our mental and spiritual gains. Especially is the spiritual Life, in this system, too much associated with the state of Samadhi. Our object is to make the spiritual Life and its experiences fully active and fully utilisable in the waking state and even in the normal use of the functions.
But in Rajayoga it tends to withdraw into a subliminal plane at the back of our normal experiences instead of descending and possessing our whole existence.
--
Lord, with our human Life as its final stage, pursued through the different phases of self-concealment and self-revelation. The principle of Bhakti Yoga is to utilise all the normal relations of human Life 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-Blissful. Worship and meditation are used only for the preparation and increase of intensity of the divine relationship. And this Yoga is catholic in its use of all emotional relations, so that even enmity and opposition to God, considered as an intense, impatient and perverse form of Love, is conceived as a possible means of realisation and salvation.
This path, too, as ordinarily practised, leads away from worldexistence to an absorption, of another kind than the Monist's, in the Transcendent and Supra-cosmic.
0.05 - Letters to a Child, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
desire; it takes possession of your mind and your Life, and you
become a slave. If you have greed for food you are no longer the
--
I do not want a Life without energy.
Very good - then you must acquire energy, and after all, it is
--
inner discipline, one can achieve nothing in Life, either spiritually
or materially. All those who have been able to create something
--
anything in Life?
5 December 1934
--
completely lost and Lifeless. You know everything, my
mother. Will you tell me what it is?
--
in your material Life will you be able to have good health.
Love from your mother.
--
you have all of Life before you; you need not be impatient.
You say that you are often depressed. It is the vital being
--
In ordinary Life, one has to struggle to satisfy one's desires;
here one struggles not to do so. Actually, whatever path one
--
Divine and take your place in the divine Life in the making.
On the other hand you want the satisfactions of ordinary Life
and the pleasures of the vital - without considering, however,
--
Are you making me feel Life without you in order to
see whether I want this Life or not? Mother, if you don't
know what my path is, then who does?
--
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
--
are meant for the Ashram Life, it is necessary that the spiritual
Life and all the discipline it entails - in short, the search for and
--
Of course, if you want to lead the spiritual Life at any cost,
that is another thing. But in that case, you will have to rely on
--
(1) Your vital will find no gratification here, as Life has
become very restricted in the present war conditions.
--
I shall fail. On the other hand, I have neither the inclination nor the capacity for the ordinary Life. And I
know that I shall never be able to leave this Life. This is
my situation right now. The struggle is getting more and
--
is no reason to believe that you will not succeed in this Life; on the
contrary, I see in you the signs of a vocation. And since you have
--
are dissolved. I want a new Life.
My dear child,
You are quite right in wanting a new Life, and you may be
sure that I shall do my best to help you in that. I am quite sure
--
work and order in Life will be a powerful help to you in renewing
yourself.
--
your Life. As soon as you have understood the need for this,
everything will become easier - and you will at last be able to
0.05 - The Synthesis of the Systems, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
An undiscriminating combination in block would not be a synthesis, but a confusion. Nor would a successive practice of each of them in turn be easy in the short span of our human Life and with our limited energies, to say nothing of the waste of labour implied in so cumbrous a process. Sometimes, indeed,
Hathayoga and Rajayoga are thus successively practised. And in a recent unique example, in the Life of Ramakrishna Paramhansa, we see a colossal spiritual capacity first driving straight to the divine realisation, taking, as it were, the kingdom of heaven by violence, and then seizing upon one Yogic method after another and extracting the substance out of it with an incredible rapidity, always to return to the heart of the whole matter, the realisation and possession of God by the power of love, by the extension of inborn spirituality into various experience and by the spontaneous play of an intuitive knowledge. Such an example cannot be generalised. Its object also was special and temporal, to exemplify in the great and decisive experience of a master-soul the truth, now most necessary to humanity, towards which a world long divided into jarring sects and schools is with difficulty labouring, that all sects are forms and fragments of a single integral truth and all disciplines labour in their different ways towards one supreme experience. To know, be and possess
42
--
Purusha pours itself out in the action of its Energy, there is action, creation and the enjoyment or Ananda of becoming. But if Ananda is the creator and begetter of all becoming, its method is Tapas or force of the Purusha's consciousness dwelling upon its own infinite potentiality in existence and producing from it truths of conception or real Ideas, vijnana, which, proceeding from an omniscient and omnipotent Self-existence, have the surety of their own fulfilment and contain in themselves the nature and law of their own becoming in the terms of mind, Life and matter. The eventual omnipotence of Tapas and the infallible fulfilment of the Idea are the very foundation of all
Yoga. In man we render these terms by Will and Faith, - a will that is eventually self-effective because it is of the substance of
--
Nature, that which we know and are and must remain so long as the faith in us is not changed, acts through limitation and division, is of the nature of Ignorance and culminates in the Life of the ego; but the higher Nature, that to which we aspire, acts by unification and transcendence of limitation, is of the nature of Knowledge and culminates in the Life divine. The passage from the lower to the higher is the aim of Yoga; and this passage
The Synthesis of the Systems
--
Prakriti and turn them towards the Divine. But the normal action of Nature in us is an integral movement in which the full complexity of all our elements is affected by and affects all our environments. The whole of Life is the Yoga of Nature. The
Yoga that we seek must also be an integral action of Nature, and the whole difference between the Yogin and the natural man will be this, that the Yogin seeks to substitute in himself for the integral action of the lower Nature working in and by ego and division the integral action of the higher Nature working in and by God and unity. If indeed our aim be only an escape from the world to God, synthesis is unnecessary and a waste of time; for then our sole practical aim must be to find out one path out of the thousand that lead to God, one shortest possible of short cuts, and not to linger exploring different paths that end in the same goal. But if our aim be a transformation of our integral being into the terms of God-existence, it is then that a synthesis becomes necessary.
--
Thirdly, the divine Power in us uses all Life as the means of this integral Yoga. Every experience and outer contact with our world-environment, however trifling or however disastrous, is used for the work, and every inner experience, even to the most repellent suffering or the most humiliating fall, becomes a step on the path to perfection. And we recognise in ourselves with opened eyes the method of God in the world, His purpose of light in the obscure, of might in the weak and fallen, of delight in what is grievous and miserable. We see the divine method to be the same in the lower and in the higher working; only in the one it is pursued tardily and obscurely through the subconscious in
Nature, in the other it becomes swift and self-conscious and the instrument confesses the hand of the Master. All Life is a Yoga of Nature seeking to manifest God within itself. Yoga marks the stage at which this effort becomes capable of self-awareness and therefore of right completion in the individual. It is a gathering up and concentration of the movements dispersed and loosely combined in the lower evolution.
An integral method and an integral result. First, an integral realisation of Divine Being; not only a realisation of the One in its indistinguishable unity, but also in its multitude of aspects which are also necessary to the complete knowledge of it by
--
Beloved. And by a similar wideness, being capable of a freedom in spirit that embraces Life and does not depend upon withdrawal from Life, we are able to become without egoism, bondage or reaction the channel in our mind and body for a divine action poured out freely upon the world.
The divine existence is of the nature not only of freedom, but of purity, beatitude and perfection. An integral purity which shall enable on the one hand the perfect reflection of the divine
--
Truth and Law in us in the terms of Life and through the right
As the Jivanmukta, who is entirely free even without dissolution of the bodily Life in a final Samadhi.
The Synthesis of the Systems
--
Perfection includes perfection of mind and body, so that the highest results of Rajayoga and Hathayoga should be contained in the widest formula of the synthesis finally to be effected by mankind. At any rate a full development of the general mental and physical faculties and experiences attainable by humanity through Yoga must be included in the scope of the integral method. Nor would these have any raison d'etre unless employed for an integral mental and physical Life. Such a mental and physical Life would be in its nature a translation of the spiritual existence into its right mental and physical values. Thus we would arrive at a synthesis of the three degrees of Nature and of the three modes of human existence which she has evolved or is evolving. We would include in the scope of our liberated being and perfected modes of activity the material Life, our base, and the mental Life, our intermediate instrument.
Nor would the integrality to which we aspire be real or even possible, if it were confined to the individual. Since our divine perfection embraces the realisation of ourselves in being, in Life and in love through others as well as through ourselves, the extension of our liberty and of its results in others would be the inevitable outcome as well as the broadest utility of our liberation and perfection. And the constant and inherent attempt of such an extension would be towards its increasing and ultimately complete generalisation in mankind.
The divinising of the normal material Life of man and of his great secular attempt of mental and moral self-culture in the individual and the race by this integralisation of a widely perfect
50
0.06 - INTRODUCTION, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
comprising the whole of the mystical Life and ending only with the Divine embraces
of the soul transformed in God through love.
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
worth much. It is an integral transformation of terrestrial Life
which is anticipated.
--
inert, Lifeless mass.
Mother, what is it that will help me always remember
that I am living a spiritual Life?
The awareness of the Divine Presence in all things and always.
--
can he be affected by all the futilities and foolishnesses of Life?
There are people who say one must unite closely with
--
I don't like this Life without any attachments.
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
--
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 disgusted with this
--
that without You there is no meaning in Life for me; yet
my mind flits hither and thither as soon as it finds the
--
progress which Life in a physical body represents, that one may
hope to be reborn in a higher organism. All defection, on the
--
in this Life is like putting off for tomorrow what one can do this
very day; it is laziness. It is only with death that the possibility
--
What cannot be acquired or conquered during Life can certainly
not be done after death. It is the physical Life which is the true
field for progress and realisation.
--
find me at the same time, living in you, Life of your Life, ever
present and ever near, quite concretely and tangibly.
--
After all, my whole Life is consecrated to You; I shall
remain very calm without bothering about what happens
--
If I find some solace in books, how can I say that nothing sustains me and that I am plunged in the divine Life
through an absolute emptiness?
--
Mother, my Life is dry, it was always so; the dryness of
my Life constantly increases.
This does not depend upon any outer circumstance but on your
--
By "passion" we mean all the violent desires which take possession of a man and finally govern his Life - the drunkard has
the passion for drink, the debauchee the passion for women,
--
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
--
The yogic Life does not depend on what one does but on how
one does it; I mean it is not so much the action which counts
--
remember that the conditions of our Life are not quite ordinary
conditions, and keep your trust in the Divine Power to organise
--
My darling Mamma, I want to lead a pure Life and I shall
do all I can to progress towards the divine Life.
This does not depend so much on outer conditions, but above
--
No, this is wrong! It is true of the ordinary Life but not of a yogi.
Sweet Mother, if my company is not good for others,
--
Evidently, this creates an atmosphere in which food predominates; this is not very conducive to spiritual Life.
XI
--
The Life Divine.
Series Six - To a Young Sadhak
--
to knowledge. Naturally, this does not hold good for The Life
Divine...
0.07 - DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
Exposition of the stanzas describing the method followed by the soul in its journey upon the spiritual road to the attainment of the perfect union of love with God, to the extent that is possible in this Life. Likewise are described the properties belonging to the soul that has attained to the said perfection, according as they are contained in the same stanzas.
PROLOGUE
--
Begins the exposition of the stanzas which treat of the way and manner which the soul follows upon the road of the union of love with God. Before we enter upon the exposition of these stanzas, it is well to understand here that the soul that utters them is now in the state of perfection, which is the union of love with God, having already passed through severe trials and straits, by means of spiritual exercise in the narrow way of eternal Life whereof Our Saviour speaks in the Gospel, along which way the soul ordinarily passes in order to reach this high and happy union with God. Since this road (as the Lord Himself says likewise) is so strait, and since there are so few that enter by it,19 the soul considers it a great happiness and good chance to have passed along it to the said perfection of love, as it sings in this first stanza, calling this strait road with full propriety 'dark night,' as will be explained hereafter in the lines of the said stanza. The soul, then, rejoicing at having passed along this narrow road whence so many blessings have come to it, speaks after this manner.
BOOK THE FIRST
--
IN this first stanza the soul relates the way and manner which it followed in going forth, as to its affection, from itself and from all things, and in dying to them all and to itself, by means of true mortification, in order to attain to living the sweet and delectable Life of love with God; and it says that this going forth from itself and from all things was a 'dark night,' by which, as will be explained hereafter, is here understood purgative contemplation, which causes passively in the soul the negation of itself and of all things referred to above.
2. And this going forth it says here that it was able to accomplish in the strength and ardour which love for its Spouse gave to it for that purpose in the dark contemplation aforementioned. Herein it extols the great happiness which it found in journeying to God through this night with such signal success that none of the three enemies, which are world, devil and flesh (who are they that ever impede this road), could hinder it; inasmuch as the aforementioned night of purgative20 contemplation lulled to sleep and mortified, in the house of its sensuality, all the passions and desires with respect to their mischievous desires and motions. The line, then, says:
0.07 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Life of my Life, I also want to come to you; for, in your
arms alone will I have peace and joy and Ananda and
the true truth and fulfilment of my Life and being. But
still, O my Shining Light, the way is not clear to me. And
--
in return. That is all right for you, for yours is a selffulfilled Life. But I have yet to achieve everything, yet to
satisfy my human existence. I have yet to know my soul
--
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
--
Life of my Life! My own sweetest Mama!
Accept my love and forgive me my lapses - as you
0.08 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is through all the experiences of Life that the psychic personality forms, grows, develops and finally becomes a complete,
conscious and free being.
--
Finally, the circumstances of our Life, the surroundings in
which we live and the way in which people regard us are the
--
physically, is that which constitutes our Life objectified in what
surrounds us.
--
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL, Vol. 19, p. 906.
This is why the first thing required when one wants to do
--
The Life Divine, especially in its final chapters.
organising the evolution of the universe; and more specifically,
--
leading one's Life properly, not to speak of "mastery", which is
truly something exceptional on earth.
--
Sri Aurobindo has written in The Life Divine:
"There is as yet no overmind being or organised overmind nature, no supramental being or organised supermind nature acting either on our surface or in our
--
and organised overmind being and overmind Life, and still fewer
are those who have an organised supramental being and supramental Life, even admitting that there are any at all. Certainly
the very recent descent of the first elements of the Supermind
0.09 - Letters to a Young Teacher, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
books when they are difficult and when I don't understand? Savitri, The Life Divine, for example.
Read a little at a time, read again and again until you have
--
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. This is what makes the difference.
23 May 1960
--
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?
A base and evil Life can only have the effect of separating the
outer being more and more completely from the psychic being,
--
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
--
one another: some want the spiritual Life, others are attached to
the things of this world. To make all these parts agree and to
--
and one little trifles of daily Life which have to be thrown
away once they have served their purpose, as for example matchboxes, pencils, toothbrushes, combs, even the
01.01 - A Yoga of the Art of Life, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.01 - A Yoga of the Art of Life
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
--
Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Part OneA Yoga of the Art of Life
A Yoga of the Art of Life
I
When Sri Aurobindo said, Our Yoga is not for ourselves but for humanity, many heaved a sigh of relief and thought that the great soul was after all not entirely lost to the world, his was not one more name added to the long list of Sannyasins that India has been producing age after age without much profit either to herself or to the human society (or even perhaps to their own selves). People understood his Yoga to be a modern one, dedicated to the service of humanity. If service to humanity was not the very sum and substance of his spirituality, it was, at least, the fruitful end and consummation. His Yoga was a sort of art to explore and harness certain unseen powers that can better and ameliorate human Life in a more successful way than mere rational scientific methods can hope to do.
Sri Aurobindo saw that the very core of his teaching was being missed by this common interpretation of his saying. So he changed his words and said, Our Yoga is not for humanity but for the Divine. But I am afraid this change of front, this volte-face, as it seemed, was not welcomed in many quarters; for thereby all hope of having him back for the work of the country or the world appeared to be totally lost and he came to be looked upon again as an irrevocable metaphysical dreamer, aloof from physical things and barren, even like the Immutable Brahman.
--
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 his mission is to find and express the Divine in humanity. This is the service he means to render to humanity, viz, to manifest and embody in it the Divine: his goal is not merely an amelioration, but a total change and transformation, the divinisation of human Life.
Here also one must guard against certain misconceptions that are likely to occur. The transformation of human Life does not necessarily mean that the entire humanity will be changed 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.
--
It is not my purpose here to enter into details as to the exact meaning of the descent, how it happens and what are its lines of activity and the results brought about. For it is indeed an actual descent that happens: the Divine Light leans down first into the mind and begins its purificatory work therealthough it is always the inner heart which first recognises the Divine Presence and gives its assent to the Divine action for the mind, the higher mind that is to say, is the summit of the ordinary human consciousness and receives more easily and readily the Radiances that descend. From the Mind the Light filters into the denser regions of the emotions and desires, of Life activity and vital dynamism; finally, it gets into brute Matter itself, the hard and obscure rock of the physical body, for that too has to be illumined and made the very form and figure of the Light supernal. The Divine in his descending Grace is the Master-Architect who is building slowly and surely the many-chambered and many-storeyed edifice that is human nature and human Life into the mould of the Divine Truth in its perfect play and supreme expression. But this is a matter which can be closely considered when one is already well within the mystery of the path and has acquired the elementary essentials of an initiate.
Another question that troubles and perplexes the ordinary human mind is as to the time when the thing will be done. Is it now or a millennium hence or at some astronomical distance in future, like the cooling of the sun, as someone has suggested for an analogy. In view of the magnitude of the work one might with reason say that the whole eternity is there before us, and a century or even a millennium should not be grudged to such a labour for it is nothing less than an undoing of untold millenniums in the past and the building of a far-flung futurity. However, as we have said, since it is the Divine's own work and since Yoga means a concentrated and involved process of action, effectuating in a minute what would perhaps take years to accomplish in the natural course, one can expect the work to be done sooner rather than later. Indeed, the ideal is one of here and nowhere upon this earth of material existence and now in this Life, in this very bodynot hereafter or elsewhere. How long exactly that will mean, depends on many factors, but a few decades on this side or the other do not matter very much.
As to the extent of realisation, we say again that that is not a matter of primary consideration. It is not the quantity but the substance that counts. Even if it were a small nucleus it would be sufficient, at least for the beginning, provided it is the real, the genuine thing
--
From a certain point of view, from the point of view of essentials and inner realities, it would appear that spirituality is, at least, the basis of the arts, if not the highest art. If art is meant to express the soul of things, and since the true soul of things is the divine element in them, then certainly spirituality, the discipline of coming in conscious contact with the Spirit, the Divine, must be accorded the regal seat in the hierarchy of the arts. Also, spirituality is the greatest and the most difficult of the arts; for it is the art of Life. To make of Life a perfect work of beauty, pure in its lines, faultless in its rhythm, replete with strength, iridescent: with light, vibrant with delightan embodiment of the Divine, in a wordis the highest ideal of spirituality; viewed the spirituality that Sri Aurobindo practisesis the ne plus ultra of artistic creation
The Gita, II. 40
01.01 - Sri Aurobindo - The Age of Sri Aurobindo, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Someone has written to this effect: "This is not the age of Sri Aurobindo. His ideal of a divine Life upon earth mayor may not be true; at any rate it is not of today or even of tomorrow. Humanity will take some time before it reaches that stage or its possibility. What we are concerned with here and now is something perhaps less great, less spiritual, but more urgent and more practical. The problem is not to run away with one's soul, but to maintain its earthly tenement, to keep body and soul together: one has to live first, live materially before one can hope to live spiritually."
Well, the view expressed in these words is not a new revelation. It has been the cry of suffering humanity through the ages. Man has borne his cross since the beginning of his creation through want and privation, through disease and bereavement, through all manner of turmoil and tribulation, and yetmirabile dictuat the same time, in the very midst of those conditions, he has been aspiring and yearning for something else, ignoring the present, looking 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 otherwise.
Apart from the well-recognised fact that only in distress does the normal man think of God and non-worldly things, the real matter, however, is that the inner Life is a thing apart and follows its own line of movement, does not depend upon, is not subservient to, the kind of outer Life that one may happen to live under. The Bible says indeed, "Blessed are the poor, blessed are they that mourn"... But the Upanishad declares, on the other hand, that even as one lies happily on a royal couch, bathes and anoints himself with all the perfumes of the world, has attendants all around and always to serve him, even so, one can be full of the divine consciousness from the crown of the head to the tip of his toe-nail. In fact, a poor or a prosperous Life is in no direct or even indirect ratio to a spiritual Life. All the miseries and immediate needs of a physical Life do not and cannot detain or delay one from following the path of the ideal; nor can all your riches be a burden to your soul and overwhelm it, if it chooses to walk onit can not only walk, but soar and fly with all that knapsack on its back.
If one were to be busy about reforming the world and when that was done then alone to turn to other-worldly things, in that case, one would never take the turn, for the world will never be reformed totally or even considerably in that way. It is not that reformers have for the first time appeared on the earth in the present age. Men have attempted social, political, economic and moral reforms from times immemorial. But that has not barred the spiritual attempt or minimised its importance. To say that because an ideal is apparently too high or too great for the present age, it must be kept in cold storage is to set a premium on the present nature of humanity arid eternise it: that would bind the world to its old moorings and never give it the opportunity to be free and go out into the high seas of larger and greater realisations.
The ideal or perhaps one should say the policy of Real-politick is the thing needed in this world. To achieve something actually in the physical and material field, even a lesser something, is worth much more than speculating on high flaunting chimeras and indulging in day-dreams. Yes, but what is this something that has to be achieved in the material world? It is always an ideal. Even procuring food for each and every person, clothing and housing all is not less an ideal for all its concern about actuality. Only there are ideals and ideals; some are nearer to the earth, some seem to be in the background. But the mystery is that it is not always the ideal nearest to the earth which is the easiest to achieve or the first thing to be done first. Do we not see before our very eye show some very simple innocent social and economic changes are difficult to carry outthey bring in their train quite disproportionately gestures and movements of violence and revolution? That is because we seek to cure the symptoms and not touch the root of the disease. For even the most innocent-looking social, economic or political abuse has at its base far-reaching attitudes and Life-urgeseven a spiritual outlook that have to be sought out and tackled first, if the attempt at reform is to be permanently and wholly successful. Even in mundane matters we do not dig deep enough, or rise high enough.
Indeed, looking from a standpoint that views the working of the forces that act and achieve and not the external facts and events and arrangements aloneone finds that things that are achieved on the material plane are first developed and matured and made ready behind the veil and at a given moment burst out and manifest themselves often unexpectedly and suddenly like a chick out of the shell or the young butterfly out of the cocoon. The Gita points to that truth of Nature when it says: "These beings have already been killed by Me." It is not that a long or strenuous physical planning and preparation alone or in the largest measure brings about a physical realisation. The deeper we go within, the farther we are away from the surface, the nearer we come to the roots and sources of things even most superficial. The spiritual view sees and declares that it is the Brahmic consciousness that holds, inspires, builds up Matter, the physical body and form of Brahman.
The highest ideal, the very highest which God and Nature and Man have in view, is not and cannot be kept in cold storage: it is being worked out even here and now, and it has to be worked out here and now. The ideal of the Life Divine embodies a central truth of existence, and however difficult or chimerical it may appear to be to the normal mind, it is the preoccupation of the inner being of manall other ways or attempts of curing human ills are faint echoes, masks, diversions of this secret urge at the source and heart of things. That ideal is a norm and a force that is ever dynamic and has become doubly so since it has entered the earth atmosphere and the waking human consciousness and is labouring there. It is always safer and wiser to recognise that fact, to help in the realisation of that truth and be profited by it.
***
01.01 - The New Humanity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Although we may not know it, the New Man the divine race of humanity is already among us. It may be in our next neighbour, in our nearest brother, even in myself. Only a thin veil covers it. It marches just behind the line. It waits for an occasion to throw off the veil and place itself in the forefront. We are living in strenuous times in which age-long institutions are going down and new-forces rearing their heads, old habits are being cast off and new impulsions acquired. In every sphere of Life, we see the urgent demand for a recasting, a fresh valuation of things. From the base to the summit, from the economic and political Life to the artistic and spiritual, humanity is being shaken to bring out a new expression and articulation. There is the hidden surge of a Power, the secret stress of a Spirit that can no longer suffer to remain in the shade and behind the mask, but wills to come out in the broad daylight and be recognised in its plenary virtues.
That Power, that Spirit has been growing and gathering its strength during all the millenniums that humanity has lived through. On the momentous day when man appeared on earth, the Higher Man also took his birth. Since the hour the Spirit refused to be imprisoned in its animal sheath and came out as man, it approached by that very uplift a greater freedom and a vaster movement. It was the crest of that underground wave which peered over the surface from age to age, from clime to clime through the experiences of poets and prophets and sages the Head of the Sacrificial Horse galloping towards the Dawn.
--
Another humanity is rising out of the present human species. The beings of the new order are everywhere and it is they who will soon hold sway over earth, be the head and front of the terrestrial evolution in the cycle that is approaching as it was with man in the cycle that is passing away. What will this new order of being be like? It will be what man is not, also what man is. It will not be man, because it will overstep the limitations and incapacities inherent in man; and it will be man by the realisation of those fundamental aspirations and yearnings that have troubled and consoled the deeper strata the soulin him throughout the varied experiences of his terrestrial Life.
The New Man will be Master and not slave. He will be master, first, of himself and then of the world. Man as he actually is, is but a slave. He has no personal voice or choice; the determining soul, the Ishwara, in him is sleep-bound and hushed. He is a mere plaything in the hands of nature and circumstances. Therefore it is that Science has become his supreme Dharmashastra; for science seeks to teach us the moods of Nature and the methods of propitiating her. Our actual ideal of man is that of the cleverest slave. But the New Man will have found himself and by and according to his inner will, mould and create his world. He will not be in awe of Nature and in an attitude of perpetual apprehension and hesitation, but will ground himself on a secret harmony and union that will declare him as the lord. We will recognise the New Man by his very gait and manner, by a certain kingly ease and dominion in every shade of his expression.
01.01 - The One Thing Needful, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is the lesson of Life that always in this world everything fails a man - only the Divine does not fail him, if he turns entirely towards the Divine. It is not because there is something bad in you that blows fall on you - blows fall on all human beings because they are full of desire for things that cannot last and they lose them or, even if they get, it brings disappointment and cannot satisfy them. To turn to the Divine is the only truth in Life.
To find the Divine is indeed the first reason for seeking the spiritual Truth and the spiritual Life; it is the one thing indispensable and all the resit is nothing without it. The Divine once found, to manifest Him, - that is, first of all to transform one's own limited consciousness into the Divine Consciousness, to live in the infinite Peace, Light, Love, Strength, Bliss, to become that in one's essential nature and, as a consequence, to be its vessel, channel, instrument in one's active nature. To bring into activity the principle of oneness on the material plane or to work for humanity is a mental mistranslation of the Truth - these things cannot be the first true object of spiritual seeking. We must find the Self, the Divine, then only can we know what is the work the Self or the Divine demands from us. Until then our Life and action can only be a help or a means towards finding the Divine and it ought not to have any other purpose. As we grow in inner consciousness, or as the spiritual Truth of the Divine grows in us, our Life and action must indeed more and more flow from that, be one with that. But to decide beforeh and by our limited mental conceptions what they must be is to hamper the growth of the spiritual Truth within. As that grows we shall feel the Divine Light and Truth, the Divine Power and Force, the Divine Purity and Peace working within us, dealing with our actions as well as our consciousness, making use of them to reshape us into the Divine Image, removing the dross, substituting the pure Gold of the Spirit. Only when the Divine Presence is there in us always and the consciousness transformed, can we have the right to say that we are ready to manifest the Divine on the material plane. To hold up a mental ideal or principle and impose that on the inner working brings the danger of limiting ourselves to a mental realisation or of impeding or even falsifying by a halfway formation the truth growth into the full communion and union with the Divine and the free and intimate outflowing of His will in our Life. This is a mistake of orientation to which the mind of today is especially prone. It is far better to approach the Divine for the Peace or Light or Bliss that the realisation of Him gives than to bring in these minor things which can divert us from the one thing needful. The divinisation of the material Life also as well as the inner Life is part of what we see as the Divine Plan, but it can only be fulfilled by an ourflowing of the inner realisation, something that grows from within outwards, not by the working out of a mental principle.
The realisation of the Divine is the one thing needful and the rest is desirable only in so far as it helps or leads towards that or when it is realised, extends and manifests the realisation. Manifestation and organisation of the whole Life for the divine work, - first, the sadhana personal and collective necessary for the realisation and a common Life of God-realised men, secondly, for help to the world to move towards that, and to live in the Light - is the whole meaning and purpose of my Yoga. But the realisation is the first need and it is that round which all the rest moves, for apart from it all the rest would have no meaning.
Yoga is directed towards God, not towards man. If a divine supramental consciousness and power can be brought down and established in the material world, that obviously would mean an immense change for the earth including humanity and its Life. But the effect on humanity would only be one result of the change; it cannot be the object of the sadhana. The object of the sadhana can only be to live in the divine consciousness and to manifest it in Life.
Sadhana must be the main thing and sadhana means the purification of the nature, the consecration of the being, the opening of the psychic and the inner mind and vital, the contact and presence of the Divine, the realisation of the Divine in all things, surrender, devotion, the widening of the consciousness into the cosmic Consciousness, the Self one in all, the psychic and the spiritual transformation of the nature.
01.01 - The Symbol Dawn, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Its formless stupor without mind or Life,
A shadow spinning through a soulless Void,
--
Troubled the far rim of Life's obscure sleep.
Arrived from the other side of boundlessness
--
On Life's thin border awhile the Vision stood
And bent over earth's pondering forehead curve.
--
Once more the rumour of the speed of Life
Pursued the cycles of her blinded quest.
--
A few have caught flame and risen to greater Life.
2.15
--
Accepting Life's obscure terrestrial robe,
Hiding herself even from those she loved,
--
Unheeding when she breaks a soul, a Life;
Leaving her slain behind she travels on:
--
Against the evil at Life's afflicted roots,
Her own calamity its private sign,
--
At first Life grieved not in her burdened breast:
On the lap of earth's original somnolence
--
Heavy, unwilling were Life's servitors
Like workers with no wages of delight;
--
But now she stirred, her Life shared the cosmic load.
2.33
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Illumined swiftly were Life's darkened rooms,
And memory's casements opened on the hours
--
That saw grief's timeless depths but not Life's goal.
2.36
01.02 - Natures Own Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A Yoga of the Art of Life Sri Aurobindo and his School
Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Part OneNatures Own Yoga
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This process of a developing consciousness in Nature is precisely 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 envisages and is labouring to bring out and establish is the Life now superconscious to us, embodied in a still higher type of created being, that of the superman or god-man. The principle of consciousness which will determine the nature and build of this new, being is a spiritual principle beyond the mental principle which man now incarnates: it may be called the Supermind or Gnosis.
For, till now Mind has been the last term of the evolutionary consciousness Mind as developed in man is the highest instrument built up and organised by Nature through which the self-conscious being can express itself. That is why the Buddha said: Mind is the first of all principles, Mind is the highest of all principles: indeed Mind is the constituent of all principlesmana puvvangam dhamm1. The consciousness beyond mind has not yet been made a patent and dynamic element in the Life upon earth; it has been glimpsed or entered into in varying degrees and modes by saints and seers; it has cast its derivative illuminations in the creative activities of poets and artists, in the finer and nobler urges of heroes and great men of action. But the utmost that has been achieved, the summit reached in that direction, as exampled in spiritual disciplines, involves a withdrawal from the evolutionary cycle, a merging and an absorption into the static status that is altogether beyond it, that lies, as it were, at the other extreme the Spirit in itself, Atman, Brahman, Sachchidananda, Nirvana, the One without a second, the Zero without a first.
The first contact that one has with this static supra-reality is through the higher ranges of the mind: a direct and closer communion is established through a plane which is just above the mind the Overmind, as Sri Aurobindo calls it. The Overmind dissolves or transcends the ego-consciousness which limits the being to its individualised formation bounded by an outward and narrow frame or sheath of mind, Life and body; it reveals the universal Self and Spirit, the cosmic godhead and its myriad forces throwing up myriad forms; the world-existence there appears as a play of ever-shifting veils upon the face of one ineffable reality, as a mysterious cycle of perpetual creation and destructionit is the overwhelming vision given by Sri Krishna to Arjuna in the Gita. At the same time, the initial and most intense experience which this cosmic consciousness brings is the extreme relativity, contingency and transitoriness of the whole flux, and a necessity seems logically and psychologically imperative to escape into the abiding substratum, the ineffable Absoluteness.
This has been the highest consummation, the supreme goal which the purest spiritual experience and the deepest aspiration of the human consciousness generally sought to attain. But in this view, the world or creation or Nature came in the end to be looked upon as fundamentally a product of Ignorance: ignorance and suffering and incapacity and death were declared to be the very hallmark of things terrestrial. The Light that dwells above and beyond can be made to shed for a while some kind of lustre upon the mortal darkness but never 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.
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In the Supermind things exist in their perfect spiritual reality; each is consciously the divine reality in its transcendent essence, its cosmic extension, its, spiritual individuality; the diversity of a manifested existence is there, but the mutually exclusive separativeness has not yet arisen. The ego, the knot of separativity, appears at a later and lower stage of involution; what is here is indivisible nexus of individualising centres of the one eternal truth of being. Where Supermind and Overmind meet, one can see the multiple godheads, each distinct in his own truth and beauty and power and yet all together forming the one supreme consciousness infinitely composite and inalienably integral. But stepping back into Supermind one sees something moreOneness gathering into itself all diversity, not destroying it, but annulling and forbidding the separative consciousness that is the beginning of Ignorance. The first shadow of the Illusory Consciousness, the initial possibility of the movement of Ignorance comes in when the supramental light enters the penumbra of the mental sphere. The movement of Supermind is the movement of light without obscurity, straight, unwavering, unswerving, absolute. The Force here contains and holds in their oneness of Reality the manifold but not separated lines of essential and unalloyed truth: its march is the inevitable progression of each one assured truth entering into and upholding every other and therefore its creation, play or action admits of no trial or stumble or groping or deviation; for each truth rests on all others and on that which harmonises them all and does not act as a Power diverging from and even competing with other Powers of being. In the Overmind commences the play of divergent possibilities the simple, direct, united and absolute certainties of the supramental consciousness retire, as it were, a step behind and begin to work themselves out through the interaction first of separately individualised and then of contrary and contradictory forces. In the Overmind there is a conscious underlying Unity but yet each Power, Truth, Aspect of that Unity is encouraged to work out its possibilities as if it were sufficient to itself and the others are used by it for its own enhancement until in the denser and darker reaches below Overmind this turns out a thing of blind conflict and battle and, as it would appear, of chance survival. Creation or manifestation originally means the concretisation or devolution of the powers of Conscious Being into a play of united diversity; but on the line which ends in Matter it enters into more and more obscure forms and forces and finally the virtual eclipse of the supreme light of the Divine Consciousness. Creation as it descends' towards the Ignorance becomes an involution of the Spirit through Mind and Life into Matter; evolution is a movement backward, a return journey from Matter towards the Spirit: it is the unravelling, the gradual disclosure and deliverance of the Spirit, the ascension and revelation of the involved consciousness through a series of awakeningsMatter awakening into Life, Life awakening into Mind and Mind now seeking to awaken into something beyond the Mind, into a power of conscious Spirit.
The apparent or actual result of the movement of Nescienceof Involutionhas been an increasing negation of the Spirit, but its hidden purpose is ultimately to embody the Spirit in Matter, to express here below in cosmic Time-Space the splendours of the timeless Reality. The material body came into existence bringing with it inevitably, as it seemed, mortality; it appeared even to be fashioned out of mortality, in order that in this very frame and field of mortality, Immortality, the eternal Spirit Consciousness which is the secret truth and reality in Time itself as well as behind it, might be established and that the Divine might be possessed, or rather, possess itself not in one unvarying mode of the static consciousness, as it does even now behind the cosmic play, but in the play itself and in the multiple mode of the terrestrial existence.
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An organ in the human being has been especially developed to become the effective instrument of this accelerated Yogic process the self-consciousness which I referred to as being the distinctive characteristic of man is a function of this organ. It is his soul, his psychic being; originally it is the spark of the Divine Consciousness which came down and became involved in Matter and has been endeavouring ever since to release itself through the upward march of evolution. It is this which presses on continually as the stimulus to the evolutionary movement; and in man it has attained sufficient growth and power and has come so far to the front from behind the veil that it can now lead and mould his external consciousness. It is also the channel through which the Divine Consciousness can flow down into the inferior levels of human nature. It is the being no bigger than the thumb ever seated within the heart, spoken of in the Upanishads. It is likewise the basis of true individuality and personal identity. It is again the reflection or expression in evolutionary Nature of one's essential selfjivtman that is above, an eternal portion of the Divine, one with the Divine and yet not dissolved and lost in it. The psychic being is thus on the one hand in direct contact with the Divine and the higher consciousness, and on the other it is the secret upholder and controller' (bhart, antarymin) of the inferior consciousness, the hidden nucleus round which the body and the Life and the mind of the individual are built up and organised.
The first decisive step in Yoga is taken when one becomes conscious of the psychic being, or, looked at from the other side, when the psychic being comes forward and takes possession of the external being, begins to initiate and influence the movements of the mind and Life and body and gradually free them from the ordinary round of ignorant nature. The awakening of the psychic being means, as I have said, not only a deepening and heightening of the consciousness and its release from the obscurity and limitation of the inferior Prakriti, confined to the lower threefold status, into what is behind and beyond; it means also a return of the deeper and higher consciousness upon the lower hemisphere and a consequent purification and illumination and regeneration of the latter. Finally, when the psychic being is in full self-possession and power, it can be the vehicle of the direct supramental consciousness which will then be able to act freely and absolutely for the entire transformation of the external nature, its transfiguration into a perfect body of the Truth-consciousness in a word, its divinisation.
This then is the supreme secret, not the renunciation and annulment, but the transformation of the ordinary human nature : first of all, its psychicisation, that is to say, making it move and live and be in communion and identification with the light of the psychic being, and, secondly, through the soul and the ensouled mind and Life and body, to open out into the supramental consciousness and let it come down here below and work and achieve.
The soul or the true being in man uplifted in the supramental consciousness and at the same time coming forward to possess a divinised mind and Life and body as an instrument and channel of its self-expression and an embodiment of the Divine Will and Purposesuch is the goal that Nature is seeking to realise at present through her evolutionary lan. It is to this labour that man has been called so that in and through him the destined transcendence and transformation can take place.
It is not easy, however, nor is it necessary for the moment to envisage in detail what this divinised man would be like, externallyhis mode of outward being and living, kimsita vrajeta kim, as Arjuna queriedor how the collective Life of the new humanity would function or what would be the composition of its social fabric. For what is happening is a living process, an organic growth; it is being elaborated through the actions and reactions of multitudinous forces and conditions, known and unknown; the precise configuration of the final outcome cannot be predicted with exactitude. But the Power that is at work is omniscient; it is selecting, rejecting, correcting, fashioning, creating, co-ordinating elements in accordance with and by the drive of the inviolable law of Truth and Harmony that reigns in Light's own homeswe dame the Supermind.
It is also to be noted that as mind is not the last limit of the march of evolution, even so the progress of evolution will not 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 existence. Before it there was the domain of Ignorance, after it will come the reign of Light and Knowledge. Mortality has been the governing principle of Life on earth till now; it will be replaced by the consciousness of immortality. Evolution has proceeded through struggle and pain; hereafter it will be a spontaneous, harmonious and happy flowering.
Now, with regard to the time that the present stage of evolution is likely to take for its fulfilment, one can presume that since or if the specific urge and stress has manifested and come up to the front, this very fact would show that the problem has become a problem of actuality, and even that it can be dealt with as if it had to be solved now or never. We have said that in man, with man's self-consciousness or the consciousness of the psychic being as the instrument, evolution has attained the capacity of a swift and concentrated process, which is the process of Yoga; the process will become swifter and more concentrated, the more that instrument grows and gathers power and is infused with the divine afflatus. In fact, evolution has been such a process of gradual acceleration in tempo from the very beginning. The earliest stage, for example, the stage of dead Matter, of the play of the mere chemical forces was a very, very long one; it took millions and millions of years to come to the point when the manifestation of Life became possible. But the period of elementary Life, as manifested in the plant world that followed, although it too lasted a good many millions of years, was much briefer than the preceding periodit ended with the advent of the first animal form. The age of animal Life, again, has been very much shorter than that of the plant Life before man came upon earth. And man is already more than a million or two years oldit is fully time that a higher order of being should be created out of him.
The Dhammapada, I. 1
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A Yoga of the Art of Life Sri Aurobindo and his School
01.02 - Sri Aurobindo - Ahana and Other Poems, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
What is the world that Sri Aurobindo sees and creates? Poetry is after all passion. By passion I do not mean the fury of emotion nor the fume of sentimentalism, but what lies behind at their source, what lends them the force they have the sense of the "grandly real," the vivid and pulsating truth. What then is the thing that Sri Aurobindo has visualised, has endowed with a throbbing Life and made a poignant reality? 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 his poetic fervour and created a sheer beauty, a stupendous reality out of it. Herein lies the greatness of his achievement. Philosophy, however divine, and in spite of Milton, has been regarded by poets as "harsh and crabbed" and as such unfit for poetic delineation. Not a few poets indeed foundered upon this rock. A poet in his own way is a philosopher, but a philosopher chanting out his philosophy in sheer poetry has been one of the rarest spectacles.1 I can think of only one instance just now where a philosopher has almost succeeded being a great poet I am referring to Lucretius and his De Rerum Natura. Neither Shakespeare nor Homer had anything like philosophy in their poetic creation. And in spite of some inclination to philosophy and philosophical ideas Virgil and Milton were not philosophers either. Dante sought perhaps consciously and deliberately to philosophise in his Paradiso I Did he? The less Dante then is he. For it is his Inferno, where he is a passionate visionary, and not his Paradiso (where he has put in more thought-power) that marks the nee plus ultra of his poetic achievement.
And yet what can be more poetic in essence than philosophy, if by philosophy we mean, as it should mean, spiritual truth and spiritual realisation? What else can give the full breath, the integral force to poetic inspiration if it is not the problem of existence itself, of God, Soul and Immortality, things that touch, that are at the very root of Life and reality? What can most concern man, what can strike the deepest fount in him, unless it is the mystery of his own being, the why and the whither of it all? But mankind has been taught and trained to live merely or mostly on earth, and poetry has been treated as the expression of human joys and sorrows the tears in mortal things of which Virgil spoke. The savour of earth, the thrill of the flesh has been too sweet for us and we have forgotten other sweetnesses. It is always the human element that we seek in poetry, but we fail to recognise that what we obtain in this way is humanity in its lower degrees, its surface formulations, at its minimum magnitude.
We do not say that poets have never sung of God and Soul and things transcendent. Poets have always done that. But what I say is this that presentation of spiritual truths, as they are in their own home, in other words, treated philosophically and yet in a supreme poetic manner, has always been a rarity. We have, indeed, in India the Gita and the Upanishads, great philosophical poems, if there were any. But for one thing they are on dizzy heights out of the reach of common man and for another they are idolised more as philosophy than as poetry. Doubtless, our Vaishnava poets sang of God and Love Divine; and Rabindranath, in one sense, a typical modern Vaishnava, did the same. And their songs are masterpieces. But are they not all human, too human, as the mad prophet would say? In them it is the human significance, the human manner that touches and moves us the spiritual significance remains esoteric, is suggested, is a matter of deduction. Sri Aurobindo has dealt with spiritual experiences in a different way. He has not clothed them in human symbols and allegories, in images and figures of the mere earthly and secular Life: he presents them in their nakedness, just as they are seen and realised. He has not sought to tone down the rigour of truth with contrivances that easily charm and captivate the common human mind and heart. Nor has he indulged like so many poet philosophers in vague generalisations and colourless or too colourful truisms that do not embody a clear thought or rounded idea, a radiant judgment. Sri Aurobindo has given us in his poetry thoughts that are clear-cut, ideas beautifully chiselledhe is always luminously forceful.
Take these Vedantic lines that in their limpidity and harmonious flow beat anything found in the fine French poet Lamartine:
--
or these that contain the metaphysics of a spiritual Life:
King, not in vain. I knew the tedious bars
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He made an eager death and called it Life,
He stung Himself with bliss and called it pain.7
--
All the tragedy, the entire pathos of human Life is concentrated in this line so simple, yet so grand:
Son of man, thou hast crowned the Life with the flowers that are scentless,
And the whole aspiration of striving mortality finds its echo in:
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The Greek sings of the humanity of man, the Indian the divinity of man. It is the Hellenic spirit that has very largely moulded our taste and we have forgotten that an equally poetic world exists in the domain of spiritual Life, even in its very severity, as in that of earthly Life and its sweetness. And as we are passionate about the earthly Life, even so Sri Aurobindo has made a passion of the spiritual Life. Poetry after all has a mission; the phrase "Art for Art's sake" may be made to mean anything. Poetry is not merely what is pleasing, not even what is merely touching and moving but what is at the same time, inspiring, invigorating, elevating. Truth is indeed beauty but it is not always the beauty that captivates the eye or the mere aesthetic sense.
And because our Vedic poets always looked beyond humanity, beyond earth, therefore could they make divine poetry of humanity and what is of earth. Therefore it was that they were pervadingly so grandiose and sublime and puissant. The heroic, the epic was their natural element and they could not but express themselves in the grand manner Sri Aurobindo has the same outlook and it is why we find in him the ring of the old-world manner.
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What though it's true that the river of Life
through the Valley of Peril
--
Look, how the wide-pacing river of Life from its
far-off fountains
01.02 - The Creative Soul, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The difference between living organism and dead matter is that while the former is endowed with creative activity, the latter has only passive receptivity. Life adds, synthetises, new-createsgives more than what it receives; matter only sums up, gathers, reflects, gives just what it receives. Life is living, glad and green through its creative genius. Creation in some form or other must be the core of everything that seeks vitality and growth, vigour and delight. Not only so, but a thing in order to be real must possess a creative function. We consider a shadow or an echo unreal precisely because they do not create but merely image or repeat, they do not bring out anything new but simply reflect what is given. The whole of existence is real because it is eternally creative.
So the problem that concerns man, the riddle that humanity has to solve is how to find out and follow the path of creativity. If we are not to be dead matter nor mere shadowy illusions we must be creative. A misconception that has vitiated our outlook in general and has been the most potent cause of a sterilising atavism in the moral evolution of humanity is that creativity is an aristocratic 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.
--
Now the centre of this energy, the matrix of creativity is the soul itself, one's own soul. If you want to createlive, grow and be real-find yourself, be yourself. The simple old wisdom still remains the eternal wisdom. It is because we fall off from our soul that we wander into side-paths, paths that do not belong to our real nature and hence that lead to imitation and repetition, decay and death. This is what happens to what we call common souls. The force of circumstances, the pressure of environment or simply the momentum of custom or habit compel them to choose the easiest and the readiest way that may lie before them. They do not consult the demand of the inner being but the requirement of the moment. Our bodily needs, our vital hungers and our mental prejudices obsess and obscure the impulsions that thrill the hidden spirit. We hasten to gratify the immediate and forget the eternal, we clutch at the shadow and let go the substance. We are carried away in the flux and tumult of Life. It is a mixed and collective whirla Weltgeist that moves and governs us. We are helpless straws drifting in the current. But manhood demands that we stop and pause, pull ourselves out of the Maelstrom and be what we are. We must shape things as we want and not allow things to shape us as they want.
Let each take cognisance of the godhead that is within him for self is Godand in the strength of the soul-divinity create his universe. It does not matter what sort of universe he- creates, so long as he creates it. The world created by a Buddha is not the same as that created by a Napoleon, nor should they be the same. It does not prove anything that I cannot become a Kalidasa; for that matter Kalidasa cannot become what I am. If you have not the genius of a Shankara it does not mean that you have no genius at all. Be and become yourselfma gridhah kasyachit dhanam, says the Upanishad. The fountain-head of creative genius lies there, in the free choice and the particular delight the self-determination of the spirit within you and not in the desire for your neighbours riches. The world has become dull and uniform and mechanical, since everybody endeavours to become not himself, but always somebody else. Imitation is servitude and servitude brings in grief.
01.02 - The Issue, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Her Life's broad highways and its sweet bypaths
Lay mapped to her sun-clear recording view,
--
A point she had reached where Life must be in vain
Or, in her unborn element awake,
--
And Life has no sense and love no place to stand,
She must plead her case upon extinction's verge,
In the world's death-cave uphold Life's helpless claim
And vindicate her right to be and love.
--
A dense magnificent coloured self-wrapped Life
Draped in the leaves' vivid emerald monotone
--
One could drink Life back in streams of honey-fire,
Recover the lost habit of happiness,
--
Where Life is not exposed to sorrowful change,
Remembered beauty death-claimed lids ignore
--
And Life's brief struggle in dumb Matter's night.
4.14
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Death stays the journeying discoverer, Life.
4.24
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In the dire court where Life must pay for joy,
Sentenced by the mechanic justicer
--
Or, finding all Life's golden meanings robbed,
Compound with earth, struck from the starry list,
--
Accomplishing in Life the great world-plan,
Pursuing after death immortal aims,
--
Or the empiric Life's instinctive search,
Or a vast ignorant mind's colossal work.
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 this Yoga merely with the idea of being a superman would be an act of vital egoism which would defeat its own object. Those who put this object in the front of their preoccupations invariably come to grief, spiritually and otherwise. The aim of this 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 selfish 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 mistranslated by vital desire. The work which the sadhak of the supramental Yoga has to do is not his own work for which he can lay down his own conditions, but the work of the Divine which he has to do according to the conditions laid down by the Divine. Our Yoga is not for our own sake but for the sake of the Divine. It is not our own personal manifestation that we are to seek, the manifestation of the individual ego freed from all bounds and from all bonds, but the manifestation of the Divine. Of that manifestation our own spiritual liberation, perfection, fullness is to be a result and a part, but not in any egoistic sense or for any ego-centred or self-seeking purpose.
This liberation, perfection, fullness too must not be pursued for our own sake, but for the sake of the Divine.
This Yoga demands a total dedication of the Life to the aspiration for the discovery 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 inadmissible. 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 insistence on vital aims and interests and attachments must be put away, all egoistic clinging to family, friends, country must disappear if you want to succeed in Yoga. Whatever has to come as outgoing energy or action, must proceed from the Truth once discovered and not from the lower mental or vital motives, from the Divine Will and not from personal choice or the preferences of the ego.
01.03 - Mystic Poetry, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
In Life, in death,
In being and in breath
--
The philosophical trend in poetry has an interesting history with a significant role: it has acted as a force of purification, of sublimation, of katharsis. As man has risen from his exclusively or predominantly vital nature into an increasing mental poise, in the same way his creative activities too have taken this new turn and status. In the earlier stages of evolution the mental Life is secondary, subordinate to the physico-vital Life; it is only subsequently that the mental finds an independent and self-sufficient reality. A similar movement is reflected in poetic and artistic creation too: the thinker, the philosopher remains in the background at the outset, he looks out; peers through chinks and holes from time to time; later he comes to the forefront, assumes a major role in man's creative activity.
Man's consciousness is further to rise from the mental to over-mental regions. Accordingly, his Life and activities and along with that his artistic creations too will take on a new tone and rhythm, a new mould and constitution even. For this transition, the higher mentalwhich is normally the field of philosophical and idealistic activitiesserves as the Paraclete, the Intercessor; it takes up the lower functionings of the consciousness, which are intense in their own way, but narrow and turbid, and gives, by purifying and enlarging, a wider frame, a more luminous pattern, a more subtly articulated , form for the higher, vaster and deeper realities, truths and harmonies to express and manifest. In the old-world spiritual and mystic poets, this intervening medium was overlooked for evident reasons, for human reason or even intelligence is a double-edged instrument, it can make as well as mar, it has a light that most often and naturally shuts off other higher lights beyond it. So it was bypassed, some kind of direct and immediate contact was sought to be established between the normal and the transcendental. The result was, as I have pointed out, a pure spiritual poetry, on the one hand, as in the Upanishads, or, on the other, religious poetry of various grades and denominations that spoke of the spiritual but in the terms and in the manner of the mundane, at least very much coloured and dominated by the latter. Vyasa was the great legendary figure in India who, as is shown in his Mahabharata, seems to have been one of the pioneers, if not the pioneer, to forge and build the missing link of Thought Power. The exemplar of the manner is the Gita. Valmiki's represented a more ancient and primary inspiration, of a vast vital sensibility, something of the kind that was at the basis of Homer's genius. In Greece it was Socrates who initiated the movement of speculative philosophy and the emphasis of intellectual power slowly began to find expression in the later poets, Sophocles and Euripides. But all these were very simple beginnings. The moderns go in for something more radical and totalitarian. The rationalising element instead of being an additional or subordinate or contri buting factor, must itself give its norm and form, its own substance and manner to the creative activity. Such is the present-day demand.
The earliest preoccupation of man was religious; even when he concerned himself with the world and worldly things, he referred all that to the other world, thought of gods and goddesses, of after-death and other where. That also will be his last and ultimate preoccupation though in a somewhat different way, when he has passed through a process of purification and growth, a "sea-change". For although religion is an aspiration towards the truth and reality beyond or behind the world, it is married too much to man's actual worldly nature and carries always with it the shadow of profanity.
--
Our Life is a holocaust of the Supreme. ||26.15||
The great World-Mother by her sacrifice||4.47||
--
To sum up and recapitulate. The evolution of the poetic expression in man has ever been an attempt at a return and a progressive approach to the spiritual source of poetic inspiration, which was also the original, though somewhat veiled, source from the very beginning. The movement has followed devious waysstrongly negative at timeseven like man's Life and consciousness in general of which it is an organic member; but the ultimate end and drift seems to have been always that ideal and principle even when fallen on evil days and evil tongues. The poet's ideal in the dawn of the world was, as the Vedic Rishi sang, to raise things of beauty in heaven by his poetic power,kavi kavitv divi rpam sajat. Even a Satanic poet, the inaugurator, in a way, of modernism and modernistic consciousness, Charles Baudelaire, thus admonishes his spirit:
"Flyaway, far from these morbid miasmas, go and purify yourself in the higher air and drink, like a pure and divine liquor, the clear fire that fills the limpid spaces."18
--
Poetry, actually however, has been, by and large, a profane and mundane affair: for it expresses the normal man's perceptions and feelings and experiences, human loves and hates and desires and ambitions. True. And yet there has also always been an attempt, a tendency to deal with them in such a way as can bring calm and puritykatharsisnot trouble and confusion. That has been the purpose of all Art from the ancient days. Besides, there has been a growth and development in the historic process of this katharsis. As by the sublimation of his bodily and vital instincts and impulses., man is gradually growing into the mental, moral and finally spiritual consciousness, even so the artistic expression of his creative activity has followed a similar line of transformation. The first and original transformation happened with religious poetry. The religious, one may say, is the profane inside out; that is to say, the religious man has almost the same tone and temper, the same urges and passions, only turned Godward. Religious poetry too marks a new turn and development of human speech, in taking the name of God human tongue acquires a new plasticity and flavour that transform or give a new modulation even to things profane and mundane it speaks of. Religious means at bottom the colouring of mental and moral idealism. A parallel process of katharsis is found in another class of poetic creation, viz., the allegory. Allegory or parable is the stage when the higher and inner realities are expressed wholly in the modes and manner, in the form and character of the normal and external, when moral, religious or spiritual truths are expressed in the terms and figures of the profane Life. The higher or the inner ideal is like a loose clothing upon the ordinary consciousness, it does not fit closely or fuse. In the religious, however, the first step is taken for a mingling and fusion. The mystic is the beginning of a real fusion and a considerable ascension of the lower into the higher. The philosopher poet follows another line for the same katharsisinstead of uplifting emotions and sensibility, he proceeds by thought-power, by the ideas and principles that lie behind all movements and give a pattern to all things existing. The mystic can be of either type, the religious mystic or the philosopher mystic, although often the two are welded together and cannot be very well separated. Let us illustrate a little:
The spacious firmament on high,
--
O Father of eternal Life, and all
Created glories under Thee,
--
K. D. Sethna: "This Errant Life" in The Secret Splentiour.
Envole-toi bien loin de ces miasmes morbides; Va te purifier dans l'air suprieur, Et bois, comme tine pure et divine liqueur, Le feu clair qui remplit les espaces Iimpides. "Elvation" Spleen et Idal.
01.03 - Sri Aurobindo and his School, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Evidently the eminent politician and his school of activism 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 discipline. But one of the marked aspects of Sri Aurobindo's teaching and practice has been precisely his insistence on putting aside the inert and Life-shunning quietism, illusionism, asceticism and monasticism of a latter-day and decadent India. These ideals are perhaps as much obstacles in his way as in the way of the activistic 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.
This much as regards what Sri Aurobindo is not doing; let us now turn and try to understand what he is doing. The distinguished man of action speaks of conquering Nature and fighting her. Adopting this 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 this, frame his plan of campaign accordingly and then only take the field. The above-mentioned leader proposes ceaseless and unselfish 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 his more intimate reality and does not bring about any true change in his destiny or his being. For the most vital part of nature is the region of the Life-forces, the powers of disease 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 his society. And then, as we rise 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.
This is the present nature of man, with its threefold nexus of mind and Life and body, that stands there to be fought and conquered. This is the inferior nature, of which the ancients spoke, that holds man down inexorably to a lower dharma, imperfect mode of Life the Life that is and has been the human order till today. No amount of ceaseless action, however selflessly done, can move this wheel of Nature even by a hair's breadth away from the path that it has carved out from of old. Human nature and human society have been built up and are run by the forces of this inferior nature, and whatever shuffling and reshuffling we may make in its apparent factors and elements, the general scheme and fundamental form of Life will never change. To displace earth (and to conquer nature means nothing less than that) and give it another orbit, one must find a fulcrum outside earth.
Sri Aurobindo does not preach flight from Life and a retreat into the silent and passive Infinite; the goal of Life is not, in his view, the extinction of Life. Neither is he satisfied on that account to hold that Life is best lived in the ordinary round of its unregenerate dharma. If the first is a blind alley, the second is a vicious circle,both lead nowhere.
Sri Aurobindo's sadhana starts from the perception of a Power that is beyond the ordinary nature yet is its inevitable master, a fulcrum, as we have said, outside the earth. For what is required first is the discovery and manifestation of a new soul-consciousness in man which will bring about by the very pressure and working out of its self-rule an absolute reversal of man's nature. It is the Asuras who are now holding sway over humanity, for man has allowed himself so long to be built in the image of the Asura; to dislodge the Asuras, the Gods in their sovereign might have to be forged in the human being and brought into play. It is a stupendous task, some would say impossible; but it is very far removed from quietism or passivism. Sri Aurobindo is in retirement, but it is a retirement only from the outward field of present physical activities and their apparent actualities, not from the true forces and action of Life. It is the retreat necessary to one who has to go back into himself to conquer a new plane of creative power,an entrance right into the world of basic forces, of fundamental realities, into the flaming heart of things where all actualities are born and take their first shape. It is the discovery of a power-house of tremendous energism and of the means of putting it at the service of earthly Life.
And, properly speaking, it is not at all a school, least of all a mere school of thought, that is growing round Sri Aurobindo. It is rather the nucleus of a new Life that is to come. Quite naturally it has almost insignificant proportions at present to the outward eye, for the work is still of the nature of experiment and trial in very restricted limits, something in the nature of what is done in a laboratory when a new power has been discovered, but has still to be perfectly formulated in its process. And it is quite a mistake to suppose that there is a vigorous propaganda carried on in its behalf or that there is a large demand for recruits. Only the few, who possess the call within and are impelled by the spirit of the future, have a chance of serving this high attempt and great realisation and standing among its first instruments and pioneer workers.
***
01.03 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Souls Release, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
And shed their grandiose ray on human Life.
His days were a long growth to the Supreme.
--
Passenger from Life to Life, from scale to scale,
Changing his imaged self from form to form,
--
His Life is oceaned by that super Life.
He has drunk from the breasts of the Mother of the worlds;
--
A long dim preparation is man's Life,
A circle of toil and hope and war and peace
Tracked out by Life on Matter's obscure ground.
In his climb to a peak no feet have ever trod,
--
At travail in the occult womb of Life,
His dreamed magnificence of things to be.
--
Above mind's twilight and Life's star-led night
There gleamed the dawn of a spiritual day.
--
They were his Life's pattern and his privilege.
A pure perception lent its lucent joy:
--
He felt the beating Life in other men
Invade him with their happiness and their grief;
--
It raised the servitors of mind and Life
To be happy partners in the soul's response,
--
And all that the Life longs for is drawn close.
He saw the Perfect in their starry homes
--
Strange powers and influences touched his Life.
A vision came of higher realms than ours,
--
In all the sweetness of the gifts of Life,
Its large breath and pulse and thrill of hope and fear,
--
To which Life strives to fit our rhyme-beats here,
Melting our limits in the illimitable,
--
And passed the zone where thought replaces Life.
Out of this world of signs suddenly he came
--
Into a living that surpasses Life,
He neared the still consciousness sustaining all.
--
A vast unanimity ended Life's debate.
The war of thoughts that fathers the universe,
--
He based his Life upon eternity.
\t:Only awhile at first these heavenlier states,
--
The body's stone stillness and the Life's hushed trance,
The breathless might and calm of silent mind;
--
Into the half-ordered chaos of mortal Life
The formless Power, the Self of eternal light
--
And nescient Matter and the huge error of Life.
As a sculptor chisels a deity out of stone
--
Only Life's lower reaches remained dim.
But there too, in the uncertain shadow of Life,
There was a labour and a fiery breath;
--
Or scan the apparent face of thought and Life.
\t:Oft inspiration with her lightning feet,
--
And Life's incessant signals of event,
Transmuted chance recurrences into laws,
--
All the world's values changed heightening Life's aim;
A wiser word, a larger thought came in
--
It cast away its grandiose Lifeless front,
A mechanism no more or work of Chance,
--
That she might climb through him to eternal Life.
His being lay down in bright immobile peace
--
And lost Life's incapacity for bliss.
All now suppressed in us began to emerge.
--
Beyond Life's arc in spirit's immensities.
Apart he lived in his mind's solitude,
01.03 - Yoga and the Ordinary Life, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:01.03 - Yoga and the Ordinary Life
class:chapter
In the Yoga practised here the aim is to rise to a higher consciousness and to live out of the higher consciousness alone, not with the ordinary motives. This means a change of Life as well as a change of consciousness. But all are not so circumstanced that they can cut loose from the ordinary Life; they accept it therefore as a field of experience and self-training in the earlier stages of the sadhana. But they must take care to look at it as a field of experience only and to get free from the ordinary desires, attachments and ideas which usually go with it; otherwise it becomes a drag and hindrance on their sadhana. When one is not compelled by circumstances there is no necessity to continue the ordinary Life.
It is not helpful to abandon the ordinary Life before the being is ready for the full spiritual Life. To do so means to precipitate a struggle between the different elements and exasperate it to a point of intensity which the nature is not ready to bear. The vital elements in you have partly to be met by the discipline and experience of Life, while keeping the spiritual aim in view and trying to govern Life by it progressively in the spirit of Karmayoga.
The best way to prepare oneself for the spiritual Life when one has to live in the ordinary occupations and surroundings is to cultivate an entire equality and detachment and the samata of the Gita with the faith that the Divine is there and the Divine Will at work in all things even though at present under the conditions of a world of Ignorance. Beyond this are the Light and Ananda towards which Life is working, but the best way for their advent and foundation in the individual being and nature is to grow in this spiritual equality. That would also solve your difficulty about things unpleasant and disagreeable. All unpleasantness should be faced with this spirit of samata.
I may say briefly that there are two states of consciousness in either of which one can live. One is a higher consciousness which stands above the play of Life and governs it; this is variously called the Self, the Spirit or the Divine. The other is the normal consciousness in which men live; it is something quite superficial, an instrument of the Spirit for the play of Life. Those who live and act in the normal consciousness are governed entirely by the common movements of the mind and are naturally subject to grief and joy and anxiety and desire or to everything else that makes up the ordinary stuff of Life.
Mental quiet and happiness they can get, but it can never be permanent or secure. But the spiritual consciousness is all light, peace, power and bliss. If one can live entirely in it, there is no question; these things become naturally and securely his.
But even if he can live partly in it or keep himself constantly open to it, he receives enough of this spiritual light and peace and strength and happiness to carry him securely through all the shocks of Life. What one gains by opening to this spiritual consciousness, depends on what one seeks from it; if it is peace, one gets peace; if it is light or knowledge, one lives in a great light and receives a knowledge deeper and truer than any the normal mind of man can acquire; if it [is] strength or power, one gets a spiritual strength for the inner Life or Yogic power to govern the outer work and action; if it is happiness, one enters into a beatitude far greater than any joy or happiness that the ordinary human Life can give.
There are many ways of opening to this Divine consciousness or entering into it. My way which I show to others is by a constant practice to go inward into oneself, to open by aspiration to the Divine and once one is conscious of it and its action to give oneself to It entirely. This self-giving means not to ask for anything but the constant contact or union with the Divine Consciousness, to aspire for its peace, power, light and felicity, but to ask nothing else and in Life and action to be its instrument only for whatever work it gives one to do in the world. If one can once open and feel the Divine Force, the
Power of the Spirit working in the mind and heart and body, the rest is a matter of remaining faithful to It, calling for it always, allowing it to do its work when it comes and rejecting every other and inferior Force that belongs to the lower consciousness and the lower nature.
Apart from external things there are two possible inner ideals which a man can follow. The first is the highest ideal of ordinary human Life and the other the divine ideal of Yoga.
I must say in view of something you seem to have said to your father that it is not the object of the one to be a great man or the object of the other to be a great Yogin. The ideal of human Life is to establish over the whole being the control of a clear, strong and rational mind and a right and rational will, to master the emotional, vital and physical being, create a harmony of the whole and develop the capacities whatever they are and fulfil them in Life. In the terms of Hindu thought, it is to enthrone the rule of the purified and sattwic buddhi, follow the dharma, fulfilling one's own svadharma and doing the work proper to one's capacities, and satisfy kama and artha under the control of the buddhi and the dharma. The object of the divine Life, on the other hand, is to realise one's highest self or to realise
God and to put the whole being into harmony with the truth of the highest self or the law of the divine nature, to find one's own divine capacities great or small and fulfil them in Life as a sacrifice to the highest or as a true instrument of the divine
Sakti.
The spiritual Life (adhyatma jvana), the religious Life (dharma jvana) and the ordinary human Life of which morality is a part are three quite different things and one must know which one desires and not confuse the three together. The ordinary Life is that of the average human consciousness separated from its own true self and from the Divine and led by the common habits of the mind, Life and body which are the laws of the Ignorance.
The religious Life is a movement of the same ignorant human consciousness, turning or trying to turn away from the earth towards the Divine but as yet without knowledge and led by the dogmatic tenets and rules of some sect or creed which claims to have found the way out of the bonds of the earth-consciousness into some beatific Beyond. The religious Life may be the first approach to the spiritual, but very often it is only a turning about in a round of rites, ceremonies and practices or set ideas and forms without any issue. The spiritual Life, on the contrary, proceeds directly by a change of consciousness, a change from the ordinary consciousness, ignorant and separated from its true self and from God, to a greater consciousness in which one finds one's true being and comes first into direct and living contact and then into union with the Divine. For the spiritual seeker this change of consciousness is the one thing he seeks and nothing else matters.
Morality is a part of the ordinary Life; it is an attempt to govern the outward conduct by certain mental rules or to form the character by these rules in the image of a certain mental ideal. The spiritual Life goes beyond the mind; it enters into the deeper consciousness of the Spirit and acts out of the truth of the Spirit.
The principle of Life which I seek to establish is spiritual.
Morality is a question of man's mind and vital, it belongs to a lower plane of consciousness. A spiritual Life therefore cannot be founded on a moral basis, it must be founded on a spiritual basis. This does not mean that the spiritual man must be immoral - as if there were no other law of conduct than the moral. The law of action of the spiritual consciousness is higher, not lower than the moral - it is founded on union with the Divine and living in the Divine Consciousness and its action is founded on obedience to the Divine Will.
01.04 - Motives for Seeking the Divine, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
But of course that is not the spiritual Life, it is only a sort of elementary religious approach. For the spiritual Life to give and not to demand is the rule. The sadhak however can ask for the
Divine Force to aid him in keeping his health or recovering it if he does that as part of his sadhana so that his body may be able and fit for the spiritual Life and a capable instrument for the
Divine Work.
01.04 - Sri Aurobindos Gita, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The supreme secret of the Gita, rahasyam uttamam, has presented itself to diverse minds in diverse forms. All these however fall, roughly speaking, into two broad groups of which one may be termed the orthodox school and the other the modem school. The orthodox school as represented, for example, by Shankara or Sridhara, viewed the Gita in the light of the spiritual discipline more or less current in those ages, when the purpose of Life was held out to be emancipation from Life, whether through desireless work or knowledge or devotion or even a combination of the three. The Modern School, on the other hand, represented by Bankim in Bengal and more thoroughly developed and systematised in recent times by Tilak, is inspired by its own Time-Spirit and finds in the Gita a gospel of Life-fulfilment. The older interpretation laid stress upon a spiritual and religious, which meant therefore in the end an other-worldly discipline; the newer interpretation seeks to dynamise the more or less quietistic spirituality which held the ground in India of later ages, to set a premium upon action, upon duty that is to be done in our workaday Life, though with a spiritual intent and motive.
This neo-spirituality which might claim its sanction and authority from the real old-world Indian disciplinesay, of Janaka and Yajnavalkyalabours, however, in reality, under the influence of European activism and ethicism. It was this which served as the immediate incentive to our spiritual revival and revaluation and its impress has not been thoroughly obliterated even in the best of our modern exponents. The bias of the vital urge and of the moral imperative is apparent enough in the modernist conception of a dynamic spirituality. Fundamentally the dynamism is made to reside in the lan of the ethical man,the spiritual element, as a consciousness of supreme unity in the Absolute (Brahman) or of love and delight in God, serving only as an atmosphere for the mortal activity.
Sri Aurobindo has raised action completely out of the mental and moral plane and has given it an absolute spiritual Life. Action has been spiritualised by being carried back to its very source and origin, for it is the expression in Life of God's own Consciousness-Energy (Chit-Shakti).
The Supreme Spirit, Purushottama, who holds in himself the dual reality of Brahman and the world, is the master of action who acts but in actionlessness, the Lord in whom and through whom the universes and their creatures live and move and have their being. Karmayoga is union in mind and soul and body with the Lord of action in the execution of his cosmic purpose. And this union is effected through a transformation of the human nature, through the revelation of the Divine Prakriti and its descent upon and possession of the inferior human vehicle.
--
The style and manner of Sri Aurobindo's interpretation1 is also supremely characteristic: it does not carry the impress of a mere metaphysical dissertation-although in matter it clothes throughout a profound philosophy; it is throbbing with the luminous Life of a prophet's message, it is instinct with something of the Gita's own mantraakti.
Essays on the Gita, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry
01.04 - The Intuition of the Age, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
All movementswhe ther of thought or of Life, whether in the individual or in the massproceed from a fundamental intuition which lies in the background as the logical presupposition, the psychological motive and the spiritual force. A certain attitude of the soul, a certain angle of vision is what is posited first; all other thingsall thoughts and feelings and activities are but necessary attempts to express, to demonstrate, to realise on the conscious and dynamic levels, in the outer world, the truth which has thus already been seized in some secret core of our being. The intuition may not, of course, be present to the conscious mind, it may not be ostensibly sought for, one may even deny the existence of such a preconceived notion and proceed to establish truth on a tabula rasa; none the less it is this hidden bias that judges, this secret consciousness that formulates, this unknown power that fashions.
Now, what is the intuition that lies behind the movements of the new age? What is the intimate realisation, the underlying view-point which is guiding and modelling all our efforts and achievementsour science and art, our poetry and philosophy, our religion and society? For, there is such a common and fundamental note which is being voiced forth by the human spirit through all the multitude of its present-day activities.
A new impulse is there, no one can deny, and it has vast possibilities before it, that also one need not hesitate to accept. But in order that we may best fructuate what has been spontaneously sown, we must first recognise it, be luminously conscious of it and develop it along its proper line of growth. For, also certain it is that this new impulse or intuition, however true and strong in itself, is still groping and erring and miscarrying; it is still wasting much of its energy in tentative things, in mere experiments, in even clear failures. The fact is that the intuition has not yet become an enlightened one, it is still moving, as we shall presently explain, in the dark vital regions of man. And vitalism is naturally and closely affianced to pragmatism, that is to say, the mere vital impulse seeks immediately to execute itself, it looks for external effects, for changes in the form, in the machinery only. Thus it is that we see in art and literature discussions centred upon the scheme of composition, as whether the new poetry should be lyrical or dramatic, popular or aristocratic, metrical or free of metre, and in practical Life we talk of remodelling the state by new methods of representation and governance, of purging society by bills and legislation, of reforming humanity by a business pact.
All this may be good and necessary, but there is the danger of leaving altogether out of account the one thing needful. We must then pause and turn back, look behind the apparent impulsion that effectuates to the Will that drives, behind the ideas and ideals of the mind to the soul that informs and inspires; we must carry ourselves up the stream and concentrate upon the original source, the creative intuition that lies hidden somewhere. And then only all the new stirrings that we feel in our heartour urges and ideals and visions will attain an effective clarity, an unshaken purpose and an inevitable achievement.
That is to say, the change has been in the soul of man himself, the being has veered round and taken a new orientation. It is this which one must envisage, recognise and consciously possess, in order that one may best fulfil the call of the age. But what we are doing instead is to observe the mere external signs and symbols and symptoms, to fix upon the distant quiverings, the echoes on the outermost rim, which are not always faithful representations, but very often distorted images of the truth and Life at the centre and source and matrix. We must know that if there has been going on a redistribution and new-marshalling of forces, it is because the fiat has come from the Etat Major.
Now, in order to understand the new orientation of the spirit of the present age, we may profitably ask what was the inspiration of the past age, the characteristic note which has failed to satisfy us and which we are endeavouring to transform. We know that that age was the Scientific age or the age of Reason. Its great prophets were Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists or if you mount further up in time, we may begin from Bacon and the humanists. Its motto was first, "The proper study of mankind is man" and secondly, Reason is the supreme organon of knowledge, the highest deity in manla Desse Raison. And it is precisely against these two basic principles that the new age has entered its protest. In face of Humanism, Nietzsche has posited the Superman and in face of Reason Bergson has posited Intuition.
The worship of man as something essentially and exclusively human necessitates as a corollary, the other doctrine, viz the deification of Reason; and vice versa. Humanism and Scientism go together and the whole spirit and mentality of the age that is passing may be summed up in those two words. So Nietzsche says, "All our modern world is captured in the net of the Alexandrine culture and has, for its ideal, the theoretical man, armed with the most powerful instruments of knowledge, toiling in the service of science and whose prototype and original ancestor is Socrates." Indeed, it may be generally asserted that the nation whose prophet and sage claimed to have brought down Philosophia from heaven to dwell upon earth among men was precisely the nation, endowed with a clear and logical intellect, that was the very embodiment of rationality and reasonableness. As a matter of fact, it would not be far, wrong to say that it is the Hellenic culture which has been moulding humanity for ages; at least, it is this which has been the predominating factor, the vital and dynamic element in man's nature. Greece when it died was reborn in Rome; Rome, in its return, found new Life in France; and France means Europe. What Europe has been and still is for the world and humanity one knows only too much. And yet, the Hellenic genius has not been the sole motive power and constituent element; there has been another leaven which worked constantly within, if intermittently without. If Europe represented mind and man and this side of existence, Asia always reflected that which transcends the mind the spirit, the Gods and the Beyonds.
However, we are concerned more with the immediate past, the mentality that laid its supreme stress upon the human rationality. What that epoch did not understand was that Reason could be overstepped, that there was something higher, something greater than Reason; Reason being the sovereign faculty, it was thought there could be nothing beyond, unless it were draison. The human attribute par excellence is Reason. Exactly so. But the fact is that man is not bound by his humanity and that reason can be transformed and sublimated into other more powerful faculties.
--
Reason is insufficient and unsatisfactory because, as Bergson explains, it does not and cannot embrace Life as a whole, seize man and the world in an integral realisation. The greater part of the vast mystery of existence escapes its envergure. Reason is that faculty which is for analysing, defining, classifying and fixing things. It is a power that has grown in man in order that he may best manipulate the things of the world. It is utilitarian, practical in its nature and outlook. And as practical dealing requires that things should be stable and separate entities, therefore Reason cannot but see things in solid and in the fragments of a solid. It cuts up existence into distinct parts and diverse elements; and these again it seeks to relate and aggregate, in accordance with what it calls "laws". Such a process has been necessary for man in conducting Life and action successfully. Originally a bye-product of active Life, Reason gradually separated itself and came finally to have an independent status and function, became or sought to become the instrument of knowledge, of Truth.
But although Reason has been and is useful for the practical, we may say almost, the manual aspect of Life, Life itself it leaves unexplained and uncomprehended. For Life is mobility, a continuous flow that has nowhere any gap or stop and things have in reality no isolated or separate existence, they merge and mingle into one another and form an indissoluble whole. Therefore the forms and categories that Reason imposes upon existence are more or less arbitrary; they are shackles that seek to bind up and limit Life, but are often rent asunder in the very effort. So the civilisation that has its origin in Reason and progresses with discoveries and inventionsdevices for artfully manipulating naturehas been essentially and pre-eminently mechanical in its structure and outlook. It has become more and more efficient perhaps, but less and less soul-inspired, less and less-endowed with the free-flowing sap of organic growth and vitality.
So instead of the rational principle, the new age wants the principle of Nature or Life. Even as regards knowledge Reason is not the only, nor the best instrument. For animals have properly no reason; the nature-principle of knowledge in the animal is Instinct the faculty that acts so faultlessly, so marvellously where Reason can only pause and be perplexed. This is not to say that man is to or can go back to this primitive and animal function; but certainly he can replace it by something akin which is as natural and yet purified and self-consciousillumined instinct, we may say or Intuition, as Bergson terms it. And Nietzsche's definition of the Superman has also a similar orientation and significance; for, according to him, the Superman is man who has outgrown his Reason, who is not bound by the standards and the conventions determined by Reason for a special purpose. The Superman is one who has gone beyond "good and evil," who has shaken off from his nature and character elements that are "human, all too human"who is the embodiment of Life-force in its absolute purity and strength and freedom.
This then is the mantra of the new age Life with Intuition as its guide and not Reason and mechanical efficiency, not Man but Superman. The right mantra has been found, the principle itself is irreproachable. But the interpretation, the application, does not seem to have been always happy. For, Nietzsche's conception of the Superman is full of obvious lacunae. If we have so long been adoring the intellectual man, Nietzsche asks us, on the other hand, to deify the vital man. According to him the superman is he who has (1) the supreme sense of the ego, (2) the sovereign will to power and (3) who lives dangerously. All this means an Asura, that is to say, one who has, it may be, dominion over his animal and vital impulsions in order, of course, that he may best gratify them but who has not purified them. Purification does not necessarily mean, annihilation but it does mean sublimation and transformation. So if you have to transcend man, you have to transcend egoism also. For a conscious egoism is the very characteristic of man and by increasing your sense of egoism you do not supersede man but simply aggrandise your humanity, fashion it on a larger, a titanic scale. And then the will to power is not the only will that requires fulfilment, there is also the will to knowledge and the will to love. In man these three fundamental constitutive elements coexist, although they do it, more often than not, at the expense of each other and in a state of continual disharmony. The superman, if he is to be the man "who has surmounted himself", must embody a poise of being in which all the three find a fusion and harmonya perfect synthesis. Again, to live dangerously may be heroic, but it is not divine. To live dangerously means to have eternal opponents, that is to say, to live ever on the same level with the forces you want to dominate. To have the sense that one has to fight and control means that one is not as yet the sovereign lord, for one has to strive and strain and attain. The supreme lord is he who is perfectly equanimous with himself and with the world. He has not to batter things into a shape in order to create. He creates means, he manifests. He wills and he achieves"God said 'let there be light' and there was light."
--
And the faculty of Intuition said to be the characteristic of the New Man does not mean all that it should, if we confine ourselves to Bergson's definition of it. Bergson says that Intuition is a sort of sympathy, a community of feeling or sensibility with the urge of the Life-reality. The difference between the sympathy of Instinct and the sympathy of Intuition being that while the former is an unconscious or semi-conscious power, the latter is illumined and self-conscious. Now this view emphasises only the feeling-tone of Intuition, the vital sensibility that attends the direct communion with the Life movement. But Intuition is not only purified feeling and sensibility, it is also purified vision and knowledge. It unites us not only with the movement of Life, but also opens out to our sight the Truths, the fundamental realities behind that movement. Bergson does not, of course, point to any existence behind the continuous flux of Life-power the elan vital. He seems to deny any static truth or truths to be seen and seized in any scheme of knowledge. To him the dynamic flow the Heraclitian panta reei is the ultimate reality. It is precisely to this view of things that Bergson owes his conception of Intuition. Since existence is a continuum of Mind-Energy, the only way to know it is to be in harmony or unison with it, to move along its current. The conception of knowledge as a fixing and delimiting of things is necessarily an anomaly in this scheme. But the question is, is matter the only static and separative reality? Is the flux of vital Mind-Energy the ultimate truth?
Matter forms the lowest level of reality. Above it is the elan vital. Above the elan vital there is yet the domain of the Spirit. And the Spirit is a static substance and at the same a dynamic creative power. It is Being (Sat) that realises or expresses itself through certain typal nuclei or nodi of consciousness (chit) in a continuous becoming, in a flow of creative activity (ananda). The dynamism of the vital energy is only a refraction or precipitation of the dynamism of the spirit; and so also static matter is only the substance of the spirit concretised and solidified. It is in an uplift both of matter and vital force to their prototypesswarupa and swabhavain the Spirit that lies the real transformation and transfiguration of the humanity of man.
This is the truth that is trying to dawn upon the new age. Not matter but that which forms the substance of matter, not intellect but a vaster consciousness that informs the intellect, not man as he is, an aberration in the cosmic order, but as he may and shall be the embodiment and fulfilment of that orderthis is the secret Intuition which, as yet dimly envisaged, nevertheless secretly inspires all the human activities of today. Only, the truth is being interpreted, as we have said, in terms of vital Life. The intellectual and physical man gave us one aspect of the reality, but neither is the vital and psychical man the complete reality. The one acquisition of this shifting of the viewpoint has been that we are now in touch with the natural and deeper movement of humanity and not as before merely with its artificial scaffolding. The Alexandrine civilisation of humanity, in Nietzsche's phrase, was a sort of divagation from nature, it was following a loop away from the direct path of natural evolution. And the new Renaissance of today has precisely corrected this aberration of humanity and brought it again in a line with the natural cosmic order.
Certainly this does not go far enough into the motive of the change. The cosmic order does not mean mentalised vitalism which is also in its turn a section of the integral reality. It means the order of the spirit, it means the transfiguration of the physical, the vital and the intellectual into the supernal Substance, Power and Light of that Spirit. The real transcendence of humanity is not the transcendence of one or other of its levels but the total transcendence to an altogether different status and the transmutation of humanity in the mould of that statusnot a Nietzschean Titan nor a Bergsonian Dionysus but the tranquil vision and delight and dynamism of the Spirit the incarnation of a god-head.
--- Overview of noun life
The noun life has 14 senses (first 13 from tagged texts)
1. (66) life ::: (a characteristic state or mode of living; "social life"; "city life"; "real life")
2. (54) life, living ::: (the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities; "he could no longer cope with the complexities of life")
3. (41) life ::: (the course of existence of an individual; the actions and events that occur in living; "he hoped for a new life in Australia"; "he wanted to live his own life without interference from others")
4. (29) animation, life, living, aliveness ::: (the condition of living or the state of being alive; "while there's life there's hope"; "life depends on many chemical and physical processes")
5. (22) life, lifetime, life-time, lifespan ::: (the period during which something is functional (as between birth and death); "the battery had a short life"; "he lived a long and happy life")
6. (18) life ::: (the period between birth and the present time; "I have known him all his life")
7. (5) life ::: (the period from the present until death; "he appointed himself emperor for life")
8. (5) life ::: (a living person; "his heroism saved a life")
9. (5) liveliness, life, spirit, sprightliness ::: (animation and energy in action or expression; "it was a heavy play and the actors tried in vain to give life to it")
10. (5) life ::: (living things collectively; "the oceans are teeming with life")
11. (3) life ::: (the organic phenomenon that distinguishes living organisms from nonliving ones; "there is no life on the moon")
12. (2) biography, life, life story, life history ::: (an account of the series of events making up a person's life)
13. (1) life ::: (a motive for living; "pottery was his life")
14. life sentence, life ::: (a prison term lasting as long as the prisoner lives; "he got life for killing the guard")
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun life
14 senses of life
Sense 1
life
=> being, beingness, existence
=> state
=> attribute
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 2
life, living
=> experience
=> content, cognitive content, mental object
=> cognition, knowledge, noesis
=> psychological feature
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 3
life
=> being, beingness, existence
=> state
=> attribute
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 4
animation, life, living, aliveness
=> being, beingness, existence
=> state
=> attribute
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 5
life, lifetime, life-time, lifespan
=> time period, period of time, period
=> fundamental quantity, fundamental measure
=> measure, quantity, amount
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 6
life
=> time period, period of time, period
=> fundamental quantity, fundamental measure
=> measure, quantity, amount
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 7
life
=> time period, period of time, period
=> fundamental quantity, fundamental measure
=> measure, quantity, amount
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 8
life
=> person, individual, someone, somebody, mortal, soul
=> organism, being
=> living thing, animate thing
=> whole, unit
=> object, physical object
=> physical entity
=> entity
=> causal agent, cause, causal agency
=> physical entity
=> entity
Sense 9
liveliness, life, spirit, sprightliness
=> animation, spiritedness, invigoration, brio, vivification
=> activeness, activity
=> trait
=> attribute
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 10
life
=> living thing, animate thing
=> whole, unit
=> object, physical object
=> physical entity
=> entity
Sense 11
life
=> organic phenomenon
=> natural phenomenon
=> phenomenon
=> process, physical process
=> physical entity
=> entity
Sense 12
biography, life, life story, life history
=> history, account, chronicle, story
=> record
=> evidence
=> indication, indicant
=> communication
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 13
life
=> motivation, motive, need
=> psychological feature
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 14
life sentence, life
=> prison term, sentence, time
=> term
=> time period, period of time, period
=> fundamental quantity, fundamental measure
=> measure, quantity, amount
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
--- Hyponyms of noun life
8 of 14 senses of life
Sense 1
life
=> ghetto
Sense 4
animation, life, living, aliveness
=> eternal life, life eternal
=> skin
=> survival, endurance
Sense 5
life, lifetime, life-time, lifespan
=> afterlife, hereafter
Sense 7
life
=> days, years
Sense 9
liveliness, life, spirit, sprightliness
=> pertness
=> airiness, delicacy
=> alacrity, briskness, smartness
=> energy, muscularity, vigor, vigour, vim
=> elan
=> esprit
=> breeziness, jauntiness
=> irrepressibility, buoyancy
=> high-spiritedness
=> exuberance, enthusiasm, ebullience
=> pep, peppiness, ginger
Sense 10
life
=> wildlife
Sense 11
life
=> biology
=> aerobiosis
Sense 12
biography, life, life story, life history
=> autobiography
=> hagiography
=> profile
HAS INSTANCE=> Parallel Lives
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun life
14 senses of life
Sense 1
life
=> being, beingness, existence
Sense 2
life, living
=> experience
Sense 3
life
=> being, beingness, existence
Sense 4
animation, life, living, aliveness
=> being, beingness, existence
Sense 5
life, lifetime, life-time, lifespan
=> time period, period of time, period
Sense 6
life
=> time period, period of time, period
Sense 7
life
=> time period, period of time, period
Sense 8
life
=> person, individual, someone, somebody, mortal, soul
Sense 9
liveliness, life, spirit, sprightliness
=> animation, spiritedness, invigoration, brio, vivification
Sense 10
life
=> living thing, animate thing
Sense 11
life
=> organic phenomenon
Sense 12
biography, life, life story, life history
=> history, account, chronicle, story
Sense 13
life
=> motivation, motive, need
Sense 14
life sentence, life
=> prison term, sentence, time
--- Coordinate Terms (sisters) of noun life
14 senses of life
Sense 1
life
-> being, beingness, existence
=> actuality
=> eternity, timelessness, timeless existence
=> preexistence
=> coexistence
=> subsistence
=> presence
=> life
=> animation, life, living, aliveness
=> life
=> transcendence, transcendency
=> possibility, possibleness
Sense 2
life, living
-> experience
=> world, reality
=> life, living
=> reliving, re-experiencing
=> reminder
Sense 3
life
-> being, beingness, existence
=> actuality
=> eternity, timelessness, timeless existence
=> preexistence
=> coexistence
=> subsistence
=> presence
=> life
=> animation, life, living, aliveness
=> life
=> transcendence, transcendency
=> possibility, possibleness
Sense 4
animation, life, living, aliveness
-> being, beingness, existence
=> actuality
=> eternity, timelessness, timeless existence
=> preexistence
=> coexistence
=> subsistence
=> presence
=> life
=> animation, life, living, aliveness
=> life
=> transcendence, transcendency
=> possibility, possibleness
Sense 5
life, lifetime, life-time, lifespan
-> time period, period of time, period
=> trial period, test period
=> time frame
=> hours
=> downtime
=> uptime
=> work time
=> time off
=> bout
=> hospitalization
=> travel time
=> times
=> time
=> elapsed time
=> duration, continuance
=> week, calendar week
=> midweek
=> field day
=> life, lifetime, life-time, lifespan
=> life
=> life
=> millennium, millenary
=> bimillennium, bimillenary
=> occupation
=> past
=> shelf life
=> puerperium
=> lactation
=> time of life
=> calendar day, civil day
=> festival
=> day, daytime, daylight
=> morning, morn, morning time, forenoon
=> night, nighttime, dark
=> night
=> night
=> night
=> eve
=> evening
=> week, hebdomad
=> fortnight, two weeks
=> weekend
=> Indian summer, Saint Martin's summer
=> year
=> school, schooltime, school day
=> year, twelvemonth, yr
=> year
=> semester
=> bimester
=> Olympiad
=> lustrum
=> decade, decennary, decennium
=> century
=> quadrennium
=> quinquennium
=> half-century
=> quarter-century
=> quarter
=> phase of the moon
=> day
=> calendar month, month
=> mid-January
=> mid-February
=> mid-March
=> mid-April
=> mid-May
=> mid-June
=> mid-July
=> mid-August
=> mid-September
=> mid-October
=> mid-November
=> mid-December
=> time limit
=> term
=> trimester
=> hour
=> silly season
=> Golden Age
=> silver age
=> bronze age
HAS INSTANCE=> Bronze Age
=> iron age
HAS INSTANCE=> Iron Age
HAS INSTANCE=> Stone Age
HAS INSTANCE=> Eolithic Age, Eolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Paleolithic Age, Paleolithic, Palaeolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Lower Paleolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Middle Paleolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Upper Paleolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Mesolithic Age, Mesolithic, Epipaleolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Neolithic Age, Neolithic, New Stone Age
=> great year, Platonic year
=> regulation time
=> overtime, extra time
=> season, time of year
=> dog days, canicule, canicular days
=> midwinter
=> season
=> season
=> long time, age, years
=> long run, long haul
=> drought, drouth
=> era, epoch
=> generation
=> prehistory, prehistoric culture
=> reign
=> run
=> youth, early days
=> dawn
=> evening
=> time
=> sleep, nap
=> lease, term of a contract
=> half life, half-life
=> tide, lunar time period
=> phase, stage
=> multistage
=> watch
=> peacetime
=> wartime
=> enlistment, hitch, term of enlistment, tour of duty, duty tour, tour
=> honeymoon
=> indiction
=> prohibition, prohibition era
=> incubation period
=> rainy day
=> novitiate, noviciate
=> flower, prime, peak, heyday, bloom, blossom, efflorescence, flush
=> running time
=> clotting time
=> air alert
HAS INSTANCE=> Great Schism
=> question time
=> real time
=> real time
=> study hall
=> usance
=> window
Sense 6
life
-> time period, period of time, period
=> trial period, test period
=> time frame
=> hours
=> downtime
=> uptime
=> work time
=> time off
=> bout
=> hospitalization
=> travel time
=> times
=> time
=> elapsed time
=> duration, continuance
=> week, calendar week
=> midweek
=> field day
=> life, lifetime, life-time, lifespan
=> life
=> life
=> millennium, millenary
=> bimillennium, bimillenary
=> occupation
=> past
=> shelf life
=> puerperium
=> lactation
=> time of life
=> calendar day, civil day
=> festival
=> day, daytime, daylight
=> morning, morn, morning time, forenoon
=> night, nighttime, dark
=> night
=> night
=> night
=> eve
=> evening
=> week, hebdomad
=> fortnight, two weeks
=> weekend
=> Indian summer, Saint Martin's summer
=> year
=> school, schooltime, school day
=> year, twelvemonth, yr
=> year
=> semester
=> bimester
=> Olympiad
=> lustrum
=> decade, decennary, decennium
=> century
=> quadrennium
=> quinquennium
=> half-century
=> quarter-century
=> quarter
=> phase of the moon
=> day
=> calendar month, month
=> mid-January
=> mid-February
=> mid-March
=> mid-April
=> mid-May
=> mid-June
=> mid-July
=> mid-August
=> mid-September
=> mid-October
=> mid-November
=> mid-December
=> time limit
=> term
=> trimester
=> hour
=> silly season
=> Golden Age
=> silver age
=> bronze age
HAS INSTANCE=> Bronze Age
=> iron age
HAS INSTANCE=> Iron Age
HAS INSTANCE=> Stone Age
HAS INSTANCE=> Eolithic Age, Eolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Paleolithic Age, Paleolithic, Palaeolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Lower Paleolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Middle Paleolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Upper Paleolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Mesolithic Age, Mesolithic, Epipaleolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Neolithic Age, Neolithic, New Stone Age
=> great year, Platonic year
=> regulation time
=> overtime, extra time
=> season, time of year
=> dog days, canicule, canicular days
=> midwinter
=> season
=> season
=> long time, age, years
=> long run, long haul
=> drought, drouth
=> era, epoch
=> generation
=> prehistory, prehistoric culture
=> reign
=> run
=> youth, early days
=> dawn
=> evening
=> time
=> sleep, nap
=> lease, term of a contract
=> half life, half-life
=> tide, lunar time period
=> phase, stage
=> multistage
=> watch
=> peacetime
=> wartime
=> enlistment, hitch, term of enlistment, tour of duty, duty tour, tour
=> honeymoon
=> indiction
=> prohibition, prohibition era
=> incubation period
=> rainy day
=> novitiate, noviciate
=> flower, prime, peak, heyday, bloom, blossom, efflorescence, flush
=> running time
=> clotting time
=> air alert
HAS INSTANCE=> Great Schism
=> question time
=> real time
=> real time
=> study hall
=> usance
=> window
Sense 7
life
-> time period, period of time, period
=> trial period, test period
=> time frame
=> hours
=> downtime
=> uptime
=> work time
=> time off
=> bout
=> hospitalization
=> travel time
=> times
=> time
=> elapsed time
=> duration, continuance
=> week, calendar week
=> midweek
=> field day
=> life, lifetime, life-time, lifespan
=> life
=> life
=> millennium, millenary
=> bimillennium, bimillenary
=> occupation
=> past
=> shelf life
=> puerperium
=> lactation
=> time of life
=> calendar day, civil day
=> festival
=> day, daytime, daylight
=> morning, morn, morning time, forenoon
=> night, nighttime, dark
=> night
=> night
=> night
=> eve
=> evening
=> week, hebdomad
=> fortnight, two weeks
=> weekend
=> Indian summer, Saint Martin's summer
=> year
=> school, schooltime, school day
=> year, twelvemonth, yr
=> year
=> semester
=> bimester
=> Olympiad
=> lustrum
=> decade, decennary, decennium
=> century
=> quadrennium
=> quinquennium
=> half-century
=> quarter-century
=> quarter
=> phase of the moon
=> day
=> calendar month, month
=> mid-January
=> mid-February
=> mid-March
=> mid-April
=> mid-May
=> mid-June
=> mid-July
=> mid-August
=> mid-September
=> mid-October
=> mid-November
=> mid-December
=> time limit
=> term
=> trimester
=> hour
=> silly season
=> Golden Age
=> silver age
=> bronze age
HAS INSTANCE=> Bronze Age
=> iron age
HAS INSTANCE=> Iron Age
HAS INSTANCE=> Stone Age
HAS INSTANCE=> Eolithic Age, Eolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Paleolithic Age, Paleolithic, Palaeolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Lower Paleolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Middle Paleolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Upper Paleolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Mesolithic Age, Mesolithic, Epipaleolithic
HAS INSTANCE=> Neolithic Age, Neolithic, New Stone Age
=> great year, Platonic year
=> regulation time
=> overtime, extra time
=> season, time of year
=> dog days, canicule, canicular days
=> midwinter
=> season
=> season
=> long time, age, years
=> long run, long haul
=> drought, drouth
=> era, epoch
=> generation
=> prehistory, prehistoric culture
=> reign
=> run
=> youth, early days
=> dawn
=> evening
=> time
=> sleep, nap
=> lease, term of a contract
=> half life, half-life
=> tide, lunar time period
=> phase, stage
=> multistage
=> watch
=> peacetime
=> wartime
=> enlistment, hitch, term of enlistment, tour of duty, duty tour, tour
=> honeymoon
=> indiction
=> prohibition, prohibition era
=> incubation period
=> rainy day
=> novitiate, noviciate
=> flower, prime, peak, heyday, bloom, blossom, efflorescence, flush
=> running time
=> clotting time
=> air alert
HAS INSTANCE=> Great Schism
=> question time
=> real time
=> real time
=> study hall
=> usance
=> window
Sense 8
life
-> person, individual, someone, somebody, mortal, soul
=> self
=> adult, grownup
=> adventurer, venturer
=> anomaly, unusual person
=> applicant, applier
=> appointee, appointment
=> capitalist
=> captor, capturer
=> changer, modifier
=> color-blind person
=> commoner, common man, common person
=> communicator
=> contestant
=> coward
=> creator
=> disputant, controversialist, eristic
=> engineer, applied scientist, technologist
=> entertainer
=> experimenter
=> expert
=> face
=> female, female person
=> individualist
=> inhabitant, habitant, dweller, denizen, indweller
=> native, indigen, indigene, aborigine, aboriginal
=> native
=> innocent, inexperienced person
=> intellectual, intellect
=> juvenile, juvenile person
=> lover
=> loved one
=> leader
=> male, male person
=> money handler, money dealer
=> national, subject
=> nonreligious person
=> nonworker
=> peer, equal, match, compeer
=> perceiver, percipient, observer, beholder
=> percher
=> precursor, forerunner
=> primitive, primitive person
=> religious person
=> sensualist
=> traveler, traveller
=> unfortunate, unfortunate person
=> unwelcome person, persona non grata
=> unskilled person
=> worker
=> African
=> person of color, person of colour
=> Black, Black person, blackamoor, Negro, Negroid
=> White, White person, Caucasian
=> Amerindian, Native American
=> Slav
=> gentile
=> Jew, Hebrew, Israelite
=> Aries, Ram
=> Taurus, Bull
=> Gemini, Twin
=> Cancer, Crab
=> Leo, Lion
=> Virgo, Virgin
=> Libra, Balance
=> Scorpio, Scorpion
=> Sagittarius, Archer
=> Capricorn, Goat
=> Aquarius, Water Bearer
=> Pisces, Fish
=> abator
=> abjurer
=> abomination
=> abstainer, abstinent, nondrinker
=> achiever, winner, success, succeeder
=> acquaintance, friend
=> acquirer
=> active
=> actor, doer, worker
=> adjudicator
=> admirer
=> adoptee
=> adversary, antagonist, opponent, opposer, resister
=> advisee
=> advocate, advocator, proponent, exponent
=> affiant
=> agnostic, doubter
=> amateur
=> ancient
=> anti
=> anti-American
=> apprehender
=> appreciator
=> archaist
=> arrogator
=> assessee
=> asthmatic
=> authority
=> autodidact
=> baby boomer, boomer
=> baby buster, buster
=> bad guy
=> bad person
=> baldhead, baldpate, baldy
=> balker, baulker, noncompliant
=> bullfighter, toreador
=> bather
=> beard
=> bedfellow
=> bereaved, bereaved person
=> best, topper
=> birth
=> biter
=> blogger
=> blond, blonde
=> bluecoat
=> bodybuilder, muscle builder, muscle-builder, musclebuilder, muscleman
=> bomber
=> brunet, brunette
=> buster
=> candidate, prospect
=> case
=> cashier
=> celebrant, celebrator, celebrater
=> censor
=> chameleon
=> charmer, beguiler
=> child, baby
=> chutzpanik
=> closer
=> clumsy person
=> collector, aggregator
=> combatant, battler, belligerent, fighter, scrapper
=> complexifier
=> compulsive
=> computer user
=> contemplative
=> convert
=> copycat, imitator, emulator, ape, aper
=> counter
=> counterterrorist
=> crawler, creeper
=> creature, wight
=> creditor
=> cripple
=> dancer, social dancer
=> dead person, dead soul, deceased person, deceased, decedent, departed
=> deaf person
=> debaser, degrader
=> debtor, debitor
=> defecator, voider, shitter
=> delayer
=> deliverer
=> demander
=> dieter
=> differentiator, discriminator
=> disentangler, unraveler, unraveller
=> dissenter, dissident, protester, objector, contestant
=> divider
=> domestic partner, significant other, spousal equivalent, spouse equivalent
=> double, image, look-alike
=> dresser
=> dribbler, driveller, slobberer, drooler
=> drug user, substance abuser, user
=> dyslectic
=> ectomorph
=> effecter, effector
=> Elizabethan
=> emotional person
=> endomorph
=> enjoyer
=> enrollee
=> ethnic
=> explorer, adventurer
=> extrovert, extravert
=> faddist
=> faller
=> fastener
=> fiduciary
=> first-rater
=> follower
=> free agent, free spirit, freewheeler
=> friend
=> fugitive, runaway, fleer
=> gainer
=> gainer, weight gainer
=> gambler
=> gatekeeper
=> gatherer
=> good guy
=> good person
=> granter
=> greeter, saluter, welcomer
=> grinner
=> groaner
=> grunter
=> guesser
=> handicapped person
=> hater
=> heterosexual, heterosexual person, straight person, straight
=> homosexual, homophile, homo, gay
=> homunculus
=> hope
=> hoper
=> huddler
=> hugger
=> immune
=> insured, insured person
=> interpreter
=> introvert
=> Jat
=> jewel, gem
=> jumper
=> junior
=> killer, slayer
=> relative, relation
=> kink
=> kneeler
=> knocker
=> knower, apprehender
=> large person
=> Latin
=> laugher
=> learner, scholar, assimilator
=> left-hander, lefty, southpaw
=> life
=> lightning rod
=> linguist, polyglot
=> literate, literate person
=> liver
=> longer, thirster, yearner
=> loose cannon
=> machine
=> mailer
=> malcontent
=> man
=> manipulator
=> man jack
=> married
=> masturbator, onanist
=> measurer
=> nonmember
=> mesomorph
=> mestizo, ladino
=> middlebrow
=> miracle man, miracle worker
=> misogamist
=> mixed-blood
=> modern
=> monolingual
=> mother hen
=> mouse
=> mutilator, maimer, mangler
=> namer
=> namesake
=> neglecter
=> neighbor, neighbour
=> neutral
=> nondescript
=> nonparticipant
=> nonpartisan, nonpartizan
=> nonperson, unperson
=> nonresident
=> nonsmoker
=> nude, nude person
=> nurser
=> occultist
=> optimist
=> orphan
=> ostrich
=> ouster, ejector
=> outcaste
=> outdoorsman
=> owner, possessor
=> pamperer, spoiler, coddler, mollycoddler
=> pansexual
=> pardoner, forgiver, excuser
=> partner
=> party
=> passer
=> personage
=> personification
=> perspirer, sweater
=> philosopher
=> picker, chooser, selector
=> pisser, urinator
=> planner, contriver, deviser
=> player
=> posturer
=> powderer
=> preserver
=> propositus
=> public relations person
=> pursuer
=> pussycat
=> quarter
=> quitter
=> radical
=> realist
=> rectifier
=> redhead, redheader, red-header, carrottop
=> registrant
=> reliever, allayer, comforter
=> repeater
=> rescuer, recoverer, saver
=> rester
=> restrainer, controller
=> revenant
=> rich person, wealthy person, have
=> right-hander, right hander, righthander
=> riser
=> romper
=> roundhead
=> ruler, swayer
=> rusher
=> scientist
=> scratcher
=> second-rater, mediocrity
=> seeder, cloud seeder
=> seeker, searcher, quester
=> segregate
=> sentimentalist, romanticist
=> sex object
=> sex symbol
=> shaker, mover and shaker
=> showman
=> signer, signatory
=> simpleton, simple
=> six-footer
=> skidder, slider, slipper
=> slave
=> slave
=> sleepyhead
=> sloucher
=> small person
=> smasher
=> smiler
=> sneezer
=> sniffer
=> sniffler, sniveler
=> snuffer
=> snuffler
=> socializer, socialiser
=> sort
=> sounding board
=> sphinx
=> spitter, expectorator
=> sport
=> sprawler
=> spurner
=> squinter, squint-eye
=> stifler, smotherer
=> stigmatic, stigmatist
=> stooper
=> stranger
=> struggler
=> subject, case, guinea pig
=> supernumerary
=> surrenderer, yielder
=> survivalist
=> survivor
=> suspect
=> tagger
=> tagger
=> tapper
=> tempter
=> termer
=> terror, scourge, threat
=> testator, testate
=> thin person, skin and bones, scrag
=> third-rater
=> thrower
=> tiger
=> totemist
=> toucher
=> transfer, transferee
=> transsexual, transexual
=> transvestite, cross-dresser
=> trier, attempter, essayer
=> turner
=> tyrant
=> undoer, opener, unfastener, untier
=> user
=> vanisher
=> victim, dupe
=> Victorian
=> visionary
=> visually impaired person
=> waiter
=> waker
=> walk-in
=> wanter, needer
=> ward
=> warrior
=> watcher
=> weakling, doormat, wuss
=> weasel
=> wiggler, wriggler, squirmer
=> winker
=> withholder
=> witness
=> worldling
=> yawner
Sense 9
liveliness, life, spirit, sprightliness
-> animation, spiritedness, invigoration, brio, vivification
=> chirpiness
=> liveliness, life, spirit, sprightliness
Sense 10
life
-> living thing, animate thing
=> organism, being
=> life
=> biont
=> cell
Sense 11
life
-> organic phenomenon
=> dominance
=> abiogenesis, autogenesis, autogeny, spontaneous generation
=> alternation of generations, heterogenesis, xenogenesis
=> annual ring, growth ring
=> bioelectricity
=> circulation
=> cyclosis, streaming
=> death
=> decay, decomposition
=> dehiscence
=> desquamation, peeling, shedding
=> exfoliation
=> diapedesis
=> facilitation
=> food chain
=> food pyramid
=> food web, food cycle
=> gene expression
=> histocompatibility
=> life
=> life cycle
=> pleomorphism
=> polymorphism
=> polymorphism
=> recognition
=> rejection
=> rejuvenation, greening
=> sex linkage
Sense 12
biography, life, life story, life history
-> history, account, chronicle, story
=> ancient history
=> etymology
=> case history
=> historical document, historical paper, historical record
=> annals, chronological record
=> biography, life, life story, life history
=> recital
Sense 13
life
-> motivation, motive, need
=> life
=> rational motive
=> irrational motive
=> urge, impulse
=> ethical motive, ethics, morals, morality
=> psychic energy, mental energy
Sense 14
life sentence, life
-> prison term, sentence, time
=> hard time
=> life sentence, life
--- Grep of noun life
afterlife
business life
change of life
elixir of life
estate for life
eternal life
facts of life
fantasy life
half-life
half life
high life
highlife
jaws of life
kiss of life
life
life-of-man
life-style
life-support system
life-time
life assurance
life belt
life buoy
life class
life cycle
life estate
life eternal
life expectancy
life force
life form
life history
life imprisonment
life insurance
life jacket
life line
life mask
life office
life peer
life preserver
life principle
life raft
life ring
life saver
life science
life scientist
life sentence
life story
life style
life support
life tenant
life vest
lifeblood
lifeboat
lifeguard
lifelessness
lifeline
lifer
lifesaver
lifesaving
lifespan
lifestyle
lifetime
lifework
line of life
love life
lowlife
night life
nightlife
ordinary life insurance
phantasy life
plant life
prime of life
pro-life faction
professional life
quality of life
real life
right to life
shelf life
sporting life
staff of life
standard of life
still life
stone life face
straight life insurance
time of life
walk of life
way of life
whole life insurance
wildlife