Introduction

Welcome!

This blog discusses the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo & The Mother, whose pictures are seen above.

Bio of  Sri Aurobindo and here

Bio of  Mira Alfassa/The Mother and here

Guide to literature and links

Click on the sidebar for various articles

How does the brain absorb new ideas?

Over the years, the Mother conducted numerous dialogues with students at the Ashram school in which she expatiated on the proper method of studying and diligently developing the mind.   What seem like banal exhortations are in reality infused with innate wisdom, as becomes evident when we juxtapose her insights with anecdotes from the lives of scientists such as Richard and Joan Feynman, Stanislav Ulam and Sofia Kovalevskaya.

Sattwic ego, Rajasic ego and Tamasic ego

When we say someone is egoistic, we often imply that the person is proud. Sri Aurobindo observed that egoistic movements are actually of three types – sattwic(illumined), rajasic(kineticism) and tamasic(indolent).  The sattwic ego revels in the brilliant power of its intelligence, the rajasic ego is eager to dominate, and the tamasic ego wallows in self-pity.

A mystical incident in the life of Mughal Emperor Akbar

Akbar (1542-1605) was the third Mughal Emperor who ruled over much of Northern and Central India. The family was Turko-Mongol in origin.  Akbar, after ascending to the throne at the age of fourteen, cemented his power with successive victories over insubordinate local chieftains.  He was a great patron of art and culture, somewhat analogous to Lorenzo the Magnificent of the House of Medici, who nourished the artistic community in Florence and turned the city into a locus of the Italian Renaissance. Akbar was known for his syncretic and liberal religious policy.  Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, and even Jesuits who had travelled all the way from Europe by sea to spread Christianity graced the royal court of Akbar.  When he was thirty six years old, he had a mystical experience which seems to have been a turning point in his life.

How can Sri Aurobindo smoke and drink while practising Yoga?

This article is motivated by a recent comment on this blog.  Those who have gained some familiarity with Sri Aurobindo are often baffled by his conduct: How could he smoke, eat meat and at times, even drink wine, while practicing Yoga?  Doesn’t it violate the central tenets of Yoga?  If that didn’t hinder his practice, can I emulate him?  The answer is: “No, you shouldn’t emulate him” as we shall see by the end of this article.

My words will remain imprinted on your soul

There is a golden thread which knits together the lives of all sages.  Behind their unique beatific personalities and inimitable ways of expression, they are all manifesting the same Divine Consciousness.  It is this underlying unity which forms the basis for the similar phenomena that are visible in their lives.   This article examines their ability to utter those aphoristic Truths which continue to resonate long after they are gone.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 120,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 5 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Does Nature revolt against machinery?

One of the pleasures of studying dual Gurus like Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is that sometimes one can find spontaneous and fascinating coincidences in their records.  It is as if they had independently experienced the same occult phenomenon. The Mother had once remarked after Sri Aurobindo had left his body: “Nirod (a disciple) is reading me his correspondence with Sri Aurobindo. Strangely enough, there are all sorts of things that I said much, much later, I had no idea he had written them! Exactly the same things.  I found that very interesting.[1]“  In this article, we will examine some striking parallels in the observations they made fifty years apart pertaining to Nature’s reaction to machinery.

Progress reports of Sri Aurobindo

The path of the Yogin demands dogged persistence because final perfection  depends on two qualitatively different factors: one’s own refractory psychological habits whose complete dissolution requires multiple rounds and a whimsical Divine power which intermittently showers its Grace but leaves you in the dark at other times.  These are a couple of progress reports that Sri Aurobindo had jotted down in his diary The Record of Yoga during his early years in Pondicherry.  They indicate the ceaseless struggle and the subsequent reversal of consciousness that he underwent in the quest for yogic perfection.

What exactly is a “crush” or “love at first sight”?

What exactly is this singular phenomenon called the “crush” or “love at first sight” during which the breath quickens, the cheeks become flushed, the voice quivers, and the heart continues pounding without respite? People often assume that a “crush” is an instinct originating irrefutably from the soul/psychic but according to the Mother Mirra Alfassa, it is just another example of an irrational vital process.

Handling Rejection by the Guru

Growing up in a social milieu, we develop into gregarious beings who are accustomed to being praised, respected or at least acknowledged for being an individual. Humiliation in any form comes as a sharp blow to the ego.  When our expectations are not met, we instinctively become resentful and hold grudges instead of handling the situation with dispassion.  What do you do if the Guru, the very person you expected to be an epitome of  boundless compassion, suddenly turns cold and hard?  It can be a particularly acute  test for the disciple as the two anecdotes here illustrate.

Gorakhnath’s enumeration of contemplation methods

Goraknath was a yogi-philosopher belonging the Nath Path (Brotherhood of the Supreme) who lived around the 9^th-10^th century.  His Guru Matysendranath was the progenitor of this influential brotherhood of ascetics.   Gorakhnath authored several works on Yoga including the Goraksha Samhita, the Goraksha Gita, the Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati, the Yoga Martanada, the Yoga Siddhanta Paddhati, the Yoga-Bija, and the Yoga Chintamani. You can read more about him on wikipedia.   This article briefly outlines the meditation methods that Gorakhnath first enumerated in his work Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati.   The material is condensed from A.K. Banerjea’s Philosophy of Gorakhnath[1].

Can I have more than one Guru?

Genuine Gurus are rare these days, so this question shouldn’t arise, but for what its worth, these are some insights by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on the question of multiple Gurus.  The gist of the matter seems to be that as long as you don’t feel strongly drawn to any particular sage, it is permissible to draw inspiration (through reading and interaction) from multiple sages.  But once you get initiated by a particular Guru, you must stick to that Guru, otherwise the spiritual energies of different Gurus can interfere to create a frightful mess within your consciousness.  Furthermore, if you have reached the apex with one particular Guru, you can certainly look for another.  The cases of Kapali Sastry and M.P.Pandit can be cited in support of this clause; they were initially disciples of Ramana Maharshi but later choose Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as their Guru.

Insights into animal cognition

The Yogin who attains Self-realization discovers that latent powers of perception have awakened within his or her illumined consciousness.  He or she begins to receive subtle images and sounds that convey the subjective internal states of the beings around him – humans, animals, and possibly even aliens. In this article, we compare yogic insights on animal intelligence with recent developments in comparative psychology and cognitive ethology (the field of science dedicated to studying animal cognition).

On death, burials, cremations, funerals and resurrection

This article discusses an assorted range of post-mortem topics : the difference between sleep and death, the state just before death, the difference between cremation and burial, the need for funeral ceremonies, and resurrection.

On suicide, euthanasia, and capital punishment

Benjamin Franklin famously said that there are two things we cannot escape: death and taxes (he didn’t know about tax shelters).  In this article, we cover observations made by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Mirra Alfassa on some taxing questions related to death – suicide, euthanasia and capital punishment.