Tag Archives: religion

Significance of places of worship, relics and prayer rooms

Posted on April 16, 2011 by

One must strive to understand the psychological purpose behind every action in the spiritual path, otherwise it degenerates into a mere mechanical act followed out of fear, habit or superstition. With that in mind, here we explore the role that can be played by places of worship, relics, shrines, and prayer rooms in the spiritual path.
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Posted in Spiritual practice | Tagged , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Spirituality : between morality and immorality

Posted on July 18, 2010 by

In the world, we generally find two kinds of people: there are those whose minds are so entangled in a complex web of moral laws that they are afraid of sin and live in awe of God; and there are those who derisively mock any notion of morality and flamboyantly engage in unrestrained hedonism. In the spiritual path, one has to anchor oneself in the narrow pathway between these two sides – between morality and immorality. One has to adopt an inner discipline which is conducive to growth of one’s consciousness but which may or may not adhere to any moral laws. The Mother Mirra Alfassa made contradictory observations on this issue convey this difference. Continue reading →

Posted in morality | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

On some customs and traditions of Hinduism

Posted on July 2, 2010 by

When Truths realized by enlightened sages and prophets are relayed down the ages without proper understanding, they tend to get petrified into customs observed by the masses out of habit or due to fear of God. Such archaic customs tend to accumulate until they are shattered by the next enlightened sage who appears on the scene. In this context, these are some striking observations of Mother Mirra Alfassa on some vestiges of Hinduism. Continue reading →

Posted in religious-traditions | Tagged , , , , , | 18 Comments

Hermeneutics: how to read holy scriptures

Posted on June 10, 2010 by

When men come across a book of true knowledge, each finds himself there, and at every new reading he discovers things that he did not see in it at first; it opens to him each time a new field of knowledge that had till then escaped him in it. But that is because it reaches layers of knowledge that were waiting for expression in the subconscious in him; the expression has now been given by somebody else and much better than he could himself have done it. But, once expressed, he immediately recognises it and feels that it is the truth. The knowledge that seems to come to you from outside is only an occasion for bringing out the knowledge that is within you Continue reading →

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How religions are formed

Posted on May 30, 2010 by

The contemporary religious tendency is to divide people into believers and non-believers instead of viewing them all as souls who are part of the One Divine, to regard sin as a deviance from morality subject to punishment rather than a transient condition which can be overcome with growth of consciousness, to assume that deliverance of the soul occurs due to strong belief in God rather than sublime contemplation. These are a couple of discourses by the Mother Mirra Alfassa on how religions are formed. Continue reading →

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Difference between religion and spirituality

Posted on January 24, 2010 by

We live in times where spirituality is the new buzzword and religion is derided as outdated. Yet, it is not clear what the differences between the two are. The religious approach can be summed up as a combination of nostalgia for the past, desire for structure in life, respect for authority and an inability to entertain ambiguity. The spiritual path is propelled by the desire to rediscover the Truth for oneself by using some psychological and occult practices. The rest of this article delineates these differences in detail. Continue reading →

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Are earthquakes due to Divine retribution?

Posted on January 21, 2010 by

After a natural disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane, religiously inclined personalities tend to attribute the disaster to Divine retribution. In 1934, when an earthquake hit the state of Bihar in India killing thousands of people, Mahatma Gandhi called it God’s punishment for the practice of untouchability in India [1]. More recently, we have Pat Robertson claiming that the earthquake in Haiti was God’s punishment [2]. This pattern of thinking can be found across all religions. This post outlines Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Mirra Alfassa’s observations on the cause of natural disasters. Continue reading →

Posted in Occultism | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

The purpose of idolatry and its limitations

Posted on January 15, 2010 by

We are all idol-worshippers. We worship actors, sportsmen, thinkers and – when we are feeling proud – even ourselves! Our subconscious desire is to mold ourselves in the image of our idols. The Hindu practice of idolatry re-directs this urge to spiritual goals by clothing the Divine in various forms. The modern rational mind forgets the original psychological motive behind image worship and dismisses it all as an abomination; it throws the baby out with the bathwater. On the other hand, there are the believers who narrowly fix themselves in adoration of their chosen image forgetting that this is only a preparatory step in the spiritual path. This post explores the various pros and cons of idolatry(aka image worship). Continue reading →

Posted in Spiritual practice | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Is fear and awe of God necessary?

Posted on January 14, 2010 by

Why do we live in fear or awe of God? Sri Aurobindo says it is our primitive mentality which is to blame. We create a deformed conception of God based on our egoistic human standards – we see God as a magnified Man. We seek to influence this conception of God by bribing him with animal sacrifice, self-mortification and more generally, with a crafty trading mentality(e.g. “I will do this if you give me that”). Religion begins with an adoration of God but due to the crudity of human nature and lack of any practical method for abolishing the ego, ends up as the fear and awe of God. Yoga, by virtue of various spiritual practices aimed at abolishing the ego, does not suffer from the same limitation and hence brings about Divine union. The following is an excerpt from the Synthesis of Yoga on the rationale behind man’s fear and awe of God. Continue reading →

Posted in religious-traditions | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments