Pilgrims of the Mind

When I sat down to write here after I settled back home, I realized I had no topic, so blindly reached into one of my nearby bookcases and pulled out a 1972 edition of an old spiritual classic: "Passages: A Guide for Pilgrims of the Mind" by Marianne S. Andersen and Louis M. Savary. I cracked the book, written at a time when many of us were "self-discovering" at Esalen or studying alternative religions and spiritual beliefs, and grinned from ear to ear. Lordy, lordy--I had underlined all over this book 34 years ago; Alan Watts, Paul Tillich, Teilhard de Chardin, A. H. Maslow, Sri Aurobindo, to name but a few. Obviously, I was enchanted with the concept of being a pilgrim of the mind--and I am still. There is nothing new under the sun. Fran aka Redondowriter December 03, 2005 08:45 PM in Spiritual Musings Permalink

Physical yoga is to help one fine tune the body

Dr. Jim Fadiman's Opening Remarks

From the Bodywork Breakthroughs Conference on November 6th

As my own research has been in the spiritual traditions, I have been reflecting on how the body is treated in some of these. On the whole, the body gests very short shrift. For example, the general tone of much of traditional Hinduism and extreme forms of yoga - like the guys who stand still for weeks as birds build a nest in their arms - is not about increasing body awareness, but instead, is about a very strong denial.

If you search Buddhist teachings on the body, it is discouraging. My favorite definition is that the body is a "skin bag of dirt." It is not a dishonoring, but it certainly suggests that having a body is some kind of mistake. There is a wonderful Tibetan Buddhism meditation that is suggested for when you find yourself getting turned on to someone who is inappropriate, which, if you are serious about detachment, means just about everybody. What you do is meditate on their excretions, on all the fluids and solids that come out of their body. If you hold on to those images when you next see the person, you attraction will have lessened. This is a very powerful mediation. I do not recommend it at all. Tibetan Buddhism can also involve some demanding physical practices. One of my graduate students is in the third year of doing one hundred thousand prostrations. I have found myself wondering, "What if she's not doing it right? Might not there be some little corrections?"

I worry about such things because I remember when people were first doing Zen sitting practices many years ago. The long-term students began to develop knee problems because the system of sitting had been developed for people with shorter legs. Americans didn't know that and didn't ask. There have been many problems in taking on a practice without making the cultural changes necessary to make it maximally effective. Tibetan Buddhism has another wonderful practice that doesn't seem to honor the body. When you really get sufficiently serious in one school of Tibetan Buddhism, your teacher walls you up in a cave for two years, puts food in through a slot, and you don't talk to anybody. That's a way of approaching the body that seems quite extraordinary. As far as I know, you are not allowed to take any workout equipment into the cave with you!

Christianity has never been comfortable with that fact that we have bodies at all, and its even worse that one half of all of our bodies are female. If you read the feminist literature, it concludes that St. Paul was a saint only because nobody would date him. He was mad at women early on, and women have suffered from that anger to this day.

The Islamic world has its issues with the body as well. For men, it is absolutely horrible and shameful to be seen naked. This is part of the US torture methods, in Abu Ghraib and lots of other places. It's hard for us to grasp how traumatic what went on was for the prisoners in that tradition.

As for women, in many sects in Islam, it is not okay to be seen at all. There is this astounding saying in Arabic: "sexuality has ten parts, nine of which are owned by women." It is not in the Koran, but it is widely held in the Islamic world. It suggests that women are so powerful sexually, and would otherwise be so dominant, that men have to balance it out as best they can by making women as invisible as possible. What results today, therefore, is an incredible amount of repression.

Now, things begin to change when you look at the Sufi Rumi who is, if he can de defined at all, an erotic poet. He is fully aware that paralleling the energy of eroticism with the love of God is a way one can make real progress. But that means you have to be able to have some feeling of what eroticism really is. Thus he can be a love poet and a highly spiritualized poet in the same line.

Yoga is something that probably most of you practice in one way or another. What you may not know is a comment from Sri Aurobindo, who points out that "the occupational disease of the yogi is insanity," and that the purpose of yoga is not to feel better and be more flexible, or last longer, or even live longer. Physical yoga is to help one fine tune the body is so that the energy that you are really interested in does not burn you up. In this way of thinking, the physical health part is almost a kind of a secondary interest. I've not seen this taught in most of the yoga classes I know of.

If you cross over to the Western psychologies, one is Psychosynthesis. A central meditation in Psychosynthesis is to feel the truth of "I am not my body." You are supposed to work on that until you can dis-identify with your body and see it as the box that carries your soul. Even if you look into the Jungians, who we generally think are right-minded guys, you find this quote: "Body is the shadow of soul." The phrase has a certain charm to it, unless, of course, you believe in the dignity and importance of the body.

In Michael Murphy's work, we begin to turn to the body directly. Murphy suggests that it is the body itself, not its associated mental apparatus, that is evolving - that we are becoming higher beings by transforming the physical form. Therefore, it is this physical transformation that is the core of what we are about. As far as I can see, this is totally different from all of these other points of view. If Michael Murphy hadn't written a book with several thousand references, one might think it was his idiosyncratic theory, but what he uncovered is that this evolutionary notion can be found within all these traditions as well, but often well hidden.

If we look at our own culture, what do we worship? We worship the body, particularly in the young. Someone became the governor of California who'd begun his career as a bodybuilder. I will share with you an image which Molly Ivins said - if you ever hear this image, you will never see him any other way. Imagine Arnold and think of a condom stuffed with walnuts. [Laughter.] You will be unable to ever see him again any other way… So I give that to you as a little gift, perhaps the opposite of the Tibetan Buddhism meditation I mentioned earlier.

Then we can look at some of the major disorders that are exploding in the United States, primarily obesity, and its dark twin, eating disorders. (That is the hip way to refer to a syndrome, predominantly in women, whose body image is so divorced from reality that they literally starve themselves to death.) It's hard to go back in history and find any culture with either of these problems in any great number.

As the immortality of youth gives way to the fragility of age, there is a major shift in orientation. Is the body nothing more than a decaying place in which identity is never fully recognized? One of the curious things, as one gets older, is the awareness of what age you are inside, that is, what age you identify with. I once asked my 91-year-old uncle and my 86-year-old father how old they were. My uncle instantly said, "Seven." I asked, "Why that age?" He said, "That was the time in which I was learning the most, the fastest, and that was when my identity, in a sense, crystallized." My father indicated he was in his early twenties. Why is it that this, my own fleshy body, seems to have a different opinion than my mind on this question?

The other side of it is the notion that you are immortal, and that only your body turns to dust. So, is the body … you? When you have that particular point of view, many of the traditions are confusing reflections on the nature of the body. What happens here, and what we'll be doing this weekend, is something that isn't yet part of our ordinary cultural span. This is genuinely new work, not only the particular systems highlighted here, but the whole notion of working so closely and with full awareness of the body.

Yes, one can find it in yoga, and a certain amount in the martial arts, but as a cultural phenomenon, it is novel. If you notice, there are almost more bodywork places in Palo Alto than Chinese restaurants. That wasn't true even a few years ago. The whole rainbow of bodywork is here, and particularly the pots of gold that we'll work with this weekend.

A friend of mine teaches geology. I ask him why he teaches it. He said it is because anything that you learn about well enough you come to love. I began to realize that one of the things that happens in all of the bodywork systems that I know, is that as you become more aware of your own and other peoples' bodies, you are able to love in a way that was not true before. And so I am very happy to be here in a room devoted entirely to emerging forms of love. Thank you for picking me to be on this team.

The Blue Bird

I am the bird of God in His blue;
Divinely high and clear
I sing the notes of the sweet and the true
For the god's and the seraph's ear.

I rise like a fire from the mortal's earth
Into a griefless sky
And drop in the suffering soil of his birth
Fire-seeds of ecstasy.

My pinions soar beyond Time and Space
Into unfading Light;
I bring the bliss of the Eternal's face
And the boon of the Spirit's sight.

I measure the worlds with my ruby eyes;
I have perched on Wisdom's tree
Thronged with the blossoms of Paradise
By the streams of Eternity.

Nothing is hid from my burning heart;
My mind is shoreless and still;
My song is rapture's mystic art,
My flight immortal will.

11-11-1935- Sri Aurobindo
posted by 20 box December 9, 2005 @ 3:48 PM

The Black Madonna

Rue's Kitchen > The Black Madonna > by Ken Rabac, PhD-ThD

Most Indo-Tibetan scholars believe that the Hindu and Buddhist Dark Goddesses and the Christian Black Madonna are a common prototype with a common Archetypal source in antiquity or eternity. Alain Daneliou speaks of a mine of spirituality extending back into prehistory and expressing each civilization's emotional ties to the Great Mother in both her nurturing and fearsome aspects. The patriarchal Aryan Vedic and Judaeo-Christian cultures de-emphasized the Divine Mother in favor of God the Father and male dominance. Feminist theologians have attempted to recover the Black Madonna as a mystical counter point to the Cosmic Christ.

Poet and Scholar Andrew Harvey in his splendid book THE RETURN OF THE MOTHER sees the Black Madonna as "Mary who in the heat of true passion gives birth to the Christ Heart."In Eastern traditions, the Black Madonna motif appears as the Dark Goddesses exemplified by Kali, the frightful creator/destroyer. In Buddhism, Kali takes the form of Vajravahari, the consort of the Black Samvara and Kali's nature is reflected in a retinue of disciples who attend to the Tantric couple. Vajrahari and the Dakinis are said to inhabit cemetery grounds and wear necklaces and skirts made from human skeletons and skulls.

Sri Aurobindo and Ramakrishna both contemplated the Divine Mother and encountered Dark Kali in only one aspect of the deity. Aurobindo found four basic sides to the Eastern Madonna.

• 1. MAHESWARI: represents CALM MINDEDNESS, COMPREHENDING, WISDOM, TRANQUILITY, AND INEXHAUSTIBLE COMPASSION.
• 2. MAHAKALI: The great Kali represents STRENGTH, IRRESISTIBLE PASSION, IMPETUOUS and SWIFT ACTION OF THE "World Shaker."
• 3. MAHALAKSMI: VIVID, SWEET AND WONDERFUL WITH DEEP SECRET BEAUTY, FINE RHYTHM, COMPELLING ATTRACTION AND CAPTIVATING GRACE ...A Hindu variation of Jung's Anima.
• 4. MAHASARASWATI: INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE, FLAWLESS WORK AND EXACTING PERFECTION. This sounds like Jung's AMAZON.

For Aurobindo these four personalities of the Divine Mother are always at work, SYNCHRONISTICALLY, in the Universe. Aurobindo teaches that there is at all times an alchemy of the Divine Mother occurring in each individual. He says we are all Gnostic children of the Divine Mother, inflamed, impelled, nurtured and soothed by the four aspects of her personality. When we are under the sway of Maheswarit, we experience tranquility and wisdom. Mahakali's Dark Mother strips us of safety -- Mahakali is of another force of nature -- force, strength and power of overwhelming intensity -- mighty passion and divine violence.

Andrew Harvey also sees the Great Mother as being a composite Archetype composed of Kali, The Black Madonna and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven, Nature and Earth. In Mary and the Black Madonna, Harvey finds the MYSTERY OF TRANSCENDENT BLACKNESS -- THE DIVINE UNKNOWABLE -- BEYOND CONCEPT -- SO DAZZLING THAT SHE RADIATES AS DARKNESS. Harvey also emphasizes the Black Madonna as the Queen of Fertility and Tantra -- SACRED SEXUALITY. He describes the BLACK MADONNA as a "BURNED AND SEARED, ANGUISHED AND INFINITELY STRONG -- DIGNIFIED MOTHER."

In a particularly lyrical passage, Harvey writes of the Black Madonna: BLACK MADONNA IS THE TRANSCENDENT KALI-MOTHER, THE BLACK WOMB OF LIGHT OUT OF WHICH ALL WORLDS ARE ALWAYS ARISING AND INTO WHICH THEY FALL. The presence behind all things -- the darkness of love and the loving unknowing into which the child of the mother goes when his or her (own) illumination is perfect."For Harvey the Black Madonna is also the Queen of Nature and the Blesser and Agent of all rich and fertile transformations of the outside world and the psyche.He depicts the Black Madonna as "blackened by grief but ENNOBLED and made ADAMANT by SECRET MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE." This knowing she has discovered through her agony which she represents with dignity.

Harvey holds the Black Madonna accompanies us in our worst anguishes and humiliations -- representing endurance and faith transmuted into WISDOM.Paraphrasing Harvey, "The Dark Queen of Heaven guides us into the Highest Mysteries", The Black Madonna provides immense inspiration to compassionate service and the IMMENSE ALCHEMICAL POWER OF TRANSFORMATION through both JOY AND GRIEF.Harvey interprets the SACRED HEART OF MARY as the Black Madonna's "FORCE STREAM" of the intense ENLIGHTENMENT that follows the acceptance of all of our emotions as they are ... enduring all things to perceive the deepest mysteries of existence.

One of Sri Aurobindo's least known and most beautiful brief works, HYMN TO THE MOTHER OF THE RADIANCES, captures the essence of the Divine Feminine Archetype. Ken Rabac was initiated in Mahayana Buddhism in 1968. He is a Clinical Supervisor with Alternative Counseling Services (407-843-5300) and a lecturer at the Jung Center (407-740-7300). Ken teaches Buddhist Philosophy through the College of Metaphysical Studies (1-800-780-META). His book, entitled QUANTUM DREAM TEMPLE, will be published in Spring of '98. It examines Lucid Dreaming and Meditation in the light of contemporary Science.This article was published in Vol V, No 3 issue of the Healthy Alliance JOURNAL. For a free copy of our current publicaiton, click here or get a one year subscription by filling out our survey.

The etheric double

Although the word “astral” is often associated with New Age ideas, this term was also used historically by alchemists. In the late 19th and early 20th century the term was popularised by Theosophy, especially as developed by Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, and later Alice Bailey. In this cosmology, the astral is the first metaphysical plane beyond the physical, but is “denser” than the mental plane. The astral plane is also sometimes termed the world of emotion or world of illusion, and corresponds to Blavatsky’s Kamic Plane.

It should be noted however that in original theosophical literature (such as those written by Blavatsky), the term “astral” does not have the same meaning as the term is used in later theosophical literature (such as C. W. Leadbeater). The astral body, in her works, does not refer to the emotional body but to the etheric double or linga sarira.

Some equivalent concepts to the astral plane in various esoteric teachings are the Barzakh or Imaginal or Inter-world in Islamic Esotericism (Ishraqism, Sufism, etc), the World of Asiyah in Lurianic Kabbalah (although this sometimes includes the physical plane as well), or Yetzirah in some interpretations of Hermetic Kabbalah, the “spirit world” in Spiritualism, the “Nervous” State in Max Theon’s teachings, and the “Vital” World in the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa.

In his book Autobiography of a Yogi, Sri Sri Paramhansa Yogananda has explained with amazing clarity and detail the difference between the physical, astral, and causal planes, as per traditional Hindu philosophy. According to him when one dies his soul moves to the astral plane. There he reaps the results of his past actions or karmas and accordingly reinhabits a physical body or moves on to the higher causal plane. The term “astral plane” has also more recently come to mean a plane of existence where otherkin believe their souls reside. MysWizard

Synthesis of the three paths

The Synthesis of Yoga is Sri Aurobindo’s principle work on yoga, comparing the methods of the various schools of traditional yoga, and providing the comprehensive way for following the true path to Divine consciousness. It is the primary work on Integral Yoga, the system of yoga that Sri Aurobindo developed. The book originally appeared in serial form in Arya, published between 1914 and 1921.

Synthesis on Yoga is divided into four parts: the Yoga of Divine Works, of Integral Knowledge, of Divine Love, and of Self Perfection. The first three correspond to the three-fold yoga of the Bhagavad Gita (i.e. karma-, jnana-, and bhakti-yoga), while the last (incomplete) section gives Sri Aurobindo’s own development and synthesis of these three paths. MysWizard Home About Me

Unity of the universe

Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind (Richard Bucke)

One of Davo's recent postings reminded me of this book. As a boy, I had a similar experience to the one Davo describes. I kept quiet. Years later, I found Bucke's book and began to understand I was not alone. Bucke (1837-1902), an interesting character, rugged adventurer, medical doctor, and "alienist" (psychiatrist) helped set up an "insane asylum" in Canada with quite progressive "treatment" for its time. Bucke experienced his own "illumination" at age 35. His book springs from that. In it, he develops the idea of Cosmic Consciousness, an awareness of the life and unity of the universe, as a step in the evolution of the human mind. This book started my unending reading in the realms of mysticism and spiritual intelligence. Thought-provoking. posted by George Breed Monday, January 09, 2006 at 2:31 AM

Divine Scope

Thursday, December 29, 2005 posted by George Breed @ 4:15 AM :Flagstaff, Arizona

"(We) seize even upon the obstacles to the spiritual life and compel them to become the means for a richer spiritual conquest and enable us to embrace the whole of Life in our divine scope as the Lila (cosmic Play) of the Divine"

-- Sri Aurobindo

the small self is dead

Sunday, January 01, 2006 Happy New Year & Happy Bangday to the Cosmos!

The Cosmos is 13.7 billion years old today. I wonder why they measure it in years? A year is just one trip around the sun, but the cosmos was here way before there was an earth or a sun. posted by Gagdad Bob at 9:00 AM

It lived, it knew, it saw itself sublime,

Deathless, outmeasuring Space, outlasting Time.

I have escaped and the small self is dead;

I am immortal, alone, ineffable;

I have gone out from the universe I made,

And have grown nameless and immeasurable.

I have become what before Time I was.

My heart is a centre of infinity

A momentless immensity pure and bare,

I stretch to an eternal everywhere.

--Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo and Paul Brunton

Welcome to QUANTUM-KABBALAH web-home of Reb Miles Krassen.

QUANTUM-KABBALAH offers a neo-Hasidic, qualified non-dual, perspective on life, based on a creative synthesis of core teachings from the Ba’al Shem Tov, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, and the CHaBaD school, as informed by the work of twentieth-century pioneers of integral spirituality, Sri Aurobindo and Paul Brunton.

On this site, you will find commentaries and translations of traditional texts of Hasidism and Kabbalah, presented in a universal mode, as offerings of an evolving Jewish ray, within the mosaic of a One-World Wisdom Tradition. This site is primarily dedicated to understanding Jewish esoteric teachings as part of the much wider context of universal wisdom. The site and its materials are, therefore, here to serve all beings of every nationality, tradition, religion, age and gender.

If you are ONE who finds the present, unprecedented access to the vast range of the One World’s Wisdom Traditions, of vital importance, it is our sincere hope that you will find something meaningful here in QUANTUM-KABBALAH. Zeh ha-Sha’ar la-Shem, Tzaddiqim Yavo’u Vo posted by Quantum Kabbalah Thursday, January 05, 2006at 6:40 PM

Sri Aurobindo's writings are not for the hurried reader

From: "naresh kumar" nareshkumar.pj@gmail.com

To: tusarnmohapatra@mail.com

Subject: Regarding your blog Savitri era Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2006 02:44:19 -0600
Dear Tusar,

I browsed through your blog about Sri Aurobindo's work and it struck me as an effort to disabuse the general public at large about a perceived inaccessibility of his works , - whether it is owing to his (perceived) difficult diction or owing to a lack of the necessary orientation to receive his ideas the way he intended for his readers, - and provide an orientation that could help read the works.

I believe one of the often-overlooked fact is that all of his works were part of a the monthly Arya - and the articles, - whether it is the Essays on the Gita or The Life Divine, or his other works, - were spaced a month apart to allow the reader to read and ruminate upon the subject; we are all too aware of the hurried and even impatient pace at which the present-day-reader wants to absorb information. It is scarcely pointed out that Sri Aurobindo's writings are not for the hurried reader.

I studied Sri Aurobindo's works during my commute over a period of a year, and I cannot overemphasize the importance of a controlled pace at which his works must be read and absorbed. Studied thus, it is not too difficult to recognize the simplicity of his work - it is straight to the point, simple in presentation, and does not adopt too much of the ancient terminology - Sri Aurobindo mints his vivid Engilish terms (and at the same time maintaining the correlation to the ancient Samskrt diction).

And in an effort to ready the present-day-reader, what may be required are a series of "introduction" works - a 20 to 50 page pamphlet on each of his works that serve as an orientation course - for I feel that his presentation is so simple and new and refreshing, the unaccustomed reader could get confused! (the usual method of using the existing Samskrt terms, although helps make the initial connection, often confuses the purpose as they are employed differently in different Vedantic schools; the use of Supermind, Overmind, and the Supramental, owing to their originality and apparant lack of parallel in the old Samskrt diction often creates an initial difiiculty as it deviates from the usual rote of driving school-specific interpretations to existing Samskrt terms).

I feel the efforts you are leading may make an effort to create a general awareness of Savitri - the pamphlet concept I mentioned above; although, the full extent of the vastness and the depth could be felt only in the Original.

Tusar N. Mohapatra wrote:

Many thanks for such a rare perceptive appreciation. We should also thank the Blogger and the Internet for facilitating communication between like-minded strangers. Of all the points you made in the mail, I agreed most to the observation that, his presentation is so simple and new and refreshing and it is not too difficult to recognize the simplicity of his work - it is straight to the point, simple in presentation.

What I would like to add is that, it's a question of value. Unless one is convinced of value, he won't go for it. Again, conviction is not a purely rational affair. Glamour, hype, impressions and so many other factors go to constitute one's value judgements. So, let's spread the word. I have posted your comments. Since you have already read the main works of Sri Aurobindo, please write to bring out the uniqueness of thought in them. That is how more readers are likely to be impressed at least, if not convinced. Yours fraternally, Marketime

Annul thyself

ANNUL THYSELF, THAT ONLY GOD MAY BE – We should be determined never to create, nurture or continuously maintain a yawning distance between us and the Supreme Lord. All the serious processes of sadhana like aspiration, rejection, surrender, concentration, meditation, renunciation etc, are focussed almost entirely on the primary step of "Annul thyself". I think that we should now turn with great vigour, energy, urgency and a compulsion-that-brooks-no-obstacle in its way, towards establishing the already existent Truth that only God is.

We are overwhelmed by our dedicated adherence to our selves and personalities as they are now, and, therefore, the need for reams and reams of writing, dealing with, this should-have-been-cursory-procedure of annulling ourselves. It ceases to be simple, easy and involves complicated handling methods. Fair enough. A slight step away from it all, for a second - let us beat it into our consciousness that not only is all life a yoga, not only is the Divine in each and everything, but also that all is simply, the Divine. Each and every atom and non-atom, good or evil, ugly or beautiful, is the Divine. How so are these death-, disease- and error-filled world and beings the Divine? - the very fact of our looking at this question, enables a key to turn inside our doors of ignorance, as though the question is the inexorable result of an already existent answer and not a prelude to the answer!

Coming to think of it, though it seems that questions precede answers, the answers have always been there, waiting, as it were, for the question-beacon to throw light on their presence... Coming back to the issue, the tragedy of the world is the undeniably solid existence of a consciousness other than that of the Divine Consciousness. We are quite firmly entrenched in this other-consciousness. It is like a sheet of net enmeshed in every nook and cranny of all parts of our being. Even when we get glimpses of the Divine, we do not feel that we are one with Him, but, on the contrary, we feel appalled at the enormous chasm between Him and us, His nature and ours.The distance widens more, the more we see the indescribable qualities of the Supreme. What is the solution to this most important and difficult problem?- the problem of there being at least two consciousnesses as it were- the dichotomy in this existence, of a Divine Consciousness and an other-than-the-Divine-Consciousness?

If we are honest, we have to admit that no way do we see God in anything in or around us. Frankly, the very reason for many to even think of something called God is precisely the acute distaste and repulsion that they feel at the ungodly and undivine life and world and earth and its innumerable constituents. More often than not, surely, it is the overt, compelling, strong, undeniable and unbearable existence of the Undivine that attracts us helplessly towards the Divine? Practically, I have concocted for myself the following steps –

• 1.The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have categorically said that all is, in all levels, the Divine.
• 2.Even if everything seems to contradict this statement of theirs, for me, because they say so, it has to be true. “Truth speaks through Thy words.”
• 3.Now, I take every mundane, trivial, or mean little aspect, or ethereal, sublime, superior ingredient of my everyday life, and fill them with the Mother, in a way that is possible for me.

posted by Parvati at 1:02 PM

Introducing Jean Biès

Robert Thompson (torbellino) wrote,@ 2006-01-01 20:26:00 Following is a review by Patricia Reynaud, published in Sophia (10, 2), Winter 2004, of a book by Jean Biès titled Returning to the Essential (World Wisdom, Fall 2004). The reviewer, Patricia Reynaud, is on faculty at University of Miami (Ohio). I would be especially interested to hear from anyone who may have read this or any other work of Jean Biès, including particularly his Athos: The Mountain of Transfiguration.

"The return to the essential consists essentially to a return to Unity"

In this book which includes essays written over almost half a century, Deborah Weiss-Duthilh introduces the reader to a French traditionalist author so far largely unknown in the English-speaking world. Biès was born in Bordeaux in 1933, in the Southwestern part of France, a region still permeated with the memory of the Occitania civilization and of Catharism. The repository of a genuine esoteric Christian tradition, it had been eradicated by the armies of the King of France, not long before the destruction of the Templars, which, according to René Guénon, marked a decisive step in the genesis of the modern world. Biès’ writings are fraught with the sweet and sour flavor of this land. This is why his book deserves a most original place within the perennialist school, not to mention its formal beauty. To our knowledge, only in Schuon’s works does the reader witness a comparable poetic quality.

While most perennialist thinkers have chosen the Islamic way after Guénon and Michel Valsan, Biès while Christian, has insisted on the complementary nature of Christianity and Hinduism within the "One and Only Tradition." The spiritual and intellectual road which Biès invites us to travel is symbolically located between the Mount Athos and Shri Ramana Maharshi Ashram. Biès’ first book was devoted to Mount Athos, a place Guénon considered a truly initiatory Christian center. Eastern Christianity plays a considerable part in Biès’ writings: as a true haven of a Gospel mistreated or misread over and over again since the beginning of the Modern world, it remains an inner path centering on the recitation of the divine Names, a path particularly adapted to men at the end of the Kali-Yuga and a merciful invitation for the Western Church. “During this rediscovery of the Prayer of the Heart, it is superfluous to say how useful and opportune it would be for disoriented Western Christians to renew ties with the Orthodox Church, guardian of this prayer (...). The entirely positive sign of the times needs to be seen in the philokalic advent, in this revelation of the last school of noticeable and accessible metaphysical realization in Christiandom.” (233)

What Biès has remembered from the Orthodox Church is precisely the image of a Christ transfixed and conqueror over death rather than the agonizing Christ of our Latin churches. For him, Orthodox Christianity, born at the crossroad between Christ revelation and Greek Intellectuality, expresses most adequately the paradox and the Mysteries of the God-Man: “The Christian East has managed to maintain the plan of syntheses, of systemic vision, under the light of intellective intuition, of that ‘supramental’ (hypernoetos) that Gregory Palamas spoke of before Aurobindo; faithful to the Divine himself, who includes in the himself the manifested such as the unmanifested.” (114)He adds: “Whoever has understood the fundamental role of paradox in Christianity has understood Christianity. The paradox is the source, the essence and the meaning.

This is why it is not surprising to find it in this country of the paradoxical, Orthodoxy. A paradox, this mingling of an outer appearance of robustness among numerous monks and their inner state of tenderness; a paradox, this marriage of the immanent and the transcendent through a savage and inhospitable nature and these oases of culture that monasteries are; a paradox of thunder, sign of elementary violence, in a smooth blue sky, sojourn of serenity”. (121)The second major inspirational source of Biès is of course India, with her light, both informal and primordial. The refuge of Adam after the Fall according to the Islamic tradition and the depository of the most direct heritage of the Great Primordial Tradition, identified by Guénon as the Sanathana Dharma, India is personified today by Ramakrisna, the Mother’s devotee or by Ramana Maharshi.

It is to India that Biès refers to for some of his most abstruse doctrinal statements or simply to draw the ideal portrait of the spiritual master.“The spiritual master is equally indifferent to poverty and the luxury in which he is forced to live, to the affluence and rarity of disciples. His simplicity makes him flee all ostentation, all effects, never imposing his opinion. His contagious inner force inspires the wish to savor God, inaugurates the ‘itching wings’that Plato spoke of, is the stimulator of triggering energy, and maintains fervors. His joy, entirely within, radiates through his laugh, like that of Swami Ramdas, gifted with this virtue of youthfulness that made him resemble the ‘small child’ of the Gospels, able to answer the most difficult metaphysical questions like child’s play.”(147) Of crucial importance to Jean Biès is his meeting with Swami Siddheswaranda and his reading of Ramakrisna’s Gospel. In Returning to the Essential, Biès writes at length about his discovery of India and about the trip he took there in 1973.

In his writings he surprisingly adopts a quite positive attitude about Aurobindo whereas Guénon and F. Schuon had been quite reserved, especially at the end. Biès, different from other perennialist thinkers of the first generation, shows a remarkable benevolence and a total absence of dogmatism. From Aurobindo’s he will only consider traits of orthodoxy as he particularly insists on the importance of his exegesis of the Vedas:“Likewise, one sees the Brahman Sutra in Hinduism give rise to interpretations of a symbolic nature by the successors of Shankaracharya, as the Dialogues of Plato had done with the Neoplatonists. Along the same line of ideas, one would cite the different interpretations of the Bhagavad Gita, which followed one another from Shankara to Aurobindo, according to new intellectual standards and without altering orthodoxy.” (212)These geographical travels between Greece and India are but the symbol of another one, inner and vertical.

Biès is not afraid to make reference to his own spiritual journey. It is a rather unusual thing for a perennialist that is worth noticing. Another element is the fact that a few women have played in his life the part of true emissaries of wisdom. His work is less centered on a single tradition than in the case of Michel Valsan or Jean Borella and less impersonal than that of Guénon’s. He mingles traditional references and shares personal accounts without ever resorting to complacency or narcissism. The biographical and even impressionistic touches of his never confuse the reader nor make him/her lose track of the transcendence of the doctrine exposed, no more than the multiplicity of theophanies should make one forget the essential unity of the transpersonal Absolute.On the question of Christian esotericism, Biès opposes to the exotic ecumenism of “branches and roots” the “ecumenism of flowers” as the coming together of the various traditional forms from a common soil: the Philosophia Perennis, a true universal language of the man of the last days whose dis-occultation is a compensation for cyclical gravity.“Universal Esotericism is the systemic vision of the Spiritual, linking together these religions (whose main role is to link together) and tracing between their different doctrinal points, over the artificial demarcations, henceforth abolished, an entire network of lines similar to those linking together the stars.

For universal Esotericism, the veritable reality is a whole made up of several revelations communicating with each other at the keenest level, that of the ‘Transcendent Intellect’.”Biès thus reminds us: “Christ himself proclaims ‘in my Father’s house there are many mansions’ and they ‘shall come from the east, the west, the north, and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God’”(242). A Christian, Biès is hoping for the regeneration of a Christianity that needs to be more aware of its Hebrew heritage and receptive to the wisdom of the East. What he foresees may be a “Catholic” Christianity in the deepest sense, that is to say aware of the other manifestations of the universal Logos and of its common origin with the other traditions: the Great Primordial Tradition symbolized by Elias and Melchizedek in the Old Testament. In that perspective, Christ, as He is understood by Christian esotericism, would be a manifestation of the Logos coming directly from the temple of this Primordial Tradition.“In fact, Christianity in crisis undoubtedly has a duty to work essentially in a double movement. The first consists of going back to its deepest roots contained in the Hebrew tradition…. Remember that this tradition is the esoteric explanation of this ‘transmission,’ the whole of which constitutes the Torah, and for which Christ declares he never came to abolish; it is thus an integral part of the Christian heritage. The second movement consists of opening Christianity to the whole of the Eastern traditions, which, far from conflicting with it, confirm its authenticity, and in certain areas, complete it, stimulate it, make it develop. This double movement of deepening and widening is not at all contradictory when taken from the point of view of esotericism.” (247-248)

Biès most valuable contribution is that his book enables the harmonics of unity penetrate the soul of the reader and make him/her feel in a vibrant manner some ideas whose beauty and existential proximity were hidden by the austerity of Guénon’s scholasticism. To eternal truths, he conveys an almost familiar aspect without ever betraying their transcendence: of nonhuman origin, they nonetheless touch the heart of men and speak to him of himself and of his supra-sensible destiny. Reading this book, one senses the friendly and compassionate presence of a profoundly good man, a lover of divine Sophia. Never does one feel the imposition of a despotic “I” that St Paul identified as the very voice of the devil, but the benevolence of a friend to the truth whose ambition may have been, according to his own terms, to “versify the Sophia Perennis.” He also expresses the burden of a man with a traditional mind obliged to live in a world where he no longer belongs. As he evoke the character of Thyra who made him discover René Guénon, he states: “We had no idea that these revelations were to condemn us to taking a solitary road very much to the contrary of the world in which we are destined to live. We would soon be confronted with misunderstandings that could only result in endless skirmishes, hurtful disapproval, and suffering; the lucidity acquired when one has another value system, another outlook on prejudice and another inner state creates a vast difference with the surrounding environment and can be a source of suffering. For people like us, the time would be especially contrary: friendships would be more unlikely, even getting married could be compromised; the distance from centers of interest where people in universal agreement congregate was growing.

We would always be ‘somewhere else.’ In the midst of mass hysteria and unanimous false certainty, the only thing to do would be to keep quiet and live secretly.” (37-38)He is also quite lucid about the spiritual capabilities of a man with a traditional mind who happens to live in a modern world: “It is unlikely that the modern Westerner will ever attain divine contemplation” (229). He does not hesitate to warn him against a few hurtles on the Path: the obsession of being an Initiate, the fascination of the formless: “The Westerner should not try to achieve supreme ecstasy-nirvikalpa Samadhi; he should stop if he feels troubling symptoms. ‘Meditation about the Without-Form’ will be less recommended to him than ‘meditations with attributes.’ The most important point is that once his appropriate path has been found, he should stay on it without losing sight of his goal: first slow down, then cure the hypermentalization which does him so much harm. Such a practice will make clear the future necessity of ‘burning books’.” (103)

This warmth is everything but dull or sentimental. Neither weakness nor complacency taints his condemnation of the modern world. A witness inspired by the sublime beauty of the principle, Biès proves also uncompromising as he denounces with the lucidity of a mature man the general subversion and traps of the Enemy, thus confirming the prognostic that Guénon had made at the beginning of the 20th century about the genesis of the modern world and its consequences. Biès uses the rhetoric of criticism with discernment and cleverness, inviting the reader to destroy the idols of the Promethean man or rather to turn them around in order to retrieve the overarching Ideas. Nothing is reactionary or reactive in his thought from which emanates a will to make Truth prevail in one’s heart. Who would still dare to say, after reading this book, that Perennialism has been but the revival of an everlasting secularism, a matrix of fascism and of extremism in the 20th century? To the defenders of the “Human Rights,” heirs to the Enlightenment and rationalist thought, he reminds us with courage of the more essential yet “rights of God” that is to say the rights of the divine in the human being. Man is a rational mind in a body of flesh; however, man is also a spirit whose only nourishment is Truth itself without which he soon would be reduced to the state of a human animal, this “last of men” Nietzsche described in Thus Spake Zarathustra.

Biès enumerates the quadruple murder by which the Promethean man came to be doomed by the hell of the reign of the quantity.“A peculiar feature of ignorance is the refusal of knowledge and the disposal of it all the more willingly with impunity. While waiting to destroy himself in a vast collective holocaust, man has already been found guilty of a least four murders whose blood has splashed up on him from century to century. First the murder of the Father, by proclaiming universal and mandatory atheism and affirming solely ‘Human rights’ against the rights of God. Then the murder of the Son, which corresponds to the previous one and is prefigured by the blow of the lance that pierced Christ’s flank; thus the ‘theology of the death of God.’ By way of consequence, the murder of Mother Nature, victim of the willpower of strength, pollution and the loss of the meaning of holiness. With this triple murder, man is already a patricide, a fratricide, a matricide and an orphan. But there is a fourth one, more discreet and also tragic: the murder of the spiritual master (…). Whether he is killed by a human hand or soul, the master dies for the one he loves.” (158-159)

These texts and their excellent translation by Deborah Weiss-Dutilh offer us a new aspect of the Perennialist school, now available to an English speaking audience. It is an original contribution to what S.H. Nasr called “the rediscovery of the Tradition” while at the same time an invitation to return to the essential Unity of the Supreme Self. In his works, Biès bears witness of the contemporary radiating influence of the Sophia Perennis and comes to remind us that from the throes of the Dark Age is to be born a new Golden Age whose sages are the door keepers: “The time of the essential takes its time: it has the talent for maturing. It is the one made by the sages.” (253)Copyright 2004, Patricia Reynaud Another review of Returning to the Essential, by Angela Malyon-Bein (University of Tasmania), can be read here.

World Union

Sri Suresh Ch. De is the new General Secretary and Treasurer

as well as the Editor of the quaterly journal, World Union

published from Pondicherry. Phone: (0413) 2334834

Congratulations and best wishes.

Sri Aurobindo's synthesis of the four main Yogas

Sri Aurobindo, focusing on the goddess Srii, worked on translations and interpretations of Yogic scriptures, such as the Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita. His epic poem Savitri is a treasure of Hindu Yogic literature, formally being the longest poem ever written in English. He also founded Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, that continues to propagate the practice of Integral Yoga, which is Aurobindo's synthesis of the four main Yogas (Karma, Jnana, Bhakti and Raja).

Sri Chinmoy (born 1931), influenced by the Sri Aurobindo ashram, brought a similar synthesis of elements to the West emphasizing love for God, meditation on the heart, and religious tolerance rooted in modern Vedantic principles. Rajesh Sharma posted by Rajesh Sunday, December 25, 2005 at 9:04 PM

Psychic Education

Hi Friends! Today I would like to share with you a new book I have read. It is 'Psychic Education -a workbook' and it is published by SABDA Pondicherry. The book contains writings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother and I would like to recommend the book to all, especially B.ed. students since it contains good tips and suggestions for good leartning atmosphere in classroom.Read it and enjoy. posted by flight of the mind Wednesday, December 28, 2005 @ 1:29 AM science and books

Sri Aurobindo’s Teaching and Method of Sadhana

The teaching of Sri Aurobindo starts from that of the ancient sages of India that behind the appearances of the universe there is the Reality of a Being and Consciousness, a Self of all things, one and eternal. All beings are united in that One Self and Spirit but divided by a certain separativity of consciousness, an ignorance of their true Self and Reality in the mind, life and body. It is possible by a certain psychological discipline to remove this veil of separative consciousness and become aware of the true Self, the Divinity within us and all.

Sri Aurobindo’s teaching states that this 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. August, 1934 Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library, Vol. 26, “Sri Aurobindo on Himself”, pp. 95-97. This entry was posted on Friday, December 30th, 2005 at 4:48 pm MysWizard

Creating inner calmness

THE POWER OF YOGA FOR RECOVERY
by JulieAnne White

Sri Aurobindo, a well-known Indian teacher, believed that yoga develops your ability to achieve and maintain inner peace. The ability to establish inner peace allows you to reach the optimum level in all your physical and mental endeavors. Creating inner calmness or an inner state of tranquility is referred to as the "skill" in the Bhagavad Gita, the Indian philosophical epic. Sri Aurobindo believed that for people to attain excellence on the physical, vital, mental, intellectual and spiritual levels, they needed to attain mastery over the mind.

Yoga still tends to conjure up images of crystal balls and mindless chanting and to elicit rolling of the eyes from those ignorant of the powerful benefits of this ancient skill. Yoga is the perfect choice for any athlete, but especially those engaging in endurance events. Runners and triathletes require an especially powerful mind that can reach a state of complete, peaceful control should difficult situations arise during a competitive event. Yoga Yoga Yoga

Whitman and Sri Aurobindo

You can read the whole of Savitri online at the official web site. The site also includes Aurobindo's comments on the writing of Savitri. I found this quote especially interesting:

Out of the paths of the morning star they came

Into the little room of mortal life...

Savitri is blank verse without enjambment (except rarely) - each line a thing by itself and arranged in paragraphs of one, two, three, four, five lines (rarely a longer series), in an attempt to catch something of the Upanishadic and Kalidasian movement, so far as that is a possibility in English.For anyone who wants to write epic or narrative poetry, Savitri is not to be missed. Happy 2006! posted by Rachel Dacus Sunday, January 01, 2006 @ 11:27 AM

At 4:26 PM, david raphael israel said...

wonderful, thanks Rachel --had not read these lines in a long time (and only lately I've become aware of the online Savitri, quite a resource).

Reading this short passage, it's interesting how there seem to be clear hints of (as well as clear differences from) the typical Whitman passage --in a sense both practice the painting of a large picture through the line-wise building up of rich detail after detail, thought after thought, facet after facet, perception after perception. But the special extra something in Aurobindo's language -- a gemmy rather than, what?, woody quality? -- seems equally interesting to note.(This not even attending to the "content"!)

Bibliography Of Books And Papers On Savitri

Author's Note Jump To Page The Mother Reading Savitri (with music)
Canto I
The Symbol Dawn
Canto II
The Issue

A Dual Power of God - Sri Aurobindo's Satyavan And Savitri - A Brief Study Sitaramayya Swarna Gouri, 1999
A Study of Savitri Prema Nandakumar, November 1962
About Savitri Huta, March 1972
An Approach to Sri Aurobindo's ?Savitri? Paper, Rakhal Bose
Dawn to Greater Dawn - Six Lectures on Sri Aurobindo's Savitri K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar, 1975
Dialogue with Death - Sri Aurobindo's Savitri, A Mystical Approach Rohit Mehta, February 1972
Eternity in Words - Sri Aurobindo's Savitri Rameshwar Gupta, 1969
Guide to Sri Aurobindo's Epic Savitri Compiled by Garry Jacobs, July 1973
Introducing Savitri M. P. Pandit, 1982
Invocation - Study Notes and Newsletter Savitri Bhavan, Issues
Lectures on Savitri A.B. Purani, December 1967
Log of a Journey Through Sri Aurobindo's Savitri William Netter, 1999
On the New Edition of Savitri Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry
On the New Edition of Savitri - Further Explanations (Part Two)
Perspectives of Savitri - Volume One Editor R.Y. Deshpande
Readings in Savitri - Volumes 1-10 M.P. Pandit
Satyavan Must Die R.Y. Deshpande, 1996
Savitri Sri Aurobindo, 1954 edition, Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Savitri Sri Aurobindo, Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library Edition (in Two Volumes) 1970, Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Savitri Sri Aurobindo, Revised Edition 1993, Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Savitri Sri Aurobindo, numbered edition, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 2000
Savitri - A Brief Introduction (Four Talks) Mangesh Nadkarni, 1984
Savitri - An Aurovilian Commentary William Netter, 1993
Savitri - Epic of the Eternal V. Madhusudan Reddy, February 1984
Savitri - Seminar Outline and Workbook William Netter
Savitri - Talks in Germany M.P. Pandit, 1987
Savitri: A Survey (48) - Service Letter - Paper M.P. Pandit, Nov. 1996
Savitri: Woman of the Future - A concert Reading adapted from Sri Aurobindo's Epic Poem : A Legend And A Symbol Dramatic Adaptation by Seyril Schochen
Sri Aurobindo's ?Savitri? - An Approach and A Study A.B. Purani, February 1956
Sri Aurobindo's - A Study of Savitri & Other Select Poems Dr. A.N. Dwivedi, 1977
Supplement to the Revised Edition of Savitri Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1994
The Ancient Tale of Savitri R.Y. Deshpande
The Book of Beginnings - Talks on Sri Aurobindo's Savitri - Book One M.P. Pandit, 1983
The Book of the Divine Mother M.P. Pandit, 1986
The Composition of Savitri - Paper Richard Hartz, 1998
Vyasa's Savitri R.Y. Deshpande, 1996
Yoga in Savitri M.P. Pandit, 1976

EcoSpirituality

An outline: Per Kielland-Lund, 1998 : Monday, January 02, 2006 at 10:04 PM - Introduction and Overviewpart I sections: definitions sources and traditions contemporary perspectives dimensions common views and effects who is it for? why now?

The Absolute

• All phenomena are born from, sustained by and merges back into the Absolute
• Beyond all dualities of existence and nonexistence, mind and matter, life and nonlife, etc.

The Universe

• As one whole
• Beyond and embracing all dualities, all polarities, beyond perfection and imperfection.
• The Universe as a self-organizing system
• The Universe as mind, expressed in self-organization
• The Universe involved in a process of exploring itself, continuously unfolding its potentials in new ways

The Earth

• The Universe bringing itself to life through the Earth
• Earth as a living system
• The Earth, a local focal point for the self-awareness of the Universe

Humans

• The Universe has organized itself into awareness in humans
• We are the Universe becoming aware of itself

Culture, science and technology

• Culture as a way for the Universe to organize its exploration of itself
• Technology as a way to go beyond the biological limitations of humans as sensory organs

Sensory and awareness organs

• The Earth and humans as local sensory and awareness organs of the Universe
• The Universe bringing itself, its history, complexity and processes into awareness through the Earth and humans

Authentic life

• Humans, actively and consciously take on the role of an awareness organ of the Earth and the Universe, bringing meaning and healing for ourselves and the Earth (and the Universe)

Continued evolution

• The Universe is in a process of continued evolution
• The Earth and humans as expressed now, belongs to only one phase of this evolution
• Future possibilities
  Possibly in the area of awareness
  Global mind? (Sri Aurobindo)
  Omega Point? (Teilhard de Chardin)

The New Age Movement

G Kumar posted by HealthyArticles at 9:00 AM

The New Age Movement is secular & universally diffused over the earth's surface & its basic underlying philosophy emphasises Gnosticism and Occultism. (Gnosticism is an ancient philosophy stating that Divine essence is the highest reality, and that the Self of man is actually this Essence. Behind the phenomenal world is the Transcendent Reality which Intuition alone can see ). It bears a remarkable resemblance to the Universal Religion that H.G. Wells predicted would one day take over the world. The six main characteristics of New Age thinking are:

• (1) All is Unity;
• (2) All is Divine
• (3) Humanity is divine
• (4) A change in Consciousness;
• (5) All religions are One; and
• (6) Cosmic Evolutionary optimism.

Basically Dialectical Integralism, New Age Philosophy unites both Matter and Spirit.

Spirit shall see through Matter's gaze

Matter shall reveal the Spirit's face !

The 13 main principles of New Age Philosophy are:

• (1) One Global Order - One World Governement, One Currency, One Universal Being.
• (2) Universal Energy, Universal Matter, Universal Life, Universal Soul As God
• (3) An Eternal Universe - Uniform in Space and Unending in Time
• (4) Divine practices ( Astrology Yoga & other esoteric arts)
• (5) Syncretism ( Unity of all Religions ).
• (6) The need for Meditation ( for generating altered states of Consciousness );
• (7) Life is Cyclical- Everything is cyclical, subject to the cyclical upheavals of Time.
• (8) Holistic Medicine & Vegetarianism (The patient is more important than the Doctor & Alkaline diet)
• (9) Pacifism ( Anti-war activities);
• (10) Reincarnation; ( The Law of Conservation of Soul )
• (11) The Evolution of Man into Divinity; ( The latent Life Force evolving naturally to the Divine )
• (12) The Union of Man with the Divine; ( Merger of man into the Infinite )
• (13) Matter's Illusoriness; - Esse est percipii - Perception is Essence; Mind is Substance.

The divine Aurobindo predicted that spiritual influences from India will trigger off a global spiritual movement.There will be Mass Incarnations ( many people divinely inspired ) who will work for World Peace and Universal Love !

I saw them cross the twilight of the Age

The massive barrier breakers of this world

The sun-eyed children of a marvellous dawn

The architects of immortality

Carrying the magic Word, the mystic Fire

Carrying the Dionysian Cup of Joy !

The common man cannot understand

SIVANANDA YOGA VEDANTA CENTER Homepage Thursday, January 05, 2006

QUESTION #62: I am under the impression that no advanced Yogi has ever achieved anything in the realm of matter or contributed to progress outside of writing about high, abstract and introspectionist themes and inspiring a small handful to do likewise.

ANSWER: How then do you regard the production of a seemingly supremely great book like Aurobindo's "The Life Divine", which almost nobody reads, almost nobody understands, or books like "Treatise on Cosmic Fire", or your books, all of which seem so totally unrelated to helping anybody individually or collectively, in a material sense?

It is not correct to think that Yogins merely write, but never do anything forhuman progress. The help that they give, the common man cannot understand, and man has no right to expect a specific form of help from the Yogins, for the Yogins do what is really good and not what is materially convenient to man. Books which deal with metaphysical subjects and which faithfully explain the goal of life and the method of attaining it are a great help to struggling humanity. Yogins write such books for the good of others, in the spiritual sense and even in a pragmatic sense. But they do something more, too; they give direct, invisible help. posted by sadasiva108 at 2:04 PM <<>

Yoga for Mind Development

Sri Aurobindo , the sage of Pondicherry, India once narrated his experience thus:

“While I was practicing Pranayam, I was doing it for about five to six hours a day, three hours in the morning and two or three hours in the evening. I felt there was a great accession of light and power in the mind. I used to write poetry in those days. Earlier, I could sometimes write only about 200 lines a month. After I began practicing Pranayam I could write 200 lines in half an hour. My memory was rather dull before. But afterwards I composed whenever I had inspiration and remembered ad seriatum the whole, till I committed it to paper at leisure”

R.R.Diwakar has recorded this experience of the great sage in his book Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo. By practicing yogic disciplines one could attain exalted mental state and high inspiration so that his/her creative power knows no bounds. Pranayama means practice of breathing exercises to get control over vital forces. S.Nagarajan Weight Loss Home : snagarajans@gmail.com