SAIEN

“Difficulties” and “Sadhana” are seemingly opposing virtues. While the Sadhak is doing his or her work, difficulties are inevitable. When one progresses into Sadhana it gives rise to myriads of experiences. The initial experiences are fast and often direct. These are motivating for the Sadhak pushing one to do more intense Sadhana in quest of more spiritual experiences. But then comes a phase when one enters a plateau. This long phase often deters the Sadhak and mediates boredom. Boredom triggers depression and depression attracts a cascade of difficulties and negativity hindering our progress. As the Gita says, one has to stay away from difficulties and depression. Sri Aurobindo has stated that during moments of despair, one needs to focus more on the psychic rather than the physical and the mental. The psychic is closer to the Divine and somewhat resistant to difficulties. Difficulties and depression shrink our consciousness. Rather than living in fear and anticipation, one should fa...

It has been noticed that Flowers have been commonly used as offering across the world amongst all group of seekers / religious groups. Mother’s symbol gives spiritual significance to 12 flowers to explain each of the 12 attributes: Perseverance, Peace, Goodness, Gratitude, to name a few. It helps to relate essential attributes of a seeker with Nature’s gift in form of Flowers. Sri Aurobindo’s symbol also has Lotus flower in the central block to denote the spiritual meaning of supramental consciousness. In the samadhi area close to the relics and also on the photos of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, flowers have been used to decorate the area – for their fragrance and also for the associated spiritual connect as explained by the Mother. This is also a practice in places of worship in our homes. Mother has described flowers as  Laughter of Nature  in one of her messages and this looks apt considering the positive vibes we get when we smell, touch and feel their fragrance by o...

To transform the life into one of spiritual focus and purpose, the various parts of the being need to be organized and ordered systematically to match the aspiration with the outward action. The thoughts, emotions, feelings, responses should be both coherent and arranged to present a harmonious relationship between the aspiration and the action. It does not help one if the aspiration is for one thing, but the mind, life or body chooses a different objective! To hold an aspiration, but not to undertake the process of bringing the body-life-mind complex into harmony with that aspiration leads to a very partial result, and it undermines the aspiration’s impact. The Mother notes: “Organise your life, your work, your consciousness. Organisation consists in putting each thing in its true place. … The centre of the human being is the psychic which is the dwelling-place of the immanent Divine. Unification means organisation and harmonisation of all the parts of the being (mental, vital and phy...

Shining accolades won at the cost of tears in another eyes, At the cost of the soul’s betrayal through scheming lies, Can they bring to my heart the joy they promise, Can they ever compensate for the camaraderie I miss. Give me instead a star that shines less brightly, A dream in ambition less sprightly, That I may savor a different prize, The gratitude and love in another’s eyes. - Anahita Sanjana (India)

“It is the lesson of life that always in the world everything fails a man – only the Divine does not fail him, if he turns entirely to 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.” – Sri Aurobindo I was guided to write this short essay on life lessons pointing to “failures”. My blog points to the daily undulations of life processes which appear darker than we perceive, leading us to live and roam like hapless creatures on this Earth. We, by the nature of cognitive hierarchy, are primed to this negativity. But is human birth equivalent to failures? Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga points to the reality of life with much more depth than one can imagine. In His own words – “All Life is Yoga” and every chunk of our life (good,...

“Each man has a swadharma, a law of his inner being which he must observe, find out and follow. The action determined by his inner nature, that is his real Dharma. To follow it is the true law of his development; to deviate from it is to bring in confusion, retardation and error.” — SRI AUROBINDO Essays on the Gita, ‘Swabhava and Swadharma’   I have always had a tendency in this life to weigh more heavily on the spiritual which has probably been a pattern over lifetimes. If one is on the path of the Integral Yoga, we have to be very vigilant to not fall into the ascetic path as ‘All life is yoga’. I hadn’t realized that with all the spiritual classes and meditations I was doing, how reclusive I had become, meeting very few friends, not going to music concerts I loved or painting or listening to my favourite music. I was totally immersed in studying the books of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and was living in a beautiful mental formation of the ideal spiritual life! Not engaging with...