SAIEN

The Yogis of ancient India took a somewhat different approach toward understanding the physical world than we have seen in the West. Western scientists have generally started from the most external physical forms and from there, systematically moved inward toward more and more subtle understanding. The Yogis quickly recognized that the physical form is the outer, grossest expression and could not possibly be the ultimate cause, and that therefore, something else must be building, creating and operating the outer world and all its forms. The Taittiriya Upanishad , indeed, started from the outer physical and moved toward the vital, mental knowledge and ultimately the spiritual levels of existence, with each one more subtle than the prior, and having a causative action on the former level. These Yogis, when they looked at the interaction between the subtle inner levels and the gross physical forms, developed a detailed understanding of the principles of action of the vital force, which th...

Money is a powerful force and the chief preoccupation for most of mankind today. Politics, business and society are shaped by the power money holds on our psychology. How should a human being yearning to develop psychologically or on the path of self awareness or yoga deal with this force? Money, an essential tool for our material needs and living, for some becomes an end in itself and then it serves no purpose. It is a great tool as a means to an end, but a toxic master. If money starts possessing the possessor, as it can happen, it brings a toxic element in such persons, ruining relations, depleting or weakening higher values, with  selfishness, self obsession and egoic enhancement. Money is impersonal and in itself flavourless, but takes the flavour of the person who has or possesses it for the moment. One could turn this around and use money for self development, as a self study to reflect and contemplate its effect on oneself. Does having more money than my neighbour or collea...

One of the biggest mysteries, for me, has been the process of change itself. The transformation of one thing into another has fascinated me since a very young age. This interest in movement of time and space was further fuelled after coming in contact with Auroville, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Every day since then, has been a discovery of how this process of transformation is, in fact, in service of the Divine - a transformation of self and collective consciousness to serve the purpose of evolution. When I started farming eight years ago, my motivation was only to get away from a life I thought was meaningless and find something truer and deeper within myself. Over the years, however, I have begun to realise the responsibility that this work brings and how it holds one of the key ingredients for the emergence of a new culture. Farming embodies change and transformation; transformation of a humble seed into a spectacular plant that attracts all beings for food towards itself, again t...

How proud a peacock is of its beautiful but heavy tail is doubtful, but it sure seems to carry the burden happily. Peahens suitably impressed, its purpose served, the tail is shed naturally at the end of the breeding season. Recently I saw a peacock, with hardly half its tail left. It was sitting with its neck twisted back, had taken its beak to the very roots of the feathers and was plucking ruthlessly out, feather by feather, what still remained of the tail. It seemed too impatient to wait for all of its tail to be shed on its own. However, the feathers apparently came off easily, and the process was painless.  What I was witnessing suddenly struck me as the visible demonstration of an invisible process. The preferred route to victory over temptations such as food and sex is not to begin with outer renunciation by using the brute force of moral will, but working inside-out. Inner renunciation having been achieved through a combination of knowledge and experience, outer renunciati...