SAIEN

… you must never say: “I shall first purify my thought, purify my body, purify my vital and then later I shall purify my action.” That is the normal order, but it never succeeds. The effective order is to begin from the outside: “The very first thing is that I do not do it, and afterwards, I desire it no longer and next I close my doors completely to all impulses: they no longer exist for me, I am now outside all that.” This is the true order, the order that is effective. First, not to do it. And then you will no longer desire and after that it will go out of your consciousness completely. [1]   H ow to live from within? All one’s life one is exposed to wisdom from various cultures and one’s own spiritual tradition. Many things one imbibes, and many remain at the level of ideas. The following Checklists have been developed as an aid to put these ideas into practice, to make them real. Yes, one can read some more passages, feel inspired for a brief time and then once again the humdr...

The Being is a field for the play of two simultaneous essences: the essence of “I want” typical to the ego sense and “I want to give” typical to another sense that hums silently in the background. The ego is a perpetual hunger stemming from incompleteness, seeking completeness through an incessant devouring; “I want praise, I want health, I want love…”. The hushed background voice of the Eternal Self on the other hand dwells in a state of unconditional fullness [ santosh ]. Free from hunger it never lacks and so its natural state is to give. When I align myself with the “I want” syndrome, I align myself with the ego which finds strength through the alignment. When I align myself with Self-giving, which is the substance of the Self, the latter is brought to the forefront. Self-giving is instinctive to the heart. Yet the receiver of the offering is often nebulous, formless, faceless. Without really knowing what the being offers itself to, the offering is made. Then a very subtle but clea...

If we shift to the standpoint of the observer of the mind, we will notice that as conditions vary, the ‘mind-stuff’ ( citta ) takes on different characteristics based on our state of reactivity and interaction with perceptions, feelings, events or external circumstances. We may consider an image of a lake that can either appear perfectly still and have a glass-like and reflective consistency, or when whipped up by wind or other external factors sends up waves, whether steady and of measured amplitude, or extremely agitated. If we are worried, angry, frustrated or upset in some way, the mind-stuff sends up agitated waves. If we are in a state of peaceful awareness, the mind-stuff is very quiet and still. If we are focusing on a steady object of concentration or contemplation, the waves will tend to be consistent and coherent with a pattern of steady repetition. Scientists who measure brainwaves have reported that different types of waves, alpha, beta, delta, etc. appear in the brain as ...

Many years ago we had put in place a schedule of regular emails from Auromira Centre entitled “KNOCK KNOCK”. These were designed to remind those on this path to remain on the path. To be an active participant on the journey, to be an active instrument. The emails were a reminder to come back to the  real work  in case one had drifted away in the buzz of 'everyday living’ which is so easy to do. On the path we enrich ourselves with The Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s words but perhaps only intermittently put them into practice and we have to constantly remind ourselves of our purpose -  ‘to be’  as They have said. We may start the day with good intentions and do put into practice, for a while, what we might have read on a particular day. But why do we drift away from maintaining this attitude, why this easy distraction? And if we can be distracted within a day, imagine how that adds up over several days or weeks or months. Then, we have to have the regular “KNOCK KNOCK” ...

The ball fell just short of my reach. “What the hell! Can he not place it so that I can reach it easily?” The next one came to me and I hit back comfortably. A couple of balls later, again it fell too short. “This is too much. He is not making it easy for me. Doesn’t he know I am a beginner? After all, why should I run? Did I not sleep late last night? Have I not been working hard? Am I not trying to learn tennis at an age where most people stop playing it?” Yes, this is the way Mr. Vital went on inside me that morning at my tennis practice, and on many other mornings. I felt quite justified in playing badly, in not cooperating with the coach, in not making an effort to exceed myself. The entire blame was his. He wasn’t making things easy for me – just the way I wanted them. Who was this I? Only the Vital. No, nothing of the Mind or the Body and definitely not the Psychic. For, as I played and exerted myself, I could sense the body enjoying the effort. The Mind too knew that learning m...