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Collection of Thoughts from Hindu Mystics - Part IV (standard:non fiction, 2552 words) [4/4] show all parts | |||
Author: Juggernaut | Added: Nov 27 2010 | Views/Reads: 2216/1833 | Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes) |
Collection of thoughts from Sri Aurobindo and Mother | |||
Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story In its origin and in its true action, Money belongs to the Divine. Conquer money for the Divine to whom it belongs and use it divinely for the Divine Life. Any perturbation of mind with regard to Money and its use, any claim, any grudging is a sure index of some imperfection bondage. All wealth belongs to the Divine and those who hold it are trustees not possessors. WORK: If you want to be true doer of Divine works, there must be no demand for fruits and no seeking for reward; the only fruit for you is the pleasure of Divine and fulfillment of its work, your only reward, a constant progression in divine consciousness and calm and strength and bliss. The joy of service and the joy of inner growth through work is the sufficient re-compensation of selfless worker (This thought of Aurobindo and Mother are close to the description of a Karma-Yogi stated in Vedas). DIVINE LIFE If one wants to consecrate oneself to the Divine life, one must do it truly, that is, give oneself entirely, no longer do anything for one's own interest, depend exclusively upon the Divine Power to which one abandons oneself. But in Yoga, one should no longer care for what people think or says, it is absolutely indispensible starting point. You must be absolutely immune to what the world may say or think of you and to the way it treats you. When you act you only object is to serve, that is instead of acting for your personal good, you act with the feeling of serving, or receiving the Divine Force, not from outside but from within you, Never seek satisfaction elsewhere than in the Divine. Never seek satisfaction of your needs in any one except the Divine, never, for anything at all. All your needs can be satisfied by the Divine. As soon as the little “I” comes in, that means a deformation and degradation. In fact all that you do not value come with your “I”. You remove the “I” and all that disappears at the same time. (Sri Ramana Maharshi also discovered this truth through his yoga during the same time period.) Truly, a being who is very conscious, who is mentally, intellectually very developed talks only when it is necessary. He does not utter useless words. To judge from appearances and apparent success is precisely an act of complete ignorance. First one must become a conscious, well knit, individualized being, who exists in himself, by himself, independently of all his surroundings, who can hear anything, read anything, see anything without changing. The fist condition is a healthy humility which makes you realize that unless you are sustained, nourished, helped, enlightened, guided by the Divine, you are nothing at all. Inner growth is a process of conscious evolution also called Yoga. The normal state of consciousness is a state of continual disquiet and agitation due to its constant distractibility and dispersion. As the consciousness grows, one becomes more and more aware of a deeper consciousness which is felt as a substratum of quiet and peace. The normal or ordinary consciousness is afflicted by the “pair of contraries” – heat and cold, pleasure and pain, attraction and repulsion, which are an inherent characteristics of physical, vital and mental nature. Therefore, ordinarily, consciousness is a more or less constant state of disturbance and disequilibrium. A fundamental characteristic of the normal consciousness is the sense of being a separate self or ego, that is, of being an individual who exists a part from the rest of the universe. In contrast, the higher consciousness is unmoved, fixed or steady (in Sanskrit language called Sthira.) Greater consciousness is unitary, universal and transpersonal, devoid of separation and division. In super consciousness, one begins to feel others too as part of oneself or varied repetition of oneself. The higher perfection is the spiritual perfection, integral union with the Divine, identification with the Divine, freedom from all the limitation of the lower world. That is the spiritual perfection, the perfection that comes from Yoga. Psychology of Inner Growth In order to come out of the state of the original inconscience, desire was indispensible. But once you are born into consciousness, the desire prevents you liberating yourself from the matter and rising to a higher consciousness. It is the same thing for the ego the self. In order to pass on to a higher plane, one must exist, and to exist one must become a conscious, separate individual, and to become a conscious separate individual, the ego is indispensible. But once individual is formed, and if one wants to rise to a higher level and live a spiritual life, the limitation is ego and the worst obstacle and the ego must be surpassed in order to enter the true consciousness. It is through unconsciousness that the undivine forces enter into us and make us their slaves. You are to be conscious of yourself. Once you are conscious, one can see which are the forces that pull down and which help you. Collective thought, collective suggestions are formidable influences which act constantly on individual thought. To escape this there is but one means, that is to become conscious of oneself, more and more conscious. What is spirituality? Spirituality is not high intellectuality, not idealism, not ethics or moral purity or austerity, not religiosity. Spirituality is in its essence an awakening to the inner realty of our being, to a spirit, self, soul which is other than mind, life and body. All Yoga is in its nature a new birth, it is birth out of the ordinary, neutralized material like of man into a higher spiritual consciousness and a greater and divine being. The spiritual progress of most human beings demands an extraneous support, an object of faith outside us. It needs an external image of God; or it needs a human representative: Incarnation, Prophet, or Guru. According to the need of human soul, the Divine manifests himself as deity. The Hindu discipline of spirituality provides for this need of the soul by the conception of the Ishta Devata, the Avatar and the Guru. Ishta Devata, the chosen deity is not a inferior Power but a name and form of the universal Godhead. To be moral from the social viewpoint, one has to pay good attention to do nothing which is not approved by others, this may be somewhat difficult, but not impossible. To be pure from spiritual point of view, a vigilance, a consciousness, a sincerity that stands all tests. The first step in Karma yoga is to diminish and finally get rid of the ego-centric position in works and principles of desire. All work done in an egoistic spirit, however good for the people of the world of the Ignorance, is of no avail to the seeker of the yoga. The capacity for enthusiasm which throws you out of your miserable and mean little ego; and the generous gratitude, the generosity of the gratitude which also flings itself thanksgiving out of the little ego. These are the two most powerful levers that would allow to enter into contact with Divine in one's psychic being. This serves as link with the psychic being- the sure link. The sense of impossibilities is the beginning of all possibilities. Impossibility is only a sum of greater unrealized possible. Thought is not essential to existence nor its cause, but it is an instrument for becoming; I become what I see in myself. All that thought suggests to me, I can do; all that thought reveals in me, I can become. This should be man's unshakable faith in himself. What is there new that we have yet to accomplish? Love, for as yet we have only accomplished hatred and self-pleasing; Knowledge, for as yet we have only accomplished error and perception and conceiving; Bliss, for as yet we have only accomplished pleasure, pain and indifference; Power, for as yet we have only accomplished weakness and a defeat in victory; Life, for as yet we have only accomplished war and association. For what do we mean by Man? An uncreated and indestructible soul and has housed itself in a mind and body made of its own elements. The whole world yearns after freedom, yet each creature is in love with his chains; this is the first paradox and inextricable knot of our nature. Man is in love with the bonds of birth; therefore he is caught in the companion bonds of death. In these chains he aspires after freedom of his being and mastery of his self-fulfillment. Man is in love with power; therefore he is subjected to weakness. World is a sea of waves of force that meet and continually fling themselves on each other; he who would ride on the crest of one wave, must faint under the shock of hundreds. Man is in love with pleasure; therefore he must undergo the yoke of grief and pain. Man hungers after calm, but he thirsts also for the experiences of a restless mind and a troubled heart. For human mind, calm is an inertia and a monotony. Immortality, unity and freedom are in ourselves and await there for us to discover. But, for the joy, love God in all of us. Those who are poor and ignorant are not common herd. The common herd are all who are satisfied with pettiness and an average humanity. All would change if man could once consent to be spiritualized; but his nature is rebellious to higher law. He loves his imperfections. The world knows three kinds of revolutions. The material has strong results, the moral and intellectual are infinitely larger in their scope and richer in their fruits, but the spiritual are the great sowings. Each religion has helped mankind. Paganism increased the light of beauty, the largeness and height of human life. Christianity gave him some vision of divine love and charity; Buddhism has shown him a noble way to be wiser, gentler and purer. Judaism and Islam have shown how to be religiously faithful in action and zealously devoted to God. Hinduism has opened to him the largest and profound spiritual possibilities. A great thing would be done if all these God-visions could embrace and cast themselves into each other, but intellectual dogma and cult-egoism stand in the way. All religions have saved a number of souls, but none yet has been able to spiritualize mankind. For that there is needed not cult and creed, but a sustained and all-comprehending effort at spiritual self-evolution. The changes we see in the world today are intellectual, moral, and physical in their ideal and intention: the spiritual revolution waits for its hour and throws up meanwhile its waves here and there. Until it comes, the interpretations of present happenings and forecast of man's future are vain things. The changes we see in the world today are intellectual, moral, and physical in their ideal and intention: the spiritual revolution waits for its hour and throws up meanwhile its waves here and there. Until it comes, the interpretations of present happenings and forecast of man's future are vain things. Do not allow yourself to be grieved or discouraged. Human beings have unfortunately the habit of being unkind to each other. But if you do work in all sincerity, the Mother will be satisfied and all the rest will come afterwards. You have to learn to live in yourself with the Mother, in contact with her consciousness, and meet others only with your exterior surface. You must gather yourself within more firmly. If you disperse yourself constantly, go out of the inner circle, you will constantly move about in the pettiness of the ordinary outer nature and under the influences to which it is open. Learn to live within and to act only from within. One cannot find happiness of a lasting character unless one lives within. The Divine Mother is the Consciousness and Force of the Divine Tweet
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