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Articles from santosh krinsky | Selfgrowth.com
- The Challenge of Duality and the Conquest of Light Over Darkness - by Submitted on Dec 17, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe live in a world filled with contradictions, a world of dualities. We accept the premise that we cannot have light without dark, pleasure without pain, joy without sorrow. This appears to be the nature of the world, and it seems like an irrefutable concept. Yet, we can in fact conceive of the ...
Views: 233 - The Challenges of Merging the Ego into the Divine - by Submitted on Oct 17, 2023 from santosh krinskyThere are several ways to approach the question of consecration of one’s being and life to the Divine. As the Mother makes clear, the need to be an individualised being that can actually have something to offer to the Divine is both paramount, and requires substantial effort to both understand ...
Views: 269 - The Change in Standpoint That Puts the Seeker in Harmony With the Divine and its Intention in the Universal Manifestation - by Submitted on Mar 24, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe frequently hear people complaining about how they are locked into and trapped in the lives they are leading. They feel like there is nothing they can do and nothing can change it. This was exemplified in a motion picture called ‘Groundhog Day’ which told the story of an individual who ...
Views: 47 - The Characteristics and the Power of an Integral Faith - by Submitted on Oct 20, 2024 from santosh krinskyWith our standpoint based in the mental consciousness we tend to believe that if we think something, it is ‘real’. This viewpoint fails to account for the different parts of the being, and their different modes of response. For example, we may hold a mental conception to not fear something, and ...
Views: 161 - The Characteristics of the Physical Nature and the Way Toward Transformation - by Submitted on Nov 08, 2021 from santosh krinskyAt some point everyone experiences periods where the physical body and its corresponding physical mind seem dull, tired, lacking in enthusiasm, and interested only in sleeping, eating and the most basic things that occupy our physical life on earth. During these periods there is an absence of ...
Views: 441 - The Choice Before the Practitioner of the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Nov 04, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe pressure of both the habitual patterns established by the physical body, the vital life energy and the mental development, together with the pressure of society and the impact of past education, creates an enormous impediment to the radical change in standpoint necessitated for the ...
Views: 423 - The Circumstances and Need of a Temporary Withdrawal and Quiet of the Being - by Submitted on Feb 18, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere are occasions where the practice of silence and a temporary withdrawal from the hustle and bustle of the outer life, to the degree feasible, becomes a necessary part of the sadhana for the practitioner of yoga. Yoga is, by definition, a change of consciousness, and it involves an inward ...
Views: 455 - The Collective Soul of Human Groupings and the Expression of Collective Karma - by Submitted on Mar 05, 2024 from santosh krinskyThe individual is not an island unto himself; he is part of a series of larger groupings, such as family, clubs, teams, tribes, school classes, corporate entities, community, states and nations, religion, etc. The collective energetic expression of each of these groupings develops a way of life ...
Views: 238 - The Complementary Aspects of Aspiration and Prayer - by Submitted on Dec 21, 2022 from santosh krinskyJust as there is a debate between science and religion, there is a corollary argument that encompasses aspiration versus prayer. Aspiration for growth, development, knowledge, progress, expansion is acceptable to those in the “science” camp. Prayer is relegated by these individuals to the ...
Views: 379 - The Complex Make-Up of the Human Personalities - by Submitted on Apr 29, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe tend to look on ourselves as being of a specific nature and having a specific personality. We see main lines of understanding, of reaction, and of action and look upon these as ‘who we are’. If we take a closer look, however, we soon begin to see that we are not as simple and homogeneous as ...
Views: 325 - The Complex Nature of Our Being Impacts Our Ability to Change and Transform Our Lives - by Submitted on May 25, 2025 from santosh krinskyThose who identify with their mental being tend to believe that if they think in a certain way, that they have succeeded in embodying that. They will take the thought for the accomplishment without necessarily recognising that their physical actions, their vital energies and even aspects of ...
Views: 24 - The Complexity and Difficulty of Achieving Complete Sincerity in the Spiritual Path - by Submitted on Dec 23, 2022 from santosh krinskySincerity is not as simple as believing in and meaning what we say to others. This is what we ordinarily consider to be sincerity. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have a much more far-reaching idea of sincerity relating to the practice of yoga in the furtherance of spiritual growth. Sincerity ...
Views: 356 - The Complexity and Time to Harmonise and Unify the Being - by Submitted on Nov 05, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe mind is the characteristic power exercised by the human race. While the higher reasoning and abstract mind is somewhat limited in its action across the broad spectrum of human individuals, the basic mental powers are widespread, providing the capability to review, categorize and classify, ...
Views: 248 - The Complexity of Predicting the Destiny of Any Individual - by Submitted on Nov 23, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe predict the times and the seasons, we can predict to a certainty physical and mechanical operations, and we can even predict within a range, the pattern and scope of a particular set of events we set in motion in various fields. We expect that the physical world in which we live follows ...
Views: 364 - The Concept of Spiritual Purity in the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Jan 21, 2023 from santosh krinskyFor most people, purity is connected with a moral precept, and for most, this has eventually been related to the question of sexual relations. The question of chastity, and withholding of sexual activity until the socially sanctioned relationship of marriage has been put in place, holds a ...
Views: 385 - The Concrete Reality of Spiritual Force and Its Action - by Submitted on Jul 26, 2024 from santosh krinskyThere is a clear divide between those who have actually experienced the action of spiritual or yoga-force, and those who have a mental conception of spirituality but have not had a strong experience thus far that makes the theory into something real and actual for them. Once the experience is ...
Views: 173 - The Conditions of an Effective Faith - by Submitted on Oct 23, 2024 from santosh krinskyIn his book The Mother, Sri Aurobindo defines the conditions and qualities of faith needed to overcome all obstructions or disasters: “To walk through life armoured against all fear, peril and disaster, only two things are needed, two that go always together — the Grace of the Divine Mother and ...
Views: 165 - The Connection to the Psychic Being Minimizes the Dangers of the Intermediate Zone - by Submitted on Apr 13, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe process of the yogic sadhana inevitably begins to shift the consciousness inward and upward, and exposes the seeker to powers, forces and energies that are not easily seen or understood from the standpoint of the external mind and life. Thus, there is what we may call a natural opening to ...
Views: 338 - The Consent of the Entire Being Is Necessary for the Divine Change - by Submitted on Nov 02, 2021 from santosh krinskyWhen we associate ourselves with our mental identity, we tend to believe that what we ‘think’ is what we ‘are’. However, this leaves open the opportunity for self-deception and ultimate failure to change the nature, as the vital being remains stuck in its old habitual patterns and does not ...
Views: 411 - The Constant Effort Needed in the Yogic Practice - by Submitted on Nov 09, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhen people think about yoga, they generally think about practicing certain poses, or asanas, or doing certain breathing techniques, or chanting various mantras, reading certain books, meditation, or singing devotional songs, etc. Those who take up the practice of Raja Yoga follow an eight-fold ...
Views: 253 - The Contagious Nature of Desire in the Vital Being - by Submitted on Jul 28, 2023 from santosh krinskyVirtually everybody, at some point in their lives, has the experience of entering a room or a gathering of some sort and feeling the movement of some vital force rising up within them. It could be a room filled with the energy of greed, or sexual tension or anger. They feel like they are being ...
Views: 300 - The Continuum of Consciousness and the Interactions of the Various Wave-Forms - by Submitted on Jul 05, 2023 from santosh krinskyWe recognise the electro-magnetic spectrum, the color spectrum, the sound wave spectrum and others, each as representing a continuum of wave forms with varying characteristics. There are shorter, more intense waves and longer wave frequencies. Some conduct tremendous amounts of physical heat, ...
Views: 285 - The Creation of Karma — the Interaction of Forces and Consequences - by Submitted on Mar 02, 2024 from santosh krinskyMany people consider the concept of ‘karma’ to be some form of moral retributive factor that brings back to an individual the ‘fruits’ of his actions. Thus, they believe, if a man does something considered wrong, dishonest, underhanded, the universal law of karma will eventually right the score. ...
Views: 243 - The Creation of the Worlds and the Cycles of Evolution - by Submitted on Feb 25, 2021 from santosh krinskyEntropy is a scientific theory that holds that the universe tends towards increasing disorder and dissolution over time, eventually having ordered patterns break down into randomness or chaos, and dissolution. While it is set forth in Western science as the second law of thermodynamics in a very ...
Views: 634 - The Creative Power of the Silent Mind - by Submitted on May 16, 2021 from santosh krinskyFor most people there is never a moment of silence in the mind. A constant churning of thoughts, ideas, desires, plans, wishes, concerns, feelings, emotions, perceptions, and needs keeps mental activity of one sort or another always going. We seem to actually fear the silence, so if the inner ...
Views: 549 - The Cure for Inner Loneliness - by Submitted on Feb 28, 2022 from santosh krinskyHuman beings are social animals, and they crave contact and relationship with others. Modern society has broken or weakened many of the links that formerly brought people together, including the nuclear and extended family, and tight-knit communities where people socialized and interacted with ...
Views: 551 - The Cycle of Development in Nature and the Focus of Attention - by Submitted on Apr 06, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe observe everywhere that Nature has a development cycle, with focus of attention on what needs to take place at each stage of that cycle, rather than simply jumping ahead to an 'end result' of the development. Thus, we see that plants undergo a stage of sprouting from seed, and the first focus ...
Views: 233 - The Cycles of Social Development and the Swing Away from a One-Sided Focus on Materialism - by Submitted on Mar 07, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe do not usually recognise or appreciate how much influence our environment, our surroundings, the society we live in, the customs and life-ways of that social system impact what we think about, how we focus our attention and what we do with our lives. The Mother puts this also into the process ...
Views: 56 - The Darkness and the Light Within Each Individual - by Submitted on Sep 28, 2022 from santosh krinskyAncient Chinese philosophy enunciated the concept of yin and yang, which represent the opposites that together form a whole, and which are constantly interacting with one another dynamically. The classical image shows a black spot in a white background and a white spot in a black background, ...
Views: 398 - The Day and Night of the Vedic Mystics - by Submitted on Mar 26, 2023 from santosh krinskyHowever much we try, we find that we cannot constantly and consistently hold onto any particular focus of concentration, emotional state, mood or feeling for an extended period of time. The constant action of the 3 Gunas cycles us through periods of light and darkness, action and inaction, ...
Views: 365 - The Deeper Meaning of Will-Power - by Submitted on Oct 08, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe speak generally about exercising will-power, particularly when it relates to overcoming an impulsion or attempting to achieve some particular result. We may want to overcome an addiction, or follow a particular diet and we struggle to carry out our resolve. We make ‘new year’s resolutions’ to ...
Views: 134 - The Desire-Soul and the Life and Death of the Body - by Submitted on Jul 20, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe vital desire-soul animates the external being. When it enters the physical frame, we say that there is life in the body. When it departs, we say that the person has died. This is distinguishable from the true soul, the psychic being, which is not dependent on either the life or death of a ...
Views: 315 - The Development and Progression of the Supramental Force in Human Activity - by Submitted on Jul 16, 2024 from santosh krinskyThe imposition of the external world on our mind and senses is so powerful that we don’t pay attention to the vast universe of galaxies and stars. In former times, before the world was widely illuminated by lighting at night, there was at least some opportunity for people to be outside at night, ...
Views: 184 - The Development and Use of Occult Powers and the Spiritual Quest - by Submitted on Aug 19, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe lure of occult powers represents one of the temptations to be faced by the spiritual seeker who begins to access the inner and higher realms of consciousness. These powers may be developed through systematic efforts, following the protocols and laws of action under which these powers exist. ...
Views: 573 - The Development of Individuality Within the Human Race - by Submitted on Dec 04, 2023 from santosh krinskyIn various parts of the world, homes and buildings have a clear ‘identity’, through shape, color, size, layout of the rooms, functionality, and location. In other places we see vast tracts of virtually identical houses or apartments in rows, with the same size, shape, color and layout. Someone ...
Views: 248 - The Development of the Human Being and the Transcendence of the Human Being: Personal Growth and Inner Growth Defined - by Submitted on Nov 04, 2022 from santosh krinskyPersonal growth and inner growth, the enhancement of the human being and its capabilities and the transcendence of the human being to develop a being awake and active with a new level of consciousness, are not in conflict with one another. The human being must develop to a certain degree to ...
Views: 540 - The Development of the Powers of the Body - by Submitted on Dec 25, 2023 from santosh krinskyFor the seekers who wish to depart the creation through unification with the Supreme, the body is often considered to be an obstacle, something that needs a certain amount of begrudging attention in order to allow the meditation to take place uninterruptedly. These seekers prefer to give as ...
Views: 230 - The Development of the Psychic Being - by Submitted on Nov 10, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe can identify a systematic evolution of consciousness in the external world. Life evolves out of Matter, Mind out of Life. We do not, however, thereby determine either a significance or purpose to this evolution nor any causative factors that involve mind and life into matter such that they ...
Views: 368 - The Development of the Spiritual Focus Over Time - by Submitted on Dec 02, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe tend to measure success or failure in terms of specific results we see in our relatively short, individual lifetime, based on our preconceived or societally sanctioned ideas about what constitutes success or failure. When it comes to progress in spiritual development, however, this is not ...
Views: 343 - The Development, Powers and Limits of the Mental Consciousness - by Submitted on Jan 02, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe human being consists of multiple levels of consciousness which interact with and impact one another and which, from an evolutionary standpoint, represent a consistent trend of increasing power and subtlety of the consciousness. The consciousness of the body, the physical consciousness is the ...
Views: 99 - The Devotee and the Yoga of Devotion, Part 1 - by Submitted on Jul 03, 2021 from santosh krinskyWhich comes first, the experience of the Divine Presence or the aspiration to bask in the Presence? This question arose in a dialogue between a disciple and Sri Aurobindo and led to an extensive response from Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo describes the attitude, motive and dedication of a devotee ...
Views: 510 - The Difference Between Indulgence, Suppression and Rejection of the Movement of Desire - by Submitted on Jul 18, 2022 from santosh krinskyYogic practitioners have a number of different methods they have utilized to try to gain control over the movement of vital desire. The disturbances caused by desire, and the distractions that result are clearly inimical to success in the yogic sadhana. Some, like those who practice various ...
Views: 415 - The Difference Between Intuition and Intellect - by Submitted on Feb 23, 2024 from santosh krinskyThe mind gathers details from the senses, attempts to classify them according to past experience, and then tries to both judge the meaning of the situation and extrapolate how future steps will occur. This process relies on known powers of the mind, powers of analysis, powers of what is known as ...
Views: 260 - The Difference Between Living According to the Inner Truth of One’s Being or the External Ego Personality - by Submitted on Nov 06, 2024 from santosh krinskyThe Mother draws a clear distinction between the individual who is in contact with his own deepest inner truth of being, his swadharma, and the individual who does not pay attention to this deepest truth but lives what we may call a “transactional” existence focused on the aggrandisement and ...
Views: 136 - The Difference Between Scientific Focus and Artistic Focus - by Submitted on Oct 01, 2024 from santosh krinskyMany people hold the idea that science is ‘fact based’ and focused on the external world solely, while the artistic focus is based in the use of imagination and is not as tied to external facts. The difference, however, is not necessarily one of a lack of imagination by those with a scientific ...
Views: 147 - The Difference Between Static and Dynamic Meditation - by Submitted on Feb 18, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhen an individual sits for meditation, does he come out of the meditation changed in some way? … or is meditation something like a state of ‘statis’ where time goes by, but nothing happens? Is the individual taking a ‘time out’ from life but not moving the purpose and focus of the life forward? ...
Views: 516 - The Difference Between Suppression and Rejection of Desire - by Submitted on Dec 29, 2021 from santosh krinskySuppression of desire can be compared generally to the compression of a spring. The spring increases its latent energy by being compressed and eventually, when it escapes the compression stage, it responds powerfully. When desires are suppressed, they gain in strength and eventually burst forth ...
Views: 600 - The Difference Between Suppression and Removal of a Vital Reaction, Part 1 - by Submitted on May 20, 2025 from santosh krinskyAs long as we set our standpoint in the external surface consciousness, we do not have the leverage nor the tools to easily remove an embedded reaction. We tend to take steps to suppress rather than expunge the unwanted energy. This may take the form of an ascetic denial, or an avoidance of ...
Views: 24 - The Difference Between Suppression and Removal of a Vital Reaction, Part 2 - by Submitted on May 21, 2025 from santosh krinskyMost people simply “live” their lives and carry out whatever feeling, mood or impetus may be impacting them at the moment. They “become” that movement, whether it is happiness and joy, hunger, anger, ennui, fatigue, or some concentrated state of mind, etc. Their awareness, their conscious ...
Views: 25 - The Difference Between Trust and Faith - by Submitted on Jul 23, 2025 from santosh krinskyTrust is frequently built on the basis of experience. We gain trust by confirmation of a particular development or response from our interactions. Trust is thus primarily based in the mental process. Through a process that develops credibility, an individual gains trust in the action and ...
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