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Articles from santosh krinsky | Selfgrowth.com
- Four Common Forms of Resistance by the Lower Vital to the Transformation Required - by Submitted on Nov 01, 2021 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo considers yoga to be, in a certain sense, applied psychology. The review and understanding of one’s own actions and deeper motives and motivations is essential if one is going to overcome the limitations and habits of the lower nature and eventually receive and manifest new ways of ...
Views: 465 - Four Instruments for Attaining the Perfection of the Practice of Yoga - by Submitted on Dec 13, 2022 from santosh krinskyPeople frequently seek for a very specific, directed form of practice which will provide liberation and spiritual perfection. They ask ‘what is the best form of practice’? Sri Aurobindo takes a much more flexible approach which is based on the need and development of the individual practitioner, ...
Views: 338 - Four Steps to Avoid Suffering - by Submitted on Jun 16, 2022 from santosh krinskyMany people suppose that it is impossible to avoid suffering, as it is an inherent aspect of life on earth. Their strategies for dealing with suffering may vary, but they all believe that suffering is inevitable. When we consider, therefore, the idea of avoiding suffering, we are either met ...
Views: 442 - Free Will, Determinism and Random Chance as Factors in Life Outcomes - by Submitted on Feb 28, 2024 from santosh krinskyThere is a third factor that intervenes in the debate about free will and determinism and that is ‘random chance’. In that concept, there is basically no plan, no framework and no way to manage or control events, which thus can occur through random occurrences with no predetermined end. Both the ...
Views: 268 - Freeing Oneself From Responsibility for Oneself By Reliance on the Divine - by Submitted on Jun 07, 2025 from santosh krinskyThere was a young man who happened to be living at the same place during the 1970’s, who got into his head the idea that the Divine was watching out for him so he could not come to any harm. He walked out into traffic on a busy road and with cars honking and braking, he survived without a ...
Views: 13 - Freeing the Mind from Subjection to the Life-Force and the Body - by Submitted on Jan 05, 2025 from santosh krinskyThe development of the vital, life-force integrated with the physical domain led to changes in the physical in order to accommodate the action of this new energy. At the same time, the life-force had to itself make adjustments in order to operate in the material world as opposed to in its own ...
Views: 87 - Friendship and Affection — Human and Divine - by Submitted on Feb 06, 2022 from santosh krinskyHuman relationships are subject to eventual disappointment in almost all cases. Friendship and affection are generally based in the ego and its gratification and at some point, the needs and goals of the individuals may diverge, they may be separated due to distance, illness or death, or there ...
Views: 457 - Friendship, Affection and the Practice of the Integral Yoga - by Submitted on Feb 05, 2022 from santosh krinskyAs we experience relationships in the world, whether family, friend or significant others, we begin to appreciate how complex, demanding and ‘messy’ they are. To cultivate and support relationships takes time, effort and understanding. When we don’t agree 100% with someone, we find that even ...
Views: 673 - From the Oneness of Unconsciousness to the Oneness of Consciousness: the Impulsion of the Divine Consciousness - by Submitted on Dec 08, 2023 from santosh krinskySri Aurobindo cites the Vedic Rishi of Mandala X, Canto 129, verses 1-5 at the beginning of Chapter 25 of The Life Divine, titled The Knot of Matter: “Then existence was not nor non-existence, the mid-world was not nor the Ether nor what is beyond. What covered all? where was it? in whose ...
Views: 238 - Gaining Access to the Subliminal Consciousness - by Submitted on Sep 02, 2023 from santosh krinskyIt is one thing to gain an intellectual understanding of the concept of the subliminal consciousness. However, this does not provide a real experience of nor true knowledge about the action, influence and impact of the subliminal consciousness on our lives. The question then arises, whether and ...
Views: 268 - Gaining an Understanding of the Nature of the Subliminal Consciousness - by Submitted on Aug 30, 2023 from santosh krinskyWestern psychology is in its infancy as a science. It is, as is all mental knowledge, a form of ignorance, seeking and grasping for knowledge, while not actually able to see the entire picture nor understand the complexity of all the elements that go into human psychology. Thus, Freud gained a ...
Views: 271 - Gaining Mastery Over the Action of the Mechanical Mind - by Submitted on Aug 14, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe mechanical mind encompasses some of the most basic, most rudimentary activities of the mind. It lies below the faculties of higher logical reasoning, and forms a foundation for the most simple and automatic mental processes. It is like the core computer language upon which all kinds of ...
Views: 275 - Gaining Mental Understanding Through Quieting and Widening the Mental Consciousness - by Submitted on Oct 11, 2022 from santosh krinskyMany people, over the years, have told me that reading Sri Aurobindo’s writings is difficult due to the complexity and wideness of the concepts he presents. I have heard, or experienced, similar issues reading Kant, Leibnitz, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Joyce and others. For those engaged in technical ...
Views: 379 - Gaining Perspective On Our Desires and Focus Within the Grand Canvas of Time and Space - by Submitted on Jun 06, 2025 from santosh krinskyWe spend most of our lives fixated on the external life we are living, including our internal reactions to that life, such as our feelings, desires, sense impressions, thoughts, ideas, motivations and physical comforts and discomforts (among other things). We focus on earning our livelihood, ...
Views: 14 - Gaining the Standpoint of the Observer of the Nature - by Submitted on May 26, 2022 from santosh krinskyAn important step in the practice of yoga is to attain true detachment from the surface nature through the shifting of the standpoint from the surface to the ‘witness consciousness’, the Purusha. The separation of Purusha from Prakriti, the active nature, is needed in order to effectuate change ...
Views: 395 - Gaining the Support of the Vital Being for the Sadhana Through the Joy of Creative Activity - by Submitted on Mar 21, 2022 from santosh krinskyOne of the issues that every spiritual seeker eventually faces is what to do about the vital nature. The vital being is an essential element of life on earth. Normally however it is distracted with its needs and desires, the seeking for pleasure and enjoyment, the avoidance of pain and ...
Views: 396 - General Limitations and Options for Methods and Applications for Spiritual Development - by Submitted on Jan 03, 2023 from santosh krinskyIn any technical field, there are both a general statement of goals and principles, as well as specific steps that should be applied to achieve those results. In many endeavours, particularly those involved in dealing with the physical world and the science that operates in that world, the ...
Views: 368 - Genetic Engineering - by Submitted on Dec 30, 2020 from santosh krinskyGenetic engineering. It is everywhere in our lives, whether we recognise it or not. The question arises as to how humanity responds to it, and what, if anything, we can do about it. In the past, genetics was involved with attempts at selective breeding. Over multiple generations certain ...
Views: 681 - Getting in Touch with the Inner, Subliminal Mind, Life and Physical Consciousness - by Submitted on Aug 28, 2023 from santosh krinskyIn his epic poem Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, Sri Aurobindo describes the experience of the awareness moving inwards away from the surface consciousness fixated on external perceptions. “In moments when the inner lamps are lit And the life’s cherished guests are left outside, Our spirit sits ...
Views: 269 - Glimpses and Experiences of the Inner Being, and the Shift of the Consciousness from the Outer to the Inner - by Submitted on Nov 06, 2022 from santosh krinskyIf we focus on the experience of our normal, daily lives, we will find that it can be characterised by a specific feeling or quality that we know as our usual experience. While each individual may have a different characterisation of this experience, some happy, some sad, some joyful, some ...
Views: 551 - Gnostic Consciousness Resolves the Contradictions of Mental Consciousness - by Submitted on Mar 03, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe face, in every sphere of human endeavor, a conflict of competing ideas or directions. If we look closely we can see an element of truth in each side, but can also recognise that as long as we are bound by the mind’s limitations and its desire to reduce everything to “either-or”, we cannot ...
Views: 220 - Gnostic Consciousness Resolves the Contradictions of Mental Consciousness - by Submitted on Apr 21, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe face, in every sphere of human endeavor, a conflict of competing ideas or directions. If we look closely we can see an element of truth in each side, but can also recognise that as long as we are bound by the mind’s limitations and its desire to reduce everything to “either-or”, we cannot ...
Views: 219 - Gnostic Consciousness Transcends Rigid Mental Rules for Living - by Submitted on Mar 03, 2024 from santosh krinskyAs long as we remain fixed in the mental framework, we tend to create judgments and rules for everything we do that are founded on the limited and fragmented understanding that the mental power possesses. The advent of a new wider, more expansive, more unifying and comprehensive consciousness ...
Views: 257 - God, Gods, Goddesses and Human Perceptions - by Submitted on Apr 07, 2021 from santosh krinskyDoes God exist? Are there more than one God? Is God a figment of human imagination? These questions have confounded humanity for aeons and, even today, they are hotly debated. Some believe there is only one God and that anyone who worships a different form or name of God is deluded. Some ...
Views: 613 - God’s Grace or God’s Duty - by Submitted on Jul 04, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe devotee may begin the process of devotional surrender to the Divine with a form of bargaining, expecting a recompense from God for the efforts made to express the devotion. Thus, people pray and expect an answer to their prayers, or they carry out devotional exercises and expect God to ...
Views: 473 - Growing Spiritually Beyond the Forms of Religion - by Submitted on Jun 16, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe see a growing movement around the world of people leaving the religion into which they were born, and starting down a spiritual path of inner growth. A driving factor behind this change is the perception among these people that the religion has either lost any life-force that it may have had ...
Views: 243 - Growing Within: the Psychology of Inner Development: Summary and Conclusions - by Submitted on May 27, 2023 from santosh krinskyHumanity is facing an existential crisis. Scientists report that changes brought about by human civilisation have created the conditions that are causing what is now being called the sixth planetary die-off of species. The land, water and air are all being polluted. Toxic chemicals are poisoning ...
Views: 304 - Guarding One’s Faith - by Submitted on Dec 29, 2022 from santosh krinskyFaith, as described by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, is not a dogmatic acceptance of a system of ideas or ‘articles of faith’; rather, it is a form of knowledge that arises from deeper within, from the soul and its connection with the universe, which provides a certainty that goes beyond the ...
Views: 492 - Habits - by Submitted on Dec 05, 2023 from santosh krinskyMuch of the activity in our lives is governed by the force of habits, whether ingrained in the genetic and species memory as ‘instinctive’ behavior, or built into the structure and function of the anatomy and physiology of our bodies, or developed through various forms of conditioning of our ...
Views: 277 - Habits, Cravings, Addictions and the Subconscient - by Submitted on Aug 25, 2022 from santosh krinskyOne of the big issues that all people face is dealing with cravings, habits and addictions and their effects in their lives. The mechanism at work here is not based on conscious decision-making, but on impulses, feelings and pulls that occur subconsciously, whether in the mind, the vital being, ...
Views: 484 - Habits, Human Life and Achieving Individuality … and Beyond - by Submitted on Nov 18, 2022 from santosh krinskyAs the seeker begins to examine his life, he quickly finds that virtually all his thoughts, emotions, feelings and actions are based on habitual patterns, either ingrained in the human encoding as a species, or developed through socialisation in a society or civilisation, through family ...
Views: 427 - Habitual Responses and the Process of Auto-Suggestion Arising from the Action of the Subconscious Level - by Submitted on Mar 30, 2024 from santosh krinskyThere is a complex interaction between the external mind-life-body complex and the subconscious level of our existence. As we experience various things in our lives, including illness, accidents or various circumstances, our mind tries to build a pattern of recognition and develops a memory. ...
Views: 337 - Harnessing the Body’s Innate Powers for the Transformation of Consciousness - by Submitted on Dec 20, 2024 from santosh krinskyWe tend to overlook or disregard the capacity of the body and its ‘body consciousness’ to aid in the spiritual quest. Each element of the being, the mind, the vital nature, and the body, has its own consciousness and capacity for response. Each element also can either be an aid or an obstacle to ...
Views: 104 - he Three Gunas, Their Role in the Difficulties and Obstacles in the Yogic Development, and the Certainty of Success When the Divine Call is Present - by Submitted on Mar 15, 2023 from santosh krinskyThe importance of the rule of the 3 Gunas, the qualities of Nature, cannot be over-emphasized. Each of these qualities has both its positive aspects and its downsides, and they are functional in all life. They are continually in fluctuation and intermix with one another to create the events and ...
Views: 344 - Healing Modalities, Faith and Our Societal Biases - by Submitted on Oct 18, 2024 from santosh krinskyThe prevailing wisdom in today’s world holds that science has understood enough about the etiology of disease to be able to intervene and take steps to mitigate or cure disease using drugs or even, at the cutting edge, various forms of genetic intervention. The practitioners of that science ...
Views: 151 - Healing Sickness With Spiritual Force - by Submitted on Dec 11, 2024 from santosh krinskyAn individual reported an experience which, at the time, was unique to him. He was suddenly attacked by a virulent disease and collapsed on the floor. He was carried off to another room in the facility where various individuals tried to figure out what happened to him and what to do about it. ...
Views: 119 - Healing the Body Through Spiritual Force or Through Faith - by Submitted on Oct 19, 2024 from santosh krinskyHealing the Body Through Spiritual Force or Through Faith Posted on October 19, 2024 We tend to believe that an individual who has a strong mental development has advantages in all fields of life. It is true that the mind has provided some strong benefits, particularly in navigating the ...
Views: 152 - Heightening the Force of Consciousness is the Trend of Evolution - by Submitted on Apr 09, 2023 from santosh krinsky“All evolution is in essence a heightening of the force of consciousness in the manifest being so that it may be raised into the greater intensity of what is still unmanifest, from matter into life, from life into mind, from the mind into the spirit. It is this that must be the method of our ...
Views: 327 - Heightening the Force of Consciousness is the Trend of Evolution - by Submitted on Apr 11, 2023 from santosh krinsky“All evolution is in essence a heightening of the force of consciousness in the manifest being so that it may be raised into the greater intensity of what is still unmanifest, from matter into life, from life into mind, from the mind into the spirit. It is this that must be the method of our ...
Views: 299 - Helpful Tips About the Practice of Meditation - by Submitted on Jun 26, 2021 from santosh krinskyThe 3 gunas of Nature, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas are active in all things, even in the approach we take to the practice of meditation. Understanding these modes and the specific types of energy they each represent can aid us in tuning the meditation practice for ultimate positive results. Tamas ...
Views: 592 - Helping Others in the Spiritual Path - by Submitted on Feb 16, 2022 from santosh krinskyThere is an impulse to share something that we find valuable in our own lives. This impulse is oftentimes harnessed by religious organizations or spiritual groups to become a method of proselytizing and conversion, and in some cases, it can become a situation filled with pressure on the ...
Views: 521 - Hidden Powers in Life and Yoga - by Submitted on Apr 11, 2021 from santosh krinskyThere is an interesting contradiction in the way humanity deals with unseen, or invisible forces at work. We believe wholeheartedly nowadays in gravity, electricity, wireless communications, magnetic transportation vehicles, and, despite the fact that all of these represent invisible forces, we ...
Views: 600 - Higher Mind - by Submitted on Jun 14, 2023 from santosh krinskyIf we reflect for a moment on the shift from one evolutionary principle of consciousness to another, we can see a shift of standpoint as well as a difference in the mechanism of operation. Those beings who are primarily based in the vital nature tend to react based on principles of fear and ...
Views: 314 - Higher Mind Is the First Gradation of Consciousness Beyond the Normal Human Mental Level - by Submitted on Sep 09, 2023 from santosh krinskyIt is difficult to appreciate that there are gradations of consciousness, each with their own distinct characteristics, that occur outside our normal human range of perception. We tend to see separations and divisions within our limited range, while we treat anything outside that range as being ...
Views: 279 - Higher Powers of Consciousness Can Aid and Support the Evolution of Consciousness in the Human Being - by Submitted on Jul 19, 2024 from santosh krinskyThere are forces in the universal creation that can obstruct, delay or harm the development of consciousness. They try to maintain a form of status quo, or they try to protect a vested interest or desire that they maintain. These forces, sometimes called ‘hostile forces’ are a frequent topic of ...
Views: 199 - Hints for the Spiritual Practitioner Seeking to Eliminate the Sex Impulse - by Submitted on Jan 12, 2022 from santosh krinskyWe have learned quite a bit about the sexual impulse. Young children are basically asexual, and it is only with the coming of puberty and the flooding of mood-creating chemicals in the system (hormones), that we become susceptible to responding to the sexual energy when it arises. Not everything ...
Views: 391 - Hostile Forces and Their Impact on Spiritual Development - by Submitted on Dec 07, 2021 from santosh krinskyThere are legends in major traditions about opposing and actively hostile beings who attempt to disrupt the spiritual evolution. Buddha was tempted by Mara. Jesus was tempted by the Devil. The Buddha and Jesus had to overcome the pressures of these beings in order to carry out their evolutionary ...
Views: 567 - How Can I Understand True Spiritual Humility - by Submitted on Dec 24, 2021 from santosh krinskyIn the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna inquires how he can know an enlightened individual, whether by his talk, or the way he acts, or by some other external sign. Sri Krishna replies that it is not through external actions or signs that one can recognise the realised souls. The truth lies in their inner ...
Views: 505 - How Can One Transform the Vital? Part 1: Observation, Understanding, Action & Resistance - by Submitted on Jul 20, 2022 from santosh krinskyThe Mother provides a clear approach to transforming the vital nature. In part 1 she addresses how to gain perspective, the necessary steps involved and the kind of resistance that arises and what can be done about it. The Mother notes: “The first step: will. Secondly, sincerity and ...
Views: 409 - How Do Spiritual Experiences Come About? - by Submitted on Apr 01, 2023 from santosh krinskyWhile we are allured by the idea of spiritual experiences, or, if one looks at the popular media, the idea of some kind of unusual powers that an individual can develop, obtain or possess, we actually have very little idea about what is really possible, and how it actually occurs. Popular ...
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