INSERT INTO `wp_posts` VALUES (1766,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:15','2021-11-23 17:58:15','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns:o=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\"\r\nxmlns:w=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word\"\r\nxmlns:st1=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>ON THE VEDA</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"center\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><b>\r\n<font size=\"4\">ON THE VEDA</font><o:p></o:p></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n<h1 style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"center\"><b>\r\n<font size=\"4\">An Introduction to the Vedas</font></b><o:p><font size=\"4\">&nbsp;</font></o:p></h1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt\'>(I)<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:\r\n11.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>W<span style=\'font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'>HAT</span> is it that we call Veda? It is already known to us\r\nthat the Vedas are the perennial fount of Indian culture and education, the\r\nfoundation of Hinduism and the basis of the Aryan civilisation. He who defies\r\nVeda is an atheist, a non-Hindu, an untouchable and a non-Aryan. All the va­rious\r\nreligious systems and scriptures of the Hindus look upon the Veda as the sole\r\nauthority. What is inconsistent with the Vedas is false and unacceptable. It is\r\nno hyperbole to say that all our scriptures are but elaborate commentaries on\r\nthe Veda. Even men of revolutionary ideas who want to preach some new doctrines\r\nhave not the courage to stand against the Vedas face to face. They try to find\r\nout passages in support of their views or interpret the Vedas in their own\r\nlight or at least declare that the Vedas neither refute nor confirm their\r\nviews.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent style=\'text-align:justify; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:\r\n12.0pt\'>Hinduism is the most catholic of all the religions. It is the most\r\ncomplex and diverse. It has housed peacefully a good many different creeds. And\r\nfor all these esoteric mys­teries the Vedas are solely to be credited. The\r\nmessage of the Vedic Rishi Dirghatamas has inspired the Hindus and the heart of\r\n</span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style=\'font-size:12.0pt\'>India</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:12.0pt\'> through aeons. That message is still as familiar and\r\nliving as ever. Ekam sad <span\r\nstyle=\"font-size:12pt;\">vipra bahudha vadanti (The one Truth has been expressed\r\ndifferently by different seers.) The Gayatri\r\nMantra which has become as natural as the air we breathe in and breathe out\r\nwas first sung by the immortal sage Viswamitra of the Veda. Even in the</span></span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent align=center style=\'text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Page-63<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'margin-left:8.4pt;text-align:center;\r\ntext-indent:-8.4pt;line-height:12.95pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:\r\nnone;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>20th century we follow the\r\ninjunctions of the Vedic seers in conducting the ten principal functions of our\r\nsocial life right from our birth to death.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Therefore,\r\naccording to us, the Veda is as immutable and sempiternal as the supreme\r\nBrahman. The root meaning of the term &quot;Brahman&quot; is the Word, the Word\r\ninspired. Hence the Veda is eternally true from the birth of the crea­tion to\r\nthe present age. Nobody has created the Vedas, nor could anybody do it, not\r\neven the Rishis. The seers simply heard them with a supernatural faculty of\r\nhearing and saw them written before their mental vision; whereafter they\r\narranged them in a systematic manner. That is why the Veda is no human\r\ncreation. The staunch Hindus subscribe to this view.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Can\r\nwe look upon the Vedas as the Christians look upon the Bible and the\r\nMohammedans the Koran? All the epi­thets that we apply to the Vedas are equally\r\napplied by the Christians and the Mohammedans to their respective holy\r\nscriptures. And it is no wonder that every nation should extol its -own\r\nscripture to the skies. But it behoves us to ascertain the value of the Vedas\r\nimpartially. We must discover whether it is true that they deserve to be called\r\nan infallible and supernatural creation.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>It\r\nis a need of the hour to investigate the contents of the Vedas. The Europeans\r\nare to be credited with having started this bold enquiry. Such enquiry has been\r\ntermed \'Higher Criticism\' in <st1:place>Europe</st1:place>. It applies not only\r\nto the Vedas, but to their own scriptures as well. It is the inherent charac­teristic\r\nof the Europeans not to accept anything without putting it to a severe test at\r\nevery step. They are not pre­pared to accept anything on the ground that it has\r\nbeen handed down from generation to generation. <span class=GramE>Needless to\r\nsay that the value of<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt\'> </span>such a habit is\r\nincalculable. And to our misfortune we lost this habit long ago. In the\r\npresent age we take pride in the mere mention of the Vedas without caring to\r\nknow about their contents. We should remain</span><span style=\'font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-64<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>beholden</span>\r\nto the Europeans that a new wave from the West has awakened us to a true spirit\r\nof enquiry.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>It\r\nis quite surprising that very few people in <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region>\r\nhave any acquaintance with the Vedas. Most have not been fortunate enough even\r\nto have a glimpse of this mighty work. But the fate of the Bible has been\r\notherwise in <st1:place>Europe</st1:place>. The common <span class=GramE>run of\r\npeople in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span class=GramE>India</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span\r\nclass=GramE> were</span> satisfied with the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the\r\nPuranas. And the learned few concerned themselves with the Upanishads and the\r\nsix systems of philosophy. Even Rammohan Roy who infused the Hindus with a new\r\nspirit and light could not go beyond the domain of the Upanishads. Besides, the\r\nfew who engaged themselves in a discussion of the Vedas confined themselves\r\nmore to the commentaries on the Vedas than the Vedas proper. The grammar of\r\nPanini, Nirukta, the science of derivation of meanings from the roots, <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Mi­mamsa</span>, the commentaries on\r\nthe Vedas and, above all, the commentaries made by Sayana Acharya made it so\r\ndifficult to understand the text of the Vedas that it looked like the peak of a\r\nmountain that could hardly be reached through deep and intricate forests.\r\nWhenever we heard the name of the Veda, we used to give wide berth to it with\r\nreverential awe. Our object here is not to discuss who or what is res­ponsible\r\nfor such a pass but simply to make a plain state­ment of the bare fact.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><st1:place>Europe</st1:place>\r\nmade bold to launch an assault on this inacces­sible fortress. There is no\r\nreason why the Europeans should have the same feeling of reverence as is\r\naroused in our hearts at the mere mention of the Vedas. To them the Veda is but\r\nan ancient human product. They did not approach it to derive any cultural\r\nbenefit from it. All that they wanted was to make <span class=GramE>themselves</span>\r\nacquainted with the Aryan Hindus. The nebulous veil that existed round the\r\nVedas was rent and set aside by them and they replaced it with the daylight of\r\nmodern thought. We shall later on deal with what followed their rash attempt,\r\nbut it must be admitted at the very<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:.15in;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-65<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>outset</span>\r\nthat, inspired by their example, the Hindus mustered courage to delve into the\r\nVedas. And what did the European scholars, freed from bias, discover? They\r\nfound that the unusual reverence of the Hindus for these scriptures was simply\r\ndue to the traditional superstition devoid of any rational cause. According to\r\nthem, the Vedas are the first attempt of man at literature. They are a mere\r\ncollection of pastoral songs comparable to the lispings of a baby. Man in his\r\nuncultured and innocent state used to feel every object infused with life and\r\nimagined spirits behind the forces Nature. Therefore he prayed to Indra and\r\nVaruna for rain, to the Sun for its rays of light. Frightened by the hurricane\r\nand storm he would implore the <span class=SpellE>Maruts</span> for safety, and\r\nharmed by the soothing beauty of Dawn he would sing her eulogy. <o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.45pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\ngods and demons imagined by the naive and simple mind possessed miraculous\r\npowers — prompted by such notions men used to convey their salutations to those\r\nmighty Beings, ask them for their daily necessities, material prosperity, and\r\nwelfare in the other world after death. Cow and horses were the chief means of\r\ntheir livelihood. So they prayed for cows yielding abundant milk and horses\r\npossessing dynamic strength and energy. They used to fight among themselves —\r\none clan against another — and <span class=GramE>specially</span> against the\r\nrobbers who were the Dravidians of ancient; <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region>,\r\nwhile they were the Aryans who had come from abroad. Hence they needed arms and\r\nweapons and they naturally wanted to defeat the enemy. And that is why they\r\nsought the help of the gods for victory.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>They\r\nused to perform some special rites known as a sacri­fice, in which they would\r\narrange on an altar some dried sticks of holy trees in a particular formation\r\nand kindle a fire in which to pour oblations of clarified butter and many other\r\ngood things. They offered wine (the juice of soma) to the gods and partook of\r\nit themselves. It seems<span class=GramE>,</span> fire was to them a new\r\ndiscovery. That is why they appreciated<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:13.2pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-66<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>its</span>\r\nvalue so much. Moreover, they lived in a frigid snowy region. Hence they looked\r\nupon the fire as the chief Deity of their worship.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>So\r\nfar we have dealt with the Western approach to the Veda. Now let us turn our\r\nattention to the Indian view of the Veda. Acharya Sayana is the foremost\r\nscholar to whom the current Indian view owes its origin. He made a commentary\r\non the whole of the Rigveda. But for his com­mentary it is doubtful if the\r\nEuropean scholars would have succeeded in deriving any meaning from the\r\nabstruse, old and unfamiliar language of this scripture. As a matter of fact,\r\nthe commentaries made by the Western scholars are principally based on his\r\ncommentary. However, he did not consider the Vedic seers to be mere children or\r\nmen at their primitive stage. Nor did he <span class=GramE>lay</span> any\r\nstress on the explanation based on the sights and scenes of physical Nature. He\r\nobserved and understood the Veda from the standpoint of sacrificial rites. He\r\nendeavoured to discover from the Veda the nature of sacrifice and a full\r\naccount of the ceremonies to be performed in a sacrifice. The performance of\r\nsacrifice is a part of the spiritual life and its aim is to bring about soul ­progress\r\nand welfare here and hereafter. The gods dwell in a world known as Heaven. The\r\nforces of Nature are backed by their powers. A particular god presides over a\r\nparticular force of Nature. All the gods are combined in the Universal God, and\r\nall the gods are only the different manifestations of the same Universal God.\r\nIt is the power of the gods which endows men with power, and men too on their\r\npart propitiate the gods through their sacrifices offered to them. The gods are\r\nsatisfied with and nourished by men\'s humble obeisance and their offering of\r\nSoma Rasa, while men in their turn attain to prosperity in this world and\r\nsecure a better status in the other world.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Indians,\r\nwho have received modern education, have been trying to synthesise the\r\ncommentaries of the Western and Eastern scholars on the Veda. Their object is\r\nto portray<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:.15in;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-67<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>the</span>\r\npicture of a society not quite primitive but somewhat primary, by uniting the\r\ninterpretations based on natural phenomena and sacrificial rites.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>If\r\nthis view was considered as giving the real nature of the Veda, the question\r\nwould arise: how could the Veda <span class=GramE>be</span> regarded as the\r\nfoundation of the Aryan genius and the fount of the civilisation and culture of\r\nHindu India? If the Veda were nothing save nursery rhymes and the like, then\r\nhow could it exert a lasting influence on our minds and life through centuries?\r\nThe Bible and the Koran contain some eternal truths beneficial to the life and\r\nconduct of men for all time. But according to the naturalistic interpretation\r\nof the Western scholars and the sacrificial explanation offered by our orthodox\r\nscholars, there is no such elevating or lasting truth in the Veda. Are we then\r\nto suppose that our reverence for the Veda owes its origin merely to a blind\r\nacceptance of a tradition down the sweep of centuries? Our present culture and\r\ncivilisation differs widely from that of our forefathers. How is it that we\r\nhave still a profound admiration for the Veda? Is it precisely because the Veda\r\nserves as the root of our cultural tree adorned <span class=GramE>with a myriad\r\nbranches</span>, with foliage, flowers and fruits? No, the supreme authority of\r\nthe Veda has not been recognised out of mere courtesy. The Shruti has been the\r\nsheet-anchor of our guidance at every step and in every activity of our day-to­-day\r\nlife.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Here\r\narises the second question. The Western and mo­dern scholars are prone to make\r\na difference between the Veda and the Shruti. According to them, the term\r\nShruti is synonymous with the Upanishad and not with the Veda proper. But what\r\nis it that we actually find in the Upanishad that is considered by all\r\nscholars, oriental and occidental, as the repository of knowledge of the\r\nhighest order? The Upanishad has been studied much more than the Veda in <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region>\r\nand abroad. The reason is this that the ideas and language of the Upanishad are\r\nsimpler than<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:12.2pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-68<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>those</span>\r\nof the Veda, and also more familiar to modern thought. The Upanishad is free\r\nfrom all the intricacies of sacrificial rites, ceremonies and obscure mantras,\r\netc. It deals precisely with the clear realised truths that form the basis of\r\nthe philo­sophical doctrines. That is why the Europeans hold that the Upanishad\r\ncomes in as a reaction and protest against the Veda. Towards the end of the\r\nVedic era the Aryan Hindus bade farewell to their cult of Nature-worship and\r\nsacrifices and turned towards the quest of God and metaphysical truths and thus\r\na new era was ushered in. Now, on what ground do the European scholars make\r\nsuch an assertion as regards the historical development of Indian thought? As a\r\nmatter of fact, we do notice that every teacher of Philo­sophy whenever he has\r\ncited anything from the Upanishad has also tried to corroborate it with a\r\nsimilar quotation from the Veda for its justification. There is no iota of\r\nproof that the Upanishad held any view contrary to that of the Veda or ever\r\ncontradicted it. The Upanishad is the culmination of or a complement to the\r\nVeda. Since the advent of the dialectic philosopher Hegel it has become a\r\nfashion among Western scholars to find an antithesis in every field of histo­rical\r\ntruth. From their own history they come to learn that Christianity arose as a\r\nrevolt against the idolatry of the Romans, again Martin Luther and\r\nProtestantism stood out against the Roman Catholic Church. Likewise they are,\r\nas it were, eager to discover a revolt in the religious history of <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region>.\r\nIt is not that such a spirit of antithesis is altogether absent in the history\r\nof Indian religions, but it is utterly meaningless to say that this antithesis\r\nexists as between the Veda and the Upanishad as well. In fact, the Upanishad\r\nhas always approached the Veda most reverentially and hardly failed to mention:\r\n&quot;This we heard from the ancient sages who had explained it to us.&quot;<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.35pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Besides,\r\nin the current commentaries on the Veda we come across explanations which are\r\nat places self-contradictory, inconsistent, lacking in clarity, fanciful and\r\narbitrary. The<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:9.35pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-69<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>same</span>\r\nword has been used at different places to convey different meanings without any\r\njustification, and also at times the commentators have been constrained to keep\r\nsilent or to confess that they could make neither head nor tail of a passage, a\r\nsentence or a word. For instance, the word <span class=SpellE>ghrta</span>\r\n(clarified butter) has been explained as jala (water) and the word\r\nwater has been used for <span class=SpellE>antariksa</span> (ether)\r\nand the word vyoman (ether) has been interpreted as <span class=SpellE>prthivi</span>\r\n(earth). That is why in the interpretations of Sayana or Ramesh Dutta, in\r\nspite of their supplying synonyms of words, a passage taken as a whole appears\r\nto be quite odd, confusing and utterly meaningless. One is at a loss to know\r\nwhether one should indulge in laughter or shed tears over such a performance.\r\nIt may be argued that the Veda was written in a remote <span class=GramE>antiquity,</span>\r\nhence much of its archaic language is not likely to be understood by men of the\r\npresent age. It is enough on our part to be able to form a general idea of it.\r\nBut when one has to resort to a makeshift hocus-pocus even for gathering this\r\ngeneral idea, then it becomes quite clear that there must have been some serious\r\nblunder somewhere. If it were possible to get the general idea of the Veda\r\nquite easily, then all the interpreters would necessarily have pursued it. But\r\nunfortunately in the present age we find that besides the sacrificial and\r\nnaturalistic inter­pretations there are historical (by Abinash Chandra Das),\r\ngeographical (by Umesh Chandra Vidyaratna), astrono­mical (by Tilak),\r\nscientific (by Paramasiva <span class=SpellE>Aiyar</span>) and even an\r\ninterpretation based on Chemistry (by Narayan Gaur) and so on and so forth.\r\nMany minds, many ways: nowhere else may this oft-quoted adage be so aptly\r\napplied as in the case of the multifarious interpretations of the Veda. A few\r\nportions of the Veda that had appealed to an interpreter most in accordance\r\nwith his own bent of mind gave him the impetus to endeavour to interpret the\r\nwhole of the Veda in that light. The result has been that the same sloka has\r\nbeen interpreted in ever so many ways. But none of these<span style=\'font-size:\r\n10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-70<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyText style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><span class=GramE><span style=\'font-size:12.0pt\'>interpreters has even attempted interpreting the whole or the\r\nmajor portion of the Veda. From this we can dare con­clude that the key to the\r\nproper interpretation of the Vedic mysteries has not hitherto been found. All\r\nare but groping in the dark.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt\'>(2)<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:12.0pt\'>What is then the proper way to be followed for the\r\nright understanding of the Vedas? We have, in this respect, to adopt the same\r\nprinciple which forms the key to all ancient literatures. We needs must be\r\nacquainted with the texts of the Vedas proper with an unbiased mind empty of\r\nall preconceived notions. The commentators, the annotators, the grammarians,\r\nthe rhetoricians join, as it were, to create a world of confusion. Far from\r\ngetting an access to the sanc­tum we get lost in wandering mazes. That is why\r\nwe have been deprived of getting <span\r\nstyle=\"font-size:12pt;\">a first-hand\r\nknowledge of the Vedas. The commentators may be at most helpers. But if we\r\nattach too much importance to their commentaries, it will inevi­tably turn them\r\ninto an obstacle. First, it is of paramount importance to know the central idea\r\nof the Vedas, the view­point of the, Rishis. The help of the commentators and\r\nthe annotators may be necessary later on when we go into details. Needless to\r\nsay that if we get into the bitter controversies of commentators, we are sure\r\nto be deadly confused. So at the very outset we have to be acquainted with the\r\nbare texts of the Vedas. This method is applicable to all litera­tures. We must\r\nread poetry in the original in order to appre­ciate its true spirit, leaving\r\naside all criticisms on it. For, men endowed with the power of true appreciation\r\nof poetry are rarely found in the present generation. We are more familiar with\r\nthe commentaries on the works of Shakespeare and Kalidasa than with their\r\noriginals.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent style=\'text-align:justify; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:\r\n12.0pt\'>However, to be at home in the central theme of the Vedas, the method\r\nthat we should follow is: to proceed from the</span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent align=center style=\'text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Page-71<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n8.15pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>known</span>\r\nto the unknown. In the Vedic texts we often come across some important words\r\nthat admit of no ambiguity. With the help of the obvious meanings of these\r\nwords we have to find out the implications of the words partly obscure or\r\ntotally obscure. In the Vedas there are such mantras (incantations), sentences\r\nand words in abundance which reflect modern ideas and appear quite familiar to\r\nthe present-day intellect. It is at once advisable and reasonable to accept\r\nsuch self-evident meanings. It is of no avail to leave aside such clear\r\nmeanings and seek out roundabout abstruse meanings on the ground that what we\r\nare dealing with are the Vedas, the writings of hoary antiquity. Ekam sad <span\r\nclass=SpellE>vipra</span> <span class=SpellE>bahudha</span> vadanti (The\r\none Truth is expressed differently by the men of knowledge) or, tat Visno\r\nparam padam...<span class=SpellE>diviva</span> <span class=SpellE>cakuratatam</span>\r\n(That is the supreme Status of Vishnu, as if an Eye wide open in the\r\nheavens) or, Brhaspatih prathamam <span class=SpellE>jayama</span>\r\nmano <span class=GramE>jyotisah<span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp; </span>parame\r\nVyoman (Brihaspati being born first as a great Light in the supreme\r\nHeaven)-the meanings of these words are by no means obscure or ambiguous. The\r\nmeanings as well as the ideas with which these words are infused are quite\r\nplain and clear enough. These expressions convey no indication of the lisping\r\nof the babe or an aborigine or an uncultured mind or even a ritualistic mind.\r\nHere we find expressions of a mature mind enlightened with knowledge flowing\r\nfrom a profound realisation of Truth. Neither the befitting rhythm nor rhyme is\r\nmissing. Further, </span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=SpellE>Codayitri</span>\r\n<span class=SpellE>sunrtanam</span> <span class=SpellE>cetanti</span>\r\n<span class=SpellE>sumatinam</span><o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;tab-stops:18.95pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=GramE>yajñam</span> dadhe <span class=SpellE>sarasvati</span>.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;tab-stops:18.95pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Maho\r\narnah <span class=SpellE>sarasvati</span> pra cetayati <span class=SpellE>ketuna</span><o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;tab-stops:18.95pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=GramE>dhiyo</span> <span class=SpellE>visva</span> vi\r\n<span class=SpellE>rajati</span>. (1.3.11<span class=GramE>,12</span>)</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;tab-stops:18.95pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:9.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent2 style=\'text-align:justify; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&quot;She, the impeller\r\nto happy truths, the awakener in consciousness to right mentalisings,\r\nSaraswati, upholds the sacrifice.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent2 align=center style=\'text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;line-height:200%;\'>Page-72<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:8.15pt;\r\nline-height:12.95pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:8.15pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&quot;Saraswati,\r\nby the perception awakens in consciousness the great flood (the vast movement\r\nof the <span class=SpellE>rtam</span>) and illu­mines\r\nentirely all the thoughts.&quot; <span class=GramE>(Translated by Sri Aurobindo).</span><o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:8.15pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>In\r\nthis instance too the fundamental idea is not some­thing very abstruse. It is\r\ncommonsense that the theme is related to the experience of Truth, the spiritual\r\nrealisation and psychological concept. Acharya Sayana was at sea to interpret\r\nthese few slokas in the light of natural phenomena and sacrificial ceremonies,\r\nso much so that he provokes our laughter as well as a sense of pity. We know\r\nSaraswati as the Deity of knowledge. So it is natural that the words <span\r\nclass=SpellE>dhiyavasuh</span> (one whose wealth consists of\r\npure intellect), dhiyo <span class=SpellE>visvah</span> (universal\r\nintellect), or words like sumati (right movements of thought) should be\r\napplicable to Saraswati. The word <span class=SpellE>dhi</span> (pure\r\nintellect) is well-known. But such an obvious meaning does not serve Sayana\'s\r\npurpose. So he used karma (action), i.e. the action of showering\r\nas a syno­nym for <span class=SpellE>dhi</span>. In another\r\nplace concerning Mitra and Varuna it has been said that these two gods made up\r\nsuch <span class=SpellE>dhi</span>, as is <span\r\nclass=SpellE>ghrtacim</span>, literally &quot;besmeared\r\nwith ghrta&quot; (dhiyam <span class=SpellE>ghrtacim</span> <span\r\nclass=SpellE>sadhanta</span> - 1.2.7). But according to the\r\ninterpreter Sayana, the phrase dhiyarh <span class=SpellE>ghrtacim</span>\r\nmeans the rain that pours water! In some other context (1.14.6) Sayana\r\nhimself says that the root <span class=SpellE>ghr</span> may also\r\nmean &quot;to make something shine&quot;; so the plain meaning of dhiyarh <span\r\nclass=SpellE>ghrtacim</span> is the “enlightened intellect.” But\r\nSayana preferred to interpret the word ghrta (lit. clarified butter) as\r\nwater and rains. If we refer to the context where Sayana explains ghrta as\r\n“effulgence” it will be clearer to us that this effulgence is not even the\r\nphysical external light; it refers to the inner illumination. There (1.14.6)\r\nAgni (fire) has been called (one with a blazing front; along with this\r\nadjective another adjective, namely manoyujah has also been used; it\r\nmeans that Agni has to be brought under control with the help of the mind. This\r\nvery truth has been expressed elsewhere by the sage Vishwa<span class=GramE><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:11.0pt\'>mitra: </span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:10.55pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-73<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span class=GramE><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:11.0pt\'>&quot;Kindling the Vaishwanara fire with the aid of the mind.&quot; Agni is kavi-kratu.\r\nSayana himself has explained the word kratu as making or action. We\r\nwould like to call it the power of action – the Greek kratos. So kavi-kratu\r\nwould mean one endowed with the power of action, the creative genius. It is\r\nwell known that the Kavi, the poet, is a creator. The Veda has applied the\r\nepithet kavi to all the gods as well as to a man who has, attained or realised\r\nthe divine knowledge. Agni kavikratuh means the dynamic power of vision.\r\nBut this plain meaning amounts to a profound spiritual concept and ceases to be\r\nthe fire with which we are familiar; that is why Sayana <span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;</span>explains \'Kavi\' as \'Kranta\' – and \'Kavi-kratu\'\r\nas the one who performs the action of sacrifice. We cite another instance. It\r\nis known to us all – I speak of the Gayatri Mantra: Tat saviturvarenyam Bhargo\r\ndevasya <span class=GramE style=\"font-size:11pt;\">dhimahi, dhiyo yo nah prachodayat (Let our intelligence dwell on the\r\nbeloved light of that. creative godhead, the Sun who is the Creator, so that he\r\nmay endow us with the right intelligence.)¹ It is clearly stated in the\r\nUpanishad: &quot;Savitre satyaprasavaya (the\r\nSun is the origin of truth). Fur­ther, the sun of knowledge and the light of knowledge\r\nare not expressions unfamiliar to us. We always make use of such comparisons\r\nand allegories. If ever the Vedic sages made use of such a comparison, then has\r\nit to be regarded as something describing mere natural phenomena? Finally we\r\ncannot resist the temptation of quoting another instance. This will serve as a\r\ntypical example as to what extent quite a simple idea can be twisted. And it\r\nwill enable us to appreciate what a terrible injustice the Veda has to suffer\r\nat the hands of the commentators. The phrase amrtasya vani\r\nthat is found in the Veda should convey to all the essence of the Veda. But\r\ndo you know what meaning Sayana has ascribed to it? He has translated amrtasya vani (the message of immortality) as\r\nthe current of water. Can we be at one with him? In fact, what we want to say\r\nis that the Veda is the expression of<span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp; </span></span></span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt\'>¹ Rigveda 111.62.10.</span></span><span style=\'font-size:\r\n10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-74<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n8.15pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Yogic realisations,\r\nspiritual experiences, the knowledge of the ultimate Truth; It is thus that we\r\ncan discover the funda­mental concept and the esoteric mystery of the Veda. If\r\nwe follow this course we shall find how easily and consistently the meaning of\r\nthe whole Veda unfolds itself and becomes crystal-clear. No doubt, at places if\r\nwe want to delve into the minutest detail, there will be occasions for\r\nuncertainty and confusion. But it will not prove an obstacle to the ap­prehension\r\nof the fundamental truths of the Veda provided we can rightly focus the\r\nattention of our intelligence on it. Can we not have any access to the\r\nMahabharata because of Vyasakutas¹ (the knotty expressions devised by Vyasa)?\r\nBesides, if we admit the esoteric basis of the Veda, we will get a reasonable\r\nclue to the fact as to why the Veda is held in such high esteem in the culture\r\nand education of the Hindus.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.6pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nmoment we enter into the Vedas we are confronted with a medley of confusions.\r\nSpirituality, philosophical ideas, mystic words, magic sentences, colourful\r\nphrases, physical images are scattered all around. Expressions of what appears\r\nto us as spiritual truths are housed there side by side with ceremonial,\r\nnatural, historical, geographical, social, even chemical and other ideas. Now\r\nthe question may arise as to which ideas are fundamental and which secondary,\r\nwhich are the roots, which the branches. The Western scholars are not at all\r\nprepared to countenance spiritual and philosophical implications in the Vedas,\r\nfor they are afraid lest thereby their pet theories should be re­duced to dust.\r\nThey say that it is no wonder if in the course of Nature-worship when the\r\nRishis were making prayers to the presiding Deities of Nature some expressions\r\nof philo<span class=GramE>sophical</span>\r\n</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:7.9pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n9.8pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>¹<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:9.0pt\'>When the sage Vyasa made a request to Ganesh to record\r\nhis version of the Mahabharata, the latter agreed to do so on condition that he\r\nmust not be made to stop his writing. The sage agreed provided Ganesh would not\r\nonly write but understand his words. It is said that in order to gain time for\r\ncomposition the sage would use some knotty expressions so that Ganesh might\r\ntake time to understand them.</span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n9.8pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-75<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n8.15pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>ideas sprang from their lips. These scholars are of the opinion that the Rishis\r\ndid not mean what they said. If we with our modern mind try to discover\r\nabstract and philosophical truths therein, then it will amount to an im­position\r\nof modern ideas on those of the Rishis of yore. However, they have not\r\nsucceeded in giving a connected, systematic and plausible interpretation of the\r\nwhole of the Veda. The great Max Müller is a striking example of the failure of\r\nthis method. He had translated the word \'Paramahansa,\' by &quot;the great\r\ngoose&quot;! It is quite inevitable that such a word-for-word literal translation\r\nof the Veda would bring about no solution.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;</span><span style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Sayana\r\nhas given a ceremonial interpretation of the Veda. Nevertheless, he has not\r\nforbidden any other different interpretation. He has clearly admitted that a\r\nspiritual interpretation is quite possible. Not only that; at good many places\r\nhe has appended alternative spiritual inter­pretations. Even at places where\r\nany other interpretation did not appear at all plausible, he has resorted\r\nsolely to the spiritual interpretation¹. Be that as it may, Sayana was\r\ncommitted to the ceremonial interpretation. He made it a rule to bring in this\r\ninterpretation in order to show how a particular sacrifice was to be performed;\r\nhe has recourse to the Veda only to establish sacrificial ceremonies in\r\nsociety. In fact, he had a particular end in view in accord­ance with which he\r\nwent along his way. Not only in Sayana, but also in the ancient book on\r\nGrammar, Nirukta, we come across traces of spiritual interpretation. Let\r\nus cite here only one instance: sarira-madhyavarti... (Indra designated\r\nas the Knower of the field (nature), as Life that resides in the body). This is\r\none of the interpretations of the word \'Indra\' given by the author of Nirukta.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>But\r\nas a matter of fact, the Vedas are not merely literary works; they are aphorisms\r\nfor spiritual practice. And he who is devoid of spiritual experiences has no\r\nright to meddle<span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=GramE>¹<span style=\'font-size:9.0pt\'>E.g., 1.16.4.</span></span><span style=\'font-size:\r\n10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-76<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>with</span>\r\nthe Vedas. What is imperatively necessary is the puri­fication of .the heart.\r\nWe want to determine the meaning of the Vedic language through discussion and\r\nhair-splitting arguments, but we do not know, nor do we try to get at, the\r\nesoteric meaning of which the language is but the outer expression. We have long\r\nlost the spiritual practice on which the secrets of the Vedas are founded. So\r\nit is no wonder that this faculty of argument should lead us astray. This truth\r\nhas already been declared by the Upanishad: <span class=SpellE>naisa</span>\r\n<span class=SpellE>tarkena</span> <span class=SpellE>matiraPaneya</span>\r\n(&quot;This wisdom cannot be gained by reasoning&quot;.)</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>In\r\nfact, first we must have an access to the Upanishads, <span class=GramE>then</span>\r\nonly can we hope to understand the esoteric truths of the Vedas. It is the\r\nUpanishads that can claim to be the first exposition of and commentary on the\r\nliving ideas of the Vedas. The Upanishad is spiritual realisation, supra­physical\r\nexperience, mystic perception and inner vision. The Katha Upanishad has clearly\r\nindicated: sarve <span class=SpellE>veda</span> <span class=SpellE>yatpadamamananti</span>...¹\r\n(&quot;The seat or goal that all the Vedas glorify and which austerities declare,\r\nfor the desire of which men practise holy living, of That will I tell thee in\r\nbrief compass. <st1:place>OM</st1:place> is that goal, OM Nachiketas.&quot;²)</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.8pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>We\r\nhave already said that the seers of the Upanishads have time and again cited\r\nthe Vedic mantras while expound­ing their own philosophical truths. So it is\r\nquite reasonable if we place the Veda on the same footing with their spiritual\r\nphilosophy and do not consider the former as something exclusively dealing with\r\nNature and ceremonies. <span class=GramE>For example, <span class=SpellE>dva</span>\r\n<span class=SpellE>suparna</span>... (&quot;Two birds,\r\nbeautiful of wing, close companions, cling to one common tree: of the two one\r\neats the sweet fruit of the tree, the other eats not but</span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:7.9pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n9.6pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n9.6pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>¹ <span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:9.0pt\'>Shankara has explained the words sarve <span\r\nstyle=\"font-size:9pt;\">vedah as &quot;a portion of the Vedas&quot;, that\r\nis to say, the Upanishads. But how<span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>can sarve (&quot;the whole&quot;)\r\nbecome a portion? Shankara considered the Vedas as something ceremonial, ritual\r\nand sacrificial. Hence he had to give a distorted explanation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.6pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;</span><span style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>²\r\n<span style=\'font-size:9.0pt\'>Translated by Sri Aurobindo</span>.<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n9.6pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-77<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>watches</span>\r\nhis fellow.&quot;¹) <span class=GramE>This</span> sloka of the Mundaka Upa­nishad\r\nis bodily taken out of the mantras (1.164.20) of Dirghatamas, the Rishi of the\r\nRigveda. Or take agne naya<span style=\'font-family:Arial\'> </span><span\r\nclass=SpellE>supatha</span>...<span style=\'font-family:Arial\'> </span>(&quot;O\r\n<span class=GramE>god</span> Agni, knowing all things that are mani­fested,\r\nlead us by the good path to the felicity; remove from us the devious attraction\r\nof sin. To thee completest speech of submission we would dispose.&quot;²) <span\r\nclass=GramE>This</span> last utterance of the Isha Upanishad derives from a\r\nmantra in the Rigveda. Rishi Agastya begins his Agni Sukta (Hymns to the Mystic\r\nFire) (1.189) with this mantra. Thus the Upanishads have made liberal use of\r\ninnumerable Vedic mantras. No doubt, the Upanishads do not always exactly\r\nrepeat the Vedic mantras. But even there the words and ideas are so similar\r\nthat we find no difficulty in saying that they possess the same vision of-the\r\ninner Self.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=SpellE>Vedaham</span> etam <span class=SpellE>purusam</span>...\r\n(&quot;I know this Purusha, Supreme, of the Light of the Sun, beyond the\r\ndarkness.&quot;) We all know that this is a famous utterance of the Upanishad.\r\nBut do we know that it is a mere ocho of the Vedic mantra udvayam\r\ntamasaspari... (1.50.10) (&quot;We have seen the supreme Light beyond the <span\r\nclass=GramE>darkness,</span> we have attained the God amongst the gods, the\r\nSun, the Supreme Light.&quot;)? Or, <span class=SpellE>hdra</span>\r\n<span class=SpellE>manasa</span>...3 &quot;in the heart and the mind\r\nand the super­mind He is seated&quot;). A similar truth we find in the Veda\r\nalso: hrdi <span class=SpellE>pratisya</span> 4... <span\r\nclass=GramE>(&quot;The seers discerning Him in the heart by the, supramental\r\nIntelligence&quot;).</span> Or, <span class=SpellE>Indraya</span>\r\n<span class=SpellE>manasa</span> <span class=SpellE>manisa</span> <span\r\nclass=SpellE>pratnaya</span>... 5 (&quot;The thinkers purify their\r\nintellect by the mind for their Lord, the ancient Indra&quot;). Have not the\r\nVedas expounded the psychological personality of Indra in these few words?<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;</span><span style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Further,\r\nthe few words of Vishwamitra that we have<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.8pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;</span><span style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>¹\r\n<span style=\'font-size:9.0pt\'>Translated by Sri Aurobindo.</span> </p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.8pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;</span><span style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span\r\nclass=GramE>² <span style=\'font-size:9.0pt\'>ibid.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.8pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;</span><span style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span\r\nclass=GramE>³<span style=\'font-size:9.0pt\'>Katha Upanishad.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:\r\n8.0pt\'><span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;</span><span style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span\r\nclass=GramE><span style=\'font-size:8.0pt\'>4 Ri</span><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:9.0pt\'>gveda X.\r\n129.4.</span></span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:\r\n8.0pt\'><span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;</span><span style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style=\"font-size:8pt;\">5<span\r\nclass=GramE><span style=\'font-size:12.0pt\'> </span><span style=\'font-size:\r\n9.0pt\'>Ibid. </span><st1:place><span\r\n style=\'font-size:9.0pt\'>I.</span></st1:place><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:9.0pt\'> 61.2.</span></span></span></span><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n9.8pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-78<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>already</span>\r\ncited about Agni: <span class=SpellE>vaisvanaram</span> <span\r\nclass=SpellE>manasagnim</span> <span class=SpellE>nicayya</span>... (&quot;discerning\'\r\nFire, the universal Godhead, by the mind&quot;) have been explained by the\r\nUpanishad: svargyamagnim naciketah <span class=SpellE>prajanan</span>...\r\n(&quot;Hearken to me and understand, O Nachiketas; I declare to thee that\r\nheavenly Flame, for I know it. Know this to be the possession of infinite\r\nexistence and the foundation and the thing hidden in the secret cave of ourbeing.&quot;¹)</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.8pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>There\r\nare innumerable words common to the Vedas and the Upanishads that convey\r\nimplications of such recon­dite profound ideas: satyam (Truth), ream (Right),\r\namrtam (Immortality), brhat (Vastness), <span class=SpellE>dhi</span>\r\n(Knowledge) and jyoti {Light). The spiritual meanings of such, words\r\nthat the Upanishads have discovered are not likely to have been degraded in\r\ntheir application in the Vedas. To hold that the Vedas have used these in an\r\nordinary sense must be a wrong view. To say that the Upanishads have taken only\r\nthe words from the Vedas and not their significance and have used materialistic\r\nwords with spiritual meanings is in our view nothing but prejudice. The\r\nUpanishads are packed with the words of the Vedas, and they have re­peatedly\r\nmade use of them so aptly that it is doubtful if the Upanishads could have used\r\nthem in that way had there been no such meaning already attached to them. The\r\nvibration of truth-realisation with which every word, every mantra of the Vedas\r\nis resonant could not be caught by the ears of the grammarians of our country\r\nor those of the European scholars.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Not\r\nto speak of the Upanishads, even in the Puranas, the Mahabharata and such other\r\nscriptures we come across many peculiarities worth noticing. If<b> </b>we just\r\ncarefully study these religious books of ours, we do learn that there are many\r\nnames, places, stories and legends which are but outer garments or\r\ntransfigurations of some truth-principles. One or two instances will serve our\r\npurpose. According </p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>¹ <span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:9.0pt\'>Translated by Sri Aurobindo.</span><span style=\'font-size:\r\n10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-79<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>to</span>\r\nthe Puranas the name of Surya\'s wife <span class=SpellE>samjña</span>\r\n– &quot;con­sciousness&quot;. If we accept the Vedic meaning of Surra as\r\nthe source of truth, then it does not become difficult for us to understand the\r\nsignificance of this word. Again, let us take the word &quot;Goloka&quot;.\r\nGoloka is the dwelling-place of Vishnu. If we take the word &quot;go&quot; for\r\nlight, the light of su­pernal knowledge, then <span class=SpellE>devanamuparistacca</span>\r\n<span class=SpellE>gavah</span> prativasanti vai (&quot;The Ray-Cows\r\ndwell even above the gods&quot;) of the Mahabharata can no longer remain\r\nabstruse or ambiguous to us.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Now\r\nthe legend of Savitri-Satyavan arrests our attention. The very names Savitri\r\nand Satyavan are immediately inspiring truths. In the Vedas the Truth-Sun is\r\nsynony­mous with Savitr. As Purusha he is Satyavan, and Savitri is his\r\nShakti. Every aspirant is aware of the fact that it is the Truth\'s own faith\r\nand power that can free the Truth from the grip of Matter, Ignorance and Death.\r\nHowever, one may not believe that whatsoever the Puranas say must be based on\r\nsome truth or other. Nevertheless, we do not hesitate to assert that at the\r\ncore of the teaching of the Puranas there lies a truth-secret - a Vedic or\r\nUpanishadic realisation. The Puranas too have an esoteric meaning based on the\r\ntruth of the Vedic and Upanishadic realizations which have been colourfully\r\nrelated in the form of stories and legends for the easy comprehension of the\r\nmasses.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent3 style=\'margin-left:4.5pt;text-align:justify; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:12.0pt\'><span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>To be sure,\r\nthe Puranas cannot be accepted as commen­taries on the Vedas. No, not even the\r\nUpanishads can dare claim to be so. The Vedas alone are the proper commen­taries\r\non the Vedas. And to understand the Vedas no other book can be our guide save\r\nthe Vedas. No doubt, the Upanishads stand quite close to them, and they\r\nabundantly possess the Vedic ideas. But at the same time we must know that the\r\ndissimilarities too are not negligible. The concept of Matter in the Vedas and\r\nthe concept of Spirit in the Upa­nishads - even if we fail to find a connecting\r\nlink between the two, still we can be sure that the Vedas and the Upanishads­<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent3 align=center style=\'text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-80<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoBodyTextIndent3 align=center style=\'text-align:center\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>are</span>\r\nthe two principles of one spirituality. To repeat it once again, we should\r\nfirst endeavour to understand the easy and clear portions of the Vedas and then\r\ntry to discover their more abstruse and obscure truths. And we have sought to\r\nexplain to our readers that the interpretation attempted here, the spiritual\r\ninterpretation, means an interpretation of the basic principle of the Veda.¹\r\nBut for that there <span class=GramE>is the need of the right attitude for\r\nlooking at things and their right understanding</span>. Those who will approach\r\nthe Vedas with an ordinary intellect for the mere satisfaction of an\r\nintellectual curiosity will hardly be able to grasp the true significance of\r\nthe Vedas. What does the Veda itself say about the Rishis? <span class=GramE>rtasapa</span>\r\nasantsakam<span style=\'font-family:Arial\'>...² </span>(Guardians of\r\nthe Truth, they are with the gods, speaking the Truths with them.) They were knowers\r\nof the true nature of truth and they used to commune with the gods through the\r\ninterchange of truth-principles. Therefore the study of the Vedas on the part\r\nof those who have no seeking or aspiration for the attainment of the truth is\r\nbound to prove futile – a casting of seeds in the desert.<span\r\nstyle=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>(3)<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The angle of vision from\r\nwhich the Europeans look at the Vedas has to be traced to its starting-point in\r\nthe modern theory of evolution. <st1:place>Europe</st1:place> has been a victim\r\nto this theory. It has <span class=SpellE>coloured</span> the entire outlook of\r\n<st1:place>Europe</st1:place>. Evolution<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:7.65pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n9.8pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>¹ <span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt\'>Our interpretation of the Vedas, strictly speaking, is\r\nnot to be called a spiritual interpretation. It is rather the interpretation of\r\nthe essential principles of creation. The spiritual naturally implies the\r\ndoctrine of Brahman ex­pounded in the Upanishads. The Vedas do not exactly deal\r\nwith the doctrine of Brahman. They speak of the essential principles ranging\r\nfrom gross to subtle and subtler ones, present in the macrocosm and microcosm\r\n(somewhat like the 24 principles of the <span\r\nstyle=\"font-size:10pt;\">Sankhya\r\nPhilosophy). The Vedas describe the na­ture, function and mutual relation of\r\nthese basic principles and initiate us into a discipline whereby the lesser\r\nprinciples can be transmuted into the higher ones.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.8pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:9.8pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=GramE><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt\'>² Rigveda 1.179.2.</span></span><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n9.8pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-81<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>means</span>\r\ngradual progression. Man and human society are undergoing a change for the\r\nbetter. In antiquity man was just a little remote from the animal. His\r\nintelligence gradually developed. His conduct has become polished. Thus he has\r\ngrown into what he is today. The more we cast our glance into the past, the\r\nmore shall we come across man\'s original, primitive and immature <span\r\nclass=GramE>nature.</span> As the Vedas owe their origin to a hoary past, it is\r\n<span class=GramE>a</span> axiomatic that there can be no solid philosophical\r\ntruth and spiritual experience in them. It is vain to seek for something in the\r\nVedas that can satisfy the modern scientific mind. Hence any such attempt will\r\nend in utter failure.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.4pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>In\r\nmodern times those very scientists are confronted with an anomalous phenomenon\r\nsupported by irrefutable evi­dence. Many scientific theories are going to be\r\nupset by the new discoveries. Archaeological excavation has been furnishing\r\nmore and more evidence of ancient culture and education. These discoveries go\r\nto prove that the ancients were not immature in the least in their mental\r\nfaculties, education and culture. On the contrary, we find in them signs of\r\nsuperior qualities and endeavours. Strangely enough, these archaeological finds\r\nare found in the places which were so long considered by us to be inhabited by\r\nbarbarians. The wonderful artistic works and remnants of scientific\r\nachievements that we meet with among the discoveries made in the dense forests\r\nof <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>, in\r\nthe archipelago of the Pacific, beneath the <st1:place><st1:PlaceType>desert</st1:PlaceType>\r\n of <st1:PlaceName>Central</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> <st1:place>Asia</st1:place>\r\nhave hardly any parallel in this much vaunted scientific age. The Egyptians and\r\nthe Babylonians have created a tradition. But the hoary past of their source is\r\njust being revealed. <st1:country-region><st1:place>Greece</st1:place></st1:country-region>\r\nwas consi­dered to be the mainspring of European culture and civili­sation. But\r\nthat a still more civilised race had inhabited the neighbouring <st1:place><st1:PlaceType>island</st1:PlaceType>\r\n of <st1:PlaceName>Crete</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> can by no means be denied\r\nnow. The older civilisations of Atlantis, Sumeria, Akad, Aztec, Maya and Toltec\r\nno longer appear to be mere poetical imaginations. We are wonder-struck by such\r\namaz<span class=SpellE><span\r\nclass=GramE>ing</span> </span><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:11.0pt\'>\r\n<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:13.4pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:9.0pt;\'>Page-82<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span class=SpellE>prehistoric achievements. We can hardly assert\r\nthat we possess a culture and civilisation superior to theirs. According to the\r\nBiblical statement the world came into existence only four thousand years ago.\r\nThis statement had left its stamp unawares on the mind of the European savants.\r\nAt present, not to speak of the age of the world or of the advent of man, the\r\nage of civilised man can itself be put at about a lakh of years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>As\r\nthere is evolution in Nature, it is quite natural that there should be\r\nevolution in man as well. But the notion of the scientists that evolution\r\nproceeds in a straight line and is discernible within a short period has\r\ncrumbled .to dust. We have now begun to understand that evolution proceeds in a\r\nzigzag spiral movement, through rises and falls, in pro­gressions and\r\nretrogressions. And the extent of that slow movement can, hardly be conceived.\r\nWe are going to recognise in effect the Indian conception of time, namely,\r\nages, cycles presided over by some great creators (Manus). As a result, we have\r\nbeen discovering things not commensurate with the undeveloped, immature and\r\nancient minds of our conception. So some scientists and philosophers are of the\r\nopinion that the ancients we know of were on the downward curve of a higher\r\ncivilisation of the past unknown to us,<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:dotted 97.4pt 160.05pt;mso-layout-grid-align:\r\nnone;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>If we consider man to be a sufficiently old creature\r\non earth and that his evolution runs in a spiral movement, then the statement\r\nthat the Aryans of the Vedic age were not highly advanced cannot be regarded as\r\nan axiomatic truth. Of course, there is no hard and fast rule that the edu­cation,\r\nculture and realisation of the Vedic age should have been similar to those of\r\nmodern times. But their widely differing outlook and activities need not be\r\ninferior to ours. True, Valmiki and Rabindranath are not peers of the same\r\ngrain. On that account we cannot definitely assign a higher status to\r\nRabindranath. To consider the Vedic seers inferior to the modern scientists\r\nsimply because they do not resemble there is nothing but a stark superstition.<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:.15in;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:dotted 97.4pt 160.05pt;\r\nmso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\r\n\'>Page-83<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:10.55pt;\r\nline-height:12.95pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>As\r\na matter of fact, here lies the greatest folly of the moderns. We fail to\r\narrive at the angle of vision of the ancients. We fail to comprehend that there\r\nwas a time when this ancient culture was as living as that of today. As the\r\nEuropeans used to take us for rustics because of our bare body and eating with\r\nhands and. such other habits, even so we conclude from the words go (cow),\r\n<span class=SpellE>asva</span> (horse), somarasa (wine)\r\nand devas (gods) etc., that the Vedic seers were no better than\r\nprimitives. For in our conception the men of knowledge speak of no such\r\nmaterial subjects. They would rather deal with metaphysical discourses and\r\nscientific researches. We want to measure the ferment in the brain of the\r\nancients by that of our own. We forget the very fact that they had a culture of\r\ntheir own which need not tally with ours. In fact, the truth attained by the\r\nancients was not the outcome of an intellect given to mundane things. Rather\r\nthe criticism may be applied to our present-day intellect.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nprocess of syllogistic reasoning with which we usually try to get to the truth\r\nwas not their method. They had a direct perception of truth. They used to live\r\nthe truth they realised. Besides this rational faculty, man has other faculties\r\nwhich are at once subtler, deeper and wider. To develop these superior\r\nfaculties so that one may realise and live the ultimate Truth was the sole\r\nideal of the Vedic Rishis. The principal instrument, of their knowledge was\r\nneither the senses nor even the mind or intellect but the subtle concen­trated\r\ninsight and perception of the inner Being. In its introspection for discovering\r\nthis fundamental power of knowledge the Kena Upanishad says, &quot;By\r\nwhom missioned falls the mind shot to its mark<span class=GramE>?..</span> That\r\nwhich is hearing behind the hearing, mind of the mind, the word behind the <span\r\nclass=GramE>speech, that</span> too is life of the life-breath, sight behind\r\nthe sight.&quot;¹</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;</span>The faculty of knowledge of the Rishis was\r\nbased on this </p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:\r\n0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;</span>¹ <span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:9.0pt\'>Translated by Sri Aurobindo</span>.<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-84<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=GramE>s<a name=go></a>ubtle</span> realisation. And this subtle\r\nrealisation has its different levels, classifications and variations which the\r\nVedic seers have termed <span class=GramE>Ila</span>, Saraswati, Sarama and\r\nDakshina. These four names have been plausibly interpreted as <span\r\nclass=SpellE>sruti</span> (Reve­lation), smrti (Inspiration),\r\nbodhi (Intuition) and viveka (Dis­crimination). We are not going\r\nto probe further into <span class=GramE>the<span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;\r\n</span>mystery. We just want to point out the difference between the\r\noutlook of the ancients and that of the moderns.</span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>The ancient seers dealt with supraphysical\r\ntruths. Modern science and philosophy deal with abstract concepts. But these\r\nconcepts are born of the rational intellect. We may call them theories,\r\nwell-arranged and systematised; hence nothing extraordinary. But the ancient\r\nseers realised and tried to express the transcendental Truth and its Power.\r\nThere is a play of Power behind the world of phenomena which at once resolves itself\r\ninto more and more subtle forms and evolves from the deepest level to the\r\ngrosser manifesta­tions. The seers of yore were wont to study the origin and\r\nnature of all the different stages. <span class=GramE>of</span> subtle forms\r\nknitting them into a system. By virtue of their spiritual insight they\r\ndiscovered that the world consists of different levels of exis­tence — sphere\r\nafter sphere ranging from the gross to the subtle, peak after peak in an\r\nascending order. One existence runs through them all. The <span class=GramE>supreme</span>\r\nBeing is there in each part. The Power of the self-same Being works in each and\r\nevery part, differing in form and function in different levels of\r\nmanifestation. Nevertheless there is <span class=GramE>a symmetry</span> due to\r\nthe fact that all becomings and their dynamis proceed from one fundamental\r\nBeing. Again, the truth in one level is reflected on other levels, for it is\r\nthe same Power of the Supreme Being that travels from the most subtle to the <span\r\nclass=GramE>most gross</span> manifestation. So there is a parallelism in the\r\nnature of all the levels of existence.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp; </span>As for instance, when the Vedic seers speak\r\nof fire, they mean something of which the gross form is fire and which itself\r\nis tejas (luminous energy) in its subtle form. In the spiri<span\r\nclass=GramE>tual</span> </p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-85<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>world, in its subtler form it is called energising con­sciousness.\r\nLikewise the sun is, serially and simultaneously, light, the power of\r\nrevelation and knowledge. When the Vedic seers say, idam <span class=SpellE>srestham</span>\r\n<span class=SpellE>jyotisam</span>... (This is the Light, the highest\r\nof all lights; it has come; the Supreme know­ledge, beautiful and diverse, vast\r\nand all-pervading, has taken birth), they make use of the gross dawn to hint at\r\nsome subtle dawn. They could <span class=SpellE>visualise</span> the entire\r\ncreation in its wholeness. That is why their realisations had the stamp of\r\nwholeness which can be applied to all the levels and phases of creation. We,\r\nthe modernists, look upon truth as something entirely comprehensible by the\r\nintellect. We put it syllogistically and understand it part by part sepa­rately.\r\nThe ancients used to grasp the truth through the fullness of their heart, the\r\ninner being. So it could manifest as an indivisible embodiment of mundane forms\r\nand supra­physical concepts. To us the truth has three distinct forms: in the\r\nmaterial, vital and mental worlds. Each is different from the other, having a\r\ndefinition of its own. But the angle of vision of the ancient seers was not of\r\nsuch an analytical type. Their synthetic realisation revealed such mantras as\r\ncomprised the essence of all the levels.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>In the process of Nature, in the material\r\nworld and in its activities they did not see something mundane and material,\r\nbut found in them a reflection of the supernatural. It may be asked: if, the\r\ngross forms were mere symbols, then why is the Veda so replete with them and\r\nwhy has so much im­portance been given to them? Then we have to enquire into\r\nthe symbolism of the ancients. Here in this connection we want only to mention\r\nthat the language of the ancients used to flow from their heart. It was not\r\nsubject to any intellectual reasoning and was not analytical as that of t day.\r\nThe language was simply<span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>symbol of their\r\ndirect reali­sation. All languages originate from the perceptions of the senses\r\nand the emotions of the heart. The inner urge was kept intact in the language\r\nof the ancients. The language</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-86<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:\r\n0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>and</span> their direct perception were\r\nnot intercepted by the syllo­gistic reasoning. So the subtle experiences when\r\nexpressed in language used to entail the corresponding gross percep­tions as\r\nwell. The ceremonials and the sacrifices are but symbols of inner experiences. According\r\nto the Chhando­gya Upanishad, <span class=SpellE>yavanva</span>\r\n<span class=SpellE>ayamakasastavanesontarhrdaya</span>\r\n<span class=SpellE>akash</span> ... (The sky that we see in\r\nthe outer space is also in our inner heart. Both the Heaven and the earth, Agni\r\nas well as <span class=SpellE>Vayu</span> — all are concentrated in our inner\r\nheart).<span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:\r\n0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>In the Katha Upanishad too we come across the same\r\nutterance: yadeveha tadamutra¹ (Whatever is there in the inner world is\r\nto be found here as well). In ancient times, not only in <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region>,\r\nbut in all countries of the world, symbolism was in vogue. We cannot read\r\nthrough those symbols. That is why we consider them black magic or rustic\r\ncustoms of the uncivilised. We can partly appreciate the political and artistic\r\ngenius of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>.\r\nSo at times we consider it equal or superior to ours. But we are unable to\r\ngrasp her spiritual genius. Hence we do not hesitate to relegate it to the\r\nlevel of barbarism. We have hardly any spiritual realisation. What we\r\nunderstand is at best morality. We highly admire the art and literature of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Greece</st1:place></st1:country-region>.\r\nBut in respect of Greek spiri­tuality our knowledge is confined to Socrates. In\r\nthe earlier period of Greek civilisation there was a current of deep spiri­tual\r\nculture, and what they used to call the Mysteries were only mysteries of\r\nspiritual yogic discipline. We fail to under­stand that the water-worship of\r\nThales and the fire-worship of Heraclitus were not merely different aspects of\r\nNature-­worship. We do not like to believe that these terms &quot;water&quot;\r\nand &quot;fire&quot; can ever be the symbols of spiritual truths. We study the\r\nphilosophies of Pythagoras and Plato. But we do not delve into the spiritual\r\nculture or esoteric aspect of which their philosophies are but outer expressions.\r\nBehind the mythologies of <st1:country-region><st1:place>China</st1:place></st1:country-region>,\r\n<st1:country-region><st1:place>Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>,\r\nold-world <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>\r\nand <st1:country-region><st1:place>Austra­lia</st1:place></st1:country-region>\r\nthere lies a science of spiritual discipline which may not </p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=GramE>¹ <span style=\'font-size:9.0pt\'>Katha, 11.1.10.</span></span><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:9.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:9.0pt;\'>Page-87<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=GramE>be</span> recognised by the scientists, but those <span\r\nclass=SpellE>practising</span> spirituality will not find it difficult to\r\ndiscover it.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>We find more objectivity than mere\r\nabstraction in the language and thoughts of the ancients. So they seem to be\r\nprone to materialism. But as a matter of fact, their abstract ideas were not\r\nmerely based on syllogistic reasoning. Those ideas were to them as living,\r\ntrue, clear and manifest as a material object. They did not consider the subtle\r\nworld visionary, rather they took the subtle world for the raison <span\r\nclass=SpellE>d\'ître</span> of the material world. So they found no\r\ndifficulty in expressing the subtle concepts of their experiences through gross\r\nsymbols. Even we, the moderns, at times do the same. For instance, in poetry\r\nthe poet has to resort to images and allegories in order to express the deep\r\nand intense inspiration of his own heart. Has not the<span style=\'font-size:\r\n11.0pt\'> Vaishnava literature tried to give expressions to supra physical\r\nrealisations through the </span>symbols of earthly experiences?</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style=\'font-size:11.0pt\'>&quot;A\r\nbundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my\r\nbreasts.&quot; </span>– Solomon</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style=\'font-size:11.0pt\'>The\r\nChristians do not hesitate in the least to give some abstract meaning to those\r\nwords of Solomon. What mystery of Transubstantiation do they now ascribe to the\r\nceremony of the Eucharist! Then why should ritual expressions in the Veda <span style=\"font-size:11pt;\">be looked upon as signs of gross practices of rustics?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:11.0pt\'><span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\r\n</span>Anecdotes, stories, and analogies have been used in all times and climes\r\nfor the expression of subtle truths. In modern times we have managed to banish\r\nthis practice from the spiritual field, but have not as yet completely\r\nsucceeded in the realm of poetry.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:11.0pt\'><span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>The Vedas\r\nhave a spiritual mystery of their own. We do not say that it is we who have\r\ndiscovered that spiritual mystery for the first time. As regards this we have\r\nalready referred to Sayana and the Nirukta. Even in this modern age\r\nthere are some who have endeavoured to present a spiri­tual interpretation of\r\nthe Vedas. Perhaps <span\r\nstyle=\"font-size:11pt;\">Dayananda Sara­swati is the\r\npioneer among them. Pundit Durgadas Lahiri</span></span><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-88<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=GramE>and</span> <span class=SpellE>Dwijadas</span> Dutt have paid much\r\nattention to this aspect of the Vedas. But our spiritual interpretation widely\r\ndiffers from theirs. In fact, we would rather call our interpretation\r\nmetaphysical and not spiritual. <span class=SpellE>Dayananda\'s</span> spiritual\r\nin­terpretation was based on the <span class=SpellE>ctrine</span> of <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Ishwara</span>, <span class=SpellE>Dwija­das\'s</span> on that of\r\nthe Brahman, and <span class=SpellE>Durgadas\'s</span> on the devo­tional\r\nreligious feeling. No doubt, the Vedas have all these. But these scholars have\r\nshown only in brief the general form of spirituality in the Vedas. The\r\nmysteries of the Vedas are far more deep and subtle. The Veda is a Yogic\r\nscience, a system of science and <span class=SpellE>kowledgeacquired</span>\r\nthrough Yoga.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>The very name Veda is self-explanatory.\r\nThe Veda signi­fies knowledge. It is derived from the root &quot;<span\r\nclass=SpellE>vid</span>&quot; (to know). The Veda particularly refers to\r\nthe embodiment of that knowledge which is the soul and basis of the culture,\r\neduca­tion and civilisation of the Hindus, the Indians, <span class=GramE>the</span>\r\nwhole Aryan race. This knowledge was realised by a body of aspi­rants called\r\nRishis - where and when it is difficult to trace with certainty. And it is the\r\nsuccession of the Rishis, the realised <span class=GramE>ones, that</span> has\r\nkept up, multiplied and systematised this knowledge. The Veda is otherwise\r\ncalled Shruti, for it is said that from generation to generation the disciples\r\nused to receive the Vedic mantras from their preceptors by hearing and store\r\nthem up in their memory. But this is only a secondary human interpretation. The\r\nreal reason why the Veda is called Shruti is that the Seers received, by an\r\noccult hearing, these mantras pregnant with knowledge. At times they could see\r\nthe mantras during their meditation. Hence they are called the Seers of mantras\r\nand the know­ledge acquired by them goes by the name Shruti (things heard). And\r\nthis gives us the clue to the reason why the Veda is supposed to have no human\r\norigin, neither a begin­ning nor an end. The Divine Knowledge is not a human\r\ncreation. It comprises the principles of truth inherent in creation. And it\r\nwill endure for all <span class=GramE>time,</span> The Seers are merely the\r\ninstruments for its manifestation.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-89<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:11.0pt\'>The Veda as we see it today is not in its original\r\nform. A whole book entitled Veda was not composed at any definite time\r\nor at any particular place. The mantras of the Veda were revealed to the\r\ndifferent Seers at different times and places. They were scattered all around\r\nwithout being sys­tematised. It was later that they were collected and syste­matised.\r\nSome, nay, the major part of the mantras failed to see the light of day. And it\r\nhappened also that mantras of later origin got mixed up with the earlier ones.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:11.0pt\'><span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>The\r\nsystematic collection, no doubt, could not be achieved all at once. A great <span\r\nstyle=\"font-size:11pt;\">speciality of the spiritual discipline of the ancient Seers\r\nis this that they carried on their spiritual disci­pline in a body. It was\r\ntheir practice to use the plural terms like we, you all, friends, etc.\r\nIn this way different groups of spiritual seekers\r\nfollowed different types of discipline. These collectivities consisted of the\r\nMasters and their disciples or an ancestor and his descendants. Thus the Veda\r\ngrew up into innumerable branches, sub-branches and their off­shoots. The\r\npresent Veda comprises only a limited portion of those branches. The major\r\nportion of the Veda is buried in oblivion. So it is no wonder that the Veda got\r\nautoma­tically divided into branches according to the lineage and succession of\r\nthe Masters and their disciples.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:11.0pt\'><span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>However,\r\nlater on, all the available Vedic mantras were principally divided into three\r\ngroups, known as <span\r\nstyle=\"font-size:11pt;\">trayi (a group of\r\nthree) - Rik, Sama\r\nand Yajur. Rik consists of verses or poems; Sama of\r\nsongs; Yajur of prose works. Miscellaneous things\r\nwere collected in the Atharva. Thus the Veda\r\ndeveloped into four parts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:11.0pt\'><span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>According\r\nto the Puranas the Seers who collected these Vedic mantras are named <span\r\nstyle=\"font-size:11pt;\">Vedavyasas. They are as many as twenty-eight successive Vedavyasas whose successive efforts gave the Veda its\r\npresent form. The last Vedavyasa who divided the Veda\r\ninto four parts is Krishnadwaipayana Vedavyasa, the author of the Mahabharata. And it is\r\nsaid that in future there will come up another Vyasa of the</span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-90<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=GramE><span style=\'font-size:11.0pt\'>name of </span><span\r\nclass=GramE style=\"font-size:11pt;\">Draunivyasa<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:11.0pt\'> to rearrange\r\nthe Veda once more.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:8.15pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:\r\n0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:11.0pt\'>There are indications to\r\nsuppose that the mantras of the Rigveda were meant for the fire-worshippers,\r\nand the mantras of the Samaveda for the worshippers of the Sun, and those of\r\nYajurveda for the worshippers of <span style=\"font-size:11pt;\">Vayu, the life-­principle.\r\nHowever, we refrain at present from going into the details of the\r\nmatter. In the concluding paragraphs we shall observe whether or not the\r\nclassification of the Vedas has been in any way regulated by the different\r\nmethods of spiri­tual discipline.</span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:8.15pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:\r\n0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>There are four Vedas and each Veda consists of several\r\nparts. The principal parts of each Veda are known as the <span class=SpellE>Samhitas</span>\r\nand the <span class=SpellE>Brahmanas</span>. The <span class=SpellE>Samhitas</span>\r\nare the collec­tion of the mantras, the Veda proper. The <span class=SpellE>Brahmanas</span>\r\nare the commentaries, interpretations or new suggestions. Again the <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Brahmanas</span> are divided into the <span class=SpellE>Brahmanas</span>\r\npro­per, the <span class=SpellE>Aranyakas</span> and the Upanishads. The <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Samhitas</span> comprise the general Vedic experiences and the\r\nmantras necessary for the propitiation and manifestation of the gods. And the <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Brahmanas</span> provide all the details connected with the\r\nceremonies, sacrificial rites, etc. The Upanishads are the repository of the\r\nknowledge of the <span class=GramE>supreme</span> Being divested of ceremonies\r\nand allegories. The <span class=SpellE>Samhitas</span> have laid stress on the\r\nforms of religious culture, while the Upanishads on the spirit of it. In a way,\r\nthe <span class=SpellE>Aranyakas</span> combined in them­selves both the <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Brahmanas</span> and the Upanishads. To sum up, the first and\r\nforemost <span class=GramE>part of the Vedas are</span> the <span class=SpellE>Samhitas</span>\r\nwhich are immediately followed by the <span class=SpellE>Brahmanas</span> cul­minating\r\nin the <span class=SpellE>Aranyakas</span> which in their turn terminate in the\r\nUpanishads. But there are exceptions. For example, the <span class=SpellE>Aitareya</span>\r\nAranyaka introduces the Rigveda <span class=SpellE>Samhita</span>, while the\r\nBrihadaranyaka itself is an Upanishad.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:8.15pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:\r\n0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>These four divisions of the Veda are said to correspond to\r\nthe four stages of human life. In the first stage, the foremost duty of a <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Brahmachari</span> (a student <span class=SpellE>practising</span>\r\ncelibacy) is to recite the mantras of the <span class=SpellE>Samhitas</span>\r\nwhich contain the quintes<span class=SpellE><span class=GramE>sence</span> </span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:8.15pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-91<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:8.15pt;\r\nline-height:12.95pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone;border:none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:\r\n0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=SpellE>of\r\nthe ideal of life. In the next stage, on entering upon household life one has\r\nto practise ceremonies and sacrificial rites and thus the stress is laid on the Brahmanas. In the third stage of life, when one\r\nrenounces the household life and retires into the forest one has to practise\r\nall those sacrificial rites and ceremonies symbolically as a part of one\'s\r\nspiritual discipline following the teachings of the Aranyakas.\r\nIn the fourth and final stage, one gives up all one\'s earlier practices and in\r\nconformity with the guidance of the Upanishads one takes to the contemplation\r\nof the supreme Truth which cannot be attained by reasonings\r\nand discussions (naisa tarkena matiraPaneya). <span\r\nclass=GramE>ow</span> we may say that the Samhitas,\r\nthe Brahmanas and the Upanishads indicate changes in\r\nthe practice of the Vedic truth undergone with the march of time. The spiritual\r\ndiscipline of the Samhitas has for its aim the\r\nattainment of Godhood which is an aspect of the cosmic manifestation of the\r\ntranscendental triune principle, Existence-Consciousness. <span class=GramE>Bliss.</span>\r\nThe discipline of the Brahmanas tries to manifest the\r\nspirit of the former through external practice. And the spi­ritual discipline\r\nof the Upanishads does not concern itself so much with the manifestation of the\r\ngods as it does with getting absorbed in the ultimate Source from whence the\r\ngods originated. In other words, the aim of the Upanishadic truth is to\r\nindicate how the light of consciousness dwelling in the heart of everyone like\r\na steady flame of the size of the thumb can be merged into the boundless ocean\r\nof the transcendental consciousness.</span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:8.15pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:\r\n0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Strictly speaking, the stages of the <span class=SpellE>Samhitas</span>,\r\nthe <span class=SpellE>Brahmanas</span> and the Upanishads cannot be\r\nregarded<span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>successive stages. <span\r\nclass=GramE>For there are many Upanishads which appeared earlier than many <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Brahmanas</span> and some portions of the <span class=SpellE>Samhitas</span>.\r\nAs we understand it, first there were the earlier mantras of the <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Samhitas</span> from which there arose the two branches, <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Brahmanas</span> and the Upanishads. The <span class=SpellE>Brahmanas</span>\r\nlaid stress on the exoteric portions of the <span class=SpellE>Samhitas</span>,\r\nand the</span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:8.15pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 31.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-92</span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Upanishads on the esoteric\r\nside related to the knowledge of the ultimate Truth.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:4.3pt 280.05pt;mso-layout-grid-align:\r\nnone;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>In the subsequent ages people were attracted more to\r\nthe exoteric side dealing with ceremonies and sacrificial rites as a means of\r\ntemporal happiness, and it is the <span class=SpellE>Brahmanas</span> that\r\nprofessed to explain the Vedas. On the other hand, the Upanishads tried to maintain\r\nthe spirit of the ultimate realisation suggested in the Vedas. That is why the\r\nUpa­nishads have been looked upon as the system of knowledge, while the <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Brahmanas</span> as that of work.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.35pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:4.3pt 280.05pt;mso-layout-grid-align:\r\nnone;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The Rigveda is the oldest of all the parts of the\r\nVedas, and its <span class=SpellE>Samhita</span> part marks the hoariest\r\nantiquity. The tenth chapter may be, as the European scholars have concluded,\r\nof a later origin. Besides, many of the mantras of the Rig­veda with slight\r\nalterations are to be found in other parts of the Vedas. In this respect the\r\nSamaveda owes the greatest debt to the Rigveda. It will be no exaggeration to\r\nhold that the Samaveda is only a novel brand of the Rigveda. On that strength,\r\ncuriously enough, attempts have been made to prove the Samaveda to be the\r\noldest of all the Vedas.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:4.3pt 280.05pt;mso-layout-grid-align:\r\nnone;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The Rigveda <span class=SpellE>Samhita</span> also\r\nhas been suitably divided and arranged in different chapters. Two different\r\nmethods have been adopted in this arrangement. Firstly, the whole of the <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Samhita</span> has been divided into ten books, and each book is\r\ncalled a <span class=SpellE>mandala</span> and each <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Mandala</span> is composed of different series of mantras; each\r\nseries is called <span class=GramE>a</span> <span class=SpellE>sukta</span>,\r\neach mantra is called a <span class=SpellE>rk</span>. Each <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Mandala</span> or book is gene­rally attributed to a Rishi. For\r\ninstance, the second <span class=SpellE>Manda­la</span> has been the\r\ncontribution of the Rishi <span class=SpellE>Gritsamada</span> and his\r\ndescendants. The authorship of the third <span class=SpellE>Mandala</span> goes\r\nto the Rishi Vishwamitra. The fourth <span class=SpellE>Mandala</span> is\r\nattributed to <span class=SpellE>Vamadeva</span>, while the fifth, the sixth,\r\nthe seventh are res­pectively attributed to <span class=SpellE>Atri</span>, <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Bharadwaja</span> and <span class=SpellE>Vasishtha</span>. The\r\nwhole of the ninth <span class=SpellE>Mandala</span> has been exclusively\r\ndevoted to the god Soma. The first and the tenth have been the contributions of\r\nmany Rishis. Each <span class=SpellE>sukta</span> of these two<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:11.5pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:4.3pt 280.05pt;mso-layout-grid-align:\r\nnone;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-93<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>books</span>\r\ncontains mantras offered to a particular god or several gods related to that\r\nvery god. Besides, there is another method by which the whole of the <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Samhita</span> has been divided into eight parts and each part is\r\ncalled an <span class=SpellE>astaka</span> (a group of eight).\r\nAgain each <span class=SpellE>astaka</span> is divided into <span\r\nclass=SpellE>adhyayas</span> (chap­ters), sub-chapters and a\r\nseries of cognate mantras. But the principle followed in this kind of division\r\nis hard to determine.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Be\r\nthat as it may, we are not so much concerned with the external forms of the\r\nVeda as with its inner significance. For long the Veda has been solely the\r\nsubject of archaeological researches. To be sure, the Veda has a living spirit.\r\nThe true significance of the Veda lies in the fact that it points out to man\r\nthe true goal and the means to the attainment of a higher and nobler life. In\r\nspite of his ignorance, lack of power and want of bliss, the dream that man has\r\ndreamt, the ideal that he has pursued through all the vicissitudes of his life\r\nhas been: &quot;What shall I do with that which can­ not bring me\r\nImmortality?&quot; This quest for Immortality of the human soul finds its\r\nabsolute fulfilment in the Veda which is truly a vast ocean of boundless\r\ndelight. The true purpose of one\'s studying the Veda is served only when its\r\nmantras arouse in oneself the aspiration for the divine Delight.<span style=\'font-size:\r\n10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-94<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.95pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\' align=\"right\"><o:p>\r\n	&nbsp;</o:p>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"-00_Content\"> <i><img\r\nwidth=62 height=19 id=\"_x0000_i1034\" src=\"_Gif%20Image/board_d_home.gif\"\r\nborder=0 align=\"right\"></i></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div></td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-18_An Introduction to The Veda','','publish','closed','open','','18_an-introduction-to-the-veda','','','2021-11-23 17:58:15','2021-11-23 17:58:15','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/18_an-introduction-to-the-veda/',0,'post','',0),(1767,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:15','2021-11-23 17:58:15','<html xmlns:o=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\"\r\nxmlns:w=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word\"\r\nxmlns:st1=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>Narada - Sanatkumara </title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">\r\n&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">\r\n<span style=\'font-weight:700\'><font size=\"4\">Narada - Sanatkumara </font> <span style=\'mso-tab-count:\r\n1\'><font size=\"4\">&nbsp; </font> </span> </span></p>\r\n		<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;tab-stops:33.8pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>(Chhandogya Upanishad)<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;tab-stops:33.8pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>R<span style=\'font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'>ISHI </span>Sanatkumara was once approached by Narada (evi­dently not\r\nyet become a Rishi), who said, &quot;Lord, I desire to be taught by you. Please\r\nteach me.&quot; The Rishi replied, &quot;Very well, but first tell me how much\r\nyou know; then I shall tell you if you need more.&quot; Narada thereupon made\r\nout an inventory of his learning; it was a formidable list. &quot;My Lord, this\r\nis what I have learnt: Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, Atharvaveda, the Fifth\r\nVeda comprising History and Mythology; next, Grammar, Mathematics, Logic and\r\nPolitics, the Science of Computing Time, Theology, Fine Arts and the Ritual\r\nLore; Demonology, Astrology, and the Art of Predicting Fate; the Knowledge of\r\nAncestors and of Serpents. I know all this, my Lord, and very well. This has\r\nmade me master of the Word, but has not given me knowledge of the Self. I have heard\r\nthat only by the know­ledge of the Self can one pass beyond sorrow and pain. I\r\nam immersed in sorrow and pain, please reach me to the other shore.&quot;</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:167.25pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;\r\ntext-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Sanatkumara said, &quot;All that you have studied and\r\nlearnt is nothing but \'Name\', no more than words. You have reached as far as\r\n\'Name\' can take you, giving you as fruit the power to roam at will, that is,\r\nyou can go unimpeded where you will. But that is about all.&quot; Then Narada\r\nasked, &quot;Is there anything superior to Name?&quot; &quot;Of course, there\r\nis,&quot; replied Sanatkumara. &quot;Then tell me about it.&quot; &quot;<st1:City><st1:place>Superior</st1:place></st1:City>\r\nto Name is Speech, that is, Name with form and meaning.&quot; Thus he went on \r\nreplying to the series of Narada\'s questions. </p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n7.9pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:\r\n0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-147<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyText style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">Speech, Mind, Will, Thought, Medita­tion,\r\nKnowledge – these are the ascending grades, each higher than the one preceding.\r\nAnd each carries with it the power to move at will. The goal of this ascending\r\nseries is, to use our own terminology, a widening of the conscious­ness. As we\r\nrise from grade to higher grade, our conscious­ness gains in width and depth\r\nand intensity.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>But\r\nafter Meditation comes Power. It seems that marks the end of one series and the\r\nbeginning of another. The first seven of the earlier series represent the line\r\nof our externa­lised consciousness already manifest. But these powers or\r\nfunctions cannot get their full play by remaining confined to the field of our\r\ninner being. In order to make them active and fruitful and effective in\r\npractice, Power is needed, the power of work. Hence, under this category of\r\nPower, are grouped the fourfold series that constitute in essence the material\r\nworld in its forms of solids, liquids, energy and air - the fifth or ethereal\r\nelement is omitted for it is not rele­vant here. The solids form the body\'s\r\nmaterial substance, the liquids give it life and mobility, energy is stamina\r\nand prowess, air gives it the sense of width and expansion. What sustains them\r\nall as their basic support has been termed Power, which ordinarily conveys the\r\nsense of capacity and strength.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.7pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>But\r\nbeyond this second series there is a fresh turn which takes us round to the\r\nthird. Here we get to the realm of the subliminal, with its silent movements\r\nbehind our ordinary consciousness. This series consists of Memory, Hope, Life -\r\n­force and Truth. In our language, Memory is constant remembrance, Hope is\r\naspiration, Life-force is energy at work, and Truth means the rejection of\r\nfalsehood and the unreal and the acceptance of what is real and true. Beyond\r\nthis there is yet another series, the ascent to which lies in taking a further\r\nturn from behind. The first step on this path is Knowledge, that is, knowledge\r\nof the Vast and the Particular. The second step is Contemplation, implying a<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n7.9pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:\r\n0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-148<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>concentrated\r\none-pointedness. The third is Faith, an un­wavering trust. Faith implies\r\nsteadfastness and, to make the latter effective, there is need of action, its\r\napplication in life, making it concrete. Finally, action, leads to joy, it is\r\nindeed the mainspring of action. We know that joy alone is the essence of\r\ncreation, joy is its source, joy the ultimate end. But the Rishi says, this joy\r\nis no ordinary pleasure; its other name is the Vastness – the Vast verily is\r\nthe Delight, there is no joy in the smallness, says the Text.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.1pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Starting\r\nfrom &quot;Name&quot;, outermost expression and most concrete figure of gross\r\nphysical substance, we have risen by stages to another Name of substance, to\r\nthe Supreme Name, into the Highest Consciousness, from the uttermost division\r\nof the individualised ego to the endless infinity of Being. This progress or\r\nascent of the consciousness or being has not been in a simple straight line, it\r\nhas taken a zigzag serpentine path. First to develop were, as I have said, the\r\nparts of the externalised or manifest being; this is the stage of the waking mentality.\r\nOn this level, the highest attain­ment is Knowledge. From Name or gross\r\nphysical Word as our starting-point, we arrive in the end at its culmination as\r\nthe knowledge of particulars, what we call the power of discrimination. But\r\nthe, growth and cultivation of the mind alone is not enough. For its sufficient\r\ndevelopment and capacity there is needed a physical capacity that has the body\r\nas its base. That is why, in the second stage of our progress, there is a\r\nturning back from the mind down to a lower level, for the cultivation of this\r\nphysical base, in order to attain mastery there. Once the base got firmly\r\nestablished, the consciousness had to take another turn and enter upon a new\r\nstage of its progress. This was in the realm of the inner being. In this stage,\r\nthere was gained the acquaintance and control of the functions and powers that\r\nwork from behind the physical mind. From here there is the ascent to the fourth\r\nstep while still keeping behind the veil, on to the gates of the spiritual\r\nconsciousness, crossing beyond the<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n8.15pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:\r\n0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-149<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>limits of our ordinary\r\nstate. Already, as we reached the level of the life-force, the Rishi had\r\nsomething new to say: one who gained entry into the inner or universal life\r\nbecame &quot;extraordinary&quot;, in that he had passsed the limits of his\r\nordinary consciousness, crossed over to the other side. And one who got firmly\r\nestablished in the integral Truth of the final stage attained the state of\r\nsuperconscience.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">According to our present-day Science there is no\r\nsuch thing as motion in a straight line, all movement has to take a zigzag\r\nserpentine path. The reason is that the created universe is actually spherical\r\nin shape, all lines on it must be curves. And because of the gravitational\r\npull, all mo­tions in it must be wave-motions. All progress or forward movement\r\nin the consciousness of man or in the lines of creation must likewise be a\r\nspiral movement. In the course of an ascent or forward movement, one can notice\r\none thing, namely, that one has to pass again through the same place or\r\ncondition which one has-already crossed once. In actual fact one does not\r\nreturn to precisely the same place or condi­tion, but certainly to an analogous\r\nplace or situation: it is as if a replica of the earlier state appearing once\r\nagain in the next higher stage or forward position.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>We\r\nknow that the same process applies to our spiritual endeavour or even in\r\nordinary training, when a particular quality or state has to be made more\r\nfirmly and fully estab- lished. If, for example, peace is established in the first\r\nstate of mind, in its physical functioning, the same state of peace has to be\r\nestablished over and over again in the depths of the inner being and on its\r\nascending peaks. A somewhat similar method or process of working is noticeable\r\nin the path shown here by Rishi Sanatkumara to Narada. At the beginning of the\r\nseries is the physical mind, at the end is the spiritual mind. The physical\r\nmind is the slave of sense) the spiritual mind is to become centred in God. The\r\nfirst series ends with Knowledge, Knowledge again begins the last series. It\r\nseems that the first is the knowledge of particulars,<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n8.15pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:\r\n0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-150<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>the last is that of the\r\nVastness.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:8.4pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Narada\r\nstarted on the march of consciousness with &quot;Name&quot;. He has passed from\r\nstage to stage, from level to higher level, till at last he has crossed beyond\r\nthe material &quot;Name&quot; to the Supreme Name, Brahman. Thus surpassing the\r\nstate of mortal man, he has at last attained the status of Rishi.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:8.4pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-151<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n		<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">&nbsp; <i>\r\n		<a href=\"-00_Content\"><img\r\nwidth=62 height=19 id=\"_x0000_i1034\" src=\"_Gif%20Image/board_d_home.gif\"\r\nborder=0></a></i></p>\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-29_Narada - Sanatkumara','','publish','closed','open','','29_narada-sanatkumara','','','2021-11-23 17:58:15','2021-11-23 17:58:15','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/29_narada-sanatkumara/',0,'post','',0),(1768,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:15','2021-11-23 17:58:15','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>Love and Death</title>\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0\">\r\n<b\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'><font size=\"4\">Love and Death</font></b></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0\'>ONE of the earliest poems\r\nof Sri Aurobindo – a juvenile work – has the title <i>Love and Death. </i>This\r\nis indeed the central theme, the core of the inspiration running through the\r\nwhole of his poetic world culminating in the grand symphony of <i>Savitri. </i>As\r\na matter of fact his vision and the mission of his life are <span class=SpellE>epitomised</span>\r\nin those three words, namely \'Love conquering Death.\'</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.45pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0\'>I\r\nshall leave aside his other works and take up his dramas, his five complete\r\nmajor dramas in which the theme has been developed and the problem set and\r\nsolved in somewhat different ways but always leading to the same conclusion\r\n\'Love <span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;</span>conquering Death.\'</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0\'>Death\r\naccording to Sri Aurobindo is not merely the death or disintegration of the\r\nbody. Death truly is the death and disintegration of the consciousness. It is\r\nunconsciousness, inconscience. Death-bound world is this world of unconsciousness\r\nor half consciousness, this world of ignorance.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.45pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0\'>To\r\ngrow into consciousness, to rise towards the light is the way to the conquest\r\nof Death. To rise in consciousness means to rise out of the shades of egoism;\r\nit is the ego that ties man down to this lower consciousness which is the\r\ndomain of death, and the only antidote of egoism is love, love human or divine.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.45pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i>Perseus\r\nthe Deliverer </i>is obviously the story of the deliverance of human soul from\r\nthe siege of the emissaries of Death, the lower consciousness. It is also the\r\nlegend of the destruction of a darker age of civilisation and the advent of a\r\nnew age of greater light. The reign of Poseidon represents man in his half animal\r\nstage worshipping the dark vital gods. Pitted against that rose later, as the\r\nscholars say, the Aryan civilisation represented in <st1:place>Europe</st1:place>\r\nby the Greeks – worshippers of the solar</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<font size=\"2\">Page – 383</font></p>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0\'>\r\n<span class=GramE>gods</span>,\r\nGods of Light and Love. The force that transforms darkness into light, passion\r\ninto pure energy, gloom into happiness, is the touch of Love. Even the human\r\nagencies of this divine element acting in the human way express as Sri\r\nAurobindo has shown, something of the magic and beauty and the sense of\r\nelevation here below, something from love\'s higher native state.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.95pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0\'>In <i>Eric,\r\n</i>Love\'s appeal is to the heroic soul. Love as commonly understood in its\r\nhuman form seems to be nothing else but loose sentiment and feeling, a play of\r\nmere emotion. As such it is usually made out to be as sweet as possible and as\r\nweak as possible, –even in its external violence. Weakness, frailty is promoted\r\nas a woman\'s character and also her charm and beauty. On the other hand,\r\nheroism, force and vigour form the masculine <span class=SpellE>charater</span>.\r\nBut that is evidently a superficial and a limited and decadent view. A heroic\r\nsoul to be genuinely heroic and complete must be a loving soul and in the same\r\nway love in a woman must carry in it a strong heroic element. The marriage of\r\nlove and heroism is the story of <i>Eric, </i>how heroism adds force and\r\nstrength and nobility to love and how love lends grace and beauty and <span\r\nclass=GramE>an other</span>-worldly charm to force and strength. In <i>Eric </i>Love\r\nattains a stronger, a larger, <span class=GramE>a</span> royal fulfilment in\r\nits human mould, on this earth.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0\'>A\r\ndifferent, almost a contrary denouement attends Love in <i>Rodogune. </i>Love\r\nhere passes through the normal tragic trials and tribulations, even through the\r\nfinal trial, even death. But for love it is <span class=GramE>not the end nor</span>\r\ndefeat, rather a higher fulfilment. Real gold brightens up, shines gloriously\r\nwhen passed through fire. The end of the body is not the end of <span\r\nclass=GramE>love,</span> it exists even while in the body apart from the body\r\nand maintains its autonomous existence undimmed by external barriers and\r\ndifficulties even by the disappearance of the body. The legend of loves\r\nfrustrated in this life but reunited in another world is not pure fiction but a\r\ntruth obvious to the <span class=GramE>seeing eye</span>. In fact Love is an\r\nimmortal being and human persons are its receptacles and formations for a\r\nspecial play upon this earth. Earthly fate only serves to increase the delight\r\nthat forms the true body of love.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i>The\r\nViziers of Bassora </i>represents Love in its mood of frolicsome, almost\r\nfrivolous dalliance, clothed, it would appear, in</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 384</span></p>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0\'>\r\n<span class=GramE>a</span>\r\nbody purely made of the fluid, i.e., playful senses. There is no need, no\r\nquestion of moral or social inhibitions – love is in its absolute spontaneous\r\nsportive natural state, natural to an earthly being. The beauty that unhindered\r\nlove displays here has no stain in it, a stain that a more sophisticated and\r\ncultured nature contracts: it is the smiling radiance of the unspoiled limpid\r\nconsciousness of a child. Yes, it is the Brindaban-lila of Love in its very\r\nhuman, very secular movement. Love is here of earth and of an earthy mode and\r\nyet somehow it has maintained its purity, its very spontaneity and simplicity\r\nhas, as it were, miraculously by its very naturalness purified it of its dross\r\nand made it akin to something aerial and heavenly.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0\'>In <i>Vasavadutta,\r\n</i>Love is depicted as something royal and noble and aristocratic, it is\r\nsomething refined and beautiful, an adornment of a consciousness cultured and\r\nluminous; it is a special gift bestowed by the Gods only upon a few godly creatures,\r\nmen and women.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>As I\r\nhave said, love depicted here in these plays of Sri Aurobindo is of earth,\r\nearthly, even earthy: it is not, one might say, the Divine Love – embodiment of\r\nthe Supreme Ananda or Sachchidananda. And yet Love is one and indivisible, it\r\nis always and everywhere the same, essentially the Divine Love – in various\r\nmoulds. And the mould in which Sri Aurobindo has cast even earthly human love\r\nis divinely noble and beautiful. Love has been uttered, as it were, by a Divine\r\ntongue and it has been transmuted, irised and is full of the redolence of\r\nheaven\'s delight: if it cannot claim to be the very delight of Brahman\r\n(Brahmananda) yet it is as the ancients declared, <i>hrahmanandasahodaro –\r\nconsanguinous, </i>of one blood, with Divine Delight.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 385</span></p>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top:0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>','-108_Love and Death','','publish','closed','open','','108_love-and-death','','','2021-11-23 17:58:15','2021-11-23 17:58:15','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/108_love-and-death/',0,'post','',0),(1769,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:15','2021-11-23 17:58:15','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>The Stress of the Spirit</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><b\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'><font size=\"4\">The Stress of the Spirit</font><o:p></o:p></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>THE universe is a\r\nclose-knit pattern in which each part, each point is inextricably linked with\r\nevery other part and point. Each element acts and reacts upon every other: the <i>karma\r\n</i>of one is echoed and re-echoed in the <i>karma </i>of all others. An\r\ninevitable, inescapable mutuality rules the behaviour of the constituent\r\nentities of a whole; in other words, there is only one Force, one Presence that\r\npermeates all, even constitutes the All.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nmaterial universe makes one single block of reality, homogeneous and\r\nindivisible. Modern knowledge has proved the fact to the hilt. It is one\r\ncontinuous extension like the ocean\'s rippling wet sheet. If you pull at one\r\npoint the tension is felt in the whole at every other point. That is Einstein\'s\r\ngravitational field constituting the universe: a change of disposition at one\r\npoint changes the disposition of the whole universe. The very character of this\r\nworld is its rigorous determinism: the part is absolutely and completely a\r\nportion and parcel of the whole. Somewhat paradoxically one might say that the\r\npart is the whole, nothing but the whole, only on a reduced scale.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Viewed\r\nin this light all human endeavour, its achievements and realisations form a\r\nsingle collective activity: it is one force, one energy realising itself in and\r\nthrough many vehicles and instruments. Not even man\'s mental activity that\r\nseems so free and autonomous is outside the compass of the universal\r\ngravitational field where everything is appointed and determined in a compact\r\ntensile global unity.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Each\r\nindividual human effort is in effect the total human effort canalised at a\r\nparticular point through a particular receptacle. The unity of the whole does\r\nnot consist in the\r\n<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 374<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.0pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'margin-top:0;text-align:justify;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=GramE>combination</span>, a summation of separate or independent units:\r\nthe separate units on the surface are an illusion and valuation of individuals\r\nin this viewpoint is an anomaly, for in reality there are no individuals: they\r\nare but at the most the various limbs or functions of the same body, of the one\r\nand single person. Life as consciousness is one single surge: contagion (also\r\nin the good sense), permeation is its law.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.7pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Vicarious\r\natonement, a phenomenon familiar and well known in the religious domain, finds\r\na very simple meaning in this view and almost becomes a very natural human\r\nphenomenon. There is an inevitable interaction and interflow of psychological\r\nforces among individuals, it is no more a riddle to say that the sins of the\r\nfathers are visited upon the children, nor that the virtues of the sons wash\r\naway the sins of the fathers; and that is how the Avatars automatically,\r\ninevitably take upon themselves and have to take upon themselves and bear the\r\nstigmata of suffering humanity. And that is how they embody and fulfil the\r\ntotal aspiration of all human beings. An avatar is thus an outburst of the\r\nearth\'s highest need of the hour. Indeed, however great an individual, his\r\ngreatness is in reality the greatness of the world-spirit in him, and also contrariwise\r\nthe smallness of an earthly being is the smallness of the universal being at a\r\npoint, under a particular condition. In other words, the individual represents\r\nthe weakest or the strongest link as the case may be, in the one single chain\r\nconstituting the whole human race.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.7pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>And\r\nyet, at bottom, it is not such an absolute determinism, this cosmos, however\r\napparently it may prove itself to be so. It is found, actually, that behind and\r\nin and through this ineluctable fatalism there are aberrations, freaks that do\r\nnot adhere to the common pattern. In the overall macrocosmic view the reign of\r\nthe fixed law is perhaps absolute but in the microcosm of infinitesimals\r\nfissures appear, discrepancies show themselves. All strict calculations turn\r\nout in the end to be mere approximations, only they tend to become more and\r\nmore approximate. It is like the asymptote or the race between the hare and\r\nthe tortoise in the famous story – a mathematical puzzle – where the hare\r\nstarting behind can never catch up with the tortoise however fast he may run.\r\nWith the discovery of new factors (sometimes only a new way of calculation) the\r\ngap is<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 375<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.0pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=GramE>sought</span> to be reduced, but the approximation remains. For example,\r\nthe bending of a ray of light <i>from </i>a star passing by the solar sphere is\r\na subject <i>for </i>interesting calculation: between the figure as given by\r\nthe Einstein equation and the actual measurement there is a difference,\r\nalthough slight, yet a difference. Such differences are usually explained by\r\nsome kind of intervention and if that intervention does not fully explain it,\r\nanother intervention is brought in, and still the hiatus continues. This is\r\njust an example. The ultimate particles of matter, points of electric charge\r\n(or no-charge), points of tension are <span class=SpellE>incalculables</span>;\r\ntheir position or velocity is an indeterminate, not because of the\r\ninfinitesimal size of the quantum, their very nature is so; they are erratic in\r\ntheir own essence. And one can justifiably ascribe a kind of <i>free </i>will\r\nto these ultimate, almost immaterial material particles, although when they are\r\nin bundles or groups they behave quite reasonably and are very obedient to the\r\nlaw, but singly each <span class=SpellE>possessess</span> or is capable of\r\npossessing a <i>free </i>independent movement. There is a basis here of the\r\nspirit of independence that shows itself more clearly in the biological units,\r\nand of course, very overtly and patently in the human mental consciousness.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>There\r\nseems to be an entity lying at the other end away <i>from </i>Matter, it is the\r\nSpirit, the individual Conscious Being. If Matter is Bondage, Law, Determinism,\r\nSpirit is Freedom, <st1:City><st1:place>Liberty</st1:place></st1:City>, <span\r\nclass=GramE>Self</span>-choice. That is the well-known duality – Purusha and <span\r\nclass=GramE>Prakriti, that</span> divide existence between themselves. Purusha\r\nis the conscient <span class=GramE>Being</span>, and Prakriti the inconscient\r\nbecoming. These dual realities are however not irrevocably distinct and\r\nseparate incommensurables. They are not unbridgeable units foreign to each\r\nother. The conscient being infuses itself into the inconscient becoming and\r\ninitiates a conscious movement in the unconscious field. Thus where there was\r\nthe absolute determinism of matter, sparks <i>from </i>the <i>free </i>consciousness\r\nintervene and modify the settled balance. That is the inner sense of the\r\naberrations that one observes in the play even of physical laws. It is just the\r\nbeginning of the stress of consciousness in unconscious matter. That stress\r\nincreases in the march of time, in the process of evolution; and the natural\r\nfreedom of the subject impinges on the rigid law of the object making it more\r\nand more pliable and plastic, more and more malleable and<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 376<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'margin-top:0;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=GramE>even</span> reversible. In man a balance is struck between freedom\r\nand bondage although apparently bondage overweighs freedom. In the higher evolved\r\nstatus of being man arrives and can arrive at yet greater degrees of freedom\r\nand in the end eliminate altogether the element of bondage and transmute it\r\ninto the self-expressed rhythm of the higher consciousness. The supreme Divine\r\nConsciousness or Being is that where Nature\'s determinism is dissolved in the\r\nself-law of the All Spirit, the Divine Will becoming the <span class=GramE>law</span>\r\nof the being.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nwhole process of creation, the final goal of the Divine Lila is the liberation\r\nof Nature, Prakriti. Prakriti is born in Bondage as inconscient Energy.\r\nPrakriti itself is a prison-house made of, wholly made of unconsciousness. The\r\nconscious Being is there involved, imprisoned and suffers and is miserable. For\r\nthe gloom of unconsciousness covers it and almost swallows it up. That is the\r\nimmanent Godhead in creation and is in man his soul, an emanation and\r\nrepresentative of the Godhead. As it is commonly understood, liberation means\r\nthe release of the Godhead out of the prison escaping into the Transcendent.\r\nThe riddle of this creation is therefore to be solved by this process of escape\r\nof the Conscious Principle from out of the unconscious covering beyond into the\r\npure Consciousness <i>– laya </i>for the human being and <i>pralaya </i>for the\r\ncreation. Actually the Upanishad gives graphically the direction to the human\r\nsoul to pull <span class=GramE>himself</span> out, out of the containing form:\r\neven as one draws the inner stem of a blade of grass out of its covering, for\r\nthat which is Pure, Stainless is not here but out there.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>But\r\nwe have set before us a different process. The immanent Godhead, the Conscious\r\nBeing imbedded, apparently lost in matter need not withdraw or depart elsewhere\r\nto be free and to be itself. We have already said the force of its\r\nconsciousness has or can have a different function and is strong enough to\r\ncarry out that function. Its very presence is sufficient to infuse its own\r\nlight and freedom into the environing covering and gradually dissolve its dark\r\nignorance. Man through his soul and self can liberate his ordinary ignorant\r\nnature: he not merely liberates himself from this nature but transmutes it into\r\nan expression and <span class=SpellE>emanantion</span> of the Divine\r\nConsciousness. Even so the cosmic Godhead buried in<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 377<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>the</span>\r\nuniverse grows, evolves and slowly spreads and establishes the radiance of its\r\nconsciousness in the cosmic nature, makes this also the expression and\r\nembodiment of his conscious energy. That is the liberation or rebirth of\r\nnature, not its dissolution and extinction. Not extraction, but infiltration is\r\nthe process.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nDivine Purusha descends into his own shadow and by his own light transmutes the\r\ndark silhouette into a luminous image, his very self concretised upon earth.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 378<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.0pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<div align=\"right\"> \r\n	<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"> </div>\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-106_The Stress of the Spirit','','publish','closed','open','','106_the-stress-of-the-spirit','','','2021-11-23 17:58:15','2021-11-23 17:58:15','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/106_the-stress-of-the-spirit/',0,'post','',0),(1770,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:15','2021-11-23 17:58:15','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>Organise Tour Life</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><b>\r\n<font size=\"4\">Organise Your Life</font><o:p></o:p></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><b><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></b></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>MORAL notions\r\nhave nothing to do with the growth of the inner being. I regret to say it, but\r\nthe two are ill-assorted mates and go opposite ways. You may fall totally sick\r\nby doing a very unselfish <span class=GramE>act,</span> on the other hand you\r\nmay continue to be hale and hearty while doing the most egoistic acts.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>There\r\nis a great difference between a moral consciousness and a consciousness that is\r\nthe expression of truth. I tell you again it is infinitely more difficult to\r\nhave a consciousness expressing the truth than to have a moral consciousness.\r\nFor any blockhead who knows social rules and follows <span class=GramE>them</span>\r\nhas a moral consciousness, but to have a consciousness of the truth, one must\r\nnot be a blockhead, that is the first condition.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.8pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>All\r\nthe misadventures of life come from a lack of organisation of life. You live\r\nfrom moment to <span class=GramE>moment,</span> take things as they arrive,\r\nsomehow or other. Or, you try a mental organisation which does not at all agree\r\nwith the truth and is therefore thwarted at each step. But if life is organised\r\naccording to a higher principle, without the gropings that usually attend it,\r\nthat is to say, following every minute a precise indication with regard to what\r\nis to be done and how it is to be done, then things can be arranged without\r\nmishaps.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Generally\r\nspeaking, it is better to choose one\'s work carefully, take up only as much as\r\none is able to do and do that well; often you take up too much and in that too\r\nmuch there are a good amount of useless things which can be cut out or\r\ndiminished considerably without affecting the result. I do not make this an\r\nabsolute general rule. I am stating only an experience of mine. If you are all\r\nattention to the inner indication and you refuse to be tossed about by the\r\nwaves coming from outside – movements of other people\'s will, routine circumstances\r\nor adverse forces </p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:11.5pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n12.0pt;\'>Page – 11<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>that do not\r\nwant the things to be done – I say, instead of being driven hither and thither,\r\nif you receive the clear precise inner sign and follow it without evading or hesitating,\r\nwith a strictness even that may be displeasing to others so much the worse for\r\nthe others – in that case you will find that you do become in some sort master\r\nof circumstances; for they organise themselves <span lang=EN-GB\r\nstyle=\'mso-ansi-language:EN-GB\'>favourably</span> and you are able to do more work\r\nin less time.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>There\r\nis a way of diminishing the time taken for a work and that is by increasing\r\nyour concentration. There are people <span style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:bold\'>in<b></b></span>capable\r\nof concentration; it tires them. But it is like carrying a weight; you can get\r\nused to it. So, first you have to master this power of concentration; for that\r\nyou have to calm your mind and in that calmness, concentrate, go on\r\nconcentrating on the point that you have to deal with, on the work that is to\r\nbe done, whatever it is. The concentration comes with a kind of driving force,\r\nquiet but extremely powerful; and you go forward without hesitation. Then you\r\ncan do in a quarter of an hour what might normally take full one hour. That\r\nsaves you a good deal of time. You can, instead of continually passing from one\r\nwork to another, stretch yourself for a while and have complete rest. The rest\r\ngives relaxation to all the limbs that were under tension while you were\r\nworking, that is to say, brings new strength to them and you can start again\r\nanother spell of concentration.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:11.0pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page\r\n– 12<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:11.0pt;\r\nmso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;\r\ntext-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-003_Organise your Life','','publish','closed','open','','003_organise-your-life','','','2021-11-23 17:58:15','2021-11-23 17:58:15','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/003_organise-your-life/',0,'post','',0),(1771,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:15','2021-11-23 17:58:15','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>Prayer and Aspiration</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=blue style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n\r\n<div class=Section1> \r\n\r\n<h1 style=\'line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\' align=\"center\"><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'>\r\n<font size=\"4\">Prayer\r\nand Aspiration</font><o:p></o:p></b></h1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><span style=\'font-family:\r\nArial\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>(1)</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>W<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt\'>HAT</span> you do has an inevitable\r\nand absolute consequence. This is a necessary concept at a given moment of the\r\nevolutionary process. It is meant to prevent men from becoming completely\r\negoistic or doing what they do in a totally unconscious manner. There are many\r\nwho are like that, the majority, I suppose; they follow their impulses and do\r\nnot ask what consequences their <span style=\'font-family:\"Arial Narrow\"\'>actions\r\n</span>will have for themselves and for others. It is good then if someone told\r\nthem with a severe air: &quot;Take care, that has consequences which, last\r\nlong, very long.&quot; There are religions that<span style=\'font-family:\"Arial Narrow\"\'>\r\n</span>rose to warn you: &quot;You will pay for that in another life,&quot;\r\n&quot;If you commit this sin, you will go into hell for eternity&quot; and so\r\non. That is, however, a most fantastic story that man has invented; still,\r\npeople are frightened and checked in some way. It spares them a moment for\r\nreflection before they run after their impulses, not always, sometimes the\r\nreflection comes after, a little late.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.6pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>In\r\nall religions people who declared that the consequences of Karma are rigorous and\r\nwho gave these absolute rules, must <span style=\'font-family:\"Arial Narrow\"\'>have\r\n</span>done so, I believe, to put themselves in place of Nature, to pull the\r\nstrings that move ordinary men. For these rules are mental constructions, more\r\nor less sincere perhaps, cutting things into<span style=\'font-family:\"Arial Narrow\"\'>\r\n</span>bits and telling you: &quot;Do this, do that; it is not this, it is\r\nthat.<span style=\'font-family:\"Arial Narrow\"\'>&quot; </span>People are\r\nconfused, frightened, they do not know what to do at the end.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:7.4pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>What\r\nthey must do is to get to an upper floor. And they must be given the key to\r\nopen the door. The key is (1) a sufficiently sincere aspiration, or (2) a\r\nsufficiently intense prayer. I said <i>or, </i>but it may not be so; there are\r\npeople who like the one and<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 81</span></p>\r\n<hr>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>there are\r\npeople who prefer the other. But in both magic power and one must know to use\r\nthem.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>There\r\nare some who detest prayers. If they entered d their heart, they would see that\r\nit is pride, even worse than that vanity. There are people who have no\r\naspiration, they try but they are not able to aspire. They are not able to\r\naspire, because they have not the flame of the will, nor have they the flame of\r\nhumility. Both are necessary. To change one\'s Karma one needs a great humility\r\nand a great will-power.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nDivine Grace counteracts the Karma wholly; the Grace melts Karma, as the sun\r\nmelts butter. If you have an aspiration sincere enough, or a prayer intense\r\nenough you can bring down into you something that will change everything.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>(2)</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>I\r\nhave already spoken to you of the different plane of consciousness. On the\r\npurely material plane (separating it from the vital), it is all absolutely\r\nmechanistic: there things follow each other in a rigid chain of cause and\r\neffect. If you want to find the cause of a thing, you will have to find the\r\ncause of the cause; and if you want to find the effect of a thing you will have\r\nto find also the effect of the effect. The causes and effects linked together\r\nform a closed ring. Only, into this purely material plane there can intervene\r\nand does intervene the vital plane, as for example, in the vegetable kingdom.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nvital plane has a totally different determinism, which is its own. And when you\r\nbring the vital determinism into Physical determinism, that makes a combination\r\nwhich changes everything.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Above\r\nthe vital plane lies the mental plane. The mental plane too has its own\r\ndeterminism in which all mental things are chained together in a rigorous\r\nsequence.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:right 249.1pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;\r\ntext-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Each of these planes\r\nhas what may be called a horizontal determinism.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:right 249.1pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;\r\ntext-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>But, as I say, there is also a vertical movement. That is,\r\nthe mental descends into the vital and the vital descends into the physical. Thus there are three determinisms\r\nwhich intervene and produce something that is quite different.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;tab-stops:right 249.1pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;\r\ntext-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\r\n\'>Page – 82</span></p><hr>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.05pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Where\r\nthe mind intervenes the determinism will necessarily be different from the\r\ndeterminism where it does not intervene. In the higher animal life there is\r\nalready an intervening mental determinism which is quite different from the\r\ndeterminism on the vegetable plane. Above these planes there are others up to\r\nthe highest. The highest plane is the plane of absolute freedom.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>If\r\nyou are capable of traversing all these planes in your consciousness, so to\r\nsay, in a vertical line and reach the highest and then, through this joining\r\nup, if you are able to bring down this determinism of perfect freedom into the\r\nmaterial determinism, then you can change everything. And all the intermediaries\r\nalso will undergo the change. Because of these changes it will all look like total\r\nfreedom. For the intervention or the descent of one plane upon another will\r\nhave unforeseen consequences for the lower one. The higher planes may foresee,\r\nbut the lower ones cannot. Being unforeseen, things and events have then an air\r\nof the absolutely free and the totally unexpected.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>It\r\nis only when you live consciously and constantly on the highest level, that is\r\nto say, the level of the supreme consciousness, that you are able to see that\r\neverything is absolutely determined, but at the same time by the very\r\ncomplexity of the intermixture of these determinisms everything is absolutely\r\nfree. You may call this phenomenon as you like, but it is a kind of absolute\r\ndeterminism and absolute freedom combined. It is the level where there are no\r\ncontradictions, where all things exist and exist in harmony without\r\ncontradicting each other.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>(3)</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Everything\r\nis possible. It is a gradual unfolding along a highway, as it were, which is\r\nunknown and unknowable to you. In the universe all will be unfolded. But in what\r\norder and in what way? Everything is there absolutely, eternally but static.\r\nEverything is going to come out into the material world, naturally, more or\r\nless one after another. What course will the unfolding follow?</p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Up there, it is the domain of absolute\r\nfreedom. Who tells you that a sufficiently sincere aspiration, a sufficiently\r\nintense prayer cannot change the course of the unfolding? It means everything \r\n<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 83</span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>is\r\npossible. This is one wonderful grace that has been granted to human nature. Only\r\none does not know how to make use of it.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>So,\r\nin spite of the most absolute determinism in the horizontal line, one can, if\r\none is able to cross it and reach the highest point of consciousness, change\r\nwhat appears to be absolutely determined.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>All\r\ntheories are mere theories, that is to say, mental conceptions which are only\r\nrepresentations or images of the reality, they are not the reality at all. When\r\nyou say &quot;determinism&quot; or “liberty”, you utter only words. All that is\r\na very incomplete, a very feeble description of That which Is, in truth, within\r\nyou, around you, everywhere. And if you are even to begin to understand what\r\nthe universe is like, you must come out of these mental formulas; otherwise\r\nyou will never understand.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Indeed,\r\nif you live just for a minute only by this absolutely sincere aspiration, this\r\nadequately intense prayer, you will know more things than by meditating for\r\nlong hours.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 84</span></p><hr>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n	<a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-028_Prayer and Aspiration','','publish','closed','open','','028_prayer-and-aspiration-2','','','2021-11-23 17:58:15','2021-11-23 17:58:15','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/028_prayer-and-aspiration-2/',0,'post','',0),(1772,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:16','2021-11-23 17:58:16','<html xmlns:o=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>The Ladder of Unconsciousness</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">\r\n<b><font size=\"4\">The Ladder of Unconsciousness</font><o:p></o:p></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style=\'text-align:right;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><b><i><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:18.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></b></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyText style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">CONSCIOUSNESS, the normal consciousness we know, has\r\nvarious degrees of potency: its familiar form is the rational consciousness or\r\nintellect; then at a higher level, there is the intuitive consciousness and at\r\na still higher level the visionary consciousness, that is, the consciousness\r\nthat sees the Truth, and at the highest, the objectless consciousness,\r\nconsciousness in itself or the <span class=SpellE>sachchidananda</span>\r\nconsciousness.<span style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Likewise\r\nunconsciousness too has its own various degrees. As consciousness rises up to\r\nhigher and higher grades of consciousness, so unconsciousness too descends\r\ninto lower and lower grades of unconsciousness. The first degree of\r\nunconsciousness is simple forgetfulness. It is the absence of consciousness,\r\nnot the loss of consciousness. The consciousness is there but it is not\r\napparent or expressed, it is held back for the time. One can recall it; it can\r\nbe remembered and brought forward. The abeyance of consciousness, when it\r\npersists, when it amounts to a turn of nature, is <span class=GramE>called</span>\r\nignorance. Yet ignorance is not the negation of consciousness, it is clouded or\r\nveiled consciousness; it is not that the sun is set and gone but simply that it\r\nis behind the clouds, it is up in the sky but shrouded. This behind-the-veil\r\nconsciousness is the subliminal consciousness or simply <span class=SpellE>sub-consciousness</span>.\r\n<span class=SpellE>Sub-consciousness</span> is a consciousness that is not\r\ndormant or asleep, stilled into silence, it is at work but behind the normal\r\nwaking state – It is the <i>swapna-state </i>as the Indian sages termed it.\r\nLower down is the state of unconsciousness proper. It is a still more\r\ndiminished degree of consciousness, apparently a total absence of\r\nconsciousness, not merely an abeyance or subsidence of <span class=GramE>consciousness,</span>\r\nit is a lack of consciousness. The animal consciousness might be taken as an \r\ninstance or expression of the ignorant consciousness, likewise the plant</p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-pagination:none;\r\nmso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 321<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>consciousness</span>\r\nparallels the subliminal consciousness – the Indian description of it is <span\r\nclass=SpellE><i>antahprajna</i></span><i>. </i>Next to it is the consciousness\r\nin the mineral, it is unconsciousness. By unconsciousness it is meant here\r\nnaturally the absence of the mental consciousness: the presence or absence of\r\nconsciousness means the presence or absence of the mental consciousness. There\r\nis a generic consciousness, consciousness in itself, or pure consciousness,\r\nwhich is imbedded in all created things, for creation itself is at bottom a\r\nvibration or pulsation of consciousness <i>(<span class=SpellE>vijnana-vijrmbhanam</span>).\r\n</i>There is a range or rung still further below with a still lesser degree- of\r\nconsciousness: it is called the inconscient, which is a totally total, in depth\r\nand in extent, absence of consciousness. In the other degree that is above it,\r\nthere is the probability of consciousness in the midst of apparent absence,\r\nhere it is reduced almost to nothingness or to just a possibility: for, as I\r\nhave said, some consciousness, the presence of <span class=SpellE>Sachchidananda</span>\r\nis always there everywhere in the core of things. Yet there is also an absolute\r\nnegation and this has been termed Nescience, it is the zero of things, where\r\nthere is no question of possibility or impossibility: it is the final and\r\ndefinite end, <span class=SpellE><i>sunyam</i></span><i> </i>of the Buddhists,\r\ntermed <span class=SpellE><span class=GramE><i>asat</i></span><i> </i>by\r\nthe Vedantists.</span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Now,\r\nthe curious and most interesting thing is that the end is not the end of\r\nthings; for beyond the zero there is the minus sign and what does minus mean? I\r\nt does not mean mere <span class=GramE>negation,</span> it means a reality – a\r\nnegative real. It is a moot problem in philosophy – philosophers have\r\nquestioned, argued, discussed at length about it – whether negation means only\r\ndenial, just the contrary of affirmation. If affirmation means a real, negation\r\nmeans simply the unreal. It has been declared by competent authorities that\r\nnegation, like affirmation, is also a reality but of the opposite sign. We know\r\nin mathematics the minus sign is as real as the plus.</p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent2 style=\'border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;\r\npadding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 15.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The minus consciousness is\r\nsomething like the minus numerical figure. And indeed in its pure and\r\nessential reality, its ultimate, it has or is a figure – a very ominous figure\r\n– It is Death. And as such it becomes an altogether real, living entity, of the\r\nopposite sign as I said. This minus reality stretches downward and goes round\r\nand touches as it were, the back of the Supreme plus reality, \'the Supreme <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Consciousnes</span>”. That is the negative infinite, the great\r\nshadow of the Infinite Light.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent2 align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:\r\n0in;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 15.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page\r\n– 322</span></p>\r\n\r\n<hr>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'margin-top:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; margin-bottom:0\'>The absolute Nescience is the mere reversal of the Supreme Consciousness,\r\nthe everlasting <span class=GramE>Nay</span> is the everlasting Yes turned\r\ninside out. Death making a right-about turn is Immortality.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.65pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Modern\r\nscience speaks of anti-matter and the possibility of a world of anti-matter. A\r\nworld of anti-matter seems to be self contradictory if it does not amount to\r\nbe an absolute impossibility. The only possibility or plausibility is a world in\r\nwhich matter and anti-matter co-exist (as actually in the present world), but\r\nthe miracle is that they do not cancel or annihilate each other producing an\r\nabsolute zero; indeed, the two opposing Clements in their interaction through a\r\nprocess of continuous creation and destruction carryon the world <i>ad\r\ninfinitum</i><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:italic\'>.<i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.4pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>But\r\nwe are more concerned with the mystery of anti - matter which is the ultimate\r\nform of what we have called minus consciousness whose image, as I have said, is\r\nDeath. Sri Aurobindo has described in <i>Savitri </i>how Death the unreal or\r\nthe negative Being in its ultimate recession turns round and stands face to\r\nface with the Divine in His plenary light and power, merges into it and becomes\r\none with it, for Death was nothing else than the Divine. Only when ignorance\r\nand unconsciousness (the negation) is thus transformed into its original\r\nessence and reality, it adds to it something, a quality which was not there, so\r\nto say, which is the fruition or summation of its long journey of material\r\nevolution. It is the delight of union, or fusion of two in place of mere unity\r\n– the delight of unity in multiplicity.</p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:1.9pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page\r\n– 323<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<div align=\"right\"> \r\n	<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"> </div>\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-094_The Ladder of Unconsciousness','','publish','closed','open','','094_the-ladder-of-unconsciousness','','','2021-11-23 17:58:16','2021-11-23 17:58:16','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/094_the-ladder-of-unconsciousness/',0,'post','',0),(1773,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:16','2021-11-23 17:58:16','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>A Sign and A Symbol</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=blue style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><b\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;\'>\r\n<font size=\"4\">A Sign and A Symbol</font></span><span style=\'font-size:14.0pt;\r\ncolor:blue\'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><i><span style=\'font-size:14.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></b></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic\'>It is said that if\r\nyou see a shooting star and make a vow at that time, the vow is sure to be\r\nfulfilled. Is it true?<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'margin-top:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:\r\n.25in;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:\r\nnone;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:\r\nitalic\'>IT means that you must be able to formulate your aspiration during the\r\ntime the star is visible, that is to say, a very short time. Now, if an\r\naspiration can be formed and formulated in such a short time, it shows that the\r\naspiration is there all the while quite at the front of your consciousness. Of\r\ncourse, the thing is true of the spiritual aspiration only: it is not\r\napplicable to matters of ordinary life. So I say that if you are capable of\r\narticulating your aspiration in a split second, it means that the object of\r\nyour aspiration lies in front and dominates your consciousness. And necessarily\r\nwhatever dominates your . consciousness is likely to be quickly realised.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic\'>I had the occasion\r\nto make the experiment and have had the experience. It happened exactly as you\r\nsay. I saw a shooting star and as it passed, at the precise moment, leaped out\r\nof my consciousness the words: To realise for my body union with the Divine.\r\nAnd before the year ended, it was done.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.8pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic\'>Obviously, the\r\nstar was not the cause. It was because the thing dominated my consciousness, I\r\nthought of nothing but that, I willed nothing but that, I acted only for that.\r\nUsually, it seems, it takes a whole lifetime to have the realization – the\r\nminimum is thirty-five years, it is said. But it was done in my case within\r\ntwelve months.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:144.2pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;\r\ntext-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:\r\nitalic\'>It was because I was wholly concentrated upon the aspiration that I\r\ncould formulate it in the twinkling of an eye that the passage of the star\r\nrepresents – not as a mere vague impression – but in clear precise words: To\r\nrealise for the body union with the Divine. What is important is not the star,\r\nbut the aspiration.</span><span style=\'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;tab-stops:144.2pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic\'>Page – 19<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic\'>There is no need\r\nof a shooting star to be there in order to have the experience quickly, what is\r\nneeded is that the whole being must concentrate its will upon one point.</span><b\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'><span style=\'font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></b></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:\r\nitalic\'>Page – 20<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'margin-left:4.5pt\'>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:-4.5pt;\r\nline-height:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n	<a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><i><span style=\'color:blue\'><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>\r\n  <b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><i>\r\n\r\n</i></b></div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-006_A Sign and A Symbol','','publish','closed','open','','006_a-sign-and-a-symbol','','','2021-11-23 17:58:16','2021-11-23 17:58:16','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/006_a-sign-and-a-symbol/',0,'post','',0),(1774,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:16','2021-11-23 17:58:16','<html xmlns:o=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>The Moral and the Spiritual</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal\'><font size=\"4\">The Moral and the Spiritual</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style=\'text-align:right; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&nbsp;</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Is there anything essentially\r\nwrong, evil in its very being and nature? Some religious traditions <span\r\nclass=GramE>say,</span> there is: Satan is such a thing, <span class=SpellE>Ahriman</span>\r\nis such a thing, and what else is <span class=SpellE><i>maya</i></span><i>\r\n</i>or <span class=SpellE><i>mara</i></span><i>?<o:p></o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>However\r\nthat may be, the sense of something essentially wrong is the fount and origin\r\nof the moral sense. The moral sense stems <span class=SpellE>\r\n<span style=\"background-color: #FFFFFF\">from</span></span> and\r\nlives on the sense of sin and guilt. </p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nsense of sin is the fundamental inspiration behind some religious disciplines,\r\neven the sense of something irrevocably bad or something irreparable; for that\r\ngives a stronger impetus, a more dynamic urge to the spur of the religious consciousness.\r\nThe sense of something irreparable, a final doom, has before it the vision of\r\nan eternal hell, the Lord of hell and his hosts and his captives. Upon this\r\nbasic picture of Hell has loomed out Dante\'s vision of <st1:place>Paradise</st1:place>.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nIndian consciousness did not consider anything essentially evil, anything\r\nirrevocably and eternally condemned to perdition. Even the <span class=SpellE>Asura</span>,\r\nthe anti-Divine is viewed, in the last analysis of things, also as an aspect, a\r\nformation of the Divine himself. <span class=SpellE>Diti</span> and <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Aditi</span> are sisters, twin aspects of the same Supreme Being.\r\nAll the legends in narrating the life history of the <span class=SpellE>Asura</span>\r\ndescribe his end as a submission to the Divine Will and a merging in Him. An\r\nentire life of bitter hostility culminates in the same degree of love for the\r\nDivine. The process of enmity seems to have a deeper <span class=GramE>occult<span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp; </span>meaning conducive to the more perfect\r\nunion with the Divine. We know in <i>Savitri </i>how Sri <span class=SpellE>Aurobindo</span>\r\nspeaks of Death as only a mask of Immortality.</span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\nIn fact, evil, as we usually know it, as human mind construes it, is only a \r\nmisplacement of a thing, a thing not in its place<span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp; </span>–<span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp; </span>a\r\nthing need not be essentially wrong, it is wrong because it<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 287<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>is</span>\r\nnot in its right place. Even things considered reprehensible by the moral sense\r\nare not so when they are viewed from another standpoint.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nmoral consciousness seeks to rescue man from the animal consciousness. Its\r\neffort is to be delivered from the inferior vital instincts and rise to\r\nsomething higher, genuinely human. It does that or tries to do that by\r\ncultivating a feeling of repulsion, even of horror towards things that are\r\nsought to be rejected, cast out. The feeling of repulsion, of revulsion and\r\nhorror, is indispensable to the growth and maintenance of the moral feeling.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>The Indian discipline, on the other hand,\r\nteaches that to rise to a higher state of consciousness one need not have, one\r\nmust not have, any feeling of revulsion or hatred. There is no such thing as\r\nsaintly hatred. One must be free from attachment to the movements of inferior <span\r\nclass=GramE>nature,</span> one must cultivate detachment from them, but not\r\nnecessarily through hatred or horror. The spiritual discipline bases itself\r\nupon a sense of perfect equality.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>When\r\nyou have hatred or horror for a thing it means you are on the same plane with\r\nit, your consciousness is level with the consciousness of the opposite\r\nfeelings. You have to rise above the status of the lower nature and this can be\r\ndone only by a calm detachment, a quiet withdrawal. One need not entertain\r\nrepulsion or hatred for animal life in order to <span class=GramE>rise</span>\r\nsuperior to it, one automatically rises superior to it when one links oneself\r\nto the higher status, when one is imbued with the superior consciousness. The\r\nanimal consciousness is not a wrong consciousness in itself, it is a life of\r\nthe animal; the human consciousness may regard it as such and may still\r\ndiscover a superior consciousness looking at the movements of the lower world\r\ndispassionately, indifferently, or even appreciatively, for a thing of beauty\r\nis there even in the animal life, for the Divine is everywhere.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-indent:.15in;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The moral impulse is towards\r\na self-exceeding but this self-exceeding, I have said, is to be done in perfect\r\nequanimity, in absolute detachment and indifference. To rise in consciousness,\r\nfrom the physical and animal to the divine, means, of course, abandoning the\r\ninferior, reaching the higher: but \'inferior\' does not mean something low,\r\nsomething to be</p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:.15in;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page\r\n– 288<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>despised</span>\r\nand reviled, but simply something to be passed over, transcended. And the ideal\r\nwould be not only to surpass but to find out a secret parallelism between the\r\ntwo, discover the seed of the higher embedded even in the lower. <span\r\nclass=GramE>The Indian discipline, including the school that advocates total\r\nrejection of the lower and enjoins simple detachment and separation, does not\r\napprove of any feeling of contempt or disgust.</span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>The states of being or consciousness from\r\nthe animal, or down from Matter itself up to the Supreme <i>– <span\r\nclass=SpellE>abrahmastamba</span> – </i>constitute what is called a\r\nhierarchy. Hierarchy means a structure rising upward tier upon tier, step by\r\nstep: it is a scale, as it were, of increasing values, only the values are not\r\nmoral, they indicate only a measure, a neutral measure respecting position or\r\na kind of mass content. As in a building where brick is laid upon brick, or\r\nstone upon stone, the one laid above is not superior to the one <span\r\nclass=GramE>laid</span> below; the terms inferior and superior indicate only\r\nthe simple position of the objects. Even the system of the four social orders\r\nin ancient&quot; <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region>\r\nwas originally such a hierarchy. The higher and lower orders did not carry any\r\nmoral appreciation or depreciation. The four orders placed one above the other\r\nschematically denote only the respective social functions classified according\r\nto the nature of each, even as the human body represents such a hierarchy,\r\nrising from the feet at the bottom towards the head at the top. This is to say\r\nall objects and movements in nature are <i>right </i>when they are confined\r\neach to its own domain, following its own dharma of that domain. Thus one can\r\nbe perfectly calm and at ease witnessing the <span class=SpellE>catastrophies</span>\r\nand cataclysms in nature, for one knows it is the dharma of material nature.\r\nMan terms them disasters for he judges them according to his own convenience.\r\nEven so, one should not be perturbed at the wild <span class=SpellE>behaviour</span>–man\r\ncalls it wild – of wild animals. Likewise the gods in their sovereign <span\r\nclass=SpellE>tranquillity</span> smile at the crudeness and stupidities of\r\nhuman beings. One has to lift oneself up, withdraw and stand high above all\r\nthat one wishes to surpass and look at it, with a benign godly smile.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nworld is a gradation of developing consciousness, of growing states or status\r\nof being. There is a higher and lower level in point of the measure of\r\nconsciousness but that involves no moral <span class=SpellE>judgement</span>:\r\nthe moral <span class=SpellE>judgement</span> is <span class=GramE>man\'s</span>;\r\nit is \r\n<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 289<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>man\'s</span>,\r\none might almost say, <span class=SpellE>idiosyncracy</span>, that is to say, a\r\nnotion that is a prop to help him mount the ladder. Though it might be\r\nnecessary at a certain stage, in certain circumstances, it is not a universal\r\nor ineluctable law, not even in his personal domain. The growing consciousness\r\nis like the growing tree rising upward first into a trunk, then spreading out\r\ninto branches, into twigs and tendrils, then in flowers and finally, in fruits.\r\nThese are mounting grades of growth, but the growth above is <i>not superior </i>to\r\nthe growth below. It is a one unified whole and each portion has its own\r\nabsolute value, beauty and utility.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:288.45pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;\r\ntext-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The modern mind has forgotten this lesson. It is terribly\r\nmoral – I say moral, not immoral – Its immorality has found play, has almost\r\nbeen cultured so that its moral sense may remain intact. Its dislike and even\r\nabhorrence for things it chooses to call immoral is the ransom it pays for\r\nrescuing its sense of morality, and paradoxically this very abhorrence for\r\nunholy things has pushed it all the more into their grasp. This is the\r\ncharacteristic turn or twist of the modern consciousness, the perversity\r\nunkl1own to the ancient \'sinners\'. Perversity means, you yield, not only yield,\r\nbut take delight in the thing you dislike, detest or abhor even. In the vein of\r\n<st1:City><st1:place>St. Augustine</st1:place></st1:City> who said &quot;I\r\nbelieve because it is impossible&quot;, 1 the modern consciousness says: I love\r\nbecause I hate.<span style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>A\r\nstrange fascination for the forbidden fruit has gripped the modern mentality\r\nand the most significant part of the thing is that the forbidding comes from\r\nwithin oneself, not from any authority outside – It is self-forbidden. We are\r\nreminded here of the Kantian moral absolute – the categorical imperative. This\r\nis a gospel based upon the Christian and Semitic tradition, polished by the\r\nGreek (that is, Socratic) touch, quickened and sharpened by the intellectual\r\nand social stress of European Culture. <st1:country-region><st1:place>India</st1:place></st1:country-region>\r\nadmitted no such moral absolute or mental categorical imperative. The urge of\r\nher spiritual consciousness was always to go beyond, beyond the dualities,\r\nbeyond the trinities (the three <span class=SpellE><span class=GramE><i>gunas )</i></span><i> - all </i>mental or scriptural rules and\r\nregulations. <span class=GramE>For her there is only one absolute – the transcendent,\r\nthe Supreme Divine himself – the Brahman, nothing else, <i>netaram.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n8.15pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt\'>¹ <i>Credo <span class=SpellE>quia</span> <span\r\nclass=SpellE>impossibile</span> </i>is actually a phrase of <span class=SpellE>Tertullian</span>\r\nvide his <i>De Carne Christi, </i>V – though often ascribed to <st1:City><st1:place>St. Augustine</st1:place></st1:City></span></p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:11.75pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic\'>Page – 290<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nIndian spiritual consciousness considers the secular distinction of good and evil\r\nas otiose: both are <span class=SpellE>maya</span>, there must neither be\r\nattachment to the Good, nor repulsion from Evil, the two, <span class=SpellE><i>dwandwas</i></span><i>,\r\n</i>belong to the same category of relativity, that is, unreality.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Indian\r\nartists and poets were steeped in that tradition, wholly inspired by that\r\nspirit. Orthodox morality often wonders, is even shocked at the frankness, the\r\ndaring nonchalance in Indian art <span class=GramE>creations ,</span> – a\r\nfamiliar prudery would call it shamelessness and even vulgarity, but to the\r\nIndian view, \'the Brahmin and the cow and the elephant\' are of equal value and\r\nmerit. The movement conventional morality calls \'libidinous\' has a nobler name\r\nin Indian tradition: it is <span class=SpellE>a<i>dirasa</i></span><i>, </i>the\r\nfirst or primary delight of existence. As I have said, the modern consciousness\r\nfinds it a horror and is therefore all the more fascinated by it and dives into\r\nit head foremost.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>To\r\ncure the modern malady we have to go back again to something of the ancient\r\nmentality. We have to cultivate a consciousness, now forgotten and alienated\r\nbut once natural to the human mind, the consciousness and status of a transcendence\r\nbuilt with the sense of absolute calm, an equality, all serene and all <span\r\nclass=SpellE><span class=GramE>englobing, that</span>\r\nis God\'s consciousness.</span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:10.3pt;\r\nmso-line-height-alt:8.15pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;\r\ntext-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;\r\npadding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\r\n\'>Page – 291<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n	<a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<div align=\"right\"> \r\n	<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"> </div>\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-087_The Moral and the Spiritual','','publish','closed','open','','087_the-moral-and-the-spiritual','','','2021-11-23 17:58:16','2021-11-23 17:58:16','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/087_the-moral-and-the-spiritual/',0,'post','',0),(1775,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:16','2021-11-23 17:58:16','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>Dealing with a Wrong Movement</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">\r\n<b\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'><font size=\"4\">Dealing with a Wrong Movement</font><o:p></o:p></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:\r\n16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>T<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt\'>HERE</span> is a great\r\ndifference between pushing a thing away simply because you do not want it and\r\nchanging the state of the consciousness so that the thing you do not want\r\nbecomes completely foreign to your nature. Usually when you have a movement\r\nin you which you do not like, you drive it back and repel it, but you do not\r\ntake the trouble of finding in yourself that which served and serves still as a\r\nsupport to the movement, the particular tendency, the turn of consciousness\r\nwhich enables the thing to enter into the consciousness. If, however, instead\r\nof a gesture of mere condemnation and suppression, you enter deep into your\r\nvital consciousness and find out the support, that is to say, the small\r\nvibration of a special kind embedded far in a corner, often a corner so dark\r\nthat it is difficult to see it is there, if, in spite of all difficulty, you\r\nconcentrate and follow on the track of the thing, the origin of the movement,\r\nthen at the end you discover quite a small snake-like thing, coiled up, quite\r\nsmall, not bigger than a pea, but very black and embedded firmly. There are\r\nthen two procedures: either to throw a light so intense, the light of the\r\ntruth-consciousness, so strong upon the point that the thing is dissolved or to\r\nseize the little object as with a pair of pincers, pluck it out and place it\r\nbefore your consciousness. The first method is radical, but you have not always\r\nat your disposal the light of the Truth and you cannot make use of it whenever\r\nyou like. So you have to take to the second method. You may follow it, but it\r\nwill give you pain, a pain as great as when a tooth is being pulled out. I do\r\nnot know if any of you had the experience, but it is painful. Usually, however,\r\nwhat you do in the presence of an undesirable movement is to try to wipe it off\r\n– gently, I suppose – or cover it up; thus things go on as before. You do not\r\nhave the courage and so<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 87<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>things do\r\nnot change. Yes, it gives you pain; the pain is usually here in the heart. But\r\nif you have the courage, it is better to pull out the thing than to temporize\r\nwith it; pull it out and put it in front of your gaze; it dissolves. That makes\r\nan end of it and you are cured. The thing will not come into you any more to\r\ntrouble you. But the operation is radical and it has to be done as an\r\noperation.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>In\r\nthe beginning you need a great perseverance in seeking out the thing. For\r\nnormally when you are in search of these things, the mind comes in and deploys\r\na thousand and one reasons and favourable explanations so that you may not pursue\r\nthe enquiry. It tells you: &quot;No, it is not your fault at all; it is the\r\ncircumstances, it is the people, it is things coming from outside, it is this\r\nand it is that,&quot; all excellent excuses, and if you are not firm in your\r\nresolution, you let things go on and you remain where you were; the thing will come\r\nback to trouble you again and you have to begin all over once more. But if you\r\nhave done the operation, everything is done with. Do not trust the mind and its\r\nexplanations. It might inspire you to say: &quot;Yes, yes, on other occasions\r\nit was like that, I admit, I was indeed in the wrong; but this time, I am sure,\r\nit is not my fault etc., etc.&quot; If you do not deal firmly with your\r\nadversary, it will be always there, hiding in the subconscient, lodged there\r\ncomfortably, coming up any day you are off your guard. I have seen people\r\ncherishing the evil in this way for more than thirty-five years. And if one\r\ndoes not go about it in the right way, there is no reason why the things should\r\nnot continue life after life. The only safe way then is to do the operation, cost\r\nwhat it may. For it gives you the final relief. I say, when you throw the beam\r\nof light upon the spot, it burns, it seres. But you must bear it. You must have\r\nthe sincerity that does not allow you to draw back, to cover up the place and\r\nretire. You must instead throw it wide open, receive the blow straight upon\r\nyou.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.95pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>I\r\nhave told you to seek out the place where the hidden thing lies. The black\r\nthing has many a cosy corner in your being. There are people who have it in the\r\nhead, some in the heart, others down below; but wherever it is when you track\r\nit down it has the same look, the little black creature rolled up, not bigger\r\nthan a pea but hard and firmly set, a microbe-size snake coiled up. If it is\r\nsomething in the head it becomes somewhat difficult to discover. </p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 88<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n10.05pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>For\r\nthe head is full of wrong ideas and it is not easy to put it into order for\r\npursuing the right track. A comparatively easier place to discover and to cure\r\nis in the heart, though here it gives the greatest pain. But here it is found\r\nmore easily and cured also most radically. Down below in the vital things are\r\nvery confused and obscure. All things are mixed up in a veritable chaos. The\r\nmovements are also more violent, more uncontrollable and ignorant. Here are\r\nall the movements of anger, pride, ambition, passion, all attachments and\r\nsentimentalities, the hunger that you call love. And there are a hundred\r\nothers. There are as many kinds in the head too. There it is the perversions\r\nof thought, all the betrayals, the betrayals of your soul. It is inconceivable\r\nhow one betrays one\'s soul, in how many ways, how persistently, the decisions,\r\nthe points of view, the favourable explanations which your brain supplies to\r\nbuttress you against your perception that you have done something wrong. You have\r\nto disentangle all this, put each thing in its place, throw upon each the light\r\nof your true consciousness and judge – burn, purify or transform.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 89<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-pagination:none;\r\nmso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>\r\n	<a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-030_Dealing with a Wrong Movement','','publish','closed','open','','030_dealing-with-a-wrong-movement','','','2021-11-23 17:58:16','2021-11-23 17:58:16','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/030_dealing-with-a-wrong-movement/',0,'post','',0),(1776,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:16','2021-11-23 17:58:16','<html>\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=windows-1252\">\r\n<title>THE MYSTERY OF THE FIVE SENSES</title>\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body>\r\n\r\n<div align=\"center\">\r\n	<table border=\"0\" width=\"100%\" cellpadding=\"2\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\">\r\n		<tr>\r\n			<td>&nbsp;<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center; line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\" align=\"right\">\r\n			<b><font size=\"4\">THE MYSTERY OF THE FIVE SENSES</font></b><font size=\"4\">&nbsp;</font></p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			&nbsp;</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			&nbsp;</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			THE senses are the doors opening out on the external world for the \r\n			consciousness to act and range abroad. That is the usual outward \r\n			movement which is generally so much condemned by spiritual seekers. \r\n			The doors and windows of the senses, whatever they are, all openings \r\n			should be closed, shut up, hermetically scaled. One should then \r\n			return within away from them, if one is to come into contact with \r\n			the true consciousness, the true reality. Even the Gita says, the \r\n			conscious being is seated in tranquillity within, closing all the \r\n			nine gates of the city, himself doing nothing nor causing anything \r\n			to be done.</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.5pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			Well, that is one way of procedure in dealing with the senses. When \r\n			you consider that the senses always pull you out, they always entice \r\n			you to run after the sweet perishable goods of the world, invite you \r\n			to the enjoyment of pleasure and pain, to air the dualities of a \r\n			life of ignorance normally lived upon earth, then indeed the senses \r\n			become terribly suspect. But this need not be so. The senses instead \r\n			of being tempters leading you out into the ignorance may verily be \r\n			inspirers calling you, guiding you inward. Instead of opening out on \r\n			the world of maya they may open out on the world of light and truth.</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoBodyText\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;How can that happen? The clue is given in one of the Upanishads. \r\n			The Kena Upanishad says: This eye does not really see, there is an \r\n			eye behind that sees, and so on with the other senses. Even this<i>\r\n			</i>mind does not know, there is a mind of the mind that knows. That \r\n			is the crucial point. With the eye of the eye one must see, with the \r\n			hearing of an inner car one must hear, and one must know by the mind \r\n			of the mind. Instead of opening these windows and doors outward they \r\n			should be opened inward, turned round about as it were like </p>\r\n			<div style=\"mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; border-bottom: 1.0pt solid windowtext; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 1.0pt\">\r\n				<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center; text-indent: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; border: medium none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; padding: 0in\" align=\"center\">\r\n				Page – 272&nbsp;</div>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoBodyText\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			the flare of a lighthouse. Then instead of being instruments of \r\n			illusory knowledge or maya as now, they become instruments of real \r\n			knowledge, receptacles or transmitters of the truth and reality \r\n			behind and above.</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			Indeed we say habitually, when speaking of spiritual realisation, \r\n			that one <i>\r\n			<span style=\"font-family\" arial narrow\";mso-bidi-font-family:\"arial narrow\"\">\r\n			sees </span></i>the truth, one has to <i>see </i>the truth: to know \r\n			the truth, to know the reality is taken to mean to see the truth, to \r\n			see the reality, and what does this signify? It signifies what one \r\n			sees is the light, the light that emanates from truth, the form that \r\n			the Truth takes, the radiant substance that is the Truth. This then \r\n			is the special character or gift of this organ, the organ of sight, \r\n			the eye. One sees the physical light, of course, but one sees also \r\n			the supraphysical light. It is, as the Upanishad says, the eye of \r\n			the eye, the third eye in the language of the occultists. What we \r\n			say about the eye may be equally said in respect of the other \r\n			sense-organs. Take hearing, for example. By the ear we hear the \r\n			noises of the world, its deafening cries and no doubt at times also \r\n			some earthly music. But when the ear is turned inward, we listen to \r\n			unearthly things Indeed we know how stone-deaf Beethoven heard some \r\n			of those harmonies of supreme beauty that are now the cherished \r\n			possessions of humanity. This inner ear is able to take you by a \r\n			process of regression to the very source of all sound and utterance, \r\n			from where springs the <i>anahata vak, </i>the <i>undictated </i>\r\n			voice, the nada-brahman, the original sound-seed, the primary \r\n			vibration. So the ear gives that hearing which reveals to you a \r\n			special aspect of the Divine: the vibratory rhythm of the being, \r\n			that matrix of all utterance, of all speech that mark the material \r\n			expression of consciousness. Next we come to the third sense, that \r\n			of smell, Well, the nose is not a despicable organ, in any way; it \r\n			is as important as any other more aristocratic sense-organ, as the \r\n			eye or the ear. It is the gate to the perfumed atmosphere of the \r\n			reality. Even like a flower, as a lotus for example, the truth is \r\n			colourful, beautiful, shapely, radiant to the eye; to the nostrils \r\n			it is exhilarating perfume, it distils all around a divine scent \r\n			that sanctifies, elevates the whole being. After the third sense we \r\n			come to the fourth, the tongue. The mouth gives you the taste of the \r\n			truth and you find that the Truth is sweetness, the delicious nectar \r\n			of the gods: for the truth is also soma, the surpreme <i>rasa, amrta,\r\n			</i><span style=\"font-family: Arial\">&nbsp;</span></p>\r\n			<div style=\"mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; border-bottom: 1.0pt solid windowtext; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 1.0pt\">\r\n				<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center; line-height: 150%; border: medium none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; padding: 0in\" align=\"center\">\r\n				Page – 273 </div>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			immortality itself. Here is Aswapathy\'s experience of the thing in\r\n			<i>Savitri:</i></p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			&nbsp;</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent: .5in; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-left: .5in; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			In the nostrils quivered celestial fragrances,</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			On the tongue lingered the honey of paradise.¹</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			&nbsp;</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-indent: 12.45pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			Finally we come to the sense of touch. It is the last. But in \r\n			another way, it is the first and the foremost – psychologically and \r\n			chronologically – It is the most primary and primitive among the \r\n			senses, as the eye comes last as the final stage in the course of \r\n			the sensory evolution. The eye is the manifestation of a developed \r\n			consciousness; perfectly developed eyes as in man represent a \r\n			perfectly developed consciousness. But touch is the organ with which \r\n			an organism starts its life-course. It is the only organ a living \r\n			cell is given when it begins its forward journey. Plants are endowed \r\n			with that organ and faculty and that only. It is the most \r\n			generalised, the least specific, and the most sensitive of the \r\n			organs. Touch gives a closer, more intimate, even more direct \r\n			perception of the object, it is contact, it means identification, it \r\n			means becoming and being. And it is through the touch, the \r\n			sublimated and most intense physical contact, that you have the \r\n			direct contact with the substance of the Supreme, his very body. For \r\n			what is Sat up there is Annam here, both are the same identical \r\n			thing in a dual aspect</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-indent: 13.2pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			Continuing farther, if we go beyond the five senses, we have still \r\n			another sense, it is mind, the sixth sense; it is in and through the \r\n			mind that the other five senses distil their perceptions allowing a \r\n			coordinated picture of the sense-experiences. Now, to attain, to \r\n			realise, to possess the Truth means, first of all, to know the \r\n			Truth: for, knowing as we know, is the function of the mind. It is \r\n			said, however, that the mind knows only the outward form of things, \r\n			its knowledge is the knowledge of an outside world, elements of \r\n			which are supplied by the senses. It is a Knowledge of or in \r\n			Ignorance. The true knowledge is not attained by the mind or through \r\n			the mind. For the true knowledge, it is delcared, the mind is to </p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-indent: 13.2pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			&nbsp;</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-indent: 13.2pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			¹ Sri Aurobindo: <i>Savitri, </i>Book 1, Canto III</p>\r\n			<div style=\"mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; border-bottom: 1.0pt solid windowtext; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 1.0pt\">\r\n				<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; border: medium none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; padding: 0in\" align=\"center\">\r\n				Page – 274&nbsp;</div>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			be expunged altogether or silenced at least. One must get away, one \r\n			must withdraw from that play of activity and be far from it. True \r\n			knowledge comes through revelations. It descends from above, it does \r\n			not enter by a level side-door and it comes only when the mind is \r\n			not there. But this also, as in the other cases, as in respect of \r\n			the other senses, is an extreme view. Like the other senses the mind \r\n			too can be turned inward or upward, made a receptive organ or \r\n			instrument. When turned round, when it is the Mind of the mind, then \r\n			there begins to appear the true knowledge. Then even this physical \r\n			mind remains no more ignorant or obscure, it becomes transparent and \r\n			luminous: it is able to bring its own gift, it can serve with its \r\n			own contribution to the real knowledge; for it is the mind that \r\n			gives a form and shape, a local habitation and a name to the higher \r\n			truth, to the real light, to the true knowledge. It is the <i>surupa\r\n			</i>(beautiful and perfect form) chanted by the Vedic Rishis that \r\n			the purified mind models for the Gods to inhabit – it is what the \r\n			poets and prophets always aspire for in their creative \r\n			consciousness.</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			But these separate senses with their separate qualities are not \r\n			really separate. In the final account of things, the account held in \r\n			the Supreme Consciousness, at the highest height, these diverse \r\n			elements or movements are diverse but not exclusive of one another. \r\n			When they find themselves in the supreme consciousness, they do not, \r\n			like the rivers of which the Upanishads speak, move and merge into \r\n			the sea giving up their separate individual name and function. These \r\n			senses do maintain their identity, each its own, even when they \r\n			together are all of them part and parcel of the Supreme Universal \r\n			Consciousness. Only, they become supple and malleable, they \r\n			intertwine, mix together, even one doing another\'s work. Also, as \r\n			things exist at present, modern knowledge has found out that a blind \r\n			man can see, literally see, through some part of his body; the sense \r\n			of hearing is capable of bringing to you the vision of colours. And \r\n			the olfactory organ can reveal to you the taste of things. Indeed it \r\n			has been found that not only at the sight of good food, but in \r\n			contemplating an extraordinarily beautiful secenery or while \r\n			listening to an exquisite piece of music, the mouth waters. It is \r\n			curious to note that Indra, the Lord of the gods, the Vedic lord of \r\n			the mind and the senses, is&nbsp;</p>\r\n			<div style=\"mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; border-bottom: 1.0pt solid windowtext; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 1.0pt\">\r\n				<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center; text-indent: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; border: medium none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; padding: 0in\" align=\"center\">\r\n				Page – 275&nbsp;</div>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			said to have transformed the pores of his skin into so many eyes, so \r\n			that he could see all things around at once, globally: it is why he \r\n			was called Sahasralochana or Sahasraksha, one with a thousand eyes. \r\n			The truth is that all the different senses are only extensions of \r\n			one unitary sensibility and the variation depends on a particular \r\n			mode or stress on the generalised sensibility.</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			This is what the Rishis meant when they named and represented even \r\n			the senses as gods. The gods are many, each has his own attribute \r\n			and function, but they form one indivisible unity.</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-indent: .15in; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			The senses therefore are not merely externalisers but they are also\r\n			<i>internalisers. </i>They are modes and movements that work \r\n			separately and conjointly and present aspects of the Supreme \r\n			Reality. These aspects are there in the very essence and the \r\n			constitution of the One Truth, also they are projected outwards to \r\n			manifest and embody those very elements in the material \r\n			manifestation and incarnation of the Supreme Divine:</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-indent: .15in; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			&nbsp;</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A magical accord quickened and attuned</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; To ethereal symphonies the old earthy strings; . . .</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-indent: 149.25pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			.&nbsp; . it made</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The bogy\'s means the spirit\'s acolytes.²</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			&nbsp;</p>\r\n			<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\">\r\n			² Sri Aurobindo: Savitri, Book 1, Canto III&nbsp;</p>\r\n			<div style=\"mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; border-bottom: 1.0pt solid windowtext; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 1.0pt\">\r\n				<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center; text-indent: 11.0pt; line-height: 150%; text-autospace: none; border: medium none; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; padding: 0in\" align=\"center\">\r\n				Page – 276&nbsp;</div>\r\n			<p align=\"right\">\r\n			<a href=\"-000_Content\">\r\n			<img src=\"http://sriaurobindoashram.com/_StaticContent/SriAurobindoAshram/-09%20E-Library/-03%20Disciples/Nolini%20Kanta%20Gupta/-01%20English/Volume-4/_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" border=\"0\" height=\"26\" width=\"56\"></a></td>\r\n		</tr>\r\n	</table>\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-083_The Mystery of  the  Five Senses','','publish','closed','open','','083_the-mystery-of-the-five-senses','','','2021-11-23 17:58:16','2021-11-23 17:58:16','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/083_the-mystery-of-the-five-senses/',0,'post','',0),(1777,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:16','2021-11-23 17:58:16','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>PART ELEVEN</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><b>\r\n	<span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-style:italic\'><font size=\"4\">PART<i> </i>ELEVEN</font></span><i><o:p></o:p></i></b></p>\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<span style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style=\'text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n</span><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal\'><font size=\"4\">The Opening Scene of &quot;Savitri&quot;</font></span><i style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal\'><o:p><font size=\"4\">&nbsp;</font></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n</i></b><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal; mso-bidi-font-style:normal\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&quot;IT\r\nwas the hour before the Gods awake&quot;. Only when the Gods awake, does the\r\nlight begin to appear on earth. Other­wise it is all night here, black,\r\nimpenetrable and unfathomable. Indeed the very creation begins with the\r\nawakening of the Gods. When the Gods are asleep, it is the non-existence – <span\r\nclass=SpellE>tamaasit</span> <span class=SpellE>tamasa</span> <span\r\nclass=SpellE>gudhamagre</span> – \'in the beginning darkness was\r\nengulfed in darkness\'. This is the <span class=SpellE><span class=GramE>asat</span>,\r\nnon-being, this is the acit, the\r\ninconscience, this is the blackest night. The Bible also speaks of a similar\r\ndarkness – Job\'s terrible vision: &quot;A land of darkness, as darkness itself;\r\nand of the shadow of death, without any order and where the light is as\r\ndarkness.&quot;<span class=GramE>¹ The lamp of con.</span> <span\r\nclass=GramE>sciousness</span> is not yet lit. The dark vacancy stretches\r\nacross the path of creation yet to be, the light that is to come. This shadow\r\nis the negation of the light behind, it is the original of the creation. It is\r\npresented as the mere material universe appa­rently dead and dry, the utter\r\ninconscience with no sign of consciousness anywhere. And earth seems to be\r\nthere part of it, a shadow within the shadow, a dark spot wheeling in a dark\r\nmass.</span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>It\r\nis the pre-creation, one might say, the creation before the creation – the\r\nshadow creation. We know coming events cast their shadow before, as a kind of\r\nforewarning, foreboding: that is the dark messenger, the bright messenger will\r\nfollow. For after all, it is His shadow –&quot;And into the <st1:time Minute=\"0\"\r\nHour=\"0\">midnight</st1:time> his shadow is thrown.&quot;</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\noriginal inconscience is a non-existence, a nihil in which all existence is\r\nrolled up and dissolved, an infinite non-entity or zero. This is the zero here\r\nbelow, on the reverse side of the reality. But there is another zero up above\r\nand </p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt\'>¹ Book of Job, 10.21</span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p></span>\r\n<span style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal; mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-pagination:none;\r\nmso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 305</span></span><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><i style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n</i></b><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal; mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>beyond</span>,\r\nbeyond the <span class=SpellE>superconsciousness</span>, the <span\r\nclass=SpellE>Sunya</span>, beyond <span class=SpellE>Sachchidananda</span>.\r\nIn between is the world of night, the world of gestation where the Gods are\r\nasleep. When the Divine, the One indivisible existence felt the first stirring\r\nand was moved to create, he divided himself and cast himself as it were out of\r\nhimself. And the Light and Consciousness of his <span class=GramE>Being</span>\r\nforth­with leaped into darkness and inconscience. That is the involu­tion of\r\nthe Supreme into material existence.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>This\r\noriginal darkness is the womb of <span class=GramE>creation,</span> it is some­thing\r\nakin to Hiranyagarbha of Indian tradition. The fiat has gone from the\r\nSupreme to resurrect this darkness – his alter-ego – and he sends down the\r\nmessenger-light. So the Gods are about to wake, there is a stir in their\r\nslumber. The creation as manifestation begins when the first ray of light\r\nstrikes the darkness. That is when the Gods open their eyes. But the spell of\r\ndarkness returns and swallows up the light.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nearth too, one with the surrounding mass of darkness and inconscience is asleep\r\nand insentient. She has to wake up and start on her journey moving forward,\r\nunveiling her secret mysteries towards the supreme revelation, the Divine in­carnation\r\nin matter. The Gods are awake, in order to awaken the earth. A first ray is\r\nsent down and it touches as it were the sleeping Mother. The Divine Ray is just-\r\nlike a finger of a child touching her mother trying, as it were, to persuade\r\nher to open her eyes and look at her child. The first ray, however,\r\ncomes not as a caress to the inert being of <span class=GramE>darkness,</span>\r\nit is a sharp prick, even a hard blow. Such is the first impact of light upon\r\ndead matter; and the light is thrown back, as an un­welcome intruder, into what\r\nit came from; and the darkness grovels in its old groove. The second\r\nstage comes when the impact is not felt as a pain or something totally foreign\r\nand strange; its touch is felt as something soothing, something that heals an\r\neternal sore. But this too was not suffered long and the light has to go back\r\nagain.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>These\r\nare the successive dawns of which the Vedic Rishis speak, through which the\r\nlight and consciousness in the dark inconscience gradually grows, increases in\r\nvolume and strength. The continued descent of the light into earth brings about\r\nthe change upon earth, that is called evolution, that is to say, the\r\ntransformation of the dark inconscience here below into the</p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:11.25pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page\r\n– 306</span></span><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><i style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal\'><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n</i></b><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal; mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'margin-top:0;text-align:justify;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=GramE>original</span> Super-Light of which it was the shadow cast out\r\nbecause of the original separation from the Source.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Savitri\r\nrepresents one such divine dawn at a crucial moment of earth-life. She embodies\r\ncreation\'s entire past and shows in her life how that past is transformed\r\nthrough the alchemy of Divine Grace to a glorious future – the inevitable\r\ndestiny that awaits man and earth.</p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 307</span></span><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><i style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</i></b></div><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><i style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal\'>\r\n\r\n<div align=\"right\"> \r\n	<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"> </div>\r\n</i></b></td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-090_The Opening Scene of Savitri','','publish','closed','open','','090_the-opening-scene-of-savitri','','','2021-11-23 17:58:16','2021-11-23 17:58:16','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/090_the-opening-scene-of-savitri/',0,'post','',0),(1778,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:16','2021-11-23 17:58:16','<html xmlns:o=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>Value of Religious Exercises</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; text-indent:9.8pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'><font size=\"4\">Value of\r\nReligious Exercises</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style=\'text-align:right;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-indent:25pt\'><i>What is the value of\r\nreligious exercises (such as Japa etc.) </i>?</p>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&nbsp;</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'margin-top:0;text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-bottom:0\'>T<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt\'>HESE</span> things, if they\r\nhelp you, are all right; if they do not, naturally they are of no use. The\r\nvalue is quite relative. It is worth only the effect it has on you or the\r\nmeasure of your belief in it. If it is an aid to your concentration, then, as I\r\nsay, it is wel­come. The ordinary consciousness takes to the thing through a\r\nkind of superstition; one thinks, &quot;If I go to the temple or to the church\r\nonce a week, for example, if I say my prayers regularly, something good will\r\nhappen to me.&quot; It is a superstition spread all over the world, but it has\r\nno spiritual value.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.7pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>I have been to holy places. I have seen\r\nmonuments considered as very highly religious, in France, in Japan and\r\nelsewhere; they were not always the same kind of temples or churches nor were\r\nthey the same gods but the impression they left on me, my experiences of them\r\nwere everywhere almost the same, with but slight differences. There is usually\r\na force concentrated at the place, but its character depends entirely upon the\r\nfaith of the faithful; also there is a difference between the force as it\r\nreally exists and the form in which it appears to the faithful. For instance,\r\nin a most famous and most beautiful place of worship which was, from the\r\nstandpoint of art, the most magnificent creation one could imagine, I saw\r\nwithin its holy of holies a huge black Spider that had spread its net all\r\naround, caught within it and absorbed all the energies emanating from the de­votion\r\nof the people, their prayers and all that. It was not a very pleasant\r\nspectacle. But the people who were there and prayed felt the divine contact,\r\nthey received all kinds of benefit from their prayers. And yet the truth of the\r\nmatter was what I saw. The people had the faith and their faith changed what\r\nwas </p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 78<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>bad into\r\nsomething that was good to them. Now if I had gone and told them: \'you think it\r\nis God you are praying to! it is only a formidable vital Spider that is sucking\r\nyour force,\' surely it would not have been very charitable on my part. But\r\nevery­where it is almost the same thing. There is a vital Force presiding. And\r\nvital beings feed upon the vibrations of human emotion. Very few are they, a\r\nmicroscopic number, who go to the temples and churches and holy places with the\r\ntrue religious feeling, that is to say, not to pray or beg something of God,\r\nbut to offer themselves, to express gratitude, to aspire, to surrender. One in\r\na million would be too many. These when they are there, get some touch of the\r\nDivine just for the moment. But all others go only out of superstition, egoism,\r\nself-interest and create the atmosphere as it is found and it is that that you\r\nusually breathe in when you go to a holy place; only as you go there with a\r\ngood feeling, you say to yourself &quot;what a peace-giving spot!&quot;</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>I\r\nam sorry to say it. But it is like that. I tell you I have pur­posely made the\r\nexperiment to some extent everywhere. Perhaps I came across at times in\r\nfar-away small corners – like a small village church, for example – places\r\nwhere there was real peace and quiet and some true aspiration. Barring that,\r\neverywhere it is but a web of adverse vital forces that use everything for\r\ntheir food. The bigger the congregation, the more portentous the vital deity.\r\nBesides, in the invisible world it is only the vital beings that like to be\r\nworshipped. For, as I have said, that pleases them, gives them importance. They\r\nare puffed up with pride and are happy; when they can have a troop of people\r\nadoring them, they reach the very height of satisfaction.</p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>But if you take a truly divine being, that\r\nis not the thing he likes or appreciates. He does not like to be worshipped;\r\nworship does not give him special pleasure. But if he sees anywhere a fine\r\nintuitive sense, a good feeling, a movement of unselfishness or spiritual\r\nenthusiasm, he considers that as infinitely more valu­able than prayers and\r\nPujas. I tell you seriously, if you place a true god upon a chair and compel\r\nhim to remain there all the time you are doing him Puja, he can amuse himself\r\nby letting you do it, but surely it gives him no happiness, none! He feels\r\nneither flattered nor satisfied nor glorified by your Puja. You must get that\r\nidea out of your head. There is an entire region between the spiritual world\r\nand the material, belonging to the<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 79</span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>vital\r\nbeings and it is this region that is full of such things as are liked by them,\r\nbecause they are their food. They are happy, they feel important when men call\r\nthem, pray to them, make their offerings to them: the being that has the\r\nlargest number of adorers is the most satisfied, the most glorified, the most\r\npuffed up. How can you imagine that a true god, a god even of the Overmind – although\r\nthose of this region are already somewhat touched by human frailties – that is\r\nto say, one who has the higher consciousness, would get any pleasure out of\r\nthese things? I repeat, an act of real kindness, intelligence, unselfishness or\r\nfine understanding or sincere aspiration is for him an altogether higher and\r\nmore valuable thing than any petty religious cere­mony. There is no comparison.\r\nYou speak of religious cere­monies. There is, for example, a being called Kali;\r\nthere are many Kalis, of many varieties, installed in temples and homes. All of\r\nthem almost are vital beings and forces, some are ugly and terrible. I have\r\nknown people who had such a fear of Kali – ­their household Kali – that they\r\ntrembled at the thought of offending her in any way, of committing the least\r\nfault that would displease her; for that means Kali\'s vengeance. I know, I know\r\nvery well these entities: they are beings of the vital world, they are vital\r\nformations – the forms are given by the human mind and what forms! To think\r\nthat men worship such terrible and demoniac things!</p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>From this standpoint it is good that for a\r\ntime humanity should come out of the religious atmosphere, full of fear and\r\nblind superstitious submission by which the adverse forces have profited so\r\nmonstrously. The age of negation, of atheism and positivism is from this view quite\r\nindispensable for man\'s liberation from sheer ignorance. It is only when you\r\nhave come out of this, this abject submission to the evil forces of the Vital\r\nthat you can rise to truly spiritual heights and then become there\r\ncollaborators and right instruments of the forces of the Truth and\r\nConsciousness and Power. The superstitions of the lower levels you must leave\r\nfar behind to rise high.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 80</span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-027_Value of Religious Exercises','','publish','closed','open','','027_value-of-religious-exercises','','','2021-11-23 17:58:16','2021-11-23 17:58:16','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/027_value-of-religious-exercises/',0,'post','',0),(1779,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>Perfection and Progress</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; text-indent:10.05pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; text-indent:10.05pt; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">\r\n<b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;\'><font size=\"4\">Perfection and\r\nProgress</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style=\'text-align:right;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:14.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'>PERFECTION is a relative term. A thing may be\r\nperfect in relation to the present or the past; it may not be so in relation to\r\nwhat is to come. Creation is a perpetual movement, a perpetual progression.\r\nEach time a new consciousness manifested upon earth, it was very natural for\r\nmen of the epoch to have the impression that it was the final definitive\r\nrealisation, at least a very great progress.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'>Still we must note that even for an animal,\r\nsay an elephant or a dog, human capacities appear as marvellous; they feel, the\r\ndogs do, that man possesses almost divine powers. So men too from the stage\r\nwhere they are have a hint of things beyond; that is why we are not wholly\r\nsatisfied, we have the feeling in spite of all things achieved that there is\r\nsomething else which eludes, indeed the true thing eludes, we turn around it,\r\nbut never touch it. It means that man is ready for a further progress. If it\r\nwere not so, if he were satisfied only with what he can do, he would try to do\r\nthat alone, better and better perhaps, but in the same groove. However, it is\r\nnot that: he seeks something else, something quite different, which is truly\r\ntrue, on which one can count, which does not crash down when one props oneself\r\nupon it, something durable, permanent, the Rock of Ages. This need of eternity,\r\nof an absolute good and absolute beauty awakens exactly at the moment when one\r\nis ready to receive a new consciousness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'>For a very long time, perhaps from the very\r\nbeginning – I do not mean from the beginning of human evolution, for there have\r\nbeen earlier periods when, before the true man appeared, intermediate beings at \r\nfirst were tried who were much nearer to the animal; I mean the beginning of a \r\nsufficiently developed human form when it became ready to receive something from \r\nabove </span></p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;\'>Page – 44<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'>there have been always and there are still\r\nindividuals who carry in them this need of the eternal and the absolute. It is\r\nonly little by little, very gradually, through cycles of enlightenment and\r\nobscurity that something like a collective consciousness in humanity awakes to\r\nthe need of such a higher existence. And today this necessity seems evidently\r\nvery general, cutting across all turmoils and stupidities of mankind: that\r\nshows that the time is near.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'>Yes, for a very long time, men were told,\r\n&quot;It will be, it will be,&quot; were given the promise. It was promised,\r\nthousands and thousands of years ago, that a new consciousness, a new world,\r\nsomething of the Divine would manifest itself upon earth; it was always in the\r\nfuture, somewhere in the revolution of the ages. One had not this feeling, this\r\nsensation that it is here and now.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'>By far the larger part of humanity, in fact,\r\nmost of it, need to make a very great effort to imagine what the future may be\r\nlike. Its consciousness is so much tied down to what is that it finds it\r\ndifficult even to imagine that things can be otherwise. When what shall be\r\nbecomes, for at least the consciousness of a group of individuals, an\r\ninevitable necessity and what has been and is appears to it as an absurdity\r\nthat cannot last, then and then only comes the moment for the change to happen,\r\nnot before.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'>The question still remains whether the thing\r\ncan happen and will happen individually before it happens collectively. But no\r\nindividual realisation even can be complete or approach perfection, unless and\r\nuntil it is in harmony with a group consciousness representing a new world.\r\nThere is always an interdependence between the individual and the collective\r\nso much so that an individual realisation is bound to be restricted and diminished\r\nin an unresponsive atmosphere. Earth life as a whole has to follow a certain\r\ncurve of progress in order that a new world and a new consciousness may appear\r\nin it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;tab-stops:13.9pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'><span style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>So\r\nthe future realisation does depend, partially at least, upon you, individually\r\nand collectively. Have you ever tried to conceive what the new consciousness\r\nmight mean, what the new race and the new world would look like?<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'>It is evident that the advent of man upon the\r\nearth has changed the terrestrial conditions. One cannot say that this has been\r\nto the greatest good of all, for it meant much suffering in many places. Also\r\nit is evident that the complication which the human</span></p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;\'>Page – 45<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'>being has brought with him into life has not\r\nalways been favourable to him or to others. But from another point of view it\r\ndid mean a progress, a marked progress among the lower species. Man mixed\r\nhimself up with the life of animals, with the life of plants, even with the\r\nlife of metals and minerals; it was not, as I said, to the great joy of all\r\nthose with whom he occupied himself; but in any case, their conditions of life\r\nwere changed by this intervention. In the same way, it is likely that the\r\nsupramental being, whatever he might be, when he comes, will change considerably\r\nthe life upon earth. We cherish this hope in our heart and in our mind that all\r\nthe ills the earth suffers from will be, if not completely cured, at least to a\r\nlarge extent alleviated and that conditions of living here will be more\r\npleasant and harmonious, at least tolerable for all. That is quite possible.\r\nIn man, the mental consciousness that he embodied acted, by the very force of\r\nits nature, for its own satisfaction, for its own growth, without much\r\nconsideration for the consequences of its actions. The Supramental, on the\r\nother hand, will act differently; that is our hope, at least.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'>Human life, however, is brief and naturally\r\nthere is a tendency in man to shorten the distances in proportion to his\r\ndimensions. Still there will come a time when the thing will happen; there will\r\nbe a moment or a movement that will at last land into the reality. Once upon a\r\ntime there came a moment when the mental being could appear upon earth. The\r\nstart may be poor, very incomplete, very partial, but after all there was the\r\nstart. Why should not the same thing occur now?<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:261.6pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;\r\ntext-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'>The people who\r\nwere announcing the good news from the beginning of time must have been the\r\nbest informed of men. And I tell you that since the beginning of earth history,\r\nSri Aurobindo has always presided over the great earthly transformations,\r\nunder one form or another, one name or another. And if he came this time and\r\nsaid this is the final, then it must be the final. Perhaps he knows.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'>In that case, if this time it is final, then\r\nthose who are ready or make themselves ready will naturally be the people who\r\nstart first on the new path. There will be many such, I hope. But my own\r\nstandpoint here is this: even if the thing has only half a chance of </span><span\r\nlang=EN-GB style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB\'>materialising</span><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'> it is worth the trouble. I think I have told\r\nyou more than once that a moment comes in the life of \r\n<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;\'>Page – 46<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'>many when life as it is, human consciousness\r\nas it is, becomes absolutely unbearable, creating only disgust and repulsion;\r\none does not wish to continue it any longer, one can only throw all effort, all\r\nforce, all life and soul into this single chance, into this singular\r\nopportunity given at last, so that one may pass on to the other side. What a\r\nrelief, to set one\'s foot on a road that takes you elsewhere! It is worth the\r\ntrouble of throwing behind all your burdens, freeing yourself of all loads so\r\nthat you may leap all the better. This is how I look at the thing. It is the </span><span\r\nlang=EN-GB style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB\'>sublimest</span><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'> of adventures; if you have in you the true \r\nspirit of adventure in the least, you will&nbsp; <i>feel it is </i>worth <i>risking </i>all\r\nfor all. <i>But </i>they <i>who </i>fear and hesitate, who ask, &quot;Am I not\r\ngiving away my prey for the shadow?&quot; – a most stupid saying, according to\r\nme – they who are more for profiting by what they possess than for risking to\r\nlose all in the hope of something that mayor may not happen tomorrow, I assure\r\nyou, such people will not notice the change even if it happens right under\r\ntheir nose. They will say, &quot;It is all right, we do not care, there is\r\nnothing to regret.&quot; Quite possibly; but after all, they might have to\r\nregret, we do not know.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt\'>In\r\nany case, that is what I mean by sincerity. That is to say, if you regard the\r\nnew realisation as the only thing truly worth living for, if what is is\r\nintolerable, not only for oneself, perhaps not so much for oneself as for the\r\nwhole world, one feels the need of it if one is not small and egoistic; one\r\nfeels that the present has lasted too long and one can do nothing but take up\r\nall that one is, all that one can do and hurl oneself completely – head foremost,\r\nwithout looking backward, without considering what may happen or not – into the\r\nadventure. It is far better to jump into the abyss, than to stand on the brink\r\nshivering.\r\n<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;\'>Page – 47<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-016_Perfection and Progress','','publish','closed','open','','016_perfection-and-progress','','','2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/016_perfection-and-progress/',0,'post','',0),(1780,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','<html xmlns:o=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>PARTS EIGHT AND NINE</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n\r\n<p align=\"center\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; padding:0in; border-style:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><b>\r\n<font size=\"4\">PARTS\r\nEIGHT AND NINE</font><o:p></o:p></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><b><o:p>\r\n<font size=\"4\">&nbsp;</font></o:p></b></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<b><i><font size=\"4\">Choosing To Do Yoga</font><o:p></o:p></i></b></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><b><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></b></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>To <span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt\'>DO</span> Sri Aurobindo\'s Yoga means to seek to\r\ntransform <span class=GramE>oneself</span> integrally, to have this single aim\r\nin one\'s life: that alone exists, nothing else. You feel it in yourself whether\r\nyou want it or not. If you do not, you can live a life of goodwill, service,\r\nunderstanding; you can work in many other ways. But between that and doing\r\nYoga there is a great difference.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>To\r\ndo Yoga you must want it consciously, you must know first of all what it is, – know\r\nwhat it is and then take the resolution. And once the resolution is taken you\r\nmust waver no more. When you go to it, you must take it up fully conscious of\r\nwhat you are doing. When you say &quot;I want to do Yoga,&quot; you must know\r\nwhat you are deciding about. That is why when I have spoken to you I have not\r\nlaid much stress upon this aspect of the thing. I have surely spoken about it\r\nand even perhaps a good deal – I am here to speak, and you to listen; but what\r\nI mean is that whatever I may have said generally, it is only when individually\r\none comes to me and says that he wants to do Yoga, that I say &quot;yes&quot;\r\n(or &quot;no&quot;, if necessary). For such <span class=GramE>persons</span>\r\nthings become different, the conditions of life become different, particularly\r\ninner things and conditions.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.8pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Always\r\nthere is a Consciousness here and it acts constantly to rectify your position:\r\nall the while it puts you in the face of obstacles that prevent you from\r\nprogressing; it makes you dash your nose against your own errors and\r\nblindnesses. But this happens only in the case of those who have decided to do\r\nYoga. For others the Consciousness acts as a light, <span class=GramE>a\r\nknowledge</span>, a force for progress, so that you may reach the maximum of\r\nyour capacities, develop yourself as far as possible in an atmosphere as favourable\r\nas it may be, leaving you, however, completely free to choose.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'margin-left:4.5pt;text-align:center;\r\ntext-indent:-4.5pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:\r\nnone;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-3</span></p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:\r\nnone;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;\r\npadding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n</p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\ndecision must come from within. All who come consciously for Yoga, knowing\r\nwhat Yoga is, have to accept conditions of life very different from those that\r\nothers enjoy – externally perhaps there may not be any difference, but\r\ninternally there is a wide gulf. There is a kind of absoluteness in the Consciousness\r\nthat does not allow any deviation from the Path: errors committed become\r\nimmediately visible with such consequences that one cannot deceive oneself any\r\nlonger and things take a very serious aspect.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>You\r\nall, my children, I may tell you, – I have already told you many times and I\r\nstill repeat, you live in an uncommon freedom. Externally there are a few small\r\nrestrictions, for, as we are many, and have not the whole earth at our\r\ndisposal, we have to submit ourselves to some discipline to a certain extent,\r\nso that there may not be too much disorder; but internally you live in\r\nwonderful liberty, no social restraint, no moral restraint, no intellectual\r\nrestraint, no fixed principle, nothing is there, save and except a light. If\r\nyou wish to profit by it, you get the profit; if you do not want, you are free\r\nnot to profit by it.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>But\r\nthe day you make a choice, and when you do it with all<span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp; </span>sincerity and you feel within you a radical\r\ndecision, things become, as I say, quite different. There is the light and\r\nthere is the way to follow, straight on, one must not turn aside. It deceives\r\nnone and none can deceive it. Yoga, you must know, is not just a play. When you\r\nchoose, you must know what you have done. And when you have chosen your way,\r\nyou must stick to it. You have no more the right to hesitate. You have to go\r\nahead. That is all.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nleast, however, that I expect from you is the will to do things well, an effort\r\ntowards progress, the desire to be in life something better than ordinary\r\nhumanity. You are brought <span class=GramE>up,</span> you have grown up under\r\nconditions that are unusually luminous, conscious, harmonious, full of\r\ngoodwill. And in answer to that it is proper that you should be upon earth in\r\nsome way an expression of that light and harmony and goodwill. That would be\r\nsomething fair.<span style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>One\r\ncan do the Yoga, the Yoga of Transformation – of all things the most difficult\r\n– only when one feels that one is here, upon earth, for this alone and has\r\nnothing else to do, that this is the sole reason of one\'s existence. Even if\r\nyou have to toil hard,<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page-4<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>suffer</span>,\r\nstruggle, it is of no consequence: &quot;This alone and nothing else,&quot; – then\r\nit is a different matter. Otherwise I tell you: Be always happy, be always\r\ngood; be good, meaning, be more understanding, know that you are growing up\r\nunder exceptional conditions, try to live a life higher, nobler and truer than\r\nthe ordinary life and let a little of this Consciousness, this light and this\r\nbenevolence express itself in the world.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>It\r\nis not for a personal and egoistic aim that you seek perfection, it is for the\r\nsake of manifesting the Divine, <span class=GramE>it</span> is to put all at\r\nthe service of the Divine. You do not do Yoga with the intention of perfecting\r\nyourself personally, for your own sake, but for the divine work that has to be\r\ndone, for the fulfilment of the Divine Will.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>So\r\nlong as a personal aspiration is there, a personal desire, an egoistic <span\r\nclass=GramE>will</span>, it is a mixture, it is not the exact expression of the\r\nDivine Will. The only thing that counts is the Divine, His Will, His\r\nmanifestation, His expression. You are for that, you are that, and nothing\r\nelse. If there happens to be a feeling of <span class=GramE><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:bold\'>I</span><b>, </b>of ego, of the\r\nindividual person, it means that you are not yet what you ought to be. I do not\r\nsay that the thing can be done forthwith, but that this is the truth of the\r\nmatter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>For,\r\non this level, on the spiritual level, too many people, – in fact, the majority\r\nof those who take up the spiritual life – do Yoga for personal reasons, all\r\nkinds of personal reasons : some because they are disgusted with life, others\r\nbecause they are unhappy, some others because they wish to have more\r\nknowledge, others again because they want to be spiritually great, yet others\r\nbecause they want to learn things so that they may teach them to others, and so\r\nOn, there are a thousand personal reasons for doing the Yoga. But there are not\r\nmany for doing the simple act of giving oneself to the Divine – this act in all\r\nits purity and consistency – so that the Divine may take one up and do with One\r\nwhat He wants. With that you go straight to your goal and never run the risk of\r\nmaking a mistake. But all the other motives are mixed up, tainted with ego and\r\nthey can lead, you hither and thither and far away from the goal.<o:p></o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>This\r\nfeeling that there is for you only one reason for existence, one single motive,\r\nthe total complete perfect consecration to the<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page - 5</span></p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n</p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:justify; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">Divine, to such a degree\r\nthat you are unable to distinguish between <span class=SpellE>yourself\r\n<span style=\"background-color: #FFFFFF\">and</span></span><span style=\"background-color: #FFFFFF\">\r\n</span>the Divine, you become the Divine wholly, absolutely, without any personal\r\nreaction whatsoever intervening: this is the ideal attitude. And that is the\r\nonly one with which you can progress safely in life, protected from everything,\r\nprotected even from yourself-for of all dangers the greatest is that which\r\ncomes from one\'s own self, one\'s egoistic self.<span style=\"font-size:10pt;\">&nbsp;</span></p>\r\n<p align=\"center\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><span style=\"font-size:10pt;\">Page \r\n- 6</span></p>\r\n<hr class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:justify; line-height:12pt;\">\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-001_Choosing to do Yoga','','publish','closed','open','','001_choosing-to-do-yoga','','','2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/001_choosing-to-do-yoga/',0,'post','',0),(1781,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','<html xmlns:o=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>Consciousness</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal\'><font size=\"4\">Consciousness</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><span style=\'font-family:\r\n\"Arial Narrow\";mso-bidi-font-family:\"Arial Narrow\"\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>I SPOKE of consciousness\r\nand dimensions of consciousness. What then is consciousness itself? Well, we\r\nmay begin by knowing what it is not, what is not consciousness. Not\r\nconsciousness means the absence of consciousness, otherwise unconsciousness.\r\nYou are conscious, conscious of things when you are aware, aware of their\r\npresence; when you are not aware, when you do not perceive, you are\r\nunconscious, you do not have consciousness. It is the difference between being\r\nasleep and being awake. When you are asleep things are lost, you become unconscious\r\nof them; when you are awake; things reappear and you are conscious of them. The\r\ndifference is analogous to the difference of night and day. Night in its\r\ndarkness swallows up things, annihilates them as it were, it is\r\nunconsciousness. The day dawning brings forth the things and gives their normal\r\nconcrete form, tangible reality. It is consciousness. So we may say consciousness\r\nis light, and unconsciousness darkness. Consciousness is creation –\r\nunconsciousness annihilation.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>But\r\nconsciousness has two modes or status. First of all, when consciousness is the\r\nconsciousness of things, when one is conscious of the existence of objects,\r\nthis mode may be called objective consciousness, but consciousness may exist in\r\nitself without reference to any object of consciousness; the light is there,\r\nthere is no object to illumine, it is self-luminous. This is consciousness in\r\nits essence, its own reality.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>This\r\nessential consciousness is an unchanging reality existing everywhere in the\r\nuniverse but it expresses itself in different modes and apparent <span\r\nclass=GramE>forms,</span> its essential quality does not change but acquires a\r\ndifferent <span class=SpellE>colour</span> and vibration in accordance with its\r\ndegree and level of expression. For example, the body has a consciousness,\r\nlife-force has a consciousness, mind has a </p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n9.1pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page\r\n– 259</span><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span class=GramE>consciousness</span>,\r\nand the levels above the mind, each has a consciousness. All these types or\r\nmodes or, as I have said, dimensions of consciousness are essentially the same\r\nconsciousness. The vessels are different, their shape and <span class=SpellE>colour</span>\r\ndiffer but they all hold as it were the same transparent, clear water. We all\r\nknow the different movements of light, seen and unseen; but however much they\r\ndiffer in their vibration, all <span class=GramE>have</span> the same speed of\r\nlight. And it is always the same composition, as scientists have taught us a\r\nlight particle is a fusion of an electron and a positron; even so consciousness\r\nis also <span class=GramE>an<span style=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp; </span>invariable\r\nentity.</span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-indent:13.65pt;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Mother said of love the\r\nsame thing as I have been saying of consciousness. She says<span class=GramE>,</span>\r\nthere is only one love, the divine love and \'none other. There are various\r\nexpressions of that love according to the conditions in which it manifests, to\r\nthe degree or status of being but everywhere it is the same divine love behind\r\nin essence. Because of inadequate expression it becomes blurred or faint and\r\nmuddy but the living fire is there below the ashes. You have simply to shake\r\noff the outer coating to allow the inner reality to shine forth in its own\r\nnature.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp; </span>Love in the mind, love in the heart, love in\r\nthe vital, love in the physical, love human and animal are not negations of the\r\nDivine love, it is not that you have to reject, cut off these so-called\r\ninferior formulations of love, these do not necessarily deny or reject the\r\nDivine love in their heart of hearts; even there in their true reality, glows\r\nthe pure Divine love. To reach the Divine love, to enjoy its divine <span\r\nclass=SpellE>a<i>nanda</i></span><i>, </i>it is not necessary to make a\r\nbonfire of these earthly goods and go beyond into the transcendent. Even here\r\nin this earthly mould the Divine love in its full purity can be established for\r\nit is already there behind and needs only earnest evocation.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Consciousness\r\nessentially is always and everywhere the same. Its own quality is unvarying but\r\nin its expression there is growth and development, an increase in intensity and\r\namplitude. The light that your candle gives and the light that comes from the\r\nsun are not different in quality but they differ in expression or\r\nmanifestation, because of the receptacle, the seat or abode of the light. The\r\nVedic fire was lighted on a sacred <span class=GramE>altar, that</span> is the\r\nseat for the God from where to manifest himself. There was a regular ceremony\r\nfor the <span class=SpellE>prepara<span\r\nclass=GramE>tion</span> </span></p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:11.75pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page\r\n– 260<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span class=SpellE>of the seat (Barhi)\r\nand the value and the success of the sacrifice depended largely on a proper\r\npreparation of the seat. The seat, the basic status also indicates that there\r\nis an ascending movement of the sacrifice. The sacrifice symbolises\r\nconsciousness and radiant energy, mounting and travelling\r\nupward and forward; the progress or ascent of consciousness means bringing out\r\nits inherent potential strength that is behind and within and placing it in\r\nfront as power of expression. As I have said, if consciousness in matter is\r\nlike a light of single candle power, on the level of life it becomes a light of\r\nmultiple candle power and in the mind this multiple power is again multiplied.\r\nIn this way the consciousness finally attains its solar incandescence on the\r\nhighest height of the being.</span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>When\r\nwe speak of the dimensions of consciousness, it means these different levels or\r\nstatus of ascending expression. They also form according to the mode of\r\nexpression each one a world of its own. We may compare the mounting\r\nconsciousness to a growing tree, it is the same sap-substance that appears at\r\nthe outset as a seed, then as the seed opens out and develops it appears or\r\nthrows up a stem or trunk and as it proceeds it throws up branches and higher\r\nup leaves and then flowers and fruit. Apparently however different and diverse\r\nthese formulations, they are but expressions of the same sap-substance in the\r\noriginal seed. Even so an original seed-consciousness is the basis and\r\nessential reality of all the forms in the material universe.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>It\r\nmust now be apparent that consciousness is not merely consciousness, simple\r\nawareness, it is also power or energy. The Vedic word is <i>cit-<span\r\nclass=SpellE>tapas</span>, </i>consciousness-energy. It is one <span\r\nclass=SpellE>indivisible</span>, entity: consciousness is energy. It is not\r\nhowever in the sense as when we say knowledge is power: It does not mean\r\nconsciousness <i>has </i>power or gives power, but consciousness <i>is </i>power.\r\nThe nearer analogy would be with light-energy. Light, we know today, thanks to\r\nmodern science, does not merely illumine, it <span class=SpellE>energises</span>,\r\n<span class=SpellE>activises</span>, <span class=GramE>moves</span> things,\r\nthat is to say, matter and material objects. The ray of light, we know now, acts\r\neven more effectively than the surgeon\'s knife. The inherent quality of light\r\nis energy. This energy has been discovered to be electro-magnetic energy, a\r\nphoton (<span class=SpellE>unit-light</span> or light-unit) is, as we have said,\r\nan electro-magnetic quantum.</p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:11.0pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page\r\n– 261</span><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyText style=\'margin-top:0; line-height:150%; margin-bottom:0\'>In the same way consciousness is\r\nalso a vibration of energy. It is the self-impulsion of consciousness. This\r\nimpulsion need not always go out, cast or spread itself abroad in outward expressions\r\nand <span class=GramE>activities,</span> it may be a stilled self-contained\r\nimpulsion. It is awareness pregnant with power. Consciousness is luminosity,\r\nconsciousness is energy, <span class=GramE>consciousness</span> is also\r\ndelight. It may be said the very soul of consciousness is <span class=GramE>a\r\nhappiness</span>, a gladness absolute and inviolate, the delight which is love\r\nin its supreme mode.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.7pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Indeed,\r\nin the final account, we come back to the supreme <i>mantra </i>formulating the\r\nmystery of ultimate reality given by the ancients that we all know and repeat\r\nso <span style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:italic\'>often<i> – <span class=SpellE>sachchidananda</span>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.7pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Such\r\nthen is the ultimate Truth or Reality: there is the Being or pure Existence\r\nwith its norms or modes or functions or self-for<span class=SpellE>mulations</span>\r\nas Consciousness-Force and as Delight. This triune entity is absolutely one and\r\nthe same. What exists declares the Vedic <span class=SpellE>Rishi</span>, is\r\none; it is called variously as Light and Infinity and Harmony and Delight.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 262</span><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>\r\n	<a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-079_Consciousness','','publish','closed','open','','079_consciousness','','','2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/079_consciousness/',0,'post','',0),(1782,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns:o=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>Consciousness as freedom</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><b\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;\'>\r\n<font size=\"4\">Consciousness </font> </span>\r\n<span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:16.0pt;\'><font size=\"4\">as Freedom</font></span></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n16.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'>CONSCIOUSNESS is liberty, unconsciousness is slavery. When you are unconscious\r\nyou are a prey to all kinds of forces and beings outside yourself and over\r\nwhich you have no control. You are a plaything in the hands of any power or\r\ninfluence that seeks to possess you and when you are in such a state it is the\r\nundesirable powers that seek and secure hospitality in you. It is only when you\r\nbecome conscious that you begin to react to the outside forces that try to\r\ncontrol you or utilise you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>In the lower creation it is always a play of\r\ndivergent forces and the individual being is only a field, a passive field for\r\nthe play of cosmic or collective forces. It is in man, with the awakening of an\r\nindividual consciousness in him, that a movement of self-assertion, of willed\r\nreaction has started in nature, that is to say, one is no more content with\r\nplaying the role of a slave executing helplessly what is demanded of him by an\r\nexternal agent but is now making his own terms and propositions. That is how\r\nman is man because he is creating his own self and his own environment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>Consciousness, however, is not mere\r\nconsciousness, that is to say, awareness; it is also power, power for\r\norganisation and execution. It is unconsciousness that is or invariably leads\r\nto disorderliness, disorganisation and confusion. It is the light of consciousness\r\nthat brings order out of chaos, gives an organised direction to forces moving\r\nat random and with no purpose. Man has started organising his life since he\r\nacquired the light of consciousness. He has been doing the yoga of the\r\nintelligent will (Gita\'s <i>buddhi-yoga) </i>since his advent upon earth. But\r\neven in man this force of light, the energy of consciousness is not fully\r\noperative because man is not fully conscious, he is</span><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 198<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.0pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>only partially so. His mind is conscious and\r\nhas developed into intelligence (a little strayed into intellectuality); but\r\nthere are large domains in him that are wholly unconscious, that is to say,\r\nmove in mechanical rounds, a passive slave of external impacts. I am referring\r\nto his vital being and his physical being. Even like the mind these too must\r\nadmit into themselves the light of the consciousness in order to free\r\nthemselves from the influence of other external forces and attain the sense of\r\ntheir own truth and self-fulfilment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.45pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>Indeed each part, even each constituent\r\nelement of our being has an individuality of its own, a personal being and\r\nconsciousness. And it is because it is not aware of that inner reality, because\r\nit has fallen unconscious, therefore it has entered into this life of bondage\r\nand slavery and mechanical existence. When life becomes conscious, the\r\nlife-energy becomes luminous, the vital being gradually gains self-control and\r\nself-direction. Instead of being moved about by irresponsible and irrepressible\r\ndesires and impulses it attains a clarity as to what it should desire and what\r\nit should effectuate; and along with that light secures the strength also to\r\nact up to the directions of that light.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>The body too similarly can be filled with\r\nlight and light-energy; instead of being wholly at the mercy of the physical\r\nenvironment, the natural conditions around or even subject to its own innate or\r\natavistic suggestions, it can be aware of its true reality, its inner nature,\r\nits higher potentialities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>I have spoken of the light in the mind, the\r\nconsciousness that has awakened there and has organised its activities as an\r\nautonomous unit. But we must not forget that it is only partially so. The\r\nautonomy is very limited, for a- good part of the human mind is far from being\r\nconscious, there is a part half-conscious and a part almost wholly unconscious.\r\nThis hemisphere so to say is under the influence of the vital and the physical\r\nbeing with their unconscious and ill-organised influence. The true light comes\r\nfrom elsewhere, the mind in so far as it receives the light becomes conscious\r\nand proportionately autonomous. The light is always the spiritual light, the\r\nconsciousness of the spirit which is above and beyond mind. Not only the mind\r\nbut the vital too, and the physical too in order to be consciously organised\r\nand free and autonomous<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 199<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n11.0pt\'>must know how to take in that light beyond the mind and bathe in its\r\nliberating influence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>In fact, education means precisely this\r\ninstilling of the consciousness into the part that is sought to be educated. Usually\r\nthe thing is done in a different way which is wrong, at least an inefficient\r\nway. By education we usually mean exercising, that is teaching some exercises\r\nmostly of memory on some subject in which one seeks education. It is more or\r\nless an exercise of mechanical repetition. Whether it is of the mind or of the\r\nbody the procedure is the same. As the muscles of the body are sought to be\r\nstrengthened and developed through repetitive exercises, the mental faculties\r\ntoo are put under a training that consists of similar repetitive exercises. To\r\nstore the mind with as many kinds of information as possible, hammer all\r\ningredients of knowledge into the brain cells-learning by rote as it is termed,\r\nthis is what education normally means; but as I said, it is consciousness that\r\nis to be evoked in the mind and it is not done by mere mechanical exercises.\r\nEven the body does not reach its true perfection unless the exercises are\r\nattended with consciousness, awareness, a play of light into the movements of\r\nthe body, into the limbs that participate in the play of the exercises.\r\nNaturally the vital does not need any exercise for its development, it is\r\nnaturally </span><i>exercised, </i>much exercised. It has to be not <i><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>exercised </span></i><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n11.0pt\'>but <i>exorcised, </i></span><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>that\r\nis to say, purified and controlled. And that means the introduction of the pure\r\nlight of consciousness into it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>I have laid stress on </span><i><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt\'>consciousness, </span></i><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>but consciousness has three facets or steps.\r\nThe first is simple consciousness, the next is self-consciousness and the last\r\nsupra-consciousness. First you become conscious of a thing, next you become conscious\r\nthat you are conscious of the thing, last something else is conscious in and\r\nthrough your consciousness.</span><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 200<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.0pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>\r\n	<a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a>&nbsp;</o:p>&nbsp;</p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-064_Consciousness as freedom','','publish','closed','open','','064_consciousness-as-freedom','','','2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/064_consciousness-as-freedom/',0,'post','',0),(1783,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>The Supramental Vision</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<h1 align=\"right\" style=\"text-align:center; margin-left:0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;\'><font size=\"4\">The\r\nSupramental Vision</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></h1>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n14.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'>IN the supramental vision there is a direct, full and immediate\r\nknowledge of things, in the sense that you see all things at the same time\r\ntotally, integrally; you see the truth of a thing in all its aspects\r\nsimultaneously.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>But as soon as you want to explain or\r\ndescribe it, you are obliged to come down to a lower level. Sri Aurobindo calls\r\nit the Mind of Light. Here things have to be said or even thought or expressed\r\nand realised in action one after another in a certain order, in a certain\r\nrelation to each other. Therefore the simultaneity disappears; for, in the\r\npresent condition of our way of expression it is impossible to say everything\r\nat once outright. We are obliged to veil a portion of what we see and know in\r\norder to bring it out little by little. Sri Aurobindo therefore calls it a\r\ntransparent veil; for you see all, you know all at the same time, you have the\r\nentire or total knowledge of a thing, but you cannot express it whole and\r\nentire at one stroke.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>There are no words, no possible modes of\r\nexpression for the supramental vision, so long as we are what we are. We have\r\nto use an inferior procedure to express ourselves, and yet we possess at the\r\nsame time the full knowledge. It is because of the necessity of transferring\r\nthis knowledge into words that we are compelled, so to say, to hold back a\r\npart of what we know, letting it come out step by step in a succession. It is\r\nthe veil of expression that suits our need both for utterance and\r\nunderstanding. The knowledge is there, really there, we have not got to search\r\nfor it and we have not got to express it as we go on finding it; no, it is\r\nthere in its totality, only the necessity of expression makes us say things one\r\nafter another, and that naturally diminishes the omnipotence ascribed by Sri\r\nAurobindo to the vision. For what is omnipotent is the total vision expressing\r\nitself totally. Omni</span><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>science </span>\r\n<span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'>\r\n<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 151<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.0pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>is there, in principle, it is\r\nperceptible; but this omniscience cannot act in its full power, for it has to\r\ncome down a step to be able to express itself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>To live totally in the supramental knowledge,\r\none must have other means of expression than those available at present. New modes\r\nof expression have to be developed for expressing supra mental things in a\r\nsupramental way. At present we have to raise our mental faculty to its maximum,\r\nto a sort of frontier that is hardly visible and which yet exists; for our\r\nmeans of expression still belong to this mental world and they do not possess\r\nsupramental power. We do not have the necessary organs. We must become beings\r\nof the supramental world, with a supramental substance, a supramental inner\r\norganisation, to express the supramental knowledge in a supramental way. Till\r\nnow we could, in some part of our consciousness, come out wholly into the\r\nsupramental vision and knowledge, but could not express it from there. We had\r\nto come, as I say, one plane lower down to be able to express ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>That is how this veil is transparent to the\r\nconsciousness, for the consciousness sees and knows things in a supramental\r\nway, but a part remains veiled and comes out only progressively, for it has not\r\nthe means to do otherwise.</span><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n11.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;\'>Page – 152<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<div align=\"right\"> \r\n	<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"> </div>\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-048_The Supramental Vision','','publish','closed','open','','048_the-supramental-vision','','','2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/048_the-supramental-vision/',0,'post','',0),(1784,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>The Modern Taste</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'><font size=\"4\">The Modern Taste</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>FROM the standpoint of artistic and literary taste and culture, the\r\npresent world is a thing of extremes. On one side, it is trying hard to\r\ndiscover something very noble, and on the other, it is sinking into a vulgarity\r\nwhich is infinitely greater than the vulgarity, say, of two or three centuries\r\nago. In those times people who were not cultured were crude, but their\r\ncrudeness resembled the crudeness of animals and had not much perversion in\r\nit-there was something certainly, for as soon as the mind appears, perversion\r\nalso comes in. But in our days, what does not rise to the peak, remains on\r\nlevel earth, is a crudeness of the most perverted kind; that is to say, it is\r\nnot only ignorant or stupid, it is ugly, dirty, repulsive, it is deformed, it\r\nis vile, it is extremely low. What makes it so is the wrong use of the mind. If\r\nthere were no mind, this perversion would not exist. Now what is ugly is ugly\r\nfrom all points of view.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>There are things that are considered beautiful\r\nthese days. I have seen photographs and reproductions which are frightfully\r\nvulgar in the perverted sense, and yet people are uproarious about them and\r\nfind them beautiful. That means there is something there which has not only no\r\nculture and development, but has developed in the wrong way, that is to say, is\r\ndeformed, which is worse, for it is much more difficult to straighten a perverted\r\nand deformed object than to enlighten that which is merely ignorant or without\r\neducation.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.7pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>I believe there are certain things that have become\r\ngreat instruments of perversion and among them I name the Cinema. The Cinema\r\ncould have been, and I hope one day it will be, an instrument of education and\r\nculture. But for the moment it is largely an instrument of perversion, a truly\r\nhideous perversion: perversion of taste, perversion of consciousness, a moral<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\r\n\'>Page – 146<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.0pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>and even a physical ugliness. And yet it is something\r\nwhich can be serviceable for education, for progress, for artistic culture and\r\ngrowth. It can be made a means for the spread of the sense of the beautiful and\r\nthe creation of things beautiful in a way much more general and accessible to\r\nall than was possible by the older methods. But what could have been better, is\r\nnot better but has become worse.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>As I said, we are in a period of excesses; we move\r\nfrom one excess to another. If it is not an excess of zeal towards perfection,\r\nwe fall back into the opposite excess of perversion. As we live in the midst of\r\nsuch a world, if we carefully note we shall find that we automatically share in\r\nthe universal vulgarism, unless we are watchful over ourselves and bring down\r\ninto our being the light of our highest consciousness; at every step we run the\r\nrisk of grave errors of taste, in matters spiritual also.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\r\n\'>Page – 147<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<div align=\"right\"> \r\n	<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"> </div>\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-046_The Modern Taste','','publish','closed','open','','046_the-modern-taste','','','2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/046_the-modern-taste/',0,'post','',0),(1785,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','<html xmlns:o=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>On Food</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<h1 align=\"center\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'>\r\n<font size=\"4\">On\r\nFood</font><o:p></o:p></b></h1>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><b><i><span\r\nstyle=\'font-family:\"Arial Narrow\"\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></b></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent2 style=\'text-indent:0in;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 0in 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>I BELIEVE the primitive man was\r\nvery near to the animal. He lived more by instinct than by intelligence. He ate\r\nwhen he was hungry without any kind of fixed rule. He might have had his own\r\ntastes and preferences, we do not know much about it; but we know that he lived\r\nmuch more physically, much less mentally or even vitally than now. </p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Originally\r\nvery material in nature, much like the animal, man in he course of his progress\r\nthrough centuries or millenniums became more and more mental, more and more\r\nvital. And as he grew more mental and more vital, refinement became possible,\r\nthe intelligence increased, but the possibility too of perversion and\r\ndeformation. It is one thing to educate the senses so as to bring into them\r\nevery variety of refinement, growth, knowledge, appreciation, taste and all\r\nthat, meaning a progress in consciousness: it is quite another to be attached\r\nto the objects of sense, to have greed, to be a glutton.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>You\r\ncan make a very thorough study of taste, for example, you can acquire a\r\ndetailed knowledge of the different tastes of different things, the association\r\nof an idea or notion with taste, which means not perhaps a progress in the\r\nvital, but at least a development of this particular sense. That is permissible\r\nbut there is a great difference between that and eating out of greed, thinking\r\nof food all the while, eating not because of its need but because of desire and\r\ngluttony.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.7pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Indeed,\r\npeople who try to develop their taste are rarely very much attached to food.\r\nThey cultivate their taste for developing, refining their senses, not for the\r\nsake of eating. In the same way the artist, a painter, for example, trains his\r\neyes so that he can know how to appraise the beauty of form and colour, line\r\nand design, composition and harmony that is found in physical\r\n<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 68</span><span\r\nstyle=\'font-family:\"Arial Narrow\"\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>nature. It\r\nis not mere desire or hunger that drives them, it is taste, culture,\r\ndevelopment of the sense of sight, appreciation of beauty that is his\r\npreoccupation. Generally, artists who are truly artists, who love and live\r\ntheir art, who are in search of beauty are people who do not have many desires.\r\nThey live in their aesthetic sensibility, in their senses turned to the\r\nenjoyment and creation of beauty. They are not the kind of people who live by\r\ntheir vital impulses and physical desires.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>In\r\na general way, education, cultures, refinement of the senses are the means of\r\ncuring movements of crude instinct and desire and passion. To obliterate them\r\nis not curing them; instead, they have to be cultivated, intellectualised,\r\nrefined. That is the surest way of curing them. To give them their maximum\r\ngrowth in view of the progress and development of consciousness, so that one\r\nmay acquire to a sense of harmony and exactitude of perception is part of\r\nculture and education for the human being. Men cultivate their intelligence in\r\nthe same way: they read, they think, compare and contrast, they make a study.\r\nIn this way their mind enlarges itself, it becomes wider and more comprehensive\r\nthan the minds of those who live without a mental education, who possess only a\r\nfew ideas that perhaps even contradict each other. They are moved wholly by\r\nthese as they have no other, they think those are the only ideas that should\r\ngovern them: such minds are extremely narrow and limited. On the other hand,\r\nthey who have cultivated their intelligence, who have studied and thought, who\r\nhave widened their mental range a little and so can see and note and compare\r\nother ideas and possible notions discover easily that it is sheer ignorance and\r\nabsurdity to be attached to a limited set of ideas and to consider that alone\r\nas the expression of truth.</p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>This training of taste, this education of\r\nthe senses is a very good, a necessary means to prepare the consciousness for a\r\nhigher development. There are persons who are very crude and very simple in\r\nnature. They can have a strong inspiration and arrive at a certain spiritual\r\ngrowth but the foundation will always remain of a somewhat inferior quality:\r\nand when they come back to their ordinary consciousness they find there great\r\nobstacles: for the stuff is missing there; there are not, in the vital and\r\nphysical consciousness, elements enough to enable it to support a descent of\r\nthe higher force.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 69</span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i>How does fasting bring\r\nabout a state of receptiviry?</i></p>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&nbsp;</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'margin-top:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;\r\nmso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;\r\ntext-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-bottom:0\'>Usually the vital being is concentrated very much in the\r\nbody. And when the body is well fed, it draws its force and energy through the\r\nfood – it is one way of absorbing energy, almost the the only way, at least the\r\nmore important way, under the existing conditions of life, but it is a tamasic\r\nway.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>This\r\nenergy that one takes in, if you reflect upon the matter you will easily admit,\r\nis the vital energy that is in the plant or the animal and logically it is of\r\nan inferior quality to that which should be man\'s who is supposed to be on a\r\nhigher level in the scale of species. So it is impossible to eat without\r\nabsorbing a large quantity of unconsciousness. Inevitably that makes you heavy\r\nand dense. And if you are in the habit of eating much, a good part of your\r\nconsciousness is engaged in digesting and assimilating what you eat. Thus if\r\nyou do not take food, that already frees you from this unconsciousness that you\r\nhave no longer to assimilate and transform within you: in order to liberate\r\nenergy in you. Then, as there is an instinct in the being to make up for the\r\nenergy spent, if you do not gather it from food i.e. from below, you make\r\nautomatically an effort to draw it from the universal vital energy which is\r\nfree around you. And if you can assimilate that energy, assimilate it directly,\r\nthen there is no limit to your energy.</p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>It is not like your stomach which can digest\r\nonly a limited quantity of food and this food again can give out only a portion\r\n– a very small portion – of its energy. For after the energy spent in\r\nswallowing, masticating, digesting, etc. how much of it still remains\r\navailable? If, on the other hand, you learn – you learn instinctively, it is a\r\nkind of instinct – to draw from the universal energy which is freely available\r\nin the world and in any quantity, you can take it in and absorb as much as you\r\nare capable of doing. Thus, as I have said, when there is not the support from\r\nbelow coming from food, the body makes an automatic movement to get the needed\r\nenergy from the environment. <span style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:bold\'>It<b> </b></span>gets\r\nat times, more than enough, even an overdose and that puts you in a state of\r\ntension or stimulation. And if your body is strong and can remain without food\r\nfor some time, then you can maintain your poise and utilise the energies in all\r\nways – to make inner progress, for example, to become more conscious, to change<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 70</span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>your\r\nnature. But if your body does not have much reserve, it gets easily weakened by\r\nfast, then there occurs a disharmony between the intensity of the energies you\r\nabsorb and the capacity of the body to hold them and that upsets you. You lose\r\nyour poise, the equilibrium of the forces is broken and anything can happen. In\r\nany case, if such a thing happens, you lose a good deal of self-control, you\r\nget excited and this unnatural excitement you consider as a higher state of\r\nconsciousness. But it is an inner unbalance, nothing more. Otherwise, in that\r\nstate your senses get refined and receptive. Thus when you fast and do not draw\r\nenergy from below, if you smell a flower, you feel nourished, the perfume you\r\nbreathe in serves as food, it gives you energy and this you would not have\r\nknown but for the fasting.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.05pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>In\r\nthis condition certain faculties become intensified and that is taken as a\r\nspiritual effect. But in reality it has very little to do with spirituality.\r\nHowever, instead of thinking all the while about food, how to get it and eat\r\nit, if one were to take to fasting for the sake of freeing oneself from the\r\nbondage of food preoccupation, rising a little in the scale of consciousness,\r\nit would be a good thing. If you have the faith it will do you good, it will\r\npurify you, make you progress a little. In that way it is all right: it will\r\nnot do any harm to your body except making it a little slimmer. But if you fast\r\nand then continuously turn back to it and think of the food that you might have\r\neaten or are likely to eat after the fasting, well, such fasting is worse than\r\nfeasting.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Maeterlinck,\r\n– you must have heard of him, the author of <i>The Blue Bird-was </i>a very\r\ncorpulent person. As he had some sense of beauty he disliked corpulency, and in\r\norder to reduce it or keep it within bounds, he took to fasting for one day a\r\nweek regularly. As he was an intelligent man, he did not on that day give any\r\nthought to food, but he kept himself wholly engaged in writing and studying.\r\nFasting was of use to him.</p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The moral then is this: you must not think\r\nabout food: you should regulate your life in such an automatic manner that you\r\ndo not have to think about it. Eat at fixed hours, reasonably – calmly,\r\nquietly, composedly. Do not eat too much; for then you will have to concern\r\nyourself with digestion: that would be a disagreeable thing; it will make you\r\nlose time. Eat just what is necessary. You must give up all desire and\r\nattraction, all vital movement. When you eat only because the body needs food,<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 71</span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyText2 style=\'line-height:150%;tab-stops:.5in;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>then\r\nthe body will tell you in a very precise and exact manner when it has taken\r\njust the amount necessary. It is only when you have notions in your mind or\r\ndesires in your vital, when for example, you are in love with a particular dish\r\nthat you eat in multiples of the quantity needed and oppress your body and make\r\nit lose its natural perception.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyText2 align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\ntab-stops:.5in;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;\r\npadding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\r\nmso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 72<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoBodyText2\" style=\"line-height:150%; padding:0in; border-style:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><o:p>\r\n<a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-024_On Food','','publish','closed','open','','024_on-food','','','2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/024_on-food/',0,'post','',0),(1786,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>The Sunlit Path</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style=\'text-align:center;mso-pagination:none;\r\nmso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style=\'text-align:center;mso-pagination:none;\r\nmso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'><font size=\"4\">The\r\nSunlit Path</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>THE modern, particularly\r\nthe western mind captured by the rational or scientific spirit cannot but\r\npursue the same line even in the domain of other and higher realities. The\r\nfather and the great representative of the movement was Descartes, the very\r\nfamous French thinker. To find the pure and unalloyed truth, he taught, one\r\nmust keep away all possibility of error: so to dispel all doubt one must begin\r\nby doubting everything, to avoid being the dupe of imagination, delusion or\r\nhallucina­tion it is always safe to doubt everything. A second reflection,\r\nhowever, raises the question, but who doubts: it is I who doubt, the one who\r\ndoubts is I; the doubter cannot be doubted, so he exists. Thus we arrive at the\r\nfirst undoubtable reality. But the irony of the argument is that even the\r\ndoubter came to be doubted in the end: there is no guarantee that even the\r\ndoubter is not an illusion. Thus we wander into a blind lane, a <i>cul de sac: </i>we\r\nknock our head against a dead wall.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Modern\r\nscientific agnosticism or scepticism has been thus compelled to modify a little\r\nthe Cartesian way: not to doubt outright, but to accept a probability, a working\r\nhypothesis as it is called: to see how it works provisionally, whether it is or\r\nit is not contradicted by other elements. If it gives a cogent and consistent\r\nand unchallenged view of things then it can be with the largest amount of\r\ncertainty accepted as true. Even then we are in a world of suppositions and\r\nrelativities, only approximations and nowhere near the absolute truth. The hope\r\nof finding the pure absolute truth is deferred indefinitely and &quot;hope\r\ndeferred sickeneth the heart.&quot;</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Absolute\r\nTruth, the spiritual reality cannot be attained in this way, the way of\r\nexperimenting and questioning. The path of self-questioning, self-analysis,\r\ndebate and discussion<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 404<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.0pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>which is\r\nthe inevitable outcome of rationalism and scientism leads, in the field of\r\nspiritual realities, only to self-torture. It drives you in a vicious circle\r\nthrough ceaseless struggle and unrest.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>This\r\nis, we may say, the left-handed path towards the spirit, the path of the\r\nbar-sinister, that leads into, at least, through the dark night: this is\r\nusually, as I have said, the western, the rational mind\'s way, the way of\r\nscientism; but there is also the very ancient eastern or the Indian way, the\r\nway of the bar-dexter, the right-hand path. Sri Aurobindo often spoke of the sunlit\r\npath – the Upanishadic <i>surya yana – or </i>the golden <i>path – hiranmaya\r\nvartma. </i>Here the very first thing needed – the first and the must – is Faith;\r\nhere you start by faith and not doubt, doubt inevitably heads towards <i>perdition\r\n– samsayatma vinasyati, </i>as the Gita says: it disperses\r\nand dissipates the con­sciousness, dissolves it like scattered clouds. Indeed\r\nyou are not to try to prove the existence of God and reality; the kind of proofs\r\ncollected by the theologians of <st1:place>Europe</st1:place> and which to them\r\nappear to be final and definitive – the fivefold proofs, scholastically named\r\nontological, teleological etc., etc. – do not carry conviction to any sane and\r\nsincere inquirer. On the contrary, one should go the other way – the boot is on\r\nthe other leg: it is the ultimate truth and reality that proves all other\r\nproofs and realities, we recall the famous Upanishadic phrase: &quot;all other\r\nlights shine by that light&quot; <i>– tasya bhasa sarvamidam vibhati.\r\n</i>You cannot by your own will and strength and endeavour attain the spiritual\r\nreality. When that chooses to unveil itself, then only your eyes have the\r\nvision of its own body.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nrational mind scoffs at faith and calls it blind. Yes, blind to the\r\nunrealities, open to the reality. In fact faith can be called blind only when\r\nthe faith is in darkness and ignorance, faith is open-eyed when the faith is in\r\nthe light.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>To\r\nunderstand a little closely we have to distinguish things. The mind has a\r\nhigher status: the higher mind is naturally receptive to the light and\r\nsufficiently aloof from a lower region of the mind itself which is not only\r\nlimited but subject to up rushes from a still lower region, the vital, the\r\nsource of passions and prejudices. It is the lower mind, the physical mind as\r\nit is called, which is the one obstacle that shuts out the light<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 405<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>of true\r\nconsciousness. The source of all doubt is here. The physical mind has its own\r\nrole, a truer role; for it is the instru­mental consciousness that formulates\r\nthings, gives a form – a name and local habitation to things. so that they\r\npossess a material existence but it transgresses its bounds when it chooses by\r\nitself the things to formulate, instead it should formulate only things\r\npresented to it, presented by a higher consciousness, presented, in other\r\nwords, by faith.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nphysical mind doubts, because it has not the criterion by which it can find and\r\njudge the reality, it must perforce seek the support of a higher faculty that\r\ncan furnish or reveal the object to which it should give a form. By itself it\r\nmoves bewildered in a tortuous never-ending maya<i><span\r\nstyle=\'font-family:\"Arial Narrow\";mso-bidi-font-family:\"Arial Narrow\"\'>, </span></i>leading\r\nnowhere – if anywhere to regions still darker and <i>dangerous – andham tamah\r\npravisanti.</i>. <i>tato bhuya eva te.<o:p></o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>God,\r\ntruth, reality are not things to be proved or demons­trated. They are to be\r\nfound, realised. They are accepted things, they have to be accepted. Only you\r\nare to find the means to approach them, know them, rea1ise them. Young\r\nNachiketas spontaneously found the way, for the Grace descended and Faith\r\nentered into his pure heart and possessed him.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 406<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-114_The Sunlit Path','','publish','closed','open','','114_the-sunlit-path','','','2021-11-23 17:58:17','2021-11-23 17:58:17','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/114_the-sunlit-path/',0,'post','',0),(1787,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>Our Finest Hour</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">\r\n<b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal\'><font size=\"4\">Our Finest Hour</font></span></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<i>\r\n<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>THIS is an age of deluge\r\nand devastation and decomposition. Is this also the Doomsday?</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Nature\r\nherself has started the process and man has lent his hand to hasten it. Or did\r\nman start it and Nature is hastening the work? Perhaps it is a vicious circle,\r\nbut the outcome is the same.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Anyhow\r\nthe question now is whether there is a remedy. How can Nature be made steady\r\nand how can man come out of the muddle?</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>For\r\nman the root-cause is that he is being imprisoned more and more, and\r\ncircumstances of his life are such that he is losing all free movements and is\r\nbeing hemmed in on all sides. The walls are, as it were, pressing upon him,\r\neven to the point of suffocation. In all fields of life rules and regulations,\r\nrestrictions and impediments are mounting high and are, becoming an unbearable\r\nburden more and more. Whichever way he turns a few steps lead to a dead wall,\r\nand he knocks his head against something hard and hostile and irremovable.\r\nHence his natural urge is to knock more and more, to break and destroy and come\r\nout – that seems to be the only issue. Destroy and live dangerously – that is\r\nthe one way left. In destroying what stands against you if you happen to\r\ndestroy yourself it matters very little, you will be destroyed willy-nilly\r\neither way.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Indeed\r\nan urge to destroy pure and simple leads to self-destruction. Violence is a\r\nboomerang which turns back upon its own source. There is a joy in violence,\r\nperverse though it be, even when directed against oneself. Perhaps in the\r\noccult view it is the movement against oneself that is the secret source of the\r\nmovement against others. The enormous increase in the incidence of suicides is\r\na characteristic phenomenon of <span style=\'font-family:Arial\'>\r\n<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 347<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>our age. It is not\r\nexplained merely by the <i>force majeure </i>of actual circumstances. A dark\r\nspirit broods over the waters of existence today which aims at the annihilation\r\nof consciousness itself, the one source of life and creation.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>But\r\nmay we not pause a little and consider whether that is the only choice, or the\r\nbest choice – the rush for destruction? The whole past construction that now\r\nstands against man, against his farther progress, it is agreed, has to be\r\nbroken down, thrown aside, but in what way? By mere physical force, brute\r\nforce, by pushing and dashing and ramming from outside – well, perhaps the\r\nthing can be done, but destruction of form is not elimination of the life or\r\nspirit behind it. The past still in its present form continues because it\r\nmaintains its own inner life and spirit. So long as that inner spirit is there\r\nyou may break one form but another or many others will appear inspired by the\r\nsame spirit. That is why the French proverb says: &quot;The more it changes,\r\nthe more it remains the same;&quot;¹ For the truth is that destruction is not\r\nthe aim, not even the destruction of what should be destroyed, the aim is the\r\ncreation of a new spirit, change of the inner nature. Our attention should be\r\nfocussed not on the outward form but on the inner norm. If there is a new norm\r\nwithin and a change of nature, the outer change of form will follow\r\nautomatically. The old leaves will fall off, the dead branches break away and\r\nnew leaves and flowers appear with a new sap flowing in. The shell breaks off\r\nautomatically when the living creature within grows and is mature enough to\r\ncome out.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>On\r\nthe contrary, the prison need not be altogether a prison, it may be an\r\noccasion, an opportunity for the human consciousness to make a break-through\r\nto create a new dimension. Here is then our immediate work – to conquer inner\r\ndomains, the inner truths: for all truths are found first within the consciousness,\r\nestablished there before they become facts. So then let us harness our power\r\nand prowess, our aspiration and sincerity, all our life energy to the labour of\r\nthe inner conquest. Let us stop awhile from the temptation and the urge for\r\ndestruction and turn it round towards a higher inner adventure – that of\r\nconstruction. Yes, the truth that we want to see established in the outer\r\nworld, let us establish it in ourselves, </p>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&nbsp;</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt\'>¹ <i>Plus ça change, </i></span><i><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:\"Arial Narrow\";mso-bidi-font-family:\"Arial Narrow\"\'>Plus\r\nç</span><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt\'>a Teste Ie même.</span></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 12.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 348</span></p>\r\n\r\n<hr>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>in each one\r\nof us, in our consciousness, in our impulses and activities. We always wanted\r\nliberty and equality and fraternity in the world at large, the ideal has not\r\nbeen realised because we did not care to realise it in the consciousness and\r\nlife of each one of us. In the collective life of mankind that truth will alone\r\nbecome a fact which is a fact in the inner existence and consciousness of every\r\nhuman being.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\ninner discovery is indeed a battle and here too a victory has to be won. It\r\nneeds more than in any physical battle a complete contingent of courage and\r\nbravery, calm strength and persevering endurance, skill and energy to gain an\r\nabsolute success. And there the field is free and vast, one can deploy oneself\r\nas largely as possible, move in any direction to any distance as one likes. It\r\nis no longer a prison, – it is a region where one meets one\'s soul.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.45pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nindividual seems always to precede the society. What begins in and with the\r\nindividual is spread abroad and established in wide commonalty. But this\r\nindividual self-concentration does not mean that one should withdraw from the\r\nworld and its activities and sit and settle within oneself, apart and aloof. It\r\ndoes not mean while you are in prison, to accept imprisonment, dig a cave there\r\nand go into mere meditation. In other words, to find the inner solution it is\r\nnot necessary to escape from the world, go into the solitude of mountain-tops\r\nor into the depths of the forests, take to the path of total renunciation till\r\nyou attain perfect <i>siddhi </i>and then turn back and share your light and\r\nleading with humanity. Some great souls have done this-Buddha and Christ and\r\nVivekananda. And it is not for every man to try that path in the way they did.\r\nBut even if the path is not easy, to some extent at least every one of us has\r\nto follow it; for we must remember our aim is not easy either. The pioneers\r\nhave to accept the difficulty of the path. Pursuing the figure of the prison,\r\nof the dungeon, we may say, instead of trying to break it down because of the\r\nhopelessness of the attempt, or as the alternative: sit down quiet for the\r\ninner illumination to come; instead of that one may cut a tunnel under the\r\nwall. That should be the nature of our activity in our present situation.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nnew truth, the new capacity you have to acquire in and through the activities\r\nof the normal life. It was what<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 349<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:10.05pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'mso-line-height-alt:11.5pt;mso-pagination:none;\r\nmso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Sri Krishna taught to Arjuna.\r\nArjuna was a representative of the common man, Arjuna was thought to be always\r\nin the yogic consciousness even while he was engaged in battle.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:11.5pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Thus we are\r\nat the world\'s finest hour, for it shall find its soul.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 350<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:11.5pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-103_Our Finest Hour','','publish','closed','open','','103_our-finest-hour','','','2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/103_our-finest-hour/',0,'post','',0),(1788,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>Education is Organisation</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<h1 align=\"center\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><b>\r\n<font size=\"4\">Education is Organisation</font><o:p></o:p></b></h1>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>EDUCATION is organisation.\r\nMind\'s education means organisation of mental faculties. Organisation\r\nnaturally involves development. The faculties in the normal and natural state\r\nare an undeveloped <span class=SpellE>disorganised</span> lot, <span\r\nclass=GramE>a confused mass, – unformed, ill-formed ideas</span>, notions,\r\nthoughts, form a jumble. They have no purpose, no direction, no common impulse\r\nor end, each runs in its own way. The mind\'s faculties such for example as\r\nattention, memory, discrimination, reasoning, cogent thinking have to be clear\r\nand efficient and learn how to work harmoniously for a common objective. In the\r\nprocess and for that purpose they have to be developed, that is to say each of\r\nthem has to be strong, able, ample, concentrated. They have to present a united\r\nfront and function towards an <span class=SpellE>ever increasing</span>\r\nconsciousness and knowledge.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nclass=GramE>As for the mental faculties so for the faculties of the vital.</span>\r\nThe normal vital being in man is in a greater and perhaps more dangerous chaos.\r\nThe impulsions, emotions, upsurges that belong to this domain have not so much\r\nto be developed or increased as to be purified, made conscious, <span\r\nclass=GramE>yoked</span> together in a common drive towards a harmonious\r\ndynamic <span class=SpellE>realisation</span> in life and life\'s achievements. <span\r\nclass=GramE>And lastly the organisation in the physical body.</span> The limbs\r\nof the body have not even growth, they do not move together in a balanced and\r\nrhythmic way. Some are unhealthy, some do not work, <span class=GramE>some</span>\r\nothers are overworked. These too have to be co-<span class=SpellE><span\r\nclass=GramE>ordinated,</span> each set in its\r\nplace and made to function in unison with others. That is physical education\r\nand that too means perfect organisation.</span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>We\r\nhave said that organisation means working for a common end and common purpose.\r\nThat comes from an opening into a deeper and higher level of being. We name it\r\nthe soul. <span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span> </p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;tab-stops:1.05in;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page\r\n– 203<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;tab-stops:1.05in;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'margin-top:0;text-align:justify;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nsoul\'s purpose, the soul\'s destiny has to be achieved and fulfilled. An <span\r\nclass=SpellE>organised</span> and educated mind and life and body means to be\r\nthe best and the most perfect vehicle for the expression upon earth of the\r\nsoul\'s consciousness.<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'margin-top:0;text-align:center;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 204<span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt\'><o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>\r\n	<a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a>&nbsp;</p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-066_Education is Organisation','','publish','closed','open','','066_education-is-organisation','','','2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/066_education-is-organisation/',0,'post','',0),(1789,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>Human Birth</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<h1 align=\"center\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'>\r\n<font size=\"4\">Human Birth</font><o:p></o:p></b></h1>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent2 style=\'mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;border:medium none;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 0in 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>LAST week I spoke of birth and how a soul\r\nenters into a body. I told you that the body is formed in a very unsatisfactory\r\nmanner almost in the case of every person, the exceptions are so rare that one\r\nneed not mention them. I told you that because of this obscure birth man is\r\nmade to carry with him quite a bundle of things which later on he has generally\r\nto get rid of, if he wishes to progress truly in life. I told you in effect\r\nthat you are made to come by force, conditions are imposed upon you by force,\r\nand by force you obey the laws of heredity. Now, I am asked who or what is it\r\nthat forces? I shall answer as clearly as possible.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nbody is formed by a man and a woman who are the father and the mother; these\r\nwhen they form the body have no means to ask of the being whom they are\r\nbringing into the world whether he likes it or whether it is agreeable to his\r\ndestiny. They impose upon the body, by the force of necessity, an atavism, an\r\nenvironment and subsequently an education which are almost always obstacles to\r\nfuture growth. A growing soul or a soul full-grown taking birth in a body has\r\nto fight against these circumstances that are forced upon him by the animal\r\nbirth in order to find his true path and discover his own self in its fullness.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>It\r\nis possible, however, for the parents, instead of doing the thing in the animal\r\nway, driven by mere instinct and desire, most of the time even without wanting\r\nit, to do it with a conscious will, aspiring, praying almost that the body\r\nthey are about to bring forth should be a form suitable to clothe a soul coming\r\nat their call. I have known people, – there are not many, of course, still\r\nthere are some, – who chose especial circumstances, prepared themselves,\r\nholding an attitude of concentration, meditation and aspiration, invoking some\r\nexceptional being to come into the body they were to form. For that one must\r\nhave also an \r\n<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 59</span></p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>occult\r\nknowledge which people generally do not possess.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>In\r\nancient times, in some civilisations and even now in some countries, the\r\nexpectant woman is kept specially in a surrounding of beauty and harmony and\r\npeace and ease and very normal physical conditions so that the coming child may\r\nbe formed under the best circumstances. Evidently this is as it should be, for\r\nit is within human possibilities. Human beings have developed enough not to\r\nconsider it as an exceptional thing. And yet in fact, it is an exceptional\r\nthing, for there are very few people who think of it, most are in the habit of\r\nproducing children without giving a thought to it. But the least that is\r\nexpected of man is that he should be somewhat conscious and do the things he\r\nhas to do in the best of conditions.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Now,\r\na fully formed conscious soul wanting to take birth looks generally from its\r\npsychic domain for a corresponding psychic light upon some place on earth. In\r\nits previous birth, before leaving the earthly atmosphere, it chose, as the\r\nresult of its total experience in that life, the conditions of its future life,\r\nnot in details, but more or less in a general way. Such cases are very\r\nexceptional. We here perhaps can speak of it, but for the majority of the human\r\npopulation, even among the most well-educated, the question does not arise.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Normally\r\nwe are dealing with a soul that is growing, which is in the process of its\r\ngrowth. Now, there are all the stages of growth, from the tiniest spark that is\r\nbecoming a little flame of light up to the fully conscious and fully formed\r\nbeing. This ascent of the soul in order to become a mature conscious being,\r\nhaving its own will and deciding its own destiny, takes thousands of years.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>When,\r\nhowever, it is a free and conscious soul that seeks to take a body again upon\r\nearth, it begins to work upon the body even before the birth. Such being the\r\ncase, it has no reason not to accept the inconveniences that result from the\r\nignorance of the parents. It has chosen its place for a reason which is a\r\nreason not of ignorance: it saw a light – which may be simply a light of\r\npossibility; but there was a light and that is why it came there. And when from\r\nthe domain of the psychic it looks upon the earth and has chosen its place of\r\nbirth, the choice has sufficient discernment in it not to have made a gross\r\nmistake.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:9.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;</span>In any case, even in the very best of\r\nsituations, when a soul<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 60<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>comes down\r\nconsciously and when it has consciously worked in the formation of the physical\r\nbody, so long as the body is formed in the usual animal way, the soul will have\r\nto struggle, and to correct all that comes from this human animality.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nparents have naturally a particular formation, they have a particular kind of\r\ngood or bad health; at the very best, they have a lot of atavistic tendencies,\r\nhabits, subconscious and even conscious complexes, deriving from their own\r\nbirth, their environment and the life they have led. And even if they are remarkable\r\npeople, in their own way, usually they carry an amount of things, that are\r\ncontrary to the true psychic life, I mean, even if they are the very best, the\r\nmost conscious. And when the parents have done their utmost to give their\r\nchildren the best education, the children come in contact with all kinds of\r\nother people who have a great influence upon them especially when they are very\r\nyoung; these influences enter into the subconscious and they have to be fought\r\nagainst later on.</p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;\r\nborder:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>So I say, because of the way in which the\r\nbody is brought into being at present, you have to face innumerable\r\ndifficulties, coming more or less from the subconscient, that rise to the surface\r\nwith which you have to fight if you want to be free entirely and develop\r\nnormally.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 61<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-021_Human Birth','','publish','closed','open','','021_human-birth','','','2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/021_human-birth/',0,'post','',0),(1790,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>The Mother on Herself</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><b\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'><font size=\"4\">The Mother on Herself</font><o:p></o:p></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n15.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt\'>(1)<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n13.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>You must be very very persevering. I will\r\ntell you a story – my own story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>When I began to practise occultism, as I started\r\nworking with my nights, making them conscious, I found that between the subtle\r\nphysical level and the most material vital there was a small region, very small\r\nindeed, that was not developed well enough to serve as a conscious link between\r\nthe two. So what happened in the most material vital was not being accurately translated\r\ninto the consciousness of the most subtle physical. Something was lost in the\r\npassage which was however not quite empty but only half-conscious, not\r\nadequately developed. I knew there was only one way, namely to go on working\r\nfor the development. I started working sometime in February, I suppose. One\r\nmonth, two months, three, four months passed with no result. I continued. Five\r\nmonths, six months. Then in July or August I left my home in </span><st1:City><st1:place><span\r\n  style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>Paris</span></st1:place></st1:City><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'> for the country-side. I came to a very small\r\nplace near the seaside and stayed with friends. There was a garden there. And\r\nin the garden a fine green turf and flowers and trees all round. It was a\r\npretty little quiet place. It was very quiet, very silent. One day I lay myself\r\ndown on the grass, flat on the face resting on my elbows (among the grass).\r\nSuddenly the whole life of this nature, the whole<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'>life of the intermediate region I am speaking of, which is most living\r\nin the plant and in physical nature, all this domain became all on a sudden,\r\nunexpectedly, without any transition, absolutely living, intense, conscious,\r\nwonderful. This was the result of the continuous activity of six months that\r\nhad not given any result till then. I did not know it; just a little favour</span><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>able </span>\r\n<span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'>\r\n<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 171<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.0pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'margin-top:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>condition and the result is there. It is\r\nlike the chick in the egg. It has been there for a long time but you do not see\r\nit. You ask doubtfully if there is any chick at all inside the egg. And then\r\nsuddenly a crack, a small hole – the egg bursts and the chick comes out, quite\r\nformed and whole and entire. It took all this time to form itself. So it is\r\nlike this. When you wish to pre pare something within you it is like the\r\npreparation of the chick inside the shell. It takes a long time and there is\r\nnot the least result. But you must not be disheartened. You must continue your\r\neffort, as before, regularly as if the whole of eternity were before you,\r\nthoroughly disinterested in the result. One day the result bursts upon you, the\r\nwhole result of all your work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'margin-top:0;text-align:justify;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>(2)<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n11.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>When I look at people and when I am occupied\r\nwith them, I have the will – I do not say it is always possible – anyhow, I\r\nhave the will to see in them their psychic being, their ideal, what they want\r\nto do, what they want to become, to hold it and bring it out to the surface.\r\nThat is all my work. What I see, I try to draw out to the front. When I do\r\nthis, with the exception of a very few instances when people are somewhat conscious,\r\nI am not always sure of the kind and degree of their external consciousness.\r\nAnd when I put questions to someone, it is to know the difference between what\r\nhe is conscious of and what I see. I am doing this all the while. And that is\r\nwhy it seems as in did not know. <o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>There is a vast difference between what you\r\nknow of yourself and what I know of you. What I know of you is evidently what you\r\nought to become. Your external being one can see well. But between that and the\r\ninner being that I see there is the vital mental region which is the most\r\nimportant thing from the human point of view; for what one has to become must\r\nbe repeated there first, if it is to be materialised. But as I say, the gap is\r\nwide between what you know of yourself, what is actively conscious in you and\r\nwhat you are in the truth of your being. This intermediary region is somewhat\r\ndifficult for me to be<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n11.0pt\'>familiar with or comprehend: for it is a cloudy region for me, a domain\r\nof falsehood. You must note the distinction between a lie and a falsehood. A\r\nlie is that which is altogether unreal,<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;\'>Page – 172<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:14.6pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'>which has not been, which is not there. A falsehood is that which is\r\nnot true, in the sense that it is not the expression of your truth – not at all\r\n– and yet, it is that of which you are mostly externally conscious. Very very\r\nfew are there who have the inner perception of what they want to become, what\r\nthey want to do, what the truth of their being is. There are not many of that\r\nkind. For some, the thing comes and is then veiled – just a lightning flash for\r\na moment and then all is dark. For me it is a perpetual question to know what\r\nis the state of the superficial consciousness which is for me so unreal, so\r\nuntrue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>There is such a contradiction between the\r\nbrutal fact of the daily activity and this image I make to myself of what each\r\none of you should be: I keep this image always intact with all the power of my\r\nconsciousness so that you may realise it. That is yourself, your own self. It\r\nis not this ignorant, stupid, insincere, dishonest being that you call yourself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>(3)<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>Once upon a time, long long ago, when I was\r\nin </span><st1:City><st1:place><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>Paris</span></st1:place></st1:City><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>, I used to see Madame D. N.¹ almost daily.\r\nShe was full of ideas and told me: &quot;You should not think of action, it\r\nmeans attachment to action. When you want to do something it indicates that\r\nyou are still tied down to the things of the world.&quot; I replied: &quot;No,\r\nnothing is more easy. You have only to imagine all that has been done before,\r\nall that will be done hereafter and all that is being done now, you will\r\nimmediately perceive that your action is nothing but a breath, one second in\r\neternity and you are no longer attached to it.&quot; I did not know the text of\r\nthe Gita at that time. And I had not the complete text, the text that I am here\r\nputting somewhat in my own way: &quot;And detached from the fruit of action,\r\nact.&quot; I did not know the Gita, but what I said was in effect what the Gita\r\nteaches. You should act not because you believe in your action. You act because\r\nyou should act. That is all. It is however a condition that may prove dangerous\r\nsometimes. For instead of willing with a sovereign will to action you simply\r\nlook and let things happen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n8.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:\r\nnone;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt\'>¹</span><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt\'>Madame Alexandra David Neele\r\nthe eminent Tibetologist.</span><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n8.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt;\'>Page – 173<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.0pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-056_The Mother on Herself','','publish','closed','open','','056_the-mother-on-herself','','','2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/056_the-mother-on-herself/',0,'post','',0),(1791,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>The Value of Money</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<div class=Section2>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style=\'text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=right style=\'text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:normal\'>\r\n<font size=\"4\">The Value of Money</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>THE more\r\nmoney one has, the more one falls into a calamity. It is indeed a calamity, my\r\nchildren.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>It\r\nis a catastrophe to have money. It makes you stupid, it makes you avaricious,\r\nit makes you wicked. It is one of the biggest calamities in the world. Money\r\nis a thing which one should not possess unless and until he is without desire,\r\nwithout attachment. When one has a consciousness as wide as the earth, then\r\nonly one can have all the money there is upon earth and that would be good for\r\neverybody. But until then as much money as you have, so much the curse there is\r\nupon you. I will tell this to the face of everybody, even to the face of the\r\nman who considers it a merit to be rich. It is a calamity; it is also perhaps a\r\n<i>disgrace, </i>a fall from the Divine Grace, the expression of a Divine\r\ndiscontent.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.45pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>It\r\nis infinitely more difficult to be rich and also to be wise, intelligent and\r\ngenerous – to be generous, please note, – when one is rich than when one is\r\npoor. I have seen and known many persons in many countries; the most generous\r\npersons were always the poorest. As soon as the pocket becomes full, you are\r\nseized as if with a malady, a sordid attachment to money. I assure you it is a\r\nmalediction.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>So\r\nthe first thing to do when one has money is to give it away. But as you should\r\nknow, it must not be given without discrimination. Do not give it in the way a\r\nphilanthropist does; for that only fills him with the sense of his kindness,\r\nhis generosity, his importance. You must do it with a <i>sattwic </i>sense,\r\nthat is to say, see where is the best possible use of it. Everyone then has to\r\nfind in his own consciousness, the highest consciousness he has, what is the\r\nbest possible use of the money one has.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;tab-stops:141.8pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>As a matter of fact, \r\nmoney has value only so far as it is in circulation. </p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;tab-stops:141.8pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page –\r\n109<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:141.8pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;\r\ntext-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>For each and everyone money has worth only if and when it is spent. Man has\r\ntaken care to choose for money a material that does not deteriorate, gold and\r\nsilver, for example, but all the same it rots, from the moral point of view, if\r\nit does not circulate. Nowadays paper is used in place of metal, but if you\r\nkeep the bundle of paper in your drawer, you will find in course of time all\r\nyour hoarding worn out, eaten up. <st1:City><st1:place>Worms</st1:place></st1:City>\r\nand insects would present you with a lace-work that your banks would refuse to\r\naccept!</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>There\r\nare peoples and religions who say that God makes those poor whom he loves. I do\r\nnot know if it is true, but one thing that is true is this that when one is\r\nborn rich or when one becomes rich, in any case when one has much, that is to\r\nsay, in material wealth, it is certainly not a sign that the Divine has chosen\r\nhim for His Grace; he must needs make a good deal of <i>amende honorable </i>if\r\nhe is to walk on the straight road, the true path towards the Divine.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Wealth\r\nis a force; it is, I told you once already, a force of Nature. It should be a\r\nmeans of circulation, a power in movement, even as water that flows is a power\r\nin movement. It is something which serves to produce, to organise. It is a convenient\r\nmeans – for at bottom it is only a means – for the full and free circulation of\r\ncommodities. And this force must be in the hands of those who know how to make\r\nthe best possible use of it, in other words, in the hands, as I have already\r\nsaid, of those who have abolished in them, who are somehow freed from all\r\npersonal desires, all attachments. To that must be added also a vision wide\r\nenough to understand the needs of the earthly life, a complete knowledge capable\r\nof <span lang=EN-GB style=\'mso-ansi-language:EN-GB\'>organising</span> those\r\nneeds and using this force to meet them.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.95pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Over\r\nand above this, if such people possess a higher spiritual consciousness, then\r\nthey can use the force to build slowly upon earth something that will be able\r\nto manifest the Divine Power and the Divine Grace. It is then that this force\r\nof money, of wealth, this power of Finance, instead of being a curse, as I have\r\nsaid, would be a blessing for the welfare of all. The saying goes that it is\r\nthe worst people who become the best. I hope the best do not become the worst,\r\nfor that would be sad indeed.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\ngreatest power, when used ill, can be a very great calamity; the same power\r\nused well can be a blessing.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 110<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>All\r\ndepends on the use that is made of a thing. Each object has a place, a\r\nfunction, a true use in the world. In the world as it is, however, very few\r\nthings are used for their true purpose, very few things are in their right\r\nplace. The world is in a frightful chaos. That is why there is all this\r\nmisery, all this suffering. If each thing were in its own place, all in a\r\nharmonious poise, the whole world would progress without any necessity of falling\r\ninto the state of misery and suffering in which it is now.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 111</span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<hr class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:12pt;\">\r\n<div class=Section2>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-038_The Value of Money','','publish','closed','open','','038_the-value-of-money','','','2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/038_the-value-of-money/',0,'post','',0),(1792,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','<html xmlns:o=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>On Discipline</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal\'><font size=\"4\">On Discipline</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><span style=\'font-family:\r\n\"Arial Narrow\";mso-bidi-font-family:\"Arial Narrow\"\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;tab-stops:78.0pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>THE\r\nMOTHER says: &quot;No big creation is possible without discipline&quot;. The\r\ntrue and original meaning of discipline is to be a disciple. And a disciple is\r\none who learns, is ready to learn from a master. So the first requisite for a\r\ndisciple or a learner is to obey. Obedience then is the beginning and the very\r\nbasis of discipline. We know from ancient stories and legends how this\r\ndiscipline of obedience was exacted from a disciple or learner. For knowledge\r\nor learning was not considered at that time as a bundle of information to be\r\nacquired or collected by the pupil. It is not a mass of dead materials that is\r\nlaid before the learner to possess and store; it is something living that the\r\nteacher passed from his consciousness into that of his pupil, and for the free\r\npassage of the knowledge from the master to the disciple, a passive, receptive\r\nmentality\' and absolute obedience is an indispensable condition – a <i><span\r\nstyle=\'font-family:\"Arial Narrow\";mso-bidi-font-family:\"Arial Narrow\"\'>sine </span>qua\r\nnon. </i>In the spiritual domain this was the procedure that was universally\r\naccepted and followed, although always in the name of individual freedom and\r\nfree will protestant movements arose and flourished and traced their own way.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>But\r\nobedience to a person is in the last analysis a symbol – symbol of obedience\r\nto a principle. The person signifies and embodies a principle, a law to which\r\nwe render our obedience. In normal life it is these principles or laws that\r\ndemand our obedience. These laws or rules are meant for the welfare of\r\ncollective living and therefore individuals are expected to restrain or forego\r\ntheir personal impulses, their so-called liberties in order to live together in\r\nharmony. Discipline is meant exactly to control one\'s personal idiosyncracies,\r\nplace them under the yoke of the common collective law. All laws or rules that\r\nmake for a harmonious collective living, that is,\r\n<span style=\'font-family:Arial\'>\r\n<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 281<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\nsocial or national welfare, are limbs of discipline. By submitting himself to such a process of\r\nself-abnegation the individual gains in self-control and self-mastery. But\r\nthere are rules and rules, laws and laws. For that depends on the ideal or the\r\npurpose set before oneself. If the purpose is narrow,</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>limited, superficial, the\r\nrules are necessarily likewise, and although effective in a particular field,\r\nthey have a restricting, even deadening effect on the consciousness of the\r\nindividual. If discipline means obedience, the obedience must be to a larger\r\nand higher law, and the perfect discipline will come only from obedience to the\r\nhighest law.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.45pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nheart of discipline then is the effort to surmount oneself. Instead of a lower\r\nself following the law of an inferior consciousness one is to rise to a higher\r\nlevel of consciousness and a greater law of being. Discipline thus is only\r\nanother term for <i>tapasya, </i>replacing the lower law gradually by a\r\nhigher and higher law.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Mother speaks of three\r\nlines of this higher law. First of all, the individual law which at its lowest and\r\nits most common form is the law of selfishness. <span style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nbold\'>It<b> </b></span>is the most elementary and superficial degree of\r\nconsciousness when the being is confined to its own little person, confined\r\nmostly to its hungers and</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:3.1pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>desires,\r\nto its sense of possession and appropriation. The human being starts with- this\r\naddiction to selfishness but he moves towards a gradual enlargement and\r\nrearrangement of this sense of personal value and importance. Therefore he is\r\ngiven a family, a nation, a grouping more or less large in which he can find\r\nother selves to meet and learn to live with harmoniously. A collective life\r\nwhether in a nation or in the family or in any other group formation demands a\r\ncontrol over the selfish impulses and egoistic urges. That is the discipline,\r\nthat is to say, the necessity of submitting the law of one\'s ego-self to the\r\nlaw of collective selves, needed for the realisation of a collective ideal.\r\nWhen you playa game you have to obey the rule of the game and you have to\r\ndovetail your movements into the movements of your comrades, you cannot move as\r\nyou please but must integrate your gestures with those of others. Even so as a\r\nmember of a particular family or as a citizen of a particular country you have\r\nto rearrange your personal habits and movements in accordance with a more<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 282<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;tab-stops:196.05pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>general\r\nand wider plan of living. The extent of this obedience depends upon the ideal\r\nthat a particular collectivity pursues and the value of the obedience depends\r\non the ideal thus pursued. And the largest collectivity is of course the human\r\nrace, the humanity as a whole. The submission of the personal law to the law of\r\nhumanity in general is also a discipline demanded of man but there too the\r\nvalue of the submission depends upon the exact nature of the humanity to which\r\none is asked to submit. For as I have said, there are degrees of consciousness\r\nand levels of being mounting higher and higher in an increasing value in\r\nrespect of width and intensity and essential character. For along with the\r\nwidening of the consciousness there must be a heightening of it, a horizontal\r\nmovement of the being must be supported or accentuated by a vertical movement.\r\nEven the widest consciousness, a consciousness one with the universe, as wide\r\nas creation itself, can still have a core of ego-sense left behind, however\r\nattenuated it may be; the ego-sense can be abolished only by a transcendence\r\neven of the universal consciousness and rise into the supra-conscious. And this\r\nbrings us to the other line of discipline, the supreme discipline which means\r\nobedience not merely, not even to the cosmic law but to the transcendent Divine\r\nLaw. Here the individual is absolutely, utterly, free from his little self, the\r\nminor self-law, he is totally merged in the Divine, his being and living\r\nbecomes the Divine\'s own law of existence.<span style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Discipline\r\nthen is the obedience of a learner to an ever-expanding and ever-ascending law\r\nof consciousness and being, until the law of the supreme status is realised\r\nwhich is the law of divine living: it is the utter submission or total\r\nobedience to the Divine Himself, when one is identified with the Divine in\r\nbeing and nature, where Law and Person are one and the same.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-pagination:none;\r\nmso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 283<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-085_On Discipline','','publish','closed','open','','085_on-discipline','','','2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/085_on-discipline/',0,'post','',0),(1793,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>The Origin</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'><font size=\"4\">The Origin</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>ONE has \r\nforgotten. From the fact of separation from Sat-Chit-Ananda comes forgetfulness of what one is. You believe you are, does\r\nnot matter what, a boy, a girl, a man, a woman, a dog, a horse, anything: a\r\nstone, the sea or the sun. You think you are all that, instead of thinking that\r\nyou are the One Divine. Indeed, if you had continued to think that you are the\r\nOne Divine, there would have been no universe at all. The phenomenon of\r\nseparation seems to have been indispensable, otherwise it would have remained\r\nalways as it was.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>But once the curve has been followed up and the\r\nUnity re-established, having profited by the multiplicity and division, the\r\nUnity found is of a higher quality: a Unity that knows itself, instead of a\r\nunity that does not know itself, for there is nothing else there which knows\r\nthe other. Where the Unity is absolute, who or what can know the Unity? Hence\r\nthe need of the appearance of something which is not that, in order to know\r\nwhat it is.<span style=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>I believe this is the secret of the universe.\r\nPerhaps the Divine truly wanted to know Himself, then He cast Himself out of Himself\r\nand looked at Himself. And now He wants to take the joy of this possibility of\r\nbeing Himself with the full knowledge of Himself. It becomes much more\r\ninteresting.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-indent:1.9pt;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.55pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>All physical life has the vital as its origin. The\r\nvital has the mental reality as its origin. The mental itself has another\r\norigin. And so on.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Nothing can be manifested upon earth physically\r\nunless it has at its origin a higher truth. Otherwise the world would not\r\nexist. If it were something flat, having its origin in itself, it \r\n<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\r\n\'>Page – 148<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.2pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;tab-stops:-9.0pt; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>would very soon cease to exist. It is because there is a\r\nforce, an energy that drives, behind the manifestation that life continues to\r\nexist. Otherwise it would soon exhaust itself.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;tab-stops:9.8pt; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;tab-stops:right 302.85pt; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;tab-stops:right 302.85pt; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The original Will was towards forming individual\r\nbeings that would be capable of becoming conscious again of their origin,\r\nalthough the procedure of individualisation compelled the individual to feel\r\nitself separate in order to be an individual. And the very moment it is\r\nseparated, it is cut off from the original Consciousness, at least apparently,\r\nand falls into inconscience, for the only thing that is the Life of life is\r\nthe Origin.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>It is this inconscience that brings it about that\r\nyou are not aware any longer of the Truth of your being. The secret of all\r\ndeformation in the world is this inconscience which has been produced by the\r\nfact of separation from the Origin. And that explains why there are ugliness,\r\nwickedness, illness, suffering and death. It is because of this inconscience\r\nthat although the Origin is there, it cannot manifest itself. It is there, that\r\nis why the world exists, but it is deformed in its expression, because it\r\nmanifests itself through inconscience, ignorance and obscurity.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.05pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The only way to set everything right is to be\r\nconscious again and it is very simple.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>There is only one Origin. This Origin is the Truth\r\nat its perfection, for it is the only thing that truly exists. It has exteriorised\r\nitself, projected itself, scattered itself, and by so doing has produced what\r\nwe see, a mass of very fine, very brilliant brains in search of that which they\r\nhave not yet found and which they find at last; for what they are in search of\r\nis within them. The remedy is within the heart of the Evil.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>There is what we call the Truth, the foundation of\r\nall things, because if that was not there nothing would be. There is nothing\r\nwhich does not carry within it an eternal Truth, otherwise it would not be.\r\nThe universe would not exist for one thousandth part of a second if it did not\r\ncontain in itself a Truth.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>And once you have found the truth, you find the\r\nOrigin, you find out why things are what they are and the means of changing\r\nthem. If you are in contact with the Divine, you have the key to everything.\r\nYou know the how, the why, the process by<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\r\n\'>Page – 149<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>which that may change. So there is something to be done. It is so\r\ninteresting.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>You represent a little mass of agglomerate\r\nsubstance that forms your self. Enter into that and find the key. You cannot say:\r\n&quot;That is beyond me, that is too great for me.&quot; Go within the little\r\nperson and you will find the key that opens all the doors.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>You\r\nare That, you are in That.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>To\r\nmake you understand more easily, I may say, That is within us, That is part of\r\nour consciousness somewhere. Otherwise we would never be able to be conscious\r\nof it. If we did not carry the Divine within ourselves, in the essence of our\r\nbeing, we would never be aware of Him, it would be an impossible task.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>You can turn the problem the other way round. The\r\nvery moment you conceive and feel in one way or another, or even, to begin\r\nwith, you admit that the Divine is within you and you are also within the\r\nDivine, that itself pushes the door a little, half-opens it. And if\r\nsubsequently a great aspiration comes and an intense need to know and to be,\r\nthen you can glide in. When you have glided in, you become conscious of what\r\none is.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>There is only\r\none thing to be found, not two.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>If Science\r\nmoves forward in a definite direction, if it progresses sufficiently, if it\r\ndoes not stop short on the way, it will find the same thing as was found by the\r\nmystics.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>If one goes round long enough one must come back to\r\nthe same point. And once you come back, you have the impression that there was\r\nnever anything to find outside. Yes, it is like that, there is nothing to find\r\noutside yourself.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\r\n\'>Page – 150<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.0pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<div align=\"right\"> \r\n	<p style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"> </div>\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-047_The Origin','','publish','closed','open','','047_the-origin','','','2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/047_the-origin/',0,'post','',0),(1794,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>How to Become Indifferent to Criticism</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\"><b>\r\n<font size=\"4\">How to\r\nBecome Indifferent to Criticism?</font><o:p></o:p></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><span style=\'font-family:\"Arial Narrow\";mso-bidi-font-family:\"Arial Narrow\"\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>IN one\'s own consciousness one must look at things from a wider,\r\nmore general standpoint. If at any moment something holds you, holds you tight\r\nand you have to face it, if you are compelled to wrestle with a formidable\r\nobstacle and at that time you begin to feel that before this moment thousands\r\nand thousands of years have passed and after that moment yet more thousands and\r\nthousands of years will pass, you immediately see the inconsequence of this\r\nlittle point of time; you need not enter into a high spiritual condition, you\r\nhave simply to contact Time and Space, with all that is before and all that is\r\nafter and all that is happening at the time, and if you are not an idiot you\r\nsay immediately: &quot;Ah, well, I am giving importance to something that has\r\nno importance.&quot;</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Your little moment loses then and there all its\r\nimportance if you can visualise simply the immensity of the creation. I am not\r\nspeaking of rising to spiritual heights, I speak only of the immensity of the\r\ncreation in time and space and the small event on which you are concentrated as\r\nif it were of great consequence. All that dissolves immediately if you go\r\nabout the thing in a sincere spirit. Naturally there is a part in you that will\r\nprotest and say, &quot;But for me it has an importance.&quot; You have only to\r\nleave it aside and go on with the other part of light and consciousness. If you\r\nare sincere there, it is not difficult.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>There are other procedures. A Chinese sage, I read\r\nout to you once, advises you to lie down on the flow of events as on a plank in\r\nthe ocean, and imagine yourself to be on the vast immensity, drifting upon the\r\nwaves, contemplating the sky above. In Chinese they call it Wu Wei. When you\r\ncan do that</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>all trouble disappears.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\r\n\'>Page – 144<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>I knew one Irishman who used to lie on his back and\r\nlook up to the sky in the night when there were stars. He looked, contemplated\r\nupon the sky, imagined as if he were floating in this immensity studded with\r\ncountless luminous points and immediately he felt all his troubles were\' gone.\r\nThere are many such ways. What you have to do is to get the sense of relativity,\r\nyour little person and the importance you attach to things concerning you as\r\nagainst the boundless infinity of the universe. Naturally, there is the other\r\nway of separating yourself from the earthly consciousness and rising into a\r\nhigher consciousness, there earthly things take their true place, that is to\r\nsay, they become small things.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\r\n\'>Page – 145<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.0pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>\r\n	<a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-045_How to Become Indifferent to Criticism','','publish','closed','open','','045_how-to-become-indifferent-to-criticism','','','2021-11-23 17:58:18','2021-11-23 17:58:18','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/045_how-to-become-indifferent-to-criticism/',0,'post','',0),(1795,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:19','2021-11-23 17:58:19','<html xmlns:o=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>Towards the Immortal Body</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center;line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">\r\n<b style=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:\r\nnormal\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-style:normal\'><font size=\"4\">Towards the Immortal Body</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>To be immortal one must\r\nlive in that which is immortal. One may be immortal outside and beyond the\r\nworld and one may be immortal in the world upon the earth. The first is the immortality\r\nof Transcendence, of the Self, of Sachchidananda. The other is that of\r\nImmanence, of the Soul, the delegated Emanation in Matter upon earth. To be\r\nimmortal here upon earth one must find that which is immortal here below. To be\r\nimmortal in the body one must find that which is immortal in the body, and the\r\nbody must become it integrally and absolutely.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>It\r\nis the soul that is immortal upon earth and in the mortal being. For the life\r\nto be immortal here this soul has to be found not only in its own domain, in\r\nits own home, the central psychic behind and within the heart; but it must be\r\nfound also in each and every part of the being – the soul in the mind, the soul\r\nin the vital, the soul in the body – the immortal in the mortalities, as the\r\nrishis used to say.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:10.3pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>This\r\nthen is the first necessity, one should awake in the central psychic being and\r\nthen awaken the same psychic being in all the parts of the being that are now\r\napparently soulless. With that consciousness in front one must face the\r\nquestion set by death and dissolution. Now, to start on the way one must get\r\nrid of all fear of death – one must not be afraid of it in the least or shrink\r\nfrom it even a jot or tittle. The attitude of perfect indifference must be\r\nthere not only in the mind but also in the vital and in the body itself. All\r\nhas to be in a block, solidly calm and still – <i>udasina – seated </i>above\r\nthe contingencies.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;tab-stops:14.85pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-tab-count:1\'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>The consciousness, the consciousness of\r\nevery element must be of absolute passivity and integral neutrality: one must\r\nin </p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;\r\nmso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page – 336</span><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>every limb leave it to the\r\nDivine to make the decision whether to continue or not to continue, must be\r\nequally happy in either case. No thought or movement of such a kind should be\r\nthere that because immortality is the ideal to be achieved, therefore one must\r\nor can seek for it, try for it, that it is not wrong to make an effort towards\r\nit: instead one must learn to be absolutely indifferent, the supreme\r\nindifference taught by the Gita. And it must be a true indifference, with no\r\narrière pensée, no notion in the background that as I am indifferent, as I do\r\nnot care for gain and loss, therefore I shall automatically attain the desired\r\nimmortality. In fact, this ‘I’ does not attain immortality. This \'I’ in\r\nwhatever form is the very negation of immortality, it is mortality. As we have\r\nsaid, it is the immortal in the mortal that becomes the immortal, that is to\r\nsay, manifests and embodies its immortality.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Even\r\nthis is just the beginning, the very first step, the indispensable primary\r\ncondition, Every part and element of the whole being, down to the material\r\ncells of the body itself must be filled with the soul\'s consciousness, a field\r\nsuffused with the consciousness of the soul. Next there wil1 come the question\r\nof changing the very substance of the constituents. That is the final and\r\ncrucial discipline. For a pervading soul­ consciousness may, by its pressure and\r\ninfluence, bring about the prolongation of life, even indefinitely, but\r\nimmortality is assured only when the very substance of the material body is\r\nchanged into its immortal essence.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.2pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-spacerun:yes\'>&nbsp;</span>Naturally however, the Supreme Grace is always\r\nthere and if it chooses it can suspend or even cancel all laws and do things as\r\nit chooses, but that is a different matter.</p>\r\n<div style=\'border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:\r\nsolid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in\'>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:11.0pt;\r\nline-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;\r\nmso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;\'>Page\r\n– 337</span><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-098_Towards the Immortal Body','','publish','closed','open','','098_towards-the-immortal-body','','','2021-11-23 17:58:19','2021-11-23 17:58:19','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/098_towards-the-immortal-body/',0,'post','',0),(1796,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:19','2021-11-23 17:58:19','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>Personal Effort and Surrender</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\r\n	<tr>\r\n		<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\">\r\n<b\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'><font size=\"4\">Personal Effort and Surrender</font><o:p></o:p></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>T<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt\'>HERE</span> is no difference in the end between the\r\ntwo if the goal to be attained is the Impersonal Divine, that is to say, if you\r\nwant to unite and identify yourself with the Impersonal Divine, merge into it.\r\nBut if your aspiration is to reach what is beyond, what Sri Aurobindo calls the\r\nsupramental Reality, then there comes in a difference, a difference in. the\r\ngoal as well as in the way. For the way to the supramental realisation is\r\nessentially the way of surrender. It is a question of temperament perhaps. And\r\nif One has the temperament, the disposition, the path of surrender is\r\ninfinitely more easy: three-fourths of your trouble and diffi­culty are got rid\r\nof automatically. But it may prove hard going for some.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>Now\r\nas regards the result, in one case, I may say, it is linear, it ends at a\r\npoint, as it were; in the other case, the path is spheri­cal and ends in a\r\ntotality. Each one individually can reach his origin and the optimum of his\r\nbeing; the origin and the opti­mum of one\'s being is the same as the Eternal,\r\nthe Infinite, the Supreme. If you reach your origin, you reach the Supreme, but\r\nyou reach along a single line – do not take the image literally, it is only a\r\ndescription to make the thing easy to understand. So it is, I say, a linear\r\nrealisation terminating at a point and this point is one with the Supreme, your\r\nmaximum possibility. By the other way, you arrive at, what I call, a spherical\r\nrealisation; for it gives you the idea of something that contains all, it is\r\nnot a point but a totality that excludes nothing.</p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>The\r\nrelation of the whole and its part does not hold good here; for there is no\r\nlonger any division. The very quality of the approach is different. Can you say\r\nthat a perfect identification with one drop of water would give you the\r\nknowledge of what the sea is? And here the perfect identification in question\r\nis not<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 90<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n10.05pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>merely with\r\nthe ocean but with all possible oceans. And yet the perfect identification with\r\none drop of water does give you the knowledge of the ocean in its essence; but\r\nin the other way you know the ocean not merely in its essence but in its\r\ntotality. It is however very difficult to express the reality of the truth.\r\nWhat can be said to put it as clearly as possible is this: in the line of\r\npersonal effort, when one depends solely upon one\'s personal strength, all that\r\nhas been individualised maintains the virtues of individuality and hence also,\r\nin a certain sense, all the limi­tations necessary for this individuality. In\r\nthe other case, when you have surrendered your individuality, you not only enjoy\r\nthe virtues of individuality but also you are not subject to its limitations.\r\nIt is almost high philosophy, I am afraid. It is not clear therefore. But that\r\nis all I can say.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;\'>Page – 91<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a></p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n		</td>\r\n	</tr>\r\n</table>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-031_Personal Effort and Surrender','','publish','closed','open','','031_personal-effort-and-surrender','','','2021-11-23 17:58:19','2021-11-23 17:58:19','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/031_personal-effort-and-surrender/',0,'post','',0),(1797,1,'2021-11-23 17:58:19','2021-11-23 17:58:19','<html xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\"\r\nxmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40\">\r\n\r\n<head>\r\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text/html; \">\r\n<title>On Teachers and Teaching</title>\r\n\r\n</head>\r\n\r\n<body lang=EN-US style=\'tab-interval:.5in\'>\r\n\r\n<div align=\"right\"> </div>\r\n<div align=\"center\">\r\n	<table border=\"0\" width=\"100%\" cellpadding=\"2\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\">\r\n		<tr>\r\n			<td>\r\n<p align=\"right\" class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align:center; line-height:23.25pt\"><b><i>\r\n<span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;\'><font size=\"4\">On </font> </span></i></b><b\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-weight:normal\'><i><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt;\'>\r\n<font size=\"4\">Teachers and Teaching</font><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>\r\n<div class=Section1>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:12.0pt;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'>M</span>ASTERY<span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'> means to know how to deal with certain\r\nvibrations. If you have the knowledge and can deal with the vibrations, you\r\nhave the mastery. The best field for such an experience and experiment is\r\nyourself. First, you must have mastery over yourself and when you have it, you\r\ncan transmit its vibrations to others in so far as you are capable of\r\nidentifying yourself with them. But if you cannot deal with the vibrations in\r\nyourself, how can you deal with them in others? You can, by word or by\r\ninfluence, encourage people so that they do what is necessary to master\r\nthemselves, but you cannot yourself have direct mastery over them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>To master something, a movement, for example,\r\nmeans, by your simple presence, without any word, any explanation, to replace a\r\nbad vibration by the true one. By means of the word, by means of explanation and\r\ndiscussion, even a certain ema­nation of force, you exert an influence upon\r\nanother, but you do not master the movement. Mastery over a movement is the\r\ncapacity to set against the vibration of the movement a stronger, truer\r\nvibration that can stop the other vibration. An example can be easily given.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.7pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>Two persons are quarrelling in your presence;\r\nnot only are they quarrelling, they are about to come to blows. Then you\r\napproach and explain to them that it is not a desirable thing and you give good\r\nreasons so that they refrain from it in the, end. You exercise an influence\r\nover them in this way. But if, on the other hand, you simply stand before them,\r\nlook at them and send out a vibration of peace and calm and quietness with­out\r\nuttering a word, without any explanation whatsoever, and if as a result the\r\nother vibration does not stand but dies down by itself, that is mastery.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;color:blue\'>Page – 159</span></p>\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;mso-pagination:none;\r\nmso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'margin-top:6.0pt;text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;\r\nmso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;\r\ntext-autospace:none; line-height:150%\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>It is the same\r\nwith regard to curing ignorance. If words are necessary to explain a certain\r\nthing, then you do not have the true knowledge. If I have to speak out all that\r\nI mean to say in order to make you understand, then I do not have the mastery,\r\nI simply exercise an influence upon your intelligence and help you understand,\r\nawaken in yourself the desire to know, to discipline yourself, etc., etc. But\r\nif I am not able, simply by looking at you, without saying anything, to make\r\nyou enter into the light that will make you understand, well, I have not\r\nmastered the state of ignorance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'margin-top:6.0pt;text-align:justify;text-indent:12.7pt;\r\nmso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;\r\ntext-autospace:none\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'><i><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt\'>The problem </span><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt\'>of teachers is: how to control the classes,\r\nhow to bring </span><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt\'>the students\r\nunder discipline?</span><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt\'><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n10.8pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'><i><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>How can you have control over your students\r\nor discipline them unless you have control over yourself?<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;mso-line-height-alt:\r\n11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'><i><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt\'>But to learn to have control or mastery over\r\noneself would take a whole </span><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>lifetime!</span></i><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'><o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.65pt;line-height:\r\n12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.65pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>It is a pity! But how can you hope for it\r\notherwise? When you have an undisciplined, disobedient, insolent student, it\r\nmeans a certain vibration in the atmosphere which is unfor­tunately very\r\ncontagious. If you do not have in yourself the contrary vibration, the\r\nvibration of discipline, order, humility, calmness, peace that nothing\r\ndisturbs, how can you hope, I say, to have an influence?</span><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt\'> </span><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>You\r\nmay tell the student that such a thing should not be done; but the result may\r\nbe worse or he may mock at you. And if, on top of it, you do not know how to\r\ncontrol yourself, but get into a temper, well, you may be done for, you may\r\nlose for your whole life all possibility of controlling your students.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>Teachers who do not possess perfect calm,\r\nendurance that can stand all test, tranquillity that cannot be shaken by any­</span>thing,\r\nwho have not cast off their <i><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>amour </span><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>propre, </span></i><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n11.0pt\'>are not the kind that can ever succeed. You must be a saint, a hero in\r\norder to be a good teacher. You must be a great Yogi to be a good teacher. You\r\nmust yourself have always the perfect attitude if you demand from your students\r\na perfect attitude. You cannot ask of any person a thing which you cannot do\r\nyourself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:center;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n11.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;color:blue\'>Page – 160<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.0pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:13.4pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>So then look within yourself at the difference\r\nthere is be­tween what is and what should be; that will give you the measure of\r\nyour lack of success in the class.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.95pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>Now I would like to add one word, since I\r\nhave the occasion. We have asked many of our students, when they are grown up\r\nand know something, to teach others. There are some, I believe, who know the\r\nreason why; but there are others who think that it is because it is good to\r\nserve in some-way or other, because teachers are needed after all and that we\r\nare glad to have them. But I tell you, for it is a fact, I have never asked any\r\nof those who were educated here to give lessons unless I saw that that was the\r\nbest way for them to acquire self-discipline, to learn what they are to teach,\r\nto attain an inner perfection which they would not do except by being teachers\r\nand having this oppor­tunity, an exceptionally severe one, for self-discipline.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.0pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>They who are successful here as teachers, – I\r\ndo not mean an external, artificial and superficial success, – they who become\r\ntruly good teachers, are exactly those who are capable of making an inner\r\nprogress towards impersonalisation, capable of eliminating their egoism,\r\nbecoming masters of their movements, possessing insight, comprehension of\r\nothers and a patience, proof against all test and trial.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>If you have passed through that discipline\r\nand succeeded, then you will not have wasted your time here. I ask everyone who\r\naccepts the work of giving lessons to accept it in that spirit. It is all very\r\nnice to be obliging, to give service, to be useful; it is a very good thing,\r\ncertainly. But it is only one side, perhaps the most unimportant side of the\r\nquestion. The much greater, more important side is this, that you have been\r\ngiven the Grace so that you may arrive at mastering yourself, at an\r\nunderstanding of your subject and of other persons which you could not have\r\ndone but for this opportunity. And if you have not profited during all these\r\nyears that you have been teaching, well, it means you have wasted at least half\r\nof your time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><i><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt\'>What </span><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n10.0pt\'>about the organisation of studies at the Ashram school? If the </span><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt\'>students are given full freedom, as it is\r\nsupposed you have given them, that is to say, </span><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt\'>if </span><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n9.0pt\'>they are permitted to come to the classes or go away from them as they\r\nlike or learn or not learn their lessons according to their choice, then how\r\ncan a system or organisation work?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;line-height:12.2pt;mso-pagination:\r\nnone;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:\r\n9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-style:italic\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.2pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'><span\r\nstyle=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt;color:blue;mso-bidi-font-style:\r\nitalic\'>Page – 161<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'text-align:center;line-height:12.2pt;\r\nmso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:justify;text-indent:12.95pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>But when did I say that a student is free to\r\ncome and go as he likes? You must not confuse matters. I said and I repeat that\r\nif a student feels that a particular subject is foreign to him, if for example,\r\nhe has a capacity for literature and poetry and a disgust or even dislike for\r\nmathematics, in that case, if the student comes and tells me, &quot;I prefer\r\nnot to follow the course of mathematics&quot;, I cannot answer him, &quot;No,\r\nyou must abso­lutely do it&quot;. But once a student has decided to follow a\r\nclass, it is quite an elementary discipline for him to follow the class, to\r\nattend it regularly, to behave decently while he is there. Otherwise it is not\r\nbecoming of him to go to the school at all. I have never encouraged people to\r\nloiter about during class hours or to come one day and be absent the next day,\r\nnever, for, to begin with, if you are not able to submit yourself to this very\r\nelementary discipline, you will never succeed in having the least control over\r\nyourself; you will be always the slave of every impulse and fancy of yours.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:left;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'>If you do not want to pursue a certain line\r\nof knowledge, it it is all right, you are not obliged to do so. But if you\r\ndecide to do a thing in life, whatever it is, you must do it honestly in a disciplined,\r\nregular and methodical manner, without allowing yourself to be fanciful. I have\r\nnever approved of a person being the plaything of his impulses and caprices.\r\nYou can never get sanction for that out of me, for you are then no longer a\r\nhuman being but an animal.<o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=MsoNormal style=\'text-align:center;text-indent:11.5pt;line-height:\r\n12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none\'><span\r\nstyle=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt\'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span><span style=\'font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;color:blue\'>Page –\r\n162</span><span style=\'mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;color:blue\'><o:p></o:p></span></p>\r\n\r\n<div class=MsoNormal align=center style=\'margin-top:4.3pt;text-align:center;\r\nline-height:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:\r\nnone\'>\r\n\r\n<hr size=2 width=\"100%\" align=center>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n  <p class=MsoNormal align=\"right\" style=\"margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0\"><o:p>\r\n	<a href=\"-000_Content\"><img src=\"_Gif%20Image/shome.gif\" width=\"56\" height=\"26\" border=\"0\"></a>&nbsp;</p>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n\r\n			</td>\r\n		</tr>\r\n	</table>\r\n</div>\r\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n</body>\r\n\r\n</html>\r\n','-051_On Teachers and Teaching','','publish','closed','open','','051_on-teachers-and-teaching','','','2021-11-23 17:58:19','2021-11-23 17:58:19','',0,'http://collectedworksofnolinikantagupta.com/index.php/2021/11/23/051_on-teachers-and-teaching/',0,'post','',0),