Guidance from Sri Aurobindo by Nagin Doshi

Guidance from Sri Aurobindo

Letters to a young disciple

In this series of selected letters we have Sri Aurobindo’s guidance to a boy in his late teens. The letters, no less illuminating for all their simplicity, cover a fairly large number of subjects. As their recipient grew up more and more, the subjects naturally increased in significance. The correspondence with Sri Aurobindo ran up to 1937.

A brief personal background to the correspondence:

“I came to Pondicherry in 1931 when I was about fourteen years old. In those days the Mother did not admit youngsters into the Ashram. It was only out of her kindness that she made an exception in the case of four children: Bala, Romen, Shanti and myself. We did not have a school here at that time, nor were there regular study classes. Before coming, my mind was occupied with only two things — study and cricket: they were my life and my world. I had almost decided to go to Europe and become a big doctor. I first visited the Ashram during my school vacation just for the sake of making a nice long journey, certainly not for taking up Yoga. I stayed for a month and returned in time for the reopening of my school. During that stay, what the Mother did within my being I could hardly fathom. But the result was that I returned home to stay for only two days, I hurried back here with the full realisation that I could not possibly live, either happily or unhappily, without the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Till 1933 I did not know what this strange thing called Yoga was. Hence the Mother and Sri Aurobindo were to me just like my own human mother and father. When the correspondence with Sri Aurobindo started, he had to teach me everything, not only what was meant by Yoga but also what culture, religion, philosophy and morality were. He used to correct my English, too, for quite a long time. Whatever I have gained in any way is a growth from the seeds he and the Mother sowed in me during those boyhood days.” – Nagin Doshi

Book Details

Author: Sri Aurobindo; Nagin Doshi

Print Length: 689 pages

Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Society

Book format: PDF, ePub, Kindle

Language: English

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Volume I

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Volume II

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Volume III

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Contents

Volume I

PART I

  • HIGHER AND LOWER WORLDS
  • CENTRES AND PLANES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
  • THE MIND
    • How Thoughts Are Formed
    • Mind’s Activity And Development
    • Mind’s Enlightenment
    • Loss Of Mental Control
    • Talking
  • KNOWLEDGE
  • THE VITAL BEING
  • Emergence Of The True Vital Being
  • THE PHYSICAL BEING
    • The Mother’s Force On The Physical Being
    • Body-sense And Sadhana
  • THE INNER BEING
  • THE PSYCHIC BEING
    • The Heart And The Psychic Being
    • The Vital Nature And The Psychic Being
    • The Power Of Agni And The Psychic Fire
    • Ananda And Love
    • The Central Being And The Psychic
    • The Psychic Being After Death

PART II

  • THE PURUSHA AND THE PRAKRITI
  • THE EGO
  • ASPIRATION – CONCENTRATION – WILL – SURRENDER
  • RECEPTIVITY AND ASSIMILATION
  • EXPERIENCES
  • PEACE AND SILENCE
  • PEACE AND FORCE
  • EMPTINESS AND FULLNESS
  • THE SELF-REALISATION
  • PURE EXISTENCE AND THE ATMAN REALISATION
  • THE MOTHER AND HER WORKING
  • THE MOTHER AND FLOWERS
  • SRI AUROBINDO ON HIMSELF
  • LETTERS OF THE MOTHER

PART III

  • FOOD AND FORCES
  • ILLNESS: ITS PREVENTION AND CURE
  • WORK
  • SEX THOUGHTS AND IMPULSES
  • VISIONS AND VOICES
  • THE SUBCONSCIENT AND SLEEP
  • DREAMS
    • The Vital And Subconscient Dreams
    • The Mental And Psychic Dreams
    • Some Dreams Of The Higher Planes

PART IV

  • THE IMPULSE TOWARDS LAYA
  • BEAUTY AND ANANDA
  • HUMAN GREATNESS
  • SPIRITUAL GREATNESS AND THE SUPRAMENTAL YOGA
  • SUPERMIND AND THE OTHER PLANES OF HIGHER KNOWLEDGE
  • THE DESCENT OF THE SUPERMIND
  • SUPERMIND AND SACHCHIDANANDA
  • ON AVATARHOOD
  • THE DIVINE AND THE AVATAR

Volume II

PART I

  • THE PHYSICAL
    • Preface To The Physical
    • The Negation By The Physical
    • Physical Consciousness And Its Difficulties
    • Inertia
    • Facing The Physical Resistance
    • Experiences In Body Consciousness
  • THE SUBCONSCIENT
    • Sleep
    • Dreams
  • ILLNESS IN YOGA
  • SCIATICA
  • PHYSICAL CONDITIONS AND YOGA
    • Head-cold
    • Eye-strain
  • SEX AND ITS CONQUEST
    • Sexual Dreams
    • Leaving The Ashram For Sex Experience

PART II

  • THE VITAL BEING
    • The Loss Of Balance
  • THE EGO
    • The Tamasic And Rajasic Ego
    • The Ego And The Higher Planes
  • WORK AS SELF-DEDICATION
  • CONTROL OF SPEECH
  • GENERAL SADHANA
    • General Atmosphere
    • Higher And Lower Action
    • Pressure And Resistance
    • Suggestions And Attacks
    • Progress
    • Sadhaks

PART III

  • ASPIRATION AND PRAYER
    • Mental Push In Aspiration
  • OPENING TO ADVERSE ATTACKS
  • TAMASIC SURRENDER
  • WILL TO OVERCOME DIFFICULTIES
  • SUNLIT PATH
  • MOTHER’S ROLE IN OUR SADHANA
    • About Pranam
  • PEACE AND SILENCE

PART IV

  • INNER AND OUTER BEING
  • OPENING OF THE INNER SENSES
    • Subtle Sounds
    • Subtle Tastes
  • THE PSYCHIC BEING
    • Shape And Form Of The Psychic
    • Psychic Tears And Psychic Sorrow
  • LOVE
  • Human Love
    • Psychic And Divine Love
    • Love And Ananda

PART V

  • MIND
    • Mental Development
    • The Intellect And Its Training
    • Loss Of Memory In Sadhana
    • Physical Mind
    • Mechanical Mind
    • Study And Sadhana
    • Two Essays
  • KNOWLEDGE
    • Preface To Knowledge
    • Knowledge And Mind
    • Knowledge And Faith
    • Knowledge And The Rising Of Ego

PART VI

  • HIGHER PLANES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
    • Ascent And Descent Of The Higher Consciousness-force
  • SELF, INDIVIDUAL AND UNIVERSAL
    • Realisation Of The Self
  • OLD YOGAS AND OUR YOGA
  • THE TRUE YOGIC CONSCIOUSNESS
    • Detachment And Liberation
    • The Inmost Silence
    • Two Fires

Volume III

PART I

  • ASPIRATION AND SURRENDER
  • MEDITATION AND CONCENTRATION
  • THE POWER OF WILL
  • PERIODS OF ASSIMILATION
  • ACTION OF PURUSHA AND PRAKRITI
  • TRANSFORMATION OF THE GUNAS

PART II

  • IMPORTANCE OF THE INNER BEING
  • THE PSYCHIC BEING
  • UNIVERSAL LOVE

PART III

  • MECHANICAL MIND
  • PHYSICAL MIND
  • STUDY AND SADHANA
  • LEARNING LOGIC
  • MIND AND ITS ENLIGHTENMENT
  • SEPARATING MENTAL PURUSHA FROM MENTAL PRAKRITI

PART IV

  • THE VITAL DIFFICULTY
  • TALKING AND VITAL INTERCHANGE
  • THE ACTION OF THE EGO
  • YOGA AND THE PHYSICAL
  • EXPERIENCES IN THE SUBTLE AND GROSS PHYSICAL

PART V

  • SEX DIFFICULTY
  • ILLNESS – THE FORCE AND MEDICINES
  • THE SUBCONSCIENT
  • SLEEP AND DREAMS
  • CONSCIOUSNESS AND ENERGY
  • WORK AS SADHANA
    • Working Consciousness
  • GENERAL SADHANA
    • Sadhaks and the Lower Nature
    • Oscillations in Sadhana
    • Heredity and Affinity
    • Value and Sadhana Elements
    • Action of World Forces

PART VI

  • BLANKNESS AND SILENCE
  • PEACE AND SILENCE
    • Intervals of Passive Peace
  • SPIRITUAL EMPTINESS
  • TRANCE AND THE WAKING STATE
  • HIGHER KNOWLEDGE AND MENTAL KNOWLEDGE
    • Answering My Own Questions
    • Human Defects and Knowledge
  • THE HIGHER PLANES
  • THE HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS AND FORCE
    • Inner Being and the Self-Realisation
    • The Dynamic Descent and the Lower Nature
    • A Higher Process in the Sadhana
    • Heavy Pressure on the Head
    • Agni and the Psychic Fire
  • PROCESS OF BRINGING DOWN THE HIGHER FORCE

PART VII

  • VISIONS AND VOICES
    • Pseudo-Occultism
  • OLD YOGAS AND OUR YOGA
  • THE ASHRAM SADHAKS
    • Depression and Despair
  • SRI AUROBINDO ON THE MOTHER
    • Darshan – Mother’s Birthday
    • Outer and Inner Contact with Mother
    • Throwing Human Desires on the Mother
    • The Two Atmospheres of the Ashram
  • LETTERS OF THE MOTHER
  • SUPPLEMENT
    • The Mother’s Force And Its Action

Book Sample

Guidance from Sri Aurobindo

HIGHER AND LOWER WORLDS

How was man involved on the earth in inconscient Matter — with the divinity behind him?

The question is itself rather involved. Man has evolved from Matter — or rather Nature has worked first the plant, then the animal, then Man in a regular succession out of Matter. What is involved is not Man, but mind and life and spirit. “Involved” means that they are there even though there seems to be no mental activity (as in the tree) and no mental or vital activity (as in the stone); as the evolution goes on the involved life appears and begins to organise itself and the plants appear and then the animals; next mind, first in the animal, and then man appears.

What is meant by the Divine Consciousness?

By the Divine Consciousness we mean the spiritual consciousness to which the Divine alone exists, because all is the Divine and by which one passes beyond the ignorance and the lower nature into unity with the Divine and the Divine Nature.

Here in the ignorance we are not aware of the Divine and we obey the lower Nature.

What are the forces at work in the cosmos?

There are the higher forces of the Divine Nature — the forces of Light, Truth, Divine Power, Peace, Ananda — there are the forces of the lower nature which belong either to a lower truth or to ignorance and error — there are also the hostile forces whose whole aim is to maintain the reign of Darkness, Falsehood, Death and Suffering as the law of life.

…