Become aware...

"Each plane of our being (mental, vital, physical) has its own consciousness, separate though interconnected and interacting; but to our outer mind and sense, in our waking experience, they are all confused together. The body, for instance, has its own consciousness and acts from it, even without any mental will of our own or even against that will, and our surface mind knows very little about this body-consciousness, feels it only in an imperfect way, sees only its results and has the greatest difficulty in finding out their causes. It is part of the yoga to become aware of this separate consciousness of the body, to see and feel its movements and the forces that act upon it from inside or outside and to learn how to control and direct it even in its most hidden and (to us) subconscient processes. But the body-consciousness itself is only part of the individualised physical consciousness in us which we gather and build out of the secretly conscious forces of universal physical Nature"


Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, pp.347-50 (Extract)

Bridges of conciousness

If after one night we hardly ever remember our dreams...What will happen after death with our bodies completely destroyed?

Learning to be aware of our nights, this is one of our first challenges.

This is one of the first things that Mother taught me: build conciousness bridges within us.

Earth is the chosen place of mightiest souls;

Earth is the heroic spirit's battlefield,

The forge where the Archmason shapes his works.

Thy servitudes on earth are greater, King,

Than all the glorious liberties of heaven.

(Sri Aurobindo. Savitri, Book XI, Canto I p. 686)

Waiting for the fireworks

Many disciples of the Ashram were eager: they expected to see the Master becoming a kind of God, perhaps with a luminous and immortal body. Certainly, people were waiting for a miracle.
But the Master was working tirelessly within itself and within the body of the Earth trying to illuminate the dark basements of the life. The work was arduous and thankless. He knew that the transformation would require many years.
But the disciples did not understand anything. Only a small number of them were aware of the big work undertaken by Sri Aurobindo and Mother. Others were just waiting for the fireworks.

Sri Aurobindo on Psychoanalysis

"I find it difficult to take these psychoanalysts at all seriously. They look from down up and explain the higher lights by the lower obscurities; but the foundation of these things is above and not below. The superconscient, not the subconscient, is the true foundation of things. The significance of the lotus is not to be found by analyzing the secrets of the mud from which it grows here; its secret is to be found in the heavenly archetype of the lotus that blooms for ever in the Light above"



Sri Aurobindo

Once upon a time...

I was young.

After some years of intense intellectual activity I realized the limits of intellect and its limited power to change the depths of the human being. Because the heights can't be reached by the power of reason, all of them seem poor and grey, dry and lifeless.

That was how I put my feet on a path of Yoga.

In the beginning, the way was full of promises, hope and golden lights. Sitting in my place of peace and stillness, the world could collapse around me...nothing mattered.

But time was passing...and the initial euphoria was giving way to routine and boredom. If the intellectual effort could not change my life, this artificial peace was far from reaching it.

I began to realize the problem: I was a mortal that sooner or later, would leave this world to fall into a black hole.

Death was the problem.

Tired and disappointed with myself and with life, I fell in the most atrocious skepticism.

And years were passing...

Once, accidentally, I walked into a bookstore of my town. The shop was full of incense, quartz stones, talismans, and some books. And one of these caught my attention...by their colour. It was a book of a beautiful purple colour that was entitled "Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness" by Satprem. I read its pages: this book spoke to me of things that I had always felt in the depths of my heart...and spoke to me about Sri Aurobindo and Mother, about their work to defeat death and to change our slaves condition.

"We can't both remain upon the Earth"

(Sri Aurobinto to Mother)

Difficulties along the way

When I started my practice of Yoga, this is what happened to me:

I sat in a quiet and lonely place. I experienced a great peace and joy...but when I came out of meditation, Life was swallowed me like the jaws of a tiger, without any compassion.

But that was not Yoga. Sri Aurobindo showed me through his golden writings.

Yoga has to embrace all life, not only the lights of the nice moments: also our deepest miseries

Thy golden Light came down into my brain
And the grey rooms of mind sun-touched became
A bright reply to Wisdom's occult plane,
A calm illumination and a flame.

Thy golden Light came down into my throat,
And all my speech is now a tune divine,
A paean-song of thee my single note;
My words are drunk with the Immortal's wine.

Thy golden light came down into my heart
Smiting my life with Thy eternity;
Now has it grown a temple where Thou art
And all its passions point towards only thee.

Thy golden light came down into my feet:
My earth is now thy playfield and thy seat.

(Sri Aurobindo, The Golden Light)