Aurobindo's Essays on the Gita

Series 1, Chapter 20 pg 200, Para 1: YOGA and knowledge are, in this early part of the Gita's teaching, the two wings of the soul's ascent. By Yoga is meant union through divine works done without desire, with equality of soul to all things and all men, as a sacrifice to the Supreme, while knowledge is that on which this desirelessness, this equality, this power of sacrifice is founded. The two wings indeed assist each other's flight; acting together, yet with a subtle alternation of mutual aid, like the two eyes in a man which see together because they see alternately, they increase one another mutually by interchange of substance. As the works grow more and more desireless, equal-minded, sacrificial in spirit, the knowledge increases; with the increase of the knowledge the soul becomes firmer in the desireless, sacrificial equality of its works. The sacrifice of knowledge, says the Gita therefore, is greater than any material sacrifice. “Even if thou art the greatest doer of sin beyond all sinners, thou shalt cross over all the crookedness of evil in the ship of knowledge. ... There is nothing in the world equal in purity to knowledge.” By knowledge desire and its first-born child, sin, are destroyed. The liberated man is able to do works as a sacrifice because he is freed from attachment through his mind, heart and spirit being firmly founded in self-knowledge, gata-sangasya jnanavasthita-cetasah. All his work disappears completely as soon as done, suffers laya, as one might say, in the being of the Brahman, praviliyate; it has no reactionary consequence on the soul of the apparent doer. The work is done by the Lord through his Nature, it is no longer personal to the human instrument. The work itself becomes but power of the nature and substance of the being of the Brahman.

Series 1, Chapter 23 pg 236, Para 2: But is this a going in into some deep sleep of samadhi away from all world-consciousness, or is it the preparatory movement for a dissolution of the natural being and the individual soul into some absolute Self who is utterly and for ever beyond Nature and her works, laya, moksa? Is that withdrawal necessary before we can enter into Nirvana, or is Nirvana, as the context seems to suggest, a state which can exist simultaneously with world-consciousness and even in its own way include it? Apparently the latter, for in the succeeding verse the Gita goes on to say, …

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match_all(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 668

Warning: foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 675

Warning: preg_match_all(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 668

Warning: foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 675

Series 2, Chapter 1 pg 270, Para 2: It is by the unity of this spiritual nature that the world is sustained, yayedam dharyate jagat, even as it is that from which it is born with all its becomings, etad-yonini bhutani sarvani, and that also which withdraws the whole world and its existences into itself in the hour of dissolution, aham krtsnasya jagatah prabhavah pralayas tatha. But in the manifestation which is thus put forth in the Spirit, upheld in its action, withdrawn in its periodical rest from action, the Jiva is the basis of the multiple existence; it is the multiple soul, if we may so call it, or, if we prefer, the soul of the multiplicity we experience here. It is one always with the Divine in its being, different from it only in the power of its being, — different not in the sense that it is not at all the same power, but in this sense that it only supports the one power in a partial multiply individualised action. Therefore all things are initially, ultimately and in the principle of their continuance too the Spirit. The fundamental nature of all is nature of the Spirit, and only in their lower differential phenomena do they seem to be something else, to be nature of body, life, mind, reason, ego and the senses. But these are phenomenal derivatives, they are not the essential truth of our nature and our existence.

Series 2, Chapter 8 pg 363, Para 2: Then among all these living beings, cosmic godheads, superhuman and human and subhuman creatures, and amid all these qualities, powers and objects, the chief, the head, the greatest in quality of each class is a special power of the becoming of the Godhead. I am, says the Godhead, Vishnu among the Adityas, Shiva among the Rudras, Indra among the gods, Prahlada among the Titans, Brihaspati the chief of the high priests of the world, Skanda the war-god, leader of the leaders of battle, Marichi among the Maruts, the lord of wealth among the Yakshas and Rakshasas, the serpent Ananta among the Nagas, Agni among the Vasus, Chitraratha among the Gandharvas, Kandarpa the love-God among the progenitors, Varuna among the peoples of the sea, Aryaman among the Fathers, Narada among the divine sages, Yama lord of the Law among those who maintain rule and law, among the powers of storm the Wind-God. At the other end of the scale I am the radiant sun among lights and splendours, the moon among the stars of night, the ocean among the flowing waters, Meru among the peaks of the world, Himalaya among the mountain-ranges, Ganges among the rivers, the divine thunderbolt among weapons. Among all plants and trees I am the Aswattha, among horses Indra's horse Uchchaihsravas, Airavata …

Series 2, Chapter 14 pg 421, Para 3: To be immortal was never held in the ancient spiritual teaching to consist merely in a personal survival of the death of the body: all beings are immortal in that sense and it is only the forms that perish. The souls that do not arrive at liberation, live through the returning aeons; all exist involved or secret in the Brahman during the dissolution of the manifest worlds and are born again in the appearance of a new cycle. Pralaya, the end of a cycle of aeons, is the temporary disintegration of a universal form of existence and of all the individual forms which move in its rounds, but that is only a momentary pause, a silent interval followed by an outburst of new creation, reintegration and reconstruction in which they reappear and recover the impetus of their progression. Our physical death is also a pralaya, — the Gita will presently use the word in the sense of this death, …

Series 2, Chapter 14 pg 422, Para 1: pralayam yati deha-bhrt, “the soul bearing the body comes to a pralaya,” to a disintegration of that form of matter with which its ignorance identified its being and which now dissolves into the natural elements. But the soul itself persists and after an interval resumes in a new body formed from those elements its round of births in the cycle, just as after the interval of pause and cessation the universal Being resumes his endless round of the cyclic aeons. This immortality in the rounds of Time is common to all embodied spirits.

Series 2, Chapter 14 pg 433, Para 2: But still there is evidently here a double status, there is a scission of the being between two opposites; a liberated spirit in the immutable Self or Brahman watches the action of an unliberated mutable Nature, — Akshara and Kshara. Is there no greater status, no principle of more absolute perfection, or is this division the highest consciousness possible in the body, and is the end of Yoga to drop the mutable nature and the gunas born of the embodiment in Nature and disappear into the impersonality and everlasting peace of the Brahman? Is that laya or dissolution of the individual Purusha the greatest liberation? There is, it would seem, something else; for the Gita says at the close, always returning to this one final note, “He also who loves and strives after Me with an undeviating love and adoration, passes beyond the three gunas and he too is prepared for becoming the Brahman.” This “I” is the Purushottama who is the foundation of the silent Brahman and of immortality and imperishable spiritual existence and of the eternal dharma and …

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match_all(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 668

Warning: foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 675

Warning: preg_match_all(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 668

Warning: foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 675

Series 2, Chapter 15 pg 438, Para 1: of comprehension, if we admitted with the Sankhyas an original and eternal duality of Purusha and Prakriti, if not even an eternal plurality of souls. Our experience of the Akshara would then be simply the withdrawal of each Purusha into himself, his turning away from Nature and therefore from all contact with other souls in the relations of existence; for each is self-sufficient and infinite and complete in his own essence. But after all the final experience is that of a unity of all beings which is not merely a community of experience, a common subjection to one force of Nature, but a oneness in the spirit, a vast identity of conscious being beyond all this endless variety of determination, behind all this apparent separativism of relative existence. The Gita takes its stand in that highest spiritual experience. It appears indeed to admit an eternal plurality of souls subject to and sustained by their eternal unity, for cosmos is for ever and manifestation goes on in unending cycles; nor does it affirm anywhere or use any expression that would indicate an absolute disappearance, laya, the annullation of the individual soul in the Infinite. But at the same time it affirms with a strong insistence that the Akshara is the one self of all these many souls, and it is therefore evident that these two spirits are a dual status of one eternal and universal existence. That is a very ancient doctrine; it is the whole basis of the largest vision of the Upanishads, — as when the Isha tells us that Brahman is both the mobile and the immobile, is the One and the Many, is the Self and all existences, atman, sarvabhutani, is the Knowledge and the Ignorance, is the eternal unborn status and also the birth of existences, and that to dwell only on one of these things to the rejection of its eternal counterpart is a darkness of exclusive knowledge or a darkness of ignorance. It too insists like the Gita that man must know and must embrace both and learn of the Supreme in his entirety — samagram mam, as the Gita puts it — in order to enjoy immortality and live in the Eternal. The teaching of the Gita and this side of the teaching of the Upanishads are so far at one; for they look at and admit both sides of the reality and still arrive at identity as the conclusion and the highest truth of existence.

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 1339

Warning: preg_match_all(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 668

Warning: foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 675

Warning: preg_match_all(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 4 in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 668

Warning: foreach() argument must be of type array|object, null given in /home/amadeus/doms/cselian/2011/inc-htmldom.php on line 675

Series 2, Chapter 15 pg 445, Para 1: lokasangraha, the slaughter of Kurukshetra, the ways of the Spirit in Time, the vision of the million-bodied Lord and his high-voiced bidding, “Arise, slay the foe, enjoy a wealthy kingdom”? And what then is this soul in Nature? This spirit too, this Kshara, this enjoyer of our mutable existence, is the Purushottama; it is he in his eternal multiplicity, that is the Gita's answer. “It is an eternal portion of me that becomes the Jiva in a world of Jivas.” This is an epithet, a statement of immense bearing and consequence. For it means that each soul, each being in its spiritual reality is the very Divine, however partial its actual manifestation of him in Nature. And it means too, if words have any sense, that each manifesting spirit, each of the many, is an eternal individual, an eternal unborn and undying power of the one Existence. We call this manifesting spirit the Jiva, because it appears here as if a living creature in a world of living creatures, and we speak of this spirit in man as the human soul and think of it in the terms of humanity only. But in truth it is something greater than its present appearance and not bound to its humanity: it was a lesser manifestation than the human in its past, it can become something much greater than mental man in its future. And when this soul rises above all ignorant limitation, then it puts on its divine nature of which its humanity is only a temporary veil, a thing of partial and incomplete significance. The individual spirit exists and ever existed beyond in the Eternal, for it is itself everlasting, sanatana. It is evidently this idea of the eternal individual which leads the Gita to avoid any expression at all suggestive of a complete dissolution, laya, and to speak rather of the highest state of the soul as a dwelling in the Purushottama, nivasisyasi mayyeva. If when speaking of the one Self of all it seems to use the language of Adwaita, yet this enduring truth of the eternal individual, mamamsah sanatanah, adds something which brings in a qualification and appears almost to accept the seeing of the Visishtadwaita, — though we must not therefore leap at once to the conclusion that that alone is the Gita's philosophy or that its doctrine is identical with the later doctrine of Ramanuja. Still this much is clear that there is an eternal, a real and not only an illusive …

Series 3, Chapter 10 pg 604, Para 24: 25. I am Bhrigu among the great Rishis; I am the sacred syllable OM among words; among acts of worship I am the worship called Japa (silent repetitions of sacred names etc.); among the mountain-ranges I am Himalaya.

Found 10 matches in 1872 items.