“Attachment is egoism in love.” This is how Sri Aurobindo once defined attachment (The Synthesis of Yoga, CWSA, Vol. 23, p. 329). Perfect definition, if we deeply, seriously and sincerely think about it. Attachment, egoism and love — these three have an intimate connection. Let us start with the most immediate, the first circle… Continue reading Of Love, Egoism and Attachment
Modern tendency is to depreciate the value of the beautiful and over-stress the value of the useful. Generations of Indians have been cut off from the ancient roots of their aesthetic cultural traditions, thanks to a mercenary and soul-less education. According to Sri Aurobindo, this situation can only be corrected if education can figure out… Continue reading Some Indian Views on Beauty and Art
The entire existence, this world is a gradual self-expression and manifestation of the Divine, says the Indian spiritual tradition. But without the vision to experience the world, and everything and everyone in the world, as a manifestation of the Divine, and more importantly, without the experience of our own self as a manifestation and as… Continue reading On Divine Grace
“All great artistic work proceeds from an act of intuition, not really an intellectual idea or a splendid imagination,— these are only mental translations,— but a direct intuition of some truth of life or being, some significant form of that truth, some development of it in the mind of man.” (Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, Vol. 20,… Continue reading Learning Art Appreciation with Sri Aurobindo
The Northeast Monsoon has been pouring out its gifts at the Bay of Bengal — sometimes a bit too excessively. On this day as the rain gods seem to be taking a bit of a break, I find myself recalling and reflecting on some lines from Savitri, which I happened to read last evening. … Continue reading Monsoon Musings
Let us accept it. We all have this problem, this difficulty, this shortcoming, this imperfection. This hunger for praise by others. It is one of the most serious difficulties or imperfections we come across when we walk the path of becoming self-aware, especially becoming aware of the nature of this part of our being called… Continue reading Agni, a Cure for the Hunger for Praise
[The following is an excerpt from a longer essay titled ‘Hinduism and the Future of Inter-religious Harmony in India’ published in my e-book – The Thinking Indian: Essays on Indian Socio-cultural Matters in the Light of Sri Aurobindo.] Let us now go a bit deeper to see if Sri Aurobindo means something more… Continue reading A Note on the Future of Inter-religious Harmony in India (Excerpt from ‘The Thinking Indian’)
It was one of those afternoons when you simply don’t feel like doing anything. All you want to do is just be. On one such afternoon, I lazily walked around my home with no purpose or aim in mind, nothing to organize, nothing to sort, nothing to do except just be. My eyes wandered around… Continue reading Of Art, Love and Creation
Life, a field for progress. An actual, real, throbbing, vibrant, pulsating, living field for putting to real, outward test whatever little progress there might have been on the inside. Is that inner progress real? Life asks the question, we have to answer it. Mind generally has a tendency to enjoy processing various kinds of inputs… Continue reading Life and Mind
That moment, that morning everything was perfect. Just for a few moments, everything was right, just right, just perfect. Everything was in the right place, as it should be. Nothing was amiss, nothing was wrong. Can it be so? Can it all be perfect? That moment that morning it all was. I had gone out… Continue reading When Everything was Perfect
Now that the CBSE, ICSE and many other state boards in India have declared their results for class XII and X, and the students are busy figuring out next options for their academic pursuits and choices, it is appropriate time to re-up this piece I had written three years ago. Since I wrote this piece… Continue reading Do We Really Need the Board Examinations?
Talking about and discussing important matters with our friends, acquaintances, social networks etc. has the potential to widen our understanding. But a recent online interaction once again made me ask a question I have often wondered about, why are so many of us so quick to take things personally in a discussion? Even if the discussion is about, say, a national level… Continue reading The Art of Discussion
