Talks in Hindi

The need of a Guru, one who can not just show us or point the path but help us walk through the entire spiritual journey, is well recognized in all spiritual traditions. However the disciple must have a call for the journey and be ready to submit to the Guru’s influence and obey the guidance. But when the Divine Himself becomes the Guru then there is no limit to the possibilities. These and other...

Sri Aurobindo Ashram is a place for practice of the Integral Yoga. For those disciples and devotees who are practicing the yoga outside, it is the place of ‘central influence’ from where the Supramental Force radiates in its most intense way. It is also the place that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother chose for their tapasya, in the secret divine dispensation of things. But more than a physical space i...

There is a difference between religious life and the spiritual life. Generally we take birth in a family with certain belief systems. We take them to be the only way of life or even the best way. This belief helps in creating for us a psychological comfort zone but interferes with the deeper seeking for Truth. Spirituality begins when we begin to seek consciously and chose the path we must travel...

This is a brief summary of the epic poem ‘Savitri’ written by Sri Aurobindo.  Each character, whether human or super human in Savitri is significant. Satyavan is the symbol of human soul where the truth dwells but is lost in the ignorance of the world and facing death. Dyumatsena, the father of Satyavan, the lord of the shining hosts is the symbol of divine mind that is now fallen blind as it dwel...

The integral education is meant to bring about the all-round development of a child. The subject is very vast and in India our traditional way of education tried to do this, integrating theory and practice in a very harmonious way. Later on, the whole orientation of education degenerated into an almost exclusive means for getting job and achieving material success, thereby neglecting its real role...

Suddhi or purification of being is the preparation for real experience of higher consciousness. Patanjali systematized the classical yoga and brought out an order. The initial stages like Yam and Niyam clean the mental and vital being to some extent so that our nature is prepared for the yoga. It is a kind of purification with the power of the mind. Suddhi is even more important in Sri Aurobindo’s...

In India, the higher spiritual truth is realized and brought down to the level of ordinary life by different ways according to the need and preparation of human consciousness. Satsang, poetry, stories are some of the means to induce the higher truths to the ordinary mind. Most of the higher knowledge what mankind has received throughout the ages has taken the form of poetry. Savitri belongs to tha...

Any effort trying to define the Divine Truth is to limit That which is Infinite. All the definitions of mind fail because He is beyond mind. All the great names like ‘Ananta’, ‘Immutable’ etc try to reveal some of his aspects. The Mother asks us to have Truth in speech, truth in thought, truth in feeling, truth in action and truth in sensation. We have examples in our Indian mythology of some grea...

Our lives seen through the distorting lens of our present state of ego and ignorance is different than when we see it from the soul perspective, from a greater and deeper and higher spiritual vision. When we understand that there is a great truth, beauty, Ananda and wisdom waiting for us and we are separated from it by ignorance of nature, then we discover a divine dissatisfaction in us. We slowly...

By yoga people think of meditation, asana, pranayama, asceticism, morality, worship etc. But yoga is much more comprehensive, deep and all-inclusive. Yoga in India has always striven to understand the deeper meaning of life, the creation and the creator. When we see the spiritual personalities like Sri Krishna or Shiva, the meaning and purpose of yoga is widened and becomes inclusive of life. Yoga...

There are several parts of our being and we have to harmoniously develop all of them. In Sri Aurobindo’s yoga, the objective is to realize and manifest the divine. To fulfill this, we need to prepare and develop our physical being with some physical culture to make it flexible, supple, strong and fit. We have to work on our vital energy and emotions to purify it, to be balanced, open towards highe...

We identify ourselves with different elements of our being and think that we are that. We identify with our physical body and say we are that. Sometimes we identify with a desire and become that. Sometimes we identify with some thought and believe that we are that. But our true self, the soul is hidden behind these layers that we encounter and identify with. We are deceived by outer happenings and...

This talk brings us the poem on Krishna, ‘Kannan’ by the renowned Tamil poet, patriot and Sri Aurobindo’s devotee Shri Subramaniam Bharathy. In this poem, Krishna is playing in his own way to break the sattwic ego of the hero, and liberate him from the limited notions of spirituality, bringing in a wider and a more integral perspective. The Divine is beyond our comprehension and always surpass our...

Humility, supramental plasticity and spiritual rebirth – this talk is based on these three qualities which the Mother has discussed at length in Her conversations between 1929 and 1931. True humility knows that one is nothing in front of the great Wisdom of the Divine and the infinity that surrounds him. He must be humble all the time even when he is at the gates of transformation. The Mother and...

This is a talk based on Sri Aurobindo’s poem The Rakshasas. Sri Aurobindo shows us the nature of Rakshasa and the Asura and their place in evolution towards our humanness. Rakshasa has a violent kinetic ego. In the evolutionarily process each stage like the animal-man, rakshasa and asura has its relevance in our hierarchical development. Animal is a physical body oriented being and does not have m...

Mahatmas are beings who were once human and rose to immortality by tapas and help and guide the humanity. Here the Mahatma narrates his birth and growth towards immortality. When he was a human even then he cherished high thoughts, had a thirst for knowledge, a wide compassion, a sense of power for so many lives till he reaches the highest of human knowledge. Then the great Vyasa guides him to acc...

This talk about three dramas written by The Mother for the performance held annually on the December 1 by the students and teachers of the Ashram School. The three dramas are ‘Towards the future’, ‘The Great Secret’ and the ‘Ascent to Truth’. In ‘Towards the future’ the Mother has shown us how one can let go off one’s old relation and love without grief or grudge and instead use this moment of cri...

To do yoga is to be conscious. We are conscious of only a small strip of Space and Time. We do not understand the movement of time. Respecting time and doing the work means to be conscious about our commitment to the Divine in the given situation. Our mind, heart and life forces are not in harmony and they constantly fight and take ignorant, egoistic and impulsive decisions. We have to learn to li...

This talk throws light on some aspects and details of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga. It brings us close to learn the lessons of life and understand the spiritual truth behind that. Sri Aurobindo’s yoga does not mean just to see life in a new way. It is a plunge into the vastness of infinity. Our smallness does not understand the vastness of life and even shrinks form it. It deals life from a very narrow pe...

We want things for the sake of ego. When instead of ego we offer all the work and ourselves to the Divine, then it opens the doors to the soul and leads us towards a mastery of the forces that organise our Fate. Destiny is not fixed. There are many layers of destiny intertwined with each other that weave our Fate. It is a complex matter but we can still have a choice.  Ultimately destiny comes to...

There are two perspectives of life, from the view point of the ego-self and from the perspective of the soul. Whatever limits us, divides us is not the way worth following. Whatever takes us towards truth, beauty, harmony and perfection is the desirable way. Every being is a part of the whole; every being has to grow towards the perfection of nature and life. Yoga is to be conscious about this aim...

Calling is generally connected with our inmost aspiration. Sometimes it may be an urgent SOS sent for immediate Help or intervention when one is in dire difficulty. Pulling, on the other hand is more of an egoistic movement, generally to want something or desire an experience. It indicates haste and a lack of trust and surrender. That is why it is dangerous, especially when the nature is not ready...

The talk is based on questions about psychic emergence, symbols, fate etc. Personal efforts towards the realization of one’s psychic being are required and should be done. But by personal efforts only one cannot discover the psychic being. The discovery is ultimately an act of Grace. Personal effort creates the ground, though we may well realize later that even this was an act of Grace! Pain comes...

On the path of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga, man, holding the divine’s hand, has to experience creation in its entirety. There are no half-way measures here. All must be illumined, refined, uplifted, transformed. Many new possibilities and higher faculties begin to open up enriching and uplifting earth-nature. The difficulty is that when these things come, some parts of the being receive it but some parts...

This talk is based on Savitri, Book seven, Canto II “The parable of the search for the soul”. Here Savitri is engulfed with the night of human ignorance and experiences grief as she confronts the dread of Death coming to take away her loved one. She is born to go through the dark night and fight and suffer for the earth and man. Her being shrinks from the ordeal initially and rejects the task as m...