All Life Is Yoga: Visions and Symbols E-Book

Sri Aurobindo

• Herausgeber: Sri Aurobindo Digital Edition
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 130

Beschreibung

Sri Aurobindo on visions and symbols and their truth and meaning in Yoga practice.

Das E-Book All Life Is Yoga: Visions and Symbols wird angeboten von Sri Aurobindo Digital Edition und wurde mit folgenden Begriffen kategorisiert:
Sri Aurobindo, dream, Supramental, Yoga, Integralyoga

Leseprobe

Omsriaurobindomira

All

Life

Is

Yoga

“All life is Yoga.” – Sri Aurobindo

Visions and Symbols

Sri Aurobindo

SRI AUROBINDODIGITAL EDITION

SRI AUROBINDO BHAVANBERCHTESGADENER LAND

www.sriaurobindo.center

PublisherAURO MEDIAVerlag und FachbuchhandelWilfried SchuhGermany

www.auro.media

eBook Design

SRI AUROBINDO DIGITAL EDITIONGermany, Berchtesgaden

ALL LIFE IS YOGAVisions and SymbolsSelections from the Works of Sri AurobindoFirst edition 2022ISBN 978-3-96387-089-7

© Photos and selections of the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother:Sri Aurobindo Ashram TrustPuducherry, India

Flower on the cover:Acacia farnesiana. Deep yellow.Spiritual significance and explanation given by the Mother:Supramental KnowledgeAn infallible vision of problems.

Publisher’s Note

This is one in a series of some e-books created by SRI AUROBINDO DIGITAL EDITION and published by AURO MEDIA under the title All Life Is Yoga. Our effort is to bring together, from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, simple passages with a practical orientation on specific subjects, so that everyone may feel free to choose a book according to his inner need. The topics cover the whole field of human activity, because true spirituality is not the rejection of life but the art of perfecting life.

While the passages from Sri Aurobindo are in the original English, most of the passages from the Mother (selections from her talks and writings) are translations from the original French. We must also bear in mind that the excerpts have been taken out of their original context and that a compilation, in its very nature, is likely to have a personal and subjective approach. A sincere attempt, however, has been made to be faithful to the vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. These excerpts are by no means exhaustive.

Bringing out a compilation from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, which have a profound depth and wideness unique, is a difficult task. The compiler’s subjective tilt and preferences generally result in highlighting some aspects of the issues concerned while the rest is by no means less significant. Also without contexts of the excerpts the passages reproduced may not fully convey the idea – or may be misunderstood or may reduce a comprehensive truth into what could appear like a fixed principle.

The reader may keep in mind this inherent limitation of compilations; compilations are however helpful in providing an introduction to the subject in a handy format. They also give the readers a direct and practical feel of some of the profound issues and sometimes a mantric appeal, musing on which can change one’s entire attitude to them.

The excerpts from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother carry titles and captions chosen by the editor, highlighting the theme of the excerpts and, whenever possible, borrowing a phrase from the text itself. The sources of the excerpts are given at the end of each issue.

We hope these compilations will inspire the readers to go to the complete works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and will help them to mould their lives and their environments towards an ever greater perfection.

“True spirituality is not to renounce life, but to make life perfect with a Divine Perfection.” – The Mother

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Contents

Title PageCopyrightPublisher’s NoteQuotationI. VISIONS, SOUNDS, SMELLS AND TASTES1. The Value of VisionsVision, Experience and RealisationSensing Supraphysical ThingsThe Importance of VisionsVisions Not the Most Important ThingNo Reason to Fear VisionsWrong Visions and Voices2. Kinds of VisionsThe Inner VisionStages in the Development of the Inner VisionThe Diverse Nature and Significance of VisionsRepresentative and Dynamic VisionsSeeing Forms of the Divine and Other BeingsCosmic, Inner and Psychic VisionMental VisionsVital VisionsSubtle Physical Visions3. Subtle Sights, Sounds, Smells and TastesSights and Sounds of Other PlanesSubtle SoundsSubtle Smells and TastesII. LIGHTS AND COLOURS1. LightSeeing LightLight and the Illumination of the ConsciousnessDifferent Forms of LightTwo Visions Explained2. ColoursThe Symbolism of ColoursWhite LightWhite Light with Light of Other ColoursWhitish Blue LightBlue LightViolet LightGolden LightGold-Green LightGolden Red or Red Gold LightOrange LightYellow LightPink or Rose LightGreen LightPurple and Crimson LightRed LightRed and BlackIII. SYMBOLS1. Symbols and Symbolic VisionsDifferent Kinds of SymbolsThe Effect of Symbolic VisionsSome Symbolic Visions and Dreams Interpreted2. Sun, Moon, Star, FireSunMoonStarFire and Burning3. Sky, Weather, Night and DawnSkyRain, Snow, Clouds, Lightning, RainbowNight and Dawn4. Water and Bodies of WaterWaterSea or OceanPond, Lake, River5. EarthMountainEarth and Patala6. Gods, Goddesses and Semi-Divine BeingsAgniShivaParvati-ShankaraNarayana, Vishnu, Brahma, Lakshmi, Saraswati, AnantaKrishnaHanumanNaradaMahakali and KaliDurga on a LionGaneshKartikeyaSanatkumarBuddhaApsaras7. The Human WorldChildParents and RelativesRobbersJourneyingRunning AwayFlyingEarsTeethFleshBeing Dead8. The Animal WorldCowBullHorseLionTigerElephantGiraffeCamelDeer and AntelopeBoarBuffaloGoatMonkeyDogBlack CatSnake or SerpentCrocodileFrogFishBirdSwan or HansaDuckCranePeacockDove or PigeonCrow, Eagle, KiteOstrichSpiderWhite AntsFlies9. The Plant WorldAswattha or Peepul TreeJungleLeavesFruitsFlowersLotusOther Flowers10. ConstructionsBuildingWorkshopTemplePyramid and Sphinx11. ObjectsCross and ShieldCrownDiamondPearlFluteConchBellsVinaWheel, Disc or ChakraBow and ArrowKeyBookMirror, Square and TriangleIncense Stick and TobaccoGramophone12. Numbers and LettersNumbersLetters (Writing)OMAPPENDIXReferences

Guide

CoverTable of ContentsStart Reading

Vision is not sufficient; one must become what inwardly one sees.

– Sri Aurobindo

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PART I

VISIONS, SOUNDS, SMELLS AND TASTES

Chapter 1

The Value of Visions

Vision, Experience and Realisation

When you see Light, that is vision; when you feel Light entering into you, that is experience; when Light settles in you and brings illumination and knowledge, that is a realisation. But ordinarily visions are also called experiences.

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Sometimes a vision accompanies an experience and is as it were a visual rendering of it or accompaniment to it, but the experience itself is a separate thing.

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Vision is something seen in the conscious state (whether with closed or open eyes) which is not of the physical plane. In “conscious state” I include the consciousness of Samadhi when one is unaware of outward things but conscious of things going on within.

Experience is a wide term which covers almost everything that happens in the inner consciousness – usually it indicates either a spiritual happening, e.g. the descent of peace, the feeling of the presence of the Mother, or an occult experience, e.g. a going into the other worlds in dream and seeing and doing things there. There are thousands of different kinds of experience. Visions are a special kind of experience in which the inner eye is active.

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Visions do not come from the spiritual plane – they come from the subtle physical, the vital, the mental, the psychic or from planes above the Mind. What comes from the spiritual planes are experiences of the Divine, e.g. the experience of self everywhere, of the Divine in all etc.

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The Infinite is in all things and can be seen through them when the vision opens.

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By going deep [in meditation] one person may see visions; another may fall in deeper consciousness but see no vision – and so on. The result varies with the nature.

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Yes, it [the higher consciousness] can come down into the mind planes bringing peace, wideness, the cosmic consciousness, the realisation of the Divine, the sense of the cosmic forces and other things – without any breaking of the veil through vision. Ordinarily, however, with most people the inner vision comes first.

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I said [in the preceding letter] the realisation of the Divine in the mind. If there is to be the total realisation, the breaking of the veil is indispensable.

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Usually the visions precede realisation, in a way they prepare it.

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Visions and voices have their place when they are the genuine visions and the true voices. Naturally, they are not the realisation but only a step on the way and one has not to get shut up in them or take all as of value.

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The vision of the higher planes or the idea of what they are can be had long before the transformation. If that were not possible, how could the transformation take place – the lower nature cannot change of itself, it changes by the growing vision, perception, descent of the higher consciousness belonging to the higher planes? It is through aspiration, through an increasing opening that these visions and perceptions begin to come – the realisation comes afterwards.

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Sensing Supraphysical Things

No, it was neither optical illusion nor hallucination nor coincidence nor auto-suggestion nor any of the other ponderous and vacant polysyllables by which physical science tries to explain away or rather avoid explaining the scientifically inexplicable. In these matters the scientist is always doing what he is always blaming the layman for doing when the latter lays down the law on things about which he is profoundly ignorant, without investigation or experiment, without ascertained knowledge – simply by evolving a theory or a priori idea out of his own mind and plastering it as a label on the unexplained phenomena.

There is, as I have told you, a whole range or many inexhaustible ranges of sensory phenomena other than the outward physical which one can become conscious of, see, hear, feel, smell, touch, mentally contact – to use the new established Americanism – either in trance or sleep or an inward state miscalled sleep or simply and easily in the waking state. This faculty of sensing supraphysical things internally or externalising them, so to speak, so that they become visible, audible, sensible to the outward eye, ear, even touch, just as are gross physical objects, this power or gift is not a freak or an abnormality; it is a universal faculty present in all human beings, but latent in most, in some rarely or intermittently active, occurring as if by accident in others, frequent or normally active in a few. But just as anyone can with some training learn science and do things which would have seemed miracles to his forefathers, so almost anyone, if he wants, can with a little concentration and training develop the faculty of supraphysical vision. When one starts Yoga, this power is often though not invariably – for some find it difficult – one of the first to come out from its latent condition and manifest itself, most often without any effort, intention or previous knowledge on the part of the sadhak. It comes more easily with the eyes shut than with the eyes open, but it does come in both ways. The first sign of its opening in the externalised way is very often that seeing of “sparkles” or small luminous dots, shapes etc. which was your first introduction to the matter; a second is, often enough, the seeing of circles of light or colour round objects, most easily round luminous objects like a star; seeing of colours is a third initial experience – but they do not always come in that order. The Yogis in India very often in order to develop the power use the method of trātak, concentrating the vision on a single point or object – preferably a luminous object. Your looking at the star was precisely an exercise in trātak and had the effect which any Yogi in India would have told you is normal. For all this is not fancy or delusion; it is part of an occult science which has been practised throughout the historic and prehistoric ages in all countries and it has always been known to be not merely auto-suggestive or hallucinatory in its results, but, if one can get the key, veridical and verifiable. Your first scepticism may be natural in a “modern” man plunging into these lasting things of the past, present and future, – natural but not justifiable because very obviously inadequate to the facts observed; but once you have seen, the first thing you should do is to throw all this vapid pseudo-science behind you, this vain attempt to stick physical explanations on supraphysical things, and take the only rational course. Develop the power, get more and more experience – develop the consciousness by which these things come: as the consciousness develops, you will begin to understand and get the intuition of the significances. Or if you want their science too, then learn and apply the occult science which can alone deal with supraphysical phenomena. As for what showed itself to you, it was not mere curious phenomena, not even merely symbolic colours, but things that have a considerable importance.

Develop this power of inner sense and all that it brings you. These first seeings are only an outer fringe – behind lie whole worlds of experience which fill what seems to the material man the gap (your Russell’s inner void) between the earth-consciousness and the Eternal and Infinite.

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The Importance of Visions

All visions have a significance of one kind or another. This power of vision is very important for the Yoga and should not be rejected although it is not the most important thing – for the most important thing is the change of the consciousness. All other powers like this of vision should be developed without attachment as parts and aids of the Yoga.

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The particular things seen may be of no importance, but the power of seeing is of importance and can be of great help in the Yoga. It enables you to see things belonging to other planes (other than the physical) and get knowledge that is useful for sadhana – also to have concrete contact with the Mother in those planes (mental, vital, psychic worlds) etc.

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