Recommended Reading
- ‘Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo’s Teaching & Method of Practice‘ by Sri Aurobindo
- ‘The Life Divine‘ by Sri Aurobindo
- ‘Powers Within‘ by Sri Aurobindo, The Mother
- ‘The Upanishads, 1st US Edition‘ by Sri Aurobindo
- ‘Synthesis of Yoga, US Edition‘ by Sri Aurobindo
Inspirational Quotes by Sri Aurobindo (Indian Mystic, Philosopher, Poet)
True spirituality rejects new light, no added means or materials of our human self-development.
—Sri Aurobindo
My lover took away my robe of sin and I let it fall, rejoicing; then he plucked at my robe of virtue, but I was ashamed and alarmed and prevented him. It was not till he wrested it from me by force that I saw how my soul had been hidden from me.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Faith
What I cannot do now is the sign of what I shall do hereafter. The sense of impossibility is the beginning of all possibilities. Because this temporal universe was a paradox and an impossibility, therefore the Eternal created it out of His being.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Goals
There are no true and false religions, but rather all religions are true in their own way and degree. Each is one of the thousand paths to the One Eternal.
—Sri Aurobindo
If the will is fixed on the purpose it sets itself to accomplish, then circumstances will suggest the right course; but the schemer finds himself always tripped up by the unexpected.
—Sri Aurobindo
Mankind has used two powerful weapons to destroy its own powers and enjoyment, wrong indulgence and wrong abstinence.
—Sri Aurobindo
When we have passed beyond knowings, then we shall have Knowledge. Reason was the helper; Reason is the bar.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Goals
Transform the divided individual into the world-personality; let all thyself be the divine. This is thy goal.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Goals
The highest spirituality indeed moves in a free and wide air far above that lower stage of seeking which is governed by religious form and dogma; it does not easily bear their limitations and, even when it admits, it transcends them; it lives in an experience which to the formal religious mind is unintelligible.
—Sri Aurobindo
The fly that touches honey cannot use it’s wings; so too the soul that clings to spiritual sweetness ruins it’s freedom and hinders contemplation.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Freedom
There are times of great change, times when old landmarks are being upset, when submerged forces are rising, and just as we deal promptly or linger over the solution of these problems, our progress will be rapid or slow, sound or broken.
—Sri Aurobindo
The yoga we practice is not for ourselves alone, but for the Divine; its aim is to work out the will of the Divine in the world, to effect a spiritual transformation and to bring down a divine nature and a divine life into the mental, vital and physical nature and life of humanity. Its object is not personal Mukti, although Mukti is a necessary condition of the yoga, but the liberation and transformation of the human being. It is not personal Ananda, but the bringing down of the divine Ananda—Christ’s kingdom of heaven, our Satyayuga—upon the earth.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Spirit, Act, Practice, Life, Work, Earth, Spiritual, Persona, Nature
Transform the Animal into the Driver of the herds; let all thyself be Krishna. This is thy goal.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Goals
All life is the play of universal forces.
The individual gives a personal form to these universal forces.
But he can choose whether he shall respond or
not to the action of a particular force. Only most people
do not really choose – they indulge the play of the forces.
Your illness, depressions etc. are the repeated play of such forces.
It is only when you can make oneself free of them that
one can be the true person and have a true life –
but one can be free only by living in the Divine.
—Sri Aurobindo
What men call knowledge, is the reasoned acceptance of false appearances. Wisdom looks behind the veil and sees.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Knowledge
What is the use of only knowing? I say to thee, Act and be, for therefore God sent thee into this human body.
—Sri Aurobindo
Hatred is the sign of a secret attraction that is eager to flee from itself and furious to deny its own existence. That too is God’s play in His creature.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Knowledge
To listen to some devout people, one would imagine God never laughs.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Advice
In God’s providence there is no evil, but only good or its preparation.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Knowledge
To commit adultery with God is the perfect experience for which the world was created.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Faith
Watch the too indignantly righteous. Before long you will find them committing or condoning the very offence which they have so fiercely censured.
—Sri Aurobindo
Inspiration is a slender river of brightness leaping from a vast and eternal knowledge, it exceeds reason more perfectly than reason exceeds the knowledge of the senses.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Knowledge
Open thy eyes and see what the world really is and what God; have done with vain and pleasant imaginations.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Knowledge
Transform reason into ordered intuition; let all thyself be light. This is thy goal.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Goals
When we have passed beyond enjoyings, then we shall have Bliss. Desire was the helper; Desire is the bar.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Goals
We are all gods and creators; not only the making of new forms of creation, but preservation is creation, destruction itself is creation. It rests with us what we shall create; for we are not unless we choose, puppets dominated by Fate and Maya; we are the facets and manifestations of Almighty Power.
—Sri Aurobindo
When we have passed beyond individualising, then we shall be real Persons. Ego was the helper; Ego is the bar.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Goals
Life is life – whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man’s own advantage.
—Sri Aurobindo
Transform enjoying into an even and objectless ecstasy; let all thyself be bliss. This is thy goal.
—Sri Aurobindo
Topics: Goals
If thou think defeat is the end of thee, then go not forth to fight, even though thou be the stronger. For Fate is not purchased by any man nor is Power bound over to her possessors. But defeat is not the end, it is only a gate or a beginning.
—Sri Aurobindo
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