There is none bound, none freed, and none seeking to be free.
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Hindu
Sri Aurobindo
Hindu1872 – 1950Calcutta (Kolkata), Bengal, India2,781 quotes· 3 sources
Sri Aurobindo was an Indian philosopher, yogi, and poet who developed the path of Integral Yoga — a vision of spiritual evolution in which the divine descends into matter, transforming not just the individual soul but life itself on earth. He spent the last four decades of his life in Pondicherry engaged in this transformative inner work with his spiritual collaborator, the Mother.
Born in Calcutta in 1872, Aurobindo was educated entirely in England and returned to India as a brilliant scholar and journalist who became a fiery leader of the radical independence movement — leading to his arrest and imprisonment in 1908. During his solitary confinement in Alipore jail, he underwent a series of profound mystical experiences that redirected his life entirely toward spiritual realization. After his release he moved to the French territory of Pondicherry to pursue this inner work free from British jurisdiction, and there he developed his system of Integral Yoga — arguing that the goal was not escape from the world into transcendent silence, but the transformation of all human faculties by the descent of a 'Supramental' consciousness. His major philosophical works, The Life Divine and The Synthesis of Yoga, represent one of the most ambitious syntheses of Indian philosophy and modern evolutionary thought. Together with Mirra Alfassa (the Mother), he founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, which continues in Pondicherry, and his vision inspired the founding of Auroville, an international community dedicated to human unity.
Wisdom
The distinction between knowledge and ignorance starts with the hymns of the RigVeda, where knowledge means being conscious of the Truth and what is right, and ignorance is being unconscious of the Truth and what is right, opposing it and creating false or negative effects.
Ignorance is the lack of the divine ability to see the supramental Truth; it is the part of our consciousness that does not perceive, as opposed to the part that sees and knows the truth.
Knowledge is what moves towards unity, and when it reaches the supramental level, it grasps the oneness, essence, and self-law of existence, and views and handles the many things from that light and fullness, somewhat like the Divine does from the highest point from which He embraces the world.
The psychic personality within us blossoms as the saint, the sage, or the seer. When it reaches its full potential, it directs the being toward self-awareness and the divine, toward the highest truth, goodness, beauty, love, and bliss, and the divine expanses, opening us to the experience of spiritual sympathy, universality, and oneness.
The ultimate reality is one, indivisible, and that is pure existence.
All things are self-deploying aspects of the Divine Knowledge, as stated in the Vishnu Purana.
The mind is unable to possess the infinite, it can only be affected by it or be completely taken over by it. All it can do is blissfully surrender to the real, under the radiant presence that extends from planes of existence beyond its grasp.
This secret psychic entity is the true, original conscience within us, deeper than the conventional conscience constructed by moralists. It always points us towards truth, rightness, beauty, love, harmony, and all the divine possibilities within us, persisting until these become the primary needs of our nature.
The Being and its Consciousness Force, Spirit and Nature, are not fundamentally separate. What Nature does is actually done by the Spirit.
The Lord dwells in the hearts of all beings.
They understood this self-building as the creation by man in himself of that other world, or the high-ordered harmony of infinite being, which already exists perfect and eternal in the Divine Infinite.
Those who live and move within the realm of ignorance stumble and are battered, deluded, like the blind being led by someone who is also blind.
Sacrifice and self-giving are indeed a fundamental principle and a spiritual necessity. We cannot affirm our true being without them.
The living being is none other than the Brahman, the whole world is the Brahman.
The collective is a mass that forms and takes shape, while the individual is the one who discovers truth, creates form, and brings things into being.
जैसे एक आदमी अपने पुराने और टूटे हुए कपड़े उतार देता है और नए कपड़े पहनता है, वैसे ही सशरीर प्राणी अपने शरीरों को त्याग देता है और नए शरीरों में प्रवेश करता है।
Every being harvests what they have sown. They profit from their actions and suffer from them as well. This is the law of Karma, which is the result of our actions and the natural energy that drives us. It gives our existence, nature, character, and actions a meaning that is lacking in other theories of life.
A truly ethical person doesn't need a system of rewards and punishments to follow a good path.
Spirituality is essentially an awakening to the inner reality of our being. It is a connection to the spirit, self, or soul that is beyond our mind, life, and body. This awakening involves an inner aspiration to know, feel, and become one with this greater reality.