This dull morning I stood in my garden, surveying the earth and the sky. Report follows.
After two days of good lashing by the rain, the wind too joined the party last night.
Trees are in a sorry state – the wind has plucked them clean of their foliage. Few tiny but resilient leaves cling for dear life to thin branch endings. One tree in our garden is an exception – all leaves are still intact. Swaying to and fro, it seems to be enjoying the chill. Mom tells me that the tree is called “haar shingar”, meaning to adorn or beautify oneself, which sits pretty well with its current mood.
The sea of clouds is in a hurry. They are moving eastward, and at this speed, they may cross the China border by the evening. Now, that is “news” because usually, China manufactures dark and ominous clouds for its neighbors. But I am getting distracted here – the weather does not bother about politics.
The wind is picking up pace. I am no “haar shingar” – better to get back indoors.
Though a nice-looking fella, it definitely has a fetish for 2s. On the other hand, maybe that extra ‘2’ would give it more power than its friend 2021, who had quite a tough time fighting the modern viruses.
Well then, gentlemen, and not-so-gentle men, here’s a toast to the “power of 2.”
Welcome, stranger, AKA New Year 2022. I hope your bags are loaded with peace and health.
For this song, Moby sampled from a 1960 recording of Sometimes by Bessie Jones. So, what we hear has the vocals of Bessie Jones and the techno music by Moby.
Fancy entering an upmarket bakery and, as your eyes rest on the most beautiful cake, thinking, “Ah! But it can’t be as delicious as it looks,” and getting surprised that it does – delicious and bursting with flavors.
Well, that is how I found Downton Abbey, the British TV show. I suggest, take a nibble.
Letters on Yoga is a collection of letters written by Sri Aurobindo on the philosophical and psychological foundations of Integral Yoga. He wrote the letters between 1927 and 1950 to his disciples, in response to their queries.
Excerpts from the book follow:
Consciousness
Consciousness is a fundamental thing, it is the fundamental thing in existence – it is the energy, the action, the movement of consciousness that creates the universe and all that is in it – not only the macrocosm, but the microcosm is nothing but consciousness arranging itself.
This is the crucial point in the question, what is consciousness, whether it is a temporary phenomenon of Nature or a reality in itself fundamental to existence.
Men do not know themselves and have not learned to distinguish the different parts of their being. […] It is part of the foundation of Yoga to become conscious of the great complexity of our nature, see the different forces that move it and get over it a control of directing knowledge.
The Riddle of this World
This is an unideal and unsatisfactory world, strongly marked with the stamp of inadequacy, suffering, evil.
[…] why should evil and suffering ever have been there? […]
It is not, as some religions suppose, a supra-cosmic, arbitrary, personal Deity himself altogether uninvolved in the fall who has imposed evil and suffering on creatures made capriciously by his fiat. The Divine we know is an Infinite Being in whose infinite manifestation these things have come – it is the Divine itself that is here, behind us, pervading the manifestation. […] in ourselves there is a spirit, a central presence greater than the series of surface personalities.
If we find out this Divine within us, if we know ourselves as this spirit, that is our gate of deliverance and in it we can remain ourselves even in the midst of this world’s disharmonies, luminous, blissful, and free. That much is the age-old testimony of spiritual experience.
Transformation
Transformation of the body […] The inner must change before the outermost can follow.
Religion
The Divine Truth is greater than any religion or creed or scripture or idea or philosophy.
I regard the spiritual history of mankind and especially of India as a constant development of a divine purpose, not a book that is closed. […] I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion new or old.
I have no attachment to the past forms; what is Truth will always remain; the Truth alone matters.
Fate / Destiny
Destiny in the rigid sense applies only to the outer being so long as it lives in the Ignorance. […] But as soon as one enters the path of spiritual life, this old predetermined destiny begins to recede.
Question: Can astrological truths have any influence on a sadhak?
Answer: That is not the question. The question is what influence has the sadhak on the stars?
Food / Diet
Prolonged fasting may lead to an excitation of the nervous being which often brings vivid imaginations and hallucinations […] It is therefore discouraged. The rule to be followed is that laid down by the Gita which says that “Yoga is not for one who eats too much or who does not eat.”
Recently, I took a journey to the land of the dark. I asked the good folks there, “Which is the perfect color?” Without a pause, I got the reply, “Black, of course.”
After that, I visited the valley of the lights. On meeting one bright-looking fellow, I made the same inquiry. “No doubt, white is the perfect color,” he answered.
I asked the monkey mind (my monkey mind) whether we should solicit another opinion – from those living in the grey zones. The monkey said, “If they offer good pizzas, I don’t mind the trip.”
To save me the trip, I ordered a Neopolitan. It is a Naples-style pizza made with tomatoes (grown near Mount Vesuvius) and mozzarella cheese (from Campania). Now we are talking “perfection.”
