ESSAYS DIVINE AND HUMAN

 

CONTENTS

 

Pre-content

 

 

Part One

Essays Divine and Human

 

Section One (circa 1911)

 

Certitudes

Moksha

Man

Philosophy

The Siddhis

The Psychology of Yoga

 

 

Section Two (1910 ­ 1913)

 

Na Kinchidapi Chintayet

The Sources of Poetry

The Interpretation of Scripture

On Original Thinking

The Balance of Justice

Social Reform

Hinduism and the Mission of India

The Psychology of Yoga

The Claims of Theosophy

Science and Religion in Theosophy

Sat

Sachchidananda

The Silence behind Life

 

 

Section Three (circa 1913)

 

The Psychology of Yoga

Initial Definitions and Descriptions

The Object of Our Yoga

 

Purna Yoga

I. The Entire Purpose of Yoga

II. Parabrahman, Mukti and Human Thought-Systems

III. Parabrahman and Parapurusha

 

Natural and Supernatural Man

The Evolutionary Aim in Yoga

The Fullness of Yoga—In Condition

Nature

Maya

 

 

Section Four (1914 ­ 1919)

 

The Beginning and the End

The Hour of God

Beyond Good and Evil

The Divine Superman

 

 

Section Five (1927 and after)

 

The Law of the Way

Man and the Supermind

The Involved and Evolving Godhead

The Evolution of Consciousness

The Path

 

 

 

Part Two

From Man to Superman: Notes and Fragments on Philosophy, Psychology and Yoga

 

Section One. Philosophy: God, Nature and Man

 

God: The One Reality

Nature: The World-Manifestation

Man and Superman

 

 

Section Two. Psychology: The Science of Consciousness

 

The Problem of Consciousness

Consciousness and the Inconscient

The Science of Consciousness

 

 

Section Three. Yoga: Change of Consciousness and Transformation of Nature

 

The Way of Yoga

Partial Systems of Yoga

Integral Yoga

 

 

Part Three

Notes and Fragments on Various Subjects

 

Section One. The Human Being in Time

 

The Marbles of Time

A Theory of the Human Being

A Cyclical Theory of Evolution

 

 

Section Two. The East and the West

 

A Misunderstanding of Continents

Towards Unification

China, Japan and India

 

 

Section Three. India

 

Renascent India

Where We Stand in Literature

 

 

Section Four. Genius, Poetry, Beauty

 

The Origin of Genius

Poetic Genius

The Voices of the Poets

Pensées

A Dream

The Beauty of a Crow's Wings

 

 

Section Five. Science, Religion, Reason, Justice

 

Science

Religion

Reason and Society

Justice

 

 

Part Four

Thoughts and Aphorisms

 

Jnana

Karma

Bhakti

Additional Aphorisms

 

NOTE ON THE TEXTS

 

Part One Essays

 

Divine and Human

 

The essays in this part have been arranged chronologically in five sections. The contents of several of the sections or subsections seem to have been intended by Sri Aurobindo to be published as series or collections of essays.   


 

Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry   


 

A page of a draft of "Man and the Supermind"  


Section One

 

Circa 1911


Certitudes

 

In the deep there is a greater deep, in the heights a greater height. Sooner shall man arrive at the borders of infinity than at the fullness of his own being. For that being is infinity, is God

I aspire to infinite force, infinite knowledge, infinite bliss. Can I attain it? Yes, but the nature of infinity is that it has no end. Say not therefore that I attain it. I become it. Only so can man attain God by becoming God.

But before attaining he can enter into relations with him. To enter into relations with God is Yoga, the highest rapture & the noblest utility. There are relations within the compass of the humanity we have developed. These are called prayer, worship, adoration, sacrifice, thought, faith, science, philosophy. There are other relations beyond our developed capacity, but within the compass of the humanity we have yet to develop. Those are the relations that are attained by the various practices we usually call Yoga.

We may not know him as God, we may know him as Nature, our Higher Self, Infinity, some ineffable goal. It was so that Buddha approached Him; so approaches him the rigid Adwaitin. He is accessible even to the Atheist. To the materialist He disguises Himself in matter. For the Nihilist he waits ambushed in the bosom of Annihilation.  

 

ये यथा मां प्रपद्यन्ते तांस्तथैव भजाम्यहम् |

 

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