Human nature is selfish, aggressive, acquisitive, possessive, mean, vindictive

Event: Shopping festival to celebrate the Bengali New Year When ...

Calcutta Telegraph - April 15 at Sri Aurobindo Institute of Culture, 3 Regent Park; 10 am: A special cultural programme in memory of Krishna Chattopadhyay.

Life and Teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Karmayogi Part II 1. Introduction

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother decided to establish God’s Truth at a higher level, viz., in earth’s life, so that suffering, pain, falsehood, cruelty, and poverty in any form would be fully and finally abolished from earth’s life, not merely from human life…

The common man may ask where does he come in this scheme of things and what is the relevance of this yoga to his life. Apart from being an avatar, Mother is a mother to every created being. She comes to us as a mother too. Falsehood is found in several forms. They are poverty, illness, mental pain, human impurity, imperfection, disharmony, etc. If the ordinary man relates to Mother, Her Truth and Power reduce these forms of untruth and finally abolish them. If man, while suffering, prays to Mother for relief and is relieved from any of these deformations, he receives Her Truth and serves her. In other words, man comes to Mother to get his daughter married, his son employed, to restore his lost property, cure his illness, secure promotions and in this way he is serving God’s purpose of establishing Truth on earth forever. This book narrates several such experiences of devotees. 

2. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo Ashram    

Man acts to fulfil his needs and guides himself by his nature, known as human nature. This is selfish, aggressive, acquisitive, possessive, mean, vindictive, and so many other things that we know of. In his march towards civilisation, man learns to restrain himself and learns not to express these low aspects of human nature. In fact, human nature consists of high potentialities and low actualities. It is the lower side that often presses forward. When man advances further than the early civilised conditions, he seeks culture. He tries to change himself inside and express what he really is in his inner character. At the first stage of civilisation what changes is behaviour. In the second stage of culture it is character that changes. Below that remains the consciousness of Man, untouched and unchanged. Only when this changes from pettiness to nobility, from falsehood to truth, can human life turn into Life Divine.

The Mother’s aim is to found a place where sadhaks can gather to work for this change, which She calls Transformation. It is not given to man to bring about this change in himself. Only the Divine can do so. All that man is called upon to do is to totally surrender himself to the Divine. In practice, this is done by meditation, selfless work and an adoration of the Divine in one’s prayers. The triple key of yoga must be turned in the lock of the spirit.

Comment posted by RY Deshpande Re: RYD’s sly and insidious Method... About Savitri as a Fictional Creation

My remarks or observations against some individuals might appear unsavoury, or might even hurt certain feelings; but the intention will be to be truthful to the noble and upright spirit of Savitri which, surely, the giants like Amal and Nirod will fully understand and approve. Whatever is said is said in the context of Savitri and it will be wrong to draw other conclusions from it. We should also recognize that we’re not Praxitelian statues of perfection in static marble, but humans in living flesh and blood with all the foibles and weaknesses and prejudices and inadequacies and deficiencies, with all the quirks and idiosyncrasies, as much as the noble and the beautiful that is also with us. To ignore the former will be to be unrealistic; to get subdued by the latter will be to abdicate our sense of responsibility. We’ve to see the best and proceed with it, unmindful of action-reaction from different quarters. And of course who will say that he is not putting his best? ~ RYD

Barbara Marx Hubbard -- Founder, Foundation of Conscious Evolution 
As a lifelong champion of conscious evolution I see “The Great Shift” as a seminal contribution toward our ability to evolve consciously. The shift of evolution itself from unconscious to conscious choice is to me the signal of the evolution of the species of Homo sapiens sapiens. As Sri Aurobindo put it: “Man is a transitional species.” Transitional toward what is a key question. Reading “The Great Shift” helps us see that we are in transition to a co-creative, planetary, universal species, the fulfilment of the aspiration of the ages, the hearts’ desire of countless millions. We gain “evolutionary eyes,” and can see ourselves from the “Overview Perspective” as a species emerging toward its birth as a universal humanity.
We can place our own yearning for greater meaning, more creative life, deeper giving of our best into this framework and accept Robin Wood as one of our beloved planetary teachers, guides and friends in this fabulous journey into the unknown. 

Inconscience Has Its Own Underlying Truth in the Omnipresent Reality from Sri Aurobindo Studies

Many people have a hard time accepting the necessity or if you will, the underlying truth, behind the inconscient, ignorant, dark or apparently unconscious aspects of existence. This is the reason that so many people have either tried to turn it into a pure cosmic illusion, from which to simply try to escape, or else have set up a duality of God and devil, to basically “disown” the world of ignorance.

Sri Aurobindo however points out that we cannot simply disregard the truth that underpins even this aspect of the manifested reality.

3 Comments Prof. Kittu Reddy said, March 30, 2010 at 3:13 pm

The time has come for the application of spirituality in life. What better source is there for this than the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother? It is therefore heartening to know that an attempt is being made to bring the thought and consciousness of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother into the daily and mundane activities of life. My best wishes to the Overman [Foundation] for this endeavour.

Reply Krishna Chakravarti said, March 30, 2010 at 3:14 pm Dear Anurag,

Let your award “Auro Ratna” dazzle the world with “Aro Ratnas”

Affectionately Yours Krishna-di

Reply Manoj Das Gupta (Managing Trustee, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust) said,

March 30, 2010 at 3:15 pm Dear Anurag,

I pray to the Mother for the success of your organisation and invoke Her Blessings for the launch on 29th March, 2010.

With good wishes and regards Manojda

Savitri Era: Take full responsibility for what you write in public from Tusar N. Mohapatra tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com to aurosatya vrata satyavrata54@gmail.com date 14 April 2010 14:39 subject Re: Reg. ongoing discussion on Sri Aurobindo's Savitri  

Each individual toes the party line according to what suits to his self-interest. There is no reason why he would act otherwise. After all survival, security and sustenance of his embodied existence is his foremost responsibility and submitting to a herd largely ensures that. [TNM]  

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