http://feeds.feedburner.com/SelfgrowthcomArticlesForSpiritualGrowth The #1 Self Improvement Site On The Web, as Ranked by Google and Yahoo en https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-psychic-being-and-its-interface-with-the-mental-vital-and-physical-parts-of-the-being <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->The physical being, the vital being and the mental being each have their own characteristic mode of action, habits and predilections. They also have created over time an interface that modfiies the native action of each to accept some amount of influence and control by the other elements. Thus, ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 3 Apr 2026 5:15:20 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/two-key-forms-of-aspiration-in-the-spiritual-seeking <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->The Yoga of Knowledge focuses on the realization of the Self, the consciousness above which is free from the illusions of the external life that most people lead. The Yoga of Devotion focuses on the realisation of the psychic being which turns the being and the sense towards the Divine. The ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 2 Apr 2026 8:23:04 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/liberation-from-illusion-and-the-transformation-of-life <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->There is a long history of spiritual aspirants seeking liberation from what they come to perceive as the illusion of life in the world. It is a signal experience when the individual awakens to the apparent unreality, the transitory nature of the external life, and the seemingly meaningless ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 1 Apr 2026 6:41:02 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-soul-and-the-psychic-being-1 <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->There is a type of cell in the body which is called a ‘stem cell’. The stem cell does not have a direct operational function; rather it is undifferentiated and capable of being activated to become any type of functional cell for any part of the body. Without pushing the example too far, the soul ... santoshk@msn.com Tue, 31 Mar 2026 5:06:12 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-triple-aspects-of-the-divine-presence <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->In order to carry out the complex creation, the Supreme Divine Consciousness has ‘distributed’ the awareness through a series of steps. The first step is the development of the Jivatman, the Divine Presence that does not involve itself directly in the individual beings of the manifestation, but ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 30 Mar 2026 9:06:03 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-refraction-of-the-unified-supreme-consciousness-into-the-various-levels-and-forms-of-th <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->The Supreme Consciousness refracts itself into sub-spheres of awareness depending on the level of the creation that needs that awareness. Thus, the unified Supreme Consciousness, known as Sat-Chit-Ananda, creates apparent separate forms at the Knowledge level, the supramental consciousness, ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 29 Mar 2026 4:30:28 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/occult-knowledge-or-perceptions-originate-in-the-inner-mental-vital-or-physical-not-the-psy <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->People get intimations, intuitions, ‘gut instincts’, or simply a feeling about something, maybe a form of uneasiness, or a sense of expectation, or some pressure, or new thought process or emotional reaction. Sometimes these things occur during the waking state, but often they come as elements ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 29 Mar 2026 9:56:06 am https://selfgrowth.com/articles/being-and-becoming-and-the-soul-and-the-psychic-being <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->When we gaze into space at night, we see stars unimaginably distant from us. We also can experience. if we suspend our thinking mind and vital desire-soul and physical demands temporarily, a sense of the timeless, the immutable, unchanging Reality that exceeds our ability to embrace and ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 29 Mar 2026 9:30:50 am https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-potentiality-of-the-soul-the-actuality-of-the-psychic-being <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->A seed, in its essence, contains all the potentiality that eventually turns into a full grown tree. It is useful to reflect on this when we look at the position of the soul in relation to the psychic being. The soul is like that seed to the extent that it has all the potential of the Divine ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 29 Mar 2026 9:24:24 am https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-jiva-the-soul-and-the-psychic-being-the-interface-between-the-divine-standpoint-and-the <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->The Knowledge plane, which Sri Aurobindo terms the “supramental consciousness” is the level where the unity of the Supreme consciousness is ‘refracted’ to create the apparent multiplicity of the manifested universe. This level holds both the Oneness and the Multiplicity with a consciousness that ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 29 Mar 2026 9:16:42 am https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-higher-nature-and-the-lower-nature-seen-from-the-divine-standpoint-and-the-human-standp <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->Evolution of forms is the machinery for the manifestation of the universe. Evolution of consciousness provides the significance and inner direction. Similarly, we can look at the lower Nature, apra prakriti, as the mechanism and para prakriti, the higher Nature as the cause and conscious creator ... santoshk@msn.com Tue, 24 Mar 2026 4:31:50 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-soul-the-psychic-being-and-the-evolution-of-consciousness-0 <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->In his text On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin outlined the evolution of life-forms on earth. He observed many species and posited that they all developed from a common ancestral past, having undergone substantial changes, mutations, that supported the success of those forms and ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 23 Mar 2026 7:43:07 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-higher-nature-the-lower-nature-and-the-role-of-the-jivatman <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->The Bhagavad Gita describes the lower nature and the higher nature. The lower nature is the external manifestation of forms, matter, life-energy, mind, that together constitute the creation and all the multiplicity of formations that together represent the external world. This can be seen as a ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 22 Mar 2026 4:34:52 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/jivatman-and-psychic-being <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->Spiritual seekers have differing affinities and capacities from which they begin their conscious spiritual focus. Some of them take up the seeking for the Self, the Jivatman, with liberation from the illusion of the external world and its temptations as a primary objective. They practice Jnana ... santoshk@msn.com Sat, 21 Mar 2026 9:18:38 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-psychic-being-and-the-process-of-rebirth-provide-the-basis-for-a-real-purpose-and-meani <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->Humanity has grappled with finding a meaning and purpose to life since time immemorial. We ask ourselves, why have we been born? Is there a meaning to life? What are we here to do? Is life simply about acquiring wealth, status, power and creating offspring? Is there anything else that acts as ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 20 Mar 2026 5:40:08 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-witness-and-the-nature-purusha-and-prakriti <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->When we take the time to observe our own internal process, we can very quickly become aware of a part of the being that is able to observe and monitor thoughts and impulses that run through the mental space. Many paths of awareness, such as Raja Yoga, and mindfulness training, teach us how to ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 19 Mar 2026 6:25:18 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/ghosts-vital-formations-and-the-after-death-experience <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->The Taittiriya Upanishad describes the process of departure of the soul from an embodiment in the world: “The Spirit who is here in a man and the Spirit who is there in the Sun, it is one Spirit and there is no other. He who knoweth this, when he hath gone away from this world, passeth to this ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 18 Mar 2026 3:55:10 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-soul-exists-in-all-living-beings <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->We frequently mistake the development of the external form as representing the state of the soul. In human beings, this often takes the form of assigning worth or status based on education, race, social position within the societal hierarchy, wealth or positions of power. None of these things, ... santoshk@msn.com Tue, 17 Mar 2026 4:54:15 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/distinguishing-soul-from-vital-being <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->The lack of experience and recognition of the action of the soul makes it difficult for most people to understand the reality of the soul. For this reason, people tend to confuse the true soul with the vital soul of desire, which Sri Aurobindo calls the ‘desire-soul’. This is an expression of ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 16 Mar 2026 6:13:08 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-soul-and-the-evolutionary-nature-of-the-psychic-being <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->A seed contains the entire genetic code from which the external form, energetic capacity and mental abilities of a living being develop. It can be seen as the most concentrated form of that being, a form that nevertheless has the capacity, through time, of manifesting a physical form, a vital ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 16 Mar 2026 11:41:37 am https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-evolution-of-the-psychic-being-across-innumerable-lifetimes <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->There is considerable confusion about the concept of rebirth and the development and growth of the psychic being across multiple lifetimes. Popular imagination has it that the same individual personality is reborn, and that under certain circumstances, past lives can be identified and recalled. ... santoshk@msn.com Sat, 14 Mar 2026 3:13:08 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/evolutionary-beings-and-static-typal-beings-in-the-universal-manifestation <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->As with many words in the English language, the word soul has various nuanced meanings as Sri Aurobindo explains. English as a very fluid language can at times be very imprecise in this way. This, however, is just one of the issues Sri Aurobindo takes up here in the citation below. One very ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 13 Mar 2026 6:39:45 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/distinguishing-psychic-experience-from-occult-or-abnormal-experience <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->How does one distinguish between psychic experience, as defined by Sri Aurobindo, as soul experiences, from the vast array of experiences that occur on the mental or vital planes that have been called ‘psychic’ phenomena? Once one has the clue about the different parts of the being and their ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 12 Mar 2026 6:29:58 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-soul-the-psychic-being-is-the-element-that-makes-the-divine-force-conscious-for-the-ext <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->The soul, the psychic being, is a portion of the Divine that resides deep within. For most people, who are living in the surface consciousness primarily, the existence of the soul is a question mark, if they think about it at all. As we grow and face life’s challenges, however, we may begin to ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 11 Mar 2026 7:43:07 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/resurrecting-the-ancient-knowledge-of-the-various-planes-and-parts-of-the-being <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->In the Kena Upanishad, the powers of the physical plane, the vital plane and the mental plane all believe they are predominant and can wield their power to achieve whatever they want. These powers are embodied in the form of Agni on the physical plane, Vayu on the vital plane and Indra on the ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 11 Mar 2026 10:06:22 am https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-psychic-being-carries-the-essence-of-the-soul-s-experience-from-life-to-life <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->We tend to look at things through the standpoint of the external physical being, the body, life and mind with which we identify. From this standpoint we treat the soul as something that we need to search for, if we even acknowledge the existence of the soul, and as something secondary to and ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 9 Mar 2026 5:02:11 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/if-the-world-is-an-illusion-meant-to-be-transcended-why-does-it-exist-at-all-0 <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->To answer your question, let’s study the following words of Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, an Enlightened being, very carefully. He says: “This puzzle has come about on its own, governed by the laws of science. I am telling you that this world is run only by Scientific Circumstantial Evidences. In ... dadabhagwan@dadabhagwan.org Mon, 9 Mar 2026 2:25:04 am https://selfgrowth.com/articles/understanding-psychic-and-soul-in-their-deepest-and-original-sense <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->The English language leaves a lot of room for confusion, simply because terminology tends to be imprecise, inexact, or vague. The issue is made even more difficult because, particularly in the West, there is very little understanding of the vast field of consciousness, the various planes and ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 8 Mar 2026 4:53:22 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/a-deeper-meaning-to-our-existence <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->What if the life we lead is not our true purpose on earth? What if there is more to our existence than the daily round that we carry out, day after day, year after year, changing only the external trappings and specific activities, but falling into a similar groove regardless? How many of us ... santoshk@msn.com Sat, 7 Mar 2026 4:20:19 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/understanding-the-terminology-in-sri-aurobindo-s-use-of-the-words-soul-and-psychic <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->Sri Aurobindo’s use of the terms ‘soul’ and ‘psychic’ started out with the common usage of the time, but as his work developed, he determined it was best to create a more precise terminology than was commonly in use. In order to appreciate the nuances involved and follow along with the central ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 6 Mar 2026 1:42:04 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-soul-and-the-psychic-being-0 <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->In his poem Savitri, Sri Aurobindo provides imagery to describe the nature and role of the soul, and the significance of the psychic being hidden deep within, carrying our human experience and human life to its eventual fulfillment. Sri Aurobindo writes: "But since she knows the toil of mind ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 5 Mar 2026 6:38:29 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-psychic-being-soul-its-nature-mission-and-evolution-introduction <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->There is considerable confusion about the nature of the soul. A sizable portion of humanity denies the existence of the soul, while another segment of humanity reduces its ‘value’ below that of material possessions and outward satisfactions. The ego-personality, bound up in the actions and ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 4 Mar 2026 3:38:13 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/srimad-bhagavatam <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->How Srimad Bhagavatam Guides Daily Spiritual Living In the modern world, people often search for meaning, balance, and inner peace while navigating the pressures of daily life. Many struggle to find guidance that goes beyond temporary solutions and touches the deeper aspects of human ... julianafoley09@gmail.com Wed, 4 Mar 2026 4:44:33 am https://selfgrowth.com/articles/bases-of-yoga-summary-and-conclusions <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->In various places, Sri Aurobindo has noted that yoga is applied psychology. The practitioner of yoga is confronted by all of the instincts, habits, trained responses and reactions of human nature and is asked to address and change these in order to uplift the human being to the next stage of the ... santoshk@msn.com Tue, 3 Mar 2026 5:11:44 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/addressing-physical-fatigue-experienced-by-the-spiritual-seeker <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->Many paths of spiritual practice disregard the needs of the physical body as being irrelevant, distracting, or obstructive to their spiritual development. This has not always been the case. The ancient Greek culture focused on a ‘sound mind in a sound body’ as an ideal. The ancient Vedic ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 25 Feb 2026 12:35:44 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/is-it-sleep-or-is-it-samadhi <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->When the consciousness moves inward, away from the awareness of the external reality, it is frequently interpreted as ‘sleep’ by those who experience it for the first time. The reason they believe it is sleep is due to a lack of communication between that inward state of consciousness and the ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 23 Feb 2026 4:28:38 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-lack-of-transcription-or-bridges-of-consciousness-prevents-awareness-of-the-waking-cons <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->Where does the consciousness go when we are deep asleep? Numerous reports tell us that it can go out to other planes or realms, or down into subconscious levels, or up into superconscious levels. When we awaken from sleep, we generally are unable to describe what we did during sleep or where we ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 22 Feb 2026 6:53:40 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/transforming-the-character-of-sleep-0 <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->Giving the body the rest and recuperative time it needs, the spiritual aspirant still has to deal with the effects of what is normally a descent into a more tamasic status that can have its impacts on the waking consciousness. If we wake up tired, groggy or cloudy, we have not only not fully ... santoshk@msn.com Sat, 21 Feb 2026 9:46:16 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/transforming-sleep-not-suppressing-it <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna explains to Arjuna: “Verily this Yoga is not for him who eats too much or sleeps too much, even as it is not for him who gives up sleep and food, O Arjuna.” (Bhagavad Gita and Its Message, tr. by Sri Aurobindo, Ch. 6, V. 16) It is interesting to note that one of ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 20 Feb 2026 4:39:32 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/symbolic-dreams <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->Symbolic dreams are common and in many cases, similar thematic elements show up for most people. These dreams attempt to raise up from the subconscious levels some underlying need, concern, fear, or persistent issue that remains unresolved in the external life. Sigmund Freud, in his work on The ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 20 Feb 2026 9:08:02 am https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-stuff-that-dreams-are-made-of <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->Once we break out of the limitations set by Western psychologists, such as Freud, in our attempt to understand the nature of dreams, we can explore the much wider and more nuanced potential causes, triggers, images and significances of dreams. We find it hard to appreciate that there are ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 20 Feb 2026 8:53:17 am https://selfgrowth.com/articles/dreams-and-their-significance <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->Western psychology has taken a very narrow, and therefore quite inadequate, view of the nature of dreams. There are several primary ways dreams are analyzed in the West. The first is the purely mechanical structuring of dreams as a chaotic processing of ‘undigested’ residues of the observations, ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 18 Feb 2026 2:40:55 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/sleep-dream-waking-consciousness-self-awareness-and-spiritual-development <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->The physical consciousness is the primary seat of the Guna of Tamas in the being, in general, and thus, when the waking consciousness of the mental and vital levels is in abeyance during sleep, there is a natural tendency for the tamasic energy to come forward for a time. One of the first ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 18 Feb 2026 1:36:06 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-promise-of-a-greater-psychology-integrating-knowledge-of-the-whole-with-understanding-0 <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->The Greek philosopher Plato, after deep consideration, reached the conclusion that some higher principle was real, which he called ‘Forms” or ‘Ideas’, and that the physical reality we see and experience is the result, not the cause. This concept is in consonance with the Vedic understanding. ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 18 Feb 2026 9:04:15 am https://selfgrowth.com/articles/sleep-and-sadhana <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->What happens when we sleep? Where does the consciousness go? For most people, sleep is a blank state. We have little awareness of what goes on during sleep, except for times when we are having a dream in a state near enough to the waking state that we actually remember details from the dream. We ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 15 Feb 2026 7:43:43 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-practice-of-attempted-elimination-of-unwanted-vital-movements-through-purposeful-indu-2 <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->An individual dedicated some years to study and spiritual development. He gathered a small group of young people around him and took on the role of a teacher. He had obviously studied the texts and spent some time practicing them. He gained an aura of charisma for the young people who came under ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 13 Feb 2026 11:30:04 am https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-practice-of-attempted-elimination-of-unwanted-vital-movements-through-purposeful-indulg <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->There is a theory, current in various spiritual paths, as well as in various attempts to overcome certain unwanted behaviours in the ordinary life, that by purposeful indulgence, through ‘experience’ (anubhava), the individual can overcome the undesired impulse, craving or desire. The idea is ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 12 Feb 2026 5:35:33 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/psychoanalysis-and-the-practice-of-yoga-part-2 <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->Freud made a breakthrough for the development of Western psychology that finally recognised that the human being responds to situations and circumstances, not solely on the superficial, transactional level, but also from suppressed, subliminal and subconscient activities that actually have a ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 11 Feb 2026 1:36:11 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/psychoanalysis-and-the-practice-of-yoga-part-1 <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->A narrow focus of extreme specialisation is a major cause of inaccurate assessment and therefore, inappropriate decisions and action. This is, however, a symptom of our modern-day fixation on mental analysis rather than on an approach that integrates the various parts into a coordinated whole, ... santoshk@msn.com Tue, 10 Feb 2026 4:40:44 pm https://selfgrowth.com/articles/vigilant-awareness-is-needed-to-manage-the-energies-that-arise-in-the-lower-regions-of-the- <!--7809d7e227d74f2cb6edb1ca2739d10d-->Most people respond to life as it comes to them and react according to the energy that they are able to receive and process in some form or another. They remain immersed in the external personality. They become the fear, the anger, the hunger, the thirst, the craving, the pleasure, the pain, the ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 9 Feb 2026 5:12:17 pm