SelfGrowth.com articles for Self Knowledge https://selfgrowth.com/articles/rss/505561 The #1 Self Improvement Site On The Web, as Ranked by Google and Yahoo en Dealing with Anxiety and Worry https://selfgrowth.com/articles/dealing-with-anxiety-and-worry Many people express the idea that simply living life without any form of planning or care about organizing one’s activities is the ideal ‘worry-free’ way of living. This conflates reasonable planning in the outer life with the internal process of worrying. Worrying is basically an inability ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 5 Jun 2025 4:54:09 pm Facing One’s Difficulties https://selfgrowth.com/articles/facing-one-s-difficulties In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asked Sri Krishna to place him between the two armies ready to engage in a civil war, with massive numbers of troops on each side, so that he could view the scene before the actual fighting started. At that moment he was struck by the magnitude of what was about to ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 5 Jun 2025 10:10:47 am Faithfulness to the Light and the Divine Call https://selfgrowth.com/articles/faithfulness-to-the-light-and-the-divine-call People have an inner ‘commentary’ and ‘sound track’ going on virtually constantly in their heads. The ‘sound track’ may be a piece of music they heard which keeps repeating in their minds, what is colloquially called an ‘ear worm’. It may also be something of far less enjoyment such as a ... santoshk@msn.com Tue, 3 Jun 2025 7:17:19 pm Aligning the Inner Being With the Psychic Aspiration Overcomes the Pressure of Despondency and Depression in the Course of the Spiritual Sadhana https://selfgrowth.com/articles/aligning-the-inner-being-with-the-psychic-aspiration-overcomes-the-pressure-of-despondency- Taking the right attitude when feelings of failure or depression arise in the course of the spiritual practice is essential to navigate through these moods with the least disruption. Sri Aurobindo implies that the standpoint should be in the separate witness consciousness, which he distinguishes ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 2 Jun 2025 8:15:43 pm How to Deal With the Feeling of Unfitness for Spiritual Progress When It Arises in the Sadhana https://selfgrowth.com/articles/how-to-deal-with-the-feeling-of-unfitness-for-spiritual-progress-when-it-arises-in-the-sadh It is perhaps a virtually universal experience. An individual takes up a spiritual practice, and for a time, particularly when Sattwa is in the forefront, he has unique insights, experiences and a sense of progress. At some point, however, these experiences tend to recede and the individual is ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 2 Jun 2025 10:25:33 am Depression and Spiritual Progress https://selfgrowth.com/articles/depression-and-spiritual-progress We are all subject to the action of the three Gunas or qualties of Nature. They are always shifting. As they shift, our outlook, mood, physical responsiveness, vital energy and mental framework all undergo corresponding changes. None of the three Gunas remains constantly in the forefront, so ... santoshk@msn.com Sat, 31 May 2025 6:57:13 pm Keep Hold On Your Aspiration Through All Difficulties and Circumstances https://selfgrowth.com/articles/keep-hold-on-your-aspiration-through-all-difficulties-and-circumstances The flame of aspiration is the force that keeps the sadhak moving forward in his spiritual practice, regardless of the forces that threaten or oppose that progress, whether from outside or which rise up internally. Everyone goes through changes of mood and energy as the three Gunas fluctuate. ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 30 May 2025 5:09:22 pm The Spiritual Seeker and the Challenges of Spiritual Growth and Development https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-spiritual-seeker-and-the-challenges-of-spiritual-growth-and-development People believe generally that taking up the spiritual life involves a form of escapism from the daily obstacles, difficulties and pressures of living an active life in society. Some people in fact take up the spiritual path as an escape, but that is neither the primary motivation nor does it ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 29 May 2025 7:59:12 pm The Individual Sadhak and His Relation to the Movement of Universal Forces https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-individual-sadhak-and-his-relation-to-the-movement-of-universal-forces Forces that operate in the world are not necessarily ‘hostile’ even if their effect on any particular individual appears to be extremely negative. These forces operate on a large scale to carry out their own role and fulfillment, without specific regard to who may be impacted. When an earthquake ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 28 May 2025 6:05:14 pm How To Deal With Hostile Forces https://selfgrowth.com/articles/how-to-deal-with-hostile-forces Forces at work in the world try to effectuate themselves and perpetuate their action. They seek for receptive vessels to manifest and carry out their line of action. As these waves of energy, these vibrations move out into the world, they naturally come across elements and beings that are not ... santoshk@msn.com Tue, 27 May 2025 5:05:55 pm Overcoming the Obstruction of Universal Adverse Forces https://selfgrowth.com/articles/overcoming-the-obstruction-of-universal-adverse-forces Most people are skeptical about the concept of conscious universal forces. Even if they profess a belief in God, angels, demons, and other unseen powerful beings, they tend to reject the idea when it comes down to actual influence in their own actions, reactions and responses. There is an ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 26 May 2025 6:08:46 pm Coming Face to Face With, and Overcoming the Failures, Limitations and Sins of One's Past Life in the Spiritual Quest https://selfgrowth.com/articles/coming-face-to-face-with-and-overcoming-the-failures-limitations-and-sins-of-ones-past-life When an individual takes up the spiritual quest, he tends to accept certain principles of action which, by definition, contradict the values, principles and life-actions of his past experience. In many cases this causes a considerable amount of doubt and concern as he tries to overlay his ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 25 May 2025 1:55:51 pm The Complex Nature of Our Being Impacts Our Ability to Change and Transform Our Lives https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-complex-nature-of-our-being-impacts-our-ability-to-change-and-transform-our-lives Those who identify with their mental being tend to believe that if they think in a certain way, that they have succeeded in embodying that. They will take the thought for the accomplishment without necessarily recognising that their physical actions, their vital energies and even aspects of ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 25 May 2025 9:08:15 am Transitioning From Mental Consciousness to Spiritual Consciousness While Controlling the Vital Nature https://selfgrowth.com/articles/transitioning-from-mental-consciousness-to-spiritual-consciousness-while-controlling-the-vi The mind provides a filter to manage and control the vital forces to a certain degree. While it is not perfect, without it, an individual can become subject to whatever vital energy is active and rising up within him. At the same time, the mind acts as a limitation on the ability of the ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 23 May 2025 5:56:32 pm Resisting and Overcoming the Negative Universal Forces That Try to Control Our Reactions https://selfgrowth.com/articles/resisting-and-overcoming-the-negative-universal-forces-that-try-to-control-our-reactions All consciousness, all energy, all material substance is essential one, although it takes different forms in the external surface consciousness. Vibrational patterns move across the universal creation and forms respond to them if they are able to vibrate within the range of the vibrations. Human ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 22 May 2025 9:35:55 pm The Difference Between Suppression and Removal of a Vital Reaction, Part 2 https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-difference-between-suppression-and-removal-of-a-vital-reaction-part-2 Most people simply “live” their lives and carry out whatever feeling, mood or impetus may be impacting them at the moment. They “become” that movement, whether it is happiness and joy, hunger, anger, ennui, fatigue, or some concentrated state of mind, etc. Their awareness, their conscious ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 21 May 2025 6:43:24 pm The Difference Between Suppression and Removal of a Vital Reaction, Part 1 https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-difference-between-suppression-and-removal-of-a-vital-reaction-part-1 As long as we set our standpoint in the external surface consciousness, we do not have the leverage nor the tools to easily remove an embedded reaction. We tend to take steps to suppress rather than expunge the unwanted energy. This may take the form of an ascetic denial, or an avoidance of ... santoshk@msn.com Tue, 20 May 2025 7:10:33 pm The Need to Employ the Searchlight on Every Aspect of One’s Being https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-need-to-employ-the-searchlight-on-every-aspect-of-one-s-being In its essence, yoga is a form of applied psychology. The practitioner of yoga is attempting to redirect the focus, the responses and the reactions of the being, in many cases having to overcome deeply rooted and embedded instincts, habits, and trained responses, as well as the forces of desire, ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 19 May 2025 6:26:41 pm Developing a Strong Power of Knowledge and Will To Manage and Control the Vital Nature https://selfgrowth.com/articles/developing-a-strong-power-of-knowledge-and-will-to-manage-and-control-the-vital-nature While a reaction may seem to be taking place instantaneously, it is always conditioned by prior acts or events, the chain of cause and effect, dependent origination or the law of karma, however one wants to term it. By adopting the standpoint of the witness consciousness, observing the external ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 18 May 2025 5:51:29 pm Restraining the Response to the Impulses Attractive to the Vital Nature Is the First Step Towards Mastery https://selfgrowth.com/articles/restraining-the-response-to-the-impulses-attractive-to-the-vital-nature-is-the-first-step-t A lesson in control of impulses was described by Homer in The Odyssey. The protagonist, Odysseus is on his ship trying to return home after the Trojan War. He approaches an area that was home to the Sirens, whose alluring voices would lure sailors to their death as the ships crashed among the ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 18 May 2025 9:40:15 am The Excuses We Make to Justify Indulgence https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-excuses-we-make-to-justify-indulgence We make resolutions to change certain behaviours. Our minds are made up. We are certain that we can make the needed change. Many people make ‘new year’s resolutions’ to change something, perhaps to lose weight, to discontinue some habit, to avoid expressing anger, or some other intention we ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 16 May 2025 1:36:51 pm Dealing With the Reactive Impulses of the Vital Nature of the External Personality https://selfgrowth.com/articles/dealing-with-the-reactive-impulses-of-the-vital-nature-of-the-external-personality We tend to be reactive by nature. Something occurs and we immediately capture the vibration and respond to it. Thus we have outbursts of anger when we are frustrated or feel insecure, or when something gets in the way of some idea, intention or movement we want to undertake. An example of this ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 15 May 2025 6:12:49 pm Difficulties Provide the Possibility of Progress https://selfgrowth.com/articles/difficulties-provide-the-possibility-of-progress If we examine the times and phases of our lives, we find that when things seem to be going smoothly forward and we feel great, we want to enjoy and appreciate the good times. We thus tend to slacken our efforts so that we can get the most out of the positive energies we are experiencing. This is ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 14 May 2025 5:39:59 pm The Spiritual Aspirant Marches to the Beat of a Different Drummer Than Those Who Focus on the External Life https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-spiritual-aspirant-marches-to-the-beat-of-a-different-drummer-than-those-who-focus-on-t The spiritual aspirant necessarily has to change the way things have been historically and habitually done in the world if he is to make progress and move beyond the limitations imposed by the body-life-mind complex and all the traditions, rituals, habits, fixed ideas and vital-emotional ... santoshk@msn.com Tue, 13 May 2025 4:27:25 pm Difficulties Are Blessings If We Know How to Face Them https://selfgrowth.com/articles/difficulties-are-blessings-if-we-know-how-to-face-them Whether we term it divine Will, synchronicity, coherence, quantum entanglement, cause and effect, dependent origination, karma, or the law of attraction (or any other terminology), there remains a truth that the specific time, place and circumstance we occupy in the world is due to a stream of ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 12 May 2025 5:27:47 pm Receiving Spiritual Shocks and Trials With Humility Through a Shift of Standpoint Away from the Ego-Consciousness https://selfgrowth.com/articles/receiving-spiritual-shocks-and-trials-with-humility-through-a-shift-of-standpoint-away-from The way we respond to setbacks or difficulties is conditioned by how deeply we are embedded in the ego-consciousness. The individual ego judges everything from its own very limited viewpoint. What it interprets as a negative result or as an obstacle may actually be part of the larger process of ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 11 May 2025 4:54:23 pm Facing Difficulties and Transforming Them at Their Source Is the Path of Integral Yoga https://selfgrowth.com/articles/facing-difficulties-and-transforming-them-at-their-source-is-the-path-of-integral-yoga There are implications for anyone accepting the mission to work toward the evolutionary change of human nature, speeded up by the yogic process. We think we should somehow have amazing spiritual experiences, and live in a world of peace, sunshine and joy. The reality is likely to be far ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 11 May 2025 10:05:07 am Understanding and Persevering Through the Darkness and the Delays in the Process of Spiritual Realisation https://selfgrowth.com/articles/understanding-and-persevering-through-the-darkness-and-the-delays-in-the-process-of-spiritu When we are confronted with difficulties, we employ several different types of responses, mainly depending on instinct, habit, training and the play of the three Gunas, the qualities of Nature, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas. Sometimes we respond with more effort, sometimes we lapse into depression and ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 9 May 2025 5:18:56 pm Addressing Obstacles, Difficulties and Resistances That Arise for the Spiritual Seeker https://selfgrowth.com/articles/addressing-obstacles-difficulties-and-resistances-that-arise-for-the-spiritual-seeker Traditionally spiritual paths have developed guidelines and practices that are applied to everyone as set practices. Thus, some people wind up learning particular forms of meditation or concentration, devotion, or dedicated work, or they practice specific forms of hatha yoga, pranayama or other ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 8 May 2025 6:14:20 pm The Spiritual Seeker and the Material World https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-spiritual-seeker-and-the-material-world One of the habits that has built up over many millennia among spiritual practitioners is the ingrained idea that Matter and Spirit are essentially irreconcilable and that in order to pursue the spiritual life one must be willing to give up and abandon the material life. Material life and a focus ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 8 May 2025 8:49:21 am Consciousness Exists in Matter and Responds to Caring Good Will https://selfgrowth.com/articles/consciousness-exists-in-matter-and-responds-to-caring-good-will When we look at existence from the point of view of our material consciousness, we tend to treat material things as ‘inanimate objects’ without consciousness. We attribute to plants, and then to animals, increasing levels of conscious awareness and with the advent of the mental consciousness, we ... santoshk@msn.com Tue, 6 May 2025 5:53:25 pm Overcoming Fatigue and Lack of Energy Through Receptivity to the Higher Planes of Consciousness https://selfgrowth.com/articles/overcoming-fatigue-and-lack-of-energy-through-receptivity-to-the-higher-planes-of-conscious People who reside in communities adjacent to the beach regularly see visitors stretched out on the sand, ostensibly sleeping while ‘working on their tan’, in some cases for the entire stay of a vacation. When asked, these people indicate that they are taking a well-earned vacation and just want ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 5 May 2025 6:16:42 pm Overcoming the Tendency to Rehash Past Work or Worry About Future Work https://selfgrowth.com/articles/overcoming-the-tendency-to-rehash-past-work-or-worry-about-future-work We spent a considerable amount of our time rehashing events and actions that are past, analyzing them, worrying about whether we have done things correctly or not, and reflecting on how we might deal with similar events in the future in a better way. We recount what happened during our day to ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 5 May 2025 9:48:12 am Finding the Balance Between Activity and Rest https://selfgrowth.com/articles/finding-the-balance-between-activity-and-rest With the advent of modern society, the instantaneous technological experience, and an external life that puts a value on being active, being productive, we see the increased pressure for people to stay in motion without taking into account the factor of fatigue and the need for rest. People tend ... santoshk@msn.com Sat, 3 May 2025 11:16:49 pm The Spirit of the Yoga of Works https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-spirit-of-the-yoga-of-works While we live and act from the standpoint of the individual ego-personality, we measure and respond to everything based on how it impacts us personally and directly, and judge things based on that impact. This leads us to treat as positive, those events and interactions that satisfy our desires, ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 2 May 2025 9:19:14 pm Shifting the Motive Power of Action from the External Being to the Psychic Being https://selfgrowth.com/articles/shifting-the-motive-power-of-action-from-the-external-being-to-the-psychic-being For most people the impulsion to action comes from a need, desire or ambition of some sort. If these are removed, the individual can become depressed and fall into a state that lacks motivation and thereby reduces their energy when it comes to doing anything. We frequently see people, (or ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 1 May 2025 6:43:00 pm Spiritually Effective Work Depends on the Inner Attitude https://selfgrowth.com/articles/spiritually-effective-work-depends-on-the-inner-attitude Whenever we act in the world, whether it is a job, or any kind of activity that involves the expression of energy in the external world, whether physical, vital, mental, etc. we generally do so with a particular ambition, motivation, desire or need. It could be based on physical needs for food, ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 30 Apr 2025 6:14:40 pm Concentration of Conscious Force Through Work Can Bring Deeper Realisations https://selfgrowth.com/articles/concentration-of-conscious-force-through-work-can-bring-deeper-realisations In the Taittiriya Upanishad, Sri Aurobindo translates the term tapasya variously as ‘concentration in thought’ or ‘concentration of force’. Elsewhere he aligns the terms chit-shakti as ‘consciousness-force’, co-equal with the principles of sat, existence and ananda, bliss as the supreme ... santoshk@msn.com Tue, 29 Apr 2025 4:58:20 pm Treating All Work As Karma Yoga https://selfgrowth.com/articles/treating-all-work-as-karma-yoga When the spiritual aspiration awakens in an individual, he often feels like he has to leave his employment and take up some work that is more ‘spiritual’. He tends to equate the type of work with some ill-defined spiritual nature. Thus, we frequently see spiritual people, and organizations, take ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 28 Apr 2025 5:53:23 pm Spiritual Development Can Occur Regardless of One’s Activities in the World https://selfgrowth.com/articles/spiritual-development-can-occur-regardless-of-one-s-activities-in-the-world From early childhood we are inculcated with the idea of achieving success, becoming foremost and occupying a position of power, prestige or wealth in the world. Parents drum this idea into the mind of their children that they need to study, attain degrees, choose suitable (lucrative) careers, ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 27 Apr 2025 3:10:03 pm Self-Dedication to the Divine Through Work https://selfgrowth.com/articles/self-dedication-to-the-divine-through-work The ego-personality almost always interprets external activity, work, by an arbitrary measure of value, in many cases, monetary, but in some cases, based on the benefits provided to the society. Religious and spiritual institutions frequently take up work that is considered to be charitable in ... santoshk@msn.com Sat, 26 Apr 2025 3:48:38 pm The Yoga of Nature, Spiritual Sadhana and the Transformation of Action Into a Conscious Expression of the Divine Will https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-yoga-of-nature-spiritual-sadhana-and-the-transformation-of-action-into-a-conscious-expr All life, our entire existence, whether we are actively involved in a conscious spiritual discipline, or living a ‘normal’ life in the world following the demands of our needs, desires, relationships and ambitions, etc. is a field of growth, experience and develop. We respond to opportunities, ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 25 Apr 2025 5:08:19 pm Action According to One’s Own Svabhava and Svadharma https://selfgrowth.com/articles/action-according-to-one-s-own-svabhava-and-svadharma People who take up spiritual life frequently believe that they should change their line of work and focus in the external world. In some cases, this is a recognition of the inner being’s guidance as the individual awakens to his true calling. In other cases, however, this is a mistaken belief ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 24 Apr 2025 7:28:58 pm How Do We Determine Our Destined Role in the World? — Part 4 https://selfgrowth.com/articles/how-do-we-determine-our-destined-role-in-the-world-part-4 It is only in still waters that we can see our reflection. Swami Vivekananda in his lectures on Raja Yoga, describes the mind-stuff (chitta), and how impressions, desires, observations and thoughts all disturb the stillness of the mind-stuff. He also describes methods of bringing it to a status ... santoshk@msn.com Wed, 23 Apr 2025 7:43:37 pm How Do We Determine Our Destined Role in the World? — Part 3 https://selfgrowth.com/articles/how-do-we-determine-our-destined-role-in-the-world-part-3 Today’s world provides people with both an obstacle and an opportunity when they try to follow their chosen or cherished path in life. The obstacle is based on societal requirement that individuals take up a productive form of work in the world to earn enough money to support their needs for ... santoshk@msn.com Tue, 22 Apr 2025 5:28:27 pm How Do We Determine Our Destined Role in the World? — Part 2 https://selfgrowth.com/articles/how-do-we-determine-our-destined-role-in-the-world-part-2 One reason we do not have a sense of our purpose or role in the world, generally, is that we do not examine deeply our inner predilections or the trajectory of our lives. We interpret our lives based on external criteria and motives without appreciating that there is another driving force behind ... santoshk@msn.com Mon, 21 Apr 2025 6:56:32 pm How Do We Determine Our Destined Role in the World? — Part 1 https://selfgrowth.com/articles/how-do-we-determine-our-destined-role-in-the-world-part-1 Dannion Brinkley told the story in his book Saved By the Light. He was a mercenary, a hired killer. He was struck by lightning. He was pronounced clinically dead. He returned to life. He knew, at that moment, that he was ‘sent back’ to accomplish a task, a mission. He left behind his prior life ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 20 Apr 2025 4:41:19 pm The Inner Being Determines the Formations of the Outer Existence https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-inner-being-determines-the-formations-of-the-outer-existence We tend to work from the outer to the inner consciousness. We treat the external world as more real and dominant to determine our physical body, our vital nature and our mental development. There is of course a certain amount of truth to this view, inasmuch as the outer and the inner are two ... santoshk@msn.com Sun, 20 Apr 2025 10:28:18 am Aligning the External Nature With the Inner Spiritual Aspiration https://selfgrowth.com/articles/aligning-the-external-nature-with-the-inner-spiritual-aspiration People espousing their philosophy of how to act in the world are often confronted by a disconnect between their statements and their own actions. They frequently tell children, for instance, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ If we assume that the person is not simply motivated by pure self-interest ... santoshk@msn.com Fri, 18 Apr 2025 12:33:30 pm The Greatest Help a Spiritual Seeker Can Give to Others https://selfgrowth.com/articles/the-greatest-help-a-spiritual-seeker-can-give-to-others Modern day civilization emphasizes some kind of external 'result' that can be measured. Most frequently this is tied to a monetary value, but the world also appreciates and honors, in some cases, those who do humanitarian work, those who lead countries or fight wars, those who create new ... santoshk@msn.com Thu, 17 Apr 2025 12:27:04 pm

View Site in Mobile | Classic