Growth
Tapasya and Surrender: The Paradoxical Process of Self-Transformation*
By Manoj Pavithran — Jan 15, 2025
When considering the concept of tapas, a Sanskrit word often translated into English as austerity, we perceive an active will of concentrated effort. Conversely, the term ‘surrender‘ evokes the notion of a profound receptive passivity. How do these seemingly contradictory movements, one active and the other passive, converge in the process of our self-transformation? A simple analogy to facilitate their integration is to envision surrender as the bridge connecting the human tapas to the divine tapas.
The Blessing of Misfortune
By The Mother — Jul 15, 2024
If through misfortune one sees the face of God, then it is no longer misfortune, is it?
Facing the Hostile Forces
By James Anderson — Jul 15, 2024
The hostile forces are a reality of everyday life. They are lurking everywhere and get invited by some chink in our nature. They rush in and drag us down whenever they find resonance. They love to infiltrate the growing soul. It requires sincerity and a strong will to rid ourselves of them. We need to watch our own impurities and immediately catch and expel them if they ever gain access inside. Constant realignment shields us from them. In Integral Yoga, the ultimate protection lies in the Mother’s loving arms.
What Resonates with You?
By James Anderson — Apr 24, 2024
What we resonate with is a reflection of our inner condition. We must develop and bring forward the ‘inner’ sides of our instrumental nature before we can resonate more truly and onto a higher frequency. With the richness of the Inner Being, residing between the Outer Being and the Soul-space, beauty will come back to us.
Preparing and Opening the Being to the Higher Force
By Monica Gulati — Apr 24, 2024
For a long period of time, we try to find temporary resolutions and harmonies in our life, through the tool of a half-lit ordinary mind and reason. And it does serve a purpose to our growth and understanding. But after we have been long enough in the domain of this logical-analytical mind, and after we have tried at infinite instances to find resolutions, no matter how decent or worthy, on the same level, something still feels limited, and amiss. It seems like that is the time when one can rise above the conceptual, dualistic mind, and access the calm, peace and higher Force of Consciousness above the mind. It is at such a stage that an aspiration from below rises upwards and stations the consciousness above the physical mind which is still stable, like an open, ready receptacle.