Start With the Person in the Mirror
“By action most, and not by thought and speech alone, can the will of a people be vivified, trained and made solid and enduring.” — Sri Aurobindo Some people dream of change—they keep doing what they’ve always done but wish for different results. Others demand change through the mediums of prose, poetry, and speeches. There […]
Don’t Break the Streak
“That which tastes like poison at first, but tastes like nectar in the end — this is the joy of sattva. . . Pleasure from the senses seem like nectar at first, but it is bitter as poison in the end.” — Bhagavad Gita Remember Snapchat streaks? Breaking them felt like the friendship with the […]
Is It a Dream? Or Is It a Goal?
“Wish and will are not the same thing, but divided by a great gulf: the one, which is all most of us get to, is a puny, tepid, and inefficient thing, and, even when most enthusiastic, easily discouraged and turned from its object; the other can be a giant to accomplish and endure.” — Sri […]
The Simplest Formula for Success
“The real difficulty is always in ourselves, not in our surroundings. There are three things necessary in order to make men invincible, Will, Disinterestedness, and Faith.” — Sri Aurobindo Do you remember the last time a passion project of yours failed? Maybe you wanted to make art, learn a new subject, or start a business. […]
What Is Reality?
“. . . [T]he true reality is that which is hidden; otherwise, there would be no need of the prophet, the philosopher, the poet and the artist.” — Śrī Aurobindo While investigating the kidnapping of a racehorse named Silver Blaze, Inspector Lestrade asks Sherlock Holmes if there is something they should pay attention to. “The […]
How To Gain Experience as a Fresher
“The University cannot and does not pretend to complete a man’s education; it merely gives some materials to his hand or points out certain paths he may tread, and it says to him,—“Here are the materials I have given into your hands, it is for you to make of them what you can;” or —“These […]
Understand Fully How Things Work
“There are three elements necessary to correct reasoning, first, the correctness of facts or conclusions that I start from, secondly, the completeness as well as accuracy of the data I start from, thirdly, the elimination of other possible or impossible conclusions from the same facts.” — Sri Aurobindo In our minds, we see ourselves as […]
The Shortcut Is Often the Longer Route
“Labour, however vast, ought not to have any terrors for a scholar, still less for a Hindu scholar; yet before one engages in it, one requires to be assured that the game is worth the candle.” — Sri Aurobindo A group of scholars intended to study an epic of the Bhāratas written by Krishna of […]
You Can Do Anything, But Not Everything
“To find your vocation and keep it… is a simple and solid rule of life. We however prefer to give impartial expression to all our gifts, forgetting that the mind is as mortal and as much subject to wear and tear as any perishable thing, forgetting that specialism is one condition of the highest accomplishment, […]
What Matters More Than Genius
“With a limited creature like man, the power of environment is immense. Genius it is true exists independently of the environment. . . but it is the environment that makes self-expression easy and natural; that provides sureness, verve, and stimulus.”
– Sri Aurobindo