Sri Aurobindo: The Last Avatar w/ Neelesh Marik | TCM #33 (Part 1)

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Neelesh Marik joins Bernhard Guenther to talk about Sri Aurobindo and the Integral Yoga on this episode of the Cosmic Matrix Podcast. Neelesh shares about the concept of the “avatar”, the life and different phases of Sir Aurobindo’s ascension journey, the intensifying battle of dark and light during the Kali Yuga, the different stages of spiritual evolution, the trap of the over-riding mental guard/skeptic, the animal nature and the divine nature within human beings, the resistance of humanity and the refusal to rise to become “spiritualized”, the gnostic being of the future, and more.

In the second hour, Neelesh shares the key principles of Integral Yoga, the process of Involution and Evolution, the emergence of the psychic being within, the difference and interrelationship between Soul (Purusha) and Nature (Prakriti), and the necessity to establish the inner witness. Furthermore, Neelesh talks about the difference between rejection and suppression/repression, Sri Aurobindo’s concept of “aspiration, rejection, & surrender”, the difference between the forces of nature, the occult adverse forces, and the occult hostile forces and how they show up in our lives and in the collective (along with their teaching function), the concept of the warrior from the Integral Yoga perspective during this time of upheaval, spiritual activism, and much more.

Suggested Reading:

• Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness by Satprem
• The Life Divine by Sri Aurobindo
• The Synthesis of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo
• Letters on Yoga by Sri Aurobindo
• Savitri – A Legend and a Symbol by Sri Aurobindo
• The Practice of The Integral Yoga by Jugal Kishore Mukherjee

Video:

Show Notes Part 1:

• The concept of the avatar
• The nature of the play of cosmic forces
• The battle of dark and light has become fiercer
• The Kali Yuga
• The necessity of the incarnation/manifestation of the Supreme Force
• The difference between Sri Aurobindo/The Mother and other teachers/masters that have come before them
• Sir Aurobindo’s upbringing and early life as a political revolutionary
• The Ascension journey of Sri Aurobindo and different phases of his work
• Experiencing Nirvana was just the beginning and not the end of Sri Aurobindo’s “awakening”, taking his work beyond the individual liberation
• The resistance of humanity and refusal to rise to become spiritualized
• The philosophical foundation of Sri Aurobindo’s work
• The passive and active side of consciousness
• Sat-Chit-Ananda
• Knowledge is power from a yogic perspective
• Incomplete teachings
• Whenever there are gaps/inconsistencies in a teaching (despite well-meaning intentions), the hostile forces can come in and distort/hijack it.
• The necessity for Faith
• The trap of the over-riding mental/intellectual skeptical guard
• Mental/intellectual understanding mistaken for higher spiritual experiences
• The mental consciousness is a necessary phase which needs to be dropped/opened after its full development
• No stages on the path of spiritual evolution can be skipped
• The Individual, the Universal, and the Transcendent
• The necessity of having developed a healthy ego and Individualized self, separating itself from the group/hive mind before engaging in spiritual esoteric work and trying to get “rid of” the ego.
• Man is a transitional being
• The animal nature and the divine nature
• What does divine nature mean?
• The gnostic being according to Sri Aurobindo
• Integrating the spirit-matter dichotomy/duality
• The 6 philosophical foundations of the spiritual ascension journey:
  • What is reality? (Metaphysics)
  • Who am I? (Self-Knowledge)
  • How do I know? (Epistemology)
  • Why am I here and what am I to do? (Ethics)
  • How do we work together? (Society/Politics)
  • The True and the Beautiful (Aesthetics)
• Reading Sri Aurobindo’s original work consistently will change one’s consciousness over time, an inner alchemical process (depending on the receptivity and mental capacity)
• The difficulty of reading Sri Aurobindo’s work
• The journey of thousands of micro-realizations, building on each other
• Spiritual realizations vs. change of nature (actualization)

In Part 2 (only for members) we’ll be going deeper into:

• The key principles of the Integral Yoga
• The occult hierarchy of existence
• The Involution and Evolution (Descend and Ascend)
• All planes of existence exist within us in our body
• The process of yoga is to free the latent powers within us and spiritualize our being
• The vertical and concentric parts of our being
• The emergence of the psychic being/soul from behind the heart
• Soul (Purusha) and Nature (Prakriti)
• The importance of developing the Inner Witness/Observer (aspect of Purusha)
• The movement of nature working through us (Prakriti)
• Old spiritual traditions only worked from the incomplete premise that Nature is all there is and “illusion”
• The different levels of the inner witness
• The trap of the “mental witness”
• Rejection of certain forces vs. Repression/Suppression
• The limitations of shadow work – not everything should be “integrated”
• The highest of all yogas not everyone is ready for
• “This yoga is not for the weak” and “This yoga is a battle” as Sri Aurobindo/The Mother said
• The necessity for stilling the mind
• Meditating above the head connecting to the Supreme/Divine and/or “behind” the heart
• The Divine Mother
• Spiritual Bypassing
• Aspiration – Rejection – Surrender
• The warrior-like surrender
• The necessity for humility
• Acknowledge the existence of the adverse/hostile occult forces but do NOT give any attention to them
• The occult hostile forces are extremely powerful, cunning, and manipulative. Do not give them any chance to enter
• The difference between the forces of nature, the adverse forces, and the hostile forces
• The demonic anti-divine nature of the occult hostile forces which are currently ruling the world in the end times of the Kali Yuga and try to take over humanity, operating on a level of evil/darkness most humans have no clue of
• The necessity to embody the spiritual warrior when dealing with adverse and hostile forces
• The teaching function of the adverse and hostile forces
• The perilous path of conquering the forces within and without
• The triple transformation
• The paradox of the undivine and the divine
• The New Age/pop-spiritual distortion/over-simplification of Oneness, resulting in pacifism/passivity and all kinds of moral deprivations and normalizing pathologies
• The spiritual warrior in service of the divine destroys the undivine but form a place of pure love/compassion without a single trait of hatred
• The difference between Nietzsche’s”superman” and Sri Aurobindo’s “superman”
• The trap of activism/revolutionary action without accessing the Divine
• Righteous anger in service of the Divine (access from above, not through the vital)

Go HERE to listen to Part 2 if you’re a member or REGISTER to become a member to have access to membership section (including the membership forum.)