Gratitude

Gratitude is an uncommon virtue though taught from man’s childhood. Its opposite number ingratitude, even aggressive ingratitude, is quite common in the human race. It has been so from the earliest times. Scriptures, dramas, literary works speak of it. But the situation has not changed much, rather it has worsened, and now it is said that dogs and some other animals are more grateful than men.

There is a story from the Mother. Once upon a time there was an assembly of Virtues. Gods and goddesses representing the virtues came and were happy in the reunion. Suddenly there was someone, dressed in white, entering the hall. Who could it be? They had thought that they all were there. The stranger was Gratitude.

Yes, gratitude is a quality of the psychic.

Madame Suvrata Gaebele gave an instance of the Mother’s sense of gratitude. Her brother had once helped the Mother in her visa matter, and this help Mother would gratefully mention whenever someone would complain to her against them.

A perfect example of gratefulness for a single act of kindness.

In fact there are instances in abundance of Mother’s remembrance of kindness and help that would be easily forgotten by us.

Then there is another gratitude, a gratitude of another level. As there is gratitude of man to man, there is a gratitude of man to the Divine.

That is what is expected of the seeker of God.

A self –willed man has the ingrained nature of giving credit to himself, to his own capacity and worth for whatever he receives or achieves. So he remains far from feeling grateful. But the seeker of God has to overcome his self-will, his limited self-personality. In the process, he learns to be grateful.

Grateful to whom? To man, to Nature, to God.

Our psychic recognizes what the divine is doing for us, how the Grace is carrying us through. It is a recognition with humbleness and devotion. Gratitude is a spontaneous outflow from this psychic perception.


(Shyam Sunder Jhunjhuwala, From the Editor’s Desk, ‘Some Socio-Spiritual Perspectives’, Sri Aurobindo Action, Pondicherry)

Walking in Light: Body Weight

The column “Walking in Light” is back on track, after a few issues of absence, due to reasons already published. In the last few issues, topics ranging from food, sleep and dreams were cursorily visited. In this comeback issue, the topic examined is “Body Weight”.

It was reported in Pucher (2010) that over the last 30 years, the rate of obesity has increased and to date, the World Health Organisation puts the number on obese adults around the world at 300 million. This seems to be directly related to the growth of affluence, which puts at our easy disposal readily available calories-rich food for our consumption and at the same time, automation that reduces physical activities considerably. Obesity raises the alarm bell for several life-threatening diseases such as high-blood pressure or hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and angina, gout, gallstones and fatty livers (Pucher, 2010). A healthy life-style rests on a healthy regime of food intake, exercises, rest and relaxation. With these will usually fall into place a healthy and acceptable body weight, together with a body that provides one with a firm material support and basis for all activities in life.

What is one’s acceptable weight? A useful measure of whether one is overweight or not is through the Body Mass Index (BMI). This is calculated based on Weight divided by the square of Height:

BMI
Underweight Below 18.5
Normal 18.5–24.9
Overweight 25.0–29.9
Obesity 30.0 and Above

Body Weight/ Height Squared = BMI

The Body Mass Index gives an approximation on how heavy an individual should be at different heights. BMI is also an estimate of body fat and can serve as a good gauge of fat related health risks. To compute your BMI using the BMI calculator, you can visit the following website by the American based National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmi-m.htm.

The two most important determinants of weight are the intake of the right types and amounts of food and adequate measure of activities in the course of the day. Essentially, this translates into a formula of input equating output and not one in excess of the other, which spells either an underweight or an overweight condition.

Keeping the body trim and fit is an essential component of Integral Yoga, for the purpose of introducing more and more perfection in the way the body functions and to increase in it suppleness in order to be able to function in works dedicated to the Divine in increasing levels of perfection.

The future newsletters will examine weight related issues in some detail.

- Jayanthy

Reference
1. Pucher, J., et al. (2010). Walking and Cycling to Health – A Comparative Analysis of City, State and International Data. American Journal of Public Health, October 2010, Vol. 100, No 100 P 1986 – 1992.
2. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, USA. Website: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmi-m.htm.

Integral Enrichment program: Walk at the Southern ridges

There are people who love adventure. It is these I call, and I tell them this: "I invite you to the great adventure." It is not a question of repeating spiritually what others have done before us, for our adventure begins beyond that.

It is a question of a new creation, entirely new, with all the unforeseen events, the risks, the hazards it entails - a real adventure, whose goal is certain victory, but the road to which is unknown and must be traced out step by step, in the unexplored.

Something that has never been in this present universe and that will never be again in the same way. If that interests you... well, let us embark. What will happen to you tomorrow, I have no idea. One must put aside all that has been foreseen, all that has been devised, all that has been constructed and then... set off walking into the unknown. And - come what may!
The Mother

Dear Children,

We invite you to join us on this great adventure, one in which we would like to explore what The Mother has written about education through a series of intellectually and spiritually enriching activities.

Our upcoming activity is a walk along Singapore Southern Ridges trail. Join us for this relaxing walk a we explore the greenery of a set of trails and have a picnic dinner in a secret garden.

Date: 26th December 2010
Time: Report by 4.30pm at Harbour Front MRT station. We request participants to be punctual as it is difficult to join us half way through the walk.

More information: Participants are to wear loose comfortable clothing, carry plenty of water and bring a light picnic lunch. As there will be activities on the road, please RSVp you attendance for us to plan accordingly.

If you need further information, please contact Kiruthika (kimira1012@yahoo.fr) at 9649 0670, ShreeValli (msvy001@hotmail.com ) at 90266795 or Jayanthy (k.jayanthy@gmail.com) at 9652 2197.

Faith

You flame up and triumph.
- The Mother

Common Name: Chinese hibiscus
Botanical Name: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis
Spiritual Name: Faith

Editorial

Faith. This seems ingrained in the very movement of life, in its very substance. Standing along a very crowded street of Bangalore, India, I watch a dog, waiting by the side of the road. It was watching the passing traffic, quite obviously deciding whether to cross and if so, when. I watched the dog make a move to cross as auto-rickshaws were speedily and noisily manoeuvring their way past cars and pedestrians. After a narrow escape from a speeding SUV, the dog made its way across the road. Was faith behind this movement, which over-ruled the inborn survival instinct which would have prevented any of us mortals from crossing the roads at great moments of peril, uncertainty and imminent danger?

What is it that is embedded as a seed deep inside an action that one carries out? Is it not the faith that one, firstly has to carry out an action, secondly, can carry out the action and thirdly, that the fruit that one was looking for through the action will fall right on one’s hands, no matter how long it may take and how many more efforts of that nature? It appears that there is a fundamental seed of faith in us that looks towards the future with optimism.

So what of the pessimists? Even in a pessimist, faith must be inherent though one would hear the voice of denial sounding strong. How many steps forward the pessimist would have taken in the dark, in blindness! Would it not have been still a faith inherent within that would have pushed him onwards, even in darkness although he strives on negating and denying all possibilities of the ideal and the better something from manifesting? It is indeed difficult to imagine a life without faith. Life would probably cease to exist without faith, in all likelihood.

How many of us can say that we have had the fore-knowledge of exactly how to chart one’s life? Faith seems a necessity in a thinking species that cannot divine its own future in concrete ways.

Faith brings one along virgin paths giving rise to ground-breaking discoveries and victories, big or small, internal or external. Faith is indeed, something intrinsically beautiful. Faith brings people closer. Faith makes things happen. Faith creates wonders. Absolute faith arises from the heart filled with love and if that love is an absolute love for the Divine, untold miracles happen.

For one who has plunged into the ocean of this yoga, sometimes supported by calm waters and sometimes thrown about and swept along by turbulent waves, faith is about the only rudder with which one may keep the boat of one’s life from capsizing and perhaps manage even to row towards the shores of God’s island. Demanded from the sadhak, according to Sri Aurobindo, is “not an ignorant but a luminous faith, a faith in light and not in darkness.” Contemplating upon these lines alone opens vistas of light before one! Faith is beautiful because faith is blind. Faith relies on nothing less than on seemingly unsubstantiated total trust in the highest that is to be realized. Faith has least reliance on mental reasoning and intellectual conjectures or on physical evidence.

Sri Aurobindo explains that there are four realms of action of faith, corresponding to the different planes of our being. Mental faith is that which “combats doubts and helps to open to the true knowledge”; vital faith “prevents the attack of hostile forces or defeats them and helps to open to the true spiritual will and action” and physical faith brings one through “physical obscurity, inertia or suffering and helps to open to the foundation of the true consciousness”. There is last, psychic faith that is in “direct touch” with the Divine, open to Its direct influence and “helps to bring union and surrender”, conditions for the upward spiritual march.

From Savitri

Happy are they who in this chaos of things,
This coming and going of the feet of Time,
Can find the single Truth, the eternal Law:
Untouched they live by hope and doubt and fear.
Happy are men anchored on fixed belief
In this uncertain and ambiguous world,
Or who have planted in the heart’s rich soil
One small grain of spiritual certitude.
Happiest who stand on faith as on a rock.

(Savitri, Book 7, Canto 3)

Question of the month

Q: Sweet Mother, I don’t understand very clearly the difference between faith, belief and confidence?

A: The Mother: But Sri Aurobindo has given the full explanation here. He has written “Faith is a feeling in the whole being”

The whole being yes. Faith, that’s the whole being at once. He says that belief is something that occurs in the head, that is purely mental; and confidence is quite different. Confidence- one can have confidence in life, trust in the Divine, trust in others, trust in one’s own destiny, that is, one has the feeling that everything is going to help him, to do what he wants to do.

Faith is a certitude without any proof.


Q: Mother, on what does faith depend?

A: The Mother: Probably on Divine Grace. Some people have it spontaneously. There are others who need to make a great effort to have it.


Q: If one has faith in the Divine and also trust, what is the difference between faith and trust?

A: The Mother: Faith is something much more integral - that is what Sri Aurobindo has written- much more integral than trust. You see, you have trust in the Divine, in the sense that you are convinced that all that comes from Him will always be the best for you: whatever His decision and whatever the experience He sends you or the circumstances in which He puts you, it will all be always what is best for you. This is trust. But faith – that kind of unshakable certitude in the very existence of God- faith in something that seizes the whole being. It is not only mental, psychic or vital: it is the whole being, entirely, which has faith. Faith leads straight to experience.


(‘CWM- Volume 6’, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1979, published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram)