For Nairji

[Guest guest]

Namaste Nairji

>Let us invite Hershji to expound Auro's interpretation of

>selected, very crucial verses from the GItA.

 

Thank you very much for the trust reposed in me. Such encouragement

from ones seniors both in wisdom in years makes ones heart swell with

joy and provides encouragement to presist on the unknown path which

again can be only pointed out by such seniors. Thank you!. However I

am afraid that I cannot accept your kind offer to expounds Auro's

interpretation of selected Gita verses. The reason which is very

clear to me is that I am simply not up to this task which you in your

paternal encouragement think I am capable of. My words are simply

childish prattle and I am grateful that you and others in the group

should indulgently listen to them.

 

Nairji thank you for sharing experiences of your life with us. Just

as you have your grand

maternal uncle to thank for your intial experiences of Bhakti, my

maternal grand father (Nana) was very influential in our early

introduction to religion. He was an Arya Smaji and a great Karam Yogi

which I think explains my bent towards Karam Yoga. The other

influence was from our paternal grand mother who followed the sanatan

dharam.

 

 

I too got inspiration from reading the "Autobiography Of a Yogi".

However I did not know what to make out of the mystical experiences

(Perfume Baba etc) reported in it. Our swamiji at Chinmaya mission

once recommended this book to us and I asked him what to think about

these experience. He told us to think of these experiences

as "stories" and I took this (swamijis evidence) as competent

evidence. That Aurobindo also had such a mystical experience about

the teachings of the Gita and the Hindu Dharma he reports in his

Uttarpara Speech at http://intyoga.online.fr/uttaspch.htm.

 

 

This also brings me to the question of mystical experiences. I read

William James book "Varieties of Religious Experience" which I

mentioned at advaitin/message/28934.

The conclusion I draw after reading William James book is that a

spiritual awakening is a strong FEELING which, even if experienced

for a second leaves a CERTITUDE which abides so strongly impressed in

a man that he never forgets it and this experience can change ones

outlook for ever. That Aurobindo had such an experience is clear from

his Uttarpara Speech. What we make out of it is the question. James

says that these states are perfectly authoratative for those who have

it. We on the outside must use are normal judgement and intellect to

understand it. He says:

 

(1) Mystical states, when well developed, usually are, and have the

right to be,

absolutely authoritative over the individuals to whom they come.

 

(2) No authority emanates from them which should make it a duty for

those who

stand outside of them to accept their revelations uncritically.

 

(3) They break down the authority of the non-mystical or

rationalistic consciousness,

based upon the understanding and the senses alone. They show it to be

only one kind of consciousness.

 

He further says:

 

"Mystical states indeed wield no authority due simply to their being

mystical states. But the higher ones among them point in directions

to which the religious sentiments even of nonmystical men incline.

They tell of the supremacy of the ideal, of vastness, of union, of

safety, and of rest. They offer us HYPOTHESES, hypotheses which we

may voluntarily ignore, but which as thinkers we cannot possibly

upset. The supernaturalism and optimism to which they would persuade

us may, interpreted in one"

 

warm regards

Hersh