On Life, Love and Relationships
After a break in December, we are back with our new issue, the first one in 2023. Continuing with our series – All Life is Yoga, this time we focus on the theme – Human Relations and Yoga.
The Mother on Love Divine and Human
Divine love is a universal force which descends in even the densest matter. Deeper yearning behind all human love is to unite with the Divine.
Sri Aurobindo on Family Relations in Yoga
Sri Aurobindo elucidates that one of the aims in Integral Yoga is to purify and transform the usual egoistic human love into a purer love towards the Divine at all levels of the being. He also explains that after one enters the spiritual life, the relationship with the Divine take precedence over the ordinary social relations. Either the family relations naturally fall off or become the ground for karmayoga based on the soul’s need.
Friendship and Affection in the Path of Sadhana
Sri Aurobindo guides us on the right place of friendship and affection Integral Yoga. His words about the nature of human love are a must-read.
The Future of the Family (Book Excerpt)
Editor’s note: In our Book of the Month feature, we present some relevant excerpts from Kishor Gandhi’s significant book titled, ‘Social Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and the New Age.’ The following extracts are taken from the 1991 edition published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, pp. 367-372. We have made a few formatting revisions for the …
Sources of Disharmony in Human Relations
These selected passages from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother give us practical guidance on how to handle the sources of disharmony in human relations in daily life. These sources include narrowmindedness, dislike and fault-finding in others.
Insights on Love and Human Relationships – 1
Beloo Mehra weaves together some insights on love and human relationships from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother with examples from Indian literary tradition.
Insights on Love and Human Relationships – 2
The focus in this part is on nature of the human love and how it gets limited and distorted with impurities such as vital attractions, surface emotions, expectations and possessiveness. Human love can be taken as a practice ground to expand and purify oneself to receive the universal force of love.
Insights on Love and Human Relationships – 3
The author highlights the words of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo to throw light on the origin and nature of parental love and love between family relations and friends. We also see how human love and relationships can never satisfy the deep thirst for love which can only be quenched by the divine love.
Shilpi – Who Saw and Sang
For her first contribution to Renaissance, Gayatri Majumdar pens a poem that evokes a range of subtle emotions that make up most of our human relations. And yet there is always that gentle reminder, a call even to transcend the bondage of those emotions toward an inner freedom.
Deepening My Understanding of Relationships
The author shares how her understanding of human relations has been deepening as she makes conscious effort to be an aspirant on the path of Integral Yoga.
Make Not a Bond of Love
How important are human relations in larger scheme of life and our spiritual destiny? A Zen story highlights the attitudes of detachment and equanimity.
Gṛhasthadharma: The Dharma of a Householder
Briefly describing the dharma of a householder, this essay highlights the relevance of the Indian view of gradual human development through stages of life.
Self-giving that Transforms Human Relationships
The author takes a fascinating example from the world of literature to speak of the significance of self-giving in parenting and all human relationships.
Equality and Relations with Others: Advice from Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo gives practical advice on cultivating equality with regard to a sadhak’s interactions and relations with others.
Stick to the Practice and Let the Gratitude Flow
The author reflects on how sincerely persevering in one’s sādhanā becomes the key to allow the heart to experience a deeper gratitude and peace.
