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The One Essential Thing in Spiritual Development Is an Inward Focus of the Awareness on the Divine Presence · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  In the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2, verse 54, Arjuna asks Sri
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  Krishna how to recognize the enlightened man.
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  Sri Orbindo translates quote. What is the sign of the man in
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  Samati whose intelligence is firmly fixed in wisdom?
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  How does the sage of settled understanding speak?
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  How sit, how walk? End Quote.
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  Sri Arbindo goes on to explain quote Arjuna voicing the average
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  human mind ask for some outward, physical, practically
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  discernible sign of samadhi. No such signs can be given, nor
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  does the teacher attempt to supply them, for the only
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  possible test of its possession is inward, and that there are
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  plenty of hostile psychological forces to apply.
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  Equality is the great stamp of the liberated soul, and of that
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  equality even the most discernible signs are still
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  subjective. End Quote.
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  Reference Bhagavad Gita and its message.
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  In chapter 2, verse 55. Sri Krishna explains further
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  quote When a man expels, O Partha, all desires from the
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  mind and is satisfied in the self by the Self, then is he
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  called stable, an intelligence? End Quote.
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  Sri Orbindo adds quote. The test of samadhi is the
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  expulsion of all desires, their inability to get out the mind,
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  and it is the inner state from which this freedom arises.
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  The delight of the soul gathered within itself, with the mind
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  equal and still and high, poised above the attractions and
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  repulsions, the alternations of sunshine and storm and stress of
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  the external life. It is drawn inward Even when
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  acting outwardly, it is concentrated in self, even when
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  gazing out upon things. It is directed wholly to the
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  Divine, even when to the outward vision of others busy and
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  preoccupied with the affairs of the world.
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  End Quote. This response also relates to
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  the entire life and standpoint of the individual.
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  External actions such as focus on Sutwick diet, moderation in
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  eating, regulation of 1's external activities have their
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  place, but the real test for the seeker is the shift to the inner
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  psychic standpoint and identification with the Divine
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  Presence. To the extent the seeker fixates
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  so much on external details and fails to direct his awareness
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  and energies towards the spiritual realization, he is
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  actually defeating his own purpose.
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  Systematically removing the element of vital desire in all
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  its forms and creating the inner attitude of surrender to the
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  Divine is the one essential thing to be done, Srioro Bindu
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  observes. Quote all these giving up
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  indulgence in food, tea, et cetera are external things that
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  have their use. But what I mean by the complete
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  attitude of the Sadiq is something more inward.
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  I mean not to be interested in outward things for their own
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  sake, following after them with desire, but at all times to be
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  intent on one's soul living centrally in the inner being and
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  its progress, taking outward things in action only as a means
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  for the inner progress. End Quote.
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  Reference. Shriya Robindo and the Mother
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  Looking from within. Chapter 5.
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  Attitudes on the Path, pages 167 to 168.