Ask Alok da
We know of so many people who are facing impossible situations and problems and they are helpless. They do not know what to do or whom to ask.Â
This is a dedicated site for those who are searching for answers, who want to break from their present repeating circles of life and looking for answers that will understand them, help them find a new way-a new solution towards life beautiful and Divine.
Dear Sir, The Durga Stotra was written by Sri Aurobindo and it was published in the magazine Dharma on its 18th October 1909 issue. My question is whether that was written to hasten the Revolutionary movement creating awareness among people of India or for any Spiritual purpose🤔?
Among the many unique truths revealed by Sri Aurobindo, one of them is the truth of the Nation-Soul. This truth glimpsed by the ancient seers
Nothing brings more happiness than a pure and disinterested love💗. -The Mother, CWM-16, P. 172. Bhai ji please elaborate a little more on the meaning of disinterested love here.
Disinterested means not influenced by personal interests or selfish reasons. It means loving someone not because of what we can get out of the person
I wanted to ask about queen Catherine of Russia, since she was a Vibhuti’s of the Mothers, what was her role in the history of Russia, world? Also a lot of things have been said about her having many relationships with many men, was it true 🤨?Â
Yes she was indeed a Vibhuti of the Mother, in fact her immediately previous incarnation. The Mother recounts in one of her
Alok da, why do you think divorce rates are rising these days? I often hear parents say that today’s generation lacks the patience to work through relationship issues. Do you think that’s true?
There are number of reasons. The most important among them is that there is a shift from the old order to the new one. The
Alok da, why are special children born? Parents aspire for the best possible offsprings, then why this result? Why do souls make such choices😥?
Special children (i suppose you mean differently abled children) are not due to soul choices. In fact the soul has to reach certain degree of
How can one know what is the divine will🤔?
It is only when we get rid of mental influences and other preferences that in the quietude the Divine Will emerges as a strong and
Bhai is there any difference between Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s photo and Relics? Or both are carrying same vibration and presence for us😊?
The photograph is more personal. It is not just a vibration but a Presence. Sri Aurobindo spoke of the Mother’s Presence in the photograph. One
Last night, I had another dream in which I saw some people attacking my girlfriend and trying to kill her. When she became weak and someone stepped forward to kill her, someone else intervened and killed all those negative people. However, my girlfriend was badly hurt. I was taking her away, and she was telling me that she was going to die. I was reassuring her that nothing would happen to her and that she would be fine. Then I saw a trolley full of sweets, and she was saying that she had died. But I was supporting her and telling her that everything was fine. Then she asked for water, and the dream ended. Can you please explain this dream🫨?
The girlfriend is some part or energy of Nature that you are most identified with. It is being attacked by certain adverse formations but in
I have been listening to you and reading collected works of mother which I have not finished yet and I aspire to walk on Sri Aurobindo’s Integral yoga path. My question is: despite everything i constantly feel the urge of becoming a mother which wasn’t there till I was 29..I keep aspiring but this urge constantly hit me. Can you put some light on it. How shall I overcome it😳?
The urge for motherhood is natural in women. It is a biological instinct strongly ingrained in us. If one ignores it for sometime it tends
Why do we sleep on a pillow🤨?
We need not do so. It is a habit formed by our seeking for comfort but in some ways a bad habit if we do
How to decide whether to have kids or no? On one hand I am worried about my ability to be a good father while even struggling to take up responsibility of being a good partner, good son. On the other, it feels so much joy to think about upbringing a child in the world. There is also a factor of my wife’s age (35) which sort of brings this question to urgent. I grew up where my parents fought a lot and they still do. Me and my wife too have our set of fights.. But we do consciously strive to get better.. and we are..But the fights and shouting at times does happen. What would happen to the child? Cannot expect for this to go away like a switch. I am not sure how to think about all of this altogether😥.
The coming of a child no doubt brings joy but also a lot of responsibility. The decision has to be taken consciously based on whether
How do mosquitoes bite us ?
They have a needle like structure called proboscis attached to their mouth. When they sit on the human skin this needle goes into a blood
In raising children how can we balance equanimity and discipline🤨?Â
Equanimity is an inner state. Discipline is an outer method. When we have love in the heart and true understanding then we can teach children
Where the British Empire needed to come in India were they useful🤨?
It was needed for bringing the materialistic western culture with the eastern spirituality for each other’s growth and eventual benefit. It laid the foundations of
I see a lot of people nowadays in the spiritual community going for Vipassana retreats. I don’t need to explain what it is. On the other hand, a lot of devotees of Mother don’t spend many hours meditating. To my rational mind, it seems like those who practise vipassana 10 hours a day seem to be making a lot of progress because of their tapasya. On the other hand, I feel no inclination to follow this path. Can you give an overview of the significance of vipassana meditation from the Integral Yoga’s standpoint🤔?
Vipassana meditation is a good practice to quieten the mind. The same can be achieved through the practice of Witnessing or inculcating the Sakshi bhav.
Pranam Alok da. I stay in Kolkata and I’ve been having the worst war anxiety. It’s been 6 months and I’ve been getting anxious 🫨about absolutely anything and everything from my external environment especially this month. I kept thinking something will happen to me or my family or my home. Before this, I’ve always had faith on the Mother but this time I’ve spiraled like never before. I’ve thought of the worst scenarios, imagined attacks on my home, haven’t let my family go out of the house even for work which is silly because we’re in Kolkata, which is far from the border.
How to stop such bad thoughts from coming in and more importantly, how to keep faith in such scenarios? Turn the mind away rather than
In Synthesis, Sri Aurobindo says that the only way to attain the goal of Yoga is for the individual to have no other aims in life. Hence, one must only have one goal. I see with me this is very clearly not the case, and I feel very drawn to Sri Aurobindo and Mother, I like to read them, to listen to their disciples, to come to the ashram, to meditate, but still I have soo many desires outside of that. I want to become great, I want to succeed in everything I do, I want to look good, I want to have a lot of money and power, and so many other things outside of the spiritual realm. It’s not that I feel guilty about having these things; rather, I sometimes question whether my spiritual efforts are at all useful in such a case. Am I not deceiving myself by trying to follow Sri Aurobindo and Mother when in reality I am still driven by ambition and desire😳? Perhaps my time of renunciation will come, but I feel it would be premature to give up these things without having attained them.
In the Synthesis itself and in the same chapter Sri Aurobindo also says this.
‘The intellect has been interested, the heart attracted, the will has
First Dream: In the first dream, I am in a village, and a tiger appears, attacking people😫. Everyone runs away to escape the tiger. While running, we hide near the water tank’s outlet. Some people hide elsewhere. Then I look back and see a locked house and an empty temple nearby with no idol but with items for worship. I suggest to everyone that we should go into the house to be safe from the tiger. As soon as we enter the temple, instead of the tiger, a woman’s spirit (a witch) appears, flying in the air and killing everyone with her nails. We go inside the temple, but the witch follows us because there is no idol. I say we need to place an idol of Lord Ganesh there and perform the ritual. We leave the temple, find an idol, perform the ritual, and then the witch cannot enter the temple. But she stays outside, attacking those who remain there. The entire village comes to the temple for safety. I tell everyone to apply vermillion (sindoor) on their bodies, so the witch will not harm them. We should hide in the nearby house and sprinkle vermillion outside, so the witch cannot enter. Some of us will go and kill her. Can you please explain this?
The first dream indicates being chased by adverse vital forces which are probably moving around in the village environment. The solution is to grow in