Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra
The doctrine of the three poises of Brahman is the cornerstone in Sri Aurobindo’s edifice of reconciliation. It enables him to hold simultaneously several theses which in other systems are incompatible.
The first and most important reconciliation it makes possible is that between the real world and the non-dual Absolute. By maintaining that Brahman itself is the world, or becomes manifest as the world (cosmic poise), Aurobindo indicates that the world is not a second substance, other than Brahman. Thus Brahman remains “one without a second.” At the same time, the world becomes real, because Brahman is real and its act of manifestation is real. But by insisting that Brahman also has a transcendent poise, he avoids the error of pantheism which would simply identify God and the world. The world, in Aurobindo’s system, has no reality which is not Brahman’s reality, yet the reality of Brahman is not exhausted by the reality of the world.
Making the world consubstantial with Brahman is the surest way to protect its reality against the type of eventual dissolution to which it is subject in Mayavada. A creation out of nothing would not suffice for this purpose, Aurobindo feels. “Nothing” is too reminiscent of Sunya, the Void. That which is made out of nothing is essentially nothing, is an illusion. Here, of course, those familiar with the creation doctrine of the West will feel disappointed that Aurobindo so far failed to understand this thesis as to reject it in this naive way. He nowhere considers the possibility that God could give an act of existence of its own to a creature which previously had no reality whatsoever. However, Aurobindo was not a student of Western metaphysics, nor was he assembling his arguments in terms of a Judaeo-Christian theological context. His context was the Mayavada, and against that background any suggestion of a creation out of nothing would have weakened his case for the reality of the world. As it is, Aurobindo’s position is neither creationist nor emanationist—or else it is a reconciliation of chosen aspects of each view.
Compilations:
- 54 / Preparing for Yoga through Human Love
- 55 / The Descent of Spiritual Peace
- 56 / Peace is most Needed in Sadhana
- 57 / To Prepare for Spiritual Life - Cultivate Equality (Samata)
- 58 / Necessity for Spiritual Perfection is Perfect Equality
- 59 / Fundamental Faith Required in Yoga
- 60 / Faith Precedes Spiritual Experience
- 61 / Regain Faith if Faith Falters
- 62 / Cure from Illness by Faith
- 63 / Courage in Sadhana
- 64 / Humility in Sadhana
- 65 / Sincerity in Sadhana
- 66 / How to Become Absolutely Sincere
- 67 / Insincerity can be Changed in Yoga
The Courage to Be Yourself: E.E. Cummings on Art, Life, and Being Unafraid to Feel
Complement the thoroughly invigorating E.E. Cummings: A Miscellany Revised with a lovely illustrated celebration of Cummings’s creative bravery, then revisit Pulitzer-winning poet Robert Penn Warren on what it really means to find yourself and Janis Joplin on the courage of being what you find.
https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/07/05/e-e-cummings-advice/
The Pain in You and the God in You: Carl Jung on the Relationship Between Psychological Suffering and Creativity
Jung considers the advice he would have given Kierkegaard about how to orient to his suffering, which was the raw material of his philosophical writings: [...] Couple with a forgotten young poet’s extraordinary letter to Emily Dickinson about how to bear your suffering, then revisit Kierkegaard himself on the value of despair.
https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/07/04/carl-jung-neurosis-creativity/
The Art of Losing and the Art of Beckoning Love Back: The Story Behind One of the Greatest Poems Ever Written
Inside the tragedy, a triumph: It is miracle enough to have found blue.
https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/07/03/one-art/
No One You Love Is Ever Dead: Hemingway on the Most Devastating of Losses and the Meaning of Life
Complement with the young Dostoyevsky’s exultation about the meaning of life shortly after his death sentence was repealed, Emily Dickinson on love and loss, Thoreau on living through loss, and Nick Cave — who lived, twice, the unimaginable tragedy of the Murphys — on grief as a portal to aliveness, then revisit the fascinating neuroscience of your brain on grief and your heart on healing.
https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/07/03/hemingway-loss-letter/
How Do You Know That You Love Somebody? Philosopher Martha Nussbaum’s Incompleteness Theorem of the Heart’s Truth, from Plato to Proust
https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/06/30/martha-nussbaum-loves-knowledge/
Kafka’s Approach to Creative Block and the Four Psychological Hindrances That Keep the Gifted from Living Up to Their Gifts
https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/06/26/kafka-diaries-self-doubt/
[PDF] Thinking About Old Age with Simone de Beauvoir
of death; it also requires accepting that the debility and dependency of the “fourth
age”—which are exactly what we seek, in bad faith, to deny—are integral to the …
Integral Education and Epistemic Justice: Gandhi, Tagore, and Sri Aurobindo in Global Discourse
Rabindranath Tagore, and Sri Aurobindo as foundational resources for epistemic
justice in postcolonial and global contexts. Challenging the dominance of …
Developing a Competency Matrix for Faculty Role Alignment in Higher Education: A Triguna Theory Perspective from Indian Philosophy
and recognized part of a faculty member’s professional contribution in Indian higher
education. This institutional expectation is further reinforced by the National …
[PDF] EMOTIONAL REGULATION THROUGH YOGA AND MEDITATION IN INDIAN PSYCHOLOGY
functioning. An experiment on the nature of integral yoga had … Compared to yoga,
work involving physical activity also found out that yoga was able to raise sattva and …
Cultural Sensitivity and Adaptation in Motivational Interviewing
regulation into healthcare practices. Buddhist traditions often promote mind– body
healing, with meditation and spiritual discipline seen as integral to maintaining …
Situated affectivity on four legs: dogs as affective scaffolds
often becoming integral to the affective lives of their … A much more problematic
example is puppy yoga. This trend, which blends yoga practice with the presence of …
Representation of letters as a narrative device in films: a systematic review of literature
long-lasting impression on the audience, by conveying the emotions of the
characters effectively accelerating plot development, and delivering stories in less …
[PDF] The Yoga of Play: Regulation, Embodiment, and Transformation in Drama Therapy and Yogic Practice
of regulation that support psychological and, potentially, … Yoga is presented as an
embodied practice integrating breath, movement, and meditation to support …
[PDF] "Some women make it look so easy": An Analysis of Jenny Offill's Fragmentary Novels and Their Critique of Postfeminist Sensibility
leads to a complete person–each one is missing something integral to the protagonist’s
fulfillment (eg purpose or partnership). This integral part of the protagonist does …
Black Girls Om Too: Yoga, Embodied Resistance, and Healing
health, there is significantly less published material about Black women yoga …
Black girls and women not only practice yoga, we are yoga instructors, leaders, and …
[PDF] The question of the relationship between religious ritual and religious beliefs in the cognitive science of religion
knowledge of its rules, is integral in directing the appropriate … In other words, the
shorter the distance between the main human action and the CPSA's action, the …
