Growing Within

Preface

This book aims at shedding some light on the meaning, nature and processes of inner development. Its purpose is to help seekers in understanding and recognising the processes and experiences of inner growth, so as to serve, in some measure, as a guide to those who may not have yet found a personal teacher and mentor.

In order to make the book meaningful to all seekers of growth irrespective of their personal belief systems, the passages included in the compilation have been selected from the viewpoint of the psychological nature of their content, dealing with inner growth as an experiential process. Though based on Sri Aurobindo’s yoga, the focus is on the universal psychological elements and principles of inner growth, the understanding and validation of which rests on personal experience, introspection and intuition rather than on mental beliefs, although, beliefs can help or hinder the understanding. For this reason, features of the growth process peculiar to Sri Aurobindo’s yoga have not been treated in the book, though allusions to such unique features will be found in some of the passages included in the compilation.

Explanations of special terms and concepts contained in the passages will be found in the Glossary at the end of the book. Some of the concepts are also dealt with in the Introduction that follows.

The passages compiled here have been drawn mostly from Sri Aurobindo’s letters to his disciples and the Mother’s talks to the children of the Ashram. This accounts for their informal style and for the ellipses, pauses, repetitions, etc. which are found in many of the passages.

Apart from the limited exposition of the subject-matter in the Introduction, the psychology of inner development has been presented here in an implicit and non-systematic manner by way of the quoted passages. Though an explicit and systematic exposition, paraphrasing and elaborating upon the contents of the quoted passages, might have been more appealing to the intellect, the original words of a Master have a unique value and can impart far more than a mere intellectual understanding. The receptive reading of words which emanate from such a Master and which are instilled with a consciousness infinitely higher than our own can, besides conveying ideas, effectively serve to elevate the consciousness of the reader, thereby actually inducing inner growth. A moment or two of quiet concentration prior to reading, with an aspiration to be open to the consciousness behind the words, is apt to enhance one’s receptivity. It is hoped that the compilation will thus be helpful not only in understanding but also in fostering inner development.

A. S. DALAL