Record of Yoga

Miscellaneous Notes, c. 1914

Notes, c. 1914 - I

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[The first piece on this page was revised by Sri Aurobindo; the next two pieces were written by him.]

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Notes, c. 1914 - II

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viveka ¹

Notes, c. 1914 - III

Tat is the unknowable Brahman of which you cannot say that it exists or does not exist because it cannot be defined as that which we know or understand by the idea of existence. Therefore it is not Sat. At the same time it is not Asat or non-existent because it contains existence in itself.

By Asat or non-being we mean something beyond which is a contradiction of existence. It is generally considered as a sort of nothingness because it is nothing that we call existence. There is nothing in it that we can perceive or realise as something. Tat contains both Sat and Asat; but it is neither of them.

By Sat we mean pure existence not limited by qualities, infinite

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and eternal and unchanging, which is at the same time the source and foundation of all the worlds and the whole universe.

Sat—Purusha and Prakriti

Brahman representing itself in the universe as the stable, by immutable Existence (Sat), is Purusha, God, Spirit; representing [itself] as the motional by its power of active Consciousness (Chit) [it] is Nature, Force or World-Principle (Prakriti, Shakti, Maya). The play of these two principles is the life of the universe.

Prakriti [is] executive Nature as opposed to Purusha, which is the Soul governing, taking cognizance of and enjoying the works of Prakriti; Shakti [is] the self-existent, self-cognitive Power of the Lord (Ishwara, Deva, Purusha), which expresses itself in the workings of Prakriti.

Notes, c. 1914 - IV

Sat—is essence of being, pure, infinite and undivided.

Chit-Tapas—is pure energy of consciousness, free in its rest or action, sovereign in its will.

Ananda—is Beatitude, the bliss of pure conscious existence and energy.

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Vijnana—Supra-mental knowledge—is the Causal Idea which, by supporting and secretly guiding the confused activities of Mind, Life and Body ensures and compels the right arrangement of the Universe.

Buddhi—is the lower divided intelligence as opposed to Vijnana.

Manas-chitta—is the life of sensations and emotions which are at the mercy of the outward touches of life and matter and their positive or negative reactions, joy and grief, pleasure and pain.

Prana—is the hampered dynamic energies which, feeding upon physical substances, are dependent on and limited by their sustenance; also [it] is the lower or vital energy.

Annam—is the divisible being which founds itself on the constant changeableness of physical substance.

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Pravritti—Nature's tendency or impulse to action

Nivritti—Withdrawing from that tendency or impulse to action

Notes, c. 1914 - V

The Chakras

Above the head—Sahasradala—Jnanam

Between the eyes—Ajnachakra—Drishti

In the throat—Vishuddha—Vak

In the heart—Anahata—Feeling, sensation, etc.

In the navel—Manipura—Instincts

Above the linga—Swadhishthana Muladhara—Kama (desire)

The movement of pranas in the body

There are five pranas, viz: prana, apana, samana, vyana and udana.

The movement of the prana is from the top of the body to the navel, apana from Muladhara to the navel. Prana and apana meet together near the navel and create samana. The movement of vyana is in the whole body. While samana creates bhuta from the foods, vyana distributes it into the body. The movement of udana is from the navel to the head. Its work is to carry the virya (tejas) to the head. The movement of udana is different to the Yogin. Then its movement is from the Muladhara (from where it carries the virya to the crown of the head and turn[s] it [into]² ojas) to the crown of the head.

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The colours

Violet—religion, ideality, spirituality

Yellow—intellect, perception, activity and flexibility of mind

Orange—psychical power

Black—darkness, inertia, melancholy, pessimism, timidity, etc.

Grey—despondency and dullness

Red—activity; or if a deep angry colour, anger; or if scarlet, lust; if rose, love.

White—purity, strength, etc.

Green—beneficency, unselfishness, readiness to serve without respect to one's own desire or ambition.

Dull green—bad qualities of prana, jealousy etc.

Blue—Spirituality more of the Bhakti type

Flaming golden yellow—Vijnana

Notes, c. 1914 - VI

Objects of Yoga

To put it in a word, the object of Yoga is God or the Divine or the Supreme whatever our conception of these things may be. There are minor objects of Yoga which are merely parts or separate aspects of the general object. We are composed of being, consciousness, energy and delight represented to us as life, knowledge, force and power, emotion, sensation and desire. The object of Yoga is to turn all these things towards God. Therefore to become one with God, to be Divine and live a Divine Life is the first object of Yoga. The second is to know God in Himself and in ourselves and in everything. The third is to make ourselves one with the Divine Will and to do in our life a Divine Work by means of the Divine Power using us as an instrument. The fourth object is to enjoy God in all beings, in all things and in all that happens.

Since the Life is to be Divine there must be siddhi or Perfection of the Being.

The difference between the Divine Being and Divine Life and ours is that we are in the limited ego, confined to our own physical and mental experiences while that is beyond ego infinite eternal and all-embracing.

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Therefore we have to get rid of the Ego in order to be Divine. Ego persists because of three things; first because we think we are the body; secondly because of desire; and thirdly because of the mental idea that I am a separate being existing in my own mind and body independently of everything and everybody else. We have therefore to know ourselves, to realise that we are not the body, nor the Prana, nor the mind and to find out our real Self.

That is called Atmajnana. Secondly we have to get rid of the idea of ourselves and others as separate being to realise everything as one Brahman or one Purusha or Ishwara manifesting himself in different names and forms. This Self and the Brahman or Ishwara are the same. We have to know what it is, how it manifests itself in the world and beings that we see. All this we have to realise in our experience and not merely know by the intellect. We have to realise It as Sachchidananda and to become that ourselves.

Thirdly we have to get rid of desire and replace it by the Ananda of Sachchidananda. After that in order to live and act in the world we have to act as mere instruments so the Divine Force which we must realise as the sole Power which acts in the world and we must get rid of the idea that actions are ours or that the fruit of the action belongs to us personally. The only work we have to do in the world is to perfect ourselves, carry out whatever the Divine Power wills that we should do and so far as possible help others to perfect themselves and help the life of humanity to become Divine.

Notes, c. 1914 - VII

Methods of Yoga

(Reproduction from memory)³

The first two things necessary for the practice of Yoga [are]⁴ Will and Abhyasa. In the course of Yoga these two things give helping hands to the perfection of the being unto the very end. Slowly and steadily, whether conscious or unconscious to the being itself, they are

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performing their functions in the onward march of human evolution. Be we unconscious of them, it will take a pretty long time to attain to that perfection. But once we are conscious, then we become the Will itself. Consciously we can quicken the progress. This method gives rise to individual perfected beings. As before, they will not see glimpses of the Light of Truth. They will ever be seeing the Eternal Truth. They will turn the darkness around them and in them, into Light.

Hitherto, we should have felt a certain amount of difficulty in putting into Abhyasa what we have willed. Now there will be no more putting into Abhyasa but simply we will be seeing the march of progress without the least idea of strain felt by us. So first let us will in order to be not weak and unconscious but strong and conscious. Then there will be no more difficulty.

Until then we have to practise Yoga by two important means—by means of Purusha and by means of Prakriti.

Means of Purusha:—An ordinary man thinks he desires, he feels and so on. But what we are to do is to separate ourselves from desire, feeling etc. Whenever desire comes, we must realise that we are not desiring but only realise it as the coming and going of Desire. So also with the feeling, thinking etc. For instance, when [a] certain anguish comes, an ordinary man thinks and feels that he is lost and so on. He weeps bitterly and reduces himself to a mere crawling worm. We have to think that that anguish is a kind of action or reaction, going on in the heart. Anguish cannot affect me. I am the unsullied Self; it cannot touch me.

Means of Prakriti:—Whenever the thinking part of man is active, we notice very clearly that the work is going on in a place somewhere above the forehead. The action is centred in the heart, when the feelings are awake in him. In both the cases, the self takes the heart and mind for its theatre of action. In the one case, we are those thoughts and in the other, we are those feelings. Putting this in plain words, our actions proceed either from the heart or from the mind, while the actions of the animals proceed from the senses. We see the vast difference between an animal and a man. So if man transfers his centre of heart and mind, to that of a higher one, think how grand the God-man would be! That centre according to the psychology of the Hindus is Vijnana. This is just above

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the crown of [the] head. This is known as Sahasradala or the place where the Shakti is situated. From this seat of activity, all actions emanate.

Therefore the first Sadhana is not to feel ourselves either in the heart or in the mind but there just above the crown of [the] head. By these two means, we separate ourselves from body, life and mind. On account of this, misery cannot affect us and we will be above happiness and misery. Apart from all these, the main thing we effect thereby is, we will be in a position henceforward, to become one with the Brahman and to realise that everything is Brahman and everything is only one of the several forms, names and colours etc., of that one Vast Brahman. Whenever we see people walking along the road, we will no more see them as several different beings but as several forms of one vast undivided Brahman. As [a] rose is the manifestation of form, colour, odour so the Brahman is the manifestation of so many things we perceive by the senses and think by the mind etc.

Along with these, we must put into practice one after the other what we are going to see hereafter as the Sapta Chatusthayas. They are namely Samata, Shakti, Vijnana, Sharira, Karma, Brahman and Siddhi Chatusthayas. Chatusthayas means four divisions. These seven Chatusthayas have been arranged in their natural and logical order. But it is not required of you to get them in practice in this given order. One may begin with a chatusthaya which [one] finds to be easier and in this way he is expected to practise. Why they are arranged in this way, how we are to effect them in us, when we will have success, all will be known to us when we finish writing and sincerely practise.

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