Eckhart Tolle and Sri Aurobindo

The Aim of Spiritual Practice

One view found both in Eckhart's teaching and Sri Aurobindo's yoga—a view that is a radical departure from that of Hinduism and Buddhism—pertains to the aim of life and the object of spiritual practice. All the various schools of Hinduism aim at liberation (Mukti or Moksha) from the bondage of the ego and the cycle of incarnation by the realization of the true Self. Cessation of birth in the world is thus viewed in Hinduism as the ultimate culmination of yoga. In Buddhism, too, the aim of spiritual practice is to bring about an extinction (Nirvana) of the illusory self in order to get oneself free from suffering (Dukha). Thus, in both Hinduism and Buddhism, the object of spiritual practice is individual liberation. In Eckhart's teaching, as in Buddhism, the egoic self is regarded as an illusory form and as the cause of all suffering. However, unlike Buddhism, Eckhart looks upon the illusory form as a temporary manifestation of Being, the Reality concealed by the illusory form. Spiritual practice liberates one from the illusion of the egoic self and from suffering that results from identification with the illusory form. But, in Eckhart's view, the

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true aim of spiritual practice is to make the form Transparent so that Being may manifest through the form and become conscious of Itself. The regaining of self-consciousness is thus not for the liberation of the individual but for the manifestation of Being towards which the universe is evolving. "You are here," says Eckhart, "to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold."¹⁵⁵

This view is similar to the one expressed by Sri Aurobindo:

The yoga we practise is not for ourselves alone, but for the Divine; its aim is to work out the will of the Divine in the world, to effect a spiritual transformation and to bring down a divine nature and a divine life into the mental, vital and physical nature and life of humanity. Its object is not personal Mukti, although Mukti is a necessary condition of the yoga, but the liberation and transformation of the human being. It is not personal Ananda,¹⁵⁶ but the bringing down of the divine Ananda—Christ's kingdom of heaven, our Satya-yuga¹⁵⁷—upon the earth. Of mokṣa¹⁵⁸ we have no personal need; for the soul is nityamukta¹⁵⁹ and bondage is an illusion. We play at being bound, we are not really bound.¹⁶⁰

The aim of this yoga is, first, to enter into the divine consciousness by merging into it the separative ego (incidentally, in doing so one finds one's true individual self which is not the limited, vain and selfish human ego but a portion of the Divine) and, secondly, to bring down the supramental consciousness on earth to transform mind, life and body. All else can be only a result of these two aims, not the primary object of the yoga.¹⁶¹

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We regard the world not as an invention of the devil or a self-delusion of the soul, but as a manifestation of the Divine, although as yet a partial because a progressive and evolutionary manifestation. Therefore for us renunciation of life cannot be the goal of life nor rejection of the world the object for which the world was created. We seek to realise our unity with God, but for us that realisation involves a complete and absolute recognition of our unity with man and we cannot cut the two asunder. To use Christian language, the Son of God is also the Son of Man and both elements are necessary to the complete Christhood; or to use an Indian form of thought, the divine Narayana¹⁶² of whom the universe is only one ray is revealed and fulfilled in man; the complete man is Nara-Narayana'¹⁶³ and in that completeness he symbolises the supreme mystery of existence.¹⁶⁴

Thus, in Sri Aurobindo's view, too, the object of yoga is not merely to attain individual liberation but to become an instrument for bringing down the Divine's kingdom on earth and establishing a divine life in the world by a transformation of mind, life, and body. Sri Aurobindo therefore makes a distinction between liberation and transformation. As he explains in a letter to a disciple:

What I mean by the spiritual transformation is something dynamic (not merely liberation of the Self or realisation of the One which can very well be attained without any descent). It is a putting on of the spiritual consciousness, dynamic as well as static, in every part of the being down to the subconscient. That cannot be done by the influence of the Self leaving the consciousness fundamentally as it is with only purification, enlightenment of the mind and heart and quiescence of the vital. It means a bringing down of the Divine Consciousness static and dynamic into all these parts and the entire

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replacement of the present consciousness by that. This we find unveiled and unmixed above mind, life and body. It is a matter of the undeniable experience of many that this can descend and it is my experience that nothing short of its full descent can thoroughly remove the veil and mixture and effect the full spiritual transformation.¹⁶⁵

In other words, liberation is a realization of the static Divine Consciousness by rising above the consciousness of mind, life, and body. This can be achieved by a certain degree of change of the ordinary consciousness without altering its fundamental nature. Transformation is the dynamic process of bringing down the Divine Consciousness into all parts of the being from top to bottom in order to effect a radical change of consciousness from its present ordinary state into a spiritual consciousness.

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