The Practice of the Integral Yoga

V

Renunciation in the integral yoga

Traditionally speaking, the life of an authentic spiritual person is always conceived of as a life of renunciation. In our times Sri Ramakrishna, the Saint of Dakshineswar, never tired of stressing the importance of tyāga or renunciation. Also, the quintessence of Krishna's teaching in the Gita lies in the process of entire renunciation. "Peace comes out of renunciation", 'tyāgāt śāntih', such is the declaration of the Bhagavad-Gita Gita.

Indeed, it cannot be denied that renunciation is absolutely essential for the building up of a life of sadhana and for the acquisition of any realisation worth the name in the spiritual Path. Sri Ramakrishna referred to this essentiality when he spoke in his simple way: "Renunciation is necessary. If something is covering a certain other thing, you have to remove the first thing in order to perceive the second thing. How can you expect to attain the latter unless you remove and renounce whatever is covering it?"

Let us grant, then, without any cavil that for attaining the spiritual Goal we have to renounce 'the other things' that stand on the way. But the question is: What are these 'other things'? The traditional spiritualist will immediately put a counter-question "What not? You have to renounce all, all, everything; renounce, for example, money and prosperity; renounce all enjoyment; renounce all human relationships; renounce all activity; renounce the world; renounce even the thirst for life. Renunciation! Renunciation! Renunciation entire and without reserve!"

Yes, it is a fact that we come across such teachings of uncompromising renunciation in the history of spirituality both in the West and in the East. But it goes without saying that this is not the way of sadhana we follow nor the nature of the Goal we envisage for our spiritual endeavour. Our lifestyle is altogether different. We do not change our secular names like the Sannyasins nor do we dye our clothes in saffron or in any other distinctive colours to signify that we have been following a life of spiritual sadhana. We engage in the normal activities of life and we do not shun the com-

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pany of the members of the opposite sex. We are prone to quote in this connection Sri Aurobindo's famous dictum: "All Life is Yoga."

But a valid question arises: Are we interpreting Sri Aurobindo' s saying in the right way? Can it not be that we are perhaps using Sri Aurobindo's words as a shield of protection in order to indulge behind it in our worldly propensities? For if our activities are in their outer appearance the same as those of an ordinary man of the world, in which way can we claim to be distinct and different as spiritual seekers of the Divine? Surely we would not dare advance the hypothesis that the spirit of renunciation is now outdated in the life of sadhana. An unbridled enjoyment by the senses can never be the trait of anyone living the life of the spirit. And if that is so, we have to be absolutely clear on one point. What is the mutual relation between Renunciation and Enjoyment in our Integral Yoga? What do we mean by enjoyment and possession and what is to us the real connotation of renunciation?

For it should be stated at the very outset that renunciation remains the sine qua non of any type of genuine spiritual life including the spirituality envisaged by the Integral Yoga. There should not be the slightest doubt about it. Sri Aurobindo has made this point absolutely unambiguous in the following words:

"... by renunciation we seize upon the falsehoods, pluck up their roots and cast them out of our way so that they shall no longer hamper by their persistence, their resistance or their recurrence the happy and harmonious growth of our divine living. Renunciation is an indispensable instrument of our perfection." (The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 311)

So, admitting fully that renunciation is absolutely essential even in the pursuit of the Integral Yoga, we have to examine closely what we mean by renunciation, what are the things we have to renounce in our sadhana, and how to effectuate this renunciation. We must also be very clear in our mind as regards the attitude we as sadhakas should adopt towards life in the world in general, towards riches and prosperity, human relationships, conduct of activities, enjoyment of objects, and such other important matters.

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But even before we attempt any discussion of these issues, we have first to know why, for what compelling reasons, traditional ascetic spirituality prescribes outer renunciation to the sadhakas of the spiritual Path. Surely it cannot be that the old Yogis have been obsessed with some irrational prejudices. There must have been some sound reasons behind their uncompromising attitude.

And once we come to know these reasons, we shall be in a position to understand fully the differences in the goals set before themselves by the traditional Yogas and the Yoga of Integral Transformation propounded by Sri Aurobindo. Not only that, we shall comprehend at the same time the nature of the renunciation that is called for in our Yoga. For, renunciation we must have; only, its nature will be different from that of the renunciation prescribed by ascetic spirituality.

Spiritual Perception of the Ascetic: According to the ascetic a sadhaka' s renunciation has perforce to be entire, absolute, and covering both the fields outer and inner. At the end he has to renounce life in the world, even the very world-consciousness itself. And from the point of view of practice this renunciation on the part of the aspirant should take the form of self-denial, inhibition of pleasure and the rejection of the objects of enjoyment. But why so? Why this stern rejection?

The reasons are many and are of different orders. There are first, reasons arising out of a very genuine spiritual realisation; there are at the same time metaphysical reasons, psychological reasons, pragmatic reasons, even reasons issuing forth from what Krishna terms in the Gita as 'kṣudram hṛdaya-daurbalyam', 'petty weakness of the heart'. One by one we shall touch upon these various reasons contributory to the spirit of entire renunciation of life and the world.

The deepest and the highest reason prompting the way of renunciation is based on the concrete experience spiritual seekers have when they follow a particular line of spiritual sadhana. For, it is not merely a philosophical hypothesis or the idle speculation of an imaginative heart but a very compelling and utterly convinc-

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ing spiritual experience that, once the sadhaka, escaping from the prison of his ego-bound consciousness, enters the cosmic consciousness, and then proceeding further, transcends that cosmic consciousness too, he enters a status which is timeless, spaceless and changeless. If the realised soul, standing at the junction of the cosmic consciousness and the Transcendence, looks back upon the world he has transcended, this world existence appears to his liberated consciousness as something utterly devoid of any reality.

And if this experience of unreality is in fact a just transcription of the real state of things, why should the sadhaka be interested at all in anything pertaining to the world when this world itself is nothing but a dream-like figure, a mirage or a hallucination? 'Vanity of vanities, all is a vanity.'

And even if we grant, for the sake of argument, that the world existence has some sort of lesser reality and offers us some scope of happy enjoyment, why should the sadhaka be interested in that, once he has tasted the absolute bliss and peace of the Transcendent? For he knows by experience that even the highest and the intensest worldly pleasure stands no comparison with Brahmananda, the Bliss of Brahman. Any enjoyment of worldly objects, whatever they may be or of whatever high order, cannot but be to the spiritual man absolutely hollow and utterly tasteless.

There is more to say in support of the ascetic spirituality and its message of outer renunciation. For even if the world existence is accepted as real, is it not a fact that human life and nature, as they are now, cannot be an object of attraction to any sane person? First of all, life in the world is full of pain and sorrow and unhap-piness, 'samsāra eva duhkhānām sīmānta' {Yogavasistha, V.9.52). Secondly, nothing is permanent here, everything is a passing show; transitoriness is its very character, 'yascedam drśyate kincit tat sarvam asthiram' (Ibid., 1.28.1). And life of man in the world? — is that anything more than the momentary flash of a lightning? Lastly, everything in life and in the world, always and everywhere, is tainted with a thousand defects and imperfections.

There is more in the world to disconcert a spiritual seeker. For if any heroic soul, accepting the transitoriness of man's life, tries all the same to change this human life into something better and

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nobler, he finds to his utter consternation that human nature is basically incorrigible: it may admit of some cosmetic whitewashing but will never shed its unholy spots. We may recall in this connection the famous simile given by Vivekananda to carry home the point of impossibility of the transformation of human nature. It was the simile of a dog's tail: alas, straighten it as much as you like, but release it — and the moment after, the wretched thing becomes curled again! Citing his own personal case the great Vedantin wrote towards the end of his earthly life: "Behind my work was ambition, behind my love was personality, behind my purity was fear, behind my guidance thirst for power!" (Complete Works, Vol. VI, p. 424)

If such is the case with a great spiritual giant like Sw'ami Vivekananda, the detractors may declare: "Is it not vain to engage in any sadhana of transformation? Knowing that it is a task beyond all possibility of realisation here upon earth in an embodied existence, is it not the right course for a spiritual seeker to renounce the world and all it contains, and prepare instead for a post-mortem supraphysical existence or, better still, for the Transcendence? Where, then, is the justification for any Integral Yoga of Transformation?"

The ascetic spirituality's plea goes still further. It is opposed to any life of dynamism on the part of the spiritual seeker. For, according to its analysis, all action, however high, noble and impersonal it may be in appearance, hides behind it in a subtle and elusive form the inevitable play of ego, desire and the triple modes of the lower nature, aparā Prakriti. And so long as ego and desire are not eradicated, how can a veritable spiritual consciousness be established? For are they not diametrically antithetical in nature? It follows, then, that a sadhaka who would aspire to have spiritual realisation worth the name must shun action as far as it is compatible with the bare maintenance of embodied life.

These then are some of the principal reasons which have induced the spokespersons of ascetic spirituality to advise all seekers of the Spirit to take to the path of utter renunciation including its outer application. There are, of course, many other ancillary

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and secondary factors which have led to the reinforcement of the spirit of renunciation in man. Sri Aurobindo has referred to these factors at many places in course of his extensive writings. There is a passage in his Synthesis of Yoga which groups together at one place all these reasons and factors in their descending order. What follows below is an abridged version of that passage:

"There is first the profounder cause of the radical opposition between the sullied and imperfect nature of life in the world as it now is in the present stage of our human evolution and the nature of spiritual living.... A second cause is the soul's hunger for personal salvation, for escape into some farther or farthest height of unalloyed bliss and peace... or else it is its unwillingness to return from the ecstasy of the divine embrace into the lower field of work and service. But there are other slighter causes incidental to spiritual experience, — strong feeling and practical proof of the great difficulty... of combining the life of works and action with spiritual peace and the life of realisation.... Lowest causes of all are the weakness that shrinks from the struggle, the disgust and disappointment of the soul baffled by the great cosmic labour, the selfishness that cares not what becomes of those left behind us so long as we personally can be free from the monstrous ever-circling wheel of death and rebirth..." (pp. 311-12)

Elsewhere, in his book The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo mentions that once the head and mind and soul of a seeker is overpowered by (i) spiritual enthusiasm, (ii) by the ardour of aspiration, (iii) by the philosophic aloofness, (iv) by the eagerness of will, or (v) by a sick disgust in the vital being discouraged by the difficulties or disappointed by the unexpected results of life, the sadhaka may be led to experience "a sense of the entire vanity and unreality of all else than this remote Supreme, the vanity of human life, the unreality of cosmic existence, the bitter ugliness and cruelty of earth, the insufficiency of heaven, the aimlessness of the repetition of births in the body." (p. 675)

The spirit and practice of utter renunciation is but a small step from this sense of vanity and uselessness. But we who follow the

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path of the Integral Yoga cannot accept this pessimistic view of the world nor for that matter can we approve of this way of utter outer renunciation as the only possible path of spiritual fulfilment. We hold a different view of the world existence, of life in the world, and of the destiny of human birth.

Yes, we admit that some sort of renunciation is necessary on the part of the sadhaka in order to come out of his present blind subservience to the dictates of the lower nature. But we cannot admit that renunciation has to go so far as to cancel out the very world consciousness, life and Nature. If someone suffers from a headache, he has to seek some remedy for its cure; up to that point it is all right. But what sort of strange advice is that which prescribes decapitation as a remedial measure? We are afflicted with the sense of sorrow and suffering and it is also a fact that most men turn to the spiritual path in order to be freed from this consciousness of pain and be admitted into the consciousness of eternal bliss. But for that we cannot subscribe to that destructive solution which recommends the annihilation of the world-consciousness itself as a means of attainment of the goals. No doubt that we seek to disentangle the knots of life but we would not accept the short-cut procedure of cutting the Gordian knot.

If somebody asks us: "But why not? If this is the only solution to the riddle, why should we shun it? Will it not prove that we are still caught in the meshes of the delusion of Ignorance?" If the voice of ascetic spirituality asks us this question, what answer should we or can we give it? A mere assertion of "We don't want it, we don't like it", will not serve the purpose. We have to offer spiritual justification for our attitude. And for that we have to explain our characteristic philosophical positions vis-à-vis the world, Nature and human life.

Spiritual Perception of the Integral Yoga: The Yoga-Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo starts from the basic spiritual position that there is an absolute Existence-Consciousness-Bliss (Sachchid-ananda) beyond all Time and Space and outside of all manifested relativities. To know That and to be united with That is the primary aim of all spiritual sadhana. But what is important to note in

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this connection is that this absolute Existence-Consciousness is not utterly and absolutely a Transcendent Reality; it is no doubt beyond Time and Space but it is at the same time immanent in world-existence and governing and guiding the manifestation as the Lord of cosmos, Viśveśvara.

The question, then, is: "Is there any goal towards which this divine guidance is directed? Yes, the goal is to manifest all the divine Sachchidananda in the bosom of Time and Space, in earthly embodiments, here is the material world. The evolutionary movement that we see unfolding upon earth is the appointed means for that progressive manifestation of the immortal divine life in the field of matter-bound mortality. And man the mental being has appeared at a crucial turning-point of that evolutionary ascension. For, this man, the transitional being, is destined to become the vehicle of the establishment and manifestation of divine life upon earth. And for that, the Transcendent-Universal Lord of existence has come down into the heart of every human being to take His permanent position there as the inner Controller, Antaryāmī. He is guiding man from there towards his future destiny, the destiny of life divine in the frame of earthly life.

So we see that the world-existence is not something unreal, nor is it of the nature of a prison or mad-house in which to detain the human soul. Human life too is not without profound significance nor are human activities of the nature of a delirium of high fever. It is true that our present nature is obscure and impure but this obscurity and this impurity do not constitute the unalterable fundamental essence of Nature. The world, the life, and the Nature, each of them has a divine counterpart; each of them possesses an as-yet-unrealised supernal form and functioning. To bring that out into overt manifestation through the process of progressive evolution is the whole labour of earthly Nature. And man's actions as at present are not the ignorant agitations of a beguiled soul; they are the tentative and awkward preparatory steps to the ultimate undistorted expression of the divine Will in the world. Will it then be right to consider the first crawl of a baby to be its only and ultimate permanent destiny?

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By this time, let us hope, it has been made sufficiently clear that according to the Vision of the Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, the earthly existence or the field of life here is not just describing a futile circular movement repeating the same imperfections ad infinitum. It is an ascending spiral movement that earthly Nature is following without any interruption. So, it is not right to assert that human life has been flawed and imperfect in the past, it is so at present, and it will always be so even in the future, and there cannot be any escape from this intrinsic law of existence. As a matter of fact, we have, so to say, reached the middle stage of the evolutionary movement. The journey has begun from the absolute nescience of Matter and, passing through the vicissitudes of an enormously complex bio-psychical evolution, has reached at last the state and status of man the mental being.

But mind is not the last possible term of this evolutionary progression. It is too limited and imperfect a consciousness to be considered that. And that explains why there is still so much obscurity and ignorance, sorrow and suffering, in human life. But the evolution has not stopped; it is marching inexorably towards its destined goal, to the full emergence of the plenary consciousness of Sachchidananda with all its attendant glorious results. To establish Life Divine upon earth itself, such is the secret urge and the ultimate consummation of the movement of evolution.

Renunciation in the Integral Yoga: Now, to collaborate actively with the ascending evolutionary movement and prepare for the divine life upon earth is the life-goal set before the sadhakas of the Integral Yoga. So we are not entitled to follow the escapist tendency and step back from the world-process by declaring with the traditional ascetics that sarvam duhkham vivekinah, that is, everything in life is an occasion of suffering for those who have their eyes opened. We want to stay in the world and live the human life but only with the aim of transforming them into their divine forms.

But this is easier said than done. The task is rendered immensely difficult because of the inveterate resistance and the blind downward pull exercised by our unregenerate present lower nature. If we would like to succeed in this spiritual adventurous endeavour,

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we have to be ready to pay the requisite price for that. And in the language of sadhana that price is called Vairāgya and Tyāga, 'Dis-passion and Renunciation'. For it is an axiomatic truth that unless and until we remove the outer covering, we cannot hope to discover the jewel inside; unless we take away the ugly-looking veil, we cannot feast our eyes and heart on the celestial beauty that lies hidden behind. If we would like to have plenitude within, we have to agree to be denuded in the outer self. In the Mother's luminous words, "faut savoir tout perdre pour tout gagner" — "You must know how to lose all in order to gain all."

Yes, lose we must everything but let us hasten to add that our renunciation has to be principally an inner one in its nature and not so much outer as in the case of the ascetics. We must renounce and renounce completely all our egoistic cravings and desires but not necessarily outer objects. For, a true and effective renunciation is always a renunciation in consciousness; a mere external renunciation cannot deliver the goods. Spiritually speaking, renunciation is equivalent to detachment and desirelessness. If that is secured, an outer renunciation becomes otiose; and if that is not acquired, no amount of external renunciation will help the sadhaka to take even a single step on the path of advancement of the spiritual consciousness.

'We have to renounce all in order to gain AW: that is the ultimate verdict of all the Yogis and mystics through all the ages. In this classic statement the second 'All' signifies the Divine, for one of his designations is Sarva, the All. But what about the first 'all'? This 'all' cannot but mean Aham, the Ego. In fact, this ego-sense and its two progenies Vāsanā and Āsakti, 'Desire' and 'Attachment', make up by themselves the whole of our actual ignorant unspiritual consciousness of division, dualities and mortality. Ego renounced, sarva or all is renounced; and if the ego-sense is retained, all other renunciations amount to nothing, and one cannot hope to attain to the 'AH', Sarva. The sage Vasishtha has made this point abundantly clear through the narration of two interesting stories. These stories occur in his famous Vedantic treatise, Yoga-Vasishtha-Maharamayanam. We give below the gist of one of the two stories; readers will surely appreciate it.

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Kacha, the son of Brihaspati the preceptor of the gods, had adopted the procedure of external renunciation in order to attain to the supreme peace. He had left everything behind, sought shelter in the solitude of a deep forest, and dwelt there all alone. Eight years rolled by but nothing substantial he could gain. Spiritual peace and self-knowledge eluded his grasp altogether. He was very much worried. Accidentally, one day Brihaspati entered that forest and met his son Kacha in that confounded state. Kacha asked his father: "I have renounced everything; at the end I have given up even the stick and the rag the only permissible possessions of a Sannyasi. But to what end, father? I have failed to reach 'svapade viśrānti',, 'the absolute repose of spiritual self-knowledge'. Jell me what I should do now."

The wise Brihaspati then addressed his son and told him: "My son, you claim to have made sarvasva-tyāga, 'the reunciation of all your possessions'. But what you have done so far is not what is called sarva-tyāga. Now proceed to renounce 'all' and you will surely attain to your goal. You have been following a wrong track from the very beginning. Outer renunciation can never lead to sarva-tyāga, 'the renunciation of all', so highly prized by the great Yogis."

Here commences the teaching of the Sage Vasishtha concerning the true content and significance of spiritual renunciation. The essence of this teaching is:

True renunciation is always a renunciation in consciousness, a relinquishment in the heart of the seeker. What gain can one achieve if he misses this essential point and concentrates instead on the giving up of outward things? An external renunciation, even if it is entire, cannot be equated with 'sarvatyāga', 'the renunciation of all'. Hence, a mere relinquishment of the house or the property or even of the body cannot procure to the aspirant any spiritual benefit worth the name.

On the other hand, a man's citta or heart is the commander of the foot-soldiers called the 'indriyas' or the 'senses'. If one manages to conquer this citta, one gets victory over all the five senses; one need not in that case struggle separately with the turbulent

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senses. For analogy, we may take the case of someone who would like to avoid thorn-pricks on his soles. To serve his purpose he need not cover the whole of the earth with leather; it is enough to cover his two feet with leatherware.

But the question is: What is exactly meant by citta-jaya, 'the conquest of the heart'? The answer is: The sadhaka has to become 'utkrānta-vāsanāh'; that is to say, he has to renounce all his desires. After that, he has to eradicate the 'aham-bhava'¹ or ego-sense which constitutes the essence of Chitta. That will amount to the renunciation of 'all', sarva-tyāga. Without achieving this inner renunciation, even if a sadhaka renounces everything external but somehow retains a shred of aham or ego-sense, his renunciation falls short of being entire or genuine.

And to cap it all a true integral renunciation is effected only when the spiritual seeker surrenders all he is and all he has to Him who is the 'All' and from whom all has issued. (Yogavasishtha, VIA.93.30)

In order to make unambiguously clear the essence of Sri Aurobindo's and Mother's teaching as regards the place and nature of renunciation in the Integral Yoga, we give below an abridged and adapted version of what Sri Aurobindo has written on pages 314-19 of his Synthesis of Yoga:

Renunciation must be for us merely an instrument and not an object; nor can it be the only or the chief instrument since our object is the fulfilment of the Divine in the human being, a positive aim which cannot be reached by negative means. The negative means can only be for the removal of that which stands in the way of the positive fulfilment. It must be a renunciation, a complete renunciation of all that is other than and opposed to the divine self-fulfilment and a progressive renunciation of all that is a lesser or only a partial achievement.

Again our renunciation must obviously be an inward renunciation; especially and above all, a renunciation of attachment and the craving of desire in the senses and the heart, of self-will in the thought and action, and of egoism in the centre of consciousness. For these things are the three knots by which we are bound to our

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lower nature and if we can renounce these utterly there is nothing else that can bind us.

Therefore attachment and desire must be utterly cast out; there is nothing in the world to which we must be attached, not wealth nor poverty, nor joy nor suffering, nor life nor death, nor greatness nor littleness, nor vice nor virtue, nor friend, nor wife, nor children, nor country, nor our work and mission.

And this does not mean that there is nothing at all that we shall love, nothing in which we shall take delight; for attachment is egoism in love and not love itself. A universal love we must have, calm and yet eternally intense beyond the brief vehemence of the most violent passion.

Self-will in thought and action has to be quite renounced. This self-will means an egoism in the mind which attaches itself to its preferences, its habits, its past or present formations of thought and view and will.

But the centre of all is egoism and this we must pursue into every covert and disguise and drag it out and slay it; for its disguises are endless and it will cling to every possible self-concealment.

The criteria of renunciation is within. It is to have the soul free from craving and attachment, but free from the attachment to inaction as well as from the egoistic impulse to action, free from attachment to the forms of virtue as well as from the attraction to sin. It is to be rid of "I-ness" and "My-ness" so as to live in the one Self and act in the one Self.

It will thus be seen that the scope we give to the idea of renunciation is different from the meaning currently attached to it. The rejection of the object ceases to be necessary when the object can no longer ensnare us because what the soul enjoys is no longer the object as an object but the Divine which it expresses. The inhibition of pleasure is no longer needed when the soul no longer seeks pleasure but possesses the delight of the Divine in all things equally without the need of a personal or physical possession of the thing itself; self-denial loses its field when the soul no longer claims anything, but obeys consciously the will of the one Self in all beings. It is then that we are freed from the Law and released into the liberty of the Spirit.

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Let us close this essay on Renunciation with a significant passage from the Mother's Commentary on Sri Aurobindo' s Thoughts and Aphorisms:

"No, the solution is to act only under the divine impulsion, to speak only under the divine impulsion, to eat only under the divine impulsion. That is the difficult thing, because naturally, you immediately confuse the divine impulsion with your personal impulses.

"I suppose this was the idea of all the apostles of renunciation: to eliminate everything coming from outside or from below so that if something from above should manifest one would be in a condition to receive it.... From the individual point of view, it is possible; but then one must keep intact the aspiration to receive the true impulsion — not the aspiration for 'complete liberation', but the aspiration for active identification with the Supreme, that is to say, to will only what He wills, to do only what He wants: to exist by and in Him alone....

"All these things are means, stages, steps, but... true freedom is to be free of everything — including means." (M C W, Vol. 10, pp. 197-98)

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