Integral Yoga of Transformation

Notes and references

' Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 22,p.98.

2 The Bhagavad Gita (BG), XV.7.

3 Ibid., VII.5.

4 Ibid., XVII.3.

5 Ibid., XIV.2.

6 Ibid., XIV.20.

7 Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 21, pp. 661-2.

8 Ibid., The Life Divine, Vol. 19, pp. 962-3.

9 Ibid., pp. 889-90.

10 Katha Upanishad, ILL 12-13. "BG,XV7.

12 Vide., Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 18, chapter 23.

13 Ibid., p.225.

14 BG, XV.7.

15 Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 18,p.228.

16 Ibid., Vol. 19, p. 891.

17 Katha Upanishad, 1.2.12.

18 Vide., Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 19, p. 891-5.

19 Ibid., pp. 895-7.

20 Katha Upanishad, U.I.5.

21 Brahmāndvalli of Taittiriya Upanishad, chapters I - V.

22 Mundaka Upanishad, IL1.2 and 10.

23 Vide., Isha Upanishad, 16.

24 BG, VII.5.

25 Vide., Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 20, p.283.

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26 Ibid., Letters on Yoga, Vol. 22, pp. 282-4.

27 Ibid., The Synthesis of Yoga, Vol. 20, pp. 69-70.

28 Ibid., The Life Divine, Vol. 19, pp. 896-7.

29 Vide., Ibid., pp. 897 - 901.

30 Vide., Ibid., Letters on Yoga, Vol. 22, pp. 326 - 353.

31 Vide., Ibid., pp. 351 - 53; vide also. The Life Divine, Vol. 19, pp.

733-4

32 Vide also Satprem, The Mind of the Cells, Mira Aditi and The Mother's Institute of Research, Delhi, 2002, pp. 138 - 67.

33 Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971. Vol. 18,p.426.

34 Ibid., pp. 535 - 7.

35 Ibid., p. 539.

36 Ibid., pp. 539 - 40.

37 Ibid., p. 225.

38 Ibid., Letters on Yoga, Vol. 22, pp. 298 - 9.

39 The Mother, Collected Works of the Mother, Centenary Edition, 1978, Vol. 12, pp. 32-33.

40 Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 19,p.900.

41 Ibid., pp. 903 - 4.

42 Ibid., p. 907.

43 Ibid., pp. 907 - 8.

44 Ibid., pp. 908 - 9.

45 Ibid., p. 911.

46 Ibid., p. 938.

47 Vide., Ibid., pp. 940 - 44.

48 Vide., Ibid., pp. 944 - 7.

49 Ibid., p. 949.

50 Ibid., Vol. 18, p. 278.

51 Ibid., pp. 279 - 80.

52 Ibid., p. 130.

53 "Ibid.,?. 131.

54 Ibid., The Synthesis of Yoga, Vol. 21, p. 845.

55 Ibid., The Life Divine, Vol. 19, p. 916.

56 Ibid., p. 918.

57 lbid.,'The Synthesis of Yoga, Vol. 21, p. 587.

58 BG, IV.33.

59 Vide., Ibid., VH.16.

60 Ibid., VII. 18.

61 Vide., Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 21, pp. 521-7.

62 Vide., Ibid., pp. 671-700.

63 Ibid., p. 666.

64 Ibid., p. 667.

65 Vide., Ibid., pp. 667 - 89.

66 Ibid., p. 669.

67 Ibid., pp. 669 - 70.

68 Vide., Ibid., The Life Divine, Vol. 19, p. 967.

69 Ibid., pp. 972 - 3.

70 Ibid., p. 989.

71 Vide., Ibid., The Synthesis of Yoga, Vol. 21, chapter XV.

72 Ibid., p. 722.

73 Ibid.

74 Ibid.

75 Ibid., The Supramental Manifestation Upon Earth, Vol. 16, p. 281.

76 Ibid., The Life Divine, Vol. 19, pp. 1067 - 8.

77 The fact that Sri Aurobindo discovered the supermind, the peak of the superconscience, and the gates were opened up for exploration of still higher levels of the consciousness and power of Sachchidananda, is of immense significance, not only for breaking the bounds of history and of evolutionary process, but also for the recovery of the ancient origins of yogic endeavour and subsequent development in the history of yoga as also for providing to the science of yoga fresh evidence of the objectivity of the truth of the supermind and of other discoveries recorded in the history of yoga. Sri Aurobindo's discovery of the supermind preceded his discovery of the descriptions of the supermind that were recorded in the Veda, even though for millennia these descriptions had remained undeciphered and therefore forgotten. Hence, Sri Aurobindo's discovery of the supermind was a new discovery, independent of what was achieved in regard to the supermind in the Vedic times. Sri Aurobindo subsequently showed to what extent the supermind was discovered by the Rishis of the Veda

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and the Upanishads and even by the later tradition of which Sri Krishna's yogic knowledge and realization is the culminating point. It was not as if Sri Aurobindo had any mental idea of the supermind or of the yoga by which supermind can be attained by following which he reconfirmed the Vedic discovery of the supermind. Sri Aurobindo had, in course of his own yoga of self-development, attained the supermind; and he had certain experiences for which he had not found any clue in whatever was known or thought of in the past records of tradition of yoga. But when he came to read subsequently the pages of the Rig Veda, he found in the symbolic but fairly transparent hymns the epical victory of the Vedic Rishis that they had attained in discovering the supermind and in their attainment of what they had called immortality; the Rishis had described immortality as a state of the widening or universalisation of the physical consciousness as a result of the visitations of the supramental consciousness in the physical body. From the scientific point of view of yoga, it can be said that the discovery or rediscovery of the supermind by Sri Aurobindo could take place only if the supermind has objective reality; for then only could one encounter it, even if one were not guided by any subjective idea or by the ideas prevalent in the cultural environment.

Sri Aurobindo has described his discovery of the Vedic discovery of the supermind as follows:

"My first contact with Vedic thought came indirectly while pursuing certain lines of self-development in the way of Indian Yoga, which, without my knowing it, were spontaneously converging towards the ancient and now unfrequented paths followed by our forefathers. At this time there began to arise in my mind an arrangement of symbolic names attached to certain psychological experiences which had begun to regularise themselves; and among them there came the figures of three female energies, Ila, Saraswati, Sarama, representing severally three out of the four faculties of the intuitive reason, — revelation, inspiration and intuition. Two of these names were not well known to me as Vedic goddesses, but were connected rather with the current Hindu religion or with old Puranic legend, Saraswati, goddess of learning and Ila,Page - 93 mother of the Lunar dynasty. But Sarama was familiar enough. I was unable, however, to establish any connection between the figure that rose in my mind and the Vedic hound of heaven, who

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was associated in my memory with the Argive Helen and represented only an image of the physical Dawn entering in its pursuit of the vanished herds of Light into the cave of the Powers of darkness. When once the clue is found, the clue of the physical Light imaging the subjective, it is easy to see that the hound of heaven may be the intuition entering into the dark caverns of the subconscious mind to prepare the delivery and out flashing of the bright illuminations of knowledge which have there been imprisoned. But the clue was wanting and I was obliged to suppose an identity of name without any identity of the symbol. ..

"... It did not take long to see that the Vedic indications of a racial division between Aryans and Dasyus and the identification of the latter with the indigenous Indians were of a far flimsier character than I had supposed. But far more interesting to me was the discovery of a considerable body of profound psychological thought and experience lying neglected in these ancient hymns. And the importance of this element increased in my eyes when I found, first, that the mantras of the Veda illuminated with a clear and exact light psychological experiences of my own for which I had found no sufficient explanation either in European psychology or in the teachings of Yoga or of Vedanta, so far as I was acquainted with them, and, secondly, that they shed light on obscure passages and ideas of the Upanishads to which, previously, I could attach no exact meaning and gave at the same time a new sense to much in the Puranas." (Ibid, The Secret of the Veda, Vol. 10, pp. 34, 36-7)

Sri Aurobindo explains in detail how, following the clue that he had now discovered he found also the clue to the symbolism of the words in the Vedic conception of the vyāhrtis, the three symbolic words of the mantra, Om bhūr bhuvh svah, and in the connection of the fourth vyāhrti, Mahas with the psychological term ritam. As Sri Aurobindo explains:

"The Rishis speak of three cosmic divisions. Earth, the antariksa or middle region and Heaven (dyau); but there is also a greater Heaven (brhad dyau) called also the Wide World, the Vast (brihat and typified sometimes as the Great Water, maho arnah. This brihat is again described as ritam brihat or in a triple term satym ritam brihat. And as the three worlds correspond the Vyahritis, so this fourth world of the

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Vastness and the Truth seems to correspond to the fourth Vyahriti mentioned in the Upanishads, Mahas. In the Puranic formula the four are completed by three others, Jana, Tapas, and Satya, the three supreme worlds of the Hindu cosmology. In the Veda also we have three supreme worlds whose names are not given. But in the Vedantic and Puranic system the seven worlds correspond to seven psychological principles or forms of existence. Sat, Chit, Ananda, Vijnana, Manas, Prana and Anna. Now Vijnana, the central principle, the principle of Mahas, the great world, is the Truth of things, identical with the Vedic ritam which is the principle of brihat, the Vast, and while in the Puranic system Mahas is followed in the ascending order by Jana, the world of Ananda, of the divine Bliss, in the Veda also ritam, the Truth, leads upward to Mayas, Bliss. We may, therefore, be fairly sure that the two systems are identical and that both depend on the same idea of seven principles of subjective consciousness formulating themselves in seven objective worlds. On this principle I was able to identify the Vedic worlds with corresponding psychological planes of consciousness and the whole Vedic system became clear to my mind." (Ibid, pp. 42-3)

Sri Aurobindo further elucidates how he identified Mahas with the Vedic concept of the infinity of the Truth (or the Vedic satyam, ritam brihat, the Truth, the Right and the Vast) as a "great passage" to the divine Bliss or Mayas. Sri Aurobindo states:

"I had already seen that the central idea of the Vedic Rishis was the transition of the human soul from a state of death to a state of immortality by the exchange of the Falsehood for the Truth, of divided and limited being for integrality and infinity. Death is the mortal state of Matter with Mind and Life involved in it; Immortality is a state of infinite being, consciousness and bliss. Man rises beyond the two firmaments, roadsi. Heaven and Earth, mind and body, to the infinity of the Truth, Mahas, and so to the divine Bliss. This is the "great passage" discovered by the Ancestors, the ancient Rishis. "(Ibid, p.43)

In the "Life Divine", Sri Aurobindo has pointed out that the cryptic verses of the Veda contain, though concealed, the gospel of the divine and immortal Supermind and through the veil some illumining flashes come to us. He also points out that in these Vedic utterances the conception of the supermind is classified as a vastness beyond the

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ordinary firmaments of our consciousness. While defining the super- mind, Sri Aurobindo admits the Vedic clue of "truth-consciousness" for delimiting the connotation of the elastic phrase "Supermind". For without this delimitation, the word supermind would appear to be ambiguous and may mean either mind itself super-eminent and lifted above ordinary mentality but not radically changed, or it may mean all that is beyond mind and therefore assume too extensive comprehensiveness which will bring in even the Ineffable itself. As Sri Aurobindo explains:

"The Vedic seers seem to speak of two primary faculties of the "truth- conscious" soul; they are Sight and Hearing, by which is intended direct operations of an inherent Knowledge describable as truth-vision and truth-audition and reflected from far-off in our human mentality by the faculties of revelation and inspiration. Besides, a distinction seems to be made in the operations of the Supermind between knowledge by a comprehending and pervading consciousness which is very near to subjective knowledge by identity and knowledge by a projecting, confronting, apprehending consciousness which is the beginning of objective cognition. These are the Vedic clues. And we may accept from this ancient experience the subsidiary term "truth- consciousness" to delimit the connotation of the more elastic phrase, Supermind." (Ibid, The Life Divine, Vol. 18, p. 125)

But Sri Aurobindo's discovery of the supermind has resulted in breaking down the boundaries of history and of the evolutionary process itself. During the historical development of yoga, the Vedic knowledge of the supermind was lost, and the yogic endeavour gradually came to be confined to a more limited aim of the attainment of the liberation of the individual soul from its entanglement with the ego and the three gunas of Prakriti; the realms of the supermind as recorded in the Veda, Upanishads and the Gita did not come to be rediscovered. Sri Aurobindo's discovery of the supermind was not only a revisiting of the supramental realms of consciousness and power; he also found that the road to farther consequences of the visitations of supramental consciousness in the physical body were blocked; he also found that the Divine Will working in the evolutionary process required the necessity of removing that obstacle; as a result, Sri Aurobindo introduced a new objective in his integral yoga and developed new methods in conjunction with some of the methods

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which were developed in the past in order that the supramental consciousness could manifest in physical consciousness with that kind of permanence in the evolutionary process that we find in regard to the permanence of Life in Matter and Mind in Life in the evolutionary development that we see on the earth. The Mother collaborated with Sri Aurobindo in this new task and led it to its accomplishment.

As a result, the true and full integration of the Spirit and Matter can now be said to have been achieved with their great accomplishment, and the boundaries of evolution and the limitations of the methods of evolution which have so far been at work have also radically been broken down. Sri Aurobindo has, therefore, envisaged a major change in the evolutionary process. While envisaging this radical change and the evolutionary process as a result of the descent of the supermind, Sri Aurobindo had stated in one of his last writings, "Supermind and the Evolution", as follows:

"The full emergence of supermind may be accomplished by a sovereign manifestation, a descent into earth-consciousness and a rapid assumption of its powers and disclosing of its forms and the creation of a supramental race and a supramental life: this must indeed be the full result of its action in Nature. But this has not been the habit of evolutionary Nature in the past upon earth and it may well be that this supramental evolution also will fix its own periods, though it cannot be at all a similar development to that of which earth has hitherto been the witness. But once it has begun, all must unavoidably and perfectly manifest and all parts of Nature must stand towards a greatest possible luminousness and perfection. It is this certainty that authorises us to believe that mind and humanity also will tend towards the realisation that will be far beyond our present dreams of perfection." (Ibid, The Supramental Manifestation Upon Earth, Vol. 16, p. 65)

A study of the accounts of the development of the experimental re- search carried out by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother will enable us to suggest that after 1970, when the Mother stated that the supramental consciousness had come to be permanently fixed in the physical consciousness (vide Mother's Agenda, Vol. 11, pp. 97-105, dated 14.3.1970) there must have been an unprecedented acceleration in the progression of the earth-consciousness. One can even legitimately

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suggest some novel aspects in the development and practice of the integral yoga as described by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, particularly with regard to the removal of difficulties that lie in the stupendous task of making supermind operate in physical consciousness as also in regard to the speed with which the progression that can take place in humanity's own evolutionary process. But still the processes and methods of integral yoga would fully hold good and the practice of the processes and methods of the triple transformation which are essentials of the integral yoga will remain inevitable.

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Kireet Joshi (b. 1931) studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I.A.S. in 1955 but in 1956, he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondich- erry and participated in numerous educational experiments under the direct guidance of The Mother.

In 1976, the Government of India invited him to be Education Advisor in the Ministry of Education. In 1983, he was appointed Special Secretary to the Government of India, and he held the post until 1988. He was Member- Secretary of Indian Council of Philosophical Research from 1981 to 1990. He was also Member-Secretary of Rashtriya Veda Vidya Pratishthan from 1987 to 1993. He was the Vice-Chairman of the UNESCO Institute of Education, Hamburg, from 1987 to 1989.

From 1999 to 2004, he was the Chairman of Auroville Foundation. From 2000 to 2006, he was Chairman of Indian Council of Philosophical Research. From 2006 to 2008, he was Editorial Fellow of the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture (PHISPC).

Currently, he is Education Advisor to the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Other Titles in the Series

The New Synthesis of Yoga - An Introduction

Varieties of Yogic Experience and Integral Realisation

Significance of Indian Yoga - An Overview

A Pilgrim's Quest for the Highest and the Best

Synthesis of Yoga in the Veda

Synthesis of Yoga in the Upanishads

The Gita and Its Synthesis of Yoga

Integral Yoga: Major Aims, Processes, Methods and Results

Supermind in the Integral Yoga

Integral Yoga and Evolutionary Mutation

Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species

Also by Kireet Joshi

Education for Character Development

Education for Tomorrow

Education at Crossroads

A National Agenda for Education

Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

Landmarks of Hinduism

The Veda and Indian Culture

Glimpses of Vedic Literature

The Portals of Vedic Knowledge

Bhagavadgita and Contemporary Crisis

Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays

A Philosophy of the Role of the Contemporary Teacher

A Philosophy of Evolution for the Contemporary Man

A Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth

Edited by Kireet Joshi

The Aim of Life

The Good Teacher and the Good Pupil

Mystery and Excellence of Human Body

Gods and the World

Crucifixion

Uniting Men - Jean Monnet

Joan of Arc

Nala and Damayanti

Alexander the Great

Siege of Troy

Homer and the Iliad - Sri Aurobindo and Ilion

Catherine the Great

Parvati's Tapasya

Sri Krishna in Vrindavan

Socrates

Nachiketas

Sri Rama

Compiled by Kireet Joshi

On Materialism

Towards Universal Fraternity

Let us Dwell on Human Unity