Significance of Indian Yoga

VI

(a)

It is possible to look upon Yoga as a means of escape from the world and its life. It may be argued that the world- existence is a cosmic illusion or that it is born out of cosmic ignorance and desire, and that there is no issue in it except to find out the quickest means to come out of this sorrowful world-existence. In fact, extreme forms of Yoga have preached asceticism and world-negating attitudes. In these cases, Yoga has become divorced from life and some kind of antagonism between yoga and life has been conceived and practised. These extreme forms of Yoga have been exclusive in character, and where yoga and life do not meet, there can be no question of any synthesis of yoga. But even without recourse to any extreme positions, mere multiplication of Yogic processes brings about some kind of distance between life and yoga. Preoccupation with yogic processes and their exceptional results often impel the yogin to draw away from the common existence and lose his hold upon it. If he gains God, he loses life, or if he turns his efforts outward to conquer life, he is in danger of losing God. Fortunately, there has been throughout the history of Indian Yoga a powerful tendency to reunite Spirit and Nature, God and Life. This is what we have seen in respect of the Veda, Upanishad, and the Gita. In Tantra, we have seen a bolder effort to utilise the obstacles which life presents to yoga as gates of higher realisation. But all turns ultimately on the central question.

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as to what the human being is precisely expected to realise and whether human life has a potentiality of sustaining the highest possible realisations and powers. This is a question that Indian Yoga has constantly raised, but in the latest effort of yoga represented by Sri Aurobindo we have the sharpest formulation of the question and a new answer and also a new synthesis of yoga, the very formula of which is that "All life is Yoga."

Sri Aurobindo writes, "all life, when we look behind its appearances, is a vast Yoga of Nature attempting to realise her perfection in an ever increasing expression of her potentialities and to unite herself with her own divine reality. In man, her thinker, she for the first time upon this Earth devises self-conscious means and willed arrangements of activity by which this great purpose may be more swiftly and puissantly attained. Yoga, as Swami Vivekananda has said, may be regarded as a means of compressing one's evolution into a single life or a few years or even a few months of bodily existence... It is this view of Yoga that can alone form the basis for a sound and rational synthesis of Yogic methods."⁸² According to Sri Aurobindo, man is that term and symbol of a higher Existence descended into the material world in which it is possible for the lower to transfigure itself and put on the nature of the higher and the higher to reveal itself in the forms of the lower. He concludes that the true and full object and utility of yoga can only be accomplished when the conscious yoga in man becomes, like the subconscious yoga in Nature, outwardly conterminous with life itself.

In a letter addressed to a disciple, Sri Aurobindo has explained the novelty of his synthesis of yoga. He points out

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that his yoga is new as compared with the old yogas because (1) it aims not at a departure out of world and life into Heaven or Nirvana, but at a change of life and existence, not as something subordinate or incidental, but as a distinct and central object; (2) the object sought after is not an individual achievement of divine realisation for the sake of the individual, but something to be gained for the earth consciousness here, a cosmic, not solely a supra-cosmic achievement; and (3) a method has been preconized for achieving this purpose which is as total and integral as the aim set before it, namely, the total and integral change of the consciousness and nature, taking up old methods but only as a part action and present aid to others that are distinctive.⁸³

Sri Aurobindo points out that an undiscrimating combination of different systems of yoga would not be a synthesis but a confusion. At the same time, he shows that successive practice of each of them in turn would not be easy in the short span of our human life, even though in an exceptional example of Sri Ramakrishna one sees "a colossal spiritual capacity, first driving straight to the divine realisation, taking, as it were, the kingdom of heaven by violence, and then seizing upon one Yogic method after another and extracting the substance out of it with an incredible rapidity, always to return to the heart of the whole matter, the realisation and possession of God by the power of love, by the extension of inborn spirituality into various experience and by the spontaneous play of an intuitive knowledge."⁸⁴ Such an example, he points out, cannot be generalised. His solution is to effect a synthesis by neglecting the forms and outsides of the yogic disciplines and seizing rather on some central principle common to all which will include and utilise in the right place and proportion their

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particular principles, and on some central dynamic force which is the common secret of their divergent methods and therefore capable of organising a natural selection and combination of their varied energies and different utilities. Each special system of yoga selects an instrument, purifies it. subtilises it, and focuses it on the object of realisation. Concentration and purification of the instrument lead to the realisation. In the integral Yoga all the instruments of our consciousness are taken up, all of them are placed through the process of purification, and they are concentrated on the supreme object in all its integrality. In his own words, "In an ordinary Yoga one main power of being or one group of its powers is made the means, vehicle, path. In a synthetic Yoga all powers will be combined and included in the transmuting instrumentation".⁸⁵

The method of synthesis in Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga seems to start from the method of Vedanta to arrive at the aim of Tantra. In the Tantric method Shakti is all-important, becomes the key to the finding of spirit. In Sri Aurobindo's synthesis, spirit or soul, is all-important and becomes the secret of the taking up of Shakti. The Tantric method starts from the bottom and grades the ladder of ascent upwards to the summit; therefore, its initial stress is upon the action of the awakened Kundalini in the nervous system of the body and its centres. In Sri Aurobindo's synthesis man is taken as a spirit in mind much more than a spirit in the body and assumes in him the capacity to begin on that level, to spiritualise his being by the power of the soul in mind opening itself directly to a higher spiritual force and being and to perfect by that higher force so possessed and brought into action the whole of his nature. Therefore, the initial stress here falls upon the utilisation of the powers of soul in

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mind and the turning of the triple key of knowledge, works and love in the locks of the spirit. The Hathayogic methods can be dispensed with here, although there is no objection to their partial use. And the Rajayogic methods enter in as an informal element. In Sri Aurobindo's words, "To arrive by the shortest way at the largest development of spiritual power and being and divinise by it a liberated nature in the whole range of human living is our inspiring motive."⁸⁶

The central principle of the integral yoga is a self- surrender, a giving up of the human being into the being, consciousness, power, and delight of the Divine, a union or communion, at all the points of meeting in the soul of man, the mental being, by which the Divine himself, directly and without veil, master and possessor of instrument, shall perfect the human being by the light of his presence and guidance in all the forces of nature for a divine living. Normally, liberation of the soul of man is considered to be purpose of all yogas. In Sri Aurobindo's yoga, the spirit in man is looked upon not merely as an individual being travelling to a transcendent unity with the Divine, but as a universal being capable of oneness with the Divine in all souls and all nature with all its practical consequences. As Sri Aurobindo explains:

"The human soul's individual liberation and enjoyment of union with the Divine in spiritual being, consciousness and delight must always be the first object of the Yoga; its free enjoyment of the cosmic unity of the Divine becomes a second object; but out of that a third appears, the effectuation of the meaning of the divine unity with all being by a sympathy and participation in the spiritual purpose of the Divine in humanity. The individual Yoga then turns from its.

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separateness and becomes a part of the collective Yoga of the divine Nature in the human race. The liberated individual being, united with the Divine himself and spirit, becomes in his natural being a self-perfecting instrument for the perfect out flowering of the Divine in humanity."⁸⁷

This out flowering implies a perfection which amounts to the elevation of the mental into the full spiritual and what Sri Aurobindo calls supramental nature. Therefore, the integral yoga of knowledge, love and works is extended into a Yoga of spiritual and supramental perfection.

(b)

Supermind is the key-word. For supermind is an integral consciousness; it is at once the self-awareness of the Infinite and Eternal and a power of self-determination inherent in that self-awareness. All that a Timeless eternity of self- awareness seizes in itself as truth of being, a conscious power of its being manifests in Time-eternity. To supermind, therefore, the Supreme is not a rigid Indeterminable, and all- negating Absolute; the Infinite of Being is also an Infinite of Power. The Supreme and Eternal Infinite determines itself to our consciousness in the universe by real and fundamental truths of its Being which are beyond universe and in it and are the very foundation of its existence. The Supreme is tad ekam and sah of the Veda; it is parat para higher than the highest, of the Upanishad; it is Purushotamma of the Gita; it is the Supreme Lord of the Shakti of the Tantra. It is unknowable to our mental consciousness but self-evident to knowledge by identity of which the spiritual being in us is capable. It is That which is known to us when it is manifest

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to us as Sachchidananda, an Eternal and the Infinite and Absolute self-existence, self-awareness, self-delight of being. According to Sri Aurobindo, this founds all things and secretly supports and pervades all things. Supermind is the self-determining power of expression of that Supreme Reality. It is the Divine Maya and Aditi of the Veda; it is Haimavati Uma of the Upanishad; it is the Para Prakriti of the Gita, it is the Supreme Shakti of the Tantra. Supermind is also termed as Real-Idea, for in Supermind knowledge the Idea is not divorced from Will in the Idea, but one with it — just as it is not different from being or substance, but is one -with the being, luminous power of the substance. As the power of burning light is not different from the substance of the fire, so the power of the Idea is not different from the substance of the Being which works itself out in the Idea and its development. Supermind is, therefore, described as the Truth-Consciousness, rita chit of the Veda.

Sri Aurobindo speaks of the triple status of the Supermind, (i) the status of the comprehensive consciousness which founds the inalienable unity of things, (ii) the status of apprehending consciousness in which the Divine Consciousness stands back in the idea from the movement which it contains resulting in the individual play of movement where the conscious Self is the same every where in soul-essence, but varying in soul-form, — corresponding to Gita's Para prakrtir jiva bhuta, and (iii) the status where the supporting concentration of the individual play projects itself into the movement and becomes in a way involved in it so as to create a fundamental blissful dualism in unity between the individual Divine and its universal souls. These three statuses of the Supermind correspond, respectively, to unitary consciousness, qualified oneness and

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blissful dualism. In the Supermind these three do not conflict with each other but express a total harmony. As Sri Aurobindo states: "We cannot stamp any of these three poises with the stigma of falsehood and illusion. The language of the Upanishads, the supreme ancient authority for these truths of a higher experience, when they speak of the Divine existence which is manifesting itself, implies the validity of all these experiences."⁸⁸

The conflict among various positions of Vedantic philosophy finds a resolution in the experience of the three poises of the Supermind. The conflict arises when human mentality lays an exclusive emphasis on one side of spiritual experience. As Sri Aurobindo explains:

"Thus, emphasising the sole truth of the unitarian consciousness, we observe the play of the divine unity, erroneously rendered by our mentality into the terms of real difference, but, not satisfied with correcting this error of the mind by the truth of a higher principle, we assert that the play itself is an illusion. Or, emphasising the play of the One in the Many, we declare a qualified unity and regard the individual soul as a soul-form of the Supreme, but would assert the eternity of this qualified existence and deny altogether the experience of a pure consciousness in an unqualified oneness. Or, again, emphasising the play of difference, we assert that the Supreme and the human soul are eternally different and reject the validity of an experience which exceeds and seems to abolish that difference. But the position that we have now firmly taken absolves us from the necessity of these negations and exclusions: we see that there is a truth behind all these affirmations, but at the same time an excess which leads to an ill-founded negation."⁸⁹

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In the Supermind various spiritual experiences become integrated and find their right place in its integrality. It is true that beyond the supramental planes of consciousness there are greater heights of the manifested Spirit. As in the Veda and in the Upanishad, so in Sri Aurobindo, the Supermind is a link between the Supreme Sachchidananda and the lower world of Ignorance, the world of Matter, Life and Mind. Supramental world is the world of Vedic swar, the supramental world is a world corresponding to the Upanishadlic vijnana: and one can rise into higher worlds of Ananda, Chit and Sat. But even then, as Sri Aurobindo points out, "the Supramental Truth-Consciousness would not be absent from these planes, for it is an inherent power of Sachchidananda: the difference would be that the determinations would not be demarcations, they would be plastic, interfused, each a boundless finite. For there all is in each and each is in all radically and integrally,...."⁹⁰

Thus supramental integrality is not a fixed quantity, but there is in the supramental consciousness a possibility of constant progression, but this progression would not be from Ignorance to Knowledge but from Knowledge to Knowledge. In Sri Aurobindo's words: "...its very nature is knowledge: it has not to acquire knowledge but possesses it in its own right; its steps are not from nescience or ignorance into some imperfect light, but from truth to greater truth, from right perception to deeper perception, from intuition to intuition, from illumination to utter and boundless luminousness, from growing widenesses to the utter vasts and to very infinitude."⁹¹

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(C)

The aim of Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga is not only to ascend to the supermind and above, but to bring about full descent and manifestation of the supermind in the physical existence. This is the distinctive and differentiating aim, which makes it radically turned to earthly life. In this yoga all life is accepted; but there is a supreme qualification in this acceptance. All life is accepted but all life is transformed by the highest supramental consciousness. The aim is to work for the establishment of supermind as a grade in physical life, in the same way as life is established in matter and mind is established in material life by the evolutionary process of Nature. It was this work which was undertaken by Sri Aurobindo and by the Mother who joined him from 1914 onwards for accomplishing this work. This entire work required the treading of an uncharted path and hewing a new path. This path is called the path of triple transformation. In a briefest description of the triple transformation, Sri Aurobindo points out that "there must first be the psychic change, the conversion of our whole present nature into a soul-instrumentation; on that or along with that there must be the spiritual change, the descent of a higher Light, Knowledge, Power, Force, Bliss, Purity into the whole being, even into the lowest recesses of the life and body, even into the darkness of our subconscience; last, there must supervene the supramental transmutation,—there must take place as the crowning movement the ascent into the Supermind and the transforming descent of the supramental Consciousness into our entire being and nature."⁹²

It is this process of triple transformation that is described in detail in Sri Aurobindo's 'The Life Divine', 'The Synthesis

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of Yoga', 'The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth', and in his many thousand letters. An account of the highest efforts of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and of the accomplishment of the task is given in thirteen volumes of 'Mother's Agenda'. This great effort resulted in what the Mother has called the Yoga of physical cells which involved the action of the Supermind directly into the physical aiming at the mutation of the human species.

Looking at this supreme work and accomplishment, the long history of Indian Yoga finds its full justification and its fulfilment in earthly life. And resulting from this yoga we get a supreme message that, to use the Mother's words, "Salvation is collective and physical".⁹³

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