The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo

CHAPTER XVIII

KARMA YOGA AND ITS INDISPENSABILITY

PART II

THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF KARMAYOGA

KARMAYOGA consists in offering all the movements of our physical being, particularly the works done by our body, to the omnipresent Master of our being. Its primary rule, as the Gitâ insists, is the renunciation of all desire for the fruit of our action, and all preference even. in the choice of action. Action has to be done in the beginning as a sacrifice to the Lord of the universal sacrifice, yajñeśwara, as an individual contribution to the sum total of the collective evolutionary effort. "The essential of the sacrifice of works is the surrender of all desire for the fruit of our works, of all attachment to the result for which yet we labour, for so long as we work with attachment to the result, the sacrifice is offered to our ego and not to the Divine. We may think otherwise, but we are deceiving ourselves; we are making our idea of the Divine, our sense of duty, our feeling for our fellow-creatures, our idea of what is good for the world or others, even our obedience to the Master a mask for our egoistic desire and a shield against the demand

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made on us to root desire out of our being."¹ But desires can never be completely eliminated except through action, for, it is only in an active life that they rise to the surface of our consciousness and press for their satisfaction. In an ascetic life of inaction and passivity, they lie either coerced into silence or chafing underground, —they are not worked out. An active life presents every opportunity for all the lower energies of the nature to emerge to the surface; and in the Integral Yoga the very first result of the pressure of the Mother's Force is an upsurge of the dormant or suppressed desires and passions of the being. "Yoga in its process of purification will lay bare and throw up all hidden impulses and desires in you. And you must learn not to hide things nor leave them aside, you have to face them and conquer and remould them. The first effect of Yoga, however, is to take away the mental control, and the hungers that lie dormant are suddenly set free, they rush up and invade the being. So long as this mental control has not been replaced by the divine control, there is a period of transition when your sincerity and surrender will be put to test."² This does not happen in the case of an ethical self-culturist or a humanitarian worker, for their minds exert some sort of curb or control over the movements of their lower nature, and there is no higher spiritual force doing in them the work of purification in its inscrutable but impeccable way. Even in the other yogas,

¹Sri Aurobindo.

²Conversations with the Mother.

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until there is a direct spiritual intervention, the mental inhibitions play the most important role, and achieve, even at their best, a partial and precarious purification,, and a superficial ethical polish in the nature. In the Integral Yoga, on the contrary, the first touches of the Mother's Force rouse up the repressed or slumbering: appetites of the unregenerate nature and compel them to be converted into their spiritual counterparts. It is to be noted here that when we speak of the elimination- or expulsion of desire, we mean, not an extinction or annihilation of the energy that informs and impels it, but the egoistic forms it takes in the ignorance of the nature. It is the egoistic moulds that have to be dissolved, and the blind drive that has to be stopped, but the force and energy that feeds them must not be crushed, but offered to the Divine for a supramental life-effectuation. When converted and transformed, the desires shed their ego-moulds and separative drive, and unite and collaborate with the flaming Will of the Divine Mother, which then spontaneously fulfils itself in the individual nature.

What should be the attitude of the sâdhaka when, in. the course of his yoga, he finds his desires assailing him with a desperate violence? He is not advised to restrict unduly the sphere of his active life, or hasten to curtail his activities in order to be able to devote more time to meditation and contemplation. In some exceptional. cases it can be done for a time, and for a specific purpose, but the general rule is to give a full and unrestricted play

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to the energies of the being in the sacrificial spirit of desire less action. Desires may continue to rise and clamour for satisfaction, but they have to be observed with tranquil courage, neither neglected nor indulged and offered to the transforming light of the Mother. If one renounces action, one renounces the very field of unloosening the knots of the ego and desires and converting the blind energies of the lower nature into spiritual tapas.

The rule of the performance of all action without :any desire for fruit, niskāma karma, is a very effective means of purification, particularly of the prāna. Every work must be done as an offering, as a sacrifice, in a spirit of consecration, as a service,—not only the important works of life, but every little thing that one does, even every little movement of the body. The Gita inculcates this spirit of detailed surrender in action when it says:

"Offer to me (the Divine) all that thou dost, all that thou eatest, all that thou renouncest, all that thou givest and all that thou practises to kindle thy soul's energy."

When one surrenders and offers in this way all one's action to the Mother's Force, one shakes up all desires, latent or patent, and forces them, not by repression, but by an intense, detached and dynamic will, to submit to a spiritual conversion. This individual will, supported and fortified by the Mother's Will, is the most powerful means of liberation and transformation. What :is indispensable at this stage is a quiet, untrembling

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poise in the central consciousness, and a sincere and sustained rejection of all egoistic insistences. The quieter one is, the stronger one becomes; the more fearless one is the greater becomes one's power of resistance. And when one is in this poise of equality and calm surrender, one can observe each desire as it enters into one or rises from below, and deal with it in the most effective yogic way.

But it is not enough to renounce all desire and hankering for the fruit of action, one must give up all attachment to action itself. There must be "the feeling (not merely the idea or the aspiration) that all the life and the work are the Mother's."¹ It can be said that the ideal yogic work is done only when there is no overmastering need felt by the Karma yogi for any work at all. To him any work appears as good as any other, so far as its inherent yogic value is concerned.² The essential thing is the spirit and the attitude with which he works. A work becomes yogic only either when there is an aspiration for union with the Divine inspiring and impelling it, or when it is an expression of the union itself—the former is Karma yoga for union, and the latter Karmayoga in union. The common denominator between the two is the union; and any work that leads to it or stabilises and intensifies it is a yogic work. If the aspiration

¹ Sri Aurobindo.

² "All work done for the Divine is equally Divine, manual labour done for the Divine is more divine than mental culture done for one^s development, fame or mental satisfaction."—Sri Aurobindo.

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for union with the Infinite and Eternal is not there, then whatever the nature of the work and however beneficial its results to humanity, it is not yogic work. A Karma- yogi ought to be able to do any work to which he is appointed, and do it in a spirit of consecration and with as much skill as he commands and as much care as he can bestow upon it, but without any mental bias or stipulation, and feeling himself above the work—free in his soul and free in his nature. This kind of work is, indeed, yuktasya karma or muktasya karma,—the work of one who is not a slave of his work, but master.

It is difficult to have this freedom from attachment to one's work so long as the ego has not made its total surrender to the Divine. We may think we are free, but the moment our cherished work is taken away from us, we react in an unyogic way, and betray our bondage to the lower modes of Nature. The best condition for attaining this freedom is to rise superior to all action and live in a state in which action and inaction become one. An authentic yogic action proceeds from an inner silence and a perfect detachment from all the movements of Nature.

There are some persons who are very active and pragmatic by nature. It is almost impossible for them not to be doing something or other all the time. When they take up the Integral Yoga, they feel secretly proud of their energy and capacity for work, and naturally think that the quantity of their work is an index to their spiritual progress. This is a misconception of the very nature

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and object of yoga. It is not by the compelling goad of nature that the true Karmayogi acts, as a puppet or a bondslave, he acts for yoga, for union with the Divine, and for serving His Will in the world. His first concern, therefore, is with the right poise, the right attitude, and the right spirit of his being in regard to action. He acts, not because he cannot help acting, but because through devoted and desireless action he overcomes his ego, and advances by self-transcendence towards the Divine. He acts in order to get beyond the bondage of action, and render it a means of the self-expression of his soul, and the Divine dwelling in it. He works out of a growing inner freedom and peace and joy, and not by the blind impulsions of his normal human nature. "All should be done quietly from within—working, speaking, reading, writing, as part of the real consciousness—not with the dispersed and unquiet movement of the ordinary consciousness."¹ He can do, and often does, a great, even an immense amount of work, if it is felt by him as coming from the Divine, or conducive to his progress, but it is not the quantity that matters to him, but the spirit and aspiration and attitude behind the work. Karmayoga is a great liberating force, but it liberates only those who practise it in the developing freedom of their soul, and not under the perpetual lash of Nature's kinetic energies. As there are fanatics of Bhaktiyoga, who believe that to be always singing and

¹On Yoga—II

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dancing and weeping with uncontrolled emotions is the best form of sādhanā, so there are fanatics of Karmayoga who think that to be always in a flutter and bustle is the best way of progressing in spiritual life. What they have to remember is that Karmayoga is a yoga; and that no yoga is possible without a firm basis of quietude and calm self-mastery. Whatever work is done from the inner silence and serenity of the being, and offered as an oblation of love and devotion to the Divine, or whatever is directly inspired and intiated by the Divine Force, is authentic yogic work, and it cannot but lead to Union; all other work is but the effervescence of our egoistic energies, or a vainglorious parade of our personal capacities. If the quantity of the work we do, or even its quality, fills us with pride and a sense of self-importance, then the work, far from being Karmayoga, becomes a fresh bondage, and a cause of our fall from the path. To surmount the sense of being the doer of one's action is the first decisive step towards freedom in action.

Again, in the Integral Yoga, it is not enough to renounce all attachment to action and feel it as belonging to the Mother, but "you must learn to feel the Mother's forces behind you and to open to the inspiration and the guidance."¹ This is a point of capital importance. Karmayoga, as I have already said, is not practised in the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo as only a means of liberation, but as also a very effective and indispensable means of

¹Sri Aurobindo.

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Transformation and manifestation. Karmayoga continues even after liberation, as a channel of the divine Will fulfilling itself in the individual. Therefore, an openness and receptivity to the Mother's inspiration and guidance, and a constant aspiration for the working out of Her Will in the details of one's work are a very important part of this Karmayoga. In the beginning of the sâdhanâ, one acts according to the best lights one commands, and in a spirit of desireless self-dedication, but afterwards, as one progresses, one has to surrender the very choice and initiation of action to the Mother's Force, and become only a docile instrument of it. This transference of the initiative takes long to be complete; but on the way to it, one has to remain always concentrated on the divine Force and aspire for its guidance of one's nature. Let us take an example to illustrate what is meant by the inspiration and guidance of the Mother in the details of the yogic work. Let us suppose that a sâdhaka, who is an artist, is trying to offer his work to the Divine. It is not enough for him to be niskāma, desireless, and free from all craving for the result of his painting, it is not enough either to regard the work as belonging to the Mother, and do it in a spirit of sacrifice and dedication; what is more dynamically important is that he should remain completely open to the Mother's inspiration and plastic to Her touch, so that She may be the artist in him and he only a vehicle of Her transcendental Art. For, the ultimate object of this yoga is to let the Mother initiate and carry out all action in the individual nature, the individual remaining perfectly surrendered

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and receptive. The human initiation and execution must be replaced by the divine initiation and execution. If the artist can thus remain open and receptive, he will find his art developing in a marvelous way under the direct inspiration and palpable guidance of the Mother in him. There are many instances of this kind of extraordinary development of the capacities and faculties of the sâdhakas as a result of openness to the Mother's Light and Force. Instances are not wanting of mystics, both Eastern and Western, performing heroic deeds, infusing superhuman light and energy into their disciples, producing marvellous poems or magnificent pictures under the inspiration of the divine Force. What has usually been more or less an intermittent or sporadic action of the divine inspiration is sought to be properly canalised and regularised in the followers of the Integral Yoga. And the inspiration and guidance received should ultimately be not of any of the lower spiritual planes,—there is a regular hierarchy of them—but of the very supramental Force, the highest vijñāna śakti.

Let us take another example. Let us suppose that a sâdhaka is working in an office. It is not enough for him to dedicate his work to the Divine, and do it as best he can in a spirit of disinterested sacrifice; he must seek the divine guidance at every step of his work, and be open enough to receive it when it comes. To open thus to the divine guidance is to qualify for being an inspired instrument of God. New ideas will come to him in the course of his office work, new and brilliantly fruitful suggestions,

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which will heighten the quality of his work in an unforeseen way, and to an extent beyond his imagination. But if be follows the lead of his mind and does not look for the lead of the Divine, his work, by virtue of the sincere spirit of sacrifice in it, will, of course, conduce to his liberation, but it will hardly lend itself to any radical transformation. The human working may be greatly improved in quality and force, but it will nevertheless remain essentially human, and not be replaced by the direct divine working, which is the object of the Integral Yoga. Therefore, a constant concentration on the Divine and an unreserved surrender and opening to His Force and guidance at the time of work are essential elements of this Karmayoga. If this concentration¹is not there, there will be no steady play of the Mother's Force in the human being. If a sâdhaka thinks that he can afford to dispense with this constant concentration and openness, and indulge in useless chit-chats or other diversions at the time of work, he is sadly mistaken—it will only distract his attention from the work and shut out the Mother's guidance. Whether one is working or waiting for some work, there should always be a quiet and intent concentration on the Divine Mother, and an openness and receptivity to Her inspiration and guidance. Such openness alone can change our physical being, foster the growth of the higher conscious- ness in it, heighten the powers and faculties of our nature, awaken those that are dormant, and transform the whole

¹ Compare the Gitâ's ideal of Brahma-karma Samadhi.

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instrumentation of our personality. I repeat again that the object of Karmayoga as an organic part of the Integral Yoga is not only liberation from the bonds of nature but the transfiguration of nature itself; and for that, the direct and undisguised working of the Mother's Force is an indispensable prerequisite. There must be a free play of Her intuitions in the whole of our being, even in the body, and it must be Her Will, not only choosing and initiating our work, but informing and directing every part and turn of it.

In the beginning of the sadhana, it may be found some- what difficult to maintain this concentration on the Divine in the midst of the work. The attention and absorption that every yogic work demands may render it almost impossible. If we endeavour to' remain concentrated on the Divine, we may find, to our embarrassment, that we cannot attend to the minute details of the work; or, if we concentrate on the work and its details, we are apt to forget the Divine. This is a common enough experience at the preliminary stages of the yoga. But as we progress in our attitude of surrender and consecration, we come to perceive that a part of our consciousness, an inner and enlightened part, remains detached from the dynamic parts, and concentrated on the Divine. Here love for the Divine plays a very effective part. A spontaneous love for the Divine makes the concentration not only easy but natural—none can cease thinking of the object of his love. Bhaktiyoga thus reveals itself as the throbbing heart of Karmayoga, and supplies the most quickening

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force to the Godward élan of our active being. We can then remain concentrated at once on the Divine and on the work in hand; and by practice, this double concentration can be made perfectly normal and habitual. At a later stage, the two concentrations meet and merge into a constant, one-pointed concentration on the Divine, the omnipresent Lord and Beloved of all creatures, and it is the Mother's Force that is seen doing the works in us.¹ We must remember that not only the power of double or multiple concentration, but many such supernormal powers lie undeveloped within us. They develop quite naturally by the action of the yogaśakti, and what we now regard as impossible may appear to be possible, and even become normal with our spiritual progress. We can remain immutably concentrated on the Divine always, and in all that we do—working, reading, talking, eating, walking etc. As the yoga proceeds, this concentration deepens and widens into a union in beatific love and revealing light.

When we have progressed in desireless action and feel our action as belonging to the Divine, and perceive it as being done by His Force, we have entered into an equality and serenity of consciousness which nothing can shake or trouble. This serene equality, samatwa,² so much

¹"You can begin to feel always that it is the Mother's Force that is doing the work and you are only a channel or an instrument." On Yoga II—by Sri Aurobindo.

² Referred to in the chapter on "The Triple Foundation" in the first part of The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo.

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extolled in the Gitâ, is the very foundation of divine work I shall touch upon it when I deal with the perfection of Karmayoga in the next chapter. What distinguishes the equality of the sâdhaka of the Integral Yoga from that of most of the traditional yogas is this, that, in the latter, it is the equality of the detached soul, knowing and feeling it- self separate from prakrti, and poised in the consciousness of the Brahman; prakrti works on, purifying and changing her modes and operations under the calm gaze of the purusa, and by the intervention of the divine Force, so far as the high-seated indifference of the purusa, udāsīnavadāsīnah, is capable of inducing such an intervention. But in the Integral Yoga, which starts, not with Sânkhyayoga or Buddhiyoga, but with a progressive and active surrender to the Mother's Force, there is, along with detachment and brāhmisthiti, an increasing collaboration and participation of the purusa, who regards himself as not only a sāksi (witness) and anumantā (sanctioner) of the movements of his nature, but also as their bhartā (upholder) and bhoktā (enjoyer). The soul of the sâdhaka of the Integral Yoga calls in the Mother's supramental Force and collaborates with it in the work of the purification and transformation of its nature. This collaboration, this participation, this fusion of the two wills—the Will of the Divine and the dynamic (not passive and quiescent) will of the sâdhaka—is the distinguishing feature of the equality as practised in the Integral Yoga. It is a dynamic equality capable of realising a perfect and permanent union with the divine Will in human life. It

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helps not only liberation of the individual purusa, but also of prakrti, which would not be possible except by the direct working of the Mother's vijñānaśakti. or supramental Force. Sri Aurobindo makes this point very clear in one of his letters:

"In the liberated state it is not the inner Purusha only that remains detached—the inner Purusha is always detached, only one is not conscious of it in the ordinary state. It is the Prakriti also that is not disturbed by the action of the gunas or attached to it—the mind, the vital, the physical (whatever Prakriti) begin to get the same quietude, unperturbed peace and detachment as the Purusha, but it is a quietude, not a cessation of all action. It is quietude in action itself. If it were not so, my statement in the Arya that there can be a desireless or liberated action on which I found the possibility of a free (mukta) action would be false. The whole being, Purusha- Prakriti, becomes detached even in the action of the gunas.

"The outer being is also detached—the whole being is without desire or attachment and still action is possible, action without desire is possible, action without attachment is possible, action without ego is possible."¹

With equality as the base, a constant and total self-offering as the motive force, and an active surrender to the Mother's instreaming Light and Power as the sole support, the sâdhaka of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo advances

¹ On Yoga-II by Sri Aurobindo.

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on the difficult path of liberating and transforming his whole being, and rendering it a fit instrument for the manifestation of the Divine upon earth. His Karmayoga is instinct with love and devotion and more and more illumined with the light of knowledge. It is, indeed, a synthesis of work and love and knowledge that he practises, in which the three elements can never be separated. But in spite of the synthetic nature of his sâdhanâ and the direct increasing guidance of the Divine Mother, he has to pass through a long, intricate process of self-discipline and purification. Each part of his nature has to be tackled separately and in the mass, each of its movement to be scrutinised and sifted and exposed to the Mother's Light for transformation. Accepting life, he has accepted a tremendous burden and responsibility upon himself—his own and, in a sense, the world's; and it is only the sustained sincerity of his aspiration and the Grace of the Divine Mother that can carry him to the final perfection. and fulfilment.

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