The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo

CHAPTER XXIII

KNOWLEDGE—THE LIGHT THAT FULFILS

PART II

MEANS OF KNOWLEDGE

WE have said that a turning of the mind's eye inwards is the first indispensable means of attaining knowledge but it is not a mere introspection or a superficial introversion as practised by the modern psychologist that we mean—it is a plunge into the very depths of our being. The mind, the heart, the will, all must seek to know and unite with the Divine who dwells within us and to whom we eternally belong. It is not a mere intellectual curiosity that should be the motive power behind our seeking for knowledge, but the irrepressible urge, the spontaneous élan of our consciousness towards Him, without whom life has no meaning and the world appears but a dreary wilderness. It should be a conscious and deliberate plunge from the appearances of things to their Reality, a resolute exploration of the kingdom of Truth.

This urge or élan is not foreign to earthly life. In fact, it is the mainspring of all its evolutionary progress. Bergson was inspired only by the vital aspect of it, but it has other deeper and subtler aspects, an intuitive

Page 362

contemplation of which reveals to us the ultimate meaning and destiny of life itself. It can be called a thirst or a veiled aspiration for light. In the plants we observe this thirst as a biological impulse and necessity—a subconscious straining towards light. In the animals the love of light, the keen sensuous delight in the freshness and warmth of the sun, or in the soft, clinging radiance of the moon, is a natural instinct and an outstanding characteristic of evolutionary life. The higher the grade of life, the greater the yearning for light. In man it is a constantly attested fact. Darkness stifles and depresses him, whereas light always gives him new life and energy and confidence. That is why in the Upanishads the sun is hailed as prānah prajānām, the life of all creatures. But in man this yearning for light tends to transcend its sensuous aspect, and become an aspiration and a seeking for the inner light,, the illumination of knowledge. The more he evolves in. consciousness, the more he feels a gravitational pull to wards the centre of light within him. Knowledge becomes an object of his devoted pursuit, not so much for the material benefits it may confer, as for itself, for the light: that it kindles within him. A retreat or plunge into the core of his being becomes then a necessity of his existence, an irresistible evolutionary urge within him. "He is the secret Self in all existences and does not manifest Himself to the vision: yet is He seen by the seers of the subtle by a subtle and perfect understanding", says the Kathopanishad; and the way to realise the secret Self is indicated as follows: "Let the wise man restrain speech in his mind

Page 363

and mind in Self, and knowledge in the Great Self, and that again let him restrain in the Self that is at peace." It is this going deeper and deeper in oneself that is the first indispensable means of knowledge. It has afterwards to be supplemented by an upward movement, an ascent which consummates the soul's quest for knowledge.

PURIFICATION

But the plunge is not possible so long as our being is unpurified. Our desires and attachments and passions and habitual interests absorb us to such an extent that we find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to turn our gaze within and dive into our depths. Purification is, therefore, of the utmost importance as a preliminary to the inner plunge. Rajayoga rightly lays stress on yama and niyama, the purificatory self-discipline, as an essential preliminary to dhāranā, dhyāna and samādhi.¹ But, whereas in the Rajayoga purification is directed towards the stilling of the active being of man, so that his conscious- mess, undistracted by the outer movements, may flow into the depths and realise there the Self or the Divine, in the Integral Yoga it is meant to serve a dual purpose: 1) helping the inner plunge in a comprehensive concentration, and 2) paving the way for a total and radical transformation of nature.

¹ Concentration, contemplation, trance.

Page 364

"Along with purity and as a help to bring it about, concentration. Purity and concentration are indeed two aspects, feminine and masculine, passive and active, of the same status of being; purity is the condition in which concentration becomes entire, rightly effective, omnipotent; by concentration purity does its works and without it would only lead to a state of peaceful quiescence and eternal repose."¹

Purity in its initial stages means freedom from all desire and attachment. But as purification proceeds, its negative aspect of renunciation ² is replaced by a positive method of cleansing, quickening, coordinating and harmonising the inner instruments (antahkaran) on which we have dwelt at some length in chapter XI on "The purification of Nature". Our object in the Integral Yoga being, not a renunciation or rejection of Nature, but its transformation and utilisation for the divine manifestation, purification is necessarily a long and elaborate process, which steadily merges into the eventual process of transformation. The greater the growth of purity in the being, the greater the steadfastness in concentration.

CONCENTRATION

Concentration is a very important means in the Integral Yoga, and bears a much wider sense in it than in any other

¹ The Synthesis of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo or On Yoga—I.

² Renunciation in the sense in which it is used in the Gitâ—tyāga inner abandonment of desire and attachment and egoism.

Page 365

yoga. We should, therefore, try to understand what it actually means and how it can be employed for the attainment of the object we have in view. " In the path of knowledge as it is practised in India concentration is used in a special and more limited sense. It means that removal of the thought from all distracting activities of the mind and that concentration of it on the idea of the One by which the soul rises out of the phenomenal into the one Reality. It is by the thought that we dissipate ourselves in the phenomenal; it is by the gathering back of the thought into itself that we must draw ourselves back into the real. Concentration has three powers by which this aim can be effected. By concentration on anything whatsoever we are able to know that thing, to make it deliver up its concealed secrets, we must use this power to know not things, but the one Thing-in-itself. By concentration again the whole will can be gathered up for the acquisition of that which is still ungrasped, still beyond us, this power, if it is sufficiently sincere, sure of itself, faithful to itself alone, absolute in faith, we can use for the acquisition of any object whatsoever; but we ought to use it not for the acquisition of the many objects which the world offers to us, but to grasp spiritually that one object worthy of pursuit which is also the one subject worthy of knowledge. By concentration of our whole being on one status of itself, we can become whatever we choose; we can become, for instance, even if we were before a mass of weaknesses and fears, ,.a mass instead of strength and courage, we can become

Page 366

all a great purity, holiness and peace or a single universal soul of love; but we ought, it is said, to use this power to become not even these things, high as they may be in comparison with what we now are, but rather to become that which is above all things and free from all action and attributes, the pure and absolute Being.'¹

But the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo does not make such an exclusive use of concentration; for, its object is not only the transcendent status of the Divine, but the integral Divine in all His statuses and in all His aspects and modes of manifestation. The concentration it makes use of is an all-inclusive, waking concentration, which does not leave out of its ambit the worlds of beings and their multifarious activities. It embraces the universal immanence as well as the supracosmic transcendence of the Divine, His multiplicity as well as His unity, the principles and powers that govern and develop creation as well as the ineffable Truth from which these principles and powers derive. It comprehends the manifold play of the qualities of the Divine as well as the unqualified status of the Absolute, nirguna. "We must aim indeed at the Highest, the Source of all, the Transcendent, but not to the exclusion of that which it transcends, rather as the source of an established experience and supreme state of the soul which shall transform all other states and remould our consciousness of the world into the form of its secret Truth. We do

¹ The Synthesis of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo

Page 367

not seek to excise from our being all consciousness of the universe, but to realise God, Truth and Self in the universe as well as transcendent of it. We shall seek therefore not only the Ineffable, but also His manifestation as infinite being, consciousness and bliss embracing the universe and at play in it."¹

SAMADHI

It is clear that when we speak of the plunge or purification or concentration, we attach to each of these terms a sense which is not its current accepted sense. We have seen what purification means in the Integral Yoga. We have understood also the object, nature and scope of concentration as practised in it. When concentration deepens and widens to its utmost, we reach an all-embracing state of consciousness which includes at once the essential truth of Spirit and the dynamic truth of Its universal manifestation. We can call this state Samādhi, but we must be careful to remember that it is not the Raja yogic Samādhi, in which the Yogi passes out of all consciousness of the world into the absorbed peace or bliss of the universal Immutable or the supracosmic Undifferentiated. The Gitâ gives to the word 'Samādhi' a much wider connotation than the traditional one. "It is this calm, desireless, griefless fixity of the buddhi in self-poise and self-knowledge etc

¹ The Synthesis of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo.

Page 368

which the Gitâ gives the name of Samādhi. The test is the expulsion of all desires, their inability to get at the mind, and it is the inner state from which this freedom arises, the delight of the soul gathered within itself with the mind equal and still and high-poised above the attractions and repulsions, the alternations of sunshine and storm and stress of the external life. It is drawn inward even when acting outwardly; it is concentrated in self even when gazing out upon things: it is directed wholly to the Divine even when to the outward vision of others busy and preoccupied with the affairs of the world."¹

In the Integral Yoga Samādhi bears a somewhat similar meaning. Describing it, Sri Aurobindo says, "Not merely a state withdrawn from all consciousness of the outward, withdrawn even from all consciousness of the inward into that which exists beyond both whether as seed of both or transcendent even of their seed-state, but a settled existence in the One and Infinite, united and identified with it, and this status to remain whether we abide in the waking condition in which we are conscious of the forms of things or we withdraw into the inward activity which dwells in the play of the principles of things, the play of their names and typical forms or we soar to the condition of static inwardness where we arrive at the principles themselves and at the principle of all principles, the seed of name and form. For the soul

¹ The Synthesis of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo.

Page 369

that has arrived at the essential Samādhi and is settled in it (Samādhistha) in the sense the Gitâ attaches to the word, has that which is fundamental to all experience and cannot fall from it by any experience however distracting to one who has not yet ascended the summit. It can embrace all in the scope of its being without being bound by any or deluded or limited."¹

A unified state of consciousness, which remains permanently poised in the integral Divine, embracing all His statuses and modes of universal working as well as His ineffable transcendence, is, then, the perfection of concentration or Samādhi, according to the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. No doubt it is a difficult achievement, but nothing short of it can lead us to the perfect realisation of the aim we have set before us. The Divine is not only One, but also manifold and multiple in His self-expression; He is not only static, but also dynamic, He is not only transcendent, but also immanent in the universe of His own creation; He is not only the unthinkable Absolute, but also all these contingents and. relativities of which we are constantly conscious. We have to know all these and reconcile all these apparent contraries in an all-harmonising experience, if we want to unite with Him in all His ways, sarvabhāvena. The Divine does not forfeit His nameless unity when He assumes the multiple names and forms of the universe; He does not lose His eternal silence when He engages

¹ The Synthesis of Yoga by. Sri Aurobindo.

Page 370

in the ceaseless whirl of cosmic activity; He does not fall from His timeless eternity when He plunges into the flux of Time. How can we, then, unite with Him in all these modes and ways of His being, unless we attain to that supreme consciousness which is capable of multiple concentration? The traditional method of Samādhi or trance may be needed sometimes to effect a first entry into some remote or recondite region of the being, or for some specific work on a particular plane of consciousness by a momentarily exclusive concentration; but the consummating achievement is the power of multiple concentration, normalised in the waking consciousness and commanding a total and simultaneous knowledge of God and soul and Nature and life. It is this total knowledge that Sri Krishna means when he speaks of the rare yogi—one among a thousand of those who have realised the Self—who attains to the knowledge of Him in all the principles of His existence, tattwatah. It is an all-inclusive concentration that alone can lead to this knowledge and union.

The movement that starts as an inner plunge culminates as Samādhi or multiple concentration. The inner plunge may be in the beginning a headlong intensive absorption, but it gradually assumes an expansive movement, spreading inwards and upwards and downwards and all around,. resulting in a greater and greater depth and extension of knowledge. The eye of knowledge scans always, the inner skies in the heart of all things and beings; and even when it looks at the appearances of things, it looks

Page 371

from within outwards, and so knows both the seed and the tree at the same time. Nothing can be hidden from it, for nothing is outside its illimitable range. It sees all, because it sees the One in all, and the One as all.

How can this all-comprehending Samādhi or multiple concentration be achieved? Along with the inner plunge and the inner poise one has to practise constant concentration on the Divine—at all hours of the day and night (one has to learn to maintain it even in sleep) and in all that one does. In the Integral Yoga, it is not enough that one concentrates or meditates on the Divine at some particular hours, and lets the mind and heart remain occupied with their habitual pursuits, however high and idealistic they may be, for the rest of the day. The consciousness of the sâdhaka must learn how to remain constantly concentrated on the Divine—to see Him, feel Him, think of Him, touch Him, love Him, and serve Him, at every moment of his life. This constant concentration need not be so very difficult as it appears to be. The secret of success in it lies in love. What does one do in regard to the person one loves? One has not to adopt strenuous means in order to concentrate on that person, rather it becomes difficult not to concentrate. A similar loving concentration on the Divine with the heart desiring Him, the mind thinking of Him, the will seeking to obey His guidance at every moment, and the body eager to serve Him as a faithful instrument, is the best way of uniting with Him and knowing Him by identity. But this concentration must be an active

Page 372

or dynamic concentration, and not passive or quietistic. A passive concentration can lead only to the silence of the Immutable, but not to the integral being of the Divine. A concentration of the mind, heart, will and the physical being of the sâdhaka, fired by the psychic love¹ for the Divine and maintained unflagging even in the midst of the full flood of life's activities, is the indispensable pre-requisite in the initial stages of the Integral Yoga. It is, in fact, nothing short of a synthesis of knowledge, love and action—every action done as a conscious and deliberate offering—brought to bear upon a global and irrevocable orientation to the Divine and a moved seeking for an integral union with Him. Concentration, which is exclusively an affair of the mental consciousness in the path of jñāna yoga—though it is doubtful how far it can be fully achieved without the aid of the heart and the life will—becomes, if we can say so, an organic and harmonic gravitation of the whole human being towards the Divine, and culminates in a settled, dynamic poise in Him.

A word may not be out of place here in regard to the difference between meditation and concentration. Sri Aurobindo brings it out in the following words: "Concentration is a gathering together of the consciousness and either centralising at one point or turning on a single object, e.g., the Divine: there can also be a gathered condition throughout the whole being, not at a point. In

¹ The coming of the psychic to the front and its guidance of the nature makes for the greatest spontaneity in loving concentration.

Page 373

meditation it is not indispensable to gather like this, one can simply remain with a quiet mind thinking on one subject for observing what comes in the consciousness and dealing with it."¹

Another thing which is very helpful in concentration is calm and peace. According to Sri Aurobindo, "The best help for concentration is to receive the Mother's calm and peace in your mind. It is there above you—only the mind and its centers have to open to it."² A constant, loving concentration, fortified by a the ( rough-going purification of nature, and based on an unshakable peace and calm, is sure to open the closed door and lead the sâdhaka to that completeness of knowledge which not only liberates but perfects and fulfils.

¹On Yoga—II by Sri Aurobindo.

² ibid.

Page 374