The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo

CHAPTER XXXI

"THE HOUR OF GOD"

THE modem age is an age of singular paradoxes and unprecedented promises. On the one hand, man is ardently yearning for unity and harmony, and, on the other, he is frantically tearing himself and his society with divisions and discords. He is athirst for peace and the cessation of all that threatens the progressive tenor of his life, and yet he is driven to create and multiply a myriad causes of conflict, within him and without. He longs so much for a harmonious advance of the collectivity and a general well-being of his species, and yet he is so helplessly dominated by aggressive, individualistic tendencies and an exclusive self-assertion. It is an age of darkness pierced by stray shafts of an uncommon light, an age of colossal frustrations astir with exceptional promises and essential preparations. New hopes, lofty dreams, unforeseen visions are flashing out of the sombre gloom in which man is engulfed today. In the world of ideas, it is a veritable revolution he has achieved; and in the province of technology, a progress that defies comparison with the achievements of any other age in the accredited history of civilisation. In every sphere of life, one hears the clank of snapping -chains, and the ringing cry for the inestimable blessings

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of freedom—freedom of the individual, freedom of the nation, freedom, of each society and institution, freedom of thought and speech and action,—in the teeth of pervasive totalitarian constraint and regimentation. Countering the fading influence of old-world distinctions,, the gospel of equality has installed itself in the heart and mind of humanity with a firmness that augurs extremely well for the future of our life and culture. In every field of activity, one observes earnest and persistent attempts at self-adaptation, coordination and cooperation, both individual and collective, national and international, meeting with varying degrees of success, in spite of all possible opposition. The prodigious work of the U.N.O. is a typical reflection of the many promises, paradoxes, aspirations and anomalies that are locked in a desperate struggle behind the ambiguous front of the present world. What will surge out of this heaving welter? Where, in what distant country, lies the harbour of peace and harmony and creative light?

What do we see when we turn to the different branches of modern knowledge? It is the same spectacle of great promises gleaming out of profound paradoxes. In Philosophy, in spite of the verbal acrobatics of Logical Positivism, there is a deepening tendency towards the recovery of the ancient knowledge of the Orient and the Greeks, a synthesis of the essential elements of the philosophies of East and West, and even an intrepid envisaging of the dim heights of mysticism. This new trend is not so much visible in the veteran philosophers.

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as in the young ones who have been touched by the rays of the new Light. Religion is coming again to the forefront of human thought, and even theology is shed- ding off its habitual narrowness to embrace the wider horizons of human aspiration. Keyserling, Eddington, Einstein, Jung and P. Sorokin—all now meet on a common platform, not always easy to define yet perceptible on an intuitive approach, a platform of many-aspected idealism, heralding the advent of an age of higher values. Physics has developed a philosophy of its own, which tends to approximate to a metaphysic of material realities. The dividing lines between the different departments of knowledge are melting away into a universal feeling of family kinship and organic unity, in spite of the tough resistance of the dyed-in-the-wool materialists and rationalists.

But nowhere is the change more striking and pregnant with far-reaching possibilities than in the psychological researches of modem times. This is a very significant fact, pointing, as it does, a finger of light to what is preparing in the womb of the future. For, true philosophy, as the ancients knew it, is an outcome of spiritual and psychological experiences, and not a product of mere intellectual speculation. It is invariably preceded by an urge for an intensive psychological discipline and research. "The rapid and world-wide growth of a 'psychological' interest over the past two decades shows unmistakably that modern man has to some extent turned his attention from material things to his own subjective

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processes," says Jung, adding that "...modem man, in contrast to his nineteenth century brother, turns his attention to the psychic with very great expectations; and... he does so without reference to any traditional creed, but rather in the Gnostic sense of religious experience....He wants to know—to experience for himself." This wide- spread interest in psychological and subjective phenomena is sure to yield a bountiful crop of psychological knowledge, and lead to spiritual experience. But the question is: on what lines of research should man proceed in order to reach his spiritual fulfilment? With his characteristic candour and straightforwardness, Jung confesses to an ignorance on the point: "I would rather emphasise what has already been said: that the newest developments of analytical psychology confront us with the imponderable elements of human personality, that we have learned to place in the foreground the personality of the doctor himself as a curative factor; and that we have begun to demand his transformation—the self-education of the educator... .What was formerly a method of medical treatment now becomes a method of self-education, and there- with the horizon of modern psychology is immeasurably widened....We Occidentals had learned to tame and subject the psyche, but we know nothing about its methodical development and its functions. Our civilisation is still young, and we therefore required all the devices of the animal-tamer to make the defiant barbarian and the savage in us in some measure tractable. But when we reach a higher cultural level, we must forego compulsion and

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turn to self-development. For this we must have know- ledge of a way or a method—and so far we have known of none."

It is here, in this predicament of psychology, which mirrors, in fact, the great cultural crisis of modern humanity, that the immemorial Yoga of India can render the greatest help and guidance. Jung himself is not unconscious of it, but, not having had any first-hand experience of the true yogic life, he seems to shy at some of its untoward pathological symptoms and unwilling to surrender his reason to a higher light. What he sadly lacks is a clear perception of the Superconscious, and its incalculable powers of creation and transformation. The way or the method he is groping after can only come as a result of a systematic exploration, not only of the conscious, subconscious and unconscious layers of our being, but also—and more—of the Superconscious. And yoga is precisely that method. Kenneth Walker, a clear- eyed thinker on the problems of human culture, believes that "because Western man has been so preoccupied with the outside world, it is to the East that we must turn to find the highest level that human thought has reached." The problem of the illumination, transformation and integration of the human personality is the most urgent and vital problem of the present human culture. If the human personality cannot be reclaimed from its present state of mutinous animality and transformed into its divine counterpart, which lies latent in itself, then all its culture and civilisation are, indeed, doomed. How long can a

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society last which is afflicted with all conceivable moral infirmities, and led by a blinded intellect into ever- multiplying falsehoods, iniquities and discords? It is a state that has reached the peak-point of its crisis, and stands dangerously poised between extinction and renovation. If no way is found to the rebirth and reconstruction of man, all the labours of countless ages, all the pride and glory of human dreams, all the boundless variety and magnificence of human achievements will be buried for ever beneath the smoking ruins of a misguided Science. Neither modern psychology, nor philosophy, nor the facile socio-economic nostrums of Communism or Democratic Socialism will have saved mankind from this total destruction.

There are some well-meaning thinkers who regard moral reformation or rearmament as the best remedy for the present state of affairs. They seem to be ignorant of the fact that only that morality which is derived from spiritual or religious life has an ennobling and elevating power; the morality that has no spiritual or religious basis, but is a hot-house product of the eclectic and utilitarian intellect, is powerless to control and purify the obscure and perverse energies of life, and either creates serious complexes and reactions in the human nature, or acts only as a pious mask covering many a festering sore. "It was when the Great Way declined that human kindness and morality arose" is the penetrating verdict of Lao Tzu, and Whitehead chimes with him when he says, "The insistence upon the rules of conduct marks the ebb

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of religious fervour". He reminds us that St. Paul denounced the Law and Puritan divines, and contemptuously spoke of the rags of righteousness. Is it not time the ardent advocates of moral reform took this truth to heart and turned their benevolent energies to deeper and more fruitful channels?

There are many who look up to education to achieve the miracle of human transformation. But education can regenerate and transform only if it is based on a regenerative and transformative philosophy of life.¹ And to have a philosophy of life one must first have a goal of life. The average man has forgotten today that life has a goal other than the petty satisfaction of passing desires by the not always unquestionable use of money and power. He hardly feels the need of a higher philosophy than Dialectical Materialism, which flaunts before his wondering gaze the delusive promise of economic emancipation and social and political equality. What regenerative education can come out of such a sordid, slimy philosophy of life? Can it develop the divine qualities that lie latent in man? Has it ever produced a single specimen of a godly nature? Even the American ideal of education, which is almost universally acclaimed and adopted today, is severely condemned by its own results. What man hopes to make gods of his children so long as he bums incense at the

¹"Philosophic thought in antiquity was the vital centre of liberal education as. it has never been for the modern world."

—Thomas Whittaker

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altars of Mammon and Material Efficiency? No doubt education is a great regenerative agent, but it must be an education that can educe what is high and noble, pure and luminous, infinite and immortal in man. It must be an education that can educe and reveal the Divine in man.

It is a radical change of consciousness, a psychological Transformation, that alone can deliver man from his present darkness. And, as we have just seen, this trans- formation is far beyond the capacity, even beyond the conception, of any modern science or philosophy, ethics or psychology. It is not enough to know the superficial layers of man's being and consciousness; it is not enough to explore some parts of his Unconscious, individual or collective; it is not enough to hold up before him a bright ideal of moral life and altruistic activity. What is indispensable for the radical conversion and integration of his being is a systematic exploration of the Superconscient and an illumination and reconstruction of his conscious and unconscious parts by its purifying and trans- forming light. P. Sorokin hits the mark when he declares, "If the as yet largely unknown 'fission forces' of the super- conscious are revealed and fully exploited, they can become the most decisive agency of man's self-control, as well as the control of others and of all the known and unknown forms of the inorganic, organic and conscious energies in man and the universe. Their neglect by sensate science has been one of the chief reasons for its failure.

"What is needed is a concentration of humanity's efforts on unlocking the secrets of the superconscious as the realm

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of the most powerful, most creative and most ennobling forces in the entire universe. The more man becomes an instrument of the superconscious, the more creative, wiser and nobler he grows; the more easily he controls himself and his unconscious and egoistic conscious energies, the more he comes to resemble God as the supreme ideal. In the superconscious lies our main hope, the road to humanity's 'promised land' of peace, wisdom, beauty and goodness."

For reaching the Superconscient and canalising its light and force into human existence, there is no other means than Yoga.¹ But it must be a yoga that accepts the whole of life, looks upon it as the field for the progressive manifestation of the Transcendent, and knows the secret of bringing about its radical transformation by the highest Truth-Light of the dynamic Superconscient. The yogas that are wedded to the philosophy of māyā, or attached to an ascetic withdrawal from life, branding it as illusory or incorrigibly imperfect, cannot solve the present problems of human culture. For, the hour of world-negation is past, the ochre robe and the monastery have lost their old appeal, and the soul of man aspires today for a divine perfection and fulfilment in life. Awakening to its great mission and infinite possibilities, it seems contemptuous of the idea of a flight from the field of life, and pledged to

¹ "Contemplation survives only in the East and to learn it we have to turn to the East."

—A. Koestler

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manifest the Divine here, in the material world, and turn all human existence into a vehicle of His transcendent splendours.

The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, as we have followed it in the preceding chapters, envisages as its aim such an all-round divinely pragmatic consummation—an integral perfection and fulfilment of man in God, and an unflawed manifestation of God in man. It promises to fulfil all the deep-seated aspirations of man by developing all his powers and faculties, visible and invisible, and raising him beyond his mental consciousness to the Truth-Consciousness of the Supermind. It does not ask him to renounce or unduly reduce the activities of his life, and forswear the salutary, secular aims of his existence. That way lies not victory but the defeat of life and the disintegration of the material basis of all spiritual conquests.¹ All that it asks him to do is to shift upward his central will of life and, discovering and realising the infinite and eternal Reality of his existence, shape his nature and life in Its image. It asks him to recover the Truth, the harmony, the beauty and bliss, the peace and power of God, and express them in his nature and in all its movements.

The Integral Yoga is neither Hindu nor Christian, neither Buddhist nor Moslem; nor is it an eclectic blend

¹ "The true message of the West has been misunderstood. That message is that a comprehension and subordination of the concrete are necsssary for the ultimate security of the ideal life."

—Anandacoomaraswamy-

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of their essential elements. Standing above all doctrinal denominations and mind-made categories, it calls upon the soul of man to awake and assert its divinity and fulfil the purpose for which it has come down to earth—the manifestation of God in Matter. Its aim is the most comprehensive ever conceived by man, its appeal is at once intimate and universal, and its method—if method it can be called—an integral surrender to the Divine Shakti and Her Grace. It grips the thought, feeling and will of man and, forging them into an organic unity round the psychic or soul centre, lifts them all into the embrace of the Divine. It is a life-transforming yoga, purporting to fulfil the Time-Spirit by realising the ideal of human unity and the divine perfection of human life.

Mankind is passing through perhaps the greatest crisis of its cultural life. It is living in one of those epochs in which there takes place what the Gitâ calls "dharmasya-glāni”, the decay and disintegration of the very upholding principle of existence, and a resurgence of the forces of darkness—one of those epochs in which the avatāra descends to deliver mankind from darkness and help it take a decisive step forward in its evolution. The soul of man, like the earth in winter, looks stripped and desolate. Distraught and unhappy with its mean material obsessions, prostrate in the dust in the very hour of its resounding scientific triumphs, drained of hope, drained of spiritual strength and courage, drained even of the will to rise up .and advance, it turns an anguished, appealing eye to the Heavens above. Its hour of meek, prayerful prostration is the

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hour of its spirtual salvation. Already there are invasions of Light, thrills of hope, spurts of quickening energies in its hidden depths; but it is not aware of them on its surface, and in the mass of mankind, the stricken collectivity. The Age of kali has been the nurse of the Age of satya, —a long, dark night preparing the glory of the coming dawn. It is passing now. The splendour of the spring will soon burst forth out of the pervading blight of winter. The hour of the defeat of man's ego is the hour of the Victory of God, for, the intense cry, the vibrant appeal that rises from the agony of a fall and an inner destitution cannot fail to bring down a deluge of God's all-achieving Grace.

Let us listen to what Sri Aurobindo says on the Hour of God:

THE HOUR OF GOD

"There are moments when the Spirit moves among men and the breath of the Lord is abroad upon the waters of our being, there are others when it retires and men are left to act in the strength or the weakness of their own egoism. The first are periods when even a little effort produces great results and changes destiny; the second are spaces of time when much labour goes to the making of a little result. It is true that the latter may prepare the former, may be the little smoke of sacrifice going tip to heaven which calls down the rain of God's bounty.

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"Unhappy is the man or the nation which, when the divine moment arrives, is found sleeping or unprepared to use it, because the lamp has not been kept trimmed for the welcome and the ears are sealed to the call. But thrice woe to them who are strong and ready, yet waste the force or misuse the moment; for them is irreparable loss or a great destruction.

"In the hour of God cleanse thy soul of all self-deceipt and hypocrisy and vain self-flattering that thou mayst look straight into thy spirit and hear that which summons it. All insincerity of nature, once thy defence against the eye of the Master and the light of the ideal, becomes now a gap in thy armour and invites the blow. Even if thou conquer for the moment, it is the worse for thee, for the blow shall come afterwards and cast thee down in the midst of thy triumph. But being pure cast aside all fear; for the hour is often terrible, a fire and a whirlwind and a tempest, a treading of the winepress of the wrath of God; but he who can stand up in it on the truth of his purpose is he who shall stand; even though he fall, he shall rise again; 'even though he seem to pass on the wings of the wind, he shall return. Nor let wordly prudence whisper too closely in thy ear: for it is the hour of the unexpected."

God's hour is now, and His breath is abroad upon the waters of our being. In the calm solemnity of this blessed hour the Mother proclaims the advent of a New Age .and the Victory of a new Light:¹

¹ Prayers and Meditations of the Mother—June. 9, 1914.

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"....From this centre, this burning nucleus which is and will be more and more penetrated with Thy light and love. Thy forces will radiate over the whole earth, visibly and invisibly, in the hearts of men and in their thoughts.

"Such is the certitude Thou givest me in reply to my aspiration for Thee.

"An immense wave of love descends upon everything and penetrates all.

"Peace, peace, on all earth, victory, plenitude, marvel.

"O beloved children, sorrowful and ignorant, and thou, O rebellious and violent Nature, open your hearts, tranquillise your force, it is the omnipotence of Love that is coming to you, it is the pure radiance of the light that is penetrating you. This human, this earthly hour is the most beautiful among all hours. Let each, let all know it and enjoy the plenitude that is accorded.

"O saddened hearts and anxious foreheads, foolish obscurity and ignorant ill-will, let your anguish be calmed and effaced.

"This is the splendour of the new word that comes:

'I am here.’ "

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