The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo

CHAPTER II

THE VARIETIES OF YOGA

BEFORE we enter upon a detailed consideration of the nature, process and aim of the Integral Yoga as evolved by Sri Aurobindo, let us take a bird's eye view of the general Yogic background in India against which this new, dynamic synthesis of spiritual culture rises in massive grandeur, embodying the essentials of the past, and claiming to fulfil the more complex and manifold aspirations of the present.

Man is a progressive being. He emerges from the past only to march towards the future, which is an ever- extending line of light leading him to greater and greater conquests. His greatest achievements of yesterday are but stepping stones to the yet greater achievements of tomorrow. His loyalty to the past must not, therefore, be a conservative clinging to the dead shells, but an enlighten- ed assimilation and utilisation of the ever-living spirit of what has contributed to the present, and perfectly compatible with a large and perceptive opening to the future. The revolutions that take place in the world are Nature's violent pointers to the truth that in the onward progress of life there can be no complacent abiding in the effete forms of the past: evolution is a perpetual call to the new and the unknown. Conserving the essential gains of the

past and consolidating and harmonising them in the present, man must advance towards the higher gains and greater victories of the future.

In India, where spirituality has been the very life-breath of the people, many forms of spiritual culture, many Yogas, have been propounded and practised since the dim ages of pre-history. Human nature has been systematically and vigorously explored to discover what it is made of, how many chambers it contains, what is the purpose of its creation and action, and what avenues it affords to the Infinite which sustains and surrounds and surpasses it. Its individual idiosyncrasies have been studied with as much thoroughness as its collective traits, and their origins below the threshold of the surface consciousness have been investigated with a marvellous penetration and precision. Life, it has been held, cannot be rightly lived if its source is not discovered and its sense and significance are not properly grasped in the light of true knowledge. The Indian mind could not remain satisfied with the ordinary material interests of human life; it had an inborn intuition, a persistent divination of the Infinite and Eternal, stretching below it, behind it and above it; and this intuition impelled it to go behind and above the frontal appearances of things, and surprise the secrets of the supraphysical and the spiritual existence. It came in contact with truths, principles and realities which, be- cause they obtain in worlds of other dimensions than those accessible to our physical consciousness, are sealed to our normal experience and, therefore, readily regarded

Page 16

as non-existent. It discovered that the supraphysical is the parent of the physical, the invisible the shaper of the visible, the subtle at once the womb and core of the gross. It went beyond the mere supraphysical to the spiritual, and beyond even the spiritual to the Ineffable and Inconceivable, in its giant hunger for the ultimate truth of existence. This scrupulous, super-scientific exploration of the hidden, boundless expanses of the human consciousness and the untold possibilities of the human being yielded a wealth of knowledge which is enshrined in the philosophies of India; and practical means and methods by which this exploration was conducted and carried to its consummation crystallised themselves into different schools of Yoga.

It would be fatuous to imagine that this spiritual hunger is peculiar to the Indian mind and this exploration of the recondite reaches of the human being a monopoly of the Indian Yogas. The vanguard of Spirit, the enamoured of the Infinite have been born in all countries and in all times. What is peculiar to India is not the hunger, but the generalisation of the hunger. Spirituality has not been in India, as in many another country, an exceptional pursuit or a hothouse growth, but a universal, national preoccupation. Mystics and saints have been born in all countries, but nowhere, as in India, has the ideal of the saint, the illumined God-drunk man, exerted such a permanent and powerful influence upon the generality of men. Nowhere has the call of the 'Infinite been responded to with such a resounding chorus of

Page 17

fervid assent. It is true that some forms of spiritual culture were prevalent in the West in the times of Pythagoras and Plato, and that Plotinus and some of the Gnostics and Stoics were regular Yogis, as also some of the Neo-Platonists and Essences. Among the mediaeval mystics of Europe and the Manicheans of Persia, there was a systematic culture of some forms of spiritual self-discipline. But nowhere, as in India, has there been such a wide and varied spread of spiritual culture, such a passionate approach to the Eternal from every part of human nature, and such an abundant harvest of experiences reduced to a rich diversity of mystical sciences, each representing a special approach and a special result, though all having a general community in their ultimate realisations.

But the natural nostalgia of the finite for the Infinite, of life for its fount of Light, of the soul of man for the supreme Oversoul, has been usually characterised by a certain excess of stress and tension. The ancient Vedic balance between Spirit and Matter was soon lost in the subsequent ages, and a cleft was made between Purusha and Prakriti. The transcendence of the Brahman became the exclusive aim of all, or almost all, spiritual seeking, and the intention of the Transcendent in its own immanence in the world was more or less completely ignored. Therefore, we meet with two divergent lines of Yoga in India— one inclusive and comprehensive, embracing Light and

¹ Self and Nature.

Page 18

linking it to life, and aiming at a marriage of Heaven and "Earth and the manifestation of Spirit in Matter, and the other, intense and exclusive, renouncing life in its intolerant thirst for the Light, and creating a permanent divorce between Purusha and Prakriti, Spirit and Matter, the One and the Many. The Vedic Yoga, grown obsolete and somewhat obscure, survives in some of its lingering vestiges only in some forms of Paurânic Bhakti Yoga and Tantra, it is the Sânkhya that holds the field; and it is no exaggeration to say that most of the post-Upanishadic Yogas in India have more or less been imbued with the spirit of Sânkhya. Even Jnânayoga, which does not subscribe to the pluralism of the Sânkhya, accepts its fundamental dichotomy, and tends towards the silent immobility of the Purusha or Brahman. Even Bhaktiyoga and ' Tantra envisage as their ultimate goal a supracosmic consummation and not the divine union and manifestation in life and on this earth, which the Vedic Yoga seems to have sought to achieve. We shall see in our cursory review of some of the principal Yogas of India how the large unitary end of the Vedic discipline has been over- looked or ignored in most of them, and in my subsequent exposition of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, I shall try to show how the ancient ideal has now been revived, incorporated, enlarged, and made the lever of a crucial ascent of man to the supramental or gnostic consciousness.

Page 19

HATHAYOGA

Hathayoga is founded on the truth that the human body is not "a mass of living matter, but a mystic bridge between the spiritual and the physical being".¹ It houses powers and energies which, once properly quickened and marshalled, can achieve the release of the human mind' and the soul from the cramping hold of Matter. The very body, which is the cause of man's bondage to ignorance and suffering and all sorts of obscuration, can be made, if rightly tackled and trained, a powerful means of spiritual progress. It is a marvellous instrument, possessing unreckoned possibilities of perfection. But normally! it is a mere clod of Matter, ignorant and inert and liable to suffering, and accustomed to mechanical movements.! By its dual practice of Âsana² and Prânâyâma,³ Hathayoga changes this inert lump of flesh into a dynamo of vibrant energies, and, awakening the coiled serpent power at the a base of its spinal column, carries the consciousness of man through the intermediate planes into the embrace o: the Brahman. Âsana teaches the body to conserve ii placid immobility the currents of vitality that flow into it from the universal life; and Prânâyâma controls the fivefold movement of life, purifies the entire nervous system by directing the circulation of the life-energy

¹ The Synthesis of Yoga or On Yoga-1 by Sri Aurobindo

² Fixed postures of the body for the purpose of Concentration.

³ Breathing exercises for the control of life-energy and mind.

Page 20

through all the nerves, and, by a masterful manipulation of vitality, effects the release of the being from its subjection to the body and its normal impurities and disabilities. Hathayoga is a Yoga, that is to say, it is a means to a union with the Supreme, whatever the nature of that union may be; but in its excessive zeal for the purification and control of the body and the life-energy, it seems to forget its goal and remains constantly obsessed with the means. The results it achieves by an enormous output of energy can be obtained more easily and rapidly by other methods than the elaborate and cumbrous ones it employs. It is very widely, though by no means very wisely, practised in India, and betrays a facile tendency to degenerate into clap-trap and miracle-mongering. And yet in spite of its physical pre-occupation and frequent aberrations, it has made a substantial contribution to Yoga by its discovery of the potential powers and capacities of the human body and the life-energy: playing in it. In the dynamic synthesis of the Integral Yoga, this contribution has been incorporated with certain vital modifications and given an important place in its comprehensive scheme of spiritual values.

RAJAYOGA

Unlike Hathayoga, Râjayoga does not start with the body and the life-energy, but with the mind of man. It does not dispense with Âsana and Prânâyâma, but, relegating them to a subsequent stage, gives the primary

Page 21

importance to Yama and Niyama, which are mental disciplines calculated to conquer the desires and passions of the lower nature of man and, by an increase of moral purity and calm, help the concentration of his conscious- ness on the Supreme. It aims "at the liberation and the perfection not of the bodily, but of the mental being, the control of the emotional and sensational life, the mastery of the whole apparatus of thought and consciousness. It fixes its eyes on the chitta, that stuif of mental conscious- ness in which all these activities arise, and it seeks, even as Hathayoga with its physical material, first to purify and to tranquillise."¹ When the mind has been quieted, its passions quelled to a certain extent, and its aggressive egoism relentlessly discouraged, Râjayoga resorts to Asana and Prânâyâma almost for the same purpose as does Hathayoga: for stilling the body, purifying the nervous system and controlling the life-energy, so that they may not impede or disturb the concentration and meditation through which it passes into Samadhi or trance of union. Râjayoga is an ancient science of spiritual culture, and its subtly graded eightfold process commands universal homage and trust among spiritual seekers. Even non- Hindu schools of Yoga, such as those of Jainism and Buddhism, owe much of the power and perfection of their systems to Râjayoga. But its preponderant preoccupation with meditation and samadhi makes it rather inapt for any substantial life-effectuation and life-fulfilment

¹ The Synthesis of Yoga or On Yoga-1, by Sri Aurobindo

Page 22

and the purification of the chitta which it achieves is a mere cleansing and quieting, just enough for the consciousness to enter undistracted into the silence of meditation, and not a radical conversion and transformation. The Integral Yoga weaves into its composite texture the outstanding contributions of Rajayoga—the importance it gives to psychological purification and the power of concentration, and the distilled essence of its supraphysical experiences—but refuses to be bound by its psycho- physical means, and influenced by its anti-pragmatic bias.

THE THREE PATHS

Corresponding to the three principal powers of the human being,—will, knowledge and love—there are three Yogas in India: Karmayoga or the Yoga of Works, Jnânayoga or the Yoga of Knowledge, and Bhaktiyoga or the Yoga of Love and Devotion. Karmayoga takes its stand upon the will of man and turning it Godwards through. a dynamic surrender of all actions and all movements of his nature, emancipates him from the yoke of the ego and leads him to a union with the object of his quest and worship. A living and constant self-consecration in action and an uncompromising rejection of egoistic desires is the He- most effective method of Karmayoga. As most men live in their vital-physical being, predominantly concerned with the satisfaction of their desires and wants, the practice of Karmayoga is usually attended with rapid and remarkable results in the general purification of the nature,

Page 23

and the opening and orientation of the being to the Divine. It is a dynamic Yoga, which has to be pursued from moment to moment avoiding the pitfalls of tamasic passivity on the one hand, and the heady drive of desires on the other. If all desires are renounced, including even the desire for the fruit of one's actions, and all actions are done as a conscious and living offering to the Divine, the knots of the ego are gradually loosened, and the consciousness of the Karmayogi rises into the limpid skies of Spirit, beyond the habitual insistences of the passing moments. Dwelling upon the conditions of this effort and the ideal to which they point, Sri Aurobindo says in his The Synthesis of Yoga:

"To live in God and not in the ego; to move, vastly founded, not in the little egoistic consciousness, but in the consciousness of the All-Soul and the Transcendent.

"To be perfectly equal in all happenings and to all beings, and to see and feel them as one with oneself and one with the Divine; to feel all in oneself and all in God; to feel God in all and oneself in all.

"To act in God and not in the ego. And here, first, not to choose action by reference to personal needs and standards, but in obedience to the dictates of the living highest Truth above us. Next, as soon as we are sufficiently founded in the spiritual consciousness, not to act any longer by our separate will or movement, but more and more to allow action to happen and develop under the impulsion and guidance of a divine Will that surpasses

Page 24

us. And last, the supreme result, to be exalted into an identity in knowledge, force, consciousness, act, joy of existence with the Divine Shakti; to feel a dynamic movement not dominated by mortal desire and vital instinct. and impulse and illusive mental free will, but luminously conceived and evolved in an immortal self-delight and an infinite self-knowledge. For this is the action that comes by a conscious subjection and merging of the natural man into the divine Self and eternal Spirit; it is the Spirit that for ever transcends and guides this world-Nature."¹

Jnânayoga or the Yoga of Knowledge takes its stand upon the mind, or rather the intelligence of man, and, turning his thoughts towards the Divine, seeks to lift his consciousness to the absolute Existence. By an act of abstraction, the buddhi or the intelligence detaches itself from the other parts of the being and concentrates on the silent and immutable Brahman, or the sheer, unqualified Spirit. As in all other Yogas, it is the nature of the means that reflects the nature of the end. Jnânayoga, by making the buddhi the chief instrument of spiritual realisation, effects a split between the Brahman and the world, which is practically and essentially the same split that is made by Sânkhya, and regarding the world or phenomenal Nature as illusory and dream-like, seeks to lead the individual consciousness to the undifferentiated unity, and

¹ This is a description' of Karmayoga as propounded by Sri Aurobindo and made an important part of his Integral Yoga.

Page 25

merge it in the featureless infinity of the One. By noetic abstraction, by sustained reflection on the sole, 'relation- less Reality, by subtle reasoning and intense contemplation, it achieves an evulsion and extinction of the individual soul—evulsion from the illusion (Maya) of embodied existence, and extinction in the ineffable Absolute. It can be sincerely practised only by those whose intelligence has developed enough to separate itself from the sense-mind, the life and the body, and, by force of one-pointed thought, endeavour to escape out of What it regards as the nightmare of the world.

Bhaktiyoga or the Yoga of Love and Devotion makes the heart of man its principal means of fulfilment. Un- like Jnânayoga, it seeks the Lord of Love and Beauty and Bliss, and not the relationless, incommunicable Absolute. The emotions of the heart of man are turned in this Yoga towards the Divine, the supreme, eternal Lover of all creatures and their unique deliverer, the one, infinite Person, and not a mere impersonality. The very intensity of Godward love consumes the' ego and abolishes its self- regarding concerns, and plunges the soul in the ecstasy of the divine embrace. Bhaktiyoga does not care for the reasoning and reflection of the mind, but feels in its faith the promise of its final fulfilment, which is an infinity of bliss in an eternal proximity to the supreme object of its love and adoration. The lover of God yearns after an intimate and thrilled union with Him, but it must be a union which permits of a certain ineffable distinction between him and his Beloved, and not a oneness in which his individuality

Page 26

is completely extinguished and lost in His being. He wants to enjoy and not be obliterated, in the ecstasy of the divine union.

Bhaktiyoga seeks a divine fulfilment of the emotional being of man, but leaves out his intellectual, volitional and physical parts in the cold shade of neglect. It envisages the love and delight of the Divine rather than His Light and Power.

THE SYNTHESIS OF THE GITA

The Gita makes a monumental synthesis of these three paths of will, knowledge and love, and proposes to raise the whole consciousness of man to the Divine. Jnânayoga seeks the fulfilment of the intellectual being of man, and leaves the .other parts to starve and languish. It seeks union with the Supreme in His eternal and undifferentiated existence (Sat) alone, and not in His Conscious- Force (Chit-tapas), and His immortal Delight (Ananda). Karmayoga envisages union in the Will, the Conscious-Force alone, and Bhaktiyoga in the eternal Delight. An integral turning of the whole human being through will knowledge and love will have the unique result of realising the integrality of the Supreme, and an integral self-fulfilment by that realisation. The Gitâ lays down the three large lines of man's approach to the Divine Being with an unsurpassed clarity and catholicity. It shows how the lines intertwine and interfuse as they proceed towards the goal,

Page 27

in which they unite and become indistinguishably one; but it leaves rather weak and obscure two things which are very important to the seeker of an integral consummation and have a direct and dynamic bearing upon his spiritual progress: the beginning and the end. The Gitâ .starts with Sânkhyayoga, that is to say, with a separation between Purusha and Prakriti through the instrumentality of the buddhi, the most enlightened part of the human mind; but it seems to be rather a poor and precarious beginning for the realisation of such a stupendously dynamic aim; for the buddhi is, after all, a tool of the lower nature, and cannot be a safe guide in such an adventure. There is a mightier, a more comprehensive beginning in the Tântric Yoga, which has much in common with-Karmayoga; and the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo absorbs some of its cardinal principles as it proceeds to lay the foundation of an integral divine fulfilment upon earth. The end of the Gitâ's synthetic Yoga has been left wrapped in a mysterious hint of a total divine living for man; but the uttamam rahasyam, the supreme mystery, has nowhere been resolved and outlined before the gaze of the spiritual seeker. A living in the Divine, a constant, blissful and dynamic living in the Purushottama, emerges as the grand finale of the synthetic Yoga of the Gitâ; but by what definite culminating steps will this consummation be attained, by what process of transmutation and transfiguration of this base metal of human nature, and what will be the status and active poise of the individual in that victorious apotheosis, and the purpose and influence of his

Page 28

presence in the world, have been left to be worked out in the experience of the sâdhaka.

The Integral Yoga assimilates the triple path of the Gita, but starts its career with a far mightier sweep and divine dynamism, and a clear and comprehensive vision of the crowning achievement. It marches with firm but flexible steps, profiting by the landmarks of the principal Yogas of the past, but solely depending upon the divine Grace and following the subtle, unfaltering guidance of the divine Force. Because its creative vision is fixed upon the realisation and expression of the splendours of the Supermind in human life, much of its path is a revolutionary departure from the beaten tracks, and traverses. many virgin fields and unexplored countries of the being. Especially, its aim of physical transformation is an original aim of far-reaching consequences, which makes it descend into the inconscient and subconscient abysses in. order to purify and transform the human body, the life- energy and the physical consciousness of man at their very roots. It considers the body as a potential tabernacle of the unveiled Godhead, and bestows considerable care upon its radical transmutation. These are some of the characteristic aims and actions of the Integral Yoga which mark it out from the traditional Yogas, even from the great synthetic Yoga of the Gitâ, and stamp upon it the- glory of aiming to create a supramental race of men upon. earth.

Page 29