A Note on Integral Yoga

The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo

In the history of mankind, the advent of Sri Aurobindo represents a turning point; it has opened the world to a new life and consciousness and ultimately to a new race. To attain to that consciousness, he has given us the way – the Integral Yoga.

We shall mention briefly in this article some of the characteristics of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga. For this Yoga as its name implies takes up the whole of human life in its fold. Let us see in Sri Aurobindo’s words the characteristics of the Integral Yoga. The first question that arises in our mind is: what is Yoga?

What is Yoga

The contact of the human and individual consciousness with the Divine is the very essence of Yoga. Yoga is the union of that which has become separated in the play of the universe with its own true self, origin and universality. The contact may take place at any point of the complex and intricately organised consciousness which we call our personality. It may be effective in the physical through the body ; in the vital through the action of those functionings which determine the state and experiences of our nervous being, through the mentality whether by the means of our emotional heart, the active will or more largely by general conversion of the mental consciousness in all its activities. It may be equally accomplished through a great awakening to the universal or transcendent Truth and Bliss by the conversion of the central ego in the mind. And according to the point of the contact that we choose, will be the type of Yoga that we practise.

In India there have been different systems of yoga. These have been described by Sri Aurobindo as follows:

THE SYSTEMS OF YOGA

Hatha Yoga dealing with the life and body aims at the supernormal perfection of the physical life and its capacities and goes beyond into the domain of the mental life.

Rajayoga operating with the mind aims at a supernormal perfection and enlargement of the capacities of the mental life and goes beyond it into the domain of spiritual existence.

 

The path of knowledge (Jnana Yoga) aims at the realisation of the unique and supreme self.

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The path of devotion aims at the enjoyment of the supreme love and Bliss and utilises normally the conception of the Supreme Lord in his personality as the divine Lover and enjoyer of the universe.

 

The path of works (Karma Yoga ) aims at dedication of every human activity to the Supreme will. To that, our works as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned.

In the integral yoga these systems are all synthesised. How do we synthesise these different systems. Sri Aurobindo writes:

THE SYNTHESIS OF YOGA

The synthesis must be effected 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 particular principles, and on some central dynamic force in which is the common secret of their divergent methods and capable therefore of organizing a natural selection and combination of their varied energies and different utilities. The divinising of the normal material life of man and of his great secular attempt of mental and moral self-culture in the individual and the race by this integralisation of a widely perfect spiritual existence would thus be the crown alike of our individual and of our common effort. Such a consummation being no other than the kingdom of heaven within reproduced in the kingdom of heaven without, would be also the true fulfilment of the great dream cherished in different terms by the world's religions .

Once we accept this view of life, one will see that all life is spiritual. For the sadhak of the integral Yoga, there is no distinction between ordinary life and spiritual life.

ALL LIFE IS SPIRITUAL

The division between "ordinary life and "spiritual" life is an outdated antiquity. All human beings have it in their minds, the division between leading a spiritual life and leading an ordinary life, having a spiritual consciousness and an ordinary consciousness - it is not true , there is only one consciousness. If an opposition is still needed, we can have the opposition between truth and falsehood . For in all things, falsehood and truth are mixed everywhere .It would be better not to make any divisions .
 

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From where does the sadhak of the integral yoga get his guidance? Sri Aurobindo writes:

The supreme Shastra of the Integral Yoga is the eternal Veda secret in the heart of every thinking and living being. The lotus of the eternal knowledge and the eternal perfection is a bud closed and folded up within us. It opens swiftly or gradually, petal by petal, through successive realisations, once the mind of man begins to turn towards the Eternal, once his heart, no longer compressed and confined by attachment to finite appearances, becomes enamoured, in whatever degree, of the Infinite.

The integral Yoga is new as compared to the old Yogas. In Sri Aurobindo’s words;

"The integral Yoga takes up the essence and many processes of the old Yogas - its newness is in its aim, standpoint and the totality of its method.

It is new as compared with old Yogas. . .

1) Because 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) Because 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 supracosmic achievement. The thing to be gained also is a bringing in of a Power of Consciousness - the Supramental.

3) Because a method has been preconized for achieving this purpose which is as total and integral as the aim set before it, viz, 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. . . . Our Yoga is not a retreading of old walks, but a spiritual adventure. "

What are the outstanding features of the integral Yoga. Sri Aurobindo writes:

"There are three outstanding features of this action of the higher when it works integrally on the lower nature

In the first place, it does not act according to a fixed system and succession as in the specialised methods of Yoga, but with a sort of free, scattered and yet gradually

 

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intensive and purposeful working determined by the temperament of the individual in whom it operates, the helpful materials which his nature offers and the obstacles which it presents to purification and perfection. In a sense, therefore, each man in this path has his own method of Yoga.

 
Secondly, the process, being integral, accepts our nature such as it stands organised by our past evolution and without rejecting anything essential compels all to undergo a divine change.

Thirdly, the divine Power in us uses all life as the means of the integral Yoga. Every experience and outer contact with our world- environment, however trifling or however disastrous is used for the work, and every inner experience , even to the most repellent suffering or the most humiliating fall, becomes a step on the path to perfection. "

With these guidelines always in the forefront of our consciousness, one can embark on the journey for the fulfilment of the Integral Yoga in our life.
 

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