... as going from sleep to the waking state. We are going to outline the main stages of these changes of consciousness, as Sri Aurobindo experienced them and described them to his disciples in his integral yoga , until they take us to the threshold of a new, still unknown experience that may have the power to change life itself. Page 4 For Sri Aurobindo is not only the explorer of consciousness... earth; it is the change of consciousness that will have the power to hope – as thoroughly and lastingly as the Mind did when it first appeared in living matter. We will see, therefore, how the integral yoga leads to a supramental yoga , or yoga of terrestrial transformation, which we will try to outline only, because the story is still in the making; it is quite new and difficult, and we do not quite... and universal by virtue only of his narrowness. Perhaps we still confuse unity with uniformity. It was in the spirit of that tradition that Sri Aurobindo was soon to write: The perfection of the integral Yoga will come when each man is able to follow his own path of Yoga, pursuing the development of his own nature in its upsurging towards that which transcends the nature. For freedom is the final law ...
... their complex and confused civilisation will be transfigured. It is also the message of Sri Aurobindo that nothing can help the reshaping to the full except what he calls the Integral Yoga. But how does the Integral Yoga set about its gigantic task? Perhaps the easiest approach to an answer is through a correct understanding of the common words "inspiration" and "intuition". From very early... of an other-worldly outlook and a limited yogic practice, the Integral Yoga cuts loose still more from all fixed dogmas, rites and observances inherited from the past: it is not a revival of any religion or a Since a systematic and organised move is here towards this goal, there is a palpable curve of progress in the Integral Yoga. Concrete inner and outer results are obtained. And a general... rationale, as the total Light of which Science was just a one-sided disclosure, there had to dawn the age of an Integral Yoga such as Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have discovered and developed on the basis of all that has been positive and synthesis-minded in the past. With the advent of the Integral Yoga India stands on the threshold of a most glorious future. If she is not loyal to her own genius she ...
... 54 Their establishing of the path of the “Integral Yoga”, as Sri Aurobindo named it – in the beginning he also sometimes called it Purna Yoga (complete yoga) or “Synthetic Yoga” – would allow others to follow in their footsteps; for creating a divine life necessitated collaboration from the flower of humanity. Sri Aurobindo would call the Integral Yoga “the path I had opened, as Christ, Krishna... again refuse to define Supermind so as not to limit it by mental formations? Besides, the Integral Yoga is as complex as its object, which is the whole world, and as every practitioner of the Yoga is different, his or her approach has to be different. We may therefore conclude that the path of the Integral Yoga has been cleared up to a certain point, i.e. as far as Sri Aurobindo and the Mother went... experience. It is that spiritual experience, it is the method, it is the attainment of this realisation that we call Yoga.” 58 This being the general principle, what specifically is Integral Yoga? “What is Integral Yoga? It is the way of complete God-realisation, a complete Self-realisation, a complete fulfilment of our being and consciousness, a complete transformation of our nature – and this implies ...
... liberation somehow or other acquired. But the Integral Yoga does not favour this kind of escapist spirituality. It demands that the Truth, the Light, the Power, the Bliss realised in the inner consciousness should enter into the outer waking consciousness also and become entirely effective there. Hence for the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga each act of meditation has to be outwardly dynamic... active life." (M C W, Vol. 3, p. 20) Does it then mean that the sadhakas of the Integral Yoga need not sit in meditation at all nor practise developing their power of concentration? Not so surely: for that will be another sort of exclusive extremism. We the sadhakas of the Integral Yoga will surely sit in meditation but with a different attitude and a different purpose. We shall... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XVI Sadhana through Meditation (Dhyāna-yoga) "Concentration is very helpful and necessary — the more one concentrates... the more the force of the yoga grows." (Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, p. 729) All of us are more or less familiar with the terms 'concentration' and 'meditation'. Every ...
... and swadharma in the Integral Yoga. The line of his evolution, his past preparation, and the active elements of his present nature have to be fully taken into account. But all this must conform to the demands of the collective Yoga and adapt itself to its developing rhythm and englobing action. The "Common way" does exist in the Integral Yoga, and without it the Integral Yoga would cease to be integral... Chardin. But there may be and must needs be a common way in the Integral Yoga itself. Here the broad and catholic eclecticism of the former way is not admissible, for we have to reckon with certain new, original factors which impose new conditions, new lines of advance and a more exacting self-discipline. The goal of the Integral Yoga is also more synthetic and vastly wider—it, too, is integral, d... eternally yours, and you are Hers. Nothing in the world can annul that relation of pure love. Your destiny is the realisation of the integral Divine. The call upon you is to tread the path of the Integral Yoga, and no other ideal can ever satisfy your soul. I am sure, you have read your own distracted thoughts Page 24 and feelings into the words the Mother gave you at your ...
... consciousness or movement of its force. This all-comprehending Supermind is the principal target of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. 1 , 2 Mobile and immobile Page 61 THE ASCENT TO THE SUPERMIND—THE FIRST AIM The foremost aim of the Integral Yoga being the Super- mind, it cannot rest satisfied with any realisation short of the very highest and widest... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER IV The Triple Aim THE CONCEPTION OF THE INFINITE AND ETERNAL UNION with the Infinite and Eternal can be said to be the aim of all Yogas. But this is a general description, which easily lends itself to various interpretations. The aim of the Sânkhyayoga is the release of the immaculate... forms. The difference in the conception of the Infinite and Eternal determines the difference in the conception of the methods of Yoga and their practice. The one distinctive feature of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo is that its conception of the Infinite and Eternal is different from that of all the schools of Yoga in India, except of the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Gitâ. The Infinite and ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga Foreword It is an honour to write a foreword to this book authored by someone who is a veteran sadhaka of the Integral Yoga and a veritable walking encyclopaedia of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In fact, The Practice of the Integral Yoga is a comprehensive treatise on the effective practice of the... for besides the actual teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on which the book is solidly founded, The Practice of the Integral Yoga contains a wealth of the author's own reflections and insights which are a distillation from his lifetime's sadhana of the Integral Yoga. Throughout all its chapters the book is studded with some of the choicest passages from the works of Sri Aurobindo and... Mukherjee has succeeded in producing a book that is at once lucid and profound. Its comprehensiveness, authenticity and compactness make The Practice of the Integral Yoga an ideal companion and an outstanding vademecum for the practice of the Integral Yoga. A. S. Dalal 24.9.02 ...
... power of self-transcendence, which necessitates a surrender to the infinite divine Force of the Mother. In the Integral Yoga, the mind is not sought to be forcibly silenced or suppressed, as is done in some of the other Yogas, notably in Raja Yoga. The aim of the Integral Yoga being a dynamic union, not only of the soul but of every part of its terrestrial nature, with the Divine, and a resultant... surrender of all its movements to the divine Mother. It will not do, in the Integral Yoga, to reduce the action of the body to a minimum and limit it only to the bare maintenance of the physical frame, or to social or humanitarian beneficence, or to the performance of some prescribed religious duties. Since the integral Yoga accepts the whole of life, it accepts all its multitudinous action and play... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER VII The Integral Surrender PART I THE BACKGROUND THE essential truth which informs the concept of the Integral surrender is a triple postulate: That the Divine is the omnipresent Reality, the sole all-constituting and all-transcending Being, whose progressive self-manifestation in Matter is ...
... religious mind of today and we see it confidently advanced on all sides as the proper field of action of the God-seeker or of the man whose life is founded on divine love and knowledge. But the integral Yoga pushed towards a complete union of the Divine with the earth-life cannot stop short in this narrow province or limit this union within the lesser dimensions of an ethical rule of philanthropy and... this cult, all actions done in the love of the Divine and in the love of the world and its creatures seen and felt as the Divine manifested in many disguises become by that very fact part of an integral Yoga. It is the inner offering of the heart's adoration, the soul of it in the symbol, the spirit of it in the act, that is the very life of the sacrifice. If this offering is to be complete and universal... it as for ever the dark Page 169 playground of an incurable Ignorance. Yet it is precisely these activities that are claimed for a spiritual conquest and divine transformation by the integral Yoga. Abandoned altogether by the more ascetic disciplines, accepted by others only as a field of temporary ordeal or a momentary, superficial and ambiguous play of the concealed spirit, this existence ...
... terminology as easily. In the stress on the psychic being, Sri Aurobindo is on a par with her from a certain stage of their jointly developed Integral Yoga. The stress need not conflict with the talk of Chakras. These too are factors in the Integral Yoga, even if not exactly in the old way. You say that the psychic being was not a part of the past Yogas. But the psychic being is the true ... alone could he be a pioneer and model for us. And the mode of self-revelation chosen for his Avatarhood explains the progression of meaning we find in his use of one of the key- words of his Integral Yoga: "Supermind." In the days of his monthly periodical Arya (1914-1921) he took all the ranges of spiritual dynamism above the mind as different statuses of the Supermind, the Supramental being... consciousness, one which we can call Overmind and the other the true Supermind or Divine Gnosis..." ² But the Mother's testimony shows that in the wake of 24 November1926, which was a landmark in the Integral Yoga, the word "Overmind" had already come into use to set apart the Supermind from the plane which is the highest of those above ¹. Mother India, November 24,1975, p. 883: "Sri Aurobindo's ...
... Synthesis of Yoga in the Veda Synthesis of Yoga in the Upanishads The Gita and Its Synthesis of Yoga Integral Yoga: Major Aims, Processes, Methods and Results Supermind in the Integral Yoga Integral Yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Also by Kireet Joshi Education for Character Development Education... practice of the integral yoga as described by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, particularly with regard to the removal of difficulties that lie in the stupendous task of making supermind operate in physical consciousness as also in regard to the speed with which the progression that can take place in humanity's own evolutionary process. But still the processes and methods of integral yoga would fully hold... of the triple transformation which are essentials of the integral yoga will remain inevitable. Page 98 Kireet Joshi (b. 1931) studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I.A.S. in 1955 but in 1956, he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga V Renunciation in the integral yoga Traditionally speaking, the life of an authentic spiritual person is always conceived of as a life of renunciation. In our times Sri Ramakrishna, the Saint of Dakshineswar, never tired of stressing the importance of tyāga or renunciation. Also, the quintessence of Krishna's... relation between Renunciation and Enjoyment in our Integral Yoga? What do we mean by enjoyment and possession and what is to us the real connotation of renunciation? For it should be stated at the very outset that renunciation remains the sine qua non of any type of genuine spiritual life including the spirituality envisaged by the Integral Yoga. There should not be the slightest doubt about it... the secret urge and the ultimate consummation of the movement of evolution. Renunciation in the Integral Yoga: Now, to collaborate actively with the ascending evolutionary movement and prepare for the divine life upon earth is the life-goal set before the sadhakas of the Integral Yoga. So we are not entitled to follow the escapist tendency and step back from the world-process by declaring ...
... taking up the Integral Yoga is the result of a calling rather than of a personal decision. It is a pursuit for the mature souls, ‘the pioneer few’ who have incarnated once more to help their human brothers and sisters by dedicating this earthly incarnation to the shaping of a world where suffering, hatred, darkness and death will have no dominion any more. Indeed, the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo... soul – as it was impossible during that Pondicherrian summer for their friends and acquaintances to guess the true relationship of Monsieur and Madame Richard. The Integral Vision and the Integral Yoga Man is the link between what must be and what is; he is the footbridge thrown across the abyss, he is the great cross-shaped X, the quaternary connecting link. 24 – The Mother ... co-operation she wills to work out the superman, the god.’ 29 These central points in the vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have to be emphasized because they form the foundation of their Integral Yoga. If ‘yoga’ means a (re)unification with the Divine, then evolution as such is a yoga of the Divine: after having distanced Himself from Himself, He moves by means of the evolution towards a Sel ...
... Integral Yoga - Major Aims, Methods, Processes and Results PART TWO Methods of Transition from the Intellect to Higher Principles of Consciousness The integral yoga has two important points of concentration, the concentration that is inward and which presses towards discovery and unveiling of the psychic being and its powers, and the concentration... terminology of the integral yoga these two concentrations are termed as concentrations on (i) the heart centre, since it is behind the heart centre, deep in the inmost depths, that the psychic being is located, and (ii) the head centre, since the superconscient levels of consciousness are above the head centre. While dealing with the problems of the life-force in the integral yoga we have seen, although... The entire process of integral yoga is thus a complex web in which the evolutionary urge of the lower nature is uplifted by the psychic being, who, in turn, receives through its instrumentality the guidance of the supreme Self or Purushottama (to use the language of the Gita), who acts through the supramental Para Prakriti. In the ultimate analysis, therefore, in the integral yoga, the accomplishment ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga II The Ninefold Daily Sadhana It is often seen that although many of us would like to lead a spiritual life and have for our Goal the union with the Divine, yet days and months and years pass without contributing in any way to our progress on the chosen Path. To our utter dismay we discover that we have been... throughout the entire period of his waking daily life. And this vigilance has to act in two different ways both of which are equally essential for maintaining a steady progress on the path of the Integral Yoga. These two ways are: (i) to check the temptations and never to fall; and (ii) to be on the look-out for opportunities to register an advance forward. Let the Mother elucidate this twofold sadhana... and reaction, that is the most important element and will be determinative of the sadhaka' s spiritual destiny. Therefore, along with exercising a spirit of constant vigilance, the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga will have to conduct another psychological sadhana at every moment of his daily life. This is what the Mother has picturesquely called "stepping back". In practice it comes to never acting or reacting ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XX LOVE—ITS PLACE AND POWER PART I The general conception about Bhaktiyoga or the yoga of love and devotion is that it is an exclusive turning of the emotions of the human heart towards God, or a particular aspect or form of His. It is a culture of spiritual emotions. Love is its motive ... to meet it in an engulfing blaze of beauty and bliss,¹ and the embrace of the two is the highest rapture imaginable in creation, and the seal of the soul's liberation and fulfilment. The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo accepts and incorporates into itself all that is essential in the orthodox principles and practice of Bhaktiyoga, but, because it has to widen the very bases of Yoga, and bring... wandering from life to life, can alone lead it to the highest fulfilment of its terrestrial birth. What emerged as desire shall end in delight. Page 333 The very beginning of the Integral Yoga is a movement of love; for, what is called aspiration is also love looking up in an expanding vision towards some high and distant fulfilment. It is true that in its incipient state it is some- ...
... sense of the symbol of sacrifice in the sealed speech of the seers of the Veda. But if this is to be the character of the rapid evolution from a mental to a spiritual being contemplated by the integral Yoga, a question arises full of many perplexities but of great dynamic importance. How are we to deal with life and works as they now are, with the activities proper to our still unchanged human nature... therefore in their inner significance. The extreme solution insisted on by the world-shunning ascetic or the inward-turned ecstatical and self-oblivious mystic is evidently foreign to the purpose of an integral Yoga; for if we are to realise the Divine in the world, it cannot be done by leaving aside the world-action and action itself altogether. At a less high pitch it was laid down by the religious mind in... and it is besides professedly no more than a provisional solution for tiding over the transition from life in the world to a life in the Beyond which still remains the sole ultimate purpose. An integral Yoga must lean rather to the catholic injunction of the Gita that even the liberated soul, living in the Truth, should still do all the works of life so that the plan of the universal evolution under ...
... and the sadhak is ready for the Integral Yoga. For we know that the Integral Yoga begins where the traditional paths end. In this way the fully developed soul reaching the threshold of the Integral Yoga has at its command all necessary means to follow the new way discovered and cleared by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. It is by their labour that the Integral Yoga has become a possibility at this critical... swift or long and tortuous. Each she must treat according to his nature.’ 26 This is the reason why in Sri Aurobindo’s voluminous correspondence one cannot find a cut and dried method of the Integral Yoga. The three established main yogas were the path of love ( bhaktiyoga ), the path of knowledge ( jnanayoga ) and the path of works or action (karmayoga ). Those three methods of yoga are clearly... bring with it. There is no Master who has not been cautioning that spiritual commitment is like fire, which one had better refrain from touching if one is not sufficiently purified. About the Integral Yoga Sri Aurobindo had warned in a chapter in his Synthesis of Yoga that, ‘This is not a Yoga in which abnormality of any kind, even if it be an exalted abnormality, can be admitted as a way to se ...
... The only real, conscious sadhaks of the Integral Yoga in their time were the initiators of it, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and after Sri Aurobindo’s passing the Mother alone. Many followed in their footsteps, but then by an inner orientation based more on surrender and intuition than on knowledge or a consciously directed yogic effort; their integral yoga was more a yoga of intention than of knowledge... process, she would perform what is possible or allowed only in a divine world; others, on the contrary, saw her rather as the human albeit divinely inspired incarnation, as the avant-gardiste of the Integral Yoga and as their guru. With all possible combinations and variations in between. The Divine Mother had taken the burden of the world upon her in a human body and she had accepted all consequences of... sentences from Sri Aurobindo. 18 — The Mother If this yoga of the cells was so new that the Mother even used new names for it, was this still the yoga of Sri Aurobindo, called by him the Integral Yoga? Or was it a continuation, a development of his yoga of which he had had no notion? It goes without saying that Sri Aurobindo could not have experienced everything which awaited the Mother after ...
... supramental will and supreme Ananda become a direct instrumentation of spirit. In other words, the methods of the integral yoga include the methods of total transformation of human nature into divine nature. Organic Unity of the Integral Yoga The foundation of the integral yoga implies integrality of will, knowledge and love, which are the three divine powers in human nature and all these... opening up of the Chakras by Hatha yogic processes or of the Tantric discipline. According to Sri Aurobindo, these methods may be optionally used at certain stages by the integral Yoga, but they are not indispensable. In the integral yoga, reliance is laid on the power of the higher being to change the lower existence; a working is chosen mainly from above downward and not the opposite way, and therefore... Integral Yoga of Transformation -08_Part Six.htm Part Six Yoga of Self-Perfection The yoga of self-perfection has, as its aim, perfect manifestation of the perfect supramental consciousness and power through the perfected individual vehicles for the upliftment of the entire humanity so that the supramental manifestation on the earth can facilitate more ...
... eva saḥ , and, it may be added, whatever he has the faith to see as possible in himself and strive for, that he can create and become. There is one kind of faith demanded as indispensable by the integral Yoga and that may be described as faith in God and the Shakti, faith in the presence and power of the Divine in us and the world, a faith that all in the world is the working of one divine Shakti, that... obstinate in an ignorant belief and limited knowledge and unable to escape from his errors. This utility and necessity of doubt does not altogether disappear when we enter on the path of Yoga. The integral Yoga aims at a knowledge not merely of some fundamental principle, but a knowing, a gnosis which will apply itself to and cover all life and the world action, and in this search for knowledge we enter... on our spiritual possibilities or the constant carping of the narrow pettily critical uncreative intellect, asūyā , which pursues our endeavour with a paralysing incertitude. The seeker of the integral Yoga must however conquer both these imperfections. The thing to which he has given his assent and set his mind and heart and will to achieve, the divine perfection of the whole human being, is apparently ...
... are Truth's steeds in Heaven, The impossible God's sign of things to be. Others hold that there appears to have been no special need for the mighty exertion Sri Aurobindo termed the Integral Yoga and himself underwent for nearly half a century: what he strove after is all there in Vaishnava or Tantric or Sufi mysticism or has been enshrined in the Christian religion ever since St. Paul spoke... been there and we shall miss the great evolutive impact of Sri Aurobindo's appearance on our earth and the glorious future to which he calls us and for which his Avataric influence through the Integral Yoga is preparing us. Things which are new as well as true must be perceived in Page 33 their proper aura and ambience. Through their novel disclosures we may be able better... revealing the eternal dharma in modern terms?" Let me begin by wondering whether the term "philosopher" in however deep a sense is sufficient to cover Sri Aurobindo. Surely a master of the Integral Yoga cannot be just a profound philosopher. Neither can his "insights" be described as the results of intellectual perspicacity. Nor is it correct to put him in regard to the Vedic revelation on the ...
... each system makes a selection from the activities of Nature for purification and perfection, integral yoga would admit all activities of Nature for their transformation and perfection; while each system aims at a specific object or a poise or aspect of Reality of the Divine, the Object of the integral yoga would be the realisation of the Integral Divine. An integral concentration on the Integral Divine... which Sri Aurobindo was engaged during the years since he came to Pondicherry. This was also the task in which Mother participated. The result was what he come to be known as a synthesis of yoga or integral yoga or supramental yoga. This yoga was developed jointly by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In one of his letters, Sri Aurobindo has written the following: Mother was doing Yoga before she knew... Divine through the whole of our being for a complete perfection by a union with and manifestation of the Divine—this would be the natural formula of the Integral Yoga. In the words of Sri Aurobindo: The method we have to pursue, then, is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform our entire being into His, so that in a sense God Himself ...
... and execution of work in the Ashram - The work here is not intended for showing one's capacity or having a position. .. but as a field and an opportunity for the Karmayoga part of the integral Yoga, for learning to work in the true yogic way, dedication through service, practical selflessness, obedience, scrupulousness, discipline, setting the Divine and the Divine's work first and oneself... of the kind. She selects different types.... She wants to observe how the Divine works in different types." 32 The Ashram society was the microcosm of the macrocosmic global human race; and the integral Yoga was verily a pilot-project in the dynamics of individual and collectivist change, and the "instruments" were therefore chosen with that object in view. As in the choice of the sadhaks... and caresses, to stomach everybody's nightmarish visions and fantasies, to survive everybody's cellular disturbances and tissue-deteriorations: Accepting life, he [the Sadhaka of the integral Yoga] has to bear not only his own burden, but a great part of the world's burden too along with it, as a continuation of his own sufficiently heavy load. Therefore his Yoga has much more of the nature ...
... does not want the being to escape from the Ignorance into the Light." (Letters on Yoga, Part IV, p. 1616) In the same connection the Mother too has warned the sadhakas of the Integral Yoga: "The integral yoga consists of an unbroken series of examinations which one has to pass without being given any previous intimation, which therefore puts you under the necessity of being always alert... The Practice of the Integral Yoga I Eleven Basic Attitudes When a traveller decides to undertake a long and rigorous journey, he first provides himself with all the requisites of the path; otherwise he may get into trouble any time in course of his voyage. The same thing applies in the case of a spiritual traveller. When he sets out on his spiritual... certain number of essential virtues of character which should stand the sadhaka in good stead all through the varying vicissitudes of his inner undertaking. For we know that our sadhana of the Integral Yoga does not reject the world and life; instead what we propose to do in our sadhana is to purify and transform the nature, our self-nature and world-nature, as far as possible, and then offer them ...
... synthesis of science and spirituality has not yet been Page 55 reached. The book of Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is an open book, which demands further tasks of research. This book has presented important landmarks of the experiences and experiments of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother; the aim has been to present only a few glimpses, which might invite... have provided a vast system of synthesis in the light of which the conflict of religions could find a helpful solution. The twentieth century presents a new synthesis that has been proposed in the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. That synthesis has not been arrived at either by combination en masse or by successive practice. The foundation of the new synthesis of yoga rests on the ... one may begin with love as a starting-point; but as one proceeds on one of these three paths, the three paths begin to converge upon each other, and ultimately the three paths get united. In the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo, there is a constant striving to unite the three powers, and the seeker is counselled to avoid Page 43 or throw away the misunderstanding and mutual deprecation which ...
... Yoga in the Upanishads The Gita and its Synthesis of Yoga Integral Yoga: Major Aims, Processes, Methods and Results Integral Yoga of Transformation: Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Supermind in the Integral Yoga Integral Yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Page 104 Authored by... studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I. A. S. in 1955 but in 1956, he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry and participated in numerous educational experiments under... Philosophy of Evolution for the Contemporary Man A Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga Sri Aurobindo and the Mother On Materialism (Compilation) Towards Universal Fraternity (Compilation) Towards a New Social Order (Compilation) Let us ...
... in the Upanishads The Gita and its Synthesis of Yoga Integral Yoga: Major Aims, Processes, Methods and Results Integral Yoga of Transformation: Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Supermind in the Integral Yoga Integral Yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Authored by Kireet Joshi... 1931) studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I.A.S. in 1955 but in 1956, he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry and participated in numerous educational experiments under... Philosophy of Evolution for the Contemporary Man A Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga Sri Aurobindo and the Mother On Materialism (Compilation) Towards Universal Fraternity (Compilation) Let us Dwell on Human Unity (Compilation) Landmarks ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga VI On Opening and Receptivity When we look around or even study the spiritual history of mankind, we often find that some aspirants are progressing very fast in their sadhana while some others are registering a rather slow progress or, what is worse, even stagnating on the Path, although, apparently, all of them... sufficiently open to his action nor are we adequately receptive to his gifts. Sri Aurobindo once wrote to one of his close disciples: "The fundamental principle and the whole method of the Integral Yoga is to open wide the consciousness to the divine Influence. Only those sadhakas who can sufficiently open themselves to the divine Power and Action and receive them in themselves, can cherish a hope... seeking but there may occur a gulf of difference between their attainments, simply because of the presence or absence of this essential aptitude of opening and receptivity. A sadhaka of the Integral Yoga should never forget that as soon as he takes to the path of sadhana with even a moderate sincerity of purpose, he becomes immediately enveloped with an atmosphere of active divine Grace which presses ...
... being and the Architect of our becoming. This is the knowledge at which we aim in the Integral Yoga—a knowledge which not only purifies and illumines and liberates, but transfigures and fulfils our whole being, and accomplishes the object of our soul's birth into the material world. In the Integral Yoga the sacrifice of knowledge (jñānayajña) mounts from experience to experience, from plane... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XXIV KNOWLEDGE—THE LIGHT THAT FULFILS CATEGORIES OF KNOWLEDGE PART III ACCORDING to ancient Indian tradition there are three principal grades or categories of spiritual knowledge: ātmajñāna or knowledge of one's individual soul or self; brahmajñāna or knowledge of the universal... supreme Being. It is essential to keep this distinction well in mind lest we confound the ultimate values of the spiritual life and fail to appreciate the comprehensive greatness of the aim of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. Ordinarily—and this is a fairly general acceptation— by knowledge one understands the knowledge of the individual soul or self, ātmajñāna . "Know thyself" is considered ...
... the goal that has been envisaged for the integral yoga, and since this yoga is not only the yoga for the individual but also for the collectivity and for the advancement of the evolutionary process, its goal includes radical consequences for the collective life of humanity and even for the solution of the contemporary problems of humanity. Integral yoga has for its aim the generalization of yoga... descent of that Light and Truth into the entire being and all parts of our nature. Page 10 A Dilemma 9 that confronts the Integral Yoga: Importance of Life-Force There is, however, a dilemma that confronts the pursuit of the integral yoga. On the one hand, one cannot reach the supramental light as long as one continues to be burdened by the Life-Force which remains unregenerated... difficult but unavoidable task of the integral Yoga; it cannot afford to leave unsolved the problem of the outward works of life, it must find in them their native Divinity and ally it firmly and for ever to the divinities of Love and Knowledge." 10 Solution of the Difficulties of the Dilemma: Three Conditions for Transformation of Life-Force Integral yoga aims at the transformation of life ...
... 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... the chapter on "The Triple Foundation" in the first part of The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. Page 311 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... 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 ...
... Beatitude, to its being and its integral transformation of the whole nature[.] 148 Our Yoga is the integral Yoga. Its object is the harmony of a total spiritual realisation and experience, a supreme consummation of the spirit and the nature. 149 This Yoga is called the integral Yoga, first because its object is integral covering the whole field of spiritual realisation and experience... field of this realisation and transformation and participate in the illumination and the change from a human into a divine consciousness and nature. This is the character of the integral Yoga. 151 The integral Yoga is a single but many-sided way of the growth of our spirit and development of our nature. A total experience and a single and all embracing realisation of the integral Divine Reality... aspects. The integral Yoga takes all of them in its movement, but it limits itself to no aspect; its sole desire is to embrace the whole Divinity (samagram mam—Gita). A highest aspect of the infinite Reality is the supracosmic Absolute, unthinkable, ineffable, without relation to the universe. There is a path of Yoga that [ sentence not completed ] 152 The heart of the integral Yoga is in a ...
... humanity, or, to begin with, a new perfected collective life in the earth-nature. Integral yoga is an evolving yoga, and in order to lead this yoga to its farthest possibilities, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have suggested a difficult programme of research. Integral yoga and Method of Self-surrender The integral yoga involves research in various directions, and unlike religion, it is an open... its difficulties____" 61 Integral Yoga: Aspiration from Below and Grace from Above In the path of the integral yoga at the beginning and long after, the development of the seeker depends on the aspiration and personal effort. In fact, a fixed and unfailing aspiration that rises constantly upwards is one of the two fundamental powers of the integral yoga, the other power being the response... the third stage of the process and all in the individual becomes a divine working. Integral Yoga and Methods of Evolution of Nature: Present status of the Results Achieved According to Sri Aurobindo, Nature has unconsciously followed the secret methods of integral yoga, but the integral yoga is a conscious application of the methods of the evolution that are found to be operating in ...
... Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga 4 Psychology of Integral Yoga A LL METHODS of Yoga are special psychological processes founded on a fixed truth of Nature and developing out of normal functions, powers and results which were always latent but which her ordinary movements do not easily or do not often manifest. Each specialised system of Yoga selects... them a certain special method of concentration on the object that is sought to be realised. In the Integral Yoga, all powers and faculties are combined, developed and purified, and there is a progressive integral concentration upon the object of integral perfection. The first stage in the Integral Yoga is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with all that we consider to be ... thus be the crown alike of our individual and of our common effort.'25 An immense wealth of psychological knowledge pertaining to Integral Yoga is to be found in the thirteen Volumes of 'Mother's Agenda', which is particularly related to that part of Integral Yoga which is concerned with the discovery and transformation of the mind of the cells, supramentalisation of the physical body, evolution ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER V The Triple Foundation THE triple aim of the Integral Yoga demands a revolutionary start from a basis wider and deeper than that of the traditional Yogas, and with a sanction and equipment unknown, because unnecessary, to them. Since it seeks neither merely the personal salvation of the human soul... third element of the foundation of the Integral Yoga is surrender. Usually all Yogas are practised by one of the three means: (1) personal effort and tapasya, 1 (2) personal tapasya aided and fortified by the divine Grace, and (3) the direct working of the divine Grace and Force. The last means is that which Sri Aurobindo advises the followers of the Integral Yoga to avail themselves of,, because it... any abiding and considerable result. It is only a harmonious combination of these three primary factors that can ensure a more or less unimpeded progress on this long and difficult path of the Integral Yoga. THE CALL AND THE RESPONSE The most important initial element of the synthetic advance is the call and the response. By the call we do not mean merely an aspiration for the ...
... THE INTEGRAL YOGA, WORK AND LIFE-ACTIVITY SOME NOTES FOR AN AMERICAN SEEKER Q: Please define Sadhana and Integral Yoga. What is their relationship to each other? What is the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's attitude toward work and what part do work and life-activity play in the life of one who undertakes Integral Yoga? ... "Co-worker" — the word is apposite in a special sense, for it points to the importance of work in the Integral Yoga. It is by work that our outer being, with its manifold dynamic turns, can be dedicated to the Divine. Every kind of work, all life-activity, is embraced by the Integral Yoga. But it has to be offered to the Supreme, launched upon for Sri Aurobindo, carried out for the Mother... system, method by which one tries to attain spiritual perfection. It may be called also the process of Yoga — Yoga meaning the union of the human consciousness with the Divine. The Integral Yoga sets before the sadhak, the doer of sadhana, a full and complete aim. The fullness and completeness may be viewed from several standpoints. Not only one part of us — the mental intelligence ...
... Synthesis of Yoga in the Upanishads The Gita and Its Synthesis of Yoga Integral Yoga: Major Aims, Processes, Methods and Results Integral Yoga of Transformation: Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Supermind in the Integral Yoga Integral Yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species ... 1931) studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I.A.S. in 1955 but in 1956, he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry and participated in numerous educational experiments under ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga IX How to Invoke the Divine's Grace? The grace and the help are always there for all who aspire for them and their power is limitless when received with faith and confidence. (Words of the Mother, Cent. Vol. 14, p. 91) Man's life upon earth is full of uncertainties. Accidents and illnesses... from ungrounded premises and false pre-suppositions. But even before we come to the pointing out of these wrongly assumed premises and pre-suppositions, we feel like advising a sadhaka of the Integral Yoga, who wants to build up his spiritual life, that against all negative whisperings of the adversary forces and the doubting Thomases, he should believe with all his heart and mind that there is... a possible confusion or wrong notion has to be fully cleared. When we talk of the Supreme's or the Divine's Grace what do we mean by this Divine? Sri Aurobindo has warned the sadhakas of the Integral Yoga that they should not think of the Divine as a very powerful extra-cosmic Person who has 'created' outside of Him this world and its creatures and has since then been governing them and determining ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XX On the psychic Awakening The path of spiritual sadhana has been compared to a razor 's edge, ksurasya dhārā; it is very very difficult to tread. At every turn of the way there is the possibility of an ambush; at every moment of the journey there arises the dilemma of how to choose the right course of action. Besides... the crises of his sadhana-life. The capital importance of this psychic awakening will be obvious if we recapitulate here the principal stages of the Way that leads to the complete Siddhi of the Integral Yoga. The three following passages from Sri Aurobindo' s writings will make the position clear: Page 258 (1) "In the spiritual knowledge of self there are three steps of its self-... p. 891. Paragraphing ours.) From the three long passages from Sri Aurobindo' s writings quoted above it becomes abundantly clear that, for the successful completion of the sadhana of the Integral Yoga, the very first siddhi that is needed by the sadhaka is the awakening of his psychic being and, with its active help, the psychic conversion of our present nature. But what exactly is meant ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga VIII How to Call and pray? A complete purification, a total liberation and a perfect perfection constitute the triple objective of the Integral Yoga, and this implies an integral transformation of the whole being and nature. To all appearances this goal may seem to be exceedingly difficult, almost impossible... consciousness needed are too steep, the descents from above too precarious, and the path of the Integral Yoga too hard to tread. Indeed, left to one's own unaided Tapasya of will and aspiration, no human being however strong in spirit can ever expect to transform himself. The sadhaka of the Integral Yoga should not therefore forget even for a moment that the Divine Mother's Shakti can always do... consciousness with its characteristic stamp of fundamental inertia and obscurity. If that is so, whenever dificulties and impediments to sadhana present themselves to the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga, what ideal attitude should he adopt? As we have already pointed out, he should not seek to master them relying on his own unaided effort alone. Page 106 Rather, he should trust ...
... in the Upanishads The Gita and its Synthesis of Yoga Integral Yoga: Major Aims, Processes, Methods and Results Integral Yoga of Transformation: Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Supermind in the Integral Yoga Integral Yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Authored by Kireet Joshi ... Philosophy of Evolution for the Contemporary Man A Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga Sri Aurobindo and the Mother On Materialism (Compilation) Towards Universal Fraternity (Compilation) Towards A New Social Order (Compilation) Let us ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER VI The Mother in her Triple Poise SRI Râmakrishna expressed one of the cardinal truths of the integral spiritual realisation when he said that it is the Mother who holds the key to the abode of Brahman, and unless She delivered it as a Grace, none could see Brahman face to face. Sri Râmakrishna's own... cosmic manifestation, of Heaven and Earth, of Spirit and Matter. Is this transcendent and universal Shakti the Mother to whom we are called upon to surrender? Is She the sole pilot of the Integral Yoga? Were it only so, our Yoga would be identical with the Tântric Yoga, and robbed °f much of its integrality and characteristic potentiality For physical transformation and divine manifestation; ... lead given to the Godward Odyssey of mankind. Her individual noise in the material world is an imperative demand of the logic of physical transformation and divine life. Besides, the aim of the Integral Yoga being the supra- mental fulfilment of the Divine in man, the infusion of the supramental principle into Matter and the eventual conversion of the material life into the supramental life, are a work ...
... besetting snags spotlighted, and it has been shown how they can be most effectively overcome by a constant and conscientious pursuit of the Integral Yoga. The distinctive elements of Karmayoga, Bhaktiyoga and Jnanayoga, as woven into the composite texture of the Integral Yoga, and constituting the basis of its synthetic philosophy, have been elaborately explained. The double liberation, the triple transformation... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo At The Feet of The Mother PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION A substantial demand for this book from America has made it necessary to bring out a second edition. But as the demand is urgent, there is no time to prepare an index and make certain additions and... phrases have been appended in the footnotes. The demand for this book is one of the minor indications of the growing interest the elite of the West are taking in Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's Integral Yoga and philosophy. It is heartening to find that many eminent thinkers of Europe and America are turning to Sri Aurobindo as the only hope and refuge in the dismal bankruptcy of the modem rationalistic ...
... from the viewpoint of Sri Aurobindo's psychological thought implicit in his Integral Yoga. In doing so, we will draw mostly from specific references in the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother bearing on the subject. An understanding of the nature of psychological disturbances from the standpoint of Integral Yoga may be approached from the description of the state of psychological health contained... language of Integral Yoga. In ordinary usage, "mind" has a rather vague and too broad a connotation: anything that does not clearly pertain to the body is often conceived to be related to the mind. Thus all processes of thinking, feeling and willing (cognition, affection and volition, as they are termed in psychology) are ascribed to the mind. But in the language of Integral Yoga, "mind" refers... "psychic" is used in Integral Yoga to refer to the inmost part of the being which supports the outer nature of body, vital and mind and which, in most human beings, is hidden and veiled by the activities of physical, vital and mental consciousness. The reason for dwelling at some length on definitions of the mental, the vital and the physical lies in the fact that in Integral Yoga, psychological d ...
... us be clear in our mind about what a sadhaka of the Integral Yoga seeks to accomplish in his sadhana. For Sri Aurobindo has so forcefully reminded us: "A Yoga of works, a union with the Divine in our will and j acts — and not only in knowledge and feeling — is... an indispensable, an inexpressibly important element of an integral Yoga. The! conversion of our thought and feeling without ... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XII THE PROBLEM OF RIGHT ACTION: HOW TO RECOGNISE THE DIVINE WILL? The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo aims at the perfect manifestation of the Divine in the field of earthly existence. A sadhaka of this path cannot therefore consider his sadhana fulfilled, simply when he has achieved union with the Divine... nature imperfect and untransformed. An integrated and well-harmonised simultaneous realisation of divine Being and divine Becoming: such is the goal set before himself by the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga. It follows, therefore, that a perfect, integral and divine transformation of his whole nature including all the instruments of functioning forms an indispensable part of the sadhaka's programme ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XI The Purification of Nature PURIFICATION has a special sense in the Integral Yoga. In the other Yoga's except the Tantra, it means the simplification or stilling of most of the functions of antaḥkaraṇa, which comprises citta or the basic consciousness, manas or the sense-mind, buddhi or the... alone to the Infinite, as do the other Yogas, the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo offers the soul and nature both into the bands of the Divine for their liberation and perfection, and their effective utilization for the fulfillment of His Will in the material world. Purification has, therefore, a much wider sweep and a deeper plunge in the Integral Yoga than elsewhere, and becomes almost a process of... peace experienced in the depths or on the heights are reflected to a certain extent in the character and conduct of life. That is about all one ordinarily understands by purification. But for the Integral Yoga it is utterly inadequate; for the aim we pursue is not only the liberation of the soul but also of nature, culminating in the supramental transformation as the sine qua non of divine manifestation ...
... n is the introduction, exposition and practice of the Integral Yoga. Hence, I am translating into English here an article written in Bengali by Sri Aurobindo and entitled "The Main Distinctive Mark of Integral Yoga". * * * The Main Distinctive Mark of Integral Yoga 1 A good deal has been said about integral yoga from the point of view of thinking and theory. Now when... characteristic sign of the state of its realisation. * There are four limbs of the integral yoga, Knowledge, Works, Love, and Realisation. The cloud-piercing temple of Truth of the life of god, is based on these four pillars. The goal of the yoga of knowledge in the integral yoga is not liberation, not dissolution, nor the escape of one afraid of the world, not disgust of the... A Centenary Tribute Part III Sri Aurobindo's Vision-Arabinda Basu The Main Distinctive Mark of Integral Yoga I THANK Professor Sachidananda Mohanty for giving me an opportunity to be associated with this volume of tributes to K.D. Sethna. Sethna has written on almost all topics under the sun. History, Archaeology, Old ...
... done to us for which we are not sufficiently grateful. All that is rubbish.’ 18 This being an Integral Yoga in which all aspects of life have to be tackled, 91 the prescription of fixed rules and guidelines was not feasible. (This has led to much confusion concerning the Integral Yoga, and a repeated effort, in spite of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s integrality and openness, to write books... farther. In the spiritual development of the consciousness upon earth the great past ought to be followed by a greater future.’ 11 As we have seen, the basic qualities to be developed in the Integral Yoga are aspiration, surrender, sincerity, and equality or equanimity. But ‘it is always the psychic being that is the real, though often the secret cause of man’s turning to the spiritual life and his... ion is the work of the Mother,’ 13 he would write. If, as somebody said, the Mother put Sri Aurobindo on a high pedestal, he from his side did the same with her. This important turn in the Integral Yoga was doubtlessly the result of his own experiences and explorations which we find described in Savitri, culminating in ‘The Book of the Divine Mother.’ To understand Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s ...
... influence of the Teacher— guru . Last comes the instrumentality of Time— kāla ; for in all things there is a cycle of their action and a period of the divine movement. 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... the instructions of the Master. This is a narrower practice, but safe and effective within its limits, because it follows a well-beaten track to a long familiar goal. For the sadhaka of the integral Yoga it is necessary to remember that no written Shastra, however great its authority or however large its spirit, can be more than a partial expression of the eternal Knowledge. He will use, but never... his own religion, when not bound by sect or traditional form he followed the free self-adaptation of his nature in its relations with the Supreme. So also one may say that the perfection of the integral Yoga will come when each man is able to follow his own path of Yoga, pursuing the development of his own nature in its upsurging towards that which transcends the nature. For freedom is the final law ...
... concentration, integral yoga would be based on the principle of integral concentration; since each system makes a selection from the activities of Nature for purification and perfection, integral yoga would admit all activities of Nature for their transformation and perfection; since each system aims at a specific object or poise or aspect of Reality of the Divine, the Object of the integral yoga would be... Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga 2 Integral Yoga Y OGA is not a closed book. It is not a body of revelations made once for all, unverifiable and unsurpassable. It is not a religion; it is an advancing science, with its fields of inquiry and search always enlarging; its methods are not only intuitive but include also bold experimentation and rigorous ve... integral concentration on the integral Divine through the whole of our being for a complete perfection by a union with and the manifestation of the Divine — this would be the natural formula of the Integral Yoga. In the words of Sri Aurobindo: 'The method we have to pursue, then, is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform our entire ...
... Hatha, Raja, Jnana, Karma, Bhakti, the Yoga of the Gita, his own integral Yoga and the revolutionary world-transforming Supramental Yoga. With this unique wealth of variegated spiritual experience, it was not unnatural that Sri Aurobindo should weave into the fabric of his Yoga - described with ascending connotation as Integral Yoga, Puma Yoga or Supramental Yoga - the more essential threads of all... - that helps the progress of the sadhana. But Sri Aurobindo remarks that for the sadhaka of the integral Yoga no written Shastra can be all-sufficient, for even the greatest scripture could have a constricting effect on the free spirit of aspiring man: 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... an all-out attack, involving the deployment of the army, the navy and the air force,- and paratroops and propaganda as well, that storms the citadel and establishes dominion. Likewise, in an integral Yoga, the storm-troops of the muscle, the swift-squadrons of the brain, and the high-powered flotillas of the heart, all are to be energised and directed to march up and seize the invisible citadel ...
... 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... 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... cleansing, quickening, coordinating and harmonising the inner instruments (antahkaran) 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 ...
... them a certain special method of concentration on the object that is sought to be realised. In the Integral Yoga, all powers and faculties are combined, developed and purified, and there is a progressive integral concentration upon the object of integral perfection. The first stage in the Integral Yoga is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with all that we consider to be true... higher nature. It is only in the third and the last stage, which can be wholly rapid and blissful, that there can come about the eventual transformation and perfection which is the object of the Integral Yoga. The centre of our ordinary consciousness is the ego, which seems to be our basic entity but which, when analysed, turns out to be only a sense and a centre of a finite consciousness that considers... no direct experience and to which it can find no clue. To enlighten the physical mind by the consciousness of the higher spiritual and supramental planes is one of the important objects of the integral Yoga, just as to enlighten it by the power of the higher vital and higher mental elements of the being is the greatest part of human self-development, civilisation and culture. The gross material ...
... 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... 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... 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 ...
... yoga is a very complete yoga, which contains many things, takes in many elements. So this element of intellectual knowledge makes the yoga more powerful. Is it the same as the integral yoga? Not quite. An integral yoga is one which comprises all the parts of the being and all the activities of the being. But the activities of one being are not as powerful as the activities of another; and the... Questions and Answers (1956) 4 January 1956 " If we are to attempt an integral Yoga, it will be as well to start with an idea of the Divine that is itself integral. There should be an aspiration in the heart wide enough for a realisation without any narrow limits. Not only should we avoid a sectarian religious... approach something integral. You form an idea of the Divine which suits your own nature and your own conception, don't you? So if you want to get out of yourself a little and attempt to do a truly integral yoga, you must try to understand that the Divine is not only what you think or feel Him to be, but also what others think and feel Him to be—and in addition something that nobody can think and feel. ...
... Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter VII Tantra Tantra and the Integral Yoga Veda and Vedanta are one side of the one Truth; Tantra with its emphasis on Shakti is another. In this Yoga all sides of the Truth are taken up, not in the systematic forms given them formerly, but in their essence and carried to the fullest... its spiritual knowledge and experience has been taken bodily into the Arya . Tantra deals more with forms and processes and organised powers—all these could not be taken as they were, for the integral Yoga needs to develop its own forms and processes, but the ascent of the consciousness through the centres and other Tantrik knowledge are there behind the process of transformation to which so much... subjection to the old forms and symbols. The centres themselves Page 459 have a different interpretation here from that given in the books of the Tantriks. Kundalini, the Chakras and the Integral Yoga The process of the Kundalini awakened rising through the centres as also the purification of the centres is a Tantrik knowledge. In our Yoga there is no willed process of the purification and ...
... that seek to take the kingdom of heaven by storm can have miserable reactions if they disdain to support their vehemence on these humbler and quieter auxiliaries. And in the long and difficult integral Yoga there must be an integral faith and an unshakable patience. It is difficult to acquire or to practise this faith and steadfastness on the rough and narrow path of Yoga because of the impatience... weaknesses, diverting influences. The work of the Divine will be done in us even then, but according to our weakness, not according to the strength and purity of its source. If ours were not an integral Yoga, if we sought only the liberation of the self within us or the motionless existence Page 251 of Purusha separated from Prakriti, this dynamic imperfection might not matter. Calm, untroubled... inexpressible Nirvana, annul all things in an intolerant exaltation of flight into the Incommunicable. But none of these achievements is enough for one who seeks the wide completeness of an integral Yoga. An individual salvation is not enough for him; for he finds himself opening to Page 258 a cosmic consciousness which far exceeds by its breadth and vastness the narrower intensity of ...
... The Vision and Work of Sri Aurobindo All or Nothing The Integral Yoga is a matter of all or nothing. Not that the Guru rejects partial offerings: whatever movement is towards the Divine is welcome and can be made the starting-point for a larger gesture. The Grace answers to even the smallest sincere gift. But its call is towards more and more, a... a new starting-point each moment. And if to this insatiable call a deaf ear is turned, then in terms of the Integral Yoga it is as if nothing was done. The call is insatiable not only because the Grace wants the whole human to be surrendered to the Divine but also because it wants the whole Divine to be lavished on the human. Surely, since the very nature of Grace is to exceed mere tally... receive and retain it unless he holds up to it a being that increasingly widens and deepens and grows a less and less partial offering. In the integral offering that has to be made in the Integral Yoga, one understands fairly well the need of entire detachment from the non-divine and of absolute love for the Supreme and of perfect service to the Master. What is not often understood is the ...
... practise the integral Yoga, it is strongly advised to abstain from three things: 1) Sexual intercourse 2) Smoking 3) Drinking alcohol 12 June 1965 The more I go, the more I know that it is in work that Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga is best done . 9 October 1966 It is not what you do but the spirit in which you do it that is important for the integral Yoga. 1971 ... Words of the Mother - II The Integral Yoga Three Conceptions of the World 1) Buddhist and Shankarite: The world is an illusion, a field of ignorance and suffering due to ignorance. The one thing to do is to get out of it as soon as possible and to disappear into the original Non-Existence or Non-Manifestation. 2) The Vedantic as very commonly... bring down that realisation to the exterior world and change the conditions of life upon the earth until a total transformation is accomplished. In accordance with this aim, the sadhaks of the integral yoga do not retire from the world to lead a life of contemplation and meditation. Each one must devote at least one third of his time to a useful work. All activities are represented in the Ashram and ...
... Yoga, one may or may not begin with Bhakti. Yoga has multiple beginnings, indeed as many as there may or will be seekers. A fanatic of the Integral Yoga is hence, by definition, inconceivable. Sri Aurobindo attests to this vast catholicity of the Integral Yoga in unambiguous terms: ' By this Yoga we not only seek the Infinite, but we call upon the Infinite to unfold himself in human life... is at once the origin and consummation of knowledge, works, and life on earth. And Sri Aurobindo's Savitri, the Epic of the Triumph of Love over Death, constitutes the summum bonum of the Integral Yoga 1 Mother's Agenda, Vol. 8, p. 151. Scholars of Poetics delve into the art and craft, the rhythms and metres employed to achieve unique poetic effects. Many would agree... know that the Mother, like Sri Aurobindo before her, bore all things that all things may change. Such is the Divine challenge to seekers everywhere who decide to tread the road of the Integral Yoga opened up by the "One Consciousness in two bodies"—Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. A formidable challenge, one that can be accepted only by those prepared to be among the forerunners of the tomorrow ...
... The New Synthesis of Yoga and the New Integral Aim of Life The realization of the integral reality is the basic objective of the integral yoga, and to arrive at the supramental realization of the integral reality by the methods of the integral yoga that we find in Sri Aurobindo can be seen corroborated and confirmed by the description of the integral reality and supramental consciousness... and its elevation to the higher Nature. It is because the aim is that of a transformation of our integral being into the terms of the supramental divine existence that the synthesis of yoga or integral yoga becomes indispensable. The one common principle and the one central dynamic Force in all systems of yoga is that of concentration; in the new synthesis, that common principle and force... in the Veda, Upanishads and the Gita, and in the Tantra. But Sri Aurobindo and the Mother go farther and determine a new integral aim of life''"1 which can be fulfilled by new methods of their integral yoga. Let us elucidate this important point in some detail. Page 123 Supra-terrestrial Theories of the Aim of Life The Vedic and Upanishadic experience has declared that Matter ...
... the integral perfection; but to unite oneself with the universal Divine is another essential condition. Here the Integral Yoga coincides with the Yoga of knowledge, works, and devotion. Since human life is accepted as a self-expression of the realised Divine in man, the Integral Yoga insists on action of the entire divine nature in life. It is here that by a new effort of research and development... Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga 3 Bondage, Liberation and Perfection O NE OF the greatest contributions of the Indian science of Yoga is that of the discovery of the state of bondage of the human soul, as also that of the fashioning of the various methods which would ensure liberation and its other consequences relating to perfection. Every... Life in his divine scope as the cosmic Play of the Divine. In other words, it grasps that idea of the divine perfectibility of man, which was possessed by the Vedic Rshis. V In the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo a new dimension is added to conceptions of bondage, liberation and perfection. It founds itself on a conception of the spiritual being as an omnipresent existence, the fullness ...
... study the theme of Integral Yoga, — its aims, processes, methods and results, so that we may be able to link ourselves with this yoga and prepare ourselves for the journey ahead. It is hoped that this book will provide some useful material to seekers of the highest modes of action and who wish to clarify to themselves and reflect at deeper and deeper levels on Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and... Integral Yoga - Major Aims, Methods, Processes and Results Preface Yoga is the methodized effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the potentialities latent in the being and a union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the cosmos. An important question regarding Integral... synthesis of yoga in the Veda, which was followed by the synthesis in the Upanishads; the third synthesis is to be found in the Gita and the fourth synthesis is to be found in the Tantric Yoga. The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is a new synthesis, and a question is often asked as to what is new in this synthesis. This book aims at answering these questions, and it can be regarded as an ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XXII Sadhana of the Vital Our last chapter dealt with the sadhana of the Mind. The present one has for its subject matter the sadhana of the Vital. A thoroughgoing discussion of the place, importance and conversion of the vital in the sadhana of the Integral Yoga is very essential. For the vital, as... may equally take two distinctly different mutually opposed orientations depending on whether it is being rightly guided or not. It follows then that what is expected of the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga is not the starving and the stunning of the vital into inaction but the constant turning of its dynamism towards the realisation of 'satyam, ś ivam, sundaram', of the True, the Good, the Beautiful... or an escapist post-mortem immergence in the Spirit." But we have already affirmed many a time in course of this book that this sort of escapist spirituality is not the character of the Integral Yoga. We aim at the founding and manifestation of divine life here upon earth itself in the embodied existence of man; and in this task the happy and unquestioning collaboration of the vital is altogether ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XXIII SADHANA OF THE BODY: PHYSICAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE INTEGRAL YOGA The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo has for its goal not merely the spiritual liberation of a few isolated individuals from the shackles of phenomenal Ignorance but the establishment of a truly divine life upon earth itself... denial , and reconciled themselves to its supposedly unalterable fate of ever remaining unregenerate and untransformed. But, evidently, this cannot be the right attitude for the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga. Since a divine transformation of all the parts of our existence including its most material foundation and functioning is the goal envisaged by Sri Aurobindo 's Yoga of Integral Transformation... adaptive improvement and our body sys tem is destined to remain bound down to its present form and functioning? How can one then envisage any physical transformation through the process of the Integral Yoga? But this train of reasoning is altogether fallacious. For, the implied assumptions and hence the so-called 'conclusions' are only half-truths and has it not been well said that "half-truth ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XXIV Sadhana During Our Body's Sleep It is a fact that most people, including the aspirants after spiritual life, spend almost a third of their existence asleep. Consequently the time devoted to physical sleep well deserves our keen attention and should engage our careful Scrutiny. For, Sri Aurobindo has reminded... is wrong to assume that the whole of our being sleeps when the physical being goes into dormancy. Be that as it may, the question of sleep gains an urgency in the case of the sadhakas of the Integral Yoga who strive for a progressive inwardisation of their consciousness. We remember in this connection the following words of the Mother: "To make use of the nights is an excellent thing. It... rest for our physical and physiological system equally applies in the case of sadhakas. The Mother 'and Sri Aurobindo would normally recommend seven hours' daily sleep for the sadhakas of the Integral Yoga. This physiological necessity for sleep does not, however, constitute the whole truth of the sleep phenomenon. As we shall presently see, our body's sleep plays a much greater and profounder ...
... world-vision of these great spiritual Masters, in so far as it bears upon the ultimate glorious transformation of man's body and his physical life upon earth. As is by now well-known, the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo has for its objective among other things: (i)to make spiritual experiences real to the whole consciousness of man including that of his outer being; (ii)not... and consciousness. Indeed, the desired transformation is going to be attempted through the action, upon body and matter, of a progressively growing consciousness acquired through the agency of Integral Yoga and rising higher and higher in the scale of its luminous potency till one reaches the absolute potency of what Sri Aurobindo calls Supramental Gnosis. Thus, it has become quite conceivable and... supreme scientist of life who proceeds to realise the ideal in himself and then to build up an integral method for others to follow. And what is the efficacy of this preconised method called the Integral Yoga of Self-Perfection? Well, let us listen to him (the unbiased rationalist might get an abundance of conviction from his significant utterance): "I must remind you that I have been an ...
... Evolution; Integral Yoga and Other Paths; Religion, Morality, Idealism and Yoga; Reason, Science and Yoga; Planes and Parts of the Being; The Divine and the Hostile Powers; The Purpose of Avatarhood; Rebirth; Fate and Free-Will; Karma and Heredity; etc. Volume 23 — Letters on Yoga, PARTS Two AND THREE. Part Two: The Object of Integral Yoga; Synthetic Method and the Integral Yoga; Basic Requisites... m, V. Sri Aurobindo's 'The Life Divine': A brief Study (1961); Sri Aurobindo: Three Essays (1961); Aitareya Upanishad (1967) Chaudhuri, Haridas. The Philosophy of Integralism (1967); Integral Yoga: The Concept of Harmonious and Creative Living (1970) Chaudhuri, Haridas & Frederick Spiegelberg (Eds.). The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo: A Commemorative Symposium ( 1960)... India. Maitra, S. K. Introduction to the Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo (1965); The Meeting of the East and the West in Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy (1968) Manibhai. A Practical Guide to Integral Yoga (1971) Majumdar, R.C . Studies in the Bengali Renaissance Mary, Countess of Minto. India: Minto and Morley (1934) Mazumdar, A. C. Indian National Evolution (1915) Misra ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XIV MIND AND ITS PURIFICATION PART III PURIFICATION OF THE CHITTA As we have already said, the citta is the basic stuff of our consciousness, teeming with all sorts of impressions of our immediate and remote past. These chaotic impressions go to nourish our desires and give them... energy of desires must go to feed the divine Will revealing itself more and more in the being as it undergoes Page 252 the psychic change. It is to be remarked here that' m the Integral Yoga there is no question of killing or crippling the life-energies, whether they manifest them- selves as cravings and passions or as ambitions and aspirations. As the ancient Rishis knew well, all... sorrow and suffering of the essential delight of existence. All these energies will be purified, illumined and converted into their spiritual equivalents by the self- unfolding process of the Integral Yoga, proceeding under the guidance of the Mother's Light and fulfilling itself by the Mother's Force. DESIRES ARE FORMATIVE ENERGIES Very few people care to study the working of the ...
... unwavering trust in Grace is the most effective antidote against all fear. Grace and the Integral Yoga It can be said that as the Mother regards Grace to be the sole motive power behind the evolutionary ascent of man in general, so too she considers it to be the only means of progress in the Integral Yoga. According to Sri Aurobindo, "the principal thing ¹ Words of the Mother. ... the Mother explains the genesis of Grace and its essential nature, and then she throws light upon the nature of its action, the conditions to be fulfilled for receiving it, its place in the Integral Yoga, etc. According to her. Grace is the Divine's Love which has descended here into the world of inconscience and ignorance to raise it towards the supreme Truth and its infinite Light of Consciousness... direct the thought continually to the Divine and to offer oneself till the being opens and the Mother's force can be felt working in the ādhāra. ”¹ Nobody, however powerful ² he may be, can do the Integral Yoga and reach its great goal of supramental trans- formation by his own strength and effort. It is a complete reliance on the divine Grace from the very beginning of the Yoga to the end that is ...
... why “surrender” is “the Alpha and the Omega” of the Integral Yoga: the souls who have given themselves to it cannot expect the realisation of the goal in this lifetime, because the goal of the Integral Yoga is the supramental transformation, which can only be reached after centuries. The second reason is that nobody can practice the Integral Yoga for selfish aims. A necessary condition of the supramental... ” 23 wrote Sri Aurobindo. “Some have come with her to share in the work, others she had called, others have come seeking for the light.” 24 They were “the souls destined to the way of the integral yoga,” “the rare souls that were ripe,” “the pioneer few.” The Mother’s first question when she met Aurobindo Ghose for the first time, in 1914, had been: “Should you do your yoga, attain the goal... for release from the stressful burden that living in an earthly body means. Their intention is justified and praiseworthy, and the established spiritual paths are meant to provide just that. The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, though, seeks to take evolution a step ahead, which means to transform the present condition of the planet and of humanity. But humanity and the planet are dominated ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XIX Equality in the integral Yoga To maintain an attitude of unruffled equanimity at all times and under all circumstances is absolutely essential in the case of a sadhaka of the Integral Yoga. In the paths of sadhana followed by ascetic renunciatory spirituality, equality is not so much stressed, for the sadhakas... problems by segregating them selves from the objects and occasions liable to disturb their sang-froid: there the quality cardinally called for is Vairagya or 'Dispassion'. But in the practice of the Integral Yoga which aims at the transformation of the total human nature, the sadhaka has to boldly confront all the vagaries and vicissitudes of life, carry the relentless spiritual battle into the lion's den... may mistake as real equality what Sri Aurobindo has termed as "an attitude of equal recoil" and "equality of equal acceptance". Be that as it may. the very first task the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga has to attend to in his sadhana is to maintain an attitude of perfect calm and equanimity under all circumstances. The Mother was once asked: "Is there any sign which indicates that one is ready ...
... attitude of the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga: "... who shall persuade me that my infinity can only be an eternal full stop, an endless repose, an infinite cessation? Much rather should infinity be eternally capable of an infinite self-expression." (The Problem of Rebirth, p. 95) It is time to close this chapter on Fate, Karma and the Sadhaka of the Integral Yoga. But before that we would... Fate, Karma and Rebirth VI Fate and Karma and a Sadhaka's Duty We have advised our readers at the end of the preceding chapter that a sadhaka of the Integral Yoga should not torment himself with the apprehending imaginary thought that some of his unknown "prarabdha karmas" may be all the time hiding behind the veil and pounce upon him at any moment to bedevil... existence and depart and merge in the static Silence of the spaceless and timeless Transcendence. Well, that may be the view and attitude of the traditional yogis, but the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga has another Vision and another Goal in view. He does not fear or shun rebirth; for he knows that the earthly life is not meant solely for the exhaustion of karmas through the "bhoga", the "undergoing" ...
... of Yoga in the Upanishads The Gita and Its Synthesis of Yoga Integral Yoga: Major Aims, Processes, Methods and Results Integral Yoga of Transformation: Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Integral Yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Also by Kireet... Supermind in Integral Yoga Notes and References 1 Vide, Works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, particularly, Letters on Yoga [Vols. 23-24, Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (SABCL), 1971, Pondicherry], and Sri Aurobindo's The Synthesis of Yoga (SABCL, Vols. 20-21, 1971, Pondicherry). 2 Vide, Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL, 1971... upon his own supramental experience, this mutuality is founded in unity, and that is the whole secret of the divine existence in its perfect manifestation. In fact, the entire basis of the integral yoga, which not only aims at the integral realization of the Infinite but also at the full manifestation of the supramental consciousness in Matter and at the total transformation of matter and material ...
... It may also be added that in the development of the integral yoga, the seeker will be required to expand the scope and aim that we normally find in the specialized systems of Jnana yoga, Karma yoga and Bhakti yoga and any other system of yoga which is synthesized in this vast and comprehensive system. The important point is that in the integral yoga, the Page 60 awakening and full development... And it is against this background that the spirit and the processes of the integral yoga can properly be understood and practised; and, again, it is against this background that the processes of the Jnana yoga, Karma yoga, Bhakti yoga and the Tantra as also all other processes of yoga which are incorporated in the integral yoga need to be modified and expanded; but most importantly, the necessity and... Integral Yoga of Transformation -07_Part Five.htm Part Five Process of Spiritual Transformation : Role of the superconscient Levels of Mind But even then there are still limitations of an inferior instrumentation; as a result, the highest spiritual transformation must intervene on the psychic or psycho-spiritual change. There is thus the necessity ...
... must be transformed by the application of the Integral Yoga. It is further contended that the contemporary problems of life have reached a critical stage and that criticality can be resolved only if we apply principles of Integral Yoga to the problems of the contemporary crisis. The purpose of this book is to elucidate this view of the Integral Yoga and to bring out how Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) and... Integral yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Preface Yoga has for long been conceived as the discipline that necessitates rejection of life and its activities. The Integral Yoga, on the contrary, maintains that all life is Yoga and that life can greatly be helped if we apply the principles of yoga to the problems of life. All life must be accepted, but all life must... and the Mother (1878-1973), while they were developing Integral Yoga, have confronted the problems of the contemporary crisis and have shown that the Integral Yoga can become an aid to humanity and it can even be used as an aid to the development of the next step of evolution itself. According to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the contemporary crisis of humanity is evolutionary in character and ...
... Integral Yoga - Major Aims, Methods, Processes and Results PART THREE Spiritual Experiences on the way to the Supermind On the way from the Quiet Mind and Silent Mind or Purified Mind, and while crossing from Higher Mind to the Supermind, several higher and penultimate spiritual experiences are attained. In the specialized systems of yoga these... these or some of them are felt to be so overwhelming that they seem to sublate all the others and they can be felt to be the ultimate experiences of the Reality. In the integral yoga, however, the push is towards the supramental realization of the Ultimate Reality, and it is found that the Supermind, being itself the self-awareness of this infinite and the power of the self-determinations of the infinite... open to the Divine Shakti in the truth of a force, as the supramental Para Prakriti, which transcends the lower Prakriti of the mind, life and body. As in other paths which are integrated in the integral yoga, even so, in the path of karma yoga, the path of divine works, the aim is not merely liberation from the lower nature but also the liberation of the lower nature from its own limitations. For then ...
... Synthesis of Yoga in the Upanishads The Gita and Its Synthesis of Yoga Integral Yoga: Major Aims, Processes, Methods and Results Integral Yoga of Transformation: Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Supermind in the Integral Yoga Integral Yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Page 110 Also by Kireet Joshi ... Upanishads, Gita and Tantra. Even in later times, in the movements of saints and bhaktas there is a marked turn towards synthesis, and even in our own times, in the yogic life of Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga we have the latest effort and statement of the synthesis of yogic disciplines. Catholicity of the Veda and the Upanishads has remarkable changes in the forms of Indian religion and spiritual... 1931) studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I.A.S. in 1955 but in 1956, he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry and participated in numerous educational experiments under ...
... of these people is commendable, but we must see what Sri Aurobindo has said on his Integral Yoga. Otherwise there is every possibility of sectarianism being developed. "Sri Aurobindo was dead against sectarianism. He wrote in The Synthesis of Yoga, in the Chapter The Four Aids': "The sadhaka of the integral Yoga will make use of all these aids, according to his nature; but it is necessary that... matter ends here. Sri Aurobindo warned us and gave his final word which we must remember. " 'Well, have we truly the "final word" here? 2 The words of a Master of the Integral Yoga are bound to be such that they seem to lend countenance to various standpoints at various times and places. They present many aspects of truth and can be quoted by one side or another to suit particular... reject the cry "My God, my Incarnation, my Prophet, my Guru" is surely not to say, "Any kind of God, any type of Incarnation, any sort of Prophet, any brand of Guru will straightaway do for the Integral Yoga." And to forbid "all sectarianism, all fanaticism" is surely not to go in for a mighty mixture of the world's religions in an impartial acceptance of everything in them exactly as it is. A broad-minded ...
... Perspectives of Savitri - Part 2 Savitri: The Devikāvyam In the Sadhana Shastra of the Pooma or Integral Yoga posited by Sri Aurobindo, there are very helpful guides for the aspirants. While the tattva (philosophy) of man's transformation is brought to us by works like The Life Divine and The Supramental Manifestation, the hita (way) is outlined... illimitable consciousness, an infinite ocean of Ananda, of the self-moved delight of existence." 4 The method of Tantra teaches us to draw the divine Shakti to us so she can transform us. The Integral Yoga brings the two poles of reality—Brahman and Shakti, Purusha and Prakriti—together. It does not countenance the mere formulaic mechanics of Tantra nor does it favour the Vedantic rejection of... seamless Ananda. It comes in the line of the Sapthashati, the Devi Bhagavatam. Quite early in the epic, we are introduced to the duo of Purusha and Prakriti as the concept is used in Integral Yoga. Even as Aswapati begins his travels in the occult stair which is an image of his Yoga, he gains the "secret knowledge" which explains to him the truth about creation and how he is to go about ...
... way of being will be supramentalized. We have heard Sri Aurobindo say that only the Divine Shakti can accomplish the integral yoga of this transformation. He consequently also said: ‘It is a great mistake to suppose that one can “do” the Purna Yoga [the complete or integral Yoga] … No human being can do that.’ 52 No species can break through its own ceiling all by itself. The Unity-Consciousness... — the recognition of the role of the Great Mother and the positive evaluation of her creation — Sri Aurobindo’s yoga could in fact be considered as a kind of super-tantra.) Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga ‘Sri Aurobindo has always told that his yoga begins where the others’ end,’ said the Mother, ‘and that to be able to realize his yoga, one first has to attain the extreme limit of what the other... life of man, and they point to the three paths by which the human soul rises to the Divine. Their integrality, the union of man with God in all the three, must therefore … be the foundation of an integral Yoga.’ 14 ‘In this yoga all sides of the Truth are taken up, not in the systematic forms given them formerly but in their essence, and carried to the fullest and highest significance.’ 15 ‘As for ...
... Sri Krishna In Brindavan Part IV Sri Aurobindo on Integral Yoga of Divine Love (Some Extracts) The Way of Devotion Bhakti in itself is as wide as the heart-yearning of the soul for the Divine and as simple and straightforward as love and desire going straight towards their object. It cannot, therefore, be fixed down to... of the aspects and experiences of the Sadhana of devotion. We need only trace broadly the general line they follow before we turn to consider how the way of devotion enters into a synthetic and integral Yoga, what place it takes there and how its principle affects the other principles of divine living. Page 231 All Yoga is a turning of the human mind and the human soul, not yet divine... fortress of the ascetic life, of those services to men which seem peculiarly the out flowing of the divine nature of love, compassion and good. But there is the wider self-consecration, proper to any integral Yoga, which, accepting the fullness of life and the world in its entirety as the play of the Divine, offers up the whole being into his possession; it is a holding of all one is and has as belonging ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XI SADHANA THROUGH WORK (Karma-sādhanā) Karma-sadhana is a very essential part of the Integral Yoga. Our ultimate goal being the establishment of divine life upon earth and our intermediate goal being the achievement of victory of the Di-vine in the totality of our embodied human existence, a ... us. The Mother also on her part has alluded to the essentiality of Karma-yoga for the fulfilment of the Integral Yoga and that at many places in her writings. Here is for example the substance of what she spoke in her conversation of 28 April 1929: 'In the integral Yoga, the integral life down even to the smallest detail has to be transformed, to be divinised. Otherwise one will always... and there will be no conquest of the external world; nothing abiding there will have been done.' Now the central question is: How to do Karma-sadhana in the Page 139 Integral Yoga? How to turn the execution of any action, karma, into Karma-yoga, yoga of action? For is it not an obvious fact than everybody without exception has been doing actions all the time?! After all ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga IV On Rejection Sri Aurobindo, in the second chapter of his book The Mother, has drawn our attention to the interesting fact that although in Yoga the Divine is considered to be the Goal of attainment, he himself at the same time acts as the sadhaka, also the sadhana. Still, so long as a sadhaka remains... surrender. The preceding chapter of this book dealt with the sadhana of aspiration; we propose to speak now of the sadhana of rejection. Sri Aurobindo has insisted that a sadhaka of the Integral Yoga has to renounce all the habitual movements of the lower nature. These include 'the Mind's ideas, opinions, preferences, habits, constructions'; 'the vital nature's desires, demands, cravings, ... jealousy, envy, hostility to the Truth'; and 'the physical nature's stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, Tamas.' The goal the Integral Yoga has set before itself is, we know, the total divine transformation of man's whole being and consciousness and nature. But to achieve this task is supremely difficult. And the very first condition ...
... themselves at a loss to know for certain how to begin the Sadhana of the Integral Yoga and from which point and how to proceed methodically thereafter. Now, at the end of their academic studies in our Higher Course, some of the students decide to join the Sri Aurobindo Ashram as serious practitioners of the Integral Yoga of Self-transformation. But their problems get multiplied with the passage... The Practice of the Integral Yoga By Way of Explanation The author owes a preliminary explanation to his readers; for, at first glance the title of the book may appear to some rather odd andutlandish, if not smacking of downright self-conceit. Like a few of the author's earlier books, this book too owes its origin to the loving request of some of... have studied these books with great love and concentration. They have approached these seminal works, not with some intellectual academic interest, but mainly for comprehending the basics of the Integral Yoga as ushered in by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. But a common complaint with many of these students has been that they often miss the beauty and the significance of the 'wood' because of co ...
... the Best Synthesis of Yoga in the Veda The Gita and Its Synthesis of Yoga Integral Yoga: Major Aims, Processes, Methods and Results Integral Yoga of Transformation: Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Supermind in the Integral Yoga Integral Yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Also by Kireet Joshi Education for Character... 1931) studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I.A.S. in 1955 but in 1956, he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry and participated in numerous educational experiments under... Character Development Education for Tomorrow Education at Crossroads A National Agenda for Education Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Landmarks of Hinduism The Veda and Indian Culture Glimpses of Vedic Literature The Portals of Vedic Knowledge Bhagavadgita and Contemporary Crisis Philosophy and Yoga ...
... Major Aims, Processes, Methods and Results •Integral Yoga of Transformation •Supermind in the Integral Yoga •Integral Yoga and Evolutionary Mutation •Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Edited by Kireet Joshi •The Aim of Life •The Good Teacher and the Good pupil •Mystery and Excellence of the Human Body •Parvati's Tapasya •Nachiketas •... Aurobindo and Integral Yoga •Sri Aurobindo and The Mother •The New Synthesis of Yoga-An Introduction •Varieties of Yogic Experience and Integral Realisation •Significance of Indian Yoga-An Overview •A Pilgrim's Quest for the Highest and the Best •Synthesis of Yoga in the Veda •Synthesis of Yoga in the Upanishads •The Gita and Its Synthesis of Yoga •Integral Yoga: Major... Kireet Joshi (b. 1931) studied Philosophy and Law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I.A.S in 1955, but in 1956 he resigned in order to devote himself to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother at Pondicherry. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry and participated in numerous educational ...
... The Supramental Evolution Integral Yoga and Other Paths Religion, Morality, Idealism and Yoga Planes and Parts of the Being The Divine and the Hostile Powers The Purpose of Avatarhood Rebirth Fate and Free-Will, Karma and Heredity, etc. The second, third and fourth parts consist of letters concerned more directly with sadhana and there is no aspect of Integral Yoga which Sri Aurobindo has left... Sri Aurobindo for All Ages XII: The Integral Yoga and the Ashram (1927-1938) DURING the weeks and months that followed the Siddhi Day, the Ashram went through a remarkable phase, known as its 'brilliant period'. Isiolini Kanta writes in his reminiscences: 'The Mother would now sit down daily for her meditations with all of us together, in the evening... writings Sri Aurobindo has dealt extensively with the stages involved and the psychological and other disciplines which we have to follow if we seek these realisations. He has called this sadhana the Integral Yoga. It combines many of the elements of the older yogas, the paths of Karma, Bhakti and Jnana, but also goes beyond them. There is one point, however, which I should like to stress here. Sri Aurobindo ...
... 67 page - 116 Thus the integral object that Sri Aurobindo had formulated for the integral yoga stands today as a fulfilled object, even though it is envisaged that the full working out of this fulfilled object still remains a programme of colossal research, and thus the yoga-shastra of integral yoga is an open book which can be pursued in the spirit of research and in the spirit of making... making new discoveries and expansions of future realizations and achievements. Distinctive Features of the Object of the Integral Yoga The object of the integral yoga that Sri Aurobindo has formulated has several distinctive features. There is, first, the object of an integral realization of Divine Being. This realization would include not only a realization of the One in its indistinguishable... and physical values. As a result, a synthesis is accomplished of the three degrees of Nature and of the three modes of human existence which Nature has evolved and is evolving. Sixthly, the integral yoga and the integrality that is envisaged cannot be confined to the individual. Divine perfection embraces the realization of ourselves in being, in life and in love through others as well as through ...
... Faith in me (the Guru whose special help you would receive) Peace, Power and Light are the threefold aim of the sadhana. 1 These and the other guidelines were a mini-handbook of the Integral Yoga, and Sastriar pursued with diligence the difficult sadhana while simultaneously following his profession of teaching. In 1927 he wanted to have an idea of the Mother's true nature and the gamut... beauty", what is equally to the point is their capacity to act 'open sesame' to the symbol-worlds of the Spirit. Poetry such as Arjava's is a demonstration of what Yoga can do, and what the Integral Yoga certainly did, to help a sadhak to find his authentic voice as a poet of spiritual sensibility. Thus, for example, "The Feet of the Divine Mother": Be Her light footfall a token ... another - something out of the ancient Egypt.... 21 He stayed on for the Darshan of 21 February 1928, - and forgot about his M.A. dissertation. The Darshan strengthened his desire to do the Integral Yoga, and the Mother accepted him. There was of course no question of an interview with Sri Aurobindo, and like others in the same predicament, he too had to communicate through letters. "I went on ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER X The Higher Nature and the Lower The relation between the higher nature and the lower is of capital importance in the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. If a shuffling off of all nature were the aim, the postulate of the higher Nature would not be called for-the Sânkhya position would be perfectly valid... individual soul, as in the Sânkhya, or its traceless merger in the eternal Immutable, as in the later Vedanta, would be the crowning achievement of all spiritual endeavour. But the aim of the Integral Yoga is not a rejection, but a transformation of Nature for the manifestation of the Divine in the material world. A naked soul, divested of all nature, cannot surely manifest either itself or the Divine... blundering through darkness till, surrendered and consecrated, it is washed clean of its impurities, and caught up in the freedom and glory of the higher. Page 197 Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga is based upon the essential truth of this double Nature—the higher and the lower, Parā and aparā . His contention against the world-shunning ascetic tendency is that, if this lower Nature that ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XXX The Integral Perfection "A DIVINE perfection of the human being is our aim." It is not only the perfection of the soul—the soul is, indeed, eternally perfect in itself—but the harmonious perfection of the whole being, inner and outer, that is sought in the Integral Yoga. In the last chapter, we... for its grossness and inertia standing in the way of such an exploration. In the Integral Yoga the body is considered as important as any other instrument, and its divine perfection is sought with a most thorough and scrupulous care. A divine being in a divine body is the formula of perfection in the Integral Yoga. There are four prerequisites for the work of perfection: śākti, vīrya, daivī... thought either necessary or possible. But the Integral Yoga makes the bringing down of these dynamic principles of perfection its chief objective. The opening up of the gnostic sheath, the vijñāmaya kosa., in us, and the canalising of its powers and potentialities into the gross body is the secret of the physical perfection promised by the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. The Gnosis or vijñāna ...
... Jivatman. The Jivatman feels his oneness with the universal but at the same time his central separateness as a portion of the Divine. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga The phrase “central being” in our Yoga is usually applied to the portion of the Divine in us which supports all the rest and survives through death and birth. This central being has two forms—above... is above the manifestation in life and presides over it; the psychic being stands behind the manifestation in life and supports it. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga The central being—the Jivatman which is not born nor evolves, but presides over the individual birth and evolution—puts forward a representative of himself on each plane of the consciousness... being. But the true representative all the time is concealed behind the mind, vital and physical—it is the psychic, our inmost being. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga The true inner being—the true mental, the true vital, the true physical represent each on its plane and answer to the central being, but the whole of the nature and especially the outer nature ...
... Instrumentals are the key to a secret without which the Fundamentals themselves would not unveil all their mystery. All the revelatory aspects of the Divine must be caught in the wide net of the integral Yoga. If a departure from the world and its activities, a supreme release and quietude were the sole aim of the seeker, the three great Page 118 fundamental realisations would be ... ; it is an intimate dynamism of the conscious and living Eternal. This extreme opposition of view from the two poles of one Existence creates no fundamental difficulty for the seeker of the integral Yoga; for his whole experience has shown him the necessity of these double terms and their currents of Energy, negative and positive in relation to each other, for the manifestation of what is within... him towards a divine nature. It is an integral knowledge that is being sought, an integral force, a total amplitude of union with the All and Infinite behind existence. For the seeker of the integral Yoga no single experience, no one Divine Aspect,—however overwhelming to the human mind, sufficient for its capacity, easily accepted as the sole or the ultimate reality,—can figure as the exclusive ...
... because Sri Aurobindo is an integral person, a full being, accomplished on all sides. And his happening to be many-sided is in tune with not only the Integral Yoga which he propounds and communicates but also with the character of his own time. The Integral Yoga has to cope with man in his wholeness, which includes the reasoning intellect. Also, contemporary homo sapiens is exceedingly complex in his demands... royally by these books. Thirdly, there is the need of the present age to satisfy itself on the mind-plane. The books answer to this need in a magnificent manner. Page 205 The Integral Yoga is for man in his integrality: it brings its spiritual revelations to him on all levels and in whatever various modes are possible on them. If Sri Aurobindo is a logician and a philosopher par... thing while it is really the first step." Rajneesh is unaware that here he is practically quoting Sri Aurobindo himself. Does he not have any inkling of Sri Aurobindo's express declaration that the Integral Yoga begins where the other Yogas end? And has he not gauged the immensity of what happened when Sri Aurobindo implicitly followed Lele's advice but realised something which Lele had never anticipated: ...
... were far from happy with the children’s presence! But the Sri Aurobindo Ashram was after all to be “a world in miniature”, the fitting field for the work of transformation that was the aim of the Integral Yoga. Sri Aurobindo, intensely occupied with completing Savitri (and with carrying out his avataric task on levels and in places of which we do not even have an inkling) did not write essayistic... December 1950. The first article is the actual required message. Did he then write the other seven articles because he saw an opportunity or the necessity to make known a new development in the Integral Yoga? An editor of his Collected Works writes that “the series [of articles] was left unfinished”. It certainly gives that impression. Yet, the contents of the articles are of immense importance, ... consciousness from life to life.” 46 The realisation of the psychic being, i.e. the state of becoming concretely aware of it and living in it, is the first important aim and siddhi of the Integral Yoga. The second is the realisation of the spiritual levels which are the main focus of our attention in this chapter, and the third the realisation of the Supermind and the transformation of the body ...
... Supermind in Integral Yoga Part Five Discovery of the Psychic Entity But even deeper than the subliminal, there is in us an inmost being, which Sri Aurobindo calls psychic entity or soul and which the Katha Upanishad describes as "the Purusha that is no larger than the thumb of a man and who is seated in the midst of our self (angustamātrah puruso... removed, the conscious Force being in us uses the same power of exclusive concentration, but in a reverse direction, and in a growing manner of integrality. And that is the essential process of integral yoga. There is, first, the movement of quieting the frontal movement of Prakriti in the individual consciousness, and in this movement, there is an exclusive concentration increasingly on the concealed... integral consciousness or a global consciousness; this movement can then embrace manifestation with a larger consciousness free from the previous limitations. It is on these movements, that the integral yoga and its methods have been built. Reality of the Individual: Problem of Ignorance, Bondage and Liberation It will be seen that in this view of the Ignorance, multiplicity is not ...
... record of Yogic experiences of our leading forefathers. He considers these experiences to serve as the seeds of the later developments of the Indian Yoga, including hi-s own Integral Yoga. And when we study profundities of Integral Yoga and its relevance to our contemporary times, we cannot fail to appreciate the decisive presence and influence in it of the lofty and rich experiences of the Vedic Rishis... can be multiplied. Sri Aurobindo's own Integral Yoga marks a new development. Although in its integrality and synthesis, it absorbs all essential elements to be found in the Vedas and Upanishads and in the rest of Yogic traditions, which can contribute to the attainment of the new aim that has been envisaged, the central idea in Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga is to lead spiritual evolution to the next ...
... the integral perfection; but to unite oneself with the universal Divine is another essential condition. Here the Integral Yoga coincides with the Yoga of knowledge, works, and devotion. Since human life is accepted as a self-expression of the realised Divine in man, the Integral Yoga insists on action of the entire divine nature in life. It is here that by a new effort of research and development... Life in his divine scope as the cosmic Play of the Divine. In other words, it grasps that idea of the divine perfectibility of man, which was possessed by the Vedic Rishis. V In the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo a new dimension is added to conceptions of bondage, liberation and perfection. It founds itself on a conception of the spiritual being, as an omnipresent existence, the fullness... origin and through this universality, but still with the individual as the soul-channel and natural instrument, — constitute the essence of the integral divine perfection of the human being. In the Integral Yoga, what is called moksha or liberation from the ego and the will of desire is an essential step, but this liberation is enriched by the synthesis of knowledge, devotion, and action, and one is ...
... Integral Yoga of Transformation -02_Preface.htm Preface Integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is also known as Yoga of Transformation. The word 'transformation' has a distinctive meaning, and it is to be distinguished from what is normally called conversion or mere change of attitude or from the state of sainthood or ethical perfection. To be transformed... deal to do with the evolutionary intention of Nature, and the entire process has been divided into three major steps in the Integral Yoga, namely, psychic transformation, spiritual transformation and supramental transformation. The aim of perfect perfection that the Integral yoga places before mankind can be accomplished only when there occurs in the evolutionary process the evolution of the supermind ...
... in their essence. In this Integral Yoga, the goal of physical perfection is an essential part; but the concept of physical perfection is much vaster than the one found in the Hatha Yoga. Again, while the methods of Hatha Yoga are accepted as valid methods of the goals of Hatha Yoga itself, these are not insisted upon either as central or peripheral in the Integral Yoga; they are optional. and can... integral systems of Yoga, body is looked upon as an instrument of the Spirit; in some cases, the body is used as an instrument or as a necessary basis until spiritual realisation is achieved. In the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, a greater goal of the human body has been envisaged. Here the human body is required to achieve not only high degrees of excellence but also such perfections... these subjects. It is hoped that these will be found not only interesting but also instructive. But even then, there are further possibilities of the human body which have been envisaged in the Integral Yoga. A statement of these further possibilities is to be found in Sri Aurobindo's essays on "The Supramental Manifestation on Earth". A chapter from the book entitled "Perfection of the Body" has ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga III On Aspiration Aspiration is one of the most essential elements conducive to the success in sadhana. Without an aspiration to support the sadhaka at every step, any meaningful progress on the spiritual path is not only difficult but highly improbable. Sri Aurobindo has reminded us that aspiration is one of the... the two crucial factors which open wide the window of spirituality, the other one being the progressive eradication of the ego-centric attitude. He has also affirmed that the difficult task the Integral Yoga has taken in hand, that is to say, the establishment of a divine life upon earth itself, can only be achieved with the conjunction of two forces: (I) a steadily mounting ardent aspiration from the... of the heart, the plenary consent of the vital, and the perfect opening of the physical consciousness. All of us know that aspiration is one of the three basic limbs of the sadhana of the Integral Yoga, the other two being 'rejection' Page 37 and 'surrender'. Viewed from one angle, aspiration excels the other two in its value. For without aspiration to vivify it, the sadhaka' ...
... Mother. Together, these two spiritual classics make a double testament of lasting significance. Like Prayers and Meditations, the Words too has been basic reading for the sadhaks of the Integral Yoga for the last several decades. When first printed as Conversations with the Mother in 1931, the book was not put up *These fifteen Conversations are to be found in volume 3 of the Mother's... may lead to false notions of success. Mere body-control as in Hatha Yoga or mind-control as in Raja Yoga, or the two together, cannot be equated with spirituality, which alone is the aim of Integral Yoga. For this one has boldly to take the decisive plunge; and even this is but the beginning, for having taken the plunge one has to learn to live in the Divine. 20 This sort of definitive call can... origin of everything, everything should be offered back to the Divine. The personal problem ay be solved if through knowledge, works or love, a union is effected with the Divine, but the Integral Yoga alms at integral union or the divinisation of mind, vital and body as well. The ultimate goal is to grow in the perfection of consciousness that makes it impossible to act otherwise than as a ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XXIX THE INTEGRAL TRANSFORMATION PART III THE THREE STEPS OF TRANSFORMATION THE essential function of the soul is to offer all things to the Divine for transformation, for it has come down into mortal birth for the only purpose of accomplishing a perfect manifestation of the Divine... instruments of its self- expression in the world. The psychic transformation is, therefore, the first step in the long and uphill labour of transformation undertaken by the followers of the Integral Yoga. The whole nature has first to be psychicised, that is to say, tuned to the psychic key, suffused with the psychic love and devotion for the Divine, and lit up with the psychic purity. Surrender... Page 429 appear to most sadhaks of the traditional yogas as superlative and definitive,—indeed, few of them can conceive of a higher state—they are only the first decisive steps in the Integral Yoga. The psychic transformation, even at its highest, is only a psychicisation of the inferior instrumentation of the nature, it is not a radical transformation of its basic elements, nor a victorious ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER VIII THE EGO—THE DESIRE-SOUL PART I WE have seen that the integral surrender of the human being is an essential pre-requisite of his complete union with the Divine and the total transformation of his nature. We have also seen that, paradoxical as it may appear, it is the ego that at once... supramental perfection can be built upon it. OPENING AND SURRENDER TO THE MOTHER'S FORCE The first and greatest means of release from the ego, as of achieving anything substantial in the Integral Yoga, is a constant and exclusive opening to the Mother's Force. This cannot be too much insisted upon. The very basic principle of this Yoga is an entire reliance upon the Mother's Force, and an ungrudging... the psychic and infuse themselves into the nature-parts. But all this is a veiled action and influence from behind, and is not effective enough for the liberation and perfection we .seek in the Integral Yoga. The psychic has to come Page 142 forward and overtly control the nature till it is totally offered to the Mother, it must exert its influence directly upon the languid and rebellious ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XII MIND AND ITS PURIFICATION PART I M ANY things are meant by the general term mind. It is indiscriminately used for the intellect, intelligence, reason, thought, understanding etc., and is even stretched to cover feeling and emotion. It is, therefore, essential that it should be properly... and prakṛti, liberated Page 234 from the shackles of her lower modes, unite in Puruṣottama, the Supreme Being, whose creative Force is Super- nature. All purification in the Integral Yoga is, therefore, a preparation of nature for its final transformation into the Supernature. The graded emergence, development and integration of the various parts and faculties of human nature confirm... far as the aim of divine perfection is concerned. The simplistic method of cavalier repression is fraught with serious dangers, and ends more often than not in a dismal devastation of nature. The Integral Yoga, being a revolutionary intensification and acceleration of the Yoga of Nature, and fully aware of the confused complexity it has to deal with, proceeds in the natural way of life itself, laying ...
... that many elements of the new effort were not already present and even partially worked out in earlier years, some as early as in the years the Prayers and Meditations were written. This is an Integral Yoga, a global effort from the very beginning, ‘a war on all fronts’ to recall Sri Aurobindo’s simile; every gain made a further progress possible and therefore the tackling of a new aspect of the i... and in that aged body there took shape, little by little, a body consisting of a new kind of substance. Although this was a new, in a sense culminating phase in her yoga, the principles of the Integral Yoga remained the same throughout. They were the five constants in those thousand-and-one experiences. The first principle was that of unity. All is Divine because there is nothing else than the... She had to wipe out the ‘real distinction’ between our human ignorance and the superhuman omniscient divinity. The second principle, declared by Sri Aurobindo to be the Alpha and Omega of the Integral Yoga, was surrender. The Mother’s surrender to the Divine, the Lord, her higher Self, was permanent throughout her life. It was the basis of everything she did, of her great yogic acts and of the apparent ...
... This is no easy task; for everything in the world follows the fixed habit which is to it a law and resists a radical change. And no change can be more radical than the revolution attempted in the integral Yoga. Everything in us has constantly to be called back to the central faith and will and vision. Every thought and impulse has to be reminded in the language of the Upanishad that "That is the divine... kill or quiet them and keep at most the few energies necessary, on one side, for the maintenance of the body and, on the other, for communion with the Divine. The very aim and conception of an integral Yoga debar us from adopting this simple and strenuous high-pitched process. Page 73 The hope of an integral transformation forbids us to take a short cut or to make ourselves light for the... pursues the one chosen motive-force; into the midst of the dividing calls of our nature the principle of an exclusive concentration comes sovereignly to our rescue. But for the sadhaka of the integral Yoga this inner or this outer solitude can only be incidents or periods in his spiritual progress. Accepting life, he has to bear not only his own burden, but a great part of the world's burden too along ...
... man, not in a much shorter time but also with much less waste and loss. Here the integral Yoga has its rightful place and utility. For Yoga is meant to overcome, by the intensity of its concentration and effort, the delay that time imposes on all radical transformation, on all new creation. The integral Yoga is not an escape from the physical world which leaves it irrevocably to its fate, nor... world. The integral Yoga is especially intended for those who have realised in themselves all that man can realise and yet are not satisfied, for they demand from life what it cannot give. Those who yearn for the unknown and aspire for perfection, who ask themselves agonising questions and have not found any definitive answers to them, thy are the ones who are ready for the integral Yoga. For there... On Education Helping Humanity For those who practise the integral Yoga, the welfare of humanity can be only a consequence and a result, it cannot be the aim. And if all the efforts to improve human conditions have miserably failed in the end in spite of all the ardour and enthusiasm and self-consecration they have inspired at first, it is precisely because ...
... able to divinise the body and make it a fit instrument for divine works and divine life would be its material expression only. (Ibid., p. 1232) We have ventured to state that the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother has for its ultimate goal the realisation * Sri Aurobindo's translation. Page 341 for man of a radical victory even over the process of... part of oneself which is unidentified with the body and bringing down its consciousness and force into the cells that it can come." 1 Hence is the command upon every Sadhaka of the Integral Yoga to overcome all attachment to life in the body and renounce "the repulsion to the death of the body which is so strong and vehement an instinct of the vital man.... Thrown away it must be and... from all sense of egoistic identification with the body and the heart and the mind, after having achieved the double realisation of timeless eternity and time-immortality, the Sadhaka of the Integral Yoga does not want to stop at that alone, nor does he contemplate a withdrawal from the field of terrestrial Becoming. Indeed, what has been termed ' the Lure of the Night and eternal Repose of Sleep' ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XXI Sadhana of the mind Mind , Life and Matter, the mental . the vita l and the physical. arc the three instrument s of manifestation o f the Spirit in the field of embodied existence up on earth. But all these three instrument s arein their present normal functioning very much flawed and imperfect.. Each one o f ... prescribe that method of total rejection in their pure elan for an unburdened flight to the naked splendours of the Spirit. But that cannot be our method of sadhana in the practice of the Integral Yoga. As the Mot her has reminded us: "When you need to run aw ay from a thing in order not to experience it. it mean s that you are not above it. you arc still on the same level. Any thing... being but seek to remedy their defects. purify their functioning . and finally transform them into fit vehicles of divine manifestation here upon earth itself. For, is that not the aim of the Integral Yoga ') Our Yoga is not an escapist one nor are we enamored of Nirvanic non-manifestation . Also , we do not want to remain content with experiencing the bliss of the Di vine Presence in the ...
... Synthesis of Yoga in the Veda Synthesis of Yoga in the Upanishads The Gita and Its Synthesis of Yoga Integral Yoga of Transformation: Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Supermind in the Integral Yoga Integral Yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Also by Kireet Joshi Education for Character Development . ... studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I.A.S. in 1955 but in 1956, he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry and participated in numerous educational experiments... Education for Tomorrow Education at Crossroads A National Agenda for Education Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Landmarks of Hinduism The Veda and Indian Culture Glimpses of Vedic Literature The Portals of Vedic Knowledge Bhagavadgita and Contemporary Crisis Philosophy ...
... •Synthesis of Yoga in the Upanishads •The Gita and Its Synthesis of Yoga •Integral Yoga: Major Aims, Processes, Methods and Results •Integral Yoga of Transformation Page 38 •Supermind in the Integral Yoga •Integral Yoga and Evolutionary Mutation •Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Edited by Kireet Joshi •The Aim of... Philosophy of Education for the Contemporary Youth •A Philosophy of the Role of the Contemporary Teacher •A Philosophy of Evolution for the Contemporary Man •Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga •Sri Aurobindo and The Mother •The New Synthesis of Yoga-An Introduction •Varieties of Yogic Experience and Integral Realisation •Significance of Indian Yoga-An Overview ...
... Integral yoga and Evolutionary Mutation -09_Integral Yoga.htm PART SEVEN Integral Yoga: Synthesis of Science and Spirituality The integral yoga as developed by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is, although perfected in all its aspects, still an unfinished chapter opening itself to the future that is in the making. It is impossible to turn this yoga... ideals of unity and harmony that have come to be envisaged at this initial junction of its journey. There are, however, two sections of humanity that are likely to study more readily this integral yoga with the highest degree of earnestness. These are: seekers who are wedded to scientific knowledge and scientific method, and the seekers who are wedded to the methodical quest of psychic, spiritual... ground among increasing number of seekers as the most important thesis of our times. They are likely to ask whether that synthesis has been achieved in the results that have been accomplished in the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Both, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, look upon yoga as Science, and, as Sri Aurobindo points out, "Yogic methods have something of the same relation to the customary ...
... on its creative summits, and synthesis at its nether base—this is the triple formula of the synthesis envisaged by the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. THE SYNTHESIS OF THE TERMS OF THE SOUL There are two more aspects of the synthesis aimed at by the Integral Yoga. In most of the Yogas, the individuality of the human soul, widened and impersonalised, is wafted straight to the Transcendent... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER III An Epochal Synthesis PART I AGES ago, when the natural unity of the spiritual vision and culture of the Vedas and the Upanishads began to give way before the developing complexity and individualistic self-affirmation of the parts of the being of man, each of which sought its own separate... that is to say, to belong entirely and irrevocably to the Master of our existence in all the ways of our being, two things are essential, two that form a distinctive feature of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga: integration and transformation. Integration means the harmonising and welding of the different parts of the being into an organic whole, so that they can move in perfect unison in the steps of ...
... factor determining the direction and culminating perfection of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. The initial aspiration of our being, as it turns towards the Infinite and Eternal, contains, like a seed, the full potentiality of the future efflorescence. If the integral, dynamic union with the Divine is the aim, as it is in the Integral Yoga, then there must be, in the aspiration with which one starts on... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER IX THE PSYCHIC—THE DELIGHT-SOUL PART I EVERY cosmic principle in our individual composition is. double: we have two bodies, two lives, two minds and two souls. They are derived from the involutionary and evolutionary movements of Spirit. We have a gross physical body, annamaya śarīra, and a subtle... from the Jivâtmâ, of which it is an evolving delegate here. As the Jivâtmâ is our central being above manifestation or evolution, so the psychic being is our central being in evolution. In the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo the importance of the psychic being is of an immense practical nature, as we shall presently see. Nothing substantial and abiding can be achieved in this Yoga without the opening ...
... materially: the experience of the body!” 4 The aspiration, the equanimity, the sincerity – all basics of the Integral Yoga – were now to become qualities of the cells, practised by the cells, acquired by the cells. But above all there was the surrender, “the Alpha and Omega of the Integral Yoga” (Sri Aurobindo). Surrender was the main occupation of the Mother, day and night. Every cell, every part of... radical. The Mother founded Auroville on 28 February 1968. The principles of this Utopian “City of Dawn” were those of the Integral Yoga, and so was its goal. Then how did it differ from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram? It might be put as follows: the tender shoot of the Integral Yoga planted in the well-protected greenhouse of the Ashram had flourished into a strong young tree. Now the time had come to plant... Mother reminisced about the moment Sri Aurobindo left his body and transferred to her all the supramental power gathered in it. This was when she said to her already badly battered body (for the Integral Yoga “is not a joke”): “ ‘Now you shall set right everything that is out of order and gradually realise this intermediate overmanhood between man and the supramental being – in other words: what I call ...
... tion or divinization of the body cells. The Mother had been working on the transformation of the cells ever since the time of her Prayers and Meditations, but from a different level; now her Integral Yoga was a development in the consciousness of her body cells themselves. As always, she went about her accepted task with all the superhuman, divine energy she, the Mahashakti, had at her disposal,... had been accepted that the world should know the supramental Truth and it would be expressed totally, integrally. As this was a culmination of her yoga of the cells, itself the culmination of the Integral Yoga which was the essence of her and Sri Aurobindo’s avataric mission, we must conclude that the goal of the avataric effort was reached in principle, confirmed from Above and sure to be accomplished... Dawn. (Auroville has many echoes in the history of humanity.) Nonetheless, the minimum goal is not fully attainable without the realization of the maximum goal, which is the working out of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, in other words, the realization of the new, supramental species on Earth. This is an immensely challenging objective, but there is no doubt that it is at the core ...
... passing. When commenting on a text of hers which had previously appeared in the Bulletin, she dealt with the different levels of an integral transformation, which, as we know, is the aim of the Integral Yoga. She read the following paragraph from that text: ‘In the integral transformation both the outer nature and the inner consciousness are transformed. The character, the habits, etc., are completely... than a month after Sri Aurobindo’s passing, from about a fortnight after life in the Ashram had become active again. What the Mother is saying here is that, at that point in time, the whole of the Integral Yoga had been accomplished except the most outward part: the transformation of ‘the body consciousness.’ One also notices how the Mother is searching for a verbal definition of the part that remains... to tell you: it is not by a personal effort that one arrives at this state. It is not because one tries to obtain it that it is obtained. One becomes that, spontaneously [in the course of the Integral Yoga]. It is, as it were, the crown of an absolute mental sincerity, when one no longer has any partiality, any preference, any attachment to an idea, when one does not even try any longer to know the ...
... acquisition foreign to Matter to be imposed on it. In harmony with this basic truth the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother moves towards its fulfilment, taking into its scope the involved universal Godhead calling out to be set free in every man. In response to this movement of the Integral Yoga each of us who is devoted to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother should give himself up to them... very well have done it on their own. The Ashram was an organic part of the mission they explicitly set to themselves of taking the whole of common humanity along with them instead of doing their Integral Yoga all by themselves. Perhaps their Yoga could not even be called Integral if it did not integrate us with them? (2)The Mother never thought of disbanding the Ashram after the Supramental... ensure a future evolution beyond Mind in the long march of time. What Sri Aurobindo and the Mother wanted was not a slow evolution but a swift accelerated evolving movement by means of a direct Integral Yoga. If so, the Ashram had an inevitable part to play from the beginning - for, where else could such a Yoga be practised on the collective scale on which they insisted as much as they insisted on the ...
... Pilgrim of Truth's exalted yoga sadhana of commitment and consecration in search of his destiny and its fulfilment. Sri Aurobindo had early on delineated to him the very nature of his personal Integral Yoga sadhana, .. .There is only one truth in you on which you have to lay constant hold, the truth of your divine possibilities and the call of the higher Light to your nature.... Fix upon your... only to be revealed and realised in Time. .. .But with utter finality came your answer: "When I refer to your destiny, I mean this life and no other... 2 In my pursuit of the Integral Yoga, I have immensely enjoyed reading Amal Kiran's writings. I have come to recognise that Amal Kiran's Yoga sadhana and his poetic endeavours are intertwined. His inner prayer, which he described as... admiration, respect and affection. He is a versatile genius and a polymath. He is an acclaimed poet, humorist, artist, historian, critical thinker, holistic philosopher and, above all, a sadhak of the Integral Yoga. Over the years, I have come to know Amal Kiran as very affectionate Amal in my relation with him. Amal Kiran fascinated me in my earlier days because of his keen intellect, incisive analytical ...
... was held by Nolini Kanta Gupta, whose life had been closely associated with that of Sri Aurobindo since their time in the prison of Alipore and who as a sadhak was considered a paragon of the Integral Yoga. Therefore it was to him that the disciples looked up for a message of hope and an explanation of the inexplicable with which they were confronted. In the very first days after the departure of... words in the light of the Mother’s recent passing? Does this mean that a full transformation is no longer possible to the aspirant? Or has discipleship on the material level in the path of the Integral Yoga come to an end?’ Put in whatever way, it was certainly a problem that bothered many. Nolini’s answer: ‘Obviously, the immediate programme of a physical transformation is postponed — not cancelled... stage of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga of Supramental Descent and Transformation …’ 9 ‘The physical absence of the Gurus is bound to postpone the success of the disciples in this particular part of the Integral Yoga [i.e. the physical transformation]. The postponement will end not before one of the Gurus reappears in some fashion or the manifested Supermind and the Superman Consciousness start operating directly ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XVIII On will-power in Sadhana Lacking in sufficient will-power is a great handicap in the life of a sadhaka. This deficiency alone, when many other propitious 3 conditions are present, has wrecked the spiritual career of many aspirants. Regrettably, when we look at ourselves, many of us will find, that almost... manifestations of our weaknesses. But how can we forget that an indomitable will-power is almost the first requisite the sadhaka should possess if he would like to progress on the path of the Integral Yoga? For we do not want to follow the way of escapist spirituality which seeks to withdraw from life and its activities with the hope of tackling the weaknesses of human nature by bypassing them... be made only with the application of an enlightened will-power Hence the strength of our will-power will be put to test almost in a ceaseless fashion all along our journey on the path of the Integral Yoga. This will not do for us that off and on, on some infrequent occasions, our will-power flashes forth like an evanescent lightning, does its job and then goes back to dormancy. It has to act instead ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XV On Human Relationships in Sadhana In all spirituality with an ascetic orientation it is asserted that a sadhakas love for the Divine should be exclusive; that is to say, it should admit of no sharing with others . Do we not read in the Bible? - "1the Lord thy God am a jealous God." The Mother also has said:... disconcerting demand is this if How disturbing for the ego-bound attached heart of man! The sadhaka may at this point raise some questions of perplexity as j regards the real nature and goal of the Integral Yoga. He may ask: "Have I to renounce all other loves, all without exception, far I the sake of the love for the Divine? How can I stay then in the world? Is it really suggested that in order... indifference or even hatred." [Letters on Yoga, p. 759) Therefore, all profession of ordinary human: love and its inevitable attendant, attachment, are absolute taboos to the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga. Indeed, any attachment whatsoever to anyone or anything in the world acts as a stumbling block to the building up of a veritable spiritual consciousness. And when we say "any attachment" this ...
... force of tapasya so that all undergoes a divine change. Thirdly, the divine Power in us uses all life as the means of this integral Yoga. In this process, all life is perceived as Yoga of Nature, seeking to manifest God within itself, but the distinguishing mark of the integral Yoga is the self-awareness with which the movements which are loosely combined in our ordinary nature are gathered up and co... of old walks, but a spiritual adventure. 2 Page 23 We must note, however, the contributions of the past systems of Yoga which have been assimilated in this new supramental or integral Yoga. The discovery of the supermind was already made by the Vedic Rishis, and even though Sri Aurobindo discovered the supermind without any previous knowledge of it, since he was at that time unacquainted... existence dwells in the state of Sachchidananda, but also sadharmya mukti, in which the divine nature is acquired by the transformation of the lower being. Transformation is the keyword of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo explains this as follows: By transformation I do not mean some change of the nature - I do not mean, for instance, sainthood or ethical perfection or yogic ...
... special system of yoga selects an instrument, purifies it. subtilises it, and focuses it on the object of realisation. Concentration and purification of the instrument lead to the realisation. In the integral Yoga all the instruments of our consciousness are taken up, all of them are placed through the process of purification, and they are concentrated on the supreme object in all its integrality. In his... powers is made the means, vehicle, path. In a synthetic Yoga all powers will be combined and included in the transmuting instrumentation". 85 The method of synthesis in Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga seems to start from the method of Vedanta to arrive at the aim of Tantra. In the Tantric method Shakti is all-important, becomes the key to the finding of spirit. In Sri Aurobindo's synthesis, spirit... at the largest development of spiritual power and being and divinise by it a liberated nature in the whole range of human living is our inspiring motive." 86 The central principle of the integral yoga is a self- surrender, a giving up of the human being into the being, consciousness, power, and delight of the Divine, a union or communion, at all the points of meeting in the soul of man, the mental ...
... Aurobindo's "The Life Divine" has been devoted to this study. In terms of the integral yoga, where the integral reality is realized as the Supreme Object of knowledge, knowing which everything becomes known, it is found that Ignorance and Inconscience are neither inexplicable nor an original mystery. According to the integral yoga of the supermind, the Ignorance and the Inconscience are not eternal, their... Supermind in Integral Yoga Part Two Supramental Vision of the Supreme Reality: Indeterminability of the Absolute Let us first begin with the supramental vision of the ultimate reality. In the supramental realization, the ultimate reality is found to be indeterminable; this indeterminability has two senses; in the first sense, the reality... liberatingly helpful, if not indispensable, experience that may intervene is the entry into a total Nirvana of mentality and mental ego, a passage into the silence of the Spirit. In any case, in the integral yoga, the realization of the pure Self and the Silence of the Spirit must always precede the transition to that mediating eminence of the consciousness from which a clear vision of the ascending and ...
... chapter deals with the psychological disposition of the majority of men. Now, the fact is that all those who would sincerely seek to do spiritual sadhana and especially follow the path of the Integral Yoga, must reject in toto the nagging fear of death. Sri Aurobindo's Page 1 direction in this regard is definite and unambiguous. He says: "... the repulsion to the death of the... animal origin on the human being. That brand must be utterly effaced." (The Synthesis of Yoga, Cent. Ed., p. 334) It is, of course, true that one essential element of the last Siddhi of the Integral Yoga will be the divine transformation of the physical body itself and a consequent conquest over physical mortality. For, in the case of a divinised body, there will be neither any illness, nor any... this fear of death acts like a stubborn leech and does not spare even the inmates of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, who have consciously and deliberately resolved to follow the strenuous path of the Integral Yoga. Let us listen to the Mother's comment in this regard: "There is one thing I have noticed, that every time somebody dies in the Ashram, many people are seized by panic. Now, I can- ...
... the fire of the ancient Yoga...." Here we have at once a prescience and a prophecy of the colossal work that was to rear its edifice on the secure foundation of political freedom 35. The integral Yoga was to transform human nature into Divine Nature and human life into Divine Life 36. 34. From the Bande Mataram, 23.2.1908. 35. "The true aim of the nationalist movement is to... sadhaka of the nation - a seeker - so that 'the One could find Himself and manifest Himself in every human being, in all humanity.' Aurobindo Ghosh was throwing out the first ideas of the integral yoga he was to teach, depicting man in his cosmic reality. At the same time in the Transvaal there was another young leader, named Gandhi, practising with thousands of Hindus the doctrine of passive... advanced. In the poet's dream it figured as the emergence of the universal man, in the mind of the spiritual seeker it meant the attainment of Swarajya, and in the vision of the Rishi it was the Integral Yoga destined to transform half-animal man into a dynamic divinity. "In Indian politics there were three men embodying in various degrees this urge and yearning - Tilak, Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XVII KARMA YOGA AND ITS INDISPENSABILITY PART I THE BASIS OF KARMA YOGA KARMA YOGA or the yoga of divine works starts from the foundation of a faith or inner perception that the Divine is not only the incommunicable, featureless Absolute with whom one can be united by the abolition... service and in the emergent light of spiritual knowledge. Not escape from Nature, but a sovereign possession and joyous utilisation and enjoyment of a divinised Nature, is the great objective of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo; and it is indispensable for man's perfection and fulfilment on earth through an integral ¹ sāyujya means liberation into an absorbed union with the Divine, sāmīpya ... into a blissful nearness of the Divine, and sārupya or sādharmya into the infinite and luminous Supernature of the Divine. Page 294 union with the Divine. The Integral Yoga aims at union with the Divine not only in His Consciousness but also in His Nature. There is another conception of Karmayoga which regards works only as a means of psychological purification, cittaśuddhi ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XIX KARMAYOGA AND ITS INDISPENSABILITY PART III THE PERFECTION OF KARMAYOGA We have seen that man being essentially a composite organism and not a mere sum-total of heterogeneous parts and powers,—which is only a superficial aspect of him —neither Karmayoga, nor Bhaktiyoga, nor Jnânayoga... willing and doing." Page 316 imply a perfection of the triune power of our being. That is, indeed, the general conception of a synthesis of jñāna, bhakti and karma . But in the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, it means something more. A mental perfection resulting from a mental synthesis of the three powers can be good enough for a sāttwic work in the world— almost selfless and impersonal;... perhaps about the utmost we have had, barring a very few exceptions, in the spiritual lives of those who accepted the reality of the world and the teleological utility of consecrated action. But the Integral Yoga raises this synthesis from the mind to the Supermind, and endeavours to achieve, not a mental or even a spiritualmental, but a supramental or divine perfection. If the mind, even the enlightened ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XXVIII THE INTEGRAL TRANSFORMATION PART II THE RATIONALE OF TRANSFORMATION WE have already learnt that an integral and dynamic union with the Divine is the goal of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. What does this integral union mean? It means that we have to be united with... transmuting action. This descent of the supramental consciousness is the most distinctive feature of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, and bears in itself all the incalculable possibilities of the Life Divine in humanity. The fourth condition, which is also a characteristic feature of the Integral Yoga, is that it is essential for every part of our being to consent and offer itself with a good grace... formed substance. A sincere call, ¹ a free choice, a joyous consent ², and an unstinted self-offering on the part of each member of our being are essential for the great change aimed at by the Integral Yoga. The world is built on the principle of freedom for each individual, each element, each atom; and if there is bondage and subjection, it is self-imposed, an inevitable consequence of a free choice ...
... knowledge." 2 This book, meant primarily for the general spiritual seeker rather than for the practitioner of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, deals only with the initial and preliminary steps towards the radical change of consciousness aimed at by the Integral Yoga. These initial tasks of psycho-spiritual growth consist in: emerging progressively from the unconscious state in which one is more... Centenary Library, Vol. 22, p. 276. × Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga × Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest: To Kri ...
... Sri Aurobindo's Message The Integral Yoga What is the integral Yoga? It is the way of a complete God-realisation, a complete Self-realisation, a complete fulfilment of our being and consciousness, a complete transformation of our nature — and this implies a complete perfection of life here and not only a return to an eternal perfection elsewhere... means, a field of this realisation and transformation and participate in the illumination and the change from a human into a divine consciousness and nature. This is the character of the integral Yoga. * This is a Yoga of transformation of the being, not solely a Yoga of the attainment of the inner Self or the Divine, though that attainment is its basis without which no tran ...
... on each case and person. Some people follow more easily the path of knowledge, others follow more easily the path of love, of devotion, and others follow the path of works. He says that for the integral yoga the three must be combined and with them something else, but that everybody can't do everything at the same time and that there are people who need to be exclusive and to choose one of the three... the other. What does it mean? It means that they go out of existence to find the Divine, to find God, a God who is outside life; they themselves go outside life to find Him. While in the integral yoga it is in life that the Divine must be found, not outside life. There are those, for instance, who consider life and the world an illusion, and think it necessary to leave them behind in order... called spherical, where everything is included, which takes in all the possibilities of approach to the Divine, naturally the result is much more complete—and it is this that Sri Aurobindo calls the integral yoga—but the progress is much more difficult and much slower. One who chooses the path of knowledge—and even in the path of knowledge a special method, for everyone has his own method—and follows ...
... speaks about the practice of his system of Yoga. The letters have been arranged in three parts dealing with these broad subject areas: 1. The Path of the Integral Yoga 2. The Synthetic Method of the Integral Yoga 3. The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths The letters in this volume have been selected from the extensive correspondence Sri Aurobindo carried on with his disciples and ...
... manifestation. Such a refusal may be, owing to some secret law of their development, the right attitude for certain individuals, but never the aim intended for mankind. It can be, therefore, no integral Yoga which ignores the body or makes its annulment or its rejection indispensable to a perfect spirituality. Rather, the perfecting of the body also should be the last triumph of the Spirit and to make... knowledge and the Sacrifice and the power of the strong and the purity of the wise. Under the control of the Life-Energy is all this that is established in the triple heaven." 2 It is therefore no integral Yoga that kills these vital energies, forces them into a nerveless quiescence or roots them out as the source Page 11 of noxious activities. Their purification, not their destruction,—their... regarding only the actual limitations of Mind and ignores its divine intention. The ultimate knowledge is that which perceives and accepts God in the universe as well as beyond the universe; the integral Yoga is that which, having found the Transcendent, can return upon the universe and possess it, retaining the power freely to descend Page 18 as well as ascend the great stair of existence ...
... complete and act in the safety of the divine leading. The object of this cultivation is to make the nature a fit instrument for divine works. All work is done by power, by Shakti, and since the integral Yoga does not contemplate abandonment of works, but rather a doing of all works from the divine consciousness and with the supreme guidance, the characteristic powers of the instruments, mind, life and... been the habit to turn from it with contempt, denial or aversion and a desire to suppress altogether or as far as may be the body and the physical life. But this cannot be the right method for the integral Yoga. The body is given us as one instrument necessary to the totality of our works and it is to be used, not neglected, hurt, suppressed or abolished. If it is imperfect, recalcitrant, obstinate, so... exercises of Pranayama for control of the vital force and its motions which is so important and indispensable a part of certain systems of Yoga. The same mastery must be got by the seeker of the integral Yoga; but he may arrive at it by other means and in any case he must not be dependent on any physical or breathing exercise for its possession and maintenance, for that will at once bring in a limitation ...
... existence since he lives in the unborn and undying spirit and not in the life of the body. Therefore attachment to the escape from rebirth is one of the idols which, whoever keeps, the sadhaka of the integral Yoga must break and cast away from him. For his Yoga is not limited to the realisation of the Transcendent beyond all world by the individual soul; it embraces also the realisation of the Universal,... expression of the Eternal in Time. A divine action arising spontaneously, freely, infallibly from the light and force of our spiritual self in union with the Divine is the last state of this integral Yoga of Works. The truest reason why we must seek liberation is not to be delivered, individually, from the sorrow of the world, though that deliverance too will be given to us, but that we may be one... will and dynamic self as much as in our spiritual status; a divine way of works is the natural outcome of this union, a divine living in a spiritual freedom the body of its self-expression. In the Integral Yoga these three lines of approach give up their exclusions, meet and coalesce or spring out of each other; liberated from the mind's veil over the self, we live in the Transcendence, enter by the adoration ...
... y are reconciled. It is the Transcendent possessing them both in His being and employing them both as modes for His manifestation. This then is the object of realisation for the sadhaka of the integral Yoga. Page 391 We see at once that from this point of view the realisation of the pure quiescent self which we gain by withdrawing from mind, life and body, is for us only the acquisition... superficial working of the organs of perception and motor action in which the quiescent mind takes eventually no part and from which it seeks no result or profit. But this is insufficient for the integral Yoga. There must be a positive transformation and not merely a negative quiescence of the waking mentality. The transformation is possible because, although the divine planes are above the mental co... or aspects to effect through status in the divine planes of their Page 398 mentality or the possession by them of their waking state this desired transit. But the sadhaka of the integral Yoga has to harmonise all so that they may become a plenary and equal unity of the full realisation of Sachchidananda. Here the last difficulty of mind meets him, its inability to hold at once the unity ...
... nothing incongruous in my regarding you as an Aurobindonian according to your own lights. I am such in a direct conscious manner, having accepted the all-covering yet flexible discipline of the Integral Yoga which looks forward to a transformed collectivity no less than to a divinised individual. But that does not lead any avowed follower of Sri Aurobindo to look down his nose at any idealistic endeavour... prepared to listen. We at last begin to learn our ignorance. The very desperation of the situation creates its own reaction perhaps. Thank you for allowing me to be an honorary follower of the Integral Yoga. I stumble as best I can where the Golden String seems to lead - maybe 'next time' - or after many 'times' - I may be born in India. Where no doubt I would find a different set of difficulties... Delhi. If I happen to be remembered in the literary world by posterity, perhaps next to being connected among my more famous contemporaries with Sri Aurobindo for his gift to me not only of the Integral Yoga but also of "overhead poetry" my name will get linked with yours on the one hand because of the already published correspondence between us as well as the still-to-be-published greater recent bulk ...
... Aurobindo and the Mother or of at least one of them as the sole condition for the disciple's doing the Integral Yoga with the hope of complete success in overcoming all obstacles: Page 183 that is, of going right up to the body's total transformation, which will fulfil the Integral Yoga. The central reason is that the Supramental Force which alone can effect the fulfilment cannot be... understanding, their vast impartiality and compassion? Moreover, has not Sri Aurobindo clearly outlined for his followers the necessity of the Guru's physical nearness to enable them to do the Integral Yoga, observing to the full all the conditions laid down for it? Here are a few words of his: "In this discipline, the inspiration of the Master, and in the difficult stages his control and his presence ...
... looks upon the present organisation of the human consciousness which is an amalgam of mind-formations, life-movements and physical functioning's as transitional. The aim of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga is nor only to bring about the integration of the human being which is the aim of psychotherapy but also to hasten immeasurably the realisation of the supramental consciousness. Sri Aurobindo's... our academics in Indian universities to the rich psychological systems implicit in the traditional Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, Tantric Yoga and also in the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, the responses he got from some of the academics were interesting. "They showed a clear recognition and appreciation of the tradition of psychological knowledge in India and... density of Page 270 material consciousness and the gradual self-revelation of God out of this apparent animal being". Sri Aurobindo has given to the world his Integral Yoga which is a methodised effort at individual as well as cosmic fulfilment. All life is in fact Nature's yoga undertaken to manifest the Divine involved in Nature. This is in fact the true aim ...
... upon that.” 3 This is as good a place as any, now that we have to relate the Mother’s work in some detail, to draw attention to the fact of how much her personality and contribution to the Integral Yoga have been – and are – misjudged, underestimated and even neglected. In the primary years of the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo had time and again to put the record straight about her, as is there for anyone... now, possibly in our lifetime – not millions of years ago, and not only within the limits of our imagination but contriving something better than paradise! Here is a spiritual practice, called Integral Yoga, demanding the mastery of the whole range of yogas perfected before and recognised as valid, a mastery not to reach liberation, Nirvana, the Absolute or Brahmaloka, but intending the transformation... our direct access to it. Now the consciousness in the cells themselves began to aspire and surrender to the Divine, tried to establish the complete equanimity, which is the precondition of the Integral Yoga, and became aware of the inherent unity of all things. “Now it [the offering of everything to the Divine] has become the very movement of the cellular consciousness. All weaknesses, all responses ...
... disorientation among humans, was predicted by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as one of the inevitable phenomena of the Great Transition. The path which Sri Aurobindo and the Mother called the Integral Yoga is therefore not a fixed system with a defined goal to be realized within the lifetime of the practitioner (as are other paths of yoga). What they have initiated is continuing now in ways humans... supermanhood, but hardly anything about the transitional processes required to fashion the supramental being, that is: about our own participation in the Work. The effort of the practitioner of the Integral Yoga at present is to become, through his aspiration and surrender, one of the transitional beings which will make the appearance of the supramental being possible. As the Mother said: “This was certainly... that I remembered having said it.” This statement about the spreading activity of the Overman Consciousness could not be clearer and more complete – and important in the development of the Integral Yoga. Nonetheless one has yet to read reflections or comments on it in the Aurobindian literature, where the existence of the Overman Consciousness and the existence of the overman him- and herself is ...
... science - and not modern philosophy obsessed by its existentialism, analysis and humanism of which the other name is 'philosophical anthropology' - that is more ready to receive the message of the Integral Yoga as given by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. And has not the Mother herself declared that perhaps it is the attitude and outlook in the scientific field rather than in any other that will first get... man himself should not arrive at supermind and supermanhood or at least lend his mentality, life and body to an evolution of that greater term of the Spirit manifesting in Nature." 30 Integral Yoga But how can man open his mind to what exceeds it and is trying to manifest here in earth-nature? If evolution is a fact, does not past history testify to its extremely slow progression... Page 51 who proceeds to realise the ideal in himself and then to build up an integral method for others to follow. And what is the efficacy of this preconised method called the Integral Yoga? Well, let us listen to him (the scientist might get an abundance of conviction from this significant utterance): "I must remind you that I have been an intellectual myself and no stranger ...
... told me that she had had a previous guide if not Guru whose contact had given her the first push over the edge which made her topple subsequently into the delightful "abyss" of Sri Aurobindo's integral Yoga, as she put it smilingly. I pricked up my ears at once. This was just what I had been aching for ! "God is !" I said to myself. "And then? I asked eagerly. "What then?" she laughed... emphasise often with a subdued accent of rapturous admiration Sri Aurobindo's "oceanic tolerance and catholicity of spirit" which made him write in his Synthesis of Yoga: "The sadhaka of the integral Yoga will make use of all these aids according to his nature; but it is necessary that he should shun their limitations and cast from himself that exclusive tendency of the egoistic mind which cries... sectarian or a fanatical spirit. All sectarianism, all fanaticism must be shunned; for it is inconsistent with the integrity of the divine realisation. "On the contrary, the sadhaka of the integral Yoga will not be satisfied until he has included all other names and forms of Deity in his own conception, seen his own Ishta Devata in all others, unified all Avatars in the unity of Him who descends ...
... Aurobindo for the first time on February 21, 1928. Since my arrival here I have kept my eyes strained towards the great goal Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have set up as the culmination of their Integral Yoga: the supramentalisation and divinisation of the body. But I have never forgotten that this goal has been put by them in a far-away future and that the central object has always been the realisation... have clearly said that the supramentabsation of the mind, the vital being and the physical consciousness have to precede the body's supramentalisation - and that there would be a failure in the Integral Yoga if the true soul has not emerged and taken charge of the sadhana with its constant spontaneous surrender to the Divine, its instinctive wide-spreading sweetness, its unfailing light of guiding... power). The Beyond, in Sri Aurobindo's vision, descends into a mould prepared by the upward thrust of the concealed or covered within, which holds the same divinity as makes the down-thrust. The Integral Yoga in its fullness is meant to concentrate the evolutionary process into an accelerated revolutionary move-ment. It is not something achieved, as St. Paul says, "in the twinkling of an eye" during ...
... Divine even when to the outward vision of others busy and preoccupied with the affairs of the world. Essays on the Gita, pp. 94-95 Samadhi from the View of the Integral Yoga For the integral Yoga this method [of total absorption] of Samadhi may seem to have the disadvantage that when it ceases, the thread is broken and the soul returns into the distraction and imperfection... in Sachchidananda is a state one can get in the waking condition without samadhi.... Letters on Yoga, p. 741 What then is the nature of Samadhi or the utility of its trance in an integral Yoga? It is evident that where our objective includes the possession of the Divine in life, a state of cessation of life cannot be the last consummating step or the highest desirable condition: Yogic ...
... Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga Foreword O NE OF the areas of research promoted by the Dharam Hinduja International Centre of Indic Research is to explore Yogic knowledge contained in the Indian tradition and to examine how that knowledge is relevant to the needs of the contemporary world which Sri Aurobindo had characterised as those of 'evolutionary crisis'... which has been engaged in the study of various aspects of Yogic efforts recorded from the Vedic times to the present day. The papers collected in this volume are related to Sri Aurobindo and his Integral Yoga and were presented at the meetings of the Working Group during 1997. The paper on 'Bondage, Liberation and Perfection was presented at the international seminar held on 14> July 1997 under the auspices... The Secret of the Veda, and Essays on the Gita, as well as Mother's works, which include thirteen volumes of Mother's Agenda, containing the records of the latest developments of the Integral Yoga. The reader is also referred to Satprem's Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, and his biography of The Mother, in three volumes, Divine Materialism, The New Species and Mutation ...
... Integral yoga and Evolutionary Mutation -03_Yoga and Evolution.htm PART ONE Yoga and Evolution Evolution can, when examined in its inner processes of development, be seen to be basically a process of yoga; and yoga can, when examined from the point of view of the instruments which are selected for application for purification and concentration, be considered... yoga, and all life can become in the human being a conscious yoga, as multisided and as integral as life itself, so that one can say in a more perfect and luminous sense: "All life is yoga". The integral yoga that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have proposed is, indeed, a yoga of evolution, based on the perception that the human being is a transitional being and that the human being can be consciously... utilized as a thinking and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious co-operation a farther evolution can be worked out so as to bring about a willed mutation of the human species. The integral yoga is thus, by its very nature, connected with the progress of humanity, with the problems of humanity, and with the ideals that humanity is developing today towards creation of a new order of the ...
... Sadhana The life of an Ashramite here should be a life of sadhana and that too for the whole of the daily life comprising all its activities. As the Mother has reminded us: "In the integral Yoga, the integral life down even to the smallest detail has to be transformed. There is nothing here that is insignificant, nothing that is indifferent. You cannot say, 'When I am meditating, reading... uninterrupted. But do we put this principle into active and ardent practice? The absolutely minimum sadhana that an Ashramite should do if he would like to consider himself a practitioner of the Integral Yoga has been expressed in brief both by the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. We give below four passages from their writings and these luminous words, let us hope, will set us again on the path of integral... This is no easy task; for everything in the world follows the fixed habit which is to it a law and resists a radical change. And no change can be more radical than the revolution attempted in the integral Yoga. Everything in us has constantly to be called back to the central faith and will and vision. Every thought and impulse has to be reminded in the language of the Upanishad that 'That is the divine ...
... is a Truth-Consciousness, not static only and self-introspective, but also dynamic and creative... (Sri Aurobindo, On Himself, p. 103) We have seen that for the seeker of the Integral Yoga the realisation of the 'passive Brahman', of the pure quiescent self-existence independent of all world-play, cannot be more than the necessary first basis. We cannot rest with an utter withdrawal... pp. 64-65. (Italics ours) 2 The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 479. Page 113 dynamic possession by the physical and vital Nature' is far removed from the goal of the Integral Yoga, for what we aim at is the "mastery of the Prakriti by the Purusha [and] the sublimation of Nature into her own supreme power, the infinite glories of the Para Shakti." 1 Confronted with... it is often declared that an absolute quietism and the cessation of all outer and inner action is the only way out of the above impasse. But evidently this fails to satisfy the demands of the Integral Yoga. What we seek is "a positive transformation and not merely a negative quiescence of the waking mentality." 2 But the basic difficulty with the mind-consciousness is that it is an inveterate ...
... To set up an open competition or a closed one between works and meditation is a trick of the dividing mind and belongs to the old Yoga. Please remember that I have been declaring all along an integral Yoga in which Knowledge, Bhakti, works—light of consciousness, Ananda and love, will and power in works—meditation, adoration, service of the Divine have all their place. Have I written seven volumes... of applying Mother's dictum, but why misapply it now? Is it possible to have the highest Sachchidananda realisation in work? Certainly it is realisable in work. Good Lord' how could the integral Yoga exist if it were not? I regret to say that I haven't read your "Arya" and "Essays on the Gita". So I don't know what you have said or how far, about the possibilities of yogic work. I have only... in its own inner dream taken as the whole movement of the Yoga. One may have hours of pure absorbed meditation or of the inner motionless adoration and ecstasy, but they are not the whole of the integral Yoga. December 22, 1934 Here am I, with all my doubts and questionings about work vanished, an absolute slave of Thine, for whatever work you choose to throw me in from the cleaning of the ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XXV THE INTEGRAL LIBERATION PART I No ideal produces in the majority of spiritual seekers so great a thrill, such an inspiring sense of exaltation as the ideal of liberation. All rigour of self-discipline, all stress of a sustained, high-uplifting endeavour, and even all harsh austerities... sâdhanâ. The crown of attainment lies casketed in the seed of aspiration. But by liberation Sri Aurobindo means liberation into :the Divine, the Supreme Being, the Omnipresent Reality. .In the Integral Yoga, we do not aspire exclusively for peace or silence or power or bliss, though they do come as auxiliary and contributory experiences, but solely for the Divine. Transcending the limitations of Nature... poise and working, and Page 398 transmuted into the divine Nature. But this double liberation is the very base of the supramental manifestation as envisaged by Sri Aurobindo. The Integral Yoga really begins where the other yogas usually end. We shall now pass in brief review the nature and potentiality of this double or integral liberation. Page 399 ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XXI LOVE—ITS PLACE AND POWER PART II THE love we ordinarily offer to the Divine when we turn towards Him is not always of the purest kind in the beginning. Its nature depends upon the part of our being from which it proceeds. It may be our physical being turning unintelligently, mechanically... in sâdhanâ . The Vedic and Upanishadic ideal of a perfect calm and control in the whole being—intellectual, emotional, vital and physical—is the best condition for an unhampered progress in the Integral Yoga. The love and bhakti which well out of the psychic are the purest and most spontaneous. But before we consider the nature and power of psychic love, let us be ¹ On Yoga-II by Sri... for God is, therefore, the purest and most disinterested, and supremely capable of bringing down the transforming light of divine Love upon earth. It is this psychic love that the sâdhaka of the Integral Yoga has to develop in himself and infuse into all parts of his being, so that his whole being may become a single flame of love rising towards the Divine. What Sri Aurobindo calls the sun-lit path is ...
... in its aspiration for the Divine that he can be said to be sincere, integrally sincere. This integral sincerity is the sine qua non of the supramental transformation, which is the object of the Integral Yoga. Speaking on sincerity, the Mother says : "Sincerity is a most difficult thing to have, but it is also the most effective of things. If you have sincerity, you are sure of victory. But... one-pointed that they too feel they cannot live but for the Divine and in and through the Divine” is a conception almost staggering to the mind of the sadhaka who has just started on the path of the Integral Yoga. How to make the cells of the body sincere, the cells we are not conscious of ? But those who have advanced a little know full well that, however difficult it may be, the conversion ¹... sincerity, for it is essential to understand what the Mother means by it and why she attaches to it the greatest importance. The Integral self- surrender that is demanded of the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga is impossible of achievement without an integral sincerity. And perfection in sincerity is victory itself, for, then, in the condition of perfect sincerity, it is the divine omnipotence that acts ...
... the orientation of the being and gives it a new vision, a new outlook, and a new aim to pursue in life. ” In no yoga the complete psychic realisation is so much insisted upon as in the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother; for, the secret of divine fulfilment lies in the psychic, and also the key to the transformation of nature. It is true that the supreme transforming power comes... has no mission here to fulfil, nor has it any necessity to transform the physical consciousness and nature of man. Such transformation is deemed rather Utopian and impracticable. But for the Integral Yoga, which has as its sole object a dynamic union with the Divine and a divine transformation of the entire human consciousness and nature, a complete and dynamic realisation of the psychic and a resultant... being is an indispensable prerequisite. It may be argued that the realisation of the soul or the psychic is common to most forms of the spiritual sadhana, and that it is no special feature of the Integral Yoga. But what is actually realised in the other yogas does not necessarily lead to the discovery of the mission of the psychic or the transformation of the physical nature. One usually stops short at ...
... Moments Eternal The Body and Integral Yoga How can one ever forget those days, Anju, Paroma? You too have grown up right from childhood sheltered in the Mother’s Love. The Mother’s laughter, the Mother’s words are still glowing in the treasure-house of your memory. Once you have known and received the Divine Mother Herself as your mother and as your friend... karmayoga and sadhana simultaneously (in the guise of sports!). This was taking place for the first time, not just in the Ashram, but on the whole earth! To have children doing the sadhana! And the Integral Yoga on top of it! And this agni-tapasya started with work on the body. The Playground became the field for life’s sadhana. Unknown to the children the great work was initiated to enable the Mother’s... worldly life from a very young age. Their lives had been lived within very narrow confines and constraints. They broke the confines of that rigid life and society in order to take up the path of Integral Yoga. And they deserve all our respect. On the Mother’s instruction these grown-up women let go instantaneously of all of their social habits and traditions. These grown-up women were proof of how easily ...
... search for tranquillity, peace and feeling well. Such, however, is not the path of the Integral Yoga, although some of its professed practitioners seek to level the path in imitation of more familiar traditional ways. Referring to the quotations from Sri Aurobindo, such an attitude cannot agree with the Integral Yoga because Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s Yoga is about changing the human nature, which... the Truth are taken up, not in the systematic forms given them formerly but in their essence, and carried to the fullest and highest significance.” 16 It cannot be overstressed that the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is a radical, revolutionary effort to change human nature. As it is “integral,” it takes up the essence and many processes of the old yogas, but it is new in its... escape, the appreciation of their Work must lead to an understanding and realization of their purposes); and the totality of its method (including the yogas of devotion, knowledge and works). The Integral Yoga is also new “because the object sought after is not an individual achievement of divine realization for the sake of the individual, but something to be gained for the earth-consciousness here, a ...
... H. Bradley as the best and most original English exponent of the metaphysical world-view designated "Absolute Idealism". My brother spoke to the young man of Sri Aurobindo and his Ashram of Integral Yoga at Pondicherry. Bosanquet immediately caught fire and wanted to get into touch with Sri Aurobindo. At my brother's suggestion he wrote an account of his search for ultimate reality. This... will dream that he had so bright a future in the realm of spiritual attainment? It is, therefore, with profound pleasure that I put his name on record as one of the worthiest aspirants to the Integral Yoga. All the more fitting is it to associate him with the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother rather than with any Page 133 other spiritual discipline, because what Sri... action of the Divine Grace, the Godhead coming forward in all its plenitude to uplift the human instrument. And it is fundamentally by Page 135 the Divine Grace that the Integral Yoga can be fulfilled. Man's consciousness can climb by its own initiative up to the Overmind, the highest range of the Cosmic Consciousness. To mount further than this, there is required the leaning ...
... April 11, 1937 -namely, that physical transformation would not be possible except in the physical presence of himself and the Mother -that is, under the direct bodily guidance by the Gurus of the Integral Yoga. You are asking Nirod: "Could something new have intervened since the Master's departure to make the Page 5 Mother - especially in consideration of" her September 1973 decision... chosen to do so nasty a job, then of course it's OK, it's destiny." It strikes me that the Mother is here suggesting two things. The original question was whether one can do the Integral Page 6 Yoga without a Guru - a Yoga which goes so far as to include the body's divinisation. The Mother's words towards the end bring in the suggestion that the work of divinising the body is not... " In short, the Mother does not believe that anyone except herself is meant to try this terribly hard experiment for the first time. And as for doing, without an embodied Guru, anything in the Integral Yoga -most of all physical transformation - her own experience tells her that it can't be done. What worth is there in going outside her experience and granting the bare possibility of such an achievement ...
... 56 years old. Now there are only 16 in front (8 upper and 8 lower) and the rest distributed on the sides. At over 84 years of age, what can one expect? The path to the Supermind, which is our Integral Yoga, is a long one which is to be trodden through several lives. Time and again we shall be supra-dental before becoming supramental. But surely even a toothless mouth can pray and be happy? ... the Advent of February 1988, p. 12, seems to give a picture of the general process of higher powers from beyond the mind coming down to act in the aspiring consciousness in the course of the Integral Yoga. Here the Supermind, no less than the Spiritual Mind with its four levels - Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuition, Overmind - has been at play, but more indirectly than otherwise. The first direct... clarify two terms often mixed up. Strictly speaking, the word "descent" which has been so much in the air in relation to the Supermind is proper only to an individual being who is turned towards the Integral Yoga. We have various levels at which diverse forces in us work. The level of the life-force is centred in the region of the abdomen, the emotional in the area of the heart, the mental in that of the ...
... a part of the complex human integer and attempting to bring out its highest possibilities, it will appear that a synthesis of all of them largely conceived and applied might well result in an integral Yoga. But they are so disparate in their tendencies, so highly specialised and elaborated in their forms, so long confirmed in the mutual opposition of their ideas and methods that we do not easily find... rejection of the lower and escape into the higher,—the ordinary view-point,—or by the transformation of the lower and its elevation to the higher Nature. It is this, rather, that must be the aim of an integral Yoga. But in either case it is always through something in the lower that we must rise into the higher existence, and the schools of Yoga each select their own point of departure or their own gate... Rishis meant when they spoke of the human forefathers fashioning the gods as a smith forges the crude material in his smithy. Thirdly, the divine Power in us uses all life as the means of this 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 ...
... A Yoga of Transformation Letters on Yoga - II Chapter I Distinctive Features of the Integral Yoga The Meaning of Purna Yoga Purna Yoga means (1) that instead of approaching the Divine through the mind alone (Jnana) or the heart alone (Bhakti) or through will and works alone (Karma Yoga), one seeks the Divine with all the parts and powers of the c... something beyond itself only when this truth is seized and made the motive force of our existence and the means of its effective realisation discovered. The means of realisation is to be found in an integral Yoga, a union in all the parts of our being with the Divine and a consequent transmutation of all their now jarring elements into the harmony of a higher divine consciousness and existence. This... experience of the reality and nature of the world and things and the Divine: it seemed to me as nearly as possible the integral truth about them and I have therefore spoken of the pursuit of it as the integral Yoga. Everyone is, of course, free to reject and disbelieve in this kind of integrality or to believe in the spiritual necessity of an entire other-worldliness excluding any kind of this-worldliness ...
... the true vital, the true physical consciousness which is nearest to the soul and can most easily and directly respond to the Divine Light and Power. There is no real Yoga possible, still less any integral Yoga, if we do not go back from the outer self and become aware of all this inner being and inner nature. For then alone can we break the limitations of the ignorant external self which receives consciously... surface bodily existence. And above them it opens to higher superconscient as well as below them to lower subconscient ranges. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - IV: The Subconscient and the Integral Yoga Sweet Mother, what does “the subliminal being” mean, exactly? Well, it is what he says, you know. It’s what is behind. I think it is what could be called the subtle physical, the subtle... through this also that waves of the universal force—desire, sex, etc.—come in and take possession of the mind, vital or body. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - IV: The Subconscient and the Integral Yoga It is quite normal for difficulties to come back… and it is not a proof that no progress has been made. The recurrence (after one has thought one has conquered) is not unaccountable. I have ...
... otherwise, if there is the least vital egoism, one may begin to think of oneself as an Avatar or lose balance like Hridaya with Ramakrishna. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga The Spirit is the Atman, Brahman, Essential Divine. When the One Divine manifests its ever inherent multiplicity, this essential Self or Atman becomes for that manifestation the central... Jivatman, the eternal portion of the Divine. When there is the full consciousness the Jivatman and the psychic being join together. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga The soul, representative of the central being, is a spark of the Divine supporting all individual existence in Nature; the psychic being is a conscious form of that soul growing in the evolution—in... become aware also of the Jivatman, the undivided Self or Spirit above the manifestation of which the psychic is the representative here. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga The Jivatman, spark-soul and psychic being are three different forms of the same reality and they must not be mixed up together, as that confuses the clearness of the inner experience. The ...
... impersonal Brahman and gives no importance to the Personal Divine and man's relationship with Him of love and service? Self-surrender to the Divine Mother is the whole heart of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. He 1 has emphatically declared it as something "simple and familiar" that the entire reason of his Yoga has always been "that to follow after the Impersonal only brings inner experience, or at... of the universal and the individual, of the personal God and the absolute Godhead, are integrated in a vision of the whole, which has never been surpassed in depth and comprehensiveness. In the integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo the values of matter and life and human consciousness and the experience of a personal God are not lost in the ultimate Reality, the divine Sachchidananda. Matter and life and ... to point out in it legends or symbols, visions or intuitions having some link or other with their own spiritual quest just as they noted doctrinal or experiential affinities elsewhere to their integral Yoga of Supramental Descent and Transformation. If they were trying to repeat in their bodies and hoping to achieve in those of their followers what had taken place in Jesus, why did they not ever give ...
... mansion situated near the beach which is now known as Trèsor Nursing Home, spending his days in creative pursuits which included poetic and musical creations (which were his medium of doing the Integral Yoga) and epistolary exchanges with Sri Aurobindo. He had blended art and yoga and was marching on the path and throughout the Ashram he was known as the ‘spoilt-child’ of Sri Aurobindo who would pack-up... He introduced himself as a former student of Kalabhavan who learnt poetry under Rabindranath and painting under Abanindranath Tagore. He told Dilip Kumar about his interest in Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga and added that he had come to thePondicherry to receive initiation from the Lord. He said that he was aware of Dilip Kumar’s ‘capacity of fruitful intervention in such matters’ [10] and confessed... Aurobindo told Dilip Kumar to send a photograph of Nishikanto to him. After looking at Nishikanto’s photograph Sri Aurobindo informed Dilip Kumar that Nishikanto wouldn’t be able to practise the Integral Yoga and added that he would have to undergo severe physical suffering. Dilip Kumar was disappointed and so was Nishikanto but there was a strong determination in him that made him appeal to Sri Aurobindo ...
... surprise that his previous initiation in the Temple of Mathematics has already given him a psychological poise which is much conducive to the proper appreciation of the philosophy and practice of the Integral Yoga. For, by blending harmoniously an austere exercise of pure reason with the concomitant realisation of the inadequacy of Reason ever to reach the absolute truth, also by forcing its votary to acquire... surface. In this context let us consider the case of the Geometry of Transformations. (Note the remarkable word transformation which has a special significance for those who practise the Integral Yoga.) Here is a branch of mathematics which helps the student to appreciate in a profound way the truth of the following statement: "The Self becomes insect and bird and beast and man, but it is always... some of the essential qualities invariably created by a study of mathematics. The important thing to note is that these are the very qualities needed in abundance by an aspirant on the path of the Integral Yoga. Aspects of Mathematical Culture "The method of scientific work is a marvellous discipline. Those who follow it in all sincerity truly prepare themselves for Yoga. It requires ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XVII THE CONQUEST OF SELF-WILL AND THE ENTHRONEMENT OF THE DIVINE WILL One of the principal objectives of the sadhana of the Integral Yoga is the total eradication of self-will from the sadhaka' s consciousness and the establishment there of the Divine's supreme Will to shape all his thoughts and... the mental nature. And mental attachments must go the way of all other attachments and yield to the impartiality of an equal vision. The ideal attitude to be adopted by a sadhaka of the Integral Yoga vis-à-vis this stubborn enemy that is 'self-will' has been de-scribed by Sri Aurobindo in great detail at two different places of his Synthesis of Yoga. The following paragraph is an abridged... Thus, to eliminate his self-will root and branch and make the Divine's Will the sole governor of his life and the determinant of all his actions is the noble objective every sadhaka of the Integral Yoga has to realise. But what is this Divine's Will, what its nature? Is it the will of a super-despot, albeit divine, who acts according to his arbitrary whims? Is the Divine a super-Person ...
... The New Synthesis of Yoga and the New Integral Aim of Life The realization of the integral reality is the basic objective of the integral yoga, and to arrive at the supramental realization of the integral reality by the methods of the integral yoga that we find in Sri Aurobindo can be seen corroborated and confirmed by the description of the integral reality and supramental consciousness... in the Veda, Upanishads and the Gita, and in the Tantra. But Sri Aurobindo and the Mother go farther and determine a new integral aim of life 56 which can be fulfilled by new methods of their integral yoga. Let us elucidate this important point in some detail. Supra-terrestrial Theories of the Aim of Life The Vedic and Upanishadic experience has declared that Matter also is Spirit or... Full Manifestation of Spirit in Matter The manifestation of divine life on earth is the distinctive and unprecedented aim that has been explicitly stated by Sri Aurobindo as the aim of his integral yoga. Full manifestation of Spirit in Matter as the culmination of integration of Spirit and Matter has sometimes been envisaged in the past, and in the earliest synthesis of yoga of the Veda this aim ...
... Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga Appendix Sri Aurobindo on Integral Yoga The way of yoga followed here has a different purpose from others, for its aim is not only to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness into the divine consciousness, but to bring the supramental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance of mind, life... earth-consciousness to take the definitive stride forward it must take at one time or another. I have never said that my yoga was something brand new in all its elements. I have called it the integral yoga and that means that it takes up the essence and many processes of the old yogas its newness is in its aim, standpoint and the totality of its method. . . . I know very well also that there... meant when they spoke of the human forefathers fashioning the gods as a smith forges the crude material in his smithy. Thirdly, the divine Power in us uses all life as the means of this 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 ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XVI THE PHYSICAL NATURE AND ITS PURIFICATION PART II No purification of the physical being can be complete unless it deals effectively and radically with the subconscient and the inconscient; for, as I have already said, the roots of our physical being lie in them, and most... subconscient. As a general rule, Sri Aurobindo lays down that in all matters, small or great, we have to take the Yogic attitude, and not that of the moralist or the religious man. In the Integral Yoga, in regard to the lower movements like greed or sex impulses, etc., the attitude should be "not one of forceful suppression but of detachment and equality". He makes a very illuminating remark that... turning it towards the Divine as in the Vaishnava madhura bhāva carries in it a serious danger, as the results of a wrong turn or use in this method so often show. At any rate in this Yoga (the Integral Yoga) which seeks not only the essential experience of the Divine but a transformation of the whole being and nature, I have found it an absolute necessity of the sadhana to aim at a complete mastery ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XXVI THE INTEGRAL LIBERATION PART II "A DIVINE unity of supreme Spirit and its supreme nature is the integral liberation."¹ In these words Sri Aurobindo indicates the essence of the liberation we aim at in the Integral Yoga. It is not only liberation from the lower nature of the three gunas into... Mother for the liberation and transformation of his nature. The main difficulty, which, however, proves after a certain time to be a great help and opportunity, is that the sâdhaka of the Integral Yoga is debarred by the very nature of his ideal to retreat into the inner quiescence of his being by a deliberate rejection or diminution of the works of his nature, as is done in most other yogas.... uprush of rajas, tamas or the quality of inaction and inertia is resorted to; and preponderating sattwa with a modicum of tamas makes what is readily taken as a saintly nature. But in the Integral Yoga one does not seek to quell rajas by calling in the aid of tamas and taking refuge in a partial or complete inaction. One seeks, first, to transcend the gunas, to be trigunātīta, and then ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XV THE PHYSICAL NATURE AND ITS PURIFICATION PART I BY physical nature Sri Aurobindo means the physical mind, the physical part of life, called the physical-vital or nervous being, and the body. Before we enter upon the process of their purification, we had better be clear about what these terms... withdrawal from the activities of life are the usual means adopted for an escape from the dull bondage of the physical mind and its engrossing material cares. But as an escape is ruled out in the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo — its aim being a perfect self-fulfilment and divine Manifestation in life—the physical mind has to be accepted fully and just as it is, and then purified, enlightened, Page... This does not mean that the body has to be despised or neglected, but the mind's morbid obsession with it must be discarded, otherwise there would be no further evolution of consciousness. In the Integral Yoga, the body is regarded as an indispensable instrument of the self-manifesting Spirit, and as much important as any other part of our nature; but to be attached to it is to remain tied only to the ...
... words are these that throw a flood of light upon the capital distinction between the object of the Integral Yoga and the ideals and achievements of the other yogas. Sri Aurobindo says that the transformation of the inner consciousness, even if complete, is not the transformation aimed at in the Integral Yoga. "One can realise the Divine everywhere"—a realisation which is almost universally regarded as... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XXVII THE INTEGRAL TRANSFORMATION PART I WHAT IS TRANSFORMATION? "SPIRITUAL experiences can fix themselves in the inner consciousness and alter it, transform it, if you like; one can realise the Divine everywhere, the Self in all and all in the Self, the universal śakti doing... reflex action of that liberated state in the nature. It cannot satisfy the aspiration implanted in us for a radical conquest and perfection in life. Transformation, as it is understood in the Integral Yoga, is not moral or spiritual purification; it is a radical and integral transmutation of human nature. It implies, as Sri Aurobindo says in categoric terms, "another power of knowledge, another kind ...
... is an experiment to form by a profound psychophysical transformation the nucleus of a super-mankind to be. THE INTEGRAL YOGA Patiently and without lust for fame the Master kept mould-ing his vision of super-mankind. The method of his Integral Yoga is a very plastic one. There are no mechanical breath-exercises or painful physical postures; it is our consciousness that... y like Bertrand Russell's as contrasted with the temperament which easily and eagerly believes or rests happy with lofty notions. Referring to himself and to his associate and co-worker in the Integral Yoga, the Mother, he begins the letter: "I must remind you that I have been an intellectual myself and no stranger to doubt — both the Mother and myself have had one side of the mind as positive ...
... than spiritual in their attitudes. It is the usual religious mind that sets up one alleged revelation in opposition to the approaches of other religions towards God. But one who claims to do an Integral Yoga cannot be exclusive in this fashion or come out with cudgels against people who are not yet aware of what Sri Aurobindo stands for. No true Aurobindonian tries to bully or browbeat anyone into becoming... cannot remain simply a Christian, a Buddhist, a Judaean, a Zoroastrian, a Mohammedan, a Bahai or even an adherent to the Vedantic Hinduism which served as the base and background to Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga — one cannot just be any of these things and still be an Aurobindonian. One Page 77 does not "exclude" the old Teachings, for exclusion would run counter to integrality, but one... "Transformation" carries us far Page 78 beyond all previous ideals of sagehood, seerhood, sainthood. Time and again he has explained the precise content of these two key-terms of his Integral Yoga and how they make this Yoga very new on the whole in spite of old aims, methods, disciplines and experiences forming part of it, especially in the early stages. Now I come to what you write ...
... truth beyond great truth.... Page 150 as an Ashram poet has sung. And the Mother said that she had met only one complete exemplar of such humility: Sri Aurobindo. The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo may be expected to create in a more or less degree the Aurobindonian stance in its practitioners. One is never allowed to remain entrenched in this or that high experience. A... Aurobindo and the Mother have been bent on bringing into action a power of these Ultimates more radically effective in earth-existence than ever before. As a result the practitioners of the Integral Yoga have had experiences which have scarcely been tabulated in earlier spiritual histories. But they are urged to halt nowhere. Many of them, if permitted to go into the common world with whatever... entirely to the guidance of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. As the twofold incarnation of the Supramental Ishwara-Shakti, they could carry us most swiftly forward. On so complex a path as the Integral Yoga we could hardly have advanced without their light and love. And, suiting the path's complexity, they were beings of an immense versatility. Combined with towering spiritual attainment, Sri Aurobindo ...
... evolution and transformation of consciousness in Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga implies a double vertical movement. There is first an ascension of consciousness to its higher plane and then descent of Peace, Light and Power of the higher into the lower so as to transform the latter. These two vertical movements of ascent and descent in Integral Yoga find powerful symbolic expressions in the following two images:... Ineffable's reign. Thus the three symbolic expressions—the World Stair, the Descent into Night, and the World-Soul stand identified to give a unitary approach to the movements of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. To achieve the unification of three such vast spiritual symbolic expressions is indeed a mark of exceptional poetic genius and the poet's Truth vision. The Journey in Eternal Night: This ...
... the aspiration of the spiritual seeker that he, like the great Vedantin, condemned inertia unqualifiedly and held karma — works — undertaken in the spirit of the Gita as of the essence of his Integral Yoga. But he had accepted works primarily because without works not only must our nature remain unredeemed, but no real acceptance of life could follow. Also, since life must, in the end, include... of the reality and the nature of the world and things and the Divine: it seemed to me as nearly as possible the integral truth about them and I have therefore spoken of the pursuit of it as the Integral Yoga. Everyone is, of course, free to reject and disbelieve in this kind of integrality or to believe in the spiritual necessity of an entire other-worldliness altogether but that would make the exercise... with love and devotion and bhakti, to serve Him with one's works and to know Him, not necessarily by the intellectual cognition, but in a spiritual experience is also essential in the path of Integral Yoga. If you accept Krishnaprem's insistence that this and no other must be your path, that it is this you have to attain and realise, then any Page 247 exclusive other-worldliness ...
... you as it is for him a pointer and a guide to the goal, at once time-transcending and time-transforming, which we have attempted to make time-transparent through the labour and laughter of our 'Integral Yoga'." You are right in - seeing me as "absorbed" in Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and as telling you to draw help at all times from them. I am absorbed not only to the exclusion of common... values rather than a withdrawal from them. Only two figures from the long train of past sages, saints, yogis, prophets, avatars are in my view- most affined to the Aurobindonian Era of the Integral Yoga. One is Sri Krishna of the magic flute capturing the whole world's heart as well as Sri Krishna of the wide-visioned Gita in the war-chariot at Kurukshetra - Sri Krishna who revealed himself to... turn their faces away from it or look down their noses at it. They put an emphasis on the right means of making money as well as on the right perception in using it. To those who take fully to the Integral Yoga, their advice is to dedicate to its cause the money earned. But here also there are no cut-and-dried rules. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother judge each set of circumstances according to their insight ...
... "Isn't never having seen the Mother and Sri Aurobindo and not living in the Ashram a bit of a spiritual handicap? Or can the Integral Yoga be done with the same intensity without the above-named factor as it is in my case?" Actually you have fused two points: doing the Integral Yoga without having come in physical contact with the Mother and Sri Aurobindo and doing this Yoga outside the Ashram. There have... have been people who knew the two Gurus physically yet did not continue to stay in the Ashram while doing the Integral Yoga just as there are people who are staying in the Ashram though they have never stood physically face to face with their two Gurus. In the complex situation you posit, the main thing is to feel in one's own heart the presence of the beings who physically manifested as the Mother ...
... personality and a multifaceted genius in the true sense of the term, Sethna Page xiii turned his back on worldly life, fame and success early in his career, and took the path of the Integral Yoga in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram under the direct guidance of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. However, in choosing this new life, he did not seek to annul his intellectual and artistic interests or integrity... One word that is recurrent in Sethna's accounts is the grace of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Parallel to his intellectual-scholarly interests, there is the lifelong commitment to the Integral Yoga and the life of the Spirit. Nothing that he wrote after coming in contact with Sri Aurobindo is free from this larger vision. To the observer, there is always the sense that Sethna was chosen by... upholding the Aurobindonian vision in the murky world of national and international politics And finally, Sethna has given us a valuable understanding regarding the place of the Mother in the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. His slim book, The Development of Sri Aurobindo's Spiritual System and the Mother's Contribution to It provides us with a rare perspective. 21 Sethna has always been a leading ...
... seer of modern India, blazed new trails in several worlds of human enterprise and had followers of signal eminence in many of them. Some made their mark in more than one sphere of activity. Integral Yoga and Overhead Poetry arc two such areas in which a number of luminaries have left their mark. No follower of Sri Aurobindo, however, has not only penetrated these areas but also ventured into... mysterious Dark Lady, Mr. W.H. and the Rival Poet, published 750 pages of poetry and followed the approach of Sri Aurobindo in plumbing the riches of European literature and the practice of Integral Yoga, However, that which is unique is his signal contribution to historiography. Here I shall not go into his remarkable investigations into Jewish history to fix the date of the Exodus, or into... to substantiate his intellectually flawless arguments. This relentless dedication in the pursuit of truth and the uncompromising sincerity are features intrinsic to Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga which shine forth so radiantly in Amal Kiran. In Karpāsa in Prehistoric India 3 Sethna investigated the use of cotton in prehistoric India for arriving along a different route ...
... that power to be made a fit channel of its self-expression,—a living of man in the Divine and a divine living of the Spirit in humanity,—will therefore be the principle and the whole object of an integral Yoga of self-perfection. In the process of this change there must be by the very necessity of the effort two stages of its working. First, there will be the personal endeavour of the human being,... it, finds and lives in its greater and its truer meaning now hidden from it, transfigures it from a limited, earthly and mortal thing to a figure of infinite, divine and immortal values. The integral Yoga meets the religious ideal at several points, but goes beyond it in the sense of a greater wideness. The religious ideal looks, not only beyond this earth, but away from it to a heaven or even beyond... spiritual nature and being, and since that is not possible here on earth, it looks for its consummation by a transference to another world or a shuffling off of all cosmic existence. But the integral Yoga founds itself on a conception of the spiritual being as an omnipresent existence, the fullness of which comes not essentially by a transference to other worlds or a cosmic self-extinction, but by ...
... The Yoga of Self-Perfection The Synthesis of Yoga Chapter I The Principle of the Integral Yoga The principle of Yoga is the turning of one or of all powers of our human existence into a means of reaching divine Being. In an ordinary Yoga one main power of being or one group of its powers is made the means, vehicle, path. In a synthetic Yoga all... divine Nature in the cosmic individual. In other words, a perfection has to be aimed at which amounts to the elevation of the mental into the full spiritual and supramental nature. Therefore this integral Yoga of knowledge, love and works has to be extended into a Yoga of spiritual and gnostic self-perfection. As gnostic knowledge, will and ananda are a direct instrumentation of spirit and can only be... where it passes upward into the divine oneness. That too is the reason why the Yoga must be integral. For if immergence in the Infinite or some close union with the Divine were all our aim, an integral Yoga would be superfluous, except for such greater satisfaction of the being of man as we may get by a self-lifting of the whole of it towards its Source. But it would not be needed for the essential ...
... Divine This then is the way of devotion and this its justification to the highest and the widest, the most integral knowledge, and we can now perceive what form and place it will take in an integral Yoga. Yoga is in essence the union of the soul with the immortal being and consciousness and delight of the Divine, effected through the human nature with a result of development into the divine nature... if this seem too high for the weakness of our nature, then at least to approach, reflect and be in secure communion with it is a near and possible consummation. The aim of this synthetic or integral Yoga which we are considering, is union with the being, consciousness and delight of the Divine through every part of our human nature separately or simultaneously, but all in the long end harmonised... perfect and complete delight in the Divine, perfect because pure and self-existent, complete because all-embracing as well as all-absorbing, is the meaning of the way of Bhakti for the seeker of the integral Yoga. Once it is active in us, all other ways of Yoga convert themselves, as it were, to its law and find by it their own richest significance. This integral devotion of our being to God does not ...
... the Adwaitin, not a swallowing up of the many by the One, but an eternal existence absorbed in the thought, love and enjoyment of the Supreme, the One, the All-Lover. For the disciple of an integral Yoga there can be no hesitation; as a seeker of knowledge it is the integral knowledge and not anything either half-way and attractive or high-pinnacled and exclusive he must seek. He must soar to the... in the system. The cloud intervenes and disappears, the rhythm of ascent and descent renews itself until the impurity has been worked out. This period of alternations may easily be long in the integral Yoga; for there an entire perfection of the system is required; it must be capable at all times and in all conditions and all circumstances, whether of action or inaction, of admitting and then living... the Self as lord; for out of that Silence wells all this action, that apparent Void looses out as if into movement all these infinite riches of experience. To this realisation the sadhaka of the integral Yoga must arrive by the process that we shall hereafter describe. What then, when he so resumes his hold upon the universe and views no longer himself in the world but the cosmos in himself, will be ...
... towards that which is beyond status as beyond activity. 4 Page 319 For of all Yoga of knowledge the final goal is the Transcendent. We have, however, conceived as the aim of an integral Yoga something more complex and less exclusive—less exclusively positive of the highest condition of the soul, less exclusively negative of its divine radiations. We must aim indeed at the Highest, the... in the elevated condition or in the inward Samadhi, but we shall lose our hold of it when we awake or descend into the contacts of the world; and this truncated possession is not the aim of an integral Yoga. A third process is neither at first to concentrate in a strenuous meditation on the one subject nor in a strenuous contemplation of the one object of thought-vision, but first to still the mind... knowledge of the Divine takes possession of our consciousness on all its planes and the image of the Divine is formed in our human existence even as it was done by the old Vedic Sadhakas. For the integral Yoga this is the most direct and powerful discipline. Page 325 × bāhyasparśa. ...
... divine love casts the soul. To enter into it is the supreme step of the ladder of Yogic practice in Rajayoga and Hathayoga. What then is the nature of Samadhi or the utility of its trance in an integral Yoga? It is evident that where our objective includes the possession of the Divine in life, a state of cessation of life cannot be the last consummating step or the highest desirable condition: Yogic... emotion, as in a sealed and secluded chamber of the soul, prepare itself for the delight of union with the divine Beloved, the Master of all bliss, rapture and Ananda. Page 524 For the integral Yoga this method of Samadhi may seem to have the disadvantage that when it ceases, the thread is broken and the soul returns into the distraction and imperfection of the outward life, with only such... suṣupti , will still find its application. Such is the principle of the Yogic trance, Samadhi,—into its complex phenomena we need not now enter. It is sufficient to note its double utility in the integral Yoga. It is true that up to a point difficult to define or delimit almost all that Samadhi can give, can be acquired without recourse to Samadhi. But still there are certain heights of spiritual and ...
... joy and their justification. This is the knowledge in which an integral Yoga must live. We have to start God-ward from the powers of the mind, the intellect, the will, the heart, and in the mind all is limited. Limitations, exclusiveness there can hardly fail to be at the beginning and for a long time on the way. But an integral Yoga will wear these more loosely than more exclusive ways of seeking... point to the three paths by which the human soul rises to the divine. The integrality of them, the union of man with God in all the three, must therefore, as we have seen, be the foundation of an integral Yoga. Action is the first power of life. Nature begins with force and its works which, once conscious in man, become will and its achievements; therefore it is that by turning his action God-wards ...
... in its own inner dream taken as the whole movement of the Yoga. One may have hours of pure absorbed meditation or of the inner motionless adoration and ecstasy, but they are not the whole of the integral Yoga. To say that one enters the stream of sadhana through work only is to say too much. One can enter it through meditation or bhakti also, but work is necessary to get into full stream and not... external part of the mind, leaving the rest free to remember or to experience. A Defence of Works In spite of your disclaimer you practically come to the conclusion that all my nonsense about integral Yoga and karma being as much a way to realisation as jnana and bhakti is either Page 218 a gleaming chimaera or practicable only by Avatars or else a sheer laborious superfluity—since one... To set up an open competition or a closed one between works and meditation is a trick of the dividing mind and belongs to the old Yoga. Please remember that I have been declaring all along an integral Yoga in which Knowledge, Bhakti, works—light of consciousness, Ananda and love, will and power in works—meditation, adoration, service of the Divine have all their place. Have I written seven volumes ...
... A Yoga of Transformation Letters on Yoga - II Chapter IV Transformation in the Integral Yoga The Meaning of Transformation By transformation I do not mean some change of the nature—I do not mean for instance sainthood or ethical perfection or Yogic siddhis (like the Tantrik's) or a transcendental ( cinmaya ) body. I use transformation in a special... earth-consciousness to take the definitive stride forward it must take at one time or another. I have never said that my Yoga was something brand new in all its elements. I have called it the integral Yoga and that means that it takes up the essence and many processes of the old Yogas—its newness is in its aim, standpoint and the totality of its method. In the earlier stages which is all I deal with... found it was insufficient and I had to seek farther. Transformation is a word that I have brought in myself (like supermind) to express certain spiritual concepts and spiritual facts of the integral Yoga. People are now taking them up and using them in senses which have nothing to do with the significance which I put into them. Purification of the nature by the "influence" of the Spirit is not what ...
... October 1966 Page 342 Sweet Mother, In this integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo, work has a place of capital importance, doesn't it? This being the case, what place does meditation have? Work does not go on twenty-four hours a day. There is room for many other activities which have their purpose in an integral Yoga. 26 October 1966 Sweet Mother, In the story You... learned and practised. But according to Sri Aurobindo's teaching, each of these practices has its limitations and gives only a partial result. That is why he advised those who want to follow the integral yoga to find their own discipline, based on the ancient knowledge but adapted to the needs and the condition of each individual. 1 July 1964 Sweet Mother, I thought that illness came ...
... of the universal and the individual, of the personal God and the absolute Godhead, are integrated in a vision of the whole, which has never been surpassed in depth and comprehensiveness. In the integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo the values of matter and life and human consciousness and the experience of a personal God are not lost in the ultimate Reality, the divine Sachchidananda. Matter and life and ... to point out in it legends or symbols, visions or intuitions having some link or other with their own spiritual quest just as they noted doctrinal or experiential affinities elsewhere to their Integral Yoga. If they were trying to repeat in their bodies and hoping to achieve in those of their followers what had taken place in Jesus, why did they not ever give a hint of it? It should be clear to us... free Supermind from above the mental plane with the Supermind evoked from matter where, according to Sri Aurobindo, it lies involved. Both the spiritual vision and the spiritual dynamics of his Integral Yoga differ from those recognisable in past "saints and Yogis". We may pause a little over Sri Aurobindo's words: "this achievement" — and then the following "some yogis have achieved it, I believe" ...
... both within and without, both here and above, and with whom a multitude of relationships, mind-heightening, heart-deepening, life-widening, can be established. Those lines would terminate in an "Integral Yoga" by which there would be the descent into us of the Supreme Divinity's hitherto hidden highest status - Super-mind - and there would be the action of an all-transforming power so that a new ear... sense that it was being carried further. Here Krishna's unified triple path of spiritual Knowledge, Love and Action issues into the total life-consecration which Sri Aurobindo has designated "the Integral Yoga" and which, evoking the inmost soul whose spontaneous turn at all times is towards the Highest, aims ultimately at drawing through what he has called "Overmind" or "Krishna-Consciousness" the sovereign... Supermind is inevitable by the very logic of things". But man as a being conscious of himself has to give his willing co-operation if this advent is to be soon. Hence the need for the Aurobindonian Integral Yoga to embody the Supramental Divine both individually and collectively. A mantra of this Yoga's aim is the great invocation which I once quoted to you and which ends with the profoundly moving mysticism ...
... calls transformation - the utter divinisation of the physical body so that it becomes a form of the Consciousness that is luminous and immortal. Remember that Sri Aurobindo's teaching is Integral Yoga. The word "integral" denotes the Aurobindonian search. Sri Aurobindo says it is no use denying that man is in quest of an all-round harmony of perfection. If that quest is a fact, there... is not primarily arguing out a system. With his instinct towards harmony he has pressed on in spiritual experience. His is not an integral philosophy for the sake of philosophy, his is an integral Yoga, and all his philosophising is a statement in mental terms of what he has realised. The Life Divine expresses nothing except his experience, his realisation. Having attained in constant waking... who plunged into the Unknown with that occult diamond for his guide. Then across those thoughts reach out for the concrete spiritual experience, the actual harmonious realisation which the Integral Yoga of that master-explorer is bringing to the world's view. Perhaps you will be disappointed by my letter, since I have not argued out in explicit detail Sri Aurobindo's position vis-à-vis ...
... 1. THE PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND Sri Aurobindo and Mother offered to humanity a way of life based on the deepest understanding of human values. What is popularly known as Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga is really a way of living based on a deeper, wider and more enlightened consciousness. The practitioner of this "Yoga" is not exhorted to renounce the world and its field Such an objective... social and spiritual fabric of life which uplifts and nurtures. *To offer consultancy in Business Management, Law, Education, etc. *To facilitate the understanding and practice of the Integral Yoga of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. *To create a bridge between matter and spirit. Actimties of The Gnostic Centre The Centre has four major activities: 1.Teacher Education... Healthy Living *Foundation Course for Facilitation * How to Bring Up a Child? *Meditation for Inner Growth * The Brain of India *Fear : Its Cause and Cure * Integral Yoga At the end of the course, the students submit their dissertations (monographs) based on their study and application in daily life, on topics such as Sincerity, Self-justification, Anger ...
... divine life in a divine body would be the ideal of the integral Yoga. In the integral Yoga, perfections of the physical body would be a part of the totality of attainments, although the methods of Hatha Yoga may not prove to be indispensable. And yet, methods of Hatha Yoga can optionally be employed in the total processes of the integral Yoga. One thing however stands out very clearly. Hatha ...
... mentioned expressions. Let us point out one by one the essential differences and divergences between the two sets of views: the views held by the orthodox Karmavada and the positions adumbrated by the Integral Yoga-philosophy of Sri Aurobindo. The indications given below cannot but be very brief; for, both time and space forbid a detailed discussion here. Readers interested in a more elaborate exposition are... Our View. There is no Karma, whether "sancita" or "prāra-bdha", which cannot be made infructuous. The effects of all actions can be annulled by suitable means. Therefore, a sadhaka of the Integral Yoga should not be unduly worried by seeing in his imagination possible future disasters. He should not indulge in vain thoughts like: "Alas for me! Who knows how many types of misdeeds I may have committed... that anything disastrous may happen to me at any unexpected moment of my life. Is there none or nothing which can save me from this distressing situation?" No, a sadhaka of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga should not and need not entangle himself in the web of such tormenting thoughts. For, whether the theory of "prarabdhas" corresponds to any truth or not, it is absolutely certain that one's past ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XIV The Conquest of Self-love A total and unreserved self-giving to the Divine on the part of a sadhaka is the key secret of living a truly spiritual life. And Sri Aurobindo has reminded us that, in practice, this "self-giving... means a change from ego-centricity to God-centricity". (Letters on Yoga, p... the ends: a spiritual realisation worth the name will elude you while you will completely lose your life in the world. After all, you should know that to fulfil all the hard conditions of an Integral Yoga may perhaps be possible only for some great and gifted souls but surely not for ordinary mortals like yourself. Any rash attempt at trying to copy their examples] can only lead to some serious... the attitude we have to grow into and that not merely on one or two occasions but always, in every situation of our life, if we would like to complete our journey on the arduous Path of the Integral Yoga. But this is not possible if the sadhaka has not the faith and courage to trust himself into the hands of the Lord of all things and the Friend of all creatures and plunge into the ocean ...
... ns this particular book, The Practice of the Integral Yoga, covers a special field of research and is the product of a careful and sustained investigation. The book will, we hope, interest the growing circle of devotees and disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, especially those who want to know the method of actual practice of the Integral Yoga of Self-perfection and Self-transformation. ... The Practice of the Integral Yoga Publishers' Note This is the latest book coming from the pen of Jugal Kishore Mukherjee who has been residing as an inmate for the last fifty-three years in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. SAICE (Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Pondicherry) has already published the following books in English ...
... Integral Yoga of Transformation -05_Part Three.htm PART THREE Analysis of Mental , Vital and Physical Consciousness in the Human Being 30 Sri Aurobindo has provided detailed analysis of the complexity of our nature, subconscient, conscient, intraconscient or subliminal and superconscient; but we may first present a brief analysis of three important... the supramental consciousness can effectuate, gradually and systematically, by the power of contagion, their influence and their descent in all parts of the being right up to the inconscient. The integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo aims at perfect integration and perfection and integral transformation so that ultimately the mental, the vital and the physical can all be transformed by the supra- mental con... which it can find no clue. To enlighten the physical mind by the psychic consciousness and the consciousness of the higher spiritual and supramental planes is one of the important objects of the integral Yoga, just as to enlighten it by the power of the higher vital and higher mental elements of the being is the greatest part of human self-development, civilization and culture. The gross material ...
... Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Notes and References 1 Rig Veda, 1.129. 2 Aitareya Upanishad, 1.2.1-3. 3 This is the Samkhyan theory of satkāryavāda, according to which, nothing comes out of nothing and the effect is already present in the cause. 4 Vide., Asimov, Isaac, Asimov’s Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology... studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I.A.S. in 1955 but in 1956, he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry and participated in numerous educational experiments under... Also by Kireet Joshi Education for Character Development Education for Tomorrow Education at Crossroads A National Agenda for Education Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Landmarks of Hinduism The Veda and Indian Culture Glimpses of Vedic Literature The Portals of Vedic Knowledge Bhagavadgita and C ...
... Integral Yoga - Major Aims, Methods, Processes and Results NOTES AND REFERENCES 1 Vide., Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, SABCL, 1971, Vol. 20, pp. 26-44. 2 Vide., Ibid., pp. 506-13. 3 Vide., Ibid., pp. 514 -20. 4 Vide., Ibid., Vol. 21, p. 584. 5 Vide., Ibid., pp. 583-89. 6 Ibid., p. 587. 7 Ibid... 1931) studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I.A.S. in 1955 but in 1956, he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry and participated in numerous educational experiments under... Kireet Joshi Education for Character Development Education for Tomorrow Education at Crossroads A National Agenda for Education Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Landmarks of Hinduism The Veda and Indian Culture Glimpses of Vedic Literature The Portals of Vedic Knowledge ...
... Truth-Consciousness 154 Mind, Overmind and Supermind 168 Part II Transition from Mind to Supermind: Psychological Basis of the Integral Yoga 184 Characteristics of the Integral Yoga 208 Concept of Perfection in Integral Yoga 216 Part III Contemporary Crisis 224 A Critique of Suggested Solutions 231 Part IV Civilisation and Barbarism ...
... "thirty years later 52. Italics are ours. Page 49 (agreeing with the time of my arrival) a Yogi from the North would come as a fugitive to the South and practise there an integral Yoga (PoornaYoga), and this would be one sign of the approaching liberty of India. He gave three utterances as the mark by which this Yogi could be recognised and all these three were found in the... on Yoga, the inevitable result of an unreserved surrender of the whole being of man, including his body and all its movements, to God. But it can be achieved only after a long practice of the Integral Yoga. But, in his case, it was achieved in the course of about a couple of years. He was being led by God in all that he was doing. It can, therefore, be easily concluded that his politics, almost... activities, the Divine Union must be realised and the Divine Manifestation take place. These lines strike the key- note of the dynamic spirituality that was developing in Sri Aurobindo, and the integral Yoga he was to practise and teach for the radical transformation of human nature and the birth of the supramental race on earth. An outline of Sri Aurobindo's political views seems to be called ...
... imposing fa9ade of a Yogi's life, and betray themselves only to the eye that can probe below the surface. Sri Aurobindo will have none of these ungainly sun-spots in the perfection of the Integral Yoga; for, the basic aim of his Yoga is a dynamic union with the Divine in life, in every movement of life, in the whole being, in the entire nature and in all its thoughts and feelings and actions;... action is the indispensable means, and without it the transformation of the physical nature is out of the question. It is not only a state of passive peace and purity that is sought for in the Integral Yoga, but a free and unhampered expression of the divine Will and a fulfilment of the divine purpose in a life of God-guided action. "Even for those whose first natural movement is a consecration... one, hardly ever treated in a complete and comprehensive way by any of the Yogis and mystics of the past, and yet all-important to the future of humanity. The divine fulfilment aimed at by the Integral Yoga pivots upon the perfection of the physical transformation. If homo sapiens cannot be transformed out of his normal animality into a dynamic divinity, there can be no divine life upon earth. And ...
... Supramental Evolution; Integral Yoga and Other Paths; Religion, Morality, Idealism and Yoga; Reason, Science and Yoga; Planes and Parts of the Being; The Divine and the Hostile Powers; The Purpose of Avatarhood; Rebirth; Fate and Free-Will, Karma and Heredity, etc. Volume 23 Letters on Yoga , PARTS Two AND THREE. Part Two: The Object of Integral Yoga; Synthetic Method... Method and the Integral Yoga; Basic Requisites of the Path; The Foundation of Sadhana; Sadhana through Work; Sadhana through Meditation; Sadhana through Love and Devotion; Human Relation- Page 415 ships in Yoga; Sadhana in the Ashram and Outside; Part Three: Experiences and Realisations; Visions and Symbols; Experiences of the Inner and the Cosmic Consciousness ...
... Sri Aurobindo recalled this incident, it seems that what was happening to Paul Richard was a sustained attack by hostile forces, thrusting suggestion after suggestion that the whole adventure of Integral Yoga was perhaps going to misfire, and that he had better leave the arena while the going was good. As Sri Aurobindo put it: This yoga is like a path cut through a jungle and once the path is... after the Amnesty. From Bengal, Barin had first written to Sri Aurobindo asking him for initiation into Yoga, and had been accepted but it would be Sri Aurobindo's own special way of Yoga, the Integral Yoga. Towards the end of his letter (written in Bengali, apparently in April 1920), Sri Aurobindo had given a clear outline of his Yoga, and a hint of his hope for the immediate future: I do not... vicious twist to the initiating inspiration from Pondicherry. But the issue as to how the truths of The Life Divine and The Synthesis of Yoga were to be realised in practice remained open still. The Integral Yoga was no mere exercise of the imagination, but had to be given a practical orientation and realised in foolproof organisational units. For Sri Aurobindo, it was a moment pregnant with possibilities ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XIII MIND AND ITS PURIFICATION PART II THE entanglement of the parts and functions of the antaḥkaraṇa being bafflingly great, we have to fix upon something in it which will lend itself more easily and with a better grace than the others to the work of purification; but it must... "Mayyarpitamanobuddhi” is the formula prescribed by the Gitâ , after the Sâmkhya process of detachment has been practised, for the silencing of the mind and its turning to the Supreme. In the Integral Yoga, both detachment and surrender of the mind go hand in hand, and their conjoint action induces not only a turning to the Supreme, but also a potent purification and conversion of the mind's customary... Non-Being from which all thought and life fall away into cessation. The buddhi casts itself into a luminous sleep and the soul passes away into some ineffable height of spiritual being."¹ In the Integral Yoga this unilateral tendency of the buddhi is neutralised by a wide aspiration for an integral union with the Divine and for His manifestation in life, and a dynamic surrender of the whole nature ...
... 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... to the East." —A. Koestler Page 468 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... 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 ...
... imposing facade of a Yogi's life, and betray themselves only to the eye that can probe below the surface. Sri Aurobindo will have none of these ungainly sun-spots in the perfection of the Integral Yoga; for, the basic aim of his Yoga is a dynamic union with the Divine in life, in every movement of life, in the whole being, in the entire nature and in all its thoughts and feelings and actions;... action is the indispensable means, and without it the transformation of the physical nature is out of the question. It is not only a state of passive peace and purity that is sought for in the Integral Yoga, but a free and unhampered expression of the divine Will and a fulfilment of the divine purpose in a life of God-guided action. 3 Page 27 "Even for those whose first natural... one, hardly ever treated in a complete and comprehensive way by any of the Yogis and mystics of the past, and yet all-important to the future of humanity The divine fulfilment aimed at by the Integral Yoga pivots upon the perfection of the physical transformation. If homo sapiens cannot be transformed out of his normal animality into a dynamic divinity, there can be no divine life upon earth. And ...
... To set up an open competition or a closed one between works and meditation is a trick of the dividing mind and belongs to the old Yoga. Please remember that I have been declaring all along an integral Yoga in which knowledge, Bhakti, works—light of consciousness, Ananda and love, will and power in works—meditation, adoration, service of the Divine have all their place. Have I written seven volumes... The work here is not intended for showing one's capacity or having a position or as a means of physical nearness to the Mother, but as a field and an opportunity for the Karmayoga part of the integral Yoga—for learning to work in the true Yogic way—dedication through service, practical selflessness, obedience, scrupulousness, discipline, setting the Divine and the Divine's work first and oneself last ...
... experience of the reality and nature of the world and things and the Divine: it seemed to me as nearly as possible the integral truth about them and I have therefore spoken of the pursuit of it as the integral Yoga. Everyone is, of course, free to reject and disbelieve in this kind of integrality or to believe in the spiritual necessity of an entire other-worldliness excluding any kind of this-worldliness... and bhakti, Page 234 to serve him with one's works and to know him, not necessarily by the intellectual cognition, but in a spiritual experience, is also essential in the path of the integral Yoga. 28 April 1949 An Experience in Kashmir Kashmir is a magnificent place, its rivers unforgettable and on one of its mountains with a shrine of Shankaracharya on it I got my second realisation ...
... guide you choose, if you are perfect in your self-giving and absolutely sincere, you are sure to attain the spiritual goal. But the result is no longer the same when you want to realise the integral yoga. Then you must not limit yourself in any way, even in the path of your consecration.... Only, these are two very different things. Spiritual realisation―as it was formerly understood, as it is... has been used to reach Him. And you must go beyond that and find a new way. So, the first point to clear up in your thought―and it is a point of capital importance: you must not confuse the integral yoga with other spiritual realisations, which may be very high but cover a very limited field, for theirs is a movement only in depth. You may pierce a hole, you see, with your aspiration and make ...
... it's like that for everyone. If there was only one, it could be like this: that he alone could do it for all; but if everybody does it... you understand... You are fifty persons doing the Integral Yoga. If it is only one of the fifty who is doing it, then he does it for all the fifty. But if each one of the fifty is doing it, each doing it for all the fifty, he does it actually for one person... thought—the experience of the thing, and then keep it afterwards, then all becomes easy. Unfortunately, one forgets very soon. Sweet Mother, here Sri Aurobindo has said: "He [the sadhak of the integral Yoga] has not only to conquer in himself the forces of egoistic falsehood and disorder, but to conquer them as representatives..." Listen, my child, I am sorry, but you don't listen when I am speaking ...
... Mother reads from The Synthesis of Yoga , " The Four Aids ". I did not understand the last part very well. Which last part, my child? "... the sadhak of the integral Yoga will not be satisfied until he has included all other names and forms of Deity in his own conception...." Yes. Why? It says what it means. What is it that you don't understand there? What... is seen or whatever path is taken to attain It, it will always be one sole and same thing which you will meet. So one who is developed enough, vast enough to be able to follow what we call the Integral Yoga, must have the capacity to approach the Divine by all possible paths. If he doesn't want to follow them himself because it takes time... though there is a certain degree of development which enables ...
... realisation, are people who completely lack control over their physical being. And to realise the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo the control of one's body is a first indispensable step. Those who despise physical activities are people who won't be able to take a single step on the true path of integral yoga, unless they first get rid of their contempt. Control of the body in all its forms is an indispensable ...
... people who are strong, etc.—physically I mean, not for vital or mental reasons, Page 18 but purely physically; you have a character. It is the physical mind. And this is part of all integral yoga; you go through the discipline of this physical mind. More than sixty years ago I did it. But then, for example, this mind which is spontaneously defeatist, having all sorts of fears, apprehensions... difference. And it is this, above all, which is given to you with the special form of your body, by atavism, and then fully developed by education. No, the physical mind, as soon as you take up an integral yoga, must be dealt with; but this material mind, the cellular one, I assure you, is altogether new, yes, altogether new. It is the mind which was like an unco-ordinated substance, which was constantly ...
... Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter VIII Bhakti Yoga and Vaishnavism The Vaishnava Theory and Sadhana They [ the Vaishnavas ] accept the world as a Lila, but the true Lila is elsewhere in the eternal Brindavan. All the religions which believe in the personal Godhead accept the universe as a reality, a Lila or a... Different sadhanas emphasise one aspect or another as the highest, but it is this union of all that must be the true base of the highest realisation and experience. Vaishnava Bhakti and the Integral Yoga It is not necessary to repeat past forms [ of Bhakti Yoga ]—to bring out the bhakti of the psychic being and give it whatever forms come naturally in the development is the proper way for our ...
... Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter V The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita The Teaching of the Gita This world is as the Gita describes it, anityam asukham , so long as we live in the present world-consciousness; it is only by turning from that to the Divine and entering into the Divine Consciousness that one can possess... live in the Purushottama. The Purushottama consciousness is the consciousness of the Supreme Being and man by loss of ego and realisation of his true essence can live in it. The Gita and the Integral Yoga It is not a fact that the Gita gives the whole base of Sri Aurobindo's message; for the Gita seems to admit the cessation of birth in the world as the ultimate aim or at least the ultimate c ...
... stage of the realisation of the Divine and of that growing of the being into the higher or divine Consciousness which we call transformation. A sadhak of integral Yoga who stops short at the Impersonal is no longer a sadhak of integral Yoga. Impersonal realisation is the realisation of the silent Self, of the pure Existence, Consciousness and Bliss in itself without any perception of an Existent ...
... form of a perfect living. A Yoga of works, a union with the Divine in our will and acts—and not only in knowledge and feeling—is then an indispensable, an inexpressibly important element of an integral Yoga. The conversion of our thought and feeling without a corresponding conversion of the spirit and body of our works would be a maimed achievement. But if this total conversion is to be done, there... such that this must be done first with an initial exclusiveness and the rest left for later handling, we must accept the apparent imperfection of the process. Yet would the ideal working of an integral Yoga be a movement, even from the beginning, integral in its process and whole and many-sided in Page 93 its progress. In any case our present preoccupation is with a Yoga, integral in its ...
... egoistic and partial views and motives of the human ignorance and mould himself into an image of this supreme equality. This equal poise in action is especially necessary for the sadhaka of the integral Yoga. First, he must acquire that equal assent and understanding which will respond to the law of the divine action without trying to impose on it a partial will and the violent claim of a personal ... action of the Infinite through the nature working on the relations of the universe will be the untroubled outpouring of its power in our being. This is the meaning of equality in the terms of the integral Yoga. Page 708 ...
... leads towards some likeness to the Divine, sādṛśya , and each finds its own way, such as the love and worship of the Bhakta and the growing into the likeness of the Divine by love. But for the integral Yoga perfection will mean a divine spirit and a divine nature which will admit of a divine relation and action in the world; it will mean also in its entirety a divinising of the whole nature, a rejection... physical processes of Hathayoga (of which something is also included in the Rajayoga) or by the methods of the Tantric discipline. But while these may be optionally used at certain stages by the integral Yoga, they are not indispensable; for here the reliance is on the power of the higher being to change the lower existence, a working is chosen mainly from above downward and not the opposite way, and ...
... the world-existence. On the whole, for an integral Yoga the special methods of Rajayoga and Hathayoga may be useful at times in certain stages of the progress, but are not indispensable. It is true that their principal aims must be included in the integrality of the Yoga; but they can be brought about by other means. For the methods of the integral Yoga must be mainly spiritual, and dependence on ...
... of knowledge insisting on its own pure austerity can abolish. But that belongs properly to the summit of the path of Devotion and there we shall have again to return to it. The sadhaka of an integral Yoga will take an integral view of his goal and seek its integral realisation. The Divine has many essential modes of His eternal self-manifestation, possesses and finds Himself on many planes and through... Personality in our synthesis will best be considered when we come to speak of the Yoga of devotion; Page 381 it is enough here to indicate that it has its place and keeps it in the integral Yoga even when liberation has been attained. There are practically three grades of the approach to the personal Deity; the first in which He is conceived with a particular form or particular qualities ...
... whose hands Sri Aurobindo put his followers when he withdrew from public contacts on November 24, 1926 in order to expedite by "a dynamic meditation" (to use his own words) the fulfilment of his Integral Yoga — the personality whom these followers, inspired by him, called the Divine Mother. There was no organised life among them before this date. The occasion marked the spiritual event known as... aspect. This aspect was made prominent in the early days of the Ashram, and we took it usually as a straightforward problem the solution of which was understood as a practical certainty in the Integral Yoga. But actually the problem is very complicated. To begin with: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother had the choice of transforming their own bodies in isolation from common humanity. In 1933 a sadhak asked ...
... with its masterful ability to perfect by its highest law our entire earth-life — this indeed is the practical outcome of all spiritual philosophy. It is what Sri Aurobindo calls the Integral Yoga. The Integral Yoga is the methodised effort towards perfection by a constant urge towards the Divine as a Presence and Power capable of all relations of identity-in-difference Page 6 with ...
... would go as far as Pondicherry!" In December 1927, when he was still a student of M.A. class, Sethna visited the Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry and decided to stay there and practise the Integral Yoga. He didn't complete his post-graduate course, and he never regretted. How the guru came to him is an interesting story, good enough raw material to make a novelette. Sethna had... spiritual seekers what they wanted. Far from the common turmoil they became sadhaks ready to go into their selves. While Pondicherry gave the mental peace Sethna wanted, the practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo provided him with an abundance of energy. At 90, but looking at least 20 years younger, Sethna remains vigorous and active with several works either in progress or awaiting ...
... scholar, a true Aurobindo, a genuine poet of Overhead Poetry, the sadhak to whom Sri Aurobindo had written most of the letters on Savitri, and the authentic interpreter of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. A doubt crept into my mind: "How can I venture to approach him to guide me in this project? Has he got time for it?" But nothing is impossible if the "God-touch is there". One evening I sat... Review of Culture, whose spiritual creative hands have opened up a new vista, a new exposition of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, vision of Indian culture, political thought, Integral Yoga and the Mother's teachings. He launched the journal, aspiring for a new future, on February 21st, 1949, the Mother's birthday. Mother India drew its inspiration from the Mother and Sri Aurobindo ...
... Savitri, and in the last chapters of The Life Divine and The Synthesis of Yoga – but that only in retrospect. This new phase of the Integral Yoga might be called ‘the Yoga of the transformation of the body.’ It fell completely outside the ‘system’ of the Integral Yoga as deduced and constructed by some commentators from Sri Aurobindo’s writings, sometimes without acknowledging the important part the ...
... of an age which are quite opposite to those of an earlier age when withdrawal from life after spiritual illumination was considered the goal of life a£*er the destined fall of the body. In the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo there has to be a total and radical transformation of the material world to warrant the full manifestation of the Divine in matter and that requires a higher spiritual effort and... Sri Aurobindo's, "The Mother". It contains all the practical guidance needed for supramental realisation on the part of the spiritual seekers. His Yoga is called the yoga of Transformation or the Integral yoga and the way to it is perfect and unreserved surrender to the Divine Mother who Page 9 is the Divine Shakti and the mystery behind the whole creation. "Those who wish to help ...
... of the reality and nature of the world and things and the Divine: it seemed to me as nearly as possible the integral truth about them and I have therefore spoken of the pursuit of it as the integral Yoga. Everyone is, of course, free to reject and disbelieve in this kind of integrality or to believe in the spiritual necessity of an entire other-worldliness excluding any kind of this-worldliness... love and devotion and bhakti, to serve Him with one’s works and to know Him, not necessarily by the intellectual cognition, but in a spiritual experience, is also essential in the path of the integral Yoga. If you accept Krishnaprem’s insistence that this and no other must be your path, it is this that you have to attain and realise; any exclusive other-worldliness cannot be your way. I believe ...
... essential for a total consecration of our lives to the Perfect and the Absolute so that we may respond in however faint a way to the whole of that sovereign Overmind utterance by Sri Aurobindo of the Integral Yoga and not respond merely to its second, third and fourth lines: Arms taking to a voiceless supreme delight, Life that meets the Eternal with close breast, An unwalled mind dissolved in... sub specie Aurobindonis. The stability and strength and super-powering of the body which Hatha Yoga aims at after a strenuous complicated labour of posture and breathing is no direct part of the Integral Yoga nor is the paradoxical purity which the Tantrik experimenter dangerously tries for. We do not attempt to raise the Kundalini, the "Serpent Shakti" from below to energise through the diverse poses ...
... Yogic work at present is to divinise our physical cells. No doubt, the divinisation of the body, so that it becomes immune to disease, decrepitude and even death, is the crown of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga of the Supramental Descent and Transformation. To keep this climax in view and to create an eagerness and readiness in the body for it, so that the physical cells may open to the transformative... This was on February 21, 1928. I may have recounted the occasion to you already, but here it is appropriate to bring it in. I was a novice in spiritual matters and looked at the Master of the Integral Yoga mainly with the outer sight. I examined his eyes, nose, moustache, mouth, beard and decided that here was a Guru worth accepting. The next day when I met the Mother I eagerly asked her if he had ...
... present "vesture of decay" in which the soul has had to play its role on the terrestrial stage in life after life for millennia. While I sat-in Sri Aurobindo's room, the Master of the Integral Yoga was an intense presence all around me, a large enfolding power which seemed to surround me and permeate me and - wonder of wonders! - have its most living centre in my own heart. It was as if he... with his intellectual seductiveness, must have been a contra influence - he strives to strike at the very root of Indian spirituality which lays a stress on guidance by and devotion to a Gum.The Integral Yoga is a very positive power and the personal presence of its teachers, whether physical or subtle, has to be felt all the time with a consistent single-minded fervour.Also, you must plunge as much ...
... History for Israel. The other is that Sri Aurobindo, while giving a tremendous push to the writer in me, has yet so moulded my being that the main urge of my life is to be the disciple of his Integral Yoga and to go on and on in realising his immensity of light and his profundity of bliss in both inner and outer living -and these too not in one single mode but in a multitude of manners. Channelling... the presence of the Divine Mother manifest itself in all my relationships with fellow-creatures?" Since the goals of the old spiritual paths are regarded as no more than stepping-stones in the Integral Yoga, the drive of a perpetual seeking in which God is no fixed paradise But truth beyond great truth leaves the future grandly indeterminate for one and raises up in one the strange ...
... which science predicts according to its present observations cannot be binding. Such a prospect seems incredible, but it is nothing beyond conception by the logic (which is also the magic) of the Integral Yoga. (31.3.1987) P.S. After writing this I came to read, in some detail, about what is known as the Anthropic Principle in physics. It is a speculation put forward by some scientific thinkers... Principle is unlike Teilhard's, a perpetual fullness of being within the framework of time and space. There it makes contact from the scientific side with the Page 86 vision of the Integral Yoga. But there is no sign in it, as there is none also in Teilhard's "super-consciousness", that man the mental being will go beyond the utmost possibility open to mind itself. A widening of the mental ...
... Intuition, Overmind. A fifth and highest plane, which he named Supermind and whose realisation above on its own peaks and ultimate descent below into the physical being are the aim of his own "Integral Yoga", was regarded by him as not having directly manifested yet. The absence cannot help being regretted of what would have been a unique expository and elucidative document on the unusual poetic... a time when there were no physical pointers to it and with a symbolic prefiguring of the spiritual situation that on his departure from his own body would face his comrade and co-worker in the Integral Yoga - the Mother. Page 59 Both in quality and quantity Savitri must be counted as remarkable even among the world's major achievements. With its 23,813 lines, 1 it is the longest ...
... people are patient, some are strong and so on–physically, I mean, not for vital or mental reasons, but purely physically everyone has a character. That's the physical mind. And it is part of any integral yoga: you discipline this physical mind. I have done it for more than sixty years. Page 229 But then, that mind, for instance, which is spontaneously defeatist, which has all sorts of fears... already a difference. And it is especially what is given you with the special FORM of your body, by atavism, and then fully developed by education. No, the physical mind, as soon as you do an integral yoga, you are obliged to deal with it, while this material, cellular mind, I can assure you that it's absolutely new! Absolutely new. It is the mind that was like an uncoordinated substance, with ...
... then come here to confront the complexities of the Integral Yoga. The ascetic was scandalised and went away murmuring he had made a big mistake in thinking the Ashram a spiritual place. The very fact that he could not accept implicitly the word of those whom he had wished to take as his spiritual masters and that he thought of the Integral Yoga on the lines of his own conception of what such a ...
... Transcendent's power to base on the Transcendent's peace a new earth-order, a terrestrial Heaven. In this tale of evolutionary humanity we would indentify Kalki with Sri Aurobindo (the Master of the Integral Yoga, the Yoga not only of liberation but also of the Page 47 perfect divine dynamism, the Supermind, the all-transformative Truth-Consciousness manifesting as Super- man). ... Ramkrishna by his intense synthesis summing up 'the world's and especially India's past spirituality and rendering the inner ground ready for the novel leap forward that is Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga of Supramental Descent and its labour towards even physical transformation. A testimony to Ramakrishna's relation in the inner domain to that leap is an admission by Sri Aurobindo² in a letter ...
... Shakti both you and myself whether secretly or openly. But you must know the necessary result will be that you will have to follow that special way which He has given to me and which I call the integral Yoga. What I began with, what was given to me by Lele, that was a seeking for the path, a wandering around in this and that direction touching this or that in all the old partial Yogas; lifting it... possible. Whatever risk there is must be taken for the nature here is born for the yoga and ought not be denied its opportunity. He must be made to understand fully the character and demands of the integral yoga. Next for Kumar Krishna Mitter. He is no doubt what you say, a type of the rich and successful man, but the best kind of that type and cast on sound and general lines. There is besides indicated ...
... Human Cycle and The Ideal of Human Unity he had indicated the contours of the future society and the future humanity; and in The Synthesis of Yoga he had set forth the dynamics of the Integral Yoga that were to be the means of self-perfection and world-transformation. What, then, remained? It was decreed indeed that man should change, and his world should change, and that the Superman... is noted here, including the secret of other Yogas also." 9 It is thus an advance on The Life Divine which is the Groundwork of Knowledge and The Synthesis of Yoga Which is the Manual of Integral Yoga. In Savitri, theory teams with practice, Truth is wedded to Shakti, and both career towards the goals of Realisation. We proceed from the "what may we hope for?" — tattva, hita and puruṣārtha ...
... pervasive and deeper phenomenon, of which only some limited and superficial aspects are recognised in modern psychology. This essay aims at explicating the deeper nature of identification as viewed in Integral Yoga psychology. As a psychological concept, identification has several different though related meanings and implications. These various meanings and implications of the term may be understood... the need for dis-identification in order to free oneself from the influence of unconscious identifications which bind and limit the individual. From the viewpoint of the deeper psychology of Integral Yoga, however, there are two types of identification - one which leads to ignorance and bondage, and one that leads to knowledge and freedom. Two Types of Identification The two kinds of ...
... Aurobindo wrote back: "His soul was bright, but it became brighter after his coming here." Amal Kiran Writes* At 7.20 p.m. on 9 May 1997 one of the old guard of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga breathed his last. But when I looked intently at his face as he lay in his room for a last look of farewell by his friends, I did not see the proverbial peace as if all work had come to an end.... Sri Aurobindo wrote just two simple yet highly significant words: "Distant indifference." Nagin's correspondence has been published, and is of great importance; for certain aspects of the Integral Yoga are brought forward there more strikingly than anywhere else. Looking at Nagin's unassuming appearance, his face always faintly smiling as if to himself and his highly shuffling gait, one would ...
... of the "Integral Yoga" propounded by modern India's greatest spiritual figure, Sri Aurobindo who, by the way, was educated at Milton's own University, Cambridge, and has written, among other things, the sole full-blown epic that, after Paradise host's 10,565 lines, has seen the light in English: Savitri, A Legend and a Symbol, whose lines add up to 23,837. Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga envisages ...
... and Critic, Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1994, pp. 306-07. Page 62 The Mother and SriAurobindo are the guiding spirits of the Ashram. The Ashram is the nucleus of the Integral Yoga where the true Indian consciousness, the consciousness of the Divine and Eternal, is sought to be developed on the basis of a new, dynamic solution to the problems of life. K.D. Sethna... as well as its most external and diverse issues, man in every mode and field - the thinker and scientist, the artist and the mystic. Reminiscences, essays, stories, talks on Art and Culture, Integral Yoga and world problems have poured from his pen. K.D. Sethna's untiring effort has been to bring out the in-ner truth of manifold activities and problems of human life. 7. "The ...
... seer of truth rolled into one, this rare and forceful combination of the Apollonian and the Dionysian that makes his personality so very integral and attractive. For, is not the purpose of the Integral Yoga in one sense to reunite the diverse and even seemingly contradictory elements in our nature in and around the inmost soul, to offer this many-petalled unity at the Feet Divine with a Page... will and aspiration that He may fill this flower with His sweetness and joy so as to make this earth a little more fra-grant, a little more beautiful? Or to put it differently, is not Integral Yoga an opening of our entire humanity to the divine influx from above so that all in us may be gradually moulded into a diviner image that can widely receive and flawlessly transmit the Divine Influence ...
... the world. As a result of the exhaustion of the forces of Darkness in his willingly accepted "death", he sought for his companion, the Mother, an easier passage in the future to the goal of his Integral Yoga. And, through the Mother's physical transformation, the path was to be cleared for the race to evolve from humanity to supermanhood. Sri Aurobindo meant to concentrate in his co-worker the achievement... follow..." 3 1 Ibid., p. 472. 2 Ibid., pp. 473-74. 3 Ibid., p. 474. Page 144 A change still more radical and revolutionary in the dynamics of the Integral Yoga was required in 1950. When Sri Aurobindo and the Mother saw the necessity of one of them abandoning the body and Sri Aurobindo chose to withdraw from his physical sheath on December 5, he began ...
... 376, 377 Nirvana (nirvāṇa), 119, 120, 136, 167, 170,71, 216, 226-30, 365, 367, 373, 380, Buddhistic, 226, 375 and cosmic consciousness, 223- 25 and the Integral Yoga, 228-29 motive forces behind the push to, 225 Sri Aurobindo's experience of, 376 -77 Non-Being (Asat, Non-Existence), 29, 30, 31, 135, 368, 374, 377 Occultism... , 140, 161-66, 260, 325, 337, 357-58, 368, 374, 391-92 cf. Divine, the Samadhi, 211-19 dream-state of, 214-15 in the Gita, 217, 218 meaning of, in the Integral Yoga, 217 Nirvikalpa, 213 in the Yoga of devotion, 216 in the Yoga of Knowledge, 216 Sankhya, 103, 123fn, 136, 345 Sanskaras, 33, 34 Page 424 ...
... the Mother The supreme significance of yoga, of the history of synthesis of yoga, as also of the history of specialized systems of yoga comes out clearly in the new synthesis of yoga or Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. There is, we come to realize, a secret intention behind the entire endeavour of yoga. Yoga is a methodized effort towards self-perfection, by the expression of... exceptional use of powers that life and World-Energy have already manifested or is progressively organising in a less exalted but in a more general operation. In the light of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, we find that the earlier systems of yoga, specialised or synthetic, have prepared a vast background, and each one of them has fathomed some secret truth of the potentialities of human nature ...
... including the physical consciousness. In fact, in pursuance of these double processes; Sri Aurobindo has spoken of a new integral yoga of three transformations, psychic transformation, spiritual transformation, and supramental transformation. In the literature relating to the integral yoga, Sri Aurobindo has presented the yoga of self-perfection and described in detail the psychology of what he calls, ...
... studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I.A.S. in 1955 but in 1956, he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry and participated in numerous educational experiments... Joshi Education for Character Development . Education for Tomorrow Education at Crossroads A National Agenda for Education Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Landmarks of Hinduism The Veda and Indian Culture Glimpses of Vedic Literature The Portals of Vedic Knowledge ...
... 1931) studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for I.A.S. in 1955 but in 1956 he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry and participated in numerous educational experiments... Languages, Youth Affairs and UNESCO affairs. He is currently Chairman of Auroville Foundation and of Indian Council of Philosophical Research. His published works include: Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Education for Character Development, Education for Tomorrow, Education at Crossroads, Glimpses of Vedic Literature and Veda and Indian Culture. ...
... Supermind in Integral Yoga Introduction The new synthesis of the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother has come to be known as the Integral Yoga 1 . This yoga has, as its first basis, the Vedantic realization of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss (Sachchidananda) as the ultimate reality and the ultimate foundation of the universe and all that is in the universe ...
... Aurobindo and the Mother in the development of the new synthesis of yoga will prove to be of direct relevance and momentous significance. page - 126 Total Transformation: The Keyword of the Integral Yoga The one word that brings out centrally the novelty of the objective and method of the new synthesis of yoga is "transformation". The yoga of the new evolution that would lead humanity into... last, ... there must take place as a crowning movement the ascent into the Supennind and the trans- forming descent of the supramental Consciousness into our entire being and nature." 73 Integral Yoga: Supermind and Humanity The most significant thing about the "Synthesis of Yoga" is that it is indispensably connected with the solutions that are being sought after by humanity to resolve ...
... Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Part Five Objections against Spiritual Theory of Evolution: Answers Against this spiritual theory of evolution, many objections can be raised. Metaphysical objection against Evolutionary Teleology It may be contended that if there is an ultimate Reality, which is infinite, perfect and absolute... synthesis of yoga. Everything in the world follows its fixed habits Page 53 which is to it a law and resists a radical change. The revolution attempted in this new synthesis of yoga or integral yoga requires that every vital fibre has to be persuaded to accept an entire renunciation of all that hitherto represented to its own existence. In the words of Sri Aurobindo: "Mind has to cease ...
... Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Part Three Spiritual Theory of Evolution In contrast to these theories, the spiritual theory of the evolutionary process expounded by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is not speculative in character, but it is based upon the results that they obtained through a rigorous experimentation in the domain of yogic experiences... evolution, which can be resolved only if (a) some knowledge that has been missing so far is discovered, attained and utilized for arriving at a new synthesis of yoga, and (b) the resultant synthetic or Integral Yoga can be successfully employed so as to discover the as-yet undiscovered new knowledge and new processes of developing supramental consciousness on the earth conditions and in the physical consciousness ...
... Integral Yoga of Transformation Part Four How the Psychic Consciousness Develops There are two domains of consciousness, psychic and superconscient, where we need to look for, if we are in search of true knowledge and integral knowledge. Psychic consciousness is, as we have noted earlier, the inmost consciousness in the individual, and we find that... The soul may attempt through Jnana yoga, Bhakti yoga, Karma yoga or any other system of yoga, depending upon what element in our composition finds it more appropriate or useful. Through the integral yoga, the soul aims at the contact with the spiritual Page 46 reality for a larger and comprehensive aim. The soul may attempt to achieve the contact with the spiritual reality mainly through ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga VII On Self-surrender to the Divine Self-resignation to the Divine, entire and sincere, at all moments and under all circumstances, is the key-element in the process of Sadhana on the path of the Integral Yoga. 'My God and my all!' should be the all-comprehensive Mantra arising from the depths of the heart ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XXV The conquest over the Hostile Forces Sri Ramakrishna, the Saint of Dakshineswara, speaks at one place in course of his autobiographical narration: "Do you know, how many things I used to see when I would go into meditation? One day while I was meditating under a Bilva tree, the Evil Being came to me and... with these hostile forces also. In fact, they fulfil a very necessary role in the life of the sadhakas, although in a negative and roundabout way. Let us explain. When any sadhaka of the Integral Yoga starts on the path of his sadhana, he has to carry with him a heavy load of weaknesses and difficulties pertaining to his lower nature. But many of these frailties and foibles remain quite hidden ...
... and dazzling chimera! "I am afraid, Dilip, your letter too does very much the same thing. For in spite of your disclaimer, you practically come to the conclusion that all my nonsense about Integral Yoga and karma being as much a way to realisation as jnana and bhakti is either a gleaming chimera or practicable only by Avatars or else a sheer laborious superfluity - since one can jump straight... follows. Sri Aurobindo Ashram was formally established at Pondicherry in the year 1926. Aspirants started flocking to the Ashram and stayed there with the avowed intention of practising the Integral Yoga as propounded by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. But from the early forties, due to exigencies created by the Second World War, young children too started coming to the Ashram. For their proper education ...
... the puritan is rewarded with celestial joys and afterwards again pampered for the same virtues and good deeds in a new terrestrial existence." (Ibid., p. 805) True truth: Vision of the Integral Yoga: "... a law or chain of Karma is only an outward machinery and cannot be elevated... as the sole and absolute determinant of the life-workings of the cosmos..." (Ibid., pp. 807-08) ... true end of the cycle." (Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Cent. Ed., p. 833) That is the ancient view, but our way of looking at things is different. We affirm that in the Vision of the Integral Yoga the consummation of a triple immortality is the crown of rebirth. Let us explain. "... normally, when we insist on the soul's undying existence [the immortality of the soul], what is meant ...
... to take place? It would be a full identification in the self as in the old Adwaita Yoga; but what of the union in the whole being? A sadhak of integral Yoga who stops short at the Impersonal is no longer a sadhak of integral Yoga. Impersonal realisation is the realisation of the silent Self, of the pure Existence, Consciousness and Bliss in itself without any perception of an Existent ...
... The Mother Abides - Final Reflections A Canadian Question l It is written in A Practical Guide to Integral Yoga: "The physical nearness to the Mother is indispensable for the fullness of the sadhana on the physical plane. Transformation of the physical and external being is not possible otherwise. " (Sri Aurobindo) My question is: How are... these words in the light of the Mothers recent passing? Does this mean that a full transformation is no longer possible to the aspirant? Or has discipleship on the material level in the path of the Integral Yoga come to an end? Obviously, the immediate programme of a physical transformation is postponed—not cancelled. But what we have been given is not less of a miracle. Mother has prepared for ...
... even denied it. At the most it would be a richer experience in the sense that the same truth is tasted and enjoyed in various ways. But such is not the character of the supramental or Integral Yoga. This Yoga does not aim at kicking the ladder of existence down once you are up beyond. It seeks to integrate the Beyond and the Here-Below, make of the mundane an expression and embodiment of... not to reject or minimise any experience or stick to some only as valuable but embrace all and to put them together, make a synthesis out of them. This synthesis is the very character of the Integral Yoga. And it can be reached only by rising beyond the experiences given for synthesis. A higher poise of consciousness only can find the point of union among different elements and the function and ...
... that so?" "Exactly." "You see, in our Yoga, we don't need them. The Mother's Yoga, which is also mine, takes up the essence of all the systems and goes beyond them; it is therefore a new and Integral Yoga. The realisations that are obtained by following other Yogas can be had in ours too without your having to perform Pranayama and Asanas. Do you think you could have trained yourselves to do all... ess. All has to be an offering to the Divine - and now there is the varied crowd of apparently ordinary things of life to be woven into the spiritual practice. I have always called my path the Integral Yoga and held that all life is Yoga, but now in a more extended sense this yogic integrality has to come into play." "The Mother does so much for us, and yet why is it that we fail to realise the ...
... what will be the future of the Ashram, of the sadhana...", he was checked by Sastry with a twitching of his eyebrows: Passing, passing... who passed away and where?.... The Master of Integral Yoga is here, as intensely and concretely as ever.... Yes, those that have been looking up to him for guidance and aid in Yoga have not felt him gone, have not felt themselves orphaned, have not felt... as the sadhana had entered the subconscient and even inconscient regions, there were bound to be mounting difficulties because of the intractability of physical determinism. But the aim of the integral Yoga was to replace the physical determinism that seemed to be so irresistible by a new freedom and puissance resulting from the infusion into the very cells of the body by the Supramental force. It ...
... The Human Cycle and The Ideal of Human Unity he had indicated the contours of the future society and the future humanity; and in The Synthesis of Yoga he had set forth the dynamics of the integral Yoga that were to be the means of self-perfection and world-transformation. What, then, remained? It was decreed indeed that man should change, and his world should change, and that the Superman... is noted here, including the secret of other Yogas also." 16 It is thus an advance on The Life Divine which is the Groundwork of Knowledge and The Synthesis of Yoga which is the manual of Integral Yoga. In Savitri, theory teams with practice. Truth is wedded to Shakti, and both career towards the goals of Realisation. We proceed from the 'what can we know?' of The Life Divine and the 'what ...
... are certain methods in the Tantras to open the chakras from below, whereas in the integral yoga the chakras open from above by the descent of the Mother's force. What is the difference between the results of the opening of the cakras in these two systems? In Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga, there are no such rigid rules and distinctions. Each one follows his path and has his ...
... are useful in our ideal of physical transformation and integral yoga. I cannot see the difference between spectators in a match and the brokers in a stock exchange getting all jumpy and excited. "In truth, all these different activities in man's life, literature, sculpture, handicraft, engineering, if they do not help in the Integral Yoga then all these are meaningless and futile labour." ...
... While describing the instruments of Yoga-Siddhi, Sri Aurobindo says in The Synthesis of Yoga: The supreme Shastra of the integral Yoga is the eternal Veda secret in the heart of every thinking and living being .... As the supreme Shastra of the integral Yoga is the eternal Veda secret in the heart of every man, so its supreme Guide and Teacher is the inner Page 14 Guide ...
... of her avatar-role in the terrestrial play certainly helped to clear the Ashram atmosphere of the vapours of misunderstanding and doubt, and create conditions for the energetic pursuit of the Integral Yoga of Perfection and Transformation. It may be recalled that following the Siddhi day, there was the "brilliant period" of the Ashram which had to be brought to an end towards the middle of 1927... VI The collections of the Mother's words relating to the different periods of her life are really an easy and persuasive introduction to the theory and practice of Yoga, the Integral Yoga of life-transformation and world-transformation. Unlike the entries in Prayers and Meditations, which were originally written in French, the conversations of 1929 and many of 1930 and 1931 ...
... Nature adjusted its movements to his sovereign peace and poised activity. VII Of the remaining talks, each has its distinct enlightening message that is of direct relevance to the Integral Yoga. There is this question, for example: What is the reaction of consciousness when one is in the presence of the Sublime and the Beautiful? The Mother herself makes this disarming confession: ... from above that answers. 32 Avatar after avatar has added rung upon rung to the Ladder of consciousness, and the step that is being added now is the Supramental. But the whole aim of the Integral Yoga is both to reach the Supramental and join this summit to the bottom, thereby bringing about a total change and transfiguration of human and terrestrial life. The talks cover indeed the whole ...
... circumstances under which Sri Aurobindo's and the Mother's letters were written, in retrospect they are of capital importance today, partly for the light they throw on the theory and practice of Integral Yoga, partly for their revealing hints on Sri Aurobindo's endeavour to bring the supramental consciousness into the everyday experience of man and the earth, and partly as readings in the yogic ca... apaswaras or false notes more easily strike the ear, while the great bass, the sruti, is apt to be ignored or merely taken for granted; and the wordless music of the sadhana of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga needed almost a new sense for its right understanding or assessment. IV Some idea of the sort of relationship that prevailed between a sadhak and the Mother - not wholly untypical ...
... The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo CHAPTER XXII KNOWLEDGE—THE LIGHT THAT FULFILS PART I WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE IN yogic parlance and spiritual philosophy knowledge does not mean mental knowledge. Mental knowledge is a knowledge of objects taken as separate integers or aspects, and not viewed as indivisible parts of a universal whole... means, grades and object of knowledge, as taught by Sri Aurobindo, and conclude this chapter with an indication of the harmonious fulfilment knowledge is meant to bestow upon the sâdhaka of the Integral Yoga. Page 361 ...
... who have given all of themselves that are chosen. Page 319 This completeness of the turning is the most decisive and determining factor in spiritual life. Especially, in the integral Yoga of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, nothing abiding can be achieved without an integral surrender. Experiences in the mind and the heart, or even in the higher and deeper reaches of consciousness... realisation. Page 322 Glory to Thee, O Lord, Supreme Master of all realisation. Give us a faith active and ardent, absolute and unshakable, in Thy Victory” In the integral Yoga self-surrender can be said to be the very first step, which means that for the overcoming of difficulties as well as for the purification of our nature, we depend not upon our e own strength ...
... must include the perfection and fulfilment of all. The same idea is expressed by Sri Aurobindo in The Synthesis of Yoga, (Book I: Part one, Ch. 2) "Accepting life, [the sadhaka of the integral Yoga] has to bear not only his own burden, but a great part of the world's burden too along with it, as a continuation of his own sufficiently heavy load. Therefore his Yoga has much more of the nature... purpose of the immanence of the Divine in the world, the aim of creation itself—the perfect Manifestation, the intended Epiphany of the Spirit in Matter. According to Sri Aurobindo, the aim of his Integral Yoga is not only to seek and realise the Divine but to call upon Him to manifest Himself in and through us in the material world. That is not only Union, but Union multiplied, universalised and dynamically ...
... life. During the second half of his Ashram life one of his missions was to write and express his experience in Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga and his appreciation of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. He has to his credit a number of books like, In the Mother's Light, The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo Part I & II, The Divine Collaborators etc. His book : Sri Aurobindo—His Life Unique was written as one inspired ...
... not yet been achieved, not yet clearly visualised, even though it is one natural but still secret outcome of all the past spiritual endeavour." What Sri Aurobindo envisages as the aim of his Integral Yoga,—for he holds up not only the sublime; Page 53 ideal, but gives a definite guidance on the way to its realisation,—is "not an individual achievement of divine realisation for... at all needed, that she knew what she meant by Manifestation; and what she meant was exactly what Sri Aurobindo has always held up Page 55 before humanity as the ideal of his Integral Yoga and the goal of the evolutionary march of Nature. In her Prayer of August 8, 1913, she calls upon the essential divine harmony which is immanent in all things to manifest itself "in the most ...
... divine harmony within, and as its result "a changed earth and a nobler and happier humanity". Next in importance was The Synthesis of Yoga, a detailed exposition of the classical Yogas and of the integral Yoga that was to include and exceed them all; and The Secret of the Veda, a new and original interpretation of the esoteric truths concealed in the Vedic universe of symbols that earlier commentators... forced marches and sudden setbacks, followed by fresh leaps forward. And this uncertainty, this unpredictability, this continual siege of contrarieties, must be all the more exasperating with an "integral Yoga" that aims at a many-faceted and total change and transformation of oneself and one's surroundings and the whole * Speaking about this experience later, the Mother said on 8 October 1947 ...
... The forecast came true and finally in 1923 Champaklal came to Pondicherry to offer himself in the service of the Divine. He dedicated himself to the practice of Integral Yoga under the guidance of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The Integral Yoga as developed by Sri Aurobindo aims to enhance the experience of God-Consciousness in men, matter and nature.. He served both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother for ...
... how perfectly coiffed is her trademark silvery hair. Her speech is soft and gentle, her movements feminine and graceful, but inwardly she is a warrior soul in her pursuit of the practice of the Integral Yoga. The redolent aura of her beauty carries with it a sense of the beauty and presence of the Mother. Aster had told us that as a young girl in the Ashram, she watched the Mother with fascination —... experiences and how vital it was to share her life’s experiences of the Ashram, with the Mother and Sri Aurobindo and in Auroville and how it would be a source of inspiration for other seekers of the Integral Yoga for many years to come. This helped her to open up and over a two day period I transcribed eight hours of a flow of words that spun out like threads of pure silk until at the end of the eight hours ...
... govern, to battle and conquer, to lead and turn their cycles, to direct the total and the individual lines of their forces." 7 Such is Gayatri in the language of what we may call the Tantra in the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. The lower world, more specifically this mrityuloka, is the great concern of Savitri. She is the power of the ever-expanding divine creation in an evolutionary way in this... to the Divine Shakti and her response, that she shall descend carrying all mights and greatnesses in her, are sufficiently indicative of the role of the Tantra in the efficacy of the Integral Yoga. To effect transformation in all the details, including even our obdurate physical constitution, she incarnates herself here. She is bom as a daughter to the Tapasvin. "Again and again we are drawn ...
... great nation would be bom, and all those who acknowledge Him as their God would ascend and descend, and His kingdom will be established amidst the people that he had chosen. Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga expounded in The Life Divine is like Jacob's ladder that envisages ascending and descending of the Spirit. This has been further perfected and deepened in Savitri that exposes his own ascending... of all suffering and knowledge is the one that liberates the bound self. The Yoga of Aswapati is an allegory in Savitri where Sri Aurobindo sets him up as an example of the practice of the Integral Yoga. Once one has set one's goal right, the aspiration to be the light of God upon the Earth, and is not afraid of the difficult path, the endeavor begins in the earnest. It is like a farmer who ...
... Intuition, Overmind. A fifth and highest plane, which he named Supermind and whose realisation above on its own peaks and ultimate descent below into the physical being are the aim of his own Integral Yoga, was regarded by him as not having directly manifested yet. The absence cannot help being regretted of what would have been a unique expository and elucidative document on the unusual... a time when there were no physical pointers to it and with a symbolic prefiguring of the spiritual situation that his departure from his own body would face his comrade and co-worker in the Integral Yoga — the Mother. Both in quality and quantity Savitri must be counted as remarkable even among the world's remarkable achievements. With its 23,813 lines,* it is the longest poem in the ...
... Shakthi both you and myself whether secretly or openly. But you must know the necessary result will be that you will have to follow that special way which He has given to me and which I call the integral Yoga. What I began with, what was given to me by Lele, that was a seeking for the path, a wandering around in this and that direction touching this or that in all the old partial Yogas; lifting it... possible. Whatever risk there is must be taken for the nature here is born for the yoga and ought not be denied its opportunity. He must be made to understand fully the character and demands of the integral yoga. Next for Kumar Krishna Mitter. He is no doubt what you say, a type of the rich and successful man, but the best kind of that type and cast on sound and general lines. There is besides indicated ...
... parallels between some of the above-stated views of psychotherapy and the teachings of his Integral Yoga regarding the fact that there are many parts or aspects of oneself of which the individual is largely unaware and of which one needs to be conscious for achieving inner harmony. The basic teachings of Integral Yoga in this regard are expressed in the following two quotations from Sri Aurobindo and the ...
... "I am afraid," Sri Aurobindo went on to add, "your letter too does very much the same thing. For in spite of your disclaimer, you practically come to the conclusion that all my nonsense about integral Yoga and karma being as much a way to realisation as jnana — and bhakti is either a gleaming chimera or practicable only by Avatars or else a sheer laborious superfluity — (since one can jump straight... So why on earth must one stick to the mantra: yat karomi Jaganmata-stadeva tava pujanam (whatever I do, O World Mother, is an oblation to thee!)? Lastly, I asked him whether his new-fangled Integral Yoga could really succeed with anyone who was not congenitally a Hercules? "Nayamatma valahinena labhyah" said the Upanishad. But, if "'none but strong deserved the fair Soul's favours", what hope ...
... to stand in its way but to let it handle all our difficulties and remove all our obscurities. This could be taken as the self-surrender which is at the heart of the dynamics of the Integral Yoga. The Integral Yoga is also known as the Supramental Yoga. Sri Aurobindo has said that nobody by his own efforts can reach the Supermind. One can rise to the Overmind by one's personal spiritual endeavour ...
... Ashram's history. However, we looked upon it as an exception and not as the beginning of a rule. I well remember the time when it was taken for granted that Sri Aurobindo would complete the Integral Yoga by a transformation of his very body so that, just as there would be no ignorance or obscurity in the mind and no impurity and incapacity in the vital being, the body would acquire a divine nature... contradict this expectation. It was important as a fact simply because no member of the Ashram had died but it had no far-reaching significance since he was a man of advanced age who had joined the Integral Yoga very late in life: no one could argue that the Yoga could suddenly put time in reverse and perpetuate a body naturally gone far on the way to a breakdown. Incidentally, another condition ...
... surrender could be until Mirra surrendered herself to me - totally, down to every cell of her body." Here was revealed to him in fullness what he later made the central motive-power for us of his Integral Yoga of Supramental Transformation - the utter self-giving possible to the inmost soul - the psychic being - the foundational state without which a divinised earth-life cannot be built up. A date basic... of both, in the midst of aspiring mankind. However, the fact still stands that the Mother has physically withdrawn herself and that because of her withdrawal the crowning phase of the Integral Yoga has come in for postponement. This fact should give pause to the idea often put forth that now, with the Mother's freedom from attending to her body, her power over the earth has increased: she ...
... "Here is one more problem to solve." Evidently he had the subject of physical Supramentalisation in mind. So we may say that up to the end of 1938 there was no question of changing the range of his Integral Yoga, And the hope the Mother had earlier expressed of curing me by the Super-mind's power was still a golden prospect. Even in 1950 Sri Aurobindo did not radically change his range; only, he for a... Reply in place of Nirod As regards physical transformation, it is not only Amal who has written that it is postponed: Nolini also said the same thing. Several doers of the Integral Yoga have wonderful experiences seeming to relate to the body. But these experiences are really in the subtle-physical and, in spite of them, the gross-physical remains unchanged. Neither Sri Aurobindo ...
... rancour, anger, desire, falsehood, ambition, unrest. Change of consciousness as a consequence of inner union with the Divine is the radiant core of the Aurobindonian life, the central fountain of the Integral Yoga. Unless this change is brought about in intense earnest, the attention given to physical cells will be a side- Page 32 track and prove to be a blind alley. I know that the Mother... was to the Mother's. Perhaps as representative leaders of the whole of human life's activity to the spiritual goal both he and the Mother had to pass through all phases of it before founding the Integral Yoga. As regards the French "imbecile" and the English "moron", about which I made some observations in a letter in Mother India I am making unexpected discoveries. I suppose the French locution ...
... the highest Purusha and His Shakti have projected in order to assist and consummate our evolution, we should pass our lives. At least, this is what I strive to do, this is what I define as my "Integral Yoga". The sweet and hallowed memories of the Mother's heart-hushing movements and Sri Aurobindo's mind-kindling repose as I have known them down the years are fundamentally the process I feel as... Page 193 the Divine Mother! It was the thrilling presage of a transformed humanity, a perfected earth-life. This prophetic part of the "experience" denoted the new turn given by the Integral Yoga - the creative turn - to the glorious escapism of the old spirituality, the grand flight from the finite and the fugitive. No ultimate power was conceived in the past as coming back from the Absolute ...
... mine on her, published in the Bombay paper The Sunday Standard of February 17, 1952, told me: "When I read anything written on me in public, all my hair stands up! Speak about the aim of the Integral Yoga, the method of doing it, but I don't like my personality to be pushed forward. Not that I have any false modesty. I know where 1 have come from, but the thing of value for the world is our teaching... devices, but a flame and a fragrance of God which has swept into our very surface and pervaded each movement of our external life. This transformation may seem just the initial definitive step of the Integral Yoga, but actually it is one that will prove to be the final basis of the fulfilment of Sri Aurobindo's work in the world. For the Supermind cannot be established on earth except through a soul-suffused ...
... our Gurus, according to the choice of our Gurus, are natural. But the question is whether the disciples are encouraged to have connections with the Gods and Goddesses. Here, as elsewhere in the Integral Yoga, there are no hard-and-fast rules and several things are not objected to if they serve as temperamental aids. Yet the general stand is clear. Has not the Mother emphatically said that those who... not signify that investitures of the sacred thread among non-Ashramites or even an Ashram-marriage like the one to which I have alluded can be made a rule of the spiritual life according to the Integral Yoga. The Aurobindonian spirituality, in the Ashram version, goes fundamentally beyond sacred threads and procreative marriages and indeed looks upon such things as what I have dubbed "old-world foibles" ...
... itself bring in the long run the liberating largeness of the Atman, though a conscious urge Page 153 for the latter would establish it in us sooner. The sine qua non of the Integral Yoga is that aspiration. And I surely cannot pit Buddha's path or the old Vedantin way against the Aurobindonian ideal: I should be not only going against the vision I have had of Truth but also con... idealists do. The direct touch of the Divine is the sole experience capable of giving basic satisfaction, radical peace - and what best constitutes that touch is the process of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga with its blend of the psychic, the spiritual and the supramental, and its special insistence on the whole being moving forward by degrees, in an intimate rapture which is at the same time intense ...
... would go as far as Pondicherry!" In December 1927, when he was still a student of the M.A. class, Sethna visited the Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry and decided to stay there and practise the Integral Yoga. He did not complete his post-graduate course, and he never regretted this. Page 4 How the guru came to him is an interesting story, good enough raw material to make... they wanted. Far from the common turmoil, they became sadhaks ready to go into their selves Page 8 While Pondicherry gave the mental peace Sethna wanted, the practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo provided him with an abundance of energy. A clean-shaven man with a handsome face, his years rest lightly upon him. Since 1949 he has been editing Mother India, a Review ...
... of Supramental Descent and Transformation. 1 Most certainly the Supramental Transformation includes as its crown and climax a supramentalised physical body. Sri Aurobindo looked upon his "Integral Yoga" as the swift-moving concentration of the Yoga which Nature has been doing over the aeons, and he clearly laid down in the very first chapter of The Life Divine that the Supermind is "involved"... that, though she had considered death as possible, she never accepted it as probable and she worked unremittingly for the physical divinisation with which Sri Aurobindo wanted to consummate the Integral Yoga: never did she accept any natural compulsion to leave the body. It may be argued: "When Sri Aurobindo's body was put in a casket and laid in a vault in the Ashram courtyard, did she not ask ...
... of supramentalisation so as to make the task easier for others by her success. The physical absence of the Gurus is bound to postpone the success of the disciples in this particular part of the Integral Yoga—the postponement will end not before one of the Gurus reappears in some fashion or the manifested Supermind and the Superman Consciousness start operating directly in the forefront of universal... spiritual strategy was called for by the Supreme Will—the Will of the Mother's own highest Self—and the Mother in her incarnate role responded. There have been unexpected turns in the past of the Integral Yoga. After the descent of the Overmind into the body on November 24, 1926, the Mother tried to bring down divine beings from the highest spiritual level to work in the human instruments and she could ...
... Splendour. Of course, even among Mother's fourth of humanity which may not be obsolescent, not everybody needs to accept the new poetic inflatus as a means of spiritual sadhana. The Integral Yoga is not a monopoly of those with a taste for poetry, although that and much more might be added along the way. No justification, therefore, for superiority or inferiority complexes in this ... the example of Sri Aurobindo's exceptional and truly catholic range of interests. He has been able to develop the wide-ranging intellect and sympathy one may expect from a follower of the Integral Yoga. Thus, among other things, he has written on Shakespeare, Blake, Mallarme, on Indian history and philology, on the philosophy of the new physics, on Teilhard de Chardin and on Christian theology ...
... politics and off-and-on companion in the spiritual quest. This letter is one of the ‘stock-taking’ documents in Sri Aurobindo’s life. He makes clear that his is ‘a special way,’ which he calls the Integral Yoga, given to him by ‘the Guru of the world who is within us’ and who ‘gave me the complete direction of my path, its full theory, the ten limbs of the body of the Yoga.’ The old way of yoga ‘would... is the formless that has taken form, and that assumption of name and form is not a caprice of Maya. The positive necessity of form has brought about the assumption of form. And to work out the Integral Yoga the form has to be transformed, which is not possible as a personal undertaking but only as a sangha.’ And Sri Aurobindo added: ‘We do not want to exclude any of the world’s activities.’ 37 ...
... which is not known to any religion are the sole things which will be the foundation of the work of the future . Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Himself and the Ashram: Islam, Hinduism, and the Integral Yoga The Mother has explained: Jesus is one of the many forms which the Divine has assumed to enter into relationship with the earth. But there are and there will be many others; and the... relation with the world . Sri Aurobindo's view: Our Yoga is not a retreading of old walks but a spiritual adventure . Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II: Transformation in the Integral Yoga He also says: My truth is one that rejects ignorance and falsehood and moves to the knowledge, rejects darkness and moves to the light, rejects egoism and moves to the Divine Self rejects ...
... the soul in nature the signs of the divine knowledge, power and bliss of being. It is this double orientation united by the common principle which will determine the movement of equality in the integral Yoga. The effort towards a passive or purely receptive equality may start from three different principles or attitudes which all lead to the same result and ultimate consequence,—endurance, indifference... guidance of the divine and universal Will and make it ready for that supramental action in which the power of the soul in us is luminously full of and one with the power of the supreme Spirit. The integral Yoga will make use of both the passive and the active methods according to the need of the nature and the guidance of the inner spirit, the Antaryamin. It will not limit itself by the passive way, for ...
... thought and action and feeling and love proceed from him and return to him, all their results have him for source and support and secret goal. It is to this Godhead, this Being that the Bhakti of an integral Yoga will be poured out and uplifted. Transcendent, it will seek him in the ecstasy of an absolute union; universal, it will seek him in infinite quality and every aspect and in all beings with a universal... by which he envisages and approaches him. But to be able to see a living form, a mental body, as it were, of the Divine gives to the approach a greater closeness and sweetness. The way of the integral Yoga of bhakti will be to universalise this conception of the Deity, to personalise him intimately by a multiple and an all-embracing relation, to make him constantly present to all the being and to ...
... all difference an abundant, rich and boundless realisation of the same divine and eternal Being. The complete realisation of unity is therefore the essence of the integral knowledge and of the integral Yoga. To know Sachchidananda one in Himself and one in all His manifestation is the basis of knowledge; to make that vision of oneness real to the consciousness in its status and in its action and to... existence is that ether in which all Conscious-Force and Delight exist unified and find themselves variously. For these are the seven principles of the manifest being of Sachchidananda. The integral Yoga of knowledge has to recognise the double nature of this manifestation,—for there is the higher nature of Sachchidananda in which He is found and the lower nature of mind, life and body in which ...
... of the aspects and experiences of the sadhana of devotion. We need only trace broadly the general line they follow before we turn to consider how the way of devotion enters into a synthetic and integral Yoga, what place it takes there and how its principle affects the other principles of divine living. All Yoga is a turning of the human mind and the human soul, not yet divine in realisation, but... fortress of the ascetic life of those services to men which seem peculiarly the out-flowing of the divine nature of love, compassion and good. But there is the wider self-consecration, proper to any integral Yoga, which, Page 573 accepting the fullness of life and the world in its entirety as the play of the Divine, offers up the whole being into his possession; it is a holding of all one is ...
... 1912-13. 107. 1912-13. Faces piece in the manuscript. 108. Circa 1927. 109. Late 1940s. Heading: "The Psychology of Integral Yoga". 110. Circa 1942. Heading: "Notes on Consciousness"; the piece is preceded by "1." (no further notes were written). 111. 1 September 1947. Heading: "C... 1930s. 151. 1930s. This piece includes what was published as piece 17 in the 1994 edition of Essays Divine and Human 152. Circa 1928-29. Heading: "The Aim of the Integral Yoga". 153. Circa 1913. The piece breaks off abruptly; it is likely that Sri Aurobindo intended to write about more than two aims of the sadhana (cf. piece 154). ...
... The Subconscient and the Inconscient and the Process of Yoga Letters on Yoga - IV Chapter I The Subconscient and the Integral Yoga The Change of the Subconscient The change of the subconscient is most important for our Yoga—for without it there can only be an incomplete personal experience without the change we seek for being established in the very... right impressions, right physical responses to the Truth. Strictly speaking, it will not be subconscient at all, but a sort of bank of true values held ready for use. Psycho-analysis and the Integral Yoga Your practice of psycho-analysis was a mistake. It has, for the time at least, made the work of purification more complicated, not easier. The psycho-analysis of Freud is the last thing that ...
... Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter I The Newness of the Integral Yoga Old and New Truth Well, I don't suppose the new race can be created by or according to logic or that any race has been. But why should the idea of the creation of a new race be illogical? It is not only my ideas that baffle reason, but Adhar ...
... Force working in us that in its natural course will open the subconscient to itself and bring down into it its control and light. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - IV: The Subconscient and the Integral Yoga Can one learn to control one’s subconscient as one controls one’s conscious thought? It is especially during the body’s sleep that one is in contact with the subconscient. In becoming... vital impulse, the physical feeling will begin to lose its last holds and finally they will be too feeble to cause any trouble. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - IV: The Subconscient and the Integral Yoga ...
... very existence here is an action; the whole universe is an act of God, mere living even is His movement. Sri Aurobindo Integral yoga is best done in work . The more I go, the more I know that it is in work that Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga is best done. The Mother Working for the Divine Your object is not only to practise yoga for your internal ...
... into the supramental Truth. The soul supports the nature in its evolution through these grades, but is itself not any of these things. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga The psychic being is organised around the divine spark. The divine spark is one, universal, the same everywhere and in everything, one and infinite, of the same kind in all. You cannot say... which is inherent in the deepest substance of the consciousness, a sense of the good, true, beautiful, the Divine, is its privilege. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga The word “soul“, as also the word “psychic”, is used very vaguely and in many different senses in the English language. More often than not in ordinary parlance no clear distinction is made ...
... that there are certain methods in the Tantras to open the chakras from below, whereas in the integral yoga the chakras open from above by the descent of the Mother's force. What is the difference between the results of the opening of the chakras in these two systems? In Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga, there are no such rigid rules and distinctions. Each one follows his own path and has his own ...
... Intuition, Overmind. A fifth and highest plane, which he named Supermind and whose realisation above on its own peaks and ultimate descent below into the physical being are the aim of his own "Integral Yoga", was regarded by him as not having directly manifested yet. The absence cannot help being regretted of what would have been a unique expository and elucidative document on the unusual poetic... a time when there were no physical pointers to it and with a symbolic prefiguring of the spiritual situation that or his departure from his own body would face his comrade and co-worker in the Integral Yoga—the Mother. Both in quality and quantity Savitri must be counted as remarkable even among the world's remarkable achievements. Page 150 With its 23,813 lines, 1 it is ...
... but his yoga extended the refinement of the 'mental bubble'; the reader thus understands that he did not know about the key to the yoga of the superman and was merely satisfied in teaching the integral yoga...." The misconception of this enthusiastic reader is like a demonstration in reverse of precisely what the "orthodox" reproached "Supermanhood" for, i.e., of having betrayed Sri Aurobindo... to this enthusiastic reader: Page 101 Pondicherry, 6. April 1971 You have a lot of nerve to say that Sri Aurobindo did not have the key to the yoga of the superman and that his integral yoga was a refinement of the mental bubble! And where have I learned what I write, if not from Mother and Sri Aurobindo? You forget that it is thanks to him that the yoga of the superman is possible ...
... the Upanishads, glimpses as if through what a line in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri designates; A gate of dreams ajar on mystery's verge. Soon followed the discovery of the Ashram of Integral Yoga at Pondicherry. I was doing my M.A. at the time. I had graduated in Philosophy, with Plato's Republic as my Honours-study. Now I had planned a thesis to embody the two sides of my nature which... more intellectualised intuition of the later seers the light caught by the ecstatic insight of the old Rishis to unify the temporal and the eternal. It also looks forward to Sri Aurobindo's own Integral Yoga of the Supermind's life-transformative power. A few months back I posted to you by surface mail my latest publication: The Obscure and the Mysterious - A Research in Mallarme's Symbolist ...
... inevitability. Thus Science has by many routes co- operated obliquely or straightforwardly with Sri Aurobindo's mission. Apart from the scientific milieu the integral Yoga would be an anachronism. Apart from the integral Yoga the scientific milieu would lose its deepest rationale. Living in that milieu and wanting to do Yoga, a man is bound to be restless and discontented until ...
... that all cosmos is an illusion recognises intensely the duhkha, the suffering of life in it, while dwelling with great exultation on the exit he has found from this duhkha. Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga is all the more realistic by not subscribing to illusionism in the Buddhist sense or even to the Gita's doctrine that though action in the world is never to be disdained as a revolving in... utterance is felt, can best utter its messages and its purposes through the incarnate Figure of Sri Aurobindo by words like "I" and "me" and "my": there is no incongruity in his saying, "My Integral Yoga." Your notions of individuality and personality strike me as very superficial: individuality and personality are not opposed to self-surrender and self-dedication to the Divine Mother nor ...
... Intuition (or Intuitive Mind), Overmind. Sri Page 215 Aurobindo does not just posit these levels and beyond them the Supermind: having had direct experience of them by means of his "Integral Yoga" he has described them and their workings in detail and, in his works of literary criticism, illustrated their peculiar seeing, verbal quality and expressive rhythm. Not finding any knowledge of... perception, mental or supramental." Now we know how far-removed Nair is from the Aurobindonian universe of discourse and how little he has cared to penetrate the deliverances of the Master of the Integral Yoga. His own insensitivity to shades of meaning lead Nair to convict Sri Aurobindo of misjudgment and contradiction in the above issue. The charge of contradiction is also laid at Sri Aurobindo's ...
... ess, 230 Independence of India, 1, 93 Crisis, evolutionary, 67-8 Indira Gandhi, 214 Influenza, epidemic of, 58 Integral perfection, 269-72 Integral yoga, 68-73, 251, 262, 269, 271 Page 283 Intuition,79,245-6, 249, 264-5, 268 1914 (Silence of Mental activity), 50-1, 52-3 Involution, 257-9 1915 (Departure... 1931) studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I.A.S. in 1955 but in 1956 he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry and participated in numerous educational experiments under ...
... the field of its apparent negation in order to accept laws for the moment and discard them when their necessity is over. And it is in this high and noble spirit that the Sadhakas of the Integral Yoga would like to tackle the problem of Death . It is not out of any sense of ignorant attachment to terrestrial life nor because of any pusillanimity before the prospect of their bodies' death that... being is at present subject, also since death and dissolution are no necessary attributes of life but have rather been introduced as a temporary expedient to serve the purpose of life itself, the Integral Yoga of Self-Perfection has set for its ultimate goal the annulment of 1 Bulletin, Vol. XVIII, No. 3, pp. 73, 75. Page 411 this doom of physical mortality . ...
... balking the material body's death and disintegration. On the other hand, the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo seeks to realize for man a radical victory over physical death itself, achieved here in the conditions of the earth. So we must now consider the attitude of the Sadhakas practising the Integral Yoga of transformation vis-à-vis the problem of Death and Immortality. 1 ...
... "Moksha" or "Liberation", and this Moksha can come only when all the accumulated karmas are exhausted to the last vestige by their annulment in a human body itself. We, the sadhakas of the Integral Yoga, hold a view completely different from the one elaborated above. According to our integral theory of world-manifestation, the perfect and final goal set before the terrestrial being called "man"... hereafter. Let us conclude this long chapter on the mystery of death by quoting a significant passage from the Mother's writings wherein she recommends the right attitude that a sadhaka of the Integral Yoga should always adopt vis-à-vis the body's death: Page 96 'Never want that death should arrive nor should you fear death even in the slightest degree. Do not try to cling on to your ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XXVI IS ALL THAT HAPPENS IN LIFE ALWAYS FOR THE BEST? Some time or other, whenever a sadhaka has to face a totally unapprehended turn of calamitous events which he cannot prevent with his all too limited power and resources, he asks himself this puzzling question: "Is my life rigorously governed by... sunlit path. Thus is validated the truth of the second half of the Mother's pithy statement: "Something better could have happpened." So the ideal attitude for the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga should Page 347 always be a double one: Once something has happened in his life, even though at times unpleasant in nature, he should accept it with equanimity and consider ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga XIII Sadhana through Love and Devotion (Prema-yoga) Most of us who claim to be sadhakas are under the impression that it is almost an obvious fact that we love the Divine. But the fact is otherwise. Our so-called love for the Divine is not love at all in the spiritual sense of the term: it is only... intended that a true God-lover should curtail his activities as much as practicable and pass most of his time in an indrawn state? No, surely that cannot be the avowed purpose of the Integral Yoga. One has to live a normal and effective life devoted to the service of the Divine, bat being all the time inwardly in touch with him. As Sri Aurobindo has so clearly stated: "This [constant] ...
... The Practice of the Integral Yoga X Personal Effort and the divine Grace While walking on the thorny path of spiritual Sadhana the sadhaka should never forget even for a moment that he is not alone in his arduous journey. But if not alone, who gives him companions hip on the Path? Is it any human comrade who is referred to here? No, certainly... ignorant individual. And we should not forget that it is the quality and the level of consciousness of the sadhaka 'Which alone matters in the spiritual field. Hence the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga should always keep in mind that he has to conduct his life and mould the ways of his action in accordance with the actual stage of his consciousness: he Should not seek to copy the mode of action ...
... vigour and surprising insight any poetical composition by Sri Aurobindo, we may point out the following stanza of the Yogi-Poet which K.D.S. considers "to sum up with mantric power the goal of the Integral Yoga": Arms taking to a voiceless supreme delight, Life that meets the Eternal with close breast, An unwalled mind dissolved in the Infinite, Force one with unimaginable rest. When... Sethna is a great expositor of Sri Aurobindo’s Philosophy and Yoga. He brings home to readers with utter lucidity the newness of the Mother’s integral World-Vision and different nuances of the Integral Yoga of Self-Transformation. He never fails to offer cogent answers to even the most difficult and serious queries sent him by his correspondents from all parts of the globe. He is no arm-chair theorist ...
... earth. The following section will be devoted to this issue and the elaboration will be mostly in Sri Aurobindo's words, although at times abridged and adapted. Rebirth in the Vision of the Integral Yoga The universe is a self-creative process of a supreme Reality whose universal presence makes Spirit the substance of all things in existence. All things are there as this Spirit's powers... terrestrial existence. This then is the rational and philosophical foundation for the phenomenon of rebirth in earthly life, and this is supported by the spiritual Vision-Experience of the Integral Yoga. Page 148 ...
... Let us elucidate. Everybody is well aware of the fact that Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry is a reputed spiritual institution known all over the world for its distinctive brand of the Integral Yoga, Puma Yoga. Many hundreds of sadhakas and sadhikas permanently residing there are seriously practising this integral way of self-development and self-transformation. And Sri Aurobindo International... what will be..." (Ibid., p. 404) Let us close this section on Study Courses in SAICE with three passages from Sri Aurobindo's The Synthesis of Yoga, which will make the position of his Integral Yoga-philosophy unambiguously clear. (1) "The spiritual life does not need, for its purity, to destroy interest in all things except the Inexpressible or to cut at the roots of the Sciences, the ...
... Integral Education for Integral Health Yogic Care of the Body Higher States of Consciousness and their power over the body's functions Physical Transformation by the Methods of Integral Yoga: What is Death? The Structure of the Body and the Problems of the inevitability of Death Causes of the Resistance of Matter Possibilities of the Radical Change in the... Education Although Yoga is not identical with physical culture or the system of Asanas and Pranayama, a perfection of physical culture is a part of the total perfection that is achieved by the Integral Yoga. The perfection of the body is primarily a question of the application of consciousness and powers of consciousness on the functions of the body. Given this basic assumption, the different ...
... Supermind in Integral Yoga Preface The most distinctive thesis of the Integral Yoga is that supramental consciousness can, by its descent in Matter transform earthly life into divine life. In other words, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have discovered the method by which supramental descent on the earth can be brought about and even Matter can manifest supramental ...
... Supermind in Integral Yoga Part Three Insights from the Veda and the Upanishad At the same time, it must be mentioned that we have, in the Veda and the Upanishads, as also in the Gita, great insights which can aid us in exploring this aspect of the integral yoga. (a) Ancient explorations had discovered that all aspects of the world-experience ...
... attempts at introducing a study of this phenomenon, in the light of the integral experience and realisations, which has been described in the Veda' Upanishads, Gita, and lastly, in Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, which reaffirms the integral experience as recorded in the texts of the Veda, Upanishads and the Gita as also those of Tantra, but which has affirmed the possibility and actualisation of the ... pettiness of our mortal existence." (Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, Vol. 20, SABCL, pp. 378-9) According to Sri Aurobindo, this chasm has to be bridged, and it is by the process of Integral Yoga in which the Infinite is experienced not merely at the mental plane and even at the overmental plane, but at the supramental plane that all the varieties of yogic experiences, even their conflicts ...
... effort is, indeed, assimilated in the new synthesis and, the significance of the past yogic efforts can best be grasped in the light of the new synthesis of yoga which has come to be called the Integral Yoga. There have been, in the Indian history of yoga, four great syntheses of yoga: the Vedic, the Upanishadic, the Vedantic as in the Gita, and the Tantrik. These four syntheses are fully reflected... al adventure of consciousness, which is marked by scientific rigour and thrust towards furnishing experiential proof of the knowledge and power gained by larger integral experience. The integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother has put forward the possibility of establishing on the earth a new grade of consciousness, the supramental grade of consciousness embodied in material body, which ...
... the relationship is entirely spiritual as in the case of Sri Ramakrishna? We cannot find any other satisfactory solution to the apparent contradiction. Also it is consonant with Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga where all relations are sublimated into a higher consciousness, not rejected. Then comes the stupendous phrase, "The one sorrow that could still touch me to the centre", rising in a crescendo to... must change its human ways to ways divine, Yet keep its sovereignty of earthly bliss." Yes, heaven and earth must fuse in Love, and such Love is Page 27 indeed the secret of the Integral Yoga. Lastly I shall try to solve the riddle I have posed earlier: Why did Sri Aurobindo marry? As far as I have understood his philosophy of life, he was from the beginning holding the view that ...
... of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 5 A Canadian Question Question: IT is written in A Practical Guide to Integral Yoga ¹ : The physical nearness to the Mother is indispensable for the fullness of the sadhana on the physical plane. Transformation of the physical and external being is... words in the light of the Mother's recent passing? Does this mean that a full transformation is no longer possible to the aspirant? Or has discipleship on the material level in the path of the Integral Yoga come to an end? Answer: Obviously, the immediate programme of a physical transformation is postponed – not cancelled. But what we have been given is not ...
... it or even denied it. At the most it would be a richer experience in the sense that the same truth is tasted and enjoyed in various ways. But such is not the character of the supramental or Integral Yoga. This Yoga does not aim at kicking the ladder of existence down once you are up beyond. It seeks to integrate the Beyond and the Here-Below, make of the mundane an expression and embodiment of the... is not to reject or minimise any experience or stick to some only as valuable but embrace all and to put them together, make a synthesis out of them. This synthesis is the very character of the Integral Yoga. And it can be reached only by rising beyond the experiences given for synthesis. A higher poise of consciousness only can find the point of union among different elements and the function and role ...
... has not yet been achieved, not yet clearly visualised, even though it is one natural but still secret outcome of all the past spiritual endeavour.” What Sri Aurobindo envisages as the aim of his Integral Yoga—for he holds up not only the sublime ideal, but gives a definite guidance on the way to its realisation—is "not an individual achievement of divine realisation for the sake of the individual, but... proves, if any proof were at all needed, that she knew what she meant by Manifestation; and what she meant was exactly what Sri Aurobindo has always held up before humanity as the ideal of his Integral Yoga and the goal of the evolutionary march of Nature. In her Prayer of August 8, 1913, she calls upon the essential divine harmony which is immanent in all things to manifest itself "in the most outward ...
... Synthesis of Yoga and The Secret of the Veda. The Synthesis was planned as a survey and as an assessment of various systems of Yoga past and present with reference to their relevance to his own "integral Yoga" which was duly to grow into "supramental Yoga"; it was thus conceived as the practical side to the theoretical or philosophical foundations that were to be established in The Life Divine. The... interpretation by delving into the riches of the original Sanskrit instead of the anaemic, it not also flawed, English or Bengali renderings. He had found corroboration (or road-signs) for his integral Yoga in the Gita and in the Upanishads, and he now wondered whether he might not find similar corroboration (or clues) for his supramental Yoga in the still earlier Vedas. Seeking light from this most ...
... the apostles almost. Each of these sadhaks was both himself and a prototype, in K. D. Sethna's words, "representative of all who have ventured forth on the delightfully difficult path of the integral Yoga". And a reading of the old conversations, correspondence, diary-entries in which the Guru-Sishya drama is set forth can be a lesson in sadhana to latter-day neophytes as well. In his diary-notes... engaging in social service, but only in God's service.. Writing in the Bulletin of November 1954 under the caption "Helping Humanity" 13 , the Mother says that "for those who practise the Integral Yoga, the welfare of humanity can be only a consequence and a result, it cannot be the aim." She gives two notable examples of people who received the same psychic shock in their contact with human ...
... published as Loving Homage in August 1958. The volume includes the speeches of R.R. Diwakar, Himangshu Niyogi and others, as also a variety of contributions throwing light on the life-work and the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. C.F. Baron, the former Governor of Pondicherry, thus recapitulated his first meeting with the Mother: At last comes a day, a day of fervent self-giving when... everything in order, organises... a very great force, a very great strength". 19 The mind has first to learn to be quiet before it can begin functioning in a new creative way. If the aim of the Integral Yoga is not merely to attain the Spirit but through its descent and fusion into the lower levels to effect a radical transformation of the nature, then our very processes of thinking must undergo a ...
... and fulfillment must include the perfection and fulfillment of all. The same idea is expressed by Sri Aurobindo in The Synthesis of Yoga, Book I: "Accepting life, he (the sadhaka of the integral Yoga) has to bear not only his own burden, but a great part of the world's burden too along with it, as a continuation of his own sufficiently heavy load. Therefore his Yoga has much more of the nature... Divine in the world, the aim of creation itself—the perfect Page 21 Manifestation, the intended Epiphany of the Spirit in Matter. According to Sri Aurobindo, the aim of his Integral Yoga is not only to seek and realise the Divine but to call upon Him to manifest Himself in and through us in the material world. That is not only Union, but Union multiplied, universalised and d ...
... being. 26.7.1970 When one aspires for the participation of one's whole being in the Yoga, has one begun the integral Yoga? Yes, when the consciousness of the body-cells perceives the Divine's presence and action, one is on the right path for the integral Yoga. 28.7.1970 Mother has told Pradyot that the protection of India lies in the descent of the Force from above ...
... darkness or restriction!" 29 It was a meeting of two prophet-souls, two God-sent Pioneers, and their fusion into an identity of Consciousness for the evolution and perfection of the Integral Yoga and the initiation of an all-inclusive spirituality that would lead to earthly transfiguration and the Life Divine. From this identity of their consciousness, the Mother once observed, "Without... or openly, both you and me. But you must know that the necessary result of this will be that you will have to walk in the special way which He has given to me, the way which I call the path of Integral Yoga, - what I began with, what Lele gave me was a seeking for the path, a circling in many directions - a touch, taking up, handling, Page 419 scrutinising this or that in all the ...
... a premature stimulation may push him towards something for which he is not yet fit. 12 January 1931 Am I fit for Sri Aurobindo's Yoga? Will he take me up? If by my Yoga you mean the integral Yoga leading towards the supramental realisation, you have not at present the capacity for it. All you can do at present is some preparation for it by Bhakti and self-dedication through Karma; if into ...
... is must be taken; for the nature here is born for the Yoga and ought not to be denied its opportunity. He must be made to understand Page 356 fully the character and demands of the integral Yoga. Next for Kumar Krishna Mitter. He is no doubt what you say, a type of the rich and successful man, but the best kind of that type and cast on sound and generous lines. There is besides indicated ...
... awakening to glimpses of the godhead within him, admits more and more its intimations of a deeper life and consciousness and an impulse towards things divine. It is one of the decisive moments of the integral Yoga when this psychic being liberated, brought out from the veil to the front, can pour the full flood of its divinations, seeings and impulsions on the mind, life and body of man and begin to prepare ...
... earth consciousness to take the definitive stride forward it must take at one time or another. I have never said that my Yoga was something brand new in all its elements. I have called it the integral Yoga and that means that it takes up the essence and many procedures of the old Yogas—its newness is in its aim, standpoint and the totality of its method. In the earlier stages which is all I deal with ...
... upon those differences is irrelevant and without use. Transformation is a word that I have brought in myself (like supermind) to express certain spiritual concepts and spiritual facts of the integral Yoga. People are now taking them up and using them in senses which have nothing to do with the significance which I put into them. Purification of the nature by the "influence" of the Spirit is not what ...
... in its own inner dream taken as the whole movement of the Yoga. One may have hours of pure absorbed meditation or of the inner motionless adoration and ecstasy, but they are not the whole of the integral Yoga. Page 49 ...
... higher light and force are sufficiently at work to overcome, sooner or later, the force of the tendency that is held up for change. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - IV: The Subconscient and the Integral Yoga To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different ...
... given to the Divine, while the rest remains in its ordinary ways, engrossed in ordinary things; your entire life is taken up, an integral transformation is gradually realised in you. In the integral Yoga, the integral life down even to the smallest detail has to be transformed, to be divinised. There is nothing here that is insignificant, nothing that is indifferent. You cannot say, "When I am ...
... is no longer anything else. And since we are speaking of that, I shall remind you of what Sri Aurobindo has said, repeated, written, affirmed and said over and over again, that his yoga, the integral yoga, can begin only after that experience, not before. So, one must not cherish any illusions and fancy that one can begin to know what the supermind is and form any idea of it or assess it in ...
... × "It is then by a transformation of life in its very principle, not by an external manipulation of its phenomena, that the integral Yoga proposes to change it from a troubled and ignorant into a luminous and harmonious movement of Nature. There are three conditions which are indispensable for the achievement of this central inner ...
... me on the way." This is most necessary. Most necessary. So here's my proposal: we put surrender first, at the top of the list, that is, we accept what Sri Aurobindo has said—that to do the integral yoga one must first resolve to surrender entirely to the Divine, there is no other way, this is the way. But after that one must have the five psychological virtues, five psychological perfections ...
... ent (something above our present consciousness) above the head from which the higher consciousness comes down into the body… Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - IV: The Subconscient and the Integral Yoga The higher consciousness is that above the ordinary mind and different from it in its workings; it ranges from higher mind through illumined mind, intuition and overmind up to the border line ...
... prevent it from entering into you." 22 × Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - IV: The Subconscient and the Integral Yoga × Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: The Environmental Consciousness ...
... showing one's Page 14 capacity or having a position or as a means of physical nearness to the Mother, but as a field and an opportunity for the Karmayoga part of the integral yoga, for learning to work in the true yogic way, dedication through service, practical selflessness, obedience, scrupulousness, discipline, setting the Divine and the Divine's work first and oneself ...
... that we need to lead us as quickly as possible to the goal. The Mother The spirit in which one does It is not what you do but the spirit in which you do it that is important for the integral Yoga. The Mother Any work Any work can be done as a field for the practice of the spirit of the Gita. Sri Aurobindo Damp logs Of course, there is a kind of work which is done ...
... force, something which never gives way Source Control of the Body Those who despise physical activities are people who won't be able to take a single step on the true path of integral yoga, unless they first get rid of their contempt. Control of the body in all its forms is an indispensable basis. A body which dominates you is an enemy; it is a disorder you cannot accept. It is the ...
... escape from the world in order to live in the joy of contemplation of the Divine, and in the immutable peace of constant contact with Him. The attitude of those who want to practise Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga is quite different. When they have found their psychic being and are united with it, they ask it to turn its gaze towards the physical Page 46 being in order to act on it with the knowledge ...
... Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter IX The Teachings of Some Modern Indian Yogis Ramana Maharshi According to Brunton's description of the sadhana he (Brunton) practised under the Maharshi's instructions, 1 it is the Overself one has to seek within, but he describes the Overself in a way that is at once the ...
... Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter III Jainism and Buddhism Jainism The Jain philosophy is concerned with individual perfection. Our effort is quite different. We want to bring down the Supermind as a new faculty. Just as the mind is now a permanent state of consciousness in humanity, so also we want to create ...
... Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter IV Sankhya and Yoga Sankhya In the spiritual thought of India during the time of the Rishis and even before, the Sankhya and Vedanta elements were always combined. The Sankhya account of the constitution of the being (Purusha, Prakriti, the elements, Indriyas, Buddhi etc.) was ...
... A Yoga of Transformation Letters on Yoga - II Chapter II Asceticism and the Integral Yoga Not an Ascetic Path It is not indispensable to be an ascetic—it is enough if one can learn to live within in the inner being instead of on the surface, discover the soul or true individuality which is veiled by the surface mind and life forces and open the being ...
... Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter II The Veda and the Upanishads The Vedic Rishis It is not I only who have done what the Vedic Rishis did not do. Chaitanya and others developed an intensity of Bhakti which is absent in the Veda and many other instances can be given. Why should the past be the limit of spiritual ...
... Chapter I The Central Processes of the Sadhana Four Necessary Processes As regards X 's question—this is not a Yoga of Bhakti alone; it is or at least it claims to be an integral Yoga, that is, a turning of all the being in all its parts to the Divine. It follows that there must be knowledge and works as well as Bhakti and, in addition, it includes a total change of the nature ...
... the true vital, the true physical consciousness which is nearest to the soul and can most easily and directly respond to the Divine Light and Power. There is no real Yoga possible, still less any integral Yoga, if we do not go back from the outer self and become aware of all this inner being and inner nature. For then alone can we break the limitations of the ignorant external self which receives consciously ...
... The Vertical System: Supermind to Subconscient Letters on Yoga - I Chapter X The Subconscient and the Inconscient The Subconscient in the Integral Yoga In our Yoga we mean by the subconscient that quite submerged part of our being in which there is no wakingly conscious and coherent thought, will or feeling or organised reaction, but which yet receives ...
... The Jivatman and the Psychic Being Letters on Yoga - I Chapter I The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga The Jivatman or Individual Self By Jivatma we mean the individual self. Essentially it is one self with all others, but in the multiplicity of the Divine it is the individual self, an individual centre of the universe—and it sees everything in itself ...
... psychological statements as a whole, not new in essence—for much of it occurs in the Upanishads and elsewhere, but new in its fullness of collective statement and its developments directed towards an integral Yoga. It is not necessary for anyone to accept it unless he concurs in the aim; for other aims it is unnecessary and may very well be excessive. (6) But when one has made the inner exploration and ...
... of Experiences in the Practice of Yoga 2. The Opening of the Inner Senses 3. Experiences of the Inner Consciousness and the Cosmic Consciousness 4. The Fundamental Realisations of the Integral Yoga The letters in this volume have been selected from the extensive correspondence Sri Aurobindo carried on with his disciples and others between 1927 and 1950. Letters from this corpus appear in ...
... passage from the realisation of the static Brahman with the sense of the unreality of the world-existence to the realisation of the status of the dynamic one. This is a considerable step in the integral Yoga. The Brahman consciousness is sometimes described as a static one, but it has two aspects, static and dynamic, and it is when both are united that it becomes integral. This is the greater co ...
... that one thus realises, but there is also the Pranamaya or vital Purusha. By the word Overself they probably mean this Purusha—they take it as a sort of personal Atman. Sex-Indulgence and the Integral Yoga What has this Yoga got to do with sex and sex-contact? I have told you repeatedly that sex has to be got rid of and overcome before there can be siddhi in this Yoga. Any suggestion about ...
... The Subconscient and the Inconscient and the Process of Yoga Letters on Yoga - IV Chapter II The Inconscient and the Integral Yoga The Descent of the Sadhana into the Inconscient There is another cause of the general inability to change which at present afflicts the sadhak. 1 It is because the sadhana, as a general fact, has now and for a long ...
... in order to bring down the supramental and it is the descent which makes her full manifestation here possible. 23 September 1935 Is the attitude that I am the Brahman not necessary in the Integral Yoga? It is not enough to transform the whole nature. Otherwise there would be no need of the embodiment. It could be done by simply thinking of oneself as the Brahman. There would be no need of ...
... universal, work themselves out and pass leaving no impression on us, and this frame of ourselves too is only an insignificant circumstance in her cosmic vastness. But the perfection sought in the integral Yoga is not only to be one with her in her highest spiritual power and one with her in her universal action, but to realise and possess the fullness of this Shakti in our individual being and nature ...
... Divine, in others it becomes an absorbed dwelling in him and not in this world or a continual absorbed or intent living in his presence, sāyujya, sālokya, sāmīpya mukti . The way proposed for the integral Yoga is a lifting up and surrender of the whole being to him, by which not only do we become one with him in our spiritual existence, but dwell too in him and he in us, so that the whole nature is full ...
... transcendence samrāṭ , a knower and master of his environing world of being. Page 641 In this self-development the soul finds that it has accomplished on this line the object of the whole integral Yoga, union with the Supreme in its self and in its universalised individuality. So long as he remains in the world-existence, this perfection must radiate out from him,—for that is the necessity of ...
... bhakta indeed does not allow these doubts of the intellect to Page 577 come in his way; he has the divinations of his heart, and these are to him sufficient. But the sadhaka of the integral Yoga has to know the eternal and ultimate Truth and not to persist to the end in the delight of a Shadow. If the impersonal is the sole enduring truth, then a firm synthesis is impossible. He can at ...
... have spoken hitherto of the withdrawing motion of the Jiva as the first necessity of knowledge and as if it were to be pursued alone and by itself, yet in fact it is better for the sadhaka of the integral Yoga to unite the two movements. By Page 370 one he will find the self within, by the other he will find that self in all that seems to us at present to be outside us. It is possible indeed ...
... them Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuition and Overmind. Above even Overmind is the sovereign divine dynamism which he names Supermind and whose ultimate manifestation is the goal of his Integral Yoga. But Supermind, in its essential and original form, has remained unexpressed up to now. It is only the other planes that can function more and more in poetry at present, either separately or in ...
... it in his Page 38 message to the Governor of Madras in connection with the Viceroy's fund. At the back of those words was the whole mystical puissance of an integral Yoga, a puissance that worked secretly like a dynamo sending out world-currents, driving a vast invisible inspired strength into the armies and navies and air-forces ranged against Hitler. ...
... race take the next step forward in evolution of consciousness and to divinise the ways of earth and not fly for good to remote summits beyond. The divinisation of all our parts through an integral yoga is a stupendous job, and maybe as a final shot you will fling at me the argument that to be fully illumined and to channel a deific dynamism are impracticable - but I must reply that the effort ...
... in my view — and wherever you may be by choice or by duty, I feel you always at the Samadhi and, on a lesser plane, in my office-room in which, too, I hope, some light and delight drawn by the Integral Yoga from beyond the ordinary world are at play. Always I see you as a lovely and loving companion in the adventure to which Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have beckoned those who are ready to recognise ...
... Sri Aurobindo intended to write further on the theme and in the existing essays he discusses the Mind of Light with reference less to the initiation of this novel state in the course of his Integral Yoga than to the general life afterwards of a humanity to which ¹. MCW Vol. 13, pp. 64, 63. ². SABCL Vol. 29, p. 357. Page 105 such a state might ...
... the crucial choice that must be made of the way of living, if we are really to be fulfilled and the calls of existence truly to be answered, are clear to most of us: we sum them up as "the Integral Yoga." But we are not equally familiar with his outlook on the power to choose. Wherever there is the activity of the will, there is the phenomenon of choosing - and yet there is no warrant in ...
... whole: according to it, perfection has to emerge and evolve, Brahman has to manifest from non-Brahman and anti-Brahman. Both visions have their validity and the latter is indispensable to the Integral Yoga with its insistence on transforming all that is erring and false and feeble in our nature into the Divine. In this vision waste, featuring as a reality to be confronted, is not seen to be ...
... bring about in a Christianised evolutionary mode an approximation to the manifold Theophany invoked by the Gita. And the Gita does no more than magnificently prepare the ground for Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. Our last query vis-a-vis Teilhardism is: can there be at all a term to evolution? Is not "God ... for us ever and endlessly being born"? Omega Point, whether viewed as an earthly transformation ...
... will and the deeper soul within us have not too their own sufficient doors opening upon the Supreme, their key to the mystery of the Eternal. Bhakti Yoga: The Yoga of Devotion 136 The integral Yoga of Devotion proceeds through seven stages each of which opens out from the one that precedes it: Aspiration and self-consecration; devotion; adoration and worship; love; possession of the whole ...
... wary of forms, of images, and differing expressions, which rises straight as an arrow, proud and pure, towards the supramental Light. That is a living experience. Sri Aurobindo preached the integral yoga which includes everything, so one can have all the experiences. Indeed, the universe was clearly created as a field of experience. Some people prefer the short, straight and narrow paths—that's ...
... y we wish to realize according to the ideal described by Sri Aurobindo in the last chapter of The Life Divine —a gnostic, supramental collectivity, the only kind that can do Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga and be realized physically in a progressive collective body becoming more and more divine—the recollection of this vision became so imperative that I couldn't speak. Its symbolism was very clear ...
... SADHAK First and foremost Amal has been a living example to me of what a follower of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother could be. Our last darshan message told us: "In the integral Yoga there is no distinction between the sadhana and the outward life; it is in each and every movement of the daily life that the truth must be found and practised." This is the ideal of which ...
... a sadhak with a most intense and ardent aspiration for self-realisation and God-union and eventually, the divine life. This does not mean that he is at the first stage of practice of the integral yoga. For though aspiration is admittedly the first thing, it is also a continuous process. It is my firm conviction that Amal Kiran's diverse aspects radiate from this core — his spiritual longing ...
... my memory. * * * Mother with Madame Kobayashi in Kyoto, Japan, around 1919 In closing I asked Sunanda to give me an assessment of her fifty years in the Ashram and what the Integral Yoga had done for her at her then age of sixty-six. This was her reply: “I am here because I could not exist anywhere else. Mother has filled a void created in me in 1973 when she left her body by ...
... and varied, but there should be consonance, however subtle and implicit, with the great ideal of refining no less than sharpening all of man's faculties. And, of course, topics concerned with the Integral Yoga were to hold the centre of the stage. At the end of twenty-five years Mother India cannot do better than turn in deep gratitude to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo and so comport itself as to ...
... left out of a sense of duty. She kept corresponding with the Mother for a year or two from the States. Much more than Vaun she may be considered the first American to have become a sadhak of the Integral Yoga — though at the start both of them were equally sincere and ardent in their aspirations. Page 51 They had a great fund of humour — and Shantimayi was both amazed and tickled when ...
... give place to a new one — the Superman. But, while the Modem West has vaguely searched in a Neo-Vitalism for a means to this theme, the Modern East in the figure of Sri Aurobindo the Master of the Integral Yoga has shown the actual inner and outer Way by which it can be worked out. What is to Shaw's credit, in spite of all his shortcomings, is that he has looked farther than the common "isms" bespelling ...
... most original venture which he wished would find its true fulfilment instead of declining into an ordinary cultural movement. The new culture which is at work under the light of an earth-embracing Integral Yoga, full of constructive physical and mental vigour no less than creative spiritual vision, went home to Nehru's ever-young heart. Time and again he expressed in private his sense of the preciousness ...
... of the Divine known in the past. With its descent the preparation was made and the foundation laid for the descent of the hitherto unmanifested power which is the unique goal of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, the Supermind. Supermind is the supreme dynamic and creative Consciousness, also designated by Sri Aurobindo Truth-Consciousness, Gnosis, vijnana, whose direct entrance into the world can alone ...
... the constant call — and every minute was meant to be a gesture of remembering the Divine and offering oneself to Him. A subtle discipline in the midst of a wide freedom lay at the basis of this "Integral Yoga". Yes, it was not a smooth canter all the way. But the returns were great. There were intense inner experiences. The discovery of an inmost self whose very nature is bliss, the sense of being free ...
... I am sure, to many others in the Ashram and the world outside. The 'clear ray' emanates not only from his mind but from his heart, illuminating for himself and others the difficult path of the Integral Yoga. Courage is a quality he possesses in abundance, and reading between the lines of his letters one senses the fortitude with which he has at times endured intense physical pain. A year after the ...
... quest of this complex personality for a more meaningful vision of life. Here Sethna appears as the quintessential disciple who strove relentlessly to adopt a practical approach to Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. If such were the case then what can prompt my effort to evaluate his poetry? Sethna's voluminous book of poems The Secret Splendour (1993) reveals to the serious reader the spontaneity ...
... a penetrating literary critic, a far-reaching philosophical thinker and profound poet but also a master of spiritual illumination, a guide to the all-round inner development which he terms the Integral Yoga, it has been felt that concentration on an approach to the Page 212 subject of "Classical" and "Romantic" through him is most likely to yield what is new as well as true. ...
... the living mother-body of our symbolical planet. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, being the double-poled supramental Avatar, have ‘seen’ this river and its destination from the beginning of their integral yoga; they have all along had a profound knowledge of it, but its bed had to be scoured, delved and hewn in the stony terrain of Matter (this was their sadhana) — an effort doomed to failure according ...
... Preparing for the Miraculous 6: Being Human and the Copernican Principle Science and Scientism In the path of the Integral Yoga each person has his or her own way, for the simple reason that in each person the constitutional and incarnational difficulties to become aware of and master vary. Yet the integrality of the Aurobindian Yoga should never ...
... Sri Aurobindo have not contented themselves merely with a theoretical analysis of the problem of death and its solution. The Mother has actually enjoined on her children, the Sadhakas of the Integral Yoga, to translate in their lives what is theoretically valid and justified into truths of manifested reality. For, she has declared: "It is for us then at present — for us who know a little ...
... one will be bound to keep the same body for all time. One creates a new body for oneself when one wants to change... (Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, p. 11) The Integral Yoga of Self-Transformation as revealed to man by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother has for its aim, in contradistinction to the attempts mentioned in the foregoing chapter, the creation of a divine body ...
... whatever you have gained — that indeed is painful — and a positive effect, you make some progress, you continue your progress. (The Mother, Bulletin, Vol. XII, No. 4, p. 91) The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo has for its goal the total transformation of our nature as well as the complete liberation of our being. But in our normal waking state we are conscious only of a very restricted ...
... supreme scientist of life who proceeds to realise the ideal in himself and then to build up an integral method for others to follow. And what is the efficacy of this recommended method called the Integral Yoga of self-transformation? Well, let us listen to Sri Aurobindo himself: "I must remind you that I have been an intellectual myself and no stranger to doubts - both the Mother and myself have ...
... 14 October 1966 You speak precisely of sadhana. I wanted to ask You this: after what Sri Aurobindo has written in The Synthesis of Yoga on the sadhana of the Integral Yoga, who is doing it here? Not a single person. Yet life is quite satisfactory. So do the sadhana yourself and you will be the first! 14 October 1966 ...
... 6 January 1966 Being conscious of all the movements of one’s being is not enough, is it? One must also know how to change them. How to do this? This is precisely the object of the integral yoga. It is by making the higher consciousness come down into the fourfold material 35 that one can change one’s character and all the movements of one’s being. 6 January 1966 ...
... it—no need to look a gift horse in the mouth, even if— ... August 30,1937 As regards Saraswati's question—this is not a Yoga of bhakti alone; it is or at least it claims to be an integral Yoga, that is, a turning of all the being in all its parts to the Divine. It follows that there must be knowledge and works as well as bhakti, and in addition, it includes a total change of the nature ...
... 1955 White Roses Undated? Certainly the path of Integral Yoga is not an easy one. To conquer the Divine is a difficult task, but with sincerity and perseverance one is sure to succeed. Now from the point of view of Yoga, it is always better to attach no importance to superficial things and to keep an inner poise and a quiet mind, taking refuge in ...
... in the morning and was very pleased with it. Then she went into a trance for about ten minutes. When she awoke the Mother related her experience to me: Many, many years ago I discussed the Integral Yoga with Pavitra—[Philippe Barbier Saint-Hilaire] while walking in Pondicherry Botanical Gardens. I was talking to him about the refinement in material life—its sensations and movements. When we were ...
... hinted that it is impossible to pass through the gates of the Sun (the symbol of the Supermind) and yet retain an earthly body. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II: Distinctive Features of the Integral Yoga ...
... the Light of the Supreme which shall illumine us with the Truth. This is Sri Aurobindo's own "Gayatri" modifying the traditional Gayatri of the Rigveda to express the new realisation of his Integral Yoga of Supermind or Divine Truth-Consciousness. His comment on the Gayatri is: The power of Gayatri is the Light of the Divine Truth. It is a mantra of Knowledge. The Gayatri mantra is the mantra ...
... the work will be ruined! As soon as I have a moment free I shall call you in the morning and we shall talk it over. The more I grow, the more I know that it is in work that Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga is best done . Love and blessings. 9 October 1966 Mother, My mind is greatly perplexed. I do not know where I stand. The work we have taken up is huge. The commitments are many ...
... the Divine through the exclusive pursuit of the pure and absolute Truth. The yoga of devotion is the path that leads to union with the Divine through perfect, total and eternal love. In the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo, the two combine with the yoga of works and the yoga of self-perfection to make a homogeneous whole, culminating in the yoga of supramental realisation. 5 February 1960 ...
... and I want to know You so that all that I do is nothing but what you want me to do. Encourage only what leads quickly to the Lord and serves His divine purpose. The Examiners The integral yoga consists of an uninterrupted series of examinations that one has to undergo without any previous warning, thus obliging you to be constantly on the alert and attentive. Three groups of examiners ...
... business, it is not our concern. The Divine knows better than we do what is good for the progress of the world and of ourselves. 19 August 1967 Here sensibleness is indispensable and the integral yoga is based on balance, calm and peace and not on an unhealthy need to suffer. 12 May 1969 Sri Aurobindo said that the physical was to be taken into the yoga and not rejected or neglected ...
... through plenty of bodily discomforts, renounced those famous temptations: kamini-kanchan, which we may modernise as "glamour-girl and gold." What better qualifications for entering an Ashram of Integral Yoga? Sri Aurobindo did not doubt his achievements, but he foresaw all the difficulties he would meet with in living with men and women who went about their businesses like ordinary people, made no outer ...
... organised. A lttle more than a year later - to be exact, on 16 December 1927 - a Parsi couple, husband and wife who had got married only a few months earlier arrived to dedicate themselves to the Integral Yoga which, of course, involved, among other things, giving up the married life. At this time the Ashram had only forty members and two of them were Parsis! Just contemplate what this means statistically ...
... English translation: "O Divine and adorable Mother, with Thy help what is there that is impossible?" The sense behind my selection must have been: "Even I who am an impossible candidate for the Integral Yoga can go on if the Divine Mother whom I can't help adoring for her sweetness and light and strength takes me up and bears me towards whatever realisation Sri Aurobindo has in sight for the earth." ...
... the whole period of the allotment of those rooms to me, the general conviction in the Ashram was that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother would completely transform and divinise their bodies with their "Integral Yoga" and that those who had joined them whole-heartedly would do the same. Even after the fracture Sri Aurobindo sustained of his right thigh because of a fall in late 1938 the conviction did not seem ...
... special force at work on and around that date. 1 take it to be a force that may surprise us by saying: "Why do you worry whether you are strong enough or worthy enough to do Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga? Just keep visualising me constantly. Those of you who have seen me should try to revive memories of me as you saw my face and form in one activity or another. Whoever has not seen me in person ...
... multi-faceted, all-embracing, even science-coloured, can arise only from an Indian basis and with an Indian background. Has it not struck you that Sri Aurobindo, who calls the whole world to his Integral Yoga and who sets up no barrier to the claims and capacities of the true soul whether in the Occident or the Orient, goes back only to the Vedas and the Upanishads and the Gita and the Tantra for his ...
... asked about having a guru from amongst your associates for practical day-to-day spiritual guidance. This is a ticklish business. If there is an Aurobindonian who is sufficiently immersed in the Integral Yoga, you may seek his help and advice. But to open yourself to somebody out of Page 214 tune with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is not a prospect I would encourage. Of course, one may ...
... and not perversity. But the fact of our being far must not blind us to the truth of His perennial proximity. And the Divine who is always near us is quite aware how much we the sadhakas of the Integral Yoga need Him and how painful to us is our own incapacity to feel close to Him. Knowing the sad situation. He is unremittingly at work to remove the incapacity and make the relationship of "He-we" a ...
... descend with its "almighty" artistry to refashion the outer no less than the inner life of earth. In short, every authentic poem prefigures in one way or another in the world of words the Integral Yoga we are striving to practise in order to bring, into the evolutionary products of the Supreme who has hidden in the Inconscient, the all-transformative power of the Skabda Brahman, the Logos which ...
... The extraordinary inner spiritual potentiality has to come forth and set right the marked exterior imbalance. Especially fitting is it for Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to be here because their Integral Yoga is meant not for a glorious flight to a perfect Beyond but for a splendid all-round manifestation of a Divine Life on earth. That manifestation has to be through a power of the Spirit mostly unexplored ...
... s. The difficult task to plunge into those doorways is before me, a challenge that sets an ache of aspiring uncertainty behind all the joy of "the Immortal in the mortal" the long years of the integral Yoga have managed to gather bit by bit. (13.10.1993) What pleased me greatly in your letter is your feeling that I am helping to maintain you in your inmost aspiration. Perhaps you ...
... a popular feature. A large number of readers from all over the country and even some from abroad have expressed their gratitude for helpful treatment of a lot of problems which aspirants to the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother meet on their way. Repeated suggestions have also come to collect the series of "Life-Poetry-Yoga" in book-form so that it may be easily available for consultation ...
... that account a just claimant for the physical divinisation which is the crowning consequence ¹ Ibid., p. 314. ² Ibid., p. 315. Page 12 of the Integral Yoga. True, many of the illnesses she went through came of her dealings with the world's impurities and of her throwing herself wide-open to contacts with the unregenerate consciousness of the people ...
... understood at once that even in our outermost habit-ridden being we must let the inner truth, the soul's choice and destiny, shine Page 70 through. The commitment to the Integral Yoga has to be integral. Sometimes I have wondered at the Mother's inexhaustible patience — a patience stemming from a boundless understanding of one's nature. Sri Aurobindo has written that ...
... 260,321,328 Inconscient 252 Indian spirituality 99 Ingelow,Jean 155 inner being 173 inspiration Illumined Mind 237 Overhead 37,211 source of 200,215 Integral Yoga. See yoga intellect bright and dark 307 intelligence 82,215 intuition 235 Overmind 323,347 Iqbal 70 K Kabir 126 Kalidasa 182,205,216,218 Katha ...
... Aurobindo's Grace, a sweet intimate farewell. Eleven days after this, he took the drastic step of giving up his body in order to achieve a tremendous breakthrough in the process of the Integral Yoga, so that the Mother could confide to me subsequently: "As soon as Sri Aurobindo left his body what he had called the Mind of Light was realised in me." The Mind of Light, as she defined it afterwards ...
... insatiable hunger for the Eternal, the Infinite, the Divine. It is this rare union of the scientific and the spiritual that finds voice in the book we have mentioned and renders the philosophy of Integral Yoga expounded in its pages the most fitting subject with which to crown a scientific survey opening up far beyond materialism. Page 320 ...
... the God-concept. Now to your problem, which very much relates to God's reality. Your lament about sadhana issues from an inadequate idea of what we are supposed to do as practitioners of the Integral Yoga.(It is idle to imagine that such a Yoga of complete transformation by a power beyond all that has worked so far on earth - namely, "Supermind" - can be done fully on his own by any johnny who has ...
... evolutionary phenomenon is a slow systematic process. Now that the mind-grade has been reached it is possible to co-operate in evolution consciously. The accelerated co-operation is what we know as the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, though that also is a systematic process which cannot be rushed if it is to gain established results. In the event on November 24, 1926, the foundation was laid for the fulfilment ...
... where abides what the Rishis named the Mantra, the divinest of all poetic words — a sovereignly luminous and miraculously rhythmed expression like that stanza of Sri Aurobindo's, summing up his own Integral Yoga: Arms taking to a voiceless supreme delight, Life that meets the Eternal with close breast, An unwalled mind dissolved in the Infinite, Force one with unimaginable rest. ...
... his company and environments. You can lose in a few minutes what has taken you months to gain. Contact with hostile and undesirable persons and even people of spiritual influence foreign to the integral yoga, holy places, temples and churches have an influence adverse to the working of this yoga and are a hindrance to progress. The words were more apt when the Ashram had not expanded and variegated ...
... same shoes, which became the shoes of a real pilgrim! Now you know how I ended up here. But I did not have much of an idea of what whole-time yoga could be like, much less that the "integral yoga" was entirely new. Though in that article some indications had been given, I couldn't quite understand them. But I did feel that the life here was the sort of life I should like to lead — in which ...
... experiences of it. I would like to tell you some of mine, but where's the time today? I shall close this part of my talk on the theme of the Mother's coming intimately near to us and making the Integral Yoga so very easy and lavishing her love on us without reserve — I shall close this part of my talk by quoting, if you will excuse me, two poems of my own. One is concerned with the time of Pranam. I ...
... not require either liberation or supramentalisation, the Mother as the Avatar of the Highest Divinity had nothing to accomplish for her own sake: she had shouldered the luminous load of the Integral Yoga in order to lighten humanity's evolutionary travail. But the load was immense and such as nobody else could endure and it had become greater after the passing of Sri Aurobindo: now the concentration ...
... In 1910 he withdrew from politics and went to Pondicherry in French India in order to concentrate on his inner life and work. During his forty years there, he developed a new spiritual path, the Integral Yoga, whose ultimate aim is the transformation of life by the power of a supramental consciousness. In 1926, with the help of the Mother, he founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. His vision of life is presented ...
... and "me" are the sadhak and not the mere ego-individual it is hoped that they will be considered as representative of all who have ventured forth on the delightfully difficult path of the Integral Yoga. As both the delight and the difficulty are bound to be basically common in spite of surface variations, one sadhak's experiences cannot but prove helpful to other toilers towards the depths and ...
... completing my studies for the M.A. degree from Bombay University, I had already dabbled in verse-making. An earnest self-dedication to poetry came only under the guiding eye of the Master of the Integral Yoga and the benedictory hand of his spiritual co-worker whom the Ashram called the Mother. Their joint aim was not simply to find the illuminations and beatitudes of the inner life but also to fulfil ...
... levels, physical, vital and mental it may become conscious and spiritualised. The life of the supramental race of beings will be the Life Divine. The means of attaining this goal of evolution is the Integral Yoga which Sri Aurobindo practised and expounded and taught, not merely by an intellectual exposition of it but practically also by opening up the being and consciousness of his disciples and followers ...
... , p. 707. 159 Ibid., p. 709 160 Ibid., p. 279. 161 Ibid., p. 450. Page 280 Savitri: The Devikāvyam In the Sadhana Shastra of the Pooma or Integral Yoga posited by Sri Aurobindo, there are very helpful guides for the aspirants. While the tattva (philosophy) of man's transformation is brought to us by works like The Life Divine and The S ...
... that the pretending being started his hostile work against her and that Sri Aurobindo fought with him and saved her. The Mother remarked that the fight had been a crucial one in the course of the Integral Yoga. A report has it that the same Asura in the shape of Sri Aurobindo appeared to a disciple and asked him to do Pranam to him. When the disciple was about to get down on his knees he saw the being's ...
... people do need a medium, for they cannot be expected to have the same receptivity. Sri Aurobindo I cannot understand whether I am doing yoga or not. Can it be said that I am doing your integral yoga? Everyone who is turned to the Mother is doing my Yoga. It is a great mistake to suppose that one can “do” the Purna Yoga, i.e. carry out and fulfil all the sides of the Yoga by one's own effort ...
... the more atrocious because it seems without any issue, but which can be resolved above all sensations and feelings and ideas, beyond the worlds of the mind ... in the Divine Consciousness. The integral yoga is constituted of an uninterrupted series of examinations which one must pass without being warned about them beforehand—which puts you under the obligation of being always vigilant and attentive ...
... power into it. It can be useful for a time to have certain inner experiences, but this attitude is not to be kept permanently as it is only a partial truth and far from the whole truth of the integral yoga. The Mother ...
... full faith in the Divine's Grace and your healing capacity will have no limits The Mother is always ready to welcome the child, whatever fault the child may have committed. In the integral yoga there is no distinction between the sadhana and the outward life; it is in each and every movement of the daily life that the Truth must be found and practised Mind is so lazy that it wants ...
... take the definitive stride forward it must take at one time or another. Page 323 I have never said that my Yoga was something brand new in all its elements. I have called it the integral Yoga and that means that it takes up the essence and many procedures of the old Yogas—its newness is in its aim, standpoint and the totality of its method. In the earlier stages which is all I deal with ...
... Supermind in Integral Yoga Part Six Review of the Gains of the Earlier Systems of Yoga Against this background, there was a need to review the entire fund of knowledge pertaining to the nature of liberation and perfection as also to the Spirit, Supermind, Mind, Life and Matter. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, as a result of a vast research, the ...
... been instrumental in the development of the new knowledge that we find in the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and in the development of the new synthesis of yoga, which has come to be called Integral Yoga. This book does not dwell on philosophical issues, but its interest is in the descriptions of the yogic experiences that we find in the Gita as also in the description of the methods by the ...
... Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga 1 Sri Aurobindo S RI AUROBINDO was born on 15 August 1872 at Calcutta. At an early age of seven, he was taken along with his elder brothers to England for education, since his father wanted him to have no Indian influence in the shaping of his outlook and personality. And yet, even though Sri Aurobindo assimilated in himself ...
... Supermind in Integral Yoga Part Four Journey of Evolutionary Ignorance towards Knowledge: Journey of Yoga The human ignorant journey that turns inwards is a reversal of the involutionary movement of Ignorance which was a downward looking movement of consciousness speedily separating itself from the integral consciousness of unity and ...
... Supermind in Integral Yoga Part One The Veda and the Supermind It is instructive to observe that in the early stages of Sri Aurobindo's own yogic development, an ascent to the supermind was effected; during that stage of development certain lines of his self-development were spontaneously converging towards the ancient and now unfrequented paths followed ...
... 1931) studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for the I.A.S. in 1955 but in 1956, he resigned in order to devote himself at Pondicherry to the study and practice of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry and participated in numerous educational experiments under ...
... supra-mental and integral experience. Sri Aurobindo has shown, in our own times, the profundity of the ancient synthesis of the Vedic Yoga and the Upanishadic Yoga, on the basis of which his own Integral Yoga is founded, even though it has built new methodologies for purposes of a new objective in order that the supra-mental knowledge can be harnessed for purposes of the highest collective welfare and ...
... Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Part Four Sri Aurobindo's criticism of Materialism: Evolution and Consciousness Materialism It is true that, as Sri Aurobindo points out, the materialist has an easier field; it is possible for him to deny consciousness to arrive at a more readily convincing simplicity of statement of the monism ...
... Integral Yoga - Major Aims, Methods, Processes and Results PART FOUR Ascent to the Supermini!, Descent of the Supermind and Supramental Transformation The process of ascent to the supermind from the mind and the descent of the supermind, which would transform successively the Overmind, Intuitive mind, Illumined mind, Higher mind, mind and the rest ...
... Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Part One The Modern Scientific Theory of Evolution The modern theory of evolution began to develop in the 18th century through the work of Linnaeus (1707-78), Buffon (1707-88), Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), Lamarck (1744-1829), and in the 19th century in the works of Charles Darwin (1809-82) and his followers. ...
... Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Part Two Philosophical Theories of Evolution Henri Bergson Henri Bergson (1859-1941) developed the theory that there is something more in evolution than merely mechanical urge. He pointed out that the molluscs in the order of evolution proceed by steady steps to develop an eye, which resembles ...
... Integral yoga and Evolutionary Mutation -06_The Problem of Death and Physical Immortality.htm PART FOUR The Problem of Death and Physical Immortality In the beginning of 1970, the Mother spoke of the replacement of knowledge-processes in her body by a new perception which was total, something that comprehended at the same time hearing, vision and knowledge ...
... Integral yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Page 33 ...
... Integral yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Page 78 Page 87 ...
... Integral yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Page 89 Page 90 Page 102 Page 113 ...
... Integral yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Page 135 ...
... Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. People started visiting the Ashram in great numbers and in a regular and steady stream. Many of them became devotees and disciples of the dual Gurus of the Integral Yoga and practising sadhakas and sadhikas. Now, quite a few of these devotees felt an urge to send their children to Pondicherry to be educated in the Ashram's "Centre of Education"; for they ...
... knowledge and modern scientific knowledge: some striking examples. Page 57 Systems of yoga: Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Tantra, Integral Yoga. Aids for the Development of the Yogic Consciousness and Experience Need for the systematic knowledge of the principles and methods of yoga. Need for the Teacher: the real inner ...
... and presuppositions of the traditional Theory of Karma. For then and then only we shall be in a position to clearly understand wherein lies the difference between the vision and the views of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the traditional Karma-vada in their essential aspects. And this will be the subject-matter of our next chapter. Page 114 ...
... lity and Future Destiny. 4. Sri Aurobindo: The Smiling Master (Humour in Sri Aurobindo's Writings). 5. Sri Aurobindo's Poetry and Sanskrit Rhetoric. 6. The Practice of the Integral Yoga (with copious hints for the Pilgrims of the Path). His readers are aware that Jugal Kishore selects a new non-conventional field of research for each one of his books and gives painstaking ...
... and yoga. 3. Ancient Indian knowledge and modern scientific knowledge: some striking examples. 4. Systems of yoga: Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Tantra, Integral Yoga. II. Aids for the Development of the Yogic Consciousness and Experience 1. Need for the systematic knowledge of the principles and methods of yoga. 2. Need for the Teacher: the real ...
... Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Its Role, Responsibility and Future Destiny (Jugal's book brings us an easy insight into the heart of Sri Aurobindo's "Integral Yoga" and into the manifold play of his creative vision. A fine piece of work!) xiii ...
... Aurobindo (Ashram Press,1958) Sri Aurobindo in England (Ashram Press, 1956) Evenings Talks with Sri Aurobindo, 2 Vols. (Ashram Press, 1959) Rishabhchand The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, 2 Vols. (Ashram Press, 1953-55) In the Mother's Light (Ashram Press,1967) Roy, D.K. Sri Aurobindo Came to Me (Ashram Press, 1959) Sastri, T.V. ...
... light of a Truth-Consciousness which is above and cannot be reached if there is no entirely inward-going and no transcending and upward-going movement. (Ibid., pp. 179-80) The Integral Yoga of Transformation has for its objective not merely the supreme realisation of Sachchidananda, but His divine self-expression, the flawless manifestation of the active Brahman, in our divinely ...
... be completely possessed and enjoyed while we are in the body," 1 we must digress here for a while to examine the nature of Samadhi and find out its utility or otherwise in the pursuit of the Integral Yoga. 1 The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 506. Page 78 Samadhi or Yogic Trance; Since mind-consciousness is normally found to be incompatible with the highest state of ...
... National College, Calcutta, in the years 1906 and 1907, — have not much cared to study his educational thoughts and insights or may not even be cognisant of the other fact that the great propounder of Integral Yoga kept up a life-long interest in the subject of what true education should connote and imply. Although Sri Aurobindo had contributed his first thoughts on education as far back as 1894 to the Journal ...
... for any of these things would lead away from his [Sri Aurobindo's] central purpose." (Sri Aurobindo in Sri Aurobindo and his Ashram, 1983 edition, p. 34) Sri Aurobindo makes explicit what his Integral Yoga has for its aim: "The one aim of his [Sri Aurobindo's] Yoga is an inner self-development by which each one who follows it can in time discover the One Self in all and evolve a higher con ...
... silence has to come down fully and not merely remain above - so the other contents of the higher consciousness may have a chance of descending too and stabilising themselves. In the integral Yoga what is the place of the capacity for rising above? Both ascent and descent are necessary. That capacity does not seem to be so easy to acquire for those who do not ...
... freedom and the divine largesse accorded to my nature in that I could soar with wings unfurled in the bosom of the infinite Blue. Indeed freedom, not license, is the cardinal principle of the integral yoga, and the key by which my soul was released from its prison-house. Oh, the halcyon days! The total effect of the entire correspondence can be summed up in Sri Aurobindo's luminous sentence, "But ...
... is moving me and you by His divine power. And you should know that the inevitable result of this will be that you will have to follow the path of yoga which He has given me, the path I call the Integral Yoga.... What I started with, what Lele gave me, what I did in jail — all that was a searching for the path, a circling around looking here and there, touching, taking up, handling, testing this and ...
... of a prediction made long ago by a famous Tamil Yogi, that thirty years later (agreeing with my time of arrival) a Yogi from the North would come as a fugitive to the South and practise there an integral Yoga (Poorna Yoga), and this would be one sign of the approaching liberty of India. He gave three utterances as the mark by which this Yogi could be recognised and all these were found in the letters ...
... Page 33 Page 34 Savitri — "The Truth of Tomorrow" The Mother spoke many a time on Savitri, its importance and its profound help on the path of integral yoga. She said it could have a direct impact on the soul. The Mother has explained in detail how Savitri can be a constant companion in our ascent towards the Truth. She has shown how to ...
... the inner being itself but in the self above. Page 41 THE PSYCHIC BEING In the Synthesis of Yoga, you have written, "As the Supreme Shastra of the Integral Yoga is the eternal Veda secret in the heart of every man, so its Supreme Guide and Teacher is the inner Guide, the World Teacher. . . ."A friend said that this Supreme Teacher is the psychic being. ...
... And what deserts they had to pass through without getting their thirst satisfied? The lives left out that? Whatever you may say, Sir, the path of Yoga is absolutely dry and especially that of Integral Yoga! One has to pass through the desert sometimes—doesn't follow that the whole path is like that. For this Yoga, one must have the heart of a lion, the mind of a Sri Aurobindo and the vital ...
... lyrical, heroic, dramatic, mystical, philosophical, experimental, all flow into and merge in the epic ocean of Savitri. Page 455 His Yoga of the Life Divine, the 'integral Yoga' that sought to fuse into a potent engine of transformation the old disciplines that were centred on will, works, knowledge, love, any one of them alone; his own and the Mother's travail of spiritual ...
... of Sri Aurobindo, some time after, Mother gave us a message, an admonition, pointing out to us the difficulty: Page 12 To follow Sri Aurobindo in the great adventure of his integral yoga, one needed always to be a warrior; but now that he has physically left us, one needs to be a hero. 1 At present when the Mother too is no more here—apparently—and we seem to be abandoned ...
... The Mother Abides - Final Reflections Part 5 The Integral Yoga At a point one must go beyond strivings. Do not strive or struggle, there must be no tension or tautness, it should be all relaxation. Tranquillise yourself. Allow the Other to take your own place. Leave it all to That. This too is not achieved but simply happens— ...
... start on the path. But to make this surrender total and complete all the five that we have enumerated are needed. This is then what I propose. We put Surrender on the top at the head; for to do the integral Yoga, one must first of all take the resolution to surrender entirely to the Divine, there is no other way, that is the one way. Afterwards, one must have the five psychological perfections. Page ...
... by their habitual inferior nature or are open to and unified with their hidden divine source. This recurrent and continuous initiation is at the secret basis of all spiritual discipline—in the Integral Yoga this is the one and all-important principle. Page 27 ...
... of Lights, 1974 Volume 6. Sweet Mother, 1977 Volume 7. Sweet Mother (New Talks), 1978 Volume 8. Vedic Hymns, 1979 With one exception (the first piece), the pieces in Part 5, "The Integral Yoga", were published in The Advent but not in the Collected Works, because they came out after the last volume of that collection had been issued. In Part 4, "Talks to Page 117 the ...
... on in the old, entrenched, imperfect man. All desires and negative character traits may remain, but the sadhak is not identified with it, so he feels no imprisonment. He is free. But in the Integral Yoga, the aim is liberation and also the transformation of the outer nature, to make it perfect and free of defects. Page 286 One day, everything flashed before my eyes, as it were ...
... Aurobindo showed his sense of humour, his insight into philosophy, politics and mysticism. Sri Aurobindo seemed to like his company, his quiet devotion, in spite of his constantly grumbling against the integral Yoga and the Supermind. While cleaning the Master's nails as he lay in bed, he would start his old unvarying tale about the necessity of the personal touch, his close contact with his former guru. Sri ...
... this wide and entire earth. Victory, to Him, our Lord Sri Aurobindo, Reality whole and global! Victory to the sustainer of the worlds, the Mother Mira Qf white radiance! To their integral Yoga all victory – may it manifest fully on earth! And victory to those who follow it, the fortunate spiritual brotherhood! His smile, shadow less and luminous, lifts up the earth into ...
... il fallait toujours être guerrier; mais maintenant qu'il nous a quitté physiquiment, il faut être un héro. To follow Sri Aurobindo in the great adventure of his integral yoga, one needed always to be a warrior; but now that he has physically left us, one needs to be a hero. 24-11-1952 At present when the Mother too is no more there – apparently ...
... perhaps, not so very difficult to achieve - but of the vital, of the physical, of the subconscient, of the inconscient. It is in A God's Labour that Sri Aurobindo has described in its entirety his integral Yoga of man's and earth's transformation: A voice cried, "Go where none have gone! * For an illuminating commentary on the mysticism and poetry of Rose of God, see K.D. Sethna s Sri ...
... Pondicherry on April 4 by the steamer Dupleix. Thirty years ago a Tamil Yogi had predicted the coming to south India of a Yogi from the north who would practice and establish Poorna Yoga (Integral Yoga). 1910 June: Fasted for twentyone days to test his mastery over bodily functions already attained in Alipur Jail. During the period, carried on day-to-day work with unimpaired ...
... decades a growing almost an escalating interest and involvement in their life and work, their Agenda for the Future, their Ashram in Pondicherry, and their world redeeming and world transforming Integral Yoga. I have also separately touched upon some aspects of the Mother's life and ministry in my survey of "The Mother's Birth Centenary" (Sri Aurobindo Circle, 1978, pp. 69-92), in my essay "Words ...
... not to go to the devil—only trying. The "swarming" within was suffocating. A negative way of experiencing the phenomenon, we might say. I went to town to have a drink to the health of the "integral" yoga. I am a free being, after all! This is what is so sad really, this something in us which clings to pain, to the freedom of pain. This suffocating night within, which does not want to yield and ...
... Consciousness nothing exists; in It all is. 17.3.1969 Can the Yogi foresee the chance? (Perhaps he is no longer concerned with it!) Page 79 For the practitioner of the integral Yoga the capacity to foresee the immediate future is a part of the capacities that can be acquired. But this demands a special attention and all depends on what the Supreme Lord expects of him ...
... had been repeated several times, and the Mother's grace flowed into him abundantly. The special accent in the Ayurvedic Dispensary was to be the doubling of the old knowledge with the insights of Integral Yoga so as to produce the best results in the shortest possible time. "Truth cures" became the motto of the Dispensary, for, as Sri Aurobindo had declared, "The spirit within us Page 649 ...
... work here is not intended for showing one's capacity or having position or as a means of physical nearness to the Mother, but as a field and an opportunity for the Karmayoga part of the integral yoga, for learning to work in the true yogic way, dedication through service, practical selflessness, obedience, scrupulousness, discipline, setting the Divine and the Divine's work first and ...
... of each atom I kindle therein the fire which purifies and transfigures .... 27 These reiterated words of divination seem to embody in seed-form the whole Ashwattha-tree of the future Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. V Between May and June 1914, Mirra identifies herself with the Earth (25 May), becomes Earth's mouthpiece (31 May), receives the Lord's assurance ...
... Yoga was a change of life and existence." And by the time Mirra joined him in 1914, four years of "silent Yoga" had enabled him to evolve a new instrument of spiritual discipline - Puma Yoga or Integral Yoga - comprehending and harmonising the two extreme categories of experience, Matter and Spirit, and the three classical paths, Knowledge (1nana), Works (Karma) and Devotion (Bhakti). He had also ...
... seeking, even if she may have remembered these when, after her second coming to Pondicherry, she explained the roles of individual, group and collective sadhana within the larger perspective of Integral Yoga. There was, then, the Japanese Tea Ceremony that, on a first view, merely tantalised the outsider. Why should so much leisureliness and formalism surround what was, perhaps, no more than ...
... Yoga, and the happy intense surrender to the Mother is Bhakti yoga .... The conquest of matter, the love of art and literature in their nobler aspects, all illustrate the additional element of Integral Yoga which does not seek an escape of any sort .... 4 The organisation and manning of the manifold services was facilitated also by the fact that, unlike the pre-1926 disciples who were in the ...
... prosperity. Spontaneous offerings came from disciples and admirers." 1 On the other hand, the economy of the Ashram was important only as the base for the individual and col1ective Yoga; and it was integral Yoga too, permitting no exclusions, no lop-sided developments, no violent oscillations between sordid indulgence and extreme asceticism. The Mother had to body forth the col1ective effort of the Ashram ...
... not a niche in the Temple of Knowledge was left unexplored, and many an ambiguity in mental construction was cleansed of its contradictions, and many a difficulty in the theory and practice of Integral Yoga was squarely faced and solved. And it was always instruction without tears, instruction that went home. Did it matter that it was a mixed audience, made up of children young and not so young, sadhaks ...
... plant's foliage and flowers, to the fruit as the culminating fulfilment. On the other hand, the Mother warns us that the grading doesn't mean that one austerity is superior to another; in an integral Yoga, there can be no such trite differentiation. VI Austerity, then, is not just denial, or a deliberate act of omission or commission to punish oneself, but rather a process of regulation ...
... leading their spiritual unfoldment from stage to stage, across many a path and by-path, over many a gulf and chasm, many a quagmire and precipice, toward the perfection that had attracted them to the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. Their contact with Sri Aurobindo had always been through her, and they had ¹ Savitri,, Book VI, Canto II. Page 380 come to realise the truth of Sri ...
... their spiritual unfold-ment from stage to stage, across many a path and bye-path, over many a gulf and chasm, many a quagmire and precipice, towards the perfection that had attracted them to the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. Their contact with Sri Aurobindo had always been through her, and they had come to realise the truth of Sri Ramakrishna's dictum that the key to the abode of Brahman is with ...
... the Life Divine. If we lose sight of this fundamental perception, we shall find ourselves lost in the many-sided vastness of the aim and the incalculable swing and sweep of the process of the Integral Yoga propounded by them. This perception was the well-spring of all the efforts of the Mother even when she knew nothing of Sri Aurobindo, and it has ever been the same in their unwearied collaboration ...
... The experience is remarkable for another reason : the sequence of its details is flawlessly perfect, it corresponds exactly to that of the spiritual experiences on the path of Sri Aurobindo's integral Yoga, as promulgated years afterwards. ¹Prayers and Meditations of the Mother — February 22, 1914. Page 2 The first movement in the Mother's experience is one of ascent. "I came ...
... it was he who came to me". Without further avoidable delay, he rushed to Pondicherry and arrived there towards the end of November 1928, this time to stay and do the sadhana of Sri Aurobindo's integral Yoga. Then there was Philip Barbier de St. Hilaire, a young Frenchman of high intelligence and ardent aspiration, who first came from Japan to Pondicherry on 26 December 1925. Having accepted ...
... prediction made long ago by a famous Tamil Yogi, that thirty years later (agreeing with the time of my arrival) a Yogi from the North would come as a fugitive to the South and practise there an integral Yoga (Poorna Yoga), and this would be one sign of the approaching liberty of India. He gave three utterances as the mark by which this Yogi could be recognised and all these were found in the letters ...
... however said (5 October 1935) that "the detail or method of the later stages of the Yoga which go into little known or untrodden regions, I have not made public____" Anyway he called the method 'Integral Yoga,' "and that means that it takes up the essence and many processes of the old Yogas—its newness is in its aim, standpoint and the totality of its method." His Yoga, he said, "aims at the integrality ...
... discrimination of the True from the apparent, the Self from its forms, and concentrated contemplation for communion and entry of the individual consciousness into the Brahman. Page 446 An integral Yoga would harmonise all these aims. It would have also at its disposal other processes for the utilisation of thought and the mastery of the mind. Page 447 ...
... crucial question so often asked of those who hold Yoga to be the ideal of life: "If everybody did Yoga and stayed celibate, would not the world come to an end?" If everybody did Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga to the very end, everybody would become physically transformed and capable of perpetuity because of the descent of the Divine and His undying Spirit into the atoms of the body: so the need to perpetuate ...
... like that of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga where a single-track move to the Divine is not permitted and all the turns and twists of one's nature have to be negotiated patiently and persistently. But this Integral Yoga can have two kinds of progress. In one we have, time and again, sidetracks leading off from the main progressive line and these have to be led back by a counter-force because otherwise they would ...
... been for the last thirty-two years. They draw, directly or obliquely, the inspiration of their various life-stances from the spiritual truth set shining amongst us by the Master of the Integral Yoga. Each of them aims to transmit, however partially, a touch of that illumination. And it is this touch that shades off their diverse moods into one another and unifies their multiple tones into a ...
... which I am here to do." Of course, the Mother in her non-personal aspect would be in Page 147 touch with every kind of spiritual experience anywhere. What is at issue is the Integral Yoga of Supramental Descent and Transformation whose radiating centre was the embodied Divine Mother gathering around her all those children of hers who had in these times a special affinity with ...
... God's creative vision and a blindness to our raison d'etre in a God-emanated cosmos to leave any part of our complex being as radically impotent to be perfect. And not just the philosopher of the Integral Yoga does Sri Aurobindo act: mystical realisation is his work and his philosophy is born from his experience. By mystical realisation he moves ahead of mysticism's glorious past to the most golden lustre ...
... for the advancement of his work and we might leave it to the Mother - Sri Aurobindo's partner in that work - to unroll the supreme rationale of the Master's will in the actual developments of the Integral Yoga in the future. However, the Master himself never completely discouraged the effort of the mind to comprehend the Spirit's manifold action. Intellectual formulation of direct inner knowledge or else ...
... the dead: there would be only a rising or being raised into a new life from the old. The absence of death as a stage between the two would answer to Sri Aurobindo's insight about entering by his integral Yoga what he has called the "ideal" state higher than the vital and mental, part of which is all we know at present in our embodied condition - the state also characterised by him as Supermind, Gnosis ...
... labels them Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuition and Overmind. Above even Over-mind is the sovereign divine dynamism which he names Supermind and whose ultimate manifestation is the goal of his Integral Yoga. But Supermind, in its essential and original form, has remained unexpressed up to now. It is only the other planes that can function more and more in poetry at present, either separately or in ...
... 'Love' and 'Service' - words in constant usage in tennis, which, as Amal Kiran has intuitively discovered, symbolise Bhaktiyoga and Karmayoga, the two most essential disciplines of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. Playing tennis with the Mother, as indeed anything that is done while concentrating on her in the deep heart's core, is sadhana par excellence - this is the great Truth, one might think ...
... Blessings 30 May 1969 ( Amal submitted the following two texts for approval to publish them in the September 1969 issue of Mother India . ) Here sensibleness is indispensable and the integral yoga is based on balance, calm and peace and not on an unhealthy need to suffer. (12 May 1969) ...
... It is a remarkable conclusion, unprecedented and calling for serious attention, bringing to bear on Christian tradition the full weight of the experiential evidence of modern world's Master of Integral Yoga. In these three books Sethna has embarked upon a unique journey through territory none have dared to explore with such dedication, refusing to take any statement at face value, testing ...
... access to occult powers. The Mother had told me, “Don’t do what has been done before.” There are new ways of becoming more aware of the occult worlds. The protection is needed when one is doing the Integral Yoga in particular. Extra power, force and protection are needed and numbers are one way of achieving this. I am not a visionary person. One cannot have all the powers to be had, but my vital being can ...
... Anu Purani is the only daughter of the late A.B. Purani, one of Sri Aurobindo’s original disciples, who was the recorder of Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo , and author of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga , The Life of Sri Aurobindo and other publications. He was also a Sanskrit scholar. Anu is small with a petite frame and a dancer’s lithe and supple body. She also moves with the grace and ...
... Page 246 And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, The grasshopper's among some grassy hills. - 3- Sri Aurobindo, who was a poet first and then the divine master of Integral Yoga, is therefore not only an explorer and a discoverer but a conquistador and A colonist from immortality 3 and his spiritual poetry, especially the epic Savitri, is charged with mantric ...
... the more atrocious because it seems without any issue, but which can be resolved above all sensations and feelings and ideas, beyond the words of the mind ...in the Divine Consciousness. The integral yoga is constituted of an uninterrupted series of examinations which one must pass without being warned about them beforehand _ which puts you under the obligation of being always vigilant and attentive ...
... the planes of consciousness, the experience of the Supermind, even the experience of the conquest of Death. He has noted all the stages, marked each step in order to advance integrally in the integral Yoga. All this is His own experience, and what is most surprising is that it is my own experience also. It is my sadhana which He has worked out. Each object, each event, each realisation, ...
... contrast to some of the dominant vii Hindu views such as those contained in the Bhagavad Gita. I have attempted to bring together the two perspectives in the light of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. The differences between the two perspectives consist in certain paradoxes or apparent contradictions, and in certain divergent viewpoints that are actual contradictions. Paradoxes, such as ...
... later on. Through Sri Aurobindo's constant guidance and encouragement, both Dadaji and his daughter disciple flowered out attaining their supreme goal. Their evolution was manyfaceted. The Integral Yoga embraces the whole of life. Indira Devi expressed her ultimate self surrender and divine love through poetry, songs, dance and service to her Guru. Sri Aurobindo asked her to write poetry in English ...
... put me in a wry mood, and I wrote to him asking him whether "this beautiful sunlit path" could be open to such as we? Anyhow, I persevered in reminding him of his dark hints in the past that his Integral Yoga bristled with difficulties. Had he not also written in an oft-quoted letter of his: "I call no one in the world, nor am I here to convert anybody" etc.? In the end I wrote: "Such being your published ...
... disciples. For years Sri Aurobindo spent whole nights answering his correspondents. And none of his correspondents was so demanding, so indefatigable, so irresistible, as Dilip. Sri Aurobindo's integral Yoga comprehended all life and sought to transform it; hence the letters that passed between him and Dilip were also all-inclusive in subject matter while the tone and the style too changes significantly ...
... in some cases crossing the whole subcontinent in their quest. And then somebody arrived who had realized the same vision and who would help to initiate a new period in what Aurobindo called his “integral yoga”. ...
... “the human animal,” for this is what we still are. True spirituality is not only a matter of ethereal experiences, hearing bells or hovering a foot above the ground. Especially Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga has turned the arrow of the yogic aspiration around, from exclusively upwards to also downwards, aimed at the nether regions of our humanity, at the realms of the lower chakras. For if the tran ...
... wrote, at the Mother’s request, the important series of articles titled The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth . In these articles he expounded the situation at that time of his Work, of the Integral Yoga, explaining the role of the “Mind of Light,” and the necessity of a range of intermediary beings between the human and the future supramental species. These transitional species or subspecies in ...
... ‘destiny’ or ‘Providence’ had decided otherwise. Just as the formation of the Ashram had come about automatically, now a concurrence of events necessitated its expansion. Besides, wasn’t this an ‘Integral Yoga,’ hadn’t Sri Aurobindo written that ‘all life is yoga,’ and shouldn’t therefore its practitioners be capable of facing all aspects of life in their world in miniature? The Mother, of course, ...
... one might say with ever greater urgency, in the course of the years that were to follow.’ 3 In April 1962 the second stage of the Work of the Avatar was accomplished: six years of intense Integral Yoga representing six hundred or six thousand years of unassisted supramental evolution. The pillars of the bridge connecting the supramental world and our gross material world were put in place. Normally ...
... supramental life, and that ‘one body’ cannot have been another than hers. In her Entretien of 19 April 1951 she talks about the surrender to the Divine, the fundamental attitude in the Integral Yoga. ‘This now has become the very movement of the consciousness of the cells.’ And she mentions ‘the aspiration in the consciousness of the cells for the perfect sincerity of the consecration.’ 26 ...
... on him in a spirit of genial massacre? I am afraid your letter does very much the same thing. In spite of your disclaimer you practically come to the conclusion that all my nonsense about integral Yoga and karma being as much a way to realisation as jnana and bhakti is either a gleaming chimera or practicable only by Avatars or else a sheer laborious superfluity—since one can bump straight into ...
... subscribe to a lopsided growth of the being and would court failure if anything was deliberately done to harm the physical instrument of the evolving psyche: the final result envisaged of the Integral Yoga is a transformed, divinised body. Yes, physical welfare is an every-present objective for the follower of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. But it is an objective fundamentally linked to ...
... in the being, human nature is very complicated and there could be on the part of the complimented individual even a play of cunning, vindictiveness, dishonesty and various deviations from the Integral Yoga. On the other hand, criticisms, no matter how keen, from the Mother cannot be taken as eternal condemnations. They act on the contrary side the same role as the compliments. They hit out at the ...
... natural than that with her love she should bear safely a wounded fish-child of hers across the profundities during that period when the blackest of black winds blew over the adventure of the Integral Yoga: 1955? Page 114 ...
... daily platter. Page 466 To be aware of self is liberty, Self I have got and, having self, am free." Another sidelight on the poet who was a practitioner of "the Integral Yoga" is his keen interest in world-events. One remembers his open declaration of whole-hearted sympathy with the Allied cause during the Second Great War in spite of admitting that the Allies were ...
... reference, in a compilation by me of mostly my letters to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and their replies, to that stanza of Sri Aurobindo's which I consider to sum up with mantric power the goal of the Integral Yoga: Arms taking to a voiceless supreme delight. Life that meets the Eternal with close breast, An unwalled mind dissolved in the Infinite, Force one with unimaginable rest. ...
... its Himalayan altitude and set working in the human sphere by Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual partner the Mother. A promising present and an assured future they have given us by means of their Integral Yoga with the helpful prodigality of their own vivid examples. (21.1.1990) I have carefully re-read those lines on page 445 of Savitri (Centenary Edition) strikingly reminding us of ...
... Mother, even though it may cause loss of money". You have raised the question: "Is the Mother's grace available only to those who have taken to the practice of the Page 237 Integral Yoga or does it go to all who may have devotion to her and Sri Aurobindo but are not sufficiently prepared to tread their path?" You have mentioned the Gita's Krishna as listing the four types of people ...
... us to do so we must carry on and not bother about general theories of what Page 191 man is born for. Similarly, in our eating modes we must attempt to live as the founder of the Integral Yoga ordains, and desist from discussing general attitudes such as the single-tracked mind of your medical disputant pushes upon you. If somebody does not wish to follow Sri Aurobindo and the ...
... one returns to the work one knows that the background meditation goes on but instead of the distinct awareness there is in the foreground just a vague sense of something within carrying on the Integral Yoga while one is busy with typing or reading or even talking. Such a double state is possible most when the Yoga is done by the heart rather than by the mind. While the mind is occupied with various ...
... ve attack. The intellectual detachment of that being was a kind of poised peace with a hidden warmth towards all with whom 1 matched my wits. When I attempted to practise Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga this special detachment of the intellect began to deepen into an equanimity of the whole nature. The slings of general adverse fortune and the arrows of particular outrages by individuals missed ...
... experience and seeing, the truest affinity we may trace is perhaps with what we may call the general or essential poetic current passing through some of the English-writing disciples of that Master of "Integral Yoga" from India, Sri Aurobindo, though most of their work Miss Chadwick could scarcely have seen before penning hers. They are, as a rule, more elaborate-structured, more clearly moulded in even their ...
... picking my steps over the wetness lest they should slip. For, if I don't put the canes vertical I would myself at once become horizontal! Symbolically, this wouldn't be undesirable. In our Integral Yoga the movement has to be both a vertical one from the earth-plane to the higher realms of consciousness and a horizontal one in which we widen out to embrace the earth-plane itself (though not necessarily ...
... like us who lack the power to put ourselves in their hands and can only pray to them to exercise their power to pick us up. Your appeal at the Samadhi is characteristic of the practitioner of the Integral Yoga: "Make me surrender fully and make me quickly your excellent instrument." After all, this is a Yoga of Grace and what has been brought to us is the Supreme Light and Love, the Omnipotence of ...
... a compassing the Self of selves, the Plotinus of "the flight of the alone to the Alone", the wide-searching Eckhart, the manifold adept Ramakrishna or, best of all, our own day's Master of the Integral Yoga that would divinise all earth-life: Sri Aurobindo. With the name of Sri Aurobindo I may appropriately close this mystic-minded introduction to my collected poems; for, versatile poet and ...
... Mother on 21 February 1928, forgot all about the dissertation on ‘The Philosophy of Art’, and stayed on in the Ashram for ten and a half years fully engaging himself in the Aurobindonian integral Yoga of self-change and world-transformation. He acquired a new name 'Amal Kiran' (‘The Clear Ray’), and his sadhana took within its scope the literature of Power as well as Knowledge. Although ...
... Consciousness which is infinite and eternal, the supreme God-Self both within and beyond the changeful series of birth and death in which our common terrestrial existence is caught. Immortality, in the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, necessarily includes this experience. When the Overmind came down into his body and the Mother's, the highest range of past realisation of the Immortal Being was compassed not ...
... discipline and withering solitude, all of which meant for me an utter stultification of life." Meeting Sri Aurobindo he was convinced that far from stultifying life and, with it, art, the Integral Yoga taught at Pondicherry would heighten and fulfil everything. It must have been novel indeed to find a Yogi who could write in a book of his that the rationalistic Materialism which ...
... which after all was little more than a few pages every three months — practically nobody understood it. Her statements were always mentally interpreted according to ‘Sri Aurobindo’s system of the Integral Yoga.’ It is true that the contact with the Mother and the surrender to her sufficed to bring you all the way to the end of the road. All the same, who showed some understanding for the stupendous Work ...
... that the work here is not intended for showing one's capacity or having a position or as a means of physical nearness to the Mother but as a field and an opportunity for the Karmayoga, part of the integral Yoga—for learning to work in the true Yogic way—dedication through service, practical selflessness, obedience, scrupulousness, discipline, setting the Divine and the Divine's work first and oneself last; ...
... 1958 White Roses 16 March 1958 In the Integral Yoga, there is no distinction between the Sadhana and the outward life; it is in each and every moment of the daily life that the Truth must be found and practised. The Mother, More Answers from the Mother: 16 March 1958 ...
... them away from their ordinary and external preoccupations and activities and concentrating them on the Divine. It Page 37 differs also in this,—and here from the point of view of an integral Yoga there seems to be a defect,—that it is indifferent to mental and bodily perfection and aims only at purity as a condition of the divine realisation. A second defect is that as actually practised ...
... The Vertical System: Supermind to Subconscient Letters on Yoga - I Chapter VI The Mind Mind in the Integral Yoga and in Other Indian Systems The "Mind" in the ordinary use of the word covers indiscriminately the whole consciousness, for man is a mental being and mentalises everything; but in the language of this Yoga, the words mind and mental are ...
... this greater thing that he can be and entirely live in what is now to him at the best a luminous aspiration. He must seek to develop and grow altogether into a greater divine consciousness by an integral Yoga. The Yoga of perfection necessary to this change has, so far as we have been considering it, consisted in a preparatory purification of the mental, vital and physical nature, a liberation from ...
... The Yoga of Divine Works The Synthesis of Yoga Chapter XIII The Supermind and the Yoga of Works An integral Yoga includes as a vital and indispensable element in its total and ultimate aim the conversion of the whole being into a higher spiritual consciousness and a larger divine existence. Our parts of will and action, our parts of knowledge, our thinking ...
... The full consummation comes in the greatest souls most capable of perfection, but some large manifestation of this fourfold soul-power must be sought and can be attained by all who practise the integral Yoga. These are the signs, but behind is the soul which thus expresses itself in a consummation of nature. And this soul is an outcoming of the free self of the liberated man. That self is of no character ...
... levels. These alternations must be regarded as the natural vicissitudes of a process of transformation from the normal to the spiritual being. The transformation, the perfection cannot for the integral Yoga be complete until the link between the mental and the spiritual action is formed and a higher knowledge applied to all the activities of our existence. That link is the supramental or gnostic energy ...
... us so long as we personally can be free from the monstrous ever-circling wheel of death and rebirth, the indifference to the cry that rises up from a labouring humanity. For the sadhaka of an integral Yoga none of these reasons are valid. With weakness and selfishness, however spiritual in their guise or trend, he can have no dealings; a divine strength and courage and a divine compassion and helpfulness ...
... To proceed farther towards that Transcendence by concentration of one's own being upon it is to lose mental existence and world-existence altogether and cast oneself into the Unknowable. The integral Yoga of knowledge demands instead a divine return upon world-existence and its first step must be to realise the Self as the All, sarvaṁ brahma . First, concentrating on the Self-existent, we have to ...
... of knowledge that it shall unite; the knowledge that divides must always be a partial knowing good for certain practical purposes; the knowledge that unites is the knowledge. Therefore our integral Yoga will take up these various disciplines and concentrations, but harmonise and if possible fuse them by a synthesis which removes their mutual exclusions. Not realising the Lord and the All only to ...
... the Yoga of self-perfection; but it is as well to speak briefly of these things here both because we thereby lay a basis for what we shall have to say of self-perfection, which is a part of the integral Yoga, and because we have to correct the false notions popularised by materialistic Science. According to this Science the normal mental and physical states and the relations between mind and body actually ...
... have this same principle as their final justification. At the same time, it will not be necessary for us to do more than regard the spirit of their gradations in passing; for in a synthetic and integral Yoga they take a secondary importance; their aims have indeed to be included, but their methods can either altogether Page 528 be dispensed with or used only for a preliminary or else a casual ...
... we have seen also what are the essentials of the method. But here we have first to consider briefly one side of the question of method which we have hitherto left untouched. In the system of an integral Yoga the principle must be that all life is a part of the Yoga; but the knowledge which we have been describing seems to be not the knowledge of what is ordinarily understood as life, but of something ...
... and vision though of a mixed character. There is no harm in writing these things when they of themselves come; it may help the inner element of aspiration to grow in you. Difficulties and the Integral Yoga This Yoga is certainly difficult, but is any Yoga really easy? You speak of the lure of liberation into the extracosmic Absolute, but how many who set out on the path of Nirvana attain to it ...
... areas: 1. Sadhana on the Level of the Mind 2. Sadhana on the Level of the Vital 3. Sadhana on the Physical, Subconscient and Inconscient Levels 4. Difficulties in the Practice of the Integral Yoga The letters in this volume have been selected from the extensive correspondence Sri Aurobindo carried on with his disciples and others between 1927 and 1950. Letters from this corpus appear in ...
... The Path and the Goal Letters on Yoga - II Chapter II The Aim of the Integral Yoga A Yoga of Divine Life You have apparently a call and may be fit for Yoga; but there are different paths and each has a different aim and end before it. It is common to all the paths to conquer the desires, to put aside the ordinary relations of life, and to try to pass ...
... misapply it now? My question is this: can this state of greater joy, Sachchidananda, be realised while one is actually doing work? Certainly it is realisable in work. Good Lord! how could the integral Yoga exist if it were not? 22 December 1934 In her prayer of 3 November 1914 , the Mother says that "dans tous les coins du monde une de Tes divines pierres est posée par la puissance de la pensée ...
... religion new or old for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that is still blocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the matter. 18 August 1935 Islam, Hinduism, and the Integral Yoga I want to do something to work for Islamic ideals here. I have a strong desire to do this, but somehow it cuts me off very much from the Ashram atmosphere and sadhana. As to what you say ...
... Mantras Letters on Himself and the Ashram On Mantras Mantras in the Integral Yoga The idea of your friend that it is necessary to receive a mantra from here and for that he must come is altogether wrong. There is no mantra given in this Yoga. It is the opening of the consciousness to the Mother from within that is the true initiation and that can only ...
... Sadhana through Work for the Mother The Mother with Letters on the Mother Work for the Mother in the Integral Yoga To go entirely inside in order to have experiences and to neglect the work, the external consciousness, is to be unbalanced, onesided in the sadhana—for our Yoga is integral; so also to throw oneself outward and live in the external being ...
... Opening, Sincerity and the Mother's Grace The Mother with Letters on the Mother Opening to the Mother and the Integral Yoga I cannot understand whether I am doing Yoga. Can it be said that I am doing your Purna Yoga? Everyone who is turned to the Mother is doing my Yoga. It is a great mistake to suppose that one can "do" the Purna Yoga—i.e. carry ...
... in Part Two of On Himself , headed "Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on the Mother", is incorporated in Part Two of the present volume, primarily in Section Two, "The Mother, Sri Aurobindo and the Integral Yoga". The present volume contains many letters on the Mother that did not appear in the Centenary Library edition of The Mother with Letters on the Mother and On Himself . The editor of Letters ...
... something that once it is released from obscuration by its instruments at once creates a direct contact with the Divine and with the self and spirit. Sri Aurobindo Essays Divine and Human: Integral Yoga What is meant in the terminology of the yoga by the psychic is the soul element in the nature, the pure psyche or divine nucleus which stands behind mind, life and body (it is not the ego) ...
... Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter VI The Adwaita of Shankaracharya Shankara's Mayavada If Shankara's conception of the undifferentiated pure Consciousness as the Brahman is your view of it, then it is not the path of this Yoga that you should choose; for here the realisation of pure Consciousness and Being is ...
... Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga Letters on Yoga - II Chapter X Christianity and Theosophy Christianity The gospel of suffering, the obsessing sense of sin and the dramatic vital turn which goes with these things are certainly the most prominent defects of the Christian attitude, and they keep the religion even in its esoteric movements ...
... Satya Loka in the head Page 325 but the consciousness has at a certain stage to rise above the head freely to meet the same level in the universal Consciousness above. Mantras in the Integral Yoga The idea of your friend that it is necessary to receive a mantra from here and for that he must come is altogether wrong. There is no mantra given in this Yoga. It is the opening of the consciousness ...
... can receive at the moment will come. 10 February 1934 Page 166 Some like me have exceptionally great imperfections and defects. We have no claim for any Yoga, much less for the Integral Yoga. Sheerly out of her care and grace, the Mother has managed to keep us here; but the only return we have given is to tire her out. It is so—if the sadhaks had been different in their reaction ...
... escape from the world in order to live in the joy of contemplation of the Divine, and in the immutable peace of constant contact with Him. The attitude of those who want to practise Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga is quite different. When they have found their psychic being and are united with it, they ask it to turn its gaze towards the physical being in order to act on it with the knowledge that comes from ...
... Mother reads from The Synthesis of Yoga , " Self-Consecration ". Sweet Mother, what is "an all-receiving concentration that is the very nature of the integral Yoga"? An all-receiving concentration? No—a concentration which is open to all that exists; it is a concentration which does not oppose anything. It is a concentration which is open. It means ...
... One can realise the Divine, that is to say, identify oneself with the Divine, become fully conscious of the Divine and be an instrument of the Divine. But naturally, one does not realise the integral yoga, for it is only along one line. But from the point of view of identification with the Divine it is even the most direct path. But without mental development one won't be able to express the ...
... want to realise in accordance with the ideal Sri Aurobindo has given in the last chapter of The Life Divine —a supramental, gnostic collectivity, the only one which can practise Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga and be physically realised in a progressive collective body that grows more and more divine—the memory of this vision became so imperative that it prevented me from speaking. Its symbol was very ...
... here it is said: "There is first the knowledge of Page 336 the truths, principles..." First the Shastra must be known; but to know the Shastra it is said: "The supreme Shastra of the integral Yoga is the eternal Veda secret in the heart..." So to know the Shastra, first a long process of Yoga is necessary. (Laughter) Yes. According to the usual formula, it is like that. It can't be learnt ...
... intensity with which one did it the first time and as though one had never done it before. People who are touchy cannot do this. But if one can't do it, one can't do yoga, in any case not the integral yoga, one can't change one's body. To change one's body one must be ready to do millions of times the same thing, because the body is a creature of habits and functions by routine, and because to ...
... Outside the subject? This subject includes everything. So how can it be outside the subject? The subconscient, we are told, is universal. Mother, when one is here and is following the integral yoga here, isn't... "One is here" means "one is in the Ashram" or "one is in the class"? In the class? No! ( Laughter ) We are in the class and in the Ashram also. Ah, good! So? Is it ...
... awakening to glimpses of the godhead within him, admits more and more its intimations of a deeper life and consciousness and an impulse towards things divine. It is one of the decisive moments of the integral Yoga when this psychic being, liberated, brought out from the veil to the front, can pour the full flood of its divinations, seeings and impulsions on the mind, life and body of man and begins to prepare ...
... within it, and so, whenever it comes to the front it reveals at once what are the right and what the wrong movements in your nature. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga Communications from the psychic do not come in a mental form. They are not ideas or reasonings. They have their own character quite distinct from the mind, something like a feeling that comprehends ...
... but it is not a formation of physical nature alone, therefore it does not cease with the body. There is a mental and vital ego also. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga In a certain sense the various Purushas or beings in us, psychic, mental, vital, physical, are projections of the Atman, but that gets its full truth only when we get into our inner being and ...
... According to my experience people fall into tamas when they go into solitude. Oct, 1971* * It is not what you do but the spirit in which you do it that is important for the integral Yoga. 1971* * ... Divine Mother, I implore you to illumine and put a living faith in this dark area in me. Do not give any importance to that part and it will lose its strength ...
... supramental and the Bliss Nature were organised in the evolution on earth we could become aware of them upholding the movements here. Sri Aurobindo Letters on Yoga - I: The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga The heart is the centre of the being and commands the rest, as the psychic being or chaitya purusha is there. It is only in that sense that all flows from it, for it is the psychic being who ...
... given to the Divine, while the rest remains in its ordinary ways, engrossed in ordinary things; your entire life is taken up, an integral transformation is gradually realised in you. In the integral Yoga, the integral life down Page 2 even to the smallest detail has to be transformed, to be divinised. There is nothing here that is insignificant, nothing that is indifferent. You ...
... unfettered by social conventions and prejudice, free from all preconceived ideas and all doctrinaire limitations, had a direct and conscious contact with the Divine and a first revelation of the integral Yoga; and, on the other hand, the mental prison of narrow rules which excludes life Page 68 and within which people often confine themselves when they renounce ordinary existence in order ...
... realisation to the exterior world and change the conditions of life upon the earth until a total transformation is accomplished. In accordance with this Page 107 aim, the sadhaks of the integral yoga do not retire from the world to lead a life of contemplation and meditation. Each one must devote at least one-third of his time to a useful work. All activities are represented in the Ashram and ...
... Page 54 It can be useful for a time to have certain inner experiences, but this attitude is not to be kept permanently as it is only a partial truth and far from the whole truth of the integral yoga. The true revelation is the revelation of the Divine. The descent of calm and light which you experience is a sign that the sadhana has actually begun in you; it shows that you are open ...
... or walking or doing anything; at every moment, you should remember the Divine and try to remain in the Divine consciousness. 31 August 1953 Here sensibleness is indispensable and the integral yoga is based on balance, calm and peace and not on an unhealthy need to suffer. 12 May 1969 As long as it is an austerity there are reactions. When it becomes an imperative need, it is ...
... articulated by Sri Aurobindo, which in turn flow from xi his exalted spiritual stature. Spiritual seekers around the world, whether or not they are formally following Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, will find this selection of great value in their quest. I myself have benefited greatly from Shri Dalal's earlier selections, and warmly commend the valuable service that he is rendering to genuine ...
... the more our expression is Page 345 perfect, executed by a complete and perfect being, the more integral and perfect will our realisation be. For someone who wants to follow the integral yoga nothing is useless and nothing must be neglected.... The main thing is to know how to put each thing in its place and to hand over the government to what truly has the right to govern. Page ...
... But you must know that the Page 268 necessary result of this will be that you will have to walk in the special path which He has given to me, the path which I call the path of the Integral Yoga. What I began with, what Lele 1 gave me, was a seeking for the path, a circling in many directions—a first touch, a taking up, a handling and scrutiny of this or that in all the old partial yogas ...
... love and blessings. 27 January 1957 ( The disciple wrote that he felt the Mother's Presence only while working, and therefore work was his only sadhana. The Mother replied: ) In the integral Yoga there is no distinction between the sadhana and the outward life; it is in each and every movement of the daily life that the Truth must be found and practised. 16 March 1958 ( The disciple ...
... and they are trying to combine in a total and perfect realization: the eternal, ineffable and immutable Consciousness of the Executrice of the Supreme, and the consciousness of the Sadhak of the integral Yoga who strives in an ascending effort towards an ever increasing progression. Page 209 To this has been added a growing initiation into the supramental realization which is (I understand ...
... Mother’s Agenda 1951-1960 November 12, 1957 The integral yoga is made up of an uninterrupted series of tests that you must pass through without any advance notice, thereby forcing you to be always vigilant and attentive. Three groups of examiners conduct these tests. Apparently they have nothing in common and their methods are so different, at times ...
... against the past that seeks to endure; so that the new things may manifest and we may be ready to receive them. 24 November 1952 To follow Sri Aurobindo in the great adventure of his integral Yoga, one needed always to be a warrior; now that he has left us physically, one needs to be a hero. 21 February 1954 When you fear death it has already defeated you. 24 April 1956 The ...
... they are capable of dedicating their life and of working and doing good work disinterestedly, as a service to the Divine—that's very good), but in particular, To those who want to practice the integral yoga, it is strongly advised to abstain from three things.... So, the three things ([ laughing ] you put your fingers in your ears): sexual intercourse (it comes third) and drinking alcohol and ...
... repeating and revolving within ourselves as often as possible that magnificent quatrain from The Life Heavens which gives the ideal at once of Sri Aurobindo's askesis and art, the aim of his Integral Yoga and an example of what the best spiritual poetry should be : Arms taking to a voiceless supreme delight, Life that meets the Eternal with close breast, An unwalled mind dissolved ...
... isn't a very good sign. We'll see ( Mother laughs ) if the poor fellow has fallen into the clutches of... Anyway, it'll be a lesson to him. Ah, he does make us understand the need for an integral yoga. Oh, yes. ( Mother searches among her papers. ) I have something here: To listen is good but not sufficient, You must understand. To understand is good but not yet sufficient ...
... flying into some spiritual ether. To rise beyond our normal mental condition is the means of bringing a greater power of knowledge and activity and beauty and harmony and love into our world. The Integral Yoga wants the embodied being on "this litet spot of erthe" to have A Mind unvisited by illusion's gleams, A Will expressive of soul's deity, A Strength not forced to stumble by its speed ...
... varied , but there should be consonance, however subtle and implicit, with the great ideal of refining no less than sharpening all of man's faculties. And, of course, topics concerned with the Integral Yoga were to hold the centre of the stage. At the end of twenty-five years Mother India cannot do better than turn in deep gratitude to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo and so comport itself ...
... differences between Teilhard de Chardin and Sri Aurobindo and of the validity as well as the error of putting together, as often done, the author of Le Phenomène humain and the Master of the Integral Yoga - a many-sided treatment built up by collecting the present writer's essays on Teilhardism first printed in Mother India has been published under the title: The Spirituality of the Future ...
... wedded to the obscurely entangled or a strict symbolist cherishing a cult of the glimmeringly elusive. Behind the poet in Page 237 him is the master of the integral yoga whose work, however distant on occasion from familiar experience, was to enlighten and not to puzzle and who, for all his roots in India's hoary past of spirituality, was yet a modern among ...
... omniscience and omnipotence. To bring out its living concerns along with its metaphysical cruxes and put them all in a brief compass under the broad illumination of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy of Integral Yoga was my aim. A like objective with regard to other topics has been followed in various ways at greater or smaller length in the rest of the volume. Everywhere the ideal is an interplay of light ...
... the advancement of his work and we might leave it to the Mother -Sri Aurobindo's partner in that work - to unroll the supreme rationale of the Master's will in the actual developments of the Integral Yoga in the future. However, the Master himself never completely discouraged the effort of the mind to comprehend the Spirit's manifold action. Intellectual formulation of direct inner knowledge or ...
... desiccating discipline and withering solitude, all of which meant for me an utter stultification of life." Meeting Sri Aurobindo he was convinced that far from stultifying life and, with it, art, the Integral Yoga taught at Pondicherry would heighten and fulfil everything. It must have been novel indeed to find a Yogi who could write in a book of his that the rationalistic Materialism which characterised ...
... own archetypes of Truth. This direct calling down of the Truth, constantly and persistently, with full Page 165 self-surrender to Its demands is what Sri Aurobindo terms the Integral Yoga by which the very body will also be transformed into an incorruptible vehicle of the immortal Bliss, Consciousness and Power of the Divine - the Divine that is conscious of Its manifestation and ...
... the aroma of flowers and incense-sticks expressing the mute prayer of the thousands of hearts to whom he is the Avatar of a super-humanity to be, the concrete close reality of the Master of the Integral Yoga requires no proof. But the entire sacrifice, with its immense mysterious potency, was possible because, commemorating each future anniversary and conducting the Ashram, there is amongst us his co-worker ...
... Supermind (Spirit, absolute consciousness)". 3 This is a lopsided presentation, leaving no scope for the central theme of Sri Aurobindo's "Integral Yoga": descent of Page 237 the Truth-consciousness or Supermind into our fumbling humanity. The ...
... penetrating literary critic, a far-reaching philo-sophical thinker and a profound poet but also a master of spiritual illumination, a guide to the all-round inner development which he terms the Integral Yoga, it has been felt that concentration on an approach to the subject of "Classical" and "Romantic" through him is most likely to yield what is new as well as true. K.D.S. 1962 ...
... aversion or even denial, and reconciled themselves to its unalterable fate of ever remaining unregenerate and untransformed. But, evidently, this cannot be the right attitude for the Sadhaka of the Integral Yoga. Since a divine transformation of all the parts of our existence including its most material foundation is the goal envisaged by the Yoga of Integral Transformation, we must seek for the clue ...
... extreme case, he may even be totally inert (jaḍavat). Evidently, this sort of spiritual realisation, luminous inside and disjointed outside , cannot be compatible with the goal of the Integral Yoga which seeks to objectivise the inner spirituality in a divine and dynamic world-action. For that purpose, it is certainly not a laudable achievement to cancel the siege of sleep in one part of ...
... deaf under the spell of those misleading influences. Nevertheless my true self aspired for the perfection of the whole being. These sophist forces put strong suggestions into my mind that this Integral Yoga was exceedingly difficult, that I had no aptitude for it and would be hopelessly defeated, so I should give up all idea of realising the Divine. They invariably, unfailingly, showed up all my defects ...
... can be clearly seen as the composite result of a synthesis of yoga (that is, karma yoga or the yoga of works, jnāna yoga or the yoga of knowledge, and bhakti yoga or the yoga of love) or Integral yoga. The underlying message is that the teacher can arrive at the "Bull" when these three Page 89 yogas are practiced in a synthetic manner and are united. The teacher further addresses ...
... that it can go. You cannot conquer a difficulty by avoiding it. I see from your answers that I did not try to develop my inner being which is of great importance in the Integral Yoga. The self-realisation was all I sought for. Shall I now centre my sadhana around the inner being? The whole question is whether you can go farther in the realisation of the self without either ...
... took him up, he got confidence and the medicines were able to act both in their own power and as instruments of the Force. Many sadhaks were not fit for any Yoga, much less for the Integral Yoga. It was sheerly by the Mother's Grace that we were accepted. And yet the only return we have offered to her is to tire her out by our ego and vital demands. It is so - if the sadhaks had ...
... man acquiring and possessing it can apply it to an individual or cosmic purpose. But fortunately we have Sri Aurobindo's own word for it and our personal experience in its support. In fact his integral Yoga aims at nothing less than bringing down the supramental consciousness and changing the present terrestrial consciousness by its dynamic power and light. We shall also witness Sri Aurobindo's vital ...
... concrete affirmation. The inconscient will be embodied consciousness. The humanist said, 'INothing human I reckon foreign to me," In a deeper and more absolute sense the divine Mystic of the integral Yoga says the same. He is indeed humanity incarnate, the whole mankind condensed and epitomised in his single body. Mankind as imbedded in ignorance and inconscience, the conscious soul lost in the dark ...
... Who will give me the answers to these questions?" (Sanchayita, "After Death", adapted.) The questions become still more insistent and full of interest in the case of the sadhakas of the Integral Yoga when they come to know that the Mother, the great occultist and Mahayogi of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, has clearly pronounced about what has happened to some of the sadhakas and sadhikas of the Ashram ...
... concentration camps and adventures in Guyana, Brazil and Africa, he came to India in 1953, became a Sanyasi and practised Tantrism. Then he left these paths to serve Mother and embarked upon the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. For 19 years, he lived near the Mother and became her confidant and her witness. He recorded innumerable personal conversations that form Mother’s Agenda. He has written a ...
... self and spirit, becomes in his natural being a self-perfecting instrument for the perfect outflowing of the Divine humanity. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - II: The Principle of the Integral Yoga ...
... and heart, others in the Vital also. In our Yoga our aim is to be united too in the physical consciousness and on the supramental plane. Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II: The Aim of the Integral Yoga By this Yoga we not only seek the Infinite, but we call upon the Infinite to unfold himself in human life. Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga - I: The Four Aids ...
... Press, the work will be ruined! As soon as I have a moment free I shall call you in the morning and we shall talk it over. The more I go, the more I know that it is in work that Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga is best done. Love and blessings 9 October 1966 ...
... Then she told me what I should write to my family and my in-laws, explaining my departure for good. In the course of our conversation I asked the Mother, "What are the important points of this Integral Yoga? What should I do?" She smiled and replied, "Have faith in the Divine, love the Divine, and develop the consciousness." She saw the confusion in my mind, and patting my hands assured me that she ...
... partial and segmented views of existence and at the same time transcend them. We shall endeavour to meet the arguments leading to these two great Negations and show in the light of the Integral Yoga-Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo that, although some of the propositions held by the materialist and the exclusive spiritual seeker are indeed valid in their own way, their total view of things as ...
... help of a thorn"; and Yoga-Vasishtha: "Renounce that with which you renounce" (yena tyajasi taṁ tyaja). But this can by no means be our attitude to the body and bodily life. For the Integral Yoga has for its objective: (i)to make spiritual experiences real to the whole consciousness including that of the outer being; (ii)to establish the highest possible realisation in the ...
... denial, and reconciled themselves to its supposedly unalterable fate of ever remaining unregenerate and untransformed. But, evidently, this cannot be the right attitude for the sadhaka of the Integral Yoga. Since a divine transformation of all the parts of our existence including its most material foundation is the goal envisaged by the Yoga of Integral Transformation, we must seek for the clue ...
... knowledge to discover it all, the experience of the planes of consciousness, the experience of the Supermind, ... He has noted all the stages, marked each step in order to advance integrally in the integral yoga. All this is his own experience, and what is most surprising is that it is my experience also.... Each object, each event, each realisation, all the description, even the colours are exactly what ...
... in Sri Aurobindo's Writings). 5. Sri Aurobindo's Poetry and Sanskrit Rhetoric. 6. The Mystery of Death and the Conquest of Immortality (in Bengali). 7. The Way of Practicing the Integral Yoga (in two volumes in Bengali). The present monograph, The Ascent of Sight in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri, will, we hope, be able to grip the interest of the discerning readers. We ...
... by divine dispensation and cannot be checkmated by any agency, human or occultly hostile. The real purpose of this unique educational Centre is to help in the building up of a new humanity. The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the life-long Tapasya of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo have for their central aim the transformation of ignorant, imperfect and all-suffering humanity into a race of divine men ...
... manifestly clear that Sri Aurobindo comes to us not only as the Day-bringer who floods us with his Light and Wisdom, not merely as the unparalleled Guide on the arduous and austere path of the Integral Yoga, but also as an intimate loving Companion who not only enlightens us but cheers our weary care-laden heart all the way. His is the infinite human kindliness spiced with a rich flavour of delectable ...
... 3. Ancient Indian knowledge and modem scientific knowledge; some striking examples. 4. Systems of yoga: Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Tantra, Integral Yoga. II. Aids for the Development of the Yogic Consciousness and Experience: 1. Need for the systematic knowledge of the principles and methods of yoga. 2. Need for the Teacher: ...
... a few extracts in Part VIII under the general title "The Body Reaching Out Beyond Itself. Taking advantage of an account of Hatha Yoga, Hatha Yoga Pradipika, we have introduced the concept of Integral Yoga which includes not only the aims of physical perfection proposed by Hatha Yoga but also a synthesis of this perfection with other perfections which can be attained by pursuit of other systems ...
... and Tantra. Even in later times, in the movements of saints and bhaktas there is a marked turn towards synthesis, and even in our own times, in the yogic life of Sri Aurobindo and his integral yoga we have the latest effort and statement of the synthesis of yogic disciplines. Catholicity of the Veda and the Upanishads has permitted remarkable changes in the forms of Indian religion ...
... of the lower and escape into the higher, — the ordinary viewpoint, — or by the transformation of the lower and its elevation to the higher Nature. It is this, rather, that must be the aim of an integral Yoga. Page 278 ... The whole life is the Yoga of Nature. The Yoga that we seek must also be an integral action of Nature, and the whole difference between the Yogin and the natural ...
... action of gunas of the lower Prakriti, and how they can be transcended into the state of trigunātīta or state beyond the three gunas. These chapters delineate the culminating method of the Gita's integral yoga, which is contained in the real mahāvākya of the Gita: "Become My-minded, My lover and adorer, a sacrificer to Me, bow thyself to Me, to Me thou shalt come, this is My pledge and promise to thee ...
... Supermind in Integral Yoga Part Seven The Aim of Integral Liberation and Integral Perfection Against this background, it may be said that Sri Aurobindo's synthesis of yoga does not aim merely at the liberation of the individual or of the individual Purusha from the ignorance which appears to be inherent in the Nature of Prakriti; it also ...
... Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga Index āde ś a 12 Advaita 5 after-images 6 Alexander, Samuel 25 ā nanda 23 apar ā prakriti 15 Ā rya 3 ā sana 26 . Bhagavadgīt ā (Git ā ) 9, 21, 45, 47, 48,90,91, 101 Bhagavad shakti 75; see also shakti bhakti 21 Bhakti Yoga ...
... action of gunas of the lower Prakriti, and how they can be transcended into the state of trigunātita or state beyond the three gunas. These chapters delineate the culminating method of the Gita's integral yoga, which is contained in the real mahavakya of the Gita: "Become My minded, My lover and adorer, a sacrifice to Me, bow thyself to Me, to Me thou shalt come, this is My pledge and promise to thee ...
... and he wrote on this subject even when he had left in 1910 active participation in the political activity on account of his total occupation with the future of India and the world and with the integral yoga that he was developing and perfecting as an aid to the solution of the evolutionary crisis of humanity. This theme was developed by him in four of his books that he wrote during 1914 and 1921, namely ...
... concentration camps and adventures in Guyana, Brazil and Africa, he came to India in 1953, became a Sanyasi and practised Tantrism. Then he left these paths to serve Mother and embarked upon the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. For 19 years, he lived near the Mother and became her confidant and her witness. He recorded innumerable personal conversations that form Mother's Agenda. He has written a biography ...
... ryanakas and which culminated in the Upanishads. Fortunately, in the early Upanishads, the Vedic integral system of yoga was recaptured, and the synthesis of yoga of the Upanishads based itself on integral yoga of the Veda, even though the Upanishads, rightly called Vedanta, brought out clearly the Vedic emphasis and integration of the paths of knowledge, action and devotion; and they also added as a kind ...
... Integral Yoga of Transformation Part Seven Major change in the Process of Evolution The manifestation of the supramental transformation leading to the highest reach of self-perfection would imply a major change in the process of evolution. There is in the present process of evolution a control of the pervading Nescience, but in this new stage the veil thus ...
... Integral yoga and Evolutionary Mutation -11_Bibliography.htm Bibliography Sri Aurobindo, The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo - 37 volumes, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 2005. Vol. Titles 1 Early Cultural Writings 2 Collected Poems 3 Collected Plays and Stories -I 4 Collected Plays and Stories-I I 5 Translations ...
... Integral yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Also by Kireet Joshi ...
... Integral yoga and Evolutionary Mutation Page 38 Page 55 ...
... 132 a part here and a part 130The traditional path of yoga aims for liberation from the bondage of the lower narure into the ineffable silence and peace of the Supreme. But the aim of integral yoga is not liberation alone. It is the complete transformation of the lower nature, even of the body. It is not an escape into God's ocean of Sat-chit-ananda, but the very divinization of matter ...
... Talks by Nirodbaran Publisher's Note When Nirodbaran came to Sri Aurobindo Ashram, after completing his medical studies in UK, to practise integral yoga, he was surprised to find that poetry was one of the vocations taken up by some disciples as a means of sadhana. Sri Aurobindo encouraged and even inspired them in their efforts through suggestions for i ...
... experience of the Supermind, even the experience of the conquest of Death. He has noted all the stages, marked each step Page 48 needed in order to advance in an integral way in the integral Yoga. All this is his own experience, and what is most surprising is that it is also my own experience. It is my sadhana which he has described. Each object, each event, each realisation, all ...
... realisation are not complete, faith is indispensable. The difficulties in sadhana come because we lack a real self-giving and spontaneous love for the Divine Mother. For the integral Yoga especially, they are our only permanent safeguards. Moreover, it is harder to understand the Divine in a physical form than on the ethereal planes. Even our outer questioning and your answering ...
... heart opens out or ascends with joy to the Mother. Has the heart also to rise? The emotional being has to ascend. What happens to the heart in the process of the Integral Yoga? Is it purified in itself? Yes, it becomes an instrument of self-expression of the psychic being. Before it becomes the instrument of the psychic, what does it follow ...
... Maude Smith's Correspondence Maude Smith's Correspondence with The Mother 19 January 1957 Gracious Divine Mother, I cannot believe that in the Integral Yoga the darkness and ugliness and suffering I have been immersed in for almost three years are necessary. Nor do I believe that it is beyond the power of the Divine to help. Only, something is dreadfully ...
... monthly. Mother India, where they appeared as several series: (1) "My Boyhood under Sri Aurobindo", (2) "Guidance from Sri Aurobindo", (3) "My Sadhana with the Mother", (4) "The Problems of the Integral Yoga". The letters, no less illuminating for all their simplicity, cover a fairly large number of subjects. As their recipient grew up more and more, the subjects naturally increased in significance ...
... by their habitual inferior nature or are open to and unified with their hidden divine source. This recurrent and continuous initiation is at the secret basis of all spiritual discipline-in the Integral Yoga this is the one and all-important principle. Page 75 ...
... on the path. But to make this surrender total and complete all the Five that we have enumerated are needed. This is then what I propose. We put Surrender on the top, at the head; for to do the integral Yoga, one must first of all take the resolution to surrender entirely to the Divine, there is no other way that is the one way. Afterwards, one must have the five psychological perfections. Page ...
... Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Introduction The process of evolution seems to have been detected in ancient times. In the Rig Veda, the N ā sad ī ya s ū kta ¹ refers to the "darkness wrapped in darkness" and points out that from the breath that stirred in that original darkness, there stirred the life-force as desire, and that that desire was ...
... Integral Yoga of Transformation Page 13 ...
... Integral Yoga of Transformation Page 4 ...
... and its elevation to the higher Nature. It is because the aim is that of a transformation of our integral being into the terms of the supramental divine existence that the synthesis of yoga or integral yoga becomes indispensable. The one common principle and the one central dynamic Force in all systems of yoga is that of concentration; in the new synthesis, that common principle and force of c ...
... Integral Yoga, Evolution and the Next Species Preface The theory of evolution is not entirely new. The Nasadiya Sukta, the Purusha Sukta. and the Aghamarshana Sukta of the Rig Veda indicate that the Vedic Rishis were aware of the evolutionary process, which begins with the Inconscience as a starting-point and higher levels of consciousness evolve step ...
... Joshi.htm Also by Kireet Joshi Education/or Character Development Education for Tomorrow Education at Crossroads A National Agenda for Education Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Landmarks of Hinduism The Veda and Indian Culture Glimpses of Vedic Literature The Portals of Vedic Knowledge Bhagavadgita and C ...
... is no question of diluting the tradition of the Guru. It is understood that for all time to come Sri Aurobindo and the Mother will continue to be the Gurus for every one taking to the path of Integral Yoga. There cannot be a successor to the Mother. When Dakshinapada asked Her (unwisely) in the early fifties: 'Sri Aurobindo has left us, one day you also will leave us. Then who is to lead us?' She ...
... magazine Arya, published in Pondicherry, during the years 1914-1921. At the same time, he has made a synthesis of the traditional systems of Indian Yoga and welded them into his all embracing "Integral Yoga". Both are thus complementary: Yoga is the individual, evolution the collective, aspect.16 In the last chapter of Sri Aurobindo's The Human Cycle we find a description of a transitional period ...
... ourselves ¹ Prayers and Meditations of the Mother. ² ibid. Page 368 lost in the many-sided vastness of the aim and the incalculable swing and sweep of the process of the Integral Yoga propounded by them. This perception was the well-spring of all the efforts of the Mother even when she knew nothing of Sri Aurobindo, and it has ever been the same in their unwearied collaboration ...
... Yoga and realised the Divine at the age of twenty two. She had also practised the Gita's Karmayoga. She came to India for good in 1920 and began to collaborate with Sri Aurobindo in his integral Yoga. When he went into seclusion after his great Siddhi in 1926, he gave the charge of the inmates in the Mother's hands. Thus the Ashram was founded and the Mother was accepted as the Divine ...
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