Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo in 1920

Sri Aurobindo quotations

Sri Aurobindo, born Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950), synthesized Eastern and Western philosophy, religion, literature, and psychology in writings, and also developed a vision of human progress and spiritual evolution. Below are a few Aurobindo quotations, followed by some light on Aurobindo's yoga and meditation.

❦❦❦❦

Delight is the secret. Learn of pure delight and thou shalt learn of God. [Sri Aurobindo]

Spirituality . . . simply to keep our centre, our essential way of being, our inborn nature and assimilate to it all we receive, and evolve out of it all we do and create. [Sri Aurobindo]

Soul, nature, life are only a manifestation or partial phenomenon of [a] self-aware Eternity and this conscious Eternal. [Sri Aurobindo]

Always I listened to the voice within; "I am guiding, therefore fear not. Turn to your own work for which I have brought you to jail . . . I am Vasudeva, I am Narayana, and what I will, shall be, not what others will. What I choose to bring about, no human power can stay." [Sri Aurobindo]

Not result is the purpose of action, but God's eternal delight in becoming, seeing and doing. [Sri Aurobindo]

Spirituality is the master key of the Indian mind. [Sri Aurobindo, 1949]

Theorist, and trifler though I may be called, I again assert as our first and holiest duty, the elevation and enlightenment of the proletariate. [Sri Aurobindo, 1893]

Hinduism . . . has many scriptures: The Veda, the Vedanta, the Gita, the Upanishads, the Darshanas, the Puranas, the Tantras, but . . . the most authoritative scripture is in the heart in which the Eternal has his dwelling. [Sri Aurobindo, 1921]

The second message . . . said, "Something has been shown to you . . . When . . . it is said that India shall rise, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall".

Genius discovers a system; average talent stereotypes it. [Sri Aurobindo]

When the Sanatan Dharma declines, then the nation declines. [Sri Aurobindo, 1913]

Wisdom looks behind the veil and sees. [Sri Aurobindo]

When the temple is completed, can the supports be removed, the scaffolding disappear. [Sri Aurobindo]

The trained eye sees also the evil done by self-righteous or self-regarding virtue. [Sri Aurobindo]

There is a great difference between the spiritual and the purely material and mental view of existence. The spiritual view holds that the mind, life, body are man's means and not his aims and even that they are not his last and highest means; it sees them as his outer instrumental self and not his whole being. [Sri Aurobindo]

Integral yoga - Key Ideas

In 1910, Aurobindo moved to Pondicherry. During World War II, he supported the allies, describing Hitler as a dark and oppressive force.

His close spiritual collaborator, Paris-born Mirra Richard (b. Alfassa), settled in Pondicherry in 1920. She came to be known as The Mother because Sri Aurobindo started to call her by this name. Sri Aurobindo considered her his spiritual equal and collaborator. She stayed in Pondicherry till she died in 1973.

In The Synthesis of Yoga, and in his voluminous correspondence with his disciples collected under the title Letters on Yoga, Sri Aurobindo laid out the psychological principles and practices of the integral yoga or purna yoga, (full, complete yoga, and also supramental yoga). He defined his encompassing yoga in the early 1900s as "a path of integral seeking of the Divine by which all that we are is in the end liberated . . . into a truth beyond the Mind, a truth not only of highest spiritual status but of a dynamic spiritual self-manifestation in the universe."

He describes the nature and practice of integral yoga in his work The Synthesis of Yoga where he intends to harmonise the paths of karma, jnana, and bhakti yoga and form a synthesis of Vedanta and Tantra. Additional and revised material to The Synthesis of Yoga is found in some of the later chapters of The Life Divine and in other works.

This is the metaphysical basis for Sri Aurobindo's yoga: A core tenet of his philosophy is that the Truth of existence is an omnipresent Reality that both transcends the manifested universe and is inherent in it. This Reality, referred to as Brahman, is an Absolute: it is not limited by duality, timeless or extended in time, spaceless or extended in space. It is at once all of these but is bound by none.

The aim of integral yoga is to make oneself able and fit to manifest a divine consciousness. "There is an eternal dynamic Truth-consciousness beyond mind; this is what we call supermind." Aurobindo considered the supermind to be an all-organizing and all-coordinating principle. He also details various dangers that the aspirant may encounter on his path.

As he sees it, one needs to change physical habits and consciousness, get consciously aware of likes and dislikes, and go for fit attitudes, understanding, and aspiration. The aimis to move inward and realise the Innermost (Essence) in the Heart, and keep connecting with the atman (soul). For things to go well, such as sincerity or transparency is vital.

Sri Aurobindo rejects the idea that the World is Maya (illusion) and that living as a renunciate is the only way out. He says that it is possible to transcend human nature and also to transform it and to live in the world as a free and evolved human.

Existence emerging out of the Inconscient is named evolution. At first it emerges gradually in matter, life, and mind: Matter evolves from simple to complex forms, then life springs out in matter and evolves from simple to complex forms, and next mind emerges in the field of life field and evolves to higher forms of thought and reason. At each new step of awakening, most previous stages remain but integrated into the evolved, higher principle. Humanity represents mind in complex material forms of life.

To overcome limitations man is born with, he must embark on a process of self-discovery in which he uncovers his Divine nature.

1. The first of three stages is a movement within, away from the surface of life, to the depths, culminating in the discovery of his evolving soul.
2. The mind expands and he experiences knowledge through light, intuition, and revelation of knowledge.
3. After making the psychic and spiritual change, he makes the supramental change of the mind, the heart and body.

After the steps of awakening comes the stages of manifesting the awakening, Sri Aurobindo says. He indicated that the aim of his yoga is to make earth divine by manifesting the Supermind, that is, Truth-consciousness. The particular method he suggested includes purification of the personality and its constituents.

One of the most significant contributions of Sri Aurobindo is interpretation of the Vedas. Sri Aurobindo's theory of the inner spiritual significance of the Vedas was published in book form as The Secret of the Veda. Another book, Hymns to the Mystic Fire, is Sri Aurobindo's translation of the spiritual sense of many of the verses of the Rig Veda.

Sri Aurobindo sees Indra as the God of Mind lording over the senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and so on. Vayu (Wind) represents air, but can also be viewed as Prana, life force. Thus, when the Rig Veda says "Call Indra and Vayu to drink Soma Rasa" the inner meaning is supposed to be about this: "Use mind through the senses and life force to gain bliss."

This understanding revolves on appointing Vedic gods to be large symbols of a sort. Sos Soma, or intoxicating, pressed plant juice, in several texts also means divine bliss, Agni, God of the sacrificial fire, is the flame of the spiritual will to overcome earth-bound obstacles to rise higher or unite with the Divine.

Sri Aurobindo's influence has been wide-ranging.

Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol is Sri Aurobindo's epic poem in 12 books, 24,000 lines about an individual who overcomes the ignorance, suffering, and death in the world by her spiritual quest. Some like it a lot:

Sri Aurobindo's epic Savitri has already inaugurated the New Age of Illumination and is probably the greatest epic in the English language ... perhaps the most powerful artistic work in the world for expanding man's mind towards the Absolute. [Dr. Raymond Piper, Profesor of Philosophy at Syracuse University]

The Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the spiritual community that grew up around him and was organized and directed by the Mother, continues to operate with slightly more than 2000 members and a similar number of non-members who live nearby and are associated with the Ashram.