Integral Yoga in Detail

Integral Yoga in Detail ​

 

             "Therefore the wise have always been unwilling to limit man’s avenues towards God; they would not shut against his entry even the narrowest portal, the lowest and darkest postern, the humblest wicket-gate. Any name, any form, any symbol, any offering has been held to be sufficient if there is the consecration along with it; for the Divine knows himself in the heart of the seeker and accepts the sacrifice"

Sri Aurobindo

CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-82

 

             “As soon as I found out – and no one told me, I found out through an experience – as soon as I found out that there was a discovery to be made within myself, well, it became THE MOST IMPORTANT thing in the world. It took precedence over everything else!...And when, as I told you, I chanced upon a book or an individual that could give me just a little clue and tell me, ‘Here. If you do such and such, you will find your path’ – well I charged into it like a cyclone ... and nothing could have  stopped me.”

The Mother
The Mother's Agenda/August 25, 1954

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             The central common principle of all Vedantic Schools of Yoga is the self-fulfilment of the Purusha through his Prakriti or play of Prakriti to satisfy her Purusha. Its central secret is the search after the silent inactive Purusha as a means of liberation by withdrawal from the deception created by the active Prakriti and becomes the key to finding of the Shakti. The central common principle of all Vedic schools of Yoga which was later followed by the Tantric schools is the self-fulfilment of Prakriti through her Purusha or play of the Purusha to satisfy his Prakriti and its central secret is the worship, adoration and consecration of the Prakriti to the Divine Shakti as the all important and sole effective force for all attainment and becomes the key to the finding of the Spirit. In integral Yoga the central common principle is that the relation between Purusha and Prakriti exists between two poles of Vedantic rest and Vedic movement; when Prakriti is absorbed in the conscious existence of Purusha, there is rest, freedom and liberation of Soul; when the Purusha pours itself out in action of its Prakriti, there is action, transformation of Nature, new creation and ananda and the complete union of  Purusha and Prakriti in Ignorance is raised to the higher planes of Ishwara-Shakti in Knowledge and Brahman-Maya in Vijnana. The central secret of integral Yoga begins with Vedantic teaching of the Spirit as the all important means for finding of the Shakti till the attainment of sufficient Spiritual foundation followed by Spiritual integration which is complemented by the Vedic teaching of Shakti as the all important means of finding the Spirit and their respective sacrifices are ‘the Brahman is offered to the Brhaman by the Brhaman’⁷ and ‘the Shakti is offered to the Shakti by the Shakti’. And the aim of this Yoga is defined as attainment of fullness of Being, fullness of Consciousness and fullness of Life through movement of static and dynamic Consciousness. This object makes the Spiritual life and its experiences fully active and fully usable in the normal waking state or waking trance, possessing our whole existence of several (ten) subtle bodies.

 

          The central process of integral Yoga is a turning of human Soul from the egoistic state of consciousness absorbed in the outward surface mental appearances and attractions of things and catching at knowledge in a most scanty, superficial, narrow, ordinary and fragmentary fashion of human thinking, feeling, acting and seeing to a higher state of deep and wide Spiritual Consciousness in which the Transcendent and the Universal Divine can pour itself into the individual mould in order to enlarge and transform it.

 

          The practice of this Yoga proceeds through two alternative periods, initially of (1) unillumined Soul season of groping, seeking, endeavour and preparation through the mind’s methods of abstraction or reason’s methods of surface manipulation to get rid of all in him that belongs to the working of lower Nature, in which the Soul and its instruments must become fit through a lower means of approaching God indirectly or the attempt of the egoistic mind to identify itself in a wrong and imperfect way with the workings of the divine Force through movement of divagated purification, dispersed concentration and ineffective identity and arrive at a certain degree of opening to Spiritual truth, and it is at this point he gives up all his three modes of action to greater Power and finally (2) the Soul’s method of clarity takes up the growth of illumined Soul season of progress through prepared and fit Souls by uncovering the swift and concentrated Sunlit or Psychic and Golden or Spiritual path which approaches God directly by systematic purification of the whole being, absolute concentration on the object and compete and intimate identity of union and finds a means to reach the end of the goal. In the former intellect develops into mind of the sage or high mental thinker where all preparatory Yoga is pursued or integral Yoga begins with the entire rejection of lower human nature which is a means to escape into higher Divine Nature whereas in the latter the Spiritual sage has gone beyond the abstractions of thought and the integral Yoga insists on the transformation of entire lower human Nature by the pressure of higher Divine Nature, Shakti. In the former, the mind has the capacity to observe, invent, discover the actual possibilities of creation and to turn all his action to free means of self-expression and the latter is a seer of the occult imperatives, a greater perfection that necessitates the substitution of Spiritual Influence and is fully aware of the original Determinant of all determinants. 

 

          Our egoistic dwelling in Ignorance, approach everything by a broken, partial and personal standard of knowledge and limited consciousness and are unable to give a Divine response or set the true value upon any part of the cosmic experience. The unripe Soul or the developing Soul is bound to social duty and family obligation, like his unpurified desire and they can be used for their exhaustion for a brief time, after that they will be withdrawn and a Divine government will alone abide. The child Soul or infant Soul or its raw adolescence cries, condemns, revolts against suffering, failure and incapacity and exhibits its violence against the Master of the Being and marches ahead stumblingly in the decreed Divine development by turning its door of consciousness outward into appearances of things and it is not surprising that mind can also claim to be the leader of the journey and the only available guide or at least lead towards the direct and innermost door of the temple through its faculty of exclusive concentration. The Mind has two possibility; the first possibility is that the mind can ascend into Divine planes in waking state and derive from them a stream of influences and experiences which can transform his nature; secondly, the mind can call down Divine through its power of pure, clear and passive reflection, so that its mentality is changed in to the image of the Divine. 

 

          Spiritual experiences born out of World Negation as developed by Buddha and later further extended by the Indian Saint Shankara are the Nirvana and Brahma Nirvana respectively are identified as the first siddhi of integral Yoga. For the Buddha, the world, Self and God are constructions of mind and by withdrawing from such constructions, one arrives at the ineffable Delight of Nirvana. If this experience is further extended one realises the featureless, immutable, silent and absolute state of One and indivisible Brahma Nirvana and also realises the second siddhi of integral Yoga that this world which appears as illusion, is created from the Brahman. And the Ananda becomes so intense and pure that to the mind this phenomenal world seems to be an illusion. The third siddhi of integral Yoga finds a relation between Spirit and Matter and the Brahman energy can penetrate inside Matter. This dynamic Spiritual experience born out of Positive Affirmation of World or considering world as the body of the Divine, Vasudev Sarvamiti,⁸ is the Cosmic Consciousness which is possible by raising and widening the mind to the state of Truth Thought, Truth Vision, Truth Hearing, Truth Discernment and Truth Touch or developing the faculty of Higher Mind, illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind and finally Mind is universalized to experience Overmind state of Consciousness. In this cosmic Consciousness of Overmind, the Matter is real to the Spirit and Spirit is real to the Matter and their reconciliation is practicable. In this Cosmic consciousness Mind, Life and Body are no longer considered as agents of separation and formenters of an artificial quarrel but as conscious Intermediary and Instruments of evolving Consciousness, where Mind is self fulfilled when it becomes a pure mirror of the Truth of Being; Life is self fulfilled when it consciously lends its energies to the perfect self-figuration of the Divine in ever-new forms and activities of the universal existence and body is self fulfilled when its substance is plastic and malleable enough to the pure Divine touch and its Light. In integral Yoga the negative Spiritual experience of Nirvana and the positive or affirmative Spiritual experience of Cosmic Consciousness are accepted as expressions of Self and are reconciled and transcended, where the former asks the pacification of the mind and the latter asks the activation and illumination of Mind. These two Spiritual experiences are the basis of static and dynamic Brahman, beyond which the greater Divine union and integral Divine realisation of the Supramental plane stands.

 

          In cosmic Consciousness, we begin to participate in the all-vision and understand and recognise that all things, events, happenings are the becoming of the one Self and necessary links in carrying out universal movement leading towards a Divine victory and even the most diverse or contradictory things point at some truth in this infinity. The rare ripened Soul is supremely balanced, seeks to understand and master all things with an equal calm, accepts or toils to improve and perfect, labours to obey, fulfil and transfigure, turns its Consciousness inward, sees the Self and attains to Immortality. He is not angry, troubled, impatient, excited, over-eager with the way of thing, sees and guards that the norms of Yoga must be obeyed and the pace of time respected, remains unshaken by acutest sorrow, suffering and pain and can still open himself towards intensest Delight, Love and Beauty. He is a King-child, through his Soul’s eternal Childhood, he plays and enjoys untiringly his world-toy in the miraculous eternal gardens of Consciousness. A developed Soul is not bound by social duty, religious activity, family obligation, service to the Nation and humanity and he will be identified with his Self and with fellow creatures only through the ascending and descending Divine Consciousness. The revolving of the great Wheel of Doom can bring to him no sense of fear and terror and he rises above it in his Soul and knows from above their Divine Law and their Divine purpose. This is the normal nature of an integral Yogi who accomplishes his action as a boundless infinite Consciousness beyond the division and limitation of mind and body and he has no mansion, aniketa, of his own or has all things for its many mansions; all other Selves are its own Selves in action, essence and delight of being.    

 

          To live in the atmosphere of the supreme Consciousness of integral Yoga can turn the frequent disorder, concentration on one aspect of the Unknowable, exclusive and one sided enormous development of personality of man of genius, poet, artist, thinker, Saint and Mystic into concord, elimination of ugliness, error and distortions, all-vision of the Divine, the largest, widest, most flexible, catholic and universal approach towards all things, happenings and events and a leap into future where all the comprehensive and many-sided perfection are fully realised.

 

          The basic foundation of a Sadhaka is surrender, union with the Divine and transcendence of ego pursued through all life and it can be experienced through the synthesis of the central truth of all traditional Yoga. The three central principle of integral Yoga are derived from the three Vedantic method of knowledge: (1) it is either a knowledge in the will working out through action (2) or knowledge in the intellect through discernment (3) or knowledge of the heart expressed in love and faith which form the basis of Integral Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga, respectively.

 

          Entire rejection of desire, ego and attachment makes one fit to pursue all Yoga which is a plunge into all the multiple profundities of the Soul. Or one is considered fit to pursue traditional Yoga as indicated in the Gita, if he has controlled his mind and senses, basyatmana,¹⁰ and he who has fallen from Yoga in the past births, yogavrastah.¹¹ In integral Yoga this fitness is further ensured if he has nurtured sufficient equality in mind, heart and body by silencing their random movement or ‘the most important indication is a perfect equality of soul in all circumstances.’¹⁴ Or one is considered fit to pursue integral Yoga (of Self-perfection) after he has exhausted¹⁷ the objective perfection, siddhi, of traditional Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga or Tantra Yoga or Hatha and Raja Yoga. The secret of success in integral Yoga can come when each Sadhaka is able to respond adequately to the Divine Call and nurture, grow and expand this Supreme Call through the central faith, which preoccupies him in the vision that ‘see only the Divine and seek only after the Divine.’¹ Or one will succeed in integral Yoga if he satisfies the condition as indicated in the Gita, “the exceedingly dear, atiba priya devotee is he who makes Divine his one and only supreme aim of life and with full of faith, follows the written truth of reconciling karma, jnana and bhakti Yoga in every detail or obeys the immortalising Dharma uttered by the Lord entirely.”⁹

 

          An individual is considered fit¹⁵ to pursue Integral Karma Yoga if he has no distinction of work in terms of high and low and loves all work equally and aims at the dedication of every smallest human activity to the supreme Will. The success of Integral Karma Yoga can come when each Divine Worker, divya karmi is able to discover in the smallest work, the God’s vast intention and can turn all work as means of purification, liberation, delight and perfection and all work is initiated not by desire but by the Divine Will through intense experience of Divine union and he can arrive at the highest liberation of Karmayoga, which is Sadharmya mukti, complete and final liberation and transformation of whole nature and a free and unegoistic participation of the Soul in the cosmic action.

 

          An individual Seeker can be considered fit¹⁶ to pursue Integral Jnana Yoga if he has developed the capacity to live in isolation or seclusion for an indefinite period without attachment to action and thought, and aims at an active conquest of the cosmic existence for the Divine and realisation of the unique and supreme Self in the transcendence. The success of Integral Jnana Yoga can come when each man of Knowledge, Jnani, will be able to turn and transform all mundane knowledge into God Knowledge and the elevation of the whole range of human intellect and perception to the Divine level, to its Spiritualisation and to the justification of the cosmic travail of knowledge in humanity and he can arrive at the highest liberation of Jnanayoga, which is Sayujya Mukti, the identification of the individual being in all its parts with the Divine. 

 

          An individual seeker can be considered fit to pursue Integral Bhakti Yoga if his adoration of the Creator does not exclude His creation or if his love, adoration and seeking of the Divine becomes equal and all embracing in all deities, creatures and object and aims at the enjoyment of the supreme Love and Bliss through the different phases of self-concealment and self-revelation of the divine Lover of the universe. The success of Integral Bhakti Yoga can come when each Devotee, Bhakta, is able to elevate the whole range of human emotion, sensation and aesthetic perception to the Divine level and is able to see, identify and realise the one Divine integrally in all godheads, men, creatures and objects and in all His names and forms and qualities. He can attain the highest liberation of Bhaktiyoga, which is Salokya-Mukti, the whole conscious existence dwells in the same status of being as the Divine. 

 

          An individual is considered fit to pursue Integral Yoga of Self-perfection, which is its fourth central principle, if he has attained considerable Divine identity through triple wheel of Soul force that of Divine Will, Knowledge and Love. The prerequisite of all perfection is purification, suddhi, liberation, mukti, delight of being, bhukti. The success of Integral Yoga of Self-perfection can come when each perfect individual, siddha, becomes a fit Soul-channel to live with the transcendent and universal Divine and the Supermind is individualised in him for universal action and his four-fold highest perfection, siddhi, is Sarvam-brahma, Brahman that is All, Anantam-brahma, Brahman is infinite in being and infinite in quality, Jnanam-brahma, Brahman as self-existent Consciousness and universal Knowledge and Anandam-brahma, Brahman as the self-existent Bliss and its universal Delight of Being.

 

          The success of the vision of the book ‘The Synthesis of Yoga’ can be possible when each sadhaka is able to turn all one sided developments, limitation imposed on Brahman out of partial Divine union, one sided view point into catholicity of the all vision and integral union with the Divine and he will be able to wait, learn, grow, integrate, synthesise and universalise all Deities, Teachers, Shastras, Religions, developmental urges invented by Nature and weld them strongly to the One, the Ineffable and the Infinite and unifies many states of Consciousness at a time. The success of the vision of the book ‘The Life Divine’ is possible if one possesses ‘the infinite and divine in every way of his being, sarva bhavena;’¹⁸ if his immediate instrument of mind is trained through reverse movement of exclusive concentration to discover inner Soul and higher degrees of concentration and in his passage towards the Divine Life, he will rightly utilise Time and Space only for the ascent of the Soul and the descent of the Shakti. Thus a hierarchy of Consciousness is developed extending over multiple sheaths and selves whose perfections are indispensable to bridge the gulf between Matter and Spirit or ordinary life and Divine Life. The success of The Mother’s Yoga or the vision of the book ‘The Mother’ can be realised when all of Her children concentrate preliminarily on persistent rejection of falsehood, obscurity and lower Nature and foster aspiration, surrender, sincerity and faith and finally call down Her four-fold Divine Shakti for the full possession of Her power and perfection in our individual life. Savitri’s Yoga or the vision of the book ‘Savitri’ can succeed if each perfect Soul of man on earth, siddha or each Yogi veiled behind a man, will be able elevate his fixed death-bound destiny to a higher Spiritual destiny and extend this capacity towards the change, elevation and reversal of collective and earth’s destiny.

 

          Integral Yoga further insists to go beyond all written truth, intermediary Spiritual Influence, mutable time, personal effort of utsaha, vyakulata and tapasya and to become the Sadhaka of the Eternal and Infinite and enters the kingdom of integral Knowledge of the Soul, spontaneous guidance from within and above, immutable Timeless state and the inexhaustible spontaneous action and riches of the Spirit and the Nature.

 

          Of all the Yogins the greatest Yogi, yoginam api sarvesam²…yogi paramo,³ as indicated in the Gita, is a state in which he lives, acts in perfect union with the Divine, mayi nivasisyasi,⁶ in all possible human condition, in all possible world action his Consciousness does not fall from the oneness and constant communion with the Divine. The largest formulation of this Spiritual change is a total liberation of Soul, mind, heart and action, a casting of them all into the sense of the cosmic Self and the Divine Reality. A certain change of Nature is experienced by this Spiritual illumination but this is not a complete and integral transformation of Nature which establishes a secured and established new principles and a permanent new order of being in the field of terrestrial Nature. A Sadhaka becomes consecrated Child when this constant union with the Divine is dynamised to become one with the Divine Mother.

 

          A traditional Karma Yogi is considered great if in him Kshara Purusha is dynamised and all initiation of works are activated from within. In a greater Karma Yogi, Kshara and Akshara are both dynamised and his consciousness undulates between Kshara and Akshara or waking trance and non-waking trance and preoccupies himself in both objective manifesting action and subjective subtle and superconscient action by a pressure and direction from within and above, respectively. In the greatest Karma Yogi, Uttama Purusha is dynamised along with Kshara and Akshara Purusha. This Purushottama Consciousness is settled in the body where the Jiva holds together the triple Purusha. In this state of consciousness, waking trance is stabilised and one moves freely in his multiple subtle bodies without losing waking consciousness. In integral Yoga he will direct the Supramental energy dynamised due to his relatively stronger part of Divine Will towards relatively weaker parts of his untransformed emotional and intellectual Nature.

 

          A traditional Jnana Yogi is considered great if in him Akshara Purusha or Spiritual Being is first dynamised through renunciation, tyaga, vairagya, effort and practice of Yoga, abhyasa, concentration, samyama, and askesis, tapasya. In a greater Jnana Yogi, by the pressure of this Spiritual being or descent of Divine Force from above the head, Kshara Purusha or Psychic being in the heart is dynamised. His Yoga becomes easier as he actively participates in the world action through the activation of Kshara Purusha. In the greatest Jnana Yogi, Uttama Purusha is dynamised along with Kshara and Akshara Purusha. This Purushottama Consciousness is settled in the body where the Jiva holds together the triple Purusha. In this state of consciousness, waking trance is stabilised and one moves freely in one's multiple subtle bodies without losing waking consciousness. In integral Yoga, he will direct the Supramental energy dynamised due to his relatively stronger part of Divine Knowledge towards relatively weaker parts of his untransformed emotional and volitional Nature. 

 

          A traditional Bhakti Yogi is considered great when he reconciles his devotion with sacrificial action and realises the Kshara Purusha or Psychic being in the heart. A Greater Bhakti Yogi reconciles his devotion of personal Godhead with the Impersonal Godhead of Jnana Yoga and realises Akshara Purusha or Spiritual Being in addition to the earlier realisation of Kshara Purusha. The greatest Bhakti Yogi realises Kshara and Akshara Purusha's union with the Purushottama, who finally consents to live in the heart, which is also the dual meeting ground of Uttama Purusha and Para Prakriti. The realisation of this dual Godhead in the heart is the beginning of realisation of Bliss Self which is beyond the Supramental action on earth. An integral Bhakti Yogi will direct the Supramental energy dynamised due to his relatively stronger part of Divine Love, Beauty and Delight towards relatively weaker parts of his untransformed volitional and intellectual Nature.

 

          In this established state, a traditional Yogi can pursue integral Yoga by inverting the gained Supreme Divine Consciousness earthward. An integral Yogi lives in the great totality of Truth of Universal Consciousness, a totality, which is capable of infinite enlargements as there is no end to the extension of Divine Will, Knowledge, Love and Delight, nastyanto vistarasya me,⁴ and there is still much of the height to be reached and a wideness to be covered by the eye of vision, bhuri aspasta kartvam.⁵ Through intensification of Psychic and Spiritual contacts, he becomes able to enter the lower realms of Supermind and inverts this gained Divine State towards lower sheaths of individual and universal Mind, Vital and Physical sheaths and transforms them. 

 

          The great Integral Yogi, due to his integral surrender of Soul and Nature and particularly consecration of the most of the dark domains of Inconscient and Subconscient sheaths, and integral Sraddha of pouring down of Divine Supramental attributes of Light, Love, Ananda, Force, Wisdom and Truth and direct them to the yet untouched realm of Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths and continue transformation action there. 

 

          The greater Integral Yogi can put forth many states of Consciousness at a time and is able to trace the Supermind concealed in the Inconscient and Subconscient sheath and activate the Inconscient and Subconscient Self; as a result the source of Supramental Force and Delight can burst open and spread from Inconscient and Subconscient Self towards the untransformed Inconscient, Subconscient, Physical, Vital and Mental sheaths for large and mighty transformation action.

 

          The greatest Integral Yogi is he, who is able to activate the Supermind concealed in all the sheaths, identified as ten koshas, builds, purifies, transforms and perfects them and there is penetration of Supramental force from all the multiple source of ten Selves; first intermittently, then constantly becomes a normal issue. Thus ten-fold personality is superimposed and combined to enrich his single new personality and his strong central being holds all together and works towards harmonisation and integration of multiple Selves and Nature.   

 

          So an integral Yogi is at once a Devotee, whose adoration of the Creator, the fundamental Being, will be incomplete without adoration of Him ‘wherever He manifests (as effectual Becoming) or wherever even he hides his godhead—in man and object and every creature;’¹² as developing Soul he is follower of all those who are ahead of him in cognition and Their limitless Consciousness; as developed Soul he is a teacher of all those who are behind him in consciousness; as Slave of all mankind he is fit to become its nameless master and continually engaged in well being of all creatures through movement of universal Consciousness; as Monotheist and Polytheist he has to know Divine entirely in His single and myriad Form; as universal Man he is one and in sympathy with fellow human brothers and accepts them as his own Self in many minds, lives and bodies; as Vedantist he realises the Divine as Creator Father and Master of this existence and liberates humanity through hs realisation Brahma Satya Jagat Mithya; as Occultist he is both left hand Tantric representing the way of Divine Love and right hand Tantric representing the way of Divine Knowledge; realises Divine as Creatrix Mother of universe and he emerges as centre of world transformation; as Nirvanist he experiences ineffable Ananda of the existence by annulling the construction of the mind; as Ashramite he has regard and absolute obedience towards all Ashram rules formulated by the Mother and enjoys Spiritual protection; as Sadhaka of integral Yoga, all outer norm supports the discovery of Her subtler norm in higher planes of Consciousness and the protection sheath is sealed against any hostile intrusion; as consecrated Child he is one and indivisible portion of Her supreme Consciousness and as integral Yogi he calls down large Divine descent for earth and men. He can liberate men from the one-sided growth, exclusive pursuit, fragmentary knowledge and ‘maimed achievement’¹³ of modern Science, popular Religion and traditional Yoga and lead them towards many-sided, all-inclusive growth, integral concentration, comprehensive knowledge, total purification, transformation and perfection of Soul an Nature.  

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OM TAT SAT