Publications
Integral Education is the utilitarian attribute of Integral Yoga which is neither a popular Religion nor a popular Yoga; so Education is accepted here as a field of rigorous self-control, samyama, and this central truth of seven-fold ceaseless concentration, nitya samyama, is utilised here as a means of arriving at the aim of Integral Perfection in successive births known as All Life and this whole life is accepted here as a small fragment of all Time of all Life. The first object of Integral Education is discovery of its true centre which must be always identified as the dynamic Soul, the Psychic being in the heart, the need of its growth and experience, its aspiration towards possession of pure power of Light, Love, Joy, Beauty, Wisdom and Harmony and elimination of all imperfection. All that helps this Soul growth, Mental, Vital and Physical Education are identified as its accessory or a subsidiary helpful process; by the pressure of Soul force these modern learning materials are lifted out of their limitations and carried more swiftly and profoundly to discover their Mighty Source, Subtle Mental, Subtle Vital and Subtle Physical Education; they subsequently are drawn towards the supreme Light in Knowledge, integral Completeness and their detailed and yet undreamed potentialities. The second object of Integral Education is the discovery of its second centre or second Soul, which is the discovery of the Spiritual Self above the head, a vast static and silent Self, enters into contact with greater immutable Reality beyond and pervading the universe; it is also a turning, conversion and transformation of our whole being through a large dynamic descent of Divine Light, Knowledge, Power, Bliss or other supernormal affirmative Energies into untransformed Nature. This Spiritual Self uncovers the passage to Cosmic Consciousness where the Matter is real to the Spirit and Spirit is real to the Matter and both find their true reconciliation through enlargement and universalisation of Subtle Mental, Subtle Vital and Subtle Physical Sheaths. After the prolonged movements between the above two Selves, the third object of Integral Education is traced by discovery of its third centre or third Soul, the discovery of a Supramental Self, Vijnanamaya Purusha, the limitless Consciousness in which the individual, the Cosmic and the Transcendent live eternally in each other; it has come for the adventure of the Soul lapsing into Inconscience and emerging out of its darkness and this adventure proceeds to capture all other sheaths without disturbing the poise which is kept firm from summit of Consciousness to its base; the experiencing Consciousness must preserve a calm balance, supreme harmony and a high Spiritual positivism. The fourth aim of Education is concentrated around a centre of Infinity, must be all-inclusive perfection directed to resolve all the problems of existence including the ultimate, lasting and permanent solutions and utilise the Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Education towards transformation of human collectivity and a journey towards the discovery of the source of Ananda from which this whole creation is originated. The last aim of integral Education is the perfect self-expression of the Spirit in the material life of our terrestrial existence by purifying, perfecting and transforming the nether dark worlds through Subconscient and Inconscient Education or restoration of all-perfection of Sachchidananda Consciousness in the whole of humanity through activation and discovery of Subconscient and Inconscient Self. OM TAT SAT
Savitri book asks a Sadhak to always remember the most adverse condition of Soul history, “This was the day when Satyavan must die.” (Savitri-10) Or “An absolute supernatural darkness falls on man sometimes when he draws near to God:” (Savitri-11) This remembrance helps him to utilise time and small habitation of space exclusively to accumulate Spiritual energy. Through opening and activation of Psychic and Spiritual Self, the capacity to do work, to gain knowledge, to love, to discern truth from falsehood multiplies and the fixed fate of doom can be confronted and changed to luminous Spiritual destiny. He meets the dynamic Divine Mother during the extreme adversity and it draws his life directly towards the Source of existence, overhead solution of the problem of existence and meets life ‘like a tree recovering from a wind.’ (Savitri-574) The message of Savitri is like a ‘sealed order’ (Savitri-72) or ‘fiery seal’ (Savitri-76) from the unknown immortal Light that has to be opened in addition to its invasion into the nether ‘drowsy seal’ (Savitri-84) and ‘inconscient seal’ (Savitri-108) for the concentration and expansion of an existing human vessel to hold the ever growing intensities of the Divine faculties. The Sadhak of this integral Yoga is like a Navigator exploring the ten inner Oceans and a Cosmologist exploring three surface worlds. His Soul has descended to earth as ‘scout and voyager from Eternity’ for world-adventure. The ‘secret mission’ which the Divine Mother insists is the adventure into obscure geographies of the three firm lands that of surface physical, surface vital, surface mental; explore and sail into the ten deep larger seas or inner oceans that of Inconscient, Subconscient, Subtle Physical, Subtle Vital, Subtle Mental, Psychic, Spiritual, Universal, Supramental and Bliss Ocean/Sheath, through thunder’s roar, windless hush, fog and mist where nothing more is seen; intended towards the discovery of ten Selves contained in the inmost core of above ten sheaths and through their huge working of Soul Forces, purify, transform, perfectly build the Immortal’s secret house of ten Sheaths enveloping and overlapping these ten Selves, and unwound and liberate the triple dominance and downward pull of untransformed surface physical, vital and mental domains, bringing the greatness of Spiritual dawn; this exercise will follow the great Mother’s directive to finally uncover the city of God with new body and mind and enshrine the Immortal in his glory’s house. Our Soul’s task in integral Yoga is to reveal Savitri’s Power which is too great for Earth, to live in her Bliss which is too large for Heaven, to open toward her Light which is too intense for Inconscient Hell, to extricate her Beauty which is too vast for Physical Consciousness and to possess her Love which is too boundless. A Psychic being is identified here as a greater God. That means if a Sadhak has realised his Psychic Being in the heart centre, then his status is greater than Overmental God and he can call down Divine Love to earth and men. If he calls down permanently Paramatma/Purushottama/Supramental Purusha to the heart centre then he begins to ‘wear the face of Satyavan’ (Savitri-614) and experiences static union of the Supreme Bliss Self. With the prolongation of this Divine union, dynamic Brahman/Paraprakriti/Supramental and Bliss Mother comes down permanently to stay in the heart centre. Then heart centre becomes the meeting ground of Paramatma Satyavan and Paraprakriti Savitri and this dynamic union possesses material life and the cellular transformation begins the action. To Love and Possess equally Paramatma Satyavan and Paraprakriti Savitri in the heart centre is the supreme Word of Savitri and this status is extended towards World transformation through the mighty descent of Divine Force. This is the condition put before a Sadhak of receiving Savitri’s comprehensive Divine Love. The moral message of Vyasadeva’s Savitri in Mahabharata is that if a woman has single-minded devotion towards her husband, then the divisible Consciousness of widowhood cannot touch her. The Spiritual message of Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri is that if a Sadhak has brought down permanently the Supreme Self to heart centre, then his aim, joy, charm, glory and source of life are free from sorrow of widowhood. A Sadhak, who does not wear the face of Paramatma Satyavan within the heart centre has no issue, no charm and glory and his life is symbolically revealed as experiencing the sorrow of widowhood or 'Like love when the beloved's face is gone' (Savitri-306) or as Death God said to Savitri ‘Leave then thy dead (husband), O Savitri, and live.” (Savitri-656) To know and hold this origin of Existence, Supreme Self in the heart centre, is the most difficult Spiritual task before a Sadhak and The Mother confirms, “They alone, who by their aspiration are able to pass through to the Divine Origin, will escape catastrophes…Only those who have an aspiration, a sincere and unconditional aspiration towards the Divine, only they will escape – they will stand in a golden glory.” (The Mother’s Agenda/May 4, 1972) OM TAT SAT
This book ‘The Bhagavad Gita and Integral Yoga’ is the utilitarian interpretation of Sri Aurobindo’s book ‘Essays on the Gita’ which gives the message of strong Spirituality and the Mother hinted that this book is a gold mine. Our task here is to extract the gold (or the descent of Supreme Will, supreme Wisdom and supreme Love) from the limitless gold mines. In the Bhagavad Gita, the truth initiated and developed are identified as easier truth and the truth initiated and hinted (not developed) are identified as difficult truth and the former is experienced as Jivatma’s union with static Paramatma and the latter is experienced as Jivatma’s union with dynamic Paraprakriti. In Integral Yoga, this universalisation of Consciousness, is further extended as union between supreme Self and supreme Nature and Divine union between Supreme Nature, Para-prakriti and lower Nature, Apara-prakriti. The Gita lays maximum stress on the development of highest goal of the Supra-cosmic faculties, which will preoccupy man with his real business of opening the Supreme Self of becoming God, Brahmabhutah; ‘and if now personality seems to be narrow, fragmentary, restrictive, it is only because it has not opened to its source or flowered into its own divine truth and fullness packing itself with the universal and the infinite;” secondly it stresses on His universal Consciousness and opening of Cosmic Self, Vasudeva sarvam iti, in which all moves and acts and through this Divine extends His faculty of universal Divine action, good of all creatures, sarvabhuta-hite ratah; and holding together the race, lokasangraha, leading them towards right living, dharma, best standard; for the Lord declares, “it is my path that men follow in every way;” thirdly, it emphasizes on the acceptance of Godhead as the divine inhabitant in the human body, manusim tanumasritam; for He is the Immanent in all this existences as Kshara Purusha, Psychic being, ‘and if the indwelling divinity is not recognised, not only will the divine meaning of individual existence be missed, the urge to our supreme spiritual possibilities deprived of its greatest force, but the relations of soul with soul in humanity will be left petty, limited and egoistic.’ Fourthly, ‘man’s way to liberation and perfection lies through an increasing impersonality’ by opening of his Akshara Purusha, Spiritual Being above the head, which is identified as ‘the first Spiritual necessity’ of a seeker of Truth and fifthly, the Gita insists on the manifestation of Divine Nature, madbhava, in all things through intervention of four fold Soul force, chaturvarnyam maya sristam, four-fold Divine Shaktis, chatvaro manovastatha, sevenfold Integral Knowledge, maharsaya saptapurbe, and thus lastly the final object of this Yoga is then a self-completing union of Soul, Jiva, with the Purushottama through the formula ‘thou shalt first see all existences without exception in the Self, then in Me, atmani atho mayi,’ and of suffusion of Purushottama Consciousness into the manifested Divine nature, prakritim mamikam, svam prakritim, para prakriti. The Gita also reconciles the movements of Kshara, Akshara and Purushottama or reconciles the movements of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental planes, ‘atmani atmanam atmana.’ through which the Divine perfection can be attained. An earth-bound Soul moves the consciousness (first phase) between three modes of nature that of tamas, principle of inertia, rajas, principle of desire and action and sattwa, principle of limited knowledge, harmony and happiness. A seeker of Spiritual life, jijnasu, has to (second phase) increase his sattwic Nature by practice of self-control. Sattwic Nature is identified as passage to higher Spiritual life beyond the gunas. When the Psychic being in the heart experiences partial opening or Spiritual being above the head experiences partial opening through partial Divine union, the Consciousness (third phase) undulates between three gunas and trigunatita state beyond the modes of Nature. Then in the fourth phase of sadhana of Spiritual man the consciousness moves ceaselessly between waking trance of Psychic being/Kshara Purusha and non-waking Samadhi state of Spiritual being/Akshara Purusha. After long movement in these planes, in the fifth phase of Sadhana, the gulf between multiple subtle planes are bridged and the concentration power multiplies; in the last phase, the Consciousness moves between Supramental/Bliss Self and Subconscient/Inconscient Self. The ceaseless movement of Consciousness from highest plane to the lowest plane is the normal state of an integral Yogi and the beginning of his large universal action. An integral Sadhak will learn four lessons from the Gita. (1) Firstly, he learns to know extensively the nature and imperfection of the three Gunas and how to go beyond them by increasing Sattwic Nature. In integral Yoga, the sattwic nature is replaced with Equality and Psychic Consciousness. (2) Secondly, the perfection and extreme accumulation of fourfold Soul-forces, chaturvarna, and fourfold Spiritual forces, chatwaro manobastatha and their integration and reconciliation are felt indispensable to pursue Yoga of Self-perfection. These Soul forces and Spiritual forces he will carry with him to next successive births which is utilised as doing good of all creatures and world transformation. (3) Thirdly, the power of consecration has to be intensified through self-control or persistent rejection of lower Nature, which has to be practiced through a purified intellect. With the opening of the Psychic and Spiritual being, this self-control becomes rigorous and with the opening of the Supramental Self, self-control becomes absolute. Thus, one goes beyond the limitation of all distinctive dharmas, sarvadharman parityajya (The Gita-18.66) and surrender becomes comprehensive and he experiences comprehensive Divine union, samagram mam. (The Gita-7.1) (4) Lastly, in integral Yoga, the double escape, (1) escape from the problem of life and (2) escape from universal Divine action are renounced and in the Gita one Soul takes refuge in the supreme abode of param dham through these double escapes, which is known as Moksha. The Gita's negative sense of liberation, Mukti, is to become desireless, egoless, beyond the dualities, dwandatita, and beyond the three Gunas, nistreigunya. This is complemented in integral Yoga with a positive sense of freedom which is to be ‘(1) universal in Soul, (2) transcendentally one in spirit with God and (3) possession of the highest Divine Nature.’ This is Integral Yoga's Mokshya or Integral Liberation. OM TAT SAT
Sri K. Anurakta is recognised as one of the flame-buoyant and foremost potential Sadhakas of integral Yoga. He has realised some rare Spiritual height to become a part of The Mother’s most difficult Subconscient transformation action and his difficult task was to climb one known peak of Consciousness to another unknown peak and as a result his capacity to bear world’s suffering and blow increased proportionately. He served the next purpose of elevating the general Consciousness of the race by pouring the Mother’s Love and Grace on the bereaved Souls and awakened in them the spark of living Psychic Fire and the Divine Bliss. Devotees gathered around him to dump all their earthly problems and Karma and he bore and relieved most of their sufferings, miseries and sorrows by identifying them with the Divine and yet remained established in a state of absolute calm, complete surrender and highest plane of Turiya for several years. In Savitri, this highest state beyond Supramental is described as ‘the brooding bliss of the Infinite’’ or ‘The bliss that made the world in his body lived.’ The change of his physical appearance of luminous body, jyotirmaya deha, Divine beauty, divya saundarya, and capacity of eternal Love, prema samarthya, confirms that he was firm in the Yoga of cellular transformation. He was at once an Ashramite in Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, who had the responsibilities of increasing persistent zeal to become one and possess the Divine Mother and the Lord, utsaha, a Sadhaka, while exploring new vistas of ascending peaks of Consciousness felt the need of much more still to be done, bhuri kartvam and increasing his capacity to bear the earth’s burden through static Divine union, titikshya, a consecrated Child of resolving human problems in large scale through dynamic Divine union, sarvabhutahiteratah, and an integral Yogi of becoming a transparent channel of Divine’s vast ascent and descent, divya aroha and avaroha. OM TAT SAT
This book partly fulfils Sri Aurobindo's requirement that those who will follow integral Yoga must have full account of earth's Spiritual history, its Spiritual rise and fall of Consciousness and also well informed about the limitations of all modern Knowledge and to create an opportunity to transform all unconsecrated mundane Knowledge into consecrated Spiritual Wisdom. This account will not exclude the recent Spiritual history of Integral Sadhakas, their Spiritual possibility in Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga and limitations and difficulties witnessed in transforming the tamasic, rajasic and sattvic mind. The editor of this book believes that apart from the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Gita, Sri Aurobindo’s principal Teaching, The Synthesis of Yoga is one of the best standards of the race. Its Teaching is so vast, catholic and impersonal that all can accept but only a few aspirant Souls can live it’s message which is the reconciliation of perfect Spirit with imperfect Matter. 'The Mother’s Manifestation’ book is a utilitarian interpretation of the book The Synthesis of Yoga. It insists on a Sadhaka of becoming accountable for his sadhana to his own Self, to the World and to the Divine in three stages. Firstly, he will trace a path of his own sadhana by constantly renewing, reshaping, reliving and restating the best written standard available to the race and by noting the full account of his human imperfection and Self-perfection. Secondly, during the concentration, contemplation and meditation of these formative truths extending over decades, he receives new overhead Divine Wisdom, Divine Will and Divine Love and the unending instrumental exercise of a Sadhaka is to learn this lesson of the Infinite which gets precedence over all other appetite and interest. Lastly, he will be a Divine Centre of the world by receiving the Divine energies, of holding them in the purified and transformed human vessel, of transmitting them to the surrounding world and of fulfilling the deficiencies of men. His Soul strength is weighed and augmented from his capacity for ceaseless action, ceaseless concentration to hold and transmit ceaseless Divine Love, Delight and Beauty and finally the capacity to remember the Divine uninterruptedly through ceaseless Japa. The perfect utilisation of the opportunities of integral Yoga is identified as to use the time and space exclusively for the ascent and descent of Consciousness and by this vertical movement through the assistance of the triple Yoga of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti, one arrives at the birth of experiencing Timeless Eternity and Spaceless Infinity and their manifestation through new birth of time and space. The Mother’s Consciousness is that which rests on the One and acts in all existence and this consciousness manifests on earth by penetrating into finite things, phenomena and forms to produce infinite harmony, freedom and perfection. OM TAT SAT
This poetry book “Tattvamasi” is the "Song of Soul..." of S. A. Maa Krishna and parts aside the veil slightly to give a brief glimpse of her intense Sadhana and of her Soul’s triple union of the Divine in Supra-Physical, Supra-Terrestrial and Supra-Cosmic planes. The Seeker will be able to identify that all the personal relationships with the Divine as Play-mate, Friend, Master, Mother, Lover and Beloved have been experienced. In it stands the realisation of the Divine as the Impersonal and Absolute Brahman as well as the child in the lap of his Mother to the union with the Supreme as the Beloved. The poems voice the integral aspiration of the Soul within each of us and marks the journey to experience the Individual, Cosmic and Transcendent Divine that awaits us all as we plunge into the Yoga of the Lord Sri Aurobindo and the Divine Mother. To read, contemplate and meditate in the atmosphere of this book will allow the Sadhaka to be open to the transformative higher Consciousness of the Divine Mother that descends, purifies and spreads within all.
“This Sanatana Dharma has many scriptures, Veda, Vedanta, Gita, Upanishad, Darshana, Purana, Tantra, nor could it reject the Bible or the Koran; but its real, most authoritative scripture is in the heart in which Eternal has His dwelling. It is in our inner spiritual experiences that we shall find the proof and source of the world’s Scriptures, the law of knowledge, love and conduct, the basis and inspiration of Karmayoga.” Sri Aurobindo The Gita informs us that the subtlety of the Divine is beyond the capacity of sense mind and can be caught by the severely trained clear austerity of the Intellect, Budhigrahyam atindriyam, which can begin to open the truth that transcends itself; the Integral Yoga further confirms that the knowledge of the Unknowable is neither knowable by thought nor by sense organ but can be known and attainable by the extension of the field and range of Consciousness and by revolution of our internal being through Spiritual experience which is a contact of the Consciousness with the soul and body of the Truth. Consciousness is a self-aware and self-expressive luminous creative Force of Being of which mind is a middle term; below mentality it sinks into vital and material movements of the subconscient and great denial of Sachchidananda and above, the Consciousness rises into Supramental movement of complete affirmation which is for us Superconscient. To truly understand the world process and time process, the consciousness must go beyond the finite reason and finite sense to larger reason and Spiritual sense in touch with the Infinite Consciousness. The Consciousness has the capacity to know things by their Soul and not by their outer shape and can gain direct knowledge and perception of material things without the aid of sense organs. It has the further capacity to enter direct contact with the Consciousness of fellow brothers, animals and plant kingdom. The extension of this Consciousness can be satisfying if the inner enlargement is from the individual to the cosmic existence and the witness which exists within us is not an observing mind but a cosmic Consciousness, calm and eternal and broods equally in the living human body and to which mind and senses are dispensable instruments. Though, the Unknowable is not knowable by the finite mind or to our limited consciousness, it is not altogether and in every way unknowable; it is self-evident to an infinite Consciousness or a knowledge by Identity and the Spiritual Being within us can unravel the whole of the Unknowable and its complete Divine manifestation can be experienced which is the entire truth of the Sanatana Dharma by exploring all the ranges of Consciousness from the dark Inconscient plane, avidyayam antare, to the highest plane of Sachchidananda. The Book Integral Yoga and Sanatana Dharma' identifies that the highest hinted truth
The above seven books offer sevenfold promises before the Lord. They are also the infrastructure and cradle of our long Spiritual pursuit and our immediate objective here is to accommodate in these books whatever fresh overhead wisdom has descended through concentration, contemplation and meditation of the existing written Truth. The wisdom of Integral Yoga is not an unchangeable fixed monument but it 'can be thus constantly renewed, relived, their stuff of permanent truth constantly reshaped and developed in’ our inner thought and spiritual experience. The descent of wisdom from one plane necessitates change with the ascent of consciousness to still higher planes and if the descent of Truth and Light is from a very high impersonal and universal plane then ‘It lit the thoughts that glow through the centuries’ and the most foolish, 'the most blind, the most unconscious, even the most unwilling shall be obliged to recognise it.' Integral Yoga has identified that tracing one's own path through recorded revelations or Sruti is 'one of the four elements,' indispensable for the pursuance of sadhana of a twice-born Soul Sadhak. (Refer CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita-5, Savitri-259, TMCW-8/Questions and Answers-1956/p-126, CWSA-18/Kena and other Upanishads/p-169.)
Sri Aurobindo proposes a Yoga extending over thousands of years through the Spiritual rise and fall of life and consciousness. So the movement of ascending and descending Consciousness must begin with twice-born Souls and must continue this exercise further to bridge the multiple gulfs in different planes of Consciousness that lie between the highest Supreme Self and the nether Inconscient Sheath. The Truth that is hinted but not developed in the Gita, the Upanishads and the Vedas are extensively developed in Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. Our task is to concentrate on the highest hinted Truth of Integral Yoga while remaining perfectly aware of its highest developed Truth. Thus, we have to be participants of that endless growth by constantly renewing, updating and enlarging the existing vision of the World, the Self and the Divine. We have noted Sri Aurobindo's observation while publishing the book 'The Secrets of the Veda': "The publication of The Secret of the Veda as it is does not enter into my intention. It was published in a great hurry and at a time when I had not studied the Rig Veda as a whole as well as I have since done. Whole chapters will have to be rewritten or written otherwise and a considerable labour gone through; moreover, it was never finished and considerable additions in order to make it complete are indispensable. (30 June 1949)" (CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-140)
We also have to remember the Mother's warning, "everything that is published is debased, otherwise people don’t understand....That’s why I heartily detest publicity." (Refer the Mother's Agenda, September 8, 1965, May 7, 1966.) The above passage hints that translations and restatement of Spiritual documents should be utilised for sadhana through self-concentration rather than the motive of self-expansion through publication. This further indicates that all writing must be directed for the sole satisfaction of the Divine, for tracing one's own unique Spiritual path and it is an important means for the accumulation of Soul force through the highest Divine union.
"But this practically means that there is an ideal, an eternal Dharma which religion, philosophy, ethics and all other powers in man that strive after truth and perfection are constantly endeavouring to embody in new statements of the science and art of the inner and outer life, a new Shastra."
Sri Aurobindo
CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-478
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