Integral Bhakti Yoga "Loved all and spoke no word and made no sign," Savitri-358 “ The Path of Devotion aims at the enjoyment of the supreme Love and Bliss and utilises normally the conception of the supreme Lord in His personality as the divine Lover and enjoyer of the universe. The world is then realised as a play of the Lord, with our human life as its final stage, pursued through the different phases of self-concealment and self-revelation. The principle of Bhakti Yoga is to utilise all the normal relations of human life into which emotion enters and apply them no longer to transient worldly relations, but to the joy of the All-Loving, the All-Beautiful and the All-Blissful. Worship and meditation are used only for the preparation and increase of intensity of the divine relationship. And this Yoga is catholic in its use of all emotional relations, so that even enmity and opposition to God, considered as an intense, impatient and perverse form of Love, is conceived as a possible means of realisation and salvation. This path (of traditional Bhakti Yoga), too, as ordinarily practised, leads away from world-existence to an absorption, of another kind than the Monist’s, in the Transcendent and Supra-cosmic.... But, here (in integral Yoga) too, the exclusive result is not inevitable. The Yoga itself provides a first corrective by not confining the play of divine love to the relation between the supreme Soul and the individual, but extending it to a common feeling and mutual worship between the devotees themselves united in the same realisation of the supreme Love and Bliss. It provides a yet more general corrective in the realisation of the divine object of Love in all beings not only human but animal, easily extended to all forms whatsoever. We can see how this larger application of the Yoga of Devotion may be so used as to lead to the elevation of the whole range of human emotion, sensation and aesthetic perception to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards love and joy in our humanity. " Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-39 The Injunction issued to the Seekers of integral Yoga of Devotion: “Wherever love and light and largeness lack, These crooked fashioners take up their task.” Savitri-153 "Her eternal Lover is her action’s cause;... Her will is to shut God into her works And keep him as her cherished prisoner That never they may part again in Time.” Savitri-181-182 “Wrong could not come where all was light and love.” Savitri-314 “In the kingdom of the lotus of the heart Love chanting its pure hymeneal hymn Made life and body mirrors of sacred joy And all the emotions gave themselves to God.” Savitri-529 “Love’s golden wings have power to fan thy void: The eyes of love gaze starlike through death’s night, The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-592 “One who came love and lover and beloved Eternal, built himself a wondrous field And wove the measures of a marvellous dance.” Savitri-613 “Disguised the Lover seeks and draws our souls. He named himself for me, grew Satyavan. For we were man and woman from the first, The twin souls born from one undying fire.” Savitri-614 “When unity is won, when strife is lost And all is known and all is clasped by Love Who would turn back to ignorance and pain?” Savitri-633 “If our souls could see and love and clasp God’s Truth, Its infinite radiance would seize our hearts, Our being in God’s image be remade And earthly life become the life divine.” Savitri-663 “Three are the words that sum up the first state of the Yoga of devotion, faith, worship, obedience. Three are the words that sum up the second state of the Yoga of devotion, adoration, delight, self-giving. Three are the words that sum up the supreme state of the Yoga of devotion, love, ecstasy, surrender.”⁵⁸ Sri Aurobindo The integral Bhakti Yoga is the extensive extension of the Gita’s teachings of traditional Bhakti Yoga. It points out that a developing Soul’s adoration of personal Divine will deform the catholicity of Spirituality into a narrow religion.³⁶ So, as a corrective measure, a developing Soul must give more importance to Divine’s impersonal Form³⁵ than the adoration of His personal manifestation. As the Soul develops and he becomes the adult Soul, then he can adore and enter contact with the Divine’s seven-fold personal relation, which is for him more important³⁷ than the relation with the Divine’s impersonal Form. Thus, the Spiritual value of integral Yoga is secured from entry into Religion’s clutch, which makes the evolution slow and tardy. 1) All Life is Yoga of Nature through Love. ‘All life turned into this cult of love, 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.’²⁷ The three stages through which all life is transformed are; firstly, the Integral Bhakti Yoga turns all transient worldly normal emotional relation of human life into the joy of the All-Loving, the All-Beautiful and the All-Blissful. Worship, prayer and meditation are used only for the preparation and increase of intensity of the divine relationship. Integral Bhakti Yoga is catholic in its use of all emotional relations, so that even enmity and opposition to God, considered as an intense, impatient and perverse form of Love, is conceived as a possible means of realisation and salvation. ‘It is for this reason that the worship of god, the worship of idol, the human magnet or ideal are not to be despised; for these are steps through which the human race moves towards that blissful passion and ecstasy of the Infinite which, even in limiting it, they yet represent for our imperfect vision when we have still to use the inferior steps Nature has hewn for our feet and admit the stages of our progress. Certain idolatries are even indispensable for development of our emotional being; the man who knows be hasty at any time to shatter the images unless he can replace it in the heart of the worshipper by the Reality it figures.’²⁸ Secondly , Integral Bhakti Yoga recommends development of seven fold Divine personalities during its contact and active personal relation with the Divine as All Friend and All Master of Integral Karma Yoga , All Guru of Integral Jnana Yoga , All Father or Paramatma or Prajapati Brahma of Integral Vedantic teaching, All Mother or Para-Shakti of Integral Tantric Yoga , All Playmate and All Lover of Integral Bhakti Yoga . Thirdly , All Love, Human and Divine, has Spiritual force veiled and revealed respectively. It is an adoration offered initially to a limited and ignorant object and form and culminates in an all-inclusive and all-embracing Integral Divine. Human love is defined as the entry into exclusive enjoyment by entire separation from World, Self and God. This love begins with the craving of the flesh and when it tries to become Divine through complete self-giving, it culminates with the realisation of one Soul in two bodies (Spiritual realisation) and rapturous fusing of two Souls into one body (Psychic realisation). The Divine love is defined as entry into the same exclusive enjoyment without separation from World, Self and God. It begins with the realisation where human love ends and culminates with the realisation of all Souls in one body and realisation of all bodies in one Soul. The former is realised through Vedic sacrifice of adoration and consecration of all as the becoming of the Divine and the latter is realised through Vedantic sacrifice of adoration and consecration of all as the Being of the Divine. In Supramental Consciousness, the object of all emotion would be fully satisfied by embracing all contact of human relations in a purified flame Force. 2) Bhaktya mamvijanati jaban jaschasmi tatwatah, (The Gita-18.55) by devotion, he comes to know Me, who and how much I am in all reality and principles of My being. Bhakti is that which regards, adores, loves the Divine alone in all things, by that Bhakti He can be known, seen, and ever entered into. The Gita further confirms that of all Yogin, he who with all his inner self given up to Me, for Me has love and faith, him I hold to be the most united with Me in Yoga . Integral Bhakti is considered as the greatest power of Integral Yoga, which is the crown of Integral Karma Yoga and the flowering of the Integral Jnana Yoga. 3) The traditional Bhakti Yoga leads away from world-existence to an absorption in the Transcendent and Supra-cosmic. The path of Integral Bhakti Yoga aims at the enjoyment of the supreme Love and Bliss and utilises normally the conception of the supreme Lord in His personality as the divine Lover and enjoyer of the universe. The world is then realised as a playfield of the Lord, with our human life as its final stage, pursued through the different phases of self-concealment and self-revelation. This larger application of Yoga of Devotion may be so used as to lead to the elevation of the whole range of human emotion, sensation and aesthetic perception to the Divine level, its Spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards love and joy in our humanity. As in the other Yogas, so in integral Yoga, one comes to see the Divine everywhere and in all and to pour out the realisation of the Divine in all one’s inner activities and outward actions. But all is supported by the primary force of emotional union: for it is by love that the entire self-consecration and the entire possession is accomplished, and thought and action become shapes and figures of the divine love which possesses the Spirit and its members. 4) So, the method with which Bhakti Yoga can begin is simple and straightforward, which is always a seeking after the Divine, a longing after some kind of touch, closeness or possession. When this comes upon us, the adoration becomes always primarily an inner worship; we begin to make ourselves a temple of the Divine, our thoughts and feelings a constant prayer of aspiration and a seeking, our whole life an external service and inner worship. It is with this change, this new soul tendency grows, ‘that the religion of the devotee becomes Yoga, a growing contact and union. It does not follow that outward worship will necessarily be dispensed with, but it will increasingly become only a physical expression or outflowing of the inner devotion and adoration, the wave of the Soul throwing itself out in speech and symbolic act.’⁴² ‘Therefore that there may be at all any possibility of a Yoga of devotion, we must assume first (first method of Yoga of Integral Bhakti) that the supreme Existence is not an abstraction or a state of existence, but a conscious Being; secondly, that he meets us in the universe and is in some way immanent in it as well as its source,--otherwise, we should have to go out of cosmic life to meet him; thirdly , he is capable of personal relations with us and must therefore be not incapable of personality; finally, that when we approach him by our human emotions, we receive a response in kind.’²⁹ ‘The more intimate yoga of Bhakti resolves itself simply into these four movements, (first) the desire of the Soul when it turns towards God and the straining of its emotion towards him, (second) the pain of love and the divine return of love, (third ) the delight of love possessed and the play of that delight, (fourth) and the eternal enjoyment of the divine Lover which is the heart of celestial bliss.’³⁰ ‘There are supposed by those who systematise to be three stages of seeking through the devotion of the mind, first, the constant hearing of the Divine name, qualities and all that has been attached to them, secondly , the constant thinking on them or on the divine being or personality; thirdly , the settling and fixing of the mind on the object; and by this comes the full realisation.’³¹ 5) ‘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 devote, give up, surrender the whole being to Him, so that He shall dwell near to us and in us and we with Him and in Him. Manana and darsana , a constant thinking of Him in all things and seeing of Him always and everywhere is essential to this way of devotion.’³² ‘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 in the Avatara , welded the truth in all teachings into the harmony of the Eternal Wisdom.’² ⁶ ‘We may keep even our relation with the personal Deity in His forms and names; if for instance, our work is predominantly a work of Love it is as the Lord of Love that we can seek to serve and express Him, but we shall have at the same time an integral realisation of Him in all His names and forms and qualities and not mistake the front of Him which is prominent in our attitude to the world for all the infinite Godhead.’³³ 6) "Adoration fulfilled in love, love in Ananda, the surpassing love, the self-wrapped ecstasy of transcendent delight in the Transcendent which awaits us at the end of the path of Devotion, — has for its wider result a universal love for all beings, the Ananda of all that is; we perceive behind every veil the Divine, spiritually embrace in all forms the All-Beautiful. A universal delight in his endless manifestation flows through us, taking in its surge every form and movement, but not bound or stationary in any and always reaching out to a greater and more perfect expression. This universal love is liberative and dynamic for transformation; for the discord of forms and appearances ceases to affect the heart that has felt the one Truth behind them all and understood their perfect significance. The impartial equality of soul of the selfless worker and knower is transformed by the magic touch of divine Love into an all-embracing ecstasy and million-bodied beatitude. All things become bodies and all movements the playings of the divine Beloved in his infinite house of pleasure. Even pain is changed and in their reaction and even in their essence things painful alter; the forms of pain fall away, there are created in their place the forms of Ananda ."⁸⁹ 7) ""Love is the power and passion of the divine self-delight and without love we may get the rapt peace of its infinity, the absorbed silence of the Ananda , but not its absolute depth of richness and fullness. Love leads us from the suffering of division into the bliss of perfect union, but without losing that joy of the act of union which is the soul’s greatest discovery and for which the life of the cosmos is a long preparation. Therefore to approach God by love is to prepare oneself for the greatest possible spiritual fulfilment. " ⁹⁰ 8) How integral Bhakti Yoga is different from traditional Bhakti Yoga is observed from Sri Aurobindo's following letter, “Revolt and impatience mean always that there is a part of the being or something in the being which does not submit, has not given itself to God, but insists on God going out of his way to obey it. That may be very well in the Bhakti-marga , but it will not do on this Way (means here in integral Yoga). The revolt and impatience may come and will come in the heart or the prana when these are still subject to imperfection and impurity; but it is then for the will and the faith in your buddhi to reject them, not to act upon them . If the will consents, approves and supports them, it means that you are siding with the inner enemy . If you want rapid progress, the first condition is that you should not do this ; for every time you do it, the enemy is strengthened and the shuddhi postponed.” CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-229, Recapitulation: “Or from the gold eye of her paramour” Savitri-349 “An incense floated in the quivering air, A mystic happiness trembled in the breast As if the invisible Beloved had come Assuming the sudden loveliness of a face And close glad hands could seize his fugitive feet And the world change with the beauty of a smile.” Savitri-290 “Our error crucifies Reality To force its (Reality’s) birth and divine body here, Compelling, incarnate in a human form (the Avatara) And breathing in limbs that one can touch and clasp, Its Knowledge to rescue an ancient Ignorance, Its saviour light the inconscient universe.” Savitri-170-71 “The Lover winds around his play mate’s limb, Choosing his (Spirit’s) tyranny, crushed in his embrace? To seize him better with her (Matter’s) boundless heart She (Matter) accepts the limiting circle of his (Spirit’s) arms, Bows full of bliss beneath his mastering hands And laughs in his rich constraints, most bound, most free.” Savitri-653 “To bring the Divine Love and Beauty and Ananda into the world is, indeed, the whole crown and essence of our Yoga. But it has always seemed to me impossible unless there comes as its support and foundation and guard the Divine Truth — what I call the Supramental — and its Divine Power.”⁵⁹ Sri Aurobindo “By Bhakti as by knowledge, as the Gita tells us, we arrive at unity with the Purushottama , the Supreme who contains in himself the impersonal and numberless personalities, the qualitiless and infinite qualities, pure being, consciousness and delight and the endless play of their relations.”⁶ ⁵ Sri Aurobindo In the traditional Bhakti Yoga , the relation between the Lover and the Beloved is considered closest of all relationships and it proceeds through different stages that are Sangsaya , fear of loss of love leading one to state of doubt, Viraha , sorrow of separation Abhimana, anger and jealousy of separation, Bichheda , the state of complete separation, Vyakulata , passion to reunite again and the end is Milana , complete union. The means through which the love is activated are: - Sammohona , attraction, Uchhatana , excitation Sosana , possession, Vikhyovana , disappointment and Dahana, burning sensation. Fear, doubt, anger, jealousy, grief, dissatisfaction and passion are the vital impurities. Integral Yoga rejects the vital being’s union with the Divine through the above-mentioned means as there is a danger of inrush of the lower nature and unpurified emotions; rather it experiences the same Divine union by directing purified emotions through the gate of the Psychic being which is a flowering of joy, union, confidence, self-giving and Ananda or one gets impersonal Spiritual Love by rejecting the personal egoistic limitations. The fundamental difference between the exclusive love of the traditional Bhakti Yoga and the comprehensive love of the integral Yoga is that in the former, the Divine union begins from vital sheath by turning vital emotions towards the Divine to arrive at Psychic (as that of Sri Chaitanya ) and Spiritual union (as that of Sri Krishna) ; whereas the latter aims at constant union and control of Divine at every moment in all the ten sheaths and Divine union in the mental, vital and physical sheaths are perfected by the pressure of Psychic, Spiritual, Universal and Supramental Love. Love, Psychicised and Spritualised, necessarily offers a twofold fulfillment; the lover and Beloved enjoy their infinite variety of Divine union in difference and they throw themselves finally into an absolute and intense ecstasy of divine Oneness. The sense of this Oneness paves the passage of discovery of the Supramental. The prolongation of this ascending union and oneness establishes the Supramental concentration. When the Supramental concentration is established, the personal relation with the Divine is utterly satisfied and the Divine Beloved lives permanently with His visible material vibration. That is the experience of constant union and highest union, milana, with the Divine Beloved. A traditional Bhakti Yogi is considered great when he reconciles his devotion with sacrificial action and realises the Kshara Purusha or the Psychic being in the heart. A Greater Bhakti Yogi reconciles his devotion of the 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 the 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. His consciousness will move between the triple fire of Kshara, Akshara and Purushottama Consciousness and the heart will be the centre of these triple actions. OM TAT SAT References: 1: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-375, 2: “Among the virtuous ones who turn towards Me (the Divine) with devotion, O Arjuna, there are four kinds of bhaktas , the suffering, the seeker for good in the world, the seeker for knowledge, and those who adore Me with knowledge, O Lord of the Bharatas . Of those the knower, who is ever in constant union with the Divine, whose bhakti is all concentrated on Him, is the best, he loves Me perfectly and is My beloved.” The Gita-7.16, 17, “The Gita distinguishes between three initial kinds of Bhakti, that which seeks refuge in the Divine from the sorrows of the world, arta, that which, desiring, approaches the Divine as the giver of its good, artharthı, and that which attracted by what it already loves, but does not yet know, yearns to know this divine Unknown, jijnasu ; but it gives the palm to the Bhakti that knows. Evidently the intensity of passion which says, “I do not understand, I love,” and, loving, cares not to understand, is not love’s last self-expression, but its first, nor is it its highest intensity.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-550, 3: The Gita-2.4, 4: The Gita-2.45, 5: The Gita-7.20, 6: The Gita-7.20 to 7.25, 7: “Even those who sacrifice to other godheads with devotion and faith, they also sacrifice to Me, O son of Kunti, though not according to the true law, avidhipurbakam.” The Gita-9.23, “Men are led away by various outer desires which take from them the working of the inner knowledge, they resort to other godheads and they set up this or that rule, which satisfies the need of their nature.” The Gita-7.20, “The sacrifice not performed according to the right rule of the Shastra , vidhi-hina , without giving of food, without the mantra , without gifts, empty of faith, is said to be tamasic .” The Gita-17.13, 8: The Gita-4.34, 9: The Gita-13.8, 10: The Gita-17.24, 11: The Gita-8.13, 12: The Gita-17.14, 13: “For the seeker of the integral Yoga… will meet him (the Divine) in the faces of the Gods, his cosmic personalities supporting the World-Play, detect him behind the mask of the Vibhutis, embodied World-Forces or human Leaders, reverence and obey him in the Guru, worship him in the Avatar.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-130, 14: “When I knew nothing, then I abhorred the criminal, sinful and impure, being myself full of crime, sin and impurity; but when I was cleansed and my eyes unsealed, then I bowed down in my spirit before the thief and murderer and adored the feet of the harlot; for I saw that these souls had accepted the terrible burden of evil and drained for all of us the greater portion of the churned poison of the world-ocean.” Sir Aurobindo, SABCL/17/The Hour of God-94-95. This statement of Sri Aurobindo is a restatement from the following words of the Gita and Essays on the Gita, “Those who take refuge in Me, O Partha, be they out-castes, born from the womb of sin (even a man of very evil conduct, The Gita-9.30), women, Vaisysas , even Shudras, they also attain to the highest Goal.” The Gita-9.32. “A divine compassion for the ignorance of the struggling mind, a divine will to pour forth on it all light and power and happiness there will be, indeed, for the apparent man; but for the divine Soul within him there will be more, there will be adoration and love. For from all, from the thief and the harlot and the outcaste as from the saint and the sage, the Beloved looks forth and cries to us, “This is I.” “He who loves Me in all beings,” — what greater word of power for the utmost intensities and profundities of divine and universal love, has been uttered by any philosophy or any religion?” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-208. “If Narayana is without difficulty visible in the sage and the saint, how shall he be easily visible to us in the sinner, the criminal, the harlot and the outcaste?” CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita/p-359, (Thus equal adoration of all, is the condition of becoming the greatest Yogi.) 15: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1022, 16: The Gita-8.7, 17: The Gita-17.4, 18: The Gita-9.29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 19: The Gita-11.48, 53, 54, 20: The Gita-8.28, 21: The Gita-14.26, 22: The Gita-18.54, 55, 23: The Gita-4.11, 7.21, 22, 23, 24: The Gita-6.32, 25: “Outwardly also, the nation or community or race which shrinks too long from destroying and replacing its past forms of life, is itself destroyed, rots and perishes and out of its debris other nations, communities and races are formed. By destruction of the old giant occupants man made himself a place upon earth. By destruction of the Titans the gods maintain the continuity of the divine Law in the cosmos. Whoever prematurely attempts to get rid of this law of battle and destruction, strives vainly against the greater will of the World-Spirit. Whoever turns from it in the weakness of his lower members, as did Arjuna in the beginning, — therefore was his shrinking condemned as a small and false pity, an inglorious, an un-Aryan and unheavenly feebleness of heart and impotence of spirit, klaibyam, ksudram hridaya-daurbalyam, — is showing not true virtue, but a want of spiritual courage to face the sterner truths of Nature and of action and existence. Man can only exceed the law of battle by discovering the greater law of his immortality.” CSWA/19/Essays on the Gita/p-384-85, 26: “On the contrary, the sadhaka of 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 in the Avatar, welded the truth in all teachings into the harmony of the Eternal Wisdom.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-66, 27: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-165, 28: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-159, 29: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-557, 30: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-571, 31: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-574, 32: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-601, 33: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-382, 34: The Gita-3.3, 35: “The Divinity mentioned by Sri Aurobindo is NOT A PERSON, but a condition to be shared and lived by all those who prepare themselves for it.” The Mother’s Agenda-4th May-1967, “Petty minds think of Me, the unmanifest, as being limited by manifestation, because they know not my supreme nature of being, imperishable, most perfect.” The Gita-7.24, "All he had been and all towards which he grew Must now be left behind or else transform Into a self of That which has no name. Alone and fronting an intangible Force Which offered nothing to the grasp of Thought, His spirit faced the adventure of the Inane." Savitri-307 36: “Buddhism only became a popular religion when Buddha had taken the place of the supreme Deity as an object of worship.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-556, “I don’t want to put a photo of Sri Aurobindo or books (in Auroville) because it will look as if we want to start a new religion—I don’t want religions, an end to religions!” The Mother’s Agenda-9/110, “I am told that you (in Auroville) intend to distribute a reproduction of the portrait you did of me. It would be better not to introduce in this gathering anything personal that might suggest the atmosphere of nascent religion.” The Mother’s Agenda-11/353 37: “The Blessed Lord said those who are constantly most united, nityayukta , with Me and adore My manifest form, Saguna Brahman , emotional mind settled in Me and possessed of supreme faith of Bhakti Yoga, I consider them to be the greatest Yogi. And those Jnana Yogis, who seek after the Immutable, the Infinite, the Unmanifest, Nirguna Brahman, the Omnipresent, the Unthinkable, the high-seated Self, the Immobile, the Permanent, all their senses under control, equal visioned everywhere, intent on welfare of all beings, they also attain to My Purushottama state.” The Gita-12.2, 3, 4, “Discipleship to God the Teacher, sonship to God the Father, tenderness of God the Mother, clasp of the hand of the divine Friend, laughter and sport with our comrade and boy-Play-fellow, blissful servitude to God the Master, rapturous love of our divine Paramour, these are seven beatitudes of life in the human body. Canst thou unite all these in a single supreme and rainbow-hued relation? Then hast thou no need of any heaven and thou exceedest the emancipation of the Adwaitin.” SABCL-17/The Hour of God/p-137. (Above line indicates that a seven-fold personal relation with the Divine in Supramental plane is more valuable than the realisation of impersonal Divine in the Spiritual plane of the Adwaitin.) 38: The Gita-3.15, 39: ““Of those the knower, who is ever in constant union with the Divine, nitya Yukta, whose bhakti is all concentrated on Him, is the best, he loves Me perfectly and is My beloved.” The Gita-7.17, “He who continually remembers Me, thinking of none else, the Yogin, O Partha, who is in constant union with Me, finds Me easy to attain.” The Gita-8.14, “Always adoring Me, steadfast in spiritual endeavour, bowing down to Me with devotion, they worship Me ever in Yoga.” The Gita-9.14, “To those men who worship Me making Me alone the whole object of their thought, to those constantly in Yoga with Me, I spontaneously bring all types of inner and outer opulence.” The Gita-9.22, “The Lord said: Those who found their mind in Me and by constant union, possessed of a supreme faith, seek after Me, I hold to be the most perfectly in union of Yoga.” The Gita-12.2, “Let the Yogin practice continually union with the Self (so that that may become his normal consciousness) sitting apart and alone, with all desire and idea of possession banished from his mind, self-controlled in his whole being and consciousness.” The Gita-6.10, “Ultimately, nothing but omnipotence could convert the world, convince the world. The world isn't ready to experience supreme Love. Supreme Love eliminates all problems, even the problem of creation: there are no more problems, I know it since that experience [of April 13, 1962]. But the world isn't ready yet, it may take a few thousand years. Although it is beginning to be ready for the manifestation of supreme Power (which seems to indicate that this will manifest first). And this supreme Power would result from a CONSTANT identification…But this "constancy" isn't yet established: one is identified and then one isn't, is and then isn't, so things get delayed indefinitely. You wind up doing exactly what you tell others not to do – one foot here and one foot there! It just won't do.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-04.07.1962, 40: “But you need not be distressed when the pramada comes and the state of fall or clouded condition seems to persist, for there is no fear for you of a permanent fall since God himself has taken entire charge of you and if you stumble, it is because it is best for you to stumble, as a child by frequent stumbling and falling learns to walk. The necessity of apramattata disappears when you can replace the memory of the yoga and its objects by the continual remembrance of God in all things and happenings, the nitya anusmaran.a of the Gita. For those who can make the full surrender from the beginning there is no question; their path is utterly swift and easy.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga-p-86-87, “There fore at all times remember me and fight; for if thy mind and thy understanding are always fixed on and given up to Me, to Me thou shalt surely come.” The Gita-8.7, “All the doors of the senses closed, the mind shut in into the heart, the life-force taken up out of its diffused movement into the head, the intelligence concentrated in the utterance of the sacred syllable OM and its conceptive thought in the remembrance of the supreme Godhead, he who goes forth, abandoning the body, he attains to the highest status.” The Gita-8.12, 13, “He who continually remembers Me, nitya smarati, thinking of none else, the Yogin, O Partha, who is in constant union with Me, finds Me easy to attain.” The Gita-8.14, “Repeat my name whenever you have little time to spare…” The Mother, “It is by the constant remembrance that the being is prepared for the full opening. By the opening of the heart the Mother’s presence begins to be felt and by the opening to her Power above the Force of the higher consciousness comes down into the body and works there to change the whole nature.” CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-167 41: “On peaks where Silence listens with still heart To the rhythmic metres of the rolling worlds, He served the sessions of the triple Fire.” Savitri-299, 42: CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-572, 43: “We see in the teaching of the Gita how subtle a thing is the freedom from egoism which is demanded. Arjuna is driven to fight by the egoism of strength, the egoism of the Kshatriya; he is turned from the battle by the contrary egoism of weakness, the shrinking, the spirit of disgust, the false pity that overcomes the mind, the nervous being and the senses, — not that divine compassion which strengthens the arm and clarifies the knowledge. But this weakness comes garbed as renunciation, as virtue: “Better the life of the beggar than to taste these blood-stained enjoyments; I desire not the rule of all the earth, no, nor the kingdom of the gods.” How foolish of the Teacher, we might say, not to confirm this mood, to lose this sublime chance of adding one more great soul to the army of Sannyasins, one more shining example before the world of a holy renunciation. But the Guide sees otherwise, the Guide who is not to be deceived by words; “This is weakness and delusion and egoism that speak in thee. Behold the Self, open thy eyes to the knowledge, purify thy soul of egoism.” And afterwards? “Fight, conquer, enjoy a wealthy kingdom.”” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-331-332, “As a result he turns towards renunciation. Better the life of the mendicant living upon alms than this dharma of the Kshatriya, this battle and action culminating in undiscriminating massacre, this principle of mastery and glory and power which can only be won by destruction and bloodshed, this conquest of blood-stained enjoyments, this vindication of justice and right by a means which contradicts all righteousness and this affirmation of the social law by a war which destroys in its process and result all that constitutes society.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-55, “Better to live in this world even on alms than to slay these high-souled Gurus. Slaying these Gurus, I should taste of blood-stained enjoyments even in this world.” The Gita-2.5, 44: “...that is the Japa I do now—I do it all the time, while sleeping, while walking, while eating, while working, all the time.’ The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-4/p-131, “He who continually remembers Me, thinking of none else, the Yogin. O Partha, who is in constant union with Me, finds Me easy to attain.” The Gita-8.14, 45: The Gita-5.3, 46: The Gita-2.45, 47: “There is not an entity, either on the earth or again in heaven among the gods, that is not subject to the workings of these three qualities (Gunas), born of nature.” The Gita-18.40, (This statement is not applicable to Avataras, janma karama cha me divyam.), 48: “The psychic and the spiritual opening with their experiences and consequences can lead away from life or to a Nirvana; but they are here being considered solely as steps in a transformation of the nature.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-943, 49: “A dual Power at being’s occult poles Still acted, nameless and invisible: Her divine emptiness was their instrument.” Savitri-553 “He (Divine) dwells in me (Savitri), the mover of my acts, Turning the great wheel of his cosmic work. I am the living body of his light, I am the thinking instrument of his power, I incarnate Wisdom in an earthly breast, I am his conquering and unslayable will. The formless Spirit drew in me its shape; In me are the Nameless and the secret Name.” Savitri-634, “One man who earnestly pursues the Yoga is of more value than a thousand well-known men.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-35/Letters on Himself And The Ashram/p-691, "Therefore, besides the great solitaries who have sought and attained their self-liberation, we have the great spiritual teachers who have also liberated others and, supreme of all, the great dynamic souls who, feeling themselves stronger in the might of the Spirit than all the forces of the material life banded together, have thrown themselves upon the world, grappled with it in a loving wrestle and striven to compel its consent to its own transfiguration." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-27 50: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-940-941, 51: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-116, 52: The Gita-18.62, 53: The Gita-17.18, 54: CWSA-24/ The Synthesis of Yoga/p-776, 55: “What X quotes about the limitation of the power of the Guru to that of a teacher who shows the way but cannot help or guide is the conception of certain paths of Yoga such as the pure Adwaitin and the Buddhist which say that you must rely upon yourself and no one can help you; but even the pure Adwaitin does in fact rely upon the Guru and the chief mantra of Buddhism insists on s´aran.am to Buddha. For other paths of sadhana, especially those which like the Gita accept the reality of the individual soul as an “eternal portion” of the Divine or which believe that Bhagavan and the bhakta are both real, the help of the Guru has always been relied upon as an indispensable aid.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-200, 56: The Mother’s Agenda- 18.04.1961, The Mother’s Agenda-4/p-131, 57: TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-219, 58: CWSA-12/Essays Human and Divine/p-348, 59: CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-837, CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-333, 60: “In fact, the creative Consciousness-Force in our earth existence has to lead forward, in an almost simultaneous process but with a considerable priority and greater stress of the inferior element, a double evolution. There is an evolution of our outward nature, the nature of the mental being in the life and body, and there is within it, pressing forward for self-revelation because with the emergence of mind that revelation is becoming possible, a preparation at least, even the beginning of an evolution of our inner being, our occult subliminal and spiritual nature... But if her intention is a comprehensive change of the being, this double evolution is intelligible and justifies itself; for it is for that purpose indispensable.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-890, “There is a state of being experienced in Yoga in which we become a double consciousness, one on the surface, small, active, ignorant, swayed by thoughts and feelings, grief and joy and all kinds of reactions, the other within calm, vast, equal, observing the surface being with an immovable detachment or indulgence or, it may be, acting upon its agitation to quiet, enlarge, transform it.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-360, “Or, again, we can posit a double consciousness of Brahman the Reality, one static and one dynamic, one essential and spiritual in which it is Self perfect and absolute, another formative, pragmatic, in which it becomes not-self and with which its absoluteness and perfection have no concern of participation; for it is only a temporal formation in the timeless Reality.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-415 61: The Mother’s Agenda-07.07.1961, 62: CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-13, 63: “Thus awakening by the understandings to the Highest which is beyond even the discerning mind, putting force on the self by the self to make it firm and still, slay thou, O mighty-armed, this enemy in the form of desire, who is so hard to assail.” The Gita-3.43, 64: “This is a difficult lesson to learn, but you must learn it. I do not find fault with you for taking long over it, I myself took full twelve years to learn it thoroughly, and even after I knew the principle well enough, it took me quite four years and more to master my lower nature in this respect. But you have the advantage of my experience and my help; you will be able to do it more rapidly, if you consciously and fully assist me, by not associating yourself with the enemy Desire; jahi kaˆmam duraˆsadam, remember that utterance of the Gita, it is a keyword of our Yoga.” CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-229, 65: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-550, 66: “What then are the lines of Karmayoga laid down by the Gita? Its key principle, its spiritual method, can be summed up as the union of two largest and highest states or powers of consciousness, equality and oneness. The kernel of its method is an unreserved acceptance of the Divine in our life as in our inner self and spirit. An inner renunciation of personal desire leads to equality, accomplishes our total surrender to the Divine, supports a delivery from dividing ego which brings us oneness. But this must be a oneness in dynamic force and not only in static peace or inactive beatitude.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-95, (oneness in dynamic force is seen in Savitri, where Paraprakriti Savitri’s Viswarupa became active and her Light and Fire partially possessed Death. (“His body was eaten by light, his spirit devoured.” Savitri-667) In the Gita, Arjuna only saw the Viswarupa of the Lord but its Light ad flame did not possess Arjuna.) 67: The Gita-6.31, 68: “On Me repose all thy mind and lodge all thy understanding in Me; doubt not that thou shalt dwell in Me, mayi nivasisyasi, above this mortal existence.” The Gita-12.8, 69: “For there is a caste of the soul which is truer and deeper than that of the body. Through four soul-stages a man must pass before he can be perfect; first, as a Sudra, by service and obedience to tame the brute in his being; then, as a Vaishya to satisfy within the law of morality the lower man in him and evolve the higher man by getting the first taste of delight in well-doing to others than himself and his; then, as the Kshatriya, to be trained in those first qualities without which the pursuit of the Eternal is impossible, courage, strength, unconquerable tenacity and self-devotion to a great task; last, as the Brahmin, so to purify body & mind and nature that he may see the Eternal reflected in himself as in an unsoiled mirror. Having once seen God, man can have no farther object in life than to reach and possess Him.” CWSA-17/Isha Upanishad/p-195-196, 70: “Satyakama must have known perfectly well that he was the illegitimate son of a serving woman, but he wished to know his father’s name and gotra because he would have to tell it to his guru. Even after knowing the worst, he persisted in his intention of taking up spiritual studies, so that he can have had no fear of being rejected on account of his base origin. His guru, impressed by his truthfulness, says, “None but a Brahmin would have the moral strength to make such an avowal.” It can hardly be meant by this that Satyakama’s father must have been a Brahmin, but that since he had the Brahmin qualities, he must be accepted as a Brahmin. Even the Kshatriya would have hesitated to speak so truthfully, because the Kshatriya is by nature a lover of honour and shuns dishonour, he has the sense of mana and apamana; but the true Brahmin is samo manapamanayoh, he accepts indifferently worldly honour and dishonour and cares only for the truth and the right. In short the Gautama concludes that, whatever may be Satyakama’s physical birth, spiritually he is of the highest order and especially fitted for a sadhaka; na satyad agat, he did not depart from the truth.” CWSA-18/Kena and other Upanishads/p-267, 71: “The ordinary man who wishes to reach God through knowledge, must undergo an elaborate training. He must begin by becoming absolutely pure, he must cleanse thoroughly his body, his heart and his intellect, he must get himself a new heart and be born again; for only the twice born can understand or teach the Vedas. When he has done this he needs yet four things before he can succeed, (1) the Sruti or recorded revelation, (2) the Sacred Teacher, (3) the practice of Yoga and (4) the Grace of God.” CWSA-18/Kena and other Upanishads/p-169, 72: “But you see, you see all the way I have come...And I was born with a consciously prepared body—Sri Aurobindo was aware of that, he said it immediately the first time he saw me: I was born free. That is, from the spiritual standpoint: without any desire. Without any desire and attachment. And mon petit, if there is the slightest desire and the slightest attachment, it is IMPOSSIBLE to do this work. A vital like a warrior, with an absolute self-control (the vital of this present incarnation was sexless—a warrior), an absolutely calm and imperturbable warrior—no desires, no attachments...Since my earliest childhood, I have done things which, to human consciousness, are “monstrous;” my mother went so far as to tell me that I was a real “monster,” because I had neither attachments nor desires. If I was asked, “Would you like to do this?” I answered, “I don’t care.” If people were nasty to me, or if people died or went away, it left me absolutely calm—and so: “You are a monster, you have no feelings.” And with that preparation... It is eighty-six years since I came here, mon petit! For thirty years I worked with Sri Aurobindo consciously, without letup, night and day... We shouldn’t be in a hurry.” The Mother’s Agenda/28.03.1964, 73: Collected from Nalini Da’s talk on 26.10.1976, 74: CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-4, 75: “He (the Lord) discourages the tamasic recoil and the tendency to renunciation and enjoins the continuance of action and even of the same fierce and terrible action, but he points the disciple towards another and inner renunciation which is the real issue from his crisis and the way towards the soul’s superiority to the world-Nature and yet its calm and self-possessed action in the world. Not a physical asceticism, but an inner askesis is the teaching of the Gita.CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-55-56, 76: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-106, 77: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-565, 78: “But usually the representative influence occupies a much larger place in the life of the sadhaka. If the Yoga is guided by a received written Shastra, — some Word from the past which embodies the experience of former Yogins, — it may be practised either by personal effort alone or with the aid of a Guru. The spiritual knowledge is then gained through meditation on the truths that are taught and it is made living and conscious by their realisation in the personal experience; the Yoga proceeds by the results of prescribed methods taught in a Scripture or a tradition and reinforced and illumined by 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.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-55, 79: “The natural attitude of the psychic being is to feel itself as the child, the son of God, the Bhakta; it is a portion of the Divine, one in essence, but in the dynamics of the manifestation there is always even in identity a difference. The Jivatman, on the contrary, lives in the essence and can merge itself in identity with the Divine; but it too, the moment it presides over the dynamics of the manifestation, knows itself as one centre of the multiple Divine, not as the Parameshwara. It is important to remember this distinction; for, otherwise, if there is the least vital egoism, one may begin to think of oneself as an Avatara…” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-61, “But still the Vibhuti is not the Avatar; otherwise Arjuna, Vyasa, Ushanas would be Avatars as well as Krishna, even if in a less degree of the power of Avatarhood. The divine quality is not enough; there must be the inner consciousness of the Lord and Self governing the human nature by his divine presence. The heightening of the power of the qualities is part of the becoming, bhutagrama, (The Gita-8.19, 9.8) an ascent in the ordinary manifestation; in the Avatar there is the special manifestation, the divine birth from above, the eternal and universal Godhead descended into a form of individual humanity, atmanam srijami, (The Gita-4.7) and conscious not only behind the veil but in the outward nature.” CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-161, 80: “There is a state of being experienced in Yoga in which we become a double consciousness, (1) one on the surface, small, active, ignorant, swayed by thoughts and feelings, grief and joy and all kinds of reactions, (2) the other within calm, vast, equal, observing the surface being with an immovable detachment or indulgence or, it may be, acting upon its agitation to quiet, enlarge, transform it.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-360, 81: “We may say that here in India the reign of Intuition came first, intellectual Mind developing afterwards in the later philosophy and science. But in fact the mass of men at the time, it is quite evident, lived entirely on the material plane, worshipped the Godheads of material nature, sought from them entirely material objects. The effort of the Vedic mystics revealed to them the things behind through a power of inner sight and hearing and experience which was confined to a limited number of seers and sages and kept carefully secret from the mass of humanity secrecy was always insisted on by the mystics.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-267, “A still deep sea, he laughs in rolling waves; Universal, he is all, — transcendent, none. To man’s righteousness this is his cosmic crime, Almighty beyond good and evil to dwell Leaving the good to their fate in a wicked world And evil to reign in this enormous scene.” Savitri-657, “All person perished in its namelessness.” Savitri-308, “Sri Aurobindo once said (jokingly, as it were), while talking with those around him (I was there and we were talking about Christianity and the "new Christ"), he told them, "Oh, if the new Christ comes, the Church will crucify him!"” The Mother’s Agenda-October-7, 1967, “Hard is the world-redeemer’s heavy task; The world itself becomes his adversary, Those he would save are his antagonists: This world is in love with its own ignorance, Its darkness turns away from the saviour light, It gives the cross in payment for the crown.” Savitri-448, “Inconscient traders in bundles of contraries, They did what in others they would persecute; When their eyes looked upon their fellow’s vice, An indignation flamed, a virtuous wrath; Oblivious of their own deep-hid offence, Moblike they stoned a neighbour caught in sin.” Savitri-209 “There is no necessity to reveal one’s plans and movements to those who have no business to know it, who are incapable of understanding or who would act as enemies or spoil all as a result of their knowledge. Secrecy is perfectly admissible and usual in spiritual matters except in special relations like that of the Shishya to the Guru. We do not let people outside know what is going on in the Ashram but we do not tell any lies about it either. Most Yogis say nothing about their spiritual experiences to others or not until long afterwards and secrecy was a general rule among the ancient Mystics. No moral or spiritual law commands us to make ourselves naked to the world or open up our hearts and minds for public inspection. Gandhi talked about secrecy being a sin but that is one of his many extravagances.” SABCL-26/On Himself/p-380 82: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-544, 83: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-452, 84: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-741, 85: “The individual spirit exists and ever existed beyond in the Eternal, for it is itself everlasting, sanatana. It is evidently this idea of the eternal individual which leads the Gita to avoid any expression at all suggestive of a complete dissolution, laya, and to speak rather of the highest state of the soul as a dwelling in the Purushottama, nivasisyasi mayyeva. If when speaking of the one Self of all it seems to use the language of Adwaita, yet this enduring truth of the eternal individual, mamam sah sanatanah, adds something which brings in a qualification and appears almost to accept the seeing of the Visishtadwaita, — though we must not therefore leap at once to the conclusion that that alone is the Gita’s philosophy or that its doctrine is identical with the later doctrine of Ramanuja. Still this much is clear that there is an eternal, a real and not only an illusive principle of multiplicity in the spiritual being of the one divine Existence.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-445 86: Sri Aurobindo/Champaklal Speaks/p-191-192, 87: “Nevertheless, there is somewhere an absolute control , a real Ishwara . He is aware of it and knows that if he can find it, he will enter into control, become not only the passive sanctioning witness and upholding soul of her will, but the free powerful user and determiner of her movements. But this control seems to belong to another poise than the mentality. Sometimes he finds himself using it, but as a channel or instrument; it comes to him from above. It is clear then that it is supramental, a power of the Spirit greater than mental being which he already knows himself to be at the summit and in the secret core of his conscious being. To enter into identity with that Spirit must then be his way to control and lordship. He can do it passively by a sort of reflection and receiving in his mental consciousness, but then he is only a mould, channel or instrument, not a possessor or participant in the power. He can arrive at identity by an absorption of his mentality in inner spiritual being, but then the conscious action ceases in a trance of identity. To be active master of the nature he must evidently rise to some higher supramental poise where there is possible not only a passive, but an active identity with the controlling spirit. To find the way of rising to this greater poise and be self-ruler, Swarat , is a condition of his perfection." Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-637-638, 88: “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 his oneness with the universe and its beings, — in an influence and action which help all around who are capable of it to rise to or advance towards the same perfection, and for the rest in an influence and action which help, as only the self-ruler and master man can help, in leading the human race forward spiritually towards this consummation and towards some image of a greater divine truth in their personal and communal existence. He becomes a light and power of the Truth to which he has climbed and a means for others’ ascension.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-642, 89 CWSA-23/ The Synthesis of Yoga/p-160-161, 90 CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-547, "There are two other letters: "To bring the Divine Love and Beauty and Ananda into the world is, indeed, the whole crown and essence of our yoga. But it has always seemed to me impossible unless there comes as its support and foundation and guard the Divine Truth – what I call the supramental – and its Divine Power...." (CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-333) Here it's clear: he (Sri Aurobindo ) says that what he calls the "Supramental" is the Divine Truth, and that it must come first, and the rest comes afterwards... And yet, for some time now and increasingly, there has been an extremely concrete Response to a kind of aspiration (a call or prayer) in which I say to the Lord, "Supreme Lord, manifest Your Love." (It comes at the end of a long invocation in which I ask Him to manifest all His aspects one after another, one after another, and it ends like that.) But then, remarkably enough, at that moment there comes a Response which is growing clearer and clearer, stronger and stronger.... But Sri Aurobindo says that Truth should be established first, and that what he calls the Supramental is the supreme Truth, the Divine Truth. It corresponds to what I noticed while translating that last chapter on "the perfection of the being" in the "Yoga of Self-Perfection": I kept thinking, "But that's only the aspect of Truth; all that he expresses is the aspect of Truth; always and everywhere, it's the angle of Truth; and his supramental action is an action of Truth."... I didn't know he had said it, but it's written clearly here: "... But it has always seemed to me impossible unless there comes as its support and foundation and guard the Divine Truth – what I call the supramental – and its Divine Power. Otherwise Love itself blinded by the confusions of this present consciousness may stumble in its human receptacles and, even otherwise, may find itself unrecognised, rejected or rapidly degenerating and lost in the frailty of man's inferior nature. But when it comes in the divine truth and power, Divine Love descends first as something transcendent and universal and out of that transcendence and universality it applies itself to persons according to the Divine Truth and Will, creating a vaster, greater, purer personal love than any the human mind or heart can now imagine. It is when one has felt this descent (of purer personal love) that one can be really an instrument for the birth and action of the Divine Love in the world." (CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-333) The Mother The Mother's Agenda/July 24, 1963 “Someone who has experienced love for the Divine can no longer love anything but the Divine, and it is the Divine he loves in all those for whom he feels affection; besides, this is the best way to love, because in this way one can be a powerful help for others to become conscious of the Divine who manifests in them." The Mother TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/333

Handbook of The Life Divine "A supreme light in the truth-conscious Vast: It sees from summits beyond thinking mind, It moves in a splendid air transcending life. It shall descend and make earth’s life divine ." Savitri-484 "Seeking to embrace all life in itself, it is in the position not of a pilgrim following the highroad to his destination, but, to that extent at least, of a path-finder hewing his way through a virgin forest." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-57 “This path has neither the same aim nor the same method as the ordinary Yoga, it aims at a realisation of which their results are only component parts; it may be said to begin its capital experiences where these end and its object is one that they would consider impossible. Much of it is virgin ground in which the paths have yet to be cut and built." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-529 “If the spirit could from the first dwell securely in the superior heights and deal with a blank and virgin stuff of mind and matter, a complete spiritual transformation might be rapid, even facile...” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-948 “It is very easy to be a saint! Oh, even to be a sage is very easy. I feel I was born with it—it is spontaneous and natural for me… but Supramental transformation is another thing altogether, oh!… No one has ever followed that path; Sri Aurobindo was the first, and He left before telling us what He was doing, I am literally carving out a trail through the virgin forest—worse than a virgin forest…I am given the awareness of how huge this thing is one drop at a time…so I won’t be crushed (or ‘Light conquered now even by that feeble beam:’ Savitri-601 or “Choosing his tyranny, crushed in his embrace?” Savitri-653,). It has reached a point where all Spiritual life, all those people and races that have tried since the beginning of the earth, all that seems like nothing, like child’s play in comparison. And it is a work without glory: you have no results, no experiences filling you with ecstasy or joy—none of that, it is a hideous labour.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda, July 15, 1961 The Life Divine is a book in which the highest hinted truth of The Synthesis of Yoga is further developed or this is a book in which hierarchies of Consciousness are explored which is necessary for the fullness and perfection of Being, Nature and Life. In The Life Divine, the knowledge hinted but not sufficiently developed in The Synthesis of Yoga is restated again, with greater intensity, finer precision, a larger universal approach, and clearly spelled intermediate hierarchies between the Matter and the Spirit, seven-fold Ignorance and seven-fold Integral Knowledge, Exclusive Concentration and Integral Concentration, Separative Knowledge by indirect contact and Knowledge by Identity, Higher Mind and Supermind, Inconscient self and Bliss self; gives us ample opportunity to go beyond Buddha, Shankara and the Gita; defines Religion and Occultism in their evolutionary context and the possible emergence of Divine community, for the wider and total benefit of the humanity. The First Condition of Divine Life: This world is real precisely because it consists of an observing consciousness and an objective reality and the world action cannot proceed without the witness because the universe exists only in or for the Consciousness that observes and has no independent reality. The individual can be a centre of the whole universal Consciousness and world transcending Consciousness superior to all cosmic existence and the form of the universe is occupied by the entire immanence of the Formless and Ineffable. So to exist and an out-flowering of life by expansion and elevation of Consciousness is a first condition of the Divine life. The Second Condition of Divine Life : The second condition of the Divine life is to possess and govern the dynamic condition of becoming from an inner eternity of Being and its outcome is the Spiritual self-possession, self-mastery and the manifestation of Divine miracle. The Third Condition of Divine Life : Out of this living a third condition evolves which insists to withdraw from the absorption of material preoccupation, not by rejecting or neglecting life in the body but by a constant living on the inner and higher planes of Consciousness by an ascent and stepping back inward; both these movements are necessary in order to elevate life from the transient life from moment to moment into the eternal life of our immortal Consciousness. The Fourth Condition of Divine Life : The fourth condition of Divine life is the widening of our range of Consciousness, field of action in time and a taking up and transcending of the existing state of our mental, vital and corporeal consciousness and consider them as the instrument and minor outward formation of the Self. Thus in reality the world lives in us, thinks in us, formulates itself in us; but we imagine and misunderstand that it is we who live, think, formulate separately by ourselves and for ourselves and we claim the universal forces that act in us as our own. The Fifth Condition of Divine Life : In the last condition of Divine living, the Consciousness is at once aware of the Law, Right and Truth of the Individual and All and the two become consciously harmonised in a mutual unity, One knowing itself as the Many and the Many knowing themselves as the One, life obeys the law of Unity and yet fulfils each thing in the diversity according to its proper rule and function; in this Divine Life all the individuals live at once as one conscious Being in many living Souls, one power of Consciousness in many minds, one joy of force in many lives, one reality of Delight fulfilling itself in many hearts and bodies. An integral evolution of Consciousness in Matter in a constantly developing self-formation till the form reveals and manifests the indwelling Spirit is then the central significant motive of our terrestrial existence. Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file The Practice of Integral Evolution through Hand-book-I of The Life Divine The Handbook II of The Life Divine The Central Truth of The Life Divine “The spirit is not limited like the waking material consciousness, and the supermind when it takes possession of the waking consciousness, dematerialises it, delivers it from its limits, converts the material and the psychic into the nature of the spiritual being ." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-841 "In this Yoga, the psychic being is that which opens the rest of the nature to the true supramental light and finally to the supreme Ananda . If the soul is awakened, if there is a new birth out of the mere mental, vital and physical into the psychic consciousness, then the Yoga can be done; otherwise (by the mere power of the mind or any other part) it is impossible.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-161 “And finally, Sri Aurobindo has told us somewhere in The Life Divine that to follow the path of spiritual experience, one must have within oneself a “spiritual being”, one must be “twice born” as it is said, for if one doesn’t have a spiritual being within, which is at least on the point of becoming self-aware, one may try to imitate these experiences but it will only be crude imitation or hypocrisy, it won’t be a reality.” The Mother TMCW-9/Questions and Answers-1957/p-344-345 “But it is possible to go farther; for the spiritual being, once inwardly liberated, can develop in mind the higher states of being that are its own natural atmosphere and bring down a supramental energy and action which are proper to the Truth-consciousness; the ordinary mental instrumentation, life-instrumentation, physical instrumentation even, could then be entirely transformed and become parts no longer of an ignorance however much illumined, but of a supramental creation which would be the true action of a spiritual truth-consciousness and knowledge.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-888, “A perfected community also can exist only by the perfection of its individuals, and perfection can come only by the discovery and affirmation in life by each of his own spiritual being and the discovery by all of their spiritual unity and a resultant life unity.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1087-1088 “If then life has to become a manifestation of the Spirit, it is the manifestation of a spiritual being in us and the divine life of a perfected consciousness in a Supramental or Gnostic power of spiritual being that must be the secret burden and intention of evolutionary Nature.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1054 “As the psychic change has to call in the spiritual to complete it, so the first spiritual change has to call in the supramental transformation to complete it .” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-951, “A purified mind and heart and a strong and fine psychical intuition may do much to protect from perversion and error, but even the most highly developed psychical consciousness cannot be absolutely safe unless the psychical is illumined and uplifted by a higher force than itself and touched and strengthened by the luminous intuitive mind and that again raised towards the supramental energy of the spirit. ” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-896

RESEARCH IN BRIEF “All Nature and all life will be to him (a seeker of Truth) at once a revelation and a fine trysting-place. Intellectual and aesthetic and dynamic activities, science and philosophy and life, thought and art and action will assume for him a diviner sanction and a greater meaning. He will seek them because of his clear sight of the Divine through them and because of the delight of the Divine in them. He will not be indeed attached to their appearances, for attachment is an obstacle to the Ananda ; but because he possesses that pure, powerful and perfect Ananda which obtains everything but is dependent on nothing, and because he finds in them the ways and acts and signs, the becomings and the symbols and images of the Beloved, he draws from them a rapture which the normal mind that pursues them for themselves cannot attain or even dream. All this and more becomes part of the integral way and its consummation.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-591 Research of the Modern Science is related with discovering the mystery of material world and uncovering the fragments of Omnipotence and Omniscience that lie hidden in the Matter. Spiritual Science uncovers the mystery behind the material world, the knowledge on the intermediate subtle body, causal body and the highest plane, the source of material and intermediate existence, the supreme Turiya state. Like the objective discoveries of modern science all the knowledge of Spiritual science are verifiable and a field of uncovering of endless truth endlessly without any limit to these subjective discoveries. Integral Yoga proposes that the greatest unity of all Science, all Religion, all Philosophy, and all Tradition are possible through a most conscious individual when he is perfectly capable of every kind of Material Pursuit and Spiritual experience, embraces the whole universe in his cosmic Consciousness and possesses the highest Integral Knowledge. And he calls down the ultimate Divine Truth and absolute Delight to elevate the things and creatures to their highest, profoundest and the widest Divine manifestation. Modern Science⁶⁰ represents a vast system of physical magic through utilisation of secret truths of being and secret power and processes of Nature and it cannot rest content with the barriers of sense knowledge. Integral Yoga is restated as integral (Scientific) Evolution which further provides this input that success and completion of physical knowledge of Science can be arrived at in its range of inquiry by discovery of what lies behind in the Subliminal Self and beyond in the Superconscient Self because behind the process of physical Nature there is a vast inner kingdom of subtle physical, subtle vital and subtle mental fact which can be accessed through Subliminal and Spiritual vision and entry into the Occult movement of the Divine Force. So, all innovation and new invention of Science draw their resources from ‘secret Supermind’s huge store.’⁵⁴ Integral Yoga recognises intelligence as the mother of modern Science which is an unconscious wandering and search for truth within Matter and rejects its materialist doctrine that Nature is all and the Soul is an illusion. It further rejects the inability of Modern Science to accept (hierarchy of) Consciousness as mother of intelligence and the inability to recognise a subtle world behind this gross material world. Science seems to give the impression that this material world has created man but the Spiritual view of existence is that man must create himself and the world.⁹ Integral Yoga can start with purified intellect, profounder understanding, scientific inquiry, organised invention of Spiritual truth, practical analysis, complex observation, repeat the invasion of Spiritual energy like chemistry experiment⁵⁸ and can liberate man from the yoke of increased mechanisation, rigid standardisation, effective manipulations and imperfect mental control to a life of infinitely plastic harmonious principle, free automatic perception of right relations and their inevitable execution of truth of idea, action and creation. Om Tat Sat References are available in the book ‘The Mother’s Manifestation' (page-42-43). Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: Research in Detail Follow the links below for more detail - Auroprem's Savitri Study Study of The Bhagavad Gita The New Research "The corruption of the best (the best Souls of earth) produced the worst by that strange chemistry of the power of life which generates evil out of good even as it can also generate good out of evil….Yet even in the earthward life a higher knowledge (Psychic and Spiritual knowledge) is indeed the one thing that is throughout needful, and without it the lower sciences (of arts, of literature, of religion and of modern science) and pursuits, however fruitful, however rich, free, miraculous in the abundance of their results, become easily a sacrifice offered without due order and to false gods; corrupting, hardening in the end the heart of man, limiting his mind’s horizons, they confine in a stony material imprisonment or lead to a final baffling incertitude and disillusionment." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-140-141 "It is for this reason that Divine Love which is at the heart of all creation and the most powerful of all redeeming and creative forces has yet been the least frontally present in earthly life, the least successfully redemptive, the least creative. Human nature has been unable to bear it in its purity for the very reason that it is the most powerful, pure, rare and intense of all the divine energies; what little could be seized has been corrupted at once into a vital pietistic ardour, a defenceless religious or ethical sentimentalism, a sensuous or even sensual erotic mysticism of the roseate coloured mind or passionately turbid life-impulse and with these simulations compensated its inability to house the Mystic Flame that could rebuild the world with its tongues of sacrifice. " Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-16 7 All objective research in the field of modern Science, Arts, Literature, Technology, Commerce and Economics can be reinforced by entry into subjective Research of the Soul, by discovering tenfold Selves and their interpenetration into tenfold Sheaths. We have to reconcile the full account of one-tenth ‘potent though limited revelations of modern knowledge and seeking’ with nine-tenths unlimited subjective Spiritual wisdom by constantly updating, renovating, renewing and regenerating the existing wisdom from tenfold Selves. (Ref: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-10)

Journal in Brief “The idea of the supermind, the Truth-Consciousness is there in the Rig Veda according to Sri Aurobindo’s interpretation and in one or two passages of the Upanishads , but in the Upanishads it is there only in seed in the conception of the being of knowledge, vijnanamaya purusha , exceeding the mental, vital and physical being; in the Rig Veda the idea is there but in principle only, it is not developed and even the principle of it has disappeared from the Hindu tradition. It is these things among others that constitute the novelty of Sri Aurobindo’s message as compared with the Hindu tradition, the idea that the world is not either a creation of Maya or only a play, lıla , of the Divine, or a cycle of births in the ignorance from which we have to escape, but a field of manifestation in which there is a progressive evolution of the soul and the nature in Matter and from Matter through Life and Mind to what is beyond Mind till it reaches the complete revelation of Sachchidananda in life. It is this that is the basis of the Yoga and gives a new sense to life.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-444-445 "In the supramental consciousness, there are no problems — the problem is created by the division set up by the Mind. The Supramental sees the Truth as a single whole and everything falls into its place in that whole. The Supramental is also spiritual, but the old Yogas reach Sachchidananda through the spiritualised mind and depart into the eternally static oneness of Sachchidananda or rather pure Sat (Existence) absolute and eternal or else a pure Non-existence absolute and eternal. Ours having realised Sachchidananda in the spiritualised mind plane proceeds to realise it in the supramental plane.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I-133-134 Words are the powers of Brahman ; if rightly used, they will save the Soul and will assist in Soul flowering; if wrongly used, they can slay the Soul. The Mother insisted⁵¹ that if writing related to Spiritual truth has to inspire a wider dimension for a long period, it must descend from the very high impersonal and universal plane and must be received by the intellect without the least distortion. For a swiftly evolving developed Soul, all new descent of Knowledge will be obsolete after some time. So, he has to shift his consciousness from mutable time to an immutable timeless state where eternal Wisdom is constantly renovated by fresh instreaming knowledge. Again, in the immutable timeless state, there are hierarchies of ascending Consciousness and truth descended from one plane of Consciousness necessitates change when one ascends still higher ranges of Consciousness. ‘The knowledge comes from above like the light and peace and everything else…it comes from a higher and higher level.’¹³¹ All these higher activities of Intuitions are ‘first manifested in the mind itself as descents, irruptions, messages or revelations of a superior power.’¹²³ A Spiritual knowledge from above begins to pour ‘in waves and currents’¹³⁰ and it descends ‘frequently, constantly, then uninterruptedly, and to manifest in the mind’s quietude or silence; intuitions and inspirations, revelations born of a greater sight, a higher truth and wisdom, enter into the being, a luminous intuitive discrimination works which dispels all darkness of understanding or dazzling confusions, puts all in order…’¹³⁰ The Synthesis of Yoga book discourages Sadhaka’s inscription and exceptional oration of ‘the examples of outward acts...of personal⁴¹ character;’²⁵ proposes that to relinquish though ‘these have their place and their utility;’²⁵ but his writings can most stimulate others’ aspiration if he can focus on ‘the central fact of the divine realisation within him governing his whole life and inner state and all his activities.’²⁵ Thus, he becomes a light and power of the Truth to which he has climbed and a means for others’ ascension.’⁸⁰ His writing must reproduce the creative and developing part of his own plastic Being, which may descend from above as a word, a message, a voice of the Self,⁶³ vani, adesh , instead of an inadequate intellectual thought, ‘repetitive word’⁵³ and ‘an imitation from outside.’²⁵ If the feeling of emotion, thought-power and will-force expressed through the word is entirely purified to recognise intuition, then the power of lonely thought ‘reverses the whole order of the mind’s thinking’⁶⁴ and it rises towards knowledge by Identity, Omnipotence, Omniscience and the preservation of the Brahman consciousness. The thought of the intuitive mind proceeds wholly by four powers¹²² that shape the form of the written truth, (1) (truth-touch) an intuition that suggests its idea in the form of the descended word, a direct and illumining inner idea of truth, a bright memory of self-existent truth, (2) (truth-discrimination) an intuition that sets the truth-idea in its right place and exact relation of truth to truth; it discriminates Soul slaying truth and Soul saving truth and rejects the former, (3) (truth-hearing, pratykhya-shruti) an inspiration that brings in its voice of truth word and something of its greater substance, brief lightning lighting up many dark provinces and (4) (truth-sight, pratykhya-dristi ) an inner vision, a revelation that shapes to the sight its very face and body of reality. If the restatement of Their (The Mother and Sri Aurobindo's ) Impersonal and Universalised Teaching or written truth is cast rightly through calling down of fresh immortal thought, then the combined wisdom of past and present descended truths can awake new future immensities and the unfinished integral Yoga can move ahead beyond the limitation of customised Religion. If a Power from the chamber of the Soul has interfered, inspired, guided and commanded at every step and in every detail, then he can discover the true Mantra of life or the ‘sole timeless Word.’²⁶ ‘It is as if the eye of the poet and artist had replaced the vague or trivial unseeing normal vision, but singularly spiritualised and glorified, — as if indeed it were the sight of the supreme divine Poet and Artist in which we were participating and there were given to us the full seeing of his truth and intention in his design of the universe and of each thing in the universe.’¹¹⁸ A Psychic opening can transform every thought into ‘a sweet burning god’¹²⁹ and every feeling into ‘Eternal’s mighty child.’¹²⁹ A touch of Spiritual or Overmental Truth can immortalise⁹⁰ the momentary actions, thoughts and emotions. By a touch of Supreme Sunlight, a childlike immature thought can richly turn into ‘luminous patterns of’⁵⁷ Soul’s deep truth. Or ‘Even the youngest child-thought of the mind’⁸⁷ can incarnate ‘some touch of highest things.’⁸⁷ Supreme words can pour into the plastic language with Light, Power and Force and this can be easily and freely done by a rare gifted Soul whose intellect is completely pacified, separation is affected between intuitive and intellectual elements of thought and physical consciousness, sense organs and mind have been sufficiently purified. The Mother pointed out that all future books carrying the Supreme vibration are ‘not a teaching, not even a revelation’⁴⁷ but they must convey the forceful message and feeling of decisive and ‘formidable action coming direct from the Supreme.’⁴⁷ The Mother further defined that a book carrying the Supreme vibration would be simple and all-embracing and ‘any fool could read it like a story and feel perfectly satisfied – and he wouldn’t even notice it taking hold of him inside and changing him.’⁸⁹ It appears that the Mother was not interested in preserving the knowledge⁴⁸ that descended to Her from the Supramental plane but rather She was keen to carry out the mighty Supramental action that could drag ahead the Divine race. If any action has the Supramental support, then even a small beginning moves towards ‘a mighty end’⁷⁸ or ‘In a small fragile seed a great tree lurks…(and) It grows and is a conqueror and a sage.’¹²³ And if writing is limited to teaching only then one can draw profit from it ‘if it is lived while it is being given;’⁵³ and if writing is a descent from the Supreme plane like ‘flame-wrapped outbursts of the immortal Word’⁷⁹ then ‘the glory of its thoughts’⁹⁵ and ‘the grandeur of its dreams’⁹⁵ will ‘never die’⁹⁶ and ‘glow through the centuries’⁹⁶ and 'the most blind, the most unconscious, even the most unwilling shall be obliged to recognise it.'⁸⁹ The greatest utility of self-expression and self-fulfillment, either through writing or through oration, is to utilise it as a means of movement of the ascent of the Soul to travel ‘beyond the world’⁸⁸ and descent of Divine Shakti to ‘save the world.’⁸⁸ The Synthesis of Yoga book proposes that a Sadhak’s action, writing and feeling must be ‘virginally creative at each moment.’¹³² OM TAT SAT References are available in the book ‘The Mother’s Manifestation’ (page 270-271). Download this WEB PAGE as PDF file: JOURNAL IN DETAIL "These were the two sentences I wrote yesterday by a kind of absolute necessity. The first, as though the power of the prayer would not be complete unless it were traced on paper. The second, as though the stability of the experience could not be had unless I unburdened my mind of it by noting it down in writing." The Mother TMCW-1/Prayers and Meditations/p-145 "Knowledge is a child with its achievements; for when it has found out something, it runs about the streets whooping and shouting; Wisdom conceals hers for a long time in a thoughtful and mighty silence." Sri Aurobindo CWSA – 12 /Essays Divine and Human/p– 436 READ MORE >> STUDY CIRCLE Study Circle for us is Prakriti Yajna . If it is done rightly then there will be large descent of Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Love. It is a means of collective Divine Union. The Earlier trend of using this as a platform of giving upadesha (advise) and lokasamgraham (gathering together of people) have renewed their significance before the new movement of Consciousness through Prakriti Yajna or Vedic sacrifice. In Study circle our firm motive is to “Ask for nothing but the divine, spiritual and supramental Truth, its realisation on earth and in you and in all who are called and chosen and the conditions needed for its creation and its victory over all opposing forces…Where there is affinity to the rhythms of the secret world-bliss and response to the call of the All- Beautiful and concord and unity and the glad flow of many lives turned towards the Divine, in that atmosphere she (Mahalakshmi) consents to abide.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-8, 21 READ MORE >> THE DESCENT "There is no value at all in these things (Magazine and articles) — people read and forget. As for propaganda I have seen that it is perfectly useless for us — if there is any effect, it is a very trifling and paltry effect not worth the trouble. If the Truth has to spread itself, it will do it of its own motion; these things are unnecessary." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-35/Letters On Himself and the Ashram/p-690-691 Our objective in The Descent is to trace out a Spiritual path of our own by constantly restating and renewing the written truth by fresh inflow of overhead Wisdom. READ MORE >> Written truths can be rightly understood after the opening either of the Psychic Being in the heart or of the Spiritual being above the head and if we live within the boundary of three Guna s, ‘at the end of our long mental labour we might know all that has been said of the Eternal, possess all that can be thought about the Infinite and yet we might not know him at all.’ All Shastra s are incomplete accounts of the eternal unfolding of endless truth and they can be utilised either as a seed of a mighty banyan tree or a temporary scaffold in ascending and descending movements of consciousness. The office of their largescale utility can be superseded by building a permanent ladder within through the inner movement of Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness. (Refer: CWSA-23-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-81, 191, 777) "It has already been said that so long as the seeker has no inner light, he must govern himself by the best light he has, and duty, a principle, a cause are among the standards he may temporarily erect and observe....In the ordinary life a personal, social or traditional constructed rule, standard or ideal is the guide; once the spiritual journey has begun , this must be replaced by an inner and outer rule or way of living necessary for our self-discipline, liberation and perfection, a way of living proper to the path we follow or enjoined by the spiritual guide and master, the Guru , or else dictated by a Guide within us. But in the last state of the soul’s infinity and freedom all outward standards are replaced or laid aside and there is left only a spontaneous and integral obedience to the Divine with whom we are in union and an action spontaneously fulfilling the integral spiritual truth of our being and nature." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-273 “The ordinary man who wishes to reach God through knowledge, must undergo an elaborate training. He must begin by becoming absolutely pure, he must cleanse thoroughly his body, his heart and his intellect, he must get himself a new heart and be born again; for only the twice-born can understand or teach the Vedas . When he has done this he needs yet four things before he can succeed, (1) the Sruti or recorded revelation, (2) the Sacred Teacher, (3) the practice of Yoga and (4) the Grace of God.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-18/Kena and other Upanishads/p-169

The Research in Detail “The probability of error is no reason for refusing to attempt discovery, and subjective discovery must be pursued by a subjective method of inquiry, observation and verification ; research into the supraphysical must evolve, accept and test an appropriate means and methods other than those by which one examines the constituents of physical objects and the processes of Energy in material Nature.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/ The Life Divine/p-676 "What Science does for our knowledge of the material world, replacing first appearances and uses by the hidden truths and as yet occult powers of its great natural forces and in our own minds beliefs and opinions by verified experience and a profounder understanding, Yoga does for the higher planes and worlds and possibilities of our being which are aimed at by the religions. Therefore all this mass of graded experience existing behind closed doors to which the consciousness of man may find, if it wills, the key, falls within the province of a comprehensive Yoga of knowledge, which need not be confined to the seeking after the Absolute alone or the knowledge of the Divine in itself or of the Divine only in its isolated relations with the individual human soul. It is true that the consciousness of the Absolute is the highest reach of the Yoga of knowledge and that the possession of the Divine is its first, greatest and most ardent object and that to neglect it for an inferior knowledge (inferior knowledge is the limited revelations of modern knowledge and seeking) is to afflict our Yoga with inferiority or even frivolity and to miss or fall away from its characteristic object; but, the Divine in itself being known, the Yoga of knowledge may well embrace also the knowledge of the Divine in its relations with ourselves and the world on the different planes of our existence. To rise to the pure Self being steadfastly held to as the summit of our subjective self-uplifting, we may from that height possess our lower selves even to the physical and the workings of Nature which belong to them ." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/ The Synthesis of Yoga/p-460-461 The Research in Detail Integral Yoga identifies that all Science and Modern Knowledge afflict life with inferiority. This inferiority is linked with the man's problem of lower Nature and unconscious of ceaseless sattwic sacrifice. In order to overcome this limitation, all the schools of modern Knowledge and utilitarian Science must be reconciled with the highest Spiritual experience through ceaseless sattwic sacrifice, nitya yajna and 'the possession of the Divine is its first, greatest and most ardent object and that to neglect it for an inferior knowledge is to afflict our' (CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-460-461) Life and Yoga with inferiority.. The healthiness of an individual is dependent on the full utilisation of his faculty of exclusive concentration, a developmental faculty of the mind to unravel the secret of Nature through its forward movement and secret of Self through its reverse movement, leading to the seeming fullness of his objective and subjective life. The present popular term of objective research of separative knowledge by indirect contact has to take a subjective turn of knowledge by direct contact and knowledge by identity through the development of higher faculties other than mind and in that sense the research is our best immediate evolutionary accelerator. The relations between the surface impulsion and the subliminal urge have not been properly studied and to know our inner being is the first step of subjective research towards the unfolding of real self-knowledge. The healthiness of all institution is dependent on its expansion of research activity and constant renovation of its existing system and set up. The same exercise can only make up the deficiencies of the Divine Centre, but for its fulfilment and completeness it asks endless unfolding of truth through greater and finer effort of fresh inflow of Spiritual experiences and Wisdom to all the realms of life which will lead towards a constantly increasing perfection or a growth towards an enduring felicity. So the surface mental activity of inquiry, investigation and experimental research of any institution can turn inward towards Subliminal and Spiritual end in a Spiritual institution and of this intellectual formulation and its seeking of truth for its own sake without any interference of illegitimate and preconceived ideas can be utilised as a difficult and rare passage to Spiritual experiences. The objective truth of existence and superficial knowledge of the world are fragmentarily studied which is the preoccupation of mental research. But there are truths beyond which can be developed by the cultivation of our subjective being and enlargement of its powers and we are irresistibly impelled to seek the knowledge of the higher states of Consciousness. The knowledge of our surface mentality brings us always to all that mysterious and hidden depth of subjective existence below and behind of which our surface consciousness is only the margin of immense continents which lie behind unexplored. To explore them must be the work of higher knowledge other than that of mental research. All Religions are forms and fragments descended from the one eternal Religion, Sanatana Dharma or all Religion would be true as developments that converge on one eternal Religion; all philosophies of divergent views would be valid each in its own field as different aspects of a single Reality; all Sciences with their diversified exclusive quests must be drawn irresistibly to realise their completeness by merging with Supraphysical Science. Integral Yoga proposes that the greatest unity of all Science, all Religion, all Philosophy, and all Tradition are possible through a most conscious individual when he is perfectly capable of every kind of Spiritual experience, embraces the whole universes in his cosmic Consciousness and possesses the highest Integral Knowledge. And he calls down the ultimate Divine Truth to elevate the things and creatures to their highest, profoundest and the widest Divine manifestation. So if we aim at the research of Supraphysical Science, like all other research its main objective will be to conquer the World, the Nature and the Self for the Divine and for His sake only. It will follow the norm of Integral Yoga that its basis of action will be all that are the best, profoundest and completest in the past and present and proceed ahead towards a large future accomplishment. The theory of complete Research is pursued through the synthesis of Research which is something other than the mental Research. It will take full account of the human developments in successive human births and bodies through evolution of faculties higher than mind and intellect. It has identified four stations of research that are (1) Psycho-physical Scienc e with main inspiration from the root knowledge of Hathayoga and Tantrayoga , (2) Psychic Science with main inspiration from Rajayoga and Bhakti Yoga , (3) Spiritual Science with main inspiration from Integral Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga and (4) Supramental Science with main inspiration from Yoga of Self-perfection and Yoga of Cosmic Consciousness. These have been partly explored in the Veda and the Upanishad and the Gita. Our object is not to develop the results arrived at by these ancient Shastras , but to uncover some of their principal conclusions which are considered best previous foundation in resolving the problem of the Divine Life. And these old treasures are recognised as our initial capital that can most advantageously proceed to accumulate the largest gains in our new commerce with the ever-changeless and ever-changing Infinite. It is true that the methodical research to glimpse the exceptional, abnormal or supernormal faculties of Supraphysical realities in its preliminary state are still imperfect, crude and defective. To testify the Supraphysical facts beyond the domain of material organisation of consciousness their testimony has to be controlled, scrutinized and arranged and their fields, laws and processes are to be rightly translated, truly related and effectively determined. When we open the wall between the outer mind and inner consciousness, the laws and processes of Supraphysical Science are rightly studied, the means will be automatically found and directly seize the subtle faculties, energies and potentialities. Their universal rhythm, grand lines of formations, self-existent laws, mighty energies and luminous means of knowledge will open the enormous vistas of the future. A time has come where mind must discover and fully develop Intuition and all the great ranges of Consciousness which will liberate the free flow of Wisdom and Truth from beyond. Importance is given to depend and wait for intuitive action, which is activated by the passive silence of the Witness Spirit; it compels all things to travel in Ignorance and division towards a yet unrealised Divine goal of unity. Subsequently intuition enters the Supramental range which has the capacity to prevent all destruction, heals all disease, transform all opposition into mutual help, is supremely positive, harmonious and creative and provides the opportunity of largest development in the shortest path and heals the gulf between the World, Self and God and perfects the creation. All action, small or big is undertaken through imperative complete knowledge of Supramental vision and revelation to which nothing can stand against it. It is a knowledge of total consciousness fulfilling its own inherent power and substitutes the mind’s wisdom of research. Psycho-physical Science: Integral Yoga can be practiced on other lines than the organised method of Patanjali and it does not recommend highly specialised scientific techniques of psycho-physical science (except simple forms) invented by the old Hathayogins and later developed by Tantriks of India for the beginners because the subtle physical exercises that they had developed are related with opening of six nervous energy centres, which is now closed with most human beings and are having related with the danger of Spiritual fall and as a remedy asks purified vessel and the immediate attention of physical Guru . Integral Yoga gives secondary importance on any outer aid or external physical technique for higher Spiritual action and rather it leans on primary importance of inner aids or psychological means for subjective and objective developments; secondly, the process of psycho-physical Science is laborious, difficult, makes great demand on time and energy and it attains large result but at the cost of an exorbitant price and to very little purpose; thirdly the psycho-physical exercises are utilised for the sake of the individual selfish interest in his increased vitality, prolonged youth, health, longevity and utilisation of its results for the benefit of common life is highly restricted and not thrown into the common sum of the world’s activities; fourthly, its result of gaining an inner and higher life could have been acquired by less laborious methods of Rajayoga and Jnanayoga and lastly, it asks indispensable presence of physical guide to avoid and overcome any danger and disaster that may fall in the life of the beginners. The utility of Psycho-physical Science in integral Yoga is felt after the Spiritual foundation is established and it will organise and harmonise the surface physical and vital nature which are indispensable for higher workings of instruments of the Spirit. In initial importance integral Yoga leans on the Vedantic method of development of Soul and final importance of transformation of Nature through combination of the Vedantic and the Vedic method. The specialised technique of Psycho-physical science is highly desirable and acceptable during the difficult period of transformation of Nature of developed Souls because it removes obstructions created by physical mind (for example through Japa) and vital mind (for example through Pranayama ) towards the journey of higher Psychical and Spiritual experiences. Again, the many-sided perfection related with physical life forces can be pursued through the widely varied techniques of Psycho-physical Science whose highest objective is to merge in trance of various degree that of Dream Self, Sleep Self and final Turiya or absolute trance. The utility of cataleptic trance and absolute trance are the highest outcome of psycho-physical exercise to which an integral Yogi can lean in his ever-extending search of mysteries of existence. These experiences are hinted in Savitri as: “Absorbed in the trance from which no soul returns,” Savitri-384 “When life had stopped its beats, death broke not in; He dared to live when breath and thought were still.” Savitri-74 “There the heart beat no more at body’s touch,” Savitri-31 “And rigid golden statue of motionless trance.” Savitri-474 “The body’s stone stillness and the life’s hushed trance, The breathless might and calm of silent mind;” Savitri-34 OM TAT SAT For exploration of Psychic Science, Spiritual Science and Supramental Science, one can visit the link: https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/the-task-of-integral-education "The gnostic perfection, spiritual in its nature, is to be accomplished here in the body and takes life in the physical world as one of its fields, even though the gnosis opens to us possession of planes and worlds beyond the material universe. The physical body is therefore a basis of action, pratistha, which cannot be despised, neglected or excluded from the spiritual evolution: a perfection of the body as the outer instrument of a complete divine living on earth will be necessarily a part of the gnostic conversion. The change will be effected by bringing in the law of the gnostic Purusha, vijnanamaya purusa, and of that into which it opens, the Anandamaya, into the physical consciousness and its members. Pushed to its highest conclusion this movement brings in a spiritualising and illumination of the whole physical consciousness and a divinising of the law of the body. For behind the gross physical sheath of this materially visible and sensible frame there is subliminally supporting it and discoverable by a finer subtle consciousness a subtle body of the mental being and a spiritual or causal body of the gnostic and bliss soul in which all the perfection of a spiritual embodiment is to be found, a yet unmanifested divine law of the body. Most of the physical siddhis acquired by certain Yogins are brought about by some opening up of the law of the subtle or a calling down of something of the law of the spiritual body. The ordinary method is the opening up of the cakras by the 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 therefore the development of the superior power of the gnosis will be awaited as the instrumentative change in this part of the Yoga ." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-695

Integral Karma Yoga “At each step we can say in the language of the Sanskrit verse, “Even as I am appointed by Thee seated in my heart, so, O Lord, I act.” "Yatha prayukto’smi (niyukto’smi) tatha karomi" (Pandavagita) Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-252, 496, 725, “The Path of Works aims at the dedication of every human activity to the supreme Will. It begins by the renunciation of all egoistic aim for our works, all pursuit of action for an interested aim or for the sake of a worldly result. By this renunciation it so purifies the mind and the will that we become easily conscious of the great universal Energy as the true doer of all our actions and the Lord of that Energy as their ruler and director with the individual as only a mask, an excuse, an instrument or, more positively, a conscious centre of action and phenomenal relation. The choice and direction of the act is more and more consciously left to this supreme Will and this universal Energy. To That our works as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned. The object is the release of the soul from its bondage to appearances and to the reaction of phenomenal activities. Karmayoga is used, (in traditional Yoga) like the other paths, to lead to liberation from phenomenal existence and a departure into the Supreme. But here (in integral Yoga) too the exclusive result is not inevitable. The end of the path may be, equally, a perception of the Divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities, and a free and unegoistic participation of the soul in the cosmic action. So followed it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards freedom, power and perfection in the human being. "⁶⁵ Sri Aurobindo The Injunction issued to the Seekers of integral Yoga of Works: “A Will, a hope immense now seized his heart, And to discern the superhuman’s form He raised his eyes to unseen spiritual heights, Aspiring to bring down a greater world.” Savitri-76 “He saw the purpose in the works of Time. Even in that aimlessness a work was done Pregnant with magic will and change divine.” Savitri-137-138 “Her eternal Lover is her action’s cause;... Her will is to shut God into her works And keep him as her cherished prisoner That never they may part again in Time.” Savitri-181-182 “Its (Supreme Self's) absence left the greatest actions dull, Its presence made the smallest seem divine.” Savitri-305 (smallest action, thought and love.) “A hand from some Greatness opened her heart’s locked doors And showed the work for which her strength was born.” Savitri-375 “This earth is full of labour, packed with pain;… This earth is full of the anguish of the gods; Ever they travail driven by Time’s goad, And strive to work out the eternal Will And shape the life divine in mortal forms.” Savitri-443-444 “His will must be worked out in human breasts Against the Evil that rises from the gulfs, Against the world’s Ignorance and its obstinate strength, Against the stumblings of man’s pervert will, Against the deep folly of his human mind, Against the blind reluctance of his heart.” Savitri-444 “Even the smallest and meanest work became A sweet or glad and glorious sacrament, An offering to the self of the great world Or a service to the One in each and all.” Savitri-532 “Transcended now was the poor human rule; A sovereign power was there, a godlike will.” Savitri-574 “All was the violent ocean of a will Where lived captive to an immense caress, Possessed in a supreme identity, Her aim, joy, origin, Satyavan alone.” Savitri-579 Integral Karma Yoga is the extensive extension of the Gita’s teachings of traditional Karma Yoga. Here the divine Shakti or Para-prakriti is identified as the doer of all action. The Gita hints that even when involved in doing wide range of works, a Sadhaka does no action at all, karmanyaviprabruttopi naiba kinchit karoti sah ;³⁵ for it is not he, but Divine Shakti directed by the approval of Lord which is at work. He also undertakes no personal initiative of action, sarvarambha-parityagi ;³⁶ for all initiation of work is the movement of desire and not the command of the Divine Will. This approach is further extended in integral Yoga that he 'must be prepared to change one work, one course or one field of action for another or abandon all works if that is the clear command of the Master.'⁶ ⁴ He does perfect ceaseless Divine action founded upon perfect inner passivity till his last breath or even if he 'reached a last possible divine self-completeness .'⁶³ 1) All Life is Yoga of Nature through Works. One takes up all life and action and (1) does not despise any work nor shrink from the splendid toil; he becomes only a daily dynamic worship and service of the Divine in the unbounded temple of His own vast cosmic existence and it is through a wide egoless impersonality that he can become a liberated Worker and Divine Creator; in this higher state of Consciousness he does all work without the sense of doership, without the feeling of personal initiation of any action and no reaction of lower Nature can touch him; (2) another period in which one draws back and builds a Spiritual wall around him admitting through its gates only such activities as consent to undergo the law of Spiritual transformation. So, ‘all grief, revolt, impatience, trouble’³² are identified as a violence committed against the Master of this existence. The Master of our works respects our nature even when He is transforming it; He works always through the nature and not by any arbitrary and abstract whim. This imperfect nature of ours contains the materials of our perfection, but undeveloped, distorted, misplaced, thrown together in disorder or a poor imperfect order. All this material has to be patiently gathered, harmonised, reorganised, purified, perfected, new-moulded and transformed, not hacked and hewn and slain or mutilated, not obliterated by simple coercion and denial. (3) A third in which a free and all-embracing action, but with new forms fit for the utter truth of the Spirit. All work is done by the Power, by Shakti, and since the integral Yoga does not contemplate abandonment of works, does not shrink from difficulties of life but rather a doing of all works and acceptance to resolve all problems from the Divine Consciousness and with the Supreme Guidance of Divine Will and Knowledge; the characteristic powers of the instruments, mind, life and body, must not only be purified of defects, but raised to a great capacity for this Divine action. All works or doing all action, sarvakrut , by a liberated knower who lives and acts in the world only with true knowledge and greater conscient power without any binding necessity and compelling ignorance. By so doing he attains supreme Unity, supreme Consciousness and highest Knowledge. Action can neither bind the liberated man nor can it bind or limit the Eternal but it binds and limits the surface constructed personality. The law of the Divine action is at last unity embracing and possessing the multiplicity and no longer the ordinary action of multiplicity struggling towards some figure of unity. A Divine action can take shape spontaneously, freely, and infallibly from the light and force of our Psychic and Spiritual Self in union with the Supramental Self. These interfusions of complete Divine union are identified as the last state of the integral Yoga of Works. 2) Karmaphala tyaga, samata (titikha), yajna(atmasamarpanam) iti Karma Yogah. Renunciation of all desire for the fruits of work, equality and action done as sacrifice to the supreme Lord of all nature are the first three Godward approaches of Karmayoga . 3) Yastu karmafalatyagi sa tyagityavidhiyate . (The Gita-18.11) He who gives up the fruit of work is called a Tyagi , a renouncer. Therefore, the first rule of action laid down by the Gita is to do the work that should be done without any desire for the fruit, niskama karma... For so long as we work with attachment to the result, the sacrifice is offered not to the Divine, but to our ego or activity pursued by the absorption in action leads to an inferior affirmation and denial of the Highest. Afterwards even as we have renounced attachment to the fruit, we must renounce attachment to the work, so also the last clinging attachment to the idea and sense of ourselves as the doer has to be relinquished; the Divine Shakti must be known and felt above and within us as the true and sole Divine Worker. The state of freedom, mukti, which can come in the Yoga of works through renunciation of ego, ahamkaram, desire, kama , dualities, dwanda, three gunas and personal initiation, sarbarambhaparityagi . “Hatred and disliking and scorn and repulsion, clinging and attachment and preference (seven deformations of integral Yoga) are natural, necessary, inevitable at a certain stage ( of sadhana) : they attend upon or they help to make and maintain Nature’s choice in us. But to the Karmayogin they are a survival, a stumbling-block, a process of the Ignorance and, as he progresses, they fall away from his nature. The child-soul needs them for its growth; but they drop from an adult (Soul) in the divine culture.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-223, A Sadhaka of integral Karmayoga will abandon social duty, family obligation, communal or national demand to the Lord of works, so long as it is not in conflict with his growing sense of higher Right. There is nothing in the world to which he must be attached, not wealth, ‘nor wife, nor children,’² ⁵ nor his ‘work and mission, nor heaven, nor earth.’² ⁵ He must give up past associations that form the ordinary way of living, mental constructions of our own, snare of mind and senses, the meshes of Word, the bondage of the Idea, ‘the truths we hold most securely.’²⁶ Even Divine realisations must not be clung to, if they are not the Divine realisation in its utter essentiality and completeness. We must rest at nothing less than the All, nothing short of the utter Transcendence. 4) ‘Samatwam yoga uchyate. ’ (The Gita-2.48) For it is equality that is meant by Yoga. The second rule of action laid down by the Gita is an absolute equality of mind and the heart to all results, to all reactions, to all happenings. If good fortune and ill fortune, if respect and insult, if reputation and obloquy, if victory and defeat, if pleasant event and sorrowful event leave us not only unshaken but untouched, free in the mental view, not responding with the least disturbance or vibration in any spot of the nature, then we have the absolute liberation to which the Gita points us. ‘The 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 aspiration. A wise impersonality, a quiescent equality, a universality which sees all things as the manifestations of the Divine, the one Existence, is not angry, troubled, impatient with the way of things or on the other hand excited, over-eager and precipitate, but sees that the law must be obeyed and the pace of time respected, observes and understands with sympathy the actuality of things and beings, but looks also behind the present appearance to their inner significances and forward to the unrolling of their divine possibilities, is the first thing demanded of those who would do works as the perfect instruments of the Divine.’²⁷ “To revolt, to condemn, to cry out is the impulse of our unchastened and ignorant instincts. Revolt like everything else has its uses in the play and is even necessary, helpful, decreed for the divine development in its own time and stage; but the movement of an ignorant rebellion belongs to the stage of the soul’s childhood or to its raw adolescence. The ripened soul does not condemn but seeks to understand and master, does not cry out but accepts or toils to improve and perfect, does not revolt inwardly but labours to obey and fulfil and transfigure. Therefore we shall receive all things with an equal soul from the hands of the Master. Failure we shall admit as a passage as calmly as success until the hour of the divine victory arrives. Our souls and minds and bodies will remain unshaken by acutest sorrow and suffering and pain if in the divine dispensation they come to us, unoverpowered by intensest joy and pleasure. Thus supremely balanced we shall continue steadily on our way meeting all things with an equal calm until we are ready for a more exalted status and can enter into the supreme and universal Ananda.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-225 5) ‘Yajnah karma samudbhavah.’ (The Gita-3.14) Sacrifice is born of work. The third rule of action is an entire spirit of self-consecration in our works; it must become first the constant will, then the ingrained need in all the being and instrumental nature, finally its automatic but living and conscious habit, the self-existent turn to do all action as a sacrifice to the Supreme present in us and in all beings and in all the workings of the universe. “As that self-giving progresses, the work of the sacrifice becomes easier and more powerful and the prevention of the opposing Forces loses much of its strength, impulsion and substance.”³⁸ Both inner and outer Life become the altar of this complete consecration; all works are unconditionally offered to the Psychic being within or transcendent and universal Power and Presence. 6) ‘Chaturvarnam maya srustam.’ (The Gita-4.13) I have created four order of work based on four kinds of Soul forces that of Power for Knowledge, Brahmana , a Power for strength, Khyatriya, a Power for mutuality and active and productive relation and interchange, Vaisya and a Power for works and labour and service, Shudra . These are four active Powers and tendencies of the Spirit and the predominance of one or the other in the better formed part of our personality gives us our dominant qualities, tendencies and capacities. For integral development of a Soul Seeker, in integral Yoga all the four Soul Forces are reconciled. 7) ‘Chatvaro manabastatha madbhava manasa jata,’ (The Gita-10.6) the four Manus that of Wisdom, Power, Beatitude and Perfection are of My Spiritual or Overmental becomings. These Spiritual becoming are the four dynamic Spiritual Shaktis that work in the universe that of Maheswari, Mahakali, Mahalakhmi and Mahasaraswati. The function of these four Spiritual Shaktis in Knowledge plane has extended as action of four Soul/Psychic forces of Brahma Shakti, Kshetra Shakti, Vaisya Shakti and Shudra Shakti acting in the Planes of Ignorance. The Sadhaka of integral Yoga reconciles all the four Spiritual Mother Powers and thus he experiences the integration of his personality and moves towards still higher planes of Consciousness. 8) ‘Brahmaiba tena gantabyam brahmakarmasamadhina .’ (The Gita-4.24) Brahman is that which is attained by Samadhi in Brahman- action. Jnanam Vijnanam astikyam brahma-karma swabhabajam (The Gita-18.42), exclusive and comprehensive knowledge and practice of Spiritual truth are the natural and spontaneous work of the Brahmin Soul force. The soul force of the nature of exclusive concentration of the ancient Brahmin is extended in integral Yoga to the fullness of the divine soul and power of truth, knowledge, perfection of Dharma , the accomplished Brahminhood of the complete Brahmana . 9) ‘Sourjya tejo dhrutidrakhyam danamiswarabhavascha khetrakarma swabhabajam,’ (The Gita-18.43) adventure of consciousness, high spirit askesis, resolution, ability, giving and lordship are the natural work of Kshatriya Soul force. These are extended in Integral Yoga to adventure of Consciousness, Divine fullness, purity and grandeur and expansion of the Spiritual kingdom within and without. 10) ‘Yogah karmasu kausalam .’ (The Gita-2.50) Yoga is the skill in works. The outward action of the Vaisya Soul force is skilful devising intelligence, the legal, professional, commercial, scientific, technical, commercial and utilitarian bent of mind, a power of giving, ample creative liberality, and mutual helpfulness. This is extended in integral Yoga into a largeness of mutuality, a generous fullness of the relations of life, a lavish self-spending and return and ample interchange between existence and existence, a full enjoyment and use of rhythm and balance of fruitful and productive life. 11) ‘Paricharyatamakam karma shudrasyapi swabhabajam ,’ (The Gita-18.44) all the action of the character of service and obedience is the natural work of Shudra Soul force. The well-developed Shudra has the instinct of toil and capacity of labour and service for maintenance of his existence, gratification of his primal needs, self-indulgence of the instincts, an unreflective obedience and mechanical discharge of duty. In integral Yoga, this faculty is extended to the most necessary and beautiful elements of our greater perfection and the key to much of the secret of highest Spiritual evolution. The full development of this force is the power of service to others, to obey and follow whatever great discipline and influence, the love which consecrates service and asks for no return, a power for complete self-surrender. 12) Sahajam karma kauntaya sadosamapi na tyajet. (The Gita-18.48) O Arjuna , though defective, the inborn work ought not to be abandoned. ‘The integral Yoga cannot reject the works of Life and be satisfied with an inward experience only; it has to go inward in order to change the outward, making the Life-Force a part and a working of a Yoga-Energy which is in touch with the Divine and divine in its guidance.’³³ An integral Yogi is ‘not attached, bound and limited by any work nor has he any personal motive of fame, greatness or personal satisfaction in these works; he can leave or pursue them as the Divine in him wills, but he need not otherwise abandon them in his pursuit of higher integral knowledge.’³⁷ The Divine work for which he is offered a birth is the manifestation of the Divine All through Universalisation and Impersonalisation of himself. 13) The Integral Karma Yoga aims at the dedication of every human activity to the supreme Will. It begins by the renunciation of all egoistic aims for our works, all pursuit of action for an interested aim or for the sake of a worldly result; it continues enjoying the joy of action by renouncing all attachment to action and the result of action. By this renunciation it so purifies the mind and the will that we become easily conscious of the great universal Energy as the true doer of all our actions and the Lord of that Energy as their ruler and director with the individual as only a mask, an excuse, a passive instrument, a channel of the Divine Shakti and act according to Her dictates or her rule of light and power within us or, more positively, a conscious centre of action and phenomenal relation. The choice and direction of the act is more and more consciously left to the supreme Will and this universal Energy. To That our works as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned. ‘Thus are made possible the final steps (of Supramental action) when the veil of Nature is withdrawn and the seeker is face to face with the Master of all existence and his activities are merged in the action of a supreme Energy which is pure, true, perfect and blissful for ever. Thus can he utterly renounce to the supramental Shakti his works as well as the fruits of his works and act only as the conscious instrument of the eternal Worker. No longer giving the sanction, he will rather receive in his instruments and follow in her hands a divine mandate. No longer doing works, he will accept their execution through him by her unsleeping Force. No longer willing the fulfilment of his own mental constructions and the satisfaction of his own emotional desires, he will obey and participate in an omnipotent Will that is also an omniscient Knowledge and a mysterious, magical and unfathomable Love and a vast bottomless sea of the eternal Bliss of Existence.’⁵⁸ 14) The traditional Karma Yoga is used like other paths, to lead to liberation from the phenomenal existence and a departure into the Supreme Self. But Integral Karma Yoga ⁶⁵ is not confined to this exclusive result. The object of Integral Karma Yoga is the release of the Soul from its bondage to appearances and to the reaction of phenomenal activities. The end of the path may be, equally, a perception of the Divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities, and a free and unegoistic participation of the Soul in the cosmic action. So, following it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the divine level, its Psychicisation, Spiritualisation, Universalisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards purification, freedom, power, ananda, transformation of Nature and perfection in the human being. Even the smallest action is utilised as means of largest development by activation of dynamic Supreme Self. ("Its presence made the smallest seem divine." Savitri-305) 15) The Purusha-Prakriti realisation is of the first utility to the seeker in the Way of Works; for it is the separation of the conscient being and the Energy and the subjection of the being to the mechanism of the Energy that are the efficient cause of our ignorance and imperfection; by this realisation the Psychic being can liberate itself from the mechanical action of the Nature and become free and arrive at a first Spiritual control over the Nature. (“His commonest doings welled from an inner Light.” Savitri-44) Ishwara-Shakti stands behind the relation of the Purusha-Prakriti and its ignorant action and turns it to an evolutionary purpose in Knowledge. The Ishwara-Shakti realisation can bring participation in a higher dynamism and a divine working and a total unity and harmony of the Spiritual being in a Spiritual nature. (“The Immobile stands behind each daily act" Savitri-662, "And every act became an act of God.” Savitri-529) The Brahman-Maya union in the Supramental plane is the highest achievement of an integral Karma Yogi, where he experiences complete union of the dual aspects of Divine and the descent of the Divine Truth will ‘illumine, deliver and act sovereignly on the world of ignorance.’³¹ (“It (Supramental energy) moves events by its bare silent will, Acts at a distance without hands or feet.” Savitri-85,) 16) Sarva dharman paritejya mam ekam saranam braja. (The Gita-18.66) Abandon all laws of mind, life and body and take refuge in My supreme Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Being alone. The Gita’s supreme message to a Karma Yogi is that he should leave all conventional formulas of mechanised and desire driven action, all fixed, constructed and external rules of conduct, dharmas , and take refuge in the Divine Will alone. ‘The Gita at its cryptic close may seem by its silence to stop short of that solution for which we are seeking; it pauses at the borders of the highest spiritual mind and does not cross them into the splendours of the Supramental Light. And yet its secret of dynamic, and not only static, identity with the inner Presence, its highest mystery of absolute surrender to the Divine Guide, Lord and Inhabitant of our nature, is the central secret. This surrender is the indispensable means of the Supramental change and, again, it is through the Supramental change that the dynamic identity becomes possible…’²⁸ Transformation of Nature is linked with constant dynamic Divine union. “All our nature must make an integral surrender; it must offer itself in every part and every movement to that which seems to the unregenerated sense-mind so much less real than the material world and its objects. Our whole being – soul, mind, sense, heart, will, life, body – must consecrate all its energies so entirely and in such a way that it shall become a fit vehicle for the Divine.”³⁴ ‘This total consecration and surrender and this resultant entire transformation and free transmission make up the whole fundamental means and the ultimate aim of an integral Karmayoga .’²⁹ 17) Action is the result of energy and the consciousness force of the Spirit, which manifests itself in many kinds of energies, resulting in manifold experience and many-sided action. An energy of seeking of truth and knowledge must have natural outcome of growth into truth and increase in knowledge; an energy of pursuit of beauty should have as its outcome an increase in the sense of beauty, the enjoyment of beauty, beauty and harmony of life and nature; a pursuit of physical health, strength and capacity must create the strong man and successful athlete; an energy put forward for power and other vital ends must lead to an increase of capacity for commanding these results or development of vital strength and plentitude; nature rewards brave and strong with victory in the battle; rewards capable intellect and earnest seeker with the knowledge; there are inner activities of mind and life, pursuit of love, joy, happiness and life enlargement. All these varieties of work are necessary for the action of the Spirit in life. "Not only liberation but perfection must be the aim of the Karmayoga . The Divine works through our nature and according to our nature; if our nature is imperfect, the work also will be imperfect, mixed, inadequate. Even it may be marred by gross errors, falsehoods, moral 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 of Purusha separated from Prakriti, this dynamic imperfection might not matter. Calm, untroubled, not depressed, not elated, refusing to accept the perfection or imperfection, fault or merit, sin or virtue as ours, perceiving that it is the modes of Nature working in the field of her modes that make this mixture, we could withdraw into the silence of the spirit and, pure, untouched, witness only the workings of Prakriti. But in an integral realisation this can only be a step on the way, not our last resting-place. For we aim at the divine realisation not only in the immobility of the Spirit, but also in the movement of Nature. And this cannot be altogether until we can feel the presence and power of the Divine in every step, motion, figure of our activities, in every turn of our will, in every thought, feeling and impulse."³⁰ 18) From the point of view of Infinite truth, it would be an error to insist either on the sameness of work under all circumstances or on the diversity of action without any unifying truth and harmony. The greater cosmic truth insists on the unity of action and the infinitely plastic yet harmonious diversity of all action. Or the Divine Shakti acts according to a permanent and yet plastic truth of things and each action is moved by a higher, deeper and subtler truth demanded by the supreme Will in the universe. The highest triple action identified in integral Karma Yoga is that firstly, the Spiritual reason is broadened, heightened and lifted to greater formulative action of Self that is within and around us; secondly , there is a higher interpretative Supramental action which is less insistent on actualities of existence but more concerned with greater potentialities in time and space and beyond and lastly, there is highest knowledge by identity which is a door of entrance to the essential self-awareness and the Omniscience and Omnipotence of the Supreme. Their action would be a free manifestation of the power and workings of the root Force of existence, the force of an all-determining conscious Spirit whose formulations of descending Consciousness work out inevitably in the untransformed mind, life and matter. OM TAT SAT References: 1: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-247-48, 2: “The action of the three gunas is the subject-matter of the Veda ; but do thou become free from the triple guna , O Arjuna ; without the dualities, ever based in the true being, without getting or having, possessed of the self.” The Gita-2.45, 3: The Gita-9.26, 27, 28, 29, 4: The Gita-17.24, 5: The Gita-17.27, 6: The Gita-18.56, 7: The Gita-2.47, 48, 8: The Gita-2.51, 9: The Gita-11.55, 10: The Gita-3.27, 11: “The embodied soul perfectly controlling its nature, having renounced all its actions by the mind (inwardly, not outwardly), sits serenely in its nine-gated city neither doing nor causing to be done.” The Gita-5.13, In the Bhagavad Gita, the body is metaphorically described as a city with nine gates. Let’s explore this profound analogy: 1. Two Eyes: These serve as the gates of perception, allowing us to see the external world. 2. Two Nostrils: The gates for breathing, intake of prana (life force), and connection to the environment. 3. Two Ears: Channels for hearing sounds, vibrations, and communication. 4. Mouth: The gateway for speech, nourishment, and expression. 5. Anus: The exit gate for waste elimination. 6. Genitals: The gate associated with reproduction and continuation of life. The soul, like a king, resides in this city of the body. The ego, intellect, mind, senses, and life-energy serve as ministers, governing its administration. The enlightened yogis, however, recognize that they are not the body or its doers. They remain detached observers, understanding that all actions belong to God. Thus, they reside happily in this city of nine gates, free from the illusion of personal agency. This analogy echoes the Śhwetāśhvatar Upaniṣhad, which states: "The body consists of nine gates—two ears, one mouth, two nostrils, two eyes, anus, and genitals. Within this body also sits the Supreme Lord, who is the controller of all living beings in the world. When the soul establishes its connection with the Lord, it becomes free like Him, even while residing in the body.” In summary, the embodied soul is neither the doer nor the cause of anything; it is the eternal observer within the city of nine gates. 12: The Gita-16.18, 13: The Gita-18.53, 14: The Gita-18.58, 15: The Gita-18.59, 60, 16: The Gita-5.8, 9, 17: The Gita-5.14, 18: The Gita-13.30, 19: The Gita-14.19, 20: The Gita-18.17, 21: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-453, 22: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-243, 23: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-185, 24: The Gita-5.10, 11, 12, 25: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-329, 26: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-331, 27: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-700-01, 28: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-94-95, 29: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-92, 30: "Not only liberation but perfection must be the aim of the Karmayoga . The Divine works through our nature and according to our nature; if our nature is imperfect, the work also will be imperfect, mixed, inadequate. Even it may be marred by gross errors, falsehoods, moral 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 of Purusha separated from Prakriti, this dynamic imperfection might not matter. Calm, untroubled, not depressed, not elated, refusing to accept the perfection or imperfection, fault or merit, sin or virtue as ours, perceiving that it is the modes of Nature working in the field of her modes that make this mixture, we could withdraw into the silence of the spirit and, pure, untouched, witness only the workings of Prakriti. But in an integral realisation this can only be a step on the way, not our last resting-place. For we aim at the divine realisation not only in the immobility of the Spirit, but also in the movement of Nature. And this cannot be altogether until we can feel the presence and power of the Divine in every step, motion, figure of our activities, in every turn of our will, in every thought, feeling and impulse. No doubt, we can feel that in essence even in the nature of the Ignorance, but it is the divine Power and Presence in a disguise, a diminution, an inferior figure. Ours is a greater demand, that our nature shall be a power of the Divine in the Truth of the Divine, in the Light, in the force of the eternal self-conscient Will, in the wideness of the sempiternal Knowledge." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-251-252, 31: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-125-126, 32: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-723, 33: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-175, 34: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-72, 35: "Having abandoned all attachment to the fruits of his works, ever satisfied without any kind of dependence, he does nothing though (through his nature) he engages in action." The Gita-4.20, 36: The Gita-12.16, 14.25, 37: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-143, 38: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-133, 39: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-498, 40: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-136, 41: “Her mind, a sea of white sincerity.” Savitri-15, “A mind delivered from all twilight thoughts,” Savitri-638, “Her consciousness grew aware of him (Satyavan) alone” Savitri-410, “Apart with love she lived for love alone.” Savitri-468, “Her aim, joy, origin, Satyavan alone.” Savitri-579, 42: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-102, 43: The Gita-12.9, 10, 11, 12, 44: The Gita-18.10, 11, 45: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-113, 46: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-762, 47: “Better indeed is knowledge than practice, than knowledge, meditation is better; than meditation, renunciation of the fruit of action, on renunciation follows peace.” The Gita-12.12, 48: “That is all right in the ordinary karmayog a which aims at union with the cosmic Spirit and stops short at the Overmind — but here (in integral Yoga) a special work has to be done and a new realisation achieved for the earth and not for ourselves alone. It is necessary to stand apart from the rest of the world so as to separate ourselves from the ordinary consciousness in order to bring down a new one.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram- 812-813, “The Gita at its cryptic close may seem by its silence to stop short of that solution for which we are seeking; it pauses at the borders of the highest spiritual mind and does not cross them into the splendours of the supramental Light. ” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-94-95, 49: “For when questioned by Arjuna on the difference between the outer and inner renunciation, sannyasa and tyaga, Krishna insists that these three things ought not to be renounced at all but ought altogether to be done, for they are the work before us, kartavyam karma , and they purify the wise. In other words these acts constitute the means of our perfection.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-484, “Even these actions (sacrifice, giving and askesis) certainly ought to be done, O Partha, leaving aside attachment and fruit.” The Gita-18.6, 50: TMCW-8/The Questions and Answers-1956/p-299, 51: TMCW-8/The Questions and Answers-1956/p-324, 52: “At that time I didn’t know the text of the Gita. I had not read it completely yet, you see... (some words inaudible here)... not this verse which I translate in my own way: “And detached from all fruit of action, act.” It is not like this, but still that’s what it means. This I did not know, but I said exactly what is said in the Gita.” The Mother/TMCW-7/The Questions and Answers-1955/p-392-393, 53: The Mother’s Agenda-20.11.1962, 54: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-792, 55: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-786, 56: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-676, 57: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-181, 58: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-231, 59: TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-214, 60: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-105, 61: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-222, 62: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-179-181, 184, 186, 63: "Action in the world is given us first as a means for our self-development and self-fulfilment; but even if we reached a last possible divine self-completeness, it (work) would still remain as a means for the fulfilment of the divine intention in the world and of the larger universal self of which each being is a portion—a portion that has come down with it from the Transcendence." (SABCL-20/253) CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-265, 64: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-222, 65: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-39-40, 66: "You know, I do not believe in external decisions. I simply believe in one thing only: the force of the Consciousness which is making a pressure like that (crushing gesture). And the pressure goes on increasing... which means that it will sift out the people. I believe only in that — the pressure of the Consciousness. All the rest are things that men do. They do them more or less well, and then it lives, and then it dies, and then it changes, and then it gets distorted, and then... everything they have done. It is not worth the trouble. The power of execution must come from above, like that, imperative (gesture of descent)! And for that, this (Mother points to her forehead), this must keep quiet. Not to say, “Oh, that must not be, oh! this must be, oh! we ought to do...” Peace, peace, peace. He knows better than you do what is needed." TMCW/Vol-13/Words of the Mother-I/p-308-309 Download this WEB PAGE in PDF format: Six signs of Divine Worker: A Divine Worker can be known from six signs. Those who want to serve the Divine must develop these six qualities: First sign of the Divine Worker: “The Divine is the lord of his works, he is only their channel through the instrumentality of his nature conscious of and subject to her Lord. By the flaming intensity and purity of this knowledge all his works are burned up as in a fire and his mind remains without any stain or disfiguring mark from them, calm, silent, unperturbed, white and clean and pure. To do all in this liberating knowledge, without the personal egoism of the doer, is the first sign of the divine worker.”⁶² Second sign of the Divine Worker: “The second sign is freedom from desire; for where there is not the personal egoism of the doer, desire becomes impossible; it is starved out, sinks for want of a support, dies of inanition. Outwardly the liberated man seems to undertake works of all kinds like other men, on a larger scale perhaps with a more powerful will and driving-force, for the might of the divine will works in his active nature; but from all his inceptions and undertakings the inferior concept and nether will of desire is entirely banished, sarve samarambhah kamasankalpavarjitah. (The Gita-4.19) He has abandoned all attachment to the fruits of his works, and where one does not work for the fruit, but solely as an impersonal instrument of the Master of works, desire can find no place, — not even the desire to serve successfully, for the fruit is the Lord’s and determined by him and not by the personal will and effort, or to serve with credit and to the Master’s satisfaction, for the real doer is the Lord himself and all glory belongs to a form of his Shakti missioned in the nature and not to the limited human personality. The human mind and soul of the liberated man does nothing, na kinchit karoti; (The Gita-4.20) even though through his nature he engages in action, it is the Nature, the executive Shakti , it is the conscious Goddess governed by the divine Inhabitant who does the work.”⁶² Third sign of the Divine Worker: “For sin consists not at all in the outward deed, but in an impure reaction of the personal will, mind and heart which accompanies it or causes it; the impersonal, the spiritual is always pure, apapaviddham, (Isha Upanishad-8) and gives to all that it does its own inalienable purity. This spiritual impersonality is a third sign of the divine worker. All human souls, indeed, who have attained to a certain greatness and largeness are conscious of an impersonal Force or Love or Will and Knowledge working through them, but they are not free from egoistic reactions, sometimes violent enough, of their human personality. But this freedom the liberated soul has attained; for he has cast his personality into the impersonal, where it is no longer his, but is taken up by the divine Person, the Purushottama, who uses all finite qualities infinitely and freely and is bound by none. He has become a soul and ceased to be a sum of natural qualities; and such appearance of personality as remains for the operations of Nature, is something unbound, large, flexible, universal; it is a free mould for the Infinite, it is a living mask of the Purushottama .”⁶² Fourth sign of the Divine Worker: “The result of this knowledge, this desirelessness and this impersonality is a perfect equality in the soul and the nature. Equality is the fourth sign of the divine worker. He has, says the Gita , passed beyond the dualities; he is dvandvatıta . (The Gita-4.22) We have seen that he regards with equal eyes, without any disturbance of feeling, failure and success, victory and defeat; but not only these, all dualities are in him surpassed and reconciled. The outward distinctions by which men determine their psychological attitude towards the happenings of the world, have for him only a subordinate and instrumental meaning. He does not ignore them, but he is above them. Good happening and evil happening, so all-important to the human soul subject to desire, are to the desireless divine soul equally welcome since by their mingled strand are worked out the developing forms of the eternal good.”⁶² Fifth sign of the Divine Worker: “Again, the sign of the divine worker is that which is central to the divine consciousness itself, a perfect inner joy and peace which depends upon nothing in the world for its source or its continuance; it is innate, it is the very stuff of the soul’s consciousness, it is the very nature of divine being. The ordinary man depends upon outward things for his happiness; therefore he has desire; therefore he has anger and passion, pleasure and pain, joy and grief; therefore he measures all things in the balance of good fortune and evil fortune. None of these things can affect the divine soul; it is ever satisfied without any kind of dependence, nitya-trupto nirasrayah;(The Gita-4.20) for its delight, its divine ease, its happiness, its glad light are eternal within, ingrained in itself, atma-ratih, antah sukhontararamas tathantarjyotir eva yah. (The Gita-5.24)”⁶² Sixth sign of the Divine Worker: “He (a Sadhak) himself, safe in the immutable, unmodified soul, is beyond the grip of the three gunas, trigunatita; he is neither sattwic, rajasic nor tamasic ; he sees with a clear untroubled spirit the alternations of the natural modes and qualities in his action, their rhythmic play of light and happiness, activity and force, rest and inertia. This superiority of the calm soul observing its action but not involved in it, this trigunatitya, is also a high sign of the divine worker. By itself the idea might lead to a doctrine of the mechanical determinism of Nature and the perfect aloofness and irresponsibility of the soul; but the Gita effectively avoids this fault of an insufficient thought by its illumining supertheistic idea of the Purushottama . It makes it clear that it is not in the end Nature which mechanically determines its own action; it is the will of the Supreme which inspires her; he who has already slain the Dhritarashtrians, he of whom Arjuna is only the human instrument, a universal Soul, a transcendent Godhead is the master of her labour. The reposing of works in the Impersonal is a means of getting rid of the personal egoism of the doer, but the end is to give up all our actions to that great Lord of all, sarva-loka-mahesvara .(The Gita-5.29)”⁶²

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