Integral Karma Yoga

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

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“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

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“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

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“Its (Supreme Self's) absence left the greatest actions dull,

Its presence made the smallest seem divine.” Savitri-305 (smallest action, thought and love.)

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“A hand from some Greatness opened her heart’s locked doors

And showed the work for which her strength was born.” Savitri-375

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“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

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“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

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“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

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“Transcended now was the poor human rule;

A sovereign power was there, a godlike will.” Savitri-574

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“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.'⁶⁴ 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.

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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,’²⁵ nor his ‘work and mission, nor heaven, nor earth.’²⁵ 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 Yoga⁶⁵ 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-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 karmayoga 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,

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