The Call in Brief

            Arjuna of the Gita was given a task and he received a seven-fold Divine Call, in order to ascend in the stairs of Divine Consciousness. And the Lord demanded from him 'nothing more in life than his instrument'⁷⁶ through 'subordination and service,'⁷⁷ nimittamatram bhava savyasachin. We are here in this earth only to perfect the instrumental relation with the Divine by renouncing all forms of desire and personal will.

 

1.   In the preliminary stage of his Sadhana, Arjuna’s tamasic recoil from the terrible action of war field or Spiritual fall in the form of tamasic devotee, arta, by the declaration ‘better the life of the beggar than to taste these blood-stained enjoyments’⁴³ and entry into dejection, fear, aversion, disgust and discouragement are much more injurious and destructive than the rajasic principles of strife, struggle and dissociation. A weak and cowardly tamasic shudra devotee, arta, cannot climb towards God, but by service and obedience  can pacify his problem of lower nature or 'tame the brute in his being.'⁶⁹ "Arjuna’s abstention (from the war field) would work a much greater sin and evil: it would mean, if it had any effect at all, the triumph of wrong and injustice and the rejection of his own mission as an instrument of the divine workings."⁸³ "At its base is the law or dharma of inertia: the tamasic man inertly obeys in a customary mechanical action the suggestions and impulses, the round of will of his material and his half-intellectualised vital and sensational nature."⁸²

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2.   So, the Lord discourages the tendency of outer renunciation of life and action or saintly inactivity and insists Arjuna to ascend from the state of tamasic devotee, arta, to rajasic devotee, artharthi, by activation of the Kshatriya Soul force and asks inner renunciation of attachment by slaying³ the human unenlightened Teacher Dronacharya, who represents ego and divisible Consciousness. This indicates that for a secured Spiritual life, one should constantly slay²⁵ the inner enemy of desire, ego and ignorance and in collective living he should continuously wage outer war against the powers of Adharma to establish truth and wisdom in objective life. The Gita’s jahi kamam durasadam,⁶³ ‘slay this enemy in the form of desire, who is so hard to assail’ is identified as the keyword⁶⁴ of integral Yoga. The nature of the Kshatriya Soul force is 'courage, strength, unconquerable tenacity and self-devotion to a great task.'⁶⁹ 'Every individual Jivatman must become the perfect Kshatriya before he can become the Brahmin'⁶⁹ or Sattwic devotee. "In the middle intervenes the kinetic law or dharma; the rajasic man, vital, dynamic, active, attempts to impose himself on his world and environment, but only increases the wounding weight and tyrant yoke of his turbulent passions, desires and egoisms, the burden of his restless self-will, the yoke of his rajasic nature."⁸²

3.   Then the Lord asks Arjuna to become a Sattwic devotee, jijnasu, and begin Yoga by renouncing Prakriti Yajna of active mind, which includes renunciation of all types of physical asceticism,⁷⁵ external worship, and ceremonies and insists him to pursue only Purusha Yajna of passive mind and inner askesis⁷⁵ which will establish him in the trigunatita state.⁴ Then He asks him to adore only  the  highest  embodied  Divine personality,  here  represented  by  Him  as Purushottama, and discourages him from adoring other gods which is meant to satisfy ‘various outer desires of the devotees.’⁵ So the Gita asks the above three bound Souls to become desireless and adore the One, representing the highest Consciousness and discourages though does not ban adoration of other godheads representing the distortion of the highest comprehensive Consciousness.⁶ Then the Lord points out that even the devotees who worship other Gods, their sacrifice is also received by Him though not according to the true law, avidhipurbakam.⁷ If one adores and offers sacrifice to the Divine in tamasic Ignorance, then that sacrifice goes to elemental powers and grosser spirits, pretan bhutaganam;¹⁷ if he offers adoration to the Divine in rajasic state of desire-driven consciousness, then the sacrifice goes to lower godheads and perverse powers, asuras, yaksa-raksamsi;¹⁷ if he offers adoration to the Divine concealed in His manifestation in sattwic state of desireless Consciousness by renouncing the fruit of action, then that sacrifice and service is received by partial Godhead and not directly by the integral Divinity.¹⁷ A seeker of truth, Jijnasu, by virtue of pursuing Sadhana unsuccessfully in past births, takes an interest in written truth in this birth from the early part of his life. Thus, he practices sacrifice, askesis and giving which is limited, largely egoistic (sattwic ego) and mistaken in its motive and he endeavours to go beyond the written truth. A sattwic devotee or 'the true Brahmin is samo manapamanayoh, he accepts indifferently worldly honour and dishonour and cares only for the truth and the right.'⁷⁰ The message of integral Yoga to a sattwic devotee is: 'Detect first what is false or obscure in you and persistently reject it, then alone can you rightly call for the divine Power to transform you.'⁷⁴ “The dharma of the sattwic man is the highest in the circle of the gunas; but that too is a limited view and a dwarfed standard. Its imperfect indications lead to a petty and relative perfection; temporarily satisfying to the enlightened personal ego, it is not founded either on the whole truth of the self or on the whole truth of Nature.”⁸²

4.   When Arjuna ascends to the stairs of the twice-born Soul, Dvija, the Lord further insists him to search Spiritual fosterer to receive care of his newborn Divinity and that is realised by ‘adoring the feet of the enlightened Guru’⁸ or ‘veneration of the Teacher’⁹ in order to realise the Divine as Kshara Purusha, Psychic Being in the heart and Akshara Purusha, Spiritual Being above the head. In the Gita, ‘the help of the Guru has always been relied upon as an indispensable aid.’⁵⁵ Integral Yoga proposes that the living Spiritual Teacher is a 'narrower practice'⁷⁸ and is safe and secured for beginners of integral Yoga (Dvija) and dispensable for few rare developed Souls or ‘A strict obedience to the wise and intuitive leading of a Guide is also normal and necessary for all but a few specially gifted seekers.”⁵⁰ So a Dvija has to be aware of the possibility of double evolution⁶⁰ of double consciousness,⁸⁰ one that of the evolution of external restless life and another that of the evolution of his inner silent life. By activating three Gunas or by horizontal movement of Consciousness, he will experience a slow mental evolution of external life. By pacifying the mind or by movement of Psychic Being (symbol of multiple Divine) and Spiritual being (symbol of One Divine) or vertical movement of Consciousness, he will experience swift Spiritual evolution of inner life. Thus his slow material evolution is complemented by swift Spiritual evolution and this double movement culminates in the reconciliation of perfect Spirit with imperfect Matter. A twice-born Soul's frontal nature is full of gratitude for the Divine accompanied by true happiness. 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.'⁷¹

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5.   Then, after Arjuna is established as doing all objective action in the war field by the dictation of Divine Will, he becomes the developed Soul of Instrument, Yantra. An instrument of the Divine will have neither any attachment to the fruit of works, nor any attachment to the work, nor any sense of doership of work and he will be attached only with the Divine, Majyasakta. The Lord gives him this knowledge that all concentrated objective Divine action and sacrifice must be supported by Prakriti Yajna of ceaseless Japa¹⁰ and this habit of Japa must be maintained while in action of the war field¹⁶ and also while leaving the earthly body¹¹ in deep Samadhi where one’s Soul can take final refuge in the Param Dham. Integral Yoga proposes ceaseless Japa and action in waking trance, not utilised as a passage to param Dham, but as means of Divine descent of Force and transformation of Nature. The Gita gives the example of King Janaka, a developed Soul and Divine Instrument, who had attained liberation, perfection and Cosmic Consciousness through Prakriti Yajna of ‘ceremonial sacrifice and ritualistic works done without attachment.’⁵¹ Savitri book has identified the Nature of a Divine instrument and his task in this world as:

"A breath comes down from a supernal air,

A Presence is born, a guiding Light awakes,

A stillness falls upon the instruments:

Fixed, motionless like a marble monument,

Stone-calm, the body is a pedestal

Supporting a figure of eternal Peace." Savitri-47,

"Our tasks are given, we are but instruments;

Nothing is all our own that we create: 

The Power that acts in us is not our force.

The genius too receives from some high fount

Concealed in a supernal secrecy 

The work that gives him an immortal name." Savitri-542,

            "This truth (action of Divine Will) Arjuna must be brought to see; he must learn to act impersonally, imperturbably as the instrument not of his little personal desires and weak human shrinkings, but of a vaster and more luminous Power, a greater all-wise divine and universal Will. He must act impersonally and universally in a high union of his soul with the inner and outer Godhead, yukta, in a calm Yoga with his own supreme Self and the informing Self of the universe."⁸³ 

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6.   When he ascends to the status of Emanation, Vibhuti, by universalisation of Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness and realisation of the Divine in all His becoming, the Lord further asks Arjuna to worship His manifestation in the Sun, Moon, Star, and flower, in every living creature. He has to adore the myriad Gods, Deva, superior human beings known as twice-born Dvija, a man of enlightened knowledge, Prajna, and the enlightened Teacher, Guru.¹² The Lord points out that adoration of all His manifestations equally, without distinction is the condition of becoming the greatest Yogi.²⁴ A Sadhak of integral Yoga counts all his subjective and objective Divine action as means of Divine descent of Force. Through this activation of dynamic Divine and movement of Universalised and Transcendent Consciousness, he does good of all creatures, sarvabhuta hite ratah. The Synthesis of Yoga book confirms that the emergence of a Vibhuti as a unique force of the multiple Divine is possible  ‘even in the weakest or most clouded living being.’⁸⁴  

7.   An Instrument/an Emanation must always remember that an Avatar is a special manifestation of Supreme Lord, Parameswara and he is only one Psychic centre of the multiple Divine.⁷⁹ An Avatar is born-free or His birth and action are both Divine, janma karma cha me divyam, whereas an Instrument/Emanation lives and acts in the Divine, mayi nivasisyasi,⁸⁵ mayi vartate, through constant union, yoga yukta. When Arjuna ascends to the status of Avatar Consciousness or Purushottama Consciousness through large-scale objective Divine action of Instrument and large-scale subjective Divine action of Emanation, there triple consecration through Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga becomes normal, natural and absolute. In integral Yoga, this Purushottama state of consciousness is identified as Supramental Consciousness and a Sadhak becomes ‘a child and eternal portion’⁶² of the Divine Mother and in him, the reconciliation of triple consecration gives birth to a fourth Yoga known as ‘Yoga of Self-perfection’ and there the triple poise of the Self coexists and the Psychic being, Kshara Purusha possesses the Akshara Purusha and Purushottama, in totality.

 

            Integral Yoga follows this seven-fold sequential growth of Arjuna with a more profound significance of dynamic Divine union. It stresses the adoration of the One to the exclusion of the Many for developing Souls to build a Spiritual foundation and asks the developed Souls to reconcile them in order to know and possess the Divine entirely. This adoration of superior human beings hinted in the Gita is applicable in integral Yoga for developed Soul¹³ and this adoration is even further extended to criminals, thieves, murderers and outcaste¹⁴ in order to extend the realisation of the Divine in Cosmic Consciousness. There will be even ‘certain respect’¹⁵ and reverence for physical things, a worship of the Divine, the Brahman in what one uses, ordered harmony and beauty in the life of Matter in order to complete the realisation of Divine in all things.

            Thus, as ceaseless renouncer of lower Nature, nitya sannyasi,⁴⁵ a Sadhak’s scope of consecration becomes wide²⁶ and all-pervasive. When this consecrated action becomes absolute, constant and without rest, nitya yajna,³⁸ he experiences constant Divine union, nitya yukta,³⁹ and in this ceaseless waking trance, nitya-sattvasthah,⁴⁶ he can repeat Divine’s name ceaselessly, nitya Japa⁴⁰ or remembers Divine’s name continuously, nitya smarati⁴⁴ and this is one of the ways of experiencing ceaseless Divine Grace, tat prasadat;⁵²  thus one experiences supreme peace, param shanti,⁵² supreme state of Consciousness, sthanam saswatam,⁵² and cellular transformation, prakritijairmuktam.⁴⁷ The above experience is restated in the Mother’s language: "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,...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.”⁷² “Well, this movement (gesture of a rising flame) towards That must be constant – constant, total. All the rest is none of our business, and the less we meddle with it mentally, the better. But THAT, that Flame, is indispensable. And when it goes out, light it again; when it falters, rekindle it – all the time, all the time, ALL THE TIME – when sleeping, walking, reading, moving around, speaking ... all the time. ...that is the Japa I do now—I do it all the time, while sleeping, while walking, while eating, while working, all the time.”⁵⁶ The Mother further proposes that “There is nothing other than He! This should be repeated from morning to night, from night to morning, because we forget it every minute.”⁶¹

            A Sadhak of traditional schools of Yoga initially moves his consciousness between  Kshara  Purusha  (sarvabhutani  chatmani)  and  Akshara  Purusha (sarvabhutastha chatmanam) and he can gather together the race, lokasangraha, by all possible external aids or by Psycho-physical means. After long years of movement of Consciousness between Kshara and Akshara Purusha, finally, his consciousness arrives at Purushottama Consciousness and from there he finds an exit⁴⁸ to the supreme Abode of Paramdham. Thus, he emerges as a precious distinguished World Teacher and he can wander around the world in order to uplift the human race. The Gita warns that ‘the askesis which is undertaken to get honour and worship from men, for the sake of outward glory and greatness and for ostentation is said to be rajasic tapasya, unstable and fleeting.’⁵³

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            A Sadhak of integral Yoga initially moves his consciousness between the Psychic being in the heart and the Spiritual being above the head, superseding his earlier movement of Consciousness between the three Gunas. After being established in the waking trance of the Psychic plane and the non-waking trance of the Spiritual plane, he universalises the two Selves and does the good of all creatures by inner movement of universal Consciousness. For the perfection of two Selves and perfection of untransformed Nature, he finally, after long years of preparation, ascends to the Supramental plane and Supramentalises and Spiritualises the Psychic Self. Thus, he emerges as a precious Nameless⁴⁹ World Teacher. His inner wandering of Consciousness from Inconscient Self to supreme Bliss Self can be pursued in secrecy and silence⁸¹ and he can drag the human race ahead in its destined upward journey.

            It may be noted that all-inclusive integral Yoga does not exclude the self-disciplines of traditional Yoga and all the perfections/siddhis of the latter are recognised as a sojourn of the former Yoga and for a Sadhak of integral Yoga there can be ‘no clinging to resting-places on the road or to half-way houses; he cannot be satisfied till he has laid down all the great enduring bases of his perfection and broken out into its large and free infinities, and even there he has to be constantly filling himself with more experiences of the Infinite.’⁵⁴

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            Integral Yoga asks a Sadhak to become a more and more perfect instrument of the Divine. This is followed by his becoming an instrumental pure channel to call down a vast ocean of Divine Will, Wisdom, Love, Bliss, Beauty, Peace, and Silence to earth and men through the inner movement of universal Consciousness. Then Sri Aurobindo's following declaration will take concrete shape: "I do not want hundreds of thousands of disciples. It will be enough if I can get a hundred complete men, purified of petty egoism, who will be the instruments of God.”⁸⁶ To become a faultless perfect passive instrument of the Divine action is not the only object of Integral Yoga, but one has to become 'active master of the Nature,'⁸⁷ swarat, and an active identity with the controlling Spirit, Lordship, to become master man, emperor, samrat, who can become pure vessel of descent of Divine Force and help, 'in leading the human race forward spiritually.'⁸⁸

OM TAT SAT

 

References are available in the Manuscript ‘The Bhagavad Gita and Integral Yoga’ (page 210).