“But the difficulty is to find the “some one” who knows Sri Aurobindo thoroughly…(and subsequently) who is capable of receiving His inspirations directly…capable of understanding Sri Aurobindo’s inspiration and transmitting it…and has at the same time very strong character… (and if possible) to have His genius… For years I have been looking for that man, without finding him.”
The Mother
The Mother’s Agenda-8/175, The Mother’s Agenda-2/206,
“If you really want to please Me (I believe you do!),… concentrate on the book on Sri Aurobindo—you can’t imagine how much I am interested! And as I LOOK, I see into the future (not with this little consciousness), I see that it’s a thing of GREAT importance. It will have a great action. So, I want to clear the way for you now, for us to have time.” The Mother
The Mother’s Agenda-2/156
"As for reading the works of Sri Aurobindo, it opens the door of the future to us.”
The Mother
TMCW-12/On Education/p-214
Integral Yoga in Brief
“For in a Yoga which embraces all life completely and without reserve, the full use of Samadhi comes only when its gains can be made the normal possession and experience for an integral waking of the embodied soul in the human being.”
Sri Aurobindo
CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-p-526-527
“The reason is that the old Yogins when they went above the spiritual mind passed into samadhi, which means that they did not attempt to be conscious in these higher planes — their aim being to pass away into the Superconscient and not to bring the Superconscient into the waking consciousness, which is that of my Yoga.”
Sri Aurobindo
CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram-p-286
Integral Yoga begins after the opening of either of Psychic being in the heart centre or a Spiritual being above the head through the double movement of rigorous Self-control by the rejection of lower Nature and complete surrender by Purusha and Prakriti Yajna. The Spiritual being opens first by Vedantic Sacrifice of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga by pacification of volitional, intellectual and emotional mind respectively and after the Spiritual being is opened, by its descent as Shakti, the Psychic being opens. The Psychic being opens first by Vedic sacrifice of Tantra, Hatha and Raja Yoga by activation of the mind or by Psycho physical means and after the Psychic being is opened, by its ascent the Spiritual being opens.
Integral Yoga identifies that Vedantic sacrifice/Purusha Yajna is safe for beginners of Yoga/developing Souls and Vedic sacrifice/Prakriti Yajna is safe for those who have pursued Yoga rigorously in past births or for developed Souls who live in waking trance.
In integral Yoga, Consciousness is moved between Psychic and Spiritual planes by activating both Purusha and Prakriti Yajna and by this movement the gulfs in the intermediate plane of consciousness are rent and a passage is made by which the highest Consciousness can move freely between Bliss/Supramental Self and Inconscient/Subconscient Self. In this Yoga ten sheaths or Koshas are purified, transformed and perfected by the pressure of ten Selves known as Inconscient, Subconscient, true physical, true vital, true mental, Psychic, Spiritual, Universal, Supramental and Bliss Self. This Yoga asks the waking mind/Intellect to be entirely Spiritualised and even in the waking state ‘the enlarging man is able to live in his several subtle bodies as well as in his physical body, to be aware of them and in them, to use their senses, faculties, powers, to dwell in possession of supraphysical truth, consciousness and experience.’³³
In integral Yoga all the ten Selves or the Divine contained in all the ten Sheaths are dynamised, and all these Divine Selves act on the respective sheaths or higher sheaths on the lower sheaths or lower Selves on the higher sheaths; bring the required purification and transformation and build each sheath to the extent of Their full perfection. With the progress of this experience, one meets the Divine from all ends capturing all the sheaths of the body and this experience can be repeated till It becomes constant and established. This descent of Divine Force from four higher Selves above the head to six lower Sheaths below the head and ‘the emergence of the concealed supramental force’³² in all the ten Selves are the normal state of the greatest integral Yogi, yoginam api sarvesam,¹⁴ and the highest secret, rahasyam uttamam,¹⁵ manifested in normal human life.
In this Spiritual endeavour, the discovery of the Inconscient Self is identified as one of the last flaming bursts of Divinities and the most profound Spiritual experiences of the perfect rhythm of illumining Matter’s depth, ‘the grand solution’³⁴ in which the height of mortal effort ends and it is the waking of matter’s great Serpent Power ‘For large utilities in life’s little space’³⁵ or opening of Inconscient Self is identified as ‘last and mightiest transformation.’³⁶ The opening of the Inconscient Self will break the Inconscient sheath’s blind mute wall of Ignorance and each part of the Being and the surrounding sheath or every limb and cell receive Divine Mother’s Delightful touch to remake our life and feel her helping hand in every circumstance. The discovery of the Subconscient Self through difficulty and pain is identified as another important achievement for dismantling and illumining an obscure sheath ‘whose priceless value could have saved the world.’³⁷ Silencing the mind, vital and body paves the passage clear towards the vast domain of subtle mental, subtle vital and subtle physical oceans and in its heart, there is a true mental being, true vital being, true physical being, and subsequently in this journey in the innermost domain the Psychic sheath and Psychic being are unveiled. Psychic being unveils the passage towards the discovery of still higher selves of Spiritual, Universal, Supramental and Bliss Self. Still, there are other sequences through which these Selves can be activated and dynamised. The discovery of the Supramental Self directs the Truth-Light to ‘strike earth’s massive roots of trance’³⁸ of the Subconscient and Inconscient oceans and wake their respective Selves. Thus, dynamisation of the ten Selves and the purification, transformation and perfection of the ten respective Sheaths are part of Savitri’s Individual, Universal and Transcendental Divine action. Then, one no longer depends on intervention from above for transformation action of surface mind, life and body but it will also take place more vigorously from within the ten Selves and most vigorously from below the feet by opening of Subconscient and Inconscient Selves.
Yogic trance is the aim of most traditional Yoga which is an escape from waking existence into higher/highest Consciousness, but in integral Yoga, Yogic trance is a means, not an aim, of enlarging and raising the whole seeing and living into active and waking consciousness. The double utility of trance in integral Yoga is that (1) through entry into Samadhi, Spiritual experiences can be heightened in their range and intensities in all the above ten Selves and (2) the height of Spiritual experience attained can ‘be brought as much as possible into the waking consciousness.’³⁹ The full use and benefit of Samadhi are gained when it becomes a normally possessed movement of consciousness in a waking trance.
OM TAT SAT
References are available in the Manuscript ‘The Bhagavad Gita and Integral Yoga’ (page 344)
The Practice of Integral Yoga
Integral Yoga in Detail
“Sri Aurobindo had already realised in full two of the four great realisations on which his Yoga and his spiritual philosophy are founded. (1) The first he had gained while meditating with the Maharastrian Yogi Vishnu Bhaskar Lele at Boroda in 1908; it was the realisation of the silent spaceless and timeless Brahman gained after a complete and abiding stillness of the whole consciousness and attended at first by an overwhelming feeling and perception of the total unreality of the world, though this feeling was disappeared after his (2) second realization which was that of the cosmic consciousness and of the Divine as all beings and all that is, which happened in the Allipore jail and of which he has spoken in his speech at Uttarapara. To the other two realisations, (3) that of the supreme Reality with the static and dynamic Brahman as its two aspects and (4) that of the higher planes of consciousness leading to the Supermind he was already on his way in his meditations in the Alipore jail.”
Sri Aurobindo
SABCL/Vol-26/p-64
Handbook
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Handbook of The Mother (The above six Handbooks partly fulfill The Mother's requirement that those who want to do Her work must have a thorough knowledge of Sri Aurobindo.)
Mind Map of Integral Yoga
“Meanwhile certain general lines have to be formed which may help to guide the thought and practice of the sadhaka. But these must take as much as possible the form of general truths, general statements of principle, the most powerful broad directions of effort and development rather than a fixed system which has to be followed as a routine. All Shastra is the outcome of past experience and a help to future experience. It is an aid and a partial guide. It puts up signposts, gives the names of the main roads and the already explored directions, so that the traveller may know whither and by what paths he is proceeding."
Sri Aurobindo
CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-57
“Who can understand Sri Aurobindo? He is as vast as the universe and his teaching is infinite...The only way to come a little close to him is to love him sincerely and give oneself unreservedly to his work. Thus, each one does his best and contributes as much as he can to that transformation of the world which Sri Aurobindo has predicted.”
The Mother
TMCW-12/On Education/p-397, 2 December 1964