. 1 c c everything-from death and illness to the THE YOGA OF spiritual life-as she moves steadily forward SELF-PERFECTION to bring “something else” into manifes- Sri Aurobindo tation. Her Agenda is indeed a “force in action,” and to read it is to be part of her overwhelming stride through the world. It is a radioactive, or perhaps better, The principle in view is a self-surrender, This outflowering has its two terms; “Shaktiactive ,” work. That it has now be- I giving up of the human being into the first, comes the growth out of the sep- gun to appear in America is not insignifi- reing, consciousness, power, delight of arative human ego into the unity of the cant given the role both Sri Aurobindo and he Divine, a union or communion at all spirit, then the possession of the divine the Mother said America has to play in the he points of meeting in the soul of man, nature in its proper and its higher forms evolution. he mental being, by which the Divine him- and no longer in the inferior forms of the Many of the pieces we have chosen for elf, directly and without veil master and mental being which are a mutilated trans- this issue of Collaboration touch upon )ossessor of the instrument, shall by the lation and not the authentic text of the ori- the great “yoga of self-perfection” which ight of his presence and guidance perfect ginal script of divine Nature in the cosmic Sri Aurobindo outlined in his Synthesis of he human being in all the forces of the individual. In other words, a perfection has Yoga and Mother undertook to live out in rlature for a divine living. Here we arrive to be aimed at which amounts to the eleva- her life. We have also included an extract It a farther enlargement of the objects of tion of the mental into the full spiritual from the first volume of her Agenda he Yoga. The common initial purpose of and supramental nature. Therefore this which gives some hint of the extraordinary 111 Yoga is the liberation of the soul of man integral Yoga of knowledge, love and “inner life” she had as well as something of iom its present natural ignorance and limi- works has to be extended into a Yoga of her nature in this embodiment. Also in- ation, its release into spiritual being, its spiritual and gnostic self-perfection. As cluded are an interview with Satprem mion with the highest self and Divinity. gnostic knowledge, will and Ananda are a which also reveals something of the Mother ht ordinarily this is made not only the direct instrumentation of spirit and can and her working, and Nolini’s “Great nitial but the whole and final object: en- only be won by growing into the spirit, Holocaust ,” which has appeared in these oyment of spiritual being there is, but into divine being, this growth has to be pages previously but which seems to be tither in a dissolution of the human and the first aim of our Yoga. The mental apropos now too. ndividual into the silence of self-being or being has to enlarge itself into the one- We are beginning also to publish ex- m a higher plane in another existence. The ness of the Divine before the Divine will tracts from a diary kept by a disciple which l’antric system makes liberation the final, perfect in the soul of the individual its throw some light on a particular phase in )ut not the only aim; it takes on its way a gnostic outflowering. That is the reason the history of the Ashram as well as on ‘ull perfection and enjoyment of the spiri- why the triple way of knowledge, works how one sadhak at least was caught “be- :ual power, light and joy in the human and love becomes the keynote of the whole tween two worlds.” zxistence, and even it has a glimpse of a Yoga, for that is the direct means for the Readers are invited to submit material ;upreme experience in which liberation and soul in mind to rise to its highest intensi- for Collaboration. We are interested in :osmic action and enjoyment are unified ties where it passes upward into the divine poetry and nonfiction, particularly articles m a final overcoming of all oppositions and oneness. That too is the reason why the or “reflections” on Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga, dissonances. It is this wider view of our Yoga must be integral. For if immergence etc. rpiritual potentialities from which we in the Infinite or some close union with the begin, but we add another stress which Divine were all our aim, an integral Yoga brings in a completer significance. We re- would be superfluous, except for such CONTENTS gard the spirit in man not as solely an in- dividual being traveling to a transcendent The Yoga of Self-Perfection, unity with the Divine, but as a universal Colkzboration (ISSN 0164-1522) is Sri Aurobindo being capable of oneness with the Divine in published quarterly by Matagiri Sri Auro- Self-Perfection, The Mother all souls and all Nature and we give this ex- bindo Center, Inc., Mt. Tremper, NY The Mother’s Nights and Her 4 tended view its entire practical conse- 12457, a nonprofit, tax-exempt organi- zation. @ 1981 by Matagiri Sri Aurobindo “Censor,” The Mother quence. The human soul’s individual liber- 5 Center, Inc. All passages from the works Notes on the Way (4), The Mother ation and enjoyment of union with the of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are Interview with Satprem 7 Divine in spiritual being, consciousness copyrighted by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram The Great Holocaust, 10 and delight must always be the first object unless otherwise noted and are used here Nolini Kanta Gupta of the Yoga; its free enjoyment of the cos- with the kind permission of the Ashram. Between Two Worlds, Dick Batstone -10 mic unity of the Divine becomes a second A one-year subscription is $5.00; air- Expressions of Auroville object; but out of that a third appears, the mail abroad is $10.00 a year. All foreign Mother on Auroville ~12 effectuation of the meaning of the divine subscriptions should be paid for with a Progress (6) 12 unity with all beings by a sympathy and U.S. dollar draft on a New York bank or News of Auroville 16 participation in the spiritual purpose of an International Money Order. Some back 16 issues are available at $.50 each. Development of Alternative the Divine in humanity. The individual Larger contributions, all taxdeducti- Energy, Pierre LeGrand Yoga then turns from its separateness and ble, are welcome for the work of the cen- The Dreamer and the Materialist, -18 becomes a part of the collective Yoga of ter. In addition, contributions for the Sri Pierre LeGrand the divine Nature in the human race. Aurobindo Ashram and for’AurovilIe may General and Center News ~19 The liberated individual being, united with be made through Matagiri Sri Aurobindo The Task (poem), 19 the Divine in self and spirit, becomes in Center, Inc. Gordon Korstange his natural being a self-perfecting instru- Printed in the United States of Aphelion (poem), 19 ment for the perfect outflowering of the America. Gordon Korstange Divine in humanity. 2 greater satisfaction of the being of man as SELF-PERFECTION we may get by a self-lifting of the whole of The MO ther it towards its Source. But it would not be needed for the essential aim, since by any single power of the soul-nature we can Disciple: “To know oneself is to control It is never too soon to begin, never too meet with the Divine; each at its height oneself”: What does it mean? late to continue. That is to say, even when rises up into the infinite and absolute, each Mother: This means to be conscious of you are quite young, you can begin to therefore offers a sufficient way of arrival, one’s inner truth, conscious of the dif- study yourself and to know yourself and for all the hundred separate paths meet in ferent parts of one’s being and of their little by little to control yourself. And the Eternal. But the gnostic being is a com- respective working. One must know why even when you are what people call “old,” plete enjoyment and possession of the one does this, why one does that; one must when old many many years, it is not too whole divine and spiritual nature; and it is know one’s thoughts, know one’s feelings, late to make the effort to know yourself a complete lifting of the whole nature of know all one’s activities, all one’s move- better and better and to control yourself man into its power of a divine and spiritual movements, what one is capable of, etc. better and better. That is the science of existence. Integrality becomes then an And to know oneself is not sufficient; this living. essential condition of this yoga . knowledge must lead to conscious control. To perfect yourself, you must first of ***** To know oneself perfectly means to con- all become conscious of yourself. I am trol oneself perfectly. sure, for example, that the following inci- But one must have an aspiration every dent must have happened to you many A divine perfection of the human being moment of one’s life. times in your life. All of a sudden someone is our aim. We must know then, first, what asks you, “Why have you done that?” Well, are the essential elements that constitute religious aim, on the contrary, fixes before the spontaneous answer is “I do not man’s total perfection; secondly, what we it the self-preparation for another exis- know.” If someone asks you, “What were mean by a divine as distinguished from a tence after death, its commonest ideal is you thinking about?” you answer, “I do human perfection of our being.