Edited by S.A. Maa Krishna, Sri Matriniketan Ashram
The Hand Book-1
Of
The Synthesis of Yoga
Edited by S.A. Maa Krishna, Sri Matriniketan Ashram,
Managed by The Mother’s International Centre Trust,
Regd.No-146/24.11.97. Vill;Ramachandrapur, PO: Kukudakhandi-761100, Via:Brahmapur, Dist: Ganjam, State: Orissa, India
www.srimatriniketanashram.org
Editor’s Note
This revised and expanded hand book on Integral Yoga is offered at the lotus feet of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo on the occasion of the centenary celebration of Sri Aurobindo’s arrival at Pondicherry, 04-04-1910 to 04.04.2010, released on the Darshan Day, Their 83rd Siddhi day anniversary, 24.11.2009.
This paper partly fulfills the dynamisation of six principal injunctions as indicated by the Lord in The Gita and The Synthesis of Yoga that even a little and subsequently entire obedience to and followed by transcending of all the norms of Yoga, dharma, will save one from great danger, trayate mahatobhayat1, make him exceedingly dear devotee, atibapriya2, of the Divine and liberate him from all lower nature, sarvapapevya mokshyayisyami3, respectively; fourthly we have to synthesize the basic truth and exclusive knowledge hinted in all traditional Shastra with the comprehensive truth and all knowledge of Integral Shastra which has the capacity to liberate the individual, the collectivity and the humanity from the burden of fragmentary knowledge, realize the truth of existence in its completeness and universalize one-sided view-points into the catholicity of the all-vision of the Divine; fifthly, the written truth or the Shastra of Integral Yoga ‘must provide infinite liberty in the receptive human soul’4 towards its constant renovation, revivement and restatement by fresh in streaming of the spiritual experience and descended knowledge instead of formulating the rigidity of a strict and precise mental rule. It accommodates the fixed injunctions of ancient Vedantic Scriptures for a liberated spirit which is no more than a provisional solution for tiding over the transition from ascension of life in the world to a life in the Transcendent. The revolution attempted in Integral Yoga cannot obstruct the eternal onflow of Divine wisdom through erection of absolute standard but this can be substituted by temporary higher and higher standards as long as they are helpful to integrate the Divine call, the Divine union and the Divine transformation. The divine mechanism of conduct of an Integral Yogi is free from subjection to vital impurity, wrong impulse and desire, unbound by the rule of prescribed mental formula and spontaneously pure and sure and perfect in a greater consciousness than mind, governed in all its steps by the light and truth of the Spirit. After the Law one experiences the Liberty, after the personal, the general, the universal standards one enters the impersonal plasticity, the divine freedom, the standardless spiritual and Supramental mode of working and the unwalled wideness of the infinite Consciousness. In a Divine Government he will be identified with the individual, collectivity, humanity and the Divine only through the divine Consciousness without subjection to the mental standard. And lastly we must be aware of the injunction issued in Integral Shastra that ‘object of the integral Yoga must be accepted wholly by those who follow it’4. And this ‘entire definition of the aim of integral Yoga’4 does not exclude the entire knowledge on its method and the entire awareness of possible danger and distraction of this path leading to the success in Yoga.
The practice of this Yoga proceeds through two alternative periods of (1) unillumined soul season of preparation through the method of abstraction of lower knowledge of mind of approaching God indirectly or through personal effort of movement of purification, concentration and identity with a heart free from despondency by renouncing the whole formation of past and present association which makes up the ordinary material and mental man and (2) illumined soul season of progress through method of Integral Yoga uncovering the swift and concentrated sunlit or psychic and golden or spiritual path which approaches God directly, identifies our inner being with the Reality. Our egoistic dwelling in Ignorance, approach everything by a broken, partial and personal standard of knowledge and limited consciousness and are unable to give a Divine response or set the true value upon any part of the cosmic experience. In cosmic Consciousness we begin to participate in the all-vision and understand and recognize that all things, events, happenings are the becoming of the one Self and necessary links in carrying out universal movement leading towards a divine victory and even the most diverse or contradictory things point at some truth in this infinity. The child soul or infant soul or its raw adolescence cries, condemns, revolts against suffering, failure and incapacity and exhibits its violence against the Master of the Being and marches ahead stumblingly in the decreed Divine development by turning its door of consciousness outward into appearances of things. The rare ripened soul is supremely balanced, seeks to understand and master all things with an equal calm, accepts or toils to improve and perfect, labours to obey and fulfill and transfigure, turns its consciousness inward, sees the Self and attains to Immortality. He is not angry, troubled, impatient, excited, over-eager with the way of thing, sees and guards that the norms of Yoga must be obeyed and the pace of time respected, remains unshaken by acutest sorrow, suffering and pain and can still open himself towards intensest delight, love and beauty. This Gnostic soul is a king-child, through his eternal child-hood he plays and enjoys untiringly his world-toy in the miraculous eternal gardens of Consciousness. A highly gifted integrated soul can easily dynamise Supramental Will, Knowledge, Love, Speech and Writing after the physical consciousness and physical organs enter long training of purification and perfection and are made receptive and ready towards Supramental change. The revolvings of the great wheel of doom can bring to him no sense of fear and terror and he rises above it in his soul and knows from above their divine law and their divine purpose. An integral Yogi accomplishes his action as a boundless infinite consciousness beyond the division and limitation of mind and body and he has no mansion, aniketa, of his own or has all things for its many mansions; all other selves are its own selves in action, essence and delight of being.
To live in the atmosphere of The Synthesis of Yoga can turn the frequent disorder, exclusive and one sided personality of man of genius, poet, artist, thinker, saint and mystic into all-vision of the Divine, the large and universal approach towards all things, happenings and events and a leap into future where all the comprehensive and many-sided perfection are fully realized.
Contents:
1 Introduction 644
2 The Main Formula of Integral Yoga 644
3 The Main Frame of Integral Shastra 649
4 The Main Frame of Integral Collective Living 652
5 The Main Frame of All Traditional Yoga 655
6 The Main Frame of Integral Mental Living 659
7 The Main Frame of Integral Yoga 662
8 The Main Frame of Integral Karma Yoga 668
9 The Main Frame of Integral Jnana Yoga 672
10 The Main Frame of Integral Bhakti Yoga 674
11 The Main Frame of Integral Tantra Yoga 677
12 The Main Frame of Yoga of Self-Perfection 679
13 The Main Frame of Supramental Yoga 683
14 Aim of Integral Yoga 687
15 The Master Formula of Existence 744
16 Indispensable Self-discipline of Integral Yoga 788
17 Dispensable Self-discipline of Integral Yoga 865
18 Danger of the Path 895
19 Important Secret to Pursue Integral Yoga 935
20 The More Important Secret to Pursue Integral Yoga 939
21 The Most Important Secret to Pursue Integral Yoga 945
22 The More than the Most Important Secret of Integral Yoga 948
23 Astanga Purna Yoga for the Beginners 952
23a All Renunciation 952
23b All Equality 953
23c All Purification 954
23d All Concentration 957
23e All Consecration 958
23f All Shastra 958
23g All Guru Force 959
23h All Mother Force 961
24, Recapitulation 962
25, Beyond The Synthesis of Yoga 963
26, References 964
27 Questions on The Synthesis of Yoga 964
27a Aim of Integral Yoga 964
27b The Master Formula of Existence 977
27c Indispensable Self-discipline of Integral Yoga 990
27d Dispensable Self-discipline of Integral Yoga 1011
27e Danger of the Path 1018
Introduction:
“So now I do not mind finishing (the translating into French language) The Synthesis of Yoga. I was little bothered because I have no other books by Sri Aurobindo to translate that can help me in sadhana: There was only The Synthesis (of Yoga).”
The Mother
“Personally, of all those I have read, it is the book (The Synthesis of Yoga) that has helped me the most. It comes from a very high and very universal inspiration, in the sense that it will remain new for a long time to come.”
The Mother
From All Bliss all these beings are born, by All Bliss they exist and grow, to All Bliss they return. The method of the Creator All Bliss is All Tapas or will of the Purusha’s Consciousness dwelling upon the creation of its own infinite potentiality in existence and producing from its truths of conception, real Idea, Vijnana, fulfils the becoming of existence in terms of mind, life and body. Or Tapas, the concentration of power of consciousness, power and play of knowledge and action, is the character of both the passive and the active consciousness of the Brahman. The eventual omnipotence of All Tapas and infallible fulfillment of the Wisdom, Vijnana that went forth from the Eternal since the beginning, are the very foundation of all Yoga and Integral Yoga. Traditional Yoga or all Yoga aims at possession of Divine, Sachchidananda by shooting at once from lower triplicity of mind, life and body to pure Spirit with profound sense of gulf between intermediate stairs of Consciousness. Integral Yoga aims first at the most ardent need of realizing Sachchidananda like a pilgrim soul treading the high road to the destination and after realizing it, a sadhaka shall gather comprehensive knowledge, possess all the worlds for the Divine and perfect all the intermediate and nether planes or states of consciousness like a path finder hewing his way through the virgin forest. He shall accept and embrace all the complexities of world existence and overcome all the terror and danger of distraction by realizing this existence as body of the Brahman and full of Presence of the Divine.
The Main Formula of Integral Yoga:
The written truth of Integral Shastra had descended from above like traditional Shastra as formulas, Sutras and was further expanded and heightened through ascension and widening of Consciousness. All the formula of Integral Yoga breaks through to uncover the integral Divine which includes integral Divine Law and integral Divine manifestation.
1, All Life is Yoga, sarvajivanam yogamastu or sampurnam jivanam yogamayam bhabet. The inner and outer spiritual change and transformation of nature must be enforced upon the whole of life and not merely on a part of life. Where effort of this whole of life can become the conscious Yoga of Nature and must extend over to All Life until the recovery of the complete and undivided Divine Life. All Life is defined as subtle link of union that joins past and future lives and it is the play of the Soul with all the possibilities of Nature for self-expression and self-experience. The key to life’s hidden secret is the true relation of this Spirit with its own created existences. The true practice of life can be experienced by profoundest knowledge of the Self and the Nature. And Yoga is a practical psychology and the central common principle of all schools of Yoga is defined as the self-fulfillment of the Purusha, the Lord of Yoga through His Energy, Consciousness. The Tantric Yoga differs from all other Vedantic schools in the sense that here the Lord of Nature is rather Shakti, the Nature-Soul, the Energy, the Will-in-Power executive in the universe. Its central secret is defined as worship of the Shakti is the all important and sole effective force for all attainment and becomes the key to the finding of the spirit. Whereas the central secret of Vedantic teaching is the search after the silent inactive Purusha by escape from the illusion of Prakriti as the means of liberation. In Integral Yoga the spirit is the all important means for finding of the Shakti. And its aim is defined as attainment of fullness of Being and fullness of Life through fullness of Consciousness. The process of this Yoga is a turning of human soul from the egoistic state of consciousness absorbed in the outward appearances and attractions of things to a higher state in which the Transcendent and the Universal Divine can pour itself into the individual mould and transform it. The central purpose of this Yoga is transformation of superficial, narrow, ordinary and fragmentary way of human thinking, feeling, acting and seeing into a deep and wide spiritual consciousness and an integrated inner and outer existence of Divine Life.
2, All Yoga is compression of one’s Evolution by all possible ways of union with the Divine. Sarvayogah abhibyaktimastu or yogasakalam abhibyakteh sankochanam. To become aware of the truth of our being and becoming is the object of all Yoga. Or all the revelatory aspects of the Divine must be caught in the wide nets of Integral Yoga. All Yoga is in its nature an attempt and an arriving at unity with the Supreme Being, Supreme Consciousness and Supreme Ananda. Evolution is defined as the progressive self-manifestation of Nature in man. The Nature affects her aim of collective slow growth through evolution and individual rapid revolutionary change through Yoga; the former arrives at the Divine through concentration on her own manifestation whereas the latter goes beyond Nature to the Lord of Nature and beyond universe to the Transcendence. Natural evolution is an uncertain growth by the pressure of environment, partly by groping education and an ill-lighted purposeful effort, partially illumined and half-automatic use of opportunities with many blunders, lapses and relapses, veiling a secret divine intervention and guidance. In Yoga we replace this confused crooked crab-motion by a rapid, conscious, concentrated and self-directed evolution which can compress the growth of many lives into a single birth.