{"id":1204,"date":"2013-07-13T01:33:15","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1204"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:33:15","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:15","slug":"11-the-principle-of-the-integral-yoga-vol-21-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/21-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-21\/11-the-principle-of-the-integral-yoga-vol-21-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-21","title":{"rendered":"-11_The Principle of the Integral Yoga.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nChapter I<\/span><\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font>The
\nPrinciple of the Integral Yoga<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

T<\/font><\/b>HE<\/font>
\nprinciple of Yoga is the turning of one or of all powers of our human existence
\ninto a means of reaching divine Being. In an ordinary Yoga one main power of
\nbeing or one group of its powers is made the means, vehicle, path. In a
\nsynthetic Yoga all powers will be combined and included in the transmuting
\ninstrumentation. <\/p>\n

In Hathayoga
\nthe instrument is the body and life. All the power of the body is stilled,
\ncollected, purified, heightened, concentrated to its utmost limits or beyond
\nany limits by Asana and other physical processes; the power of the life too is similarly
\npurified, heightened, concentrated by Asana and Pranayama. This concentration
\nof powers is then directed towards that physical centre in which the divine
\nconsciousness sits concealed in the human body. The power of Life, Nature-power,
\ncoiled up with all its secret forces asleep in the lowest nervous plexus of the
\nearth-being, \u2013 for only so much escapes into waking action in our normal
\noperations as is sufficient for the limited uses of human life, \u2013 rises
\nawakened through centre after centre and awakens, too, in its ascent and
\npassage the forces of each successive nodus of our being, the nervous life, the
\nheart of emotion and ordinary mentality, the speech, sight, will, the higher
\nknowledge, till through and above the brain it meets with and it becomes one
\nwith the divine consciousness. <\/p>\n

In Rajayoga the
\nchosen instrument is the mind. Our ordinary mentality is first disciplined,
\npurified and directed towards the divine Being, then by a summary process of
\nAsana and Pranayama the physical force of our being is stilled and concentrated,
\nthe life-force released into a rhythmic movement capable of cessation and
\nconcentrated into a higher power of its upward action, the mind, supported and
\nstrengthened by this greater action and concentration of the body and life upon
\nwhich <\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 583<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

 it rests, is itself purified of
\nall its unrest and emotion and its habitual thought-waves, liberated from
\ndistraction and dispersion, given its highest force of concentration, gathered
\nup into a trance of absorption. Two objects, the one temporal, the other
\neternal, are gained by this discipline. Mind-power develops in another
\nconcentrated action abnormal capacities of knowledge, effective will, deep
\nlight of reception, powerful light of thought-radiation which are altogether
\nbeyond the narrow range of our normal mentality; it arrives at the Yogic or
\noccult powers around which there has been woven so much quite dispensable and
\nyet perhaps salutary mystery. But the one final end and the one all-important
\ngain is that the mind, stilled and cast into a concentrated trance, can lose
\nitself in the divine consciousness and the soul be made free to unite with the divine
\nBeing. <\/p>\n

The triple way
\ntakes for its chosen instruments the three main powers of the mental soul-life
\nof the human being. Knowledge selects the reason and the mental vision and it
\nmakes them by purification, concentration and a certain discipline of a
\nGod-directed seeking its means for the greatest knowledge and the greatest
\nvision of all, God-knowledge and God-vision. Its aim is to see, know and be the
\nDivine. Works, action selects for its instrument the will of the doer of works;
\nit makes life an offering of sacrifice to the Godhead and by purification,
\nconcentration and a certain discipline of subjection to the divine Will a means
\nfor contact and increasing unity of the soul of man with the divine Master of
\nthe universe. Devotion selects the emotional and aesthetic powers of the soul
\nand by turning them all Godward in a perfect purity, intensity, infinite
\npassion of seeking makes them a means of God-possession in one or many
\nrelations of unity with the Divine Being. All aim in their own way at a union
\nor unity of the human soul with the supreme Spirit. <\/p>\n

Each Yoga in
\nits process has the character of the instrument it uses; thus the Hathayogic
\nprocess is psycho-physical, the Rajayogic mental and psychic, the way of
\nknowledge is spiritual and cognitive, the way of devotion spiritual, emotional and
\naesthetic, the way of works spiritual and dynamic by action. Each is guided in
\nthe ways of its own characteristic power. But all power is in the end one, all
\npower is really soul-power. In the ordi<\/span>nary<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 584<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

 process of life, body and
\nmind this truth is quite obscured by the dispersed, dividing and distributive
\naction of Nature which is the normal condition of all our functionings,
\nalthough even there it is in the end evident; for all material energy contains hidden
\nthe vital, mental, psychic, spiritual energy and in the end it must release
\nthese forms of the one Shakti, the vital energy conceals and liberates into
\naction all the other forms, the mental supporting itself on the life and body
\nand their powers and functionings contains undeveloped or only partially
\ndeveloped the psychic and the spiritual power of the being. But when by Yoga
\nany of these powers is taken up from the dispersed and distributive action,
\nraised to its highest degree, concentrated, it becomes manifest soul-power and
\nreveals the essential unity. Therefore the Hathayogic process has too its pure
\npsychic and spiritual result, the Rajayogic arrives by psychic means at a
\nspiritual consummation. The triple way may appear to be altogether mental and
\nspiritual in its way of seeking and its objectives, but it can be attended by
\nresults more characteristic of the other paths, which offer themselves in a
\nspontaneous and involuntary flowering, and for the same reason, because
\nsoul-power is all-power and where it reaches its height in one direction its
\nother possibilities also begin to show themselves in fact or in incipient
\npotentiality. This unity at once suggests the possibility of a synthetic Yoga. <\/p>\n

Tantric discipline
\nis in its nature a synthesis. It has seized on the large universal truth that
\nthere are two poles of being whose essential unity is the secret of existence,
\nBrahman and Shakti, Spirit and Nature, and that Nature is power of the spirit
\nor rather is spirit as power. To raise nature in man into manifest power of
\nspirit is its method and it is the whole nature that it gathers up for the
\nspiritual conversion. It includes in its system of instrumentation the forceful
\nHathayogic process and especially the opening up of the nervous centres<\/span> and the passage through them of the awakened Shakti
\non her way to her union with the Brahman, the subtler stress of the Rajayogic
\npurification, meditation and concentration, the leverage of will-force, the
\nmotive power of devotion, the key of knowledge. But it does not stop short with
\nan effective assembling of the different powers of these specific Yogas. In two
\ndirections it enlarges by its synthetic turn <\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 585<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

the province of the Yogic method.
\nFirst, it lays its hand firmly on many of the main springs of human quality,
\ndesire, action and it subjects them to an intensive discipline with the soul’s
\nmastery of its motives as a first aim and their elevation to a diviner
\nspiritual level as its final utility. Again, it includes in its objects of Yoga
\nnot only liberation,\u00b9 which is the one all-mastering preoccupation of the
\nspecific systems, but a cosmic enjoyment \u00b2 of the power of the Spirit, which
\nthe others may take incidentally on the way, in part, casually, but avoid
\nmaking a motive or object. It is a bolder and larger system. <\/p>\n

In the method
\nof synthesis which we have been following, another clue of principle has been
\npursued which is derived from another view of the possibilities of Yoga. This
\nstarts from the method of Vedanta to arrive at the aim of the Tantra. In the
\nTantric method Shakti is all-important, becomes the key to the finding of
\nspirit; in this synthesis spirit, soul is all-important, becomes the secret of
\nthe taking up of Shakti. The Tantric method starts from the bottom and grades
\nthe ladder of ascent upwards to the summit; therefore its initial stress is
\nupon the action of the awakened Shakti in the nervous system of the body and
\nits centres<\/span>; the opening of the six lotuses is the
\nopening up of the ranges of the power of Spirit. Our synthesis takes man as a
\nspirit in mind much more than a spirit in body and assumes in him the capacity
\nto begin on that level, to spiritualise<\/span> his being by
\nthe power of the soul in mind opening itself directly to a higher spiritual
\nforce and being and to perfect by that higher force so possessed and brought
\ninto action the whole of his nature. For that reason our initial stress has
\nfallen upon the utilisation of the powers of soul in mind and the turning of
\nthe triple key of knowledge, works and love in the locks of the spirit; the
\nHathayogic methods can be dispensed with, \u2013 though there is no objection to
\ntheir partial use, \u2013 the Rajayogic will only enter in as an informal element.
\nTo arrive by the shortest way at the largest development of spiritual power and
\nbeing and divinize by it a liberated nature in the whole range of human living
\nis our inspiring motive. <\/p>\n

The principle
\nin view is a self-surrender, a giving up of the <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u00b9 mukti<\/span><\/i>. \u00b2 bhukti<\/span><\/i><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 586<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

human being into the being,
\nconsciousness, power, delight of the Divine, a union or communion at all the
\npoints of meeting in the soul of man, the mental being, by which the Divine himself,
\ndirectly and without veil master and possessor of the instrument, shall by the
\nlight of his presence and guidance perfect the human being in all the forces of
\nthe Nature for a divine living. Here we arrive at a farther enlargement of the objects
\nof the Yoga. The common initial purpose of all Yoga is the liberation of the
\nsoul of man from its present natural ignorance and limitation, its release into
\nspiritual being, its union with the highest self and Divinity. But ordinarily
\nthis is made not only the initial but the whole and final object: enjoyment of
\nspiritual being there is, but either in a dissolution of the human and
\nindividual into the silence of self-being or on a higher plane in another
\nexistence. The Tantric system makes liberation the final, but not the only aim;
\nit takes on its way a full perfection and enjoyment of the spiritual power,
\nlight and joy in the human existence, and even it has a glimpse of a supreme
\nexperience in which liberation and cosmic action and enjoyment are unified in a
\nfinal overcoming of all oppositions and dissonances. It is this wider view of
\nour spiritual potentialities from which we begin, but we add another stress
\nwhich brings in a completer significance. We regard the spirit in man not as solely
\nan individual being travelling<\/span> to a transcendent
\nunity with the Divine, but as a universal being capable of oneness with the
\nDivine in all souls and all Nature and we give this extended view its entire
\npractical consequence. The human soul’s individual liberation and enjoyment of
\nunion with the Divine in spiritual being, consciousness and delight must always
\nbe the first object of the Yoga; its free enjoyment of the cosmic unity of the
\nDivine becomes a second object; but out of that a third appears, the
\neffectuation of the meaning of the divine unity with all beings by a sympathy
\nand participation in the spiritual purpose of the Divine in humanity. <\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 587<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

The individual
\nYoga then turns from its separateness and becomes a part of the collective Yoga
\nof the divine Nature in the human race. The liberated individual being, united
\nwith the Divine in self and spirit, becomes in his natural being a
\nself-perfecting instrument for the perfect outflowering of the Divine in
\nhumanity. This outflowering has its two terms; first, comes the growth out of
\nthe separative human ego into the unity of the spirit, then the possession of
\nthe divine nature in its proper and its higher forms and no longer in the
\ninferior forms of the mental being which are a mutilated translation and not
\nthe authentic text of the original script of divine Nature in the cosmic individual.
\nIn other words, a perfection has to be aimed at which amounts to the elevation
\nof the mental into the full spiritual and supramental nature. Therefore this
\nintegral Yoga of knowledge, love and works has to be extended into a Yoga of spiritual
\nand gnostic self-perfection. As gnostic knowledge, will and Ananda are a direct
\ninstrumentation of spirit and can only be won by growing into the spirit, into
\ndivine being, this growth has to be the first aim of our Yoga. The mental being
\nhas to enlarge itself into the oneness of the Divine before the Divine will
\nperfect in the soul of the individual its Gnostic outflowering. That is the
\nreason why the triple way of knowledge, works and love becomes the key-note of
\nthe whole Yoga, for that is the direct means for the soul in mind to rise to
\nits highest intensities where it passes upward into the divine oneness. That
\ntoo is the reason why the Yoga must be integral. For if immergence in the
\nInfinite or some close union with the Divine were all our aim, an integral Yoga
\nwould be superfluous, except for such greater satisfaction of the being of man as
\nwe may get by a self-lifting of the whole of it towards its Source. But it
\nwould not be needed for the essential aim, since by any single power of the
\nsoul-nature we can meet with the Divine; each at its height rises up into the
\ninfinite and absolute, each therefore offers a sufficient way of arrival, for
\nall the hundred separate paths meet in the Eternal. But the Gnostic being is a
\ncomplete enjoyment and possession of the whole divine and spiritual nature; and
\nit is a complete lifting of the whole nature of man into its power of a divine
\nand spiritual existence. Integrality becomes then an essential condition of
\nthis Yoga. <\/p>\n

At the same
\ntime we have seen that each of the three ways at its height, if it is pursued
\nwith a certain largeness, can take into itself the powers of the others and
\nlead to their fulfilment. It is therefore sufficient to start by one of them
\nand find the point at which it meets the other at first parallel lines of advance
\nand melts <\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 588<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

into them by its own widenings.
\nAt the same time a more difficult, complex, wholly powerful process would be to
\nstart, as it were, on three lines together, on a triple wheel of soul-power.
\nBut the consideration of this possibility must be postponed till we have seen
\nwhat are the conditions and means of the Yoga of self-perfection. For we shall
\nsee that this also need not be postponed entirely, but a certain preparation of
\nit is part of and a certain initiation into it proceeds by the growth of the
\ndivine works, love and knowledge.<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 589<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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