{"id":1228,"date":"2013-07-13T01:33:24","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1228"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:33:24","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:24","slug":"12-the-integral-perfection-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\/12-the-integral-perfection-vol-21-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-21","title":{"rendered":"-12_The Integral Perfection.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


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

 <\/font>The
\nIntegral Perfection<\/span><\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A<\/font><\/b>
\nDIVINE<\/font> perfection of the human being is our aim. We must know then first what
\nare the essential elements that constitute man’s total perfection; secondly,
\nwhat we mean by a divine as distinguished from a human perfection of our being.
\nThat man as a being is capable of self-development and of some approach at
\nleast to an ideal standard of perfection which his mind is able to conceive,
\nfix before it and pursue, is common ground to all thinking humanity, though it
\nmay be only the minority who concern themselves with this possibility as
\nproviding the one most important aim of life. But by some the ideal is
\nconceived as a mundane change, by others as a religious conversion. <\/p>\n

The mundane
\nperfection is sometimes conceived of as something outward, social, a thing of
\naction, a more rational dealing with our fellow-men and our environment, a
\nbetter and more efficient citizenship and discharge of duties, a better, richer,
\nkindlier and happier way of living, with a more just and more harmonious
\nassociated enjoyment of the opportunities of existence. By others again a more
\ninner and subjective ideal is cherished, a clarifying and raising of the
\nintelligence, will and reason, a heightening and ordering of power and capacity
\nin the nature, a nobler ethical, a richer aesthetic, a finer emotional, a much
\nhealthier and better-governed vital and physical being. Sometimes one element
\nis stressed, almost to the exclusion of the rest; sometimes, in wider and more
\nwell-balanced minds, the whole harmony is envisaged as a total perfection. A change
\nof education and social institutions is the outward means adopted or an inner
\nself-training and development is preferred as the true instrumentation. Or the
\ntwo aims may be clearly united, the perfection of the inner individual, the perfection
\nof the outer living. <\/p>\n

But the mundane
\naim takes for its field the present life and its <\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 590<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

opportunities; the religious aim
\non the contrary fixes before it the self-preparation for another existence after
\ndeath, its commonest ideal is some kind of pure sainthood, its means a
\nconversion of the imperfect or sinful human being by divine grace or through
\nobedience to a law laid down by a scripture or else given by a religious
\nfounder. The aim of religion may include a social change, but it is then a
\nchange brought about by the acceptance of a common religious ideal and way of consecrated
\nliving, a brotherhood of the saints, a theocracy or kingdom
\n of God reflecting on earth the
\nkingdom of heaven. <\/p>\n

The object of
\nour synthetic Yoga must, in this respect too as in its other parts, be more
\nintegral and comprehensive, embrace all these elements or these tendencies of a
\nlarger impulse of self-perfection and harmonise them or rather unify, and in
\norder to do that successfully it must seize on a truth which is wider than the
\nordinary religious and higher than the mundane principle. All life is a secret
\nYoga, an obscure growth of Nature towards the discovery and fulfilment of the
\ndivine principle hidden in her which becomes progressively less obscure, more
\nself-conscient and luminous, more self-possessed in the human being by the
\nopening of all his instruments of knowledge, will, action, life to the Spirit
\nwithin him and in the world. Mind, life, body, all the forms of our nature are
\nthe means of this growth, but they find their last perfection only by opening out
\nto something beyond them, first, because they are not the whole of what man is,
\nsecondly, because that other something which he is, is the key of his
\ncompleteness and brings a light which discovers to him the whole high and large
\nreality of his being. <\/p>\n

Mind is
\nfulfilled by a greater knowledge of which it is only a half-light, life
\ndiscovers its meaning in a greater power and will of which it is the outward
\nand as yet obscure functioning, body finds its last use as an instrument of a
\npower of being of which it is a physical support and material starting-point.
\nThey have all themselves first to be developed and find out their ordinary
\npossibilities; all our normal life is a trying of these possibilities and an
\nopportunity for this preparatory and tentative self-training. But life cannot
\nfind its perfect self-fulfilment till it opens to that greater reality of being
\nof which by this development of a <\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 591<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

richer<\/span>
\npower and a more sensitive use and capacity it becomes a well-prepared field of
\nworking. <\/p>\n

Intellectual,
\nvolitional, ethical, emotional, aesthetic and physical training and improvement
\nare all so much to the good, but they are only in the end a constant movement
\nin a circle without any last delivering and illumining aim, unless they arrive at
\na point when they can open themselves to the power and presence of the Spirit
\nand admit its direct workings. This direct working effects a conversion of the
\nwhole being which is the indispensable condition of our real perfection. To
\ngrow into the truth and power of the Spirit and by the direct action of that
\npower to be made a fit channel of its self-expression, \u2013 a living of man in the
\nDivine and a divine living of the Spirit in humanity, \u2013 will therefore be the
\nprinciple and the whole object of an integral Yoga of self-perfection. <\/p>\n

In the process
\nof this change there must be by the very necessity of the effort two stages of
\nits working. First, there will be the personal endeavour of the human being, as
\nsoon as he becomes aware by his soul, mind, heart of this divine possibility
\nand turns towards it as the true object of life, to prepare himself for it and
\nto get rid of all in him that belongs to a lower working, of all that stands in
\nthe way of his opening to the spiritual truth and its power, so as to possess
\nby this liberation his spiritual being and turn all his natural movements into
\nfree means of its self-expression. It is by this turn that the self-conscious
\nYoga aware of its aim begins: there is a new awakening and an upward change of
\nthe life motive. So long as there is only an intellectual, ethical and other
\nself-training for the now normal purposes of life which does not travel beyond
\nthe ordinary circle of working of mind, life and body, we are still only in the
\nobscure and yet unillumined preparatory Yoga of Nature; we are still in pursuit
\nof only an ordinary human perfection. A spiritual desire of the Divine and of
\nthe divine perfection, of a unity with him in all our being and a spiritual
\nperfection in all our nature, is the effective sign of this change, the
\nprecursory power of a great integral conversion of our being and living. <\/p>\n

By personal
\neffort a precursory change, a preliminary conversion can be effected; it amounts
\nto a greater or less spirituallising<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 592<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

of our mental motives, our character and
\ntemperament, and a mastery, stilling or changed action of the vital and physical
\nlife. This converted subjectivity can be made the base of some communion or
\nunity of the soul in mind with the Divine and some partial reflection of the
\ndivine nature in the mentality of the human being. That is as far as man can go
\nby his unaided or indirectly aided effort, because that is an effort of mind
\nand mind cannot climb beyond itself permanently: at most it arises to a spiritualised and idealised<\/span> mentality. If it shoots
\nup beyond that border, it loses hold of itself, loses hold of life, and arrives
\neither at a trance of absorption or a passivity. A greater perfection can only
\nbe arrived at by a higher power entering in and taking up the whole action of
\nthe being. The second stage of this Yoga will therefore be a persistent giving up
\nof all the action of the nature into the hands of this greater Power, a substitution
\nof its influence, possession and working for the personal effort, until the
\nDivine to whom we aspire becomes the direct master of the Yoga and effects the
\nentire spiritual and ideal conversion of the being. <\/p>\n

This double
\ncharacter of our Yoga raises it beyond the mundane ideal of perfection, while
\nat the same time it goes too beyond the loftier, intenser, but much narrower
\nreligious formula. The mundane ideal regards man always as a mental, vital and
\nphysical being and it aims at a human perfection well within these limits, a
\nperfection of mind, life and body, an expansion and refinement of the intellect
\nand knowledge, of the will and power, of ethical character, aim and conduct, of
\naesthetic sensibility and creativeness, of emotional balanced poise and
\nenjoyment, of vital and physical soundness, regulated action and just
\nefficiency. It is a wide and full aim, but yet not sufficiently full and wide,
\nbecause it ignores that other greater element of our being which the mind
\nvaguely conceives as the spiritual element and leaves it either undeveloped or insufficiently
\nsatisfied as merely some high occasional or added derivatory experience, the
\nresult of the action of mind in its exceptional aspects or dependent upon mind
\nfor its presence and persistence. It can become a high aim when it seeks to
\ndevelop the loftier and the larger reaches of our mentality, but yet not
\nsufficiently high, because it does not aspire beyond <\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 593<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

mind<\/span> to
\nthat of which our purest reason, our brightest mental intuition, our deepest
\nmental sense and feeling, strongest mental will and power or ideal aim and
\npurpose are only pale radiations. Its aim besides is limited to a terrestrial
\nperfection of the normal human life. <\/p>\n

A Yoga<\/span> of integral perfection regards man as a divine spiritual
\nbeing involved in mind, life and body; it aims therefore at a liberation and a
\nperfection of his divine nature. It seeks to make an inner living in the
\nperfectly developed spiritual being his constant intrinsic living and the
\nspiritualised action of mind, life and body only its outward human expression.
\nIn order that this spiritual being may not be something vague and indefinable
\nor else but imperfectly realised and dependent on the mental support and the
\nmental limitations, it seeks to go beyond mind to the supramental knowledge,
\nwill, sense, feeling, intuition, dynamic initiation of vital and physical
\naction, all that makes the native working of the spiritual being. It accepts
\nhuman life, but takes account of the large supraterrestrial action behind the
\nearthly material living, and it joins itself to the divine Being from whom the
\nsupreme origination of all these partial and lower states proceeds so that the
\nwhole of life may become aware of its divine source and feel in each action of
\nknowledge, of will, of feeling, sense and body the divine originating impulse.
\nIt rejects nothing that is essential in the mundane aim, but enlarges it, finds
\nand lives in its greater and its truer meaning now hidden from it, transfigures
\nit from a limited, earthly and mortal thing to a figure of infinite, divine and
\nimmortal values. <\/p>\n

The integral
\nYoga meets the religious ideal at several points, but goes beyond it in the
\nsense of a greater wideness. The religious ideal looks, not only beyond this
\nearth, but away from it to a heaven or even beyond all heavens to some kind of Nirvana.
\nIts ideal of perfection is limited to whatever kind of inner or outer mutation
\nwill eventually serve the turning away of the soul from the human life to the
\nbeyond. Its ordinary idea of perfection is a religio<\/span>-ethical
\nchange, a drastic purification of the active and the emotional being, often
\nwith an ascetic abrogation and rejection of the vital impulses as its
\ncompletest reaching of excellence, and in any case a supraterrestrial motive
\nand reward or result of a <\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 594<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

life<\/span> of
\npiety and right conduct. In so far as it admits a change of knowledge, will,
\naesthesis, it is in the sense of the turning of them to another object than the
\naims of human life and eventually brings a rejection of all earthly objects of
\naesthesis, will and knowledge. The method, whether it lays stress on personal
\neffort or upon divine influence, on works and knowledge or upon grace, is not
\nlike the mundane a development, but rather a conversion; but in the end the aim
\nis not a conversion of our mental and physical nature, but the putting on of a pure
\nspiritual nature and being, and since that is not possible here on earth, it
\nlooks for its consummation by a transference to another world or a shuffling
\noff of all cosmic existence. <\/p>\n

But the
\nintegral Yoga founds itself on a conception of the spiritual being as an
\nomnipresent existence, the fullness of which comes not essentially by a
\ntransference to other worlds or a cosmic self-extinction, but by a growth out
\nof what we now are phenomenally into the consciousness of the omnipresent
\nreality which we always are in the essence of our being. It substitutes for the
\nform of religious piety its completer spiritual seeking of a divine union. It
\nproceeds by a personal effort to a conversion through a divine influence and
\npossession; but this divine grace, if we may so call it, is not simply a
\nmysterious flow or touch coming from above, but the all-pervading act of a
\ndivine presence which we come to know within as the power of the highest Self
\nand Master of our being entering into the soul and so possessing it that we not
\nonly feel it close to us and pressing upon our mortal nature, but live in its
\nlaw, know that law, possess it as the whole power of our spiritualised nature.
\nThe conversion its action will effect is an integral conversion of our ethical
\nbeing into the Truth and Right of the divine nature, of our intellectual into
\nthe illumination of divine knowledge, our emotional into the divine love and
\nunity, our dynamic and volitional into a working of the divine power, our
\naesthetic into a plenary reception and a creative enjoyment of divine beauty,
\nnot excluding even in the end a divine conversion of the vital and physical
\nbeing. It regards all the previous life as an involuntary and unconscious or
\nhalf-conscious preparatory growing towards this change and Yoga as the
\nvoluntary and conscious effort and realization of the change, by <\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 595<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

which<\/span>
\nall the aim of human existence in all its parts is fulfilled, even while it is
\ntransfigured. Admitting the supracosmic truth and life in worlds beyond, it
\nadmits too the terrestrial as a continued term of the one existence and a change
\nof individual and communal life on earth as a strain of its divine meaning. <\/p>\n

To open oneself
\nto the supracosmic Divine is an essential condition of this integral
\nperfection; to unite oneself with the universal Divine is another essential
\ncondition. Here the Yoga of self-perfection coincides with the Yogas of
\nknowledge, works and devotion; for it is impossible to change the human nature
\ninto the divine or to make it an instrument of the divine knowledge, will and
\njoy of existence, unless there is a union with the supreme Being, Consciousness
\nand Bliss and a unity with its universal Self in all things and beings. A
\nwholly separative possession of the divine nature by the human individual, as
\ndistinct from a self-withdrawn absorption in it, is not possible. But this
\nunity will not be an inmost spiritual oneness qualified, so long as the human
\nlife lasts, by a separative existence in mind, life and body; the full
\nperfection is a possession, through this spiritual unity, of unity too with the
\nuniversal Mind, the universal Life, the<\/span> universal Form
\nwhich are the other constant terms of cosmic being. Moreover, since human life
\nis still accepted as a self-expression of the realised Divine in man, there
\nmust be an action of the entire divine nature in our life; and this brings in
\nthe need of the supramental conversion which substitutes the native action of
\nspiritual being for the imperfect action of the superficial nature and spiritualises<\/span> and transfigures its mental, vital and
\nphysical parts by the spiritual ideality. These three elements, a union with
\nthe supreme Divine, unity with the universal Self, and a supramental life
\naction from this transcendent origin and through this universality, but still
\nwith the individual as the soul-channel and natural instrument, constitute the
\nessence of the integral divine perfection of the human being.<\/p>\n

 Page \u2013 596<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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