{"id":2201,"date":"2013-07-13T01:40:05","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2201"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:40:05","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:40:05","slug":"22-chapter-iv-concentration-vol-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga\/22-chapter-iv-concentration-vol-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","title":{"rendered":"-22_Chapter IV Concentration.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tChapter IV <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tConcentration
\n<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA<\/font> <\/font>LONG<\/b> with purity and as a help to bring it about,
\nconcentration. Purity and concentration are indeed two aspects, feminine and masculine, passive and active, of
\nthe same status of being; purity is the condition in which concentration becomes entire, rightly effective, omnipotent; by concentration purity does its works and without it would only lead to a state of peaceful quiescence and eternal repose. Their opposites
\nare also closely connected; for we have seen that impurity is a confusion of dharmas,
\n\t\t\ta lax, mixed and mutually entangled action of the different parts of
\n\t\t\tthe being; and this confusion proceeds from an absence of right
\n\t\t\tconcentration of its knowledge on its energies in the embodied Soul.
\n\t\t\tThe fault of our nature is first an inert subjection to the impacts
\n\t\t\tof things\u00b9<\/font> <\/i> as they come in upon
\nthe mind pell-mell without order or control and then a haphazard imperfect concentration managed fitfully, irregularly with a
\nmore or less chance emphasis on this or on that object according as they happen to interest, not the higher soul or the judging
\nand discerning intellect, but the restless, leaping, fickle, easily tired, easily distracted lower mind which is the chief enemy of
\nour progress. In such a condition purity, the right working of the functions, the clear, unstained and luminous order of the being is
\nan impossibility; the various workings, given over to the chances of the environment and external influences, must necessarily
\nrun into each other and clog, divert, distract, pervert. Equally, without purity the complete, equal, flexible concentration of the
\nbeing in right thought, right will, right feeling or secure status of spiritual experience is not possible. Therefore the two must
\nproceed together, each helping the victory of the other, until we arrive at that eternal calm from which may proceed some <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\u00b9<\/font>bahyasparsa<\/i>. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>317<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tpartial image in the human being of the eternal, omnipotent and
\nomniscient activity. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut in the path of knowledge as it is practised in India
\nconcentration is used in a special and more limited sense. It means that removal of the thought from all distracting activities
\nof the mind and that concentration of it on the idea of the One by which the soul rises out of the phenomenal into the one Reality. It
\nis by the thought that we dissipate ourselves in the phenomenal; it is by the gathering back of the thought into itself that we
\nmust draw ourselves back into the real. Concentration has three powers by which this aim can be effected. By concentration on
\nanything whatsoever we are able to know that thing, to make it deliver up its concealed secrets; we must use this power to
\nknow not things, but the one Thing-in-itself. By concentration again the whole will can be gathered up for the acquisition
\nof that which is still ungrasped, still beyond us; this power, if it is sufficiently trained, sufficiently single-minded, sufficiently
\nsincere, sure of itself, faithful to itself alone, absolute in faith, we can use for the acquisition of any object whatsoever; but
\nwe ought to use it not for the acquisition of the many objects which the world offers to us, but to grasp spiritually that one
\nobject worthy of pursuit which is also the one subject worthy of knowledge. By concentration of our whole being on one status
\nof itself, we can become whatever we choose; we can become, for instance, even if we were before a mass of weaknesses and
\nfears, a mass instead of strength and courage, or we can become all a great purity, holiness and peace or a single universal soul of
\nLove; but we ought, it is said, to use this power to become not even these things, high as they may be in comparison with what
\nwe now are, but rather to become that which is above all things and free from all action and attributes, the pure and absolute
\nBeing. All else, all other concentration can only be valuable for preparation, for previous steps, for a gradual training of the
\ndissolute and self-dissipating thought, will and being towards their grand and unique object. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis use of concentration implies like every other a previous purification; it implies also in the end a renunciation, a cessation
\n  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>318<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tand lastly an ascent into the absolute and transcendent state
\n\t\t\tof Samadhi from which if it culminates, if it endures, there is,
\n\t\t\texcept perhaps for one soul out of many thousands, no return. For by
\n\t\t\tthat we go to the "supreme state of the Eternal whence souls revert
\n\t\t\tnot" into the cyclic action of Nature;\u00b2<\/font> and it is
\ninto this Samadhi that the Yogin who aims at release from the world seeks to pass away at the time of leaving his body. We
\nsee this succession in the discipline of the Rajayoga. For first the Rajayogin must arrive at a certain moral and spiritual purity; he
\nmust get rid of the lower or downward activities of his mind, but afterwards he must stop all its activities and concentrate
\nhimself in the one idea that leads from activity to the quiescence of status. The Rajayogic concentration has several stages, that
\nin which the object is seized, that in which it is held, that in which the mind is lost in the status which the object represents or to which the concentration leads, and only the last is termed Samadhi in the Rajayoga although the word is capable,
\nas in the Gita, of a much wider sense. But in the Rajayogic Samadhi there are
\n\t\t\tdifferent grades of status, \u2014 that in which the mind, though lost to
\n\t\t\toutward objects, still muses, thinks, perceives in the world of
\n\t\t\tthought, that in which the mind is still capable of primary
\n\t\t\tthought-formations and that in which, all out-darting of the mind
\n\t\t\teven within itself having ceased, the soul rises beyond thought into
\n\t\t\tthe silence of the Incommunicable and Ineffable. In all Yoga there
\n\t\t\tare indeed many preparatory objects of thought-concentration, forms,
\n\t\t\tverbal formulas of thought, significant names, all of which are
\n\t\t\tsupports\u00b3<\/font> to the mind in
\nthis movement, all of which have to be used and transcended; the highest support according to the Upanishads is the mystic
\nsyllable AUM, whose three letters represent the Brahman or Supreme Self in its three degrees of status, the Waking Soul, the
\nDream Soul and the Sleep Soul, and the whole potent sound rises towards that which is beyond status as beyond activity.4<\/font><\/b> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\u00b2  <\/font> yato naiva nivartante tad dhama paramam mama.<\/font><\/i>
\n\t\t\t<\/font>              
\n\t\t\t\u00b3<\/font>avalambana<\/font><\/i>.
\n\t\t\t<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t4  Mandukya Upanishad.
\n <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>319<\/font>
\n <\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tFor of all Yoga of knowledge the final goal is the Transcendent. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWe have, however, conceived as the aim of an integral Yoga
\nsomething more complex and less exclusive \u2014 less exclusively positive of the highest condition of the soul, less exclusively
\nnegative of its divine radiations. We must aim indeed at the Highest, the Source of all, the Transcendent but not to the exclusion of that which it transcends, rather as the source of an established experience and supreme state of the soul which shall
\ntransform all other states and remould our consciousness of the world into the form of its secret Truth. We do not seek to excise
\nfrom our being all consciousness of the universe, but to realise God, Truth and Self in the universe as well as transcendent of it.
\nWe shall seek therefore not only the Ineffable, but also His manifestation as infinite being, consciousness and bliss embracing the
\nuniverse and at play in it. For that triune infinity is His supreme manifestation and that we shall aspire to know, to share in and
\nto become; and since we seek to realise this Trinity not only in itself but in its cosmic play, we shall aspire also to knowledge
\nof and participation in the universal divine Truth, Knowledge, Will, Love which are His secondary manifestation, His divine
\nbecoming. With this too we shall aspire to identify ourselves, towards this too we shall strive to rise and, when the period
\nof effort is passed, allow it by our renunciation of all egoism to draw us up into itself in our being and to descend into us
\nand embrace us in all our becoming. This not only as a means of approach and passage to His supreme transcendence, but as
\nthe condition, even when we possess and are possessed by the Transcendent, of a divine life in the manifestation of the cosmos. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn order that we may do this, the terms concentration and Samadhi must assume for us a richer and profound meaning.
\nAll our concentration is merely an image of the divine Tapas by which the Self dwells gathered in itself, by which it manifests
\nwithin itself, by which it maintains and possesses its manifestation, by which it draws back from all manifestation into its
\nsupreme oneness. Being dwelling in consciousness upon itself for bliss, this is the divine Tapas; and a Knowledge-Will dwelling <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>320<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tin force of consciousness on itself and its manifestations is the
\n\t\t\tessence of the divine concentration, the Yoga of the Lord of Yoga.
\n\t\t\tGiven the self-differentiation of the Divine in which we dwell,
\n\t\t\tconcentration is the means by which the individual soul identifies
\n\t\t\titself with and enters into any form, state or psychological self-manifestation (bhā<\/font>va<\/i>) of the Self. To use this means for
\nunification with the Divine is the condition for the attainment of divine knowledge and the principle of all Yoga of knowledge. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis concentration proceeds by the Idea, using thought, form and name as keys which yield up to the concentrating mind
\nthe Truth that lies concealed behind all thought, form and name; for it is through the Idea that the mental being rises beyond all
\nexpression to that which is expressed, to that of which the Idea itself is only the instrument. By concentration upon the Idea the
\nmental existence which at present we are breaks open the barrier of our mentality and arrives at the state of consciousness, the
\nstate of being, the state of power of conscious-being and bliss of conscious-being to which the Idea corresponds and of which it is
\nthe symbol, movement and rhythm. Concentration by the Idea is, then, only a means, a key to open to us the superconscient
\nplanes of our existence; a certain self-gathered state of our whole existence lifted into that superconscient truth, unity and infinity
\nof self-aware, self-blissful existence is the aim and culmination; and that is the meaning we shall give to the term Samadhi. Not
\nmerely a state withdrawn from all consciousness of the outward, withdrawn even from all consciousness of the inward into that
\nwhich exists beyond both whether as seed of both or transcendent even of their seed-state; but a settled existence in the One
\nand Infinite, united and identified with it, and this status to remain whether we abide in the waking condition in which we are
\nconscious of the forms of things or we withdraw into the inward activity which dwells in the play of the principles of things, the
\nplay of their names and typal forms or we soar to the condition of static inwardness where we arrive at the principles themselves
\nand at the principle of all principles, the seed of name and form.5<\/font><\/b> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t5
\nThe Waking, Dream and Sleep states of the soul.<\/font> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>321<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tFor the soul that has arrived at the
\n\t\t\tessential Samadhi and is settled in it (samā<\/font>dhistha<\/i>) in the sense the Gita attaches to the word,
\nhas that which is fundamental to all experience and cannot fall from it by any experience however distracting to one who has
\nnot yet ascended the summit. It can embrace all in the scope of its being without being bound by any or deluded or limited. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen we arrive at this state, all our being and consciousness being
\n\t\t\tconcentrated, the necessity of concentration in the Idea ceases. For
\n\t\t\tthere in that supramental state the whole position of things is
\n\t\t\treversed. The mind is a thing that dwells in diffusion, in
\n\t\t\tsuccession; it can only concentrate on one thing at a time and when
\n\t\t\tnot concentrated runs from one thing to another very much at random.
\n\t\t\tTherefore it has to concentrate on a single idea, a single subject
\n\t\t\tof meditation, a single object of contemplation, a single object of
\n\t\t\twill in order to possess or master it, and this it must do to at
\n\t\t\tleast the temporary exclusion of all others. But that which is
\n\t\t\tbeyond the mind and into which we seek to rise is superior to the
\n\t\t\trunning process of the thought, superior to the division of ideas.
\n\t\t\tThe Divine is centred in itself and when it throws out ideas and
\n\t\t\tactivities does not divide itself or imprison itself in them, but
\n\t\t\tholds them and their movement in its infinity; undivided, its whole
\n\t\t\tself is behind each Idea and each movement and at the same time
\n\t\t\tbehind all of them together. Held by it, each spontaneously works
\n\t\t\titself out, not through a separate act of will, but by the general
\n\t\t\tforce of consciousness behind it; if to us there seems to be a
\n\t\t\tconcentration of divine Will and Knowledge in each, it is a multiple
\n\t\t\tand equal and not an exclusive concentration, and the reality of it
\n\t\t\tis rather a free and spontaneous working in a self-gathered unity
\n\t\t\tand infinity. The soul which has risen to the divine Samadhi
\n\t\t\tparticipates in the measure of its attainment in this reversed
\n\t\t\tcondition of things, \u2014 the true condition, for that which is the
\n\t\t\treverse of our mentality is the truth. It is for this reason that,
\n\t\t\tas is said in the ancient books, the man who has arrived at
\n\t\t\tSelf-possession attains spontaneously without the need of
\n\t\t\tconcentration in thought and effort the knowledge or the result
\n\t\t\twhich the Idea or the Will in him moves out to embrace. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>322<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t  
\n\t\t\tTo arrive then at this settled divine status must be the object
\nof our concentration. The first step in concentration must be always to accustom the discursive mind to a settled unwavering
\npursuit of a single course of connected thought on a single subject and this it must do undistracted by all lures and alien calls
\non its attention. Such concentration is common enough in our ordinary life, but it becomes more difficult when we have to do
\nit inwardly without any outward object or action on which to keep the mind; yet this inward concentration is what the seeker
\nof knowledge must effect.6 Nor must it be merely the consecutive thought of the intellectual thinker, whose only object is
\nto conceive and intellectually link together his conceptions. It is not, except perhaps at first, a process of reasoning that is wanted
\nso much as a dwelling so far as possible on the fruitful essence of the idea which by the insistence of the soul’s will upon it must
\nyield up all the facets of its truth. Thus if it be the divine Love that is the subject of concentration, it is on the essence of the
\nidea of God as Love that the mind should concentrate in such a way that the various manifestation of the divine Love should
\narise luminously, not only to the thought, but in the heart and being and vision of the sadhaka. The thought may come first and
\nthe experience afterwards, but equally the experience may come first and the knowledge arise out of the experience. Afterwards
\nthe thing attained has to be dwelt on and more and more held till it becomes a constant experience and finally the dharma or
\nlaw of the being. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis is the process of concentrated meditation; but a more
\nstrenuous method is the fixing of the whole mind in concentration on the essence of the idea only, so as to reach not the
\nthought-knowledge or the psychological experience of the subject, but the very essence of the thing behind the idea. In this
\nprocess thought ceases and passes into the absorbed or ecstatic contemplation of the object or by a merging into it in an inner
\nSamadhi. If this be the process followed, then subsequently the <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t6. n the elementary stages of internal debate and judgment, vitarka
\n<\/i>and vicā<\/font>ra<\/i>, for the correction of
\n\t\t\tfalse ideas and arrival at the intellectual truth. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>323<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tstate into which we rise must still be called down to take possession of the lower being, to shed its light, power and bliss on our ordinary consciousness. For otherwise we may possess it, as
\nmany do, in the elevated condition or in the inward Samadhi, but we shall lose our hold of it when we awake or descend into
\nthe contacts of the world; and this truncated possession is not the aim of an integral Yoga. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA third process is neither at first to concentrate in a strenuous meditation on the one subject nor in a strenuous contemplation of the one object of thought-vision, but first to still the mind altogether. This may be done by various ways; one is to stand
\nback from the mental action altogether not participating in but simply watching it until, tired of its unsanctioned leaping and
\nrunning, it falls into an increasing and finally an absolute quiet. Another is to reject the thought-suggestions, to cast them away
\nfrom the mind whenever they come and firmly hold to the peace of the being which really and always exists behind the trouble
\nand riot of the mind. When this secret peace is unveiled, a great calm settles on the being and there comes usually with it the
\nperception and experience of the all-pervading silent Brahman, everything else at first seeming to be mere form and eidolon.
\nOn the basis of this calm everything else may be built up in the knowledge and experience no longer of the external phenomena
\nof things but of the deeper truth of the divine manifestation. Ordinarily, once this state is obtained, strenuous concentration will be found no longer necessary. A free concentration of will
\n\t\t\t7<\/font><\/b> using thought merely for suggestion and the giving of light
\nto the lower members will take its place. This Will will then insist on the physical being, the vital existence, the heart and the
\nmind remoulding themselves in the forms of the Divine which reveal themselves out of the silent Brahman. By swifter or slower
\ndegrees according to the previous preparation and purification of the members, they will be obliged with more or less struggle
\nto obey the law of the will and its thought-suggestion, so that <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t7
\nThis subject will be dealt with more in detail when we come to the Yoga of self-perfection.
\n \t\t\t<\/font> 
\n  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>324<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\teventually the knowledge of the Divine takes possession of our
\nconsciousness on all its planes and the image of the Divine is formed in our human existence even as it was done by the old
\nVedic Sadhakas. For the integral Yoga this is the most direct and powerful discipline.
\n   <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>325<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter IV   Concentration   A LONG with purity and as a help to bring it about, concentration. Purity and concentration are indeed two aspects,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-23-24-the-synthesis-of-yoga","wpcat-46-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}