{"id":489,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:19","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=489"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:19","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:19","slug":"14-purna-yoga-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17\/14-purna-yoga-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","title":{"rendered":"-14_Purna Yoga.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\nP<\/font>urna
\nYoga<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/font>
\n
\nT<\/b><\/font>HE
\nENTIRE PURPOSE OF YOGA<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>By<\/font><\/span>
\n<\/font>YOGA<\/font><\/span> we can rise out of falsehood into
\ntruth, out of weakness into force, out of pain and grief into bliss, out of
\nbondage into freedom, out of death into immortality, out of darkness into
\nlight, out of confusion into purity, out of imperfection into perfection, out
\nof self-division into unity, out of Maya into God. All other utilisation of
\nYoga is for special and fragmentary advantages not always worth pursuing. Only
\nthat which aims at possessing the fullness of God is Purna Yoga; the Sadhaka of
\nthe Divine Perfection is the Purna Yogin.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Our aim must be to
\nbe perfect as God in His being and bliss is perfect, pure as He is pure,
\nblissful as He is blissful, and, when we are ourselves siddhas <\/i>in Purna
\nYoga, to bring all mankind to the same divine perfection. It does not matter if
\nfor the present we fall short of our aim, so long as we give ourselves whole-
\nheartedly to the attempt and by living constantly in it and for it move forward
\neven two inches upon the road; even that will help to lead humanity out of
\nstruggle and twilight in which it now dwells into the luminous joy which God
\nintends for us. But whatever our immediate success, our unvarying aim must be
\nto perform the whole journey and not lie down content in any wayside stage or
\nimperfect resting place.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>All Yoga which takes
\nus entirely away from the world, is a high but narrow specialisation of divine tapasyai.
\n<\/i>God in His perfection embraces everything; we also must become\u00a0 <\/span>all-embracing.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>God in His ultimate
\nexistence beyond all manifestation and all knowledge, is the Absolute
\nParabrahman; in relation to the world He is that which transcends all universal
\nexistence while regarding it or in turning away from it; He is that which
\ncontains and upholds the universe, He is that which becomes the universe and He
\nis the universe and everything which it contains.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>He is also Absolute and
\nSupreme Personality playing in the<\/p>\n

 Page -61<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

universe and as the universe; in the universe He appears to be its Soul and
\nLord, as the universe He appears to be the motion or process of the Will of the
\nLord and to become all the subjective and objective results of the motion. All
\nthe states of the Brahman, the transcendent, the continent, the universal, the
\nindividual are informed and sustained by the divine Personality. He is both the
\nExistent and the state of existence. We call the state of existence the
\nImpersonal Brahman, the Existent the Personal Brahman. There is no difference
\nbetween them except to the play of our consciousness; for every impersonal
\nstate depends upon a manifest or secret Personality and can reveal the
\nPersonality which it holds and veils, and every Personality attaches to itself
\nand can plunge itself into an impersonal existence. This they can do because
\nPersonality and Impersonality are merely different states of self-consciousness
\nin our Absolute Being.
\n   
\nPhilosophies and religions dispute about the priority of different aspects of
\nGod and different Yogins, Rishis and Saints have preferred this or that
\nphilosophy or religion. Our business is not to dispute about any of them, but
\nto realise and become all of them, not to follow after any aspect to the
\nexclusion of the rest, but to embrace God in all His aspects and beyond aspect.
\n   
\nGod descending into the world in various forms has con- summated on this earth
\nthe mental and bodily form which we call humanity.
\n   
\nHe has manifested in the world through the play of all- governing Soul with its
\nown formative Will or Shakti, a rhythm of existence of which Matter is the
\nlowest term and pure being the highest. Mind and Life stand upon Matter (manas
\n<\/i>and prāna <\/i>on annam<\/i>)
\n<\/i>and make the lower half of world-existence (aparārdha); <\/i>pure Consciousness
\nand pure Bliss proceed out of pure Being (cit <\/i>and ānanda <\/i>out of sat)
\n<\/i>and make the upper half of world-existence (parādha). <\/i>Pure Idea. (vij\u00f1āna)
\n<\/i>stands as the link between the two. These seven principles or terms of
\nexistence are the basis of the sevenfold world of the Puranas (Satyaloka,
\nTapas, Jana, Mahar, Swar, Bhuvar and Bhur).
\n   
\nThe lower hemisphere in this arrangement of consciousness consists of the three
\nvyāhrtis <\/i>of the Veda, "Bhur, Bhuvar, Swar"; they are states of
\nconsciousness in which the principles of the<\/p>\n

 Page-62<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

upper world are
\nexpressed or try to express themselves under different conditions. Pure in
\ntheir own homes, they are in this foreign country subject to perverse, impure
\nand disturbing combinations and workings. The ultimate object of life is to get
\nrid of the perversity, impurity and disturbance and express them perfectly in
\nthese other conditions. Our life on this earth is a divine poem that we are
\ntranslating into earthly language or a strain of music which we are rendering into
\nwords.\n<\/p>\n

    Being in Sat is
\none in multiplicity, one that regards its multiplicity without being lost or
\nconfused in it and multiplicity that knows itself as one without losing the
\npower of multiple play in the universe. Under the conditions of mind, life and
\nbody, ahamkāra <\/i>is born, the subjective or objective form of
\nconsciousness is falsely taken for self-existent being, the body for an
\nindependent reality and the ego for an independent personality; the one loses
\nitself in us in its multiplicity and it recovers its unity, finds it difficult,
\nowing to the nature of mind, to preserve its play of multiplicity. Therefore
\nwhen we are absorbed in the world, we miss God in Himself, when we see God, we
\nmiss Him in the world. Our business is to break down and dissolve the mental
\nego and get back to our divine unity without losing our power of individual and
\nmultiple existence in the universe.\n<\/p>\n

    Consciousness in
\nChit is luminous, free, illimitable and effective; that which it is aware of as
\nChit (j\u00f1āna-śakti) <\/i>it fulfils infallibly as Tapas (kriyā-śakti); <\/i>for
\nJnana Shakti is only the stable and comprehensive, Kriya Shakti only the
\nmotional and intensive form of one self-luminous Conscious Being. They are one
\npower of conscious force of God (Chit-Shakti of Sat- Purusha). But in the lower
\nhemisphere, under the conditions of mind, life and body, the luminousness
\nbecomes divided and broken up into uneven rays, the freedom trammelled by
\negoism and unequal forms, the effectiveness veiled by the uneven play of
\nforces. We have, therefore, states of consciousness, non-consciousness and
\nfalse consciousness, knowledge and ignorance and false knowledge, effective
\nforce and inertia and ineffective force. Our business is by renouncing our
\ndivided and unequal8 individual force of action and thought into the one,
\nundivided universal Chit-Shakti of Kali to replace our egoistic activities by<\/p>\n

 Page-63<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

the play in our body of the universal Kali and thus exchange blindness and
\nignorance for knowledge and ineffective human strength for the divine effective
\nForce.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Delight in Ananda is pure,
\nunmixed, one and yet multitudinous. Under the conditions of mind, life and body
\nit becomes divided, limited, confused and misdirected and owing to shocks of
\nunequal forces and uneven distribution of Ananda subject to the duality of
\npositive and negative movements, grief and joy, pain and pleasure. Our business
\nis to dissolve these dualities by breaking down their cause and plunge
\nourselves into the, ocean of divine bliss, one, multitudinous, evenly distributed
\n(sama), <\/i>which takes delight from all things and recoils painfully from
\nnone.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>In brief, we have to replace
\ndualities by unity, egoism by divine consciousness, ignorance by divine wisdom,
\nthought by divine knowledge, weakness, struggle and effort by self-contented
\ndivine force, pain and false pleasure by divine bliss. This is called in the
\nlanguage of Christ bringing down the kingdom of heaven on earth, or in modern
\nlanguage, realising and effectuating God in the world.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Humanity is, upon earth, the form of
\nlife chosen for this human aspiration and divine accomplishment; all other
\nforms of life either do not need it or are ordinarily incapable of it unless
\nthey change into humanity. The divine fullness is therefore the sole real aim
\nof humanity. It has to be effected in the individual in order that it may be
\neffected in the race.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Humanity is a mental existence in a
\nliving body; its basis is matter, its centre and instrument mind and its medium
\nlife. This is the condition of average or natural humanity.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>In every human being there is
\nconcealed (avyakta) <\/i>the four higher principles. Mahas, pure ideality in vij\u00f1āna,
\n<\/i>is not a vyāhrti <\/i>but the source of the vyāhrtis, <\/i>the bank
\nupon which mental, vital and bodily action draw and turn its large and in-
\nfinite wealth into small coin of the lower existence. Vijnana being the link
\nbetween the divine state and the human animal is the door of escape for man
\ninto the supernatural or divine humanity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0    <\/span>Inferior mankind gravitates downward from mind
\ntowards life and body; average mankind dwells constant in mind limited<\/p>\n

 Page-64<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

by and looking towards life and body; superior mankind levitates upward either
\nto idealised mentality or to pure idea, direct truth of knowledge and
\nspontaneous truth of existence; supreme mankind rises to divine beatitude and
\nfrom that level either goes upward to pure Sat and Parabrahman or remains to
\nbeatify its lower members and raise to divinity in itself and others this human
\nexistence.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The man who dwells in the higher or
\ndivine and now hidden hemisphere of his consciousness, having rent the veil, is
\nthe true superman and the last product of that progressive self-manifestation
\nof God in world, Spirit out of matter, which is now called the principle of
\nevolution.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>To rise into divine existence,
\nforce, light and bliss and recast in that mould all mundane existence is the
\nsupreme aspiration of religion and the complete practical aim of Yoga. The aim
\nis to realise God in the universe, but it cannot be done without realising God
\ntranscendent of the universe.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nII<\/b> <\/p>\n

\n
\nPARABRAHMAN,
\nMUKTI AND HUMAN
\nTHOUGHT SYSTEMS<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\nParabrahman is the Absolute, and because It is the Absolute, it cannot be
\nreduced into terms of knowledge. You can know the Infinite in a way, but you
\ncannot know the Absolute.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>All things in existence or
\nnon-existence are symbols of the Absolute created in self-consciousness
\n(Chid-Atman); by its symbols the Absolute can be known so far as the symbols
\nreveal or hint at it, but even the knowledge of the whole sum of symbols does
\nnot amount to real knowledge of the Absolute. You can become Parabrahman; you
\ncannot know Parabrahman. Becoming Parabrahman means going back through
\nself-consciousness into Parabrahman, for you already are That, only you have
\nprojected yourself forward in self-consciousness into its terms or symbols,
\nPurusha and Prakriti through which you uphold the universe. Therefore, to
\nbecome Parabrahman void of terms or symbols you must cease out of the universe.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>By becoming Parabrahman void of Its
\nself-symbols you do<\/p>\n

\nPage -65<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

not become
\nanything you are not already, nor does the universe cease to operate. It only
\nmeans that God throws back out of the ocean of manifest consciousness one stream
\nor movement of Himself into that from which all consciousness proceeded.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>All who go out of universe
\nconsciousness, do not necessarily go into Parabrahman. Some go into
\nundifferentiated Nature (avyākrta prakrti), <\/i>some lose themselves in God,
\nsome pass into a dark state of non-recognition of universe, (asat, śūnya) <\/i>some
\ninto a luminous state of non-recognition of universe, – Pure undifferentiated
\nAtman, Pure Sat or Existence-Basis of universe, – some into a temporary state
\nof deep sleep (susupti) <\/i>in the impersonal principles of Ananda, Chit or
\nSat. All these are forms of release and the ego gets from God by His Maya or
\nPrakriti the impulse towards anyone of them to which the supreme Purusha
\nchooses to direct him. Those whom He wishes to liberate, yet keep in the world,
\nHe makes jivanmuktas <\/i>or sends them out again as His vibhūtis, <\/i>they
\nconsenting to wear for the divine purposes a temporary veil of Avidya, which
\ndoes not at all bind them and which they can rend or throw off very easily. <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Therefore to lust after becoming
\nParabrahman is a sort of luminous illusion or sattwic play of Maya; for in
\nreality there is none bound or none free and none needing to be freed and all
\nis only God’s Lila, Parabrahman’s play of manifestation. God uses this sattwic
\nMaya in certain egos in order to draw them upwards in the line of His special
\npurpose and for these egos it is the only right and possible path.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>But the aim of our Yoga is
\nJivanmukti in the universe; we have to live released in the world, not released
\nout of the world, not because we need to be freed or for any other reason, but
\nbe- cause that is God’s will in us.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The Jivanmukta has, for perfect
\nknowledge and self-fulfilment, to stand on the threshold of Parabrahman, but
\nnot to cross the threshold. The statement he brings back from the threshold is
\nthat That is and we are That, but what That is or is not, words cannot
\ndescribe, nor mind discriminate.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Parabrahman being the Absolute is
\nindescribable by any name or definite conception. It is not Being or Non-Being,
\nbut something of which Being and Non-Being are primary symbols;<\/p>\n

 Page -66<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

not Atman or
\nun-Atman or Maya; not Personality or Impersonality; not Quality or Non-Quality;
\nnot Consciousness or Non-Consciousness; not Bliss or Non-Bliss; not Purusha or
\nPrakriti; not god nor man nor animal; not release nor bondage; but something of
\nwhich all these are primary or derivative, general or particular symbols.
\nStill, when we say Parabrahman is not this or that, we mean that It cannot in
\nits essentiality be limited to this or that symbol or any sum of symbols; in a
\nsense Para- brahman is all this and all this is Parabrahman. There is nothing
\nelse which all this can be. Parabrahman being Absolute is not subject to logic,
\nfor logic applies only to the determinate. We talk confusion if we say that the
\nAbsolute cannot manifest the determinate and therefore the universe is false or
\nnon-existent. The very nature of the Absolute is that we do not know what it is
\nor is not, what it can do or cannot do; we have no reason to suppose that there
\nis anything it cannot do or that its Absolute- ness is limited by any kind of
\nimpotency. We experience spiritually that when we go beyond everything else we
\ncome to something Absolute; we experience spiritually that the universe is in
\nthe nature of a manifestation proceeding, as it were, from the Absolute; but
\nall these words and phrases are merely intellectual terms trying to express the
\ninexpressible. We must state what we see as best we can, but need not dispute
\nwhat others see or state; rather we must accept and in our own system locate
\nand account for what they have seen and stated. Our only dispute is with those
\nwho deny credit to the vision or freedom and value to the statements of others;
\nnot with those who are content with stating their own vision.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>A philosophical or religious system
\nis only a statement of that arrangement of existence in universe which God has
\nrevealed to us as our status of being. It is given in order that the mind may
\nhave something to stand upon while we act in Prakriti. But our vision need not
\nbe precisely the same in arrangement as the vision of others, nor is the form
\nof thought that suits our mentality bound to suit a mentality differently
\nconstituted. Firmness, without dogmatism, in our own system, toleration,
\nwithout weakness, of all other systems should therefore be our intellectual
\noutlook. <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>You will find disputants questioning your
\nsystem on the<\/p>\n

 Page-67<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

ground that it is not consistent with this or that Shastra or this or that
\ngreat authority, whether philosophers, saints or Avatars. Remember then that
\nrealisation and experience are alone of
\nessential importance. What Shankara argued or Vivekananda conceived
\nintellectually about existence or even what Ramakrishna stated from his
\nmultitudinous and varied realisations, is only of value to you so far as you
\nare moved by God to accept and renew it in your own experience. The opinions of
\nthinkers and saints and Avatars should be accepted as hints but not as fetters.
\nWhat matters to you is what you have seen or what God in His universal
\npersonality or impersonally or again personally in some teacher, Guru or
\npath-finder undertakes to show to you in the path of Yoga.<\/p>\n

\nIII<\/b><\/p>\n

\nGod or Parapurusha is Parabrahman unmanifest and inexpressible turned towards a
\ncertain kind of manifestation or expression, of which the two eternal terms are
\nAtman and Jagati, Self and Universe. Atman becomes in self-symbol all
\nexistences in the universe; so too, the universe when known, resolves all its
\nsymbols into Atman. God being Parabrahman is Himself Absolute, neither Atman
\nnor Maya nor un-Atman, neither Being nor not-being, (sat, asat), <\/i>neither
\nBecoming nor non-Becoming (sambhūti, asambhūti), <\/i>neither Quality nor
\nnon-Quality (saguna, nirguna); <\/i>neither Consciousness nor
\nnon-Consciousness (caitanya, jada); <\/i>neither Soul nor Nature (purusa,
\nprakrti), <\/i>neither Bliss nor non-Bliss; neither man, nor god nor animal; He
\nis beyond all these things, He maintains and contains all these things in
\nHimself as world; He is and becomes all these things.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The only difference between
\nParabrahman and Parapurusha is that we think of the first as something beyond
\nour universe- existence, expressed here indeed, but still inexpressible, and of
\nthe second as something approaching our universe-existence, inexpressible
\nindeed, but still here expressed. It is as if, in reading a translation of the
\nRamayana or Homer’s Iliad, we were to look at the unapproachable something no
\ntranslator can seize and<\/p>\n

 Page-68<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

say "This is
\nnot the Ramayana", "This is not the Iliad" and yet, looking at
\nthe comparative adequacy of the expressions which do succeed in catching
\nsomething of the original spirit and intention, wert the same time to say
\n"This is Valmikie", "This is Homer". There is no other
\ndifference except this of standpoint. The Upanishads speak of the Absolute
\nParabrahman as Tat; they say Sa when they speak of the Absolute Parapurusha.<\/p>\n

 Page-69<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Purna Yoga THE ENTIRE PURPOSE OF YOGA   \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0By YOGA we can rise out of falsehood into truth, out of weakness into force, out…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","wpcat-9-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489","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=489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}