{"id":963,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=963"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:36","slug":"06-the-systems-of-yoga-vol-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20\/06-the-systems-of-yoga-vol-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","title":{"rendered":"-06_The Systems of Yoga.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"6\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" width=\"100%\">\n<tr>\n<td>\n<div class=\"Section1\">\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:200%'><b><font size=\"3\"><br \/>\n<span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Chapter IV<\/span><\/font><\/b><span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"3\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:200%'>\n<b><font size=\"4\"><br \/>\n<span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>The Systems of Yoga<\/span><\/font><\/b><span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><font size=\"4\">&nbsp;<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:200%'>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:200%'>\n<span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><span><br \/>\n<font size=\"4\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font> <\/span><font size=\"4\">T<\/font><font size=\"2\">HESE<\/font><\/span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\nrelations between the different psychological divisions of the human being and<br \/>\nthese various utilities and objects of effort founded on them, such as we have seen<br \/>\nthem in our brief survey of the natural evolution, we shall find repeated in<br \/>\nthe fundamental principles and methods of the different schools of Yoga. And if<br \/>\nwe seek to combine and harmonise their central practices and their predominant<br \/>\naims, we shall find that the basis provided by Nature is still our natural<br \/>\nbasis and the condition of their synthesis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>In one respect Yoga<br \/>\nexceeds the normal operation of cosmic Nature and climbs beyond her. For the<br \/>\naim of the Universal Mother is to embrace the Divine in her own play and<br \/>\ncreations and there to realise It. But in the highest flights of Yoga she<br \/>\nreaches beyond herself and realises the Divine in Itself exceeding the universe<br \/>\nand even standing apart from the cosmic play. Therefore by some it is supposed<br \/>\nthat this is not only the highest but also the one true or exclusively<br \/>\npreferable object of Yoga. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Yet it is always through<br \/>\nsomething which she has formed in her evolution that Nature thus overpasses her<br \/>\nevolution. It is the individual heart that by sublimating its highest and<br \/>\npurest emotions attains to the transcendent Bliss or the ineffable Nirvana, the<br \/>\nindividual mind that by converting its ordinary functionings into a knowledge<br \/>\nbeyond mentality knows its oneness with the Ineffable and merges its separate existence<br \/>\nin that transcendent unity. And always it is the individual, the Self<br \/>\nconditioned in its experience by Nature and working through her formations,<br \/>\nthat attains to the Self unconditioned, free and transcendent. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>In practice three<br \/>\nconceptions are necessary before there can be any possibility of Yoga; there<br \/>\nmust be, as it were, three consenting parties to the effort, \u2013<\/span> <span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>God, Nature and the<br \/>\nhuman soul or, in more abstract language, the Transcendental, the Universal<\/span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:200%'>\n<span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page<br \/>\n\u2013 26<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>and the Individual. If the individual and Nature<br \/>\nare left to themselves, the one is bound to the other and unable to exceed<br \/>\nappreciably her lingering march. Something transcendent is needed, free from<br \/>\nher and greater, which will act upon us and her, attracting us upward to Itself<br \/>\nand securing from her by good grace or by force her consent to the individual<br \/>\nascension.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>It is this truth which<br \/>\nmakes necessary to every philosophy of Yoga the conception of the Ishwara,<br \/>\nLord, supreme Soul or supreme Self, towards whom the effort is directed and who<br \/>\ngives the illuminating touch and the strength to attain. Equally true is the<br \/>\ncomplementary idea so often enforced by the Yoga of devotion that as the<br \/>\nTranscendent is necessary to the individual and sought after by him, so also<br \/>\nthe individual is necessary in a sense to the Transcendent and sought after by<br \/>\nIt. If the Bhakta seeks and yearns after Bhagavan, Bhagavan also seeks and<br \/>\nyearns after the Bhakta.\u00b9 There can be no Yoga of knowledge without a human<br \/>\nseeker of the knowledge, the supreme subject of knowledge and the divine use by<br \/>\nthe individual of the universal faculties of knowledge; no Yoga of devotion<br \/>\nwithout the human God-lover, the supreme object of love and delight and the<br \/>\ndivine use by the individual of the universal faculties of spiritual, emotional<br \/>\nand aesthetic enjoyment; no Yoga of works without the human worker, the supreme<br \/>\nWill, Master of all works and sacrifices, and the divine use by the individual<br \/>\nof the universal faculties of power and action. However Monistic may be our<br \/>\nintellectual conception of the highest truth of things, in practice we are<br \/>\ncompelled to accept this omnipresent Trinity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>For the contact of the<br \/>\nhuman and individual consciousness with the divine is the very essence of Yoga.<br \/>\nYoga is the union of that which has become separated in the play of the<br \/>\nuniverse with its own true self, origin and universality. The contact may take<br \/>\nplace at any point of the complex and intricately organised consciousness which<br \/>\nwe call our personality. It may be effected in the physical through the body;<br \/>\nin the vital through the action of those functionings which determine the state<br \/>\nand the experiences of our nervous being; through the mentality, whether <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>\u00b9 Bhakta, the<br \/>\ndevotee or lover of God; Bhagavan, God, the Lord of Love and Delight. The third<br \/>\nterm of the trinity is Bhagavat, the divine revelation of Love.<\/span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:200%'>\n<span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page<br \/>\n\u2013 27<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>by means of the emotional heart, the active will<br \/>\nor the understanding mind, or more largely by a general conversion of the<br \/>\nmental consciousness in all its activities. It may equally be accomplished<br \/>\nthrough a direct awakening to the universal or transcendent Truth and Bliss by<br \/>\nthe conversion of the central ego in the mind. And according to the point of<br \/>\ncontact that we choose will be the type of the Yoga that we practise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>For if, leaving aside<br \/>\nthe complexities of their particular processes, we fix our regard on the<br \/>\ncentral principle of the chief schools of Yoga still prevalent in India, we<br \/>\nfind that they arrange themselves in an ascending order which starts from the<br \/>\nlowest rung of the ladder, the body, and ascends to the direct contact between<br \/>\nthe individual soul and the transcendent and universal Self. Hathayoga selects<br \/>\nthe body and the vital functionings as its instruments of perfection and<br \/>\nrealisation; its concern is with the gross body. Rajayoga selects the mental<br \/>\nbeing in its different parts as its lever-power; it concentrates on the subtle<br \/>\nbody. The triple Path of Works, of Love and of Knowledge uses some part of the<br \/>\nmental being, will, heart or intellect as a starting-point and seeks by its<br \/>\nconversion to arrive at the liberating Truth, Beatitude and Infinity which are<br \/>\nthe nature of the spiritual life. Its method is a direct commerce between the<br \/>\nhuman Purusha in the individual body and the divine Purusha who dwells in every<br \/>\nbody and yet transcends all form and name.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Hathayoga aims at the<br \/>\nconquest of the life and the body whose combination in the food sheath and the<br \/>\nvital vehicle constitutes, as we have seen, the gross body and whose<br \/>\nequilibrium is the foundation of all Nature&#8217;s workings in the human being. The<br \/>\nequilibrium established by Nature is sufficient for the normal egoistic life;<br \/>\nit is insufficient for the purpose of the Hathayogin. For it is calculated on<br \/>\nthe amount of vital or dynamic force necessary to drive the physical engine<br \/>\nduring the normal span of human life and to perform more or less adequately the<br \/>\nvarious workings demanded of it by the individual life inhabiting this frame<br \/>\nand the world-environment by which it is conditioned. Hathayoga therefore seeks<br \/>\nto rectify Nature and establish another equilibrium by which the physical frame<br \/>\nwill be able to sustain the inrush of an increasing vital or dynamic force of <\/span><br \/>\n<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:200%'>\n<span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page<br \/>\n\u2013 28<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Prana indefinite, almost infinite in its quantity<br \/>\nor intensity. In Nature the equilibrium is based upon the individualisation of<br \/>\na limited quantity and force of the Prana; more than that the individual is by<br \/>\npersonal and hereditary habit unable to bear, use or control. In Hathayoga, the<br \/>\nequilibrium opens a door to the universalisation of the individual vitality by<br \/>\nadmitting into the body, containing, using and controlling a much less fixed<br \/>\nand limited action of the universal energy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>The chief processes of<br \/>\nHathayoga are &#257;sana and pr&#257;&#326;&#257;y&#257;ma. By its numerous<br \/>\nAsanas or fixed postures it first cures the body of that restlessness which is<br \/>\na sign of its inability to contain without working them off in action and<br \/>\nmovement the vital forces poured into it from the universal Life-Ocean, gives<br \/>\nto it an extraordinary health, force and suppleness and seeks to liberate it<br \/>\nfrom the habits by which it is subjected to ordinary physical Nature and kept<br \/>\nwithin the narrow bounds of her normal operations. In the ancient tradition of<br \/>\nHathayoga it has always been supposed that this conquest could be pushed so far<br \/>\neven as to conquer to a great extent the force of gravitation. By various<br \/>\nsubsidiary but elaborate processes the Hathayogin next contrives to keep the<br \/>\nbody free from all impurities and the nervous system unclogged for those<br \/>\nexercises of respiration which are his most important instruments. These are<br \/>\ncalled pr&#257;&#326;&#257;y&#257;ma, the control of the breath or vital power;<br \/>\nfor breathing is the chief physical functioning of the vital forces. Pranayama,<br \/>\nfor the Hathayogin, serves a double purpose. First, it completes the perfection<br \/>\nof the body. The vitality is liberated from many of the ordinary necessities of<br \/>\nphysical Nature; robust health, prolonged youth, often an extraordinary<br \/>\nlongevity are attained. On the other hand, Pranayama awakens the coiled-up<br \/>\nserpent of the Pranic dynamism in the vital sheath and opens to the Yogin<br \/>\nfields of consciousness, ranges of experience, abnormal faculties denied to the<br \/>\nordinary human life while it puissantly intensifies such normal powers and faculties<br \/>\nas he already possesses. These advantages can be farther secured and emphasised<br \/>\nby other subsidiary processes open to the Hathayogin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>The results of Hathayoga<br \/>\nare thus striking to the eye and impose easily on the vulgar or physical mind.<br \/>\nAnd yet at the end <\/span><br \/>\n<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:200%'>\n<span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page<br \/>\n\u2013 29<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:200%'>\n<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>we may ask what we have gained at the end of all<br \/>\nthis stupendous labour. The object of physical Nature, the preservation of the<br \/>\nmere physical life, its highest perfection, even in a certain sense the<br \/>\ncapacity of a greater enjoyment of physical living have been carried out on an<br \/>\nabnormal scale. But the weakness of Hathayoga is that its laborious and<br \/>\ndifficult processes make so great a demand on the time and energy and impose so<br \/>\ncomplete a severance from the ordinary life of men that the utilisation of its<br \/>\nresults for the life of the world becomes either impracticable or is<br \/>\nextraordinarily restricted. If in return for this loss we gain another life in<br \/>\nanother world within, the mental, the dynamic, these results could have been<br \/>\nacquired through other systems, through Rajayoga, through Tantra, by much less<br \/>\nlaborious methods and held on much less exacting terms. On the other hand the<br \/>\nphysical results, increased vitality, prolonged youth, health, longevity are of<br \/>\nsmall avail if they must be held by us as misers of ourselves, apart from the<br \/>\ncommon life, for their own sake, not utilised, not thrown into the common sum<br \/>\nof the world&#8217;s activities. Hathayoga attains large results, but at an<br \/>\nexorbitant price and to very little purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Rajayoga takes a higher<br \/>\nflight. It aims at the liberation and perfection not of the bodily, but of the<br \/>\nmental being, the control of the emotional and sensational life, the mastery of<br \/>\nthe whole apparatus of thought and consciousness. It fixes its eyes on the<br \/>\ncitta, that stuff of mental consciousness in which all these activities arise,<br \/>\nand it seeks, even as Hathayoga with its physical material, first to purify and<br \/>\nto tranquillise. The normal state of man is a condition of trouble and<br \/>\ndisorder, a kingdom either at war with itself or badly governed; for the lord,<br \/>\nthe Purusha, is subjected to his ministers, the faculties, subjected even to<br \/>\nhis subjects, the instruments of sensation, emotion, action, enjoyment.<br \/>\nSwarajya, self-rule, must be substituted for this subjection. First, therefore,<br \/>\nthe powers of order must be helped to overcome the powers of disorder. The<br \/>\npreliminary movement of Rajayoga is a careful self-discipline by which good<br \/>\nhabits of mind are substituted for the lawless movements that indulge the lower<br \/>\nnervous being. By the practice of truth, by renunciation of all forms of<br \/>\negoistic seeking, by abstention from injury to others, <\/span><br \/>\n<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:200%'>\n<span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page \u2013 30<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>by purity, by constant meditation and<br \/>\ninclination to the divine Purusha who is the true lord of the mental kingdom, a<br \/>\npure, glad, clear state of mind and heart is established.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>This is the first step<br \/>\nonly. Afterwards, the ordinary activities of the mind and sense must be<br \/>\nentirely quieted in order that the soul may be free to ascend to higher states<br \/>\nof consciousness and acquire the foundation for a perfect freedom and<br \/>\nself-mastery. But Rajayoga does not forget that the disabilities of the<br \/>\nordinary mind proceed largely from its subjection to the reactions of the<br \/>\nnervous system and the body. It adopts therefore from the Hathayogic system its<br \/>\ndevices of &#257;sana and pr&#257;&#326;&#257;y&#257;ma, but reduces their<br \/>\nmultiple and elaborate forms in each case to one simplest and most directly<br \/>\neffective process sufficient for its own immediate object. Thus it gets rid of<br \/>\nthe Hathayogic complexity and cumbrousness while it utilises the swift and<br \/>\npowerful efficacy of its methods for the control of the body and the vital<br \/>\nfunctions and for the awakening of that internal dynamism, full of a latent<br \/>\nsupernormal faculty, typified in Yogic terminology by the ku&#326;dalin&#299;,<br \/>\nthe coiled and sleeping serpent of Energy within. This done, the system<br \/>\nproceeds to the perfect quieting of the restless mind and its elevation to a<br \/>\nhigher plane through concentration of mental force by the successive stages<br \/>\nwhich lead to the utmost inner concentration or ingathered state of the<br \/>\nconsciousness which is called Samadhi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>By Samadhi, in which the<br \/>\nmind acquires the capacity of withdrawing from its limited waking activities<br \/>\ninto freer and higher states of consciousness, Rajayoga serves a double<br \/>\npurpose. It compasses a pure mental action liberated from the confusions of the<br \/>\nouter consciousness and passes thence to the higher supra-mental planes on<br \/>\nwhich the individual soul enters into its true spiritual existence. But also it<br \/>\nacquires the capacity of that free and concentrated energising of consciousness<br \/>\non its object which our philosophy asserts as the primary cosmic energy and the<br \/>\nmethod of divine action upon the world. By this capacity the Yogin, already<br \/>\npossessed of the highest supra-cosmic knowledge and experience in the state of<br \/>\ntrance, is able in the waking state to acquire directly whatever knowledge and<br \/>\nexercise whatever mastery may be useful or necessary to his activities in the<br \/>\nobjective world. For the ancient system of Rajayoga aimed <\/span><br \/>\n<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:200%'>\n<span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page<br \/>\n\u2013 31<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>not only at Swarajya, self-rule or subjective<br \/>\nempire, the entire control by the subjective consciousness of all the states<br \/>\nand activities proper to its own domain, but included Samrajya as well, outward<br \/>\nempire, the control by the subjective consciousness of its outer activities and<br \/>\nenvironment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;We perceive that as<br \/>\nHathayoga, dealing with the life and body, aims at the supernormal perfection<br \/>\nof the physical life and its capacities and goes beyond it into the domain of<br \/>\nthe mental life, so Rajayoga, operating with the mind, aims at a supernormal<br \/>\nperfection and enlargement of the capacities of the mental life and goes beyond<br \/>\nit into the domain of the spiritual existence. But the weakness of the system<br \/>\nlies in its excessive reliance on abnormal states of trance. This limitation<br \/>\nleads first to a certain aloofness from the physical life which is our<br \/>\nfoundation and the sphere into which we have to bring our mental and spiritual<br \/>\ngains. Especially is the spiritual life, in this system, too much associated<br \/>\nwith the state of Samadhi. Our object is to make the spiritual life and its<br \/>\nexperiences fully active and fully utilisable in the waking state and even in<br \/>\nthe normal use of the functions. But in Rajayoga it tends to withdraw into a<br \/>\nsubliminal plane at the back of our normal experiences instead of descending<br \/>\nand possessing our whole existence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>The triple Path of<br \/>\ndevotion, knowledge and works attempts the province which Rajayoga leaves<br \/>\nunoccupied. It differs from Rajayoga in that it does not occupy itself with the<br \/>\nelaborate training of the whole mental system as the condition of perfection,<br \/>\nbut seizes on certain central principles, the intellect, the heart, the will,<br \/>\nand seeks to convert their normal operations by turning them away from their<br \/>\nordinary and external preoccupations and activities and concentrating them on<br \/>\nthe Divine. It differs also in this, \u2013 and here from the point of view of an<br \/>\nintegral Yoga there seems to be a defect, \u2013 that it is indifferent to mental<br \/>\nand bodily perfection and aims only at purity as a condition of the divine<br \/>\nrealisation. A second defect is that as actually practised it chooses one of<br \/>\nthe three parallel paths exclusively and almost in antagonism to the others<br \/>\ninstead of effecting a synthetic harmony of the intellect, the heart and the will<br \/>\nin an integral divine realisation.<\/span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:200%'>\n<span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page<br \/>\n\u2013 32<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Path of Knowledge<br \/>\naims at the realisation of the unique and supreme Self. It proceeds by the<br \/>\nmethod of intellectual reflection, vic&#257;ra, to right discrimination, viveka.<br \/>\nIt observes and distinguishes the different elements of our apparent or<br \/>\nphenomenal being and rejecting identification with each of them arrives at<br \/>\ntheir exclusion and separation in one common term as constituents of Prakriti,<br \/>\nof phenomenal Nature, creations of Maya, the phenomenal consciousness. So it is<br \/>\nable to arrive at its right identification with the pure and unique Self which<br \/>\nis not mutable or perishable, not determinable by any phenomenon or combination<br \/>\nof phenomena. From this point the path, as ordinarily followed, leads to the<br \/>\nrejection of the phenomenal worlds from the consciousness as an illusion and<br \/>\nthe final immergence without return of the individual soul in the Supreme.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;But this exclusive<br \/>\nconsummation is not the sole or inevitable result of the Path of Knowledge.<br \/>\nFor, followed more largely and with a less individual aim, the method of<br \/>\nKnowledge may lead to an active conquest of the cosmic existence for the Divine<br \/>\nno less than to a transcendence. The point of this departure is the realisation<br \/>\nof the supreme Self not only in one&#8217;s own being but in all beings and, finally,<br \/>\nthe realisation of even the phenomenal aspects of the world as a play of the<br \/>\ndivine consciousness and not something entirely alien to its true nature. And<br \/>\non the basis of this realisation a yet further enlargement is possible, the<br \/>\nconversion of all forms of knowledge, however mundane, into activities of the<br \/>\ndivine consciousness utilisable for the perception of the one and unique Object<br \/>\nof knowledge both in itself and through the play of its forms and symbols. Such<br \/>\na method might well lead to the elevation of the whole range of human intellect<br \/>\nand perception to the divine level, to its spiritualisation and to the<br \/>\njustification of the cosmic travail of knowledge in humanity. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>The Path of Devotion<br \/>\naims at the enjoyment of the supreme Love and Bliss and utilises normally the<br \/>\nconception of the supreme Lord in His personality as the divine Lover and<br \/>\nenjoyer of the universe. The world is then realised as a play of the Lord, with<br \/>\nour human life as its final stage, pursued through the different phases of<br \/>\nself-concealment and self-revelation. The principle of Bhakti Yoga is to<br \/>\nutilise all the normal relations of human life <\/span><br \/>\n<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:200%'>\n<span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page<br \/>\n\u2013 33<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>into which emotion enters and apply them no<br \/>\nlonger to transient worldly relations, but to the joy of the All-Loving, the<br \/>\nAll-Beautiful and the All-Blissful. Worship and meditation are used only for<br \/>\nthe preparation and increase of intensity of the divine relationship. And this<br \/>\nYoga is catholic in its use of all emotional relations, so that even enmity and<br \/>\nopposition to God, considered as an intense, impatient and perverse form of<br \/>\nLove, is conceived as a possible means of realisation and salvation. This path,<br \/>\ntoo, as ordinarily practised, leads away from world-existence to an absorption,<br \/>\nof another kind than the Monist&#8217;s, in the Transcendent and Supra-cosmic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>But, here too, the<br \/>\nexclusive result is not inevitable. The Yoga itself provides a first corrective<br \/>\nby not confining the play of divine love to the relation between the supreme<br \/>\nSoul and the individual, but extending it to a common feeling and mutual<br \/>\nworship between the devotees themselves united in the same realisation of the<br \/>\nsupreme Love and Bliss. It provides a yet more general corrective in the realisation<br \/>\nof the divine object of Love in all beings not only human but animal, easily<br \/>\nextended to all forms whatsoever. We can see how this larger application of the<br \/>\nYoga of Devotion may be so used as to lead to the elevation of the whole range<br \/>\nof human emotion, sensation and aesthetic perception to the divine level, its<br \/>\nspiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards love and<br \/>\njoy in our humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>The Path of Works aims<br \/>\nat the dedication of every human activity to the supreme Will. It begins by the<br \/>\nrenunciation of all egoistic aim for our works, all pursuit of action for an<br \/>\ninterested aim or for the sake of a worldly result. By this renunciation it so<br \/>\npurifies the mind and the will that we become easily conscious of the great<br \/>\nuniversal Energy as the true doer of all our actions and the Lord of that<br \/>\nEnergy as their ruler and director with the individual as only a mask, an<br \/>\nexcuse, an instrument or, more positively, a conscious centre of action and<br \/>\nphenomenal relation. The choice and direction of the act is more and more<br \/>\nconsciously left to this supreme Will and this universal Energy. To That our<br \/>\nworks as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned. The object is<br \/>\nthe release of the soul from its bondage <\/span><br \/>\n<span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:200%'>\n<span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page<br \/>\n\u2013 34<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"MsoNormal\" align=\"center\" style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'><\/p>\n<hr size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" align=\"center\">\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>to appearances and to the reaction of phenomenal<br \/>\nactivities. Karmayoga is used, like the other paths, to lead to liberation from<br \/>\nphenomenal existence and a departure into the Supreme. But here too the<br \/>\nexclusive result is not inevitable. The end of the path may be, equally, a<br \/>\nperception of the Divine in all energies, in all happenings, in all activities,<br \/>\nand a free and unegoistic participation of the soul in the cosmic action. So<br \/>\nfollowed it will lead to the elevation of all human will and activity to the<br \/>\ndivine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour<br \/>\ntowards freedom, power and perfection in the human being.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" style='margin:0;text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:200%'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>We can see also that in<br \/>\nthe integral view of things these three paths are one. Divine Love should<br \/>\nnormally lead to the perfect knowledge of the Beloved by perfect intimacy, thus<br \/>\nbecoming a path of Knowledge, and to divine service, thus becoming a path of<br \/>\nWorks. So also should perfect Knowledge lead to perfect Love and Joy and a full<br \/>\nacceptance of the works of That which is known; dedicated Works to the entire<br \/>\nlove of the Master of the Sacrifice and the deepest knowledge of His ways and<br \/>\nHis being. It is in this triple path that we come most readily to the absolute<br \/>\nknowledge, love and service of the One in all beings and in the entire cosmic<br \/>\nmanifestation.<\/span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoPlainText\" align=\"center\" style='margin:0;text-align:center;line-height:200%'>\n<span style='font-family:\"Times New Roman\"'>Page<br \/>\n\u2013 35<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chapter IV&nbsp; The Systems of Yoga&nbsp; &nbsp; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 THESE relations between the different psychological divisions of the human being and these various utilities and objects&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","wpcat-20-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963","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=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}