{"id":990,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:47","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=990"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:47","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:47","slug":"26-the-synthesis-of-the-disciplines-of-knowledge-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\/26-the-synthesis-of-the-disciplines-of-knowledge-vol-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","title":{"rendered":"-26_The Synthesis of the Disciplines of Knowledge.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


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

\n
\nThe Synthesis of the Disciplines of Knowledge<\/span><\/font> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\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>
\nI<\/font><\/span>N THE<\/span><\/font> last chapter
\nwe have spoken of renunciation in its most general scope, even as we spoke of
\nconcentration in all its possibilities; what has been said, applies therefore
\nequally to the path of Works and the path of Devotion as to the path of
\nKnowledge; for on all three concentration and renunciation are needed, though
\nthe way and spirit in which they are applied may vary. But we must now turn more
\nparticularly to the actual steps of the Path of Knowledge on which the double
\nforce of concentration and renunciation must aid us to advance. Practically,
\nthis path is a reascent<\/span> up the great
\nladder of being down which the soul has descended into the material existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

The central
\naim of Knowledge is the recovery of the Self, of our true self-existence, and
\nthis aim presupposes the admission that our present mode of being is not our
\ntrue self-existence. No doubt, we have rejected the trenchant solutions which
\ncut the knot of the riddle of the universe; we recognise it neither as a
\nfiction of material appearance created by Force, nor as an unreality set up by
\nthe Mind, nor as a bundle of sensations, ideas and results of idea and
\nsensation with a great Void or a great blissful Zero behind it to strive
\ntowards as our true truth of eternal non-existence. We accept the Self as a
\nreality and the universe as a reality of the Self, a reality of its
\nconsciousness and not of mere material force and formation, but none the less
\nor rather all the more for that reason a reality. Still, though the universe is
\na fact and not a fiction, a fact of the divine and universal and not a fiction
\nof the individual self, our state of existence here is a state of ignorance,
\nnot the true truth of our being. We conceive of ourselves falsely, we see
\nourselves as we are not; we live in a false relation with our environment,
\nbecause we know neither
\n                                                                                                                  <\/span>
\nPage
\n\u2013 320<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

the universe nor
\nourselves for what they really are but with an imperfect view founded on a
\ntemporary fiction which the Soul and Nature have established between themselves
\nfor the convenience of the evolving ego. And this falsity is the root of a
\ngeneral perversion, confusion and suffering which besiege at every step both
\nour internal life and our relations with our environment. Our personal life and
\nour communal life, our commerce with ourselves and our commerce with our
\nfellows are founded on a falsity and are therefore false in their recognised
\nprinciples and methods, although through all this error a growing truth
\ncontinually seeks to express itself. Hence the supreme importance to man of
\nKnowledge, not what is called the practical knowledge of life, but of the
\nprofoundest knowledge of the Self and Nature\u00b9 on which alone a true practice of
\nlife can be founded.<\/span><\/p>\n

The error
\nproceeds from a false identification. Nature has created within her material
\nunity separate-seeming bodies which the Soul manifested in material Nature
\nenfolds, inhabits, possesses, uses; the Soul forgetting itself experiences only
\nthis single knot in Matter and says \u201cI am this body.\u201d It thinks of itself as
\nthe body, suffers with the body, enjoys with the body, is born with the body,
\nis dissolved with the body; or so at least it views its self-existence. Again,
\nNature has created within her unity of universal life separate-seeming currents
\nof life which form themselves into a whorl of vitality around and in each body,
\nand the Soul manifested in vital Nature seizes on and is seized by that
\ncurrent, is imprisoned momentarily in that little whirling vortex of life. The
\nSoul, still forgetting itself, says \u201cI am this life\u201d; it thinks of itself as
\nthe life, craves with its cravings or desires, wallows in its pleasures, bleeds
\nwith its wounds, rushes or stumbles with its movements. If it is still mainly
\ngoverned by the body-sense, it identifies its own existence with that of the
\nwhorl and thinks \u201cWhen this whorl is dissipated by the dissolution of the body
\nround which it has formed itself, then I shall be no more.\u201d If it has been able
\nto sense the current of life which has formed the vortex, it thinks of itself
\nas that current and says \u201cI am this stream of life; I have entered upon the
\npossession of this body, I shall leave it and enter upon the possession of
\nother bodies: <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9 <\/span>ātmaj\u00f1āna and
\ntattvaj\u00f1āna<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 321<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

I am an immortal life
\nrevolving in a cycle of constant rebirth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But again
\nNature has created within her mental unity, formed in the universal Mind
\nseparate-seeming dynamos as it were of mentality, constant centres for the
\ngeneration, distribution and reabsorption<\/span> of mental
\nforce and mental activities, stations as it were in a system of mental
\ntelegraphy where messages are conceived, written, sent, received, deciphered,
\nand these messages and these activities are of many kinds, sensational,
\nemotional, perceptual, conceptual, intuitional, all of which the Soul
\nmanifested in mental Nature accepts, uses for its outlook on the world and
\nseems to itself to project and to receive their shocks, to suffer or to master
\ntheir consequences. Nature instals<\/span> the base of these
\ndynamos in the material bodies she has formed, makes these bodies the ground
\nfor her stations and connects the mental with the material by a nerve-system
\nfull of the movement of vital currents through which the mind becomes conscious
\nof the material world and, so far as it chooses, of the vital world of Nature.
\nOtherwise the mind would be conscious of the mental world first and chiefly and
\nwould only indirectly glimpse the material. As it is, its attention is fixed on
\nthe body and the material world in which it has been installed and it is aware
\nof the rest of existence only dimly, indirectly or subconsciously in that vast
\nremainder of itself with regard to which superficially it has become irresponsive
\nand oblivious.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Soul
\nidentifies itself with this mental dynamo or station and says \u201cI am this mind.\u201d
\nAnd since the mind is absorbed in the bodily life, it thinks \u201cI am a mind in a
\nliving body\u201d or, still more commonly, \u201cI am a body which lives and thinks.\u201d It identifies
\nitself with the thoughts, emotions, sensations of the embodied mind and
\nimagines that because when the body is dissolved all this will dissolve, itself
\nalso will cease to exist. Or if it becomes conscious of the current of
\npersistence of mental personality, it thinks of itself as a mental soul
\noccupying the body whether once or repeatedly and returning from earthly living
\nto mental worlds beyond; the persistence of this mental being mentally enjoying
\nor suffering sometimes in the body, sometimes on the mental or vital plane of
\nNature it calls its immortal existence. Or else, because the mind is a
\nprinciple of light and knowledge,
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 322<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

however imperfect, and
\ncan have some notion of what is beyond it, it sees the possibility of a
\ndissolution of the mental being into that which is beyond, some Void or some
\neternal Existence, and it says, \u201cThere I, the mental soul, cease to be.\u201d Such
\ndissolution it dreads or desires, denies or affirms according to its measure of
\nattachment to or repulsion from this present play of embodied mind and
\nvitality. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, all this
\nis a mixture of truth and falsehood. Mind, Life, Matter exist and mental,
\nvital, physical individualisation exists as facts in Nature, but the
\nidentification of the soul with these things is a false identification. Mind,
\nLife and Matter are ourselves only in this sense that they are principles of
\nbeing which the true self has evolved by the meeting and interaction of Soul
\nand Nature in order to express a form of its one existence as the Cosmos.
\nIndividual mind, life and body are a play of these principles which is set up
\nin the commerce of Soul and Nature as a means for the expression of that multiplicity
\nof itself of which the one Existence is eternally capable and which it holds
\neternally involved in its unity. Individual mind, life and body are forms of
\nourselves in so far as we are centres of the multiplicity of the One; universal
\nMind, Life and Body are also forms of our self, because we are that One in our
\nbeing. But the self is more than universal or individual mind, life and body
\nand when we limit ourselves by identification with these things, we found our
\nknowledge on a falsehood, we falsify our determining view and our practical
\nexperience not only of our self-being but of our cosmic existence and of our
\nindividual activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Self is
\nan eternal utter Being and pure existence of which all these things are
\nbecomings. From this knowledge we have to proceed; this knowledge we have to
\nrealise and make it the foundation of the inner and the outer life of the individual.
\nThe Yoga of Knowledge, starting from this primary truth, has conceived a
\nnegative and positive method of discipline by which we shall get rid of these
\nfalse identifications and recoil back from them into true self-knowledge. The
\nnegative method is to say always \u201cI am not the body\u201d so as to contradict and
\nroot out the false idea \u201cI am the body\u201d, to concentrate on this knowledge and
\nby renunciation of the attachment of the soul to the physical get rid of the
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 323<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

body-sense. We say again
\n\u201cI am not the life\u201d and by concentration on this knowledge and renunciation of
\nattachment to the vital movements and desires, get rid of the life-sense. We
\nsay, finally, \u201cI am not the mind, the motion, the sense, the thought\u201d and by
\nconcentration on this knowledge and renunciation of the mental activities, get
\nrid of the mind-sense. When we thus constantly create a gulf between ourselves
\nand the things with which we identified ourselves, their veils progressively
\nfall away from us and the Self begins to be visible to our experience. Of that
\nthen we say \u201cI am That, the pure, the eternal, the self-blissful\u201d and by
\nconcentrating our thought and being upon it we become That and are able finally
\nto renounce the individual existence and the Cosmos. Another positive method
\nbelonging rather to the Rajayoga is to concentrate on the thought of the
\nBrahman and shut out from us all other ideas, so that this dynamo of mind shall
\ncease to work upon our external or varied internal existence; by mental
\ncessation the vital and physical play also shall fall to rest in an eternal samadhi<\/span>, some inexpressible deepest trance of the being in
\nwhich we shall pass into the absolute Existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

This
\ndiscipline is evidently a self-centred and exclusive inner movement which gets
\nrid of the world by denying it in thought and shutting the eyes of the soul to
\nit in vision. But the universe is there as a truth in God even though the
\nindividual soul may have shut its eyes to it and the Self is there in the
\nuniverse really and not falsely, supporting all that we have rejected, truly
\nimmanent in all things, really embracing the individual in the universal as
\nwell as embracing the universe in that which exceeds and transcends it. What
\nshall we do with this eternal Self in this persistent universe which we see encompassing
\nus every time we come out of the trance of inner meditation? The ascetic Path
\nof Knowledge has its solution and its discipline for the soul that looks out on
\nthe universe. It is to regard the immanent and all-encompassing and
\nall-constituting Self in the image of the ether in which all forms are, which
\nis in all forms, of which all forms are made. In that ether cosmic Life and
\nMind move as the Breath of things, an atmospheric sea in the ethereal, and
\nconstitute from it all these forms; but what they constitute are merely name
\nand form and not realities; the form of the pot we see is a form of earth only
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 324<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

and goes back into the
\nearth, earth a form resolvable into the cosmic Life, the cosmic Life a movement
\nthat falls to rest in that silent immutable Ether. Concentrating on this
\nknowledge, rejecting all phenomenon and appearance, we come to see the whole as
\nan illusion of name and form in the ether that is Brahman; it becomes unreal to
\nus; and the universe becoming unreal the immanence becomes unreal and there is
\nonly the Self upon which our mind has falsely imposed the name and form of the
\nuniverse. Thus are we justified in the withdrawal of the individual self into
\nthe Absolute.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, the
\nSelf goes on with its imperishable aspect of immanence, its immutable aspect of
\ndivine envelopment, its endless trick of becoming each thing and all things;
\nour detection of the cheat and our withdrawal do not seem to affect one tittle<\/span> either the Self or the universe. Must we not then
\nknow also what it is that thus persists superior to our acceptance and rejection
\nand too great, too eternal to be affected by it? Here too there must be some
\ninvincible reality at work and the integrality<\/span> of
\nKnowledge demands that we shall see and realise it; otherwise it may prove that
\nour own knowledge and not the Lord in the universe was the cheat and the
\nillusion. Therefore we must concentrate again and see and realise also this which
\npersists so sovereignly and must know the Self as no other than the Supreme
\nSoul which is the Lord of Nature, the upholder of cosmic existence by whose
\nsanction it proceeds, whose will compels its multitudinous actions and
\ndetermines its perpetual cycles. And we must yet concentrate once again and see
\nand realise and must know the Self as the one Existence who is both the Soul of
\nall and the Nature of all, at once Purusha and Prakriti and so able both to
\nexpress himself in all these forms of things and to be all these formations.
\nOtherwise we have excluded what the Self does not exclude and made a wilful
\nchoice in our knowledge. <\/span><\/p>\n

The old
\nascetic Path of Knowledge admitted the unity of things and the concentration on
\nall these aspects of the one Existence, but it made a distinction and a
\nhierarchy. The Self that becomes all these forms of things is the Virat or
\nuniversal Soul; the Self that creates all these forms is Hiranyagarbha, the
\nluminous or creatively perceptive Soul; the Self that contains all these
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 325<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

things involved in it is
\nPrajna<\/span>, the conscious Cause or originally determining
\nSoul; beyond all these is the Absolute who permits all this unreality, but has
\nno dealings with it. Into That we must withdraw and have no farther dealings
\nwith the universe, since Knowledge means the final Knowledge, and therefore
\nthese lesser realisations must fall away from us or be lost in That. But
\nevidently from our point of view these are practical distinctions made by the
\nmind which have a value for certain purposes, but no ultimate value. Our view
\nof the world insists on unity; the universal Self is not different from the perceptive
\nand creative, nor the perceptive from the causal, nor the causal from the
\nAbsolute, but it is one \u201cSelf-being which has become all becomings\u201d, and which
\nis not any other than the Lord who manifests Himself as all these individual existences
\nnor the Lord any other than the sole-existing Brahman who verily is all this
\nthat we can see, sense, live or mentalise<\/span>. That Self,
\nLord, Brahman we would know that we may realise our unity with it and with all
\nthat it manifests and in that unity we would live. For we demand of knowledge
\nthat it shall unite; the knowledge that divides must always be a partial knowing
\ngood for certain practical purposes; the knowledge that unites is the
\nknowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore our
\nintegral Yoga will take up these various disciplines and concentrations, but
\nharmonise and if possible fuse them by a synthesis which removes their mutual
\nexclusions. Not realising the Lord and the All only to reject them for silent Self
\nor unknowable Absolute as would an exclusively transcendental, nor living for
\nthe Lord alone or in the All alone as would an exclusively theistic or an
\nexclusively pantheistic Yoga, the seeker of integral knowledge will limit
\nhimself neither in his thought nor in his practice nor in his realisation by
\nany religious creed or philosophical dogma. He will seek the Truth of existence
\nin its completeness. The ancient disciplines he will not reject, for they rest
\nupon eternal truths, but he will give them an orientation in conformity with
\nhis aim.<\/span><\/p>\n

We must
\nrecognise that our primary aim in knowledge must be to realise our own supreme
\nSelf more than that Self in others or as the Lord of Nature or as the All; for
\nthat is the pressing need of the individual, to arrive at the highest truth of his
\nown
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 326<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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

being, to set right its
\ndisorders, confusions, false identifications, to arrive at its right
\nconcentration and purity and to know and mount to its source. But we do this
\nnot in order to disappear into its source, but so that our whole existence and
\nall the members of this inner kingdom may find their right basis, may live in
\nour highest self, live for our highest self only and obey no other law than
\nthat which proceeds from our highest self and is given to our purified being
\nwithout any falsification in the transmitting mentality. And if we do this
\nrightly we shall discover that in finding this supreme Self we have found the one
\nSelf in all, the one Lord of our nature and of all Nature, the All of ourselves
\nwho is the All of the universe. For this that we see in ourselves we must
\nnecessarily see everywhere, since that is the truth of His unity. By
\ndiscovering and using rightly the Truth of our being the barrier between our
\nindividuality and the universe will necessarily be forced open and cast away
\nand the Truth that we realise in our own being cannot fail to realise itself to
\nus in the universality which will then be our self. Realising in ourselves the
\n\u201cI am He\u201d of the Vedanta, we cannot but realise in looking upon all around us
\nthe identical knowledge on its other side, \u201cThou art That.\u201d We have only to see
\nhow practically the discipline must be conducted in order that we may arrive
\nsuccessfully at this great unification. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 327<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter VI  The Synthesis of the Disciplines of Knowledge    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 IN THE last chapter we have spoken of renunciation in its most general scope,…<\/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-990","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\/990","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=990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}