TOWARDS PURNA-YOGA Continued

(II)

Sri Aurobindo speaks of sevenfold Ignorance: starting from constitutional ignorance we move on to other forms of Ignorance namely, psychological ignorance, temporal ignorance, egoistic ignorance, cosmic ignorance, practical ignorance and separative ignorance. Going beyond them all we enter Knowledge.

the Mother
Yoga is the only means that can heal the division between Matter and Spirit, between human and the Divine. Most of the Yogas use only a part of the being of man as a lever and lead his consciousness to the Infinite. Some attempt a greater sweep and take a wider approach; they work upon the complex elements of human nature. Yoga is not only the way but also the goal of human endeavour; it is not just a way of escape from earthly life but a way of fulfilling the secret intent of the Divine upon earth through an evolutionary   process.   A   materialistic   humanity buried fathoms deep in Ignorance, falsehood and disbelief shall some day rise and turn to the pursuit of Yoga for the recovery of its divine heritage. When that is going to come is a long story, but nonetheless this is the destiny of humanity that we all someday or the other will have to awaken to the necessity of realising this oneness both with Being and Becoming. There are divergent lines of Yoga in India. Some of them are inclusive and comprehensive embracing light and life, aiming at the integration of heaven and earth whereas the other schools of Yoga are thinking of exclusive realisation of the Divine as Being. And therefore they renounce life. Sankara, for example, in his intolerant haste, or rather, because of his excessive and exclusive thirst for Light renounces life. I used the word ‘intolerant’ because his quest does not want to tolerate anything other than realisation of the supreme Light. He is therefore very enthusiastic, and becomes very exclusive in his pursuit and realises the Highest. In Sri Aurobindo the ancient Indian ideal of world-and-life-affirmation is revived, incorporated and enlarged and made the lever of the luminous ascent of man to the supramental Truth-Consciousness.

Here, we will take a few of the more important Yogas which we in India have tried through the ages. Beginning with Hatha-yoga, it is a popular system in its homeland as well as in many countries of the world particularly for asanas. But Hatha-yoga is also a spiritual method of union with higher states of consciousness. Body exercises with no spiritual purpose are of less avail. Originally, Hatha-yoga is founded on the truth that body is not a mere mass of living matter or a lump of flesh but a mystic bridge between the human and the Divine. It has the capacity to help the individual to ascend from the earth level to the level of the Divine. According to the Hatha-yogins the body houses within it powers and energies which, if properly quickened and marshaled, can achieve the release of the human mind and the soul from the stranglehold of Matter. We have in Tantra the concept of the seven centers of energy, the chakras as they are called, which represent seven planes of consciousness. The perception of the serpent-power, kundalini-shakti, coiled up within the subtle physical body is the greatest contribution of Tantra. These seven centres starting from muladhara rise up to the sahasradala through svadhisthdna, ndbhipadma or manipura, hrtpadma or anahata, visuddha and ajndcakra. These seven centres govern respectively the physical down to the subconscient, the abdominal or the lower vital, the naval or the larger vital, the emotional being, the externalising mind, the dynamic mind and the higher illumined mind as well as the highest including intuition and Overmind. If only we know how to diffuse the energy concealed in these centres we can move from one plane to the next higher plane of consciousness. This then will eventually release infinite energy that leads to and throws the yogi up in the lap of the supreme consciousness.

Body thus becomes a consciousness-bridge or a kind of a subtle bridge between the human and the Divine. The Hatha-yogins were thus able to experience the secret power of the body and utilise it. The wise ones in ancient India did utilise the body-energies to realise the Divine. But then in spite of all that many practitioners also committed mistakes because of which they did go crazy and consequently were thrown out of balance. When young enthusiasts, particularly in this part of the world, practice Kundalini-yoga without the help of a Guru who knows fully the working of kundalini-shakti and ways of awakening the different centres, then the awakened energy is bound to throw the body off its balance. That is precisely the reason why one must be very very careful in the practice of Hatha-yoga. Practice of Kundalini-yoga in our times is full of dangers. It is true that it is a process which is quicker than that of Vedantic-yoga and much more assured in its results. It is true also that it is fraught with many dangers. So living as we do in a highly industrialised and technological society we are full of stresses and strains, and as such it is not proper that we take to Kundalini-yoga. It is better that we go in for a combination of Vedantic-yoga and Kundalini-yoga. Sri Aurobindo speaks of an Integral Tantra which advises us that in respect of our progress we completely trust the Mother, because Mother herself is the Supreme Energy which is released in the practice of Kundalini.

But then ‘Will’ is not the only faculty or power in the universe. Along with Will there is also Knowledge as well as the power of Love. All the three will have to be taken together in a composite path of progress so that the growth is total and harmonious, and we would be able to realise the Divine integrally. Jnana-yoga takes its stand upon knowledge as its goal is to realise the infinite consciousness of the Divine leaving aside his divine nature. It always insists on the realisation of the Infinite as consciousness. For this it utilises buddhi, the subtle power of viveka, the power of distinction and discrimination between Matter and Spirit, Purusha and Prakriti, and in so doing avoids Prakriti and moves more and more towards Purusha. Viveka eventually helps a Jnana-yogi to move away from Matter and realise the infinite consciousness. This is partial in its results even as Bhakti and Karma-yogas are when practiced separately. So also is Raja-yoga. Bhakti-yoga depends on the leverage of our emotional faculty, the heart-aspect of the human being and has so much of implicit faith in the promise of Ananda, the divine delight. And it moves towards the ananda aspect. Bhakti-yoga promises the fourfold realisation of salokyamukti, samipysmukti, sadrsya-mukti and sayujyamukti; these are the four different kinds of mukti which a Bhakta expects. Samipya implies the proximity of the Divine, wherein the devotee experiences a loving nearness to his Lord who is both his lover and beloved. A Bhakta wants to be always in intimate contact with the Divine. In sadrsya-mukti, a constant vision of the Divine is granted to the devotee, the loving vision of the Lord. Whereas salokya-mukti ensures the devotee’s dwelling in the domain of the Divine; here the Bhakta lives in the eternal Brindavan where his supreme Lover Krishna is found playing the celestial flute. Finally, sayujya-mukti stations the seeker in the consciousness of the Supreme.

The Gita effects a synthesis of the three ways of jnana, karma and bhakti in its own unique way. An integral union of the whole being through Will, Knowledge and Love will have the unique result of realising the integrality of the Supreme. The Gita lays down the three large lines of approach, intertwines and interfuses them but does not integrate them; it only brings them together. There is a kind of blending but not an integral blending. The Gita speaks of the utilisation of buddhi but does not make it very clear as to how the synthesis is brought about. It does not even make it clear what exactly is the result of the blending of these three paths. Buddhi is not a faculty of the higher nature, it is a faculty of the lower nature; nevertheless, it helps us to put ourselves in tune with the higher. It does not have the capacity to tune our self into the truth of the higher hemisphere. Sri Aurobindo brings in the supramental Truth-Consciousness in the place of buddhi. In the light of the Truth-Consciousness the method and the goal of yoga both become quite clear. Sri Aurobindo integrates the three Yogas with Tantra, and when these four are brought into play the only one consciousness-force which guides and integrates these with the Divine is the supramental Truth-Consciousness.

Guidance of the Mother who is herself the Mahashakti is commensurate with the progressive surrender of the sadhaka. In Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga there is a perfect union between Vedanta and Tantra, between the consciousness of the Supreme and the dynamic working of Shakti. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, between them take full care of the evolution of consciousness and transformation of nature of the individual.

Raja-yoga primarily deals with pranayama and yama-niyama; its object is to purify the mind and the vital so that we can gain perfect control over our own individual existence as well as over the forces of the cosmos. But the purpose of it all is not quite clear. Even if we had full control of all the cosmic energies as well as of our own lower-vital we would not know the end result of such self and world-mastery, which means we would have all the powers without any implicit guarantee of self-realisation. We may become all-powerful but not necessarily omniscient. A Raja-yogi in deep meditation and samadhi may enjoy his self-rule over the world, but then enjoyment is not the end. We are here upon earth to serve the secret purpose of the Divine and not merely to gain mastery over the cosmic forces. Moreover, a Raja-yogi does not have much to do with life effectuation. He is not concerned with how life becomes effective, purposeful, meaningful, and how it serves the ends of the Divine. How life fulfills itself is not the area of Raja-yoga. Sri Aurobindo’s Integral-yoga weaves a composite and purposeful yogic structure by integrating the gains of Raja-yoga and Hatha-yoga. It is not possible for the sadhaka through Karma-yoga alone to completely become egoless because the desires are always there. The ego is there in some form or the other unless Karma-yoga is assisted by Jnana and Bhakti-yogas. The only conscious force that can totally eradicate ego is Truth-Consciousness. In Integral-yoga the supramental Truth-Consciousness plays a very important role right from the beginning to the end. Integral-yoga assimilates all the three Yogas as well as the other major yogas developed in India through the ages. Its object is to realise the Supreme in its two aspects of Being and Becoming. In addition, it aims at bringing down the supramental Truth-Consciousness into the sadhaka and upon the earth for the purpose of transformation. For the work of transformation the individual has to depend entirely upon the Truth-Consciousness and not on his aspiration alone. The ideal of Integral-yoga is to bring down the supramental and make it manifest here. For the transformation of the earth and its divinisation we have to depend upon the guidance and Grace of the Divine Mother. The goal of Integral-yoga is the manifestation of the splendours of the supermind in human life. As such Integral-yoga traverses many virgin fields and unexplored continents of existence. Even the Vedic Rishis did not have an idea of bringing down the Supermind.  Some individual Vedic  Rishis  were striving to move towards the svarloka, as they called it; it is the world of satyam rtam brhat; this is the description of the supramental world given by the Vedic Rishis. Though a few succeeded in entering Swarloka no one had any idea of bringing the Supermind down upon earth. The ideal of transforming the collective consciousness of the race was not at all known to the Vedic Rishis. The Rishis were not aware of the different stages through which the supramental could descend upon earth. Moreover, they never thought of bringing it down, and particularly making it operative here for the transformation of the earth nature. Sri Aurobindo looks upon the human body as a potential tabernacle of the unveiled godhead and bestows upon it considerable care for its radical transformation. Sri Aurobindo has an integral vision of the Divine. The Divine according to him is both Kshara and Akshara, mutable and immutable as well as transcends them both. One cannot bind the Divine to any of his aspects. The Buddhists who speak of him as the immutable, nirguna, and the others who speak of him as saguna are both partial in their pronouncement; he is both, as well as beyond them. This unitive realisation is possible only when we attain the supramental Truth-Consciousness. The supramental makes it possible for the individual to realise the utter oneness of Being and Becoming, their mutuality and their integrality. The Being is immanent in Becoming not only for his progressive manifestation but also for the transformation of the nature of Becoming.

In Integral-yoga, therefore, the ascent to the Supermind is the first aim. This necessarily ensures its descent and manifestation leading to the transformation of both individual and earth-nature. Integral-yoga goes beyond that of Sankhya as the latter offers merely the realisation of Purusha-nature as against Prakriti. The sadhaka of Integral-yoga goes beyond Nirvana; for him the Divine is both immutable and mutable as well as transcends them. Even in the early thirties, as per Sri Aurobindo’s revelation, there were among his disciples more than a dozen who had gone beyond Nirvana and were capable of founding great world religions by themselves. But then he repeatedly made it clear that that was not his ideal at all. The Mother too often declared that Nirvana was not the ideal of Sri Aurobindo; if the accent was on Nirvana, probably by the end of the forties, many disciples would have had nirvanic realisation. Absorption in the Immutable Brahman would give one the experience of Nirvana. An integral yogi goes beyond Sankhya’s Kaivalya and Buddhist Nirvana to the supramental and its solar illumination and all-harmonising creative unity. If this be the ideal and desired destiny then surely no human individual, however intense and sincere be his aspiration, can ever realise the supramental Truth-Consciousness all by himself without the constant help and Grace of the Divine Mother. The fulfillment of this Yoga implies an opening of all the planes and parts of our being to the force of Parashakti. This involves not only an ascent but also a descent of the higher into the lower and their integration; it is a progressive birth into the Divine’s supernature, paraprakriti. The ascent takes place through the Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, Overmind and finally to the Supermind. If all this has to take place, Sri Aurobindo makes it very clear that the sadhaka has necessarily to surrender himself totally and unreservedly to the Mother. Mahashakti. Only the Mother can bring about the desired descent of the supramental and the consequent transformation. The supramental alone can transform our consciousness and make it a crystalline channel of divine light and wisdom. It will liberate life from all desires and cravings, convert it into an instrument of unlimited force, and transform body into a tabernacle of God, thus making it a flexible means of the Divine’s manifestation and action. It will be a progressive manifestation of Spirit in Matter. In fact the supramental manifestation itself is the crown of terrestrial evolution. A pertinent question could be put here: Where will this evolution lead to ? There is in fact no end to the evolutionary process, no end to manifestation and transformation; it is ad infinitum. The creator is revealing himself progressively through creation. Until now only a few minor dimensions of the Divine have been manifested; life, mind and all their varied and beautiful embodiments; everything that we see is only a fraction of the splendour of the Divine which is seeking manifestation upon earth. There is no end to his manifestation. Such is the abundant bliss of the integral union which is the fulfillment of the divine destiny upon earth. How then would it be possible to accomplish it? It has been made quite clear to us by Sri Aurobindo that we will have to rely solely and wholly and unreservedly on the Divine Mother. Only she will do the Integral-yoga for us. The truth is that no single individual can ever do the miracle. Sri Aurobindo gives a simple formula of three words: aspiration, surrender and rejection. Our mind must aspire, and all thoughts must always be filled and charged with this supreme aspiration—aspiration to exceed oneself, aspiration to expand oneself, aspiration to move towards the Divine. Aspire so that the Divine may enter us, however, the condition is that aspiration must be dynamic, the kind of static aspiration where we just keep quiet and would want the Divine to do everything for us is no aspiration at all. True and right aspiration would involve all levels of our being and nature.

A dynamic aspiration would be one which opens the sadhak to the flow of the Mother’s Force from above or make him soar into the skies of Truth. Aspiration should also rise not only from the mental but also from the life-plane so that all the emotions and other forces working on the life plane are charged with it, and the being of the sadhaka gets purified and becomes a transparent channel for the higher energies to flow down upon the earth. The subtle physical, subtle vital and the subtle mental must be filled with the aspiration, nay, every cell of the body must aspire for the Light. Because each cell has an individuality of its own, some cells may aspire while others may not offer all the resistance. Nevertheless, one’s body must be offered all the time to the Divine in his aspiration. A fixed and unfailing aspiration is called for in the mind’s will, in the heart’s seeking and in every upward vibration of the being. There should be a constant will to open up and make plastic the physical consciousness. For this a certain amount of inner calmness and equanimity are absolutely necessary, because nothing permanent and abiding can be achieved without them. There are three ways of surrender: it could be a personal surrender; the other way could be surrender with the help of the Divine’s Grace. In the former human effort provides the necessary impetus, whereas in the latter human effort is supported by Grace. But the third way of surrender is supported only by the Divine’s Grace. According to Sri Aurobindo the third is the best way of surrender. The truth is that we do not know what surrender really means; what to surrender? in what way to surrender? So the best way of surrender would be only to remember the Divine constantly and consciously. The third is rejection. Here too I would like to recall the experience of Champak-bhai. There was a period in his sadhana when Sri Aurobindo and Mother were evaluating his progress in yoga. Annually, on his birthday, Mother would write for him a programme of inner action, like sincerity, courage, faith and any other virtue which she wanted him to cultivate during the succeeding year. On his birthday both Mother and Sri Aurobindo would separately evaluate his progress and invariably promote him. Each year they suggested new areas of effort and their disciple-child scored commendable success. I asked Champak-bhai the secret of his success in the tests administered by the Divine. How was he able to succeed in the diverse and crucial tests? Quick came the reply; he confessed that he knew nothing of it at all except that he started dedicating himself all the more, and remembered them all the time more consciously and more sincerely. At a certain advanced stage of sadhana it becomes difficult to distinguish these great qualities, for they all converge on the Divine’s omnipresence and omniscience. Champak-bhai was their transparent child; he simply loved them much more intensely and served them with greater inner zeal, utsaha, and that indeed was the secret of his renewed success. Indeed, only the Divine knows these innumerable steps leading to the summit. Certainly, it would be wonderful to know the nature of the Higher mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind and Overmind before claiming entry into the Supermind, but the million-dollar question remains, How to know them? Champak-bhai’s3 life provides the answer. Let us always be filled with Their dynamic presence and with Their transforming Light and Love. And let us act always from the heights of our achieved consciousness, and according to the highest standards we are capable of. Let us constantly remember the Mother from the depths of our heart and be guided by her. She will prepare us for the great ascent and even as we get prepared progressively she will go on giving us that which we need. Let us not ask for the moon straight away. She will prepare us to reach the moon and when we are ready then only will she take us to the moon. Preparation is the primary necessity. Let us be prepared and be ready to receive the Sun; and when we do so then she will bring the ‘Sun’ into our consciousness. Sun is symbolic of the supramental in the physical. This needs enough trust, total trust, and nothing but trust and love in the Mother. Let us always remember that the captain of our ship is the Divine himself. The disciple-children of Sri Aurobindo are indeed very fortunate for in their case the Divine himself has come to them as their Guru. The captain of the ship is no other than the Divine himself, moreover when the sea also is the Divine the travelers are quite safe in the lap of the Mother.

1.  The Gita, Ch. VI, p.46.
2.  Sri Aurobindo’s Trans.
3.  And there must be many more like him among the Mother’s disciple-children
     in the Ashram and outside.

Perfection is not a maximum or an extreme.
It is an equilibrium and a harmonisation.

The Mother