“The first step in concentration must be always to accustom
the discursive mind to a settled unwavering pursuit of a
single course of connected thought on a single subject and
this it must do undistracted by all lures and alien calls on its attention. Such concentration is common enough in our
ordinary life, but it becomes more difficult when we have to
do it inwardly without any outward object or action on which
to keep the mind; yet this inward concentration is what the
seeker of knowledge must effect. Nor must it be merely the consecutive thought of the intellectual thinker, whose only
object is to conceive and intellectually link together his
conceptions. It is not, except perhaps at first, a process of
reasoning that is wanted so much as a dwelling so far as
possible on the fruitful essence of the idea which by the
insistence of the soul’s will upon it must yield up all the
facets of its truth.”
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga , CWSA, vol 23-24, p. 323
DISCUSSION QUESTION 3
What is the nature and scope of renunciation required in the Integral Yoga?
Response by Learner MD
The renunciation asked for in the integral yoga is the renunciation of our false perception, of our false identification and of our false emphasis and orientation. It is renunciation not for renunciation or for that aspect of the divine that can be achieved only by negating all else but for the sake of a massive reversal so that the Divine is realized in all its infinite aspects and in all our being, not only above, beyond and uniquely but here now and integrally.
The things that compel us to see the world wrongly, feel sensations wrongly and know ourselves wrongly are the ones to be renounced; not the world and our self. It is attachment, desire, and ego that are to be renounced and not anything else. By renouncing the body, the mind and the world we are doing away with the very ground in which the Divine intends to be manifested. Such a short cut or bypass surely cannot be the aim.
Renunciation is an indispensable part of the Integral yoga. Just as concentration and purification help to bring in the truth, renunciation helps to root out the falsehood. We renounce what in us negates and opposes the full realization of the Truth, the Divine. The focus, the emphasis shifts more and more from the false sense of I-ness and my-ness to the real Self, to the Divine in all and as all. We no longer enjoy objects as objects but for the Divine in them; we no longer take pleasure in things for the sake of the pleasure but for the divine in them; the world of phenomena exists but only as the gateway to the Divine and its value is only in its capacity to reveal the divine. Therefore it is an inner renunciation that we want and not the renunciation of the world and its objects. When we have renounced attachment and desire then nothing can bind us and we become free of our selves and ready to know and live the Divine Will.
