5 Sri Aurobindo on the Self as Experienced in Yoga The self contains the universe.1 — Sri Aurobindo But this knowledge is valueless for Yoga if it is only an intellectual and metaphysical notion void of life and barren of consequence; a mental realisation alone cannot be sufficient for the seeker. For what Yoga searches after is not truth of thought alone or truth of mind alone, but the dynamic truth of a living and revealing spiritual experience.2 —Sri Aurobindo "Whatever I may be thinking of, I am always at the same time more or less aware of myself, of my personal existence."3 In these words

2 The Manifold Being Self-knowledge is impossible unless we go behind our surface existence, which is a mere result of selective outer experiences, an imperfect sounding-board or a hasty, incompetent and fragmentary translation of a little out of the much that we are, — unless we go behind this and send down our plummet into the subconscient and open ourself to the superconscient so as to know their relation to our surface being. For between these three things our existence moves and finds in them its totality. The Life Divine, p.223 ...he [man] is aware only of a small part of his own being: his surface mentality, his surface life, his

ANTHOLOGY SOURCES The passages in the anthology have been drawn from the following volumes of Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library series published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry (1970-75). Vol. 12 : Vol. 13 : Vol. 14 : Vol. 16 : Vol. 17 : Vol. 18 : Vol. 19 : Vol. 20 : Vol. 21 : Vol. 22 : Vol. 23 : Vol. 24 : Vol. 25 : Vol. 27 : The Upanishads Essays on the Gita The Foundations of Indian Culture The Supramental Manifestation and Other Writings The Hour of God and Other Writings The Life Divine-Book One and Book Two Part One (pp

2 The Scientific Study of Consciousness Three Prerequisites for Consciousness Research Having examined and explained Matter by physical methods... — it is not really explained, but let that pass, — having failed to carry that way of knowledge into other fields beyond a narrow limit, we must then at least consent to scrutinise life and mind by methods appropriate to them.... Adhering still to the essential rigorous method of science, though not to its purely physical instrumentation, scrutinising, experimenting, holding nothing for established which cannot be scrupulously and universally verified, we shall s

11 Self, Ego and Individuality ...this little mind, vital and body which we call ourselves is only a surface movement and not our "self" at all. It is an external bit of personality put forward for one brief life, for the play of the Ignorance. It is equipped with an ignorant mind stumbling about in search of fragments of truth, an ignorant vital rushing about in search of fragments of pleasure, an obscure and mostly subconscious physical receiving the impacts of things and suffering rather than possessing a resultant pain or pleasure. All that is accepted until the mind gets disgusted and starts looking about for the real Truth of itself and

Part One An Anthology of Sri Aurobindo's Writings The integral knowledge admits the valid truths of all views of existence, valid in their own field, but it seeks to get rid of their limitations and negations and to harmonise and reconcile these partial truths in a larger truth which fulfils all the many sides of our being in the one omnipresent Existence. Sri Aurobindo It is not by "thinking out" the entire reality, but by a change of consciousness that one can pass from the ignorance to the Knowledge — the Knowledge by which we become what we know. To pass from the external to a direct and intimate inner consciousness; t

10 The Gunas of Prakriti The Three Modes of Nature The idea of the three essential modes of Nature is a creation of the ancient Indian thinkers and its truth is not at once obvious, because it was the result of long psychological experiment and profound internal experience. Therefore without a long inner experience, without intimate self-observation and intuitive perception of the Nature-forces it is difficult to grasp accurately or firmly utilise.... These modes are termed in the Indian books qualities, gunas, and are given the names sattva, rajas, tamas. Sattwa is the force of equilibrium and translates in quality as good and harmony and

6 Self, Ego and Individuality Sri Aurobindo's Integral View When we have passed beyond individualising, then we shall be real Persons. Ego was the helper; Ego is the bar.1 —Sri Aurobindo Self, Ego and Individuality in Ordinary Consciousness A fundamental characteristic of our ordinary or "normal" state of consciousness is the sense of I-ness, of being an individual who has an independent existence, who is distinct and separate from other individuals and things in the universe. In its basic connotation, the term "ego" (derived from the Latin word for "I") is applied to this core of our being as we experie

-010_The Outer (Surface) Being.htm 6 The Outer (Surface) Being The outer consciousness is that which usually expresses itself in ordinary life. It is the external mental, vital, physical. It is not connected very much with the inner being except in a few — until one connects them together in the course of the sadhana. Letters on Yoga, p. 311 The outer being is a means of expression only, not one's self. One must not identify with it, for what it expresses is a personality formed by the old ignorant nature. If not identified one can change it so as to express the true inner personality of the Light. Letters on Yoga, p. 311 They [the outer mind, vital and b

Foreword by Ken Wilber Sri Aurobindo Ghose was India's greatest modern philosopher-sage, flowing out of a country that is one of the most astonishing and profound geographical sources of spiritual awareness on the planet. But Aurobindo's genius was not merely that he captured the profundity of India's extraordinary spiritual heritage. He was the first great philosopher-sage to deeply grasp the nature and meaning of the modern idea of evolution. And thus, in Aurobindo, we have the first grand statement of an evolutionary spirituality that is an integration of the best of ancient wisdom and the brightest of modern knowledge. It wasn't that other great thinkers had not seen