Chapter VII         THE EXPERIMENT IN DEPTH         ALMOST all systems of Yoga speak of Samadhi. But this word has been used and mis-used so much that it has acquired a large number of connotations which have produced a great deal of confusion in the minds of people. Samadhi is ordinarily translated as Trance, and a well-known English dictionary gives its meaning as follows:         Sleep-like state, with more less inertness to stimulus and subsequent amnesia; hypnotic or cataleptic condition, similar state of spiritualistic medium, mental abstraction from external things, absorption, exaltation, ecstasy.         Now Trance is generally associated with a condition am

 CHAPTER V         THE FOUR AIDS         In the last four chapters we have discussed those issues which form a background in which one can examine with a clear perspective the Fundamentals of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. We discussed in the first chapter some of the urgent problems of the present-day world. In the second chapter we took a general view of the various systems of Yoga, dealing particularly with certain inadequacies inherent in the practice of those systems. In the last two chapters, we looked at the general principles of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, particularly with reference to his theory of Evolution. As we saw, Sri Aurobindo lays a special stress on Involution

    Chapter II         THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE         Yoga is indeed as old as the hills, and is found as a discipline, in one form or the other, in almost all the great religions of the world. However, Yoga as a science developed in India under the inspiration of great spiritual teachers. The Yoga tradition has come down through the ages—but in its purest form it is seen now very rarely. During the passage of time it has not only undergone many modifications, but has exhibited a large number of aberrations, both in its objective as well as in its practice. There are innumerable branches of Yoga and sometimes it is difficult for the layman to sort out the genuine from the spurious. I

   CHAPTER VI         THE ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY         In Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, Consciousness is the main theme. But consciousness is a subject of enormous depths and dizzy heights. One may get lost in the maze of consciousness if one does not know where to begin. At the present stage of humanity, mind is the greatest instrument of consciousness which man possesses. But the Integral Yoga seeks to transcend the limitations of the mind so that man may be endowed with an instrument of consciousness which is free from its tardy processes. This adventurous journey must begin with the study of the mind. And that is exactly what Sri Aurobindo does in his discussions on Yoga. Perha

FOREWORD   This is not a treatise on Sri Aurobindo's Synthesis of Toga. To do that would be a herculean task beyond my scope and competence. The aim of this book is very modest, namely, to serve as an introduction to all that Sri Aurobindo has written on the subject of Yoga. His Yoga writings are principally spread over Five Volumes, two entitled, The Synthesis of Toga, and three, under the title : Letters on Toga, all together covering two thousand six hundred and forty seven pages of the Sri Aurobindo Centenary Volumes : Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga is his original contribution to the complex subject of Yoga : it is not merely a synthesis of various system of Yoga, but is a distinct approach

THE MIRACLE OF DESCENT CONTENTS   Pre-Content   Foreword   The helpless refugee   The right perspective   The two negations   The transitional being   The four aids   The adventurous journey   The experiment in depth   The living presence   The flight of birds   The grace ineffable

      Chapter X         THE GRACE INEFFABLE         There have been two fundamental approaches to Yoga coming down from the earliest times to the present day— these are the Occult and the Mystic. These approaches are to be seen in all ages and in all climes. They are distinct one from the other, both in the objectives that they pursue and the methods that they follow. One may define the Occult as the study of the Invisible, and the Mystic as the perception of the Intangible. The Bhagavad Gita discusses these two approaches in its Tenth and the Eleventh Discourses. They are the Vibhuti Toga and the Vishwa-rupa-Darshana-Yoga. The Vibhutis are the Glories and the Splendours of the Lord.

THE MIRACLE OF DESCENT (Reflections on Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga) by ROHIT MEHTA   Distributors: SABDA Sri Aurobindo Books Distribution Agency, Pondicherry : Bombay : Calcutta : New Delhi : Madras Sri Aurobindo Ashram Sales Emporium, 22/15 Pritamrai Road, Ahmedabad-6 Publisher; Shree Rambhai N. Amin "Ram Home" Gulbai's Tekri Behind New Patel Society, Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad-6   First Edition, August, 1973 Copies 2,000 Price Rs. 7.00             August 1973   Printed by  Shantilal Harjivan Shah, Navajivan Press Ahmedabad-14

 Chapter IX         THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS         Many of the philosophies that have emerged in recent times, under the impact of science and technology, have one factor in common, namely a recognition that the mind of man as an instrument of cognition and action is extremely limited in range and receptivity, and that there are vast areas of life's experiences where it is unable to function. This awareness of mind's limitations in modern philosophies is something completely different from the stand that was taken by philosophers of the Nineteenth Century. In the last century mind's potentialities were still being explored —and the thinkers of those times thought that mind could have n

      Chapter IV         THE TRANSITIONAL STAGE         The Principle of Evolution, enunciated by Charles Darwin, during the latter half of the last century, has been one of the most brilliant ideas enabling human intellect to discover a connecting thread behind confused and scattered multiplicy of events and happenings. When the idea of evolution was first placed before the world, the advocates of vested interests in the organised religion of the West expressed a vehement opposition to it, for, it demolished the whole concept of Man being the special creation of God as preached by orthodox Christianity. The principle of evolution brought man down from the pedestal of spec