11 Supermind in the Veda and the Aim of Immortality In the building up of the path for this consummation, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother undertook a colossal task of yogic research, and in the course of this task, the earlier religious and spiritual traditions of the world have been fully taken into account. As a part of this great effort of yogic research, Sri Aurobindo discovered, in the texts of Vedic Samhitas, a synthesis of yoga which he has put forward through his books, "The Secret of the Veda"59 and "Hymns to the Mystic Fire".60 In that synthesis of yoga, Sri Aurobindo found a glorious account, even an epical account, of

5 Problem of Conflicting claims of Religions and Spiritual Experiences The question of determination of true knowledge, certainty of knowledge and even comprehensive knowledge still needs to be explored in a greater detail, particularly with reference to the data of the claims of each major spiritual experience, that it delivers the most comprehensive know- ledge of the ultimate reality and the universe as also with reference to the data of plurality of religions and the claims of each religion that the spiritual experience which is the foundation and which is also the culminating point of its practices deliver

8 Ethics, Religion and Yoga As we ponder over these difficult problems, we are led to discover that the moral nature of the human being is not the last and the highest component. Neither religious doctrines nor formulations of ethical ideals correspond to the highest demands that human beings are capable of. There is, it will be found, a divine being in us that can be directly contacted by the pursuit of spirituality and by the methods that are neither religious nor ethical, but yogic, — methods which demand rigorous practices of purification, of renunciation and austerity. At the highest borders, there is a demand for further transcendence where the divin

This book is addressed to all young people who, I urge will study and respond to the following message of Sri Aurobindo: "It is the young who must be the builders of the new world, — not those who accept the competitive individualism, the capitalism or the materialistic communism of the West as India's future ideal, nor those who are enslaved to old religious formulas and cannot believe in the acceptance and transformation of life by the spirit, but all those who are free in mind and heart to accept a completer truth and labour for a greater ideal. They must be men who will dedicate themselves not to the past or the present but to the future. They

4 Systems of Yoga, Methods of Yoga and Verifiability of Yogic Knowledge A study of different systems of yoga such as Raja yoga, Hatha yoga, Bhakti yoga, Jnana yoga and Karma yoga, will reveal to us the effectivity of yogic methods, and the results obtained by the pursuit of these methods can be compared with each other, contrasted in regard to their differences and can be verified, repeated and utilized, not only in their psych- ological or subjective aspects, but even in terms of physical aspects, if that is so willed and if the pursuit is carried out to a certain extreme or expanding limit.

10 Integral Realization of the Integral Reality Sri Aurobindo points out in his "Synthesis of Yoga" that if we can cross beyond the Mind's frontier twilight into the vast plane of supramental Knowledge, another positive and direct and living experience of the supreme Infinite is attained. It is then seen that the Absolute is beyond personality and beyond impersonality, and yet it is both the Impersonal and the supreme Person and all persons. It is seen that the Absolute is beyond the distinction of unity and multiplicity, and yet it is the One and the Innumerable Many in all the universes. It is further seen that it is beyond all limitat

Notes and References Vide., Ayer, A. (ed.). Logical Positivism, Free Press, 1959, New York. Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL, 1971, Pondicherry, Vol. 18, ' pp. 7, 9 10, 17 8. Vide., Passmore, J., A Hundred Years of Philosophy, Harmondsworth, Penguine, 1968; Blackeham, H.J., Six Existentialist Thinkers, Harper Torch books, 1959, New York, 2nd Ed. Vide., Pitt, J., Theories of Explanation, Oxford University Press, 1989, New York. Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, Routledge, rpt 1996, London,p.789. Chattopadhyaya, D.P, Induction, Probability and Scepticism, Sri Satguru Publications, 1992, Delhi,

Select Bibliograpliy Altekar, A.S., Education in Ancient India, Banaras, 1951. Appayya, DTksita Siddhanta Les'asangraha with the commentary of Krsnanadafirtha, Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, Banaras, 1916. Armstrong, D.M., A Materialist Theory of Mind, Routledge & Keganpaul, 1968. Arokai Swami, M., The Classical Age of the Tamils, University of Madras, Chennai, 1972. Ayer, A.J., Language, Truth and Logic, London 1954. Balasubramanian, R., Advaita Vedanta, University of Madras, 1976. Balasubramanian, R., A Study of the Brahma Siddhi ofMandna Mis'ra, Chaukhamba Amar Bharati Prakashan, Varanasi, 1983. Balasubramanian, R., (ed., tr.), The Taittinyopanis

12 Mutation of the Human Species: The Next Species and The New Divine Body Sri Aurobindo has envisaged the development of the Divine Body, and he has written in his "The Supramental Manifestation Upon Earth" on the structure and functioning that the divine body will have, when it will visibly be operating physically on the physical earth in the same way in which the human physical body is today operating on the physical earth. That, when it happens, will be, according to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the conclusive proof of the evolutionary birth of a new supramental species on the earth, and also of the synthesis of science and spirituality.

7 Criteria of Ethical Perfection and Integration of Total Being: An Exploration Human nature is complex and it is at once egoistic, collectivistic, moralistic and idealistic. In its pursuits of idealism, it is not limited merely to ethical idealism; it conceives and pursues rationalistic idealism or aesthetic idealism; it also conceives and pursues idealism that religion prescribes; it conceives and pursues spiritual idealism and even spiritual perfection. The road is long; the labour involved in arriving at reconciliation of conflicting elements of human nature is arduous. On this long and arduous road of human nature,