Preface Integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is also known as Yoga of Transformation. The word 'transformation' has a distinctive meaning, and it is to be distinguished from what is normally called conversion or mere change of attitude or from the state of sainthood or ethical perfection. To be transformed is to be totally transmuted in every part of the being so that every part of the being is able to manifest Gnostic or supramental consciousness. In most of the systems of yoga, the aim is to arrive at the liberation of the soul from Nature, but there is no deliberate aim to liberate Nature itself from its own limitations. In the state of liberation of the soul from Nature,

PART SIX Yoga of Self-Perfection The yoga of self-perfection has, as its aim, perfect manifestation of the perfect supramental consciousness and power through the perfected individual vehicles for the upliftment of the entire humanity so that the supramental manifestation on the earth can facilitate more and more rapidly and more and more effectively humanity's endeavour towards increasing unity and harmony and, eventually, towards the evolution of the next supramental species. We may, in this connection, briefly indicate a few important elements in the integral yoga which reflect its thrust towards the yoga of self-perfection. In Sri Aurobindo's synthesis of yoga, the s

Integral Yoga of Transformation Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental 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

PART ONE Meaning of Transformation The integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother can rightly be described as the yoga of total transformation. The word "transformation" which has been used by Sri Aurobindo in expounding the integral yoga of triple transformation has a distinctive meaning, and although explained briefly else where, we may refer to the following statement of Sri Aurobindo: "By transformation I do not mean some change of the nature — I do not mean, for instance, sainthood or ethical perfection or yogic siddhis (like the tantrik's) or a transcendental (chinmaya) body. I use transformation in a special sense, a change of consciousness radical and complete an

Notes and References ' Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 22,p.98. 2 The Bhagavad Gita (BG), XV.7. 3 Ibid., VII.5. 4 Ibid., XVII.3. 5 Ibid., XIV.2. 6 Ibid., XIV.20. 7 Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 21, pp. 661-2. 8 Ibid., The Life Divine, Vol. 19, pp. 962-3. 9 Ibid., pp. 889-90. 10 Katha Upanishad, ILL 12-13. "BG,XV7. 12 Vide., Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 18, chapter 23. 13 Ibid., p.225. 14 BG, XV.7. 15 Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL, Pondicherry, 1971, Vol. 18,p.228. 16 Ibid., Vol. 19, p. 891.

PART THREE Analysis of Mental , Vital and Physical Consciousness in the Human Being30 Sri Aurobindo has provided detailed analysis of the complexity of our nature, subconscient, conscient, intraconscient or subliminal and superconscient; but we may first present a brief analysis of three important parts of our ordinary nature, namely, the mental, vital and the physical. Sri Aurobindo speaks of three parts of the mind, — thinking Mind, dynamic Mind and externalizing Mind. The vital is divided into three parts, the emotional vital, the central vital and the lower vital. The physical refers to the material or physical consciousness or corporeal consciousness and to the physical body.

PART FIVE Process of Spiritual Transformation : Role of the superconscient Levels of Mind But even then there are still limitations of an inferior instrumentation; as a result, the highest spiritual transformation must intervene on the psychic or psycho-spiritual change. There is thus the necessity of an upward journey above our mind and an ascent of consciousness not only into the higher ranges of the superconscient Higher Mind, Illumined Mind and Intuitive Mind but also of Overmind and spiritual nature in which the sense of Self and Spirit is ever unveiled and permanent and in which the self-luminous instrumentation of the Self and Spirit is not restricted or divided

PART FOUR How the Psychic Consciousness Develops There are two domains of consciousness, psychic and superconscient, where we need to look for, if we are in search of true knowledge and integral knowledge. Psychic consciousness is, as we have noted earlier, the inmost consciousness in the individual, and we find that the psychic entity and, its representative, soul personality, which are in profounder depths than the subliminal consciousness, are other than our body, life and mind, and it is they that support our individual life , mind and body. The psychic entity is the deputy of the individual self, jivatman, and it is a spark of the divine fire and divine love which

PART SEVEN Major change in the Process of Evolution The manifestation of the supramental transformation leading to the highest reach of self-perfection would imply a major change in the process of evolution. There is in the present process of evolution a control of the pervading Nescience, but in this new stage the veil thus put on will be lifted; the evolution at every step will, according to Sri Aurobindo, move in the power of the Truth-Consciousness and its progressive determinations will be made by a conscious Knowledge and not in the forms of an Ignorance or Inconscience.68 In other words, the rule of the Inconscient will disappear, since the inconscience will

PART TWO Psychic Transformation But the work to be done was so enormous, so meticulous and so perfect that it could be accomplished, in SriAurobindo's view, only by the triple transformation, — psychic, spiritual and supramental. This implied three major processes and results. Sri Aurobindo speaks of the first process as that of the psychic change, the conversion of our whole present nature into a soul-instrumentation; next or along with the first, he points out, there must be the spiritual change, the descent of a higher Light, Knowledge, Power, Force, Bliss, Purity into the whole being, even into the lowest recesses of life and body, even into the darkness of our subconscience; a