CHAPTER XXVII THE INTEGRAL TRANSFORMATION PART I WHAT IS TRANSFORMATION? "SPIRITUAL experiences can fix themselves in the inner consciousness and alter it, transform it, if you like; one can realise the Divine everywhere, the Self in all and all in the Self, the universal śakti doing all things; one can feel merged in the cosmic Self or fall of ecstatic bhakti or ānanda. But one may and usually does still go on in the outer parts of Nature thinking with the intellect or at best the intuitive mind, willing with a mental will, feeling joy and sorrow on the vital surface, undergoing physical afflictions and suffering from the struggle of li

CHAPTER IV THE TRIPLE AIM THE CONCEPTION OF THE INFINITE AND ETERNAL UNION with the Infinite and Eternal can be said to be the aim of all Yogas. But this is a general description, which easily lends itself to various interpretations. The aim of the Sânkhyayoga is the release of the immaculate Purusha from his false self-identification with the mechanical workings of Nature into the immobile peace and silence of his unfettered self-existence. Jnânayoga aims at a union with the Infinite and Eternal in Its ineffable transcendence; Bhaktiyoga with the infinite and eternal Lord of Love and Bliss and Beauty; and Tantra, first with the infinite and etern

CHAPTER V THE TRIPLE FOUNDATION THE triple aim of the Integral Yoga demands a revolutionary start from a basis wider and deeper than that of the traditional Yogas, and with a sanction and equipment unknown, because unnecessary, to them. Since it seeks neither merely the personal salvation of the human soul, nor its self-extinction in the transcendent Absolute, nor any rapt and rapturous union with the Supreme in some Heaven beyond, but a constant, total and dynamic union with the Divine in life, it takes care to lay a triple foundation consisting of (1) the call and the response, ((2) calm and 'equality, and (3) surrender, each of which bears a special imp

CHAPTER IX THE PSYCHIC—THE DELIGHT-SOUL PART I EVERY cosmic principle in our individual composition is. double: we have two bodies, two lives, two minds and two souls. They are derived from the involutionary and evolutionary movements of Spirit. We have a gross physical body, annamaya śarīra, and a subtle physical body, sūkṣma or linga, śarīra; a life-force working in our gross body and conditioned by its past evolution in Matter, and a sūkṣma or subliminal life, which is larger and more flexible, and not subject to the limitations of the former;, we have a surface mind of aspiring ignorance, chained to the ego and the desires, the appetites and normal

CHAPTER X THE HIGHER NATURE AND THE LOWER The relation between the higher nature and the lower is of capital importance in the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. If a shuffling off of all nature were the aim, the postulate of the higher Nature would not be called for-the Sânkhya position would be perfectly valid for the purpose. The Nature of the three gunas would be regarded as the sole Nature responsible for life and creation and the soul's bondage to them, and a withdrawal of the soul from her its final release and salvation. The passive status of the liberated individual soul, as in the Sânkhya, or its traceless merger in the eternal Immutable, as

CHAPTER VII THE INTEGRAL SURRENDER PART I THE BACKGROUND THE essential truth which informs the concept of the Integral surrender is a triple postulate: That the Divine is the omnipresent Reality, the sole all-constituting and all-transcending Being, whose progressive self-manifestation in Matter is the goal of evolutionary terrestrial Nature; that it is the supreme Consciousness- Force of this Being, or rather the Being Himself as Consciousness-Force or Shakti, the Magna Mater, or the Megale Dunamis of the Gnostics, that has woven out of Himself this immense and intricate web of the worlds; and that it is the omniscient Will of the Shakti, and not

CHAPTER XXIII KNOWLEDGE—THE LIGHT THAT FULFILS PART II MEANS OF KNOWLEDGE WE have said that a turning of the mind's eye inwards is the first indispensable means of attaining knowledge but it is not a mere introspection or a superficial introversion as practised by the modern psychologist that we mean—it is a plunge into the very depths of our being. The mind, the heart, the will, all must seek to know and unite with the Divine who dwells within us and to whom we eternally belong. It is not a mere intellectual curiosity that should be the motive power behind our seeking for knowledge, but the irrepressible urge, the spontaneous élan of our con

CHAPTER II THE VARIETIES OF YOGA BEFORE we enter upon a detailed consideration of the nature, process and aim of the Integral Yoga as evolved by Sri Aurobindo, let us take a bird's eye view of the general Yogic background in India against which this new, dynamic synthesis of spiritual culture rises in massive grandeur, embodying the essentials of the past, and claiming to fulfil the more complex and manifold aspirations of the present. Man is a progressive being. He emerges from the past only to march towards the future, which is an ever- extending line of light leading him to greater and greater conquests. His greatest achievements of yesterday are but

CHAPTER XX LOVE—ITS PLACE AND POWER PART I The general conception about Bhaktiyoga or the yoga of love and devotion is that it is an exclusive turning of the emotions of the human heart towards God, or a particular aspect or form of His. It is a culture of spiritual emotions. Love is its motive force—love of the Divine, not as an impersonal existence or an incommunicable Absolute, but as the supreme Being, who is the author and friend and guide of all creatures. This love may take one of the five principal forms: śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and madhura. The bhakta or devotee of the śānta type may have a deep and intense love for the Divine, but t

CHAPTER XIV MIND AND ITS PURIFICATION PART III PURIFICATION OF THE CHITTA As we have already said, the citta is the basic stuff of our consciousness, teeming with all sorts of impressions of our immediate and remote past. These chaotic impressions go to nourish our desires and give them different, sometimes even contrary, directions, form most of our physical and vital habits and tendencies, and affect even our thoughts and judgements. Their action is so subtle and often so swift and sudden that, unless one has acquired a yogic detachment, one may not even be aware of it. Much of it is subconscient and unpredictably automatic. Let us take a