THE PRACTICE OF THE INTEGRAL YOGA

The Practice of the Integral Yoga

(With copious hints for the Pilgrims of the Path)

All life is Yoga,

— Sri Aurobindo

JUGAL KISHORE MUKHERJEE

Foreword by Dr. A.S. Dalal

SRI AUROBINDO INTERNATIONAL CENTRE OF EDUCATION

SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM

PONDICHERRY

First edition 2003

Rs. 150.00

ISBN 81-7058-732-8

© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2003

Published by Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education

Pondicherry - 605 002

Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry

PRINTED IN INDIA

What is the integral Yoga?

It is the way of a complete God-realisation, a complete Self-realisation, a complete fulfilment of our being and consciousness, a complete transformation of our nature-—and this implies a complete perfection of life here and not only a return to an eternal perfection elsewhere.

This is the object, but in the method also there is the same integrality, for the entirety of the object cannot be accomplished without an entirety in the method, a complete turning, opening, self-giving of our being and nature in all its parts, ways, movements to that which we realise....

This is the character of the integral Yoga.

(Sri Aurobindo: Essays Divine and Human, p. 375)

...we don't want life as it is any longer,... we don't want falsehood and ignorance any longer,... we don't want suffering and unconsciousness any longer,... we do not want disorder and bad will any longer, because Sri Aurobindo has come to tell us:

It is not necessary to leave the earth to find the Truth, it is not necessary to leave life to find one's soul, it is not necessary to give up the world... in order to enter into relation with the Divine. The Divine is everywhere, in everything and if he is hidden, it is because we do not take the trouble to discover him.

We can, simply by a sincere aspiration, open a sealed door in us and find... that Something which will change the whole significance of life, reply to all our questions, solve all our problems and lead us to the perfection we aspire for without knowing it, to that Reality which alone can satisfy us and give us lasting joy, equilibrium, strength, life....

The starting-point: to want it, truly want it, to need it. The next

step: to think, above all, of that....

That is the one thing which counts. And then...

Something will happen. Surely something will happen. For

each one it will take a different form.

(The Mother: Questions and Answers ¡957-58, pp. 374-75)