Foreword ONE OF the areas of research promoted by the Dharam Hinduja International Centre of Indic Research is to explore Yogic knowledge contained in the Indian tradition and to examine how that knowledge is relevant to the needs of the contemporary world which Sri Aurobindo had characterised as those of 'evolutionary crisis'. The centre has set up a Working Group for 'Yoga as Science', which has been engaged in the study of various aspects of Yogic efforts recorded from the Vedic times to the present day. The papers collected in this volume are related to Sri Aurobindo and his Integral Yoga and were presented at the meetings of the Working Group during 1997. The paper on 'Bon

1 Sri Aurobindo SRI AUROBINDO was born on 15 August 1872 at Calcutta. At an early age of seven, he was taken along with his elder brothers to England for education, since his father wanted him to have no Indian influence in the shaping of his outlook and personality. And yet, even though Sri Aurobindo assimilated in himself richly the best of the European culture, he returned to India in 1893 with a burning aspiration to work for the liberation of India from the foreign rule. While in England, Sri Aurobindo passed the ICS examination, and yet he felt no call for it, and so he got himself disqualified by remaining absent from the riding test. The Gaekwar of Baroda ha

Index ādeśa 12 Advaita 5 after-images 6 Alexander, Samuel 25 ānanda 23 aparā prakriti 15 Ārya 3 āsana 26 . Bhagavadgītā (Gitā) 9, 21, 45, 47, 48,90,91, 101 Bhagavad shakti 75; see also shakti bhakti 21 Bhakti Yoga 42 beatitude 27, 28 beauty 31 beyond-ego 88; see also ego Brahman or Ātman 11, 43, 45, 65, 97 Bramhic silence 2 Buddha 97 Buddhism 92; the Yoga of 43 Chinmaya 84 concentration 28; a certain special method of 52; the method of 26; a line of 42; specific process of 27 daivī prakriti 75; see also prakriti de Chardin, Teillhard 25 death 15

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2 Integral Yoga YOGA is not a closed book. It is not a body of revelations made once for all, unverifiable and unsurpassable. It is not a religion; it is an advancing science, with its fields of inquiry and search always enlarging; its methods are not only intuitive but include also bold experimentation and rigorous verification by means of abiding experience and, finally, even physical change and transformation. The Vedas and Upanishads have, in this sense, marked not a culmination, but a great beginning of the yogic endeavour. They are themselves records of subtle yogic processes, developing experiences, and enlargements of knowledge and power. They have be

APPENDIX Sri Aurobindo on Integral Yoga The way of yoga followed here has a different purpose from others, for its aim is not only to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness into the divine consciousness, but to bring the supramental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance of mind, life and body, to transform them, to manifest the Divine here and create a divine life in Matter. This is an exceedingly difficult aim and difficult yoga; to many or most it will seem impossible. All the established forces of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness are opposed to it and deny it and try to prevent it, and the sadhak will find his own mi

Selected Episodes from Raghuvamśam ON RAGHU'S LINE Of kings who were untainted from their birth, Who toiled until there was success, who ruled the earth to the sea, Whose car-track reached to heaven; Who duly worshipped the sacred fire, who gave to every guest according to his wish, whose punishments were in proportion to the crimes, who were watchful at the proper time; Who sought wealth that they might give it away, whose words were measured for the sake of truth, who sought victory for glory's sake, and for offspring took unto them their wives; Page-37 Who, in chil

Introduction I Kālidāsa: his life, time, works and genius It has been rightly pointed out by C. R. Devadhar that, "Kālidāsa is both famous and unknown".1 Nothing definite can be said about Kālidāsa's life, place of birth, and the time to which he belonged, for Kālidāsa himself, like many other great Indian authors, did not give any hint about himself. He was much more interested in highlighting and elaborating upon the themes chosen by him for his work, rather than speaking anything about himself. That is why his life-history as it comes down to us through different traditional sources, is usually full of popular anecdotes and interesting stories about him. One

Published by Shubhra Ketu Foundation and The Mother's Institute of Research This monograph is part of a series on Value-oriented Education centered on three values : Illumination, Heroism and Harmony. The research, preparation and publication of the monographs that form part of this series are the result of the work and cooperation of several research teams of the Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Educational Research (SAIIER) at Auroville. General Editor: KIREET JOSHI Author of this monograph: Prof. G.C.Nayak, M.A.(Alld.), PH.D. (Bristol) Art work: Auroville Press Publishers Printed at Auroville P

Illumination, Heroism and Harmony Preface The task of preparing teaching-learning material for value-oriented education is enormous. There is, first, the idea that value-oriented education should be exploratory rather than prescriptive, and that the teaching-learning material should provide to the learners a growing experience of exploration. Secondly, it is rightly contended that the proper inspiration to turn to value-orientation is provided by biographies, autobiographical accounts, personal anecdotes, epistles, short poems, stories of humour, stories of human interest, brief passages filled with pregnant meanings, reflective short essays written in well-chiselled