7 Towards the Transformed Body A momentous stage was reached. An irreversible stage was reached. The whole work, the real work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, was to open up the consciousness of the cells by fixing the supramental consciousness in the body-consciousness. This work was done; the rest was a secondary consequence. As Mother said: 'It must be "worked out" as one says, it has to be realised in all details, but the change IS DONE—the change is done.... The physical is CAPABLE of receiving the Superior Light, the Truth, the true consciousness and to ma-ni-fest it.' Again, as Mother said: 'Still one must struggle, one must have

PART TWO Concept of the Synthesis of Yoga The synthesis of yoga presupposes the existence of partial or specialised systems of yoga, each leading to partial or specialised results or accomplishments. A synthesis can be a combination, and there have been in the history of yoga several ways of combination. An indiscriminating combination en bloc would not be a synthesis, but confusion. A successive practice of different systems of yoga may result in some kind of synthesis. Sometimes, for example, the practice of Hatha Yoga is followed by the practice of Raja Yoga. Or, as in the life of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, we find a powerful example, even a unique example, of a colossal

Preface Yoga is a science, since it relies upon experiences and verification of experiences by strict methods of application and rediscovery. The knowledge acquired by yoga can thus be regarded as verifiable and repeatable authentic knowledge, which is always open to the possibility of expansion of knowledge, — confirmation of knowledge gained in the past and discovery of new knowledge. This book aims at showing that the new synthesis of yoga that has been developed by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is not a culmination of the past yogic effort and aim and, that it is based upon new yogic knowledge of the meaning and aim of life. The past yogic effort is, indeed,

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

PART ONE Two tendencies of development of Yoga . The history of yoga as developed in India brings out two tendencies in the development of yoga through the ages: (i) Complex effort of yoga, after arriving at a synthesis, seems to break up in the development of specialised systems of yoga; (ii) These specialised systems tend towards the development of a new synthesis. The Vedic Samhitas Historical documents suggest that the earliest synthesis of yoga can be found in the Vedic Samhitas. The very first hymn in the Rig Veda speaks of the old and the new, pūrvebhih nūtanaih, and this suggest that there was an earlier tradition to

Notes and References 1. Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, SABCL, 1971, Vol. 10, p.16 2. Ibid., pp.30-31 3.Ibid., Vide., p64 4., p.439-440. 5. Ibid., The Life Divine, Vol. 18, p.68. 6 Ibid., Hymns to the Mystic Fire, Vol.11. p.23. 7 Ibid., The Secret of the Veda, Vol.190. pp.191-2. 8 Ibid., The foundations of Indian Culture, Vol.14,pp. 280-81. 9 Ibid., The Synthesis of Yoga, Vol.20, pp.3-4. 10 Ibid., The Life Divine, Vol.19, pp.889-90. 11 Ibid., Vol. 18, p.10. 12 Ibid.,pp.3-4. 13 Ibid., Vol. 19, pp.1067-68. 14 Ibid., p.823. Page - 57 Kireet Joshi (b. 1931) studied philosophy and law at the Bombay Universit

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-chiselle

Homer and the Iliad Sri Aurobindo and Ilion Acknowledgements 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 cooperation of the following members of the research team of the Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Educational Research, Autryville: Abha, Alain, Anne, Ashatit, Auralee, Bhavana, Christine, Claude, Deepti, Don, Frederick, Ganga, Jay Singh, Jean-Yves, Jossi, Jyoti Madhok, Kireet Joshi, Krishna, Lala, Lola, Mala, Martin, Mirajyoti, Namrita, Olivier, Pala, Pi

Homer and the Iliad A Brief Note I Homer is the name attached by the Greeks of ancient times themselves to the two great epic poems, Iliad and Odyssey. Unfortunately, not much is known of him, but there is no doubt that there was indeed an epic poet called Homer and that he played the primary part in shaping those two great poems. The text of these two poems exists, and their literary merit is so great that Homer is considered one of the very greatest of the world's literary artists. According to a popular idea which was prevalent through out antiquity, Homer must have lived not much later than the Trojan War (1194-1184 BC) about which he sang. Ther

Sri Aurobindo and Ilion I Sri Aurobindo was born on the 15th 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 foreign rule. While in England, Sri Aurobindo passed the I.C.S. Examination, and yet he felt no call for it; so he got himself disqualified by remaining absent from the riding test. The Gae