GLOSSARY   adhara    advaita ajnacakra anahata ananda apramatla asana asubha atman avata(Avatar) bhakta cakra(Chakra) —ajna .  —anahata —hrdpadma —manipura —muladhara —sahasradala —svadhisthana —visuddha Desire-soul dharma Ego     guna guru hrdpadma japa the containing sy

      CHAPTER III         THE TRIPLE ASCENT       The object of the Yoga is to enter into and be possessed by the Divine Presence and Consciousness, to love the Divine for the Divine's sake alone; to be turned in our nature into the nature of the Divine, and in our will and works and life to be the instrument of the Divine.  Letters, Vol. II, p. 3.         And this great thing, to rise from the human into the Divine nature, we can only do by an effort of Godward knowledge, will and adoration....         Perfection cannot come without self-knowledge and God-knowledge. .. .The soul's salvation cannot come without the soul's perfection, without its growing i

 APPENDIX   Sri Aurobindo on The Spiritual Man and The Divine Life: a selection taken from his writings:         The Master and Mover of our works is the One, the Universal and Supreme, the Eternal and Infinite.... All that is is he, and he is the More than all that is, and we ourselves, though we know it not, are being of his being, force of his force, conscious with a consciousness derived from his; even our mortal existence is made out of his substance and there is an immortal within us that is a spark of the Light and Bliss that are for ever. No matter whether by knowledge, works, love or any other means, to become aware of this truth of our being, to realize it, to

CHAPTER VI         SADHANA IN ORDINARY LIFE         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 mind, life and body full of the most obstinate impediments to its realization. If you can accept the ideal whole-heartedly, face all the difficulties, leave the past and its ties behind you and are ready to give up everything and risk everything for this divine possibility, then only can you hope to discover by experience the Truth behind it.  Lights on Yoga,

 NOTE         Some of the material in this book has already appeared in reviews and articles on Sri Aurobindo. The chapter 'Divine Source and Divine Meaning' was based on a lecture given to the London Personalist Group in 1950 on The Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, which he himself kindly corrected first. The chapter 'Knowledge, Works and Love' appeared originally, in an extended form, in The Wind and the Rain (Volume V, Summer 1948) under the title 'Divine Becoming: the Message of Sri Aurobindo', and was later reprinted in the Burning Glass Papers (No. 16) and subsequently in India, in The Advent and in Aditi.         I wish to thank most gratefully all the friends who by their

      PART II         The Practice the Yoga       CHAPTER I         SURRENDER         To give oneself is the. secret of sadhana.       Letters, Vol. I, p. 269.         For surrender, everyone has his own first way of approach towards it.... Complete and total surrender is not so easy as some seem to imagine. There are always many and large reservations; even if one is not conscious of them, they are there. Complete surrender can best come by a complete love and bhakti. Bhakti, on the other hand, can begin without surrender, but it naturally leads, as it forms itself, to surrender.       Letters, Vol. II, p. 339.         It