Preface Yoga is the methodized effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the potentialities latent in the being and a union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the cosmos. An important question regarding Integral Yoga is as to what are its specific methods that distinguish it from the other systems of yoga. In history of yoga, you find the first synthesis of yoga in the Veda, which was followed by the synthesis in the Upanishads; the third synthesis is to be found in the Gita and the fourth synthesis is to be found in the Tantric Yoga. The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is a ne

INTEGRAL YOGA An outline of Major Aims Processes, Methods and Results 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

PART TWO Methods of Transition from the Intellect to Higher Principles of Consciousness The integral yoga has two important points of concentration, the concentration that is inward and which presses towards discovery and unveiling of the psychic being and its powers, and the concentration that is upward, which presses on the summits of the mind and which breaks the lid of the mind so as to liberate our consciousness into the domains of superconscience, the levels of the higher mind, illumined mind, intuitive mind and overmind, which ultimately leads to the Supermind. In the yogic terminology of the integral yoga these two concentrations are termed as concentrations on (i

PART FIVE Importance of the Individual In this entire process, the role of the individual, according to Sri Aurobindo, is of capital importance, since the individual must be the instrument and first field of the transformation. At the same time, Sri Aurobindo points out that an isolated individual transformation is not enough and may not be wholly feasible. He further points out that even when achieved, the individual change will have a permanent and cosmic significance only if the individual becomes a centre and a sign for the establishment of the supramental Consciousness-Force as an overtly operative power in the terrestrial workings of Nature. In other words, the evo

PART ONE Systems of Yoga and their Synthesis1 Sri Aurobindo defines Yoga as the methodized effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the potentialities latent in the being and a union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the Cosmos. The commencement of yoga is characterized by the point of contact of the human individual consciousness with the higher and profounder states of consciousness that can ultimately lead to the universal and transcendent Existence. That contact normally takes the form of concentration, and concentration implies a process of purification and a process of renunciation

PART THREE Spiritual Experiences on the way to the Supermind On the way from the Quiet Mind and Silent Mind or Purified Mind, and while crossing from Higher Mind to the Supermind, several higher and penultimate spiritual experiences are attained. In the specialized systems of yoga these or some of them are felt to be so overwhelming that they seem to sublate all the others and they can be felt to be the ultimate experiences of the Reality. In the integral yoga, however, the push is towards the supramental realization of the Ultimate Reality, and it is found that the Supermind, being itself the self-awareness of this infinite and the power of the self-determinations of t

Notes and References 1Vide., Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, SABCL, 1971, Vol. 20, pp. 26-44. 2Vide., Ibid., pp. 506-13. 3Vide., Ibid., pp. 514 -20. 4Vide., Ibid., Vol. 21, p. 584. 5Vide., Ibid., pp. 583-89. 6Ibid., p. 587. 7Ibid., The Life Divine, Vol. 19, p. 1031. 8Ibid., The Synthesis of Yoga, Vol. 21, pp. 669-70. 9Vide., Ibid., Vol. 20, p.163. 10Ibid., pp. 162-3. 11Ibid., pp. 168-9. 12Ibid., The Life Divine, Vol. 18, p. 230. 13Ibid., Letters on Yoga, Vol. 22, pp. 98-100. 14Ibid., The Life Divine, Vol. 18, pp. 65-6. 15Ibid., The Synthesis of Yoga, Vol. 21,

Appendices Summary of the Iliad At the opening of the poem, the Greeks have already besieged Troy for nine years in vain; they are despondent, homesick, and decimated with disease. They had been delayed at Aulis by sickness and a windless sea; and Agamemnon had embittered Clytemnestra, and prepared his own fate, by sacrificing their daughter Iphegenia for a breeze. On the way up the coast, the Greeks had stopped here and there to replenish their supplies of food and concubines; Agamemnon had taken the fair Chryseis, Achilles the fair Briseis. A soothsayer now declares that Apollo is withholding success from the Greeks because Agamemnon has violated the daughter of Apollo's pries

Helen of Troy Painting by Evelyn de Morgan (detail) The Siege of Troy Introduction "There are four very great events in history, the siege of Troy, the life and crucifixion of Christ, the exile of Krishna in Brindavan and the colloquy with Arjun on the field of Kurukshetra. The siege of Troy created Hellas, the exile in Brindavan created devotional religion (for before there was only meditation and worship), Christ from his cross humanised Europe, the colloquy at Kurukshetra will yet liberate humanity. Yet it is said that none of these four great events ever happened." from Thoughts and Aphorisms — Sri Aurobindo What is the siege of Troy and w