PART THREE Role of the Higher Faculties Faculties of Vastness of Light, Revelation, Inspiration, Intuition and Discrimination The attainment of Surya Savitri, the supramental consciousness which is creative of the worlds, and which is the power of the manifestations of the highest triple world is a culminating victory of the Angirasa Rishis and of the Vedic system of yoga. The supermind is the highest creative faculty of the One, who unites multiplicity of manifestation with the original oneness. The development of this supramental faculty is prepared by the working of the seven rivers, the mighty ones of the heaven, which are also de

Notes and References 1 These are general statements, and they can be regarded as tentative conclusions arrived at by the study of a number of books on history of India and of the world. The Vedas speak of the Rishis of the past and of the New Age (pūrvebhih nūtanaih, Rig Veda (RV), 1.1.2). 2 There are four Vedas, — Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. Among the Vedas the Rig Veda occupies a prominent place. It consists of ten books or Mandalas and one thousand seventeen hymns or suktas. The total number of verses in Rig Veda is ten thousand five hundred eighty. Yajur Veda is classified broadly into Shukia Yajur Veda and Krishna Yajur Veda. Shu

Introduction There is no ascertainable history of the ancient beginnings of yoga. We are aware of traditions of esoteric practices in ancient Egypt, Chaldea, Greece, Persia, India and of other similar traditions. There was no doubt an age of Mysteries; there was, undoubtedly, even a pre-Vedic age and a pre-Chaldean age, during which there seemed to have developed experiences and explorations leading to discoveries which were important to the developments of yoga. The results of these discoveries seem, however, to have been lost in some developments of the past, or they seem to have been assimilated - probably very much diminished in the content and import - in some traditio

11 Supermind in the Veda and the Aim of Immortality In the building up of the path for this consummation, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother undertook a colossal task of yogic research, and in the course of this task, the earlier religious and spiritual traditions of the world have been fully taken into account. As a part of this great effort of yogic research, Sri Aurobindo discovered, in the texts of Vedic Samhitas, a synthesis of yoga which he has put forward through his books, "The Secret of the Veda"59 and "Hymns to the Mystic Fire".60 In that synthesis of yoga, Sri Aurobindo found a glorious account, even an epical account, of

5 Problem of Conflicting claims of Religions and Spiritual Experiences The question of determination of true knowledge, certainty of knowledge and even comprehensive knowledge still needs to be explored in a greater detail, particularly with reference to the data of the claims of each major spiritual experience, that it delivers the most comprehensive know- ledge of the ultimate reality and the universe as also with reference to the data of plurality of religions and the claims of each religion that the spiritual experience which is the foundation and which is also the culminating point of its practices deliver

8 Ethics, Religion and Yoga As we ponder over these difficult problems, we are led to discover that the moral nature of the human being is not the last and the highest component. Neither religious doctrines nor formulations of ethical ideals correspond to the highest demands that human beings are capable of. There is, it will be found, a divine being in us that can be directly contacted by the pursuit of spirituality and by the methods that are neither religious nor ethical, but yogic, — methods which demand rigorous practices of purification, of renunciation and austerity. At the highest borders, there is a demand for further transcendence where the divin

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 or the present but to the future. They

4 Systems of Yoga, Methods of Yoga and Verifiability of Yogic Knowledge A study of different systems of yoga such as Raja yoga, Hatha yoga, Bhakti yoga, Jnana yoga and Karma yoga, will reveal to us the effectivity of yogic methods, and the results obtained by the pursuit of these methods can be compared with each other, contrasted in regard to their differences and can be verified, repeated and utilized, not only in their psych- ological or subjective aspects, but even in terms of physical aspects, if that is so willed and if the pursuit is carried out to a certain extreme or expanding limit.

10 Integral Realization of the Integral Reality Sri Aurobindo points out in his "Synthesis of Yoga" that if we can cross beyond the Mind's frontier twilight into the vast plane of supramental Knowledge, another positive and direct and living experience of the supreme Infinite is attained. It is then seen that the Absolute is beyond personality and beyond impersonality, and yet it is both the Impersonal and the supreme Person and all persons. It is seen that the Absolute is beyond the distinction of unity and multiplicity, and yet it is the One and the Innumerable Many in all the universes. It is further seen that it is beyond all limitat

Notes and References Vide., Ayer, A. (ed.). Logical Positivism, Free Press, 1959, New York. Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, SABCL, 1971, Pondicherry, Vol. 18, ' pp. 7, 9 10, 17 8. Vide., Passmore, J., A Hundred Years of Philosophy, Harmondsworth, Penguine, 1968; Blackeham, H.J., Six Existentialist Thinkers, Harper Torch books, 1959, New York, 2nd Ed. Vide., Pitt, J., Theories of Explanation, Oxford University Press, 1989, New York. Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, Routledge, rpt 1996, London,p.789. Chattopadhyaya, D.P, Induction, Probability and Scepticism, Sri Satguru Publications, 1992, Delhi,