STUDY OF INTEGRAL YOGA

INTEGRAL YOGA 

Integral yoga, also called supramental yoga, is the yoga-based philosophy and practice of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother (Mirra Alfassa). Sri Aurobindo finds that there has always been impulse or longings in humans in search for God, Light, Bliss, Freedom, Immortality which has presented itself in a right place in a sequence, which Nature is seeking to evolve beyond mind. This sequence on one end which depicts Life is already involved in Matter (or Matter a form of veiled life, i.e. life being evolved out of matter) and mind in life (i.e. mind being evolved out of life), leading to the understanding that currently the mind is also a veil of higher states which are beyond mind. Nature via the said impulses would gradually prepare for a higher living and a diviner life.

Integral yoga finds all life conscious or unconscious a yoga, defines the term yoga as a methodised effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the secret potentialities latent in the being and highest condition of victory in that effort—a union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent existence which is seen partially as expressions in humans and in the cosmos.

According to Sri Aurobindo, the current status of human evolution is an intermediate stage in the evolution of being, which is on its way to the unfolding of the spirit, and the self-revelation of divinity in all things.Yoga is a rapid and concentrated evolution of being, which can take effect in one life-time, while unassisted natural evolution would take many centuries or many births. Sri Aurobindo suggests a grand representation of future potentialities called sapta chatushtaya (seven quadrates), which depicts a road map to coming evolution.

Concept of Life

Humanity and its purpose

Pure existence/purusha 

Sri Aurobindo observes that Brahman to be present in all, not in equal part of itself but its whole self at one and to be indivisible, To Brahman there are no whole and parts, but each thing is all itself and benefits by the whole of Brahman. even though there is a presence of an illusion of quality and illusion of quantity which may differ, the self to be equal. The form, manner and result of the force of action may vary infinitely but the primal energy would remain same in all.

According to Sri Aurobindo the Vedanta asserts that we are a subordinate and an aspect of a movement of an infinite energy and the movement being a subordinate and an aspect of something other than itself, of a great timeless, spaceless stability, unchanging over time, not acting, not energy but a pure existence. he finds that even though for an observer the world may seem a block of movement, but this energy is an output of a pure existence, this nature of existence would presuppose all end and beginning leading to the understanding that the concept of an absolute beginning and an absolute end an illusion or a fiction. Here He rejects the concept of Nihilism. and asserts concept of a pure existence & movement, the energy which he terms to be world-existence both to be real, one being a fact of being and other a fact of becoming.

even though pure existence being an absolute is unknowable by our thought, Sri Aurobindo finds that not only can we have a glimpse of the pure existence in experience, but we can draw back into it and live in it entirely.

Conscious Force/prakriti - Power of Chit

Reason of existence

Buy Accepting a pure existence, which is absolute beginning, end, an inherent solf-consciouness in separable from its being and throwing itself out as a force of movement of consciousness which would be the creation of forms, forces and worlds.

Evolution

Through evolution Spirit rediscovered itself as Spirit. Evolution follows a developmental trajectory from the original inconscience of matter into life, to mind, and then to spiritualized mind, culminating in The Supermind or Truth Consciousness.Evolution is teleological,since the developing entity contains within itself already the totality toward which it develops.It is not a mechanistic or deterministic teleological but a "manifestation of all the possibilities inherent in the total movement."

The Psychic Being

The Psychic Being is Sri Aurobindo's term for the Personal Evolving Soul, the principle of Divine spirit in every individual. The Psychic is the "Innermost Being", the permanent being in us that stands behind and supports the physical, vital and mental principles. It "uses mind, life and body as its instruments," undergoing their fate yet also transcending them.

In Integral Yoga the goal is to move inward and discover the Psychic Being, which then can bring about a transformation of the outer nature. This transformation of the outer being or ego by the Psychic is called Psychicisation; it is one of the three necessary stages in the realisation of the Supramental consciousness. This Psychic transformation is the decisive movement that enables a never-ending progress in life, through the power of connecting to one's inner spirit or Divine Essence. The Psychic begins its evolution completely veiled and hidden, but grows through successive lifetimes, and gradually exerts a greater influence, taking on the role of spiritual Guide.

Central being

Central Being refers to the transcendent and eternal spirit, as opposed to the incarnate and evolving Soul, which he calls the Psychic Being. Sometimes it refers to both of them together as the essential spiritual core of the being. The Central Being "presides over the different births one after the other but is itself unborn" . This transcendent Central Being or Spirit is also designated as the Jiva or Jivatman, although the meaning of these terms in Sri Aurobindo's philosophy differs greatly from that of much of conventional Vedanta (especially Advaita Vedanta)

Levels of being

Sri Aurobindo's model of Being and Evolution

Levels of Being Development

Overall Outer Being Inner Being Psychic Being

Supermind Supermind Gnostic Man

Supra-mentalisation

Mind Overmind Psychisation

and

Spiritualisation

Intuition

Illuminated Mind

Higher Mind

Subconscient

mind Mind proper Subliminal

(inner)

mind Evolution

Vital Subconsc.

Vital Vital Subl.

(inner)

Vital

Physical Subconsc.

Physical Physical Subl. (inner)

Physical

Inconscient Inconscient

The levels of being ascend from the inconscient to the Supermind.

Inconscient

Inconscient Matter is the lowest level of involution. Spirit is still present in the inconscient: "The Inconscient is the Superconscient's sleep." The Inconscient is also the instrument of the Superconsciousness which has created the Universe. According to Satprem, the Inconscient lies at the bottom of the physical subconscient,and "life emerged [...] at the border between the material inconscient and the physical consciousness [...] in our body.

Subconscient and subtle or subliminal conscient

The physical, vital and mental levels of being contain both a subconscient and a subtle or subliminal part.

The subconscient

The subconscient parts are the submerged parts. It contains "obstinate samskaras, impressions, associations, fixed notions, habitual reactions formed by the past." According to Satprem, there are several levels of the subconscient, corresponding with the different levels of our being: a mental subconscient, a vital subconscient, and a physical subconscient, down to the material Inconscient.

According to Sri Aurobindo, the body is partly a creation of the inconscient or subconscient. According to The Mother, the ordinary, false consciousness, which is common to material body-consciousness, is derived from the subconscient and the inconscient. According to Aurobindo, the outer being depends on the subconscient, which hinders the spiritual progress. Only by living in the inner being can this obstacle be overcome.

According to Sharma, the subconscient is "the inconscient in the proces of becoming conscient."It is a submerged part of the personality without waking consciousness, but which does receive impressions, and influences the conscious mind.According to Sharma, it includes the unconscious mind which is described by psychologists like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, though it includes much more than the unconscious of (Freudian) psychology.

The subtle or subliminal conscient

The subtle or subliminal is the subtle, higher counterpart of the subconscient. According to Sharma, "it has an inner mind, an inner vital being, and an inner subtle physical being, wider than man's consciousness." It can directly experience the Universal, and "it is the source of inspirations, intuitions, ideas, will [...] as well as [...] telepathy [and] clearvoyance."

Gross body

The gross body commonly referred to in yoga constitutes mainly of two parts the material physical body (annakosha) and the nervous system normally refer to as vital vehicle (Prana kosha) in Integral yoga.

Physical

The Physical level refers to both the physical body and the body's consciousness. The body is just as conscious as the vital and mental parts of the being, only it is a different type of consciousness. The Physical not only shades upwards to higher ontological levels, but also downwards into the Subconscient.

The Subtle physical is Sri Aurobindo's term for a subtler aspect of the physical nature. This has many qualities not found in the gross physical nature. In The Agenda, The Mother often refers to it. It might be compared to the etheric body and plane, or even the astral body and plane. The term "subtle physical" is used to distinguish it from gross (sthula) or outer material physical.

Vital

The Vital level of the being refers to the life force, but also to the various passions, desires, feelings, emotions, affects, compulsions, and likes and dislikes. These strongly determine human motivation and action through desire and enthusiasm.

Unlike Western psychology, in which mind, emotions, instincts, and consciousness are all lumped together, Sri Aurobindo strongly distinguishes between the "Vital" and the "Mental" faculties.

In addition to the individual Vital faculty, Sri Aurobindo refers to a Vital Plane or Vital world, which would seem to be partly equivalent to the Astral Plane of popular occultism and New Age thought.

Mind or Mental being

Mind proper is the conceptual and cognitive mind. Mind is a subordinate process of the Supermind. It is the intermediary stage between the Divine and the mundane life. It works by measuring and dividing reality, and has lost sight of the Divine. It is the seat of ignorance, yet it is still capable of an upward ascent toward the Divine.

Unlike Western psychology, in which mind and consciousness are considered the same, Sri Aurobindo strongly distinguishes between the "Mental" and the "Vital" (emotional) faculties, as well as between Mind and pure Consciousness. Sri Aurobindo in part bases his concept of the Mental on his reading of the Taittiriya Upanishad, the mental being (or perhaps just the Mental Purusha) is the mano-maya-atma—the self made of mind (manas).

For Sri Aurobindo, Mind or the Mental being is not simple and uniform, but consists itself of various strata and subdivisions, which act at different levels of being. These various faculties are described or variously referred to, usually in obliquely or in passing, in some of his books, including Savitri, which has poetic references to many types of Mind. In his letters answering questions from disciples, Sri Aurobindo summarises the characteristics of the various levels of Mind.

Above mind proper lie various higher individual levels of mind, namely the Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind and Overmind, which ascend toward the Spirit, and provide a higher and more inclusive vision of reality:

Higher Mind is the realm of Truth-thought. It can hold a wide range of knowledge in one vision and an integral whole. It receives illumination from the Illumined Mind, and is not dependent on the limited knowledge of the senses. It is also capable of transforming the lower realms of body and mind, effectuating change sof habit and life. Nevertheless, it is still a state of thought, in contrast to Illumined Mind, which is a state of vision and spiritual insight.

Illumined Mind is the mind of sight and vision. It transformes the Higher Mind by providing it a direct vision.

Intuition provides the illumination of thought and vision to the Higher Mind and the Illumined Mind. Mundane mind may experience intuition too, but in the higher realms of mind it becomes more frequent and stable.

Overmind is the Cosmic Consciousness. It is the plane of Gods. Overmental plane is the highest consciousness one can achieve without transcending the mental system. Beyond overmind are the planes of Supermind or unity-consciousness.

Supermind

 Supermind (Integral yoga)

Supermind is the infinite unitary Truth Consciousness or Truth-Idea beyond the three lower planes of Matter, Life, and Mind. Supermind is the dynamic form of Sachchidananda (Being-Consciousness-Bliss), and the necessary mediator or link between the transcendent Sacchidananda and the creation.

Limitations of the present being

Humans are stuck between matter and Spirit, due to the habits of personality and partial awareness, which arise from Ignorance.

Personality

Humans are accustomed to respond to certain vibrations more than other. These customs develop into one's desire, pain, feelings, which are all a set of habits. This crystallised set of habits becomes one's personality. This is normally believed to be "self". The appearance of stable personality is given by constant repetition and recurrence of the same vibrations and formations.

Three basic difficulties for mankind

According to Sri Aurobindo, humans face three basic problems:

Partial Self-awareness: humans are only aware of a small part about themselves. They are aware of the surface of mentality, physical being, and life, and not of the larger and more potent subconscious mind and hidden life impulses.

Partial awareness of other beings: humans create a rough mental construction of their fellow beings. Their understanding is created by a mental knowledge, which is imperfect, and subjected to denial and frustration. This partial awareness can be overcome by a conscious unity. This unity can only be achieved from Supermind.

A division between Force and consciousness in evolution: matter, life and mind are often warring with each other. Materialists try to resolve this war by submitting oneself to the mortality of our being, while ascetics have tried to reject earthly life. A true solution may lie in finding the principle beyond mind, thereby overcoming the mortality of our existence.

Ignorance

The fundamental cause of falsehood, error and evil is Ignorance. Ignorance is a self-limiting knowledge, which arises with exclusive concentration in a single field. According to Sri Aurobindo, human notion of good, bad and evil are uncertain and relative.

Practices

Unlike other Yoga practices Integral yoga does not propose any kind of physical asanas, breathing techniques or external movements. It is more psychological in nature, with internal reflection and self-analysis and correction as main tools of development .

The main practices or approaches are divided into

The yoga of divine work (yoga through ones work )

The yoga of Integral Knowledge ( Yoga through analysis, observation and knowledge)