Introduction To Sri Aurobindo

Introduction to Sri Aurobindos The
Synthesis of Yoga
F E AT U R E D
Posted on October 28, 2014
In The Synthesis of Yoga Sri Aurobindo unfolds his vision of an integral (also
called purna or complete) yoga embracing all the powers and activities of
man. He provides an overview of the main paths of yoga, their primary
methodologies and the necessity for integrating them into a complete, allembracing and all-encompassing activity. The motto All Life Is Yoga is the
theme of this text.
Sri Aurobindo points out that this is not intended as a fixed methodology: The
Synthesis of Yoga was not meant to give a method for all to follow. Each side of
the Yoga was dealt with separately with all its possibilities, and an indication as
to how they meet so that one starting from knowledge could realise Karma and
Bhakti also and so with each path. (pg. 899)
The final section begins to flesh out an integrative method which Sri Aurobindo
called the yoga of self-perfection. While all the details of this approach were
not completed to the extent desired, Sri Aurobindo has provided ample
guidelines for the seeker to understand the direction and the path.
It is our goal to take up the systematic review of The Synthesis of Yoga in the
following pages. All page number citations in this review are based on the U.S.
edition of The Synthesis of Yoga published by Lotus Press, EAN: 978-0-94152465-0 Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga
Chapter headings and organization of the material follow The Synthesis of Yoga.
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Sri Aurobindo Studies

F E AT U R E D
Posted on August 30, 2009
Sri Aurobindos integral yoga has enormous implications for the time we find
ourselves in. As we systematically destroy the basis of life on the planet, and
wall off one another through ultimate fragmentation, we are left with the stark
contrast of choosing between survival and destruction, life and death, growth or
decline. Sri Aurobindo recognizes the necessity of the individual within the
context of the collectivity, universality and the transcendent consciousness of
Oneness. The individual is the nexus or hub of the evolutionary urge, but not
separate from nor at the expense of the life of the cosmic whole.
We also have a daily twitter feed on Sri Aurobindos studies
at www.twitter.com/santoshk1
We have systematically worked our way through The Life Divine as well as The
Mother ,Essays on the Gita and Rebirth and Karma. The newest posts appear
near the top. If you want to start at the beginning, go to the oldest post and roll
forward until you reach the final posts in July 2012.
Another option is to search for the chapter you would like to study and see all
posts relating to that chapter. You may have to ask for older posts once you
have the search results if you are looking for one of the earlier chapters.
We have separated the posts relating to each book into their own folder as an
additional organisational tool.
Similarly you can use the search box to find specific concepts, terms or issues
you are interested in. The results will show all posts that address those concepts
or terms. You may have to click on older posts to find all the references here
as well.
The next book we are taking up is The Synthesis of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo,
following a similar format to that we have utilised for The Life Divine , The
Mother, Essays on the Gitaand Rebirth and Karma.
You may also want to visit our information site for Sri Aurobindo at SriAurobindo.Com
Sri Aurobindos major writings are published in the US by Lotus Press.
The systematic studies on this blog have also been published as self-standing
books by Lotus Press and are available in both printed formats and as e-books.
There are 3 volumes encompassing Readings in Sri Aurobindos The Life
Divine, 2 volumes encompassing Readings in Sri Aurobindos Essays on the Gita,
as well as 1 volume forReadings in The Mother by Sri Aurobindo, and Readings
in Sri Aurobindos Rebirth and Karma., and 1 volume currently for the first
section of The Synthesis of Yoga titledReadings In Sri Aurobindos The Synthesis
of Yoga, Vol. 1 Introduction and Yoga of Divine Works
Many of the major writings of Sri Aurobindo are now also accessible on the
Amazon Kindle Platform as well as Apple itunes, google play, kobo, and Barnes &
Noble nook as well. Kindle e-book reader program is also available for PC,
Laptop, iPad, Blackberry, Android, iPhone and many other platforms from
Amazon without charge. You can find the current list of titles available by going
to http://www.amazon.com , go to the kindle store and type in Aurobindo
New titles are being added as they can be made ready. Many of the major books
are already accessible by the Kindle Reader. You can follow a similar procedure
for the other platforms we now support for Sri Aurobindos writings, I-tunes,
Barnes & Noble, Google Play, and KOBO.
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Penetrating the Veil of the Higher Planes

of Consciousness
Posted on December 19, 2015
The brilliant golden lid referred to in the Isha Upanishad describes an

experience of consciousness by those who seek to achieve a higher state of
conscious awareness than the mental-vital-physical mechanism under which
most people operate. This has also given rise to the concept of there being two
hemispheres of consciousness, the lower and the higher, separated by an
intermediary level that translates the principle of the one into the principle of
the other, similar to a step down transformer in terms of electricity generation
and distribution. The upper hemisphere of Sat-Chit-Ananda is translated,
through the action of the supramental level of consciousness, from its status of
Oneness, All-Knowledge and All-Power and All-Bliss into the multitude of names,
forms and forces that we recognize as separate in the lower hemisphere through
the action of mind, but which are in reality forms, forces and beings that abide
forever in inherent Oneness.
The effort to penetrate the veil or lid can take a number of forms, including the
austere concentration of the Yoga of Knowledge, the devotional absorption of
the Yoga of Love, or the dedicated focused Will and surrender of the Yoga of
Works. It may also take the form of prayer and fasting, vision quest, or practices
such as Hatha Yoga, Kundalini Yoga or Raja Yoga that seek to control and direct
the psychic Prana, the vital force of all creation, to direct the energy upwards
and pierce through to the other side.
Depending on which method succeeds, the seeker will see the Divine in a
different form or as a different principle. Sri Aurobindo elaborates: But when it
succeeds in that difficult endeavour, it sees the divine as something superior to
it, distant, high, conceptually, vitally, even physically above it, to which it looks
up from its own humble station and to which it has, if at all that be possible, to
rise, or if it be not possible, to call that down to itself, to be subject to it and to
adore. It sees the divine as a superior plane of being, and then it regards it as a
supreme state of existence, a heaven or a Sat or a Nirvana according to the
nature of its own conception nor realisation. Or it sees it as a supreme Being
other than itself or at least other than its own present self, and then it calls it
God under one name or another, and views it as personal or impersonal,
qualitied or without qualities, silent and indifferent Power or active Lord and
Helper, again according to its own conception or realisation, its vision or
understanding of some side or some aspect of that Being. Or it sees it as a
supreme Reality of which its own imperfect being is a reflection or from which it
has become detached, and then it calls it Self or Brahman and qualifies it
variously, always according to its own conception or realisation,Existence, NonExistence, Tao, Nihil, Force, Unknowable.
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, Part Two: The Yoga of Integral Knowledge,
Chapter 13, The Difficulties of the Mental Being, pp. 377-378
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Divine Consciousness and

Human Consciousness
The principle and basic mode of operation of the human mental being is vastly
different from that of the spiritual being. Spirituality is not some kind of
advanced or refined intellectuality; rather, it is a completely different level and
order of consciousness with its own distinct way of knowing and acting. In most
ways, it seems to be the opposite of the mental mode.
Sri Aurobindo sets these two side by side: First the spiritual being: To the former
belong infinite being, infinite consciousness and will, infinite bliss and the infinite
comprehensive and self-effective knowledge of supermind, four divine
principles Next the mental being: to the latter belong mental being, vital
being, physical being, three human principles.
The divine is infinite and immortal being; the human is life limited in time and
scope and form, life that is death attempting to become life that is immortality.
The divine is infinite consciousness transcending and embracing all that it
manifests within it; the human is consciousness rescued from a sleep of
inconscience, subjected to the means it uses, limited by body and ego and
attempting to find its relation to other consciousnesses, bodies, egos positively
by various means of uniting contact and sympathy, negatively by various means
of hostile contact and antipathy. The divine is inalienable self-bliss and inviolable
all-bliss; the human is sensation of mind and body seeking for delight, but
finding only pleasure, indifference and pain. The divine is supramental
knowledge comprehending all and supramental will effecting all; the human is
ignorance reaching out to knowledge by the comprehension of things in parts
and parcels which it has to join clumsily together, and it is incapacity attempting
to acquire force and will through a gradual extension of power corresponding to
its gradual extension of knowledge; and this extension it can only bring about by
a partial and parcelled exercise of will corresponding to the partial and parcelled
method of its knowledge. The divine founds itself upon unity and is master of
the transcendences and totalities of things; the human founds itself on separate
multiplicity and is the subject even when the master of their division and
fragmentations and their difficult solderings and unifyings.
These are represented by two hemispheres, separated by a golden veil or lid. As
a result, the human consciousness has no direct access to the upper divine
hemisphere usually. The Isha Upanishad (v. 15) states: The face of Truth is
covered with a brilliant golden lid For most human beings, tied to the mental
framework, there is both the failure to recognize this separation and that
another entire hemisphere of consciousness both can and does exist, and the
inability to break through that veil or lid. The practice of Yoga is intended to
achieve such a result so that the human seeker can take on the consciousness
of the Divine through knowledge by identity.
Chapter 13, The Difficulties of the Mental Being, pp. 376-377
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The Need for Divine Help and Arduous

Practice To Achieve the Goals of the Yoga
Having determined that achieving the withdrawal from the world is not the goal,
and that achievement of the stance of the silent, unmoving infinite Brahman is a
basis for further realisations, not the final realization in and of itself, it then
becomes necessary to take stock of where we are and how we can get
there. The practice of Yoga, after all, is not intended to be an exercise in
philosophy or religion, but a practical science that brings about a change in the
life and the consciousness.
Sri Aurobindo defines the next step: As we drew back from all that constitutes
our apparent self and the phenomenon of the universe in which it dwells to the
self-existent, self-conscious Brahman, so we must now repossess our mind, life
and body with the all-embracing self-existence, self-consciousness and selfdelight of the Brahman. We must not only have the possession of a pure selfexistence independent of the world-play, but possess all existence as our own;
not only know ourselves as an infinite unegoistic consciousness beyond all
change in Time and Space, but become one with all the outpouring of
consciousness and its creative force in Time and Space; not only be capable of a
fathomless peace and quiescence, but also of a free and an infinite delight in
universal things. For that and not only pure calm is Sachchidananda, is the
Brahman.
The difficulty arises in that the seeker starts this process as a mental being in a
vital body which has its own limitations of capacity, process and habit. The
standpoint is centred around the small ego-individuality and thus, the shift to
the new, wider, all-embracing outlook is a difficult one. But man is a mental and
not yet a supramental being. It is by the mind therefore that he has to aim at
knowledge and realise his being, with whatever help he can get from the
supramental planes. This character of our actually realised being and therefore
of our Yoga imposes on us certain limitations and primary difficulties which can
only be overcome by divine help or an arduous practice, and in reality only by
the combination of both these aids.
Chapter 13, The Difficulties of the Mental Being, pg. 376
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The Object of Realisation for the

Practitioner of the Integral Yoga
For the seeker in the integral Yoga, whose goal is not dissolution into the vast
silence of the Eternal, it is useful to get a glimpse of the goal, then look at the
starting point, the mental-vital-physical being and ego-sense from which he
starts, and begin to chart out the process of moving from one to the other.
Sri Aurobindo begins with a summary of the goal or object sought in this Yoga.
We have come to this stage in our development of the path of Knowledge that
we began by affirming the realisation of our pure self, pure existence above the
terms of mind, life and body, as the first object of this Yoga, but we now affirm
that this is not sufficient and that we must also realise the Self or Brahman in its
essential modes and primarily in its triune reality as Sachchidananda. Not only
pure existence, but pure consciousness and pure bliss of its being and
consciousness are the reality of the Self and the essence of Brahman.
Further, there are two kinds of realisation of Self or Sachchidananda. One is
that of the silent passive quietistic, self-absorbed, self-sufficient existence,
consciousness and delight, one, impersonal, without play of qualities, turned
away from the infinite phenomenon of the universe or viewing it with

indifference and without participation. The other is that of the same existence,
consciousness, delight sovereign, free, lord of things, acting out of an inalienable
calm, pouring itself out in infinite action and quality out of an eternal selfconcentration, the one supreme Person holding in himself all this play of
personality in a vast equal impersonality, possessing the infinite phenomenon of
the universe without attachment but without any inseparable aloofness, with a
divine mastery and an innumerable radiation of his eternal luminous selfdelightas a manifestation which he holds, but by which he is not held, which he
governs freely and by which therefore he is not bound. This is not the personal
God of the religions or the qualified Brahman of the philosophers, but that in
which personal and impersonal, quality and non-quality are reconciled. It is the
Transcendent possessing them both in His being and employing them both as
modes for His manifestation. This then is the object of realisation for the
Sadhaka of the integral Yoga.
Chapter 13, The Difficulties of the Mental Being, pg. 375
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From Ego-Self to True Self

We can understand intellectually that the true self of Sat-Chit-Ananda is

eternally existent, conscious and blissful. But the everyday experience of the
human individual is rarely blissful and if so, only for short periods of time and
under specific limited circumstances. Even this experience of bliss is but one
human bliss and not the true, complete and unifed experience of bliss. Many,
if not most, would deny the reality of universal bliss based on the all-too-human
experience.
Just as the ultimate reality is that the earth revolves around the sun, rather than
that the sun rises and sets by rotating around the earth, the difference between
human perception and the ultimate reality is based on identification with the
ego as the center and determining principle for any judgment to be made. The
ego, however, is an artificial construct. In order to experience true unity of
existence-consciousness-bliss, the individual must shift his standpoint from the
ego-standpoint to the divine standpoint.
Sri Aurobindo observes: The individual soul does not possess this true nature of
itself or realise this true nature of its experience, because it separates itself both
from the essential and the universal and identifies itself with the separate
accidents, with the unessential form and mode and with the separate aspect
and vehicle. Thus it takes its mind, body, life-stream for its essential self. It tries
to assert these for their own sake against the universal, against that of which
the universal is the manifestation.
There is a role for the individual soul; yet, it is not intended to be in opposition to
the rest of the creation. The individual mistakenly serves the ego, around which
it has formed its body, life and mind, rather than the larger universal and
transcendent Being of which it is a part. This is the living in the false and not
the true self; this is living for the sake of and in obedience to the ego and not for
the sake of and in obedience to the Divine.
Non-possession of unity is the root cause; to recover unity is the sovereign
means, unity with the universal and with that which the universal is here to
express. We have to realise the true self of ourselves and of all; and to realise
the true self is to realise Sachchidananda.
Chapter 12, The Realisation of Sachchidananda, pp. 373-374
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The Inherent Bliss of Existence

and Consciousness
There is a remarkable chapter in the Taittiriya Upanishad which is sometimes

called the calculus of bliss because it relates an ascending series of levels of
bliss depending on the plane of consciousness occupied by the experiencer.
Human bliss is the starting point for this recitation, and the Upanishad goes
through 11 enhanced stages, each one a hundred and a hundredfold of the
measure of the bliss of the prior level. (Sri Aurobindo,The Upanishads, Taittiriya
Upanishad, Brahmanandavalli, Chapter 8, pp. 272-273)
The final stage is one bliss of the Eternal Spirit. The bliss of the Eternal Spirit is
of course inherent in all creation, and when the seeker becomes unified with the
Spirit, he also experiences this universal and all-permeating level of bliss.
Therefore the Upanishad relates: And this is the bliss of the Vedawise whose
soul the blight of desire not toucheth.
Sat, Chit and Ananda are not three separate concepts. They are aspects, broken
out into human terms, of an all-encompassing experience of Existence,
Consciousness and Bliss, all unified in one experience. The entire universe is
thus permeated with bliss, the inherent delight of existence.
Sri Aurobindo observes: To possess self is to possess self-bliss; not to possess
self is to be in more or less obscure search of the delight of existence. Chit
eternally possesses its self-bliss; and since Chit is the universal conscious-stuff
of being, conscious universal being is also in possession of conscious self-bliss,
master of the universal delight of existence. The Divine whether it manifests in
All-Quality or in No-Quality, in Personality or Impersonality, in the One absorbing
the Many or in the One manifesting its essential multiplicity, is always in

possession of self-bliss and all-bliss because it is always Sachchidananda.
The individual seeker partakes of this experience: For us also to know and
possess our true Self in the essential and the universal is to discover the
essential and the universal delight of existence, self-bliss and all-bliss. For the
universal is only the pouring out of the essential existence, consciousness and
delight; and wherever and in whatever form that manifests as existence, there
the essential consciousness must be and therefore there must be an essential
delight.
Chapter 12, The Realisation of Sachchidananda, pg. 373
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Superconscious Poises of
Universal Consciousness
Western psychology has generally delved extensively into the subconscious

ranges of awareness, starting with Freud and Jung, and continuing into the
modern day. The entire field of psychoanalysis is based on opening up and

making conscious these realms of apparent unconsciousness in our
psychological makeup. Much less effort has been made in the West, however, to
explore and develop the superconscious poises of consciousness, those planes
where new powers of knowledge, light and understanding are native and
immediate. This field of superconscious awareness has been the primary subject
and focus for those who practice Yoga.
We see people who are obviously brilliant in their understanding, who have a
developed intuitive capacity, and are inspired in their vision, and we believe this
is simply a manifestation of some type of purely mental capacity. However, it
soon becomes obvious to the practitioner of Yoga that these powers actually
represent another level of conscious existence and when they filter into our
mental framework, they illuminate, guide and inspire. At the same time, the
mental capacity is limited and thus, tends to water down the inspiration or try to
fit it into a pre-determined mental mould, and thus, much of the power is lost.
These are issues that Yoga seeks to clarify and sort out.
Sri Aurobindo explains: There is above the mind, as the old Vedic sages
discovered, a Truth-plane, a plane of self-luminous, self-effective Idea, which can
be turned in light and force upon our mind, reason, sentiments, impulses,
sensations and use and control them in the sense of the real Truth of things just
as we turn our mental reason and will upon our sense-experience and animal
nature to use and control them in the sense of our rational and moral
perceptions.
The initial levels above the mind are characterized by the ability to unite and
illuminate without strain, as opposed to the mental level which tends to divide,
confuse and fragment. Because there are a series of planes, the consciousness
active on each plane becomes successively more powerful and unified, until the
seeker attains the level of pure consciousness, Chit, the elemental origin and
primal completeness of all this varied consciousness which is here used for
various formation and experience. There will and knowledge and sensation and
all the rest of our faculties, powers, modes of experience are not merely
harmonious, concomitant, unifed, but are one being of consciousness and one
power of consciousness. It is this Chit which modifies itself so as to become on
the Truth-plane the supermind, on the mental plane the mental reason, will,
emotion, sensation, on the lower planes the vital or physical instincts, impulses,
habits of an obscure force not in superficially conscious possession of itself. All is
Chit because all is Sat; all is various movement of the original Consciousness
because all is various movement of the original Being.
Chapter 12, The Realisation of Sachchidananda, pp. 372-373
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Equality Is the Essence of the Relation of

the Divine to the Manifested World
Posted on September 19, 2013
Sri Aurobindo has successively recounted the primary signs or statuses by which
the divine worker can be identified. These signs are not outward signs but inner
psychological states of consciousness. It is equality however that is required for
the interface between spirit and manifested creation. Equality is the lynch-pin
that creates the relationship of a simultaneous status or poise of the divine,
infinite, free consciousness and the carrying out of action in whatever manner
one is called upon to do in the world.
Self-knowledge, desirelessness, impersonality, bliss, freedom from the modes
of Nature, when withdrawn into themselves, self-absorbed, inactive, have no
need of equality; for they take no cognisance of the things in which the
opposition of equality and inequality arises. But the moment the spirit takes
cognisance of and deals with the multiplicities, personalities, differences,
inequalities of the action of Nature, it has to effectuate these other signs of its
free status by this one manifesting sign of equality.
We commonly fall into the error of the extremes that tries to do away with the
validity of the opposite term. The Vedantic maxim of One Without a Second,
which would justify a complete abandonment of all the manifested world for the
divine truth, is incomplete without the other dictum All This Is the Brahman.
These two together ensure the unity of the unmanifest and the manifest. We
then must be able to see and relate to all the various and unequal forms and
manifestations in the world by both recognising their inherent Oneness, while
concurrently acting upon them with due recognition of their differences. Equality
is the status that allows us to hold both of these conditions concurrently in
balance in our awareness.
Traigunatitya, transcendence of the Gunas, is the unperturbed spirits
superiority to that flux of action of the modes of Nature which is in its constant
character perturbed and unequal; if it has to enter into relations with the
conflicting and unequal activities of Nature, if the free soul is to allow its nature
any action at all, it must show its superiority by an impartial equality towards all
activities, results or happenings.
Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, First Series, Chapter 19, Equality, pp. 179-180
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Equality and Inequality

Equality is a fundamental characteristic of the Oneness of the divine

consciousness. Inequality is a fundamental characteristic of the manifestation of
names and forms in the world by the operation of the 3 gunas of Nature. The
constant motion and interchange that occurs in Nature ensures that everything
is in a constant state of flux or inequality. The unchanging, immutable nature of
the Divine Consciousness ensures that everything is kept in balance and
equality. The two states are not in opposition to one another but rather, the
immutable calm of the equal consciousness permeates everything such that it is
possible to experience outwardly the variances of the gunas, while maintaining
an equal status of Oneness inwardly.
Sri Aurobindo discusses the issues further: Since knowledge, desirelessness,
impersonality, equality, the inner self-existent peace and bliss, freedom from or
at least superiority to the tangled interlocking of the three modes of Nature are
the signs of the liberated soul, they must accompany it in all activities. They are
the condition of that unalterable calm which this soul preserves in all the
movement, all the shock, all the clash of forces which surround it in the world.
That calm reflects the equable immutability of the Brahman in the midst of all
mutations, and it belongs to the indivisible and impartial Oneness which is for
ever immanent in all the multiplicities of the universe.
Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, First Series, Chapter 19, Equality, pg. 179
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The Action of the Karmayogin

The individual immersed in the normal human state of consciousness believes

he is the actor and has some control over his responses, but in reality he is
reacting through the operation of the 3 gunas of Nature which, in their interplay,
create the complex interactions we see in the world. This leads to an endless
round of impulsions, first of desire, then of the rebound from the effects of the
action done with desire, and then of some kind of moderation or mitigation until
the next round starts up. For the most part, the natural individual does not see
the workings of the gunas and attributes what happens to free will or bad
luck or some other term for an operation he cannot see or understand.
The individual who has achieved Oneness with the Divine Consciousness
recognizes the mechanical play of the gunas, can see them working in his own
natural being, but he is able to separate from the impulsions of Nature; rather,
he acts from the basis of the higher consciousness and sees himself, not as the
actor, but as a conduit or channel for that action to play out in the world through
his natural being.
Sri Aurobindo describes this state: The Divine motives, inspires, determines the
entire action; the human soul impersonal in the Brahman is the pure and silent
channel of his power; that power in the Nature executes the divine movement.
Such only are the works of the liberated soul, for in nothing does he act from a
personal inception; such are the actions of the accomplished Karmayogin. They
rise from a free spirit and disappear without modifying it, like waves that rise
and disappear on the surface of conscious immutable depths.
Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, First Series, Chapter 18, The Divine Worker,
pp. 177-178
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Inner Renunciation, Outer Renunciation

and the Divine Worker
One of the cornerstones of many traditional teachings of yoga, as well as a

number of religious disciplines around the world is the renunciation of the fruits
of works in the world, and even, in some instances, renunciation of those works
themselves. In Sanskrit, this outer form of renunciation is called sannyasa and
renunciates in the Hindu tradition are called sannyasins.
The Gita proposes a different solution. Rather than requiring outer renunciation,
the Gita recommends inner renunciation, called tyaga, whereby the fruits of
the works has been renounced inwardly even while action takes place in the
world and carries out the action required for the maintenance and development
of the world-manifestation.
Sri Aurobindo describes the Gitas view of renunciation: He should be known
as the eternal Sannyasin who neither hates nor desires; free from the dualities
he is happily and easily released from all bondage. The painful process of
outward Sannyasais an unnecessary process. It is perfectly true that all
actions, as well as the fruit of action, have to be given up, to be renounced, but
inwardly, not outwardly, not into the inertia of Nature, but to the Lord in
sacrifice, into the calm and joy of the Impersonal from whom all action proceeds
without disturbing his peace. The true Sannyasa of action is the reposing of all
works on the Brahman. He who, having abandoned attachment, acts reposing
(or founding) his works on the Brahmanis not stained by sin even as water
clings not to the lotus-leaf.
The result of a true inward renunciation is a profound state of peace. he
knows himself then to be the soul supreme above the instruments of Nature.
Pure, infinite, inviolable, immutable, he is no longer affected; no longer does he
imagine himself to be modified by her workings. By complete identification with
the Impersonal he can, too, release himself from the necessity of returning by
birth into her movement.
pp. 175-177
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Inner Joy In All Circumstances

The Taittiriya Upanishad has a remarkable passage sometimes referred to as the

calculus of bliss. It sets forth an ascending series of ever-higher states of bliss,
Ananda, the serene inner state of joy that is the sign of the spiritual divine
consciousness. Each state of being is calculated to be a hundred and a hundred
times the former state. The first stage is that of the human being Let there be
a young man, excellent and lovely in his youth, a great student; let him have fair
manners and a most firm heart and great strength of body, and let all this wide
earth be full of wealth for his enjoying. Ten stages of bliss later, each a
hundred and hundred fold more intense than the prior stage, is the bliss of the
Eternal Spirit. What is interesting is that the Upanishad equates this
incalculable sum of bliss to be equivalent to the bliss of the Vedawise whose
soul the blight of desire touches not.
Human beings seek their joy in outer circumstances and are bound thereby by
the force of desire. The divine soul looks inwardly, sees all things with the inner
eye of the divine consciousness and takes joy in all forms and events as being
the manifestation of the Divine in the world. Sri Aurobindo describes it thus:
What joy it takes in outward things is not for their sake, not for things which it
seeks in them and can miss, but for the self in them, for their expression of the
Divine, for that which is eternal in them and which it cannot miss.
This inner state of bliss and peace is innate, it is the very stuff of the souls
consciousness, it is the very nature of divine being.
When we look for the sign of the divine worker, this is the essential distinction
that sets the divine soul apart from those still engrossed in the human beings
attachments in the outer things of the world.
pg. 175
and Sri Aurobindo, The Upanishads , Taittiriya Upanishad, Brahmanandavalli,
Chapter 8, pp. 272-273
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Seeing All Life From a Divine Standpoint

The true secret to the divine workers equality and peace in the face of all the
obstacles, struggles and opposition, is the ability to see and experience the
circumstances of life from what we may call the divine standpoint.
Sri Aurobindo elaborates: for in all he sees two things, the Divine inhabiting
every being equally, the varying manifestation unequal only in its temporary
circumstances. In the animal and man, in the dog, the unclean outcast and the
learned and virtuous Brahmin, in the saint and the sinner, in the indifferent and
the friendly and the hostile, in those who love him and benefit and those who
hate him and afflict, he sees himself, he sees God and has at heart for all the
same equal kindliness, the same divine affection. Circumstances may determine
the outward clasp or the outward conflict, but can never affect his equal eye, his
open heart, his inner embrace of all. And in all his actions there will be the same
principle of soul, a perfect equality, and the same principle of work, the will of
the Divine in him active for the need of the race in its gradually developing
advance towards the Godhead.
From this viewpoint, there is no cause for disturbance at the large and complex
play that concerts the various forms that the Divine Force has manifested in the
world.
Ramana Maharshi, a revered Sage of South India, was known for asking Who
am I? The meditation that ensued showed that I am not this body; I am not this
mind; I am not this particular individual involved in this particular family or
society; I am not male nor am I female. Eventually one comes to the
consciousness of Oneness that shows that it is the Divine that manifests and
informs and fills and empowers all forms.
The Taittiriya Upanishad advises that when one sees everywhere Oneness, there
is no one and nothing to fear; but when one sees even the slightest difference,
then one is filled with fear. From the Divine standpoint, fear, anger, hatred, love,
all are a play of emotions that have no basis other than a temporary response to
the outer forms; inwardly the divine worker maintains a knowing understanding
and the deep peace and equality who sees and knows the true Oneness of all
things.
pg. 174
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Meeting the Battle of Life With Equality

and Understanding
One of the issues we all have to face, whether or not we are consciously trying
to practice yoga, is how to deal with the obstacles, issues, and challenges that
come upon us as we live our lives in the world. Spiritual seekers in fact have
used the method of avoidance in order to focus on their spiritual practice
while minimizing and limiting the impact of the world on their time, attention
and psychological standpoint. As we have seen, however, this approach is
extremely limited and does not address the wider questions of the purpose of
the manifestation that the Gita forces us to acknowledge with its unflinching
recognition of the need to live in the w

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