The Synthesis of Yoga

 

CONTENTS  

  Pre-content
 

INTRODUCTION

THE CONDITIONS OF THE SYNTHESIS

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter I

Life and Yoga

Chapter II

The Three Steps of Nature

Chapter III

The Threefold Life

Chapter IV

The Systems of Yoga

Chapter V

The Synthesis of the Systems

 

 

 

PART II

THE YOGA OF INTEGRAL KNOWLEDGE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter I

The Object of Knowledge

Chapter II

The Status of Knowledge

Chapter III

The Purified Understanding

Chapter IV

Concentration

Chapter V

Renunciation

Chapter VI

The Synthesis of the Disciplines of Knowledge

Chapter VII

The Release from Subjection to the Body

Chapter VIII

The Release from the Heart and the Mind

Chapter IX

The Release from the Ego

Chapter X

The Realisation of the Cosmic Self

Chapter XI

The Modes of the Self

Chapter XII

The Realisation of Sachchidananda

Chapter XIII

The Difficulties of the Mental Being

Chapter XIV

The Passive and the Active Brahman

Chapter XV

The Cosmic Consciousness

Chapter XVI

Oneness

Chapter XVII

The Soul and Nature

Chapter XVIII

The Soul and Its Liberation

Chapter XIX

The Planes of Our Existence

Chapter XX

The Lower Triple Purusha

Chapter XXI

The Ladder of Self-Transcendence

Chapter XXII

Vijnana or Gnosis

Chapter XXIII

The Conditions of Attainment to the Gnosis

Chapter XXIV

Gnosis and Ananda

Chapter XXV

The Higher and the Lower Knowledge

Chapter XXVI

Samadhi

Chapter XXVII

Hathayoga

Chapter XXVIII

Rajayoga

 
 

PART III

THE YOGA OF DIVINE LOVE

 

 

Chapter I

Love and the Triple Path

Chapter II

The Motives of Devotion

Chapter III

The Godward Emotions

Chapter IV

The Way of Devotion

Chapter V

The Divine Personality

Chapter VI

The Delight of the Divine

Chapter VII

The Ananda Brahman

Chapter VIII

The Mystery of Love

 

 

PART IV

THE YOGA OF SELF-PERFECTION

 

  

 

Chapter I

The Principle of the Integral Yoga

Chapter III

The Integral Perfection

Chapter III

The Psychology of Self-Perfection

Chapter IV

The Perfection of the Mental Being

Chapter V

The Instruments of the Spirit

Chapter VI

Purification - The Lower Mentality

Chapter VII

Purification - Intelligence and Will

Chapter VIII

The Liberation of the Spirit

Chapter IX

The Liberation of the Nature

Chapter X

The Elements of Perfection

Chapter XI

The Perfection of Equality

Chapter XII

The Way of Equality

Chapter XIII

The Action of Equality

Chapter XIV

The Power of the Instruments

Chapter XV

Soul-Force and the Fourfold Personality

Chapter XVI

The Divine Shakti

Chapter XVII

The Action of the Divine Shakti

Chapter XVIII

Faith and Shakti

Chapter XIX

The Nature of the Supermind

Chapter XX

The Intuitive Mind

Chapter XXI

The Gradations of the Supermind

Chapter XXII

The Supramental Thought and Knowledge

hapter XXIII

The Supramental Instruments - Thought-Process

Chapter XXIV

The Supramental Sense

Chapter XXV

Towards the Supramental Time Vision

Appendix to Part IV

Chapter XXVI

The Supramental Time Consciousness

 

Note on the Text

Appendix

to Part IV

 

Sri Aurobindo began another chapter of "The Yoga of Self-Perfection" before deciding to discontinue the publication of the Arya. He wrote two versions of the opening of this chapter, which are reproduced here from his typescript.

 

 


  Chapter XXVI

 

The Supramental Time

 

Consciousness

 

 [Version A]

 

The supermind in its supreme status is the truth-consciousness of the Infinite, the inherent light and power of self-knowledge and all-knowledge of the Supreme who is the self of all, the living eternal truth of all that is and of whom all objects and beings, all the universe and motion of things and happenings in time is a partial continually proceeding manifestation. The Supreme organises through the power of self-realisation and self-manifestation that resides in this self-knowledge and allknowledge all truth of his being that he has the will and delight to put forth in his universal existence, — to create, as we say from our standpoint. But this creation is not a making or bringing into being of that which was non-existent, neither is it a construction of illusory phenomena in a self of dream, but a revelation in condition of being, substance of consciousness, movement of force, name, form, idea, significance, of the truths of being of the Eternal. All that manifests itself in time, is the coming into play, effective disclosure, result, form, power, evolution, movement of some truth of being, a truth of Sat, of the eternal existence of the Supreme and Eternal.

The power that brings it into play is the infinite consciousness of the Supreme aware of itself and all that is itself, not a limited mental consciousness like ours but supramental and illimitable, not bound by this or that condition, but determining out of an infinite truth of self-existence its own conditions, nor by this or that relation or step and sequence, but capable of all possible relations and steps and sequences. It is a power or force inherent in that consciousness which spontaneously, sovereignly

 

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and imperatively compels into manifestation the truth it sees and dwells on and evolves its play, combinations, sequences, not a limited mental will and power like ours, but a conscious force supramental and illimitable, Tapas, Chit-shakti, not bound to this or that movement and result of energy, but ordering out of the infinite truth of self-existence the movement and result of all possible energies. And it is finally an Ananda of the being that deploys itself, that ranges at will among the infinities of consciousness and of its power of manifestation, not a limited mental joy or pleasure like our chequered delight of being and action and feeling, but supramental and illimitable, not subject to a given set of reactions, but embracing and taking a free and sovereign and compelling delight of all that is possible in the truth of the infinite consciousness and existence.

 

 [Version B]

 

It is necessary in order to understand the phenomena of the supramental time consciousness to realise very firmly certain truths which are strange to our ordinary mentality or presented to it only as constructions of the metaphysical intellect, intelligible but unsubstantial abstractions as all mere philosophical statements must be, but to the supermind are realised experience and the normal and natural truth of the consciousness in which it lives, moves, acts and manifests its being. It is only in their light that we can grasp the truth and reality and the manifestation of things in time, otherwise only an illusion or else a flux of transient, inexplicable and incalculable actualities, and the law, source and order of their manifestation, otherwise only a process of inscrutable Law or else a play of chance and probabilities and possibilities. The truths that reveal the inner meaning and way of the universe are of a spiritual and supramental order. It is difficult however to express them at all in a language adapted to the mental intellect and one can at most try to indicate.

The first of the truths that thus becomes real to the consciousness is the truth of infinite being, a thing abstract to  

 

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our present sense and intelligence to which only phenomena are concrete and real, but to the supramental being always and absolutely and intimately present and real. This indeed is that which to its knowledge, sense, vision, idea, feeling is most concretely real and the phenomena which are now so close and all-important to us, are to it less concrete, not self-existent at all but dependent on the support of the infinite consciousness and its force of presentation: there is thus a complete reversal of the order in the conception of realities. It is not that the phenomena in their turn become abstract, unreal, unsubstantial creations of consciousness, — that is only the result of a certain exclusive realisation, when there is an identification with the essence of absolute being to the exclusion of its power, — but that they are felt as existing here only in a certain movement of the infinite, real only because they are made, as it were, out of the substance of infinite being. That which determines them, the truth of their essence and nature, svarūpa, svabhāva, that which gives them the power to be, is not originally here, but above in the supreme being and consciousness of the infinite. All their true truth, all their real reality is there in that supreme consciousness and here only hidden in the inmost heart of their existence,  guhāyām, but not fully expressed in their overt outward phenomena. Therefore to know them only through the externals or through superficial inner movements which is all that our mind now does, is to miss their true truth and reality and to know them only with a partial and mistaken knowledge subject to the limitations, errors, incapacities of the mental ignorance. All that determines their manifestation in our time and space is also beyond and here only in the hidden secrecy within them, and therefore the mind following their line of manifestation misses that which determines them and can only see a part of the actually present outward executive play of forces that help to give them their immediate character and direction. It is only the consciousness that reigns above, that of the supreme Ishwara, ´  .. and is present in their secret heart, hrddeśe tisthati, that knows . and determines all their true truth and their manifestation in eternal time.

 

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  This supreme of infinite being is supreme in the sense of being above the manifestation in time, its eternal origin, support, control, itself beyond time and space. It is this of which the supermind, itself a luminous power of this supreme of infinite being, is always and fundamentally conscious.

 

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