The Yoga of Integral Knowledge / Alicia Editions (ePub)

Sri Aurobindo's philosophy as "an original synthesis of the Indian and Western traditions."-R. Puligandla

Sri Aurobindo, Indian philosopher, yogi and guru, created a spiritual practice he called Integral Yoga. The central theme of his vision was the evolution of human life into a divine life. He believed in a spiritual realization that not only liberated but transformed human nature, enabling a divine life on earth. He sought to make us aware of "the same superior law [that] governs matter and spirit".

EXCERPT: "THE SELF, the Divine, the Supreme Reality, the All, the Transcendent,-the One in all these aspects is then the object of Yogic knowledge. Ordinary objects, the external appearances of life and matter, the psychology of our thoughts and actions, the perception of the forces of the apparent world can be part of this knowledge, but only in so far as it is part of the manifestation of the One. It becomes at once evident that the knowledge for which Yoga strives must be different from what men ordinarily understand by the word. For we mean ordinarily by knowledge an intellectual appreciation of the facts of life, mind and matter and the laws that govern them. This is a knowledge founded upon our sense-perception and upon reasoning from our sense-perceptions and it is undertaken partly for the pure satisfaction of the intellect, partly for practical efficiency and the added power which knowledge gives in managing our lives and the lives of others, in utilising for human ends the overt or secret forces of Nature and in helping or hurting, in saving and ennobling or in oppressing and destroying our fellow-men. Yoga, indeed, is commensurate with all life and can include all these subjects and objects."