The Practice of the Integral Yoga With copious hints for the Pilgrims of the Path — Jugal Kishore Mukherjee Price: Rs 160 Soft Cover Pages: 348 Dimensions (in cms): 14x22 Publisher: Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education (P), Pondicherry ISBN: 978-81-7058-732-3 About The Practice of the Integral Yoga This is a comprehensive treatise on the effective practice of the Yoga of Integral Transformation as propounded by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The book is an outcome of what has been shaped on the anvil of long practice, deep reflection, and inner experience. Combining the clear, analytical thought of a scientist with the psychic insightfulness of a sadhaka, Prof. Mukherjee has produced a book that is at once lucid and profound. Its comprehensiveness, authenticity and compactness will make The Practice of the Integral Yoga an ideal companion and an outstanding vade-mecum for the practice of the Integral Yoga. Review Often, after the first flush of discovering Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the question arises – how does one practice their yoga? If we are accustomed to any traditional understanding of yoga, it is some formula which we seek, a method and schedule of asanas and pranayama, meditation and/or mantras. A bewildering profusion of such routines has been developed over the centuries in India (and now abroad) and tagged with different names – each promising the shortcut to “realization.” To some it is almost a shock to realize that no such esoteric formula, given in secret to initiates has been provided by Sri Aurobindo or the Mother and many are likely to look askance at this absence as a sign of the impracticality of this yoga. Indeed, the Integral Yoga has deliberately avoided the formulae of routine methods and shortcuts. In The Synthesis of Yoga, while writing about the processes of the traditional yogas, Sri Aurobindo says: “The methods of the integral Yoga must be mainly spiritual, and dependence on physical methods or fixed psychic or psycho-physical processes on a large scale would be the substitution of a lower for a higher action.” What then are these “spiritual methods” and their “higher action” that Sri Aurobindo is referring to? In the opening sentence of his mantric text The Mother, Sri Aurobindo introduces the twin sources for all methods in the Integral Yoga: “There are two powers that alone can effect in their conjunction the great and difficult thing which is the aim of our endeavour, a fixed and unfailing aspiration that calls from below and a supreme Grace from above that answers.” The aspiration that calls from below comes from our inmost being, also known as the psychic being. The Grace from above that answers is the action of the Divine Mother. Instead of trying to control or transform prakriti by the methods of prakriti, the aim of the Integral Yoga is more one of invoking the action of the psychic purusha, at first through its influence on the mental-vital-physical complex and then directly through its emergence and control of the entire nature. Simultaneously, it is one of openness and trust in the force of the Divine Mother entering into and working on the different parts of the being and spiritualizing them in collaboration with the psychic action. The “methods” of this yoga then are better seen as those arising spontaneously and dynamically from the dual action of the psychic being and the Mother. Another reason for avoiding the formulaic methods and routines of traditional yogic practice is the fact that the Integral Yoga is a customized process of Self-discovery and expression and such a process unfolds itself uniquely given the specific proclivities of the individual. This is what makes Sri Aurobindo describe his yoga through the varied windows of Knowledge, Works, Love and Self-Perfection in The Synthesis of Yoga, acknowledging that our approach can be through any one or a combination of these depending on our soul-type, but that whatever the approach, it must widen eventually to take in the fruits of realization of all other approaches. But granted the undesirability of stereotypical practices, are there not any guidelines or starting points to follow before one can become aware of the hidden action of the psychic being and the Mother’s force? How even can one open to these sources of the yoga and how can one be sure of their action? Such questions are natural and both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have given us ample leads in this direction. The Mother’s talks have innumerable incisive pointers on the practice of the Integral Yoga, but for the overall theory of its practice we have to turn to Sri Aurobindo. Answering a disciple’s question once on how he could be led to the realization of the Mahashakti, the Mother replied simply: “I do not know of any guru better than Sri Aurobindo to lead one to the Mahashakti.” The three major texts by Sri Aurobindo which open for us the how-to of the yoga are The Synthesis of Yoga, the Letters on Yoga and The Mother. These three texts can give us all we need in the way of guideposts of practice. But it has been said that many find Sri Aurobindo’s writings difficult of approach and need pre-digested servings before they can get to his works. Thus many have found the talks and writings of M. P. Pandit particularly helpful. Another approach has been compilations of the Master’s and Mother’s writings, letters and talks. A. S. Dalal’s continuing series has served this purpose, as have the compilations specifically made to explain the practice of the yoga. Three works of this kind making substantial use of Sri Aurobindo’s letters are Bases of Yoga, A Practical Guide to Integral Yoga and The Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo’s Teaching and Method of Practice. Now into this pool of literature meant to make the practice of the Integral Yoga more accessible, has come Jugal Kishore Mukherjee’s The Practice of the Integral Yoga. This work is not a compilation of Sri Aurobindo’s letters on yoga or of the Mother’s talks; nor is it a primer of yoga practice in the style of M. P. Pandit. Yet, in a way, it is all these and more. Springing from the author’s many years as a teacher at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, its prose is marked by the friendly enthusiasm of sharing though hardly lacking in the analytical rigor for which Jugal Kishore has become well known. At 350 odd pages, the paperback is not verbose, is easy to read, perceptive and practical. Best of all, it brings together some of the most helpful quotes from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, weaving them into its text in contextual ways which make them much more potent than in their isolated placement in compilations. In its organization of materials, the book displays the working of an incisive selecting intuition which picks out the most relevant aspects from all the major yogic works of Sri Aurobindo to form its chapters. Thus, though the contents of the chapters derive their effectiveness largely from quotes taken from Sri Aurobindo’s letters and the Mother’s talks, the focus and logic of the chapters seem to be drawn from The Mother and The Synthesis of Yoga. In this, it appears the author gives primacy of position to The Mother as the principal practical text of the Integral Yoga – a refreshing and penetratingly direct approach seldom seen before in books of this kind. After spending the first two chapters developing, from the Mother’s practical hints, some basic daily attitudes and habits of sadhana (corresponding to the yamas and niyamas of other schools, though much more subtle and psychological in this case), the author launches into eight chapters based on the approaches developed by Sri Aurobindo in The Mother. The first five of these chapters elaborate on the famous triple formula of “aspiration, rejection and surrender.” In the process the author clarifies context and specialized sense pertaining to these terms and repeatedly invokes the key inner movements of the yoga. For example, before embarking on a discussion of surrender (Ch. VII, “On Self-surrender to the Divine”), the author prepares the ground by interposing a chapter “On Opening and Receptivity.” In this chapter, the primacy of these two terms “opening” and “receptivity,” which Sri Aurobindo evokes as central in The Mother is discussed so as to awaken the reader to their meaning, importance and inner intuition. Quotations such as the following abound, which leave one in no doubt that (1) this yoga is done not by one’s unaided effort but by reliance on the Mother’s Force; and (2) becoming aware of the working of the Mother’s Force as soon and as completely as possible is among the most important necessities of this yoga: “By remaining psychically open to the Mother, all that is necessary for work or Sadhana develops progressively, that is one of the chief secrets, the central secret of the Sadhana.” After these chapters on aspiration, rejection and surrender, the author returns to the first line of The Mother (which I have quoted earlier in this review). The two powers “that alone can effect ... the aim of our endeavour,” the “call” and the Grace, are here taken up in separate chapters. In chapter VIII, the author engages in a most interesting and illuminating discussion relating to the “call” vis-à-vis prayer. The forms of and differences between aspiration and prayer are here brought out in bold relief. Grace is dealt with in two succeeding chapters – “How to Invoke the Divine’s Grace?” and “Personal Effort and the Divine Grace.” This focus on Integral Yoga as seen through The Mother is then followed by chapters which elaborate the sadhana as dealt with in The Synthesis of Yoga. Here, the discussion revolves at first around the Yoga of Works, then the Yoga of Love and then the Yoga of Knowledge. Important elements of these aspects of sadhana are brought together in these chapters, such as the problem of right action in the Yoga of Works, the place of human relationships in the Yoga of Love and practical and legitimate aspects and methods for meditation in the Yoga of Knowledge. The development and transformation of the will, the premier importance of equality and its constant practice and the meaning and methods of psychic awakening are succeeding concerns considered in following chapters before approaching the perfection of the mental-vital-physical-subconscient instrumentality of the sadhaka. The perfection of the human instrumentality is a specific concern of the Integral Yoga not usually addressed by other spiritual paths. The necessity for perfecting the instruments arises in this yoga because it envisages a divine life on earth. For this a divine consciousness is not enough, a divine expression through divine instruments is also necessary. Sri Aurobindo deals with this aspect of the yoga in the section on the Yoga of Self-Perfection in The Synthesis of Yoga. Jugal Kishore addresses these instruments of experience and expression in the concluding chapters of his book. These are divided unambiguously into “Sadhana of the Mind”, “Sadhana of the Vital”, “Sadhana of the Body” and “Sadhana During our Body’s Sleep”. Each of these forms of consciousness is given a clear exposition, using an analytical intelligence and perceptive quotes. Particularly the sadhana of the body brings out the place of physical transformation in the Integral Yoga – its difficulties and its glorious future. Considering the earlier masterful full-length study The Destiny of the Body by the author, the chapter on the sadhana of the body here receives a clear and concise treatment. The book finishes with a chapter on the hostile forces and how to overcome them and a last one on the right attitude to take towards the circumstances of life (framed as the question – “Is All that Happens in Life Always for the Best?”). All in all, I have no hesitation in saying that this is one of the best books written by anyone other than Sri Aurobindo or the Mother addressing the practice of the Integral Yoga. The themes it marshalls, its organization of chapters, the profusion of its carefully selected quotes and the easy and clear flow of its logic makes it perhaps the most comprehensive, approachable and useful study to the serious person interested in practicing the Integral Yoga. It is difficult to fault, with the minor exception of its sometimes over-analytical temper – an occasional idiosyncrasy of its author – which asserts its mental interference, though rarely, in the otherwise luminous clarity of unfoldment. — Debashish Banerji Debashish Banerji is the president of the Sri Aurobindo Center of Los Angeles, USA. May 2004 Jugal Kishore Mukherjee - The Practice of the Integral Yoga REVIEW by Debashish Banerji Contents Publisher’s Note By Way of Explanation Foreword by Dr. A. S. Dalal I. Eleven Basic Attitudes II. The Ninefold Daily Sadhana III. On Aspiration IV. On Rejection V. Renunciation in the Integral Yoga VI. On Opening and Receptivity VII. On Self-surrender to the Divine VIII. How to Call and Pray IX. How to Invoke the Divine’s Grace X. Personal Effort and the Divine Grace XI. Sadhana through Work XII. The Problem of Right Action: How to Recognise the Divine Will XIII. Sadhana through Love and Devotion XIV. The Conquest of Self-love XV. On Human Relationships in Sadhana XVI. Sadhana through Meditation XVII. The Conquest of Self-will and the Enthronement of the Divine Will XVIII. On Will-power in Sadhana XIX. Equality in the Integral Yoga XX. On the Psychic Awakening XXI. Sadhana of the Mind XXII. Sadhana of the Vital XXIII. Sadhana of the Body: Physical Transformation in the Integral Yoga XXIV. Sadhana During our Body’s Sleep XXV. The Conquest over the Hostile Forces XXVI. Is All that Happens in Life Always for the Best? Publisher’s Note This is the latest book coming from the pen of Jugal Kishore Mukherjee who has been residing as an inmate for the last fifty-three years in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. SAICE (Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Pondicherry) has already published the following books in English written by Prof. Mukherjee: 1. The Destiny of the Body (The Vision and Realisation in Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga). 2. From Man Human to Man Divine (Sri Aurobindo’s Vision of the Evolutionary Destiny of Man). 3. Sri Aurobindo Ashram: Its Role, Responsibility and Future Destiny. 4. Sri Aurobindo: The Smiling Master (Humour in Sri Aurobindo’s Writings). 5. Sri Aurobindo’s Poetry and Sanskrit Rhetoric. As with his other publications this particular book, The Practice of the Integral Yoga, covers a special field of research and is the product of a careful and sustained investigation. The book will, we hope, interest the growing circle of devotees and disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, especially those who want to know the method of actual practice of the Integral Yoga of Self-perfection and Self-transformation. We are thankful to Dr. A. S. Dalai for contributing a scholarly and perspicacious ‘Foreword’ to this book. By Way of Explanation The author owes a preliminary explanation to his readers; for, at first glance the title of the book may appear to some rather odd and utlandish, if not smacking of downright self-conceit. Like a few of the author’s earlier books, this book too owes its origin to the loving request of some of his students. During the last more than thirty years, in every academic Session many of the students of the Higher Course of SAICE (‘Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education’, Pondicherry) have studied under the guidance of the author various books of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother such as, The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, Essays on the Gita, Letters on Yoga, The Mother’s Entretiens (in 13 Volumes), Mother’s Commentaries on Sri Aurobindo’ s Thoughts and Aphorisms, etc. The students have studied these books with great love and concentration. They have approached these seminal works, not with some intellectual academic interest, but mainly for comprehending the basics of the Integral Yoga as ushered in by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. But a common complaint with many of these students has been that they often miss the beauty and the significance of the ‘wood’ because of concentrating on individual ‘trees’. In other words, even after going through the hundreds of pages of many of the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother dealing with the Purna Yoga, they somehow lack in their comprehension that precision and clarity which are very much needed for putting the principles into actual practice. They find themselves at a loss to know for certain how to begin the Sadhana of the Integral Yoga and from which point and how to proceed methodically thereafter. Now, at the end of their academic studies in our Higher Course, some of the students decide to join the Sri Aurobindo Ashram as serious practitioners of the Integral Yoga of Self-transformation. But their problems get multiplied with the passage of time. Many new questions come up in their mind demanding precise and immediate clarifications. When Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were present in their physical body, the sadhakas of those days used to put before them directly or in writing their individual questions and waited for specific replies. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo also, in their infinite Grace and Compassion, used to answer all those questions and the sadhakas concerned would be satisfied with these solutions and clarifications. But now, when both of them have withdrawn from their physical body and many of the sadhakas have not yet been able to establish direct inner contact with the Master and the Mother, they wonder where to find the right solutions. Yet they vaguely feel that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have already furnished relevant answers to all their possible problems and questions in their extensive writings on Yoga. But for many valid reasons many of these young sadhakas have neither the time nor the energy nor even the discriminating capacity to rummage through the voluminous writings of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo to find out the right and pertinent answer needed at that moment. What these young sadhakas seek for in such situations of perplexity is a properly prepared handbook which would deal with all the essential facets of the Integral Yoga in a methodical way and present them in such a manner that they could be easily put into actual practice without much ambiguity. So, some of the author’s students old and new, in the age-group of twenty to forty years, requested him to consider their genuine need and prepare such a handbook in a single volume of moderate size. Now, it is not only the student-sadhakas but some of the author’s friends too who broached the same proposal to him now and then. Then, there is a third category of people who come in the picture in this connection. These persons form the ever-growing fraternity of Sri Aurobindo’s and Mother’s devotees scattered throughout the world. Many of them would not like to remain content with being mere religious devotees. They have an aspiration to become practising sadhakas of the Integral Yoga. But they too are confronted with the same set of problems: How to begin? Where to begin? And how to proceed on the right track with sure steps in a sustained way? After deep deliberation the author humbly decided to attempt the impossible. He prayed for the blessings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in this rash venture of his and sought to encompass the entirety of their teachings on Yoga and Sadhana in the span of roughly three hundred and fifty pages. The author can assure that all that is noted down in this book is authoritatively based on the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The whole matter has been treated subjectwise and each chapter has been made self-contained without any necessary dependence on other chapters of the book. Thus, any sadhaka-reader facing any problem or question at any time during his life of sadhana may conveniently refer to the topic in question and receive the needed answer therein Now a few words as regards the style of composition of the book. The author has purposely refrained from writing this book purely from a detached impersonal point of view. He has at times sought to impart an intimate personal touch to his description and elaboration. And this is so because of the following reason. In his own humble way the author has been a consistent wayfarer on the Path of the Integral Yoga for the last fifty-three years. And he believes with all his heart that most of the would-be readers of this book are also sadhakas of the same Path. This underlying common element and interest psychologically binds the author and his readers in a close relationship. And this is especially so in the case of the young student-sadhakas referred to in the beginning of this explanation. Hence, the author, while making some specific remarks in course of his discussion, has often mentally placed himself in the company of these young sadhakas and made his observations in the ‘First Person Plural Number’, such as: “How is it that many of us who claim to be sadhakas of Sri Aurobindo’s Path so easily lose our attitude of wakeful vigilance and fall prey to any and every invading temptation?” Readers are requested to excuse this sort of personal vein of writing. Finally, the author hopes and even trusts that many sadhakas who are already relatively advanced on the path of Sadhana will find many points in this humble composition worth pondering over. The twenty-six chapters of this book are like twenty-six garlands offered with love and devotion at the Feet of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. All the flowers have been culled from the celestial gardens of the Master and the Mother: the author’s modest role has been that of a conscientious weaver of the garlands only. Sri Aurobindo Ashram — J. K M. Pondicherry 24.04.02 Foreword It is an honour to write a foreword to this book authored by someone who is a veteran sadhaka of the Integral Yoga and a veritable walking encyclopaedia of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In fact, The Practice of the Integral Yoga is a comprehensive treatise on the effective practice of the Yoga of Integral Transformation as propounded by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. The book does abound in valuable hints, consisting in insights, approaches and perspectives which the author has found effective for his own sadhana spanning more than half a century. For, as will be evident to the perceptive reader, the book is not a product of armchair study, but an outcome of what has been assiduously shaped on the anvil of long practice, deep reflection and inner experience. The author has remarked in the prefatory note about his role as merely that of a weaver of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. But in writing this book Jugal Kishore Mukherjee has provided more than a connecting thread, for besides the actual teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on which the book is solidly founded, The Practice of the Integral Yoga contains a wealth of the author’s own reflections and insights which are a distillation from his lifetime’s sadhana of the Integral Yoga. Throughout all its chapters the book is studded with some of the choicest passages from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In selecting these passages, the author has gone beyond the commonly trodden ground of more familiar sources. So the reader is likely to discover gems of extracts not encountered before. Even some of the passages which may be familiar to the reader are apt to be better understood when read within the context of the author’s lucid explanations. The presentation of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother has been enriched by copious references to other spiritual teachers and works, both Eastern and Western, including the perennial lore of such sources as the Gita and the Upanishads. Unlike most other spiritual paths and disciplines, Integral Yoga does not prescribe any set of concrete practices such as āsana, prānāyāma, japa and the like to be followed by all its practitioners. Nor does it formulate a set of ethical norms and principles, do’s and don’ts, yama and niyama, as part of its core discipline. Hence the difficulty experienced by many sadhakas who feel at a loss as to the what and how of the practice of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga. One practice which most people associate with spiritual pursuit is that of meditation. This is specially true of the West where, particularly due to the influence of Zen Buddhism, spiritual practice is regarded as almost synonymous with the practice of meditation. Referring to this attitude in a critical vein, the Mother remarks, “...when they think of the spiritual life, they immediately think of meditation.” (Questions and Answers ‘57-‘58, Collected Works of the Mother, Vol. 9, p. 88.) However, even meditation, as a set practice, is not an indispensable part of the practice of Integral Yoga. The reader will, therefore, find that meditation is not included among the limbs of daily sadhana presented in the second chapter of the book, though an entire chapter is devoted to the topic of meditation. For, the attitude that looks upon spiritual life as consisting in following certain set practices tends to lead to a compartmentalisation of life, creating a division between the spiritual life and the ordinary life. However, from the viewpoint