My Learning from Integral Yoga
Whether we are aware or not, whether we like it or not, we all will be one day bound by the Golden Chain of the Divine Mother. Whether it will take 1 year, 10 years, or 1000 years or 10000 births, all depends on the speed with which our soul gives consent to be spiritualised. Sri Aurobindo says, “All would change if man could once consent to be spiritualised”. In fact, it is not we who give the sanction to the Divine; it is She who already chooses our soul. Divine only looks at the possibilities of each soul. It is the Creatrix Divine Mother, who is doing Her Yoga through each of us to merge in Her permanently.
The whole world is going through unprecedented changes after the descent of Supramental Force. Things that took 100 years earlier, is happening in a flash of seconds before us. In this great period of universal transition, we the chosen souls have a bigger role to play for the future of the Universe.
I believe, we can lead life of Integral Yoga in three ways:
1. Spread the Message of Sri Aurobindo
2. Work for the World Unity
3. Lead a Conscious Dynamic Gnostic Living
Spread the Message of Sri Aurobindo:
Time has come to spread Sri Aurobindo 24x7. We should work towards spreading it among the most uneducated and innocent tribal villagers or materialistic urban people. When I see 100s of Adivasi villagers sitting in complete darkness, in a remote Brahmansuku village, Podagada block of Koraput, chanting the Mother’s Bhajans and Durga Stotra, my belief gets strengthened that Mother’s Dream can be practically feasible and possible to materialise at the most ignorant and inconscient level. Villagers can easily accept Supreme Divine Mother than the intellectuals of towns. As The Mother says, “It’s only by clinging desperately to the Divine — -but to the purest and most powerful Divine — -that we can avoid a general conflagration. Not a single minute should be lost.”
A few shall see what none yet understands,
God shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleep:
For man shall not know the coming till its hour
and belief shall be not till the work is done. — (Sri Aurobindo from Savitri)
While the wise men will keep on talking and sleeping for eternity, Mother’s Force has already started working on the ground and bringing about transformation in a big way. The Force is bringing many people towards the Path of Spirituality. People have started questioning age-old religious practices, rituals, dogmas and methods of societies. These mindless religious rituals at the outer level, are not really helping in inner progress.
The Mother says: The time of religions is over, this is the age of universal spirituality.
To spread the Message of Sri Aurobindo in the world:
1. Before spreading the message, we should know why we should spread His message in the world.
The Mother: To give oneself to the Divine, to receive and be the Divine, to transmit and spread forth the Divine: these are the three simultaneous movements which constitute our total relation with the Divine.
Remember we have to transmit and spread forth the Divine now as well as be the Divine.
2. Let us offer everything that we possess to the Divine before we spread the Divine. Let us be Her True children as defined by The Mother below:
The Mother: Some give their soul to the Divine, some their life, some offer their work, some their money. A few consecrate all of themselves and all they have — soul, life, work, wealth; these are the true children of God.
3. We should have a mission to spread Her Message in the entire world as entire world is Her Creation and One Family. We must do this as Her Army of Light or Instruments, not with our little ego.
Note: We should not have an iota of feeling that “we” are doing Her Work. But it is “She” who is doing Her Work through instruments like us. Not only is He present in everything, but also He is everything. Like Arjuna, we should take up this fight for the Divine cause against the near and dear ones and against the unknown and known hostile forces, which are working overtime against the Divine cause. Like Sri Krishna had an alternate choice for Arjuna when he declined to do His work, similarly, Divine Mother will have separate alternate instruments ready if we decline to fight or strive for the Divine cause in this life given by Her. Our lives will be a waste if we do not participate actively in Her Divine Mission. We should spread Sri Aurobindo’s message as the only hope of mankind, as an immortal sunlight radiating over the future of this Earth.
4. We should not sit idle or at rest after the establishment of so many centres and pathachakras or schools in Odisha. Many a time, it is seen that there is less follow-up with new pathachakra members or neglect of existing famous relic centres. Pathachakras need to be more engrossing, with more focus on inward living through each moment of Pathachakra. We should minimize too much heated mental level discussion, instead focus on our inner experience by listening to The Mother’s words. Main motto of our Pathachakra should be to express the Psychic. For new joiners or new comers in the Path of Integral Yoga we can have lots of mental discussion to clarify their doubts. But when we reach a certain level, we need to experience each word from the Divine at a collective level in absolute silence. This Yoga is all about inward journey of our soul in silence, not in a silo, but in a group. A group force or aspiration should emerge from that collective Silence and Aspiration. The aim of our Pathachakra should not be do mug up lots of theories, but to live practically each word told in the Pathachakra and pray for the spread of the Wisdom at Universal level. There we should pray for all who have not got this Divine call.
5. While travelling in the weekly Pondicherry express or any other travel medium, we devotees collectively should use such Divine opportunity to express the Divine as much as we can. To express the Divine means, we should express the Divine Will, Divine Truth, Divine Love, Divine Perfection, Divine Beauty, Divine Power, Divine Light, Divine Unity, and the Divine Consciousness in Earth. We can conduct collective Pathachakras or sing Beautiful Mother’s bhajans or collectively pray for World Unity or Divine Truth in this precious Hours of God. Let us not waste a single minute by disconnecting from the Psychic by succumbing to the temptation of universal lower vital and lower mind impact.
6. We can use technology or social media in a positive way instead of getting diverted by the universal lower vital influence, and can use this to spread Mother’s Messages. For example, Smart Phones or Facebook, WhatsApp, Quora, Instagram can be used to spread the Divine Plan. With Mother’s name chanting in our physical cells at every moment, we can overcome the power of universal lower vital hostile influence and keep ourselves protected from dangers of technological advances.
Work for the World Unity
Suppose a locality is getting power from the main source, and all the people are living in complete light with no signs of darkness. But the places around it are living in utmost darkness, some are from medieval era. Will those people living in light be happy with their own progress or work towards arranging or giving light to rest of the surrounding area? Being in Odisha, we are directly blessed to be connected with the Divine Light and Force at our subliminal consciousness level. We get the experience of Divine Light and Knowledge. However, the places around us outside state borders to the world outside are still living in ignorance, darkness and falsehood grip. Our responsibility is to invoke the Source, the Source of Power, Light and Knowledge — The Supreme — to spread Her Light among all the regions. We have a huge responsibility not only for our State, but also for the country and the world at large as the torch bearers of Supramental World 24x7. For that we have to become Her Instruments and aspire sincerely and ardently without any personal motive or ambition. We should never neglect/ignore/reject/kick this opportunity to serve the Mother, given by the Divine Mother.
Let us work towards using this wonderful opportunity to rise above ourselves, to progress, to offer the energy we receive from the Divine back to its source — the Divine Himself. Time has come to not only progress at a psychic level, but also at a universal level. We need to have world consciousness 24x7.
The Mother: “The world is not an unhappy accident, it is a marvel moving towards its expression. We need a world organisation. But by whom? It should be by people who have at least a world consciousness! All human organisations are based on: the visible fact (which is a falsehood), public opinion (another falsehood), and moral sense, which is a third falsehood! So …
Sri Aurobindo: A spiritual religion of humanity is the hope of the future…. A religion of humanity means the growing realisation that there is a secret Spirit, a divine Reality, in which we are all one, that humanity is its highest present vehicle on earth, that the human race and the human being are the means by which it will progressively reveal itself here. It implies a growing attempt to live out this knowledge and bring about a kingdom of this divine Spirit upon earth. By its growth within us oneness with our fellow-men will become the leading principle of all our life, not merely a principle of co-operation but a deeper brotherhood, a real and an inner sense of unity and equality and a common life.
We should have equal feelings for humanity: Be it scientists from Japanese or terrorists from ISIS. All are children of God, but are growing in their consciousness at different time of their soul’s journey. We should have Love and Goodwill for everyone.
Lead a Conscious Dynamic Living:
Time has come to form an ideal society of awakened souls which can be the example as the forerunner of the perfect world of the future. We need to start living a conscious collective life together to aspire for the manifestation of Divine Truth and Divine Love.
The following is the Mother’s Vision for Ideal Family or organisation of Aspiring Souls (CWM –Vol 13):
1. My aim is to create a big family in which it will be possible for each one to fully develop his capacities and express them. Each one will have his place and occupation in accordance with his capacities and in a relation of goodwill and brotherhood. As a consequence of such a family organisation there will be no need of remuneration or wages.
2. Work should not be a means of earning one’s livelihood; its purpose should be twofold: first to develop one’s nature and capacity for action, and, secondly, in proportion to one’s physical means and moral and intellectual aptitude, to give service to the family to which one belongs and to whose welfare it is but proper to contribute, as it is proper for the family to provide for the real needs of each of its members. Nothing necessary for life will be forgotten.
3. Differences of caste and class have no truth for me; all that counts is individual value.
4. It goes without saying that for admission to live in this ideal place the essential conditions that need to be fulfilled are good character, good conduct, honest, regular and efficient work and a general goodwill. But for the working out of the programme I am going to place before you, two essential conditions are necessary. First, I must have the financial means to execute my plan; secondly, you must show a minimum of sincerity, honesty and goodwill in your attitude towards me and towards your work….
For this purpose, we the aspirants collectively work together and form a gnostic community.
Steps to lead a Conscious Dynamic Life in a Gnostic Centre:
1. We should have unshakable faith in the Divine Mother and indomitable courage. Fear should not have any place for The Mother’s Army of Light.
2. Let us try to be true children of the Divine Mother, we should always behave as if She is always watching us.
3. First, we should consider ourselves as a growing soul and our only purpose is to progress.
4. We should work in such a way that it will help in the growth of our psychic, and tune the mental, vital and physical to higher consciousness.
5. We should come out of social bondage or at least reduce it to bare minimum,
6. We should giving highest priority to the Divine Work. The Mother says: I make no difference between work and yoga. Work itself is yoga if it is done in a spirit of dedication and surrender.
Physical Work is a must for transformation of our Being.
7. We should have clarity of purpose of human existence, and various concepts of Integral Yoga
8. We should practise only Silence and that will be the only field where we should communicate with each other, because that is birthplace of our Souls. Minimum words, maximum action.
9. We should avoid vital cravings, desires, unwanted discussions, gossiping lowering our consciousness and lowering the collective energy of the centre.
10. We should give highest importance to Beauty in all aspects. This includes both inner and outer beauty.
11. We should have Pathachakras with intense concentration, focus on each of Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s Words and their relations with our inward journey of the soul. Every moment we need to focus if we maintain the inner silence without losing our balance in the group.
12. We should practise equanimity and equality for us within and for other souls living in the Centre as every soul is unique and are there for our progress only. We cannot impose one rule for all.
13. We should not be static in our processes or methods, but dynamic in action, and utilise every collective experience as a springboard for higher consciousness and progress.
14. We should have unconditional love and oneness for the work and for all growing souls.
15. We should focus on all four Yoga aspects of life: Bhakti, Gyana, Karma and Perfection 24x7.
16. We need to stop being driven by mind anymore, instead should let ourselves driven by Experience. Integral Yoga is all about experience within, it is all about journey of our living growing soul.
17. We should not be arrogant or proud even if we increase the followers of Integral Yoga. We should not be sad also if we see decrease in followers of this Yoga. At every minute the universe is created in its totality and in each of its parts. Divine will take care of the rest but we need to be sincere and need to do everything at a surrender full attitude.
18. We should not have iota of ego, neither material nor spiritual Ego. As the Mother says: For centuries and centuries humanity has waited for this time. The time has come. We want a race without ego.
19. We should unify our whole being around the psychic centre as the first condition.
20. We should collectively aspire together for a single cause, a Collective Soul will be formed automatically without our mental knowledge and calculations. That will later drive the individual souls to aspire higher and higher without any set methods or processes. Individual Ego will be dissolved by the Pressure of collective aspiration and pressure of Consciousness-Force.
Sri Aurobindo: “If the society of the future is to be a spiritual society, in the place of the collective ego there has to emerge a collective soul, and such group souls have “like the individual to grow according to their own nature and by that growth to help each other, to help the whole race in the one common work of humanity. And that work would be to find the divine Self in the individual and the collectivity and to realise spiritually, mentally, vitally, materially its greatest, largest, richest and deepest possibilities in the inner life of all and their outer action and nature”.
21. We should not lose any chance to enlighten and elevate ourselves within 24x7. We should not leave any chance to connect with the higher universal forces and accept all with equality and equanimity.
22. As we carry out Mother’s mission, we might need money, which is presently captured by the universal hostile forces. We need to aspire that all wealth should be used by Divine only.
The Mother: Do not look up to men because of their riches or allow yourself to be impressed by the show, the power or the influence. When you ask for the Mother, you must feel that it is she who is demanding through you a very little of what belongs to her and the man from whom you ask will be judged by his response.
23. All our Work should be meant for the Divine. We should do Her work for Her alone as an offering to the Divine Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Without getting impacted by mind and vital, we should consciously do every work for Divine.
The Mother: The Mind and the Vital strike me as transitory instruments that have been useful to knead Matter. They will fall off as instruments that have outlived their usefulness and will be replaced by other states of consciousness.
24. We should not get obsessed with three transitory things which will lose its power and attraction in the supramental age, as told by the Mother: Money, Food and Death. These do not carry anything deep with respect to our consciousness. These three are creating impressions among intellectuals, that man will be slave to their power or impact and get brainwashed by the illusion of career, success, money, instead of the Divine Power, which brings lasting delight and Ananda.
25. The most important thing, we should do Nama Japa (chanting of Ma, Ma) in whatever we do, or think or speak 24x7 to create a subtle protective covering of the Divine around ourselves and also protect us from subconscient or other hostile forces from visible or invisible worlds. Nama Japa should be done at the physical level. Every cells of physical should chant The Mother or chant of any Mantra such as OM NAMOH BHAGAVATE.
( Sanjeev Patra, Hyderabad. sanjeevpatra@gmail.com)
Note: This article was published in Indrandhanu
