Integral yoga

Integral yoga or purna yoga (Sanskritfor full or complete yoga) refers in Sri Aurobindo's teachings to the union of all the parts of one's being with the Divine, and the transmutation of all of their jarring elements into a harmonious state of higher divineconsciousnessand existence.

The yoga of synthesis

Sri Aurobindo describes the nature and practice of integral yoga in his opus The Synthesis of Yoga. As the title of that work indicates, his integral yoga is a yoga of synthesis, intended to harmonize the paths of karma-, jnana-, and bhakti-yogaas described in the Bhagavad Gita. It can also be considered a synthesis between Vedantaand Tantra, and even between Eastern and Western approaches to spirituality.

The aim of integral yoga

Most yogasonly develop a single aspect of the being, and have as their aim a state of liberationor transcendence. But the aim of integral yoga is the transformation of the entire being. Because of this, the various elements of one's make-up - Physical, Vital, Mental, Psychic, and Spiritual, and the means of their transformation, are described in great detail by Sri Aurobindo, who in this way formulates an entire integral psychology. The goal is then the transformation of the entire nature of one's being. Nothing is left behind.

the process...accepts our nature...and compels all to undergo a divine change...In that ever progressive experience, we begin to perceive how this lower manifestation is constituted and that everything in it, however seemingly deformed or petty or vile, is the imperfect figure of some element in the divine nature. (Synthesis of Yoga p.47)

Also distinguishing Sri Aurobindo's teaching from most other mystical paths is the need for transformation of the personal and relative nature. So the integral yoga is two-fold; both a spiritual realisation of Godor Transcendence or Enlightenment, and, through this, a complete change and transformation of both the innerand the outernature. Through this double action, one is thus made able and fit to manifest a divine consciousness, and in this way becomes part of a divine work.

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, founder of the Aeon Center for Cosmology and author of the Integral Cosmology text The Gnostic Circle, though currently unrecognized by the members of Sri Aurobindo's Ashram or of Auroville, is considered by many Integral Yoga students to be a direct continuation of the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

Unfortunately the above statement is not accurate. This is actually not the case. Ms. Bachelet in fact fetishes numerology and arcane interpretations of the yoga, which all self-servingly place her and her child as central to her thesis that they are Avatars". There are very few if any authentic integral yoga students who would agree with that thesis.

Other Integral Yogas

Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga is not to be confused with the Integral yoga of Swami Satchidananda, although the Satchidananda is thought to have briefly met Sri Aurobindo, and there are some similarities in their respective teachings.

Satchidananda's group successfully trademarked the term "Integral Yoga" in the United States. [1][2]

Quotes

"The movement of nature is twofold: divine and undivine. The distinction is only for practical purposes since there is nothing that is not divine. The undivine nature, that which we are and must remain so long as the faith in us is not changed, acts through limitation and ignorance and culminates in the life of the ego; but the divine nature acts by unification and knowledge, and culminates in life divine. The passage from the lower to the higher may effect itself by the transformation of the lower and its elevation to the higher nature. It is this that must be the aim of an integral yoga."

-- The Synthesis of Yoga

What is the integral yoga?

It is a way of complete God-realisation, a complete Self-realisation, a complete fulfillment of our being and consciousness, a complete transformation of our nature - and this implies a complete perfection of life here and not only a return to an eternal perfection elsewhere

-- Sri Aurobindo Archives and Research, Dec 1982, p.197

"The method we have to pursue, then, is to put our whole conscious being into contact with the divine and to call him in to transform our entire being into his, so that in a sense god himself, the real person in us, becomes the sadhaka of the sadhanaas well as the master of the yoga by whom the lower personality is used. "

-- The Synthesis of Yoga

All life is a Yoga of Nature seeking to manifest God within itself. Yoga marks the stage at which this effort becomes capable of self-awareness and therefore of right completion in the individual. It is a gathering up and concentration of the movements dispersed and loosely combined in the lower evolution."

-- The Synthesis of Yoga p.47

... to do the integral yoga one must first resolve to surrender entirely to the Divine, there is no other way, this is the way. But after that one must gave the five psychological virtues, five psychological perfections and we say that the perfections are

1.Sincerity or Transparency

2.Faith or Trust (Trust in the Divine)

3.Devotion or Gratitude

4.Courage or Inspiration

5.Endurance or Perseverance

The Mother, Collected Works of the Mother Vol.8 p.42

"The Goal - Our goal during this Age ... is to enlighten the masses and render them capable of seeing the Reality. We are faced with the task of eliminating the Ignorance, and this can be done only by seeing properly.

Thus, the purpose of our times, and therefor the purpose of the study of astrology, is to give man a means by which he can learn to perceive integrally -- that is, to gain a view of the total movement, but at the same time of the fragments which make up the whole. All of this can be accomplished in a very simple manner. The entire study of astrology and cosmic harmonies is founded on the understanding of the Circle, and this symbol represents the unified multiplicity ...

In the discipline of yoga, in one way or another, one school or another, this is the experience one attains, progressing gradually until one achieves the position of the Sun, so to speak."

--Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, The Gnostic Circle

References

• Sri Aurobindo, (1999) The Synthesis of Yoga, fifth edition, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust
• Sri Aurobindo, (1972), Letters on Yoga, Volumes 22, 23, and 24, 1972, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust
• The integral yoga; Sri Aurobindo's Teaching and Method of Practice, 1993 Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust.

External links

• Selections from The Synthesis of Yoga
• Sri Aurobindo's Teaching and Method of Sadhana
• quotes
• integral yoga from Sri Aurobindo's Synthesis of Yoga - link- link
• Integral yoga - Integral Wiki
• Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet's Integral Yoga

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It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral+yoga Wikipedia article Integral yoga.