Integral Yoga of Transformation - Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental - Part One

PART ONE

Meaning of Transformation

The integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother can rightly be described as the yoga of total transformation. The word "transformation" which has been used by Sri Aurobindo in expounding the integral yoga of triple transformation has a distinctive meaning, and although explained briefly else where, we may refer to the following statement of Sri Aurobindo:

"By transformation I do not mean some change of the nature — I do not mean, for instance, sainthood or ethical perfection or yogic siddhis (like the tantrik's) or a transcendental (chinmaya) body. I use transformation in a special sense, a change of consciousness radical and complete and of a certain specific kind which is so conceived as to bring about a strong and assured step forward in the spiritual evolution of the being of a greater and higher kind and of a larger sweep and completeness than what took place when a mentalised being first appeared in a vital and material animal world. If anything short of that takes place or at least if a real beginning is not made on that basis, a fundamental progress towards this fulfillment, then my object is not accomplished. A partial realization, something mixed and inconclusive, does not meet the demand I make on life and yoga."¹

Sri Aurobindo makes a distinction between the liberation of the soul from Nature or Prakriti and the liberation of Nature from its own limitations. Generally, liberation of the soul from

Prakrit! is considered to be the highest possible objective of yoga, and that liberation is termed in various ways such as moksha, kaivalya or Nirvana. Again, the Indian yogic tradition recognizes three important kinds of liberation, sālokya mukti, liberation that is attained when the soul attains its dwelling with the Supreme Reality, sālokya mukti, liberation that is attained when the soul unites and becomes one with the Supreme Reality, and sāmipya mukti, liberation of the soul when it attains nearness or close intimacy with the Supreme Reality. In all these states of liberation, the individual discovers its separateness from Prakriti and from the ignorance that is at play in its three gunas. There is, indeed, some change or modification in Prakriti, as a result of which there comes about predominance of satwa, principle of light and harmony, as also general quietude in and around the activities of the three gunas. But otherwise the three gunas remain basically bound to their own peculiar qualities as also to the state of ignorance which is supposed to be inherent in Prakriti. In the synthesis of yoga that we find in the Veda, Upanishads, Gita and Tantra, the highest siddhis for accomplishments are also measured in terms of greater and more radical changes in the Prakriti, and therefore the aims in these systems of yoga include not only liberation of the soul from Prakriti but also increasing operation of Aditi or Divine Mother or Para Prakriti in the dynamic parts which also tend to change radically the three gunas of Prakriti. For instance, when we study the yoga of the Gita, where the greatest emphasis is laid on the discovery of the divine will and surrender to the divine will and dynamic action of the divine will through the human instrumentality, there is considerable emphasis on the change of Prakriti by the infusion in the three gunas of Para Prakriti and of the swabhava of the jiva or

individual, who is conceived as the eternal portion of the Supreme Reality² that is brought forth in manifestation by the Para Prakriti.³ Thus, we find that the Gita speaks of the operation of shraddha or faith in the three gunas, but shraddha itself is derived, not from Prakriti but from what is considered to be the constituent of the Purusha or the soul.⁴ Similarly the concept of swabhava, on which a special emphasis is laid, is the becoming of the soul, which does operate in the three gunas but is itself not derived from Prakriti. In fact, the same thing can be said in regard to kartavyam karma, the action that is not to be renounced. The Gita also speaks of the state of trigunātîta, the state beyond the three gunas, of muktasya karma, the action of the liberated soul, of madbhāva, the divine's own nature, and also of sādharmyam, the state of the law of action which is identical with the law of action of the Supreme Reality.⁵ It also speaks of the enjoyment of immortality when one arrives at the transcendence of the three gunas.⁶ Similarly, the Gita also speaks of sāśvata dharma, eternal law of action. All these and allied concepts in the Gita definitively point towards the action of the soul which manifests Para Prakriti.

Liberation of soul and of Nature

It is thus clear that in the Indian tradition of yoga, there has been the aim, not only of the liberation of the soul from Nature, but also of the possibility of action of Nature that is free from the Nature's bondage to the ignorance of the three gunas. There is, thus, the acknowledgement of the possibility of the liberation of nature itself from its bondage to the three gunas. Sri Aurobindo envisages that, apart from the liberation of the soul from the Nature, there can also be liberation where nature is itself liberated from its own limitations and where

Nature or Prakriti becomes perfect whether in the state of action or in that of inaction. While discussing the ordinary idea of the liberation of Nature, Sri Aurobindo states as follows:

"The ordinary idea is that it is not possible because all action is of the lower gunas, necessarily defective, sadosam, caused by the motion, inequality/want of balance, unstable strife of the gunas; but when these unequal gunas fall into perfect equilibrium, all action of Nature ceases and the soul rests in its quietude. The divine Being, we may say, may either exist in his silence or act in Nature through her instrumentation, but in that case must put on the appearance of her strife and imperfection. That may be true of the ordinary deputed action of the Divine in the human spirit with its present relations of soul to nature in an embodied imperfect mental being, but it is not true of the divine nature of perfection. The strife of the gunas is only a representation in the imperfection of the lower nature; what the three gunas stand for are three essential powers of the Divine which are not merely existent in a perfect equilibrium of quietude, but unified in a perfect consensus of Divine action. Tamas in the spiritual being becomes a divine calm, which is not an inertia and incapacity of action, but a perfect power śakti, holding in himself all its capacity and capable of controlling and subjecting to the law of calm even the most stupendous and enormous activity: Rajas becomes self-effecting initiating sheer Will of the spirit, which is not desire, endeavour, striving passion, but the same perfect power of being, śakti, capable of an infinite, imperturbable and blissful action. satwa becomes not the modified mental light, prakāsha, but the self-existent light of the divine being, jyotih, which is a soul of the perfect power of being and illumines in their unity

the divine quietude and the divine will of action. The ordinary liberation gets the still divine light in the divine quietude, but the integral perfection will aim at this greater triune unity."⁷

The total transformation that leads to what may be called perfect perfection would mean, according to Sri Aurobindo, the appearance in the evolution of a Gnostic being or Purusha and a Gnostic Prakriti, a Gnostic Nature. In the words of Sri Aurobindo:

"There must be an emergent supramental Consciousness Force liberated and active within the terrestrial whole and an organised supramental instrumentation of the Spirit in the life and the body, — for the body-consciousness also must become sufficiently awake to be a fit instrument of the workings of the new supramental Force and its new order.... On this basis the principle of a divine life in terrestrial Nature would be manifested; even the world of ignorance and inconscience might discover its own submerged secret and begin to realise in each lower degree its divine significance."⁸

Evolutionary Intention of Nature

According to Sri Aurobindo, the evolutionary process through which Matter, Life and Mind have evolved, if sufficiently studied in its depth, points to an intention of Nature to evolve the spiritual man and awaken him to the supreme Reality and not only to release him from herself, or from the Ignorance in which she as a Power of the Eternal has masked herself, but bring about a radical integral transformation of herself. In other words, even though the spiritual man has evolved, Nature has in her the intention to evolve the supramental being who shall thence forward be the leader of that Nature. In the words of Sri Aurobindo:

"There is a will in her to effectuate a true manifestation of the embodied life of the Spirit, to complete what she has begun by a passage from the Ignorance to the Knowledge, to throw off her mask and to reveal herself as the luminous Consciousness-Force carrying in her the eternal Existence and its universal Delight of being. It then becomes obvious that there is something not yet accomplished, there becomes clear to view the much that has still to be done, bhūri spastam kartavyam; there is a height still to be reached, a wideness still to be covered by the eye of vision, the wing of the will, the self-affirmation of the Spirit in the material universe."⁹