Overview of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga

(as interpreted and extended by Sri Karmayogi)

By Roy Posner

Last updated: 12/2/2014 9:17am

This document is an overview of Sri Aurobindo’s “Integral Yoga.” It contains

several short statements of His, many detailed statements of Sri Karmayogi, and
several of my own. I have organized it as I believe the yoga is intended, and have
paraphrased some of their remarks for context and clarity. I hope this profound
knowledge is beneficial to you as you continue on your personal and spiritual
journey. –RP

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What the Yoga is Called and Why

-Sri Aurobindo calls His yoga “Integral Yoga.” It is so called because this yoga is
integrated with all of life; is to uplift life to its ultimate possibilities. In Sanskrit it
is called Purna Yoga, meaning everything in creation is included in this yoga. (Sri
Karmayogi, paraphrase)
-Those who take to the yoga of Sri Aurobindo -- variously called Integral Yoga, Purna Yoga,
or Yoga of Self-perfection, and Yoga of Spiritual Evolution will launch themselves into an
evolutionary movement. (Sri Karmayogi)
-Sri Aurobindo has also said that this is a yoga of Self-Perfection. The Self that is known to
be aloof, perfects itself by emerging through our minds, lives and bodies. Hence the Yoga of
Self-Perfection. In perfecting life, this Self enriches life, makes it spiritually opulent. (Sri
Karmayogi)

-The Integral yoga is the yoga of spiritual evolution … the evolution - change by growth - of
the Spirit in all planes. (Sri Karmayogi)

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Aim of Integral Yoga

-The yoga we practice is not for ourselves alone, but for the Divine; its aim is to
work out the will of the Divine in the world, to effect a spiritual transformation and
to bring down a divine nature and a divine life into the mental, vital and physical
nature and life of humanity. (Sri Aurobindo)

-Purna/Integral Yoga aims at bringing down the power of the Supramental plane;
the descent of Supermind abolishing pain, suffering and death from the face of the
earth. (Sri Karmayogi)

-Integral yoga aims at ALL aspects integrating in supramental harmony to bring heaven on
earth. (Sri Karmayogi)

-[The object of the Yoga] is the liberation and transformation of the human being … the
bringing down of the divine Ananda upon the earth. (Sri Aurobindo)

-Integral Yoga enables the evolution and transformation of the individual, as well as the
world around him. (Roy Posner)

-Sri Aurobindo recognizes the essential divided nature of man. He lives in his ego, in
ignorance, in time, in limitation, finite, and suffers from disease and death. Integral Yoga is
the conscious method of overcoming Man's limited nature and arriving at his spiritual and
supramental Nature. (Sri Karmayogi)
-Purna Yoga accepts life, lives it as the Divine Wills it to be lived, so that Life is divinised.
(Sri Karmayogi)
-Discovering the spirit in all planes of our being, and enabling the same for Nature is the
goal of yoga. (Sri Karmayogi)

-The aim of Integral Yoga is transformation of human life into Divine Life; to bring down a
divine life into the mental, vital and physical nature and life of humanity. (Roy Posner)

-Sri Aurobindo says the real goal of yoga is to transform mind, life and matter, to divinize
them. (Sri Karmayogi)

-The embodied soul should seek total release from falsehood and ego in all parts of its
being; and, rising into the higher realms of Spirit, bring down the spiritual force and truth to
life on earth, so that death, suffering and disease can be abolished forever. [This is the
integral yoga] (Sri Karmayogi)
Yoga is to become the child of The Mother … (Sri Karmayogi)
Yoga is on the broad, deep line with the one aim of reaching Her. (Sri Karmayogi)

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The Yoga in Terms of the Collective, Civilization, Society

Integral Yoga is a yoga that no one can do [just for] for himself. It is a collective
yoga that transforms life universally. It is a yoga in which the individual who calls
Mother calls Her for all humanity. (Roy Posner)

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In Integral Yoga our progress is a progress for everyone. (Sri Karmayogi)
Yoga is civilisation beginning to live in the spiritual centre. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga is the acme of civilisation which is a process of the collective and individual acquiring
knowledge and capacity to rule themselves. (Sri Karmayogi)

To run the family and the society inside your emotions is yoga. (Sri Karmayogi)

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The Essential Method, Movement of the Yoga Key

Constant consecration that enables us to move away from the surface and ego
consciousness to deeper poise, culminating in the Psychic Being, and Surrendering
to the Divine Mother from there, enabling the supramental power to descend into
our being and life to transform ourselves at planes of our being, turning human
existence into divine existence is the process of the Integral Yoga. (Roy Posner)
Steps of Integral Yoga: Consecration > Shedding ego; movement to Depths > Psychic
Being > Surrender > Force Transforms all Planes of Our Being and Life around us > Divine
Life for Ourselves (Gnostic Being); Divine Life on Earth. (Roy Posner)

In Sri Aurobindo’s Purna Yoga, he surrenders his ego and intensifies his aspiration. The
Psychic being buried behind the heart comes forward and slowly opens the thousand-
petalled Lotus centre above the head. The higher spiritual energy starts pouring in, opening
each chakra in succession from above downwards. (Sri Karmayogi)

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Psychic Being Key

The Psychic Being is the evolving soul that is on a journey of self-discovery,

entering the individual person to seek certain truths and experiences in its journey
of consciousness. (Roy Posner)

The psychic is the evolving soul, the soul of Prakriti and therefore is the highest height to
which man can attain in creation. It is here God exists in His unity, the original unity, unity
in the diversity of the Many. God here enjoys the Lila of discovering His own inherent unity
in the apparently divided Many. Man has to shift from his vital to mind, from mind to the
soul and from soul to the psychic which is infinity in life. (Sri Karmayogi)

In Purna Yoga the goal is to reach the Psychic being and then from there
Surrender to the Supramental Force to transform all planes of our being to create
a divinized individual and society. (Roy Posner)
Through the psychic, we rise to the Parameshwara, to the Supermind. (Sri Karmayogi)

Sri Aurobindo says yoga is not to be done from [just] any part of the being, it has to be
done from the central being. (Sri Karmayogi)

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Consecration not only forges a link with the within, culminating in the subliminal being and
then the Psychic entity (evolving soul), but sets right and creatively all conditions of life it is
applied to. (Roy Posner)
Integral yoga is done by the Psychic. Its only work is surrender. (Roy Posner)
Integral yoga seeks the enjoyment of the psychic, the evolving soul, in all the parts of
being, consciously raising its centre of existence from the ego to the Ishwara in the
supramental plane. (Sri Karmayogi)

Sri Aurobindo's yoga can be simply stated as moving from the mental centre to which man
has not fully attained, to the centre of evolving spirit in all parts of being. (Sri Karmayogi)

The field of this yoga is the inner emotions and attitudes. Its method is transformation. Its
path is to the inner and to the subliminal. Its centre is psychic. By giving up one's fixed
poises, one goes down to rise. (Sri Karmayogi)
To do this yoga, one has to discover the evolving soul in oneself, in others and by Itself and
then experience it in Mind, Life and Matter. That [latter part] cannot be achieved by any
method except surrender. (Sri Karmayogi)

Short Essay: The Psychic Being and the Process of Integral Yoga (Sri Karmayogi)

The field of this yoga is the inner emotions and attitudes. Its method is
transformation. Its path is to the inner and to the subliminal. Its centre is psychic.
By giving up one's fixed poises, one goes down to rise. (Sri Karmayogi)

1. The first step to get out of the limited situation we are in is to go within and bring the
psychic forward. We should go from the surface mind to the depths, reach the psychic and
bring it to the surface.

2. Once we have realized the psychic and it comes forward, we can experience the eternal
Self behind, without ever losing our hold on the world. But in aspiring for perfection in life,
we must not limit ourselves to the evolution, any more than the yogi seeking liberation
should be limited to his liberation. We have to have the full realization.

3. We must also know the Transcendent. We must not only know the soul, the Jivatma, but
also the Transcendent behind the creation.
4. Finally, we must call down the power from the Supermind, the creative power of the
Supramental Mother, into our mind, vital and body to transform them.
Opening, sincerity, aspiration, consecration and surrender are the landmarks in yoga.
For yoga the rising subconscient and descending Superconscient meeting in him should
ascend to the Transcendent.

Yoga demands the opening of all our parts and being eager to receive the Divine Force
without any of our usual obstructions.

Instead of relying on and being moved by the normal human impulses, understanding and
will, one seeks contact with the soul deep within and acts from that center with its
guidance. In effect one suspends and offers up one’s own impulses, feelings, understanding
and will power so that a higher impulsion, truer knowledge and more powerful will can act

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through one. By this means the seeker gradually comes more in contact with the Divine and
the Divine enters into and takes hold of his entire inner life and all his outer circumstances.

Shedding Ego and Discovery of the Psychic Being

Integral Yoga is to replace ego by the psychic. (Sri Karmayogi)

Integral Yoga psychologically turns out to be the surrender of the ego. (Sri Karmayogi)

In Purna Yoga the ego in every part must be wiped out to bring the psychic being forward,
the very first requirement. (Sri Karmayogi)

The psychic being is discovered by moving from the surface to the depths, from the ego
plane to the soul. (Roy Posner)

Shed ego; find the soul of Nature, human soul is upgraded into divine soul is the summary
statement of yoga. (Sri Karmayogi)

Discovering the Psychic through Consecration

Consecration is the act of self-offering aspects of one’s life to the divine force. (Roy
Posner)

Consecration can be of acts, problems, opportunities; at fixed intervals of time, through

repetition; can even be applied to past mistakes. (Roy Posner)
Consecration not only forges a link with the within, culminating in the subliminal being and
then the Psychic entity (evolving soul), but sets right and creatively all conditions of life it is
applied to. (Roy Posner)
Through consecration efforts one progressively moves from the surface to the depth, and
from ego to the psychic. (Roy Posner)
Through consecration one discovers the psychic being. (Roy Posner)

By constant consecration we shed ego and move to a deeper plane, culminating in

connecting with our true self, the evolving soul, the psychic entity. (Roy Posner)

It is not by the intellect that one can progress in the yoga but by psychic [i.e. inner soul]
and spiritual receptivity. (Sri Karmayogi)
Consecration initiates us into yoga. (Sri Karmayogi)

By consecration Man eliminates his ego, sacrifices his works to the Lord. The thought of
working for the Lord and only the Lord makes the thought universal and powerful.
Therefore, the universal energies are at his command. (Sri Karmayogi)

Discovering the Psychic through Various Spiritual Methods (Roy Posner)

(These are methods advocated by Sri Karmayogi that help attract positive conditions in life,
but also have the effect of deepening the consciousness, culminating in psychic realization.)
Non-Reaction - Whenever another individual expresses a degree of intensity, particularly if
negative, remain very calm and don't react. Not only will tension be diffused, but positive

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conditions will suddenly present themselves. Reacting, on the other hand, will only intensify
the negative.
Equality of Being - If very negative circumstance comes your way, be very still inside.
Soon after, the negative will dissipate and positive conditions will emerge in their place. E.g.
a man was owed considerable money, but now discovered is was going to be delayed for 60
days. Rather than react, he remained calm inside. In a reversal, he soon learned that the
payment would be issued that very same day!
Silent Will - Instead of broadcasting your thought or opinion, withhold its expression. Very
soon after, the other person will speak it out for you. For example, a businessman was
trying to convince a contact at a huge company of the importance of interviewing executives
there for a book he was writing. After several minutes of explaining, he was getting
nowhere. Just when he thought of defending the need for the interviews to the other
person, he instead held back. The official then completely reversed himself and gave the
writer all he asked for.
Reduced Speech, Soft Voice - If you notice any long term lack of success in life, check to
see if you or others are talking too much or too loud. Making that inner adjustment to
verbal silence will quickly overcome the wanting condition. One organization practiced this
sole technique and went from near bankruptcy to prosperity in a short period of time.
Non-Complaining - Complaining about a matter only energizes it. On the other hand,
withholding complaint overcomes the object of complaint. E.g. a man who constantly
complained that his spouse was disorganized in financial matter practiced non-complaining.
Within a day from out of nowhere a bank came forward and solved all of the financial
problems the disorganized individual had.
Non-Initiating, Responding to Life's Initiatives - Normally we take initiatives to
accomplish in life. But our research has shown that when one initiates on one's own, it is
more likely to fail than succeed. Is there a way out? Yes, it is by responding to LIFE'S
initiatives. When life comes to you with an opportunity and you take it up, success is almost
always guaranteed. One man moved across country with the idea of starting a house
painting business. It was a self-driven initiative, and it ultimately failed. A while after, a
friend of his family asked him to work at one of his chain stores. When he did, an
astounding series of positive successful outcomes followed; and his life was changed
forever. That is the power of responding to Life's initiatives rather than taking one's own. It
is a power of stillness and silence in which we wait for life to take us to the next level.
Inner Poise - Instead of living on the surface of life, move your consciousness within to a
deeper place. Good fortune will come from unexpected sources. E.g. a man was on a
crowded train where everyone was miserable. Instead of being bothered, he moved himself
inward and stilled his mind. Two minutes later, it was announced that another train was
available on a parallel track. The men exited and hopped onto the other train, and found it
to be completely empty! He had a literally blissful ride the rest of the way.
Don't Speak of a Thing Until It is Accomplished - One of the most series errors people
make, is to speak out, enjoy, or celebrate something before it fully accomplished. When you
do that, the thing gets delayed or even cancelled. How many times have we seen sports
figures speak out too soon, only to see their accomplishment go down the drain. Bottom
line: Keep silent as much as possible until the thing is fully accomplished.
Take Another's Point of View - Instead of asserting your point of view, put yourself in
the shoes of the other person, and embrace in full their thoughts, opinions, suggestions, no
matter how right or wrong. Life will respond. On an important project, there were two
individuals; one learned on principles of life; the other very limited so. The lesser individual
also had no interest in learning these subtle principles. The learned man changed direction,

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and completely accepted the lesser person's point of view and requests, despite his limited
knowledge. Soon after, the lesser man started to take deep interest in a number of
advanced principles he previously showed no inclination to understand before. The project
then moved swiftly ahead.
Consecration - When any difficulty arises in your life, do not react. Instead offer it to the
Divine, i.e. the spiritual Force, and in no time there will be a dramatic reversal of conditions,
or new, unexpected, and astonishing developments will come your way.
Aspiration -
Sincerity -
Faith -

Mental Psychic
Purna yoga, To achieve the greatest result by the shortest route assumes man to be a soul
in the mind and starts the yoga there. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga is shifting the mental centre from Prakriti to Purusha or the Psychic. (Sri Karmayogi)

His yoga commences only in the mental psychic. (Sri Karmayogi)

Psychic-Related - Other
Purna yogi sees the world by his psychic without shutting out his senses but purifying them.
(Sri Karmayogi)

The Spirit that evolves in life (i.e. psychic being) makes life,

invincible, unfailing
one of ever-growing abundance
conscious by the force and consciousness that are separate joining together
capable of prolonging life at will, conquering death
ascend and integrate itself with consciousness
evolve its Psychic Being
enter the third dimension of Time from where it is now - in successive, processive
Time as we always know it. (Sri Karmayogi)

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Surrender Key

In Purna/Integral Yoga one consecrates to reach the depths of the Psychic Being
where one Surrenders to the Divine Force/Mother enabling transformation of our
being at all planes, and the divinization of life on earth. (Roy Posner)

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Integral yoga is done by the Psychic. Its only work is surrender. (Sri Karmayogi)
Man cannot do this yoga. It is the Divine that does the yoga. Man’s part is surrender is the
primary idea to be conceived. (Sri Karmayogi)
Yoga is action of the Spiritual force in the plane of life through surrender. (Sri Karmayogi)

To do this yoga, one has to discover the evolving soul in oneself, in others and by Itself and
then experience it in Mind, Life and Matter. That cannot be achieved by any method except
surrender. (Sri Karmayogi)
Surrender is the only method in this yoga. This has two parts, surrender of the soul and
surrender of human nature. (Sri Karmayogi)
This yoga does not aim at Silence or any particular action. It aims at surrender, and it yields
Silence and leads to action. (Sri Karmayogi)

The surrender Sri Aurobindo describes moves the man from egoistic centralisation of
rationality to universalised individuality. [I.e. from ego to psychic being, the spiritual
individual.] This change takes place on the surface, the mind, the ego, Time and in the finite
structure of events and objects. (Sri Karmayogi)
The yogic surrender Sri Aurobindo speaks of is an act. At some stage, it ripens into an
attitude, an inner attitude through which all acts flow. It is then one is said to have the
yogic consciousness. (Sri Karmayogi)

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Supramental Plane, Consciousness (editing point)

Purna/Integral Yoga aims at bringing down the power of the Supramental plane;
the descent of Supermind abolishing pain, suffering and death from the face of the
earth. (Sri Karmayogi)
The descent of Supermind abolishing pain, suffering and death from the face of the earth is
the culmination of the yoga. (Sri Karmayogi)

Purna Yoga aims at bringing down the power of the Vignana Loka, the Supramental plane
that is above the plane of the gods, the overmental plane. (Sri Karmayogi)

Through the psychic, we rise to the Parameshwara, to the Supermind. (Sri Karmayogi)
Purna Yoga means to be converting human consciousness into supramental consciousness
during our active existence. (Sri Karmayogi)

Supermind and Knowledge and Power

Unity of Knowledge in Supermind -- Knowledge and will exist separately in the mind. In the
Supermind they are fused together. Knowledge there contains the will and will includes
knowledge. To extend the analogy of the house, if one with Supramental Consciousness
thinks a house can be built, the house is there instantaneously. (Sri Karmayogi)

Direct Knowledge, By Identity in Supermind -- When we want to know about a person or a

thing, we collect information, put it together, think and arrive at an opinion. That is the way

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of the mind, observation, sensing, thinking and inference. Supramental Consciousness has
direct, total and integral knowledge of the persons or things it wants to know. When one
endowed with Supramental Consciousness wants to know of another person before him, he
turns his attention to that person and feels a total identification with him. The Supramental
man feels the other man’s thoughts enter his own mind, his feelings enter into his nerves,
making knowledge total and complete. (Sri Karmayogi)

This is a yoga where Mind is to be passed over in favour of Supermind. (Sri Karmayogi)
To see the Infinity mind must move to Supermind. (Sri Karmayogi)

Supramental Power to Change World from Mere Thought -- In Her vision of the supermind,
She explains how the supramental beings act just by thought. (Sri Karmayogi)

Supermind Additional – to be categorized

Integral Yoga is action of the Spiritual force in the plane of life through surrender.
(Sri Karmayogi)

Sri Aurobindo asks for the Aryan balance attained in the body with the external physical
environment to be restored at the Supramental level, skipping the vital, mental and the
range of spiritual mind levels. It is a great leap. (Sri Karmayogi)

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Inner-Outer Relation
A yogi has absolutely no work to do with others. All his work is only inside. The
only work he has outside is the work commanded of him inside. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga is inside; life is outside. Purna Yoga is the inner life that includes the outer
life. (Sri Karmayogi)

A yogi need not go out and work in the field to produce results. ‘He can send the
Force from where he is.’ (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga brings the outer and inner together into one unified whole at a higher level of created
existence. (Sri Karmayogi)
Yoga is to see the world inside and then go away from it to its centre. The tapasvi goes
away from life; the yogi goes away from the life of the world inside. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga is to live the life of the world in your own life, better still inside. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga is going inside. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga is the conversion of the surface acts into acts of depth. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga begins when the physical acts are moved from the higher perception. (Sri Karmayogi)

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Potential, Creation, Accomplishment

Yoga is creation in life.

-It is the yogi who creates new potentials of life in its spiritual dimension. (Sri Karmayogi)

Success in Yoga

There is only one question for the success of yoga. How deep can you go? How
long can you remain there? (Sri Karmayogi)

The rule in yoga requires we should do the very best for yogic results. (Sri Karmayogi)
Purna Yoga is fully realised when the physical substance senses the evolving inner God
expressing in one’s life. The conscious physical sensation of the Absolute is the realisation of
God in the matter of the body. (Sri Karmayogi)

Purna yoga, to achieve the greatest result by the shortest route assumes man to be a soul
in the mind and starts the yoga there, (Sri Karmayogi)

Life Response, Luck

Inclination to yoga is enlightened by the Synthesis of Yoga which opens life and brings it
under one's control or grasp. Knowledge of that process I have named as Life Response.
(Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga is a life of luck. (Sri Karmayogi)

Opportunities

-How fully you now use your opportunities. (Sri Karmayogi)

-To surrender totally, you must have exhausted your opportunities here. (Sri Karmayogi)

Solving Problems
If a yogi is accomplished, he will have the power to solve any problem on earth if
the afflicted party appeals to him. … Yoga acquires the power to solve problems.
Aspiration avails of it. (Sri Karmayogi)

Sometimes yogic force can go to an international problem and solve it without hindering the
source. (Sri Karmayogi)

The yogi takes full care of the whole world and even Earth. The universe is the household of
the yogi. (Sri Karmayogi)

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Yogic Qualities, Attributes

Yogic Power
The yogic power is born when the subliminal accepts an idea. (Sri Karmayogi)

Energy

Yogic energies for life have to fill the entire plane of life .. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga is the fusion that releases the energy of the universe. (Sri Karmayogi)

Purity

Purity as exclusive reliance on the Divine. (Sri Karmayogi)

Knowledge

To understand the yogic point of view, one should go below and rise above. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yogic knowledge of say Time or Space is learning by the body consciousness, not a mental
information. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga begins when we understand what we now do not understand, and stand what is
intolerable. (Sri Karmayogi)

as for knowledge and true understanding, it grows in sadhana by the growth of the
intuition, not of the physical intellect. (Sri Karmayogi)

Silence

This yoga does not aim at Silence or any particular action. It aims at surrender,
and it yields Silence and leads to action. (Sri Karmayogi)

The Silence behind the Silence [i.e. the divine Being’s consciousness] is the plane of yoga.
(Sri Karmayogi)

Non-Thinking
To stop thinking is the beginning of yoga. Yoga ends when one is unable to think
having lost that faculty. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga is the body thinking. (Sri Karmayogi)

Thought is bad. (Sri Karmayogi)

Beyond Mind

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This is a yoga where Mind is to be passed over in favour of Supermind. (Sri Karmayogi)
To see the Infinity mind must move to Supermind. (Sri Karmayogi)

Mind shifting to Supermind. (Sri Karmayogi)

-Sri Aurobindo's yoga can be simply stated as moving from the mental centre to
which man has not fully attained, to the centre of evolving spirit in all parts of
being. (Sri Karmayogi)

Mentally he will see that mind is infinity. Spiritually he becomes perceptive. (Sri Karmayogi)

Intuition
The yogi understands by Intuition. (Sri Karmayogi)

as for knowledge and true understanding, it grows in sadhana by the growth of the
intuition, not of the physical intellect. (Sri Karmayogi)

Inner Stillness

Purna Yoga demands … inner stillness in activity for its accomplishment. (Sri
Karmayogi)

Beingness, Non-Occupation

To have the richness of fulfilment while not doing anything is the evolutionary
state of Yoga. (Sri Karmayogi)
Absence of occupation is yoga. (Sri Karmayogi)

Purna Yoga demands … inner stillness in activity for its accomplishment. (Sri Karmayogi)

Fulfillment

To have the richness of fulfilment while not doing anything is the evolutionary state of Yoga.
(Sri Karmayogi)

Sense
Purna yogi sees the world by his psychic without shutting out his senses but purifying them.
(Sri Karmayogi)

In the Integral yoga, one goes inside the senses of the vital and physical. (Sri Karmayogi)

Cheerfulness

Elizabeth (in Pride and Prejudice) was always cheerful, a better foundation of yoga. (Sri
Karmayogi)

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Patience

Yoga is the end of the endless Patience. (Sri Karmayogi)

Humility

Humility enables transformation. (Sri Karmayogi)

Goodness, Self-givingness

Yoga is Life in Purity of goodness. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga is Self-giving. (Sri Karmayogi)

Non-Initiating, Nothing to Do

The yogi refuses to initiate, lets the work organise itself in him and be executed.
(Sri Karmayogi)

Surrender is not to be done by an effort of any description. (Sri Karmayogi)

He who has taken to yoga has absolutely nothing to do. He cannot act except through his
ego. Even the efforts at yoga are only exercises of ego. (Sri Karmayogi)

All that he has to do is to kneel before the descending GRACE and gratefully allow
it to act. Such an ability is not a human capacity but is one of the awakened SOUL.
(Sri Karmayogi)
To have the richness of fulfilment while not doing anything is the evolutionary state of Yoga.
(Sri Karmayogi)

Time and Space

For the metaphysician, time and space are conceptual. For the yogi, time and space are as
real as air and electricity. (Sri Karmayogi)
The yogi's future is the reversal of the past. (Sri Karmayogi)

The ideal attitude of the Spiritual Aspirant towards Time is to have an endless patience, as if
he had all of eternity for his fulfillment, and yet to develop the energy that shall realize now
and with an ever-increasing mastery and pressure of rapidity till it reaches the miraculous
instantaneousness of the supreme divine Transformation. (Sri Karmayogi)

Enter the third dimension of Time from where it is now - in successive, processive Time as
we always know it. (Sri Karmayogi)

Feelings, Sensations

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-Thought is bad, feelings are evil, sensations are hostile. (Sri Karmayogi)

Divine Intent
In Purna Yoga the human soul must renounce the desire for individual salvation
and lend its liberated status as an instrument for the greater fulfilment of the
original Divine Intention. (Sri Karmayogi)

Overcoming Limits of Our Consciousness

Mother's life is in the subliminal free from Mind, Ego and Time. (Sri Karmayogi)
It is allowing the Divine to do the Yoga in us, having withdrawn our desires,
attachments, rights, securities, capacities to will and all, having surrendered
everything (Sri Karmayogi)

Accepting the All

Unconditional acceptance of events as His marvel is the way of yogic vision. (Sri
Karmayogi)

Yoga begins when we understand what we now do not understand, and stand what is
intolerable. (Sri Karmayogi)

Memory, Sleep, etc.

The yogi knows that as long as the memory of an incident rises to his mind, he has work to
do. (Sri Karmayogi)

When memory is gradually weakening by yoga and is dissolving, distant meaningless trifles
will come to Mind sometime in dreams. They are the small significant events for his
transformation. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga advances more in the sleep of the night than in the waking consciousness of the day.
(Sri Karmayogi)

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Yoga and the Body

Yogi as Laboratory

The yogi converts his own life and BODY into his laboratories. (Sri Karmayogi)
The Integral yogi experiments on his life, risking it fully. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga and the Body

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Yoga is the body’s spirit replacing man’s ego and even his psychic. The life of Body is Yoga.
(Sri Karmayogi)

Purna Yoga is fully realised when the physical substance senses the evolving inner
God expressing in one’s life. The conscious physical sensation of the Absolute is
the realisation of God in the matter of the body. (Sri Karmayogi)

Purna Yoga starts at the mind, This yoga is completed at the level of the body. (Sri
Karmayogi)
Yoga is the body thinking. (Sri Karmayogi)

The yogi converts his own life and BODY into his laboratories. (Sri Karmayogi)

The belief of converting knowledge into practical utility is the theme of Sri Aurobindo's yoga
when the descent is expressed by the body. (Sri Karmayogi)

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Challenges of the Yoga

Great Effort

Yoga cannot be done without the effort being at the peak all through the day. (Sri
Karmayogi)

The boat of man moving upstream in the river of life is yoga. It is a nonstop effort of
greatest strain. A moment of respite pushes the boat downstream. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga refuses psychological rest. (Sri Karmayogi)

Seriousness in yoga stipulates absence of desire for relaxation that is entertainment. (Sri
Karmayogi)

Personal Obstacles to Yoga

Our Higher Self may be interested in taking to Purna [Integral] Yoga and try for
transformation and for doing Service to the Divine, the Divine Mother. It may want to take
that up as the central aim of its existence. But if our mind and heart and body fail to
support that decision, then the resolution of Our Higher Self to take to yoga cannot be fully
effective. If our mind wants to lead an ordinary social life and pursue money, power and
other normal pleasures of life, then it will fail to endorse the decision of our Higher Self as
its interest is in some other direction. (N. Ashokan)
Yoga needs protection from ourselves. (Sri Karmayogi)
Understanding is an organisation of the mental energies around an idea that takes a
direction so that future thought and action will have its full benefit of support and sure
guidance. For yoga, this is a sure obstacle. (Sri Karmayogi)

Act Unaided

Any great act you do will be done by you unaided. (Sri Karmayogi)

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To remember you are Brahman, therefore know you can act only unaided. (Sri Karmayogi)

Do It Yourself Alone, No Guru

Yoga is not a cooperative affair. There is no guru who can help you. There is no
question of your being assisted by anyone. You have to do it yourself, severely
alone. (Sri Karmayogi)

Purna Yoga does not seek or accept a human guru. (Sri Karmayogi)

Social Relations
Accepting social intercourse is an obstacle to yoga. (Sri Karmayogi)

Socially he will have nobody to relate to. (Sri Karmayogi)

Psychological Mooring

One can accept Mother if he is willing to give up all his psychological moorings all
at once. Mother is synonymous with yoga. (Sri Karmayogi)

psychological terms man hangs in the mid-air. He will find himself in an elevating vacuum;
(Sri Karmayogi)

Difficulty of the Yoga, Risk, Danger

The integral yoga is made up of an uninterrupted series of tests that you must
pass through without any advance notice, thereby forcing you to be always
vigilant and attentive. (Sri Karmayogi)

In this yoga, the sadhak accepts life which means his own life becomes the field of
experiment. The most common occurrence is he has to risk his life all the time.
When he meets with considerable success, he has to risk it again to go forward.
(Sri Karmayogi)
Yoga will not be as difficult for us as it was for the Master and the Mother, as they
have opened the path. Of course, it will retain the difficulty of the human acquiring
the divine nature. The real difficulty will be felt only when new paths are to be opened, as
Mother did when She went beyond what He had prepared. When we say yoga is made easy,
we mean the difficulty of the pathfinder will no longer be there. (Sri Karmayogi)

Yoga is a horrendous experience, as it has to transform dark, hostile forces. That was for
Him and Her and not for us. Until we overtake them, it is a sunlit path for us. We do meet
with horror. It is true. Horror is not because of hostile forces, but we invite them because of
our rigid, dark attitudes. We can change the attitude and there will be no earthquakes or
nightmares. (Sri Karmayogi)

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This yoga cannot be done without changing consciousness. Changing consciousness means
dizziness, disease, drastic changes in life circumstances and human relationships. (Sri
Karmayogi)
This yoga is meant for those who love danger. (Sri Karmayogi)

The Integral yogi experiments on his life, risking it fully. (Sri Karmayogi)

Physically he appears to be fluff. (Sri Karmayogi)

I dare not invite Man to do yoga, though I shall be delighted to know that some have
considered that possibility. (Sri Karmayogi)
Yoga is not for all; yogic life is something everyone can aspire for. (Sri Karmayogi)

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Miscellaneous
Yoga vs. Yogic Life

Though, all men can become yogis, all are not meant for yoga. But all belong to the wider
yogic movement, which can be called yogic life. Thus all men can use the yogic Force in
their lives and can belong to yogic life of higher yogic consciousness. a yogic life belongs to
a world of Delight. It is a world of Spiritual abundance. (Sri Karmayogi)
The sadhaks who came seeking Sri Aurobindo never took to his yoga. (Sri Karmayogi)
To bring the Vedic conception as a reality in Matter and Time is our yoga. (Sri Karmayogi)

The Life Divine can give us the intellectual conception of the Integral Yoga. (Sri Karmayogi)

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