Recent Publications - Sabda - Sri Aurobindo Ashram

More documents

Recommendations

Info

10 Recent Publicationstalks. A. S. Dalal’s continuing series has served this purpose,as have the compilations specifically made to explainthe practice of the yoga. Three works of this kind makingsubstantial 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 thepractice of the Integral Yoga more accessible, has comeJugal Kishore Mukherjee’s The Practice of the IntegralYoga. This work is not a compilation of Sri Aurobindo’sletters on yoga or of the Mother’s talks; nor is it a primer ofyoga practice in the style of M. P. Pandit. Yet, in a way, itThis book brings togethersome of the most helpfulquotes from Sri Aurobindo andthe Mother, weaving theminto its text in contextual wayswhich make them much morepotent than in their isolatedplacement in compilations.is all these and more.Springing from theauthor’s many yearsas a teacher at theSri Aurobindo InternationalCentre ofEducation, its proseis marked by thefriendly enthusiasmof sharing thoughhardly lacking in theanalytical rigor forwhich Jugal Kishore has become well known. At 350 oddpages, the paperback is not verbose, is easy to read,perceptive and practical. Best of all, it brings togethersome of the most helpful quotes from Sri Aurobindo andthe Mother, weaving them into its text in contextual wayswhich make them much more potent than in their isolatedplacement in compilations.In its organization of materials, the book displays theworking of an incisive selecting intuition which picksout the most relevant aspects from all the major yogicworks of Sri Aurobindo to form its chapters. Thus, thoughthe contents of the chapters derive their effectivenesslargely from quotes taken from Sri Aurobindo’s letters andthe Mother’s talks, the focus and logic of the chaptersseem to be drawn from The Mother and The Synthesis ofYoga. In this, it appears the author gives primacy ofposition to The Mother as the principal practical text ofthe Integral Yoga – a refreshing and penetratingly directapproach seldom seen before in books of this kind.After spending the first two chapters developing, fromthe Mother’s practical hints, some basic daily attitudesand habits of sadhana (corresponding to the yamas andniyamas of other schools, though much more subtle andpsychological in this case), the author launches into eightchapters based on the approaches developed bySri Aurobindo in The Mother. The first five of these chapterselaborate on the famous triple formula of “aspiration,rejection and surrender.” In the process the author clarifiescontext and specialized sense pertaining to these termsand repeatedly invokes the key inner movements of theyoga. For example, before embarking on a discussion ofsurrender (Ch. VII, “On Self-surrender to the Divine”), theauthor prepares the ground by interposing a chapter “OnOpening and Receptivity.” In this chapter, the primacy ofthese two terms “opening” and “receptivity,” which SriAurobindo evokes as central in The Mother is discussedso as to awaken the reader to their meaning, importanceand inner intuition. Quotations such as the followingabound, which leave one in no doubt that (1) this yoga isdone not by one’s unaided effort but by reliance on theMother’s Force; and (2) becoming aware of the working ofthe Mother’s Force as soon and as completely as possibleis among the most important necessities of this yoga: “Byremaining psychically open to the Mother, all that is necessaryfor work or Sadhana develops progressively, that isone 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 (whichI have quoted earlier in this review). The two powers “thatalone can effect … the aim of our endeavour,” the “call”and the Grace, are here taken up in separate chapters. Inchapter VIII, the author engages in a most interesting andilluminating discussion relating to the “call” vis-à-visprayer. The forms of and differences between aspirationand prayer are here brought out in bold relief. Grace isdealt with in two succeeding chapters – “How to Invokethe Divine’s Grace?” and “Personal Effort and the DivineGrace.” This focus on Integral Yoga as seen through TheMother is then followed by chapters which elaborate thesadhana as dealt with in The Synthesis of Yoga.Here, the discussion revolves at first around the Yoga ofWorks, then the Yoga of Love and then the Yoga of Knowledge.Important elements of these aspects of sadhana arebrought together in these chapters, such as the problem ofright action in the Yoga of Works, the place of humanrelationships in the Yoga of Love and practical and legitimateaspects and methods for meditation in the Yoga ofKnowledge. The development and transformation of thewill, the premier importance of equality and its constantpractice and the meaning and methods of psychic awakeningare succeeding concerns considered in followingchapters before approaching the perfection of the mentalvital-physical-subconscientinstrumentality of the sadhaka.
Recent Publications 11The perfection of the human instrumentality is aspecific concern of the Integral Yoga not usually addressedby other spiritual paths. The necessity for perfecting theinstruments arises in this yoga because it envisages adivine life on earth. For this a divine consciousness is notenough, a divine expression through divine instrumentsis also necessary. Sri Aurobindo deals with this aspect ofthe yoga in the section on the Yoga of Self-Perfection inThe Synthesis of Yoga. Jugal Kishore addresses theseinstruments of experience and expression in the concludingchapters of his book. These are divided unambiguouslyinto “Sadhana of the Mind”, “Sadhana of the Vital”,“Sadhana of the Body” and “Sadhana During our Body’sSleep”. Each of these forms of consciousness is given aclear exposition, using an analytical intelligence andperceptive quotes. Particularly the sadhana of the bodybrings out the placeThis is one of the best bookswritten by anyone other thanSri Aurobindo or the Motheraddressing the practice of theIntegral Yoga.of physical transformationin the IntegralYoga – itsdifficulties and itsglorious future.Considering theearlier masterful fulllengthstudy TheDestiny of the Body by the author, the chapter on thesadhana of the body here receives a clear and concisetreatment.The book finishes with a chapter on the hostile forcesand how to overcome them and a last one on the rightattitude to take towards the circumstances of life (framedas the question – “Is All that Happens in Life Always forthe Best?”). All in all, I have no hesitation in saying thatthis is one of the best books written by anyone other thanSri Aurobindo or the Mother addressing the practice ofthe Integral Yoga. The themes it marshalls, its organizationof chapters, the profusion of its carefully selectedquotes and the easy and clear flow of its logic makes itperhaps the most comprehensive, approachable anduseful study to the serious person interested in practicingthe Integral Yoga. It is difficult to fault, with the minorexception of its sometimes over-analytical temper – anoccasional idiosyncrasy of its author – which asserts itsmental interference, though rarely, in the otherwiseluminous clarity of unfoldment.— Debashish BanerjiDebashish Banerji is the president of the Sri AurobindoCenter of Los Angeles, USA.Nirodbaran:Divinity’s ComradeEd. Hemant Kapoor; Published bySri Mira Trust, Pondicherry;Price Rs. 200.00, 639 pp.This book, brought out to felicitateNirodbaran on the occasion ofhis birth centenary, has four mostfelicitous things about it. These arei) the glowing photograph on thecover page which seems to have captured the spirit ofNirod-da dear to countless Aurobindonians, ii) the happytitle of the volume, iii) the very first section consisting ofnearly 240 pages of vintage Nirodbaran, and iv) somereally fine articles in the rest of the book.We are told by the editor that the volume is dividedinto the following four sections: a) a selection fromNirodbaran’s writings, b) articles dwelling on many aspectsof his achievements, c) accounts of memorable contactswith him, and d) general articles dedicated to him.The first section of the book, as I said earlier, is indeedvintage Nirodbaran. It begins with a facsimile of a BonneFête message from the Mother to Nirodbaran on his birthdayin 1969. The two poems of Nirodbaran that follow areindeed two of the best written by him and I commend theeditor for his excellent taste in selecting them for thisvolume. Those who would like to savour the specialquality of Nirodbaran’s correspondence with SriAurobindo should read Sri Aurobindo’s letter to him, foundon pages 12 to 15 of this volume. Once again, take thisbrief letter from Nirodbaran to his Guru: “I tried tomeditate but I had to simply give it up, and sleep came inand with it what confused dreams!” Or, see Sri Aurobindo’sreply on page 61 to Nirod-da’s complaint that he who wasa cheerful fellow at school and college became the Man ofSorrows, an epithet used by Sri Aurobindo to refer to him,only after he took up Sri Aurobindo’s yoga!The subsection entitled “Talks with Sri AurobindoApropos of India” is a very welcome part of this volume.This has been taken from Nirodbaran’s Talks withSri Aurobindo. These are talks which Sri Aurobindo hadwith a few of his disciples while he was recovering from athigh fracture sustained in 1938. This was the period whenSri Aurobindo was writing the first three Books of Savitri,which describe Aswapati’s mighty spiritual experienceswhich were Sri Aurobindo’s own. Even while maintainingat one level a oneness with such a high consciousness hewas able to deal dynamically with the world outside, and
Page 5 and 6: Recent Publications 5V. Madhusudan
Page 7 and 8: Recent Publications 7Jai Ma: On the
Page 9: Recent Publications 9The Practice o
Page 13 and 14: Recent Publications 13heights of ph
Page 15 and 16: Recent Publications 15Among The Not
Page 17 and 18: Recent Publications 17delicacy in t
Page 19 and 20: Recent Publications 19during this p

Recent Publications - Sabda - Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?