Integral Yoga Ontology
Integral Yoga Model
Sri Aurobindo gave Integral yoga to the world and revealed the secret of Manifestation and Creation of the Universe. He gave the model consisting of different planes of Consciousness which got created after the creation begins. This model is oval shape with upper and lower hemisphere having higher planes of consciousness and lower planes of consciousness. There is plane in between the two hemisphere which he named Supermind and revealed that, it is the Dynamic aspect of the Brahman – the supreme divine, which has created this world and everything in it,
Creator is Eternal, Infinite and Omnipresent Reality. He created the universe in which he concealed himself, so that he would have the joy of Self-discovery after Self-concealing. He created the Universe for his Delight.
Sri Aurobindo gives model of Integral yoga that provides the overview of the creation.
In the upper hemisphere, there are higher planes of consciousness – Sat-Chit-Ananda . The lower hemisphere has Mind – Vital and Matter. In between the two there is a plane of Supermind.
Sachchidananda is the static aspect of Divine Consciousness and Supermind is its dynamic aspect, the force for manifestation.
As involution progresses, we have a being and a force at each level and four above – Sat-Chit-Anand-Supermind become in the process of involution the four below—Matter, Life, Mind and Psychic.
Being changes into Non-Being, Consciousness into Inconscient, Bliss into Insensibility and Supermind into Mind During involution
Brahman
Integral yoga accepts the Vedantic view and describes Brahman as – Absolute, Supreme Reality, from which everything is created. It accepts – “Brahman is One without a Second and All this is the Brahman. It is not something over and above the universe of experience but is rather the very essence of all this.”
Sat-Chit-Ananda
“Sat-Chit-Ananda” is one Consciousness, and one cannot exist without two others. Thus, where there is no delight there can be no existence and where there is no awareness (Consciousness) self-absorbed or manifested, there can be no existence.”
Sachchidananda is simply a pure Existence, Consciousness and Bliss and not active in creation, but it is everywhere behind the manifestation, supporting and also above it. Sachchidananda can be experienced in the planes below the Supermind, in Mind and in Vital.
Supermind
Supermind is Truth Consciousness with true complete knowledge and knows everything as it’s right, instantly, and inherently.
Supermind is the dynamic aspect of Sachidananda, which has created this universe with its true knowledge.
There are various Grades of Consciousness below the Supermind which are called:
- Overmind
- Intuitive mind
- Illumined mind
- Higher mind
Mind
Mind is the next stage of Consciousness that emerges from developed vibration of life Consciousness. It appears for the first time in the animal kingdom and then in human beings
Sri Aurobindo describes that the Mind in essence is Consciousness that is capable of acquiring only limited knowledge as ignorance is the nature of the mind
Life
In the manifestation, Matter is a form of veiled Life. When the Matter is sufficiently organized and transformed for the manifestation of the indwelling Life, the veil is removed, and Life emerges out of the very Matter.
Matter
Matter is the next level of consciousness. Creation is the Involution of the Absolute Brahman in the Matter.
- Absolute Spirit manifests and assumes the form of Matter
- Matter is a veiled and unmanifest form of Brahman
- Matter appears to be almost negation of Consciousness and must evolve to its fullness.
Creation of the Universe
In Integral yoga, Sri Aurobindo resolves the mystery of Creation and explained Who, How and Why this universe came into existance.
Who? Creator, the Eternal, Infinite and Omnipresent Reality.
How? He created universe in which he concealed himself.
Why? He created for his Delight, for the joy of Self-discovery after Self-concealing.
Divine Emanations
Integral yoga gives complete picture of how the Universe is created and how the Creation happens from the Brahman.
First Emanations- During creation the First came out four emanations from divine. They separated, came down to vital level, got into inconscient and turned into their opposites.
First emanation was Consciousness. It goes into inconscient to become Unconsciousness.
Second was Bliss (Ananda), and it turned into Suffering.
Third was Truth and that turned into Falsehood.
Fourth one was Life, and it turned into Death.
To rescue these, Second emanations – Gods came out. Gods stayed at the level of Overmind. There are various Gods, the forces of creation, which has created the various life Forms and the entire material universe. The gods acted from their higher level and came down many times to bring transformation,. To act, they need to come down and take birth in the matter.
Third emanations are the Souls coming out as tiny little sparks, in extremely huge numbers. These souls emanated by the Divine entered the world with a special purpose, for a special action and with a special destiny, carrying in itself its own law and to perform the divine work.
Every soul goes under evolution, takes birth, life after life to recover and transform the first four emanations (Consciousness, Bliss, Truth, Life) from ignorant matter to supreme spirit.
Creation of Time and Space
The Supermind is the one that created the planes of Time and Space. Time is the subjective extension of Consciousness and Space is the objective extension of Consciousness.
Purusha and Prakriti
In Integral yoga, Sri Aurobindo describes that there exists individual Soul and also a universal Soul, which is the experience taken by Divine for its delight. This Soul in the individual or universal is what is called Purusha. The Principle and the Powers of the becoming are what we call Nature or Prakriti.
Involution
What is Involution?
In Integral yoga, Sri Aurobindo presented the Integral way and concept of Involution of higher consciousness into lower level of physical matter and inconscient.
Integral yoga tells that Life gets evolve out of matter and Mind out of living form and this is the process of evolution, which is possible because, it is already involved in it.
Sachchidananda is static aspect and Supermind is its dynamic aspect, the force for manifestation.
As involution progresses, we have a being and a force at each level and four above (Sat-Chit-Anand-Supermind) become in the process of involution the four below—Matter, Life, Mind and Psychic.
Being changes into Non-Being, Consciousness into Inconscient, Bliss into Insensibility and Supermind into Mind.
During involution, higher consciousness got veiled and became inconscient.
Story of Involution
The story of involution goes this way – The Divine Mother made her first four emanations from consciousness of Sachchidananda.
The first was Consciousness and Light, second was Ananda and Love, the third was Life and the fourth was Truth.
As these emanations go away from their source, disconnect themselves from supreme Mother. They became conscious of their infinite power and instead of receiving supreme indications for action and doing things in proper order, each one took off independently. They forgot their Origin.
Due to this initial oblivion, Consciousness became unconsciousness, Light became darkness, Ananda became suffering, Love became hate, Life became Death, and Truth became Falsehood, they were instantly thrown headlong forming what we call Matter.
Evolution
What is Evolution
Evolution is the aim of Integral yoga. It describes Evolution as the process by which Consciousness gets liberated from itself. In Evolution, it comes out and grows bigger, higher and enlarges at the same time to develop towards a greater and greater perfection. As the higher consciousness is already embedded in matter, there emerges the possibility of evolution to a higher level from matter and Integral yoga describes this as evolution of consciousness from matter to spirit.
Evolution begins with liberation of life from matter and then from life evolves the mind. So, the next evolution is from the mind, to release into a greater consciousness – Supermind the spiritual and supramental Consciousness. Spirit is the involved divinity in the conscious being, it is the involved Divinity in matter and will release entirely for perfect manifestation of life.
The consciousness evolves out of the universal nescience of Matter and Integral yoga describes in detail the process of this evolution – the development from Inconscient to Sachchidananda.
Process of Evolution
The Evolution of consciousness needs two movements – upward and downward.
Upward movement of Consciousness – In this movement the vital rises to join with the higher consciousness. It gets itself in the light and with the force of higher consciousness, gets evolve.
Downward movement of Consciousness – In downward movement the higher consciousness comes down, vital remains silent, tranquilized, pure, and empty of the ordinary movements. It waits for the descent of dynamic power, opens it and get transformed to its true self.
Psychic Being
What is Psychic Being?
The Psychic being is the spark of divine Consciousness, that comes directly from the Divine and is always in touch with the Divine.
It is the nucleus full of divine possibilities and supports the lower triple manifestation of Consciousness of mind, life and body.
Sri Aurobindo described the Psychic being as the soul which goes through development in the process of evolution. Psychic being is the evolutionary element in the human being, growing life after life.
Psychic being is the inmost being standing behind the inner mind, inner vital and inner physical.
Soul is the divine spark that grows in the Consciousness by higher spiritual experiences, gaining strength every time with higher inner movement and finally, by the accumulation of these deeper and higher movements it develops psychic individuality, called the Psychic being.
True Being, Self and Psychic Being
Self is felt as universal while the Psychic Being is the individual supporting the mind, life and body. Jivatman (Spirit) is the Consciousness above mind. It is part of the static aspect of divine Consciousness.
The Psychic Being is a spark that comes from the Divine and is dynamic aspect. Psychic is the soul in evolution, whereas the Atman is the Self, above the evolution.
Realization of both – Psychic being, and Self is necessary for
realizing the transformation.
Psychic Being – Key for Integral Yoga
The Psychic being is the guide within, that knows the truth, the good, the true delight and beauty of existence. It controls the heart and intellect by its luminous law and leads our life and being towards spiritual completeness.
Psychic being is part of Truth Consciousness of the Divine. As it comes forward, its influence spreads gradually from within towards the outer material Consciousness that brings the transformation of our entire nature.
When liberated from this covering, it is free to act according to its own nature with a free aspiration. It is in direct contact with the higher Consciousness and by its power brings changes in ignorant nature. As Psychic being takes control, it removes the false, and errors in these vibrations and clings to the truth. This is the first step of self-realization, to enthrone the psychic being in the place of the ego.
Psychic being is the seat of the Divine Consciousness ( Divine Self ) in the individual being. It is influenced, formed and moved by the Divine Self of which it is a part and parcel. The psychic being is a centre of light, the truth, knowledge, beauty and harmony which is created by Divine Self by his presence and grows little by little.
Integral yoga reveals that the first requirement in yoga is to become conscious of Psychic being so that the process of transformation can be pressed into one life or even a few years.
Secret of the Psychic Being
Soul is spark of divine, coming from dynamic part of the Divine- Supermind and takes part in evolution.
Psychic being is evolved soul, that travels from life to life
Psychic being is part of Supermind – which is made of material (Ether) which is subtle, more plastic, more hard.
Soul / Psychic is subtle, it is portion of same dynamic vibration. So it can not be destroyed, cut , not moistened by water nor withered by the wind.