Sunlit Path
What is Sunlit Path?
Integral yoga provides the Sunlit path – methods for achieving its aims of transformation of Consciousness, transformation of matter and the manifestation of Divine life upon Earth by Supramental manifestation.
Sri Aurobindo did the sadhana in his lifespan and opened the possibility of divine life by bringing down the Supramental force and established it in the Earth atmosphere.
With his own research in different yoga practices and understanding the nature of reality, he gave the Sunlit path for transformation of the world and establish divine life.
Sri Aurobindo describes,
“The sadhana of this Yoga does not proceed through any set mental teaching or prescribed forms of meditation, mantras or others, but by aspiration, by a self-concentration inwards or upwards, by self-opening to an Influence, to the Divine Power above us and its workings, to the Divine Presence in the heart, and by the rejection of all that is foreign to these things. It is only by faith, aspiration and surrender that this self-opening can come”
Integral yoga reveals that the secret of transformation is the Supermind – the dynamic aspect of divine consciousness, which needs to get channelized through human instruments and transform the lower nature. So Sadhana in Integral yoga is needed to enable the higher consciousness and allow its working.
Sri Aurobindo gave the methods – Concentration, Rejection, Aspiration, Surrender for this and describe the importance of Grace for realizing the aims of his yoga.
He further describes that the human nature needs to be changed to receive the higher power.
“What usually comes is a descent of the Divine Power to work upon the nature and prepare it for the Divine Presence in the heart. There is much in human nature that has to be changed before it can hold what descends — incapacity and limitation of the mind, insufficient purity in the heart and elsewhere, restlessness etc. To contain the descent a quiet mind and pure heart are needed.”
Concentration
Opening of the Psychic being is the first step in Integral yoga, which requires the practice of concentration to go within and convert the mental seeking into a living spiritual experience. Concentration quietens the surface mind and helps to live within.
One can concentrate in the heart (at the cardiac center in the middle of chest) or in the head.
Concentration in the Heart
The concentration in the heart can make inward opening and going deep, one becomes aware of the soul or psychic being. With continuous concentration, it is unveiled and begins to come forward.
With concentration in the heart, there is the inward soul-opening and as the psychic being comes forward, then there comes a psychic discrimination, a constant intimation and finally a psychic governance.
Concentration in Head
“With concentration in head, there comes the silence of the surface mind opening up an inner, larger, deeper mind and one become more capable of receiving spiritual experience and spiritual knowledge in it. But once concentrated here one must open the silent mental Consciousness upward to all that is above mind.
Rejection
Rejection is another powerful method in which one stands back detached from the movements of the mind, life, physical being. One will look at their activities as only a habitual formation of general Nature imposed by past workings and not as any part of our real being.
As one succeeds in rejection, he becomes detached and sees all activities of mind or life or body not as own activities. As one is detached from outer-conscious activities, one becomes aware of an inner being within us i.e. inner mental, inner vital, inner physical and become silent, calm, unbound, unattached from everything.
Inner silence also opens mind, life and body to the inmost psychic being and proceeds with its guiding influence or its direct guidance.
As one achieves inner silence, one proceeds to the rejection of all that needs to be rejected and accepts only of what can be kept and transformed. To change nature, an inmost Will to perfection and Calling Divine Power to do that at each step is necessary.
Concentration and Rejection both can work together and finally fuse into one.
Aspiration
Aspiration is necessary in all spiritual aims from whatever part of the Consciousness.
Aspiration is a turning upward of the inner being with a call, yearning, prayer for the Divine, for the Truth, for the Consciousness, Peace, Ananda, Knowledge and descent of Divine Force.
One can Aspire for the Divine to bring about the supramental transformation.
The seeker has to open oneself and receive the higher force which is capable to bring all the transformation needed. So one has only to Aspire and keep oneself open to the Divine Mother and reject all that is contrary to that will and to let the work be done
One should offer all the work to divine and in the faith that it is through higher Consciousness force that one can do it. As one is open with this Aspiration, the knowledge and realization can come in due course.
The Aspiration can be in the form of thought, or it can be a feeling within that remains even when the mind is attending to the work.
Aspiration in everyone, no matter who it is, has the same power. But the effect of this aspiration depends upon his receptivity.
Surrender
Aspiration is necessary in all spiritual aims from whatever part of the Consciousness.
Aspiration is a turning upward of the inner being with a call, yearning, prayer for the Divine, for the Truth, for the Consciousness, Peace, Ananda, Knowledge and descent of Divine Force.
One can Aspire for the Divine to bring about the supramental transformation.
The seeker has to open oneself and receive the higher force which is capable to bring all the transformation needed. So one has only to Aspire and keep oneself open to the Divine Mother and reject all that is contrary to that will and to let the work be done
One should offer all the work to divine and in the faith that it is through higher Consciousness force that one can do it. As one is open with this Aspiration, the knowledge and realization can come in due course.
The Aspiration can be in the form of thought, or it can be a feeling within that remains even when the mind is attending to the work.
Aspiration in everyone, no matter who it is, has the same power. But the effect of this aspiration depends upon his receptivity.
Integral yoga describes Surrender as the best way of opening to divine. It is the main power of this yoga
When surrender is complete, intensity of sadhana can increase and there is the full flood of higher Consciousness. Inner surrender can establish complete Samata, and one is able to make Rejection of Ego, Rajo Guna etc. effective.
The path of surrender is difficult, but by continued efforts with complete sincerity one can get some success and a partial overcoming of the ego.
With Surrender, Calm and Peace there come the Knowledge, Strength, Ananda.
As one progresses, one becomes conscious of the Divine Force working in him or becomes aware of its results and does not obstruct its descent and action by mental thoughts, vital restlessness or physical obscurity and inertia.
Open to Divine
Opening to the Divine is important principle in Integral Yoga. When one is conscious of the divine above, which is always there, one needs to call it down into being.
One is open when one allows the force of the Divine to flow in, bringing light, peace, Ananda etc. and to do the work of transformation. As divine Consciousness is received by being, it starts working in him and one can see its effects.
Opening is the same for all and it begins first with an opening of the mind and heart and then of the vital proper. When it reaches the lower vital and physical the opening is complete. But with the opening, there must be the full self-giving to divine Consciousness that comes down, which is the condition necessary for the complete change.
Divine Consciousness descends first into the mind and then into the body as Peace, Light, or Force that works and with that one sees the Presence of the Divine with or without form, as Ananda.
Open with Sincerity means to open integrally, without reservation and All wide open in totality.
Open with faithfulness means to be open constantly and always.
Before one has divine Consciousness, one must have faith and aspiration for the opening. Aspiration, Call, Prayer are forms of one and the same thing and are all effective. The other way is Concentration.
Aids for Transformation
Integral yoga describes about different aids that are useful in Sadhana. These are Faith, Consecration and Grace.
Grace
Grace has its own mysterious way of working, that mind cannot understand. Usually it works behind the veil, preparing things, not manifesting and then it may manifest suddenly even without mind understanding.
The Divine Grace is not calculable or bound by anything that intellect can fix as a condition. However, Grace can be awakened by some call, aspiration, and intensity of the psychic being. It may also act sometimes without any apparent cause. even of that kind.
The Divine Grace and Power can act and do everything, but there has to be acceptance from Sadhak, and one should be open to receive it.
One must trust firmly in the Divine Grace and allow its working. One should never oppose, be ungrateful or turn against Grace and it will not fail to respond. One must follow it always to the goal of Light and Peace and unity and Ananda.
Traditional Yoga Methods
Integral yoga also describes that the traditional yoga methods are also useful in Sadhana for preparation.
Asana, Pranayama, Mudra, Bandha, Shatkarmas (cleansing practices), Dharana (concentration), and Dhyana (meditation). described in Patanjali Yoga Sutra, Hatha Yog Pradiptika, Gheranda Samhita etc. These are useful for self-perfection only in Initial phase.
Meditation, Contemplation, Bhakti and Work also adds to preparation of the seeker. However, These traditional methods are useful for self-perfection only in Initial phase.
