In his little but seminal book The Mother Sri Aurobindo makes a key statement about his Integral Yoga in terms of the triple formula of aspiration-rejection-surrender:

…an aspiration vigilant, constant, unceasing—the mind's will, the hearts seeking, the assent of the vital being, the will to open and make plastic the physical consciousness and nature; rejection of the movements of lower nature—rejection of the mind's ideas, opinions, preferences, habits, constructions, so that the true knowledge may find free room in a silent mind,—rejection of the vital nature's desires, demands, cravings, sensations, passions, selfishness, pride, arrogance, lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hostility to Truth, so that the true power and joy may pour from above into a calm, large, strong and consecrated vital being,—rejection of the physical nature's stupidity, doubt, disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy, pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change, so that the true stability of Light, Power, Ananda may establish itself in a body growing always more divine; surrender of oneself and all one is and has and every plane of the consciousness and every movement to the Divine Shakti.

And there are “the conditions of Light and Truth, the sole conditions under which the highest will descend; and it is only the very highest supramental Force descending from above and opening from below that can victoriously handle the physical Nature and annihilate its difficulties… There must be a total and sincere surrender; there must be an exclusive self opening to the divine Power; there must be a constant and integral choice of the Truth that is descending, a constant and integral rejection of the falsehood of the mental, vital and physical Powers and Appearances that still rule the earth-Nature. The surrender must be total and seize all parts of the being. It is not enough that psychic should respond and higher mental aspect or even the inner vital submit and the physical consciousness feel the influence. There must be no part in the being, even the most external, anything that makes a reserve, anything that hides behind doubts, confusions and subterfuges, anything that revolts or refuses.”

First we have to make absolutely certain that there is a call for the spiritual life as envisaged by Sri Aurobindo. If this is not followed even while proclaiming as a practitioner of the self-chosen discipline, not imposed by anyone on anybody, then it is immaterial whether we do this or we do that, whether we call it Spirituality, or Integral Yoga, or Religion and Faith, or the Path of Reason and Rationality, and what not. In fact none of them will have the merit to satisfy the soul’s deeper urge seeking the truth within us, and it working and manifesting in us, and everywhere, and all around. If our concern is this single objective, of the dynamic manifestation of the truth, of the transforming light and power and joy entering into us and operating in every respect in us, then all talk about rationality, about faith in science and reason, faith in logic, blind faith, seeing faith—seeing faith is an extremely rare commodity—pale into insignificance. We go to a spiritually accomplished person to seek his help in this regard, his spiritual help to make spiritual progress, and we endeavour to follow it if we are centrally alert to its assuring methodology and its demands, truthful to our own earnest and sincerest yearning. If I am in an Ashram, for instance, I must always remember the purpose for which I am there in the Ashram—the rest becomes quite inconsequential. And the beauty is, this is true in every walk of life. If I can follow my path,—and that path can be by whatever faculty in me is most open, most developed,—what else is required? Nothing, indeed nothing else is required. That path can be the opening of the mind, or the emotional being, or the perfection in the physical work, or the acts of nobility, of creativity, of expression of truth and beauty and love. The beginning can be with Jnana Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, or Karma Yoga; it can be “a prayer, a master act, a king idea” of Savitri, a meditative poise gathering the entire being into it, they all finally joining into one—the Integral Yoga. All are equally superior and going by any one of them we can be in possession of whatever is necessary for the fulfilment of the soul’s genuine longing. In that situation all comparisons become meaningless.

The author of a recent biography of Sri Aurobindo and his eloquent friends simply disregard this central principle of the Aurobindonian Yoga when they harp upon reason and intellect alone,—and exists for them no Guruvad, the Word of the Teacher that has the power to mould one’s life. On the contrary, those who go by it are easily dubbed in this world of ours as religious, credulous, the followers of faith—which in fact should not really matter. Indeed, an act of true faith is a kind of inner perception and certitude, and it should not be disrespected, howsoever one might like to reason about it; it is a sort of surer knowledge of things to come and it should be perceptively accepted. If this knowledge comes from the innermost being, and better yet from the psychic being, then there cannot be anything more wonderful than that; it will take care of the hazards springing from the unregenerate vital nature. On the other hand, absence of the psychic and spiritual awareness will put even the best of our thinking and reasoning in a permanent mental trap, a secure trap from which escape may not be easy, may not be simple and straightforward. But when the precious moment arrives, when there is a call for the higher life, then we should seize it and be true to it; it should be the Biblical pearl for which one should be willing to give up anything required to own it, possess it. We should follow the higher precepts in their truthfulness. It is this superior and elevating expectation we have from the biography of a spiritual giant, and that too the biography of a Yogi par excellence. When this is not available then one feels disappointed whatever be its other claims and good points, its academic or research presentations.

RY Deshpande