Finding Auroville

Let’s start, as the song goes, at the very beginning, with the big questions. What is Auroville? What is its purpose? Why are we here (in Auroville)? These are fundamental questions that will form the basis of further discussions in this blog. And to be able to answer these questions, we first have to understand what Yoga and Integral Yoga are. All of these are are big themes to write about, and I am being a bit audacious to write about them. But we are here in Auroville to do audacious things. Everything I’m writing is of course my own understanding and interpretation.

(Note: for a brief write-up about the purpose of this blog, see the About page)

Yoga

The philosophy of Yoga comes down to us from the texts of Vedanta: the Upanishads and the Bhagwad Gita, and since then has been expounded and elaborated on by many philosophical and spiritual thinkers over the millennia. Yog means to join, to unite. Unite with what? The literature tells us that the purpose of Yoga is to detach ourselves from our identification with our material being and situation, and instead to identify with the Divine, with that all-pervading being or energy that exists beyond the material world, including within each and every one of us. So Yoga entails a detachment and an attachment: detachment from our material selves (our physical body, emotions, desires, thoughts and intellect), and attachment or identification with the Divine, with the cosmic consciousness or energy. The immediate and personal reason to do this is to move away from the insecurity, unhappiness, loneliness and fear that pervades the material world, and move towards the ananda (bliss) of the space beyond the material.

Please note that when I speak of Yoga and the philosophy of Yoga, I am not (just) referring to Hatha Yoga, which is the physical regimen of asanas (postures) that is popular around the world today. Hatha Yoga is a component of wider Yogic philosophy, but there are many other elements that make up the philosophy of Yoga, as enumerated (for example) in the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali.

Karma Yoga

Now to move from Yoga to Karma Yoga, with the aim of eventually getting to Integral Yoga. Some of the Upanishads, and then the Bhagwad Gita, talk about Karma Yoga. Karma refers to all the actions performed by a human being in the material world (prakriti). As mentioned above, this does not just include physical actions, but also one’s thoughts, emotions, attitudes, ideologies etc. All of these heavily influence one another, and are therefore equally important. Yoga is the movement of detachment from this material world, of moving away from the desires, fears and insecurities that we humans live with in the material world. Karma Yoga says that we must act in the material world from that space of detachment from material things. It is not enough simply to live like a hermit, isolating oneself from the movements of the world. That in itself is a selfish act. One has to engage with the world, but without the need or desire for any reward or anything in return. All action is done simply in gratitude to the Divine.

Integral Yoga

In Integral Yoga, Sri Aurobindo takes the spiritual philosophy of Karma Yoga further. He says that acting in the material world with true detachment can (and will) bring about a fundamental transformation in the direction of human evolution, in the trajectory that humanity will take into the future. Acting with true detachment means to act completely selflessly, to act with the truest and deepest compassion and love, without any concern for return and reward of any kind. It is not a superficial pretense of selflessness with the ultimate expectation of some sort of material reward in the material world, but rather the deepest possible selflessness. As more and more people act from this space of true compassion and love, a conscious community will be created, and the world will be transformed. As more and more people act with true selflessness, the solutions to the problems of the world will not be poisoned by manipulativeness and the self-interest of a few, as they are now. Instead, solutions will be found that truly benefit everyone, not just an individual or a small group. This will lead to fundamental material transformations. The world will be taken away from the darkness, inequality, corruption, hatred and fear that exists in it today.

The term in Sanskrit for Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga is Purna Yog, complete yoga. Where Yoga leads to the internal transformation of the individual, Integral Yoga or Purna Yog leads further to the external transformation of the collective, of society and the world.

What I have described above is only a part of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy of Integral Yoga, but it is sufficient for us to understand Auroville as it exists today and the immediate steps we need to take to move humanity in the direction prescribed by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, and indeed ultimately the direction prescribed by Yogic philosophy in general.

Auroville

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother were collaborators in their investigations and researches on Integral Yoga at their Ashram in Pondicherry. The Mother started Auroville in 1968 as a township where people from around the world would come to be sadhaks (aspirants or practitioners) of Integral Yoga. As sadhaks they would engage with the material world in various ways, in an attempt to bring about the transformations mentioned above. Their actions, done with complete detachment from material gain of any kind, will lead to the material transformation that Integral Yoga aims for. This of course is an enormous task, but it is the task given to us here in Auroville.

And it is precisely because of the enormity and complexity of the task, that it is so easy to go astray and declare that the purpose of Auroville is something else, or that the world is not ready to take on this task, so for now Auroville should have different aims. It is also very easy to create narratives that try to convince people that what is happening in Auroville is in fact the pursuit of Integral Yoga, while in actuality it is anything but that. In the coming posts we will explore various such narratives, currently prevalent and dominant in Auroville.

A Universal Philosophy

As a final point, it is important to note that even though the roots of Integral Yoga lie firmly in Vendanta and what we can call Hindu philosophy, the aim of Integral Yoga is not at all religious proselytisation of any kind. For Integral Yoga to succeed it will need to become more and more universal. The transformation it seeks is at the level of universal human psychology and sociology. Therefore, while currently we may use examples and symbolism from Hindu mythology and traditions to explain and situate Integral Yoga, as the philosophy becomes better known, and indeed for the philosophy to achieve its aims, it will need to move out of this Hindu contextualization, and situate itself within different contexts and cultural situations throughout the world. What will remain constant are the core teachings and insights of this spiritual philosophy.