Finding Auroville

Now that we have gone over the basic definitions of the conventional terms we are going to use over the next few posts, lets start taking a look at the relationships between them. The reason why I think this topic of the relationships between spirituality/Integral Yoga, religion, progressivism and conservatism is important is because the way that people approach Integral Yoga on a day-to-day material level is very important. We will get back to this aspect later in this post. First lets take a look at the scope of Integral Yoga.

The aim of Integral Yoga is not just an individual’s transformation of consciousness, but a collective transformation of consciousness of society, which will occur when more and more people orient themselves towards and dedicate themselves to the transformation. This means more and more people dedicating themselves to the path of the dissolution of the ego, and the movement of transferring the identification of one’s true self from the material self to the Divine self.

So the goal of the transformation of consciousness will have to shift from an aspiration that a few individuals in society stumble upon seemingly by chance to the goal becoming more and more widespread in society, till it becomes part and parcel of everyday life. The fact that this goal of the transformation of consciousness, both individually as well as collectively, is a vitally important step for humanity as a whole to move towards a more egalitarian, peaceful and compassionate existence and future, will have to enter into the general social consciousness.

And it is not just that more and more people will have to gain the realization of the need for individual transformation, but each individual transformation in itself encompasses the further realization that while the individual transformation is necessary and essential, it is only with a growing collective transformation that the transformation becomes more and more complete. The aim ultimately is for the transformation of consciousness of humanity as a whole. This means that as more and more people set out with complete sincerity on the path of individual transformation, the idea of the collective transformation as the actual (or next) goal becomes increasingly amplified and reinforced.

This is how Sri Aurobindo puts it in The Human Cycle:

The individual seeking for the law of his being can only find it safely if he regards clearly two great psychological truths and lives in that clear vision. First, the ego is not the self; there is one self of all and the soul is a portion of that universal Divinity. The fulfillment of the individual is not the utmost development of his egoistic intellect, vital force, physical well-being and the utmost satisfaction of his mental, emotional, physical cravings, but the flowering of the divine in him to its utmost capacity of wisdom, power, love and universality and through this flowering his utmost realisation of all the possible beauty and delight of existence.

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The second psychic truth the individual has to grasp is this, that he is not only himself, but is in solidarity with all of his kind, —let us leave aside for the moment that which seems to be not of his kind. That which we are has expressed itself through the individual, but also through the universality, and though each has to fulfill itself in its own way, neither can succeed independently of the other. The society has no right to crush or efface the individual for its own better development or self-satisfaction; the individual, so long at least as he chooses to live in the world, has no right to disregard for the sake of his own solitary satisfaction and development his fellow-beings and to live at war with them or seek a selfishly isolated good. And when we say, no right, it is from no social, moral or religious standpoint, but from the most positive and simply with a view to the law of existence itself. For neither the society nor the individual can so develop to their fulfillment.

True and False Subjectivism, The Human Cycle

The ideal of human existence personal and social would be its progressive transformation into a conscious outflowering of the joy, power, love, light, beauty of the transcendent and universal Spirit.

The Objective and Subjective View of Life, The Human Cycle

The object of all society should be, therefore, and must become, as man grows conscious of his real being, nature and destiny and not as now only of a part of it, first to provide the conditions of life and growth by which individual Man,—not isolated men or a class or a privileged race, but all individual men according to their capacity,—and the race through the growth of its individuals may travel towards this divine perfection. It must be, secondly, as mankind generally more and more grows near to some figure of the Divine in life and more and more men arrive at it,—for the cycles are many and each cycle has its own figure of the Divine in man,—to express in the general life of mankind, the light, the power, the beauty, the harmony, the joy of the Self that has been attained and that pours itself out in a freer and nobler humanity. Freedom and harmony express the two necessary principles of variation and oneness,—freedom of the individual, the group, the race, coordinated harmony of the individual’s forces and of the efforts of all individuals in the group, of all groups in the race, of all races in the kind, —and these are the two conditions of healthy progression and successful arrival. To realise them and to combine them has been the obscure or half-enlightened effort of mankind throughout its history,—a task difficult indeed and too imperfectly seen and too clumsily and mechanically pursued by the reason and desires to be satisfactorily achieved until man grows by self-knowledge and self-mastery to the possession of a spiritual and psychical unity with his fellow-men. As we realise more and more the right conditions, we shall travel more luminously and spontaneously towards our goal and, as we draw nearer to a clear sight of our goal, we shall realise better and better the right conditions. The Self in man enlarging light and knowledge and harmonising will with light and knowledge so as to fulfil in life what he has seen in his increasing vision and idea of the Self, this is man’s source and law of progress and the secret of his impulse towards perfection.

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The purpose which the ancient Indian scripture offers to us as the true object of all human action, lokasangraha, the holding together of the race in its cyclic evolution, is the constant sense, whether we know it or know it not, of the sum of our activities.

The Ideal Law of Social Development, The Human Cycle

The universalism of Integral Yoga is clear here. It is not a spiritual philosophy that is limited by religious beliefs or any other kind of mental restriction. It is a universal transformation at the psychological and sociological level that will ultimately lead to an evolutionary transformation of humanity as a whole. And the aim is to move humanity in a fundamentally more egalitarian, peaceful, harmonious, loving and compassionate direction.

At the level of each individual, the transformation happens on the inside, within the individual being, a movement from identifying with the material self to identifying with the Divine self. However to achieve this, one has to have an understanding of the material world, and an understanding of why it is only the transformation that will lead humanity towards a more harmonious future. And for the transformation to move from the individual to the collective, the individual has to partake in selfless action in the material world, which is karma yoga, or the yoga of action. Therefore in Integral Yoga there is a constant engagement with the material world, and not a shunning of it. The material world has to be understood, worked on and ultimately transformed. And it is because the material world has to be understood and worked on that we need to engage with the ways that society understands it.

So with Integral Yoga we have a spiritual philosophy that is fundamentally universal in nature, encompassing all of humanity, and which has fundamentally deep egalitarianism, peace, harmony and compassion as a transformational goal. These two aspects – universality and harmony – are also the fundamental aims of progressive thinking. While progressivism attempts to achieve universality and harmony through material means and interventions, Integral Yoga knows that the path towards universality and harmony lies only through the transformation of consciousness. There are an infinite number of paths leading to the transformation, and an infinite number of paths leading out from the transformation, but all the paths have to go through the transformation. Apart from this difference, and of course it is a big one and will be discussed further in a subsequent post, both progressive thought and the philosophy of Integral Yoga have the same aims and aspirations.

Another commonality between Integral Yoga and progressivism is the eschewing of societal conventions and traditions, and fearlessness in finding radically new ways for people in society to interact and relate to one another. Once again, progressive thinking in this regard is limited by material motivations and desires because it cannot think beyond the material (unless it sets out on the path of yoga), while Integral Yoga is not bound by material or vital limitations and constraints. All this will also be discussed further in a subsequent post.

In contrast to all this, conservative thinking has a much narrower and shorter-term conceptualization of material reality. Even when it is aiming for harmony, it only sees it in a limited scope. Conservatism focuses on societal groupings such as a specific religion, region or nation, and attempts to find harmony within that group. People outside that group are considered as the Other, and are often considered with antagonism. The ability to think universally is missing, because conservative thought does not have the ability to think in a universal scope. It does not have the sociological imagination and breadth to think beyond already existing and established social conditions and groupings. It always finds reasons for why universality is not possible, and those reasons usually include pointing out the conservatism of other groups. It can look for solutions only within existing social norms and traditions, which severely restricts its ability to think of innovative and creative solutions, or radically transformative ideas.

In these ways, the philosophy of Integral Yoga is close to progressive thought and in direct contrast to conservative thought. In fact the correct way to put it is that progressive thinking and solutions are watered-down (and sometimes corrupted) versions of the thinking and solutions that come and will come with the movement towards the transformation of consciousness. Progressive thinking has similar motivations and aims as Integral Yoga, but is restricted in its solutions because it only thinks in the material realm, and so can only find solutions within the material realm. The actions of progressive people and movements are always ultimately hampered by their attachment to the vital ego, which brings in all the fears, insecurities, desires and self-centeredness that work to derail otherwise sincere progressive solutions. In this way, both progressivism and conservatism fall prey to their attachment to the material world.

Despite the fact that the spiritual philosophies of Vedanta, Yoga and Integral Yoga (to the extent that Integral Yoga is known) have this affinity with progressive thinking and are in contrast with conservative thinking, these philosophies are most often lumped with conservative thinking in India, since they are considered to be a part of Hinduism, and the practice of Hinduism is seen as traditional and conservative. In a subsequent post we will further explore this juxtaposition between Integral Yoga and religion/Hinduism.