The Yoga of Divine Works The Synthesis of Yoga

Sri Aurobindo's philosophy as "an original synthesis of the Indian and Western traditions."-R. Puligandla

Sri Aurobindo, Indian philosopher, yogi and guru, created a spiritual practice he called Integral Yoga. The central theme of his vision was the evolution of human life into a divine life. He believed in a spiritual realization that not only liberated but transformed human nature, enabling a divine life on earth. He sought to make us aware of "the same superior law [that] governs matter and spirit".

EXCERPT: "ALL YOGA is in its nature a new birth; it is a birth out of the ordinary, the mentalised material life of man into a higher spiritual consciousness and a greater and diviner being. No Yoga can be successfully undertaken and followed unless there is a strong awakening to the necessity of that larger spiritual existence. The soul that is called to this deep and vast inward change, may arrive in different ways to the initial departure. It may come to it by its own natural development which has been leading it unconsciously towards the awakening; it may reach it through the influence of a religion or the attraction of a philosophy; it may approach it by a slow illumination or leap to it by a sudden touch or shock; it may be pushed or led to it by the pressure of outward circumstances or by an inward necessity, by a single word that breaks the seals of the mind or by long reflection, by the distant example of one who has trod the path or by contact and daily influence. According to the nature and the circumstances the call will come."