History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c94.351

v7.c94.351

In a letter to his brother Barindra dated 7th April 1920 which is set out in full on pp 309-314 in the work 'Shri Aurobindo on himself and on the Mother' (1953), Aurobindo asserts 'the main defect in the old Yogas consisted in the fact that they knew mind and intelligence and the Ātman; they used to be satisfied with spiritual experience on the mental level; but the mind is capable of only partial knowledge and it can comprehend only parts and not the whole. The mind can know the infinite and the total reality only through Samadhi, Moksha or Nirvana and by no other means. Of course, some people do attain this kind of Moksha which may be said to be a blind alley. But *then what is the use of it?* But what the Bhagwan intends to do with man is to enable him to realize God in life, in the individual as well as in the collective society (to manifest God in life). The old systems of Yoga could not bring about a synthesis or unity between spirituality and life; they disposed of the world calling it Māyā or the transitory play of the Lord. The result is vitality and vigour in life have been sapped and India has decayed'. In this passage Aurobindo tries to bring out the distinction between his integral Yoga and the Yoga of ancient and medieval Indians. There is hardly anything very new in his theory of Yoga. The Gītā also says the same in 'ajñānenāvṛtam' (Gītā V. 15), in 'utsīdeyur-ime lokā' (Gītā III 24-25, II. 47, III. 8, 19, IX. 27, XVIII. 45-46, all of which emphasize that disinterested work is worship of God). Aurobindo should have brought into being an organised body of workers after his own heart. The Pātañjala Yoga does not employ the word Māyā at all nor did it say that the world was a play of God. It was the Vedānta-sūtra II. 1. 33 (lokavat-tu līlākaivalyam) that said so by way of repelling an objection. In the Pātañjala yoga Īśvara has nothing to do with the creation of the world (vide above pp. 1402-3) but it speaks of *avidyā* by which the individual self is enmeshed (Y. S. II. 3-5 and 24) and not God or the Supreme Self. Besides one is tempted to echo the question of Aurobindo himself 'What is the use of integral Yoga, mind, overmind and supermind?' Can anybody point out even half a dozen men and disciples of Aurobindo who have devoted all their energies to the regeneration of the country and of the human race on his lines? The position of the Ashram itself is rather vague; anomalous and undefined. But it is unnecessary to say in this work anything further about it.²⁴⁰⁸