Sri Aurobindo was perhaps the greatest seer and philosopher to have blessed this world. About a century ago, he provided humanity with the most comprehensive framework on the deepest and the most expansive spiritual concepts, followed by a structured approach to achieve self-perfection. The greatest boon to mankind is that the volumes of books have been written in the highest quality of the English language, and have a captivating hold on you as you submerge yourself into the deep insightful concepts.
The teachings of Sri Aurobindo can be divided into two broad parts. The first is based on his magnum opus ‘The Life Divine’ which is possibly the greatest treatise on metaphysics, ontology and spirituality. The main premise of his teachings is that consciousness is the fundamental all in existence and behind all appearances there is a one Reality and Self in all. Building on the ancient Indian spiritual scriptures, Sri Aurobindo describes the concept of creation, existence, consciousness-force, life, soul and how there are planes of consciousness above our human ordinary mind which reach up to the Divine Consciousness of the Absolute. There are very beautiful descriptions of how the play of the Infinite has created the many, separate individuals from the indivisible One- a question that will undoubtedly be in many of our minds. He explains how this individualism has resulted in the current ignorance (which is in contrast with the “Knowledge” of the oneness in all beings) and makes humanity live the way it currently does, in the surface consciousness. Creation resulted in the consciousness being involved or ‘trapped’ into matter, the process of evolution is the release of this consciousness through stages of plant, animal and humans. The human aspiration fundamentally is to enable continuation of the evolution of this consciousness to finally be in union with the One.
The journey for the achieving this union is the second part of ‘Sri Aurobindo’ teaching, primarily described in his great work called ‘The Synthesis of Yoga’. Yoga, originating from the Sanskrit word ‘yug’, actually means this union with the higher consciousness. Sri Aurobindo calls his yoga, the Integral Yoga and it involves a full transformation of our being, enabling the ascension of our consciousness culminating in the union. However unlike other streams of yoga, this ascension is then followed by the important stage of bringing the higher consciousness to our terrestrial being, thereby divinising our entire life. This extraordinary goal requires a full synthesis of all streams of yoga and uses the ancient wisdom of the triple path- the yoga of knowledge, the yoga of works and the yoga of devotion.
Following the teachings of Sri Aurobindo is a life changing event. One cannot but believe that the words have descended from a much higher level of consciousness, pointing us towards the supernal Light and guiding any reader who has a genuine aspiration to walk the path towards his spiritual destiny.
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