The Complete Dedication and Consecration Required by the Integral Yoga

The integral yoga is not a ‘hobby’ or ‘pastime’ to be taken up when convenient. It requires an intensity of dedication and focus, and a depth of aspiration and consecration that is both rare and difficult to achieve. An individual needs to be fully immersed in the yoga and its processes in order to obtain the result.

First, there is a recognition that the result to be obtained is not personal liberation or salvation. While this may be a step along the way, it is not the goal, so to speak. The objective for the integral yoga is nothing less than the bringing down and fixing in the earth nature the consciousness of the Divine, to convert earthly life into a divine life.

Second, the seeker must be able to identify and systematically root out the normal human wellsprings or impulses to action. The normal desires, ambitions, and mental, vital or physical objectives have to be put aside. This is not to say that one is forced to abandon life and action, however. What makes this more difficult is the very fact that the external life itself, and the powers of the mind, life-energy and the physical body all need to be transformed and utilized, not suppressed or denied.

In the Bhagavad Gita Sri Krishna advises Arjuna that one cannot tell the man dedicated to the Infinite by outward actions, since the outward actions continue and may look the same to the external eye. Rather, the truth of the Spirit is determined by the motivation, the consecration, the aspiration, the dedication that arises from within. Thus, the seeker needs to observe the wellsprings of action with a clear vision of the forces at work and the impulses that are moving his mind, life and body. To the extent that he is acting out of a desire for some specific external result, or an ambition of any sort, or out of the forces of jealousy, envy, anger, hatred, lust or greed, he is clearly not, at that point, fully immersed in the yogic process and has some work to be done. Distinguishing between the subtle promptings of the ego and the guidance and way shown by the divine force requires not only self-examination, but a dedication to the truth that is unwavering and willing to look in the mirror and recognise what is truly at work in the being.

There are many forms of ‘good works’ in the world. Feeding people, caring for the sick or weak are noble aims and certainly can be encouraged and supported in general. For the yogic practitioner, however, this type of lofty aim of action is not the fulfillment being sought. He may do these things, or not. He needs to follow the guidance of the higher divine wisdom and truth to know what his action in the world should be. Glory, fame, recognition, adulation, wealth or popularity are not the objects to be sought. Dedication to one’s society, religion, country or any other external form that represent simply an extension of the ego, is also not the objective. The fulfillment is inward and distant from any of these highly praised and encouraged activities.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “This Yoga demands a total dedication of the life to the aspiration for the discovery and embodiment of the Divine truth and to nothing else whatever. To divide your life between the Divine and some outward aim and activity that has nothing to do with the search for the Truth is inadmissible. The least thing of that kind would make success in the Yoga impossible.”

“You must go inside yourself and enter into a complete dedication to the spiritual life. All clinging to mental preferences must fall away from you, all insistence on vital aims and interests and attachments must be put away, all egoistic clinging to family, friends, country must disappear if you want to succeed in Yoga. Whatever has to come as outgoing energy or action, must proceed from the Truth once discovered and not from the lower mental or vital motives, from the Divine Will and not from personal choice or the preferences of the ego.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 2, Faith — Aspiration — Surrender, pg. 22