The integral yoga does not focus on the abandonment of human life in the world. The liberation from the hold of the ego-consciousness and its fixation on the terms of success for life that the ego concentrates on, is an important preliminary step. In the end however, nothing less is envisioned than the entire transformation of our existence through the manifestation and integration of the next stage of the evolution of consciousness. In order to successfully accomplish this, the seeker who takes up the integral yoga eventually must be able to shift the focus away from the external surface consciousness and the habitual and accepted forms of fulfillment that are offered to the being by that consciousness. The shift necessarily involves moving the attention of the being to new areas of focus and action, and thereby rejecting and disassociating oneself from the existing standard measures of human fulfillment.
Once this issue is taken up, the seeker begins to move his attention and focus to new areas of interest and, at the same time, he tends to dismiss or abandon old ways. It is, however, not an uncommon experience to have a recurrence of thoughts, emotions, feelings, and drives that bring the seeker back to these older patterns of life. Sri Aurobindo explains that while the conscious mind may reject these things, they tend to first get suppressed and essentially ‘hibernate’ in the subconscious levels. If they are expelled from there they still exist generally in the earth-atmosphere, but more specifically in the environmental consciousness that acts as the larger energetic framework for each individual, what may be called the ‘aura’. This means that there is a propensity and a potential receptivity to these things when they pressure the being from outside, making it easier for them to find admittance as former ‘honored guests’ of the being, so to speak. The pressure may come from circumstances, from peer pressure, from meeting with people who represented a time in the life of the individual when those things were prevalent and active, etc.
Sri Aurobindo writes: “When these things are rejected by the waking consciousness they try to take refuge in the subconscient or else in what may be called the environmental consciousness and from there they press upon the consciousness trying to recover their hold or simply to recur for a time. If they are in the subconscient they come up most usually in dreams, but they may also surge up into the waking consciousness. If they come from the environment they take the form of thought-suggestions or impulses or a vague restless or disturbing pressure…. When the body is full of the new consciousness, Peace and Power at the same time, then this outward pressure is felt but can no longer disturb and finally it recedes to a distance (no longer pressing immediately on the physical mind or body) and either gradually or rapidly disappears.”
“By environmental consciousness I mean something that each man carries around him, outside his body, even when he is not aware of it, — by which he is in touch with others and with the universal forces. It is through this that the thoughts, feelings etc. of others pass to enter into one — it is through this also that waves of the universal force — desire, sex, etc. come in and take possession of the mind, vital or body.”
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 2, Planes and Parts of the Being, pp. 69-70
Santosh has been studying Sri Aurobindo's writings since 1971 and has a daily blog at http://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com and podcast at https://anchor.fm/santosh-krinsky He is author of 17 books and is editor-in-chief at Lotus Press. He is president of Institute for Wholistic Education, a non-profit focused on integrating spirituality into daily life.