Letters on Yoga (Set of 4 Volumes)

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Letters on Yoga – I contains letters of Sri Aurobindo on the philosophical and psychological foundations of the Integral Yoga. He wrote most of these letters in the 1930s to disciples living in his Ashram in Pondicherry. The main themes are:

The Divine, the cosmos and the individual
The parts of the being and the planes of consciousness
The evolutionary process and the Supermind
The place of the Divine Grace and the Guru in the Yoga
Problems of philosophy, science, religion and Society
Questions of spiritual and occult knowledge

“The faith in spiritual things that is asked of a sadhak is not an ignorant but a luminous faith, a faith in light and not in darkness. It is called blind by the sceptical intellect because it refuses to be guided by outer appearances or seeming facts, - for it looks to the truth behind, - and does not walk on the crutches of proof and evidence. It is an intuition, - an intuition not only waiting for experience to justify it, but leading towards experience. If I believe in self-healing, I shall after a time find out the way to heal myself – if I have faith in transformation, I can end by laying my hand on and unraveling the whole process of transformation. But if I being with doubt and go on with more doubt, how far am I likely to go on the journey?”

Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta on 15 August 1872. At the age of seven he was taken to England for his education. He studied at St. Paul’s School, London, and at King’s College, Cambridge. Returning to India in 1893, he worked for the next thirteen years in the Princely State of Baroda in the service of the Maharaja and as a professor in the State’s college.

In 1906 Sri Aurobindo quit his post in Baroda and went to Calcutta, where he became one of the leaders of the Indian nationalist movement. As editor of the newspaper Bande Mataram, he put forward the idea of complete independence from Britain. Arrested both for sedition and for treason, he was released for lack of evidence.

Sri Aurobindo began the practice of Yoga in 1905. Within a few years he achieved several fundamental spiritual realisation. In 1910 he withdrew from politics and went to Pondicherry in French India in order to concentrate on inner life and work. Over the next forty years, he developed a new spiritual path, the integral Yoga, whose ultimate aim is the transformation of life by the power of a supramental consciousness. In 1926, with the help of his spiritual collaborator the Mother, he founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. His vision of life is presented in numerous works of prose and poetry, among the best known of which are The Life Divine, The synthesis of Yoga, Essays on the Gita and Savitri. Sri Aurobindo passed away on 5 December 1950.

Letters on Yoga - I comprises letters written by Sri Aurobindo on the philosophical and psychological foundations of the Integral Yoga. It is the first of four volumes of Letters on Yoga, arranged by the editors as follows:

I. Foundations of the Integral Yoga

II. Practice of the Integral Yoga

III. Experiences and Realisations in the Integral Yoga

IV. Transformation of Human Nature in the Integral Yoga

The letters in these volumes have been selected from the large body of letters that Sri Aurobindo wrote to disciples and others between 1927 and 1950. Other letters from this period are published in Letters on Poetry and Art and Letters on Himself and the Ashram, volumes 27 and 35 of The Complete Works Sri Aurobindo. Letters written before 1927 are reproduced in Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, volume 36 of The Complete Works.

During Sri Aurobindo's lifetime, relatively few of his letters were published. Three small books of letters on Yoga were brought out in the 1930s. A more substantial collection came out between 1947 and 1951 in a four-volume series entitled Letters of Sri Aurobindo (including one volume of letters on poetry and literature). In 1958, many more letters were included in the two large tomes of On Yoga - II. A further expanded collection in three volumes entitled Letters on Yoga was published in 1970 as part of the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library. The present collection, also entitled Letters on Yoga, constitutes volumes 28-31 of The Complete Works. These volumes incorporate previously published letters and contain many new ones as well. About one-third of the letters in the present volume were not published in the Centenary Library.

The present volume is arranged by subject in five parts:

1. The Divine, the Cosmos and the Individual

2. The Parts of the Being and the Planes of Consciousness

3. The Evolutionary Process and the Supermind

4. Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society

5. Questions of Spiritual and Occult Knowledge

Letters on Yoga-II contains letters of Sri Aurobindo on the practice of his system of Yoga. He wrote most of these letters in the 1930s to disciples living in his Ashram in Pondicherry. The main themes are:

The aim of the Integral Yoga
The qualities needed to practice this Yoga
The foundation of peace and equality
The place of the Divine Grace and the Guru
The synthetic method of knowledge, works devotion and self-perfection
The differences between this Yoga and other spiritual paths

“To find the Divine is indeed the first reason for seeking the spiritual Truth and the spiritual life; it is the one thing indispensable and all the rest is nothing without it. We must find the Self, the Divine, then only can we know what is the work the Self or the Divine demands from us. Until then our life and action can only be a help or means towards finding the Divine and it ought not to have any other purpose.”

Letters on Yoga - II comprises letters written by Sri Aurobindo on the philosophical and psychological foundations of the Integral Yoga. It is the first of four volumes of Letters on Yoga, arranged by the editors as follows:

I. Foundations of the Integral Yoga

II. Practice of the Integral Yoga

III. Experiences and Realisations in the Integral Yoga

IV. Transformation of Human Nature in the Integral Yoga

The letters in these volumes have been selected from the large body of letters that Sri Aurobindo wrote to disciples and others between 1927 and 1950. Other letters from this period are published in Letters on Poetry and Art and Letters on Himself and the Ashram, volumes 27 and 35 of The Complete Works Sri Aurobindo. Letters written before 1927 are reproduced in Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, volume 36 of The Complete Works.

During Sri Aurobindo's lifetime, relatively few of his letters were published. Three small books of letters on Yoga were brought out in the 1930s. A more substantial collection came out between 1947 and 1951 in a four-volume series entitled Letters of Sri Aurobindo (including one volume of letters on poetry and literature). In 1958, many more letters were included in the two large tomes of On Yoga - II. A further expanded collection in three volumes entitled Letters on Yoga was published in 1970 as part of the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library. The present collection, also entitled Letters on Yoga, constitutes volumes 28-31 of The Complete Works. These volumes incorporate previously published letters and contain many new ones as well. About one-third of the letters in the present volume were not published in the Centenary Library.

The present volume is arranged by subject in three parts:

1. The Path of the Integral Yoga

2. The Synthetic Method of the Integral Yoga

3. The Integral Yoga and Others Spiritual Paths

Letters on Yoga-III contains letters of Sri Aurobindo on the experiences and realizations that may occur in the practice of his system of Yoga. He wrote most of these letters in the 1930s to disciples living in his Ashram in Pondicherry. The main themes are:

The place of experiences in the Integral Yoga
The movement inward, the opening of the inner senses, and the discovery of the inner being
The finding of the psychic being or soul
Widening into the cosmic consciousness
The movement upward to experience the Self, the One, and the Infinite
The movement of ascent and descent to bring about the spiritual transformation
“Letters to live within, to act always from within, from constant inner communion with the Mother. It may be difficult at first to do it always and completely, but it can be done if one sticks to it – and it is at that price, by learning to do that that one can have the siddhi in the Yoga.”

Letters on Yoga - III comprises letters written by Sri Aurobindo on the philosophical and psychological foundations of the Integral Yoga. It is the first of four volumes of Letters on Yoga, arranged by the editors as follows:

I. Foundations of the Integral Yoga

II. Practice of the Integral Yoga

III. Experiences and Realisations in the Integral Yoga

IV. Transformation of Human Nature in the Integral Yoga

The letters in these volumes have been selected from the large body of letters that Sri Aurobindo wrote to disciples and others between 1927 and 1950. Other letters from this period are published in Letters on Poetry and Art and Letters on Himself and the Ashram, volumes 27 and 35 of The Complete Works Sri Aurobindo. Letters written before 1927 are reproduced in Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, volume 36 of The Complete Works.

During Sri Aurobindo's lifetime, relatively few of his letters were published. Three small books of letters on Yoga were brought out in the 1930s. A more substantial collection came out between 1947 and 1951 in a four-volume series entitled Letters of Sri Aurobindo (including one volume of letters on poetry and literature). In 1958, many more letters were included in the two large tomes of On Yoga - II. A further expanded collection in three volumes entitled Letters on Yoga was published in 1970 as part of the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library. The present collection, also entitled Letters on Yoga, constitutes volumes 28-31 of The Complete Works. These volumes incorporate previously published letters and contain many new ones as well. About one-third of the letters in the present volume were not published in the Centenary Library.

The present volume is arranged by subject in four parts:

1. The Place of Experiences in the Practice of Yoga

2. The Opening of the Inner Sense

3. Experiences of the Inner Consciousness and the Cosmic Consciousness

4. The Fundamental Realisations of the Integral Yoga

Letters on Yoga – IV contains letters of Sri Aurobindo on the transformation of human nature – mental, vital and physical – through the practice of Integral Yoga. It also contains letters on the difficulties encountered in practising this Yoga. Most of these letters were written by Sri Aurobindo in the 1930s to disciples living in his Ashram in Pondicherry. The main themes are:

Sadhana on the level of the mind: mental difficulties; cultivation of the mind; power of expression; speech

Sadhana on the level of the vital: the vital nature; vital temperament and vital defects; human relations and interactions

Sadhana on the physical, subconscient and inconscient levels: transformation of the physical; food, sleep, dreams and sex; illness doctors and medicines

Difficulties in the practice of Yoga: kinds of difficulty, overcoming difficulties, the opposition of the hostile Forces

“It is the lesson of life that always in this world everything fails a man – only the Divine does not fail him, if he turns entirely to the Divine. It is not because there is something bad in you that blows fall on you, - blows fall on all human beings because they are full of desire for things that cannot last and they lose them or, even if they get, it brings disappointment and cannot satisfy them. To turn to the Divine is the only truth in life.”

Letters on Yoga - IV comprises letters written by Sri Aurobindo on the philosophical and psychological foundations of the Integral Yoga. It is the first of four volumes of Letters on Yoga, arranged by the editors as follows:

I. Foundations of the Integral Yoga

II. Practice of the Integral Yoga

III. Experiences and Realisations in the Integral Yoga

IV. Transformation of Human Nature in the Integral Yoga

The letters in these volumes have been selected from the large body of letters that Sri Aurobindo wrote to disciples and others between 1927 and 1950. Other letters from this period are published in Letters on Poetry and Art and Letters on Himself and the Ashram, volumes 27 and 35 of The Complete Works Sri Aurobindo. Letters written before 1927 are reproduced in Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, volume 36 of The Complete Works.

During Sri Aurobindo's lifetime, relatively few of his letters were published. Three small books of letters on Yoga were brought out in the 1930s. A more substantial collection came out between 1947 and 1951 in a four-volume series entitled Letters of Sri Aurobindo (including one volume of letters on poetry and literature). In 1958, many more letters were included in the two large tomes of On Yoga - II. A further expanded collection in three volumes entitled Letters on Yoga was published in 1970 as part of the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library. The present collection, also entitled Letters on Yoga, constitutes volumes 28-31 of The Complete Works. These volumes incorporate previously published letters and contain many new ones as well. About one-third of the letters in the present volume were not published in the Centenary Library.

The present volume is arranged by subject in four parts:

1. Sadhana on the Level of the Mind

2. Sadhana on the Level of the Vital

3. Sadhana on the Physical, Subconscient and Inconscient Levels

4. Difficulties in the Practice of the Integral Yoga