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by Sri Aurobindo (Author)
"ALL LIFE IS YOGA."
In The Yoga of Integral Knowledge, drawn from The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo explores the path of knowledge as a means to spiritual realization and transformation. This is not intellectual philosophy in the ordinary sense, but a disciplined ascent toward a higher consciousness beyond mind.
The object of yogic knowledge is the Self, the Divine, the Supreme Reality - the One that manifests as all existence yet transcends it. Knowledge here is not mental speculation but direct realization. It demands a radical shift in consciousness, not merely refinement of thought but a change in the very foundation of being.
Sri Aurobindo presents Jnana Yoga as an integral movement that surpasses traditional metaphysical inquiry. It seeks not escape from the world, but the unveiling of the Divine within and beyond all phenomena. The goal is the awakening of a greater consciousness, a transformation in essence rather than degree.
Philosophically rigorous and spiritually demanding, this volume stands among the most ambitious modern expositions of spiritual metaphysics and non-dual realization.
The Integral Yoga Series presents selected writings from The Synthesis of Yoga, offering a progressive exploration of action, devotion, and knowledge as three complementary paths to spiritual transformation and divine realization.
Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, poet, and founder of Integral Yoga. His interpretation of the Gita has become one of the most influential modern readings within Hindu philosophical and spiritual discourse.
EXCERPT: "THE SELF, the Divine, the Supreme Reality, the All, the Transcendent, -the One in all these aspects is then the object of Yogic knowledge. Ordinary objects, the external appearances of life and matter, the psychology of our thoughts and actions, the perception of the forces of the apparent world can be part of this knowledge, but only in so far as it is part of the manifestation of the One. It becomes at once evident that the knowledge for which Yoga strives must be different from what men ordinarily understand by the word. For we mean ordinarily by knowledge an intellectual appreciation of the facts of life, mind and matter and the laws that govern them. This is a knowledge founded upon our sense-perception and upon reasoning from our sense-perceptions and it is undertaken partly for the pure satisfaction of the intellect, partly for practical efficiency and the added power which knowledge gives in managing our lives and the lives of others, in utilising for human ends the overt or secret forces of Nature and in helping or hurting, in saving and ennobling or in oppressing and destroying our fellow-men. Yoga, indeed, is commensurate with all life and can include all these subjects and objects."
