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Glossary of Philosophical and Psychological Terms
The definitions of the terms below are based upon the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
ADHAR. Support, receptacle; the mental-vital- physical system as a vessel in which the consciousness is contained. ADITI. The Divine Mother; the divine consciousness; the indivisible consciousness, force and Ananda of the Supreme. AGNI. Fire; the godhead of fire; the fire of aspiration, purification, Tapasya, transformation. AJNA CHAKRA. The centre of consciousness between the eyebrows which governs the dynamic mind, will, vision, mental formation. ANANDA. Delight, beatitude, bliss. ANANDAMAYA. Full of Ananda. ASCENT AND DESCENT. The two-sided practice of the Integral Yoga, an ascent of the consciousness to the higher planes, a descent of the power of the higher planes into the earth-consciousness so as to drive out the power of darkness and ignorance and control the nature. ASHRAM. The house or houses of a Teacher or Master of spiritual philosophy in which he receives and lodges those who come to him for the teaching and practice. ASPIRATION. The call of the being for higher things, for the Divine, for all that belongs to the higher or divine consciousness. AVATAR. Divine incarnation; one in whom the Divine Consciousness has descended into human birth for a great world-work. BHAKTA. A devotee, a lover of the Divine. BHAKTI. Devotion, love for the Divine; the delight of the heart in God. BRAHMA. The Divine in His aspect as Creator. BRAHMAN. The One Reality, the Eternal, the Infinite, the Absolute, the One beside whom there is nothing else existent. BRINDAVAN. The place on earth (near Mathura) where Sri Krishna danced with the gopis (cowherdesses). CALM. A still, unmoved condition which no disturbance can affect; a strong and positive quietude, firm and solid. CENTRES (OF CONSCIOUSNESS). Centres (chakras) of the inner being; centres of consciousness which connect the inner being with the outer personality. These centres are supposed to be attached to the spinal cord, but in fact they are in the subtle body; by their opening through yoga, the yogic or inner consciousness develops and one escapes from the limitations of the surface consciousness. CHIT (cit). Pure consciousness, pure awareness; the essential consciousness of the Spirit. CONCENTRATION. A gathering together of the consciousness and either centralising it at one point or turning it on a single object, such as the Divine. CONSCIOUS FORCE. The Power of the Divine Mother which dominates all existence and builds the worlds; a universal Energy that is the power of the Cosmic Spirit working out the cosmic and individual truth of things. CONSCIOUSNESS. The self-aware force of existence. The essence of consciousness is the power to be aware of itself and its objects; but it is not only power of awareness of self and things, it is or has also a dynamic and creative energy. Consciousness is not synonymous with mentality, which is only a middle term; below mentality, it sinks into vital and material movements which are for us sub- conscient; above, it rises into the Supramental which is for us the superconscient. See also DIVINE CONSCIOUSNESS Page-357 CONSECRATION. The devoting of all that comes to one, all one’s experience and progress towards the Divine. CONVERSION. A turning of the being away from lower things towards the Divine. COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS. The consciousness of the universe, of the cosmic spirit and cosmic Nature, with all the beings and forces within it. In the cosmic consciousness the limits of the ego, personal mind and body disappear and one becomes aware of a cosmic vastness which is or is filled by a cosmic spirit and aware also of the direct play of cosmic forces. COSMIC SPIRIT. The universal aspect of the Divine, the one Self inhabiting the universe and containing everything in it. In and behind all things and beings, the Cosmic Spirit is that from which all is manifested in the universe. DESCENT. See ASCENT AND DESCENT DIVINE, THE. The Supreme Being from which all comes and in which all lives. In its supreme Truth, the Divine is absolute and infinite peace, consciousness, existence, power and delight. The Transcendent, the Cosmic (Universal) and the Individual are the three powers of the Divine, overarching, underlying and penetrating the whole of manifestation. DIVINE CONSCIOUSNESS. The spiritual consciousness to which the Divine alone exists, because all is the Divine. Force, Light, Knowledge and Ananda together make up the higher, spiritual or Divine Consciousness. DIVINE FORCE. See FORCE, THE DIVINE GRACE. See GRACE, THE DIVINE PRESENCE. See PRESENCE, THE DIVINE WILL. See WILL, DIVINE EGO. The separative sense of individuality which makes each being conceive of itself as an independent personality. Ego implies the identification of one’s existence with the outer mental, vital and physical self. EMOTIONAL BEING. The emotional vital. EMOTIONAL CENTRE. The heart-centre of consciousness govarning the emotional being. EMOTIONAL VITAL. That part of the higher vital being which is the seat of various feelings, such as love, joy, sorrow, hatred, and the rest. EMOTIVE VITAL. The emotional vital. EQUALITY. The capacity to remain unmoved within in all conditions; equanimity founded on the sense of the one Self, the one Divine everywhere. EVOLUTION. The progressive unfolding of Spirit out of the density of material consciousness; the method by which the One Being and Consciousness, involved here in Matter, liberates itself from matter into life, from life into mind, from mind into the spirit. FAITH. The soul’s witness to something not yet manifested, achieved or realised, but which yet the Knower within us feels to be true or supremely worth following or achieving; the soul’s belief in the Divine s existence, wisdom, power, love and grace. FORCE, THE. The Divine Force, the one Energy that alone exists and alone makes universal or individual action possible, for this Force is the Divine itself in the body of its power; in the individual it is a Force for illumination, transformation, purification, for all that has to be done in the yoga. GITA. Short form of Bhagavad Gita, "the Song of the Blessed Lord", being the spiritual teachings of Sri Krishna spoken to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra; it occurs as an episode in the Mahabharata. GNOSIS. A supreme totally self-aware and all- aware Intelligence; the Supermind. GOD. The Absolute, the Spirit, the Self spaceless and timeless, the Self manifest in the Cosmos and Lord of Nature. God is the All and that which transcends the All. GODHEAD. The one supreme divine Being. In His supreme status He is a transcendent unthinkable too great for any manifestation; in His universal status He is the supreme Lord, the Master of works and universal nature; in His immanent status He is the living supreme Soul in all things, the Lord in the heart of all creatures. GODS, THE. In origin and essence the Gods are permanent Emanations of the Divine put forth from the Supreme by the Transcendent Mother; in their cosmic action they are Powers and Personalities of the Divine each with his independent cosmic standing, function and work in the universe. In the Vedas the Gods are also the companions and helpers of man; they recognise in the soul of man their brother and ally and desire to help and increase him by themselves increasing in him so as to possess his world with their light, strength and beauty. GRACE, THE (Divine Grace). The help of a higher Divine Force other than the force of Karma, which can lift the sadhak beyond the present possibilities of his nature. Page-358 GRATITUDE. A loving recognition of the Grace received from the Divine; a humble recognition of all that the Divine has done and is doing for you. HANSA. The Swan, symbol of the human soul in its upward flight. HIGHER MIND. See SPIRITUALISED MIND HIGHER VITAL. See VITAL, THE HOSTILE FORCES. Anti-divine, not merely undivine forces that are in revolt against the Divine, against the Truth and Light, and opposed to the yoga. IGNORANCE, THE. The Ignorance of oneness; the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flow from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life; the consciousness of the divided Many divorced from the unifying knowledge of the One Reality. ILLUMINED MIND. See SPIRITUALISED MIND IMMANENT, THE. The one pure and absolute Existence present in all things and beings even as all things and beings exist in It and by It, and nothing can be or happen without this indwelling and all-supporting Presence. IMMORTALITY. The consciousness which is beyond birth and death, beyond the chain of cause and effect, beyond all bondage and limitation, free, blissful, self-existent in conscious-being; the absolute life of the soul as opposed to the transient and mutable life in the body which it assumes by birth and death and rebirth. INCONSCIENT, THE (the Inconscience). The Supreme’s state of self-involved, self-oblivious consciousness and force which is at the basis of the material world; this state is the apparent opposite of the Supreme and in it there can be darkness, inertia, insensibility, disharmony and disintegration. Not really inconscient at all, it is rather a complete "sub"-conscience, a suppressed or involved consciousness. INNER BEING. The inner mind, inner vital, inner physical, with the psychic behind as the inmost. INSPIRATION. Something that comes out of the knowledge planes like a flash and opens up the mind to the Truth in a moment; a slender river of brightness leaping from a vast and eternal knowledge. • INTEGRAL. Of or relating to all the parts of the being, mental, vital, physical, psychic, spiritual. INTEGRAL YOGA. A union (yoga) in all the parts of our being with the Divine and a consequent transmutation of all their now jarring elements into the harmony of a higher divine consciousness and existence; this yoga implies not only the realisation of God but the entire consecration and change of the inner and outer life till it is fit to manifest a divine consciousness and become part of a divine work. INTUITION. See SPIRITUALISED MIND INTUITIVE MIND. See SPIRITUALISED MIND KNOWLEDGE, THE. The knowledge of the One Reality, the consciousness of Unity. KRISHNA. As a godhead Krishna is the Lord of Ananda, Love and bhakti; as an incarnation he manifests the union of wisdom (Jnana) and works and leads the world evolution through this towards union with the Divine by Ananda, Love and bhakti. KRISHNA’S LIGHT. A spiritual light of purification and illumination. Its colour depends on the plane in which it manifests. LIBERATION. The release of the soul from the outward ignorant existence into the freedom, calm, wideness of the Spirit. LIFE. Being at labour in Matter to express itself in terms of Conscious Force; an energy of Spirit subordinated to action of mind and body, which fulfils itself through mentality and physicality and acts as a link between them. LIFE-ENERGY. Life-force, not physical in itself, not material energy, but rather a different principle supporting Matter and involved in it. It supports and occupies all forms and without it no physical form could have come into being or could remain in being. LIGHT, THE. Primarily a spiritual manifestation of the Divine Reality illuminative and creative; spiritual Light is not knowledge, but the illumination that comes from above and liberates the being from obscurity and darkness. LILA. Play, game; the cosmic play, the divine play. LOWER NATURE. The universal lower Nature is a mechanism of active Force put forth for the working of the evolutionary Ignorance. The lower nature of the individual is his mind, life and body. LOWER VITAL. See VITAL, THE MAHAKALI. The Divine Mother’s Power of force and strength. MAHALAKSHMI. The Divine Mother’s Power of Harmony. Through love and beauty she lays on men the yoke of the Divine and brings to them her gifts of the spirit’s grace, the charm and beauty of the Ananda, refinement, opulence, protection and blessing. Page-359 MAHASARASWATI. The Divine Mother’s Power of Work and her spirit of perfection and order. The science and craft and technique of things are her province; she presides over the organisation and execution of things and assures the material foundation. MAHASHAKTI. The great Power, the universal Mother. MATERIAL VITAL. That part of the lower vital turned entirely to physical things, full of desires and greeds and seekings for pleasure on the physical plane. MATTER. Being manifest as substance; substance of the one Conscious Being. A self-formed mask and robe of the divine Spirit, Matter is not fundamentally real, but a form of the force of Conscious Being. MIND. The words "mind" and "mental" are used to connote specially the part of the nature which has to do with cognition and intelligence, with ideas, with mental or thought perceptions, the reactions of thought to things, with the truly mental movements and formations, mental vision and will, etc. that are part of man’s intelligence. The ordinary mind has three main parts: mind proper, vital mind, and physical mind. The MIND PROPER is divided into three parts: the thinking mind or intellect, concerned with ideas and knowledge in their own right; the dynamic mind, concerned with the putting out of mental forces for the realisation of the ideas; and the externalising mind, concerned with the expression of ideas in life. The VITAL MIND or desire mind is a mind of dynamic will, action, desire; it is occupied with force and achievement and satisfaction and possession, with enjoyment and suffering, giving and taking, growth and expansion, etc. The PHYSICAL MIND is that part of the mind which is concerned with physical things only; limited by the physical view and experience of things, it mentalises the experience brought by the contact of outward life and things, but does not go beyond that. The mechanical mind, closely connected with the physical mind, goes on repeating without use whatever has happened. Overtopping the ordinary mind, hidden in our own superconscient parts, there are higher ranges of Mind, gradations of spiritualised mind leading to the Supermind. See SPIRITUALISED MIND MIND OF LIGHT. A mind capable of living in the truth, capable of being truth-conscious and manifesting in its life a direct in place of an indirect knowledge; there is in it an action of light, of truth, of knowledge in which inconscience, error and ignorance claim no place. MOTHER, THE. The Consciousness and Force of the Divine, which is the Mother of all things; the Divine in its consciousness-force. The Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence, upholding us and the universe. MULADHARA. The centre of consciousness at the base of the spine which governs the physical down to the subconscient. NATURE. The outer or executive side of the Conscious Force which forms and moves the worlds. The higher, divine Nature (Para- Prakriti) is free from Ignorance and its consequences; the lower Nature (Prakriti) is a mechanism of active Force put forth for the working of the evolutionary Ignorance. The lower nature of an individual is his mind, life and body. NEW CREATION. The manifestation of a divine life upon earth as the result of the working of the supramental consciousness and force and love. OCCULTISM. The knowledge and right use of the hidden forces of nature; true occultism means a search into supraphysical realities and an unveiling of the hidden laws of being and Nature, of all that is not obvious on the surface. OPENING. A release of the consciousness by which it begins to admit into itself the working of the Divine Life and Power; the ability of the consciousness on the various levels to receive the descent of the Higher Consciousness above. OUTER BEING. The surface being, our ordinary exterior mind, life, body consciousness. OVERMIND. See SPIRITUALISED MIND PARABRAHMAN. The supreme Brahman, the supracosmic Divine, timeless, spaceless, unmanifest, inexpressible. PARAMATMAN. The supreme Self, the transcendent Spirit. PARAMESHWARA. The supreme Lord. PEACE. A deep quietude bringing not merely a release, but a certain happiness or Ananda of itself, a harmony that gives a feeling of liberation and foil satisfaction. PHYSICAL, THE. That part of the individual nature which includes the physical body and the physical consciousness; by physical consciousness is meant the physical mind and the physical vital as well as the body consciousness proper. Page-360 PHYSICAL MIND. See MIND PLANE. A level of world-existence; a world or level in the scale of being with its own system and ordering of principles. PLASTICITY. Suppleness, the capacity to adapt to circumstances. PRANAMAYA PURUSHA. The (true) vital being. PRESENCE, THE. The sense and perception of the Divine as a Being felt as present in one’s existence and consciousness or in relation with it. PSYCHIC. Of or relating to the soul (as distinguished from the mind and vital). Used in the sense of the Greek word "psyche", meaning "soul", the term "psychic" refers to all the movements and experiences of the soul, those which rise from or directly touch the psychic being. It does not refer to all the more inward and all the abnormal experiences in which the mind and vital predominate; such experiences, in this terminology, would be called psychological (surface or occult), not psychic. PSYCHIC, THE. The soul; the psychic essence; the psychic being. PSYCHIC BEING. The evolving soul of the individual, the divine portion in him which evolves from life to life, growing by its experiences until it becomes a fully conscious being. From its place behind the heart-centre, the psychic being supports the mind, life and body, aiding their growth and development. The term "soul" is often used as a synonym for "psychic being", but strictly speaking there is a distinction: the soul is the psychic essence, the psychic being is the soul-personality put forward and developed by the psychic essence to represent it in the evolution. See PSYCHIC; PSYCHIC ESSENCE PSYCHIC ESSENCE. The soul in its essence; the divine element in the individual which supports the evolution of his being in Nature. In the course of the evolution the psychic essence grows and takes form as the psychic being. PSYCHICISATION. The psychic change in which the psychic being comes forward to dominate the mind, vital and physical and change the lower nature. PURITY. Freedom from soil or mixture. The divine purity is that in which there is no mixture of the turbid ignorant movements of the lower nature. PURUSHA. Conscious Soul, Conscious Being; essential Being supporting the play of Nature; the true or spiritual Person. PURUSHOTTAMA. The Supreme Being who is superior both to the mutable Being and to the Immutable. QUIET. The absence of restlessness or disturbance. RADHA. The maiden of Brindavan in the Puranas; entirely self-given in her love for Krishna, she is the personification of absolute love for the Divine, complete self-giving and total consecration. REALISATION. The reception in the consciousness and the establishment there of the fundamental truths of the Divine; the making real to ourselves and in ourselves of the Self, the transcendent and universal Divine. RECEPTIVITY. The power to receive the Divine Force and to feel its presence and allow it to work, guiding one’s sight and will and action; the capacity of admitting and retaining the divine workings. REVELATION. The direct sight, the direct hearing or the inspired memory of Truth; it is a part of the intuitive consciousness. SACHCHIDANANDA (Sat-Chit-Ananda). The One Divine Being with a triple aspect of Existence (Sat), Consciousness (Chit) and Delight (Ananda). God is Sachchidananda; He manifests Himself as infinite Existence of which the essentiality is Consciousness, of which again the essentiality is bliss, is self- delight. SADHAK. One who practises a spiritual discipline; one who is getting or trying to get spiritual realisation. SADHANA. Spiritual practice or discipline; the practice of yoga. SADHIKA. Female sadhak. SAMADHI. Sanctuary or tomb of a saint; inner trance; yogic trance in which the mind acquires the capacity of withdrawing from its limited waking activities into freer and higher states of consciousness. SAT. Pure existence, pure being. SELF, THE. The Atman, the universal Spirit, the self-existent Being, the conscious essential Existence, one in all. The Self is being, not a being; it is the original and essential nature of our existence. SELF-KNOWLEDGE. The knowledge of the Self. SHAKTI. Force, Power; the Divine Power; the Power of the Mother; the consciousness and force of the Divine; the Mother and Energy of the worlds. Page-361 SIDDHI. Perfection, accomplishment of the aims of yoga. SILENCE. Freedom from thoughts and vital movements — when the whole consciousness is quite still; not only cessation of thoughts but a stillness of the mental and vital substance. SINCERITY. To mean what one says, feel what one professes, be earnest in one’s will; sincerity in the sadhak means that he is really in earnest in his aspiration for the Divine and refuses all other will or impulse except the Divine’s; it means to allow no part of the being to contradict the highest aspiration towards the Divine. SOUL. The psychic essence or entity, the divine element in the individual; a spark of the Divine that comes down into the manifestation to support the evolution of the individual. In the course of the evolution, the soul grows and evolves in the form of a soul- personality, the psychic being. The term "soul" is often used as a synonym for "psychic being". SPIRIT. The Consciousness above mind, the Atman or Self which is always in oneness with the Divine. SPIRITUAL. Of the spirit. All contacts with the Self, the Higher Consciousness, the Divine above are spiritual. SPIRITUALISATION. The spiritual change in which there is the established descent of the divine peace, light, knowledge, power, bliss from above, the awareness of the Self and the Divine and of a higher cosmic consciousness and the change of the whole nature to that. SPIRITUALISED MIND. Higher ranges of Mind overtopping our normal mind and leading to Supermind; these successive states, levels or graded powers of being are hidden in our own superconscious parts. In ascending order the gradations of spiritualised mind are: HIGHER MIND. A luminous thought-mind whose instrumentation is through an elevated thought-power and comprehensive mental sight. In the Higher Mind one becomes constantly and closely aware of the Self, the One everywhere and knows and sees habitually with that awareness. ILLUMINED MIND. A mind no longer of higher thought, but of spiritual light; here the clarity of the intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the Spirit. INTUITIVE MIND. A mind of intuitive reason characterised by its intuitions, its inspirations, its swift revelatory vision, its luminous insight and discrimination; it is a kind of truth-vision, truth-hearing, truth-memory, direct truth- discernment. INTUITION. A power of consciousness nearer and more intimate than the lower ranges of spiritual mind to the original knowledge by identity; it gets the Truth in flashes and turns these flashes of Truth-perception into intuitions — intuitive ideas. Intuition is always an edge or ray or outleap of a superior light. What is thought-knowledge in the Higher Mind becomes illumination in the Illumined Mind and direct intimate vision in the Intuition. OVERMIND. Full of lights and powers, the Overmind sees calmly, steadily, in great masses and large extensions of space and time and relation, globally; it creates and acts in the same way. The Overmind is a delegate of the Supramental Consciousness, its delegate to the cosmic Ignorance. The Supramental is the total Truth-Consciousness; the Overmind draws down the truths separately and gives them a separate identity. SUBCONSCIENT, THE. A nether diminished consciousness which lies between the Inconscient and the conscious mind, life and body. The individual subconscient is that submerged part of one’s being in which there is no waking conscious and coherent thought, will, feeling or organised reaction, but which yet obscurely receives the impressions of all things and stores them up in itself, and from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements can surge up into dream or into the waking nature. SUBTLE BODY. A subtler material existence behind our outer body which provides the substance not only of our physical but of our vital and mental sheaths. SUBTLE PHYSICAL. The plane of consciousness closest to the physical; it may also be considered as a sub-plane of the physical with a vital and mental character. SUKSHMA DEHA. The subtle body. SUPERCONSCIENT, THE. Something above our present consciousness from which the higher consciousness comes down into the body; it includes the higher planes of mental being as well as the native heights of Supramental and pure spiritual being. SUPERMAN. The next superior type after man, he who will consciously evolve out of man, rise above ego and mind and possess himself universalised and divinised in a divine force, a divine love and joy and a divine knowledge. Page-362 SUPERMIND. The Supramental, the Truth- Consciousness, the Divine Gnosis, the highest divine consciousness and force operative in the universe. A principle of consciousness superior to mentality, it exists, acts and proceeds in the fundamental truth and unity of things and not like the mind in their appearances and phenomenal divisions. Its fundamental character is knowledge by identity, by which the Self is known, the Divine Sachchidananda is known, but also the truth of manifestation is known because this too is that. SUPRAMENTAL. See SUPERMIND SUPRAMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS. See SUPERMIND SURRENDER. To consecrate everything in oneself to the Divine, to offer all one is and has, not to insist on one’s ideas, desires, habits, etc. but to allow the divine Truth to replace them by its knowledge, will and action everywhere. SHYAMSUNDARA. "Beautiful dark one", a name of Krishna. SYMBOL. The form of one plane that represents a truth of another. TAPASYA. Effort, energy, austerity of the personal will; concentration of the will and energy to control the mind, vital and physical and to change them or to bring down the higher consciousness or for any other yogic or high purpose. TRANSFORMATION. Not just a change of consciousness, but the bringing down of the higher, divine consciousness and nature into the lower nature of mind, life and body, and the replacement of the lower by the higher. TRUTH-CONSCIOUSNESS. The Supermind; the consciousness of essential truth of being (satyam), of ordered truth of active being (ritani) and the vast self-awareness (brihat) in which alone this consciousness is possible. TRUST. The feeling of sure expectation of another’s help and reliance on his word, character, etc; the mind’s and hearts complete reliance on the Divine and its guidance and protection. VEDA. A generic name for the most ancient Indian sacred scripture, especially the mantras or metrical hymns of the Rig-veda. VIBHUTI. Divine power. VITAL, THE. The life-nature made up of desires, sensations, feelings, passions, energies of action, will of desire, reactions of the desire- soul of man and of all that play of possessive and other related instincts, anger, greed, lust, etc., that belong to this field of the nature. The vital part of man is a true instrument only . when its feelings and tendencies have been purified by. the psychic touch and governed by the spiritual light and power. The vital has three main parts: HIGHER VITAL. The mental vital and emotive vital taken together. The mental vital gives a mental expression by thought, speech or otherwise to the emotions, desires, passions, sensations or other movements of the vital being; the emotive or emotional vital is the seat of various feelings, such as love, joy, sorrow, hatred and the rest. CENTRAL VITAL (or vital proper). Dynamic, sensational and passionate, it is the seat of the stronger vital longings and reactions, such as ambition, pride, fear, love of fame, attractions and repulsions, desires and passions of various kinds and the field of many vital energies. LOWER VITAL. Made up of the smaller movements of human life desire and life- reactions it is occupied with small desires and feelings, such as food desire, sexual desire, small likings, dislikings, vanity, quarrels, love of praise, anger at blame, little wishes of all kinds, etc. The material vital is that part of the lower vital turned entirely upon physical things, full of desires and greeds and seekings for pleasure on the physical plane. VITAL MIND. See MIND WIDENESS. The expansion of consciousness that comes when one exceeds or begins to exceed the individual consciousness and spread out towards the universal; it is felt as a great substantial vastness giving the sense of oneness free and infinite. WILL. A force put upon a thing to be changed; the power of consciousness turned towards effectuation. WILL, DIVINE. Something that has descended here into an evolutionary world of Ignorance, standing at the back of things, pressing on the Darkness with its Light, leading things presently towards the best possible in the conditions of a world of Ignorance and leading it eventually towards a descent of a greater power of the Divine, which will not be an omnipotence held back and conditioned by the law of the world as it is, but in full action and therefore bringing the reign of light, peace, harmony, joy, love, beauty and Ananda. YOGA. Joining; union; union with the Divine and the conscious seeking for this union. Yoga is in essence the union of the soul with the immortal being and consciousness and bliss Page-363
of the Divine, effected through the human nature with a result of development into the divine nature of being. Yoga is a generic name for any discipline by which one attempts to pass out of the limits of his ordinary mental consciousness into a greater spiritual consciousness. See also INTEGRAL YOGA YOGI (Yogin). One who practises yoga; but especially one who has attained the goal of yoga and is already established in spiritual realisation. Page-364 |