The Synthesis of Yoga Excerpts from the Book of Sri Aurobindo

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

A poet, philosopher, mystic and a teacher. Sri Aurobindo has through his theory and practice, pioneered the understanding of the Vedas, their heritage and the layered messages they treasured for all mankind - past. Present & future. He was one of the 'builders' of Indian Philosophy in the modern period. He devised his interpretation and integralism of Indian Philosophy and the study of the Vedas on the basis of his own experiences.

This book complements our earlier book with the title ("The Life Divine excerpts'). Very roughly speaking the earlier book (The Life Divine) deals with the theory and ideas of divinizing our life. This book gives in detail some of the practices of yoga to achieve this goal contained in the book 'The Synthesis of Yoga' (SOY) by Sri Aurobindo.

Most people know about the five paths of yoga namely Bhakti yoga, Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga in Bhagavad Gita and also Raja Yoga of Patanjali and the Hatha Yoga. But Sri Aurobindo states there are hundreds of Yoga paths conveyed by the great teachers to their disciples orally. The relevant books are now practically lost. Sri Aurobindo by his powerful intuition obtained the gist of these yogas and understood the connection between them for realising the divine life. He presented the knowledge in his book "The Synthesis of Yoga' which was never completed.

The Bhagavad-Gita itself gives two different definitions of Yoga:

1. Yoga is skill in doing works (B.G. 2.50)

2. Yoga is the method of separating the human being from his attachment to the thing which cause suffering (BG 6.23 Duhkha Samyoga Viyogam)

Even among the scholars and admirers of SA, only a very few have read SOY in great detail, even though some great devotees have lectured on its topics.