Write an essay (2000-2500 words) which addresses the following concerns:

“Is there an evolution in Indian spirituality?”. More specifically, “Where does the Integral Yoga
stand in comparison with the past spirituality of India?”. Discuss with reference to the five
lectures in this course.

India is a country that is united by its culture and spiritual beliefs. History indicates that
when countries were subjected to foreign rule, their religious beliefs also changed within short
period of such foreign rule; that union of countries having same language, ethnic outlook,
religion, but yet could not continue as a union and divided. Despite 500 years of foreign rule,
India retained its religious beliefs. Despite united as a politically single country, it is indeed a
wonder for many outsiders that how people living in India, although do not speak the same
language, do not look alike, have different cultures and food habits, but yet continue to live
together, continue as a nation. Even now it is a matter of surprise that, people may not be
having basic amenities, still they do not resort to extreme measures. Swami Vivekananda who
did parikrama of India, more than a century back, stated that what unites India is its philosophy
of Religion and its Spirituality.
What is special about Indian Spirituality is it is inclusive and inherently accepts
diversity. One can believe in any god or not believe in any god; believe in pursuit of pleasure
and/ or pursuit of wealth, name, fame or renounce them to pursue freedom. India is a place
where, people who give up pleasures, wealth, name and fame and who became sanyasi are
revered. After successful living of ‘Grihastha Ashram’, it is prescribed that one has to pursue
‘Vanaprastha Ashrama’, whether it is a king or commoner, to pursue interests of life beyond
the pleasure and wealth. It is the inherent seed of spirituality over generations that is handed
down which is the cause for such unity among diversity. The mythology and puranas are full
of stories where great kings gave up comforts of palace, to live a life of contemplation on what
is beyond the senses. Such a common belief and culture of spiritual thought is characteristic
of India, and it is so much ingrained, that even people who are not formally introduced to
reading and writing, they tend to acquire it by the cultural ethics of festivals, programs around
the religious beliefs. Such a deep rooted thought is so strong, that it would have been a result
of generations of free environment of spiritual pursuit.
India is one of the oldest surviving civilizations, also called Vedic civilization, with its
spiritual thought dating back to many years, and not much of it recorded. The Vedas were
handed down by word (song) of mouth and sung in Sanskrit, and stated as spoken word of
the Supreme. The Sanskrit language, the mother of many Indian languages, which has no
dialect and which retained its pristine character, also played an important part, in propagation
of Vedas and civilization and culture of Vedas. The Vedas refer to many procedures, rituals
and various hymns in praise of various Gods. It appears as if human beings of that period had
written down their ideal way of living and their spiritual sadhana in Vedas.
All human beings, by impelling nature, pursue Happiness, and search for such ways
and means to remain Happy. It is the inherent quality of all living beings as per their
consciousness or nature, they pursue Happiness. The Vedic Civilization which was centered
around agriculture was no exception, and propagated pursuance of such means. The basic
aims of life as prescribed by Indian thought were Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha, which to
some extent may be equated to Right conduct (of individual and society), Wealth (physical
wealth like domesticated animals to Gold, name and fame etc), Pleasures of life (mostly
physical), Freedom or Liberation (from mortality and restrictions). It could be stated that
prescription was to pursue Artha and Kama as per dictates of Dharma with an aim to get
Moksha. Such prescriptions for pursuance of pleasures and acquiring physical wealth were
referred in the Vedas. Many directives about the individual conduct and conduct of a King
were also explicitly stated in Vedas. Further abstract thoughts about the higher nature of
human beings, and how to pursue them as a common goal were referred in Vedas. It was
stated that various such prescriptions for guidance and right conduct of humanity as available
in Vedas were segregated and orderly placed by Sage Vyasa. It appears that Vedas catered
to peoples of various Natures, as per interest of people in pursuing one of the four Goals.
Vedas were also found to be having highest philosophical expressions, depicting the
higher nature of human beings for pursuance of fourth aim of life. Various such prescriptions,
were found to have been made out of an intuitive nature of Mind rather than analytical
reasoning. It may also be due to the quality of awe and wonder with which the people of Vedic
age looked at the wonderful nature, that is surrounding. The provisions of the nature viz, pure
water of the rivers or lakes, clean life providing air, earth that is providing trees and thereby
food, a mind that is able to comprehend when compared to other living creatures (trees and
animals), are looked at with awe and reverence, and as a provision of the Supreme Lord. The
existence of an orderly surrounding, placing a human being at higher consciousness, led to
belief by the human beings, about existence of a benevolent, all powerful, all knowledgeable
Supreme. Such belief is out of an intuitive power of Mind, which worked the most during the
Vedic Period. That is the precise reason why hymns were recited in an intuitive manner by
referring to Cow as power of light, fire as burning aspiration, Indra (who is controller of indriyas
i.e. senses) as right discrimination etc. Further actions were undertaken for collective good,
by performance of Yagna, symbolizing sacrifice as a common activity for common good of
society. It is interesting that prescription of common action as a sacrifice for common good of
society was a common feature of Vedic Times.
The philosophical thought has undergone some change during Upanishadic period. It
appeared that as time progressed, although the common man had followed rituals prescribed
in Vedas or various Smiritis, the Rishis of Upanishad period had moved from intuition to
Reason. The power of meditation, had probably, played a vital role along with reason. Many
sages of ancient India meditated not only on inner self but also on external world, which led
to discovering various secrets of the Earth and planetary system surrounding. To quote some,
such meditating sages (astrologers) were able to observe the stars, sun, moon and able to
predict many facts which include the exact time when a solar or lunar eclipse may happen,
sages (vaidyas) were able to understand human body and prescribe medicine etc. The
consciousness of human beings had grown and from being intuitive, Logic was being
employed. More logical understanding of the external nature had probably prompted human
beings to try understand philosophical (spiritual) facts from logical point of view. Therefore,
the Upanishad age can be stated as age which associated with Reason in addition to intuition.
The spiritual thought progressed not only by Intuition but influenced by Reason.
A question may arise whether all human beings were having highly developed spiritual
thought. From the depiction of life in Vedic period as well as in mythology or great epics like
Ramayana and Mahabharata, it is evident that there lived people of various bends of mind
and Nature. There was SriRama, who is born as human being, expressed various emotions
of an ordinary human being (unlike SriKrishna who acted as master of life), who was attributed
with sixteen great qualities that a human being may possess and lived as per Dharma alone
on one hand and Ravana, who is possessive, snatching other’s wealth and extremely egoistic
being on the other hand. It appears that persons of good conduct and bad conduct are plenty
in all ages, and among them lived also some persons like sages, like enlightened beings from
all walks of life and all castes and creed, who meditated on spiritual nature of the existence.
Such sages had meditated and reasoned from various points of view (a characteristic of
human mind), and arrived at facts about higher nature of Self, which resulted in stating in so
many Upanishads. It is interesting to note that the facts stated by such sages were found to
be verified by various other persons at different point of time, space and circumstance and
able to arrive at similar truths, postulated them, as verified, and also prescribing the
methodology adopted. Therefore, the age of Upanishads had given way to development of
Reason as a tool for development of Supreme truth.
However, the aims of life have never changed in the human society throughout the
ages, as it was considered that the ordinary consciousness at body level craving for common
pleasures associated with it and emotional consciousness of mental level are to be crossed
over to reach higher consciousness associated with Supreme Self. It was a stage where
human intellect reached highest stage of Logic, reason and rationality. With so many minds
and so many inclinations there were so many prescriptions. The BhagavadGita played a
crucial role in synthesizing the human thought and various prescriptions.
Gita is an epic song considered as part of Mahabharata sung by the Divine teacher,
SriKrishna, in the middle of Kurukshetra war that was fought between forces representing
Dharma and Adharma, representing a symbolic fight within human thought. The Gita provides
an excellent synthesis of various philosophical thoughts of the time like Sankhya Yoga, Yoga,
Vedavada, Vedanta etc. The Gita provided for undertaking action as per gunas of each being,
by performing actions as a sacrifice for common Good, and understanding the nature of Self
while performing such actions thereby synthesizing knowledge with Action, ultimately
surrendering such actions and knowledge onto the Divine with a feeling of affection and Love.
The Gita Provides for synthesis of Actions, Knowledge and Devotion, so that there is union
(Yoga) of speech, action and thought in expression, so that there is union of mind with higher
self in its interactions. Such synthesis of Yoga was possible due to play of Cognition, Conation
and Affection in the individual Self.
The Synthesis of Yoga as explained in Gita is a synthesis of Intuition, Logic & Reason
with Devotion and with various expression of human beings like thought, speech and Actions.
The synthesis has indeed reached its highest form by prescribing ultimate surrender of all
Dharmas to the Divine i.e. all actions, speech, thoughts are surrendered to the Supreme, all
desires for enjoyment of fruits of action as well as fruits of action are surrendered to the
Supreme and by such complete surrender, the Supreme being promises to take care of the
individual Jiva. The synthesis of spiritual thought, thus carried out in Gita, stopped at individual
liberation.
An important phase of Indian spiritual thought was also witnessed during the time of
Sakya Muni, The Buddha. The circumstances that prevailed at that time, appeared to indicate
excessive mysticism, decline of Reason, exclusivism of spiritual thought, which burdened the
common man, rather than helping him. Then came the Buddha, who had shaken the entire
humanity with his thought based on Logic. Buddha had asked each individual to think for
himself and be light unto themselves, to understand reason for ‘Dukha’, which arise out of
‘Tanha’, and the eightfold path (which includes mindfulness) to overcome Dukha and reach
Nirvana, a state of extinction of boundaries of Self. Such thought had shaken the entire
humanity and moved across not only within India but out of India, not only among Rulers but
among common people. It was a period when check was provided on decline of exclusivism
and Logic on Indian Human Thought. The golden silence maintained by Buddha on certain
mystic aspects like GOD, may be one of the reasons for it not being grown beyond.
India was at a critical juncture of subjection to foreign rule, although indirectly, by way
of economic plunder of the country associated with systematic deprivation of economic and
cultural systems of people of India. How can a hungry society (person) think about liberation
of Self. It was a matter of experience that whenever there is fall of Dharma there was a revival,
so also there was revival of spirit of India spread headed by Swami Vivekananda the disciple
of Sri RamaKrishna Paramahamsa. Swami Vivekananda electrified the spirit of India so much
so that British found the literature of Swami with all freedom fighters, whether it was an
extremist or moderator, but the literature is spiritual alone. SriAurobindo also expressed that
in Alipore Jail, he had an experience of Spirit of Swami Vivekananda explaining him the level
of Spiritual Consciousness.
SriAurobindo, came to India with an aim of complete independence for India, and
simultaneously studied the philosophy of Vedas, Upanishads and Gita and understood the
synthesis of Yoga in these texts. Although SriAurobindo started with an aim of Independence
of India from foreign Rule, later proclaimed the aim as Liberation for all human beings and
prescribed Integral Yoga to the Humanity. The Integral Yoga is a prescription for going beyond
the present level of consciousness of an Individual and for the Society, being the next level of
Consciousness of humanity.
The majority of human beings who at the slightest resistance leave the path of
pursuance of higher Consciousness, afraid of leaving the comfort of mental level existence,
resist the change due to inertia. Further it is a common knowledge that behavior of individual
varies from that of the same individual in a group. The human mind was found to exhibit
extreme level of cruelty, prompted by a group psyche, which as an individual he would have
not carried out. An individual self may not live completely independent of its surroundings.
SriAurobindo has prescribed Integral Yoga for individual liberation, continuation of such
individual living in liberation and liberation of the entire humanity for liberation. The Integral
Yoga of SriAurobindo involves three processes –Aspiration, Rejection, Surrender. Aspiration
that is strong enough to sustain over a period of long time arising from pure mind, rejection for
checking negative attitudes of mind and negative emotions of vital and Surrender to Divine as
a positive love and seeking for higher consciousness.
The Integral Yoga, being a summary of combined knowledge and experience of the
past, presents a practical method for the human beings to continue in individual liberation and
being situated in such higher consciousness at all times. Integral Yoga is different from other
yogas as the aim is not to go away from world, but live in this world, pursue goals of individual
but change life of self and his surroundings. The object is not only individual realisation but
bringing realisation in the surrounding also. The ascent of consciousness is supported by
descent of divine and acts through the entire being. For the Divine creature, the Integral Yoga
provides an evolutionary path to bring down divine consciousness into every detail of
existence so that we act in a divine manner.