Integral Yoga

By

Sri Swami Sivananda

This article is a chapter from the book Yoga And Realisation.

The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita may be called the Integral Yoga or the Yoga of the imperishable Absolute. It is not a one-sided Yoga, but the Yoga-all. It includes all the Yogas in itself. It is a means for the grand fulfilment of life, the consummation of all purposes, the perfection of being.

The Gita aims at a thorough transformation and integration of every side of life through the unfoldment of the higher consciousness. It shows the way of attuning oneself with the Infinite at every step, at every stage of life, with the possibilities given at that particular stage.

It is possible for everyone to become a Yogi, if only one would not yield to the dictates of the lower impulses and would abandon conceit. Before actually attempting to step into the portals of Yoga, the aspirant has to bear in mind that none who is subject to the assaults of anger, whatever the reason, none who is lusting for name, fame, power and transitory pleasure, none who hugs delusion and worships flesh and mammon, none who would not be humble through the spiritual knowledge, none who thinks that there is nothing more than this world of sense-beclouded intellect—no such person can achieve success in Yoga.

With these ideals in sight, while attempting to acquire these qualifications one might seek to tread the path of Yoga in any vocation of life. Every act should be directed in the light of necessary experience and expression of the inward urge to serve the Lord in the creation in this Universe. No act should be performed for the selfish satisfaction of any individual but for the adoration of God with the love that inundates all impurities from the heart.

How the Yogas Are Interrelated

Smarana Yoga is the invariable concomitant of every form of love of God. The aspirant waves the lights of his duties prescribed in life before the Purusha in absolute self-dedication and detachment. When the Lord is constantly remembered in all processes of activity in life every action then becomes Yoga (Smarana Yoga or the Yoga of Remembrance). Action, feeling, willing and understanding which are the main aspects in which life manifests itself have to be sublimated to the divine essence. Thus Karma Yoga could be performed as the Yoga of Action, Bhakti Yoga as the Yoga of Feeling, Raja Yoga as the Yoga of Willing and Jnana Yoga as the Yoga of Understanding.

No one can be a Yogi of any isolated aspect of life; there is no such thing at all. Advancement along any line of Yoga at once means a parallel advancement along the other lines also. Perfection in any Yoga is perfection in all the Yogas. There is really one Yoga, the Brahma Yoga and all Yogas mean the same thing.

It is not possible to be a perfect Karma Yogi without being a Bhagavat-bhakta, or a Sthita-Prajna or a Gunatita. No one is a mere doer, a mere feeler, or a mere willing or an exclusively comprehending agent. Everyone has an element of all these, but in some, a particular element preponderates, and they take to that attitude or faculty as the means to perfection, while not being opposed to other means.

Buddhi Yoga

A Karma Yogi, indeed, everyone in the world can be and has to be as long as the appendage of the body is there. All acts of Karmas become Yoga when they are continuously rooted in what is termed in the Gita as the Buddhi Yoga or the Yoga of Understanding, which keeps one free from delusion and in touch with the divine Consciousness. Smarana (remembrance) comes under Buddhi Yoga. Vichara (Discrimination) too, comes under Buddhi Yoga. Buddhi Yoga is the foundation of even Dhyana Yoga. With this as support, the activities of life can be exalted to the fruitfulness of being the means of attaining perfection.

The immediate reality in life is what presents itself as the physical body. It is the task of the seeker to spiritualise its movements either through Isvra-arpana-bhava, Atma-nivedana-bhava (Nimittabhava), or Sakshi-bhava. When the actions are spiritualised, the feelings get ready for transformation. When the inner feelings are mastered the aspirant enters into profound meditation (Nididhyasana) through the surge of his pure emotions.

Yoga of Will and Knowledge

Others who are of mystic temperament exercise their powerful will, restrain the waves of the vital energies and of the psyche, and fix the converged and the transmuted will in the supreme Consciousness, thus dissolving their own individual consciousness therein. Hard enough is this to practise. Giants on the spiritual path follow this method—the Yoga of the will—while some rarer, finer and more purified temperaments which, with their excellent transparency reflect the light of the inner consciousness in their attitude and actions, follow the metempirical path of knowledge or Understanding. They combine in them the means and the end in one embrace, the whole existence dissolved in the Love of the Absolute and being absorbed in the Absolute, exist as the Absolute. That is the final end, the culmination of all Yogas.

The aspirant should however, remember that this glorious achievement is not easy. A thorough cleansing of the impurities is necessary. Purification is the first  step. The virtues enumerated in the Gita, especially in the thirteenth and the sixteenth chapters, have to be practised and cultivated in preparation of the higher Yoga, the characteristics of which have been described in the second, the twelfth and the fourteenth chapters, especially. A spotless character is absolutely necessary. The conduct of the aspirant should be exemplary. The heart should be pure and the intellect bright and undeluded. Then the integral Yoga or the Yoga of synthesis as taught in the Bhagavad Gita can be practised.