The New Synthesis of Yoga - An Introduction - preface

Yoga is a science, since it relies upon experiences and verification of experiences by strict methods of application and rediscovery.

The knowledge acquired by yoga can thus be regarded as verifiable and repeatable authentic knowledge, which is always open to the possibility of expansion of knowledge, — confirmation of knowledge gained in the past and discovery of new knowledge.

This book aims at showing that the new synthesis of yoga that has been developed by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is not a culmination of the past yogic effort and aim and, that it is based upon new yogic knowledge of the meaning and aim of life. The past yogic effort is, indeed, assimilated in the new synthesis and, the significance of the past yogic efforts can best be grasped in the light of the new synthesis of yoga which has come to be called the Integral Yoga.

There have been, in the Indian history of yoga, four great syntheses of yoga: the Vedic, the Upanishadic, the Vedantic as in the Gita, and the Tantrik. These four syntheses are fully reflected in the new synthesis, but the new synthesis also has its own distinctive aim and distinctive method.

Spirit and Matter are synthesized in the new synthesis for purposes of the fullest manifestation of spirit in Matter and of establishing divine life on the earth. This yoga, therefore, does not reject life but transforms life so as to bring out fully the hidden Spirit behind all manifestations of material life. This yoga rejects exclusiveness of any spiritual experience,

which has so far been claimed to be ultimate, and it also establishes that science of yoga is not a closed book, but continues to expand in the light of larger integral experiences. The aim of this book is not philosophical; it therefore avoids philosophical speculations. The sole emphasis of this book is on experiences and integrality of experiences. A new synthesis of yoga affirms that experiences, even in the spiritual field, can be exclusive and can give rise to exclusive philosophies of life but that the resulting conflict can be resolved only by a new expansion in a new experimental adventure of consciousness, which is marked by scientific rigour and thrust towards furnishing experiential proof of the knowledge and power gained by larger integral experience.

The integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother has put forward the possibility of establishing on the earth a new grade of consciousness, the supramental grade of consciousness embodied in material body, which will have a new structure, far different from that of the human body.

This yoga has also been termed as evolutionary yoga and as the supramental yoga. It examines critically the scientific theory of evolution and develops a new spiritual theory of evolution and envisages supramental supermanhood as the next stage of the evolutionary process. That man is a transitory being and that man will be followed by superman, — supramental superman, is one of the most radical visions that is neither speculative nor imaginative, but which is founded on sure knowledge derived from authentic scientific knowledge gained through methods of yoga.

It is hoped that this book will stimulate readers to study yoga as a science and to study the original works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

Kireet Joshi