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English >> Works of Other Authors >> Philosophy |
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Sri Aurobindo's Perspective on Reality and Other Essays— Martha S. G. Orton
About Sri Aurobindo's Perspective on Reality and Other EssaysThis collection of essays, previously published in several journals dedicated to Sri Aurobindo’s vision, focuses on how Sri Aurobindo’s view of the nature of reality is particularly relevant for understanding his yoga and his writings on the psychology of yoga, as well as his writings on social and political themes and his understanding of the evolution of consciousness. Other essays highlight the integral nature of his yoga, the synthesis of the paths of knowledge, works, and devotion, his distinct perspective on karma, how faith and the inner offering to the Divine are dynamic processes in our spiritual progress, and the crucial role of the body in the full realisation of the Integral Yoga. REVIEWThis slim but meaty volume by Dr Martha S. G. Orton attempts nothing less than offering a bird’s eye view of the path of knowledge or jnana yoga as expounded by Sri Aurobindo. Practice of this jnana yoga is one path that can lead to a transformation of one’s nature. Although this work is a collection of essays that the author contributed to several journals over the years, they are strung together in a compact arrangement, with each chapter exploring a slice of what constitutes reality in Sri Aurobindo’s thought. Her purpose in exploring his perspective on reality is that “we cannot know how to approach the world without a clear sense of what is real”. This work, wide in its breadth of exploratory scope as it is, covers almost every important aspect of reality in Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy in the first four of the twelve essays that comprise the book. The remaining eight essays deal with other aspects of the Integral Yoga and the method and practice of the yoga of knowledge. The first four chapters expatiate on Sri Aurobindo’s worldview proper. Throughout there is the sense that the reader is being taken by the hand on a tour of this worldview by one who has not only a thorough intellectual grasp of the Aurobindonian philosophy and psychology, but is also an experienced practitioner of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga. Thus, these chapters abound not only in information, but also in tips for those ardent to get started on their spiritual journey through knowledge, or jnana yoga. The first chapter fully clarifies such concepts as Brahman and Sachchidananda, the involution of the Divine in matter, the purpose of the creation, and the psychic being. These explanatory notes serve as the basis of the second chapter in which there is a detailed discussion on knowledge, both discursive and spiritual, and how both have a place in this yoga even though, naturally, it is spiritual knowledge that is the highest. Chapter Three takes up where Chapter Two leaves off, discussing the obstacles in the way of mastering spiritual knowledge. These three chapters are rounded off in Chapter Four with the distinction between passive and active aspects of the path of knowledge. Chapter Five clearly and succinctly explains Sri Aurobindo’s ideas on evolution and involution, and Chapter Six, his theory of karma that allows ample room for free will. Throughout the first half of the book, complex, difficult-to-grasp concepts are explained with masterly ease that redounds in the attentive reader’s grasp of the material dealt with. It is in the sixth chapter, however, that Dr Orton rises above herself in explicating the concept of karma, where she discusses ordinary ideas of karma as against Sri Aurobindo’s. The seventh chapter discusses the richness of the Integral Yoga. The richness is in its mutual accommodation of the three paths of the Integral Yoga, viz., the paths of knowledge, work, and love or devotion. Further, the Integral Yoga, not being a barren Himalayan-cave yoga, makes ample allowance for the appreciation of beauty in all its forms, both in the natural world and in the works of man. Importantly, as Dr Orton here points out, following any one path leads to the same results as following either of the other two. Chapter Eight delves deep into the Aurobindonian idea of sacrifice in this yoga, emphasizing a conscious sacrifice made to the Divine with devotion. The author speaks at first of the Divine’s sacrifice through the descent of the Purusha, and the answering sacrifice of the manifestation to the Divine. This leads to answers on the nature of integral offering, and how one starts on the high road to transformation. The brief ninth chapter titled “Faith, Anxiety, and Offering” describes the mantra of the Integral Yoga, “Remember and Offer”, while also pointing out some difficulties in sincerely following this mantra. In the following chapter, Dr Orton looks at the body’s role in the Integral Yoga as envisaged by Sri Aurobindo. Unlike many other schools of yoga, the human body is not considered an impediment to yogic progress, but is to be seen as wholly a part of the being that must be divinized, just as other parts of the human being must be. The final chapter on the individual and his relations with the collectivity is illustrated in the form of two beautiful stories told by Dr Orton. Essentially, the individual’s first task is to find his true self – not his egoistic self, but his psychic being – and live life from that inner poise. The value of this book lies in its dual role as both appetizer and dessert: it may profitably be read before delving into Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s works; on the other hand, it proves equally useful for those who are already familiar with the original writings because it neatly wraps up in a handful of chapters a wide range of concepts spread across their many volumes. It begins with a presentation of fundamental Aurobindonian precepts and proceeds to enlighten the reader on the ideas and practices that naturally flow from those ideas. This volume comes with a bonus that is not always found in books of a similar type, for there is a sense of the author’s own thoughts and perspectives as a practitioner of the Integral Yoga that automatically seeps through to the reader in these essays. For example, she asseverates in the very first essay that without a clear idea of what reality is, we cannot know how to approach the world. This insight at once appeals to those sadhaks whose natures are more intellectual, who seek answers to questions of the mind before being convinced that they are moving in the right direction. Again, in explicating karma, there are several paragraphs that give us a window into the author’s mind. Necessarily, the material Dr Orton has to deal with is abstruse; it is to her credit that she has packaged the interrelated concepts in a progression that helps to ease the struggle in understanding them. One wishes that she would consider taking up for karma yoga and bhakti yoga what she has done for jnana yoga in this volume. —Sivakumar Elambooranan
Sivakumar was an academic philosopher who has now turned to writing. After living abroad for some years, he is now settled in his native Pondicherry, where he is associated with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
Reviewed in July 2020 |
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