Comment On Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga

Sri Aurobindo Ghose was a famous Indian philosopher, guru of yoga, nationalist and poet. He influenced modern society greatly, some scholars mentioned him in the same breath as Gandhi, Tagore, or even Marx; Aurobindo's disciples built an international township Auroville in Pondicherry, this project was so significant that it was sponsored by UNESCO. However, Aurobindo has been known much less in China than oversea countries. Most domestic researches about him were focused on his philosophy, with ignorance of his influence as a guru of yoga, and even introductions to his life were not detailed. This paper comments on Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, and tries to explain him and the value of his thought in a different way.This thesis has three parts as a whole: introduction, text and conclusion. The introduction part first emphasizes the sense of study on Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, with affirmation on the importance of research on Aurobindo's philosophy etc., then recommends preexistent researches about Aurobindo both in and out of China. The text again contains four parts, discusses the formation process, the philosophic base, the practical theory, the characteristic and the influence of Integral Yoga respectively. The conclusion part briefly analyzes the reason why domestic study on Aurobindo has been belittled, summarizes three main transitions during Aurobindo's lifetime and his special family environment, the intercourse between mysticlsm and modern physics, the limitation of this paper.The main study method used in the text is narrating impersonal materials before making estimations. Impersonal materials include Aurobindo's biography, Integral Vedanta philosophy—New Advaita Vedanta and Spirit Evolutionary Theory, The Synthesis of Yoga—"Trimārga"and The Yoga of Self-Perfection, Sri Aurobindo's influence; Estimations are some analyses and summarization about the development of Aurobindo's idea, the resemblance and difference between Aurobindo's philosophy and basic theory of modern physics, Integral Yoga's inheritings from classical yoga theories such as Bhagavad-Gita and contributions, the characteristic of Integral Yoga and so on.Through the study I have three main conclusions:1. Although Aurobindo had stayed and been educated in England for fourteen years since he was seven, and his family has intensely admired western life, Aurobindo had not accepted the idea of modernization. After a short political career, he had chosen to become a yogi, which indicates he agrees Indian traditional civilization very deeply.2. Why Aurobindo's Integral Yoga has been accepted among many modern scholars and New Age urgers? The similarity between its philosophy base and basic theory of modern physics must be one of the important reasons.3. The Synthesis of Yoga in Integral Yoga mostly bases on Bhagavad-Gita, and has given up a great part of Hathayoga and some parts of Rajayoga. Thus the"Integral"does not mean Aurobindo has synthesized every method of all kinds of yoga, indeed he could not achieve this target, precisely speaking, it means Integral Yoga's comprehensive objects, synthetic methods in theory and harmonious manners.