Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Yoga

3. Religion, Morality, Idealism and Yoga

Fragment ID: 198

See largest or earliest found fragment here

Sri Aurobindo — Unknown addressee

July 26, 1929

The idea of usefulness to humanity is the old confusion due to second-hand ideas imported from the West. Obviously, to be “useful” to humanity there is no need of yoga; everyone who leads the human life is useful to humanity in one way or another.

Yoga is directed towards God, not towards man. If a divine supramental consciousness and power can be brought down and established in the material world, that obviously would mean an immense change for the earth including humanity and its life. But the effect on humanity would only be one result of the change; it cannot be the object of the sadhana. The object of the sadhana can only be to live in the divine consciousness and to manifest it in life.

Current publication:

Sri Aurobindo. Letters on Yoga // SABCL.- Volume 22. (≈ 28 vol. of CWSA).- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1971.- 502 p.

Other publications:

Sri Aurobindo. Letters on Yoga. I // CWSA.- Volume 28. (≈ 22 vol. of SABCL).- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2012.- 590 p.

[Largest or earliest found passage: ] Sri Aurobindo. Letters of Sri Aurobindo: In 4 Series.- First Series [On Yoga].- Bombay: Sri Aurobindo Sircle, 1947.- 416 p.

Sri Aurobindo. More Lights on Yoga [: Extracts from letters].– First Edition.– Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1948.– 141p.