1Sri Aurobindo
The Harmony of Virtue
Early Cultural Writings — 1890-1910
The evolution of man has been upwards from the body to the spirit and there are three stages in his progress.
He bases himself upon the body2, rises through mind and soul3 and culminates in spirit.
And to each stage of his evolution belong certain kinds of sādhanā, a particular type of Yoga, a characteristic fulfilment.
There was no aeon in man's history, no kalpa to use the Indian term, in which the Yoga was withheld from man, or fulfilment denied to him.
But the fulfilment corresponded to his stage of progress, and the Yoga corresponded to the fulfilment.
In his earlier development, he was realising himself in the body and the divinity of the body was his fulfilment.
He is now realising himself in the heart and mind and the divinity of the heart and mind will be his culmination.
Eventually he will realise himself in the spirit and the divinity of his true spiritual self will round off his history.
Yoga is the realisation of one's capacity of harmony, communion or unity with God.
Whatever religious standpoint, creed or philosophy one adopts4, Yoga is possible as5 long as God's existence or omnipresence is admitted, whether it be as a Personality, a Force6 or a Condition of Things.
The infinite in some form or idea must be admitted.
To be in tune with the Infinite, that is harmony.
To be in touch with the Infinite that is communion.
To be one in kind, extent or self-realisation with the Infinite, that is unity.
But fulfilment is not possible, unless the “Soham” — “He am I” — is recognized7 and practised as the ultimate truth of things.
The realisation of God in self with the eye on the body is the fulfilment of the tamasic or material man; that with8 the eye on the mind9 is the fulfilment of the rajasic or psychic man; that with10 the eye on the spirit is the fulfilment of the sattwic or spiritual man.
And each fulfils himself, by rising beyond himself.
When the material man fulfils the divinity of the body, he does so by rising into the psychic part and finding his strength in the ahaṅkāra or the psychic11 principle of egoism.
The psychic man fulfils the 
divinity of the soul, by rising into the spirit and finding his strength in the super-psychic Will or Intelligent Force in things.
The spiritual man fulfils the divinity of the spirit by rising beyond the human spirit, the jivātman and finding his strength in the parameśvaram and parabrahman, the saḥ and tat, God revealed and unrevealed, the Universe12 and Supreme Spirit who supports and contains the individual.
To put it in language easier but more capable of misconception, the material man realises himself by identifying God with his own ego; the psychic13 man by identifying God with passionless, intelligent, blissful Will in himself, the spiritual man by identifying God with the All, in whom everything abides.
The first is the rākṣasa or
asura14 of the lower order, the second is the deva or the asura of the highest15 order, the third is the pūrṇa16 or siddhapuruṣa, the perfect being.
The pure Hathayoga is the means of the fulfilment through the body. Its processes are physical, strenuous, colossal, complex, difficult. They centre in āsana, prāṇāyāma and the physical purifications17. The number of āsanas in the modern mixed18 Hathayoga is limited and19 even they20 are numerous and painful; in the ancient or pure Hathayoga they were innumerable and the old yogin21 practised them all. The āsana means simply particular22 position of the body and is perfect or ‘conquered’ in the technical language, when a man can stay in a single posture, however strained or apparently impossible, for an indefinite period, without being forced by strain to remember the body.
The first object of the Asana is to conquer the body, for the body must be conquered before it can become divine — to be able to lay any command upon it and never be commanded by it.
The second object is23 to conquer physical nature, by developing the four physical siddhis — laghimā, aṇimā, garimā, mahimā.
By perfect laghimā, man can rise into the air and tread the winds as his natural element, by perfect aṇimā he can bring the nature of the subtlety24 into the gross body which the fire will no longer burn, nor weapon25 wound, nor want of air stifle, nor the waters drown; by perfect garimā he can develop an adamantine steadiness which no26 shock of even an avalanche27 can28 overbear; by perfect mahimā he can without muscular development outdo the feats of a Hercules.
These powers in their fullness are no longer visible in men, but in some degree they belong to all adepts in Hathayoga.
Their existence no one can doubt, who has gone deep into Yoga at all, or who had29 any personal experience of the Siddhis30.
The third object is to develop in the body yogic force, the Tapah or the Viryam, the31 fire of Yoga.
The fourth object is to become ūrdhvaretāḥ, that is to say to draw the32 whole virile force in the body into the brain up and33 return so much of it as is needed for the body, purified and electrified34.
Pranayama35 is the mastery of the vital force, the mobile energy that36 keeps the universe going.
In the human body, the most notable37 function of the Prana or vital force, is the breathing which is in ordinary men necessary to life and motion.
The Yogin38 conquers it and renders himself independent of it.
But he does not confine his attention to the39 simple40 vital operation.
He distinguishes five major vital forces and several minor to each of which he has given a name and he learns to control all the numerous pranic currents in which they operate.
As there are innumerable Asanas, so there are a great number of different kinds of Pranayama41 and a man is not a perfect Hathayogin till he has mastered them all.
The conquest of the Prana confirms the perfect health, vigour and vitality gained by the Asanas; it confirms42 the power of living as long as one pleases and it adds to the four physical Siddhis — the five psychical — prākāmya or absolute keenness of the mind and the senses43, including telepathy, clairvoyance and the44 faculties commonly supposed to be supernormal; vyāpti or the power of receiving other men's thoughts, powers and feelings and projecting one's own thoughts etc.45 or personality into others; aiśvaryam or the control46 over events, lordship, wealth and all objects of desire; vaśitā or the power of exacting implicit and instantaneous obedience to the spoken or written word; īśitā or the47 perfect control over the powers of nature and over things inert and48 intelligent49.
Some of these powers have recently been discovered in Europe as phenomena of hypnotism or will-force.
But the European experiences are feeble and unscientific if compared with the achievements of the ancient Hathayogins or even with those of some of the modern.
The will-power developed by Pranayama50 is said to be51 psychical, not52 spiritual.
Besides these two great practices, the Hathayogins have 
numerous others, such as the extraordinary means by which they clean out daily all physical53 impurities54.
By these numerous and difficult practices55, they attain an extraordinary power, vitality, virility, longevity and are also able to attain knowledge transcending the ordinary human bounds, leave the body in Samadhi, and in one word exercise every mere power that comes by Yoga.
But the practice of unmixed Hathayoga generates a colossal egoism and the Yogin seldom exceeds it.
The modern Hathayoga is mixed with Rajayoga56 and neither57 so virile and potent nor so dangerous as the ancient.
The modern Hathayogin often falls a prey to egoism but he knows he has to transcend it.
The ancient embraced it as a fulfilment; only he managed and directed it by the use of psychic58 Will-power59.
1910
Later edition of this work: The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo.- Set in 37 volumes.- Volume 1.- Early Cultural Writings (1890 — 1910).- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2003.- 784 p.
1 First published in The Standard Bearer, 12 December 1920
2 2003 ed.: upon body
3 2003 ed.: through soul
4 2003 ed.: adopt
5 2003 ed.: so
6 2003 ed.: Personality, a Presence, a Force
7 2003 ed.: recognised
8 2003 ed.: The realisation of God in self with
9 2003 ed.: antahkaran or heart and mind
10 2003 ed.: The realisation of God in self with
11 2003 ed.: or psychic
12 2003 ed.: Universal
13 2003 ed.: psychical
14 2003 ed.: or the Asura
15 2003 ed.: higher
16 2003 ed.: Siddha
17 2003 ed.: purification of the body
18 2003 ed.: modern or mixed
19 2003 ed.: but
20 2003 ed.: even then they
21 2003 ed.: Hathayogins
22 2003 ed.: simply a particular
23 2003 ed.: was
24 2003 ed.: subtle body
25 2003 ed.: weapons
26 2003 ed.: the
27 2003 ed.: of the avalanche
28 2003 ed.: cannot
29 2003 ed.: or had
30 2003 ed.: of siddhis
31 2003 ed.: force, which is called tapah or viryam or the
32 2003 ed.: draw up the
33 2003 ed.: brain and
34 2003 ed.: electricised
35 2003 ed.: Pranayam
36 2003 ed.: which
37 2003 ed.: noticeable
38 2003 ed.: Hathayogin
39 2003 ed.: this
40 2003 ed.: single
41 2003 ed.: Pranayam
42 2003 ed.: confers
43 2003 ed.: and senses
44 2003 ed.: other
45 2003 ed.: thoughts, feelings, powers
46 2003 ed.: or control
47 2003 ed.: the
48 2003 ed.: or
49 2003 ed.: unintelligent
50 2003 ed.: Pranayam
51 2003 ed.: is, it should be noted,
52 2003 ed.: psychical and not
53 2003 ed.: all the physical
54 2003 ed.: impurities of the body.
55 2003 ed.: difficult physical practices
56 2003 ed.: with the Rajayoga
57 2003 ed.: and, therefore, neither
58 2003 ed.: of the psychical
59 2003 ed.: will-power which he identified with the Force of Nature and the supreme Will of God.