Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Himself and the Ashram

The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35

His Life and Attempts to Write about It
On His Published Prose Writings

The Yoga and Its Objects, Yogic Sadhan and The Synthesis of Yoga

Sri Aurobindo is the author of {{0}}Yoga and Its Object.[[When first published in 1921, The Yoga and Its Objects was entitled The Yoga and Its Object. — Ed.]] It must be by an error of the printers that his name has been omitted.

But the book represents an early stage of Sri Aurobindo’s sadhana and only a part of it is applicable to the Yoga as it has at present taken form after a lapse of more than twenty years.

The Yogic Sadhan is not Sri Aurobindo’s own writing, but was published with a note by him,— that is all. The statement made to the contrary by the publishers was an error which they have been asked to correct. There is no necessity of following the methods suggested in that book unless one finds them suggestive or helpful as a preliminary orientation of the consciousness — e.g. in the upbuilding of an inner Will etc.

A book giving some hints about the Yoga compiled from letters to the sadhaks is about to be {{0}}published,[[The reference is to Lights on Yoga, first published in February 1935. — Ed.]] but it cannot be said to be complete. There is no complete book on the subject; for even The Synthesis of Yoga, published in the Arya but not yet republished in book form, gives only the theory of different components of the Yoga (Knowledge, Works, Devotion) and remains besides unfinished; it does not cover the more recent developments of the Yoga.

28 October 1934