Changes

 Physical education means chiefly the combination of all exercises for the sake of the growth and upkeep of the body. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/general-messages-and-letters#p60p64</ref>

Physical education has three principal aspects: (1) control and discipline of the functioning of the body, (2) an integral, methodical and harmonious development of all the parts and movements of the body and (3) correction of any defects and deformities.It may be said that from the very first days, even the first hours of his life, the child should undergo the first part of this programme as far as food, sleep, evacuation, etc.are concerned.If the qualities that one can acquire through physical educationchild, from the very beginning of his existence, learns good habits, it will save him a good deal of trouble and inconvenience for the rest of his life; and besides, those who have the responsibility of caring for him during his first years will find their task very much easier.The first condition for acquiring power Naturally, this education, if it is to be obedientrational, enlightened and effective, must be based upon a minimum knowledge of the human body, of its structure and its functioning. As the child develops, he must gradually be taught to observe the functioning of his internal organs so that he may control them more and more, and see that this functioning remains normal and harmonious. As for positions, postures and movements, bad habits are formed very early and very rapidly, and these may have disastrous consequences for his whole life. Those who take the question of physical education seriously and wish to give their children the best conditions for normal development will easily find the necessary indications and instructions.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/messagesphysical-for-competitionseducation#p54p3,p4,p5</ref>

Man has a power to educate: his body can be developed, educated. He can increase certain faculties. You cannot imagine any animal, even among those we most admire, which is capable, for instance, of physical education, purely physical... a systematic development of the muscles. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/13-november-1957#p7</ref> ===Prerequisites of Physical Education=== There can be no physical education without discipline. The body itself could not function without a strict discipline. Actually, the failure to recognise this fact is the principal cause of illness. Digestion, growth, blood-circulation, everything, everything is a discipline. Thought, movement, gestures, everything is a discipline, and if there is no discipline people immediately fall ill. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/correspondence#p359p371,p372</ref>

Physical The first condition for acquiring power is to be obedient. The body must learn to obey before it can manifest power; and physical education has three principal aspects: (1) control and is the most thorough discipline of the functioning of for the body, (2) an integral, methodical . So be eager and harmonious development of all the parts sincere in your efforts for physical education and movements of the you will acquire a powerful body and (3) correction of any defects and deformities. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/physicalmessages-for-educationcompetitions#p3p39,p40,p41</ref>

...It's for a good many bodily defects can be rectified and many malformations avoided by an enlightened physical education that teaches given at the cells to proper time. But if for any reason this physical education has not been given during childhood or even in youth, it can begin at any age and be consciouspursued throughout life. But to develop the brainlater one begins, it's studythe more one must be prepared to meet bad habits that have to be corrected, observationrigidities to be made supple, intelligent education—especially observation malformations to be rectified. And this preparatory work will require much patience and reasoningperseverance before one can start on a constructive programme for the harmonisation of the form and its movements. And naturallyBut if you keep alive within you the ideal of beauty that is to be realised, for sooner or later you are sure to reach the whole goal you have set yourself. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/physical-education #p13</ref> ===Importance of Physical Education=== Physical Education is meant to bring into the body, consciousness from the standpoint of characterand control, discipline and mastery, it's yogaall things necessary for a higher and better life. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/agendacwm/0912/septembermessages-28for-1968competitions#p40p11</ref>

Physical Education is meant We have been given a body not to reject it but to bring make it into the something better... The human bodymust be improved, perfected, consciousness and control, discipline it must become a superhuman body capable of expressing a being higher than man. And this certainly cannot happen if we neglect it. It is by an enlightened physical culture and by using physical activities―the activities of the body―not for little personal needs and masterysatisfactions, all things necessary for but to make the body more capable of expressing a higher beauty and better lifeconsciousness. And for that, physical education has an important place, which should be given to it.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwm/1213/messages-foraspiration-competitionstalks#p15p273</ref>

We have in us an intelligent will more or less enlightened which is the first instrument of our psychic being.It is this intelligent will that we must use in order to learn to live not like an animal man, but as a human being, candidate for Divinity.And the first step towards this realisation is to become master of this body instead of remaining an impotent slave.It One most effective help towards this goal is by an enlightened physical culture and by using physical activities―the activities .For about a century there has been a renewal of the body―not for little personal needs a knowledge greatly favoured in ancient times, partially forgotten since then. Now it is reawakening, and satisfactions, but to make with the body more capable progress of expressing modern science, it is acquiring quite a higher beauty new amplitude and consciousnessimportance. And for This knowledge deals with the physical body and the extraordinary mastery that, can be obtained over it with the help of enlightened and systematised physical education .This renewal has an important place, which should be given been the result of the action of a new power and light that have spread upon the earth in order to prepare itfor the great transformations that must take place in the near future.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwm/1312/aspirationto-women-about-their-talksbody#p281p21,p22,p23,p24,p25</ref>

It may be good to remind you that we are here for a special work, a work not done anywhere else: we want to come into contact with the supreme consciousness, the universal consciousness, we want to receive it and manifest it...It is For that, we need a power of attracting certain very material vibrationssolid base, which has and our base is our physical being, our body. We therefore need to prepare a capacity solid, healthy, enduring body, skillful, agile and strong, so it may be ready for utilisation that increases its strength—which anything. There is like no better way to prepare the action of body than physical exerciseexercises: sports, athletics, you see—it increases its strength through utilisationgymnastics and all other games are the best means to develop and strengthen the body. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwmagenda/0607/28march-july26-19541966#p4p1</ref>

... I must tell you once more that don’t see why there should be one special ideal for us spiritual life does not mean contempt the physical education of girls and another for Matter but the education of boys. Physical education aims at developing all the possibilities of the human body―possibilities of harmony, strength, suppleness, skill, endurance―and increasing the mastery of the functions of its divinization. We do not want to reject members and organs, making the body but to transform ita perfect instrument at the disposal of the conscious will. For this, physical education This programme is excellent for all human beings equally; there is no reason for wanting to have another one of the means most directly effective for girls. <ref>
httphttps://incarnateword.in/agendacwm/08/april25-3july-19671956#p3
p41,p42,p43</ref>

...but for expressing We have limbs and muscles and nerves, indeed everything that constitutes the Spirit no other animal body; if we don’t give them a special development, a special education, all these things do what they can be compared with him...physical educationto express the Power in the body, but it is a systematic development of the muscles..very clumsy and very incomplete expression.Man It is certainly, in an organised way, beyond question that a physical body which has been trained according to the first progressive animal who can augment his capacities, his possibilities, increase his faculties most complete and acquire rational methods of physical culture is capable of things that he did not have spontaneouslyit could never do otherwise. There is not I think no one animal which can do deny that.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/1317-novemberseptember-19571958#p7p15</ref>

So ... I must tell you once more that for us spiritual life does not mean contempt for Matter but its divinization. We do not want to reject the body but to transform it gives . For this, physical education a deep ''raison d'être'': people capable is one of stopping fires, saving drowning people and so on. There needn't be many: if there were five hundred of them, it would be enough for the entire town, in little groups going about like thatmeans most directly effective. <ref>
httphttp://incarnateword.in/agenda/1008/augustapril-303-19691967#p19
p3
</ref>

Sports help If a wide calm can be established in the physical consciousness, occupying and filling the very body to prepare and all its cells, that can become the basis for its transformation; in fact, without this wideness and calmness the Transformationtransformation is hardly possible.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1229/generalpeace-the-basis-messagesof-andthe-letterssadhana#p60p18</ref>

As ...the child develops, he must gradually body-consciousness is a patient servant and can be taught to observe in its large reserve of possibilities a potent instrument of the functioning of his internal organs so that he may control them more and moreindividual life, and see that this functioning remains normal and harmonious. As it asks for little on its own account: what it craves for positionsis duration, postures and movementshealth, strength, physical perfection, bodily happiness, liberation from suffering, bad habits ease. These demands are formed very early not in themselves unacceptable, mean or illegitimate, for they render into the terms of Matter the perfection of form and very rapidlysubstance, the power and these may have disastrous consequences for his whole lifedelight which should be the natural outflowing, the expressive manifestation of the Spirit. 
<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwmcwsa/1222/physicalthe-gnostic-educationbeing#p5p24</ref>

Sports Something there is in us or something has to be developed, perhaps a central and still occult part of our being containing forces whose powers in our actual and present make-up are all only a fraction of what could be, but if they became complete and dominant would be truly able to bring about with the help of the light and force of the soul and the supramental truth-consciousness the necessary physical transformation and its consequences.… But even these changes would still leave a residue of material processes keeping the old way and not amenable to the gameshigher control and, if this could not be changed, competitionsthe rest of the transformation might itself be checked and incomplete. A total transformation of the body would demand a sufficient change of the most material part of the organism, tournamentsits constitution, etcits processes and its set-up of nature.<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/13/the-divine-body#p19, p20</ref><center>~</center>It [''the descent of the higher consciousness into the most physical''] brings light, consciousness, force, Ananda into the cells and all the things based on contests physical movements. The body becomes conscious and vigilant and performs the right movements, obeying the higher will or else automatically by force of the consciousness that has come into it. It becomes more possible to control the functionings of the body and set right anything that is wrong, to deal with illness and pain etc. A greater control comes over the actions of the body and even over happenings to it from outside, e.g. minimising of accidents and ending small mishaps. The body becomes a more effective instrument for work. It becomes possible to minimise fatigue. Peace, happiness, strength, lightness in placings the whole physical system. These are the more obvious and prizesnormal results which grow as the consciousness grows, but there are many others that are possible. There is also the unity with the earth-consciousness, the constant sense of the Divine in the physical, etc. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/descent-and-the-lower-nature#p26</ref> '''For Suppleness''' When you do gymnastics, is it not to make your body less rigid? And you go on progressing: what you cannot do the first year, you are able to do after a few years.There are people who obtain an almost total suppleness, those, for example, who do Asanas. Yes, one can obtain almost complete suppleness. ...With the mind, it is the same thing. It is through gymnastic exercises that you make yourself supple. It is a question of discipline, of development. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/1205/general16-messagesseptember-and1953#p19</ref> ===How to Make the Body Conscious?=== …it is very important to remember that the instinct of the body, so long as it remains intact, is more reliable than any theory. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/12/physical-letterseducation#p60p6</ref>

The way to really awaken the physical consciousness is physical education...If one keeps It’s physical education that teaches the habit of leading one's normal life always, very soon one does not even notice the presence of the mensescells to be conscious. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwmagenda/1209/to-women-aboutseptember-their28-body1968#p31p40</ref>

The best thing for your headache ...“How does one awaken the consciousness of the physical being?”, that is to take plenty precisely the aim of physical exercise (such as gardening education. It is physical education that teaches the cells to be conscious. But for example)the development of the brain, it is study, observation, intelligent education, above all observation and reasoning. And naturally, for the whole education of the consciousness from the point of view of character, it is yoga. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwm/1612/25mothers-action-in-februarya-class-of-children-aged-sixteen-to-1935eighteen#p2p53</ref>

Physical But as a general and absolute rule, the teachers and especially the physical education aims at developing all instructors must be a constant living example of the possibilities of qualities demanded from the human body―possibilities of harmonystudents; discipline, regularity, good manners, strengthcourage, supplenessendurance, skillpatience in effort, endurance―and increasing the mastery are taught much more by example than by words. And as an absolute rule: never to do in front of the functions of its members and organs, making the body a perfect instrument at the disposal of the conscious will. This programme is excellent for all human beings equally; there is no reason for wanting child what you forbid him to have another one for girlsdo.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwm/0812/25-july-1956correspondence#p43p112</ref>

There are people who obtain an almost total suppleness… by means of a rational and discerning physical education, we must make our body strong and supple enough to become a fit instrument in the material world for the truth-force which wants to manifest through us. In fact, the body must not rule, it must obey. By its very nature it is a docile and faithful servant. Unfortunately, thoseit rarely has the capacity of discernment it ought to have with regard to its masters, for examplethe mind and the vital. It obeys them blindly, who do Asanasat the cost of its own well-being. YesThe mind with its dogmas, one its rigid and arbitrary principles, the vital with its passions, its excesses and dissipations soon destroy the natural balance of the body and create in it fatigue, exhaustion and disease. It must be freed from this tyranny and this can obtain almost complete suppleness be done only through a constant union with the psychic centre of the being.The body has a wonderful capacity of adaptation and endurance.It is able to do so many more things than one usually imagines.With If, instead of the mindignorant and despotic masters that now govern it, it is ruled by the central truth of the same thingbeing, you will be amazed at what it is capable of doing. It Calm and quiet, strong and poised, at every minute it will be able to put forth the effort that is demanded of it, for it will have learnt to find rest in action and to recuperate, through gymnastic exercises contact with the universal forces, the energies it expends consciously and usefully. In this sound and balanced life a new harmony will manifest in the body, reflecting the harmony of the higher regions, which will give it perfect proportions and ideal beauty of form. And this harmony will be progressive, for the truth of the being is never static; it is a perpetual unfolding of a growing perfection that you make yourself suppleis more and more total and comprehensive. It is As soon as the body has learnt to follow this movement of progressive harmony, it will be possible for it to escape, through a question continuous process of disciplinetransformation, from the necessity of disintegration and destruction. Thus the irrevocable law of developmentdeath will no longer have any reason to exist. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwm/0512/16the-science-septemberof-1953living#p19p13,p14</ref>

…the body obeys the mind automatically in those things in which it is formed or trained to obey it, but the relation of the body to the mind is not in all things that of an automatic perfect instrument...The body also has a fundamental passive condition consciousness of the its own and, though it is a submental instrument or servant consciousness gathered into itself is , it can disobey or fail to obey as well. In many things, in matters of health and illness for instance, in all automatic functionings, the proper poise for concentration body acts on its own and is not a seated gathered immobility in servant of the body mind. If it is fatigued, it can offer a passive resistance to the best for mind's will. It can cloud the mind with tamas, inertia, dullness, fumes of the subconscient so that the mind cannot act. The arm lifts, no doubt, when it gets the suggestion, but at first the legs do not obey when they are asked to walk; they have to learn how to leave the crawling attitude and movement and take up the erect and ambulatory habit.When you first ask the hand to draw a straight line or to play music, it can't do it and won't do it.It has to be schooled, trained, taught, and afterwards it does automatically what is required of it.All this proves that there is a body-consciousness which can do things at the reason why Yogis always sit in an asanamind's order, but has to be awakened, trained, made a good and conscious instrument. One It can accustom oneself to meditate walkingeven be so trained that a mental will or suggestion can cure the illness of the body. But all these things, standingthese relations of mind and body, lying, but sitting stand on the same footing in essence as the relation of mind to vital and it is the first natural positionnot so easy or primary a matter as Augustine would have it. <ref>
httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2928/concentration-andthe-meditationmind#p66
p30</ref>

… In the outer change admission of an activity such as sports and physical exercises into the life of the Ashram it is necessary but as a part evident that the methods and the first objects to be attained must belong to what we have called the lower end of the inner changebeing. If there is impurity Originally they have been introduced for the physical education and bodily development of the children of the Ashram School and insincerity these are too young for a strictly spiritual aim or practice to enter into their activities…. Yet what can be attained within, the outer change will not human boundaries can be effective; but if there something very considerable and sometimes immense: what we call genius is a sincere inner workingpart of the development of the human range of being and its achievements, especially in things of the outer change mind and will help it , can carry us halfway to the divine. Even what the mind and accelerate will can do with the body in the field proper to the process. <ref>
http://incarnateword.body and its life, in/cwsa/30/the-danger-way of-physical achievement, bodily endurance, feats of prowess of all kinds, a lasting activity refusing fatigue or collapse and continuing beyond what seems at first to be possible, courage and refusal to succumb under an endless and murderous physical suffering, these and other victories of many kinds sometimes approaching or reaching the-ego-miraculous are seen in the human field and-the-need-must be reckoned as a part of our concept of-purification#p45</ref>a total perfection….

==What And so, in this case, what Sri Aurobindo has recommended as the most direct and most total way is Hathayoga?==surrender to the Divine—a surrender made more and more integral, progressively, comprising the physical consciousness and physical activities. And if one succeeds in this, then the physical, instead of being an obstacle, becomes a help. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/08/19-september-1956#p17,p18</ref>

Hathayoga is a powerful, but difficult and onerous system whose whole principle of action is founded on an intimate connection between the body and the soul. ...The body is not to the Hathayogin a mere mass of living matter, but a mystic bridge between the spiritual and the physical being;...scientific processes to give to the soul in the physical body the power, the light, the purity, the freedom, the ascending scales of spiritual experience which would naturally be open to it, if it dwelt here in the subtle and the developed causal vehicle....Hathayoga is, in its own way, a system of knowledge; but while the proper Yoga of knowledge is a philosophy of being put into spiritual practice, a psychological system, this is a science of being, a psycho-physical system... It must not be forgotten, however, that both do arrive at the same end. Hathayoga, also, is a path, though by a long, difficult and meticulous movement, ''duḥkham āptum'', to the Supreme.All Yoga proceeds in its method by three principles of practice; first, purification,...secondly, concentration,...thirdly, liberation...The enjoyment of our liberated being which brings us into unity or union with the Supreme, is the consummation; it is that for which Yoga is done. Three indispensable steps and the high, open and infinite levels to which they mount; and in all its practice Hathayoga keeps these in view.The two main members of its physical discipline, to which the others are mere accessories, are ''āsana'', the habituating of the body to certain attitudes of immobility, and ''prāṇāyāma'', the regulated direction and arrestation by exercises of breathing of the vital currents of energy in the body. ... it does mainly by these two methods, complex and cumbrous in action, but simple in principle and effective.The Hathayogic system of Asana has at its basis two profound ideas which bring with them many effective implications. The first is that of control by physical immobility, as the power of mental immobility in yoga of knowledge the second is that of power by immobility. It is the sign of a constant inability of the body to hold even the limited life energy that enters into or is generated in it...the first necessity of a greater status or action is to get rid of this disordered restlessness, to still the activity and to regulate it. The Hathayogin has to bring about an abnormal poise of status and action of the body and the life energy, abnormal not in the direction of greater disorder, but of superiority and self-mastery.The first object of the immobility of the Asana is to get rid of the restlessness imposed on the body and to force it to hold the ''Pranic'' energy instead of dissipating and squandering it... —just as the restless active mind seems to seize on and use irregularly and imperfectly whatever spiritual force comes into it, but the tranquilised mind is held, possessed and used by the spiritual force.The body, thus liberated from itself, purified from many of its disorders and irregularities, becomes, partly by Asana, completely by combined Asana and ''Pranayama'', a perfected instrument. ...The lightening of the heavy hold of the latter, of which the overcoming of fatigue is the first sign and the phenomenon of "utthāpana" or partial levitation the last, is one result. ...the Hathayogic siddhis or extraordinary powers of ''garimā, mahimā, aṇimā'' and ''laghimā''. Moreover, the life ceases to be entirely dependent on the action of the physical organs and functionings, such as the heart-beats and the breathing. All this, however, the result in its perfection of Asana and Pranayama, is only a basic physical power and freedom. The higher use of Hathayoga depends more intimately on Pranayama. ...but the principal gain is that by this purification the vital energy can be directed anywhere, to any part of the body and in any way or with any rhythm of its movement. The Prana has according to Yogic science a fivefold movement pervading all the nervous system and the whole material body and determining all its functionings. The Hathayogin seizes on the outward movement of respiration as a sort of key which opens to him the control of all these five powers of the ''Prana''. …a complete mastery of the body and the life and a free and effective use of them established upon a purification of their workings is founded as a basis for the higher aims of Hathayoga....this depends on the connection between the body and the mind and spirit and between the gross and the subtle body on which the system of Hathayoga takes its stand. Here it comes into line with Rajayoga, and a point is reached at which a transition from the one to the other can be made.<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga</ref> ===Cultivating HathayogaRole of Conscious Will in Physical Culture===

''A.'' These are occult processes for acting on the body—the Tantric ones, at any rate—while the modern methods of development follow the ordinary physical process to give the body all the perfection it is capable of in its present state. ...the … The basis of all these methods is the power exercised by the conscious will over matter. Usually it is a method which someone has used fairly successfully and set up as a principle of action, which he has taught to others who in turn have continued and perfected it until it has taken a somewhat fixed form of one kind of discipline or another.But the whole basis is the action of the conscious will on the body.The exact form of the method is not of primary importance….But essentially all these disciplines depend above all on the person who practises them and the way he uses them. One can, even in the most material, ordinary processes, make use of this altogether external basis to infuse into them powers of a higher order. And all methods, whatever they may be, depend almost exclusively on the person who uses them, on what he puts into them. You see, if the matter is considered in its most modern, most external form, how is it that the movements we make almost constantly in our everyday life, or which we have to make in our work if it is a physical work, do not help or help very little, almost negligibly, to develop the muscles and to create harmony in the body? These same movements, on the other hand, if they are made consciously, deliberately, with a definite aim, suddenly start helping you to form your muscles and build up your body. ..There are jobs, for instance, where people have to carry extremely heavy loads, like bags of cement or sacks of corn or coal, and they make a considerable effort; to a certain extent they do it with an acquired facility, but that doesn’t give them harmony of the body, because they don’t do it with the ''idea'' of developing their muscles, they do it just “like that”.And someone who follows a method, either one he has learnt or one he has worked out for himself, and who makes these very movements with the will to develop this muscle or that, to create a general harmony in his body—he succeeds. ...Therefore, what I mean is that the method one uses has only a relative importance in itself; it is the conscious will , there is something which adds considerably to obtain a certain result that is importantthe movement itself.The yogi or aspiring yogi Those who does asanas really want to obtain a spiritual result or even simply a control over his body, obtains these results because practise physical culture as it is with this aim that he does themconceived now, whereas I know some people who everything they do exactly the same things but for all sorts of reasons unrelated to spiritual development, and who haven't even managed to acquire good health by it! they do consciously...This amounts to saying that it is the conscious will which acts on matterThey walk downstairs consciously, not the material fact. ...This means that you can use all they make the movements of your ordinary life for consciously, not mechanically. An attentive eye will perhaps notice a harmonious development of your body. ...So, you choose the method you like best, little difference but you can use the whole of your daily life greatest difference lies in this way. ...To think constantly of the harmony of the bodywill they put into it, of the beauty of the movements, of not doing anything that is ungraceful and awkwardconsciousness they put into it. You can obtain a rhythm of movement Walking to go somewhere and gesture which walking as an exercise is very exceptionalnot the same thing."Something there It is the conscious will in us or something has to be developedall these things which is important, perhaps a central and still occult part of our being containing forces whose powers in our actual and present make-up are only a fraction of what could be, but if they became complete and dominant would be truly able to bring it is that which brings about with the help of the light progress and force of obtains the soul and the supramental truth-consciousness the necessary physical transformation and its consequencesresult. ...But even these changes would still leave a residue of material processes keeping the old way and not amenable to the higher control and, if this could not be changedTherefore, what I mean is that the rest of the transformation might method one uses has only a relative importance in itself be checked and incomplete. A total transformation of ; it is the body would demand will to obtain a sufficient change of the most material part of the organism, its constitution, its processes and its set-up of nature."<ref>http://incarnatewordcertain result that is important.in/cwm/09/17-july-1957#p2</ref>

MechanicalThe yogi or aspiring yogi who does ''asanas'' to obtain a spiritual result or even simply a control over his body, obtains these are the Asanas, Hathayoga. It results because it is done with this intention. ...The psychological method is Yoga. To seek within oneself through introspection what is permanentaim that he does them, whereas I know some people who do exactly the same things but for all sorts of reasons unrelated to spiritual development, what is constant. Thatand who haven's all.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/16-december-1953#p4</ref>t even managed to acquire good health by it!

But don't get into a meditation posture! And don't tense up; just let yourself go, as if you simply wanted to rest—but not in an empty hole. To rest in a mass of infinite force..For instance, all the movements you make when dressing, taking your bath, tidying your room… no matter what; make them consciously, with the will that this muscle should work, that muscle should work. a supple solidity.<ref>http://incarnatewordYou will see, you will obtain really amazing results.in/agenda/03/may-29-1962#p64</ref>

No use doing asanas Going up and pranayam. It is not necessary to burn with passion. What is needed is a patient increasing of down the power of concentration and steady aspiration so stairs—you cannot imagine how useful that can be from the silence point of view of physical culture, if you speak of may fix in the heart and spread know how to the other members. Then the physical mind and subconscient can be cleared and quieted.***The asanas are one means for control make use of the body, as is Pranayam for the life-forces, but neither is indispensable.***Mother thinks that the shirshasana is not safe for your eyesit. While some Instead of these asanas going up because you are simple going up and safecoming down because you are coming down, like any ordinary man, others are not so; they require a training of the body or practice under the eye of an expert. It might not be prudent for you to take them go up in an amateur fashion.***Pranayam is safe only if one knows how to do it and is on guard against its possible dangers: (1) danger to health by mistakes in with the method, (2) rising consciousness of all the vital forces, especially lust, egoism and wrongly directed strength muscles which are working and force, (3) the awakening of concealed sanskaras of the physical nature or latent karma from past livesmaking them work harmoniously.***You will see... it is not safe to do Pranayam without guidance by one who is expert in Rajayoga or Hathayoga. Pranayam is not Just try a part of the sadhana here.***...it is not safe to do Pranayam except under little, you will see! This means that you can use all the directions movements of your life for a guru who is siddha in either Rajayoga or Hathayoga. Gasping is obviously a sign harmonious development of something wrong—for the breathing in Pranayam must be perfectly unimpeded and regular.***Your experience is correct. The true breathing is not merely the inspiration and expiration from the lungs which is merely the mechanism of it, but a drawing in of the universal energy of Prana into every cell of the your body.[p<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/sankhya-and-yoga#p18

</ref>

===Benefits You bend down to pick something up, you stretch up to find something right at the top of Hathayoga===a cupboard, you open a door, you close it, you have to go round an obstacle, there are a hundred and one things you do constantly and which you can make use of for your physical culture and which will demonstrate to you that it is the consciousness you put into it which produces the effect, a hundred times more than just the material fact of doing it. So, you choose the method you like best, but you can use the whole of your daily life in this way…. To think constantly of the harmony of the body, of the beauty of the movements, of not doing anything that is ungraceful and awkward. You can obtain a rhythm of movement and gesture which is very exceptional.<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwm/09/17-july-1957#p2,p3,p4,p5,p6,p8,p9</ref>

Asana ==What is used by Hathayoga?== Hathayoga selects the body and the Rajayoga only in vital functionings as its easiest instruments of perfection and most natural position, ...Coupled realisation; its concern is with the use of the mantra it brings the divine energy into the gross body and prepares for and facilitates that concentration in Samadhi. <ref>
httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/rajayogathe-systems-of-yoga#p7
p7</ref><center>~</center>Hathayoga is a powerful, but difficult and onerous system whose whole principle of action is founded on an intimate connection between the body and the soul. The body is the key, the body the secret both of bondage and of release, of animal weakness and of divine power, of the obscuration of the mind and soul and of their illumination, of subjection to pain and limitation and of self-mastery, of death and of immortality. The body is not to the Hathayogin a mere mass of living matter, but a mystic bridge between the spiritual and the physical being...In fact the whole aim of the Hathayogin may be summarised from our point of view, though he would not himself put it in that language, as an attempt by fixed scientific processes to give to the soul in the physical body the power, the light, the purity, the freedom, the ascending scales of spiritual experience which would naturally be open to it, if it dwelt here in the subtle and the developed causal vehicle.

...the Hathayoga is, in its own way made clear for , a system of knowledge; but while the ascent through the greater psychic proper Yoga of knowledge is a philosophy of being put into spiritual practice, a psychological system, this is a science of being , a psycho-physical system. ... Hathayoga, also, is a path, though by a long, difficult and meticulous movement, "duḥkham āptum"[difficult to attain], to the union with the superconscient PurushaSupreme. This can be done by Pranayama.<ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/rajayoga#p6</ref>

===Limitations All Yoga proceeds in its method by three principles of practice; first, purification, that is to say, the removal of all aberrations, disorders, obstructions brought about by the mixed and irregular action of the energy of being in our physical, moral and mental system; secondly, concentration, that is to say, the bringing to its full intensity and the mastered and self-directed employment of that energy of being in us for a definite end; thirdly, liberation, that is to say, the release of our being from the narrow and painful knots of the individualised energy in a false and limited play, which at present are the law of our nature. The enjoyment of our liberated being which brings us into unity or union with the Supreme, is the consummation; it is that for which Yoga is done. Three indispensable steps and the high, open and infinite levels to which they mount; and in all its practice Hathayoga===keeps these in view.

The results of Hathayoga are thus striking to the eye and impose easily on the vulgar or physical mind. And yet at the end we may ask what we have gained at the end of all this stupendous labour. The object two main members of its physical Naturediscipline, to which the preservation of the others are mere physical lifeaccessories, its highest perfectionare ''āsana'', ...On the other hand habituating of the physical resultsbody to certain attitudes of immobility, increased vitalityand ''prāṇāyāma'', prolonged youth, health, longevity are the regulated direction and arrestation by exercises of small avail if they must be held by us as misers breathing of ourselves, apart from the common life, for their own sake, not utilised, not thrown into the common sum vital currents of energy in the world's activitiesbody. ... Hathayoga attains large resultsit does mainly by these two methods, complex and cumbrous in action, but at an exorbitant price simple in principle and to very little purposeeffective.<ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-systems-of-yoga#p10
</ref>

=Different Schools Of The Hathayogic system of Asana has at its basis two profound ideas which bring with them many effective implications. The first is that of control by physical immobility, as the power of mental immobility in yoga of knowledge the second is that of power by immobility in the Yoga=of knowledge, and for parallel reasons....

==What It is Rajayoga?==the sign of a constant inability of the body to hold even the limited life energy that enters into or is generated in it… [T]he first necessity of a greater status or action is to get rid of this disordered restlessness, to still the activity and to regulate it. The Hathayogin has to bring about an abnormal poise of status and action of the body and the life energy, abnormal not in the direction of greater disorder, but of superiority and self-mastery.

Rajayoga aims at All this, however, is still a mere basis, the liberation outward and perfection not inward physical conditions of the bodily, two instruments used by Hathayoga...it fixes its eyes on There still remains the "citta", that stuff more important matter of mental consciousness in which all these activities arise, and it seeks, even as Hathayoga with its physical material, first to purify the psychical and spiritual effects to tranquillisewhich they can be turned.The preliminary movement of Rajayoga is a careful self-discipline by which good habits of This depends on the connection between the body and the mind are substituted for and spirit and between the lawless movements that indulge gross and the lower nervous being. By subtle body on which the practice system of truthHathayoga takes its stand. Here it comes into line with Rajayoga, by renunciation of all forms of egoistic seeking, by abstention from injury to others, by purity, by constant meditation and inclination to the divine Purusha who a point is reached at which a transition from the true lord of one to the mental kingdom, a pure, glad, clear state of mind and heart is establishedother can be made.<ref>
httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-systems-of-yogahathayoga#p11p2,p4,p5,p6,p7,p12</ref>

…Rajayoga does not forget Hathayoga similarly depends on this perception and experience that the disabilities of the vital forces and functions to which our life is normally subjected and whose ordinary mind proceed largely from its subjection to the reactions of the nervous system operations seem set and the body. ...it gets rid of the Hathayogic complexity indispensable, can be mastered and cumbrousness while it utilises... the system proceeds to the perfect quieting of the restless mind operations changed or suspended with results that would otherwise be impossible and its elevation that seem miraculous to a higher plane through concentration of mental force by those who have not seized the successive stages which lead to the utmost inner concentration or ingathered state rationale of the consciousness which is called Samadhitheir process.<ref>
httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/thelife-systems-ofand-yoga#p12

p3</ref>

===Prerequisites for RajayogaProcess of Hathayoga===

Rajayoga also uses The chief processes of Hathayoga are ''āsana'' and ''prāṇāyāma''. By its numerous āsanas or fixed postures it first cures the body of that restlessness which is a sign of its inability to contain without working them off in action and movement the vital forces poured into it from the universal Life-Ocean, gives to it an extraordinary health, force and suppleness and seeks to liberate it from the habits by which it is subjected to ordinary physical Nature and kept within the narrow bounds of her normal operations. In the ancient tradition of Hathayoga it has always been supposed that this conquest could be pushed so far even as to conquer to a great extent the force of gravitation. By various subsidiary but elaborate processes the Hathayogin next contrives to keep the body free from all impurities and the nervous system unclogged for those exercises of respiration which are his most important instruments. These are called ''prāṇāyāma'', the control of the breath or vital power; for breathing is the chief physical functioning of the vital forces. Pranayama, for the Hathayogin, serves a double purpose. First, it completes the perfection of the body. The vitality is liberated from many of the ordinary necessities of physical Nature; robust health, prolonged youth, often an extraordinary longevity are attained. On the other hand, Pranayama awakens the coiled-up serpent of the Pranic dynamism in the vital sheath and for opens to the Yogin fields of consciousness, ranges of experience, abnormal faculties denied to the same principal psychic purposes ordinary human life while it puissantly intensifies such normal powers and faculties as he already possesses. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-systems-of-yoga#p9</ref><center>~</center>The physical being is the Hathayoga, instrument; but the physical being is made up of two elements, the physical and the vital, the body which is the apparent instrument and the basis, and the life energy, ''prāṇa'', which is the power and the real instrument. Both of these instruments are now our masters. We are subject to the body, we are subject to the life energy; it is only in its whole principle a psychical systemvery limited degree that we can, though souls, though mental beings, at all pose as their masters.We are bound by a poor and limited physical nature, we are bound consequently by a poor and limited life-power which is all that the body can bear or to which it can give scope..Moreover, the action of each and both in us is subject not only to the narrowest limitations, but insists first on to a constant impurity, which renews itself every time it is rectified, and to all sorts of disorders, some of which are normal, a moral purification violent order, part of our ordinary physical life, others abnormal, its maladies and disturbances. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p5</ref> … Prana, the nervous or vital element in man which is centralised below the Manas and Chitta in the subtle body and connected with the navel in the Sthula Deha. Here I must distinguish between the Sukshma Prana and the Sthula Prana, the former moving in the nervous system of the mentality…divided subtle body as described in the Yogic books, the latter in the established nervous system under of the gross body. The two headsare closely connected and almost always act upon each other. The prana forms the link between the physical and the mental man. I must here warn you against stumbling into the error of those who try to harmonise Yogic Science with the physical science of the Europeans and search for the Yogic Nadis and Chakras in the physical body. You will not find them there. There are certain centres in the physical nervous system with which the Chakras correspond, five "yamas" otherwise Hathayoga would be impossible. But the Chakras are not these centres. The Europeans are masters in their own province of knowledge and five "niyamas"there you need not hesitate to learn from them, but for God’s sake do not subject your higher knowledge to their lower; you will only create a most horrible confusion. Develop your higher knowledge first, then study their sciences and the latter will at once fall into their place.<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/11/yogic-sadhan#p52</ref><center>~</center>The mere function of breathing into and out of the lungs is only the most sensible, outward and seizable movement of the Prana, the Breath of Life in our physical system.The object Prana has according to Yogic science a fivefold movement pervading all the nervous system and the whole material body and determining all its functionings. The Hathayogin seizes on the outward movement of respiration as a sort of key which opens to him the control of all these five powers of the Prana. He becomes sensibly aware of their inner operations, mentally conscious of his whole physical life and action. He is able to direct the Prana through all the ''nāḍīs'' or nerve-channels of his system. He becomes aware of its action in the six ''cakras'' or ganglionic centres of the nervous system, and is able to create open it up in each beyond its present limited, habitual and mechanical workings. He gets, in short, a moral calmperfect control of the life in the body in its most subtle nervous as well as in its grossest physical aspects, even over that in it which is at present involuntary and out of the reach of our observing consciousness and will. Thus a void complete mastery of the passionsbody and the life and a free and effective use of them established upon a purification of their workings is founded as a basis for the higher aims of Hathayoga. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p11</ref> <center>~</center>In Hathayoga the instrument is the body and life. All the power of the body is stilled, collected, purified, heightened, concentrated to its utmost limits or beyond any limits by Asana and other physical processes; the power of the life too is similarly purified, heightened, concentrated by Asana and Pranayama. This concentration of powers is then directed towards that physical centre in which the divine consciousness sits concealed in the human body. The power of Life, Nature-power, coiled up with all its secret forces asleep in the lowest nervous plexus of the earth-being,—for only so prepare much escapes into waking action in our normal operations as is sufficient for the death limited uses of egoism human life,—rises awakened through centre after centre and awakens, too, in its ascent and passage the rajasic human forces of each successive nodus of our being, the nervous life, the heart of emotion and ordinary mentality, the speech, sight, will, the higher knowledge, till through and above the brain it meets with and it becomes one with the divine consciousness. <ref>
https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-principle-of-the-integral-yoga#p3
</ref><center>~</center>It is the sign of a constant inability of the body to hold even the limited life energy that enters into or is generated in it, and consequently of a general dissipation of this Pranic force with a quite subordinate element of ordered and well-economised activity. Moreover in the consequent interchange and balancing between the movement and interaction of the vital energies normally at work in the body and their interchange with those which act upon it from outside, whether the energies of others or of the general Pranic force variously active in the environment, there is a constant precarious balancing and adjustment which may at any moment go wrong.Every obstruction, every defect, every excess, every lesion creates impurities and disorders.... Yet this interference is inevitable, since man lives not for the purposes of the vital Nature in him alone, but for higher purposes which she had not contemplated in her first balance and to which she has with difficulty to adjust her operations. Therefore the first necessity of a discipline greater status or action is to get rid of this disordered restlessness, to still the activity and to regulate it. The Hathayogin has to bring about an abnormal poise of status and action of the body and the life energy, abnormal not in the direction of greater disorder, but of superiority and self-mastery.<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p6</ref><center>~</center>The first object of the immobility of the Asana is to get rid of the restlessness imposed on the body and to force it to hold the Pranic energy instead of dissipating and squandering it. The experience in the mind practice of Asana is not that of a cessation and diminution of energy by inertia, but of a great increase, inpouring, circulation of force. The body, accustomed to work off superfluous energy by movement, is at first it will be able to bear this increase and this retained inner action and betrays it by regular practices violent tremblings; afterwards it habituates itself and, when the Asana is conquered, then it finds as much ease in the posture, however originally difficult or unusual to it, as in its easiest attitudes sedentary or recumbent. It becomes increasingly capable of holding whatever amount of increased vital energy is brought to bear upon it without needing to spill it out in movement, and this increase is so enormous as to seem illimitable, so that the body of the perfected Hathayogin is capable of feats of endurance, force, unfatigued expenditure of energy of which the normal physical powers of man at their highest would be incapable. For it is meditation not only able to hold and retain this energy, but to bear its possession of the physical system and its more complete movement through it.<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p8</ref><center>~</center>The higher use of Hathayoga depends more intimately on Pranayama. Asana deals more directly with the more material part of the physical totality, though here too it needs the aid of the divine "Being"other; Pranayama, starting from the physical immobility and their object self-holding which is secured by Asana, deals more directly with the subtler vital parts, the nervous system. This is done by various regulations of the breathing, starting from equality of respiration and inspiration and extending to create a sattwic calmthe most diverse rhythmic regulations of both with an interval of inholding of the breath. In the end the keeping in of the breath, which has first to be done with some effort, purity and preparation for concentration upon even its cessation become as easy and seem as natural as the constant taking in and throwing out which is its normal action. But the secure pursuance first objects of the rest Pranayama are to purify the nervous system, to circulate the life-energy through all the nerves without obstruction, disorder or irregularity, and to acquire a complete control of its functionings, so that the mind and will of the soul inhabiting the Yoga can body may be foundedno longer subject to the body or life or their combined limitations.<ref>
httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/rajayogahathayoga#p5
p10</ref>

===What is Samadhi?Attitude towards Hathayoga===

There are almost as many ways ''Q.Sweet Mother, you have said: “… Many methods have been framed to attain this perception [of arriving at Samadhi as there are different paths of Yoga. ...All Yoga is the psychic being in its nature an attempt us] and an arriving at unity with the Supreme,—unity finally to achieve this identification [with the psychic being of the Supreme. ]...to these two systems, to Rajayoga and Hathayoga, …in spite of the wide difference of their Some methods from that of the path of knowledgeare psychological, they have this same principle as their final justification. ….for in a synthetic and integral Yoga they take a secondary importance; their aims have indeed to be includedsome religious, but their methods can either altogether be dispensed with or used only for a preliminary or else a casual assistancesome even mechanical.” <ref> book synthesis Will you give some examples of yoga.</ref>this?''

This is ''A:'' Mechanical, these are the first step onlyAsanas, Hathayoga. …the system proceeds to the perfect quieting It is done with this intention [perception of the restless mind and its elevation psychic being, finally leading to a higher plane identification with it].... The psychological method is Yoga. To seek within oneself through concentration of mental force by introspection what is permanent, what is constant. <ref>http://incarnateword.in/cwm/05/16-december-1953#p4</ref><center>~</center>The true breathing is not merely the inspiration and expiration from the successive stages lungs which lead to is merely the mechanism of it, but a drawing in of the utmost inner concentration or ingathered state universal energy of Prana into every cell of the consciousness which is called Samadhibody.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2329/thesankhya-systems-ofand-yoga#p12p21</ref>

Intimately connected with the aim ===Benefits of the Yoga of Knowledge. ...is not so all-important in the Yoga of devotion, but it still has its place there as the swoon of being into which the ecstasy of divine love casts the soul. ...It is evident that where our objective includes the possession of the Divine in life, a state of cessation of life cannot be the last consummating step or the highest desirable condition: Yogic trance cannot be an aim, as in so many Yogic systems, but only a means, and a means not of escape from the waking existence, but to enlarge and raise the whole seeing, living and active consciousness. <ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/samadhi#p1</ref>Hathayoga===

==Bhakti Yoga==The asanas are one means for control of the body, as is Pranayam for the life-forces, but neither is indispensable. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/sankhya-and-yoga#p16</ref><center>~</center>Bhakti in The body, thus liberated from itself , purified from many of its disorders and irregularities, becomes, partly by Asana, completely by combined Asana and Pranayama, a perfected instrument. It is as wide as freed from its ready liability to fatigue; it acquires an immense power of health; its tendencies of decay, age and death are arrested. The Hathayogin even at an age advanced beyond the ordinary span maintains the heart-yearning unimpaired vigour, health and youth of the soul life in the body; even the appearance of physical youth is sustained for a longer time. He has a much greater power of longevity, and from his point of view, the Divinebody being the instrument, it is a matter of no small importance to preserve it long and to keep it for all that time free from impairing deficiencies. It is to be observed, also, that there are an enormous variety of Asanas in Hathayoga, running in their fullness beyond the number of eighty, some of them of the most complicated and difficult character.This variety serves partly to increase the results already noted, as well as to give a greater freedom and flexibility to the use of the body, but it serves also to alter the relation of the physical energy in the body to the earth energy with which it is related..yoga The lightening of the heavy hold of Bhakti resolves itself simply into these four movementsthe latter, of which the desire overcoming of fatigue is the Soul when it turns towards God first sign and the straining phenomenon of ''utthāpana'' or partial levitation the last, is one result. The gross body begins to acquire something of the nature of the subtle body and to possess something of its emotion towards himrelations with the life-energy; that becomes a greater force more powerfully felt and yet capable of a lighter and freer and more resolvable physical action, powers which culminate in the pain Hathayogic siddhis or extraordinary powers of love ''garimā'', ''mahimā'', ''aṇimā''and ''laghimā''. Moreover, the life ceases to be entirely dependent on the divine return action of lovethe physical organs and functionings, such as the heart-beats and the breathing. These can in the delight end be suspended without cessation of love possessed or lesion to the life.<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p9</ref><center>~</center>The power of these exercises of breathing to bring about a purified and unobstructed state of the nervous system is a known and well-established fact of our physiology. It helps also to clear the physical system, but is not entirely effective at first on all its canals and openings; therefore the Hathayogin uses supplementary physical methods for clearing them out regularly of all their accumulations. The combination of these with Asana,—particular Asanas have even an effect in destroying particular diseases,—and with Pranayama maintains perfectly the play health of the body. But the principal gain is that delightby this purification the vital energy can be directed anywhere, to any part of the body and in any way or with any rhythm of its movement. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p10</ref><center>~</center>By Pranayama the Hathayogin is able to control, suspend and transcend the ordinary fixed operation of the Pranic energy which is all that Nature needs for the normal functioning of the body and of the eternal enjoyment physical life and mind, and he becomes aware of the divine Lover channels in which that energy distributes itself in all its workings and is therefore able to do things with his body which seem miraculous to the heart ignorant, just as the physical scientist by his knowledge of the workings of celestial bliss. These are material forces is able to do things that are at once too simple with them which would seem to us magic if their law and too profound for methodising or for analysisprocess were not divulged. …But the Pranic energy supports not only the operations of our physical life, but also those of the mind in the living body.how Therefore by the control of the Pranic energy it is not only possible to control our physical and vital functionings and to transcend their ordinary operation, but to control also the way workings of devotion enters into a synthetic the mind and to transcend its ordinary operations. The human mind in fact depends always on the pranic force which links it with the body through which it manifests itself, and it is able to deploy its own force only in proportion as it can make that energy available for its own uses and integral Yogasubservient to its own purposes. In proportion, therefore, as the Yogin gets back to the control of the Prana, what place and by the direction of its batteries opens up those nervous centres (''cakras'') in which it takes there is now sluggish or only partially operative, he is able to manifest powers of mind, sense and consciousness which transcend our ordinary experience. The so-called occult powers of Yoga are such faculties which thus open up of themselves as the Yogin advances in the control of the Pranic force and how , purifying the channels of its principle affects movement, establishes an increasing communication between the consciousness of his subtle subliminal being and the other principles consciousness of divine livinghis gross physical and superficial existence.<ref>
httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwsa/2418/the-waysuperlife-life-of-devotionour-life#p1
p4,p5</ref>

=Different Systems of Yoga==Individual to Universalisation===

... Hathayoga aims at the central principle conquest of the chief schools life and the body whose combination in the food sheath and the vital vehicle constitutes, as we have seen, the gross body and whose equilibrium is the foundation of Yoga still prevalent all Nature’s workings in Indiathe human being.The equilibrium established by Nature is sufficient for the normal egoistic life; it is insufficient for the purpose of the Hathayogin..The triple Path For it is calculated on the amount of Works, vital or dynamic force necessary to drive the physical engine during the normal span of Love human life and to perform more or less adequately the various workings demanded of Knowledge uses some part of it by the individual life inhabiting this frame and the mental being, will, heart or intellect as a startingworld-point environment by which it is conditioned. Hathayoga therefore seeks to rectify Nature and seeks establish another equilibrium by its conversion which the physical frame will be able to arrive at sustain the liberating Truthinrush of an increasing vital or dynamic force of Prana indefinite, Beatitude almost infinite in its quantity or intensity. In Nature the equilibrium is based upon the individualisation of a limited quantity and Infinity which are force of the nature of Prana; more than that the spiritual lifeindividual is by personal and hereditary habit unable to bear, use or control. Its method is In Hathayoga, the equilibrium opens a direct commerce between door to the human Purusha in universalisation of the individual body and vitality by admitting into the divine Purusha who dwells in every body , containing, using and yet transcends all form controlling a much less fixed and namelimited action of the universal energy.<ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-systems-of-yoga#p7

p8
</ref>

==Synthesis =Limitations of the Yoga SystemsHathayoga===

An undiscriminating combination The results of Hathayoga are thus striking to the eye and impose easily on the vulgar or physical mind. And yet at the end we may ask what we have gained at the end of all this stupendous labour. The object of physical Nature, the preservation of the mere physical life, its highest perfection, even in block would not be a synthesis, but certain sense the capacity of a confusiongreater enjoyment of physical living have been carried out on an abnormal scale. ….To know, be and possess But the Divine weakness of Hathayoga is that its laborious and difficult processes make so great a demand on the one thing needful time and it includes or leads up to all the rest; towards this sole good we have to drive energy and this attained, all impose so complete a severance from the rest ordinary life of men that the divine Will chooses utilisation of its results for the life of the world becomes either impracticable or is extraordinarily restricted. ...On the other hand the physical results, increased vitality, prolonged youth, health, longevity are of small avail if they must be held by usas misers of ourselves, apart from the common life, for their own sake, not utilised, not thrown into the common sum of the world's activities. Hathayoga attains large results, all necessary form but at an exorbitant price and manifestation, will be addedto very little purpose.<ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-synthesissystems-of-yoga#p10
</ref><center>~</center>Pranayam is safe only if one knows how to do it and is on guard against its possible dangers: (1) danger to health by mistakes in the method, (2) rising of the vital forces, especially lust, egoism and wrongly directed strength and force, (3) theawakening of concealed sanskaras of the physical nature or latent karma from past lives. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/sankhya-and-systemsyoga#p2
p18 </ref>

Perfection includes perfection =Comparison of mind and body, so that the highest results Hathayoga with Other Schools of Yoga===Rajayoga and Hathayoga should be contained in the widest formula of the synthesis finally to be effected by mankind. ...we would include in the scope of our liberated being and perfected modes of activity the material life, our base, and the mental life, our intermediate instrument. <ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-synthesis-of-the-systems#p18</ref>==

==Objects Rajayoga aims at the liberation and perfection not of Integral the bodily, but of the mental being, the control of the emotional and sensational life, the mastery of the whole apparatus of thought and consciousness. It fixes its eyes on the "citta", that stuff of mental consciousness in which all these activities arise, and it seeks, even as Hathayoga with its physical material, first to purify and to tranquillise. ...The preliminary movement of Rajayoga is a careful self-discipline by which good habits of mind are substituted for the lawless movements that indulge the lower nervous being. By the practice of truth, by renunciation of all forms of egoistic seeking, by abstention from injury to others, by purity, by constant meditation and inclination to the divine Purusha who is the true lord of the mental kingdom, a pure, glad, clear state of mind and heart is established. <ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-systems-of-yoga#p11</ref><center>~</center>Rajayoga also uses the Pranayama and for the same principal psychic purposes as the Hathayoga, but being in its whole principle a psychical system, it employs it only as one stage in the series of its practices and to a very limited extent, for three or four large utilities. It does not start with Asana and Pranayama, but insists first on a moral purification of the mentality. This preliminary is of supreme importance; without it the course of the rest of the Rajayoga is likely to be troubled, marred and full of unexpected mental, moral and physical perils. This moral purification is divided in the established system under two heads, five ''yamas'' and five ''niyamas''. ... ''Yama'' is, more largely, any self-discipline by which the rajasic egoism and its passions and desires in the human being are conquered and quieted into perfect cessation. The object is to create a moral calm, a void of the passions, and so prepare for the death of egoism in the rajasic human being. The ''niyamas'' are equally a discipline of the mind by regular practices of which the highest is meditation on the divine Being, and their object is to create a sattwic calm, purity and preparation for concentration upon which the secure pursuance of the rest of the Yoga==can be founded.<ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/rajayoga#p5
</ref><center>~</center>But Rajayoga does not forget that the disabilities of the ordinary mind proceed largely from its subjection to the reactions of the nervous system and the body. It adopts therefore from the Hathayogic system its devices of ''āsana'' and ''prāṇāyāma'', but reduces their multiple and elaborate forms in each case to one simplest and most directly effective process sufficient for its own immediate object. Thus it gets rid of the Hathayogic complexity and cumbrousness while it utilises the swift and powerful efficacy of its methods for the control of the body and the vital functions and for the awakening of that internal dynamism, full of a latent supernormal faculty, typified in Yogic terminology by the ''kuṇḍalinī'', the coiled and sleeping serpent of Energy within. This done, the system proceeds to the perfect quieting of the restless mind and its elevation to a higher plane through concentration of mental force by the successive stages which lead to the utmost inner concentration or ingathered state of the consciousness which is called Samadhi.<ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-systems-of-yoga#p12

</ref>

We perceive that as Hathayoga, dealing with the life and body, aims at the supernormal perfection of the physical life and its capacities and goes beyond it into the domain of the mental life, so Rajayoga, operating with the mind, aims at a supernormal perfection and enlargement of the capacities of the mental life and goes beyond it into the domain of the spiritual existence. ...Especially ===What is the spiritual life, in this system, too much associated with the state of Samadhi. Our object is to make the spiritual life and its experiences fully active and fully utilisable in the waking state and even in the normal use of the functions. <ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-systems-of-yoga#p14
</ref>?===

===The Principle Intimately connected with the aim of the Yoga of Knowledge which must always be the growth, the ascent or the withdrawal into a higher or a divine consciousness not now normal to us, is the importance attached to the phenomenon of Yogic trance, to Samadhi. It is supposed that there are states of being which can only be gained in trance; that especially is to be desired in which all action of awareness is abolished and there is no consciousness at all except the pure supramental immersion in immobile, timeless and infinite being. By passing away in this trance the soul departs into the silence of the highest Nirvana without possibility of return into any illusory or inferior state of existence. Samadhi is not so all-important in the Yoga of devotion, but it still has its place there as the swoon of being into which the ecstasy of divine love casts the soul. To enter into it is the supreme step of the ladder of Yogic practice in Rajayoga and Hathayoga. What then is the nature of Samadhi or the Integral utility of its trance in an integral Yoga===? It is evident that where our objective includes the possession of the Divine in life, a state of cessation of life cannot be the last consummating step or the highest desirable condition: Yogic trance cannot be an aim, as in so many Yogic systems, but only a means, and a means not of escape from the waking existence, but to enlarge and raise the whole seeing, living and active consciousness.<ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/samadhi#p1</ref>

Bhakti in itself is as wide as the heart-yearning of the soul for the Divine and as simple and straightforward as love and desire going straight towards their object. It cannot therefore be fixed down to any systematic method, cannot found itself on a psychological science like the Rajayoga, or a psycho-physical like the Hathayoga, or start from a definite intellectual process like the ordinary method of the Jnanayoga. ...the integral Yogamore intimate yoga of Bhakti resolves itself simply into these four movements, they are not indispensable; for here the reliance is on desire of the Soul when it turns towards God and the power straining of its emotion towards him, the higher being to change pain of love and the lower existencedivine return of love, a working is chosen mainly from above downward the delight of love possessed and not the opposite wayplay of that delight, and therefore the development eternal enjoyment of the divine Lover which is the heart of celestial bliss. These are things that are at once too simple and too profound for methodising or for analysis. One can at best only say, here are these four successive elements, steps, if we may so call them, of the superior power siddhi, and here are, largely, some of the gnosis will be awaited as means which it uses, and here again are some of the instrumentative change in this part aspects and experiences of the Yogasadhana of devotion.<ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-elementsway-of-perfectiondevotion#p1
</ref>==Integral Yoga==All Yoga is in its nature an attempt and an arriving at unity with the Supreme,—unity with the being of the Supreme, unity with the consciousness of the Supreme, unity with the bliss of the Supreme...To these two systems, to Rajayoga and Hathayoga, we may as well now turn; for in spite of the wide difference of their methods from that of the path of knowledge, they have this same principle as their final justification. At the same time, it will not be necessary for us to do more than regard the spirit of their gradations in passing; for in a synthetic and integral Yoga they take a secondary importance; their aims have indeed to be included, but their methods can either altogether be dispensed with or used only for a preliminary or else a casual assistance.<ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p5
p1</ref><center>~</center>Perfection [in Integral Yoga] includes perfection of mind and body, so that the highest results of Rajayoga and Hathayoga should be contained in the widest formula of the synthesis finally to be effected by mankind. At any rate a full development of the general mental and physical faculties and experiences attainable by humanity through Yoga must be included in the scope of the integral method. Nor would these have any ''raison d’être''unless employed for an integral mental and physical life. Such a mental and physical life would be in its nature a translation of the spiritual existence into its right mental and physical values. Thus we would arrive at a synthesis of the three degrees of Nature and of the three modes of human existence which she has evolved or is evolving. We would include in the scope of our liberated being and perfected modes of activity the material life, our base, and the mental life, our intermediate instrument.

…For Nor would the integrality to which we aspire be real or even possible, if it were confined to the individual. Since our divine perfection embraces the realisation of ourselves in being, in life and in love through others as well as through ourselves, the extension of our liberty and of its results in others would be the inevitable outcome as well as the broadest utility of our liberation and perfection. And the constant and inherent attempt of such an extension would be towards its increasing and ultimately complete generalisation in mankind. <ref>
https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/the-synthesis-of-the-systems#p18,p19</ref><center>~</center>Most of the physical siddhis acquired by certain Yogins are brought about by some opening up of the law of the subtle or a calling down of something of the law of the spiritual body. The ordinary method is the opening up of the ''cakras'' by the physical processes of Hathayoga (of which something is also included in the Rajayoga) or by the methods of the Tantric discipline. But while these may be optionally used at certain stages by the integral Yoga, they are not indispensable; for here the reliance is on the power of the higher being to change the lower existence, a working is chosen mainly from above downward and not the opposite way, and therefore the development of the superior power of the gnosis will be awaited as the instrumentative change in this part of the Yoga. <ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-elements-of-perfection#p5
</ref><center>~</center>On the whole, for an integral Yoga the special methods of Rajayoga and Hathayoga may be useful at times in certain stages of the progress, but are not indispensable. It is true that their principal aims must be included in the integrality of the Yoga; but they can be brought about by other means. For the methods of the integral Yoga must be mainly spiritual, and dependence on physical methods or fixed psychic or psycho-physical processes on a large scale would be the substitution of a lower for a higher action.

<center>~</center>...then followed an era In Hathayoga and in the various attempts at divinisation of the development body there is also a line of philosophies and Yoga processes endeavour which more and more used attempted to arrive at the same achievement with regard to living matter; but this still awaits the discovery of the emotional true characteristic method and aesthetic being as power of spirit in the means of spiritual realisation …body.We may say therefore that the universal Consciousness after its descent into Matter has conducted the evolution there along two lines, one of ascent to the discovery of the self and spirit, the other of descent through the already evolved levels of mind, life and body so as to bring down the spiritual consciousness into these also and to fulfil thereby some secret intention in the creation of the material universe. Our Yoga is in its principle a taking up and summarising and completing of this process, an endeavour to rise to the highest possible supramental level and bring down its consciousness and powers into mind, life and body.

<center>~</center>This It is the universal Prana, as the ancients knew, which in various forms sustains or drives material energy will not be in its essence an outwardall physical things from the electron and atom and gas up through the metal, plant, animal, physical man. To get this pranic shakti to act more freely and forcibly in the body is knowingly or unknowingly the attempt of all who strive for a greater perfection of or muscular strengthin the body. The ordinary man tries to command it mechanically by physical exercises and other corporeal means, the Hathayogin more greatly and flexibly, but still mechanically by Asana and Pranayama; but will for our purpose it can be of the naturecommanded by more subtle, essential and pliable means; first, of an unbounded life-power or by a will in the mind widely opening itself to and potently calling in the universal pranic force, shakti on which we draw and fixing its stronger presence and more powerful working in the body; secondly, sustaining by the will in the mind opening itself rather to the spirit and its power and using this calling in a higher pranic energyfrom above, a superior or supreme supramental pranic force; thirdly, the last step, by the highest supramental will-power acting in of the spirit entering and taking up directly the task of the perfection of the body. ...when we go higherIn fact, it is always really a will within which drives and makes effective the relation is gradually reversedpranic instrument even when it uses what seem to be purely physical means; but at first it is then able to act in its own power or handle dependent on the rest only as a subordinate instrumentationinferior action.

...In our Yoga it is not a specialised process, but a spontaneous uprush of the whole lower consciousness sometimes in currents or waves, sometimes in a less concrete motion, and =More on the other side a descent of the Divine Consciousness and its Force into the body. This descent is felt as a pouring in of calm and peace, of force and power, of light, of joy and ecstasy, of pure wideness and freedom Physical Education and knowledge, of a Divine Being or a Presence—sometimes one of these, sometimes several of them or all together. ...Once this descent becomes habitual, the Divine Force, the Power of the Mother begins to work, no longer from above only or from behind the veil, but consciously in the Adhara itself, and deals with its difficulties and possibilities and carries on the Yoga. <ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/30/the-inward-movement#p17</ref>Hathayoga =

===Individual to Universalisation=== ...Pranayama and other physical practices like asana do not necessarily root out sexual desire—sometimes by increasing enormously the vital force in the body they can even exaggerate in a rather startling way the equilibrium established by Nature is sufficient for force too of the normal egoistic life; it is insufficient for sexual tendency, which, being at the purpose base of the Hathayoginphysical life, is always difficult to conquer. ...Hathayoga therefore seeks The one thing to do is to separate oneself from these movements, to rectify Nature find one’s inner self and establish another equilibrium by which the physical frame live in it; these movements will be able not then any longer appear as belonging to sustain oneself but as surface impositions of the outer Prakriti upon the inrush of an increasing vital inner self or Purusha. They can then be more easily discarded or dynamic force of Prana indefinite, almost infinite brought to nothing. <ref>
http://incarnateword.in its quantity or intensity/cwsa/31/sex#p95
</ref><center>~</center>. ..if a posture is necessary for you, it will come by itself.in HathayogaAnd it’s perfectly true, for instance, that when necessary, the equilibrium opens a door to body will suddenly sit up straight—it comes spontaneously. As he said, the universalisation of important thing is not the individual vitality by admitting into external frame but the bodyinner experience, containing, using and controlling if there is a much less fixed physical necessity and limited action your inner experience is entirely sincere, that physical necessity will come ALL BY ITSELF. ...Consequently, all those stories of posture and so on are the petty mechanical bounds of the universal energyhuman mind.<ref>
httphttp://incarnateword.in/cwsaagenda/2304/themay-systems11-of-yoga1963#p8
p31</ref><center>~</center>...in Yoga The sitting motionless posture is the process is spiritual natural posture for concentrated meditation—walking and psychic; even its vital and physical processes standing are given a spiritual or psychic turn active conditions suited for the dispense of energy and raised to a higher motion than belongs properly to the ordinary life activity of the mind. It is only when one has gained the enduring rest and Matter, as for instance in passivity of the Hathayogic consciousness that it is easy to concentrate and Rajayogic use receive when walking or doing anything. A fundamental passive condition of the breathing or consciousness gathered into itself is the proper poise for concentration and a seated gathered immobility in the body is the use of Asanabest for that. It can be done also lying down, but that position is too passive, tending to be inert rather than gathered.This is the reason why Yogis always sit in an asana.One can accustom oneself to meditate walking, standing, lying, but sitting is the first natural position.this we shall have to do <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/29/concentration-and-meditation#p61</ref><center>~</center>''Q. Should a girl participate in her normal programme of Physical Education during her periods?'' ''A:''Certainly if our aim she is accustomed to transform physical exercise, she must not stop because of that. If one keeps the human into the divine habit of leading one’s normal life. …the lower perfection will always, very soon one does not disappear; it will remain but will be enlarged and transformed by even notice the higher perfection which only the power presence of the spirit can givemenses. <ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/cwm/0912/24to-aprilwomen-1957about-their-body#p2p30,p31</ref> =More on Physical Culture and Hathayoga=<center>~</center>

Pranayama and other physical practices like asana do not necessarily root out sexual desire— ...The one thing <center>What better offering can we make to do is to separate oneself from these movementsthe Divine, than to find one's inner self and live in it; these movements will not then any longer appear as belonging to oneself but as surface impositions offer the skill of the outer Prakriti upon the inner self or Purusha. They can then be more easily discarded or brought to nothing.<ref>
http://incarnateword.in/cwsa/31/sex#p95
</ref>our growing bodies?

Psychology: that's abstract. Even yoga boils down to: he sat down and stayed there for so many hoursLet us offer our efforts towards perfection, he had this vision, he tried out that method, he did asanas and breathing exercises... That, physical education will take for them, is concrete. That us a new meaning and that alone. Psychology is thoroughly abstract—thoroughly. It's unreal to them.<ref>http://incarnateworda greater value.in/agenda/03/july-31-1962#p13</ref>

...Fortunately, I lived with Sri Aurobindo, who never used to sit cross-legged. He told me right away that it was all a question of habits—subconscious habits. It has no importance whatsoever. And how well he explained: if a posture The world is necessary preparing for youa new creation, let us help through physical education, it will come by itself. And it's perfectly true, for instance, that when necessary, the body will suddenly sit up straight—it comes spontaneously. As he said, the important thing is not the external frame but the inner experiencemaking our bodies stronger, more receptive and if there is a physical necessity and your inner experience is entirely sincere, that physical necessity will come "ALL BY ITSELF." This is something I am absolutely sure of... Consequentlymore plastic, all those stories of posture and so on are the petty mechanical bounds of the human mindway to physical transformation.<ref>httphttps://incarnateword.in/agendacwm/0412/maymessages-11for-1963competitions#p31p49,p50,p51</ref></center>