Sri Aurobindo, Jung and Vedic Yoga

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Sri Aurobindo, Jung And Vedic Yoga is a product of the authors keen study and contemplation extending over four decades. It embodies his deep philosophical insight, keen psychological acumen and profound Vedic scholarship. It is a study in the structure, nature and content of the human psyche approached from three such diverse angles as yogic sadhana, psychological experimentation and Vedic revelation. Placed as they are so distantly in terms of space as the East and the West and in terms of time as the ancient past and the contemporary present, the three sources, though dealing preeminently with one and the same central theme, namely the human psyche are supposed to differ from one another to an appalling extent. With this point of challenge in mind the present author has worked out his way in such a penetrating manner and with such an objectivity that most of such presumptions have got falisified on evidence, leaving thus the way to re-emergence of the human psyche in all its non-spatio-temporal immensity and purity. The study is rewarding inasmuch as it gives an inkling from different angles into the phenomenology of the collective unconscious, the subliminal and the caves of panis, the archetype and the gods, the self and the Atman, besides the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious. Vedic yoga is a very special feature of the book worked out in contravention of the entire spectrum of misunderstandings created by hasty generalisations regarding Veda, the paramount basis of Indian culture and ethos.

Professor Satya Prakash Singh is a renowned Vedic scholar. He is a Ph.D. of the Banaras Hindu University and D.Litt. of the Aligarh Muslim University; former Chairman of the Department of Sanskrit and Dean, Faculty of Arts, Aligarh Muslim University. He has been an Editorial Fellow in the Centre for Studies in Civilisations, New Delhi also Director of Dharam Hinduja International Centre of Indic Research in Delhi and Director of Vedic Research Centre in New Delhi. He is the recipient of a number of prestigious awards including Ganganath Jha Award of the Uttar Pradesh Sanskrit Academy, Rajaji Literary Award of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Swami Pranavananda Best Book of the Year Award in Psychology, Banbhaṭṭa Puraskāra of Sanskrit Academy, Uttar Pradesh, besides President of Indias Award of Scholar of Eminence.

His publications include: 1. Sri Aurobindo and Whitehead on the Nature of God, 2. Sri Aurobindo, Jung and Vedic Yoga, 3.Upanisadic Symbolism, 4. Vedic Symbolism, 5.Life and Vision of Vedic Seers: Visvamitra, 6. Life and Vision of Vedic Seers: Dirghatamas, 7. Vedic Vision of Consciousness and Reality. 8. Yoga From Confusion to Clarity (5 Volumes); 9. History of Yoga; 10. Life And Vision of Vedic Seer: Kavaşa Ailuşa; 11. Life And Vision of Vedic Seer: Dadhyan; 12.English Translation of Maheśvaranandas Mahārtha- mañjarī; 13. English Translation of Abhinavaguptas Śrī Tantraloka and Other Minor Works (9 volumes).

I got involved in the central idea of the present work sometime in the late fifties of the last century. Obviously it involves a three-pronged approach to what undoubtedly is the most fascinating area of human understanding, namely the human psyche in its structure as also in its manifestation. While Jung is the most far- reaching amongst the psychologists of depth, I consider Sri Aurobindo as most profound amongst all the modern thinkers of spiritual orientation. But the perspectives from which they have viewed the human psyche are poles apart from each other's. Herein lies the point of fascination in bringing them together in this study. Reconciliation between them is expected to have the prospect of restoring the integrality of the human psyche torn between the evolutionary view of things on the one side and the spiritual values of life on the other.

Addition of the Vedic perspective to this polarity of views amounts to introducing the third dimension to a surface of sheer length and breadth. With this addition while the depth psychology gains in further depth, spirituality gets enlarged in the historical perspective, bringing thus Jung closer to spirituality and Sri Aurobindo.

For me, however, this interface of the three perspectives of the human understanding han additional significance. It lies in the creation of a situation of better understanding of the classic par excellence as the Veda evidently is. While a review of it from the Jungian perspective adds to the feasibility of its psychological content, the same from the Aurobindonian perspective unfolds the treasure of spiritual knowledge embodied in it. This is by no means a small objective. It can go a long way in safeguarding the classic from the superficialities of interpretation it has been subjected to particularly in the modern age.

The concluding Chapter on Vedic Yoga is a special feature of the work. The tradition has always considered the Veda as a book of knowledge revealed to seers through divine agency. This traditional view no doubt adds considerably to the authenticity and credibility of the knowledge contained in the Veda. But the role of the seers themselves in the reception of the revelation has not been taken care of so far in the measure it really deserves. This point has been taken up seriously in the chapter concerned and attempt has been made to retrace the particular yogic paths the seers might have traversed prior to coming to the point of revelation. Veda being the richest treasure of revelatory knowledge along with indications to the path of revelation, reconstruction of the path on the basis of the data supplied by it, is obviously a task of great significance.

Cawitzerland. His father was a parson having moderate income. He was modest by temperament. As against it, his mother was a lady of strong will. Due to estranged relations between father and the mother in his early childhood, Jung was left for some months solely to the care of his father. Being the only child in the family by that time, he grew in isolation. This was conducive to self- contemplation. In his fourth year, Jung had an important dream which admittedly occupied him all his life and served as the foundation of his psychology.¹

In the eleventh year he was sent to the Gymnasium in Basal. The school was a source of boredom to him. Divinity and mathematics classes appeared to him horrible. Gymnastics also was not liked by him. But he was in the habit of reading "every scrap of printed matter" that fell into his hands. After a year or so, he was involved in a small but significant incident. While waiting for a classmate, he was pushed suddenly by another one. Consequently, he fell down on the ground and became unconscious. Having regained consciousness, he found consolation in the idea that he would not have to go to school any more. From that moment onward whenever he had to go to school or was asked by his parents to do homework, he would have fainting spell. Despite being treated variously, he could not get rid of the malady. But, in course of time, having felt the intensity of the worry his father had on account of his illness, young Jung made up his mind to do his work resolutely, notwithstanding the fear of fits. Weathering as many as three fits in a single sitting and yet remaining persistent in his work, he ultimately got rid of them for ever. This incident gave Jung a practical lesson in what he later on came to know as neurosis.

When he left the school and was called upon to choose his profession, the decision in favour of medicine also was prompted through a dream. As a result, he joined the University of Basel. Due to sad demise of his father in 1896, he had the problem of finance and studies. He got a part of it as help from his uncle and the rest he earned by "helping an aged aunt dispose off her small collection of antiques". He sold the collection piece by piece and "received a very welcome percentage."

**Contents and Sample Pages**