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<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><b>
<span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:
line'><font size="4">PART ONE</font></span></b></p>
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<h1 align=center style='line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><b>
<span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><font size="4">A Yoga of the Art of Lift</font></span></b><i><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;
layout-grid-mode:line'><o:p><font size="4">&nbsp;</font></o:p></span></i></h1>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>1<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>W</span><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>HEN</span><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:
line'> Sri Aurobindo said, &quot;Our Yoga is not for ourselves but for
humanity,&quot; many heaved a sigh of relief and thought that the great soul
was after all not entirely lost to the world, his was not one more name added
to the long list of Sannyasins that India has been producing age after age
without much profit either to herself or to the human society (or even perhaps
to their own selves). People understood his Yoga to be a modern one, dedicated
to the service of humanity. If service to humanity was not the very sum and
substance of his spiritual­ity, it was, at least, the fruitful end and
consummation. His Yoga was a sort of art to explore and harness certain unseen
powers that can better and ameliorate human life in a more suc­cessful way than
mere rational scientific methods can hope to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>Sri Aurobindo saw that the very
core of his teaching was being missed by this common interpretation of his
saying. So he changed his words and said, &quot;Our Yoga is not for humanity
but for the Divine.&quot; But I am afraid this change of front, this
volte-face, as it seemed, was not welcomed in many quarters; for thereby all
hope of having him back for the work of the country or the world appeared to be
totally lost and he came to be looked upon again as an irrevocable
&quot;metaphysical&quot; dreamer, aloof from physical things and barren, even
like the Immutable Brahman.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.2pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:10.05pt; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>2</span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:10.05pt; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&nbsp;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;tab-stops:10.05pt; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:
EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>In order to get a nearer approach to the ideal for
which Sri Aurobindo has been labouring, we may combine with</span></p>
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solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:10.05pt;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;
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<span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp;</span>Page-3<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:
EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>advantage the two mottoes he has given us and say
that his mission is to find and express the Divine in humanity. This is the
service he means to render to humanity, viz, to manifest and embody in it the
Divine: his goal is not merely an amelio­ration, but a total change and
transformation, the divinisation of human life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>Here also one must guard against
certain misconceptions that are likely to occur. The transformation of human
life does not necessarily mean that the entire humanity will be changed into a
race of gods or divine beings; it means the evolution or appearance on earth of
a superior type of human­ity, even as man evolved out of animality as a
superior type of animality, not that the entire animal kingdom was changed into
humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.7pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>As regards the possibility of
such a consummation, – Sri Aurobindo says it is not a possibility but an
inevitability – ­one must remember that the force that will bring about the
result and is already at work is not any individual human power, however great
it may be, but the Divine himself, it is the Divine's own Shakti that is
labouring for the destined end.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<div style='border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent style='text-align:justify;text-indent:12.45pt;
mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;text-autospace:ideograph-other;border:medium none;
mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:
line'>Here is the very heart of the mystery, the master-key to the problem. The
advent of the superhuman or divine race, however stupendous or miraculous the
phenomenon may appear to be, can become a thing of practical actuality,
precisely because it is no human agency that has undertaken it but the Divine
himself in his supreme potency and wisdom and love. The descent of the Divine
into the ordinary human nature in order to purify and transform it and be
lodged there is the whole secret of the sadhana in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga. The
sadhaka has only to be quiet and silent, calmly aspiring, open and acquiescent
and receptive to the one Force; he need not and should not try to do things by
his independent personal effort, but get them done or let them be done for him
in the dedicated consciousness by the Divine Master and Guide. All other Yogas
or spiritual disciplines in the past envisaged an ascent of the consciousness,
its sublimation into the consciousness of the Spirit and its fusion and
dissolution there in the end. The descent of the Divine Consciousness to
prepare its definitive home in the dynamic and pragmatic human nature, if
considered at all, was not the main theme</span><span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-indent:12.45pt;
line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;
padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>Page-4<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:
EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>of the past efforts and achievements. Furthermore,
the descent spoken of here is the descent, not of a divine consciousness – ­for
there are many varieties of divine consciousness – but of the Divine's own
consciousness, of the Divine himself with his Shakti. For it is that that is
directly working out this evolu­tionary transformation of the age.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:
EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp;</span><span
style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>It is not my purpose here to enter
into details as to the exact meaning of the descent, how it happens and what
are its lines of activity and the results brought about. For it is indeed an
actual descent that happens: the Divine Light leans down first into the mind
and begins its purificatory work there­ although it is always the inner heart
which first recognises the Divine Presence and gives its assent to the Divine
action-for the mind, the higher mind that is to say, is the summit of the
ordinary human consciousness and receives more easily and readily the Radiances
that descend. From the Mind the Light filters into the denser regions of the
emotions and desires, of life activity and vital dynamism; finally, it gets
into brute Matter itself, the hard and obscure rock of the physical body, for
that too has to be illumined and made the very form and figure of the Light
supernal. The Divine in his descending Grace is the Master-Architect who is
building slowly and surely the many-chambered and many-storeyed edifice that is
human nature and human life into the mould of the Divine Truth in its perfect
play and supreme expression. But this is a matter which can be closely
considered when one is already well within the mystery of the path and has
acquired the elementary essentials of an initiate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:
EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>&nbsp;</span><span
style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Another question that troubles and
perplexes the ordinary human mind is as to the time when the thing will be
done. Is it now or a millennium hence or at some astronomical distance in
future, like the cooling of the sun, as someone has suggested for an analogy.
In view of the magnitude of the work one might with reason say that the whole
eternity is there before us, and a century or even a millennium should not be
grudged to such a labour – for it is nothing less than an undoing of untold
millenniums in the past and the building of a far-flung futurity. However, as
we have said, since it is the Divine's own work and since Yoga means a
concentrated and involved process of action, effectuating in a minute what<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

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solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;
padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>Page-5<o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:
EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>would perhaps take years to accomplish in the
natural course, one can expect the work to be done sooner rather than later.
Indeed, the ideal is one of here and now – here upon this earth of material
existence and now in this life, in this very body – not hereafter or elsewhere.
How long exactly that will mean, depends on many factors, but a few decades on
this side or the other do not matter very much.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>As to the extent of realisation,
we say again that that is not a matter of primary consideration. It is not the
quantity but the substance that counts. Even if it were a small nucleus it
would be sufficient, at least for the beginning, provided it is the real, the
genuine thing­ </span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;
layout-grid-mode:line'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;
layout-grid-mode:line'>Swalpamapyasya dharmasya trayate mahato bhayat¹<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;
layout-grid-mode:line'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent3 style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><span lang=EN-GB style='layout-grid-mode:line'>Now,
if it is asked what is the proof of it all, how can one be sure that one is not
running after a mirage, a chimera? We can only answer with the adage; the proof
of the pudding is in the eating thereof.</span><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent3 style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0">&nbsp;</p>

<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent2 align=center style='text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='layout-grid-mode:line'>3</span></p>
<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent2 align=center style='text-align:center; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&nbsp;</p>

<p class=MsoBodyTextIndent2 style='text-align:justify; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB
style='layout-grid-mode:line'>I have a word to add finally in justification of
the title of this essay. For, it may be asked, how can spirituality be con­sidered
as one of the Arts or given an honourable place in their domain?<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>From a certain point of view,
from the point of view of essentials and inner realities, it would appear that
spirituality is, at least, the basis of the arts, if not the highest art. If
art is meant to express the soul of things, and since the true soul of things
is the divine element in them, then certainly spiritual­ity, the discipline of
coming in conscious contact with the Spirit, the Divine, must be accorded the
regal seat in the hierarchy of the arts. Also, spirituality is the greatest and
the most difficult of the arts; for it is the art of life. To make of life a
perfect work of beauty, pure in its lines, faultless in its rhythm, replete
with strength, iridescent: with light, vibrant with delight-an embodiment of
the Divine, in a word-is <span style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.75pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&nbsp;</p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;tab-stops:12.45pt 195.8pt; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;
layout-grid-mode:line'><font size="2">¹ The Gita, II. 40</font><o:p></o:p></span></p>

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solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:12.45pt 195.8pt;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>Page-6</span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;
layout-grid-mode:line'>the highest ideal of spirituality; viewed – the
spirituality that Sri Aurobindo practises – is the <i>ne </i>plus ultra of artistic
creation.</span><i><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&nbsp;</p>

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solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

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<span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;layout-grid-mode:line'>Page-7</span><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;
layout-grid-mode:line'><o:p></o:p></span></p>

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