The Lord of the Gita hints about His past incarnations before the beginning of creation or as hinted in Savitri, He was ‘older than the birth of Time’⁹ and during this period He gave the imperishable, highest, royal synthetic Yoga to Sun God, Vivasvan. Vivasvan gave it to Manu,the father of men or as hinted in Savitri, ‘first man’¹⁰ of creation. Manu gave it to Ikshvaku, the head of the Solar line and the first King of solar race. Thus, it came down from royal Sage to royal Sage till it was lost in the great lapse of Time. This same, ancient and original reconciling Yogic path was declared again to Arjuna by Lord Sri Krishna in the war field of Kurukshetra. Now this truth of ‘the largest development in shortest possible path’ or highest secret of Purushottama Consciousness, its dynamic state, Para-prakriti, and a supreme relation between dual Godhead, Paramatma and Para-prakriti is again revealed ⁵ to Sri Aurobindo in the book ‘Essays on the Gita’ and subsequently in the book ‘The Synthesis of Yoga.’

               Essays on the Gita gives the message of rending ²⁷ the veil between mind and preliminary stairs of Supermind by long movement of Cosmic Consciousness through realisation of this existence as the body of the Divine, Vasudeva sarvamiti¹¹ and to live in the world with the sense of oneness with all existence, ekatvamasthitah,⁵ oneness in every separate being,ekatvena prithaktvena,²⁶ and without separation from the transcendent Divine, mayi nivasisyasi.⁸ Thus a Spiritual man pauses at the border of Overmind or preliminary Supramental Consciousness; he is having three qualities of oneness, harmony and order that predominate his frontal surface Nature. This is Sri Aurobindo’s state of Consciousness at Alipore Jail and beginning of His decisive Spiritual life.

               Ordering of creation through largescale destruction²⁵ of all that are Soul slaying truth, nasana atmanah,¹⁷transitory, anityam,¹⁸ unproductive, klaibyam,¹⁹unrighteousness, adharmam,²⁰ corrupt, produsyanti,²¹evil, anistam,²²unjust, asatyam,²³divisible, vibhaktam,²⁴ and narrow, khudram,¹⁹ is identified as extension of Supramental action.¹² Thus, the existence moves ahead towards manifestation of new Consciousness and the Divine is a hierarchy of affirmative energies by whose activation mankind can move towards a superior existence and Divine life. In this occasion the Lord has manifested here as the Time, the Destroyer for creation, ceaseless action and preservation of His existence. The Spiritual significance of the Gita is immense as its Divine is both manifest, saguna and unmanifest, nirguna, and beyond both, THAT, Tat, and thus leading the creation towards the complete Divine union.

               The Gita is a synthesis of six mutually antagonist schools of ancient teachings that of Mimamsa, Vedanta, Vaisesika, Nyaya, Sankhya and Yoga. Mimamsa is specialised and narrow form of Yoga in which Vedic sacrifice offered with desire, ritualised work and knowledge of gods are accepted as means of salvation. It also accepts fruits of enjoyment and lordship in earth, heaven and the world in between them. In the Vedanta, the above approach is accepted as preliminary state of ignorance and they are in the end either transcended or renounced as obstacle to the seeker of liberation; the Vedic worship of gods are accepted by Vedantist as material and mental powers, who do not desire man to be free and oppose the principles of liberation; thus the Vedanta perceived Divine as Immutable Self, Paramatma, who has to be attained not by sacrificial work and adoration but by knowledge. Vaisesika, gives importance to the Vedantic liberation in addition to the exploration of nature of the nine eternal substances that of air, fire, water, earth, mind, ether, time, space and soul, of which the first five including mind are recognised as atomic. Nyaya, the Science of logic, is an extension of the Vaisesika, in which the multiple subtle worlds beyond the material world are identified, which are the source and creator of the material principles. Sankhya accepts Divine as inactive and immutable Purusha and makes an opposition between the static state of Purusha, akarta and the dynamic state of Prakriti, kartri, and hence Sankya liberation culminates with the cessation of all works. This Sankhya doctrinecreated the world by double principles of (many) Purusha and (single) Prakriti, which is a valid and practical knowledge in the lower hemisphere but not the all truth and highest truth of existence. Yoga accepts the notion of the Divine as Ishwara, who is the Lord of Shakti and active Prakriti; hence its liberation is not the cessation of work and freedom of Soul is realised even though involved in all works. Thus liberation of Soul is compatible with world action, sarvabhuta hiteratah, ‘is not inconsistent with living in Brahman’¹⁴ and it is through desireless sacrificial action, the Kshara Purusha in the heart (which is all existence, sarva bhutani)is united with Akshara Purusha above the head (which sees Divine everywhere, mam pasyati sarvatra) and it introduces the best standard of Karma Yoga ‘laid down for all time’²⁹ for the whole of humanity of doing all works from a glad, unattached, free and liberated Soul state with the knowledge of Wheel of Works. The Vedanta and Sankhya give the message of absolute calm, seclusion and cessation of work as indispensable to attain Knowledge and state of Samadhi. They suffer the disadvantage that universalisation of their teachings of saintly inactivity will lead towards world dissolution and destructions, upahanyam.¹ A physical abstention of work is identified as a dangerous proposition, ‘for it exerts a misleading influence on ordinary men.’⁴ The Gita does not synthesise the teaching of the Hatha and Raja Yoga like the synthetic teachings of the more powerful Tantra, but a passing reference is made about their concentration on physical, vital and mental perfection. Buddhism and Illusionist Mayavada are the later developments of Religious Schools in which the former rejected the World, the Self and the Divine as illusion and accepted a Divine discipline of action and devotion in the form of universal love and fathomless compassion and the latter developed intolerance towards action, accepted Divine as real by exclusion of the illusory world. The Mahayanist Buddhism is largely influenced by the message of the Gita and transformed its original school of quietistic and illuminated ascetic trend into ‘religion of meditative devotion and compassionate action.’⁶ It bridged the gulf between high Nirvanic state of absolute impersonality and dynamic possibilities of life and action. The later school of Vaishnava Bhakti movement is an exclusive absorption in some Divine Personality and Divine value of His manifestation to the exclusion of Divine Impersonality.

               These ancient and later Vedantic Teachings either lead to the impersonal form of Brahman, nirguna Brahman or to the personal form of Deity, saguna Brahman or to the liberation in actionless knowledge of deep Samadhi or to the liberation absorbed in highest Delight of Turiya. The Gita claims its teachings superior to all other forms of ancient Yoga by raising the Consciousness to a plane called all-inclusive Purushottama statewhere the limitation, rigidity and partial truth of all other exclusive Yogic paths are corrected, broadened and united, all the powers of Being are directed Godward, reconciled Divine Knowledge, Action and Ecstasy, and widened by complete self-absorption in the Eternal and perfect Divine union by identity.

               The Gita has attempted to preserve the balance of the six ancient doctrines, maintains the essential foundation of original synthesis but the form, combinations and terminologies have changed and restated in the light of the developed new Spiritual experiences. Thus, through firm subtlety and high courage it opens the gate of unexplored planes and powers of Nature and Soul in universalised Consciousness and knowledge of the Eternal Source from whom one comes and by whom he lives. It has the high role of liberating humanity. In a Spiritualised World the sense-enjoyment is changed into Soul-enjoyment. This is extended in integral Yoga in transforming humanity, prakritijairmuktam,³ where Soul’s ecstatic oneness with the Divine extended towards the race is complemented by Subliminal, Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental sense enjoyments leading the creation towards permanent descent and the full possession of Sachchidananda Consciousness.

               The difference between ancient Shastras and the integral Shastra is that truth, vision and Spiritual experiences hinted in the former are vividly experienced in the latter. The integral Yoga gives this message that the supreme mystery hinted in the Gita, the Upanishad and the Veda but never developed is its one of the principal motives to uncover which is the quest for double immortality of Soul and Nature and quadruple perfection of Soul, Nature, Life and Consciousness that will come in stages and as hinted by the Mother, which ‘will stretch over thousands of years.’²

               A traditional Sadhaka, after realisation of Kshara, Akshara and Purushottama consciousness feels that this realisation cannot be reconciled⁷ with untransformed nature of three Gunas. So, he has no unfinished task left and hence enjoys the Spirit’s ecstatic state, concentrates on the issue of freedom from rebirth and escapes into supreme abode of param dham through the passage of Purushottama state. Or he will prefer to live in the Supramental Centre above the head and utilises this Centre as passage of escape into final destination of Param Dham. In integral Yoga, after realisation of Kshara, Akshara and Purushottama consciousness or after realisation Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Being, a Sadhaka’s difficult task begins of reconciling static Matter with dynamic Spirit and thus Divine Shakti consciously pours into the material vessel. He will not settle back to enjoy the delight and fruit of his Spiritual achievement rather he identifies himself with world problem and world suffering through activation of universal Self. His Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental purification, transformation and perfection resume action from firmly established Psychic heart centre and from firmly established Karma Yoga where Divine Will, Knowledge and Love are perfectly reconciled. He will initially learn the lesson to move the consciousness ceaselessly between Psychic and Spiritual Being superseding his earlier movement limiting to three modes of Nature, gunas, and finally learns the lesson to move the Consciousness between Bliss Self and Inconscient Self. ²⁸ He will call down the Supreme Mother and Supreme Purusha into his Psychic heart centre and utilises this centre as meeting point of dual Godhead and activation of the corresponding Supramental energy. The double sincerity, dvibidha nistha,¹⁵ with which the Gita proposes to begin Yoga of Works and Knowledge simultaneously is transformed in integral Yoga into multiple sincerity or integral sincerity where Yoga proceeds ahead with triple wheel of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga and culminates with the aid and movement of fourth wheel, known as Yoga of Self-perfection. 

               This book is a preparation to glimpse a far greater Light, a means to begin the eternal unfolding of the Truth and an offering of love, service and gratitude to the Divine by desiring nothing from Him and His creation in return, , anapekhyah.¹³

References:

1: The Gita-3.24,
2: The Mother’s Agenda-4/101,
3: The Gita-18.40,
4: CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-588,
5: “It is like the message of the Gita as Sri Aurobindo explained it: not overmental, but Supramental. It is Oneness, the experience of Oneness.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-3/355, “The Yogin who has taken his stand upon Oneness, ekatvamasthitah, and loves Me in all beings, however and in all ways he lives and acts, lives and acts in Me.” The Gita-6.31, “Oneness with God, oneness with all beings, the realisation of the eternal divine unity everywhere and the drawing onwards of men towards that oneness are the law of life which arises from the teachings of the Gita.” CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-210CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-588,
6: CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-86,
7: “They who with the eye of knowledge perceive this irreconcilable difference, antaram, between the Field and the knower of the Field, and the liberation of the Purusha from Prakriti, they attain to the Supreme state and they shall not be born again.” The Gita-13.24, 35,
8: The Gita-12.8,
9: Savitri-537,
10: “For we were man and woman from the first,” Savitri-614,
“For I (Savitri) who have trod with him (Satyavan) the tracts of (all) Time,” (from the beginning of the creation.) Savitri-590,
According to Matsya Purana, sage Manu is the first man created by God. ,
11: The Gita-7.19,
12: “Because the Truth is supremely destructive of Falsehood and ill will; were It to act at once on the world as it is, little of it would remain…. It is patiently preparing its advent.” The Mother/ The Mother’s Agenda/7/265,
13: “He who expects nothing, is pure, skilful, indifferent, untroubled, who has given up all initiative, is dear to Me.” The Gita-12.16 ,
14: CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-237,
15: The Gita-3.3,
16: “To arrive by the shortest way at the largest development of spiritual power and being and divinise by it a liberated nature in the whole range of human living is our inspiring motive.”CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-612-13,
17: The Gita-16.21,
18: The Gita-9.33,
19: The Gita-2.3,
20: The Gita-1.40, 18.31,
21: The Gita-1.41,
22: The Gita-18.12,
23: The Gita-16.8,
24: The Gita-13.16,
25: “This world of our battle and labour is a fierce dangerous destructive devouring world in which life exists precariously and the soul and body of man move among enormous perils, a world in which by every step forward, whether we will it or no, something is crushed and broken, in which every breath of life is a breath too of death. To put away the responsibility for all that seems to us evil or terrible on the shoulders of a semi-omnipotent Devil, or to put it aside as part of Nature, making an unbridgeable opposition between world-nature and God-Nature, as if Nature were independent of God, or to throw the responsibility on man and his sins, as if he had a preponderant voice in the making of this world or could create anything against the will of God, are clumsily comfortable devices in which the religious thought of India has never taken refuge. We have to look courageously in the face of the reality and see that it is God and none else who has made this world in his being and that so he has made it. We have to see that Nature devouring her children, Time eating up the lives of creatures, Death universal and ineluctable and the violence of the Rudra forces in man and Nature are also the supreme Godhead in one of his cosmic figures.” CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-381-82,
26: Others also seek Me out by the sacrifice of knowledge and worship Me in My Oneness in every separate being and in all My million universal faces...” The Gita-9.15,
27: “Rent man’s horizons into infinity.”Savitri-359,
“To rend the veil of the last mysteries.” Savitri-360,
28: “He (King Aswapati) had reached the top of all that can be known:
His sight surpassed creation’s head (Bliss Self) and base (Inconscient Self);
Ablaze the triple heavens (Sachchidananda) revealed their (triple) suns,The obscure Abyss (Inconscient Sheath) exposed its monstrous rule.”,
29: “The greatest gospel of spiritual works ever yet given to the race, the most perfect system of Karmayoga known to man in the past, is to be found in the Bhagavad Gita. In that famous episode of the Mahabharata the great basic lines of Karmayoga are laid down for all time with an incomparable mastery and the infallible eye of an assured experience.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-94.