The Means of Focus and Receptivity in the Integral Yoga

The human instrument is essentially a receiver. Through the various energy centres, vibrational patterns are picked up. Most of what is received is not consciously attended to, but it has its subtle impact. The human being is able to respond to a limited range of vibrations on the electro-magnetic spectrum. Vibrations above and vibrations below our normal range of response are active but we do not consciously attend to them and their impact is relatively minor if they cannot set up a corresponding vibratory pattern through any of our energy centres. The small percentage of impulses that are attended to are then reviewed by the conscious awareness, analysed, classified, stored and responded to. If we shift our attention from one of the subtle energy centers (chakras) or another, we respond actively to whatever forces or energetic influences are active there at the moment.

For the practitioner of the integral yoga, this background helps to orient the seeker to the general idea and method for opening to the greater knowledge, power and bliss that can come with the shift of attention and the corresponding reception of the forces active there. Traditionally seekers are advised to concentrate behind the heart for access to the psychic center and the aspirational and devotional energies that are received there; or else, between the eyebrows at the traditional locus of the Ajna Chakra, the chakra of knowledge-will. In the integral yoga, a third focus area is actually above the crown of the head, which opens the seeker to the wider universal consciousness and insight.

Each seeker finds that one or another focus is more natural for him, and thus, he may use that shift of attention as his predominant mode of sadhana. There are times, however, when a seeker may actually find that one of the other areas of concentration comes to the forefront. Most people find the heart centre to be the easiest to relate to, and it is through that, therefore, that they most frequently come to understand the reality of aspiration, consecration, receptivity and surrender to the higher Force.

For those who take that path, they find that opening to the spiritual and psychic power of the Mother can bring enormous aid. The Mother is both the divine force of creation and, as embodied in the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, a dynamic and powerful spiritual force in her own being, able to communicate that force to those who are able to experience and be receptive to its action and influence.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “In this Yoga all depends on whether one can open to the Influence or not. If there is a sincerity in the aspiration and a patient will to arrive at the higher consciousness in spite of all obstacles, then the opening in one form or another is sure to come. But it may take a long or short time according to the prepared or unprepared condition of the mind, heart and body; so if one has not the necessary patience, the effort may be abandoned owing to the difficulty of the beginning. There is no method in this Yoga except to concentrate, preferably in the heart, and call the presence and power of the Mother to take up the being and by the workings of her force transform the consciousness; one can concentrate also in the head or between the eyebrows, but for many this is a too difficult opening. When the mind falls quiet and the concentration becomes strong and the aspiration intense, then there is a beginning of experience. The more the faith, the more rapid the result is likely to be. For the rest one must not depend on one’s own efforts only, but succeed in establishing a contact with the Divine and a receptivity to the Mother’s Power and Presence.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 2, Faith — Aspiration — Surrender, pp. 24-25