I was reading this book on inner excellence and was thinking of Sri Aurobindo’s principles of Integral Yoga. In Integral Yoga, there are seven principles

  1. There is no Ego or egolessness. You give up your false sense of separate existence
  2. Complete surrender to the Divine. You do that because there is no separate ego and you strive to be one with the Truth, Consciousness, and Bliss that pervades the Universe
  3. A system of physical balance, so be physically balanced. Sri Aurobindo’s talked about “hatha yoga”, the yogic posture. But it seems reading Sri Aurobindo’s writing the precise nature does not matter as long as you have a system of practice.
  4. A system of mental balance, or Rajayoga, where the idea is to focus and concentrate the mind sonmewhere in between two eyebrows. Pay attention to your thoughts but do not be attached. Let them come and go
  5. Knowledge focused ideas where you realise that you are part of an evolutionary process and play of Sacchidananda everywhere
  6. Your work. The work does not focus on outcomes and you remain unfazed at all times. The work is a surrender to the Divine Forces. Interestingly, this is a point of convergence between Inner Exprience and Integral Yoga.
  7. A process of Love to the Divinre. Again, another overlapping theme between inner excellence where Jim Murphy writes about the power of knowledge, courage, and love and talks about surrender.

Sri Aurobindo’ derived these themes from his reading of the Vedas and Western text and canons but also his personal experiences. His was a very much here and now practical point of spirituality not just for personal inner growth but for a population perspective.