Integral Yoga in Daily Life: Stories from Swadhyaya Seekers

Udar Da, an inmate of Sri Aurobindo’s Ashram, had been practising Integral Yoga for several years when he asked the Mother, “Mother, am I making progress on the path?”

To his surprise, she told him, “You have been doing it all wrong.”

She told him that she would do the yoga for him; he simply had to give himself to her. When he asked how, she said, “Think of me.”

When you brush your teeth. When you wash your face. When you eat. When you go to sleep. Think only of me.

– The Mother

Sahana, lead facilitator of Purnam’s Swadhyaya pathway, opened the evening on Thursday, 1 October with this story. With 82 people in attendance, 13 participants shared what three months of remembering the Divine had looked like in their lives. For one, it meant watering a sapling with care; for another, pausing before reacting; for a third, spending five minutes beneath the night sky.

Swadhyaya: Foundations in Integral Studies

The evening marked the close of the first trimester of Swadhyaya, Purnam’s year-long journey into Integral Yoga through the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. 24 seekers each explored a chosen theme such as purity, silence, aspiration or equanimity through reading, self-inquiry and practice in daily life.

Self-discovery, one small practice at a time 

Each paired their theme with one small lived practice.

Yukti chose equanimity. She used to carry strong experiences long after they had passed, whether pain or pleasure. Through practising the pause, she began to see that she did not have to act on every emotion. Now, she pauses, writes, and shifts from “I am sad” to “sadness is rising in me.” “It’s not only the sadness which tests me,” she said. “Pleasure also tests me.”

Shrikar chose sincerity. His aspiration was strong, but his actions did not always follow. He began with a practice that could not be skipped: watering a sapling every day. “There was no excuse to not do it,” he said. This grew into remembering the Mother every morning. When he noticed his own insincerity, he acknowledged that he is “sincere enough to admit insincerity is enough for now.”

Rajesh chose purity. He noticed he was one person at home, another at work, and another in prayer. “My final aspiration was to become one genuine Rajesh,” he said, “wherever I am, and whoever is in front of me.” Each night, he reflects on where his thoughts, feelings, intentions and actions did not match.

Carolina chose the psychic being. “Knowing about the psychic being is quite different from actually living from it,” she said. She practiced remembrance and offering before teaching, while cooking and while playing the violin. Her teaching began to feel inspired again, leaving her with a deeper question: “What is truly guiding me?”

Spiritual growth in everyday moments

Swadhyaya, we saw, is about noticing ourselves in everyday moments. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother remind us that every moment is a chance for spiritual growth, not only life’s great challenges but also brushing our teeth and watering our plants. Offering each action to the Divine, as our participants shared, is karmayoga in everyday life.

What stayed with us was how differently each person experienced the same journey. As Manoj Pavithran, co-founder of Purnam, put it: “whatsoever be the doorway through which you enter… eventually all of them lead to the same destination.”