Is it utterly indispensable to view all life as Yoga?

But fortunately for us there comes a time in our lives when we realize that there is more to life than food, sleep, work. What is “this something more” is a question that each of us tackles in our own way. Everyone has a different answer! And this section is an attempt to bring together our different answers . It is an endeavour to try and observe and understand life from another perspective. It seeks to answer questions regarding:

1) Man: “Who am I?” “Why do I exist?” “Where am I heading?”
2) Life: “What is life? Its beginning, its end, its purpose”
3) God: “Who is He?” “Is He the end, the goal?” “Is He the help?”

Fundamental questions, the answers to which can’t be found in a book or provided by anybody else. These are answers that have to be discovered in life. And on our quest to attain these truths sooner or later we realize that behind the surface life of everyday there is another more meaningful life. A life that is far more fulfilling. A life with a purpose. A life worth living!
-- Divya Parasher You are invited to contribute your ideas.Send them to BTW@ipi.org.in

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Friday, August 1, 2008 Editorial Posted by Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore at 4:55 PM

• What is the place we have given to Sri Aurobindo and his works?
• Why have we been sucked into this circle?
• What has the opening been, the draw and our approach to the integral yoga that he practiced to perfection all his life?

For often, we fall prey to the tendency of not raising these questions now and then, letting pass an opportunity for engaging ourselves in the philosophy, which, Sri Aurobindo himself sums up with his oft quoted line, “All life is Yoga”. Behind this question, it appears that a huge gateway to self-inquiry lies.

• What is this Yoga?
• How is all life a Yoga?
• How more can it become a life of yoga?
• What characterizes this life dedicated to yoga?
• Is this the very meaning of Purna Yoga?
• In which case, what then is the meaning of “life”?
• What are all that it constitutes?

To be aware of all of life must be a fundamental requirement in dedicating one’s life to Yoga, or to live all of life as a Yogi or to approach life as an experiment in order to steer it towards some kind of higher realization, well above and eventually beyond the ordinary life guided by nature, it appears. Then another question bordering the negative will also have to be faced.

• Is it utterly indispensable to view all life as Yoga?
• Why must one engage in this preoccupation at all?

This line of questioning brings us face to face with the king- question,

• “What then is the purpose of one’s life?”,
• “Is there a purpose at all?” and,
• “If there is, how does one find out?”