Journal > Current Edition > Editors

From the Editors
Vol. 50, No. 2

Embodiment and Earth Consciousness

In this issue we turn to embodiment, an essential cornerstone of Integral Yoga and Sri Aurobindo’s vision of spiritual evolution for the transformation of human existence. To him the body is not merely a vessel but an active participant in the divine play, capable of being transformed into a luminous instrument of the supramental consciousness [truth consciousness beyond mind]. The Mother assures us that the Divine is present in the very atoms of our body and  the physical being itself can be the seat of perfect existence, knowledge, and bliss.

But despite the richness of these potentials, we find ourselves still alienated from much of what our bodies can experience. Traditional teachings of the dichotomy between spirit and matter live on in our bodies and in the human-dominated world around us, where climate disruption provokes huge destructive storms and wildfires on every continent. Species are disappearing. Disease can spread very quickly; and war, famine, and genocide are appearing as governments pull back from their commitments to care for living things. The future is unknown!

In this context we asked our authors to bring their experiences and viewpoints to bear on the topic of embodiment—both the promise and difficulty of actually becoming embodied in this situation. To achieve a divine life on Earth, sadhaks [yoga practitioners] must integrate their psychic, mental, vital, and physical dimensions into a unified whole governed by the Divine. What we have gathered here is a variety of articles expressing some steps along the way as people bring a more integral engagement with the body into this apparent turmoil.

“A Fine Time to be Embodied” by Susan Curtiss, a psychologist and longtime sadhak, shares an experience that lit her aspiration to find spirit in matter and to work for years making her body strong, receptive, and plastic. She finds hope for this effort in recent psychological developments in trauma healing and in new understandings of how occult forces affect behavior. She sees promise in the reappearance of Indigenous teachings and, potentially, their integration with Western scientific understandings to help us prepare for a greater consciousness.

“Embodiment” is a warm and inviting interview by KarunDas, a member of the Collaboration Editorial Advisory Board, with his spiritual teacher GurujiMa of the Light Omega Ashram in Massachusetts. She talks about the decision we may face to become consciously embodied and the difficulties that may arise when we take steps in that direction.

“Darshan Anniversary at the PCT” by John Robert Cornell is an account of his embodied experience of oneness with nature while walking the Pacific Coast Trail with his wife Karen on Sri Aurobindo’s birthday and their wedding anniversary. He describes how his senses came alive to the surroundings and colors glowed like coals as an overhead consciousness pressed down on his body. “Death here was as joyful as growth because there was no clinging to any particular form. Instead, there was equal delight in assuming or putting on a leaf and stem structure—and releasing the energy from that form.”

In “Her Work Through Bodies,” Soleil Aurose, who met the Mother in person when she was 16, describes experiences that inspired and continue to inspire her dedication to the sacred work of transforming the physical body, using the spiritual healing energy that is now working with the supramental consciousness. Soleil tells also of her work with others in Auroville and in other parts of the world.

Poetry we also have in this issue. “Divine Sight” and “Divine Sense” by Sri Aurobindo are truly wonders of rapture in sonnet form that sing of transformed senses tuned to whole new realms of consciousness in the body. A passage from Savitri, here titled “The Inner Ear,” divulges how the inwardly listening traveler can sense the rhythms behind the silence and the low, sweet voice of earth.

We are also delighted to offer “The Eternal Dance of the Universe,” captivating poetry with interesting rhythms and unexpected turns of phrase and metaphor. Teen prodigy Krishti Khandelwal of New Delhi, India, wrote this when she was 14 years old.

In “Understanding January 1, 1969,” Karen Mitchell zooms in on some of the Mother’s experiences immediately before and soon after a decisive event that happened to Mother on January 1, 1969. Related experiences continued for the rest of her life, the direct action of the supermind on the cellular level for transformation of the physical body.

“Kinesiology and Integral Yoga” is a description of a unique yogic way of practicing Kinesiology. Author Angiras Auro grew up in Auroville and trained in some healing modalities there. When she moved to the United Kingdom and discovered Kinesiology, she found her ideal companion for doing healing work in the context of Integral Yoga.

With this issue we are starting a new column tentatively titled “Journeys on the Path,” featuring stories, reminiscences, and accounts of the integral spiritual journey. “Listening Within: Synchronicity and the Mother’s Grace” by Tom O’Brien is a wonderful and engaging account of his introduction to Integral Yoga through the Matagiri center in New York in the early 1970s, his travels to India, and his involvement in the construction of Matrimandir in Auroville. Tom also showers us with stories of later trips to Auroville, gatherings of the American Integral Yoga community, and encounters with Celtic and Native American spirituality.

We hope that these articles and poetry plus selections of source materials from Sri Aurobindo and Mother offer a modest but rich perspective on a very important and crucial topic in Integral Yoga.—Susan Curtis, Bahman A. K. Shirazi, and John Robert Cornell for the Collaboration editorial team

— Susan Curtis, Bahman A. K. Shirazi, and John Robert Cornell for the Collaboration editorial team