Date: June 21, 2024
Venue: Online
On June 21, 2024, the 10th International Day of Yoga, Dr. Beloo Mehra, Director, BhāratShakti, was invited by AuroYajna, Sri Aurobindo Society to deliver an online talk as part of the AuroYajna’s celebration of the IDY 2024. The larger theme for IDY celebration was Yoga and Indian Culture.
In her talk titled, “To make Yoga the ideal of human life India rises today” Dr. Mehra highlighted selected insights from Sri Aurobindo to bring home the point that Yoga is as ancient as Veda from the point of view of Indian spiritual tradition. She shared a few thoughts on how Sri Aurobindo emphasized Yoga’s connection with Life for perfecting the life of individual and society. She gave a few examples from Sri Aurobindo’s life and work to illustrate this.
Dr. Mehra then elaborated on another important passage from Sri Aurobindo – “Yoga is not a modern invention of the human mind, but our ancient and prehistoric possession. The Veda is our oldest extant human document and the Veda, from one point of view, is a great compilation of practical hints about Yoga. All religion is a flower of which Yoga is the root; all philosophy, poetry & the works of genius use it, consciously or unconsciously, as an instrument. We believe that God created the world by Yoga and by Yoga He will draw it into Himself again. Yogah prabhavapyayau, Yoga is the birth and passing away of things. When Sri Krishna reveals to Arjuna the greatness of His creation and the manner in which He has built it out of His being by a reconciliation of logical opposites, he says “Pasya me yogam aishwaram”, Behold my divine Yoga.” (CWSA, Vol. 12, pp. 18-19).
Expounding on this idea, Dr. Mehra illustrated a few key points about Vedic yagna and its connection with Yoga. Taking some points from the Vedic writings of Sri Aurobindo, she built upon the idea how the Yoga in the Vedic sense is a battle between devas and daityas. She then connected this thought with another important passage from Sri Aurobindo which emphasises that the problems which have troubled mankind can only be solved by “conquering the kingdom within, not by harnessing the forces of Nature to the service of comfort and luxury, but by mastering the forces of the intellect and the spirit, by vindicating the freedom of man within as well as without and by conquering from within external Nature” (Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, 13: 6-7)
The talk was followed by some interesting questions from the audience which were addressed by Dr. Mehra.