Physical Practices in Integral Yoga

It is well known that while creating and conveying his teachings on integral yoga, Sri Aurobindo paid the least attention to hatha yoga. Some of Sri Aurobindo's followers believed that hatha yoga is an optional element in following the path of integral yoga. But this opinion is mistaken. They overlook the fact that before the creation of integral yoga, Sri Aurobindo extensively practiced classical yoga, including hatha yoga. In other words, at the time of creating integral yoga, the refinement of the body was simply not relevant for Sri Aurobindo, as by that point he had already completely gone through that stage of his development. Meanwhile, a person who has just begun practicing yoga is unlikely to master integral yoga without parallel studies of hatha yoga. In this book, we present the path of the body in integral yoga as seen by the students of Sri Aurobindo.