NAMAH hosted a six-day workshop (December 9-11 and 16-18, 2025), exploring Sri Aurobindo's personal spiritual diary, the Record of Yoga. Facilitated by Lopa Mukherjee, the series guided Integral Yoga aspirants through the Sapta Chatushtaya (Seven Quartets) as a practical framework for spiritual development, progressing from inner peace to Divine action.
Day 1: Foundations and Life's Aim
Participants learned to navigate Sri Aurobindo's 2,000-page diary and understood that Integral Yoga aims not for personal salvation (Moksha) but self-perfection in service of the Divine. The session explored the Concentric Structure of Being, distinguishing the protective yet false ego from the true psychic being (Soul Principle), and introduced all seven quartets: Shanti (Peace), Shakti (Power), Vijnana (Gnosis), Sharira (Body), Karma (Work), Brahma (Supreme Knowledge), and the central Siddhi (Perfection).
Day 2: The Master and Modalities of Guidance
The focus shifted to receiving Divine guidance through Srikrishna (The Master of Yoga) as the internal guide. Lopa detailed three communication channels from the Vijnana Chatushtaya: Lipi (Script Writing), Vani (Hearing), and Sortilege (Divination through random texts), highlighting Sri Aurobindo's scientific precision in developing these faculties.
Day 3: Equality and Higher Perception
The Shanti Chatushtaya's foundational element, Samata (Equality), revealed a six-stage progression from passive Titiksha (Endurance) to active Ananda (Delight). The session then introduced Shakti Chatushtaya's four types of Virya (Courage), along with Rupa Drishti (Inner Vision) and Shabda (Subtle Hearing). The participants practiced meditation on the seven primordial occult sounds.
Day 4: Instrumental Perfection and Divine Nature
Beginning with Siddhi Chatushtaya's progression from Shuddhi (Purification) to Siddhi (Perfection), the session established the logical sequence of quartets: preparing the ground (Peace), empowering the instrument (Power/Gnosis/Body), then engaging in Work. Discussion of Daivi Prakriti (Divine Nature) and Shraddha (Faith) mapped the four goddesses, namely Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, and Mahasaraswati to integral personality cultivation. The day concluded with the Sphota Theory on sound's intuitive meaning.
Day 5: The Science of Siddhis and Silent Mind
Exploration of Vijnana Chatushtaya and the Ashta Siddhi (Eight occult powers) emphasised their ethical use solely for Divine purposes, never to feed the ego. Participants learned mind-silencing techniques, including ocean visualisation to create the Silence Supernal necessary for higher intuition.
Day 6: Physical Perfection and Global Impact
The final session covered Sharira Chatushtaya's Arogya (Absence of disease) and Utthapana (Freedom from physical laws), then revealed through Karma Chatushtaya, how Sri Aurobindo applied perfected faculties to influence events like World War II at occult levels. The series concluded with Brahma Chatushtaya culminating into the realisation that the entire universe is the manifestation of One Brahman.
The Framework as Practice
The Sapta Chatushtaya progression mirrors building and launching a satellite: Stabilise the launchpad (Peace), install power systems and sensors (Power and Gnosis), ensure hardware resilience (Body), then launch to fulfil the mission (Work) within the vastness of space (Brahman).
Participant Experience
The series was highly interactive, encouraging self-study, personal reflections and in-depth questions. Lopa provided extensive resources including works of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, works of lifelong Ashram Sadhaks and many other relevant books and online media for deeper exploration. Participants gained clarity on approaching the Record of Yoga as a practical reference, uncovering the systematic evolution of Sri Aurobindo's practice, and applying this wisdom to guide their own journey toward becoming perfected Divine instruments.
Feedback
“The understanding became more vast of the Siddhis. The steps leading to them , the knowledge of them, the practice of them became very clear. Somewhere the Inner life became more real than the outer.”
[Insight into Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga practice]
“It was made extremely clear and Lopa did a wonderful job explaining with patience and knowledge step by step, especially the practices we did were even better.”
“Many questions were automatically answered during the sessions. Many doubts were cleared and the books recommended for reading made everything crystal clear in my journey of these experiences.”
“The connection grows even deeper now as so many steps in the progression of the sadhana were shown with concrete evidence. The path is clear now.”
“The Yoga of Self-Perfection created a new understanding and appreciation for the Sadhana.”
“It will help me to progress in my practice, understand better the writings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. Make the aim of the yoga clearer.”
“It helped to build discernment for evaluating my own work.”
“Very calm and settled. Felt open and comfortable to participate.”
“An overview of Sri Aurobindo's own sadhana was very helpful.”
“Got an idea of Record of yoga book which will help me start exploring it by myself.”
“Helped in my personal sadhana and learnt practises to progress further.”
“Clarified my personal experiences.”
“Showed me how to progress further. Also helped me to read the books on my own.”
“Pointed out the missing links in my practice, so I can work on them.”
“Humbled me to understand to what lengths he [Sri Aurobindo] has gone to make the whole process of integral yoga so easy for humanity.”
“Extremely friendly and cohesive.”
“It helped understanding the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and I can now read the Record of Yoga.”
“Very enlightening sessions.”
““It is the Mother’s Grace that acted through Lopa & benefits are immense.”
Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend any of the live sessions, but even hearing them was enough to remove many of the layers of dross from the mind.”
“Really fantastic. Lopa is the Mother’s wonderful channel.”
