Book Description
This memoir details the story of a sadhak (practitioner of spirituality), once a dyed-in-the-wool agnostic, who came to the practice of the Integral Yoga after a life-altering spiritual experience in his twenty-fourth year. Ignorant of spiritual literature at that time, he accepted conventional medical wisdom that put down the experience to a psychosomatic disorder. He continued to coast along as an agnostic for about a decade after this experience, believing all the while that medical attention was enough to 'manage the condition.' It was the contact with the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo that awoke him to the reality of the goings-on within. Until this first exposure to Aurobindonian philosophy and psychology, he had rejected the subjective truth of the realities of his inner experiences. This was simply because these realities did not 'fit' into the scheme of things that his rational mind could then construct. This book begins with a brief description of the spiritual experience alluded to, and goes on to explore the tensions between interpretations of it as a medical 'problem' and as a turning point in a life appropriated for a larger purpose. It is the author's hope that this book will be of use to those considering taking up a spiritual life. Moreover, it is for those diagnosed with psychosomatic disorders. The author would have achieved one of his main aims if the work throws new light on people with psychosomatic disorders.
