The Integral Knowledge Study Center

Welcome to our website, Peacock Pages. Our aim is to direct you to materials relating to the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, some of which are difficult to find. The few pages on our website describe our Center’s activities, list resources which may be helpful to aspirants (literature, music, philosophy, etc.), offer links to relevant websites, and make audio files, videos, and PDFs available for download. We aspire to enhance your understanding and practice of the Integral Yoga.

The Integral Knowledge Study Center was formed in 1979, when a visit from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram by M.P. Pandit and Vasanti Rao brought together a number of seekers into a collective endeavor of study, meditation, and inner growth. The overarching goal of the Center, in harmony with the vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, has since been to aid in the discovery of the secret soul of delight that dwells within each person, and to promote the integral perfection of life that can flow from this discovery of authentic being.

A number of activities support this spiritual search, but the core of the Center’s collective life is a weekly study group that meets on Sunday evenings. Appropriate books drawn from the extensive literature of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother serve as the focus of these meetings, where probing, positive discussions among the participants enhance clarity and lead into a concluding group meditation.

Among other public offerings are seminars and workshops covering a wide variety of themes relating to spiritual life, the viewing of significant films dealing with the growth of consciousness, and the occasional sponsorship of guest speakers.

On August 15, 1983, Sri Aurobindo’s Relics were inaugurated at the Center. It marked the first time that the Relics had ever left India for another country. For many seekers in America the Relics offer profound significance and continuing inspiration.

Peacock Pages

The Center’s website is the Peacock Pages, an outgrowth of The Peacock Letter, and is updated periodically. The Peacock Letter was itself published on The Peacock Letter page, found on The Center dropdown menu. These appeared on the four Darshan dates of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram as released by the Integral Knowledge Study Center. For past issues of The Peacock Letter, please visit The Peacock Letter page or .

Permissions

All quotations from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are copyrighted by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and are reproduced with the kind permission of the Ashram.

Contributions

Contributions to the Center’s ongoing work in America are welcome. The Integral Knowledge Study Center is a tax-exempt, nonprofit corporation.

The Center’s Activities

The Center welcomes everyone to its collective studies, meditations, aesthetic events, public discourses, and weekend retreats, with participation by conference app as well as by personal attendance. We are both a study and a practice center, so conferring about the practice of yoga is available by appointment without charge.

Sundays

The Center holds a collective study, satsang, every Sunday evening at 7, focusing on the practice of the Integral Yoga. Aspirants can normally attend by Zoom or in person. The prelude to our meeting is the Mother’s music and Sanskrit chants, succeeded by a presentation of the salient features of the evening’s material. After reading a thematically relevant selection from Savitri, the evening is capped with collective meditation. We’ve worked recently in Sri Aurobindo’s The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, Essays on the Gita, and The Mother. We focused too on the Mother’s Conversations, Notes on the Way, and a few volumes in her Questions and Answers series.

To prepare for a long study of Sri Aurobindo’s The Life Divine, we reviewed India’s spiritual tradition from the Vedic age to the present. Along the way, we examined core insights from the Rigveda, several Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, Buddhism, Jainism, the Yoga Sutras, the major schools of Vedanta, the Mahadevi tradition, Tantra, the Trika philosophy of Kashmir, Sri Vidya, and the bhakti tradition.

Wednesdays

We read and discuss Sri Aurobindo’s correspondence in the volumes of Letters on Yoga (CWSA versions) at 4.30 PM Central Time. One may attend either in person or through Zoom. The session ends with a reading from Savitri or selections from Collected Poems, followed by meditation in the Shrine Room.

Daily Meditations

We offer two daily sessions in the Center’s Shrine Room with Sri Aurobindo’s Relics, the first from 7 to 7.30 in the morning, the second from 5.30 to 6 in the evening. At the close of the evening meditation, we read aloud two pages from Sri Aurobindo’s great epic, Savitri. The Center’s tradition is to read the first pages of the poem on the 15th of August, and to end with the closing lines on the following 14th of August. Thus we cycle through every annum with Savitri.

Weeknight Talks

To enhance and offer context to the Integral Yoga, we occasionally offer public talks on topics drawn from the Indian spiritual tradition or current themes of conscious development. Over the years, these have included the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, the Tantric tradition, Vedanta, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Indian mythology, and transpersonal psychology. Collective meditation concludes these evenings. A scattering of the themes addressed include “Towards a Music of the Soul,” “Great Stories of Spiritual India,” “The Psychology of the Sutras,” “Yoga: Many Paths to Oneness,” “Myth and Mantra in the Upanishads,” “Gorakhnath, Lord of Yogis,” “Shankaracharya and the Essence of Adwaita,” “Hatha Yoga Pradipika,” “Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa,” “Swami Vivekananda,” “Sri Ramana Maharshi,” and “Auroville: The City of Dawn.”

New Year’s Eve

Each New Year’s Eve we gather for a common meditation which begins about half an hour before midnight. When the New Year arrives, we distribute calendars and prasad and the Ashram message. Everyone is welcome to join us.

Darshan Events

We host special gatherings for each of the Darshan events associated with the Mother, Sri Aurobindo, and their Ashram. Collective meditations, presentations, distribution of messages and blessings, communal meals, are customary on these occasions. Friends join us frequently from both coasts and sometimes from overseas. As is the practice of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the day’s message cards containing passages from the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo are distributed to all who attend the Darshan. The schedule runs thus:

1 January—New Year’s

21 February—The Mother’s Birthday

29 February—The Supramental Manifestation, Golden Day

24 April—The Mother’s final arrival in Pondicherry

15 August—Sri Aurobindo’s Birthday

17 November—The Mother’s Mahasamadhi Day

24 November—Siddhi Day

5 December—Sri Aurobindo’s Mahasamadhi Day

Weekend Retreats

The Center occasionally sponsors weekend retreats which focus on dynamic aspects of spiritual practice. These retreats have been held both locally and afar, in Seattle, New York, San Diego, Auburn, and Magnolia Springs, Alabama. A few of the themes covered over the years include “The Soul Afire,” “From Death to Life: An Awareness Weekend,” “Women, Power, and Yoga,” “Beyond Suffering,” “Building a Community of Consciousness,” “Ensouling the Personality,” ”Understanding World Events from the Inside Out,” “The Practice of Peace,” and ”Power in the Practice: The Technique of Tapasya.”

The Center occasionally screens significant films dealing with the growth of consciousness. Again, the public is welcome to attend all events without charge.

Relics

The Relics of Sri Aurobindo reside in the Shrine Room, where we gather for meditation twice daily. Inaugurated on the 15th of August, 1983, the Relics radiate a force that is precious beyond calculation for many who visit our Center. Friends and aspirants are especially welcome to come for birthday meditations.

The Library and Guest House

The Center has a rich library with about 10,000 books on a variety of subjects, including yoga, science, history, religion, and the arts. They are freely available for personal and group study, provided that they be read and worked with on the Center’s premises. Among these books is a complete set of the original ARYA, which was published from 1914 to 1921. Within our library are a number of books signed by Sri Aurobindo or the Mother, including the first edition of The Life Divine, Hymns to the Mystic Fire, The Synthesis of Yoga, and Entretiens 1956. A first edition of The Mother from 1928 resides in our collection.

The Center maintains an adjoining guest house, which houses about half of our library. The guest house, also called the library house or annex, is available for out-of-town aspirants who come to further their practice of the Integral Yoga or to sit in the peace of the Shrine Room. A second and larger guest house is located about five minutes away and is also available to aspirants with prior intimation.

Links

The Sri Aurobindo Ashram website offers visitors solid information about the Integral Yoga in a welcoming format. Available are biographical sketches of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, a concise description of Sri Aurobindo’s teaching and method of practice, a description of the Ashram which grew up around the pioneers, and material relating to the Ashram's Centre of Education. Those interested will also find the opportunity to view or download currently available PDFs from the Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo and the Collected Works of the Mother.

There are many other resources available on the Ashram's website, including music and videos, as well as downloadable Darshan messages and images. And there is a Publications page, through which one can order books and periodicals. Other multimedia resources connected to the Ashram are available.

An American website dedicated to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, rich in links and literature is Collaboration, a beautiful website with an abundance of offerings. One of the loveliest periodicals produced in Pondicherry is the Golden Chain, the Alumni Journal of the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. And now readers can download PDFs of two Ashram journals, Mother India and the Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Journals on the Sri Aurobindo Ashram website.