Integral Yoga may be understood as a yoga of synthesis whose distinguishing mark is its comprehensive scope. Whereas paths such as Raja Yoga emphasize primarily mental concentration and discipline, and Bhakti Yoga centers on devotion and surrender, Integral Yoga deliberately gathers the powers of knowledge, devotion, works, and inner discipline into a single, coordinated movement. It does not confine itself to one faculty or one line of approach, but seeks the simultaneous purification and transformation of mind, heart, life‑energy, and body. In this sense, it treats the whole of human nature as the field of sādhanā, with life itself serving as the laboratory of practice rather than prescribing a rigid set of external forms.

The aim that guides this synthesis also sets it apart from the classical ideals. Traditional yogas generally orient themselves toward liberation or moksha—release from ego and the cycle of birth, realization of the Self or Brahman, or a stable transcendence of the world often seen as māyā or secondary. Integral Yoga, while not denying liberation, places at its center the transformation of human nature and the “divinization” of earthly life. It looks toward the descent of a higher, supramental consciousness as the means for a radical change of mind, life, and body, envisioning not only individual realization but the possibility of a divine life on earth.

This different aim entails a different attitude to the world and to evolution itself. Many traditional presentations of yoga lean toward renunciation, withdrawal, or a world‑negating stance in which the material realm is primarily an obstacle to be overcome. Integral Yoga, by contrast, is fundamentally world‑affirming: creation is seen as a progressive manifestation of the Divine, and all activities—outer work, relationships, and the challenges of ordinary existence—become occasions for inner growth. The stress falls not only on an ascent of consciousness to higher states, but equally on a descent of that higher consciousness into the lower parts of nature, so that they may be purified, widened, and transformed.

Within this process, certain inner principles receive a distinctive emphasis. Integral Yoga gives a central place to the psychic being, the evolving soul in the heart, whose opening and guidance are considered crucial for harmonizing the various strands of practice and for true surrender to the Divine Shakti or Divine Mother. At the same time, it extends the horizon of yoga beyond the individual, speaking of a collective and evolutionary dimension in which the spiritual evolution of humanity and the earth‑consciousness forms part of the work. In this way, it both includes the insights of Raja, Bhakti, Jñāna, and Karma Yoga and reorients them toward an integral transformation of consciousness rather than a solitary escape from the world.