Sri AurobindoReligionHinduismFounderofSri Aurobindo AshramAurovillePhilosophyIntegral Yoga, Involution (Sri Aurobindo), Evolution, Integral psychology, Intermediate zone, SupermindPersonalNationalityIndianBornAurobindo Ghose(1872-08-15)15 August 1872Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India(now Kolkata, West Bengal, India)Died5 December 1950(1950-12-05) (aged78)Pondicherry, French India(now in Puducherry)Disciple(s)Champaklal, N. K. Gupta, Amal Kiran, Nirodbaran, Pavitra, M. P. Pandit, A. B. Purani, D. K. Roy, Satprem, Indra SenLiterary worksThe Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, SavitriInfluencedMirra AlfassaSignature

Quotation

Sri Aurobindo (Bengali:[Sri robindo]) (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, guru, poet, and nationalist. He joined the Indian movement for independence from British rule, for a while was one of its influential leaders and then became a spiritual reformer, introducing his visions on human progress and spiritual evolution.

Aurobindo studied for the Indian Civil Service at King's College, Cambridge, England. After returning to India he took up various civil service works under the maharaja of the princely state of Baroda and began increasingly involved in nationalist politics and the nascent revolutionary movement in Bengal. He was arrested in the aftermath of a number of bomb outrages linked to his organisation, but in a highly public trial where he faced charges of treason, Aurobindo could only be convicted and imprisoned for writing articles against British rule in India. He was released when no evidence could be provided, following the murder of a prosecution-witness during the trial. During his stay in the jail he had mystical and spiritual experiences, after which he moved to Pondicherry, leaving politics for spiritual work.

During his stay in Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo developed a method of spiritual practice he called Integral Yoga. The central theme of his vision was the evolution of human life into a life divine. He believed in a spiritual realisation that not only liberated man but transformed his nature, enabling a divine life on earth. In 1926, with the help of his spiritual collaborator, Mirra Alfassa (referred to as "The Mother"), he founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

His main literary works are The Life Divine, which deals with theoretical aspects of Integral Yoga; Synthesis of Yoga, which deals with practical guidance to Integral Yoga; and Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, an epic poem. His works also include philosophy, poetry, translations and commentaries on the Vedas, Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1943 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.[3]

Aurobindo Ghose was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Bengal Presidency, India on 15 August 1872 . His father, Krishna Dhun Ghose, was then Assistant Surgeon of Rangpur in Bengal, and a former member of the Brahmo Samaj religious reform movement who had become enamoured with the then-new idea of evolution while pursuing medical studies in Britain.[a] His mother was Swarnalata Devi, whose father was Shri Rajnarayan Bose, a leading figure in the Samaj. She had been sent to the more salubrious surroundings of Calcutta for Aurobindo's birth. Aurobindo had two elder siblings, Benoybhusan and Manmohan, a younger sister, Sarojini, and a younger brother, Barindrakumar (also referred to as Barin).

Young Aurobindo was brought up speaking English but used Hindustani to communicate with servants. Although his family were Bengali, his father believed British culture to be superior. He and his two elder siblings were sent to the English-speaking Loreto House boarding school in Darjeeling, in part to improve their language skills and in part to distance them from their mother, who had developed a mental illness soon after the birth of her first child. Darjeeling was a centre of British life in India and the school was run by Irish nuns, through which the boys would have been exposed to Christian religious teachings and symbolism.

Krishna Dhun Ghose wanted his sons to enter the Indian Civil Service (ICS), an elite organisation comprising around 1000 people. To achieve this it was necessary that they study in England and so it was there that the entire family moved in 1879.[b] The three brothers were placed in the care of the Reverend W. H. Drewett in Manchester. Drewett was a minister of the Congregational Church whom Krishna Dhun Ghose knew through his British friends at Rangapur.[c]

The boys were taught Latin by Drewett and his wife. This was a prerequisite for admission to good English schools and, after two years, in 1881, the elder two siblings were enrolled at Manchester Grammar School. Aurobindo was considered too young for enrolment and he continued his studies with the Drewetts, learning history, Latin, French, geography and arithmetic. Although the Drewetts were told not to teach religion, the boys inevitably were exposed to Christian teachings and events, which generally bored Aurobindo and sometimes repulsed him. There was little contact with his father, who wrote only a few letters to his sons while they were in England, but what communication there was indicated that he was becoming less endeared to the British in India than he had been, on one occasion describing the British Raj as a "heartless government".

Drewett emigrated to Australia in 1884, causing the boys to be uprooted as they went to live with Drewett's mother in London. In September of that year, Aurobindo and Manmohan joined St Paul's School there.[d] He learned Greek and spent the last three years reading literature and English poetry. He also acquired some familiarity with the German and Italian languages and, exposed to the evangelical strictures of Drewett's mother, a distaste for religion. He considered himself at one point to be an atheist but later determined that he was agnostic. A blue plaque unveiled in 2007 commemorates Aurobindo's residence at 49 St Stephen's Avenue in Shepherd's Bush, London, from 1884 to 1887. The three brothers began living in spartan circumstances at the Liberal Club in South Kensington during 1887, their father having experienced some financial difficulties. The Club's secretary was James Cotton, brother of their father's friend in the Bengal ICS, Henry Cotton.

By 1889, Manmohan had determined to pursue a literary career and Benoybhusan had proved himself unequal to the standards necessary for ICS entrance. This meant that only Aurobindo might fulfil his father's aspirations but to do so when his father lacked money required that he studied hard for a scholarship. To become an ICS official, students were required to pass the competitive examination, as well as to study at an English university for two years under probation. Aurobindo secured a scholarship at King's College, Cambridge, under recommendation of Oscar Browning. He passed the written ICS examination after a few months, being ranked 11th out of 250 competitors. He spent the next two years at King's College. Aurobindo had no interest in the ICS and came late to the horse-riding practical exam purposefully to get himself disqualified for the service.

At this time, the Maharaja of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaekwad III, was travelling in England. Cotton secured for him a place in Baroda State Service and arranged for him to meet the prince. He left England for India, arriving there in February 1893. In India, Krishna Dhun Ghose, who was waiting to receive his son, was misinformed by his agents from Bombay (now Mumbai) that the ship on which Aurobindo had been travelling had sunk off the coast of Portugal. His father died upon hearing this news.

In Baroda, Aurobindo joined the state service in 1893, working first in the Survey and Settlements department, later moving to the Department of Revenue and then to the Secretariat, and much miscellaneous work like teaching grammar and assisting in writing speeches for the Maharaja of Gaekwad until 1897. In 1897 during his work in Baroda he started working as a part-time French teacher at Baroda College (now Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda). He was later promoted to the post of vice-principal. At Baroda, Aurobindo self-studied Sanskrit and Bengali.

During his stay at Baroda he contributed to many articles to Indu Prakash and spoke as a chairman of the Baroda college board. He started taking an active interest in the politics of India's independence struggle against British rule, working behind the scenes as his position in the Baroda state administration barred him from overt political activity. He linked up with resistance groups in Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, while traveling to these states. He established contact with Lokmanya Tilak and Sister Nivedita. He arranged the military training of Jatindra Nath Banerjee (Niralamba Swami) in the Baroda army and then dispatched him to organise the resistance groups in Bengal.

Aurobindo often travelled between Baroda and Bengal, at first in a bid to re-establish links with his parent's families and other Bengali relatives, including his sister Sarojini and brother Barin, and later increasingly to establish resistance groups across the Presidency. He formally moved to Calcutta in 1906 after the announcement of the Partition of Bengal. Age 28, he had married 14-year-old Mrinalini, daughter of Bhupal Chandra Bose, a senior official in government service, when he visited Calcutta in 1901. Mrinalini died in December 1918 during the influenza pandemic.

Aurobindo was influenced by studies on rebellion and revolutions against England in medieval France and the revolts in America and Italy. In his public activities he favoured non-co-operation and passive resistance; in private he took up secret revolutionary activity as a preparation for open revolt, in case that the passive revolt failed.

In Bengal, with Barin's help, he established contacts with revolutionaries, inspiring radicals such as Bagha Jatin or Jatin Banerjee and Surendranath Tagore. He helped establish a series of youth clubs, including the Anushilan Samiti of Calcutta in 1902.

Aurobindo attended the 1906 Congress meeting headed by Dadabhai Naoroji and participated as a councillor in forming the fourfold objectives of "Swaraj, Swadesh, Boycott and national education". In 1907 at the Surat session of Congress where moderates and extremists had a major showdown, he led with extremists along with Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The Congress split after this session. In 19071908 Aurobindo travelled extensively to Pune, Bombay and Baroda to firm up support for the nationalist cause, giving speeches and meeting with groups. He was arrested again in May 1908 in connection with the Alipore Bomb Case. He was acquitted in the ensuing trial, following the murder of chief prosecution witness Naren Gosain within jail premises which subsequently led to the case against him collapsing. Aurobindo was subsequently released after a year of isolated incarceration.

Once out of the prison he started two new publications, Karmayogin in English and Dharma in Bengali. He also delivered the Uttarpara Speech hinting at the transformation of his focus to spiritual matters. The British persecution continued because of his writings in his new journals and in April 1910 Aurobindo moved to Pondicherry, where Britain's secret police monitored his activities.

In July 1905 then Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, partitioned Bengal. This sparked an outburst of public anger against the British, leading to civil unrest and a nationalist campaign by groups of revolutionaries, who included Aurobindo. In 1908, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki attempted to kill Magistrate Kingsford, a judge known for handing down particularly severe sentences against nationalists. However, the bomb thrown at his horse carriage missed its target and instead landed in another carriage and killed two British women, the wife and daughter of barrister Pringle Kennedy. Aurobindo was also arrested on charges of planning and overseeing the attack and imprisoned in solitary confinement in Alipore Jail. The trial of the Alipore Bomb Case lasted for a year, but eventually he was acquitted on May 6, 1909. His defence counsel was Chittaranjan Das.

During this period in the Jail, his view of life was radically changed due to spiritual experiences and realizations. Consequently, his aim went far beyond the service and liberation of the country.

Aurobindo said he was "visited" by Vivekananda in the Alipore Jail: "It is a fact that I was hearing constantly the voice of Vivekananda speaking to me for a fortnight in the jail in my solitary meditation and felt his presence."

In his autobiographical notes, Aurobindo said he felt a vast sense of calmness when he first came back to India. He could not explain this and continued to have various such experiences from time to time. He knew nothing of yoga at that time and started his practise of it without a teacher, except for some rules that he learned from Ganganath, a friend who was a disciple of Brahmananda. In 1907, Barin introduced Aurobindo to Vishnu Bhaskar Lele, a Maharashtrian yogi. Aurobindo was influenced by the guidance he got from the yogi, who had instructed Aurobindo to depend on an inner guide and any kind of external guru or guidance would not be required.

In 1910 Aurobindo withdrew himself from all political activities and went into hiding at Chandannagar in the house of Motilal Roy, while the British were trying to prosecute him for sedition on the basis of a signed article titled 'To My Countrymen', published in Karmayogin. As Aurobindo disappeared from view, the warrant was held back and the prosecution postponed. Aurobindo manoeuvred the police into open action and a warrant was issued on 4 April 1910, but the warrant could not be executed because on that date he had reached Pondicherry, then a French colony. The warrant against Aurobindo was withdrawn.

In Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo dedicated himself to his spiritual and philosophical pursuits. In 1914, after four years of secluded yoga, he started a monthly philosophical magazine called Arya. This ceased publication in 1921. Many years later, he revised some of these works before they were published in book form. Some of the book series derived out of this publication were The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, Essays on The Gita, The Secret of The Veda, Hymns to the Mystic Fire, The Upanishads, The Renaissance in India, War and Self-determination, The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity and The Future Poetry were published in this magazine.

At the beginning of his stay at Pondicherry, there were few followers, but with time their numbers grew, resulting in the formation of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1926.[41] From 1926 he started to sign himself as Sri Aurobindo, Sri (meaning holy in Sanskrit) being commonly used as an honorific.

For some time afterwards, his main literary output was his voluminous correspondence with his disciples. His letters, most of which were written in the 1930s, numbered in the several thousands. Many were brief comments made in the margins of his disciple's notebooks in answer to their questions and reports of their spiritual practiceothers extended to several pages of carefully composed explanations of practical aspects of his teachings. These were later collected and published in book form in three volumes of Letters on Yoga. In the late 1930s, he resumed work on a poem he had started earlierhe continued to expand and revise this poem for the rest of his life. It became perhaps his greatest literary achievement, Savitri, an epic spiritual poem in blank verse of approximately 24,000 lines.

Sri Aurobindo left His body on 5 December 1950. Around 60,000 people attended to see his body resting peacefully. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and President Rajendra Prasad praised him for his contribution to Yogic philosophy and the independence struggle. National and international newspapers commemorated his death.[41]

Sri Aurobindo's close spiritual collaborator, Mirra Alfassa (b. Alfassa), came to be known as The Mother.[46] She was a French national, born in Paris on 21 February 1878. In her 20s she studied occultism with Max Theon. Along with her husband, Paul Richard, she went to Pondicherry on 29 March 1914, and finally settled there in 1920. Sri Aurobindo considered her his spiritual equal and collaborator. After 24 November 1926, when Sri Aurobindo retired into seclusion, he left it to her to plan, build and run the ashram, the community of disciples which had gathered around them. Some time later, when families with children joined the ashram, she established and supervised the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education with its experiments in the field of education. When he died in 1950, She continued their spiritual work, directed the ashram, and guided their disciples.

Sri Aurobindo's concept of the Integral Yoga system is described in his books, The Synthesis of Yoga and The Life Divine. The Life Divine is a compilation of essays published serially in Arya.

Sri Aurobindo argues that divine Brahman manifests as empirical reality through ll, or divine play. Instead of positing that the world we experience is an illusion (my), Aurobindo argues that world can evolve and become a new world with new species, far above the human species just as human species have evolved after the animal species.

Sri Aurobindo believed that Darwinism merely describes a phenomenon of the evolution of matter into life, but does not explain the reason behind it, while he finds life to be already present in matter, because all of existence is a manifestation of Brahman. He argues that nature (which he interpreted as divine) has evolved life out of matter and then mind out of life. All of existence, he argues, is attempting to manifest to the level of the supermind that evolution had a purpose. He stated that he found the task of understanding the nature of reality arduous and difficult to justify by immediate tangible results.

Sri Aurobindo was an Indian nationalist but is best known for his philosophy on human evolution and Integral Yoga.

His influence has been wide-ranging. In India, S. K. Maitra, Anilbaran Roy and D. P. Chattopadhyaya commented on Sri Aurobindo's work. Writers on esotericism and traditional wisdom, such as Mircea Eliade, Paul Brunton, and Rene Guenon, all saw him as an authentic representative of the Indian spiritual tradition.

Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg[56] were among those who were inspired by Aurobindo, who worked on the newly formed American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco. Soon after, Chaudhuri and his wife Bina established the Cultural Integration Fellowship, from which later emerged the California Institute of Integral Studies.[57]

Karlheinz Stockhausen was heavily inspired by Satprem's writings about Sri Aurobindo during a week in May 1968, a time at which the composer was undergoing a personal crisis and had found Sri Aurobindo's philosophies were relevant to his feelings. After this experience, Stockhausen's music took a completely different turn, focusing on mysticism, that was to continue until the end of his career.

William Irwin Thompson travelled to Auroville in 1972, where he met "The Mother". Thompson has called Sri Aurobindo's teaching on spirituality a "radical anarchism" and a "post-religious approach" and regards their work as having "...reached back into the Goddess culture of prehistory, and, in Marshall McLuhan's terms, 'culturally retrieved' the archetypes of the shaman and la sage femme..." Thompson also writes that he experienced Shakti, or psychic power coming from The Mother on the night of her death in 1973.[59]

Sri Aurobindo's ideas about the further evolution of human capabilities influenced the thinking of Michael Murphy and indirectly, the human potential movement, through Murphy's writings.

The American philosopher Ken Wilber has called Sri Aurobindo "India's greatest modern philosopher sage"[61] and has integrated some of his ideas into his philosophical vision. Wilber's interpretation of Aurobindo has been criticised by Rod Hemsell.[62] New Age writer Andrew Harvey also looks to Sri Aurobindo as a major inspiration.[63]

The following authors, disciples and organisations trace their intellectual heritage back to, or have in some measure been influenced by, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

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Sri Aurobindo - Wikipedia

A Brief explanation is required about this book and might be summed up by another critique from amazon:

Sri Aurobindos sentences are built of triple dependent clauses (without commas, hes an Oxford grad)

Sri Aurobindos sentences are built of triple dependent clauses (without commas, hes an Oxford grad),but if you stay with him, follow the thread, youre a different person by the time you reach the period. He is pure genius. A gift from the Gods. His long sentences are a kind of meditation really; their gentle coaxing detail draws the inflated reactionary mind down to a still point.

In that vain it must be stated that this is one of the most intellectually difficult books to read and incredibly difficult to narrate because of the sentence structure and the inability to find a rhythm for the work. We have recorded approximately 1/3 of the 900 page book ( 17 hours ) and unless there is significant demand for the rest we will not complete the work for fear of not doing justice to the work. I believe this is one of those books that must be read, slowly, to attain the message. We added the incomplete audio to the site to give readers a taste of Sri Aurobindos erudition.

We apologize for the mispronunciation of any words or sentences, the fault was ours and not the authors. We submit the work with the hope it will be taken in the spirit in which it was intended, and we apologize if we fell short.

We recorded 31 chapters with a total recording length of 17hrs

The Life Divine

Sri Aurobindo

Book One

Omnipresent Reality and the UniverseChapter IThe Human Aspiration 3Chapter IIThe Two Negations1. The Materialist Denial 8Chapter IIIThe Two Negations2. The Refusal of the Ascetic 20Chapter IVReality Omnipresent 29Chapter VThe Destiny of the Individual 38Chapter VIMan in the Universe 47Chapter VIIThe Ego and the Dualities 56Chapter VIIIThe Methods of Vedantic Knowledge 66Chapter IXThe Pure Existent 78Chapter XConscious Force 87Chapter XIDelight of Existence: The Problem 98Chapter XIIDelight of Existence: The Solution 108Chapter XIIIThe Divine Maya 120Chapter XIVThe Supermind as Creator 130Chapter XVThe Supreme Truth-Consciousness 141Chapter XVIThe Triple Status of Supermind 152Chapter XVIIThe Divine Soul 161Chapter XVIIIMind and Supermind 170Chapter XIXLife 185Chapter XXDeath, Desire and Incapacity 200Chapter XXIThe Ascent of Life 210Chapter XXIIThe Problem of Life 220Chapter XXIIIThe Double Soul in Man 231Chapter XXIVMatter 245Chapter XXVThe Knot of Matter 254Chapter XXVIThe Ascending Series of Substance 266Chapter XXVIIThe Sevenfold Chord of Being 276Chapter XXVIIISupermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya 285Book TwoThe Knowledge and the IgnoranceThe Spiritual EvolutionPart IThe Infinite Consciousness and the IgnoranceChapter IIndeterminates, Cosmic Determinations andthe Indeterminable 309Chapter IIBrahman, Purusha, IshwaraMaya, Prakriti, Shakti 336Chapter IIIThe Eternal and the Individual 380

Chapter IThe Human AspirationShe follows to the goal of those that are passing on beyond,she is the first in the eternal succession of the dawns that arecoming,Usha widens bringing out that which lives, awakeningsomeone who was dead. . . . What is her scope whenshe harmonises with the dawns that shone out before andthose that now must shine? She desires the ancient morningsand fulfils their light; projecting forwards her illumination sheenters into communion with the rest that are to come.Kutsa AngirasaRig Veda.1Threefold are those supreme births of this divine force that isin the world, they are true, they are desirable; he moves therewide-overt within the Infinite and shines pure, luminous andfulfilling. . . . That which is immortal in mortals and possessedof the truth, is a god and established inwardly as an energyworking out in our divine powers. . . . Become high-uplifted,O Strength, pierce all veils, manifest in us the things of theGodhead. VamadevaRig Veda.2THE EARLIEST preoccupation of man in his awakenedthoughts and, as it seems, his inevitable and ultimatepreoccupation,for it survives the longest periods ofscepticism and returns after every banishment,is also thehighest which his thought can envisage. It manifests itself inthe divination of Godhead, the impulse towards perfection, thesearch after pure Truth and unmixed Bliss, the sense of a secretimmortality. The ancient dawns of human knowledge haveleft us their witness to this constant aspiration; today we seea humanity satiated but not satisfied by victorious analysis ofthe externalities of Nature preparing to return to its primevallongings. The earliest formula ofWisdom promises to be its last,God, Light, Freedom, Immortality.These persistent ideals of the race are at once the contradictionof its normal experience and the affirmation of higherand deeper experiences which are abnormal to humanity andonly to be attained, in their organised entirety, by a revolutionaryindividual effort or an evolutionary general progression. Toknow, possess and be the divine being in an animal and egoisticconsciousness, to convert our twilit or obscure physical mentalityinto the plenary supramental illumination, to build peaceand a self-existent bliss where there is only a stress of transitorysatisfactions besieged by physical pain and emotional suffering,to establish an infinite freedom in a world which presents itselfas a group of mechanical necessities, to discover and realisethe immortal life in a body subjected to death and constantmutation,this is offered to us as the manifestation of God inMatter and the goal of Nature in her terrestrial evolution. Tothe ordinary material intellect which takes its present organisationof consciousness for the limit of its possibilities, the directcontradiction of the unrealised ideals with the realised fact isa final argument against their validity. But if we take a moredeliberate view of the worlds workings, that direct oppositionappears rather as part of Natures profoundest method and theseal of her completest sanction.For all problems of existence are essentially problems ofharmony. They arise from the perception of an unsolved discordand the instinct of an undiscovered agreement or unity. To restcontent with an unsolved discord is possible for the practical andmore animal part of man, but impossible for his fully awakenedmind, and usually even his practical parts only escape fromthe general necessity either by shutting out the problem or byaccepting a rough, utilitarian and unillumined compromise. Foressentially, all Nature seeks a harmony, life and matter in theirown sphere as much as mind in the arrangement of its perceptions.The greater the apparent disorder of the materials offeredor the apparent disparateness, even to irreconcilable opposition,of the elements that have to be utilised, the stronger is the spur,and it drives towards a more subtle and puissant order thancan normally be the result of a less difficult endeavour. Theaccordance of active Life with a material of form in which thecondition of activity itself seems to be inertia, is one problem ofopposites that Nature has solved and seeks always to solve betterwith greater complexities; for its perfect solution would be thematerial immortality of a fully organised mind-supporting animalbody. The accordance of conscious mind and conscious willwith a form and a life in themselves not overtly self-consciousand capable at best of a mechanical or subconscious will isanother problem of opposites in which she has produced astonishingresults and aims always at higher marvels; for there herultimate miracle would be an animal consciousness no longerseeking but possessed of Truth and Light, with the practicalomnipotence which would result from the possession of a directand perfected knowledge. Not only, then, is the upward impulseof man towards the accordance of yet higher opposites rationalin itself, but it is the only logical completion of a rule and aneffort that seem to be a fundamental method of Nature and thevery sense of her universal strivings.We speak of the evolution of Life in Matter, the evolutionof Mind in Matter; but evolution is a word which merely statesthe phenomenon without explaining it. For there seems to be noreason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mindout of living form, unless we accept the Vedantic solution thatLife is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because inessenceMatter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Consciousness.And then there seems to be little objection to a fartherstep in the series and the admission that mental consciousnessmay itself be only a form and a veil of higher states which arebeyond Mind. In that case, the unconquerable impulse of mantowards God, Light, Bliss, Freedom, Immortality presents itselfin its right place in the chain as simply the imperative impulseby which Nature is seeking to evolve beyond Mind, and appearsto be as natural, true and just as the impulse towards Lifewhich she has planted in certain forms of Matter or the impulsetowardsMind which she has planted in certain forms of Life. Asthere, so here, the impulse exists more or less obscurely in herdifferent vessels with an ever-ascending series in the power of itswill-to-be; as there, so here, it is gradually evolving and boundfully to evolve the necessary organs and faculties. As the impulsetowards Mind ranges from the more sensitive reactions of Lifein the metal and the plant up to its full organisation in man, so inman himself there is the same ascending series, the preparation,if nothing more, of a higher and divine life. The animal is a livinglaboratory in which Nature has, it is said, worked out man. Manhimself may well be a thinking and living laboratory in whomand with whose conscious co-operation she wills to work outthe superman, the god. Or shall we not say, rather, to manifestGod? For if evolution is the progressive manifestation by Natureof that which slept or worked in her, involved, it is also the overtrealisation of that which she secretly is.We cannot, then, bid herpause at a given stage of her evolution, nor have we the right tocondemn with the religionist as perverse and presumptuous orwith the rationalist as a disease or hallucination any intentionshe may evince or effort she may make to go beyond. If it betrue that Spirit is involved in Matter and apparent Nature issecret God, then the manifestation of the divine in himself andthe realisation of God within and without are the highest andmost legitimate aim possible to man upon earth.Thus the eternal paradox and eternal truth of a divine lifein an animal body, an immortal aspiration or reality inhabitinga mortal tenement, a single and universal consciousness representingitself in limited minds and divided egos, a transcendent,indefinable, timeless and spaceless Being who alone renders timeand space and cosmos possible, and in all these the higher truthrealisable by the lower term, justify themselves to the deliberatereason as well as to the persistent instinct or intuition ofmankind. Attempts are sometimes made to have done finallywith questionings which have so often been declared insolubleby logical thought and to persuade men to limit their mentalactivities to the practical and immediate problems of theirmaterial existence in the universe; but such evasions are neverpermanent in their effect. Mankind returns from them with amore vehement impulse of inquiry or a more violent hunger foran immediate solution. By that hunger mysticism profits andnew religions arise to replace the old that have been destroyedor stripped of significance by a scepticism which itself couldnot satisfy because, although its business was inquiry, it wasunwilling sufficiently to inquire. The attempt to deny or stifle atruth because it is yet obscure in its outward workings and toooften represented by obscurantist superstition or a crude faith,is itself a kind of obscurantism. The will to escape from a cosmicnecessity because it is arduous, difficult to justify by immediatetangible results, slow in regulating its operations, must turn outeventually to have been no acceptance of the truth of Nature buta revolt against the secret, mightier will of the great Mother. It isbetter and more rational to accept what she will not allow us as arace to reject and lift it from the sphere of blind instinct, obscureintuition and random aspiration into the light of reason and aninstructed and consciously self-guiding will. And if there is anyhigher light of illumined intuition or self-revealing truth whichis now in man either obstructed and inoperative or works withintermittent glancings as if from behind a veil or with occasionaldisplays as of the northern lights in our material skies, then therealso we need not fear to aspire. For it is likely that such is thenext higher state of consciousness of which Mind is only a formand veil, and through the splendours of that light may lie thepath of our progressive self-enlargement into whatever higheststate is humanitys ultimate resting-place.

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The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo ( Audio Book )

We are often confronted with a problem or a situation where we do not know what to do. It is as if we are standing in front of a closed door whose key is lost and we are not able to move forward.

In these moments, if we take a book of spiritual force and power, concentrate quietly and with a kind of seeking, an inner quest, ask for guidance, help or an answer and open the book at random, there we find exactly the answer we were seeking, as if it had been written just for us!

This is a method which has been practised with books in many spiritual traditions since ancient times. Often the books used for this purpose are the Gita, the Bible, the Quran or a similar book that is imbued with a concentration of spiritual force and power.

The Mother explains the process behind this:

We have here a collection of quotations from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. If we can do the same thing as with a book, with a quiet concentration, with aspiration, and with faith click the button below, we believe that just the right quote which contains the right answer for each one of us will come on the screen:

The Mother too sometimes in her classes with children, took a book of Sri Aurobindo, opened a page at random and read out a sentence from there. The Mother was once asked, Can these sentences give one a sign or an indication? What should we do to get a true answer? She explained in detail what actually happens and how it is possible to get the indication or the answer:

Everybody can do it. It is done in this way: you concentrate. Now, it depends on what you want. If you have an inner problem and want the solution, you concentrate on this problem; if you want to know the condition you are in, which you are not aware ofif you want to get some light on the state you are in, you just come forward with simplicity and ask for the light. Or else, quite simply, if you are curious to know what the invisible knowledge has to tell you, you remain silent and still for a moment and then open the book. I always used to recommend taking a paper-knife, because it is thinner; while you are concentrated you insert it in the book and with the tip indicate something. Then, if you know how to concentrate, that is to say, if you really do it with an aspiration to have an answer, it always comes.

For, in books of this kind (Mother shows the book "The Synthesis of Yoga" by Sri Aurobindo), books of revelation, there is always an accumulation of forcesat least of higher mental forces, and most often of spiritual forces of the highest knowledge. Every book, on account of the words it contains, is like a small accumulator of these forces. People don't know this, for they don't know how to make use of it, but it is so. In the same way, in every picture, photograph, there is an accumulation, a small accumulation representative of the force of the person whose picture it is, of his nature and, if he has powers, of his powers. Now, when you are sincere and have an aspiration, you emanate a certain vibration, the vibration of your aspiration which goes and meets the corresponding force in the book, and it is a higher consciousness which gives you the answer.

And in a book there is potentiallynot expressed, not manifestthe knowledge which is in the person who wrote the book. Thus, Sri Aurobindo represented a totality of comprehension and knowledge and power; and every one of his books is at once a symbol and a representation. Every one of his books contains symbolically, potentially, what is in him. Therefore, if you concentrate on the book, you can, through the book, go back to the source. And even, by passing through the book, you will be able to receive much more than what is just in the book.

Naturally, the value of the answer depends on the value of the spiritual force contained in the book. If you take a novel, it will tell you nothing at all. But if you take a book containing a condensation of forcesof knowledge or spiritual force or teaching poweryou will receive your answer.

SABCL: Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library Edition, published on the occasion of Sri Aurobindos birth centenary in 1972 (in 30 volumes)CWSA: The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, published on the occasion of Sri Aurobindos 125th birth anniversary in 1997 (in 37 volumes)CWM1: Collected Works of the Mother, 1st Edition, published on the occasion of the Mother's birth centenary in 1978 (in 17 volumes)CWM2: Collected Works of the Mother, 2nd Edition, published on the occasion of the Mother's 125th birth anniversary in 2003 (in 17 volumes)

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Sri Aurobindo Society | Participate | Inner Quest

Shri Aurobindo

Indian philosopher and yogi

August 15, 1872

Kolkata, India

December 5, 1950 (aged 78)

Puducherry, India

Shri Aurobindo, original name Aurobindo Ghose, Aurobindo also spelled Aravinda, Shri also spelled Sri (born August 15, 1872, Calcutta [now Kolkata], Indiadied December 5, 1950, Pondicherry [now Puducherry]), yogi, seer, philosopher, poet, and Indian nationalist who propounded a philosophy of divine life on earth through spiritual evolution.

Aurobindos education began in a Christian convent school in Darjeeling (Darjiling). While still a boy, he was sent to England for further schooling. He entered the University of Cambridge, where he became proficient in two classical and several modern European languages. After returning to India in 1892, he held various administrative and professorial posts in Baroda (Vadodara) and Calcutta (Kolkata). Turning to his native culture, he began the serious study of Yoga and Indian languages, including classical Sanskrit.

From 1902 to 1910 Aurobindo partook in the struggle to free India from the British raj (rule). As a result of his political activities, he was imprisoned in 1908. Two years later he fled British India and found refuge in the French colony of Pondichry (Puducherry) in southeastern India, where he devoted himself for the rest of his life to the development of his integral yoga, which was characterized by its holistic approach and its aim of a fulfilled and spiritually transformed life on earth.

In Pondichry he founded a community of spiritual seekers, which took shape as the Shri Aurobindo Ashram in 1926. In that year he entrusted the work of guiding the seekers to his spiritual collaborator, Mirra Alfassa (18781973), who was called the Mother in the ashram. The ashram eventually attracted seekers from many countries throughout the world.

The evolutionary philosophy underlying Aurobindos integral yoga is explored in his main prose work, The Life Divine (1939). Rejecting the traditional Indian approach of striving for moksha (liberation from the cyle of death and rebirth, or samsara) as a means of reaching happier, transcendental planes of existence, Aurobindo held that terrestrial life itself, in its higher evolutionary stages, is the real goal of creation. He believed that the basic principles of matter, life, and mind would be succeeded through terrestrial evolution by the principle of supermind as an intermediate power between the two spheres of the infinite and the finite. Such a future consciousness would help to create a joyful life in keeping with the highest goal of creation, expressing values such as love, harmony, unity and knowledge and successfully overcoming the age-old resistance of dark forces against efforts to manifest the divine on earth.

Aurobindos voluminous literary output comprises philosophical speculation, many treatises on yoga and integral yoga, poetry, plays, and other writings. In addition to The Life Divine, his major works include Essays on the Gita (1922), Collected Poems and Plays (1942), The Synthesis of Yoga (1948), The Human Cycle (1949), The Ideal of Human Unity (1949), Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol (1950), and On the Veda (1956).

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Shri Aurobindo | Indian philosopher and yogi | Britannica.com

A tribute to Sri Aurobindo on the anniversary of His Mahasamadhi Day - December 5.12.1950"MorningPrayer"Om Sri Aurobindo MiraOpen my mind, my heart, my lifeOpen my mind, my heart, my lifeTo your Light,Your Love,Your Power,In All things May I see The Divine.Sri Aurobindo - 16.07.1938

Music composed and performed by Americo Piaggesi - AmeveilSpecial thanks to:Henri Tournier : BasseFabien Tournier : DrumsVideo Editing: MusauraFor more Spiritual composition please follow this link:www.musique-italienne.com/hommage-satprem

Sri Aurobindo gave this mantra to one sadhaka who requested Him a short prayer with the names of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. This was the answer: " I have written for you a brief prayer with the names in form of a mantra. I hope it will help you to overcome your difficulty and get an inner foundation." In receiving this mantra, the Sadhaka asked: "Do I have to consider the two names and the prayer as a single mantra?". Sri Aurobindo answered: "Yes".

Below the translations, in Italian and French, of the simple and inspired lyric:

"Om Sri Aurobindo MiraAprite la mia mente, il mio cuore e la mia vita alla vostra Luce,al vostro Amoree al vostro Potere.In tutte le cose, possa io vedere il Divino"

"Om Sri Aurobindo MiraOuvre mon esprit, ouvre mon coeur, ouvre ma vie a ta LumireA ton AmourA ton PouvoirQu'en toute chose je puisse voir le Divin."

"The only way to come a little closer to Him (Sri Aurobindo) is to love Him sincerely and give oneself unreservedly to His work. In that way, each one does his best and contributes as much as he can to the transformation of the world which Sri Aurobindo has predicted" The Mother 5,12, 1950.

Om Namo Bhagavat

May His light guide us in our research of the Truth and the Divine.

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Sri Aurobindo's Mantra - Morning Prayer December 5.12.2017 ...

The vast universal suffering feel as thine:Thou must bear the sorrow that thou claimst to heal;The day-bringer must walk in darkest night.He who would save the world must share its pain.If he knows not grief, how shall he find griefs cure?If far he walks above mortalitys head,How shall the mortal reach that too high path?If one of theirs they see scale heavens peaks,Men then can hope to learn that titan climb.God must be born on earth and be as manThat man being human may grow even as God.He who would save the world must be one with the world,All suffering things contain in his hearts spaceAnd bear the grief and joy of all that lives.His soul must be wider than the universeAnd feel eternity as its very stuff,Rejecting the moments personalityKnow itself older than the birth of Time,Creation an incident in its consciousness,Arcturus and Belphegor grains of fireCircling in a corner of its boundless self,The worlds destruction a small transient stormIn the calm infinity it has become.If thou wouldst a little loosen the vast chain,Draw back from the world that the Idea has made,Thy minds selection from the Infinite,Thy senses gloss on the Infinitesimals dance,Then shalt thou know how the great bondage came.Banish all thought from thee and be Gods void. Sri Aurobindo

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Sri Aurobindo Quotes (Author of The Life Divine)

Sri Aurobindo (Aurobindo Ghose) (Bengali: Sri robindo) (15 August 1872 5 December 1950) was an Indian nationalist and freedom fighter, major Indian English poet, philosopher, and yogi.He joined the movement for India's freedom from British rule and for a duration (1905 10), became one of its most important leaders,before turning to developing his own vision and philosophy of human progress and spiritual evolution. The central theme of Sri Aurobindo's vision is the evolution of life into a "life divine". In his own words: "Man is a transitional being. He is not final. The step from man to superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth evolution. It is inevitable because it is at once the intention of the inner spirit and the logic of Nature's process". The principal writings of Sri Aurobindo include, in prose, The Life Divine, considered his single great work of metaphysics,The Synthesis of Yoga, Secrets of the Vedas, Essays on the Gita, The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity, Renaissance in India and other essays, Supramental Manifestation upon Earth, The Future Poetry, Thoughts and Aphorisms and several volumes of letters. In poetry, his principal work is Savitri - a Legend and a Symbol in blank verse.

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The Life Divine: Sri Aurobindo: 9788170588443: Amazon.com ...

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Sri Aurobindo was a great political reformer and a spiritual master. This biography profiles his childhood, career, achievements and timeline.

Quick Facts

Famous as:

Political and Spiritual Leader

Nationality:

political ideology:

Indian National Congress

Birth Date:

Died At Age:

78

Sun Sign:

Leo

Born in:

Kolkata

father:

Krishna Dhan Ghosh

mother:

Swarnalata Devi

Spouse/Partner:

Mrinalini Devi

Died on:

place of death:

Puducherry

Founder/Co-Founder:

Sri Aurobindo Ashram

More Facts

education:

King's College, Cambridge, University of Cambridge, St Paul's School, London

Pictures Of Sri Aurobindo

Image Credithttp://www.aurovilleradio.org/collective-bonfire-at-mm/

Aurobindo Ghose, better known as Sri Aurobindo is known to the entire world as a great scholar, a national leader and a spiritual guru. He attained his basic as well as higher education from the United Kingdom. His literary excellence had been exemplary and brought him innumerable acclaims. He returned to India as a civil servant to the Maharaja of State of Baroda. Sri Aurobindos participation in the Indian national movement was short but impactful. His writings promoted the idea of complete independence for India thereby landing him in jail for political unrest. He came to limelight with his active participation in the freedom struggle against the British in India but he gradually evolved to become a spiritual and yogic guru. Some powerful visions backed by spiritualism encouraged him to move to Pondicherry where he worked on human evolution through spiritual activities such as Integral Yoga. Having chosen the mystical path for the rest of his life, he collaborated with people with similar pursuits.

Sri Aurobindo

Childhood & Early Life

Return to India

Role in the Indian freedom Struggle

Politics to Spiritualism

Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Personal Life & Legacy

See the events in life of Sri Aurobindo in Chronological Order

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Article Title

- Sri Aurobindo Biography

Author

- Editors, TheFamousPeople.com

Website

- TheFamousPeople.com

URL

-https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/sri-aurobindo-76.php

Last Updated

- October 06, 2015

Pictures of Sri Aurobindo

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http://www.collectedworksofsriaurobindo.com/index.php/photogallery/sri-aurobindo

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http://www.sriaurobindoinstitute.org/saioc/spiritual/darshan/Sri_Aurobindo_birthday/15_aug_2014

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Sri Aurobindo Biography - Famous People

JAIPUR: After a pilot in Uttar Pradesh last year, where HDFC Bank trained 5 lakh teachers in 1.75 lakh government schools for improving quality of education, the lender on Wednesday rolled out the scheme across 12 states starting from Rajasthan. As part of the Zero Investment Innovations for Education Initiatives (ZIIEI), the lender invites innovative ideas from teachers aimed at improving teaching in classrooms, reducing drop-out rates, creating a conducive environment for girls and enhancing teacher, parent and community involvement. "Over two crore school students in Uttar Pradesh are going to be benefited because of the intervention. In Rajasthan, HDFC Bank will train 2 lakh teachers in over 70,000 government schools benefiting more than 81 lakh students. But cumulatively, 15 lakh teachers across 12 states in 6.2 lakh schools will be covered under the ZIIEI," said Smita Bhagat, branch banking head north, HDFC Bank The initiative is implemented in partnership with Sri Aurobindo Society and state governments, the bank said.

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HDFC Bank to train 15 lakh government teachers in 12 states - Times of India