India · 1872–1950
Sri Aurobindo
Nationalist revolutionary turned philosopher of spiritual evolution
After leading radical nationalism in Bengal he withdrew to Pondicherry and developed Integral Yoga: consciousness involved in matter is evolving toward a ‘supermind’ that will transform life on earth.
Life and thought
Aurobindo Ghose (1872–1950) was educated in England from the age of seven, at St Paul’s School and King’s College, Cambridge. Back in India he became a leader of radical nationalism in Bengal, calling for complete independence. Arrested in the Alipore bomb case in 1908, he spent a year in jail, where, he later wrote, spiritual experiences changed his course. Acquitted, he withdrew in 1910 to French-ruled Pondicherry, where he lived until his death and where an ashram grew up around him and his collaborator Mirra Alfassa, “the Mother”.
His Integral Yoga turns Vedānta toward evolution. Spirit has “involved” itself in matter; evolution is the reverse movement, from matter through life and mind toward higher planes of consciousness. The next step is the “supermind”, a truth-consciousness that would not escape the world, as older yogas sought to, but transform life and the body on earth. The Life Divine, first serialised in 1914–19 and revised as a book in 1939–40, sets out this vision.
Works
Shaped by
1863–1902Swami VivekanandaAurobindo said that Vivekananda’s presence came to him in meditation while he was in Alipore jail.Meanwhile, in other traditions
1870–1945Nishida KitarōFounder of the Kyoto School1872–1970Bertrand RussellLogician, public intellectual and Nobel laureate; lectured in China 1920–211873–1958G. E. MooreCambridge defender of common sense against idealism1882–1936Moritz SchlickPhysicist-philosopher who led the Vienna Circle1885–1962Tanabe HajimeKyoto School philosopher and Nishida’s critic1885–1968Xiong ShiliFounder of New Confucian metaphysicsOn the record
Aurobindo said that Vivekananda’s presence came to him in meditation while he was in Alipore jail.
In a letter of 13 September 1946 Sri Aurobindo wrote that he heard ‘constantly the voice of Vivekananda speaking to me for a fortnight in the jail in my solitary meditation’ and ‘felt his presence’, on a limited field of spiritual experience. It is his own later account, as the atlas implies, of his 1908–09 imprisonment in the Alipore bomb case.
Sources: Sri Aurobindo, letter of 13 September 1946 (Letters on Himself and the Ashram)