Deliberate Distortions of Sri Aurobindo's Life and Yoga

Integral Musings

Sri Aurobindo is a versatile spiritual genius, who is not only a Master-Yogi with profound spiritual realizations, but also a great scholar and thinker who wrote extensively on various topics ranging from politics to yoga. His writings shine with a penetrating spiritual insight which brings out the deeper, psychological and spiritual dimensions of the human, terrestrial and cosmic life. In this article, we present a brief and synoptic overview of the contents of Sri Aurobindo’s major works.

International Journal of Dharma Studies, 2015

Integral Review, 2013

Sri Aurobindo’s teachings on Integral Yoga are couched in a universal and impersonal language, and could be considered an early input to contemporary transpersonal psychology. Yet, while he was writing his principal works in English, he was also keeping a diary of his experiences and understandings in a personal patois that hybridized English and Sanskrit. A hermeneutic perusal of this text, The Record of Yoga, published by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, uncovers the semiotics of Indian yoga traditions, showing how Sri Aurobindo utilizes and furthers their discourse, and where he introduces new elements which may be considered “modern.” This essay takes a psychobiographical approach to the life of Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950), tracing his encounters with texts and situated traditions of Indian yoga from the period of his return to India from England (1893) till his settlement in Pondicherry (1910), to excavate the traditional roots and modern ruptures of his own yoga practice, which goes to...

Religious Studies Review, 2009

The title of today’s paper is The Importance of Aurobindo for the Contemporary Study of Religion and it reflects the general direction taken by my thesis. However, instead of making a general presentation about how the Aurobindonian texts make a significant contribution to present debates within the academic study of religion, I will make visible this direction by presenting a section from one of the chapters of the thesis that expressively illustrates it. But diving straight into this chapter would obfuscate rather than reveal its role in the overall argument of the thesis. Hence this presentation adopts a tripartite structure in order to not only capture the tenor of my overall project but also to locate the section that I am presenting today within this larger whole. The three parts could, therefore, be seen as a meditation on three titles: The first part would be a brief exposition of my thesis title which would offer a glimpse into my overall research project. The title being – Embodied Spirit: A Hermeneutical Reading of Aurobindo’s Integral Philosophy with Implications for the Study of Religion. In this part, I offer a brief introduction to Aurobindo and how a study of his texts fits into my larger research project. The second part would be a brief exposition of the title of the Chapter from which the section I am presenting today is taken. The title is – The Synthesis of Yoga: Action, Yoga and Tradition. In this part, I will focus in particular on an aspect of the debate within the study of religion that is being addressed by this chapter. The third part would be a section of the abovementioned chapter. The title of this part, which would also technically be the subtitle of this entire presentation, is – Interpreting Aurobindo’s reading of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras as Yogic Action Performing Tradition.

Chapter in Modern Hinduism in Text and Context. Ed. Lavanya Vemsani. New York, Bloomsbury Academic., 2018

The Integral Yoga of the Mother (née Mirra Alfassa, 1878-1973) and Sri Aurobindo (née Aurobindo Ghose, 1872-1950) draws upon many Hindu practices and philosophies like Śaktism, Vedānta, Tantra, and the yogas of the Bhagavad Gītā, yet innovates on these to “divinize” or transform the Earth and body instead of transcending them. Sri Aurobindo’s work has since inspired many prominent thinkers and is considered a significant contribution to Hindu and religious studies, as well as twentieth-century colonial Indian history. He is regarded one of “the founding fathers of the modern yoga renaissance” along with Swami Vivekananda and Shri Yogendra. However, scholars often overlook the fact that these two gurus were artists and that their Integral Yoga is a practice that values the arts and beauty as a central means for growth in consciousness, both for themselves and for their students. This oversight negatively impacts how to interpret their teaching and its praxis. The most recent scholarly biography of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs, entitled The Lives of Sri Aurobindo (2008) is typical. It critically describes five interrelated lives that characterize his development: son, scholar, revolutionary, yogi, and finally, guide. However, the life of “artist” as an explicit focus is conspicuously absent. Mirra Alfassa, later called “the Mother,” is also often neglected by scholars in their examinations of this new religious movement. Her life and work are indispensable to Sri Aurobindo’s creative and spiritual experience and goals. Using a visual culture approach, my chapter would importantly treat the Mother in an equal manner to Sri Aurobindo and focus on her life as an artist as well, since she used painting and music in her own spiritual practice and in her guidance with some of her students. In fact, one could characterize the two together as “spiritual consorts.” I borrow this term from Hindu sacred stories of gods and goddesses and their incarnations, who are often described as “consorts” or svakīya, svapati, or kalatra in Sanskrit.

Nova Religio, 2015

The Sri Aurobindo Ashram was founded by Sri Aurobindo Ghose and Mirra Alfassa as a place for individuals to practice yoga in a community setting. Some observers regard the ashram as the center of a religious movement, but Aurobindo said that any attempt to base a movement on his teachings would end in failure. Nevertheless, some of his followers who view themselves as part of a movement use mass mobilization techniques, litigation and political lobbying to advance their agenda, which includes the dismissal of current ashram trustees and amendment of the ashram’s trust deed. In this article, I examine Aurobindo’s ideas on the relationship between individual and community, and I sketch the history of the ashram with reference to these ideas. As a member of the ashram, I approach this study from a hybrid insider/ outsider stance.

Prabuddha Bharat Journal, 2019

There exists a distinction between a conventional life, the religious life and the spiritual life. Morality is a piece of a standard life. The religious life is an adventure of the equivalent insensible human consciousness attempting towards the divine, celestial yet at the same time without understanding the learning and driven by the obstinate fundamentals of some order or statement of faith. Though the spiritual life is conveyed straight route by a change from the common dimension of consciousness, obliviousness and void from its actual self and from the God to an incredible upper, higher awareness which is over the physical, key and mental consciousness and which is detached with the sense and personality of a different "I" in which one at long last discovers one's own actual being and starts things out into immediate and living contact and after that association with the divine. Spiritual life comes to beyond the brain and goes into the more deeper dimension of awareness of the soul and acts dependent on a definitive truth of the soul.

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1872–1950) developed, practiced and taught a form of yoga, which he named integral yoga. If one peruses the texts he has written pertaining to his teaching, one finds a variety of models, goals, and practices which may be termed formulations or versions of the integral yoga. This article compares three such formulations, aiming to determine whether these are the same, but in different words, as meant for different audiences, or whether they represent different understandings of the yoga based on changing perceptions. The article also tries to compare the versions in terms of differences in emphases and/or responses to the problem of integrality, which Sri Aurobindo tried to answer through practices and resultant experiences.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCE RESEARCH, IDEAS AND INNOVATIONS IN TECHNOLOGY

The paper is about Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. Sri Aurobindo uses the word "integral" as a prefix. Sri Aurobindo's philosophy is an integral philosophy. Yoga is an integral yoga. The purpose of integral yoga is perfection. The purpose, aims, principles and the major concepts of Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga are explained in detail in this work. Education "The ancient dawns of human knowledge have left us their witness to this constant aspiration; today we see humanity satiated but not satisfied by victorious analysis of the externalities of Nature preparing to return to its primaeval longings. The earliest formula of Wisdom promises to be it's last,-God, Light, Freedom, Immortality."-Sri Aurobindo