-001_Publisher^s Note.htm Publisher's Note This compilation deals with the aims and ideals of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, its character and way of life. The subjects covered include living in the Ashram, the practice of the Integral Yoga, the place of work, relations with others, religion, philanthropy, politics and business. The texts are all brief passages from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother; most are letters to disciples who were living in the Ashram. At the end there are notes on Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and the Ashram, and a glossary.     The book has been prepared especially for the members of the Ashram, but it will be of interest to anyone who wishes to understand the purpose of the

Chapter 4 Work in the Ashram THE MEANING OF WORK What you write shows that you had a wrong idea of the work. The work in the Ashram was not meant as a service to humanity or to a section of it called the sadhaks of the Ashram. It was not meant either as an opportunity for a joyful social life and a flow of sentiments and attachments between the sadhaks and an expression of the vital movements, a free vital interchange whether with some or with all. The work was meant as a service to the Divine and as a field for the inner opening to the Divine, surrender to the Divine alone, rejection of ego and all the ordinary vital movements and the training in a psychic elevation, selflessness, obed

Glossary The philosophical and psychological terms in this glossary are defined almost entirely in Sri Aurobindo's words. Ashram - the house or houses of a Teacher or Master of spiritual philosophy in which he receives and lodges those who come to him for the teaching and practice; a spiritual community. bhakti - love for the Divine, devotion to the Divine. Brahman-the Reality, the Eternal, the Infinite, the Absolute, the One besides whom there is nothing else existent. Chit-Tapas - Conscious Force. Gita - the Bhagavad Gita, the "Song of the Blessed Lord", being the spiritual teachings of Sri Krishna spoken to Arjuna on the battlfield of Kurukshetra. Integral Yoga - a u

Chapter 2 Living in the Ashram LIVING IN THE ASHRAM AND OUTSIDE By coming to the Ashram difficulties do not cease-they have to be faced and overcome wherever you are. For certain natures residence in the Ashram from the beginning is helpful-others have to prepare themselves outside. 8 June 1937 SRI AUROBINDO Do not judge on appearances and do not listen to what people say, because these two things are misleading. But if you find it necessary to go, of course you can go and from an external point of view it may be indeed wiser.     Moreover it is not easy to remain here. There is in the Ashram no exterior discipline and no Visible test. But th

The Aims and Ideals of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram The Aims and Ideals of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Selections from the Works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM PONDICHERRY First edition 2000 ISBN 81-7058-625-9 Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2000 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN

References to the Texts Most of the texts of this book have been taken from the thirty-volume Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (SABCL) and the seventeen-volume Collected Works of the Mother (CWM), both published by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. Some texts have been taken from other books and journals, all of them published by the Ashram unless otherwise indicated. The titles of the works, with their abbreviated titles and years of publication, are listed below. Abbreviation Title SABCL l6 The Supramental Manifestation and Other Writings(1971) SABCL 22-24 Letters on Yoga (1970) SABCL 25 The Mother with Letters on the Mother(1972) SAB

Chapter 1 The Character of the Ashram THE FOUNDATION Sri Aurobindo1 lived at first in retirement at Pondicherry with four or five disciples. Afterwards more and yet more began to come to him to follow his spiritual path and the number became so large that a community of sadhaks had to be formed for the maintenance and collective guidance of those who had left everything behind for the sake of a higher life. This was the foundation of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram which has less been created than grown around him as its centre. SRI AUROBINDO * There was no Ashram at first, only a few people came to live near and practise Yoga. It

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta on 15 August 1872. At the age of seven he was taken to England for his education. There he studied at St. Paul's School, London, and at King's College, Cambridge. Returning to India in 1893, he worked for the next thirteen years in the Princely State of Baroda in the service of the Maharaja and as a professor in the state's college.     In 1906 Sri Aurobindo quit his post in Baroda and went to Calcutta, where he became one of the leaders of the Indian national movement. As editor of the newspaper Band Mataram, he boldly put forward the idea of complete independence from Britain. Arrested three times for sedition or treason, he wa

Chapter 7 Other Subjects PHYSICAL EDUCATION Some, of course, might ask why any sports at all in an Ashram which ought to be concerned onl y with meditation and inner experiences and the escape from life into Brahman. But that applies only to the ordinary kind of Ashram to which we have got accustomed and this is not that orthodox kind of Ashram. It includes life in Yoga, and once we admit life we can include anything that we find useful for life's ultimate and immediate purpose and not inconsistent with the works of the Spirit. After all, the orthodox Ashram came into being only after Brahman began to shun all connection with the world and the shadow of Buddhism stalked over all the land a

Chapter 3 The Integral Yoga WHAT IS THE INTEGRAL YOGA? There are many Yogas, many spiritual disciplines, paths towards liberation and perfection, Godward ways of the spirit. Each has its separate aim, its peculiar approach to the One Reality, its separate method, its helpful philosophy and its practice. The integral Yoga takes up all of them in their essence and tries to arrive at a unification (in essence, not in detail) of all these aims, methods, approaches; it stands for an all-embracing philosophy and practice. SRI AUROBINDO * The integral Yoga is so called because it aims at a harmonised totality of spiritual realisation and expe