I. EARLY LIFE IN ENGLAND: 1879-1893 aurobindo was born on August 15th, 1872, in Calcutta. His father, a man of great ability and strong personality, had been among the first to go to England for his education. He returned entirely anglicised in habits, ideas and ideals,— so strongly that his Aurobindo as a child spoke English and Hindustani only and learned his mother-tongue only after his return from England. He was determined that his children should receive an entirely European upbringing. While in India they were sent for the beginning of their education to an Irish nuns' school in Darjeeling and in 1879 he took his three sons to

MESSAGES ON THE WAR ¹Some forces are working for the Divine, some are quite anti-divine in their aim and purpose. If the nations or the governments who are blindly the instruments of the divine forces were perfectly pure and divine in their processes and forms of action as well as in the inspiration they receive so ignorantly they would be invincible, because the divine forces themselves are invincible. It is the mixture in the outward expression that gives to the Asura the right to defeat them. To be a successful instrument for the Asuric forces is easy, because they take all the movements of your lower nature and make use of them, so that you have no spiritual effort to mak

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE sri aurobindo on himself and on the mother was first published in 1953 as Volume I of the Sri Aurobindo International University Centre Collection. Part One of this volume consisted of Sri Aurobindo's notes and letters concerning his life and Yoga; Part Two contained his letters relating both to himself and to the Mother; and Part Three was a revised and enlarged version of the book letters of sri aurobindo on the mother, first published in 1951 by the Sri Aurobindo Circle, Bombay The present Volume (No. 26) of the sri aurobindo birth centenary library consists of Parts One and Two of the 1953 edition, revised and cons

                       

Section Two IDENTITY OF THEIR CONSCIOUSNESS IDENTITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND PATH The opposition between the Mother's consciousness and my consciousness was an invention of the old days (due mainly to X, Y and others of that time) and emerged in a time when the Mother was not fully recognised or accepted by some of those who were here at the beginning. Even after they had recognised her they persisted in this meaningless opposition and did great harm to them and others. The Mother's consciousness and mine are the same, the one Divine Consciousness in two, because that is necessary for the play. Nothing can be done without her knowledge and force, witho

IV. CORRECTIONS OF WRONG STATEMENTS IN THE PRESS ¹This is my answer to the questions arising from your letter. Except on one point which calls for some explanation, I confine myself to the plain facts. 1. I was the writer of the series of articles on the "Passive Resistance" published [in the Bande Mataram} in April 1907 to which reference has been made; Bepin Pal had nothing to do with it. He ceased his connection with the paper towards the end of 1906 and from that time onward was not writing any editorials or articles for it. I planned several series of this kind for the Bande Mataram and at least three were published of which the "Pa

Section Six THE POET AND THE CRITIC READING AND POETIC CREATION AND YOGA A literary man is one who loves literature and literary activities for their own separate sake. A Yogi who writes is not a literary man for he writes only what the inner Will and Word wants him to express. He is a channel and instrument of something greater than his own literary personality. Of course, the literary man and the intellectual love reading — books are their mind's food. But writing is another matter. There are plenty of people who never write a word in the literary way but are enormous readers. One reads for ideas, for knowledge, for the stimulation of the mind by all tha

Section Three HIS PATH AND OTHER PATHS SRI AUROBINDO'S TEACHING AND  METHOD OF SADHANA The teaching of Sri Aurobindo starts from that of the ancient sages of India that behind the appearances of the universe there is the Reality of a Being and Consciousness, a Self of all things, one and eternal. All beings are united in that One Self and Spirit but divided by a certain separativity of consciousness, an ignorance of their true Self and Reality in the mind, life and body. It is possible by a certain psychological discipline to remove this veil of separative consciousness and become aware of the true Self, the Divinity within us and all. Sri Aurob

Section Seven REMINISCENCES AND OBSERVATIONS LAST WORD IN HUMAN NATURE Lies? Well, a Punjabi student at Cambridge once took our breath away by the frankness and comprehensive profundity of his affirmation: "Liars! But we are all liars!" It appeared that he had intended to say "lawyers", but his pronunciation gave his remark a deep force of philosophic observation and generalisation which he had not intended! But it seems to me the last word in human nature. Only the lying is sometimes intentional, sometimes vaguely half-intentional, sometimes quite unintentional, momentary and unconscious. So there you are!... Of course you are right about the lies

II. LIFE IN BARODA: 1893-1906  APPOINTMENTS IN BARODA STATE . He was first put in the Land Settlement Department, for a short time in the Stamps Office, then in the Central Revenue Office and in the Secretariat. Afterwards without joining the College and while doing other work he was lecturer in French at the College and finally at his own request was appointed there as Professor of English. All through, the Maharaja used to call him whenever something had to be written which needed careful wording; he also employed him to prepare some of his public speeches and in other work of a literary or educational character. Afterwards Sri Aurobindo became the Vice-Principal of the