-06_Notes on the Texts

The present volume consists of about half of the non-literary prose writings of Sri Aurobindo on yoga and yogic philosophy and psychology not. published during his lifetime. The other half, the more complete, fully developed and clear of the mass of writings on these subjects, is being published in the revised edition (1982) of The Hour of God. The writings in that book may rightly be considered essays; those included here are more in the nature of notes, drafts, fragments etc.

There is a third division of the general prose writings of the period — essays and fragments of essays on various subjects, cultural and historical as well as yogic, that are more literary in their turn of expression than those included in the present volume and The Hour of God. These writings, most of which have already appeared in print, will be published under the title Essays Divine and Human. Prose writings on such specialised subjects as Vedic and Vedantic interpretation and philology form a separate category, as do letters on all subjects. Drafts written in connection with works published by Sri Aurobindo are not normally considered as separate writings.

In order to avoid confusion it should be clearly understood that the revised edition of The Hour of God includes, besides most writings published in previous editions of that book, some that hitherto have appeared only in journals or (in one or two cases) not at all. The present volume includes several writings that had previously formed part of The Hour of God, others published only in journals, and a large number that are being published here for the first time.¹ In deciding whether a writing was to be included in the revised edition of The Hour of God or the present volume, no notice was taken of the printing history of the writing. The criteria were whether it was complete (not a fragment), fully developed (not a draft) and clear (not presenting unusual textual problems).

The arrangement of the notes, drafts and fragments included in the present volume is entirely the work of the editors. The material is of three main types: examinations of the great principles of things—God, Nature and evolutionary man; treatments of consciousness and its scientific study; and writings on the meaning and methods of yoga. The editors have placed the writings of these three categories in three parts, headed Philosophy, Psychology and Yoga respectively. These rubrics have been provided for the convenience of the reader; it should not be necessary to remind him that this philosophy is not abstract speculation, this psychology not what goes by that name in experimental laboratories, and this yoga ,not limited to any traditional discipline. It should also be understood that pieces placed in one part often deal with the topics of one or both other parts. Pieces from all three parts whose

¹ Of the 77 pieces in this issue, comprising part 1 of the volume. 44 are being published for the first time. 16 appeared previously in The Hour of God or another book. 12 were published previously only in a journal, and 5 were partly published and partly unpublished.

manuscripts were especially difficult and whose texts are therefore questionable in places have been put in the Appendix.

Each of the parts has been divided into sections and subsections. These, like the parts, fell so easily into groups of three that the compilers with only a little effort were able to arrange the whole book on the pattern 3x3x3. There is of course nothing explicit in the material to support any such neat arrangement; but sets of triplets occur frequently in Sri Aurobindo's writings (see for example Synthesis of Yoga, Part 4, Chapter 12), and since some structural framework seemed called for, this arrangement was settled on. For convenience of reference the pieces have been numbered serially in a single sequence.

There are two main drawbacks to the scheme of arrangement adopted. First, certain writings of related origin, sometimes occurring together in the same manuscript, have been separated, as have certain writings of the same date. Secondly, writings that deal with more than one subject have perforce been placed in a single section. All told, however, the subject classificiation seems justified. Sri Aurobindo's notebooks are not good guides to his intentions, since he used single notebooks for writings on various subjects and put drafts of the same piece in different ones. It is not possible at this point to reconstruct the form he intended to give to the writings on any one subject, much less to the whole body of them. Ideas, themes and even key phrases recur so regularly over the forty-year period that a subject classification is demanded in preference to a chronological one; on the other hand the themes are so interwoven that no classification can be clear-cut and without overlap. The Notes on the Texts below give dating and textual information on each piece. The table that follows the Notes shows pieces that are related by date and/or manuscript.

A number of the pieces have headings in the manuscript. Some of these were apparently intended to be the titles of the essays or even the books that the pieces would have introduced. Since as often as not Sri Aurobindo abandoned the pieces before the subject given in the title was reached, and since the titles would have confused the editorial arrangement, all titles have been omitted from the texts. All are given in the Notes. Some of them have been made the titles of sections or subsections; one heading used twice by Sri Aurobindo, "From Man to Superman", has been chosen as the title of the entire compilation.

Pieces have been taken from some fifty separate manuscripts (notebooks and loose sheets).¹ The manuscript numbers of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives have been given in the Notes. See Archives and Research, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 90-91, for an explanation of this system of numbering. Savitri (S) notebook numbers, because they are tentative, have been enclosed within inverted commas.

Where two or more drafts of a single piece exist, the latest draft only has been printed so long as (1) it is as extensive as any other draft; (2) it incorporates all significant passages from earlier drafts. Significant omitted passages have been given in footnotes. It was felt that this was justified because even the latest drafts are not final. Where a later draft is shorter than an earlier one, i.e. was not rewritten to the full extent, the text of the piece is eclectic. In such combinations the second draft is used to its end and the balance of the text provided by the first draft. The portion

¹ The 77 pieces printed in the present issue are taken from 36 manuscripts (26 notebooks and 10 loose sheets).

of the first draft corresponding to the second is discarded. The editors have left a space between the segments of pieces combined in this way, and also between separate but related pieces treated as a single piece. The spaces in two pieces (28 and 67) occur in Sri Aurobindo's manuscripts. He usually placed some sort of sign (asterisk, group of asterisks, bar, etc.) to mark his own division of pieces into sections. The editors have represented his mark uniformly by a single asterisk. (In one case Sri Aurobindo used both single and double asterisks; this twofold division has been retained.)

All the manuscripts were written by hand. Some are difficult to read, a few almost illegible. The most difficult pieces have been placed in the Appendix; the text of all the others is sufficiently certain. Few pieces received more than a light revision, some none at all. Sometimes Sri Aurobindo left a word, sentence or paragraph half-revised. For these reasons more editing than usual has been required. A Note on Editorial Method follows the individual Notes on the Texts. After this comes a table listing all substantive emendations.

1 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 23-24. Heading: "The Divine" (used as the heading of this subsection). Published in the Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo Centre of Education (hereafter Bulletin), vol. 31, no. 1 (February 1979), 56. In MS, paragraph 2, sentence 2, "acts by" is written above "is a form of its Energy". Sri Aurobindo may have intended "acts by its Energy" ("acts by a form of its Energy" does not make a good reading); but since his intentions are not clear "acts by" has been considered an incomplete alteration, and has not been incorporated in the text.

2 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MSS: draft 1, NB G47, 18-22; draft 2, NB S"125", 19-20. Pages 18-19a of draft 1 were rewritten by Sri Aurobindo as most of draft 2 (down to "boundless finite", paragraph 5); accordingly in the present text draft 2 (the first segment) replaces pages 18-19a of draft 1, which are discarded. Draft 2 ends abruptly in MS; the full stop after "whole matter" has been placed there by the editors. Draft 2 published in The Hour of God and Other Writings (1972) (hereafter HG (1972)), 176-77, under the editorial title "The Secret Truth"; the published segment of draft 1 appears here for the first time. [Note that the space meant to separate the two segments is not evident because the first segment ends at the bottom of page 4.]

3 Circa 1936. MS.NB S"90", 3-4. In sentences 1 and 2 Sri Aurobindo has enclosed the passages "a Spirit which is the beginning. . . . This is the" and "the one Truth. . . to contradict it." within round brackets. After this bracketting he added, after "fundamental Reality", the phrase "which is hidden from our knowledge". If the bracketted passages are omitted and the new phrase added the piece opens: "All existence, whatever its appearance or its process of being is and draws its substance, origin, energy, truth from [a] fundamental Reality which is hidden from our knowledge. To be conscious. . .". Since Sri Aurobindo did not cancel the earlier, more extensive version, it has been retained, the added phrase being inserted where indicated. In sentence 3 Sri Aurobindo altered "To be conscious" and "to live" to "If we could be conscious" and "if we could live", but he did not alter the rest of the sentence to accord with this change. The earlier version has therefore been restored. In sentence 7 Sri Aurobindo altered the second occurrence of the phrase "or escape

out of it" to "or [illegible word] and hope to get [out omitted] of it"; because of the textual difficulties the original phrase has been used. Published here for the first time.

4 Circa 1912. MS.NB 35. Heading: " Ishavasyam". On the two following pages of the same notebook is written a fragmentary commentary on the Isha Upanishad editorially titled Isha Vasyam (SABCL vol. 12, 524-26). The present piece is clearly related to that commentary. At the end of the last sentence of the piece the following phrase occurs: "This unknown reality is called Brahman,". The comma in the MS indicates that the statement is not complete. It probably would have been followed by a clause introduced by "because", "since", etc. The phrase appears tautological without such a clause, and therefore has been omitted from the present text. Published (with the last phrase) SABCL vol. 12 (The Upanishads), unnumbered page before text.

5 Arya period (1914-20). MS.LS GAlg, 1. No full stop at end of last sentence, indicating an abrupt breaking off. Published here for the first time.

6 Circa 1928-29. MS.NB G45, 13 (cf. piece 69). Paragraph 3 originally began: "I speak not of pure existence only, existence in its essence. . .". This was altered to "It is not of pure existence only that this. . .". The phrase "that this", added inter-linearly, was not completed; the editors have supplied the needed words "can be said" within square brackets. Published here for the first time.

7 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 56 (cf. pieces 1 and 8-10). Pieces 7-14 are fragmentary treatments of a theme taken up by Sri Aurobindo recurrently over a period of ten to twenty years. Pieces 7-10 all occur in the same notebook. Cf. also piece 51 and others to be published in the next issue. This piece published here for the first time.

8 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 50-52 (cf. piece 7 etc.). Published here for the first time.

9 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 55, 58 (cf. piece 7 etc.). The last paragraph is written on a page separated from the page used for the first four paragraphs by two pages containing pieces 7 and 26; this last paragraph may have been written as an independent draft or even as the conclusion of piece 26, but it seems more likely it was meant to follow the first four paragraphs here, and it has been printed in this way. Published here for the first time.

10 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 63,64b (cf. piece 7 etc.). Published here for the first time.

11 Circa 1942. MS. unclassified loose sheet on the front of which is a draft of part of the introduction to the revised edition (1942) of Perseus the Deliverer (SABCL vol. 6, 1-2). The phrase "Ekam evadvitiyam" was written at the end of the first paragraph, then cancelled. Published here for the first time.

12 Circa 1945. MS.NB G65, 1-2. Heading: "God, Nature and Soul/God/1" (cf. the subtitle of this part). The handwriting is legible only with difficulty. Published here for the first time.

14 Circa 1934. MS.NB G51, 15-16 (cf. piece 13). Published here for the first time.

15 Circa 1927. MS.NB R26, 99. The piece is clearly a fragment. Published here for the first time.

rated by a short bar; this has been changed to an asterisk by the editors. Published HG (1972), 48-49.

17 17 June 1914. MS.NB Rl 1, 47 (cf. piece 28). Heading: "The Tablet of Vedanta". The opening sentence was written above the title in MS, evidently after some or all of the rest had been written. Some of the paragraphs were indicated by leaving long horizontal spaces between sentences. Paragraphs 1 to 4, but not the rest, are numbered in MS. Published Bulletin, vol. 31, no. 3 (August 1979), 88-90.

18 Circa 1934. MS.NB G51, 21b. The piece consists of the last complete sentence of a piece on integral yoga to be published in the next issue. It has been detached from that piece since it begins but does not develop a new line of thought. The piece on yoga stands better without the sentence, which goes well in this section. The sentence is followed in MS by the following phrase: "There is a path of Yoga that". This shows that the the writing was broken off abruptly. Published here for the first time.

19 Circa 1913. MS.NB GA2,11. Headed in MS. by "III"; pieces "I" and "II", which precede the present piece in the same notebook, are entitled "The Entire Purpose of Yoga" and "Parabrahman, Mukti and Human Thought-Systems". The three pieces were published together under the editorial title "Purna Yoga" in HG (1972), 61-69. Pieces "I" and "II" still form part of The Hour of God (1982) (hereafter HG (1982)). The present piece, because it is less complete than the other two, has been placed in the present volume.

20 Circa 1930. MS.NB S"119", 11. Heading: "2./The Fundamental Knowledge"; preceded in the same notebook by a piece headed "The Path", which is the major portion of what is published as "The Supramental Yoga" in HG (1972), 70-72; in HG (1982) that portion only published as "The Path". The present piece published here for the first time.

22 Circa 1913. MS.NB GA3, 3. Published HG (1972), 43, as part of the compilation "The Web of Yoga" (cf. piece 25).

23 Circa 1927. MS.NB G43, 2a. Heading: "God, Nature and Man" (used as the subtitle of this part; cf. the heading of piece 12). Text of the piece cancelled in MS. Published here for the first time.

24 1942. MS.NB G62, 43-44, 49. Heading: "Note on a criticism in the Modern Review". Written in or shortly after August 1942, when there appeared in The Modern Review (Calcutta) an adverse review of a Sanskrit-Bengali edition of the Gita prepared by Anilbaran Roy, a disciple of Sri Aurobindo. The reviewer charged that the Sanskrit phrase para prakrtir jivahhuta (cf. Gita 7.5), translated by Anilbaran according to Sri Aurobindo's interpretation as presented in Essays on the Gita (see SABCL vol. 13, 254, 257 and 502), could not bear the meaning given it, viz.: the supreme nature which has become the jiva (individual soul). The first two lines of Sri Aurobindo's manuscript of the present piece read as follows: "It is no part of Sri Aurobindo's philosophical teaching that the Jiva is a temporary creation; what he has maintained". This was cancelled by Sri Aurobindo and therefore has not been included in the text. Between the portions printed above and below the blank space Sri Aurobindo wrote on one page some extracts from the review and on another the following statement:

It has been objected to the interpretation of this phrase as meaning that the supreme Nature of the Purushottama has become the Jiva in the sense of manifesting itself as the individual self-embodying being, that this is a grammatical error. It is to take Jivabhuta in the sense of Jivibhuta, the Prakriti becoming what it never was before, whereas it is really equivalent to Jivasama, the same as the Jiva. Sentences are cited like purushottamasyangibhutam [sic] kapilam, which means simply "Kapila who is a portion [of] Purushottama", upasanaya angabhutam, panyabhutam sariram. Shankara is right therefore in taking the Jiva as the para prakriti of the Ishwara. This mistake of interpretation is fatal to the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.

The criticism itself suffers from a double error. Jivanbhuta has not been taken in the sense of Jivibhuta and it does mean the same as the Jiva. भूत has always a sense of "becoming" in it and, where it establishes an identity it is a qualified or qualitative, not an essential and complete identity that it connotes.

Sri Aurobindo's Note was never published by him. His disciple Kapali Shastri answered the reviewer very ably from a purely grammatical point of view in an article published in the Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual of 1943 (no. 2, 236-42). The present piece published in Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research, vol. 2, no. 1 (April 1978), 80.

25 Circa 1913. MS.NB GA2,28. The opening sentence was written by Sri Aurobindo at the top of the manuscript page after some or all of the rest had been written. Published HG (1972), 51-52, as part of the compilation "The Web of Yoga" under the editorial subtitle "Purusha and Prakriti".

26 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 57. Headed "(2)"; (1) would be one of the Ekam evddvitiyam pieces in the same notebook (cf. pieces 7-10), probably piece 9. Cf. also NB G47, 45-48, a piece to be published in the next issue. Published here for the first time.

27 Circa 1940. MS. LS Glaa, la (cf. piece 77). Published here for the first time.

28 June 1914 (probably between 3 and 17 June). MS. NB RU, 46 (cf. piece 17). The beginning of the second paragraph is indicated by horizontal space. The two blank spaces in the piece are in MS. Published with piece 17 under its title, "The Tablet of Vedanta", in Bulletin, vol. 31, no. 3, (August 1979), 88-90.

29 Circa 1927. MS.NB G43, 29. The first two sets of square brackets enclose words originally part of the text but deleted by Sri Aurobindo. His alteration does not appear to be complete; therefore the words have been reinstated within the brackets. At the same time that he deleted the word "is", Sri Aurobindo altered ". . . present, or, if you will. . .", to ". . . present. Of if you will . . ."; the original form has been reinstated editorially. In the last paragraph the word "to" has been supplied within brackets since it was apparently intended, although not written when Sri Aurobindo altered "is for our . . . conceptions" to "translates [to] our . . . conceptions as". Published here for the first time.

30 Circa 1927-28. MS.LS RA5, 7b-8. This piece is the third of three drafts, written within a short time of one another, of the opening of the revised form of Synthesis of Yoga, part I, chapter XI (SABCL vol. 20, 231). The first of these drafts bears obvious relation to the printed version, the second obvious relation to the first, and the third to the second; but almost nothing of the third draft appears in the printed version, so it has been thought appropriate to print it here as though it was a separate piece.

In MS there is a wide blank space between the main portion and last sentence. Compare that sentence with the second sentence. Published here for the first time.

32 Circa 1942. MS.NB G61, 10-7 (backwards). Heading: "Psychology". (The treatment is more philosophical than psychological: therefore the piece has been placed in this part.) Published Bulletin, vol. 27, no. 4 (November 1977), 10-12.

33 Circa 1942 (dating less positive than for piece 32). MS. NB G63, 3, 5. On pages l-2a of the same notebook are written certain notes, apparently quotations from a book on Bergson (whose own books Sri Aurobindo never read). They are transcribed here verbatim:

"It symbolises the protest of the modern impatient man of action against the great Platonic tradition in philosophy of reason or intellect and static reality."

"Physics and logic are appropriate to the study of the inverse movement, matter, which is life or elan vital pulverised and its method is intellect and logic."

"Scrap the Platonic tradition and follow Plotinus 'Ask me not but understand in silence as I (Nature) am silent and am not wont to speak."

"moulded on experience, determined to base itself on solid grounds, a doctrine in no sense systematic, distinguishes different problems to examine them one by one . . . enemy of conventionality . . . antidote to the dogmatic finality of the traditional philosopher."

A short-cut through "the turning of the mind homeward, the coincidence of the human consciousness with the living principle"

"the destiny of man will be realised because it is the nature of the elan vital to triumph over matter and environment".

Page 2b of the same notebook, written below the notes, has been used as piece 66 (which see). The present piece published HG (1972), 389-90.

34 Arya period (1914-20). MS.LS Gl-1, 1-2. Edge of MS mulilated. several words partly or wholly lost; words wholly supplied by the editors enclosed within square brackets. The piece may have been intended for the Arya (a monthly review edited by Sri Aurobindo between 1914 and 1920), but it was never published there. Published here for the first time.

35 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 7a. Written at the top of a page used otherwise for what is printed as the footnote to piece 53. The present piece has apparently some textual relation to pieces 52 and 53, but it has been placed here where it fits in better. In MS there is no full stop at the end of the sentence. Published here for the first time.

36 Middle to late 1940s. MS.NB S'T20", 131. The manuscript is of the same period as those pieces that because of illegibility have been placed in the Appendix. It is only slightly easier to read than they. Several words are doubtful; indication has been made only of one for which no good reading could be suggested. Published here for the first time.

37 Circa 1929. MS.NB G46, 9-11. Published Bulletin vol. 30, no. 4 (November 1978), 54.

38 Circa 1927. MS.NB G44, 30-31. Published HG (1972), 47-48, as part of the compilation "The Web of Yoga". The asterisk represents a single short bar in MS.

39 Circa 1942. MS.NB G63, 11 (cf. piece 33). The first paragraph was written in a different ink from that used for the other two, indicating perhaps that it was written earlier. It may even be a fragment of translation. Piece published here for the first time.

41 Circa 1918. MS.NB GA7, 3-11. Possibly intended for Arya, perhaps even for a chapter of The Life Divine, but apparently not used even in a modified form in any Arya article. In paragraph 8, sentence 8, MS reads "The dream exists and has no reality, yet is real. . .". The addition of "yet is real" made "exists and" extraneous; presuming that Sri Aurobindo simply neglected to delete these two words, the editors have omitted them. Note that "convinced" towards the end of the same paragraph is used in the sense of "convicted", as in the biblical "convinced of sin". Published here for the first time.

42 Middle to late 1940s. MS.NB S"S7", 18b-19. The piece is the second section of a fragment headed "Man and Superman"; the first section is printed as piece 75. In MS three asterisks divide the two sections; the editors have thought it best to treat them as separate pieces. Published here for the first time.

43 Circa 1927-28. MS.NB R26, 71. MS occurs amid drafts of "Man and the Superman", HG (1982). The "eternal manifestation" and the "temporal manifestation" are mentioned in "OM TAT SAT" and "The Manifestation" {HG (1982)), the MSS of which occur in the same notebook as this piece. Published here for the first time.

44 Circa 1927. MS.NB G44,27,28, 29 (cf. piece 38). The three segments were written on three separate pages of the notebook. Because of the similarity of theme, they have been treated as one piece. After "labour", the last word of the second segment, MS has a semicolon and "it is". These two words have been omitted and the semicolon changed to a full stop by the editors. Published HG (1972), 148-49, as parts of the editorially titled compilation "Words of the Master".

46 Circa 1917-18. MS.NB V28, 36b-37. Published Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 2 (April 1977), 4-6.

47 Circa 1928. MS.NB G45, 26-27. Although belonging to a relatively early period, the manuscript is difficult to read because hastily written. Published here for the first time.

49 Circa 1927. MS.NB G43, 38-39. The piece is a partial draft of "The Involved and Evolving Godhead", published HG (1982); its first paragraph was expanded into the fifth and part of the sixth paragraphs of that essay; other passages of the piece have textual relation with other passages of the essay. But the present piece contains sufficient material not worked into the essay to permit its being printed separately. The essay has been used to confirm parts of the text of the piece. The piece (but not the essay) published HG (1972), 18-20, as the major portion of part III of a compilation editorially titled "Evolution". The last paragraph published

there has been omitted from the present text, since it was mostly incorporated in "The Involved and Evolving Godhead"; in MS that paragraph is separated from the rest of the piece (the portion published here) by a blank space.

50 Circa 1942. MS.NB G63,19,16-18 (footnote NB G63,14). There are three drafts of this piece. The second is the most complete and has been made the basis of the present text. The third consists only of a revised version of the first two paragraphs. This revised version has been used for the text of these paragraphs. The second version of the same two paragraphs ends with the words: "Both are one"; this fragment has been omitted by the editors. The antecedent of "It" (first word of paragraph 3) was evident before the rewriting; the editors have provided the needed reference within square brackets. All of the first draft, except the sentence given as a footnote, was incorporated by Sri Aurobindo in the second draft. In paragraph 4, sentence 3, "play" is written above "game", which is not cancelled. After an examination of the revision in MS, "game" was chosen for the text. In paragraph 7, sentence 2, the phrase "There is", cancelled without substitution in MS, has been reinstated. Published (without the footnote) as part 4 of "The Inconscient and Emerging Consciousness" (editorial title), Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 3 (August 1977), 12-16.

51 Circa 1942. MS.NB G63, 10. Heading: "The Secret of Consciousness". Note the phrase "Ekam evadviffyam" (cf. piece 7 etc.). Published as part 2 of "The Inconscient and Emerging Consciousness", Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 3 (August 1977), 10-12.

52 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 3-9 (footnote G47, 1). The main text of this piece is the second of three drafts of one item. What is printed as a footnote is the entire first draft. The third draft is published as piece 53. The present piece published Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 1, (February 1977), 4-8.

53 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G48, 25-28. This is the third draft of the piece whose first two drafts are published as piece 52. The present piece published Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 2 (February 1977), 8-12. The footnote, an incomplete addition, published here for the first time.

54 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS.NB G47, 31-38. The first four paragraphs are the beginning of a second draft which was not completed beyond that point. The balance of the text (printed after the blank space) is taken from the first draft. Draft 1 only (complete) published Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 2 (April 1977), 6-10.

55 Circa 1927. MS.NB G43, 40a (cf. pieces 56 and 57). Published HG (1972), 13, as part of "Evolution" (editorial title). In HG it is joined to what is here published as piece 57. In MS the pieces are separated by a large space.

56 Circa 1927. MS.NB G43, 33-36 (cf. pieces 55 and 57). Both the single and the double asterisks are in MS. Published HG (1972), 14-17 as part II of the compilation "Evolution". Note that what is published at the top of page 13 of HG is a draft, partly cancelled in MS, which Sri Aurobindo incorporated in the body of the present piece, and which therefore has been omitted.

58 Circa 1927. MS.NB G43, 43. Heading: "Jottings". No full stop at the end of the second sentence, indicating an abrupt breaking off. Published HG (1972), 14.

59 Circa 1913. MS.NB GA3, 7 (cf. piece 22). Published HG (1972), 42-43, as part of the compilation "The Web of Yoga".

start a new paragraph following what is printed here. This fragment, which shows that work on the piece was broken off abruptly, has been omitted. Published here for the first time.

61 Circa 1927. MSS: draft 1, NB R26, 74-75; draft 2, NB G43, 12, 14. Draft 2 used to its end; then, after a blank space, the non-rewritten portion of draft 1. One sentence of draft 1 not incorporated in draft 2 has been given as a footnote. Draft 2 published HG (1972), 10-11, as part of the editorially titled piece "Man a Transitional Being".

62 Circa 1927. MSS: draft 1, NB G43, 11,13 (cf. piece 61); draft 2, LS Gin, 6-7; written as part of a draft of "Man and the Supermind" (HG (1982)). Draft 2 used to its end (three paragraphs), then, after a blank space, the non-rewritten portion of draft 1.

63 Circa 1927. MS.NB G43, 15-16 (cf. pieces 61-62). Published HG (1972), 11-12, as part of "Man a Transitional Being" (editorial title).

64 Late 1920s to early 1930s. MS NB G47, 53-54. Published here for the first time.

65 Circa 1927-28. MS.NB R26, 40 (a loose sheet). Written in pencil in very small handwriting; nevertheless the transcription is sufficiently certain. Published here for the first time.

66 Circa 1942. MS.NB G63, 2b. In MS the piece is written below the notes on Berg-son reproduced in the note to piece 33. The present piece is headed by a roman numeral two, which separates it from the notes. Unlike the notes, the piece has no inverted commas. It has accordingly been considered a writing of Sri Aurobindo's. There is no full stop at the end, indicating an abrupt breaking off. Published, along with the notes, HG (1972), 388-89.

67 Late 1930s to early 1940s. MS.NB S"96", 173-74. Heading: "Intuition". The two blank spaces, dividing the piece into three sections, are in MS. Published Bulletin, vol. 30, no. 3 (August 1978), 8-10.

68 Circa 1927-29. MS.NB G41, 45. Like piece 65 written in pencil in very small handwriting. Published here for the first time.

69 Circa 1928-29. MS.NB G45, 14 (cf. pieces 6 and 72). Published here for the first time.

70 Circa 1928-29. MS.NB G45, 22 (cf. piece 69). Heading: "On the Supermind". Published here for the first time.

71 Arya period (1914-20), probably towards the end of the period. MS.LS Glm,l. In MS the last three paragraphs do not have full stops to end them. Pieces 71-77, as well as piece 45 and two pieces placed in the Appendix, are treatments of a single theme taken up by Sri Aurobindo recurrently over a period of more than twenty years. Pieces 61 to 63 are on a related theme. Sri Aurobindo's most complete essay on the subject is "Man and the Superman" (HG (1982)). Note that "Man a Transitional Being" (HG (1972), 7-12), hitherto the best-known treatment, is composed of different segments joined editorially. The main segment is a draft of "Man and the Superman", and so is not published in the present book; two constituent pieces of "Man a Transitional Being" are published here as pieces 61 (first segment) and 63. The present piece published here for the first time.

72 Circa 1928-29. MS.NB G45, 15-17 (cf. pieces 6 and 69). Although from a relatively early period, the manuscript is difficult to read, because hastily written. The following words are somewhat doubtful: paragraph 3, sentence 1: "primal"; paragraph 5, sentence 1: "refining"; paragraph 7, sentence 1: "An air"; sentence 3:

"mind" (in "trickling through mind"). Published Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 2, 10-14.

73 Circa 1928-29. MS.NB G45,21 (cf. piece 72 etc.) Published here for the first time.

74 Circa 1928-29. MS.NB G45,21 (cf. piece 72 etc.). Published here for the first time.

75 Middle to late 1940s. MS.NB S"S7", 17-18a (cf. piece 42, which in MS forms one item with the present piece). Heading: "Man and Superman". Published here for the first time.

76 Circa 1942. MS.NB G63, 15 (cf. piece 50). Heading: "Man and Superman". Published here for the first time.

77 Circa 1940. MS.LS Glaa, lb-2a, 3, 5 (cf. piece 27). Three segments, written on separate MS pages. The first segment comprises paragraphs 5 and 6 of an incomplete first draft of an essay; these two paragraphs were not rewritten along with paragraphs 1-4, which were enlarged into what appears here as the second segment. (Paragraphs 1 -4 of draft 1 are not used in the text.) The third segment printed here is a separate writing, evidently intended to follow segment 2. (Paragraph 2 of the first draft and two paragraphs written on MS page 2b were incorporated by Sri Aurobindo in piece 78, the first piece to be published in the next issue.) The present piece published here for the first time.

Date	MS	MS page (Piece number)
1912
	NB V2	135 (4)
Early 1913
	LS RA2	3(31)
Circa 1913
	NB GA2	11 (19); 28 (25)
	NB GA3	3(22); 7(59)
June 1914
	NB Rll	46 (28); 47 (17)
Circa 1917-18
	NB V28	36b-37 (46)
Circa 1918
	NB GA7	3-11(41)
Arya period (1914-20)
	LS GAlg	1 (5)
	LS Gl-1	1-3(34)
	LSGlm	1(71)
Circa 1927-28
	NB R26	40(65); 71 (43); 75-76 (part 61); 99 (15)
	NB G43	2a (23); 11-13 (part 62); 12,14(part61); 15-16(63); 20(29);
		21-22 (16); 33-36 (56); 38-39 (49); 40a (55); 40b (57); 43 (58)
	NB G44	27, 28-29 (44); 30-31 (38)
	LS Gin	6-7 (part 62)
	LS RA5	7b-8 (30)

The manuscripts of all the pieces were written by hand. Some are difficult to read; a few words are illegible. None of the pieces received final revision; sometimes revision was begun but left half completed.

1. To enclose words omitted by the author or lost by mutilation of the manuscript. The supplied word, if obvious to the editors, is printed in roman type with no further notification to the reader. If the word is doubtful, an explanatory footnote is given.

2. To give antecedents of pronouns if the antecedent is clear in the manuscript but not in the printed text. The antecedents are italicised to indicate they are not part of the text. (See pieces 41 and 50.)

4. To enclose editorial ellipsis points indicating illegible words, one set of three points for each suspected word. An explanatory footnote is given in such cases. Certain doubtful readings also are indicated in footnotes. Others are pointed out in the Notes on the Texts.

1. Punctuation is sometimes silently provided or adjusted; specifically, Commas, when necessary grammatically or to avoid serious ambiguity, have been added. The editors have tried to exercise restraint in this regard, but no less than 83 have been added, about one per page. It should be noted that Sri Aurobindo was sometimes lax about punctuation while revising.

All declarative sentences have been made to end with full stops. (Some end in MS with dashes, commas (where the continuation was cancelled) or nothing.)

Certain classes of compounds have been regularly hyphenated, notably those beginning with "self-". (Note that compounds beginning with "half" are hyphenated only if hyphenated by the author.) Certain compounds sometimes hyphenated by the author and sometimes not (e.g. Non-Being) have been conformed, usually by the addition of the hyphen.

2. Capitalisation has been conformed only in contexts where a disparity would be glaring. All such changes are listed in the Table of Emendations below.

3. Obvious misspellings of English words have been silently corrected. Some unusual misspellings are listed in the Table.

The spelling of Sanskrit words has been regularised in one of two ways: (a) by using the international system of transliteration, in which case the word is italicised with diacritical marks and lowercased; (b) by using Sri Aurobindo's informal English-orthographic system, in which case the word is in roman type without diacritical marks and, unless very familiar, capitalised. Spelling is conformed to Sri Aurobindo's usual preference (e.g. "Ishwara" not "Iswara"). Italicised Sanskrit words are separated unless separation is not possible due to sandhi. Romanised compounds such as "Parapurusha" are conformed, the single-word form being

5. The ampersand is expanded to "and" wherever it occurs (most frequently in writings of 1912-1914). Words abbreviated during revision are spelled out.

1. The word is extraneous (e.g. "the the book"). All such cases are noted in the Table.

2. The word was left over after incomplete cancellation (e.g. "as" left after "took as" was changed to "dreamed" to be" (piece 2). Such cases are too complex for the Table. If doubtful, they are discussed in the Notes on the Texts.

3. The word seems clearly not to be the word the author intended, in which case it is emended. All emendations are listed along with MS reading in the Table.

Page	Line	Text	Manuscript	Comment

4	6	Life	life¹	cf. "Mind", "Matter"
4	9	X	X	cf. p.6, 1.3; also p.7, 1.16
5	last	Life	life¹	cf. "Mind", "Sense"
6	9	brings	and brings	"and" may be cancelled MS
9	24	Time [second]	time	cf. "Time" several times same paragraph
9	27-28	Timeless	timeless	cf. "Timeless" same paragraph
11	10	Infinite	infinite	cf. "Infinite" same sentence
12	6	the infinity	the the infinity
13	12	or is	or or is
15	7	Parapurusha	Para Purusha
15	12-13	un-Atman	unAtman
15	3fb	This	this
16	6	they	their
16	16	supramental	supermental	MS reading the result of change of "supermind" to "supermental": "supramental" regular in Sri Aurobindo's writings
18	9	Brahman	brahman
18	13	un-Atman	unAtman
18	3fb	The	the	lowercase because original opening of sentence deleted; see Notes on the Texts
19	8	Becoming	becoming	cf. previous sentence
20	8fb	Life	life¹	cf. "Mind", "Matter"

¹ It is interesting and perhaps significant that in all four cases Sri Aurobindo left "life" lowercase.

20	last	self-existent	self-existent and
		self-knowledge	self-knowledge
21	20	Spirit	spirit
22	1	God. It	God; it
22	2	Personality	personality	cf. "Impersonality"
22	3	Not	not	cf. "Is Not" same paragraph
22	18	the Relative	the the Relative
23	12fb	proceed	proceeds	subject became plural with interlinear addition of "and al force"; verb inadvertently not changed

24	last	not	no
28	1-2	of conscious-	of of conscious-
		ness	ness
29	3-4	Self-Awareness Self awareness
29	4	All-Awareness	all-Awareness
29	3fb	is pitifully	is is pitifully
31	12	Personality	personality	cf. previous paragraphs
31	16	self-[...]	Self-[...]	cf. succeeding compounds
31	17	self-finding	Self-finding	cf. preceding compounds
34	1	and that	and and that
36	15	Illusionist	Illusionists	to agree with verb
37	6	Illusionist	illusionist	cf. p.36, 1.15
37	6fb	Brahman	Maya
41	4	Universe	universe	cf. "Universe" same sentence
41	10	In	; in	cf. preceding sentences
41	9fb	Eternal	eternel	cf. first line of piece
43	15	, it	It
43	11fb	it	It
44	17	will be	will will be
48	last	but already	but but already
	(fn)
49	16	terribly	terrible
51	7fb	man, struggles	man struggles	a significant punctuation emendation; the sentence may be read without the comma; but this gives a sense that Sri Aurobindo probably did not intend

55	28	All-Conscious-ness	All-conscious-ness	cf. beginning of paragraph 2
57	4	Life	life¹
59	12	there	their
64	1	breadths and	breadth and	"There is" changed to "there are";
		spaces,	space,	cf. "heights", "depths"
64	17	scientists'	scientists
64	18	looks	look
66	19	reached	was reached	"was" part of original "was ready"

69	8fb	no	know
70	3	have	has
71	10	the cosmic	the the cosmic
71	19	the gleam	their gleam	"their" in next phrase makes "their" here impossible
74	4	If	I
76	23	and suffering	and a suffering	"thing of is an interlinear insertion
77	6	an	a
77	6fb	itself	himself