Introduction Towards Sri Aurobindo's Birth Centenary WHEN people are with us still, we celebrate their birthdays with a recurrent accession of joy. When they are with us no more, we remember with due solemnity the anniversary of the day of passing. If after their demise they live long in our memories, when the centenary milestone is about to be reached, the death anniversary is by-passed as it were, and the birth centenary is celebrated. Thereafter it is usual to give particular importance only to the Jayanti or birth anniversary. The question may be posed: Why these anniversaries, and these centenary celebrations? Human memory is short, and caught as we a

Sri Aurobindo A CENTENARY TRIBUTE SRI AUROBINDO Sri Aurobindo A CENTENARY TRIBUTE Edited, with an Introduction, by K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar Editorial Committee Dr. Karan Singh (Convener) Dr. D. S. Kothari Sri Ganga Saran Sinha Prof. Arabinda Basu Prof. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM PRESS PONDICHERRY First Published: 5 December 1974 This Selection of Essays and Addresses in Commemoration of Sri Aurobindo's Birth Centenary is sponsored by THE NAT

Sri Aurobindo A CENTENARY TRIBUTE   Contents PreContent   INTRODUCTION   SECTION I   SRI AUROBINDO: A TRIBUTE   V.V. Giri    THE MESSAGE OF SRI AUROBINDO   Karan Singh    SECTION II   SRI AUROBINDO'S LIFE OF ACTION AND REALISATION   SRI AUROBINDO'S LIFE   Sunit Kumar Chatterjee   SRI AUROBINDO'S EXPERIENCES IN THE REALM OF THE SPIRIT   Kireet Joshi   ACTION AND CONTEMPLATION IN THE LIFE AND WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO   Angelo Morretta   SECTION III   SRI AUROBINDO : NATIONALIST AND POLITICAL THINKER

  Sri Aurobindo and Human Unity* Amaury de Riencourt   THE fundamental problem of human unity appears insoluble under The problem is all the more acute in that this implosion has increased tensions between many human groups rather than decreased them. The search for national and cultural identity, now threatened by the depersonalization caused by an anonymous industrial civilization, is prompting many to look back wistfully at the past in an attempt to find roots and a sense of personal destiny that are being stripped away by this convergence itself. The very elements that could have provided links with which to consolidate human unity are being thrown overboard since the

  Sri Aurobindo's Impact on Hindi Literature* Narendra Sharma   ONE wonders why Sri Aurobindo's impact on Indian Literature in general and on Hindi literature in particular has not been as great as it should have been. In direct proportion to the greatness of his personality and work, his impact has been less than expected. One reason for this, perhaps, is that Sri Aurobindo's personality and work are too unique and great to be comprehended by the average Indian middle-class mind. This mind, the by-product of colonial rule, is nurtured on job-orientation, professional advancement, insecurity and fear on the one hand, and on the other, on revivalism, political ambiti

  Auroville — A Model of Human Unity* Navajata AUNIQUE project drawing attention all over the world is "Auroville", a universal town of culture and research which is being established in South India, near Pondicherry. In Auroville men and women of all countries will be able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. Its purpose is to realise human unity.      Auroville proposes to realise this unity in freedom and diversity — in multiplicity — and not in uniformity, a spiritual unity reflecting itself in a psychological unity of one family and one origin, but expressing itself in the diversities of life. When comple

The Problem of Human Unity* Olivier Lacombe The problem of human unity is twofold: structural and dynamic unity of human being, and unity of mankind throughout its history and its cultural and biological differentiations. These two aspects of the problem are distinct yet interdependent: it is wise not to mix them up, nor to dissociate them. On the other hand, man's unity is the oneness in complexity: God alone is absolutely one and simple. But complexity necessarily brings together the idea of a wealth of being and a risk of rupture. Further, man's unity is at the same time a fundamental datum of his existence and a scheme to be developed and achieved by me

Sri Aurobindo A CENTENARY TRIBUTE   Contents PreContent   INTRODUCTION   SECTION I   SRI AUROBINDO: A TRIBUTE   V.V. Giri    THE MESSAGE OF SRI AUROBINDO   Karan Singh    SECTION II   SRI AUROBINDO'S LIFE OF ACTION AND REALISATION   SRI AUROBINDO'S LIFE   Sunit Kumar Chatterjee   SRI AUROBINDO'S EXPERIENCES IN THE REALM OF THE SPIRIT   Kireet Joshi   ACTION AND CONTEMPLATION IN THE LIFE AND WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO   Angelo Morretta   SECTION III   SRI AUROBINDO : NATIONALIST AND POLITICAL THINKER

  Sri Aurobindo as Seer-Poet* Dilip Kumar Roy   'T'O be utterly sure of the evidence of Sri Aurobindo's greatness I have often of late cross-questioned myself: "What was the storm-sweep that uprooted you from your native soil of poetry and music, laughter and popularity, to be flung at his feet in eager self-surrender more than four decades ago ?" It is not a question easy to answer because, to quote Nive-dita, our deepest convictions often enough spring from data which can convince no one but ourselves. I can only say that in his presence I felt myself gripped by a silence, wonder and intense longing to lay my utter self at his feet and lie cradled in his indefinable Gra

Sri Aurobindo's Aesthetics* V. Raghavan ALTHOUGH Sri Aurobindo wrote extensively on the Gita, the Veda and the Upanishads, and on Yoga and philosophical subjects, and subjects of wider and more general interest like Civilisation and Culture, his creative work as a poet, his literary productions in the form of metrical trans-creations of Sanskrit poems and plays, and his critical writings in which he analysed poets and poetry and evaluated Vyasa, Valmiki and Kalidasa, and reviewed the whole panorama of the poetry of Europe from Homer to the recent moderns including the Indo-Anglians, mark him out pre-eminently as a poet with a full mastery and knowledge of the art and