PROLOGUE       How shall we crown Sri Aurobindo? Is he greater as a Yogi than as a philosopher? Does the literary critic in him outtop the sociological thinker? Does he shine brighter as a politician or as a poet? It is difficult to decide. Everywhere Mount Everest seems to face Mount Everest. But when we study this Himalaya of various extremes of height, the first eminence that strikes us is Sri Aurobindo the poet. Even in his teens the Muse had touched his lips and drawn from them the perfect note, at once exquisite and grand, with apt imaginative suggestion running from phrase to phrase; Love, a moment drop thy hands; Night within my soul expands.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION       This book first appeared in 1947 under the auspices of the Sri Aurobindo Circle. It reappears in a second edition which is "revised". But the revision is significantly restricted. On the one side, in a couple of instances Sri Aurobindo's final versions of his poetry those that were originally quoted. On the other, a few touches, corrective or additive, by the author deal with what may be termed small critical or technical oversights. For the rest, the book has been deliberately kept the same in matter as well as manner. The main reason for this is not only the fact that its scheme, both as a whole and in detail, di

-004_ Sri Aurobindo^s Blank-Verse Inspiration.htm I SRI AUROBINDO'S BLANK-VERSE INSPIRATION       Ruskin could not follow Browning's bold leap from crag to distant crag of poetic thought, even as Arnold "came a cropper" with the sky-arches of Shelley's iridescent imagination. Francis Jeffrey, before them, had uttered his notorious verdict on the lyricism of Wordsworth and Coleridge: "This will never do!" Johnson, still earlier, had found Milton's Lycidas commonplace if not crude. When such minds could show blindspots, it is hardly surprising that an Indian reviewer of moderate talent should miss the mark altogether in judging Sri Aurobindo. And the divagation from the bu

SUPPLEMENT FOUR AN INTRODUCTORY WORD ON THE ARTHAŚĀSTRA PROBLEM An indirect argument for the first Maurya may be advanced on the basis of the political treatise Arthaśāstra attributed to his traditional minister who is named Kautilya or Chānakya. A large number of scholars have discussed the question of this document's tallying with or differing from the account of Megasthenes regarding the administration under Sandrocottus. When we have finished our whole reconstruction of India's ancient history from the starting-point of our equation of Sandrocottus with the founder of the Imperial Guptas, we shall take up the question i

PART TWO THE MOMENTOUS EVIDENCE OF MEGASTHENES 1 Megasthenes, the Greek who lived at the court of the Indian king "Sandrocottus" for some years from c. 302 B.C. as the ambassador of Seleucus Nicator, wrote a very popular book entitled Indica. The book itself is lost but it has served as the source for several Classical authors' accounts of the country where the ambassador had sojourned. A question of great moment to the subject of India's antiquity is: "Did Megasthenes receive any information regarding the historical chronology of India from the native annalists of his day?" Such information is likely to throw sharp light on

SUPPLEMENT TWO XANDRAMES OF THE CLASSICAL ACCOUNTS AND HIS INDIAN COUNTERPART A NEW EQUATION PROPOSED When Alexander the Great, in the course of his invasion of India, reached the river Hyphasis (Vipāśa, modern Beās), he heard from the Indian prince Phegelas (Bhagalā) the news, which the renowned Porus (Paurava) confirmed, that on the eastern bank of the Ganges there was waiting for him Xandrames, king of the Gangaridai and the Prasii, with an army of 20,000 horses, 200,000 infantry, 2,000 chariots and 4,000 elephants. The news struck terror in the hearts of the tired Macedonians and they forced their leader to call a retreat.

ANCIENT INDIA IN A NEW LIGHT ANCIENT INDIA IN A NEW LIGHT I.The Challenge of India's Traditional Chronology II.The Momentous Evidence of Megasthenes III.A Reconstruction of Ancient Indian History: Aśoka - and Before and After K. D. SETHNA ADITYA PRAKASHAN NEW DELHI First Published: 1989 © K. D. Sethna (1904-) Rs. 500.00 ISBN: 81-85179-12-3 Published by Rakesh Goel for Aditya Prakashan, 4829/1, Prahlad Lane, 24 Ansari Road, New Delhi Printed at Sri Aurobindo A

Part One PSYCHOLOGY AND YOGA "Yoga is nothing but practical psychology." Sri Aurobindo "Psychology without yoga is lifeless. "The study of psychology must necessarily lead to yoga, at least to practical yoga if not theoretical." The Mother SRI AUROBINDO AND MODERN PSYCHOLOGY In the West, where modern psychology was born and cradled, psychological thought had for centuries been part of philosophical enquiry into the nature of the human being. As such, psychology was a handmaiden of philosophy. The emergence of psychology as an independent field of study in its own right and as an empirical sc

ATTITUDES, MENTAL HEALTH AND YOGA An attitude is defined as a mental set which predisposes one to perceive things in a certain way, to feel towards things in a certain way, and to be prone to react towards things in a certain way. Thus an attitude influences all the three basic elements of behaviour, namely, thinking, feeling and willing. For example, an attitude of optimism predisposes one to perceive the bright rather than the dark side of things; it tends to make one feel hopeful rather than easily despairing; and it inclines one to continue with one's endeavour rather than to give up effort prematurely. Examples of everyday attitudes which influenc

INDEX Accidents 148,158-59 Adler, Alfred 6,7,29,51 Adverse (vital) Forces 112-14 possession by 113, 113fn Affirmation 119,126-27 Anger 98,98fn Anxiety (worry) 88, 89-90, 98 Archetype(s) 26-27,50 Assagioli, Robert 54,67, 135 Attitude(s) 117-28 and behaviour 117 and circumustances 120-23 witness 126 Auto-suggestion 119 Awareness and consciousness 59,60 and identification 70 Behaviour and archetypes 50-51 and attitudes 117 and insight 61 motivating forces 7 Behaviourism 10-11, 14 and psychoanalysis 11-12 Being full