The Gods of the Veda [SECOND VERSION]   [Al] The Gods of the Veda —   An enquiry into the true significance of the hymns of the Rigveda.   The Vedas are the roots of Indian civilisation and the supreme authority in Indian religion. For three thousand years, by the calculation of European scholars, for a great deal more, in all probability, the faith of this nation, certainly one of the most profound, acute and intellectual in the world, has not left its hold on this cardinal point of belief. Its greatest and most rationalistic minds have never swerved from the national faith. Kapila held to it no less than Shankara[.] The two great revolt

Documents in the Life of Sri Aurobindo THE DEPARTURE TO CHANDERNAGORE   1   Extract from A. B. Purani notebook PT MS9. pp. 79-80: talk of 27 September 1925 with Moni (Sureshchandra Chakravarty).   What strikes Moni most is that all along he [Sri Aurobindo] has been a passive instrument & the external circumstances have, it may seem, moulded him. . . . ... He described how A.G. [Aurobindo Ghose] decided to leave politics. Very dramatic. As usual A. G. came to the Karmayogin office (Routine) & then there was talk about the warrant   against him. He remained thoughtful for five minutes — said th

The Religion of Vedanta   If it were asked by [anyone] what is this multitudinous, shifting, expanding, apparently amorphous or at all events multimorphous sea of religious thought, feeling, philosophy, spiritual experience we call Hinduism, what it is characteristically and essentially, we might answer in one word, the religion of Vedanta. And if it were asked what are the Hindus with their unique and persistent difference from all other races, we might again answer, the children of Vedanta. For at the root of all that we Hindus have done, thought and said through these thousands of years of [our] race-history, behind all we are and seek to be, there lies concealed, t

The Synthesis of Yoga THE YOGA OF SELF-PERFECTION   [A newly found incomplete chapter to follow Chapter XXV of Part IV] Chapter XXVI The Supramental Time Consciousness   The supermind in its supreme status is the truth-consciousness of the Infinite, the inherent light and power of self-knowledge and all-knowledge of the Supreme who is the self of all, the living eternal truth of all that is and of whom all objects and beings, all the universe and motion of things and happenings in time is a partial continually proceeding manifestation. The Supreme organises through the power of self-realisation and self-manifestation that re

Notes on the Texts   The Synthesis of Yoga. A typed copy of this incomplete chapter, with handwritten corrections, was found recently among Sri Aurobindo's papers. It is headed: THE SYNTHESIS OF YOGA/The Yoga of Self-Perfection/ Chapter LXXIV". The last chapter of the Synthesis published in the Arya was numbered "Chapter LXXIII"; this was later changed to Chapter XXV of Part IV. Accordingly the present chapter, which was unquestionably meant to follow that chapter, but which was not completed when the Arya abruptly ceased publication, has been numbered Chapter XXVI of Part IV. Two obvious verbal omissions have been supplied within square brackets. Italicisation has been mad

Archival Notes THE DEPARTURE TO CHANDERNAGORE   A NOTE   Since what follows is a critique rather than a narrative, the writer will not attempt to conceal his presence, as a narrative writer should, but will employ the first person throughout. This will serve to remind the reader that the opinions expressed are the writer's own.   THE DATE OF SRI AUROBINDO'S DEPARTURE   The date of Sri Aurobindo's departure from Calcutta for Chandernagore has long been a subject for speculation. It is the exact day and not the month that is uncertain; the event definitely took place in February. Sri Aurobindo is known to have left Chandernagore, after a stay of mo

God and Immortality   Chapter I The Upanishad   The Upanishads stand out from the dim background of Vedic antiquity like stupendous rock cathedrals of thought hewn out of the ancient hills by a race of giant builders the secret of whose inspiration and strength has passed away with them into the Supreme. They are at once Scripture, philosophy and seer-poetry; for even those of them that dispense with the metrical form, are prose poems of a rhythmically mystic thought. But whether as Scripture, philosophical theosophy or literature, there is nothing like them in ancient, mediaeval or modern, in Occidental or Oriental, in Egyptian, Chaldean, Semitic or Mongoli

Archival Notes SOME PONDICHERRY SIDELIGHTS This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers of Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research. The writer, a member of the staff of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives and Research Library, accepts full responsibility for the contents of the article, which is the result of his own research and his own interpretation. The purpose of the biographical portions of Archival Notes is to present materials dealing with the period of Sri Aurobindo's life covered by the current instalment of Documents in the Life of Sri Aurobindo. The form of presentation selected is a variety of the classic biographical narrative, one that, owin

Notes on the Mahabharata [SECOND VERSION]       It was hinted in a recent article of the Indian Review, an unusually able and searching1 paper on the date of the Mahabharata war that a society is about to be formed for discovering the genuine and original portions of our great epic. This is glad tidings to all admirers of Sanscrit literature and to all lovers of their country. For the solution of the Mahabharata problem is essential to many things, to any history worth having of Aryan civilisation & literature, to a proper appreciation of Vyasa's poetical genius and, far more important than either, to a definite understanding of the great ethical gospel which Srikris