Vikramorvasie: The Characters         THERE is nothing more charming, more attractive in Kalidasa than his instinct for sweet and human beauty; everything he touches becomes the inhabitant of a moonlit world of romance and yet — there is the unique gift, the consummate poetry — remains perfectly natural, perfectly near to us, perfectly human. Shelley's Witch of Atlas and Keats' Cynthia are certainly lovely creations, but they do not live; misty, shimmering, uncertain, seen in some half dream when the moon is full and strange indefinable shapes begin to come out from the skirts of the forest, they charm our imagination but our hearts take no interest in them. They are the creations

On Poetical Genius       AN UNUSED PASSAGE FROM THE MANUSCRIPT OF KALIDASA'S  "SEASONS"       The imagination of the West has not been trained to recognize that the body is an entity different and initially independent of the spirit within. Yet such a division helps materially to the proper understanding of man and is indeed essential to it unless we rule out a great mass of recorded experience as false or illusory. Each cell out of which the body is built has a life of its own and therefore tendencies of its own. These tendencies are largely, if not entirely determined by heredity. The spirit too comes into the womb with an individuality already determined, a

Documents in the Life of Sri Aurobindo       THE ALIPORE BOMB TRIAL — ARREST AND INVESTIGATION       1       HOME DEPARTMENT REPORT ON THE ARRESTS       I have the honour to submit a report describing the course of events prior and subsequent to the outrage at Muzaffarpur, which occurred at about 8-30 P.M. on the night of the 30th April 1908, so far as they affected the Calcutta Police. Mr. Plowden received certain information in connection with the enquiry into the Midnapore outrage on His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor's train. This information was confidentially communicated to me by the Chief Secretary; but I was requested

Notes on the Texts       Record of Yoga. 1-25 July 1912. The Record for this period, entitled "Journal of Yoga", was kept in a large ledger used otherwise for notes on linguistics and for prose writings on many subjects.       Record of Yoga. 12 October-26 November 1912. The Record of this period, as well as certain undated notes from the same time, were written in a small notebook used earlier for Vedic and linguistic notes, translations, poetry (in Bengali and Latin), etc., and also for a brief record of Sortileges of May and June 1912. The entries of 18 October to 17 November were written in ink on consecutive pages (with one page left blank between the first and se

-09_Record of Yoga (12 October - 26 November 1912) Record of Yoga [12 October - 26 November 1912]       Oct 12. 1912.              Developed forms to show sufficient stability. Siddhis of power today. Samadhi from tomorrow.          Fulfilled1       Oct 13 The siddhis of power have to be made more powerful and give more rapid and accurate results; the rupadrishti in all its parts to conquer the obstruction finally. The defect of anima has to be minimised. Samadhi to develop rapidly. Ananda to begin to be stable.       Fulfilled.       Oct 14. The physical akash is still rebellious to the lipi, rupa & other drishtis & to all the siddhis which at all depend on

  Yogic Sadhan EDITED BY THE UTTARA YOGI Sri Aurobindo "received" the nine chapters of Yogic Sadhan as automatic writing in 1910. (See Archival Notes for details.) The book was published in 1911, and again in 1920, 1923 and 1933. In each edition the editor was given as "the Uttara Yogi" a pseudonym of Sri Aurobindo. He once explained the name in a letter: The Yogi from the North (Uttara Yogi) was my own name given to me because of a prediction made long ago by a famous Tamil Yogi, that thirty years later (agreeing with the time of my arrival [in Pondicherry]) a Yogi from the North would come as a fugitive to the South and practise there an integral Yoga (Poorna Yoga),

Archival Notes   SRI AUROBINDO'S SADHANA IN PONDICHERRY   Once he had settled down in Shankara Chettiar's house. Sri Aurobindo was free for the first time since May 1909 to give his undivided attention to yoga. Not that the eleven months that followed his release from Alipore jail. where his sadhana had gone on with great intensity, had been a spiritual blank. The diary extract from June 1909 published in the present issue shows that Sri Aurobindo's inner life was active even while he was on a busy speaking tour. But certainly his settling down in Pondicherry permitted him to concentrate on his yoga in a way that before had not been possible.       In this issue of Arch