Criticism Of Others   Do not dwell much on the defects of others. It is not helpful Keep always quiet and peace in the attitude. - Sri Aurobindo (SABCL 23:826) * That is quite right. Only those who sympathise can help surely also one should be able to see the faults of others without hatred. Hatred injures both parties, it helps none. - Sri Aurobindo (SABCL 23:826)   There is no harm in seeing and observing if it is done with sympathy and impartiality it is the tendency unnecessarily to criticise, find fault, condemn others (often quite wrongly) which creates a bad atmosphere both for oneself and ot

The Character of the Ashram   This Ashram has been created with another object that that ordinarily common to such institutions, not for the renunciation of the world but as a centre and field of practice for the evolution of another kind and form of life which would in the final end be moved by a higher spiritual consciousness and embody a greater life of the spirit. - Sri Aurobindo The Foundation The Aim Development Cha

General Information   Where is the Ashram located?   How do I travel to the Ashram?   Where can I stay in the Ashram?   Bus and train services in Pondicherry   How do I move about in Pondicherry?   What passes do I need in the Ashram?   What activities of the Ashram can I participate in?   Sri Aurobindo's Yoga

CHARACTER In the popular imagination ashrams are connected with hermitages or religious orders, but in fact "an ashram is not an association or a religious body or monastery." The Sri Aurobindo Ashram in particular has nothing to do with asceticism or retreat from the world. The character of this unique institution stems from the special nature of Sri Aurobindo's teaching. This may be summed up in these words from one of his letters: "The way of Yoga followed here has a purpose different from others, —for its aim is not only to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness into the divine consciousness, but to bring the supramental power of that divine consci

DEVELOPMENT This Ashram has been created with another object than that ordinarily common to such institutions, not for the renunciation of the world but as a centre and a field of practice for the evolution of another kind and form of life which would in the final end be moved by a higher spiritual consciousness and embody a greater life of the spirit. Sri Aurobindo  For years after his arrival in Pondicherry in 1910, Sri Aurobindo was unwilling to speak of his household as an Ashram. Not that the term would have been inappropriate, for an Ashram is simply "the house or houses of a Teacher or Master of spiritual philosophy in which he receives and lodge

The Aim My aim is to crate a centre of spiritual life which shall serve as a means of bringing down the higher consciousness and making it a power not merely for 'salvtion' but for a divine life upon earth. It is with this object that I have withdrawn from public life and founded this Ashram in Pondicherry (so called for want of a better word, for it is not an Ashram of Sannyasins, but of those who want to leave all else and prepare for this rule). (February 1930) - Sri Aurobindo (SABCL 27:416) *   This is not an Ashram like others - the members are not Sannyasis; it is not moksa tht is the sole aim of the yoga here. What is being done here is a preparation

Growth By Consciousness What seems to me of more importance is to try to explain how things are worked out here. Indeed very few are the people who understand it and still fewer those who realise it. There has never been, at any time, a mental plan, a fixed programme or an organisation decided beforehand. The whole thing has taken birth, grown and developed as a living being by a movement of consciousness (Chit-Tapas) constantly maintained, increased and fortified. As the conscious Force descends in matter and radiates, it seeks for fit instruments to express and manifest it. It goes without saying that the more the instrument is open, receptive and

The Foundation Sri Aurobindo lived at first in retirement at Pondicherry with four or five disciples. Afterwards more and yet more began to come to him to follow his spiritual path and the number became so large that a community of sadhaks had to be formed for the maintenance and collective guidance of those who had left everything behind for the sake of a higher life. This was the foundation of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram which has less been created than grown around him as its centre. - Sri Aurobindo (SABCL 30:4) * There was no Ashram at first, only a few people came to live near and practise Yoga. It was only some time after the Mother

A Laboratory of Yoga It is necessary or rather inevitable that in an Ashram which is a "laboratory", as X puts it, for a spiritual and supramental yoga, humanity should be variously represented. For the problem of transformation has to deal with all sorts of elements favourable and unfavourable. The same man indeed carries in him a mixture of these two things. If only sattwic and cultured men come for yoga, men without very much of the vital difficulty in them, then, because the difficulty of the vital element in terrestrial nature has not been faced and overcome, it might conceivably by under certain circumstances an overmental layer superimposed on the m

  Samadhi of  Sri Aurobindo and the Mother    9 December 1950 To Thee who hast been the material envelope of our Master, to Thee our infinite gratitude. Before Thee who hast done so much for us, who hast worked, struggled, suffered, hoped, endured so much, before Thee who hast willed all, attempted all, prepared, achieved all for us, before Thee we bow down and implore that we may never forget, even for a moment, all we owe to Thee. The Mother    Lord, this morning Thou hast given me the assurance that Thou wouldst stay with us until Thy work is achieved, not only as a consciousness which gui