Aurobindo Ghose
AUROBINDO GHOSE (1872–1950), yogin, nationalist, poet, critic, thinker, spiritual leader of India. Born in Calcutta (August 15, 1872), Aurobindo Ghose was educated in England from the age of seven to age twenty-one at the insistence of his father, Dr. Krishnadhan Ghose, who had been one of the first Indians educated in England. Having grown up ignorant of Indian culture and religion, Aurobindo neither discovered nor appreciated Indian languages, literature, or history until he returned to India after college, in 1893. He served for a time as a teacher of French and English and as vice principal and acting principal of Baroda College. In 1906 Aurobindo joined the political movement of Indian resistance to British colonial rule and became a prominent voice of the Nationalist party, arguing for complete independence from Britain. Through his articles in periodicals such as Bande Mataram, Aurobindo nourished a revolutionary consciousness among Indians by addressing the issues of swarāj and swadeśi (both centered on self-rule) and boycott. He was open to the use of armed revolt as well as nonviolent means for achieving independence. In this he was flexible and pragmatic: the means of social change were selected on the basis of circumstances, not adherence to an absolute ethical principle.
In 1908 Aurobindo was arrested in connection with an unsuccessful bombing episode against a British district judge. Although he was ultimately acquitted, he spent a year in the Alipore jail during the investigation and trial. During this imprisonment his interest in yoga deepened. In 1910, following "a sudden command from above," Aurobindo moved to French India. He spent the next forty years of his life in Pondicherry, formulating his vision of spiritual evolution and integral Yoga, and refusing to pursue direct involvement in political events.
"Spiritual evolution," or the evolution of consciousness, is the central framework for understanding Aurobindo's thought. Consciousness is a rich and complex term for Aurobindo. Consciousness is inherent in all things, in seemingly inert matter as well as plant, animal, human, and suprahuman life. It participates in the various levels of being in various ways. Sachchidānanda, literally the highest level of "being, consciousness, and bliss," is also known as the Absolute. The Supermind mediates sachchidānanda to the multiplicity of the world. The Overmind serves as delegate of the Supermind. Intuitive Mind is a kind of consciousness of the heart that discerns the truth in momentary flashes rather than in a comprehensive grasp. Illumined Mind communicates consciousness by vision, Higher Mind through conceptual thought. Mind generally integrates reality through cognitive, intellectual, and mental perceptions rather than through direct vision, yet mind is also open to the higher levels of consciousness, for it is basically oriented to Supermind, in which it participates in a derivative way. The Psyche is the conscious form of the soul that makes possible the evolution from ignorance to light. Life is cosmic energy through which the divine is received and made manifest. Matter, the lowest level in Aurobindo's hierarchy of consciousness manifestation, is not reducible to mere material substance, but is an expression of sachchidānanda in diminished form.
The hierarchical view of consciousness or spirit must also be seen in a process perspective in which the supreme is seen as continuously being and becoming manifest in these many levels of being. Consciousness liberates itself through an inner law that directs evolution. Spiritual evolution is also seen as a series of ascents from material, physical existence up to supramental existence, in which we are able to reach or true being and fulfillment.
Yoga is a means by which this evolutionary thrust can be consciously assisted. Whereas evolution proceeds slowly and indirectly, yoga functions more quickly and directly. Evolution seeks the divine through nature, while yoga reaches out for the divine as transcendent to nature.
Aurobindo's Integral Yoga is so named because it seeks to incorporate the essence and processes of the old yogas, blending their methods and fruits into one system. It is integral also insofar as it seeks an integral and total change of consciousness and nature, not for the individual alone but for all of humanity and the entire cosmos. Unlike some yogas of the past, Integral Yoga does not seek release from the cycle of birth and death but seeks a transformation of life and existence, by, for, and through the divine. In most yogas, ascent to the divine is emphasized. In Integral Yoga, ascent to the divine is but the first step; the real goal is descent of the new consciousness that has been attained by the ascent.
Disciples, admirers, and advocates of Aurobindo's vision of spiritual evolution and system of Integral Yoga gather in communities throughout the world. Best known are those who have begun construction of Auroville, a city near Pondicherry designed to embody Aurobindo's ideal for a transformed humanity, and the ashram at Pondicherry where Aurobindo himelf lived for forty years.
Bibliography
The complete works of Aurobindo are available in the "Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library," 30 vols. (Pondicherry, 1972–1976). A useful overview of Aurobindo's major works can be found in Six Pillars: An Introduction to the Major Works of Sri Aurobindo, edited by Robert A. McDermott (Chambersburg, Pa., 1974). Kees W. Bolle relates Aurobindo's thought, which evidences both Western and Eastern influences, to the Tantric tradition, in The Persistence of Religion: An Essay on Tantrism and Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy (Leiden, 1965). A lucid analysis of Aurobindo's philosophy of the world is found in Beatrice Bruteau's Worthy Is the World: The Hindu Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo (Rutherford, N.J., 1976). My The Quest for Political and Spiritual Liberation: A Study in the Thought of Sri Aurobindo Ghose (Cranbury, N.J., 1976) addresses the relationship between Aurobindo's political (1905–1910) and spiritual (1910–1950) commitments and writings.
New Sources
Heehs, Peter. Sri Aurobindo, A Brief Biography. Delhi; New York, 1989.
Kluback, William. Sri Aurobindo Ghose: The Dweller in the Lands of Silence. New York, 2001.
Madhusudan Reddy, V. Seven Studies in Sri Aurobindo. Hyderabad, India, 1989.
McLaughlin, Michael T. Knowledge, Consciousness and Religious Conversion in Lonergan and Aurobindo. Rome, 2003.
Nandakumar, Prema. Sri Aurobindo, A Critical Untroduction. New Delhi, 1988.
Umar, M. G. Sri Aurobindo, Thinker and the Yogi of the Future. Pondicherry, 2001.
Van Vrekhem, Georges. Patterns of the Present: From the Perspective of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. New Delhi, 2002.
Vrinte, Joseph. The Perennial Quest for a Psychology with a Soul: An Inquiry into the Relevance of Sri Aurobindo's Metaphysical Yoga Psychology in the Context of Ken Wilber's Integral Psychology. Delhi, 2002.
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