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Letters on Himself and The Ashram

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Item Code: NAK656
Author: Sri Aurobindo
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry
Language: English
Edition: 2011
ISBN: 9788170589525
Pages: 870
Cover: Paperback
Other Details 9.0 Inch X 5.5 inch
Weight 1.10 kg
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Fully insured
Shipped to 153 countries
Shipped to 153 countries
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More than 1M+ customers worldwide
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100% Made in India
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23 years in business
Book Description
About the Book

In these letters, mostly written to members of his ashram and some to disciples living outside Pondicherry, Sri Auobindo refers to his student years in England, his work as a teacher in Baroda, his political leadership in Bengal, and his life as a writer and Yogi in Pondicherry. He also comments on his formative spiritual experiences and the development of his Integral Yoga. In the latter part of the Volume, he discusses the life and discipline followed in his ashram and offers advice to the disciples living and working there. The letters cover a twenty four year period from November 1926, when the Ashram was founded, to November 1950, shortly before his passing. (Letters written before November 1926 are possible in the book autobiographical notes and other writings of Historical Interest.) whenever possible, the letters are framed contextually and historically by including the question or comment of the correspondent and the date of the letter.

Through these letters one gets unique glimpses of Sri Aurobindo's life and work and gains valuable insights into the method and practice of the Integral Yoga.

 

About the Author

Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta on 15 August 1872. At the age of seven he was taken to England for his education. He studied at St. Paul's School, London, and at King's College, Cambridge. Returning to India in 1893, he worked for the next thirteen years in the Princely State of Baroda in the service of the Maharaja and as a professor in the state's college.

In 1906 Sri Aurobindo quit his post in Baroda and went to Calcutta, where he became one of the leaders of the Indian nationalist movement. As editor of the newspaper Bande Mataram, he put forward the idea of complete independence from Britain. Arrested three times for sedition or treason, he was released each time for lack of evidence.

Sri Aurobindo began the practice of Yoga in 1905. Within a few years he achieved several fundamental spiritual realisations. In 1910 he withdrew from politics and went to Pondicherry in French India in order to concentrate on his inner life and work. Over the next forty years, he developed a new spiritual path, the Integral Yoga, whose ultimate aim is the transformation of life by the power of a supra mental consciousness. In 1926, with the help of his spiritual collaborator the Mother, he founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. His vision of life is presented in numerous works of prose and poetry, among the best known of which are The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, Essays on the Gita and Savitri. Sri Aurobindo passed away on 5 December 1950.

 

Publisher's Note

This volume contains letters in which Sri Arobindo referred to his life and works, his sadhana or practice of yoga, and the sadhana of members of his ashram. Many of the letters appeared earlier in Sri Aurobindo on himself and on the Mother (1953) and On Himself: Compiled from Notes and Letters (1972). These previously published letters, along with many others, appear here under the new title Letters on Himself and the Ashram.

The letters included in the present volume have been selected from Sri Aurobindo's extensive correspondence with members of the Ashram and outside. Disciples between November 1926 and November 1950. Letters he wrote before November 1926 are published in Autobiographical Notes and Other Writing of Historical Interest, volume 36 of The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. That volume also contains remarks by Sri Aurobindo on his life and works that were written as corrections of statements made by biographers and other, public messages on world events, letters to public figures and public statements on his ashram and path of yoga.

The letters on the sadhana of members of the Ashram selected for publication in Part Four of the present volume differ from those published in Letters on Yoga, volumes 28 – 31 of The Complete Works, in that they are framed historically by events and conditions in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram between 1926 and 1950. The dates and the questions of Sri Aurobindo's correspondents that accompany many of the letters in the present volume make the historical context clear. The letters included in Letters on Yoga were also written to Ashramites and outside disciples during the 1926 -1950 period, but they deal with Sri disciples during the 1926 – 1950 period, but they deal with Sri Aurobindo's yoga in a more general way, and thus are less in need of the contextualisation provided by the questions and dates.

The letters in the present volume have been arranged by the editors in five parts, the last of which includes mantras and messages. The texts have been checked against all available handwritten, typed and printed versions.

 

Contents

 

Part One: Remarks on his life and works and on His Contemporaries and Contemporary Events  
Section One: Reminiscences and Remarks on Events in His Outer life  
His life and Attempts to write about It 5
His Name 8
Life in England, 1879 -1893 9
Life in Baroda, 1893 – 1906 13
Political Career, 1906 – 1910 17
Outer Life in Pondicherry, 1910 – 1950 28
Section Two: General Remarks on His Life  
Remarks on His Life in Pondicherry after 1926 35
His Temperament and Character 44
Heredity, Past lives, Astrology 55
Section Three: Remarks on Himself as a writer and on His Writings  
On Himself as a Writer 63
Writing for Publication 67
On His Published Prose Writings 74
The Terminology of His Writings 55
Section Four: Remarks on Contemporaries and on Contemporary Problems  
Remarks on Spiritual Figures in India 161
Remarks on European Writers on Occultism 183
Remarks on Public Figures in India 184
Remarks on Public Figures in Europe 203
Remarks on Indian Affairs, 1930 – 1946 205
Remarks on the world Situation, 1933 – 1949 209
Part Two: His Sadhana or Practice of Yoga  
Section One: Sadhana before Coming to Pondicherry in 1910  
Ordinary life and yoga 227
Early Experiences 231
The Realisation of January 1908 239
Experiences in Alipur Jail, 1908 -1909 263
Section Two: Sadhana in Pondicherry 1910 -1950  
The Early years in Pondicherry, 1910 – 1926 269
The Realisation of 24 November 1926 270
The Sadhana of 1927 – 1929 273
General Remarks on the Sadhana of the 1930s 277
The Supramental Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths 298
Remarks on the Current State of the Sadhana, 1931 – 1947 319
Section Three: Some Aspects of the Sadhana in Pondicherry  
Inner Vicissitudes and Difficulties 371
Unusual Experiences and States of Consciousness 383
Part Three: The Leader and The Guide  
Section One: The Guru and the Avatar  
The Guru 395
The Question of Avatarhood 399
Section Two: Help and Guidance  
Help from the Guide 437
Guidance Through Correspondence 450
Sri Aurobindo's Force 479
Therapeutic Force and Healing 497
Lights, Visions, Dreams 515
Darshan 520
Contact with People Outside the Ashram 526
Part Four: The Practice of Yoga in The Ashram and outside  
Section One: The practice of yoga in the Ashram, 1926 – 1950  
Entering Sri Aurobindo's Path 539
Admission, staying, Departure 559
The Ashram and its Atmosphere 630
Sadhana in the Ashram 634
Discipline in the Ashram 672
Rules in the Life of the Ashram 676
The Ashram and Religion 696
Human Relations and the Ashram 705
Work in the Ashram 742
Life and Death in the Ashram 759
Miscellaneous Matters 794
Section Two: The Practice of Yoga in the Ashram and the Outside World  
The Ashram and the outside work 811
Yoga Centres and Movements 814
Part Five: Mantras and Messages  
Section One: Mantras  
On Mantras 825
Mantras Written by Sri Aurobindo 829
Section Two: Messages  
Messages Written for Special Occasions 837
Note on The Texts 847

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