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.
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.
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.
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