A CRITICAL STUDY OF SRI AUROBINDO’S MAJOR

WORKS
A
SYNOPSIS
SUBMITTED
TO
SHRI JAGDISHPRASAD JHABARMAL
TIBREWALA UNIVERSITY, JHUNJHUNU, RAJASTHAN
FOR THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN

ENGLISH

BY
Jimmykumar P. Prajapati
Regt. No: 15712258
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
Dr. Rameshsingh M. Chauhan
Guide Regt. No: JJT/2K9/SSH/0569
SHRI JAGDISHPRASAD JHABARMAL

TIBREWALA UNIVERSITY, VIDYANAGARI, JHUNJHUNU, CHURU ROAD,

JHUNJHUNU, RAJASTHAN NOVEMBER – 2012

Introduction

Sri Aurobindo Ghosh or Ghose was one of the most prominant Indian nationalist,
freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi and guru. The Indian national movement was joined
by him for freedom from British rule. He developed his own vision of human progress
and spiritual evolution. The central theme of Aurobindo's all works is the evolution of
human life into life divine. He wrote that

“Man is a transitional being. He is not final. The step from man to

superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth evolution.
It is inevitable because it is at once the intention of the inner spirit and
the logic of nature's process”.

After his migration on Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo first met Mira, specified revolutionary
quest and try to bringing down a spiritul force for transformation of humanity. Sri
Aurobindo ongoing his personal "yoga", that is, the first attempt at personal
transformation and union with the Supreme Divine, and thinking that he could gain
enough inner control to affect events on the outside, and make free India from British
power. By time by his yoga exposed to him that India was free in the restrained plane, he
also understand that the Divine had henceforth given him the new work of reducing all of
humanity from falsehood and suffering. So that Sri Aurobindo gathered number of
disciples to help him in the undertaking, through this way suffering, pain, falsehood,
cruelty, and poverty in any form would be clearly abolished from earth's life. If dozen of
people could accomplish this achievement in their bodies, the Divine's truth would come
down into the earthly realm. So they permitted seekers to collect around them, and allow
them participate in their yoga. So the Sri Aurobindo Ashram was founded.

Sri Aurobindo completely devoted himself to his spiritual and philosophical pursuits in
Pondicherry. In 1914, he continuously practiced yoga for four year and then he was
proposed to convey his vision in intellectual terms. After this he launched Arya, a 64
page monthly review. This was became the vehicle for most of his most important
writings for the next six and a half years, it was in sequential form. It was included The
Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, Essays on The Gita, The Secret of The Veda,
Hymns to the Mystic Fire, The Upanishads, The Renaissance in India etc.

Sri Aurobindo revised some of his works before they were published in book form for
many years. That was about his prose writing of this period that Times Literary
Supplement, London wrote on Sri Aurobindo that,

“Sri Aurobindo is a new type of thinker, one who combines in his

vision the alacrity of the West with the illumination of the East. He is
a yogi who writes as though he were standing among the stars, with
the constellations for his companions. Pondicherry is prayer palace of
Aurobindo Ghosh.”

Sri Aurobindo’s thoughts ideas and philosophy are based on experience, facts and
personal realizations. His spirituality is closely attached with reason. His didn’t wanted
only the liberation of the individual from the sequence that shackles him, but

“to work out the will of the Divine in the world, to effect a spiritual
transformation and to bring down the divine nature and a divine life
into the mental, vital and physical nature and life of humanity”.

Sri Aurobindo's major literary production was his voluminous association with his
disciples for some time. He had written most of his letters in the 1930s, which were
numbered in the thousands. Later these were composed together and published in book
form in three volumes of ‘Letters on Yoga’, and his great literatrary contribution in an
epic is ‘Savitri’, a spiritual poem.

1.1 Early Life of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh

Aurobindo Ghosh was born in calcutta, India, Dr. Krishna Dhan Ghose was his father,
The name Aravinda refers "lotus" in Sanskrit. Aurobindo spelled his name Aravinda in
England, or Aravind or Arvind in Baroda. First five years after his birth Aurobindo
spent at Rangapur. Dr. Ghose had previously completed his studies medicine and lived in
Britain. In Britain Aurobindo passed the prestigious Indian Civil Service examination in
1889. Aurobindo then joined the state service. Then, Sri Aurobindo engaged himself in a
deep study of Indian culture, teaching himself Sanskrit, Hindi and Bengali, all those
things which he didn’t get by his education in England. Then he also actively participated
in the politics of India's freedom struggle against British rule in India. Then Sri
Aurobindo concentrated on yoga with deep interest at Pondicherry, and launched a
philosophical article review named Arya in which most of his important and major works
were sequential for the next six and a half years. Then He retired from public life in 1926

1.2 Spiritual Life of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh

Spirituality is an idea in an ultimate and suspected immaterial reality of enabling a person

to discover the essence of his/her being; or the principles, high values and meanings by
which people live. Sri Aurobindo started his practice of yoga in 1904.

“of themselves and with a sudden unexpectedness.”

The very next year a "vast calm" descended upon him the moment he stepped on Indian
soil after his long absence in England. Not only that but in 1893 Sri Aurobindo had an
image of the Godhead rising and falling up from within when he had a carriage accident.
In 1903, when he was walking on the ridge of the Takht-i-Suleman in Kashmir, he had
the ‘realisation of the vacant infinite’, and after a year he experienced the ‘Living
presence of Kali’ in a holy place on the banks of the Narmada.

He had a guru in yoga named Vishnu Bhaskar Lele, who taught Sri Aurobindo how to
establish complete silence of mind. Sri Aurobindo succeeded in achieving this state
within three days, which sometimes requires a lifetime of yoga to reach. The effect was a
series of

“eternal and enormous spiritual awareness which unlocked to him the

superior traditions of yoga.”
In 1908 and 1909, in the Alipur jail when Sri Aurobindo was an under trial prisoner, he
had the steady vision of the omnipresent and universal Godhead:

“I knew it was Vasudeva, it was Sri Krishna whom I saw standing

there and holding over me his shade. I looked at the bars of my cell,
the very grating that did duty for a door and again I saw Vasudeva.
It was Narayana”.

In the jail, Sri Aurobindo was spent much of his time through reading the Gita and
Upanishads, meditating and practising yoga which was best alternation. He had originally
practiced yoga with the plan of acquiring spiritual force and energy and divine guidance
for his political work.

“the perfection dreamed of by all that is highest in humanity can

come.”

1.3 Importance of the Study

Sri aurobindo Ghosh or Ghose (From Bengali) was a revolutionary personality. Not only
that but also Indian nationalist freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet. He was
most important leaders in the Indian movement for freedom from British rule and for a
duration became one of its. He spent his whole life behind his own vision of human
progress and spiritual evolution. It is inevitable because it is at once the intention of the
inner spirit and the logic of nature’s process. Thus, Aurobindo had produced a dialectic
mode of solution not only for the individual but for all mankind and for whole universe.

1.4 Limitation of the Study

Sri Aurobindo has immense contribution in the field of literature and he had given his
supreme excellence in writing and try to writing on all the parts and facts of this world in
his highly philosophical sense. So here I have choosen to analyse several and major
contribution of Sri Aurobindo.
Review of literature:

Review of the Related Literature

A.B. Purani: The Life of Sri Aurobindo (1978). The study of present book gives
general information about Sri Aurobido, his biography, life in Britain, foreign education,
his arrival in India, his encounter with Indian sculptures, his Divine life in Pondicherry.
Apart from that the book also highlights how Sri Aurobindo put himself on the journey of
Spiritual consciousness and then his philosophical writing and deep account of his letters.

Sri Aurobindo: Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest.

The present volume, it is about the appearance of the study of various statements which
were made by different biographers and other writers about Sri Aurobindo, his life and
some sort of his writings. It is also included Sri Aurobindo’s autobiographical notes,
letters and other writings in a well organized manner.

Indrani Sanyal, Krishna Roy: Sri Aurobindo and His Contemporary Thinkers. The
present book is about an anthology of Sri Aurobindo and His Contemporary Thinkers, in
which discussed about inter disciplinary approach to bring to glow the status and ideas of
Sri Aurobindo and his contemporaries.

Institute De Reacherches Evolution, Paris & Mira Aditi, Mysore: India’s Rebirth, A
Selection From Sri Aurobindo’s Writings, Talks and Speeches. The book is about Sri
Aurobindo’s vision of India as it produce from his come back from England to his
following political days in the starting years of the century and lastly to his forty year
long removal from public view during which he thirsted into his genuine work of
evolutionary action.

Haridas Chaudhari: The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo: A Commemorative

Symposium. The present titled study is about Sri Aurobido’s philosophy, in which the
writer tries to illustrate Sri Aurobindo’s major philosophy about Spiritualism, Integral
Yoga, existentialism, cosmic integration and Sri Aurobindo’s views on West and East in
very artistic manner. For writer, the time was grown for the significance of Sri Aurobindo
to be more and more identified to the wider public in different parts of the world.

Sheojee Pandey: Sri Aurobindo and Vedanta Philosophy. The present work is
considered as an awakening of Vedanta philosophy, in which traces its long history in the
scriptural texts in the form of its origin and beginning. The present work also point out
about the last part of the Veda. It is about the Upanishads, addressed as the concluding
part of the Veda.

Ram Shankar Misra: The Integral Advaitism of Sri Aurobindo. The work is about
‘Integral Advaitism’ and its meaning and significance. Integral Advaitism makes
apparent of two different negations, The Material rejection and the denial of the ascetic.
There is also discussed some related parts of Integral Advaitism such as ‘The Logic of
the Infinite’, ‘The Absolute as Existence’, ‘The Absolute as Consciousness Force’, ‘The
Absolute as Bliss’ and ‘The Absolute as Supermind’. Further, there is also discussion
about ‘Concept of Ignorance’, ‘Stage of Involution’, ‘Process of Involution from matter
to Mind’ and ‘Evolution from Mind to Supermind and Saccidananda: The Triple
Transformation’.

Bimal Narayan Thakur: Poetic Plays of Sri Aurobindo. Bimal Narayan in this work
contened such part of Sri Aurobindo’s life, such as life and work of him, adventure of
consciousness, evolutionary consciousness and involution, the intuition of the Supermind
and Overmind. There is also critical examine about Sri Aurobundo’s particular work
named ‘Vasavdutta’.

Raghunath Ghose: Humanity, Truth and Freedom: Essay in Modern Indian

Philosophy. The objective of the present study is about Sri Aurobindo’s thought of
kindered notion of time as seen in the Hindu Tradition sacerdotal and philosophical.

G. N. Devy: Indian Literary Criticism: Theory and Interpretation. In this study one
can obviously finds the literary criticism of different great Indian writes, and especially
there is a wide discussion about Sri Aurobindo’s works and literary contribution.
Aparna Banerjee: Integral philosophy of Sri Aurobindo. It is about of Anthology of
various articles on the integral philosophy of Sri Aurobindo Ghose.

Aju Mukhopadhayay: The World of Sri Aurobindo’s Creative Literature. Aju

Mukopadhyay’s latest work is considered as another contribution to the ever growing
world of grateful evaluation of Aurobindo literature. The writer has completed wonderful
work before task the writing on the creative literature of Sri Aurobindo. Only after having
gone through the works of Sri Aurobindo and some of the critical works on the great
literary massive and having obtained enough knowledge of and mastery over the original
writings of Sri Aurobindo he has assumed this critical project on the great master.

Kishor Gandhi: Social Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and the New Age. This is the
second part of edition by Kishor Gandhi, searching to give an exposition of Sri
Aurobido’s philosophy of social and his immense contribution and work for the evolution
of humanity.

N.D. Arora: Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination. In his book, N.D.
Arora interpreted The Secret of the Vedas, The Essay on the Gita, and writing on
Upanishads, and try to open a new and innovative concept of Sri Aurobindo’s
philosophy.

K. R. Srinivasa Lynger: Sri Aurobindo A Centenary Tribute. The present study of K. R.

Srinivasa Lynger is about a centenary tribute to Aurobindo Ghose, Lyngre had at his
disposal helped him to achieve for us today what the intelligence of India in other periods
had achieved for their contemporaries.

G. R. Sharma: Trends in Contemporary Indian Philosophy of Education A Critical

Evolution. In the present scenario, G. R. Sharma attempted to evaluate Sri Aurobindo
among the contemporary Indian philosophers of education. In which, Aurobindo occupies
a very important position particularly due to his superb and wide knowledge of Eastern
and Western, ancient and modern systems of education and principles.
Prof. Vasudeva T Reddy: The World of Sri Aurobindo’s Creative Literature. The
present work covers almost all the genres of the great writer’s literary works. The
diligence with which he has studied the critical and biographical works on the
Mahayogi and the hard work he has put in collecting some of the details of a
very rare nature are something quite commendable.

Dr. Jitendra Sharma: Concept of Man in Sri Aurobindo’s Poetry. The present work
of Dr Sharma spoke about the real status of man in the present earth which is about the
supernatural Divine place of the man in the world.

H, Chaudhary: The philosophy and yoga of Sri Aurobindo. Philosophy East and
West. As the title suggest that writer has done with the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and
make comparative study of it with the thoughts of western, and on the basis of it
described that Indian Vedanta is richer than Western thoughts and philosophy.

Sorokin, P.A.: The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo (1960). Now if we mention about
Sorokin’s work, it is about Sri Aurobindo whole life practiced concept and it is Integral
or Internal Yoga. In which he had tried to clear the auspicious concept of Yoga of
Aurobindo in descriptive manner.

Gokak, V.K.: Sri Aurobindo : seer and poet. New Delhi, Abhinav Publications.
(1973). in the present of his Study, Gokak had addressed Aurobindo as a central idea and
give explanation and example of Aurobindo as a great Indian seer and prophet of future
India.

M.K. Raina: Education of the left and the right. International review of
education (1979). Now this is about M.K. Raina’s work, which is
concentrated on the ideal and under the influence of Spirituality the Ideal
concept of Education of Sri Aurobindo in India.

Ram Nath Sharma: The Social Philosophy of Sri Aurobino. Ram

beautifully mentioned and illustrated the ideas, views and critical thinking of
Society, State and Nation of Sri Aurobindo. In which, Sri Aurobindo had
described about the ideal view of Society in the context of Spirituality.
Objectives

The chief objectives of the present research project about Sri Aurobindo’s works are as
follows:

To highlight the facts about Sri Aurobindo’s early life, education, various philosophy and
literary works.
To find out Sri Aurobindo’s position on Indian Renaissance with other Indian reformist.
To acknowledge Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy about Spirituality and Integral Yoga.
To know the various facts which were encouraged Sri Aurobindo to contribute Indian
writing in English.
To critical evaluation of Sri Aurobindo’s major works like ‘Life Divine’, ‘The Ideal of
Human Unity’, ‘On the Veda’, ‘The Essay on the Gita’, ‘Savitri’ etc.
To mark out universal fundamentals in Sri Aurobindo’s work and philosophy and affirms
his contribution in world literature and philosophy.
Methodology:

The present thesis is a Qualitative one, scholar will utilize content to analysis for his
research study, and through this method the researcher will complete his research work.
Content analysis is the process or method in which the scholar is going to deal with
orderly examination of existing records or documents as a source of data.

Work plan

The researcher has first favored to separate his study in the following sections as one of
the recognized measurement of the doctoral research design:

Chapter I: Introduction

This dissertation would study and examine Sri Aurobindo’s life, writings, and various
philosophies such as political, social, educational and one of the most and famous
philosophy of spirituality and consciousness. Sri Aurobindo and his early life in England
for English education and culture insisted by his father Sri Krishnadhan, and his old
headmaster of his school observed that Aurobindo was most richly endowed with highly
intellectual ability. Because of his british education, he came into contact with European
classics, which is influence one can finds in his writings. The present research work
would describes Sri Aurobindo’s position in various places such as his contribution in
World War II, his role in India’s freedom struggle and one the most and major facts is
about his writings and philosophy of Spirituality and consciousness. The presen study
would begin with Lord Minto’s one of the quotations on Sri Aurobindo:

“I can only repeat that he is the most dangerous man we have to

reckon with.”

In short, the introduction will trace Sri Aurobindo’s early life in England, his role in
Indian freedom, his spiritual life at Pondicherry and in the last his works and
philosophical writings. Sri Aurobindo and his philosophical writing is the major response
of the present study, regarding this fact here attempts to study and discussed Sri
Aurobindo’s major works.
Chapter II: The Place of Sri Aurobindo in Indian Renaissance

The present chapter is going to examine historical facts of nation marked by glories and
successes, or follies and crisis. This part is about the Indian period between the later half
of eighteenth century and nineteenth century which was marked by reawakened national
spirit to find self expression. In Indians, it witnessed the passion for reinterpreting and
recreating the traditional values in the modern light. This is the period which is generally
known as the Renaissance in India. The word ‘Renaissance’, as it is used in the West,
primarily implies the reawakening of spirituality. Indian Renaissance is much more
comprehensive as it encompasses all the dimensions of human life. There is an eternal
message of the Bhagavad-Gita that during the periods of crises there appear on earth
some gifted and mighty persons who liberate men from darkness and despair. They help
in the advancement of the nation. This has happened in India during the renaissance when
many creative, patriotic, powerful luminaries flourished and dedicated their lives for
India’s emancipation and progress. The history of the period is an account of the thoughts
and actions of those illustrious persons, who had faith both in themselves and in their
heritage.

Chapter III:

Sri Aurobindo’s Philosophy of Spirituality and The Concept of Internal

yoga

The present chapter will deal with Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy of spirituality,
consciousness and his practice of Integral Yoga, in which spirituality is a dualist
metaphysical conviction that the world is made up of at least two major elemental
matters, substances and courage. Sri Aurobindo is the prominent sage and seer who with
the contribution of The Mother dedicated his lives to brining about the various stage of
evolution of earthly life. During his life, Sri Aurobindo worked outwardly on his
enormous writings, and worked inwardly to join to the spiritual and divine awareness to
bring down its belongings on the earth and through this way the pain, suffering, cruelty,
falsehood and poverty would be completely vanished forever from earthly life. The major
aim of this chapter is to show Sri Aurobindo’s strong belief that humankind is not the last
step in the evolutionary process and scale, but humankind has immense capability to
evolve from their present capacities to attain a new supreme level of humankind, in
which one can guided by supreme knowledge, truth, substance and power of the new
divine awareness and consciousness.

Chapter: IV A Critical Study of Sri Aurobindo’s Selected Works

The present chapter is going to criticize about Sri Aurtobindo’s majoe works such as
‘Life Divine’, ‘The Ideal of Human Unity’, ‘The Essay on the Gita’, ‘The Upanishads’,
and ‘A Legend and A Symbol: Savitri’. The major concept of this chapter would be Sri
Aurobindo’s some selected works which are generally based on his spiritual philosophy
and his ideology on human progress, which made his writings, are much more accessible
to the readers, particularly Westerners, Which served to strengthen the critical attention
encouraged by the centenary of Aurobindo's was born in 1972. Prior to this, most of the
literature on Aurobindo had been created by his disciples, and many of his books and
articles provided useful summaries of Aurobindo's personal life and teachings, they were
always admiring in tone and hardly ever approached their subject from a critical
perspective. Although Aurobindo studies continue to be lead by the appreciative
commentary of his followers, since the 1970s he has continuously received increasing
attention from scholars in the ground of Indian and relative religious thought? Some of
Aurobindo's disciples have argued that analyses of Aurobindo's works rising from the
academic group of people lack the spiritual approach necessary for a sound interpretation
of Aurobindo's philosophy. On the other side, educational critics have charged that
Aurobindo's devotees and followers are personally involved with their subject and his
teachings to be objective, for example, they say no to accept spiritual perception of the
divine as decisive evidence that a new spiritual age is approaching, seeking forthcoming
instead to investigate whether Aurobindo's evolutionary theory can be established
through experience. Equally, estimations of Aurobindo's status as a literary artist contrast.
While some critics compare him to John Milton and Dante on the foundation of Savitri,
others challenge that such comparisons are evidence of the random praise lavished upon
Aurobindo by his devotees and followers. Such argument of critics notwithstanding,
critics have the same opinion that Aurobindo has had a major influence on modern Indian
history and religious thought in his roles as political, revolutionary, philosopher and yogi.
He is universally admired for the depth of his vision of life and the cosmos and for his
loyalty to the cause of leading humankind into a new, more peaceful and dynamic age.

Chapter V: Conclusion

This would be the last part of the thesis titled as ‘Conclusion’ will offer certain analysis,
study and summary of the projected research project. It will summarize the present
research work by announcing the result and termination regarding Sri Aurobindo’s major
works and contributions in Indian freedom and writings.
References and Bibliography

The research scholar of the present study has gone through the following books and
helpful published documents in the preparation of his dissertation. The scholar has
separated the required collection of books and articles referred to by him into the
following two heads:

Primary Sources

• Sri Aurobindo’s, ‘The life Divine’, Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication
Department, Pondicherry, India, 2005
• Sri Aurobindo’s, ‘The Human Cycle’, Published by Lotus Press, Pondicherry, India,
1997
• Sri Aurobindo’s, ‘The Secret of the Veda’, Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Publication Department, Pondicherry, India,1998
• Sri Aurobindo’s, ‘Essays on the Gita’, Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication
Department, Pondicherry, India, 1997
• Sri Aurobindo’s, ‘Savitri’, Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department,
Pondicherry, India, 1997
• Sr Aurobindo’s ‘The Ideal of Humanity’, Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Publication Department, Pondicherry, India, 1995
• Sri Aurobindo’s, ‘Future Poetry’, Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication
Department, Pondicherry, India, 1997
• Sri Aurobindo’s, ‘Isha Upanishad’, Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication
Department, Pondicherry, India, 1999
• Sri Aurobindo’s, ‘Karmayogi’, Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication
Department, Pondicherry, India, 2000
Secondary Sources

• Avadhesh Kumar, Singh. Article Reconsidering Indian Renaissance, Indian renaissance

literature, New Delhi: Creative Books, p., 13
• Ibid.,13
• Muin-ud-Din, Ahmad Khan, "Islamic Reform Movements of the Nineteenth Century
Bengal" in Social History of the Muslims of Bagladesh Under British Rule, Islamic
Foundation, Bangladesh, Dhaka: 1992, pp.71-72 and 79.
• R. C. Dutt, Cultural Heritage of Bengal, New Delhi, India: Mudgal Publication, 1985. pp
211-212
• Aurobindo, Ghosh, The Foundation of Indian Culture. Pondicherry, Aurobindo Ashram
Publication, 1918, p. 398
• Ibid., p.402
• Ibid., p.407
• Sorokin, P.A. 1960, The integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo. In : Chaudhari, H. Spiegelberg,
F., eds. The integral philosophy of Sri Aurobindo. London, Allen and Unwin.
• Raina, M.K. 1979, Education of the left and the right, International review of education
(Hamburgh), Vol. 25.
• Joshi, K., An experiment in eduction for tomorrow (Lecture delivered at Indian Institute
of Technology, New Delhi, 22 November 1998)
• Heehs, P., The essential writings of Sri Aurobindo. Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1998
• Sri Aurobindo Ghose, S. 1972, On himself. Pondicherry, Sri Auronbindo Ashram
(Centenary Edition, Vol. 26).
• Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (SABCL), Vol. 14, The Foundations of Indian
Culture.
• Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (SABCL), Vol. 15, Social and Political Thought.
• Aurobindo, Social and political thought. Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1971
• Chaudhury, H, The philosophy and yoga of Sri Aurobindo. Philosophy east and west,
Vol. 22. 1972
• Das, M. Sri Aurobindo. New Delhi, Sahitya Akademi, 1977
• Gokak, V.K. Sri Aurobindo : seer and poet. New Delhi, Abhinav Publications, 1973
• Raina, M.K. Education of the left and the right. International review of education
(Hamburgh), Vol. 25, 1979