Sri Aurobindo Ghose

Why in news?

• Prime Minister chairs the first meeting of High Level Committee to commemorate 150th Birth Anniversary of Sri Aurobindo.

About Sri Aurobindo (1872 -1950):

• Sri Aurobindo  Ghose is a yogi, seer, philosopher, poet, and Indian nationalist who propounded a philosophy of divine life on earth through spiritual evolution.
• He is best known for his philosophy on human evolution and ‘Integral Yoga’.
• The main objective of his teachings was to increase the level of consciousness of people and to aware people of their true selves.
• Aurobindo studied for the Indian Civil Service at King's College, Cambridge, England.
• After returning to India he took up various civil service works under the Maharaja of the Princely state of Baroda and became increasingly involved in nationalist politics in the Indian National Congress and the nascent revolutionary movement in Bengal with the Anushilan Samiti.
• He was arrested in the aftermath of a number of bombings linked to his organization in a public trial where he faced charges of treason for Alipore Conspiracy in 1908.

Role in Revolutionary Movement:

• From 1902 he started taking an active interest in the politics of the Indian independence movement, working behind the scenes as his position in the Baroda state administration barred him from an overt political activity.
• He linked up with resistance groups in Bengal (Anushilan Samiti) and Madhya Pradesh.
• During his stay at Baroda, he had contributed to many articles to Indu Prakash
• He favored Non-cooperation and Passive resistance; in private he took up secret revolutionary activity as a preparation for open revolt, in case that the passive revolt failed.
• As a result of his political activities, he was imprisoned in 1908 (Alipore Bomb case).
• Once out of the prison, he started two new publications, Karmayogin in English and Dharma in Bengali.

Conversion from politics to spirituality:

• In 1910, he fled British India and found refuge in the French colony of Pondichery (Puducherry), where he devoted himself for the rest of his life to the development of his “integral” yoga with an aim of a fulfilled and spiritually transformed life on earth.
• In 1914, after four years of secluded yoga, he started a monthly philosophical magazine called ‘Arya’.
• In Pondichéry he founded a community of spiritual seekers, which took shape as the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1926.
• He believed that the basic principles of matter, life, and mind would be succeeded through terrestrial evolution by the principle of supermind as an intermediate power between the two spheres of the infinite and the finite.
• Sri Aurobindo's close spiritual collaborator, Mirra Alfassa, came to be known as The Mother. She was a French national. Sri Aurobindo considered her his spiritual equal and collaborator.

Literary Works:

• Newspaper/jornals:
  • Karmayogin (English)
  • Dharma (Bengali)
  • Bande Mataram (English newspaper - in 1905).
• Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol (poem)
• The Life Divine and The Synthesis of Yoga- deals with the philosophical aspect of Integral Yoga
• Bases of Yoga
• The Future Evolution of Man
• Rebirth and Karma
• Hour of God

View of Aurobindo on education:

• In 1906, Aurobindo was appointed the first principal of the National College in Calcutta, started to impart national education to Indian youth.
• Aurobindo Ghose, in 1908, stated that the goal of national education was to awaken the spirit of nationality among the students.
• The education should be imparted in the vernacular.
• Although the students should remain connected to their own roots, they should also take the fullest advantage of modern scientific discoveries and Western experiments in popular governments.
• The students should also learn some useful crafts

Aurobindo’s five-part vision:

• Free, independent and united India. (In 1947, Sri Aurobindo strongly opposed the partition of India)
• Resurgence of Asia
• Unification of the world
• The spiritual gift to India to the world
• A step in evolution which would raise man to a higher and larger consciousness.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Which of the following statements are correct regarding Sri Aurobindo?

1. He strongly opposed the partition of India in 1947

2. Aurobindo was appointed as the first principal of the National College in Calcutta

3. He was linked to the revolutionary groups of Bengal

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1,2 and 3

Answer