January 2012 - Auro e-Books

The Upanishads

Book The Upanishads by Sri Aurobindo contains his final translations of and commentaries on the Isha and Kena, his final translations of the Mundaka and Katha Upanishads, and a commentary on part of the Taittiriya Upanishad. Upanishads are the ancient treatises on spiritual truths as envisioned by the seers, sages and rishis of the civilization of India.

They are preceded by a chapter on the Upanishads from A Defence of Indian Culture. These works represent Sri Aurobindo‘s Upanishadic interpretation in its most mature and finished form. All were written after he settled in Pondicherry in 1910. Translations and commentaries written before that year, or left incomplete by the author, have not been included in this volume. They are available in other publications.

The Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita, is a 700-verse scripture that is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. It contains a conversation between Pandava prince Arjuna and his guide Lord Krishna on a variety of theological and philosophical issues. Faced with a fratricidal war, a despondent Arjuna turns to his charioteer Krishna for counsel on the battlefield. Krishna, through the course of the Gita, imparts to Arjuna wisdom, the path to devotion, and the doctrine of selfless action.

eBook Bhagavad Gita by Sri Aurobindo presented here was compiled mainly from Sri Aurobindo’s Essays on the Gita. It first appeared in The Message of the Gita, edited by Anilbaran Roy, in 1938. Sri Aurobindo approved this book for publication; however, he made it clear in one of his letters that the translations in the Essays were “more explanatory than textually precise or cast in a literary style”. Many of them are paraphrases rather than strict translations. Sri Aurobindo also wrote that he did not wish extracts from the Essays “to go out as my translation of the Gita“. This should be borne in mind by the reader as he mattes use of this translation, which has been provided as a bridge between the Gita and Sri Aurobindo’s Essays.

Essays on the Gita

Essays on the Gita by Sri Aurobindo – essays on the philosophy and method of self-discipline presented in the pre-eminent Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. It was after reading these essays, in particular, that in the 1930s President Wilsons daughter went to Sri Aurobindo and devoted her life – receiving the name Nishtha via his vision in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry.