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The New Spirituality

Georges Van Vrekhem, a Flemish Belgian, lived in Auroville from 1978 until his passing on 31st August, 2012.

In that period he published a number of highly seminal books on Sri Aurobindo and the Mother such as Beyond Man, the Life and Work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother (1997); The Mother, the Story of Her Life (2000); Overman: The Intermediary between the Human and the Supramental Being (2001); Patterns of the Present, from the Perspective of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother (2002);  Hitler and His God, the Background to the Nazi Phenomenon (2006); Evolution, Religion and the Unknown God (2011), and Preparing for the Miraculous (2011), containing the eleven lectures Georges had given in 2010-2011 at Auroville’s Savitri Bhavan and Town Hall.

In 2006 he was awarded the Sri Aurobindo Puraskar by the Government of Bengal.

At his passing Georges left a number of unpublished essays behind. Some of them were based on his talks in Auroville at the end of 2011, when he embarked on a second series of lectures on a wide variety of topics related to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. However, first Cyclone Thane and later his deteriorating health disrupted these lectures.

This book, which contains his unpublished essays as well as some of his articles and interviews that have been published in the magazines Auroville Today, Mother India, and The Advent, and in the book The Journeying Years, is published to honour Georges Van Vrekhem in recognition of his immense work in helping to understand the life and work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

Early Cultural Writings

Early Cultural Writings is a comprehensive collection of Sri Aurobindo’s early prose works, focusing on literature, art, education, and cultural criticism. This volume brings together seminal essays and writings composed primarily between 1890 and 1910, with additional pieces from 1910-1920.

Key Contents & Featured Essays Include:

The Harmony of Virtue
Critical studies on Bankim Chandra Chatterji, Kalidasa, and the Mahabharata
The National Value of Art
Baroda Speeches and Reports
Bankim – Tilak – Dayananda
Essays from the “Chandernagore Manuscript”
Epistles from Abroad, book reviews, and Conversations of the Dead

About This Edition: The editors have organized the material thematically into nine parts with two appendices. The texts have been meticulously verified against original manuscripts and lifetime publications. Editorial notations and a detailed Note on the Texts clarify revisions and manuscript sources. (Much of this material was previously published under the title The Harmony of Virtue).

I am with you by Kailas Jhaveri

I am with you

“I am with you” recounts the author’s close relation with the Mother, reflected in the book’s title from a personal message received by the Mother, beginning with their first meeting in 1950 following Sri Aurobindo’s Mahasamadhi up until the Mother’s passing in 1973. It provides an inside view of the teaching and work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother from a deeply devoted and dedicated sadhaka. It recounts the author’s work for the Mother in helping to establish UNESCO’s sponsorship of Auroville and various projects to promote its international status, including extended compilations made by the author for this purpose. It recounts her work with Richard on flowers and their interactions with Mother in this work. The book is replete with personal messages, correspondences, prayers and poems exchanged with the Mother, as well as their exchange of beautiful gifts. The book conveys the essential nature of a soul and life sincerely devoted to the Divine.

Book Details

Author: Kailas Jhaveri
Print Length: 348p.
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Book format: Pdf, ePub, Kindle
Language: English
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An Extraordinary Girl by Nirodbaran

An Extraordinary Girl

Nirodbaran narrated to Sri Aurobindo an incident that had taken place in Calcutta. The Mother was present during the narration. The incident concerned a girl of about ten or twelve. She belonged to a very well-known family and had visited the Ashram with her parents more than once. Now there was a tea-party in their sumptuous house. Many high-ranking people had been invited. The topic of the Ashram came up. Comments and criticisms started flying freely. Even the Mother and Sri Aurobindo were not spared. The child listened quietly. But when somebody seemed to overstep the limit of decency, she could stand it no longer. In a firm tone she said, “Look here, if you speak one more word about my Gurus, I’ll give you such a slap that you’ll tumble down.” Everybody was stunned. The child’s mamma left the room in shame and anger at the insult to her guests. Her uncle started looking at the ceiling in embarrassment, and to change the subject he started calling to the servants, “Hari, Ram, what a lot of dust is here!” Nirodbaran’s story was enjoyed by all immensely. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo looked happy.

Esha, the late Dilip Kumar Roy’s niece, was a little girl visiting the Ashram when I came to know her through my niece Jyotirmoyee with whom she had become very friendly. She wanted to settle in the Ashram, but her mother did not want it as she was still a minor. When after many years she came to the Ashram again and stayed with Sahana Devi, I became more closely acquainted with her. By that time she had already married and obtained her divorce and had decided to settle here. I came to her help and made all possible arrangements for the purpose. Since then I have come to know her well and listened to her narration of the incidents of her life. As I found them interesting I began to note them down and was thinking of publishing them in Mother India when somehow she got wind of it and strongly objected to it. As I felt I had Sri Aurobindo’s sanction for it, I did not listen to her. In spite of my disregarding her objection, luckily she did not stop recounting her saga. Of course she narrated it in Bengali and later I put it down in English as faithfully as I could. When the story began to appear in Mother India, she insisted more than once that I should stop it. My answer was that I believed it could be helpful to many readers and that Sri Aurobindo seemed to support me.

We find that many bhaktas are indeed appreciating the story, particularly because they realise through it that Sri Aurobindo is still very much with us and our faith has been strengthened, helping us through the difficult moments of our life. – NIRODBARAN

Book Details

Author: Nirodbaran
Print Length: 125p.
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Submitted by: Avinash Tiwari
Book format: Pdf, ePub, Kindle
Language: English
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India The Mother

This book is a companion volume to India’s Rebirth, a selection from Sri Aurobindo’s writings and talks which presented his vision of India and the way out of her most pressing problems. India’s Rebirth, first published in 1993, has generated much enthusiasm in India and abroad; it has been translated into Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Oriya, as well as French, and translations into other languages are under preparation.

In India the Mother, we have collected excerpts from the writings, messages, letters and talks of Mother, Sri Aurobindo’s companion, who joined him in 1920 and worked tirelessly until 1973 to materialize his vision. As with India’s Rebirth, we have followed a chronological order, which covers almost sixty years. The greater part of the extracts are drawn from Mother’s Agenda (13 volumes), the record of the private conversations which Mother had with her confidant Satprem between 1954 and 1973. (The reader should remember that the extracts presented here have been edited for the purpose of this compilation; the integral text will be found in Mother’s Agenda, 12 volumes of which have now been published in English translation.)

For Mother, as for Sri Aurobindo, India is more than a piece of land, however lovable it may be; it is the Ancient Mother, a form of the Shakti who fashions worlds and ages as well as her recalcitrant children, and pursues her goal through progress, defeat or even destruction. When the world is experiencing the last years of the West’s “long decomposition,” when we are being compelled to understand that Man is not the ultimate product of our Evolution and that this earth is not meant to satisfy our petty destructive greeds, the dormant strengths of India’s civilization are destined to shape the path of our future humanity and give the world the inner impetus and vision that the West’s fast-fading glitter failed io provide.

Book Details

Author: The Mother
Print Length: 307
Publisher: MIRA ADITI, Mysore
Book format: Pdf, ePub, mobi (Kindle)
Language: English
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India and her Destiny

India and her Destiny

Compiled from the writings of the Mother, this booklet speaks of India’s soul and its mission to act as spiritual guru to the world, the significance of India’s freedom, its division, and its path to unity, India’s true genius and her destiny, and some notes on Indian culture.

Book Details

Author: The Mother
Print Length: 41
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Book format: Pdf, ePub, mobi (Kindle)
Language: English
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New Correspondences of the Mother – II

New Correspondences of the Mother – II

This book contains the Mother’s correspondence with nine disciples, all of them members of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Each correspondence is presented in chronological order, with the question or comment of the disciple provided whenever possible. A brief life sketch of each disciple appears at the beginning of his or her correspondence.

The reader should note that the word “new” does not mean “published here for the first time”, but rather “not published in the Collected Works of the Mother and therefore new to most of its readers”. The Collected Works was organised and published around 1978, at the time of the Mother’s centenary. More than forty years have passed since then and a number of new correspondences have come to light, including those in this book. Five are being published here for the first time. The remaining four have been published in books or in the Ashram’s quarterly journal Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education or in both.

The nine correspondences in this book supplement those published in Collected Works Volumes 16 and 17.

Book Details

Author: The Mother
Print Length: 590
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Book format: Pdf, ePub, mobi (Kindle)
Language: English
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The Inner Attitude

The Inner Attitude

This is a collection of quotes from Sri Aurobindo and The Mother on the inner attitude — everything depends upon it.

Book Details

Author: Editor: K. C. Anand
Print Length: 52
Publisher: All India Magazine
Book format: Pdf
Language: English
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On Savitri by Nolini Kanta Gupta

On Savitri

This volume was originally conceived to be a comprehensive volume including all the articles of Nolinikanta Gupta on ”Savitri” in both English and Bengali. But Jayantilal Parekh wanted it to be a booklet in English only and containing the articles written by Nolinida exclusively on ”Savitri”. Hence it had to be reduced to only these six articles contained in this volume. I also told Jayantilalda that I am going to request Dr. M. V. Nadkarni to write a preface for this book. But inspite of Dr. Nadkarni’s willingness and best of efforts the preface could not be completed and shown to Jayantilalda since he passed away.

The blessings of the Avatar of the Supreme – Sri Aurobindo – has been invoked by adding as an appendix what he himself has said in his author’s note on ”Savitri” to make this volume complete in all respects.

This will hopefully be a very popular volume and will get a wide circulation and then I shall expect someone to come forward and take up the compilation in Bengali of Nolinida’s articles on ”Savitri” for publication.

Book Details

Author: Nolini Kanta Gupta
Print Length: 43 pages
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Submitted by: Avinash Tiwari
Book format: PDF, ePub, Kindle
Language: English Read more

Living India

Living India comes from a 24/7 experience of being pickled in the Indian culture, in the context of Auroville – the City of Dawn aspiring to live an actual human unity in diversity.

Living India, loving India – the essence of it and its countless eyes, names, faces, facets and flavours. Living it. Carrying it. Always.

Book Details

Author: Anandi Zhang
Print Length: 117
Publisher: Our Home (OH), under Auroville Art Service
Book format: Pdf
Language: English
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