Tag Archive for: Auro e-Books

The Hour of God

The Hour of God by Sri Aurobindo

The Hour of God

“The pieces collected together in this book were written by Sri Aurobindo between 1910 and 1940. None of them were published during his lifetime; none received the final revision he gave to his major works. Most of the pieces were first printed in various journals published by the Ashram, and subsequently in the different editions of The Hour of God, beginning with the first edition (1959).”

In reading these essays, one gets the very distinct feeling that the author really does know whereof he speaks. Here, we are able to sit in his lap and listen as he fabricates one description after another of the ineffable and explains how we too can share in the realization awaiting us at the end of what seems, in the clarity of his vision, to be not such an arduous path. It is not that he ever says that the way is easy, quite the contrary; but the certainty with which he speaks seems to put it into reach.

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The Master as I Saw Him

The Master As I Saw Him by Sister Nivedita (free ebook)

The Master As I Saw Him

This is an intimate look at the life and times of Swami Vivekananda through the eyes of the devout disciple named by him as Sister Nivedita. Born in Ireland, 1867, Margaret Elizabeth Noble became enamored of Vivekananda’s teachings when she heard him speak in London in 1895. She characterized her encounter with Vivekananda as providential; he being the deliverer of the call to service she had been waiting for. So, in 1898, she found herself in India, ready and willing to fulfill her life’s purpose. Three-months after arriving in India, she became the first Western woman to be received into an Indian monastic order. Soon, she opened a school for girls and spent the remainder of her life in service to India, teaching, caring for the ill and promoting Indian independence. But, of course, this book is not about her rather, it is about the man who inspired her, Vivekananda. In this portrait, you will find a God-driven man who gave his all for God and country, dedicating himself to the resurrection of India to her rightful glory. As a little bonus, we have added two appendices containing a few of Sri Aurobindo’s own words on Sister Nivedita, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda.

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The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

Emile Durkheim - The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

One-hundred years after its first publication, we resurrect here a scholarly tome written by one of the foremost fathers of sociology, Émile Durkheim. Much of Durkheim’s work was concerned with how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in modernity; an era in which traditional social and religious ties are no longer assumed, and in which new social institutions have come into being. The “modernity” of one-hundred years ago seems quaint to us today but the questions Émile sought to explore and answer then are perhaps even more urgent today. In The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, Durkheim lays bare the roots of human religiosity through an in-depth examination of the most primitive forms of religion then known on the very edges of an ever-encroaching “modernity”. Through this look at “primitive” man, perhaps we can find a deeper understanding of our own soul, what its needs are, and what drives it.

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Life Divine free ebook by Sri Aurobindo (pdf, epub, kindle)

Life Divine free ebook by Sri Aurobindo (pdf, epub, kindle)

The Life Divine free ebook

The Life Divine free ebook by Sri Aurobindo combines a synthesis of western thought and eastern spirituality with Sri Aurobindo’s own original insights. The Life Divine covers topics such as the human aspiration, the emergence of life in the cosmos from out of a Divine Source, the evolution of matter to spirit in the universe, the division and dualities inherent in human consciousness, the way out of man’s ignorance through an evolution of consciousness, and the spiritual destiny of life on earth.

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Stars in the Soup

Stars in the Soup by Shraddhavan

Stars in the Soup and other poems

A delightful selection of poems created by a long time resident of Auroville, Shraddhavan. Written in an open, free-flowing style, Shraddhavan embraces the world around her, particularly the natural world, as it whispers to her the story of her own evolving spirituality. If we listen quietly, she whispers to us as well.

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La Filosofia dell’Evoluzione (Italian)

La Filosofia dell’Evoluzione di Rod Hemsell

La Filosofia dell’Evoluzione

Come presentata qui, La Filosofia dell’Evoluzione  è un compendio di lezioni presentate da Rod Hemsell presso l’Università dell’Unità Umana ad Auroville nel 2008, 2009, 2012 e 2013. La spinta  principale nello yoga di Sri Aurobindo è sempre stata verso una partecipazione attiva all’evoluzione umana e questo è il concetto che ha fissato e definito  fin dall’inizio  la differenza  dello  yoga di  Sri Aurobindo e della Madre da tutti gli altri. Con la sua vasta conoscenza della filosofia e del pensiero di numerosi filosofi, e la sua familiarità con la scienza attuale, Rod è in grado di guidare il lettore attraverso lo sviluppo del pensiero in queste discipline e ci mostra il luogo che Sri Aurobindo, precursore illuminato, ci ha  indicato come prossimo obiettivo. Queste lezioni non sono una salita difficile o noiosa verso altezze rarefatte, piuttosto, sono esplorazioni istruttive dei campi base più ampi che circondano il monte; è lasciato a  Sri Aurobindo ed alla Madre la guida alla nostra ascesa. Tuttavia, con questa esplorazione della terra ferma, diventiamo sempre più sicuri che le nostre Guide verso le cime innevate in realtà sanno di che cosa parlano. Questa versione in lingua italiana riprende, su indicazione dell’autore, i capitoli più indicativi della versione originale inglese, che permettano comunque al lettore di seguire un filo conduttore  lineare e chiaro del percorso di pensiero  seguito da Rod Hemsell  nelle sue letture.

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Savitri – The Golden Bridge, the Wonderful Fire

Savitri - The Golden Bridge, the Wonderful Fire by M. Nadkarni

Savitri – The Golden Bridge, the Wonderful Fire

Almost all of the essays collected in this volume were written for and first published as monthly instalments in Next Future, the e-journal of the Sri Aurobindo Society Pondicherry. The 47 instalments ended with the passing of Dr. Nadkarni in September 2007, and cover Savitri Book by Book, Canto by Canto, from the beginning up to the climactic point in the middle of Book Eleven, where Savitri is offered four boons of merger with the Supreme, and asks instead for the Supreme Peace, Oneness, Energy and Bliss ‘for Earth and Men’. Dr. Nadkarni has written other essays on Savitri as well as giving many other talks, but this collection represents a masterly ‘Introduction’ (as he modestly called it) to the revelatory poem which he loved so much and understood so well. It has been compiled and published at the request of his family, and we feel sure that it will be welcomed by Savitri readers and students all over the world, and to a certain extent make up for the great loss that his many admirers experienced when he passed away in September 2007 at the age of 74.

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The English of Savitri Volume 1

The English of Savitri by Shraddhavan

The English of Savitri

Since 1980, Shraddhavan has been teaching English in Auroville through close readings of Sri Aurobindo’s revelatory epic Savitri: a legend and a symbol. In August 1998 these classes were resumed at Savitri Bhavan, with a growing number of students, including young Tamil teacher-trainees from the Arul Vazhi School located in Promesse, Auroville. These classes were given the name ‘The English of Savitri’ and they concluded in May of 2009 as this group reached the end of the poem.

This book is based on the transcripts of a new series of classes given by Shraddhavan between August 2009 and October 2010, which have been edited for conciseness and clarity, while aiming to preserve some of the informal atmosphere of the course. Edited transcripts of these classes began to be published serially in the Bhavan’s journal of Study Notes on Savitri, ‘Invocation’, from issue 32 onwards, since it was felt that they may be of interest to a wider audiance. They are now being published in book form in several volumes by Yukta Prakashan publishers of Vadodara. This suggested the idea of collecting the original English articles into a book form as well. This is the first such volume, covering all the five cantos of Book One of the poem, ‘The Book of Beginnings’.

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The Superman

The Supreman by Sri Aurobndo

The Superman

This little booklet is a powerful triplet of essays first published by Sri Aurobindo in the monthly review Arya in 1915. In his splashing poetic prose, Sri Aurobindo first describes his Superman against the backdrop of the Nietzschean overman and public misconceptions. He then goes on to hammer out the relationships between all-will, free-will  and fate. At the last, he commands you to grasp the delight of works with his lilting voice of authority. All together, this little booklet is like a powerful vitamin B shot for the soul.

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More Lights on Yoga

More Lights on Yoga by Sri Aurobindo

More Lights on Yoga by Sri Aurobindo

This volume is a collection of extracts from various letters written by Sri Aurobindo to his disciples in answering their questions about the Integral Yoga. This small volume also contains a glossary of the terms frequently used by Sri Aurobindo and, as far as possible, the definitions are in Sri Aurobindo’s own words.

“Absence of love and fellow feeling is not necessary for nearness to the Divine; on the contrary, a sense of closeness and oneness with others is a part of the divine consciousness into which the sadhak enters by nearness to the Divine and the feeling of oneness with the Divine…. In this Yoga the feeling of unity with others, love, universal joy and Ananda are an essential part of the liberation and perfection which are the aim of the sadhana.”

Sri Aurobindo

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