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The English of Savitri Volume 3

The English of Savitri Volume 3

The English of Savitri
volume 3

This is the third volume in the English of Savitri series based on transcripts of classes led by the author at Savitri Bhavan, in this case from July 2014 to July 2015. The transcripts have been carefully revised and edited for conciseness and clarity, while aiming to preserve the informal atmosphere of the course. This volume contains summaries of Books Four, Five, Six and Eight of Sri Aurobindo’s epic Savitri 一 A Legend and a Symbol as well as providing detailed explanations of all the seven cantos of Book Seven, The Book of Yoga, thus covering the whole of Part Two of the poem. Each sentence is examined closely and explanations are given about vocabulary, sentence structure and imagery. The aim is to assist a deeper understanding and appreciation of the poem which the Mother has characterised as ‘the supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo’s vision’

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My Pilgrimage to the Spirit

My Pilgrimage to the Spirit

My Pilgrimage to the Spirit by Dr. Govindbhai Patel is the book of his experiences in sadhana in Sri Aurobindo Ashram as well as in his life outside, while following an ideal of Sri Aurobindo– “All life is Yoga.” The book therefore is significantly divided mainly in two parts. The first part covers his Yogic experiences and visions guided by the Divine Grace in the form of letters by the Divine Master of Yoga in Sri Aurobindo Ashram. The second part covers his experiences in the thick of life outside, guided by the Divine Grace, which gives a touch of originality and uniqueness to the book, for it is the first book of its type which contains author’s experiences outside the Ashram, moulding his life with care, by the touch of the Grace and fulfilling it into a stream of dedicated pilgrimage. Here we have the pleasure to see, how skilfully the door of the human life which is a paradox, is opened by the key of the Divine Grace, turning it into a fulfilment of life as a dedicated pilgrimage. “Life is a paradox, with God for key.”


Book Details

Author: Dr. Govindbhai Patel

Print Length: 169

Publisher:  Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department

Original source: http://sabda.sriaurobindoashram.org

Contributor: Blindshiva

Book format: PDF, ePub, Kindle

Language: English

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Sri Aurobindo’s Correspondence with Govindbhai Patel

Sri Aurobindo's Correspondence with Govindbhai Patel

Sri Aurobindo’s Correspondence
with Govindbhai Patel

This is a small collection of the correspondence between Sri Aurobindo and one of his disciples, Govindbhai Patel, covering the years 1928 thru 1934.


Book Details

Author: Sri Aurobindo

Print Length: 68 (Taken number pages in pdf document)

Publisher: Auro e-Books

Contributor: Blindshiva

Book format: PDF, ePub, Kindle

Language: English

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Letters on Poetry and Art

sri-aurobindo-cwsa-vol27-letters-on-poetry-and-art-cover

Letters on Poetry and Art

Letters on Poetry and Art comprises letters written by Sri Aurobindo on poetry and other forms of literature, painting and the other arts, beauty, aesthetics and the relation of these to the practice of yoga. He wrote most of these letters to members of his ashram during the 1930s and 1940s, primarily between 1931 and 1937. Only around a sixth of the letters were published during his lifetime. The rest have been transcribed from his manuscripts.

The present volume is the first collection of Sri Aurobindo’s letters on poetry, literature, art and aesthetics to bear the title Letters on Poetry and Art. It incorporates material from three previous books: (1) Letters on Poetry, Literature and Art; (2) Letters on “Savitri”, and (3) On Himself (section entitled “The Poet and the Critic”). It also contains around five hundred letters that have not appeared in any previous collection published under his name. The arrangement is that of the editors. The texts of the letters have been checked against all available manuscripts and printed versions.


Book Details

Author: Sri Aurobindo

Print Length: 781 pages

Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Contributor: Blindshiva, Alexey, Krishna

Book format: PDF, ePub, Kindle

Language: English


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Contents

Part One. Poetry and Its Creation

Section One, The Sources of Poetry

  • Poetic Creation
  • Sources of Inspiration
  • Overhead Poetry
  • Examples of Overhead Poetry

Section Two, The Poetry of the Spirit

  • Psychic, Mystic and Spiritual Poetry
  • Poet, Yogi, Rishi, Prophet, Genius
  • The Poet and the Poem

Section Three, Poetic Technique

  • Technique, Inspiration, Artistry
  • Rhythm
  • English Metres
  • Greek and Latin Classical Metres
  • Quantitative Metre in English and Bengali
  • Metrical Experiments in Bengali
  • Rhyme
  • English Poetic Forms
  • Substance, Style, Diction
  • Grades of Perfection in Poetic Style
  • Examples of Grades of Perfection in Poetic Style

Section Four, Translation

  • Translation: Theory
  • Translation: Practice

Part Two. On His Own and Others’ Poetry

Section One, On His Poetry and Poetic Method

  • Inspiration, Effort, Development
  • Early Poetic Influences
  • On Early Translations and Poems
  • On Poems Published in Ahana and Other Poems
  • Metrical Experiments
  • On Some Poems Written during the 1930s
  • On Savitri
  • Comments on Some Remarks by a Critic
  • On the Publication of His Poetry

Section Two, On Poets and Poetry

  • Great Poets of the World
  • Remarks on Individual Poets
  • Comments on Some Examples of Western Poetry (up to 1900)
  • Twentieth-Century Poetry
  • Comments on Examples of Twentieth-Century Poetry
  • Indian Poetry in English
  • Poets of the Ashram
  • Comments on the Work of Poets of the Ashram
  • Philosophers, Intellectuals, Novelists and Musicians
  • Comments on Some Passages of Prose

Section Three, Practical Guidance for Aspiring Writers

  • Guidance in Writing Poetry
  • Guidance in Writing Prose
  • Remarks on English Pronunciation
  • Remarks on English Usage
  • Remarks on Bengali Usage

Part Three. Literature, Art, Beauty and Yoga

Section One, Appreciation of Poetry and the Arts

  • Appreciation of Poetry
  • Appreciation of the Arts in General
  • Comparison of the Arts
  • Appreciation of Music

Section Two, On the Visual Arts

  • General Remarks on the Visual Arts
  • Problems of the Painter
  • Painting in the Ashram

Section Three, Beauty and Its Appreciation

  • General Remarks on Beauty
  • Appreciation of Beauty

Section Four, Literature, Art, Music and the Practice of Yoga

  • Literature and Yoga
  • Painting, Music, Dance and Yoga

Appendixes

  • Appendix I
  • Appendix II
  • Appendix III

Note on the Texts


 Sample

Letters on Poetry and Art

Three Elements of Poetic Creation

Poetry, or at any rate a truly poetic poetry, comes always from some subtle plane through the creative vital and uses the outer mind and other external instruments for transmission only. There are three elements in the production of poetry; there is the original source of inspiration, there is the vital force of creative beauty which contributes its own substance and impetus and often determines the form, except when that also comes ready made from the original sources; there is, finally, the transmitting outer consciousness of the poet. The most genuine and perfect poetry is written when the original source is able to throw its inspiration pure and undiminished into the vital and there takes its true native form and power of speech exactly reproducing the inspiration, while the outer consciousness is entirely passive and transmits without alteration what it receives from the godheads of the inner or the superior spaces. When the vital mind and emotion are too active and give too much of their own initiation or a translation into more or less turbid vital stuff, the poetry remains powerful but is inferior in quality and less authentic. Finally, if the outer consciousness is too lethargic and blocks the transmission or too active and makes its own version, then you have the poetry that fails or is at best a creditable mental manufacture. It is the interference of these two parts either by obstruction or by too great an activity of their own or by both together that causes the difficulty and labour of writing. There would be no difficulty if the inspiration came through without obstruction or interference in a pure transcript — that is what happens in a poet’s highest or freest moments when he writes not at all out of his own external human mind, but by inspiration, as the mouthpiece of the Gods.

The originating source may be anywhere; the poetry may arise or descend from the subtle physical plane, from the higher or lower vital itself, from the dynamic or creative intelligence, from the plane of dynamic vision, from the psychic, from the illumined mind or Intuition, — even, though this is the rarest, from the Overmind widenesses. To get the Overmind inspiration is so rare that there are only a few lines or short passages in all poetic literature that give at least some appearance or reflection of it. When the source of inspiration is in the heart or the psychic there is more easily a good will in the vital channel, the flow is spontaneous; the inspiration takes at once its true form and speech and is transmitted without any interference or only a minimum of interference by the brain-mind, that great spoiler of the higher or deeper splendours. It is the character of the lyrical inspiration, to flow in a jet out of the being — whether it comes from the vital or the psychic, it is usually spontaneous, for these are the two most powerfully impelling and compelling parts of the nature. When on the contrary the source of inspiration is in the creative poetic intelligence or even the higher mind or the illumined mind, the poetry which comes from this quarter is always apt to be arrested by the outer intellect, our habitual thought-production engine. This intellect is an absurdly overactive part of the nature; it always thinks that nothing can be well done unless it puts its finger into the pie and therefore it instinctively interferes with the inspiration, blocks half or more than half of it and labours to substitute its own inferior and toilsome productions for the true speech and rhythm that ought to have come. The poet labours in anguish to get the one true word, the authentic rhythm, the real divine substance of what he has to say, while all the time it is waiting complete and ready behind; but it is denied free transmission by some part of the transmitting agency which prefers to translate and is not willing merely to receive and transcribe. When one gets something through from the illumined mind, then there is likely to come to birth work that is really fine and great. When there comes with labour or without it something reasonably like what the poetic intelligence wanted to say, then there is something fine or adequate, though it may not be great unless there is an intervention from the higher levels. But when the outer brain is at work trying to fashion out of itself or to give its own version of what the higher sources are trying to pour down, then there results a manufacture or something quite inadequate or faulty or, at the best, “good on the whole”, but not the thing that ought to have come.

2 June 1931

Creation by the Word

The word is a sound expressive of the idea. In the supra-physical plane when an idea has to be realised, one can by repeating the word-expression of it, produce vibrations which prepare the mind for the realisation of the idea. That is the principle of the Mantra and of japa. One repeats the name of the Divine and the vibrations created in the consciousness prepare the realisation of the Divine. It is the same idea that is expressed in the Bible, “God said, Let there be Light, and there was Light.” It is creation by the Word.

6 May 1933

The Secret of the Veda

The Secret of the Veda

The Secret of the Veda

with Selected Hymns

Essays on the Rig Veda and its mystic symbolism, with translations of selected hymns. These writings on and translations of the Rig Veda were published in the monthly review Arya between 1914 and 1920. Most of them appeared there under three headings: The Secret of the Veda, “Selected Hymns” and “Hymns of the Atris”. Other translations that did not appear under any of these headings make up the final part of the volume.

In August 1914, Sri Aurobindo began to publish The Secret of the Veda in the first issue of the philosophical review Arya. This series was accompanied by a related one, Selected Hymns. Selected Hymns was followed a year later by Hymns of the Atris. These works, written and published in monthly instalments between 1914 and 1917, form Parts One to Three of the present volume.

Besides Selected Hymns and Hymns of the Atris, other Vedic translations appeared in the Arya at various times between 1915 and 1920. They were usually introduced when a page or two had to be filled at the end of a 64-page issue. These translations have been placed in the order of their original publication in Part Four, “Other Hymns”.

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Sriaurobindopanishad

Sri Aurobindo Upanishad

Sriaurobindopanishad

This Upanishad was written by Sri Aurobindo during the early part of his stay in Pondicherry (1910-1914). It was first published in the journal Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research in December 1978 with English translation done by Sri Jagannath Vedalankar.


Book Details

Author: Sri Aurobindo

Print Length: 25 pages

Text source: sanskrit.sriaurobindoashram.org.in

Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Contributors: Blindshiva, Manipadma, Sergio Fedrigo, Krishna

Book format: PDF, ePub, Kindle

Language: Devanagari, English


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Contents

  • Preface
  • Sanskrit Text
  • English Text

Sample

Sriaurobindopanishad

There is Brahman alone, the One without a second. Being and non-being are its forms and It is also beyond Being and Non-Being. There is nothing else except That. All that is contained in the three times and all that is beyond the three times is indeed that One Brahman alone. Whatever is in the universe, small or large, noble or mean, is Brahman alone, Brahman alone. The world is also Brahman. It is true, not false.

That alone is the Transcendent Being, beyond all the three times, beyond all the worlds, penetrating all the worlds, beyond Being, beyond Non-Being, All-Being, All-Consciousness, All-Bliss, without beginning and end, the eternal Divine.

He is without quality and supports all qualities. He has qualities, infinite qualities, and enjoys the state of being without quality. He Himself transcends the state of being without qualities and the state of being with qualities. He is neither without quality nor with quality because He is One and Single.

Anandamath

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee - Anandamath

Anandamath

Anandamath is a Bengali novel, written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and published in 1882. Set in the background of the Sannyasi Rebellion in the late 18th century, it is considered one of the most important novels in the history of Bengali and Indian literature. Its importance is heightened by the fact that it became synonymous with the struggle for Indian independence from the British Empire. The novel was banned by the British. The ban was lifted later by the Government of India after independence. The national song of India, Vande Mataram, was first published in this novel.

The prologue and the first thirteen chapters of Part I were translated by Sri Aurobindo, the rest by his brother Barindra. The parts translated by Sri Aurobindo first appeared in the KARMAYOGIN, intermittently between August 7, 1909 and February 12, 1910.

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The English of Savitri Volume 2

The English of Savitri volume 2

The English of Savitri
volume 2

Like the previous book in the series, The English of Savitri Volume 2 is based on transcripts of classes led by the author at Savitri Bhavan, in this case from December 2012 to June 2013. The transcripts have been carefully revised and edited for conciseness and clarity, while aiming to preserve the informal atmosphere of the course. This second volume covers the four cantos of Book Three, The Book of the Divine Mother, of Sri Aurobindo’s epic, Savitria legend and a symbol. Each sentence in the poem is examined closely and explanations are given about vocabulary, sentence-structure and imagery. The aim is to assist a deeper understanding and appreciation of the poem which the Mother has characterised as ‘the supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo’s vision’.

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The Problem of Rebirth

Sri Aurobindo The Problem of Rebirth

The Problem of Rebirth

In The Problem of Rebirth, Sri Aurobindo assesses the central arguments surrounding the concept of rebirth. He suggests that rebirth is a vehicle conveying the soul forward in its aeonic evolution towards self-knowledge and self-mastery. Evolution through the process of rebirth enables the soul’s indomitable effort through Time; karma engineers its spiritual education. Once seen, the process of karma, the law of consequence, takes a central place among the issues of life: “This evolution is not possible if there is not a connected sequence from life to life, a result of action and experience, an evolutionary consequence to the soul, a law of Karma. ” We have all had occasion to question providence; to ask “why do the good suffer, why do the evil prosper”. Such fundamental questions of life take on a new significance when viewed with an understanding of The Problem of Rebirth.

The true foundation of the theory of rebirth is the evolution of the soul, or rather its efflorescence out of the veil of Matter and its gradual self-finding. Buddhism contained this truth involved in its theory of Karma and emergence out of Karma but failed to bring it to light; Hinduism knew it of old, but afterwards missed the right balance of its expression. Now we are again able to restate the ancient truth in a new language and this is already being done by certain schools of thought, though still the old incrustations tend to tack themselves on to the deeper wisdom. And if this gradual efflorescence be true, then the theory of rebirth is an intellectual necessity, a logically unavoidable corollary. But what is the aim of that evolution? Not conventional or interested virtue and the faultless counting out of the small coin of good in the hope of an apportioned material reward, but the continual growth towards a divine knowledge, strength, love and purity.

 

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Aphorisms

Sri Aurobindo Aphorisms

Aphorisms

In the aphorisms that make up this book, Sri Aurobindo gives pithy and pregnant expression to some of the key ideas of his philosophy and yoga.

Thoughts and Aphorisms was written around 1913. Ten aphorisms from the manuscript were published in the monthly review Arya in 1915 and 1916 as parts of what was later issued as Thoughts and Glimpses. But the bulk of the aphorisms — that is, those included in the Karma, Jnana and Bhakti sections of the present booklet — were never published during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. They first appeared in book form in 1958.

The seven “Additional Aphorisms” were first included in the edition of 1977; the last five were written in a separate manuscript notebook, apparently somewhat later than the others.

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