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The English of Savitri Volume 1

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’.

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.

More Lights on Yoga

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

Sri Aurobindo and the Logic of the Infinite

About this book, the author, Rod Hemsell says, “Most of these essays were collected in 2003, a few recent ones have been added to this edition in the sections on philosophy and mantra, but obviously the earliest already contain the same basic insights that underlie the more systematic studies that I have done since 2008, after reading Sri Aurobindo for forty years.”

On the cover of the first edition, Georges Van Vrekhem wrote, “Not only are there in the essays which constitute this volume the philosophical landscapes the author has been and continues exploring, there is also the testimony of his practical commitment to the realization of a better world. As Sri Aurobindo wrote, the whirlpool of the present globalisation may well be the disorienting transition to the unity of humanity, necessary for the realization of the next step in evolution. After all, if evolution is a fact, why would it stop at the human species? It is in this perspective that Auroville, the City of Dawn, the most daring utopia of them all, has to be seen, and it is to the working out of this ideal that Rod Hemsell is contributing with his life. This is a thinker who dares to walk on the roads of infinity and find on them his fulfilment.”

La Madre por Sri Aurobindo (eBook Español)

La Madre

Estos ensayos esclarecedores por Sri Aurobindo forman una declaración de gran alcance y la indicación de la verdadera actitud que debe adoptar un sadhaka del Yoga Integral: el de una entrega completa y dinámica a la Madre. Estos ensayos describen el triple movimiento de aspiración, rechazo y entrega, las condiciones básicas para una verdadera fe y sinceridad, la fuerza irresistible de Gracia de la Madre, la necesidad de recuperar la fuerza – dinero para la obra de la Madre, y la alegría de ser un perfecto instrumento Suyo a través del trabajo desinteresado, superando las exigencias del ego. El documento final describe los cuatro grandes Poderes y Personalidad de la Madre Divina.

The Yoga and its Objects

This is a very early essay written by Sri Aurobindo no later than 1912 and it was first published as a booklet in 1921 under the title “The Yoga and Its Object”. In a letter written in 1934, Sri Aurobindo wrote: “But the book represents an early stage of Sri Aurobindo’s sadhana and only a part of it is applicable to the Yoga as it has at present taken form after a lapse of more than twenty years.” However, this should not be construed to mean that the information in this book is useless or somehow outdated. In the very same letter, apparently in reference to Lights on Yoga first published in 1935, Sri Aurobindo went on to say: “A book giving some hints about the Yoga compiled from letters to the sadhaks is about to be published, but it cannot be said to be complete. There is no complete book on the subject; for even The Synthesis of Yoga, published in the Arya but not yet republished in book form, gives only the theory of different components of the Yoga (Knowledge, Works, Devotion) and remains besides unfinished; it does not cover the more recent developments of the Yoga.” Clearly, these comments come from an ever evolving yoga; a yoga which, with Sri Aurobindo, began with a major step forward and moved beyond the stalled, stale practices of the nineteenth century. Perhaps the greatest difficulty of this short essay is the plethora of Sanskrit terms and that has been largely ameliorated with the inclusion of a glossary.

On Meditation and Discipline

Pavitra (from the Sanskrit word for ‘pure’, a.k.a. Philippe Barbier Saint-Hilaire) was one of the very early disciples of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother and he spent his last forty-four years in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. In this little booklet named “On Meditation and Discipline“, Pavitra has distilled the vast field of yogic practice and discipline into a compact digest that is accessible to everyone and it is free of any rigid dogma in the same way that Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga was without any dogma. This brief, well written “start here” guide is a perfect fit for those seeking a greater meaning in their life and are leaving no stone unturned in their seeking. In clear, simple terms Pavitra lays out three methods for gaining control of our ever-active minds during meditation. He then lays out three elemental movements of a discipline which are necessary to transform spiritual experience into spiritual realization using Sri Aurobindo’s own succinct words. Thirdly, he describes the three realizations which are the very “goals” of the meditation and discipline. The icing on this little gem is a short poem by Sri Aurobindo, The Miracle of Birth.

Book Details

Author: Pavitra

Print Length: 13 pages

Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Contributor: Blindshiva, Krishna

Book format: PDF, ePub, Kindle

Language: English Read more

Anilbaran Roy Conversations with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

Anilbaran Roy Conversations with
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

Anilbaran Roy Conversations with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother: During the early years of his stay at Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo used to have informal conversations with people who would come to visit him. The visitors as well as Sri Aurobindo’s disciples could ask him any question that occurred to them. The topics of the conversations covered a diversified range of subjects which included not only politics, yoga or spirituality but art, poetry, literature, medicines, education-system and psychology to name a few. These talks came to be known as ‘Evening Talks’ since they were held in the evening. Between May and September 1926, Anilbaran Roy had a series of personal interviews with Sri Aurobindo (reproduced here under Interviews) as well as attending many of the ‘Evening Talks’ during this period (reproduced here under Conversations). Anilbaran left Pondicherry in October of 1926 and returned in December of the same year, after Sri Aurobindo had withdrawn into seclusion. After his return, Anilbaran continued to keep diary notes until February 1927. Anilbaran later recorded his conversations with the Mother in his notebooks under the title, With the Mother. These notes began in December 1929 and continued until March 1938.

The Mother with Letters on the Mother

The Mother with letters on the Mother. These inspirational essays by Sri Aurobindo form a powerful statement of the true attitude to be taken by a sadhak of the integral Yoga: one of a complete and dynamic surrender to the Mother. They describe the triple movement of aspiration, rejection, and surrender, the conditions for a true faith and sincerity, the irresistible power of the Divine Mother’s grace, the need to reconquer the money-force for the Mother’s work, and the joy of a perfect instrumentality through selfless work, surmounting the demands of the ego. The final piece describes the four great powers and personalities of the Divine Mother.

SABCL volume contains Sri Aurobindo’s text of The Mother, with letters on his spiritual collaborator, the Mother; and translations of some of her “Prayers and Meditations”:

Part I, The Mother. THE MOTHER was first published in 1928. The main part of this book describing the four Shaktis etc. and the opening portion were written in 1927. The rest was originally written as letters. Since its first publication the book has gone into thirteen editions up to 1971.
Part II, Letters on the Mother. LETTERS OF SRI AUROBINDO ON THE MOTHER was first published in 1951. The letters included in this book were arranged under ten sections. These letters with additional material rearranged under eleven sections formed Part III of SRI AUROBINDO ON HIMSELF AND ON THE MOTHER published in 1953. In the present volume of the Centenary Edition this part has been further expanded by the inclusion of a large number of additional letters and the material has been rearranged under twelve sections.
Part III, Prayers and Meditations. This collection is not complete. It contains only the portions which Sri Aurobindo translated from the Mother’s PRIÈRES ET MÉDITATIONS written in French. These translations were first brought out in book-form in 1941 and reprinted in 1948, 1954, 1962, 1969 and 1971.

Man After Man

Man After Man by Satprem

“Man After Man” is a shortened book version of the 2.5 hour long interview with Satprem by David Montemurri, a film maker for Italian TV. It was filmed in 1981, in the Nilgiris, the Blue Mountains of southern India, where Satprem and his companion Sujata were living.

The production of the eBook was made possible by the ‘Flamme d’Altérité’ Association in collaboration with Auro-eBooks.

The interview, recorded more than 30 years ago, may appear to take place in an ‘outdated’ political and social context, but Satprem’s answers, of a rare lucidity and full of empathy, remain absolutely acute, powerful and pertinent. The main trend of the interview centers on the future of humanity, particularly: What will be Man after man?

“We erect around us the bronze walls of our infallible laws, which are only the temporary hallucinations of a terrestrial species on its way towards the Truth of the Earth.” – Satprem

Tag Archive for: Pdf

The English of Savitri

The Superman

More Lights on Yoga by Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo and the Logic of the Infinite

La Madre

The Yoga and its Objects

On Meditation and Discipline

Book Details

Anilbaran Roy Conversations with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

The Mother with Letters on the Mother

Man After Man by Satprem

Anilbaran Roy Conversations with
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother