Sri Aurobindo Ghose

Early Life and Political Career

Sri Aurobindo Ghose was born on 15 August 1872 in Calcutta into a Western-educated Bengali family. His father, Krishnadhan Ghose, was a surgeon who admired British culture and sent his sons to England for schooling. From 1879 to 1893 Aurobindo studied in Manchester, London, and Cambridge, acquiring an elite British education in the classical canon, European literature, and modern languages. During this period he also joined the Indian Majlis at Cambridge and became aware of Indian nationalist currents.

Returning to India in 1893, he entered the service of the princely state of Baroda, first in administrative posts and later as a teacher at Baroda College. There he immersed himself in Sanskrit, Bengali, and Indian philosophical traditions that had been largely absent from his upbringing. His Baroda years were formative for his synthesis of Western and Indian thought and for his turn toward nationalism.

By the first decade of the 20th century, Aurobindo emerged as a prominent leader in the Indian independence movement. He advocated Purna Swaraj (complete independence) at a time when many Congress leaders still sought Dominion status. He became associated with the extremist wing of the Indian National Congress, criticizing moderate constitutionalism and promoting passive resistance, boycott, and national education.

Settling in Calcutta in 1906, he edited the nationalist newspapers Bande Mataram and later Karmayogin, which articulated a radical critique of colonial rule and a spiritualized idea of nationalism. His writings combined political strategy with appeals to India’s spiritual heritage. In 1908 he was arrested in connection with the Alipore bomb case and spent about a year in jail. During this imprisonment, Aurobindo later reported profound mystical experiences, including the perception of the divine presence in all beings and even in the British judge—a turning point that shifted his focus from political to spiritual liberation.

Although acquitted in 1909, he soon faced renewed prosecution. In 1910 Aurobindo left British India for the French enclave of Pondicherry (Puducherry), marking the end of his active political career and the beginning of his life as a spiritual philosopher and yogi.

Turn to Spiritual Life and Ashram Formation

From 1910 onward, Aurobindo lived mostly in seclusion in Pondicherry, devoting himself to intense spiritual practice and systematic philosophical writing. Gradually a small circle of disciples gathered around him. His early Pondicherry writings, including articles in the journal Arya (1914–1921), laid the foundations for his later major works.

In 1914 Aurobindo met Mirra Alfassa, a French spiritual seeker of Egyptian-Jewish origin, who later came to be known as “the Mother.” After a brief return to France and Japan, she settled in Pondicherry permanently in 1920 and became Aurobindo’s closest collaborator. Together they developed what they called Integral Yoga, a comprehensive spiritual path integrating contemplation, work, and the transformation of everyday life.

In 1926, following an experience that his disciples described as a descent of a higher consciousness, Aurobindo withdrew further from public contact, entrusting external organization to the Mother. Around this time, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram was formally constituted, evolving from an informal circle into an organized community. The Ashram became the practical locus of their experiment in applying spiritual practice to all dimensions of life—education, work, art, and social relations.

Aurobindo lived quietly in Pondicherry for the rest of his life, writing, revising his works, and guiding disciples mainly through written answers and occasional interviews. He died on 5 December 1950; his body was placed in a samadhi (tomb) in the Ashram courtyard, which remains a pilgrimage site.

Integral Yoga and Philosophical Vision

Aurobindo’s central philosophical contribution is his doctrine of Integral Yoga, elaborated primarily in The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, Essays on the Gita, and his epic poem Savitri. His thought draws on Vedanta, particularly the nondualism of the Upaniṣads, but departs from classical Advaita in affirming the positive value and transformability of the material world.

At the heart of his metaphysics is the claim that consciousness, not matter, is the ultimate reality. He describes an evolutionary cosmology: from the Inconscient (a seeming unconsciousness at the base of matter) arises life, then mind, and potentially higher ranges of consciousness. Human mental consciousness, in his view, is a transitional stage. The aim of evolution is the manifestation of a supramental or gnostic consciousness that would reconcile spiritual unity with multiplicity and transform life on earth.

Aurobindo proposes a threefold process of yoga: aspiration, rejection, and surrender—directed toward what he calls the Divine Shakti or Mother. Unlike renunciatory paths that seek liberation by withdrawal from worldly engagement, Integral Yoga aims at a “divinization of life”: the spiritual transformation of mind, life, and body. This involves:

• Psychic transformation: the emergence of the “psychic being,” an inner soul-personality guiding the individual.
• Spiritual transformation: ascent to higher planes of consciousness, including overmind and supermind.
• Supramental transformation: a radical mutation of consciousness and even of physical nature, which Aurobindo envisages but does not claim to complete.

His The Life Divine systematically argues against materialism and classical illusionism (māyāvāda), proposing instead a “realistic Advaita” in which the world is a real manifestation of Brahman rather than mere illusion. The Human Cycle and The Ideal of Human Unity extend this vision to social and political evolution, interpreting history as a progressive unfolding of consciousness through tribal, national, and potential future spiritual collectivities.

In aesthetics, through works like The Future Poetry, Aurobindo explores the role of art and literature as channels for higher states of consciousness. His unfinished epic Savitri reworks a myth from the Mahābhārata into a vast symbolic narrative of the soul’s battle with death and ignorance.

Scholars interpret his philosophy variously: some see it as a creative modern reformulation of Vedānta adapted to an evolutionary worldview; others regard it as a distinctive metaphysical system combining elements of Western idealism, evolutionary theory, and yogic psychology.

Legacy and Reception

Sri Aurobindo’s influence spans multiple domains: Indian nationalism, modern Hindu thought, comparative religion, and new spiritual movements. Politically, he is remembered as an early advocate of complete independence and as an inspiration to later revolutionaries; however, his direct political role ended with his departure to Pondicherry, and mainstream nationalist historiography often emphasizes other leaders.

Philosophically and spiritually, his impact has been more sustained. The Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the intentional township of Auroville (founded in 1968 under the Mother’s guidance) continue to disseminate his teachings. His works have been translated into many languages, and specialized institutes study his thought in relation to psychology, education, and social theory.

Proponents regard Aurobindo as a major modern philosopher–sage whose integration of spirituality and evolution offers a framework for addressing contemporary crises of meaning, ecology, and globalization. They emphasize his affirmation of world-affirming spirituality and his attempt to reconcile science, evolution, and mysticism.

Critics raise several concerns. Academic philosophers sometimes question the logical rigor of his metaphysical arguments, viewing them as speculative or poetic rather than strictly analytic. Historians of religion note that his idea of spiritual evolution parallels, but does not strictly align with, biological evolution, and suggest that conflating the two can be conceptually problematic. Some scholars also classify his work within a broader trend of “neo-Vedanta”, critiqued for universalizing particular Hindu concepts as if they were timeless and universally valid.

Within the study of mysticism, debates continue about the status of his reported experiences, such as the supramental descent, and about how to balance insider testimonies with critical historical analysis. Nevertheless, Sri Aurobindo is widely recognized as one of the most ambitious system-builders in 20th-century Indian philosophy, offering a comprehensive account of reality, human nature, and the future evolution of consciousness that continues to stimulate both dedicated spiritual practice and scholarly discussion.