The Essential Aurobindo - Softcover

Sri Aurobindo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 8179924203 ISBN 13: 9788179924204

Publisher: Jaico Publishing House, 2006

Synopsis

This is an introduction to Sri Aurobindo, considered by the author to be one of the most profound and relevant contemporary Asian masters speaking to the West. His vision he contends transcends the different strengths and weaknesses of India and the West. His teachings include the yogas of the Hindu spiritua; classic the Bhagavad Gita - knowledge, action, devotion and meditation and applies them to the task of world transformation, rather than just spiritiual liberation.

About this title

Review:

Before Gandhi, Aurobindo Ghose tested the British colony with his courageous writings on independence and his extraordinary energy. A series of mystical experiences, however, turned Ghose into Sri Aurobindo, India's greatest modern writer on spiritualism. The Essential Aurobindo is a collection of this yogi's most important writings. Raised with a British education from the age of 5 and schooled at Cambridge, Aurobindo was thoroughly versed in Western philosophy and strove to integrate the profound ideas of East and West. His "integral yoga" has been influential among writers like Ken Wilber in the American human-potential movement, in which the spiritual side of the human being is considered the most important element of cultivation. According to Aurobindo, after the origin of life from matter, and mind from life, there must be a further, conscious evolution to a spiritual plane. Included in The Essential Aurobindo are writings of the Mother, Aurobindo's successor, who established an ongoing and influential collective based on the thoughts of Aurobindo. Culled from the nearly 30 volumes of Aurobindo's lifetime work, the pieces in The Essential Aurobindo are truly essential to an understanding of this vital and unique thinker. --Brian Bruya

About the Author:

Robert McDermott, Ph.D., is president emeritus and chair of the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). His publications include Radhakrishnan (1970); The Essential Aurobindo (1974, 1987); The Essential Steiner (1984); (with Rudolf Steiner) The Bhagavad Gita and the West (2009); and The New Essential Steiner (2009). He has also published on William James, Josiah Royce, M. K. Gandhi, the evolution of consciousness, and American thought. His administrative service includes president of the New York Center for Anthroposophy; president of the Rudolf Steiner [summer] Institute; chair of the board of Sunbridge College (New York) and of Rudolf Steiner College (California). He was a member of the council of the Anthroposophical Society in America (1996–2004). He is the founding chair of the board of the Sophia Project, an anthroposophic home in Oakland, California, for mothers and children at risk of homelessness. He is a Lindisfarne fellow, a Fetzer mentor, and a member of the Esalen Corportion.

About this edition

• Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 8179924203
• ISBN 13: 9788179924204
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Robert A. McDermott