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Sri Aurobindo by Rudolf 1922 –

Top 10 Facts about Sri Aurobindo 

Sri Aurobindo was an Indian philosopher, yoga guru, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as Vande Mataram. He joined the Indian movement for independence from British colonial rule, until 1910 was one of its influential leaders, and then became a spiritual reformer, introducing his visions on human progress and spiritual evolution. 

Aurobindo studied for the Indian Civil Service at King’s College, Cambridge, England. After returning to India he took up various civil service works under the Maharaja of the Princely state of Baroda and became increasingly involved in nationalist politics in the Indian National Congress and the nascent revolutionary movement in Bengal with the Anushilan Samiti. 

Here are 10 facts about Sri Aurobindo.

1. Aurobindo was brought up speaking English but used Hindustani to communicate with servants

Although his family was Bengali, his father believed British culture to be superior. He and his two elder siblings were sent to the English-speaking Loreto House boarding school in Darjeeling. 

This was to improve their language skills and in part to distance them from their mother, who had developed a mental illness soon after the birth of her first child. Darjeeling was a center of Anglo-Indians in India and the school was run by Irish nuns, through which the boys would have been exposed to Christian religious teachings and symbolism.

2. Aurobindo joined the state service in 1893

Sri Aurobindo in Baroda, India in the year 1908 –

Sri first served in the Survey and Settlements department, later moving to the Department of Revenue and then to the Secretariat, and much miscellaneous work like teaching grammar and assisting in writing speeches for the Maharaja of Gaekwad until 1897.

In 1897 during his work in Baroda, he started working as a part-time French teacher at Baroda College (now Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda). He was later promoted to the post of vice-principal. At Baroda, Aurobindo self-studied Sanskrit and Bengali.

3. Sri Aurobindo married a 14-year-old when he was 28

In 1901, on a visit to Calcutta, he married 14-year-old Mrinalini, the daughter of Bhupal Chandra Bose, a senior official in government service. Aurobindo was 28 at that time. Mrinalini died seventeen years later in December 1918 during the influenza pandemic.

The 1918 influenza pandemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was in March 1918 in Kansas, United States, with further cases recorded in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom in April. Estimates of deaths ranged from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it the second deadliest pandemic in human history after the Black Death bubonic plague of 1346鈥�1353.

4. Aurobindo attended and participated in the 1906 Congress meeting 

Sri Aurobindo –

Sri participated as a councilor in forming the fourfold objectives of “Swaraj, Swadesh, Boycott, and national education”. In 1907 at the Surat session of Congress where moderates and extremists had a major showdown, he led with extremists along with Bal Gangadhar Tilak. 

The Congress split after this session. From 1907 to 1908 Aurobindo traveled extensively to Pune, Bombay, and Baroda to firm up support for the nationalist cause, giving speeches and meeting with groups.

5. Sri Aurobindo was arrested in connection with the Alipore Bomb Case

Alipore Bomb Case was a criminal case held in India in 1908. The case saw the trial of a number of Indian nationalists of the Anushilan Samiti in Calcutta, under charges of “Waging war against the Government” of the British Raj. 

Sri was arrested in May 1908 in connection with the Alipore Bomb Case. He was acquitted in the ensuing trial, following the murder of chief prosecution witness Naren Goswami within jail premises, which subsequently led to the case against him collapsing. Aurobindo was subsequently released after a year of isolated incarceration.  

6. In 1914, Aurobindo started a monthly philosophical magazine called Arya

Sri Aurobindo –

In Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo dedicated himself to his spiritual and philosophical pursuits. In 1914, after four years of secluded yoga, he started a monthly philosophical magazine called Arya. This ceased publication in 1921.

 Many years later, he revised some of these works before they were published in book form. Some of the book series derived from this publication was The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, Essays on The Gita, The Secret of The Veda, Hymns to the Mystic Fire, The Upanishads, The Renaissance in India, War and Self-determination, The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity and The Future Poetry were published in this magazine.

7. Sri Aurobindo was nominated twice for the Nobel prize

The Nobel Prizes are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel’s will of 1895, are awarded to “those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to Mankind.

Sri Aurobindo was nominated twice for the Nobel prize without it being awarded. In 1943 for the Nobel award in Literature and in 1950 for the Nobel award in Peace.

8. Sri Aurobindo strongly opposed the partition of India

Partition of India –

Opposition to the partition of India was widespread in British India in the 20th century and it continues to remain a talking point in South Asian politics. Those who opposed it often adhered to the doctrine of composite nationalism.

On 15 August 1947, Sri Aurobindo strongly opposed the partition of India, stating that he hoped “the Nation will not accept the settled fact as for ever settled, or as anything more than a temporary expedient.

9. Sri Aurobindo died on 5 December 1950, of uremia

Around 60,000 people attended to see his body resting peacefully. Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and President Rajendra Prasad praised him for his contribution to Yogic philosophy and the independence movement. National and international newspapers commemorated his death.

Uremia is the term for high levels of urea in the blood. Urea is one of the primary components of urine. It can be defined as an excess of amino acid and protein metabolism end products, such as urea and creatinine, in the blood that would be normally excreted in the urine. 

10. Sri Aurobindo’s concept of the Integral Yoga system is described in his books

鈥嬧�婼ri Aurobindo argues that divine Brahman manifests as empirical reality through l墨l膩, or divine play. Instead of positing that the world we experience is an illusion (m膩y膩), Aurobindo argues that the world can evolve and become a new world with new species, far above the human species just as human species have evolved after the animal species. 

鈥嬧�婣s such, he argued that the end goal of spiritual practice could not merely be a liberation from the world into Samadhi but would also be that of descent of the Divine into the world in order to transform it into a Divine existence. Thus, this constituted the purpose of Integral Yoga. 

Regarding the involution of consciousness in matter, he wrote: “This descent, this sacrifice of the Purusha, the Divine Soul submitting itself to Force and Matter so that it may inform and illuminate them is the seed of redemption of this world of Inconscience and Ignorance.”