The Lives of Sri Aurobindo

The Lives of Sri Aurobindo

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Reviewed in the West as the only decent biography of Sri Aurobindo Goshe, from politician, to poet and guru. This guy lived a fascinating life and Peter Heehs describes as many aspects of it as the Sri Aurobindo archives can help enlighten us on. In India this is a controversial book. It's even been banned in Orissa. The ban is due to the book not putting everything Sri Aurobindo did in a starry light. It deigns to suggest psychological motives, finding them in the plays Aurobindo wrote as well as his letters. From a Western perspective, the suggestion that the man had personal motives as well as spiritual ones, doesn't detract from his stature. However, many Indian devotees perceive them as an insult to his name. It's called 'Freudian Psychoanalys' by some - when there really isn't a word of Freudian psychology in the whole book. I'm hoping to go the Sri Aurobindo Ashram for a few months next year, and thought I'd read up on their tradition. So I ordered three books - this biography, a book featuring the teachings of The Mother and a similar book about Aurobindo's spiritual teachings. I just love biographies: they transport one back in time into the life of people who generally led interesting and admirable lives. Sri Aurobindo's life is perhaps everything in the extreme. He lived the first years of his life in India, moved to England because his father wanted a good education for him and his brothers - and then lived their with his brothers taking care of themselves. Though Aurobindo was the third of the three brothers, his scholarship money ended up taking care of the three of them when they went to college. He was a brilliant scholar. However, he avoided his father's wish of joining the Indian Civil Service (the British government controlled Indian Civil Service) by refusing to take riding lessons. Yes - this was a different time: it was considered essential that the people in charge of India's administration be able to ride a horse. Aurobindo avoided direct ...