Philosopher · Contemporary
Sri Aurobindo
1872–1950 · Integral Yoga; the Supermind and the evolution of consciousness
The revolutionary turned yogi of Pondicherry whose evolutionary spirituality the Catholic convert R. C. Zaehner set beside Teilhard de Chardin; Bede Griffiths and the Christian ashram movement read him closely.
Educated in classics at Cambridge, a leader of the extremist wing of Indian nationalism and a prisoner at Alipore, Aurobindo withdrew to French Pondicherry in 1910 and there wrote “The Life Divine,” “The Synthesis of Yoga,” “Essays on the Gita,” “The Human Cycle” and the epic “Savitri.” He taught that the one Reality, Sachchidananda, has involved itself in matter and is evolving back through life and mind to a “supramental” consciousness that will transform not only the soul but the body and the earth; the world is therefore real and the goal is a divine life here, not escape from it, so that both Shankara's illusionism and materialism are refused. “All life is yoga”: the integral path joins knowledge, works and devotion in surrender to the Divine Mother, whose force does what effort cannot, and the psychic being, the evolving soul, grows through many lives. He opposed theocracy and state religion, distinguished spirituality from religion, defended righteous war on the Gita's terms and backed the Allies in 1940, and in “The Ideal of Human Unity” looked past nations to a free world union.
Why he matters: Zaehner's “Evolution in Religion” made him the Hindu counterpart to Teilhard, and the comparison is exact enough to teach Catholics what Teilhard's evolutionary Christology does and does not share with Vedanta; the Christian ashrams of India drew on his synthesis of contemplation and work. He is the strongest Hindu answer to the charge that Hinduism is world-denying.
Where to be careful
A Reality that involves and evolves itself is the emanationism Vatican I excludes, grace is the force of an impersonal-personal Mother rather than the gift of a Creator to a creature, rebirth replaces the one life, and the supramental body is a transformation of nature by nature rather than resurrection by grace; his claim that spirituality stands above all religions is the pluralism of Dominus Iesus 4. Common ground: the goodness and destiny of the body and the earth, the union of contemplation and work, surrender as the heart of the spiritual life, and a purposive cosmos.
Reading
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The Life DivineSri Aurobindo · The system entire: involution, evolution, the Supermind and the divine life; long, but Book One can be read alone.
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The Synthesis of YogaSri Aurobindo · The integral path of works, knowledge and love, and what surrender to the Mother means in practice.
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Evolution in Religion: A Study in Sri Aurobindo and Pierre Teilhard de ChardinR. C. Zaehner · A Catholic Orientalist sets the two evolutionary mystics side by side and marks where the Christian must part company.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each question the test asks.