Anandamath

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee - Anandamath

Anandamath

Anandamath is a Bengali novel, written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and published in 1882. Set in the background of the Sannyasi Rebellion in the late 18th century, it is considered one of the most important novels in the history of Bengali and Indian literature. Its importance is heightened by the fact that it became synonymous with the struggle for Indian independence from the British Empire. The novel was banned by the British. The ban was lifted later by the Government of India after independence. The national song of India, Vande Mataram, was first published in this novel.

The prologue and the first thirteen chapters of Part I were translated by Sri Aurobindo, the rest by his brother Barindra. The parts translated by Sri Aurobindo first appeared in the KARMAYOGIN, intermittently between August 7, 1909 and February 12, 1910.

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Prayers and Meditations (CWM Vol.1)

Prayers And Meditations

Collected Works of the Mother Volume 1

Prayers and Meditations consists of extracts from the Mother’s spiritual diaries. Most of them are from the period 1912 to 1917. The 313 prayers reproduced here were selected by the Mother for publication. Written in French, they appear here in English translation.

A small collection of prayers — about one-fifth of the total — was brought out in English in 1941. Sri Aurobindo translated some of those prayers himself and, in the other cases, revised translations made by disciples.

This book comprises extracts from a diary written during years of intensive yogic discipline. It may serve as a spiritual guide to three principal categories of seekers: those who have undertaken self-mastery, those who want to find the road leading to the Divine, those who aspire to consecrate themselves more and more to the Divine Work. — The Mother

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The English of Savitri Volume 2

The English of Savitri volume 2

The English of Savitri
volume 2

Like the previous book in the series, The English of Savitri Volume 2 is based on transcripts of classes led by the author at Savitri Bhavan, in this case from December 2012 to June 2013. The transcripts have been carefully revised and edited for conciseness and clarity, while aiming to preserve the informal atmosphere of the course. This second volume covers the four cantos of Book Three, The Book of the Divine Mother, of Sri Aurobindo’s epic, Savitria legend and a symbol. Each sentence in the poem is examined closely and explanations are given about vocabulary, sentence-structure and imagery. The aim is to assist a deeper understanding and appreciation of the poem which the Mother has characterised as ‘the supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo’s vision’.

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Il Coleottero Bombardiere (Italian)

The Bombardier Beetle

Il Coleottero Bombardiere

Questa è la trascrizione di un audio di due letture di un’ora ciascuna date da Georges Van Vrekhem al Savitri Bhavan in Auroville nel 2008 sull’Evoluzione ed il Disegno Intelligente.

 Georges conduce  l’ascoltatore attraverso un percorso critico e spassionato lungo i sentieri della scienza che tenta di inseguire le tracce dell’evoluzione e della nascita della vita sulla terra ed il senso della presenza umana sul pianeta.

Tutto il suo discorso è permeato dalla luce del faro dello Yoga Integrale ed in questa luce ci accompagna  attraverso varie teorie scientifiche messe a confronto con la  visione integrale dell’evoluzione dell’uomo secondo Sri Aurobindo e la Madre.

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The Bombardier Beetle

The Bombardier Beetle

The Bombardier Beetle

This is the transcription from audio of two one-hour lectures presented by Georges Van Vrekhem at the Savitri Bhavan in Auroville in 2008. Georges makes an excursus through science and its tentative to follow the prints of evolution. All his talk is full of the light of the Integral Yoga, and through it Georges accompanies the auditor in this voyage towards the sense of evolution of man.

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The Problem of Rebirth

Sri Aurobindo The Problem of Rebirth

The Problem of Rebirth

In The Problem of Rebirth, Sri Aurobindo assesses the central arguments surrounding the concept of rebirth. He suggests that rebirth is a vehicle conveying the soul forward in its aeonic evolution towards self-knowledge and self-mastery. Evolution through the process of rebirth enables the soul’s indomitable effort through Time; karma engineers its spiritual education. Once seen, the process of karma, the law of consequence, takes a central place among the issues of life: “This evolution is not possible if there is not a connected sequence from life to life, a result of action and experience, an evolutionary consequence to the soul, a law of Karma. ” We have all had occasion to question providence; to ask “why do the good suffer, why do the evil prosper”. Such fundamental questions of life take on a new significance when viewed with an understanding of The Problem of Rebirth.

The true foundation of the theory of rebirth is the evolution of the soul, or rather its efflorescence out of the veil of Matter and its gradual self-finding. Buddhism contained this truth involved in its theory of Karma and emergence out of Karma but failed to bring it to light; Hinduism knew it of old, but afterwards missed the right balance of its expression. Now we are again able to restate the ancient truth in a new language and this is already being done by certain schools of thought, though still the old incrustations tend to tack themselves on to the deeper wisdom. And if this gradual efflorescence be true, then the theory of rebirth is an intellectual necessity, a logically unavoidable corollary. But what is the aim of that evolution? Not conventional or interested virtue and the faultless counting out of the small coin of good in the hope of an apportioned material reward, but the continual growth towards a divine knowledge, strength, love and purity.

 

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India’s Rebirth

Sri Aurobindo India's Rebirth

India’s Rebirth

This book presents Sri Aurobindo’s vision of India as it grew from his return from England in 1893 to his political days in the first decade of the century and finally to his forty-year-long withdrawal from public view during which he plunged into his ‘real work’ of evolutionary action.

This brief chronological selection from all that Sri Aurobindo said or wrote on India, her soul and her destiny, is by no means integral, but we trust it offers a sufficiently wide view of the lines of development Sri Aurobindo wished India to follow if she was to overcome the deep-rooted obstacles standing in the way of her rebirth.

A few notes have been added to help put the excerpts into historical perspective, and a Chronology, list of References and Index have been provided at the end of the book. Read more

Aphorisms

Sri Aurobindo Aphorisms

Aphorisms

In the aphorisms that make up this book, Sri Aurobindo gives pithy and pregnant expression to some of the key ideas of his philosophy and yoga.

Thoughts and Aphorisms was written around 1913. Ten aphorisms from the manuscript were published in the monthly review Arya in 1915 and 1916 as parts of what was later issued as Thoughts and Glimpses. But the bulk of the aphorisms — that is, those included in the Karma, Jnana and Bhakti sections of the present booklet — were never published during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. They first appeared in book form in 1958.

The seven “Additional Aphorisms” were first included in the edition of 1977; the last five were written in a separate manuscript notebook, apparently somewhat later than the others.

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Patterns and Connective Referencing

Ray Morose - Patterns and Connective Referencing

Patterns and Connective Referencing

This is the latest in an ongoing series of essays authored by Ray Morose in which he details the human condition and expounds upon how one can pierce the veils and uncover and live one’s true essence. His sometimes difficult intellectual approach is extremely metaphorical and, much like a koan, stretches the reader’s mind and opens it to new ways of conceptualizing the world in which it finds itself. He employs his own terminology, largely bereft of the labels so common in spirituality, and his language often jars like a wooden wheeled trip on cobblestone roods. In the process, he shakes out the dross and tightens mental structure.

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Economics for People and Earth: The Auroville Case 1968-2008

Economics for People and Earth: The Auroville Case 1968-2008

Economics for People and Earth:
The Auroville Case 1968-2008

Auroville, an international township in South India, was founded in 1968. A small group of pioneers on a heavily eroded plateau, close to the Bay of Bengal near Pondicherry, set out to reforest the barren land and create a new socio-economic, ecological and spiritual habitat with a vision to build “a city the Earth needs”.

Forty years later, a vibrant community of almost 2,000 people from 43 nations had emerged, providing employment to some 4,000 men and women from nearby villages. Meanwhile, they had reforested thousands of acres of land, built homes, health centres and schools, developed organic farms, experimented with renewable energy and cost-effective building technologies, reached out to the neighbouring villages, and set up a plethora of businesses and services.

This book is a result of 15 years of research on Auroville’s economy. It outlines the principles envisaged by its founders, traces its history over the past four decades, investigates the growth of employment opportunities, offers a window on its economic activities through case interviews, and analyses the performance of its commercial and services domains.

It also gauges Auroville’s sustainability as a model of durable socio-economic development “for People and Earth”, and as an antidote for the all-pervading impact of global capitalism.

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