Description : SABDA is a unit of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, itself a unit of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust. We distribute the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and related publications. Our publications consist of works by the philosopher and visionary Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual collaborator known as the Mother, in over 15 languages. Topics covered include philosophy, yoga, spirituality, sociology, indology, education, psychology, and literature.

Introduction

Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta on 15 August 1872. At the age of seven he was sent to England where he attended St. Paul's School, London, and then went on a senior classical scholarship to King's College, Cambridge. In 1890 he passed the final examination for the Indian Civil Service. Not wishing to serve in the I.C.S. he disqualified himself by not attending the riding test.
Returning to India in 1893, Sri Aurobindo spent thirteen years in the Baroda State Service as an administrator and a professor. During this period he made a deep study of the prevailing political condition of the country and steeped himself into the rich Indian cultural heritage.
In 1906 Sri Aurobindo went to Bengal and openly joined India's freedom movement. His daily newspaper, Bande Mataram, quickly became the most powerful voice of the Indian Nationalist Movement. In 1908 he was arrested in the Alipur Conspiracy Case. During his one year's undertrial detention in jail he had a series of decisive spiritual experiences which changed the course of his life. He carried on his revolutionary work till 1910 when in response to an inner call he retired from active politics and withdrew to Pondicherry in South India for exclusive concentration on his spiritual practice.
In 1914, after four years of intense Yoga he launched a monthly philosophical review, Arya, in which most of his major works were serialised. These works embodied much of the inner knowledge that had come to him in his practice of Yoga. Afterwards as more and more disciples came to Sri Aurobindo to follow his path, a community of sadhaks had to be formed for their maintenance and collective guidance. This took shape as the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1926. At this time Sri Aurobindo retired into seclusion putting his spiritual collaborator known as the Mother in charge of the Ashram.
Having gathered all the essential truths of past spiritual experiences, Sri Aurobindo worked for a more complete method of Yoga that would transform human nature and divinise life. To this purpose he devoted the rest of his life.
Sri Aurobindo left his body in 1950.