Aurobindo Ghosh

From NonSpiritual

Real Name	Aurobindo Ghosh
Alternative Names	Aurobindo, Aurobindo Ghose, Sri Aurobindo
Date of Birth	Aug 15, 1872
Date of Death	Dec 5, 1950
Spiritual Tradition	Vedanta, Hinduism, Yoga
Methods	Meditation, Surrender
Headquarters	Pondicherry, India
Website	http://www.sriaurobindoashram.org
Teacher	Vishnu Bhaskar Lele
Region	India
Language	English

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Teachings 3 Influence and Followers 3.1 Famous Followers 4 Controversies and Criticism 5 Organizations and Websites 6 Works 7 Further Reading and Links 7.1 Articles 7.2 Blog Posts 7.3 Other Links 8 Notes

Introduction

Aurobindo Ghosh was a renowned Indian mystic and the author of celebrated texts such as "The Life Divine" and "The Synthesis of Yoga". The headquarters of his organization are in Pondicherry, India, and nearby in Auroville. Auroville is a community of people who value the teachings of Aurobindo and his French follower and successor, Mirra Alfassa.

His writings are mostly in English and he does not have a wide following in India or elsewhere.

Teachings

• Spiritual evolution through Yoga and other methods.
• Generally congruent with Gita and the Upanishads.
• Rejection of renunciation as essential to spiritual enlightenment.
• Rejection of the doctrine that the world is Maya.

Influence and Followers

Famous Followers

• Mirra Alfassa, also known as "The Mother"
• Ken Wilber
• Sri Chinmoy
• Indra Sen
• Andrew Harvey

Controversies and Criticism

• His writings are frequently seen as opaque and unintelligible, with the introduction of many new concepts and phrases.
• He believed in Karma and Reincarnation.
• He believed in the occult and in "higher" beings.
• He had dubious political beliefs. He glorified nationalism and identification with one's race.^[1]
• Regarded divine knowledge as the only true knowledge. Other forms of knowledge were regarded by him as prejudices or beliefs.^[2]
• Regarded worldly suffering and violence as a "play of God.^[3]
• There are speculations about there being other (romantic) aspects to the "spiritual collaboration" between Mirra Alfassa, also known as The Mother, and Aurobindo. A book detailing their relationship ("The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs, ISBN 0231140983)^[4] is currently not allowed for distribution in India.
• Aurobindo considered the ten avatars of Vishnu as a precursor to Darwin's theory of evolution.^[5]

Organizations and Websites

• http://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/
• http://www.aurobindo.net/

Works

See [1] for a partial list of his works.

Further Reading and Links

Articles

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurobindo
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirra_Alfassa
• A critique of Aurobindo from a Christian viewpoint
• http://kafila.org/2008/11/23/ecstatic-archaisms-of-aurobindo-ghose-prasanta-chakravarty/
• http://www.jmmsweb.org/issues/volume1/number1/pp77-98

Blog Posts

• http://rajeev2004.blogspot.com/2008/11/negative-book-on-sri-aurobindo-and.html
• http://seof.blogspot.com/2008/12/there-is-no-denigration-of-sri.html

Other Links

• His works in PDF format

Notes

1. ↑ http://surasa.net/aurobindo/on_nation/one_thing_needful.htm
2. ↑ Thoughts and Aphorisms, on Jnana
3. ↑ Thoughts and Aphorisms, on Jnana
4. ↑ http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14098-0/the-lives-of-sri-aurobindo
5. ↑ http://nirmukta.com/2008/11/15/further-thoughts-on-why-i-criticize-hinduism/