Having applied the standards of modern critical theory, it may sound fruitless to account for biographical details of writer in interpreting his work as the biographical details either hold no importance or have nothing to do with the work of art in the sense that once a work of art is born, it looses its connection with the creator. Moreover, even in the moment of creation, the author remains detached from his creation. However, there are some exceptions to this. It has been observed that the biographical details are of immense help in partly making sense of what the concerned author has encoded. These details can be correlated to his writing. In the case of some writers, their life has a special relation with what they write, how they led their life, what inspiration they sought, what influences they received and imbibed in their personality, what experiences they lived with, and what events and occasions they confronted. All these partly go into the making of a literary personality.

Sri Aurobindo was an Indian nationalist, philosopher, yogi, guru, and poet. This book is an enquiry into the integral philosophy of Aurobindo and its contemporary relevance. It offers a reading of Aurobindo’s key texts by bringing them into conversation with religious studies and the hermeneutical traditions. The central argument is that Aurobindo’s integral philosophy is best understood as a hermeneutical philosophy of religion. Such an understanding of Aurobindo’s philosophy, offering both substantive and methodological insights for the academic study of religion, subdivides into three interrelated aims. The first is to demonstrate that the power of the Aurobindonian vision lies in its self-conception as a traditionary-hermeneutical enquiry into religion; the second, to draw substantive insights from Aurobindo’s enquiry to envision a way beyond the impasse within the current religious-secular debate in the academic study of religion. Working out of the condition of secularism, the dominant secularists demand the abandonment of the category ‘religion’ and the dismantling of the academic discipline of religious studies. Aurobindo’s integral work on ‘religion’, arising out of the Vedānta tradition, critiques the condition of secularity that undergirds the religious-secular debate. Finally, informed by the hermeneutical tradition and building on the methodological insights from Aurobindo's integral method, the book explores a hermeneutical approach for the study of religion which is dialogical in nature. This book will be of interest to academics studying Religious Studies, Philosophy of Religion, Continental Hermeneutics, Modern India, Modern Hinduism as well as South Asian Studies.

Indian philosopher, poet, mystic and Yogi, Sri Aurobindo, argued that human society has evolved throughout history and is destined to move towards better organization of life. Applying his ideas to problems confronting the world today, this collection presents an in-depth exploration of Aurobindo's evolutionary philosophy and Integral Yoga. Written by an international team of scholars and practitioners, each chapter takes a theoretical aspect of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, positions it alongside policy debates on the individual and the state and explains its practical and educational benefits. Contributors discuss his vision of unity in diversity, shed light on his poetry and offer a comprehensive view of his concept of ethics as well as his metaphysics of consciousness. They examine his contribution to the Indian response to post-Enlightenment modernity and reveal how his philosophy illuminates some of the fundamental problems of our times, offering possible solutions. By presenting the first sustained discourse between Sri Aurobindo and the contemporary world, this collection addresses the relevance of his philosophy for everyday life and highlights the lasting work of this important 20th-century Indian thinker.

Sri Aurobindo stands out as one of the most profound and profoundly relevant of contemporary Asian spiritual masters speaking to the West. His vision transcends the distinctive strengths and weaknesses of India and the West, and his discipline brings the yogas of the Gita to the task of world transformation.Professor Robert McDermott's afterword recounts the increased significance of Aurobindo's message for the West in modern times.

This now classic introduction to Sri Aurobindo not only tells us the story of his life-in itself a remarkable adventure-but Satprem also takes us along in a methodical exploration of Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga, showing how it leads to a divine rehabilitation of Matter and gives our painful evolution its meaning and hope.

Between 1927 and 1950, Sri Aurobindo--one of the foremost Indian philosophersof the 20th century--perfected a new kind of spiritual practice he called the"Integral Yoga." This volume brings together a comprehensive selection of SriAurobindo's letters pertaining to the practice of this discipline.

Who wrote the Gospel of John? The author identifies himself only as "the disciple whom Jesus loved," and Christian tradition tells us that this disciple was the apostle John. However, during the past century, scholars have increasingly come to doubt that attribution. In 1902, Rudolf Steiner wrote that the author of the Gospel of John was in fact Lazarus. Steiner's position stemmed from his insight that Lazarus's encounter with death involved far more than people realized--an initiation into higher spiritual realities that uniquely qualified him to write this gospel. Edward Smith takes up this argument and shows that subsequent research has tended to favor Lazarus for reasons grounded in John's Gospel itself. More important, Smith shows that subsequent discoveries at Nag Hammadi and Mar Saba corroborate Steiner's reasoning about the nature of the raising of Lazarus, pointing to Lazarus as "the rich young ruler" of Mark's Gospel.

The Bhagavad Gita, literally "The Song of God," is one of the most important spiritual and religious texts of the world, and is to Hindus what the Torah is to Jews, the Bible to Christians, and the Quran to Muslems. With text, translation, and Sri Aurobindo's commentary, this is probably the finest translation and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita that we have seen.

In this epic spiritual poem, Sri Aurobindo reveals his vision of mankind's destiny within the universal evolution. He sets forth the optimistic view that life on earth has a purpose, and he places our travail within the context of this purpose: to participate in the evolution of consciousness that represents the secret thread behind life on Earth.

The present compilation is an attempt to bring together in one volume the manifold teaching pertaining to the psychic being which are to be found in the numerous works of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. The selections deal with the nature of the psychic being, shedding the light of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother on the inner constitution of the human being and on various related questions such as the process of inner growth, the afterlife, and rebirth.