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- A collection of essays introducing the vision of one of the twentieth century's greatest thinkers
A collection of essays introducing the philosophical and spiritual vision of one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century.
Description
Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) was one of the great twentieth-century figures of India. Over the course of his lifetime, he helped India's struggle for freedom and became a leading yogi, philosopher, and poet of his time and culture. In his teaching, Sri Aurobindo went well beyond Eastern philosophy and religion, synthesizing it with Western traditions, even spending two years at Loreto convent in England in the late 1800s. By 1910, his focus was directed entirely toward spirituality, and he settled in Pondicherry, India, where he taught, wrote, and published his greatest works.
For everyone interested in the philosophical and spiritual vision of this great Indian thinker, a revolutionary turned yogi, this outstanding collection of introductory essays, first published in 1974, offers original reflections and interpretations of Sri Aurobindo’s six major works, all written by distinguished scholars of religion and philosophy rather than devotees. Includes a new introduction by Robert McDermott.
Table of Contents
John Collins: Savitri: Poetic Expression of Spiritual Experience
Thomas Berry: The Foundations of Indian Culture: its Contemporary Significance
Thomas J. Hopkins: The Vision of the Purushottama in Essays on the Gita
J. Bruce Long: A New Yoga for a New Age: A Critical Introduction to The Synthesis of Yoga
Eugene Fontinell: A Pragmatic Approach to the Human Cycle
Robert McDermott: The Life Divine: Sri Aurobindo’s Philosophy of Evolution and Transformation
Reviews
'These essays on the significance of Sri Aurobindo's six major works provide an excellent starting point for retracing his spiritual vision. They help us in so many ways to understand what he saw with such strength and conviction: how the historical evolution of cosmos, life, and history form one grand synthesis and symphonic whole.'
-- Ursula King (from the Foreword)
Author
Robert McDermott is president emeritus and chair of the Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). He is the editor of the original edition of The Essential Steiner (1984) and is involved in many anthroposophical organizations and institutions. He is the author of The Spirit of Modern India.
Links
Robert McDermott has also edited a wonderful book about Indian spirituality:
The Spirit of Modern India: Writings in Philosophy, Religion, and Culture
