Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo was born on August 15, 1872, in Calcutta. Raised and educated in England, he first attended St. Paul's School in London and later graduated with honors from King's College, Cambridge. In 1893, Sri Aurobindo returned to India and joined the Baroda Civil Service as a professor. During this time, he familiarized himself with India's political problems as well as its cultural past and languages.

 

In 1906, he settled in Bengal to become publicly active in politics; his magazine, Bande Mataram, became the most powerful organ of the early Indian freedom movement. In 1908, he was arrested and spent a year in pretrial detention before being acquitted.

 

Due to spiritual experiences during his pretrial detention, he ended his political activity for India's independence in 1910 and retired to Pondicherry. There he concentrated on practicing his integral yoga. Building on the fundamental truths of past spiritual experiences, he worked toward a more complete realization that would transform and deify life. He devoted himself to this quest for 40 years until his death in 1950. He recorded his insights in his 30-volume work in English.