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Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo

1872 CE–1950 CE · Modern · Calcutta (Kolkata)

1872–1950 CE (born 15 August 1872, Calcutta; died 5 December 1950, Pondicherry)

Aurobindo Ghose was born in Calcutta and educated largely in England — at St Paul's School and King's College, Cambridge — returning to India in 1893 to serve for thirteen years in the administration and college of the princely state of Baroda, where he immersed himself in Sanskrit and Indian civilization. In the 1900s he became a prominent and radical figure in the Bengal independence movement; arrested in connection with revolutionary activity, he experienced a turn to spiritual practice during his imprisonment. In 1910 he withdrew from politics to the French colony of Pondicherry, where for the next forty years he lived as a yogi and philosopher, developing his 'Integral Yoga' and a distinctive philosophy of the evolutionary descent of a 'Supermind' into matter. His major works — 'The Life Divine,' 'The Synthesis of Yoga,' and the long visionary poem 'Savitri' — are widely studied. With his collaborator Mirra Alfassa ('the Mother') he founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. He died at Pondicherry in 1950. His life is fully documented.

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Did you know?

  • A Cambridge-educated revolutionary who spent 40 years in a French colonial town

    Sri Aurobindo was sent to England at age 7 and educated there, including at King's College, Cambridge. After returning to India he became a nationalist and was tried in the 1908 Alipore Bomb Case, then released for lack of evidence; in 1910 he moved to Pondicherry, then a French territory, and remained there for the last 40 years of his life until his death in 1950.

    How we know

    Born 15 Aug 1872; sent to England 1879 (age 7); St. Paul's School then King's College, Cambridge; Alipore Bomb Case 1908 (released for lack of evidence, May 1909); reached Pondicherry 4 Apr 1910; died 5 Dec 1950 (1950−1910 = 40 years).

  • Two of India's most famous 20th-century sages died in the same year

    Ramana Maharshi, the silent sage of Arunachala in the south, and Sri Aurobindo, the philosopher of Pondicherry, are often placed at opposite ends of modern Indian spiritual life. Yet they died just under eight months apart, both in 1950 — Ramana on 14 April, Aurobindo on 5 December.

    How we know

    Ramana Maharshi 30 Dec 1879 – 14 Apr 1950; Sri Aurobindo 15 Aug 1872 – 5 Dec 1950 (Wikipedia; Sri Aurobindo Ashram). Both deaths fall in 1950, ~7.7 months apart.

    Meet Ramana Maharshi →

  • He stood trial for waging war against the Crown — then retreated to become the sage of Pondicherry

    Sri Aurobindo, later known as the philosopher-sage of Pondicherry, was first a leading Indian nationalist. In 1908 he was arrested in the Alipore Bomb Case and tried for waging war against the Crown; after a year in Alipore Jail he was acquitted on 6 May 1909, and only afterward withdrew into the contemplative life for which he became known.

    How we know

    Arrested 2 May 1908; acquitted 6 May 1909 by Judge Charles Porten Beachcroft (Wikipedia "Emperor v. Aurobindo Ghosh and Others"; motherandsriaurobindo.in; livehistoryindia.com). Aurobindo b. 1872. Full year in Alipore Jail confirmed: motherandsriaurobindo.in biography chapter title "The Alipore Bomb Case, One Year in Jail 1908–1909". NOTE: charge was "waging war against the King" (Section 121 IPC), not verbatim "British Empire." Title revised: Aurobindo began yoga practice in 1904 and had his major Brahman realization under Vishnu Bhaskar Lele in January 1908, four months before arrest — "before he was a yogi" is chronologically wrong.

Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the map →

Stop 1 of 5Born

Calcutta (Kolkata)

What they did here

Birthplace; born 15 August 1872, then sent as a child to England for schooling.

About Calcutta (Kolkata)

Calcutta (Kolkata) is the capital of West Bengal, on the Hooghly River in eastern India, and was the capital of British India until 1911. It was a focus of the 19th–20th-century Hindu renaissance: Swami Vivekananda was born there, and Sri Aurobindo and A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda were active in the city.

In Calcutta (Kolkata) at the same time

Swami Vivekananda, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

See other sages who lived in Calcutta (Kolkata)→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Sri Aurobindo’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Sri Aurobindo’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

No works attributed in the corpus yet.