The Lives of Sri Aurobindo - by Peter Heehs (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Since his death in 1950, Sri Aurobindo Ghose has been known primarily as a yogi and a philosopher of spiritual evolution who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in peace and literature. But the years Aurobindo spent in yogic retirement were preceded by nearly four decades of rich public and intellectual work. Biographers usually focus solely on Aurobindo's life as a politician or sage, but he was also a scholar, a revolutionary, a poet, a philosopher, a social and cultural theorist, and the inspiration for an experiment in communal living.

Peter Heehs, one of the founders of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives, is the first to relate all the aspects of Aurobindo's life in its entirety. Consulting rare primary sources, Heehs describes the leader's role in the freedom movement and in the framing of modern Indian spirituality. He examines the thinker's literary, cultural, and sociological writings and the Sanskrit, Bengali, English, and French literature that influenced them, and he finds the foundations of Aurobindo's yoga practice in his diaries and unpublished letters. Heehs's biography is a sensitive, honest portrait of a life that also provides surprising insights into twentieth-century Indian history.

Review Quotes

...meticulously reported and scrupulously footnoted...-- "Yoga Journal"

A formidable piece of scholarship.--Antony Copley "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society"

A great biography... a doorway into [Sri Aurobindo's] extraordinary spiritual philosophy and vision.-- "EnlightenNext"

All students and scholars of Sri Aurobindo will find this extraordinary book most rewarding... Essential.-- "CHOICE"

Heehs has succeeded magnificently; The Lives of Sri Aurobindo is quickly becoming the biography for academics.-- "AntiMatter"

Heehs' work is an epic effort to encompass the outer and inner life of a personality, who seems to defy all definitions and boundaries, written with the intention of making him comprehensible to the scholarly mind of our times. I believe this book to be eminently successful--Debashish Banerji "Sophia"

It is engagingly written and supported by a bounty of historical materials. Students of India with little familiarity of Aurobindo will discover that Heehs offers a multisided portrait of a brilliant and enigmatic man whose lifetime spanned a momentous period in modern Indian history...--Hanna H. Kim "H-Asia"

The book's strength is Heehs' deep understanding of modern India, which gives him an edge in perceptively situating Aurobindo within the context of Indian national movement.--Vijendra Singh "Contemporary South Asia"

About the Author

Peter Heehs was born and educated in the United States but has lived in India since 1971. One of the founders of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives, he is currently a member of the editorial board of the Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, and has published many books and articles.