ABOUT THE BOOK:Sri Aurobindo has developed an original system of the Vedanta called Integral Advaitism. This book gives a systematic, thorough and authentic exposition of his thought. The fundamental and living issues, namely, the concept of the Absol

About the Book The Journey of Advaita elucidates the richness, depth and profundity of Advaitic thought right from Vedas to Integral Advaitism of Sri Aurobindo and further how it is being incorporated in modern science. Advaita Philosophy is not a later development of thought as one of the six systems of Indian philosophy. Vedas are replete with suggestions about Unity. The earlier stage of naturalistic and anthropomorphic polytheism yielded to monistic belief. In the dictum, ekam sad viprā bahudhā vadanti we perceive an echo of Unity. Upaniṣadic seers picked up this Unity and tirelessly went in their search till they came to the highest conclusion, tat tvam asi. This concept of Unity gets its full bloom in Śaṅkara’s Kevalādvaita; later on it gave inspiration to different rivulets of Vedānta schools. Śaṅkara’s unqualified impersonal Brahman could not satisfy those who sought loving communion with God. Consequently different schools of Bhakti-Vedānta came into existence, namely, Viśiṣṭādvaita of Rāmānuja, Dvaita of Madhva, Dvaitādvaita of Nimbārka and Śuddhādvaita of Vallabha. For all of them the emphasis is on the liberation of individual soul only, which gave way to Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Advaitism where the emphasis is not only on spiritualization of man but of the whole cosmos. The journey continues further with modern physics. Consciousness is the building block of the Universe and the ground of all beings, which can’t be found in plural. About the Author Dr Priti Sinha retired as the Head, Department of Philosophy, Vasanta College, Banaras Hindu University after twenty-eight years of service. An alumnus of the university, she holds a doctorate and postgraduate degrees, both in Philosophy as well as Religion and Philosophy. She has been recognized for her work in several national and international seminars. An accomplished musician, Dr Sinha has the distinction of choreographing dance dramas, human puppetry and designing costumes for stage plays, especially historical dramas.

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 was the reveler of the Life Divine and prophet of the great epic Savitri. Both the unsurpassed titles bear divine messages but for those who could read them. But his stage-worthy plays teach his philosophical ideas through entertainments. Perhaps he wrote the plays to teach integral philosophy of life to all beings. Present work entitled Poetic Plays of Sri Aurobindo is an exhaustive study of his five blank verse drama maintaining the essential elements of drama and dramaturgy from Oriental to Occidental. In his plays, we could enjoy the dramatic art of Shakespeare and Shaw, Bhasa and Kalidasa. Sri Aurobindo was the deliverer of the whole human life and hence, this book enlightens - - how to deliberate one's own self along with the all. - how to bring hormony in individual, social, national and universal life. - how to attain Universal brotherhood by revealing oneness with all other beings. - how to build children's characters, so that, they can live a manly life, reveal universal friendship and enjoy a life divine on earth.

The subject matter of this book is so vast that it would be presumptuous to attempt to deal with comprehensively and it would be pre-posterous to pretend to a final solution to a set of ideasas comprehensive as these worldwiews. The author is aware that the contents of this comperative study may appear offensive to the followersof Sri Aurobindo. He tries to stimulate a fruitful dialogue and evaluates this dialogue in a sympathic manner when he refers to the intentions of both thinkers.

This study attempts to elucidate a possible meeting point of the traditions of Eastern and Western metaphysical thinking. In discussing Whitehead’s and Aurobindo’s views on being and becoming, it seeks the possibility of a better engagement between the East and the West in the light of the philosophical insights. It is an initiation into the Sitz im Leben of Whitehead’s philosophy and his general thought pattern. It carries a perceptive analysis to show the clear primacy of Becoming or Process in Whitehead that extends even to the Divine. It also highlights Aurobindo as a unique Indian Philosopher, who articulated Indian thought in Western categories. He was able to integrate the evolutionary theory of the West with the Indian understanding of becoming. The relationship between God and Creativity and Sachchidananda and the Supermind is studied within the context of Enlightenment and Modernity and the way of doing philosophy in the West and in the East.

In Indian context.

Integral Yoga Psychology is a new attempt to position the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother within the frame of yoga psychology, as an inquiry related to transpersonal and whole-person psychologies. This book contains 11 essays by leading scholar-practitioners of integral yoga, sketching its possibility-space as a psychology. It attemps this through a hermeneutics of the texts of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, as well as their own and their disciples' practices and experiences. It also makes a beginning at locating the field in its larger contexts, through comparative, qualitative and empirical studies, as well as probing the clinical possibilities of its models.