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The very title of this book, Fundamentals of Sri Aurobindo’s Philosophy in Savitri, promises a study of how the substance of its high thought is at the heart of its innovative poetic style, its revelatory mantric poetry. The first chapter introduces how these two aspects of the poem unite in some of its most visionary and incandescent passages. Subsequent chapters partner timely prose passages from his major works with selections from Savitri on such principles as the duality of Ishwara-Shakti, the Divine Mother, the psychic being, fate, karma and free will, the occult worlds, involution and evolution, the realisation of the spiritual Self, and the Supermind and its transformation of life on earth into a life divine. The author’s commentaries on the selected passages from Savitri and their corresponding grounding in excerpts from his prose works weld language and import in a nuanced understanding of Sri Aurobindo’s teaching.

In this book the author comments on a sampling of significant passages in Savitri that convey a wide-ranging yet insightful view of Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual teaching. He often draws on prose works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother for context in understanding the themes of Savitri. Beginning with the highly symbolic opening passage of the poem, he proceeds in subsequent chapters to examine themes such as the parallels between King Aswapati and Savitri, and Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, respectively, in the context of their work for the world. Love in its higher possibilities, the role of the soul, the layers of our inner being, the question of fate and free will, the debate with Death, and the higher reaches of spiritual consciousness are other themes explored. The final two chapters highlight passages about the divine, supramental worlds pressing for manifestation in our material world as the pioneering spiritual work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

The inspiration for this detailed study came from Sri Aurobindo’s correspondence with a disciple that concentrated on his composition of Savitri. He wrote that among the aspects he lays most stress on is “the right distribution of sentence lengths (an immensely important thing in this kind of blank verse)”. The author has done an extensive analysis of the length of sentences in Savitri, inspecting the unique qualities of the various sentence lengths and their relation to the ideas they express and how they are expressed. He illustrates these considerations with selected examples from each category of sentence length (one-and-two line, three-and-four line, five to seven line, eight-and-nine line, and ten to thirty-five line sentences), examining how these variations create a rhythm that is integral to the meaning of the poetry. The author concludes that listening to the poem’s rhythms, feeling how form and content, sound and sense, converge in mantric verse are central to fully understanding the poem’s vision and its call to a higher consciousness.

Sri Aurobindo’s profound exploration of Indian culture revealed the magnificent truths and secret knowledge hidden within the Vedas and Upanishads, the richness of spirit reflected in various hymns and sagas, and the underlying essence among different religions and their impact on shaping life and activities across centuries. Originally published as a series of essays in the journal Sri Aurobindo Circle, this book provides a literate, accessible introduction to Sri Aurobindo’s interpretation of Indian culture. Choosing to focus on Indian literature, Prema Nandkumar examines Sri Aurobindo’s insights in a comprehensive manner covering the Vedic age, the great Indian epics, Kalidasa’s place in world poetry, the classical age of Sanskrit writers with their cultured thought and high imagination, the Puranas, and several chapters on Indian religion and spirituality, culminating in the Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion. The depth and breadth of his observations bring a new dimension to our understanding of Indian culture and its relevance in reclaiming her heritage for the modern age.

This Chinese/English compilation comprises selections on the Chinese culture and character from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. It also includes an article on Hu Hsu, a Chinese scholar, linguist and artist who lived in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram for many years and translated several major works of Sri Aurobindo into Chinese. Paintings by Hu Hsu and facsimiles in the Mother’s hand of sayings by Chinese masters add beauty and interest to the volume. The first half of the book is a Chinese translation of the second half, the original English text.

Sri Aurobindo wrote this play during the period of his political activity. Published serially across several months in Bande Mataram during 1907, Sri Aurobindo would later revise the text, adding a new ending. It was the only play of his published during his lifetime.

The plot of Perseus the Deliverer derives from the ancient Greek legend of Perseus and Andromeda. Sri Aurobindo transformed the original heroic myth into a story of human nature ruled by its attendant unthinking urges, much on the Elizabethan model, and set in a romanticised Syria. Sri Aurobindo acknowledged in a foreword that “myth, romance and realism” are rolled into an imaginative recreation of the legend, whose “stage is the human mind of all times”. The story is one of growth from a relatively primitive consciousness to the intellectual and humanistic state of a more civilised man. Constantly faced with the threat of the lower life-forces usurping that new poise, he experiences the initial stirrings of a higher consciousness, psychic and spiritual in essence. Perseus embodies the evolutionary man.

In these transcribed talks from 2012, the author examines Chapters 19 to 22 of Essays on the Gita. The subjects are equality, equality and knowledge, the determinism of Nature, and what lies beyond the modes of Nature. Explaining Sri Aurobindo’s vision of equality and liberation in Essays on the Gita, he notes that equality is not a state of indifference or withdrawal but the soul’s calm poise, an equality of spirit, when faced with life’s complexities and difficulties. Works done without desire, with equality, as an offering to the Divine, bring self-knowledge, drawing one closer to the Divine. Although it appears that man is bound by the determinism of Nature and the three gunas, he can rise to a higher consciousness, free from ego and desire, where it is the Divine Will that acts through him. The final chapter deals with sorting out the thorny issue of fate and free will. Although our free will is an illusion, we must, as Krishna insists to Arjuna, still choose to act. The message of the Gita is to act while remembering the Divine, offering all our actions to the Divine.

Telugu translation of Bhavani Bharati

        Bhavani Bharati is Sri Aurobindo's only poem in Sanskrit, written between 1904 and 1908. It has 99 verses in the "Upajati" metre which is an apt choice for emoting heroism, power, anger, war. Confiscated by the Calcutta Police, this piece was rediscovered in 1985. The poem depicts the victory of the Shakti, the Mother of the nation, over Ignorance and Evil.

Telugu translation of Rays of Light

        This book is a collection of short written statements taken from the notes, letters, and messages of the Mother. They deal with man's relationship with the divine, the aims and conditions for a spiritual way of life, and the spiritual seeker's relations with others and with the world. They also touch on the weaknesses of human nature and the difficulties encountered in pursuing the path of yoga, and show the right attitude to be taken in the face of life's problems.

Telugu translation of The Sunlit Path

        In this book, which is a collection of brief passages mostly from conversations with disciples and students at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, the Mother invites her listeners and readers to answer the call of adventure by courageously taking the path of spiritual self-perfection and transformation. The excerpts are arranged thematically to present the Mother's guidance to the seeker, showing the way through shadows and stumbles to a sunlit path through such topics as how to control one's thoughts, breaking the hard shell of the ego, the absolute necessity of a perfect sincerity, the right attitude to take when faced with even the most mundane affairs of life, the nature of dynamic meditation, and the liberation of a complete surrender to the Divine.