PM Modi to participate in programme commemorating 150th birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo.

December 13, 2022

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in a programme commemorating Sri Aurobindo’s 150th birth anniversary today through video conferencing.
The programme will be held in Kamban Kalai Sangam, Puducherry, under the aegis of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
During the Programme, Mr Modi will release a commemorative coin and postal stamp in honour of Sri Aurobindo. He will also address the gathering on the occasion.
Sri Aurobindo, born on 15th August 1872, was a visionary who made lasting contributions to India’s freedom struggle. Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav – an endeavour to celebrate the glorious history of India’s people, culture and achievements on the occasion of 75 years of independence – is commemorating Sri Aurobindo’s 150th birth anniversary by organising year-long activities and programmes across the country.

About:

Aurobindo Ghose was born in Calcutta on 15^thAugust 1872. He was a yogi, seer, philosopher, poet, and Indian nationalist who propounded a philosophy of divine life on earth through spiritual evolution.
He died on 5^thDecember 1950 in Pondicherry.
Aurobindo’s pragmatic strategies to get rid of British rule marked him as “the Prophet of Indian Nationalism”.

Education:

His education began in a Christian convent school in Darjeeling.
He entered the University of Cambridge, where he became proficient in two classical and several modern European languages.
In 1892, he held various administrative posts in Baroda (Vadodara) and Calcutta (Kolkata).
He began the study of Yoga and Indian languages, including classical Sanskrit.

Indian Revolutionary Movement:

From 1902 to 1910 he partook in the struggle to free India from the British.
The partition of Bengal in 1905 provoked Aurobindo to leave his job in Baroda and plunge into the nationalist movement. He started the patriotic journal Bande Mataram to propagate radical methodsand revolutionary tactics instead of supplication.
He was arrested thrice by the British — twice for sedition and once for conspiring to “wage war”.
He was imprisoned in 1908 (Alipore Bomb case).
Two years later he fled British India and found refuge in the French colony of Pondichéry (Puducherry), gave up overt political activities and embraced spiritual pursuits, soon to emerge as one of the most original thinkers, philosophers and spiritual masters.
Hemet Mirra Alfassa in Pondicherry, and their spiritual collaboration led to “Integral Yoga”.
Integral Yoga, is a yoga of Earth transformation. The aim of this yoga is not an escape from life or a shunning of worldly existence, but a radical change in our life even while living amidst it.
Aurobindo’s Ideas on Second World War
Several Indians saw the Second World War as an opportune moment to get rid of colonial occupation; Aurobindo, asked his compatriots to support the Allies and ensure Hitler’s defeat.

Spirituality:

In Pondichéry he founded a community of spiritual seekers, which took shape as the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1926.
He believed that the basic principles of matter, life, and mind would be succeeded through terrestrial evolution by the principle of supermind as an intermediate power between the two spheres of the infinite and the finite.

Literary Works: