Mystic Fire: The Life of Sri Aurobindo - Paperback

by Atulindra Nath Chaturvedi (Author)

Sri Aurobindo was one of the most extraordinary figures to appear on the historical stage in the early

twentieth century. He is remembered today primarily as a revolutionary and a yogi, but Aurobindo

Ghose refused to be circumscribed by such boundaries.

Aurobindo was taken at an early age to England. Completely cut off from all things Indian, he

received the perfect English education at St. Paul's School and Cambridge University. Destined

for a career in the Indian Civil Service, he cracked the entrance examination but declined to join.

Returning home after a 14-year absence, while working for the Maharaja of Baroda, Aurobindo

embarked on a covert parallel career-organizing revolutionary groups and writing anti-British

propaganda. At the same time, he delved deep into India's past and scriptures, and became a poet,

dramatist, philosopher and Sanskritist.

Later, he became one of India's foremost social, political and cultural theorists. After a whirlwind

political career of three years in Bengal-one of them as a guest of the Raj-Aurobindo stunned

everyone, when, at the height of his political eminence, he withdrew to Pondicherry. Here, as

Sri Aurobindo, he crafted Integral Yoga and created a rich legacy from which India can still learn.

Mystic Fire is the first biography of Sri Aurobindo to have drawn upon the wealth of new information and documentation on his life and works that has become available over the last few years. This includes the previously unpublished writings of Sri Aurobindo himself, including his remarkable record of yoga.

Author Biography

Atulindra Nath Chaturvedi studied political science at Hindu College (Delhi University) and international studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. A media consultant and freelance writer, he has worked with The Times of India, The Pioneer, Business Today and Tehelka, and regularly contributes articles and book reviews for Outlook, The Patriot and The Indian Express. Chaturvedi has to his credit several books, which include Sri Aurobindo: Spiritual Revolutionary (2002), APJ Abdul Kalam: Scientist and Humanist (2002) and Dharma Gurus (forthcoming). He has also annotated and written an intr