MYSTIC FIRE : THE LIFE OF AUROBINDO (PB)

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the previously unpublished writings of Sri Aurobindo himself, including his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.