In the first part of his paper, published in the previous issue of this journal, the author dwelt on Sri Aurobindo's social, economic, political and nationalistic writings in Aurobindo's pre-Pondicherry days. In this second part, the paper crystallizes Sri Aurobindo's ideas and writings during the four decades he spent in Pondicherry. This paper looks at Aurobindo's metaphysical search for answers to the most fundamental questions of existence. The future that Sri Aurobindo was seeking out was not a particular future of (...) any single nation but that of the human personality itself, both in its individual and collective manifestations. The author documents with great fidelity Aurobindo's vision of the birth of a new consciousness which will liberate the individual from his ego and create a framework of life within which man can seek and grow into his real self and divinity. (shrink)

This paper attempts a systematic presentation of the ideas of Sri Aurobindo, India's foremost sage- philosopher-nationalist, in two parts. This, the first part, encompasses a time span of approximately four decades when Aurobindo was an activist and a frontline leader in India's freedom struggle. This period has been identified by the author as the pre-Pondicherry days when the keynote of Aurobindo's social, economic and political writings was nationalism. This paper sheds light on how Aurobindo's views on India's social and economic (...) upliftment were inextricably linked with his clarion call for the resurgence of the spiritual identity of her citizens. Thus, the author argues that Aurobindo was not just a narrow-visioned political scientist who saw India merely as a geographical entity. Rather, his vision was engrossed with the quintessential spiritual symbol that India has been and is. The second part of the paper will appear in the next issue of this journal. (shrink)