Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Himself and the Ashram

The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35

Publisher’s Note

This volume contains letters in which Sri Aurobindo referred to his life and works, his sadhana or practice of yoga, and the sadhana of members of his ashram. Many of the letters appeared earlier in Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on the Mother (1953) and On Himself: Compiled from Notes and Letters (1972). These previously published letters, along with many others, appear here under the new title Letters on Himself and the Ashram.

The letters included in the present volume have been selected from Sri Aurobindo’s extensive correspondence with members of the Ashram and outside disciples between November 1926 and November 1950. Letters he wrote before November 1926 are published in Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, volume 36 of The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. That volume also contains remarks by Sri Aurobindo on his life and works that were written as corrections of statements made by biographers and others, public messages on world events, letters to public figures, and public statements on his ashram and path of yoga.

The letters on the sadhana of members of the Ashram selected for publication in Part Four of the present volume differ from those published in Letters on Yoga, volumes 28–31 of The Complete Works, in that they are framed historically by events and conditions in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram between 1926 and 1950. The dates and the questions of Sri Aurobindo’s correspondents that accompany many of the letters in the present volume make the historical context clear. The letters included in Letters on Yoga were also written to Ashramites and outside disciples during the 1926 – 1950 period, but they deal with Sri Aurobindo’s yoga in a more general way, and thus are less in need of the contextualisation provided by the questions and dates.

The letters in the present volume have been arranged by the editors in five parts, the last of which includes mantras and messages. The texts have been checked against all available handwritten, typed and printed versions.