Aurobindo Ghosh was a great man of his generation, who was on par with the thinkers and active workers like Tilak, C.R.Das portrayed him as a poet of patronism, prophet of nationalism and lover of humanity. He was against Western Culture and felt that it was materialistic and soul killing. His love for India and her past was intense. He was quiet inspired and influenced by Bankimchandra Chatterji`s writings. His active period in politics was only for five years i.e. from 1905-1910. During this period the old Congress following the policy of mendicancy gave place to respect and self-reliance.

Like a meteor he blazed the sky of India`s struggle for freedom and like it he disappeared in the quiet of ashram in Pondicherry. From this place he inspired generations of India and tried his best to instill in him the level of confidence in them in India`s past. In politics he followed the line of responsive cooperation advocated by Tilak.He did not like Gandhiji`s approach to Khilafat Movement, nor he approved the approach of separate electorates for Muslims.

He however was supporting British in their war against Nazim. He also had accepted Cripps mission and had advocated acceptance of his proposals. He was happy at the transfer of power to India on August 15,1947.

Birth of Aurobindo Ghosh
Sri Aurobindo was born to Sri Krishnadhan and Swamalata, at Calcutta, in Bengal, on 15th August 1871, at about 5 a.m., in a reputed Ghosh family of Konnagar. Raj Narayan Bose, an acknowledged leader in Bengali literature, a writer in the "Modern Review" and the grandfather of Indian nationalism was Sri Aurobindo`s maternal grandfather. Aurobindo owes not only his rich spiritual nature, but also his very superior literary capacity, to his mother`s line.

Aurobindo Ghosh: An Accomplished Scholar
Aurobindo was sent to the Loretto Convent School at Darjeeling at the age of 4. As a boy, Aurobindo received his early education in a public school in England. The old headmaster of the school observed that Aurobindo was by far the most richly endowed with intellectual capacity.

From school Aurobindo went to King`s College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself as a student of European classics. He passed the Indian Civil Service Examination with great credit in 1890. Failing, to stand the required test in horsemanship, he was not allowed to enter the Covenantal Service of the Indian Government. After, returning to India, he became the Vice-principal of the State college in Baroda. The Maharaja of Baroda held him in great respect.

Aurobindo`s scholarship soon caught everyone`s attention. The educated classes in Baroda State loved him and he was exceedingly popular with the general public. Sri K.M. Munshi, one of his students, admired and loved Aurobindo. To the younger generation, Aurobindo became a veritable god and they called him as "Aru Da", meaning "elder brother Aurobindo". Aurobindo later married Mrinalini Devi.

Aurobindo was an accomplished scholar in Greek. He got high distinction in Latin and also learnt French well and picked up a little of German and Italian to study Goethe and Dante in the original. He was steeped in the teachings of our ancient Vedic scriptures. Sri Aurobindo was a genius in history and poetry, a scholar in English and Latin. He was in England for fourteen years.

Aurobindo Ghosh: An Apostle of Indian Nationalism
In 1893 Aurobindo came back to India and drew a salary of Rs. 750/- in the Baroda Educational Service. From 1893 to 1906 he learnt Sanskrit and Bengali literature, philosophy and political science. He then resigned his job and joined the Bengal National College on a salary of Rs.150/-. He plunged headlong into the revolutionary movement. He was a great figure in the nationalist movements of the time.

Aurobindo edited the English daily Bande Mataram and wrote fearless and pointed editorials. Within next few months, he started the English weekly Dharma. He spread his message: "Our ideal of Swaraj is absolute autonomy, absolute self-rule, free from foreign control". In those days, Aurobindo openly advocated the boycott of British goods, British courts and everything British. He always asked the people to prepare themselves for passive resistance.

Sri Aurobindo, the prophet of Indian nationalism, was one of the pioneers of political awakening in India. He was the leader of the revolutionary movement and played a great part in the country`s national struggle from 1908. He was in the forefront of the national struggle during the days of the partition of Bengal.

Aurobindo Ghosh: Awakened to the Divine Mission
The famous Alipore Bomb Case was the turning point in Sri Aurobindo`s life. For a year Aurobindo was an undertrial prisoner in solitary confinement in the Alipore Central Jail. It was in this cell of the Alipore Jail that he dreamt the dream of his future life, the divine mission ordained for him by God. Aurobindo bore the rigors of the imprisonment, the bad food, the inadequate clothes, the lack of light and free air, the strain of boredom and the creeping solitariness of the gloomy cell. He utilized this period of incarceration for an intense study and practice of the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita. Chittaranjan Das defended Sri Aurobindo, who was acquitted after a memorable trial.

Aurobindo Ghosh`s Ashram at Pondicherry
Sri Aurobindo migrated from Calcutta to Chandranagar and later reached Pondicherry on April 4, 1910. At Pondicherry, he stayed at a friend`s place with four or five companions. Gradually the number of members increased. An Ashram grew up around him. Now there were hundreds of inmates in the Ashram accommodated in more than a hundred houses. The Ashramites engaged in various activities connected with the Ashram-some in the dairy, some in the vegetable garden, yet, others in the laundry and the small bakery. Most of the young girls worked in the Ashram`s own printing press. To the Ashram inmates, all activities form a part of their Sadhana.

Mira, a French lady, wife of one Paul Richard, who was imbued with the same ideal, joined the Sri Aurobindo circle in 1920. She became the Mother and presided over the Ashram. Every morning she used to give Darshan to the eager devotees from the balcony adjoining her room. She supervised every little item of the organization of the Ashram. The Ashram started the "Arya", an English spiritual journal under the management of the Mother and Paul Richard. The most significant works of Aurobindo appeared serially in the magazine. The Arya stopped publication after six and a half years.

Sri Rabindranath Tagore once visited the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and said to Aurobindo: "You have the word and we are waiting to accept it from you. India will speak through your voice to the world".

Sri Aurobindo Aurobindo Ghosh`s Philosophy
Sri Aurobindo`s philosophy is in a sense practical. It is based on facts, experience and personal realisations and on having the vision of a seer or Rishi. Aurobindo`s spirituality is inseparably united with reason. The goal aimed at by Sri Aurobindo is not merely the liberation of the individual from the chain that shackles him, but "to work out the will of the Divine in the world, to effect a spiritual transformation and to bring down the divine nature and a divine life into the mental, vital and physical nature and life of humanity".

"A fixed and unfailing aspiration that calls from below and a Supreme Grace that answers from above are two powers which in their conjunction can effect this. If the transformation is to be integral, integral should be the rejection of all that withstands it" said Sri Aurobindo. "The call upon us" says Sri Aurobindo, "is to grow into the image of God, to dwell in Him and with Him and be a channel of His joy and might and an instrument of His works. Purified from all that is Asubha (Evil), we have to act in the world as dynamos of that Divine Electricity and send it thrilling and radiating through mankind, so that wherever one of us stands, hundreds around may become full of His light and force, full of God and full of Ananda. Churches, theologies, philosophies have failed to save mankind because they have busied themselves with intellectual creeds and institutions.... as if these could save mankind, and have neglected the one thing needful, the power and purification of the soul".

Aurobindo`s Life Divine is, and will always remain, a force guiding the thoughts of men all over the world. His other publications are Essays on Gita, Ideal and Progress, Isa Upanishad, The Superman, Evolution, Heraclitus, The Ideal of the Karmayogin, The Brain of India, the Renaissance in India, Bases of Yoga, Kalidasa, Vikramorvasi or The Hero and the Nymph, Poems, The Riddle of This World, etc.

Aurobindo Ghosh`s Mahasamadhi
One more glorious child of Mother India thus laid himself to rest in Her bosom on 5th December, 1950 at Pondicherry. Sri Aurobindo was a poet, politician and philosopher. His writings-philosophic and poetic-are Indian in spirit and Western in rhythm and colour. He was a great intellectual and a major force for the life of the spirit. India will not forget his services to politics and philosophy. The world will remember with gratitude his invaluable works in the realms of philosophy and religion.