An Introduction to the Psychological Thought of Sri Aurobindo
— Edited by A. S. Dalal
Price: Rs 240
Soft Cover Pages: 426 Dimensions (in cms): 14x22
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, Pondicherry ISBN: 978-81-7058-659-3
About A Greater Psychology (For sale only in India)
This book is an overview of Sri Aurobindo's psychological thought. The first part, comprising three-fourths of the book, is an anthology of Sri Aurobindo's writings on topics such as the nature of consciousness, Self and ego, the subliminal and the subconscient, the psychic being, sleep and dreams, and the psychology of collective development. The second part consists of essays by the editor that highlight various aspects of Sri Aurobindo's thought and vision. A glossary of terms is included. THIS EDITION IS FOR SALE ONLY IN INDIA. OVERSEAS BUYERS MAY PURCHASE THE INTERNATIONAL EDITION FROM PENGUIN PUTNAM, NEW YORK, U.S.A.
REVIEW
"Yoga is nothing but practical psychology", said Sri Aurobindo who captured the profundity of India's extraordinary spiritual heritage. Talking about Sri Aurobindo's genius, Ken Wilber ("the most comprehensive philosophical thinker of our times") in his Foreword to this book under review says: "He was the first great philosopher-sage to deeply grasp the nature and meaning of the modern idea of evolution...nobody combined both philosophical brilliance and a profoundly enlightened consciousness the way Aurobindo did. His enlightenment informed his philosophy; his philosophy gave substance to his enlightenment; and that combination has been rarely equalled, in this or any time."
Having said what is special about Sri Aurobindo, Wilber proceeds to pass on the central message of Sri Aurobindo's writings: "...the modern world has irreversibly discovered the fact that the world evolves — Matter evolves, life evolves, mind evolves. And Spirit evolves – or, we might say, Spirit is the entire evolutionary process of its own unfolding, from matter to life to mind to the higher and superconscient realms of Spirit's own being. This evolutionary unfolding of Spirit – as it plays out in psychology, anthropology, religion, politics, the arts, and the spiritual practice itself – is the central message of Aurobindo's voluminous writings."
Sri Aurobindo believed that the human being is one with and inseparable from the Being of the Universe. Therefore in his thought, psychology is part of and intermingled with cosmology. The nature and development of the human being find an explanation in the light of the nature and evolution of the universe. No wonder that this idea is termed as `greater psychology' – "one which includes body, mind, soul, and spirit, in both ascending/evolutionary and descending/involutionary currents."
Dr.A.S.Dalal, a one time clinical psychologist in the West and now an authority on Sri Aurobindo's works in this very valuable volume has gathered together all the salient aspects of Sri Aurobindo's psychological thought.
The aim of this book is threefold: 1. To present Sri Aurobindo as a mystic, for whom the ultimate Reality – popularly called God or Spirit – is not an abstract or philosophical concept but a concrete experience, 2. To present Sri Aurobindo as an enlightened one whose view of the human being is based not on speculative theory nor on statistical inference but on self-realization, and 3. To present Sri Aurobindo as a seer whose delineation of the future of the human being and of human society is not an ideative dream of what ought to be, but a spiritual pre-vision of what is already in the process of becoming.
With the greater intention of highlighting Sri Aurobindo's psychological thought, Dr.A.S.Dalal has tried to bring out its experiential basis and its integral nature.
The first of this two-part book occupies 300 pages and contains Sri Aurobindo's writings pertaining to a greater psychology. The various minds, the different modes of Nature, Self, ego and individuality, gradations of the Higher Consciousness, states of Consciousness, sleep and dream, evolution of mankind are some of the many topics that Sri Aurobindo's writings deal with.
Readers quite conversant with the writings of Sri Aurobindo too will stand to gain from this anthology, for, thanks to Dr.A.S.Dalal, it follows a sequential development of thought.
Part Two of this book is a collection of essays by Dr.A.S.Dalal, written as independent articles on various occasions. Since these essays, seven in all, running to a hundred pages are studies on Sri Aurobindo's psychological thought, they are meant to serve chiefly as an aid in understanding Sri Aurobindo's own writings contained in the anthology, and aim at bringing out explicitly the system underlying his thought. They are to a great extent in Sri Aurobindo's own words, for which the author has a valid reason to give. In his `Preface' he writes: "Sri Aurobindo's writings, based on spiritual experience rather than on intellectual theory can convey not only their thought content but also something of the higher state of consciousness underlying the thought when read in a meditatively receptive way. This is but one reason why I have often chosen to quote Sri Aurobindo instead of paraphrasing him." Dalal's comments are meant to provide elucidations and to bring out the integral nature of the thought presented. Their contents pertain to different levels of understanding for both the student and the scholar were kept in view while writing these essays.
The glossary appended to this book includes Sanskrit terms, certain proper names and special terms found in Sri Aurobindo's writings. And they are all explained in Sri Aurobindo's own words. The Index serves as an easy reference.
"This book is timely", avers Arabinda Basu in his introduction, "particularly because during recent years there has been an explosion of interest in the study of consciousness as evidenced by numerous journal articles and books on the subject by writers from several different disciplines." This invaluable and handy companion that deals only with the theoretical aspects of Sri Aurobindo's psychological thought, is certainly the best introduction to the practical psychology underlying his yoga, and a welcome addition to Aurobindoniana.
