This chapter is an extract from the book ‘Spiritual Masters: Sri Aurobindo  by Promode Kumar Sen (Translation of the original Bengali Sri Aurobindo: Jeebon O Jog[1939] by Prasenjit Sen with translator’s notes). It is published by Indus Source Books (www.indussource.com) (email: info@indussource.com).

About the book
Sri Aurobindo: Jeebon O Jog was the first complete biography of Sri Aurobindo, written in Bengali, and approved by the Master.

Sri Aurobindo was a scholar, a literary critic, a philosopher, a revolutionary, a poet, and a yogi. Born on 15 August 1872 in Kolkata, he spent the initial part of his life, fighting for the basic rights of humanity (for his countrymen).In his later life the aim of his sadhanawas for India and the entire mankind to gain the right to divinity.

Sri Aurobindo became a revolutionary leader of India’s fight for independence.Sri Aurobindo: Jeebon O Jog was written at a time when any writing on Sri Aurobindo was frowned upon by the British government. The author has interestingly brought out in this book the rational aspect of the split in Surat Congress. His analysis has also brought out how the Congress party later adopted as its main theme, Swaraj and Swadeshi, the mantra of the Nationalist Party of Sri Aurobindo and LokmanyaTilak in the first decade of the twentieth century.

Leaving politics for spiritual work, Sri Aurobindo developed a method of spiritual practice that he called Integral Yoga. The central theme of his vision was the evolution of human life into a divine life.

About the Author
Promode Kumar Sen(1899-1952) was a patriot, journalist and a self-realised personality. He had immersed himself in the confluence of these three streams of internal inspirations. His outstanding journalistic talent manifested through the columns of well-known newspapers of the day. Forty Rupees and Patriotism – this was the mantra of his devotion. His rich and lively writings on literature, original analysis on political affairs, and patriotic articles published in the Liberty, the Advance, the Hindustan Standard and the Amrita Bazaar Patrika of Calcutta and Allahabad editions, had attracted the attention of the intellectual readership and won their appreciation. At the peak of his journalistic life he wrote Sri Aurobindo: Jeebon O Jog (Sri Aurobindo: Life and Yoga) in Bengali. The fulfillment of the spiritual aspects of his life took place in total submission at the lotus feet of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

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