Sri Aurobindo

• Chart pointers (PVNR): Atmakaraka = Saturn; D-9 Karakamsa = Scorpio (1°30′). Ketu sits 2nd-from-Karakamsa, in Jupiter's sign — the soul's task being the re-interpretation of the Vedas and Upanishads (The Secret of the Veda). The 5th-from-Karakamsa carries Mars (crisp logic) + Jupiter (Veda/Vedanta) and Mercury rides the Karakamsa (analysis as the dharma of his skill) → profound scholarship "but not for laymen."

• Kind of work: A rare double arc — first armed/political revolution (nationalist firebrand, secret-society organiser, newspaper editor), then a total withdrawal into spirituality, yoga, philosophy and Vedic/Upanishadic scholarship of the highest order. Teacher, sage, prolific writer.
• Fame: Very high and enduring, in India and the West. Among the first Indian leaders to demand complete independence (Purna Swaraj); later a globally studied philosopher-mystic. Roughly 60,000 people filed past his body at death. Revered as a principal architect of modern Indian spiritual thought.
• Position / power: Founder and presiding head (the Master) of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, formed 24 November 1926, whose full material and spiritual charge he handed to the Mother (Mirra Alfassa). Earlier: Principal of the Bengal National College, Calcutta; senior administrator/professor in the Baroda State service.
• Wealth: Renounced. He gave up a secure, well-paid administrative career, lived austerely, and held no personal fortune. The Ashram ran on institutional/communal resources managed by the Mother.
• Legal / negative: Heavily persecuted by the British. Arrested in the Alipore Bomb Case (May 1908), held in solitary confinement about a year, tried and acquitted (6 May 1909). Faced a fresh sedition prosecution over his Karmayogin article "To My Countrymen"; a warrant was issued 4 April 1910 but he had already slipped to Pondicherry. Branded a dangerous revolutionary.
• Health: Robust through most of life; long, disciplined seclusion after 1926. A serious fall on the night of 23–24 November 1938 fractured his right thigh, ending his deepest seclusion. Final illness was renal (uraemia), short and sudden in late 1950.
• Death: Conscious withdrawal from the body (held by his followers as a deliberate "mahasamadhi"). The body reportedly showed a golden-crimson "Supramental Light" and resisted decomposition for about four days; laid in the Ashram Samadhi on 9 December 1950 when decay finally appeared.

• 1872-08-15 — Born Aurobindo Ackroyd Ghose in Calcutta; father Krishna Dhun Ghose (assistant surgeon, anglophile, ex–Brahmo Samaj), mother Swarnalata Devi (daughter of reformer Rajnarayan Bose). Siblings: Benoybhusan, Manmohan, Sarojini, Barindrakumar (Barin).
• c. 1877 — Sent to Loreto Convent School, Darjeeling, for an English-medium upbringing.
• 1879 — Taken to England (age 7) with his brothers; placed with the Drewett family in Manchester; raised entirely on English lines, deliberately kept from Indian influence.
• 1881 — Schooling around Manchester (private tutoring).
• 1884-09 — Entered St Paul's School, London; mastered Greek and Latin, also French, German and Italian.
• 1890 — Won a senior classical scholarship to King's College, Cambridge (age 18); distinguished classical record.
• 1890 — Passed the written Indian Civil Service (ICS) examination, ranked 11th of ~250; involved with the Indian student nationalist group "Lotus and Dagger."
• 1892 — Deliberately failed/skipped the ICS horse-riding test to disqualify himself from the service, which he had no wish to join.
• 1892 — Left England for India (employed via the Maharaja of Baroda).
• 1893-02 — Arrived in India (Apollo Bunder, Bombay); felt a "vast calm" on touching Indian soil. Joined the Baroda State service.
• 1893 — Began publishing trenchant political essays, "New Lamps for Old," in Indu Prakash, attacking the moderate Congress.
• 1897 — Began teaching French, then English, at Baroda College (later vice-principal/acting principal).
• 1901 — Married Mrinalini Devi (daughter of Bhupal Chandra Bose) in Calcutta.
• 1902 — Helped organise revolutionary secret societies in Bengal; linked to the founding of the Anushilan Samiti.
• 1905 — Began the systematic practice of yoga in Baroda (initially for power to serve the nation).
• 1905 — Partition of Bengal announced; the Swadeshi/boycott agitation erupts; Aurobindo drawn fully toward active politics.
• 1906-06 — Took leave from Baroda and moved to Bengal to join the nationalist movement.
• 1906-08 — Appointed first Principal of the new Bengal National College, Calcutta.
• 1906 — Became a leading voice (and de facto editor) of the English daily Bande Mataram; openly advocated complete independence, passive resistance and boycott.
• 1907 — Prosecuted for sedition over Bande Mataram (charges failed for want of proof of editorship).
• 1907-08 — Resigned the National College principalship to devote himself to politics.
• 1907-12 — The Surat Congress split: a key leader of the "Extremist" (Nationalist) faction against the Moderates, alongside Tilak.
• 1908-01 — In Baroda, met the Maharashtrian yogi Vishnu Bhaskar Lele; within three days attained the experience of the silent, motionless Brahman — "Nirvana," complete stillness of mind.
• 1908-05-02 — Arrested in the police raids following the Muzaffarpur bombing; charged in the Alipore Bomb Conspiracy Case.
• 1908-05-19 — Alipore trial proceedings begin; held in solitary confinement in Alipore Jail.
• 1908–1909 — In prison he undergoes profound spiritual experiences: the vision of Vasudeva/Krishna in all things and beings (cosmic consciousness); reads the Gita and Upanishads intensively; hears the inner "adesh" (command).
• 1909-05-06 — Acquitted of all charges by Judge Beachcroft (defended by C. R. Das); released.
• 1909-05-30 — Delivers the celebrated Uttarpara Speech, publicly declaring his jail realisations and reframing nationalism as Sanatana Dharma.
• 1909-06-19 — Launches the English weekly Karmayogin (first issue); also the Bengali weekly Dharma.
• 1910-02 — Following an inner command, abruptly leaves Calcutta for Chandernagore (French territory), hiding in Motilal Roy's house; withdraws from active politics.
• 1910-04-04 — Reaches Pondicherry (French India) by ship; on this very day a British arrest warrant over the Karmayogin sedition case is issued in Calcutta — but cannot be executed.
• 1910–1914 — Years of intensive, secluded sadhana in Pondicherry, gathering a small circle of disciples.
• 1914-03-29 — Mirra Alfassa (the future "Mother") arrives in Pondicherry and meets him for the first time, recognising him as her inner guide.
• 1914-08-15 — Founds the monthly philosophical review Arya (on his 42nd birthday); over the next years it serialises nearly all his major prose.
• 1914–1921 — In Arya he serialises The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, Essays on the Gita, The Secret of the Veda, The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity, The Future Poetry, The Renaissance in India, etc.
• 1915 — The Mother, with the outbreak of WWI, leaves Pondicherry (to France, then Japan).
• 1920-04 — The Mother returns to Pondicherry and rejoins him permanently; (Nov 1920) moves into his household.
• 1921-01 — Arya ceases publication (after 6½ years); he turns fully to inner work.
• 1926-11-24 — The "Day of Siddhi": the descent of the Overmind (Krishna-consciousness) into the physical. Aurobindo withdraws into complete seclusion and entrusts the newly formed Sri Aurobindo Ashram entirely to the Mother. (Observed thereafter as Siddhi Day / Victory Day.)
• 1926–1938 — Twelve years of near-total seclusion; he writes thousands of letters of yogic guidance to disciples and continues Savitri; appears publicly only on three or four "Darshan" days a year.
• 1938-11-23/24 — At about 2 a.m. he stumbles over a tiger-skin and fractures his right thigh; a team of doctors and disciples (incl. Nirodbaran) attends him; the accident ends his deepest seclusion and opens the period of the evening "Talks."
• 1939-11 — The Life Divine, Vol. I, published in revised book form.
• 1940-07 — The Life Divine, Vol. II, published.
• 1942-03-31 — Breaks his political silence to send a message/telegram endorsing the Cripps Proposals, urging India to accept; the offer is rejected and the mission fails.
• 1943 — The Ashram opens its school (later the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education).
• 1946 — First cantos of Savitri begin to appear in print at the Ashram.
• 1947-08-14/15 — His message (broadcast by All India Radio, Tiruchirapalli) for Indian independence notes it falls on his own 75th birthday as "the sanction and seal of the Divine Force"; sets out his "Five Dreams" (a free united India; the resurgence of Asia; a world union; the spiritual gift of India to the world; the next step in human evolution).
• 1950 — The first part of Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol published during his lifetime.
• 1950-12-05 — Passes away at 1:26 a.m. of uraemia, aged 78.
• 1950-12-05/09 — The body, suffused with a golden-crimson light, lies in state for public darshan; held to resist decomposition.
• 1950-12-09 — Signs of decomposition appear in the morning; the body is laid in the Samadhi in the Ashram courtyard.
• 1951 — The remaining parts of Savitri are published posthumously (later definitive 1954 edition).
• 1968-02-28 — The Mother founds Auroville, the international township inspired by his vision of human unity.
• 1972 — Centenary of his birth marked worldwide; collected works issued.

Nature & personality

Outwardly reserved, almost silent, with immense inner intensity. A prodigy of intellect — fluent in Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, Sanskrit, Bengali and English; a classical scholar who could have had a brilliant academic or administrative career and walked away from all of it. He combined razor-sharp logic and Western philosophical rigour with deep devotion and mystic absorption. Personally austere, self-effacing and indifferent to fame, money and comfort; firm to the point of immovability once an inner command was received. Known for calm courage under arrest and prison, and for an extraordinary capacity for sustained, solitary mental and spiritual labour. His writing is beautiful but heavyweight and archaic — "not for laymen" — scholarship of the highest order rather than mass eloquence.

Spiritual path & realisation

A rapid, dramatic trajectory. Began yoga in 1905 seeking power to free India; in January 1908, under Lele's guidance, attained the silent Brahman ("Nirvana") in three days. The decisive deepening came in Alipore Jail (1908–09): the vision of Vasudeva/Krishna in all beings, cosmic consciousness, and the inner adesh that redirected his life from politics to yoga. The Uttarpara Speech (May 1909) publicly announced this turn, recasting nationalism as Sanatana Dharma. After 1910 in Pondicherry he developed Integral Yoga (Purna Yoga) — aiming not at escape from the world but at the descent of a "Supramental" consciousness to transform earthly life. The 24 November 1926 "Day of Siddhi" (the Overmind descent) marked a watershed, after which he withdrew to work inwardly on the supramental transformation, in partnership with the Mother. PVNR reads a "Paramahamsa" quality in the D-20: open to all sincere seekers without caste or nationality.

Work, teaching & institutions founded

• Journalism/political writing: Indu Prakash essays (1893); Bande Mataram (1906–08); Karmayogin and Dharma (1909–10).
• Arya monthly review (1914–1921), the vehicle for his major philosophy.
• Founder and Master of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry (formally 24 November 1926), charge given to the Mother.
• The Ashram school (1943) → Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.
• Inspirer of Auroville (founded by the Mother, 1968).
• Principal works: The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, Essays on the Gita, The Secret of the Veda, Hymns to the Mystic Fire, The Upanishads, The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity, The Future Poetry, and the epic poem Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol (~24,000 lines, his lifelong masterwork). Vast Letters on Yoga to disciples.

Fame & influence

Among the first major Indian leaders to demand full independence (Purna Swaraj) and to make spiritual nationalism a mass idea; a primary architect of the Extremist/Nationalist current with Tilak. After 1910 his fame shifted to the spiritual-philosophical domain, where he became one of the most studied of modern Indian thinkers, read worldwide. His passing drew about 60,000 mourners. His ideas seeded the Ashram, the Centre of Education and Auroville, and influenced figures across philosophy, education and the freedom movement.

Renunciation / wealth

A deliberate, total renunciation of worldly position. He gave up a secure, lucrative Baroda administrative/teaching career, refused the ICS, and after 1910 lived in seclusion without personal wealth. He held no private fortune; institutional needs were met through communal Ashram resources administered by the Mother. His renunciation was "Integral" — not flight from the world but consecration of all life and matter to spiritual transformation.

Health

Strong constitution through most of his life, sustaining extraordinarily long hours of mental and spiritual work and a year of harsh solitary imprisonment. The marked health event was the thigh fracture of November 1938 (a fall at night), which required months of treatment and permanently ended his deepest seclusion. His final illness in late 1950 was a sudden renal failure (uraemia) over a few days.

Death & legacy

Died in the early hours of 5 December 1950. His followers regard the death as a conscious, willed withdrawal (mahasamadhi) — part, in the Mother's account, of the work of conquering death from "the other side." The body reportedly glowed with a golden-crimson Supramental light and did not decompose for about four days, lying in state for public darshan until 9 December 1950, when it was placed in the Ashram Samadhi. His legacy endures through the Ashram, the Centre of Education, Auroville, the worldwide Integral Yoga movement, and his immense written corpus — above all The Life Divine and Savitri.

• Atmakaraka = Saturn; Karakamsa = Scorpio (1°30′). A Karakamsa (Jaimini) masterclass: the soul's knowledge profile — 5th-from-Karakamsa carrying Mars (crisp logic) + Jupiter (Veda/Vedanta, all-knowing); its applied mission — Ketu in the 2nd-from-Karakamsa (Jupiter's sign) = decoding/re-interpreting the Vedas and Upanishads, exactly The Secret of the Veda; and its method — Mercury on the Karakamsa = analysis as the dharma of his skill. PVNR (who has read him extensively) calls his Vedic interpretation the most scholarly and insightful in centuries, yet "not for laymen" — no Venus, so deep but not popularly eloquent. Contrasted with Ramana Maharshi, who taught the same truth from direct experience, lacking Aurobindo's Ketu-in-2nd textual-interpretation focus.

PVNR SJC Lesson 170 (BPHS Ch.33 Karakamsa; skills & specialised knowledge of the soul). Life events from the public record.