Most people who decide to follow the path of integral yoga, who take up the task of transforming their natures, changing old habits of thought and feeling in order to live in a different consciousness, meet obstacles and difficulties along the way. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have written countless letters to aspirants to explain the nature and cause of such difficulties and to show the attitude to be taken to overcome them. In one of the new books introduced below, the second installment in the series entitled The Story of a Soul, Huta tells the story of her own struggles against the lower forces and the wonderful way in which the Mother helped her and cared for her during the worst of her vicissitudes. This extract from the book captures Huta’s dilemma and the Mother’s clear-eyed and compassionate assessment of the situation:
The Mother saw me on 2.3.56 in the Meditation Hall upstairs. After we had exchanged smiles and flowers, I said:
Mother, the union with the Divine is not easy, because I have been attacked relentlessly by the dark forces which put stumbling-stones every now and then in my way to prevent me from reaching my goal. They really make me nervous and sick.
    One moment I feel quite cheerful and the next as if the blackest depression descends upon me.
Tears stung my eyelids when I finished telling her my woe, and with a deep sigh I laid my hands into hers. She looked at me with her penetrating gaze and went into a trance for a few seconds and explained:
There is nothing new in human nature. Sometimes it remains in the light and sometimes in the darkness. But truly I want something new in the life of human beings.
    Human nature is divided. So sometimes people believe in the adverse forces and sometimes in the Divine Forces. When they are trapped by the hostile forces they begin to think: “This thing is good and that one is bad, this person is good and that person is bad.” And so on. They live in likings and dislikings with various types of mortal desires and ego in them. In fact, they themselves create all lower and false things in their consciousness: no wonder they become miserable. As a matter of fact, it is nothing but putting a dense curtain between the Divine and their souls. So how can they realise anything new in their lives? But, if there is no barrier between the Divine and themselves, naturally the adverse forces do not like it, and constantly they try to drive them far away from the Divine and His Grace.
    ...
    You should pray intensely to the Lord: “O Lord, kindly work in my legs, in my hands—in my whole consciousness; if I walk, walk in me, if I eat, eat in me—whatever I do, be always with me.” Thus you are constantly protected by the Lord and His Grace.

To read this book, in the words of Nolini Kanta Gupta, “is to come closer to the Mother—into her arms”.

Other books in this issue include a reprint of K. D. Sethna's classic work of literary criticism, The Poetic Genius of Sri Aurobindo, available again after a long time, and Tapasya, a collection of spiritual paintings by Dhanavanti.



NEW PUBLICATIONS



To order any book, click on the title, which will locate the book in our online catalogue. Next, add it to the shopping cart. You may then proceed to pay by credit card online.


ENGLISH

coverThe Story of a Soul

Volume Two, 1956—Part One
— Huta
ISBN: 978-81-87372-21-9
Publisher: The Havyavahana Trust, Pondicherry
Binding: Soft Cover
Pages: 198
Price: Rs 300

Huta's journey on the path of self-realisation is told here through a narrative that includes numerous letters and notes to her from the Mother, reports of her conversations with the Mother, extracts from her spiritual diaries, and quotations from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother that have a special relevance to her circumstances, experiences, and inner difficulties. When the first version of the book was read out to the Mother in October 1972, she commented, “This is the interesting story of how a being discovers the Divine Life.” The Story of a Soul runs from 1954 to 1973—this volume covers the first half of 1956.

coverThe Poetic Genius of Sri Aurobindo

— Amal Kiran (K. D. Sethna)
ISBN: 978-81-87916-07-9
Publisher: Clear Ray Trust, Pondicherry
Binding: Soft Cover
Pages: 138
Price: Rs 125

This book examines and evaluates Sri Aurobindo’s considerable poetic output in blank verse, his achievements in quantitative metre, a medium that had eluded English poets, and his creation of a new type of poetry that reached beyond the ranges of inspiration familiar to most poets to reveal new heights and intensities of mystical and spiritual expression. Before it was first published in 1947 it had the distinction of having been read out to Sri Aurobindo, who professed his admiration for the substance and style of this literary criticism by Sethna. The book is available again after a long time.

ENGLISH/FRENCH

coverTapasya

Hymns in colour
— Dhanavanti
Publisher: Auroville Press Publishers, Auroville
Binding: Soft Cover
Pages: 84
Price: Rs 495

The paintings and drawings presented in this book depict the artist’s visions of inner worlds and experiences and express her own spiritual journey. The book is enhanced by the addition of eleven poems written by the artist and numerous quotations from the poems of Sri Aurobindo and Frank Townshend. There is also a short piece written by her which describes the genesis of her life as an artist. The text appears in both English and French.

HINDI

coverMahabharat par Nibandh

— Sri Aurobindo
ISBN: 978-81-7058-875-7
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, Pondicherry
Binding: Soft Cover
Pages: 99
Price: Rs 50

In this volume have been collected Sri Aurobindo's independent prose writings on the Mahabharata. (Writings on the Bhagavad Gita are not included.) The principal prose work is an essay written in Baroda entitled, "Notes on the Mahabharata", in which Sri Aurobindo put forward the idea that the original Mahabharata of Vyasa, consisting of some 24,000 verses, could be disengaged from later "enlargements, accretions and additions" by means of a detailed textual study.
A few paragraphs on the Mahabharata from A Defence of Indian Culture have been included. These repesent Sri Aurobindo's later thinking on the epic.

coverVichar aur Sutra ke Prasang main

— The Mother
ISBN: 978-81-7058-885-6
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department, Pondicherry
Binding: Soft Cover
Pages: 425
Price: Rs 195

Hindi translation of On Thoughts and Aphorisms

The Mother's commentaries on the aphorisms of Sri Aurobindo on works, knowledge, and devotion, explaining their meaning and showing among other things how Sri Aurobindo's apparent startling disregard for conventional morality is a means to emphasise how spiritual matters cannot be judged with the ethical mind.

BENGALI

coverMayer chatrachayay bere otha

— Mother's Correspondence With Tara Jauhar
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Delhi Branch Trust, New Delhi
Binding: Soft Cover
Pages: 222
Price: Rs 100

Bengali translation of Growing Up with the Mother

Tara Jauhar had the privilege of close proximity to the Mother for many years. This book is a collection of correspondence, messages, and conversations of the Mother with Tara, "showing how the Mother patiently and persistently helped and guided a young girl towards the discovery of her inner being and held out Her ever helping hand, nurtured her growth, and led her on to the path of spirituality".

coverPratibha o Prakash

Kavyabhabanar Bikash : Ved theke Sri Aurobinde
— Ranajit Sarkar
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir, Kolkata
Binding: Hard Cover
Pages: 264
Price: Rs 150

coverAnanta Alokdhara

Sri Aurobindo Rabindranath abong Anya Kaekjan
— Saurendranath Basu
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir, Kolkata
Binding: Hard Cover
Pages: 191
Price: Rs 150

coverChhelemeyeder Sange Bhalobasay O Anande

— Debabrata Majumdar
ISBN: 978-81-7060-276-7
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondicherry
Binding: Soft Cover
Pages: 171
Price: Rs 60

GUJARATI

coverSuratma Sri Aravind

— Varnan: Hiranmayi
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Centre, Surat
Binding: Soft Cover
Pages: 232
Price: Rs 200

Gujarati translation of Sri Aurobindo in Surat

Published to commemorate the centenary of Sri Aurobindo’s 1907 visit to Surat for the All India Annual Convention of the then Indian National Congress, the book acquaints the reader with the major political players of the day and the issues of contention between the Moderates and the Nationalists. Using the words of Sri Aurobindo, convention participants, and observers, as well as facsimile copies of Indian newspaper reports, the author unfolds the dramatic events before and during the convention, when all efforts at compromise and reconciliation between the two groups failed, leading to the climactic moment when the convention dissolved in an uproar of charged emotions. Sri Aurobindo’s leadership in awakening the country to the demand for swaraj is the primary focus of this narrative retelling of the Surat Congress Convention.

TELUGU

coverSavitri: Swechchhanuvadam (Set of 2 Volumes)

— Sri Aravind
Publisher: Sri Mataravinda Divya Jeevana Kendra, Sri Aravindapuram
Binding: Hard Cover
Pages: 1196
Price: Rs 800

coverSri Aravindula Velugulo Sabda Brahma

— K. S. Bhaskara Rao
Publisher: K. S. Bhaskara Rao, Tenali
Binding: Soft Cover
Pages: 30
Price: Rs 25



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