Essays in Philosophy and Yoga (CWSA Volume 13) collects Sri Aurobindo’s short works in prose written between 1909 and 1950 and published during his lifetime. The contents are arranged chronologically in five parts, covering the range of his spiritual and philosophical writing across four decades.

Contents

Part One: Essays from the Karmayogin (1909–1910) — Early essays including “The Ideal of the Karmayogin”, “Karmayoga”, “Man — Slave or Free?”, “Yoga and Human Evolution”, “Yoga and Hypnotism”, “The Greatness of the Individual”, “The Process of Evolution”, “Fate and Free-Will”, “The Three Purushas”, “The Strength of Stillness”, “The Principle of Evil”.

Part Two: The Yoga and Its Objects (circa 1912, published 1921) — A major essay on the aims and methods of yoga.

Part Three: Essays from the Arya (1914–1921) — The largest section, including:

  • “The Superman”, “All-Will and Free-Will”, “The Delight of Works”
  • “Evolution”, “The Inconscient”, “Materialism”
  • “Heraclitus” — a comparative study of Greek and Indian thought
  • “Rebirth”, “The Reincarnating Soul”, “Rebirth and Soul Evolution”, “The Significance of Rebirth”
  • “The Ascending Unity”, “Involution and Evolution”
  • “Karma”, “Karma and Freedom”, “Karma, Will and Consequence”, “Rebirth and Karma”, “Karma and Justice”
  • “The Foundation”, “The Terrestrial Law”, “Mind Nature and Law of Karma”, “The Higher Lines of Karma”
  • “The Needed Synthesis”, “Arya — Its Significance”
  • “Meditation”, “Different Methods of Writing”, “Occult Knowledge and the Hindu Scriptures”, “The Universal Consciousness”
  • “Andal: The Vaishnava Poetess”, “Nammalwar: The Supreme Vaishnava Saint and Poet” — essays on Tamil Vaishnava saints

Part Four: Ourselves (1920) — From the Standard Bearer.

Part Five: Bulletin of Physical Education Essays (1949–1950) — Late essays including “Perfection of the Body”, “The Divine Body”, “Supermind and the Life Divine”, “Supermind and Humanity”, “Supermind in the Evolution”, “Mind of Light”, “Supermind and Mind of Light”.

Key Themes

  • Evolution and Involution: Consciousness involves itself in Matter and evolves back through Life, Mind, and Supermind
  • Rebirth and Karma: The mechanism of soul evolution across lives, the nature of karma and freedom
  • The Supermind: The Truth-Consciousness as the creative principle of the universe and the next stage of human evolution
  • The Divine Life: The transformation of earthly existence through the descent of the Supermind
  • Integration of Eastern and Western Thought: Comparative studies bridging Indian and Western philosophy

Source Summary

CWSA Volume 13 contains works checked against journals and books published during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. The essays in Part Three were revised slightly by the author and published in small books between 1920 and 1941; the editors have retained the titles and arrangement of most of those books.

See Also