{"id":1271,"date":"2013-07-13T01:33:44","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1271"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:33:44","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:33:44","slug":"01-note-on-the-centenary-library-vol-30-index-and-glossary-volume-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/30-index-and-glossary-volume-30\/01-note-on-the-centenary-library-vol-30-index-and-glossary-volume-30","title":{"rendered":"-01_Note on the Centenary Library.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\nINDEX <\/font>
\nAND<\/font> GLOSSARY<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nNote on the Centenary Library <\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe SRI AUROBINDO BIRTH CENTENARY LIBRARY comprises all
\nwritings of Sri Aurobindo which were available at the time of publication. All
\nhis major works without exception have been included; there may be some
\nmanuscript writings and letters which still await discovery.<\/p>\n

\nThe scheme of arrangement of the Centenary Library is basically chronological, but other factors besides date of composition and publication have been
\ngiven consideration. Volumes 1 and 2 contain Sri Aurobindo’s early political
\nwritings and speeches, from the periods 1893-1908 and 1909-1910 respectively.\u00b9<\/font>
\nVolume 3 consists of Sri Aurobindo’s early cultural writings, the bulk of which
\nwere written by him at Baroda (1893-1906), but some of which date from before
\nand after these years. In Volume 4 have been collected all of Sri Aurobindo’s
\noriginal writings in Bengali, most of which were first published in 1909 and 1910.<\/p>\n

\nVolumes 5 through 9 comprise Sri Aurobindo’s literary writings. Volume
\n5 contains his complete poetical works; Volumes 6 and 7 his plays (one of which
\nis a translation) and short stories; Volume 8 his translations (excluding the play
\nmentioned above and translations from the Indian scriptures) and Volume 9 his
\nlater writings on poetry and literature, including his letters on poetry, literature
\nand art generally. Sri Aurobindo’s poetic magnum opus<\/i>, the epic Savitri<\/i>, has
\nbeen placed at the end of the Centenary Library in Volumes 28 and 29. To the
\nlatter volume his letters on this poem have been appended.<\/p>\n

\nIn Volumes 10 through 13 are published Sri Aurobindo’s translations of
\nand commentaries on the great Indian scriptures: the Veda, the Upanishads and
\nthe Gita. Most of the writings in these volumes first appeared in the monthly
\nreview Arya<\/i> (1914-1921). Volume 14 contains writings on Indian culture which
\nare also from the Arya<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\nVolumes 15 and 18 through 21 comprise Sri Aurobindo’s major prose
\nwritings. In Volume 15 are published his later social and political works: The
\nHuman Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity<\/i> and War and Self-Determination<\/i>.
\nThe Life Divine<\/i>, in which Sri Aurobindo’s philosophical thought attains its
\nhighest expression, is published as Volumes 18 and 19 and his major work on
\nYoga, The Synthesis of Yoga,<\/i> as Volumes 20 and 21 of the set. All of these
\nimportant works first appeared in the Arya<\/i> and were later revised by Sri
\nAurobindo to a greater or lesser degree prior to their publication in book-form.
\nShorter works published by Sri Aurobindo during his lifetime, in the Arya<\/i> and<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font>Practically all of Sri Aurobindo’s articles in the
\nBande Mataram <\/i>and the Karmayogin<\/i> were
\nunsigned. The editorials and leading articles in the latter journal seem to have been written almost
\nentirely by Sri Aurobindo, but this is not the case with the Bande Mataram<\/i> articles. For a discussion
\nof the principles guiding our selection from the Bande Mataram<\/i> see the Bibliographical Note to
\nVolume 1. As mentioned there, it is possible that a few of the articles selected may not be by Sri
\nAurobindo. This applies not only to articles included in the first volume, but also to some placed in
\nthe Supplement (Volume 27), including Bankim Chandra<\/i> (pages 351-55).
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>\u2013
\n<\/font>i<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nelsewhere, have been placed in Volume 16. In Volume 17 the material is of two
\nkinds: in Parts I to V various writings, mostly on Yoga, which were not published by Sri Aurobindo during his lifetime, are collected. Parts VI to XI of the
\nvolume might be called Sri Aurobindo’s "later cultural writings". Here an
\nassortment of writings on education and art, book reviews, notes, etc. have been
\nbrought together.<\/p>\n

\nNext in order after The Synthesis of Yoga <\/i>appear, in Volumes 22, 23 and 24,
\nSri Aurobindo’s letters on Yoga, most of which were written between 1930 and
\n1938. Many of these letters were revised by Sri Aurobindo before being brought
\nout in book-form; others have been selected and arranged by his disciples. Letters dealing with the Mother have been published in Volume 25 and letters and
\nnotes of an autobiographical nature in Volume 26. In the latter volume there is
\na section of letters dealing with both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.\u00b9<\/font><\/p>\n

\nIt was originally intended to publish The Mother<\/i>, which is considered by
\nmany to be one of the most important of Sri Aurobindo’s works, in a volume of
\nits own. This proved impossible because of its brevity. Therefore this book and
\nSri Aurobindo’s translations from the Mother’s Pri\u00e8<\/font>res
\net M\u00e9<\/font>ditations<\/i> were put
\ntogether with the letters on the Mother to make Volume 25. In Volume 27
\nsupplementary material which accumulated while the publication of the Centenary Library was in progress is published for the first time.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n*<\/p>\n

\n**<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nIt is very important to note that Sri Aurobindo’s consciousness underwent
\ngreat development between 1892, when he was a student of twenty writing The Harmony of Virtue,<\/i> and 1950, when as a master of Yoga he put the finishing
\ntouches to Savitri<\/i>. It is necessary to take this development into consideration
\nwhen evaluating Sri Aurobindo’s writings of different periods. It is essential that
\nreaders using the Index in this volume make such a relative evaluation of the
\nmaterials to which they refer.<\/p>\n

\nIn 1937 Sri Aurobindo, writing to one of his disciples in reference to the
\ndisciple’s review of his book The Ideal of the Karmayogin<\/i>, stated:<\/p>\n

\nYou even assert that I have "thoroughly" revised the book and these articles
\nare an index of my latest views on the burning problems of the day and there
\nhas been no change in my views in 27 years (which would surely be proof
\nof a rather unprogressive mind). How do you get all that? My spiritual
\n"consciousness and knowledge at that time was as nothing to what it is now
\n\u2014 how would the change leave my view of politics and life unmodified altogether?\u00b2<\/font><\/p>\n

\nIn another letter written apropos of a certain point in a series of articles which<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font>The reader should note that there has been some duplication of letters. In particular, several
\nletters placed in Volumes 22 to 24 because they deal with some general aspect of Yoga, also contain
\nreferences to Sri Aurobindo or the Mother and so have been included in one of the two volumes
\ndevoted to them (Volumes 25.and 26). Letters so duplicated have been indexed as though they occur-
\nred once only. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\u00b2<\/font>Volume 2, preliminary pages.
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>\u2013
\n<\/font>ii<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nfirst appeared in the Arya<\/i>, Sri Aurobindo stated, "…I have not yet allowed
\nthe publication of Rebirth and Karma<\/i> because this had to be corrected and the
\ndeeper truth put in its place."\u00b9<\/font> Further indication of this method of progress
\nfrom truth to deeper truth may be found in the note prefixed to The Yoga and
\nIts Objects<\/i> (Volume 16, page 409) and the letter on the word "Overmind" published on page 369 of Volume 26. It is clear that Sri Aurobindo did not consider
\nas absolutely final even those of his writings whose origin was "a source above
\nthe mind" and which were received and transmitted by a mind established in
\nthe perfect silence of Yoga \u2014 as were all of Sri Aurobindo’s writings from
\n1908 onwards. Indeed we may suppose, taking into consideration the constant
\nrevision of Savitri<\/i> to which reference is made on pages 727 to 732 of Volume 29,
\nthat, perhaps until the inevitable word of the highest Supermind had been given
\nexpression, there would still be something higher and more integral which remained to be said.<\/p>\n

\nThere are certain landmarks in Sri Aurobindo’s inner life which are of some*
\nhelp in viewing his life-work in its proper perspective. Sri Aurobindo began his
\npractice of Yoga in 1904. Everything which he wrote before that time may be
\nsaid to be "mental", that is, the creation of an intellect which had received the
\nfinest education the West had to offer and was in the process of mastering the
\nwisdom of the East. In 1908 Sri Aurobindo had his first great Yogic experience
\n(he had had several "preliminary experiences" previous to this), namely, the
\nexperience of Nirvana or, in Vedantic terms, of the silent spaceless and timeless
\nBrahman. It is at this time that his mind entered the eternal silence out of which
\nall his later writings and activities flowed. Referring to this experience Sri
\nAurobindo wrote once to a disciple:<\/p>\n

\nAs for calm and silence…! got these things in 1908…. Out of an absolute silence of the mind I edited the
\nBande Mataram<\/i> for 4 months and wrote 6 volumes of the Arya<\/i>, not to speak of all the letters and messages etc., etc. I have written since.\u00b2<\/font><\/p>\n

\nOther experiences, including that of the cosmic consciousness and the omni-
\npresent Divine, followed this first experience in rapid succession.<\/p>\n

\nIn 1910 Sri Aurobindo withdrew from the political field in order to devote
\nhimself to his Yogic sadhana in Pondicherry. The Mother has spoken of this
\nyear as being one of transition, providing a useful line to mark off the "earlier"
\nand "later" periods of his life and work. The growth of Sri Aurobindo’s
\nconsciousness between 1910 and 1950, when he withdrew from his body, was
\nconstant.<\/p>\n

\nA second important factor to take into consideration while making an evaluation of Sri Aurobindo’s writings has been touched upon briefly above. Most
\nof the writings included in the Centenary Library were first published during the
\nlifetime of Sri Aurobindo, the bulk of these originally in journals and a large
\nnumber later also in book-form. Most of the works published as books received
\nSri Aurobindo’s careful revision, but a significant number even of the more important <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\u00b9<\/font>Volume 16, page 222. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n\u00b2<\/font> Volume 26, page 163. <\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>\u2013
\n<\/font>iii <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nwritings never received the final touches he would have wanted to give
\nthem. Further, it is clear from the note on The Ideal of the Karmayogin <\/i>quoted
\nabove that the many additions and changes (chiefly verbal and stylistic) which
\nSri Aurobindo was in the habit of making to all his published works, seemingly
\nwhenever he had a copy of one of them in his hands, do not make even revised
\neditions indices of his "latest views". Moreover, much of the material published
\nin Volumes 3, 12, 17 and 27 has been reproduced, with little or no editing, from
\nmanuscripts which were never prepared by Sri Aurobindo for publication and
\nmany of which he, the perfectionist par excellence, would perhaps never have
\nwanted to publish. We have included such writings in the Centenary Library
\nbecause we feel that they have, besides great historical interest, a considerable
\nintrinsic value. But for a proper relative evaluation of these and all of Sri Aurobindo’s writings the facts of their composition and publication should be
\nknown. It would be worthwhile, then, for the interested reader to study the
\nBibliography on pages 19 to 44 of this volume and the Bibliographical Notes at
\nthe end of each of the volumes. These have been prepared from all currently
\navailable data; however, as our researches continue, new information is being
\nuncovered which may make a revised bibliography necessary in the future.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n*<\/p>\n

\n**<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nThe Chronology (pages 6-15 of this volume) has been compiled using all
\nprimary source materials which have been gathered to date. Our biographical
\nresearches continue. No event for which there is inadequate documentary evidence has been included in the present Chronology. Note especially that only
\nthe very few spiritual experiences which Sri Aurobindo chose to speak or write
\nabout could be listed.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n*<\/p>\n

\n**<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nAlthough every care has been taken during the printing of the Centenary
\nLibrary to ensure perfect accuracy, a number of errors, typographical or other,
\nhave crept into the texts. These, with the exception of minor and obvious typographical errors, have been listed in the
\nErrata<\/i> placed at the end of this volume.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>\u2013
\n<\/font>iv<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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