{"id":520,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:33","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=520"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:33","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:33","slug":"02-post-content-vol-26-on-himself-volume-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/26-on-himself-volume-26\/02-post-content-vol-26-on-himself-volume-26","title":{"rendered":"-02_Post Content.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n
\nNOTE<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n


\nSri Aurobindo was very emphatic in
\nstating that only he could write truly about himself; but he never wrote any
\ncomprehensive or systematic account of his life. Only in his correspondence
\nwith his disciples and others he sometimes explained points by incidentally
\nreferring to some event in his own life or some experience in his own Yogic
\ndevelopment. Also on a few occasions he corrected misleading statements
\nconcerning him published in some journals and books and gave notes about some
\npoints in his life to three of his biographers who had submitted their
\nmanuscripts to him for verification. All this material has been compiled and
\npresented in a systematic arrangement in Part One of this volume. This has been
\ndone with the specific intention of providing authentic information about Sri Aurobindo’s
\nlife so as to leave no room for anyone to make doubtful or misleading
\nstatements about him. This has become particularly necessary in view of the
\nfact that many of the books and articles that have been published about him
\nare, even when written by well-intentioned persons, often inaccurate in their
\nfacts and misguiding in their interpretations.<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\nIn some
\nof the letters Sri Aurobindo has written jointly about himself and the Mother
\nafter she came to <\/font> <\/span><\/i>
\nIndia<\/font><\/span><\/i> and joined him in his spiritual
\nwork. These have been separately compiled and placed in Part Two of this
\nvolume.<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\nSome of
\nthe letters included in this volume are taken from the other volumes of Sri
\nAurobindo’s letters on Yoga and on Poetry, Literature and Art published in the
\nCentenary Edition, as these are also related to Sri Aurobindo himself or to the
\nMother. The others are being published for the first time. In some cases where
\nthe whole letter dealt with many topics, only the portion dealing with him or
\nthe Mother has been extracted for inclusion in this volume. Sometimes, in order
\nto avoid a direct personal reference, Sri Aurobindo used to write about himself
\nin the third person. This is the reason why at a few places in the book the
\nreference to Sri Aurobindo is in the third person.<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t            SRI AUROBINDO TO HIS BIOGRAPHERS<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It would be only myself who could speak of
\nthings in my past giving them their true form and significance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nI<\/span> see that you have persisted in giving a biography \u2014 is it really
\nnecessary or useful? The attempt is bound to be a failure, because neither you
\nnor anyone else knows anything at all of my life; it has not been on the
\nsurface for men to see.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nB<\/span>ut why write my biography at all ? Is it really necessary? In my
\nview, a man’s value does not depend on what he learns, or his position or fame,
\nor what he does, but on what he is and inwardly becomes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\n        p<\/span>art<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span>o<\/span>ne<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n            SRI AUROBINDO
\nON HIMSELF <\/span><\/p>\n


\n                   Notes and
\nLetters on His Life<\/font><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n


\n             s<\/span>ection<\/span><\/font> <\/span><\/span>
\no<\/span>ne<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

                      LIFE BEFORE
\n<\/font> <\/span>
\nPONDICHERRY<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nThis section, relating to the earlier
\npart of Sri Aurobindo’s life prior to his arrival at Pondicherry in 1910, is
\ncom\u00adpiled from notes given by him during 1943-46 while reading the manuscripts
\nof his three biographers submitted to him for correction or verification and
\napproval. The notes were intended either to elucidate their statements by
\nsupplying the relevant facts or to correct and modify them wherever necessary.<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\nIn most cases brief references to the
\npoints in the original uncorrected manuscripts or to incomplete or erro\u00adneous
\nstatements in them are given in italics preceding Sri Aurobindo’s comments on
\nthem. In some cases only small headings are given.<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\nSome marginal notes written by Sri
\nAurobindo on another biography of his by a Maharashtrian author are also
\nincluded here. Also notes and letters dictated by him to correct misleading or
\nfabricated statements concerning him published in some journals and in a book
\nare placed in this section.<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\nA few letters written to disciples in
\nanswer to their inquiries concerning some facts of his early life are placed
\nalong with the notes on the same points.<\/font><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NOTE   Sri Aurobindo was very emphatic in stating that only he could write truly about himself; but he never wrote any comprehensive or systematic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-26-on-himself-volume-26","wpcat-11-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}