Authors: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

87 Thought-Provoking Quotes By Sri Aurobindo That Will Change The Way You Live

Famous As: Philosopher, Spiritual Leader
Born On: August 15, 1872
Died On: December 5, 1950
Born In: Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Founder / Co Founder: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Died At Age: 78
Aurobindo Ghose was a renowned Indian scholar and a spiritual preacher known for his theory of divine life. After his studies in United Kingdom, he returned to his homeland and served the ruler of the princely state of Baroda. There, he served as a teacher in various colleges and nurtured his intellect on Indian traditions. He understood the bad impact of the British Empire and covertly coordinated with several revolutionaries of the time. He collaborated with revolutionaries and contributed in building the four main pillars of Swaraj, Swadesh, Boycott and National Education in the national movement. He worked actively toeards uniting the people for the national movement of freedom against the oppressive British government. After his participation in the national struggle, turned towards spirituality and shifted to Pondicherry (then a French colony). His influential writings on yoga and spirituality increased his followers and helped him establish the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. He was nominated twice for the ‘Nobel Prize’ for his contributions in the field of spirituality and philosophical literature. He shared his thoughts on spirituality, freedon, God, life, love and much more. His thoughts are quite often quoted. Here is a collection of profound thoughts and quotations by Sri Aurobindo.
True knowledge is not attained by thinking. It is what you are; it is what you become.

True knowledge is not attained by thinking. It is what you are; it is what you become.

Sri Aurobindo
There is nothing mind can do that cannot be better done in the mind's immobility and thought-free stillness.

When mind is still, then truth gets her chance to be heard in the purity of the silence.

There is nothing mind can do that cannot be better done in the mind's immobility and thought-free stillness. When mind is still, then truth gets her chance to be heard in the purity of the silence.

Sri Aurobindo
Our actual enemy is not any force exterior to ourselves, but our own crying weaknesses, our cowardice, our selfishness, our hypocrisy, our purblind sentimentalism.

Our actual enemy is not any force exterior to ourselves, but our own crying weaknesses, our cowardice, our selfishness, our hypocrisy, our purblind sentimentalism.

Sri Aurobindo

An aimless life is always a troubled life. Every individual should have an aim. But do not forget that the quality of your aim will depend the quality of your life. Your aim should be high and wide, generous and disinterested; this will make your life precious to yourself and to others. Whatever your ideal, it cannot be perfectly realized unless you have realized perfection in yourself.

Sri Aurobindo
The Divine Truth is greater than any religion or creed or scripture or idea or philosophy.

The Divine Truth is greater than any religion or creed or scripture or idea or philosophy.

Sri Aurobindo
The first principle of true teaching is that nothing can be taught.

The first principle of true teaching is that nothing can be taught.

Sri Aurobindo

The yoga we practice is not for ourselves alone, but for the Divine; its aim is to work out the will of the Divine in the world, to effect a spiritual transformation and to bring down a divine nature and a divine life into the mental, vital and physical nature and life of humanity. Its object is not personal Mukti, although Mukti is a necessary condition of the yoga, but the liberation and transformation of the human being. It is not personal Ananda, but the bringing down of the divine Ananda - Christ's kingdom of heaven, our Satyayuga - upon the earth.

Sri Aurobindo
The whole world yearns after freedom, yet each creature is in love with his chains; this is the first paradox and inextricable knot of our nature.

The whole world yearns after freedom, yet each creature is in love with his chains; this is the first paradox and inextricable knot of our nature.

Sri Aurobindo

Safety lies in tending towards our highest and not in resting content with an inferior potentiality..... To rest in or follow after an inferior potentiality may seem safe, rational, comfortable, easy, but it ends badly, in some futility or in a mere circling down the abyss or in a stagnant morass. Our right and natural road is towards the summits.

Sri Aurobindo

Perfect health, sincerity, honesty, straightforwardness, courage, disinterestedness, unselfishness, patience, endurance, perseverance, peace, calm, self control are all things that are taught infinitely better by example than by beautiful speeches.

Sri Aurobindo
The great are strongest when they stand alone,
A God-given might of being is their force.

The great are strongest when they stand alone, A God-given might of being is their force.

Sri Aurobindo
My God is love and sweetly suffers all.

My God is love and sweetly suffers all.

Sri Aurobindo

Man is a transitional being. He is not final. The step from man to superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth evolution. It is inevitable because it is at once the intention of the inner spirit and the logic of nature's process.

Sri Aurobindo
Do not belong to the past dawns,but to the noons of future

Do not belong to the past dawns,but to the noons of future

Sri Aurobindo
Peace is the first condition, without which nothing else can be stable.

Peace is the first condition, without which nothing else can be stable.

Sri Aurobindo
Our human knowledge is a candle burnt On a dim altar to a sun-vast Truth.

Our human knowledge is a candle burnt On a dim altar to a sun-vast Truth.

Sri Aurobindo
A quiet mind does not mean that there will be no thoughts or mental movements at all, but that these will be on the surface, and you will feel your true being within, separate from them, observing but not carried away

A quiet mind does not mean that there will be no thoughts or mental movements at all, but that these will be on the surface, and you will feel your true being within, separate from them, observing but not carried away

Sri Aurobindo
The supreme state of human love is...the unity of one soul in two bodies.

The supreme state of human love is...the unity of one soul in two bodies.

Sri Aurobindo
What the soul sees and has experienced, that it knows; the rest is appearance, prejudice and opinion.

What the soul sees and has experienced, that it knows; the rest is appearance, prejudice and opinion.

Sri Aurobindo
Watch the too indignantly righteous. Before long you will find them committing or condoning the very offence which they have so fiercely censured.

Watch the too indignantly righteous. Before long you will find them committing or condoning the very offence which they have so fiercely censured.

Sri Aurobindo
But few are those who tread the sunlit path;
Only the pure in soul can walk in light.

But few are those who tread the sunlit path; Only the pure in soul can walk in light.

Sri Aurobindo
Life is life - whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man's own advantage.

Life is life - whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man's own advantage.

Sri Aurobindo
By your stumbling, the world is perfected.

By your stumbling, the world is perfected.

Sri Aurobindo

Everyone has in him something divine, something his own, a chance of perfection and strength in however small a sphere which God offers him to take or refuse. The task is to find it, develop it & use it. The chief aim of education should be to help the growing soul to draw out that in itself which is best and make it perfect for a noble use.

Sri Aurobindo

The business of both parent and teacher is to enable and to help the child to educate himself, to develop his own intellectual, moral, aesthetic and practical capacities and to grow freely as an organic being, not to be kneaded and pressured into form like an inert plastic material

Sri Aurobindo
Each victory gained over oneself means new strength to gain more victories.

Each victory gained over oneself means new strength to gain more victories.

Sri Aurobindo

The progressive growth of the finite consciousness of man towards this Self, towards the universal , the eternal, the infinite, in a word his growth into spiritual consciousness by the development of his ordinary ignorant natural being into an illumined divine nature, this is for Indian thinking the significance of life and the aim of human existance.

Sri Aurobindo
In order to see, you have to stop being in the middle of the picture

In order to see, you have to stop being in the middle of the picture

Sri Aurobindo

The first and the most important thing is to know that life is one and immortal. Only the forms, countless in number, are transient and brittle. The life everlasting is independent of any form but manifests itself in all forms. Life then does not die... but the forms are dissolved.

Sri Aurobindo

For the powers of our mind, life, and body are bound to their own limitations, and however high they may rise or however widely expand, they cannot rise beyond them. But still, mental man can open to what is beyond him and call down a Supramental Light, Truth, and Power to work in him and do what the mind cannot do. If mind cannot by effort become what is beyond mind, Supermind can descend and transform mind into its own substance.

Sri Aurobindo