The Making of an Avatar

Reading Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1872–1950)

Authors

  • Alex Wolfers King’s College, University of Cambridge Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.37030

Keywords:

Aurobindo, Avatar, Hindu nationalism, Integral Yoga, Mirra Alfassa, Neo-Vedanta, political theology, Rishi, spiritual evolution

Abstract

Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950), the revolutionary yogi of Pondicherry, was one of India's first global gurus of the modern age. Eluding easy classification, at different stages in his life he played the role of scholar, politician, poet, philosopher and mystic. Despite being the subject of considerable scholarship, Aurobindo has generally been presented as a disjointed figure, fragmented and constrained by disciplinary boundaries. Ongoing disputes within the wider Aurobindo community regarding his contested legacy have drawn attention to his (mis)appropriation by a resurgent Hindutva ethno-nationalism. Against the attempts by some to monumentalize Aurobindo as an infallible Avatar, this interdisciplinary review of the field of Aurobindo studies seeks to bring together a wide range of scholarly perspectives so as to serve as a meeting ground for multiple overlapping interpretations and future integral research. Indeed, only if we place Aurobindo's accession to Avatarhood in the context of his poetic, political and prophetic vision can we better understand how he reconciled the revolutionary and the mystic in his own life. Just as Aurobindo's theo-political reconfiguration of Hinduism under colonial conditions invokes an anticipatory horizon of individual and collective transformation, his conception of Avatarhood demands a mode of spiritual envisioning that sets the stage for utopian struggle. 

Author Biography

  • Alex Wolfers, King’s College, University of Cambridge

    Alex Wolfers is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge. His thesis focuses on the political theology of the Bengali anti-imperialist thinker Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950). He works on the intersection between theology and global intellectual history with particular emphasis on conceptions of struggle, sovereignty and revolutionary subjectivity. His publications include 'Born like Krishna in the Prison-House: Revolutionary Asceticism in the Political Ashram of Aurobindo Ghose,' South Asia (2016).

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Published

2018-09-06

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Wolfers, A. (2018). The Making of an Avatar: Reading Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1872–1950). Religions of South Asia, 11(2-3), 274-341. https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.37030