So many have violated his suggestions against writing his biography

GLIMPSES OF SRI AUROBINDO’S LIFE: Although Sri Aurobindo’s first biography in English was published, obviously without his knowledge in 1910, the year Sri Aurobindo came over to Pondicherry in his late thirties. Later when a scholar proposed to write a biography with his knowledge, Sri Aurobindo discouraged him, saying that no one could write about his life because it had not been on the surface for man to see. Sri Aurobindo’s reluctance would surprise many, for his life, even the first thirtyseven years of it, which, he mostly spent in England, Baroda (Vadodara) and Calcutta, had been marked by tumultuous events and most significant ones in relation to the recent history of the nation. How does he belittle them ?

The fact is, Sri Aurobindo considered his most worthwhile actions as those which were not on the surface, but deep in the ocean of consciousness—actions which were too profound for any factual narration. Whatever we know of them, we know through the persistent queries of his disciples and, of course, much can be surmised from his writings. However, so many have violated his suggestions against writing his biography and we too, following the academic traditions, give below a chronological account of his life—a bare outline of it.

Sri Aurobindo’s father, Dr. K. D. Ghose, who had received a post-graduate medical degree from the West, was totally Westernized in his life-style and sense of values. On the other hand Sri Aurobindo’s mother, Swarnalata Devi was the daughter of Rajnarayan Bose, known as "the grandfather of Indian Nationalism", a great patriot and visionary. Sri Aurobindo, the third son in the family, was born on August 15, 1872.