Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo was educated in England before returning to India, where he became active in the movement for independence. In 1910 he withdrew from political life to Pondicherry to pursue yoga, and over the following decades developed what he called Integral Yoga: a practice aimed not only at individual liberation but at the transformation of the whole of human nature, working toward what he termed a "supermind," a further evolutionary step in consciousness rather than an escape from ordinary life.

He worked closely with Mirra Alfassa, known to students as "The Mother," who took on the direction of the ashram community that formed around them. The Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry remains active, and his central work, The Life Divine, together with his other writings, continues to be studied as a distinct contribution within modern Yoga and Tantra traditions.