The Integral Philosophy of Aurobindo: Hermeneutics and the Study of Religion

Description

Sri Aurobindo was an Indian nationalist, philosopher, yogi, guru, and poet. This book is an enquiry into the integral philosophy of Aurobindo and its contemporary relevance. It offers a reading of Aurobindo’s key texts by bringing them into conversation with religious studies and the hermeneutical traditions. The central argument is that Aurobindo’s integral philosophy is best understood as a hermeneutical philosophy of religion. Such an understanding of Aurobindo’s philosophy, offering both substantive and methodological insights for the academic study of religion, subdivides into three interrelated aims. The first is to demonstrate that the power of the Aurobindonian vision lies in its self-conception as a traditionary-hermeneutical enquiry into religion; the second, to draw substantive insights from Aurobindo’s enquiry to envision a way beyond the impasse within the current religious-secular debate in the academic study of religion. Working out of the condition of secularism, the dominant secularists demand the abandonment of the category ‘religion’ and the dismantling of the academic discipline of religious studies. Aurobindo’s integral work on ‘religion’, arising out of the Vedānta tradition, critiques the condition of secularity that undergirds the religious-secular debate. Finally, informed by the hermeneutical tradition and building on the methodological insights from Aurobindo's integral method, the book explores a hermeneutical approach for the study of religion which is dialogical in nature. This book will be of interest to academics studying Religious Studies, Philosophy of Religion, Continental Hermeneutics, Modern India, Modern Hinduism as well as South Asian Studies. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Foreword Preface 1 Introduction: Mapping the journey Joining the conversation The estuary: convergence of three streams Three aims and the central argument The journey forward Summary Notes Bibliography 2 Conceptual groundwork: Aurobindo, hermeneutics and religion Introduction Background of Aurobindo’s integral philosophy The Aurobindonian corpus The traditionary-hermeneutics approach The three senses of ‘tradition’ Structure of traditionary-hermeneutics The religious–secular debate Historical origins of the religious–secular debate Religious–secular debate in the contemporary study of religion Overview of dialogical hermeneutics Summary Notes Bibliography 3 The Life Divine – I: Whose tradition? Which rationality? Introduction The Life Divine: clearing the ground Reductionism in the study of religion Epistemological reductionism and integralism The three negations Critique of the materialist denial Critique of the ascetic refusal Critique of theistic dualism From reductionism to rationality Attunement: subject–object distinctions Deductive-nomological model and generalizations Logical consistency and the classical laws of logic Rationality and irrational mysticism Rationality of tradition Difference, incommensurability, dialogical hermeneutics Summary Notes Bibliography 4 The Life Divine – II: Transcendence and the sevenfold being Introduction Ontological reductionism as a conflict over transcendence Absence of ‘transcendence’ within the study of religion Aurobindo’s sevenfold being and transcendence Transcendence1 as vijñāna and textuality Vijñāna as transcendence1 in self-understanding Vijñāna as transcendence1 and the interpretation of Vedic texts Vijñāna as transcendence1, chain of interpretations, and tradition Transcendence2 as Parātpara Brahman Critique of onto-theo-logy and beyond Parātpara Brahman beyond onto-theo-logy Aurobindonian critique of onto-theo-logy Parātpara Brahman as ‘beyond the beyond’ Parātpara Brahman as ‘It gives’ Transcendence3 as imagination in dialogue Summary Notes Bibliography 5 The Human Cycle: Articulation as narrative Introduction A critical exposition of The Human Cycle Conversing Aurobindo with Lamprecht via Salvadori A summary of The Human Cycle Philosophy of history as narrative Articulation: explanation and/or understanding Religion as narrative and not category Explanation and understanding in narrative Critique of logos as rational account Assertion: language and reality ‘Articulation as interpretation’ and understanding The vicious circle of understanding Beyond the circle: dialogical hermeneutics Summary Notes Bibliography 6 The Synthesis of Yoga: Action, yoga, and tradition Introduction Yoga and the religious–secular distinction Yoga, action, and hermeneutics of tradition The central argument Preliminaries to The Synthesis The structure of The Synthesis Aurobindo’s purna-yoga: a summary Purna-​yoga and Patañjali’s Yoga-​Sūtras Yama and niyama: preparatory moral practices Āsana and prāṇāyāma: haṭhayogic practices Pratyahāra to saṃyama: rājayogic practices of mind Purna-​yoga and the Bhagavad Gītā Reading Aurobindo’s Gītā: Ricoeur’s theory of mimesis Karma-yoga: the yoga of divine works (mimesis1) Pre-understanding of action: semantic structures Equality as ‘agency’ Renunciation of motives Goal of action: sacrifice Gyāna-yoga: the yoga of integral knowledge (mimesis2) Bhakti-yoga: the yoga of divine love (mimesis3) Purna-yoga and tantra: the yoga of self-perfection Summary Notes Bibliography 7 Conclusion: The journey and beyond Introduction The first aim: Aurobindonian enquiry as traditionary-hermeneutics The second aim: Aurobindonian contribution to the religious–secular debate The third aim: dialogical hermeneutics as an approach for religious studies The Samvada tradition and dialogical hermeneutics A forward look Notes Bibliography Glossary of important terms Index