Arya

Arya No. 1, 15 August 1914 PDF (66 pages)

SABDA newsletter "From the first meeting to the launching of the Arya" PDF (8 pages)

Prospectus, 1914-15

“ARYA”
OUR PROGRAMME

The “ARYA” is a review of pure philosophy.

The object which it has set before itself is twofold: –

1. A systematic study of the highest problems of existence;
2. The formation of a Synthesis of knowledge, harmonising the diverse religious traditions of humanity occidental as well as oriental. Its method will be that of a realism, at once rational and transcendental, — a realism consisting in the unification of intellectual and scientific discipline with those of intuitive experimentation.

The Review will also serve as an organ for the various groups and societies founded on its inspiration.

PLAN OF THE REVIEW

The Review will be divided into four parts, consisting of:

1. Synthetic studies in speculative Philosophy.
2. Translations and commentaries of ancient texts.
3. Studies in Comparative Religion.
4. Practical methods of inner culture and self development.
5. A fifth part will be devoted to the intellectual movement and the news of the groups attached to the Review.

First Part.

During the year 1914-15, the Review will publish:

1. Under the general title “The Wherefore of the Worlds”, a series of studies relating to the great problems of being, its origins and its first principles.
2. An exposition of Vedantic thought in accordance with the Ishopanishad.

Second Part.

In this part the Review will publish:

1. An annotated translation of the Upanishads.
2. A new interpretation of the texts of the Veda based on a philological study of the forms evolved from the ancient Sanskrit and on a restitution of the original sense of the symbols.
   

We will give here an idea of the high value of these works, carried out during five years of solitary meditation by Sri Aurobindo Ghose, by publishing the following fragment of his study of the Veda.

[Here was printed “The Colloquy of Indra and Agastya”, published in the first issue of Arya and later reproduced in The Secret of the Veda.]

Third Part.

Our study of comparative religion will be preceded by the publication of a synthetical work bringing together texts drawn from the greatest thinkers of humanity.
         These texts will be published under the title The Eternal Wisdom. They will be grouped in such a way as to form a homogeneous whole made up of the following categories, which develop the main lines of the unanimous teachings of the religions.

         This plan may be summarized as follows:

Introduction. Wisdom and the Religions.

First Book. The God of All, the God who is in All.

Second Book. The discovery in oneself of the God who is in All.

a) The conquest of Truth

b) The practice of Truth.

Third Book. The realisation in each of the God which is in All.

Fourth Book. The Union of All by the Unity of the Divine in All.

Conclusion. The supreme perspectives of man’s aspiration.

We will give here an idea of the way in which this work has been conceived by publishing the following fragment, which moreover puts forward admirably the spirit of this Review.

[On the next page appeared “The Spirit of Synthesis”, Book II, Part I, Chapter V of The Eternal Wisdom. Later published in Arya, vol. I, pp. 502-3.]

Fourth Part.

Starting with the first number, the Review will begin a practical exposition of a new method of inner development, based on a personal experimentation, and coordinating results gained through ancient methods.

Fifth Part.

The Review will welcome in this part communications related to the intellectual movement of which it is the centre. Questions and requests for clarification which are of philosophical interest to our readers will be answered.

(Sri Aurobindo:) “Its object is to feel out for the thought of the future, to help in shaping its foundations and to link it to the best and most vital thought of the past.”

(Sri Aurobindo:) “The problem of thought... is to find out the right idea and the right way of harmony; to restate the ancient and eternal spiritual truth of the Self so that it shall re-embrace, permeate, dominate, transfigure the mental and physical life; to develop the most profound and vital methods of psychological self-discipline and self-development so that the mental and psychical life of man may express the spiritual life through the utmost possible expansion of its own richness, power and complexity; and to seek for the means and motives by which his external life, his society and his institutions may remould themselves progressively in the truth of the spirit and develop towards the utmost possible harmony of individual freedom and social unity.”

(Sri Aurobindo:) “The thought of the Arya demands close thinking from the reader; it does not spare him the trouble of thinking and understanding and the minds of the people have long been accustomed to have the trouble of thought spared them.”

(Sri Aurobindo, 1914-15:) “My present teaching is that the world is preparing for a new progress, a new evolution. Whatever race, whatever country seizes on the lines of that new evolution and fulfils it, will be the leader of humanity. In the Arya I state the thought upon which this new evolution will be based as I see it, and the method of Yoga by which it can be accomplished. Of course, I cannot speak plainly yet my whole message, for obvious reasons, I have to put it in a severe, colourless fashion which cannot be pleasing to the emotional and excitement-seeking [mind]. But the message is there, for those who care to understand.”

(Sri Aurobindo to Motilal Roy, June 1914:) “... An attempt should be made to keep up the [financial] arrangement with Das, if possible; for we do not know whether our attempt to provide otherwise will succeed.
         That attempt takes the form of a new philosophical Review with Richard and myself as Editors — the Arya, which is to be brought out in French & English, two separate editions, — one for France, one for India, England & America. In this Review my new theory of the Veda will appear as also a translation and explanation of the Upanishads, a series of essays giving my system of Yoga & a book of Vedantic philosophy (not Shankara’s but Vedic Vedanta) giving the Upanishadic foundations of my theory of the ideal life towards which humanity must move. You will see so far as my share is concerned, it will be the intellectual side of my work for the world. … Let us try 250 subscribers to start with, with the ideal of having 800 to 1000 in the first year. If these subscribers can be got before the Review starts, we shall have a sound financial foundation to start with. The question is, can they be got. We are printing a prospectus with specimens of the writings from my translation & commentary on a Vedic hymn, and an extract from Richard’s collections of the central sayings of great sages of all times called the Eternal Wisdom to show the nature of the Review. This is supposed to come out in the middle of this month, & the Review on the 15th August, so there will be nearly two months for collecting subscribers. How far can you help us in this work? There is always one thing about which great care has to be taken, that is, there should be no entanglement of this Review in Indian politics or a false association created by the police finding it in the house of some political suspects they search for; in that case people will be afraid to subscribe. My idea is that young men should be got as agents who would canvas for the Review all over Bengal, but there so many young men are now political suspects that it may not be easy to find any who will be free & active & yet above suspicion. In that case some other method must be tried. I should like to know from you as soon as possible how far you can help us & how many copies of the prospectus we should send to you.”

(Sri Aurobindo in third person, 1930): “In 1914 after four years of silent Yoga he began the publication of a philosophical monthly, the Arya. Most of his more important works, those published since in book form, the Isha Upanishad, the Essays on the Gita, and others not yet published, the Life Divine, the Synthesis of Yoga, appeared serially in the Arya. These works embodied much of the inner knowledge that had come to him in his practice of Yoga. Others were concerned with the spirit and significance of Indian civilisation and culture, the true meaning of the Vedas, the progress of human society, the nature and evolution of poetry, the possibility of the unification of the human race.”

(K. Amrita:) “One day at the beginning of September I took up a copy of the first issue of the Arya from the table on the long verandah upstairs in Sri Aurobindo’s house and started reading the first article of the series, “The Life Divine”, written by Sri Aurobindo, just loudly enough for myself to hear. I read it over and over again. Great thoughts clothed in great words — I could not at all comprehend! However, it was sweet to read and reread it. It was as if someone else in me was comprehending all that was read!
         As I was reading, Sri Aurobindo came, stood in front of the table and kept listening to my reading. When I put down the copy of the Arya and lifted my head I saw Sri Aurobindo standing there. I told him that the reading was delightful but nothing could be grasped.
         Sri Aurobindo heard all that I said and replied, ‘It is not necessary to understand it all at once. Go on reading. If you find a joy in reading, you need not stop it.’”

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See also

• L’Idée Nouvelle
• Revue Cosmique
• Paul Richard

External links

• Arya issues at www.aurobindo.ru