Letters on Himself and the Ashram

This book brings together letters written by Sri Aurobindo between 1926 and 1950 that fall into four broad subject areas: his outer life, his writings, his contemporaries, and contemporary events; his inner life before and after his arrival in Pondicherry; his role as a spiritual leader and guide; and his ashram and the sadhana practised there. The fifth part of the book contains mantras and messages Sri Aurobindo wrote for the benefit of his disciples.

Many of the letters appeared earlier in Sri Aurobindo on Himself and on the Mother (1953) and On Himself: Compiled from Notes and Letters (1972). The volume also contains a fairly large number of letters formerly included in Letters on Yoga (1970), a few letters from Letters on the Mother, and many newly selected items from the 1926-1950 corpus of letters. Whenever possible, the letters are framed contextually and historically by including the question or comment of the correspondent and the date of the letter. Together with the documents published in Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest, these letters constitute nearly all the surviving biographical and historical source materials that Sri Aurobindo wrote.