The Yogi and the Mystic- A Study in the Spirituality of Sri Aurobindo and Teilhard De Chardin (An Old and Rare Book)

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If anything. Sri Aurobindo was a yogi. Teilhard's thought, Henri de Lubac has maintained, is in essence mystic. Spirituality, then, lies at the basis of their world-view. From which it further follows that a true comparison between both must be established at the level of spiritual experience. Religious language, it will be contended, has no real meaning. But then, why did the Yogi and the Mystic write? To convey a message they hoped we would receive. We are left to pore over their texts. We propose to help by offering a close analysis of Aurobindo's Essays and Teilhard's Le milieu divin.

Commentaries do not make exciting reading. They are useful though. We have tried to be dispassionate, searching, minute. The analysis results in an inchoative synthesis. It generalises the particular: Aurobindo as a Hindu, and the Christian in Teilhard. Both turn out to be different, which is not surprising. But they are not as we hoped they would-complementary. However, we shall accept any proof to the contrary. 'Truth shall prevail.

Dr. J. Feys graduated from the Louvain University, Belgium and obtained his Ph. D. from Ranchi University, Bihar. His published dissertation deals with The Philosophy of Evolution in Sri Aurobindo and Teilhard de Chardin. Lately, in The Life of a Yogi he has reconstructed the spiritual itinerary of Sri Aurobindo.

Long titles were once fashionable. They would begin with some such resounding name as Antibarbarous, hastening to add a more intelligible, if not more attractive, 'or the Perfect Latinist'. Things would be clarified further by a complementary 'being a Complete Account of Recurrent Mistakes Etc.'. To be quite specific it would go on saying the tome was 'destined for etc..' and 'in aid of etc.', and wind up by dubbing itself 'a Companion Volume' to some other work with an equally long title. Such headings used to adorn the whole title-page. They had the distinct advantage of informing the prospective reader exactly as to what the book was about. The only disadvantage was they dispensed him from reading any further.

Wishing to be read we kept our title within reasonably short limits, so short in fact that we must write this Preface to explain it. Apparently, the evocation of 'yoga' and 'mysticism' was sufficiently stimulating to arouse the present reader's curiosity. Possibly, the aura of mystery was sufficiently hazy to deter others, more likely to be interested in histology or cybernetics. The title, however, is precise enough to announce not yoga or mysticism in general, but a Yogi and a Mystic in particular, whom the subtitle identifies as Sri Aurobindo and Teilhard de Chardin respectively. The book then is a comparative study of both under a definite aspect. In fact, we would venture to say, it concerns their chief characteristic. This will readily be accepted in the case of Sri Aurobindo, one of whose biographies is entitled Mahayogi. But it may elicit protest in the case of Teilhard. As not a few have denied he was a scientist, or a philosopher, or a theologian for that matter, so too some may object to calling him a mystic. It all depends on what is meant by 'mystic'.