The Hierarchy of Minds

by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother

What we call 'mind' comprises in reality much more than our faculties of reason and imagination. It involves a complex gradation of powers, many of which are outside our conscious perception but which influence our surface mental activity.

Sri Aurobindo has spoken at length throughout his writings about the five minds of man and the corresponding minds in the universe.

This book puts forward Sri Aurobindo's views on man's consciousness in relation to the mind, its various levels and functions within the body consciousness and also its potential to transcend the body consciousness. 

About the Authors:

Born in Paris in 1878, the Mother studied painting at an art studio and became an accomplished artist. Primarily interested in inner development, she was associated with several groups of spiritual seekers in France.

In 1914 she journeyed to India to meet the Indian mystic Sri Aurobindo in Puducherry and settled there permanently in 1920. For nearly fifty years, she was the head of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, from its founding in 1926 until her passing in 1973. She also established a school, the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, in 1952, and an international township, Auroville, in 1968.

Sri Aurobindo was an Indian/Hindu nationalist, scholar, poet, mystic, evolutionary philosopher, yogi and guru. After a short political career in which he became one of leaders of the early movement for the freedom of India from British rule, Sri Aurobindo turned to the development and practice of a new spiritual path which he called the "integral yoga," the aim of which was to further the evolution of life on earth by establishing a high level of spiritual consciousness which he called the Supermind that would represent a divine life.

Sri Aurobindo wrote prolifically in English on his spiritual philosophy and practice, on social and political development, on Indian culture including extensive commentaries and translations of ancient Indian scriptures, on literature and poetry including the writing of much spiritual poetry.