15th August is a day of great importance to Indians because that is the day India gained independence. But this day is of special significance to the followers of Sri Aurobindo. He was born on 15th August 1872. 

Aurobindo's father believed that his children should be brought up as Englishmen and so he was sent to an English school in Darjeeling and later, at the age of seven, he was packed off to London, alongwith his brothers. Aurobindo was a voracious reader and he spent all his spare time in reading. He mastered Latin,Greak and also picked up German, French, Italian and Spanish. 

He became involved in the Independence struggle while still in England. So great was his love for his country that after topping the Indian Civil Service examinations, he deliberately got himself disqualified for the riding test. 

He came back to India in 1893 as the employee of Sayaji Rao, king of Baroda. It was while working for Sir Sayaji Rao that he began his political activity. He also continued reading voraciously. He learnt Bengali and also taught himself Sanskrit. During these years Sri Aurobindo organised military training for a revolutionary and through him spread this training to other young men.In 1906, he left Baroda and joined the National College of Calcutta as its principal. He started editing the `Bande Mataram' journal, where he proclaimed total independence as the goal of India. He was under the constant surveillance of the government and was arrested in 1908 in connection with a murder attempt of a District Magistrate. 

The  trial took a year and while in prison awaiting the trial Sri Aurobindo had a strange vision. He literally saw the form of God in everything, everywhere; in the prison cell in the trees, on the faces of the criminals there ..... This experience continued for many days. Finally after a year in jail, he was released. 

In April, 1910 Sri Aurobindo arrived in Pondicherry. He and a few devoted disciples of his, stayed in a small house and lived a frugal life. In 1914, he started `Arya' a philosophical journal and for seven years he wrote all the articles for Arya. Between 1920 and 1926, they plunged into deep sadana. And from 1926 Sri Aurobindo gradually reduced his public contact and started spending more and more time in soltitude. 
 

Sri Aurobindo taught that the entire process of evolution is a progress towards divinity in man. This evolution has progressed from inanimate matter -total lack of consciousness, to plant and animal to man with a highly developed consciousness . But man is not the ultimate step in evolution. There are higher levels of consciousness like the supermind which will descend on earth until we reach the Supramental Consciousness which is bringing divinity down to earth' Sri Aurobindo wrote a number of books on philosophy. He was a great poet and has written the epic poem `Savitri' consisting of 25,000 lines. 

He left his human body on 5th December 1950.