On Thoughts and Aphorisms

Note on the Text

The Mother’s commentaries on Sri Aurobindo’s Thoughts and Aphorisms extend over the twelve-year period from 1958 to 1970. Her translations of and commentaries on the first twelve aphorisms were published in 1959 under the title Pensées et Aphorismes: Traduits et Commentes par La Mère. The remaining translations and commentaries were serialised in French, with an English translation, in the quarterly Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education between April 1960 and August 1976. A complete edition of the French text, entitled Pensées et Aphorismes: Traduits et Commentes par La Mère, was published in two volumes in 1974 and 1976. The first complete edition in English appeared in 1977 as Volume Ten of the Collected Works of the Mother (first edition). The present (second) edition the same text as that volume, with a few minor corrections.

Sri Aurobindo wrote these aphorisms around 1913 during the early part of his stay in Pondicherry. Never revised or published during his lifetime, they were first brought out in 1958 under the three headings established by the author: Jnana (Knowledge), Karma (Works) and Bhakti (Devotion).

When the original manuscript of Thoughts and Aphorisms was examined preparatory to the publication of a new edition of the English text in 1977, several erroneous readings were found in the text of the first edition, which was the one used by the Mother for the translation done by her upon which her commentaries are based. The errors, mostly minor, have been corrected in this volume. A note has been given wherever the corrected reading is not in line with the Mother’s comment.

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