Sri Aurobindo is not yet recognized

Experiments of integral action Wolfgang Schmidt-Reinecke

Gebser and Sorokin, towards the end of their lives, both discovered with surprise and great appreciation that, from the beginning of the century onwards, the Indian yogin-philosopher Sri Aurobindo Ghose had developed a philosophy of development which was extraordinary in depth and extent and ran in parallel lines and close to their own concepts. "Gebser placed his whole concept under Aurobindo's shadow ... (Sri Aurobindo) is not yet recognized for his exceptional character neither in the Indian philosophic tradition nor in his contribution to the 'path of the spirit' in general. While direction and results are similar, he points far beyond Gebser. Gebser, in his last publication ('Verfall und Teilhabe - Decay and participation'), places himself in the energetic field of Aurobindo, while in 'Ursprung und Gegenwart - Origin and presence' he still had assumed a side by side position of himself and Aurobindo with Teilhard de Chardin".)

Later, besides the work of Gebser, it was Sri Aurobindo's integral philosophy that became a central source of inspiration for Ken Wilber. Hardly perceived by anybody, Sri Aurobindo's thoughts moreover guided many of the great schools and founders of modern thought. For example Michael Murphy, co-founder of the influential Esalen institute of training and encounter, is a former member of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.as. From the 60s onwards, Esalen community, and also the California Institute of Integral Studies, founded by Sri Aurobindo disciple Haridas Chaudhuri, became important and influential sources of humanistic and transpersonal psychology and of new formulations of Eastern spirituality adapted to modern times and the West.