It's impossible to segregate the past influences from Sri Aurobindo's thought. The more one reads him and other authors, the more one confronts profusion of allusions and echoes. Perhaps, this is not surprising given the context of Western Romanticism and Indian Renaissance preceding his writings. The Colonial milieu, further, had imparted a definite tension and direction to a substantial portion of his oeuvre. However, the varied nature of his output establishes him as an outstanding thinker and superlative poet pursuing an Integral agenda.
Sri Aurobindo was convinced of India as the leader for the future humanity. That is at a time when it was under foreign rule and large sections of its population were uneducated. He was aware of the immense intellectual tradition of the West as well as India but was not unduly impressed by them. He charted out his own independent path that is aligned to the pulls of future Evolution. Past religions have exerted wrong effects upon our understanding of human existence and The Mother & Sri Aurobindo sought to correct it to the extent possible.
Assimilating Sri Aurobindo's thought is not an easy task.
To swim through his poetry is equally daunting.
He is worth reading nevertheless,
As there is no other way at the moment. [TNM55]
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