As in all infant sciences, the universal habit of the human mind — to take a partial or local truth, generalise it unduly and try to explain a whole field of nature in its narrow terms — runs riot here.

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) was an Indian guru, yogi, writer, and political activist who fought for Indian independence before devoting himself to spiritual life and developing the philosophy of Integral yoga, in which spiritual transcendence within one’s present life is the aim of creation. With his spiritual partner, Mirra Alfassa (called The Mother), Sri Aurobindo established an ashram, now called the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, in Puducherry, India.