An icebreaker
A former revolutionary turned philosopher taught that evolution isn't finished — that a higher power of consciousness, the supermind, could descend into ordinary matter and transform it from within. His closest collaborator later declared that descent had already begun.
After early imprisonment for revolutionary activity, he withdrew from politics and spent decades developing a philosophy holding that a higher 'supermind' could descend and transform ordinary matter, not just consciousness. He set this out across dense philosophical works written mostly after 1910.
She ran the ashram's daily life for decades and, on 29 February 1956, announced that the supramental force had descended and become a living fact on earth. She described her own inner development as running the same course as his.
Writing from inside the ashram archives, he argued that accepting the teacher as a divine incarnation is ultimately a matter of faith, not demonstrated fact. His 2008 biography was banned in one Indian state after devotees called it insulting.
As her secretary from 1957 onward, he recorded years of her private conversations about the supramental work, later publishing them as a multi-volume record. His earlier book remains a widely read introduction to the pair's teaching.