1872 – 1950 · A portrait
A Cambridge-educated revolutionary turned to yoga after prison, then spent four decades in Pondicherry developing a philosophy in which evolution isn't finished — a higher supermind, he taught, could still descend and transform matter itself.
Jailed in the Alipore bomb case, accused of conspiracy against British rule, he spent a year in solitary confinement awaiting trial. He later said the cell became the site of a profound inward turn — he was acquitted in 1909 and never returned to politics.
Warned of a second arrest, he sailed secretly from Chandernagore to French-ruled Pondicherry in April 1910, taking a small boat by night. He would not leave the town again for the remaining forty years of his life.
On 24 November 1926, the tradition holds that a decisive spiritual force he called the Overmind descended and stabilized — a day since kept as Siddhi Day. That same day he withdrew from public contact, entrusting the ashram's daily running to Mirra Alfassa.
He died in Pondicherry on 5 December 1950. Devotees said his body showed no visible signs of decay for several days afterward; the ashram treated it as confirmation of his teaching. It has not been independently verified.