History of Kidney trouble-page 406

On page 406, Peter incorrectly claims that Sri Aurobindo had a history of kidney trouble.

Sexual union dignified by marriage – page 318

On page 318, Peter Heehs alleges that Sri Aurobindo engaged in “sexual union dignified by marriage”.

Romantic Relationship – page 326

Description on page 326 arouses suspicion of the relationship between Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

His followers – page 277, preface, epilogue

In various places in the book, Peter Heehs undermines the very community he belongs to.  He ridicules Sri Aurobindo’s “followers” as being naive and uncritical in order to demonstrate his own objectivity to the reader.  A member of the Ashram ought not to engage in such grandstanding. The biography is not a platform to launch attacks on members of your own community.

Undermining the Adesh page 204

Sri Aurobindo received an Adesh(Divine command) from his Divine guide, Krishna, to go to Chandernagore and then to Pondicherry.   The author tries to rationalize this Adesh below and in the process undermines Sri Aurobindo.

Disciples used to plagiarize – page 394

The following passage on page 394 claims Sri Aurobindo’s disciples used to plagiarize his works!

Defaming the Ashram community – page 373

On page 373, he defames the members of the Ashram where he has lived for the past 40 years.

Demeaning devotion – page 343

The path of Devotion(bhakti) is demeaned on page 343

Misleading remarks page 328

On page 328, we have

Poems after 1943 are uncharacteristically dark – page 398

On page 398, we are given the impression that Sri Aurobindo’s Sadhana(askesis) was failing, and that his poems written during the 1940s were uncharacteristically dark and ominous.

On the Mother’s trip to Japan – page 260 and 319

The purpose of this article is to correct some misinterpretations in the Lives of Sri Aurobindo (referred to as LOSA hereafter) regarding the Mother Mirra Alfassa’s trip to Japan.

Madame Theon’s revelations are bizarre – page 253

In this short note, we cover another distortion in this book which no one seems to have caught.

Amplifying Jitendral Lal Banerji’s negative remark : pp 101-102

Peter Heehs uses in his book certain subtle psychological techniques to create a negative opinion of Sri Aurobindo. One such device is never passing an outright negative judgment without making some qualifications to it. Generally he flip-flops between positive and negative statements, swings to the left and right, and in a most unsuspecting way nullifies his positive statements on Sri Aurobindo. For committing this ‘murder in cold print’, he begins with some sweet talk lulling the reader into a false sense of sympathy, and then delivers a blow to Sri Aurobindo in someone else’s name, adding his own opinion quietly in the presentation of a multitude of documents. He does this so cleverly that at times it is hard to distinguish his personal opinion from the quoted documents. For example, while summarizing Sri Aurobindo’s life at Baroda, the author makes the following statement:

Seed-tree metaphor : page 203

In this short note, we discuss the incorrect conclusion drawn on page 203 of the biography.

Distortion of the episode involving Vivekananda’s guidance to Sri Aurobindo in Alipore jail (page 178)

On page 178 of the biography, Heehs surreptitiously debunks the well-known fact that Sri Aurobindo received guidance from Swami Vivekananda in Alipore jail.  It is astonishing that so many people have read the biography but not one seems to have noticed this glaring inaccuracy.  Perhaps it is because while reading, people tend to gloss over the incidents in Sri Aurobindo’s life that they are already familiar with, or they trust that the author is telling the truth, or they have not bothered to investigate and determine what the primary sources actually contain.

Secret of the Veda – page 266

In many places in the book, Peter Heehs, having mentioned something positive, proceeds to concoct a negative side. Some of these negatives are phony because they have been inferred by craftily using Sri Aurobindo’s words against him. By that I mean he takes Sri Aurobindo’s quotes out-of-context to potentially mislead uninformed readers. There is a certain procedure which has to be followed in order to uncover such deceptions. When you find a negative remark, you should look up the citation and read the original source. Then you must search for alternative sources, at which point you will realize that the negative remark is not really negative at all.