The Prospectus of the Arya

The Prospectus of the Arya (French edition). [Please note that except where indicated the English translation is by the editors of Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research. No copy of the English prospectus of Arya has survived.] English Translation

“ARYA”
OUR PROGRAMME.
The “ARYA” is a review of pure philosophy.
The object which it has set before itself is twofold:–
1. A systematic study of the highest problems of existence;
2. The formation of a Synthesis of knowledge, harmonising the diverse religious traditions of humanity occidental as well as oriental. Its method will be that of a realism, at once rational and transcendental, — a realism consisting in the unification of intellectual and scientific discipline with those of intuitive experimentation.
The Review will also serve as an organ for the various groups and societies founded on its inspiration.20

PLAN OF THE REVIEW.
The Review will be divided into four parts, consisting of:
1. Synthetic studies in speculative Philosophy.
2. Translations and commentaries of ancient texts.
3. Studies in Comparative Religion.
4. Practical methods of inner culture and self development.21
5. A fifth part will be devoted to the intellectual movement and the news of the groups attached to the Review.

First Part.
During the year 1914-15, the Review will publish:
1. Under the general title “The Wherefore of the Worlds”, a series of studies relating to the great problems of being, its origins and its first principles.
2. An exposition of Vedantic thought in accordance with the Ishopanishad.

Second Part.
In this part the Review will publish:
1. An annotated translation of the Upanishads.
2. A new interpretation of the texts of the Veda based on a philological study of the forms evolved from the ancient Sanskrit and on a restitution of the original sense of the symbols.
We will give here an idea of the high value of these works, carried out during five years of solitary meditation by Sri Aurobindo Ghose, by publishing the following fragment of his study of the Veda.
[Here was printed “The Colloquy of Indra and Agastya”, published in the first issue of Arya and later reproduced in The Secret of the Veda.]

Third Part.
Introduction: Our study of comparative religion will be preceded by the publication of a synthetical work bringing together texts drawn from the greatest thinkers of humanity.
These texts will be published under the title The Eternal Wisdom. They will be grouped in such a way as to form a homogeneous whole made up of the following categories, which develop the main lines of the unanimous teachings of the religions.
This plan may be summarized as follows:

Introduction. Wisdom and the Religions.
First Book. The God of All, the God who is in All.
Second Book. The discovery in oneself of the God who is in All.
a) The conquest of Truth

b) The practice of Truth.
Third Book. The realisation in each of the God which is in All.
Fourth Book. The Union of All by the Unity of the Divine in All.22
Conclusion. The supreme perspectives of man’s aspiration.
We will give here an idea of the way in which this work has been conceived by publishing the following fragment, which moreover puts forward admirably the spirit of this Review.
[On the next page appeared “The Spirit of Synthesis”, Book II, Part I, Chapter V of The Eternal Wisdom. Later published in Arya, vol. I, pp. 502-3.]

Fourth Part.
Starting with the first number, the Review will begin a practical exposition of a new method of inner development, based on a personal experimentation, and coordinating results gained through ancient methods.

Fifth Part.
The Review will welcome in this part communications related to the intellectual movement of which it is the centre. Questions and requests for clarification which are of philosophical interest to our readers will be answered.