ABSTRACT
The philosophical theory and spiritual methodology of Sri Aurobindo are based on Vedanta, Yoga, and other Indian systems but incorporate some elements from Western sources. If the word Gnostic is understood in the broader sense of having to do with gnosis or knowledge superior to that of the discursive mind, the term could apply to Aurobindo's system together with other ancient and modern Indian systems. The intermediate plane between the lower hemisphere and sat-cit-ananda is the characteristic feature of Aurobindo's philosophy. In writings meant for the general public, Aurobindo often used the English neologism "supermind" as a synonym for vijnana. An individual being who ascended to gnosis became a gnostic being, which, as Aurobindo wrote in The Synthesis of Yoga, has the character of "a truth-consciousness, a centre and circumference of the truth-vision of things, a massed movement or subtle body of gnosis".
