Biography

Georges Van Vrekhem, born on 28th March 1935, was a Flemish (i.e. Dutch-speaking) Belgian journalist, poet and playwright, who became acquainted with the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother in 1964. In 1970, he joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Puducherry, and eight years later, in 1978 he moved to Auroville. He translated selected writings from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and several books of Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, Peter Heehs, and Satprem into Dutch. Van Vrekhem died during sleep in his Auroville home in Shakti on 31st August, 2012.

With Georges van Vrekhem’ passing, Auroville lost a friend and one of the few critical scholars of Sri Aurobindo’s and The Mother’s views. As Dakshina from the Sri Aurobindo Sadhana Peetham Lodi, USA, commented, “Georges was a pillar of Sri Aurobindo and Mother’s work and legacy, leaving behind a wealth of books and transcribed talks that the world may better understand Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, their lives and vision and purpose, and what role we all who are called to this path of Integral Yoga share in the unfolding evolution we have taken birth to participate in. Though an all-consuming labour of love, this life-work was not easy and often took the form of a long battle, each book a hard-won victory over a host of opposing forces.”

Works

His book on the life and work of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Voorbij de mens was published in The Netherlands in 1995, and translated into English as Beyond Man, published in India in 1997, and also translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian. The American edition, published by Paragon House, is called Beyond the Human Species: The Life and Work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Since then Van Vrekhem published The Mother - The Story of Her Life (2000), Overman - The Transitional Being between the Human and the Supramental (2000), Patterns of the Present - in the Light of Sri Aurobindo (2002), Hitler and His God - The Background to the Nazi Phenomenon (2006), Evolution, Religion and the Unknown God (2011), Preparing for the Miraculous (2012), and The New Spirituality (2013).

A series of talks by Georges Van Vrekhem were recorded several years ago. They can be found below.

Books, Audio, and Video of Georges Van Vrekhem: 

http://www.beyondman.org/http://www.auro-ebooks.com/authors/georges-van-vrekhem/