Sri Aurobindo

After leaving the nationalist movement in 1910 for Pondicherry, he developed Integral Yoga and, in the monthly Arya (1914-21), published The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, Essays on the Gita and other works setting out a philosophy of spiritual evolution; a reviewer of his biography counts over 4,600 pages in the journal.

A poet who wrote verse from his student days in England, he spent much of his adult life on the epic Savitri, reviewers describe it as running to more than 20,000 lines and finished shortly before his death, and he also wrote a study of poetry, The Future Poetry.

At Pondicherry a community of disciples gathered around him and grew into the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, whose organisation was taken over by the Mirra Alfassa known as the Mother; its supporters and its critics still dispute how his life should be told.

In 1914, after four years of yoga at Pondicherry, he began the monthly Arya, which appeared without interruption for six and a half years and carried most of his major prose works as serials.

This is consistent with keeping to a regular writing schedule over several years. Discipline

Reviewers of his biography say he worked on the epic Savitri for much of his adult life and completed it only shortly before his death.

This is consistent with returning to one long work over decades, as the reviewers describe it. Persistence

In 1910 he withdrew from public life to Pondicherry in French India, where the Ashram says the work needed the exclusive concentration of all his energies, and from then on he devoted himself to yoga and writing.

This is consistent with narrowing his activity to a single, demanding line of work. Deep Focus