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'''LUMINOUS WORDS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA, SRI AUROBINDO, PT. DEENDAYAL AND OTHERS….'''
1. SHALL INDIA DIE? .. ‘NO’ ASSERTED THE ARCHITECHCTS OF INDIAN RENAISSANCE
Swami Vivekananda said emphatically, ‘Shall India die? Then from the world all spirituality will be extinct; all moral perfection will be extinct; all sweet-souled sympathy for religion will be extinct; all ideality will be extinct; and in its place will reign the duality of lust and luxury as the male and female deities, with money as its priest, fraud, force and competition its ceremonies and the human soul its sacrifice. Such a thing can never be.’ (Swami Vivekananda, )
The history of mankind is not devoid of examples when nations came in existence, rouse to pinnacle of glory and then went into oblivion. Great empires turned into graveyards, mighty armies became mummies, and gigantic structures were pulverized to ashes. The tides of time do not spare anyone and anything. In this ephemeral ever changing existence, example of India is shining like a pole star. From the times when the forefathers of other nations were living in forests and painting their faces to today, this nation is living and thriving. It is still standing erect in spite of centuries of plunders, invasions and humiliations. There is remarkable consistency of experience and continuity of expression in her long history. This is especially because we never went out with sword to assert ourselves and to expand our territory. India s contribution to the world heritage is ‘like a gentle dew’ which falls in the morning unheard and yet results in blossoming of roses. (Swam Vivekananda, ) Every word of India was spoken with peace before it and blessing behind, that Punya is with us and therefore we are still surviving observed Swami Vivekananda.
Every nation has a mission to accomplish, a message to deliver, a note to play in the harmony of the nations and so is the case of India. We have to understand and fulfil mission of our motherland. After 12th and 13th century AD till which there was stupendous creation in all walks if national life in India, we see a downfall, with conquerors, plunders, sterilized and fossilized traditions and rituals, exploitation of common people and thereafter worshipping of empty shells devoid of original sap and spirit. This degeneration intensified after 1857 AD war in which the victory of British reinforced their colonial expansion for nearly hundred years. That was a dark period when everything which was Indian was considered as blasphemous; it was ‘Repulsive mass of unspeakable barbarism.’ (Sri Aurobindo, ) Indian people with western education were eager to disown whatever was Indian, customs, rituals, culture and even names. As if remedy for headache was cutting of head.
Social reforms even if done with noble intentions by gifted minds were unfortunately aiding in a way to alienate Indians from their roots.
It was at this juncture that luminaries like Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Lokmanya Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Sri Aurobindo ascended on the horizon of the world stage. When an educated youth of Calcutta atheist and rationalist to the core surrendered at the feet of an illiterate devotee of Dakshineshwar, it was clear that India will remain India, will show her Light once again to the mankind. Sri Aurobindo wrote that we do not belong to the dawns of the yesteryears but to the noons of tomorrow. The age old vision of Vedas and Upanishads needs to be reinterpreted again to deal with the problems of today and tomorrow.
Sri Aurobindo said that by borrowing coat and hat of an European and copying some customs we cannot get the self reliant reasoning and industrious nature of them. This nature was behind their progress, the marvels of science, spread of trades and colonization. However colonial subjects /slaves like us took only the external and peripherals of this advent and forgot our own culture. There was so much desperation in aping the west that even Krishnaghan Ghosh father of Sri Aurobindo ensured that his children will remain way from even shadow of anything that is Indian. However the deep inside spirit rebelled soon and ironically Sri Aurobindo emerged as one of the most illustrious exponents of Indian vision. In his epistles from abroad he wrote, was life always so pale, so vulgar, as awkward as Europeans have made it? The well appointed machinery was oppressive for a person and was making him forget that he himself is not a machine nut a soul. ‘After all our superstitions were better than this enlightenment; our social abuses were less murderous to the hopes of the nation than this social perfection. ‘ (Sri Aurobindo, )
According to Pt. Deendayalji, the root of our problems is neglect of Self. He said that
it is essential to think about our national identity. Without this identity there is no meaning of independence, nor can independence become the instrument of progress and happiness. Our national identity will help us to develop all our potentialities. (Deendayal, )
2. INDIA WILL RISE: PRIDE IN THE PAST AND FAITH IN THE FUTURE
Pt. Deendayalji had firm conviction that the foreign Ideologies are not universal.
They have arisen in certain special situations and time. It is indeed surprising that those who claim to reform the society by removing dead traditions, themselves fall prey to some outdated foreign traditions.
Downfall of a nation is part of the cyclic history of her through centuries. We should not judge a civilization or nation from its days of degeneration. Sri Aurobindo was proud of India and her heritage. The way he counter attacked a western critic who was asking- ‘Is India Civilized?’ is remarkable. Even though as he he wrote, to give attention to such prejudiced criticism is like crushing a bumblebee by a chariot wheel. When India was rich she was criticized for her vulgar opulence of golden doors and homes. When she was poor her poverty was shown as a sign of her inferior culture. Such views must be uprooted to instill back faith in all of us about our motherland and her destiny. This was his opinion which he elaborated in his book ‘The foundations of Indian Culture.’
India the ancient mother has been there even when the forefathers of westerners were living in forests and painting their faces asserted Swami Vivekananda. She has taught the world wisdom, the hymns of Upanishads were reechoed on the lips of Buddha and then Christ, Plato and several philosophers got light from it, Science and mathematics reached Europe from India through Arabs. Indian merchants and traders were renowned for quality and consistency of their products in far off lands. And we are children of such a country. As Swami Vivekananda said, I do not look in the future, nor do I care to see. But one vision is clear to me as daylight that our ancient mother, Mother India is sitting on her throne, rejuvenated, more glorious than ever. ( Swami Vivekananda, )This nation is not new, not a result of modern struggle, not a mechanical assemblage by accident. It is existing since time immemorial. Rishis thought and felt for the welfare of the humanity, they did penance and then this punyabhumi was manifested. As Shiva is a God so India is a goddess and She can manifest again when She wills. Therefore they say that India will be raised, but not by sword and bloodshed, not by commerce and trade but by fresh outburst of her spirituality and its application to every sphere of life. It is god’s will that we shall be free and leading, so it shall be. It is not for ourselves but for the humanity that we should be ourselves and should rise once again. When we say India shall be raised, it means eternal values, ethos, Sanatana dharma shall be raised, India will be strong means Sanatana dharma will be strong. (Sri Aurobindo , ) As it has happened earlier, it will flow again through the channels opened by the material progress and inventions to drench mankind with her eternal showers and liberate it of the feverish pursuit from failure to failure which it calls as progress. This blessed punyabhumi has an ordained mission for the humanity and therefore whether we believe in spirituality or not, said Swam Vivekananda, we must hold it firmly with one hand and then stretch the other hand to grab whatever the rest of the world has to offer us. (Swami Vivekananda, )
Shrunvanto Vishwam Aryan, we will ennoble the entire world, was the mission of our forefathers and it is yet accomplished.
..
May be never before was the world so desperate to receive such message. We see the western paradigm failing everywhere, it is at crossroads and their cherished ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity are questioned by themselves. Why in such times we should carry our colonial baggage and imitate them. ‘…It will be lunatic absurdity to build something on those sinking foundations’ warned Sri Aurobindo. (Sri Aurobindo, )
Does man carry his country with him? In a sense yes said Sri Aurobindo. By that we mean carrying the essential spirit of the country, the Indianness with him and her. What is that: ceaseless pursuit of the infinite, uneasiness with the apparent, realizing futility of finite ends, fearless search for the truth, to look within and walk on the razor’s edge for getting to that which is smaller than the smallest and yet larger than the largest, to express and execute that inexpressible in every facet of life, to spread this to even the lowest strata of society through popular literature, arts and institutions, to aspire thereby to bring heaven on the earth ‘Devnagari’ … this is the characteristic soul of India. Tough like a metal wire and yet bent in beautiful curve is the mind of India. Ingrained spirituality, acute intellectuality, stupendous vitality and meticulous organizing and structuring ability is part of the Indian psyche. We need to be first Swarat winning the kingdom inside and then Samrat, winning the kingdom outside. For that we should first become ourselves, Indians in true way, not just by accident. To recover patrimony of our forefathers, recover scriptures like Veda, Upanishads and Gita and live them in our life. That is the way to renaissance. Such is the history of this land where world conquers surrendered at the feet of renunciate sages. Soil of India is my highest heaven and good of India is my good was the feeling of Swami Vivekananda. Centuries before Sri Rama told Lakshmana that even if Lanka is golden, it does not appeal me for mother and motherland is higher than heaven for us. Similar was feeling of Savarkar while coming back from Andaman with his brother after barbarous imprisonment and when Sri Aurobindo touched the soil of India at Apollo Bunder after his return from Europe had similar spiritual experience of deep silence and Peace. Something is in very air and soil of this blessed land where wisdom came before it went to any other land, the land which is trodden by the best minds and souls in the world and the land where by centuries of education and spiritual culture, even a common man is separated from the abstract truths by a less thick veil. He had to come in the front of the battle after 1905 partition of Bengal and in his fiery articles was critical of the British raj as well as the moderates in the congress. He reiterated that this nation is god made and its god’s will that we should be one and rejuvenated. To serve motherland is our Karmayoga. He wrote to his wife in a letter that indeed he is mad and his madness is to see his mother free and reawakened. If a demon is sitting on the body of a mother and sucking her blood what a son is suppose to do...he asked. (Sri Aurobindo, )
He said in his address on 15th August 1947 that having same birthdates as India’s Independence Day is sanction of the Divine on his life mission. His five dreams included freedom of India, India leading Asia, Asia getting stronger and leading rest of the world, India becoming Jagatguru and mankind ascending on the next level of evolution. (Sri Aurobindo, )
Sri Aurobindo was in Baroda when he saw effect of yoga while a Naga sadhu cured fever of his brother. He learned formally from a teacher Lele, though he had experiences as yogi since several years. While reading Vedas also he said the scripture only confirmed his own experiences. He was seeking the power through yoga for his countrymen. When Sri Ramkrishna in one of the visions told them ‘Mandir gadho’ initially this group of dedicated souls thought of physical form of a temple. Later it revealed to them that Sri Ramkrishna was indicating temple of Mother India and also temple of the Divine on the earth. This is the background of his conviction that it is God’s will that we should be free and for us this Nationalism is god given Karmayoga. This synthesis of individual sadhana and collective national yoga was part of many of the syntheses in his yoga. This nation is not raw from Nature’s workshop, not an assemblage of accidental circumstances, it is age old-- Sanatana, and is much more than just a piece of land for us, she is Mother, Divine mother taking the form of The Mother India. This larger interpretation of the term Karmayoga, which otherwise means selfless work done with no expectation for fruits, is a unique turn in our history... ‘There is a mighty law of life, great principles of human evolution, a body of spiritual knowledge and experience, of which India is always destined to be guardian, exemplar and missionary...to understand heart of this dharma, to feel high emotions to which it raises your mind, to experience it as a truth, to express and execute it in life is what we understand by Karmayoga.’ said Sri Aurobindo. (Sri Aurobindo, )
3. THE SOURCE OF OUR VISION: THE LUMINOUS SEED OF THE VEDAS AND THE UPANISHADS:
Like all the leaders of Indian renaissance, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo also traced the roots of all the later development of Indian civilization and culture to the Veda and the Upanishads. Vivekananda said that whether we agree or not, we know it or not, but we live Vedanta, we breath Vedanta, we eat, sleep and die in Vedanta and every Hindu does that. Swami Vivekananda said in his Paper on Hinduism at Chicago that from high spiritual flights of Vedanta philosophy of which the latest discoveries of science are like faint echoes to the lowest form of idolatry, agnosticism of the Buddhist and Atheism of Jains, each have place in the Hindu’s religion. Where then is the common centre on which these seemingly hopeless contradictions can rest… he asked and cleared that Vedas is that centre. By Veda is not meant a book or few books, it is totality of all the spiritual knowledge which was seen by the rishis and accumulated and expressed by their experience. Our dharma has many scriptures from Vedas and puranas to even the modern commentaries; it can even assimilate scriptures of other sects and religions. But the most authentic scripture of this culture is human heart said Sri Aurobindo, where the spiritual truths are seen and lived. There is a notion and even scholarly interpretation that Vedas are mainly dealing with Karmakanda, rituals and procedures and lack the psychological and spiritual depth of the Vedanta. Those times were times of agrarian, naturalist economy and with their forests, fields, animals and sacrificing rituals of yajna, the rishis propitiated Nature and her powers in their verses and asked for earthly boons. Upanishads or Vedanta is Jnankanda or Uttarmimansa and has a deeper seeking at psycho spiritual level. However this again is a myth and an attempt of European intelligentsia to extrapolate history of India from that of Europe and America. Because there pagan and nature worshipping civilizations were invaded by fair looking foreigners, idol worshippers were persecuted, so in India also it was professed that Aryans invaded Dravidians and yajna and nature worship replaced the temple architecture and more developed civilization. However, this myth is debunked by many Indian thinkers including Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo. Aryans had profound philosophy but no architecture and civilization to support or express it, Dravidians had reverse of this… this is untenable and unsupported by facts and evidences now unearthed. Sri Aurobindo studied Vedas from philological view and sought origin of words which revealed that Vedas were from symbolic age and Go, Ashwa, Sapta Sindhu, all are symbols of their tapas and of deeper planes and parts of the being. Such spiritual gems alone could provide basis of a grand philosophy which then got its full expression in Upanishads. And all the later development in literature, sculptures, sects, religions, polity, economy, culture in general were infinite expressions and ramifications of those Vedic and Upanishadic visions. The seers were not wrong when they traced the origin of most of the later development to the ‘luminous seed’ of Vedas and Upanishads. (Sri Aurobindo, )
Upanishads took the vision of Vedas further and explored it from illumined and intuitive mind. Had it been from mere intellectual point, it would not have such depth and perpetuality. Unity of existence, potential divinity of an individual, evolution of individual soul, life as an opportunity and field for evolution of consciousness, supremacy of spirit over matter, possibility of individual’s progress through meditation and aspiration. Importance of Abhyasa and Vairagya- study and practice as well as dispassion and renunciation to achieve this arduous task, faith in ultimate victory of the Truth, fallacy of all material gains and comforts, looking within for seeking true happiness, Quantification of Ananda and its ascending order from bodily joy to spiritual seeking, deeper layers of mind, ..These are some of the recurring themes of Upanishads. And therefore they anything but parochial, sectarian, limited. They look beyond, behind, place time and causation and deal with the Infinite. That is why they have always appealed devotees and scholars, scientists and followers alike. After the devastating world wars, iconoclastic reforms, disillusion with all isms and models, the clarion call of Veda and Upanishads has become even more appealing and relevant.
The Puranas and Tantras contrary to western interpretation are not degeneration or perversion from these roots. They had a more arduous task of percolating the truths of Veda to the roots of the society, to reinterpret them to suit the level, instincts, and natural turns of the masses. Looking at the complexity of the process, they were remarkably successful in it. Vedas and Upanishads provided sap and woof for all the developments later in Indian culture and every exponents of her traced origin to them with pride and reverence till the recent times. Bhagvad Gita was able to synthesize and summarize all the darshanas and visions before. Shankaracharya, Ramananujacharya, Vivekananda, Tilak, Dayananda, Tagore, Savarkar, Gandhiji, Subhashbabu, Gandhiji, and several others got inspired by it and even reinterpreted it in a way suitable to the times and issues in front of them.
Sri Aurobindo felt that Upanishads are the supreme work of the human mind. And being a product of India it was bound to be much more than a literary and poetic masterpiece but a ‘large flood of spiritual revelation of this direct and profound character.’ (Sri Aurobindo, ) This is unique and unusual turn of spirit. Not limiting to a cult or a religio-ethical aspiration it rouses to highest self discovery and God discovery.
‘From the high spiritual flights of Vedanta philosophy of which the latest discoveries of Science seem like faint echoes to the lowest form of idolatry, Agnosticism of Buddhists and Atheism of Jains, each and all have place in the Hindu’s religion. Where then the question may, where is the common basis on which these seemingly hopeless contradictions can rest. Where is the common basis on which these seemingly diverging radii can converge’- asked Swami Vivekananda in his paper on Hinduism at Chicago addresses. And then he said that Vedas is that center. (Swami Vivekananda, ) By Vedas we don’t mean a single book or a series of books. Totality of all accumulated spiritual experiences and universal laws founded through ages by sages of past as well as future are Vedas, the ancient scriptures have only recorded the truth experienced and seen by some of them. Sri Aurobindo also said that study of Vedas as scriptures only reaffirmed him about the experiences he already had. This universality and eternity of the truths recorded in Vedas make them most scientific and perpetual source of knowledge for the mankind.
4. THE CARTESIAN, REDUCTIONIST PARADIGM OF THE WEST: DEBUNKED WHILE ACKNOWLEDGNG ITS ROLE
The root of the western thought lies in the Cartesian and reductionist, Newtonian paradigm which can be summarized as follows: Nature is constructed of building blocks of matter / atoms, human being similarly is assembly of cells, and everything is result of cause and effect and can be decoded. Francis Bacon said that Nature should be hounded in her wanderings and should be put to the task. Indeed it was put to the task of supplying raw material for utilitarian products which will multiply wants and greed. It is said that when a king asked a scientist why he has not mentioned God even once in his thesis, which was custom till then, the proud determinist reply was: the hypothesis of god was not necessary to prove this thesis. This was a remarkable shift from the native old cultures which were largely nature loving, god fearing, fate driven communities. Science also ensured that mankind does not fall back to barbarism of medieval ages and religious leaders do not dictate lives along with autocratic rulers. The age of reason, self proclamation, and materialism has done a great service to mankind which cannot be denied. With their perseverance to experiment and investigate, the scientists forced Nature to give up many of her secrets and then utilized them for the benefit of the mankind to provide them means of food, clothing, shelter, transportation, education, printing, trade and so on. However on the flip side of it, this process also overlooked ecological balance of the centuries, biodiversity and geo cycles which allowed habitat on the planet to exist peacefully since ages. While aspiring to make human life better, they also made human being like nuts and bolts in the huge machinery of the society. Uniformity is quality of a machine but nature as well as human being is closer to diversity, individual freedom was cramped wither by excess state control or by unbridled market forces. In such machinery, human being looses the sight of its ultimate destiny, forgets that it itself is not a machine.
Pt. Deendayalji explained how an individual was exploited in this system.
Every individual got a vote in the democratic setup but the real power stayed with leaders and not the people. Industrial revolution had generated jobs but needed migration from homes and villages and also being servants of someone they lost their rural freedom. ‘There were hardly any rules in the factory to protect the worker. He was economically weak and not yet organized. He became a victim of exploitation, injustice and harassment.’ ( Deendayal, )
Sri Aurobindo asked is it such a great gain for human intellect to have grown more acute and discerning if human soul dwindles? He felt that system, organization, machinery was attained to the perfection. However, this attempt to organize external liberty also slays inner freedom and with the inner freedom lost outer also followed the way. Freedom, equality and Fraternity were trinity of European rev0olution. However as Sri Aurobindo has pointed out, Equality without freedom and freedom without equality both are disastrous and will fail if they are not supplemented by the third idol of Brotherhood. Europeans made this into machinery called association and it failed. Equality without freedom was tried through Socialism and Communism, with unlimited State control; it resulted in dwindling of individuals’ worth and growth and thereby crumbling of the society. Freedom without equality is tried by Capitalism, with apparent success and happiness to individuals it is crushing the very freedom that it aimed at and the huge complex structures of market economies are today so vulnerable that even a child can topple it in an hour and may be it will collapse by its own weight like a giant dying by his own weight, wrote Sri Aurobindo. Both socialist and Anarchist are victims of the machinery paradigm which in turn was product of Cartesian paradigm. Socialist aims at perfection of machinery and Anarchist aims at destruction of machinery. Both aim at liberation of human being and both with their mechanical fallacy end in making human being a mere cog in a giant wheel.
Science has multiplied comfort till comfort itself has become uncomfortable. Adding machinery to machinery, convenience to convenience it has hampered life with appliances observed Sri Aurobindo. This is even truer today. Two persons cannot talk to each other without a gadget in between them even in a family. Civilization has brought many more comforts, many more wants than it can control and there is uncomfortable luxury and encumbered efficiency. The machine of civilization is complex and huge but why we say even a child can break it? Because if we see how easily a website of Pentagon or similar organizations of high intelligence and secrecy gets hacked, how passwords of accounts, pin numbers of credit cards can be managed, how by a sneeze in China or US, stocks in Mumbai tumble, the volatility of the system is alarming. This material power is mere mask of the growing impotency of the individuals in a huge machinery of society where as a scientists remarked, the train is running at bullet speed and mankind even most gifted scientists are looking back from the rare window of train helpless, not sure where the train is heading. Human soul is its first sacrificed, creativity is slave of market gimmicks, entertainment itself is business, religion either irrelevant or a combustible utility at the disposal of wealth and power, education mere way to earn position in society and that also through money and position. In such system Sri Aurobindo wrote, even a genius has run in settled grooves. Earlier there was danger of relapse in physical barbarism. A developed civilization would get attacked by surrounding barbaric tribes. They will seize the products of the civilized part without undergoing the education and culture required to use it maturely. We can see this when Nalanda library was burned by invaders, Somnath was demolished several times. Science has made such relapse impossible by the virtue of widespread education. But it has made both by its aids and by its general philosophy, possibility of another kind of barbarism, that of Vital and Economic barbarism. Such civilization is flooded by products of high intelligence, but those using them are hardly undergoing any mental and cultural preparation for matured handling of the products. It is like saying that a commuter in bullet train is a better individual in speedy travelling or a cashier in a bank is a better economist. These are users and mere users and this gap between acute intelligence, innovation needed for producing a marvel making it user friendly and least maturity needed to use it is rushing us to vital and economic barbarism. The centuries old manuscripts in Bhandarkar Oriental Institute were vandalized, twin towers were attacked by fidayin pilots, trillions of Dollars, Euros and what not were washed out in seconds, leading banks declared bankruptcy, an economy of a complete nation, ironically a world leading ancient empire, became bankrupt by greedy trading of few and intelligent pseudo speculative tools of computer technology and then Talibani’s destroyed Buddha statue by rocket launchers. There are many examples of these phenomena which Sri Aurobindo predicted in his The Human Cycle and The Ideal of human unity. (Sri Aurobindo, )
Sri Aurobindo said that I see failure written all over this splendid achievements of Europe. Her costliest experiment, greatest expenditure, has resulted in swiftest exhaustion of creative activity. There have been bankruptcies after bankruptcies of ideas,’
Science finds the laws of processes and in many cases even these laws are not final. But at most of the times it misses the divine content behind these laws. There is no fundamental significance in things if you miss the divine content behind these laws. The significance of magic is understood only when we see the magician behind the creation. (Sri Aurobindo, ) Science and its success in some spheres has been such an obsession to human mind that they attempted application of this science even to the realm of mind and its working. Most of the models of individual and collective psychology were again inspired from reductionist and materialist philosophy. The biggest fallacy of this thought was when they said that mind is created by certain arrangement in brain and consciousness is result of some neurons firing. As if world moving creations of genius of Leonardo, Kalidas or Shakespeare were possible by mere chemical reactions and mathematical formulae or firing of certain neurons. The failure of this paradigm cannot be hidden for long and the justifications are becoming increasingly stressed.
5. REINTERPRETATION OF THE VEDIC VISION IN THE INTEGRAL THOUGHT
Pt. Deendayalji explained this need for unique basis and application of any solution for each country and each individual in a country by an example. He said, ‘Even though the basic organic activity is the same in all human beings the drugs which may be helpful in England may not prove equally helpful in India. ..Diseases depend also upon climate, water, dietary habits and heredity. Even though the external symptoms may be apparently similar the same drug does not necessarily cure all persons. Those who apply a single panacea to all diseases must be considered quacks rather than doctors.’ (Deendayal, )
He said so while stressing that Western paradigm has failed and its blind application for India was a grave mistake seeing the uniqueness of our own nation.
However, when we say that the western paradigm has failed it does not automatically make our situation better. We have in our side some who are fanatic about the past of India and want to sincerely go back to the same gurukula, ashram, rajtilak, dharmacharya, jatibhed and gobrahman raksha. There are some who are fiercely opposing everything in the past only because it was degenerated later and was Indian in origin. They are still others who have solution of completely aping the west even now only because they have material prosperity so to say and have ruled us for a long. There are then others who are totally confused and don’t know which of these ways are going to be correct or inevitable for them. India truly is laboratory of all extremes and contradictions and perhaps Nature wants her to be like that so that She can find the way for herself and for others. India has seen the two negations, that of materialist who rejects anything that is unseen, qualitative and intangible. Like Charvak it is purely materialist philosophy of taking a loan and enjoy clarified butter, for this body will be ashes in no time and there s no chance of coming back. There is opposite to it the negation of ascetic like Advaita and Mayavad of a kind which rejects all that is transient, material, it considers even the world as Maya and a illusion which must be denounced and renounced to reach the Liberation, Moksha or Nirvana. However, both these negations are wrong according to Sri Aurobindo. If exclusive worship of matter is a folly, then exclusive rejection of it is also a folly. Matter itself is Spirit encased and emerging to manifest. Spirit is involved in matter and is evolving out of it according to the original Vedic thought Annam Brahmeti vyajanat, and the same was emphasized by Sri Aurobindo. ‘Matter shall reveal the face of Spirit’ (Sri Aurobindo, ) was the vision of Sri Aurobindo. It was to materialize Spirit and spiritualize matter. Brahman enters into form in order to discover himself. To fulfill god is man’s manhood and he decides and aspires he can become God. Nar karni kare to narka narayan ho jaye. ( Sri Aurobindo, )
To fulfill God is man’s manhood. The meeting of man and God must always mean a penetration and entry of the divine into the human and a self-immergence of man in the Divinity. (Sri Aurobindo,Thoughts and Glimpses, 1916-17)
‘The Universe is not only a material fact but also a spiritual fact. Life not only a play of forces or a mental experience but a field for evolution of the concealed spirit. Human life will receive its fulfillment and transformation into something beyond itself when this truth is seized and made motive force of our existence and the means of its effective realization are discovered.’ (Sri Aurobindo ). There is no fundamental significance in things he said if we miss the Divine reality behind it. For then we may get entrapped in huge crust of manageable and complex data of material things which gives us know how and hardly tells us know why. ( Sri Aurobindo, ) His pseudo knowledge is knowledge of only empty shells and the real knowledge as per Indian philosophy is possible only when you know the reality behind the thing, the divine essence, ‘Raso vai saha’ which is behind the shell. This is possible if you become one with the thing to be known. To analyze magic of a magician is futile till you enter in the consciousness of magician himself.
According to Sri Aurobindo, an omnipresent reality is the truth of all life whether mighty or tiny, animate or inanimate, intelligent or dumb. All apparent dualities, opposites and contradictions are ultimately merging in one ineffable. And such is the infinity of this incompressible Ultimate that even after attempting innumerable expressions, one is obliged to surrender to the power and confess that it s not this not this Neti Neti. Vedic Rishis even envisaged Asat a non being after having experience of Sat. ( Sri Aurobndo, ) The Brahman is Sat Chit and Ananda. Pure existence, Conscious Force and Bliss. That One who felt that He should be many Ekoham bahusyat is the origin. That which exists thus is One though wise men call it by different names, Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti. However this pure existence has a executive force which is conscious. Shiva has Shakti, Purusha has Prakriti and this Shakti is Jnan, Kriya, Iccha…Knowledge, Action, Will, everything. The world existence is thus a cosmic dance of Shiva who multiplies his forms endlessly as his divine Lila, a play, for experiencing the sheer bliss. Truth consciousness or Rit-Chit is a concept of Real-idea originally in Vedas and then explained by Sri Aurobindo, where Consciousness also has power to realize its idea. From anthill to galaxy, the same Brahman exists, and is equally concerned and involved, the difference is in quantity not in quality. Each has a place and each is great in its own place. It is Indra’s palace where each has reflection of each of the other and all have reflection of the one in the centre. It is hierarchy of the whole not hierarchy of the parts. Universal, Transcendent and Individual are all the levels of the Sat, Chit, Ananda-- Pure Existence- Conscious Force and Bliss in His manifestation and each has significance. Individual is very important to fulfill the cosmic mission.
There is western idea of evolution of species and eastern idea of Avatara --of descend of God in lower species to fulfill a mission. We see both of them Synthesized in Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy when he said again referring to seed of Vedas that evolution is preceded by involution. There is seven fold beings or planes which ascend from Matter to Life to Mind (lower three) to (Overmind, Intuitive mind, and) Supermind (middle) and Sat ChIt Ananda. (the upper three) Consciousness is fundamental and is singular which has no plural. All the apparent layers above are only layers of manifestation of consciousness. For us as human beings we are primarily mental and so vital and life as well as matter are the levels which appear to us as lower consciousness. We say it s subconscious and unconscious because we are at higher consciousness. ( Sri Aurobindo, )
He said that Evolution is not finished; reason is not the last word nor the reasoning animal the supreme figure of Nature. As man emerged out of the animal, so out of man the superman emerges. (Sri Aurobindo, Thoughts and Aphorisms, 1913)
As animal is living laboratory in which man got evolved, similarly man is also a living and thinking laboratory in which a superman will evolve. Humanity is not the final step of evolution and a supernal race will evolve which will follow endless Light. With the descend of Supermind, the cyclic growth of mankind is not essential now and only an ascent will be seen in the future according to this thought. When we see this it is clear that the materialist claim of brain producing consciousness is artificial and like putting cart before horse. Consciousness produced brain in its upward march. Similar the level above mind appear to us as Superconscious, divine and the goal in life is to manifest the divinity within by controlling nature external and internal. Swami Vivekananda said, do this either by work or worship by psychic control or philosophy, by one or more or all of these, and be free. Doctrines and dogmas, books and rituals, temples and forms are all secondary details. We can see similarity in this quote as well as the quote on Karmayoga by Sri Aurobindo as seen below:
Do this either by work- Karmayoga or worship- Bhaktiyoga by psychic control- Rajyoga or philosophy- Jnanyoga. … Vivekananda’s dictate for an Indian as his mission of life.
To understand the heart of this dharma – Jnanyoga to feel the high emotions to which it raises your mind – Bhaktiyoga, to experience it as a truth – Jnanyoga, to express and execute it in life – Karmayoga…. Sri Aurobindo’s dictate to an Indian as his mission of life.
Absence of locomotion cannot be evidence of lack of life in plants similarly absence of response cannot be evidence of lack of life in minerals and metals. Only when our measurements become more and more subtle, when the organs of action and those of knowledge are more refined and when knowledge gaining epistemology is also more deepened by sadhana that we will know that consciousness is present at all levels and only waits to be invoked to manifest itself.
The crisis which our world is undergoing today appears complex, multidimensional and intertwined, but in its essence it is an evolutionary crisis according to Sri Aurobindo. On one side we see mankind which is ‘satiated but not satisfied’ with victorious products of science, they are only multiplying greed, increasing gap in haves and have nots and have generated an atmosphere of vacuum and vanity. Devoid of scientific spirit of innovation, curiosity and individuality, and following only the products of few gifted minds to satisfy one’s vital and physical comforts, people are calling themselves scientific and agnostic non believers, as against their parents who were largely faithful to some images and rituals of a religion. On the other side there is sudden rise of religious fanaticism, to the extent of terrorism and brutality and also rise of pseudo gurus and godmen cults where the frustration and confusion otherwise is given up by blind following of a living ‘god.’ On one side we are thrilled by Kumbhmela preparations and then are at lost to see some crazy images of sadhus and sadhvis.
India had an opportunity after 1947 to take a path which will give ‘decisive turn to the problems on which the whole mankind is stumbling.’ However, with the imitation of Socialist model in first few decades and then in nineties surrendering to globalization and liberalization to follow American dream, we have , it seems, lost the golden opportunity to discover the unique model of India.
Pt. Deendayalji said that ‘Nature is powerful. An attempt to go against nature or to disregard her leads to troubles. The natural instincts cannot be disregarded but it is possible to elevate this nature to the level of culture. Psychology informs us how by suppression of various natural instincts different mental disorders ensue. Such a person remains restless and dejected. His abilities slowly deteriorate and become perverted. The Nation too like the individual becomes a prey to numerous ills when its natural instincts are disregarded. The basic cause of the problems facing Bharat is the neglect of its national identity.’ ( Deendayal, )
We must say that modernization is not necessarily westernization. Our age old culture must be having answer to the problems we are facing given the fact that t has survived several similar upheavals in the past millennium. It is fatal to disarm in the middle of the battle. To allow you to get trampled by others is not spirituality. To discuss peace and get despondent about the possible destruction of some outdated and outlived forms and models in this battle of dharma is like confused imbecility of Partha at the battlefield of Kurukshetra.
Pt. Deendayal said that some people suggest that we must start from where we have left off one thousand years ago, when foreign invaders disrupted our life. But nation is not an inanimate object like a cloth so that weaving can be taken up after a gap in time. …The current of our national life was not interrupted but has gone on ceaselessly. The task of turning the waters of Ganga back to some previous point would not be wise Ganga at Banaras may not be crystal clear as at Haridwar. ( Deendayal, )
We must search for the essential spirit behind everything, and then give new forms to it. Either India will get rationalized and industrialized and then she will be no longer India or she will stand n the forefront of the nations aiding by her example and cultural infiltration the mankind in such times of crisis.
The East and the West both have trodden their destined paths. While the East fathomed depths of the inside world, ‘Microcosm’ the West trod the external world, the ‘Macrocosm’. Both have partly succeeded and have something great to offer to the totality of human experience and achievements. The future must take all that was good and noble all over the world and should make it redefined to suit one’s essential soul, to assimilate it, Atmasatkaran, not just make an appendage or a hybrid of it.
It is important to know one’s own self, one’s identity and be firmly rooted in it before venturing to understand and assimilate others. Otherwise the result can be blind imitation. Imitation of others as well as our own past is folly, negation of matter as well as spirit is equally a folly. The new world view must be all inclusive, integral and holistic to address the issues in front of us. Nation is not a book which can be read by going back to the same page, that page is gone now. Changing one’s bent of mind, characteristics soul is as impossible as reversing the flow of Ganges back to Himalaya. The way out is to go within, master our own self and then study others. To give then a yuganukaul, Time- conducive form to our spirit is the way ahead. Forms must change as per time, situation and persons. The spirit of India is essentially the same though her forms have undergone number of modifications and even degenerations.
To recover the old spiritual knowledge in all its splendor and variations is its first stage of renaissance according to Sri Aurobindo. Flowing of this spirituality into arts, science, philosophy, education, polity and economy is its second stage and an original dealing with the modern age problems to find their solutions in the Light of the eternal wisdom is its third and final stage. To what extent She succeeds in this mission will decide her future as well as future of the mankind. ( Sri Aurobindo, )
6. INDIAN CULTURE: ‘DHARMA IS THAT WHICH SUSTAINS’
In the words of Pt. Deendayalji, the first characteristic of Bharatiya culture is that it looks upon life as an integrated whole. This integrated view point is missing in the West where there is confusion to think of life in sections and then to put them together by a mechanical assembly or like a patch work. While admitting the diversity and plurality, India attempted a scientific way of finding unity behind the diversity. This is indeed scientific as a scientist also aims a finding a single principle or a universal law behind various phenomena said Deendayalji. ( Deendayal, )
Unity in diversity and the expression of unity in various forms has remained the central thought of Bharatiya culture. If this truth is wholeheartedly accepted then there will not exist any cause for conflict among various powers. Conflict is not a sign of culture of nature: rather it is a symptom of their degradation. The law of the jungle, "Survival of the Fittest" which the West discovered in recent years was known to our philosophers.
India’s central conception is that of an Eternal, The spirit here encased in matter, involved and immanent in it said Sri Aurobindo. This victory over unconscious matter is Her line of thought, to increase Sattwik or Spiritual portion of human mind. Till it identifies with the Beyond and realizes immanent, universal and transcendent. Everything else in life is only a vehicle for this great journey and useful only till it reaches and aids this great journey. Her literature, art, science, paintings, sculptures, architecture, religion and polity. Everything is only one of the manifestations and ramifications of the one central conviction. Each soul is potentially divine and goal in this life is to manifest this divinity within and without.
Religion in India is nothing if it is not lived. The philosophy was not theoretical but an outcome of the life lived and experiences spiritual. Thus the passion to bring the distant truths to the level of practice and to know that there must be variations, adaptations and alterations possible in it at each level and layer, for the people for whom they are meant are different n nature and temperament is a very unique part of her culture. ‘The value of Indian conception of life depends on relations and gradations with which it can connect this distant and difficult perfection and with our normal living and present everyday life.‘ ‘All need not be put under the same table of laws for that would mean a senseless geometric rigidity which will destroy plastic truth of life.’ (Sri Aurobindo, )
‘Indian religion has always felt that since the minds, the temperaments and the intellectual affinities of men are unlimited in their variety, a perfect liberty of thought and of worship must be allowed to the individual in his approach to the Infinite.‘ (Sri Aurobindo, The Foundations of Indian Culture, 1953, p. 147)
Therefore the culture with such noble and arduous aim must have a system or systems where each can grow as per his or her Swabhava, Swadharma, Adhikara and Samskara… Innate inherent nature, aptitude, Temperament and the ordained duty, the level of attainment so far and the inculcated habits and nature. Indian Rishis and thinkers understood that the primary turn of a human mind is towards Artha and Kama, i.e. towards basic needs like food, shelter, clothing, sex and security, ego satisfaction and then desire to get money as well as power to grab means to satisfy these basic needs. That is why even the most despised pursuits also were not ridiculed or criticized. On the contrary allowing their free and fair play in the limits set by self rule and the community rule, they were given a process, standard and controlling mechanism, which is a Shastra for that pursuit. For the high spiritual aspirations of a gifted minority in a society, Indian culture did not impoverished grand game of life for the majority. This was its original design and vision form Vedic and Upanishadic age. There was a graded system of four Varnas Brahman, Kshtriya, Vaishya and Shudra. That means the men of knowledge and learning, of valour and statecraft, of commerce and trades and those of labour and service. They were like parts of an organic whole say a Virat purusha. So none is functional without others, and none superior or inferior. The real master is Soul or spirit behind this body. Each one should know his aptitude and temperament by birth i.e. genetically as well as by upbringing, i.e. by education and repeated practices. To fulfill one’s role satisfies oneself and also helps in better functioning of the whole. The rules are not same for all four above, from eating to ethics, the interpretation of same word can differ as per your Varna or category. There were four stages of life, Brahmacharya, Gruhstha, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa. meaning a focused celibate student, responsible householder and citizen, one who has fulfilled the first two and is now working for a social, national or ecological cause of larger interest, and finally a renunciate Siddha, Bhagavata, Mukta who is seeking spiritual salvation for self and for all. Again each has a role in society, none is inferior and one should know where one is and how to move ahead from there. N each stage we have different calls, different do’s and don’ts and different definition of duties and ethics. Then there are four purusharthas: Artha and Kama which were narrated above as desires and means to fulfill them, have to be within the control of the third purushartha i.e. Dharma.
In the words of Pt. Deendayalji, ‘Thus even though Dharma regulates Artha and Kama, all the three are interrelated and mutually complementary. Dharma helps to achieve Artha. Even in business, one requires honesty, restraint, truthfulness etc. which are the attributes of Dharma. Without these qualities one cannot earn money. It must be admitted that Dharma is instrumental in attaining Artha and Kama. ‘ ( Deendayal, )
He further said that honesty is not just a best policy for us, it is fundamental principle of dharma.
He also said that Kama too can be attained only through Dharma. It is one thing to produce the material things such as nice food but for making the enjoyment healthy, permanent and mutual, it is necessary to follow the rules of Dharma. ‘Dharma helps in restraining the natural tendencies of man, whereby he is able to determine what is beneficial to him apart from what is pleasurable. Hence Dharma is given the foremost place in our culture.’ ( Deendayal, )
Dharma is wrongly translated as religion. It is much larger concept and means code of life for individual as well as aggregate in a simpler sense. India’s ingrained bend is for spirituality. Her second quality is that of stupendous vitality. She creates and creates and is not exhausted observed Sri Aurobindo. There is no room for pause, for respite. Her infinite creation and variation is tribute to inexhaustibility of the infinite. For centuries in fact India was creating endlessly, …religions, philosophies, states, kingdoms, paintings, sculptures, poetry, epics, trades, utility products, weapons, rituals, architecture, sciences, means of locomotion, means of play, means of study, means of silence and means of word… the list is endless and she rejoices her timeless creations. There is amazing continuity in her experiences and consistency in her expressions. However, as Sri Aurobindo pointed out, these enormous creations in all walks of life are not just a rich tropical vegetation of unconnected random ideas resulting in overall confusion and chaos. For after Spirituality and creative vitality, the third important facet of Indian mind is its acute Intellectuality. Which found order in all the expressions, gave them a place and role appropriate and controlled as well as related them to each other and to the whole. This intellectual guide is in the form of Dharma which is not just a law discovered and imposed from outside by cold reason, but is based on the innate nature and growth potential of the thing in the process of its inevitable evolution which is seen by a spiritual vision and then interpreted and documented by acute. Dispassionate and clarified intellect. There is Swadharma, Kuldharma, Shrenidharma, Deshdharma, Yugdharma and so on. Both the sense of aesthetic and the rule of intellect are against chaos and disorder possible by mere vitality and creativity and because of these factors we have ceaseless creativity in Indian culture but still a naturally governing and beautiful order in it. The intrinsic law of everything is latent and waits to be discovered, with such self discovery as object of beauty and subject of study, this culture could achieve a rare feat of individual freedom and societal control in its heydays. The first sign of life is creation and great creation is sign of great growth. The growth comes also with freedom. To liberate an individual from dehatmika buddhi while following these duties or dharmas and to fathom the inherent truth, the Infinite while contacting external objects for work, creation, recreation and for study was the aim of this system.
However, one can point out that this is utopian and the reality is different. The fact is, as it happens with any culture and civilization, everything has its rise, stagnation and then fall as well. In its fall, we see that the shells become all important and the content is lost. The rituals, institutions and systems including the much abused caste system became all important and the spiritual content was lost over a period of time. The culture which aimed at Sarvalokhiteishini.. Welfare of all and Antyodaya, the upliftment of last man in a society, got degenerated in a tyranny of religion as well as state. The culture which produced ‘few spiritual giants also produced millions of stunted personalities and any number of crooks in between,’ observed Swami Rangnanthananda. (Ranganathananda, ) We of course should not get carried away by the later degeneration and fix our gaze on the spirit which is eternal. There are new forms to be given to the ancient spirit. There is no institution which cannot be adopted if the inherent spirit demands so, and none which cannot be discarded if the spirit needs it to be so.
In its essence the Indian culture is less a dogma or a creed but a continuously enlarging tradition of godward endeavor of human spirit, assimilated all that was forced on her , to destroy and uproot her. (Sri Aurobindo, ) There were several internal and external attacks on this culture. After the tumult of rush was over, most of the times these attacks and the differences were sucked in, absorbed, and assimilated to be part of the whole network. (Swami Vivekananda, ) The conviction in the inexhaustibility of the infinite and tolerance to have even opposites as they may be then complementary facets of the infinite was the reason for such immense capacity of absorbing and assimilation. There is no negation, each is put in the perspective, in the context so as to give meaning to it and to the whole design.
7. THE IDEAL OF HUMAN UNITY: THE STATE AND THE INDIVIDUAL, COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER
According to Panditji, conflict is not a sign of culture or nature; it is rather a symptom of their degradation. According to Indian philosophy, desire, anger etc. are among the six lower tendencies of human nature, Shadripus…six demons, but like Freud, unconscious cannot be mistaken for the real nature of a person nor can it be made basis of a culture. This like saying that because there are robbers and thieves in a society so the system should be designed for their benefit. Survival of the fittest is the law of the jungle but even in jungle we can see vegetation and animal life which is mutually cooperating and existing, even insects know this.
Sadly, at the evolved stage like human beings this is often forgotten for the individuality is stronger.
A culture which can acknowledge this nature and its follies attempts to turn the nature into culture. This sublimation of nature, the transformation from Pashu to Deva, from Tamas to Sattwika can also sustain everything and everyone.
Though conflict is the first law of a group as individual ego asserts itself with a natural way of survival, still as the unripe ego becomes ripe ego, this assertion is replaced by association, mutual love and respect and then this collective ego asserts itself for the survival of group as a whole against other groups. Till this larger group soul is a nation soul. Nation is the largest psychological unit which Nature is successful in developing till date. When a group of people are having common land, common geography, common history, common pains and sufferings, common aspirations, then they form a group soul as Nation soul.
Nation is thriving on its culture. The culture is expression of consciousness of individuals and collective consciousness. A true happiness is right terrestrial aim of human being and that is possible only by finding right key of harmony of head, heart and hands wrote Sri Aurobindo. (Sri Aurobindo, ) That is the office of culture. Culture is what we are and civilization is what we have. Pursuits of such happiness can be taken by persons in diverse lands and in diverse ways. But in India long back there was a grand revelation that even if we get a skill of rolling the entire sky like a piece of leather, still there will be no end of our sorrow till we find the luminous Self within. Here was a sage who said to his wife, I adore you not because of you but for the self within you. Here was a young boy who told the god of death that even if you give me all comforts and riches, I will not be happy for I will not know the riddle of death and the way of overcoming it.
A culture which perpetuates these aspirations can be a predominantly political culture like Greek or scientific and economic culture like medieval Europe or a spiritual culture like India. The culture passes through three stages,
1. Thoughts ideas upward will,
2. Creative self expression in art and intellectual pursuits,
3. Practical and outward formation.
In the third stage it forms institutions to express the thought and the idea. ( Sri Aurobindo, )
State is only an institution which the soul has created in the third stage and so must be seen in that framework. There is no institution which cannot be created if the soul needs it and none which cannot be discarded if the Nation soul, the national spirit feels it essential.
Pt. Deendayalji explained while talking on dharma and other purusharthas that In order to create framework in which natural instincts and desires as well as means to get them are made available, and also for education, character building, spread of idealism, some suitable economic structures are necessary. Governments also fall inside the realm of Artha and excessive power of state is also harmful of Dharma.
He explained that according to Darwin's theory, due to the instinct of survival and growth living beings develop various organs. According to Indian philosophy, the soul constructs, various organs as the need is felt, for the purpose of continuing life. As individual soul produces organs similarly nation soul produces various institutions. (Deendayal, )
In the words of Sri Aurobindo, ‘We cannot afford to raise any institution to the rank of a fetish. To do so would be simply to become the slaves of our own machinery. ‘(Sri Aurobindo, 7 August 1893)
State is only one of the institutions which nation produces for the fulfillment of her mission. Like individual soul aspires for reaching the divine soul similarly there is group soul and nation soul. Each is aspiring to fulfill its ordained mission which is spirally evolving and is seamlessly connected to lower aggregates and higher aggregates. There is no conflict and contradiction in individual level and various levels of aggregates from family, guild, province, state, nation, universe and transcendent. Each is joined by dharma and dharma is that which holds Dharnat dharma ityuhu, dharmo dharyate prajaha. A king use to say in a ritual in ancient times that he is the ruler, he has the power, etc. There was also a ritual when a Rishi will go to him and touch his head thrice (means only symbolically whipping him!!) with a dharmadand (a symbol of the rule of righteousness) and would say something like this—not you it is dharma that rules. (Thengadi, ) There is lot of significance in this ritual to explain that the state is only a machinery temporarily created by Nation in order to deliver its message, to fulfill its mission, to contribute to the human unity.
Individual’s growth and welfare is aim of any State in every ism. However, as discussed in an earlier section, both Capitalism and Socialism have failed in this pursuit and the mechanistic models like these ultimately crush the very freedom they once wanted to ensure. Organization is great and admirable but individual is dwarfed and then smallness of the individual soon ensures the degeneration of the organization. State is machinery in such models which works without taste, delicacy and choice. It aims at uniformity because uniformity is suitable for a machine. (Sri Aurobindo, ) However, what Nature wants is not uniformity but unity in diversity. Europe put lot of emphasis on machinery and mechanistic models of mind as well as society. In such mechanical fallacy they thought that millennium can be brought by an act of a parliament, a new nation can be assembled by mechanical rules of cut and paste kind. This has resulted in the conflict of individual versus state, collective good versus individual aspiration and so on. Struggle is inherent in a system when parts are neither emerged from the whole nor even merged in each other. So the law is law of jungle, survival of the fittest. We see this even in a typical metro city train compartment. People are eager to emphasize on their individual rights there while being together for less than an hour, in parliaments when parties block destructively proposals by the other party and even in UN when an amendment for the ultimate welfare and peace for all may be opposed by your neighboring state itself to avoid you getting upper hand in the world scenario. Human unity is apparently still very remote where association is mechanical, egos are inflated, and motives are parochial. Till this is cured, it will be dangerous to remain non violent and self immersed. For even to protect yourself and protect the dharma which is all inclusive, one must protect the state which is expressing it on material plane.
We in India had however some visionaries and sages who in spite of these conflicts and gloomy self assertions, always believed in such ideal of human unity. For the basis of their thought was Vedic vision of innate divinity in each one of us. When we know that each is a son and daughter of the one god then there is no way to conflict. Struggle to assert smaller aggregates are a truth but it is a lower truth. We must aim at the spiral evolution to the higher truth of Love and mutual cooperation for coexistence. Samashti or society is only an evolved part of Vyashti or individual, and the former is again a part of Nature or Srishti and then the Divine or Parameshti. In an organic unity where parts are whole and interconnected to define the whole will be the future model of State and the world union. To quote a hymn from Vedas in a Hymn of Unity, Eikyamantra, we said,
Deva bhagam yatha purve sanjanana upasate
Samana mantra samiti samani, samana hrudaya ni vaha.
Samanam astu vo mano yatha vaha susahasati.
There is similar innate program or formula, similar organization, similar even are the hearts of us. We are similar, nay same and so must strive together as Devas did so in the past to excel.
Isha vasyam idam sarvam yat kinch jagat tyamjagat
Ten tyakten bhunjtha ma grudh kasy aswidhnam
Whatever is existing is pervaded by the Divine. Knowing this renounce the temporal, apparent to truly enjoy it, don’t crave like vulture to get the gains of the others.
With such mantra of unity, with the organic model of unity in diversity without uniformity, and with deep faith in our own past and its inevitable renaissance in future for the welfare of the entire humanity, we should put our shoulder to the work and surrender our little ego our petty self at the feet of the Mother to seek her boons.
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Luminous insights by Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and Pandit ddendayal Upadhyay about our nation and the mission: where they coincided or differed (view source)
Revision as of 19:49, 9 May 2022
, 19:49, 9 May 2022Collected essential words of three great minds on our nation and mission
'''LUMINOUS WORDS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA, SRI AUROBINDO, PT. DEENDAYAL AND OTHERS….'''
1. SHALL INDIA DIE? .. ‘NO’ ASSERTED THE ARCHITECHCTS OF INDIAN RENAISSANCE
Swami Vivekananda said emphatically, ‘Shall India die? Then from the world all spirituality will be extinct; all moral perfection will be extinct; all sweet-souled sympathy for religion will be extinct; all ideality will be extinct; and in its place will reign the duality of lust and luxury as the male and female deities, with money as its priest, fraud, force and competition its ceremonies and the human soul its sacrifice. Such a thing can never be.’ (Swami Vivekananda, )
The history of mankind is not devoid of examples when nations came in existence, rouse to pinnacle of glory and then went into oblivion. Great empires turned into graveyards, mighty armies became mummies, and gigantic structures were pulverized to ashes. The tides of time do not spare anyone and anything. In this ephemeral ever changing existence, example of India is shining like a pole star. From the times when the forefathers of other nations were living in forests and painting their faces to today, this nation is living and thriving. It is still standing erect in spite of centuries of plunders, invasions and humiliations. There is remarkable consistency of experience and continuity of expression in her long history. This is especially because we never went out with sword to assert ourselves and to expand our territory. India s contribution to the world heritage is ‘like a gentle dew’ which falls in the morning unheard and yet results in blossoming of roses. (Swam Vivekananda, ) Every word of India was spoken with peace before it and blessing behind, that Punya is with us and therefore we are still surviving observed Swami Vivekananda.
Every nation has a mission to accomplish, a message to deliver, a note to play in the harmony of the nations and so is the case of India. We have to understand and fulfil mission of our motherland. After 12th and 13th century AD till which there was stupendous creation in all walks if national life in India, we see a downfall, with conquerors, plunders, sterilized and fossilized traditions and rituals, exploitation of common people and thereafter worshipping of empty shells devoid of original sap and spirit. This degeneration intensified after 1857 AD war in which the victory of British reinforced their colonial expansion for nearly hundred years. That was a dark period when everything which was Indian was considered as blasphemous; it was ‘Repulsive mass of unspeakable barbarism.’ (Sri Aurobindo, ) Indian people with western education were eager to disown whatever was Indian, customs, rituals, culture and even names. As if remedy for headache was cutting of head.
Social reforms even if done with noble intentions by gifted minds were unfortunately aiding in a way to alienate Indians from their roots.
It was at this juncture that luminaries like Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Lokmanya Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Sri Aurobindo ascended on the horizon of the world stage. When an educated youth of Calcutta atheist and rationalist to the core surrendered at the feet of an illiterate devotee of Dakshineshwar, it was clear that India will remain India, will show her Light once again to the mankind. Sri Aurobindo wrote that we do not belong to the dawns of the yesteryears but to the noons of tomorrow. The age old vision of Vedas and Upanishads needs to be reinterpreted again to deal with the problems of today and tomorrow.
Sri Aurobindo said that by borrowing coat and hat of an European and copying some customs we cannot get the self reliant reasoning and industrious nature of them. This nature was behind their progress, the marvels of science, spread of trades and colonization. However colonial subjects /slaves like us took only the external and peripherals of this advent and forgot our own culture. There was so much desperation in aping the west that even Krishnaghan Ghosh father of Sri Aurobindo ensured that his children will remain way from even shadow of anything that is Indian. However the deep inside spirit rebelled soon and ironically Sri Aurobindo emerged as one of the most illustrious exponents of Indian vision. In his epistles from abroad he wrote, was life always so pale, so vulgar, as awkward as Europeans have made it? The well appointed machinery was oppressive for a person and was making him forget that he himself is not a machine nut a soul. ‘After all our superstitions were better than this enlightenment; our social abuses were less murderous to the hopes of the nation than this social perfection. ‘ (Sri Aurobindo, )
According to Pt. Deendayalji, the root of our problems is neglect of Self. He said that
it is essential to think about our national identity. Without this identity there is no meaning of independence, nor can independence become the instrument of progress and happiness. Our national identity will help us to develop all our potentialities. (Deendayal, )
2. INDIA WILL RISE: PRIDE IN THE PAST AND FAITH IN THE FUTURE
Pt. Deendayalji had firm conviction that the foreign Ideologies are not universal.
They have arisen in certain special situations and time. It is indeed surprising that those who claim to reform the society by removing dead traditions, themselves fall prey to some outdated foreign traditions.
Downfall of a nation is part of the cyclic history of her through centuries. We should not judge a civilization or nation from its days of degeneration. Sri Aurobindo was proud of India and her heritage. The way he counter attacked a western critic who was asking- ‘Is India Civilized?’ is remarkable. Even though as he he wrote, to give attention to such prejudiced criticism is like crushing a bumblebee by a chariot wheel. When India was rich she was criticized for her vulgar opulence of golden doors and homes. When she was poor her poverty was shown as a sign of her inferior culture. Such views must be uprooted to instill back faith in all of us about our motherland and her destiny. This was his opinion which he elaborated in his book ‘The foundations of Indian Culture.’
India the ancient mother has been there even when the forefathers of westerners were living in forests and painting their faces asserted Swami Vivekananda. She has taught the world wisdom, the hymns of Upanishads were reechoed on the lips of Buddha and then Christ, Plato and several philosophers got light from it, Science and mathematics reached Europe from India through Arabs. Indian merchants and traders were renowned for quality and consistency of their products in far off lands. And we are children of such a country. As Swami Vivekananda said, I do not look in the future, nor do I care to see. But one vision is clear to me as daylight that our ancient mother, Mother India is sitting on her throne, rejuvenated, more glorious than ever. ( Swami Vivekananda, )This nation is not new, not a result of modern struggle, not a mechanical assemblage by accident. It is existing since time immemorial. Rishis thought and felt for the welfare of the humanity, they did penance and then this punyabhumi was manifested. As Shiva is a God so India is a goddess and She can manifest again when She wills. Therefore they say that India will be raised, but not by sword and bloodshed, not by commerce and trade but by fresh outburst of her spirituality and its application to every sphere of life. It is god’s will that we shall be free and leading, so it shall be. It is not for ourselves but for the humanity that we should be ourselves and should rise once again. When we say India shall be raised, it means eternal values, ethos, Sanatana dharma shall be raised, India will be strong means Sanatana dharma will be strong. (Sri Aurobindo , ) As it has happened earlier, it will flow again through the channels opened by the material progress and inventions to drench mankind with her eternal showers and liberate it of the feverish pursuit from failure to failure which it calls as progress. This blessed punyabhumi has an ordained mission for the humanity and therefore whether we believe in spirituality or not, said Swam Vivekananda, we must hold it firmly with one hand and then stretch the other hand to grab whatever the rest of the world has to offer us. (Swami Vivekananda, )
Shrunvanto Vishwam Aryan, we will ennoble the entire world, was the mission of our forefathers and it is yet accomplished.
..
May be never before was the world so desperate to receive such message. We see the western paradigm failing everywhere, it is at crossroads and their cherished ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity are questioned by themselves. Why in such times we should carry our colonial baggage and imitate them. ‘…It will be lunatic absurdity to build something on those sinking foundations’ warned Sri Aurobindo. (Sri Aurobindo, )
Does man carry his country with him? In a sense yes said Sri Aurobindo. By that we mean carrying the essential spirit of the country, the Indianness with him and her. What is that: ceaseless pursuit of the infinite, uneasiness with the apparent, realizing futility of finite ends, fearless search for the truth, to look within and walk on the razor’s edge for getting to that which is smaller than the smallest and yet larger than the largest, to express and execute that inexpressible in every facet of life, to spread this to even the lowest strata of society through popular literature, arts and institutions, to aspire thereby to bring heaven on the earth ‘Devnagari’ … this is the characteristic soul of India. Tough like a metal wire and yet bent in beautiful curve is the mind of India. Ingrained spirituality, acute intellectuality, stupendous vitality and meticulous organizing and structuring ability is part of the Indian psyche. We need to be first Swarat winning the kingdom inside and then Samrat, winning the kingdom outside. For that we should first become ourselves, Indians in true way, not just by accident. To recover patrimony of our forefathers, recover scriptures like Veda, Upanishads and Gita and live them in our life. That is the way to renaissance. Such is the history of this land where world conquers surrendered at the feet of renunciate sages. Soil of India is my highest heaven and good of India is my good was the feeling of Swami Vivekananda. Centuries before Sri Rama told Lakshmana that even if Lanka is golden, it does not appeal me for mother and motherland is higher than heaven for us. Similar was feeling of Savarkar while coming back from Andaman with his brother after barbarous imprisonment and when Sri Aurobindo touched the soil of India at Apollo Bunder after his return from Europe had similar spiritual experience of deep silence and Peace. Something is in very air and soil of this blessed land where wisdom came before it went to any other land, the land which is trodden by the best minds and souls in the world and the land where by centuries of education and spiritual culture, even a common man is separated from the abstract truths by a less thick veil. He had to come in the front of the battle after 1905 partition of Bengal and in his fiery articles was critical of the British raj as well as the moderates in the congress. He reiterated that this nation is god made and its god’s will that we should be one and rejuvenated. To serve motherland is our Karmayoga. He wrote to his wife in a letter that indeed he is mad and his madness is to see his mother free and reawakened. If a demon is sitting on the body of a mother and sucking her blood what a son is suppose to do...he asked. (Sri Aurobindo, )
He said in his address on 15th August 1947 that having same birthdates as India’s Independence Day is sanction of the Divine on his life mission. His five dreams included freedom of India, India leading Asia, Asia getting stronger and leading rest of the world, India becoming Jagatguru and mankind ascending on the next level of evolution. (Sri Aurobindo, )
Sri Aurobindo was in Baroda when he saw effect of yoga while a Naga sadhu cured fever of his brother. He learned formally from a teacher Lele, though he had experiences as yogi since several years. While reading Vedas also he said the scripture only confirmed his own experiences. He was seeking the power through yoga for his countrymen. When Sri Ramkrishna in one of the visions told them ‘Mandir gadho’ initially this group of dedicated souls thought of physical form of a temple. Later it revealed to them that Sri Ramkrishna was indicating temple of Mother India and also temple of the Divine on the earth. This is the background of his conviction that it is God’s will that we should be free and for us this Nationalism is god given Karmayoga. This synthesis of individual sadhana and collective national yoga was part of many of the syntheses in his yoga. This nation is not raw from Nature’s workshop, not an assemblage of accidental circumstances, it is age old-- Sanatana, and is much more than just a piece of land for us, she is Mother, Divine mother taking the form of The Mother India. This larger interpretation of the term Karmayoga, which otherwise means selfless work done with no expectation for fruits, is a unique turn in our history... ‘There is a mighty law of life, great principles of human evolution, a body of spiritual knowledge and experience, of which India is always destined to be guardian, exemplar and missionary...to understand heart of this dharma, to feel high emotions to which it raises your mind, to experience it as a truth, to express and execute it in life is what we understand by Karmayoga.’ said Sri Aurobindo. (Sri Aurobindo, )
3. THE SOURCE OF OUR VISION: THE LUMINOUS SEED OF THE VEDAS AND THE UPANISHADS:
Like all the leaders of Indian renaissance, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo also traced the roots of all the later development of Indian civilization and culture to the Veda and the Upanishads. Vivekananda said that whether we agree or not, we know it or not, but we live Vedanta, we breath Vedanta, we eat, sleep and die in Vedanta and every Hindu does that. Swami Vivekananda said in his Paper on Hinduism at Chicago that from high spiritual flights of Vedanta philosophy of which the latest discoveries of science are like faint echoes to the lowest form of idolatry, agnosticism of the Buddhist and Atheism of Jains, each have place in the Hindu’s religion. Where then is the common centre on which these seemingly hopeless contradictions can rest… he asked and cleared that Vedas is that centre. By Veda is not meant a book or few books, it is totality of all the spiritual knowledge which was seen by the rishis and accumulated and expressed by their experience. Our dharma has many scriptures from Vedas and puranas to even the modern commentaries; it can even assimilate scriptures of other sects and religions. But the most authentic scripture of this culture is human heart said Sri Aurobindo, where the spiritual truths are seen and lived. There is a notion and even scholarly interpretation that Vedas are mainly dealing with Karmakanda, rituals and procedures and lack the psychological and spiritual depth of the Vedanta. Those times were times of agrarian, naturalist economy and with their forests, fields, animals and sacrificing rituals of yajna, the rishis propitiated Nature and her powers in their verses and asked for earthly boons. Upanishads or Vedanta is Jnankanda or Uttarmimansa and has a deeper seeking at psycho spiritual level. However this again is a myth and an attempt of European intelligentsia to extrapolate history of India from that of Europe and America. Because there pagan and nature worshipping civilizations were invaded by fair looking foreigners, idol worshippers were persecuted, so in India also it was professed that Aryans invaded Dravidians and yajna and nature worship replaced the temple architecture and more developed civilization. However, this myth is debunked by many Indian thinkers including Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo. Aryans had profound philosophy but no architecture and civilization to support or express it, Dravidians had reverse of this… this is untenable and unsupported by facts and evidences now unearthed. Sri Aurobindo studied Vedas from philological view and sought origin of words which revealed that Vedas were from symbolic age and Go, Ashwa, Sapta Sindhu, all are symbols of their tapas and of deeper planes and parts of the being. Such spiritual gems alone could provide basis of a grand philosophy which then got its full expression in Upanishads. And all the later development in literature, sculptures, sects, religions, polity, economy, culture in general were infinite expressions and ramifications of those Vedic and Upanishadic visions. The seers were not wrong when they traced the origin of most of the later development to the ‘luminous seed’ of Vedas and Upanishads. (Sri Aurobindo, )
Upanishads took the vision of Vedas further and explored it from illumined and intuitive mind. Had it been from mere intellectual point, it would not have such depth and perpetuality. Unity of existence, potential divinity of an individual, evolution of individual soul, life as an opportunity and field for evolution of consciousness, supremacy of spirit over matter, possibility of individual’s progress through meditation and aspiration. Importance of Abhyasa and Vairagya- study and practice as well as dispassion and renunciation to achieve this arduous task, faith in ultimate victory of the Truth, fallacy of all material gains and comforts, looking within for seeking true happiness, Quantification of Ananda and its ascending order from bodily joy to spiritual seeking, deeper layers of mind, ..These are some of the recurring themes of Upanishads. And therefore they anything but parochial, sectarian, limited. They look beyond, behind, place time and causation and deal with the Infinite. That is why they have always appealed devotees and scholars, scientists and followers alike. After the devastating world wars, iconoclastic reforms, disillusion with all isms and models, the clarion call of Veda and Upanishads has become even more appealing and relevant.
The Puranas and Tantras contrary to western interpretation are not degeneration or perversion from these roots. They had a more arduous task of percolating the truths of Veda to the roots of the society, to reinterpret them to suit the level, instincts, and natural turns of the masses. Looking at the complexity of the process, they were remarkably successful in it. Vedas and Upanishads provided sap and woof for all the developments later in Indian culture and every exponents of her traced origin to them with pride and reverence till the recent times. Bhagvad Gita was able to synthesize and summarize all the darshanas and visions before. Shankaracharya, Ramananujacharya, Vivekananda, Tilak, Dayananda, Tagore, Savarkar, Gandhiji, Subhashbabu, Gandhiji, and several others got inspired by it and even reinterpreted it in a way suitable to the times and issues in front of them.
Sri Aurobindo felt that Upanishads are the supreme work of the human mind. And being a product of India it was bound to be much more than a literary and poetic masterpiece but a ‘large flood of spiritual revelation of this direct and profound character.’ (Sri Aurobindo, ) This is unique and unusual turn of spirit. Not limiting to a cult or a religio-ethical aspiration it rouses to highest self discovery and God discovery.
‘From the high spiritual flights of Vedanta philosophy of which the latest discoveries of Science seem like faint echoes to the lowest form of idolatry, Agnosticism of Buddhists and Atheism of Jains, each and all have place in the Hindu’s religion. Where then the question may, where is the common basis on which these seemingly hopeless contradictions can rest. Where is the common basis on which these seemingly diverging radii can converge’- asked Swami Vivekananda in his paper on Hinduism at Chicago addresses. And then he said that Vedas is that center. (Swami Vivekananda, ) By Vedas we don’t mean a single book or a series of books. Totality of all accumulated spiritual experiences and universal laws founded through ages by sages of past as well as future are Vedas, the ancient scriptures have only recorded the truth experienced and seen by some of them. Sri Aurobindo also said that study of Vedas as scriptures only reaffirmed him about the experiences he already had. This universality and eternity of the truths recorded in Vedas make them most scientific and perpetual source of knowledge for the mankind.
4. THE CARTESIAN, REDUCTIONIST PARADIGM OF THE WEST: DEBUNKED WHILE ACKNOWLEDGNG ITS ROLE
The root of the western thought lies in the Cartesian and reductionist, Newtonian paradigm which can be summarized as follows: Nature is constructed of building blocks of matter / atoms, human being similarly is assembly of cells, and everything is result of cause and effect and can be decoded. Francis Bacon said that Nature should be hounded in her wanderings and should be put to the task. Indeed it was put to the task of supplying raw material for utilitarian products which will multiply wants and greed. It is said that when a king asked a scientist why he has not mentioned God even once in his thesis, which was custom till then, the proud determinist reply was: the hypothesis of god was not necessary to prove this thesis. This was a remarkable shift from the native old cultures which were largely nature loving, god fearing, fate driven communities. Science also ensured that mankind does not fall back to barbarism of medieval ages and religious leaders do not dictate lives along with autocratic rulers. The age of reason, self proclamation, and materialism has done a great service to mankind which cannot be denied. With their perseverance to experiment and investigate, the scientists forced Nature to give up many of her secrets and then utilized them for the benefit of the mankind to provide them means of food, clothing, shelter, transportation, education, printing, trade and so on. However on the flip side of it, this process also overlooked ecological balance of the centuries, biodiversity and geo cycles which allowed habitat on the planet to exist peacefully since ages. While aspiring to make human life better, they also made human being like nuts and bolts in the huge machinery of the society. Uniformity is quality of a machine but nature as well as human being is closer to diversity, individual freedom was cramped wither by excess state control or by unbridled market forces. In such machinery, human being looses the sight of its ultimate destiny, forgets that it itself is not a machine.
Pt. Deendayalji explained how an individual was exploited in this system.
Every individual got a vote in the democratic setup but the real power stayed with leaders and not the people. Industrial revolution had generated jobs but needed migration from homes and villages and also being servants of someone they lost their rural freedom. ‘There were hardly any rules in the factory to protect the worker. He was economically weak and not yet organized. He became a victim of exploitation, injustice and harassment.’ ( Deendayal, )
Sri Aurobindo asked is it such a great gain for human intellect to have grown more acute and discerning if human soul dwindles? He felt that system, organization, machinery was attained to the perfection. However, this attempt to organize external liberty also slays inner freedom and with the inner freedom lost outer also followed the way. Freedom, equality and Fraternity were trinity of European rev0olution. However as Sri Aurobindo has pointed out, Equality without freedom and freedom without equality both are disastrous and will fail if they are not supplemented by the third idol of Brotherhood. Europeans made this into machinery called association and it failed. Equality without freedom was tried through Socialism and Communism, with unlimited State control; it resulted in dwindling of individuals’ worth and growth and thereby crumbling of the society. Freedom without equality is tried by Capitalism, with apparent success and happiness to individuals it is crushing the very freedom that it aimed at and the huge complex structures of market economies are today so vulnerable that even a child can topple it in an hour and may be it will collapse by its own weight like a giant dying by his own weight, wrote Sri Aurobindo. Both socialist and Anarchist are victims of the machinery paradigm which in turn was product of Cartesian paradigm. Socialist aims at perfection of machinery and Anarchist aims at destruction of machinery. Both aim at liberation of human being and both with their mechanical fallacy end in making human being a mere cog in a giant wheel.
Science has multiplied comfort till comfort itself has become uncomfortable. Adding machinery to machinery, convenience to convenience it has hampered life with appliances observed Sri Aurobindo. This is even truer today. Two persons cannot talk to each other without a gadget in between them even in a family. Civilization has brought many more comforts, many more wants than it can control and there is uncomfortable luxury and encumbered efficiency. The machine of civilization is complex and huge but why we say even a child can break it? Because if we see how easily a website of Pentagon or similar organizations of high intelligence and secrecy gets hacked, how passwords of accounts, pin numbers of credit cards can be managed, how by a sneeze in China or US, stocks in Mumbai tumble, the volatility of the system is alarming. This material power is mere mask of the growing impotency of the individuals in a huge machinery of society where as a scientists remarked, the train is running at bullet speed and mankind even most gifted scientists are looking back from the rare window of train helpless, not sure where the train is heading. Human soul is its first sacrificed, creativity is slave of market gimmicks, entertainment itself is business, religion either irrelevant or a combustible utility at the disposal of wealth and power, education mere way to earn position in society and that also through money and position. In such system Sri Aurobindo wrote, even a genius has run in settled grooves. Earlier there was danger of relapse in physical barbarism. A developed civilization would get attacked by surrounding barbaric tribes. They will seize the products of the civilized part without undergoing the education and culture required to use it maturely. We can see this when Nalanda library was burned by invaders, Somnath was demolished several times. Science has made such relapse impossible by the virtue of widespread education. But it has made both by its aids and by its general philosophy, possibility of another kind of barbarism, that of Vital and Economic barbarism. Such civilization is flooded by products of high intelligence, but those using them are hardly undergoing any mental and cultural preparation for matured handling of the products. It is like saying that a commuter in bullet train is a better individual in speedy travelling or a cashier in a bank is a better economist. These are users and mere users and this gap between acute intelligence, innovation needed for producing a marvel making it user friendly and least maturity needed to use it is rushing us to vital and economic barbarism. The centuries old manuscripts in Bhandarkar Oriental Institute were vandalized, twin towers were attacked by fidayin pilots, trillions of Dollars, Euros and what not were washed out in seconds, leading banks declared bankruptcy, an economy of a complete nation, ironically a world leading ancient empire, became bankrupt by greedy trading of few and intelligent pseudo speculative tools of computer technology and then Talibani’s destroyed Buddha statue by rocket launchers. There are many examples of these phenomena which Sri Aurobindo predicted in his The Human Cycle and The Ideal of human unity. (Sri Aurobindo, )
Sri Aurobindo said that I see failure written all over this splendid achievements of Europe. Her costliest experiment, greatest expenditure, has resulted in swiftest exhaustion of creative activity. There have been bankruptcies after bankruptcies of ideas,’
Science finds the laws of processes and in many cases even these laws are not final. But at most of the times it misses the divine content behind these laws. There is no fundamental significance in things if you miss the divine content behind these laws. The significance of magic is understood only when we see the magician behind the creation. (Sri Aurobindo, ) Science and its success in some spheres has been such an obsession to human mind that they attempted application of this science even to the realm of mind and its working. Most of the models of individual and collective psychology were again inspired from reductionist and materialist philosophy. The biggest fallacy of this thought was when they said that mind is created by certain arrangement in brain and consciousness is result of some neurons firing. As if world moving creations of genius of Leonardo, Kalidas or Shakespeare were possible by mere chemical reactions and mathematical formulae or firing of certain neurons. The failure of this paradigm cannot be hidden for long and the justifications are becoming increasingly stressed.
5. REINTERPRETATION OF THE VEDIC VISION IN THE INTEGRAL THOUGHT
Pt. Deendayalji explained this need for unique basis and application of any solution for each country and each individual in a country by an example. He said, ‘Even though the basic organic activity is the same in all human beings the drugs which may be helpful in England may not prove equally helpful in India. ..Diseases depend also upon climate, water, dietary habits and heredity. Even though the external symptoms may be apparently similar the same drug does not necessarily cure all persons. Those who apply a single panacea to all diseases must be considered quacks rather than doctors.’ (Deendayal, )
He said so while stressing that Western paradigm has failed and its blind application for India was a grave mistake seeing the uniqueness of our own nation.
However, when we say that the western paradigm has failed it does not automatically make our situation better. We have in our side some who are fanatic about the past of India and want to sincerely go back to the same gurukula, ashram, rajtilak, dharmacharya, jatibhed and gobrahman raksha. There are some who are fiercely opposing everything in the past only because it was degenerated later and was Indian in origin. They are still others who have solution of completely aping the west even now only because they have material prosperity so to say and have ruled us for a long. There are then others who are totally confused and don’t know which of these ways are going to be correct or inevitable for them. India truly is laboratory of all extremes and contradictions and perhaps Nature wants her to be like that so that She can find the way for herself and for others. India has seen the two negations, that of materialist who rejects anything that is unseen, qualitative and intangible. Like Charvak it is purely materialist philosophy of taking a loan and enjoy clarified butter, for this body will be ashes in no time and there s no chance of coming back. There is opposite to it the negation of ascetic like Advaita and Mayavad of a kind which rejects all that is transient, material, it considers even the world as Maya and a illusion which must be denounced and renounced to reach the Liberation, Moksha or Nirvana. However, both these negations are wrong according to Sri Aurobindo. If exclusive worship of matter is a folly, then exclusive rejection of it is also a folly. Matter itself is Spirit encased and emerging to manifest. Spirit is involved in matter and is evolving out of it according to the original Vedic thought Annam Brahmeti vyajanat, and the same was emphasized by Sri Aurobindo. ‘Matter shall reveal the face of Spirit’ (Sri Aurobindo, ) was the vision of Sri Aurobindo. It was to materialize Spirit and spiritualize matter. Brahman enters into form in order to discover himself. To fulfill god is man’s manhood and he decides and aspires he can become God. Nar karni kare to narka narayan ho jaye. ( Sri Aurobindo, )
To fulfill God is man’s manhood. The meeting of man and God must always mean a penetration and entry of the divine into the human and a self-immergence of man in the Divinity. (Sri Aurobindo,Thoughts and Glimpses, 1916-17)
‘The Universe is not only a material fact but also a spiritual fact. Life not only a play of forces or a mental experience but a field for evolution of the concealed spirit. Human life will receive its fulfillment and transformation into something beyond itself when this truth is seized and made motive force of our existence and the means of its effective realization are discovered.’ (Sri Aurobindo ). There is no fundamental significance in things he said if we miss the Divine reality behind it. For then we may get entrapped in huge crust of manageable and complex data of material things which gives us know how and hardly tells us know why. ( Sri Aurobindo, ) His pseudo knowledge is knowledge of only empty shells and the real knowledge as per Indian philosophy is possible only when you know the reality behind the thing, the divine essence, ‘Raso vai saha’ which is behind the shell. This is possible if you become one with the thing to be known. To analyze magic of a magician is futile till you enter in the consciousness of magician himself.
According to Sri Aurobindo, an omnipresent reality is the truth of all life whether mighty or tiny, animate or inanimate, intelligent or dumb. All apparent dualities, opposites and contradictions are ultimately merging in one ineffable. And such is the infinity of this incompressible Ultimate that even after attempting innumerable expressions, one is obliged to surrender to the power and confess that it s not this not this Neti Neti. Vedic Rishis even envisaged Asat a non being after having experience of Sat. ( Sri Aurobndo, ) The Brahman is Sat Chit and Ananda. Pure existence, Conscious Force and Bliss. That One who felt that He should be many Ekoham bahusyat is the origin. That which exists thus is One though wise men call it by different names, Ekam Sat Vipra Bahudha Vadanti. However this pure existence has a executive force which is conscious. Shiva has Shakti, Purusha has Prakriti and this Shakti is Jnan, Kriya, Iccha…Knowledge, Action, Will, everything. The world existence is thus a cosmic dance of Shiva who multiplies his forms endlessly as his divine Lila, a play, for experiencing the sheer bliss. Truth consciousness or Rit-Chit is a concept of Real-idea originally in Vedas and then explained by Sri Aurobindo, where Consciousness also has power to realize its idea. From anthill to galaxy, the same Brahman exists, and is equally concerned and involved, the difference is in quantity not in quality. Each has a place and each is great in its own place. It is Indra’s palace where each has reflection of each of the other and all have reflection of the one in the centre. It is hierarchy of the whole not hierarchy of the parts. Universal, Transcendent and Individual are all the levels of the Sat, Chit, Ananda-- Pure Existence- Conscious Force and Bliss in His manifestation and each has significance. Individual is very important to fulfill the cosmic mission.
There is western idea of evolution of species and eastern idea of Avatara --of descend of God in lower species to fulfill a mission. We see both of them Synthesized in Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy when he said again referring to seed of Vedas that evolution is preceded by involution. There is seven fold beings or planes which ascend from Matter to Life to Mind (lower three) to (Overmind, Intuitive mind, and) Supermind (middle) and Sat ChIt Ananda. (the upper three) Consciousness is fundamental and is singular which has no plural. All the apparent layers above are only layers of manifestation of consciousness. For us as human beings we are primarily mental and so vital and life as well as matter are the levels which appear to us as lower consciousness. We say it s subconscious and unconscious because we are at higher consciousness. ( Sri Aurobindo, )
He said that Evolution is not finished; reason is not the last word nor the reasoning animal the supreme figure of Nature. As man emerged out of the animal, so out of man the superman emerges. (Sri Aurobindo, Thoughts and Aphorisms, 1913)
As animal is living laboratory in which man got evolved, similarly man is also a living and thinking laboratory in which a superman will evolve. Humanity is not the final step of evolution and a supernal race will evolve which will follow endless Light. With the descend of Supermind, the cyclic growth of mankind is not essential now and only an ascent will be seen in the future according to this thought. When we see this it is clear that the materialist claim of brain producing consciousness is artificial and like putting cart before horse. Consciousness produced brain in its upward march. Similar the level above mind appear to us as Superconscious, divine and the goal in life is to manifest the divinity within by controlling nature external and internal. Swami Vivekananda said, do this either by work or worship by psychic control or philosophy, by one or more or all of these, and be free. Doctrines and dogmas, books and rituals, temples and forms are all secondary details. We can see similarity in this quote as well as the quote on Karmayoga by Sri Aurobindo as seen below:
Do this either by work- Karmayoga or worship- Bhaktiyoga by psychic control- Rajyoga or philosophy- Jnanyoga. … Vivekananda’s dictate for an Indian as his mission of life.
To understand the heart of this dharma – Jnanyoga to feel the high emotions to which it raises your mind – Bhaktiyoga, to experience it as a truth – Jnanyoga, to express and execute it in life – Karmayoga…. Sri Aurobindo’s dictate to an Indian as his mission of life.
Absence of locomotion cannot be evidence of lack of life in plants similarly absence of response cannot be evidence of lack of life in minerals and metals. Only when our measurements become more and more subtle, when the organs of action and those of knowledge are more refined and when knowledge gaining epistemology is also more deepened by sadhana that we will know that consciousness is present at all levels and only waits to be invoked to manifest itself.
The crisis which our world is undergoing today appears complex, multidimensional and intertwined, but in its essence it is an evolutionary crisis according to Sri Aurobindo. On one side we see mankind which is ‘satiated but not satisfied’ with victorious products of science, they are only multiplying greed, increasing gap in haves and have nots and have generated an atmosphere of vacuum and vanity. Devoid of scientific spirit of innovation, curiosity and individuality, and following only the products of few gifted minds to satisfy one’s vital and physical comforts, people are calling themselves scientific and agnostic non believers, as against their parents who were largely faithful to some images and rituals of a religion. On the other side there is sudden rise of religious fanaticism, to the extent of terrorism and brutality and also rise of pseudo gurus and godmen cults where the frustration and confusion otherwise is given up by blind following of a living ‘god.’ On one side we are thrilled by Kumbhmela preparations and then are at lost to see some crazy images of sadhus and sadhvis.
India had an opportunity after 1947 to take a path which will give ‘decisive turn to the problems on which the whole mankind is stumbling.’ However, with the imitation of Socialist model in first few decades and then in nineties surrendering to globalization and liberalization to follow American dream, we have , it seems, lost the golden opportunity to discover the unique model of India.
Pt. Deendayalji said that ‘Nature is powerful. An attempt to go against nature or to disregard her leads to troubles. The natural instincts cannot be disregarded but it is possible to elevate this nature to the level of culture. Psychology informs us how by suppression of various natural instincts different mental disorders ensue. Such a person remains restless and dejected. His abilities slowly deteriorate and become perverted. The Nation too like the individual becomes a prey to numerous ills when its natural instincts are disregarded. The basic cause of the problems facing Bharat is the neglect of its national identity.’ ( Deendayal, )
We must say that modernization is not necessarily westernization. Our age old culture must be having answer to the problems we are facing given the fact that t has survived several similar upheavals in the past millennium. It is fatal to disarm in the middle of the battle. To allow you to get trampled by others is not spirituality. To discuss peace and get despondent about the possible destruction of some outdated and outlived forms and models in this battle of dharma is like confused imbecility of Partha at the battlefield of Kurukshetra.
Pt. Deendayal said that some people suggest that we must start from where we have left off one thousand years ago, when foreign invaders disrupted our life. But nation is not an inanimate object like a cloth so that weaving can be taken up after a gap in time. …The current of our national life was not interrupted but has gone on ceaselessly. The task of turning the waters of Ganga back to some previous point would not be wise Ganga at Banaras may not be crystal clear as at Haridwar. ( Deendayal, )
We must search for the essential spirit behind everything, and then give new forms to it. Either India will get rationalized and industrialized and then she will be no longer India or she will stand n the forefront of the nations aiding by her example and cultural infiltration the mankind in such times of crisis.
The East and the West both have trodden their destined paths. While the East fathomed depths of the inside world, ‘Microcosm’ the West trod the external world, the ‘Macrocosm’. Both have partly succeeded and have something great to offer to the totality of human experience and achievements. The future must take all that was good and noble all over the world and should make it redefined to suit one’s essential soul, to assimilate it, Atmasatkaran, not just make an appendage or a hybrid of it.
It is important to know one’s own self, one’s identity and be firmly rooted in it before venturing to understand and assimilate others. Otherwise the result can be blind imitation. Imitation of others as well as our own past is folly, negation of matter as well as spirit is equally a folly. The new world view must be all inclusive, integral and holistic to address the issues in front of us. Nation is not a book which can be read by going back to the same page, that page is gone now. Changing one’s bent of mind, characteristics soul is as impossible as reversing the flow of Ganges back to Himalaya. The way out is to go within, master our own self and then study others. To give then a yuganukaul, Time- conducive form to our spirit is the way ahead. Forms must change as per time, situation and persons. The spirit of India is essentially the same though her forms have undergone number of modifications and even degenerations.
To recover the old spiritual knowledge in all its splendor and variations is its first stage of renaissance according to Sri Aurobindo. Flowing of this spirituality into arts, science, philosophy, education, polity and economy is its second stage and an original dealing with the modern age problems to find their solutions in the Light of the eternal wisdom is its third and final stage. To what extent She succeeds in this mission will decide her future as well as future of the mankind. ( Sri Aurobindo, )
6. INDIAN CULTURE: ‘DHARMA IS THAT WHICH SUSTAINS’
In the words of Pt. Deendayalji, the first characteristic of Bharatiya culture is that it looks upon life as an integrated whole. This integrated view point is missing in the West where there is confusion to think of life in sections and then to put them together by a mechanical assembly or like a patch work. While admitting the diversity and plurality, India attempted a scientific way of finding unity behind the diversity. This is indeed scientific as a scientist also aims a finding a single principle or a universal law behind various phenomena said Deendayalji. ( Deendayal, )
Unity in diversity and the expression of unity in various forms has remained the central thought of Bharatiya culture. If this truth is wholeheartedly accepted then there will not exist any cause for conflict among various powers. Conflict is not a sign of culture of nature: rather it is a symptom of their degradation. The law of the jungle, "Survival of the Fittest" which the West discovered in recent years was known to our philosophers.
India’s central conception is that of an Eternal, The spirit here encased in matter, involved and immanent in it said Sri Aurobindo. This victory over unconscious matter is Her line of thought, to increase Sattwik or Spiritual portion of human mind. Till it identifies with the Beyond and realizes immanent, universal and transcendent. Everything else in life is only a vehicle for this great journey and useful only till it reaches and aids this great journey. Her literature, art, science, paintings, sculptures, architecture, religion and polity. Everything is only one of the manifestations and ramifications of the one central conviction. Each soul is potentially divine and goal in this life is to manifest this divinity within and without.
Religion in India is nothing if it is not lived. The philosophy was not theoretical but an outcome of the life lived and experiences spiritual. Thus the passion to bring the distant truths to the level of practice and to know that there must be variations, adaptations and alterations possible in it at each level and layer, for the people for whom they are meant are different n nature and temperament is a very unique part of her culture. ‘The value of Indian conception of life depends on relations and gradations with which it can connect this distant and difficult perfection and with our normal living and present everyday life.‘ ‘All need not be put under the same table of laws for that would mean a senseless geometric rigidity which will destroy plastic truth of life.’ (Sri Aurobindo, )
‘Indian religion has always felt that since the minds, the temperaments and the intellectual affinities of men are unlimited in their variety, a perfect liberty of thought and of worship must be allowed to the individual in his approach to the Infinite.‘ (Sri Aurobindo, The Foundations of Indian Culture, 1953, p. 147)
Therefore the culture with such noble and arduous aim must have a system or systems where each can grow as per his or her Swabhava, Swadharma, Adhikara and Samskara… Innate inherent nature, aptitude, Temperament and the ordained duty, the level of attainment so far and the inculcated habits and nature. Indian Rishis and thinkers understood that the primary turn of a human mind is towards Artha and Kama, i.e. towards basic needs like food, shelter, clothing, sex and security, ego satisfaction and then desire to get money as well as power to grab means to satisfy these basic needs. That is why even the most despised pursuits also were not ridiculed or criticized. On the contrary allowing their free and fair play in the limits set by self rule and the community rule, they were given a process, standard and controlling mechanism, which is a Shastra for that pursuit. For the high spiritual aspirations of a gifted minority in a society, Indian culture did not impoverished grand game of life for the majority. This was its original design and vision form Vedic and Upanishadic age. There was a graded system of four Varnas Brahman, Kshtriya, Vaishya and Shudra. That means the men of knowledge and learning, of valour and statecraft, of commerce and trades and those of labour and service. They were like parts of an organic whole say a Virat purusha. So none is functional without others, and none superior or inferior. The real master is Soul or spirit behind this body. Each one should know his aptitude and temperament by birth i.e. genetically as well as by upbringing, i.e. by education and repeated practices. To fulfill one’s role satisfies oneself and also helps in better functioning of the whole. The rules are not same for all four above, from eating to ethics, the interpretation of same word can differ as per your Varna or category. There were four stages of life, Brahmacharya, Gruhstha, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa. meaning a focused celibate student, responsible householder and citizen, one who has fulfilled the first two and is now working for a social, national or ecological cause of larger interest, and finally a renunciate Siddha, Bhagavata, Mukta who is seeking spiritual salvation for self and for all. Again each has a role in society, none is inferior and one should know where one is and how to move ahead from there. N each stage we have different calls, different do’s and don’ts and different definition of duties and ethics. Then there are four purusharthas: Artha and Kama which were narrated above as desires and means to fulfill them, have to be within the control of the third purushartha i.e. Dharma.
In the words of Pt. Deendayalji, ‘Thus even though Dharma regulates Artha and Kama, all the three are interrelated and mutually complementary. Dharma helps to achieve Artha. Even in business, one requires honesty, restraint, truthfulness etc. which are the attributes of Dharma. Without these qualities one cannot earn money. It must be admitted that Dharma is instrumental in attaining Artha and Kama. ‘ ( Deendayal, )
He further said that honesty is not just a best policy for us, it is fundamental principle of dharma.
He also said that Kama too can be attained only through Dharma. It is one thing to produce the material things such as nice food but for making the enjoyment healthy, permanent and mutual, it is necessary to follow the rules of Dharma. ‘Dharma helps in restraining the natural tendencies of man, whereby he is able to determine what is beneficial to him apart from what is pleasurable. Hence Dharma is given the foremost place in our culture.’ ( Deendayal, )
Dharma is wrongly translated as religion. It is much larger concept and means code of life for individual as well as aggregate in a simpler sense. India’s ingrained bend is for spirituality. Her second quality is that of stupendous vitality. She creates and creates and is not exhausted observed Sri Aurobindo. There is no room for pause, for respite. Her infinite creation and variation is tribute to inexhaustibility of the infinite. For centuries in fact India was creating endlessly, …religions, philosophies, states, kingdoms, paintings, sculptures, poetry, epics, trades, utility products, weapons, rituals, architecture, sciences, means of locomotion, means of play, means of study, means of silence and means of word… the list is endless and she rejoices her timeless creations. There is amazing continuity in her experiences and consistency in her expressions. However, as Sri Aurobindo pointed out, these enormous creations in all walks of life are not just a rich tropical vegetation of unconnected random ideas resulting in overall confusion and chaos. For after Spirituality and creative vitality, the third important facet of Indian mind is its acute Intellectuality. Which found order in all the expressions, gave them a place and role appropriate and controlled as well as related them to each other and to the whole. This intellectual guide is in the form of Dharma which is not just a law discovered and imposed from outside by cold reason, but is based on the innate nature and growth potential of the thing in the process of its inevitable evolution which is seen by a spiritual vision and then interpreted and documented by acute. Dispassionate and clarified intellect. There is Swadharma, Kuldharma, Shrenidharma, Deshdharma, Yugdharma and so on. Both the sense of aesthetic and the rule of intellect are against chaos and disorder possible by mere vitality and creativity and because of these factors we have ceaseless creativity in Indian culture but still a naturally governing and beautiful order in it. The intrinsic law of everything is latent and waits to be discovered, with such self discovery as object of beauty and subject of study, this culture could achieve a rare feat of individual freedom and societal control in its heydays. The first sign of life is creation and great creation is sign of great growth. The growth comes also with freedom. To liberate an individual from dehatmika buddhi while following these duties or dharmas and to fathom the inherent truth, the Infinite while contacting external objects for work, creation, recreation and for study was the aim of this system.
However, one can point out that this is utopian and the reality is different. The fact is, as it happens with any culture and civilization, everything has its rise, stagnation and then fall as well. In its fall, we see that the shells become all important and the content is lost. The rituals, institutions and systems including the much abused caste system became all important and the spiritual content was lost over a period of time. The culture which aimed at Sarvalokhiteishini.. Welfare of all and Antyodaya, the upliftment of last man in a society, got degenerated in a tyranny of religion as well as state. The culture which produced ‘few spiritual giants also produced millions of stunted personalities and any number of crooks in between,’ observed Swami Rangnanthananda. (Ranganathananda, ) We of course should not get carried away by the later degeneration and fix our gaze on the spirit which is eternal. There are new forms to be given to the ancient spirit. There is no institution which cannot be adopted if the inherent spirit demands so, and none which cannot be discarded if the spirit needs it to be so.
In its essence the Indian culture is less a dogma or a creed but a continuously enlarging tradition of godward endeavor of human spirit, assimilated all that was forced on her , to destroy and uproot her. (Sri Aurobindo, ) There were several internal and external attacks on this culture. After the tumult of rush was over, most of the times these attacks and the differences were sucked in, absorbed, and assimilated to be part of the whole network. (Swami Vivekananda, ) The conviction in the inexhaustibility of the infinite and tolerance to have even opposites as they may be then complementary facets of the infinite was the reason for such immense capacity of absorbing and assimilation. There is no negation, each is put in the perspective, in the context so as to give meaning to it and to the whole design.
7. THE IDEAL OF HUMAN UNITY: THE STATE AND THE INDIVIDUAL, COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER
According to Panditji, conflict is not a sign of culture or nature; it is rather a symptom of their degradation. According to Indian philosophy, desire, anger etc. are among the six lower tendencies of human nature, Shadripus…six demons, but like Freud, unconscious cannot be mistaken for the real nature of a person nor can it be made basis of a culture. This like saying that because there are robbers and thieves in a society so the system should be designed for their benefit. Survival of the fittest is the law of the jungle but even in jungle we can see vegetation and animal life which is mutually cooperating and existing, even insects know this.
Sadly, at the evolved stage like human beings this is often forgotten for the individuality is stronger.
A culture which can acknowledge this nature and its follies attempts to turn the nature into culture. This sublimation of nature, the transformation from Pashu to Deva, from Tamas to Sattwika can also sustain everything and everyone.
Though conflict is the first law of a group as individual ego asserts itself with a natural way of survival, still as the unripe ego becomes ripe ego, this assertion is replaced by association, mutual love and respect and then this collective ego asserts itself for the survival of group as a whole against other groups. Till this larger group soul is a nation soul. Nation is the largest psychological unit which Nature is successful in developing till date. When a group of people are having common land, common geography, common history, common pains and sufferings, common aspirations, then they form a group soul as Nation soul.
Nation is thriving on its culture. The culture is expression of consciousness of individuals and collective consciousness. A true happiness is right terrestrial aim of human being and that is possible only by finding right key of harmony of head, heart and hands wrote Sri Aurobindo. (Sri Aurobindo, ) That is the office of culture. Culture is what we are and civilization is what we have. Pursuits of such happiness can be taken by persons in diverse lands and in diverse ways. But in India long back there was a grand revelation that even if we get a skill of rolling the entire sky like a piece of leather, still there will be no end of our sorrow till we find the luminous Self within. Here was a sage who said to his wife, I adore you not because of you but for the self within you. Here was a young boy who told the god of death that even if you give me all comforts and riches, I will not be happy for I will not know the riddle of death and the way of overcoming it.
A culture which perpetuates these aspirations can be a predominantly political culture like Greek or scientific and economic culture like medieval Europe or a spiritual culture like India. The culture passes through three stages,
1. Thoughts ideas upward will,
2. Creative self expression in art and intellectual pursuits,
3. Practical and outward formation.
In the third stage it forms institutions to express the thought and the idea. ( Sri Aurobindo, )
State is only an institution which the soul has created in the third stage and so must be seen in that framework. There is no institution which cannot be created if the soul needs it and none which cannot be discarded if the Nation soul, the national spirit feels it essential.
Pt. Deendayalji explained while talking on dharma and other purusharthas that In order to create framework in which natural instincts and desires as well as means to get them are made available, and also for education, character building, spread of idealism, some suitable economic structures are necessary. Governments also fall inside the realm of Artha and excessive power of state is also harmful of Dharma.
He explained that according to Darwin's theory, due to the instinct of survival and growth living beings develop various organs. According to Indian philosophy, the soul constructs, various organs as the need is felt, for the purpose of continuing life. As individual soul produces organs similarly nation soul produces various institutions. (Deendayal, )
In the words of Sri Aurobindo, ‘We cannot afford to raise any institution to the rank of a fetish. To do so would be simply to become the slaves of our own machinery. ‘(Sri Aurobindo, 7 August 1893)
State is only one of the institutions which nation produces for the fulfillment of her mission. Like individual soul aspires for reaching the divine soul similarly there is group soul and nation soul. Each is aspiring to fulfill its ordained mission which is spirally evolving and is seamlessly connected to lower aggregates and higher aggregates. There is no conflict and contradiction in individual level and various levels of aggregates from family, guild, province, state, nation, universe and transcendent. Each is joined by dharma and dharma is that which holds Dharnat dharma ityuhu, dharmo dharyate prajaha. A king use to say in a ritual in ancient times that he is the ruler, he has the power, etc. There was also a ritual when a Rishi will go to him and touch his head thrice (means only symbolically whipping him!!) with a dharmadand (a symbol of the rule of righteousness) and would say something like this—not you it is dharma that rules. (Thengadi, ) There is lot of significance in this ritual to explain that the state is only a machinery temporarily created by Nation in order to deliver its message, to fulfill its mission, to contribute to the human unity.
Individual’s growth and welfare is aim of any State in every ism. However, as discussed in an earlier section, both Capitalism and Socialism have failed in this pursuit and the mechanistic models like these ultimately crush the very freedom they once wanted to ensure. Organization is great and admirable but individual is dwarfed and then smallness of the individual soon ensures the degeneration of the organization. State is machinery in such models which works without taste, delicacy and choice. It aims at uniformity because uniformity is suitable for a machine. (Sri Aurobindo, ) However, what Nature wants is not uniformity but unity in diversity. Europe put lot of emphasis on machinery and mechanistic models of mind as well as society. In such mechanical fallacy they thought that millennium can be brought by an act of a parliament, a new nation can be assembled by mechanical rules of cut and paste kind. This has resulted in the conflict of individual versus state, collective good versus individual aspiration and so on. Struggle is inherent in a system when parts are neither emerged from the whole nor even merged in each other. So the law is law of jungle, survival of the fittest. We see this even in a typical metro city train compartment. People are eager to emphasize on their individual rights there while being together for less than an hour, in parliaments when parties block destructively proposals by the other party and even in UN when an amendment for the ultimate welfare and peace for all may be opposed by your neighboring state itself to avoid you getting upper hand in the world scenario. Human unity is apparently still very remote where association is mechanical, egos are inflated, and motives are parochial. Till this is cured, it will be dangerous to remain non violent and self immersed. For even to protect yourself and protect the dharma which is all inclusive, one must protect the state which is expressing it on material plane.
We in India had however some visionaries and sages who in spite of these conflicts and gloomy self assertions, always believed in such ideal of human unity. For the basis of their thought was Vedic vision of innate divinity in each one of us. When we know that each is a son and daughter of the one god then there is no way to conflict. Struggle to assert smaller aggregates are a truth but it is a lower truth. We must aim at the spiral evolution to the higher truth of Love and mutual cooperation for coexistence. Samashti or society is only an evolved part of Vyashti or individual, and the former is again a part of Nature or Srishti and then the Divine or Parameshti. In an organic unity where parts are whole and interconnected to define the whole will be the future model of State and the world union. To quote a hymn from Vedas in a Hymn of Unity, Eikyamantra, we said,
Deva bhagam yatha purve sanjanana upasate
Samana mantra samiti samani, samana hrudaya ni vaha.
Samanam astu vo mano yatha vaha susahasati.
There is similar innate program or formula, similar organization, similar even are the hearts of us. We are similar, nay same and so must strive together as Devas did so in the past to excel.
Isha vasyam idam sarvam yat kinch jagat tyamjagat
Ten tyakten bhunjtha ma grudh kasy aswidhnam
Whatever is existing is pervaded by the Divine. Knowing this renounce the temporal, apparent to truly enjoy it, don’t crave like vulture to get the gains of the others.
With such mantra of unity, with the organic model of unity in diversity without uniformity, and with deep faith in our own past and its inevitable renaissance in future for the welfare of the entire humanity, we should put our shoulder to the work and surrender our little ego our petty self at the feet of the Mother to seek her boons.
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