SRI AUROBINDO ON THE FUTURE ROLE FOR INDIA

Dr. Madan Lal Goel Professor of Political Science University of West Florida

Pensacola, Fl 32514 lgoel@uwf.edu , www.uwf.edu/lgoel

Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) is a major literary figure of the first half of the 20th century. He was a prolific writer and a poet. His works appear in thirty-five volumes. He was steeped in Western scholarship. He commented on the works of Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe, and Racine, among others. He also wrote commentaries on the Hindu scripture, the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita. His Essays on the Gita are unequalled in scope and insight. Sri Aurobindo was a mystic and wielded a spiritual force. He labored to bring down to humanity from above a New Consciousness that will take hold of the affairs of mankind. He foresaw coming together of the peoples of the globe. He predicted that Indian spirituality will enter the West in ever larger measure. His predictions and mystic visions are coming true; what the Great Rishi (seer) willed is being fulfilled. Sri Aurobind’s foresight was not based on intellectual analysis but on spiritual vision. BIOGRAPHY From age seven onward, Sri Aurobindo was educated in England at St Paul’s School and then at the Kings College, Cambridge. He was a brilliant student of the Classics and won numerous prizes in Latin and Greek. He wrote poetry at a young age. Upon his return to India in 1893, Sri Aurobindo taught English and French literature at Baroda College. He rose to become the vice-Principal of the College. During this period, he taught himself Sanskrit and Indian languages. He translated portions of the Mahabharata from Sanskrit into English. Sri Aurobindo represents a unique integration of the scholarship of the East and the West. Sri Aurobindo was drawn to the nationalist anti-British fervor sweeping India at the turn of the century. He was influenced by the writings of nationalists like Bankim Chandra, Vivekananda, Gokhale and Tilak. He joined the radical wing of the nationalist movement and wrote for Bande Matram, a fiery publication. The British jailed him for a year in 1907 for his nationalistic writings and speeches. This was a period of great transformation for him. In solitary confinement at the Alipore jail, Sri Aurobindo practiced deep concentration and yoga. He studied the

Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads. He was blessed with a vision of the Supreme Reality. He realized that Vasudeva (Krishna) was the author and creator of all. Solitary confinement had little meaning for him. The British jailor meant it bad, but God meant it good. His life was radically changed. Upon his release from prison, he gave up political activity. He moved to Pondicherry in Southern India, then under French rule. For a number of years, he did Tapasya, intense yogic austerities. An Ashram grew up around him, which now draws devotees from around the globe. INDIA “AS A HELPER AND A LEADER OF THE HUMAN RACE” August 15th is the birthday of free India. It is also Sri Aurobindo’s birthday. On this day in 1947 Sri Aurobindo gave a message to the nation on the All India Radio. Sri Aurobindo outlined in the message his prophetic vision for India, for the globe and for humanity.

August 15th is the birthday of free India. It marks for her the end of an old era, the beginning of a new age. But it has significance not only for us, but for Asia and the whole world, for it signifies the entry into the comity of nations of a new power with untold potentialities which has a great part to play in determining the political, social, cultural and spiritual future of humanity. . .

Sri Aurobindo continued,

I have always held and said that India was rising, not to serve her own material interest only, to achieve expansion, greatness, power and prosperity, -- though these too she must not neglect--, and certainly not like others to acquire domination of other peoples, but to live also for God and the world as a helper and a leader of the whole human race.

Sri Aurobindo foresaw that India’s spiritual teaching will enter the West in an ever increasing measure.

The spiritual gift of India to the world has already begun. India=s spirituality is entering Europe and America in an ever increasing measure. That movement will grow; amid the disasters of the time more and more eyes are turning towards her with hope and there is even an increasing resort not only to her teachings, but

to her psychic and spiritual practice. Sri Aurobindo’s vision that India will come to play an enhanced spiritual role in the world is beginning to come. An increasing number of Americans are turning to Eastern spiritual practices derived from Hinduism and Buddhism. Many Americans practice yoga and meditation. Some chant Vedic mantras in congregational gatherings (Satsangs). College courses on Eastern Religion are generally well subscribed. THE TRANSCENDENTALIST MOVEMENT American interest in Indian spirituality traces back to the Transcendental Movement of the middle of the 19th century. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were the leaders of this Movement. Others included Margaret Fuller, Palmer Peabody, James Freeman Clark, and Charles and Myrtle Fillmore. Henry David Thoreau is better known in India. This is because Mahatma Gandhi was influenced by Thoreau=s short book, Civil Disobedience (1849). Ralph Waldo Emerson shows most clearly the influence of Hindu scriptures on him and his fellow thinkers.

‘In all nations there are minds which incline to dwell in the conception of the fundamental Unity. This tendency finds its highest expression in the religious writings of the East, and chiefly in the Indian Scriptures, in the Vedas, the Bhagavat Gita, and the Vishnu Purana.= . . . AI owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavat-Gita. It was the first of books; it was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us.@

His ideas about the nature of the soul and God parallel those found in Hindu scriptures, as is evident from the following. He talked of Aa divine presence@ that permeates the whole creation and all living things. Behind the appearances in the universe, there is a Reality of a Being and Consciousness which is One and Eternal. This One Reality is the Self of all things. God could best be found by looking inward into the core of one=s being, into one=s Soul. By living according to the dictates of an inner Will, one could transcend the materialist world of sense perception, the world of cause and effect. These ideas are best expressed in his lecture on the AOversoul,@ delivered at the Harvard Divinity School in 1844. The transcendentalists believed that intuition rather than reason is the higher faculty. A mystical union with the Divine is the goal. The process of seeking unity with the Divine is inherently individualistic rather than congregational. Contemplative solitude is necessary. Henry David Thoreau lived in a 10=x 15= cabin

on the banks of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. He lived Adeliberately@ in the tradition of ancient Vedic Rishis or seers. His observations are recorded in a short book, Walden (1854). Thoreau wrote:

AIn the morning I bathe my Intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial.@

NEW THOUGHT CHURCHES IN AMERICA Emerson and his compatriots were criticized for being un-Christian and unconventional. Yet their ideas have sprung forth a number of non-traditional Christian churches in America. Theosophists such as Madam Helena Blavatsky and Annie Besant also influenced the birth of new spirituality in the West. Swami Vivekananda traveled to the United States and delivered an impassioned speech at the Parliament of Religions being held in Chicago in 1993. Many other teachers of Hinduism followed. The list is a long one and includes Parmahansa Yogananda, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Swami Muktananda, Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada, Swami Sacchidananda, Swami Vishnu Devananda, Swami Rama and others. They further impacted the birth of new spirituality in the West, incorporated into the so-called New Thought or New Age churches. The New Thought churches include: the Unity Church of Christianity, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Science of Mind, Divine Science, and Temple of the Universe, Theosophy, Self Realization Fellowship and the Centers for Spiritual Awareness. Occasionally, I attend services of the Unity Church of Christianity in Pensacola, Florida. The Unity Church was founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in 1889. I will describe here several of the Unity articles of faith.

1. Unity members affirm the following statement of Truth during their service: AThere is One Power and One Presence in my life and in the universe, God.@ Compare this statement of truth with the opening line of Isa Upanishad: Isa Vasyam Idam Sarvam --- “In the heart of everything, of whatever there is in the universe, dwells the Lord.” The similarity is self-evident.

2. Traditional Christianity posits a dual power: God and Satan. An important

Unity principle is that duality itself springs from God. The Upanishad declares: Brahman (God) is Ekam Advityam, “One without a Second.”

3. The founder of Unity Church, Charles Fillmore and many of his followers

believed in the theory of reincarnation. This is the belief that the Soul is permanent and that it is reborn after death. The cycle of birth and death

continues till the Soul gains divine perfection. Traditional Christianity posits a single life span for man and woman after which comes judgment.

4. Unity is non-sectarian. One does not have to give up one=s religion in order

to join Unity Church. I have never been pressured to convert. I have been allowed to deliver lectures at the Church on Hinduism. This is in agreement with Hinduism which is not a proselytizing religion.

5. Unity does not preach that Jesus was Athe only Begotten Son of God.” Jesus

is regarded as a way-shower, a teacher and a master.

6. Prayer and meditation are an important part of Unity service. Every Sunday service includes a 20-minute period of meditation.

Unity is one of the fastest growing churches in America. The story is told in The Unity Way by Marcus Bach (1982). Unity Church of Christianity is a New Thought church. Its doctrine is similar to the belief system of other New Thought churches that are part of the growing movement. Pensacola, Florida, where I reside supports the following Hinduism related spiritual groups. Pensacola is a medium sized southern city with a metropolitan population of about 400,000. It is not a huge metropolis like Atlanta or New York.

• Integral Knowledge Study Center.

• Self Realization Fellowship.

• The Sai Baba Group.

• Theosophical Society.

• The Siddha Yoga Meditation Center.

• Hatha Yoga classes are held at the Pensacola Junior College, the University of West Florida and at several health clubs in the city. Pensacola supports at least a dozen teachers of Hatha Yoga.

• I taught a class in beginning Sanskrit and Hind at the Unitarian Universalist

Church of Pensacola. Some 30 students attended the class.

The list given here is based purely on personal information and is not a systematic survey. The list does not include Buddhist groups of which there are at least half-a-dozen in Pensacola.

6

The participants in the groups listed above are Americans, not members of the Indian community. Indians are noticed only in their absence. Some time ago, I spent a week at the Siddha Yoga Ashram in South Fallsburg, N.Y. in the Catskill Mountains. The Ashram, spread over three large luxury hotels, was founded by the late Swami Muktananda of Ganeshpuri, Maharashtra. The teachings are derived from Kashmir Shaivism. This Ashram draws thousands of American devotees from all over the United States and some from abroad. Members get up early in the morning to chant verses of the Guru Gita. The Siddha Yoga Ashram in South Fallsburgh is now larger than the mother Ashram at Ganeshpuri in India. www.siddhayoga.org Arsha Vidya Gurukulum at Saylorsbug, PA, in the Pocono Mountains is another popular Ashram. People come to the Ashram to learn Sanskrit, study Vedanta, do Hatha Yoga and meditate. This Ashram is founded by Swami Dayananda Saraswati. Two of the Sanskrit teachers at the Ashram are Americans, one of them a Ph.D. in Sanskrit. www.arshavidya.org Dipak Chopra is popular in the New Thought circles. His books such as Timeless Mind and Ageless Body have sold in the millions. The Autobiography of a Yogi by Swami Parmahansa Yogananda continues to sell well (originally published in 1946). America is a land of fads and the events described here may just be that, a fad. Fads by definition are a temporary phenomenon. I do not share these views. An increasing number of Americans realize that material abundance alone does not provide happiness or lead to fulfillment. This realization leads them to turn to Eastern spirituality. INDIA’S ROLE A disciple once asked Sri Aurobindo if Indians were more spiritual than other people. Sri Aurobindo replied,

ANo, it is not so. No nation is entirely spiritual. Indians are no more spiritual than other people. But behind the Indian race there lives the past spiritual influence.@ . . . AIndia has the greatest chance because of her past and because the spiritual force is accumulated here . . . But if India remains indifferent and sticks to old worn-out forms and refuses to move forward or listen to the call of her soul, then the Truth may recede and try somewhere else.@ CIndia=s Rebirth, pp 175, 184.

HINDUISM AND OTHER EARTH BASED TRADITIONS

7

Hinduism has much in common with other earth based traditions such as Native Americans, Taoists, Pythagoreans, and Shintoists. It sees Divinity residing in Nature, in the hills, on the mountain tops, in the sacred rivers and in the vast ocean. Placers of pilgrimage are often on hill tops (Kedar nath, Badri nath), ocean fronts (Rameshwaram), forests (Vrinda-ban), and river banks (Varanasi). Hinduism survived extreme persecution from monotheistic ideologies; unfortunately, many native traditions disappeared under pressure. The civilizations represented by the European Celts, the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Arabs, the Zoroastrians, and the Native Americans are lost to us. The Communists in China are now engaged in destroying Buddhism in Tibet and Confucianism and Taoism within the Chinese mainland.

Indians must rise to the call of Sri Aurobindo. Indian spirituality is not exclusive or divisive. It accepts all, it belongs to all and it encompasses all. Sanatana Dharma, the Eternal Religion is the common heritage not only of the people of India but of whole mankind. Those from India have a special responsibility. They must first awaken to the Truth themselves. Then they can rise to meet the opportunity that the changed globe offers. The ongoing conflict between radical Islam and the West and the futility of this conflict presents an opportunity for more tolerant religions to prevail in the globe. Sri Aurobindo’s works are not well known. His style is terse and compacted for the uninitiated. A beginning student may read first one of the secondary works on the life and philosophy of Sri Aurobindo. Recommended are Satprem’s The Adventure of Consciousness, and M. P. Pandit’s Sri Aurobindo and his Yoga. Books by Peter Hees, K. D. Sethna and Nirodbaran on Sri Aurobindo are also recommended. Useful web sites: www.miraura.org www.auroville.org www.sriaurobindosociety.org.in ______________________________________________ References: The quotations in this article are from Sri Aurobindo’s Collected Works known as Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (SABCL), published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry, India, 1972. The text of his 15 August 1947 message on All India Radio is also available in Sri Aurobindo and His Ashram, Sri Aurobindo Trust, Pondicherry, 1964.