SRI AUROBINDO THOUGHTS

ON FIC
Sri Aurobindo was not averse to polemics, even
aggressive defence, when it suited his purpose. Poor
Archer, rationalist hoist with his own petard, must have
regretted his indiscretion! But the sweep of Sri
Aurobindo’s thought easily gets rid of the pinpricks and
perversities of the puerile protagonist and moves
majestically into larger realms and finer tones.
Essentially a reconciler and a futurist, the balance of his
outlook is revealed in his own words: ‘If we define
civilisation as a harmony of spirit, body and mind,
where has that harmony been altogether real? The real
and perfect civilisation waits to be discovered.’ Few
authors can help us to that discovery better than Sri
Aurobindo.

Not only has he come out with a ringing rationale of the

values of Indian society, its religion, spirituality, art,
literature and polity, but he has also pointed to the need
for a larger reconciliation beyond a cultural quarrel
complicated with a political question (as it then was).

There is a consistency and centrality in his approach,

even a profound simplicity. True to the Indian insight,
he holds on to the idea of the law of one’s inner
being, svabhava, svadharma. Not a revivalist or a
reactionary, no idle worshipper of the past, not
unmindful of its errors and limitations and of the
factors that made for deviation and decadence, Sri
Aurobindo concedes — indeed insists — on the need for
new forms in keeping with changed circumstances. We
cannot be ‘ourselves alone’. But the novel formations
will be a self-expression from within and not servilely
borrowed from abroad, assimilation and not imitation.
It is hard to quarrel with these self-evident
propositions.

And yet — a revised semantics and our post-

independence intellectuals have reduced the claims of
Indian civilisation and the Renaissance to a cliché. Was
there a Renaissance? they ask in a surprised, sceptical
tone. Also, alas, whatever remained of the idea, modern
politics, and politicians, seem to have taken the life out
of it. Especially since 1947 the elders of the tribe grow
ever more remote. In such an eroded milieu, it becomes
a moral duty to draw attention to the lost horizon.

When an ancient wisdom fades into the past all cannot

be well. Because of a false self-view the nation has been
running after wrong and inferior aims and methods;
generally speaking, it has moved out of the centre.
Hence the continuing crisis. But, Sri Aurobindo will not
allow us to forget the fact, India can develop and serve
humanity only by being herself.
Earlier civilisations had been able to contain
instrumental values, like politics and economics; ours
has succumbed to these. Sri Aurobindo’s idea of
spirituality, of spirit returning upon life and not away
from it, makes possible a breakthrough and a total
civilisation which has all the fascination of the difficult.

Undeterred by deviations, Sri Aurobindo had seen this

to be the inner meaning, the unfinished chapter of
Indian history as of the worldwide crisis today. The
suggestion was meant not to flatter but to challenge us.

In the meditation between life and spirit — the essence of the

Indian civilization and experiment — Sri Aurobindo has given
us a passionate purpose, the hope of a generalised spiritual life
or society as the true sense of the past. Let young India, lost
and bewildered, earn it the hard way. Decision is another
name for destiny and the law of one’s being.