Author: Beloo Mehra (2019). Published under the title ‘When Young India Awakes’ in Sri Aurobindo’s Action, Vol. 50 (7), July 2019, pp. 8-10 CONTINUED FROM Part 6 When Young India Awakes CHAPTER VI The train was running at its normal speed. Yuvaan, Rishi, Pranav and Aman all were lazily stretched out on their berths,... Continue Reading →
Book Review – The Infidel Next Door (by Dr. Rajat Mitra)
“…if you will not learn from history, you will have to be taught by a harsher teacher the same lesson—and taught perhaps at a much more tremendous price…” (Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, Vol. 7, p. 770) Dr. Rajat Mitra’s ‘The Infidel Next Door’ is a book divided in 100 chapters. But each of these small chapters... Continue Reading →
Notes on Reading ‘Abhaya’ in the Light of Sri Aurobindo
“I revere Krishna today as one of the first architects of a unified India. Yes, I believe he did exist in the obscure history of India…. Abhaya has been my window to explore and experience Krishna Vaasudeva.” This is how Saiswaroopa Iyer introduces the second lead of her debut novel, Abhaya, in... Continue Reading →
A Note on the Future of Inter-religious Harmony in India
Reblogged from the ‘Beauty’ blog – an excerpt from Matriwords e-book ‘The Thinking Indian’
Beauty Interprets, Expresses, Manifests the Eternal
[The following is an excerpt from a longer essay titled ‘Hinduism and the Future of Inter-religious Harmony in India’ published in my e-book – The Thinking Indian: Essays on Indian Socio-cultural Matters in the Light of Sri Aurobindo.]
Let us now go a bit deeper to see if Sri Aurobindo means something more when he says that Hinduism would have or could have taken religions like Islam and Christianity within itself. To do so it is also important to consider this assimilation process that is being spoken of here, and also what is meant when we say that Hinduism is an inclusive religion.
In order to remain inclusive, Hinduism should have the capacity to integrate the spiritual realizations, truths, and experiences revealed within the fold of other religious traditions, otherwise it is not inclusive at all. Going by historical record, we can see that what we now know as…
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Chintan: India and Me – Part 7: Essence
Have you read the previous parts: 1, 2, 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, 6? The group meets once again in their usual garden-classroom after an extended break. After the initial catching up and a small concentration led by Mridula Di, the group settles down for the day's session. For the first few minutes Mridula Di briefly revisits some... Continue Reading →
The Inner Resources of A Nation (by M. S. Srinivasan)
Some writings are so important that they deserve not only to be read again. But also to be shared again. Like this one by M. S. Srinivasan.
“The Spirit is a higher infinite of verities; life is a lower infinite of possibilities which seek to grow and find their own truth and fulfilment in the light of these verities. Our intellect, our will, our ethical and our aesthetic being are the reflectors and the mediators. The method of the West is to exaggerate life and to call down as much—or as little—as may be of the higher powers to stimulate and embellish life. But the method of India is on the contrary to discover the spirit within and the higher hidden intensities of the superior powers and to dominate life in one way or another so as to make it responsive to and expressive of the spirit and in that way increase the power of life. Its tendency with the intellect, will, ethical, aesthetic and emotional being is to sound indeed their normal mental possibilities, but also to upraise them towards the greater light and power of their own highest intuitions. The work of the renaissance in India must be to make this spirit, this higher view of life, this sense of deeper potentiality once more a creative, perhaps a dominant power in the world. But to that truth of itself it is as yet only vaguely awake; the mass of Indian action is still at the moment proceeding under the impress of the European* motive and method and, because there is a spirit within us to which they are foreign, the action is poor in will, feeble in form and ineffective in results, for it does not come from the roots of our being. Only in a few directions is there some clear light of self-knowledge. It is when a greater light prevails and becomes general that we shall be able to speak, not only in prospect but in fact, of the renaissance of India.”
~ (Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India and Other Essays on Indian Culture, pp. 15-16)
* may replace with Western/Modern-rationalistic
-Mr. M.S. Srinivasan, Senior Research Associate, Sri Aurobindo Institute of Research in Social Sciences, Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry, India.
The need of the hour for India today is not a nostalgic dreaming of our past greatness but to think, dream and work for building a new and greater India of the future. But the future cannot be created in a vacuum; it has to be built out of the essence of the past. The power to shape the future has to be drawn from the roots of our national vitality and the spiritual and psychological resources of our nation.
In the ultimate analysis, the long-term viability and progress or the “sustainable development” of a nation depend not so much on its material, ecological or technological resources but primarily on its spiritual and psychological resources. And the greatest of the spiritual and psychological resources of a nation are its people. In…
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Chintan: India and Me: Part 6: Connection
Have you read the previous parts: 1, 2, 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b? This evening Mridula Di decided to take up the topic the group had just started grappling with in their last discussion. About the outer sheaths and the inner core of an individual and nation. About the connection between the inner and outer.... Continue Reading →
India, Indology and Deep Colonialism (by Subhodeep Mukhopadhyay -Conclusion)
READ PARTS 1, 2, 3 CONTINUED FROM PART 4 THE WAY FORWARD... Encourage Sanskrit Learning Sanskrit is the language of Indian culture and ethos. The day Sanskrit dies, Indian culture or Sanskriti will also die and Hindus or Indians as a unique people with unique set of values will cease to exist. Anti-Sanskrit forces... Continue Reading →
India, Indology and Deep Colonialism (by Subhodeep Mukhopadhyay -Part 4)
CONTINUED FROM PART 3 THE WAY FORWARD Now that we understand the landscape and the forces at work, how do we deal with this situation? Below I propose a 7-point agenda based on opinions of experts and scholars like Rajiv Malhotra, Sanjeev Sanyal, Chamu Shastri, Roddam Narasimha and others. Decolonize our National History History curriculum in... Continue Reading →
India, Indology and Deep Colonialism (by Subhodeep Mukhopadhyay -Part 3)
CONTINUED FROM PART 2 “The ideals that governed the spirit and body of Indian society were of the highest kind, its social order secured an inexpugnable basic stability, the strong life force that worked in it was creative of an extraordinary energy, richness and interest, and the life organised remarkable in its opulence, variety... Continue Reading →