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Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/The Harmony of Virtue_Volume-03/The Process of Evollution.htm
The Process of Evolution
THE
end of a stage of evolution is usually
marked by a powerful recrudescence of all that has to go out of
the evolution. It is a principle of Nature that in order to get rid
of any powerful tendency or deep-seated association in humanity, whether in the mass or in the individual, it has first to be
exhausted by bhoga or enjoyment, afterwards to be dominated
and weakened by nigraha or control and, finally, when it is weak,
to be got rid of by samyama, rejection or self-dissociation. The
difference between nigraha and samyama is that in the first process
there is a violent struggle to put down, coerce and, if possible, crush the tendency,
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/The Harmony of Virtue_Volume-03/What He Did for Bengal.htm
SIX
What He Did for Bengal
I
HAVE
kept so far to Bankim's achievement
looked at purely as literature. I now come to speak of it in the
historic sense, of its relations to the Bengali language and
potency over the Bengali race. Of this it is not easy to suggest
any image without speaking in superlatives. I had almost said
in one place that he created the language, and if one couples his
name with Madhusudan Dutt's, the statement is hardly too
daring. Before their advent the Bengali language, though very
sweet and melodious, was an instrument with but one string
to it. Except the old poet Bharatchandra, no supreme genius
had taken it in hand; hence while prose ha
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/The Harmony of Virtue_Volume-03/From The Karma Yogin.htm
SECTION SEVEN
FROM THE "KARMAYOGIN"
All the articles collected in this section first appeared
in the weekly review, the Karmayogin (1909-10), except the last
two — Hathayoga and Rajayoga — which came out in The
Standard Bearer (1920-21)
Karmayoga
WE HAVE spoken of Karmayoga as the
application of Vedanta and Yoga to life. To many who take their knowledge
of Hinduism secondhand this may seem a doubtful definition. It is
ordinarily supposed by "practical" minds that Vedanta as a guide to life
and Yoga as a method of spiritual communion are dangerous things which
lead me
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/The Harmony of Virtue_Volume-03/Kalidasa's Characters.htm
-33_Kalidasa's Characters.htm
Kalidasa's Characters
I. PURURAVAS
PURURAVAS
is the poet's second study of
kinghood; he differs substantially from Agnimitra. The latter
is a prince, a soldier and man of the world yielding by the way to
the allurements of beauty, but not preoccupied with passion;
the sub-title of the piece might be, in a more innocent sense than
Victor Hugo's Le Roi s'amuse. He is the mirror of a courteous and
self-possessed gentleman, full of mildness and grace, princely tact, savoir
faire, indulgent kindness, yet energetic withal and
quietly resolute in his pleasure as well as in his serious affairs.
"Ah, Sire," says Dharinie with sharp irony, "if you only showed
as much dip
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/The Harmony of Virtue_Volume-03/precontent.htm
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/The Harmony of Virtue_Volume-03/The Revival of Indian Art.htm
The Revival of Indian Art
THE MAIN DIFFERENCE
THE
greatness of Indian art is the greatness
of all Indian thought and achievement. It lies in the recognition
of the persistent within the transient, of the domination of matter
by spirit, the subordination of the insistent appearances of Prakriti to the inner reality which, in a thousand ways, the Mighty
Mother veils even while she suggests. The European artist,
cabined within the narrow confines of the external, is dominated
in imagination by the body of things and the claims of the phenomenon. Western painting starts from the eye or the imagination;
its master word is either beauty or reality, and, according as
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/The Harmony of Virtue_Volume-03/The Principle of Evil.htm
The Principle of Evil
THE
problem of evil is one that has taxed
human thought and evolved various and conflicting solutions.
To the rationalist who does not believe in anything not material,
the problem does not exist. Everything is in nature as the result
of evolution. Nature is blind and unintelligent and has therefore
no conception of good or evil, the conception belongs to the human mind and is the result of the social sense and the ideas of
pleasure and pain developed in human beings by a perfectly intelligible natural process. It is to men who believe in Intelligence
as governing and developing the world that the problem exists.
Why did evil come into existenc
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/The Harmony of Virtue_Volume-03/The Sources of Poetry.htm
SECTION THREE
THE SOURCES OF POETRY
AND OTHER ESSAYS
The Sources of Poetry
THE
swiftness of the muse has been embodied in the image of Pegasus, the heavenly horse of Greek
legend; it was from the rapid beat of his hoofs on the rock that
Hippocrene flowed. The waters of Poetry flow in a current or a
torrent; where there is a pause or a denial, it is a sign of obstruction in the stream or of imperfection in the mind which the waters
have chosen for their bed and continent. In India we have the
same idea; Saraswati is for us the goddess of poetry, and her
name means the stream or "she who has flowing motion". But
even Saraswati is only an intermediary. Ganga
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/The Harmony of Virtue_Volume-03/On Original Thinking.htm
On Original Thinking
THE
attitude of mankind towards originality of opinion is marked by a natural hesitation and
inconsistency. Admired for its rarity, brilliancy and potency, yet in
practice and for the same qualities it is more generally dreaded,
ridiculed or feared. There is no doubt that it tends to disturb
what is established. Therefore tamasic men and tamasic states
of society take especial pains to discourage independence of
opinion. Their watchword is authority. Few societies have been
so tamasic, so full of inertia and contentment in increasing
narrowness as Indian society in later times; few have been so
eager to preserve themselves in inertia. Few therefor
Resource name: /E-Library/Works of Sri Aurobindo/English/SABCL/The Harmony of Virtue_Volume-03/ Apsaras.htm
IV. APSARAS
There is nothing more charming, more attractive in Kalidasa
than his instinct for sweet and human beauty; everything he
touches becomes the inhabitant of a moonlit world of romance and yet — there is
the unique gift, the consummate poetry — remains perfectly natural, perfectly near to us, perfectly human.
Shelley's Witch of Atlas and Keats' Cynthia are certainly lovely
creations, but they do not live; misty, shimmering, uncertain, seen in some
half-dream where the moon is full and strange indefinable shapes begin to come out from the skirts of the forest;
they charm our imagination, but our hearts take no interest in
them. They are the creations of the mystic Celtic i