|
APPENDIX II
SRI AUROBINDO AND THE SEEING WORLD
Too vast and too deep for the human mind, Sri Aurobindo has ever been a Truth and a Power active in the subjective world. And those open to him have been able to sense something of what he is. The bulk of the race, though more or less influenced by the Power, have yet to rise to the height which can help them to a clearer perception of his work. Happily, however, there have been seeing minds here and there who have already had some glimpse. We have in the body of the book had occasion to give a few instances, notably, of Poet Rabindranath Tagore who spoke of Sri Aurobindo in the immortal words of his soul, of Romain Rolland, Sri K. M. Munshi, Governor of Uttar Pradesh. Here are a few more.
Says Rev. E. F. F. Hill in the World Review for October 1949:
" Aurobindo is the greatest contemporary philosopher and great in the company of the greatest mystics of all time. . . . Aurobindo's psychological insight is so sharp and clear, and the universe which it explores is so vast that, in comparison Western psychology, even the work of Freud, when one allows in full the measure of its greatness, is like the groping of a child in the dark. The work of Aurobindo compels, not comparison, but concordance with the Fourth Gospel. Here are two men, peers in their right in the realm of highest knowledge, and peers in relation to each other. Separated by twenty centuries, drawing their sustenance from different cultures but their inspiration from one spiritual source, ' ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free ', is one common aspect of their message. . . .
" It is not surprising that, while to many of his
countrymen he is the greatest single influence in the recovery of the great soul and spirit, ' the living embodiment of all the past spiritual achievement of India and also the Master-Leader of her future spiritual destiny ', his originality is, at the same time, seen to lie in the way in which he has created a synthesis between her past spiritual achievement and modern European thought, so that the future spiritual destiny of India and the future destiny of Europe are inescapably the same destiny. . . .
" We are at a turning-point in the spiritual history of man. Aurobindo is the embodiment of a revolution in human life which new knowledge, new powers, new capacities, are creating at this hour. . . . Because Aurobindo is in this world, the world is becoming able to express progressively Unity and Diversity instead of Division, Love instead of Hatred, Truth-consciousness instead of Falsehood, Freedom instead of Tyranny, Immortality instead of Death; it is becoming progressively that which it is: a movement of the Spirit in itself."
Says Dr. C. R. Reddy, Vice-Chancellor of the Andhra University, in his address at the convocation, December 1948:
" In all humility of devotion, I hail Sri Aurobindo as the sole sufficing genius of the age. He is more than the hero of a nation. He is amongst the Saviours of humanity, who belong to all ages and all nations, the Sanatanas, who leaven our existence with their eternal presence, whether we are aware of it or not."
Says Sir Francis Younghusband in The Times Literary Supplement of July 8, 1944.
" Of all modern Indian writers Aurobindo—successively poet, critic, scholar, thinker, nationalist, humanist —is the most significant and perhaps the most interesting. . . . He has written, if one may say so, at unconscionable length, on ultimate problems . . . that even his early essays are full of fertile ideas." And he has crystallised the mellow wisdom of a lifetime into a
luminous prose in The Life Divine, which, it is not too much to say, is one of the master-works of our age. The book has length, breadth and height. In a real sense, it enriches our experience."
In a letter to a disciple of Sri Aurobindo, published in the Indian press, the same writer says: "I really do quite genuinely consider The Life Divine the greatest book which has been produced in my time."
Says Gabriele Mistral, Chile's Nobel Laureate, in the The Aryan Path, February 1947:
" While Tagore awakened the latent music in me, another Indian, Sri Aurobindo, brought me to religion. He opened the way to my religious consecration. Indeed my debt to India is very great and is due in part to Tagore and in part to Sri Aurobindo."
Says Prof. F. Speigelberg, Department of Asiatic Studies, Stanford University, California:
" In 1947 I read Sri Aurobindo's The Life Divine and was completely knocked over. I have never known a philosopher so all-embracing in his metaphysical structure as Sri Aurobindo, none before him had the same vision." Mother India, September 17, 1949. " I can foresee a day when the teachings—which are already making headway—of the greatest spiritual voice from India, Sri Aurobindo, will be known all over America and be a vast power of illumination." Mother India.
Says Prof. Pitirim A. Sorokin, the world-famous social thinker, Chairman, Department of Sociology, Harvard University:
" From the scientific and philosophical standpoint the works of Sri Aurobindo are a sound antidote to the pseudo-scientific psychology, psychiatry, and educational art of the West. Sri Aurobindo's Life Divine and other Yoga-treatises are among the most important works of our time in philosophy, ethics and humanities. Sri Aurobindo himself is one of the greatest living sages of our time; the most eminent moral leader."
Says Morwenna Donnelly, an Irish writer, in the London quarterly The Wind and the Rain, Vol. V, No. I:
" Since he is a poet as well as a mystic, Sri Aurobindo's vision is both creative and prophetic. I believe there is no greater mystical thinker in the world today."
Says Prof. Raymond Frank Piper, Department of Philosophy, Syracuse University, U.S.A.:
" The greatest gift of Sri Aurobindo to me as a philosopher is his magnificent perspective of existence, in three directions: the dignity and destiny of man; the meaning of long-time evolution, the laboratory of the Divine; and the universal dynamic of Cosmic Intelligence. . . .
" I could pick a thousand sentences from his writings and say of any one of them: trace its implications and you will be led into the deep wonderlands of philosophic wisdom. I have never read an author who can compact so much of truth into one sentence as this master. Gandhi is the greatest saint, Tagore the greatest poet of modern India, but Sri Aurobindo is the greatest thinker, indeed has attained incomparable triune greatness, as poet, philosopher, and saint."
Says Prof. Tan Yun-Shan, Director of the Chinese Department of the Visvahharati University, in his foreword to Sisirkumar Mitra's book Sri Aurobindo: A Homage:
" I was exceedingly happy when I was able to go to Pondicherry in November 1939, and pay my deepest homage to Sri Aurobindo, the Maha-Yogi of India. . . . I returned from Pondicherry with a heart full of feelings too deep for words. From what I have seen and felt there, I am convinced that Sri Aurobindo has evolved a practical philosophy of life which is singular in the history of man's spiritual achievement, and which is sure to fulfil its purpose, viz. the inner regeneration of man."
Says Dorothy M. Richardson in her letter to Dr. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar:
" Has there ever existed a more synthetic consciousness than that of Sri Aurobindo? Unifying he is to the limit of the term."
|