The Mystical and the Misty: An Answer to Some Queries about Sri Aurobindo A READER from abroad has asked for a clarification of certain points apropos of an article in Mother India of July 14, 1951. He writes: "I read in Prithwi Singh's Sri Aurobindo and the Mother: 'Sri Aurobindo's decision to leave his own body does not invalidate the truth of his teachings.' I would like to hear, in clear and understandable words, what is meant by 'Aurobindo's decision to leave his own body'. Death does not depend on our decision unless we commit suicide. Was this the case with Aurobindo? If so, how did he do it,

How Shall We Grow in Greatness? WITH the withdrawal of the British from India we got the feeling of a new life. There was a sense of bright beginnings, a sudden intensity of national consciousness as if we had just been born as a great country. Naturally, with freedom freshly won, we think of ourselves as a young people whose future is waiting to be moulded according to its heart's desires. And we are casting our eyes all around for examples and models to guide us in our endeavour to build a beautiful and prosperous India. But let us not forget one basic fact. The feeling of youth that we have now is not due solely to our liberation from political bon

Miracle THE Indian mind and the European have many points in common, but there is also a marked difference. The difference can perhaps be best brought to light by referring to the word "miracle". The non-Indian world is always prone to be startled by supernatural events: the mouth gapes, the eyes bulge out and the hands shoot up. The unexpected has happened! The impossible has taken place! The Unknown has drawn aside its veil! In short, a miracle has occurred. The true Indian world has no such surprises. Magic and mystery are part and parcel of its life; the supernatural is not a sudden incursion from "nowhere" but just a visit from the other parts of the same building which we our

Preface The essays collected here are cullings, retouched in a few places, from the editorial contributions, either openly avowed or under the pen-name "Libra", to the fortnightly review - recently converted into a monthly - Mother India. The opening words of the manifesto in the first number ran: "We are here to answer a grave need of the times. This country has gained independence, but it has not found its proper line of life. There is a welter of ideologies and our minds are divided. A host of parties has sprung up, each with a different aim. In the clash of parties the right destiny of India is forgotten ." For nearly five years Mother India has carried on its work of

A Defence of Hinduism RECENTLY a well-known leader of the scheduled classes, announced his desire to embrace Buddhism because of the lot of the "untouchables" in Hindu society - a lot which seemed to him a pointer to a lack in Hinduism of the sense of human brotherhood. He also declared that if Hinduism bore the caste system for several centuries it had failed "to yield anything substantive". According to him, Buddhism stands in striking contrast to this religion. What shall we say to these highly "allergic" criticisms? The institution of untouchability was indeed a stain on the social scheme that had got established in India. But with the advent of the modern

-012_Sri Aurobindo- The Poet  Rejoinders to Recent Criticisms.htm Sri Aurobindo - The Poet: Rejoinders to Recent Criticisms I IN the Illustrated Weekly of India (July 31,1949) appeared a comment on Sri Aurobindo's poetry. It was by C.R.M. in Books and Comments and written apropos of my study, The Poetic Genius of Sri Aurobindo. After calling my book interesting, C.R.M. went on to say: "For Mr. Sethna, Sri Aurobindo's Muse is a case of 'this side idolatry', and I am not so sure that genius is so rampant here as he claims. The merits seem to me to consist of a high level of spiritual utterance, abundant metrical skill, and a sound poetic sensitivity based on the classics and much

The Spiritual Life and World-Renunciation: A Letter to One Attracted by the Cloister I READ your letter with great interest and my mind went back to my own early days of groping and struggling. When the hunger for the Divine first awoke in me, it was something devastating no less than uplifting. The devastating part of it was to a considerable extent unavoidable, because so much of my ordinary movement of consciousness was contrary to the God-ward urge of the inmost soul. I turned with disgust from my .way of life, and I yearned to sit alone on some Himalayan height and lose myself in samadhi. No

Our Ancient Wisdom and Its Genuine Revival THERE is at present, because of many causes, a general decline of values and a general confusion of mind all over the earth. In India this state of affairs has a critical significance obtaining nowhere else. Not that the Indians are in comparison with other peoples more demoralised or distracted. But India has been in history the home of the immensest aspiration and the intensest search after the Good, the Beautiful and the True. The dimming of the fire in the hearts of her inhabitants and the paling of the light in their minds are, therefore, the gravest of tragedies and most to be fought against. For, i

August 15: Its World-Significance Pointers in Modern History AUGUST 15, India's Independence Day, has in modern history associations both spectacular and profound. We may say that this date marks the very birth of the power by which international politics was gigantically rocked into the manifold commotion that gave shape to our modern world. For, though it is the French Revolution that brought modern history into being, the forces that exploded in 1789 could never have found a firm organised life if there had not arisen the military colossus we call Napoleon Bonaparte, gathering up the new France into a scourge of God

Revivalism and Secularism AGAIN and again in current Indian politics feelings have run high about the issue of the Secular State and the question has sprung to the fore: Should our country, with its huge Hindu majority, be revivalist or, because of its multi-communal character, secular? If we are to see straight, the confusion which hangs round the terms "revivalism" and "secularism" must be cleared. People who call themselves progressive look upon all revivalist tendencies as if they were the plague: they understand these tendencies to be pure and unadulterated communalism. Intolerant Hindu sectarianism on the rampage is their notion of whoever seems to b