CHAPTER XXXIV   THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY    A RELIGION of humanity may be either an intellecutal and sentimental ideal, a living dogma with intellectual, psychological and practical effects, or else a spiritual aspiration and rule of living and partly the sign, partly the cause of a change of soul in humanity. The intellectual religion of humanity already to a certain extent exists, partly as a conscious trend in the minds of a few, partly as a potent shadow in the consciousness of the race. It is the shadow of a spirit that is yet unborn, but is preparing for its birth. This material world of ours, besides its fully embodied things of the pres

CHAPTER XXX   THE PRINCIPLE OF FREE CONFEDERATION   THE issues of the original Russian idea of a confederation of free self-determining nationalities were greatly complicated by the transitory phenomena of a revolution which has sought, like the French Revolution before it, to transform immediately and without easy intermediate stages the whole basis not only of government, but of society, and has, moreover, been carried out under pressure of a disastrous war. This double situation led inevitably to an unexampled anarchy and, incidentally, to the forceful domination of an extreme party which represented the ideas of the Revolution in t

CHAPTER XXVIII   DIVERSITY IN ONENESS   IT is essential to keep constantly in view the fundamental powers and realities of life if we are not to be betrayed by the arbitrary rule of the logical reason and its attachment to the rigorous and limiting idea into experiments which, however convenient in practice and however captivating to a unitarian and symmetrical thought, may well destroy the vigour and impoverish the roots of life. For that which is perfect and satisfying to the system of the logical reason may yet ignore the truth of life and the living needs of the race. Unity is an idea which is not at all arbitrary or unreal; for unity is the very

CHAPTER XXIX   THE IDEA OF A LEAGUE OF NATIONS    THE only means that readily suggests itself by which a necessary group-freedom can be preserved and yet the unification of the human race achieved, is to strive not towards a closely organised world-State, but towards a free, elastic and progressive world-union. If this is to be done, we shall have to discourage the almost inevitable tendency which must lead any unification by political, economic and administrative means, in a word, by the force of machinery, to follow the analogy of the evolution of the nation-State. And we shall have to encourage and revive that force of idealistic nationa

CHAPTER XXIII   FORMS OF GOVERNMENT   . THE idea of a world-union of free nations and empires, loose at first, but growing closer-knit with time and experience, seems at first sight the most practicable form of political unity; it is the only form indeed which would be immediately practicable, supposing the will to unity to become rapidly effective in the mind of the race. On the other hand, it is the State idea which is now dominant. The State has been the most successful and efficient means of unification and has been best able to meet the various needs which the progressive aggregate life of societies has created for itself and is still creating. It

CHAPTER XX   THE DRIVE TOWARDS ECONOMIC CENTRALISATION   THE objective organisation of a national unity is not yet complete when it has arrived at the possession of a single central authority and the unity and uniformity of its political, military and strictly administrative functions. There is another side of its organic life, the legislative and its corollary, the judicial function, which is equally important; the exercise of legislative power becomes eventually indeed, although it was not always, the characteristic sign of the sovereign. Logically, one would suppose that the conscious and organised determination of its own rules of lif

INTRODUCTION   AT THE time when this book was being brought to its close, the first attempt at the foundation of some initial hesitating beginning of the new world-order which both governments and peoples had begun to envisage as a permanent necessity if there was to be any order in the world at all, was under debate and consideration but had not yet been given a concrete and practical form; but this had to come and eventually a momentous beginning was made. It took the name and appearance of what was called a League of Nations. It was not happy in its conception, well-inspired in its formation or destined to any considerable longevity or a supremely successful career. But that

Ramayana, the story of the Sanskrit Ramayana freely retold in Bengali verse by KRITTIBAS. (A) a 3:426 14:319 (Bengal) National College The Bengal National College and School, Calcutta, was set up by the National Council of Education, Bengal, on 14 August 1906 with Sri Aurobindo as the principal. Sri Aurobindo, however, resigned on August 2, 1907. In 1910, the college merged with the Bengal Technical Institute founded by Sri Tarak Nath Palit; the united institution came to be known as the Bengal National College and Technical School. Some time later, after the arts side of the college met with failure, the technical side was developed into the Jadavpore College of Engineering and Technol

  The Life Divine CHAPTER XXI THE ASCENT OF LIFE Let the path of the soul to the godhead lead up towards the original ocean by the working of the Mind.                                                                                                                                                             Rig- Veda         The great Delight of things conquering the third law of status affirms and governs all by the soul of universality ; then in his winged and wide ascent he manifests the fourth status and adheres firmly to the ocean that is the fountain of these waters.                                            id .       

  The Life Divine. CHAPTER XVIII MIND AND SUPERMIND         He discovered that Mind was the Brahman.                                                                     Taittiriya Upanishad.        Indivisible, but as if divided in beings.                                                                Gita.        The conception which we have so far been striving to form is that of the essence only of the supramental life which the divine soul possesses securely in the being of Sachchidananda, but which the human soul has to manifest in this body of Sachchidananda formed here into the mould of a mental and physical living. But so