Rajgopalchari 1878-1972   This chapter presents the life of one freedom fighter who had the courage and honesty to chart his own path according to his deepest convictions. His name is Rajagopalchari or as he was affectionately called Rajaji. Although in the first part of his political life he was almost totally influenced and under the spell of Gandhi, in the later part of his career he had the inner strength and courage to differ from him and even to stand up, sometimes as a lonely crusader. Today, when one looks in hindsight, one feels that had the Congress party listened to Rajaji, the course of Indian history might have been different. In this contest, we sh

Appendix   Two letters from Sri Aurobindo on the Second World War   1. You have said that you have begun to doubt whether it was the Mother's war and ask me to make you feel again that it is. I affirm again to you most strongly that this is the Mother's war. You should not think of it as a fight for certain nations against others or even for India; it is a struggle for an ideal that has to establish itself on earth in the life of humanity, for a Truth that has yet to realise itself fully and against a darkness and falsehood that are trying to overwhelm the earth and mankind in the immediate future. It is the forces behind the battle that have to be seen and not this or th

The British Conquest of India   Before we come to the main theme of the book, we shall make a brief survey of the advent of the British and the psychological factors that ultimately led to the aspiration for a united India.   The British came to India as traders early in the 17th century. The Moghul emperor Jehangir permitted the English to trade in India in 1608. As a result, the English established a factory at Surat. However, India's connection with the West had started earlier with the Portuguese, who were the first Europeans to establish themselves in India and the last to leave. They arrived as early as 1498 via the ocean route discovered by

Subramaniam Bharati   It will be difficult to enumerate the heroic qualities as they are normally understood in the personality of Subramaniam Bharati. However, there is heroism and heroism; indeed there is the heroism of the patriot and poet who loves his nation and pours out this love in poetry. This literature which becomes immortal inspires men to acts of great valour and self-sacrifice. Of this type Subramaniam Bharati stands out as one of the great exemplars.   Bharati was born in Ettayapuram, in Tamil Nadu, a place well known for the great arts of poetry and music. Its fame had spread throughout the southern parts of India and Tamil scholars

Brahmacharins in Search of Knowledge (A few selections from the Upanishad) I Truthfulness Satyakama Jabala said to his Mother Jabala: "Venerable mother: I wish to join school as a brahmacharin (pupil wishing to learn the true knowledge). Please tell me from what family I hail." She said to him: "My child, I don't know from what family you are. In my youth, I went about in many places as a maid-servant; during that period I begot you; I myself do not know from what family you hail; I am called Jabala; and you are called Satyakama; so call yourself then Satyakama, the son of Jabala." Then he we

Plato among his students, Pompeian mosaic, National Museum, Naples Knower of Reality Introduction An allegory can reveal a message more powerfully than long and abstruse discourses or compositions weighted with analysis and arguments. Many great teachers have used allegories or parables to expound or explain a message or a lesson. One of the most famous allegories in the history of human thought is found in the seventh book of Plato s Republic: "The Simile of the Cave ". The main purpose of this allegory is to describe the ignorant state of humanity and its possible passage to a state of knowledge. According to Plato, most men are like

Sufi Wisdom Introduction In an age where critical reason is said to reign supreme, claims of supra-rational knowledge are apt to be brushed aside as superstition or obscurantism. But recent breakthroughs in science, psychology and other branches of knowledge indicate that human civilization is reaching a point where we can no longer be so dogmatic in our rejection of the claim that beyond ordinary human consciousness lie higher ranges of knowledge, wisdom and power more luminous and more relevant to the contemporary needs of mankind than the knowledge and power of reason. In Western history, Plato's philosophy marks a great transition between the

Communion with Nature Introduction Many of us, usually in moments of solitude and in the midst of natural surroundings, have experienced a quietening of our external faculties and have felt ourselves in contact with or in the presence of some other being, some other spirit. As this experience deepens, we may feel at times an invisible presence in objects around us — trees, rocks, streams. With a little self-observation, we may also feel something in us which responds to this being, this presence, and establishes an identity with it. For some hours, or even for some days, we are full of this experience — it hovers around us and is in us, and we a

The Good Teacher and the Good Pupil An Overview For the last two hundred years or more there has been a growing realization that the teacher should be child-centred and should help the child's innate potential to blossom fully. Learner-centred teaching is being advanced in progressive schools all over the world. Indeed, if we examine the examples of good teachers of the past or of the present, we shall find that they have always been learner-oriented: and good pupils have blossomed like lovely flowers when tended with care, love and understanding or even when left to themselves with interventions from teachers when necessary. A good teacher is always a h

The Would-be Gentleman Introduction Monsieur Jourdain, the "would-be gentleman", is by no means an ideal pupil. What prompts him is not really an urge to learn, but the vain desire to be recognized as a "gentleman". Nor would the various teachers that he uses to further his ambitions receive our approbation; they are satisfied to exploit his naive obsession to serve their own ends. Why, then, are we including this extract? Perhaps we could say that even about serious matters it is sometimes good to laugh. And Moliere presents Mr. Jourdain and his many teachers in a way that, while making us laugh, communicates powerfully his deep aversion to w