Five Sri Aurobindo and the Indian Intelligentsia The Indian intelligentsia of the last half a century has had many problems with Sri Aurobindo. Unlike many others, he refused to exchange our old Indian illuminations, however dark they may have grown to us, for a derivative European enlightenment. Not only did he reject the superstitions of popular Hinduism he also rejected the superstitions of materialistic science. Although educated in the West, he was not blind to a fatal limitation to its power and thought — the tendency to regard spirituality as "a riddle, nebulous metaphysics, yogic hallucination".1 He was a champion of the spiritu

Preface This is a collection of six essays all of which took shape originally as lectures to be delivered on certain formal occasions or at conferences. Most of these essays deal with issues currently being debated in the media and in seminars and conferences at various places in the country. A debate becomes richer if there are several perspectives to consider. It is my feeling that the spiritual perspective has not received much attention in these discussions. I have tried to project that perspective through these six essays. Some of these talks have subsequently been published in journals. I am grateful to those who sponsored the original lectures and also to t

To be guided by the spiritual ideal is the very opposite of regarding this life as a temporal vanity. Spirituality does not oblige us to become monastic ascetics since it aims at perfection of life on earth. Equally unfounded is the assumption that spirituality means the moulding of the whole type of national being to suit the limited dogmas, forms, and tenets of a particular religion. Such an attempt would not only be undesirable but also impossible in India—a country full of the most diverse religious opinions. In fact, spirituality is the only way of coping with a plurality of religions. Spirituality does not oblige us to exclude anything whatsoever from our sc

Publishers' Note In this collection of essays only two were originally written in English ("The World War" and "The Situation of To-day"), the others are translations. The reminiscences of Nolini Kanta Gupta and those of Suresh Chandra Chak-ravarty were written in Bengali and those of Amrita (Old Long Since) in Tamil. All these essays, both in the original and in translation, were at the outset published in journals and some subsequently in book-form. The collection here is presented for the first time in book-form ; it may possess, we hope, more than an antiquarian interest. HOME

XIV ETERNAL YOUTH This is about the time when you, the young, the children had not arrived here. The few of us who were here had grown up, many had become aged, even old, that is to say, had passed the middle age. I often wondered, well, we were here, had been growing up and becoming old, what would be the nature of this institution long after, 20 or 30 years after? Would it not be the home of a band of old men, of monastic sannyasis, an immobile structure without growth or evolution? However wise or accomplished we might be inwardly, even remain young or green in consciousness, however far might our vision stretch towards the unseen future, yet externally,

II THE SITUATION OF TODAY 11-2-1965 It is not of today, nor of yesterday, but also of the day before yesterday and the day before and the day before. The story is as old as human consciousness itself. Whether it will be the same tomorrow remains to be seen. It is the fate of all spiritual endeavour to raise in its wake a contrary movement that declares and demands its negation. The Buddha says: surrounded as we are by enemies, let us not be inimical to them. The Christ, as we all know, when being led with a crown of thorns on his head and the cross on his back, heaved a sigh and prayed to the Lord to pardon all those who did not know wh

MURARIPUKUR — (1) At last I made up my mind finally to take the plunge, that I must now join the Manicktolla Gardens in Muraripukur. That meant goodbye to College, goodbye to the ordinary life. A little while ago, Prafulla Chakravarti had come and joined. Both of us belonged to Rungpore, both were of nearly the same age, and intimate friends. This too pushed me to my decision. I had already taken a vow about a year ago, in front of a picture of Kali at a secret ceremony at dead of night, a vow written out in blood drawn from the chest, that I should dedicate my life to the whole-hearted service of the Motherland. With me there was a companion, and also a local

III JANAKA AND YAJNAVALKYA King Janaka was a great king and a great sage. He wielded an empire without and equally an empire within: he had realised the Truth, known Brahman. He was svarat and samrāt. A friend and intimate of his was Rishi Yajnavalkya, who also was a sage — in fact, considered to be the greatest sage of the time, a supreme knower of Brahman. Once upon a time King Janaka invited sages from everywhere, whoever wanted to come to the assembly. The king from time to time used to call such assemblies for spiritual discussion and interchange of experiences. This time he summoned the assembly for a special reason. He had collected a herd of one tho

V THE GOLDEN RULE Today I shall speak to you of the golden rule. When we were children we were taught, specially at school, at home too, certain golden rules. If you observe these rules you become good, good boys and good girls, you are loved and appreciated by all. These rules are simple and very common-place, you know them all and must have tried them. For example such things as "speak the truth, do not tell a lie, obey your parents, respect your teachers, do not hurt anybody" etc. etc. That was the basis on which one was to build one's character, mould one's nature, prepare for a pure stainless noble life. They are good, these rules, so far as they go: but to s

VI LIBERTY AND SELF-CONTROL We are a larger assembly here today — we have increased in number.... Now, we all want to be good boys and good girls, is it not? Nobody wants to be a bad boy or a bad girl; but the problem is how to be a good boy or girl and how not to be a bad boy or girl. In what does goodness consist? You all know the fine gesture that Mother taught us once. Gesture means a physical movement — here a physical movement to control yourself; control, self-control is a very important, a very necessary item of our life. So the Mother once said: supposing you are very angry and you are inclined to give a blow to your comrade, then, the Mother's advi