Shall we respond to this call for regeneration in the right spirit?

Anirban said...

I came across this passage in Dr. Karan Singh's well known & well read book which was his thesis on Sri Aurobindo- Prophet of Indian Nationalism. It may help to give a fresh direction & serve as a pointer for future action:

"Sri Aurobindo was no crude, narrow revivalist for whom everything indigenous was good & everything foreign bad. On the contrary he had a clear awareness of the depths to which his country had fallen & the shortcomings of its national spirit & life. He felt strongly, however, that these misfortunes were not the result of any ingrained weakness in the Indian character - as the British sought to prove - but were due merely to a temporary set of unfavourable circumstances, the most adverse of which was the very fact of alien rule. He felt that a revival & regeneration of true Indian culture was a pre-requisite for her political freedom, and all his political writings were directed towards encouraging & hastening such a revival. As spiritualism was the keynote of Sri Aurobindo's approach to political thought and action, the regeneration that he aspired towards was no mere growth of national chauvinism but a deep spiritual rebirth.

He writes:

"Those who have freed nations have first passed through the agony of utter renunciation before their efforts were crowned by success, and those who aspire to free India will first have to pay the price which the Mother demands...Regeneration is literally rebirth, and rebirth comes not by the intellect, not by the fullness of the purse, not by policy, not by change of machinery, but by getting anew heart, by throwing away all into the fire of sacrifice and being reborn in the Mother." (p,103-04)

This gives an insight into Sri Aurobindo's vision & meaning of national resurgence from a deeper level - a point of introspection in the sixtieth year of India's independent existence. This if put against the right present perspective can be of help.

And the other aspect which emerges is a demand, the demand for renunciation & sacrifice - both of the sense of the superficial self, of surface ambition, agitation & false scheming - characteristics required if one is to work for national regeneration from this sixtieth year onwards. Shall we respond to this call for regeneration in the right spirit? August 8, 2007 6:38 PM