On this page, I put a collection of articles/speeches by Sri Aurobindo during
his active participation in India's freedom struggle. These are taken from the
book called On Nationalism published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry
India. They give a broad and clear perspective on popular issues among
Indians by applying Indian Spirituality to politics and nationalism.
The Morality of Boycott argues why
ahimsa or non-violence (as propounded by Gandhians) is not always the
right thing. Excerpts:
The Morality of Boycott
A certain class of minds
shrink from aggressiveness as if it were a sin. Their
temperament forbids them
to feel the delight of battle and they look on what they cannot
understand as
something monstrous and sinful... To ask masses of mankind to act as
saints, to
rise to the height of divine love and practise it in relation to their
adversaries or oppressors is to ignore human nature...Hinduism recognizes
human nature and makes no such impossible demand. To impose on politics the Brahminical
duty of saintly sufferance, is to preach varNasankara, and to
destroy society and the race.
...
Aggression is unjust only when
unprovoked, violence unrighteous when used wantonly or for unrighteous
ends. It
is a barren philosophy which applies a mechanical rule to all actions,
or takes
a word [non-violence] and tries to fit all human life into
it... Ramdas is not complete
without Shivaji. To maintain justice and
prevent the strong from despoiling and the weak from being oppressed is
the
function for which the Kshatriya was created. Therefore, says
Srikrishna in the
Mahabharat, God created battle and armour, the sword, the bow and the
dagger.
Love in PoliticsLove has a
place in
politics, but it is the love for one's country, for one's
countrymen,
for the
glory, greatness and happiness of the race, the divine aananda of
self-immolation for one's fellows, the ecstacy of relieving their
sufferings,
the joy of seeing one's blood flow for country and freedom, the bliss
of union
in death with the fathers of the race.
The feeling of almost physical
delight
in the touch of the mother soil, of the winds that blow from Indian
seas, of
the rivers that stream from Indian hills, in the sight of Indian
surroundings,
Indian men, Indian women, Indian children, in the hearing of Indian
speech,
music, poetry, in the familiar sights, sounds, habits, dress, manners
of our
Indian life, this is the physical root of that love [of Mother India].
The pride in our
past, the
pain of our present, the passion for the future are its trunk and
branches.
Self-sacrifice, self-forgetfulness, great service and high endurance
for the
country are its fruit.
And the sap which keeps it alive is the
realisation of
the Motherhood of God in the country, the vision of the Mother, the
knowledge
of the Mother, the perpetual contemplation, adoration and service of
the
Mother.
Ourselves: explains the true meaning of the Indian caste system.
Opinions and Comments: This can serve as a
set of Aurobindo's answers to Frequently Asked Questions on the Karmayoga
approach to Nationalism (and to life in general).
National Resurgence: Explains how
a true Aryan should deal with the inevitable conflicts in life such as
oppression, conflicts, war. Calls for the resurgence of the Aryan character, not
merely that of the Aryan race. "Conflict, war, even killing can be part of [Arya] dharma, but hatred and malice lie
outside of it"
intellectIf
anyone thinks that we are merely intellectual beings, he is not a
Hindu. Hinduism leaves the glorification of intellectuality to
those
who have never seen God. When we first received a European
education, we allowed ourselves to
be misled by the light of science. Science
is a light within a limited
room, not the sun which illumines the world.
It
is in the heart where God resides. He works through the brain, but the
brain is only one of His instruments. Whatever
the brain may plan, the
heart knows first and whoever can go beyond the brain to the heart,
will hear the voice of the Eternal.
The Country and Nationalism: Differentiates the
words country and nation. Argues why Hindu Nationalism is an error and can't
survive by the very nature of India.