Develop

Original

Thinking

A Compilation from the Works of

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

Develop

Original

Thinking

© All writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are copyright of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust and have been reproduced here with their kind permission.

©2022 AuroPublications, Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry

www.aurosociety.org

Year of Publication 2022

Compilation done by Jamshed M. Mavalwalla

The Idea of Compilation on India by Vijaybhai Proof-reading:

Jayeeta Sen

Gayatri Majumdar and

Jamshed M. Mavalwalla

Cover Design:

Ramajayam Ramachandiran and

Jamshed M. Mavalwalla

In the background of cover is the Painting by Sushanto Nath

E-book:

Uttam Mondal and

Karthigeyan S

Earlier e-books released on India are:

1. India and Her Mission

2. The Task of Building India Is Spiritual 3. The Splendour of Bharat’s Past Be Reborn 4. Spirit of Kshatriya with a Large Liberal Ideal 5. Become Indian and Do Not Imitate the West 6. Qualities of the Indian Mind

Preface

In the continuing series of compilations on “India” from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s works, we present the seventh e-book Develop Original Thinking. We hope that the readers will recognize that the subtle theme of each e-book contains one idea by which it can help India to achieve its mission.

The quotations in this compilation are from “THE

COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO” (CWSA);

“COLLECTED WORKS OF THE MOTHER” Second edition and Shri K. D. Sethna’s book India and the World Scene.

Few quotations are also from Conversations of the Mother with a Sadhak.

In the introduction of the book, India and the World Scene, K. D. Sethna writes, “Not only were my editorials written under his [Sri Aurobindo’s] inner inspiration: they were also sent to him for approval. Only when his ‘Yes’

was wired to us did we plunge into publication.” So these Quotations can be taken as Sri Aurobindo’s opinion or his approval.

After each quotation the following abbreviations are used representing the book from which it is taken.

CWSA: THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO

CWM: COLLECTED WORKS OF THE MOTHER Second Edition

Preface

IWSKDS: India and the World Scene by Shri K. D. Sethna First Edition

CTMS: Conversations of the Mother with a Sadhak While the passages from Sri Aurobindo are in the original English, most of the passages from the Mother (selections from her talks and writings) are translations from the original French. We must also bear in mind that the excerpts have been taken out of their original context and that a compilation, in its very nature, is likely to have a personal and subjective approach. A sincere attempt, however, has been made to be faithful to the vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Those who would like to go through the fuller text are advised to go through the original books.

The section headings and sub-headings have been provided by the compiler to bring clarity on the selected topic. The reader needs to remember that the original quotations were not written with the intention of the sub-heading given by the compiler and so one may find that the passage has few other aspects included in the quotation. All the words that are bold faced are done by the compiler so that the reader may not miss the important point in the passage. One more reason for highlighting is that Sri Aurobindo’s writings are integral and cover a range of ideas in one sentence.

The idea of taking up this comprehensive compilation on India was suggested to me by Vijaybhai

[Sri Vijay Poddar] somewhere in 2003. The hard copy of vi

Preface

this compilation remained with him for many years. It was in May 2022 he wrote to me – “I was looking again at your compilation on India. It is extremely comprehensive and very well done. I feel we should go ahead immediately to publish it as an e-book on our website.” With the help of few proof-readers, we are able to bring out the series of e-books.

Compiler Jamshed M. Mavalwalla

vii

Why a Compilation on “India” from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother?

Sri Aurobindo says in one of his article says,

“I am impelled to this labour by the necessity of turning the mind of young India to our true riches, our real source of power, purification and hope for the future and of safeguarding it in the course of its search both from false lights and from the raucous challenges and confident discouragements cast at us by the frail modern spirit of denial. I write, not for the orthodox, nor for those who have discovered a new orthodoxy, Samaj or Panth, nor for the unbeliever; I write for those who acknowledge reason but do not identify reason with Western materialism; who are sceptics but not unbelievers; who, admitting the claims of modern thought, still believe in India, her mission and her gospel, her immortal life and her eternal rebirth.” (CWSA 12: 62–63)

So this compilation contains al the labour of Sri Aurobindo, so that the youth in India may believe in the mission of India and her gospel and the hopes for the future are fulfilled.

But a question may arise why Sri Aurobindo on India? The part of the answer is in the letter Sri Aurobindo wrote to his wife.

Why a Compilation on “India” from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother?

“I know I have the strength to deliver this fallen race. It is not physical strength,—I am not going to fight with sword or gun,—but the strength of knowledge. The power of the Kshatriya is not the only one; there is also the power of the Brahmin, the power that is founded on knowledge. This feeling is not new in me, it is not of today. I was born with it, it is in my very marrow. God sent me to earth to accomplish this great mission. The seed began to sprout when I was fourteen; by the time I was eighteen the roots of the resolution had grown firm and unshakable.” August 30, 1905.

(Letter written by Sri Aurobindo to his wife Mrinalini)

Besides the strength of knowledge which Sri Aurobindo had, his collaborator the Mother further adds.

“What must be done to pull the country out of its difficulty? Sri Aurobindo has foreseen all the troubles and he has given the solution.

Just now we are approaching his Centenary; [1972]

… this would be a wonderful occasion to spread his teaching all over the country: ... his teaching about India, how to organise India, the mission of India.

... About all that has happened and all that is happening now, he has said clearly that to go back to it is useless. We must give the ix

Why a Compilation on “India” from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother?

country its true position, that is, the position of relying on the Divine. Naturally, this is at the other end of what people try to believe now. But Sri Aurobindo explains it in such a way that even those who are against it can agree. You understand? He has found a way of saying it which can be understood by everybody. That’s the only solution, as far as I can see; it is the only solution. All the rest will mean complication, contradiction and fighting.

... And this is above politics, you see. ... It is to organise the country beyond politics. And it is the only way. In politics it is always fight and ugly fight—ugly. And it has become so bad. He was telling me always that things would become worse and worse, because it is the end of this age. We are entering into an age where things must be organized differently. It is a difficult time because of that. Because we know what will come, we can help to make it come sooner and with less turmoil. There is no hope in going backwards; it would make things last endlessly. We must go forward, absolutely, and go beyond, beyond party.

And nobody can explain that better than Sri Aurobindo, because he was so much, so much beyond party; he saw the advantages and disadvantages of all parties and he stated them exactly.

x

Why a Compilation on “India” from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother?

If you read carefully what he has

written—so much—you will find the answer to all these questions. And at the same time you will know that you will have the full support of the Divine Power. The Power that was behind him is behind this transformation. It is time for transformation. We can’t cling to the past. The best way to go beyond politics is to spread the message of Sri Aurobindo.

Because he is no more a political element wanting to take power; there are only his ideas and ideals. And, of course, if people could understand and realise his programme, the country could be very strong, very strong. ” (CWM 15: 405–406)

This compilation has also quotations from the Mother’s Collected Works. The Mother though born in France always felt that India was her true country, the country of her soul and spirit. She has declared herself Indian by choice and predilection.

“I want to mark this day by the expression of a long cherished wish; that of becoming an Indian citizen. From the first time I came to India—in 1914—I felt that India is my true country, the country of my soul and spirit. I had decided to realise this wish as soon as India would be free. But I had to wait still longer because of my heavy responsibilities for the Ashram here in xi

Why a Compilation on “India” from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother?

Pondicherry. Now the time has come when I can declare myself.

But, in accordance with Sri Aurobindo’s ideal, my purpose is to show that truth lies in union rather than in division. To reject one nationality in order to obtain another is not an ideal solution. So I hope I shall be allowed to adopt a double nationality, that is to say, to remain French while I become an Indian.

I am French by birth and early education, I am Indian by choice and predilection. In my consciousness there is no antagonism between the two, on the contrary, they combine very well and complete one another. I know also that I can be of service to both equally, for my only aim in life is to give a concrete form to Sri Aurobindo’s great teaching and in his teaching he reveals that all the nations are essentially one and meant to express the Divine Unity upon earth through an organised and harmonious diversity.” 15 August 1954 (CWM

13: 43)

The reason why the Mother took birth in France is explained in this quotation.

“It is true that this body was born in Paris and that its soul has declared that it is Indian, but I belong to no nation in particular.” (CWM 13: 44)

She further adds that

xii

Why a Compilation on “India” from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother?

“It is France that can connect Europe with India.

There are great spiritual possibilities for France. She will play a big part in spite of her present bad condition. It is through France that the spiritual message will reach Europe. That is why I chose France for my birth, although I am not French.” (CWM 13: 379–380)

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother cannot be narrowly called Indian for they worked to uplift the humanity and move towards the next step in evolution so that all the problems of humanity can be solved. But their love for India was intense. The Mother says,

“Sri Aurobindo always loved deeply his Motherland. But he wished her to be great, noble, pure and worthy of her big mission in the world. He refused to let her sink to the sordid and vulgar level of blind self-interests and ignorant prejudices. This is why, in full conformity to his will, we lift high the standard of truth, progress and transformation of mankind, without caring for those who, through ignorance, stupidity, envy or bad will, seek to soil it and drag it down into the mud. We carry it very high so that all who have a soul may see it and gather round it.”

(CWM 13: 123)

The quotations of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are a few decades old, so one may wonder how it will be relevant xiii

Why a Compilation on “India” from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother?

today. When a Yogi or a realised person talks, even in worldly matters, there will be Truth in it. This Truth will help one much more than what he would do by his own thinking. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother had the highest spiritual realisations. Their vision and guidance can only lift India out of the present challenges she faces and help her achieve her mission. If one reads the mission that India has to achieve and the present day condition of our country then one will realise that Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s quotations are as valid that time as today.

Reading the compilations, one will feel that it is relevant in today’s condition.

One caution needs to be taken while reading Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s quotations which is that one need not be too dogmatic about them. One really needs to live in the spirit behind these quotations.

This work is presented with a hope and an aspiration that the people of India may be inspired by the vision of India and the process of achieving India’s Mission may be hastened.

Compiler: Jamshed M. Mavalwalla

xiv

Contents

Section One: The Chief Cause of the Weakness of India Is the

Decline of Thought-Power, the Growth of Ignorance in the

Motherland of Knowledge ....................................................................... 1

I—Everywhere We See Inability or Unwillingness to Think;

Thought-Incapacity or Thought-Phobia ........................................ 1

II—Simple Average Indian Does Not Want to Think and Cannot

Think; Wants the Simple Thought, the Easy Word ..................... 2

III—Beyond Mind Is the Thought Proper Which A Minority of

Men Have Developed ....................................................................... 3

IV—A Certain Incapacity, Atrophy, Impotence and

Helplessness In the Face of the New Knowledge Imposed on

Us by Recent European Contact ..................................................... 5

Section Two: If India Has to Do Her Appointed Work in the World

Then India Should Learn to Think ......................................................... 7

I—Youth Should Learn to Think on All Subjects, Think

Independently, Fruitfully, Going to the Heart of Things, Not

Stopped By Surface, Free of Prejudgments ................................. 7

II—Accept Nothing on Trust From Any Source, Question

Everything and Form Your Own Conclusions ............................... 8

III—In Order to Find Out What in Our Conceptions Is True and

Lasting, We Must Question All Alike Rigorously and Impartially 9

Section Three—Why Original Thinking Is Feared .............................. 11

I—Original Thinking Tends to Disturb What Is Established,

Therefore Tamasic Societies Takes Pains to Discourage

Independence of Opinion .............................................................. 11

II—Original Thinking Cannot Come When Man Thinks Not to

Find the Truth But Satisfy Mental Preferences and Emotional

Tendencies ....................................................................................... 12

Section Four: Caution of Implementing Original Thinking ............... 14

Contents

I—Societies Are Not Simple But Complex So We Must Sure

That Our New Thought Is Wide, Strong-Winged and Large

Enough to Deal With Complexities ............................................... 14

II—Original Thinking Can Only Destroy When a Greater and

Perfect Alternative Is In Place ...................................................... 15

III—Even If We Cannot Strive for Clear Light Still It Is Better to

Think Than To Cease From Thinking ........................................... 16

Section Five: Powerful New Creation in All Fields Is India’s Need .. 18

I—Fresh Diviner Creations Cast in the Mould of Her Own

Spiritual Ideals ................................................................................ 18

II—The Great Spirit and Ideals of Our Past Will Be Seen In

New Lights and Will Be Supported By the Added Strength of

New View-Points ............................................................................. 18

III—The Indian Mind Can Only Assert Itself Successfully by

Solving the Problems of West and Asia Leading to a New

Victorious Creation ......................................................................... 19

IV—Assimilating Best Knowledge of Europe with Knowledge

and Noble Thought of India’s Past to Carve Out Career by

Their Own Brain Power and Resource ......................................... 21

V—A Brave, Frank, Clean-Hearted and Aspiring Youth Is the

Only Foundation on Which the Future Nation Can Be Built ..... 21

VI—No Department of Our Life Can Escape This Great

Regenerating and Reconstructing Force ..................................... 23

VII—Indian Mind Must Function Intuitively but Not to Neglect

the Rational Intellect ...................................................................... 23

xvi

Section One: The Chief Cause of the Weakness of India Is the Decline of Thought-Power, the Growth of Ignorance in the Motherland of Knowledge I—Everywhere We See Inability or Unwillingness to Think; Thought-Incapacity or Thought-Phobia 1.

“Let me tell you in brief one or two things about what I have long seen. My idea is that the chief cause of the weakness of India is not subjection nor poverty, nor the lack of spirituality or dharma but the decline of thought-power, the growth of ignorance in the motherland of Knowledge.

Everywhere I see inability or unwillingness to think—thought-incapacity

or

thought-phobia.

Whatever may have been in the middle ages, this state of things is now the sign of a terrible degeneration. The middle age was the night, the time of the victory of ignorance. The modern world is the age of the victory of Knowledge. Whoever thinks most, seeks most, labours most, can fathom and learn the truth of the world, and gets so much more Shakti. If you look at Europe, you will see two things: a vast sea of thought and the play of a huge and fast-moving and yet disciplined force. The whole Shakti of Europe is in that. And in the strength of that Shakti it has been swallowing up the world, like the

Section One: The Chief Cause of the Weakness of India Is the Decline of Thought-Power, the Growth of Ignorance in the Motherland of Knowledge

tapaswins [ascetics] of our ancient times, by whose power even the gods of the world were terrified, held in suspense and subjection. People say Europe is running into the jaws of destruction. I do not think so. All these revolutions and upsettings are the preconditions of a new creation.” (A letter of Sri Aurobindo to his younger brother Barin.) (CTMS: July 18, 1962)

II—Simple Average Indian Does Not Want to Think and Cannot Think; Wants the Simple Thought, the Easy Word

1.

“Then look at India. Except for some solitary giants, everywhere there is your ‘simple man,’ that is, the average man who does not want to think and cannot think, who has not the least Shakti but only a temporary excitement. In India, you want the simple thought, the easy ‘word.’ In Europe they want the deep thought, the deep ‘word’; there even an ordinary labourer or artisan thinks, wants to know, is not satisfied with surface things but wants to go behind. But there is still this difference: there is a fatal limitation in the strength and thought of Europe. When it comes into the spiritual field, its thought power can no longer move ahead. There Europe sees everything as riddle—nebulous 2

Section One: The Chief Cause of the Weakness of India Is the Decline of Thought-Power, the Growth of Ignorance in the Motherland of Knowledge

metaphysics, yogic hallucination. They rub their eyes as in smoke and can see nothing clear. Still, some effort is being made in Europe to surmount even this limitation.

We already have the spiritual sense—we owe it to our forefathers—and whoever has that sense has at his disposal such Knowledge and Shakti as with one breath might blow away all the huge power of Europe like a blade of grass. But to get that Shakti one must be a worshiper of Shakti. We are not worshipers of Shakti.

We are worshipers of the easy way. But Shakti is not to be had by the easy way. Our forefathers dived into a sea of vast thought and gained a vast Knowledge and established a mighty civilization. As they went on in their way, fatigue and weariness came upon them.

The force of thought diminished and with it also the strong current of Shakti. Our civilization has become an achalayatana [prison], our religion a bigotry of externals, our spirituality a faint glimmer of light or a momentary wave of religious intoxication. And so long as this sort of thing continues, any permanent resurgence of India is improbable.” (A letter of Sri Aurobindo to his younger brother Barin.) (CTMS: July 18, 1962)

III—Beyond Mind Is the Thought Proper Which A Minority of Men Have Developed

3

Section One: The Chief Cause of the Weakness of India Is the Decline of Thought-Power, the Growth of Ignorance in the Motherland of Knowledge

1.

“This current of thought-sensations is called in Hindu philosophy the manas or mind, it is the highest to which all but a few of the animals can rise, and it is the highest function that the mass of mankind has thoroughly perfected. Beyond the manas is the buddhi, or thought proper, which, when perfected, is independent of the desires, the claims of the body and the interference of the emotions. But only a minority of men have developed this organ, much less perfected it. Only great thinkers in their hours of thought are able to use this organ independently of the lower strata, and even they are besieged by the latter in their ordinary life and their best thought suffers continually from these lower intrusion. Only developed Yogins have a viśuddha-buddhi, a thought-organ cleared of the interference of the lower strata by cittaśuddhi or purification of the citta, the mind-stuff, from the prāṇa full of animal, vital and emotional disturbances. With most men the buddhi is full of manas and the manas of the lower strata. The majority of mankind do not think, they have only thought-sensations; a large minority think confusedly, mixing up desires, predilections, passions, prejudgements, old associations and prejudices 4

Section One: The Chief Cause of the Weakness of India Is the Decline of Thought-Power, the Growth of Ignorance in the Motherland of Knowledge

with pure and disinterested thought. Only a few, the aristocrats of the earth, can really and truly think. That is now the true aristrocracy, … the aristrocracy of knowledge, undisturbed insight and intellectual ability.” (CWSA 1: 435-436) IV—A Certain Incapacity, Atrophy, Impotence and Helplessness In the Face of the New Knowledge Imposed on Us by Recent European Contact 1.

“The result of this well-meaning bondage has been an increasing impoverishment of the Indian intellect, once the most gigantic and original in the world. Hence a certain incapacity, atrophy, impotence have marked our later activities even at their best. The most

striking

instance

is

our

continued

helplessness in the face of the new conditions and new knowledge imposed on us by recent European contact. We have tried to assimilate, we have tried to reject, we have tried to select; but we have not been able to do any of these things successfully. Successful assimilation depends on mastery; but we have not mastered European conditions and knowledge, rather we have been seized, subjected and enslaved by them. Successful rejection is possible 5

Section One: The Chief Cause of the Weakness of India Is the Decline of Thought-Power, the Growth of Ignorance in the Motherland of Knowledge

only if we have intelligent possession of that which we wish to keep. Our rejection too must be an intelligent rejection; we must reject because we have understood, not because we have failed to understand. But our Hinduism, our old culture are precisely the possessions we have cherished with the least intelligence; throughout the whole range of our life we do things without knowing why we do them, we believe things without knowing why we believe them, we assert things without knowing what right we have to assert them,—or, at most, it is because some book or some Brahmin enjoins it, because Shankara thinks it, or because someone has so interpreted something that he asserts to be a fundamental Scripture of our religion.

Nothing is our own, nothing native to our intelligence, all is derived. As little have we understood the new knowledge; we have only understood what the Europeans want us to think about themselves and their modern civilisation. Our English culture—if culture it can be called—has increased tenfold the evil of our dependence instead of remedying it.” (CWSA 12: 38–

39)

6

Section Two: If India Has to Do Her Appointed Work in the World Then India Should Learn to Think

I—Youth Should Learn to Think on All Subjects, Think Independently, Fruitfully, Going to the Heart of Things, Not Stopped By Surface, Free of Prejudgments

1.

“Our first necessity, if India is to survive and do her appointed work in the world, is that the youth of India should learn to think,—to think on all subjects, to think independently, fruitfully, going to the heart of things, not stopped by their surface, free of prejudgments, shearing sophism and prejudice asunder as with a sharp sword, smiting down obscurantism of all kinds as with the mace of Bhima. Let our brains no longer, like European infants, be swathed with swaddling clothes; let them recover the free and unbound motion of the gods; let them have not only the minuteness but the wide mastery and sovereignty natural to the intellect of Bharata and easily recoverable by it if it once accustoms itself to feel its own power and be convinced of its own worth. If it cannot entirely shake off past shackles, let it at least arise like the infant Krishna bound to the wain, and move

Section Two: If India Has to Do Her Appointed Work in the World Then India Should Learn to Think

forward dragging with it wain and all and shattering in its progress the twin trees, the twin obstacles to self-fulfilment, blind mediaeval prejudice and arrogant modern dogmatism. The old fixed foundations have been broken up, we are tossing in the waters of a great upheaval and change. It is no use clinging to the old ice-floes of the past, they will soon melt and leave their refugees struggling in perilous waters. It is no use landing ourselves in the infirm bog, neither sea nor good dry land, of a secondhand Europeanism. We shall only die there a miserable and unclean death. No, we must learn to swim and use that power to reach the good vessel of unchanging truth; we must land again on the eternal rock of ages.” (CWSA 12: 41)

II—Accept Nothing on Trust From Any Source, Question Everything and Form Your Own Conclusions

1.

“Let us not, either, select at random, make a nameless hotchpotch and then triumphantly call it the assimilation of East and West. We must begin by accepting nothing on trust from any source whatsoever, by questioning everything and forming our own conclusions. We need not fear that we shall by that process cease to be Indians or fall into the 8

Section Two: If India Has to Do Her Appointed Work in the World Then India Should Learn to Think

danger of abandoning Hinduism. India can never cease to be India or Hinduism to be Hinduism, if we really think for ourselves. It is only if we allow Europe to think for us that India is in danger of becoming an ill-executed and foolish copy of Europe. We must not begin by becoming partisans but know before we take our line. Our first business as original thinkers will be to accept nothing, to question everything. That means to get rid of all unexamined opinions old or new, all mere habitual sanskaras in the mind, to have no preconceived judgments. ” (CWSA 12: 41) III—In Order to Find Out What in Our Conceptions Is True and Lasting, We Must Question All Alike Rigorously and Impartially

1.

“Nevertheless it is certain that the great mass of our habitual conceptions are not only temporary, but imperfect and misleading. We must escape from these imperfections and take our stand on that which is true and lasting. But in order to find out what in our conceptions is true and lasting, we must question all alike rigorously and impartially. The necessity of such a process not for India, but for all humanity has been recognised by leading European thinkers. It was what Carlyle meant when he spoke of swallowing all 9

Section Two: If India Has to Do Her Appointed Work in the World Then India Should Learn to Think

formulas. It was the process by which Goethe helped to reinvigorate European thinking. But in Europe the stream is running dry before it has reached its sea. Europe has for some time ceased to produce original thinkers, though it still produces original mechanicians. .. In India alone there is self-contained, dormant, the energy and the invincible spiritual individuality which can yet arise and break her own and the world's fetters.”

(CWSA 12: 42)

10

Section Three—Why Original Thinking Is Feared I—Original Thinking Tends to Disturb What Is Established, Therefore Tamasic Societies Takes Pains to Discourage Independence of Opinion 1.

“The attitude of mankind towards originality of opinion is marked by a natural hesitation and inconsistency. Admired for its rarity, brilliancy and potency, yet in practice and for the same qualities it is more generally dreaded, ridiculed or feared.

There is no doubt that it tends to disturb what is established. Therefore tamasic men and tamasic states of society take especial pains to discourage independence of opinion. Their watchword is authority. Few societies have been so tamasic, so full of inertia and contentment in increasing narrowness as Indian society in later times; few have been so eager to preserve themselves in inertia. Few therefore have attached so great an importance to authority. Every detail of our life has been fixed for us by Shastra and custom, every detail of our thought by Scripture and its commentators,—but much oftener by the commentators than by Scripture. Only in one field, that of individual spiritual experience, have we cherished the ancient freedom and originality out of which our past greatness

Section Three—Why Original Thinking Is Feared sprang; it is from some new movement in this inexhaustible source that every fresh impulse and rejuvenated strength has arisen. Otherwise we should long ago have been in the grave where dead nations lie, with Greece and Rome of the Caesars, with Esarhaddon and the Chosroes.” (CWSA 12: 38)

II—Original Thinking Cannot Come When Man Thinks Not to Find the Truth But Satisfy Mental Preferences and Emotional Tendencies

1.

“Man may be, as he has been defined, a reasoning animal, but it is necessary to add that he is, for the most part, a very badly-reasoning animal. He does not ordinarily think for the sake of finding out the truth, but much more for the satisfaction of his mental preferences and emotional tendencies; his conclusions

spring

from

his

preferences,

prejudices and passions; and his reasoning & logic paraded to justify them are only a specious process or a formal mask for his covert approach to an upshot previously necessitated by his heart or by his temperament. When we are awakened from our modern illusions, as we have been awakened from our mediaeval superstitions, we shall find that the intellectual conclusions of the rationalist for all their 12

Section Three—Why Original Thinking Is Feared

… pomp & profuse apparatus of scrupulous enquiry were as much dogmas as those former dicta of Pope & theologian, which confessed without shame their simple basis in the negation of reason. Much more do all those current opinions demand scrutiny & modification, which express our personal view of things and rest patently on a partial and partisan view or have been justified by preferential selection of the few data that suited our foregone

& desired conclusion. It is always best, therefore, to scrutinise very narrowly those bare, trenchant explanations which so easily satisfy the pugnacious animal in our intellects; when we have admitted that small part of the truth on which they seize, we should always look for the large part which they have missed.

Especially is it right, when there are subjective movements & causes of a considerable extent and complexity behind the phenomena we have to observe, to distrust facile, simple and rapid solutions.” (CWSA 12: 45) 13

Section Four: Caution of Implementing Original Thinking

I—Societies Are Not Simple But Complex So We Must Sure That Our New Thought Is Wide, Strong-Winged and Large Enough to Deal With Complexities

1.

“It is true that original thinking makes for original acting, and therefore a caution is necessary. We must be careful that our thinking is not only original but thorough before we even initiate action. To run away with an isolated original idea, or charmed with its newness and vigour, to ride it into the field of action is to make of ourselves cranks and eccentrics. This world, this society, these nations and their civilisations are not simple existences, but complex & intricate, the result of a great organic growth in many centuries, sometimes in many millenniums. We should not deal with them after snatching at a few hurried generalisations or in the gust and fury of a stiff fanaticism. We must first be sure that our new thought is wide and strong-winged enough, our thoughts large enough, our natures mighty enough to deal with those vastnesses. ” (CWSA 12: 42–43)

Section Four: Caution of Implementing Original Thinking II—Original Thinking Can Only Destroy When a Greater and Perfect Alternative Is In Place 1.

“We must be careful, too, to comprehend what we destroy. And destroy we must not unless we have a greater and more perfect thing to put in the place even of a crumbling and mouldering antiquity. To tear down Hindu society in the spirit of the social reformers or European society in the spirit of the philosophical or unphilosophical Anarchists would be to destroy order and substitute a licentious confusion. If we carefully remember these cautions, there is no harm in original thinking even of the boldest and most merciless novelty. I may, for example, attack unsparingly the prevailing system of justice and punishment as extraordinarily senseless and evil, even if I have no new system ready-made to put in as its successor; but I must have no wish to destroy it, senseless & evil though it be, until our new system is ready. For it fills a place the vacancy of which the Spirit that uplifts & supports our human welfare, would greatly abhor. I may expose, too, the weaknesses and narrownesses of an existing form of religion, even if I have no new & better form to preach of my own, but I must not so rage against those weaknesses as to destroy all religious faith and I should remember before the 15

Section Four: Caution of Implementing Original Thinking end of my criticism that even a bad religion is better than no religion, —that it is wiser to worship energy in my surroundings with the African savage than to be dead to all faith and all spirituality like the drunkards of a little knowledge—for even in that animal and unintelligent worship there is a spark of the divine fire which keeps humanity living, while the cultured imperial Roman or the luxurious modern wealth-gatherer and body worshipper drags his kind into a straight & well built road which is so broad only to lead more easily to a mighty perdition—na ched ihavedin mahati vinashtih.

Otherwise there is no harm in spreading dissatisfaction with fetish worship or refusing praise to an ancient and cruel folly.” (CWSA 43–44)

III—Even If We Cannot Strive for Clear Light Still It Is Better to Think Than To Cease From Thinking 1.

“We need not be troubled if our thinking is condemned as too radical or even as reckless & revolutionary,—for the success of revolutionary thought always means that Nature has need of one of her cataclysms; even otherwise, she will make of it whatever modified use is best for our present humanity. In thought as in deeds, to the thinking we have a right, the result belongs to the wise & active Power of God that stands over us & in us 16

Section Four: Caution of Implementing Original Thinking originating, cherishing, indefatigably dissolving & remoulding man and spirit in the progressive harmonies of His universe. Let us only strive that our light should be clear, diffused & steady, not either darkness or a narrow glare and merely violent lustre. And if we cannot compass that ideal, still it is better to think than to cease from thinking. For even out of darkness the day is born and lightning has its uses!” (CWSA 12: 44)

17

Section Five: Powerful New Creation in All Fields Is India’s Need

I—Fresh Diviner Creations Cast in the Mould of Her Own Spiritual Ideals

1.

“In considering Indian civilisation and its renascence, I suggested that a powerful new creation in all fields was our great need, the meaning of the renascence and the one way of preserving the civilisation. Confronted with the huge rush of modern life and thought, invaded by another dominant civilisation almost her opposite or inspired at least with a very different spirit to her own, India can only survive by confronting this raw, new, aggressive, powerful world with fresh diviner creations of her own spirit, cast in the mould of her own spiritual ideals. She must meet it by solving its greater problems,—which she cannot avoid, even if such avoidance could be thought desirable,—in her own way, through solutions arising out of her own being and from her own deepest and largest knowledge.” (CWSA 20: 43)

II—The Great Spirit and Ideals of Our Past Will Be Seen In New Lights and Will Be Supported By the Added Strength of New View-Points

Section Five: Powerful New Creation in All Fields Is India’s Need 1.

"Any attempt to remain exactly what we were before the European invasion or to ignore in future the claims of a modern environment and necessity is foredoomed to an obvious failure. … We cannot go backward to a past form of our being, but we can go forward to a large repossession of ourselves in which we shall make a better, more living, more real, more self-possessed use of the intervening experience. We can still think in the essential sense of the great spirit and ideals of our past, but the form of our thinking, our speaking, our development of them has changed by the very fact of new thought and experience; we see them not only in the old, but in new lights, we support them by the added strength of new view-points, even the old words we use acquire for us a modified, more extended and richer significance. Again, we cannot be ‘ourselves alone’ in any narrow formal sense, because we must necessarily take account of the modern world around us and get full knowledge of it, otherwise we cannot live.” (CWSA 20: 51)

III—The Indian Mind Can Only Assert Itself Successfully by Solving the Problems of West and Asia Leading to a New Victorious Creation

19

Section Five: Powerful New Creation in All Fields Is India’s Need 1.

“Finally, we cannot avoid dealing with the great governing ideas and problems of the modern world. The modern world is still mainly European, a world dominated by the European mind and Western civilisation. We claim to set right this undue preponderance, to reassert the Asiatic and, for ourselves, the Indian mind and to preserve and develop the great values of Asiatic and of Indian civilisation. But the Asiatic or the Indian mind can only assert itself successfully by meeting these problems and by giving them a solution which will justify its own ideals and spirit.

… There remains the very difficult question of the application of the principle,—the degree, the way, the guiding perceptions. To think that out we must look at each province of culture and, keeping always firm hold on a perception of what the Indian spirit is and the Indian ideal is, see how they can work upon the present situation and possibilities in each of these provinces and lead to a new victorious creation. In such thinking it will not do to be too dogmatic. Each capable Indian mind must think it out or, better, work it out in its own light and power ... The spirit of the Indian renascence will take care of the rest, that power of the universal Time-Spirit which has begun to move in our midst for the creation of a new and greater India.” (CWSA 20: 51–52)

20

Section Five: Powerful New Creation in All Fields Is India’s Need IV—Assimilating Best Knowledge of Europe with Knowledge and Noble Thought of India’s Past to Carve Out Career by Their Own Brain Power and Resource

1.

“Whoever wishes to cut off the nation from its past is no friend of our national growth. Whoever fails to take advantage of the present is losing us the battle of life.

We must therefore save for India all that she has stored up of knowledge, character and noble thought in her immemorial past. We must acquire for her the best knowledge that Europe can give her and assimilate it to her own peculiar type of national temperament. We must introduce the best methods of teaching humanity has developed, whether modern or ancient. And all these we must harmonise into a system which will be impregnated with the spirit of self-reliance so as to build up men and not machines—national men, able men, men fit to carve out a career for themselves by their own brain power and resource, fit to meet the shocks of life and breast the waves of adventure.” (CWSA 7: 895) V—A Brave, Frank, Clean-Hearted and Aspiring Youth Is the Only Foundation on Which the Future Nation Can Be Built

21

Section Five: Powerful New Creation in All Fields Is India’s Need 1.

“The future belongs to the young. It is a young and new world which is now under process of development and it is the young who must create it. But it is also a world of truth, courage, justice lofty aspiration and straight forward fulfilment which we seek to create. For the coward, for the self-seeker, for the talker who goes forward at the beginning and afterwards leaves his fellows in the lurch there is no place in the future of this movement. A brave, frank, clean-hearted, courageous and aspiring youth is the only foundation on which the future nation can be built.

… God does not want falterers and flinchers for his work, nor does he want unstable enthusiasts who cannot maintain the energy of their first movements. … once they are compact, never losing or allowing anything to break that compactness. If they can act in this spirit, heeding no unpatriotic counsels from whatever source they come, then let them follow their duty and their conscience, but let them do nothing in a light even if fervent enthusiasm,

moving

forward

without

due

consideration and then showing a weakness unworthy of the nation to which they belong and the work to which they have been called.” (CWSA 8: 168-170)

22

Section Five: Powerful New Creation in All Fields Is India’s Need VI—No Department of Our Life Can Escape This Great Regenerating and Reconstructing Force 1.

“No department of our life can escape this great regenerating and reconstructing force. There is not the slightest doubt that our society will have to undergo a reconstruction which may amount to revolution, but it will not be for Europeanisation as the average reformer blindly hopes, but for a greater and more perfect realisation of the national spirit in society. … It sought to fulfil itself in the past by the bond of blood in the joint family, by the bond of a partial communism in the village system, by the bond of birth and a corporate sense of honour in the caste. It may seek a more perfect and spiritual bond in the future. ” (CWSA 8: 64-65)

VII—Indian Mind Must Function Intuitively but Not to Neglect the Rational Intellect

1.

“And we should use the capacity, which we still have, to set ourselves on the path of greatness. There is only one road to greatness for us. Our mind must function more and more intuitively and allow, on the one side, the Divine dwelling deep within and 23

Section Five: Powerful New Creation in All Fields Is India’s Need high above our consciousness to emerge with all His truth-will and, on the other side, the life-force to rise and meet the emergence of this energy of supreme knowledge. The purely rational intellect, though developed brilliantly enough in historical India, has not been the predominant mark of the Indian genius.

On the ordinary level, the mind of historical India has suffused its thought with the élan vital and stirred with a spontaneous daring multi-aspected creativity of forms dangerously divergent yet harmonised through a subtle sense of unity. Into this suffusion has entered the light of the true Spirit, the inspired movement of the inmost and topmost Self, the direct contact and communion with the Eternal and the Infinite. The rational intellect, of course, can never be neglected by us, especially now that the modern era of scientific research has so much to do with it. Even apart from science, it is indispensable for the proper formulation of leading principles and without it man would not be fully man. But, unlike in the West where it assumed the primary role in socio-political growth no less than in philosophical theory, it has been only a strong intermediary in India, helping by its critical temper but not finally determining the construction of society or State any more than the edifice of philosophy. Our mind, while making use of the intellectual urge, must touch again the springs of vitality and follow them: otherwise it will be 24

Section Five: Powerful New Creation in All Fields Is India’s Need carried away both by the intellect's mechanising and centralising tendency and by its rigidly normative and codifying penchant. But this is only half the work, and the less important half. Beyond everything we must awake our mind to the profound soul in us and catch concrete illuminations and revelations, as contrasted to abstract intimations, of the Divine and the Absolute. Then alone shall we act wisely and fruitfully both as a nation and as a member of the democratic world at large. The spiritual renascence of India which, after a dark interval of decline, began with Ramakrishna and Vivekananda—symbols respectively of the mind intuitive and charged with the Beyond and the mind intuitive and dynamic with the life-force, forming by their combination, their interpenetration, an emblem of true India—must find its proper course and completeness.

We must move as much as possible with the whole organic energy in us to a direct self-dedication to the supreme Divinity whose radiant power our ancestors strove to feel in the national being and who is really invoked through that being when we utter the sweet and sublime mantra: Vande Mataram.” (IWSKDS: 78–80) 25

The lists of other compilation e-books on the topics related to the sadhana are as follows.

2. SURRENDER In the Integral Yoga

3. ASPIRATION In the Integral Yoga 4. REJECTION In the Integral Yoga Part I 5. REJECTION In the Integral Yoga Part II 6. Conquering Obstacles in Sadhana 7. LOVE FOR THE DIVINE

8. Bhakti Yoga: The Yoga of Devotion 9. The Supreme Divine Love

10.

Preparing for Yoga Through Human Love

11.

The Descent of Spiritual Peace

12.

Peace is Most Needed in Sadhana

13.

To Prepare for Spiritual Life Cultivate Equality 14.

Necessity for Spiritual Perfection is Perfect Equality

15.

Fundamental Faith Required in Yoga

16.

Faith Precedes Spiritual Experience

17.

Regain Faith if Faith Falters

18.

Cure from Illness by Faith

19.

COURAGE in SADHANA

20.

HUMILITY in SADHANA

21.

SINCERITY IN SADHANA

22.

How to Become ABSOLUTELY SINCERE

23.

Insincerity Can Be Changed in Yoga

24.

To Succeed in Sadhana Aspire Sincerely

25.

PERSEVERANCE in SADHANA

26.

All Is She

27.

RECEPTIVITY in SADHANA

28.

FAITHFULNESS in SADHANA

29.

MODESTY in SADHANA

30.

Generosity in Sadhana

31.

PATIENCE in SADHANA

32.

Cheerfulness in Sadhana

33.

Meditation, Concentration and Contemplation in Sadhana

34.

Namjapa of Mantra in Sadhana

35.

Seek Spiritual Progress in Happiness

36.

Silence in Sadhana

37.

Status of Silence in the Infinite

38.

Concentration in Spiritual Life

39.

Work in Sadhana

40.

Work Is Indispensable in Sadhana of Integral Yoga

41.

The Gita’s Gospel of Works

42.

Gratitude towards the Divine

43.

Pain the Hammer of the Gods

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