Sri Aurobindo's Vision of India's Rebirth

The first part of this essay considers Sri Aurobindo's nationalism and contextualizes it within the colonial-national interchange and the modern understanding of the nation. It then problematizes Hindutva's attempts to reductively appropriate Sri Aurobindo's pluralistic and evolutionary nationalism. In the second part, a close reading is conducted of a well-known nationalist speech of Sri Aurobindo, the Uttarpara Speech, to draw out the significance of his ideas of "nation soul". The third part applies the implications of this nationalism to a consideration of Sri Aurobindo's social ideasconcerning nations and communities in their modern and postmodern trajectories. The paper concludes by considering instances of spiritual communities such as the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville which exemplify the social context of the Integral Yoga in Sri Aurobindo's global vision of the future.

2009

In the first part of this talk, I consider Sri Aurobindo’s nationalism and contextualize it within the colonial-national interchange and the modern understanding of the nation. This includes a consideration of the nation-soul idea. In the second part, I apply the implications of this nationalism to Sri Aurobindo’s social ideas — concerning the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Auroville and, in general, the social context of the Integral Yoga and his vision of the future, so as to engage reflection on the present.

INDIAAbstractSri Aurobindo is the Vedic rishi of our times who did tapasya at Pondicherry in South India for 40 years endeavoring to bring the Supramentalconsciousness to the earth. Heisalsothe shiningstar of Indian nationalism.The Rishis of the Rig Veda envisioned a nation-unit ranging from the Himalayas to the Southern Indian Ocean. The ideal of Samarat, Chakravarthy Raja and the military and political use of ashwvamedhaand rajsuryasacrifice testify to a strong idea of a nation-state. The Mahabharataand Ramayana describe dharmarajya and Ramrajya. The goal of Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual collaborator, the Mother, was to create a synthesis of the best of ancient India and modern, scientific thought. He wrote that great effort must be made for the

Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo are two great socio-spiritual thinkers of modern India. Their ideas made worldwide impact. Two key ideas from these thinkers to shape the future vision of society are (1) Economics of Gandhi (2) Spirituality of Aurobindo. In this paper we combine these ideas with the contemporary social discourse centered around Market and State to arrive at a new social vision.

Journal of emerging technologies and innovative research, 2016

In this paper we focus on Sri Aurobindo's view on religion of humanity. From the analysis of Sri Aurobindo’s ideal of nationalism, natioal integration and his vision of India , it is evident that he was not a chauvinist and his nationalism has universal appeal. From his writings a broad outline of national reconstruction and national integration can be derived. It has its different aspects, political, economic, social cultural and spiritual. The very basis always remains the same, the spiritual transformation of man and society. Here his nationalism transcends the limit of nation and enteres into the realm of universality. If it can be based on the ideal of human unity, it will become a permanent and fundamental unity. This plan of reconstruction and integration are to be infused with religion of humanity. This is not the intellectual religion of humanity but a spiritual religion of humanity. This can only lead to a strong and social foundation of human unity. This universal and...

Sri Aurobindo was indeed a versatile genius-a great poet, a profound thinker, a notable metaphysician, and an ardent patriot. His writings represented the crystallization of the new and rising soul of India and have a spiritual message for humanity. Aurobindo Ghosh was born on 15th August 1872 at Calcutta. At the age of seven, Aurobindo was sent to England by his father to insulate him against any Indian influence. He presented the most elaborate concept on the nation. While, on the one hand, Aurobindo was a staunch advocate of human unity, on the other hand, he adopted nationalism as a help and not a hindrance to it. Through the medium of the newspaper Bande Mataram, Sri Aurobindo introduced the youth of the country to nationalism based on spiritualism. His political thought has several parts like Swaraj, boycott, resistance, national education as a necessary ingredient of Indian political agitation started from 1905. But it has inherent expertise in developing human life into life Divine. The way towards Life Divine is the way towards universal brotherhood or human unity among all individuals of the entire universe irrespective of his nationality. The paper has made an effort to analyze the role of Sri Aurobindo in his spiritual nationalism in India. Sri Aurobindo was one of the most creative and significant figures in the history of the Indian renaissance and Indian nationalism.

It is just a rough sketch of my PhD dissertation thesis. This is not the entire thesis; just an introduction to it. Here my entire focus is over the socio-political concept of Sri Aurobindo in Colonial India.

On December 28, 2018, Dr. Beloo Mehra presented a talk on the topic “Sri Aurobindo and Indian Culture” to a group of about 20 visitors from West Bengal who were attending a study camp organised by Sri Aurobindo Action, West Bengal chapter. The natural and serene ambience of the open-air, under-the-tree setting provided the relaxed backdrop for a 3-hour-long session, divided into two smaller sessions with a tea-break in between. Dr. Mehra organised her presentation in an interactive format with a brief introduction of the topic as she interpreted it, and then encouraging the participants to share their thoughts and insights on some of the questions she raised for discussion.

Sri Aurobindo's theory of Politics is quite extraordinary than other contemporary politicians of India. It also has several parts like Swaraj, boycott, resistance, national education as necessary ingredient of Indian political agitation started from 1905. But it has inherent expertise in developing the human life into life Divine. The way towards Life Divine is the way towards universal brotherhood or human unity among all individuals of the entire universe irrespective of his nationality. In this way his theory of politics merges into internationalism leaving behind the trail of nationalism as exclaimed by critics.

Integral Musings

Sri Aurobindo is a versatile spiritual genius, who is not only a Master-Yogi with profound spiritual realizations, but also a great scholar and thinker who wrote extensively on various topics ranging from politics to yoga. His writings shine with a penetrating spiritual insight which brings out the deeper, psychological and spiritual dimensions of the human, terrestrial and cosmic life. In this article, we present a brief and synoptic overview of the contents of Sri Aurobindo’s major works.