Sri Aurobindo at 150: An Integral Vision of Evolution, Human Unity, and Peace 3031218078, 9783031218071

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Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures 40

Debidatta A. Mahapatra

Sri Aurobindo at 150 An Integral Vision of Evolution, Human Unity, and Peace

Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures Volume 40

Editor-in-Chief Purushottama Bilimoria, The University of Melbourne, Australia University of California Berkeley, CA, USA Series Editor Christian Coseru, College of Charleston Charleston, SC, USA Associate Editor Jay Garfield, The University of Melbourne Melbourne, Australia Assistant Editors Sherah Bloor, Harvard University Cambridge, MA, USA Amy Rayner, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Peter Yih Jiun Wong, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Editorial Board Balbinder Bhogal, Hofstra University, Hempstead, USA Christopher Chapple, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, USA Vrinda Dalmiya, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, USA Gavin Flood, Oxford University, Oxford, UK Jessica Frazier, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK Kathleen Higgins, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA Patrick Hutchings, Deakin University, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia Morny Joy, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada Carool Kersten, King’s College London, London, UK Richard King, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK Arvind-Pal Maindair, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA Rekha Nath, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa, USA

Parimal Patil, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA Laurie Patton, Duke University, Durham, USA Stephen Phillips, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA Joseph Prabhu, California State University, Los Angeles, USA Annupama Rao, Columbia University, New York, USA Anand J. Vaidya, San Jose State University, San Jose, USA

The Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures focuses on the broader aspects of philosophy and traditional intellectual patterns of religion and cultures. The series encompasses global traditions, and critical treatments that draw from cognate disciplines, inclusive of feminist, postmodern, and postcolonial approaches. By global traditions we mean religions and cultures that go from Asia to the Middle East to Africa and the Americas, including indigenous traditions in places such as Oceania. Of course this does not leave out good and suitable work in Western traditions where the analytical or conceptual treatment engages Continental (European) or Cross-cultural traditions in addition to the Judeo-Christian tradition. The book series invites innovative scholarship that takes up newer challenges and makes original contributions to the field of knowledge in areas that have hitherto not received such dedicated treatment. For example, rather than rehearsing the same old Ontological Argument in the conventional way, the series would be interested in innovative ways of conceiving the erstwhile concerns while also bringing new sets of questions and responses, methodologically also from more imaginative and critical sources of thinking. Work going on in the forefront of the frontiers of science and religion beaconing a well-nuanced philosophical response that may even extend its boundaries beyond the confines of this debate in the West  – e.g. from the perspective of the ‘Third World’ and the impact of this interface (or clash) on other cultures, their economy, sociality, and ecological challenges facing them – will be highly valued by readers of this series. All books to be published in this Series will be fully peer-reviewed before final acceptance.

Debidatta A. Mahapatra

Sri Aurobindo at 150 An Integral Vision of Evolution, Human Unity, and Peace

Debidatta A. Mahapatra Department of Political Science Florida State College at Jacksonville Jacksonville, FL, USA

ISSN 2211-1107     ISSN 2211-1115 (electronic) Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures ISBN 978-3-031-21807-1    ISBN 978-3-031-21808-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21808-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

My goal in this book is not to write another biography of the Yogi and philosopher Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950). While examining the ideas of this influential twentieth-­ century thinker, who turns 150 this year, my aim in this book is to examine how his ideas help us understand problems of our times and explore pathways for their resolution. In this interdisciplinary study, I draw from the disciplines of politics, philosophy, history, and conflict resolution in the spirit of the integrality of knowledge. Sri Aurobindo’s ideas appropriately fit into the category of integral knowledge, and his integral yoga presents a wider picture of life and society, various phases of their evolution towards unity and enduring peace. Another task I undertake in this book is to contest the argument that Sri Aurobindo’s ideas are too abstract, hence not worthy of gainful pursuit. I demonstrate that his ideas such as integral yoga, ideal of human unity, and life divine are not only academic subjects of study but also enabling codes that illuminate our understanding of complex problems of life and call for individual and collective praxis to address those problems in an integral, evolutionary, light. His words “All life is Yoga” present a holistic picture of life and encourage us to reconceptualize individual and collective activities as part of yoga, not as conventionally understood as physical fitness or mental calm, but as active and conscious, all-embracing, enduring praxis towards harmonious and peaceful organization of life and society. The charge of mysticism may make sense if we approach Sri Aurobindo from a pure materialist point of view. His ideas transcend materialism even while accepting it as a component of his integral vision in which “Spirit shall look out through Matter’s gaze” and “Matter shall reveal the Spirit’s face.” I argue in this book that Sri Aurobindo is one of the most optimistic thinkers as, even while acknowledging the seemingly eternal persistence of challenges in individual and collective living, he presents before us a plan of action arising out of his integral vision for a harmonious and peaceful future. As my goal in this book is to explore Sri Aurobindo’s ideas in light of the developments of the twenty-first century, I find such an exercise difficult as there is scarce literature on this subject. There is abundant literature on his life, yoga, and philosophy, but literature focusing on contemporary relevance of his ideas is scarce. v

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Thinkers like Sri Aurobindo do not belong to the past, to be studied just as a matter of academic interest. There are elements in his ideas that transcend his times and are relevant to the contemporary world. I have, hence, undertaken in this project the task to look into his ideas as if he is one among us, examining the problems and offering solutions to those problems here and now. The questions that guide the main arguments of the book are – How is Sri Aurobindo relevant in the twenty-first century? How is he relevant to a discussion on issues including, but not limited to, political polarization, violence, and interstate conflicts? My pedagogical location at the intersection of political philosophy, politics, and conflict resolution facilitated this project. As I worked on the intersectionality of these disciplines and drew from my expertise, I found the exercise quite rewarding. My study of Sri Aurobindo and his philosophy for the last two decades and my expertise in international politics and conflict resolution helped me adopt an interdisciplinary approach to bring Sri Aurobindo to reflect on the developments of our times. I conducted field studies in different parts of the world, and in the process learned immensely not only from a policy-making perspective but also from a philosophical perspective. I believe policy making must have a philosophical component and philosophy must have an application component. Philosophy, implying love for wisdom, must not be confined to ivory towers; it must play a role in igniting in individuals love for wisdom and praxis. I argue that this book is not just for coffee-table discussion or classroom assignments; it provides a framework for a reassessment of our thinking and action from an integral perspective. It will be beneficial not only for university professors or doctoral students in the areas of philosophy, politics, history, and conflict resolution but also for policy makers to reexamine their frameworks and for general readers interested in life, yoga, and philosophy of this crucial thinker. One note about the writing style in the book: I have deliberately avoided diacritical marks in the English transliteration of Sanskrit terms to make the reading simple. As the book is intended not only for academic scholars but also for policy makers and general readers, I have tried to present the ideas of Sri Aurobindo in an accessible way. The list of individuals who deserve my thanks is indeed lengthy. Hence, I may miss names, even though all of them will remain in my heart and be remembered gratefully for their help and support. I am thankful to all who, directly or indirectly, illuminated my understanding of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy and helped me, through discussions, classroom debates, or even roadside chat, in obtaining a closer understanding of the Yogi and philosopher and in giving this project a concrete shape. I must thank my students, as discussions with them helped me appreciate the importance of this project. The classroom is one of the best places to learn, and as a teacher, I learn from my students; hence, they deserve my first thank you. I am grateful to Maa, Bapa, Mummy, Papa, siblings, sisters-in-law, and brothers-in-law for their love, encouragement, and support. I am thankful to my friends, Richard Grego, Miguel Rodrigues, Subhas Tiwari, and Martha Orton as interactions with them benefited this research. I am grateful to Seema, my wonderful friend and wife, for all her help and support in this project. She has been kind enough, as always, to

Preface

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give me enough space and time to dedicate to this research. I am also thankful to my 11-year-old son, Asim, who, despite his busy schedule of exploring ants, butterflies, birds, turtles, snakes, and everything that catches his attention, would lovingly drag me to some of his projects, and those were some of the best moments and restful distractions from this project. Last but not least, I am thankful to Sowmya Thodur and Christopher Coughlin of Springer Nature for patiently working with me to give the project a more refined shape.

Contents

Introduction������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    1 1 The Making of Sri Aurobindo����������������������������������������������������������������������    2 2 Integral Vision����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    5 3 Ideal of Human Unity and Conflict Resolution ������������������������������������������    9 4 Organization of the Book����������������������������������������������������������������������������   13 References����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   14 All Life Is Yoga ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   15 1 Evolutionary Yoga����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   15 2 Brahman: Relative and Absolute, Matter and Spirit, Manifest and Unmanifest, and Beyond ����������������������������������������������������������������������   25 3 Supermind and Superman: Sachchidananda������������������������������������������������   34 4 Savitri: A Journey and a Call ����������������������������������������������������������������������   47 5 Conclusion ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   51 References����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   53  Ideal of Human Unity��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   55 1 The Vision����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   56 2 The Evolutionary Thesis������������������������������������������������������������������������������   57 3 Nationalism, National Ego, and Nation-Soul����������������������������������������������   62 3.1 Means at Arriving at Human Unity; Mechanical Means Won’t Work  76 3.2 Auroville as a Model of Human Unity   78 4 Ideal of Human Unity and Global Governance ������������������������������������������   81 5 Conclusion ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   90 References����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   93 Integral Conflict Resolution����������������������������������������������������������������������������   95 1 A Brief Survey of the Discipline������������������������������������������������������������������   96 2 An Integral Approach����������������������������������������������������������������������������������  104 3 An Integral Perspective on Indian Freedom Struggle and Select International Developments��������������������������������������������������������  118 ix

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4 Conclusion ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  127 References����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  130  Aurobindo in the Twenty-First Century��������������������������������������������������  133 Sri 1 ‘Inner War Without Escape’������������������������������������������������������������������������  135 2 Integral Yoga Calls for Individual and Collective Praxis ����������������������������  139 3 Reflection on Select Issues by Applying the Integral Perspective ��������������  141 4 Conclusion ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  148 References����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  151 Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  153

Introduction

Philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan wrote, Sri Aurobindo “was the greatest intellectual of our age and a major force for the life of the spirit. India will not forget his services to politics and philosophy and the world will remember with gratitude his invaluable work in the realm of philosophy and religion” (quoted in Brown 1968, p.  124). As the world is celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of this ‘greatest intellectual of our age,’ it would be a fruitful exercise to examine his ideas, how they shaped discourses on yoga and philosophy, and how they could be analyzed profitably for an understanding of the developments in the twenty-first century India and the world. Sri Aurobindo was not an ivory tower philosopher, speculating and theorizing developments in his time, though one could find a significant strain of theory builder in him. Practice and theory converged in his integral vision. The activist in him saw action in Baroda and Calcutta in the last years of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. His retirement from active politics to an almost secluded life in Pondicherry did not see a ceasing of activism, as his numerous correspondences and meetings demonstrated. While highlighting these aspects in the chapters of the book, I attempt to cast a larger canvas of Sri Aurobindo’s life and respond to the question – what Sri Aurobindo offers us in this twenty-first century world? How are his ideas relevant to an understanding of the problems of the twenty-first century, and how do they help address those problems? I do not aim to present another biography of the yogi and philosopher or just reproduce the existing narratives about his yoga and philosophy. Though I examine his ideas and actions and reflect on his contributions to philosophy, yoga, politics, international relations, and conflict resolution, my goal is forward looking as I aim to bring to life Sri Aurobindo to address the problems of the contemporary world. Sri Aurobindo beautifully weaved various perspectives on life and society, which perhaps a few of his contemporaries did. He was raised in England and trained in the Western ways of studying and analyzing phenomena. He used that training to delve deep into Indian spiritual traditions to emerge as a synthesizer of values that

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 D. A. Mahapatra, Sri Aurobindo at 150, Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures 40, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21808-8_1

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Introduction

often transcended the binaries of the East and the West. French thinker, Romain Rolland, in his letter to Dilip Kumar Roy in 1924, wrote, “Here comes Aurobindo, the completest synthesis that has been realised to this day of the genius of Asia and that of Europe” (Roy 1969, page number not given). Sri Aurobindo quipped to one of his disciples that writing his biography would be superficial as biographies focus on surface events of human life and ignore or fail to grasp the profound significance of life and activities not visible to the naked eye. In a letter to a disciple, he wrote, “I see that you have persisted in giving a biography—is it really necessary or useful? The attempt is bound to be a failure, because neither you nor anyone else knows anything at all of my life; it has not been on the surface for man to see” (The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, hereafter CWSA, vol. 36, 2006, p. 11). While keeping in mind the subtleties of Sri Aurobindo’s life and the complexities that a book project must confront while dealing with one of the important figures of the twentieth century, I attempt to revive interest in Sri Aurobindo’s life and philosophy. In this direction, I have undertaken twofold goals in this book: analyze Sri Aurobindo’s ideas; and explore the relevance of those ideas, mainly how they help us understand our current problems and how they can be studied profitably to address those problems.

1 The Making of Sri Aurobindo A sociological and chronological study of ‘life history’ (Mandelbaum 1973)1 would help understand the deeper meaning of the thinker’s ideas and practice or at least provide a background in which the thinker’s ideas emerged. I acknowledge the possibility of not capturing all the events and developments in Sri Aurobindo’s life and as the goal of the book is not to write another biography and add to already mammoth literature in this area (for example, to name a few, Purani 1978; Roy 1969, Srinivasa Iyengar 2006; Nirodbaran 2008; Pandit 1987; Heehs 2008; Satprem 2015). Born into an educated and culturally active family, Sri Aurobindo experienced the best of the west and the east from childhood. Bengal was the center of the Indian renaissance those days. His maternal grandfather Rajnarain Bose, a Brahmo Samajist who, ensconced in the Indian traditions, gravitated to social reform, and his father, Krishna Dhun Ghose, Britain-educated and ath and ideal human life. To quote eist, was an embodiment of modern European outlook. The young Aurobindo’s  Mandelbaum in his study of Mahatma Gandhi applies ‘life history’ approach and finds it difficult to capture complete activities and life of great people. He argues, “The image of man held by an observer necessarily influences what he makes of the life of the particular man he is studying. That image is moulded partly by his culture and, if he is a scholar or scientist, more directly by the state of his academic discipline” (Mandelbaum 1973, p.  195). In this study of life history of Sri Aurobindo, though I have applied an interdisciplinary approach drawing from various social science disciplines, my major focus is to explore the relevance of Sri Aurobindo’s ideas from a conflict resolution perspective. The question  – how Sri Aurobindo’s ideas are relevant to build a peaceful and harmonious society in a polarizing world? – guides the main arguments of the book. 1

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education thus started at the Loreto Convent school in Darjeeling under the verdant Himalayas. His father then decided to send his children to England. Thus, at seven, the young Aurobindo with his two brothers sailed for England. The young boy was sent to St. Paul’s and then to King’s College, Cambridge, where he excelled in studies and mastered classics. While on the surface, it was apparent that Aurobindo was excelling in studies, at the subtle level, many other forces were working, or rather many other developments were shaping his life and mission. His father played a role in this. While he wanted his children to be westernized, he was not happy with the British rule, and misfortunes in his medical practice somehow contributed to this disappointment. While completely guarding his children against native influences, he used to send press clippings from India showing the dark side of British rule. Karan Singh elaborated, “In fact he began sending his sons cuttings from The Bengalee newspaper in which he marked passages relating to cases of maltreatment and insult of Indians by Englishmen. In his letters he denounced the British Government in India as a heartless Government, and it seems that these communications for the first time drew Sri Aurobindo’s attention and interest towards Indian politics. This interest gradually crystallized into the idea of working for the liberation of his country to which he still was, for all practical purposes, a stranger” (Singh 2000, p. 38). The young Aurobindo joined societies such as ‘Indian Majlis’ and ‘Lotus and Dagger,’ which aimed at fighting British injustices and freeing India from British rule. While examining Sri Aurobindo’s biography one should, hence, keep in mind these parallel, and at times contradictory, developments. While one side of the young Aurobindo was steeped deep in Western education and culture and mastered classics, the other side of him pined for the freedom of India and the betterment of Indian society. While not entering a debate whether Sri Aurobindo failed the Civil Services examination deliberately as he did not want to dissatisfy his father, but at the same time, he did not want to serve the British as he had decided to dedicate his life to the Indian cause or he failed as he could not meet the test standards, the result was that after his failure at the examination he was invited by the king of Baroda princely state to join his service. Sri Aurobindo sailed to India in 1893. 1893 was a crucial year from the viewpoint of India’s destiny. This year also marked the visit of Swami Vivekananda to Chicago to address the World Parliament of Religions, in which the Swami propounded Hinduism as a religion with universal acceptance and toleration as its two fundamental principles. While the Swami moved from the East to the West to promote the finer principles of Hinduism, Sri Aurobindo traveled from the West to the East to serve India. In his words, when he first stepped on the Indian soil in Apollo Bunder in 1893, “a vast calm …descended upon him at the moment when he stepped first on Indian soil after his long absence” (CWSA, vol. 36, p. 110). He served the king as a personal secretary, and as a professor and vice principal of Baroda college, now Maharaja Sayajirao University. Though outwardly he remained active as the king’s secretary and professor, his inner life underwent profound changes. He applied his western training to delve deep into Indian classics, Sanskrit language, Bengali literature, and yoga. He was also displaying interest in the Indian freedom struggle, interacting with revolutionaries, and writing columns under the

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Introduction

title ‘New Lamps for the Old’ in the English section of an Anglo-Marathi paper, Indu Prakash, in which he criticized the moderate policy of the Indian National Congress, the all-India political party to fight for freedom. Sri Aurobindo argued for the need for a tougher, more direct, action. He wrote, “I say of the Congress, then, this – that its aims are mistaken, that the spirit in which it proceeds towards their accomplishments is not a spirit of sincerity and whole-heartedness, and that the methods it has chosen are not the right methods, and the leaders in whom it trusts not the right sort of men to be leaders; – in brief, that we are at present the blind led, if not by the blind, at any rate by the one-eyed” (quoted in Singh 2000, p. 49). Sri Aurobindo saw the opportunity for direct action after the British government declared the partition of Bengal in 1905. Bengal was the hub of nationalist struggle; hence partition of Bengal would weaken the movement  – the British authorities calculated. He moved to Calcutta and joined the freedom struggle. He edited the nationalist newsweekly Bande Mataram, which, pages after pages, stringently criticized the British policy of discrimination, divide and rule, and called the masses to join the freedom struggle. He emerged as a prominent member of the Congress and toured India to garner support for the Congress policies and developed ties with nationalist leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He played a role in revolutionary organizations like Anushilan Samiti and wrote a booklet, Bhavani Mandir, to guide the revolutionary struggle. Sri Aurobindo wrote in the pamphlet, “India must be Reborn, because her Rebirth is demanded by the future of the world: India cannot perish, our race cannot become extinct, because among all the divisions of mankind it is to India that is reserved the highest and the most splendid destiny, the most essential to the future of the human race. It is she who must send forth from herself the future religion of the entire world, the Eternal religion which is to harmonize all religions, science and philosophies and make mankind one soul” (quoted in Singh 2000, p. 85). He argued a national awakening is needed for the freedom struggle, and the struggle must not be just about political strategies and action, but it must draw from the rich spiritual well of India. His ideas of Swaraj, Swadeshi, boycott, and national education guided the freedom struggle. I have elaborated on these ideas in the chapter on conflict resolution. India’s first Prime Minister, and a leader of India’s freedom struggle, Jawaharlal Nehru acknowledged the role of Sri Aurobindo, how, even during brief active years, he “shone like a brilliant meteor and created a powerful impression on the youth of India.” He wrote, further, “The great anti-partition movement in Bengal gained much of its philosophy from him and, undoubtedly, prepared the day for the great movements led by Mahatma Gandhi” (quoted in Singh 2000, p. ix). The British authorities arrested him in the Alipore Bomb case in 1908. The Alipore jail was, for Sri Aurobindo, an interregnum for spiritual transformation. In the initial jail days, he was perplexed to see the ceasing of his activity, fearing that the mass struggle which he so carefully nurtured would peter out, with his colleagues far away in jails or deported to faraway places. A moment of despondency gripped him. But a transformation came as he started doing the yoga of Gita. His Uttarpara speech after his release from the jail in 1909 was a fine testimony of this transformation. In jail, he saw Vasudeva, the God, everywhere and in every being,

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in the jailor, the jail mates, the metal grating, the coarse blanket. His speech marked a departure from his earlier perspective on life and action and prepared him for a spiritual journey. His lawyer, Chittaranjan Das, made this prophetic announcement, “My appeal to you is this, that long after the controversy will be hushed in silence, long after this turmoil and agitation will have ceased, long after he is dead and gone, he will be looked upon as the poet of patriotism, as the prophet of nationalism and the lover of humanity. Long after he is dead and gone, his words will have echoed and re-echoed, not only in India, across distant seas and lands. Therefore I say that the man in his position is not only standing before the bar of this court, but before the bar of the High Court of History” (Quoted in Singh 2000, p. 154). After release, Sri Aurobindo started his activities, picking up the threads he had left before going to jail. After receiving an intimation about the British plan to arrest him again and possibly deport him, Sri Aurobindo with a few close followers, left for Chandernagore, a French settlement near Calcutta, then to Pondicherry, another French settlement but far from Calcutta, in 1910. Sri Aurobindo’s departure from politics has been the subject of debates – whether he left politics because of his disappointment in political life or because he wanted to solely focus on yoga and philosophy and politics was an obstacle on the path, but it would be sufficient here to note that neither side of the arguments presents a proper picture. According to B. R. Nanda, “Aurobindo’s own mood after renunciation of politics was neither one of elation nor of disappointment. He felt he was in the hands of a Higher Power which knew what was best for him and for his country” (Nanda 1973, p.  8). Life in Pondicherry during the initial years was not comfortable. While remaining under the constant watch of spies and financial hardship, Sri Aurobindo turned to philosophy and yoga. The spiritual transformation in jail had stayed and his belief that ‘a yogi could turn his hands on anything’ persisted. He started writing the weekly Arya in 1914 in which he serialized most of his writings, elaborating his system of yoga, views on life and society, and ideal human life. “To quote Nanda”, “At Pondicherry Aurobindo meditated constantly, was seen and heard rarely, but wrote copiously at least during the first decade of his stay there…He concerned himself not with religion, but with spirituality, with new visions of divine grace, inner freedom and joy, and of a society composed of men and women who had realized life at deep levels of consciousness. ‘One of the greatest minds of his age,’ is how Jawaharlal Nehru described him. Aurobindo was, however, more than a philosopher; his writings were affirmations of spiritual truths and values which he wanted to make the heritage of mankind” (Nanda 1973, p. 13).

2 Integral Vision Sri Aurobindo’s yoga and philosophy are intertwined or rather his philosophy proceeded from his yoga. In a reply to one of his disciples about being considered a philosopher, Sri Aurobindo wrote in 1934 that he began as a poet and politician, not as a philosopher. Philosophy did not even come to him during his political

6

Introduction

activism in Calcutta, but he knew that “a yogi ought to be able to turn his hand to anything” (CWSA 2011, vol. 35, p. 70) and philosophy ‘burst out like a volcano’ (CWSA 2011, vol. 35, p.  63) as he started writing the Arya. It is not that he departed from the ancient Indian teachings while developing his system of yoga and philosophy, rather his writings such as Life Divine are imprints of how his yoga and philosophy were a culmination of ancient Indian thinking. He refined ancient teachings, reexamined them through his life experiences and practices, and put them in front to use in his grand scheme of integral yoga for a better reflection on individuals and society to address their problems. Perhaps the term practical Vedanta would be a more appropriate term to describe his yoga, which is not just a combination of various systems of yoga, or just a combination of philosophies and practices from the east and west. While all the yoga systems, philosophies, ideas, and practices are factored in his system, the key departure that makes Sri Aurobindo’s yoga and philosophy unique is his yoga and philosophy are obverse and reverse of the same coin, his integral vision. A rationalist philosophy would not be foreign to such a system but at the same time it cannot fully explain it, and the pure life of rituals, and mysticism, would be abhorrent to him as it lacks the elements of rationality. All means, all values, and all methods would be welcomed in his scheme of integral yoga if that help the individual practicing this yoga, and that conclusion did not come to him as a matter of pure rational analysis but as a matter of practice. In that sense we can call Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga practical yoga – yoga that is not confined to an elite class or something which is beyond the grasp of common people, but which is very practical, providing guidance for the harmonious conduct of life and society. For Sri Aurobindo, ‘All life is Yoga.’ He wrote in The Synthesis of Yoga, “The true and full object and utility of Yoga can only be accomplished when the conscious Yoga in man becomes, like the subconscious Yoga in Nature, outwardly conterminous with life itself and we can once more, looking out both on the path and the achievement, say in a more perfect and luminous sense: “All life is Yoga”” (CWSA 1999, vols. 23 and 24, p. 8). His yoga, hence, includes everything in life, nothing escapes its perimeter. It includes the mundane and the non-mundane, it includes not only the physical activities, but also the activities of the vital and mind, and goes beyond that, while keeping in view the goal of evolution to a higher life. This is this integral vision, or a 360-degree vision which encompasses everything, and excludes nothing. That vision came to Sri Aurobindo in Alipore jail in 1908–1909, in which he could see Vasudeva in everything and every being. In his Uttarpara speech after his release from the jail, he elaborated on this vision, “I looked at the jail that secluded me from men and it was no longer by its high walls that I was imprisoned; no, it was Vasudeva who surrounded me. I walked under the branches of the tree in front of my cell, but it was not the tree, I knew it was Vasudeva, it was Srikrishna whom I saw standing there and holding over me His shade. I looked at the bars of my cell, the very grating that did duty for a door and again I saw Vasudeva. It was Narayana who was guarding and standing sentry over me. Or I lay on the coarse blankets that were given me for a couch and felt the arms of Srikrishna around

2  Integral Vision

7

me, the arms of my Friend and Lover. This was the first use of the deeper vision He gave me” (CWSA 1997, vol. 8, p. 6). Such an encompassing vision of life and practice is the foundation of integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo, and I demonstrate in this book that such a vision is relevant to the contemporary world plagued with polarization and violence. Sri Aurobindo synthesized the best elements from the West and the East. He was equally comfortable reading the Greek classics and dramas, the ideas of Heraclitus and Plato, and European thinkers including Hegel and Nietzsche, while delving deep into Vedanta and other systems of Indian thought. Though he went through all these different shades of ideas and systems of philosophy and used them in developing his evolutionary integral yoga, he picked the gems that were suitable for the development of his system of yoga and philosophy. In that sense, we could argue that Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy was a fulfilling philosophy and all-encompassing philosophy, and while developing his philosophy he used the philosophies of other systems developed in other places, and in this endeavor, he could transcend the division of places and spaces and times and systems of thought and place them appropriately in his evolutionary yoga and philosophy. His philosophy in that sense is a culmination of thoughts and visions that evolved in the human scene for millions of years and the newness in this philosophy is that it synthesized all these thoughts and visions toward the single guided mission for the evolution of a peaceful and harmonious individual and society. In that sense, Sri Aurobindo’s yoga and philosophy transcend boundaries created by the human mind. If Sri Aurobindo is termed a mystic, one can answer in the affirmative because his yoga and philosophy are not amenable to a crude rationalist analysis, even though a higher rational analysis would indicate a pathway to understand and appreciate his yoga and philosophy. I have elaborated on this argument in the next chapter. His ideas and vision of supramental being, or supramental consciousness, are themselves supra-mental, or supra-rational, hence not amenable to a mind confined to the canons and epistemologies of pure sensual-rational thinking. The Cartesian logic ‘I think therefore I am’ which becomes the foundational credo of the Western rational thinking is not fully equipped to grasp the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo. The main problem with this thinking is that it gives supreme importance to the intellectual mind and does not see anything beyond intellect and cannot conceive anything beyond intellect if it is not amenable to rational analysis. Immanuel Kant even while admitting Ideas such as the Idea of God argued that such ideas could not be the subject of knowledge, arising out of senses and categories.2 Another crude rational approach would not hesitate to call metaphysics ‘non-sense’ as it is not amenable to sense or sensory

 In a Kantian rational world, Guyer and Wood argue, “there can be no knowledge of any spatiotemporal reality at all beyond the limits of sensibility, although in cases where concepts of the understanding can be used to formulate coherent conceptions of non-spatiotemporal entities, above all God, there may be coherent belief, even if not any knowledge” (Guyer and Wood 1998, p. 37). 2

8

Introduction

perceptions.3 Such an approach would not be able to fathom the ‘oceanic feeling’ which the French thinker, Romain Rolland, tried so assiduously to convince the famous psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud. Rolland defined ‘oceanic feeling’ as something “simple and direct fact of the feeling of the ‘eternal.,” which is “totally independent of all dogma, all credo, all Church organization” (quoted in Parsons 1999, p. 9). In an Aurobindonian worldview, this ‘oceanic feeling’ needs not be elite, but it must percolate to the grassroots level. Sri Aurobindo’s yoga adopts a democratic approach and assumes that anyone interested can pursue the yoga he developed. Mere intellectual understanding is not enough to fathom his yoga and philosophy. A known westerner, Margaret Woodrow Wilson, daughter of President Woodrow Wilson, frustrated with life as practiced in her society, sought guidance from Sri Aurobindo and wrote to him in the late 1930s, “…I am like a lost sailor who has left the familiar shore but does not know the way to the shore he is seeking because he is without a compass…I implore you dear Master to show me the way, and I shall try to follow it without fear...” (Wilson c. 1938). It would not be correct to argue that Sri Aurobindo relegated intellectual understanding to the backburner or undermined its significance in building a peaceful and harmonious individual and the world, the goal of his philosophy and yoga. Himself trained in Cambridge and gained intellectual sophistication, as his complex writings and philosophical expositions reveal to us, getting nominated twice for the Nobel prize, once for literature and once for peace, he gave due significance to intellectual analysis and understanding. He would not even deny, like Kant and Hegel, that the intellect, or the mind, is the king of life at the present stage, and the intellectual mind is the highest evolved, but he would not simply stop at the adulation of the intellect. He would forcefully argue that the intellect is the current summit of the evolution of Nature, as the human individual is. Still, it is the not the final summit, and that final summit may be amenable to an intellectual understanding. Still, the intellect cannot fully grasp it as the next summit certainly surpasses its nature and scope. The summit, or what he would call supermind, and the being in this summit supramental being, cannot be amenable to an intellectual analysis as it is, to borrow a Vedantic term, avangmanasagochara (beyond the reach of senses or mind). But until that state comes, until that evolution happens, again how that happens is a different subject matter which I deal with that in later chapters, the intellect has a role to play. The Cartesian ‘I think therefore I am’ has a role to play in this scheme of things.  According to Ayer, “For we shall maintain that no statement which refers to a ‘reality’ transcending the limits of all possible sense experience can possibly have any literal significance; from which it must follow that the labours of those who have striven to describe such a reality have all been devoted to the production of nonsense” (Ayer 1990, 14). Sri Aurobindo (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p.  213) anticipates this approach in Savitri, thus,Here cold material intellect was the judge And needed sensual prick and jog and lash That its hard dryness and dead nerves might feel Some passion and power and acrid point of life. 3

3  Ideal of Human Unity and Conflict Resolution

9

3 Ideal of Human Unity and Conflict Resolution How does the integral vision play a role in the building of a peaceful and harmonious society? Sri Aurobindo provides an answer to this in his monograph, Ideal of Human Unity, though one could come across answers in his other writings, this monograph was solely devoted to his ideal of a peaceful and harmonious society. He brought to bear his integral vision on the evolution of human society. In this section, I briefly examine this vision of an ideal society from a historical-evolutionary perspective and argue that though this perspective is not different from a biological perspective on the evolution of species and sociological evolution of human society, it carries this logic of evolution further to conceive an ideal human unity. Thus started the collective life, the concept of private property, the villages, the groups, and the collective organizations and institutions to regulate human life. Sri Aurobindo would have no problem with this analysis of the growth of human civilization and argue that from the individual started the family, from the family started the village, and from the village started the larger organizations like provinces and states.4 And this evolution of the human collectives has not stopped at the creation of states, which is considered the final summit of creation, or to use the Hegelian terms, ‘the march of god on earth’.5 Sri Aurobindo argued that the state is not the final summit of evolutionary Nature. It is not the end. In this assertion, he shares the method of Hegel, that the Nature reveals what is already there, or the Aristotelian teleological logic that the oak tree is already hidden in the acorn seed, but Sri Aurobindo, unlike Aristotle or Hegel, would not stop at the evolution of the state and concede it as the final summit of the evolution of human society. Nature has many more things to reveal, and it is possible that there would be larger organizations, suprastate organizations, whether in the form of a world state or world federation. The exact shape of the organization did not bother him much, its working and purpose were more significant for him. Sri Aurobindo made a distinction between national ego and nation soul, useful to understand the current working of the state mechanisms. National ego impedes the process of evolution, but nation soul aids the process of evolution. National ego is reflected in national biases, prejudices, and idiosyncrasies, and manifested in aggression, invasion, and war. He would even go to the extent to argue that the First and Second World Wars occurred due to the amplification of this national ego, and colonialism and imperialism were its other manifestations. He was critical of these developments as the powerful nations often used their national ego for expansion and exploitation without considering other peoples and other nations’ interests. But, in contrast to the national ego, the nation soul, which is part of the universal soul but distinct as each nation has its distinct characteristics, aids the process of evolution  While making this argument, I mainly draw from my article on the ideal of human unity (Mahapatra 2004). 5  I have examined the ideas of Hegel and Sri Aurobindo, particularly on the state, in my article titled ‘Political Philosophy of Hegel and Sri Aurobindo: A Comparison’ (Mahapatra 2007). 4

10

Introduction

and larger agglomeration. Nation souls, as parts of the universal soul or universal godhead, complement each other as complement beautiful gems in an ornament. There would be differences, but those differences would be cultivated and harnessed not to emphasize and amplify differences but to excel in each aspect of collective human endeavor in which a nation excels. Sri Aurobindo displayed optimism when the United Nations (UN) was established in 1945 and called it an ‘event of capital importance’ as it held in it a seed of a larger, and peaceful, human organization, but later he displayed pessimism at its functioning. He was optimistic that the basic principles on which the UN was founded would help develop equality and brotherhood among nations, but his hope dissipated and soon he expressed disappointment at the provision of veto powers to five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and called this arrangement a reflection ‘oligarchy.’ In his words, “A strong surviving element of oligarchy remained in the preponderant place assigned to the five great Powers in the Security Council” (CWSA 1997, vol. 25, 582). Similarly, in his critique of the League of Nations, formed after the First World War, he expressed skepticism about whether the newfound organization would promote equality as its founders aimed. He argued that the idea of equality in the League, when put to practice, would not matter much even though in such an arrangement “Honduras and Guatemala may, if the fancy pleases them, indulge themselves in some feeling of being lifted up to an equality with imperial England, America, the new arbiter of the world, and victorious France. But this is an illusion, a trompe l’oeil. For we find that this general assembly is in no sense the governing body but only a secondary authority, a court of approval and reference, to which the powerful executive nations will refer, mostly at their own discretion, this or that doubtful question for discussion” (CWSA 1997, vol. 25, 643). The United Nations, in Sri Aurobindo’s vision, could be an evolution towards the ideal of human unity, but national ego had trumped the noble visions that inspired the world leaders at the end of the Second World War. The US President, Harry Truman, while speaking at the San Francisco United Nations Conference, which prepared the groundwork of the international organization, had announced, “if we had had this Charter a few years ago – and above all, the will to use it – millions now dead would be alive. If we should falter in the future in our will to use it, millions now living will surely die…we have here resolved that power and strength shall be used not to wage war, but to keep the world at peace, and free from the fear of war” (Truman 1945). That vision which aimed at subduing national ego and promoting national soul had dissipated, and there are ample studies, which I elaborate on in a later chapter, which demonstrate how the UN deliberations, including the Security Council deliberations, are marked by hypocrisy and double-speak. Nation-states preach high ideals, but their actions betray those ideals. Sri Aurobindo would note this disconnect and emphasize that this disconnect must go. A policy announcement, marked by subterfuge and selfish calculations, would not help realize international peace. And the supranational organizations like the UN or the regional organization such as the European Union, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, aiming at regional and

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global peace and stability would falter as their very activities are detached from the vision that guided their foundation. How does Sri Aurobindo’s integral vision help us explain the conflicts of the past and present? When we argue about conflicts and look for solutions, it is not only about conflicts that are visible or which are at larger levels between states, but also conflicts that are subtle and may not necessarily be visible to the naked eye, and which could manifest at multiple levels. It can be a conflict within an individual, within a family, within states, and within larger organizations, and even the conflict at higher levels, for example, the conflict of values and ideas, and the conflicts that lead to diseases, pandemics such as coronavirus pandemic, and natural disasters such as devastating floods, burning of forests, and so on. Though Sri Aurobindo did not emerge as a conflict resolution scholar, a discipline that gained ground in the 1960s and 1970s, his ideas were relevant to the discipline. After all, conflicts are a feature of human life since its creation though the discipline emerged in the last few decades. If ‘All life is Yoga,’ where does conflict and conflict resolution are placed in this life, in which everything is yoga? Sri Aurobindo would address this problem squarely and argue that unless an individual transcends the divisions arising out of the binaries, manifested at multiple levels, conflicts would continue. There is significant literature on conflict resolution which suggests how groups, and their in-­ group and out-group biases and prejudices, are manifested at multiple levels and resulted in conflicts. Whether bias towards religion, skin color, caste, language, or nationality, all these emerge because of the conflict of values, and conflict of approaches to life and society, and this could not be addressed peacefully unless one comes out of the grip of this bias and prejudice and think life anew, in which a newer consciousness evolves, a consciousness which has an integral vision, which could see the things from a larger perspective, in which physical appearances and distinctions matter less and the inner unity matters more. Sri Aurobindo Ashram was established in 1926 as a laboratory to experiment his integral vision of a peaceful and harmonious individual and society. As outlined by Sri Aurobindo in his fifth dream, which he wrote on India’s independence in 1947, the evolution of human consciousness only can be a harbinger of true peace. Though there are laws, rules and regulations, and other state machineries geared to address the conflicts, conflicts continue as they reside in individuals and groups and operate at a more subtle level with outer manifestations. The divisions at the subtle level continue and we confront incidents like George Floyd in 2020, the violence at the Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. in 2021, or the Buffalo shooting in May 2022. These are the recent examples, but one can think of the rising menace of religious extremism, racial violence, and caste violence, all emanating from the same principle of othering and exclusion at a much deeper, foundational, level, and unless that foundation is addressed, and unless that foundation is rebuilt in a spiritual light, the conflicts will continue, and perhaps with much more devastation, as states have deadly weapons of warfare, including nuclear weapons. It is not that material factors such as economic grievances do not play a role in the conflict, but in the order of priority and significance, it is the human mind, which in the first place creates or fosters economic injustice, needs to be addressed.

12

Introduction

The Auroville project was another experiment in building a peaceful and harmonious society. While unveiling its vision and mission during the project’s foundation in 1968, in which 124 nation-states participated, the Mother announced, “Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But, to live in Auroville, one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness” (The Mother 2004, pp. 193–194). Though this project started on a small scale, one could see in it a nucleus of a peaceful and harmonious international society, and apply its logic to international politics, nation-states, and the world. The globe is interconnected, it is not possible to be detached from what is happening in one part of the world and live in an isolated cocoon. It is this integral perspective which is needed in the contemporary world to address the conflicts at the multiple levels. In the fourth chapter I elaborate the details of such a vision and how this vision can be applied to the problems of the world. In an Aurobindonian world, a vision has no value unless it can be applied to the very living, and in that direction, I elaborate later how a Aurobindonian vision can be applied profitably to understand conflicts and to explore their solutions. Though Sri Aurobindo was an intellectual giant, his significance as a practical man trying to address human predicament could not be undermined. But apparently, in popular research, he was more emphasized as a mystic, with some sort of abstract or otherworldly significance. I have emphasized in this chapter and bring amply in the following chapters that despite his intellectual sophistication and mystical moorings, his philosophy remained yogic and practical. A mind trained in western education would later become a stalwart of Vedanta tradition and produce classics such as Life Divine indicate not only Sri Aurobindo’s belief in yoga and spirituality but also their practical application. Besides Life Divine, Savitri is another creation of Sri Aurobindo. It is the longest poem ever written in English language, but that alone does not make it unique, what makes it unique is it is spiritual poetry, and a record of the poet’s spiritual journey. Sri Aurobindo finished almost all his writings by the second decade of the twentieth century but continued working on Savitri till his last days. What made him invest so much time and energy in writing a poem? Why did it take so much time to write a poem to a masterful writer and poet? I argue, and elaborate in the next chapter, that this poem, is a call, an invitation to join his integral yoga project, a global project, which aims to elevate the human consciousness to a higher level. Sri Aurobindo along with his disciples engaged in this endeavor in Sri Aurobindo Ashram and worldwide. It is a call not to a particular people, religion, caste, or language, but rather a call to humanity to engage in a spiritual journey towards building peaceful and harmonious individuals and societies. In that sense, this call for yoga is simultaneously individual and cosmic – synthesizing the Indian emphasis on individual salvation and the western emphasis on collectivity. Indian philosopher S. K. Maitra writes, “Nowhere perhaps Sri Aurobindo’s genius shown itself to greater perfection than in his handling of the problem of evolution. He has accepted the cosmic view of evolution of the West but has rejected its mechanical character and replaced it by a spiritual evolution. Likewise he has rejected the cyclic view of the universe so dear to our county and the individualist outlook of our theory of evolution, and substituted for it the cosmic and overpersonal outlook of the

4  Organization of the Book

13

West. It bases itself upon the idea that the source of evolution being Saccidananda himself, it cannot stop until the whole world is completely Divinised” (Maitra 1968, p. 51).

4 Organization of the Book The book comprises five chapters including the Introduction. I have outlined the book’s main goals and provided an idea about other chapters in this introductory chapter. In the second chapter, I focus on Sri Aurobindo’s theory of evolution and integral yoga and their various facets while arguing that understanding them is key to understanding Sri Aurobindo’s other ideas such as ideal of human unity. I elaborate on the theory of spiritual evolution and compare it with other theories of evolution including biological evolution and mental evolution. I also argue that his theory of evolution is linked with his yoga, and in that context, I elaborate on various elements of integral yoga. I also focus on concepts such as supramental consciousness, supermind, superman, Sachchidananda as an understanding of these concepts is helpful to understanding the whole spectrum of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga and philosophy. In this chapter, I also demonstrate that Savitri, the epic poem of Sri Aurobindo, is his master creation, which emerged from his yogic experience. In the next two chapters, I apply the concepts elaborated in the second chapter to reflect on issues such as human unity and conflict resolution. In that sense, while the second chapter is more conceptual, the third and fourth chapters are more practical, as they explore the Aurobindonian perspective to better understand human issues in their multifaceted dimensions. In the third chapter, I explore his concept of ‘ideal of human unity.’ Besides elaborating on the concept, I examine its relevance in the contemporary world. For example, how national ego is detrimental to international peace, and how nation soul tends to foster international peace. In that context, I examine the developments such as the two World Wars, the League of Nations and its failure, and the establishment of the United Nations. I also attempt to examine the recent global developments by applying the ideas of Sri Aurobindo. In the fourth chapter, I elaborate on the practical aspects of integral yoga and combine them with the literature on conflict resolution. After briefly examining the conflict resolution discipline, I explore in Sri Aurobindo solutions to various problems afflicting human society and the world. I raise the question: if Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga is such an enabling concept with real potency, how does it help to resolve conflicts at the individual, community, state, and international levels? In the fifth chapter, I summarize the main arguments of the book and argue how Sri Aurobindo is relevant in the twenty-­ first century. Besides summarizing the main arguments made in the earlier chapters, I also examine three case studies – from a small scale to a large scale – in the light of Sri Aurobindo and attempt to offer solutions to those cases in his light. I make the case that we need to reexamine his ideas for the benefit of not only academic disciplines but also the larger human society. I argue that such an exercise is apt, theoretically and practically, on the occasion of Sri Aurobindo’s 150th birth anniversary.

14

Introduction

References Ayer, A.J. 1990. Language, Truth and Logic. London: Penguin Books. Brown, D. Mackenzie. 1968. The White Umbrella: Indian Political Thought from Manu to Gandhi. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Guyer, P., and Wood, A.W. 1998. Introduction. In Critique of Pure Reason, ed. Immanuel Kant. Trans. and ed. P. Guyer and A.W. Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Heehs, Peter. 2008. The Lives of Sri Aurobindo. New York: Columbia University Press. Mandelbaum, David G. 1973. The Study of Life History: Gandhi. Current Anthropology 14(3): 177–196. Mahapatra, Debidatta A. 2004. From Nation-State to Ideal Human Unity: An Analytical Discourse in Sri Aurobindo’s Political Philosophy. Indian Journal of Political Science 65 (2): 145–160. ———. 2007. Political Philosophy of Hegel and Sri Aurobindo: A Comparison. Indian Journal of Political Science 68 (3): 483–496. Maitra, S.K. 1968. The Meeting of the East and the West in Sri Aurobindo’s Philosophy. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Nanda, B.R. 1973. Aurobindo Ghose. In Sri Aurobindo: An Interpretation, ed. V.C. Joshi, 1–13. Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd. Nirodbaran. 2008. Sri Aurobindo for All Ages. Twin Lakes: Lotus Press. Pandit, M.P. 1987. Sri Aurobindo and His Yoga. Twin Lakes: Lotus Press. Parsons, W.B. 1999. The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling: Revisioning the Psychoanalytic Theory of Mysticism. New York: Oxford University Press. Purani, A.B. 1978. The Life of Sri Aurobindo. Twin Lakes: Lotus Press. Roy, Dilip K. 1969. Sri Aurobindo Came to Me. Bombay: Jaico Publishing House. Satprem. 2015. Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness. New York: Discovery Publisher. Singh, Karan. 2000. Prophet of Indian Nationalism: A Study of the Political Thought of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh. Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Sri Aurobindo. (different years and different volumes, mentioned in in-text citation). The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo (referred in the chapter text as CWSA). Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Also available online at: https://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/sriaurobindo/ writings.php Srinivasa Iyengar, K.R. 2006. Sri Aurobindo: A Biography and a History. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram. The Mother. 2004. Words of the Mother I, the Collected Works of the Mother, Vol. 13. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Truman, H.  S. 1945, June 26. Address in San Francisco at the Closing Session of the United Nations Conference. Retrieved from https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-­papers/66/ address-­san-­francisco-­closing-­session-­united-­nations-­conference Wilson, M.W. c. 1938. Margaret Woodrow Wilson to Sri Aurobindo. Retrieved from http://presidentwilson.org/items/show/33545

All Life Is Yoga

For Sri Aurobindo, ‘All life is Yoga.’ While the words are simple, on closer scrutiny, they appear to be a powerful code for individual, collective and cosmic living, with an invocation to individual and collective praxis. In his scheme, a concept might sound sophisticated theoretically, but it would have no value unless it had a practical utility to shape individual and collective life. That was why his vision was called integral, and his yoga, integral yoga, and one could also call evolutionary yoga as it emphasized the evolution of the matter, life, and mind. There had often been the emphasis on the evolution of species or biological evolution, but here Sri Aurobindo revealed a scheme of spiritual evolution, which in its sweep incorporated biological and mental evolution, as the integral also involved total, or the wholistic evolution of species, with the human individual as the vanguard, bestowed with a rational mind as the highest among the evolved. How does such an Aurobindonian view on life and society help us explain the current developments? Does such a view widen our understanding of human predicaments, whether in the past or present, guide us towards a better understanding of them, and empower us with tools for action? In the first section of the chapter, I elaborate on Sri Aurobindo’s yoga. In the second section, I focus on the concept of Brahman or Absolute and Its various facets, and how an understanding of this concept illuminates our understanding of the concepts such as supermind, superman, and Sachchidananda, elaborated in the next section. In the final section, before the conclusion, I briefly focus on Sri Aurobindo’s epic poem Savitri and various interpretations of it. I argue that understanding those interpretations helps us better fathom his yoga and theory of evolution. In the conclusion section, I summarize the main arguments of the chapter.

1 Evolutionary Yoga Sri Aurobindo’s yoga, which could be called integral or evolutionary yoga, is not the yoga understood in common parlance. It is undoubtedly more than that. Yoga, in common parlance, is understood as physical fitness, keeping the body disease-free, and keeping mind, to use a popular word, ‘cool.’ As one could see in the

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 D. A. Mahapatra, Sri Aurobindo at 150, Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures 40, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21808-8_2

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All Life Is Yoga

mushrooming of yoga studios and training centers in various parts of the world, and with the recognition by the United Nations of June 21 as International Day of Yoga, yoga as a physical fitness fad has become popular in recent years. From an Aurobindonian point of view, the physical aspect of yoga is but one aspect of yoga, but to confine yoga (a Sanskrit word meaning union, union of the individual with God, or union of the individual soul with the universal soul or Brahman) to physical fitness or mental calm would be a crude interpretation of it. In The Synthesis of Yoga, he provided a broader, or integral, purpose of yoga, “Life, not a remote silent or high-uplifted ecstatic Beyond – Life alone, is the field of our Yoga. The transformation of our superficial, narrow, and fragmentary human way of thinking, seeing, feeling and being into a deep and wide spiritual consciousness and an integrated inner and outer existence and of our ordinary human living into the divine way of life must be its central purpose” (CWSA, vols. 23–24, 1999, p. 89). To put it simply, Sri Aurobindo’s yoga is a yoga that does not undermine physical fitness or physical perfection, but at the same time, it goes beyond that as it aims at the perfection of human life and mind in a new divine light. Sri Aurobindo was not brought up in a yoga tradition, as a child he did not go to a gurukul where children in a forest setting follow rigorous discipline and get acquainted with yoga and its various facets. He was born and brought up in a western, materialist-rational, tradition, so much so that in his childhood it was barred by his Anglicized father not to speak the native Bengali language at home but only English. At the age of seven, he was sent to England, and at one point in time, he had an English middle name, Acroyd. Hence, it might appear ironic how could an individual brought up completely in the Western tradition emerge as a pioneer of Vedanta tradition, and even develop a new system of yoga, called Integral Yoga. Peter Heehs’s argument about the individuals trained in clinical psychology and psychotherapy might find it difficult to fathom Sri Aurobindo’s yoga and philosophy makes sense here. As reflected in the letter exchanges between Sigmund Freud and Romain Rolland, mentioned in the last chapter, it is difficult for a mind, confined to sensual-rational tradition, to grasp the spiritual philosophy of Sri Aurobindo. Heehs elaborated on this predicament: “Those familiar with the literature of mysticism will observe that Aurobindo’s powers and experiences are similar to those that other mystics from Milarepa to Rumi to Saint Teresa are said to have possessed. But those familiar with the literature of psychiatry and clinical psychology may be struck by the similarity between Aurobindo’s powers and experiences and the symptoms of schizophrenia” (Heehs 2008, p. 245). As I examine and elaborate in the later pages, Sri Aurobindo’s ideas could be better termed higher rational or supra-rational than mystic, which often had a narrow interpretation. Coming back to the journey of Sri Aurobindo, the young Aurobindo Ghose, the administrator and professor at the Baroda College had a similar situation. His deep immersion into Indian literature, Vedas and Vedanta in Baroda and afterward, and some incidents and exchanges with yogis in Baroda, the name of Vishnu Bhaskar Lele is worthy of mention here, slowly changed or prepared his mind towards higher reality. He admitted to this evolution within himself after his release from Alipore jail in 1909, in which he had a vision of Krishna everywhere and everybody. He reflected on this inner change in his

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Uttarpara speech, “When I approached God at that time (a reference to his initial days in the jail), I hardly had a living faith in Him. The agnostic was in me, the atheist was in me, the sceptic was in me and I was not absolutely sure that there was a God at all. I did not feel His presence. Yet something drew me to the truth of the Vedas, the truth of the Gita, the truth of the Hindu religion. I felt there must be a mighty truth somewhere in this Yoga, a mighty truth in this religion based on the Vedanta” (CWSA, vol. 8, 1997, p. 9). This transformation for a mind trained in the Western rationalistic tradition to the Vedantic spiritual tradition had rarely happened. Sri Aurobindo remained a revolutionary throughout his life as a political leader or as a spiritual visionary. As a radical political leader, he was one of the first Indian leaders to demand complete independence or poorna swaraj. As a radical spiritual visionary, he announced the coming of a new age in which the earthly life would be transformed into life divine (in fact his magnum opus, running more than a thousand pages, was titled Life Divine) through a process of evolution. While in the field of biological evolution, Charles Darwin did his research in the Galapagos Islands and explored the biological basis of the evolution of species, Sri Aurobindo carried the logic of evolution further and argued that evolution does not end at the current realizations, and it moves further. While for Darwin, Galapagos Islands were his laboratory, for Sri Aurobindo, the very individual, himself, the human society, the world, and the universe were his laboratories. In The Life Divine, he made it clear in these words (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 6), The animal is a living laboratory in which Nature has, it is said, worked out man. Man himself may well be a thinking and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious co-operation she wills to work out the superman, the god. Or shall we not say, rather, to manifest God? For if evolution is the progressive manifestation by Nature of that which slept or worked in her, involved, it is also the overt realisation of that which she secretly is. We cannot, then, bid her pause at a given stage of her evolution…If it be true that Spirit is involved in Matter and apparent Nature is secret God, then the manifestation of the divine in himself and the realisation of God within and without are the highest and most legitimate aim possible to man upon earth.

Such a revolutionary agenda might appear paradoxical or even impossible to a mind thoroughly trained in clinical psychology and psychiatry. How could it be possible that this mortal, fragile, disease-prone, death-bound body be a vessel of divine light? How could the man be divine? This idea of divinization of man must be too mysterious or, as Sri Aurobindo termed, referring to the limited understanding of the current rational apparatus, a ‘hallucination.’ He would argue that such a sensual-­ rational argument makes sense so far one is arguing from that pedestal, but when one rises above this pedestal and see things afresh, in a new light, the idea of a spiritual evolution, which is already preordained in Nature, makes perfect sense. Another aspect of the radical nature of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga, which synthesizes all yogas, could be traced to his life experience. He had the yoga of Bhakti in the Alipore jail. Bhakti is the tradition of yoga, as exemplified in the lives of saints such as Mirabai and Sri Chaitanya, in which it is the love for the divine, love only for the sake of love and nothing else, is the surest way to realize God. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the guru of Swami Vivekananda, is another example of this Bhakti

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All Life Is Yoga

tradition. Though Ramakrishna could not write his name correctly, he was one of the highest order of yogis in the Indian spiritual tradition. Sri Aurobindo’s experience in the Alipore jail was dramatic as it resulted in the transformation of Sri Aurobindo from scholar, poet, and politician, to become a Bhakt as he saw Krishna everywhere, in everything and every being, for example, the coarse blanket of his cell gave the feeling of “the arms of Sri Krishna around me, the arms of my Friend and Lover” (CWSA, vol. 8, 1997, p. 6). But, on the other hand, his great works such as The Life Divine could be considered a testament to Jnana Yoga, and he could well be considered a Jnana Yogi. Shankara exemplified this tradition. Sri Aurobindo was also interested in Tantra Yoga, which emphasizes rigorous discipline and control of the body, vital and mind by conquering fear and inhibitions. His activist years during the Indian freedom struggle could be considered an apex of Karma yoga. In Sri Aurobindo, one could see the culmination of all schools of yoga. In the evolution of his Integral Yoga, there would be no preference given to one yoga at the cost of other, as in this yoga, it is the individual, who as per their preparedness and tendency, would follow one path or the different path, or a combination of various paths. Pitirim Sorokin wrote, “Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga is an attempt to give a synthesis of all the main yogas and of their philosophies. It endeavours to integrate into one system their valuable parts, as well as what is valuable in the Western science and religions” (Sorokin 1960, p. 205). Sri Aurobindo opened his magnum opus, The Life Divine, with this bold proclamation (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, pp. 3–4): The earliest preoccupation of man in his awakened thoughts and, as it seems, his inevitable and ultimate preoccupation, – for it survives the longest periods of scepticism and returns after every banishment, – is also the highest which his thought can envisage. It manifests itself in the divination of Godhead, the impulse towards perfection, the search after pure Truth and unmixed Bliss, the sense of a secret immortality. The ancient dawns of human knowledge have left us their witness to this constant aspiration; today we see a humanity satiated but not satisfied by victorious analysis of the externalities of Nature preparing to return to its primeval longings. The earliest formula of Wisdom promises to be its last, – God, Light, Freedom, Immortality.

It meant, the yogi proudly proclaimed, that the human individual’s God-ward aspiration was not something new, it was there since the very evolution of the human being, and this aspiration towards the realization of higher goals was very much embedded in the very nature of evolution. This aspiration towards the divine life was ‘the earliest preoccupation of man’ as well as the ‘inevitable and ultimate preoccupation,’ and the yogi in his integral vision could capture this whole range of human evolution. The ancient dawns of human knowledge, in which one could think of the wisdom from Vedas, Vedanta, Gita, and other great scriptures, and argue that that vision of human perfection, that vision of Truth and Bliss, came to the rishis or seers or drashtas of those days, and that aspiration was there despite ages of darkness and ‘banishment.’ He further argued that the humanity might have been satiated today by the achievements of science and technology and other achievements of human civilization, and dazzled by the gifts of sensual-rational mind, but despite all these developments one could see that the humanity is not ‘satisfied’, and

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that dissatisfaction, that imperfection and the urge to overcome or transcend that imperfection, goads the individual towards the ultimate goals  – ‘God, Light, Freedom and Immortality.’ The evolution would continue, though the process might take centuries or even millions of years, as the evolution of matter to life and life to mind took millions of years, but the final summit, the result was already written, hidden, there in the very beginning of the evolution. That, in the crux, would be the justification for this evolutionary yoga, of which every individual, societies, and collectivities are part. For him, evolution is essentially a spiritual evolution, not material or mental evolution. S. K. Maitra offered this critique of the Western theories of evolution (Maitra 1968, 48): To conclude my survey of the Western theories of evolution: their main defect is that they are not sufficiently spiritual. They are cosmic. Their viewpoint is undoubtedly over-­ individual. But unfortunately, they are not sufficiently spiritual. The naturalistic evolutionary theories of the nineteenth century were frankly mechanical. But even the Hegelian view of evolution, in spite of its vaunted spirituality, is not sufficiently spiritual. For it identities the Spirit with Reason. But reason does not represent the highest type of spirituality. There are several rungs in the spiritual ladder above reason. Consequently, a truly spiritual view must transcend reason. Bergson, again, in this anxiety to avoid mechanical rigidity, has gone to the extreme of eliminating all teleology from his theory of evolution. But this has reduced it to the position of that same dreaded mechanical evolution from which its express purpose was to give us deliverance. Alexander tried most arbitrarily to foist a nisus towards spirituality upon a completely materialist universe in this theory of evolution. Thus what all these different theories of evolution in the West lacked was a proper spiritual element.

Maitra further argued that Sri Aurobindo addressed well this problem of evolution. He wrote, “Nowhere perhaps has Sri Aurobindo’s genius shown itself to greater perfection than in his handling of the problem of evolution. He has accepted the cosmic view of evolution of the West but has rejected its mechanical character and replaced it by a spiritual evolution. Likewise he has rejected the cyclical view of the universe so dear to our country (a reference to India) and the individualistic outlook of our theory of evolution, and substituted for it the cosmic and overpersonal outlook of the West. The result is an altogether new theory of evolution, unlike anything found either in the East or in the West” (Maitra 1968, p. 51). Evolution, for Sri Aurobindo, was not static, but dynamic, implying that evolution was not confined to a particular domain of consciousness or state of mind. It further implied that the evolution from matter to life was not the same as the evolution from life to mind, as this process unfolded new horizons and realizations. In the process of evolution, new things and beings evolved, but that evolution from one point to the next point was not the same, and the higher evolved did not completely leave behind the lower evolved, rather in this integral process, the higher integrated the elements of the lower in their perfect form in the higher. Such a theory would, according to Kireet Joshi, “accept the scientific account of physical evolution as a support or an element, but the support is not indispensable. What is common between the theory of spiritual evolution and scientific theory is the account of certain outward aspects of evolution, namely, that there is in the scale of terrestrial existence a development of forms, of bodies, a progressively complex and competent organisation of Matter, of Life in Matter, of consciousness in living Matter; in this scale the better organised

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All Life Is Yoga

the form, the move it is capable of housing a better organised, a more complex and capable, a more developed or evolved Life and consciousness” (Joshi 2012, pp. 20–21). In this grand evolution scheme of Sri Aurobindo, both matter and mind, external and internal, rational and suprarational, all are accounted for as this scheme neither rejected matter and prioritized spirit, or vice versa, as such a narrow evolution would defeat its very purpose. As pointed out earlier, in this scheme, particularly at the current stage of evolution, the very human individual was laboratory, and the field of experimentation. Sri Aurobindo pronounced that man was the transitional being, not the summit of creation. With a free mind, the individual could take part in this process of evolution actively and consciously, thus fastening the process as he was “a conscious being with a conscious will and instrumentation of deliberate action. The evolutionary force of Nature and man’s will can therefore act and react upon each other, and the entire human drama can be seen as an enactment of this action and reaction” (Joshi 2012, p. 30). What, then, is the concept of integral yoga, the yoga that adopts an integral view of evolution? To quote Sri Aurobindo (CWSA, vols. 23–24, 1999, p. 8): To avoid the life which is given him for the realisation of that possibility, can never be either the indispensable condition or the whole and ultimate object of his supreme endeavour or of his most powerful means of self-fulfilment. It can only be a temporary necessity under certain conditions or a specialised extreme effort imposed on the individual so as to prepare a greater general possibility for the race. The true and full object and utility of Yoga can only be accomplished when the conscious Yoga in man becomes, like the subconscious Yoga in Nature, outwardly conterminous with life itself and we can once more, looking out both on the path and the achievement, say in a more perfect and luminous sense: “All life is Yoga.”

In this scheme of yoga, nothing is excluded; everything is included. It is a total yoga, in which the whole edifice of the individual, his body, vital and mind, all his creations  – social, political, economic, and cultural  – and all his actions, all his moments, everything is included. Such an inclusive conception of yoga goes against a popular understanding of yoga. The popular perspective would argue that yoga is one aspect of life like any other such as doing a job for subsistence, doing some merriment in life, performing family responsibilities, and so on. So, to put it geometrically, in the whole vast perimeter of life, considering life is represented by a circle, yoga is one circle within that perimeter, and doing a job is another circle within that perimeter, family responsibility is another circle, and so on. Sri Aurobindo would disagree with such a conception; integral yoga would represent the larger circle in the perimeter of which come all other circles such as doing a job, family responsibilities, and so on. In common parlance, it is like, in this yoga, to remain in yoga consciousness 24  hours, 7  days a week, and 365  days a year. Applying this logic, my writing of this paragraph would be part of this yoga, the whole publication process, and my interaction with the publishers, and the readers who are reading this book would be part of this integral yoga. Nothing is excluded in this yoga, and in this holistic yoga, everything is accounted for. Such a notion adopts a view in which everything would be considered part of this integral or evolutionary yoga, and the ultimate goal or summum bonum of this yoga is to manifest

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divine in the individual and collective life of the individual, and towards this goal the whole evolution is marching, and the individual human being takes part in this evolution process, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. In a sense, the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo responds to the human predicament of existence, and problems associated with human existence. It is ontological as it involves the question of the very individual and his existence, his ultimate end in life, and also his activity and purpose of life in the whole creation. His yoga is simultaneously individual and collective. To quote Maitra (1968, pp. 53–54), “Sri Aurobindo makes a revolutionary change in the conception of Yoga. He rejects the idea, to which all the previous thinkers have held fast, namely, that the object of Yoga is individual salvation. Against this view runs his clear declaration: ‘Our Yoga is not for ourselves but for the Divine’…there is no inconsistency in the two statements, but the two together bring out the full meaning of his Yoga. That is to say, his Yoga is for the expression of the Divine in humanity.” Understandably, it is difficult for a mind steeped deep in the rational analytic tradition to fathom the concepts like integral yoga. As mentioned earlier, a mind trained in the psychoanalytic tradition would find it difficult to understand and appreciate such a spiritual perspective on yoga, which aims to take us beyond the confines of a sensual-rational worldview. Freud had such a problem and his correspondence with the French philosopher Romain Rolland animated it. In a correspondence between the two, Rolland tried to convince Freud that there is something called ‘oceanic feeling’ which could not be fully explained rationally. This ‘oceanic feeling’ could be considered a better appreciation and understanding of integral yoga. While the lack of empathy and appreciation of the subtle mystical dimensions of Eastern traditions including Indian tradition was an obstacle on the path to understanding integral yoga, S. K. Maitra found another obstacle that arose from the very nature of Eastern traditions. He identified a feature of the Indian tradition that gave too much emphasis on individual salvation, while not giving due emphasis to cosmic or universal aspects of life and salvation. He pointed out that, in contrast, Western philosophy gave importance to the cosmic significance but lost sight of the individual. To quote him, “The standpoint of Indian philosophy, therefore, is on the whole individualistic on the question of salvation. Western philosophy, although it does not speak of such a highly spiritual end as salvation, yet takes a universal or cosmic standpoint with regard to whatever end it puts forward as the goal of life…The problem is to combine the Indian spiritual viewpoint with the cosmic standpoint of the West.” (Maitra 1968, pp.  12–13). He argued that prime significance of Sri Aurobindo was in the fact that he combined beautifully “the spiritual outlook of Indian philosophy with the cosmic standpoint of the West” (Maitra 1968, p. 16). One could use the argument that the transformation of capabilities of – body, life, and mind – to their highest potentialities is the goal of integral yoga. That is bound to happen following the very logic of evolution, but there is no definitive period as to when such a stage will appear as it will depend on various intermediary factors including the very human nature and whether the individual is deliberately participating in this evolutionary process and aspires higher or cling to his current nature

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and status. At the beginning of the creation, the human individual did not exist, and that process had already been corroborated by the science that how the evolution of species took place and how it took millions of years to reach the current state. It is also confirmed by science that the human species evolved from the lower species, which did not have the mind or the mental or rational power. In the order of evolution matter or body came first, then life, and then mind. And among all, the human individual is the highest evolved; it has refined intellect. It reads, writes, creates, discovers, and innovates. All the arts and literature, discoveries, innovations in science, and dazzling achievements of human civilization could be included in this scheme of evolution. Here one could draw a parallel between Sri Aurobindo’s theory of evolution and Hegel’s dialectic unfolding of the Reason or Mind or Idea or God, in which Idea unfolds through a triple-method of thesis-antithesis-synthesis. In this process, the current stage of human achievements, creations, and organizations such as state, what Hegel called ‘march of God on earth’ are the highest achievements. For Hegel, who famously proclaimed ‘Real is Rational and Rational is Real,’ this process of unfolding of Idea is rational, and there is nothing beyond rational. In his theory of evolution, the mental principle or the rational principle remained the supreme principle, but for Sri Aurobindo, the spiritual principle, which does not undermine or deny the significance of rationality, is the supreme principle in evolution. In this process of spiritual evolution, the theory of integral yoga would predicate that all methods and actions would have value. To use the argument of the Vedanta tradition, whether it is karma, meaning action, or bhakti, meaning devotion, or any other method has value. While some traditions emphasize action, and some others on meditation, in the integral theory of evolution, there is no specific emphasis on one method or process as this vision or method is integral or reconciling, balancing all the methods and processes towards the higher goal. Haridas Chaudhuri elaborated on this balance in these words, “By stressing the need for a balance between meditation and action, integral yoga point out that it is by harmonizing the introverted and extraverted tendencies of human nature that a person can attain self-­ perfection and fruitful self-fulfilment. Through mediation one more and more realizes one’s true self as a free centre of self-expression of the dynamic world-­ spirit. Through action one more and more relates oneself to other fellow-beings in love, fruitful co-operation and constructive endeavour toward the fulfilment of the Divine in society” (Chaudhuri 1960, p.  32). Instead of entering into a debate on which yoga is better or engaging in sectarian or religious or methodological harangues, it would be sufficient here to argue that the integral yoga, while keeping in view the goal, would imbibe and accept any method that is useful in the process of realizing the highest goal. For Sri Aurobindo, it would be unfair to envisage evolution as static after it reaches the mental stage, as our very mental faculty tends to go beyond its very boundaries. Hegel believed in God, or what he called Idea, Reason, Spirit, but his God is mental God, confined to reason. While, on the other hand, Immanuel Kant, while considering the prospect of the idea of God as something which could not be proved rationally, he chose to be agnostic. While his moral worldview dictated him

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God, he emphasized that God is something which could not accessed through sensual-­rational knowledge. Sri Aurobindo would not undermine the argument that a rational process might help in the process of God realization, but, for him, God is not confined to reason. Confining God to reason, or to accepted canons of reason, is a limitation that emerges from our limited understanding, but that must not be the final word in the human evolution. God is not necessarily a mental God, It could have infinite possibilities and infinite powers – omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient – which we even do not know with our available tools, but a refined or higher order reason would tell us that not everything is confined to the rational domain. How can we confine God to a conception of mentality? It is like the human individual who created God out of his mental reasoning. It is the God which is the creation of man – to apply the Hegelian dialectic. But quest for knowledge and wisdom, quest of peace and harmony, does not stop here. God may be approached through reason, but God is not confined to reason. Hegel preferred to stay comfortable with mental conception of God, Sri Aurobindo was not happy with that conception and made a case to go beyond that. His infinite thirst would not stop at the realization of mental capabilities as conceived by our current but limited mental understanding of those capabilities. Martha Orton, applying Aurobindonian logic argued that even within the limited mind, one could have glimpses of higher reality even if in a limited way. To quote her, “Even a limited understanding of Brahman as a concept at the mental level can inspire aspiration for it, can ignite a fire in the soul to experience it, to live it and have the realization of Brahman inform one’s life and vision in the world, and even transform it” (Orton 2013, pp. 25–26). Thinkers like Ayer would call a conception of reality beyond this sensual-rational domain ‘nonsense.’ The utilitarian thinkers like Bentham would remain content with their pleasure and pain framework and emphasize the goal would be to address human problems by maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. Sri Aurobindo would not remain content with such a framework and argue that arresting the human potentials, arresting the human progress at the current stage, would go against the very grain of evolution; it is like declaring the current achievements are final, and there is nothing beyond the current achievement of human civilization or nothing beyond what our current capabilities could conceive. The problem here is that a sensual-rational mind might admit further developments in science and technology as they could be explained through the current scope of mind, but it would be difficult for this mind to admit the evolution beyond the current frames of human body, life and mind. Sri Aurobindo lamented that the human individual, under the influence of ‘transient glories’, implying the developments in material plane, in material-­ scientific achievements, lost the curiosity of seeking the inner truth, already spoken by seers since the ancient times. He wrote in The Secret of the Veda, “small is the chance that in an age which blinds our eyes with the transient glories of the outward life and deafens our ears with the victorious trumpets of a material and mechanical knowledge many shall cast more than the eye of an intellectual and imaginative curiosity on the passwords of their ancient discipline or seek to penetrate into the heart of their radiant mysteries” (CWSA, vol. 15, 1998, p. 369). For him, the glories which the human individual is so proud of are ‘transient,’ not final. The current

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stage of evolution is not final, it is the transitional phase, and the very human being is a transitional being, and there are yet many more pages to be revealed in the book of evolution. Kireet Joshi provided a simple but elegant definition of Sri Aurobindo’s theory of evolution (Joshi 2012, p. 9): According to Sri Aurobindo, evolution is a word which merely states the phenomenon of the graduated development of Life in Matter and of Mind in Matter, but does not explain this surprising phenomenon. He contends that there seems to be no reason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mind out of living form, unless we accept the Vedantic solution that Life is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Consciousness, and then there seems to be little objection to a farther step in the series and the admission that mental consciousness may itself be only a form and a veil of higher states which are beyond Mind.

Sri Aurobindo challenged the assumption that the life is static, there is nothing beyond this world, and even if there is movement, everything moves in circles, and nothing changes, or everything remains static. He argued that things and beings are evolving in a higher, divine, direction. Even though, there is a clash between the forces of conservation and progress, in sum or in ultimate the evolution is more about progress. In his words (CWSA, vol. 13, 1998, p. 128): Such is the type of our progress; it is the advance of an ignorant and purblind but always light-attracted spirit, a being half-animal, half-god, stumbling forward through the bewildering jungle of its own errors…This characteristic of human mentality shows itself in the opposition we create between conservation and progress. Nothing in the universe can really stand still because everything there is a mould of Time and the very essence of Time is change by a movement forward. It is true that the world’s movement is not in a straight line; there are cycles, there are spirals; but still it circles, not round the same point always, but round an ever advancing centre, and therefore it never returns exactly upon its old path and never goes really backward. As for standing still, it is an impossibility, a delusion, a fiction. Only the spirit is stable; the soul and body of things are in eternal motion.

In that sense, the evolution is not an easy journey, not even easily accessible to current human levels of reasoning, as far as the human individual adopts a statist or conservative view towards evolution and cherish its sensual-rational status and the fruits generated by that status. For him, the evolution of the sensual-rational individual to the status of a higher suprasensual-supraphysical individual is a possibility, or rather an inevitability, however the process might look tardy or mysterious. C.  E. Moore, reflecting on Sri Aurobindo’s theory of evolution, wrote (Moore 1960, p. 85): His integral point of view is inevitably open to all evidence, all suggestions, and the full range of his experience. His is essentially a synthetic mind. His genius consists in finding synthesis of harmony where others find only contrast, opposition, divisive distinction. It seems inevitable that a synthesis of East and West should be part of the approach and result of a thinker who appeals for ‘integral human experience’ or ‘the all-view of the Absolute’. The whole tenor of his thought and work is that of synthesis and integration of those ideas and ideals which by themselves are guilty of the sin of divisiveness but which as parts of an ever-growing or developing whole become significant and true. Sri Aurobindo wants ‘a larger and completer affirmation’. He wants ‘the rich totality of a supreme and integral realization of eternal Being.’ This is the language of totality, which, in a sense, probably knows no East and West in the deeper resources of his mind, and can (and does) draw from

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the entire storehouse of resources of his rich and full mind to bring about the complete affirmation he considers the only ultimate truth.

Apparently, and as stated by Moore in the above quote, Sri Aurobindo’s theory of evolution could not be labeled as created by a mind trained in the East or the West, in fact that labeling itself would be unfair not only to the theory of evolution as propounded by him, but also to his whole call for praxis or integral yoga, a call to the individuals to bring their best elements and take an active and conscious part in this evolution process. If the goal is Absolute or Brahman, or manifesting Brahman in this very terrestrial world, such a call, for Sri Aurobindo, would inevitably transcend the divisions created by the very limited human mind, the creations of race, caste, religion, color, nation and many such other divisions.

2 Brahman: Relative and Absolute, Matter and Spirit, Manifest and Unmanifest, and Beyond In The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo wrote, Brahman (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, 338–339) is the Consciousness that knows itself in all that exists; Brahman is the Force that sustains the power of God and Titan and Demon, the Force that acts in man and animal and the forms and energies of Nature; Brahman is the Ananda, the secret Bliss of existence which is the ether of our being and without which none could breathe or live. Brahman is the inner Soul in all; it has taken a form in correspondence with each created form which it inhabits. The Lord of Beings is that which is conscious in the conscious being, but he is also the Conscious in inconscient things, the One who is master and in control of the many that are passive in the hands of Force-Nature. He is the Timeless and Time; He is Space and all that is in Space; He is Causality and the cause and the effect: He is the thinker and his thought, the warrior and his courage, the gambler and his dice-throw.

This could be considered an authentic statement of Sri Aurobindo’s conception of Brahman or Absolute, which sustains the world, the universe, everything and being, including sentient and insentient. The core message of Advaita Vedanta, one of the core Hindu philosophies, is palpable in the above quote. Undoubtedly, Advaita Vedanta played a key role in the development of the Sri Aurobindo’s ideas and philosophy. Advaita, meaning a-dvaita or non-dual, implies that the Ultimate Reality or Brahman is non-dual, and by engendering the creation, Brahman does not suffer from limitation, or to put in another way, Brahman is the creator, the creation, and at the same time Brahman permeates as well transcends everything and every being in the creation. While interpreting the verses 9–11 of Isha Upanishad, on vidya and avidya, Sri Aurobindo wrote (CWSA, vol. 17, 2003, pp. 51–52): Unity is the eternal and fundamental fact, without which all multiplicity would be unreal and an impossible illusion. The consciousness of Unity is therefore called Vidya, the Knowledge.

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All Life Is Yoga Multiplicity is the play or varied self-expansion of the One, shifting in its terms, divisible in its view of itself, by force of which the One occupies many centres of consciousness, inhabits many formations of energy in the universal Movement. Multiplicity is implicit or explicit in unity… But the consciousness of multiplicity separated from the true knowledge in the many of their own essential oneness, – the view-point of the separate ego identifying itself with the divided form and the limited action, – is a state of error and delusion. In man this is the form taken by the consciousness of multiplicity. Therefore it is given the name of Avidya, the Ignorance.

In this integral perspective, everything and every being, has a value, and as the partakers of the Ultimate Reality, Brahman, these realities too have the Brahman element in them. They are created by Brahman, but Brahman is not diminished by this creation. How does this help explain the developments in the world which appear full of conflicts? First, essentially, everything in their core has Brahman element, but the emphasis on surface reality, arising out of avidya, creates the problem. Sri Aurobindo would disagree with Shankara and argue that though the existing things are material and perishable, they are also creation of Brahman, hence real. They are real as they are representative elements of Brahman, but only when they realize that they are Brahman all discord and conflict cease. He made this clear in the Life Divine, “All antinomies confront each other in order to recognise one Truth in their opposed aspects and embrace by the way of conflict their mutual Unity. Brahman is the Alpha and the Omega. Brahman is the One besides whom there is nothing else existent” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p.  38). Applying this logic, it would make sense to argue Brahman is everything, and there is nothing beyond Brahman. Sri Aurobindo elaborated on various aspects of Brahman in these words (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 339): All realities and all aspects and all semblances are the Brahman; Brahman is the Absolute, the Transcendent and incommunicable, the Supracosmic Existence that sustains the cosmos, the Cosmic Self that upholds all beings, but It is too the self of each individual: the soul or psychic entity is an eternal portion of the Ishwara; it is his supreme Nature or Consciousness-Force that has become the living being in a world of living beings. The Brahman alone is, and because of It all are, for all are the Brahman; this Reality is the reality of everything that we see in Self and Nature. Brahman, the Ishwara, is all this by his Yoga-Maya, by the power of his Consciousness-Force put out in self-manifestation: he is the Conscious Being, Soul, Spirit, Purusha, and it is by his Nature, the force of his conscious self-existence that he is all things; he is the Ishwara, the omniscient and omnipotent All-ruler, and it is by his Shakti, his conscious Power, that he manifests himself in Time and governs the universe.

Satischandra Chatterjee argued that Sri Aurobindo made the ‘monumental synthesis’ in his integral nondualism as he synthesized materialism and idealism. According to him, “Sri Aurobindo’s integral idealism is a monumental synthesis and happy reconciliation of ordinary, one-sided idealism and militant materialism. His idealism has its roots in the Vedas and Upanisads and the Bhagavad-gita, and it thrives on the modern scientific and philosophical thought of the West. In speculative boldness it is almost unrivalled and unparalleled in the history of human

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thought. He draws to a focus divergent current of thought – Vedic, Tantric, Buddhist, Sankhya, Yoga, Visistadvaita and Advaita, and modern western science and philosophy – and welds them into a synthetic philosophy through sadhana (i.e. a course of arduous and strenuous spiritual training and discipline), and an intense life of continuous meditation” (Chatterjee 1960, pp.  36–37). In this integral, non-dualistic vision, Sri Aurobindo’s monumental task was to integrate various developments both in the levels of matter and intellect, the developments in science and technology and the developments such as ethics, religion, culture, logic, metaphysics, and all possible conceivable sources of knowledge and organizations within that larger framework of integral nondualism. According to Haridas Chaudhuri Sri Aurobindo reconciled conflicting traditions in philosophy. He argued, “According to rationalistic dualism the value-distinctions of reality and appearance, good and evil, etc. are eternally fixed and absolute, whereas according to integral nondualism such distinctions are valid but not eternally fixed – they are real, but not indicative of any ultimate division in existence. Fully acknowledging the validity of the ethico-logical approach, integralism sublates it in a higher standpoint of identity-consciousness (advaita-jnana)” (Chaudhuri 1960, pp. 19–20). Hence, while Brahman admits the distinctions and differences, It does not take them as absolute values but as relative values and considers them real, but not Ultimate Reality. Chaudhuri made a comparison and contrast between the integral nondualism of Sri Aurobindo, the infinite substance of Spinoza, and the absolute idea of Hegel (Chaudhuri 1960, pp. 20–21): The conceptually formulated One, whether the infinite substance of Spinoza, or the absolute idea of Hegel, represents only a particularly metaphysical standpoint, a specific rationalistic way – one among many ways – of comprehending the nature of reality. According to nondualism (advaita), reality is beyond one and may, beyond substance and quality, beyond cause and effect, and beyond any rigidly conceived thought structure. It is not to be equated with any conceptual formulation or logical construction, or system of words and symbols. It is this conviction which is expressed in the concept of Nirguna Brahman in Vedanta, in the concept of Sunyata in Buddhism, in the concept of Tattvatita in Tantra, in the concept of Tao in Chinese philosophy, and the in the concept of Zen in Japan. Sri Aurobindo shares the same conviction and holds that reality is in essence indeterminable.

Sri Aurobindo’s integral nondualism harmonizes materialism and idealism, or matter and spirit. When viewed through his lens of evolution, it would make sense to argue that all these distinctions are helpful, but as they evolve, they would see the same Brahman as their source and origin. Putting it another way, matter is Brahman and idea is also Brahman, but they are, it could be said, the two faces of Brahman presenting two different realities, but those realities are relative, not absolute. But as the evolution marches, as the human individual, the highest evolved so far, evolves God-ward, and makes this limiting earth home of the divine, and everything becomes divinized, then the Brahman manifestation no more becomes a matter of speculation or guess work or a mysterious freak but as stark as daylight. This evolution of Brahman in the grossest matter is inevitable and is written in the very heart of evolution. This highest manifestation is not the kind of liberation, or nirvana, escaping the earth and its problems but realizing the highest truth on the very earth. These words, “the Spirit shall look out through Matter’s gaze and Matter shall reveal the

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Spirit’s face” (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 709), from Savitri, could be termed a key code capturing the core of the theory of evolution. Sri Aurobindo wrote about this terrestrial realization in his inimitable style: “The touch of Earth is always reinvigorating to the son of Earth, even when he seeks a supraphysical Knowledge. It may even be said that the supraphysical can only be really mastered in its fullness – to its heights we can always reach – when we keep our feet firmly on the physical” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, pp. 13–14). And he put poetically in Savitri the significance of divine manifestation on the earth and how the integral yogi must work in this direction rather than following the escape route of liberation by leaving the world as it is. The earth needs the mightiest souls for this spiritual evolution (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, pp. 686–687): Earth is the chosen place of mightiest souls; Earth is the heroic spirit’s battlefield, The forge where the Archmason shapes his works. Thy servitudes on earth are greater, King, Than all the glorious liberties of heaven… In me the spirit of immortal love. Stretches its arms out to embrace mankind. Too far thy heavens for me from suffering men. Imperfect is the joy not shared by all… O thou who soundst the trumpet in the lists, Part not the handle from the untried steel, Take not the warrior with his blow unstruck. Are there not still a million fights to wage?... Are there not still unnumbered chants to weave?

Such is the song sung by the poet Sri Aurobindo, also the seer, yogi, and philosopher. One could see in his yoga and philosophy a combination of individual and collective aspiration towards a higher goal, towards the manifestation of the Absolute, Brahman. For him, individual salvation or mukti is meaningless unless that salvation also serves as a bridge for other fellow human beings on this path of evolution to higher consciousness and divine manifestation on the earth. For him, individual salvation would be selfish for the ‘mightiest souls’ for whom ‘imperfect is the joy not shared by all,’ and the eternal optimist in him, the integral yogi in him, would have infinite patience to reconcile the rigid differences, narrow and clashing dualisms, and work to synthesize all of them in the larger integral framework. While being the most practical among the yogis, and one could also equally call him the most idealist among yogis, the patience in Sri Aurobindo, and his hope for a better life for individual, the collectives of individual, and society would never diminish, and he would prepare for, as in the above lines of Savitri, ‘million fights to wage... unnumbered chants to weave.’ The eternal optimist in him would wait patiently while working actively and invoking the power of yoga for the manifestation of divine on the earth. And for him, the time – whether years, centuries or even millions of years  – for this to happen, for the manifestation of divine life on earth, would be just numbers because he was convinced in his integral vision that that manifestation is a certainty.

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Brahman is nondual, even though one could ascribe to It all multifarious creation in the universe. Elaborating on the impersonal or unmanifest and personal or manifest qualities – Nirguna and Saguna – of Brahman, V. Madhusudan Reddy, noted, “The Nirguna and Saguna are the two truths of the Eternal, the two supreme aspects of one Reality. An impersonal Brahman without qualities, a fundamental divine Reality free from all relations, and a Brahman with infinite qualities, a fundamental divine Reality who is the source, container and master of all relations, are the two inseparable correlatives and supreme aspects of ‘a still greater Transcendence which originates them or upholds them both in its supreme Eternity’. The world is therefore not a figment of conception, nor an illusion, but a conscious birth of the supreme Reality into forms of itself” (Reddy 1973, p. 122). Hence, Brahman does not suffer diminution or division by creating the world and the universe through His creative power. Even such a divine life on earth, or reconciliation and harmonization of differences and their evolution to higher phases of existence, consciousness and bliss, would not be possible if they are not already inherent in the existing scheme of things. Sri Aurobindo put forcefully this embeddedness of Divine in the basest or grossest of the things in the creation, “The affirmation of a divine life upon earth and an immortal sense in mortal existence can have no base unless we recognise not only eternal Spirit as the inhabitant of this bodily mansion, the wearer of this mutable robe, but accept Matter of which it is made, as a fit and noble material out of which He weaves constantly His garbs, builds recurrently the unending series of His mansions” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 8). This assertion about the inevitability of divine life on earth could appear a lot more sanguine than the pessimistic philosophies or nihilist philosophies, or the philosophies which considered clash, strife and violence and death were given and there was no escape. One could affirmatively make a case that this philosophy and yoga not only announced a new age on earth but also invoked in the individuals hope for positive change, a promise for better things. But at the same time, it would be unfair to argue that this promise or hope is based on sentimentalism or ‘fiction’. How are the mortality of human individuals and rebirth accounted for in this grand scheme of evolution, in which everything evolves and manifests Brahman? Sri Aurobindo accounted for these developments – mortality and rebirth – in these words in the Life Divine (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 858): This terrestrial evolutionary working of Nature from Matter to Mind and beyond it has a double process: there is an outward visible process of physical evolution with birth as its machinery, – for each evolved form of body housing its own evolved power of consciousness is maintained and kept in continuity by heredity; there is, at the same time, an invisible process of soul evolution with rebirth into ascending grades of form and consciousness as its machinery. The first by itself would mean only a cosmic evolution; for the individual would be a quickly perishing instrument, and the race, a more abiding collective formulation, would be the real step in the progressive manifestation of the cosmic Inhabitant, the universal Spirit: rebirth is an indispensable condition for any long duration and evolution of the individual being in the earth-existence. Each grade of cosmic manifestation, each type of form that can house the indwelling spirit, is turned by rebirth into a means for the individual soul, the psychic entity, to manifest more and more of its concealed consciousness; each life becomes a step in a victory over Matter by a greater progression of consciousness

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As the human individual is not the final summit of evolution, the human body is fragile and perishable, and death of the body at its present stage is inevitable as it is made and caused by the very current status of evolution, rebirth becomes a law of nature at the current stage. And he would say that is a necessity at the present stage of evolution. Man is a transitional being, a temporary status and position holder in this grander, divine scheme. He would argue that with each rebirth the individual manifests more and more Brahman. But birth, death, and rebirth are not the permanent condition of this evolution, and the logic of evolution would hold that once the divine manifests, or when the earthy life becomes life divine, this condition of death, mortality and rebirth would no more be a necessary condition. For example, for the human individual, it is not a condition, as in the case of a plant or an animal, to be deprived of reasoning capability or rational thinking. Hence, at the present stage of evolution, death is a necessary condition, but death itself, he would argue, holds the door to immortality as with each death and rebirth, the individual soul manifests ‘more and more its concealed consciousness.’ He affirmed in Savitri (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 167): Our spirits depart discarding a futile life Into the blank unknown or with them take Death’s passport into immortality.

The creation at its present stage does not fully reveal Brahman; there is not a proper union (yoga) with Brahman as that is veiled by avidya or ignorance. Like a mirror covered by dust on the surface, they do not fully represent Brahman as they are shrouded by ignorance. But, in essence, everything is Brahman; even one could argue that ignorance is also the creation of Brahman, but that reality, the creation of ignorance, must not be a static or absolute reality as propounded by some religious traditions, they still are a passing phase in this evolutionary process. Ignorance has a purpose; once that purpose is fulfilled, it has no need. Even the limited ego, the ‘I’ness, the individuality, and even its hardest core, which leads to conflict and violence, and all the play of politics and multifarious human activity, have some usefulness in the process of evolution, but they must not be absolute or static. Sri Aurobindo wrote, “When we have passed beyond individualising, then we shall be real Persons. Ego was the helper; Ego is the bar” (CWSA, vol. 13, 1998, p. 199). Once the purpose of the ego is fulfilled, it must go away and transform in a new light of supramental force. It is necessary here to distinguish between Advaita Vedanta of Adi Shankara and Advaita Vedanta of Sri Aurobindo in further detail. Shankara at best would give the creation the status of relative reality or empirical truth or vyavaharik satya. There is a fundamental difference: Brahman is the absolute or ultimate reality or paramarthik satya, whereas the creation or jagat is vyavaharik satya or empirical truth. There is a status difference, a disconnect, jagat belongs to a lower stratum of reality, or less reality, and whereas Brahman represents the full reality, or absolute reality. The famous words of Shankara, Brahma satya jagat mithya, meaning, Brahman is

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Truth, and the world is Illusion, presented concisely this philosophy. Dasgupta elaborated on this falsehood of the world in Shankara’s philosophy, “The world is said to be false – a mere product of maya. The falsehood of this world-appearance has been explained as involved in the category of the indefinite which is neither sat ‘is’ or asat ‘is not’. Here the opposition of the ‘is’ and ‘is not’ is solved by the category of time. The world-appearance is ‘is not,’ since it does not continue to manifest itself in all times, and has its manifestation up to the moment that the right knowledge dawns. It is not therefore ‘is not’ in the sense that ‘a castle in the air’ or a hare’s horn ‘is not,’ for these are called tuccha, the absolutely non-existent. The world-­ appearance is said to be ‘is’ or existing, since it appears to be so for the time the state of ignorance persists in us” (Dasgupta 1975, vol. 1, p. 443). So far, the individual lives in this illusion; so far, he is under the veil of this ignorance, for him jagat is truth, but that truth is not the true truth, or absolute truth. Only when the individual understands this and is liberated from avidya, liberated from the illusion, like the one who gets free from the illusion of a snake in a rope, he is liberated or mukta. Shankara admitted the possibility of jivana mukta, liberated soul even while in the material body. As jivana mukta the individual is engaged in activities as Shankara did. Or he could be videha mukta, getting liberated and leaving this material sheath. In this construct of Shankara, one could see the negation of the world, in which matter was given a lower status, and soul or atma was given a higher status. Body or matter must be negated as if it is the source of evil. Sri Aurobindo would go against this very foundation – the very dichotomy of matter and soul – and the undermining of the matter. In fact, one can identify this tendency of undermining matter or body in many religious traditions evolving on the Indian soil. A complete renunciation of life, complete negligence of the material, a search for a truth beyond the material world, or prioritizing extra-terrestrial at the cost of terrestrial was the priority in those traditions. Sri Aurobindo would insist matter and soul, or body and spirit are both the creation of God, and both are real as God is real. His early training in materialistic-­ rational tradition, could have helped develop such a reconciling vision or perhaps helped him better articulate this reconciliation rationally. But he would argue that such a reconciling vision is already there in the Vedanta tradition. The Vedanta brings a reconciling vision: Brahman is All, Brahman is the visible world and the invisible world, Brahman is the very senses, Brahman is infrarational, the dim rational status of life before the evolution of the rational mind, Brahman is rational, and even beyond that. By being infrarational, by creating plants and animals, Brahman does not limit Himself to create the rational world, the human beings. Similarly, Brahman does not limit Himself to create worlds beyond the rational world by creating the rational world. The key argument, which is of supreme significance for the understanding of Integral Yoga, is that Brahman by creating lower worlds, or the worlds of animals and plants and species of other kinds, does not leave them altogether and move to another venture of creating another world of higher order. Brahman is everywhere, even in the insentient things, the clod and the plant. The famous Vedantic hymn sarvam idam khalu Brahman, all this is Brahman, aptly describes such a view. Brahman is everywhere, He is immanent, He is the manifest,

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He is revealed, but at the same time, He is beyond revelation, beyond manifestation. While Brahman is the manifestation, He is also beyond manifestation, beyond intellectual speculation, avangmanasgochara. A statist or absolute separation between matter and spirit would go against the foundation of Sri Aurobindo’s integral philosophy. He used, in Savitri, words such as “Matter is the Spirit’s firm density” (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p.  328) and “body made of spirit stuff” (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 662), in his conception of life divine, and one could perhaps, for the sake of rational understanding, make a gradation of evolution, the gradation of consciousness, for a better understanding of this scheme of evolution. According to Sri Aurobindo, “Matter, – substance itself, subtle or dense, mental or material, – is form and body of Spirit and would never have been created if it could not be made a basis for the self-expression of the Spirit. The apparent Inconscience of the material universe holds in itself darkly all that is eternally self-revealed in the luminous Superconscient; to reveal it in Time is the slow and deliberate delight of Nature and the aim of her cycles” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 668). Applying this integral vision, it would not be an exaggeration to argue that spirit and matter are obverse and reverse of the same divine coin. But this vision must be the result of direct knowledge or pratyaksha anubhuti than the production of speculation because the rational mind at its current stage cannot fully grasp this reality due to its limitations. It calculates, divides, and analyzes within its narrow groove. It needs direct knowledge of this divine principle of spiritual and integral evolution. According to an Indian tradition, called the Charvaka, akin to many materialist traditions, there is nothing called soul or God; these concepts are epiphenomena at specific combinations of the material elements, as red color emerges if one chews beetle nut and leaf even though there is no red color in beetle nut and leaf. With the death of body, everything dies. Dasgupta elaborated on this philosophy thus, “According to them (the Charvakas) there was no soul. Life and consciousness were the products of the combination of matter, just as red color was the result of mixing up white with yellow or as the power of intoxication was generated in molasses. There is no after-life, and no reward of actions, as there is neither virtue nor vice. Life is only for enjoyment. So long as it lasts it is needless to think of anything else, as everything will end with death…” (Dasgupta, vol. 1, 1975, p. 79). This crude materialistic view of creation, before which the Western materialist tradition might fall pale, might sound appealing and even provoke thinkers to call the realms of knowledge beyond sensual-rational ‘nonsense’, but one needs to delve deep to understand the deeper, spiritual, view of life. The crude materialists cannot explain the ‘oceanic feeling’ of Romain Rolland or call it another epiphenomenon arising out of the philosopher’s sentimentalism. In his attack on the materialism of Charvaka and its adoption by the West, Munshi wrote, “Charvaka’s philosophy, the ancient Indian form of Westernism, evoked contempt and disgust, − till, of course, the West came and made its practice popular under the name of civilization” (Munshi 1946, 71). Sri Aurobindo would point out that so far one looks at the world from a pure material lens, admitting nothing beyond material, a materialist view of life might appear plausible and even look like the only reality, but that view would be partial, like the blind men describing the elephant. This view would not present the

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complete or integral picture. Such a partial view was well illustrated by Swami Vivekananda’s famous story of the well-frog, narrated in the World Parliament of Religions in 1893, in which the well-frog who lived the whole life in a well considered the well to be the entire world and mocked a sea-frog who accidentally fell in the well and argued that sea is much bigger than the well. In the Aurobindonian view, matter is not to be shunned or considered an illusion, one could be very much liberated even in this material world. One does not have to leave this world to be liberated. In that sense, a spiritual marriage, a divine marriage, between matter and spirit could be feasible. One does not need to be a materialist pure or a nihilist pure, and one needs not escape the world and all its problems and enter some state of nirvana and leave the world as it is. One could be here in this very world, liberated, and work within the framework of the world and use available means to establish life divine in this world. One does not need to escape life to be mukta as Shankara would envisage, or one does not need to embrace only the material world and negate the idea of liberation as Charvaka did. Sri Aurobindo combined both views, but further transcended that combination, as for him, the evolution, the divine life on this earth, is already mandated in this very Nature, and matter and spirit are not something alien to each other. As the human beings evolved from the lower beings, so also a life divine, or a supramental being, must evolve from the human world, but not by negation or abnegation, nor by an undermining of the creation, nor by living content with it and celebrating it as the final summit. The present rational mind has limited capabilities to fathom the intricate process of evolution. It cannot fully grasp this vast truth. Any attempt at doing so is like searching with torchlight magnificent power of the sun. While the rational mind is the highest evolved in the process of evolution, it is not the final summit, not the final word of Brahman. Rational mind explains, elaborates, articulates, aggregates, calculates, and also confuses as it arrives at knowledge through limited available senses and categories through inference or anumana. It does not see Truth; it only infers Truth. The knowledge arrived at by the rational mind is the indirect knowledge, not direct knowledge from the direct experience of the Divine. The rational mind at best can give paroksha anubhuti (indirect experience through inference), but not pratyaksha anubhuti (direct experience) that comes from yoga, that comes from direct experience of the higher reality. Here a useful distinction between the Pandit and the Yogi would be useful. A Pandit is a professor, confined to the ivory tower, explains various aspects of the knowledge, he can even sing hymns from Vedas and Vedanta and other scriptures flawlessly and is a great orator on Shastras, but he does not practice any of those teachings. He does his job well in the spirit of his profession. A Yogi is a drashta, he sees the things directly as they come from mediation, as it comes directly from his colloquy with God, as it came to Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, who was illiterate and even could not write his name correctly. A renowned professor with indirect knowledge can produce a student with good job prospects, but a Yogi like Ramakrishna can produce a student like Swami Vivekananda. That would be the key difference between a Pandit and a Yogi. Pandit knows but seldom practices, but a Yogi practices whatever higher principles they know. One of the greatest philosophers of the West, Immanuel Kant, admitted the limited nature of knowledge through rational means. For him, there could not be

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knowledge beyond sensual-rational domain, though it was possible to have beliefs such as belief in God beyond that domain, but that could not be a subject of knowledge. Kant, a worshipper of reason and rational mind, admitted its limitations as it could not adequately explain ideas such as idea of God. But Kant preferred to remain an agnostic. His moral conviction told him about God, but he argued that a rational mind could not grasp higher realities. Sri Aurobindo would argue that the creation by Brahman is not without a purpose. He wrote (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, pp. 881–883): A Witness of creation, if there had been one conscious but uninstructed, would only have seen appearing out of a vast abyss of an apparent non-existence an Energy busy with the creation of Matter, a material world and material objects…He would have seen no evidence of a soul and no hint of mind or life in this immeasurable and interminable display of Matter…But after some aeons, looking out once more on that vain panorama, he might have detected…the phenomenon of a living matter, a life in things that had emerged and become visible: but still the Witness would have understood nothing, for evolutionary Nature still veils her secret…The Witness could not have imagined that a thinking mind would appear in this minute island of life, that a consciousness could awake in the Inconscient, a new and greater subtler vibration come to the surface and betray more clearly the existence of the submerged Spirit… as a supreme defiance to the reign of Matter, awake in himself to the hidden Godhead, become the hunter after the invisible, the mystic and the spiritual seeker.

To the question, why would Brahman create the world in the first place? To put simply, what was the need for Brahman to make this creation? Sri Aurobindo responded that Brahman created the world out of joy. In his words (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, 85): Stability and movement, we must remember, are only our psychological representations of the Absolute, even as are oneness and multitude. The Absolute is beyond stability and movement as it is beyond unity and multiplicity. But it takes its eternal poise in the one and the stable and whirls round itself infinitely, inconceivably, securely in the moving and multitudinous. World-existence is the ecstatic dance of Shiva which multiplies the body of the God numberlessly to the view: it leaves that white existence precisely where and what it was, ever is and ever will be; its sole absolute object is the joy of the dancing.

3 Supermind and Superman: Sachchidananda Sri Aurobindo wrote in The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity, War and Self-­ Determination (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, 244–245): Man’s road to spiritual supermanhood will be open when he declares boldly that all he has yet developed, including the intellect of which he is so rightly and yet so vainly proud, are now no longer sufficient for him, and that to uncase, discover, set free this greater Light within shall be henceforward his pervading preoccupation. Then will his philosophy, art, science, ethics, social existence, vital pursuits be no longer an exercise of mind and life, done for themselves, carried in a circle, but a means for the discovery of a greater Truth behind mind and life and for the bringing of its power into our human existence. We shall be on the right road to become ourselves, to find our true law of perfection, to live our true satisfied existence in our real being and divine nature.

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He pointed out that as a necessary condition for the evolution towards life divine, the individual must first admit that his available instruments and achievements ‘are now no longer sufficient for him.’ As a logical corollary to this admission, the individual must not be content with the realizations he has achieved so far but work to seek the higher truth. As a result of this newfound conviction about the higher truth and the urgency to realize it, he must employ his limited instruments and achievements towards this goal. That realization of the limited nature of human achievements must happen, not as an ad hoc submission or temporary admission nor as a simple intellectual understanding but accepted wholeheartedly in the very core of human living. Further, after realizing it, one channels everything one has in his command, including his ego, material, mental, moral, religious, cultural, and whatever resources and instruments he has, towards this larger goal, deliberately and exclusively. Only then the larger horizon, the supramental consciousness, would be a palpable reality before the humankind. Only when the individual accepts this limitation and works to transcend that limitation, they will be ‘on the right road…to find our true law of perfection’ and realize his or her ‘divine nature.’ This limited human mind too has the potential to transcend itself, and move to higher realms, but for that it has to enlarge itself and evolve to suprarational mind, a mind that is not governed by sensual-rational principle. The higher mind does not reject the usefulness of sensual-rational, as it too is the creation of Brahman. As Brahman created everything, everything is Brahman, though that knowledge might not dawn due to ignorance. But the problem is that unless the individual goes beyond the confines of the limited mind, he cannot see the higher realties because, by its very nature, the sense mind cannot grasp the truth of higher realities. Sri Aurobindo noted, “it is true that the glimpse of supraphysical realities acquired by methodical research has been imperfect and is yet ill-affirmed; for the methods used are still crude and defective. But these rediscovered subtle senses have at least been found to be true witnesses to physical facts beyond the range of the corporeal organs. There is no justification, then, for scouting them as false witnesses when they testify to supraphysical facts beyond the domain of the material organisation of consciousness” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, 22). Even with limited capabilities, the sense mind could have a glimpse of the higher reality, though it would remain doubtful because it could not fully grasp, but that does not need to be construed as if there is no higher reality, or the higher reality is limited as the limited mind. According to Satischandra Chatterjee, “the supermind as an infinite principle of creative will and knowledge, organizing real ideas in a perfect harmony before they are cast into the mental-vital-material mould, is the creator of the worlds. But such an infinite, omniscient, omnipotent mind would be quite different from what we know as mind; it would not be mind at all, but the supramental truth. Yet is it not entirely alien to us. We can not only infer and glimpse that truth, but we are capable of realizing it. In fact, it is the truth which our gradual self-expression in the world aims at and is meant to achieve. In it the truth of being is luminously one with all its manifold expressions” (Chatterjee 1960, p. 41). V. Madhusudan Reddy argued that in the very logic of evolution as envisaged by Sri Aurobindo, the individual’s evolution or rise to supermanhood is written. According to him, “Sri Aurobindo deals with the

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problem of man’s destiny on earth and nature of perfection he can attain. If Spirit is the truth of life then life must be full of harmony, love and joy. It is possible for man to attain to the supreme status of the Spirit – to rise above the mental consciousness to a Truth-consciousness, the Supermind. In the Supermind Unity is the law of life. Man’s destiny is to rise to this plane, bring its light and power into his earth life and solve his problems in its light” (Reddy 1973, p. 125). The Vedantic vision of soham (I am That) or tatwamasi (Thou art That) is very much visible here. Because Brahman is potent in the matter or body, the vital or life could evolve there, and because Brahman is very much potent in the life or vital, the mind including the rational mind could evolve there, and because Brahman is very much potent in the mind one could see the evolution of supermind there. Or, one could argue, because Brahman is potent in body, one could also see the evolution of a supraphysical or divine body or its possibilities on the very foundation of the physical body, or because Brahman is very potent in life, one could see the evolution of a divine life there. As Brahman is the creator of everything, and is very creation, and as Brahman is hidden in the matter, in the most obscure things and beings, or to use the terms Sri Aurobindo used in his Uttarpara speech, ‘darkened souls and misused bodies,’ in which he saw Krishna, one could see the potential of evolution or the emergence of divine life in all creation. But the current rational mind could not fully envisage such an evolution, even though it might have glimpses here and there. At worst, it would call such a vision ‘nonsense’, even though our sense has a potential to glimpse the higher truth, or at best, it would, like Kant, follow an agnostic route, even though he would have glimpses of that truth, but his rational mind would not be able to provide a foolproof knowledge, arising out of sense and categories, of it. The rational mind is limited in its capability to hold the vast Truth of Brahman within its hold of things and its current understanding of the panorama of human evolution. If Darwin was the theorist of the biological evolution, if Immanuel Kant could explore the high possibilities of the human mind as he could see the possibility of Ideas but not beyond that, and Hegel could see an unfolding of the mind in this very existing world but not beyond it, it was left to Sri Aurobindo to announce the coming of a supramental age, which denounced not the earlier achievements of human civilization, but built on them and went further beyond pronouncing that there are many more things in the horizon yet to be realized. Sri Aurobindo put this evolution poetically (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 485): In the prone obscure beginnings of the race The human grew in the bowed apelike man. He stood erect, a godlike form and force, And a soul’s thoughts looked out from earth-born eyes; Man stood erect, he wore the thinker’s brow: He looked at heaven and saw his comrade stars; A vision came of beauty and greater birth Slowly emerging from the heart’s chapel of light And moved in a white lucent air of dreams.

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The idea of superman, an individual with capabilities beyond the current ones, is not new, and this term has also been used and abused. Nietzschean superman boasted willpower and conceived a life beyond good and evil, but without a higher goal in the front. Joshi pointed out that, for Sri Aurobindo, the ancient Indian concepts such as Rakshasa or Asura presented such an abused version of superman. To quote him, “But there are several past and present concepts of the superman. Supermanhood in the ordinary idea consists of a surpassing of the normal human level, not in kind but in degree of the same kind, by an enlarged personality, a magnified and exaggerated ego, an increased power of mind, an increased power of vital force, a refined or tense and massive exaggeration of the forces of the human ignorance... Sri Aurobindo points out that the Nietzschean type of superman really signifies what is contained in the Indian concepts of the Rakshasa or Asura” (Joshi 2012, p. 31). Sri Aurobindo made it clear in the Life Divine that his vision of superman must not be confused with other ideas of superman. In his words (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 1104–1105): But this must not be confused with past and present ideas of supermanhood; for supermanhood in the mental idea consists of an overtopping of the normal human level, not in kind but in degree of the same kind, by an enlarged personality, a magnified and exaggerated ego, an increased power of mind, an increased power of vital force, a refined or dense and massive exaggeration of the forces of the human Ignorance; it carries also, commonly implied in it, the idea of a forceful domination over humanity by the superman. That would mean a supermanhood of the Nietzschean type; it might be at its worst the reign of the “blonde beast” or the dark beast or of any and every beast, a return to barbaric strength and ruthlessness and force: but this would be no evolution, it would be a reversion to an old strenuous barbarism. Or it might signify the emergence of the Rakshasa or Asura out of a tense effort of humanity to surpass and transcend itself, but in the wrong direction.

To illuminate our understanding of this concept of Nietzschean concept of superman and Sri Aurobindo’s concept of superman, at the risk of exaggeration, one could find in the personification of Adolf Hitler a superman, or an aspiration to be a superman, of Nietzschean type, but one could think of, by stretching our current imagination, Krishna or Buddha or Jesus, in their undying existence and power, as Aurobindonian type. Though these great figures of Rama, Buddha and Jesus approximated Aurobindonian superman, Sri Aurobindo would argue that they still did not represent the summit of evolution; they did not represent fully evolved superman. Chitta Ranjan Goswami elaborated on this seeming difficulty of explaining higher reality, which transcends our current perimeter of knowledge: “It is difficult to form a clear idea of the Superman as conceived by Sri Aurobindo. He himself describes the Superman in a tentative manner since Superman is as yet not a reality. None of the great spiritual personages like Buddha, Krishna, Jesus was a Superman in their historical existence. Sri Aurobindo also could not supramentalise himself thoroughly. A complete Superman is expected not only to live in the infinite consciousness inwardly but also to manifest the same in the most external aspect of his life” (Goswami 1976, p. 143). Sri Aurobindo defined Sachchidananda, thus (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, 99–100):

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All Life Is Yoga …that which has thrown itself out into forms is a triune Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, Sachchidananda, whose consciousness is in its nature a creative or rather a self-expressive Force capable of infinite variation in phenomenon and form of its self-conscious being and endlessly enjoying the delight of that variation. It follows that all things that exist are what they are as terms of that existence, terms of that conscious force, terms of that delight of being. Just as we find all things to be mutable forms of one immutable being, finite results of one infinite force, so we shall find that all things are variable self-expression of one invariable and all-embracing delight of self-existence. In everything that is, dwells the conscious force and it exists and is what it is by virtue of that conscious force; so also in everything that is there is the delight of existence and it exists and is what it is by virtue of that delight.

He frequently alluded to the Vedanta term Sachchidananda, a synthesis of three terms – sat, existence, chit, consciousness, and ananda, bliss. He proclaimed, “the ancient Vedanta presents us with such a solution in the conception and experience of Brahman as the one universal and essential fact and of the nature of Brahman as Sachchidananda” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p.  63). Further, he wrote (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, pp. 48–49): The Unknowable knowing itself as Sachchidananda is the one supreme affirmation of Vedanta; it contains all the others or on it they depend. This is the one veritable experience that remains when all appearances have been accounted for negatively by the elimination of their shapes and coverings or positively by the reduction of their names and forms to the constant truth that they contain. For fulfilment of life or for transcendence of life, and whether purity, calm and freedom in the spirit be our aim or puissance, joy and perfection, Sachchidananda is the unknown, omnipresent, indispensable term for which the human consciousness, whether in knowledge and sentiment or in sensation and action, is eternally seeking.

Sachchidananda is a crucial term of Vedanta. It is perhaps a more approachable term for Brahman as one can approach it rationally conceivable way as it is related to the ideas of existence, consciousness and bliss. Though Brahman is ineffable beyond these descriptions, He can best be approached as the perfect existence, perfect consciousness and perfect bliss, even though He would transcend this description by His very nature. One Vedantic way to approach this issue is by using the words neti neti, not this not this, and by this negation method, one arrives at the ultimate affirmation, the final reality. One could also argue that Sachchidananda is both describable and indescribable. Or, to use the language of Sri Aurobindo, to Sachchidananda, we “dare no longer apply even the supreme terms of Sat, of Chit and of Ananda. For all terms are annulled and all cognitive experience is overpassed. On the other hand, we have hazarded the suggestion that since all is one Reality, this inferior negation also, this other contradiction or non-existence of Sachchidananda is none other than Sachchidananda itself. It is capable of being conceived by the intellect, perceived in the vision, even received through the sensations as verily that which it seems to deny, and such would it always be to our conscious experience if things were not falsified by some great fundamental error, some possessing and compelling Ignorance, Maya or Avidya” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, pp.  54–55). As Sachchidananda is all and everything and every being, one could approach Him as a being with perfect qualities, Ishwara, or indefinable Ultimate Reality, Brahman,

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depending on the stage of evolution. So far there is ignorance, the individual would have a limited view of Sachchidananda, and when the veil of ignorance is sundered one could have a better, completer, view of Sachchidananda. Despite envisioning a supramental life on the earth, Sri Aurobindo realized difficulties on the path of manifestation in the current scheme of human living, which prioritized the old mode of thinking, the old style of life and practice. In many cases, the existing instruments, instead of helping individuals towards the path of evolution, drag their feet downward. To quote Savitri, in which he presented this predicament (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, 689): Heaven’s call is rare, rarer the heart that heeds; The doors of light are sealed to common mind And earth’s needs nail to earth the human mass, Only in an uplifting hour of stress Men answer to the touch of greater things: Or, raised by some strong hand to breathe heaven-air, They slide back to the mud from which they climbed; In the mud of which they are made, whose law they know They joy in safe return to a friendly base, And, though something in them weeps for glory lost And greatness murdered, they accept their fall. To be the common man they think the best, To live as others live is their delight. For most are built on Nature’s early plan And owe small debt to a superior plane; The human average is their level pitch, A thinking animal’s material range.

While elaborating his theory of Sachchidananda, Sri Aurobindo also explored a question about the working of Him in this world and by what “process of things are the relations between itself and the ego which figures it first formed, then led to their consummation?” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 66) He responded to this question this way (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 67): We arrive at the conception and at the knowledge of a divine existence by exceeding the evidence of the senses and piercing beyond the walls of the physical mind. So long as we confine ourselves to sense-evidence and the physical consciousness, we can conceive nothing and know nothing except the material world and its phenomena. But certain faculties in us enable our mentality to arrive at conceptions which we may indeed deduce by ratiocination or by imaginative variation from the facts of the physical world as we see them, but which are not warranted by any purely physical data or any physical experience. The first of these instruments is the pure reason. The complete use of pure reason brings us finally from physical to metaphysical knowledge. But the concepts of metaphysical knowledge do not in themselves fully satisfy the demand of our integral being.

His theory of evolution holds the key here. The individual approaches the higher reality through ‘sense-evidence and the physical consciousness’, which would be fine so far the individual remained in that stage. But as the logic of evolution would tell us, the individual evolves further. Even mind, for Sri Aurobindo, the phase of

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evolution is not static, as there are various types or gradations of mind. But as evolved further than body and life, the mind could approach the higher reality, and the more refined or evolved the mind, the more it could grasp the higher reality. And in this whole process of evolution, it is this working of Sachchidananda, which is visible, and which is also very process as ultimately it was Him who was revealing Himself in pure joy through the creation in an evolving march. A point needs mention here. One could see Sri Aurobindo using a language that sometimes appears mysterious and uncommon to describe the supermind or the state of Sachchidananda. Describing something indescribable, which is avangmanasgochara, which is beyond words and intellect, would be a difficult task. Some of the terms like ‘wonder-­plastics of the Absolute,’ used in Savitri, could perhaps be called a spiritual language, or a poetic language to approach supermind or Sachchidananda, or at least when one could have that vision as that of the yogi Sri Aurobindo, one could have a better appreciation of his theory. The following lines from Savitri epitomized such a spiritual language and vision (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 688): Above her little finite steps she feels, Careless of knot or pause, worlds which weave out A strange perfection beyond law and rule, A universe of self-found felicity, An inexpressible rhythm of timeless beats, The many-movemented heart-beats of the One, Magic of the boundless harmonies of self, Order of the freedom of the infinite, The wonder-plastics of the Absolute.

Another question, dealt with earlier, is if everything is Brahman or Sachchidananda, then why are there ignorance, evil, pain, and strife, which appear more frequently as the evolution marches higher? What does justify this evil in the world? Sri Aurobindo would argue that as Brahman created the universe and hid Himself in the creation out of sheer joy, it is the created things and beings, which are potentially Brahman or Sachchidananda, must evolve or journey towards the source, the creator. He made this argument to make sense of this seemingly paradox (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 57): If all is in truth Sachchidananda, death, suffering, evil, limitation can only be the creations, positive in practical effect, negative in essence, of a distorting consciousness which has fallen from the total and unifying knowledge of itself into some error of division and partial experience. This is the fall of man typified in the poetic parable of the Hebrew Genesis. That fall is his deviation from the full and pure acceptance of God and himself, or rather of God in himself, into a dividing consciousness which brings with it all the train of the dualities, life and death, good and evil, joy and pain, completeness and want, the fruit of a divided being. This is the fruit which Adam and Eve, Purusha and Prakriti, the soul tempted by Nature, have eaten. The redemption comes by the recovery of the universal in the individual and of the spiritual term in the physical consciousness.

He would argue that the journey from lower to higher, from dualism and division to nondualism and integration would only be possible when a higher force, beyond the current mind, or what he would call supermind, takes charge. Simply difficult to describe in the language of words as the intellectual terms and categories find it

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difficult to describe such a phenomenon, even though one could have glimpses of such a higher reality, the crux here is the realization of God in the very terrestrial life, for Sri Aurobindo, is a practical idea. He developed these terms to describe the gradations in the evolution such as higher mind, illumined mind, intuitive mind, overmind and supermind. The supermind operates through spiritual knowledge or vijnana. But, here, instead of engaging in intellectual debates about the gradations of mind, and which mind is what and with which capabilities, it would be sufficient to argue that when the rational mind evolves into supermind, for the individual the realization of Sachchidananda would be a practical reality. The earth would then be a field of living and action of Sachchidananda. As essentially all are divine, Sri Aurobindo would argue that when supermind dawns, all the elements of the individual including the body, vital and mind, realize their full potential, and the life on the earth becomes the life divine. To quote Savitri (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, pp. 682–683): In the orchestral largeness of his mind All contrary seekings their close kinship knew Rich-hearted, wonderful to each other met In the mutual marvelling of their myriad notes And dwelt like brothers of one family Who had found their common and mysterious home. As from the harp of some ecstatic god There springs a harmony of lyric bliss Striving to leave no heavenly joy unsung, Such was the life in that embodied Light.

And when such a stage arrives on earth, all the conflicts, separative egos, tunnel visions, and strife will vanish as there will be divine peace and harmony all over the universe. I have elaborated on this aspect of integral yoga in the chapter on integral conflict resolution. A sensual-rational mind might object to Sri Aurobindo’s theory of evolution and argue that there might be nothing called supermind or supramental consciousness, and there is no necessity that the evolution must go further. The earth, the current realizations, the realizations of science and technology, and human achievements are sufficient, the human methods of rule and governance and organization of life are enough, and there is no need to go beyond the current accomplishments and structures. Even the idea of supermind itself might be something non-sense, fictional, or a result of hallucination, or stretching imagination too far. Sri Aurobindo anticipated them and called them ‘fallible and brittle’ with a ‘meagre foundation’ as such a sensual-rational argument is governed by a limited reason, limited logic, and once one comprehends a higher reason, a higher logic, the picture becomes more clear, wider, and grander, and the horizon of evolution opens up further. He would argue that his vision of supermind or supramental consciousness is based on greater logic which is “more vast, subtle, complex in its operations: it comprehends all the data which our observation fails to seize, it deduces from the results which neither our deduction nor induction can anticipate, because our conclusions and inferences have a meagre foundation and are fallible and brittle” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005,

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pp.  333–334). He reflected in Savitri this struggling nature of the rational mind (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 511): A thinking animal, Nature’s struggling lord, Has made of her his nurse and tool and slave And pays to her as wage and emolument Inescapably by a deep law in things His heart’s grief and his body’s death and pain: His pains are her means to grow, to see and feel; His death assists her immortality. A tool and slave of his own slave and tool, He praises his free will and his master mind And is pushed by her upon her chosen paths; Possessor he is possessed and, ruler, ruled, Her conscious automaton, her desire’s dupe.

The current mind could not conceive the higher reality within its limited instruments, but that does not mean there is no higher reality. The higher reality is not amenable to our limited knowledge, limited intelligence, and when one tries to describe the Ultimate Reality with the current scheme of knowledge and language, it is naturally difficult to describe the indescribable, to describe through inference and indirect knowledge. The higher reality is seen through direct knowledge, and the human language is not powerful enough to describe the Absolute. The language obfuscates, confuses, and at best, it could present a dim picture of the Absolute, but not its full picture. It cannot fully grasp the Ultimate Reality, but that does not deny Ultimate Reality. To use words from the Life Divine, in which Sri Aurobindo used the term ‘logic of the Infinite’ (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 347): If we look from this view-point of a larger more plastic reason, taking account of the logic of the Infinite, at the difficulties which meet our intelligence when it tries to conceive the absolute and omnipresent Reality, we shall see that the whole difficulty is verbal and conceptual and not real. Our intelligence looks at its concept of the Absolute and sees that it must be indeterminable and at the same time it sees a world of determinations which emanates from the Absolute and exists in it, – for it can emanate from nowhere else and can exist nowhere else; it is further baffled by the affirmation, also hardly disputable on the premisses, that all these determinates are nothing else than this very indeterminable Absolute.

The formula of integral yoga involves a double movement of ascent and descent. Sri Aurobindo wrote (CWSA, vol. 30, 2014, pp. 415–416): There is a double movement in the sadhana  – the Divine Consciousness, Power, Light, Peace descending into all the body, the consciousness from all parts of the body rising upwards to meet the Divine Consciousness above – the descent and the ascent…The sadhana is based on the fact that a descent of Forces from the higher planes and an ascent of the lower consciousness to the higher planes is the means of transformation of the lower nature – although naturally it takes time and the complete transformation can only come by the supramental descent.

Sri Aurobindo did not claim that he was the first one who used the concepts of descent and ascent and admitted that these terms were ancient and used across civilizations. He referred to the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, who was “among the

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early Greek sages” to use his “conception of the upward and downward road, one and the same in the descent and the return.” He argued that one could come across such a conception in the Indian ideas of nivritti and pravritti, “the double movement of the Soul and Nature, – pravritti, the moving out and forward, nivritti, the moving back and in” (CWSA, vol. 13, 1998, p. 234). But he contended that his theory of the descent and the ascent is different from the above conceptions in the following way: the Indian notion was cycling, ending in a period of pralaya or dissolution, and “Heraclitus’ theory would seem to demand a similar conclusion” (CWSA, vol. 13, 1998, p. 235). Hence, his theory was not the same as propounded earlier. Neither it was same as the theory of biological evolution of species, which carefully studied how the species evolved through a process of natural selection. That theory scientifically explained the biological evolution that happened already, but it did not forecast much into the future, nor did it forecast the ideas of higher reality or supramental consciousness. Kireet Joshi elaborated, “according to the theory of spiritual evolution, there are three stages in the process of becoming. An involution of the spirit in the inconscience is the beginning. An evolution in the ignorance with its play of possibilities of a partial developing knowledge is the middle. A consummation in a deployment of the spirit’s self-knowledge and self-power of its divine being and consciousness is the culmination” (Joshi 2012, pp. 15–16). He further elaborated, “A spiritual evolution, it is affirmed, is an evolution of consciousness in Matter, in a constant developing self-formulation till the form, even the physical body, can reveal the higher supramental knowledge and power and harmony. This, according to Sri Aurobindo, is the keynote, the central significant motive of terrestrial existence” (Joshi 2012, p. 20). How would this process of descent and ascent continue, or would there be a culmination or end point, or a radical departure and transformation, or would there be a complete change in the body, life and mind, and total transformation of ignorance? For Sri Aurobindo, this double movement would continue, and as the mind passes from one stage to another stage, from higher mind towards the overmind after passing through some other phases, and then to supermind, thus effecting a complete transformation in the individual body, life and matter. In his words, this double movement would continue (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, pp. 989–990): until the point was reached at which overmind would begin itself to be transformed into supermind; the supramental consciousness and force would take up the transformation directly into its own hands, reveal to the terrestrial mind, life, bodily being their own spiritual truth and divinity and, finally, pour into the whole nature the perfect knowledge, power, significance of the supramental existence. The soul would pass beyond the borders of the Ignorance and cross its original line of departure from the supreme Knowledge: it would enter into the integrality of the supramental gnosis; the descent of the gnostic Light would effectuate a complete transformation of the Ignorance.

The Divine descends to the individual, and then the individual, who is essentially divine, ascends to the higher consciousness and divine life, and become poised to enjoy perfect existence, pure consciousness, and utter bliss, the Sachchidananda. To the utilitarian argument there could be no better pleasure than the sensual pleasure, Sri Aurobindo responded, “It is also a mistake to think that the vital alone has

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warmth and the psychic is something frigid without any flame in it…Psychic love can have a warmth and a flame as intense and more intense than the vital, only it is a pure fire, not dependent on the satisfaction of ego-desire or on the eating up of the fuel it embraces. It is a white flame, not a red one; but white heat is not inferior to the red variety in its ardour” (CWSA, vol. 31, 2014, p. 307). Rather, Sri Aurobindo would argue that an individual poised in a higher or yogic consciousness could be a better individual and enjoy his life in this terrestrial world in a better way. In his book, the Synthesis of Yoga, to this effect, he used the term – bhoga samarthya – the capability or, to put appropriately, the divine capability to properly enjoy. He would say the enjoyment the sensual-rational individual does, or the love sensual-rational individual does, is often imperfect, and limited. Only an individual poised in the divine consciousness could be a better enjoyer as for him the true Vedanta principle idam khaluvidam Brahman would not be an intellectual phrase but a living credo. For him, the four-fold perfections “fullness, clear purity and gladness, equality, capacity for possession and enjoyment (purnata, prasannata, samata, bhoga-samarthya)” (CWSA, vols. 23–24, 1999, 735) would be his very native field. In Sri Aurobindo’s words, the enjoyment “in the essence a spiritual bliss, but one which takes up into itself and transforms the mental, emotional, dynamic, vital and physical joy; it must have therefore an integral capacity for these things and must not by incapacity or fatigue or inability to bear great intensities fail the spirit, mind, heart, will and body” (CWSA, vols. 23–24, 1999, 735). He argued further that “A triune knowledge, the complete knowledge of God, the complete knowledge of himself, the complete knowledge of Nature, gives him his high goal; it assigns a vast and full sense to the labour and effort of humanity. The conscious unity of the three, God, soul and Nature, in his own consciousness is the sure foundation of his perfection and his realisation of all harmonies: this will be his highest and widest state, his status of a divine consciousness and a divine life and its initiation the starting-point for his entire evolution of his self-knowledge, world-­ knowledge, God-knowledge” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 729). A verse from Gita yoga karmasu kaushalam, meaning only the individual who is poised in yoga can do work perfectly, helps better understand how an individual poised in yogic consciousness could do work better and enjoy his life in a better way. To extend the argument, only one who is poised in that higher consciousness can live and lead a divine life, a life full of harmony and divine peace. Japanese scholar, Hajime Nakamura, inspired by the teachings of Gita, also found in Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga, a clear message for selfless action or nishkama karma, only through which one could truly fulfill the goal of life. To quote him, Sri Aurobindo “aimed at the discovery of the fundamentals of life and existence and of the true methods of which could lead to fulfilment and perfection of man and his culture. His messages sound very convincing, as if he were speaking words of revelation with full confidence…it seems some main points of his thought were especially based upon the Bhagavadgita on which he so enthusiastically elaborated. According to it, the aim of human life can be fulfilled by selfless actions” (Nakamura 1960, p. 224).

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Coming back to the principle of double movement of descent and ascent, the integral yoga takes this double process to reach its zenith, the realization of divine life on earth. But in the order of appearance, involution happens first, so the evolution could occur. If the Inconscience is the first page where the evolution begins, and further moves towards higher realms, it becomes possible only when involution happens in the first place. In the language of Sri Aurobindo, “An involution of spirit in the Inconscience is the beginning; an evolution in the Ignorance with its play of the possibilities of a partial developing knowledge is the middle, and the cause of the anomalies of our present nature – our imperfections is the sign of a transitional state, a growth not yet completed, an effort that is finding its way; a consummation in a deployment of the spirit’s self-knowledge and the self-power of its divine being and consciousness is the culmination” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 607). Though essentially all the elements are God, the forgetfulness due to ignorance has become so hardened that the individual must do continuous yoga, and involve methods of faith, aspiration, rejection, and surrender, and for which the integral yoga would recommend to follow any of the methods suitable to the temperament and preparation of each individual, whether to follow the path of Bhakti or Jnana or Karma or Tantra or any other methods, or a combination of all these, to realize the true potential. This process of involution and evolution goes simultaneously, and with the Divine Grace or Karuna, the grace of the Divine Mother, the creative power of the Divine, plays an important role in the sadhana of integral yoga. When the Mother’s grace comes down to the sadhak, the active participant in the spiritual evolution, and when the sadhak does his sadhana continuously and takes part in the process of evolution ‘deliberately and exclusively,’ the process becomes faster. For Sri Aurobindo the evolution is inevitable, the transformation of current human life is inevitable and there is no doubt about that, but willing participation of the individual would fasten the process, and the yoga in that case would be a conscious yoga. Sri Aurobindo Ashram was founded in Pondicherry in 1926 to serve as an incubator for the sadhaks in integral yoga under the guidance of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In his study of integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo, Patrick Beldio applied the argument of androgyny – the example of Ardhanarishwara – the Divine displaying features of both man and woman, Shiva and Parvati, Ishwara and Ishwari. He made the case that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother worked together on such a conception of yoga to work on establishing divine life on the earth. Such a conception is not new and not confined to Indian traditions. He referred to St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare as androgyny to promote the message of Christianity. He wrote, “…it is clear that the Mother and Sri Aurobindo and Clare and Francis of Assisi used the arts, architecture, fashion, and visual culture in their spiritual practices to express ‘the mystery of wholeness’ in the fusing of masculine and feminine poles of experience to achieve a new human experience of God on Earth” (Beldio 2015, p.  19). Sri Aurobindo and the Mother continued to guide their followers within the Ashram, and from outside, in this path of integral yoga. Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s voluminous correspondence with the individuals worldwide reflected their active interest in helping and guiding sadhaks worldwide. Here, a quote from the letter written by Margaret Wilson, daughter of President Woodrow Wilson, to Sri

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Aurobindo in the late 1930s would be helpful. After reading the Essays on Gita, a novel and spiritual interpretation of Gita by Sri Aurobindo, she wrote to him (Wilson 1938): Your Essays on the Gita have been a source of help and inspiration to me ever since the summer of I932, when I first discovered them. Now I am writing to you to ask you humbly for direct help and inspiration. I know no one here in this country to whom I can confidently turn, because I know of no one here who has had illumination. Whenever I am tempted to join this or that school or center I draw back in fear that their rules and disciplines will be binding and restricting to the self without conducing to its liberation… I do not know whether or not I am ready or whether I am capable of following your directions but I implore you dear Master to show me the way, and I shall try to follow it without fear because I know that you are only the representative of my own higher Consciousness of which I am now unaware… Of one thing I am certain and of only one thing that that the consciousness of union with the Highest is the only goal worth striving for.

Wilson travelled to Pondicherry to stay in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram to practice integral yoga until she passed away in 1944. An individual without following the Vedanta tradition could understand and appreciate the significance of integral yoga on its own merits. Or even one does not necessarily have to follow a religion for this purpose. Sri Aurobindo Ashram allowed individuals from all over the world, irrespective of their religious beliefs. A narrow vision that prioritizes one religion or creed over another would defeat the very ‘integral’ in integral yoga. Walton Stinson called the approach of Sri Aurobindo, ‘radical’, and called him a ‘scientist’, who, Stinson argued, believed that his theories stand on their own merits. According to him, “New principles of accomplishment that emerge from this “radical” shift in perspective can be applied to any field of life. Moreover, the results are not dependent on holding a particular faith or belief system. In fact, Sri Aurobindo discouraged attempts to divinize himself or his work. As a scientist, he clearly desired his theories to stand on their own merits” (Stinson 2017, p. 153). Sri Aurobindo discouraged the rise of a new religion or a new cult as he believed that his principles could stand on their own merits across cultures and other man-made divides. A mechanized, orthodox religion has a little or no role to play in this process of evolution. For him, religion can play a role, but an individual without religion can equally progress in his prescribed path of yoga. His critical approach to religion was reflected in these lines in Savitri (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, pp. 497–498): …A mind shut to the cry and fire of love: A rational religion dried the heart. It planned a smooth life’s acts with ethics’ rule Or offered a cold and flameless sacrifice. The sacred Book lay on its sanctified desk Wrapped in interpretation’s silken strings: A credo sealed up its spiritual sense.

He was critical of religious systems as he believed these systems tended to undermine the existing life, or life here in this very world, and tended to focus on life after death. Religions, for him, were eager to prepare the followers for a better life after death, but not how to evolve into a better life on this very earth or how to divinize

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this life without undermining its current capabilities and instruments. He wrote, “The orthodox religions looked with eyes of pious sorrow and gloom on the earthly life of man and were very ready to bid him bear peacefully and contentedly, even to welcome its crudities, cruelties, oppressions, tribulations as a means for learning to appreciate and for earning the better life which will be given us hereafter” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 566). Further (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 433): Altruism, philanthropy and service, Christian love or Buddhist compassion have not made the world a whit happier, they only give infinitesimal bits of momentary relief here and there, throw drops on the fire of the world’s suffering. All aims are in the end transitory and futile, all achievements unsatisfying or evanescent; all works are so much labour of effort and success and failure which consummate nothing definitive: whatever changes are made in human life are of the form only and these forms pursue each other in a futile circle; for the essence of life, its general character remains the same for ever.

In this connection, one could think of City of God and City of Earth, as conceptualized by St. Augustine. In this view of life, life on earth is a tragedy, characterized by constant warfare between good and evil, and one must enter the City of God to enjoy absolute peace and engage in the truth of God. There are also such conceptions in other religious traditions including Hinduism, one strain of which holds that after passing through certain stages in life, the individual must undertake the path of sannysa or renunciation towards moksha or liberation. Sri Aurobindo would argue that the very evolution has in it the mandate that for liberation, the earth is the field, and one could live well the life divine on this earth. Rishabhchand termed this Aurobindonian perspective on liberation, ‘double liberation’ as it implied liberation not only of the soul from the veil of ignorance but also liberation of very instruments of ignorance. To quote him, “…by liberation Sri Aurobindo means liberation both of the soul of man and of his nature. This conception of a double liberation has not been familiar to spiritual seekers for many a long century. The endeavour to purify human nature, so that it may not stand in the way of the soul’s liberation, is universally regarded as an indispensable discipline; but it is hardly ever thought possible that even this nature of the three gunas can be liberated from its lower poise and working, and transmuted into the divine Nature. But this double liberation is the very base of the supramental manifestation as envisaged by Sri Aurobindo” (Rishabhchand 1959, 399).

4  Savitri: A Journey and a Call Among all of Sri Aurobindo’s creations, Savitri, the epic poem, was the only one on which he continued working till his last years. The majority of his writings were completed by the second decade of the twentieth century, and though he kept on revising some of them, it was only Savitri on which he continued working, adding new books and cantos and revising almost till the end. Savitri, a story from Mahabharata, emerged before him as a spiritual vision, a vision which he had gained through years of his yogic experience. He wrote in the note on the poem that Savitri

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represented ‘the Divine Word,’ and the story is not just an allegory of conjugal love conquering death, and the characters in the story, Satyavan and Aswapati and others, are not just personal qualities, but “incarnations or emanations of living and conscious Forces.” One could interpret Savitri as the pinnacle of Sri Aurobindo’s yogic vision, a vision which is not intellectual but yogic, not just a mammoth creation of 24,000 lines written in blank verse, but also an apex presentation of Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga in the widest possible use of human language. The Mother, Sri Aurobindo’s collaborator, called Savitri, a ‘revelation’. In her words (The Mother, undated): …Savitri a revelation, it is a meditation, it is a quest of the Infinite, the Eternal…Each step of Yoga is noted here, including the secret of all other Yogas. Surely, if one sincerely follows what is always what is revealed here in each verse one will reach finally the transformation of supramental Yoga…Each verse of Savitri is like a Mantra…everything is there: mysticism, occultism, philosophy, the history of evolution, the history of man, of the Gods, of creation, of Nature…You can find all the answers to all your questions therein.

Understandably, the poetic, spiritual, language of Savitri baffled many of its readers, particularly those who wanted to have a rational, or material-rational, interpretation of the epic poem without understanding its larger, spiritual, message. Hence, when writers like Peter Heehs termed Savitri ‘a fictional creation’ (Heehs 2008, p.  398), it reflected the limitations of a rational interpretation of the epic poem. Perhaps in an attempt to present a humane and down-to-earth rational picture of Sri Aurobindo before his readers, mostly Western, the author was eager to rescue Sri Aurobindo from the charge of mysticism. But even that eagerness would be too much a price to pay. Terming this creation a fiction gave rise to the sense as if it was written as a fiction for popular entertainment. Even if one rationally interprets the poem, the charge of fiction sounded too heavy. One could appreciate the value of Savitri from a rational point of view, or appreciate its sheer poetic beauty and imagination, depending on the scale of understanding. If one applies a sensual-rational scale, and does not go beyond that and adopt a larger, or what Sri Aurobindo termed ‘greater reason’, a narrow understanding of the epic and terming it a fiction would perhaps make sense, but that would not serve the purpose of the author of the poem. If, for certain scholars, ‘fictional’ and ‘spiritual’ connote the same thing, it is futile to enter into a debate. Another writer came under a similar spell and argued that Savitri is ‘so abstract,’ it is not worthy of cultivation (Ranchan 1993). Judith Tyberg, on the other hand, interpreted Savitri in this way (Tyberg 1960, p. 284): Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri is an epic poem of high spiritual challenge in the yoga of integral self-realization it presents. Its spiritual conception is so all-encompassing, so integral that it gives birth to a power which transforms life on earth to a life of divine activity rather than leading to an escape from life. The epic is the mantric expression of this great seer-sage’s inner findings and conquests, leading to his vision of an age of truth-consciousness and immortality. It portrays in living drama the daring climb within of a king-soul through progressive states of consciousness to nirvanic heights and beyond to summits ne’er reached before. The poet reveals how at meditation’s peaks at one with God, where many cease their search, he becomes aware of a Presence, God’s consciousness, power and bliss, which he calls the Divine Mother. He relates how this creatrix of boundless love and w ­ isdom-­splendour comes down to earth to transform darkness into light, the unreal into real and death into immortality.

4  Savitri: A Journey and a Call

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Savitri remained an enigma for many, but at the same time it remained one of the well-known books of Sri Aurobindo. It has been translated into many languages and Sri Aurobindo’s followers and even those who develop an academic and poetic interest in Sri Aurobindo evince interest in this poem. Even if one calls this creation of Sri Aurobindo mystical, it still makes sense to have a deeper understanding of this poem to fathom Sri Aurobindo’s yoga and philosophy. Even if it is mystical or metaphysical, it is worthy of pursuit as mysticism and metaphysics too are aspects of human life. To quote Vinayak Krishna Gokak, “Many readers of Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri are baffled by the metaphysical subtlety, the mystical depth and the spiritual radiance of this epic. But we forget that there are other facets to this epic which appeal as much to the common man as to the initiated reader. Some day the metaphysics, the mysticism and the spirituality will have to be the concern of the common man too. Culture may be said to have come of age when the individual is interested in all facets of life” (Gokak 1973, p. 64). For an academic point of view, Savitri itself is a mammoth creation of the poet, which took him almost all his life to finalize, but Sri Aurobindo himself would be disappointed if this poem was considered high in terms of academic or even poetic value, rather he would consider it to have a high spiritual value, a guide emerging from spiritual experience, a journey which he himself took considering himself as a laboratory, and also he would like to invite the readers to follow the journey as he undertook. In that sense, it would not be an exaggeration to call Savitri, a journey and a call. It would be proper to call Savitri spiritual poetry, not poetry emerging out of an emotional or vital or mental plane but out of a spiritual plane. The lines in the poem could be interpreted as peans sung by the poet to the Ultimate Reality. Savitri could also be interpreted as a narration of Sri Aurobindo’s own yogic journey, and journey in which he is engaging with his readers, elaborating his experience in the path of integral yoga, and inviting them to partake in that experience. My goal here is not to interpret every line of Savitri, which would be an arduous exercise. While keeping that subject matter for another research, my goal here is to demonstrate how Sri Aurobindo’s whole yoga and philosophy could be gleaned from this poem and how the core arguments of all his other writings found utterance here in this poem. It would not be an exaggeration to argue that understanding Savitri is key to understanding Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga, ideas of spiritual evolution, supermind and supramental being. It could be considered a book of mantras or secret codes providing clues to the world of the yogi and philosopher. Hence, to understand, realize and fathom deep into Savitri, one must understand and fathom deep into the mind of Sri Aurobindo. A superficial and literal reading of Savitri would fail the purpose of the yogi. The Mother told a disciple how to approach Savitri, “you must not read it as you read other books or newspapers. You must read with an empty head, a blank and vacant mind, without there being any other thought; you must concentrate much, remain empty, calm and open; then the words, rhythms, vibrations will penetrate directly to this white page, will put their stamp upon the brain, will explain themselves without your making any effort” (The Mother, undated).

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It would be useful to narrate the story from Mahabharata to put in the context how this story of conjugal love conquering death appeared before the yogi as a template for spiritual evolution. Savitri, the bright princess of Madra, goes, with the permission of her father, Aswapati, on a mission to find her soul mate, and finds Satyavan, the son of exiled, and blind, king, Dyumatsena of Salwa, in the deep of a forest and fell in love with him. But the heavenly sage, Narada, who was visiting the royal palace of Aswapati, at the time of Savitri’s return from the search, announced that Satyavan would die in one year. The queen gets alarmed and pleads that her daughter must mount the chariot and go again to choose another soul mate, not ill-­ fated Satyavan. Savitri refuses and says, “…once my heart chose and chooses not again” (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 432). Savitri marries Satyavan and lives in the forest while remaining conscious of Narad’s word. The final day approaches, and Savitri accompanies Satyavan to the forest. Satyavan dies, and the God of death, Yama, comes to take Satyavan’s soul away, but Savitri does not give up and follows Yama and Satyavan to realms beyond physical. Savitri and Yama debate over various issues including life and death, earth and heaven, pleasure and pain. Finally, Satyavan returns to the earth and both Savitri and Satyavan enjoy life divine. It may sound like a love story, but for Sri Aurobindo it is not just a story. He wrote (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, author’s note, page number not given): The tale of Satyavan and Savitri is recited in the Mahabharata as a story of conjugal love conquering death. But this legend is, as shown by many features of the human tale, one of the many symbolic myths of the Vedic cycle. Satyavan is the soul carrying the divine truth of being within itself but descended into the grip of death and ignorance; Savitri is the Divine Word, daughter of the Sun, goddess of the supreme Truth who comes down and is born to save; Aswapati, the Lord of the Horse, her human father, is the Lord of Tapasya, the concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour that helps us to rise from the mortal to the immortal planes; Dyumatsena, Lord of the Shining Hosts, father of Satyavan, is the Divine Mind here fallen blind, losing its celestial kingdom of vision, and through that loss its kingdom of glory. Still this is not a mere allegory, the characters are not personified qualities, but incarnations or emanations of living and conscious Forces with whom we can enter into concrete touch and they take human bodies in order to help man and show him the way from his mortal state to a divine consciousness and immortal life.

I argue that to fathom Savitri one must fathom the yogic vision of Sri Aurobindo, which could be a laborious enterprise, but not impossible as it would defeat the very purpose of integral yoga, open to an individual interested in his theory and praxis. To quote a few lines from the epic poem, to demonstrate how the yogi and poet reflected on the persistence of ignorance, the clinging to old sensual-rational modes of thinking and practices, and how, despite this persistence, his tremendous optimism, arising from his yoga, led him to say that ‘ignorance is the wisdom’s chrysalis’, and despite thousands of errors, the evolution is a certainty (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, pp. 257–258): As yet a mask is there and not a brow, Although sometimes two hidden eyes appear: Reason cannot tear off that glimmering mask, Her efforts only make it glimmer more; In packets she ties up the Indivisible;

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Finding her hands too small to hold vast Truth She breaks up knowledge into alien parts Or peers through cloud-rack for a vanished sun: She sees, not understanding what she has seen, Through the locked visages of finite things The myriad aspects of infinity. One day the Face must burn out through the mask. Our ignorance is Wisdom’s chrysalis, Our error weds new knowledge on its way, Its darkness is a blackened knot of light; Thought dances hand in hand with Nescience On the grey road that winds towards the Sun.

5 Conclusion According to Haridas Chaudhuri, “the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo is a world-view of precisely that nature which takes into account the challenge of the present age, the variety of human experience, the fundamental demands of the human psyche, and the indications of the evolving world spirit” (Chaudhuri 1960, p. 19). This is a concise but accessible interpretation of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy which remained concerned with the human problems and searched for solutions to those problems, but those solutions emerged from the yogi’s spiritual outlook on life and society. And one could find in him tremendous optimism, which would not falter despite the apparent turmoil within and outside the individual and within and outside human organizations, and his integral yoga and philosophy would tell us that the solution is embedded in the very evolution, spiritual evolution, towards which not only the individual as a single entity, but also the whole human race, are striving for. Even if one does not see this evolution and experience it consciously, he would argue, it is still happening without individual’s conscious notice. To put the Aurobindonian logic, individuals and collectivities, irrespective of their identities and location, are doing yoga, consciously or unconsciously. In that, yoga is individual and cosmic, and it transforms all current constructions made by the available limited human instruments. Hence, it does not matter whether one is an Indian or British or American or Peruvian or Ugandan, Aurobindonian logic of yoga would tell us that spiritual evolution is happening, and it is happening universally, and the life material and life vital and life mental all are evolving towards higher divine life on this very earth. His words  – “the Spirit shall look out through Matter‘s gaze”, and “Matter shall reveal the Spirit’s face” – reflected this integral vision. McDermott presents this teaching of Sri Aurobindo in an elegant way: “The teaching of Sri Aurobindo starts from that of the ancient sages of India: that behind the appearances of the universe there is the reality of a being and consciousness, a self of all things, one and eternal. All beings are united in that one self and spirit but divided by a certain separativity of consciousness, an ignorance of their true self and reality in the mind, life, and body. It is possible by a certain psychological discipline to

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remove this veil of separative consciousness and become aware of the true Self, the divinity within us and all” (McDermott 1987, 39). The evolution is written in Nature, and in this process of evolution, Brahman, or the Absolute, reveals Himself, and the current stage of evolution is not the final march of the movement of the Brahman. It is true that the human individual is the highest of the evolved species, and the mental being is the highest stage in this process, but that is not the final word or result. Brahman, who created this world out of pure joy and involved Himself in the densest of the material creation, would love to evolve from there, from a process of evolution through matter and life and mind toward the higher status of supermind. Sri Aurobindo’s superman would be a being, living a life of pure existence, pure consciousness, and pure bliss. As the superman would have no imperfections in him, he would not pass through the stage of death and leave the imperfect body, and indulge in rebirth, as he would have no reason to die, rather he would have realized the divine on this very earth, rather for him life divine would not be a figment of imagination or hallucination but a very practical reality in this terrestrial life. But that is something far on the horizon; at the present stage, the human individual, who has limitations and loves to cling to old deformities and habits, biases, and prejudices, would have to leave the imperfect body to take part in the evolution continuously. But Sri Aurobindo would argue conscious participation in the process of evolution is possible through integral yoga, through methods of aspiration and surrender and faith in the divine grace, and such an active and conscious participation in evolution would make a realization of better dawn for individual and society faster. The optimist in him would tell us that it does not matter how much time such a spiritual evolution would take, depending on the participation or lack of participation of human individual, but the evolution is an inevitability, written in the very Nature, in the very core of the creation, mandated by the very process of working of the Brahman. As mentioned earlier, such an evolution would not be easier as far as human individuals and their societies cling to their rigid thinking and narrow constructions. Rod Hemsell elaborated (Hemsell 2014, p. 2): These transformations (towards higher life) must be extreme. For example, the transformation of human consciousness into an instrument of truth and light, instead of falsehood, and of human life and body into instruments of strength and joy instead of weakness and suffering, even to the point of eliminating the process of physical death as we know it, can now be considered real possibilities and necessities. Philosophy has always entertained the possibility of knowing and realizing the Ideal, but to actually learn to see and know Beauty to be the cause of our amazing and dubious human designs, as well as of the processes and marvels of Nature; Consciousness-Force to be the cause of our ingenious systems and inventions rather than their elusive and doubtful result; the forces of our lives and relations and experiences to be derivatives of Divine Realities in the process of unfolding, – in short, to overturn all our normal conceptions, and to change the quality of all our normal behaviors – are the methods and the goals to be realized. This is the significance, and the promise, of the New Millennium.

As I elaborate in the following two chapters, reflecting on the current developments in politics at national and international levels and tools of conflict resolution at various levels, and analyze those developments from an Aurobindonian perspective, it

References

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would appear that a process of transformation from a lower, narrow, life towards a higher life would indeed be passing through extreme situations. The developments in the late twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first century amply present before the humanity that the life governed by limited mind, limited constructions, egos, and dualities – of mine and thine, of my group and your group, of my country and your country, and polarizations along the lines of race, religion, and other markers of division – have been sharper. Sri Aurobindo would argue that these developments, in prospect, further enhance the relevance of his theories of integral yoga and spiritual evolution. The current phase of evolution, which is full of conflicts, contradictions, binaries, clash and strife, and pain, must evolve towards higher goals of sustainable peace, peaceful coexistence, and harmonious living in a new divine light, and for this the human individual must actively participate in this greater, divine, journey towards peace and light, and rise above limited ego and narrow constructions which so far have dominated the individuals, groups and societies. There is no other way. Sri Aurobindo made this clear in these lines (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 448): This hidden foe lodged in the human breast Man must overcome or miss his higher fate. This is the inner war without escape.

References Beldio, Patrick. 2015. The Androgynous Visual Piety of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo and St. Clare and St. Francis. Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies 28: 1–22. Chatterjee, Satischandra. 1960. Mind and Supermind in Sri Aurobindo’s Integralism. In The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, ed. Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg, 35–46. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Chaudhuri, Haridas. 1960. The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo. In The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, ed. Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg, 17–34. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Dasgupta, Surendranath. 1975. A History of Indian Philosophy. Vol. 1. Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass. Gokak, Vinayak Krishna. 1973. Sri Aurobindo on Applied Science in Savitri. In Sri Aurobindo: An Interpretation, ed. V.C. Joshi, 64–70. Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd. Goswami, Chitta Rajnan. 1976. Sri Aurobindo’s Concept of the Superman. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Books Distribution Agency. Heehs, Peter. 2008. The Lives of Sri Aurobindo. New York: Columbia University Press. Hemsell, Rod. 2014. Sri Aurobindo and the Logic of the Infinite. Crestone: Sri Aurobindo Learning Center. Retrieved from https://www.auro-­ebooks.com/logic-­of-­the-­infinite/. Joshi, Kireet. 2012. Sri Aurobindo’s Philosophy of Evolution. Delhi: Popular Media. Maitra, S.K. 1968. The Meeting of the East and the West in Sri Aurobindo’s Philosophy. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram. McDermott, Robert, ed. 1987. The Essential Aurobindo. Great Barrington: Lindisfarne Press. Moore, C.E. 1960. Sri Aurobindo on East and West. In The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, ed. Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg, 81–110. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Munshi, K.M. 1946. The Creative Art of Life. Bombay: Padma Publications Ltd.

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Nakamura, Hajime. 1960. Practice of Selfless Action. In The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, ed. Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg, 223–230. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Orton, Martha S.G. 2013. Oneness. Bloomington: iUniverse, Inc. Ranchan, Som P. 1993. Aurobindonian Yoga: A Revisioning. Delhi: Konark Publishers Pvt. Ltd. Reddy, V.  Madhusudan. 1973. Sri Aurobindo’s Vision of Human Unity. In Sri Aurobindo: An Interpretation, ed. V.C. Joshi, 114–161. Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd. Rishabhchand. 1959. The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. Pondicherry: All India Press. Sorokin, Pitirim A. 1960. The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. In The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, ed. Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg, 205–212. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Sri Aurobindo. (different years and different volumes, mentioned in in-text citation). The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo (referred in the chapter text as CWSA). Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo ashram. Also available online at: https://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/sriaurobindo/writings.php. Stinson, Walton. 2017. Original Minds. Cadmus 3 (3): 152–153. The Mother. undated. The Mother’s Talk on Savitri. Retrieved from http://savitri.in/library/mother/ the-­mothers-­talk-­on-­savitri. Tyberg, Judith M. 1960. The Drama of Integral Self-Realization. In The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, ed. Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg, 284–293. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Wilson, Margaret W. 1938. Margaret Woodrow Wilson to Sri Aurobindo. Retrieved from http:// presidentwilson.org/items/show/33545.

Ideal of Human Unity

Many of the reflections which Sri Aurobindo made on the international developments including the rise and failure of the League of Nations, the establishment of the United Nations and its weakness, and the squabbling among the major powers, are relevant to a discussion on international politics in the twenty-first century world. I demonstrate, in this chapter, how contemporary developments appear meaningful from Sri Aurobindo’s integral perspective, and how they need to be viewed from that larger perspective to explore solutions to them. Building on his integral perspective, I show that in this perspective, material and spiritual, mundane and non-mundane, an individual’s inner development and his outward organization and society are all interconnected, and a deeper understanding of them enables a better understanding of Aurobindonian vision of human unity. In the first two sections of the chapter, I focus on this vision of human unity and examine how it evolved in his philosophy, and what factors shaped this evolution in his larger scheme of integral evolution. In the third section I elaborate on this and examine various concepts such as nation and nationalism from the Aurobindonian perspective. I elaborate on his ideas such as ‘national ego’ and ‘nation soul’ and argue how these two concepts emerge from his evolutionary vision and how they illuminate our understanding of challenges and prospect of human unity on a global scale. To put simply, nations acting out from national ego impede the process of unity, and nations acting out from nation soul further the process of unity. In this context, I elaborate on various tried and tested means of human unity, including international organizations such as the League of Nations and the United Nations, while arguing that mechanical, national ego driven, means to arrive human unity did not work in the past, and they are bound to fail in the present and the future as in their very core they lack that larger, spiritual, vision of human unity. I also examine Auroville, the international township as a crucible of human unity, which could have larger, global, implications. In the next section, I juxtapose Sri Aurobindo’s ideal of human unity with the idea and practice of ‘global governance’, a term that has become popular in political science and international relations in recent decades. In the conclusion section, I summarize the main arguments of the chapter.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 D. A. Mahapatra, Sri Aurobindo at 150, Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures 40, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21808-8_3

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1 The Vision To understand Sri Aurobindo’s vision of human unity, one must come to terms with his core vision of integral yoga, an all-embracing vision of life and society, and how this vision helps us understand the problems of human society. Sri Aurobindo saw the problems plaguing human society not as a material or mechanical problem taking place in the organization of human institutions or state structure and governance, rather he saw them at a deeper level. He wrote in the Life Divine, “For all the problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony. They arise from the perception of an unsolved discord and the instinct of an undiscovered agreement or unity. To rest content with an unsolved discord is possible for the practical and more animal part of man, but impossible for his fully awakened mind, and usually even his practical parts only escape from the general necessity either by shutting out the problem or by accepting a rough, utilitarian and unillumined compromise” (CWSA, 2005, vol. 21–22, p. 4). He argued that the problems are ‘essentially problems of harmony’ at a much deeper level, and the solution to this problem could not be found ‘by accepting a rough, utilitarian and unillumined compromise’. It is possible to rest content with the present order of society governed by utilitarian principles. The individual can rest content with the discord and disunity and accept it as a part of life, but for the awakened mind, the current state needs to be transformed in a spiritual light. The superficial means to realize harmony in the twentieth century, for example in relations between states of the world after the end of the First World War and the Second World War, did not help realize true harmony and peace. The world witnessed discord, conflict and violence recurring in new avatars, only the actors and the means of discord changed. Sri Aurobindo did not hide his distaste for ‘utilitarian compromise’, as it pitted one group or one set of groups against another group or another set of groups, prioritizing majority over minority. Such utilitarian solutions could provide temporary relief but not lasting harmony and peace. The exclusive emphasis on materialism, or material means to realize unity, or the exclusive emphasis on non-material means to realize unity, are not enough as they are not inclusive. This argument is based on Sri Aurobindo’s integral vision in which neither materialism as emphasized in the West nor asceticism as emphasized in the East is negated or overemphasized to realize unity. Peter Heehs elaborates on this vision of Sri Aurobindo, “Man then is in disharmony with his world and his nature. The existential interpretation of the estrangement is not the same in East and West. Aurobindo calls these two differing interpretations a “double negation”; neither the West nor the East interprets this disharmony correctly in his opinion. In the West this negation is centered in the refusal of a materialist philosophy to recognize the ascetic aspect of man whereas the negation in the East is centered in the ascetic philosophy refusing to recognize the material aspect of man” (Heehs 2008, p. 2). It is like the proverbial blind men describing the elephant, both the East and the West are at fault as they do not see the full picture: the West emphasizes only the worldly aspect of the reality and searches for meaning of life there and searches solutions to the predicament of life there, and the East goes to the other extreme, emphasizing the otherworldly and searches means and solutions in that realm. Both miss the essential connection between the two aspects of reality.

2  The Evolutionary Thesis

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Sri Aurobindo cast this partial picture of the materialist view thus: “That is why the gospel of materialism, in spite of the dazzling triumphs of physical Science, proves itself always in the end a vain and helpless creed, and that too is why physical Science itself with all its achievements, though it may accomplish comfort, can never achieve happiness and fullness of being for the human race” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, pp. 757–758). Physical science could make life comfortable by providing means of comfort through rapid strides in development, including in transport and communication. These developments might have practical value for the survival and enjoyment of human life; the material science, however, did not present the full picture of life, its deeper meaning, and true happiness before the individual. The same was true in the case of an ascetic life, which ran away from the mundane life and problems it presented and sought solution in otherworldly, ascetic, means. While both the approaches were relevant to an understanding of human life and its problems, for a true exploration of human unity, it was necessary that one must come out of these partial approaches and adopt an integral approach in which both the partial approaches have value in a spiritual light. It is not that in the West, there was no focus on life beyond materialism, or in the East, there was no focus on life beyond asceticism. There were instances how philosophers both in the East and the West challenged the dominant trend. In the case of the East, the case of Charvaka was noteworthy. An early avatar of materialist philosophy, Charvaka challenged the dominant ascetic trend and called for an exclusivist focus on material life and argued that there is nothing beyond material life. As elaborated in the last chapter, Charvaka interpreted the term atman or soul in purely materialist terms as, for him, it is a combination of different material elements in specific proportions which creates an illusion of something luminous or otherworldly but with the death of the human body it dies. Similarly, there were developments in the West, starting with the Greek philosophy, which pointed to the concepts beyond the material realm. Here, it would be sufficient to argue that in the search of human unity, and to find solutions to the problems afflicting human individuals and human society, Sri Aurobindo emphasized that the search for solutions must be found in both the realms as they are connected, and both need to be probed to find a solution through an evolutionary perspective. Before Sri Aurobindo, German philosopher, Hegel, used this evolutionary perspective in his philosophy. Sri Aurobindo took further the theory of evolution beyond biological evolution of Charles Darwin or mental evolution of Hegel and argued there are realms beyond awaiting us in that evolutionary process.

2 The Evolutionary Thesis Sri Aurobindo’s ideal of human unity was predicated on the argument that human society evolved throughout history and was destined to evolve further towards better organization of human life. In this passage he elaborated on this process of evolution (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 285):

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Ideal of Human Unity For the gradual process of Nature introduces a complication which prevents the individual from standing in a pure and direct relation to the totality of mankind. Between himself and this too immense whole there erect themselves partly as aids, partly as barriers to the final unity the lesser aggregates which it has been necessary to form in the progressive stages of human culture. For the obstacles of space, the difficulties of organisation and the limitations of the human heart and brain have necessitated the formation first of small, then of larger and yet larger aggregates so that he may be gradually trained by a progressive approach till he is ready for the final universality. The family, the commune, the clan or tribe, the class, the city state or congeries of tribes, the nation, the empire are so many stages in this progress and constant enlargement.

The modern nation-state represented a stage in this evolution: the human individual by nature sought the association of his fellow beings, and this seeking of association of individuals begins within the family followed by the tribe, the clan, the community, the nation-state, and higher collectivities. The need for compactness, single-­ mindedness and uniformity to promote security and strengthen national defense were sought to be fulfilled by the state-idea, which aimed to bring about an organic unity of the aggregate people’s political, social and economic life through centralized administration. Sri Aurobindo argued, “The state has been most successful and efficient means of unification and has been best able to meet the various needs which the progressive aggregate life of societies has created for itself and is still creating. It is, besides, the expedient to which the human mind at present has grown accustomed, and it is too the most ready means both for its logical and its practical reason to work with because it provides it with what our limited intelligence is always tempted to think its best instrument, a clear-cut and precise machinery and a stringent method of organization” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 465). The state was only an outward form, a convenient machinery to enforce unity and uniformity, while the nation idea implied the living unity of the aspirations and powers of its peoples. The evolution, however, does not end at the nation idea because there is a drive in Nature towards larger agglomerations and that drive can lead to the final establishment of the largest of all and the ultimate union of the world’s people. Sri Aurobindo elucidated the evolution project of human unity as it is the very urge of Nature to move towards larger unifications. He elaborated his thesis thus: “The thesis we have undertaken to establish of the drive of Nature towards larger agglomerations and the final establishment of the largest of all and the ultimate union of the world’s peoples still remains unaltered: this is evidently the line which the future of the human race demands and which conflicts and perturbations, however immense, may delay, even as they may modify greatly the forms it now promises to take, but are not likely to prevent; for a general destruction would be the only alternative destiny of mankind” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 593). Applying Sri Aurobindo’s evolutionary thesis, it makes sense to argue that while the state idea emerged out of a mechanical necessity for the organization of human life and society, the nation idea was more subtle as it emerged from a deeper human well for unity and belonging. Like the state idea, the nation idea initially emerged as a mechanical arrangement in eighteenth century Europe and proceeded from expediency, mainly geographical and historical. In the beginning, it surfaced as a secondary or even tertiary necessity which resulted not from anything inherent in the

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vital nature of human society but from circumstances. Sri Aurobindo wrote, “The nation idea…did not arise from a primary vital need, but from a secondary or even tertiary necessity which resulted not from anything inherent in our vital nature, but from circumstances, from environmental evolution; it arose not from a vital, but from a geographical and historical necessity” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 554). But that was not the true essence of nationalism as in nationalism there is an inherent urge to move to larger unity of humankind. Nationalism as it emerged in Europe in the eighteenth century, hence, lacked the idea of larger human unity at its core. Though Sri Aurobindo did not reject the role of external factors such as geography, language, and common objectives, or the internal factors such as common sentiment and culture in the emergence of the nation-state idea, he applied the logic of evolution to explain it. Scholars while examining Sri Aurobindo’s views on nationalism and its role in human unity diverge mostly along two lines: first, his nationalism was narrow and revivalist as it drew from a particular religion, Hinduism; and second, though Sri Aurobindo drew from Hinduism, he never lost sight of the larger picture of human unity – rather his study of religion influenced his vision and inspired him to embark on a project of human unity. The first set of scholars often draw from Sri Aurobindo’s writings in Bande Mataram, the nationalist weekly he edited in the first decade of the twentieth century, to support their assertion. For example, “What is Nationalism? Nationalism is not a mere political programme; Nationalism is a religion that has come from God; Nationalism is a creed in which you shall have to live. Let no man dare to call himself a Nationalist if he does so merely with a sort of intellectual pride, thinking that he is more patriotic, thinking that he is something higher than those who do not call themselves by that name. If you are going to be a Nationalist, if you are going to assent to this religion of Nationalism, you must do it in the religious spirit. You must remember that you are the instrument of God for the salvation of your own country. You must live as the instruments of God” (CWSA, vols. 6–7, 2002, pp. 818–819). Sri Aurobindo in his early career was active in Indian freedom struggle and used religious imageries to rally masses against the British rule. His invocation to India as mother too had that same goal. Peter Heehs mentions in his book how K. M. Munshi, a student of Sri Aurobindo at Baroda college asked Sri Aurobindo “how can nationalism be developed” and expected an erudite reply from Cambridge trained professor and recommendation of books on the subject. Instead, the professor pointed him to a wall-map of India, and said, “Look at that map. Learn to find in it the portrait of Bharatmata (Mother India). The cities, mountains, rivers and forests are the materials which go to make up Her body. The people inhabiting the country are the cells which go to make up Her living tissues…The happiness and freedom of Her children is Her salvation. Behold Bharat as a living Mother, meditate upon Her and worship Her…” (quoted in Heehs 2008, p. 95). Much later, while in public life, Munshi reminisced and called Sri Aurobindo, “distant inspiration of my youth,” who “has risen above the basic limitations, become the vehicle of Divine Will, wise and far-seeing” (Munshi 1946, p. 77). Robert Minor referred to select writings and speeches of Sri Aurobindo during the freedom struggle and argued one can find traces of religious and revivalist

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nationalism in them (Minor 1999). He saw in Sri Aurobindo’s nationalism Hindu revivalist elements. He also found similarities between Sri Aurobindo’s nationalist ideas and ideas of Swami Vivekananda, who presented Hindu religion as the eternal religion in his Chicago address in 1893. Minor argued Sri Aurobindo’s nationalism could not be termed secular as it was overtly religious, using religious terms, and even imputing universal meanings to Hindu religion. In that context, he referred to Sri Aurobindo’s Uttarpara speech in 1909, in which he interpreted Hindu religion as the eternal religion (Minor 1999, 21). The problem with this argument is that it interprets religion as a creed confined to a group of people, with strict rules, regulations, and rituals for the followers. For Sri Aurobindo, though he used religious terms, his religion was not a narrow, creed-based religion. He cast religion in larger universal, inclusivist, terms. He called his religion ‘religion of humanity’. Also, one can find evolution in Sri Aurobindo’s approach itself: in his early career he used religious imageries to rally the masses for the freedom struggle, in his later career he adopted a more universal approach to religion. In a letter in 1932 he made a bold statement, in response to a correspondent who complained that the Ashram is partial in favoring Hindu disciples, “…I have not the slightest objection to Hinduism being broken to pieces and disappearing from the face of the earth, if that is the Divine Will. I have no attachment to past forms; what is Truth will always remain; the Truth alone matters” (CWSA, vol. 35, 2011, p. 701). Sri Aurobindo’s nationalism, which could also be called integral nationalism as it embraced past, present, and future of humanity, was more spiritual, and less religious. It would also not be wrong to call his nationalism, spiritual nationalism. A revivalist charge would be unfair as he, despite drawing from Vedanta, never lost sight of India’s multicultural and pluralistic ethos. Even while influenced by the Japanese nationalism and calling Indians to draw inspiration from the Japanese nation, he never invoked them to cling to a particular religious ideology. He wrote in Bande Mataram (CWSA, vols. 6–7, 2002, p. 813): If we look at Japan, we see that the Japanese people never forget their ancestors who offered their lives as a sacrifice for the sake of their country. This sense of sacrifice is always present in the Japanese blood. When a warrior fights for his country, he recalls those sacrifices. This is something we must learn from Japan. We must learn from the Japanese how to honour our ancestors and evoke the spirit of Nationalism by remembering them. Whatever you do today, you are doing not for your own sake but to pay the debt you owe to them. This you must never forget. Not only your ancestors – the generations to come are also an organic component of your nation. When we envision an Indian nation, it should be along these lines…What we need is a wide, engaging vision of our nation and of nationalism; our action must match that vision and as a result our nation will produce great philosophers, statesmen, warriors and commanders. I don’t say this will happen today, but surely it will happen in the future.

It is important to keep in mind that for Sri Aurobindo, true religion is spiritual, and it cannot be narrow, ritualistic, based on a particular creed or race. He made a distinction between true religion (broad, universal) and religionism (narrow, particular), thus, in The Human Cycle, “There are two aspects of religion, true religion and religionism. True religion is spiritual religion, that which seeks to live in the spirit, in what is beyond the intellect, beyond the aesthetic and ethical and practical being

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of man, and to inform and govern these members of our being by the higher light and law of the spirit. Religionism, on the contrary, entrenches itself in some narrow pietistic exaltation of the lower members or lays exclusive stress on intellectual dogmas, forms and ceremonies, on some fixed and rigid moral code, on some religio-­political or religio-social system” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, pp. 177–178). For him, true religion is not narrow or revivalist, but spiritual. A better qualification for religion would be ‘spiritual religion’ or what Sri Aurobindo often referred to as the ‘religion of humanity’ – a religion that embraces humanity, rather than a particular people. He elaborated (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 577): A religion of humanity means the growing realization that there is a secret Spirit, a divine Reality, in which we are all one, that humanity is its highest present vehicle on earth, that the human race and the human being are the means by which it will progressively reveal itself here. It implies a growing attempt to live out this knowledge and bring about a kingdom of this divine Spirit upon earth. By its growth within us oneness with our fellow men will become the leading principle of all our life, not merely a principle of cooperation but a deeper brotherhood, a real and an inner sense of unity and equality and a common life. There must be a realisation by the individual that only in the life of his fellow men is his own life complete. There must be the realisation by the race that only on the free and full life of the individual can its own perfection and permanent happiness be founded. There must be too a discipline and a way of salvation in accordance with this religion, that is to say, a means by which it can be developed by each man within himself, so that it may be developed in the life of the race.

It needs emphasis here that ‘religion of humanity’ as formulated by Sri Aurobindo does not prioritize a particular religion or promote rituals and principles of a particular religion as universal religion, as Minor argued, rather far from it. Such an interpretation undermines the very vision that gave rise to his thesis of human unity. While the religion of humanity or the spiritual religion is the ‘hope of the future’, it must not be constructed as some sort of fixed religion, system or creed as such attempts in the past have failed. They ‘deserved to fail,’ because “there can be no universal religious system, one in mental creed and vital form” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 577). Hence, the charge of revivalism or narrow nationalism must be reexamined as Sri Aurobindo’s religion or nationalism least subscribed to narrow definitions; they were part of his larger project of spiritual evolution of mankind. As I elaborate elsewhere, these ideas are quite relevant for the twenty-first century as part of academic debates on religion and nationalism and as part of policymaking in the world in which polarization, conflict and violence based on religious identities have increased. Heehs analyzed one of the famous speeches of Sri Aurobindo in Bombay on January 19, 1908, in which he defined nationalism as “a religion that has come from God; Nationalism is a creed in which you shall have to live”, which gave rise to the impression that his nationalism was narrow and revivalist. He argued, “Admirers cite it as an expression of enlightened politics based on the ancient greatness of Hinduism. Detractors regard it as a dangerous mixture of religion and nationalism. Both are reading into it things that are not there. Apart from a few literary references, Aurobindo did not allude to Hinduism. The ‘religion’ he referred to was the ‘religion of Nationalism,’ the sacrifice of all one is and has to the nation ‘in a

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religious spirit,’ that is, with faith, unselfishness, and courage…The speech, to be sure, is shot through with religion, but not religion as the term is ordinarily understood” (Heehs 2008, 147). Karan Singh argued, “Sri Aurobindo’s nationalism never descended into chauvinism or obscurantist revivalism. He always placed it in a broader, international context, and even in the white heat of political controversy he never lost sight of his ideal of human unity which far transcended local problems and had for its goal the ultimate reconciliation of all conflicts in a syncretic spiritual development” (Singh 2000, 176). Singh while referring to Sri Aurobindo’s ‘Open Letter to Countrymen’ argued that though he used the imagery of mother for rallying Indians for the freedom struggle, he did not lose sight of the larger picture as he believed India’s freedom had a larger purpose and emphasized India’s role as a beacon of peace and spiritual anchor. Sri Aurobindo’s five dreams, particularly third, fourth and fifth ones, issued on the occasion of independence of India, clearly marked the universal approach of Sri Aurobindo’s concepts of religion and nationalism, and more so, they revealed his evolutionary project of human unity.

3 Nationalism, National Ego, and Nation-Soul Like religion, nationalism too is a subject of varied interpretations. It does not have a commonly agreed definition. E.  J. Hobsbawm wrote nation “is a historically evolved, stable community of language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a community of culture” (Hobsbawm 1993, p. 5). Another prominent writer on nationalism, Benedict Anderson emphasized the psychological aspect: “it (nation) is an imagined political community- and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign” (Anderson 1991, p.  6). Though the concept gained prominence after the French Revolution, its foundation could be traced to the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, which separated church from state and laid the foundation of modern secular states in Europe. Austro-Marxists like Karl Renner and Otto Bauer argued in the early twentieth century that ideas like nation, state and society are not coterminous and nationalist conflicts prove a threat to a universal socialism project (Bauer 2000). For orthodox Marxists, nationalism is a form of false consciousness as it threatens socialism. Hans Kohn in The Idea of Nationalism focused on nationalism as an idea or doctrine than on its specific historical connections (Kohn 2008). The rise of Fascism and the Second World War led thinkers like E. H. Carr to question ethnic nationalism (Carr 1945). My goal here is not to explore nationalism and its various facets in detail, but to demonstrate that modern nationalism emphasizes separation of religion and state. It contrasts with the idea of religious nationalism, which emphasizes exclusive intersection of religion and nationalism. Sri Aurobindo would have no problem accepting the modern interpretation of nationalism and rejecting religious nationalism based on a narrow, exclusivist, interpretation of religion. In his conception of nationalism, which is evolutionary and invokes higher ideal of human unity, narrow or exclusivist religion has no place. He believed that national spirit in Europe helped

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check religious struggles and violence, and it could have helped check communal violence in India in the early twentieth century. He wrote in Bande Mataram, “If the spirit of nationalism conquered the much fiercer intolerance of the religious struggles in Europe after the reformation, it is not irrational to hope as much for India in the twentieth century” (CWSA, vols. 6–7, 2002, p. 669). In another place, he laid out the larger goal of nationalism by arguing it is “simply the passionate aspiration for the realisation of that Divine Unity in the nation, a unity in which all the component individuals, however various and apparently unequal their functions as political, social or economic factors, are yet really and fundamentally one and equal” (CWSA, vols. 6–7, 2002, p. 679). The idea of a territorial nation-state, implying all inhabitants within a territorial state constitute one nation, is in contrast with a larger vision of the nation-state, which for Sri Aurobindo is guided by nation-soul that embraces diversity and propels the state towards larger human unity. While the first idea emphasizes geographical unity, the other idea is associated with the innate qualities of human life and emphasizes human unity. The idea of homogenous states, based on a single identity, has increasingly been challenged. In the early 1970s, in his study of 132 states, Connor found that only 12 could be described as substantially homogeneous from an identity viewpoint; 25 contained an ethnic group accounting for more than 90 percent of the state’s total population, and in 25 states the largest element accounted for between 75 and 89 percent of the population. In 31 states, the largest ethnic element represents only 50 to 74 percent of the population, and in 39, the largest group fails to account for even half of the state’s population (Connor 1972). To quote him, “this portrait of ethnic diversity becomes more vivid when the number of distinct ethnic groups within states is considered. In some instances, the number of groups within a state runs into the hundreds, and in 53 states (40.2 per cent of the total), the population is divided into more than five significant groups” (Connor 1972, 320). He contended that the conception of modern states as single homogenous state, or having a single ethnic identity, is a misnomer. In most modern states, it is difficult to find a single identity, in which one can include religious identity as a unifying identity. Hence any process of state consolidation by undermining one identity at the cost of other identities leads to conflicts. Multiethnic states have promoted national symbols like the national flag or national anthem as markers of national identity. French sociologist Emile Durkheim was one of the first thinkers to notice this trend. In his study of nationalism in the United States of America by applying the theory of Durkheim, Robert Bellah noted that the American identity was much more pronounced than other identities within the national boundary (Bellah 1995, pp. 36–56). There are broadly two views, which are not necessarily compatible with each other, in the context of national consolidation and modernization. One argument, as forcefully made by Karl Deutsch and others is that modernization, increasing communication, urbanization and fruits of economic development moderate the exclusive group identities and facilitate the process of state consolidation. While arguing that modernization leads to national assimilation, Deutsch did not exclude the possibility of ‘more conspicuous differentiation and conflict’ if the core issue of

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identity differences remains unaddressed. According to him, “Linguistically and culturally, then, members of each group are outsiders for the other. Yet technological and economic processes are forcing them together, into acute recognition of their differences and their common, mutual experience of strangeness, and more conspicuous differentiation and conflict may result” (Deutsch 1966, 126). He further noted, “Other things assumed equal, the stage of rapid social mobilization may be expected, therefore, to promote the consolidation of states whose peoples already share the same language, culture, and major social institutions; while the same process may tend to strain or destroy the unity of states whose population is already divided into several groups with different languages or cultures or basic ways of life” (Deutsch 1961, 501). Gellner took a similar position. For him, nationalism is a product of modernity and essentially requires some form of homogeneity: “we do not properly understand the range of options available to industrial society, and perhaps we never shall; but we understand some of its essential concomitants. The kind of cultural homogeneity demanded by nationalism is one of them and we had better make our peace with it. It is not the case …that nationalism imposes homogeneity; it is rather that a homogeneity imposed by objective, inescapable imperative eventually appears on the surface in the form of nationalism” (Gellner 1983, p. 39). Gellner rejected the argument of Elie Kedourie, for whom nationalism implied imposed homogeneity (Kedourie 1960). Kedourie even called it an ‘inexplicable disease’ or a ‘millennial religion,’ striking discord at rational political arrangements (Kedourie 1971). While some form of national identity might be essential for a modern state to survive and thrive, the large question pertained to reconciling national identity, which demanded some kind of homogeneity, and social identities, which abhorred homogeneity. Sri Aurobindo would not endorse modern secular nationalism in its totality as it emphasized homogeneity to promote state consolidation and, in the process, undermined diverse and multiethnic voices within the state. In many post-colonial states exclusivist focus on state consolidation and emphasis on secular nationalism led to conflicts. In these states borders were drawn without consideration for the socially constructed identities. The policy of consolidation prompted the ethnic minorities to mobilize. According to Smith, “state homogenization always appears to the non-­ dominant ethnie (ethnic group, in which we can include religion) like ethnic discrimination and exploitation. In an age of nationalism that perception is likely to prove explosive” (Smith 1986, p. 70). He further contended, “Today, the popular type of conflicts is the most protracted and bitter; for not only does it involve more fundamental passions than inter-state wars, it is also much more frequently entwined with the rivalries between states, so that the two kinds of conflict now flow together to produce increasingly dangerous conflagrations” (Smith 1986, p.  63). Connor lamented, “scholars associated with theories of ‘nation-building’ have tended either to ignore the question of ethnic diversity or to treat the matter of ethnic identity superficially as merely one of a number of minor impediments to effective state-­ integration” (Connor 1972, p. 319). He further argued, “The validity of this position apparently also rests upon one of two propositions. Either loyalty to the ethnic group is self-evidently compatible with loyalty to the state, or… ethnic

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identification will prove to be of short duration, withering away as modernization progresses…but clearly the two are not naturally harmonious” (Connor 1972, p.  321). From an Aurobindonian perspective, it would make sense to argue that mechanical means whether at state consolidation or an exclusivist interpretation of nationalism, prioritizing one identity over another, would fuel conflicts. He would call this narrow, exclusivist, nationalism an aspect of national ego that prioritized one identity over other identities, it did not matter whether that identity was based on religion, race, color, language or any other distinct markers. The distinction between national ego – implying a narrow and exclusivist interpretation of nationalism and applying it to the policymaking, and nation-soul  – implying a broader interpretation of nationalism and applying it to the larger vision and policy of human unity, is a unique contribution of Sri Aurobindo to nationalism discourse. National ego is reflected in national idiosyncrasies, prejudices, and policymaking. Nation-soul calls for a larger, deeper, unity within the nation and beyond. While national ego is a barrier towards larger unity of mankind, nation-soul has a tendency towards larger unity of mankind. Wherever there is domination of national ego, national leaders tend to profess supremacy of their nation and proclaim their right to expand influence into other territories, thus leading to imperialism. In the imperialism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Sri Aurobindo found an inherent urge in imperial powers to assert supremacy and domination over other nations and cultures. He also found that the attempts by the imperial powers from the ancient period to the modern period at unity failed as they were driven by national ego, expressed through war and conquest. He was not hopeful about political instruments, or arrangements, towards the realization of human unity as those instruments were driven by national ego. They have utilities to realize some sort of union among states, but they lack the necessary drive or urge of human unity. Hence, national ego might be helpful in the process of nature, but in the evolutionary process it must be transformed into larger ideals and visions. The past shows that political arrangements, driven by national ego, bring temporary results. Sri Aurobindo wrote (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, pp. 386–387): If the politician mind is left entirely to itself, we could expect no better tangible result of the greatest international convulsion on record than a rearrangement of frontiers, a redistribution of power and possessions and a few desirable or undesirable developments of international, commercial and other relations. That is one disastrous possibility leading to more disastrous convulsions – so long as the problem is not solved – against which the future of the world is by no means secure. Still, since the mind of humanity has been greatly moved and its sentiments powerfully awakened, since the sense is becoming fairly widespread that the old status of things is no longer tolerable and the undesirability of an international balance reposing on a ring of national egoisms held in check only by mutual fear and h­ esitation, by ineffective arbitration treaties and Hague tribunals and the blundering discords of a European Concert must be now fairly clear even to the politician mind, we might expect that some serious attempt towards the beginning of a new order should be the result of the moral collapse of the old.

Writing at the time of the First World War, Sri Aurobindo could see the tussle between the national egos of European powers, and how that tussle was hurtling Europe into the War. He also pointed out that the same play of egos could be seen in

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the instruments such as the League of Nations developed after the War that failed to realize the goals of peace. He wrote, “The present war (the First World War) came because all the leading nations had long been so acting as to make it inevitable; it came because there was a Balkan imbroglio and a Near-Eastern hope and commercial and colonial rivalries in Northern Africa over which the dominant nations had been battling in peace long before one or more of them grasped at the rifle and the shell” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p.  390). Among the major powers in international politics, Sri Aurobindo pinned hope on the United States of America as, which he termed, a ‘new arbiter’ to play a positive role in bringing peace to the world. He envisioned that process evolving within the American continents, starting with some sort of “confederate inter-American state.” He wrote, “America seems to be turning dimly towards a better understanding between the increasingly cosmopolitan United States and the Latin republics of Central and South America which may in certain contingencies materialise itself” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, pp. 401–402). One could come across such ideas, placing a pivotal role to the US in building international peace and unity, in other writings as well in those decades. For example, Clarence Streit argued for the establishment of a Union of the North Atlantic democracies, with scope for further expansion wherein national governments would have a separate existence. But the Union would provide “effective common government in … those fields where such common government will clearly serve man’s freedom better than separate governments,” and “create by its constitution a nucleus world government capable of growing into universal world government peacefully and as rapidly as such growth will best serve man’s freedom” (Streit 1939). However, Sri Aurobindo admitted the utility of national ego in the evolutionary process, and its necessity to some extent as it provided nation-states personality and national identity. But in the evolutionary process that stage must graduate into larger human unity. He elaborated on various phases in this evolutionary phase guided by national ego thus (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, pp. 561–562): The formal unification of mankind would come in upon us in the shape of a system which would be born, grow, come to its culmination. But every system by the very nature of things tends after its culmination to decay and die. To prevent the organism from decaying and dying there must be such a psychological reality within as will persist and survive all changes of its body. Nations have that in a sort of collective national ego which persists through all vital changes. But this ego is not by any means self-existent and immortal; it supports itself on certain things with which it is identified. First, there is the geographical body, the country; secondly, the common interests of all who inhabit the same country, defence, economic well-being and progress, political liberty, etc.; thirdly, a common name, sentiment, culture. But we have to mark that this national ego owes its life to the c­ oalescence of the separative instinct and the instinct of unity; for the nation feels itself one as distinguished from other nations; it owes its vitality to interchange with them and struggle with them in all the activities of its nature.

National ego, however, must not be stagnant as it would lead to nationalist exclusiveness and conflict. In the evolutionary perspective, everything has its appointed place and role in the process, but as the process is not static, the national ego as a part of the process must evolve and transform into the larger ideal. He wrote, “national egoism, the pride of domination and the desire of expansion still govern

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the mind of humanity, however modified they may now be in their methods by the first weak beginnings of higher motives and a better national morality, and until this spirit is radically changed, the union of the human race by a federation of free nations must remain a noble chimera” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 349). Hence, all the dialogues, arbitrations, and negotiations as happened before the First World War could not succeed in halting the War, nor could they prevent the Second World War after a few decades, as the intervening League of Nations failed to hold the unity as the members frequently violated its principles or treaties like the Nine-Power Treaty and the Munich Pact that aimed to maintain peace. Sri Aurobindo could foresee these developments even before they happened. His pessimism about the League of Nations was evident when he wrote, “This new gigantic bantling which has come into existence with War for its father and an armed and enforced Peace for its mother, with threatening and bloodily suppressed revolutions, a truncated internationalistic idealism and many half-curbed, just snaffled rearing national egoisms for its witnesses and god-parents, has not, when looked at from this standpoint, in spite of certain elements of promise, an altogether reassuring appearance” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 639). While national ego might have a purpose in bringing to height national hopes and capabilities, including developments in administration, a system of government, and uniformity among its peoples, it could not be the ultimate vehicle for human unity. It is based on ego and amplified in, what Sri Aurobindo called, ‘militarism’ and ‘commercial aggrandisement’ and ‘inherent spirit of expansion’, resulting in war, colonialism and imperialism and other such developments (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p.  478). He wrote, “For so long as strong national egoisms of any kind remained and along with them mutual distrust, the nations would not sacrifice their possession of an armed force on which they could rely for self-defence if their interests, or at least those that they considered essential to their prosperity and their existence, came to be threatened” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 483). This assessment, made more than a century ago, is relevant in the twenty-first-century globalized world. Nations, governed by their egos, are spending a disproportionate portion of their budget on defense, which has increased over time. Sri Aurobindo would see in these developments amplification of national ego, and perhaps a tinge of pessimism would not be surprising here as it appeared national ego is getting more stubborn and not giving space to aspiration for unity and peace. However, despite his penetrating analysis of the First World War and anticipation of the difficulties of the peace process after the War and the failure of the League of Nations, Sri Aurobindo did not lose hope as he could see the larger picture that emerged from his integral and evolutionary vision. He did not consider the setbacks as permanent as for him the difficulties on the path must go as the Nature must emerge in due course into larger forms of unity. As the human individual started organizing into larger collectivities, starting from the nomadic life to village life to groups, communities, and state, the state must rise to larger collectivities as mandated in the evolutionary process. Whereas the state idea emphasized administrative unity, some sort of uniformity among the people through the machinery of law and order, and national ego played a role in bolstering and utilizing national capabilities,

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even through aggressive and assertive ways, they must be transformed, or be given to, the larger vision of human unity. He explained this onward march of Nature, in which all the developments of human civilization have a place in it (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 35): In the same way the primal law and purpose of a society, community or nation is to seek its own self-fulfilment; it strives rightly to find itself, to become aware within itself of the law and power of its own being and to fulfil it as perfectly as possible, to realise all its potentialities, to live its own self-revealing life. The reason is the same; for this too is a being, a living power of the eternal Truth, a self-manifestation of the cosmic Spirit, and it is there to express and fulfil in its own way and to the degree of its capacities the special truth and power and meaning of the cosmic Spirit that is within it. The nation or society, like the individual, has a body, an organic life, a moral and aesthetic temperament, a developing mind and a soul behind all these signs and powers for the sake of which they exist. One may say even that, like the individual, it essentially is a soul rather than has one; it is a group-soul that, once having attained to a separate distinctness, must become more and more self-­ conscious and find itself more and more fully as it develops its corporate action and mentality and its organic self-expressive life.

National ego must give place to nation-soul as it is mandated in the very nature of evolution. Here one can draw parallels between Sri Aurobindo’s theory of evolution and Hegel’s theory of evolution. Hegel’s onward march of Spirit or Idea stops at the state, what he referred to as the ‘highest march of God on earth’, while for Sri Aurobindo the process of evolution goes further. He would argue that the march of God does not stop at the state formation as there are higher things on the horizon, larger possibilities of human unity and peace. Hence, making the march halt at the state would be like missing the larger picture, the larger plan of the Cosmic Spirit or Brahman. Both ascribed to the organic theory of the state. Following this theory, Sri Aurobindo wrote about the ego arising from the national personality of the state, but he went further as he argued that egoistic personality of the state is not the summit of evolution. Like Hegel, he would give value to various processes such as war, expansion, colonialism and conquest in this onward march for consolidation and uniformity, but he would look beyond the present realizations and organizations of mankind. He wrote, “The study of the growth of the nation-unit under the pressure indeed of a growing inner need and idea but by the agency of political, economic and social forces, forms and instruments shows us a progress that began from a loose formation in which various elements were gathered together for unification, proceeded through a period of strong concentration and coercion in which the conscious national ego was developed, fortified and provided with a centre and instruments of its organic life, and passed on to a final period of assured separate existence and internal unity as against outside pressure in which liberty and an active and more and more equal share of all in the benefits of the national life became possible” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 384). Hence, while national ego played a role in the development of state and nation, it must not be considered the final summit of evolution. He argued (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 477): The chief feature of this psychology is the predominance and worship of national egoism under the sacred name of patriotism. Every national ego, like every organic life, desires a double self-fulfilment, intensive and extensive or expansive. The deepening and enriching

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of its culture, political strength and economic wellbeing within its borders is not felt to be sufficient if there is not, without, an extension or expansion of its culture, an increase of its political extent, dominion, power or influence and a masterful widening of its commercial exploitation of the world. This natural and instinctive desire is not an abnormal moral depravity but the very instinct of egoistic life; and what life at present is not egoistic?

Applying this Aurobindonian logic, it would be fair to argue that once the national ego played its role in building state and unity within the state and did its job, it must go away and be replaced by or transformed into nation-soul as it is mandated in the very nature of evolution that national ego cannot be a permanent feature of human organization. To quote his famous words, “Ego was the helper; Ego is the bar” (CWSA, vol. 13, 1998, p. 199). National ego was necessary to some extent in this evolutionary process, and once it did its job, it must go away. To quote him, “The political and administrative unification of mankind is not only possible but foreshadowed by our present evolution; the collective national egoism which resists it may be overborne by an increasing flood of the present unifying tendency to which the anguish of the European war gave a body and an articulate voice” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, pp. 405–406). For him, conflicts and wars, including the First World War, and to which we can add the Second World War, the Cold War, and the recently developed terms like the New Cold War, and even forecasts of Third World War emerging out of Eurasia or Asia-Pacific, are there to press national leaders to understand the evolutionary urge of the Nature, and move towards harmonious and peaceful ways of living and conducting relations. Without that inherent urge for unity and harmony of mankind, characterized by what he termed nation-soul, the arrangements based on national ego would be bound to fail as happened in the past. A purely territorial, egoistic, human organization can not be durable if it is deprived of its inherent truth, inherent mission of unity and peace, as represented in its very soul. The ancient empires, he would point out, tried to achieve unity without cultivating this soul, and as a result they failed. He elaborated (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 555): But still the necessity was there and the nation form after many failures and false successes got into being, and the psychological motive of patriotism, a sign of the growth of a conscious national ego, arose in the form as the expression of its soul and the guarantee of its durability. For without such a soul, such a psychological force and presence within the frame, there can be no guarantee of durability. Without it, what circumstances have created, circumstances easily will destroy. It was for this reason that the ancient world failed to create nations, except on a small scale, little clans and small regional nations of brief duration and usually of loose structure; it created only artificial empires which went to pieces and left chaos behind them.

Hence, a mere geographical union or forceful attempts at unity, as attempted in the past, would not be durable as those attempts lack, what Sri Aurobindo called, the psychological force or soul. The psychological feeling of being in nation brings together people of different shades of opinion as it makes the principle of unity in diversity possible. It helps in developing a collective consciousness leading to collective goals in national affairs. Nationalism is evolutionary and its evolution towards a higher form of synthesis of mankind is mandated in its very nature. There

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is always an urge in nation idea even in a way to ‘destroy it’ in the larger synthesis of mankind. In the growth of human civilization nationalism is an intermediary stage toward higher forms of union because the nation idea finds its consummation in human unity. According to Sri Aurobindo, “The nation or community is an aggregate life that expresses the Self according to the general law of human nature and aids and partially fulfils the development and the destiny of mankind by its own development and the pursuit of its own destiny according to the law of its being and the nature of its corporate individuality” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p.  70). But the nation idea must be developed to its full before any possibility of the formation of a world union arises. He explored prospects of world union, and, for him, the exact form of the union did not matter, whether it was called world union or federation or government or confederation of states, what mattered was the highest possible achievement of human civilization in which different nations live in peace and harmony. Nationalism in its true spirit leads to human unity as it cannot provide the anchor for the final solution to the problems emerging out of the nation-state mechanism. When nation-states do not mature and transform themselves into a larger possible human unity, they become subject to the evils of aggressive and imperialist impulses. When the spirit of nationalism is fully developed, it graduates to the higher goal of human unity. Attempts were made in the past to establish some kind of ideal world order, howsoever limited in scale, but those attempts failed mainly because they were not based on intrinsic values of the ideal human unity but purely on superficial means. Empires such as the Roman and the Persian adopted absolutist and monarchical means to bring some kind of unity and order among divergent units. Those attempts failed mainly because they did not imbibe the values of humanity in its genuine form, and, also, the conditions at the time were not propitious for the development of such a unity. Sri Aurobindo wrote (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 302): It is therefore quite improbable that in the present conditions of the race a healthy unity of mankind can be brought about by State machinery, whether it be by a grouping of powerful and organised States enjoying carefully regulated and legalised relations with each other or by the substitution of a single World State for the present half chaotic half ordered comity of nations, – be the form of that World-State a single empire like the Roman or a federated unity. Such an external or administrative unity may be intended in the near future of mankind in order to accustom the race to the idea of a common life, to its habit, to its possibility, but it cannot be really healthy, durable or beneficial over all the true line of human destiny unless something be developed more profound, internal and real.

It is quite important, hence, there must be a larger force of unity, the force being more psychological rather than military or diplomatic, that can move the nation-­ states to higher ideal of unity. A narrow and rigid religion cannot be the basis of this unity, but a religion of humanity based on the larger psychological aspiration of human unity is needed. What Sri Aurobindo called ‘nationalist’s religion of country’, a narrow religion practiced by a particular group of people within a territory, would not be enough to craft human unity of the peoples of the world, rather it is necessary to have a religion of humanity, which is ‘much more powerful, explicit, self-conscious, universal in its appeal.’ And this can be possible only when

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individuals recognize the inherent unity of mankind, recognize divine in each individual, and at the same time respect each individual’s uniqueness. To quote Sri Aurobindo, such a universal vision of human unity is possible, only when there is “the clear recognition by man in all his thought and life of a single soul in humanity of which each man and each people is an incarnation and soul-form; an ascension of man beyond the principle of ego which lives by separativeness, – and yet there must be no destruction of individuality, for without that man would stagnate; a principle and arrangement of the common life which would give free play to individual variation, interchange in diversity and the need of adventure and conquest by which the soul of man lives and grows great, and sufficient means of expressing all the resultant complex life and growth in a flexible and progressive form of human society” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 563). Though this Aurobindonian vision of unity and separateness can be compared with the modern term ‘unity in diversity’ or the modern democratic ethos of inclusion, equity and diversity, the key difference between the two is Sri Aurobindo’s emphasis on the spiritual component of life in which the individual and society recognize the essential divine in every individual, rather than accepting the diversity of individuals just as a formal or social or legal adjustment or requirement in society so that structural and cultural violence could be avoided. He would be against any formal or legal mechanism, and even while admitting the usefulness of these mechanisms, he would argue that they cannot provide a permanent basis of human unity. He wrote, “…while it is possible to construct a precarious and quite mechanical unity by political and administrative means, the unity of the human race, even if achieved, can only be secured and can only be made real if the religion of humanity, which is at present the highest active ideal of mankind, spiritualises itself and becomes the general inner law of human life” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 571). He elaborated (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 577): A spiritual religion of humanity is the hope of the future. By this is not meant what is ordinarily called a universal religion, a system, a thing of creed and intellectual belief and dogma and outward rite. Mankind has tried unity by that means; it has failed and deserved to fail, because there can be no universal religious system, one in mental creed and vital form. The inner spirit is indeed one, but more than any other the spiritual life insists on freedom and variation in its self-expression and means of development. A religion of humanity means the growing realisation that there is a secret Spirit, a divine Reality, in which we are all one, that humanity is its highest present vehicle on earth, that the human race and the human being are the means by which it will progressively reveal itself here.

It is, hence, necessary to have the evolution of the egoistic human nature and the egoistic nature of the human collectivities towards larger unions. In that process of evolution, it is necessary that human individuals must understand the necessity of unity, for which circumstances such as wars, conflict and violence might be spurs, and for which the developments in science and technology and increasing means of communication and globalization might be useful, and all these might help the development of an intellectual and a psychological process in the human collectivities to moderate and transform ego, both at the individual level, and at the level of collectivities. The evolution of such a larger conception of human unity, or what Sri Aurobindo termed religion of human unity, could only help transform, ‘individual

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and group egoism’, while at the same time valuing separateness of individual and group to develop and express ‘in its own way the divinity in man.’ In that process an intellectual urge and understanding of human unity is inevitable, and in this context, Sri Aurobindo acknowledged the role of the Enlightenment thinking, and how the philosophical idea of human unity developed during that period. He wrote, “The religion of humanity was mind-born in the eighteenth century, the manasa putra of the rationalist thinkers who brought it forward as a substitute for the formal spiritualism of ecclesiastical Christianity. It tried to give itself a body in Positivism, which was an attempt to formulate the dogmas of this religion, but on too heavily and severely rationalistic a basis for acceptance even by an Age of Reason” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 564). As he pointed out, too much emphasis on intellectual understanding, intellectual fetishism, or mechanical means undermines the spiritual dimension of human unity. While it is necessary to have an intellectual grasp of the necessity and urgency of human unity, the intellectual principle will not be enough. It is imperative to have some sort of psychological movement to value and imbibe the core elements of the religion of human unity. After mechanical and intellectual means, psychological modification is necessary. That psychological modification of ‘life and feeling and outlook’ would help individual and group to emerge from their narrow cocoons of egoism, while at the same time celebrating their individuality in a new light. And it is possible that the religion of humanity in its initial stages of evolution would stumble. Also, Sri Aurobindo would not undermine the past achievements realized by mechanical means and intellectual understanding as, for him, all these developments contain in themselves, in the evolutionary march of life, the seed of larger human unity. He wrote, “The intellectual religion of humanity already to a certain extent exists, partly as a conscious creed in the minds of a few, partly as a potent shadow in the consciousness of the race. It is the shadow of a spirit that is yet unborn, but is preparing for its birth” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 564). In a powerful passage in The Ideal of Human Unity Sri Aurobindo examined how the intermediary steps in the evolution of human unity – though necessary – posed challenges and how they needed to be overcome. While these – creeds, religions, state, nation and other such human creations – are necessary, at a certain point of time, they must be overcome. He elaborated in the passage thus (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 565): The fundamental idea is that mankind is the godhead to be worshipped and served by man and that the respect, the service, the progress of the human being and human life are the chief duty and the chief aim of the human spirit. No other idol, neither the nation, the State, the family nor anything else ought to take its place; they are only worthy of respect so far as they are images of the human spirit and enshrine its presence and aid its self-­manifestation. But where the cult of these idols seeks to usurp the place of the spirit and makes demands inconsistent with its service, they should be put aside. No injunctions of old creeds, religious, political, social or cultural, are valid when they go against its claims. Science even, though it is one of the chief modern idols, must not be allowed to make claims contrary to its ethic al temperament and aim, for science is only valuable in so far as it helps and serves by knowledge and progress the religion of humanity.

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Sri Aurobindo was concerned about the tardy process of evolution and the persistence of human egoism in various forms. A slow process might generate pessimism about the evolution of human unity and its suffocation by wars and violence. As reflected in the larger organizations like the League of Nations and the United Nations, and how their operations were marred by national ego despite lofty promises by national actors, this pessimism appeared genuine. Sri Aurobindo urged the individuals and their leaders to work together and bring this idea of human unity, or religion of human unity, closer to explicit practice and spreading the idea to larger segments of humanity than confining it to a few ivory tower philosophers or visionaries. It must be, what he called, ‘more explicit, insistent and categorically imperative.’ It must be more explicit and widespread and seep down to the grassroots of the people and at the top to their leaders so that this idea of unity is not only understood as an intellectual concept, but as a practical idea to be lived in the very human life and spirit. It must be insistent despite repeated failures of the past attempts, despite the human procrastination to accept and imbibe and practice larger principles of unity, and it must demonstrate the human society that there is no other way to survival and progress, and this vision of human unity is not an abstract concept or just a matter of faith but to be lived as a core principle of human living and organization. Unless this idea is explicit, insistent and imperative, an intellectual understanding would not be enough to prevail over the principal enemy of human egoism, ‘the egoism of the individual, the egoism of class and nation.’ One can see an imprint of Vedanta in the evolution of the concept of religion of humanity in Sri Aurobindo’s vision. Though well versed in both the eastern and the western philosophy, the dominant strain in Sri Aurobindo’s thought was Vedantic. While examining various world events and how those events unfolded and helped demonstrate the precarious necessity of human unity despite repeated failures in attempts to realize it, he emphasized that this idea of human unity, undergirded by a spiritual principle, is not new, is not something completely invented by the Enlightenment thinkers of the eighteenth century or the world leaders of the twentieth century after the World Wars, as he believed that the vision of human unity dawned thousands of years ago. The Vedic seers could see this vision while meditating on human problems. They could see those problems from a larger, universal perspective as their solutions transcended immediate geographical, religious, racial or ethnic boundaries. He argued that this ideal of human unity “was expressed first some thousands of years ago in the ancient Vedic hymn and must always remain the highest injunction of the Spirit within us to human life upon earth” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 568). In this Vedanta vision, in which the individual and the collective are connected, the divine truth embraces the individual and his larger formations, there must be an awakening in the individual to recognize this connection. The individual must recognize he is not just the ego, but also the truth. In the language of Sri Aurobindo, “It is the practical recognition of this truth, it is the awakening of the soul in man and the attempt to get him to live from his soul and not from his ego which is the inner meaning of religion, and it is that to which the religion of humanity also must arrive before it can fulfil itself in the life of the race” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 570). Here Sri Aurobindo used race in a larger sense, in the sense of the

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whole human race, not in a sense commonly understood and politicized in the contemporary world polarized along the lines of narrow race and other identities. It needs emphasis that the underlying basis of the religion of humanity is not any dogma or exclusivist tenets, as Sri Aurobindo saw it as a transcendental concept imbibing three core values of democracy  – liberty, equality and fraternity. These values, hence, are not just political values to help establish a democratic political arrangement with formal mechanisms of law and order and political institutions, rather these concepts have spiritual underpinnings. These values or, what he called, ‘three godheads of the soul,’ can provide a stable basis for a new world order. But they cannot develop and transform the world until the nation-states rise to the occasion and cultivate them in habit, thinking and ways of life. They cannot be realized by ‘the external machinery of society or by man so long as he lives only in the individual and the communal ego’. None of these values has really been realized in true spirit despite all the progress by the human society. Being popularized in great revolutions like the American Revolution and French Revolution in the late eighteenth century these concepts drew from the famous Enlightenment philosophers like John Locke and Jean J. Rousseau. Locke’s idea of natural rights, right to life, liberty and property, heavily influenced the founding fathers of the United States, and in fact inspired the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Rousseau inspired the French Revolution and the ideas of equality and freedom that inspired the revolution. These revolutions, American and French, popularized the ideas of liberty and equality, and applied those ideas to the making of political organizations in those societies. While as political concepts, they have immense significance, Sri Aurobindo would argue only emphasis on their political implications would not be enough to realize ideal human unity as in a political construct these terms are seen separately, or at best as complimentary to each other, rather, he believed, it is necessary to emphasize the spiritual connection between them. He wrote: “The liberty that has been so loudly proclaimed as an essential of modern progress is an outward and mechanical and unreal liberty. The equality that has been so much sought after and battled for is equally an outward and mechanical and will turn out to be an unreal equality. Fraternity is not even claimed to be a practicable principle of the ordering of life and what is put forward as its substitute is the outward and mechanical principle of equal association or at best a comradeship of labor” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 568–569). He elaborated (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 569): When the ego claims liberty, it arrives at competitive individualism. When it asserts equality, it arrives first at strife, then at an attempt to ignore the variations of Nature, and, as the sole way of doing that successfully, it constructs an artificial and machine-made society. A society that pursues liberty as its ideal is unable to achieve equality; a society that aims at equality will be obliged to sacrifice liberty. For the ego to speak of fraternity is for it to speak of something contrary to its nature. All that it knows is association for the pursuit of common egoistic ends and the utmost that it can arrive at is a closer organisation for the equal distribution of labour, production, consumption and enjoyment.

These three values are bound to conflict with each other unless they are transformed in a spiritual light. Liberty on its own emphasizes human freedom, laissez faire, thus neglecting the principle of equality. Similarly, the principle of equality contradicts

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the principle of liberty as it emphasizes parity – at the cost of individual freedom, resulting in the perpetual debate in political theory concerning the principles of liberty and equality as organizing principles of the state. Sri Aurobindo argued these two apparently contradictory principles could be reconciled with the higher principle of fraternity. But this reconciliation appears impossible in the present scheme of things which emphasizes mere perfunctory order because fraternity in its current application implies the formal coming together of nation-states or some kind of ceremonial unity without change in characters and motives. He would argue, liberty in its true sense is not exclusive freedom. Freedom not only implies ‘freedom to’ pursue individual or collective goals based on individual or collective egos but also ‘freedom from’ the very bonding of the ego. And this larger freedom cannot be realized through mechanical means, or through mere establishment of organizations. The experience has shown us that these attempts have not been successful. Similarly, equality in its true sense implies not only equal rights but also duties. This harmonious working of the principles of liberty and equality is possible only when the spirit of brotherhood encompasses all human minds including the minds that govern the nation states. Only then will the ideal of human unity emerge not as a distant possibility but as an imperative for mankind. He wrote (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, pp. 624–625): Experience has so far shown us that the human attempt to arrive at a mechanical freedom has only resulted in a very relative liberty and even that has been enjoyed for the most part by some at the expense of others. It has amounted usually to the rule of the majority by a minority, and many strange things have been done in its name…Even the best machinery of this mechanical freedom yet discovered amounts to the unmodified will of a bare majority, or rather to its selection of a body of rulers who coerce in its name all minorities and lead it to issues of which it has itself no clear perception. …These anomalies, – anomalies of many kinds are inseparable from the mechanical method, – are a sign that the real meaning of liberty has not yet been understood.

Sri Aurobindo argued with the passing of time nations have come closer to each other. In this regard, the major contributions made by ‘science, commerce and rapid communication’ cannot be ignored. He wrote (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 463): Science, commerce and rapid communications have produced a state of things in which the disparate masses of humanity, once living to themselves, have been drawn together by a process of subtle unification into a single mass which has already a common vital and is rapidly forming a common mental existence. A great precipitating and transforming shock was needed which should make this subtle organic unity manifest and reveal the necessity and create the will for a closer and organised union, and this shock came with the Great War. The idea of a World-State or world-union has been born not only in the speculating forecasting mind of the thinker, but in the consciousness of humanity out of the very necessity of this new common existence.

He alluded to the First World War and the subsequent developments like the formation of the League of Nations as movements in the evolution toward the larger human unity. One could discern here two significant elements in the evolutionary scheme of human unity – one, the developments in science, commerce and communication brought a change in collective human consciousness and moved it towards ‘subtle unification into a single mass’, and second, the humanity, or rather

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the human organizations like state governed by national egos, also needed shocks like the Great War to think in terms of larger human unity. These two parallel developments also happened in the latter decades of the twentieth century as human society witnessed the Second World War and the rapid developments in science, commerce and communication. Sri Aurobindo’s allusion in the early decades of the twentieth century to the three important vehicles of globalization brings forth the seminal character of his approach and its relevance in the twenty-first century. As the achievements in these fields transcend national boundaries, similarly the religion of humanity transcends national egos and all those forces that confine national mentality to rigidities. But at the same time, these developments may not be enough to spur national leaders and their states to come out of the narrow cocoon of national ego, and they would need shocks like the wars and conflicts to reassess their ego-­ centric national paradigms. Already there are literature emerging on the possibilities of Third World War, New Cold War, and as the conflicts in the different parts of the world demonstrate, whether in Eurasia or Asia-Pacific or the war in Ukraine, an Aurobindonian perspective would argue that perhaps humanity needs more shocks to come out of the national ego, imbibe religion of humanity, and move towards larger human unity.

3.1 Means at Arriving at Human Unity; Mechanical Means Won’t Work Sri Aurobindo examined the developments after the First World War and while he expressed reservations at the developments such as the establishment of the League of Nations and their effectiveness to bring human unity, he believed that the ultimate human unity and international harmony must pass through many intermediary and mechanical steps in the evolutionary process. He identified from the very beginning that the master obstacle in this process of unification is crude nationalism or national ego. In his words, “The present obstacle to any such extreme consummation is the still strong principle of nationalism, the sense of group separateness, the instinct of collective independence, its pride, its pleasure in itself, its various sources of egoistic self-satisfaction, its insistence on the subordination of the human idea to the national idea. But we are supposing that the new-born idea of internationalism will grow apace, subject to itself the past idea and temper of nationalism, become dominant and take possession of the human mind” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 496). It is hence prudent to initiate steps towards international unity even while there is persistence of national ego as it is not possible to wait for a moment when national ego is completely transformed, and international unity is initiated on a virgin soil. Even while national ego persists, national leaders must take steps, even if mechanical and political, even if faltering and halfhearted, towards international unity. All these steps would have value in the long, slow, evolutionary process as they contribute to the march towards human unity. Sri Aurobindo articulated that even the nationalist idea, whose narrow side is espoused so much by the national leaders, has a subtle,

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larger, wider side which calls for unity and harmony on a larger scale, and his optimistic mind believed that slowly this aspect of nationalism would goad national leaders to work for larger human unity, the unity not purely confined to national boundaries. That move from narrower to higher, from small to big, from conflict to peace, is already preordained in Nature, in the nationalist idea, and slowly it would take shape, or reveal itself. In this process, all means including war, conflict, violence, destruction would have value. He wrote, this larger aspiration towards international unity “is the attempt of the human mind and life to grow out of the national idea and form and even in a way to destroy it in the interest of the larger synthesis of mankind” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 548). While exploring this process of graduation of nationalism into internationalism Sri Aurobindo could see the obstacles in the process, and even ‘practical impossibility’ in the present order of things. One could make the same argument even after more than a century of his assessment of international developments. But as his belief in evolution undergirded his vision of human unity, he would have an unwavering optimism that the human unity at the global level would happen even if the process was prolonged and took many more decades, perhaps even centuries. But in contrast to some of his contemporaries, one could think of Rabindranath Tagore who would emphasize the negative or rigid dimensions of nationalism and make a case for its total annihilation so that the larger human unity, or internationalism, could be based on its debris, Sri Aurobindo would not argue that nationalism must be shunned completely to realize human unity. Mohammad Quayum elaborated on the vision of Tagore, by using quotes from him, “Nationalism, according to Tagore, is not expressive of the living bonds in society; it is not a voluntary self-expression of individuals as social beings, where human relationships are naturally regulated, ‘so that men can develop ideals of life in cooperation with one another’, but a political and commercial union of a group of people, in which they come together to maximize their profit, progress and power; it is ‘the organised self-interest of a people, where it is least human and least spiritual.’ Tagore deemed nationalism a recurrent threat to humanity, because with its propensity for the material and the rational, it trampled over the human spirit and human emotion; it upset man’s moral balance by subjugating his inherent goodness and divinity to a soul-less organization” (Quayum, 2004, p. 3). Sri Aurobindo would have no problem in agreeing with such an interpretation of nationalism as by Tagore, but there would be a key difference: while for Tagore nationalism is something static and crude hence it must be shunned altogether for the larger goal of internationalism, for Sri Aurobindo nationalism must not be shunned altogether as it has a role to play in the evolution of the human unity. For Sri Aurobindo, national ego, but not nation-soul, is an obstacle to realizing human unity. For Sri Aurobindo, every stage in the evolution has its value, and, hence, nationalism, has its value in the process of evolution, but it cannot be the final basis of human organization and life. As he was writing during the First World War, he realized the immense difficulties involved in this process, particularly the transformation of nationalism into internationalism. As he examined the League of Nations, and its apparent weakness, the dithering of the main mover the US by not joining the organization despite playing a major role in establishing it, he could see the difficulty of

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the realization of the larger unity. Though he could also find vague signs of internationalism in the French Revolution, he argued that the chief mark of that revolution was nationalism, not internationalism. That time the idea of internationalism came as a ‘vague intellectual sentiment than a clear idea’ as the chief contribution of that revolution was a complete and self-conscious nationalism and not internationalism” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 548). Also, as it was the time of colonialism and imperialism, he could see the rise of nationalist movements worldwide, and the significance of those movements for the emergence of free nations, including the free nation of India. That emergence was necessary as every nation must be free from the bondage, and in his evolutionary scheme that freedom found its appropriate place. In the following passage, he examined the rise of nationalist movements and also the aspirations for larger human unity and reconciled both the developments while examining the difficulties in the process (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 395): We have ruled out of consideration as a practical impossibility in the present international conditions and the present state of international mentality and morality the idea of an immediate settlement on the basis of an association of free nationalities, although this would be obviously the ideal basis. For it would take as its founding motive power a harmony of the two great principles actually in presence, nationalism and internationalism. Its adoption would mean that the problem of human unity would be approached at once on a rational and a sound moral basis, a recognition, on one side, of the right of all large natural groupings of men to live and to be themselves and the enthronement of respect for national liberty as an established principle of human conduct, on the other, an adequate sense of the need for order, help, a mutual, a common participation, a common life and interests in the unified and associated human race.

As the contending forces of nationalism, particularly it’s egoistic part, and internationalism tussle, as one could see such a tussle in the League of Nations resulting in its ultimate demise and the onset of the Second World War, and the later formation of the United Nations and the power struggles within it, Sri Aurobindo would not lose patience, but his practical mind would not see the feasibility of human unity at the highest level soon. While the yogi and visionary in him could see the certainty of the realization of ideal human unity, the political and practical in him could see the long waiting period for such a realization. He wrote (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 405): We have concluded that the one line it is not likely to take is the ideal, that which justice and the highest expediency and the best thought of mankind demand, that which would ensure it the greatest possibility of an enduring success. It is not likely to take perfectly, until a probably much later period of our collective evolution, the form of a federation of free and equal nations or adopt as its motive a perfect harmony between the contending principles of nationalism and internationalism.

3.2 Auroville as a Model of Human Unity Human unity is not a pure ideal or intellectual hope, but a practical possibility in Sri Aurobindo’s vision. His collaborator, the Mother, started the project of Auroville (a combination of French words Aurore and Ville, meaning the city of dawn  – an

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allusion to the bright future of humanity as brings the dawn before the morning) in 1968 to give a concrete shape to the Aurobindonian vision of human unity. That year the foundation of the Auroville was established by putting together soil from 120 countries. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized it, and, in 1972, the year of Sri Aurobindo’s birth centenary, the international organization printed a picture of Matrimandir, the edifice at the center of the city of Auroville, on the front cover of the October issue of its monthly magazine, the UNESCO Courier, with the title, ‘Auroville: Aurobindo’s City of Global Unity.’ The magazine mentioned how in its last session in 1970, it had called all UNESCO member states and non-governmental organizations to participate in the birth centenary of Sri Aurobindo, the great Indian spiritual leader and philosopher (UNESCO 1972). My goal in this section is not to elaborate the phases of ups and downs the Auroville project went through in the past several decades, but to put in perspective the larger vision of Sri Aurobindo and how this vision played a role in shaping the international city, which is still serving as a beacon to human society despite challenges, both internal and external. In that direction, I attempt to rise above the political controversies surrounding it as my goal is to elaborate the vision behind the Auroville. Sri Aurobindo himself would be averse to such controversies as the very goal behind the vision was to evolve beyond controversies driven by egoistic impulses. Robert Minor argues Auroville could be considered an integral yoga community in which the inhabitants are influenced by Sri Aurobindo’s core vision of integral yoga as that vision undergirds his other visions including the vision of human unity. Sri Aurobindo’s yoga is not the yoga of pure asceticism, consigning life to the practice of austere yoga by shunning action. It aims at emphasizing the practical aspect of life and in that direction Auroville could be considered a first step, only after the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Minor writes, as integral yoga communities, “these would be centers where followers would collectively practice not only a meditative, consciousness-­raising yoga, but also a karma yoga, an active, world-changing life that would bring the supramental consciousness … to enable, encourage, and promote its evolution toward Divine manifestation. Here was the basis for community action” (Minor 1999, p.  36). While establishing an ideal human community was embedded in the very vision of integral yoga, the momentum to establish such a community gained speed after Sri Aurobindo passed away. The Mother elaborated this vision of establishing an ideal community as early as 1954 though it took about 14 years for the vision to materialize. In the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Bulletin in 1954, the Mother announced (quoted in Minor 1999, p. 46): There should be somewhere on earth a place which no nation could claim as its own, where all human beings of goodwill who have a sincere aspiration could live freely as citizens of the world and obey one single authority, that of the supreme Truth; a place of peace, concord and harmony where all the fighting instincts of man would be used exclusively to conquer the causes of his sufferings and miseries, to surmount his weaknesses and ignorance, to triumph over his limitations and incapacities; a place where the needs of the spirit and the concern for progress would take precedence over the satisfaction of desires and passions, the search for pleasure and material enjoyment.

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In the Mother’s language, ‘no nation could claim as its own’ this community and this was a reference to national ego. In this community, the members would be guided by a ‘sincere aspiration’ and ‘live as free citizens’ and obey no particular national law, but only the ‘supreme Truth’. This is perhaps a tall order of things, demanding a lot from the individuals driven by egoistic desires, or guided by exclusivist laws and practices. This vision did not opt for something quick fix or magical to transform human nature within days or months. Both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother understood that it would take years, or perhaps centuries or even millions of years for the transformation of human nature  – from ego governed life to divine life – but one could see an indomitable optimism in this experiment. The Mother cast this vision of transformation of human life to divine life, thus, “From animal to man, thousands of years were needed; today, with this mind, man can will and hasten a transformation towards a man who shall be God” (quoted in Minor 1999, p. 49). So, for the Mother, Auroville was a laboratory in which the inhabitants would give full shape to the vision of human unity, and it would evolve into a place in which the ‘the needs of spirit and concerns for progress’ will be given preference over ‘the satisfaction of desires and passions, the search for pleasure and material enjoyment.’ Such an experiment might appear impractical to a mind, which does not conceive things beyond sense and matter and adopt a long-range vision beyond immediate issues and challenges. But in the vision of Sri Aurobindo, the evolution of human individual to divine was already predestined, and that evolution might be tardy, depending on the very human individual. If this transformation was already preordained in nature, like the oak tree was already hidden in the acorn seed, Sri Aurobindo would argue that the process could be hastened with the willing collaboration of the individual. From this point of view, Auroville was conceived as a place where willing individuals participate in this transformation project through their daily individual and community activities. The Auroville Charter, announced by the Mother in 1968, further elaborated this vision. 1. Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville one must be the willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness. 2. Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages. 3. Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring toward future realisations. 4. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity. First, the Charter made it clear that Auroville belonged to humanity, implying whosoever from whichever part of the world is willing to participate in this transformational experiment could be a part of it. The participating individuals must be ‘willing servitors of the Divine Consciousness’, not the willing servitors for their egoistic desires and passions. In this laboratory man-made rules will not be emphasized as

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the individual is participating in a higher goal for which the rules are self-imposing as they originate from the divine consciousness, not from external machinery, nor imposed from outside. In that sense, it rises above legalistic notions of order and peace, and even transcends the moralistic notions of good and bad. Second, it will be a ‘place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.’ As the individuals in this project are eagerly willing to participate in this evolutionary project, they will accept everything that helps in this process. The education, they will have, is not necessarily the education of fixed syllabi, which may have a place to train the mind, but it will be spiritual education that prepares the individual to accept the highest truth and live according to its tenets. ‘A youth that never ages’ could be considered metaphorical but the import here is obvious – that the inhabitants in this city of dawn will ceaselessly learn and progress and will not consider their station as the final summit of life. Third, Auroville will be a forward-looking project, a ‘bridge between the past and the future.’ It will not give up everything invented and discovered in the past, but it will accept the best in the past. At the same time, it will not be satiated with the achievements of the past, even with its best elements, as the goal is the spiritual evolution, or the transformation of the very human nature into divine nature. In that sense, the present Auroville will be transitional as it connects past, present and future. One can see a play of the Hegelian dialectics here, though not in a completer sense. Like in the Hegelian dialectic method, in the dialogue between the thesis and the antithesis, the synthesis emerges and imbibes the best elements of both, Auroville can be considered a synthesis of this process as it aims to imbibe the best elements from the past and the best elements from the present towards the larger goal of spiritual life for the individual and the world. It is not purely Hegelian as it evolves beyond the present state of mind into higher levels of consciousness, not realized by the individual yet. Hence, the participants in this project will work ceaselessly, individually and collectively, ‘towards future realizations.’ Fourth, it will be a site of ‘material and spiritual researches.’ Here, Sri Aurobindo’s integral vision – that transcends the traditional Indian emphasis on asceticism and undermining of material achievements – is evident as Auroville does not give up material to realize spiritual as it considers both as part of the same continuum. Hence, individuals aspiring for spiritual life will not give up material realizations; rather they will see the material through the spiritual lens, and, in the process, make Auroville ‘a living embodiment of an actual human unity’.

4 Ideal of Human Unity and Global Governance In this section, I draw a parallel between global governance ideal that gained increasing currency after the end of the Cold War and ideal of human unity as envisaged by Sri Aurobindo. Broadly, global governance implies effective management of global problems in a collective and harmonious framework. The main argument here is that the globalized world can no more be viewed in silos, but in a more

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interactive and cooperative format. The Cold War world was primarily guided by the realist paradigm, based on the premise that states, operating in a system of anarchy, aim to maximize their gains by whatever means. But in contrast, the new global governance paradigm assumes that the post-Cold War world is comparatively liberal, in which nations tend to realize the gravity of global problems and the need to act globally. The common themes in Sri Aurobindo’s ideal of human unity and the concept of global governance can be identified as follows: both do not solely rely on states as the sole dispenser of security and justice; and their concerns transcend boundaries of the state. They bring fresh perspectives to our understanding of the state and society and enrich the discourse on how to govern the state and the globe. They are not based on dogmatic presumptions about the nature of human beings, the state, or the world. For both the goal is enabling peace, which is sustainable and accommodative, and which addresses the concerns of all stakeholders fairly. They include not only an up-bottom process, implying a process imposed from above by national and international actors, but also a bottom-up process, implying the role of individual, civil society organizations and other non-governmental organizations in fostering global peace and harmony. Sri Aurobindo considered international organizations such as the League of Nations and the United Nations as steps towards realizing the goal of human unity. When the League of Nations was formed, he called it an event of ‘capital importance’, but he predicted that the organization was doomed to fail. He wrote, “The League was eventually formed with America outside it as an instrument of European diplomacy, which was a bad omen for its future” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 532). The League of Nations failed because it was not truly representative of the nations and the member nations frequently violated its principles. Though Sri Aurobindo considered it a step towards human unity, he was critical of the power politics within the organization despite its professed principle of equality among its members. He argued, “The initial constitution of the League is almost frankly oligarchic in its disposal of the international balance of power, – not quite an absolute oligarchy, indeed, for there is certainly a general assembly which is so far democratic that all its members will exult in the dignifying possession of an equal vote. Honduras and Guatemala may, if the fancy pleases them, indulge themselves in some feeling of being lifted up to an equality with imperial England, America, the new arbiter of the world, and victorious France. But this is an illusion, a trompe l’oeil” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p.  643). Many members of the League gave the impression that they joined the League not for universal peace and harmony but for fulfilling their interests. This was reflected in frequent violations of the League principles. The defeat of Germany in the First World War and the terms of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 opened up the possibilities of the further rise of aggressive nationalism. Instead of resolving the problem it gave vent to the suppressed frustration of Germany to come out two decades later. These developments finally led to the Second World War, denting the hopes for peaceful world order as generated by the League. But Sri Aurobindo hoped that the successor organization of the League, the United Nations, would be better and called it a ‘great and far reaching endevaour.’ In his words, “… the League of Nations disappeared but was replaced by the United

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Nations Organisation (UN) which now stands in the forefront of the world and struggles towards some kind of secure permanence and success in the great and far-­ reaching endeavour on which depends the world’s future” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 579). The Second World War had shaken the conscience of world leaders and intellectuals and led to several developments, including the establishment of the United Nations. Sri Aurobindo considered the foundation of the UN as a decisive step in the evolutionary process of Nature towards human unity, while at the same time he acknowledged the challenges the fledgling organization confronted both in its structure and functioning. This international body was expected to provide the ground for the emergence of just and fair world order but as its working revealed the powerful nations used their powers arbitrarily, thus denting the prospects of the UN as an impartial inter-state mechanism and impartial arbiter of international conflicts. The provision of veto power for the five permanent members of the Security Council marred the prospects of the rise of an egalitarian world structure. Sri Aurobindo warned about the danger of assigning ‘preponderant place to the five great powers in the Security Council’, thus ensuring a ‘strong surviving element of oligarchy’ in the international body. He warned that its defects might lead to pessimism and doubt regarding its effectiveness. As the developments of the past seven decades of its operation indicated, the big powers exercised the veto power to fulfill their national ego-governed interests. The Cold War period, which broadly divided the world into two camps, witnessed the political use of this veto power. Numerous studies demonstrate that the veto power was used as a self-serving instrument by the major powers without regard to the larger goal of international peace and security. In the case of Kashmir conflict, which I explored in detail in my other studies, this politicization of veto power was evident, prominently during the Cold War – one superpower supporting one party to the conflict, and the other superpower supporting the other party to the conflict. Sri Aurobindo was alarmed at the rising bipolar politics, the rise of communism in Soviet Russia, the division of the world into ideological camps, and its implications for human unity. His observations made in the early years of the UN, and the rising polarization in international politics, appeared prophetic as he could envisage the perils of such polarization and its impact worldwide. He wrote (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, pp. 583–584): The real danger at the present second stage of the progress towards unity lies not in any faults, however serious, in the building of the United Nations Assembly but in the division of the peoples into two camps which tend to be natural opponents and might at any moment become declared enemies irreconcilable and even their common existence incompatible. This is because the so-called Communism of Bolshevist Russia … founded upon a war of classes in which all others except the proletariat were crushed out of existence, “liquidated”, upon a “dictatorship of the proletariat”… the fierceness of this struggle generated in the minds of the organisers of the new State a fixed idea of the necessity not only of survival but of continued struggle and the spread of its domination...

While Sri Aurobindo considered the League the first step toward unity, he considered the United Nations as the second step or stage in the evolutionary process of Nature towards unity. He recognized the same issues that plagued the League also plagued the UN, but with an added factor of ideological polarization along the line

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of capitalism and communism all over the world. Such an assessment made sense from the realist international relations point of view as the two superpowers and their allies were engaged in ‘continued struggle and the spread of domination.’ The struggle for survival, maximization of security, and continued fear of the opponent, guided the arrangement, and he argued that such an arrangement would not provide the necessary pathway to realize world unity. During the Cold War, realist theorists like Kenneth Waltz predicted that the Cold War model, characterized by bipolar politics and balance of power, would continue for a long time and provide stability in international politics (Waltz 1964). But that prediction did not hold for a long time as the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The 45 years of the Cold War created stagnant politics in which the superpower rivalry shaped developments in every part of the world. It would, however, be imprudent to call the United Nations a failure despite its phases of struggle, power politics within the organization, and its use as a theater for great power politics. Through its various programs and bodies such as United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), UNESCO, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), the UN did commendable work in adopting and organizing welfare activities throughout the world. Though the organization in its foundation embedded the global peace agenda, it was in its post-Cold War reincarnation such a vision appeared more practicable. For example, the 1992 Agenda of Peace under the leadership of the United Nations Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali raised the post-Cold War concerns and argued for the necessity of international cooperation toward a peaceful world. In this report the Secretary-General argued, “In these past months (aftermath of the end of the Cold War) a conviction has grown, among nations large and small, that an opportunity has been regained to achieve the great objectives of the Charter – a United Nations capable of maintaining international peace and security, of securing justice and human rights and of promoting, in the words of the Charter, “social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom” (UN 1992). The concepts such as the responsibility to protect, and humanitarian intervention, though contested and subject to varying interpretations, encompass, in their core, management of global problems through collective mechanisms. The harmonious resolution of conflicts at all levels can prove an effective bulwark for a peaceful and sustainable world, the goal of global governance and ideal of human unity, which Sri Aurobindo would approve of. His optimism about the UN was evident in these sentences (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 593): There is nothing then in the development of events since the establishment of the United Nations Organisation, in the sequel to the great initiation at San Francisco of the decisive step towards the creation of a world-body which might end in the establishment of a true world-unity, that need discourage us in the expectation of an ultimate success of this great enterprise. There are dangers and difficulties, there can be an apprehension of conflicts, even of colossal conflicts that might jeopardise the future, but total failure need not be envisaged unless we are disposed to predict the failure of the race.

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One could see the combination of tremendous optimism and the belief in evolutionary principle in Sri Aurobindo’s worldview that human unity is predestined in the very nature of evolution though the process might involve failures. As an organization, as an effort by the collective humanity, the UN might confront ‘dangers and difficulties’ and even ‘colossal conflicts’, as one could see in the last 70 and odd years of its functioning, or one could see in the war in Ukraine in 2022, but these challenges do not imply total failure, Sri Aurobindo would argue. His optimism in the evolutionary principle is evident when he applauded this ‘great enterprise’ of collective human endeavor and called it a ‘decisive step’, which ultimately led to the establishment of ‘true world unity.’ Simply put, the practical in him anticipated the conflicts and challenges, but at the same time the visionary in him did not give up hope for better possibilities awaiting the international organization. He elaborated on this vision of evolution, thus (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, pp. 593–594): The thesis we have undertaken to establish of the drive of Nature towards larger agglomerations and the final establishment of the largest of all and the ultimate union of the world’s peoples still remains unaltered…for a general destruction would be the only alternative destiny of mankind…We may rely, if on nothing else, on the evolutionary urge and, if on no other greater hidden Power, on the manifest working and drift or intention in the World-­ Energy we call Nature to carry mankind at least as far as the necessary next step to be taken, a self-preserving next step: for the necessity is there, at least some general recognition of it has been achieved and of the thing to which it must eventually lead the idea has been born and the body of it is already calling for its creation.

This ‘general recognition’ of the urgency of human unity gained speed after the end of the Cold War. As mentioned earlier, the Agenda of Peace in 1992 urged the UN to play a role to foster ‘social progress’ and ‘larger freedom’. Another example in this context would be the emerging post-Cold War concerns about human security, emphasizing the security of people, their welfare, rather than territorial security and borders. The Human Development Report of 1994, written under the auspices of UNDP made a case for human security beyond state-centric security, and for which it emphasized collective action by the states. It would make sense to term traditional state-centric security as egocentric and driven by national ego as it emphasized state sovereignty and territorial integrity at the cost of people’s security. Though Sri Aurobindo did not use the term human security, which gained increasing currency after the end of the Cold War, his distinction between national ego and nation-soul and his allusion to collective action and human unity by prioritizing nation-soul sufficiently alluded to this concept. Rather, it would make sense to argue that for Sri Aurobindo human security did not encompass the whole range of possibilities of human beings and the realization of all human potentials. Perhaps the better term for Sri Aurobindo would be divine security, instead of human security, a security architecture in which a higher divine order and peace would govern human society. He wrote, “… not the intellect and will, but that supreme thing in us yet higher than the Reason, the spirit, here concealed behind the coatings of our lower nature, is the secret seed of the divinity and will be, when discovered and delivered, luminous above the mind, the wide ground upon which a divine life of the human being can be with security founded” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 233). As the goal is no less than

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‘divine life of the human being’, he would accept any move or development, even if they are transitory or temporary, to realize this goal. Applying this logic, the shift from the traditional emphasis on state security to the focus on human security would be a welcome development from his perspective. As mentioned earlier, the Human Development Report was a crucial step by the international organization towards emphasizing the security of the people towards developing an equitable and peaceful world. The threats to human security, the Human Development report of 1994 argued “are no longer just personal or local or national. They are becoming global” as these problems “respect no national border” (UNDP 1994, 2). Though the post-Cold War world witnessed developments in science and technology and economy, the report argued, “we still live in a world where a fifth of the developing world’s population goes hungry every night, a quarter lacks access to even a basic necessity like safe drinking water, and a third lives in a state of abject poverty” (UNDP 1994, 2). The state-centered global order did not witness significant transformation even as the twentieth century lapsed and the twenty-first century emerged. The Commission on Human Security co-chair, Sadako Ogata reflected on this situation in the report Human Security Now, 2003, “In a world of growing interdependence and transnational issues, reverting to unilateralism and a narrow interpretation of state security cannot be the answer. The United Nations stands as the best and only option available to preserve international peace and stability as well as to protect people, regardless of race, religion, gender or political opinion” (Commission on Human Security 2003, 4). The unilateralism, which the 2003 report was critical about, was reflected in the violation of the UN Charter principles and unilateral policies by major powers. The preamble of the UN Charter affirmed “faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small” and believed in promotion of “social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom” (UN 1945). The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN 1966) reflected the same concerns as it recognized “the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” The UN was considered a major driving force toward human unity. One of the core assumptions of the ideal was that an individual’s interests could be best realized through international organizations, based on universal values of liberty, equality, and fraternity. This assumption expanded the status of an individual not merely as a citizen of a nation-­state but as a member of the globalized world. This assumption chimed well with the assumptions of the emerging field of global governance, though Sri Aurobindo could well envision these developments almost a century ago. Though the scholars in the field of global governance have yet to acknowledge the contributions of Sri Aurobindo to the evolution of this field, the core arguments in this emerging field could indeed be found in the vision of human unity Sri Aurobindo developed in his work, The Ideal of Human Unity. The UN-sponsored work Crossing the Divide, written in 2001 and forwarded by then UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, challenged the theories of ‘Clash of Civilizations’ and ‘End of History’ and hoped that the UN would play a critical role

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in the resolution of the global problems. Without going deep into these theories of ‘Clash of Civilizations’ and ‘End of History,’ it would be sufficient here to argue that these theories saw the evolution of history as a history of strife, a history of conflict of values, resulting in the victory of one set of values over the others. Rod Hemsell’s critical reflections, though written in a different context, are relevant here (Hemsell 2014, pp. 199–200). If the democratic capitalist ideology has in fact been victorious in the world, then one should ask whether such an enormous military force is any longer needed, much less more important to achieve than ever? And if such forces were deployed against adversaries, would their impact be likely to really strengthen the world economy and lead to more democratic progress? Or might they not weaken the economies of the world and give rise to opposite political forces and wills? Is it possible to predict, on the basis of the immediate apparent successes of capitalism and the expanding world-market, that these principles of freedom and progress can be sustained indefinitely by either our current conceptions of democracy or our current market system?

In contrast to the clash theories, Crossing the Divide envisaged the emergence of the UN as a kind of ‘global social contract,’ which recognized the principle of equality and distinction among the nations and rejected the old paradigm of international relations and advocated for a new paradigm governing the relations between nations on the following bases: equal footing, reassessment of ‘enemy’, dispersion of power, stake holding, individual responsibility, and issue-driven alignments (Giandomenico et al. 2001, 109–152). Did the UN live up to the expectations with which they were established? Did it adequately promote conditions for the progress of nations and humanity in general? The UN was designed to provide avenues for divergent nations to operate harmoniously under one roof, where the differences among them could be resolved under the framework of international law. The UN, which emerged as a ‘global social contract,’ appeared to be more representative than its predecessor the League of Nations. The UN General Assembly comprised almost all nations of the world (at present there are 193 members; in 1945, the year it was established, the number was 51). The Assembly had been working on the principle of one nation, one vote, thus giving equal voice to all nations, big or small, powerful or marginal. However, the provision of veto powers only to five permanent members of the UN Security Council had given rise to suspicions about whether the international body was designed to serve on the basis of equality, or it was a design made by the victorious powers in the Second World War to enjoy their victory and continue their dominance in world affairs, what Sri Aurobindo would term the amplification of ego from the national level to the  international level. Even the five powers clashed within the UN Security Council over their interests. As mentioned earlier, Sri Aurobindo pointed out this significant discrepancy behind the design of the UN Security Council, the most powerful body in the United Nations architecture. In recent decades, the criticism of this dominance by select powers has increased. For example, Ostrom J. Moller argued, “The five victorious nations decided that they should govern the world. Is that the best solution? Whether the world should be governed by the Security Council is itself an interesting question, but if so should it

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then be these five nations who should do it?” (Moller 2000, 173) He pointed out that a new international system could not be built upon sovereign nation-states as participants but on the transfer of sovereignty from the nation-state to international institutions. He did not reject nation-states as participants in international mechanism but for success of international endeavors they have to partially transfer their sovereignty (Moller 2000, 146). For this to happen, some kind of ‘creative destruction’ on the part of the nation-states needs to take place. The defects in the working of the UN and its structure give rise to the formulation that the system built more than 70 years ago has not developed suitable mechanisms to realize the goals enshrined in the UN Charter. The challenges emerging out of market economy and globalization, the north-south or the east-west divide, the problems related to human rights have not been tackled by the world body effectively. The permanent five countries by means of veto power have weakened the real motive behind the establishment of the UN. The crisis in Syria reflected the weakness of the body in terms of evolving a common front to address the crisis (Mahapatra 2016). Then United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay lamented the indecisiveness of the Council to address the conflict in Syria at the height of the crisis. She argued, “There will always be some disagreement within the international community on how to respond to a given situation; but when tens of thousands of civilian lives are threatened, as currently in Syria, the world expects the Security Council to unite and act” (UN 2013). The UN lacks effective means to enforce its rules and regulations. It does not have adequate financial means to implement its plans and programs. In many cases the effectiveness of the UN has been challenged or dominated by other international bodies such as International Monetary Fund and World Bank, controlled by the developed nations. Alexandra Novosseloff argued that the UN has failed to anticipate emerging problems concerning globalization, ethnicism, poverty, migration, IT revolution, etc. It needs structural and conceptual reforms to remain relevant in the post-Cold War global order (Novosseloff 2001, 945–963). The UN was established with the ostensible goal to stop war among states and build international peace. It was hoped that the UN would truly steer the way and guide the members to work collectively towards fulfilling the goals as enshrined in the UN Charter. But a cursory look at the developments of the past 70 and odd years after the foundation of the global body do not provide an optimistic picture. The post-Second World War world remained quite violent. Historian Eric Hobsbawm wrote in 2002, “the 20th century was the most murderous in recorded history. The total number of deaths caused by or associated with its wars has been estimated at 187 million” (Hobsbawm 2002). He argued that supranational bodies like the UN could play a positive role in bringing international peace, but they must be free from ‘power politics. This reference to ‘power politics’ could be compared to Sri Aurobindo’s term ‘national ego’ and his argument that unless national ego, as reflected in power politics and clash of geopolitical visions and strategies, is transformed in a new spiritual light, unless it is transformed from a narrow expression of national idiosyncrasies, habits and prejudices to the large expression of nation-soul, the UN despite its lofty goals would falter.

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As mentioned above, the weakness of the UN machinery does not make it a body to be considered defunct as its predecessor, the League of Nations. Following the argument of Sri Aurobindo, two simultaneous developments need to be undertaken to make the body relevant in the post-Cold War world. First, nations must transcend national egos, shun narrow national interest considerations, and participate in the international process towards peace and development in an egalitarian framework. Besides various regional organizations centered on states, different non-state actors such as World Constitution and Parliament Association, World Citizens’ Assembly, World Federalist Movement, International Registry of World Citizens and many others have played roles in realizing the goal of a peaceful and harmonious world (Basu 1999). Such organizations can be actively engaged in the UN reforms. Second, the structure of the UN and its decision-making process need reforms. Measures such as the enlargement of the membership of the Security Council, financial autonomy, and giving wider recognition to the leadership of the Secretary General can be undertaken to this effect. Richard Falk made a case for a Global People’s Assembly, in which non-state actors and their concerns can be represented, and an Economic Security Council for a reformed Security Council for the reform of the international body (Falk 2006). It is not that the UN is not relevant, but its present working presages the preponderance of national ego over the concerns of human unity and peace. Unless the UN is transformed into a genuine representative of divergent nations, it will not be able to cater aspirations of nation-states in a global framework. It will not be an effective mechanism for achieving true human unity. The idea expressed by Sri Aurobindo regarding the UN as a mechanism toward the ideal of human Unity was echoed by the noted scientist Albert Einstein, who observed, “The United Nations is an extremely important and useful institution provided the peoples and governments of the world realize that it is merely a transitional system towards the final goal, which is the establishment of supranational authority vested with sufficient legislative and executive powers to keep the peace” (quoted in Basu 1999, p. 1). Similarly, Emery Reves in his The Anatomy of Peace wrote, “World government is not an ‘ultimate goal’ but an immediate necessity. It has been overdue since 1914” (Basu 1999, p. 4). Likewise, the Parliament of World Religions in 1993 advocated for the adoption of the Golden Rule (Giandomenico et al. 2001, p. 74) by the nations for the evolution of a world union. Golden Rule has both positive and negative dimensions: in its positive dimension it embodies the principle: do unto others what you would want others to do unto you; and in its negative dimension it embodies the principle: do not do unto others what you would not want others to do unto you. If nation-states could adopt this rule shared by religious traditions, the authors of the Crossing the Divide argue, it would help in the evolution of a global ethic to be equally observed and respected by different nations towards evolution of the ideal world without compromising national interests. Such a step would elevate them to a higher pedestal where peace, harmony and sustainable development would be core principles. The underlying impulse behind the ideal of human unity is the achievement of the highest possible world unity among nations and their peoples. Hence, the world union will neither be rigid nor dogmatic nor subject to the dictates of a particular

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nation or group of nations. It will not succumb to the hegemonic ambitions of any specific nation because a true world union will be based on the ‘principle of equality in which considerations of size and strength will not enter’ (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 583). It will give equal respect to diverse cultures and patterns of life. It will, in the language of Crossing the Divide (Giandomenico et al. 2001), recognize the principles of equality and distinction, not domination and disintegration. It will not allow big, powerful, nations to usurp the rights of other nations in violation of the basic principles of the world body. This world structure will be akin to a rich tapestry in which different shades of color are beautifully placed in their places or like an ornament in which precious stones are placed in their requisite order. It may take any shape but what is more important is that the nations must come out of the confinements of national ego to participate in the widest possible human unity.

5 Conclusion For Sri Aurobindo, the evolution of human unity is imperative though he would be very aware of the challenges in the process. One of the major challenges is national ego, representing collective ego of people in a particular territory, manifested in conflict and wars. While national ego is a chief impediment in the process, there are also simultaneous movements towards unity and cooperation. National ego, arising out of collective ignorance or avidya, must be addressed by humanity as this larger ego is a problem of human society. V. Madhusudan Reddy reflected on this collective avidya and argued, “Ignorance is as much a collective problem as it is that of the individual. It is the ignorance of the mass that hampers human unity…History is not the record of man’s social, economic and political achievements through the ages. It is the gradual unfoldment of the Soul of the collectivity. There is a spiritual principle – the collective soul, which seeks fulfilment through history. Man’s destiny is to attain a divine life on the earth  – to manifest the supramental Truth-­ consciousness and to recreate life, individual and collective in its light (Reddy 1973, pp. 125–126). Sri Aurobindo counted developments like the League of Nations and the United Nations as steps, howsoever embroiled in controversies and subjected to big power politics, in this process. As those developments started as endeavors to build human unity, their fragility was written in their very nature as they lacked the spiritual content. They were more mechanical, emerged out of the expediency, for example the League of Nations emerged out of WWI and the United Nations emerged out of WWII. Sri Aurobindo saw in their rise positive signs of human unity, but at the same time he was critical of their faulty nature, for example the US remaining out of the League, and the provision of veto powers to five permanent members of the UN Security Council. Through his integral vision he could see that unless there is a fundamental transformation of national ego, whether at the level of the individual or the collectives at the level of nation-states, the conflicts and violence would continue because the mechanical means of human unity and peace would not be lasting.

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This analysis one could see at play in the recent war in Ukraine as it appeared, using the langue of Sri Aurobindo, the major national actors in this conflict stuck to their national ego, and prioritized it, at the cost of the people, at the cost of the larger goal of peace. The element of force as a means for establishing human unity or means of diplomacy and dialogue may play a role in the evolutionary process, but they cannot provide a permanent basis for human unity. Sri Aurobindo wrote, “Vain will be the mechanical construction of unity, if unity is not in the heart of the race and if it be made only a means for safeguarding and organizing our interests; the result will then be only, as it was in the immediate past, a fiercer strife and new outbreaks of revolution and anarchy” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 621). History makes it evident that force may bring some kind of formal world unity, but it will not last long unless the mechanism of force gives way to the means of harmony and order. For example, the United Nations, envisaged by the founders as the apex body and custodian of international peace and stability, became an instrument of superpower rivalry and bloc politics, and even after the collapse of the Soviet Union it was subject to power politics, as reflected in the unilateral intervention of the US in Iraq in 2003 or the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. While Sri Aurobindo envisaged human unity as a certainty in the process of Nature, at the same time his practical and political mind was aware of the challenges such a project would confront in the process. For him, the key was the fundamental transformation of human nature, both individual and collective. Showmanship, or mechanical and pompous arrangements as shown in diplomatic tables, mediations, and other such developments would not work. For him, the fundamental transformation is more important than the formal structure of human unity. Though he analyzed the possibility of administrative unity, common economic policy, and common military force, he did not give any specific guidelines regarding the world body’s future structure as the formal structure was of secondary importance for him. The world unity is the manifestation of higher consciousness in an evolutionary scheme in which the march from the state to a higher construction can be explained as a movement of nature from lower, egoistic, forms of consciousness to higher forms of consciousness. Once the ideal of human unity is embedded in the mutual conduct of nations, the world order free from aggressive tendencies will be stable and the question of force as a foreign policy tool will become largely obsolete. The power alignments meant to contain one power or the other will be viewed differently from the evolutionary perspective toward ideal human unity through global governance mechanisms. Though Sri Aurobindo was certain about the evolution of human unity and despite professing an eternal optimism about the process, his pragmatic mind would make rational assessment of the developments in international politics. His book Ideal of Human Unity was written at the time of WWI. He also witnessed WWII, and how the treaties and agreements preceding the wars were flouted. Hence, he wrote, “How far national egoism would allow that evolution to take place without vehement struggles and dangerous convulsions, is, in spite of the superficial liberalism now widely professed, a question still fraught with grave and ominous doubts” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, 474). The recent developments in international politics

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including the war in Ukraine are perhaps testimonies to such a pessimistic assessment of international politics, and how national egos are still dominant shapers of the developments. The hopes that were kindled after the end of the Cold War, the projects of global governance as reflected in the Agenda of Peace, 1992, or the projects of human development and human security, which generated hopes and guided many academic programs such as global governance and human security in the US universities, appeared to dwindle as the developments in the past few years would tell us. President Trump pronounced at the United Nations in 2018 that the global governance era is over, indicating the revival of a policy that gives primacy to national developments. To quote him, “We reject the ideology of globalism…Around the world, responsible nations must defend against threats to sovereignty not just from global governance, but also from other, new forms of coercion and domination” (UN 2018). This is a reflection how national ego is still dominant in international politics, and though the major theories in the discipline such as Realism do not use the term national ego, its major premise is based on such an assertion that it is political egoism that guides states to action. But Sri Aurobindo did not give up hope as his evolutionary logic would reaffirm his faith in human unity, reignite his faith that the national ego would gradually transform, and even work to promote unity beyond national borders. He wrote (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, p. 558): As a national ego formed which identified itself with the geographical body of the nation and developed in it the psychological instinct of national unity and the need of its satisfaction, so a collective human ego will develop in the international body and will evolve in it the psychological instinct of human unity and the need of its satisfaction. That will be the guarantee of duration. And that possibly is how the thing will happen, man being what he is; indeed if we cannot do better, it will so happen, since happen somehow it must, whether in the worse way or the better.

Human unity in a global scale must happen, ‘whether in the worse way or the better’. This process will witness many ups and downs, in the shape of construction of international organizations but at the same time the onset of devastating wars, and other forms of violence worldwide. Sri Aurobindo did not provide a time scale in which world unity would be a reality. He would argue that it is not possible to give a time frame as it would depend on the degree of the transformation of nature of human beings and their collectivities. But he posited high hopes on the United Nations and cautioned the key players in the organization that they must always be on guard so that the old hatred and conflicts are not revived. His caution rings true so vividly even though he wrote it more than seven decades ago (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, pp. 581–582): As regards the actual conditions of the moment it may even be admitted that most men nowadays look with dissatisfaction on the defects of the United Nations Organisation and its blunders and the malignancies that endanger its existence and many feel a growing pessimism and regard with doubt the possibility of its final success…The leaders of the nations, who have the will to succeed and who will be held responsible by posterity for any avoidable failure, must be on guard against unwise policies or fatal errors; the deficiencies that exist in the organisation or its constitution have to be quickly remedied or slowly and cautiously eliminated; if there are obstinate oppositions to necessary change, they have somehow to be overcome or circumvented without breaking the institution; progress towards its

References

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perfection, even if it cannot be easily or swiftly made, must yet be undertaken and the frustration of the world’s hope prevented at any cost.

Such an assessment of the working of the United Nations, made more than seven decades ago, could be appropriately applied to the current functioning of the apex international body. At the time of the writing of this chapter, as the war in Ukraine is raging, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, called the international powers to work together to stop the war. After his visit to Kyiv suburbs in April 2022 he observed, “I must say what I feel…the war is an absurdity in the 21st century. The war is evil” (UN 2022). Sri Aurobindo reflected well on the working of the UN, and his pessimism is still relevant, and his call to the major powers to address the ‘blunders and malignancies’ needs to be addressed in earnest. He also expressed fear that the inaction or the factoring of national interests over international goals of peace and security might even lead to the ‘breaking of the institution’, thus reverting to the old days without any apex international organization. While acknowledging the difficulties in the process, the eternal optimist in Sri Aurobindo appealed to the nation-­ states to work together to realize the goal of human unity. That appeal is perhaps no more relevant as it is today at this crucial stage of human history.

References Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso. Basu, Samar. 1999. The UNO, the World Government and the Ideal of World Union. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Bauer, Otto. 2000. The Question of Nationalities and Social Democracy, Trans. Joseph O’Donnell. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Bellah, Robert. 1995. Durkheim and History. In Emile Durkheim: Critical Assessments, ed. Peter Hamilton, 36–56. London: Routledge. Carr, E.H. 1945. Nationalism and After. London: Macmillan. Commission on Human Security. 2003. Human Security Now. New York: Commission on Human Security. Available at http://www.unocha.org/humansecurity/chs/finalreport/index.html Connor, Walker. 1972. Nation-Building or Nation-Destroying? World Politics 24 (3): 319–355. Deutsch, Karl. 1961. Social Mobilization and Political Development. American Political Science Review 55 (3): 493–514. ———. 1966. Nationalism and Social Communication: An Inquiry into the Foundations of Nationality. Cambridge: MIT Press. Falk, Richard. 2006. The United Nations System: Prospects for Renewal. In Governing Globalization: Issues and Institutions, ed. D.  Nayyar, 177–208. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Giandomenico, Picco, et  al. 2001. Crossing the Divide: Dialogue Among Civilizations. South Orang: Sheton Hall University. Heehs, Peter. 2008. The Lives of Sri Aurobindo. New York: Columbia University Press. Hemsell, Rod. 2014. Sri Aurobindo and the Logic of the Infinite. Crestone: Sri Aurobindo Learning Center. Retrieved from https://www.auro-­ebooks.com/logic-­of-­the-­infinite/ Hobsbawm, E.J. 1993. Nations and Nationalism Since 1870: Programme, Myth, Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Hobsbawm, Eric. 2002. War and Peace in the 20th Century. London Review of Books 4 (4). Retrieved from https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-­paper/v24/n04/eric-­hobsbawm/ war-­and-­peace-­in-­the-­20th-­century. Kedourie, Elie. 1960. Nationalism. London: Hutchinson. ———. 1971. Nationalism in Asia and Africa. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Kohn, Hans. 2008. The Idea of Nationalism: A Study in Its Origins and Background. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers (Originally published in 1944). Mahapatra, Debidatta A. 2016. The Mandate and the (In)Effectiveness of the United Nations Security Council and International Peace and Security: The Contexts of Syria and Mali. Geopolitics 21 (1): 43–68. Minor, Robert. 1999. The Religious, the Spiritual, and the Secular: Auroville and Secular India. Albany: State University of New York Press. Moller, Ostrom J. 2000. The End of Internationalism or World Governance? Westport: Praeger. Munshi, K.M. 1946. The Creative Art of Life. Bombay: Padma Publications Ltd. Novosseloff, Alexandra. 2001. Revitalizing of the United Nations: Anticipation and Prevention as Primary Goals. Strategic Analysis 25 (8): 945–963. Quayum, Mohammad A. 2004. Tagore and Nationalism. Journal of Commonwealth Literature 39 (2): 1–6. Reddy, V.  Madhusudan. 1973. Sri Aurobindo’s Vision of Human Unity. In Sri Aurobindo: An Interpretation, ed. V.C. Joshi, 114–161. Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd. Singh, Karan. 2000. Prophet of Indian Nationalism: A Study of the Political Thought of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, 1893–1910. Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Smith, Anthony D. 1986. Conflict and Collective Identity: Class, Ethnie and Nation. In International Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice, ed. Edward E.  Azar and John W. Burton, 63–84. Sussex and Boulder: Wheatsheaf Books and Lynne Reiner Publishers. Sri Aurobindo. n.d. (Different years and different volumes, mentioned in in-text citation). The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo (referred in the chapter text as CWSA). Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Also available online at: https://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/sriaurobindo/writings.php. Streit, C. K. 1939. Union Now: A Proposal for a Federal Union of the Democracies of the North Atlantic. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers. Available at http://www.constitution.org/ aun/union_now.htm. UN. 1945. Charter of the United Nations. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/ ———. 1966. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Retrieved from http://www.un-­documents.net/icescr.htm. ———. 1992. An Agenda for Peace. Available at http://www.un-­documents.net/a47-­277.htm. ———. 2013. Security Council Must Unite to Protect Civilians in Conflict Zones – UN Officials. Retrieved from: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44127&Cr=protection+of+ civilians&Cr1#.UXRzYLXUd0s. ———. 2018, September 25. US President Trump Rejects Globalism in Speech to UN General Assembly’s Annual Debate. Retrieved from https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/09/1020472. ———. 2022, April 28. Guterres in Ukraine: War is ‘Evil’ and Unacceptable, Calls for Justice. Retrieved from https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/04/1117132. UNDP. 1994. Human Development Report 1994. New York: Oxford University Press. UNESCO. 1972. The UNESCO Courier. The full issue of the magazine can be downloaded at this link: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000078384. Waltz, Kenneth N. 1964. The Stability of a Bipolar World. Daedalus 93 (3): 881–909.

Integral Conflict Resolution

There is robust literature on conflict resolution, but none of them has factored the ideas of Sri Aurobindo. In this chapter, I aim to fill this gap, while demonstrating that by factoring the ideas of Sri Aurobindo, the disciple of conflict resolution not only gets rich theoretically but also gains insights on conflict resolution. Though Sri Aurobindo did not envisage the discipline of conflict resolution as it is established today, his writings are certainly instructive for the discipline. As an academic discipline conflict resolution is relatively a nascent one, and as an emerging interdisciplinary discipline it draws from multiple established disciplines such as law, economics, politics, sociology, and psychology. It has evolved since the mid-­ twentieth century and is still evolving, and one can reasonably link the evolutionary nature of the discipline with Sri Aurobindo’s theory of evolution in which all the approaches to conflict and conflict resolution have value. For Sri Aurobindo, conflict is a fundamental discord, not confined exclusively to material, cultural, or psychological dimensions. Like the blind men exploring the elephant, the disciplinary approaches provide partial pictures. While these approaches have value in exploring a conflict and looking for a solution, they cannot provide the final solution as they do not have the integral picture before them. The discipline evolving over a period of 50 or 60 years generated a wealth of literature and tools to address conflicts at multiple levels. It has developed terms like conflict resolution, arbitration, negotiation, conflict management, and conflict transformation. Though the term conflict resolution is perhaps not the best term to represent the range and breadth of the discipline, the term is indeed most popular in comparison to other terms in the discipline. I have followed this trend and used the term here, though I agree with John Lederach that the term does not capture the full nature and scope of the discipline, nor does it adequately reconcile differences in related terms.1 The common thread that binds all these formulations is that they are

 Drawing from his research experience in Latin America, John P. Lederach explains the dilemma in these words, “When I arrived there my vocabulary was filled with the usual terminology of conflict resolution and management. I soon found, though, that my Latin colleagues had questions, even suspicions, about what was meant by such concepts. For them, resolution carried with it a danger of co-optation, an attempt to get rid of conflict when people were raising important and legitimate issues. It was not clear that resolution left room for advocacy. In their experience, quick 1

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eager to address conflict by addressing material or visible or at most psychological aspects of the differences between the conflicting parties. Though some of the approaches emphasize psychological dimensions, none capture the complete picture and talk about fundamental change in human nature as Sri Aurobindo emphasized. Cosmetic changes, or solutions here and now, use of force, overt or covert, have least value in Sri Aurobindo’s conception of conflict resolution. His conflict resolution can be compared to concepts such as conflict transformation or transcendence, but it will be much more. It can be called integral conflict resolution. Though Sri Aurobindo did not develop an academic theory of conflict resolution, his integral perspective would have enough elements useful for the discipline in its theoretical and practical dimensions. As I have fleshed out in this chapter, the enduring conflict resolution for Sri Aurobindo is essentially a spiritual evolution, a fundamental change in the very human nature. After briefly reviewing the discipline in the first section, I elaborate threadbare in the second section on various dimensions of the integral conflict resolution that emerges from Sri Aurobindo’s yoga-philosophy. In the third section, I examine India’s freedom struggle and select international developments by applying the lens of Aurobindonian conflict resolution. In the final section, I summarize the main arguments of the chapter while arguing that the integral conflict resolution approach holds promise to address many of the crises human society is passing through presently.

1 A Brief Survey of the Discipline Though conflict resolution as a subject of study could be traced to the ancient period and one could well study the texts of Mahabharata or Gita or The History of the Peloponnesian War or the Arthashastra as conflict resolution texts, in this section I am focusing on the academic discipline as it evolved in the mid and late twentieth century. In the early phase of the discipline, scholars like Lewis Coser defined conflict as a struggle over values and resources, thus emphasizing visible or material aspects of conflicts (Coser 1956). On the other hand, there is the scholarship that focuses on psychological and group dimensions of the conflict, on divergence of interests and perceptions and group dynamics in shaping a conflict. For example, Morton Deutsch, one of the pioneers of the discipline, applied a psychological approach to understanding conflicts at various levels such as intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, intergroup, and international  (Deutsch 1973). Johan Galtung, another pioneer of the discipline, focused on structural dimensions of the conflict, mainly on the violence embedded in the social structure. To understand the structural conflict, he explored not only material factors but also psychological and cultural factors shaping the conflicts. He argued that violence is not just about physical questions to deep social-political problems usually meant lots of words but no real change. ‘Conflicts happen for a reason,’ they would say. ‘Is this resolution idea just another way to cover up the changes that are really needed?’ (Lederach 2003, p. 3).

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violence or killing but is much deeper than visible violence. He argued (Galtung 1969, p. 168): As a point of departure, let us say that violence is present when human beings are being influenced so that their actual somatic and mental realizations are below their potential realizations. This statement may lead to more problems than it solves. However, it will soon be clear why we are rejecting the narrow concept of violence – according to which violence is somatic incapacitation, or deprivation of health, alone (with killing as the extreme form), at the hands of an actor who intends this to be the consequence. If this were all violence is about, and peace is seen as its negation, then too little is rejected when peace is held up as an ideal. Highly unacceptable social orders would still be compatible with peace. Hence, an extended concept of violence is indispensable but that concept should be a logical extension, not merely a list of undesirables.

Galtung raised this debate of violence and nonviolence, conflict and peace, to a higher level, and for him, violence is not just physical injury or material deprivation or ‘somatic incapacitation’, and similarly peace cannot be seen just as a negation of violence, as it is much wider as it aims at addressing not only material inequality or injustice, but also structural and cultural injustices. This view chimes well with Lederach’s transformation approach to conflict in which, “…conflict brings with it the potential for constructive change” (Lederach 2003, p.  15). In this context, Michael Nagler’s three lenses (Nagler 2004, pp. 36–42) – moral, which sees violence in terms of sin; medical, which sees violence as some sort of disease; and educational, which sees violence as some kind of ignorance – are useful as they turn our focus not only on visible dimensions of conflict and peace but also the deeper dimensions. Nagler’s definition of violence attempts to cover material and nonmaterial aspects, while tracing its origin to human mind. He wrote (Nagler 2004, p. 32): All violence arises, then, within the mind. By the same token, the hurt caused by violence can by psychological or spiritual as well as material and physical, which brings us close again to the meaning of the Latin word, “violate, dishonor.” This is both good and bad. Bad because it is disquieting to realize that we can be violent when we’re just sitting there, harboring bad thoughts but not hurting anyone physically. This is not particularly comforting – but after all, it is better to be aware of it if it’s true. Almost all the approaches to violence we are currently talking are failures. Most of them, even if they manage to contain the problem over here, make it worse over there. Our approach to crime has put more and more people in prison (while barely denting the crime rate out on the streets); our approach to world peace seems to be leading to an endless series of wars; the “war on drugs” and the “war on terrorism” are costly, violent failures. So it’s a great relief to get out finger, finally, on the pulse of the problem, even if it turns out that we’re holding our own wrist.

There is an agreement that certain criteria must be met to call a situation conflict situation (Miall 1992). First, the participants in a conflict situation must perceive that there is a conflict. Unless the parties to a conflict do not accept there is a conflict situation, and consider the given situation unfair, there is no conflict, even though there might be a situation of exploitation or marginalization. Second, following the first, the participants must have difference of values and interests at the very foundation of the conflict. Unless there are such clear markers of difference, and each party emphasizes their side of the story as the true and fair side, there cannot be a conflict. Third, conflict involves people. And for a conflict situation to take shape, it must

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involve people whether in a group or a community within a state or people between states or states. Finally, the participants in the conflict must consider the outcome of the conflict important. As the participants involve as stakeholders in the outcome, and as they invest time, resources, and energy, the outcome of the conflict is important to them. This typology is useful to describe a conflict situation though it leaves out of its scope some subtle dimensions of conflict such as conflict of choices within an individual or larger conflicts involving environment. If one looks at conflict resolution literature, one can see how real-world events shape the discipline. For example, after the Second World War, with the onset of the Cold War between the major powers of the United States and the Soviet Union, the literature focused on superpower relations and how that shaped interstate relations. The superpower conflict eschewed all conflicts as every conflict was viewed through that lens. Scholars like Morton Deutsch, Johan Galtung, John Burton, and Edward Azar explored conflicts at a deeper level, exploring identity or group or ethnic dimensions of conflict, but the superpower conflict overwhelmed conflict studies. Even the local or regional conflicts such as the conflict in Kashmir, Vietnam, Korea, or the conflicts in Africa or East Europe or Latin America were subsumed under the superpower rivalry, and it appeared the international politics, including the international institutions such as the United Nations, are subsets of the superpower rivalry and bipolar politics. As I referred to in the last chapter, international politics scholars such as Kenneth Waltz predicted that this bipolar model of politics would continue for a long time, providing stability to international politics. Academic departments spent resources and developed a whole generation of scholarship to study these dimensions of conflict emerging out of superpower rivalry. A significant amount of literature in this period focused on conflicts from a Cold War and great power perspective. There were also attempts to develop quantitative approaches to study conflicts and their various dimensions. For example, the Correlates of War Project, developed by J. David Singer, in the 1960s explored the wars. The project collected data about the war and analyzed it to find the root causes of war and various factors shaping it. As the Cold War ended in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the victory of the liberal capitalist order, the conflict studies also changed their focus. There was no more superpower rivalry; the US emerged as the lone superpower. That did not ensure the end of conflicts. While most of the conflicts earlier were confined to the interstate level, the focus now turned to the conflicts within the states. The interstate wars declined sharply, but intrastate wars  – the war within states, between groups within states, often with support from a neighboring state or an international power, increased dramatically. According to a study, 90 armed conflicts took place around the world within 5 years, from 1989 to 1993 (Wallensteen and Axell 1994). Of those 90 conflicts, only four were interstate conflicts, and all others were intrastate conflicts. Apparently, conflicts that were suppressed earlier or subsumed by the superpower rivalry emerged on the scene as Cold War politics subsided. These intrastate conflicts, or conflicts confined to a state territory, were further complicated. Holsti termed them as wars of ‘third kind’ as, unlike in interstate wars, there was no clear set of actors engaged in violence, and there were no

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exact start or end period of those conflicts, also in many cases these conflicts lacked a central figure or authority, and more importantly these conflicts tended to prolong as there were multiple actors with multiple conflicting interests (Holsti 1996, p. 20). Post-Cold War twenty-first century conflicts are much more complex than the Cold War conflicts. They have distinct characteristics that make them different from the earlier conflicts.2 First, most of these conflicts are internal, happening within a state’s borders. Second, though the violence occurs within the borders of one state, there is usually involvement of another state, in most cases, a neighbor. It also involves irredentist claims of one state over the territory of another state. Third, while earlier in interstate wars, soldiers used to die, and civilians were spared from casualties, in modern day conflicts, civilians including children, women and old people also become targets. One could see this increasingly happening in almost all internal conflicts. Fourth, these conflicts have a larger life span. They do not happen and end in a few days or months like the Arab-Israel war in the 1970s. Rather these conflicts continue for a long time. For example, the conflict in Kashmir has continued for more than seven decades, and one can make the same argument in the case of conflict in Palestine or Northern Ireland. Fifth, and because of their protracted nature, these conflicts have long-term socioeconomic and psychological implications. They affect the people’s livelihoods and create psychological instability, trauma and conflict habituated resignation among the people living in the conflict zone. The hope that the end of the Cold War would dawn peace did not materialize as intrastate conflicts erupted worldwide. It was like turning the clock back to the time of the end of the Second World War when it was hoped that with the end of the war and the foundation of the United Nations, there would be peace, but the Cold War between the two major powers started. The similarity between the two ends was that the conflict continued in different scales. The end indeed reaped many fruits. The end of the Second World War unleashed the process of decolonization in Asia and Africa. Sri Aurobindo in his five dreams issued just after the independence of India made clear in his second dream that the world would see ‘liberation of peoples’ in Asia. The end witnessed freedom of many countries in Asia and Africa such as India in 1947, Sri Lanka in 1948, and Myanmar in 1948. But the end of colonialism and freedom of states did not ensure lasting peace. As I elaborate later, Sri Aurobindo made it clear, as reflected in his fourth and fifth dreams, that unless there is a fundamental transformation in the nature of states and societies, including the very human individuals who form the very building blocks of state and social edifice, there would be no genuine peace. The world confronted the same dilemma after the end of the Cold War. Despite the victory of democracy and liberal world order, as articulated in the end of history thesis (Fukuyama 2006), conflicts, particularly within the confines of the states or adjacent to the states burgeoned all over the world. While earlier the conflicts were confined to big actors or big powers or states, the post-­ Cold War conflicts were much more complex and proliferated, and involved

 In developing these characteristics, I drew from the work of Edward Azar. See Azar (1990).

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identities of the people, their ethnicity, religion, and other such markers including psychological markers that penetrated deep into group living and practices. Around the same time when the end of history thesis was pronounced, another thesis, ‘clash of civilizations’ (Huntington 1993), gained ground. It predicted that large-scale conflicts, polarizing the world, would not involve states but religions and cultures. Hence, the predictions that the end of the Cold War would lead to peace, capitalism and prosperity did not actually happen as one could see in the proliferation of conflicts worldwide. The war in Ukraine appeared surreal in the sense that both the major powers, the US and Russia (former Soviet Union), were allies during the Second World War, and both played a role to end the Cold War ‘without firing a single bullet’, but now in the twenty-first century they are at loggerheads in Ukraine, and the predictions of a New Cold War involving China has already gained ground. Another problem that could be visible in conflict and peace studies was its Eurocentric bias, which persisted for a long time, and its remnants are still visible today. It could be explained partly because primary literature in the discipline was produced from the countries in Europe and America and the scholars producing the literature had the least experience or understanding of the situation beyond the West. Their bias appeared natural as they did not have the experience of conflicts in developing societies. As articulated by scholars like Edward Azar, these scholars’ analyses could not factor in the nuances in developing societies (Azar 1990). The Eurocentric approach also proved incapable of exploring dimensions of conflict in the developing world as the conflict analysis tools were developed in the western developed countries, keeping in view the needs of the western world. As Azar and Farah pointed out, these Eurocentric studies mainly suffered from two limitations: they neglected the deep-rooted, latent, or covert dimensions of the conflict; and they lacked wherewithal to accept a relational understanding of the conflicts in the developing world (Azar and Farah 1981, p. 320). One could notice a flurry of research on developing societies, conflicts arising from them, and the role of multiple actors in shaping the conflict in the 1990s and afterward. Apparently, there also emerged another bias, or what could be termed compartmentalization bias, which emphasized studying levels of conflict separately. For example, intrapersonal or interpersonal conflicts were different from group or community conflicts, which were also separate from interstate or intrastate conflicts. From an Aurobindonian perspective, such compartmentalization missed the larger picture, ignored the roots of the conflicts, and addressed the branches and leaves or visible aspects of conflict through mechanical processes like arbitration, negotiation, or mediation. In an Aurobindonian scheme, such compartmentalization does not help resolve conflicts. There must be a need to see conflicts in its totality, in its integrality, and addressing them at their very roots. Sri Aurobindo would argue, individual, group, larger community, state, society, and the world and the universe are all interconnected, and in this interconnected nature of individual, life and society, conflict at one place impacts the whole society and the world, though the scale of impact varies from level to level. Ad hoc measures may help address the conflict, or pacify it for some time, but unless the conflict is addressed in its totality, unless it is transformed in a new light, ad hoc measures may bring temporary relief but not

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lasting solution. While leaving the roots as they are, such ad hoc measures make the conflict further protracted. Another problem that the conflict and peace studies generally suffered was overemphasis on big actors such as states and elites and underemphasis on small actors such as people, groups, communities, and individuals. Smith in his study brought this into focus how diplomatic and historical studies of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries focused on states and elites under the assumption that war and conflict were the prerogatives of these big actors (Smith 1986). In fact, studies not only in conflict and peace, but also in diplomacy, international politics, and economic studies suffered from this premise. Whether one talks about the World Wars or the wars in Europe such as the Thirty Years year that ended in the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 or the wars in other places, the role of factors such as the interest of local people or role of identities and perceptions or role of psychological factors were less emphasized. This premise, which could be called statist, also suffered from another bias of holding the state as a homogenous entity. It undermined cleavages within the states. There was a shift in focus in recent decades as the conflict studies focused on social cleavages within the states. This view, which could be called dynamic as it considered the real factors shaping the conflicts, went deeper to analyze the conflict and considered various factors such as ethnic identity, religion, language, color, and caste that shaped conflict within and between states. More so, this shift of focus particularly gained momentum after the end of the Cold War. Another trend that prominently emerged in the latter part of the twentieth century, more so after the end of the Cold War, in the developing states, was the process of state consolidation, but this process was fraught with challenges. While the state elites engineered a process of state consolidation by crafting a story of national unity based on some sort of homogenous identity drawing from majoritarian ethos within the state, the minority groups challenged such a dominant majoritarian narrative. The increasing awareness, fostered by education, media, and globalization, led to the assertion of group identities, particularly those marginalized by the state. Further, the state borders drawn in the post-colonial world were not synchronous with the group identities, it hence appeared that the same group of people proliferated beyond state borders. There were numerous examples of such dispersion of groups beyond state boundaries. One example could be the Kurds that proliferated across Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Turkey. While the states emphasized the united characteristics of the people and used the argument of national unity to garner support among people, the minority groups, often marginalized, rose in revolt. While the dominant national elites wanted to promote their version of majoritarian nationalism and masked it as a united one involving all the state’s people, the minority, and often marginalized, groups within the state expressed discontent. While the earlier version of state consolidation wanted to consider geography as the dominant factor, the later version considered social identity or group identity as the marker of their nation. This clash of visions and outcomes became more prominent at the cusp of the twenty-first century. A study analyzed such types of conflicts emerging from these clashing visions, and pointed out that among the 233 ethnic conflicts, involving groups identities and aspirations in the early 1990s, 81 of those involved aimed

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at separation from the mainland, while others expressed discontent and demanded not strict separation. Other demands involved demand for power, equal treatment and recognition and group autonomy (Stavenhagen 1996, p. 11). Smith argued how “state homogenization always appears to the non-dominant ethnie like ethnic discrimination and exploitation. In an age of nationalism that perception is likely to prove explosive” (Smith 1986, p. 70). One could make a case that this process of state consolidation appeared relatively nascent in case of the developing states of Asia and Africa, but the developed states of Europe and North America too went through turbulent phases of state consolidation in the earlier centuries, and in this context, one could think of multiple wars and treaties in Europe. One of the issues that the conflict and peace studies discipline juggled in recent decades, particularly since the 1990s, was security. As a debate on conflict and peace involved security, the question that gained center stage was  – security for whom? If there was a conflict, it involved security of whom or to put it differently if there was a struggle for peace, that peace was meant to be secured for whom? That brought us to the extensive debate on state security – a rigid emphasis on territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state –, and human security – an emphasis on the security of the people living within the state. The proponents of human security argue that it is the people who are more important, or it is people’s lives that are more important than the state security, hence people rather than the state must be prioritized in a debate on conflict and peace. They raised an ontological question – how could a state be secure if its constituent beings, the people, were not secure? The Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Program in 1994 highlighted this human security concern and made a case for it. The program argued that states must focus on human development, propelling the United Nations to adopt programs like Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals. The proponents of human security also argued that a focus on state security is one-dimensional, as it prioritizes state security and undermines the needs and demands of the people. And they raised the question that the state is not the sole provider of peace or security, there are many other factors which must be examined and valued for healthy and peaceful living within the states. The state which is supposed to provide security to its people can itself be a violator of people’s rights (Darby 2008, p. 100). The overemphasis on state security in terms of building a fortified border with watchtowers, minefields around the border, electrified fencing, and so on, primarily relied on a realist interpretation of the state relations and worked under the assumption that states and their leaders are not trustworthy, and as the states operate in a state of anarchy, they must be militarily powerful to ensure the security of the state. The human needs approach offered a useful analytical tool to explain conflicts and their various dimensions. This approach developed a pyramid of human needs and made a case that the bottom of the pyramid must be addressed before one moves to higher in the pyramid. For example, physiological needs such as food to meet hunger must be met before individual thinks of needs such as the need for esteem. Abraham Maslow, the founder of this approach, argued, “any thwarting or possibility of thwarting of these basic human goals … is considered to be a psychological

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threat” (Maslow 1943, p. 395). This approach was famous as it did not focus on superficial or rigid ideas of state security or border protection but built a pyramid of needs based on human physiology and psychology. While at the bottom of the pyramid were the physiological needs, at the top of the pyramid were the self-­actualization needs, to which on the top Maslow added another layer later called transcendence. It also made common sense appeal and appeared useful from a conflict resolution perspective as it emphasized basic needs that must be met before other needs are considered. An individual or a group of people must have basic needs met  – for example the need of food, shelter, the need to have enough sleep and procreation – before the other needs are considered. But scholars like Burton and Azar made a case that nonmaterial needs are as important, or even more important, than material needs because individuals feel more fulfilled as part of a particular group or identity (Azar 1990; Burton 1987). Azar drew from his study of the Middle East that it is not the issue of jobs, employment and shelter, it is more about the issue of religion and culture that led to the conflict. And some studies apply that argument to other conflicts like Kashmir (for example, Mahapatra 2018). Looking from an Aurobindonian perspective, the needs approach suffered from two problems. First, its hierarchy of needs was rigid. It did not explore much the scope for the intermingling of needs in the hierarchy, nor did it admit the scope that an individual could prefer to have his nonmaterial needs met first before he thought of realizing the material needs. Second, Sri Aurobindo would argue that even this psychological approach did not present a complete picture of the situation nor explored spiritual dimensions of conflict resolution and the prospects of higher needs not yet included in the hierarchy. Approaches on culture and relative deprivation also proved useful in analyzing conflict as they examined the roots of the conflict beyond its visible dimensions. Human beings, they argued, did not just go by what appeared on the surface but also by systems of meanings “created, shared, and transmitted (socially inherited) by individuals in particular social groups” (Avruch 1998, p.  10). These approaches were particularly useful to examine conflicts not confined to fight over resources, territory or other material elements. If one looked at many of the world’s conflicts, particularly involving the issues of religion or culture, these approaches made sense to unravel the hidden aspects of the conflict. Relative deprivation approach told us that a group of people might not be discontented because they were economically poor or visibly marginalized, but because they perceived that they were marginalized. It was more about, according to Ted Gurr, “a group’s perception of discrepancy between value expectations and value capabilities. In other words, it is the difference between what a group believes it should receive and what it believes it will receive” (quoted in Dudley and Miller 1998, p. 80). Particularly in multicultural and pluralistic societies, the prospects of relative deprivation are higher. As the society is composed of multiple groups, including majority and minority groups, such perceptions may arise. In these societies there are more chances of relative deprivation than in homogenous states where there is one group of people throughout the territory of the state. From an Aurobindonian perspective, all the discussions about conflicts as made above are useful in explaining various aspects of conflict and exploring prospects of

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their resolution. These approaches, however, do not see the whole picture, or the integral picture. For example, the material approaches only focus on material or visible dimension of the conflict and ignore or undermine the invisible dimensions of the conflict. The famous saying in the discipline – sharing the pie – gives rise to the sense that there is something visible that can be satisfactorily divided among the contenders. Similarly, the psychological approaches tend to undermine the visible dimensions of the conflict and overemphasize the non-material aspects of the conflict. The end goal is that while all the approaches are partially successful in exploring various dimensions of the conflict, and trying to address them, they ultimately do not provide enduring solutions to the conflict. Until the very roots of the conflict are transformed, the very perceptions of the people and parties involved are transformed, there will be every chance the conflict will recur after a certain period. A good example in this context will be the recent war in Ukraine. It was hoped that after the end of the Cold War, and the victory of the liberal world order, the humanity is entering into a better and peaceful age, but a glance at the developments in the world, among various states, and even among various communities within the states, do not present a very promising picture of human society. In this context, the ideas of Sri Aurobindo are relevant.

2 An Integral Approach Sri Aurobindo’s approach to conflict resolution can be called integral approach and his theory of conflict resolution integral or spiritual conflict resolution. Haridas Chaudhuri articulated this Aurobindonian vision on addressing ‘the various conflicts of our human existence’ in the following words (Chaudhuri 1960, p. 17): The philosophy of Sri Aurobindo is all-comprehending in its integration of the past, and prophetic in its vision of the future. As a connected view of the totality of existence, it brings to light the ultimate unifying principle of life. On the basis of a balanced appreciation of the multifarious values of lie, it shows how to reconcile the various conflicts of our human existence...In an endeavor to meet the challenges of the present age, it gives a new dynamic form to the spiritual heritage of the human race – a unified and integrated form to the highest cultural values of the East and West. With a penetrative insight into the profound meaning of life it lays the foundation for a complete art of harmonious and creative living.

It needs emphasis that Sri Aurobindo’s approach to conflict resolution did not emerge in a vacuum. His ideas and writings that drew from Vedanta gave enough indication that his reflections on life and society, conflict, and peace, could be linked to the ancient Vedanta vision. His works amply referred to ancient Indian literature. His epic poem Savitri used a short story from Mahabharata and developed it as a ‘legend and symbol’ of a spiritual journey and human evolution. An understanding of the ancient scriptures that emerged in India would help better understand and appreciate Sri Aurobindo’s perspectives on life and society, and how to build peace and harmony in human society. In this section, I am not elaborating all the ancient scriptures that helped shape Sri Aurobindo’s ideas, nor the scope of the book permit

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such an elaboration. But I refer to them when it necessarily illuminates our understanding of Aurobindonian conflict resolution. One can certainly see the epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata as literature in conflict and peace. Often in these scriptures there are ample references to righteous war or Dharmyuddh between good and evil, light and darkness or Deva and Asura. The battle of Kurukshetra in Mahabharata has often had multiple interpretations. For example, there are lines of argument that suggest the battle of Kurukshetra is not only a war in a battleground, but also a battle within the individual. Hence the ideas of intrapersonal or interpersonal or intracommunal or intrastate or interstate battles could be embedded in such wider interpretations of Kurukshetra. It needs emphasis that though Sri Aurobindo drew from ancient Indian literature in developing his ideas, it would not be appropriate to call his approach parochial. Certainly, in this direction his Western upbringing played a role as he could see the rational merit of various approaches, and, at the same time, he could see the limitations of the rational approach. In that sense Sri Aurobindo’s approach transcended the East and West dichotomy. According to A. B. Purani, Sri Aurobindo (Purani 1960, p. 338): brings to Indian culture the rich gifts of this European training, his emphasis on the acceptance of life in any scheme of spiritual regeneration of man and the importance of collective life, the need for outer perfection and organization coupled with spiritual realization and ascent to higher levels of consciousness. To the West, he brings the true spiritual basis of reconstruction of individual and collective life, by insisting and proving that man’s problem is mainly inner and psychological and can therefore be solved only by bringing about an inner change in man’s nature, by rising to a higher level of consciousness beyond intellect.

The key statement of the Aurobindonian theory of conflict resolution was found in these words from the Life Divine, “A world full of conflict, a conflict in ourselves, a conflict of the individual with the world around him are normal and inevitable features of the separative consciousness of the Ignorance and our ill-harmonised existence. But this cannot happen in the gnostic consciousness because there each finds his complete self and all find their own truth and the harmony of their different motions in that which exceeds them and of which they are the expression” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 1035). This argument perfectly fits into Sri Aurobindo’s theory of evolution. In simple terms, the world, which is full of conflict, violence, at multiple levels – whether at the individual or group or larger levels – is destined to be in that state, but this is not the summit of human evolution, or this is not the final word in the march of the human civilization. All these conflicts happen due to a lack of harmony, and, as all the mechanisms of conflict resolution are based on the very foundation of this ‘separative consciousness of the Ignorance’, they are constrained by their very nature. But when the evolution marches further, when individuals and the communities evolve beyond separative consciousness, into a larger, all-­ embracing consciousness, there will be proper harmony within individual and among individuals and groups, hence there will be no scope for conflict. The separative consciousness is the very root of the conflict, and when that is addressed, there is no scope for conflict as each entity will find their proper truth and harmony in the larger whole.

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Conflicts in the modern world, particularly the post-Cold War world, involve group cultures and identities. And among the group cultures and identities, religious identities have been prominent in many cases. Though in the ancient and medieval times there were religious wars, and as the literature on inquisitions and holy wars suggested, they often appeared in a large scale. But most modern conflicts have wider and narrower implications and locations if one thinks of the religious dimension. While the Clash of Civilizations thesis projected a larger global conflict based on religious identities and cultures, there are also studies on the religious conflicts that examined conflicts in smaller places. One could think of the conflict in the Arab world arising out of religious identity and culture in a larger context, though there are other factors shaping the conflict. One could also see the conflicts on a relatively smaller scale like Chechnya, Kashmir, Mindanao, Myanmar too involve different religious identities and cultures. From an Aurobindonian perspective, these conflicts involving religion are not based on the true interpretation of religion. He would argue true religion does not lead to conflict. In that context, Sri Aurobindo differentiated between ‘religionism’ which goads actors to conflict and ‘true religion’ which often sees the larger picture and calls for peace and harmony. Religionism often sees the partial picture or partial truth, whereas true religion sees the essence of all religions and identifies with it. He elaborated in the Human Cycle, “There are two aspects of religion, true religion and religionism. True religion is spiritual religion, that which seeks to live in the spirit, in what is beyond the intellect, beyond the aesthetic and ethical and practical being of man, and to inform and govern these members of our being by the higher light and law of the spirit. Religionism, on the contrary, entrenches itself in some narrow pietistic exaltation of the lower members or lays exclusive stress on intellectual dogmas, forms and ceremonies, on some fixed and rigid moral code, on some religio-political or religio-social system” (CWSA, vol. 25, 1997, pp.  177–178). Sri Aurobindo during the Indian freedom struggle cautioned the people of India, particularly those involved in communal conflicts, that they must be aware of the core tenets of religion and stop fighting and focus on the larger goal of freedom. In fact, by looking at the religious conflicts worldwide, it will be appropriate to argue that most of the conflicts are governed by the narrow approach to religion, or what Sri Aurobindo called, religionism, rather by true religion. He aimed at providing a broader definition of religion, than a narrow interpretation of it, and in this direction, he coined the term ‘religion of humanity’  – a religion that identifies with the essence of all religions. This religion of humanity, which could be called spiritual religion, is not a narrow religion, or a particular set of practices, creed or cult, but indicative of the larger human aspiration towards unity and peace. In Sri Aurobindo’s evolutionary scheme such a religion would propel human evolution towards the higher state of human consciousness, which instead of dividing humanity gears it towards unity and harmony. In a debate about whether a state should be secular, which has recently gained ground in multicultural and diverse societies like India, Sri Aurobindo offered a very nuanced perspective. He emphasized that different religions speak truth in relative terms, and they must not be given absolute value. Here one can draw parallels between the ideas of Sri Aurobindo and Mahatma Gandhi that religions are

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pathways to God realization, and religions should be a matter of faith and practice, and the state should not have a role in it. Hence, following this principle, Sri Aurobindo would argue that it is not the business of the state to interfere with religious matters, and he would even hesitate whether a state should declare itself a secular state or not. Once the governing principle of a state is noninterference in religious affairs, then there is neither a necessity to declare a state secular state, nor does the state have the need to declare itself a religious state, giving primacy to one religion at the cost of freedom of other religions as happened in some states. One could argue that following such a vision, the founders of modern India did not deliberately include the term secular in the Constitution. The Preamble declared that India would be a ‘sovereign, democratic republic’, in which justice, liberty, equality and fraternity would be the guiding principles. Following Sri Aurobindo’s integral vision, it would be useful to see conflict in its totality. Though such a vision would not necessarily obviate various types of conflict, or conflict at various levels, such as interpersonal or intergroup or interstate, it would argue that conflicts emerge due to fundamental discord and limiting view of human society and the challenges it confronts. In the Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo made it clear that the very nature of human society is comprised of conflict. Unless this conflicting nature is transformed, conflicts will continue to occur. It would be useful to make a distinction between conflict and difference, or violence and separatedness. Differences are bound to occur in human life as every individual has their own personality and view of life, but difference does not necessarily mean violence. Similarly, separatedness does not mean conflict. From an Aurobindonian perspective, in an evolved society, poised in divine peace and higher consciousness, each separate individual will be a center of divine consciousness, and as a result there will be no scope for conflict. As long as the individual and society function from a lower consciousness, from a limiting ego and contradiction, conflict will occur. He would not outrightly reject the mechanisms such as dialogue, negotiation, arbitration or peace treaties, and not undermine their utilities in bringing conflicting parties some modicum of peace, but he would argue as long as the current state of human society is predicated on a very limiting ego and limited understanding of human potentials, the conflicts are bound to occur. He proclaimed boldly (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 218): All the difficult effort of man towards the harmonisation of self-affirmation and freedom, by which he possesses himself, with association and love, fraternity, comradeship, in which he gives himself to others, his ideals of harmonious equilibrium, justice, mutuality, equality by which he creates a balance of the two opposites, are really an attempt inevitably predetermined in its lines to solve the original problem of Nature, the very problem of Life itself, by the resolution of the conflict between the two opposites which present themselves in the very foundations of Life in Matter. The resolution is attempted by the higher principle of Mind which alone can find the road towards the harmony intended, even though the harmony itself can only be found in a Power still beyond us.

The current models and methods of ‘resolution of the conflict between the two opposites’ may provide some modicum of peace. The attempts at creating a ‘balance of the two opposites’ through various mechanisms may give temporary relief

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but not the final solution. He even argued that the current society is not yet capable of that higher consciousness, which is ‘still beyond us.’ But this could be realized through a continuous effort by the individuals and societies. Sri Aurobindo would be critical of the contemporary methods of conflict resolution, which he termed mechanical or superficial. These mechanisms such as diplomacy, which are often oriented toward finding other’s weakness and exploiting them, would contain a seed for future conflict. Compromises are bound to fail because they do not address or reconcile the fundamental differences. The wars that resulted after the signing of the treaties and agreements indicated that those treaties were based on a foundation of duplicity which could not hold peace for a longtime, and it was naturally so as a spirit of true reconciliation did not guide them. He wrote, “A compromise is a bargain, a transaction of interests between two conflicting powers; it is not a true reconciliation. True reconciliation proceeds always by a mutual comprehension leading to some sort of intimate oneness. It is therefore through the utmost possible unification of Spirit and Matter that we shall best arrive at their reconciling truth and so at some strongest foundation for a reconciling practice in the inner life of the individual and his outer existence” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 29). One could see his emphasis on both individual, social and cosmic for the realization of true peace. He emphasized the inner life of the individual as well as his outer existence, and one could enlarge this vision of the individual to the society and think in terms of inner life or spirit of the society and its outer existence. For Sri Aurobindo, while both inner and outer lives are important for a spiritual basis of peacebuilding, in order of significance the inner life is more important and it must be peaceful, and when inner life is peaceful it will automatically translate to outer or material life of the individual and society. Discords arise when there is a limited understanding of various dimensions of an issue. To put in a simple way, when a party to the conflict sees his side of the story as absolute truth and engages in action to promote or realize his side of the truth without understanding the other side of the story, conflict is bound to occur. Sri Aurobindo would exhort peacemakers to rise to see the integral or total picture, not only at a very material level, but also at a higher consciousness level, and when that is possible, there is real scope for peace. To use the analogy of an ornament, it would be like different sides of the story are pearls and stones; when they are placed in a proper order, the ornament looks beautiful. To put simply, when there is no harmony in understanding and consequently in relations among members and groups in society, there is conflict. And the reverse is also true – when there is harmony in understanding and symmetry in relations, and when all these elements are governed by a higher conscious principle, there will be no reason for conflict. Sri Aurobindo wrote (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, pp. 223–224): Where the Consciousness is divided in itself, as in Mind, limiting itself in various centres, setting each to fulfil itself without knowledge of what is in other centres and of its relation to others, aware of things and forces in their apparent division and opposition to each other but not in their real unity, such will be the Force: it will be a life like that we are and see around us; it will be a clash and intertwining of individual lives seeking each its own fulfilment without knowing its relation to others, a conflict and difficult accommodation of

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divided and opposing or differing forces and, in the mentality, a mixing, a shock and wrestle and insecure combination of divided and opposing or divergent ideas which cannot arrive at the knowledge of their necessity to each other or grasp their place as elements of that Unity behind which is expressing itself through them and in which their discords must cease.

‘Discords must cease’, Sri Aurobindo emphasized. Only then could one see the ‘Unity’ behind the division, behind the conflicting interests, behind the limiting visions which often geared towards clash and strife. Here one could also discover a relational theory of conflict resolution as Sri Aurobindo emphasized that when everyone seeks to fulfill their interest without knowing its ‘relation to others’, there ensues, what he termed, difficult accommodation and conflict. Though he did not put forward a social theory of conflict resolution, the later theories which emphasized on social relations could richly benefit from this analysis. More so, even while emphasizing social relations, Sri Aurobindo went further beyond social. Even while including it in his conflict resolution scheme, he would further emphasize moving beyond merely social to the higher or integral level of consciousness. One could understand the relativity of social construct, as each society varies in its moral, ethical and behavioral constructions, which might clash, and which indeed clashed on many occasions. Sri Aurobindo while emphasizing social relations would go beyond social construct to emphasize Unity, or the universal consciousness that transcends limited understanding, divisions of geography and society, and other human-made constructions. And such a view emerged from his integral vision, explained well by this theory of evolution. The clash and strife are the natural order of things in this process of ultimate conflict resolution. Sri Aurobindo went much deeper beyond the surface level of conflicts and argued that conflict is in the very nature of current things, visible or invisible, material or non-material. He raised this debate on conflict and peace almost to an ontological height, to the very core of existence, in which the very substance of creation at its present state is composed of conflict and chaos. And in the evolutionary scheme of things, when the creation moves from, what he calls, prephysical to physical and then to supraphysical, conflicts are bound to occur in this process, as usually it is the old which opposes the new. He would even go to the ancient language and scriptures which emphasized on the conflict between good and bad, light and darkness, good and evil. But unless that conflict is resolved, unless the human individual and society evolve to a higher plane, evolve from darkness to light, the conflict is bound to occur. So, in this seemingly eternal battle between good and evil or light and darkness, the movement of light is often hampered by the movement of darkness, and this perpetual battle continues, and anarchy ensues, until the permanent peace of light, or higher consciousness, is realized. To quote him (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, pp. 624–625): It was for a long time held by the human mind as a traditional knowledge that when we go beyond the material plane, these things are found to exist there also in worlds beyond us. There are in these planes of supraphysical experience powers and forms of vital mind and life that seem to be the prephysical foundation of the discordant, defective or perverse forms and powers of life-mind and life-force which we find in the terrestrial existence. There are forces, and subliminal experience seems to show that there are supraphysical

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The conception of conflict at a subtler level is not a treasure to any one religion or belief system, rather one could come across this interpretation of conflict almost in all major religious systems. In that sense one could argue that there is an essential unity among the major systems that the conflict we see at a surface level goes much deeper, and it needs to be addressed there at the deeper level, or what is commonly referred to in the conflict and peace studies literature, the roots of the conflict. Unless the roots of the conflict are addressed, Sri Aurobindo emphasized, trimming branches, implying addressing conflict at the material or surface level, would not help resolve the conflict completely. Here his allusion to ‘cosmic Harmony and cosmic Anarchy’ appeared appealing particularly for an understanding of conflicts at the larger international level. The major theories in international politics, particularly Realism and Liberalism, hold that the international system is anarchic and there is no 911 (the telephone number of police in some countries) at the global level, and the states in international system live in a ‘self-help’ system. This assumption is problematic because it gives a perpetual place to anarchy and discord and holds this feature as something static or unalterable. Sri Aurobindo would apply his larger cosmic and integral vision to argue that cosmic anarchy needs not be the permanent feature of society and politics and it needs to be replaced or transformed by a larger principle of harmony and peace. Though the international relations theory, Constructivism, challenged the assumption of static anarchy in international relations, its argument was based on ever-shifting ideas, identities, cultures and how they shape international politics. They, however, do not go beyond rational principle. They lack the integral approach, which brings a spiritual perspective to the core of the analysis. In that sense, Sri Aurobindo’s conflict resolution could be aptly termed spiritual conflict resolution. As the evolution of human individuals and society is inevitable, as the evolution is written in the very nature of the creation, Sri Aurobindo would make a case for the deliberate and willing participation of individuals and groups in this evolutionary process. He found a difference between the East and the West in this process. While the dominant trend in the East was to take up the process of human life and its multifarious activities as a whole and keep at center of those activities including material and religious activities a divine goal, the West moved more towards a stricter or narrow compartmentalization of activities and divided them as secular or nonsecular, material or nonmaterial, which led it to more friction and made it to, in the language of Sri Aurobindo, ‘plunge into pure materialism and secularism.’ To quote him, “Nevertheless, the principle of this great and many-sided religious and

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spiritual evolution was sound, and by taking up in itself the whole of life and of human nature, by encouraging the growth of intellect and never opposing it or putting bounds to its freedom, but rather calling it in to the aid of the spiritual seeking, it prevented the conflict or the undue predominance which in the Occident led to the restriction and drying up of the religious instinct and the plunge into pure materialism and secularism” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, pp. 905–906). The compartmentalization, more so when it is rigid, ultimately leads to an overemphasis on material aspect of life and negligence of other subtle aspects, which in itself generated the very seed of the conflict. While compartmentalization is useful for human living and the operation of life, a rigid emphasis on it at the cost of the appreciation of the larger picture often leads to conflict. While not undermining the value of separateness, autonomy, and individual distinctiveness, Sri Aurobindo would argue that even within that separateness, the essential unity of human life and vision must not be forgotten. The problem with separateness is that when it is accepted as absolute, which seems the dominant trend in the current process of human living, then discord is bound to occur. When every distinct separateness is considered an absolute, not relative, value, then the problem of clash and strife occurs as each separated entity makes a case for its assertion and fulfillment at the cost of others. One could see this happening abundantly in case of group conflicts involving identity and culture, in which each group asserts their identity aggressively even at the risk of undermining other groups’ identities or rights. This is an absolute possibility when there is the lack of that essential unity or the vision of that essential unity arising out of a spiritual understanding of life and society. Bereft of that vision, conflict is bound to occur. Rules and regulations, customs and practices, morality and ethics are here to play an intermediary role to check this unrestrained separateness and conflict arising out of the assertion of this separateness. This dualism of life, or the binary perspective on life, for example papa and punya, sin and virtue, emerges out of this fragmentary understanding of life. If one follows the rules and regulations and ethics as accepted and promoted by society, he is on the right track of life, but if one does not follow them, he is on the wrong track, hence on the path to hell and perdition. So far, one is living in this fragmented life and fragmented understanding of life, there will be conflict, and there will be the utility of rules, regulations, laws, ethics, etc. Sri Aurobindo elaborated, “In the imperfection and conflict of our members there is an effort to arrive at a right standard of conduct and to observe it; that is ethics, virtue, merit, punya, to do otherwise is sin, demerit, papa. Ethical mind declares a law of love, a law of justice, a law of truth, laws without number, difficult to observe, difficult to reconcile. But if oneness with others, oneness with truth is already the essence of the realised spiritual nature, there is no need of a law of truth or of love, – the law, the standard has to be imposed on us now because there is in our natural being an opposite force of separateness, a possibility of antagonism, a force of discord, ill-will, strife” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 1033). Laws, regulations, standards of ethics and virtue are useful tools to check conflicts to the

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minimum; without them there will be conflict and anarchy.3 The rational individual, the struggling individual, was apt enough to understand that unless there are laws, rules and regulations, and standards of ethics and morality to govern human life, there will be chaos and violence all around. Sri Aurobindo would point out this arrangement is an intermediary arrangement, and even our rational mind calls us to go beyond and explore better means than the current ones for a dawning of a peaceful individual and society. He would argue that there is such a possibility when the individual adopts an integral, spiritual, view about himself, to his life and society. Applying terms like substructure and superstructure to Aurobindonian theory of conflict resolution, it would make sense to argue that the inner unity or the spiritual unity arising out of the experience of the individual and collective lives is the substructure, upon which the external unity, the superstructure, must be established. But usually, the conflict resolution tools and models focus on external spheres, on external unity, emphasizing some kind of concord while leaving the inner core unaddressed as it was before in its conflictual state. And unless this inner core is peaceful, unless peace is the foundation of the substructure, how can a peaceful and harmonious superstructure  – the communities and societies –be established, Sri Aurobindo would ask. To quote him (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 1066): An external unity with others must always be an outward joining and association of external lives with a minor inner result; the mind and heart attach their movements to this common life and the beings whom we meet there; but the common external life remains the foundation, – the inward constructed unity, or so much of it as can persist in spite of mutual ignorance and discordant egoisms, conflict of minds, conflict of hearts, conflict of vital temperaments, conflict of interests, is a partial and insecure superstructure. The spiritual consciousness, the spiritual life reverses this principle of building; it bases its action in the collective life upon an inner experience and inclusion of others in our own being, an inner sense and reality of oneness

Without inner unity, external unity would produce a temporary result and even help promote some sort of minor inner unity, but the roots of the conflict would remain. So far we emphasize the surface structures and work on building peace there, and so far we do not address our ‘mutual ignorance and discordant egoisms, conflict of minds, conflict of hearts, conflict of vital temperaments, conflict of interests’ at a more subtle level, the superficial edifice, or the external unity, would remain shaky and fall any time. It would be like questioning the very pyramid of Abraham Maslow, as discussed earlier, that the human needs must start at a very material and physiological level before moving to higher stairs of the ladder towards subtle goals of esteem and self-actualization. Sri Aurobindo would argue that material and  The analysis of English philosopher Thomas Hobbes is useful here. Sri Aurobindo would have no problem to agree with him that a fragmented, separated, egoistic human life is ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,’ and there needs the strong hands of the Leviathan to check unrestrained appetites. But Sri Aurobindo would argue that the Leviathan cannot be a permanent solution of human strife and discord. Hobbes’s compatriot Locke adopted an optimistic portrayal of human nature, but that too was based on the acceptance of separateness as the governing principle and hoped for a solution by the very separated individuals, hence law and rules and regulations had an absolute value in his scheme of things as well. 3

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physiological needs are important, but in the order of significance, or as the foundation or substructure, the subtle, spiritual unity must be prioritized even before ordering material and physiological life of the individual and the community. In a sense, Sri Aurobindo’s needs pyramid, if one attempts to construct such a pyramid, would reverse the pyramid of Maslow, and emphasize spiritual principle as the substructure and the governing principle of human life and society. He would argue, only in such a state of ordering, when spiritual principle governs everything, there would be genuine peace and harmony. Except this, the human world would continue to suffer from conflicts and violence. Sri Aurobindo brought further the predicament – the natural order of things in the current state of human evolution  – in this inimitable style (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 1085): The principle of self and its interest is met and opposed by the principle of altruism. The State erects its godhead and demands his obedience, submission, subordination, self-­ immolation; the individual has to affirm against this exorbitant claim the rights of his ideals, his ideas, his personality, his conscience. It is evident that all this conflict of standards is a groping of the mental Ignorance of man seeking to find its way and grasping different sides of the truth but unable by its want of integrality in knowledge to harmonise them together. A unifying and harmonising knowledge can alone find the way, but that knowledge belongs to a deeper principle of our being to which oneness and integrality are native. It is only by finding that in ourselves that we can solve the problem of our existence and with it the problem of the true way of individual and communal living.

Apparently, there is conflict everywhere. There is conflict within the individual, between individuals, families and groups, and within and between states. One could directly see the modern terminologies in the conflict and peace studies literature such as interpersonal, intercommunal, intrastate and intrastate are palpable in this above quote from Sri Aurobindo. But hardly the discipline acknowledged the contribution of Sri Aurobindo. But, irrespective of that, Sri Aurobindo’s contribution to an understanding of conflict and peace, and their processes of operation, and prospects and methods of their resolution is outstanding. Lack of a clear picture and clinging to a partial picture, from which often the conflict resolvers, whether arbitrators, mediators, negotiators, and diplomats, suffer. It is a refrain in conflict resolution discourse that how could a mediator mediate a conflict or establish peace if he is not peaceful within, if he has not resolved contradictions within himself, and if he has not the complete picture of the situation before him. That knowledge, or what Sri Aurobindo would call integral knowledge, is an indispensable element of conflict resolution. Unless that happens, conflicts in multiple spheres would continue, individual ambitions and egos would pit themselves against collective ambitions and egos, and so on. All the conflicts in our current age, whether domestic violence, gun violence, hate crimes, or violence at larger spheres such as intercommunal or interracial or interreligious violence, or wars between states and international powers could well be explained in this Aurobindonian lens of conflict resolution. When integral knowledge dawns, when an appreciation and understanding of the greater reality dawns, the conflict would simply disappear, as there would be no fundamental reason for clash and violence, because in that nonviolent, and peaceful world,

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individual affirmation would not clash with collective affirmation and vice versa, as all these affirmations would be points of the greater reality, and both serve each other in that reality. To quote him further, “For the same reason there can be no conflict between self-affirmation and altruism in the gnostic life, for the self of the gnostic being is one with the self of all, – no conflict between the ideal of individualism and the collective ideal, for both are terms of a greater Reality and only in so far as either expresses the Reality or their fulfilment serves the will of the Reality, can they have a value for his spirit” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 1103). The parties to the conflict usually perceive the appearance, or the material or visible aspects of the reality as the sole reality and undermine or ignore their Brahman element. Sri Aurobindo further wrote, “For all the problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony. They arise from the perception of an unsolved discord and the instinct of an undiscovered agreement or unity. To rest content with an unsolved discord is possible for the practical and more animal part of man, but impossible for his fully awakened mind, and usually even his practical parts only escape from the general necessity either by shutting out the problem or by accepting a rough, utilitarian and unillumined compromise” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, p. 4). This could be seen as a key statement of Aurobindonian conflict resolution. He would express dissatisfaction at the current state of human society, but at the same time he remained optimistic about possible discovery of agreement and unity. Until that happens, conflicts moved by discord are bound to occur. It is possible that the current mechanisms, what Sri Aurobindo would call utilitarian mechanism, based on the superficial principles of pleasure and pain, or the greatest happiness of the greatest number, focusing on a majoritarian point of view, would help address the conflict and provide temporary relief, but they would be insufficient to provide lasting solution. And as a first step, he argued, the human society must accept the limitation it has, it must accept the limitations of current mechanisms created by the utilitarian mind, and then rise above the limited egos, and work for conflict resolution which is based on true harmony and peace. Until that limitation, or conflict, is addressed, until the higher truth is found and practiced in daily life and conduct, conflicts are bound to occur. The parties to the conflict perceive the appearance, or the material or visible aspects of the reality as the sole reality and undermine or ignore their Brahman element. Conflict, hence, ensues when the parties to an issue see only the visible aspects and forget due to ignorance, or avidya, that they also have a Brahman or divine element, and they can have the integral vision to see the complete picture. To put simply, unless the individual finds his true truth, unless he addresses the dichotomy within from a higher consciousness, the conflict is bound to occur. Sri Aurobindo would argue that neither western materialism nor eastern asceticism provides a complete answer to this problem. Both the approaches complement each other as they are not strictly opposite to each other, and they represent partial truth; hence they must be cultivated in a higher divine consciousness for the true conflict resolution to be possible. All the emphasis on material means have values, but they have limitations. Material means alone, focusing on satisfaction of material needs, would not help resolve conflict. Materialism, howsoever perfect or rounded it may be, does not provide the full picture, at best it presents a partial truth. To quote him,

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“That is why the gospel of materialism, in spite of the dazzling triumphs of physical Science, proves itself always in the end a vain and helpless creed, and that too is why physical Science itself with all its achievements, though it may accomplish comfort, can never achieve happiness and fullness of being for the human race” (CWSA, vols. 21–22, 2005, pp. 757–758). Sri Aurobindo, it must be made clear, did not negate the role of material power, or money, or other such resources, as in his integral perspective all the means, whether material or non-material, have value in resolving a conflict. In this context, Hegel’s dialectic method, which reconciles thesis and antithesis to build synthesis, which is annulment of neither thesis nor antithesis, but reconciling them in a higher truth in the march of Idea is relevant. Though Hegel would not use the terms of conflict resolution, this reconciliation of opposites would be useful to understand Sri Aurobindo’s conflict resolution theory. The fundamental difference between the two philosophers, however, will be whereas for Hegel, it is the rational principle which is the supreme governing principle in the dialectic method, for Sri Aurobindo spiritual principle is the supreme governing principle. In light of the above discussion, I attempt here a broad typology of conflict resolution and elaborate where Aurobindonian conflict resolution theory fits in. I elaborate on mainly three types of conflict resolution: material, moral, and spiritual, while admitting that they are interlinked, and they cannot be simply put into watertight compartments. After all they all deal with human issues, and human being is a social creature, hence it is interlinked and interconnected aspects of conflict resolution I am focusing, while highlighting each type’s dominant focus. I also admit that one can explore more typologies beyond these three. Material conflict resolution implies those approaches that dominantly focus on material or visible aspects. For example, applying this approach one would argue an individual is entering into a conflictual relationship with another individual because they fight over some material resources such as land or money or some other material elements. Though a material approach will not completely undermine other aspects such as psychological, its dominant focus will be on the material aspects of the conflict and then exploring pathways to address those aspects of the conflict. The metaphor of pie and slicing the pie appropriately describes this approach, in which the pie should be sliced in such a way so that each party is happy or at least not engaged in conflict. Another key aspect will be, famously used in negotiation, BATNA, or Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement, which adopts a more nuanced approach and exhorts parties to purse a path beyond legal path and resolve conflicts through negotiation. This approach was a feature of the well-known book, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving in, by Roger Fisher and William Ury (Fisher and Ury 1981). The key argument of this pamphlet is how to secure maximum gains through negotiation. Though such an approach uses psychological bargains, perceptions, and explores options for mutual gain, the goal is how to have a maximum share of the pie in a particular given situation. While the material conflict resolution focuses on material aspects of the conflict, the moral conflict resolution focuses on moral dimensions of the conflict, and appeals to the moral sentiments of the people, particularly the inner feeling of right

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and wrong. Hence, this approach does not give too much emphasis on visible or material aspects of the conflict. Though these aspects play a role in this conflict analysis, the major focus is on morality or moral principles. Mahatma Gandhi is a proponent of this approach. He believed and acted upon this belief that certain universal moral principles exist, and a conflict resolution process must take nonviolence, a universal moral principle, at its maximum value. Gandhi’s moral approach influenced generations of leaders across the world. Martin Luther King, Jr. was influenced by Gandhi, and famously said, “In a real sense, Mahatma Gandhi embodied in his life certain universal principles that are inherent in the moral structure of the universe, and these principles are as inescapable as the law of gravitation” (quoted in Mahapatra and Pathak 2018, p.  5). Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama and other leaders across the world were influenced by this moral approach. One could also call this approach moral-psychological approach, as it appealed to the individual psychology to accept these universal moral principles in daily life and conduct. This approach adopts a saner view of human nature, that human beings are essentially good and are moved by the traits of goodwill, mutual assistance, and preservation. Further, individuals could be trained in moral principles such as nonviolence to fight against an unjust cause. Gandhi, in following this spirit, exhorted his followers to fight the evil, not evil doers, as he believed that every individual is essentially good-natured, and the goal is to fight the evil within the individual, not the individual himself. While this approach has a great utility, and it proved successful in many contexts, the problem with this approach is that it gives an absolute value to moral principles. It did not take into account the contextual nature of morality. What appears moral in one context, may not appear moral in another context. And, also, the canons of morality change from age to age, and from location to location. Even if one accords absolute value to moral principles, it needs exploration whether moral principles must be followed in every context, or are there higher principles than moral principles which need to be followed? Where do the laws, rules and regulations fit into this moral approach? Another problem is that it is difficult to have a perfect definition of moral principles like nonviolence (for example how much nonviolence is nonviolence, or how much violence should be tolerated), and it often enters into a definitional quandary. But without undermining the great significance of this moral approach to conflict resolution, I point out here that Sri Aurobindo’s approach to conflict resolution is not confined to this moral approach as it goes beyond this approach. The spiritual approach to conflict resolution is integral in its outlook. This approach would take, to use a mathematical term, a 360-degree view of the situation and summon all tools and methods to resolve a conflict. In this approach, material or visible dimensions, morality, ethics, rules, laws and regulations, play a role in addressing the conflict, but the fundamental guiding principle in resolving the conflict would be none of these, but the spiritual principle. This approach would certainly go to the very root of the conflict, and identify the core issues, and bring upon the root a very spiritual outlook. It would combine all the tools available, as all these different tools have utilities to address a conflict. And even if all these tools by themselves have the potential to resolve conflict, even if partially,

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to root out the conflict stock and barrel it is necessary that a larger vision dawns on the parties. All the parties to the conflict realize and work in this direction as if they are marching together in this human evolution process, in which conflict is an evitable part, and rise collectively to a higher consciousness in which the conflict will automatically wither way. When all the parties to the conflict realize that they are part of the same creation, same divine or ultimate reality, and same evolutionary process, when all the parties realize that they are part of this transitional journey towards higher realms of consciousness, the scope of the conflict or the ground of the conflict automatically vanishes. When there is an identity of all the parties in the conflict to the goal of peace and harmony, and when all the parties realize that they must play a role in the conflict resolution, the conflict will transform into peace. It must be emphasized that a spiritual approach is not a moral approach, which puts an absolute premium on moral principles. A spiritual approach necessarily transcends or goes beyond moral approach. In this approach, it is the supreme unifying principle or the Ultimate Reality that shows the path towards conflict resolution, and in this path, it is not necessary that nonviolence, in the conventional sense or a physical sense, must be followed in this course of conflict resolution. Following this approach, it would not be inappropriate to call Mahabharata a text in conflict and peace studies. At one place the epic proclaims, ‘Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah, Dharma himsa tathaiva cha’. It means, ‘nonviolence is the supreme virtue, but violence can be pursued if it is necessary to protect Dharma.’ Here, Dharma has a larger meaning than virtue, it broadly implies that in the process of human evolution, Nature may take recourse to any means to forward the evolution process. The terms violence and nonviolence must not be taken in a very literal sense here, as they have larger implications. While violence does not simply imply the killing of people, similarly nonviolence does not simply mean not to take up arms. During the freedom struggle of India, Sri Aurobindo justified violence and called upon the Indians to take arms against the British. He was harsh in his criticism of the moderate policy of the Indian National Congress. At the height of the partition struggle, he wrote in Bande Mataram, the newsweekly which he edited, in 1906, “Meanwhile the country loses the inspiration of great ideals, the exaltation of frank and glorious conflict, the divine impulse that only comes to those who know they are battling bravely and openly for the freedom of their country, not to men who cringe to the enemy and lie and palter with their consciences” (CWSA, vols. 6–7, 2002, pp.  114–115). Further, he wrote the same year, in a reference to the Congress policy of moderation, “To flaunt its moderation and reasonableness before approving English eyes, to avoid giving offence to British sentiments, to do nothing that would provoke a real conflict, this was its chief preoccupation” (CWSA, vols. 6–7, 2002, p. 126). For Sri Aurobindo, in the larger spiritual goal of human evolution, violence and nonviolence are relative terms, and it would be apt to take either means if it justifies the goal of evolution.

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3 An Integral Perspective on Indian Freedom Struggle and Select International Developments While Sri Aurobindo’s philosophical expositions on conflict and peace could be found in his masterpiece the Life Divine, Ideal of Human Unity, and other writings he mostly completed in the second decade of the twentieth century, his reflections on conflict and peace were less philosophical, but sharp and focused on application, in his writings in Bande Mataram, which he edited while actively leading Indian freedom struggle in the first decade of the twentieth century. As a leader of the people his task was to lead the masses against the British rule, and as a leader he preferred the method of active agitation to the policy of moderation and prayer as followed by the Indian National Congress, the political party leading the Indian freedom struggle. Mahatma Gandhi was not in the picture in Indian politics those days as he was leading the struggle in South Africa. In the pages of Bande Mataram, Sri Aurobindo articulated four methods  – Swaraj (self-rule), Swadeshi (self-­ reliance), boycott, and national education  – to fight against the British rule. According to Taraknath Das, “Sri Aurobindo played an important part in formulating that Swaraj (self-rule or independence) will be the goal and this must be attained by national efforts of constructive activities of development of national industries and, at the same time, special emphasis was to be put in furthering national education, in which Indian national culture must be given proper recognition, and Indian history must be interpreted in the proper perspective of Indian national aspirations. It was through the efforts of Indian revolutionists under the leadership of Aurobindo that the programme of Swaraj, Swadeshi and National Education became accepted by the nation” (Das 1960, p. 327). As referred in the introduction chapter, Jawaharlal Nehru acknowledged the role of Sri Aurobindo in laying the foundation of the mass based Indian freedom struggle, led by Gandhi in later years. Sri Aurobindo was one of the first leaders to demand complete independence or poorna swaraj from the British rule, in opposition to the moderate Congress demand for dominion status, which was predicated on a belief in British fair play and a process of slow change in the administration to make room for Indians in the system of governance. He criticized such a policy in the strongest terms (CWSA, vols. 6–7, 2002, pp. 249–250): Surrender your life, your liberty, your birth-rights to the English nation, go on ministering to their comforts and pleasures and you are credited with common sense, prudence, intelligence and all other mental equipments. But if you think of making any strides in the direction of manhood – if you take it into your head to hold your own in the conflict of interests – if you show the least sign of walking with your head erect you are damned wretches fit for the jail gallows because it has been settled once for all in the wise dispensations of Providence, that you are to sow and they are to reap, that you are to buy and they are to sell, that you are to be killed and they are to kill, that you are to be deprived of arms while they are to be in their full possession, that you will use arms for nefarious purposes, while they will wield them to defend themselves. What else can these ridiculous effusions of the Calcutta Englishman mean?

One could decipher two major reasons why Sri Aurobindo wanted India to be free from colonialism as swiftly as possible, and why he was willing to pay any cost for

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complete freedom from the colonial shackles. The first reason was general, based on a principled position that colonialism itself is evil, as it is based on the exploitation of the colonies by the ruling countries. The exploitation of the colonies was not only economic but also political, psychological and cultural. In his five dreams issued just after India’s independence, he articulated that the struggle which he led in the early decade of the twentieth century was not just meant for India’s freedom, but also for freedom of oppressed nations all over the world. The second reason was more important as he believed that a free India with its rich heritage could play a role in providing spiritual wisdom to all the countries of the world. In another word, he believed, India could emerge as the spiritual guru of the world. As articulated in his fourth dream, “India’s spirituality is entering Europe and America in an ever-­ increasing measure. That movement will grow; amid the disasters of the time more and more eyes are turning towards her with hope and there is even an increasing resort not only to her teachings, but to her psychic and spiritual practice” (CWSA, vol. 36, 2006, p. 480). The fifth dream brings to the culmination of all the previous four dreams, and which could be considered a key code for Aurobindonian conflict resolution as it envisaged spiritual evolution of mankind. Here he developed an integral vision in which – whether it was freedom of India, or freedom of colonial nations, or India’s role in promoting spiritual wisdom in the world – all fit together in his scheme of evolution. Mahadevan articulated this integral view in these words, “Though he (Sri Aurobindo) started his public life as a patriot, his patriotism was of a unique kind. It was no narrow nationalism that moved him as a pioneer in the movement for India’s freedom. His conception of the motherland was not that of a geographical component of the globe ‘spotted with hills and lines with rivers and shaded with plains.’ His vision of India was that of a spiritual heritage whose powers had to be liberated for the lasting benefit of the whole of mankind” (Mahadevan 1960, p. 299). Also, India as an ancient civilization, and as the confluence of cultures from all over the world, as a pluralistic society, was a field of experimentation and resolution of conflicts. If India could resolve problems within it, it could serve as a guide to other countries in resolving their problems, such a view undergirded the Aurobindonian vision. Hence, in this scheme of evolution, India’s freedom was a powerful, even if intermediary, goal for Sri Aurobindo. When he forwarded an uncompromising vision of India’s freedom and advocated any method to realize the goal, he earned rebuke from some of the senior leaders in Indian National Congress. Gopal Krishna Gokhale termed Sri Aurobindo’s idea of complete independence and his methods to realize that goal as a vision of a lunatic: “only mad men outside lunatic asylums could think or talk of independence” (quoted in Heehs 2008, p. 191). Despite the criticisms, Sri Aurobindo remained uncompromising in his demand for complete independence of India. He wrote, “True national unity is the unity of self-dedication to the country when the liberty and greatness of our motherland is the paramount consideration to which all others must be subordinated. In India at the present hour there are three conflicting ideals; one party sets the maintenance of British supremacy above all other considerations; another would maintain that supremacy in a modified form; a third aspires to make India a free and autonomous nation,

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connected with England, if it may be, but not dependent on her” (CWSA, vols. 6–7, 2002, p.  722). He pointed out that there were three conflicting ideals before the Indians about the future of India. The first one was the colonial rule was beneficial to India, and this view was best captured by the phrase ‘white man’s burden’ and articulated by colonial administrators like T. B. Macaulay. It simply meant, colonialism was good for India, and India should remain under colonial yoke as long as the colonial masters wanted. The second view was closely related to the view of the moderate leaders of the Indian National Congress, particularly those who wanted a dominion status. These leaders believed in the British sense of fair play and justice and thought at a appropriate time Britain would grant autonomy while retaining some control. The third view, subscribed and promoted by Sri Aurobindo, was complete independence. While he believed that an awakening of the Indian masses could galvanize the moment for freedom, the moderate leaders believed that India was not yet prepared for such an action. While Sri Aurobindo was uncompromising in his stance on the complete independence of India, he was aware of the challenges that such a stance could confront. As he advocated the method of boycotting British goods, he juggled with the issue of violence that such a method entailed. He offered a broad definition of violence and argued, if boycott was called violence, then the law which at first generated the condition for boycott was itself violent as it suppressed the very rights of the people for freedom. Here Sri Aurobindo enlarged the definition and scope of violence, instead of confining it to mere physical realms, such as physical injury or killing. As he confronted the argument that boycott is immoral as it hurts the people, he wrote a column in Bande Mataram under the title, ‘the morality of boycott’, and argued (CWSA, vols. 6–7, 2002, p. 1120): Another question is the use of violence in the furtherance of boycott. This is, in our view, purely a matter of policy and expediency. An act of violence brings us into conflict with the law and such a conflict may be inexpedient for a race circumstanced like ours. But the moral question does not arise. The argument that to use violence is to interfere with personal liberty involves a singular misunderstanding of the very nature of politics. The whole of politics is an interference with personal liberty. Law is such an interference, Protection is such an interference, the rule which makes the will of the majority prevail is such an interference. The right to prevent such use of personal liberty as will injure the interests of the race, is the fundamental law of society. From this point of view the nation is only using its primary right when it restrains the individual from buying or selling foreign goods.

Here Sri Aurobindo reflected on the issues of violence and nonviolence, morality and immorality. He was aware that the Indians fighting for freedom struggle were weak in front of the British military might. But that weakness, he argued, did not take away the right of Indians to fight the British rule through other means like boycotting British goods and disobeying laws. Here, the question of morality did not arise, as Indians had every right to adopt any means for complete independence. It was more an issue of expediency, and more than a question of interfering with personal liberty as boycott involved stopping people from availing British goods. As the British rule imposed much more injustice than boycott could have brought, it was the ‘primary right’ of Indians to fight against the British rule through any

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available methods, regarding which boycott could be the best available method. He reasoned that as the people had no real control over the government, they were justified to use the boycott, and boycott was preferable to violence as a matter of strategy. He articulated in 1909, “We have no means to make the pressure of the people felt upon the Government. The only means which we have discovered, the only means which we can use without bringing on a violent conflict, without leading to breaches of the law on both sides and bringing things to the arbitrament of physical force, have been the means which we call passive resistance and specially the means of the boycott” (CWSA, vol. 8, 1997, p. 45). Hence, for him, passive resistance was the only method to fight against the British rule. Here, one could see Sri Aurobindo as a strategist. Realizing that an active violent struggle for freedom would not be successful as it would be easily crushed by the British might, he argued that the boycott would be a better alternative to active violence. Following that logic, he argued, “…we must say that the boycott must remain a settled fact because we are allowed no real control over the Government” (CWSA, vol. 8, 1997, p. 45). Sri Aurobindo developed almost an ontological argument for the freedom of India, as if it was not just a fight for a political freedom or self-rule, but for a larger purpose. India must rise, he exhorted his followers, above ‘clash of conflicting egoisms’. Such a clash would defeat the very purpose of the freedom struggle, which was not only freedom of India, but also a crucial step in the march of evolution. In that sense, the struggle for the freedom of India was not only an outer or physical conflict, but also an inner struggle and clash. He demanded from his followers to transcend their limiting egos, and work for the nation in the spirit of complete dedication. The Gita’s concept of nimitta (instrument, or divine instrument) is useful here and illuminates our understanding of the demand of complete dedication for the cause of freedom. This idea of nimitta was a well-known Indian spiritual concept, and it was also applied earlier in the case of the famed epic Mahabharata in which Arjuna emerged as a nimitta. The famous novel of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Anand Math, conceptualized a monastic order in the deep of the forest, in which the participants renounced everything including family and marriage life and completely dedicated themselves to the cause of freedom. The famous slogan, Bande Mataram, and which was also the name of the weekly Sri Aurobindo edited, came from this novel. The main plot in the novel ran thus: a saint, Satyananda, was developing a rigorous monastic order and training his disciples in warfare and strategy to fight for freedom. The two major disciples, Jivananda and Bhavananda often struggled with their desires including sexual desire and tried to conquer them as demanded by their higher duty to fight for the freedom. One could see the influence of such an ideal on Sri Aurobindo. In one of his writings in Bande Mataram, he articulated this dedication and demanded it from his followers (CWSA, vols. 6–7, 2002, p. 972): If the work is to be well done, each man must recognize his proper work and do it. The clash of conflicting egoisms, the desire to monopolise, the pride of success must disappear from our midst and be replaced by our intense self-effacement, an enthusiasm of sacrifice, an exalted conception of the high Power at work and the constant sense that we are only His instruments. It is for this reason that we have recently laid stress on this great truth; no

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advance can be made, no mighty success obtained unless we are able to perceive the divinity of the movement, realise the necessity of subordinating ourselves, overcome the tendency to break into cliques and cabals and apportion to each his allotted portion in the one united work.

He was critical of those approaches on Indian freedom struggle which defined it as merely a struggle between indigenous labor and foreign capital, as such an approach ignored political and other dimensions of the conflict. One must take an integral approach to the understanding of the conflict and its various roots, he argued. Observing the chaos in the Indian society at the beginning of the early twentieth century, he wrote, “Society is full of anomalies which clash and jostle together in an inextricable chaos of progress and reaction…”, and further, “Great issues of economics wear the guise of a political conflict; immense political aspirations become mixed up with a purely industrial struggle between indigenous labour and foreign capital” (CWSA, vols. 6–7, 2002, p.  903). Such an argument emerged from Sri Aurobindo’s integral outlook on conflict resolution, whether about the origin or roots of the conflict, or about its processes, or its resolution. He argued that the spiritual evolution of humankind is inevitable, and all the developments in individual and collective life play a role, in whatever ways, in the process of evolution. In that process the conflicts too have a role to play, but nothing including the conflicts can stop that evolution. One could easily see the biological evolution of species but not the spiritual evolution, but Sri Aurobindo argued that spiritual evolution, the evolution beyond physical body but involving the physical body or matter is also taking place and it is inevitable. He wrote, “And it was a law of the psychology of men and nations that the Brahman once awakened within must manifest itself without and nothing could eventually prevent that manifestation” (CWSA, vol. 8, 1997, p. 16). Sri Aurobindo’s speech at Khulna in 1909 presented well his perspective on integral yoga and conflict resolution, and how both were connected in his evolutionary perspective on conflict and peace. One could also observe that he started using the language of yoga and spirituality after his yogic practices and realizations during jail time in Alipore. His speech at Uttarpara, after his release from the jail, was an ample testament to his yogic realizations. At Khulna, he made it clear that in the spiritual evolution, each element must perform their task as per their Swadharma, the rightful appointed place, and each one must work as per the demand of that place. He brought to the audience the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna. Addressing the despondency of Arjuna, Krishna said (CWSA, vol. 8, 1997, p. 50): The virtue of Brahmins is a great virtue. You shall not kill. This is what ahinsa means. If the virtue of ahinsa comes to the Kshatriya, if you say I will not kill, there is no one to protect the country. The happiness of the people will be broken down. Injustice and lawlessness will reign. The virtue becomes a source of misery, and you become instrumental in bringing misery and conflict to the people. Your duty to your family seems to conflict with your duty to society, that of society to the nation, and that of the nation to mankind. How shall we follow the path which leads to salvation? It is difficult to say what is right and what is wrong. How to decide it then? There is one way: do action in yoga, and then you rise above ignorance, and sin cannot touch you, and you rise above all that hampers you and binds you.

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One of the apt interpretations of this dialogue is  – when one becomes a divine instrument, nimitta, and acts out from the divine consciousness by being aware of his station and the work that station demands, there will be no conflict. Arjuna’s station demanded that he must fight, and he must fight. Sri Aurobindo brought here the larger question of right and wrong, and admitted the critical nature of this dilemma of identifying what is right and what is wrong, the dilemma from which Arjuna suffered. But as Krishna pointed out that when Arjuna performs his duty, as commanded by his station in society, which was to fight and protect the people, he must fight otherwise he would be responsible for bringing ‘misery and conflict to the people’. Here, which might appear paradoxical, the conventional virtue – not fighting and killing – ‘becomes a source of misery’, as withdrawal from fighting would create more chaos, conflict, and destruction. Here, one could see a clear departure of Aurobindonian conflict resolution from Gandhian conflict resolution. For Gandhi, nonviolence is an absolute value, for Sri Aurobindo it is the higher consciousness, or in this case of Gita, Krishna, or the divine, would decide what is right and wrong, and Arjuna must be a divine instrument to do his work in best possible way. Sri Aurobindo, however, in later years envisioned that India’s freedom would be realized through the method of nonviolence, and it was certain as ‘the rising of the sun tomorrow.’ His associate, A. B. Purani, wrote, “Though he approved of revolutionary activity as a right of the suppressed nation, his mind turned away from it from 1914: for, he knew that India would be free without violence. He told this to me in December 1918, when Indian freedom was not visible even on the distant political horizon: ‘You can take it from me it is as certain as the rising of the sun tomorrow’” (Purani 1960, p. 336). In the speech at Khulna, mentioned above, Sri Aurobindo raised the question, as if he were not only asking the audience but also himself, ‘What is yoga?’, and replied, “When we think of yoga, we think of a man who shuts himself up in a cave and subjects himself to certain practices. He frees himself from all bondage. But Srikrishna uses yoga in a different sense. He says: Do action in yoga” (CWSA, vol. 8, 1997, p. 50). He rejected the narrow notion of yoga as renunciation and austere penance in a forest cave. For him, yoga is participation in action. This gave rise to the famous motto, considered the core of his yoga and philosophy, “All life is Yoga.” I have elaborated various components of this motto in a previous chapter. Here it would be sufficient to argue that Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga and conflict resolution complement each other, and it would not be an exaggeration to argue that from an Aurobindonian perspective only an integral yogi can truly take part in conflict resolution. Such an individual would act from within and have that integral knowledge as he would be stationed in a higher, divine, consciousness. Sri Aurobindo in his early career focused on Indian freedom struggle, but later turned his attention to many other issues beyond India. Even after he moved to Pondicherry and engaged in philosophy and yoga, he never lost sight of politics. Though he did not lead the Indian masses from the front, he kept meeting the Indian leaders, corresponded with them, and reflected in his writings on the issues of national and international politics, including conflicts within and outside India. While corroborating this view, D.  Mackenzie Brown wrote, “Sri Aurobindo’s

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retirement from public life did not end his contributions to India’s recent development. He continued to write and to attract followers from India and abroad, many of whom saw in him a prophet of the new age of man in which East and West would be joined in a common understanding. Although he remained generally silent on common affairs, he made statements during the Second World War in the regard to the German threat to Asia and Cripps’ Mission proposals, and later, on such problems as linguistic provinces under the new Indian Constitution” (Brown 1968, p. 123). As Aurobindonian logic demanded not an idle life, or a life of renunciation or austere Sannyasi, he kept himself engaged in various activities. Most of his important writings came out in the second decade of the twentieth century, serialized in the magazine Arya he edited. As I elaborated in the chapter on Ideal of Human Unity, his reflections on the developments in the international politics including the developments and aftermath of the First World War and the League of Nations, and the Second World War were indeed penetrating and powerful. His observations on some of the protracted global conflicts, which emerged during his time, are relevant today. It would be useful to analyze his reflections on some of those conflicts in the last years of his life, and how they offer useful lenses to analyze global conflicts, including the conflict in Ukraine, which has generated speculations about a New Cold War and even a Third World War. Contrary to some of his contemporary leaders, Sri Aurobindo and his collaborator, the Mother,  supported the Allied Powers during the Second World War, and donated to the war efforts. Though his distaste for British imperialism was well known, and he opposed it tooth and nail and even went to jail for that and earned the title “the most dangerous man” from the British government, it did not come as a surprise that he supported the Allied Powers during the war. While admitting that the war was mainly between two types of imperialism, he thought the rise of Nazi ideology was more dangerous to human civilization than British imperialism. He actively followed the developments during the Second World War and kept an avid eye as to the developments during the war. He was aware of the atrocities, including genocides, committed by Hitler. For him, both British imperialism and Nazism represented evils, but in comparison, Nazism was a greater threat to humanity than British imperialism. He wrote (CWSA, vol. 36, 2006, p. 455): The struggle that is going on is not fundamentally a conflict between two imperialisms – German and English, – one attacking, the other defending itself. That is only an outward aspect, and not the whole even of the outward aspect. For the Germans and Italians believe that they are establishing a new civilisation and a new world-order. The English believe that they are defending not only their empire but their very existence as a free nation and the freedom also of other nations conquered by Germany or threatened by the push to empire of the Axis powers; they have made it a condition for making peace that the nations conquered shall be liberated and the others guaranteed against farther aggression. They believe also that they are standing up for the principles of civilisation which a Nazi victory would destroy. These beliefs have to be taken into consideration in assessing the significance of the struggle.

The last sentence of the above quote made it much clear which side Sri Aurobindo would take during the War. Brought up in England, and well versed in English

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history and culture, he could well have thought that a British, and Allied, victory in the war would result in a possible better relationship between India and Britain, and consequently the freedom of India. It is a different matter, as the subject and scope of the current research do not allow to elaborate, that he recommended the Indian National Congress to accept the British proposals such as Cripps Mission in 1942 as those plans envisaged a united India. He believed to the last moment that a united India must be the result of freedom, not a partitioned India. There was not much study on how Sri Aurobindo’s perspective on conflict resolution and its practice could have addressed the differences between the Indian National Congress and All India Muslim League that led the Pakistan movement, but he believed that a united India must be the result of freedom. And his support to the British during the Second World War was partly moved by this desire that the British would leave India after the war, and the other major reason was that he foresaw that a Nazi victory in the war would prove a doom to human civilization. About Hindu-Muslim problem, Sri Aurobindo in the very beginning of his political career opposed the British policy of divide and rule, such as the partition of Bengal in 1905, and the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909 which created communal electorate, envisioning Hindus and Muslims are separate electorates. He also opposed the policy of appeasement by the Indian National Congress. While opposed to appeasement, he also opposed the ideas of organizations, which wanted to promote an exclusivist solution to the Hindu-Muslim problem.4 For Sri Aurobindo, Hindu-Muslim conflict was much deeper, and he offered this resolution to the conflict (CWSA, vol. 8, 1997, p. 31): Of one thing we may be certain, that Hindu-Mahomedan unity cannot be effected by political adjustments or Congress flatteries. It must be sought deeper down, in the heart and in the mind, for where the causes of disunion are, there the remedies must be sought. We shall do well in trying to solve the problem to remember that misunderstanding is the most fruitful cause of our differences, that love compels love and that strength conciliates the strong. We must try to remove the causes of misunderstanding by a better mutual knowledge and sympathy; we must extend the unfaltering love of the patriot to our Musalman brother, remembering always that in him too Narayana dwells and to him too our Mother has given a permanent place in her bosom; but we must cease to approach him falsely or flatter out of a selfish weakness and cowardice. We believe this to be the only practical way of dealing with the difficulty. As a political question the Hindu-Mahomedan problem does not interest us at all, as a national problem it is of supreme importance.

This solution to the conflict was inspired by his integral outlook. He emphasized ‘better mutual knowledge and sympathy, and ‘unfaltering love of the patriot to our Musalman brother.’ This sympathy and love must not come from ‘selfish weakness and cowardice’, which could be translated in a democratic political context, vote bank politics and appeasement. Hindu-Muslim question did not interest him as a political question, but as a question of national unity and solidarity it remained crucial for him. He appreciated the multiethnic and pluralistic character of the Indian

 Mangesh Nadkarni brings into discussion all these different perspectives on Sri Aurobindo’s vision of Hindu-Muslim unity in Nadkarni (2010). 4

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nation and argued that only in a national arrangement in which each community enjoys freedom and contributes to the national goal of unity and development, could a vibrant Indian nation emerge. He articulated his vision this way (CWSA, vols. 6–7, 2002, p. 169): The Mahomedan, the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Christian in India will not have to cease to be Mahomedan, Hindu, Buddhist, or Christian, in any sense of the term, for uniting into one great and puissant Indian Nation. Devotion to one’s own ideals and institutions, with tolerance and respect for the ideals and institutions of other sections of the community, and an ardent love and affection for the common civic life and ideal of all, – these are what must be cultivated by us now, for the building up of the real Indian Nation.

Besides focusing on issues within India, Sri Aurobindo also made pertinent observations on international issues of his time. On the Korean crisis, which gained momentum after the Second World War, and emerged as a major sore point between the reigning political ideologies of capitalism and communism, he made his choice very clear. Though he supported the Allied Powers during the Second World War as an expedient move, he did not support communism as a political ideological principle. As Korean crisis gained momentum, and the superpowers, the US and the Soviet Union, supported the Koreas from the South and the North, and divided it into two parts, Sri Aurobindo made a very pertinent comment that the conflict might fester and there was a possibility that it would engulf the whole world along ideological lines. He also doubted whether the US under the leadership of Harry Truman would undertake adequate measures to contain the crisis and check the onslaught of communism. He wrote in 1950, the year he passed away (CWSA, vol. 36, 2006, p. 507): There is nothing to hesitate about there, the whole affair is as plain as a “pikestaff”. It is the first move in the Communist plan of campaign to dominate and take possession first of these northern parts and then of South East Asia as a preliminary to their manoeuvres with regard to the rest of the continent – in passing, Tibet as a gate opening to India. If they succeed, there is no reason why domination of the whole world should not follow by steps until they are ready to deal with America. That is provided the war can be staved off with America until Stalin can choose his time. Truman seems to have understood the situation if we can judge from his moves in Korea; but it is to be seen whether he is strong enough and determined enough to carry the matter through. The measures he has taken are likely to be incomplete and unsuccessful, since they do not include any actual military intervention except on sea and in the air.

A more decisive military action by President Truman could have stopped the onslaught of communism and resulted in a united Korea, but ambivalence of Truman, and his hesitation to use stronger military force led to a situation of conflict which is festering until today. With nuclear capabilities, North Korea emerged as a larger threat now than it was then, and posed a threat to its neighbors Japan and South Korea. It emerged as a puppet of another major power, China. Sri Aurobindo was perceptive to recommend a stronger measure which could have resolved the conflict and stopped the march of communism to other parts of the world. Though communism as a state ideology lasted more than four decades after the end of the Second World War, and with the end of the Soviet Union, the ideology lost its momentum in 1991, North Korea continued to remain a threat to international peace.

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In 1963, after about a year of India-China war, the Indian diplomat Sudhir Ghosh showed US President J. F. Kennedy, the writing from Sri Aurobindo in which he had cautioned the rising threat of China to its neighbors. After reading it several times, Kennedy quipped, “Surely there is a typing mistake here. The date must have been 1960, not 1950. You mean to say that a man devoted to meditation and contemplation, sitting in one corner of India, said this about the intentions of Communist China as early as 1950?” (quoted in Heehs 2008, p. 402). Sri Aurobindo cautioned about China in 1950, when India under the leadership of Nehru was leading a policy of friendship with its neighbor. India and China signed five principles of peaceful coexistence in 1954. But an examination of the later course of India-China relations revealed how Sri Aurobindo was far more perceptive in assessing the role of China and its ambitions in South Asia. Despite signing five principles of coexistence, which emphasized territorial integrity and sovereignty and resolution of conflicts through peaceful means and dialogue, China attacked India in 1962, proving Sri Aurobindo’s prediction true. Nehru had hoped that the war would never occur between the two neighbors, and in pursuance of the friendly policy, he favored the Chinese stance on Tibet. The conflict between the countries continues, and the recent border clashes and killings not only testify to the protracted nature of the conflict but also demonstrate the significance of the perceptive observation of Sri Aurobindo made more than 70 years ago.

4 Conclusion Sri Aurobindo’s conflict resolution is essentially an integral, or spiritual, approach to conflict and peace, and in this approach, conflict is neither good nor bad, but an inevitable part of human life. Until the fundamental discord and disharmony in the very fabric of individual and collective natures are addressed, the conflicts are bound to occur. Certainly, in this approach of conflict resolution, all the conflicts are not necessarily same, as they differ in their scope, level, and impact, hence from that point of view one conflict is different from another, but from the integral perspective the roots of the conflict could be traced to fundamental discord and disharmony generated by the limiting ego, whether it is the individual ego or national ego. One needs to adopt that larger perspective to conflict and peace, and that perspective must dawn first within the individual and their groups, which would then reflect in their outward behavior. In that context, Sri Aurobindo would oppose cosmetic or ad hoc methods that just attempt to manage or stop violence or attempts that provide economic packages or largesse and avoid the deep roots of the conflict. Such approaches, varyingly used by the states and organizations, would falter, or at best they would checkmate violence for some time, but ultimately it would amount to what Johan Galtung called negative peace, because there would be peace, but that peace would be imposed by force or mechanical means. Unless the root of the conflict is addressed in the evolutionary spiritual light, the conflict would occur, whether at a small scale or a large scale, whether at the level of the individual or the

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collective bodies. Sri Aurobindo would argue that marginalization and exploitation of one group by another group, or the earlier forms of conflicts such as colonialism and imperialism, and wars both intrastate and interstate could be traced to the fundamental discord and disharmony. One could add to this litany of conflicts not only conflicts between individuals and groups, but also conflicts at larger scales involving natural resources and environment. Sri Aurobindo’s approach to conflict resolution would have parallels to the approach in the Gita. He used to refer to the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, and how Krishna addressed the despondency of Arjuna, who was moved earlier by the limiting ego and ignorance of the integral picture. It was Arjuna who, influenced by his limiting ego, thought of himself as the doer of action, but Krishna pointed out to him that that approach is often limiting and constraining, and only when he becomes a conscious, deliberate, and active participant in the evolutionary process, or in the language of the Gita, when he becomes an instrument of the divine, or nimitta, he could rightfully perform duty his swadharma demanded. He would then act from a higher consciousness, in which there would be no despondency or confusion in his mind, as he would be acting as an instrument of the divine, and here the divine would be the doer and Arjuna the instrument. Sri Aurobindo after coming out of the jail, in which he had the vision of Krishna, edited a new journal, Karmayogin (literally meaning a yogi who does work, or an individual who practices Karmayoga, meaning yoga of action), which was apparently influenced by his realization of Krishna in the jail. One could well ask how far such an approach, which might sound to some researchers mystical or out-of-the-box thinking not generally theorized, could be put to practice. Sri Aurobindo would respond that one needs not necessarily follow the dictum of Gita as such, as such great messages for selfless action, or action in a divine consciousness could be found in all great traditions. Applying this logic, an individual practicing any religion, or practicing no religion, would understand the significance of this argument – that one must rise above limiting ego, transcend the tunnel vision, and have an integral picture of the situation before addressing the conflict. And Sri Aurobindo would argue such an action, or such a situation is possible, only when the individual and groups of the individuals first admit the limiting nature of the available conflict resolution tools, and rise above it, and adopt an integral approach to resolve conflicts at multiple levels. Sri Aurobindo would have no problem admitting the available means – mechanical or ad hoc or material or moral or psychological  – to resolve conflicts in the contemporary world. He would even perhaps grant some validity to utilitarian mechanisms, focusing on surface issues and priming the factors of pleasure and pain, to address the conflict. But even while admitting these means of conflict resolution, he would argue that these methods do not provide lasting solutions to the problems afflicting human beings and civilization. For him, the current state of human evolution is not final, and there are many more stadia that the human society must rise to have a completely peaceful age. The current stage, governed by a ratiocinating mind and limiting ego, has in its very core conflict. The rational mind calculates, divides, adds, subtracts, confuses, and often arrives at a limited result as it misses the complete picture and acts like the blind men describing the elephant. To

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quote, Haridas Chaudhuri, “As a connected view of the totality of existence,” Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy, “brings to light the ultimate unifying principle of life. On the basis of a balanced appreciation of the multifarious values of life, it shows how to reconcile the various conflicts of our human existence” (Chaudhuri 1960, p. 17). Sri Aurobindo was a politician during the Indian freedom struggle, and for him politics was not necessarily conflictual as he believed that a yogi could be a better politician. In one of his statements about himself he pointed out, “There was no conflict or wavering between Yoga and politics; when he started Yoga, he carried on both without any idea of opposition between them” (CWSA, vol. 36, 2006, p. 110). Such an integral view is undoubtedly lacking in our time and age. Politics is often viewed as conflictual and polarizing, and it has become more so in recent years. It has become highly polarized, conflictual, promoting further violence, whether racial, communal, or religious. Political groups have increasingly asserted and fought over specific issues by prioritizing their interests, ignoring the larger picture. Whether it was domestic politics or international politics, politics has become conflictual. If one looks at international politics today, the views are not sanguine. American philanthropist George Soros in his recent speech at World Economic Forum argued that the conflict in Ukraine may get protracted and even endanger human civilization. I have elaborated on his statement and similar forecasts in the next chapter. Sri Aurobindo would argue that such predictions could be feasible as the parties to the conflict do not see the larger picture before engaging in conflict resolution. One could even draw a parallel between Aurobindonian view of politics with the ancient Greek idea of politics, particularly as articulated by Plato and Aristotle. For the Greek thinkers, politics was a noble profession. Though they did not use the terms like yoga, it would be interesting to note that the Greek philosophers believed and argued that politics need not be conflictual. It must be done in a spirit of service and dedication, while keeping in view the larger picture, to the affairs of the state. Where does nonviolence fit into the Aurobindonian conflict resolution? Sri Aurobindo would raise the debate on conflict resolution beyond the binary of violence and nonviolence and argue both violence and nonviolence are relative. As one could see from his active politics, he advocated the method of violence to fight against the British rule, and even supported the war efforts by the Allied Powers against the forces of Hitler. While Mahatma Gandhi’s absolute faith in nonviolence moved him to write a letter to the dictator to stop war and follow the path of peace, Sri Aurobindo supported Allied effort to defeat the dictator. Despite his best intentions, Gandhi’s appeal for peace and peaceful resolution of conflicts had least impact on Hitler as he continued his macabre acts. Aurobindonian logic was predicated on the argument that the means were not as important as the goal and the means were subservient to the goal. He would argue that a higher consciousness would guide the individual, like Krishna guided Arjuna (in a spiritual sense, Krishna represents the divine, and Arjuna represents the human individual), and it would be the higher consciousness which would dictate the individual the action to do in a particular situation. While it might appear difficult to apply or translate such a worldview to real-life situation, and while it might appear convenient to accept

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nonviolence as an absolute value, Sri Aurobindo would argue that an accordance of absolute value to nonviolence would be governed by the limiting ego, and how could the very individual who was the cause of the conflict would address the conflict from the very limiting ego, unless he rises higher and adopts an integral vision, in which his limiting ego is transformed and he acts from a higher consciousness? Such a course of action is possible in Sri Aurobindo’s scheme of things, in which ‘All life is Yoga’, and in that sense the life of conflict is also part of yoga and evolutionary process, but that is the transitional or intermediary process, which must be transformed in a higher light. More so, he would argue that such a vision of conflict resolution must not just be a matter of intellectual conviction or discourse, but must be very part of individual praxis, or yoga.

References Avruch, Kevin. 1998. Culture and Conflict Resolution. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press. Azar, Edward E. 1990. The Management of Protracted Social Conflict: Theory and Cases. Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing Company Limited. Azar, Edward E. and Farah, Nadia. 1981. The Structure of Inequality and Protracted Social Conflicts: A Theoretical Framework. International Interactions 7(4): 317–335. Brown, D. Mackenzie. 1968. The White Umbrella: Indian Political Thought from Manu to Gandhi. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press. Burton, John. 1987. Resolving Deep-Rooted Conflict: A Handbook. Lanham: University Press of America. Chaudhuri, Haridas. 1960. The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo. In The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, ed. Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg, 17–34. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Coser, Lewis A. 1956. The Functions of Social Conflict. New York: Free Press. Darby, Philip. 2008. Recasting Western Knowledge About (Postcolonial) Security. In Rethinking Insecurity, War and Violence: Beyond Savage Globalization, ed. Damian Grenfell and Paul James, 98–109. London: Routledge. Das, Taraknath. (1960). “The Political Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo,” in The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, Chaudhuri, Haridas and Spiegelberg, Frederic. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., pp. 321–331. Dudley, Ryan, and Ross A. Miller. 1998. Group Rebellion in the 1980s. The Journal of Conflict Resolution 42 (1): 77–96. Deutsch, Morton. 1973. The Resolution of Conflict. New Haven: Yale. Fisher, Roger, and William Ury. 1981. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Fukuyama, Francis. 2006. The End of History and the Last Man. New York: Free Press. Galtung, Johan. 1969. Violence, Peace and Peace Research. Journal of Peace Research 6 (9): 167–191. Heehs, Peter. 2008. The Lives of Sri Aurobindo. New York: Columbia University Press. Holsti, K.J. 1996. The State, War, and the State of War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Huntington, Samuel P. 1993. The Clash of Civilizations? Foreign Affairs 72 (3): 22–49. Lederach, John P. 2003. The Little Book of Conflict Transformation. Intercourse: Good Books.

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Mahadevan, T.M.P. 1960. The Significance of Sri Aurobindo. In The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, ed. Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg, 299–302. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd. Mahapatra, Debidatta A. 2018. Conflict Management in Kashmir: State-People Relations and Peace. London: Cambridge University Press. Mahapatra, Debidatta A., and Yashwant Pathak. 2018. Gandhi and the World. Lanham: Lexington. Maslow, Abraham H. 1943. A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review 50: 370–396. Miall, Hugh. 1992. The Peacemakers. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Nadkarni, Mangesh. 2010. Hindu-Muslim Unity in Sri Aurobindo’s Light. New Race 11 (1 and 2): 27–40. Nagler, Michael N. 2004. The Search for a Nonviolence Future. Novato: New World Library. Purani, A.B. 1960. Sri Aurobindo: A Brief Life-Sketch. In The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, ed. Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg, 332–340. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Smith, Anthony D. 1986. Conflict and Collective Identity: Class, Ethnie and Nation. In International Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice, ed. Edward E.  Azar and John W. Burton, 63–84. Sussex and Boulder: Wheatsheaf Books and Lynne Reiner Publishers. Sri Aurobindo. (different years and different volumes, mentioned in in-text citation). The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo (referred in the chapter text as CWSA). Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Also available online at: https://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/sriaurobindo/writings.php. Stavenhagen, R. 1996. Ethnic Conflicts and the Nation-State. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Wallensteen, Peter, and Karin Axell. 1994. Conflict Resolution and the End of the Cold War, 1989–93. Journal of Peace Research 31 (3): 333–349.

Sri Aurobindo in the Twenty-First Century

Frederic Spiegelberg wrote in 1960, “the spirit of Sri Aurobindo, of course, is alive, like the spirit of all great masters – is and remains alive” (Spiegelberg 1960, p. 47). He wrote these words six decades ago, and even if one could take this assertion as true that the messages of the great masters like Sri Aurobindo are alive even after they are dead and gone, it is important to reassess their messages in the light of contemporary developments. If their ideas, and particularly in the context of the present research, the ideas of Sri Aurobindo, are still alive, it must be explored to find how much are they alive or useful today, how do they offer solutions to our current problems in our immediate neighborhood and larger community and the world. In an essay titled ‘Our Ideal’, Sri Aurobindo raised the question, “What then shall be our ideal?” and answered, while exploring the prospects of “the application of our ideas to the problems of man’s social and collective life,” “unity for the human race by an inner oneness and not only by an external association of interests…” (CWSA, vol. 13, 1998, pp. 140–147). The question that needs to be answered in this light is how far his ideas were relevant then and how far his ideas are relevant to the contemporary world. If ‘All life is Yoga’, and no aspect of life is excluded from this yoga, it would be necessary to ask, is yoga useful to address our current problems? Or one could ask if Sri Aurobindo’s ideas are alive, how do they reflect on the pressing issues of our times such as rising political polarization, rampant violence, swelling national egos as reflected in the war in Ukraine, rising authoritarianism, communal violence, and religious fundamentalism and terrorism? To further elaborate, it could be an apt philosophical as well as policy exercise to ask whether Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga, or his idea of spiritual evolution, even one might call it spiritual revolution as it is certainly a radical idea not be readily accepted by a sensual-rational mind, and his ideas of supermind, superman, Sachchidananda, or the ideal of human unity, are relevant to our current times, or are they just fiction, creation of imagination of the poet and philosopher, experienced at the height of certain passion, or too abstract to be applied to the practical problems of our society? As I have demonstrated in the earlier pages, the former that those ideas are practical would hold, and they present a synthesis, or integral view, of the ideas and visions arising from the East and the West towards resolving problems of

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 D. A. Mahapatra, Sri Aurobindo at 150, Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures 40, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21808-8_5

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human society. To quote C.  E. Moore, “Regardless of the origin or basis of this synthesis, there is no denying the fact that in his overall point of view East meets West and West meets East in one of the most attractive syntheses the mind of man has ever achieved. In fact, one may even this early in this study venture the opinion that his method of synthesis is the only one which holds promise of success, namely, by way of evolution, development, ascent, actuated or implemented by involution and directed towards spiritual fulfilment and perfection” (Moore 1960, p. 84). In the following pages, I elaborate some of the key ideas of Sri Aurobindo, in the context of their relevance and their potency to address problems plaguing the human society at various levels. When the Cold War was raging the world and dividing it based on ideologies of capitalism and communism, and the battle was going in all directions and all corners of the world, a lawmaker from Arizona, Sidney Kartus, argued that it was time to listen to the wise counsel of Sri Aurobindo. In his words, “The Western world knows far more of Marx’s call to the working men of the world to unite than it does of Aurobindo’s message to the humanity to unite. Yet it is a message such as that of Aurobindo with which humanity must become familiar and which it must heed in order to attain human unity” (Kartus 1960, p. 314). Sparsely nowadays, one comes across such statements from a lawmaker in Arizona, the US, India, or other parts of the world. Politicians pay homage to the yogi and philosopher on his anniversary and say colorful words, but then come back to normal routine of life and political affairs. But one could see truth in the argument of Kartus, made in 1960, in the context of political polarization in the twenty-first century. Though the potency of communism as a state ideology, as a mode of governance declined drastically after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, that did not ensure that the world became peaceful and no conflicts emerged from the clash of visions or ideologies. Why did the Cold War happen in the first place, and why are now, in the twenty-first century, there are talks about a New Cold War, in which ideologies like authoritarianism replace communism? How could the powerful countries, the United States and the Soviet Union, who found themselves in the same allied club in their fight against Nazi Germany, see themselves as strange bedfellows after the Second World War? An Aurobindonian perspective would tell us that the collective national ego, which fueled aggressive nationalism and pushed countries to war and aggressive foreign policy, is not dead in the twenty-first century. Instead, it has assumed new forms with vicious mutations. While earlier it promoted colonialism and imperialism, now in the post-colonial and post-imperial world, the national ego caused realist assertion of national power, created client states based on economic domination, caused geopolitical clashes, and subsumed all more significant concerns like the ones that had moved the leaders to establish the international organization, the United Nations, as a higher body, to serve as a custodian of international peace and security. But the working of the international organization in the past seven decades belied such an optimism. It emerged as a site of contestation and fierce battle between national egos. The United Nations Security Council is no more serving the need for international peace and security, as mandated, but promoting national ego, fanning the clash of geopolitical visions arising from the same rigid, crude, and

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chauvinistic national policies. Scholars like Fukuyama predicted that with the victory of the liberal democratic order, there would be no fierce battle between contesting ideas as witnessed in history. With the rise of democracies, there would be no wars but democratic peace and comity between the nations. But the developments in the past two decades do not corroborate such an optimistic view arising from such a liberal prognosis. We have seen more violence and conflict further permeating down to the level of communities, smaller groups, and families. While scholars like Joshua Goldstein and Steven Pinker argued that we live in one of the most peaceful times of human history and boast their argument by comparing the wars and violence in the past, the developments in recent years do not corroborate such a view. The war in Syria killed more than half a million people, the war in Afghanistan killed about two hundred thousand people, the ongoing war in Ukraine has already killed thousands of people, the gun violence in the US kills thousands of people every year,1 and talks about a New Cold War2 in international politics, Civil War3 within the US, have recently gained ground.

1 ‘Inner War Without Escape’ Sri Aurobindo would tell us that conflict and war reside in the individual and the mind of the collectivities. Further, he would say they are hardened and clung to individual and collective mentalities, and conflict would continue unless that problem is addressed. He would remind us, “this is the inner war without escape” (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 448), and we must face it face to face and address it there at its very internal root to address their manifestations outside. Grown up in the western rational-intellectual tradition, Sri Aurobindo valued and explored all ideas to find a solution to this inner, spiritual crisis. Known for his synthesis of the values from the East and the West, from all cross-cultural traditions, he would employ every means to explore solutions to this inner predicament. He was not even a whit parochial in his approach in his search for answers and his very integral method would urge him to accept any helpful method. Grown up in England and schooled at St. Paul’s and King’s College, he would certainly not undermine the existing methods, traditions, and ways to address this deeper human crisis, but he would say the existing methods to address the current human problems are not adequate. The rational methods used for a long time are not helping address the human issues altogether. Even rationality  According to Pew Research, “In 2020, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 45,222 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., according to the CDC.” See (Gramlich 2022) 2  For example, see the article by Elliot Abrams with the same title – ‘The New Cold War.’ Abrams argues, “Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Partnership with Xi have forced the United States into a New Cold War.” See, (Abrams 2022). Also see, article by Ian Bremmer, titled, “The New Cold War Could Soon Heat Up.” See (Bremmer 2022). 3  For example, see (Elving 2022); and (Wickenden 2022). 1

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does not provide an integral picture of the situation, and the very rational principle would give rise to different solutions when applied by different individuals and groups. To give some famous examples, Thomas Hobbes applying rational mind would tell us human beings are solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short, and it is in their very nature that they would keep quarreling and fighting until they die; hence he recommended a powerful king, who would command complete obedience from his subjects so that peaceful organization could be a possibility. On the other hand, his compatriot, John Locke, following his rational principle, would argue that the human individual by nature is good, moved by the principles of mutual assistance and preservation, but he would need some political arrangement for the management of issues like rule making, management of state affairs, resolving conflicts between people and their organizations; hence he must surrender some of his rights to a higher political authority. As we see, different rational theories provide different solutions, but the fact is that the theories have not been able to resolve conflicts, various theories and ideas and developments have been tried but they all failed to provide permanent peace and happy life to the individuals and societies. The primary reason is – the inadequacy of the current instruments and modes of thinking and governance is ingrained in their very limited nature. Hence, ad hoc adjustments, fixing things here and there, would not help, would argue Sri Aurobindo. In developing his theory of spiritual evolution and integral yoga, Sri Aurobindo drew from the Vedanta tradition. After returning to India, during his Baroda days and afterward, he studied the Vedanta and immersed himself in exploring their true meaning. He found the solution to the human predicament there. Through he was inspired by Vedanta, particularly Advaita Vedanta, in developing his theories of evolution and integral yoga, he admitted that such gems of wisdom as he found in Vedanta could well be found in other religious traditions with which he was not familiar. In a letter in 1932, he wrote, “If I have used Sanskrit terms and figures, it is because I know them and do not know Persian and Arabic. I have not the slightest objection to anyone here (a reference to the Ashram) drawing inspiration from Islamic sources if they agree with the Truth…” (CWSA, vol. 35, 2011, p. 701). For him, the goal was to find a better organizing principle of individual and collective lives so that the problems afflicting the human society are addressed properly. In that sense, it would be appropriate to call Sri Aurobindo’s passion for discovering higher principles, such as the supramental mind or supramental force, was sheerly moved by his desire to find not an abstract but practical guide so that the present imperfections and limitations, whether individual and collective, whether within or outside, could be addressed properly. His integral yoga would not be willing to leave any aspect of life untouched, as that would defeat the very purpose of integral in integral yoga, the very purpose of total change, or change of the whole edifice from within and without so there is no scope of dividing visions and conflict. Hence, the charge that Sri Aurobindo’s principle of supermind, or supramental being, or the method of integral yoga, is too abstract, not amenable to rational understanding, shows a lack of understanding of the very motive force that guided his work in the first place. One of the core arguments of Sri Aurobindo, on the understanding of which depends the understanding of his whole philosophy and yoga, was that the whole nature is evolving, and the current stage of life and society is not the final stage in

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evolution. In this assertion, as I have demonstrated in the previous  chapters, he would dramatically depart from the existing and popular theories of evolution. The biological theory of evolution would tell us how the species including homo sapiens evolved. The theory of evolution of the Hegelian type would tell us how the mind in its present working is the highest evolved, and there is no rationale for further evolution. Both theories remained content and told us that the human civilization has already reached its pinnacle, has mastered nature, and has developed the best human organizations. There might be many more things to discover and invent but that could be possible within the present capabilities. Such approaches, Sri Aurobindo would argue, do not present the complete picture, full range of human aspirations and possibilities that the human being and society could realize. Such approaches could not explain the ‘oceanic feeling’ of Romain Rolland, nor could they properly explain Kant’s Idea of God, and such approaches, in a sense, would tell us to close our eyes to future possibilities. Sri Aurobindo would tell us emphatically that this present stage of evolution is not the final stage, and so far we consider this final and use its realizations as final realizations and use its instrumentalities to address all our problems, the problems would not be resolved. The problems would galore because we would not have the integral picture to address the problems, our approach would then be like the ‘well-frog’ who could see nothing beyond the well, or like the blind men describing the elephant. One might draw an example, though it was in a different context, from the Jurassic Park, the original movie in 1993 by Steven Spielberg, in which scientist Dr. Grant says, “I guess we’ll just have to evolve too.” Dr. Grant was not talking about spiritual evolution, integral yoga, or supramental consciousness, as he was referring to the prospect of better development of human capabilities to better adapt to nature, but, in a sense, it alluded to Sri Aurobindo’s theory of spiritual evolution. While Dr. Grant was making the argument in the context of physical or material nature, the argument in the context of spiritual evolution would be to make a case for the evolution not only in material plane, but also in vital and mental plane. More so, the Aurobindonian logic, or what he termed ‘greater logic’ or ‘logic of the infinite’ would tell us that there are many more pages yet to be filled in the book of evolution, of which we might yet be unsure or unaware of, but that did not mean there was no more prospect of evolution. The logic of the infinite would hold that the present stage of evolution is a phase, and there are many more things on the horizon yet to appear. Sri Aurobindo responded to the pessimists, who preferred to stop beyond seeing the stage of material or sensual-rational evolution, beautifully in Savitri (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 623):How shall the child already be the man? Because he is infant, shall he never grow? Because he is ignorant, shall he never learn? In a small fragile seed a great tree lurks, In a tiny gene a thinking being is shut; A little element in a little sperm, It grows and is a conqueror and a sage. Then wilt thou spew out, Death, God’s mystic truth, Deny the occult spiritual miracle? Still wilt thou say there is no spirit, no God? A mute material Nature wakes and sees;

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She has invented speech, unveiled a will. Something there waits beyond towards which she strives, Something surrounds her into which she grows: To uncover the spirit, to change back into God, To exceed herself is her transcendent task.

To understand Sri Aurobindo’s yoga and philosophy, or rather yoga-philosophy as for him yoga and philosophy are intertwined, one must understand and appreciate his evolutionary perspective on individual life and society. Trained in a rationality-­ oriented education system, he would well appreciate the current achievements and realizations in the process of the evolution, developments in science and technology, the literature, and great classics, but at the same time his synthetic mind, his ‘greater logic,’ would goad him not to be content with the current phase of evolution, present realizations, and achievements. In that sense, Sri Aurobindo emerged on the human scene as tremendously optimist, as, while accepting the current accomplishments and realizations, he pronounced them as transitional and considered them as not the final summit of evolution, or put in a simple language, they are not final realizations, even on this earthy life. How does this process of evolution work? Where are the human individual and human collectivities positioned in this evolution, or to put precisely, where is the individual in this evolution stadia? If the individual is a transitional being, what is the culmination, the final goal or destination? Or the evolution continues in a cycle, without any final purpose or summit, but just creation and dissolution and then again creation in a cyclic process? Contrary to some traditions, Sri Aurobindo would argue that creation is not cyclical but linear, moving from one point to another, lower to higher, but higher does not leave the lower altogether but carries its best elements with it. In practice, it would show how from the lower unthinking animal evolved the higher thinking human individual, but it is destined to evolve further to manifest the Brahman or the Absolute on this very earth. Brahman created the universe but hid Himself in the things and beings though a process of involution, even though Brahman is everything including all evolved and all yet to be evolved, and the process of evolution itself as there is nothing outside Brahman, or, to use the language of Sri Aurobindo, Brahman is alpha and omega of everything. The Brahman descended to the densest of the matter, and created everything out of pure joy, but once He hid Himself in the darkest matter, the goal now is to evolve and manifest more and more, or divinize the whole universe. This is the very logic of evolution. The evolution would take place, whether the human individual wants or not, whether the individual understands the process or not. The higher evolution is inevitable, whether individual is conscious about it or not. The human individual, the highest evolved in this evolution process, is not aware of the evolution, is not aware of his transitional nature, because he is in ignorance, avidya. It would not be an exaggeration to argue, applying the logic of Sri Aurobindo, that the human individual is also Brahman, but this Brahman-individual is veiled Brahman, the individual is not aware that he is made of Brahman element, and he is also Brahman, as he has not the direct vision of soham or tattwamasi. Due to this veil of ignorance, the individual has forgotten his true, divine, nature, and as a result

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we witness all divisions, conflicts, polarizations, violence, and war. As the individual is ignorant about his true nature, he thinks and acts out of his lower nature. The famous saying ‘man is half-animal and half-god’ appears quite appropriate here and explains the nature of ignorance well. Sri Aurobindo put it beautifully, “Such is the type of our progress; it is the advance of an ignorant and purblind but always light-­ attracted spirit, a being half-animal, half-god, stumbling forward through the bewildering jungle of its own error” (CWSA, vol. 13, 1998, p. 128). As the individual is ignorant of his higher nature, and acts out from his animal-nature, not god-nature, the problems ensue. When the individual forgets his identity with God, problems occur. As the highest evolved among God’s creation, the human individual too has within its current scope higher elements, glimpses of higher thinking, from which he tries to resolve problems within and outside society. Individuals and groups create family, clubs, organizations, states, and international organizations to better organize human life and for peaceful and harmonious existence, and those endeavors have produced great and brilliant results, and even helped address many of the human problems by means of dialogue and mutual understanding, by producing more for consumption, by making mechanisms and court systems to resolve conflicts, but at best they have produced half results or half solutions. The individual today, Sri Aurobindo argued, might be satiated but not satisfied. The available mechanisms have helped address the problems but left the roots of those problems as they are; hence, we see the same problems recurring and, or, assuming new forms.

2 Integral Yoga Calls for Individual and Collective Praxis The question, then, arises how to come out of these limited ego-governed mechanisms, and see the picture from a higher consciousness, and act out from there. Here comes the relevance of the Aurobindonian motto, ‘All life is Yoga’. It calls for individual and collective praxis in the spirit of integral yoga – the yoga that touches every activity of the individual, every aspect of his life, as it envisages a total transformation of the individual. To put it in a simple way, it envisages the active manifestation of the divine into every nook and corner of the individual and society. If Brahman is everywhere, in everything and every being, then why is there conflict and violence? Why is there so much evil, so much violence at every level – whether the level of the individual or family or larger collectivities? A much-publicized recent case of domestic violence involving two Hollywood actors, in which the court proceedings and presentation of evidence from each side evinced so much public interest, comes to mind. But this is one celebrity case; there are millions of such cases worldwide. Violent conflict wreaked havoc not only in individual and family lives but also in the lives of larger groups. In this context, one can think of violence in Myanmar, the war in Ukraine, the gun violence in the US, and the violence in Kashmir. The answer, which might appear simplistic but true, is that the individual and their collectivities are at the present stage of their evolution are bound by their narrow and limited egos, and because of that, they see a partial or half

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picture and consider their side of the story is the only true story or the absolute truth, and they represent truth, and the other side represent falsehood. The conflict resolution literature on moral exclusion, enemy images, dehumanization of enemies, etc., elaborate on how such narrow visions guide the developments leading to conflict and violence. It would not be an exaggeration to argue that even conflict resolution methods are guided by this narrow and limiting vision. In this context, integral yoga needs not, or should not, be viewed as something too abstract or mystical. It calls us to look at the complete picture and find a solution – which would imply seeing the story from the other side, cultivating empathy and seeing all the stories as one’s own stories. From the integral perspective, it would be our true selves, in the light of the divine, which would work, act and think. It would be the divine, not a religious divine but a divine that transcends all religions would be in the charge. The individuals and their collectivities would be instruments, or nimitta, for this divine work. In such a conception of life and society, there would be no scope for conflict and violence even though there would be separate individuals, communities, states, and all would be points of divine illumination, or in the words of Sri Aurobindo, ‘living centre of the Illimitable’ (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 79). But, certainly, the present stage of evolution does not present such an illumined picture of the human condition. In this transitional phase, differences, conflict, and violence are bound to occur until the higher reality dawns, and the human individual voluntarily gives up old habits, biases and prejudices, and rises higher in the consciousness, and adopts an integral view towards life. And that very process of enlargement would be possible through integral yoga. It is through this yoga that the higher consciousness, or the supermind, and as a consequence of its emergence, the superman would dawn on the human scene, who would enjoy perfect existence, consciousness and bliss, and as a result of his high station, a station in which there would no more limiting egos and narrow divisions, the conflict, or rather the very roots and conditions of the conflict would wither away. Biological evolution of species was a reality as also the evolution of mind out of material and vital, and similarly, there would be the evolution of a divine body, divine life, and divine mind, out of the current body, life, and mind, and that is the very writing in the heart of the evolution. The Aurobindonian superman would be different from Nietzschean superman, a man primarily moved by irresistible urge for power and domination. The individual poised in integral yoga would participate consciously in this evolution process and take an active role in the processes of descent and ascent of the divine to divinize the terrestrial life. And this yoga would not take place only in Ashrams or monastic orders as traditionally conceived, but in this case, the whole world would be the laboratory. From that logic, integral yoga would not be yoga of renunciation, or sannyasa, though renunciation might play a role in it. It would be yoga of everywhere, everybody, and everything, and it would be carried out in the individual’s private life, his family life, his profession, his collective life, his club, associations, and larger communal life of the states and societies. Following this Aurobindonian logic, to promote the message of such an enabling yoga, which also implied human unity and peace and collaboration between the East and the West in that direction, Frederic Spiegelberg, a Professor at Stanford

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University, invited Haridas Chaudhuri, a Professor of Philosophy in Bengal, to join American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco in 1951. Chaudhuri played a vital role in establishing the California Institute of Asian Studies, which later became the California Institute of Integral Studies. The word ‘integral’ in the name of the institute said a lot, and it was undoubtedly due to the initiative of scholars like Spiegelberg and Chaudhuri, Judith Tyberg, Robert McDermott, and others that Sri Aurobindo’s message of integral yoga and spiritual evolution could travel far and wide and dispel many of the misconceptions about yoga and spirituality. Chaudhuri recollected one of such misconceptions he had encountered in his early days in California, how at a bus-stop an American thought of him as a yogi and, without asking, extended his palm so that Chaudhuri could foretell his future. To quote Chaudhuri, “It was at San Francisco in May, 1951. I was waiting for a public bus at a street corner. An elderly man watched me from a distance and approached with the friendly inquiry – “Are you a yogi?” I paused to think for a while what might be his notion of a yogi and why he took me for one... but he did not wait for my reply. He produced his palm before me and said ‘Would you care to read my palm and tell me whether I have any good luck in the near future? The other day I bought a good lottery ticket, you know” (Chaudhuri n.d.). Those misconceptions are still there, and in many minds, yoga is still something exotic, something mystical, or something about astrology, and for many, particularly in the last few decades this has become a rising trend, yoga is identified with physical fitness as the mushrooming of yoga studios in America and all over the world indicate. These developments would appall Sri Aurobindo, as for him, yoga is a way of life, a way of organizing daily life and conduct, or a way of living, thinking, and acting. He would also have issues with intellectual propagation or articulation of integral yoga, as for him just an intellectual understanding would not be enough unless that understanding is put to practice. To use his perspective, integral yoga must play the role to transform the limiting individual ego, transform the collective or national ego, and transform the conflictual life into life divine.

3 Reflection on Select Issues by Applying the Integral Perspective In this section, I focus on select issues from different locations of the world with the two-fold goal: first, to demonstrate how the use of the Aurobindonian worldview helps us better understand these issues, and second, how this worldview offers us better pathways to address these issues. While I argue that this worldview could help address any pressing issues of our times, in this section, I am focusing only on three – gun violence in the United States of America, the Hindu-Muslim issue in India, and the war in Ukraine. Though gun violence is a significant issue in American political and social life in recent years, one could find such violence in other societies worldwide. In this direction, one could trace their origins to some common roots.

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Incidents of violence, whether gun violence, or violence from a larger structural and cultural context, though they vary from place to place, and in their nature and scope and degree of devastation they cause to human life, one could find essentially at the root of all those incidents a fundamental discord, fundamental disunity and disharmony. Thinking of violence at group levels, whether that involves a group’s skin color, religion, language or any other marker of differentiation, brings to us some fundamental psychological factors linked to the very present, imperfect, stage of human evolution, in the context how groups often succumb to rigid dualities and binaries of mine versus thine or my groups versus your group. Various well-known psychological experiments such as the Milgram experiment at Yale University in 1961 and Stanford prison experiment in 1971 demonstrate how change in identities shaped equations of friendship, power, and dominance. Though Sri Aurobindo’s theory of evolution did not inspire those studies, they corroborated the thesis that human beings at the present stage of evolution are not in their best stage. There is a fundamental aptitude in human nature to dominate or marginalize those who are inferior or perceived to be inferior, and how this superiority-inferiority complex plays a role in suppressing or violating one group’s rights by another group. Simply put, if one is different from another in skin color, that disqualifies that person in many social and political opportunities and privileges. The white privilege theory, as popularized by Wellesley College educator, Peggy MacIntosh, explores racial discrimination in one of the most materially advanced countries in the world and how it is taught in the United States of America to see “racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group” (MacIntosh 1989). As a part of some of the workshops that dealt with this issue of white privilege and how to address this in a very peaceful, inclusive, and diverse way, I could see clearly how these methods of peace, inclusion, and embracing differences attempt to change the fundamental basis of human behavior, that is the rigid assertion of one set of ideas over another set of ideas, or rigid assertion of one identity over another identity, or rigid assertion of one skin color or religion or culture over another. All these peacebuilding workshops, in their best intentions, attempt to address social cleavages in a peaceful way. Sri Aurobindo would encourage such activities including workshops, seminars, conference, and other activities in the communities to address this fundamental problem in the human behavior. Though the use of words such as avidya, or veil of ignorance, might not sound modern or oft used by the people in academics, but that was the fundamental factor, and all these great attempts such as peacebuilding workshops, from an Aurobindonian point of view, would help even though partially in the process of evolution and address the fundamental ignorance at the root of the discord and disunity. Coming back to gun violence, which has recently become a major factor in American politics, with political parties taking rigid positions on this issue, covered widely by media worldwide. As the first democratic country in the modern world, the founding fathers of the United States of America conceived the new nation as an enterprise in democracy, without any prior example before them, promoting the famous quip by one of the founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, who, when asked

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by the people gathered outside the convention hall where the founding fathers were deliberating about the future of the nation, in 1787, replied, ‘a republic, if you can keep it’. As the first democratic country in the modern world, the United States served as a beacon of democracy to many countries despite imperfections within its social fabric, and which the founding fathers and statemen were aware of. The device of democracy was designed to address all the problems, even those arising out of inequality and racial injustice, deeply ingrained within the society, through democratic mechanisms such as bill of rights, amendments, and rules and regulations. The supporters of gun rights mainly draw their strength from the second amendment to the United States Constitution, which read, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” While one can make sense of this amendment and its association with freedom, the increasing gun violence has necessitated a debate on the nature and scope of gun rights, for example, how many guns or what types of guns (one can imagine the kind of guns manufactured at the time of the founding fathers who enacted the second amendment and the systems of law and governance and means of communication and technology that time, and the type of guns manufactured today, their damaging capability, and rapid strides and use of technology) one could have, and what should be age limit to buy guns, and what type of background checks one should undergo before buying a gun? Mass media have not helped in addressing this issue in any way. Michael Nagler in his study, The Search for a Nonviolent Future, reflects on mass media and their role in violence. According to him, “…what really characterizes our time is not so much violence…but that we are challenged, possibly as never before, to deal with it. This being true, the mass media could not have chosen a worse time to make violence appear trivial and incomprehensible. They are doing a singular and untimely disservice to human civilization” (Nagler 2004, p. 3). One also raises a deeper, ontological, question, do guns provide real freedom? When the mind is full of fear, anxiety, stress, whether from imbalance in the individual living or the frustrations from the workspace and social life, would guns make life free and secure? The argument to secure mental health to check gun violence makes sense, but the problem then is like equating gun freedom with mental health, and one could imagine if everybody is healthy mentally, would one really need a material instrument like a gun to feel secure? How would Sri Aurobindo be helpful to an understanding of gun violence? He would argue that all problems are fundamentally spiritual, and gun violence would also be a spiritual problem. From where do fear and anxiety come and make the people feel insecure? He would say this emerges from a narrow understanding of the human nature, a limiting ego, which projects a life that could be peaceful only in uniformity, implying only when one community thinks and believes and acts like another community only there would be a possibility of peace and harmony, otherwise not. Sri Aurobindo would tell us that imposition of rigid uniformity, or thinking that if someone behaves exactly like me, or acts and works like me, then everything is fine, and there is no scope for violence. In this construct of the world, rigid uniformity implied peace, and differences generated fear and anxiety. This is the

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ego-induced limited or partial understanding of the human individual, and also it lacks the complete picture of human life, in its present working and also its future. This also reflects a lack of integral understanding of the nature and scope of human evolution and thinking that the limited understanding and limited ego-induced resources would be enough to address the societal crisis, including the gun violence – which is more social and cultural than material, but Sri Aurobindo would urge us unless that very premise that pumping more resources would resolve the problem is given up, unless new transformation dawns in the human mind, unless there is a fundamental change in human consciousness, this issue would continue and fester. Coming to the issue of Hindu-Muslim conflict, which I already elaborated on in the chapter on integral conflict resolution, Sri Aurobindo’s ideas are immensely useful. Here, instead of repeating the same analyses I made in that chapter, I would attempt to offer some solutions that emerge from Aurobindonian conflict resolution. In the context of divisive politics in India, Sri Aurobindo would assert that religion must not play a role in politics. At the same time, he would not be eager to use the term secular to describe the pluralistic and multicultural identity of India, the same approach was indeed reflected in the thinking of the framers of the constitution of modern India who deliberately chose not to use the word secular in the preamble to the constitution. For Sri Aurobindo, the very pluralistic identity of India did not need a garb of secular, borrowed from Europe which witnessed religious wars, giving rise to the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 and terms like secularism. In the Indian context, such words did not mean much, as India had a long history of accommodation, adaption, and understanding of various ideas and cultures. Even within Hinduism, which could be considered a large family, one could see multiple sects coexist and thrive, and that itself would be the beauty of India or what would be called in popular parlance ‘unity in diversity.’ India’s inclusive identity does not need a tag like secular. In the same vein, he would be against the idea of a theocratic state in India, a state in which one religion is considered supreme, or one religion is the state religion. While for Sri Aurobindo, the idea of a religious state would be repugnant, he was most hurt at the partition of India based on ‘two nation theory,’ which primarily argued that Hindus and Muslims are two different nations. He was not in favor of such a solution to the Hindu-Muslim conflict. To halt any such possibility, he had advised Indian National Congress to accept the Cripps plan, 1942, as it envisaged India as a united country, but his advice fell on deaf ears. In retrospect, had the Congress accepted the Cripps plan of 1942 or the Cabinet Mission plan of 1946, India could not have been divided. Sri Aurobindo hoped, as articulated in his first dream released just after the independence, that India and Pakistan would reunite and grow as a single nation. He argued, “It is to be hoped that this settled fact (the division of India) will not be accepted as settled for ever or as anything more than a temporary expedient. For if it lasts, India may be seriously weakened, even crippled: civil strife may remain always possible…India’s internal development and prosperity may be impeded, her position among the nations weakened, her destiny impaired or even frustrated. This must not be; the partition must go. Let us hope that that may come about naturally, by an increasing recognition of the necessity not

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only of peace and concord but of common action, by the practice of common action and the creation of means for that purpose” (CWSA, vol. 36, 2006, pp. 478–479). As Sri Aurobindo predicted, India’s division did not resolve the problem. His prediction, “civil strife may remain always possible”, is palpable in today’s India. The communal division persisted, and the solution meant to resolve the problem left its scar and contributed to the festering of the problem. While Pakistan became a theocratic state, India remained committed to its pluralistic tradition. It would be a different subject, which the scope of the current research does not permit, to discuss how the majoritarian principle made Pakistan a theocratic state and how it guided India to remain a pluralistic and democratic state? Certainly, it had something to do with the founders of these two respective countries. India, following its ancient tradition of Sarva Dharma Sambhava, all religions are equal, or all religions are possible, continued its pluralistic traditions and incorporated that principle into its constitution. In contrast, Pakistan followed a religious version of nationalism and declared it an Islamic state. Sri Aurobindo’s pacifism, whether in the context of Hindu-Muslim issue or in any other context, would certainly not be moved by a fear of other, nor moved by a principle that would consider nonviolence absolute in any context, nor moved by anticipation of appreciation by another community; instead, he would strongly argue that there must be ‘unfaltering love’ between the two communities, and on that foundation could there emerge a strong nation, not by any other means. He would be against the policy of appeasement of any community, whether majority or minority. He would not support appeasement policy; in the same vein, he would be against exclusivist nationalism, which vaunts one religion as superior to other religions. His integral view of religions would not allow such a view to taking root. He termed narrow approaches to religion as ‘religionism’ which often propagated violence and goaded communities to cling to their narrow worldviews. How would then one address the Hindu-Muslim conflict in India now? What are the solutions that emerge from the integral conflict resolution perspective? These possible solutions emerge. First, Hindus and Muslims must develop that inner bond or what Sri Aurobindo termed ‘unfaltering love,’ which could not be achieved by the political machinery. The communities and their leaders must come forward for this purpose. Both Hindus and Muslims must consider India as their nation, the country of India as their country, and the development of India as their development – to put it another way, all Indians, Sri Aurobindo would urge, must think of India as their larger self, or rather they represent India as its miniature, and only in that spirit India can rise as a strong and vibrant nation. For this, the community and the community leaders must play an active role. Second, he would argue that politics must stay away from religious issues. There must not be the politicization of religious conflicts; while law and order mechanisms have a role in stopping communal violence, the state must not be perceived as supporting one community at the cost of the other. While one government supported the minority community, another supported the majority community – that patronage, whether of majority or minority, must stop. Communities must not be considered vote banks to be pampered for the votes, for winning elections. Third, Sri Aurobindo would tell us that India is rising as a

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spiritual power, for which unity is imperative. All communities, whether Hindus, Muslims, Christians or any community, must consider India in that spirit. India’s heritage, civilization, and culture one must take into account while considering one’s role and place in the Indian panorama. To use, in another context from the argument made by French sociologist Emile Durkheim, in the context of religion and nationalism, the Indian nation, Indian flag, and Indian identity must be of the supreme value for all Indians, not their narrow religious, sectarian, or communal identity. Such a vision of India perfectly fits into an Aurobindonian solution to the Hindu-Muslim conflict in India. The conflict in Ukraine at a much larger scale could perhaps be termed as one of the gravest threats the human civilization confronted at the present stage of its evolution. While speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in May 2022, American philanthropist George Soros presented a grim picture of the conflict and predicted a possible Third World War emerging out of the crisis, pushing human civilization to its primitive stage and retarding human progress. According to Soros, “The invasion (Russian invasion of Ukraine) may have been the beginning of the Third World War and our civilization may not survive it” (Soros 2022). Similarly, the Nobel-prize-winning diplomat, Henry Kissinger, reminded the world of the grave nature of the crisis in these words, “Ukraine should’ve been a bridge between Europe and Russia, but now, as the relationships are reshaped... This may lead to Cold War-like diplomatic distances, which will set us back decades” (Kissinger 2022). The hope for democratic peace had been belied with the recent developments. This hope that was generated by the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union had already been challenged increasingly by the rising assertions worldwide, with the rise of China as an alternate pole in the multipolar world order, and also with the rise of authoritarianism worldwide. Perhaps never in the recent history after the end of the Cold War there had not been much talk about the possibility of a New Cold War as highlighted by the media. And also, seldom the talks about a possible Third World War captured the public attention as after the war in Ukraine that started in February 2022. The war in Ukraine is a major war that is going on as I write this chapter. Despite reports of dialogues and negotiations between the parties, we do not see a chance of resolution of the conflict soon, rather it seems to have been protracted with each passing day, with the Russian side increasing its offensive and with the US and allies supplying resources and weapons to Ukraine. It appeared surreal to see the war happening; people are getting killed, houses destroyed, and hospitals and civilians targeted – all covered by the real-time media. The stories of human woes are heart-rending, and watching these developments on the TV screen feels like it is happening in front of our eyes, in our communities. But here, the problem is this – that despite becoming aware of the devastating consequences of the war (which we get in real-time news, which was not possible during earlier wars, even in the past few decades, such as the Gulf War of 1990 or even Afghan war of the 2000s or the Iraq war of 2003, as during those days there was no widespread use of Internet and mass media), the participating countries in the war, whether directly or indirectly, were guided by a narrow interpretation of their national interests. The question that

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arises is that despite watching the devastating consequences of the war and the killings, how could the leaders in the conflict not reach a solution? International politics as it operates today does not answer this question satisfactorily. It does not satisfactorily respond to the problem of, using a term from Sri Aurobindo, national ego, which had apparently been hardened over the passing years. Sri Aurobindo had cautioned us how, during the World Wars and afterward during the United Nations’ establishment, national ego hindered the emergence of an ideal human unity. And more so, mainly, when the national ego is a crucial factor in shaping foreign policy and diplomacy, as one could see clearly in the case of the ongoing war in Ukraine, we could make sense of the blatant failure of the diplomatic efforts. The failure pushed international politics further towards a danger zone of more violence and killing, economic inflation, and suffering in human life. Also, the major international politics theories have not helped us find a solution to the conflict. Among the two major international politics theories, Realism would tell us that the war in Ukraine was a war about power and security, and Russia saw Ukraine’s westward aspiration as a threat to its security and interest; hence it wanted to stop this move and aspiration of Ukraine at any cost, even if it resulted in the use of disproportionate force and violation of democratic aspiration of Ukraine and its territorial integrity and sovereignty, and violation of international law. The Liberal theory would tell us that Ukraine, as a democratic country, had every right to join any union or bloc of its own choice, and Russia had no right to interfere. Both the theories appeared to present their cases rationally, but truly viewed, they represented partial truth. The Liberal theory undermined Russia’s historical-cultural linkages with Ukraine, their old political ties, racial and linguistic connections, and Russia’s sense of vulnerability from NATO coming closer to its border. Similarly, the Realist theory undermined Ukraine’s democratic aspirations and its right to choose any organization or union, but it amplified Russia’s concerns. Ukraine’s westward aspiration could be a success if there were a mutual understanding between Russia and Ukraine, under which the possibilities of Ukraine joining the EU, but not NATO, in the current situation, could be explored as a middle path solution. As national egos were hardened, Russia clung to its old Soviet narrative of power and influence, and Ukraine clung to its narrative of freedom of choice, there was no apparent sign of conflict resolution. Here the United Nations, the apex international organization, acted as a helpless mechanism, just making statements for peace with no real consequence. More so, the war has been continuing for more than 10 months, with thousands of lives lost, and if it continues, it is difficult to predict the future as more lethal weapons are deployed and used and more countries are involved on either side. The means of diplomacy and dialogue which were supposed to end or moderate the conflict furthered the conflict and hardened each party’s position. These ego-driven workings of the human mind, whether in the case of a lone individual or the case of national leaders representing nations, were palpable. Sri Aurobindo reflected on this ego-driven politics and diplomacy in these lines in Savitri (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 215):In street and house, in councils and in courts Beings he met who looked like living men And climbed in speech upon high wings of thought

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But harboured all that is subhuman, vile And lower than the lowest reptile’s crawl. The reason meant for nearness to the gods And uplift to heavenly scale by the touch of mind Only enhanced by its enlightening ray Their inborn nature’s wry monstrosity.

Could it be argued that the ideas and mechanisms of resolving conflicts through dialogue and negotiations have failed, at least so far, in Ukraine? It would be not an exaggeration to answer in the affirmative. Despite high-sounding diplomatic negotiations, it appears international politics has become more polarizing. In all the three case studies in this chapter – gun violence in America, the Hindu-Muslim conflict in India, and the war in Ukraine – one could see a clear trend toward polarization and violence, though in varying degrees. Sri Aurobindo comes here handy to explain these developments that unless the parties, the individual, groups and states, whether in the case of the United States political parties and the people with affiliation to either of the parties, or among Hindus and Muslims in India in the case of the Hindu-Muslim conflict, or the parties to the conflict in Ukraine including Ukraine, Russia, the United States and NATO allies see the larger picture, and evolve out of their narrow egos, whether individual egos, or collective group egos, or national egos, it would be difficult to address these problems effectively. Here, Sri Aurobindo would tell us that unless there is a fundamental change in the mode of thinking and action, unless there is a total transformation in the individual and collective consciousness, unless there is a passion for working and seeing the integral picture, the conflicts would continue. Various measures driven by these egos would perhaps bring some relief or temporary result, as the end of the Cold War witnessed a few decades of relative peace, but unless the roots of the conflicts are addressed, he would emphatically argue, the conflicts would continue and might assume different forms with perhaps more devastating consequences.

4 Conclusion Sri Aurobindo’s theory of evolution and integral yoga converge and present a picture of human unity and peace through individual and collective praxis. In this scheme buttressed by optimism, Sri Aurobindo would tell us that Nature is evolving, often towards a more positive, prosperous, and peaceful direction. However, the process might get tardy due to our human follies, caused by our narrow thinking and tunnel vision. His optimism would tell us that the evolution is taking place, or using words from Savitri “a mystic slow transfiguration works” (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 632), the process of which is not visible to our naked eye, as it was not visible to the naked eye the evolution from the body, the life and mind. The process took millions of years, which did not mean the evolution was not happening. Sri Aurobindo argued, “Because soul or spirit works in the animal on a lower scale, we are not warranted in thinking that there is no soul in him, any more than a divine or

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superhuman being would be justified in regarding us as soulless bodies or soulless minds because of the grovelling downward drawn inferiority of our half-animal nature. The figure which we use when sometimes we say of one of our own kind that he has no soul, is only a figure; it means only that the animal type of soul predominates in him over the more developed soul type which we expect in the finer spiritual figure of humanity” (CWSA, vol. 13, 1998, p.  311). Such an evolutionary outlook might not have an immediate utilitarian significance like, to give a rudimentary example, cars and computers have immediate utilitarian significance: one uses a car to make travel easier and faster and uses computer and Internet technology to send a message across thousands of miles in seconds. But Sri Aurobindo would tell us all these developments, including material products such as the car or the computer, must have a founding governing principle. For example, it would be appropriate to ask from his perspective, the car and the computer to what end? How does one use a car or a computer for what purpose? A young man used his car to drive hundreds of miles to shoot people in a shopping mall in Buffalo in May 2022, and, before that, he used computer and Internet technology to learn more about hate politics and literature on how to give a concrete shape to his devious design. To the examples of car and computer, one could add any material, or even vital and mental tools as examples. A narrow, hate-filled mind would drive the car to kill the people. A more open mind, or a better-evolved mind, would use the car for a better purpose, for example, to spread the message of peace, love and belonging. V. Madhusudan Reddy presented this perspective of Sri Aurobindo: “Mere pursuit of physical and vital enjoyments may ultimately lead to frustration and fall of a civilization. Transcendence of vitalism, hedonism and exclusive materialism as well as avoidance of excessive reliance on reason by a spiritual culture based on a radical change of human consciousness can alone lead to lasting human unity. This means the spiritual transfiguration of the very historical process itself – the psychic and spiritual transformation of the humanity in general (Reddy 1973, p. 130). As the mind is highest evolved so far, and as it is still evolving, and in fact in this scheme of integral and total evolution everything is evolving, Sri Aurobindo would urge the individual and their societies to actively cultivate their mind in a new spiritual light and gear their energies in that direction. There is no other way as, he would us tell emphatically, it is “the inner war without escape.” Or, to use a term from the epic Mahabharata, the Kurukshetra, the battlefield, is not just a battlefield not far from Delhi, but it is within us; the battle is going within us, and in this battle, in this process of evolution, the individual must take part actively and consciously, through individual and collective praxis, which could be termed integral yoga, so that higher things, higher realizations, could not just be a matter of speculation but a concrete reality. So far, the individual is struggling within the dividing mind, ratiocinating and calculating, without the direct vision of the reality, without seeing the total or integral picture. To put in a subtle way, so far the individual mind does not realize its identity with the universal mind, so far the individual soul does not consciously identify itself with the universal soul, the limiting mind with its limited capabilities and resources would head toward conflict, whether visible or invisible. But Sri Aurobindo, the optimist, would not give up, he would encourage the struggling mind to

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continuously aspire and hope and work to transform its limited and dividing nature through the power of higher consciousness. He would write these lines for these struggling minds, who despite realizing their limitations and aspiring for higher consciousness, falter, to rekindle hope (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 626):Yet Light is there; it stands at Nature’s doors: It holds a torch to lead the traveller in. It waits to be kindled in our secret cells; It is a star lighting an ignorant sea, A lamp upon our poop piercing the night. As knowledge grows Light flames up from within: It is a shining warrior in the mind, An eagle of dreams in the divining heart, An armour in the fight, a bow of God.

Sri Aurobindo calls the individual and humanity for a fundamental transformation, not just ad hoc change or adjustments or mechanical modifications, in the very working of human nature. But such a call must not be equated with sannyasa or renunciation, leaving life as it is, or entering a cave and meditating there. His would be a call for praxis or action in the spirit of yoga, yoga karmasu kaushalam (doing work in the spirit of yoga). More importantly, he would tell us that one does not need to belong to a particular religion or follow a fixed set of practices and rituals to participate in this evolutionary process, as such a prescription would undermine the very core, the very integral, in his integral yoga. His message is a message to humanity across the divides of state borders and other man-made divisions such as religion, race, caste, language, and socioeconomic status. Karan Singh’s book on Sri Aurobindo was titled ‘prophet of Indian nationalism’ (Singh 2000), inspired by the words of Chittaranjan Das, the nationalist lawyer who fought the case of Sri Aurobindo in the Alipore case in the first decade of the twentieth century. It would be more appropriate to call Sri Aurobindo a prophet of humanity, or rather a prophet of human unity and divine life. His life demonstrated that he worked ceaselessly, whether as a professor, a poet and politician, a leader of the freedom struggle, or as a yogi in Pondicherry, to give a concrete shape to this vision of human unity and divine life. He continuously worked in this direction, whether in the thick of action in Calcutta or  in the secluded life of yoga in Pondicherry. Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem, “Aurobindo, accept the salutation from Rabindranath,” and called him, “O voice incarnate, free, of India’s soul” (Quoted in McDermott 1972, p. 4). Though Tagore wrote this poem in 1907, more than a hundred years ago, the message embedded in his poem resonates today in this twenty-first century world. It would, hence, be not inappropriate to argue that though Sri Aurobindo was born 150 years ago and died 72 years ago, his message is very much relevant to our times. His call for human individuals and their collectivities to examine themselves, to look within, to study their minds and the roots of their action, to examine whether they are adopting a large picture or a narrow picture while jumping to action, whether they are following the larger principles of life, the principles of love, humanity and brotherhood while taking action, are something worth considering. As Frederic Spiegelberg noted, which I quoted at the beginning of this chapter, Sri Aurobindo as a great master lives in his message

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to the humanity to unite and work together to build a peaceful and harmonious society, in which the human existence would no more be an existence of struggle, strife and violence, but an existence in peace, purity, and divine, an existence in which mutual harmony and love would be the governing principles. These few lines from Savitri beautifully summarize this hope of Sri Aurobindo for humanity (CWSA, vols. 33–34, 1997, p. 632):All our earth starts from mud and ends in sky, And Love that was once an animal’s desire, Then a sweet madness in the rapturous heart, An ardent comradeship in the happy mind, Becomes a wide spiritual yearning’s space. A lonely soul passions for the Alone, The heart that loved man thrills to the love of God, A body is his chamber and his shrine. Then is our being rescued from separateness …

At this present stage of human existence, wrecked by separateness, duality and strife, Sri Aurobindo emerges as a messenger of human unity and peace and calls us to take part in integral yoga consciously to better the human condition and lift it from its present chaotic life to a happier and divine life. His integral vision calls us to transcend our limited boundaries and be our better selves to see beyond the horizon in which a peaceful and harmonious future is awaiting. That is the core message of Sri Aurobindo, which humanity must heed. And that will be the greatest tribute to the Yogi and philosopher on his 150th birth anniversary.

References Abrams, Elliott. (2022, May 3). The New Cold War. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved on https://www.cfr.org/blog/new-­cold-­war-­0. Bremmer, Ian. (2022, May 5). The New Cold War Could Soon Heat Up. Foreign Affairs. Retrieved from https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-­fsu/2022-­05-­05/ new-­cold-­war-­could-­soon-­heat Chaudhuri, Haridas. (n.d.). From the American Academy of Asian Studies to the California Institute of Integral Studies. Retrieved from http://www.mysterium.com/aaas-­ciis.html. Elving, Ron. (2022, January 11). Imagine Another American Civil War, but This Time in Every State. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2022/01/11/1071082955/ imagine-­another-­american-­civil-­war-­but-­this-­time-­in-­every-­state. Gramlich, John. (2022, February 3). What the Data Says About Gun Deaths in the U.S. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-­tank/2022/02/03/ what-­the-­data-­says-­about-­gun-­deaths-­in-­the-­u-­s/ Kartus, Sidney. 1960. World Unity. In The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, ed. Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg, 313–320. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Kissinger, Henry. (2022, May 23). Kissinger: These are the Main Geopolitical Challenges Facing the World Right Now. World Economic Forum. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/ agenda/2022/05/kissinger-­these-­are-­the-­main-­geopolitical-­challenges-­facing-­the-­world-­ right-­now/ MacIntosh, Peggy. (1989, July–August). White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack. Peace and Freedom. Retrieved from https://psychology.umbc.edu/files/2016/10/White-­ Privilege_McIntosh-­1989.pdf.

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McDermott, Robert. 1972. The Legacy of Sri Aurobindo. Cross Currents 22 (1): 2–8. Retrieved from https://www.ciis.edu/PCC/PCC%20Documents/PCC%20PDFs/The%20Legacy%20 of%20Sri%20Aurobindo%201972.pdf. Moore, C.E. 1960. Sri Aurobindo on East and West. In The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, ed. Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg, 81–110. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Nagler, Michael N. 2004. The Search for a Nonviolent Future. Novato: New World Library. Reddy, V.  Madhusudan. 1973. Sri Aurobindo’s Vision of Human Unity. In Sri Aurobindo: An Interpretation, ed. V.C. Joshi, 114–161. Delhi: Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd. Singh, Karan. 2000. Prophet of Indian Nationalism: A Study of the Political Thought of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, 1893–1910. Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Soros, George. (2022, May 24). Remarks Delivered at the 2022 World Economic Forum in Davos. Retrieved from https://www.georgesoros.com/2022/05/24/ remarks-­delivered-­at-­the-­2022-­world-­economic-­forum-­in-­davos/ Spiegelberg, Frederic. 1960. Sri Aurobindo and Existentialism. In The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, ed. Haridas Chaudhuri and Frederic Spiegelberg, 47–59. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Sri Aurobindo. (n.d.). (Different years and different volumes, mentioned in in-text citation). The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo (referred in the chapter text as CWSA). Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Also available online at: https://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/sriaurobindo/writings.php. Wickenden, Dorothy. (2022, January 10). A New Civil War in American? The New Yorker. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/politics-­and-­more/a-­new-­civil-­war-­in-­america.

Index

A Advaita, 25, 27, 30, 136 Agenda of Peace, 84, 85, 92 Age of Reason, 72 Alipore Bomb case, 4 All India Muslim League, 125 Anand Math, 121 Anushilan Samiti, 4 Arab-Israel War, 99 Ardhanarishwara, 45 Aristotle, 9, 129 Arjuna, 121–123, 128, 129 Arthashastra, 96 Arya, 5, 6, 124 Asat, 31 Asia, 2, 99, 102, 124, 126, 127 Asura, 37, 105 Aswapati, 48, 50 Atma, 31 Auroville, 12, 55, 78–81 Avangmanasgochara, 32, 40 Avidya, 25, 26, 30, 31, 38, 90, 114, 138, 142 B Bande Mataram, 4, 59, 60, 63, 117, 118, 120, 121 Baroda (Vadodara) Baroda College, 1, 3, 16, 59, 136 Bharat, 59 Bhavani Mandir, 4 Bipolar politics, 83, 84, 98

Boycott, 4, 118, 120, 121 Brahman, 15, 16, 23, 25–36, 38, 40, 44, 52, 68, 114, 122, 138, 139 British rule, 3, 59, 118, 120, 121, 129 Buddha, 37 Buffalo, 11, 149 C Cartesian logic, 7 Chandernagore, 5 Charvaka, 32, 33, 57 Chaudhuri, H., 22, 27, 51, 104, 129, 141 Chechnya, 106 China, 126, 127, 146 Christianity, 45, 72 Clash of civilizations, 86, 87, 100, 106 Cold War new, 82, 100, 124, 134, 146 post-, 82, 84–86, 88, 89, 99, 106 Colonialism, 9, 67, 68, 78, 99, 118–120, 128, 134 Conflict resolution, 1, 4, 9–13, 41, 52, 95, 96, 98, 103–105, 108–110, 112–117, 119, 122, 123, 125, 127–130, 140, 144, 145, 147 Cripps Mission, 125 D Dalai Lama, 116 Darwin, C., 17, 36, 57

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 D. A. Mahapatra, Sri Aurobindo at 150, Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures 40, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21808-8

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154 Das, C., 5, 150 Das, T., 118 Deva, 105 Dharma, 117, 145 Dharmyuddh, 105 Durkheim, E., 63, 146 Dyumatsena, 50 E Einstein, A., 89 End of history, 86, 87, 99, 100 Europe, 2, 58, 59, 62, 63, 65, 98, 100–102, 119, 144, 146 European Union (EU), 10, 147 F French Revolution, 62, 74, 78 Freud, S., 8, 16, 21 G Ghose, K.D., 2 Gita Bhagavadgita, 26, 44 Global governance, 55, 81–92 Global Social Contract, 87 God, 4, 7, 9, 16–19, 22, 23, 25, 31–34, 40, 41, 44, 45, 47, 48, 50, 59, 61, 68, 80, 107, 137–139, 150, 151 Gokak, V.K., 49 Gokhale, G.K., 119 Golden Rule, 89 H Hegel, 7–9, 22, 23, 27, 36, 57, 68, 115 Heraclitus, 7, 42, 43 Hinduism, 3, 47, 59–61, 144 Hindu-Muslim conflict Hindu-Muslim issue, 141, 145 Hindu-Muslim problem, 125 History of the Peloponnesian War, 96 Human Cycle, 34, 60, 106 Human Development Report, 85, 86, 102 Human security, 85, 86, 92, 102 I Idealism, 26, 27, 67 Ideal of human unity, 9, 10, 13, 34, 55–93, 124, 133 Imperialism, 9, 65, 67, 78, 124, 128, 134

Index Inconscience, 32, 43, 45 inconscient, 25, 34 India-China relations, 127 Indian freedom struggle, 3, 18, 59, 106, 118, 122, 123, 129 Indian Majlis, 3 Indian National Congress, 4, 117–120, 125, 144 Indu Prakash, 4 Infrarational, 31 Integral nondualism, 26, 27 Integral yoga, 6, 7, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20–22, 25, 31, 41, 42, 44–46, 48–53, 56, 79, 122, 123, 133, 136, 137, 139–141, 148–151 Internationalism, 76–78 Isha Upanishad, 25 Ishwara, 26, 38, 45 J Jagat, 30, 31 Jesus, 37 K Kant, I., 7, 8, 22, 33, 34, 36, 137 Kartus, S., 134 Kashmir, 83, 98, 99, 103, 106, 139 Kennedy, J.F., 127 Kissinger, H., 146 Korea, 98, 126 Korean crisis, 126 North Korea, 126 Krishna, 16, 18, 36, 37, 122, 123, 128, 129 Kurukshetra, 105, 149 L League of Nations, 10, 13, 55, 66, 67, 73, 75–78, 82, 87, 89, 90, 124 Lele, V.B., 16 Life Divine, 6, 12, 17, 18, 25, 26, 29, 30, 32, 33, 37, 41, 42, 47, 50, 52, 56, 105, 107, 118, 141 Locke, J., 74, 112, 136 Logic of the infinite, 42, 137 Lotus and Dagger, 3 M Mahabharata, 47, 50, 96, 104, 105, 117, 121, 149 Mahatma Gandhi, 4, 106, 116, 118, 129

Index Mandela, N., 116 Maslow, A.H., 102, 112 Materialism, 26, 27, 32, 56, 57, 110, 111, 114, 115, 149 Matter, 6, 8, 10, 11, 15, 17, 19, 20, 22, 24–34, 36, 43, 49, 51, 52, 60, 64, 65, 70, 73, 80, 107, 108, 120–122, 125, 126, 130, 138, 149 Maya, 31, 38 Millennium Development Goals, 102 Mirabai, 17 Morley-Minto reforms, 125 Mukta jivana mukta, 31 videha mukta, 31 Munshi, K.M., 32, 59 Mysticism, 6, 16, 48, 49 mystic, 7, 12, 16, 34, 137, 148 N National education, 4, 118 National ego, 9, 10, 13, 55, 62–81, 85, 88–92, 127, 134, 141, 147 Nationalism ethnic, 62–64, 101 secular, 60, 62, 64 Nation-soul, 9, 10, 13, 55, 62–81, 85, 88 Negative peace, 127 Nehru, J., 4, 5, 118, 127 Neti neti, 38 Nietzsche, 7 Nirguna Nirguna Brahman, 27 Nishkama karma, 44 Nivritti, 43 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 147, 148 Northern Ireland, 99 O Oceanic feeling, 8, 21, 32, 137 P Pakistan, 125, 144, 145 Palestine, 99 Paramarthik satya, 30 Passive resistance, 121 Patriotism, 5, 68, 69, 119 Plato, 7, 129 Pondicherry (Puducherry), 1, 5, 45, 46, 123, 150 Positive peace, 66, 89

155 Power politics, 82, 84, 88, 90, 91 Pratyaksha anubhuti, 32, 33 Pravritti, 43 Purani, A.B., 2, 105, 123 R Radhakrishnan, S., 1 Rakshasa, 37 Rama, 37 Ramayana, 105 Rationalist philosophy, 6 Relative deprivation, 103 Religionism, 60, 61, 106, 145 Religion of Humanity, 60, 61, 70–74, 76, 106 Rishabhchand, 47 Rishi, 18 Rolland, R., 2, 8, 16, 21, 32, 137 Rousseau, J.J., 74 Roy, D.K., 2 S Saccidananda/Sachchidananda, 13, 15, 34–47, 135 Sankhya, 27 Sannyasa, 140, 150 Satyavan, 48, 50 Savitri, 12, 13, 15, 28, 30, 32, 39–42, 46–51, 104, 137, 147, 148, 151 Shakti, 26 Shankara, 18, 26, 30, 31, 33 Soham, 36, 138 Sorokin, P.A., 18 Soviet Russia, 83 Soviet Union, 84, 91, 98, 100, 126, 134, 146 Spiegelberg, F., 133, 140, 141, 150 Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 11, 12, 45, 46, 79 Sri Chaitanya, 17 Sri Ramakrishna, 17–18, 33 Streit, C.K., 66 Superconscience superconscient, 32 Superman, 13, 15, 17, 34–47, 52, 133, 140 Supermind, 8, 13, 15, 34–47, 49, 52, 133, 136, 140 Supramental consciousness, 7, 13, 35, 41, 43, 79, 137 Sustainable Development Goals, 102 Swadeshi, 4, 118 Swadharma, 122, 128 Swami Vivekananda, 3, 17, 33, 60 Swaraj, 4, 17, 118

156 Synthesis of Yoga, 6, 16, 44 Syria, 88, 101, 135 T Tagore, R., 77, 150 Tapasya, 50 Tatwamasi, 36 The Mother, 12, 45, 48, 49, 78–80, 124 Treaty of Westphalia, 62, 101, 144 Truman, H.S., 10, 126 Turkey, 101 Tyberg, J.M., 48, 141 U Ukraine, 76, 85, 91–93, 100, 104, 124, 129, 133, 135, 139, 141, 146–148 Ultimate Reality, 25–27, 30, 38, 42, 49, 117 Unilateralism, 86 United Nations (UN) Charter, 10, 84, 86, 88 Security Council, 10, 83, 87–90 United Nations Conference, 10 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 79, 84 United Nations Security Council, 10, 134 Uttarpara speech, 4, 6, 17, 36, 60

Index V Vasudeva, 4, 6 Vedanta, 6, 7, 12, 16–18, 22, 25, 27, 30, 31, 33, 38, 44, 46, 60, 73, 104, 136 Vedas, 16–18, 23, 26, 33 Vidya, 25 Vietnam, 98 Vijnana, 41 Visistadvaita, 27 Vyavaharik satya, 30 W Wilson, M.W., 8, 45, 46 World federation, 9 World state, 9, 70, 75 World War, 13, 69, 73, 76, 88, 101, 124, 146, 147 First World War, 10, 56, 65–67, 69, 75–77, 82, 124 Second World War, 9, 10, 56, 62, 67, 69, 76, 78, 82, 83, 87, 98–100, 124–126, 134 Y Yama, 50 Yoga, 1, 3–8, 11–13, 15–53, 79, 122, 123, 128–130, 133, 136, 138–141, 150 Bhakti, 17, 22, 45 Jnana, 18, 45 Karma, 18, 22, 45, 79 Tantra, 18, 27, 45