Sri Aurobindo: A Life Extraordinary
In all aspects of his personality Sri Aurobindo was entirely unconventional. As a poet and politician, as a philosopher and yogi, he always hewed new paths. As a thinker he was ahead of most others among the contemporaries.
As a politician he always remained in the background until the rulers arrested and kept him as an under trial prisoner in Alipore Bomb case. He was the first to repeatedly demand total freedom as the political goal of the country in the pages of Bande Mataram.
While in England he was well acquainted with the European history and thought, revolutionary ideas and deeds; Shelley’s Revolt of Islam moved him to some extent. By the time he was in politics his ideal was Indian freedom based on its spirituality. It seemed as if he was born with it. He was a pioneer in spreading Spiritual Nationalism as a practical path breaker on the way to freedom, taking inspiration mainly from Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel Anandamath. Swami Vivekananda too was an example before him. His spiritualism at that time was based mainly on Hindu scriptures, Hindu ideals and the age old practices, confirmed by his own experiences. Naturally he could not or would not bring in other religions in the scheme of spiritual nationalism which grew spontaneously according to the ethos of the time.
What this religion is he described in full details in his Uttarpara speech. According to this, this religion is older than the Hindu religion which is a combination of many faiths. This originated in the Vedas, the oldest source of religion, known as the Sanatan Dharma which he always believed would raise the Indian Nation and along with it the whole world.
Though India was divided in many kingdoms and feudal lords, it was united by this Sanatan Dharma and the age old culture. India was invaded number of times by foreign forces. While most of them left, some remained with their culture and religion. India absorbed all, assimilated all. Even when large number of the countrymen embraced other religions mostly under compulsive situations, India remained one. Sri Aurobindo always stressed on this unity even after it was divided. His Uttarpara Speech was the revelation of his spiritual self, its experiences and the hope that India will rise again at the behest of Sanatan Dharma. It will remain united.
In his time Hindu Muslim conflict was not so serious. But he observed that the rulers made all possible efforts to divide the minds of the two peoples and were successful in dividing Bengal. He never accepted the situation. The settled fact of division was unsettled, Bengal was united again. He never accepted the constitutional reform proposed by Lord Morley. Throughout the length of different issues of Karmayogin, he stressed on the subject of unity from time to time.
“In any case it cannot outweigh, however full it may be, the disastrous character of the principle of separate electorates introduced by Lord Morley, intentionally or unintentionally, as the thin end of a wedge which, when driven well home, will break our growing nationality into a hundred jarring pieces.” (Karmayogin. Vol.1. No.13. Dated-18.9.09)
“We will be no party to a distinction which recognises Hindu and Mahomedan as permanently separate political units and thus precludes the growth of a single and indivisible Indian nation.” (ibid. No. 18. Dated- 6.11.09)
Before his eyes this division between the two communities began with the ploy and patronage of the imperial lords. He never thought of any division or partition for Mother India was always one before his eyes. He wished a way to undo this division of minds:
“We must strive to remove the causes of misunderstanding by a better mutual knowledge and sympathy; we must extend the unfaltering love of the patriot to our Musulman 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.” (Under the title; Swaraj and the Musulmans. Pondicherry; Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library. Vol.2. p.24)
Long after the partition is over, reading the mind of Pakistanis, we understand that most of them are highly dissatisfied and are very sorry that none have been able to give a true shape to a Muslim nation as its founding leader hoped. In fact history is unveiling itself gradually that the founding father of Pakistan was not in favour of dividing the united India at the beginning, however much communal he later became. There were some others who thought it expedient to get it done to see their own position secured. However much suppressed it is, the truth is on the brink, likes to overflow. We in India are suffering still from various deformities due mainly to partition. We remember again and again, what great it would be to accept the offer of the Cabinet Mission through Sir Stafford Cripps in 1942. The country would not be divided. We can’t share the great wisdom of the then great leaders who refused to accept Sri Aurobindo’s suggestion to them to accept the Cripps Mission to avoid the partition. Neither the Quit India movement was non-violent nor was it the singular action to bring the truncated freedom of the country; read the history properly. Today Indians should more realise what the consequences of partition are, a curse in our life, and what a true wisdom is like which is represented by Sri Aurobindo.
In 1909 the divine acquired the foremost position in his life. Division between man and man, community and community, religion and religion was far from his thought. His love for humanity was overwhelming which ultimately led him to devote his life towards establishing a divine life on earth. His scheme and action is contained in his world famous magnum opus: The Life Divine.
The scheme of divine life is neither a chimera nor a utopia. It can be tried with all sincerity. It will help mankind to the extent it is achieved in solving its problem of existence, specially in the face of failure of all the isms so far.
Sri Aurobindo’s literary productions which include his sociological and spiritual thoughts, extend to thousands of pages in more than 30 big volumes, as in the centenary edition of his works. His one big poem, Savitri a spiritual epic, began to be composed at the end of the nineteenth century and continued for more than half a century till he breathed his last. It is the longest poem in English language, claimed to be the second largest in the whole of European literature. Most of his works extending to various fields of human thought and creation are of immense value for man, present and future.
Almost at the beginning of his yoga, words came to him in a silent mind without any thought. He wrote lines after lines, pages after pages of poem and prose without thinking. Long before he uttered the words, ‘All life is yoga’, he had carried the faith in the core of his heart. Rules and rituals were otiose for him. According to him, yoga was psychological, an entirely inner movement. So he never performed any puja with all rituals. He had no Guru, other than some helpers. The Maharashtrian yogi V. B. Lele was one who had taught him to blank his mind but the result was so astonishing that he himself advised him to depend on God alone. Lele left him finally when he learnt that Sri Aurobindo had not been following any routine as advised by him, as he was then in the thick of a stormy political life.
“I lived with Sri Aurobindo, who never used to sit cross-legged. He told me right away it was all a question of habits- subconscious habit . . . . And how well he explained: ‘If a posture is necessary for you, it will come by itself.’ ” Mother said to her disciple on 11 May, 1963. It is known that he used to meditate while walking speedily in his rooms with flowing hairs dancing on his shoulders for hours, sometimes extending to 12/13 hours at a stretch. But he never closed his eyes. They were kept open even when he had visions extraordinary.
Samadhi is trance, which a saint or yogi attains usually after many years of rigorous sadhana. Mother said, “Sri Aurobindo told . . . me that he never, ever had a Samadhi in his body.” But after his passing away Sri Aurobindo’s body was placed in a Samadhi.
During his life span of approximately 78 years, 3 months and 19 days, he lived mainly in four corners of the globe: Bengal (about 10 years and 5 months), England (about 13 years and 6 months), Baroda (about 13 years and 4 months) and Pondicherry (about 40 years and 8 months), besides his stay in ships, trains and other modes of conveyance.
Wherever he lived, he lived most simply, without any luxury or comfort. He did not seek any such thing. He rejoiced all the houses he lived in and prepared himself inwardly for the great mission for which he had arrived on earth. He was attached to none. None he disliked. He discarded them quite inevitably, as one discards his worn out dresses.
The place where his Ashram is situated now was once the ancient Vedic teaching centre established by Rishi Agastya. It was his ashram, wrote the French architect and scholar, Jouveau Dubreuil.
After his passing away in 1950, he made his abode in the subtle physical, very near to earth atmosphere. Mother visited him there many times.
“I again spent the whole night with Sri Aurobindo”, Mother said on 15 November 1966 and continued, “He has quite beautiful abode there! It’s magnificent.” ‘Learning’ to be what it must be.”
Sri Aurobindo was a man who lived extraordinarily. He lived beyond life (he still lives) yet he wrote to his disciple that if he could do such things in his life, any one could do the same by efforts, as he too was a mortal.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Biographical: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
The Golden Bridge
Mirra Alfassa was a trained artist, a musician, an occultist, a teacher, a writer and a great organizer. She was the Mother of humans, animals and plants. She lived from wonder to wonder, she lived to go beyond life. Embodying a divine personality in a human frame, she became a golden bridge between earth and heaven. She is our Mother, human and divine.
Her ancestral heritage was rooted in different countries. She was the grand-daughter of an Egyptian Prince, Said Pinto, who permitted the digging of Suez Canal, which was opened after his death. Her mother Mathilde was an Egyptian but her father Maurice Alfassa was a Turk. Her parents migrated to France in 1877. They were very practical and did not bother about the existence of God.
Mirra was born on Thursday, 21 February 1878 at about 10-15 am. Immediately after birth she was christened by her father as Mirra Alfassa. The nurse at the maternity clinic wrote at the corner of the cloth, M. A. So her nickname became Ma, which was liked by her father. Ma means mother in many languages, somewhere with some variations. She became mother from her birth.
Mother said later that she had begun her sadhana at her birth, but she did not remember anything before the age of five. At five she would sit in a chair, specially made for her, for hours together and would feel a pressure of light and force over her head. Sometimes, when she would sit very gravely in her chair, leaving aside all her playthings, her mother would wonder if all the miseries of the world had bent her head. When the child would reply that it was really so, she would leave her alone.
“Between 11 and 13 a series of psychic and spiritual experiences revealed to me not only the existence of God but man’s possibility of uniting with him . . .” she said in 1920. She had written in her diary on 22.2.1914- “When I was child of about thirteen, for nearly a year, every night as soon as I had gone to bed it seemed to me that I went out of my body and rose straight up above the house, then above the city, very high above. Then I used to see myself clad in a magnificent golden robe . . . and as I rose higher, the robe would stretch, spreading out in a circle around me to form a kind of immense roof over the city. Then I would see men, women, children, old men, the sick, the unfortunate coming out from every side; . . . . the robe, supple and alive, would extend towards each one of them individually, and as soon they had touched it, they were comforted or healed, and went back to their bodies happier and stronger. . . . Nothing seemed more beautiful to me, nothing could make me happier . . . this . . . was the true life for me.”
As late as on 17 July 1963 she said to one of her disciples that shower of letters had started coming from known and unknown people who described their miseries and implored her blessings. During the only time for her rest, between 2 and 4-30 am, she said that she saw people whom she had never seen before physically on earth. She went to places completely unknown to her. When she was about twelve, she used to go to the woods of Fontainbleu, near home. Though she did not know the right meaning of meditation, she would often sit under big old tree, resting herself on its trunk and silently delve deeper into her inner self, merging herself in union with the surrounding nature. Squirrels would play on her body, a bird would perch on her head and perhaps after an hour’s meditation when she opened her eyes, she would see a gazelle looking intently at her from a distance.
Mirra completed her regular education at the age of 15. She then joined the Academie Julian as an art student. She had the inborn talent and soon she became a good artist. Some of her paintings were exhibited and sold at the famous ‘Salon de la Societe National de Beaux Arts’ in Paris. She married a senior artist, Henri Morisset, on 13 October 1897. They separated in 1908. This was a period of her intense vital and artistic growth. At that time she worked with many great artists to whom she was like a sister. But she did not like their life style. It was only a passing phase in her life, a preparation for a greater one.
By and by she entered another phase of her life. It was a plunge into the occult world. But she did not give up art forever. She remained a lover of beauty. She did many oil paintings in a different situation in her life in Japan. Later she did many pencil drawings in Pondicherry. From time to time she formed groups of elites, who were intrigued by the invisible. They thought of philosophy, ethics and a higher way of life. They planned a greater future. Mirra was their leader.
She met Max Theon, the great occultist, in Paris in 1905 and travelled to Algeria in 1906 and 1907. There she learnt occultism from Max and Alma Theon, his wife, very systematically and soon became an adept. Many extraordinary things happened there. Going out of the body or taming the turbulent sea were a few of them.
Paul Richard, a French politician and intellectual, had interest in occult matters. He had travelled to Algeria. For sometime Mirra and Paul Richard worked closely together and Mirra found it expedient to marry him in 1911. Richard came to Pondicherry with some political assignment and met Sri Aurobindo in 1910. He was highly impressed by the sage. After he went back to France, Mirra started communication with Sri Aurobindo. While her life with Henri Morisset was intensely vital, physical and emotional; she made many experiments with senses, it became mental, intellectual and occult from 1908, until she met Sri Aurobindo in 1914.
During her sleep and meditation, Mirra used to see a few luminous beings who often guided her in the subtle world. When she came to Pondicherry and met Sri Aurobindo in 1914, on the auspicious 29 March, she immediately recognized him to be the Krishna of her dream and trance, the Guru who often came to her, in another world. She fancied him to be Krishna, an Indian deity, as she knew then.
After they had met for the first time, both of them plunged in deep meditation. Later Mirra said that she got such a perfect silence in the presence of Sri Aurobindo that she ever longed for but never had before. Sri Aurobindo too admitted that he had never seen such a perfect surrender as Mirra did in his presence, which was so essential for his yoga. Mirra and Paul Richard had to leave for France on 22 February 1915, under political compulsions. During their stay, a great quaterly magazine, the Arya and its French counterpart, Le Revieu Cosmique, were launched on Sri Aurobindo’s birthday on 15 August 1914. The Arya continued up to January 1921. The magazine carried the major portion of Sri Aurobindo’s important works.
From France they went to Japan where they spent four years and then returned to Pondicherry 0n 20 April 1920. While Richard left, Mirra stayed on, to work with Sri Aurobindo, to fulfil her spiritual dream. In the course of time Sri Aurobindo rcognised the divine presence in her and declared that she was the Divine Mother incarnate. She, in fact, took charge of the household comprising of the disciples and the master on 22 January 1922. When the master completely interned himself for his Supramental Yoga, after the Siddhi on 24 Novmber1926, Mirra became the Mother of all the ashramites, as desired by Sri Aurobindo. It is considered to be the birthday of the ashram.
Thereafter it grew up under the divine leadership of the Mother. The foundation of Auroville, the international township, was laid on 28 February 1968 under Mother’s guidance.
Mother was more than a genius. She could be at the top of many human activities, but she cared little to be the champion. She was a tennis player who always played with her superiors and seniors so that she might learn better.
A great plant lover, Mother could enter into the heart of a flower in a subtle, mystic way and identify herself with it, with its inner truth. Through the flowers she conveyed to others her messages- thoughts and feelings. Through them she bestowed her blessings, which were full of light, love and power. Flower is a manifestation of the psychic presence. “Look at a rose opening in the morning at the first touch of the Sun, it’s a magnificent self-giving in aspiration.” She said.
To a disciple on 25 October 1967 she said, “They have a sensitiveness unknown to us- sometimes in the morning, I have a closed rose bud, then I take it out of the water like this (gesture of stroking the flower all around), without touching it . . . and it opens!
“And people say it’s not conscious!”
An animal lover from the core of her heart, she perhaps loved the cats most. Kanai Lal Ganguly, an early inmate of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, recalled from memory- “The first time I saw the Mother, she looked at me for a second. She was very beautiful and looked much younger than her age. There were two cats on her shoulder; I looked around and saw a few more. One of the cats from her shoulder jumped on Sri Aurobindo’s throne chair.”
“People speak of maternal love with such admiration, as though it were purely a human privilege, but I have seen this love manifested by a mother-cat which would never touch her food until her babies had taken all they needed”, She said in one of her talks.
We have her photos with Goro and Puchi, her pet dogs. Many types of animals, from lion to warty frogs received her affection. About a few bullocks working for the Ashram, she wrote on 14.9.1932, “The bullocks are not mischievous. On the contrary, they are very good and peaceful creatures, but very sensitive- unusually sensitive perhaps”-
Mother was a musician who welcomed each New Year with her organ music till 1964. She was a writer and wrote three dramas, a few short stories, number of articles and essays. Her diary notes, published as Prayers and Meditations, and her answers to questions made by her disciples on varied subjects, almost covering the entire human life, the life of plants and animals, are golden treasures to be preserved by the human race.
She was a teacher and a teacher’s teacher. She was an administrator who did everything for the running of her establishment, from procuring funds to execution of each of her plans through her disciples. When Kulapati K. M. Munshi revisited the Ashram in 1952, there were some 750 ashramites. In an article in the Hindusthan Times he wrote on 15.8.1952, “I saw a unique experiment . . . which enabled people to live a self-contained community life. But who created this wondrous atmosphere and how? And why did Mother do it? Was it with the great intention of creating on earth a little island of peace, an island where existence acquired a sacramental quality?” he asked.
Mother had withdrawn from most of her activities by the end of 1958, when she
was 80 years old, mainly for physical disabilities. But she continued her real work, the work of transformation, which was specially assigned to her by Sri Aurobindo, as only her body suited the purpose. “Your body is at present the only one on earth that can do the work”, he said to Mother. Mother confided it to her disciple on 22 November 1967.
“We are determined- he and I- to complete what he lived for,” she said to Munshi.
She paid value only for the consciousness she embodied. “Do not ask questions about the details of the material existence of this body: they are in themselves of no interest and must not attract attention,” she said on 22.6.1958.
But her consciousness was not restricted in her mind and vital, it permeated into her body. On 22 November 1967 she said to a disciple who recorded her talks, “You understand, people were asking to be divine in their mind and vital- that is, the whole ancient history of spirituality, the same old theme for centuries- but now, it’s the Body. It’s certainly a progress . . . . ‘It’s a denial of all the spiritual assertions of the past: “If you want to live fully conscious of the divine life, leave your body- the body cannot follow.” Well, Sri Aurobindo came and said, “Not only can the body follow, but it can be the base that will manifest the Divine.”
“Well, that’s what I have been trying to explain for months. It’s first of all, awakening the consciousness in the cells . . . . Once it’s done it’s done: the consciousness keeps awakening more and more, the cells live consciously, aspire consciously . . . .
“Since it’s taking place in one body, it can take place in all bodies! I am not made of anything different from others. The difference is of consciousness, that’s all.” Mother said.
It is like Sri Aurobindo, who also asserted to his disciple that what he had accomplished as a man could be accomplished by any other mortal.
Mother transformed the cells of her body with Supramental light and force, to the extent her mortal frame permitted, up to her last day on earth, 17 November 1973. She conceived, quite independently, that the cells were talking to each other in her body, the truth the Scientists discovered on their own. That was the process required for the divinisation of life, to bring god down to earth as per the yogic vision and divine plan of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. But the work was not ccmpleted here on earth, as it was not ready for it. Mother prepared a new body in the subtle physical plane. Nolinikanta Gupta, in his Sweet Mother, wrote about it-
“The New Body of hers, prepared behind the material curtain, she sought to infuse into the material form, even press into it or force into it this new element; Earth still considered it as an intrusion, as something foreign. The material casing broke in consequence- perhaps not broke down, rather broke through, but that must be another story. But it is there, living and glorious in its beauty and power and is still at work within us and around us in the world, incessantly, towards the final consummation of its material embodiment.”
Mother is not here but her consciousness is ever vibrant with us, with those who may come in contact with it. Mother is not here, but we still hear as she whispered once to one of her disciples, “You know, we belong to eternity!”
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Towards the Rebirth of India
Synopsis
More than 60 years have passed from the beginning of our journey as a free nation. We have achieved much; economically, scientifically and technically. We could do much more but for the inherent weaknesses in the leadership of those who took the reign of the country at the beginning of its freedom which still plagues the country, besieged as we are with dangers unforeseen. To overcome such dangers we have to analyse the weaknesses and surge out of it, not only to be the leader of Asia but also of the whole world with the help of our age old spiritual resources, which is our inherent strength.
India’s spiritual teachings and yoga have been working. Orient and the occident, in the opposite spheres of the globe, are meeting through the teachings and establishments of moderns. The spiritual regeneration of India will lead to its becoming the leader of the world, gaining a global unity, leading mankind towards a higher life, away from war and strife. They may be fulfilled if the majority realizes the need for it and act towards realizing the truth, today or tomorrow.
The issue of Rebirth
‘India must be Reborn, because her Rebirth is demanded by the future of the world. . . .It is she who must send forth from herself the future religion of the entire world, the Eternal Religion which is to harmonise all religions, science and philosophies and make mankind one soul.’- Wrote Sri Aurobindo in Bhawani Mandir, a revolutionary pamphlet.
The blunder of the leaders
More than 60 years have passed from the beginning of our journey as a free nation. We have achieved much; economically, scientifically and technically. We could do much more but for the inherent weaknesses in the leadership of those who took the reign of the country at the beginning of its freedom which still plagues the country, besieged as we are with dangers unforeseen. To overcome such dangers we have to analyse the weaknesses and surge out of it, not only to be the leader of Asia but also of the whole world with the help of our age old spiritual resources, which is our inherent strength.
Jawaharlal Nehru, a fine orator, scholar and gifted writer, was fond of dabbling seriously with words and dreaming the fine things. But in spite of all fine speculations he failed in taking right actions at the right times. It was unfortunate that the charge of free India was entrusted on his shoulders by the one who was a kingpin of his time in Indian polity. The choice of Nehru was one of the series of blunders committed by M. K. Gandhi which resulted in the failure of almost all his political actions, leading to his becoming almost a persona non grata at the beginning of India’s political freedom.
With Western education and rational mind Nehru journeyed through India in the company of the mighty travellers from China and Western and Central Asia, who came here in the remote past. With others he too observed, ‘Surely India could not have been what she undoubtedly was, and could not have continued a cultural existence for thousands of years, if she had not possessed something very vital and enduring, something that was worthwhile. What was this something?’ 1
A Brahmin pundit from Kashmir, Nehru denied his heritage, he was not spiritual in any sense so it seems that he never realized that something.
It is to his credit that he created the voluminous The Discovery of India, a history and culture of Indian past and present within a period of some five months in Ahmednagar Fort Prison in 1944. In view of the fact that there are large number of quotations and references, it seems that either the writer had access to all such books quoted in the prison itself or he might have quoted from other books as secondary sources or the book was later edited though he mentioned that no additions or changes were made later.
However, we know him through this book- ‘I do not usually burden my mind with such philosophical or metaphysical problems. . . . But usually it is action and the thought of action that fill me . . . ‘2
Without denying the fact that there were great people who professed divinity, without denying the existence of the beyond, the invisible world, he did not bother to go into them for ‘Religion, as I saw practiced, and accepted even by thinking minds . . . did not attract me . . . . superstitious practices and dogmatic beliefs . . . . certainly not that of science.’ 3
Mysticism irritated him. He thought that they were intellectual speculations which did not affect his life. Though the logic of karma and soul had some appeal to him, any idea of personal god seemed very odd to him. ‘While I accepted the fundamentals of the socialist theory, I did not trouble myself about its numerous inner controversies. I had little patience with leftist groups in India.’ 4
He was, in short, interested in this world, in this life, not in the other world or the future life. Not a Marxist, he understood the Vedas and the Upanishads through the spectacles of the Western scholars. He did not have an iota of spiritual sense though on it was built the edifice of Indian culture.
Once on 13 June 1963, he with his entourage visited the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. Two days later while talking to her disciple she said, ‘I saw Nehru – it’s awful! Understands nothing, nothing, nothing, absolutely obtuse . . . . you see, he takes Gandhi’s asceticism for spiritual life- always the same mistake! There’s no way to pull them out of it, unfortunately the whole world has caught the same idea. . . .
‘I had asked S.M. (Surendra Mohan Ghose, the Congress leader) to come while Nehru was here (he is a friend of Nehru. . . .) and S.M. did all the talking. But I saw that if he had been silent, if Nehru had been sitting in his armchair with me, saying nothing and no one to listen to, he couldn’t have stayed! He would have left. It would have been too strong, he couldn’t have stayed.’ 5
Let us see how he acted in the country’s affairs before and after he became the first Prime Minister of India for 17 years.
With the fall of Penang and Singapur, as the Japanese advanced in Malay, England faced a dangerous situation in April 1942 against the Nazis and Japan who threatened to invade Burma and India. The British War Cabinet sent a mission under Sir Stafford Cripps, expecting Indian cooperation, offering Dominion Status to India. This was a dangerous as well as special situation. Sri Aurobindo the yogi had foreseen the boon of the offer. He welcomed Cripps and his offer and the later responded positively. He sent a telegram to the Congress- ‘Accept, whatever the conditions, otherwise it will be worse later on.’ 6
He sent his messenger, Barristar Duraiswami Iyer, who met Gandhi and the Working Committee separately. Among other things, Sri Aurobindo’s view was that British imperialism was an old decaying one but Japanese imperialism was a greater menace. He advised cooperation with the British in collaboration with the Muslim strength. While Duraiswami met with stony silence from the Working Committee members, Gandhi advised Sri Aurobindo through him to come out and lead the country, saying that Bengal needed him most. Sri Aurobindo was away from direct politics from 1910 but he had interest for the country’s welfare, worked to the extent possible in yogic way for the whole humanity. Gandhi further said, ‘Why is that man meddling? He should be concerned only with spiritual life.’ 7
There is a feeling of grudge in Gandhi’s question and kind advice. The Mother had given the reason for it too during her talks. Many others later realised and K. M. Munshi, a prominent minister, said publicly in 1951 that had they accepted Sri Aurobindo’s advice, there would not have been any partition later. Partition brought in its trail blood-bath, human loss, refugees, hatred, war with Pakistan and terrorism. What perpetual holocaust! Could they not be avoided?
On 8 August 1942 the Quit India resolution was passed. The next morning most of the leaders were arrested and put behind the bars. They were brought out for discussions when the British could no more continue to safely keep the Indian empire. The Quit India movement took its expected shape, mostly non-violent. So it is not that Gandhi, Nehru and their group led the non-violent movement towards Indian freedom.
Before the resolution, though Nehru felt depressed with the report of the Mission, he tried with C. Rajagopalachary, it is said, to accept the proposal. So with a demurral, with a prick of conscience for having lost the chance, Nehru later observed- ‘A revolutionary change, both political and economic, is not only needed in India but would appear to be inevitable. At the end of 1939, soon after the war started, and again, in April, 1942, there seemed to be a faint possibility of such a change taking place by consent between India and England. But those possibilities and opportunities passed because every basic change was feared. 8
That Subhas Chandra Bose escaped from the country on the night of January 16-17, 1941 was a great relief to many, who were seeking the throne and their supporters. But Subhas Chandra and Vallabhbhai Patel were many times more efficient than Nehru to be the Prime Minister of India. Gandhi knew that Patel was a real Hindu but not anti-Muslim. ‘It would be a travesty of truth to describe Sardar as anti-Muslim’, Gandhi assured the Muslim leaders. Patel would have broken ties with Nehru more than once but Gandhi made him promise to support Nehru as the Prime Minister and to cooperate with him- an example of personal favouritism at the cost of the country. That is why Nehru became the Congress President in 1946, after a long spell of Presidentship by Maulana Azad, to be the Prime Minister next. He disregarded later the naming of Jinnah as the Prime Minister by Gandhi.
Gandhi non-cooperated with Subhas when he became Congress President for the second term in 1939 against his own man, Pattabhi Sitaramaya. Here we may say that non-violence does not mean non-killing only. Non-violence is in action and thought also. Non-cooperation by Gandhi and his clique with Subhas brought a series of massacres later. Subhas’s going out was disastrous for him and many others though it helped to gain the Indian freedom beyond the conception of most of the leaders. Let us remember him, the Chief Commander of the Indian National Army, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, with a Jai Hind.
After his total disappearance, called death by them, Gandhi observed as the consequence of it, ‘The whole country has been roused and even the regular forces have been stirred into a new political consciousness and have begun to think in terms of Independence.’ 9
Gandhiji did not dream of what Subhas did. And let us see what Jawaharlal felt about it. ‘The story of Indian National Army, formed in Burma and Malaya during war years, spread suddenly throughout the country and evoked an astonishing enthusiasm. The trial by court martial of some of its officers aroused the country as nothing else had done, and they became the symbol of India fighting for freedom. . . Hindu and Muslim and Sikh and Christian were all represented in that army. They had solved the communal problem amongst themselves, and so why should we not do so?’ 10
We know how miserably they failed to do it- Gandhi, Nehru and other leaders of both Hindus and Muslims- during the independence time.
The march of time and events were not lagging behind. Those who really acted did not fear. Congress leaders with Muslim League were summoned to the negotiation table.
On 8 May 1946 the Cabinet Mission offered two schemes of independence- Scheme A for united India with options for provinces and princely states to decide their fate later with a lose federation, with more powers for the provinces than the Centre. Scheme B proposed a divided India. Though Muslim League gave their consent to accept Scheme A with certain conditions, Nehrus did not agree to go with a weak Central Government. So a divided India with its inevitable choice of Nehru as the Prime Minister was the only path left. Many have observed that this was the last opportunity of remaining united while gaining freedom. It would be immensely beneficial for India, Asia and the World, they have argued.
However much depressed Nehru had become, the two communities, provinces and princely states were accorded choice to decide their future in the Cripps proposal. The British Government always made it a point to include such clauses in their agreement with Indian parties while proposing to give freedom.
In June 1947 V J Patel was given charge of 565 princely rulers with options to merge their territories with India in two months before 15 August 1947. With apt negotiations he brought all princely states within the fold of Indian Union except three- Kashmir, Junagadh and Hyderabad which too later agreed to become parts of India. In Hyderabad he used force quite efficiently. But he was not allowed to do so in respect of Kashmir for the Deputy Prime Minister was under Nehru, a man more internationalist than nationalist with a mind concentrated not on India alone.
The Maharaja of Kashmir, Hari Singh, signed a stand-still agreement with India and Pakistan on 18 August 1947 but the agreement was violated by Pakistan. Tribesmen from there invaded Kashmir on 22 October 1947. Nehru, on 27 October 1947 congratulated the Maharaja for his agreement and for his letter to the Governor General of India. Kashmir finally agreed to be merged with India. Nehru decided to send Indian Army troops to Kashmir and mentioned all arrangements to the Maharaja seeking his help and ended his letter- ‘The way the people of Kashmir, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh, are facing the situation and preparing to defend their country is most heartening. I trust that in this defence we shall give a demonstration to all India and to the world how we can function united and in a non-communal way in Kashmir. In this way this terrible crisis in Kashmir may well lead to a healing of the deep wound which India has suffered in recent months.’
But the historians have held him responsible for further developments and the debacle. They think that he lacked the courage and determination too. He referred the invasion of Kashmir to the UNO in January 1948. P.O.K. was created and the internecine problems with Pakistan and terrorists continue till date. If the Iron-Man was in the Prime Minister’s chair, they think that this would never have happened.
After the partition and transfer of power, ‘Gandhi, sidelined by his erstwhile lieutenants, wandered about the country . . . . like some later day Lear . . . to quell the communal furies. . .’, commented Anil Seal, a modern historian. 11
He further wrote that Gandhi’s own brand of social conservatism through personal reformation, his project to uplift Harijans, desire to take India back to its traditional non-industrial rural roots, keeping communal harmony through Satyagraha and the desire of curbing violence just remained as fragile crust of order in Indian society. His civil disobedience movements scratched the surface of Indian society. They had not shaken the British Raj. ‘Gandhi’s love affair with the India of his dreams had left him jilted.’- Wrote Seal. 12
Acharya Kripalani said in 1954 that, ‘Nehru became a prominent leader of the freedom struggle basically because of the colonial mindset of the Indians. He is an Englishman in Indian clothing. So the respect for him.’
So we found him friendlier with Lord Mountbatten and his wife. So a book, Freedom at Midnight, describing such things vividly, received the grace of the press and his followers in the Government.
Nehru’s China Policy in Free India
Nehru praised China often and on in his Discovery of India- ‘India and China look towards each other and past memories crowd in their minds; again pilgrims of a new kind cross or fly over the mountains that separate them, bringing their messages of cheer and goodwill and creating fresh bonds of a friendship that will endure.’ 13
So he tried to befriend them with bond of Pachasheel, with a loud slogan- Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai.
The friends, crossing the mountains, suddenly attacked us on 20 October 1962 and rapidly pushed inside on 26 October. A mini war! Many braced death heroically. India declared a state of emergency. Unprepared, Indian troops were utterly defeated by the then militarily weak China, who a month later unilaterally declared a ceasefire and withdrew troops.
The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram who knew the Chinese people through her occult sense and eyes, acted on them spiritually and caused their withdrawal. She said that they wanted domination. They claimed huge land in India as theirs. They have recently claimed an area of 90000 sq km of Indian territory including Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, as theirs.
Speaking about Nehru, Mother said on 15 June 1963, ‘It seems that when the Chinese attacked it was a violent blow to his conviction; he thought it impossible that the Chinese would do such a thing (!) He was very deeply shattered.
‘Naturally, they see no further than the tips of their noses, and then they are surprised when circumstances (laughs) don’t agree!’ 14
Rajeev Srinivasan, in the Special Independence Day Issue, 2004 of Outlook, made a strong case against India’s undesirable defeat in the hands of the Chinese. Nehru personally helped China to get a seat in the UN Security Council. India is still hankering after it. Nehru could neither imbibe the heritage of India nor could he be a true socialist. He dreamt of a socialistic type of society. For his weakness India lost the war to the communist imperialist aggressors, who have annexed Free Tibet for their own benefit. Indian Government is still as weak as it was before, not able to speak the truth.
Sri Aurobindo’s Vision
Sri Aurobindo, the yogi, warned from his secluded room in 1950 about the possibility of Chinese aggression on India and of occupying Tibet.
Tibet is the source of rivers that give water to the subcontiment and to some other South Asian countries. Brahmaputra, Mekong, Irrawaddy originate there. It has controls over Ganga-Brahmaputra-Doab valley. In Tibets high plains China stock nuclear missiles, dump nuclear wastes. In open day light China has colonized Tibet, destroyed its religion and culture. It poses a great danger to India.
Mother never considered Nehru as a worthy Prime Minister though she, on his death said in a message, ‘Nehru leaves his body but his soul is one with the Soul of India that lives for Eternity.’ 15 But it is a matter of soul, beyond Nehru’s ken and concern.
The Dynastic Rule
Indira Gandhi became the General Secretary of the Congress during Nehru’s time. It was the platform for her to become the Prime Minister of India from 1966-77 and 1980-84. She proved to be a very strong woman of India but she had to adopt several harmful methods and actions mainly to secure her political position. She had greater understanding than her father, the Mother said and helped her. But the declaration of emergency in 1975 resulted in horribly upsetting the progress of the country. Her sons got the opportunity of pushing their ways unofficially. Her time has been marked as dark economic age in which 50 Acts, many draconian, were passed.
Indira made her son Rajiv the G.S. of the Congress resulting in his becoming the Prime Minister of India. After him, his wife has become the party president and she has made her son the same, General Secretary of the party. The move may be guessed.
Our Hope
Sri Aurobindo, the prophet of Indian nationalism and the poet of patriotism, as said C. R. Das in the Alipore court, was the founder of Spiritual Nationalism. He with B. G. Tilak, Bepin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai lead the Indian freedom movement at the beginning of the twentieth century. Referring to that Karan Singh wrote, ‘The nationalist movement moved out of the conference halls of the elite and entered the streets and villages.’16
In his message to the nation through Tiruchirappally Radio on the occasion of Indian independence falling on his 75th birthday on 15 August 1947, Sri Aurobindo spoke of his five dreams, the third being, ‘Another dream, spiritual gift of India to the world has already begun. 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.’
In spite of disasters, we know how his hope is being fulfilled. In spite of the nuclear bomb dangling over our heads, with all reverence to Techno-India’s grand target by 2020 as set by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, with all reverence to the spree of software growth and industrialization, we may say that India’s spiritual teachings and yoga have been working. Orient and the occident, in the opposite spheres of the globe, are meeting through the teachings and establishments of moderns like Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Yogananda Paramahansa, Mahesh Yogi and the latest, like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Amritanandamayee Mata, Satya Sai Baba and the nearest activist, Swamy Ramdev, who has been demonstrating physical asanas and pranayamas to help mankind keep sound health and mind. More the age old Indian culture spread more the mankind will be benefited against all negative forces like war and terrorism, pernicious drugs and experimental medical treatment. These are the positive sides of spiritualism against the exclusive materialism.
Suggestions for the Rebirth
India, almost a continent, containing almost all the physical, mineral and environmental varieties of the world, is the cradle of one of the oldest civilizations on earth. I wish to share Rabindranath Tagore’s sentiment that my birth here is significant. Many things come to the mind as to how we can build a New India. While there are innumerable opinions and beliefs, we may put forward our ideas in the background of what has already been discussed in brief outlines, for each becomes a subject when we come to realize it through discussions and actions.
Sorry, we cannot accept Nehru as the Gentle Colossus, as wrote Hiren Mukherjee, the CPI leader whose birth centenary is here. The result of Nehru’s presence as Prime Minister has been observed. What has happened in the vast modern India with such intelligent man power towards development, is less than expected. None of the Nehru family contributed exceptionally towards building of the nation except creating slogans. Two stalwarts among them were, very unfortunately, brutally killed. We do not understand how after all monarchies gone, hierarchy continues in a modern democratic republic like India or how does a democratic party put forward such a scheme of placement superseding all superiors and seniors. India stands for thousands of years. Let each discover it according to his consciousness, taste and capacity but can others be compelled by such discoveries? It is for the good of the family and the country that such a thing is discontinued forthwith.
We want a united India; it is quite possible at least on the basis of federation of countries. All the communities living in this subcontinent will be benefited by it.
The history and heritage of all ages, as far as possible, must be preserved without being tainted by different ideas. Students must be given the differing views about the past written by eminent writers helping them to come to their own conclusions.
If cast is an old issue we wish to annul, how could we play with it for our political mileage? Free India is more than 60 years old- most of all who were deprived for the prevalence of cast system have passed their life time. Reservations or suppression of merits cannot continue for ever. Let the opportunities for education and training be opened to all with special care for the deprived and less developed ones but merit must be given due honour for the country’s well being.
Trafficking is a heinous crime. Victims are terrorized by various means. In a civilized society it must be stopped. Why on earth some women should live separately, why their main activity shall be to sell their bodies? Are there not many other functions of human beings and do such persons not have many such qualities to work on besides selling their bodies? Why should they be called sex workers? Large numbers of people have vested interests in them but it must be noted that no such person is noble or great in any sense, none of them is really a friend of the victims. Sweden has passed a unique law: They treat buying sex and broking for it as criminal activities whereas all the prostitutes are treated as victims. If a civilized society aspires to progress it should give up the system of harlotry, abolish the brothels. Similarly all transsexuals should be honourably rehabilitated in the society as they too can do everything except sexually, in the normal way, which is in no sense a real bar in life. We should sympathize with them for the nature’s onslaught on them.
Nature and Wildlife must not be allowed to be further dwindled if we have to continue to live like human beings. Proper environment must be maintained. Villages must not be made hybrid products while facilities of the modern world should reach there. Agriculture and agriculturists in a country like India must be given their proper share in life and society. Industrialization and proliferation of software should be done in harmony with other sectors of economy.
While it is individual right to belong to any religious group or not, to accept God or not, no one should play with religions for political or such gains with the net of secularism. Proselytizing should be prohibited. Spiritualism is above ritualistic ordinary religions. Once mankind embraces it there would not remain petty quarrels over religions. Sri Aurobindo brought down the highest spiritual consciousness, the Supramental light and force for the upliftment of mankind, supported and helped by the Mother. It is open to man to aspire for it towards higher life leading to Life Divine. Sri Aurobindo wrote on 14.1.1931 ‘The Supramental is not inconsistent with a full vital and physical manifestation: on the contrary, it carries in it the only possibility of the full fullness of the vital force and the physical life on earth. . . . All other yogas regard this life as an illusion or a passing phase; the supramental yoga alone regards it as a thing created by the Divine for a progressive manifestation and takes the fulfillment of the life and the body for its object.’ 17
The spiritual regeneration of India will lead to its becoming the leader of the world, gaining a global unity, leading mankind towards a higher life, away from war and strife. The may be fulfilled if the majority realize the need for it and act towards realizing the truth, today or tomorrow.
References:
1 Jawaharlal Nehru. The Discovery of India. New Delhi; Penguin edition-2004. p.41
2 ibid. p.8
3 ibid. p.12
4 ibid. p.19
5 Satprem. Mother’s Agenda. New York; Institute of Evolutionary Research. Vol.4 pp. 173-175
6 ibid. Vol.3. p.420
7 ibid. p.420
8 Nehru. op.cit. p.585
9 India Today. op.cit. p.31
10 Nehru. Op.cit. p.634
11 India Today. Op.cit. p.13
12 ibid.
13 Nehru. Op.cit. p.211
14 Satprem. Op.cit. p.175
15 Satprem. Op.cit. Vol.3 p.421
16 India Today. Millenium Series. 2000. p.117
17 Sri Aurobindo to Dilip. Pune; Hari Krishna Mandir Trust. Vol-1
© Aju Mukhopadhyay, 2008
4, Cheir Lodi Street, Pondicherry-605001, India
Emails:ajum24@yahoo.co.in, aju_mukhopadhyay@yahoo.com and aju.mukhopadhyay@gmail.com
More than 60 years have passed from the beginning of our journey as a free nation. We have achieved much; economically, scientifically and technically. We could do much more but for the inherent weaknesses in the leadership of those who took the reign of the country at the beginning of its freedom which still plagues the country, besieged as we are with dangers unforeseen. To overcome such dangers we have to analyse the weaknesses and surge out of it, not only to be the leader of Asia but also of the whole world with the help of our age old spiritual resources, which is our inherent strength.
India’s spiritual teachings and yoga have been working. Orient and the occident, in the opposite spheres of the globe, are meeting through the teachings and establishments of moderns. The spiritual regeneration of India will lead to its becoming the leader of the world, gaining a global unity, leading mankind towards a higher life, away from war and strife. They may be fulfilled if the majority realizes the need for it and act towards realizing the truth, today or tomorrow.
The issue of Rebirth
‘India must be Reborn, because her Rebirth is demanded by the future of the world. . . .It is she who must send forth from herself the future religion of the entire world, the Eternal Religion which is to harmonise all religions, science and philosophies and make mankind one soul.’- Wrote Sri Aurobindo in Bhawani Mandir, a revolutionary pamphlet.
The blunder of the leaders
More than 60 years have passed from the beginning of our journey as a free nation. We have achieved much; economically, scientifically and technically. We could do much more but for the inherent weaknesses in the leadership of those who took the reign of the country at the beginning of its freedom which still plagues the country, besieged as we are with dangers unforeseen. To overcome such dangers we have to analyse the weaknesses and surge out of it, not only to be the leader of Asia but also of the whole world with the help of our age old spiritual resources, which is our inherent strength.
Jawaharlal Nehru, a fine orator, scholar and gifted writer, was fond of dabbling seriously with words and dreaming the fine things. But in spite of all fine speculations he failed in taking right actions at the right times. It was unfortunate that the charge of free India was entrusted on his shoulders by the one who was a kingpin of his time in Indian polity. The choice of Nehru was one of the series of blunders committed by M. K. Gandhi which resulted in the failure of almost all his political actions, leading to his becoming almost a persona non grata at the beginning of India’s political freedom.
With Western education and rational mind Nehru journeyed through India in the company of the mighty travellers from China and Western and Central Asia, who came here in the remote past. With others he too observed, ‘Surely India could not have been what she undoubtedly was, and could not have continued a cultural existence for thousands of years, if she had not possessed something very vital and enduring, something that was worthwhile. What was this something?’ 1
A Brahmin pundit from Kashmir, Nehru denied his heritage, he was not spiritual in any sense so it seems that he never realized that something.
It is to his credit that he created the voluminous The Discovery of India, a history and culture of Indian past and present within a period of some five months in Ahmednagar Fort Prison in 1944. In view of the fact that there are large number of quotations and references, it seems that either the writer had access to all such books quoted in the prison itself or he might have quoted from other books as secondary sources or the book was later edited though he mentioned that no additions or changes were made later.
However, we know him through this book- ‘I do not usually burden my mind with such philosophical or metaphysical problems. . . . But usually it is action and the thought of action that fill me . . . ‘2
Without denying the fact that there were great people who professed divinity, without denying the existence of the beyond, the invisible world, he did not bother to go into them for ‘Religion, as I saw practiced, and accepted even by thinking minds . . . did not attract me . . . . superstitious practices and dogmatic beliefs . . . . certainly not that of science.’ 3
Mysticism irritated him. He thought that they were intellectual speculations which did not affect his life. Though the logic of karma and soul had some appeal to him, any idea of personal god seemed very odd to him. ‘While I accepted the fundamentals of the socialist theory, I did not trouble myself about its numerous inner controversies. I had little patience with leftist groups in India.’ 4
He was, in short, interested in this world, in this life, not in the other world or the future life. Not a Marxist, he understood the Vedas and the Upanishads through the spectacles of the Western scholars. He did not have an iota of spiritual sense though on it was built the edifice of Indian culture.
Once on 13 June 1963, he with his entourage visited the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. Two days later while talking to her disciple she said, ‘I saw Nehru – it’s awful! Understands nothing, nothing, nothing, absolutely obtuse . . . . you see, he takes Gandhi’s asceticism for spiritual life- always the same mistake! There’s no way to pull them out of it, unfortunately the whole world has caught the same idea. . . .
‘I had asked S.M. (Surendra Mohan Ghose, the Congress leader) to come while Nehru was here (he is a friend of Nehru. . . .) and S.M. did all the talking. But I saw that if he had been silent, if Nehru had been sitting in his armchair with me, saying nothing and no one to listen to, he couldn’t have stayed! He would have left. It would have been too strong, he couldn’t have stayed.’ 5
Let us see how he acted in the country’s affairs before and after he became the first Prime Minister of India for 17 years.
With the fall of Penang and Singapur, as the Japanese advanced in Malay, England faced a dangerous situation in April 1942 against the Nazis and Japan who threatened to invade Burma and India. The British War Cabinet sent a mission under Sir Stafford Cripps, expecting Indian cooperation, offering Dominion Status to India. This was a dangerous as well as special situation. Sri Aurobindo the yogi had foreseen the boon of the offer. He welcomed Cripps and his offer and the later responded positively. He sent a telegram to the Congress- ‘Accept, whatever the conditions, otherwise it will be worse later on.’ 6
He sent his messenger, Barristar Duraiswami Iyer, who met Gandhi and the Working Committee separately. Among other things, Sri Aurobindo’s view was that British imperialism was an old decaying one but Japanese imperialism was a greater menace. He advised cooperation with the British in collaboration with the Muslim strength. While Duraiswami met with stony silence from the Working Committee members, Gandhi advised Sri Aurobindo through him to come out and lead the country, saying that Bengal needed him most. Sri Aurobindo was away from direct politics from 1910 but he had interest for the country’s welfare, worked to the extent possible in yogic way for the whole humanity. Gandhi further said, ‘Why is that man meddling? He should be concerned only with spiritual life.’ 7
There is a feeling of grudge in Gandhi’s question and kind advice. The Mother had given the reason for it too during her talks. Many others later realised and K. M. Munshi, a prominent minister, said publicly in 1951 that had they accepted Sri Aurobindo’s advice, there would not have been any partition later. Partition brought in its trail blood-bath, human loss, refugees, hatred, war with Pakistan and terrorism. What perpetual holocaust! Could they not be avoided?
On 8 August 1942 the Quit India resolution was passed. The next morning most of the leaders were arrested and put behind the bars. They were brought out for discussions when the British could no more continue to safely keep the Indian empire. The Quit India movement took its expected shape, mostly non-violent. So it is not that Gandhi, Nehru and their group led the non-violent movement towards Indian freedom.
Before the resolution, though Nehru felt depressed with the report of the Mission, he tried with C. Rajagopalachary, it is said, to accept the proposal. So with a demurral, with a prick of conscience for having lost the chance, Nehru later observed- ‘A revolutionary change, both political and economic, is not only needed in India but would appear to be inevitable. At the end of 1939, soon after the war started, and again, in April, 1942, there seemed to be a faint possibility of such a change taking place by consent between India and England. But those possibilities and opportunities passed because every basic change was feared. 8
That Subhas Chandra Bose escaped from the country on the night of January 16-17, 1941 was a great relief to many, who were seeking the throne and their supporters. But Subhas Chandra and Vallabhbhai Patel were many times more efficient than Nehru to be the Prime Minister of India. Gandhi knew that Patel was a real Hindu but not anti-Muslim. ‘It would be a travesty of truth to describe Sardar as anti-Muslim’, Gandhi assured the Muslim leaders. Patel would have broken ties with Nehru more than once but Gandhi made him promise to support Nehru as the Prime Minister and to cooperate with him- an example of personal favouritism at the cost of the country. That is why Nehru became the Congress President in 1946, after a long spell of Presidentship by Maulana Azad, to be the Prime Minister next. He disregarded later the naming of Jinnah as the Prime Minister by Gandhi.
Gandhi non-cooperated with Subhas when he became Congress President for the second term in 1939 against his own man, Pattabhi Sitaramaya. Here we may say that non-violence does not mean non-killing only. Non-violence is in action and thought also. Non-cooperation by Gandhi and his clique with Subhas brought a series of massacres later. Subhas’s going out was disastrous for him and many others though it helped to gain the Indian freedom beyond the conception of most of the leaders. Let us remember him, the Chief Commander of the Indian National Army, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, with a Jai Hind.
After his total disappearance, called death by them, Gandhi observed as the consequence of it, ‘The whole country has been roused and even the regular forces have been stirred into a new political consciousness and have begun to think in terms of Independence.’ 9
Gandhiji did not dream of what Subhas did. And let us see what Jawaharlal felt about it. ‘The story of Indian National Army, formed in Burma and Malaya during war years, spread suddenly throughout the country and evoked an astonishing enthusiasm. The trial by court martial of some of its officers aroused the country as nothing else had done, and they became the symbol of India fighting for freedom. . . Hindu and Muslim and Sikh and Christian were all represented in that army. They had solved the communal problem amongst themselves, and so why should we not do so?’ 10
We know how miserably they failed to do it- Gandhi, Nehru and other leaders of both Hindus and Muslims- during the independence time.
The march of time and events were not lagging behind. Those who really acted did not fear. Congress leaders with Muslim League were summoned to the negotiation table.
On 8 May 1946 the Cabinet Mission offered two schemes of independence- Scheme A for united India with options for provinces and princely states to decide their fate later with a lose federation, with more powers for the provinces than the Centre. Scheme B proposed a divided India. Though Muslim League gave their consent to accept Scheme A with certain conditions, Nehrus did not agree to go with a weak Central Government. So a divided India with its inevitable choice of Nehru as the Prime Minister was the only path left. Many have observed that this was the last opportunity of remaining united while gaining freedom. It would be immensely beneficial for India, Asia and the World, they have argued.
However much depressed Nehru had become, the two communities, provinces and princely states were accorded choice to decide their future in the Cripps proposal. The British Government always made it a point to include such clauses in their agreement with Indian parties while proposing to give freedom.
In June 1947 V J Patel was given charge of 565 princely rulers with options to merge their territories with India in two months before 15 August 1947. With apt negotiations he brought all princely states within the fold of Indian Union except three- Kashmir, Junagadh and Hyderabad which too later agreed to become parts of India. In Hyderabad he used force quite efficiently. But he was not allowed to do so in respect of Kashmir for the Deputy Prime Minister was under Nehru, a man more internationalist than nationalist with a mind concentrated not on India alone.
The Maharaja of Kashmir, Hari Singh, signed a stand-still agreement with India and Pakistan on 18 August 1947 but the agreement was violated by Pakistan. Tribesmen from there invaded Kashmir on 22 October 1947. Nehru, on 27 October 1947 congratulated the Maharaja for his agreement and for his letter to the Governor General of India. Kashmir finally agreed to be merged with India. Nehru decided to send Indian Army troops to Kashmir and mentioned all arrangements to the Maharaja seeking his help and ended his letter- ‘The way the people of Kashmir, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh, are facing the situation and preparing to defend their country is most heartening. I trust that in this defence we shall give a demonstration to all India and to the world how we can function united and in a non-communal way in Kashmir. In this way this terrible crisis in Kashmir may well lead to a healing of the deep wound which India has suffered in recent months.’
But the historians have held him responsible for further developments and the debacle. They think that he lacked the courage and determination too. He referred the invasion of Kashmir to the UNO in January 1948. P.O.K. was created and the internecine problems with Pakistan and terrorists continue till date. If the Iron-Man was in the Prime Minister’s chair, they think that this would never have happened.
After the partition and transfer of power, ‘Gandhi, sidelined by his erstwhile lieutenants, wandered about the country . . . . like some later day Lear . . . to quell the communal furies. . .’, commented Anil Seal, a modern historian. 11
He further wrote that Gandhi’s own brand of social conservatism through personal reformation, his project to uplift Harijans, desire to take India back to its traditional non-industrial rural roots, keeping communal harmony through Satyagraha and the desire of curbing violence just remained as fragile crust of order in Indian society. His civil disobedience movements scratched the surface of Indian society. They had not shaken the British Raj. ‘Gandhi’s love affair with the India of his dreams had left him jilted.’- Wrote Seal. 12
Acharya Kripalani said in 1954 that, ‘Nehru became a prominent leader of the freedom struggle basically because of the colonial mindset of the Indians. He is an Englishman in Indian clothing. So the respect for him.’
So we found him friendlier with Lord Mountbatten and his wife. So a book, Freedom at Midnight, describing such things vividly, received the grace of the press and his followers in the Government.
Nehru’s China Policy in Free India
Nehru praised China often and on in his Discovery of India- ‘India and China look towards each other and past memories crowd in their minds; again pilgrims of a new kind cross or fly over the mountains that separate them, bringing their messages of cheer and goodwill and creating fresh bonds of a friendship that will endure.’ 13
So he tried to befriend them with bond of Pachasheel, with a loud slogan- Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai.
The friends, crossing the mountains, suddenly attacked us on 20 October 1962 and rapidly pushed inside on 26 October. A mini war! Many braced death heroically. India declared a state of emergency. Unprepared, Indian troops were utterly defeated by the then militarily weak China, who a month later unilaterally declared a ceasefire and withdrew troops.
The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram who knew the Chinese people through her occult sense and eyes, acted on them spiritually and caused their withdrawal. She said that they wanted domination. They claimed huge land in India as theirs. They have recently claimed an area of 90000 sq km of Indian territory including Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, as theirs.
Speaking about Nehru, Mother said on 15 June 1963, ‘It seems that when the Chinese attacked it was a violent blow to his conviction; he thought it impossible that the Chinese would do such a thing (!) He was very deeply shattered.
‘Naturally, they see no further than the tips of their noses, and then they are surprised when circumstances (laughs) don’t agree!’ 14
Rajeev Srinivasan, in the Special Independence Day Issue, 2004 of Outlook, made a strong case against India’s undesirable defeat in the hands of the Chinese. Nehru personally helped China to get a seat in the UN Security Council. India is still hankering after it. Nehru could neither imbibe the heritage of India nor could he be a true socialist. He dreamt of a socialistic type of society. For his weakness India lost the war to the communist imperialist aggressors, who have annexed Free Tibet for their own benefit. Indian Government is still as weak as it was before, not able to speak the truth.
Sri Aurobindo’s Vision
Sri Aurobindo, the yogi, warned from his secluded room in 1950 about the possibility of Chinese aggression on India and of occupying Tibet.
Tibet is the source of rivers that give water to the subcontiment and to some other South Asian countries. Brahmaputra, Mekong, Irrawaddy originate there. It has controls over Ganga-Brahmaputra-Doab valley. In Tibets high plains China stock nuclear missiles, dump nuclear wastes. In open day light China has colonized Tibet, destroyed its religion and culture. It poses a great danger to India.
Mother never considered Nehru as a worthy Prime Minister though she, on his death said in a message, ‘Nehru leaves his body but his soul is one with the Soul of India that lives for Eternity.’ 15 But it is a matter of soul, beyond Nehru’s ken and concern.
The Dynastic Rule
Indira Gandhi became the General Secretary of the Congress during Nehru’s time. It was the platform for her to become the Prime Minister of India from 1966-77 and 1980-84. She proved to be a very strong woman of India but she had to adopt several harmful methods and actions mainly to secure her political position. She had greater understanding than her father, the Mother said and helped her. But the declaration of emergency in 1975 resulted in horribly upsetting the progress of the country. Her sons got the opportunity of pushing their ways unofficially. Her time has been marked as dark economic age in which 50 Acts, many draconian, were passed.
Indira made her son Rajiv the G.S. of the Congress resulting in his becoming the Prime Minister of India. After him, his wife has become the party president and she has made her son the same, General Secretary of the party. The move may be guessed.
Our Hope
Sri Aurobindo, the prophet of Indian nationalism and the poet of patriotism, as said C. R. Das in the Alipore court, was the founder of Spiritual Nationalism. He with B. G. Tilak, Bepin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai lead the Indian freedom movement at the beginning of the twentieth century. Referring to that Karan Singh wrote, ‘The nationalist movement moved out of the conference halls of the elite and entered the streets and villages.’16
In his message to the nation through Tiruchirappally Radio on the occasion of Indian independence falling on his 75th birthday on 15 August 1947, Sri Aurobindo spoke of his five dreams, the third being, ‘Another dream, spiritual gift of India to the world has already begun. 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.’
In spite of disasters, we know how his hope is being fulfilled. In spite of the nuclear bomb dangling over our heads, with all reverence to Techno-India’s grand target by 2020 as set by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, with all reverence to the spree of software growth and industrialization, we may say that India’s spiritual teachings and yoga have been working. Orient and the occident, in the opposite spheres of the globe, are meeting through the teachings and establishments of moderns like Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Yogananda Paramahansa, Mahesh Yogi and the latest, like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Amritanandamayee Mata, Satya Sai Baba and the nearest activist, Swamy Ramdev, who has been demonstrating physical asanas and pranayamas to help mankind keep sound health and mind. More the age old Indian culture spread more the mankind will be benefited against all negative forces like war and terrorism, pernicious drugs and experimental medical treatment. These are the positive sides of spiritualism against the exclusive materialism.
Suggestions for the Rebirth
India, almost a continent, containing almost all the physical, mineral and environmental varieties of the world, is the cradle of one of the oldest civilizations on earth. I wish to share Rabindranath Tagore’s sentiment that my birth here is significant. Many things come to the mind as to how we can build a New India. While there are innumerable opinions and beliefs, we may put forward our ideas in the background of what has already been discussed in brief outlines, for each becomes a subject when we come to realize it through discussions and actions.
Sorry, we cannot accept Nehru as the Gentle Colossus, as wrote Hiren Mukherjee, the CPI leader whose birth centenary is here. The result of Nehru’s presence as Prime Minister has been observed. What has happened in the vast modern India with such intelligent man power towards development, is less than expected. None of the Nehru family contributed exceptionally towards building of the nation except creating slogans. Two stalwarts among them were, very unfortunately, brutally killed. We do not understand how after all monarchies gone, hierarchy continues in a modern democratic republic like India or how does a democratic party put forward such a scheme of placement superseding all superiors and seniors. India stands for thousands of years. Let each discover it according to his consciousness, taste and capacity but can others be compelled by such discoveries? It is for the good of the family and the country that such a thing is discontinued forthwith.
We want a united India; it is quite possible at least on the basis of federation of countries. All the communities living in this subcontinent will be benefited by it.
The history and heritage of all ages, as far as possible, must be preserved without being tainted by different ideas. Students must be given the differing views about the past written by eminent writers helping them to come to their own conclusions.
If cast is an old issue we wish to annul, how could we play with it for our political mileage? Free India is more than 60 years old- most of all who were deprived for the prevalence of cast system have passed their life time. Reservations or suppression of merits cannot continue for ever. Let the opportunities for education and training be opened to all with special care for the deprived and less developed ones but merit must be given due honour for the country’s well being.
Trafficking is a heinous crime. Victims are terrorized by various means. In a civilized society it must be stopped. Why on earth some women should live separately, why their main activity shall be to sell their bodies? Are there not many other functions of human beings and do such persons not have many such qualities to work on besides selling their bodies? Why should they be called sex workers? Large numbers of people have vested interests in them but it must be noted that no such person is noble or great in any sense, none of them is really a friend of the victims. Sweden has passed a unique law: They treat buying sex and broking for it as criminal activities whereas all the prostitutes are treated as victims. If a civilized society aspires to progress it should give up the system of harlotry, abolish the brothels. Similarly all transsexuals should be honourably rehabilitated in the society as they too can do everything except sexually, in the normal way, which is in no sense a real bar in life. We should sympathize with them for the nature’s onslaught on them.
Nature and Wildlife must not be allowed to be further dwindled if we have to continue to live like human beings. Proper environment must be maintained. Villages must not be made hybrid products while facilities of the modern world should reach there. Agriculture and agriculturists in a country like India must be given their proper share in life and society. Industrialization and proliferation of software should be done in harmony with other sectors of economy.
While it is individual right to belong to any religious group or not, to accept God or not, no one should play with religions for political or such gains with the net of secularism. Proselytizing should be prohibited. Spiritualism is above ritualistic ordinary religions. Once mankind embraces it there would not remain petty quarrels over religions. Sri Aurobindo brought down the highest spiritual consciousness, the Supramental light and force for the upliftment of mankind, supported and helped by the Mother. It is open to man to aspire for it towards higher life leading to Life Divine. Sri Aurobindo wrote on 14.1.1931 ‘The Supramental is not inconsistent with a full vital and physical manifestation: on the contrary, it carries in it the only possibility of the full fullness of the vital force and the physical life on earth. . . . All other yogas regard this life as an illusion or a passing phase; the supramental yoga alone regards it as a thing created by the Divine for a progressive manifestation and takes the fulfillment of the life and the body for its object.’ 17
The spiritual regeneration of India will lead to its becoming the leader of the world, gaining a global unity, leading mankind towards a higher life, away from war and strife. The may be fulfilled if the majority realize the need for it and act towards realizing the truth, today or tomorrow.
References:
1 Jawaharlal Nehru. The Discovery of India. New Delhi; Penguin edition-2004. p.41
2 ibid. p.8
3 ibid. p.12
4 ibid. p.19
5 Satprem. Mother’s Agenda. New York; Institute of Evolutionary Research. Vol.4 pp. 173-175
6 ibid. Vol.3. p.420
7 ibid. p.420
8 Nehru. op.cit. p.585
9 India Today. op.cit. p.31
10 Nehru. Op.cit. p.634
11 India Today. Op.cit. p.13
12 ibid.
13 Nehru. Op.cit. p.211
14 Satprem. Op.cit. p.175
15 Satprem. Op.cit. Vol.3 p.421
16 India Today. Millenium Series. 2000. p.117
17 Sri Aurobindo to Dilip. Pune; Hari Krishna Mandir Trust. Vol-1
© Aju Mukhopadhyay, 2008
4, Cheir Lodi Street, Pondicherry-605001, India
Emails:ajum24@yahoo.co.in, aju_mukhopadhyay@yahoo.com and aju.mukhopadhyay@gmail.com
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