Glimpses of Vedantism in Sri Aurobindo's Political Thought

Samar Basu's attempts at bringing out the Vedantic ideals in Sri Aurobindo's political thought only confirms that with Sri Aurobindo "spirituality explained politics and politics fulfilled itself in spirituality". All along his brief political engagement, Sri Aurobindo's life was based on spirituality of which politics was only an outer expression. And the underlying realisation of this spirituality was the Vedantic ideal:

"The ideal is that of humanity in God, of God in humanity, the ancient ideal of the sanatana dharma but applied, as it has never been applied before, to the problem of politics and the work of national revival. To realise that ideal, to impart it to the world is the mission of India. She has evolved a religion which embraces all that the heart, the brain, the practical faculty of man can desire but she has not yet applied it to the problems of modern politics. This therefore is the work which she has still to do before she can help humanity."

This is the Rebirth of India for which Sri Aurobindo fought during the first decade of the last century. He was confident of his inner strength: "I know I have the strength to uplift this fallen race", he wrote. He knew the reason for this fall - it was a blind imitation of the European ideas and culture. There was an uprooting "from their own ideas and culture founded on Vedic teachings". So, Sri Aurobindo revived, rekindled the Vedantic idealism for restoring India, but, for such a regeneration, India needed to be liberated from the alien domination:

"The world needs India and needs her free. The work she has to do now is to organise life in the terms of Vedanta, and that is a work she cannot do while overshadowed by a foreign power and a foreign civilisation. She cannot do it without taking the management of her own life into her own hands. She must live her own life and not the life of a part or subordinate in a foreign Empire."

So, Sri Aurobindo worked simultaneously on both the levels — the inner and the outer. On the inner, he focussed on the awakening of India's soul to her noble mission in the world. On the outer, he gave a concrete action-plan for the political leaders of the day who believed in his ideal of sampoorna swaraj for India. In the first phase of his political life, Sri Aurobindo worked from behind the scene to create:
a) "a secret organisation for the propagation of the idea [of freedom], the central object of which was the preparation of an armed insurrection;
b) a public propaganda intended to convert the whole nation to the ideal of independence which was, at that time, regarded by the vast majority of Indians as unpractical and impossible, an almost insane chimera;
c) an organisation of the people to carry on a public and united opposition and undermining of the foreign rule through an increasing non-cooperation and passive resistance.
Sri Aurobindo used passive resistance as a means in the struggle for independence but he was not an ardent champion of the doctrine of non-violence. "He also emphasised that he had neither been an impotent moralist nor a weak pacifist."

For spreading these ideas and the Vedantic ideal Sri Aurobindo used largely the daily news journals - ‘New Lamps for Old', ‘Bande Mataram' and ‘The Karmayogin'. A habit of ‘free and healthy national thought' was the first requisite. The second was "to establish a popular authority which will exist side by side and in rivalry with a despotic foreign bureaucracy." For fulfilling this second task, Sri Aurobindo came out into the open, suffered a year's imprisonment at Alipore, toured around in Bengal inspiring the depressed populace. And the mantric word, thought and substance of his writings and speeches was "freedom".

"If to aspire to independence and preach freedom is a crime, you may cast me into jail and there bind me with chains. If to preach freedom is a crime, then I am a criminal and let me be punished. But freedom does not mean the use of violence — it does not mean bombs; it is the fulfillment of our separate national existence.."

And later, he shifted from British India — where he fought for the freedom of the country — to French India where "his role was that of the leader of evolution to awaken humanity and help it in its march towards its supramental destiny. There he was one among many, here he is One who is the Supreme", concludes the author.

A fine essay on Sri Aurobindo's political life and thought, this book is in a way a timely one in the present circumstances of India when its leaders are still attempting at a material revolution instead of a spiritual one. Sri Aurobindo had warned long back:

"The task we set before ourselves is not mechanical but moral and spiritual. We aim not at the alteration of a form of government but at the building up of a nation. Of that task politics is a part, but only a part.... There is a mighty law of life, a great principle of human evolution, a body of spiritual knowledge and experience of which India has always been destined to be guardian, exemplar and missionary. This is the Sanatan dharma, the eternal religion.. To understand the heart of this dharma, to experience it as a truth, to feel the high emotions to which it rises and to express and execute it in life is what we understand by Karmayoga. We believe that it is to make the yoga the ideal of human life that India rises today... It is a spiritual revolution we foresee and the material is only its shadow and reflex."

To the youth of India who are at present confused and feel a political ideological vacuum, this book is a boon.

— Dr. Ananda Reddy

August 2000